//------------------------------//
// Argus: Hope's End 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

After Imonar was defeated, and the way into Kin'garoth's domain had been blasted open by another charge from Light's Judgement, Lyra, Trixie, and the other heroes marched into the open hole that was in front of them and walked along the walkway that took them to where the demonic engineer was resting. As they made their way forward the group noticed that the enemies that were in their way were more of the mechanical reaver class enemies that they had seen when they first assaulted Antorus. From what they could see there were eight of them, though some of them were infused by the power of fire, some with the power of shadow, and others the power of fel, exactly like the majority of the other enemies they had encountered so far. At the same time, however, they drew their weapons and charged at the first the first pair of enemies that were right in front of them, causing the reaver enemies to turn towards them and engage them so they didn't reach their creator and master.

This time around, when they engaged the reavers, Trixie didn't summon the powerful arcane spheres that she teleported into the cores of their enemies, allowing the others the chance to tear into the mechanical creatures that they were fighting against. Of course that didn't stop Lyra from hacking and slashing at them, nor did it stop Trixie from lashing out with her magic in a more minor sense, but even with them holding back the heroes were able to cut down the reavers before they moved towards the next group of mechanical enemies. What was humorous about that situation was that as the heroes engaged the second group of reavers the third ones, which were closer than the group originally thought, became active and charged at them as well, meaning that they were going to have to fight four of them at the same time. Trixie, on the other hand, had the feeling that Kin'garoth was sending out his forces to try and stop the heroes so he could finish his preparations on the weapon that would decimate, if not entirely destroy, the Vindicaar, which meant that they needed to get to him before he did that.

The other heroes understood the situation they were in and put forth their efforts in cutting down the four reavers that they were fighting against, and the the final two that happened to be after them, before they marched into the circular forge area that Kin'garoth was waiting in... where they found that the upper body was sticking out of the floor and there happened to be pieces of the production machinery infused into his body, indicating that if he were to die it would severely hurt the Legion's ability to create more war machines.

"Good, good, I was hoping you'd find your way here." Kin'garoth said, to which he turned towards the group as they reached the area around him, where they spread out and made sure that all of them were actually staring at him, that way they could be ready for whatever tricks he had for them, "I'm always in need of test subjects. You should do nicely!"

As Kin'garoth started the attack, indicating that he was eager to battle them, Lyra and Trixie noticed that the demon's left hand had been transformed into a hook of some kind, no doubt so he could pinch his opponents to death or something, and he was holding a large hammer in his right hand, to smash them with. Since the heroes had decided to spread out before they started the battle, in the off chance that the demon attacked first, their tactic forced him to pick and choose who he was going after, allowing the healers to mend any wounds before they became serious. Kin'garoth also threw a fel bombs through the air a few times while they fought, which detonated whenever they came into contact with one of the heroes, but the damage they dealt was easy for the damage dealers to ignore while the healers made short work of the cuts and scraps from each explosion. After failing to kill a few of them with his bombs, and growing a tad bit annoyed in the process, Kin'garoth started to gather the fel energy around them so he could loose a beam of energy to kill some of them with an intense amount of energy... but what he wasn't expecting was for Trixie to stand in front of the beam and summon a pure arcane shield in front of her and the heroes the demon was targeting, stopping the attack from hurting any of them and leaving her with a smile on her face.

Once that happened the engineer turned towards his forge and started the machinery that was all around them, where the heroes watched as three new reavers started to be put together before their eyes, so instead of worrying about Kin'garoth the heroes focused their efforts on taking out the reavers before they could join the battle... though even if one of them managed to be fully created, and joined the fight, Trixie planned on blowing them up like she did to the ones on the way to the area that the Antoran High Command ruled from.

As the trio of reavers fell to the floor, and their pieces erased by some sort of protocol that Kin'garoth had for this area, the heroes returned their focus on their main target and reengaged the battle they had neglected, forcing the engineering demon to tear himself away from the forge and focus on them again. As such they forced him to go through the same motions he had been going through before he tried to forge the group of reavers, throwing fel bombs at them and loosing powerful beams of fel energy while he tried to crush them with his massive hammer or tried to squeeze some of them with his pincers. It quickly became apparent that Kin'garoth didn't have any other abilities besides trying to smash them with his hammer, squeeze them with his pincers, throw bombs down upon them, and try to obliterate them before resorting to his reavers, which Trixie decided to detonation the moment they were created. The reasoning behind that was because she could easily get rid of them and had the other heroes focus on the engineer demon, which the heroes agreed with the moment they heard the suggestion, before she tore them to pieces... much to Kin'garoth's amazement, as he had no idea such a thing was even possible.

That shocked allowed Lyra to lead the charge as they unleashed their full might on the demonic engineer, tearing him and his systems apart without him being able to do anything, before doing some serious damage to him and causing him to stagger as he stared down at them.

"Now I'm just... extra parts." Kin'garoth said, though that was before a sinister smile appeared on his face as he crashed to the ground, but at the same time Trixie smiled as he picked up one of the arcane bombs that rested nearby... one that she empowered and transformed into a pure mana bomb, to tear the entire area apart and truly prevent the demons from using this while they attacked the other parts of Antorus.

"The Legion is in its death throes. Time to put our boot to their throats." Illidan commented, to which the group turned around and spotted him standing near a beacon that had been fired into the area behind them, though he beckoned for them to follow him, "It's time we prepared to strike the killing blow."

The heroes charged over to the beacon and teleported back aboard the Vindicaar, though once they were all in place Illidan returned, with the beacon returning to where it had been earlier, before Romuul moved their ship out of where the forge was located. As the Vindicaar moved away Trixie engaged her power and the pure mana bomb detonated, tearing the entire forge area to pieces and destroying the walkway that Imonar's corpse was resting on, though once that was done she waited as they descended towards the core of Argus. The group waited for a few seconds as they headed down into the area below them, where they eventually discovered the metallic structure that Lyra and Trixie had been shown when they discovered that Aggramar was corrupted. Soon enough the Vindicaar came to a stop and a beacon was placed down at the end of the walkway that was below them, where the heroes allowed Romuul to teleport them down to the beacon so they could begin their invasion of the Legion's most sacred place... which was a dark and sinister place that was unlike the rest of Antorus or even Argus for that matter.

"So, this is Aggramar's stronghold," Lyra commented, though at the same time she smiled, as she could feel the pull of the darkened Titan's energy, as well as four additional powers that had to be the other Titans that Sargeras had captured and was trying to corrupt, "this is going to be interesting."

"Well, we do have to save four members of the Pantheon and fight the avatar of another Titan," Trixie said, though while she spoke she and the other heroes stepped forward, as they were rather eager to see what sort of foes they had to face before they reached the next foe on their list, "so I guess that counts as 'interesting'."

As the heroes progressed onward they found that their foes were the Titan constructs known as keepers, though these ones must have either been Aggramar's or Sargeras', as they were darkened and twisted into evil versions of the ones they had seen when they were saving Eonar's essence. What Lyra and Trixie discovered was that the Dark Keepers were actually stronger than their good counterparts, which made sense considering that Sargeras had thousands of years to twist these constructs into the perfect guardians of Aggramar's stronghold. Their power over the flames within them was more than what they were originally anticipating, but fortunately the power that Lyra and Trixie commanded even those odds rather nicely, especially when Lyra's powers allowed her to dish out a good deal of wounds in the process and protect them if she deemed it necessary, while Trixie could use the arcane in the air to bind the constructs in place for a few moments so their friends could help them defeat the Dark Keepers.

Fortunately there were only four Dark Keepers in front of them, where the rest were they had no idea, before they headed down the walkway that was in front of them and entered the stronghold that should have had a lot more security on the outside... though as they headed inside the structure the group discovered a Shivarra and a pair of Succubi standing over a walkway that allowed them to observe a trio of Shivarra, powerful ones at that, using their powers to torture the four Titan souls that were around them. When the group in front of them were dead, however, they dropped down into the area that the trio of demons had been guarding, where they healed their wounds the moment they landed, before they entered a chamber that contained a tortured Nathrezim, one that the undead recognized as Varimathras, who had been responsible for the Third War... meaning that Sargeras had him tortured for his failures.

Varimathras seemed to recognize them immediately and growled at them, though before doing anything it was clear that he had something to say, which the heroes wanted to hear before they put him out of his misery, which was a blessing after the pain that had been inflicted on him.

"So, your Alliance still endures." Varimathras said, speaking to the heroes of the Alliance, who glared at him while they readied themselves, as they weren't going to give him the satisfaction of being angry, "Longer than I expected, though she has already planted the seeds of its downfall. She is patient, that one. When your thrones run red with betrayal... when your holy places burn and the shattered mask hangs above your hearth... only then you will know. And it will be too late. It matters not. You are blind to the true darkness closing in around you."

"Spare me the talk about darkness," Lyra stated, to which her shadow markings glowed for a moment, indicating her connection to something greater, something that even the mightiest of creatures had feared, "because you'll find that none of us are afraid or blind to any danger you might be referring to."

"And you, 'heroes' of the Horde, sent to finish the job at HER bidding." Varimathras said, causing the heroes of the Horde to growl as they gripped their weapons, as they would not allow the demon to survive this day, something that their former enemies agreed with, "Tell me, when she seized your throne of hides and bones, was your allegiance forced? No... I'd wager you surrendered it willingly... or were convinced you did. It matters not.  Come, then. We will trade pain for pain!"

The heroes of the Alliance and the Horde, each having a bone to pick with Varimathras, charged forward as the demon charged towards them, though one of the Shivarra that were above them, however, seemed to be in control of the various torture devices that were inside the cell they were in... and, as the battle started, she pulled a lever and flames started to spill into the area around them, intending to burn all of them and wound them all in the process.

"Look!" the Shivarra said, who appeared to be a little gloomy for some reason, while at the same time she pointed down at the two forces as they engaged each other, "The wretch struggles against the mortal intruders."

"Pathetic!" a second Shivarra shouted, her tone irritated, though she had an interest in the flames that were pouring into the cell that they were all fighting in, "Let them all burn!"

"Grah! Damnable witches!" Varimathras growled, indicating that he was greatly annoyed with the Shivarra that were above them, though at the same time the heroes mended their wounds and ignored the Shivarra, knowing that they would take them out soon enough.

As the heroes lashed out at the fallen Nathrezim, and cut some powerful gashes into his body when Lyra and Trixie rushed at him with their powers, Varimathras lashed out with creating three shadowy portals beneath three random heroes, intending to take many of them out at once. As such the heroes moved out of the way and let his attacks do nothing, forcing him to use the darkness to combat them, but even as he did that Lyra grinned as her own shadowy power became active and she literally fought him in the shadows. As that happened she could hear one of the Shivarra sounding surprised, as if she wasn't expecting such a thing to happen, but she focused on her target and cut several gashes into his body, causing him to stagger as he fell back to reality with Light infused wounds on his chest. Trixie, seeing that happen, used her power over the arcane to throw empowered blasts at her target, leaving small impacts where she struck, but they were strong even to cause him to stagger backwards... into the waiting hands of the heroes, who hacked and slashed at him until he backed away.

It quickly became apparent that he wasn't equipped for this sort of fight, not like all of the other foes they had encountered throughout Antorus, but at the same time this allowed them to take out another threat before they saved the Pantheon from the Shivarra that were torturing him... though in the process the Shivarra discussed something and seemed to change their minds about something.

"Perhaps the Nathrezim has grown too familiar with the torment of flames, my sisters." a shadowy clothed Shivarra commented, where Lyra noticed that the Shivarra had actually stopped tormenting the Pantheon to focus on the fight that was in front of them.

"Then watch the icy grip of despair drain his will!" the gloomy Shivarra replied, to which a new lever was pulled and the flames disappeared from where they had come from, though that was before frost replaced the flames and tried to freeze everyone where they were standing.

"You cannot break me!" Varimathras shouted, though instead of adapting to the new tactic the Shivarra and using new abilities, like the heroes expected him to do based on the other foes they had bested, he carried the same abilities and powers that the group was already used to.

Despite that fact, however, Lyra and Trixie dominated the majority of the fight, as Lyra was able to keep Varimathras from using the shadows to his advantage and Trixie used the arcane in the air to critically wound him several times over, causing the Shivarra to chuckle in the process. That indicated the Shivarra were true masters of pain and enjoyed the fight that was going on, as they seemed to be rooting for the heroes in inflicting pain on the Nathrezim that they were fighting, or maybe they were hoping for all of them to suffer. Of course the one thing the Shivarra didn't expect was for the heroes to severely wound Varimathras, causing him to fall to one knee in the process, before a final blast from Trixie took whatever will he had left to fight back, though that was when he looked up at all of them and grinned at them.

"Your torment... is only... beginning." Varimathras struggled to say, though that was before he collapsed on the ground and stopped moving, indicating that they had slain him once more, and the heroes of the Alliance and the Horde hoped that he remained dead this time around.

"His fate was ours to decide." one of the Shivarra shouted, causing the heroes to look up at the floor that was above them, where they noticed that all of demons that were above them were definitely annoyed now, "You will pay for your insolence, mortals!"

With Varimathras dead, and his cell had been turned off, the heroes turned towards the open walkway off to the right of where they landed and walked up the corridor that they had discovered, one that allowed them to head up to the level above them and stare at the angry Shivarra that now wanted them dead. When the heroes reached the floor that the Shivarra were standing on, and none of them were in Varimathras' cell, two of the Shivarra charged at them and started the battle while one of them went back to tormenting one of the Titan souls that rested in the four corners of the chamber they were in. Lyra was able to determine, by how the Shivarra looked, that they were fighting the one Shivarra that was interested in flames and the second was clothed in shadowy clothing. What they quickly discovered was that the two demons that were fighting them seemed to take less damage when they were side by side, so to counter that one of the tanks pulled the fire Shivarra, Noura as she called herself apparently, to one side of the chamber while the other tank forced Asara, the shadowy clothed Shivarra, to the other side of the chamber.

As such the heroes separated into two equally numbered groups so they could burn the two Shivarra down, though when Lyra looked over at Diima, the gloomy Shivarra that was tormenting the Titans, also seemed to take damage every now and then, indicating that they were tied together... and that, if she and the others killed Noura and Asara, all three of them would die at the same time.

What became interesting was that, in addition to the various attacks that the Shivarra had, Diima also seemed to join in the fun every now and then, as her torment of the Titans wielded terrible power that was forced against the group of heroes in an effort to kill all of them. Golganneth's power, for instance, created a number of manifestations that littered the chamber, channeling the power of the storm as they tried to smash the heroes at the command of the terrible Shivarra that were trying to break them. Each manifestation slain decreased the number of them in the area and decreased the power of the storm, though the moment they finished off the last of the manifestations, and cut the Titan's power off for now, Diima stopped fighting and headed to a new target to torment, to call a new power to the battle when the time was right. The second Titan that Diima called upon was Khaz'goroth, as his manifestations appeared and fired beams of fiery energy to the center of the chamber, but as damaging as those attacks were the heroes tore the various manifestations down until they were all gone. Norgannon, the third Titan to be tormented during this fight, called forth an army of arcane wielding manifestations that were stronger than the other two, but the heroes focused on them and made sure to take them out before they killed someone and weakened their group.

Oddly enough when Diima tormented Aman'Thul it seemed like the chief Titan's power had no effect on the group as a whole, but since it was rumored that his power was over time itself there was no way to be certain of that fact, but the group continued fighting and kept an eye open for anything that resembled the final Titan. Fortunately that shock to the three Shivarra happened to be what the heroes were waiting for, as the moment they were shocked by Aman'Thul's power not manifesting like the others the entire group surged forward. Lyra, growing tired of Diima tormenting the mighty Pantheon, launched both of her warglaives into the Shivarra's chest, where they morphed into pure Light and Shadow energy and merged together, before lifting her into the air and detonating and blowing her to pieces. As Noura and Asara realized that they were in danger, especially against the power Lyra commanded, Trixie appeared behind Asara and infused a sphere of energy into the demon's chest, causing her to scream as the pure arcane energy tore her apart and vaporized her body, leaving Noura as the remaining Shivarra... who didn't last much longer than the other two, as the heroes cut her down and made sure her body was torn apart as well, to ensure she didn't come back to fulfill the mission her master gave her.

Once that was done the barrier that was surrounding the area faded away and the heroes watched as Velen, Illidan, and Magni walked into the area, though they were all impressed by what the heroes were able to do, even though that was before they focused on the Titan souls around them.

"The souls of  the Pantheon are free, but they endured so much sufferin'." Magni said, to which he approached one of the souls and stared at it, almost as if he was conversing with it or something, before he turned back towards the heroes and the people he had entered the structure with, "Let me bide with 'em fer a time. Offer a bit o' comfort."

"Of course, Magni." Velen replied, knowing that the King of Diamonds was the only person that might be able to restore the Titans to their former glory, or at least assist them in doing so, "The rest of us will go on."

"So close now to the end..." Illidan commented, though at the same time he started walking along the path that was leading out of the structure, only this one was heading towards the back half of the stronghold.

Lyra, Trixie, and the other heroes followed after Illidan, knowing that they were heading towards the location that Aggramar was waiting for them in, who was going to put up quite the fight, especially since he was now a weapon for his dark master. They needed to beat Aggramar so they could claim the soul of Argus, hopefully before he became fully corrupted, to which Lyra and Trixie prepared themselves... as they knew that this was going to push them to their limits.