Dragonborn Saga

Chapter 681: Clockwork Trap

Things didn't seem to have gone as planned but where Jon landed was one messy place. Fire was raining down all around him and he was disoriented from the sudden impact.

"Nefertiti! Answer me!"

He called and looked around but as he looked up, he saw something falling down towards him and with a strong burst of power, he ran away from its impact zone.

Things didn't go as planned at all and he put himself in a messy situation. If not for his strength, any normal person would have gone through one hell of an experience just landing like that.

The place around him was large and wide akin to a cave system with a sea of lava covering its floor. Only some rock spires stood tall with traces of construction work at the sides of the cave.

"Mecinar… he… fuck!" Jon couldn't believe what happened just now.

It was all going according to plan… until it wasn't.

Mecinar has managed to remotely activate the Barlizar's Mazed Band and take them all to Clockwork City.

***

*A week earlier to the arrival of Glymet and Laaneth!*

Jon arrived at Clockwork City but in a place where he had no idea which goes where, it was something akin to a huge cave with a deep pit of lava without any exit or escape. The perfect trap if there was any.

Using the "Eye of Magicka" spell, Jon tried to scout the space around him but the Magicka was being siphoned off this space as if there was something wrong with the very core of the world. Mecinar must have done something during their transfer to Clockwork City and made it so that Jon ends up here.

"What a cunning Bastard!"

If Jon were to remain in this place for more than what he should, he would be worn out eventually and Mecinar would come to pick on him easily. That, of course, if he doesn't find an escape as soon as possible.

Preserving his Magicka, Jon started to channel his inner energy and squatted on the rock spire he was on. With an incredible display of physical strength, Jon's leg muscles started to bulge up insanely as they tore through his pants, and with an insane shockwave, Jon jumped from the rock spire he was on to the closest.

The distance was around 100 meters between the two spires and Jon's jump almost fell short at the mark of 80 meters. For that, he curled his body and cast a Novice Spell, Air Bounce.

Just like the spell's name, Jon bounced like a ball in the air and his jump was extended for a long enough distance to land safely on the spire.

He could have cast "Levitation" and spared himself and his pants but some gut feeling told him to be very careful on how to handle his Magicka since his Magicka regeneration was practically not functioning in this environment.

After repeating the process a few times, Jon was able to reach the wall of the cave at the construction area he spotted earlier. Where he landed was a metal platform that had a pedestal in its center and it was made of many cogs and machinery, something that Jon couldn't understand from an initial look.

However, this thing confirmed to him that he is in Clockwork City. It all looked like a Dwemer Ruin around him but it gave a very different vibe.

"Just how?"

As Jon asked that question, his answer came almost instantly.

"Huhu! Look at that place!" A voice spoke with a cheerful glee.

Jon looked around but the voice came from everywhere around him. He narrowed his eyes and focused his Aura to try and pinpoint the speaker.

"Don't waste your energy, I am speaking through the sound system of the Pneumatic Forge." The voice commented on Jon's reaction.

"Mecinar!" Jon spoke with obvious anger.

"Yes, Jon Dare, Dragonborn." Mecinar replied in a vicious mocking tone, "I warned you to stay away and you didn't listen."

"Don't think you'll survive this." Jon spoke.

"Oh! Come on! Worry about yourself." Mecinar replied, "I've done extensive research about you and I've got to say… I am a big fan of you and your Master, Lady Nurina. Moreover, you are a disciple from the student line of Divayth Fyr. Your Grandmaster and my Master were comrades, you know! Divayth Fyr and Sotha Sil."

"So you're the Disciple of Seht? Hmph, I guessed as much."

[A/n: Seht is short for Sotha Sil, don't ask me why!]

"The last Disciple of Seht." Mecinar corrected Jon, "While my master and I had a complicated relationship, I was the sole survivor of Almalexia onslaught when she killed my master and all the other disciples… almost all, I think I may find survivors now that I am back…"

"Alright, introduction's over. Get your ass over here so I can start kicking." Jon said.

"Oh! You weren't listening, Jon Dare." Mecinar said and made a creepy laugh, "I told you that in Skyrim, I was in your realm, the world was fighting alongside you, I wasn't your match."

"So?"

"Here is where things get a tiny bit complicated, my friend. You, a Dragonborn, are a Hero who is yet to fulfill his Fate. I can't kill you and risk the world's retaliation… yet."

"Aha!"

"However, once I reach a position equal or higher than yours as a Hero, you and I are going to have a different conversation than this friendly… banter."

"Well, you have some good brain on that head of yours after all." Jon said, "Just one teeny-tiny problem. You can't keep me here until you do what you're about to do."

"True." Mecinar seemed to agree, "However, I can keep you busy for as long as I want. Remember what I told you, Jon? Skyrim is your playground, but Clockwork City, that's mine."

"Oho! So what're you gonna do?" Jon asked with a challenging grin.

"That is the first time you disappoint me, Jon Dare." Mecinar said in a voice devoid of emotions, "This is the Pneumatic Forge… THE Pneumatic Forge! The name doesn't ring a bell?"

"Hmmm… nope!"

"Well, maybe Divayth Fyr didn't want this secret to be known to anyone I guess." Mecinar contemplated audibly, "Well, let me spoil his secret then. This Pneumatic Forge is the place where your dear Grandmaster almost lost his life to the Daedric Prince Nocturnal."

"Nonsense." Jon snorted, "Even the Daedric Princes tremble on the mention of Divayth Fyr's name."

"True." Mecinar nodded, "Everyone has their own ups and downs though."

"So?"

"Have you ever heard about the Glyph of Magia Memoria?" Mecinar asked a question that left Jon frowning.

That frown however lasted a second before Jon decided to immediately clad himself with the best magical protection he could muster.

However…

"Too late!"

The Glyph of Magia Memoria is a magical glyph used to investigate any magic that was cast in a certain location by diving through the fabric of time and space to recreate effects similar to the one that was just cast. It has many requirements such as knowing which spell to look for, knowing the exact time and place it was cast in, etc. Still, these requirements were as easy as a breeze for an Arch-Wizard such as Mecinar.

"I didn't go through all this trouble to redirect your arrival's route just for you to be delayed for a few hours." Mecinar kept laughing as he watched the spell surround Jon.

Jon felt it, the Magic cast through the Shadows, the spell that got a grip of him.

He felt that something was growing around him and in panic, he punched that shadowy figure.

"BACK OFF!" He shouted with a burst of physical power reinforced with his draining Aura.

As his hit landed on whatever that is, Jon felt so torn all of a sudden and looked to see that a shadow was separating from his own. Just as that shadow landed not too far from him, Jon realized what he just lost.

"NO!" Jon said, "My magic!"

The Shadow was Jon's entire magic casting ability, an aspect of his anuic form that was torn from him by arcane means. This spell was once cast on Divayth Fyr by Daedric Prince Nocturnal but Jon only knew that from Mecinar just now.

"Get over here!" Jon immediately bolted towards his shadow but the thing reflexively evaded him and cast a "Zap" spell on Jon moving him backward by a few meters.

The shadow then decided to start running towards the exit it saw.

"Shit!"

As Jon saw his shadow escape like that, he tried to keep up but he wasn't as fast as a shadow.

"Hahaha!" Mecinar kept laughing during that brief exchange, "Try to keep up then. I am sure it won't take you long, Jon Dare."

"FUCKER!"

Jon shouted and his voice started to break through the metal around him just by his raging Thu'um. He kept running and the traps of the Pneumatic Forge kept activating behind him as he avoided them all like a pro-athlete.

In the end, he managed to break out of the Pneumatic Forge to the sight of the ruined Clockwork realm and it was when he lost track of his shadow.

[A/N: The event when Divayth Fyr got his shadow separated from him happened in the first mission of the Clockwork City DLC in the Elder Scrolls Online.]

***

*Back to the Present*

Just like how he landed once he arrived in Clockwork City, Jon landed towards the vale of tears in a barrage of mortar shells that he personally crafted for this event.

"WULD NAH KEST!"

Before he lands with the bombardment alongside the shell he loaded himself into, Jon uses the whirlwind sprint to escape the fall by stepping on one of the shells and whirlwinding away.

The place where the shells landed was the Vale of Tears, where Mecinar's response force of the chimera-like fabricants, known as the Abominations, have gathered. Hell was let loose upon the monsters that were in the area, and the pillars of smoke became one large cloud of dust, smoke, and explosions.

Jon's mortar strike was just as splendid as it was lethal and he crash-landed not too far off the bombing site. Just like that, he remained there watching what he had done and waiting for the results to clear up.

Unlike when Divayth Fyr was projected to the separation of his shadow and was greatly weakened, Jon is way younger than Fyr and didn't rely on magic to keep himself alive. Even more, Jon is both a Fighter and a Wizard and his martial ability was on par with his magical ability.

Moreover, he still had his Thu'um which is a part of him more than anything else. His magic may come useless and his body may fail him but his Voice will always be strong and dominating.

But Jon loved his magic and through it, he can do his greatest tricks with ease. That was the reason for this bombing, to begin with, this was why he had to draw out Micenar's response force.

As the dust cloud cleared and the fire eating away the place started to settle down a bit, a sphere of Magicka could be seen in the center of the bombing site. There at its center was Mecinar's core power of his response force.

Jon's Shadow.

It wasn't the first time Jon tried to retrieve his shadow by drawing out the response force but this time, Jon managed to isolate his shadow by annihilating all the Abomination it was using as a shield against Jon's martial prowess.

"You know what your problem is?" Jon spoke to the shadow, "Every day, every night, every waking moment of my being, I grow stronger. I trained both my body and my magic to stand on par with one another. But you… my shadow, my magic… you haven't had any training for a week while my body had double the juice."

Jon smiled with a wider grin than ever before.

"Every day, I grow stronger. I am stronger than I was one second ago, do you think you, the one-week-ago version of me, can match me now?"

Jon just wanted to give this cheesy speech even though his shadow can't respond and right now, he was going to do some heavy hitting in order to get his magic back.

***

After a few hours of Jon's encounter with his shadow, Glymet and the team managed to crawl out of the Hall of Regulations with no injuries and unexpected gain.

They even managed to rescue a member of the Tarnished that survived the massacre that happened to Kota's people who lived outside the Brass Fortress. According to that survivor, there is a secret tunnel not too far from the Halls of Regulation that can lead inside the Fortress past its defenses.

Hearing that, Glymet and Laaneth insisted on going in despite Kota's frantic protest. If this was to work, they can rescue Swims-at-Night without resorting to Jon's mad plan of going to war against the entire Brass Fortress.