The Collection of The End

My name is Akatosh,

I'm thinking about my latest plans.

-- 4E, 201, Hearthfire, 9th, 18:31 --

Snowflakes are flying, the north wind is howling, and the sky and the earth are vast. Although it is not night yet, torches have been lit in the Frozen Furnace Hotel, illuminating a group of tourists who originally planned or had already set off, but were driven back by the heavy snow.

Although strong enough adventurers can easily ignore the bad weather, but listening to the sound of the hurricane rolling up large snow particles on the roof of the hotel, basically no one wants to go out overnight and suffer this crime.

Winterhold is located on the coast. Since it is not covered by mountains, it is often attacked by the cold wind of the Sea of ​​Undead. There are not many days of good weather. In addition, the "big collapse" destroyed the mountains on the west side, and from time to time it will cause The scene of the city being sealed by heavy snow—although the "city" is relatively small.

Seeing the innkeeper shouting to the waiters to tidy up the room and prepare to rent it out, Arthur sighed helplessly. According to his original plan, he would kill Silverhand directly after finding out the location of Silverhand's lair.

According to the currently known information, the person behind the Silver Hand Action is Hestra, a former member of the comrades-in-arms group. She is under the orders of an ancient vampire lord, so it is naturally impossible for this lord to live with a group of mortals or servants .

It was speculated from some uncertain information that the Maharaja was a powerful nobleman in ancient times, and he had been living in his own remote castle when he had no need to go out, but there was no further proof at all.

In this way, as long as the other party feels that they are concealed enough and can sit back and relax, they suddenly launch an attack to destroy the Silver Hand headquarters, and its subordinate branches will fall into a state of leaderless. In Hestra's words, it doesn't matter whether she is an undercover agent or a traitor. The result is that the opponent will lose an important combat power, and it is not that important whether this combat power will join one's own side.

The reason for not reuniting with the three Wilkas brothers is because it is impossible to predict the intensity of this battle. Compared with Arthur who can become a dragon, Lydia who is impeccable in defense, and Ella who is flexible wolf girl, even if it is nothing The Babas used can also support others when they are fighting independently, while the three "shield brothers" who must cooperate with each other to exert their full combat effectiveness can easily fall into a passive position.

But now something unexpected happened——to enter Drifting Shadow Shelter, one must hold the "Wuslad", that is to say, one must first go to Sgrammer's Tomb to join them, and the "Wuslad" must be held. Ladd" recovery will do.

According to Tovdir, the master of the transformation department of the Mage Academy, the sanctuary was built by elves and had its own ancient magic circle to isolate all living things other than elves from entering. Sgrammer attacked with such force.

The silver-handed vampire occupied the place by virtue of his "not a living creature". As long as Wusrad would not reappear, it would be impossible for anyone to break through the magic circle again.

Of course, just collecting fragments is not enough. If you can completely wipe out the comrades group and destroy Sgrammer's inheritance, you can really rest easy.

This is probably the reason why they decided to attack the comrades-in-arms group, but they just didn't expect to kick the iron plate this time, and the corners of Arthur's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a smile.

"What did you think of so happy?" Ella, who was sitting next to her, suddenly raised her hand and shook it in front of Arthur's eyes: "That beautiful baroness?"

"No—wait? It seems to be..." Arthur wanted to deny it, but recalled certain details and pondered again.

"Ha~" Ella spread her hands, turned her face and continued to deal with the food on the table.

The so-called "baron's special room" was probably just a cover. Before "Zera Pesh" opened the door and walked out, Arthur could confirm that there was no one in the room, so she only reserved the room for the convenience of teleportation.

Thinking about it now, even if the other party is the Baron of Winterhold, the chief mage of the academy,

However, it was inappropriate for her rash self-reporting behavior. At that time, was she frightened by the countless "deaths" entangled in her body, or did she firmly believe that she would help him cover up from those possible vampire spies? or...

What happened afterwards even refreshed Arthur's cognition of his ability to "see death". When Zela took him and his companions to the Mage Academy, the smell was so strong that Arthur planned to ask her if she was caught in something. The dangerous "death" disappeared without a trace in an instant.

Because the dangerous suspension bridge is going to be passed next, so they are deliberately dispersed? Arthur is very skeptical about this, after all, so far he has not seen anyone who can control its appearance and disappearance - except the Holy Spirit.

After entering the academy, when Zela introduced them to Master Tolfdir, the dense "death vortex" reappeared and entangled her. Not a moment later, after Zela sat down at the desk in the corner, they disappeared again not see.

So why on earth is that thing behaving like this? Is it because mages often walk on the edge of life and death?

After thinking about it, Arthur finally made a judgment: In fact, the lady baron mage was silently studying spells all the time, and when the spell entered the most dangerous stage that might cause backlash, those "deaths" would entangle come over.

At that time, due to too much thinking, Arthur was a little distracted, and Arthur accidentally started a conversation with Master Tolfdir in written language. As a result, he seemed to amuse Zela, who had been reading a book, and those "deaths" appeared again, so he quickly turned to the topic .

It didn't take long to inquire about the exact location of Silverhand's headquarters, but it took a lot of time to understand the information about the [Elder Scrolls] needed by the ancient dragon Patunax. During this period, Zela Pesh kept thinking , looking at this side with a serious listening expression, and "Death" did not reappear after disappearing-until he said goodbye and left.

It seemed that there was no need to worry at all. When he left, he looked at Zela waving goodbye and judged that those "deaths" were obviously not harmful to her, and might even obey her to some extent.

...Why does this feeling seem inexplicably familiar?

"Lydia, who do you think Margaret is?" Arthur came back to his senses, just in time to hear Ella whispering to Lydia. Granted, but at least a peaceful and even slightly intimate conversation is possible.

"Winterhold is nominally the territory of Stormcloak, so it may be from the empire, but we cannot deny the possibility that Stormcloak sent people to monitor the academy, which is not easy to control." Lydia replied.

"It's the same as not saying." Ella took a bite of the bread.

Margaret? who? Arthur frowned slightly and began to recall.

Her name sounds like a lady, but because her party is too eye-catching, it attracts almost everyone's attention when walking in the academy. An old lady with a ferocious face stared straight at Arthur, as if he owed a lot to him. Like giving her a lot of gold coins, judging from Miss Zela calling Master Tovdir "Father", could it be her mother? Ok……

In short, now that I have left the Mage Academy, there is no point in thinking about it. After the snow stops, I will go to Sgrammer's Tomb to join the three brothers. I hope they will not be disturbed by the snowstorm and get lost.

——19:44——

To the southwest of Winterhold, there are large snow-capped mountains, canyons and gullies that isolate it. Due to the interference of the "big collapse" of Winterhold, the wind direction and wind force in the snow-capped mountains are changing all the time. The right direction can only rely on intuition.

"Hell, Farkas, is this the way you lead?"

Somewhere in a snowy valley, surrounded by steep hillsides, not only is there no shelter from the wind, but also no way to come. In front of an ice wall that seems to have been frozen by a waterfall, Wells raged towards his own. Brother lowered his voice and growled.

"This... I'm also very surprised. According to experience, following the traces left by animals should be able to find a temporary shelter from the wind." Farkas scratched his head with a confused look on his face.

"Did you follow it?" The calmer Wilkas raised his finger to a cave on a high slope, where a snow goat was chewing something and stuck its head out.

The three members of the Shining Armors comrades-in-arms group fell silent for a moment.

"How about we jump on it after transforming?" Farkas suggested.

"Better not to do that, Silverhand's headquarters may be nearby," Wilkas replied.

"Well..." Farkas looked up at the goat unwillingly.

"If it doesn't work, let's make a hole in this ice wall, seal the entrance with snow, and rest in it overnight," Wells picked up his sword and shield, and turned to look up and down the ice wall.

"It's a good idea if it doesn't cause an avalanche." Wilkas nodded.

"I'll help too." Farkas raised his two-handed sword.

"One, two, three!" "Boom——"

As expected, they dug a gap and were bounced back by the ice wall. Even the most unfortunate avalanche did not happen. The brothers directly broke a big hole in the ice wall and passed through.

"I have to say, Farkas, your intuition is quite accurate," Wilkas followed closely into the cave behind the ice wall: "...It just seems unsafe sometimes."

Huge brass pipes are rusted, rough stone walls and floors are cracked, and here and there are discarded chunks of dwarven metal and abandoned metal spiders.

Not far from the entrance, Farkas and Wells, who were still holding their weapons, were staring at the "creature" in front of them in a daze.

Those strange creatures with pale skin, huge heads, closed eyes, pointed ears, slender limbs, and tattered armor were "looking" towards the entrance.

"These guys have no vision, they rely on hearing to catch enemies. If they are good at sneaking, they can sneak past them without disturbing them, but now they can only—" Wilkas sighed and pulled out the two-handed sword behind his back: "Kill light them."

"Gah!" Seemingly understanding this sentence, the monsters frantically rushed towards the entrance.