254 Rise in the East 4 : The Dark Matter

Jon, Nefertiti, Alina, Jullanar, Wulfur and Bjorna were all standing in the main space together. Jon was making a blissful face as he witnessed what was in front of him.

There was a strange black sphere floating in space (which Jon completely ignored) that was made of a dark smooth substance that its origin was not known but its black color felt otherworldly. This was not all, surrounding the floating black sphere, there was a large number of black cats (which Jon was focusing on) that looked like Nefertiti except they were just black and nothing else, even their eyes were black and the aura around them was akin to black smoke rising.

"Oi, what is that?" Wulfur flinched.

"Shadow Friends!" Nefertiti replied.

"I guess they are some sort of Shadow Atronachs." Alina made a guess.

"There are Shadow Atronachs?" Bjorna seemed nervous.

"Any magical element can be an Atronach when infused with a proper Daedric Soul, it also applies on Golems." Alina replied.

"This is not the problem here, look at Jon's face." Jullanar highlighted something important.

"Oh, boy… too many cats. This guy is done for." Wulfur realized the crisis.

As they were at a loss of what to do, Nefertiti stepped in front of Jon.

"Hooman, they do not fluff."

"Huh?"

"These cats do not fluff."

"Oh… I see… these hoes ain't loyal! Almost got me there, thanks."

Jon patted Nefertiti's head and she made a satisfied face.

"So what is going on?" He asked.

"This black baddie wants to eat the baby." She pointed at the black sphere that was floating in the middle of the space.

"And what are these Shadow Atronach Cats doing?"

"They are keeping it in check."

"Oh, I see. And what is that baby you are talking about?"

"Baby egg. The black baddie is trying to eat it."

"... Is it inside it?"

"Mhm." She nodded.

"I see."

How it arrived there was summarised that when Nefertiti tried to separate the Dark Matter from the Egg, she failed to chase it away and ended up worsening the matter as she allowed that entity to follow her to the real world.

"So what is that entity exactly?" Alina asked.

"It is an idiot thing that eats magic, it is normally stupid and wouldn't harm anyone on this side, but babies are weak and may get attacked with no parent to protect them."

"I see. Don't be upset, Nefertiti. We'll figure something out."

Jon and Alina started discussing the matter as the only eggheads around the place. Nefertiti seemed worried about the egg and her Shadow Magic attacks were all useless against a shadow entity.

The Shadow Magic was very mysterious to figure out as there was no expert in the terms of using it in Winterhold and Nefertiti could use it only by her instincts so she was of little help. Still, she could say that there are whispers in the Shadow Realm that these dark entities are mindless eaters that don't feel anything except energies.

"So their language is energy, huh? I can think of a way to... 'talk' with it." Jon narrowed his eyes and thought of something.

He and Alina tried various spells but with no use, the Dark Matter had good resistance to magic and even absorbed some of the non-harmful Magicka.

"How tricky! It can deal with Magicka as if no problems. But shouldn't it eat Magicka."

"Well, unless there some forms of Magicka it can digest."

"Yeah… I will try that one more thing."

Jon used his Aura instead of Magicka and sent it at the Dark Matter, it couldn't react to the Aura as expected but the Aura enveloped it and started digging the Dark Matter and peeling it from the egg. It took some time but Jon succeeded in the end and the egg started to appear.

As Jon trapped the Dark Matter in a sphere of his Tyrant Aura, the egg was completely extracted and Alina took it.

"Look at that, it is trapped in some sort of stone." Alina exclaimed.

"That's malachite. The egg was encased in malachite?" Wulfur answered then asked.

They could tell that the egg had a hint of lifeforce but it was sealed. There was a lot of advanced Magical Runes on the malachite encasement as it kept the egg in good shape. The baby inside the egg, however, was not formed yet as if its growth was halted because of the sealing. There was no souls or features as if the egg was recently fertilized.

"It may be the case but the seal seems some years old." Alina tested the power of the seal.

"Can you open it?" Bjorna asked.

"No… this is way too advanced. Even Jon won't know how to do so. Maybe Master Nurina can think of something."

"Okay, guys. I am glad that you are doing well but that thing is going nuts." Jon shouted as the Dark Matter seemed to try to break free.

"This is bad." Alina gave the egg to Jullanar and ran to Jon. "Shadow Entities do not do well outside their realm, it may come to a chaotic result if it broke free."

"I know, any ideas that might help." Jon said while gritting his teeth.

"Eeeh! Energy... it may be stabilized by the egg again but that's not good, we need to give it strong energy shocks."

"Wulfur, your hammer. Bjorna, a containment chest."

""On it.""

Bjorna brought a chest and Wulfur took his Warhammer.

"Not that hammer, I want your forging hammer."

"Wh… why do you want that?"

"Because of the enchantment on it, dammit."

"Aaah, I see."

Wulfur ran and brought his forging hammer. It was made of orcish steel and enchanted personally by Jon.

Jon took it in his free hand and struck the Dark Matter with it.

*DING!*

The sound the strike made was akin to two metals clashing ferociously with each other.

*DING* *DING* *DING*

Jon mercilessly smote on the Dark Matter causing more ringing sounds until ripple-like waves started to appear. With each strike, Jon started to increase the ferocious power in his strikes and the Aura encasing the Dark Matter. Wulfur was observing closely as he began to understand what Jon was doing.

"This is really smart!" He said.

"Do you know what is going on?" Alina asked.

"I am not sure but it seems that this Dark Matter is something like a living metal. It doesn't yield to normal energies like you said so Jon is forcing the energy in."

"How is that?"

"Well, you see that hammer I use, Jon and I had a small secret about it, not long ago Jon said he would enchant it so it can produce a specific amount and quality of energy from the Magicka of the wielder to temper the metal way much better than a normal hammer can do."

"Are you saying…"

"Yes, by using the pure Magicka the hammer produce, Jon is doing something to the Dark Matter like trying to establish authority over it."

"You are saying he is becoming a bigger S more than he already is." Jullanar thought of something and said.

"... Well, I can't argue with that logic for some reason." Wulfur agreed.

Jon was still hammering the Dark Matter until he started to look a bit tired.

"Damned thing! Don't think you can do as you wish. I will leave you for now." Jon directed his aura into the Containment Chest and stuffed the Dark Matter in then locked it and canceled his Aura.

"Phew! That was a good effort."

"... Hey, what did you just do?" Bjorna asked.

"Ehem, I was teaching it manners."

"..." The answer left everyone speechless.

"Told you he is becoming a bigger S than what he already is." Jullanar hit the mark.

"So… what did you figure out?" Alina asked.

"Well, think of that being as a being of chaos. If we let it go free, a disaster may happen in this world. I discovered that it has a soul so it is a living being but it has no emotions other than hunger for energy. Here where I arrived at a good conclusion."

"And that is?"

"It can be taught other emotions by using its hunger, 'Fear' to be specific. I will overstuff it with all kind of energies until I turn it into a meek little puppy. Fufufu... so this is the pleasure of taming things. Amazing!" Jon said so with a wide grin.

The twisted evil look on Jon's face made them shiver.

"I told you, that poor Dark Matter is making him a bigger S." (Jull)

"*gulp* Definitely." (Alina)

"So Jon finally found something that can withstand his unreasonableness." (Wulf)

"No matter how he denies it, he is just like Uncle Jonrad, a genius in his own foolishness." (Bjorna)

"Beat it again, Hooman." (Nefertiti)

Other than the angry cat, everyone else was concerned about what Jon was becoming. Jullanar then noticed the Egg she was carrying and pointed it out.

"So, what is that egg anyway."

Finally, Jon laid his eyes on the egg and took it. He examined the seals on it and shook his head.

"I am afraid that even Nurina will not be able to open this."

"Really! Master can't?"

"Yes, this is a multi-layered seal that needs certain blood to unseal it. The blood is not of a human, an elf or a beastman. Probably blood of some animal then the seal can be opened by a certain method else the egg will be destroyed. Also, it seemed the content of the egg is really preserved by a strong life force and magic."

Jon, who is an enchanting genius, analyzed the seal with ease and pointed everything related to it.

"... So... So, baby can't come out?" Nefertiti's eyes were about to become tearful.

"Oooh! Don't worry, girl. I know of a method to unseal it but it will take time. Come here."

Jon took Nefertiti and hugged her so she doesn't cry, she has a soft spot for children and he understood it really well.

"But what creature may hatch from the egg?" Wulfur asked.

"No idea." Jon replied.

"I think it is a bird egg." Bjorna said.

"Why?"

"Reptile eggs are more like a ball and are not that large. Bird, however, eggs have hard shells and they need warmth to hatch, with the enchantment that kept the egg in cold, it is more likely to be a bird but I am not sure what kind of a large bird will come from such an egg."

Everyone took Bjorna's word for it, as a Firemane, she raised tons of animals and birds before so she was the most knowledgeable one in that part.

"As for now, let's keep the egg in a good place. The girls will take care of it…"

"I am busy with the spider eggs so count me out."

"... except for Jull..."

"I will just give guidance."

"... and Bjorna. So… Alina and Nefertiti will take turns taking care of it. You can put it in our private space them."

Jon started giving them some tasks and he kept the Containment Chest with the other ones in a private space called 'Space 51'. He then looked at the clock in the system screen.

"It is about time we prepare for the night attack. Let's go."