♪ Highway to Hell ♪


  "Sweet!"

  Two chains with the length of many meters dangled down as each ring was being lit by the white Ashen Flame. Jon reinforced his control by folding the chains around his hands once then give them a shake.

  *Tink* *Tink* *Tink*

  And they were to his liking.

  One man who is supposedly a Dragon Priest was facing one Ancient Lich and three Nether Liches. The odds were totally uneven but in these cases, it is advised to play the game by a new set of rules.

  No matter how good his talent in Magic is, this fight was hopeless for Jon if he kept fighting using Magic. A physical fight, on the other hand, is the right equalizer for this situation.

  "Get him!"

  As Falkyn shouted, four Liches cast magic at Jon from every direction.

  "Fat chance!"

  Jon pulled off 120% of his strength and speed as he pulled the chains up. In a second, they were moving around him like in whirls intercepting every Magic.

  With [Ahzidal’s Boots of the Apostle], no matter what surface he stood on or what altitude it is, Jon was moving unhindered.

  With sure movements he advanced to the nearest Nether Lich with his body reinforced with Aura, the next move was a flashing flying straight kick with both feet launching the Lich backward.

  "Restrain his movements!"

  The Liches tried to bind him with barriers, seven layers of an unknown spell stacked up around him but with brute force, Jon ripped that Magicka in those barriers by waving the chains around.

  Magic may be able to restrain Warriors but fast and flashy martial arts were of great risk to any spell caster. That, of course, didn’t mean that those Liches were not experts in close quarters combat.

  The remaining three Liches tried to attack with their staves using a close-range spell but to no avail, Jon controlled the trajectory of his movements by attaching a chain to the ground and pulling himself away.

  As the Liches were trying to return to formation, the other chain found its way to the neck of one of the Nether Liches wrapping itself around it and pulling him towards Jon. As the Lich tried to gain a view of the direction he was pulled to, Jon’s knee entered the screen.

  Even though Nether Liches are partially ghosts, a physical attack supported with Aura can sting where it hurts. The Lich got the feeling of having his skull being rammed through his nose. Unpleasant as it is, Jon’s merciful style included an elbow attack between the neck and shoulder after that knee.

  Then the other knee upwards to the chin.

  Then a hand chop to the neck.

  By that move, the target should be stunned so what follows is a finishing attack. Jon would break the neck but considering the nature of a Lich, it was better to overload the eight major energy points with Magicka causing a backflow and soul damage.

  The poor Lich was over and sent back to the Phylactery he recovers in.

  "Daaaym! This song is getting to me. Whatever!"

  Jon turned to the Ancient Lich Falkyn and the remaining Nether Lich, the two got nervous as Jon started to charge at them but suddenly, he got stopped.

  It seemed that the chain holding down was stuck in something, the two Liches wouldn’t let the chance pass by and Jon knew it but he couldn’t help but look at whatever stopped him.

  And who would have thought it was the other Nether Lich he blasted away earlier. That Lich was holding to Jon’s chain with his staff trying to not let him move.

  What that Lich didn’t know was that Jon was smiling under his mask.

  "Wrong move, buddy."

  Feeling a chill all of a sudden, the Lich looked towards Jon who was surely up to no good.

  Jon pulled the chain so fast and descended towards the Lich…… Butt forward.

  Historians never recorded what was the fate of that certain Lich but it was agreed that this was the first Lich ever that was killed by a stinkface attack.

  [A/n: you know that Rikishi move from WWE?]

  "Two down, two to go."

  Jon stood up stretching his waist left and right before dodging to the side as a heavy barrage of [Necrotic Spears] landed where he is.

  "Rude!"

  "Kill him now. This trickster is troublesome! Keep him at bay." Falkyn shouted as he used every possible spell to catch Jon with.

  "I don’t need you to tell me that!" The Nether Lich retorted.

  Jon zigzagged and teleported a couple of times as he evaded the [Defiled Ground], [Necrotic Barrage] and [Soul Cage] spells.

  He was not given a chance to counter as the Liches kept flying further from him.

  {Jax, one more time.}

  Jon asked Jax for another distraction.

  *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

  Another series of explosions sounded by as more important places were set on fire.

  Using the millisecond of distraction, Jon redirected himself at the Liches for a counter but they saw that trike before and were ready for him.

  Still, it wasn’t that simple.

  Jon cut his counterattack short and someone else proceeded with it.

  [Wrath] took the chance to sneak up as Jon was distracting the Liches and attacked Falkyn.

  Falkyn had already lost an arm and could barely defend with his staff. The last Nether Lich was totally Jon’s prey now. He saw Jon already so close to him so he turned tail and ran.

  "Coward!" Falkyn groaned as his last ally abandoned him in such a tight situation.

  Jon waved the chain at the Nether Lich catching it by the neck and the waist then let gravity take its course with a strong pull to spice up the body slam.

  The Nether Lich fell and got badly damaged. The Ashen Flame took care of the rest turning the ghastly remains into ectoplasm.

  Now, the only remaining Lich was Falkyn. Looking at him, it seemed that [Wrath] alone got him good.

  Falkyn was hanging from a large pillar as his staff fell down and was still in the middle of recasting his Levitation Magic. Jon rudely teleported above Falkyn.

  He looked down at the Lich who was helplessly hanging with one arm to the edge of the pillar, he leaned down and held Falkyn’s hand with a twisted smile.

  "Long live the K…… no, not that one. Oh! Right, ehem! FUS RO DAH!"

  ***

  Jumping down from the high pillar, Jon landed on the apocalyptic land with the other arm of Falkyn in hand.

  "Good job, everyone." He said passing the arm to Jax.

  Nefertiti and Wrath appeared as among the pile of bodies that belonged to both the necromancers and the undead.

  The undead broken included a large number of Bone Colossuses and a few Flesh Atronachs one of them was very gigantic.

  "Who the hell took that down?" Jon asked.

  "Team effort." Nefertiti replied.

  Seemingly, it was her, Jax and Wrath.

  "I’ve seen one of those abominations once in the Three Fates ESO trailer in my past life. The thing stinks from a closer look." Jon said while kicking the large Flesh Atronach.

  He turned around to Nefertiti.

  "Where should we go?"

  "This way."

  Nefertiti turned around as she transformed into the Human Form and walked to the heart of the ruined city. Wrath and Jax followed as the latter threw the Lich’s arm away.

  In the middle of the Ghost World stood a grand temple with statues of people that resembled beauty, wisdom, justice, motherhood, bravery and all; Jon felt as if he was walking into a Greek temple. Most of the statues were intact but not clean maintained.

  If such a realm fell in the hands of someone like Jon, he would have turned it into an incarnation of Olympus but sadly Mannimarco found it and maintained only what gained his interest leaving the rest to rot.

  More to that, there were still more living people. Not necromancers but living prisoners, sacrifices of sort for the twisted rituals of the Worm Cult.

  Children, women, elders…… there was just all of them trapped in cages with nothing to cover their skin with exposing the brutalities they have been through. There were actual living souls in them but they were broken. Those who could talk would mutter words of madness in languages Jon never heard off.

  (Aliens.) Shadow said.

  "Oh please!"

  (Aren’t otherworldly beings called Aliens?)

  "They are humans…… and some other strange races. They are…… people from other worlds."

  (Which is basically Aliens.)

  "Stop it, okay? Just…… look at those people. Even the Soul Shriven had hope to fight back, had rags on their bodies and Daedric waste in their bellies. Those people are…… I just can’t begin to imagine what happened to them."

  (Humanity at its best if I am allowed to say.)

  "……"

  (They are nothing but people who were unlucky enough to venture into the Sea of Chaos between the Universes and get caught by the Cult. The Rifts are the only places were all extraterrestrial species meet after all, just find a way to lure them in.)

  "…… It is sick."

  (And look at you, the Hero who stopped the Evil Cult. As soon as you are done here, the realm will collapse given time. Those people are as good as dead so you can give them a merciful death if you want to or give them time to die.)

  "No…… they suffered long enough."

  It only took Jon one click with his staff on the ground for his imagination to be real. Those who were imprisoned for soul extraction died silently and painlessly.

  "Find solace for those who have harmed you have died in pain and more shall follow. Find home and peace beside those you love."

  (A prayer? How nice of you! I wonder how would they feel if they know that their torture was prolonged only because of your actions that have led their jailors to a better fuel source leaving them as the emergency backup?)

  "And their souls would have ended up as undead puppets forever otherwise?"

  (You’ll be surprised by the things people like them will trade to end the suffering.)

  "I don’t ask for understanding or forgiveness or any of that, okay? Just shut up."

  True or not, there was a part of the responsibility on Jon’s shoulders. He knows he doesn’t have to be sorry for everything that gets broken by mistake, he understood the term of collateral damage but even monsters would feel the weight of their sins.

  But that all was a reminder that the world is not a game.

  He knows it…… but reminders are reminders and the lessons of life come only after the tests.

  "We are here, Hooman."

  Getting pulled back to reality, Jon found himself in the inner sanctum of the temple he walked in, it was a large chamber filled with many weird objects. In front of him were four Nether Liches who looked in a dire condition.

  "Hey again." Jon took the lead and aimed his staff forward.

  "Stop him at all costs!"

  "Together."

  Jon ignored the Liches and cast [Eye of Magicka] revealing to him the Phylacteries of those Liches. A bunch of jars, chests, and voodoo objects were highlighted and his sight, by the next second, Jon imagined their destruction and [Pride] did the work.

  *Wail* *Scream*

  The Liches stopped what they are doing and started disintegrating into nothingness.

  The Forces of the Order of the Black Worm in the Ghost World were officially wiped out.

  The last remaining thing here was the large vault door and the research materials lying around. Jon gathered the materials as his trophy and pulled out the vault’s door with Telekinesis.

  Whatever riches behind it was pulled in the Cube without even thinking, some otherworldly treasures included. The most important thing, however, was kept deeper in the vault.

  A naked woman restrained from her limbs inside a wall. Her beauty was peerless and her silence was soothing. Jon knew that she is his target.

  "Azura."

  Jon called but the woman did not respond. Rather, Azura’s Star responded instead.

  Jon held the Star as it glowed in his hand in many colors. Slowly and smoothly, another woman came out of the Star. She looked exactly similar to the captive woman.

  "Perfect! Another Azura." Jon said.

  {Not Azura I am, Labourer, but a mere fragment of the self embodying Dusk and Dawn.} The Woman who came from the Star said.

  "Still with the same speaking problem I see."

  Apparently, both women are Soul Fragments of Azura.

  Soul Fragments of the Daedric Princes exist in their Daedric Artifacts. Jon’s Sin Artifacts also have Soul Fragments of him.

  The Captive Soul Fragment of Azura is the one who inhabited [Azura’s Star] before Jon corrupts it. This Fragment was cast away through the voids of Oblivion only to get captured by Mannimarco. By using that Soul Fragment, the Ghost World could draw a great amount of power from a Daedric Prince and fuel the mass production and maintenance of undead.

  The Free Soul Fragment of Azura is the one who entered the Star to return it to Azura’s control. Now that the original one was found, this Soul Fragment had a job to do.

  {Wake up.} She called.

  Looking at the Captive Soul Fragment, Jon saw its eyes wide open glaring at him.

  Without warning, his heart felt like jumping from its place.

  It was clear that this Captive Soul Fragment is royally pissed at Jon at this moment.

  The other Soul Fragment hurriedly picked up [Azura’s Star] and aimed it at the Captive one.

  {Return.}

  Yet just like that, this super pissed Soul Fragment was pulled from her chains into the Star. Jon could still feel hostility from the Artifact.

  {Usable to you it may not be yet a fine job you have delivered.}

  From the looks of it, Jon was allowed to keep the [Azura’s Star] in the first place for this moment when he returns what was stolen from Azura. Right now, the star is usable to him as the Soul Fragment in it wants to pull his brains out.

  It was okay. Just one Soul Gem that cannot be broken and has a very large capacity.

  But most importantly……

  "So…… my 7th Labour is over?" Jon asked.

  Azura’s Soul Fragment looked at him as it started fading away with the Star.

  {It has just begun.}

  ~~~~~~~~~~

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