Chapter 37

You know when you see a teen's movie and when they are partying and some cops show up at the stupidly loud party that has illegal alcohol being served to minors to say nothing of drugs and possibly sex going on? And when the cops get there and they comically scatter, running away from the house in any way they could be it climbing out a window or over the back fence or something...

That was our arrival at the school. Three hundred mage knights arrived and locked down the school and it turns out that once you are tortured mentally with sleep deprivation and mental nightmares to make you a compliant cultist. Your loyalty and subtlety aren't much of a fucking thing at all.

I would love to say we began a thorough investigation of the school and methodically began questioning students and teachers, and quickly ferried out the corruption within the school with our great intellect and daring leaps of logic! But that was not the damned case at all. The moment Princess Iris's eyes pinned down a panicking student all Hell literally exploded loose upon the world.

Almost like a demon cultist from Warhammer, I got the delightful joy of seeing the female student literally expand like a fleshy balloon until she explode in a splatter of gore being sent everywhere as from the space where her ballooned form was. A swirling portal with a purple rim and a pitch-black center formed from the energies of her soul and all the energy within her body during its expiration.

And from that portal came literal hell in the form of Daedra of all shapes and sizes. Scamps basically imps not even four feet tall that could dash forward a decent speed and were capable of throwing fireballs. Atronachs or beings of pure elemental energy, fire, lightning, water, ice, water, stone, and more came through the portal.

And of course the vanguard. Red and black-skinned Dremora clad in black armor with devilish crimson glow seeping from the armor's edges.

I and the rest of Shadow Garden fell upon the demons with no hesitation, my spear of condensed holy light born of the blessings of Baldur served me well in slaying the demons and I knew the holy light would leave their souls unable to reform within the daedric realms for a long while if ever at all.

Alpha cut through the monsters and demons with her calvary sword that go too close but for the most part, she was content in using her shadow and mist manipulation to control the battlefield and in opportune moments she would strangle a monster with their own shadow and allow a knight or shadow garden member to kill them with ease. Her entire strategy was to be as energy efficient as possible.

And of course, the other Seven Shades that were here also used their divine blessings to great effect in slaughtering the demons or helping the mage knights survive against the monstrous foes. And my worst fear about this situation was correct, granted the Nirn monsters and people didn't have the powerful body-enhancing magic this world had.

But when a dremora turns his piddly little flame thrower spell into a spell that sent a deluge of flames so powerful it could melt stone within moments... There was a major issue.

So although the mage knights had a profound strength, durability, and of course speed advantage, it was clear this world's overwhelming natural mana was quickly boosting the demon's spells and own physical abilities every second they remained on this plane of existence. And thus for every second, this damned gate to hell remained open and was going to lead the Daedric beings to become stronger even if they were rejected by the world itself.

A loud guttural crunching noise rang even through the throngs of battle to my ears as I saw a twenty-odd-foot tall bipedal beast push through the portal and as I took in its form I heard Scathach within me remarking how it had some dragons blood within it which made sense with its dragon-like head.

And within moments of the Deadric Titan arriving upon this world, it blew out a ball of blue flames that killed a couple of the princess's mage knights and hurt the Shadow Garden girls who couldn't coat their bodies in dense enough mana.

"Fuck it." I cursed and I held my hands together in prayer and everything went silent and dark as my soul became as calm as a lotus floating on water. I called upon Buddha's blessing and manifesting behind me was a fifteen-meter-tall muscular idol of myself in Buddhist attire but instead of merely having two hands I had fifty arms on both sides of my body. The blessing of the Hundred Hands Asura was my strongest blessing in pure combat bar none. Which made sense seeing as it came from the strongest god within me in Buddha.

But there was a cost to using it, that made me hate using it. I lost all emotion, I lost all sense of self, drive, and ambition, I became one with the universe and in matching it, I became stillness incarnated.

My eyes bloomed into lotus blossoms and beneath my feet blossomed tiny Bhodi tree's that grew to their full height after I walked away from them, within my left hand was a large bell made out of old copper that was bigger than the head of an adult, and in my right hand was a golden Khakkhara staff with its many rings jingling merrily with each step I took forward slowly back into the battle.

When a large minotaur-shaped Daedra rushed me and attempted to gore me, it was met with the powerful dull ancient bell ringing forming a barrier of burnt orange light around me, and as it collided with the shield its horns snapped at the impact making it scream as boiling black blood shot from its broken horn.

Even as I eyed the minotaur roaring and screaming in agony as it hurriedly got back up and swung its fist at me, I couldn't feel anger at it for attacking me, I felt no pity for the mage knights' deaths and even a Shadow Garden Number was being overwhelmed by the demons I literally was incapable of conjuring the concept of emotions for the sight.

Because in my eyes as The Enlightened One. I saw all of their deaths, I saw their pasts, the present, and their future. I knew all their fates so feeling anything was worthless.

But the portal in front of me was an affront to the natural order, it was an aberration to the universe's motions beyond comprehension as I saw souls screaming for release from their holdings in the Daedric Realms. And beyond all that I heard the whispers of those greater than the dregs beyond the portal.

"Serve us." They said. "Stand aside and prosper." They whispered. "Obey and receive countless dreams made a reality!" They cajoled whispering thoughts of madness and cruelty into my still mind.

The world seemingly went still as I tapped the Khakkhara of Bhudda on the ground and at that moment even as my own heart stopped beating I stopped the world from moving and the portal was blocked as I finally spoke with the wisdom of the infinite universes flooding the portal and breaking it apart. "I stand above the Earth and beyond the Heavens as the Enlightened One, I alone am the Honored One between Heaven and Earth as nothing is beyond... Jake Barris does not serve," I whispered with finality, and the portal broke apart as all the Deadra surrounding me then earned my gaze as the portal was broken.

The world restarted with my own heartbeat restarting and I conceptually ignored the agony my mortal lesser body was undergoing even as blood seeped from my nose and lotus-like eyes as I flicked the ancient bell creating a gonging noise that vibrated the daedric beings to the point they exploded into a blood mist.

"Jake leave sage mode!" Alpha screamed at me as she skidded in front of me and I eyed the blond elf with my eyes of enlightenment. I saw her past of being abandoned, I saw her love for myself, and I saw an infinite number of ways she would die in the future. In response, I smiled indulgently, not in her care of her, but merely that I needed to leave my state of purity and greatness...

With another perfectly measured breath, a spray of blood escaped my nose and I faltered in place. After an instant of thought, I sighed with a dusting of disappointment as even a body blessed by a dozen divines couldn't hold the weight of true enlightenment for more than fifteen seconds.

Lavender and pink lotus blossom eyes were closed with the massive idol behind me disappearing into motes of light that healed the remaining mage knights and shadow garden members and now that I wasn't perfectly breathing I coughed and as I fell forward slightly into Alpha's arms I coughed blood onto her leather-like slime outfit.

"Pull back and have the school evacuated!" Iris roared. "We will scour the school for more cultists, kill any who resist as we cannot allow another portal to be made!" She finished ordering and I felt her grab an arm of my mine and pull it over her shoulder as she got closer to hiss. "Jake, we need you to close any portals they make, so get your ass together!" She said obviously trying to be strict to give me direction but it was clear she was lost on what the hell to do right now.