Chapter 594 - Old Friends (1)

During the past 3 days, Jon has notified his people that he is going back to finish the Domain. While it is rather a surprising choice of timing, the benefits of a complete Domain outweigh the time spent creating it thus Alina returned to manage the Company for those three days with all the Dragon Cults and Black-Briar competition going around.

Unlike the usual, the enemies felt the presence of Jon being absent and thus started to violently push towards Winterhold. Maven Black-Briar openly visited Windhelm and opened a few businesses by her own hand, displaying her ultimate smugness by doing this in Jon's backyard. (as everyone calls Windhelm)

On the other hand, the Dragon Cults have started to systematically release Dragurs from the Ancient sealed Crypts around Winterhold which started to cause a situation of instability.

The response of Winterhold, however, was swift and decisive. As if showing off with their wealth, the Dare Bank immediately bought everything that would allow Maven businesses to function and ruined them in one day. It was rather an aggressive move by the DDC but the situation proved them to be superior when it comes to their presence and grasp over their lands. They still revived the businesses they ruined immediately but only after reclaiming them from Maven and changing the faces of the management.

In retaliation to what Maven started, the Dare Bank for Investment renovated a house in Riften and reinforced it with cold steel bars before hanging a DDC sign on top of it in an ultimate provocation as taking Riften is only a matter of time to them.

As for the wild undead by the Dragon Cult, the response here came in the bloodiest of methods. As the College Mages were dispatched to hunt down the Undead, the black operations team of the Dare Mercenaries, Team 0, started to make fast arrests around the hold and drove a number of people to the Jarl. During interrogation, those suspects were led to a secret warehouse under the supervision of Jarl Korir where a complete Dragon Skeleton was brought.

Jullanar personally led the interrogation as she ordered each suspect to start stepping on top of the Dragon Skull which everyone was completely up against. They cried and shouted displaying their extreme irritation to the order when they were physically forced to step on the skull which indicated their identity.

In Skyrim and many other provinces, there is an unspoken tradition that stepping on the Symbol of one's God is the ultimate form of Sacrilege. Obviously, stepping on a fully dead dragon is nothing scary unless you are a worshipper.

With the Dragon Cultists exposed, an immediate execution was carried out under the full extent of the Martial Law of Wartime since the Dragon Cult is currently announced as an enemy of Winterhold as an entire Domain.

In order to keep the matters in full control, Jullanar had already replaced the hold guards around the Jarl and the guards of the important points of Winterhold with Dare Agents disgusted as Guards to keep control of the situation either way. It was a precaution that Jon left hanging for the right time.

During those 3 days, the Dares proved to be in total control of both Winterhold and their Business. No one can even jump into their backyard and it was quite impossible for a domestic attack to shake the peace. Even still, they already had prior knowledge of all the spies roaming around the Hold but only let them operate to satisfy the curiosity of the outside forces.

On the fourth day, however, Jon made an appearance in the city of Saarthal as he walked right into the main office of the Company and then started inviting his friends and family to the tower. With the king back on his throne and the kingdom properly returning to its normal functions, the hold got quieter very fast.

Back in his special residence on top of the tower, Jon gathered Alina, Jullanar, Miranda, Wulfur, Isha, Mirren, Hilda, and Jonrad as he stood in front of a secret magic formation which he prepared at some time.

"As you all know, I went out to finish the Domain and the results turned out to be far greater than expected." As he rubbed Nefertiti's fluffy fur, Jon said as she was lying on his arm and looking up to him.

"Boy, enough with the suspense. Show us what you made and embarrass yourself already." Jonrad said as he laughed before getting poked by Hilda.

"Son, I am sure you did well. Don't listen to your father, he tried to research that thing you did once in the past and he failed terribly." Hilda said

"I am not a Wizard!" Jonrad retorted.

"Hubby, I was waiting for it for three days so please hurry up." Alina approached Jon as she put her hair behind her ear knowing that she would look cuter this way.

"Wifey, the thought of showing it off to you made me put extra effort to perfect it all just for you." Jon replied.

The two love birds flirted as everyone else was getting nauseated by the intense pink atmosphere the two of them radiated. Definitely, the most headache-inducing scene when those two start to mingle together.

*Shuuu!*

As Jon and Alina heard the familiar sound of Magicka charging through a circuit, the two of them looked to the side and saw Jullanar holding Nefertiti who snuck off Jon's hand and activated the teleportation array he laid out.

Instantly, a portal formed and Jullanar laughed naughtily as she jumped through.

"Going in first." She said.

"That damn wench!" Alina cursed.

"Gotta be back before lunch." Even Wulfur hopped through.

"You guys take your time." And Hilda dragged Jonrad in as well.

"I think I'll pass. I don't trust that boy enough to walk through a portal he makes." Jonrad complained.

"Just get in already." Hilda pulled him by force.

And also the rest went in leaving Jon and Alina to be the last.

"All of them are extremely horrible." Alina felt the need to scold everyone but Jon was laughing wryly.

"Don't worry about it." He said, "They are screwed."

And so he took her hand in his and passed through the portal together.

Soon after, Jon and Alina appeared in his domain in a large forest area with entangled alien trees and a strong feeling of nature surrounding the whole location. Everything around them looked and felt magical to the max. Strange herbs were growing on the land due to the effect of the temporal shifts and climate changes which gave the whole place a spark of fantasy of its own.

"This looks beautiful." Alina exclaimed as she parted hands with Jon before crouching in front of some plants and checking them out, "I've never seen such flowers before."

"Yes, they are exclusive to the temporal space of this Domain. I tried to take them outside but they started wilting right away. I don't think processing them here will be good either." Jon said.

"Hmmm. I understand. It is temporarily isolated from this world so it can exist in this space but can't exist outside." Alina nodded.

"Indeed. I think if something is injected with more existential essence such as Spiritual Energy, it would allow it to exist outside." Jon nodded.

"You're making me feel hot with all that magic nerd, Firemane." Alina made a smile as she stood against him and stuck her body to his while exchanging a kiss.

"By the way, where are the others? We can't shamelessly put on a show if there is nobody around." Alina asked.

"Your bad habits are becoming worse than mine." Jon shook his head, "I've sent them directly to the middle of the fray."

"Oh! I knew you were up to no good." She smiled happily and entangled with Jon in passionate adult actions which will be censored for the sake of moving up the plot.

Thirty minutes later, the two of them stopped their intimate engagement and decided to head further into the Domain while interlocking their arms like how couples do. Jon revealed that his Domain is actually a floating island which made her feel even hotter but the two were not going to waste more time.

He immediately took her to the area where the Virtual Reality he created was located and hastily explained to her the whole thing before she asked one question.

"Jon, where are the others?" She asked, narrowing her eyes as if she had already found the answer.

"They are in there." Jon pointed at the virtual city.

"You just… threw them in?" She smiled as she made sure she was correct.

"I just didn't want to explain everything to everyone once again." Jon replied with a cheeky smile.

"What's their situation?"

"Hmmm… let's see."

Jon turned to the virtual city, extended his elbow towards Alina inviting her to join arms with him, and taking a step towards the virtual city together.

In there, things looked…

"Amazing!"

"I am glad you like it."

While Alina was still walking in her fancy dress, looked between the people coming and going then started looking at the city. In a strange moment of realization, Alina kicked the ground and started levitating up the sky.

The sun was warm as it shed its golden rays on the buildings. Strange enough, the Domain was mimicking the same time on Mundus at the moment and as Alina watched the skyscrapers rise to heaven like pillars to the sky, she landed on one of them and surveyed the city from the south.

Not too far from her was a sea and a beach dotted with buildings. Wide roads uniquely encircled the city until it all started to run around the city in circles.

To the north, there were mountains at a very large distance until the city ended. The mountains were covered in snow and the city was generally cold but from its sheer size of both buildings and population, the city itself was defying the winter.

Many hot steam pipes ran through the buildings that looked either rich or poor making a pattern she recognized. Also, the roads of some parts of the city were unique to something she recognized.

Alina looked around and saw Jon waiting for her beside a fancy-looking metal wagon and dressed in something that looks like the clothes of this strange era.

She immediately teleported down to him.

"This city… it is Winterhold!" She said.

"It is." Jon replied, "You like it?"

"You recreated Winterhold in the image of your previous world." She said and looked around with a surprised face, "Everything I am seeing, the apartment-style housing, the steam pipes system, the roads, and even the expansion between Saarthal, Winterhold, and Hsaarik Head… that's…"

Alina struggled to find words before looking at Jon.

"That's your plan all along? The point where you aim to develop the city?" She asked.

Jon smiled and nodded.

"I don't expect it to reach this point in my lifetime anyway." Jon said, "Our children shall be the ones to achieve this… if they are worthy of making it possible."

"I'll make sure they are." Alina said and got closer to him, slowly embracing one another.

"By the way, what is that?" She asked, pointing at the metal wagon, "I remember from the Nightmare realm of Vaermina that there were things like this that were called cars."

"You are right." Jon said as he turned around to look at the fancy car, "It's a sports car but I have completely forgotten all the car brands from my past life so I recreated the fanciest looking thing I can remember. A Sports Car."

"A Sports Car?!" Alina widened her eyes looking at the black car, "Sports Car? What sort of sport does it participate in?"

"Huh?"

"Shouldn't there be some sort of a sport for this car to be called a Sports Car?"

"Racing… I guess." Jon said, "I don't really know. It's all about speed and performance so they called it a Sports Car."

"I was just teasing you." She smiled.

Jon smiled and shook his head from his cheeky wife as he opened the car door for her. She held her dress as she was about to go in but he stopped her.

"Maybe we should put you in something… that fits the theme." He said while looking at her clothes.

"My dress doesn't fit?" She said.

He held her hand and raised it up.

"Just give me a spin." He said.

Having some pride in her sense of fashion, Alina reluctantly spun as she held Jon's hand before her dress to suddenly start reforming. It turned from her wide garb and coat into a slender shirt, short skirt, and thigh-high stockings while her shoes became black high heels and a black coat manifested on her.

With her straight hairstyles and natural immense beauty, Alina looked at the glass of the building beside her and held her breath for a few seconds.

"Firemane." She spoke.

"Yeah." He replied.

"You do that to anyone else of the girls and I'll start chopping their heads, understand?"

Jon laughed uncontrollably as Alina monopolized the rights of being pampered all by herself.

"After you." He immediately pointed towards the car as she walked in with absolute satisfaction.

As Jon walked in through the driver seat, he adjusted the size of the car to fit his large body and Alina started smiling.

"I just noticed something." She said.

"What?"

"Those things called cars are suitable if we want to do it somewhere far quiet."

Seeing how naughty she's acting, Jon covered his face before slowly giggling.

"Not original but 5 points for that fast inspiration of yours."

"Thanks."

Jon took the driving wheel and started thinking.

"I don't remember how to drive a car either so… drive yourself, car." He said.

And the motor started itself.

"Oh! The perks of being in your own reality." She laughed.

"At least I shouldn't embarrass myself in front of you now. How about we go see the others embarrassing themselves?" He asked.

"Lead the way."

The car started moving and joined the other stream of cars before Jon purposely lightened the traffic in order to drive at full speed.

As Alina discovered, this was a futuristic version of Winterhold where the northern part of the entire hold became a metropolis buzzing with life. Alina may have witnessed some of Jon's visions before about his past life but this time was the one with the most realistic vibe to it. In a way, this kind of future wasn't half bad at all.

Jon started explaining everything about this strange city. While doing so, some people started to appear all around the city who were doing interesting actions. One was a buff Nord in modern clothing playing his guitar on the sidewalk and singing in a style befitting of his deep voice. A crowd gathered around him as his hat was being filled with money.

"Never knew Wulfur could sing!" Alina spoke.

"Well, everyone has their own style." Jon laughed.

Not much after that, a group of Khajiit teenagers were drawing graffiti on some buildings before getting chased by Argonian Policemen. A young black Khajiit girl distracted the policeman and started making them run in circles until they started running into each other and collapsing together.

"Way to go girl." Jon whistled to Nefertiti who kept smiling as she made more mischief.

On the opposite sidewalk, Alina noticed a Dunmer woman walking in a very luxurious fur coat and holding tons of bags as she walked out of a very luxurious shop.

"Isn't that…"

"Nurina's rotten personality is still taking over." Jon laughed as he waved out of the car to Nurina who reacted by lowering her sunglasses to look at whoever was that.

As the car drove further into the city, Jon saw a big gathering around a restaurant as the road sign turned red. There, a large redheaded woman was sitting in front of many delicate-looking plates of sweets and a gathering of people around her. As soon as a signal was given, Hilda started devouring the sweets at a rapid pace, almost finishing her portion within one minute.

"Mom has a sweet tooth alright." Alina laughed.

"And hopefully not diabetes." Jon sighed, thanking the heaven's this is a virtual world.

Not far after that, a bank rang its alarms as two girls ran out of it with bags of money. One was a Dunmer, the other was a Redguard.

Isha and Jullanar started shooting their firearms at the police before noticing Jon and Alina in their car.

"Hurry hurry hurry!"

"Go go go!"

The two girls ran towards the car and tried to get in but Jon sneered at them.

"This car only has two seats." He said.

"What sort of vehicle would only have two seats? Do something." Isha shouted.

"Fine."

*Peep* *Peep*

A nearby parked car made noises as its doors opened for them and the two started running towards it immediately and it drove them away.

"Those girls!" Alina held her head as she let out a sigh.

"Well, they all surprised me." Jon laughed.

"Hmmm… where are the others?" She asked.

"I know where dad is." Jon said.

"Don't tell me you did something bad to him."

"You're gonna love this one."

Jon didn't go too far this time. He just parked the car at a nearby street, went down, and walked in a plaza among very large towers.

Alina followed him casually but she couldn't see Jonrad anywhere. Just as she was about to ask, a metal object fell from the sky on fire. Gunshots were heard up above the sky and the characters started escaping from the surroundings.

"JON! GET ME DOWN."

Finally, Alina looked up as she heard Jonrad shouting.

He was there above a large tower that had a great antenna coming off its top and he was barely able to hang up to the antenna with one arm. While he was in that situation, several fighter planes started attacking him with gunfire as he blacked it with magic and retaliated at them.

"JON! STOP THIS."

"Hehehehe! Just like that movie."

Alina kept looking at Jon as he laughed with obvious malice and shook her head.

"Get him down, please."

"Why? This is so much fun."

"Is it?"

"I assure you, he's enjoying it."

While she kept staring at him, Jon came up with an idea.

"Why don't you take the car and drive it? It is not that hard since it's not actually a machine." He said.

"Really?" She focused on the car, "How do I drive it then?"

"Just imagine it like a hovering spell. Venus will guide you if there is any problem and if you want any item, tell Venus to give you money. That's how Nurina is buying things."

"So you let the girls rob a bank just for fun."

"Of course."

Jon took off leaving Alina with the car as the two of them forgot about Jonrad who was stuck up the tower fighting planes.

Jon felt a strange anomaly in the Domain and as he approached it, he found himself walking into a bar with a lot of people singing and drinking during the day. While it seemed unusual, Jon focused on the Elf who was singing on a stage in an interesting mix of rhymes and melodies. The song went on about lost love and broken souls as the characters filling the space started applauding for the singer until they left the stage and headed towards Jon to hug him in their embrace.

"Jon! I really missed you." They said.

Jon smiled and returned the embrace for that old friend.

"Missed you too, Myr."