Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned

by Blackdrag-rose


Cataclysm: Dealing with Deathwing

Following Sunset's venture into the past, claiming far more power than she originally thought she'd obtain when she made the decision to head back and claim the Demon Soul, she returned to the present of her world and focused on what had to be done next, namely allowing her Scourge to invade the remainder of Deathing's bases. By that she meant having the red and black dragonflights invade the Twilight Highlands, allowing them to run rampant as they slaughtered nearly everyone in the province, as she learned that some of the locals, the Dragonmaw orc clan and the Wildhammer dwarf clan, had fled to stay alive, leaving the rest of their clans to die. It also included attacking Grim Batol, an ancient fortress of the dwarves that fell into the hands of the Twilight's Hammer, and the heart of the cult's operations in Azeroth, the Bastion of Twilight, where the two headed ogre mage Cho'gall ruled over all of his followers, and Sinestra, Deathwing's prime consort, was rumored to be in the area as well. It was for that reason that she sent Neltharion to the province, to deal with her, while both his and Alexstrasza's flights would be tearing down the rest of the twilight dragons, though his children, Nefarian and Onyxia, were in charge of wiping out everything in his mountain laboratory.

She didn't have to worry about her soldiers failing to carry out her orders, as she knew that they would succeed in killing their targets and delivering them into the clutches of the Scourge, so Sunset turned her attention to preparing for the fight she was going to have with her main target. She was planning on taking out Deathwing to ensure the safety of this world, all so it survived so she could conquer everything else, though at the same time she had other preparations she wanted to make before the big fight, which her Council was carefully setting up without the insane Aspect discovering her ploy. There were two targets she wanted to take out and absorb the power of, those being both C'Thun and Yogg-Saron, before in the past she avoided dealing with them to keep herself from falling into the abyss of their madness, but with the power she had obtained so far, plus the Demon Soul, she felt that it was time to claim her prize. That was part of the reason that Sunset broke the Void dagger and absorbed it's fragments into her Frostmourne, in preparation for dealing with the Old Gods that have been killed so far, not to mention one that Kairoz claimed she might find in the near future, but that would have to wait until Deathwing was taken care of.

After readying herself Sunset nodded to Kairoz's team and they opened the way into the past, where she found that it lead right to an ancient temple that had been corrupted by the power of an Old God, a massive one that had an eyeball above it's massive body. This was C'Thun, an Old God who had shattered his prison by corrupting the facility above him, and the being was under attack by the heroes of Azeroth, as in those that now served under her as part of the Scourge, though she emerged without being seen, allowing her to slip into the shadows to observe them. Fortunately she was brought in at the very end of the fight, where the mighty Old God collapsed under the power of Azeroth's heroes, due to the fact that he used most of his power to break through all of his bindings. As C'Thun collapsed, however, Sunset strolled into the area as they fought over the items that he dropped, likely from anyone who had tried to fight the Old God before this point, and claimed her prize, C'Thun's eye, which she channeled all of his essence into.

One good thing about having the bronze and infinite flights as her soldiers was that they revealed all sorts of information to her, especially when Kairoz told her that the Old Gods weren't immortal, so if she closed in on them like this she could steal their power and essence before they were claimed by the Kyrian.

With that done she returned to the present and stood still for a few seconds, allowing Kairoz to open the way to the next target, a massive Titan facility built in Northrend, in the Storm Peaks, though once again he made sure to bring her right to her true destination without wasting time. This time it was a pit in the depths of Ulduar, another facility meant to protect the world from the Old Gods, or whatever it was supposed to do, and resting inside it was the gaping maw of Yogg-Saron, a massive beast that was, essentially, just a large amount of mouths attached to a body. Like C'Thun she could feel that he wasn't at full power, likely because he was weakened from weakening his seals so he could escape from his Titan made prison, where she found that the heroes, now bolstered by the draenei, blood elves, and death knights, were bringing him down. Sunset simply did nothing as they tore down Yogg-Saron, allowing her to weave her power into the area to seal his essence into an eye of her making, before returning to the future once more, this time allowing Kairoz to close the portal without changing it, as she had what she wanted for the time being.

As soon as she was ready to go Sunset shrunk down the pair of eyes, into gems the size of the Demon Soul, before linking them to her helm as well, giving her two purple gems in addition to what she had so far, though she refrained from using her power to raise the Old Gods into her service, as she felt that it might ruin her plans if she did that.

"My Queen, we have conquered the Twilight Highlands." Neltharion said, where he, Alexstrasza, and the risen leaders of the province, as in the cult and both clans that happened to call it home, knelt and bowed their heads towards her, just like all those who fell before her might, while at the same time keeping their heads down until she ordered them to either raise them or head out to fulfill her orders.

"Good, and the others have slain more of Deathwing's corrupt followers... all that remains is drawing him and his allies to an area of our choosing." Sunset replied, though at the same time she smiled as she gathered her power and formed her plan of attack in no time at all, as she would bring the Aspect of Death to Northrend, along with the rest of his followers, to her domain before cutting each and every one of them down.

As such Sunset issued her orders to the rest of the Scourge, they were to track down the rest of Deathwing's forces, as in the bronze and infinite dragonflights would be doing that, while the blue dragons set a trap inside the Eye of Eternity, as she felt some might appear there, before taking her position at the peak of Dragonblight's tower, allowing her to close her eyes for a time as she waited for her enemies to arrive.


As it turned out Sunset and her army waited for a few days before anything happened, making her wonder if the Aspect of Death and his forces were terrified of what was going on, but, as she expected, N'Zoth coaxed him out of hiding to take all of them out, as that was the last living Old God and had to be Deathwing's master. Sure enough she discovered a force of angry earth elementals erupting to face them, even though they were surprised by Therazane's forces clashing with them as the Scourge tore some of the lesser ones part, to be raised by the val'kyr like everyone else. While that happened she also found three massive maws, corruption based off of the power of the Old Gods, that erupted out of the ground to the west, north, and east of the temple and came complete with massive tendrils that dug into the surrounding area, mostly to corrupt everything as Deathwing's commanders prepared for battle. Sunset smirked as she thought about that plan, as it was a good one, but that was why she made sure her army was prepared for anything and everything, as she ordered Ragnaros to take the north maw, Neptulon would strike the west, and Al'Akir had the east.

As for the Aspects and their risen flights, who were patiently waiting, Sunset had them tear down the twilight dragons who came to join the battle, while the remaining forces of the Scourge tore into the Twilight's Hammer cultists who even dared to show themselves in this place.

"It would seem Deathwing is a coward, since he hasn't shown himself yet." Sunset remarked, though she was fine with this turn of events, because even if the Aspect of Death fled she would be able to find him with the aid of the time dragons, to which she glanced to the south and found one of the massive earth elementals, like the one in the Stonecore, marching up to where the tower rested, "Very well, I guess I can play around for a few moments."

In the following moment her Council members, those who were still around the peak, lowered their heads as she leapt off the top of the tower and opened her wings, allowing her to catch the air as she zeroed in on her target, who noticed that she was coming right towards it. Sunset spun around the fist that was thrown at her and smashed into the elementa's face with her clawed foot, causing the air to shudder while she did so, before swinging Frostmourne at the incoming arm that was reaching for her, showing her foe that he was too slow to actually do anything to her. After that she flashed around it for a couple of moments and cut into it's arms and legs, mostly because she could as she waited for Deathwing to appear, as she knew he had to come at some point, before delivering the final blow to it's chest, causing it to crash on the ground it had crossed to reach the tower. Once that was done she walked away from her fallen foe and raised it with her power, adding another monster to her force as the val'kyr raised the fallen elementals as well, before discovering that the rest of the Elemental Lords were done with their tasks, allowing her to raise several Old God servants into her army while taking a moment to devour the maws with her powers.

With that done she returned to the peak of the tower and discovered something interesting, Deathwing was a fair distance from where her Council was standing and it seemed like he was talking about something, but she tuned him out since it wasn't important to her, as her focus was on Mira.

"It would see you were correct, my Queen, the cult has invaded the Eye of Eternity." Mira said, confirming Sunset's prior thoughts on the matter, where she and the other blue dragons opened the portal to the location in question, all while the twilight dragons continued to be torn out of the sky by all the risen dragons.

"Good, time to cripple the cult." Sunset stated, where she wasted no time and stepped into the portal, finding that she was brought to a location that seemed to be a separate space from everything else, in appearance, though it was where most of the ley lines connected, a place Malygos intended to use against his enemies before his death.

As she stepped into the magical space Sunset discovered a number of enemies emerging from some elemental portals, a sign that she was dealing with the Twilight's Hammer, and each one wore the attire of the cultists she had killed since the return of Deathwing. Since they seemed to believe that she had walked into their trap, and thus was dumber than most of them had believed her to be, Sunset decided to decimate them with little effort, using her telekinesis to restrict some of her foes by suspending them in the air, while swinging her runeblade every now and then to cut the challengers down. Of course she never went anywhere without a val'kyr, where the one who followed her carefully raised all of the fallen before their former allies could do anything to stop her or even hurt her, once more demonstrating her power to those who felt she was weaker than they were. Even the head shaman couldn't stand before her might, where Sunset crushed her into the ground before slaying her where she stood, allowing the val'kyr to raise the last of them into the Scourge before they departed for the tower once more, where her newest soldiers joining the others on all the flying vessels.

After that happened she felt the pull of some powerful magic and found that something was trying to pull them into the twisted realm of twilight, a slightly darker version of their world, only to find that it was a larger twilight dragon, where she simply swung her runeblade twice and used her power to hack it into fourths, leaving the val'kyr to raise it as she focused on her true target.

"Let's see how he likes this." Sunset remarked, where she gathered her power and the observers found that it was forming the shape of a dragon's head in front of her, a golden one based on the Demon Soul's appearance, and as she did that she could feel Deathwing's fear as he realized what was in her possession, causing her to smirk as she locked onto the large molten figure, "Dragon Burst Cannon!"

Deathwing barely had time to react as the dragon head fired a twisted beam of energy at his location, punching a hole in his chest, as he had been in the middle of changing directions at the time, allowing her to infect his body with the chill of death as he collided with the ground of the Crystalsong Forest. Of course she knew that it wouldn't be that simple to kill an Aspect that was driven mad by an Old God, in fact she could feel a bit of N'Zoth's power at work, but as she floated down to where the dragon crashed she channeled her other new power, cutting into the madness that had plagued his mind for a long time. In addition to that Sunset let Frostmourne go to work on her foe's body, hacking at his arms and legs, even his wings, as he tried to flee from where he crashed, not that it mattered since her power was far too strong for someone like him to resist, even with a piece of an Old God's power backing him in some manner. With the sheer difference in power it took her no time to take out Deathwing, where she was grateful for the Demon Soul's power, even if it made things far too easy for her, and, just like those who fell before her might, she raised her fallen foe into undeath, cleansing his mind of the Old God's corruption as she added another power to her army.

With the Twilight's Hammer destroyed, the Elemental Lords tamed, and the world saved by subjugating the dragon that reshaped the world after his armor was fastened to his body, Sunset could turn her attention to the remaining living that were left on Azeroth, all while wondering if there was anything left to discover before heading back home to conquer it.