232 Chapter XXXVI: Fleshcrafter's Demise
(General POV)
"Where to even begin?" Reyvin's right hand man runs his hand through his hair tiredly.
"How about at the beginning?" Reyvin snarks immediately.
Completely unsurprised by the response Davos deadpans "Right." And begins his story "So there we were having a relaxed game of chess when just a bit after you left with Serana one of the agents informed me that the cultists were leaving the city."
"All at once or...?" Reyvin interjects.
"All at once." Davos scoffs "They weren't suspected to begin with so the extra caution was unneeded."
"Right." His boss nods "Nothing too suspicious on the surface level."
"In any case." Davos returns to the point "We left just a moment after you yourself went to investigate the haunted house..."
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(Davos' POV)
A light, barely audible thud informs me that I had a guest, one cautious glance informed me of the rest "Snake" I nod in greeting "Your report."
"Targets are leaving the city as a group, so far no one has raised any eyebrows as it is probably a common occurrence, tough one of them was leading a rather unfocused priest of Arkay with him. They are heading south-east, probably toward an old ruin or maybe even a tomb." The thin elf reports dutifully.
"Can't have their filthy temple out in the open." I grumble with some frustration "Then again we wouldn't even be having this conversation if they did."
"Indeed" Snake chuckles "The lord would probably set it on fire just because he could."
'It is a bit more complex than that but he doesn't need to know that' Instead of elaborating I merely get up from my chair and wave him into following me "If they are already moving out then we should do so as well, losing track just because we were too slow would be embarrassing."
I do hope that we aren't about to enter another charnel house.
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(General POV)
"And was it?" Reyvin asks while shooting glances at his distraught guards.
"I will get to that later." Davos pointlessly attempts to delay reliving the situation "How about you let me finish retelling the pursuit first?"
Reyvin nods, his face serious for once and lacking any of his usual joviality "Go ahead."
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(Davos' POV)
"So, Lord Davos, what can you tell me about this Namira?" The ever knowledge hungry Falmer kid asks with genuine curiosity.
"Just Davos is fine, kid. I am a gutter rat just like most of us in Skyrim." I wave him off and hear some not approving but... relatable mumbling from the Mer at arms.
Though for whatever reason Nightshade shoots me an annoyed look.
Yeah, I am not dealing with that right now. Instead I focus back on the question "As for Namira and her lot, think cannibals, fleshcraft, rot, decay, all things bad about the mortal body." My voice grows less lively with each adjective I add to my description.
"You've faced them yourself then?" The kid, bless his innocent heart, completely fails to notice my distress over it "What is the best way to fight them?"
'Maybe not as innocent then' I snort quietly "Stay at range or ambush them. They either have enhanced strength or are a member of a witch coven, and even though I don't believe we will be dealing with witches here I'd still recommend being careful."
"And what if they are neither?" Alor asks.
"Then just kill them as if they are neither kid." I chuckle "It isn't dwemercraft."
"Oh." The kid hisses slightly before trying to uselessly bury his burning face in his journal.
"Sir!" The other agent that left the city with us, slaughterfish I believe, returns from his tracking assignment and salutes. Receiving a quick nod from me he speaks again "The suspected cultists have left the main road and are currently maneuvering through a series of goat paths further to the south."
"Of course it wasn't going to be that simple" I sigh and turn to the rest "Better make sure your boots are on right, we don't want to be slipping where we are going."
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(General POV)
"Goat paths, eh?" Reyvin chuckles "Told you you should have learned levitation."
"What, so I can die the moment I ran out of Magicka?" Davos scoffs "Not all of us are literal fonts of magic like yourself."
"Only I can be me after all." Reyvin nods to himself faux pompously, pretending to caress a long beard while doing so and earning himself another deadpan from Davos "I trust that the goat paths were not that big of an issue?"
"They were annoying, but we managed." Davos waves the whole situation off as unimportant, much to the visible relief of a duo of guards "What we found at the other end was far less encouraging however."
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(Davos' POV)
"That is downright creepy." One of the greener Mer mutters loudly, earning agreeing nods from most of the others.
Before us stood a literal passage mage out of large bones, we were not yet cursed with the sight of rotting flesh but with this disgusting thing it was only a matter of time.
"Well then, might as well go in." I force down all of my fears and arm my repeating crossbow.
"Loud or quiet?" Snake asks while twirling his poison dagger.
I quirk an eyebrow at him "You want to sneak into that without any support?" One fearful blanch later I mutter "Thought so."
"Formation?" One of the more senior guards asks.
"Armor in front, agents to the sides, mages to the back." I list off "Keep it simple and watch each other's backs, and for the love of Azura do not under any circumstance split up." I stare at each and every one of the newer guards just to make sure they understood that last part.
The guards took their time reluctantly forming up at the entrance, and it did not take me long to realize what the problem was. Instead of trying to force a bunch of fresh Mer, even if well trained, into the darkness I turned to Nightshade "Think you can conjure us up some kind of vanguard?"
It takes her only a split second to see what I was getting at and only a bit over that for her to wordlessly take a stance and start channeling more Magicka than I have in total into a single spell. One big ass white runic circle later and a large ice atronach was towering over all of us.
"Thanks" I mutter, somewhat awkwardly due to her silence.
A light smirk spreads on her face "You are welcome."
I resist the urge to throw my hands up in frustration and focus back on the task "Well then, what are we waiting for?" I ask only barely holding back my sarcasm "Into the depths of oblivion."
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(General POV)
"I am guessing that you came to regret those words." Reyvin immediately comments.
Davos groans "You have no bloody idea."
Many of the elves present outright flinch at the mention of blood, earning themselves a curious look from Reyvin.
Davos took a deep breath "The first few chambers were almost suspiciously empty, to the point we expected to only find the cultists themselves..."
"You found anything but, no?" His lord's gaze grew somewhat dark.
Davos took a long gulp of ale before visibly holding himself back from spitting onto the floor "Fuck did I miss your pyromania when we stepped into the third chamber."
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(Davos' POV)
The first thing I noticed as we passed the smashed stone doorway the atronach left behind was the smell, the signature sickly sweet tinge of rotting flesh made it very obvious what awaited us inside.
Or at least I thought so.
"By the gods..." One of the soldiers gasped.
Another spent a couple of seconds staring at whatever they saw before moving to the side and vomiting violently, and giving me a perfect sight of what was beyond.
Massive, almost artistically arranged edifices of carved flesh filled the whole chamber, the path to the next one being entirely covered with neatly carved skin spread into the mockery of a carpet while multiple heads, the sizes of which I would rather not remember, stared at us from each direction, one of them even seemingly blinking at me but that must have been a trick of my mind.
"What sick joke is this?" One of the older soldiers hissed.
"Something worth destroying." I voice, a bit more hoarsely than I intended "This place is even worse than Hag's End. Steel yourselves men, we are here to purge the bastards who did this."
This seems to at least mollify the warriors even if half of them look just about ready to bolt, they were disciplined enough to fall into line when the command was given.
I look to the mages "Are the two of you prepared to go o- oh." Only to see Nightshade desperately trying to make Alor breathe as he seemed to have somehow become paler than phisicaly possible even for a Falmer.
Nightshade gives me a slightly panicked look, not that she was shaken by the scene she was too old for that but seemingly in fear of the kid literally knocking himself out with how erratically he was breathing.
Thinking quickly I step over to them and grab him by the shoulders, shaking him lightly "Kid, look at me!" His breathing continues refusing to calm but at least his eyes were planted firmly onto my own.
"Good, you can hear me." I nod encouragingly "Now do as I do, breathe in... and out." I repeat the process dozens of times until his breathing finally calms down and he seems to no longer be under risk of panicking.
"Good job kid." I pat him on the shoulder and he nods numbly "Now I want you to focus on the backs of either me or Nightshade and just keep on walking, can you do that for me?"
He nods a bit more quickly.
"Excellent!" I force a smile and leave him to Nightshade.
"Come on men, let us butcher these fuckers." I say and step in front of the formation.
What did I ever do to deserve having to do this shit...
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(General POV)
Reyvin sends a quick glance to Alor who looked to be doing somewhat fine, or at least far better than the story would imply, so he chooses to leave checking on him for after the tale.
Instead he focuses back on Davos "Something tells me that the room was not simply a fleshcrafters workshop."
Davos scoffs "Of bloody course it wasn't."
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(Davos' POV)
Step after careful step we crossed the living crime against all that was good and holy, the disgusting squelching some of our steps produced only adding to the disturbing nature of the situation.
Naturally everything had to go the way of Dagon the moment we crossed a good two thirds of the room as the mass of flesh suddenly roiled violently, fleshy abominations rising from within and skittering or lumbering toward us with focused aggression.
"Forward!" I yell out immediately, knowing that these kinds of situations were best faced through a chokepoint.
Everyone started running, even Alor, though he looked close to falling over on multiple occasions. One of the guards slipped but a guildsman stepped out from nearby and helped him up to his feet before running forward himself.
I share a glance with Nightshade and she nods, sending her atronach to hold the abominations back as we cross the final stretch, the guards forming a wall of halberds the moment all eleven of us were inside.
Though the sight that greeted us as the atronach was finally overrun and forced to detonate chilled our bones. The mass of flesh was far larger than I originally imagined and most of it had mobilized by this point, I knew in an instant that we would never survive facing that without some heavy magical support and boss was no doubt half a hold away by now.
"Shit." I mutter bitterly and prepare my crossbow.
"Wall of flames, now!" Nightshade commands suddenly and the well trained soldiers of Dagoth all point one of their hands toward the entrance, casting a flames spell as one. A moment later I too joined in the group spell, she probably had a way out and I sure as shit didn't so I might as well see what she was going to do.
As soon as she got some cover Nightshade knelt onto the thankfully fleshless floor of the passage and started channeling a brown-tinted spell, the stone in front of her slowly rising into a thick wall.
A couple of the fleshy creatures screeched in pain but most backed off, whatever basic intelligence they possessed no doubt told them that we would run out of fire sooner or later.
And so we did, one by one the soldiers' flames sputtered out soon followed by my own, and Nightshade was nowhere near done with her own casting.
One of the creatures vaults over the short stone wall half blocking the passage and just as we prepare ourselves for a disadvantaged grind against the undead abominations a near-blinding light sears our eyes as a bolt of sunlight smashes into the disgusting fleshy spider thing and disintegrates it on the spot.
In steps Alor, his left hand blazing with gold magic and his right holding a simple silver spear glowing with easily recognizable runecraft. With a snarl that I never expected to hear from the kid he starts barraging the creatures outside, doing actual damage with solar explosion after solar explosion, killing a good fifth of them before the wall became too tall for him to aim properly and was then sealed.
Just before the other side was fully gone the kid yelled "And stay there you filthy abominations!!!"
There were a couple of meaty thuds form the other side but the wall thankfully held, at which point Nightshade allowed herself to collapse into a sweat ridden mess, though before anyone could offer her any help she forced herself back up and grunted out a "Let's go on, I want out of here as swiftly as possible."
I look to the rest and smile weakly "Well boys, you heard the lady."
As we started marching once again I clapped Alor on the shoulder, the way the kid straightened up in pride would have probably made me burst out in laughter if I didn't feel like ripping off someone's head at the time.
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(General POV)
"Most interesting." Reyvin hummed "I am glad you made use of that spear, Alor."
"And I am glad you gave it to me." Alor tries to make his response sound like a joke but it just ends up sounding strained.
Shaking his head Reyvin looks back to Davos "I am guessing that the blood and gore got only worse as you went in?"
"That is the weird thing" Davos half shrugs "Things got cleaner and cleaner as we went deeper, to the point of me thinking that only some of them did the weird fleshcraft thing."
"And much like these things usually go, the moment you stepped into the final chamber things got unfathomably worse?" Reyvin asks expectantly.
"Nope." Davos retorts immediately.
After a bout of staring Reyvin palms his face "What exactly do you mean by 'Nope'"
"Exactly that, nope." Davos smirks slightly at finally managing to annoy his boss, but knows better than to push further "They were all pathetically weak, I was honestly going to believe that the flesh monster was unrelated if not for the leader literally screaming at me to the contrary."
Somewhat confused Reyvin simply waves him on "Might as well just tell me the rest."
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(Davos' POV)
Growing more and more concerned by the lack of monsters or even Draugr, we stepped further and further into the ruin. A couple of trinkets were found and I had no qualms about letting the men grab them after Nightshade checked them for curses and the like.
We all needed something to push us forward after what we saw.
Finally we approached a stone doorway engraved with Namiran markings, the sound of guttural chanting coming from the other side.
"Prepare yourselves." I half mutter half bark "Our targets are near."
The door was soon confirmed to be unlocked and untrapped and as one we barged inside expecting to be met with nightmarish monsters... Only to see a bunch of city folk chanting while gleefully staring at a bound priest.
I did not even blink before I pointed my crossbow at the lead cultist's hand which held a sacrificial dagger and pulled the trigger, disintegrating the bitch's hand in an instant.
All of the cultists snapped their eyes into our direction, and they grew fearful at the sight of us.
"You!" The leader points her remaining trembling hand at me "Who are you? How did you get past the wall?!"
'The wall? Apt I guess...' I allow myself a smirk as I realize that these were just basic men and elves using their pitiable Daedric powers to commit mindless cruelty onto their fellows.
As my men take their aim and prepare to charge I loudly clear my throat "By the order of Court Mage Reyvin Dagoth, all of you are sentenced to summary execution for malicious Daedra worship and the murder of countless innocents. May your filthy patron have mercy on your souls for we shall not."
And then came their doom.
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(General POV)
"Nice speech by the way." Reyvin nods approvingly.
Davos rolls his eyes "I spend way too much time near a certain someone."
"Hey, presentation is important!" Reyvin retorts petulantly, but quickly settles himself "That does not explain one thing however."
Somewhat fearfully Davos asks "And what is that?"
"Even with seeing the fleshy abomination and fighting the cultists, all of you look way too worn out." He explains with narrowing eyes "That is without mentioning that you took nearly two extra days to come back."
Davos looks away while everyone else glares at him and Nightshade.
"What did you do?" Reyvin asks.
"Weeeeell....."
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(Davos' POV)
The cultists fall as quickly as one might imagine they would, a bunch of civvies facing off against trained warriors stood no chance and they barely even outnumbered us. The leader was something of an issue but Nightshade and I had her well in hand with said snow elf basically freezing the bitch onto their altar to Namira with a simple frostbite spell.
For a moment I could swear that the patron of these disgusting fucks was staring at us but the feeling left as quickly as it came, apparently even the goddess of rot disdained these cultists.
Instead of finishing the cult leader off Nightshade turned to me with a vicious glint in her eyes and asked "Would you like the honors?"
Offering her a genuine, if slightly disturbing smile, in return I used almost all of my Magicka to form an overcharged firebolt in my hand "Why yes, I certainly would." And cast the spell at her.
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(General POV)
Reyvin facepalmed. Hard.
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(Davos' POV)
The firebolt connected to the near frozen Breton and sent an explosion which rapidly expanded across the altar connected to a large pillar supporting the ceiling. The pillar which was also half frozen...
And then we heard a crack.
And then the chamber collapsed.
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(Reyvin's POV)
I groan into my hand "Honestly Davos you are lucky to even be alive right now."
"I know." He winces.
"If you didn't have magic most of you really would be dead before I arrived." I explain 'helpfully.'
"I know!" He outright groans, showing actual shame for the first time in forever.
"One thing still doesn't add up." I cup my chin while staring at my servants "If you are so discomforted because you were buried and not because of the flesh monsters, why are none of you eating anything?"
"Well you see...." Davos raises a finger and then lets it fall onto the table with a helpless shrug.
"I didn't make sure the wall was perfect and some of the rotten smell wafted all the way to our location after the collapse." Nightshade explains in perfect deadpan.
I facepalm again.
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