Dragonborn Saga

Chapter 693: Clockwork Rises

A/n: The Last Chapter in the Saga of Glymet

< Assimilation… 78% … 79% … 80% >

The Titans Clashed!

The sky roared, the earth shook, and the world split.

And the entirety of Clockwork City was being siphoned into an apocalypse of colors.

The bronze luster of the brass started to fade into dim ashen rust and the machines died down.

Even when Jon was about to desperately attack the Clockwork Dragon one more time, he saw the large creature come apart in pieces as if whatever was holding its pieces together had suddenly vanished.

He stood there and looked around to see all the rust that grew like parasites eating everything.

"What sort of madness is this?"

The world went gray, it was dying.

An Apocalypse?

The sunlight waned, the remaining stars hazed from the sky, the mountains crumbled over the view, the beasts raged across the radius and hoarded out of their lairs, and the surfaces of water burnt and boiled. But above all were the people whose hearts came crashing and breaking for the desperate sight of the doom that pincered them.

If one was to scream, shout, run, it wouldn't really do much at this point. It would be a waste of time knowing that the end is nigh and it is taking them all.

The best one could do was to look at the sky, the land, and the city and stare… or laugh as some did. Some fell into hysterical laughter and while others just forgot about everything and succumbed to madness.

All of the city knew that the disaster of the assimilation was over but this other disaster is completely turning everything to dust.

Hope wasn't even on the table anymore.

Hope has…

"FUS RO DAH!"

… just arrived!

The sealed gates of the Brass Fortress blew open and one man walked amidst the smoke covered in a black substance that started to turn into a set of ebony armor.

He walked through looking at desperate masses and on his shoulder was the great halberd he wields. As he took a look at the masses, he realized the situation of the city as the machines are all dead and the Assimilation has stopped.

The Mechanical Heart was damaged… badly damaged. Not quite destroyed yet.

"If you want to live, get to the Pavilion of Artifice." He said and then pointed to the outside of the Fortress, "Follow the Black Cats."

Whatever words said by a foreigner in times like these, so long they had the chance of actual hope in them, these people would experience literal resurrection.

He is capable, maybe he can save us, maybe we can survive. That's how they thought.

Jon opened the gates of the city, gate after gate, and let the people escape. He knows that the rate of their survival depends on their luck, which wasn't really looking good at the moment, but he can at least secure a safe place for some survivors before the end.

He wasn't sure what would happen to these people afterwards, however. Can they actually leave the Clockwork City? The world that was made digitally?

When the world was said to be a dream, it meant that its components were that of lesser reality than the world it branches from. To the Aurbis of the Universe, the Clockwork City is a dream of a subsidiary reality just like how Aurbis is a dream of a subsidiary reality which Jon suspects to be the world of his origins. That's at least how Shadow explained it to him.

It is not uncommon for a being from a higher grade reality to descend into a world of a lesser reality. While that doesn't mean it is not difficult in actuality, the Genius of Sotha Sil has actually made the process quite easy. So if Jon and the group of adventurers can get inside the Clockwork City, does this mean that beings from the Clockwork City can get out of it?

If that is possible, Jon would save all the lives that are stuck here.

"This is too much even for me to pull off without casualties. Many have fallen already." Jon was distressed but he continued acting as a one-man relief force while making Nefertiti summon Shadow Atronachs in the shape of black cats to guide the people outside and fight any dangers.

"Just what is that old man doing?"

***

What Glymet was doing has already shocked everyone, him included. He wasn't willing to sacrifice himself after coming this far, after what already has happened.

But he had to.

He had to do it again.

"Why?"

He had to break his promise to Laaneth one more time.

"Why are you doing this?"

He had to be the Hero for just a single glimpse of hope.

"To me… to us…"

He… just… had… to…

The thoughts in his mind were already somewhere else, however, too far ahead, too much for mere mortals, he was sinking deep into the power of the Heart and he let it have what it wanted.

"Protect us!" It said.

"Save us!" It demanded.

"Fight for us!" It commanded.

Why would he do any of that?

Because nothing was actually lost… not yet anyway…

It can all be recovered, that's what the voice said.

"NOOOOOO!"

Even Mecinar could stop this no more. The power that is within him is now being halved, split, and divided. Bit by bit, he was losing the divinity he sacrificed so much to attain.

"IT… CAN'T… END… LIKE THIS!"

Mecinar gathered all the energy left within him and started to whirl it around his heart so he could recover but all he did was put up a futile resistance. Unlike Glymet, who possessed the Replicas of the Tools of Kagrenac, he has nothing but his body implants which he designed to help him contain the power.

However, what was in front of him was way too mighty for him to contend against. The Forgotten Hero was shining with the power of the Mechanical Heart and reversed the Assimilation.

Within all the realms of possibilities and myriad colors of truth and falsehood, the Heart contained the power to love. Love, which is divine, can reshape the lands, the jungles, and even the people. It can even do greater things that extend to the grasping of the fourth dimension and manipulating it to attain a complete lordship over the Sithis, the Change.

Time can branch off and be rewound. That's the power of Love, demonstrated time and time again each time the Brass Tower walked. It is said that it walked even the Eras ahead of ours and still walks both the past and present.

But more importantly, Nirn and the Heart of Lorkhan were created to satisfy one another for there is no life without a Heart and there is no Love either. The same case it was for the Clockwork City, the lesser mechanical dream of Nirn.

Dreams are also tools for such Hearts to wish and achieve boundless possibilities and for each Dream to be thought of, one had to dream it.

Glymet surrendered to the dream and let his mind sync with the fleeting thoughts. Little did he know that he had already trampled over Mecinar and walked further into the boundless sea of power.

To the onlookers, Glymet wielded his sword with ease and struck down Mecinar, for his mechanical arm to shatter on impact.

Only one Clockwork God can walk past the last threshold and amidst the blood and screams of his opponent, Glymet was victorious.

And he walked past with light enveloping every bit of his being.

***

The phenomenon which occurred afterward was more unfathomable than the apocalypse that was unfolding.

The Assimilation ended, the Apocalypse halted, and the Recovery began.

As if the world was turning to dust, and it was turning to dust, the particles of every strand of existence started to reform, to take shape, to reorganize themselves.

Jon was in the middle of it all just… watching.

He experienced that state and this power once but not by this potency, not by this magnitude. He knew that the power to reshape the world was unfathomable and divine but to witness it as a Mortal… it was an incredible moment and a great opportunity.

Many arcane secrets unfolded themselves before his eyes and many things happened. The world started to breathe once again and the sound of rapid ticking started to be heard.

Beneath Jon's boots was something that kept twitching and so he looked down at it, held it by his hand, and lifted it slowly. It was a part of a machine coming together back to life with its minor internal Clockwork parts joining together as one.

The high rises across the city were rising even higher than what Jon imagined and the lights of the street were lit again.

Then the miracle happened. Life started to come from where one could least expect and the murky waters and oils of the city started to come clearer and purer with the air and the sounds. The sound gave birth to the music and the music gave birth to Magic.

Amidst it all, every Abomination from those who were collapsed on the ground started to disintegrate and from within, a person or a creature would emerge.

None of them were actually dead, Mecinar's horrendous skills were focused on modifying the living rather than raising the dead, the process which proved to have more potential for evil than the latter one.

But this miracle was only getting started. Not just were the people saved from the transformation into Abominations. All Abominations were healed first before turning back to normal.

Then the awakening, those who were on the ground rose up in utter confusion and puzzlement. Still, they never even uttered a word for the might of what they saw.

And eventually, the color of brass returned and the world quietened.

The raging beasts were soothed, the escaping citizens returned, and the mechanical birds flew over the sky that gradually, and for the first time in 200 years, turned blue.

Jon felt a small hand touching his leg and when he looked down, he saw an Elven child looking carefully at what Jon had in his hand. As Jon looked at it too, he found that it had turned into a doll toy that moved using cogs and springs.

Jon smiled and gave the toy to the child before slowly patting his head and walking off towards the Cogitum Centralis, the largest building furthest in the city.

As Jon arrived, nothing seemed to be resisting his advance so he pushed deeper further and further only to hear screaming.

In the Chamber of Lorkhan, the scene was not over yet.

The Assimilation was reversed, the city was saved, but the Evil still remained and the Hero was nowhere to be seen.

"GLYM! NO! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Laaneth seemed to have gone through a panic attack and her mind couldn't endure what she just witnessed. She ran to where Glymet stood just a while ago and kept running towards the Heart and around.

"GLYM! ANSWER ME! ANSWER ME, YOU FOOL!"

She screamed, ran, screamed again, and cried to fall to her knees in front of the cold still corpse of her friend Swims-at-Night. She then collapsed, hugged Swims, and wailed over her two companions whom she lost.

"No… it can't be… I can't… not after… everything…"

Yet Laaneth wasn't the only one in utter disbelief and rejection of reality.

Mecinar survived.

Unlike his glorious former self, he is now a fallen Demigod covered in the shame of defeat. He crawled on the ground like a worm missing an arm and a leg yet despite all that, his eyes were fixated on the prize, he still looked at the Heart without losing focus and kept crawling towards it.

"Kota won't allow you!"

Opposite of him was Kota who was also quite weakened by the last fight and attempted to take a swing at the fallen Mecinar.

"Off my way, pest!"

Despite that, Mecinar barely swung his good arm and a blast of energy sent Kota away. As Kota fell down, Ram's head also toppled off his shoulder piece and rolled on the ground but before it rolled away, Kota held on to it and aimed it towards Mecinar.

"Now!"

As Kota shouted, Ram's eye glowed red and shot a laser beam towards Mecinar that hit his face splendidly. This heated laser beam charred a part of Mecinar's face and made him scream but he still had some Magicka left in him to deflect it away.

The one who was going to join the fight last was Galyn, who was busy with something just now, and as he tried to stop Mecinar, the deflected laser beam hit him badly and sent him flying.

"Sowwy!"

With tearful eyes, Kota couldn't keep aiming at Mecinar and looked at Galyn with an apologetic look. However, the moment he lost his focus was an opening for Mecinar who was about to cast a firebolt at the Argonian midget but at the last moment, Mecinar experienced a cold feeling just not far from his intact shoulder.

Right as he turned to look, a large polished ebony surface reflected his face and as it was raised, Mecinar discovered that his remaining arm was no longer there.

"NO! CURSE YOU! CURSE YOU!"

Above him stood Jon who just arrived at the chamber of Lorkhan and the look on his face was that of an emotion that can't be spoken.

"JON DARE! I CURSE YOU AND THE DAY YOU…"

Jon didn't plan to hear Mecinar more than this and with his hand, he clutched Mecinar's throat and picked him up. Having only one limb remaining, the possibility of torturing him was out of Jon's apatite and all he could do was to raise him and make him look at the Mechanical Heart.

Jon turned Mecinar over and made him look, he then came to his ear and spoke.

"I want you to know that you have spent all your life pursuing what you can never have. I want you to know that you will die watching what you most desire not in your hand. I want you to die at the hand of Jon Dare and know exactly why I came after you." Jon said.

"Say it!" Mecinar put a final act of defiance, "You self-righteous Hero! Say it! Call me evil! I was a God! I saw everything… all the suffering… all the effort… it is not worth it…"

"A God for a few minutes? Spare me the nonsense." Jon replied, "I only came after you because you hurt my girl. It was personal, you know. Just you and I, man to man. Then you had to mess things up like that, you motherfucker!"

Jon spoke in a tone of hate that he never even felt anything like before.

"Killing you ain't worth it… I'd boil you in oil, coat you in molasses, and make the bugs crawl all over your skin while you beg me to kill you… but all I can do now is to take pleasure as I squeeze the life out of you."

"URGH!"

Mecinar struggled but Jon was as merciless as he can ever be. With two hands, Jon didn't squeeze on Mecinar's neck but rather dug his fingers into it all while Mecinar bled from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Mecinar squirmed from the excruciating pain and Jon didn't stop until he reached the bones and crushed them. The head and the body became two separate things and slipped down from Jon's hands.

"And so that you don't dare to rest in peace, I'll personally hand your soul over to Molag Bal."

And with that last effort, Jon put the Soul of Mecinar into a Black Soul Gem, an eternal prison for a soul that would deny it from any decent form of an afterlife.

All that was left was to take care of the mess left behind by the fight. Jon turned over to Laaneth who seemed to have collapsed unconscious over Swims' body, Kota and Ram who were in a mess of their own, and Galyn who seemed to be carrying minor injuries.

Jon has already realized what happened from what he witnessed outside and slowly walked to the Mechanical Heart where Galyn was lying.

"You alright?" Jon asked Galyn and looked at him closely.

"I- I am." Galyn replied while gathering his robes together and trying to look decent.

Jon, however, narrowed his eyes and kicked Galyn down immediately.

"Argh!"

Just as he did that, three objects fell from Galyn's robes and Jon immediately aimed his Halberd's spearhead at Galyn's throat.

"And what were you aiming to do with those?" Jon asked with a murderous glare.

Those objects that fell on the ground were nothing other than the replicated Tools of Kagrenac, the ones Glymet used to stop Mecinar.

"No! Please! Listen to me!" Galyn cried, "These things. They shouldn't be here. They must be destroyed!"

Galyn's cries were like those of someone in great crisis and Jon found them satisfactory. He looked at the beating Mechanical Heart, which had a hole in its center, and saw how vulnerable it can be.

"You are right."

Jon then summoned the staff Pride and aimed it towards the Heart.

"What are you doing?" Galyn spoke fearfully as if he was about to jump between Jon and the Heart at any second now.

"Worry not!"

With a strong gush of Magicka, Jon's magic enveloped the heart and slowly started to reconstruct the damaged part using the fragments that were left behind. He didn't stop there and even added an enchantment around the Heart to prevent anything from ever touching it, the same enchantment that was on the original Heart of Lorkhan.

As the Heart of the Clockwork recovered, Jon put away his staff and breathed out calmly. He then turned to Galyn and spoke.

"You are right. These tools must be destroyed."

While they were on the ground, Jon raised his Halberd and was about to crush those tools with its pummel and mighty Aura yet just before he even did it, a deep voice spoke from the deeper part of the chamber.

"Apprentice of Divayth, I suggest you refrain from doing something foolish."

All those who were still conscious in the room turned over and looked as if a figure walked in the room with the oddest sound of footsteps a man would ever have.

The figure of such a man was short and chubby yet he seemed to be quite… legless. Instead of legs, however, he seemed to have replaced his lower body with that of a Dwarven Spider automaton.

The man arrived at where Kota was and picked up Ram's head with a smile. The look on everyone in the room was quite shocked from having an unknown individual sneak up on them like this, still, the one shocked the most was Jon.

"As I live and breathe." Jon spoke and carefully walked away from the replicated Tools of Kagrenac before uttering the name of the living legend that stood in front of him, "Yagrum Bagarn!"

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