The Extra that was promised... you monsters!
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Normally, I don't get angry. Even if I want to show anger, I mostly fake it and use it as a purpose to do something unreasonable.
But now I am blinded with anger.
Why on Nirn would anyone try to attack Alina and Jullanar in such a crucial moment? I couldn't figure it out but whoever that is, they are going to pay.
After Nefertiti noticed the intruders with malicious intentions, I instantly teleported back in front of the sanctuary.
I was carrying Nefertiti in hand and Greed on the other, once I appeared, I saw a few women in black blocking the entrance to the sanctuary. They were frightened once they saw me but they set out a Barrier Ward in front of themselves and blocked the entrance right away.
"You... where did you come from?"
"You have no business here, leave."
The women spoke with clear hostility but the seemed trying not to fight. I only looked at them and determined what they are.
"I have seen your kind before. Witches!"
Witches are no ordinary magic users, they are practitioners of the Dark Magic, vile, unholy and twisted. Some call them witches and some call them hags. (not to be confused with Hagravens)
By seeing witches in this place, I could already figure out the situation. They sensed the Natural Energy Alina drew from the sanctuary and came for it. That is what they are after all.
The witches tend to attack the places where Spriggans reside to harvest their taproots.
The witches noticed the change in my Aura and realized that a fight is unavoidable.
"If you move away from the entrance, I will kill you fast."
I was too nice to give them a warning.
"Insolent fool, die." A witch acted first and cast a Fireball towards me.
I was clearly unfazed and only transformed Greed into a whip canceling the Fireball from afar. With the next swing, I added a blade to the end of the Whip and broke through the barrier and injured the three witches without killing them.
"I don't have time to kill you slowly but that will do it." I said as I conjured a Dremora.
"Out with it, mortal." As haughty as ever, the Dremora that appeared from the void was talking with disdain.
"Kill those three... slowly." I give him a command and walked through the sanctuary's entrance.
"Hehe, interesting mortal."
As I walked in, I started hearing screaming behind me so I reckon the Dremora is doing its job.
The tunnel to the inner sanctum of the sanctuary only took me a few seconds. Once I arrived, I got even angrier than what I already am.
A band of witches was fighting a number of Spriggans on the first bridge to the sanctuary, the one leading the witches was a Hagraven, a being uglier that whatever anyone can think of, horrifying, almost human but more an abomination of woman and crow fused together, nothing more than a husk of humanity surrendered in exchange for possession of the powers of dark magic, they have clawed feet and hands and feathers growing out of their forearms and they also carry all sorts of diseases on them especially 'Brain Rot'.
That Hagraven was standing behind the other witches while casting powerful destruction spells at the Spriggans that protect the sanctuary.
I looked somewhere else looking for Alina and Jullanar to discover that Alina was protecting the healing ritual with a cocoon of hard wooden roots but seemed unable to help the Spriggans. The Hagraven was looking at Alina with greed in its eyes and seemed to be evoking a spell, I didn't know what spell but seeing a Black Soul Gem in the Hagraven's claws meant nothing good.
"No you won't!"
I cast the [Chain Lightning] as fast as I could and I splendidly struck the Hagraven but it seemed that it won't go down with just that. The Important part is that the attention of the witches is on me now.
"Insolent!"
"He attacked the crone, kill him!"
"Drain his blood dry!"
The just can't stop being stereotype evildoers, can they?
"Okay, Greed. Time to put your power to test."
Just as I thought of unleashing the best of what Greed has to over, it suddenly jumped from my left hand to my right and started devouring Bloodskal.
I had no reaction whatsoever, other than the urge to puke blood, but I was instantly proven wrong. Greed was not devouring Bloodskal, it was merging with it like, it made Bloodskal longer and more… sinister.
Bloodskal became almost three meters tall and really wide.
I was not sure what is going on here but the sight of the Hagraven made me be assured that I am still reincarnated in Skyrim, not Devil May Cry.
"Well well well, let's see what this bad boy can do."
I unleashed my Aura and put on my mask 'Krilon'. With the [Greedy Bloodskal] on my hands, I charged forward at the witches.
One swing… five dead.
The residual energy of the slash made the space behind it feel unstable but I already knew it would do that. Once the witches passed through that unstabled space, it silenced their Magicka.
Another five dead.
This is a quality of the Shadow Magic that Greed possesses, Shadow Magic is devastating towards energies, it can drain both Vitality and Magicka at a crazy rate, it also can ravage the energies inside the targets and make them unable to use magic.
As I thought, Greed is awesome.
While I was admiring Greed for a second, spells of all kinds flew at me. Greed that reacts based on my reflexes let go of Bloodskal and formed a shield to protect me.
Its defense against Magic was almost like a cheat. That thing that spent a whole month getting hammered by my Magicka is now akin to a Magicka Black Hole.
"Fine, keep protecting me while I go all out."
Greed attached itself to my shoulders and blocked everything thrown at me. I brandished Bloodskal and started swinging it madly around with my right unleashing ribbons of Aura towards the witches. My left was casting Magic on a fast pace too, from 'Electrohand' to 'Thunder Cookie' to 'Telekinesis' and 'Bind' to 'Corpse Explosion' and 'Holy Smite'. I went from Electromancer to Pyromancer, from Alteration to Illusion and from Sun Magic to Necromancy.
After causing a bloody mess and slaughtering the whole coven of witches, I was facing the Hagraven face to face.
"Curse you! Curse you! Curse you! You will pay for this"
Her anger was clear with that hoarse voice she spoke with but I was going out for slaughter no matter what she did.
She unleashed all the Magicka she can muster and cast a bolt of Dark Magic at me. I didn't need to understand the magic to know how dangerous it is, this must be 'Crystal Shard', a devastating spell.
I took out Greed to my left hand and reformed it into a Blaster then shot the Magick with my Aura. The destructive power of my Aura with the shadowy nature of Greed was enough to put that Magic down.
The exchange between me and the Hagraven didn't last long, she tried to bind me using the Dark Magic again but I let Greed devour that magic, she then tried to sneak attack me by a spell under my feet but I stuck Bloodskal into the ground and devastated whatever that was.
"Curse you!"
Her last card seemed to be a strong spell that started to heal her and restore her Magicka at the same time, such a broken spell must be part of the deal she had with the Higher Powers when she transformed herself into a monstrosity. I couldn't afford to fall short and also called upon the Higher Power on my side.
"All-Maker!"
The [Root of Power], the blessing I had from the All-Maker, was activated and my Magicka started coming back on a crazy pace, between the [Root of Power] and the [Dark Exchange], it was clear who is superior.
I only overpowered the Hagraven with Raw Magicka and that was enough to break her spell and cause a backlash.
She was struck on her knees while trying to run away using her abnormally long limbs.
"You are not getting anywhere." I blocked her path and raised Bloodskal to behead the Hagraven but she shot up all of a sudden and slashed at me with her other claws.
I merely swung my sword and cut both her arms.
"GAAAAH! CURSE YOU! CURSE YOU!"
"These are your last words?!" I didn't want to hear anymore and just beheaded the damn thing.
As I got rid of the vermin, I teleported towards Alina right away. Her face was a bit pale and there was a thin line of blood coming from her mouth. My head almost went numb but she raised her hand to calm me down.
"I just overused some energy for the sake of defense, nothing touched me." She said so but I was already in the state of going insane. There was no one to vent it on and it would be wrong to act recklessly so I just had to suppress it.
"Go and rest. Leave the ritual to me."
I handed Alina some meds and took over her place, she was already in the last process and I could finish that on my own.
It took me ten minutes to put the last touches on Jullanar's Astral Body and poured half of my Magicka into healing her Physical Body. All that is left now is to wait for Jull's natural recovery to work on its own. Her golden hazel right eye was reacting well while she was unconscious and her left eye shouldn't be touched for the time being.
As I finished, I put a bandage on her left eye that started giving out tears. This was a sign of recovery and the Light Screen showed no wrong behavior.
"It is over, she will wake up on her own now."
Alina said as she seemed to have recovered too.
"I am sorry. I shouldn't have…"
"Shush! We wouldn't let you stay while Nefertiti was out there anyway."
"... okay."
It was a bit angry at myself for not being there while those abominations attacked Alina and Jull.
"Still, look at that mess you made. It would take us ages to clean all that." Alina pointed at the bodies of the witches I killed.
Limbs and heads were everywhere. I really went all out on a bunch of hags.
"Sigh! I will make a fire and burn all that." I was about to stand up and do so before Alina stopped me.
"Just kidding, it won't take me a second to get rid of them."
She spoke calmly and cast a few spells on the trees around the area. Roots shot up from the ground and started entombing the Hagravens and the witches in the ground. They were being encased in roots and pulled down.
It was kinda scary.
"Even the beautiful Nature has its dark sides, you know. These sinners will serve in death as fertilizers for the grove." Alina said.
"I see."
Alina did not only made the grove consume the dead witches and clean the mess I made, but she also used the remaining magic we gathered to revive the Spriggans that were killed by the witches. Her Druidic Magic was really on a whole different level from the lame things I read about it. This is not something that Nurina teaches so I watched carefully and asked a lot of questions.
"Anyway, how did those witches find out about our ritual?" I asked.
"Not sure, being the Sybil of Kyne is hard on its own let alone having enemies with enemies of the Gods. They must have made their coven near the area. I will report that to the Guardians of the Grove or the Vigilants of Stendarr, both will hunt witches to the ends of Nirn if they could."
I nodded and didn't say much, I was still feeling angry about leaving them alone even though I would be still angry if I didn't go after Nefertiti.
My head was messy for a while but sitting beside Alina who rested her head on me gave me some peace.
"Hooman, she woke up." Nefertiti's voice woke me from my doze and I shot up right away, Alina also shot up as fast as me.
We looked back to the roots bed where Jullanar was lying to find her sitting on the bed while looking at us.
One eye is golden hazel.
One eye is violet blue.