World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind

by Blackdrag-rose

Order Hall: Vault of the Wardens

"Lyra, where are you going?" Kurost asked, though at the same time he followed Lyra as she walked back to the small village area they had flown to in order to being the search for Malace.

"I'm heading back to Dalaran so I can ask Trixie if she'll join me in taking out the enemies inside the Vault of the Wardens," Lyra replied, as she knew that the Legion must have left some enemies inside the vault, in order to prevent the remaining Wardens from recovering their vault and the other items that they might have sealed away in there, "She knows who can help us out in the vault, as this sounds like another dungeon run... much like the Eye of Azshara that we did earlier to recover the Tidestone."

"Very well then," Kurost said, though he did follow her back the to village, as he wanted to make sure that she was safe from harm considering that some of their enemies might not like her leaving the area, "I shall simply wish you luck and hope that whoever is holding this Keystone at the end of the day is you."

Lyra nodded and separated herself from Kurost, who ventured back into the area around them and continued on whatever quest he had been tasked with before Lyra had interrupted him, though once he was out of the way she turned to the flight master and charted a course back to Dalaran. She was sure that the rest of the Illidari would be happy to hear that she knew where the Keystone was supposed to be resting, though this time she was taking matters into her own hands and was going to bring a group into the vault, instead of wasting time like she had done earlier. All she had to do was talk with Trixie and hopefully get a group together to take on whatever they found inside the Vault of the Wardens, though a part of her was hoping that Trixie's friends would be willing to help them again.

It took her some time to reach Dalaran, which she had accounted for, but when she arrived she immediately made her way towards the citadel where the Council of Six rested, as Lyra was positive that she would bump into either Kalec or Khadgar while she was there. Those were the only two people that could get into contact with Trixie, as she didn't know who else was in the Mage Order Hall, and she needed her fellow Equestrian's help in this manner. She had considered attacking the vault with an army of Illidari, but that would cause a scene of some kind and no doubt alert the Legion to what they were doing... so she had decided on a small force, just like the last dungeon she had gone through. Several of the other heroes, from both the Alliance and the Horde, nodded to her and she repeated the gesture, as it appeared that while the rest of her forces may not be liked much by everyone else she had some respect from both factions.

She pushed that thought away as she walked into the citadel and came to a stop in front of where the Council of Six usually stood, though she found that most of them were busy in a corner and were apparently discussing something... though that was until Khadgar noticed her and walked over to the entrance.

"Lyra Heartstrings, this is a pleasant surprise," Khadgar said, as whenever Lyra and Trixie were around they always tended to do something interesting, or they were busy saving people from the Legion, or a number of other possibilities that he could think up, "What can we do for you on this fine afternoon?"

"I just discovered where the Sargerite Keystone is being held," Lyra explained, knowing that Khadgar had some idea as to what the keystone was, as he had likely been present for transporting the prison crystals from the Black Temple to the Vault of the Wardens and had likely asked what the artifact was, "I need Trixie's help in gathering some heroes so we can head into the depths of the vault, banish whatever foul creatures the Legion left behind, and recover the Keystone. It will help us turn the tide against the Legion, especially if we can put Lord Illidan's plan into action."

Khadgar raised an eyebrow before remembering that Maiev had mentioned something about a plan when she was battle Lyra the first time, though the plan involved the downfall of every Legion world, the death of both Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, and the defeat of Sargeras himself. With Archimonde already dead, hopefully for good this time around, and several Legion worlds already being assaulted by the various Orders because of how they acquired their artifacts and how their Orders were reacting to the Legion's assault on Azeroth, he knew that he could trust this plan. Sure, Lyra wasn't telling him anything about it, but with the possibility of a Legion spy being nearby it was better that way... to which he nodded to Lyra and summoned an orb, which he commanded to inform Trixie that he needed to speak with her.

Not even five minutes later Trixie, followed by an eager looking Azuregos, walked into the citadel, though when they saw Lyra standing nearby they both knew that things were about the get interesting.

"What's going on?" Trixie asked, though at the same time she had the feeling that she knew what they were going to tell her, so she braced herself and waited for whatever was coming.

"I found where the Sargerite Keystone is being held," Lyra explained, causing Trixie to raise an eyebrow, though that was before a smile appeared on her face as well, "According to my source the last place it was seen in was the Vault of the Wardens, but I'll need some help clearing out the enemies that the Legion left behind. Do you think we can convince Maraa and Allvar to join us, or should we look for other people to help us out?"

"Not at all... in fact, I'm sure they'll be interested in searching the Warden's special vault for something that can help end this invasion much faster," Trixie replied, though she was pleased that whatever plan Lyra's followers had been cooking up involved something like this Keystone, because if it did what Lyra said it did then it could be the key to getting to Argus and stopping the Legion... permanently.

---

It didn't take Trixie long to discover that both Allvar and Maraa were in the same inn that they had split the treasure from their first dungeon in, to which the trio approached the table and explained that they needed their services once more. As she suspected they were both interested in acquiring the Keystone, once they knew that it was skeleton key for the Illidari to invade the other Legion worlds, including Argus, they immediately agreed to join forces with the group and departed from the inn. Trixie then explained where the Vault of the Wardens was actually located and said that the best thing to do was fly there, meaning she and Azuregos would take on their dragon forms and fly the others to the entrance, where they would prepare themselves before delving into the Legion infested vault.

Once they reached Krasus' Landing they departed from the city and headed towards the island that the vault had been built into, though all Lyra did was focus on the task at hand and ignored the fact that she could find Maiev outside the vault. A few minutes later all five of them were standing outside the still opened door that marked the beginning of the vault, though once Trixie and Azuregos were back in their mortal forms, or hybrid form in Trixie's case, they all drew their weapons and headed into the depths.

When they reached the first area of the vault Lyra immediately recognized it as the place where that one eredar tried to stop her and the other Illidari from escaping, Bastillax if she was remembering his name correctly, before noticing a demon hunter floating in the air above the corpse of the eredar she had been thinking about. There were satyrs, demons, and other demon hunters walking around the area in front of them, but Lyra could see that her former friends and training partners had fallen from the path that she walked on. And to top it off she could hear someone shouting at someone else about crimes, but she decided that they had to focus on the enemies in front of them... which was what Allvar did as he charged into the group in front of him and started swinging his sword at them.

Lyra joined in and focused on making sure that the damned demon hunters didn't do anything to her group, while Trixie focused on interrupting whatever damaging spell the satyrs were preparing, though when one group fell they simply move onto the next one. It didn't take them long to reach the demon hunter who was floating in the air, who immediately fell down to them and attacked them the moment she noticed that they were close to where she was standing, where Lyra noticed that she preferred the Havoc style of fighting. Since she knew the techniques she became the focus of her foe's attacks, as it appeared that the demon hunter thought by taking her out she would have a much better time eliminating everyone else... which made her easier to kill.

As the group circled around to deal with the remaining damned demon hunters, however, Lyra realized that the one they had killed was Glayvianna Soulrender, though while she knew the name she personally never grew attached to this lone wolf... whose soul had been fed to the Twinblades, to keep her from awakening as a pawn of the Legion.

Once she was done staring at the body she rejoined the group as they assaulted another large group of demons that were guarding the path in front of them, which escalated quickly when one ran off to get more reinforcements, but at the same time the group proved to be better than the satyrs, demons, and damned demon hunters. They then had to fight through several more groups like that, each one ending in a similar fashion, before they reached the area that held the pool that Lyra could have gazed into to see the past, but she hadn't done that when they were escaping because she knew everything she needed to at the time to make her decision. What interested her, however, was that there was a wounded Warden sitting in the middle of the chamber and another demon hunter, Tirathon Saltheril if her memory served her, standing on the top of the platform above them... though he looked ready to kill all of them.

"I will serve MY people, the exiled and the reviled." Tirathon shouted, though at this point Lyra could tell that he was focusing on the Warden in front of him and not Lyra's group, before he pointed a warglaive down at his target, "I will kill you and all of your kin; and when I am done I shall fulfill the dreams of my master!"

The way Tirathon said 'master' instead of 'Lord Illidan' told Lyra that he must have made a bargain with Kil'jaeden at some point in time, which meant that he was likely here to guard the entrance to the Keystone, as the doors they needed to walk through were closed with a fel lock... and Lyra was sure that killing him was the only way to get them open. The Warden, despite their injuries, backed away from Tirathon as he leapt into the area in front of the group, to which Lyra and the others opened fire on the obviously corrupted demon hunter. As Lyra and Tirathon's weapons came into contact with each other, as Allvar was more than willing to allow her to 'tank' this battle instead of him stealing her glory, Lyra heard her opponent mention that it was good to fight again... which made her a little ticked off as she pushed her foe backwards.

After a few seconds of fighting Tirathon appeared to want a change of pace and launched a few small 'meteors' into the air, where they fell down onto the ground and stayed there for a few moments, emitting a force of fel energy that could hut whoever stepped on it, before they disappeared. Tirathon also attempted to coat his weapons in darkness to protect himself from damage, a worthless endeavor in Lyra's eyes considering he should have used the ability on himself, while also trying to hit her by throwing his warglaives at the walls. When he grew tired of missing her, merely because he appeared to be completely worthless with the power of the Legion backing him, he tossed his weapons aside and transformed into his demonic state, the Vengeance version of her Havoc form... to which she shifted as well and they continued to fight each other, only Lyra did more damage because she was smart enough to keep her warglaives with her instead of tossing them to the side.

The fight came much faster that Tirathon was expecting, because Lyra sidestepped one of his attacks and drove the Twinblades into his beating heart, ending their duel in a matter of moments.

"My... power... wasn't... enough?" Tirathon asked in surprise, while at the same time having to take a breath between each word as his life force drained out of his body, not to mention his soul was being drawn into the Twinblades.

"You should have stayed on the same path as the rest of the Illidari," Lyra replied, to which she tore the Twinblades out of her opponent's chest, causing him to stagger for a moment before he collapsed on the floor, "but you made your choice, Tirathon Saltheril, just like I made mine... and I intend on staying true to what Lord Illidan taught us."

Once Tirathon had been taken care of Maraa tended to the wounds that the Warden, Drelanim Whisperwind, had sustained during her battle with the corrupted demon hunter, though while Lyra could tell that this Warden didn't like the Illidari she was extremely thankful for Lyra and her friends saving her life. The moment they were done tending to Drelanim's wounds, and made sure that Lyra was fine from her battle, Allvar lead them into the passage that had been opened and discovered one of the obese Imp Mothers blocking the door they needed to go through. Allvar charged forward and took the demon's attention almost immediately, while at the same time Lyra joined him in attacking from behind... giving Trixie and Azuregos the opportunity to attack from afar with their spells.

Despite the fact that the Imp Mother tried to poison them, and twist them to her side if given the opportunity, the group was able to beat her in no time and unlocked the door that she had been guarding, to which they walked into the room in front of them and climbed onto the elevator that was waiting for them. When they reached the bottom level that the elevator could go to, however, the group discovered an Inquisitor demon, as labeled by Lyra when she saw it, floating around the area and studying whatever it looked at. They climbed off the elevator and noticed that the demon hadn't noticed their arrival, though as the elevator rose back into the air Allvar made the decision to attack... to which he leapt into the air and slammed into the ground around the demon, before cutting into his defenses.

"Ah, new subjects," the inquisitor said, though instead of drawing any weapons, which Lyra knew most Inquisitor demons didn't have, this one merely held his hands out and started swinging his hands at Allvar.

Fortunately the demon's attention was on Allvar, allowing Lyra to get behind him and start cutting into him from behind, while Trixie and Azuregos provided cover fire with their spells, which left some dents in the demon's chest that were pretty much ignored. After a few seconds the Inquisitor used an ability that was attached to all five of them, one that Lyra realized was supposed to drain their souls and prevent them from using one of their own abilities for some time, to which she activated her Drain Magic ability and stopped the demon in his tracks. A few moments later the Inquisitor teleported over to one of the clusters of cells and shattered the green crystals that were in front of him, releasing stone creatures that reminded Lyra of the Mogu that Trixie had mentioned she had fought in Pandaria.

She and Trixie focused their efforts on the stone Mogu, leaving Azuregos to stop the soul ability from being used, though once all of the Mogu were reduced to rubble they returned their attention to the Inquisitor and resumed their assault. Fortunately the Inquisitor repeated the same couple of attacks for the next minute before teleporting to another set of cells, releasing a group of Old God minions from their prisons, but Lyra found that there were incredibly weak from their long slumber and that she could easily defeat them. Lyra expected the demon to teleport away a third time and awaken another group of prisoners, though when he did he released what appeared to be some sort of moving corruption, one that Trixie had also fought in the past.

The Inquisitor never got around to releasing the four set of prisoners, as both Allvar and Lyra drove their blades into his body and wrecked havoc on his systems, to which he said something about this being a disappointing ending before dying in a heap... which was followed by two doors opening.

When Lyra glanced behind the group she found that one of the door led to the room that held the Beholder creature she had stunned when she and the Illidari were escaping the vault, while the door on their right, when they were facing the room she was staring at, held the large fire elemental she had frozen during the escape. She glanced over at Allvar and her friends, as she was curious as to which room they wanted to go into first considering that they likely needed to defeat both creatures before they could move onward. As it turned out Allvar approached the room that Glazer was resting in, though they had to defeat a Shivirra and her felhounds before they could actually enter the large chamber. Lyra found it amusing that the demon hadn't tried to escape yet, but she guessed that since the doors had closed it was simply waiting for the chance to leave.

"Visitors?" Glazer asked, though at the same time it chuckled as they approached, meaning that it was ready for a fight and was prepared for them, "How exciting!"

Glazer tried to bite Allvar, as he was the demon's main target at the moment, while at the same time releasing energy spheres on the ground that raced out in predetermined directions, though those directions were intentional so he could strike the rest of the group. If a sphere hit someone it separated into two smaller spheres and went off in two new directions, indicating that they needed to avoid the spheres at all costs before they were hurt in the process. After a moment or two of fighting Glazer summoned a magical barrier around him and started firing a beam of energy, coming from his eye, in one direction and moved his body to move the beam towards a target. Lyra remembered this from when she was supposed to stun this creature, to which he shouted for everyone to move to one of the mirrors that were around the platform and redirect the beam into Glazer's back.

A few seconds later, with the three mirrors turned in the direction they were supposed to be turned in, Glazer shouted out a curse, directed at the Wardens and their mirrors, before he turned his attention back to Allvar and continued his assault. Fortunately it didn't appear that Glazer had any other attacks in his arsenal, as he repeated the biting attack and his small sphere attack, but he never bothered to summon his shield again... which easily resulted in his defeat and allowing them to relax for a moment.

Lyra was honestly disappointed with Glazer, because he was supposed to be a dangerous opponent, but all she could determine was that their group was much more stronger than the demon was supposed to be and they were able to down him in such a short amount of time. The group stopped for a few moments, regaining their energy from the last three 'boss' level creatures they had encountered, before Allvar called for them to move forward, though they moved into a path on the left, before they entered the area with the elevator, and passed by a large number of cells that were frozen. A few seconds later they turned to the left once more and walked into the area that the large fire elemental, Ash'Golm, was frozen in... though once they walked down into his area he shattered the ice and started attacking them.

Ash'Golm attacked Allvar with both his feet and his fists, before raining several fireballs onto the ground that spawned heated areas that would damage whoever walked on them while also summoning several small fire elementals to the battle. Lyra charged at the smaller elementals and cut into them, where she was thankful that her weapon could actually cut into elemental enemies, though once she had dealt with them she turned her attention back to the fight, where she remembered something about this chamber. She glanced at the countermeasures and smiled to herself, to which she moved along the edge of the area they were fighting on and activated the countermeasures once more... to which Ash'Golm was encased in ice once more.

This time, however, Lyra and her companions launched a massive attack on Ash'Golm, using some of their stronger skills and techniques to inflict massive damage on their target. Lyra wasn't about to question how her fel attacks were able to pass through the ice and damage her target, or how Allvar's swings could also inflict some serious damage as well, as this strange occurrence allowed her and the others to effectively cut a large amount of Ash'Golm's help down before he shattered the ice again. After another minute or two the large fire elemental collapsed on the ground and died, to which the rest of the group cheered before they retraced their steps towards the room that Glazer was in... though from they they walked back out into the main chamber and approached the demon that was now guarding the door that would allow them to delve into the depths once more.

The Jailer demon tried to stop them in their tracks, with multiple attempts to shackle them to the ground and trap them in his cage, but they proved to be too much for him to take and they were able to kill him in no time... to which they walked into the chamber he had been guarding, climbed onto the elevator when it arrived, and lowered themselves down into the final stretch of the dungeon.

When they reached the end of where the elevator could take them they climbed off of it and watched as it rose back into the air, though once it was out of the way Allvar walked over to a small Warden owl statue and took the glowing sphere that was floating in the air, allowing him to illuminate a small area around him. Allvar then walked down the path in front of him and cut into the fel spiderwebs that were in his way, where Lyra assumed that the light from the orb did the trick before she and the others followed after their tank. Not even a few seconds later they were assaulted by a group of fel spiders, just like the ones from Mardum, but thankfully her companions were more than experienced enough to deal with them within a minute of engaging them.

They then turned around the corner and entered another area that had spider demons, as well as a Brood Queen type of demon that reminded Lyra of Tyranna, who she killed in Mardum, and some angry spirits of the Wardens that had died during the Legion's attack. It took them some time to take out the large group that attacked them, but they managed to do it and gave Maraa a few seconds to heal any of their wounds before they moved on, where they encountered two more groups of demon spiders along the way to the lowest level. When they reached the part where they needed to turn to the right, towards the door that led to the room that Lord Illidan's body had been sealed in, Lyra noticed that the path that led to where she had been imprisoned had collapsed... to which she silently hoped that all of the Illidari escaped from that area before the passage collapsed.

Of course they had to fight another group of spider demons, and two more Brood Queen level demons, before they approached the door to where Lord Illidan had been imprisoned... which opened a few seconds later, though they kept their guards up as they walked across the bridge that was in front of them. Allvar made the decision to set aside the light orb that had been floating above his head since he had picked it up, though not a few seconds later something collided with it and shattered it. Lyra glanced at the area where Lord Illidan's body had been resting and watched as a figure appeared out of the shadows, though while she recognized part of the design of her armor she knew who this person was... especially after hearing what happened on Draenor from Trixie, and the Warden that had betrayed Khadgar.

"Cordana Felsong," Lyra heard Trixie growl, indicating that she remembered the Warden's betrayal while they were on Draenor, especially since she was so easily corrupted by Gul'dan.

"Trixie Lulamoon and Lyra Heartstrings, how utterly predictable." Cordana said, fully appearing from the shadows that she had been hiding in the entire time, "I knew that the two of you, with a band of your friends, would come here. I already have the Sargerite Keystone, but I stayed here just so I could put an end to all of you... especially you, Lyra. The Legion has heard of your newfound power and want it for their own means, and I intend to give them what they want, which means you need to die."

Lyra chuckled as she walked over to the glowing orb that was on her right, because it appeared that Cordana had a death wish and it appeared that she didn't need anyone else to step in to help her fight, to which the glowing orb floated above her head as she turned towards her opponent. Lyra paused for a moment and allowed the fel energy to flare within her, to which her body morphed into her Havoc state as she slammed down on the ground in front of Cordana, where she swung her hand and blocked the attack that was coming her way. As the attack was pushed backwards she spun around and kicked Cordana in the chest, forcing her to take a step or two backwards, before her opponent charged at her once more and continued the attack.

While the two of them clashed Trixie had the others back away from the fight, as she had seen the damage Lyra had done when she mixed Fel Magic and Dark Magic, something that she knew had to be coming, so she wanted to get everyone out of the way and watch the two fight.

Cordana insisted on pulling out some smaller blades and throwing them into the area around her, where they would circle back to attack Lyra from behind, but for the most part Lyra flared her demonic wings and knocked many of the blades away from her. Cordana also insisted on calling some shadowy aspect of herself into the area so she could take the glowing orb that was above Lyra's head, but thanks to Lyra's instincts as a demon hunter she was able to sense the aspect before it could touch her and slew it in seconds. Cordana even tried to summon multiple shadowy versions of herself, one that floated in a line down one side of the platform to the other side, in an attempt to hurt her, but Lyra was smart enough to find the small gap in the line up and prevent herself from taking damage.

Lyra, on the other hand, also had some tricks of her own that she could use in this fight, such as gathering her power into her Eye Beam and blasting a part of Cordana's shoulder piece of in the process, only because she dodged before the attack could hit her chest. Her blade dance skill allowed her to cut multiple gashes into Cordana's armor while knocking her around for a few seconds, though at the same time she dropped some defensive skills to reduce the damage she could take from Cordana's attacks. When Cordana tried to disappear into the shadows Lyra activated her Spectral Sight and knocked her foe to the ground, where the corrupted Warden growled as she came at Lyra again... though at the same time Lyra could tell that her opponent was tiring already.

"I will not be stopped!" Cordana shouted, to which she swung her weapon at Lyra and missed, though at the same time she shifted her stance and continued swinging at Lyra, who continued to dodge the attacks, "I have fought too long. Suffered too much. Victory must be mine!"

Lyra took the opening that presented itself and used both of her warglaives to cut a x shaped cross into the center of Cordana's chest piece, though she then allowed her weapons to fly around the area after she threw them to the side... where she pulled her right hand back and drove it through Cordana's chest, tearing out her heart in the process.

"H... How?" Cordana asked, though at the same time Lyra could hear the sound of the corrupted Warden coughing up blood inside her helmet, though that was followed by her dropping her glaive to the ground, "You... are... NOTHING!"

"I fight to protect all the innocent worlds your foul master seeks to destroy." Lyra replied, to which she ripped her demonic hand out of Cordana's chest, where she spotted Cordana's heart in her hand, before she dropped it to the ground and caught her warglaives, "Trust me, Kil'jaeden and his dark master will be defeat at long last... and the universe will be saved from their crusade."

Cordana collapsed on the floor and went still, though as Lyra reverted back to her normal state she spotted the prize she had been searching for, the Sargerite Keystone, to which she grinned as she picked the relic off the ground and smiled at the rest of the group... because now she and the rest of the allied forces were one step closer to stopping the Legion, and their master Sargeras.