53: The Shattering
Sunset had know all about the devastating power that Tirek commanded, all thanks to the tales that she had managed to get out of Princess Celestia or read about in the Royal Library. She had listened to Princess Twilight when she described her battle with the demon, imagining the destruction they had caused during their clash. She had played out a dozen different scenarios that could have happened if she had ever come across the demon, before she had arrived in Skyrim and found that he was here. She thought that she could easily gather together an army and have them fight against the demon, but every plan that she could have come up with crumbled when Tirek finally reached his full power.
She now knew that she was outclassed in terms of power and destructive capabilities, but the destruction of another city made her even more determined to stop the demon before he could tear open a hole back to Equus.
"I must say, I'm surprised that you aren't running away in fear," Tirek commented, staring at Sunset as if he was actually surprised that she wasn't running away, "I guess this means that I can shatter you beneath my power and break whatever hope you managed to create in your army."
"And yet you speak like a broken record," Sunset said, holding her blade out as her magic wrapped around it, wondering how much damage her energy waves could do against a fully powered Tirek, "I'm getting tired of listening to you talk."
"Then come at me, Sunset Shimmer," Tirek growled, bracing himself for whatever she was about to do, while clearly preparing his own attack, "and let us destroy Skyrim together."
Sunset looked at Tirek for a moment, studying what her opponent might have hidden up his sleeves, before she sighed and pulled her arm back, allowing the magic around her sword to take on the shape of her energy waves. Once she was sure that it was ready she swung her arm and let the magic fly, allowing it to ripple out of the sword and surge through the air towards her enemy. Tirek, on the other hand, merely let the wave approach him, before extending his hand and stopping it before it could even touch his chest and wound him again. He struggled with keeping it away from him, but then he twisted his wrist and shattered the spell around him, causing the energy to dissipate as he turned his attention back to Sunset.
Sunset was somewhat surprised that Tirek had managed to catch and deflect her attack as if it was nothing, but she knew that his power boost was aiding him in this fight.
Before she even had a chance to figure out what to do next Tirek flashed through the air and appeared before her, swinging his fist, which was surrounded by magical energy, right at her. She leapt out of the way as Tirek's fist connected with the air, cracking the area around the impact zone and knocking her backwards just a bit. That was when she noticed that the ground was also shaking in the same direction that her enemy's fist was facing, which told her that he would now destroy the ground without having to actually touch it. While she was in the air she also noticed that her army had arrived to help her, though they were standing beside Jarl Balgruuf's soldiers as they waited for her to call on them.
She had a spell designed for this situation, but before she called her soldiers into battle she wanted to be sure if she could fight the demon alone... or if she needed to call on them.
Once Sunset corrected how she was standing she held her arm out once more and gathered more energy into the blade, but while she did that she made sure to begin charging the Staff of Magnus as well. She figured that if Tirek needed all of his concentration to stop one of her attacks then she might as well prepare two of them, one for a distraction and one to wound him. She hated to fight dirty like this, but considering that her enemy had the powers of multiple Princes running through his veins she had decided not to take chances anymore. Now that Tirek was at full power she needed to score every wound she could on him, which would aid her in eventually stopping the demon before he ruined Nirn further.
She swung her arm and let the energy wave ripple through the air, but this time when it neared Tirek she followed it and moved to the side, knowing that her enemy wouldn't expect her to get so close. As Tirek caught the energy wave Sunset appeared behind him and thrust the Staff of Magnus forward, releasing a super charged bolt of green lightning at his back. Before the attack could even reach him, however, Tirek turned around and threw the energy wave into the lightning bolt, forcing the two attacks to cancel each other out. Sunset had a moment before Tirek would be on top of her, so she immediately flashed out of the way and rapidly descended towards the ground.
As she neared the ground she flipped around and landed without causing injury to herself, though she was now positioned to where she could keep her eye on Tirek while planning out her attacks.
"I don't know whether I should be pleased that you tried something different," Tirek shouted, allowing everyone in the vicinity to hear him, "or annoyed that you believed that a sneak attack would actually work against me. I guess that your prize for trying something new, that failed to work against me, should be your defeat, in front of your friends and allies no less!"
Sunset had a brief moment as Tirek flashed through the air and appeared before her, with magic swirling around his fist again, but this time she threw up the strongest shield that she could call on. As the bright red shield phased into existence around her Tirek smashed his fist into the edge of it, the force of his attack transferring into the area behind her. She was thankful that she hadn't landed near her friends, otherwise she would have been concerned that the transfer of power might have hurt one of them in the process. As she defended against the demon she could tell that the ground behind her was shattering under the weight of his power, but she knew that she could not give up.
After a few seconds Tirek leapt backwards and then disappeared, but Sunset's shield shattered under the pounding it had endured when Tirek had been standing in front of her. She huffed for a moment and tried to catch her breath, knowing that the shield had actually taken quite a bit out of her in order to counter the power that Tirek had used against her. Not a second later one of her soldiers shouted that something was coming straight down at her, so instead of looking at whatever it was, and likely getting hit in the process, she threw herself to the side and rolled away from whatever it was. The moment she stopped rolling she cast a look back and found that Tirek was the one who had been coming down at her, as his fist was stuck in the ground for a moment before he pulled it out.
The instant Tirek advanced on her Sunset decided it was time to let loose with every spell that she could muster at that moment, as she started throwing fireballs, ice spikes, and lighting bolts at the demon. As he began to shrug off her attempts at hurting him she moved into the more advanced spells that she had picked up on, igniting the ground beneath her feet as she loosed a swarm of massive fireballs at the demon. She even used the Staff of Magnus every now and then, loosing a streak of green lightning in order to try and push Tirek backwards just a bit, before she had to charge it up for the next volley of spells. With every step that Tirek took to get close to her Sunset backed up, though she knew that her back was facing the Throat of the World without even having to look back.
At one point Tirek reached forward to grab her, but the impact her spell had on his reaching hand threw her backwards, getting her out of range for the briefest of moments.
"Quite the arsenal you have there," Tirek commented, drawing ever closer to her position, to which Sunset could see that he was preparing to smash her into the ground, "but, as I expected, you don't have enough power to wound me anymore. Any last words before I crush your fighting spirit and begin this world's destruction?"
"Just a few," Sunset growled, pressing her hands against the ground for a moment, willing one of her most powerful offensive spells into existence, "Flame Emperor."
The entire area around her, going from the crater that used to be Whiterun all the way to the Meadery, ignited as flames started to dance around her, causing Tirek to stop his advance and study the spell that she was working into the area around them. Sunset smirked for a moment as she moved her right hand behind her, allowing the flames around them to gather around her arm as they began to form a massive sphere of flames. The sphere quickly grew to be the same size that Tirek was, but before the demon could even realize what was going on, or even move for that matter, Sunset roared with all her might and swung the sphere towards him.
The instant that the fiery sphere connected with Tirek the entire area around him burst into flames, including the mile behind him as the excess flames burned the land behind where he was standing.
Once the massive sphere was gone Sunset dropped to her knees and started to wipe the sweat from her brow, feeling dizzy thanks to the amount of power that she had put into the attack. It was a spell that only powerful unicorns, like herself and Princess Twilight before she became an alicorn, could wield without wiping out their entire supply of magic, while Princess Celestia herself could use the spell maybe five times in rapid succession before showing strains of being tired. Sunset had used it maybe twice in her entire life, the first time was to be sure that she could actually cast the spell successfully, the second had been during a fight in the middle of the Everfree Forest. She grinned as she looked around her, confident that she might have chased Tirek away for the moment so she could prepare for the next stage of this battle.
That was seconds before a hand emerged from the flames and grabbed onto her neck, chocking her as she was lifted into the air, while she wondered how her spell could have done so little.
"I see you had one last trick after all," Tirek commented, the smoke dissipating enough to reveal that he had taken very little damage from the attack, as all he actually had were some marks to show where the sphere had hit him, "Its a shame that it actually didn't do more damage to me, not with how much power you poured into the sphere to actually create it, but all that shows you is that you are outclassed. Now Sunset Shimmer, its my turn."
He threw her into the air and then pulled his left arm back towards his right shoulder, though Sunset didn't have to guess what he was about to do to her. She could only curse herself for using the majority of her power in that last attack, as now there was absolutely no way for her to actually dodge the attack. As she descended towards the ground, and towards Tirek, she could feel something aiding her as a light blue shield began to materialize around her, but she knew it wasn't going to be fast enough. Before the shield could completely form around her, and likely protect her from most of the damage, Tirek swung his fist right into her side, releasing the energy he had been gathering. The initial impact actually cracked several of her ribs as the pain shot through her body, to which she coughed up blood as the rest of the attack followed soon after.
The ground behind Sunset cracked under the weight of Tirek's power, though everyone watched as the shifting earth traveled in the direction of High Hrothgar and they silently held their breath. Moments later they could see the mountainside crack under the pressure as well, to which everyone in Sunset's army watched in horror as the Throat of the World, the largest mountain in all of Nirn, shattered before their eyes. Pieces fell in every direction, some landing nearby while some rolled down the opposite side of the mountain, no doubt crushing Iverstead in the process. Once the ground had stopped shaking, and what remained of the mountain was stable, Tirek grabbed onto Sunset before she hit the ground and tossed her into the dirt himself, just to show that he was superior.
Sunset wanted to scream because of the pain, but she refused to give her enemy the satisfaction that he had broken her, not when she still had a plan.
"There, do you see what I am capable of?" Tirek shouted, looking at all the people who were watching from the hillside, "I have broken both your champion and your chances at ever defeating me. Now its time for me to leave this pathetic world behind, so enjoy your last moments before your world is obliterated."
Tirek turned his back on all of them and flew into the sky, traveling to a point that Sunset assumed had once been the very top of High Hrothgar, before stopping. Sunset then noticed the green energy from before, when Tirek used the Prison Sphere seal of his, wrap around Tirek's arms as he forced his hands into a crack of some kind. When he started pulling Sunset immediately realized that the crack was widening, telling her that he was preparing to break through the already strained, if not non-existent, barrier that separated the worlds. Sunset moaned for a moment before she pulled herself up, to which she summoned a horn from her magic and lifted it to her lips, blowing out a single note that resonated across the plains of Whiterun.
Tirek, hearing the horn, turned away from his work and looked down at the ground, where he found a massive army leaving the fortress that Sunset had claimed as her own, joining up with the forces that had witnessed her get smashed into the ground. That was seconds before he heard another war horn, this one coming from the area to the north of him, but when he turned towards it he found an army of the dead marching. He had known for some time that Sunset had been recruiting both the living and the dead for her personal army, but the amount of soldiers in both of them were more than Revan had reported. He grinned for a moment before placing a seal on the crack, keeping it safe from harm as he lowered back to the ground, where he could find out what was happening.
"Are you alright Sunset?" Bjorn asked, helping his friend onto her feet while keeping his eyes on the demon, who was floating down to them at the moment.
"I've seen better days," Sunset moaned, tapping the Staff of Magnus on the ground for a moment, "but now that we have gained Tirek's attention we must make sure that he doesn't complete his ritual and open the way to Equus... otherwise this world will be destroyed."
She would have said more, but as she was about to she felt a change in the air, causing her to turn to the left, along with anyone else that was attuned to magic. Around the area where Fort Greymoor used to stand was a small crack in the air, one that immediately began to grow as it traveled down the length of the plains. After a few seconds the air shattered and the way to some new realm was open, but as Sunset and her allies watched she noticed a line of soldiers walking out of the hole in reality. These soldiers wore crystalline armor and carried a variety of weapons, though all this told Sunset was that she likely had another enemy to contend with.
That was before she noticed another figure, this one at least twice as large as the other ones, emerge from the hole in reality, though this one wore armor that labeled him as the leader and carried a massive two handed sword on his back.
"It seems like Jyggalag has come out to play," a voice behind Sunset said, causing her and Bjorn to turn around and find sixteen people, the Daedric Princes, standing behind them, though she could tell that it was Mehrunes Dagon that had spoken, "I guess this means we can settle the score with him at long last."
It seems that he has grown tired of watching, Hermaeus commented, his one eye glaring at the Prince in question, I would say that he's breaking his own rules, but I think I see why he's chosen to come now. Dragonborn, you summoned your army in what was supposed to be a one on one fight, so in his mind you broke the rules and now must suffer the consequences. Do not worry, your allies will be fighting this enemy for you... even those you may not have considered allies.
Sunset wanted to ask the Prince of Knowledge what he meant, but then she heard another war horn, this one vastly different from the ones that Sunset and the draugr used, and turned towards the mountain the lined up with Jyggalag's army. For a moment there was nothing on the mountain that she could see, but then something began to shimmer as a line of horses began to appear out of thin air, with riders on their backs. The shimmering riders continued to pour out of whatever portal they were coming from, but when she looked at who was leading them she spotted a nord that seemed to step out of the legends, for she was looking upon Talos, the God of Man.
As she realized who was leading the riders Sunset then came to the conclusion that his soldiers had to be the honored dead of Sovngarde, brought back to Nirn to protect their world one last time.
It seems odd, doesn't it? Hermaeus asked his fellow Princes, That we, the Daedra, will be fighting alongside the Aedra, fighting against one of the most powerful beings in all of Nirn.
"Honestly, I could care less," Clavicus replied, swinging his axe for a moment, while Barbas growled at Jyggalag, "As long as we defeat both Tirek and Jyggalag, and get our powers back, then I guess I can suffer our temporary alliance with the Aedra."
As the new army came to a stop Talos looked down at Jyggalag, who barely turned when he and his forces had arrived on the battlefield, but that was to be expected considering the Prince of Order believed that he was above everyone, including Akatosh. Talos almost grinned as he remembered Akatosh saying that they would be visited by the Prince and that they would be 'locked' out of Sunset's fight the entire time. Akatosh had only pretended to play along, but now that Jyggalag had made his move it was time to stop playing along and fight back, which is why he brought an army with him.
He turned to his forces for a moment, including the three warriors that he had called upon to ride along side him when they entered the world once more, before tapping his shield.
"Gormlaith, I want you to take your company down towards Sunset's army and join their assault," Talos commanded, drawing his sword while his soldiers followed suit, "Hakon, I want you and your company to ride with me as we meet Jyggalag's forces head on. Felldir, I would like you and your company to head around and strike the Prince from behind. Remember men, this is a battle for all of Nirn, so do not give your enemy a chance to stop you and take as many of them down as you possibly can."
"Yes, Lord Talos," the three warriors said, saluting the Divine for a moment before moving into their indicated positions, allowing him to sound the charge when they were ready.
"Come then, soldiers of Sovngarde!" Talos called out, moving his horse forwards as he began the charge, "Let us give the Prince of Order a battle he is likely never going to forget!"
Sunset watched as the army of soldiers charged down the mountainside, heading right towards Jyggalag's army, but as she watched them she noticed a force of dragons appear behind them as Alduin flew into battle. Delphine, knowing that she was going to be commanded to join the battle as well, sounded the charge and Sunset's army got underway, joining with the draugr that were heading towards the Prince of Oblivion. Jyggalag, on the other hand, shouted a command and arrows were loosed into the sky, though one dragon was unlucky and was knocked out of the sky thanks to a rain of arrows, but as he landed near Jyggalag's army he picked himself back up and charged at the soldiers under the Prince's command. That was moments before the three conjoined armies barreled into Jyggalag's army, where the riders either fought on their mounts or took to the ground to fight their enemies.
The only people that weren't charging forward were her friends and the Dragon Priests, which also included Miraak, though as she counted who wasn't moving she noticed that Tirek was moving back into the sky.
"Now what do we do?" Miraak asked, coming to a stop beside Sunset, while her friends joined them, "Its going to take a miracle to stop someone of Tirek's power."
"What about that prophecy you were told Sunset?" Bjorn asked, recalling that Azura's priestess had mentioned something about an alicorn fighting Tirek, "Do you think its possible for an alicorn to arrive and fight that... that demon?"
"He's boring a hole into Equus as we speak, so its unlikely that the Princesses will be able to assist us," Sunset replied, sighing as she remembered that this prophecy made no sense when it was originally given to her, and it still made none at this point in time, "and the only way that someone like me could even come close to harnessing the power of an alicorn is if I suddenly ascended to being one, but the only known unicorn to have become an alicorn was Princess Twilight and she had the Elements of Harmony with her when it happened. Besides, I'm almost out of juice and we don't have anything to achieve the process that happened to Princess Twilight, but..."
"Then we offer our power to you, Warlord," Morokei suddenly said, cutting Sunset off and them all to turn towards him for a moment, "We will give you the strength you require to fight this demon and stop him before he brings an end to this world."
"Morokei, do you realize that you'll all die if you do this?" Miraak said, surprising Sunset when he spoke, as if he wanted the other Priests alive for later, "If you all give Sunset Shimmer your power, the very force that's keeping all of you alive at the moment, then you'll all dissolve into nothing but dust and ash."
"And we are willing to accept that," Morokei replied, turning to Sunset once again, "Warlord, you will be the last living Dragon Priest when this madness is over, though you will also have the power to stop this demon from his vile plans. I'm sorry, but there's no talking us out of our decision."
Sunset sighed and nodded her head, beckoning for her friends to step back as the twelve Priests gathered in a circle around her, while Miraak took a step back as well. For a moment nothing happened, but then as she was about to say something Sunset began to notice light blue streams of energy flowing out of each of the Priests and beginning to swirl around her. Some of the magic, for that was all she could name what was around her, flowed into her side that Tirek was struck and Sunset felt the bones he had cracked move back to how they normally were, as if she had never been hit to begin with. Once her side was healed she could feel the power entering her body, filling her magic back to its maximum before forcing the store of energy to grow even bigger.
As this happened Sunset noticed the golden bracelets that her friends were wearing, the ones that Knight-Paladin Gelebor had created when Pride had come out in the Forgotten Vale, and noticed that the five stones were starting to glow.
"Of course!" Serana said, noticing the look that Sunset had on her face, as she had realized what was going on at the same time, "We don't actually need the real Elements of Harmony, all we actually need are the five of you, the people who best represent each Element. Guys, form a pentagram around the circle and wait for a signal to raise your bracelet into the air, because there's no way that Tirek is going to be ignoring this."
"I would if I could," a voice said, causing the vampire to look into the air and find that Tirek was slowly walking down towards them, "but one doesn't ignore their enemy when they're powering up, so I figured that I'd snap her in half this time to be sure that she doesn't get back up to challenge me again."
"That's where your wrong, Tirek," Serana shouted, knowing that the demon might take it as a challenge at this point, "true power doesn't come from one person, but rather from a group of people that want the same thing. Thanks to Sunset Shimmer I can see that, by working together with others, we can accomplish things that normally couldn't be done by someone on their own. I know that you are likely tired of hearing this, but true power comes from five Elements; Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, and Kindness. With the powers of everyone united for a single cause we will defeat you, Demon of Oblivion, and cast you back to whatever foul hole you crawled out of."
As Serana spoke out the names of the Elements Bjorn and his friends raised their arms that bared their bracelets into the air, to which a stream of magic burst out of the gemstone and connected with Sunset. For a moment nothing happened, but then Sunset smiled and closed her eyes, allowing the magic to overtake her, just like she had done when she stopped the human Twilight from destroying everything.
Tirek watched as a pillar of red energy, this one taking on the appearance of flames, engulfed Sunset Shimmer, but this time he would not allow another alicorn to be created. He raised his hand and summoned a sphere of energy that would not only obliterate her, but everyone else that stood around her at the moment. Before he could release it, however, something massive barreled into his side and knocked him out of the air, to which he turned around and found Alduin glaring at him. A second dragon joined the battle, to which he spotted Miraak on its back, before a winged creature joined them, to which he recognized the Vampire Lord form of Lord Harkon.
"Out of my way or I will destroy you!" Tirek shouted, leveling his arm with the pillar of energy, fully intending to take Sunset out before she had a chance to complete her transformation.
Alduin tried to barrel into Tirek again, but this time he took the full force of the attack that was meant for Sunset and part of the left side of his body was torn to pieces, barely missing his wing. As he corrected himself both Harkon and Miraak flew at their enemy, loosing spells that were merely designed to stall him until Sunset completed whatever she was doing. Miraak delivered a cut to Tirek's chest, distracting him from the fact that Harkon was assaulting his backside the entire time, but all that really did was make their enemy even madder at them. At one point the duo overestimated their abilities and he took advantage of it, cutting a deep gash across Harkon's chest before grabbing onto Miraak's head and crushing it in his hands.
That was before he discovered what he actually crushed had been the metal mask that the Priest had been wearing, revealing a nord that looked like he was in his sixties. Tirek then poured his power into his sword, the one thing he bothered to keep once reaching his full power, and swung it at the dragon, cleanly cutting the beast in half and obliterating both it and the person riding it. That was when Alduin slammed into him again, but at that point Tirek had decided that he had had enough of the dragon and repeated the attack, though all that did was diagonally cut the left half of Alduin's chest off and force the dragon to crash to the ground.
"These are the all mighty beings that Sunset allied herself with?" Tirek asked, knowing full well that Sunset could have crushed them on her own and was disappointed in their abilities, "Oh well, I guess that means that its Sunset's turn now..."
That was seconds before a ripple escaped from the pillar of energy, which had actually gone all the way to the sky and created a massive circle of flames in the sky. As the pillar rapidly dissipated into nothingness, and the Priests that had fueled it collapsed into heaps of ash, Tirek's eyes widened as he spotted a figure appear in the middle of the mass of flames. Sunset Shimmer, dressed up in the same armor she had been wearing when the pillar first appeared, floated there, but as Tirek studied her he found several differences. One was the fact that her horn was now as long as Princess Celestia's was, while the second difference was the fact that her hair was on fire, moving in the same motion that Celestia's mane moved in.
The third thing, and the most shocking difference of them all, was that Sunset now had a fully grown pair of wings attached to her back, exactly like the other Princesses and every pegasi he had ever encountered.
"'When the hero fights the Demon of Oblivion the sky shall be torn asunder'," Sunset said, recalling the piece of prophecy she had been told, the entire thing making complete sense to her now, "'and, in her hour of need, an alicorn with a flaming mane shall descend upon Nirn, to end the fight with the Demon itself.' Come Tirek, let us finish this fight at long last."
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I wonder if the Daedra and the Aedra are going to make some sorta reset button? For some reason, there was a scene reminiscent of the premier.
Geez Tirek, you just had to destroy High Hrothgar as well... someone kill this fool, oh wait, that's Sunset's job.
At least the prophecy has been fulfilled at long last.
7169515 Reset button? And what scene are you speaking of?
Good, now Sunset can kill Tirek and destroy Jyggalag (to the best of her ability anyway).
7169802 Aye, it seems that the end of Tirek has come.
7169804 I'm talking about Sonata's reenactment of the Season 1 Premiere.
7170968 OH, you mean when Serana told Tirek about the Elements and how together they could overcome anything. I see what you mean now.
7171019 I'm really hoping that Skyrim doesn't fall apart after Sunset beats Tirek.
7171080 Considering that he's pretty much broken and obliterated half of the important structures of Skyrim, sadly including High Hrothgar, the Fellglow Hold is becoming the point of recreation... meaning that people will likely flock there in hopes of rebuilding what was lost.
All Tirek deserves at this point is death.
7171168 Oh yeah, Skyrim can always be rebuilt.
7171195 Now all we have to do is sit back and watch the fireworks.
7172711 Sadly, when I wrote the prophecy I think I spent a good half hour to an hour trying to make it better than that... I'm not very good at making prophecies, so I hope you'll forgive my inability to make them.
7172866 This fic sounds like it got insane while I was out. Did Tirek really drain/ally with the Princes? Even the nice/less ooky ones?
7173502 No idea, still reading. I know he's been trying to.
7173705
7173502
at this point, only the Aedra have their power intact. Hermeus Mora was the last of the Princes to be drained by Tirek, and in that action the demon regained his full power