Titus gurgled and gasped as he awoke once more, his eye socket still hollow from the changeling queen’s unprovoked attack. With a start, he instinctively reached for Rotfang, who growled along with him as he realized he had been killed.
“Are you alright, Titus?” Kel’Thuzad asked, the lich holding a claw out to the newly re-resurrected death knight. Titus nodded, another growl leaving his throat as he accepted the assistance with a hoof, his one working eye squaring in on the still snarling and snapping form of his assailant, trapped behind warded chains and ice.
“How long was I out?” Titus hacked, spitting a glob of congealed blood from his maw to clear his throat, the attack clearly having left some unseen internal damage. The roof of his mouth felt filleted, so he assumed the attack had gone deeper into his head than he thought.
Kel’Thuzad sighed, turning once more to the changeling monarch, who’s fangs were currently bared as she continued her hissing and screeching at the pair from behind the barrier the archlich had hastily constructed.
“Less than two minutes. You weren’t that far gone.” Kel’Thuzad spoke, his eyes still squared on Chrysalis. More specifically, however, the tentacles sprouting from her back, in between her wings. They thrashed and swung about, the changeling queen seemingly ignorant to their presence.
Gods and goddesses above...
They... they are here, then...
“My my my, Chrysalis... what have you gotten yourself into...” Kel’Thuzad sadly chuckled, moving in on the changeling queen. Her form reminded him of a cat as he approached, her form hunched down as if to pounce upon him, hisses and guttural noises still streaming from her muzzle.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY QUEEN, NECROMANCER?!”
Kel’Thuzad barely sidestepped a strike from the great nerubian, who’s colossal true form had somehow been able to sneak up on both of them unannounced. The archlich growled, frost seeping from him in waves as he turned to the monarch currently assaulting him.
“CALM YOURSELF, YOU OVERGROWN ANT!” Kel’Thuzad snapped, viciously lashing out in frustration with the remaining five chains he had circling him, slamming the nerubian king into the wall behind him, dazing Anub’arak enough to where he knew he wasn’t a threat.
“FOR WHAT REASON WOULD I DO THIS?!” Kel’Thuzad ranted, throwing frostbolts into the walls around the crypt lord in his anger like a child.
The deep, roaring voice of the lich startled the newly re-risen death knight, who hadn’t heard the aged wizard truly lash out at someone in centuries. With a snarl of pent up aggression, the lich growled, freezing the underking’s lower limbs to the floor, before using two of his remaining chains to restrain him further, echoing cracks heard as his armor ground against the stone of the wall, crushing the aged material to dust under his weight. The mighty ruler was stunned beyond words or action at the unexpected, over the top reaction to his rage.
At least from the now seemingly calmer wizard, anyway.
“Now... what to do with you...” Kel’Thuzad pondered aloud, whirling around and crossing his arms as he got closer to the entrapped queen, her snarling becoming more rabid as he approached.
Her actions now didn’t seem... aggressive. As if she were a wounded animal backed into a corner, which contradicted her behavior minutes ago, when she killed the death knight behind him in an unprovoked attack.
“Chrysalis, can you hear me?” Kel’Thuzad asked.
A swift snap with her jaws was his answer, her fangs clamping around one of his chains in an attempt at escape, to no avail.
“Release me, lich.” Anub’arak growled from behind him, the sound of chitin scraping against stone heard as he attempted once more to escape his bindings.
“And why, my dear friend, would I do that?” Kel’Thuzad sarcastically remarked, turning to witness the great nerubian’s fruitless struggles.
“Because I wish to speak with my queen.” Anub’arak droned, seemingly unaware of her vicious and unresponsive behavior.
Kel’Thuzad pondered the situation before him.
Now, he knew that the Nerubians were, at one point, servants and worshipers of the Old Gods. In fact, according to a published research project conducted by the Kirin Tor in Silithus, all insects were, at one point, created by or served the Old Gods.
The archlich was skeptical, seeing as the vast majority of the insects on Azeroth were harmless, and everything he had seen that was related to Yogg-Saron of C’Thun was monstrous, hideous, or some combination of the two in comparison.
“Your queen is under the influence of powerful dark magics, Anub’arak.” Kel’Thuzad spoke. “You and I both know what the Old Gods are capable of...”
“But you’re asking me to release you so you can speak with her?”
“Yes.”
Kel’Thuzad sighed, flustered that the nerubian was so adamant. Normally, the lich would like nothing more than to watch the nerubian king attempt to reason with the corrupted changeling queen, if only for the sake of learning more about those under the influence of an Old God...
But his king had specifically told him that he was not to build more bad blood with his colleagues. According to him, they needed to work together if this threat that his king spoke of was to be defeated.
.........
“Very well.” Kel’Thuzad droned, snapping his fingers to retract the chains and shatter the ice binding Anub’arak. Kel’Thuzad looked behind him, nodding to his friend to be ready for the worst.
Titus took several steps back, the death knight drawing his runeblade and cocking his pistol.
A scrambling of hooves over broken stone got his attention, the three remaining soldiers under his command revealing themselves from behind him.
Stern Staff stood beside his commander, his poleaxe’s spear tip leveled at the two changelings. A quick nod to his superior confirmed he was ready for the worst.
His brother, Silver Bolt, quickly yanked his arbalest from it’s holster, drawing the bowstring and settling his cobalt bolt into the arrow track. He aimed it at Chrysalis, her snapping jaws closing to hiss in their general direction.
The newest and last remaining addition to their party, Helga Frostwing, readied her runeblade, the Griffon shaking slightly at the clearly powerful foe before them. Silver Bolt gave her an encouraging smirk, lightly tapping the initiate on the shoulder with his hoof for reassurance.
Titus nodded to his underlings, before turning and nodding to Kel’Thuzad.
“Are you ready, Anub’arak?” the archlich spoke, his mind racing with the multiple ways this could end.
The first, and most obvious end, was that Chrysalis was feral. Corrupted by the Old Gods and beyond salvation. They would have to kill her, and if his king commands it, resurrect her.
The second, which he was prepared for in equal measure, was the outcome where Chrysalis was capable of being cleansed of the foul magics inhabiting her.
The third... well...
He would call upon his king’s aid.
A last resort, obviously, as he had only ever called upon his master for his direct assistance twice. Both times were when he was overwhelmed by the forces of the Argent Dawn in his throne room aboard Naxxramas.
.........
“I am ready, Kel’Thuzad.” Anub’arak replied, his eyes frantically searching for any sign of intelligence in his queen’s wild pupils.
He saw none.
A weak, shuddering breath echoed from his mouth as the archlich dispelled his barrier.
My queen... forgive me...
I... I will try to make this...
As painless as possible...
.........
The moment the chains recoiled and ice shattered, the nerubian lunged.
The queen, with her feral mind, obviously foresaw this, as she attempted to resist the attack, but obviously did not expect the sheer amount of strength this creature held within it’s gargantuan frame.
The underlord screeched a mournful howl as he snapped his jaws around the changeling queen’s neck, his mandibles pulling her to him as he tore into her esophagus.
Chrysalis roared in rage, her form flickering and shattering at the seams. Her crazed brain desperately attempted to think of a form to escape it’s current plight, but as the great nerubian lifted a single scythe above him to end her suffering, the changeling queen’s hate... vanished. As if something had... withdrawn it from her mind.
“N-Nuby?” Chrysalis barely got out through chokes of blood and bile, her king’s teeth shredding her throat.
A moment later, her world went dark.
.........
Anub’arak shook with rage unending as he took in the sight before him.
His mate, his queen...
Dead by his claws...
While he knew a changeling monarch was near impossible to kill, and that she would return in time...
A single, choking sob wrenched itself free from his maw, still stained with the blood of his beloved. As he collapsed before her form, which was already cacooning itself in mucus for repairs, a single thought ripped itself through his mind like a roaring fire.
Revenge.
Revenge against the horrible, malignant beings that had done this.
”You shall have it, my friend...” his king consoled.
.........
For the first time in his long servitude... he welcomed the Lich King’s voice.