The Elder Scrolls - RIse of the Horde

[Maharg67]

Interesting, Well written and very entertaining, Species5478.

 

I am really looking forward to reading more.

 

I hope your studies are going well.

 

Graham, alias Maharg67, LOL.

Edited August 14, 2010 by Maharg67

[SilverDNA]

Nice funny ending Species5478. That was fun to read. 

Can't wait to read more of your fascinating story. 

That will be hard to wait until you finish the next part.

[Rheyne]

Haha! Lured by gold, aren't we all? I want about...56 more chapters k? Really, it's awesome stuff. You write very well and include suspense, mystery and humor. It's great. More please!!

[species5478]

@Keanumoreira

 

I love reading your work, and comments. I hope you keep reading and writing.

 

@ Maharg

 

Thanks for the comment. I've aced all of my classes EXCEPT for my writing class. Even though I did all of my homework, and recieved excellent comments from the professor, she still gave me a 83.5. I asked how this was possible because I should have received an A, and she raised it to a 85.6 instead...:blink:

 

@Silver DNA

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it. You're work is wonderful too. I'm inept at poetry, but love to read it. My previous short story dealt with characters who were tormented in one form or another. There was no humor. They lived dark lives and instead of retelling a similar tale, I decided to give this story a greater variety of emotional content.

 

@ Rheyne

 

Hehe...yeah, gold is my Achilles heel too. I like mine in the form of earrings and rings though. I generally try to post a new chapter every week. I don't really have time for more. I hope you seed the garden with more poems. They cause ideas to sprout in one's mind.

[Keanumoreira]

@Keanumoreira

 

I love reading your work, and comments. I hope you keep reading and writing.

 

 

 

Thank you Species; that means a lot. :happy: I am very fond of my stories here in the Garden. Never did I think they would get as popular as they did, especially the Race For Eden.

 

Don't worry about me BTW, I'll be sure to read more of your work in the future, you can count on it, and I'll be writing as long as the sun has time to support us. :laugh:

[species5478]

Chapter 4 – Flames of the Soul

 

 

 

Gorah's lair…

 

Hidden deep within the ruin's bowls, is where my first target called home. A gigantic cauldron of fire burned in the center of the massive chamber. It was circled by four enormous pillars; each carved with a ghostly design of some mystic creature from times past.

 

I wasn't surprised by the simplicity of the circular chamber, either. The tendencies of humans held no meaning to deities. They had no use for beds, food, or water. Deities feasted on the souls of men and their tastes varied. As with a pig, lean parts held the empty, flavorless sections of one's soul like apathy, hate, and deceit. The more animated emotions such as rage, spite, and desire saturated fatty portions of a soul.

 

And Gorah…

 

Gorah desired only grief stricken souls. Souls that were so tormented by a single moment in life, that they have become spoiled with grief. It was foolish of me to think I was safe from the deities' influence.

 

Very foolish…

 

As I entered Gorah's lair, I felt drawn to the cauldron's dancing flames. With each forward step, light from the fire gradually illuminated the grief I kept hidden deep within me. I thought I had overcome these emerging emotions years ago but the flames pierced the darkest portions of my soul until at last, I could see images in the fire. My hidden past was exposed right before me and my thoughts regressed to that one moment in my life when everything went so horribly wrong…

 

"Isah! Stay down!"

 

"Morus, it's too strong!"

 

The Hell Lich was far more than either of us expected. It summoned countless undead which clawed through the ground moaning for flesh. The Lich repelled my previous attack and instead of shocking my adversary, I harmed myself when the bolt was reflected back at me.

 

"Isah, protect yourself with spell refection!" Morus screamed from behind a tombstone. He raised his muscular arm and cast an absorption spell across his body. "Keep the zombies at bay; I'll take care of the Lich!"

 

The Lich terrified me. It held two staves that channeled power directly from the bowls of Hell. And the undead it resurrected were more than just zombies. They howled fire and didn't stop moving even when dismembered.

 

I placed my palm on the ground and channeled magicka into the graveyard until ice layered the soil. "I did it! I trapped the zombies in their graves!"

 

"Now get the ones that have already risen!"

 

Morus jumped from behind cover and tossed a massive sphere of fire at the Hell Lich. Hissing gratefully, it absorbed the flames and grew stronger.

 

"It's a HELL LICH!" I screamed. "Fire won't work! Damage its health!"

 

I stumbled backwards when a zombie reached over my tombstone and grabbed the decaying abomination with my telekinetic powers. Raising the cursed creature, I ripped off one of its arms and used the detached limb to punch another zombie scuffling towards me. The second zombie kept coming, so I tossed the remaining arm and both of my captive's legs before hurling the entire limbless torso at the encroaching zombie. The entire ball of rotting flesh fell to the ground and slid into a third zombie as it reached for Morus.

 

"Keep them away!"

 

"I'm trying!"

 

The Lich spread his arms as it channeled streams of power from Hell's stratosphere. A sphere of light glazed with reflections of Underworld demons, encapsulated the Lich with magic. The heat from this sphere was so extreme, that part of the cemetery caught fire. Morus covered his body with an ice robe while I levitated over the flames. The ground trembled and when a zombie broke through my ice sheet, Morus cast one of his most powerful spells at the Hell Lich and frowned.

 

"We can't stop it!!

 

I agreed. "What are we going to do?"

 

"Go, I'll cover you!"

 

I floated away from Hellish sphere but the Lich struck Morus with a shrieking disc of dark light as he tried to make his escape. His robe of ice shattered and Morus screamed at me when flames engulfed his body.

 

"Help! By the Nine Divines! Aaaarrrrrgghhh!"

 

The flames burned with such ferocity, that I could hear Morus' flesh sizzling. I tried to shower him with frost, dispel, and even an absorption spell. Nothing worked. The Lich's magic was too powerful. But Morus' life wasn't the prize; the Hell Lich wanted something else. It cast a soul trap spell on Morus before he died and out of desperation, I cast my own soul trap spell in retaliation.

 

"Please Isah!" Morus screamed with gasping breaths…reaching out to me in his greatest moment of suffering."Don't let it steal my soul! Don't let it steal my soul! Don't let it steal my soul!" His anguish vibrated through my marrow with sickening sterility. I hovered above him like a fallen angel trapped between Heaven and Hell, and cried as my husband fell to his knees dead…roasted in a graveyard of fire.

 

Morus' soul role rose from his body screaming, as it was still trapped in that grievous moment of death, torn between dual casters laying claim to ownership.

 

"Let him go!" I yelled, tugging against the Lich's powers. It hissed, tossing spells at me that I avoided by riding the shifting currents of wind flowing across the yard. But I was on the losing end of the struggle…

 

My magical grip loosened…

 

"Let him go!"

 

Morus was slipping away from me…

 

"Morus!"

 

I grew weaker...

 

"I won't let you go!"

 

Descending downward now…

 

"Let him go you demon!"

 

More zombies rising from their graves…

 

"Damn you!"

 

Moaning…

 

"Let him go!"

 

Hungry for my flesh…

 

"You can't have him!"

 

Their hands reaching up just like Morus…

 

"Go to Hell!"

 

That scorching fire, raging with the power of a thousand beating hooves…

 

"Please…let him go!"

 

The Nine...blessed and holy hear my prayers…please…in the name of all that is good I beg you! Akatosh, Arkay, Dibella, Julianos, Kynareth, Mara, Stendarr, Talos, Zenithar…somebody…somebody please…but there was no one. And as the Hell Lich pulled Morus' screaming soul away from me, there was only one option left.

 

I had to destroy my husband's soul, and send it into the void.

 

I flew forward, skimming the groping hands of zombies and charged the Hell Lich. But…in that final window of opportunity I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill my husband. With Morus only a few feet from capture, I threw my empty staff at the Lich's soul stream. It was an act of desperation and instead of severing the Lich's connection; Morus' soul was sucked inside my staff.

 

Morus…

 

I barely escaped that graveyard with him. But did I really save my husband? Or did I simply trade one prison for another?

 

The cauldron of fire burned bright yet…

 

I saw only the flaming graveyard. My mind was lost. Fused with the past. Trapped in that moment when I lost Morus. Gorah...I didn't even know we were fighting. This was a battle of the mind. I was defenseless, and completely unaware of the dark demigod circling the cauldron. I should have confronted my inner demons long ago and now it was too late. Gorah emerged from the shadows to devour me, and there nothing I could do...

[SilverDNA]

WOW  :thumbsup: :woot:

Now thats one hell of a story you developed, species5478.  Granulation you had drawn me in to your story like you never did something else. Very good writing! WOW! I'm on the edge of using superlatives, but I'm still stunned. So forgive me that I'm a little lost for words.

Gosh, the hairs of my neck are standing up and I have goose bumps all over me.

[Keanumoreira]

Very good story development. Gosh, where do you come up with this stuff? :happy:

[Rheyne]

Ah what a sad memory. But I'm sure he's happy to still be with her instead of trapped away from her, right? ^_^

[species5478]

@SilverDNA

 

Thanks for the support! It's nice to know my writing is still appreciated. Bringing some measure of joy and entertainment to others is among my greatest pleasures in life. Top 3. It's one of those instances where it's truly better to give, than to receive.

 

@ Keanumoreira

 

Rise of the Horde...I think of a lot of crazy things...some of which found a home in this story. The rest go into my publishable works.

 

@Rheyne

 

Yes, sad memory indeed. Isah's main troubles though, are yet to come. For Morus...his "life" now, is not what it appears to be. I really can't say more, don't want to spoil it...