He was there, waiting for me.

But it wasn't so much the fact that Dagoth Ur was there - I expected that much.

No, what shocked me was what was behind him.

Behind him, a huge statue, or creature, breathing fire and steam.

Then, it hit me: This was Akulakhan, a thing that was neither dead or alive. A golem, a thing brought to life solely thought the power of the Heart of Lorkhan.

"What a fool you are! I am a god! How can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating innocence. How could you be so naive? There is no escape. No Recall or Intervention spell will work in this place. Come. Lay down your weapons. It is not too late for my mercy."

I cast the scroll of the Sixth Barrier, 60 seconds of shielding.

As quickly as I could, I used every enchanted ring and amulet I had, every summoned creature spell I could muster, bringing forth a mighty army to fight on my behalf.

I didn't know how well they would do - Dagoth Ur would be impossible to kill. Yet, I had to do something to get him out of my way while I made it down to the Heart.

"Dagoth Ur!" I shouted in defiance, "You may win this battle, but by my long white beard, I swear, you'll remember this fight for the rest of your unnatural life!"

Dagoth Ur began his attack, sending wave after wave of weakening spells at me.

I shouted to my summoned creatures to attack!

Wave after wave of summoned creatures attacked Dagoth Ur. As he defeated them, I re-summoned them, joining their fellow creatures in battle.

Although they could not kill or destroy him (the Heart kept bringing him back to life), they could push him back, away from me.

Even through the shield, his spells managed to affect me, draining me of my strength.

Suddenly, one of my summoned creatures managed to push Dagoth Ur off the edge of the ledge!

Like lemmings, every single summoned creature jumped over the edge of the cavern, chasing Dagoth Ur into whatever he managed to fall into.

At least, now he was out of my hair for a few minutes.

I took those few moments to do a restore spell on my strength, willpower, intelligence, and agility.

Once that was done, I looked up, and just stared into the face of this monster he was creating.

It was covered in a mixture of flesh and metal. Then I realized something horrid: Corprus - it was made of corprus flesh. That's what Dagoth Ur was doing with all those "offerings" of flesh from all of his Sixth House bases that I had seen. Those afflicted with this disease were being used as a resource to make this creature into what it was to be.

I made my way around behind Akulakhan, continuing down the ledge to the rope bridge leading to the Heart.

Suddenly, one of Dagoth Ur's dreamers ran to attack me, armed only with a wood club.

A spell of Medusa's Gaze, followed by a Toxic Cloud spell finished him off quickly.    

Two more dreamers, armed only with clubs, came at me. All met their fate at the hands of a deadly spell from my hand.

An ash slave tried to use a shock spell on me. A home-made potion prevented it from even tickling my nose. He met his fate via the mighty fist of a Storm Antroch.

I was nearly three quarters of the way down the spiral ledge now.

I looked down and ahead of me. I could see the rope bridge clearly now. The army I had summoned earlier had vanished back into Oblivion, but they had managed to push Dagoth Ur into the lava pit below.

There might still be enough time to destroy the Heart after all.

I came around to the front of Akulakhan.

On the other end of the rope bridge, connected to several pipes, I could see it: the Heart of Lorkhan, pulsing with power.

I did have to wonder: Isn't the heart supposed to be in the rib cage?

Then again, what do I know about building such things?