//------------------------------//
// Suramar: Gul'dan 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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When Lyra, Trixie, and the rest of the heroes stepped through the other side of the portal, provided by the echo of Elisande, they found themselves at the top of the Nighthold, no doubt where the Eye of Amun'thul was located, and found the old orc warlock, Gul'dan himself, standing in the center of the Titan artifact. This was the first time that Lyra was laying eyes on the infamous orc, the one that Khadgar and a vast number of heroes despised with a burning passion, where she discovered that he was hunched over a tiny bit, while six spikes grew out of his back. Lyra discovered that Gul'dan was wearing a robe that revealed his chest, as if he didn't care about that glaring weakness, while there were a few skulls scattered across his attire. She could also tell that he possessed an incredible amount of Fel energy in his body, which made sense considering that his master was Sargeras, though that meant that this fight was going to be much harder than what she originally thought it would be.

Before they could even make a plan of attack this time around, or even study the statues and structure that was around them, they all heard the sound of someone chuckling, to which they all turned their attention towards Gul'dan as he looked at them all.

"Ah, yes... the heroes have arrived." Gul'dan said, though his voice was filled with confidence, meaning that he fully believed that he was going to overcome them and the weapons that they were carrying, "So persistent, so confident... but your arrogance will be your undoing. Heroes of the Alliance, have you forgotten your humiliation on the Broken Shore? How your precious High King was bent and broken before me? Will you beg for your lives as he did, whimpering like some worthless dog? Your pathetic Alliance will fall to dust. Your new boy King will bow down and serve me, as will all of you!"

The heroes that served the Alliance and the various rulers, including the new High King, Anduin Wyrnn, growled as they stared at Gul'dan, though this only told Lyra that their foe was taunting them and trying to provoke them into ruining themselves before the battle even started... while at the same time the more friendly members of the Horde rested a hand on the shoulders of the Alliance heroes to calm them down.

"And what about you, heroes of the Horde?" Gul'dan inquired, causing the Horde heroes to snap their heads towards him, while at the same time grinning at the hatred that he saw in their eyes, "Have you forgotten your humiliation on the Broken Shore? How your mighty Warchief was stuck in the belly like a helpless piglet? Will you die slowly as he did, consumed by fel corruption and squealing for a merciful end? Your pathetic Horde will fall to dust. In the end, death will inherit this world... and she will be waiting."

Trixie knew that both the heroes of the Alliance and the Horde wanted nothing more than to jump forward and rip Gul'dan apart, and she could feel her own rage building as her fingers shifted into sharpened talons for a moment, but none of them made a move, since that would be falling into Gul'dan's plan... though at the same time the orc focused on more more target, one that everyone had seen coming since they started this invasion.

"And you, Lyra Heartstrings, what will you do?" Gul'dan asked, though this time around he chuckled as Trixie grabbed onto Lyra before she could fly into battle, as he was enjoying himself way too much at this point in time, "The husk of your master, the great Illidan Stormrage, has proven to be the most ideal vessel for my master's glory. Sargeras will rise, and together, we will watch this world burn. The question is whether you're willing to join the winning side and hand over the remaining Pillars of Creation, or stay with the losing side and be tortured until you become a broken piece for the master to use against the remaining worlds in this universe."

"I'm not about to join forces with the very creatures I am sworn to destroy," Lyra replied, though at the same time she pulled the Twinblades out and prepared herself, because this fight was going to be a long and intense one for all of them, in comparison to the other fights so far.

Gul'dan chuckled once more as his magic flared for a moment, to which he pointed at Lyra for a few seconds and then tightened his hand into a fist, causing the heroes to wonder what he had done as they prepared themselves for the battle that was to come. That was followed by Lyra collapsing to her knees as she dropped the Twinblades, as her hand was now gripping the area above her heart, as if Gul'dan was going to destroy her heart before she even had a chance to fight back and prove that he was wrong. Trixie, on the other hand, noticed something odd happen to Lyra's fel energy as she stared at her friend, the fel energy that had been inside her decreased in size until it disappeared completely... as if Gul'dan had smothered Lyra's inner fire, effectively killing her abilities for who knew how long.

"What... what did you... do to me?" Lyra asked, though at the same time she stared at the warlock with a look of pure hate, as while she could guess what happened, since the reaction her body had gone through, she wanted to see if she was right or absolutely wrong.

"I have placed a mark on you that will prevent you from using your fel powers," Gul'dan replied, though at the same time he continued to chuckle as he noticed some looks of horror appear on the various faces that stood in front of him, while Lyra was completely devastated, "I felt your power when you used it in the Emerald Nightmare, when you combined two volatile elements together and utterly obliterated your opponent. Due to the delicate nature of the ritual, I cannot allow you to use something so destructive in such a close proximity, so your fel powers have been sealed until either you die, or until you and your friends somehow kill me."

The tanks, taking Gul'dan's sealing of Lyra's powers as an attack, loosed a mighty war cry as they charged at their target, who simply stood in the center of the Eye and grinned, because before they could even reach him a Fel Lord, an Inquisitor, and a Jailer demon stepped out of three different portals and attacked the group of heroes. Even though her power was repressed at the moment, and couldn't access any of her fel attacks, Lyra could tell that all three of the demons were extremely powerful in their own right, meaning that they were already in trouble. Gul'dan, for the most part, stated that the vessel needed to be made ready and sealed himself inside a magical barrier that was created by the Eye, which had two rings spinning around him at the moment... while at the same time telling the heroes that they weren't even worth him personally fighting, which annoyed Lyra more than she was willing to admit.

After all that taunting and sealing her powers away, earning him the rage of the heroes and herself, she couldn't believe that Gul'dan would do something like this... to which she growled as she literally climbed up onto the back of the Fel Lord and started cutting into his neck.

Fortunately, despite the fact that she couldn't use her fel powers, the heroes understood that she knew who was the best demon to take out first, as they combined their powers and forced the Fel Lord to his knees within the first minute of him and his allies appearing. When the time was right Lyra beckoned to the Inquisitor, to which the heroes changed targets as she severed the Fel Lord's head, allowing his essence to be absorbed into the Twinblades with all the other demon souls she had claimed since acquiring the weapons. The assembled group repeated the process with the Inquisitor, where some of them helped throw Lyra onto the demon's back, before they crashed the demon into the floor and ended it's life as well. After another minute the group of heroes accomplished the same thing with the final demon, the seemingly powerful Jailer, before they all gathered around the Eye and waited for Gul'dan to do something, as they couldn't penetrate the Eye while he was inside it.

"You failed, heroes!" Gul'dan declared, though at the same time Lyra had no idea how he could have completed any steps of his ritual in the three minutes it took her and the other heroes to smash the demons he summoned, "The ritual is upon us! But first, I'll indulge myself a bit... and finish you!"

That was followed by a wave of fel energy rushing outwards from where Gul'dan was standing, which also shattered the building structure around them, though Lyra watched as the orc went through his own transformation, as fel flames appeared on his back and his hands appeared to be doing the same thing, while she could tell that his power he increased as well. As Gul'dan stepped out of the protective barrier that the Eye provided, which powered down now that he wasn't in it, the group discovered that the frailness of his body seemed to have disappeared as well. Their foe's first attack was to randomly pick several people and wrap fel chains around them, forcing them to remain in one place for a time while inflicting damage on them at the same time, allowing him to focus on whoever his target was. When he swung his hands at his target, however, it almost looked like he and two echoes of himself were attacking at the same time, generally forcing some of the tanks to block the attacks while the others assaulted their foe.

Moments later Gul'dan summoned eyes from the energy around them, which targeted the heroes and channeled shadowy power at whoever they were aiming at, though Lyra discovered that she and the others could destroy the eyes, as she cut one apart and showed the others what they were missing. If they didn't take out an eye quick enough it duplicated itself and increased the number of enemies that they had to take care of, though as the last one fell Gul'dan simply chuckled as he continued the fight, while at the same time throwing a orb of fel energy at some of the heroes and damaged them with his attack. After displaying those attacks Gul'dan did the same thing as all of the other enemies they had fought so far, he repeated his attacks on them, but instead of following the same pattern he randomized which attack he was going to use and constantly changed who he was attacking.

He did, however, constantly attack Lyra now that she didn't have access to her fel powers, but he actually did so in a manner that would prevent her from breaking his mark, if such a thing was possible, thus insuring that she didn't get her powers back until completing one of the objectives Gul'dan told them about.

After a few minutes of following this attack pattern, and both dealing damage to the group while taking some in return, Gul'dan let his power surge again as his body changed once more, as he seemed slightly larger than before and his spikes seemed even deadlier. His robes seemed to disappear as smaller spikes erupted from his shoulders and some even came out of the back of his hands, though what annoyed Lyra was that a pair of horns that mimicked Lord Illidan's horns appeared in the same position on Gul'dan's head. When Gul'dan resumed his assault, and smacked Lyra backwards, she discovered that their opponent's power had increased, as the orc started using empowered versions of his attacks that hurt them even more than they had before his second transformation, while at the same time the eyes took a slightly longer time to die this time around.

The only difference was that his now empowered attacks did things differently, as the fel orbs left fel pools behind where they struck, the fel bonds knocked their target onto their back while inflicted a greater amount of damage, and the eyes loosed beams of fiery energy. In addition to all of those attacks, which the group was getting used to, Gul'dan also called forth some new attacks, as he called forth demonic meteors from the sky and loosed devastating beams of fel energy from his eyes. Lyra thought that this was ridiculous, as Gul'dan seemed to have a fair amount of abilities and those increased in power and devastation when he transformed, though she knew that she couldn't help out too much since her power had been sealed away. Trixie, on the other hand, was starting to pull in her arcane power and was mimicking what Lyra was doing earlier, but not on the same level that Lyra did, though at the same time Gul'dan didn't seem to care about her arcane power and simply ignored it, despite the fact that she was one of the greatest mages in the entire world.

Not even a minute later it appeared that Gul'dan was growing tired of this game, as he teleported back into the area above the Eye and it started spinning again... though a few moments later the Eye stopped moving as Gul'dan grew in size when a beam of fel energy surged into him, but this time around his flames turned red. All of his spikes increased in size as well, revealing that he was using more power than he was using since the battle started, while his eyes radiated power at the same time. That was followed by him tearing open a gaping hole in reality that showed Argus in the distance, indicating that he was trying to summon Sargeras into Illidan's body, though this time around the group discovered that in addition to his old attacks, where were empowered to the maximum this time, Gul'dan gained even more powers to use against all of them; a well of souls that damaged whoever it wanted, of the heroes anyway, and a storm that pushed them around like they were nothing.

As all of this happened Khadgar teleported into the area and summoned himself in a barrier, though as he did that he focused his efforts on Light's Heart, revealing that he was intending to return Illidan's soul to his body, which was apparently suspended in the air above the battle, thanks to the four statues that still stood around them.

This proved to be one of the more dangerous parts of the fight, as his prior attacks were stronger than they had been at the start of the battle and his new attacks forced the group to change their tactics to avoid perishing, meaning that their damage was even less than it had been since they started the battle. What Lyra was pleased with was that there was a third path that Gul'dan had neglected to mention, as since his attention was on calling Sargeras' soul, spirit, or whatever into this world, and was also on stopping them from preventing his plan from working, his attention on the mark on her body was slipping. She could feel her powers fighting back, trying to slip through the small cracks that were already forming, but she kept that to herself as she tried to fight without her powers, because if she revealed her hand now she'd likely never get her fel powers back.

The next few minutes passed rather slowly as they attempted to overcome Gul'dan's attacks and stop his plan from becoming a reality, though that was before the area above the Eye was surrounded by a dark aura for a few moments, to which another grin graced Gul'dan's face for a few seconds.

"You topple a pawn and presume to challenge its master? Such arrogance!" a voice said, though it was so familiar to Lyra that she faltered for a moment, causing her to stare at the dark mist as a shadowy version of Lord Illidan stepped forward and stared at them, "Behold the shadow of what is to come, the endless darkness that shall consume your world. You are not prepared!"

That was the last straw for Lyra, as she would not stand to see her master's body tainted and befouled by Sargeras, to which her rage surged forward and the mark that Gul'dan had placed upon her shattered into a thousand pieces, where she allowed her body to transform into her Havoc form before she tacked the shade of her mentor away from her friends and allies. Gul'dan seemed surprise by this turn of events, as he clearly hadn't suspected her to suddenly get the power to overcome his mark, but that was because he was underestimating the power that she and Trixie possessed, something that Lyra was willing to show off as she slammed the shade into the ground and jumped off of it, before descending and using her warglaives to cut some slight gashes into it's chest. Trixie and the other heroes, on the other hand, focused their attention on fighting Gul'dan, meaning dodging his attacks and delivering their own to him in the process, because if they killed him the shade might disappear... and his plan would fall apart.

Lyra had actually never told anyone this fact, save for the Illidari, but she had sparred with Lord Illidan several times since she took the first step to being a demon hunter, so he could see her power for himself, to which she recognized her mentor's shadow arc attacks that came from his warglaives, his attack that involved jumping into the air and crashing into the ground around her, and two shadowy attacks that didn't belong to her mentor. Those two attacks she dealt with before they could manifest, because they didn't belong to her mentor at all, and kept the fight fair for the two of them, though she suffered through the pain of her injuries and kept the shade at bay. The shade was stronger than anything she could have expected, since Lord Illidan had always been holding back when they sparred, but she kept pace with it and made sure that it's focus was on her and her alone.

That was, however, until the heroes struck the final blow against Gul'dan and sent him spiraling towards the gap in reality he had created, though as the shade shattered into a thousand pieces, and Lyra reverted back to normal, the group watched as Gul'dan's power expired and he turned back into his frail self. A few moments later a powerful shockwave of energy rippled out of the gap in reality as Argus disappeared, though at the same time Illidan's crystal flew backwards after being struck, smashing into one of the statues and shattering as the top of the statue fell to the ground. Lyra and the heroes noticed that a large amount of fel fire appeared between the statue and Gul'dan, who was focused on the portal he had created, before they stepped back to avoid taking damage.

"No... NO!!!" Gul'dan shouted, though at the same time he raised his left hand out and reached towards the portal, as if he was trying to stop the portal from closing, "This... cannot... be..."

A few moments later the portal finally closed, leaving Gul'dan to fall to his knees as he realized that he was not only alone, but he was also battered from his fight with the heroes of the Alliance and the Horde, all of whom had a bone to pick with him because of the loved ones that had been lost in the attack on the Broken Shore. Before anyone could do anything a pair of shadowed wings unfurled in the felfire, a pair of wings that many of the heroes recognized, though at the same time Lyra smiled as she recognized the wings. Gul'dan, feeling the wings unfurl behind him, glanced back for a few seconds as Illidan Stormrage, with the shadows disappearing from his body as it returned to how it had been when he was alive, grabbed the orc by the neck and lifted him off the ground. Literally a second passed before Illidan started channeling fel energy into Gul'dan's body, causing the orc warlock to scream in pain for another second, before Illidan closed his wings on Gul'dan, who exploded in a flash of light.

When the light faded, and the heroes were able to see again, they found Illidan standing in the same place he had been a few seconds ago, though this time around he appeared to be triumphant, as he was now holding the still smoldering skull of Gul'dan in his left hand... which he crushed a few seconds later, before he turned towards the group of heroes and smiled at them.

"You have seen what I have seen." Illidan said, referring to Argus and everything else they had seen since they started the invasion on the Nighthold, though at the same time Lyra smiled as she stood at attention in front of her mentor, who, despite not being able to see her since his eyes had been burned out thousands of years ago, nodded towards her, "You know what we face. Now, heroes, follow me... into the abyss!"

Trixie couldn't help but smile as well, because not only had they recovered the Nightwell for Thalyssra, saved the Eye of Amun'thul from being used by the Legion, and stopped Gul'dan's plans from being fulfilled, they had also gotten an ally that none of them had actually expected to be allied with... but she was willing to overlook the past, since Lyra had faith in her mentor, and knew that this time the Legion was going to fall.