Chapter 76 Stole Part of Hermaeus Mora Power
Alex drifted in the depths of unconsciousness, suspended within the hollow silence of his dream. There was no ground beneath his feet, no sky above only an endless, oppressive void. Then, something moved.
From the darkness, a pitch-black entity slowly emerged its massive form twisting and coiling unnaturally. Countless slick tentacles slithered through the air as if swimming through invisible water, each movement accompanied by a faint, wet sound. Embedded across its body were innumerable eyes of varying sizes, opening one by one, all turning toward a single target.
Alex.
The moment their gazes locked, realization struck him like ice flooding his veins.
Hermaeus Mora.
A suffocating sense of dread crept up his spine, tightening his chest. His breath hitched as though the very air had grown heavier, pressing down on him. His instincts screamed at him to run but his body refused to move.
The writhing mass finally stabilized, looming before him in its full, grotesque majesty. When Hermaeus Mora spoke, his voice reverberated from every direction at once deep, layered, and echoing as if spoken through a thousand throats.
"Calm yourself, mortal. I am here merely to converse."
Alex's hands clenched into fists at his sides, his fingers trembling despite his effort to steady them. His eyes darted over Mora's shifting form, tracking the slow blink of each eye as panic began to swell in his chest.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded, his voice tight and strained. "You wretched, evil creature!"
A low, rippling chuckle echoed through the void. Several of Mora's eyes narrowed with amusement while others widened in curiosity, and his tentacles writhed more eagerly, as if savoring Alex's fear.
"I am meeting you within your dream," Mora replied calmly. "At this very moment, your physical body lies unconscious helpless, unaware."
Alex swallowed hard, his throat dry. His jaw tightened as he forced himself to maintain eye contact, even as his pulse thundered in his ears.
"Then why have you come to me?" he asked, a hint of desperation slipping through his defiance.
Hermaeus Mora leaned closer. One by one, his countless eyes focused sharply on Alex, their collective gaze bearing down on him like a crushing weight. Alex felt as though his thoughts were being peeled open and examined layer by layer.
"I have been observing you for quite some time," Mora said slowly. "You possess a power unknown to me. And you should understand this, mortal when something exists beyond my knowledge, I am consumed by the desire to uncover it."
A thick tentacle slid forward, stopping inches from Alex's chest. Its surface pulsed faintly, veins of dark energy flowing beneath it. The tip curled, extending toward him with a gesture disturbingly similar to an offered handshake.
"How about this?" Mora continued, his tone smooth and coaxing. "Accept my offer. Take my hand, and you shall become mine."
The tentacle lingered, hovering patiently, as if certain of its inevitability.
"In return," Mora whispered, his voice sinking into Alex's mind like ink into water, "I will grant you power beyond imagination."
Alex rejected him without the slightest pause.
"No."
The single word left his mouth sharp and absolute. His jaw set firmly, and despite the tremor running through his body, his eyes burned with resolve.
"I refuse to make a pact that will inevitably lead to my downfall," he continued, his voice rising with restrained anger. "I won't become your eternal slave like Miraak."
The moment that name echoed through the void, the atmosphere twisted.
Hermaeus Mora's tentacles convulsed violently, snapping and coiling in erratic motions as if struck by an unseen force. Several of his countless eyes widened at once, while others narrowed into furious slits. The dark mass around him rippled, churning like a storm-tossed sea.
"How do you know of that?!" Mora thundered.
His voice boomed from every direction, the sound crashing against Alex's mind like a physical blow.
Alex flinched but he did not fall.
Instead, he took a step back.
Then another.
Each step was slow and deliberate, his boots scraping faintly against the intangible ground of the dream. His heart hammered wildly in his chest, yet he refused to break eye contact, even as Mora's looming presence threatened to swallow him whole.
Mora's tentacles gradually stilled, though their tips continued to twitch restlessly.
"You are indeed from another world," Mora said, his tone dark and probing. "But you are… different."
One massive eye shifted closer, studying Alex with unnerving intensity.
"You arrived bearing something. A gift. I do not know what it is. When I attempt to touch what lies within you, I am violently repelled as if something forbids me from entering, from uncovering what resides in your being."
Alex clenched his fists, feeling the pressure of Mora's gaze pressing against his thoughts. Then he straightened, lifting his chin just slightly.
"If you've truly been observing me all this time," Alex said calmly, "then you should already know, shouldn't you?"
For a long moment, the void fell silent.
Mora's tentacles slowly relaxed, their frantic movements easing into a controlled, deliberate sway. The oppressive weight of his anger receded, replaced by cold contemplation.
"Yes," Mora admitted. "I know many things."
His voice softened, becoming distant almost reflective.
"Those from other worlds… your existence has long been interpreted in ours as myths. Fabricated stories. Long ago, people learned of our world through books, legends, and superstition tales that never truly existed in their reality."
Several of Mora's eyes drifted upward, as if recalling forgotten eras.
"And you," he continued, his gaze returning to Alex, "to you, our world was merely a game, was it not?"
Alex swallowed hard. His throat tightened, and a chill settled deep in his chest.
So even people of ancient times had viewed this world as nothing more than a story fairy tales, novels, fantasies. And yet… they ended up here after death, bound by the very narratives they once dismissed.
The realization unsettled him more than Mora's presence ever could.
Mora continued, his tone sharpening once more.
"But you are different. I observed how you instantly absorbed spellbooks and mastered them without effort an ability remarkably similar to my own."
A faint ripple of fascination passed through his many eyes.
"Yet curiously, you cannot absorb knowledge beyond spellbooks. That limitation… that is where we differ."
Mora drifted closer.
His massive eye loomed inches from Alex's face, filling his entire field of vision. Alex could see faint reflections of himself within its surface small, fragile, yet defiant.
"What kind of being are you?" Mora demanded quietly.
"And what power do you truly possess?"
Alex's heart pounded violently in his chest, each beat echoing in his ears like a war drum. His breath came shallow and uneven as cold sweat beaded along his temples. A single thought repeated endlessly in his mind.
Could I die here?
He glanced around the endless void the shifting darkness, the oppressive presence before him.
Is this truly a dream at all… or something more?
Sensing the turmoil within him, Hermaeus Mora withdrew slightly. His massive form receded just enough to ease the crushing pressure, though his countless eyes never stopped watching. His tentacles slowed, swaying with calculated restraint, as his voice returned to a calm, persuasive cadence.
"Allow me to invest in you."
One thick tentacle traced a slow arc through the air, as though outlining an unseen future.
"I will grant you the power to freely wield telekinesis without consequence," Mora continued. "Without your fragile brain exploding under the strain. I will depart for now and return later, should you reconsider my offer to become my subordinate."
Alex clenched his teeth. His trembling hands curled into fists, nails digging into his palms as he forced his breathing to steady. When he spoke, his voice was firm unyielding.
"No."
He lifted his gaze, meeting Mora's countless eyes head-on.
"Even without your power," Alex said, "I will find my own way to master telekinesis."
For a brief moment, silence reigned.
Then Mora's patience shattered.
His tentacles convulsed violently, slamming through the air with a thunderous force that made the void itself ripple.
"You arrogant mortal," Mora roared. "To dare reject my blessing!"
Before Alex could react, the tentacles struck.
They coiled around his arms and legs like living chains, tightening with crushing force. Alex gasped as his body was wrenched off the ground, suspended helplessly in midair.
"I will force it upon you."
In the next instant, a thick, viscous black liquid surged from Mora's form. It poured into Alex's mouth, burning cold as it flooded his throat and lungs. Alex choked violently, his body thrashing against the restraints as his vision blurred.
Then
SYSTEM ALERTS erupted.
Before his eyes, countless notifications appeared, overlapping chaotically.
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[CRITICAL SYSTEM MALFUNCTION]
At the same time, other messages began appearing just as rapidly.
[SYSTEM REPAIR IN PROGRESS]
[ADAPTATION MODULE ACTIVE]
Hermaeus Mora recoiled sharply. Several of his eyes widened in alarm, and his tentacles faltered.
"The essence I injected my power…" Mora growled. "Why can I no longer perceive it?! What is happening inside your body?!"
The system continued operating relentlessly errors and repairs flashing simultaneously. As it adapted to Mora's intrusion, its behavior shifted.
[Unknown Source Extraction in Progress…]
[Unknown Source Extraction in Progress…]
Mora felt it instantly.
His power was being torn away.
The tentacles binding Alex loosened abruptly as Mora staggered back, his form rippling in violent distortion.
"You thief!" Mora bellowed. "What are you doing to me?! Return it! Give back what is mine!"
Alex collapsed to his knees as the restraints vanished, coughing violently. Through blurred vision, he forced his eyes open just in time to see another notification appear.
[Unknown Source Successfully Extracted]
[Sovereign Mind Learned]
Hermaeus Mora trembled.
His entire form quaked with fury, tentacles writhing uncontrollably as his countless eyes locked onto Alex.
"You !!!"
But the moment Mora attempted to move
He couldn't.
An invisible force held him in place.
Alex slowly rose to his feet, his breathing steadying as a profound sense of clarity flooded his mind. The chaos within him settled into absolute stillness.
He blinked once.
Then realization dawned.
"You said this was a dream," Alex said quietly.
A faint smile curved his lips.
"Didn't you?"
His gaze sharpened, confidence replacing fear.
"And you thought you could enter someone else's dream without permission?"
The truth became clear in an instant.
This dream belonged to him.
This was his realm.
And within it
Alex was sovereign.
Reality itself bent to his will.
Anything that did not exist… could be made real.
Alex raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
"Thank you for the power," he said lightly, a short laugh escaping him. "It's mine now. Hahaha."
Hermaeus Mora's eyes widened in pure shock.
Then his form fractured splintering like shattered glass before dissolving entirely, expelled from Alex's dream and mind as if he had never been there.
Still within the fading dream, Alex examined his new ability.
Sovereign Mind:
The brain has reached absolute sovereignty.
The user's mind cannot be interfered with, controlled, or influenced by any external entity.
The user's will can manipulate physical reality through telekinesis without subtle limitations.
Alex exhaled slowly and attempted to wake himself.
A final notification appeared.
[Warning: Body has exceeded capacity.]
[Full Recovery Recommended.]
Without hesitation, Alex selected Yes.
The dream dissolved into darkness.
His consciousness slipped into Full Recovery Mode, plunging him into deep, restorative sleep as his body began accelerating its healing process.
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