While the doors were heavy, Janius and Fendros were able to pry them open easily enough. They were, fortunately, not locked from the inside. As soon as they were open, Kaleeth was the first to charge in, followed shortly behind by Lorag. However, what met them inside was not a horde of Daedra ready to defend their master, but rather…nothing. Even Meesei looked somewhat bewildered when she walked in behind them. The entire interior of the tower was just…empty. It was not just furniture it lacked, but there were no walls, no floors above them, and certainly no stairs leading up. History described the Crystal Tower as being a grand and beautiful structure inside and out, rivaling the finest of palaces across Tamriel. This version of the tower was well and truly a husk compared to those stories. 

The pack hardly had time to process their discovery before a commotion turned their attention back outside. It took only a moment for Ri’vashi to rush up to the open door and shout for their attention. “Quickly! There’s something happening out here!”

Rushing back outside, Meesei’s gaze turned to the sky above. The very top of the tower glowed with an even more intense light than before. It cast nearly the whole valley in a deep violet light just before a barrage of hundreds, if not thousands of glowing orbs were released from the top. All of them descended down into the area that had been their battlefield a few minutes prior. Where each touched the ground, a conjuration portal appeared. An entire [i]army’s[/i] worth of portals. Daedra poured onto the battlefield, and though they were somewhat distant at the bottom of the hill, one could tell that few, if any were mere fodder. These were daedroth, harvesters, ogrims, dremora commanders; their elite troops. For Vile to have been able to summon so many of them, he must have pulled them from elsewhere on the battlefield. The rest of their forces would certainly be able to push forward as a result, but nothing else would matter if they could not reach Vile. 

Meesei let out a growl. Vile had to expend an [i]immense[/i] amount of power to summon this army, but clearly, it was power he had available. At this point, there was no doubt that he understood what they were doing. Meesei just hoped that it was too late for him to stop them. Lorag did not wait a moment after seeing the army appear to jump into action. He did not know entirely how the lifts beside the door worked, but there was a prominent lever that he quickly pulled. Right away, gears in the mechanism started turning and the chains moving to slowly bring the lift down from far above. He did not know what magic gave it motion, but it seemed to work on its own. 

Though they did have at least one option to reach the top, Meesei still did not seem entirely confident in it. “That may not be fast enough.” She remarked before looking up to the very top of the tower. Without another word, she extended her hand upwards and placed all of her focus onto a singular point. However, she seemed to struggle uncharacteristically with concentrating her magic into a coherent spell. With as dire as their situation was, she did not waste much time before giving up her efforts. It is no good. The sheer concentration of magicka here creates too much interference. I can’t make a stable portal. Not under my own power.” 

Meesei soon turned her gaze towards one of the nearby pillars of magicka that spiraled up the side of the tower. They were the source of the problem, but they could, perhaps, provide a solution. “Sabine, let me borrow your staff. I have an idea.”