Akama continued to observe the room while Bella, Mena, Flutashe and Stella were resting after their battle against the Illidari Council. He figured that they would need their full strength for the final battle.
The broken’s attention returned to Bella whom he could still feel a strong source of Light coming from. While that power was gradually fading back to normal, it still surprised him that she could call upon that much power. A’dal had likely seen this potential within her and sought to nurture it. He silently prayed for her bright future.
Olum and Sanoru, along with several more Ashtongue broken entered the room and reported that most of the temple had now been secured. All that remained was the summit.
Akama nodded then turned to the party, “Once you are ready, we shall proceed to the summit. We must complete this phase of Illidan’s plan.”
“What about Maiev?” Flutashe asked. “She will likely try to capture the demon hunters when they return and place my sister in prison for all eternity.”
“Illidan didn’t tell me much about that detail, only that he said that had that covered. Now, we must make haste. The demon hunters could return at any time. Are you all ready?” The party rose from their resting places and nodded. “Then let us finish this.”
Akama led the party up a flight of stairs to the top of the chamber where they spotted a large black door with green glowing runes and a large green crystal locking the door. Olum and Sanoru were waiting at the door.
“This door is all that stands between us and The Betrayer. Stand aside, friends.” The three broken proceeded to channel their powers into the crystal lock. The crystal shattered moments later and the door opened. “Olum, Sanoru, remain here and guard this chamber. We must ensure that Illidan receives no reinforcements.” The two saluted their leader and moved to the sides of the door, preparing to defend it at all costs.
Akama proceeded up another set of stairs with the party in tow. He stopped at the top of the stairs where they spotted the winged night elf staring into an eerie skull.
“The betrayer meditates in the court just beyond,” Akama whispered. “This is it, once we move in there is no turning back. Are you sure that you are ready?” Everyone nodded one last time.
Everyone filed into the summit court which appeared spacious with a grate in the center. A series of pillars were around the edge of the area.
Illidan noticed the intrusion and tossed the skull to the edge of the arena. He stood up and faced Akama. “Akama…” He then took a deep breath and let it out. “So, the time has come to bring this chapter to a close. Ready yourselves, friends of Raida, for I will not hold back. Come at me with intent to kill.”
Everyone readied their weapons while Illidan readied his Warglaives of Azzinoth.
Once the fight began, Flutashe, Lokosh and Bella charged in while the others used their usual tactics of attacking from range. However, it became apparent that Illidan would not be harmed so easily as he avoided strikes and spells with ease. For a large night elf with huge wings, he was surprisingly hard to hit.
Illidan counterattacked with his warglaives which were blocked by shields or avoided by the large cat creature. Illidan was surprised by the girl’s agility for being about as tall as he was in that form.
Hearing the sounds of battle coming from downstairs, Akama decided to leave the battle for a time and aid his brethren, promising to return to lend his aid.
As they fought, Illidan thought about the irony of the Lunarwind siblings in comparison to himself and his brother. Both had followed paths similar to their own and yet Flutashe was more accepting of her sister’s state as a demon hunter. In that way, he felt a hint of jealousy toward them as some small part of him wished that Malfurion was more supportive of him.
Everything Illidan had done had been for the defense of Azeroth from the Burning Legion. He made many questionable choices in his life but felt that they were necessary to spare the world from the flame. Even if nobody would understand the sacrifices he made and nobody would thank him in the end, he would have made the same decisions a thousand times over.
Illidan’s attacks came fast and hard while occasionally leaping into the air and channeling blue flames into his blades before crashing down toward one of the three near him. The impact caused part of the area to be engulfed in flames which forced the others to back away. Bella channeled one of her holy seals long enough to hurl a hammer of light at him which managed to hit him while he was getting back up from the crash.
While much of his attention was on the close attackers, he wasn’t ignoring the others. He struck Talia with a ball of shadow that entered her partially rotted body and began burning her from the inside which prompted Groun to heal her while hoping the affliction would end soon. Once it did, a tiny creature of shadow emerged from her body. The creature looked like a mutant made of pure shadow. Since it was finished tormenting its initial host, it began creeping toward another person to host it. It quickly crept toward Farra’jin. However, before it could get far a bolt of light from Mena struck it where it quickly burned to nothingness.
Before the flames could potentially be a problem, Stella summoned an ice elemental which detonated itself over the flame patches, though Illidan caught the force of the blast with his wings and used it to gain some distance from the fighters.
Feloma estimated where Illidan was going to land and fired a few explosive arrows at the floor around his landing point. Illidan saw this and flapped his wings to change where he would land. However, some air spirits summoned by Farra’jin changed the wind currents and forced him to land in Feloma’s trap.
Talia attempted to attack Illidan with her demons but the demon hunter lord had an answer for that since he did teach his demon hunters the demon stasis spell which he used to trap all of them. He rushed toward Talia but quickly leaped to the side when a number of vines burst from the floor in his path. He avoided the plants and infused his blades with blue flame to slice through the vines.
More vines burst from the ground around him but he managed to cut through them as well. What he didn’t expect was ruby colored flames from Stella striking the vines which allowed them to fight off the blue flames and regrow. The rejuvenated plants lashed at him which forced him to dodge and back away.
Having had enough of the warm up, Illidan flapped his wings and flew high into the air just outside of their attack range. His tactic involved attacking them from above. “Behold the flames of Azzinoth!” he shouted as he hurled his blades at the floor which embedded themselves at either ends of the grated floor. Verdant flames gathered around the blades in large amounts and coalesced into two large fel fire elementals.
Bella and Lokosh each gained the attention of one elemental and used whatever protections they could to endure the intense flames. Bella’s aura helped mitigate harm from the fire while Stella provided protection spells and Farra’jin set his water totem to provide additional fire protection.
While they were facing the elementals, Illidan was not being idle in the sky. He began hurling blue fireballs at the party while occasionally unleashing a barrage of dark energy at someone. Mena reacted by using her light magic to protect them while ready to heal them whenever the energy broke the shield.
Stella provided relief to Bella when she summoned several ice elementals which crashed against her fiery enemy while unleashing a torrent of magical frost from her mouth which chilled the elemental and greatly weakened it. Farra’jin called on his earth elemental to break the bindings to make the fire dissipate.
Occasionally, Illidan would fire a destructive beam from his eyes that created a path of blue flames near Bella and Lokosh. The two had to remain aware of their surroundings to avoid being annihilated by the beams.
Illidan became curious about the dracthyr. He had never seen a creature like that in all his years, though that wasn’t saying much since he spent ten thousand of those in a cell. That didn’t matter to him though. What he was interested in was the fact that he could sense essences from multiple draconic flights within her. He noticed the red essence that revitalized the tauren’s plants and the blue essence that went into the beam she shot from her mouth. There was only one being on Azeroth he could think of who would be ambitious enough to mix the essences of multiple flights into one creature…Neltharion.
While he was thinking about that, the battle quickly shifted against him as the dracthyr quickly extinguished the other elemental then spread her wings and took to the skies to meet him in the air. He quickly found himself on the defensive as she unleashed a barrage of arcane, fire and frost at him which he either dodged or deflected once he called for his blades to return to him.
However, Stella’s control over her magic was greater than he expected as she redirected the deflected spells to attack him from a different angle. He found himself being attacked from all sides by various mage spells. Of course, he had spells of his own since he retained his skills from his days as a member of the Moon Guard. He conjured a barrier to protect him from Stella’s attacks while weaving shadows to bombard her with. Stella protected herself with her own barrier while counter attacking with a torrent of magma. Illidan’s shield broke but he flew to the side in time to avoid the magma.
“She has black essence too,” Illidan mused. He decided to ask for confirmation, “Tell me girl, how is it that you possess essences of the five dragonflights?”
Stella decided that there was no harm in telling him, “I was a part of Neltharion’s experiments with dragon essences. At the time, he wanted to create warriors who could use the powers of the five flights and the adaptability of mortals. When we could no longer be controlled, Neltharion ordered us to our creches and left us in stasis by Malygos for over twenty thousand years.”
Illidan was taken aback by this. “Twenty thousand years!?” He knew ten thousand in a cell was a very long time, but she spent twice that long in stasis for being uncontrollable to the Aspects. The fact that Stella was fighting alongside these mortals made him question Malygos’ judgement.
However, this was hardly the time to ask more about her origins. As curious as he was, he needed to carry out the plan so he was forced to stifle that thought. “Fascinating, but we still have a battle to finish.” Illidan stopped flapping his wings and dropped back to the floor, landing hard but rising as if it were nothing.
The battle resumed with Bella, Lokosh and Flutashe charging in once again. This time the others were getting used to his movements and were beginning to land more blows against the demon hunter. He still dodged many of their attacks but this was becoming less frequent.
Illidan decided to step things up by calling upon the dark power within him which caused him to grow significantly while his body began to turn dark. His warding runes on his body glowed brighter as his body turned black. He roared in fury.
Deciding to test the limits of Stella’s magical defenses, he began launching explosive blasts of shadow at her which she blocked with a barrier before she conjured ice walls to block some of the attacks while she worked on restoring her shield whenever it broke.
Bella switched to a holy aura that weakened the power of shadow magic around her in order to help protect Stella who was very thankful for the assistance.
Illidan didn’t leave the others out as he unleashed blue flames at the other party members which Mena and Groun healed through.
The most terrifying point of this fight came when he locked the bodies of Mena, Feloma, Lokosh, Talia and Bella in place before he summoned an equal number of shadow demons who floated toward the afflicted people. Flutashe grabbed the one headed for Bella and hurled it at another demon who was drifting toward Feloma. Talia’s demons unleashed their fury on her shadow demon with her felguard finishing it off by cutting it in two. The one headed toward Mena ended up obliterated when a large eyeball formed and blasted it with a void laser. Farra’jin’s earth elemental assaulted the one headed toward Lokosh and crushed it. Flutashe finished the last two off by pouncing on one and ripping the other one in two with her paws.
The unfortunate part of Illidan’s transformation was that he could only maintain it for so long before he needed a short amount of time to regain his stamina to use it again. After firing a few more blasts at Stella he reached his limit on his transformation and reverted back to his previous form.
By this point, Illidan was beginning to grow exhausted, especially after his prior transformation. At this point it was time to lure out the last player in this tragedy. He unleashed a wave of shadow energy which imprisoned the entire party and left them unable to move. “Is this it, mortals?” he taunted. “Is this all the fury you can muster?”
Right on cue, the final player had emerged from the shadows. An armored figure wrapped in a dark green cloak and carrying a circular glaive. “Their fury pales before mine, Illidan. We have some unsettled business between us.”
“It’s about time you revealed yourself, Maiev. Were you planning on letting these mortals do all the fighting?”
“The time for taunts and talking is over, justice has come for you at last!”
The battle resumed with Maiev joining in on the fighting. A minute into the fighting, Akama emerged into the courtyard and drew his sickles before joining in the fighting.
Exhausted as he was and with two new combatants joining the fight, things were looking bad for the demon hunter. It became even worse when she used a spell that turned the demon blood in his body against him and a green crystal prison formed around him. He wasn’t about to allow himself to be captured alive. By force of will, he managed to break free and continued his attack.
The demon hunter felt a sickle plunge deep into his back while Flutashe’s claws raked across his chest, leaving deep wounds. One last arrow from Feloma into his chest where his heart was located sealed his fate. He gave a brief smile in gratitude toward the blood elf.
“Ah, it is finished. You are beaten,” Maiev declared.
“The Illidari…will guide Azeroth to victory…against the Burning Legion,” Illidan weakly stated. “They will serve the Alliance…and the Horde…well.” With that, the Illidari lord succumbed to his wounds and collapsed, his consciousness fading away.
“Not while I draw breath…” Maiev growled. “Every last one of the souls he has damned into this life shall be imprisoned for all eternity.”
Flutashe growled and prepared to scream at the warden but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She looked to see Sophia who gave her a wink in assurance.
The druid could only hope that things will turn out well.
Everything was ready for the final assault on Tyranna’s ship. With the area around the ship secured, they could now mount an assault without worry of any outside demon influence.
The demon hunters headed toward a makeshift roost where a fellow demon hunter, Izal Whitemoon, had kept a number of felbats that she had captured. The demons looked like giant bats with developed arms and legs. A green glow was emitting from their manes.
“Izal, it’s time.” Raida said.
Izal nodded and called for the felbats to line up. Each demon hunter mounted a bat. Once they were all mounted, they called for their ride to take off and fly toward the ship hovering over the volcanic crater.
They landed on one of the two balconies of the ship overlooking the area with the demon hunters rushing in to assault the demons crewing the ship. They found Tyranna in the middle of the room they entered, prepared to fight the demon hunters to the bitter end.
Raida spotted Cyana moving off to the side to locate the portal room which would be their exit as she was assigned during the mission briefing. She nodded before turning her attention to Tyranna who was already under attack by Kayn, Altruis, Kor’vas, and Allari. The others were busy taking down the crew.
Raida quickly jumped into the fray and delivered several slashes to her legs within the first second. Tyranna didn’t appreciate this and vanished into the shadows briefly while several lesser spider demons skittered down the walls to attack. The demon hunters were quick to eliminate the spiders which forced Tyranna to return to the battle.
Enraged by the death of her children and her mate, she decided to show the demon hunters her cruelty by grabbing Allari and biting her neck, giving her a dose of her venom. She then set the Illidari down and watched as she lost control of her demonic self and attacked the others.
Raida placed Allari in a stasis prison until something could be done about her. Meanwhile, the attacks on the brood queen continued as she attacked the Illidari with her claws.
Her final mistake was when she grabbed Raida and tried to bite her. She was ready for it as she unleashed a Black Eye Beam on Tyranna’s face which caused her head to be encased in black crystal. She then unleashed a torrent of fel fire from her mouth which reacted with the crystals and caused her head to explode.
The now headless body of Tyranna collapsed on the floor and a large green stone fell off her person. She looked to Allari who appeared to have calmed down with the fight over. Cautiously, she released the prison and was relieved that her fellow demon hunter was back to normal.
Raida picked up the Keystone before heading to Cyanna who had likely found the portal room.
Once everyone was assembled in the portal room, Raida stood between the demon hunters and the portal generator. “Hurry and use it, Lady Raida. Lord Illidan needs us to repel the invaders,” Kayn said.
“Not yet,” Raida answered.
”Why?” Kor’vas asked.
“What I am about to tell you will be a shock to all of you, but I need you to remain calm if we are to get out of the mess we are about to walk into.”
“What do you mean?” Altruis asked.
“By now it’s most likely that Lord Illidan is dead and the summit is being secured by the Sha’tari and Maiev.” Everyone gasped in horror as she said that. “This is all part of Lord Illidan’s contingency plan should Azeroth invade Outland. The deaths of Lady Vashj, Kael’thas Sunstrider, Gruul and Lord Illidan were all planned out. He planned for us to return to the Alliance and the Horde so that we could grant them our expertise on the Legion and help them prepare for the final invasion.”
“They would never accept our kind!” Cyanna shouted.
“I don’t know how Lord Illidan planned for this to happen, but he said that he has some allies who would move things along for our integration. All I can ask of all of you is to stay calm and don’t engage in hostilities no matter what. Our fates depend on it.”
The other Illidari looked at each other with uncertainty and Kayn looked like he was ready to bite someone’s head off and Altruis looked indifferent.
Raida gave the Illidari a few minutes to process what she said and waited for everyone to calm down. Kor’vas had to hit Kayn in the back of his head to get him to stop grinding his teeth.
Once she was certain that everyone was calm, she turned to the portal generator and opened the portal back to the Black Temple using the Sargerite Keystone. She was the first one to step through so that if someone decided to do something stupid, she would be ready to stop them.
Raida returned to the temple in time to find a group of wardens standing near a huge green crystal that contained Illidan’s body. The others soon joined her and saw the scene but remembered Raida’s words and maintained a passive stance.
“Ah, you have arrived at last to see your fallen master,” Maiev said. She had a confused look on her face as she saw the other Illidari standing passively. “What’s the matter? None of you wish to avenge your master?”
“Stop trying to goad us into attacking Maiev, it won’t work,” Raida said.
Maiev frowned, though nobody could see her facial expressions through her helm. She was disappointed that the Illidari wouldn’t attack her or her wardens. It would have made their imprisonment all the more justified. It didn’t matter though, they were all marked with the fel and were just as guilty as Illidan for immersing themselves in the power of the Legion.
“No matter, imprison them and take them to the Vault,” Maiev ordered.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to request that you and your wardens stand down, Maiev,” came a voice from behind her.
Maiev and the wardens turned around to find Thanatas walking toward them. The warden leader narrowed her eyes at the undead while the others prepared their weapons. “You dare get in the way of justice, abomination?”
“Okay, first, do I look like a mass of flesh stitched together to make one of the most grotesque creatures on Azeroth? Second, what justice is there when you are trying to imprison a bunch of elves who have done nothing to harm Azeroth or its people? They didn’t even attack you and you still intend on imprisoning them? One of them even helped prevent a Legion attack on Nagrand.”
“I am imprisoning those who have tainted their very souls with the power of our greatest enemy!” Maiev argued.
“Infusing their bodies and souls with one of the six natural cosmic forces alongside Death, Life, Arcane, Light and Void?” Thanatas countered. “Just because one cosmic military decides to primarily use one of the forces in their bid of universal destruction doesn’t mean that fel, also known as Chaos, is monopolized by the Legion. If the power can be wielded for the sake of Azeroth’s defense then why turn them away? After all, the Horde and Alliance have been utilizing warlocks more lately.”
“You come here to speak blasphemy in my ears? How dare you! Wardens, imprison her too!”
Just as she said that, she found that all of the other wardens were suddenly lying unconscious with their helmets removed and lying on the floor. Next to them stood Sophia who had an innocent smile on her face.
“Now that that bother has been subdued, let’s continue our negotiation,” Thanatas offered.
“You intend on taking Illidan’s body?” Maiev asked.
“Him? Oh no, you can keep him in the Vault for the time being. He won’t be needed until the Legion’s final invasion,” Thanatas dismissed with a casual wave of her hand.
“Final invasion? What are you talking about?”
“Let’s just say that I have knowledge of the future and the threats that will come. Tell me, do you believe that your victory at the Battle of Mount Hyjal meant anything?”
“Of course it did! We destroyed Archimonde and greatly weakened the Legion.”
“Ha! If you were in the know, that would have been a hilarious joke.” Thanatas donned a serious expression. “Here’s a fact: demons can come back from death by restoring themselves in the Twisting Nether. Unless they die in the Nether, they will keep coming back for more. It’s the reason that the demons are so confident that they can take Azeroth because they can infinitely push against your defenders and no matter how many you kill they will keep returning. Hyjal was nothing more than a setback. Sooner or later they will exhaust Azeroth’s defenses. A defensive war is a guaranteed defeat.”
“And you believe that these Illidari can change that?” Maiev asked.
“They have the means to assault the Legion homeworld. They have the knowledge and experience of their capabilities. Azeroth is not prepared to face the Legion’s full might, not yet. With the Illidari’s help, the Horde and Alliance can be ready by the time they reveal their true might.”
“I’ve heard enough of this nonsense, despite your wild claims, you have no evidence to back it up. How can you even prove that you have knowledge of the future?” Maiev questioned.
“How about a wager then, I predict a future event and if I’m wrong, you are free to arrest me and the Illidari. I won’t even resist and will make sure Raida and the others don’t either.”
Maiev hummed, it seemed like a foolish wager to accept, especially since the Illidari could just scatter and make things harder on her wardens. She would need some insurance. “How do I know that you or the Illidari won’t just flee to evade capture?”
“While I am certain that I will win this bet, we can keep them confined to two locations and have that city’s guards escort them around.”
“Two locations?”
“We can’t keep the blood elves in an Alliance City nor can we keep the night elves in a Horde City. Tensions are too high between the two factions to allow races who are officially part of either faction to be housed in a hostile city,” Thanatas explained.
“Wait, the Kal’dorei joined one of the factions? I remembered that the blood elves were part of the Alliance…”
“Oh, right, you’ve been living in a prison for the past few years…” With no other option, Thanatas was forced to explain the events that had occurred in the past few years since Maiev had been stuck in Outland.
After the explanation, Maiev nodded in understanding. “Very well I shall see if your claims are true myself, however, you still have not named your terms for if your prediction comes true.”
“It’s nothing much, I just want you to endorse the Illidari into being allowed to live among their brethren again to Tyrande.”
“What!? Why would I ever accept that term? It would put the Kal’dorei in great danger!”
“Not really,” Thanatas shrugged. “You can see that the demon hunters over there are willfully behaving nicely while we are having our conversation and no one’s been harmed. Your unconscious wardens are only knocked out as a result of Sophia’s technique.”
Begrudgingly, Maiev had to concede that point to the death knight. Then she also had to consider the merits of Flutashe and her contribution to Illidan’s defeat. She proved that she wasn’t on Illidan’s side while claiming that her sister was still the same as ever.
Maiev had to admit that if it weren’t for Raida’s cocky attitude back when she had graduated from the academy, she might have considered training her as a warden.
However, that was then. Raida chose her path, vile as it was. “Very well, I shall accept your terms. The sin’dorei of the Illidari shall be left to the Horde to deal with while the kal’dorei shall be confined to Stormwind until the end of the year or the event occurs. My wardens will be watching them closely.”
“Good, now we can move on to the prediction,” Thanatas said before clearing her throat. “Before the end of the year, Kael’thas Sunstrider, who survived his battle in Tempest Keep, will invade Silvermoon City and abduct their naaru prisoner, M’uru. This will prove his treachery to his race. Kael will take the naaru as well as the embodiment of the Sunwell’s power in the form of a human girl named Anveena Teague to the Isle of Quel’danas where he intends to use the girl’s power to summon Kil’jaeden to Azeroth. I would suggest sending some wardens to observe the events in Quel’thalas so they will be able to confirm my prediction.”
“You are suggesting that Kael’thas will turn on his own people?!” Maiev asked with a bit of shock.
“He’s already gone quite mad. He was already allied with the Legion before the attack on Tempest Keep. The prince will meet his end on the island.”
Maiev almost laughed as she heard this, to think that the elf who got her into trouble with Malfurion and helped Illidan to escape justice twice would meet such a miserable end. “If there is a chance to see that treacherous coward see justice served to him, I will personally witness this event myself.”
Raida finally decided to interject, “Wait, if there is going to be an attack on Silvermoon, wouldn’t it be better for the sin’dorei Illidari to be stationed there?”
“For your sake we need the event to happen, Raida,” Thanatas countered. “If we nip the problem in the bud it would give Maiev an excuse to say that the prediction didn’t come true.”
“I am not so petty that I would make up excuses for this,” Maiev shot back. “If the regent lord will allow them in the city then perhaps innocent lives can be spared should your prediction come true. If Kael’thas does invade his own city then I will accept defeat on the matter.”
“Very well, are the terms agreeable to everyone?” Thanatas called out, making sure the other Illidari could hear. Raida summarized the terms for the others and came to a unanimous agreement. She voiced the approval of the deal on behalf of the Illidari. “Looks like we have an accord.” She looked at Sophia, “Time to brush off your diplomacy skills, cousin. You may have one hell of a time getting the Alliance leaders to agree to this, depending on King Varian’s opinions on the matter.”