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Chapter 736: Hijacker of Oblivion
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Apocrypha comes from the word Apocryphal, which means something obscure and hidden. In terms of scriptural and theological studies, the meaning evolved to False, Spurious, Bad, or Heretical.
What does this have to do with Hermaeus Mora’s Apocrypha? The answer is nothing... or maybe everything.
Apocrypha is the trove of all the hidden knowledge in the world, especially the ones that are forgotten and falsified. In other words, if something is theoretically argued about, the truth lies in Apocrypha but so do a thousand lies.
The story of Apocrypha’s Origin is as long as time itself or maybe even older thus it can’t be knowable by the common man or even by some of the oldest Original Spirits. All that is known is that the Spirit of Hermaeus Mora is associated with more than just Knowledge and Fate and his sphere is said to be the closest one to Namira, the Ancient Darkness and the Daedric Prince of Decay. Even the name "Oblivion" was originally associated with Hermaeus Mora more than any other Daedric Prince.
The secret around this is rather simple. As a negative force, Oblivion is the death of all knowledge and memories, something which may sound appealing to many Daedric Princes. As for the Hoarder of Knowledge, however, the quest to collect all the knowledge possible meant not just to know what it is, but to take it and keep it away from others.
In other words, whatever knowledge Hermaeus Mora hoards is for his own and he does everything possible so that mortals completely forget it. Thus... it is Oblivion.
This aspect of Hermaeus Mora was not clear to many but as soon as knowledge was submitted to him, it slowly faded away. This is the case for the high forms of knowledge like the Arcane and Scientific studies, as for the common knowledge, it didn’t fall under that influence but it all depended on the community of people that preserves such knowledge.
One can say that Hermaeus Mora is the Prince of Forgetfulness and Abandonment of Memories aside from Knowledge and Fate as he is famously known.
This is all nice and dandy for a Daedric Prince but the implications of his sphere may have not inflicted any large damage to the mortal world. Still, how would we know if his sphere has caused great harm or not? After all, we’d simply forget what he doesn’t want us to know.
It is a funny concept and shows how feeble mortals can be against the absolute powers of the Daedric Princes but just like anything, there are exceptions when it comes to Daedric Princes. Their spheres of influence may be absolute when it comes to their powers but they are not absolute by themselves and as long as one gets a lead on their weaknesses and strengths, one shall navigate Oblivion with one less thing to worry about. Miraak did it and survived for thousands of years, Jon Dare is doing it today as well.
"Muda Muda Muda Muda Muda Muda Mudaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
*Screeeeeeeeeeeech*
While sparing nothing of his pure physical strength, Jon mustered all his power and cast reinforcement spells on himself to turn into something he has always wanted to try. The result of that was a massive battle occurring in the Book of the Hidden Twilight in Apocrphya’s depth.
His punches put holes in the walls that were made by layering dozens over dozens of apocryphal texts and made. Those towering walls of parchment and paper would fall thunderously in the endless seas of ink as Jon would use them to wipe out the hordes of enemies that spawned in his way.
Apocrypha wasn’t just sitting still as Jon Dare, Hermaeus Mora’s enemy, was roaming its chapters and traversing its verse. He was to be stopped and cast out of the realm of Daedric Knowledge before more damage was done to the power of their Daedric Lord.
But the damage was already being done and Jon wasn’t the one doing it, the more creatures spawn in Jon’s way, the more violent he gets. If only they had quietly let him pass, no damage would have been inflicted on the realm at this incredible rate.
Hermaeus Mora was busy driving Jon out and away from any knowledge that would increase the chances of him foiling his plans, but Jon decided to be on the offense for the longest he can. Once the power of Hermaeus Mora is directed at a certain target, he will lose focus on other things.
Even though a Daedric Prince’s power is unlimited in their realm, they are still limited entities and can’t risk their limitedness and weakness getting found. It is even rarer for a Daedric Prince to step up and fight on the frontlines and so Jon put all these weaknesses into consideration when he decided to wreak havoc in Apocrypha.
His strategy was "offense is the best defense" so by doing the most damage he can here, he will cripple all of Hermeus Mora’s operations on Nirn momentarily... or so it was how it is supposed to be.
But in these situations where the Minions of a Daedric Prince are not enough to stop the wreaking-havoc mortal, the mini big-bad-evil-guy in this scenario would appear. In Miraak’s case, he appeared on a Dragon.
*ROAR!*
Seeing the damage that was done to the book of Hidden Twilight, Miraak descended on his most valued Dragon, Sahrotaar.
Sahrotaar covered the land with his massive wings and cast their shadows upon Jon as he flew by. Jon looked up and with a sneer, he cast a spell around him that created a mass of Undead Bonemen, the black skeleton archers from the Soul Cairn.
"Hey, Miraak! You up there?"
"Dragon bone arrows?" Miraak understood where Jon was going with this.
Miraak seemed tense at this moment and knew that Jon wasn’t here to cause actual trouble but to play mind games instead.
How so?
"Wendigo." Jon called his abomination of gore and Wendigo acted immediately.
The monster took many forms but for the fight against a dragon, Wendigo was appearing like a porcupine demon with long limbs and his iconic antlers. With the advantage of its long limbs, Wendigo contended against the dragon in a dirty fight. Every time the Dragon tries to breathe its fire, Wendigo would bunch his face and make him retreat.
Miraak was also having a hard time controlling Sahrotaar but in the end, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He wasn’t trying at first since Jon was only relying on his eldritch minions but now as his own Dragon was disadvantaged this easily, Jon seems to have fulfilled what he’s after and made Miraak step down.
This was a form of humiliation.
Jon caused everything to go sideways in Miraak’s plan and now he’s even invading the realm where he hides not once but twice. Also, Miraak can’t forget how Jon made it personal and attacked him with the molten geode at their first encounter. On the other hand, Jon would argue that Miraak started it first when he attacked Winterhold but who cares?
They’re about to fight and go wild at each other.
But just as Miraak was about to take out his tentacle sword and go head to head against Jon, the ground they stood on started to shake and the stacking towers of ancient tomes started to sway over the horizon. The green sickening skies of Apocrypha with clouds of tentacles and goat-eye clusters started to be stormy and the usually calm sea of ink surrounding all the island chapters was raging.
"What... what did you do?" Miraak was a little bit shaken as he asked.
"Make a wild guess." Jon replied as the ground started to shake even harder.
"You’re destroying the foundations of Secret Twilight?" Miraak asked as he felt some energy coming from underground.
"Yes. My kitty cat and most of my sin artifacts have already been down there doing their things while I was breaking the high towers of tomes." Jon replied.
"This is pointless." Miraak scoffed at Jon’s actions, "You can’t destroy a part of a daedric realm forever. Mora can restore it in no time and it won’t even bother him."
"It’s true I can’t destroy it." Jon said and stayed quiet for a suspicious second before pointing up at the sky, "But it can."
Taking a fast glance up there while expecting that Jon may go for a surprise punch, Miraak’s eyes caught something emerging in the green skies of Apocrypha. It was like a large metal wheel that was causing some sort of Magicka swirl in the sky in its center.
Miraak couldn’t understand it fully but in the following second, the four undead behind Jon started moving in different directions all at the same time.
"You think I’ll let you surround me?" Miraak decided not to pay attention to anything else and retreated alongside Sahrotaar.
Jon pushed forward and gave a short chase to the retreating pair of Dragon and Dragonborn before giving up midway. His objective seemed to be scaring them off for his four undead to do what they must.
At that point, the four Skeletal Keeper Archers stood at different corners of the island chapter of the Secret Twilight and where they stood was one strange large hook-like arrow coming from the ground. These arrows were as big as trees but to the keeper, they fit their great bows very well. Each of the Skeletal Keeper Archers took one of those arrows and notched them in their bows as they aimed for the large circle in the sky.
And...
*ZUUUUUUUUU*
*CRACKLE* *CRACKLE* *CRACKLE* *CRACKLE*
Each of the arrows flew upward to the sky with a giant chain being hooked at their ends. The power of the war bows defied the weight of the chains that were being taken by the arrows up to the sky and at the end, the four chains connected with the circle in the sky.
"Operation Hijack Twilight, commencing the second phase!" Jon called all his minions and then looked up, "Xikil, start up the Dread Engine. Today, the Dark Anchors shall hit Apocrypha!"
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