Sounds of battle rang throughout the sanctuary as Ashtongue broken and Illidari demons fought for control of the central section of the Black Temple. Akama and the party listened to the sounds of clashing steel and shouting but the broken leader refused to allow them to assist.
“My brethren can handle the demons in the area, we need to focus on getting to Illidan.”
“Do you know how to reach him?” Stella asked.
“The way to the Temple Summit is through the Den of Mortal Delights. However, the door to that section is sealed. I will look for a way to open it while you take care of the threats in the other areas of the temple.”
“What kind of threats, darling?” Bella asked.
“Orcs of the Shadowmoon and Bonechewer clans are in the eastern areas of the temple. The current leader of the Shadowmoon Clan is a human corpse possessed by the spirit of a wicked leader of the Shadow Council, Teron Gorefiend.”
“That dreadful death knight who sewed chaos in the hearts of the Alliance during the Second War?” Bella asked.
Akama nodded, “The doorway to your right once you exit the room will lead you to the balcony overlooking the sanctuary. Gorefiend is likely watching the battle from there. There is also a doorway in the northeastern part of the sanctuary that will lead to the Halls of Anguish where the Bonechewer Clan practice their cruel methods. They are being rallied by a dire orc named Gurtogg Bloodboil.”
“A dire orc?” Lokosh asked. “I’ve heard of dire trolls but not dire orcs.”
“A dire orc is an orc whose physical capabilities were enhanced by the twisted magics of the Bleeding Hollow Clan. Few dire orcs remain though,” Akama explained. “While you are there, may I ask you for a personal favor?”
“What is it?” Mena asked.
“Somewhere in the Halls of Anguish is an area that is haunted by the lost spirits of my people. Illidan used a device called the Reliquary of Souls to absorb the souls within Auchindoun. It looks like a large stone with faces on it held within a container that resembles a ribcage. I ask that you destroy it and set my people’s souls free.”
Once they agreed to his request, the party headed back into the sanctuary where the fighting had begun to die down with the broken nearly clearing the area. Akama headed toward a northern door in the sanctuary where he began looking for a way to open it. He ordered any available Ashtongue to watch the northeastern door in case the orcs within the Halls of Anguish decided to join the fighting.
The party proceeded toward the eastern door and entered a corridor leading to a set of stairs being guarded by fel orcs of the Shadowmoon Clan; a couple of them rode wolves who patrolled up and down the stairs. Those same wolves soon feasted on the flesh of their riders upon seeing the alpha druid.
The upper level was filled with many weapons and supplies for the Shadowmoon forces on the floor and there were many of them. The party ended up advancing slowly as they fought through the army of orcs in the room. Some were performing a blood ritual on a large skeleton while others were performing drills with a combat instructor. There were also a few warriors that had special weapons that seemed to absorb whatever magic was thrown at them. Realizing this and shielding herself from the magical release those weapons threw at her, she let Flutashe, Lokosh and Feloma handle them.
It took some time but the party was able to defeat the orcs in the room before they moved up a ramp guarded by more wolf riders whose wolves feasted on their riders. They emerged onto a rampart that was stocked with barricades, hammocks, cannons, ammo and other supplies to withstand a siege. More orcs greeted them as they moved through the area along with another skeleton that was shattered by Talia’s felguard.
They headed into a doorway on the far side of the ramparts and entered a small area that appeared to have a balcony at the end and four heavily armed orcs. Their large axes were intimidating but nothing that they hadn’t handled before.
It was the figure on the balcony that they had to worry about. Bella had heard stories about this one from veterans of the Second War. They saw his back and the large pair of dark blue wings. They could make out the gray and dull red armor he wore along with his hood. When he turned around they could see his pale, twisted, human-like face. He wielded his truncheon that looked like a jagged weapon with a yellow and orange orb in the center.
Teron Gorefiend chuckled as he saw his enemies approach him. “I was the first, you know. For me, the wheel of death has spun many times. So much time has passed…I have a lot of catching up to do.”
As the party prepared to engage the Shadowmoon leader, something unexpected happened. Thanatas walked past the group and sauntered toward Teron Gorefiend. The others looked at her in confusion for a moment. “You can go ahead and move on to the next target, I’ll take care of this one.”
Sophia looked at her cousin in confusion before she telepathically said, “This is unusual, it’s not often I see you dealing with a target yourself.”
“There are a couple of reasons that I want to deal with this one. The most important one is that peculiar death spell of his that instantly kills its target once the spell runs its course so it would be too risky to have the others fight him. The other reason is that he is on my short list of death knights I want to fight. This guy is the first of the first generation death knights after all.”
Sophia rolled her eyes, “Fine, go ahead and assert your dominance as the most powerful death knight ever. Just try not to leave too much of a mess since the broken have to clean up the place when it’s all over.”
After Sophia had ushered the party out of the room, Thanatas gave the first death knight a wicked smirk as she pulled out her sword. “So, Teron’gor, the first of the Shadow Council to have his soul transferred into a human corpse by Gul’dan. You were quite the terror during the Second War and the Draenor invasion decades ago, up until you fell to Turalyon.”
Gorefiend chuckled as he heard his adversary recall his history. “It seems my reputation precedes me,” he said.
She shrugged, “I also know that you are a product of some makeshift attempt at using fel magic to do something best left to actual practitioners of death magic. Though I will say that it wasn’t a bad attempt for a warlock who fancies himself a novice necromancer at best.”
Gorefiend frowned, “What do you mean by that?” he asked warily.
Thanatas gave him a mockingly pitying look, “I mean you could have become so much more if you had been reanimated by someone like Ner’zhul. After the whole Outland fiasco he caused he learned how to utilize true death magic and created death knights who make you and your first generation death knights look like Gul’dan’s biggest embarrassment.”
“I will force you to show proper respect!” he snarled before he rushed at Thanatas. He tried to slash at her with his truncheon but she blocked it effortlessly with her sword.
The two clashed weapons a few times before he began throwing fire trails and orbs of shadow magic at her where she blocked the fire spells with a wave of frost magic with another swing sending a few sickly green bolts to destroy the shadow magic.
Thanatas knocked him back by bodily slamming into him before yanking him back with her Death Grip. He managed to block a thrust with his truncheon. He then cast a spell on himself to drive him into an unholy frenzy before slashing at her with a flurry of attacks which she blocked.
Throughout the fight, Thanatas showed no sign of fatigue while her opponent was expending his magic in his desperate effort to defeat her. In fact, she was toying with him. As terrifying as he was, Teron Gorefiend was still just a prototype death knight who was created using fel magic. While he knew a few death spells, like one that forcibly ripped out a soul, she had far more spells in her repertoire and far more experience with death magic.
When he tried to rip her soul from her body, she called for one of the countless souls in her blade to act as a stand-in for the spell which ripped it free from the blade. The soul manifested nearby along with four shadowy skeletons to attack Thanatas. Using her necrotic magic, she stole control of the skeletons from Gorefiend and had them attack their former master while she recalled the severed soul to her blade.
Thanatas continued to feel disappointed in the first generation death knight. It took him some effort to defeat a few measly skeletons. She knew that he was hardly a knight since he was built for spellcasting and not melee combat. Those truncheons were more like maces carried by some priests. Gorefiend was more like a necromancer than a death knight.
Feeling like she had seen enough, she created an area of crimson and black under Gorefiend’s feet before an abomination rose from it. The flesh golem gave Gorefiend a look of pure hatred that belied a vengeful desire, as if the death knight had done something to provoke its ire.
Unlike the flesh golems mass produced by the Scourge, this one’s skin had a dark green hue and his gut hole was completely stitched up. Its right arm was a spiked mace and its left arm had claws growing from its knuckles. A pair of bony spikes protruded from its back.
“See, I promised you that I would let you get your revenge on the one who defiled your corpse,” Thanatas assured the creature.
“What? You mean…” Gorefiend dreaded.
“Say hello to the soul of the guy whose corpse you inhabit, now clad in the roomy shell of a Maldraxxian Abomination,” Thanatas declared with a wicked smirk.
Before Gorefiend could respond, the abomination grabbed his truncheon with one hand and delivered a stunning blow to his gut with the spiked mace. Gorefiend attempted a spell but the mace broke his face before he could. The abomination began to brutally mutilate Gorefiend with its claws and mace. It was when he saw his truncheon smashed to pieces that he knew that he was done for.
The abomination was relentless and merciless and only stopped when the first death knight was no longer recognizable since the body was a stain on the floor.
Satisfied, Thanatas sent the flesh horror back to the Shadowlands then proceeded to collect Teron’gor’s soul with her sword. She giggled to herself, “Sophia said not to leave a big mess, she didn’t say I couldn’t have someone else do that for me.”
She then entered the realm of shadows to catch up with the others.
Meanwhile, the party returned to the sanctuary where the fighting had come to an end and the chamber was secured by the Ashtongue Broken. When one of them asked about Teron Gorefiend, they responded with a chorus of “It’s being handled.” They knew that the Shadowmoon leader was bound to face a gruesome end since they left him alone with Thanatas.
Just as they thought about her, she rose from the shadows behind them, a cheerful look on her face.
They said nothing as they proceeded toward the next doorway.
They entered a chamber that had a number of groups of fel orcs who looked quite bloodthirsty unlike the Shadowmoon. There were also a number of wolves that seemed to reek of pestilence. If they were to guess, the Bonechewer orcs thought that exposing the wolves to fel corruption was a good idea.
Seeing the wolves in such a pitiful state, Flutashe narrowed her eyes at the group of orcs near the entrance. “They aren’t getting away with this,” she growled.
Knowing what this meant, the party charged in for the sake of keeping up with an enraged druid. Stella kept the orc spellcasters under control while the others focused on the other orcs.
They were soon attacked by an orc who seemed almost twice the size of other orcs and wearing red armor and wielding a bladed fist weapon. The orc fought like a berserker and seemed to ignore the pain brought by the attacks of the party but this only lasted so long before Flutashe broke his jaw with an uppercut and knocked him to the floor where Bella impaled him on a sword of light. The giant orc continued to struggle even as he was losing tons of blood which was when Surprise put the simpleton out of his misery by destroying his simple mind.
They soon found themselves with two paths to follow. The path to the right led to a darkened area where a group of Bonechewer orcs were staring with unnerved expressions while the left path led to a set of stairs leading downward.
Since there were less fel orcs to the right and Flutashe was still feeling incensed about the treatment of the wolves, the party took the left path first while dealing with another giant orc and another group of orc warriors and warlocks.
Moving downstairs, the party entered a room where the orcs seemed to be enthralled in watching a pair of unarmored giant orcs beating each other senseless with smaller orcs forming a ring around the pair. The setup told the party that there was some pit fighting going on.
As rude as it would have been to ruin the orcs’ fun, Flutashe jumped into the ring where she mauled the two fighters to death. The smaller orcs were confused at first but decided on cheering for the winner of the brawl; a big mistake. Surprise took control of one of the oafs and had him punch the guy next to him which led to the entire ring of orcs beating each other up while Talia’s felguard cut them down one by one. They never knew what killed them.
Stella looked at Flutashe, “Are you planning on staying upset until we deal with Gurtogg Bloodboil?”
Seeing no more wolves in the area, Flutashe took the time to take a deep breath and collect her thoughts as she shifted back to her night elf form. “Sorry, I just can’t stand seeing animals abused like that. Seeing what they did to such majestic creatures just set me off.
Mena giggled, “You really are Raida’s sister.” Flutashe’s purple face shifted to the next color in the rainbow spectrum.
After that bit of teasing, the party continued clearing the room, clearing out a couple of armored giant orcs and another pit fighting ring.
Moving down another set of stairs, the party entered a room that had shallow pools of water to their left and right with waterfall curtains pouring water into them. Several braziers were placed along the edges of the shallow pools. At the end of the room was a hulking fel orc who looked as hunched over as a dire troll and wore heavy armor. His tusks were as thick as a troll’s as well.
“He looks dreadfully savage,” Bella commented.
“He isn’t all muscle,” Thanatas warned. “Gurtogg Bloodboil is pumped full of acidic fel and is ready to unleash it on you. The scariest part of fighting this guy is when he chooses someone to give a small dose of fel and obsessively attacks you for a bit.”
Lokosh charged in first to gain the dire orc’s attention. Gurtogg, who declared that the Fel Horde would crush them, proved that he was as strong as he looked since his punches caused the warrior’s shield to vibrate.
They soon discovered that a green substance was coming out of his gauntlets which seemed to be causing Lokosh’s shield to sizzle which meant that the orc was secreting an acidic substance. The warrior had to make sure that Gurtogg didn’t hit too often or his shield might break from the acid weakening it. He also had to make sure to roll to the side when he exhaled as he found that his very breath was toxic.
Gurtogg shrugged off the attacks from the others, though not for lack of effectiveness. The dire orc appeared to be ignoring the pain like the giant orcs did, which seemed to be a theme for these orc berserkers. However, the wounds they caused sent globs of his acidic blood flying at the others which got into their bodies to burn them from within.
“Drink your blood. Eat your flesh.” the dire orc said as a geyser of fel acid burst from beneath Stella who appeared to be unaffected but caused everyone near her to get thrown back and suffer acid burns, causing the healers to work fast to heal their injuries.
Stella felt strange. She felt power welling up from within her but it felt so wrong, like a lecherous pervert whispering sweet things into her ear. She felt anger welling up within her but she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. She also noticed that her body had grown significantly.
She also noticed that Gurtogg was glaring at her. He then turned toward her and rushed at her like the two of them were the only things to exist in his small world. Lokosh, Bella and Flutashe tried to get his attention but he simply pretended they didn’t exist.
Not wanting to be on the receiving end of his toxic fists, Stella encased herself in ice and hoped that his constant thrashing at her crystalline barrier wouldn’t shatter it. He punched furiously and roared at her for some time as her self-made prison began to crack and splinter.
It was as her prison shattered that the mysterious feeling within her faded away and she returned to normal. Gurtogg also appeared to snap out of his trance as well and returned to attacking Lokosh.
The fighting continued like before where Lokosh continued minimizing the attacks that connected with him until he decided to choose another victim.
This time it was Flutashe.
That was a big mistake.
The druid was still thinking about the abused wolves the Bonechewer orcs kept near them and while she had her anger under control, the geyser shot up from beneath her and sent Lokosh and Bella away before she became afflicted by the same condition that afflicted Stella.
The incensed rage had returned, amplified by the fel venom within her and with her in her anthropomorphic cat form, she was liable to cause some damage. She roared at Gurtogg who tried to punch her only for her to grab his fist and throw him over her shoulder before she slammed her forepaws into his chest which knocked the breath out of him. The resulting acid breath was avoided by the druid.
Flutashe grabbed his leg and slammed him into the floor several times then threw him into a wall. He didn’t have time to recover as the feral druid was upon him again. She could feel her self-control returning as the fel venom began to wear off so she finished off her brutal assault by grabbing his head and twisting it until it snapped. Gurtogg’s head was literally upside down before his body fell to the floor. He was not getting up again after that.
Seeing their friend panting heavily after that rage-fueled rampage, the others approached her slowly with Bella gently calling out to her, “Darling?”
Flutashe’s breathing steadied as she shifted back to normal. “I’m alright…I think. What happened to me?”
“It was probably that fel poison that caused you to act that way, for the most part. I felt it too, all that rising anger and no idea where it came from. It’s possible that the poison latched onto your past anger and amplified it.”
Flutashe breathed a sigh of relief, “I see. To tell the truth, I’m glad that the poison wore off when it did because I considered ending him by ripping his throat out but I regained enough reason to realize that doing that may have exposed me to more of his poison and there would have been no telling what I would have done.”
The others decided not to think about what could have happened, though Sophia and Thanatas did consider the possibilities which prompted Twilight to cut herself off from the psychic link for a time as she didn’t want the nightmare fuel.
After resting for fifteen minutes, the party decided to be on their way again. They traveled up a long set of stairs and back into the first chamber where they encountered the Bonechewer orcs.
They soon found the doorway to their left which they originally came from that would lead them back to the sanctuary so they only had one other place to explore.
After taking out the fel orcs guarding the next chamber, they found themselves looking into a dark area. Unlike the previous chamber which was occupied by bonechewer orcs, this area was haunted by countless ghosts. Thanatas could also see spirits that were invisible to the naked eye.
“The Reliquary of Souls is at the other end of this ghost-filled room. Until it’s destroyed, every soul is bound to it and no matter how many you destroy they will simply return to the device and manifest again.”
“Great…now we have to deal with a gauntlet…” Talia moaned.
“Mena, I will need your help to bring us to the Reliquary,” Bella said.
“Okie dokie lokie!” Mena chirped.
The paladin and priest began channeling light magics which manifested into a dome of light which everyone moved under. Thanatas elected to stay out of the dome since she could handle the spirits and the light would have made her uncomfortable.
Mena and Bella moved forward with the others staying close. Once they entered the chamber, the ghosts began to frenzy and rushed to attack them. However, the dome withstood their assault and burned the suffering souls before they were thrown back into a chamber around the corner.
Their walk through the haunted area soon led them to the next chamber which seemed to have no ghosts around it but the floor seemed to be cut into a sort of spiraling pattern. There were large statues of hooded people holding their swords downward. There also seemed to be chains that appeared to be holding up some sort of iron cage that resembled a ribcage with a stone inside that glowed an eerie blue light. The same light appeared to shine through the spiral cracks on the floor.
“The object seems to fit Akama’s description,” Feloma said.
As they moved closer to the device, the cage began to writhe as if the stone inside was struggling to break free from its confines.
“Get ready, the Reliquary is about to break free and attack,” Thanatas warned.
Everyone got their weapons ready and awaited the inevitable breakout of the wicked relic. After a few moments the stone finally broke free of its metallic bindings, revealing a boulder with three faces on it. Two of them were less defined while a third looked like part of it opened up to reveal a face filled with sorrow and anguish.
“Pain and suffering are all that await you!” the stone said. As he said that, the stone began to emit an eerie light that enveloped everyone in the party. They didn’t feel any different but they decided to stay cautious.
The suffering face attacked Lokosh with its jagged spikes and overpowered the warrior, leaving several cuts on his face. When he tried to back away, the stone attacked Bella instead who wasn’t expecting it to turn around and attack her which left some painful cuts and bruises on her face.
It was when she tried to heal her face that she realized the horror of what they were facing. No matter how strong of a healing spell she tried to use on herself it did nothing to heal her injuries. Mena tried to heal her to the same result.
“Everyone, I believe that this thing is negating our healing spells,” Bella claimed.
“In that case, we need to focus on offense while doing our best to mitigate the harm it inflicts on us,” Stella said.
Hearing this, the suffering face began to attack with more fervor. “Your pain is only beginning!” It also tried to drain their souls of life and magic but ended up with part of its face chipped off when Bella threw her shield at it.
Seeing that his healing spells were ineffective, Groun switched tactics to throwing seeds into its face which began to take root and damage the face further. A molten blast from Stella set the plants on fire while leaving a deep gash in the face. A punch from Farra’jin’s earth elemental left the face now beyond recognition to what it originally was.
The stone was knocked to the ground but rose into the air again and fled toward the metal ribcage where it locked itself away again. “I don’t want to go back!” it shouted.
The ominous aura from the suffering stone faded which brought relief to the party. However, they noticed that spirits seemed to be leaking from the stone and moved to attack them.
The battle with the suffering face had exhausted them and they weren’t sure they could handle a second round if the device was still active. To their dismay, the cage seemed to be moving around as if the stone was trying to escape again which meant that the fight was not over.
As they considered retreat, Lokosh cut down one of the ghosts which returned to the device but not before it exploded in a wave of soothing light. He felt his fatigue fade away as the light bathed over him. He saw many more ghosts that were joining the fight.
“Everyone, the ghosts will restore our strength if we destroy them,” Lokosh declared.
Hearing this, the party proceeded to attack the ghosts while making sure they were next to them so they could reap the benefits of the spirit’s boon. They soon found themselves back at full strength as they were before the battle started.
Soon the ribcage opened again and a different face appeared before them. This one appeared feminine. One of the other faces remained severely damaged which told the party that they would have to repeat this process two more times.
“You can have anything you desire…for a price,” The face said in a soft and sultry tone. Just like with the suffering face, this one released its own aura. Just to be sure, Bella tried to cast a healing spell to find that it was working. In fact, it was far more effective than it used to be. This only made her more cautious since this thing couldn’t have given them such a gift without some strings attached.
The fight with the device resumed with everyone assaulting the face like before. However, they also found that every time they hit it with a strike, arrow or spell, they would also feel the pain that they inflicted. Wounds began to mysteriously appear on their bodies whenever they attacked, showing that this was the price for each blow they dealt to it. Thankfully, the boosted healing helped to keep everyone strong.
The face of desire continuously tried casting a spell but Stella kept it from doing so. However, it then tried placing a shield on itself. Since it was magical in nature, Stella stole the effects of the spell from it.
It was as the fight progressed that they witnessed the true horror of Desire’s aura. Stella began to feel her magical wellspring becoming more difficult to access and she suspected that this was the same for everyone else who could cast a spell. If they didn’t shatter the face soon they would soon find themselves cut off from their magic. However, they couldn’t rush this enemy like the other one because of the mutually inflicted injuries.
In the end the fight took too long and the healers were unable to continue healing which meant that this was a race for time to destroy the face of desire.
However, Stella found that while her wellspring was cut off, her dragon essences were not. Her green essence allowed her to continue healing the others while unleashing destruction on the face. Her blue essence also gave her an alternate access channel to her magic which allowed her to continue stealing its shield spell. Angered by this, the face tried casting spells on her but she continued countering the casts.
This part of the fight ended when Stella delivered one last Disintegration Beam which demolished most of the face. “I won’t be far…” the face said as it retreated back to the ribcage.
The aura faded and everyone regained access to their magic. Once again they were assaulted by spirits that leaked out of the device which only served to help them regain their strength for the final round.
It wasn’t long before the ribcage opened again, revealing the third face. This one appeared to be absolutely livid. “Beware, I live!” the angry face shouted. It then released its own aura which the party felt right away as shadows began to burn them.
This face was pure fury as it relentlessly attacked whoever had its attention. Lokosh could only dodge so many attacks but some still managed to strike him or his shield. The healers were still able to support him through that assault.
As the fight progressed, they discovered that the intensity of the burning shadows was increasing and their attacks were becoming increasingly effective against it, likely another effect of the aura. This proved to be the face’s undoing as everyone unleashed their strongest attacks which shattered the final face and caused the device to fall to the floor. The ribcage also slumped to the floor as the eerie blue glow faded.
In the next moment, the device leaked countless spirits that began to flee the temple through the walls and ceiling. A few remained behind for a moment to properly thank the group for setting them free from that horrible device.
One of the souls lingered long enough to inform the group that this device was taken from Icecrown, the domain of the Lich King and that one more was made before the soul vanished.
Deciding to leave that information in the back of their minds, the party decided to return to the sanctuary to see if Akama had finished opening the way forward to the temple summit.
Raida met up with Jace Darkweaver, a night elf demon hunter who specialized in creating anti-demon wards who was working on keeping the skies clear of ered’ruin doom guards.
Jace had requested some of the essence of the inquisitor who Raida had consumed earlier so she made sure there was just enough for his scrying ritual to spy on the Legion leadership.
She placed the essences into the crucible that Jace had set up for the ritual which created a window for the two to look through.
On the other side of the window she saw a new type of demon that was female and wore black and gold armor. Her skin was a reddish tan and her hands were black with sharp claws. She had a pair of large red horns that faded to black at the ends and a massive pair of wings that didn’t look suitable for flying. The wings were also red and faded to black at the ends and resembled the legs of a spider.
The leader of this world appeared to be the female demon who was speaking to an ered’ruin commander. “There are demon hunters on my world, doom commander. This is unacceptable!”
“My eredar are summoning more demons to attack them from behind, your highness,” the doom commander offered.
“Do not let them enter the volcano,” the queen ordered. “The key to the Legion’s worlds must not fall into their hands, Beliash.”
“I will personally deal with their leader, my queen.”
“See that you do.” The queen then teleported away.
Raida turned to Jace as she finished observing the leaders. “At least we have a better idea where the keystone is.”
“For now we need to focus on getting there,” Jace said. “There is another gateway up ahead where we can summon our shivarra allies, though I fear that the ultimate sacrifice will have to be made to do so.”
“We’ll see about that,” Raida replied. If it came to it, she did have someone she would gladly offer to the machine. “While I’m there, I’ll deal with that doom commander who dares to challenge me.”
“Beliash is protected by those spires of woe next to him, you will want to deactivate them, “ Jace offered.
Nodding, Raida proceeded across a stone bridge to the next section of Mardum where she spotted her fellow demon hunters along with the broken and naga engaging a number of ered’ruin, felhounds and lesser eredar. Seeing as they gave her an opening to move through the area with little problem, Raida took the opportunity and proceeded toward the area where she saw the doom commander.
The moment Beliash spotted her, he activated the spires next to him which began firing a series of fel lasers that scorched the ground in various patterns.
“Come and face me, little demon hunter,” Beliash taunted.
Raida smirked. He really thought those lasers would protect him from her?
Calling upon the dark magic of the demon within her, she created a pair of black orbs that dissipated into a black mist which flew toward the control crystals and enveloped them. Beliash’s eyes widened in horror a moment later when the crystals were crushed in the mist, deactivating the spires.
Before the humbled demon could prepare himself for a fight, he quickly found himself looking at his own decapitated corpse.
As life faded from the demon, Raida claimed his soul. She turned back the way she came but stopped to look at the head of the pathetic demon. “Should have been watching me instead of my display.”
Raida flew forward and returned to the path and headed toward the portal where she spotted Sevis Brightflame next to a number of mangled mo’arg corpses.
The demon hunter looked at Raida and sighed in resignation. “Lady Raida, we have a huge problem. The brood queen must have done something to this gateway. Not even the souls of several mo’arg were enough to unlock it. The soul of a demon hunter, however, would do the trick. You are too important to sacrifice so I must be the one to be sacrificed.” He dropped his warglaives and prepared for his end.
Unexpectedly, Raida laughed. Sevis was confused by this display and he almost thought he was being insulted but Raida cleared up the misunderstanding quickly. She revealed a soul that resembled one of a demon hunter’s. Sevis realized that she intended on using that soul to open the gateway.
“Wh-where did you get that?” Sevis asked.
“Our wayward brother was captured by Vashj and left the honor of ending his life for me,” Raida replied.
“Wayward brother? You don’t mean Leotheras, do you?”
“At least he will serve our cause in the end.” Raida then fed the soul into the mechanism, causing the gateway to come to life for a moment, allowing a large coven of shivarra to appear. This group was led by the top shivarra of the Illidari, Matron Mother Malevolence.
“Ah, there you are, Lady Raida, Lord Illidan has placed my shivarra at your disposal.” She then placed one of her hands on her chin in thought. “Perhaps you might be able to explain the strange orders from Lord Illidan. He said that we are to be stationed on Mardum until further notice. This also seemed to apply to Gaardun’s battalion and S’theno’s forces. With the Sha’tari attacking the Black Temple, why would he want us to remain here?”
“It’s because we need to prepare for the future,” Raida explained. “Lord Illidan is expecting to fall with the temple and we need to be ready for the invasion of Argus, once we have sufficiently prepared Azeroth to fight alongside us.”
“I see. Well Lord Illidan has an immortal demon soul so I expect that we will be reviving him when the time comes.” Raida nodded. Malevolence smiled and nodded back before turning to her sisters. “Come my dears, up the volcano to the foothold.”
Raida followed the shivarra for a short distance before she noticed that the Legion was bombarding the path with their siege weapons. She decided to take to the skies and fly over any felfire shells. She had to take out a few flying demons on her way up the path but it was better than getting shelled.
The volcano foothold was just ahead and there were preparations to be made before they moved on the brood queen’s personal ship where she suspected the Sargerite Keystone was being kept.