A fight broke out instantly. Whether it was his own minions or Wright's survival, it was all just a game to the Daedric Prince—a momentary amusement in his endless existence.
Wright understood this well and focused solely on fighting the daedra. He had no intention of provoking Mehrunes Dagon, who stood aside, watching with amusement.
Both Wright and Renly were only wearing their usual attire, so they immediately conjured frost armor over their bodies, followed by defensive spells of the alteration school.
Wright gripped an ice spear in each hand and shouted to Renly, "Renly! My magicka reserves are higher than yours! I'll handle ranged attacks—you take care of enemies that get too close! Use frost and illusion magic!"
Wright's enhanced abilities from his skill system made his physical prowess far surpass Renly's, so his instructions were kept simple and direct.
"Understood!" With magicka regenerating rapidly in this realm, Renly summoned a glowing purple longbow, ready to fire before the daedra reached them.
Yet both of them knew that their own magicka recovery meant little when the daedra had the same advantage—after all, this was their home turf.
"Haah!" A purple magic arrow shot from Renly's bow.
"Hah!" Wright hurled both of his ice spears with sheer brute force.
The spears, crackling with lightning, flew faster than the arrow. The daedra varied in strength—four lower-tier ones were impaled on impact, while two stronger ones managed to grab the spears mid-air, halting their advance. Even the impaled daedra did not immediately die, struggling as they yanked the weapons from their bodies.
"Explode!" Wright clenched his fists, and with two loud bursts, the spears shattered, sending shards of ice and crackling lightning in all directions.
The lower-tier daedra, lacking helmets, were torn apart by the explosion. The higher-tier ones remained unmoved, merely brushing off the ice fragments from their armor.
"Haras kigla ghek!" A high-ranking daedra with a glowing purple arrow stuck in its forehead roared something unintelligible at Wright—but he knew it was far from a friendly greeting.
Recognizing the disparity in strength among their foes, Wright decided to clear out the weaker ones first. "Renly!"
Standing tall, Wright raised his hands as crackling electricity surged from his palms. Renly, seeing the motion, knew exactly what was coming—a master-level lightning spell. He mirrored Wright's actions, and together, they unleashed twin torrents of lightning upon the daedric horde.
"Kah'liq jinn!" The daedra were not without their own magic. Over a hundred of them simultaneously conjured fire spells, sending a tidal wave of flames crashing against the lightning. The daedra had no concern for friendly fire—their flames surged forward like a roiling lava tide.
Boom!
Red and white magic clashed violently. The collision erupted in a deafening explosion, sending shockwaves in all directions and shattering the nearby stone bridges.
But the flames only intensified. Gradually, the wall of fire began pushing back the lightning.
With all his magicka focused on the spell, Wright slowly separated his hands, creating a gap about the size of a basin between them. Taking a deep breath, he prepared for another shout:
"Fus—"
"Damn it! Run!"
"What?!" Renly, still channeling his spell, could barely hear anything over the roaring magic.
"Dogs!" Wright abruptly cut off his casting, grabbed Renly by the arm, and pulled him into a sprint.
With their lightning stopped, the flaming wave surged forward. The two leaped from the high platform just in time.
Gliding through the air, they turned back to see the platform they had just stood on—now swarming with countless black daedric hounds. The sheer number of them turned the entire stone structure into a writhing mass of darkness. There was no telling how many there were. If they had stayed, they would have been surrounded from behind.
The beasts that had already climbed to the top howled furiously at the fleeing duo. From his vantage point, Renly noticed that the hounds were as large as the daedra themselves, and their saliva dripped onto the stone platform, sizzling as it corroded the surface.
Wright and Renly landed beside a river of molten lava.
"They don't seem as strong as the daedra—why did we run?" Renly asked.
"Their saliva and blood are highly toxic," Wright explained. "Even if we blast them apart with magic, their poison will spread through the air. If we breathe it in, or if it touches our skin, we're done for."
"So we have to fight them from a distance." Renly glanced up at the peaks. "Since we're down here, won't the portal close?"
"Never trust a Daedric Prince's word," Wright replied. "But trust their twisted sense of amusement. Dagon will leave it open just to taunt us."
The black tide of hounds surged forward again. A heavily armored daedric warrior leapt down from the platform. He didn't use any magic—just sheer brute strength—landing with such force that he crushed two hounds beneath him, sending up a cloud of dust.
When the dust settled, the warrior emerged unscathed, wielding a massive two-handed sword, charging straight at them.
"A true Dremora Lord!"
His speed was incredible—he left the hound pack far behind.
Seeing Renly prepare a spell, Wright quickly signaled him to stop. "Don't attack—he'll be on our side!"
As the warrior closed the distance to twenty paces—too close to evade magic—Wright took a deep breath and shouted:
"Gol—Hah—Dov!"
A powerful Dragon Shout of mind control surged through the air.
The charging Dremora Lord suddenly halted, shaking his head. Then, gripping his massive sword, he stepped to Wright's side, standing guard.
The moment Wright used the shout, the daedric dagger at his waist flickered with red light.
Standing atop his vantage point, Dagon sensed a foreign presence invading his realm. He casually raised his hand and swatted at the air in Wright's direction.
A tiny rift, the size of a palm, appeared in the space behind Wright, but it only lasted for a second before collapsing. Whatever had tried to infiltrate was forcibly sent back.
"Hermaeus Mora," Dagon muttered with disdain. "Trying to slowly manipulate the Dragonborn's mind? How utterly dull and pathetic."
Gazing down at Wright from afar, he mused, "Maybe I should send him another dagger. That creature does have an awful lot of eyes."
"Your dragon magic really works! With so much magic here, hurry up and control all of them!" Renly thought that if this worked, they wouldn't have to fight anymore.
"The stronger the magic, the more energy it consumes. Even here, I need five minutes before I can use it again!" Wright wanted to do the same, but his total magic reserves wouldn't allow it. "Let's set up magic traps first!"
The two of them quickly laid ice traps on the ground ahead, forming a defensive line. After a brief recovery, they continued placing more, creating a dense network of blue magical arrays that encircled them.
"Again!"
Wright and Renly unleashed another wave of master-level lightning magic. From the heights, Dagon watched as two massive streams of blue-white lightning swept across the black, lava-streaked plains.
The hellhounds struck by the lightning quickly turned into charred corpses, falling in long chains. The ones that weren't hit split into two groups, trying to flank them, but the two lightning bolts moved like the hands of a clock, shifting up and down with the charging hounds, continuously turning them into blackened husks.
Then, the approaching Daedras launched dozens of fireballs at Wright and Renly, forcing them to redirect their lightning to intercept the attacks.
Boom! Boom!
The sound of explosions echoed as one hellhound after another was impaled by ice spikes erupting from the ground. The magic-infused frost was particularly effective against them—the biting cold inflicted such agony that even these creatures, which lacked a sense of pain, howled and shrieked in torment.
The ice spikes formed a barrier, hanging dozens of impaled hellhounds in midair. However, there was still a gap—right over the lava river. After the distant Daedras sent out several magical signals, the remaining hellhounds began leaping into the lava.
Perhaps because they were native to this realm, the lightning could burn them to ashes, but molten rock, which could melt steel, merely seared away their skin. Now, with their flesh exposed, they looked even more grotesque and charged at Renly and Wright with mindless ferocity.
Wright and Renly exchanged a glance and, without a word, stopped casting lightning magic.
The two of them raised their ice shields and ice lances, pressing their backs together in preparation for melee combat. The skinless hellhounds formed a tight circle around them, and more continued to leap into the lava.
Once their numbers had reached a certain point, one particularly aggressive hound suddenly lunged at Renly. He sidestepped quickly, dodging it, but another beast immediately pounced at Wright. The two dodged continuously, but then dozens of crazed hellhounds charged simultaneously, determined to tear them apart!
One hound managed to bite down on Wright's arm—only to find its jaws snapping shut on thin air. Confused, it hesitated just long enough for the ground beneath the clustered pack to erupt with a series of loud blasts. Ice spikes shot up, shredding dozens of hellhounds into bloody chunks. Their foul-smelling blood spread over the ice, filling the air with a rancid stench.
Not far from the icy battlefield, three humanoid figures gradually emerged from shimmering illusions, solidifying into form. Wright and Renly immediately began setting more ice traps.
They would not engage the venomous hellhounds in close combat until every last one was dead.
This was a prearranged tactic. The moment Wright and Renly had exchanged glances earlier, they had left behind illusions, then cast invisibility on themselves and fled alongside the mind-controlled Daedra. Wright had gambled correctly—these hellhounds relied on sight rather than scent to track their prey.
The remaining hellhounds charged again, but the Daedras, having been tricked once, now controlled their beasts with more caution. However, Wright and Renly changed their approach as well—after slaughtering another wave of hounds, they vanished again, and Wright successfully controlled a second Daedra.
This pattern repeated itself a third time. By then, with the hellhound numbers dwindling, the Daedras themselves finally began their advance.
Wright quickly counted the charging Daedra soldiers—there were even more than before. Additional Daedras had joined the fray.
His hands began glowing with a faint blue light, while Renly's hands shone green. Two master-level spells—Mass Paralysis and Confusion—spread through the Daedra ranks.
The results were mixed. Some lesser Daedras were caught in the magic's glow, freezing mid-charge and collapsing in place, still gripping their swords. Others turned on their own kind, attacking mindlessly, though they were swiftly cut down by the higher-ranking Daedras.
The Daedras' armor and weapons were all of the same make. The higher-ranking Daedras had tempered and refined theirs to be far stronger, while the lesser Daedras wielded only the basic versions. Perhaps they had ways to distinguish each other within their ranks, but to Wright, there was no clear way to differentiate them by sight alone.
"Foolish mortal, your pathetic magic is useless against me!" A Daedra leaped into the air, gripping a massive greatsword with both hands, and brought it crashing down toward Renly.
"Then I'll use my trash magic to kill you!" The ongoing battle had shaken Renly free from his fear, and now he was consumed with anger.
With a low-level spell, the Mage Hand, Renly conjured a white magic that didn't extend far but instead formed a giant dragon's claw on his arm. As the claw gripped the Daedra, Renly tightened his fist, and the claws on the magical dragon's paw slowly turned blood-red as they dug into the Daedra's armor.
The Daedra struggled fiercely, but Renly kept applying more force. With his own strength and the overwhelming output of magic, the Daedra's armor began to crack. However, being a low-level spell, it still wasn't enough to crush the armor entirely, even with maximum magical output.
But Renly still had one more hand to use. He plunged a lightning-infused ice spear into the Daedra's mouth. Seeing that the Daedra still wasn't dead, he withdrew the spear slightly and then shoved it through the Daedra's throat and into his stomach.
Releasing the Mage Hand, Renly gripped the ice spear with both hands, lifting the Daedra upside down into the air. "This is my trash magic!"
Renly channeled magic into the spear, and chunks of the Daedra's flesh began spilling out of its mouth, dripping down the ice spear onto Renly's hands. The Daedra convulsed violently, and within moments, its head and bones fell off.
Ignoring the Daedra's shell-like armor, Renly thrust the ice spear into the Daedra's body. The spear's many sharp spikes turned, grinding and shredding the Daedra from the inside into bloody pieces.
"Fus~~Ro~~Dah~~!" With the poisonous hellhounds no longer tainting the air, and the open plains giving him ample space, Wright began releasing his Dragon Shout.
One by one, the Daedras and their armor were torn apart by the powerful shout. Some of the higher-ranking Daedras couldn't withstand the shockwave and were shattered, while their armor remained behind, pushed along with molten slag and debris to the distance.
As Wright fought, he continued searching for the strongest Daedra among them.
"Another one!"
He found a powerful Dremora Lord and once again used his mind control magic. Now, three Dremora Lords were helping them slaughter the other Daedras.
"Dammit, there are still over a hundred left!" After battling the Daedras for what felt like an eternity, Wright realized that despite killing so many, the numbers hadn't decreased as much as expected!
Looking up at Dagon on the distant high platform, Wright thought, He never did say how many Daedras we'd have to fight!
"Renly, this is Daedra territory. Their reinforcements are endless. We need to make it to the portal!"
Hum~~~ "Lead the way!" Renly answered, having just cast a chain lightning spell.
The ongoing battle had taken its toll. Their robes were tattered from the constant strikes, and now they were even ignited by the Daedras' magic. Both had discarded their torn garments, now only wearing their ice armor.
Renly's ice armor had been shattered for the fifth time by the Daedras, and Wright was faring no better. Due to Dagon's attention, the Daedras surrounding Wright were significantly stronger and more numerous than those attacking Renly.
"Charge!"
The three mind-controlled Daedras were sent to cover their retreat, and Wright and Renly quickly used their invisibility spells, dashing toward the mountain where the portal was located.
"You can't escape!"
A few Daedras had followed them, using life-detection magic to reveal their presence!
Wright motioned for Renly to go ahead while he revealed himself, facing the Daedras. "You're impressive. I have something to say to you!"
"Another mind control spell? Heh, that magic is powerful, but if you can't hit me, it's useless!" One of the Daedras responded. This one was equipped with various weapons, but until now, he hadn't taken action. Now, he drew a weapon, and as he moved, several afterimages trailed behind him. Before Wright could react, the Daedra drove his sword through Wright's chest.