//------------------------------//
// Shore: Fallen Avatar 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Lyra, Trixie, and the heroes carefully made their way down the circular staircase that was in front of them, though they had to do so carefully since there were golden yellow holy spheres and eerie green fel spheres, all about the size of a normal person's chest, moving on the stairs at random intervals. As such they had to take the stairs in an orderly fashion, to avoid all of them setting off the two energies that were around them, as there was no way of telling whether or not they would explode if someone touched them. It was an annoyance, since Kil'jaeden was ahead of them, no doubt trying to awaken the Avatar of Sargeras at that very moment, but the group silently suffered through it as they carefully made their way through the large number of spheres that were in front of them. After everything they had seen in the Tomb, and all the creatures that Kil'jaeden had brought to stop them, Lyra was itching to fight the Deceiver and kill him at last, especially since Trixie and the others had toppled Archimonde, the Defiler, some time ago.

At the bottom of the stairs, when they finally got away from the two types of spheres, the group came to a landing that revealed what their next foe was, which was when Lyra got her first glance of a Titan construct, the intricate human like statues that actually moved with a will of their own and acted on the Titan's orders. The only difference between this Maiden and the ones that Trixie had told her about, as she had fought a few of them in the past, was that this one happened to be half corrupted by the fel energies that were leaking from the Avatar. The left side of it's body was tainted by the fel energy and had fel spikes growing out of her arm and leg, indicating the level of it's corruption, but since it's right side was still pure it appeared that their foe was going to wield both holy energy and fel energy against them, which meant that they could be in trouble with this opponent. Holy energy and Fel energy were volatile and didn't like each other, though if they got really close together they exploded, or at least that's what Trixie had told Lyra the first time she asked about it... and she guessed that this was an opportunity to see if she was correct.

As they entered the circular area in front of them, and found a large hole in the middle of the chamber that no one wanted to fall into, the heroes engaged the globs of fel energy that had been given life and destroyed them, as well as the corrupt watchers on the right and left sides of the room, allowing them to fight the Maiden without having to worry about additional reinforcements that might end this fight early. Once the three groups of enemies had been taken care of, and they all paused for a moment to be sure that more didn't show up, the tanks charged forward and slammed into the Maiden, while everyone else started using their abilities as the melee damage dealers joined them.

"What lies below is not for mortal eyes!" the Maiden cried out, indicating that below them rested the Avatar of Sargeras, the very thing that Lyra wanted to destroy the moment she heard about it, but at the same time the Maiden raised her holy-fel infused hammer at the tanks and started the battle.

The very first thing that the Maiden did, after swinging her hammer a few times, was target three heroes and inflict her own mark on them, causing them to grow to twice their normal height, to which the afflicted heroes stood their ground for a few moments before throwing themselves into the open pit. Lyra started to think they were insane, but the force of the detonation that they suffered was enough to, somehow, propel the three of them back onto the walkway, allowing them to rejoin the fight without delay. It then became apparent that the Maiden loved marking her targets, in some form or another since every time she hit someone hard enough they were marked for a moment, and forcing themselves to jump into the pit, as if she was trying to kill them by forcing them to kill themselves. Lyra guessed that the fel energy had corrupted the Maiden to some extend, because she could easily classify the construct as a demon based on how she acted, but at the same time she focused her attention on bringing the Maiden down before someone actually got killed in this fight.

A few moments later the Maiden cast a spell that infused all of them with energy, though half of them were infused with a small amount of fel energy and the other half was infused with a small amount of holy energy, before she teleported to the other side of the chamber, forcing them to run down the two side of the room to reach her. What they quickly did was sent the fel infused heroes down the side of the room so they could approach the fel side of the Maiden, leaving the holy infused heroes to do the same with the Maiden's holy side. All of them had to be careful, as their foe also sent out waves of fel and holy spheres, because if a fel infused hero touched a holy sphere or if a holy infused hero touched a fel sphere they would be marked with the same mark that the Maiden loved to use. At the same time if an infused hero took their own type of sphere into their body their strength would increase and allowed them to shatter the shield that the Maiden put up around her.

Lyra, however, was one of the unlucky heroes, as she had been infused with holy energy and it tormented her body as she moved around, once more revealing how holy energy and fel energy hated each other, as she could feel the holy energy tearing into the fel that already called her body home. Grabbing a holy sphere only increased the pain she was feeling as it increased her power, which caused her to stay away from both types of spheres in the process since taking a fel sphere would only cause a detonation and the holy ones increased her suffering. Trixie, on the other hand, was lucky that the holy energy didn't conflict with her arcane powers, allowing her to increase her damage without harm at all, while Lyra moaned as she worked. The other thing that the girls knew was that, as Equestrians, being infused with a small percentage of power was a double-edged sword, meaning that while they gained some of the same effects that their friends did they also gained a slight understanding of the holy energy... though Lyra worried that being able to do that might make her a target to forces that sought to purify the universe of the fel power, which she needed for the war with the Burning Legion.

When the holy energy finally faded, and she returned to normal, Lyra resumed fighting will all of her heart, while at the same time praying that when such a thing happened again, as she knew it was bound to happen again during this fight, that she get infused with more fel energy, if only so she wasn't in pain for some time.

For some time the Maiden continued her previous actions, targeting those that she desired with her power and marked them so they would jump into the pit and amuse her, while also inflicting marks at will with her hammer and other attacks. It wasn't long before she started the infusion process again and teleported back to the side of the chamber that she had started on, though unfortunately for Lyra she was, once more, infused with holy energy and had to suffer through the side that she and Trixie ran down. For a moment, while she was dodging holy spheres, Lyra could have sworn that the ends of her demon hunter tattoos turned golden yellow for a moment, though as she turned her full attention to them the change disappeared, as if it had never happened in the first place. Out of curiosity she also pulled out her Dark Magic for a few moments, only to find that the effects of the infusion prevented her from accessing another portion of her power, forcing her to rely on her strength and fel abilities.

The Maiden was able to do the infusion process twice more, where Lyra constantly mentally cursed the construct with the fact that she was constantly being picked for a holy infusion, before the group of heroes toppled the Maiden and sent her crashing against the floor... though at the same time they heard the sound of an platform rising, to which they healed themselves and rested as they waited for something to arrive.

"Lyra, are you okay?" Trixie asked, because she had seen how Lyra had gotten when the holy energy was infused into her body, though even with the fact that it was supposed to dispel she could tell that even a paladin's or priest's healing spells hurt her as well, which was why a druid was tending to her at that moment.

"No... that thing was painful to fight against," Lyra replied, as while the Maiden actually never touched her the infusion process did more damage than their could have ever done, before she stood up the moment the druid was done, "It... it felt like the holy and fel energies were going to rip me apart... so I'm thankful that we only had those abilities for a few seconds, otherwise the Maiden could have killed me."

Trixie understood that Lyra was trying to avoid dying, and she had done a good job so far since she took the fel energy into her body, but she knew that if such a thing were to happen the Legion would gladly take her soul and turn her into a true monster, one that would likely be stronger than Archimonde and Kil'jaeden. It would be the end of both Azeroth and Equus, since Lyra would know where to go to find their home planet, though she really hoped that there was a way for them to extract the fel energy and nullify that, since she didn't want to lose Lyra in such a manner. Her thoughts, however, were interrupted when the lift they were waiting for arrived in the middle of the chamber, to which all of the heroes climbed onto it and let it start it's descent into the depths of the earth, where the Avatar was waiting for their arrival. It wasn't long before they reached the bottom of the shaft that the lift had to travel through, though when it came to a stop the heroes marched forward and ascended the stairs... before they entered the chamber that contained the one thing that no one wanted to see the Legion get their hands on.

Resting in the middle of the chamber was a large creature, or suit of armor since that was what the Avatar really was, that was imposing and looked very dead, though as Lyra looked at it's gray colored skin she realized that the Avatar's horns and wings, which were actually pinned to the wall behind it, resembled Sargeras' horns and wings, which she saw in her vision of the Dark Titan. At the moment two beams of pure energy seemed to be holding the dead Avatar in one position, but Lyra and the others knew that an infusion of fel energy would awaken the Avatar from it's slumber, which would be hard to prevent considering who was standing near it. Lyra stared at the large red skinned eredar, who she recognized from his projection appearing near the Fel Hammer as he told her and the Illidari to join them, which she promptly rejected before declaring war on him. She, and all of the other heroes, knew the demon by many names, but there was one that everyone called him; Kil'jaeden.

"Damnable mortals!" Kil'jaeden stated, turning from the Avatar so he could properly stare at all of them, taking in the force that was arrayed against him and the power they commanded, as well as pausing to look at Lyra once, meaning that he remembered his promise to her, "You scurry through this tomb like vermin, dispatching my underlings and imagining yourselves the equals of the Legion. Heroes... champions... fools! The husk before you was once a vessel for the might of Sargeras. But this temple itself is our prize. The means by which we will reduce your world to cinders! Still... I will not deprive you of this chance to fall before an ancient wonder. Let this avatar be the end of you!"

It was in that couple of seconds that Lyra noticed the fel energy that was resting in Kil'jaeden's right hand, what they had apparently stopped him from using, though before anyone could do anything he turned around and fired a beam of fel energy into the Avatar's chest, before disappearing completely. The Avatar, waking after a long time of being asleep, noticed that the group was standing in front of where it was resting and roared as it became alive in front of their eyes, where it shattered the bonds that were keeping it's arms bound and picked up a massive weapon, which had to be what it used before Aegwynn defeated it. As the Avatar picked up it's weapon, however, Lyra and the others spread out around the part of the chamber they had access to and started throwing everything they had at the Avatar, since fighting even a small fragment of Sargeras' soul was going to be extremely difficult.

As the Avatar swung it's massive sword at the group, it, like all of the other boss level creatures they had fought in the Tomb, marked three heroes with it's own mark and caused them to separate from the heroes that were around them, though after three seconds the areas they previously had been standing on suffered small explosions before they were allowed to stop moving again. After that the Avatar waited a few more seconds before lifting it's hands into the air and unleashed a bolt of dark energy at a few members of the group, which knocked them back a tiny bit, forcing the healers to mend their wounds before they joined the battle once more. The Avatar then followed that up by gathering the fel energy in the air into it's body for a few moments, to which Lyra called for everyone to retreat from their opponent, before it unleashed a wave of fel energy that mostly devastated the area in front of it, though those that were away from the Avatar also suffered a lighter amount of damage before they rushed into battle. As everyone scrambled back into their previous positions the Avatar summoned three shadowy blades that targeted three of the heroes, forcing those three to move to an area where no one else would be hit and took the damage that the blades caused... to which the healers healed them before they jumped back into the battle.

While all of this was happening Lyra noticed that, as the Avatar used it's fel abilities the fel energy inside it seemed to awaken the more it used it's powers, meaning if they didn't destroy the Avatar quickly it would regain it's former power and be a real threat to them and the rest of Azeroth... and whatever world Sargeras sent it to after this one, if all of them were defeated anyway.

From there it was a game of repetition, as the Avatar was constantly targeting some of them with it's unique mark while hurling shadowy blades and bolts of dark energy at whoever it wanted to kill, where some of the heroes were taking quite a bit of damage in the process. Lyra knew that it was because they were fighting a fragment of Sargeras' soul, a piece of the Dark Titan himself, and there was no telling how much of his power was actually bound inside the suit of armor that became known as the Avatar of Sargeras. The problem was the increasing fel energy that was inside the Avatar, as she was sure that something terrible was going to happen, but she kept an eye on it while she and the others fought the Avatar, trying to destroy it before it's full power could be awoken. That was, however, before the Avatar raised it's hands into the air and slammed both of them into the ground in front of it, where the fel energy cracked the floor that they were standing on, before everyone was thrown into the air as the floor shattered and revealed a large hole, with fel liquid around the bottom, waiting for them... and a platform for them to walk on while they finished off their foe, which was now standing at it's full height as it stared down at them.

As the Avatar moved towards the tanks, that were moving it towards a different area of the platform, Lyra and Trixie noticed Kil'jaeden standing beside a portal, though the group focused on their real foe, while they heard the sound of someone familiar entering the area.

"Deceiver!" Velen shouted, to which he, Khadgar, and Illidan descended into the area that the group was fighting in, by magic anyway, though as they drew closer Illidan dropped down near the portal and started dueling with their foe, "We have come to end your invasion of Azeroth! Your master's crusade dies here!"

"Is there no end to your sanctimonious bluster, Velen?" Kil'jaeden demanded, to which he stared up at the person that, according to the stories that Lyra had heard, had once been his friend, before both he and Archimonde had joined Sargeras and his Burning Legion, "You claim the mantle of prophet, yet you always lacked the vision to see the inevitable destiny of our world... of all worlds."

Lyra paid no attention to Kil'jaeden and Velen, as they would deal with them soon enough while the duo argued between themselves, though that was when the Avatar sucked in more fel energy and shattered the ground around it, allowing it to sink into the fel liquid for a moment while the heroes gathered near it and continued to pull it around the area that they were fighting on. Other than that particular attack having a different effect on the area around it, with the shattering ground around them, there was literally nothing different from when they were fighting it on the upper area, much to Lyra's disappointment since she could tell that the Avatar's power was fully awoken. This was the Avatar of Sargeras, the Dark Titan, and yet it's power was absolutely nothing special, though that only made her realize that, after utterly obliterating Xavius in such a manner, she was expecting all her enemies to be ridicously overpowered and required her to do the same... but she guessed that they were fortunate that Kil'jaeden wouldn't be taking this back to his master, otherwise it would be impossible to kill.

A few minutes passed, and some more of the ground around them shattered, before Lyra and the other heroes toppled the Avatar and caused it to fall backwards into the fel liquid behind it, to which they crossed over to where Kil'jaeden was standing and confronted him with Illidan and the others.

"Still you fight us! Still you deny the inevitable!" kil'jaeden stated, though his attention was focused on Velen and no one else, who was standing his ground at the moment and stared up into the Deceiver's eyes, "Your incessant resistance is maddening! Why will you not yield?"

"Have your countless defeats taught you nothing, Deceiver?" Illidan asked, as he was referring to all the times that Kil'jaeden had been bested over the years, something that he had quickly learned about after being revived thanks to Lyra, Trixie, and the other heroes.

"The vision Sargeras showed you was a lie, Kil'jaeden." Velen simply said, tapping his staff against the ground that everyone was standing on, while keeping his eyes on the person that had caused him so much pain and suffering since he fled from Argus, "Surrender! Let it end!"

"Never! Our crusade  will never yield!" Kil'jaeden shouted, revealing that the many years of pumping his body with the fel energy made it impossible for him to leave behind the power that he had been given, "Savor your shallow victory. We will return again and again, however long it takes, until at last we break you!"

With that said Kil'jaeden turned towards the portal that was resting to his left and charged into it before anyone could stop him, though that was followed by the portal phasing for a moment, which meant that it might be getting ready to close, before they could finish off their foe.

"The portal is closing!" Khadgar said, though there was a hint of joy in his voice, indicating that he was overjoyed that they had bested the Avatar of Sargeras and had sent kil'jaeden running with his tail between his legs, "We can seal the Legion's gateway and end this invasion."

"No!" Velen stated, tapping his staff against the ground once more, though this time Lyra noticed a look of what she assumed was determination appear on the Prophet's face as he stared at the portal in front of them, "No more running! No more hiding! I must finish this!"

It was in that moment that Velen, apparently no longer caring for his own safety and was more focused on the terrible creature his old friend had become, turned towards the portal and followed Kil'jaeden into the magical construct, leaving the group standing there in shock.

"Velen is right, Khadgar." Illidan commented, to which he stepped towards the portal with a smile on his face, though at the same time Lyra and the other heroes stood behind him as they faced what was resting in front of them, "Sealing the portal buys us nothing. Whether it takes a few years or millennia, the Legion will return. Over and over again, until too few of us remain to fight them. It is time to seize our fate. We must use the portal and follow the Deceiver into the abyss. It is the only way!"

Khadgar stood there for a moment, staring at all of the heroes that were going to follow Kil'jaeden, Illidan, and Velen into the portal, though at the same time he locked eyes with Trixie, knowing that his apprentice was thinking the same thing at the moment... before he nodded his head towards the assembled group and joined them.

"Illidan... you're right, this is the only way." Khadgar said, though at the same time he gripped his staff harder than Trixie had ever seen him do in the years that she had known him, while he locked his eyes on the portal that they were all standing in front of, "We have precious little time to save Velen and return before the portal closes... though something tells me that you have a contingency plan, just in case that happens."

"Come." Illidan commanded, flaring his wings for a moment as he smirked, while at the same time turning his full attention to the portal once again, to which the heroes did the same thing, "If we are to die in the Nether, we will take the Deceiver with us!"

Lyra and Trixie smiled as they followed Illidan, Khadgar, and the other heroes into the portal, knowing that the time had come for all of them to finally finish off Kil'jaeden and put a stop to all of his plans... and then, when they returned to Azeroth, they could consider how to stop Sargeras, once and for all.