//------------------------------// // Fate of the Damned // Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: Frozen Wastes // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// After returning home from the Isle of Quel’Danas and bringing an end to a demonic invasion before it even started, things had settled down for the time being. Shortly after the Battle of the Sunwell, Flutashe brought Raida to Darnassus and though the demon hunter was met with the expected hostile looks, being around her respected sister had kept the matter from escalating. Raida was brought before Tyrande as one of the heroes who helped drive Kil’jaeden from Azeroth. Tyrande never held any particular hatred toward demon hunters as she still cared for Illidan, though it still frightened her of the lengths that he would go to achieve victory against the Legion. Maiev was with them, though the grumbles that were heard told everyone that she would rather be any place but here. Maiev bitterly spoke on behalf of Raida, pointing out her contributions in the elimination of the treacherous Kael’thas Sunstrider. As much as she hated Tyrande for involving their people in the affairs of the Alliance and the Illidari for defiling themselves in demonic taint, she also had her honor and she would not see it tarnished by welshing on a bet. As much as she hated to admit it, Raida played a big role in the Legion’s downfall. After fulfilling her end of the bargain, Maiev quickly moved to leave the city before something else came up to aggravate her. However, she would have one more before she was left in peace. As she was leaving, Maiev was stopped by Sophia who leaned on a pillar nearby. “As commendable as it is to strive in the pursuit of justice, is it really justice that you are pursuing? Or is it the illusion of justice shrouding the avatar of vengeance?” “What could you possibly know about justice, creature?” Maiev snarled. “I know that pride is the poison that corrupts justice. It doesn’t take insight to know that your pride has clouded your vision, Maiev. It’s the kind of hubris that will provide our enemies an advantage in the days to come.” “You dare accuse me of arrogance!?” “I dare because it is the driving force behind our enemies. The Gurubashi and the Amani trolls remembered their glory days in ancient times and they lost themselves to that past and became a threat to everyone. The kal’dorei–” “The kal’dorei do not seek to reclaim a dead empire and all elements that represented that line of thinking were exiled millennia ago!” Maiev snapped. Sophia continued, “--like you believe that they can survive in this world without outside help and that in itself is arrogant. If every night elf thought like you, your civilization would have been crushed by the Legion during the last invasion and this world would have fallen. Don’t try to deny it, you know I’m right. The Battle of Mount Hyjal was won with the aid of orcs and humans. Let’s be honest, do you seriously believe that the night elves alone would have delayed Archimonde long enough for Malfurion to set his trap?” As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she had to concede that point to Sophia. She didn’t like the thought one bit but she couldn’t deny the necessity of allies at that time. Sophia walked ahead of Maiev, pulling out a tiny crystal shard. She gave one last sidelong glance to the warden and left her with a warning, “Times are changing, and the kal’dorei can no longer afford to stagnate. You need allies and can’t afford to pick and choose who your allies are. Thanatas said that the Lich King will soon become active once again and he will bring his endless tide of undead upon us all.” With that, the templar charged her psionic power into the crystal before her entire body twisted and warped into the shard. The shard fell to the ground and shattered to dust. Maiev was left alone and her mood was even more foul than before; not for her hatred of those around her, but for the frustration that the templar gave her a lot to think about. The following weeks were busy for everyone. As promised, Bella and Lokosh got together and forged armor and weapons for their friends. Since Farra’jin, and Feloma preferred scale mail over leather armor, Bella fashioned armor using the scaly creatures of Outland. The fel taint reinforced the durability of the scales. She also made new robes for Talia and Groun as well as some plate mail for Lokosh. From Lokosh, he crafted weapons that matched the preferences of the others as well as a new shield for himself and Bella. Bella asked the orc to make her a war hammer for those times when she didn’t need to protect or provide support. Lokosh struggled to create a warglaive for Raida because it was a type of weapon that he had never crafted before, even as Steel Edge. He would need to learn from an Illidari weaponsmith to make a weapon for the demon hunter. As it turned out, the radiance from the Sunwell had given Mena enough light to balance her void power to allow her to use the wings that A’dal gave her. She had a feeling that she would need to think of an alternative means of flying in the future, especially as the eldritch horror within her consumed more Old Gods. Feloma showed off the power of her new bow which she discovered was named Thori’dal. While the weapon resonated with the power of the Sunwell, no blood elf alive knew how it was made or where it came from. It was still one of the most powerful bows out there. The huntress admired the weapon for a while but made sure not to neglect the needs of Autumn and Summer, her lynx and dragonhawk pets. Stella was back in Dalaran as the mages celebrated the full restoration of the city and the lowering of the shield that had taxed the ley line for years. However, she had other concerns at this time. Apparently several Kirin Tor mages were sent to investigate a magic disturbance in Northrend but never returned. The dracthyr could only hope that this wasn’t an ill omen, especially since they were sent to a place that was reportedly the home of the Blue Dragonflight and Malygos’ seat of power. It also didn’t help that the number of natural disasters were on the rise lately. The disasters were also reported to be magical in nature. Stella couldn’t help but wonder what the Blue Aspect was doing by allowing all these disasters to happen. Everyone else made their preparations for the days ahead. The next big threat was right around the corner and they needed to be ready. The last month of the year came but the denizens of Azeroth were perplexed about an event that had occurred lately. Apparently, everyone was ordered by their leaders and rulers to receive a mandatory vaccine injection. The neutral towns like Booty Bay or Gadgetzan were also subjected to the vaccines. When the goblins asked why they needed to take them they were told that they received a tip that the Scourge might be distributing plagued goods again like last year. When Booty Bay received a mysterious shipment with no identification on the source, Baron Revilgaz, the ruler of the town, ordered the shipment burned and blasted by cannonfire. As much as he would have loved to make a quick gold selling anything of value, zombified customers held no long term profit potential. When Stormwind received the vaccines, Sophia knew where they came from and assured Varian that they were necessary to combat the latest Scourge plague. The King was reminded of what could have been if last year’s plague hadn’t been halted before it spread. The vaccine distribution had prevented a massive zombie outbreak but the week after the distribution was when the situation escalated. One day, a number of floating Scourge necropoli appeared over the airspace of Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Not only that, but Thanatas alerted her through the link that they were attacking Theramore as well. Thankfully, Thanatas’ sister, Zoias volunteered to defend the town. When the Scourge attacked Stormwind Harbor, the defenses were quickly disabled when a large number of frost wyrms swooped in and froze them with their icy breath, leaving an army of abominations to be teleported into the harbor by the necropolis. Bella, Mena, Flutashe and Raida were there to assist the guards against the stitched horrors and the assistance of the Illidari made quick work of them. Sophia dealt with the wyrms by jumping on one and forcing it to attack their allies. The city’s mages attacked the necropolis with fire and frost spells to drive it over the water before Sophia shattered its control crystal by grabbing her dragon’s head and hurling it with enough force to shatter it, causing the large structure to fall into the sea. Once the last of the Scourge forces were defeated, the defenders cheered in celebration while Varian knew that this attack was a declaration of war by the Lich King…by Arthas. Of course, he had already made his response months ago. He was recently notified from Bolvar that they had nearly finished the construction of Valgarde on the eastern side of the continent and was in the middle of constructing another foothold called Valiance Keep on the western side. In Orgrimmar, Thanatas sat next to Sylvanas in the arena and watched with boredom as she saw Garrosh and Thrall dueling. The brash brown orc was irritated with the warchief for his inaction against the Scourge and the humans while Thrall wished to assess the situation before making action. Thanatas partially agreed with both of their sentiments but it seemed that Garrosh was going to be as much of a headache as she knew he was going to be. When the gates of the city came under attack by the Scourge forces, she left the two idiots to their fighting and walked out of the gates for some open space before she cast off her flesh and armor form to assume her giant bone dragon form before taking the fight to the frost wyrms above them. With Lokosh and the others as well as the city guards defending the ground, Thanatas handled the air by shattering the dragon skeletons one by one before attacking the necropolis itself. Once the structure was rubble and the undead forces defeated, Thanatas landed and saw the two orcs who saw most of the fight. Though instead of waiting for the two to answer the questions that she knew were coming, she cut them off with her own response, “So are you two going to stand there and take what just happened or are you going to act like orcs and get your asses to Northrend?” Garrosh didn’t need to be told twice as he began to gather an army to march on the frozen north. Thrall decided to let his friend take the lead on this one. Thanatas knew that Sylvanas had already sent her forsaken to Northrend months ago. The battle at Theramore was over quickly with the abominations wiped out in seconds from being impaled by earthen spikes and the frost wyrms were knocked out of the sky by high velocity boulders. Jaina destroyed the necropolis crystal herself. The situation in the Plaguelands had not improved over the last year but neither had it become worse. The Scourge and the Argent Dawn had reached a stalemate in their ongoing conflict. Jaqueline had been with the Argent Dawn for nearly a year now and the lack of progress had begun to annoy her. Whenever they made a push against a Scourge holding, the enemy defenders were fortified with forces from Naxxramas which drove their forces into a retreat. The massive necropolis hovered over the Plaguelands like a symbol of oppression. As long as that floating fortress stood, the Argent Dawn was stuck defending Light’s Hope Chapel. To make matters worse, Jaqueline had been having brief bouts of chest pains for the past few months. She guessed that they were related to her battles against the undead but she felt the pain while resting as well. In the past few weeks the pain had intensified and lasted longer each time. The warrior had been struggling to get any restful sleep in the past few days because of the pain. When she told the Argent medics about her pains they suggested staying out of the field for a while and resting but Jaqueline wasn’t about to heed that advice. As long as her farm was still in control of the Scourge, she would never stop fighting. A few days after the Scourge assault on the main cities of the Alliance and Horde, the Argent knights received some intel that brought them hope in this war but also a sense of dread. They learned that Naxxramas had just vanished. They also learned that the ruler of Stratholme, Baron Titus Rivendare, had left his son Aurius in charge while he vanished with the citadel. The Argent knights knew that this would be their best chance to reclaim the City of Stratholme from the Scourge. For this, they assembled a vanguard to assault the city. Despite her health, Jaqueline stubbornly volunteered to be a part of the vanguard. Lord Maxwell Tyrosus, leader of the Argent Dawn, was reluctant to allow her to go to Stratholme. He knew about her failing health and that this mission might be too much for her. He didn’t deny that she was one of his best knights, though. Weighing the options and what he knew was lurking in the city, he went against his better judgement and allowed her to join the assault on the condition that she take it easy with the fighting. He knew she wouldn’t; she always pushed herself too far. Regardless, he needed her for this operation. A few hours later, a group of Argent knights, composed of a few paladins and Jaqueline, dismounted their horses in front of the city’s eastern service entrance. The lead knight who carried a shield that proudly displayed the order’s emblem pulled out a key that they acquired from the city magistrate during a prior assault on the city. Upon inserting and turning the key in the lock beside the portcullis, the metal door opened with a clunk. The knights then lifted the gate and proceeded inside. At the other end of the small entry tunnel, they had to lift another portcullis to enter the city proper. The burnt out remains of the city were still on fire. It was a mystery how the fires could still burn for years without the entire city turning to ash. Greeting the vanguard was a horde of zombies and skeletons looking ravenous for their flesh. The Argent protector charged into them with his shield before blessing the ground around him which burned the unholy fiends. Two paladins who wielded war hammers rushed into the horde and blasted them with holy magic and scattered their bones across the street. Jaqueline swung wide and decimated many more zombies and a few skeletons. Once the horde was defeated, the vanguard proceeded past a chapel that appeared empty but also gave them a feeling of welcome. The paladins could sense that the chapel remained hallowed after all this time. It made sense since this was the very chapel where the first paladins were ordained before the Second War. The vanguard moved to the end of the street and lifted another pair of gates that would lead them into another section of the city. The new section was infested with all manner of undead, featuring ghouls, banshees, crypt fiends, low-flying gargoyles and necromancers. The group had their work cut out for them as the protector ran in and drew the attention of the undead before Jaqueline and the others joined in the fighting. During the fighting, Jaqueline saw a shade manifest and call out that the living were in the city and attempted to summon more gargoyles but the warrior rushed in and destroyed it with a single strike. At a fork in the road, the group took a left and faced more undead until they encountered a building that was unlike the architecture found in the city. They recognized it as a Scourge ziggurat that the undead used to fortify their holdings. This one had a giant black crystal floating above it. The front entrance was guarded by a crypt fiend. Little did they know, this was a particularly fierce nerubian named Nerub’enkan. Upon spotting the intruders, she unleashed a number of scarabs to attack them. The protector burned the insects with consecrated ground. Nerub’enkan skittered down the steps of the ziggurat to engage them in combat. She barely jumped out of the way of a slash from Jaqueline before she raised the fallen scarabs from the dead so they could attack once again. This distracted Jaqueline to deal with the bugs again while the two war hammer-wielding paladins struck the nerubian with powerful force, sending her back a distance. Wounded, but not deterred, Nerub’enkan waited for her enemies to come to her. The protector ran toward her which was what she was hoping for as she leaped over the protector and behind the two war hammer paladins. She grabbed both of them by the neck but ended up with one of her claws cut off by Jaqueline which released one of the paladins. Nerub’enkan leaped to the wall of a nearby gatehouse with her prey who was screaming in panic as he tried to strike her with his hammer. She slammed the paladin’s face into the wall hard enough that he dropped his hammer. With her prey disarmed, she wrapped the paladin into a silk cocoon and tossed the victim into the gatehouse. She then dropped the portcullis to trap the paladin inside. By this point, Jaqueline managed to get close enough to the nerubian for her to hurl her sword at the crypt fiend. The undead didn’t have time to react after the gates closed and ended up impaled on the wall. Struggling to free herself, Nerub’enkan found that she lacked the strength to do so. She was forced to watch helplessly as the remaining war hammer paladin smashed her head to pulp in with his weapon. Before they could help their struggling comrade from his silky prison, their attention turned to a pile of nearby crates as a swarm of insects emerged from them and entered the cocoon through openings in the silky prison. The vanguard was forced to watch in horror as their comrade screamed in agony as the swarm feasted on his flesh. The healer paladin tried his best to heal their comrade until they could get the gate open but the insects were voracious and devoured faster than the healer could heal. Unfortunately, they were unable to save the paladin as when the insects had their fill, they skittered away as the cocoon slackened. They couldn’t detect any movement so the group could only conclude that the poor man was now nothing more than bones and armor. They had no time to mourn their fallen comrade so they went into the ziggurat to take care of any scourge inside. They ended up dispatching a number of cultists which caused the sound of a crystal shattering above them. The group left the ziggurat to see what happened and saw that the crystal was no longer there. Unfortunately, they were unable to get the gatehouse open so they had to try an alternate route through the city. Returning to the fork, the group took the other path and fought through more banshees, ghouls and necromancers. They soon approached another ziggurat where this one was guarded by a banshee. Not wanting to underestimate their enemy this time, the group approached this one cautiously. Indeed, this banshee was known as Baroness Anastari and she was powerful for a banshee. She began the fight by placing curses on all four of the party members. They quickly realized that the curse often made them miss their swings which gave her plenty of openings to blast them with her wails. The healer did his best to heal through her attacks while Jaqueline and the hammer paladin did their best to strike at the banshee. Eventually, Anastari reached out with her spectral claws to touch Jaqueline but the hammer paladin shoved her aside and the hand touched him instead. The banshee then disappeared while the paladin slumped over. The protector and healer cautiously moved to see if their friend was alright. However, to their horror, the man looked at them with eyes black as the void and teeth bared like a wild animal. The hammer paladin swung his hammer at the healer who managed to jump away from the swing while the protector slammed his shield against the possessed paladin. Jaqueline swung her blade at her former ally only for his hammer to block the attack. Anastari gave the paladin a boost to his strength which allowed him to overpower the warrior and push her back. He then swung wide which was blocked by the protector’s shield. With the hammer paladin’s increased strength, the force knocked the protector back a couple of feet. Anastari could feel her host struggling to regain control of his mind and her remaining enemies didn’t appear to be showing any sign of falling any time soon. She knew that once she left the body she would be hit hard by holy magic which would destroy her. Knowing this, she decided to take the hammer paladin down with her by sacrificing herself and let the rest of the denizens of Stratholme have their way with the other three. Using one last curse in her arsenal, she connected her soul to the paladin’s soul and placed a doom curse on herself. Once the curse triggered, the banshee self-destructed and the paladin’s soul was destroyed with her thanks to the connection. Outside of the paladin’s body, Jaqueline, the protector and the healer stared at their possessed brother as he suddenly stopped attacking and fell to his knees. Cautiously, the protector moved closer to inspect his comrade and checked his eyes for any signs of life in them. It only took a few moments before he let go of the man and shook his head. “Can’t y’all resurrect him?” Jaqueline asked. The healer attempted the resurrection spell but the paladin was still unmoving. He tried again a few more times before he gave up and realized that his soul couldn’t be saved. The healer sighed, “The banshee must have destroyed his very soul. The spell would have worked as long as his soul was still intact.” Realizing that their comrade was gone forever, the three took a moment of silence for him. For Jaqueline, it was a moment that was shared by a bout of agony as her chest pains flared. She also saw the world spinning before her eyes. It took all of her willpower to not faint on the spot. She struggled to breathe for a few moments and she broke out in a cold sweat, though she could have attributed that one to being in an area rife with death. The healer noticed this and used the Light to heal her though it only made the symptoms go away for a time. “Are you okay?” the protector asked. “Yeah,” Jaqueline answered breathily. “Let’s keep going.” “We need to retreat, we’ve already lost two of our own and I don’t know how much farther we have to go.” “Our forces are already establishin’ themselves at that chapel. If we pull back them Scourge will just fortify themselves and it’ll be that much harder ta defeat their leader.” Despite the protector’s protests, Jaqueline stubbornly started moving toward the ziggurat to clear them out. The two paladins didn’t want her to continue alone so they had no choice but to follow. Thankfully, Jaqueline’s skills made up for the lack of their fallen members but this also meant that the warrior would end up fighting harder and this would be even harder on her failing body. After clearing the second ziggurat. The three moved deeper into the city and defeated more undead and necromancers before quickly arriving at the third ziggurat. A large number of cultists guarded this structure and zealously carried out the attack commands of one human who stood before the door. Jaqueline pulled out her longsword and began sweeping through the summoned skeletons while the protector bashed a few heads with his hammer. The healer struggled to keep the others healthy but his job gradually became easier as the enemy numbers lessened. The cultist leader who observed this knew that he would be defeated at this rate so he tried to turn the tables when he hurled a powerful bolt of frost at the healer and followed up with an ice lance. Jaqueline saw the mage’s attack too late as he hurled the lance that shattered the unfortunate healer’s icy tomb and scattered his frozen body parts all over the street. The warrior cried out in rage before she charged at the mage at such a speed that gave him no time to react before she ran her sword through him. The cultist grinned as he coughed up blood and collapsed to the floor. Knowing what the Scourge do to their powerful mages, Jaqueline beheaded the man and smashed the head until it was a pulp of bones and viscera. The last thing the Argent Dawn needed was another lich in the world. Unfortunately, with the healer’s body in pieces, reviving him was not possible so now they were down to the two of them. The protector was more adamant about retreating since it was just the two of them and Jaqueline’s symptoms could return at any time. However, the woman was not about to back down, not until the mission was complete. No matter what he said to try to convince her she continued moving deeper into the city. The paladin growled in frustration and knew that this woman was marching toward her death and she was going to drag him along with her. He swore that if he ever survived this that he would have her kicked out of the Argent Dawn. At this point, Jaqueline was mowing down undead without a care in the world. She wanted to tell the protector that she wasn’t doing this out of some stubborn pride. She saw the proverbial writing on the wall. She didn’t need a doctor to know that her heart was failing her and it could go out on her at any minute. After clearing out the ziggurat, she moved down the street cutting down every crypt fiend who tried to send their scarabs at her and stomping the scarabs, slashing banshees and reducing them to orbs of ectoplasm, dividing ghouls in two and smashing their heads, and brutally massacring every necromancer who dared cast a spell at her. They soon came upon a thick metal gatehouse leading into a city square that was teeming with abominations. A nerubian slaughterhouse, a tall building with a large wooden wheel with spikes above the main structure, stood in the back of the square. The two remained out of sight of the stitched golems while the protector gave the woman an enraged glare. “This has gone on long enough, we can’t possibly take on all of that by ourselves. We need reinforcements.” “Go back and tell ‘em what happened,” Jaqueline said evenly. “Are you planning on charging in there on your own? It’s suicide!” “Ah’m dead either way. Ah know ah ain’t survivin’ today, victory or defeat. Don’t ask me why, I can just feel it’s true. Ah’m sorry we lost so many o’ our comrades because o’ mah stubbornness, but ah ain’t dyin’ on no deathbed. If ah’m goin’ down, it’ll be in a blaze o’ glory. So get on outta here an’ report what transpired before the enemy reinforces what we cleared out.” The paladin couldn’t argue with what she said, he knew that she wouldn’t last much longer. He wasn’t about to object to that sentiment so he simply began backtracking his way through the city but not before giving her a sidelong glance, “Give them hell!” he said before he left. Jaqueline silently nodded. Gathering all of her resolve, she prepared herself as she moved into the square and charged at the abominations. Each golem carried bloody cleavers and bloody hooks and chains. The stitched horrors shambled toward Jaqueline with their weapons raised while the warrior relied on her speed and reflexes to avoid getting butchered as her blade tore through the stitching of one abomination and reduced it to a pile of flesh. Other abominations tried spitting poison or belching a green substance that took a life of its own but the warrior used other abominations as shields before disassembling them while using their falling bodies to crush the slimes. One by one she tore the flesh golems apart where some created several slimes upon their destruction but were splattered on the pavement when she delivered a powerful shockwave with her sword. Once the last of the abominations were defeated, a voice from inside the slaughterhouse sounded a little irritated that the Lich King’s creations were being toyed with so he called for someone called Ramstein to give Jaqueline a “proper greeting”. “Ramstein hunger for flesh!” Jaqueline heard the voice of another abomination as the door to the slaughterhouse opened to reveal an abomination who didn’t seem any different than the others she had taken down but she wasn’t about to let her guard down. The warrior began to grow concerned as she was beginning to feel pressure in her chest again and was breaking out in a cold sweat. It wasn’t from the fear of facing the stitched horror. As she was fighting Ramstein, Jaqueline found that the abomination was built to attack faster than others of its kind. However, she was still more agile. Her blade tore through its stitches and she managed to avoid its swings since she knew that her armor wasn’t protecting her from the golem’s heavy attacks. The battle took longer than the warrior would have preferred but she soon managed to tear enough stitches with her blade to cause the abomination to fall apart. She was breathing heavily after that but she couldn’t afford to let up. She was too close to taking out the leader of the Scourge in Stratholme. A nearby gate opened and a swarm of ghouls emerged from it. The warrior was undeterred as she swung her blade to mow down the undead. Using her Bladestorm technique, where she spun around for a few seconds with her blade pointed in front of her, she made quick work of the fragile undead. Jaqueline had a few seconds to regain her wits after using the technique and to regain her breathing which had become shallow as her chest pains worsened. A number of skeleton warriors emerged from the slaughterhouse to engage the warrior in battle. The warrior pushed herself to her limits by swinging her longsword with all of her might to overpower the skeletons while dodging any counter attacks. She quickly dispatched the skeletons before rushing inside to face the leader. She could feel that she didn’t have long before her heart shut down on her so she forewent any rest in hopes that her body would hold together long enough for this last battle. Lord Aurius Rivendare, son of the death knight Baron Titus Rivendare, was once a Knight of the Silver Hand, a paladin, until he succumbed to wounds inflicted upon him by his father in his attempt to kill him. The father was risen again by the archlich, Kel’thuzad, and the son ended up joining him as a death knight. The pain in Jaqueline’s chest was blinding and her world was spinning because of it. However, she powered through the pain and charged into the room where the death knight sat mounted on his skeletal horse, a gift to him from his father. The death knight unsheathed his sword and released a dark aura around him that caused shadows to burn Jaqueline’s skin. Enduring the pain like a berserker, Jaqueline charged forward and ran her blade into the horse’s peytral and into its barrel. Using all of her might, she slashed upward and caused the horse’s head to fall off which caused the horse to collapse and Aurius to fall off his mount. The death knight recovered quickly and swung his blade at the warrior which was parried by her own blade. The two repeatedly clashed blades for a moment before the two backed away where Aurius swung his blade and launched a Shadow Bolt at her which she deflected with her sword. Before Jaqueline could close the distance, Aurius raised his sword for a moment and several skeletons within the chamber rose from the bone piles in the room to attack her. The warrior continued her charge while spinning her blade in a full circle to strike all of the skeletons attempting to surround her. Jaqueline wasted no time. Fighting the agony without and the agony within, she furiously slashed at the death knight without rest and without care for her own well-being. Despite undeath granting him greater strength, Aurius found himself being pushed back by the relentless onslaught. He was soon pushed into a wall where the warrior slashed downward with all of her might and shattered the death knight’s blade and delivered a deep vertical cut from head to abdomen. Jaqueline wasn’t finished as she furiously slashed into Aurius before she decapitated him and plunged her sword into his fallen head to be sure that he wasn’t coming back. For good measure and in her blind rage, Jaqueline smashed the head repeatedly so that not even the scientists of the Scourge could restore it. It was on the last strike that she felt the inevitable occur. Her breathing soon came to a stop and her world blurred. The colors of the world around her darkened and her consciousness began to fade. In her final moments she knew that her heart had finally stopped beating and as her eyes drifted toward the destroyed body of Aurius, she felt that this was a good way for everything to end. Her eyes then rolled to the back of her skull as she collapsed. Her thoughts drifted toward the friends she made last year and the great adventures she went on with them. Bella, Flutashe, Stella and Mena…they helped her find the strength to get this far. She regretted that she wouldn’t get to see them one last time. She thought of the family who were slaughtered by the monsters around her and smiled at the thought that she would join them shortly. With that last thought, her consciousness faded as the last of her life withered away. Moments later, someone entered the slaughterhouse and slowly descended the steps into the inner chamber. This man wore dark gray chain mail with an outer layer of plate mail. His leggings, gloves and sabatons were dark brown leather with an outer layer of dark gray plate. A pair of metallic laughing skulls protected his knees. His pauldrons and belt also had skulls on the front and he wore a black cape. Most iconic of his appearance was the black crown-like helm with a blue gem on the forehead and the jagged sword in his hand with blue glowing runes along the blade and a hilt in the appearance of a ram skull. A blue mist drifts from his eyes. The man, Arthas Menethil, took in the scene in the chamber and found the state that Aurius was in. “Pity, I doubt that I will be able to restore that one. No matter.” He then looked at the sight of the female on the floor. What surprised him was that it wasn’t the wounds from the death knight that did her in. He could only cackle at the irony of the situation. “It would seem that your own heart has betrayed you just as mine did. For you to defeat one of my death knights on your own speaks well of your potential. You shall make for a worthy replacement for this one.” Arthas raised his sword into the air and a volley of violet necrotic bolts were emitted from it. A number of ghouls emerged from the floor and stood before their master. “Bring the girl to Acherus and begin the preparations for her rebirth into the Scourge. I must begin preparations to scour the last traces of life from this land.” The Lich King summoned a dark portal with his sword and walked through it, leaving the ghouls to carry out their task of carrying the corpse of Jaqueline Pomerton toward her destiny. As the undead carried the corpse out of the slaughterhouse, a certain lone female figure stood atop the city walls observing the scene. A smile graced her face, knowing that everything had been going according to plan. She chuckled, “Soon our game shall begin, little puppet.” Her gaze shifted toward a black runeblade that she was carrying, one that was not meant for her. It was a greatsword with a number of dormant runes along the blade. The hilt appeared as an apple with a skull on it with roots branching out to form a cross guard. Three more runes surrounded the skull on the apple. The blade slept as it awaited its true master to wield it. She had painstakingly forged this blade herself with the assistance of the finest weaponsmiths in the Shadowlands. The smiths dreaded what they had created because of its immense potential but she assured them that it would be given to its destined recipient very soon.