//------------------------------//
// Interlude: The Fel Hammer 
// Story: World of Warcraft: Burning Skies 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Spitfire was the first one to return to Krasus' Landing, where she found the rest of the Illidari gathering near the broken part of the wall that would allow them to glide down to the area that their camp was set up in, to which she landed near them and walked over to where Kor'vas, Kayn, and Altruis were standing, though she did toss her warglaives over to one of the other demon hunters and then summoned the Twinblades from her horns.

"The Twinblades of the Deceiver... impressive." Kor'vas commented, as she and the others knew that Spitfire would return with the weapons that she had set out to recover from Varedis, just like they believed Rainbow would do the same thing and return to them in no time, though that didn't stop her and the others from smiling a little as they stared at the blades Spitfire was showing them, "You're also stronger than when you left to take down Varedis, so I'm assuming you were able to take his soul while you were at it so we could deprive Kil'jaeden of one of his minions."

"Sadly not, Kil'jaeden forced Varedis to return to Argus before I was able to cut him down," Spitfire replied, which was rather annoying and it meant that the traitor could be anywhere in the future, where she knew that she, Rainbow, and the rest of the Illidari were going to have to track down Varedis and kill him before he came after them, and potentially Caria as well, depending on how well Rainbow did her job, but she did pause for a few seconds as some Felbats returned, baring Allari and a few of the demon hunters that went to the Broken Shore to track down Rainbow's target, meaning her friend would be returning in the next few moments, "I did, however, kill a number of demons and took their souls, so all of their Fel energy has been added to my own... but we have Varedis' warglaives, and the fraction of Kil'jaeden's power that sleeps within the blades, so that's one less weapon pointed at this world and its guardians."

"And I have the Aldrachi Warblades," Rainbow stated, where she touched down a few moments later and produced the weapons she had been chasing, much to the joy of Allari and those that had gone down there to make sure Caria was even on the Broken Shore, before she smirked for a moment, as she had heard Spitfire's comment about Varedis and this happened to be one of the few moments where she was able to do something her friend didn't, "not to mention that I was able to cut Caria down and cleave a part of her soul off, granting me a bit more power in the process, though Kil'jaeden took the rest with his power and will no doubt bring her back to life in the near future."

"Still, the two of you have struck multiple blows to the Legion, showing them that Varedis and Caria aren't the best of our order anymore," Kayn stated, while at the same time Kor'vas, Altruis, and the others nodded their heads in agreement, as he was correct in what he was saying and there was no arguing with him yet, before he considered something, despite the fact that he was sure Spitfire or Rainbow, or possible both, had considered this idea as well, "still, they might decide to empower their corrupted demon hunters, or rather their pet half-demons, so they'll be ready to fight you again, meaning you can take their power for yourselves, when you're ready to do so."

"The Legion is going to regret having you two as its enemies," Kor'vas added, though even as she said that she knew that she would have dreaded having Spitfire or Rainbow as her foes, because they were stronger than any demon hunter their Lord had trained, way stronger than what she thought they were first possible of, and she had to wonder if they were beyond the level of power that Lord Illidan, whose power supposedly came from Sargeras himself and was amplified by all the things he did over the years, or at least those were the stories she and the others heard during their training, though it was in that moment that she refocused on what they were talking about right now, "Now that we have both sets of blades, and have deprived the Legion of their power at the same time, its time for us to glide down to the small island the Council is letting us use while this invasion is happening... Jace discovered something after you both left and we might have access to more allies than what we currently have."

Spitfire and Rainbow had to assume that Jace had a way to communicate with their allies in Mardum, no doubt aboard the Legion vessel they had assaulted so long ago, to which they lead the way over to the small path of land that their camp was set up on, where a few trapped demons, some Imps in one Fel container and a Wrathguard in the other, were resting near what appeared to be a portal structure, with Jace standing near a communicator, and it wasn't long before everyone landed near him, though it was easy to see that there was another prison off to the side with a Dreadlord inside it, which was interesting and they would have to ask the others about it later, once they were done with Jace.

"Ah, Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, it seems your hunts were successful," Jace said, as he could see the Twinblades that were in Spitfire's hands and the Warblades that Rainbow was currently carrying, though that was quickly followed by a smile appearing on his face as he decided that it was time to share with them the news the others had briefly mentioned, as he knew that they were interested in what he had to say, "After helping Rainbow figure out where Caria was located I was able to make contact with the rest of our forces in Mardum, and they have secured the Fel Hammer, the Legion ship that we assaulted all those years ago, though we are unable to open a way between here and there due to Malevolence using the energies of the ship to teleport everyone aboard the vessel. However, there is another way, as both of your new blades contain a fragment of Kil'jaeden's great power, so we should be able to use them and open a more permanent opening between this small patch of land and Mardum, and we have gathered a few demons to sacrifice to such a thing, you only need to give the command to do so."

"Very well then, do it." Spitfire stated, as she knew that having the full might of the Illidari on their side would be good for them and the heroes of Azeroth, especially since their allies had to have spent years discovering everything that was aboard the Fel Hammer, which meant they could get the rundown once they reached the ship, before she prepared for what they were about to do.

Kor'vas approached the imprisoned Imps and wiped all of them out with a quick burst of her eye beams, while at the same time Belath cut down the Wrathguard that he had been staring at, allowing all the demonic souls to gather right in the center of the portal structure they had set up, no doubt enchanting it so this would happen, before Spitfire neared the structure and swung her new Twinblades at the mass of souls. The power of the Twinblades interacted with what she was trying to do and connected to the souls that were in front of her, where she carved open a tear in reality, one that allowed her and the others to move between Azeroth and Mardum, or at least that was the plan if everything worked as intended, and based on what she heard it sounded like Malevolence had noticed the tear on their side, so she had to assume that the way was open. As soon as that was done, and Spitfire was sure that there had been no consequences of her doing this near Dalaran, she beckoned for the other demon hunters to follow her as she and Rainbow marched through the portal she had opened, where they quickly found themselves on the ledge that they had landed on before they engaged the Brood Queen that had been holding the Sargerite Keystone. On this side of the portal, where she and Rainbow found that they were definitely back in Mardum, they discovered that there were a pair of Shivarra powering the portal on this side, before they noticed that Malevolence was standing in front of them and was pleased that they had returned to Mardum after so long, no doubt due to the fact that she and the others wanted to resume their war on the Legion.

"Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, it is good to see the two of you, and the rest of our forces, again," Malevolence stated as soon as the pair came to a stop, while Kor'vas and the others did the same behind them, before she beckoned for them to follow her inside the actual ship and they found that most of what the Brood Queen left behind had been cleaned up to make the place livable for the forces that had been trapped in Mardum, "We have been dutifully guarding the Fel Hammer since you and the others went to join Lord Illidan in the Black Temple, but, due to some decisions and other things, we have been unable to tap into the majority of the ship's resources... though we have theorized that the mark of a Lord of the Legion, like something with Kil'jaeden's power, would reawaken the ship."

It was in that moment that Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other, as they knew what needed to be done, before Rainbow joined the others who were standing behind them and let Spitfire standing in front of what she assumed was the main console that powered the entire ship, to which she faced the console and held her new Twinblades up in the air for a few seconds as the Fel energy danced around her, followed by the sounds of the ship coming online. How she knew that was due to the ring of light that appeared in the central area that the Brood Queen had been standing in when they found her and cut her down, though Spitfire also noticed that the demon's body was currently hanging from an area near the roof of the chamber, a trophy of their victory over the forces of Mardum, and once all of the powering up was done she watched as the central terminal came online and revealed a star map, detailing Azeroth and, more importantly, the Broken Isles that they would be heading to next. With that done Kor'vas, Kayn, and Altruis lead the way down to the lower area that was in front of them, giving them time to see Battlelord Gaardoun and his Ashtongue warriors teleport into the left side of the chamber, Lady S'theno and her Coilskar did the same in the area opposite of the first group, and Malevolence took her position across from where the demon hunters were standing, joining the rest of her Shivarra as all three groups proclaimed that there was more work for them to do and that they would serve Spitfire until their dying breath. Kor'vas and the others declared that they would finish the mission their Lord had given them, that they would find the Sargerite Keystone and recover it, take down both Varedis and Caria so they couldn't come back, and strike out at the Legion as they sought out the prison that their Lord was trapped in, even if there was no real order to that sequence of events, rather it was just her reminding them of their current tasks.

Spitfire, on the other hand, was happy to see that the vast majority of their forces had, against all odds, overcome the challenges of Mardum and had survived long enough for her, Rainbow, and the others to join them again, though as she took all of it in the rest of the demon hunters got settled in before they were sent out on missions to the provinces that the Pillars of Creation were supposed to be located in, and it appeared that Gaardoun had something he wanted to tell her before anyone was sent out on a mission.

"Lady Spitfire, while it is good to see you again there is something you need to see," Gaardoun said, where he started to walk towards one of the ramps that would take them down to the lower level of the ship, the area that they had used all those years ago when they acquired the Keystone, though both Spitfire and Rainbow followed after him as the others went about their business, "I apologize for us not attempting to follow you back to the Black Temple, because as soon as you and the others went through the portal we were assaulted by Legion reinforcements and they wiped out the portal, which is why we have spent the last seven years defending the Fel Hammer from our enemies, but during our conquest we did find something truly wonderful: an ancient Nathrezim Forge, one that the Dreadlords used to make some of the most dangerous and deadly weapons that the Legion have used in their crusade. At first we had no idea what to do with it, to which I posted some of my best soldiers near the opening leading to it so they could keep it safe, but now, after seeing the weapons that you and Rainbow are wielding, I would think that you could use the forge to make your weapons sharper and more deadlier than they currently are... though the only way to truly tap into the full power of the forge would be if we had a Dreadlord on our side, not that such a thing is possible since they dislike us."

"Well, there is the Dreadlord the others captured... maybe we could convince him to join us?" Rainbow stated, though at the same time she did know that the odds of such a thing working in their favor were slim to none, since Lord Illidan was the one that detonated the world of the Dreadlords all those years ago, wiping out the majority of them, so if one of their kind were to join the Illidari it would mostly be to destroy them from the inside, so she was talking about something that was an impossibility.

Spitfire considered it for a moment as they stopped in the room that the forge was in, which looked like a forge that had been enlarged so a creature like the Nathrezim could work on it, not to mention the Fel energies that happened to be coming from the item, though instead of worrying about all of that she thanked Gaardoun for showing them to the area it was in and headed back to Kor'vas... who, upon their arrival, escorted them out to the island they had left the shackled Dreadlord on, as if she knew what Spitfire was going to ask her.

"Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, allow me to introduce Loramus Thalipedes, a demon hunter who was unable to join our Lord when he returned to Outland," Kor'vas said, though that revealed so much to Spitfire, who quickly determined that the individual that was in front of them, while looking like a Dreadlord, was actually in possession of two souls and they were constantly fighting with each other for control, sort of like how some of them had to constantly fight the demon soul that was inside them, even though neither her or Rainbow really had to do that, "though now he's sharing a body with a Dreadlord called Razelikh the Defiler. Khadgar and his mages found him trying to derail several Legion operations in the land of Azsuna and decided to pull him out before he was caught, so to the best of the Legion's knowledge he's dead and will be reborn in the Twisting Nether again, to be thrown at Azeroth again, but we made sure he was delivered to us with all the speed they could muster, as we intend on helping Loramus take control of his foe and use his power to assist us in our mission to destroy the Legion."

"I see." Spitfire replied, as that was good news for them, because having someone who was in control of a Dreadlord's soul like this would give them all the knowledge that the demon in question had access to, and, if the stories about their ability to craft terrible weapons was true, this would give them the power to forge even stronger weapons for the future, and maybe some other things as well, before she faced the imprisoned demon hunter, "Loramus, I trust that you know what we'll be doing in the next few minutes? Are you ready to tame the Dreadlord?"

"Y... Yes." was the reply she got, though where one would assume that the voice belonged to the demon, and in truth they were partly correct, it was the full word that sounded more like the elf that had been stuck with this fate so long ago, showing that he understood wha they were going to be doing and that he would do his best to keep Razelikh contained for the duration of what Kor'vas had planned.

As such Kor'vas had the demon hunters that were tending to the prison shift the Fel energies and escort the structure into the portal that was in front of them, as none of them wanted the Legion to see them turning a Dreadlord to their side, and in the off chance that this failed they would be near the Twisting Nether so they could kill Razelikh and he would never come back again, before the group reappeared in the Fel Hammer. Once that was done Spitfire and Rainbow moved to the side for a moment and watched what happened next, as usually the demonic tattoos were created when a demon hunter took in the soul of a powerful demon, to help the demon hunter restrain and seal the soul inside them, something that the two of them had bypassed when they seized control of the demon souls that served as the bases of their power, so this was the first time they saw someone apply the markings to the body of another demon hunter. Hence the reason the two of them watched as the others applied some markings to the Dreadlord's body, Fel green colored to be exact, before they pulled away as the Fel energy danced around the shared body for a few moments, causing Loramus and Razelikh to fight each other for the next couple of minutes, the body seemingly shifting between the form of a night elf and a Nathrezim, showing that both of them were trying to overcome the other and assert their dominance over their body. Fortunately it didn't last forever and there was a brief flash that made everyone look away, but when they were able to look again they found a night elf, who had long purple hair, red gloves, and a red pair of Illidari pants, along with a red sash around his eyes, standing where the Dreadlord had been, though it appeared that Loramus had been successful and they could add the knowledge of a Nathrezim to their arsenal.

Loramus, of course, was caught off guard by the fact that he had succeeded over Razelikh and that he still feared that he might lose to the demon that his soul was connected with, hence the reason Spitfire made sure the others that stayed inside the Fel Hammer kept an eye on him, because if he was worried about losing to his inner demon the best thing they could do was end both of them before something happened, ensuring neither of their souls were taken by the Legion to be used in this war... though once that was done Spitfire and Rainbow returned to Krasus' Landing, mostly to think about what they needed to do next, before they started to figure out which province they would tackle.

"Ah, there you are." a familiar voice said, where the pair turned the moment they landed on the area that all of the heroes were running around, who seemed to be heading out for the locations that their artifacts happened to be located in, so they could claim them and return to the city so they could begin their work in the Broken Isles, before they found Khadgar walking over to where they were standing, accompanied by a worgen that was wearing plate armor, which looked more death-like than what the paladins wore, meaning the light grayish blue furred lady was a death knight, as if the blue glowing eyes didn't give her nature away, "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, allow me to introduce Scarlet Chillhowl, one of the four death knights that have been chosen to lead the rest of the death knights in our battle against the Legion, though she specializes in wielding the power of frost, as opposed to the power of blood or unholy... the only reason they'll have four Deathlords, as that is what they are going to be calling their champions, is because Zuleth prefers to wield Shadowmourne and doesn't want to give it up for a different artifact of power."

"Considering everything he went through to make that weapon, I wouldn't give it up either," the worgen, Scarlet, said, though at the same time she focused on the two of them for a moment and revealed a sack that she had been carrying the entire time, one that the pair was only just now noticing, but it seemed that it was rather important and that was why Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at it for a moment, "Since I specialize in using the frost version of a death knight's powers, and not the other two, I was tasked with heading to Icecrown Citadel and had to recover the fragments of Frostmourne, not to mention I had to put down a few lingering souls that were around the fragments, but this sack contains every piece of the shattered runeblade, both the blade fragments and the handle... I was told that you might be able to reforge the weapon and turn it into a tool to destroy the demons of the Legion."

"Correction: neither of us can reforge the weapon," Spitfire stated, though at the same time she gestured to the small island that the portal to the Fel Hammer rested on, giving Khadgar and Scarlet a moment to look down at it, before she and Rainbow opened their wings once more as they prepared to head back to the ship their comrades were resting in right now, "but we know someone who might be able to help you out."

As soon as she said that Spitfire and Rainbow jumped backwards and flew back to the island, where Khadgar used his magic to move him and Scarlet down to them, before the four of them entered the portal and then sought out Loramus, even though Khadgar had to pause for a moment to take in what he was seeing at the moment, only to find that the newly freed demon hunter was resting nearby and wasn't even attempting to wield any warglaives. Loramus seemed surprised by Scarlet's request, once they told him what she was asking them to do, but in the end he nodded and took the sack from the death knight so he could check out the fragments, all while no doubt going over the knowledge that the Dreadlord had granted him as they walked down to where the Nathrezim Forge rested. When they reached the forge, however, Loramus had them stay on the upper floor as he walked down into the chamber that was his destination, where he shifted into his empowered form, which was him stealing Razelikh's Dreadlord form interestingly enough, and then poured the contents of the sack out onto the forge as he acquired the necessary tools that would allow him to work on the weapon. As such there was nothing for the group to do for the foreseeable future, to which Spitfire and Rainbow agreed that the Broken that were guarding the opening could come get them once Loramus was done with his work and then they headed back up to the highest level of the ship, to stare at the map of the Broken Isles and see if there was any information they could gleam from the Fel globe, before they decided on which province they headed to first. Khadgar and Scarlet followed them, as they were guests inside the Fel Hammer and the other demon hunters, and the Illidari, kept their eyes on them while they were visiting their base of operations, mostly to make sure they didn't try anything funny, before they stared at the map as well as they came to a stop near the pair.

While they were staring at the map, however, Khadgar informed them of what he knew about the four main provinces that their forces would be focusing on for the first stage of their search for the Pillars of Creation, giving them an idea as to which Pillar was supposed to be in which province and what they might expect if they were to head down to that area and start exploring it. There was the land of Azsuna, where there was a significant Legion presence, weaker than what was in Suramar anyway, a number of ruins that looked like they were ten thousand years old, and supposedly there had been a few sightings of some blue dragons in the province as well, though from what the tome told him Azsuna was where they would find the Tidestone of Golganneth. To the north of Azsuna rested Val'sharah, a forest province that was the home of some ancient druids and the Wild God Cenarius, though it was where they would find the artifact known as the Tears of Elune, which struck Spitfire and Rainbow as odd since Elune wasn't the name of one of the Titans that would have created the Pillars of Creation, but they said nothing to that as they listened to what he had to say. To the northeast of Val'sharah rested Highmountain, the home of three tribes of tauren that were different from the tauren of the Horde, not to mention a number of other creatures, while it served as the location of the Hammer of Khaz'goroth, one that might be difficult to track down and that was why they were reaching out to the locals to find it. After that was Stormheim, which rested to the southeast of Highmountain and served as the home of the Aegis of Aggramar, though from what they knew there were some vrykul settlements in the area and some Titan structures, but the most important thing Khadgar had discovered was that Sylvanas Windrunner and Genn Greymane were both heading there, meaning conflict would spark once they found each other, even though Scarlet determined she would be joining her leader in his quest.

That gave Spitfire an idea as to what to expect from the provinces, with Suramar being the last province that held the final Pillar of Creation, the Eye of Aman'Thul, though before she could really think about it they were interrupted by the arrival of Loramus, where Khadgar and Scarlet gasped as they stared at what he was holding, a two-handed runeblade that was wicked looking and seemed to have an air of frost around it.

"Frostmourne... you repaired the blade?!" Scarlet stated, as she recognized the sinister weapon that the last Lich King had used before his demise, the one that had been shattered by Ashbringer when the heroes engaged their foe all those years ago, but while she collected the fragments and purified them, as per the new Lich King's orders, she hadn't been expecting this to even happen.

"Yes, though it will feast on the souls of demons, instead of the souls of people like you and the people of Dalaran," Loramus said, though at the same time he switched his grip on the weapon and held it out for Scarlet to take, showing that he understood why Spitfire had brought the worgen to the Fel Hammer in the first place and he had rapidly put the knowledge of the Dreadlords to use in reforging one of the Legion's most dangerous weapons, and he had changed part of its nature in such a short period of time, "though that's not all I changed, as you can focus on switching it from a two-handed greatsword and make it a pair of one-handed swords... go on, try it out."

Scarlet stared at the weapon for a moment as she gripped the handle and took it from Loramus, where she focused her mind for a moment as she considered what he had just told her and tried to switch the blade into the one-handed form he had told her about, though that was when they watched as the blade seemed to separate into two smaller blades and the handle did the same, giving Scarlet two shorter one-handed swords, instead of giving her a massive one-handed sword, like a longsword for example, where she stared at the new blades in shock for a couple of seconds.

"Allow me to introduce the second form of Frostmourne: the Blades of the Fallen Prince, Frostreaper and Icebringer," Loramus stated, where they weren't the only ones looking at the weapons Scarlet was now carrying, as everyone was a little interested in what the five of them were doing at the moment, even though this would freak out the heroes that had fought the Lich King all those years ago, "I don't know if you know this or not, but Varian Wyrnn carried a weapon known as Shalamayne, a sword that was two swords merged into a single entity and could be separated back into Shall'tor and Ellemayne whenever the wielder willed such a change... I figured that we could do the same thing with Frostmourne, just in case carrying the greatsword into battle is too much for you to handle."

"Personally, I prefer using two one-handed swords when I fight," Scarlet replied, where Spitfire could tell she wasn't kidding, since there were a pair of blades attached to her belt and looked like some of the swords the other death knights had carried into battle, before she brought her hands together and the two blades became one as she willed it to happen, showing that she could either carry Frostmourne or the Blades of the Fallen Prince into battle, "however, it will be good to use one of the Legion's most dangerous weapons against them, especially when they learn that we were able to reforge it from the fragments that were scattered around Icecrown Citadel."

"We should keep an eye out for any other weapons of power while we're fighting the Legion, just in case we can claim more artifacts to use against them," Rainbow commented, because she was sure that their enemies had made more than just the blade Scarlet was carrying or the Twinblades that Spitfire was now carrying, since the latter had been twisted by the power of Kil'jaeden, and she felt that it would be nice to have more weapons to use against them, despite the fact that it would take them time to locate all of them.

"I will return to Acherus and see if the other newly crowned Deathlords were successful in finding their artifacts, save for Zuleth of course," Scarlet said, where she took a moment to remove her old blades and put them in a pack that she had been carrying, before withdrawing a sheath that looked like it belonged to Frostmourne, only she experimented with the defusing and refusing aspect of the weapon and found that the sheath mimicked it, meaning she could carry either into battle and have a place to return her new weapon.

With that done Spitfire and Rainbow turned their attention to the map once more, though this time Spitfire was going to have their forces focus on assisting the heroes that went down to Azsuna, since that had the largest Legion presence in the four provinces that they were starting with, but neither she or Rainbow were going to head there, rather she felt that Stormheim had to be their destination, more because she had the feeling that Sylvanas and Glenn would attack each other and not focus on the mission, so she was going to deal with the Banshee Queen while Rainbow went along with Genn, even though Spitfire was hoping her feelings on the matter were wrong and that she was just being paranoid.