//------------------------------//
// Cataclysm: Secrets of Uldum 
// Story: Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

With Mount Hyjal claimed for the Scourge, and some of her forces teleported over to begin reinforcing it for when it came time to move against the rest of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, Sunset sat in the main temple that the defenders had used before her arrival, at the head since she was the Lich Queen. What she was doing was going over everything she had gleamed from those who had been slain and reborn as members of the Scourge, though this time she was focused on the information of the Twilight's Hammer cultists, who served Deathwing and the Old Gods in life. There were all sorts of plans to deal damage to Deathwing's enemies, or enslave former allies that were turning out to be enemies this time around, and while she could see they were interested in the Twilight Highlands, and the Twilight dragonflight, along with Deepholm, the realm of Therazane, and Uldum. The last one in the list was the direction Deathwing had flown in after Ragnaros tried to hit him with his massive hammer, where, according to her new information, Al'Akir was planning on either turning the people of the province into new soldiers or killing them if they resisted, while Deathwing himself rested for a time.

The Twilight Highlands and Deepholm were interesting, and she'd get to them at some point, but her focus turned to the third province, Uldum, a land the cultists really knew nothing about, a total mystery unless she asked someone else for more information, and she opened her eyes so she could glance at the assembled group.

"Kairoz, I want you to open a portal back to the Caverns of Time, so I can fly to Uldum." Sunset stated, where she could see that the assembled figures, those who were new to the brand new organization of the Scourge, were surprised by what she was saying, since her predecessor didn't do these things, but kept their mouths shut as she talked, "I want everyone else, save for a few val'kyr, to stay here and continue preparing for the assault on Kalimdor... the chosen val'kyr will join me and raise anything I slay."

"It will be as you command, my Queen." Kairoz replied, something that was echoed by the others as they took a moment to bow their heads towards her, even the raised Ancients did so, showing her that her art of revival forced total loyalty and obedience on her targets, even those that the val'kyr raised.

Since there was nothing else for her to do in Mount Hyjal, not with her forces having seized everything, Sunset got up from her seat and followed Kairoz outside, where he gathered some of his energy and opened the portal to the Caverns of Time that his flight watched over, to keep time intact. She stepped through the portal and appeared in an area that was close to a desert, Tanaris it was called, to which she spread her wings and headed to the southwest, to where she detected a faint magical presence that she didn't recognize, at least not immediately. It didn't take her long to discover something new, a passage carved into the side of a mountain ridge that hadn't been there earlier, in fact her stolen memories told her that it must have been hidden by magic, along with statues carved into the two walls that connected Tanaris to Uldum. What she found were that the statues seemed to be of centaur cat creatures, one unique to this province most likely, before quickly spotting a small caravan that seemed to be fleeing from Tanaris, no doubt thinking that if they went somewhere she had no idea about they would remain safe.

Sadly it wasn't meant to be as a group of small and somewhat ugly looking humanoid creatures, that rode hyenas as their mounts, attacked the caravan, though Sunset wasted no time in landing and drew their attention to her, fear from the the group that knew her and interest from the newcomers. Fighting the pygmies, she was guessing with their name since this was her first time seeing them, proved to be rather easy to someone of her skill, all Sunset had to do was dodge while her foes attacked her, though she used her dark lasso to pull in the caravan when they tried to flee. Such a thing caused them to perish in a matter of moments, much to the amazement of her current foes, and that amazement proved to be their downfall as well, as their defenses were open and she slew them accordingly, littering the ground with corpses and blood in no time at all. It was a replication of what she had done to the Scarlet crusaders when she first started killing the living, minus the amount of people needed to make it a true massacre, but once she was done with her foe she nodded once as she got moving, the val'kyr raising the dead to serve their new master.

It was in the following seconds that she learned that the pygmies were known to capture slaves and deliver them to one of the cities in Uldum, one far to the south, near the water, and that they handed them to a race called the tol'vir, the very same race that the statues were modeled after.

"Things are getting interesting... I think I'll pay this 'Lost City' a visit." Sunset commented, to which she spread her wings once more and headed to the south, issuing a silent command for the new undead to slay everything in the area that they had been slain in while most of the val'kyr stayed with them to raise even more into undeath, allowing one to follow her to her destination, as she suspected she'd find new people to slay.

Uldum was an interesting place, a desert province that had enough water to allow for several settlements and farms, all while having all sorts of structures that were unknown to her, though her focus was on the large city resting at the end of a river delta, one full of tol'vir, most made of flesh since she found a few stone ones walking around. In addition to that she found something else that interested her, there was a large elemental being, this one made of wind in the lower half, meaning it had to be one of Al'Akir's soldiers or trusted followers, meaning he was a prime target for her to tear down in the near future. Based on what she could tell the locals were confused as to why there was an elemental in their city, right in the center to be exact, though it was clear he was allied with Deathwing, at least according to the cultists' information, and that he was preparing to convert them into being followers for his master. If that was the case, and she was sure of it since it looked like he was planning something, that meant his hold over the city was far from complete, though it hardly mattered to her as she landed in what seemed like the military area and cut down the tol'vir before they had a chance to fight back, surprising everyone in the city.

Fighting four legged creatures was interesting, especially since this was the first time she was doing so, but the feeling she felt soon died down as Sunset increased her own experience while tearing them down, along with the fallen being raised into undeath by her single val'kyr. As the tol'vir were raised as soldiers of the Scourge Sunset received more information on how to fight beings like them, as each one had trained for a long time and had more experience fighting their own kind, allowing her to tear her way through their defenses like they were nothing. While she did that, however, she spotted the elemental trying to flee to a citadel that rested in the sky, some distance from the ground, and realized it had to be part of Al'Akir's realm, Skywall, while her magic snatched her target and slammed him into a nearby wall, stunning him for a short period of time. The val'kyr, having watched Sunset for a while now, knew what was coming as she cut down the elemental and raised him into undeath without wasting time, finding that he was known as Siamat, the Lord of the South Wind, and that meant there were three more Lords to take down before cutting down Al'Akir.

"What to do first... do I wipe out all of Uldum, or do I kill the Conclave of Wind and Al'Akir first." Sunset remarked, as that was what she was thinking of right now, which target did she go after first, before she glanced at the two citadel pieces up in the air, as she found another one after looking through Siamat's new information, "Siamat, let's pay your fellow Lords and former master a quick visit."

Siamat bowed his head as he followed her into the air, while the raised tol'vir made sure the surrounding area was clear of enemies, where Sunset rushed up to the entrance of Skywall and burst through it with ease, appearing in a place where the wind responded to one's command. She was standing on a platform that seemed important, since there were three more of them that formed a circle around a central one, one that was far larger than the others were, and it was easy for her to see three elementals the size of Siamat floating above them. In the center she located a massive elemental that was the same size of Ragnaros and Neptulon, while his face was covered by some sort of cloth and he carried a large blade in his right hand, which had lightning dancing around the edge. It appeared that they were talking about Orsis, a town or city located in Uldum based on her new information, where it sounded like Al'Akir was planning on having Siamat head over to it and cure them of the 'Curse of Flesh', but it didn't look like any of them noticed her arrival, which was fine with her since it meant this was going to be her win.

For a second Sunset gathered her magic and shifted her stance, though in the next Siamat watched as she pulled her arm back and hurled her blade like it was a spear, where it smashed into Anshal, pierced Nezir, and tore through Rohash in a matter of seconds before she leapt forward, caught Frostmourne, and drove it into Al'Akir's chest, knocking him right into the ground, only to rise a moment later with her new soldiers.

"With this three of the four Elemental Lords are under my control." Sunset stated, where she and the Wind Lords returned to Uldum, breaking through the prison that the Titans placed Al'Akir in all those years ago, and descended on the land, all while her undead army marched out of the lost city and started to wage war with the rest of the province, which was when a grin appeared on her face, "Let's make it an official order: kill anyone who dares to stand against us!"

Unlike Mount Hyjal or Vashj'ir there was no one for her to face, not after killing Al'Akir and his Conclave, so Sunset floated in the air and watched the new faction of Scourge tear into the living, though part of her attention was on a large pyramid off to her right, one that seemed different from several of the stone buildings around the province. According to her new stolen information it was known as the Halls of Origination, a Titan construction that no one from the outside world even knew about, while the tol'vir knew that it had the power to reoriginate the planet, transforming it to suit the desires of the one who used it, so like how N'Zoth, or another Old God, would seek to bring Ny'alotha. She knew this since the Twilight cultists knew about the grand plan their masters had, or at least the current step, and Sunset, being smart enough to see the connections, figured out the end goal long before anyone else on Azeroth had even noticed the first link. Such a thing caused her to grin as she made her way over to the structure, finding a entrance on the eastern side that would allow one to enter it, causing her to imagine what it might accomplish in her hands or even the hands of those who opposed her, be it the living races or the Old Gods.

In the end she gathered the blue dragons and combined her magic with theirs, creating an impenetrable barrier that she knew would keep the living out of the Halls of Origination, allowing her to focus on the rest of the province, though at the same time she suspected that some living fools were enraging Deathwing and hoped they kept him entertained while she wrecked his allies.





While Sunset was doing that, silently being observed by some of their bronze dragon allies, another situation was rapidly unfolding in the Badlands, where the red dragon Rheastrasza, or 'Rhea' as she preferred to be called, was flying for her life as Deathwing himself tried to torch her. She suspected that it was due to her experiments to make an uncorrupted black dragon egg, even by forcing the black dragon Nyxondra to aid her in her plans, but she hadn't been expecting him to just appear out of no where and attack the province she had been working in. While the mortals were fleeing to several areas, all carefully linked with magic that many hoped the Lich Queen wouldn't be able to detect and use against them, she and a few of the remaining heroes had been tasked by Nozdormu to complete her research, where she was able to finally do so, even if using a Titan artifact to get what she really wanted. According to what the master of the time dragons had told her this one egg, one she would know just by looking at it, held an existence that could be the key to saving their world from the disaster that now plagued it, meaning it was a powerful black dragon, maybe even Deathwing's match.

If that was the case it certainly explained why the Aspect of Death was chasing her, trying to kill her and break the egg in her claws, though fleeing was another thing entirely since any massive magic would alert their true enemy and she didn't want to be the one to endanger everyone else.

The only reason she was still alive was because of a blue dragon that had arrived to help them out, Kalecgos he was called, who used his power to open portals in front of Deathwing's breath attacks, teleporting each one out to sea so they had no chance of damaging the landscape. She knew there was no way for the Lich Queen to ignore these attacks, in fact there was a chance that she was on her way right now, to put an end to whoever was fighting and raise them into undeath, and Rhea wasn't about to lose what could very well be their savior. In fact if this black dragon fell into the hands of the Ruler of Death she was positive that it would bring about the end of their world that much quicker, which was why she was risking her life, and the lives of her team, to get it away from Deathwing, who was relentless in his attempts to take everyone in the province down. Such a thing told her that he either suspected that something that would hurt him would be born if he lost the egg, or something harmful to his dark masters, or he was just annoyed because of the fact that someone dared to use Nyxondra, who was watching from the sidelines, like Rhea had.

As she considered the fact that she was likely going to die here, before being able to hand the egg over to someone who would ensure it would be in good hands, the ground nearby split open as Ragnaros, his flames dulled in color, burst out of the stone and swung at Deathwing, providing enough force to knock the mad Aspect backward.

"Ragnaros! You dare to get in my way again!?" Deathwing roared, showing them that he was angry at being interrupted, all while Rhea regrouped with her comrades, heading into a cave that would allow everyone to escape before someone was able to catch up with them.

"By the Lich Queen's orders, all living must be purged... that also includes you." Ragnaros replied, where flames burst out of the ground around him as he rushed at the Aspect of Death, which allowed Rhea and the others to understand part of the scene, that while the new Ruler of Death wasn't their ally they could expect her to deal with Deathwing, giving them all the time they needed to flee.

Clearly the others had no idea what was going on right now and Rhea really didn't blame them, even her thoughts didn't make a lot of sense when she tried to understand everything, but she wasn't about to waste this opportunity, where she and the others found that Kalecgos was ready. His plan, to be sure their foes couldn't track them accurately, was that he had opened multiple portals to various locations across the world, and even if the Lich Queen's forces followed them back to Stormwind it would be far too late, as they would be gone before someone figured out the right path. Once he was sure the last portal was ready to go, even if it lead to nowhere, the disguised blue dragon nodded and started to usher the rest of the group through the correct portal, while Rhea made sure Deathwing was contained by Ragnaros, which was a fight she never thought she'd see. She found that Nyxondra got caught in the crossfire and crashed into the ground, which told her that the next time they crossed paths she might be part of the Scourge, before she and Kalecgos rushed through the portal and appeared in Stormwind Keep, where the blue dragon made sure all the portals slammed shut at the same time so their foe didn't find them.

In that moment she let out a sigh as she, in her goblin form, checked the egg she had been carrying and found that it was just fine, though in that moment Anduin, the Prince of Stormwind and a rather talented priest, rushed in to see if any one was injured from their mission into the Badlands.

"Prince Anduin, we're fine... and we have the egg Nozdormu said we needed to obtain." Rhea stated, though she knew that her words wouldn't stop the prince from ensuring that his allies were fine, especially since the Alliance and the Horde had been forced to join forces to survive the wrath of the Lich Queen.

"Wrathion... let's hope Nozdormu was right about him." Anduin said, where he was happy to see that everyone was fine, in fact they were better than he thought they would be considering the plan meant annoying Deathwing, before he glanced at the egg for a moment, imagining the figure that the bronze Aspect had seen.

Rhea nodded her head in agreement, as she hoped that this 'Wrathion' was worth angering the Aspect of Death, that they had the key to defeating not only any of the other threats that Azeroth would face in the future, but also the Lich Queen that was slowly taking over the world, and all she could do was wait and see what the next couple of days might hold for them and the rest of the remaining survivors.