//------------------------------//
// Argus: Seat of the Triumvirate 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Lyra and Trixie, despite their eagerness to get their next venture over with immediately, rested for a few minutes while they waited for some of the heroes to finish their tasks in Krokuun, the Antoran Wastes, and the other reaches of Mac'Aree before they formed their 'dungeon' group. As such they wanted Allvar to come and be their tank and Maraa, who was standing nearby, agreed to be their healer for this venture, even if she believed that such a thing was unnecessary, especially with their new skills. That left them to find another damage dealer, something they didn't think they really needed at this point since they were already strong enough, but there were many eager heroes that wanted to be a part of this dungeon run, though the duo suspected that they were eager to see more of their strength and feel it for themselves. As it turned out the heroes nominated Landan, the leader of Trixie's guild, to come and join them, which appeared to be a unified agreement between the heroes of the Alliance and the heroes of the Horde, to which he walked down and joined the duo as they waited for the others to come back.

The duo also came to understand that Allvar and Maraa had been sent out together, with some other heroes, and returned with the rest of their group, where they reported their success in killing the demons and sabotaging their foes, which was their mission in the Antoran Wastes. Once they came back Landan approached them and informed them of what was going on, where they both agreed to accompany them into the Seat of the Triumvirate, to which the five of them approached Romuul. They quickly discovered that Alleria was fully expecting their assistance, as she had an area where they could teleport down and met her, where the five of them allowed the Light to wrap around them as they teleported down to Mac'Aree once more. This time around they appeared near a stone that overlooked the entrance of an abandoned building, though as Trixie stared at the area she realized that the group could bypass any reinforcements that the Shadowguard might have called upon in the last couple of minutes... which was fully doable since they were in command with the Void, and they would have done it considering that Lyra and Trixie, two heroes, had smashed their forces earlier.

As the five of them started to descend towards the entrance, however, they spotted Alleria and Locus-Walker standing nearby, indicating that despite the area that Alleria had run in she had known exactly where to go, which was why she purposely called them to this building.

Alleria nodded to them as they walked up to the area that she was standing in, to which she and her mentor joined the heroes as they headed up the stairs and entered the ruined building that the Shadowguard had moved their forces into, who lashed out at the heroes as they noticed their arrival. Allvar stood at the head of the pack and drew the attention of the Void Ethereals to him, allowing Landan and Lyra to attack them from behind or the sides while Trixie lashed out with her magic and Maraa stood back as she watched her friends fight their foes. Despite the power that was coursing through their veins both Lyra and Trixie made sure to not go overboard with their attacks, especially since they were mostly saving their power for L'ura. The two of them were sure that the Dark Naaru would require their full power, something that the others seemed to agree with, though at the same time they hacked and blasted at the Void Ethereals that were standing around the area they were in. They also ignored the Void Broken that was in the middle of the ruined building, because they were fairly certain that he was a powerful 'boss' level creature that happened to be waiting for invaders, and focused on taking out the enemies around him.

When all of the Void Ethereals had been taken care of, and no more teleported into the area to fight them, Allvar turned his attention to the Void Broken and attacked him, causing the creature to attack them while channeling the power of the Void against them. As the battle began the group learned that this creature, this Void Broken that hadn't lost his mind, was called Zuraal and that he appeared to be a brawler of some kind, though as they battled each other the truly mad Broken, crawling along the ground, charged at them from the shadows while they fought. Zuraal used his fists, empowered by the Void, and smashed the ground from time to time, where a surge of powerful Void energy surged out in the direction he was facing, or sometimes out in a circular wave to hit all of them. When he punched the ground below him, creating the ring of Void energy, the Void started to spread out from where his fist touched the ground, causing Allvar to move away from that area so he and the others didn't get hurt by the shadowy energy.

The unfortunate thing was that, as Allvar moved out of the Void area, Zuraal created more of them when he was a good distance from the first he had created, and Void globs started moving out of the shadows, which Trixie crushed with her magic, as she knew that, since they were heading towards Zuraal, only something bad could happen and she was preventing that from happening. Zuraal even tore Void portals open, stunning himself in the process for a few seconds, but that appeared to empower his attacks as he continued his assault on the group, where he also randomly targeted his opponent from the number of foes that he was fighting against, going from Allvar to Maraa and heading to Lyra before heading back to Allvar. It was an interesting tactic, as they hadn't really seen that happen in the past, but at the same time the group was able to deal enough damage to Zuraal and dropped him to the ground... where his last words, before he died, was that the Void was weak, and then he was gone.

Once Zuraal was gone for the group paused for a moment, to regain their breath as they thought about what powers their foe had commanded, before Alleria called for them to join her and Locus-Walker, indicating that the two of them had moved on the moment Zuraal was defeated... to which the group headed towards the building the pair was in and found that it was a dead end, where they turned towards Alleria with a look of confusion on their faces.

"The Shadowguard is building up it's presence near the temple." Alleria told them, revealing that she knew more about the situation than what the heroes knew, but Lyra and Trixie assumed that was the truth, especially after what they had done earlier.

"Disrupting their efforts would benefit all of us." Locus-Walker said, though as he spoke it appeared that something else came to mind, something that he wanted to tell them before they got underway, "Also, their commander here has a particular item that would be useful to me."

"Sounds like a plan," Lyra commented, though at the same time she stared at the wall that was in front of them, wondering the same thing they had all been thinking when they came to a stop in this area, "only we'll need to go around and find a new path into the Shadowguard's base of operations."

Alleria smirked for a moment before she channeled a small beam of Void energy at the wall in front of them and moved it in a circular motion, where the group watched as a section of the wall, the inside of the circle, disappeared once she connected the circle. That revealed the area that Lyra and Trixie had been in like ten or twenty minutes ago, with a good number of the devices and portals still broken, though at the same time there were some that were still functional, or the Ethereals were quick at repairing what had been broken earlier. As such the group dropped down into the area in front of them, though as they did so it appeared that their next target knew that they were coming and several small Void portals snapped into reality around this part of the city, revealing that their commander wasn't playing games with them and wanted them all dead. Allvar, on the other hand, charged at the Ethereals that were around them and dragged his foes over to one of the Void portals, where he attacked them and the Void elemental that was trying to stabilize the portal it had come out of, while at the same time his companions attacked their targets.

This time around Lyra let the Light gather around her blade as she swung at their foes, as the Void Ethereals and the Void elemental didn't like being slashed at with this power and she was going to use it to her advantage, while at the same time Trixie blasted her targets with the arcane power she commanded. Lyra knew that her friend's true power, which she was beginning to unlock, would have been extremely overpowering in this instance, though she was saving it for something that really needed to be destroyed by the arcane. Fortunately this wasn't one of those instances, as their current power was more than enough to deal with the enemies that were arrayed against them and killed the Void elemental that was in front of them, though after it fell and it's portal fell apart a new one opened up some distance away from where they were standing. The moment they spotted the new Void portal Allvar lead the way and forced the Void Ethereals to follow him towards his target, where the group repeated the process against the Ethereals and the elemental that wanted to summon in more reinforcements.

Lyra found that the Ethereals really wanted them dead and that those they hadn't pulled towards them were actually charging towards the portal they were attacking, which actually made things easier for them in the long run, but at the same time the group braced themselves and continued hacking and blasting their way through the guardians in front of them. As the guardians of the second portal fell, and the portal was torn apart in the process, the commander called for a third one to open and declared that they were being overrun, to which the group headed towards the next portal that had opened nearby and attacked the guardians as the rest of the Ethereals came at them from where they had been stationed earlier. When the third portal fell, and the rest of the army had been dealt with, the commander declared that he was going to see to them personally and a new portal opened behind them, where a Void Ethereal, calling himself Saprish, stepped into the area behind them and raised his staff as he prepared for battle... and that was including him being joined by a Void tainted panthara before the portal closed.

As the heroes engaged him, and Allvar lashed out at Saprish, Lyra focused her immediate efforts on removing the panthara that was following his orders, as she wanted to deprive him of a tool that could be used against them, though as she fought the panthara she had to avoid the metallic traps that their main opponent threw out at them. Despite being empowered by the Void it actually looked like he was worse than the last foe they had fought, as his attacks were much slower than Zuraal's attacks, but at the same time he flashed through the air and appeared behind whoever he was targeting at any given moment. He also marked them several times during their fight, somehow empowering himself in the process, but that really didn't give him the edge in this fight, especially when Lyra drove her blade into the head of the Void tainted panthara she was fighting and turned her attention to their opponent. The moment Lyra was done with her target she joined the fight against Saprish and together the five of them overpowered his attacks, dodged his attempts to shackle them like beasts, and dealt enough damage to make him stagger backwards... where Lyra, Allvar, and Landan drove their blades into his chest at the same time, where all three of their blades avoided touching each other.

A few seconds later, when they were certain that he had stopped breathing, the three of them pulled out their blades and let Saprish's body fall to the floor, despite the fact that the staff he had been carrying floated in the air after it was released from his hands... to which another Void portal opened nearby and Locus-Walker stepped out, where he approached the group with Alleria right behind him.

"Thank you for removing the obstacles between me and this staff, heroes." Locus-Walker said, though at the same time he raised his hand and grasped the staff, where the air around him seemed to shift slightly for a moment, "Yes, this will do nicely. You'll find their Viceroy near the entrance to the temple, feebly trying to break in. Eliminating him will give us an opportunity to get in ourselves. I'll see to opening the way once he's taken care of."

With that said the group, now raised to seven members since Alleria and Locus-Walker insisted on following them, advanced towards the entrance of the Seat of Triumvirate, the central building that was their main target, and engaged the elite Void Ethereals that were blocking their path. Lyra was happy to fight these opponents, as they were tougher than the others ones they had fought earlier, but at the same time the power their foes had still wasn't enough to stop them from smashing through their ranks as they approached Viceroy Nezhar, as Locus-Walker named their next target. Sure enough they found Nezhar standing in the middle of the area in front of the entrance to the building they needed to enter, with a small army standing near him. Instead of dealing with them personally, like Saprish did, Nezhar waved a hand and his soldiers charged at the group, allowing him to focus his energies on the door that was blocking his way, to which Lyra and the others attacked the elite Void Ethereals that tried to cut them down.

It didn't take them long to smash their way through the enemies that were coming their way, and scatter their corpses in the process, before Allvar roared and Nezhar stopped channeling his power at the door, to which he turned around and stared at them as he started the fight.

"I shall bring you to your twilight!" Nezhar stated, though at the same time several small Void portals opened and soldiers started to pour into the area around them, fully intending to kill all of them in the process, while he engaged Allvar and the rest of the group.

As the battle started Nezhar started by hurling spheres of Void energy at whoever he was targeting, while at the same time opening the Void and calling forth tendrils of shadowy energy that wanted to kill them, which required Lyra, Trixie, and Landan to separate from their foe for a moment and cut down the tendrils before they dealt with Nezhar. In addition to that he also gathered Void energy into his hand and loosed a beam of it at whoever he wanted to target, as it was in what appeared to be a random order as to who he wanted to kill first. There was also a howl he loosed that gripped the group and made them back away for a moment, indicating that it was a fear type power, but thanks to their various experiences with those powers they weren't too bothered by his attempts to make them run away like chickens. And, as if all that wasn't enough, Nezhar also called upon a more powerful Void Ethereal that required being put down immediately, as it was even stronger than the other ones they had fought before this point.

Of course while they were taking out the empowered Void Ethereal, and making sure it was removed from the playing field, Nezhar channeled his own power and released a devastating blast of energy that knocked all of them backwards, indicating that his power was greater than they originally thought... but, with the power of the Light that Lyra wielded and the power of the arcane that Trixie commanded, they were able to topple him in due time, though as he fell they needed a few moments to regain their energy.

"I sense great despair emanating from within." Alleria commented, to which she stared at the door that was in front of them and focused on the energy that was on the other side, one that everyone could feel now that they were so close to their target, "L'ura..."

"Yes, the Naaru." Locus-Walker said, his tone indicating that he found something amusing about the whole situation, before he turned his head towards Alleria again, indicating that this was something she could do, "We must get inside. Alleria, the skills you have learned can open the way."

"Understood." Alleria replied, to which she turned her head towards Lyra and the others for a moment, who looked up at her as they returned to their feet, while at the same time Locus-Walker channeled his own Void beam at the door in front of them, "Champions, once the door is open, clear the way to L'ura. We will be right behind you."

Before anyone could say anything Alleria raised her hand, the one that was already pulsing with Void energy, and loosed her own beam at the door, where they were forced to watch as the two dismantled the barrier that was keeping them from entering the Seat of the Triumvirate. The moment the door was open the group charged into the tunnel that was in front of them, though as they quickly neared the end Lyra and Trixie truly gazed upon the Dark Naaru that was L'ura, as she appeared to be identical to most Naaru in form, despite the fact that she had been twisted by the darkness that had festered inside her since the day Velen and the others escaped Argus. From what Lyra could tell L'ura's body was represented by three colors; the outermost parts of her body were seemed in darkness that reminded her of her own Dark Magic, the areas that rested closer to her core were dark purple colored, and her core pulsed with a dark light that radiated the power of the Void. Lyra and Trixie knew that there would be no saving L'ura, as she had been here too long and had been in pain for so long, and that death was the only thing they could offer her, though behind her rested a fuchsia colored gemstone that radiated power, which Trixie recognized immediately.

They had found the Crest of Knowledge, guarded by L'ura as Talgath said it would, which meant that they were in for a tough fight, though as they raised their weapons Lyra sighed and delved into her own power, where the mist flowed from her eyes once more... as she felt that it only felt right to fight a dark being like L'ura with her own dark energies, especially when she could provide the other half of the circlet she wore.

"Such chaos... such anguish." Alleria said, staring at the Dark Naaru for a moment, as she was surprised by the power that was radiating from L'ura at the moment, while at the same time she and Locus-Walker entered the room, "I have never sensed anything like it before."

"It is rare that a Naaru falls into Void this way." Locus-Walker stated, once more revealing that he knew more about things than he was willing to tell anyone, even Alleria for that matter, but the group remained focused as they all stared at L'ura, "The few cases I know of have occurred when mortals were involved. What fascinating implications... Such musings can wait, though. This entity must die."

The moment he said that, and Allvar charged at their target, L'ura summoned a barrier around her that made her immune to their attacks, and Lyra's attempts at using the shadows did nothing at the moment, which made sense considering that her Dark Magic wasn't balanced like the Light in her was. As that happened a pair of Void portals opened, one on their left and another on their right, and one Void elemental appeared from each one, though Lyra quickly understood what was going on and directed her attacks at one of the elementals, which were the guardians of the portals that were giving L'ura her invincibility. When the guardians fell Alleria channeled her Void energy for a few seconds and stole their power, allowing her to create a sphere of Void energy that, when she threw it, smashed through L'ura's barrier and opened her up to attacks. The instant the barrier crumbled the group rushed L'ura and started dealing as much damage as they could, as they had the feeling that the Dark Naaru would regain herself and attack them again, though as that happened Lyra could have sworn that L'ura was looking at her and focusing on what was inside her.

That thought proved to be correct as L'ura, when the barrier started to form around her again, seemed to siphon part of her own shadowy energy into a section of her dark core, one that appeared to be in the process of breaking at the moment, but did nothing more as she continued the attack once her protection was back in place.

L'ura's actual attacks included singing the terrible song that Velen had mentioned earlier and throwing spheres of Void energy at whoever she was targeting, though it quickly became apparent that the longer she was able to sing the greater her own damage became, and that, despite the barrier falling, it still continued to rise after the interruption. Once her invincibility was back the portals and their keepers returned, meaning that they had to repeat the same process as before, though as they fought both Lyra and Trixie noticed that L'ura really didn't seem too interested in killing them. They supposed that, at the moment of her original fall from grace, she had lured many would be power seekers to their doom, but they guessed all these thousands of years had finally taken it's toll on the Dark Naaru, as it seemed to be testing their powers, almost as if it was gauging if they were ready or not. As all this happened, and she fought on autopilot once more, Lyra noticed that the section of L'ura's core she had been staring at was ready to be thrown the moment she had an opening, making her wonder what the Dark Naaru was going to do.

Eventually the answer came when Allvar struck a decisive blow to their foe's core, which loosened the fragment she had been preparing, though at the same time Alleria called for everyone to back up as she started to channel the essence of L'ura's shadow into her body. As that started to happen L'ura, using a fraction of her power, loosed the shadowy fragment of her core that she had been preparing and let it fly through the air, where it landed in front of Lyra's hooves, before her full attention turned to Alleria. The group watched as Alleria drew in everything that was the Dark Naaru and her power, which was larger than what she had done to the fallen demi-god earlier, before L'ura broke down into a sphere of energy and stunned Alleria for a moment, where the sphere surged forward and slammed into Alleria's chest. When the dark light cleared the group watched as Alleria, her body and armor darkened by the energy she had pulled into herself, stood up and faced where L'ura had been moments ago... though at the same time Lyra could tell that her power over the Void had been strengthened by what she had done.

"You survived... interesting!" Locus-Walker commented, as if he fully expected Alleria to die or something, but since he knew more about her than the rest of the group did they remained silent as they listened, "How do you feel?"

"The voices are louder now. More insistent." Alleria replied, looking down at her body as she studied the changes, but then surprised the group when she focused her mind and reverted back to her original form, meaning that this was some sort of Void Form she had unlocked, "But they do not control me."

"You asked me to teach you to use the Void as a weapon." Locus-Walker said, referring to something that was said between them all those years ago, when they first encountered each other, though the group wondered if he was even a tad bit proud of what Alleria had done, "Now that weapon is you."

"Then it seems that my training is complete." Alleria stated, as she felt ready for anything, except fighting a Titan herself, something that she wasn't about to tell anyone until she had mastered this power.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We need to test the limits of this newfound power." Locus-Walker replied, though at the same time he waved his hand and another Void portal opened beside him, to which he turned towards Alleria and her allies, where the silent statement was enough to spur them into action.

Since L'ura had been absorbed, and had left almost nothing behind, there were only two things that the group had to grab before they headed through the Void portal, two very specific items that were important to their war with the Legion and it's terrible master. Trixie walked over to where L'ura had been floating and gently picked up the fuchsia gemstone, the Crest of Knowledge, which she held in her hands and felt the immense power resting within it, knowing that with the complete Crown they had the weapon necessary to open the way to Antorus. Lyra, on the other hand, gently removed a piece of cloth from her bag and wrapped it around the shadowy fragment that L'ura had thrown her way, as she had the feeling that it was exactly what she was looking for. With those two items in hand the group headed through the Void portal and appeared outside the Seat of the Triumvirate, where all they had to do was find a beacon and they would be able to tell Velen and the others the good news.

Soon the Legion would feel the power that they had given to the Army of the Light, and they were sure that Sargeras' plans would fall to dust once the final assault happened... and Lyra was looking forward to showing the Dark Titan that his time was officially over.