Chapter 13: Dwemer Rising
"This is it team, this is the moment that matters most. There is no deoubt in my mind that Kagrenac has activated the Kalumidium, that means something must be done, and if it's not done now, then there is no point in trying, it will already be too late. Get yourselves ready, this fight won't be like any other. Now we will be going up againnst the full army of Blackreach and they are armed to the teeth with their guns and grenades." Argon adressed the team about the upcoming fight.
"So what's the plan? Just go in and hit 'em? Who's gonna bring down the Kalumidium?" Garnin asked.
"Glad you asked Garnin," Argon said, "I am going to try to get get Kagrenac to come out and face us. During that time, Nerevar, you will sneak around and get the Tonal Artifacts off of him. Then, you will meet Sheogorath outside the Tower of Mzark and the two of you will get to the inside of the Kalumidium. Once there you will use the artifacts to shut that beast down. Do your best to dispose of the Heart of Lorkhan and the rest of the Kalumidium. I heard lava works really well at destroying those things. If you can try to control the Kalumidium to the Dwemer Forge you can probably break the ground down there and drown both the Heart and Numidium in the lava behind the forge. The reason Sheogorath is going is because you will need someone to teleport you out of there when you get the thing to the lava, be sure to restore his powers when you attempt to control the heart."
"And what about the rest of us?" Fayen asked.
"Garnin, Kara, and Fayen. You three will join me in the battle at the castle. I have a feeling Kagrenac will retreat up to his throne to observe the battle, if that happens then I will have to fight through the battlefield to get to the tower and go up to his throne, that'll leave the three of you by yourselves down there. Do your best to stay together, we all work better as a team and that's probably why the Dwemer beat us when they came here, we were all seperated. Are we clear on the battle plans?"
"Yes sir!" called everyone.
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Five of the heroes walked to the back entrance of the castle in the middle of blackreach, Sheogorath had already taken off and traveled to the Tower of Mzark to await Nerevar.
As they approached the castle entrance, the two Dwemer guards recognized them and immediatley ran up to them guns raised.
"HALT! You're under arrest for the murder of many many Dwemer and the interfering with the plans of Lord Kagrenac! You will be arrested, detained, and executed." one of the guards commanded.
"Aa great as that sounds, I'm gonna have to take a rain check." Argon said.
Fayen drew out his bow and fired two arrows, each one piercing the chest of one of the guards. Argon bent down and picked up a gun from one of the bodies. He then led the heroes into the middle of the castle where he raised the gun into the air and fired it a few times. The Dwemer heard the gun shots and rushed to surround the heroes.
"LORD KAGRENAC!" Argon yelled, "COME OUT OF YOUR HIDING PLACE AND FACE US!"
"What is the meaning of this nonsen-- Oh... So, you finally decided to turn yourselves in, huh? Too scared of the power of the Kalumidium? Very well, right this way and we will have you all fitted for prison wear. Argon, I don't think we need to re-measure you, unless you have grown since a few days ago." Kagrenac said when he finally pushed through the crowd of Dwemer surrounding the heroes.
"See Kagrenac, I would hat you less if you weren't so damn cocky. I can't stand it when people are like that. Humans and elves alike." Argon said.
"Well, you won't have to deal with it much longer, I just picked out a date for your execution and it's tomorrow. Unless you want to be stupid and speed the date up to now by trying to stop me from unleashing my beast upon the world." Kagrenac answered.
Argon look behind Kagrenac and saw that the ground behind him seemed to be shifting and a little wavy. It took him a moment but Argon finally realized that it was an invisible Nerevar picking Kagrenac's pocket. How he managed to turn invisible without the head Dwemer noticing him, Argon would never know.
"I don't know, both of those sound great... But I REALLY hate waiting" Argon said.
"So do I, and you made me wait a VERY long time to get Keening." Kagrenac said.
"Hey, if you were half as smart as history makes the Dwemer out to be, then you would have realized a LOOOONG time ago that Keening was down here the whole time, almost literally under your nose." Argon said.
"Don't make this out to be my fault." Kagrenac said.
"But it is." Argon said, then he felt a slight tug on his hand, and he quickly glanced at the ground to see a wavy figure move away from him and Argon glance back behind Kagrenac and Nerevar was gone. That had to be his way of telling him he had the artifacts.
"What, have you never seen stone before Argon?" Kagrenac asked noticing Argon's consistent glancing.
"No, sorry, thought I saw a bug. I hate bugs." Argon said. "Anyways, we came here for a reason and it wasn't to turn ourselves in, we have come to give you one last chance to lay down your arms and surrender to us or we will be forced to kill all of you."
"That's a nice offer, but I like execution and supremacy more." Kagrenac turned to walk away but called back, "Kill them all, leave no survivors."
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Kagrenac went up to his throne and went the lift finally landed up there he commanded one of his servants to grab his amor for him. He reached behind him to grab his artifacts which he planned to use as weapons in this fight. He knew that at least Argon would be able to make it up to him, he was the Dragonborn, the most powerful hero ever, he wouldn't be stopped by a few elves. When he grabbed for the artifacts however, he missed and ended up grabbing his hand by mistake, he grabbed again and again but kept missing. Kagrenac turned his head around and saw that the artifacts were indeed missing.
"DAMN IT!!!" he yelled it rage and then called after his servant, "Bring me my sword too!"
Then Kagrenac realized where his artifacts had gone and what Argon had been looking at. Argon had tricked him, stalled him while one of his men took the artifacts. Then, he realized why they had been taken, Argon planned to bring down the Kalumidium! Kagrenac grabbed one of the two guards guarding the throne. He pulled up close to his face.
"Tell the Captain that I want one hundred men to go to the Kalumidium, now! If they fail in apprehending the heroes at it then I will kill every last one of them myself. Now go, and do it quickly lest you want to join your old captain down there on the floor." he pushed the guard away and went to look over the ledge at the fight below.
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Nerevar saw Sheogorath standing outside the tower, he grabbed him by the arm and rushed him inside.
"Do you have the artifacts?" Sheogorath asked.
"If I didn't, then I wouldn't be here." Nerevar hissed.
The burst through the doors to the Kalumidium and all the workers instantly noticed them. They ran across the wooden bridge and over to the heart. Nerevar pulled out the weapons and was about to try using them when one of the workers tackled Nerevar. The weapons clattered out of his hands and the head worker grabbed them and quickly activated the heart, sending the Kalumidium the signal to attack.
Sheogorath saw that Nerevar was in trouble and he pulled out his Sword of the Crusader, he was wearing the full Crusader armor, and ran it through the worker pinning Nerevar. He then killed the other worker that had activated the Kalumidium, and helped Nerevar up. He handed him Keening, Sunder, and Wraithguard, and Nerevar put both Wraithguards on and held the dagger and hammer.
"We got company!" Sheogorath called when he saw the army of guards coming to the Kalumidium.
"That's not the only problem, this thing's live!" Nerevar called back.
All of the guards rushed into the chest and almost filled it up, when the last elf was on, the Kalumidium raised his hand and punched a large hole in the ceiling, revealing the bright daytime light in the snowy tundra of Skyrim. The Kalumidium climbed out of the hole as all of its passengers braced themselves. As soon as it was out, everyone except the robot, were briefly blinded by the bright light after being down in a dark cave for so long.
"Ah gods, I never noticed how bright that sun was!" Sheogorath exclaimed.
"I haven't seen the sun in many, many years...." said one of the guards in awe.
"Now would be a very good time to use those tools Nerevar!" Sheogorath told him.
Nerevar squinted his eyes and ran towards the heart, right before he managed to hit it though, the captain of the guards picked up Nerevar and threw him into a group of guards who had regained their sight.
Nerevar staggered about trying to figure out where he was going, but his eyes hadn't adjusted as fast as the elves' had. The Dwarves started pushing him around as if he was some thing none of them wanted. Nerevar clutched the artifacts ever so tightly squinted his eyes, the next time he was pushed, he tackled the Dwemer he'd been pushed into to the ground and bashed his head in with Sunder, he then instantly stood up, grabbed one by the shoulder and stabbed Keening into his back, as the Dwemer tried to regain theri wits, Nerevar swung Keening in a diagonal motion and slit the throat of a Dwemer, then he spun around and faced another Dwemer, he grabbed that one by the shoulder also and using Sunder, bashed his head in.
"You're almost making this too easy!" Nerevar said.
One of the Dwemer, angered by this remark, pulled out his gun and spun Nerevar around so his back was facing to his front. He grabbed Nerevar by the neck and brought the back of his head up to his face. He pushed the barrel of the gun into Nerevar's head and hissed into his ear, "I've had enough of your plops Indoril, you may be a hero to one race of elves, but to the Dwemer you are an enemy and a nuiscance, and I will finally put you down."
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The battle in the castle was raging, Argon had already taken off across the battlefield to go face Kagrenac at his throne. Kara was left alone with Garnin and Fayen. Fayen was good at taking out enemies far away, and Garnin was pretty good with getting upclose and personal, Kara was pretty good and that personal stuff also, but clearly not as good as the Hero of Daggerfall. She swung her blade diagonally up and over to the right, effectively taking out two Dwemer. It really wasn't the safest idea getting right up to the Dwemer, especially since they had guns, but she didn't have a bow and was no wizard when it came to magic. Maybe one day she would be able to get Argon to train her.
"How's it going you guys?" Fayen called back.
"I'm holding out!" Garnin replied.
"Everything's fine up here, thank you. How are you?" Kara answered.
"I'm holding up pretty well." Fayen said.
"There's gotta be an easier way to do this!" Kara called.
"I wouldn't count on it princess." said a Dwemer right as he snuck up to her and grabbed her, grinding his gun into her back.
Fayen heard the Dwemer and he turned around to see Kara looking right at him. He put an arrow on the string, pulled back, and fired it right into the head of the Dwemer. His corpse let go of Kara and fell to the ground, a relieved Kara bent over to take a breath and she held up a hand as a way of thankign Fayen and telling him she was okay.
Fayen, content that Kara was okay, turned around to keep shooting arrows, only to find a Dwemer with a rifle right in front of him. The big burly Dwemer grabbed Fayen by the neck and held him up. The Dwemer's rippling muscles shook and tightened as his fingers slowly pushed into Fayen's neck in an attempt to meet the otgher side of his hand. Fayen started gasping for air and he put his hands up on the Dwemer's fist and tried pulling his hadn apart. Fayen's face was starting to turned several shades of blue and his head started to go light, in a moment his throat would be crushed and he'd be dead. His eyelids started drooping in front of his eyes, Fayen fought against them doing all he could to keep them up. But he was fighting a losing battle, his eyelids closed and the world went black.
A moment later, Fayen a nearly unconcious Fayen hit the floor and landed on his bum. He felt the hand ripped off of his throat and he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Above him he saw Garnin holding an arm that was dripping blood from the end. Garnin dropped the arm next to Fayen and turned to the big Dwemer who was holding the shoulder that was now missing an arm. The Dwemer looked up with fear in his eyes and reached with his good arm for his rifle which was slung behind his back, but time was not on his side and the axe hit his neck.
The head slid off the body and rolled ont he floor, the body dropped to its knees and then fell forward almost on Fayen. Garnin put his axe back on his back and reached down to help Fayen up; he picked up Fayen's bow, dusted it off, and handed it to him. Fayen reach out and clasped Garnin by the wrist, Garnin did the same to Fayen.
"Thanks man." Fayen said, giving Garnin's wrist a firm shake.
"No problem lad." said Garnin in his thick nordic accent.
"It's great you just saved his life and all, but can we regroup now?" Kara called out to the guys.
The guys ran over to her and they all stood Garnin and Fayen stood back-to-back, and Kara stood in between them, back-to-side so they formed a triangle.
"Guys," Fayen said, "I'm out of arrows."
"And my sword broke when that Dwemer grabbed me." Kara said, and she held up the jagged end of a broken blade.
"Well, Fayen you're gonna have to make do just hitting them with your bow, and Kara you're gonna have to just use your jagged end of the blade." Garnin commanded.
"Well..." Kara said, "this is gonna be interesting."
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Sheogorath looked over and saw his buddy in trouble. He swung his hand out and shot a fireball at the Dwemer holding Nerevar. It was a small fireball so it didn't do much more than leave a nasty burn, but Nerevar took the short moment in which the Dwemer staggered to stab him in the thigh with Keening and break free. He then pulled out the dagger and ran in into the Dwemer's head.
"Thanks!" Nerevar yelled to the Daedric Lord.
Nerevar then ran over to the heart, and as a way of thanking Sheogorath, hit the heart and severed its powers over any divinities. Thus, restoring Sheogorath's powers to him.
Sheogorath felt his powers surge back into him and without even thinking, he yelled to Nerevar, "GET DOWN!"
Nerevar hit the floor as Sheogorath used a spell that had been very, very effective in the past. The Lightning flew out from Sheogorath's fingers and zapped a Dwemer, it went around the whole Kalumidium, zapping anything that was standing except Sheogorath. It fried every Dwemer and even hit the Heart of Lorkhan. The whole Kalumidium shuddered, but the heart seemed to like it. Nerevar stood up and only had one thing to say, "Finger of the Mountain?"
Sheogorath nodded.
"Nice." Nerevar said as he looked around at all the dead Dwemer. "I guess that Dark Elves will always win in a battle against Dwemer."
"But you're a Nord now." Sheogorath said.
"Yeah, but I used to be a Chimer and they became the Dunmer, so technically I'm both." Nerevar said.
"I don't think there is anything technical about it, you were a Chimer one life, and the next you're a nord." Sheogorath said.
"Whatever."
"Oh just so you know, remember when I told Argon I was with Azura?" Sheogorath asked.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I was just messing with him." Sheogorath laughed.
"I don't see the humor in that, but clearly you do....." Nerevar said.
"I guess we'd better run this thing into the lava, huh?" Sheogorath said.
Nerevar suddenly remembered that his work wasn't done and he approached the Heart.
"Step. Away." said the Captain of the Dwemer guard as he stepped out from behind the Heart holding a gun in his hand.
He pushed the gun into Nerevar's head right above his nose. Nerevar looked over at Sheogorath with his eyes and used them to try to signal to him to fireball this guy. Sheogorath noticed what he was doing and he shot another fireball, it burned through the air but right before it hit the Captain he held up a ward and the fireball hit it and exploded.
"You just did that, do you really think I wasn't gonna see it coming again?" the Captain said and he kept holding up the ward. "Now back away elf." The Captain pushed the gun forwards to show Nerevar he was talking to him.
Nerevar looked right at the face of the Captain, he must have just dodged the lightning as there was a big scorch mark going across the side of his cheek, and his hair was a mess. There was a cut above his eye and a small bit of blood was dripping from it, he must have hit his head when he dodged the lightning.
"I said, move back." the Captain said, pushing the gun into Nerevar's head once again.
Nerevar took two steps back.
"More."
Two more steps.
"More."
Two more.
"Keep going."
By now, Nerevar was at the edge of the Kalumidium, just like he wanted to be, and just like the Captain wanted him to be. Nerevar shot his hand forward and grabbed the gun, he turned it to the side and stepped out of the way. The Captain fired three shots that missed Nerevar and flew out into the open air. Nerevar held tight to the gun and kicked the guard in the back bend of his leg, forcing him down. Nerevar held him arm up and twisted it.
"Sheo!" he called, "Come take this guy!"
Sheogorath ran over and grabbed the Captain's arm and kept the twist going. The Captain's head was hangning out above the ground and he had dropped the gun.
"You may bring this thing down, but Argon will never defeat Lord Kagrenac." the Captain said.
"Unlike you, I have faith in my grandson." Sheogorath told him.
Nerevar hit the the Heart with the artifacts and somehow instinvtively knew how to control it to make the Kalumidium move. He kept it going until the were at the forge. Then he made it stomp a giant hole in the ground and revealed the forge. He kept it going until the Kalumidium was knee deep in the lava and it was quickly sinking, in the process the Dwemer Forge was destroyed. The lava was burning the Kalumidium and causing it to fall apart. Sheogorath teleported himself and Nerevar off the machine and far enough away that they could watch the destruction, but wouldn't be hit by falling debris.
"Well that's that." Nerevar said.
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(back to the middle of the fight)
Argon walked through the doors of the Hall of Rumination and was surprised to see the whole place was, empty. He was able to just casually stroll through, stand on the lift, pull the lever, and go on up.
"Lord Kagrenac, someone is coming." said the only remaining guard up there.
"I hear, it's probably Argon. Thank you for the armor and sword, but I cannot allow you to be a part of this battle. It is not your fight." Kagrenac said.
"What do you mean by that?" the guard asked.
Kagrenac stood up from his throne an grabbed the guard by the collar of his armor. He dragged him to the edge of the platform and threw him over.
At the same time as the THUD! from the guard, there was a click at the lift and Argon with his sword raised, stepped off the lift. Argon was disappointed to see that there weren't any guards up here either, however, there was one asshole he could take down.
"So, you finally arrived. I guess it's better late than never." Kagrenac said.
"No guards? See, it's this kind of arrogance I'm talking about." Argon said.
"I had another guard, but he would have just gotten in the way." Kagrenac said.
"So, did you send him on break or something?" Argon asked.
"No, I killed him."
"You're a fluffed up little dude, you know that?" Argon asked.
"Yes, but I am about to get away with taking over the world." Kagrenac said.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that."
"And why's that?"
"Because I'm going to bring you down." Argon informed him.
"Really? Is that so? Well then, I guess I should just put down my weapon and--" Kagrenac stopped his sentence and threw a dagger at Argon.
Argon caught the dagger in his hands and tossed it over the edge.
"You shouldn't have done that." Argon said.
Argon rushed towards Kagrenac and Kagrenac raised his sword. Argon swng and the swords collided. They pulled away and then swung again. Argon tried swinging upwards diagonally from his leg, but Kagrenac jumped back and stabbed his sword forward. Kagrenac sweeped the ground with his sword and Argon jumped up and landed on the sword, breaking it in half. Kagrenac angrily threw his sword over the balcony and charged at Argon. Argon sidestepped out of the way and Kagrenac rushed by. He pulled out a scroll from his belt pouch and read it, as he read it he threw his hand forward and Argon's sword flew out of his hand and clattered to the floor.
"Not this again...." Argon said.
He and Kagrenac ran at eachother and grabbed each other's shoulders, each of them trying to push the other over the edge.
"Let, go!" Kagrenac yelled.
"Never, Tamriel is my home and innocent peopel live on it. I will not allow you to kill or enslave them all, this ends now Kagrenac, right where it all started. Down it Blackreach!" Argon yelled.
Argon pushed and turned himself in the direction of the throne, forcing Kagrenac to move closer to the edge. Kagrenac's right foot hit a bad spot in the balcony and he a small part gave out underneath his foot and he fell. As he fell he grabbed Argon's hand and caused Argon to fall to the floor. Kagrenac was dangling over the edge causing Argon to slowly slide over the edge. Argon opened his hand to let Kagrenac fall, but Kagrenac held on with an iron grip. He began to try climbing Argon's hand.
"I will not die here. Not this way. Not by your hand." Kagrenac said.
"It's over Kagrenac. Let it go." Argon said, struggling to stay up.
"Never!! The Dwemer will take their rightful place as the rulers of Tamriel! I will not give up!" Kagrenac yelled.
"Then I'm sorry." Argon told him, and he let his hand slid out of his gauntlet.
Kagrenac hand't made it managed to make it past the elbow, and so he fell, the same way he'd killed two others of his own men, was the same way he would die.
Kagrenac fell belly up and he looked into the eyes of Argon through Argon's mask, and he saw the sorrow and regret Argon had. Kagrenac wasn't sorry, he'd tried to save his people, the make them the rightful rulers of the world, and though he had failed, he was dying in the most honorable way possible. In battle.