Dragon Tribulation of All Realms

Chapter 178: The Assassin and the Witch

The sound was driven by will, and that was the effect of the power of words. Its intensity at this moment was almost equivalent to a dragon's roar, and the shadow she was gazing at writhed violently as if it were alive!
The world is rejecting that shadow.

The sky, the earth, the light, the flowing wind, and the entire courtyard of the palace steward all showed resistance and push against that shadow at this moment—layers upon layers of powerful energy surged, overlapped, and squeezed towards the area locked by her gaze, and any object hidden in it would be forcibly ejected!

This may be the first time Hera Morley has taken a serious stance within Windhelm.

And along with her voice, something was indeed forcibly ejected from that shadow under the pressure of the world.

That was a line.

A black line.

The moment it appeared, it wove a series of zigzag trajectories in the air, and the end of the trajectory pointed right at Hera Morley's brow!

Clang! The blades clashed.

Hera's attendant appeared out of thin air, the warrior named Qina radiating intense and complex magical light. She swung her greatsword with precision and swiftness, colliding with the dark line in mid-air. One strike followed another, and perhaps in a single second, the sword and the line clashed violently hundreds of times.

A massive tremor and sound wave unfolded together. Even though both sides had extremely precise control over the force of each swing of their weapons, the slight dissipation of power still caused a huge impact. The warriors who had previously collapsed from exhaustion were now being washed away by the sound waves, emitting painful cries. Every door or window in the courtyard that could be opened or closed shattered at that moment.

"Expand."

The witch opened the grimoire in her hand for the first time, and an invisible field expanded outwards with her movements. In an instant, the entire courtyard was covered by this invisible field. All material structures became ambiguous and blurred at this moment, and it was clearly a rapidly operating 'annihilation' secret technique!
The place where the book was unfolded became her domain, her land. Her authority, therefore, briefly reigned supreme over all things there. And the dark lines were thus directly influenced by her.

"Pick".

The annihilated domain naturally falls under the control of the Lord of Annihilation. The power that had previously dissipated, as well as the damage caused by the energy released from each clash between Qina and the black line, were all forcibly extracted as concepts by Hera and gathered in her hand. The black line retreated sharply, but it was no longer able to escape from this annihilated domain!
Hera has locked onto it.

A series of sonic booms erupted from beneath Qina's feet—her pursuit quickly caught up with the retreating black line, and the moment she swung her sword down again, a blurry humanoid silhouette appeared somewhere connected by the black line!
That might be one person.

Humans, not elves, or any other rare race.

Hera Morley, however, had already clasped her hands together towards it.

"pack."

All the accidental and direct injuries were shifted at this moment under Hera Morley's will. This was part of the effect of her self-created high-level magic, 'Hera Morley's Library'—all the wounds converged into a blurry humanoid outline at this moment. And this was a straightforward, brutal execution.

'Pfft—' It sounded like something was pierced or punctured.

'Sizzle—' It sounds like something is being split or cut apart.

'Crack—' It sounds like something being crushed or squeezed.

However, the witch only raised an eyebrow slightly.

She looked at it, then looked towards her goal.

He saw the object struck by his own magic fall to the ground.

It was a sword, a black sword.

The black sword had no handguard and was connected by black chains.

The target was not defeated—the target affected by the spell had somehow transformed into the black sword itself. The black chains that had fallen to the ground then extended backward until they were just outside the boundary of the 'Library's' influence.

A person stood there.

A woman, a human being.

She wore a black cloak, with pure white hair hanging down from the hood. Her deep red eyes shone with an ominous light, yet she was by no means a vampire.

An assassin… a very powerful assassin. Hera's magic only left a shallow wound on the spine of her chain sword.

She looked at Hera without speaking. An aura of death and darkness flowed incessantly around her feet and into her sleeves.

"The Dark Brotherhood?"—The Dark Brotherhood doesn't have assassins this powerful. Hera knows them, knows this ancient gathering is declining, and behind them is the demon god Mephara—

There are definitely no more than three Brotherhood Sanctuaries in Skyrim, and before her data was updated, the strongest member of the Brotherhood should be a high-ranking assassin named Astrid. Whether attacking or defending, Astrid couldn't last five seconds against Hera.

After all, she could foresee her—as long as the assassin wasn't under the protection of the Brotherhood Sanctuary. However…

The woman before him neither responded nor answered.

The clanking of chains echoed as the black sword, bound to them, was dragged back towards the assassin's location. A vast and intense killing intent filled the space between the witch and the assassin, transforming into a pure and immense force of interference the instant the blade crossed the boundary.

Time stops.

Annihilation singularity.

The moment the 'library' dissipated, everything in Hera's eyes ceased to function. Even though the knowledge shared by Dust didn't contain much high-level magic, as the most outstanding witch of the Fourth Age, she still knew how to manipulate time—she stopped everything and directly pressed a pitch-black spatial collapse point onto the assassin's face. This was accompanied by a backlash vortex capable of instantly detonating all magical effects on a caster weaker than herself.

Time flows on again.

The space beyond collapsed into a small point, only to be instantly erased by the restorative power of the Holy Spirit's law. The stalker clad in black robes had vanished without a trace.

Hera couldn't keep her.

A witch standing in the midst of her own ritual failed to capture an assassin whose presence had been exposed. But...

—It wasn't entirely without any gains.

A strand of white hair appeared silently in Hera's hand. It might not be able to become a medium for a curse, but it could serve as a warning bell. At least, when the witch encounters the assassin again, the advantage of striking first will still be in her grasp.

—There was no murderous intent.

—They're not here to kill me...nor to kill him.

But the place where she appeared was too coincidental.

“A high-ranking assassin is lurking in your courtyard.” Hera turned her head to look at the court steward, who was still in shock and barely managed to stand. “Looks like you’ve escaped with your life, Joreford.”

She saw that face turn pale, then bluish. He gritted his teeth, his voice trembling slightly.

“The Dark Brotherhood… I knew that kid Avitus was just a decoy. But who is he? Wuenfis…”

“I already have authority over Wuenfis. I defeated him before he came here.” Hera looked at the middle-aged man who still held considerable power and offered him a way out. “I sensed traces and power of the Demon God in this land. If you still want to protect Windhelm, then come and help.”

A struggle appeared on the steward's face.

But Hera's power and the steps she provided ultimately enabled him to think rationally.

He hesitated for a few seconds.

"...What can I do?"

"Seale the city, monitor the streets. The power of the demon god requires a ritual to descend, so I expect that soon a large number of demon god worshippers will jump out to sacrifice and slaughter. And as it stands, that demon god should be Morag Baal—conflict is inevitable, but as long as there is time, at least we can prevent the biggest problem from erupting immediately."

"I understand." The palace steward nodded, seemingly somewhat unwilling, yet his eyes lit up.

“Wait, the Morag Bal you mentioned, is he the protector of those vampires?” he said, offering Hera an unexpected piece of information. “Just yesterday, a group of guardians from Standal came to me. They said there’s a high-ranking vampire hiding deep within Windhelm. And they’ve been investigating deep in the dungeons since yesterday.”

"Perhaps they can be of help."

(End of this chapter)