novelODS Chapter 42 The Champion of Cyrodiil
Chapter 42 The Champion of Cyrodiil
"aunt?"
Chen Mo was stunned for a moment.
Looking at this strangely behaving madman dressed in gorgeous clothes, he had his first direct impression of this historical emperor and couldn't help but sigh that there are indeed no wrong nicknames in this world.
Have they lost the ability to distinguish genders?
Shergra suddenly laughed.
He slapped his thigh as if he had seen something interesting.
"Oh, my friend," he said, his voice light and bouncy.
"Look closely. This is a guest I invited." He raised his hand, pointed at Chen Mo, and drew a circle in the air with his finger. "Not your rude old woman relative."
Pelagius III did not move.
His body was still stiff, and his eyes were fixed on Chen Mo's right hand.
Chen Mo followed his gaze, lowered his head, and looked at his right hand.
On the back of his hand, the red wolf head pattern gleamed with a warm luster under the pale light.
Something clicked in Chen Mo's mind, and he suddenly remembered something.
He quickly went through the Septine family tree in his mind.
Based on blood relations, Pelagios III should be the son of Magnus Septim, Potema's second elder brother, so Queen Potema should indeed be Pelagios III.
--aunt
In history, Potema died in the war waged by his second brother Magnus against Solitude.
With her last strength, she cursed Magnus's son, the now mad emperor, leaving an indelible wound in his soul.
That wound slowly festered, spread, and gradually consumed all his reason as he grew up.
The Mad Emperor's later absurd, brutal, and irrational behavior is known worldwide.
He executed nobles who defied him, burned villages that opposed him, and imprisoned those subjects he deemed "disloyal" in dungeons, leaving them to rot in the darkness—
The reason for all this is that the curse of Potema flows in his blood, grows in his bones, and screams in his dreams.
Never stopping, never ending.
So, is this mad emperor afraid at this moment?
He saw the red pattern on Chen Mo's hand that carried the scent of Potema and thought that Potema had arrived.
Chen Mo looked at Pelagius III's deathly pale face.
Those deep brown eyes held the fear of a rabbit seeing a fox.
The mad emperor was afraid of his aunt.
The indelible curse left in his blood by Portma continues to affect the Mad Emperor.
From birth to death.
Gee
Chen Mo couldn't help but sigh.
That woman, Portma, is ruthless.
Chen Mo raised his right hand and waved it at Pelagius III.
The movements were slow and gentle, as if greeting an old friend.
Pelagius III, however, seemed to react as if he had been stimulated.
His body sprang up in that instant, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and bounced to the corner of the table on the other side.
His royal robes trailed on the ground, stained with mud and grass juice.
Oh.
Chen Mo couldn't help but smile.
Looking at the mad emperor huddled in the corner of the table, dressed in imperial robes and with disheveled hair, he suddenly felt that the solemnity he had always felt dissipate somewhat.
Chen Mo lowered his hand.
"I'm not Portma. Don't worry," Chen Mo said.
Pelagios III's eyes lit up for a moment, but he still had no intention of getting closer.
Shergra watched all of this.
His lips curled up, the curve much wider than before. His eyes darted back and forth between Chen Mo and Pelagios III, like a searchlight scanning a dark corner. His fingers tapped lightly on the table, once, twice, three times. The bells at his waist jingled, echoing in the desolate garden, like a melodyless song, yet strangely comforting.
"Never mind," he said to Chen Mo, his voice like that of someone coaxing a child, "let this poor kid hide there for a while."
Chen Mo stood across the long table, looking at Shergra.
"Then," Chen Mo said.
"What should I call you? Madman? Or—Your Majesty the Champion?"
Shergra looked at him.
Those light gray, transparent eyes revealed a complex emotion in that instant.
Then a grin spread across his face.
"Either is fine," he said.
The voice remained light and bouncy.
"Young man, a name is just a label."
He raised his hand, and the purple sleeve slid down, revealing the dense, etched symbols on his pale arm.
The symbols gleamed with a dim blue light in the pale light, like incantations written on skin that could never be erased.
"I am who I am now."
Chen Mo lowered his head and pondered for a moment.
His question just now wasn't just casual curiosity, but a silent probe.
This is a piece of hidden knowledge.
In the world of The Elder Scrolls, the mad god Shelgra and the god of order Jegelrag are two sides of the same coin.
One God, two personalities.
One is chaos, imagination, and frenzied creativity; the other is rationality, ruthlessness, and absolute rules.
The two cycles through each other once every thousand years; this process is known as the "gray crystal turbulence".
Amidst the turmoil of the Gray Crystal, the God of Order, Jegelrag, will briefly regain his sanity, awaken from his slumber, and descend upon his annihilation domain—the Isle of Terror.
He will lead his army—emotionless, machine-like soldiers formed from pure, orderly power—to destroy everything on the island of terror.
He will destroy the vast, chaotic, and insane empire that the mad god Shergra has built over a thousand years.
Then, at the end of the cycle, madness will regain the upper hand, and order will fall asleep once more.
This cycle continued for countless epochs.
Until several hundred years ago.
Until the champion of Cirodier entered the island of terror.
That champion, the protagonist of The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim, the hero who saved all of Tamriel.
On an ordinary day, he stepped onto the island of terror, into the realm of the mad god, and into the eternal war between madness and order that had lasted for countless epochs.
He helped the mad god Shergra defeat the god of order, Jegelrag.
Then he did something that no one expected.
He released Jegelrag's divinity, finally freeing the soul that had been imprisoned by the power of order for countless eons.
As a price, or rather, a reward.
He became the new mad god.
The new Shelgra.
Chen Mo's conviction in this conclusion is based on evidence.
Before Chen Mo approached the long table, Shergra had just said something that sounded like a casual remark.
"You know what? I was there when that filthy thing happened. What a glorious moment! Butterflies, blood, a fox, a severed head... oh! And that delicious cheese!"
"That dirty thing" refers to Martin Septim's transformation into the Time Dragon God to defeat Dagon's annihilation crisis.
In the story of The Elder Scrolls IV, Dagon invaded the mortal realm from Oblivion. It was Martin Septim, the last emperor of Septim, who crushed the Amulet of Kings and sacrificed himself to summon the supreme dragon god Akatosh, driving Dagon back into Oblivion.
The protagonist of The Elder Scrolls IV, a hero of Cyrodiil, and a comrade-in-arms of Martin Septim.
It was he who stood on the ruins of the Imperial Temple, watching the golden pillar of light soar into the sky, watching the giant dragon formed from time and fire spread its wings, watching Dagon roar in resentment under the pressure of the Dragon God, and then disappear into the annihilation crack.
Chen Mo lowered his head, lost in thought.
The information in his mind meshed together like gears in that instant.
This information is crucial.
This determines what he is facing at this moment.
It is an abstract and insane concept.
He was also a god who loved all people.