Trixie and the rest of her friends watched Lyra for a moment, as she jumped down from the vine she was standing on and glided down to where they were standing, shocking the druids by the fact that she had demonic wings that appeared whenever she did this. Trixie knew that her friend was ready for a fight, if the look in her eye was anything to consider, but at the same time she knew that this was the right thing to do, because Ysera was going to conquer Val'sharah if someone didn't stop her soon.
"So, Tyrande, what move are you going to make?" Lyra asked, barely giving the High Priestess a passing glance, indicating that the two of them were at odds with each other and that she didn't like Tyrande very much.
"Malfurion, my love… My heart breaks for him, but I cannot follow where he goes." Tyrande replied, her tone telling the group that she longed to rescue her beloved from Xavius' clutches, but at the same time she clearly knew what needed to be done, "I have sworn myself to Elune, my goddess, to defend her temples and lands with all that I am. I cannot stand by while my order is in danger. May she keep you in her graces, Malfurion."
Despite the fact that she and Tyrande were at odds with each other, and that Tyrande absolutely hated demons and demon hunters, Lyra could tell that her eyes were glistening with tears, meaning that she definitely cared for Malfurion and hated doing what was right when he was in danger. A few seconds later, however, she turned towards them all and climbed onto her saber, to which Lyra and Trixie did the same time, before Tyrande beckoned for them to follow her lead.
"Come with me." Tyrande commanded, though as they moved away from Shala'nir she decided to explain everything to the group, or rather it might have been her way to come to terms with what was happening, "Ysera won’t stop until this whole realm is plunged into the Nightmare. Xavius is using Malfurion to bait me, to distract me from what must be done. We are the only ones who can stop Ysera. Ah, Malfurion, my beloved! For a hundred hundred years he slept beneath Moonglade. Whenever I was plagued with doubt, I would descend into his barrow. I watched over him as he slept... even in slumber, his presence calmed me. I left my fears below the earth and emerged, ready to lead my people. When Malfurion returned to my side, we worked as one. As if he had never been away. Have you ever loved as I have?"
"All of us have encountered friends that are dear to our hearts," Trixie replied, knowing that it wasn't the answer that Tyrande was looking for, but at the same time it was the only one she could give, as neither she or Lyra had actually found anyone to love with every fiber of their being.
"Now Xavius has me by the throat." Tyrande continued, almost as if she hadn't heard Trixie's response to her question, though at the same time Trixie wasn't bothered by it considering that too much was happening to the High Priestess at the moment, "I must abandon my beloved, and contend with the most beautiful creature I have ever known."
"Ysera is no longer the creature you remember," Lyra stated, though even as she spoke she knew that a fight was coming their way, but she was ready for whatever the corrupted dragon could throw her way, "She's now an instrument of death, destruction, and corruption... and she won't stop until either the entirety of Val'sharah is under Xavius' control, or someone puts her down. Death is the only thing she deserves..."
Trixie understood what Lyra was talking about, because her fellow Equestrian was still pissed off that they might have been able to avoid all of this if Ysera had told the druids about the danger that Xavius posed to all of them, instead of keeping the warning to herself. Now that Ysera was working for Xavius, to spread the Nightmare around Val'sharah, she had been corrupted beyond the point of redemption, which meant that the only option for them was to kill the former Dragon Aspect. As Trixie thought about that she realized that this would technically be the fourth Dragon Aspect she was going to have a hand in killing; as the first one she felled was Malygos, during the Nexus Wars while she and her guild were on Northrend, followed by Murozond, the twisted future version of Nozdormu, and ultimately brought about the death of Deathwing... before he could destroy the entirety of Azeroth with a second, and much more powerful, cataclysm.
That series of thoughts made her weep for Alexstrasza, the Queen of the Dragons and leader of the Red Dragonflight, because today was the day that she was going to lose another of her siblings to some form of madness... though her thoughts were interrupted as they rounded a corner and found Ysera attacking the temple, and its guardians.
"This is your end, mortals." Ysera shouted, while at the same time swinging her tail and knocked some of the temple guardians onto their backs, though it was clear that, in her twisted mind, she was enjoying the destruction that she was causing, "The dream is undone."
Tyrande and the others dismounted and prepared themselves for the incoming fight, though before any of them could step forward Lyra held a hand out to stop them from doing anything. Trixie wondered if her friend had a death wish, because it took twenty to forty adventurers to bring down the last three Aspects she had fought, and that was when they were still empowered by the Titans. Even without that great power lingering in their bodies they were still the oldest and most powerful dragons in the entirety of Azeroth, which meant that there was no reason for Lyra to believe that she could take Ysera out on her own. Trixie also knew that if Lyra died that the Legion would grab her soul and twist her into a monster that might be more powerful than anything they were currently fighting... but she stood down and resolved to step in the moment her friend needed assistance.
Lyra, on the other hand, draw the Twinblades as she walked up the steps, her eyes never leaving the corrupted dragon that was ignoring her and her friends... though once she was on the same level as Ysera she knew that it was time to get the party started.
"YSERA!" Lyra called out, causing the corrupted dragon to stop attacking the guardians in front of her, before turning towards the source of the noise, while Lyra held both of the warglaives out and prepared herself, "Did you see this coming, when you noticed that Xavius was planning on attacking Val'sharah?"
"You will burn with the rest of Val'sharah!" Ysera declared, to which she raised her head and roared at Lyra, while at the same time the druids moved away and healed their allies now that the opportunity had presented itself.
Lyra brought up her defenses as Ysera attacked her, though she was surprised when one of the claws slipped passed her defenses and poked her in her side, hard enough to actually puncture her skin, but that told her that she couldn't underestimate her opponent. In response to the claw puncturing her side Lyra swung her weapon at the claw and forced Ysera back, though that was followed by her going on the offensive to avoid being wounded again. Lyra had to turn Ysera away from the area that her friends were standing in, as the corrupted dragon tried to breathe her foul fire breath on her, before she decided to go on the offensive.
Lyra hacked into Ysera's legs as she avoided both the claws and the dragon's mouth, though even as she danced around the temple's courtyard she noticed that her warglaives left shallow cuts in the corrupted dragon's skin, which only bled a tiny bit. The cuts proved her theory that the Nightmare Lord had empowered Ysera the moment he corrupted her, which made sense considering that powerful heroes would try to stop her from wrecking the temple. At the same time she counted herself lucky that she had stopped Ysera's first attack in its tracks, otherwise the dragon would have cut her open before she had a chance to defend herself. She also noticed that Ysera must have done a number on the guardians that had been protecting the temple, as all of them were watching what was happening with a look of interest in their eyes.
Sure, Lyra had beckoned for her friends to stay back so she could determine what sort of defenses the dragon had, but she had no reason why the guardians had backed off as well... and that meant that she was at a slight disadvantage, one that Ysera was using to her benefit.
"What's wrong little demon, are you getting tired already?" Ysera asked, though at the same time she chuckled as her claws reached out for Lyra, who backed away from them as they scratched the stone beneath them, "Come, show me your full power, otherwise you'll die in a blaze of foolishness."
Lyra growled as the fel energy within her sprung to the surface, igniting her transformation into her Havoc form as she jumped into the air and landed in front of Ysera's face, where she cut several gashes into the dragon's leg and forced her backwards a tiny bit. Lyra had been hoping to avoid using this power until she truly needed it, but with what little damage she was doing, and the annoyance she felt because of it and Ysera's taunting, she knew that this was the best chance she had at besting the corrupted dragon. Her swings were faster, her strikes had more power backing them, her kicks could shatter a stone pillar if she wanted to, and she checked that one after her first transformation, and she was much faster in her Havoc form... but despite all of these improvements Ysera refused to go down and die.
It was infuriating for Lyra, because it appeared that Xavius had stripped Ysera of any common sense and turned her into a killing machine that existed for his conquest, as several of the cuts she had delivered to the corrupted dragon's body would have felled a lesser demon in seconds. Ysera seemed immune to the pain Lyra was inflicting upon her body, another sign of the Nightmare Lord's tempering, and it appeared that Lyra was going to do something drastic if she wanted to beat Ysera without getting anyone else caught in the crossfire. As Lyra dodged the next claw attack that Ysera sent her way, however, she failed to account for the corrupted dragon's tail and was painfully reminded of its existence as she was knocked back onto the stairs that lead to the room she and her friends had been in when they were trying to recover the Tears of Elune.
Before she had a chance to move, and get her back off the steps, Ysera brought her massive paw down on her and trapped her there, while at the same time putting enough pressure to crack some of her ribs and cause her to curse herself for being so careless to miss something so important.
"Did you really think that you could overpower me, little demon?" Ysera asked, to which she applied a little more pressure to her paw, as she intended to crush her foe slowly and enjoy the pain she was inflicting at the same time, "Thanks to my master I am nearly as powerful as I was before Deathwing was destroyed, and it took forty of the strongest heroes that the Horde and the Alliance could muster to bring him down. In a one on one battle like this you have no hope of beating me, even with the training and power you acquired for your own master... and you'll be overjoyed to hear that you'll be joining him soon enough!"
Ysera gripped Lyra with her claws and picked her up for a moment, though that was before she let Lyra go and spun around so her tail would strike her foe, sending Lyra into the wall behind her and causing her to moan as pain pulsed through her body. Before Lyra could pull herself free from the position she was in, however, Ysera leveled her head with where she was resting and loosed a volley of Nightmare colored bursts at her, each of which impacted her body and exploded seconds later.
"LYRA!" Trixie and the others shouted, because they couldn't believe what they were seeing, though at the same time Tyrande simply shook her head, as if she expected something like this to happen, while only Trixie had some tears in her eyes, "She's... she's gone... I can't believe that I've lost her already..."
Azuregos opened his mouth to say something, anything that might comfort his friend, but before he could do so a bolt of lightning, which was fel green colored and had a hint of darkness surrounding it, burst out of the smoke and barreled into Ysera's body, knocking her back a couple of steps. The group, seeing the corrupted dragon taking some sort of damage, turned their eyes to the smoke once more and found that Lyra, in her base demon hunter form, was standing in between the two sections of the building that were on her left and right. For a moment Trixie was happy to see that Lyra was fine, especially with what Ysera had been doing to her, but as she looked at her fellow Equestrian she noticed something odd; Lyra's eyes had the same sinister purple mist that was pouring out of her eyes, while at the same time the area around her eyes had turned green... and her actual eyes were a deep scarlet color.
This was similar to when Lyra had fought the demon Gravax, the demon that was assaulting the Temple of Elune in his own way, though this time Trixie could tell that the mist was more solid than it was the previous time... and she could feel a sinister power coming from her friend. Trixie knew what was happening, Lyra's hatred for Ysera and all her mistakes had pushed the other Equestrian to combine what she assumed were the powerful fel magic and her own arcane magic... when in reality she was combining fel magic and dark magic. Trixie wondered if Lyra would consider using this power if she knew that she was using dark magic, something that must have awoken inside her at some point in time, as she knew that the former musician had no knowledge of dark magic.
A few seconds later, however, Lyra gripped her warglaives and charged at Ysera, though this time she moved much faster than she had been in her empowered state and swung at Ysera's leg, cutting a larger gash into the dragon's scales as she landed on the floor behind her opponent. Ysera, even though she was corrupted, let out a roar that made it sound like she was confused about something, though as she turned around and swung her claws at Lyra, so she could win the fight, Lyra simply raised one of the warglaives and stopped the attack in its tracks. As Ysera raised her head in surprise Lyra took advantage of the opening that was presented to her, to which she jabbed forward with her other warglaive and cut into part of Ysera's neck... to which the dragon pulled back and pushed herself into the air.
Normally a flying dragon would indicate that warrior type heroes would have to wait before being able to fight again, but Lyra, being a demon hunter, had several tricks left in her arsenal... though she unfurled her own wings, rapidly ascended to a spot behind Ysera's back, and threw the Twinblades at her target. The group watched as the two warglaives came into contact with Ysera's shoulder blades, where her wings were connected to her body, and was forced back onto the ground by the pain that coursed through her body. Lyra, deciding that it was time to permanently ground her opponent, raced down towards where Ysera was resting and struck the area near where her left warglaive had pierced the dragon's body, feeling the bone shatter beneath her hoof... and render Ysera incapable of flying at the same time.
Once Lyra had pulled out the first warglaive she flew back into the air and repeated the attack on the other shoulder, making good on her decision to permanently ground the corrupted dragon... though once that was done she landed in front of Ysera and smirked at her wounded opponent. Ysera, on the other hand, growled as she lunged forward with the intent to chomp Lyra to bits, but Lyra had seen the desperate attack coming and moved to the side, where she spun around and cut a larger gash into the dragon's neck. As Ysera staggered for a moment, and opened her defenses even more, Lyra gathered some of her energy into her right warglaive and swung it at the dragon's body, blasting a long gash into Ysera's chest... knocking her onto her side and causing her to lay there for a few moments.
A few seconds later a clearly defeated Ysera raised her head once more and Lyra held her weapons out to deal even more punishment before she finally ended the fight... but before either of them did anything all of the assembled druids gasped and pointed at the sky, where Lyra say that the sun and the moon were forming an eclipse with the stars visible all around them. Lyra watched as some sort of magic or energy radiated off of the eclipse, though when she turned to Ysera she noticed that the red look in her eyes had disappeared and were replaced by a calming blue. It was in that moment that the corrupted dragon seemed to finally accept her fate, as she collapsed and closed her eyes, though at the same time the tendrils of energy wrapped around her body for a few seconds.
Everyone watched as the tendrils pulled Ysera's soul, or more accurately her essence, out of her corrupted body and gently carried a ghostly version of Ysera, as she was before Xavius had corrupted her, into the sky above them all. A few seconds later, when Ysera's spirit was closer to the eclipse, the tendrils turned what was left of the Dreamer's essence into a new batch of stars, which looked like a dragon taking flight. As the eclipse withdrew its power, and finally broke apart, everyone gathered around the shell of Ysera, which broke down into a mass of plant growth... though in the middle of it all, where the dragon's heart had been located, they watched as the corrupted Tears of Elune were lifted into the air by the plants and the taint was expelled.
As the Tears were restored to their former glory, however, all of the druids and night elves that were assembled started to weep for the loss of Ysera, remembering who she had been while rejecting the monster she had become. Trixie knew that their next course of action would be to make sure that the Tears were safely stored inside Dalaran, with the Tidestone, before she and the others even considered rescuing Malfurion. Then, once the Tears were secured and Malfurion was saved, she, Azuregos, and Lyra would see if anyone knew where Maiev went, as that was the whole reason they had come to this region in the first place.
Lyra, on the other hand, was pissed off even more now, and it wasn't because she had been denied the pleasure of actually killing Ysera herself, but rather because of what a certain goddess had just done. Elune had, on a whim, plucked out Ysera's soul and created a new constellation out of her, making sure that the people of Azeroth didn't forget the dragon. Lyra knew that Ysera didn't deserve what she had been given, not when she was responsible for everything that was happening in Val'sharah at the moment, and that alone made her want to find a way to punch Elune in the face, despite the fact that no one had any idea how to contact the mysterious goddess.
Lyra growled as she turned away from the night elves and druids that were mourning the loss of Ysera and celebrating the fact that the temple had been spared... there was someone she intended to hunt down, and now that the druids had been helped it was time to find out where Maiev was hiding.