Dragonborn Saga

Chapter 690: Clockwork Throne

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Second by second, the assimilation devoured the Clockwork City and threatened thousands of lives. Hundreds have fallen and chaos descended upon the Brass Fortress.

The Apostles battled against the Abominations with everything they've got, but they were even weaker than the normal citizens of the city who weren't endowed with Clockwork body implants. The Assimilations caused their mechanical parts to act faulty and even attack their owners at times, those skilled enough in the Way of the Clockwork managed to short-circuit their implants and reboot them in order to isolate them from the Assimilation and those who were late either died by their own prosthetic hands or their implants caused them to be captured by the Abominations.

As Mecinar gained more power, so did his Abominations and they started to take forms that are less hideous than before yet still equally nightmarish. Mecinar was creating a new ecosystem with different animals, monsters, dwellers, and even his own take on civilization. He was like a curse sweeping the land and leaving nothing untouched until it was transformed to the image he whims.

The most barbaric thing was the fact that he was turning people into beasts. Not like how Hircine turns his followers into werewolves and other creatures of the night, Mecinar was more focused on degrading those people from the state of a man who walks on two with a straight back into quadrupedal creatures with nothing in their minds but obeying his will.

It was then when the real menace appeared. With everything transforming into an Abomination, the following citizen would turn into an Abomination that is more advanced than the one before it. It was Mecinar who was perfecting his craft with every new transformation and attaining what he always wanted.

Perfection!

He wanted Perfection, he wanted it so bad that he was dissatisfied with whatever he made. The Abomination was no longer hideous monsters as before, they evolved, they formed bodies that had the potential to grow, and they seemed just like their master who was hungry for more.

They were hungry indeed.

Rather than assimilating new Creatures of their own, they started to hunt the citizens of the city and prey on them, eat them, grind their bones, slurp their flesh, and drink their blood.

They were chewing on real people as arms, legs, and even heads that carried eyes void of hope as the last thing they saw was the maw of an Abomination. The monsters closed their maws and started… chewing.

"No, no, no, no!" Mecinar watched and became disgusted by what he saw, "You are wasting them. Assimilate them! Who taught you to think? Stop that!"

And just as he wished for, they were thinking no more.

"Mecinar's will must be obeyed!"

"Mecinar's will must be obeyed!"

"Mecinar's will must be obeyed!"

All the new creatures started uttering the same thing. The voices were coming from their big heads, with their mouths not moving a single bit. As they all had an exoskeleton-like exterior, their heads were covered in what seemed like an outer skull, which makes their mouthpieces hidden behind that.

What was their purpose? Nobody could tell. Mecinar was acting like a stereotypical villain that sows distraction rather than his usual calculative and rational self.

It was as if something had got to him and his actions weren't understandable anymore. He aimed for power and now that he has it, what is he doing with it?

Jon battled the Clockwork Dragon outside the Brass Fortress and the two kept each other in check. He couldn't afford to focus on anything else but the assimilation made him worried and he felt that at some point, even the Magicka of this world will be assimilated. For that, he told Nefertiti to take Pride and prepare a Portal not too far from the Pavilion of Artifice that would take him to Oblivion.

If the entire Clockwork City was assimilated by the power of the Mechanical Heart, he would rather be somewhere in the hells of Oblivion rather than under the mercy of the new Clockwork God.

In his heart, Jon Dare was praying for Glymet and the others without knowing what else to do… which takes us to Glymet, the Forgotten Hero whose path put him in the direst of all situations, he had to watch a friend sacrifice himself for the sake of the rest of the party.

Swims-at-Night stood tall after he knocked out Laaneth and told Glymet to take her and run into the shaft tunnel.

Glymet didn't want to.

He had his sword in his hand and wanted to assist Swims against the impossible odds but just as he entered the fray, he was overwhelmed in both power and magic.

The monsters that gathered were only getting bigger and bigger, they were more resistant to Magicka and unharmable by blades. Only Swims was able to stand his ground with the Gatling Cannon and he was being surrounded.

"Swims! Come here! Don't go in there!"

No matter what Glymet said, Swims didn't hear anything.

It may have been the loud noises of the Gatling Cannon or the unending shrieks of the dying monsters but there was nothing Glymet could do.

As he stood at the entrance of the shaft tunnel and suddenly, he was being swallowed by its darkness.

He could only hear the voice of Swims roaring with the weapon in his hand against the monsters and in the end, the tunnel he was swallowed into was blocked by a rolling stone and it was darkness.

The sensation drove Glymet off his sleep with his eyes wide open.

"Glym! You're good?"

Laaneth's voice came from his side and her arms surrounded him in her embrace. His eyes were still fixed on the sight in front of him where the tunnel's entrance was blocked.

"I had to put you down when you tried to open the tunnel. I apologize for doing so."

On the other hand, Galyn stepped towards Glymet and apologized to him since he seemed the one responsible for Glymet's nap.

"How… How much time passed?" Glymet asked in a tone void of sensation.

"An hour." Replied Galyn.

An hour has passed since the death of Swims-at-Night. Glymet wanted to return to Swims and attempted to open the tunnel which Kota and Galyn had sealed but they had to put him down before his irrational actions would have endangered them all.

Swims-at-Night knew what was important and accepted his fate, there was no turning back from that and he chose the heroic way out.

"We survive this and I promise you, the outsider Swims-at-Night will be forever revered by the Masses of the Clockwork City as a Martyr and a Saint." Said Galyn while trying to comfort Glymet.

"An hour has passed." Glymet replied, "How many of the masses do you think have survived?"

While Galyn wanted to give Glymet some comfort, Glymet gave Galyn a reality slap. He stood up and got away from Laaneth.

"Let's push forward!"

That was all he said as he picked his weapon up and marched ahead.

"Glym, wait!" Laaneth tried to stop him but he only stopped to reply.

"An hour has passed, Laaneth. We need to hurry." He said and moved again.

Following Glymet was Kota who installed Ram's head on his shoulder guard and jumped ahead of Glymet.

"Look! Hey! Kota is twin-headed now! Twin-Headed Kota!"

In an attempt to cheer Glymet up, Kota acted a bit funny but he only got his head patted as Glymet passed and didn't forget to pat Ram's head as well.

"Sigh! Embarrassment!" The powerless Ram commented as he hung from Kota's shoulder.

The party traversed the underground tunnels of the Cogitum Centralis, they reached a few hatches where they could climb into the main halls of the place. Galyn navigated through the tunnel until he reached a place not too far from the Chamber of the Throne Aligned.

From that spot, he climbed up followed by the others and they all made sure that their surroundings were clear, especially from anything hidden by Magical means.

As they dodged all dangers and traps, they entered the Chamber of the Throne Aligned and there was nothing there but the Throne. From that point, Galyn started explaining what to do.

?

"This is the Thone Aligned, one of Sotha Sil's unending marvels." Galyn said and stood in front of the so-called throne.

It was nothing but a small platform with two tablets that were elevated up to the eyesight level of the user of this throne. One could see many mystical symbols on them, some of which are barely recognizable for magic casters.

"Sotha Sil stored much of his thoughts and notes in this machine. But it is deadly for a mortal to access it." Galyn finally added.

"Step aside then." Said Glymet as he stepped on the platform between the two tablets, "I will use this thing."

"I said it is dangerous for mortals! Moreover, you should know what you're looking for." Galyn said.

"Kota." Glymet ignored Galyn and called Kota, "Give me Ram's head, please."

Per his request, Kota reluctantly took Ram's head off his shoulder guard and handed it to Glymet, and returned to Laaneth's side with a depressed expression as he now had returned to being the single-headed Kota.

"What are you doing with that?" Galyn asked.

"In the memories of Sotha Sil, he was using a Factotum's head to access some of his complicated machines." Glymet mumbled quietly.

"Yes, but that was a specific factotum head, not just any Factotum can do it." Galyn walked to Glymet and insisted.

"Wait!" Laaneth called Galyn out, "Then what about a Factotum that… opened the Chamber of Lorkhan by itself."

Now that they have come to this, it seemed that this particular matter was finally discussed.

"Wait! What?" And now even Galyn was alerted to that fact as well, "You mean that the thing that opened the Chamber for Mecinar… was that damn thing?" And in a burst of rage and disbelief, "Impossible!"

"It happened." Laaneth insisted.

"Then it is one of Mecinar's tools!" Galyn shouted, "His mole machine!"

"No! Wait! Jon was the one who discovered Ram. He had a different theory than that but let's focus on what we know. The Chamber of Lorkhan was sealed by a very complicated Magic."

"Not Magic." Galyn refuted, "None of the Apostles could open it for years. It needed a level of sophistication and power only Sotha Sil was capable of. A Factotum can't do it…"

"Unless?" Laaneth asked.

"Unless…" Galyn thought, "This level of Clockwork Technology is beyond me even. Either it is a key to open the chamber or… well, the other way to open this kind of chamber is to be on the inside but he opened it from the outside, right?"

"He did." Laaneth nodded.

"To be honest… why would Sotha Sil seal the Mechanical Heart away and make such a sloppy mistake by creating a key. It is not like him at all." Galyn insisted.

Even with that conversation going on, Glymet wasn't wasting any time and had already managed to connect Ram to the Throne Aligned.

"Can you find the Replicated Tools?" Glymet asked, "I am warning you, don't act rogue as you did with the chamber."

"Information Acquired!" Ram replied, "Tools located! In 3… 2… 1…"

"It can access the Throne Aligned!?" Galyn looked at Ram's head and was at loss for words.

The mystery about Ram became even more mysterious than when it started and this last twist meant that there is more to him than just being a Personality Construct installed on a Factotum.

But for now, Glymet was more focused on the results Ram can achieve rather than finding out who he really is. That can be left after the disaster for the nerdy members of the group.

As Ram extracted information on the location of the tools, three portals opened around the Throne Aligned and from their reflections, Laaneth could tell where they could lead and how they function.

"Each portal can take one person out and remain for him to return. One leads to Skyrim, one leads to High Rock, and the other to some underground place that I can't pinpoint." She said.

"So he hid them outside his realm." Glymet said.

"Each one of us should take a portal and…" Galyn wanted to suggest something but Glymet interrupted.

"No." He said, "I'll go through each one of them one by one."

"Glym! That may prove dangerous." Laaneth retorted.

"I can do it. Whatever it is, if I am alone… nothing will stop me." Glymet insisted and moved towards the first portal.

"Or we can escape." Laaneth then added.

"What?" Galyn reacted with shock all over his face, "After we came this far?"

"We will not." Glymet spoke, "Swims will be avenged."

Laaneth felt guilty about what she said but she was sure of it. If they were to use these portals and leave this hellish realm, they will manage to survive. Mecinar won't chase them out of his domain.

Glymet can't be swayed at this point and since he is hellbent on avenging Swims-at-Night, he shall get his revenge.

And for that, Glymet stepped into the first of the three portals to acquire the Replicas of the Tools of Kagrenac.

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