//------------------------------//
// Mardum: New Abilities 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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It took Lyra a few minutes to get the hang of riding on the back of her new Felsaber, to which Kayn had to point out what she needed to do at a certain point, but she knew that she would be able to master the art of riding a mount given time, and it appeared that Mardum would provide the perfect opportunity for her to do so. Once she had mastered the basics, and could ride without falling off, she followed the path on her right, as she happened to be facing the gateway at the moment. She knew that the rest of the Illidari had been heading down that pathway after she and the others had activated the gateway, though she knew that it was time that she and Kayn get underway and see what havoc they could bring to the demons that called this world home.

A few seconds later she found two of her comrades interrogating a new type of demon she had never seen before, though before she could ask the question Kayn told her that the hood wearing demon, that also liked to float everywhere, was an inquisitor type demon. Apparently they liked capturing people, regardless of who or what they were, and stealing their secrets, or sometimes using them as bait for a specific person that they were trying to hunt down. Once they reached the contained demon Lyra noticed that two of the demon hunters she had met one time in the past, Sevis Brightflame and Allari the Souleater, were trying to get information from the dazed demon.

Lyra sighed as she climbed off her Felsaber, because based on everything she knew, from all the tomes she had read so far, she could tell that one of them had something they wanted to tell her... though at the same time she noticed that Kayn was moving forward so he could make sure the attack was moving on schedule.

"Ah, Lyra Heartstrings," Allari commented, barely glancing back at Lyra as she approached the pair of demon hunters, as she was focusing all her energy on interrogating the demon in front of her, "All the demons I have interrogated so far know nothing about the location of the Keystone, though they all repeatedly mention their loyalty to some queen that apparently controls Mardum. I know that Cyana and Jace moved forward with the rest of our forces, though I think that one of them might have been captured while they were moving through the area in front of us."

"Let me guess, I need to find the key and rescue anyone that's been captured?" Lyra asked, though at the same time she had to wonder how the others had been captured, as they were supposed to avoid that sort of thing, but she knew that she would never figure out how it happened.

"That is a sensible course of action." Allari replied, though it sounded like she was pleased that Lyra had caught onto what she was going to tell her to do, "The key is being held by a demon that specializes in stealing the souls of its victims, though you should be able to rescue those that were captured without losing anyone if you move quickly. I have also learned that a new inquisitor demon has arrived, though instead of wasting our time with trying to rip the information from him I think it would be beneficial for someone to kill him and take his power from him."

"We should also open the second gateway when you get the chance," Sevis commented, to which Allari nodded for a few seconds as she returned to her work, "we can bring in additional reinforcements to make this assault much easier."

Lyra knew that there was something else that Allari had waited to tell her about, because she had long since suspected that she and the other demon hunters might be able to steal the powers of the demons they slay, though this only confirmed her suspicions. She also had no idea that there was a second gateway in the area ahead of them, but now that she knew that she resolved to keep her eyes open for some powerful souls that could be fed into it, so she could summon whoever was waiting for the gate to open. With some new missions in mind Lyra turned down the path that was around the corner and headed towards the area that the demons currently controlled, where she noticed that the Felsaber made sure that she was in sight in case she needed it while also keeping its distance.

It didn't take Lyra long to find one of the jailer class demons, as they were the ones carrying a cage on their backs as they floated around the place, though as she engaged it she had to deal with a black felhound that wanted a piece of her. She moved around her opponents and quickly struck the felhound down, as it was the easier of the two she could pick from, though once it fell down she had to move out of the jailer's attack before she could retaliate with her own attacks. Fortunately for her the jailer fell within a matter of seconds, meaning that it was much weaker than what she was expecting, but it didn't have the key she was searching for, to which she turned her gaze towards the other three jailer demons that were floating around the area and knew that one of them had to be carrying the key.

She spent a few minutes cutting her way to each of the remaining jailer demons, to which she repeated what she had done to the first one, though when she finished off the fourth jailer demon she smiled as she pulled the key from its corpse. With the key in hand she returned to the first jail cell that she had passed, to which she released Cyana Nightglaive from her cell, to which she received some gratitude and a promise to never let it happen again in return. Lyra beckoned for Cyana to follow her as she made her way to the second cell that she had spotted, to which she rescued Belath Dawnblade. It was then that Cyana pointed out another cell, one that happened to be in a cave, so while she and Belath dealt with the demons standing guard Lyra slipped in and freed Izal Whitemoon.

With those three demon hunters freed they made their way to the final captive, one Mannethrel Darkstar, and rescued him as well, to which the five of them changed course and headed towards the inquisitor demon that was floating in front of the massive infernal that Lyra had been ignoring the entire time. Inquisitor Baleful, the inquisitor demon that they were hunting for, stared at them as they approached him, though before anyone could say anything he started summoning eyes that fired green bursts of energy at them... indicating that he intended to fight them instead of trying anything else. Part way through the battle Baleful rose into the air and surrounded himself with a shield, to which he ordered the large infernal to start throwing burning rocks at them, but thanks to their empowered sight Lyra and the others could literally see where the attacks would land, allowing them to move out of the way before the rocks even hit the ground around them.

Once Baleful grew tired of the infernal missing, and ordered him to stop, he lowered the shield and returned to the battle, to which the group closed in on him and took him out, though once the demon drew his last breath he shouted something about his eyes and died... to which Lyra felt a new fel power surge into her body, which she suspected was the same attack that the inquisitor had used with his eyes, the green laser attack. As the other demon hunters moved onto the area that would be their next camp, leaving Lyra to activate the second gateway, she approached one of the demons that was still hanging around and engaged it in battle, though when she used the new attack she was delighted to see that she basically loosed a surge of energy from her eyes, in the form of a pair of lasers, that dealt damage to her target.

Lyra had to admit that the 'Eye Beam' attack, as she decided to call it, would be a useful ability when she was surrounded by a fair number of enemies, but now that she knew what the ability did she called her Felsaber to her and rode to the second gateway... to which she discovered a group of dead Broken soldiers and a dying mystic.

"Lyra, you must hurry!" Sevis commented, surprising Lyra by the fact that he had been standing there and hadn't opened the gateway yet, which meant that there had to be a reason as to why she was the one that was opening all the gateways so far, "The mystic and his brothers have given their lives to guard and activate the gateway's activator... we only need you to deal the final blow and activate the gateway."

Lyra looked at the dying mystic and wished that there was another way to activate the gateway, but with so little options open to them at the moment she sighed and plunged one of her warglaives into the mystic's chest, allowing the activator to devour his soul as his lifeless body hit the ground. Once the deed was done she activated the activator and watched as the remnants of the Coilskar Naga were summoned to Mardum, though she caught a hint of sadness on their leader's face before she steeled herself.

"Lyra Heartstrings, I am Lady S'theno," the head naga said, to which she bowed her head towards Lyra for a second, though that was followed by her returning to her previous stance, "Lord Illidan sends his wishes for a speedy success."

Lyra smiled as the naga moved out to make sure that the area behind them was secure, which apparently would serve as a foothold for them, though that was followed by her climbing back onto her Felsaber and returning to the path that the other demon hunters had taken... though after some time she noticed Jace Darkweaver standing in front of some sort on contraption, though he was smiling when she approached him.

"I sense that you have grown stronger since the last time we saw each other, Lyra." Jace commented, to which he waited for Lyra to stop in front of him before continuing, "Does that mean that you have stolen a demon's essence?"

"I took the essence of Inquisitor Baleful a few minutes ago." Lyra replied, though at the same time she had to wonder why this was important, especially when they needed to move forward.

"Good, then we can use some of his power against whoever controls Mardum and see what they are planning," Jace said, to which he beckoned to the contraption that was sitting behind him, "Just place your hands on the Nether Crucible and use some of Baleful's essence to see what the Legion commanders are planning... and then we can get to work taking them out and securing the third and final gateway."

Lyra nodded and touched the Nether Crucible, though when she closed her eyes she focused on whatever ritual was involved in using the device in front of her. That was followed by her eyes focusing on a distant sight, where she discovered a bulky demon that had armor on its arms, shoulders, waist, and legs, while at the same time it carried a large sword in one hand. That demon was kneeling in front of some sort of demon that appeared to be a cross between a spider and a demon, one that appeared to be a queen by the body structure, but Lyra knew that this had to be the queen that the other demons had told Allari about.

"There are demon hunters on my world, Doom Commander!" the queen demon snapped, indicating that she was mad and was trying to keep her emotions in check, which told Lyra that the demon had to be worried about something or someone, "This is unacceptable!"

"My eredar are summoning in more demons to attack them from behind, your highness." the Doom Commander replied, though at the same time Lyra knew that she and the others would have to be careful in the future.

"Do not let them enter the volcano." the queen commanded, though at the same time the other demon flinched, as if expecting to be hit or something, "The key to the Legion's worlds must not fall into their hands, Beliash."

"I will personally deal with their leader," the doom commander, Beliash, answered, which told Lyra that he would be gunning for her when she and the others entered the next area of Mardum, "my queen."

"See that you do." the queen said, to which she started moving away from the area she and Beliash were in, while at the same time cutting the connection that Lyra had been using to spy on them.

Once the connection had been severed Lyra turned to Jace and told him what she had seen, to which she discovered that he had seen it all as well, as he had placed a hand on her shoulder and had seen the meeting as well, though he wasn't too pleased with the Legion having spider demons.

"The next phase of our assault should be obvious," Jace commented, though even as he said that Lyra nodded, because she had the feeling that she knew what he was going to say, "The others and I will occupy the attention of Beliash's eredar and the reinforcements that he's going to summon in, which should allow you to slip up to where he's waiting and take him out. With his power coursing through your veins you should be able to access the final gateway, though I'm sure that one of our brothers or sisters will have captured a powerful demon for you to use. Once the rest of our forces are summoned to Mardum we should be able to deal with the main bulk of our enemy's forces and acquire the Keystone... and then the real fun starts."

Lyra, once again, found it odd that Jace and the other Illidari were basically allowing her to take out the more powerful demons and steal their essences, though she had to wonder if it was because she was the newest recruit that had joined their cause and had gone through the ritual. Technically she was the weakest of the Illidari, as the others had years of experience backing them and had no doubt absorbed quite the number of demon essences since they started following the path that Lord Illidan was taking. She, on the other hand, had six months of training and had absorbed the essence of one demon, which, in her mind, meant that she was weaker than everyone else and explained why she was being told to gather the essences of certain demons.

In the end Lyra sighed and nodded her head, to which she climbed back onto the Felsaber and rode towards the area that Beliash was using to summon more reinforcements, where she discovered that the other members of the Illidari were already attacking the eredar that happened to be standing guard by the portals they had opened. It didn't take her long to find where her target was waiting, as he hadn't moved as his eredar summoned in reinforcements, but she climbed off the Felsaber and charged at Beliash. The Doom Commander activated two nearby pillars that apparently fired beams of energy at the area around her, to which Lyra spotted some power crystals in front of the pillars and smashed them with her own power, shattering them and stopping the beams in their tracks.

With that taken care of she returned her attention to Beliash and dodged the attack that was coming her way, though she had to suffer through some bolts made of shadow that he threw at her as she dealt damage to his body. The exchange went on like that for a few minutes, where she dodged an attack and tried to ignore the shadow bolts while dealing damage to her opponent... though that was before Beliash finally crumbled on the ground and died, allowing her to absorb his essence, and his power, into her body.

With her target dead, and his power taken from him, Lyra climbed back onto her Felsaber and rode up the pathway that would take her to the third gateway... where she discovered Sevis standing near the bodies of several large creatures, though it appeared that he was annoyed and worried at the same time.

"Lyra, your just in time. We have a problem." Sevis said, to which he gestured to the bodies and the nearby activator, "It appears that the Brood Queen you spotted earlier has done something to the gateway, as the powerful souls of the Mo'arg I have killed have done nothing to activate the activator. Thus we come to our problem; the soul of a demon hunter might be able to overcome whatever the Brood Queen has done to the gateway, but that means that one of us has to die to summon the rest of our allies... and I am ready to sacrifice myself for the cause."

"Come on, there's no need to joke about sacrificing ourselves to activate the gateway," Lyra replied, though she was seriously hoping that this was an attempt to pull a fast one on her, to which she gestured down to the fighting below them, "I'm sure that we can find a suitable demon down there and use his souls to power the gateway..."

"Most of the demons that the eredar summoned are already dead, and the rest of our forces have moved onward." Sevis stated, to which he held his hands out and beckoned for her to come towards him, "Its just you and me right now, so I will gladly give my life to ensure that the Keystone falls into the hands of Lord Illidan and the Illidari."

Lyra really didn't want to go through something like this, where she had to choose between letting Sevis live or killing him where he stood, but this was a decision she couldn't make lightly. She also noted that the other demon hunter had basically told her that she wasn't allowed to sacrifice herself to activate the gateway, which could very well mean that Lord Illidan might have ordered the others to keep her alive. After a few seconds of thinking over the situation in her head, and coming to terms with what she had to do, Lyra let out a sigh as she pulled out one of her warglaives... though as she drove it into Sevis' chest, and cut his life short, she felt some tears rolling down her face, because despite everything she had already been through she wasn't ready for something like this.

As Sevis' body hit the ground the gateway opened, to which Lyra wiped away the tears that she had felt and watched as the Shivarra, which were tall female demons that had six arms, which meant that they each carried six weapons at any given time, were summoned to Mardum... though their leader had a blue flame dancing around the headpiece she was wearing, which was different from the reds and greens of the other Shivarra.

"Ah, there you are." the head Shivarra said, though Lyra couldn't tell whether the demon was happy to be here or if she was annoyed about something, "Lord Illidan has placed my Shivarra at your disposal. A small force has infiltrated the Black Temple, but the main force, the Sha'tari army, is being repelled as we speak. We are to obtain the Sargerite Keystone with due haste and return to aid the defense."

For a moment Lyra had forgotten about the fact that an army was attacking the Black Temple, because she had been occupied with tearing apart the demons and absorbing the powers of Inquisitor Baleful and Doom Commander Beliash, but now that she was reminded of the attack she knew that they needed to be quick about retrieving the Keystone. One of her kind was on that battlefield, either on the outside or walking with the group that had infiltrated the temple itself, which meant that she needed to pick up the pace before something terrible happened. She quickly climbed back onto the Felsaber and turned towards the path that the rest of the Illidari had gone down while she was killing Beliash.

She needed to retrieve the Keystone with as much haste as she could muster, so she could prevent a disaster from happening and stop the assault on the Black Temple... though she had the feeling that the Brood Queen was going to make things difficult for her in the near future.