Sleep did not come easily for Stella’s group or Lokosh’s group. Their experiences yesterday showed that they were not prepared to face a creature who could grow to colossal proportions.
Gruul’s skin was by far the hardest of all of the gronn in Outland and his growth did not help things. The gronn father proved that he was worthy of the title of Dragonkiller and it was easy to see how he managed to hold his own against the Black Aspect.
Even more nightmarish was the display of dominance that Sophia and Thanatas showed to such a beast as they tortured him and made him seem like a pushover. It was another reason why angering the two cousins would be the death of them. It also showed that they needed to become stronger because they were certain that they would face much tougher challenges than Gruul in the future.
This was not the time for practice though, they still had several enemies to take down. With the Fiery and Earthen Signets in their possession, Stella was ready to fulfill her end of the bargain with Skar’this. They also needed to deal with Magtheridon in order to infiltrate Tempest Keep and take down the mad blood elf prince.
On the topic of Skar’this, she still didn’t know the naga’s intentions. She figured that he was an enemy of Vashj’s naga, but that didn’t mean she trusted him.
“Something on your mind?” Sophia asked as she walked up to the dracthyr.
“Maybe, I made a deal with a naga heretic back in the Coilfang Slave Pens. There are a couple of signets that he wants, which I have now. In exchange, he would grant me the means of opening the way into Serpentshrine Cavern. The problem is, I don’t think I can trust him.”
“And you shouldn’t,” Sophia replied. “Thanatas believes that he intends to use those signets as part of a plan to ruin the upcoming Midsummer Fire Festival.”
“The annual Fire Festival? We’re still in the early spring. The festival is months away.”
“During which he and his followers will try to use ice elementals to ruin everything, culminating in summoning a giant ice elemental named Ahune.”
Stella considered what she just learned and nodded in understanding. “Alright, then I know what I need to do.”
Since this was a matter she could handle herself, Stella teleported directly into the Slave Pens which had a few Cenarion Expedition guards watching the area. She quickly made her way to the cage where she saw Skar’this brooding about things.
The naga spotted the mage’s approach and addressed her, “I remember you, do you have the signets I require?” Stella pulled out the Fiery and Earthen Signets and showed them to him. “Excellent! Hand them to me and I shall brand you with the Mark of Vashj which will allow you to deactivate the waterfall mechanism.”
Stella handed the signets to the Neptulon follower who eagerly swipes them from her hand. In his jubilation, he failed to notice an eerie purple glow coming from them. He placed the signets onto the artifact that he was carrying and raised it into the air in triumph. “At last, with the Cudgel of Kar’desh complete, I will be able to break free of this prison and exact my vengeance upon Vashj and her followers.” He then swung his new weapon and shattered the prison that contained him. Stella blinked out of the way to avoid any flying debris.
Skar’this slithered out of his cell and stretched his arms for a minute before he turned toward Stella. “I have not forgotten our agreement, mortal. I shall now place the mark upon you.” Channeling some arcane energy, Skar’this fired a bolt of arcane energy that struck the mage on the back of her left hand. Stella hissed in pain as she grasped her smoking hand. Overall, it was still alright but being struck by arcane lightning was still painful. She could sense a foreign magic signature on her hand that quickly settled in one spot. Once the pain subsided, she looked at her hand to find nothing had changed physically.
“Our business is concluded, air breather. Pray that we never cross paths again,” Skar’this warned.
Stella smirked, “The feeling is mutual.” She then snapped her fingers. The next thing Skar’this realized was that his new cudgel was glowing very brightly. He was forced to drop it as it quickly became too hot for him to touch. He backed away from where it lay before the artifact exploded.
Skar’this stared daggers at the mage and hissed at her, “Dishonorable wench! We had a deal!”
“We did and it was concluded honorably,” Stella countered. “Nowhere in our agreement did we say that I would allow you to escape with the signets. Besides, I think the people of Azeroth would prefer not to have their festivities interrupted by some giant ice elemental.”
The naga’s eyes widened in shock, “How did you know about that? My fellow servants have stayed away from you mortals.”
“Let’s just say that I have my sources. Be grateful that I’m willing to let you leave here alive.”
Skar’this made the intelligent decision to flee since his plans had been foiled. He swore revenge on her as he slithered away.
Before she returned to the others, Stella paid a visit to the entrance chamber of Coilfang Reservoir where the Cenarion Expedition had set up their camp. Upon arrival she found that the druids had fortified their position since a few days ago.
The druids watched as the mage walked up to the artificial waterfall that had given them so much trouble. The access console next to the waterfall was her target. While the raging torrent washed over her she pushed a few buttons on the console and the stream of pressurized water began to slow until the flow was completely halted, opening the way into Serpentshrine Cavern.
The druids stared wide-eyed at the spectacle. When she walked away from the console toward them the waterfall resumed. Stella smiled, “I’ll be back with the assault team within a couple of days.” With that she channeled a spell and was gone in a flash.
The druids stared for a few moments longer before returning to work.
Stella reappeared before her friends in Shattrath, still smiling. “It worked! We have a way into Serpentshrine Cavern now!”
The others were glad that they were one step closer to accomplishing their objectives in Outland. Mena was more enthusiastic about it than everyone else.
With that out of the way, it was time to strike at the pit lord in the depths of Hellfire Citadel. The party of twelve made their preparations before they gathered in Shattrath’s central tier where Stella opened a portal outside of Honor Hold away from any guards who might spot them together.
Raida directed the group to the back section of the orcish structure and down into the canyon. Stella and Mena placed fall-slowing spells on everyone before they jumped into the canyon and landed safely at the bottom.
They quickly noticed that no guards were posted at this entrance so they guessed that either the orcs still protecting the place were shorthanded or they didn’t think anyone would find this place. Admittedly, most would have had a hard time finding it themselves.
“So, dis be where dat pit lord ya reported be located?” Farra’jin asked.
“Yeah, Magtheridon was once the Lord of Outland who ruled from the Black Temple until Lord Illidan took him down alongside Lady Vashj, Kael’thas and Akama,” Raida explained. “I was there too and took down my fair share of demons alongside the naga, blood elf and broken soldiers. I was lucky to have survived that fight against him and I guess that was when Lord Illidan first saw my potential.”
“But instead of vanquishing him you chose to use him as a fuel source for the Fel Horde’s aggressive tendencies?” Bella questioned with a raised brow.
“I never said all of his ideas were good ideas,” Raida defended. “Plus, he was pressured by Kil’jaeden and had to talk his way out of getting destroyed. In order to get the demon lord to back off we had to do his bidding which led to our attack on Icecrown. That proved to be a disaster when Arthas and that giant nerubian scarab minion of his outmaneuvered our forces and defeated Lord Illidan in a duel. We were lucky to return from that with our lives.”
“At any rate, we are here to finish off Magtheridon so let’s not waste any more time and move in,” Lokosh said.
The party proceeded into the dark entrance where they found a portcullis blocking their way inside. They weren’t going to waste time finding a key so Sophia simply smashed the gate by slamming into it. The loud clanging of metal on stone had likely alerted everyone who was inside to their intrusion.
Inside they found the first room to be empty save for some supplies and a few barricades that seemed to be set up for if someone tried to escape.
They turned a corner and looked down a descending walkway where a trio of female orcs in robes and red hoods stood ready for a fight.
Once the group was in their casting range, the female warlocks began the fight by raining fire on their positions while inflicting various magical afflictions upon them. Groun, Mena and Bella made sure to keep everyone healed while Talia’s felhound assisted with removing afflictions. They soon found that removing some afflictions was a bad idea as the act of removing one such affliction caused it to explode and cause Farra’jin to howl in pain.
“Looks like these ladies can inflict Unstable Afflictions. The affliction explodes if it isn’t allowed to run its course,” Thanatas warned. The group made sure to be more careful in the future when it came to that spell.
Meanwhile, Groun created some vines to strangle a warlock which prompted the other two to burn it off. However, Raida fully encased one of them in black crystal before a Chaos Bolt from Heartswell caused her to explode and send the other two flying away. The warlock who was being strangled by the vine couldn’t get free and the force of the blast combined with the grip of the vine caused the plant to go taut, snapping her neck.
Now alone, the last warlock tried to get up to continue but an arrow in her chest quickly ended that plan.
As the party rested for a moment after the fight, Thanatas warned them that they needed to deal with three more groups of those warlocks before they faced Magtheridon or they would interfere once they realized that the prison was under attack.
Taking out the next group was easier than the last since they knew what they were facing now. While some warlocks tried to break up their formation by placing a Fear spell on them, Farra’jin had his earth totem set to create tremors that disrupted any such spells. He had his fire elemental kill two of those warlocks.
They soon faced the third group, who was patrolling around the ring around the prison and then the last group who were on the other side of the ring.
Once the warlocks were all dispatched, Raida led the party to the back of the ring where the prison entrance was. It was a flat stone floor with five metal rings bolted to the floor. Inside each ring was a mysterious floating cube that seemed to shift around on its own. Sophia related the cubes to that of a rubik's cube. At each cube was a robed female orc who appeared to be channeling her magic through the cube which projected a beam toward the magically bound pit lord in the center of the room.
Magtheridon cackled as he looked at the party intruding into his cell. “It would seem that my hour of freedom is at hand. If you wish to face me in combat, you will have to defeat these insolent fools binding me.” He then focused his sight on Raida. “I see that Illidan’s little plaything is with you. Are you sure you wish to try your luck with me, after I nearly killed you last time we met?”
Raida didn’t rise to the taunt. Instead, she positioned herself near one of the casters with Flutashe, Bella and Lokosh moving toward three others. Thanatas placed herself near the remaining caster.
“You fools!” one of the casters shouted. “If we stop channeling into these Manticron Cubes, Magtheridon will break free!”
“We know, that’s the plan,” Raida replied. “Magtheridon dies today!”
Raida, Bella, Lokosh, Flutashe and Thanatas struck their targets at the same time which broke the warlocks’ concentration where they began trying to sling spells at the party. Thanatas merely nicked her target because she didn’t want to become too involved in the fight this time.
Magtheridon didn’t break out right away since the warlocks maintained the bindings for quite some time. However, he was showing signs of struggling against the spell. It was only a matter of time until he broke out.
The rest of the group spread out and fought the warlocks. Some summoned abyssals to assist them but Talia wasn’t having more demons in the room so she banished the construct to another plane. They made sure that the warlocks couldn’t get many spells off as they often tried to heal their allies only to get struck hard enough to lose their concentration.
Lokosh swept his enemy’s legs and knocked her to the ground. She tried to block his next move with her staff but she found the orc’s foot pressed against the staff which pressed against her neck. He then embedded his ax in her face to silence her for good.
What happened next was the soul of the dead warlock splitting into four pieces and flying into the bodies of the other four warlocks. The soul infusion caused the others to grow in size slightly and become more powerful.
At that moment, Magtheridon was beginning to twitch. He drew closer to freedom.
The other warlocks summoned more abyssals which Talia had to banish as well. Her spell affected them long enough for their limited lifespans to expire. Farra’jin managed to burn and electrocute one of the warlocks to death which resulted in her soul being passed to the remaining three. Bella impaled another on a sword of light which made the last two warlocks even more powerful.
Magtheridon was beginning to move his arms slowly. He reached for his double-bladed polearm. He was on the verge of freedom.
Thankfully, the soul transfers didn’t heal the wounds of the recipients so they could attack them at the same time. The warlocks began to summon abyssals more frequently but Talia continued to banish them or Raida placed them in a fel stasis prison. The fourth warlock soon fell which meant that the last warlock had the power of five souls within her. However, she was greatly wounded so she didn’t last long.
At that moment Magtheridon cackled in triumph. The energy of the cubes that had kept his form bound had failed at last and he was now fully unbound. “I…AM…UNLEASHED!”
Magtheridon chose Raida as his target as he had personal business with her and her master. The demon hunter anticipated this and began avoiding his polearm while cutting into his legs. Annihilan flesh was especially thick so her slashes were often shallow. While he focused on the demon hunter, the others attacked the side of his huge body.
Magtheridon didn’t forget the others though. Using the fiery powers at his command, he began sending balls of fire around the room which lingered as patches of fire on the ground. The party had to be careful of their footing as they continued fighting. Adding to the difficulty, Magtheridon began stomping the floor repeatedly and causing tremors which knocked everyone around.
Mena got knocked into a fire patch which caused her to scream and run around on fire. Farra’jin noticed this and splashed water on her to put her out. The gnome thanked the troll before she cast a healing spell on herself.
The pit lord continued creating more fire before rearing up and stomping the ground which created a shockwave that knocked Raida back into a wall. Her wings softened her velocity before she hit it. While Raida was away from him he channeled red lightning into one of his fingers and pointed it at Flutashe. The druid remembered that spell from years ago so she took extra measures to dodge his index finger. Her speed and agility made aiming at her more difficult.
“Sorry about this, Talia!” she called out before she moved behind the warlock’s voidwalker right as a bolt of red lightning was discharged from Magtheridon’s finger. The bolt struck the voidwalker within a tenth of a second which resulted in the creature exploding and sending Flutashe flying back. She managed to land on her feet with her claws scraping some of the stone.
“What was that?” Talia demanded.
“It’s an infamous spell used by the Burning Legion,” Flutashe answered. “They call it Finger of Death because the bolt will cause anyone it hits to die explosively.”
Magtheridon didn’t like that his intended target avoided the hit. He wanted to make the demon hunter suffer by killing her friends one by one. “It seems that you insects are intent on being stubborn. Very well, I shall burn you all at once!” He then began to channel his fiery energies, intent on unleashing channeled bursts since he preferred not to do so all at once or it would kill him.
Thanatas knew what was coming and she knew the means to stop it. Unfortunately, she forgot to discuss the strategy with everyone and they were nowhere near the Manticron Cubes. “Sophia, can you telepathically connect to the five cubes in the room?”
“Yeah, I take it you want to stop him from doing whatever he’s about to do?” Sophia asked.
“Yes, hurry!”
Sophia wasted no time as she connected her mind to the five cubes in the room before focusing her intent toward Magtheridon. The cubes lashed at her mind a little but she quickly adapted to the backlash while she focused the cubes toward the pit lord.
Just as he was ready to unleash his devastating attack, five beams of purple light bound his body into place, leaving him unable to move at the moment. He remembered this sensation, he wished his deadly glare could kill the one using the cubes. “Not again…NOT AGAIN!” This caused him to lose his concentration and his attack dissipated harmlessly.
While he was in this state the durability of his body faltered. The party capitalized on this with Raida shooting her black eye beam at one end of Magtheridon’s polearm and a chaos bolt which shattered that end of his weapon. This would affect the balance of the weapon. The vulnerability also allowed the spellcasters to deal more impressive damage and Flutashe’s claws to leave deeper wounds.
Unfortunately, Sophia could only use the cubes for so long before she needed to take a moment to rest. Magtheridon’s body returned to normal but the damage was done. The pit lord was now forced to wield his formerly double-bladed weapon like a spear and his body was beginning to leak felfire from the claw marks.
Magtheridon wanted to attack Sophia for putting him in that situation but as he turned around, Raida placed more crystals on the other end of his weapon and a blast of fel magic shattered his weapon. He was now holding what was effectively a shaft.
Enraged, Magtheridon went on a stomping tantrum which was too much for the orc-built structure. “I will not be taken so easily! Let the walls of this prison tremble…and fall!”
Rubble began to rain down from the room above where they fought Keli’dan the Breaker. Everyone scrambled to avoid the debris as stone and metal fell all over the prison. They counted themselves lucky that nobody but Magtheridon ended up getting struck by the rubble. The pit lord bitterly rubbed his head after a particularly large piece of stone fell on it.
Magtheridon soon realized that it was a mistake to turn his cell to ruin as he soon found himself being struck by more rubble when Stella lifted pieces with a telekinesis spell and hurled them at him. One piece sent him into a daze which prompted Raida to move toward the pit lord’s underbelly where her Illidari reported being a vulnerable spot on annihilan. Her warglaves bit into the demon’s flesh which caused more felfire to leak out. Flutashe saw this and delivered a few claw swipes in another place in the same section.
The demon recovered and sent everyone around him flying away with a stomp. However, the cuts were beginning to take their toll on him as he began having trouble containing his fel energy. He attempted another Finger of Death on Feloma who had just fired an explosive arrow into one of his wounds which widened it. Talia called back her voidwalker so the hunter could hide behind it. Magtheridon saw this tactic before so he aimed at Mena instead. Farra’jin’s earth elemental moved into the path of the attack and was shattered.
A roaring blaze was beginning to erupt from Magtheridon’s wounds; a sign that he was going to explode soon as annihilan tend to do when they die. He made one final attempt to burn everyone to cinders with the attack that failed earlier but he telegraphed that attack too much which prompted Sophia to use the cubes again and bind him. Surprise put the final nail in the coffin when she created a small phantasmal eye that fired a beam that cut into his claw marks.
Magtheridon’s flesh began to fail him as his body could no longer contain the imminent explosion of fel energy. With the ceiling now open, the party had an escape route. Stella called for everyone to gather near her as she prepared a mass teleport to get them out of the blast zone.
Raida wasn’t about to let Magtheridon’s soul escape into the Twisting Nether to escape and reconstitute himself. As she prepared to escape with the others, she pulled his weakened soul from his body and consumed it. She would figure out what powers she gained from it later.
Everyone got close to Stella just in time before the magic circle at her feet was completed and they were all teleported into the room above and where they fought the orange felguards back when they explored the Blood Furnace.
“The Legion will consume you all!” he yelled just before the explosion that erupted into Keli’dan’s room. The blast caused the walls of Hellfire Citadel to tremble.
The tremors continued and the party soon realized that the explosion was the final straw for this section of the citadel. The walls and ceiling began to collapse. They had no idea how long they had until the whole place fell so Stella had to work fast as she created a portal to Shattrath. Everyone rushed through the portal mere moments before the room they were in crumbled.
Scouts from Honor Hold and Thrallmar felt the tremors as they observed the goings on at Hellfire Citadel. They looked on in disbelief as part of the fortress began to collapse on itself. Half of the citadel fell into the canyon below. They knew that was where the reported pit lord was being held so they figured that something had happened and that whatever it was, they hoped that that something had killed the demon.