After entering the portal that their Lord had summoned, so they could travel across the distance between Outland and the area that Mardum was located in, it didn't take Spitfire and Rainbow that long to appear on the other side of the bridge, where they stepped out onto an area that, at first glance, reminded them of Shadowmoon Valley, with the darkened ground that looked like most traces of life had been removed at some point in the past, a dark sky that would normally suggest that it was nighttime, and had rivers of Fel green colored liquid, which was likely lava. Behind them, resting at an angle for some odd reason, was a gateway that Lord Illidan must have tapped into so he could get all of the demon hunters to Mardum, even though the structure, which had a wide base with a half oval opening for the portal to rest in, along with two prongs that seemed to serve as the top of the entire frame, was inactive, meaning the only way they were going to get back to the Black Temple was with the Sargerite Keystone. In front of them rested a path that seemed to head down to where another gateway was resting, this one looking more intact than the one that was behind them, before they noticed what appeared to be a massive Fel volcano off in the distance and, more importantly, a dark Fel green vessel flying through the air, with the material that went into making it looking like the same material that the gateways were made out of. That was a Legion ship, one of the vessels some of their forces used to launch invasions on a world that caught their interest, something the people of Azeroth didn't know about and something they only recently learned about thanks to some of the demons they had caught and interrogated, and off in the distance the pair could make out one more ship, one that seemed to be horizontal, instead of vertical.
Mardum itself was a shattered world, far worse than what Outland was like, as there were a number of bits and pieces of the former planet floating all over the place, where Spitfire and Rainbow would actually have to fly to reach them if they wanted to look at them more closely, though it did look like the fragments were just floating through the space between worlds, just like the ruined world they had been living on for the last year and eleven months, before they decided that it was time to move forward and walk down to the area that Kayn and some of the others were standing in.
"So, this is Mardum... what a lovely place." Spitfire remarked, though she was being sarcastic when she said the latter part of her statement, mostly because she really felt that this ruined world was terrible looking and didn't much care for what the Legion had done to it, mostly since it told her what to expect if Sargeras ever got his hands on Equus, a planet he would surely destroy within seconds of invading it, since there were no armies to counter the Legion.
"Indeed, and it is here that we'll find the Sargerite Keystone." Kayn replied, knowing that, out of all the demon hunters that he had trained with, both Spitfire and Rainbow were the only ones that hadn't actually seen what the Legion did to the worlds that they conquered, as they either ended up slowly being torn apart or ended up like this, before he focused on the task at hand as he looked out at the area in front of them, "Lady Spitfire, what are your orders?"
"Well, seeing how we might have announced our arrival with the gateway becoming active, we should head down to the bottom of this hill and kill all of the demons that we find." Spitfire stated, though while she would have sworn that she would have been listening to someone like Kayn the entire time they were in Mardum, due to him being one of the more senior members of the demon hunters, she had an idea of what was going on and went with it, before she spotted an area they should claim, "Once that's done we can take control of the area and then access the gateway... maybe call in some of the reinforcements Lord Illidan prepared for this day."
Kayn nodded his head and ordered the rest of the group to move forward, to which the demon hunters readied their weapons and charged down the hill so they could greet the demons of Mardum at long last, so they could start their quest to find the one item that would allow them to invade Argus, to which Spitfire looked out at the area once more before she raised her hands and withdrew her warglaives.
"I figured that killing demons would be the first order of business, given that we're demon hunters, but since when were you the leader of our invasion force?" Rainbow asked, though at the same time she withdrew her warglaives from her own horns, just like Spitfire did, something that would never get old and she was glad to have unlocked the trick when she finally became a demon hunter.
"Must be all the time I spent talking to Lord Illidan about strategy, its convinced the others that I'm more suited to be the leader this time around." Spitfire replied, as that was the only reason she could give as to why Kayn had asked her for orders, instead of her asking him and the others what they were going to do, though with that said she focused on the area that was below them once more, where she saw the others already attacking the cluster of demons that happened to be guarding the gateway that was near the bottom of the hill.
As Spitfire took to the air, so she could race down to where the first unoccupied demon was located, Rainbow flew right by her and kicked one of the demons in the side of the head, effectively claiming it as her foe for now, even though Spitfire was sure that her friend had said something about a race to kill the highest number of demons between the two of them, to which she chuckled as she focused on her foes. The first foe she encountered was a Wrath Warrior, a variety of the Wrathguard demon she had learned about, which was a tall creature, standing at least her height and then half of it again, and wielded a long sword in its right hand, even though it had armor on its legs, arms, the main part of its body, and a helmet to cover its head, showing that it was ready for battle. What she did was parry the incoming attack with one of her warglaives and then, before her foe could push her back and swing at her chest, Spitfire swung her other warglaive not a few seconds later and cut into the Wrath Warrior's chest, cutting through the demon's chest and spilling the fel blood that was inside it, allowing her to push onward as she joined the rest of their group. Rainbow, on the other hand, took to the air and swung her warglaives at the Felbats that were flying around the area, a gargoyle-like enemy that had two large bat-like wings, sharpened claws for its hands and feet, and large bat ears, where she cut through her foes by aiming at all of their heads and dropped all of them to the ground in a matter of seconds, even though they came in groups of three and stayed pretty close to each other. There was also one or two Imp Mothers in the area that the demon hunters were assaulting, which were large demons who rested in pools of Fel lava and seemed to be all female, though they summoned the smaller Imps into an area by some unknown method, even though Spitfire wasn't seeing many Imps at the moment, and she spotted some Felstalkers, demonic beasts that devoured the magic and life force of their enemies, patrolling part of the area.
Even with all of those demon guarding the area that was near the first intact gateway structure it didn't take the Illidari that long to route their foes and take control of the area they were in, where they were fortunate that Mardum seemed to be surrounded by the Twisting Nether on all sides, because that meant every demon they killed here wouldn't be coming back, cutting down on any enemies the forces of Azeroth might have to fight, before Spitfire and Rainbow came to a stop near the Legion device that was a minute from where the gateway rested, where they were joined by Kayn as the others moved forward to scout out the rest of the area they were in.
"We did well, capturing this point and obtaining a gateway to call in reinforcements... and drawing the attention of the demons that rule Mardum," Kayn commented, though at the same time Spitfire held her hand out towards the device that was in front of them, which was basically something that displayed a magical version of the flag of whoever happened to own the area that the device was resting in, where it changed from the symbol of the Legion and took on the symbol of the Illidari, to signify their first victory against the forces of Mardum, "Now then, onto the matter of summoning in some of our reinforcements and continuing the search for the Keystone. Lady Spitfire, I know he didn't have time to tell you this before we left the Black Temple, due to the army that was approaching, but Lord Illidan has placed you in charge of our forces and gave me a rundown on what we should be expecting in the near future, where he informed me that there are three Legion gateways that we can tap into to summon the rest of our forces, and this first gateway should be the one that the Ashtongue were assigned to."
"With all the demons we've killed, we should have more than enough souls to open the gateway and summon the first part of our reinforcements," Spitfire replied, showing that she understood the information Jace and the others had gained since her and Rainbow's arrival in Outland, though at the same time she was a little caught off guard by the fact that she was being promoted to being the leader of the Illidari, for the time they were in Mardum, before she focused on what they needed to do next, "Kayn, you and the others should press on to the next part of this world, to figure out what targets we need to hit as we look for the Keystone, while Rainbow and I activate the gateway and call in the Ashtongue... we'll catch up once we have our reinforcements."
Kayn nodded his head and soon he and the few remaining demon hunters were moving on to the next part of the ruined world that they were invading, to which Spitfire sighed for a moment as she walked over to where the gateway was resting, with Rainbow in toe, though they did pass by some heavily armed Mo'arg corpses, meaning that there were more types of demons in Mardum for them to worry about, before coming to a stop as they reached the activator that would open the first gateway, where Sevis Brightflame, a blood elf demon hunter with red hair, stood guard over it.
"Lady Spitfire, plenty of demons were sacrificed to power this activator." Sevis stated, where he bowed his head a little as he said that, to show that he knew about Spitfire's promotion to being the temporary leader of the Illidari, something she definitely missed before being briefed on their mission to this world, before he returned to a normal standing position and moved to the left, so Spitfire could activate the gateway.
Spitfire nodded to Sevis for a moment and raised her left hand towards the activator, where the two halves of the key seemed to snap back together and then disappeared into the ground, which was followed by the fel energy of the gateway being activated as a temporary bridge to where the Ashtongue were waiting appeared between the two support pillars for the structure... which was shortly followed by a number of Broken, who were the Ashtongue, appeared between the two sides of the gateway and marched out, lead by their leader, Battlelord Gaardoun, and what seemed to be a demonic saber that had a bone-like face guard, sharpened claws, and a skeletal tail.
"Lady Spitfire, I bring with me the Ashtongue forces that have sworn to destroy the Legion," Gaardoun stated, taking a moment to bow his head towards Spitfire as he said that, while at the same time his forces did the same thing before they moved deeper into Mardum, showing that they must have been briefed on what they needed to do as soon as they were summoned to this world, which was just fine with her, though that was when he gestured to the saber, "and a gift, from Lord Illidan himself: a loyal Felsaber. Normally only the high ranking members of the Illidari are given these, and our Lord felt that it was time that you had one as well, though we were unable to prepare a second for you, Rainbow, so that will be something for the future... and, instead of this one being trained as a mount, since you have wings, we have trained it to be a companion that will fight at your side."
"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this, but another companion is nice," Spitfire remarked, though as she said that the Felsaber walked over to her and stared at her for a few seconds, where she rubbed the top of what she had thought was a helmet of some kind, but the almost purring-like sound told her that it was actually the saber's head, meaning this was a cat, like a tiger or something, that had been corrupted by the Legion and twisted into this shape, only for Lord Illidan to find it and tame it for his elite soldiers, of which she was apparently one, before she focused on Gaardoun, "though we should move forward and claim the area that is just ahead of the area we're currently in, since there's no telling when the Legion will send reinforcements to stop us."
Gaardoun nodded his head and issued a command to the rest of the Ashtongue, where they started to move out not a few moments later, leaving Spitfire, Rainbow, and the new addition to their little group standing near the gateway, as the moment the gateway had been opened Sevis used his own mount, a grey coated saber cat, to head off into the distance so he could join the others, making her wonder how he even summoned it here in the first place since none of the demon hunters had mounts when Lord Illidan opened the portal to Mardum.
"Seriously, who died and made you the leader?" Rainbow remarked, as she would have thought that there would have been two of these Felsabers waiting for them when the first gateway was opened, since she was at the same level within the Illidari that Spitfire was at, though at the very least this gave her a chance to see what else awaited her when she was raised to the level that her friend was at.
"No one died, obviously, but Lord Illidan has put me in charge, as Kayn told us." Spitfire said, where she was still a little surprised by that information, since she figured that Kayn or Kor'vas, at the very least, deserved the position, but this was the hand she was dealt and that meant she had to roll with it, to which she faced the area that the others had ran in, which was to the right of where they were currently standing, since they were facing the structure of the gateway, and started to leave the area, followed by Rainbow and the Felsaber.
As they started to follow the path that would bring them to the next part of Mardum, and bring them closer to finding the Sargerite Keystone, Spitfire paused as she found a device that looked similar to the demonic flag device, though this was a communicator between this part of the ruined world and another part, where she tapped it and overheard that a demon, likely a commander class demon, had seen the gateway open and that he wanted a full report on what was going on immediately. From there the next item they discovered was a floating device that looked like a box, or the base of it did at the very least, that had a Fel green crystal at the top and a tiny bit of it pointed at the ground, no doubt enchanted to the item could float above the ground, but the pair recognized it from their lessons, as Jace had discovered it thanks to the few engineer demons he had 'persuaded' into helping him, where he said that it was capable of spewing Fel energy into an area so the Legion could corrupt it for a future invasion. The fact that one was here, on Mardum, meant that it was likely leftover from when the demons first created it or it fell off of one of the ships that was flying through the air, of which the pair could only see one moving vessel at the moment, but instead of leaving it behind, for the Legion to take and use on the next world that they invaded, both of them lashed out with their warglaives and shattered the spewer, breaking the frame and the crystal at the same time. After that they continued to travel along the lone path that was in front of them, which allowed them to break another spewer along the way, before they discovered a cave with a few Wrath Warrior bodies around the opening, which was where Allari and Sevis were standing, though it appeared that Allari was involved in interrogating one of the Inquisitor demons, a race of hooded demons that sought out all sorts of information, regardless of whether or not it was useful to Sargeras and his plan to destroy all of creation.
"Ah, Lady Spitfire, I was wondering when you and Rainbow were going to show up," Allari commented, where Spitfire had no doubt that Allari had sensed their coming without looking back, as she was sure that Sevis hadn't turned away from the demon they were in the middle of interrogating, since it appeared that he was acting like a guard and would no doubt attack the moment the Inquisitor tried anything funny, "We saw the Ashtongue run by not a few minutes ago, so we knew you weren't too far behind, though I'm afraid that we've run into some problems. As you know, some of the others were sent to Mardum ahead of us, to scout out the area and prepare a camp when Lord Illidan decided it was time to send the rest of us, but thanks to this Inquisitor we've learned that Cyana and a few of the others were captured and there's a brand new demon, a Jailer type by the sounds of it, that is trying to suck their souls out... so if we don't help them soon we will lose a few of our allies. Also, there's a more powerful Inquisitor demon up ahead, Inquisitor Baleful according to what this one has told us, one that you and Rainbow might be able to steal the powers of if you kill him, which will allow Jace to spy on our enemies with one of the toys he's been working on."
"Also, this next gateway should bring in our Coilskar allies," Sevis added, referring to the force of naga that they had left behind in the Black Temple, who were waiting to be called to Mardum so they could join the demon hunters in their mission to claim the Sargerite Keystone, though at the same time it was clear that he didn't trust them all that much, but was willing to work with them since they swore to serve their Lord, "so just find a way to activate the gateway and call in the next batch of reinforcements... or at least that was the plan we were told before coming here."
Spitfire knew that there was more that Sevis wanted to say and that he had decided to keep his mouth shut, no doubt due to the fact that he would have mentioned that she was the leader of the Illidari for the foreseeable future and that she could make amendments to Lord Illidan's original plan, if she deemed such a thing to be necessary, before she shook her head as she looked at the Inquisitor demon.
"Its a good plan of attack: free our captured comrades, kill the commander of this area, and call in the next group of reinforcements before pushing into the next area," Spitfire stated, because she had to agree with what she and Rainbow had been told, especially since it made sense in the grand scheme of their assault, though she did hope they were able to rescue the others before the Jailer demon, or demons since there could be more than one of them in the next area, ripped out their souls and killed them.
Allari and Sevis nodded their heads, to show that they understood what she told them, before Spitfire and Rainbow headed down the path that was beyond where the pair of demon hunters was standing and advanced into the next area that was controlled by the Legion, though it only took them a few moments to discover another foe, a Felguard, which was a variation of the Wrath Warrior demon, who carried all manner of weapons and this one seemed to favor the polearm over the other types. That was followed by them getting their first look at the Jailer demon, a creature that had a decent muscular body, much like the couple of Wrath Warriors and Felguards, only it wore armor over its wrists to prevent the loss of its hands and some around its waist, where a skirt of some kind rested and covered its legs, which the pair believed that it didn't have any normal legs, though the more interesting thing was the Fel cage that was on its back. It seemed like a dangerous foe, though as the pair ran into the area that it was standing in front of, so they could take it down, they did discover that part of the area in front of them seemed to be a holding area for the Legion, so they could interrogate all of the demon hunters that they caught, but the truth of the matter was that the Jailer wasn't that hard for them to kill, as it only used its sharpened claws to fight them. As such it was rather easy for Spitfire and Rainbow to avoid the incoming attacks, allowing them to cut down the demon before it was able to really do anything, though it carried no key and that meant they had to find more Jailers and kill them until they found the key that went to the cages that the others had been stuffed inside for the foreseeable future, and they knew that there were more Jailers because there was one standing near the entrance to the camp they were heading towards.
Of course they weren't the only ones assaulting the Legion camp that was in front of them, as the Ashtongue were in the middle of assisting the demon hunters in slaying all the demons they found in this area, be they Jailers, Felguards, the small Felstalkers, and possibly a few more that they couldn't see at the moment, though there was a massive Infernal off to the far right of the camp they were entering. Instead of worrying about the Infernal, which seemed to be inactive at the moment, Spitfire and Rainbow focused on targeting the Jailer demons, cutting them down where they stood so they could search for a key to open the cages their comrades and friends were trapped in, while at the same time the Felsaber that was following them jumped onto the back of one of them and tore into its neck with ease, dropping it to the ground within seconds as it confirmed that it was a combat companion that could help them out. Interestingly enough the Jailer that the Felsaber tore apart happened to be the one that was holding the key to the cages that were around the area, which was when it gave the key to Spitfire and let her walk over to the first cage, which happened to be located to the left of the opening that they had walked through, though that was when they found that the first demon hunter they freed was the one that Allari had mentioned, Cyana Nightglaive, a night elf demon hunter who thanked them and then declared that she would never be held prisoner again, before rejoining the fight. From there they found their way to another part of the area they were in that held one of the Legion communicators, which just so happened to be where Belath Dawnblade, one of the blood elf demon hunters, happened to be imprisoned by the Jailers of this area, so they freed him and found out that whoever had spoken during their visit to the last device had realized that the Illidari were using the gateways, meaning they would have to be careful in the future.
As they kept their eyes open for the other cages they were looking for, before making their way over to the gateway that the demons had been guarding, which was where Spitfire and Rainbow found some dead demons, one or two of the Ashtongue laying dead on the ground, and Sevis standing beside another one, a mystic, that seemed to be in the process of dying, only he also seemed to be clinging onto what little bits of life he still had.
"Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, its good that you came when you did," Sevis said, where he took a moment to glance down at the clearly severely wounded Broken mystic that was sitting on the ground, who was trying to keep himself alive for a few more seconds, before he focused on the pair and what he was going to tell them, even though it was pretty obvious to Spitfire what was going on, "I'm afraid that you don't have a lot of time to spare."
"Please... use my soul to power... the gateway..." the Broken mystic stated, speaking despite the fact that he was hurt to this extent, showing them that he only had enough power to hold back his dead and that he would rather sacrifice his soul to power the gateway and summon the Coilskar to Mardum, instead of leaving it behind for the demons of this world to take it and torment him for the knowledge he knew.
"Very well..." Spitfire replied, though while she knew that there could have been a chance that they could have healed the wound, and gotten him back on his hooves, the Broken mystic seemed convinced that this was the only way he could do things and that there wasn't much she could actually do to save him, but that didn't stop her from feeling terrible as she drove one of her warglaives into his chest, "don't worry, your sacrifice won't be in vain."
That statement seemed to bring a faint smile to the Broken mystic's face as the life faded from his body and his soul was sucked up into the activator for the second gateway, which was when Spitfire walked over to the device and opened the gateway, revealing a force of heavily armed naga, lead by Lady S'theno, that were brought to Mardum from the section of the Black Temple that they had been waiting in.
"Lady Spitfire, I bring with me the forces of the Coilskar," S'theno said, where she beckoned to the group that she was the leader of, having gotten over the death of Lady Vashj and accepted her role as the leader of the naga that served Lord Illidan in his quest to stop the Legion, and, given Spitfire's new position as the second-in-command of the Illidari, only with their Lord above her, that she was here to serve her as well, before she glanced at the area they were in and frowned for a moment, showing them that she wasn't a fan of the area in question, "how lovely... another Fel volcano. Anyway, we shall press onward and join the others at the next foothold... and Lord Illidan sends his best wishes for a speedy success, as he has faith in our abilities to claim the Keystone."
With that said Lady S'theno and her forces moved out into the area that the rest of the Illidari were taking over, which was when they joined the battle against the demons and prepared to open the way to the rest of Mardum, though instead of following her and her naga, like some of the Broken were doing, the pair headed down the path that lead to the rather massive Infernal that was clearly being prepared to assault their forces. They were going after Inquisitor Baleful, the one that was in charge of the demonic forces in this area, where the pair knew that if they were successful in killing him, and there was a great chance of that happening, the demons in this area would lose their commander and become that much easier to route, hence the reason Spitfire and Rainbow held their warglaives at the ready as they carefully crossed over the fel lava infested river so they could reach the area their target was waiting in. Inquisitor Baleful was waiting for them, as he was eager to beat them and take the secrets that they held for both himself and for the Legion, no doubt because their forms interested him and he was eager to figure out which world they came from, so Sargeras could send the Legion to a brand new world, something that definitely pissed the two of them off the moment he spoke up about it. While Spitfire went on the offensive immediately, slicing off bits of her target's attire as he tried to dodge her, Rainbow flew up into the air and crashed into the massive Infernal's chest, using her warglaives as she came into contact with its body so it would be pushed off the edge of the area and fall into the Twisting Nether, where it would die and never rise to hurt anyone again, before she landed near the Inquisitor and joined the battle. One thing Inquisitor Baleful did was unleash a few Fel eyes into the area that they were standing in, which looked like dark green stone spheres, about the size of a fist, that had two crimson red areas that looked like eyes, though they were parallel with each other, and it was from those eyes that the demon loosed small Fel beams from them, to try and hit one of them while they were distracted... of course he didn't even think about the fact that they could take to the air, so Spitfire and Rainbow mostly ignored that attack.
After a minute it became clear to Inquisitor Baleful that, despite the fact that he was able to take more damage than the other demons, he was losing the battle and surrounded himself in a dark barrier for a few moments, no doubt thinking that he could bomb the area they were standing in, before remembering that Rainbow had silenced the large Infernal and, at the same time, crippled his ability to fight back, so when the barrier fell again the pair and the Felsaber were on top of him in seconds, only to deliver the final blow this time, allowing the pair to steal his power for themselves, which resulted in them firing what appeared to be beams of Fel energy from their eyes, before it went away.
"Wow, what was that?" Rainbow inquired, because that wasn't a power that she and Spitfire had seen before, in fact the only demon hunter, among their entire group, that might know about it was the first one, Lord Illidan himself, and he hadn't taught them or the others this trick, or at least not to her knowledge, though at the very least she felt stronger after slaying the Inquisitor and taking some of his power for herself.
"Some sort of eye beam I guess," Spitfire remarked, as she shared what was going through Rainbow's mind right now, that wasn't a skill they had learned about and it was possible that they would have learned it in due time, if they had more time to train with Lord Illidan, before she shook her head and looked in the direction that their forces were heading in, as she spotted a path that seemed to head to where the third and final gateway was located, "Come on, let's free the rest of our captured allies and get a move on, we still have one more group of reinforcements to summon to Mardum before we can make a play for the Keystone."
Rainbow nodded and followed her lead as they headed over to the area that the rest of the Illidari were using to cross over to the next part of Mardum, though along the way the pair stopped by a cave one of the Jailers had been guarding and found Izal Whitemoon, a night elf from the advanced unit, in a cage, so Spitfire freed her and their ally promised that such a thing would never happen again. Across the path from that cave there was a sunken area that held one other cage, one that was being guarded by a pair of Broken warriors since they didn't have the key, and that was when the pair came in and rescued Mannethrel Darkstar, another night elf that was actually part of their group, who thanked them for saving him before the Jailers tormented him and forced him to give into the demonic energies that were inside him, which would have likely either killed him or forced him to transform into a demon. With Mannethrel saved from his cage, and the area that Inquisitor Baleful ruled over had been taken by the Illidari, the group moved towards the rock bridge that would let them move into the next part of Mardum, where they quickly reached a temporary camp that had been set up while they were busy taking care of their previous targets, to which Mannethrel separated from them and let them approach Jace for a moment, since they needed to inform him of the fact that they had killed Inquisitor Baleful.
"Ah, Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, its good to see you again," Jace said, sensing their arrival before they even said anything to him first, just like all of the other demon hunters had been able to do whenever the pair approached them, something that they were used to after all the time they spent training with the demon hunters, before he turned to face the pair for a few seconds, "and it appears that you have stolen the power of a powerful demon."
"We did, by killing Inquisitor Baleful." Rainbow remarked, though even as she said it she was hoping for a better foe to appear before they left Mardum, as the demons they had killed so far had been rather easy for them to cut down and take control of the parts of the ruined world that were behind them, cutting into the land that the Legion controlled, even if she knew that there wasn't a lot of actual land in this world in the first place, "We also freed our captive allies and summoned in the Coilskar, so we can move forward and take the land before the next portal."
"Good, that means we can use the Nether Crucible at long last," Jace stated, referring to the cauldron-like device that was set between three of the ward devices that he was fond of making for the rest of their forces, so they could be set out and attack the demons that approached them, leaving the Illidari to focus their efforts on their true foes, or protect them from being spied on, "now then, place your hands on the crucible and focus your minds, as I'll be seeing whether or not we can use a bit of that Inquisitor's essence, what gave you the new power you surely gained, to spy on our enemies and get some information before we enter the next part of Mardum."
Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads, placed their hands on the edge of the crucible, and closed their eyes as they focused on what they were doing, though it didn't take them long to figure out what Jace was doing as they peered into part of Mardum, an area that seemed to be the one that might be in front of them, where they spotted a pair of demons in the middle of a conversation. One of them appeared to be a Doomguard, basically a smaller version of Kazzak, though the other one held their attention because it was certainly female, by how the body looked, that stood on two legs that were like what the Broken possessed, only ending in three claws, for lake of a better term, had what they guessed were horns on either side of her head, and had odd looking wings that looked like spider legs with webbing connecting each section together, or at least that was what the pair assumed. This type of demon was an Aranasi, a more rumored type of demon that the Illidari knew next to nothing about and only had rumors to go on, meaning they would have to be careful when they dealt with her, especially since it appeared that she might be the demon that ruled over Mardum, based on how the Doomguard was kneeling to her at the moment. The Aranasi was annoyed about their presence in her world, something that she verbally said to the Doomguard, where it wasn't hard to hear that the Doomguard had some Eredar that were in the process of summoning reinforcements to deal with them, before they got a piece of information that mattered to all of them and their mission, the Sargerite Keystone was beyond the volcano and that Beliash, the demon she was talking to right now, was ordered to stop them at all costs, to which he acknowledged her orders not a few seconds later, before the vision they were seeing faded and they were back with Jace.
"So the rumors were true, the Legion has spider demons... like they needed more types of demons." Jace remarked, his tone informing Spitfire and Rainbow that he didn't much care for the Aranasi that they had seen, a queen based on the words that Beliash had used when talking to her, but that was when he shook his head and focused on the area that was on the other side of the rock bridge that rested near them, "But at least she, unknowingly I might add, gave us the location of the Sargerite Keystone, meaning we're close to completing our mission."
"Indeed we are. Jace, I want you and the others to slay the Eredar and break their portals," Spitfire stated, though this time she was getting into the leadership role that had been given to her, because she had a good idea of what they had to do next and it was time for her to take charge, while at the same time Rainbow remained silent as she listened to what sort of orders she could be giving, "once that's done I want everyone to head through the pass that's near the volcano, so you can establish another temporary camp, to rest and regroup before our assault on this Queen's lair. While you do that Rainbow and I will open the final gateway and call in the Shivarra, since they're patiently waiting for us to bring them to this ruined world, and we'll be sure to take out Beliash as well."
Jace nodded his head and repeated the order to the Illidari that had been assembled in this area, to which all of them, with Spitfire and Rainbow at the head of the pack, charged over the rock bridge and started to assault the Eredar that were in the middle of creating portals to summon more demons to Mardum, though while that was happening the pair went ahead of the others and flew up to the area that Beliash was guarding. He clearly wasn't expecting them to reach him so soon, even though he did have two support pillars active which might actually protect him from harm, but his combat skills left more to be desired, because he couldn't actually fight two demon hunters at once, rather he could only focus on one of them at a time and opened himself up to being attacked from another direction. Spitfire parried the incoming attack that was heading her way and stalled her foe in a matter of seconds, though as Beliash powered himself up, to make sure they couldn't hurt him more than they already had, which was the moment that both of them backed away for a moment and drove their warglaives into the exposed crystals that powered the pillars, stripping their foe of his defense and forcing him to fight once more, which was the very moment the pair activated their eye beams and blasted their way through the armor that their foe was wearing. That attack, combined with what they had been able to do within the first couple of moments of the battle starting, was more than enough to bring down Beliash, proving that the Brood Queen, as Spitfire was going to call her, needed a more powerful lieutenant than the Doomguard she had chosen, as this mistake was going to bring about her end in due time, though she put that train of thought on hold as both she and Rainbow took in another power, due to killing Beliash.
Neither of them had any idea what sort of power they had stolen this time, even though Spitfire could make a guess or two on that matter, but instead of wasting time trying to figure it out they, along with the Felsaber that had been tearing into some of the Eredar while they fought Beliash, headed up the hill that was behind them and approached the final of the three gateways, where it wasn't hard to find Sevis standing near the corpses of a few Mo'arg, though he did appear to be worried about the fact that he couldn't power the activator.
"Lady Spitfire, while I'm glad to see you and Rainbow again, it appears that we have a slight... problem." Sevis said, to which he gestured to the activator for a moment, mostly to indicate that he had done everything in his power to power the device in question and that he knew she wasn't going to like what he had to say next, hence the reason Spitfire was taking a look at the area as he talked, "It would seem that the demon in charge of this world has done something to this gateway, as the activator didn't power up at all when I offered it the souls of the Mo'arg that are around us... but maybe the soul of something even stronger, like a demon hunter, will work?"
"Or I could use the leftover essence of Beliash to power it," Spitfire replied, because while she knew that every demon hunter was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to help Lord Illidan end the war with the Legion, she wasn't about to ask one of her soldiers to offer his life so she could power the gateway, especially since it seemed that the fraction of Beliash's essence that remained was more than enough to awaken the activator, before she glanced at Sevis, "I'm not going to ask you to sacrifice yourself like this, especially when there are other ways of making sure we can do something, but I applaud your resolve in the face of what such a thing would have meant for you."
Sevis seemed shocked by what she had done, even Rainbow was caught off guard by the fact that they had enough of Beliash's power to do something like this, before the blood elf nodded his head and headed towards the path that would take him to the camp that Jace and the others were setting up, which was when Spitfire activated the gateway and a force of thirty or forty Shivarra were brought to Mardum, lead by Matron Mother Malevolence, who spotted them a few seconds after she and her forces emerged from the gateway.
"Ah, Lady Spitfire, Lord Illidan has placed my Shivarra at your command," Malevolence stated, something that Spitfire was getting used to since she had both Battlelord Gaardoun and Lady S'theno say something to that extent when both of them came through their respective portals with their forces, before she noticed the line of Illidari headed towards the next camp they were establishing, "Oh, before we were summoned this world we heard that a small band of adventurers, made up of equal parts Alliance and Horde, have infiltrated the Black Temple, while the Sha'tari army is still being denied access to the temple, so we are to acquire the Sargerite Keystone with all haste and then return to the temple, so we can aid in its defense."
Spitfire nodded before she, Rainbow, the Felsaber, Malevolence, and the rest of the Shivarra departed from the area so they could join the rest of the Illidari, as it was time for them to rejoin their forces at their new temporary camp, take a few moments to rest and see what the situation was, before declaring war on this Brood Queen, take the Keystone from her, and then return to the Black Temple to repel the forces that were invading it.