Nirn trembled under the bombardment of the numidium. This brass giant first attacked the Morrowind region. Standing at the southern end of Skyrim, one could clearly see several massive plumes of smoke rising into the sky to the east. Amidst the raging storms, all things fell silent, left only to watch helplessly as the Brass God tore the world apart piece by piece.
Jonas used a levitation force field to push away the shockwaves and smoke. Massive tidal waves were surging from the north, west, and east, but none could compare to the tragic state of Morrowind. Landmasses were thrown into the sky, breaking through the atmosphere and escaping the gravitational pull of Nirn. In space, the face of the numidium was even larger than Masser; its height was likely comparable to the diameter of Nirn itself. A machine as large as a planet—what kind of monster had the Dwemer created back then to possess such a Divine Ability to change its size at will!
Jonas felt both angry and anxious. He blamed himself for his slow actions, failing to keep the enemy out of Nirn, and hated his own weakness, fearing he could not defeat such a formidable foe. Suddenly worried about his friends and family in Winterhold and the living beings of the world, a wave of sorrow washed over him, and he could not help but shed tears.
"Don't cry, child. We still have a chance." A clear, bright female voice came from behind him, cutting through the hurricane. A female High Elf mage wearing a bright yellow hooded robe walked through the air, her posture as elegant as a beautiful flower in the wind. "I have finally found you. Now you won't need to resurrect on the 17th of Sun's Height, 201, every single time. I have already recorded this time node. Go ahead and deal with that Brass Tower without worry."
Jonas was shocked. The information in her words was so overwhelming that his mind went blank. He stopped crying halfway through, though his expression still looked a bit aggrieved, his large eyes filled with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Do you still remember me?"
"You... are you Young Miss Topalina?" Jonas's expression turned excited. "I haven't seen you in over ten years. How have you been?"
The member of the Psijic Order sighed, "I wouldn't say good. We must have suffered great tribulations in the future. There were nine of us once, but now there are only three."
"What happened? Why do you say that?"
"Our future is in your past. It is difficult to explain the details to you. There isn't much time, so I will tell you some important things. Listen carefully."
"Yes, ma'am, I understand."
"The numidium is attacking Morrowind to strike down Red Mountain; it has some bad memories of that place. But this actually works out perfectly. Beneath Morrowind lies a Clockwork City, where there are several airships that can carry people to the moon. You should go with them. The Brass God is not something you can fight. The true moment of victory lies at some point in the future."
Jonas nodded. Had his mission come to an end?
... Saarthal.
"First Dragon Chrysalis node recording complete!" Topalina suddenly reported to the Archmage. "I saw him, that boy."
The Archmage managed a forced smile. It was halftime now. He looked around wearily at the devastated Saarthal. More than three hundred timelines had passed since they last encountered that terrifyingly strong White Mountain. In between, they had met all sorts of White Mountains—some men, some women, some old, some young, and some were not even human. The powerful ones would actively seek out Saarthal, while the weak ones would be forcibly summoned. In short, they were all able to be dealt with without too much effort.
After that terrifying punch, only four people remained alive in Saarthal: three members of the Psijic Order and A-Ran, the Archmage of Winterhold. As for those unlucky folks from the Black Worm Society, they had vanished in the aftermath and would never resurrect again.
"How many Dragon Souls do we have left on hand?"
"Less than a hundred."
Dragon Souls were things that diminished with every use. After all, they were themselves fragments of time, and using them to charge the Dragon Chrysalis magic of the Crystal Tower was an irreversible process.
Of the nine members of the Psijic Order, five were responsible for hunting Dragons. In the nearly one hundred years after 4E 201, they had hunted over eight hundred Dragons. However, after the Wheel Seal Fist shattered six members, a portion of the Dragon Souls escaped—the Dragon hunters died before they could hunt the Dragons, which was equivalent to never having hunted them at all—some were absorbed by Jonas, and some were absorbed by Miraak.
Their existence was erased, as if they had never appeared in this world—the Wheel Seal Fist had caused a minor Dragon Break, erasing the timelines of those killed. Gradually, even the bystanders who witnessed their deaths would not be able to recall their existence. It was precisely because the Dragon Chrysalis blocked the spread of the Dragon Break that the four mages in Saarthal could still remember that tragedy.
Thinking that the deaths of their colleagues would not be remembered by anyone, even the members of the Psijic Order, who practiced the way of hermits, felt a deep sense of sorrow and unspeakable grief.
Seeing that the Dragon Souls on hand were not enough, the Archmage sighed, the atmosphere becoming increasingly desperate.
A-Ran comforted him: "Great Master, there is no need to be so sorrowful. Since this comrade has seen that boy, it proves that we successfully blocked the Dragon Break and lived past the year 201. There will always be a possibility that allows us to complete this great undertaking. All those who sacrificed themselves are heroes."
This Chief Mage of Winterhold had lost his right arm, one lung, and parts of his liver, gallbladder, intestines, and other organs. Such injuries would normally have cost him his life. He used healing spells to restore the wounds, with a layer of new skin covering the surface, but the lost parts could never grow back. His body had even forgotten that it once possessed those organs and cells, and his Soul was missing a piece. And yet, precisely because of this, his body spontaneously adjusted and somehow managed to function again.
Forty-six timelines ago, they encountered a mechanic White Mountain whose entire body was made of mechanical bionic devices, looking exactly like a miniature numidium.
After killing him, A-Ran and the Archmage used the remains of the White Mountain to craft brand-new bodies. Now, A-Ran's lower limbs were ebony mechanical spider legs, his right arm was a multi-functional bionic arm, and an energy core was stuffed into the gap in his torso. The Archmage had lost his left leg and some abdominal tissue, so he had also installed a mechanical leg.
The strength of these two half-machine, half-human mages had not been diminished much; instead, they were more agile and durable.
A-Ran's words made the other three feel much better. After successive bitter battles, everyone's mental state was on the verge of collapse, and morale was low. They could not summon reinforcements inside the Dragon Chrysalis, and every clash was hand-to-hand combat. For mages, it was no less painful than close-quarters fighting. The fact that the four of them could traverse hundreds of timelines without collapsing from the chaotic perceptions was already an epic-level iron will.
"Perhaps we can take a risk," the Archmage said. "Since we have already anchored the timeline with the best progress, perhaps we should transmit the boy to the time after the first node and head directly to the endgame."
"But that would undoubtedly strengthen the power of the Dragon Break, and we might very well lose that timeline."
"But we don't have much choice..." The Archmage was somewhat incoherent.
The other two members of the Order, Topalina and Proni, began to argue back and forth, "It's just a matter of holding on a little longer..."
"We still have a chance, just as Mage A-Ran said..."
"The Crystal Tower's Stone is still there. As long as you, the walking Law, do not collapse, we can hold on until the end of time..."
"Yes, yes, even if we exhaust the Dragon Souls, we still have the eye of magnus to extract creation essence from the Divine Realm, and so much Dawn magic..."
"Hold on... hold on..."
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