Dragonborn Saga

Chapter 742: Hecate of Pride

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It was what it meant to be…

*Clash* *Clash* *Slash*

On the right side, there was the First Dragonborn, with his green Daedric-corrupted sword of tentacles and poison.

On the left side, there was the Last Dragonborn with his red tyrannical sword that lashes out arcs of red aura.

In the middle were the many twisted and abyssal eyes of Hermaeus Mora that watched over the two Dragonborns as they clashed, ready to devour the loser.

Both were powerful; both were mighty. It would be a pain for Mora to take on one of the two, let alone the two at the same time.

One of them is meant to lose; the other is meant to return to Nirn and fulfill the prophecy of defeating Alduin. However, only one of the two the Wheel of Fate would turn upon, and only one can be in the center of it all.

It all started not an hour ago when Jon stepped into Apocrypha alone with all his might. The scenery in front of him was that of a huge apocryphal island made of books and papers, floating on a sea of poisonous ink.

"MIRAAK!" Jon called with his thunderous voice, shaking the realm of Apocrypha and summoning forth its master.

"Abhorrent!"

"Vile!"

"Dragonborn!"

The voice echoed strongly in all the realms of Apocrypha as a myriad of eyes, tentacles, and wretched abysses started to surround Jon and creep upon him as fast as a blink of an eye.

"KUN LAAS SHUL!" (Light, Life, Sun)

Jon didn't stand still and reacted with a mighty roar that produced a mighty burst of light that pushed back the darkness.

He then had the Staff of Pride on one hand and the Gem of Lust on the other. He waved his staff and captured the light before trapping it in the small, finger-sized gem and focusing it intensively to amplify it with his Magicka.

Hermaeus Mora's darkness and ire kept surrounding Jon from all directions, but no matter how it tried, Jon cunningly used the Light to chase away the darkness using the innate qualities of both Pride and Lust. Pride was made of a sigil stone that was soaked into the light of Meridia, and Lust is made of the crystal shards soaked in the moonlight of Masser and Secunda. Even the Darkness of a Daedric Prince can't overwhelm that much light in one go.

"It seems that this cunt called Miraak is hiding behind the skirt of his master." Jon spoke boldly, "Fine! Fine! Hermeaus Mora, I've come to bargain."

Hermaeus Mora's anger couldn't be soothed. Unlike the game, he is no neutral onlooker in the war of the First and the Last Dragonborns. Jon made sure to offend the Daedra of Knowledge as much as possible before he went to fight Miraak.

"Bargain?!" Hermaeus Mora asked, "What could you possibly have? You are in my hands! No one can come for you! Your magic will soon run out! You are trapped, Dragonborn!"

Jon's situation was hopeless as he walked into the domain of a daedra, announced his presence, and stayed until he was trapped.

"Shadows Hide You!"

But only one phrase was enough to call off Mora's wrath; the Daedra of Knowledge simply paused his anger as if it weren't there just a second ago.

"Nocturnal?" Hermaeus Mora asked.

"Nocturnal." Jon nodded, "Interested?"

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Even the Daedra of Knowledge wasn't almighty; he was afraid of another Daedric Prince, and Nocturnal was the one Hermaeus Mora couldn't mess with the most.

Possibly the only Prince that can keep Hermaeus Mora in the Dark is none other than the Lady of Shadows, Nocturnal, one of Jon's most recent… friends.

The phrase "Shadows Hide You" is not some simple words put together; it is the power of Nocturnal, where she can hide what she wants from whoever she wants. Most of all, there is the ever-curious Hermaeus Mora.

The most notable act of her ability over knowledge is none other than the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, the item that has this phrase written in Daedric script. As Nocturnal once stated, "Whosoever wears it shall be lost in the shadows. His true nature shall be unknown to all who meet him. His identity shall be struck from all records and histories. Memory will hide in the shadows, refusing to record the name of the owner to any who meets him. He shall be known by the cowl and only by the cowl."

Even if it is Hermaeus Mora, his records can't reveal what Nocturnal doesn't want to be revealed, and even he won't be able to know what she doesn't want him to know.

Jon even added salt to the wound and called forth the "Shadowkey" given to him by Nocturnal, holding it in front of the many eyes of Hermaeus Mora.

"As I said, I've come to bargain." Jon said it with a careful smile on his face.

He wasn't just pulling out his relationship card with Nocturnal; he was making a subtle statement about what made Hermaeus Mora so wrathful.

"Oghma?" Mora asked.

"I keep her in the shadows, dark and quiet, where only a few can reach and where no one will hear her cry." Jon replied in the most villainous way possible.

The Oghma Infinium, the Daedric Artifact of Hermaeus Mora, was long since stolen by Jon, which is the main reason why Miraak and Hermaeus Mora were coordinating to attack Jon more than they did in the game.

Jon imprisoned the Oghma Infinium when Hermaeus Mora denied him access to the knowledge within, fearing that Jon may be more powerful than he could handle. Realizing how dear the Oghma is to Hermaeus Mora, Jon imprisoned her deep into the shadow world, where only those of the shadow nature can reach, namely Nefertiti, Shadow, or Nocturnal.

The threat Jon made was pretty clear: if Nocturnal were to get her hands on the Oghma Infinium, who knows how much knowledge the shadow could strip away and what would become of Mora's magnum opus?

"What do you want?"

Finally, Hermaeus Mora accepted the bargain.

"That was easy." With a smug smile, Jon raised two fingers and said, "Two things and two things only."

"Name them!"

"First, you don't interfere the slightest in my fight with Miraak as long as either of us still draws breath. You remain a bystander through the whole thing. You don't interfere either in his favor or mine."

Jon's demand was pretty straightforward and very precise with his wording. Hermaeus Mora can't interfere until one of them takes down the other. It is as fair as it can get.

The Daedric Prince seemed desperate for the Oghma Infinium, but this demand made him pause and think.

"If you aren't going to take it or hear my next demand, you can better kiss your Oghma goodb…"

"The other demand."

"I want a reward for taking Miraak down, and I want it upfront." Jon said.

"This is ridiculous."

"You can say that, but it is the only way I can get something for the Oghma Infinium. I wasted a lot of time acquiring that book after all, for the sake of your stupid challenge."

"What is it you want?"

"Knowledge for Knowledge." Jon said, "The Knowledge you denied me when I tried to read the Oghma Infinium. Instead, I want a memory of magic. I want the record of every spell ever cast, every magic ever weaved, and every incantation ever uttered. I want every Apocryphal Memory of that."

"Mortal…" Hermaeus Mora had a change of tone as he addressed Jon, "You know the extent of my power, don't you?"

"You are the Prince of Knowledge. If I were ever to say I know how far your power extends, then I am saying that I am an entity equal to you in knowledge, and that's a statement I am sure I don't want to make." Jon said.

"You know your limits, mortal." Hermaeus Mora's voice started to relax and speak as slowly as it always does.

"I want your word." Jon said.

"You have it in my name as the Prince of Apocrypha." And Hermaeus Mora responded.

The deal was sealed. It was time the two of them upheld their ends of the bargain.

The shadow beneath Jon thickened until it turned into a void of blackness. Black chains erupted as they dragged out a large book whose cover was made of torn and patched material.

"As Promised." Jon extended his hand, holding up the Oghma Infinium.

"And as agreed." A tentacle of Hermaeus Mora was extended towards Jon with a translucent green orb that had some sort of energy trapped within.

The exchange was made; Jon got his prize, and Hermaeus Mora got his bride.

Once Mora's tentacles retrieved the Oghma Infinium, a change started to happen to the book.

From the simple appearance of a book made of two covers and a bunch of paper in between, the book transformed into that of a figure, not a figure of a human but rather…

"Yikes!" Even the invincible Jon Dare shivered at that appearance and averted his eyes.

The Oghma that belonged to Hermaeus Mora was the very spirit of ugliness. As he could only realize that the Oghma was a woman, judging by the face that glared at him with hatred, he wouldn't have known that this deformed and asymmetrical body may have been a humanoid once.

It had some limbs that could be used to move on, but they were of various creatures, and the creature itself walked like a slug. It had visible arms, but one was very large while the opposite was small, and even a few more arms seemed to have sprouted from various parts of its body. Finally, its skin seemed burned in some spots, eaten by acid in others, and wrinkled by age in most of the other parts.

Just a monster of leprosy and all other dermal diseases gathered in one body.

Despite its appearance, this monstrosity was lifted from the ground by Hermaeus Mora's force and enveloped carefully by his tentacles before being taken away.

"Damn, man. That's your girlfriend?" Jon couldn't hold back the question, even though he was ignored.

Seeing as how Hermaeus Mora and Oghma were starting to get busy with each other in a strange asexual way, Jon tried to step aside, but Hermaeus Mora suddenly absorbed Oghma through his abyssal form as if he took her somewhere far away. After that, all of his eyes landed on Jon.

"So, that was the mother of your boy I met the other day?" Jon asked, "I have a lot of those Yo Momma jokes but next time I see him, I gotta be ready to innovate on them, like… Yo momma so ugly, she made the Sea Sload retire from terrorizing people… oh, here's another one… Yo momma so ugly, when Kagrenac tapped into the Heart of Lorkhan, an image for her was sent to every Dwemer by mistake and they zero-summed… Damn, I feel like I can think of more…"

"Foolish mortal!"

Hermaeous Mora, on the other hand, was displeased with Jon, but rather than showing anger, the tone of the Daedric Prince was gleeful.

"What is it?" Jon asked.

"You thought you could fool me with your… pitiful bargaining skills." Hermaeus Mora spoke, and his tone turned from glee to mockery, "You… were… mistaken."

"Really?" Jon frowned, "How so?"

"From the very beginning, I was not going to interfere in your fight… with Miraak. It was my deal with him too."

"Mhm! I see. It seems I tried to be extra careful for nothing, but I at least got this juicy record of all spells in the world."

"That's why you are even more foolish." Hermaeus Mora continued.

"Seriously, you managed to screw me over with that one too?" Jon asked with a shocked face.

"Think about it, pitiful Mortal!" Hermaeus Mora aggravated the shocked Jon with his lazy manner of speaking, "It is an Apocryphal text, something that is meant to be… unknowable for mortals. Even with that amount of knowledge you hold, some Daedric Princes would find it too inconvenient to…"

"Oh! I thought of another one!" Jon interrupted Hermaeus Mora immediately, "Yo momma so ugly, she put Malacath out of business and gave Molag Bal a reverse boner… even Vaermina had to go to therapy after seeing her. Damn! I can go on."

With this rude interruption, Hermaeus Mora halted his words as the supposedly shocked Jon was standing there, cracking jokes once again.

"Oh, sorry for the interruption. Man, you talk too slow for my brain not to fart. I can't help thinking of other things." Jon said, "Oh, by the way, that Spell Record I took from you isn't really for me. Thanks, by the way, the Augur said it would take at least 70 years of constant research to even make a record of all modern-era spells into a single record. Told him I'd have to scam you for it, but he kept saying: Low Chance of Success, or whatever."

Jon kept playing with the orb of knowledge he received from Hermaeus Mora, as the Daedric Prince was cautious about everything Jon was saying.

Rather than playing with Jon Dare in the palms of his… tentacles, Jon was taking the lead on this one.

"Now…" Jon stepped past Hermaeus Mora and headed towards the Summit of Apocrypha, the high mountain of apocryphal landscape that was past a sea of ink from where Jon stood.

A dragon came flying from the Summit of Apocrypha to intercept Jon on the orders of Miraak. Now that is canon, but what isn't canon is what happened next.

With the Elder Staff of Power and Fate on his right and the Record of all Magical Spells on his left, Jon joined both his right and left together, and a blinding light was conjured to cast away all darkness, even that of Hermaeus Mora, who melted away like salt in water.

As the Light settled and vision was possible, a few figures appeared in the place Jon was supposed to be.

A dark being walking on eight legs in what seemed to be an eight-legged horse, Sleipnir of Greed.

A towering warrior made of mighty large bones formed what can be described as a giant undead warrior, Odokuro of Wrath.

Another large figure of absolute bloody monstrosity that had the body of a giant troll, the head of a savage animal skull, and the antlers of something wild was Wendigo of Gluttony.

A soft being made of translucent crystal-like matter that emerged with the figure of a woman, Venus of Lust.

Another being of undeath looked like a Dragon Priest, but her Priest Mask was a metal cast on her skull to form her facial structure, Potema of Envy.

A true frost giant deity of the snow-waste dwellers stands with the might of a hundred of his kin, the Frost Giant, Karstaag of Slooth.

And now there was last, the embodiment of Pride that Jon couldn't bring forth for all these years until just now. The ego of Pride, the greatest force of Magic, the knower of all spells, the true power of the Elder Staff. A feminine figure of pale skin and dark hair, nothing but whiteness of skin and blackness of hair that covered her entire body like a robe.

This figure soon realized itself and formed fabrics of cloth around her body, and her features were so close to Jon to the point where she could be the female version of him.

Jon saw her as she stood face-to-face against him and then raised her arm backward towards the Dragon that was descending towards them with speed.

Her hand clutched, and the Dragon's momentum was suddenly interrupted. It struggled in the air as it couldn't move forward or backward, and then it was moved in a direction it wasn't planning to move in, as if some force was clutching at its neck.

Then…

*BOOOOOM*

One Dragon was brought down by the might of a Telekinetic Force.

"Name." The personification of Pride demanded.

The Elder Staff of Power and Fate, Pride, is now as complete as all the other sins, with only the name left.

"Hecate… Come forth by Moonlight, Hecate of Pride."

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