Legends speak of the White Woman, the Wraith of Old, the Maiden of Decay, the Agent of Destruction, the Whisperer of Ruination, the Ghost of Revenge, and the Lady of White Blood.
Through many years, she was known by different names, each a whisper that dies with the alteration of winds or a reflection that dissolves with the foam of the sea.
She was there when it all began, plotting with the greatest of the plotters. She stood by the side of Saint Alessia when she expelled the Ayleid, and she was one of the few who witnessed the duel between Pelinal Whitestrake and Umaril the Unfeathered and the conversation between Pelinal's head and Morihaus Breath-of-Kyne. She was also there in Reman's court as he pushed back the Akavari Invasion and manipulated High Rock's nobility to join him in his conquest of Tamriel. Even more, she was with those who fed into the ambition of Talos Stormcrown and turned him against Cuhlecain.
Whenever that woman wakes from her slumber and walks Nirn, the continent's shape shifts, borders move, fates turn, and empires rise.
Behind her were Serana Volkihar, Vittoria Vici, and Idgord the Younger.
What is strange is that if Jon were to hear those three names in that order—let alone see them in one place—he would tilt his head and wonder what sort of event he caused for such unrelated characters to meet.
But what was stranger was Serana's tendency to call the White Woman "mother". If Jon were to see that as well, he would frown greatly since that woman was not Valerica, Serana's actual mother.
So, what plot is at play here? One may ask.
For starters, those four women seemed to have travelled by arcane means through space and teleported not too far from the battle ensuing over Winterhold. They could see the Heroes of Winterhold engaged in a fierce fight against the dragons, and no place was, by any chance, safe from that onslaught.
"Gods! What is all this?" Idgord was the first to exclaim; as for a normal person like her, she was witnessing a scene told only in the legends of old.
No matter where one looks in the sky, there are dragons.
"By Reman! Does this place ever know peace? And to think the real estate prices keep rising!" Vittoria exclaimed.
"Hmph! It is impossible to measure Jon Dare's cunning with simple logic. He would stoop to any low, just to make means for his aims," Serana commented.
As it seemed that Vittoria and Serana were almost agreeing with each other in regard to how scornfully they felt towards Jon, it was the White Woman who defended him:
"Dear girls, just because he is your ex, neither of you should be so harsh on him when he was simply doing his best."
As she spoke with a relaxed smile, Vittoria felt the creeps by how that White Woman knew everything and acted as if she was familiar with how things are. She seemed like she knew everything and everyone, but still watched it all as if she was interested in the outcome of it all.
"Just who are you?" Vittoria asked as if she was no longer afraid of what that mysteriously strong woman would do or say.
The smile on the face of the White Woman grew even wider as she turned to Vittoria. She seemed delighted, as if waiting for that question from the start.
"I am just a curious sponsor who came to conduct business," the White Woman replied playfully, but continued, "If you're asking about my name, though, you can call me Lamae."
"Lamae?" Vittoria frowned at the unfamiliar name.
"Mother, I never said I don't trust you, but trusting them…" Serana spoke, but Lamae shook her head.
"Dear Serana, you are no longer the vampire you used to be. Know that this step we are taking is for everyone's benefit. After all, how can our future allies trust us if we don't trust them?" Lamae said before glancing at the two young human ladies, "Also, let's not interrupt the young sorceress over there. This fight will give her more than enough experience to finally spread her wings."
Vittoria and Serana turned to see as Lamae was looking towards Idgrod the Younger, who seemed to have immersed all her senses watching the battle between men and dragons. They had watched such fights before, so it wasn't new to them, yet to her, it was her first interaction with something as grand as this. Somehow, both Vittoria and Serana were compelled to watch the fight more earnestly now. It is such a fight that would make a young mage understand new concepts; then they will at least get out with something as well.
The fight that began a minute ago was explosive from the beginning… literally.
Those who could use magic shielded those who used aura, as they all used contraptions, levitation spells, or aura skills to jump to the sky to reach the dragons.
The clash was imminent. All the dragons dove down from one direction, and Kungosvern was right behind them. Just then, Jon Dare shouted first.
"WULD NAH KEST!"
The red-headed Dreadborn shot through the sky in a red and black blur—the colours of his red hair and ebony armour—and his shout seemed like a signal for something, but as for him, he used his Mammoth Gauntlets and let loose their chains as he hurled them at Kungosvern.
"NOW!"
Wulfur was the one to give the signal since he was right behind Jon. From his right and left, a chain appeared and travelled diagonally, then another and another. Three sets of chains travelled sideways to the rest of Winterhold's heroes, and they all forgo attacking at the last seconds, linking each other to the chains and manoeuvring themselves outside the trajectory of the charging dragons.
Then it all happened!
On Jon's front, the dramatically large chains of the Mammoth Gauntlet coiled and circled the golden dragon, Kungosvern, catching him from every angle like prey in a snare, but the beast was far from getting bound.
Unlike the other dragons, who were immediately entangled with the cold iron chains, Kungosvern seemed disdainful towards the whole attempt of trying to bind him and vigorously tried to break the chains, but things did not go simply his way.
For a dragon of his class, the chains were indeed easy to break, but for some reason, these chains started to elasticize as if they were not made of metal. Moreover, they were not gripping his body but rather slipping until they caught on to the hard edges of his scales.
It felt messy, but this second of confusion was all that Jon needed to close on the dragon at Mach speed with his knee right to the dragon's snout.
"Fall on your ass!"
Many Alteration spells were at play here, and Jon seemed to have been dual-casting two spells: one to make the chain stretch and the other to make it slippery. When Kungosvern stretched the chains, Jon cancelled the spell immediately, and the reduced friction kept the chain from getting broken. All that was left was for physics to see which is tougher, the hammer or the hard place.
Just as Jon and Kungosvern collided, a powerful force pushed the dragon backward as if Jon were weighing like a herd of mammoths.
While it was unbelievable, the Master of the War Dragons expected as much from the man who had dismantled half the new Dragon Cult. He attempted to balance himself midair, but Jon managed to push him down until they both hit the ground.
But just as Jon tried to stab with the Ebony Blade at the dragon's heart, the gargantuan dragon suddenly shrank to the size of a normal person, transforming to his male human form. This meant that the female form that was hiding somewhere had transformed into a dragon.
Kungosvern (the male form) used both its legs and kicked Jon no less than 20 meters away.
The male body was seriously dangerous in frontal combat, which made Jon use the chance to retreat and switch to spellcasting instead. However, Kungosvern (the female form) had already caught up to him from behind.
Cornered on both sides by such powerful enemies, Jon was indeed in a tough spot, but he had been planning for this situation from the start.
Just as the golden dragon was about to bite him whole from the back, a black shadow appeared beneath him, and he was immediately launched into the air.
Nefertiti was hiding there from the beginning, and as this speedy dodge was performed, she sank back to the shadows right before Jon cast his spell on the ground where he was just standing.
A green light accompanied his cast right before the dragon landed violently, and unlike how he expected, the ground did not stop his momentum at all.
"I've always said, but nobody believed me, grease is the best Alteration spell."
As the golden dragon could not find any grip on the ground, its other half was supposed to be the one to stop it. The male form immediately rushed to do so since he did not know what sort of trick Jon was hiding.
Usually, it is a sound judgment and the right decision to take if one were to disturb their opponent's plan, but what if that was also part of your opponent's plan?
Jon's nastiest habit was to make his opponent put up their guard before using their guard against them. In Kungosvern's case, it was the two bodies joining together on the ground while he was above them in the sky, and just like that, he cast a spell so big it felt like it was overcharged a hundred times.
A ball of fire, a blaze of glory, or a second sun in the sky. The onlookers trembled from the mighty power, and even those who were never attuned to Magicka felt its flow all around them.
And just like that, Jon unleashed the most powerful Fireball spell ever cast.
A fallen star, a meteorite, a spell that broke the laws of what was magic and what was miraculous. It descended on the dragon duo, covering the sight of Kungosvern with blinding brightness.
From the far distance, over the walls, on the mountains, and far in the seas, those who watched the spell descend did so with fear gripping their hearts and shaking their very souls. Then the sound followed, and it was truly terrible.
KAPAWOOOOOOOOO!
Like the roar of a fiery storm, the cold air of the winter boiled, and the snow over the hold almost all melted.
No one knew for sure as dust and vapour seemed to have masked the view, but when looking up to the sky, there was a great cloud that resembled a mushroom. What followed was a shockwave so terrible it toppled everything that was outside the city walls.
Those fighting the dragons outside the city were also affected, but since they were far from the blast, they could use magic and aura to shield themselves from its shockwave. The dragons were not affected by the shockwave either, but they ceased fighting and looked at what was happening with mixed emotions. Those who stood on the mountains were at great risk; some fled while others were strong enough to protect themselves and their groups; the White Woman was the latter. Finally, those who watched from the sea had the worst fate as a titanic low tide wave shook their boats violently, which caused most of them to sink.
As for Jon, he did not wait around for his own nuke Fireball to vaporise him; he simply teleported away near his family and shielded the warriors at the gate with his aura.
He may have made it into a nuke-style explosion just for the dramatic effect, but that dramatic effect was too much.
Once the shockwave had passed, Jon returned to the blast scene to check how his spell fared against the indomitable lord of the War Dragons.
The huge, fiery cloud in the sky altered the weather, which began brewing into a swirling storm, and the seasonal currents seemed to have been jumbled up by the unnatural phenomenon.
As thunder started to echo, the ground began to shake as well, and it seemed that boss music was starting to play in the background.
As Jon was being watchful from the crater his fireball created, he did not anticipate that a large dragon such as Kungosvern would appear from behind him all of a sudden, breaking through the hard ground like a volcano erupting.
ROAAAAAR!
With a mighty roar that shocked the heavens and deafened the sound of thunder, one large dragon's neck was raised from the ground, unnaturally towering no less than a hundred feet upwards.
But that was far from all…
ROAAAAAR!
Another towering Dragon Head emerged from the ground, not too far from the first one…
ROAAAAAR!
And another…
ROAAAAAR!
And another!
Surrounded by four dragon heads, Jon looked around with pure amazement.
"Is this still canon, or am I hallucinating?"
"Real shadows, hooman, not hallucinating."
Jon laughed after Nefertiti replied and filled his lungs with air, no longer holding back on his Thu'um.
"One, two, three, four… I declare a Thu'um War… MUL QAH DOV!"