//------------------------------// // The End of the Beginning, Part 3: Mortal Delights // Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// The party returned to the sanctuary after defeating the Shadowmoon Clan and the Bonechewer Clan. They needed some time to rest after fighting a tiring battle against the soul repository known as the Reliquary of Souls. The Ashtongue Deathsworn had set up a base of operations in the sanctuary to provide aid for the wounded and weary. Given the dreary state of the place, this was a welcome sight. Akama needed a little more time to unlock the door to the Den of Mortal Delights that would lead them to Illidan so the party decided to take up the offer by the broken to relax and prepare for the next battles. “I wonder how Raida is doing?” Bella mused. “She said that Illidan would send her on an important mission, but she never told us what that mission was.” Stella said. “Wherever she is, she’s probably having the time of her life,” Talia guessed. “Anyone wonder about what dat spirit told us back there, mon?” Farra’jin asked. “You mean about the Reliquary coming from Icecrown?” Flutashe asked. “It does seem like something that would be found in the heart of the Scourge territory,” Stella mused. “The spirit also claimed that there was another one like it.” They decided to leave the topic there since they weren’t even certain if they would ever face such a threat. “So once we defeat the Illidari leader, what do we do next?” Mena asked. “I, for one, need to catch up on my commissions. It would also be a wonderful opportunity to try out the new materials from Outland,” Bella beamed. “My creative itch is begging me to bring my many new ideas to life.” “Perhaps we could work together on a few projects,” Lokosh offered. “I happen to be a skilled weaponsmith.” “That would be lovely, darling!” The next half hour was spent discussing various topics while everyone helped themselves to the food and drink they brought along. After that time, Akama came to them to announce that the way was now open and they could proceed toward the temple summit. “I must warn you of the Den of Mortal Delights,” Akama said. “As the name implies, it is a place of debauchery filled with many temple maidens and servants who provide ‘services’ to the Illidari warriors. They are not trained for combat but they will still fight to the death. There are also a number of sayaad and shivarra along the path.” When Akama led them to the den, he vanished into the shadows once again. Apparently he wanted to conserve his strength for Illidan so the party would have to face the temple servants. The party entered the room where they found a large number of scantily clad blood elves and humans providing pleasure for one another with some of them providing food and drinks. The room was furnished with lavish decorations of blood elf design including silken cushions, couches and beds. For most of the party, they would be lying if they said they weren’t tempted to take part in the debauchery, but they had a job to do and with them intruding into the room, the temple concubines suddenly became aggressive the moment they saw them. What confused the party the most about the setup was that there were humans among the enemy and the Illidari was composed primarily of elves, naga and broken. However, a pair of sayaad entered the room and noticed the commotion before they cast a spell that created a bubble of light around both of them with a beam of light between the two linking them. Bella then suspected that the humans and possibly some of the elves in the room were charmed by the sayaad. They didn’t have time to think about that anymore as the army of debauchery closed in on them. Stella wasn’t sure who was complicit and who was charmed among them so she created a series of phantasmal verdant flowers all over the room which released a green mist while projecting a green barrier around her friends. This resulted in the elves and humans falling into a deep sleep but the sayaad were unaffected. As it turned out, the spell on the sayaad made it so any harm they received was transferred to the other. One sayaad unleashed her own dark aura that hurt anyone who struck her from close combat. The party focused their attacks on the other and soon brought both of them down. The party sidestepped the slumbering souls and headed upstairs where they saw another bunch of attendants who were also put to sleep by Stella. They took down another pair of sayaad as they moved up another set of stairs before they entered a small area with a pond and a few planters with specimens from Quel’thalas as decoration. They put more groups of elves and humans to sleep and killed more sayaad until they reached a lavishly decorated promenade. A large number of humans and elves occupied the area alongside a number of sayaad and large shivarra. While Stella placed the non demons into deep slumber, the others dealt with the demons. The blue skinned shivarra caused most of the party to have hallucinations except Mena who was immune to mental maladies because of Violetta’s influence. Everyone else was either wandering around confused or suffering bouts of dementia. The red skinned shivarra placed painful curses which Stella and Groun were able to remove. The party moved down the promenade dealing with demons and servants as they went until they reached an elevated platform with a grayish green rug and several elven-made cushions on top. Standing in the center was a gray-skinned shivarra who wore a black and red skirt that extended down to her feet along with a transparent black mask over her mouth. She wielded four swords and was dressed differently from the shivarra along the promenade which suggested that she was the one in charge of the area. “So…business or pleasure?” the shivarra asked in a deep, smooth and sultry voice. “Are you the one in charge of this area?” Stella asked. “Indeed, you scrumptious little thing. I am Mother Shahraz. I can see that you haven’t been playing fair, putting my lovely little servants to sleep instead of letting them play with you. How can you be so mean?” she pouted. “Dear madam, we mean no harm to these poor souls but we also lack the time to play with them. If you could allow us to pass, we would be dearly grateful,” Bella offered diplomatically. Shahraz gave a sultry laugh, “I will give you points for manners, but you also murdered my dearest kin. Regardless, I have to have my fun with you before I kill you.” The party shrugged. They tried to be diplomatic for once but they knew a fight was going to happen. Shahraz had a fast attack with her four swords that blocking and dodging was difficult. She also fired shadowy beams that jumped between them which left Groun and Mena healing full time. The spellcasters were forced to move a short distance away from the shivarra when they found that her shrieks had given them a brief case of tinnitus and left them unable to cast briefly. Every now and then, Shahraz would lock on to three people and teleport them to a random location along the promenade where she placed a deadly shadow beam between them. Thanatas had to yell for them to run away from each other to break the beams. Stella had to teleport Groun or Mena near the affected to ensure that their healing spells would reach them in time. Shahraz gave a sultry chuckle, “Enjoying yourselves?” “We would be if you would let us through here,” Flutashe grunted as she deflected a blade with a paw. “No can do, honey, even if you are Lady Raida’s sister I can’t let you pass.” Mena suddenly noticed that the door to the next area, which was closed earlier, was now open. She suspected that Akama had opened it while they were fighting Shahraz. “Hey everyone, the door is open!” she called out. Uncertain of how much time they had before the other demon hunters returned from their mission which would complicate matters, the party decided to leave Shahraz to clean up the mess. The shivarra frowned as she noticed her prey trying to escape. “I wasn’t finished.” Before Shahraz could pursue, She found herself banished in between two planes by Talia’s magic. Enraged, the shivarra shouted, “Stop toying with my emotions!” “I wouldn’t be worrying about us if I were you,” Talia warned with a smirk. “With your helpers dead, your victims could break free of your charms and flee if you try to pursue us.” Shahraz seethed as she found herself with quite a dilemma. If she let them go they may prove to be a threat to Lord Illidan. On the other hand, if she pursued them, her charmed victims could rebel and cause the area to erupt into chaos. She could bring her daughters back to regain control of the situation but that would take time that would allow them a shot at her master. Unfortunately, she would have to hope that the Illidari Council could stop them. With her decision made, Shahraz worked her magic on the dreams of her slumbering concubines. Once the party was certain that they were safe from the Shivarra for the time being, they proceeded up a large staircase that was being patrolled by an arcane golem. It took more time than usual for Stella to drain the golem which meant that these were powerful models. When she overloaded another golem the destruction devastated the golden trees and shrubbery around it. As destructive as this method was, it was still preferable to fighting them since having as much power as they had could lead to one of the party being annihilated by concentrated arcane firepower. After going through several more golems they emerged at the top of a staircase to witness a gathering of blood elves in battlegear that made Bella’s eyes sparkle in wonder. Based on what they were wearing, they could tell that some were dressed in the robes of priests and some donned the armor of assassins. Some wore the gilded armor of blood knights while the remainder appeared to wear fabric armor while wielding enchanted swords. Stella felt strong magic coming from them so she guessed they were battle mages. Going on that assumption, Stella decided to keep the mages from casting spells. Her suspicion was correct as they resorted to fighting with their swords instead. Surprise kept the priests under control by silencing some while attacking their minds one by one. Bella ended up fighting the assassins alongside Farra’jin who created an area of stormy weather around them while Bella consecrated the ground around her. This ensured that the assassins wouldn’t be able to hide themselves in the shadows. The blood knights fought the others but found themselves overwhelmed. In response, they placed themselves in a powerful bubble of light that blocked all of their attacks. Lokosh wasn’t having it and threw his ax at a blood knight with all his might which was enough to shatter the shield and cleave the knight’s head. He then proceeded to use this tactic on the remaining blood knights. Once the elves were dealt with, the party moved up another staircase where Stella took down another golem. More elves awaited them who appeared to be protecting the entrance into the next chamber. Wondering how much more ground they had to cover before they reached the top, Stella looked up and noticed that nothing appeared to be above the nearby building but statues and small spires. She hoped this meant that the temple summit was very close. The party took down the elves like the last bunch they faced while Stella deactivated the two golems at the end of the path. Once that was done the party moved into the building that had plenty of items of luxury enjoyed by the blood elves. Including transparent curtains, rugs, cushions and enchanted maintenance tools. In the back of the room stood four elves who appeared too relaxed for seeing a bunch of intruders. The elf on the far left wore robes and a mantle on his left shoulder in dark colors of blue, purple and red while his chest was completely exposed. He also wielded a pair of daggers. The second from the left wore gray robes that seemed to arc arcane lightning at the headdress. The third was a blood knight who wore dark gold armor and had pauldrons that radiated light. He had a yellow jeweled crown floating over his head and he wielded a hammer with a purple crystal head. The elf on the far right was the only female in the group and wore black and crimson robes. The hood radiated a faint blue light and her mantle resembled faces with crimson blindfolds. “I see the intruders have made it this far,” the blood knight noted haughtily. “Veras, were your assassins sleeping on the job?” “You wish to blame this on me, Gathios? Your blood knights should have been able to hold their own!” the dagger wielding elf, Veras, countered. “And what about the priests? Shouldn’t they have been helping? Or did you teach them nothing but how to be bystanders, Malande?” “How typical of you to shift the blame onto others instead of taking responsibility,” the hooded female, Malande, admonished with a disappointed tone. The fourth one spoke in Thalassian and nothing but Thalassian so the party had no idea what he said. Feloma may have understood what the elf said, but she didn’t bother translating since he didn’t say anything meaningful. Gathios chuckled at the mage’s comment, “I do agree with the sentiment, Zerevor. These weaklings likely caught our guards off their guards and now they think they can challenge us? Amusing, to say the least.” It was clear that all four of them were quite arrogant and condescending. It was also clear that the four of them needed to be humbled before they were defeated. To that, Bella looked toward the Horde group. “Talia, Groun, Farra’jin, Lokosh, Feloma, would you mind stepping outside for a time. We would like to handle these charlatans ourselves.” The Horde group was taken aback by what the paladin had wished. However, they didn’t need to be told twice to stay out of a fight since they didn’t have any particular desire to needlessly risk their lives. Thanatas looked at the four with interest and was genuinely curious to see how far they have come. She and Sophia hid away in the shadows while the Horde left the room. The council observed the four who prepared to fight them while most of them scoffed at their belief that they could defeat four of the most powerful elves of the Illidari. Malande looked down at them with an unamused look. “This is your final opportunity; flee or die.” The priest’s response was a bolt of light from the gnome priest that struck her in the chest. Mena giggled at Malande’s expense which earned the gnome a death glare. As Malande prepared her own attack against the gnome priest, the other three elves moved to attack with Zerevor channeling arcane energy which was countered by Stella. Gathios blocked a flying shield headed for his face with his own shield which drew his attention to Bella. Veras was caught by surprise when an anthropomorphic cat grabbed his arm and threw him to an empty section of the chamber. Veras quickly got back to his feet and readied his daggers with a dangerous look in his eye. “You wish to test me? I’ll make you regret it!” Zerevor decided to use spells that didn’t require time to cast since he faced a mage who could counter his spells as much as he could counter hers. “Ban’dal!” he shouted. “I have better things to do than entertain a lowly human. I will make this quick,” Gathios said. “Ugh, arrogance, such an unbecoming trait for a paladin. I shall do my best to humble you,” Bella promised. The chamber erupted into a series of one on one fights. Priest fought priest, paladin fought paladin, mage fought mage, and rogue fought druid. Mena and Malande delivered their own holy attacks against each other while taking the time to heal themselves when they could. However, Mena would occasionally let Surprise get in her own attacks which involved silencing the elf before striking her with a few shadow spells that burned her body and mind. Mena would take over whenever they needed some defense and to deliver her own holy fury. Stella and Zerevor exchanged fire, frost and arcane spells while using their barriers to protect themselves from each other’s attacks. Zerevor would occasionally place a magic dampening spell on himself to mitigate any damage Stella’s spells would inflict upon him but Stella managed to steal his enhancement each time which frustrated the elf. Flutashe and Veras proved to be skilled in their ability to dodge each other’s attacks. Veras would duck from a swipe or sidestep a punch from Flutashe’s cat form while she sidestepped his stabs and dodged his swipes. She was taller than the elf but she was very nimble. Even as Veras performed a feint to catch the druid off guard, her instincts were honed from her battles so far so she saw through his ruse. Gathios and Bella both empowered themselves with their seals to enhance their attacks while their hammers clashed repeatedly. Both were struck by each other’s holy attacks and they would occasionally slam their shields together and get into shoving matches. Gathios was surprised by how much strength lies within the human. He couldn’t help but wonder how this seemed possible. Feeling frustrated about the continued resistance of the lesser beings before them, the council decided to work together. Malande placed a shield on herself that reflected incoming attacks to keep Mena from attacking her while she provided healing to the others. Gathios placed a Blessing of Protection on Veras and a Blessing of Spell Warding on Zerevor to protect them from their opponents’ attacks. Before Zerevor could begin casting area attack spells on Mena, Bella or Flutashe, he found himself being grabbed from behind by Stella before the two vanished in a flash of teleportation. Veras decided to leave his battle temporarily by throwing down a smoke bomb and vanishing into the shadows in order to attack someone else and give his ally an advantage. What Veras wasn’t counting on was a tiny spider creeping into the room that sensed the rogue’s movement and relayed the information to Flutashe. Since she had a connection to Shadra, the spider Loa, the druid was able to use the spiders to her advantage. Flutashe shifted into her snake form and slithered up to where the spider reported before she grabbed him and forced him out of the shadows before she bit her fangs into his neck, releasing a deadly poison into his body. Veras counterattacked by stabbing the druid with his poisoned dagger. However, since she was in her snake form, she had a powerful defense against poisons and her body was able to process the poison easily. The druid quickly healed her wound. Veras looked at Flutashe in disbelief for a moment before the poison began making him delirious. “That’s not…fair…” he weakly stated before he succumbed to the poison and collapsed on the floor. Seeing their fallen comrade, Malande and Gathios began attempting to resurrect Veras but Bella delivered a heavy blow to the blood knight’s head that left him stunned and vulnerable to her next attack where she used her shield to knock away Gathios’ shield. Before he could react, Bella swung her hammer upward and hit his chin. While he was in the air, Bella charged her hammer with light before deploying her wings of light and jumping up after him. She then slammed her hammer down on the blood knight with all of her might while enhancing that strength with a Blessing of Might spell. The impact made when the two hit the floor unleashed a radiant explosion that caused Mena and Malande to stop fighting for a moment to see what happened. When the light faded, Bella was on her knees panting heavily, her arms too numb to lift her hammer anymore. Gathios was lying in a crater with thick spider web cracks on the floor that threatened to break apart and cause debris to fall onto the slumbering elves and humans below. The impact had shattered his armor and crushed his ribs. If he survived that, it would be a miracle. Frowning at the loss of another council member, Malande focused on trying to revive Veras again but found that her shield had been dispelled by Mena before she switched to Surprise and conjured a phantom eyeball that shot a laser at her head. The attack didn’t hurt but now she found herself seeing things that shouldn’t be there. Surprise, Bella and Flutashe watched as Malande writhed on the floor begging for whatever was attacking her to stop. They did not want to know what she was seeing as they were pretty sure mortal minds weren’t meant to know. She shrieked a few times in terror before her mind was unable to endure any more psychological torture and lost consciousness. The others weren’t sure if she would ever wake up again or if the hallucinations shattered her psyche but it wasn’t their problem anymore. Stella returned a minute later to see how everyone else was doing. She was surprised when she saw Gathios as broken as he was though the other two seemed more intact. She decided not to ask how the other two met their ends. “Looks like we all took care of our opponents,” she noted. “How did you defeat yours?” Flutashe asked. “He didn’t have an answer for my draconic powers.” Just then, Akama entered the chamber with the Horde party. He saw Gathios’ corpse and the faint glow in the cracks around him. He then looked at an exhausted Bella and was able to come to an idea about what happened. “The Light is strong within her. If I had not lost my connection to the Light, I would have loved to spar with her. She would have made a great exarch,” he thought. Of course, now wasn’t the time to fantasize. This phase of Illidan’s plan was nearly complete. Now that the Illidari Council had been defeated, there was only one battle remaining that would decide the future of Outland. By the time Raida reached the foothold at the base of the volcano, the Legion artillery cannons teleported away, allowing any stragglers from her forces to reach the base camp. Jace had his wards set up around the camp to ensure the Legion wouldn’t try attacking from above. Kayn, Altruis, and most of the other demon hunters awaited Raida while the naga and broken squadrons stood by for orders. Sevis was already there recounting the summoning of the Shivarra. Kayn laughed when he heard that Raida had used the soul of Leotheras to open the way. He was glad that their fallen brother had a use in the end. Raida rolled her eyes as he said that. “Lady Raida, I am glad that you are well, and I sense that you have bolstered your power as well,” Kayn said. “What do we know?” Raida asked. “The mightiest of the Legion’s forces have arrayed themselves within the volcano. They will not remain on the defensive for long, though. The Legion command ship, The Fel Hammer, hovers above the volcanic crater. There are three targets that we must assault before we can launch an offensive on the ship, however. The Doom Fortress lies to the south, the Forge of Corruption lies to the east and the Soul Engine lies to the north. Once we have secured those places we can begin the assault. We await your orders.” Raida briefly looked at the black Legion ship floating above the crater in fortress mode. Ships like that had two modes. When it was positioned vertically the ship became a floating fortress of oppression. When it was positioned horizontally it was used for interstellar travel. She turned her attention back to Kayn and nodded. Raida relayed her orders to the other squadrons. She ordered Lady S’theno and her naga to attack the soul engine, she ordered Malevolence and her shivarra to attack the Forge of Corruption, and she ordered Gaardoun and his Ashtongue broken to attack the Doom Fortress. “Lady Raida, a moment of your time,” called out a voice from behind her. Raida turned around and saw Jace running toward her. “I do not know if this is of importance, but I briefly sensed a demonic presence that suddenly vanished. Would you mind accompanying my forces to investigate this? Raida nodded, “If the enemy is planning an ambush, it needs to be crushed immediately.” She followed Jace and a few demon hunters up a path in the hills where they spotted a cave that appeared to have collapsed. Channeling some fel energy through her eyes, she was able to see what could not be seen. She spotted a horde of demons waiting inside the cave ready to attack when the Illidari least expected it. Raida smirked, “You’re right Jace, it looks like they are preparing an ambush. What do you say we flip the script on them?” Raida began to channel her Black Eye Beam onto the rock wall. Once the rocks were coated in black crystal, she fired a Chaos Bolt which caused an explosion that blasted inside the cave and killed a few demons who were guarding the entrance. “Illidari, tear them apart!” Raida ordered. Jace’s forces rushed into the cave where they engaged the surprised and disorganized demons. She ran through the cave and observed the demons being cut down one by one. At the back of the cave she spotted what appeared to be a particularly large felguard that wielded a massive ax. Raida wouldn’t have thought much of him if it weren’t for his features being more developed than the average felguard. She suspected that he might be a fel lord, a more evolved version of the felguard. Fel lords were uncommon and were often given leadership positions among the Burning Legion due to their power as well as their might. As powerful as the fel lord was, even with him infusing his weapon with power, it did him no good against Raida’s agility and quickly fell, allowing the demon hunter to claim his power. She quickly realized that she could infuse fel energy into her warglaives now as she bathed her weapons in green fire. She smiled as her arsenal increased. She quickly returned to Kayn who began to feel concerned about the artillery bombardment on Jace’s words and called for them to be shut down quickly. Allari heard some information about an imp mother who kept Legion secrets and wrote them down. She requested the writings. Cyana decided to accompany Raida as she moved toward the Doom Fortress. When Kayn requested a report, S’theno reported heavy resistance at the Soul Engine while Malevolence said that she would assist once she was finished with her task. Gaardoun didn’t report so Raida decided to check in on him. Tyranna delivered a few taunts to the Illidari but the demon hunters didn’t rise to them and focused on their tasks. Raida and Cyana ended up slaughtering many demon spiders at the fortress until they came upon a webbed building where she spotted Gaardoun being webbed by a large demonic spider. Raida infused her weapons with felfire and slashed away at the creature while Cyana cut Gaardoun free. Raida cut the arms off before she delivered a vertical slash that cut the demon in half. Gaardoun groaned as he returned to consciousness. “My apologies for my failure, Lady Raida. These spiders decimated my forces but we were able to destroy the devastator.” Raida nodded, “With the leader of the fortress dead, the brood should be in disarray anyway.” She looked to Cyana, “Help Gaardoun get back to camp. I will carry on from here.” “Lady Raida? Alone?” Cyana asked. “Don’t worry about me, my demons still have my back and will intervene if someone tries to blindside me.” Cyana nodded in affirmation before she helped the broken to his feet and led him back toward the camp. Raida proceeded toward the next objective, the Forge of Corruption. She found that the shivarra were handling the situation while she witnessed a few of them magically lifting a devastator and hurling it into the volcanic crater. She found Malevolence observing the work of her sisters when she felt the wind shift and spotted Raida coming for a landing near her. “Have the enemy’s weapons been dismantled?” “Yes, Lady Raida, my sisters and I have just finished up over here and are ready to lend our support elsewhere if needed.” “Help S’theno secure the Soul Engine, she might need assistance.” “At once.” Malevolence began to gather her sisters while Raida proceeded on her route to her next destination. Raida spotted Kor’vas Bloodthorn standing outside a cave along her route. She landed next to the demon hunter who reported that the imp mother they were targeting was inside the cave. “Good, accompany me and let’s take down this imp mother together,” Raida said. The two raced through the linear cavern while eliminating imps who had the uncanny ability to self-destruct upon death. They found the imp mother writing in the tome that the Illidari coveted. Upon noticing the intruders, she put away her tome, shouting that they can’t have it. Of course, Raida wasn’t taking that for an answer as the two demon hunters slashed at the demon’s body. The imp mother tried fighting back by causing geyser eruptions and summoning more imps but they were too agile and the imps died immediately after appearing. She soon succumbed to her wounds and slumped over in the green pool she wallowed in but not before calling out to Tyranna that the Illidari were stealing their secrets. When Raida grabbed the book, she and Kor’vas ran for the cave’s exit while cutting down a number of demons summoned by Tyranna in a desperate attempt to reclaim the tome. Kor’vas headed back to the base camp while Raida checked on the naga attacking the Soul Engine. She quickly found that the situation was brought under control once Malevolence reinforced S’theno’s forces. A group of naga also tore apart the remaining devastator and she noticed that a group of naga and shivarra stood triumphant over the body of a pit lord. Another group had triumphed over the nathrezim who was overseeing the area. Seeing that everything was proceeding according to plan, Raida returned to the base camp so she could show the imp mother’s book to everyone. By the time she got there, all of the Illidari had gathered to see what secrets lay in the tome. Raida, Kor’vas and Allari examined the book to discover its secrets and found a pair of rituals that they could perform to improve their powers. The ritual spoke of allowing a demon hunter to enter a demonic state for a short time, granting them great power for that duration. “It seems there is only enough power in this tome for one ritual, Lady Raida,” Kor’vas informed. “I leave it to you to decide what secrets we wish to use against the Legion.” Raida scratched her chin in contemplation. If the tome had more power she could take full advantage of the secrets and bestow them on her fellow demon hunters. However, she had another idea. She didn’t like using it because it’s the only time her inner demon spoke to her. That voice of his creeped her out for some reason. She was stronger than the demon but it still had its ways to unnerve her. Sighing in resignation, she offered her idea to the Illidari. While she was using her other form, she could unleash the full potential of the tome and offer each member an offensive form or a defensive form. Reluctantly, they accepted the offer because they knew how she felt about that form. The other demon hunters made some room for her while she accessed her other form. A cloud of darkness enveloped her, turning her body pitch black. In addition to her usual two horns, a third horn grew from her forehead. The sclera of her eyes turned fel green with scarlet irises and a purple mist radiated from them. Her hands turned into sharp claws and the warding runes she had inscribed on her body glowed, shifting between colors of the rainbow. Not wanting to be in this form for any longer than necessary, she proceeded to teach the secrets of the tome to them. Most became excited by the rush of power while others, like Cyana, endeavored to temper themselves to not lose themselves to the rush. Raida smiled as could see that her words from earlier had an effect on Cyana. When she looked at a demon hunter named Mannethrel Darkstar, she noticed that he seemed to be struggling to contain his own power. “Maybe it’s best that I stay here in the foothold for now,” Mannethel said. “I still haven’t recovered from my imprisonment and the demonic energy of this world is making it difficult to contain my own power.” “Do it anyway, you are the one who leads these lambs so it is only right that you decide their fate,” a baritone voice said. Raida rolled her eyes in annoyance of her inner demon. It had no influence on her but that didn’t stop it from acting like a nuisance. Mannethrel was bracing himself for the power infusion that his Lady would impose on him but it never came. Instead, Raida reversed her transformation and knelt down to him and gave him a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry, we will take steps to ensure that you won’t lose control of your power,” Raida assured. “If you are willing to accept help from your peers, then you will be able to stand alongside us once more. Until then, focus on regaining control of your power by strengthening your mind and body.” Mannethrel nodded in appreciation, “Thank you, Lady Raida.” Raida decided to hold off on teaching the other demon hunters because they were short on time and she was pretty sure her friends would be engaging Lord Illidan in battle at any minute. They needed to hurry and claim the Sargerite Keystone and return to their master. Raida could only hope that everything would work out in the end.