World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind

by Blackdrag-rose

Suramar: The Rift of Aln

While the raid rested from their ordeal of having to fight Cenarius, who was far stronger than some of them thought he would have been in his corrupted state, Lyra stood away from the others and stared at the portal she and her friends would be traveling through in the near future. The Rift of Aln stared back at her, reminding her that Xavius was lord of the Emerald Nightmare and that he served one of the four Old Gods that called Azeroth home, though each of them had attempted a takeover of the planet and had failed so far. N'Zoth, the last remaining Old God, hadn't revealed himself yet during the course of their invasion of the Emerald Nightmare, but that didn't mean that he wasn't there somewhere, waiting for them to mess up so he could begin his war with the Legion and the remaining heroes of Azeroth. She had no idea if Trixie was thinking the same thing that she was thinking, that this might be a trap they were walking into, but all they had to do was wait and see what happened when they engaged their opponent.

At the same time she could have sworn that she felt a familiar presence trying to get in touch with her for a few moments, a presence that reminded her of Ysera, to which she promptly ignored the feeling, because the last thing she needed was to be pissed off when she started the battle with Xavius.

When the raid was ready, and they were as prepared as they could be for the coming battle, the group gathered around the Rift of Aln and started jumping into the swirling portal, where Lyra and Trixie watched them for a few seconds before they joined them. What they discovered, however, was that their reality shifted on them almost immediately, because one second they were in the twisted Dream version of Moonglade and the next they were in a terrifying area that was dark and had some fog surrounding the area they landed in. Lyra already knew that enemies were lurking in the fog, as she could see their outlines, but at the same time she and the raid waited for everyone to show up, and make sure they were accounted for, before they did anything else. The moment they were ready Allvar charged into the fog and got the attention of one of the creatures that were lurking in the fog, where Lyra discovered that the first wave of enemies were the Faceless enemies Trixie had encountered in the past... only these three were twisted by the Nightmare and they summoned allies, twisted Nightmare globs with claws, to help them out.

The tanks gathered all of their enemies into one area before the raid focused on them, where Lyra found that while the Faceless were tougher than most of the enemies she had fought so far, save the demons of the Burning Legions, they were still susceptible to being cut apart and being hurt by the various fel attacks that she had. The Nightare globs were rather easy to take care of, as they got torn apart within a few seconds of the fight starting, though when the first Faceless fell to the ground and broke apart the ones that killed it turned towards the other two. That was rapidly followed by the remaining two Faceless joining their companion and their bodies disappeared, though at the same time Lyra knew that this was just Xavius wasting their energy in an attempt to make them even easier to take out, something that Trixie and the others agreed with.

Lyra gripped her warglaives as she prepared herself, because she was expecting a legion of corrupted enemies to come charging out at them, but she would gladly take out whatever came out of the fog and charged at them... though that was before three large creatures, made out of of the Nightmare itself, floated out and raced towards them.

As they fought these enemies, and the smaller globs that they summoned for allies, Lyra recalled that Trixie had told her about the various elemental Amalgamations she had fought over the years and knew that these could be dangerous in their own right, to which she kept her guard up as they fought their enemies. The Amalgamations clawed at whoever was in front of them and loosed small waves of Nightmare energy to deal damage to their targets, which were tactics Lyra, Trixie, and the others had to get used to before they started ripping their monstrous targets apart. Fortunately while the Amalgamations were strong they didn't actually kill anyone, once more confirming that Xavius was trying to tire them out before their fight, before the third wave of enemies, two Amalgamations and a Faceless, emerged from the fog and started the battle once more... where they were joined by an army of Nightmare globs and a few Nightmare tentacles.

Lyra growled as she, Trixie, Azuregos, and the others survived the onslaught of enemies that had been coming at them, though when the last one fell and crumpled into dust Lyra heard the sound of something larger coming and turned to face it... but she was not expecting to see a large monstrous version of Xavius walking towards them. Xavius appeared to be a giant satyr this time around, but this time he was bulkier than he had been earlier, his claws were larger, and he seemed to have a pained expression on his face, or what Lyra assumed was a pained expression.

"The Nightmare has corrupted dragons, gods, and legends," Xavius declared, telling the group that he fully believed in the power that his master had bestowed upon him and his forces, which they had crushed on their way to this location, before he prepared himself, "Your downfall will be simple and swift!"

It was in that moment that Xavius charged forward and collided with the tanks, who appeared to be his main target at the moment, but at the same time Lyra knew that he was coming for her and Trixie, as they had helped defeat part of his plans in Val'sharah and he was likely still sore over that fact. At the same time Lyra could feel the presence she had felt earlier return, meaning that if it was Ysera she was trying to help them combat the power that Xavius was using against them, meaning that the Nightmare Lord was actually trying to exhaust them to the point where they gave into the corruption in the air and joined his side, either corrupting the others or killing them while their back was turned. Even Xavius announced that Ysera's spirit was there somewhere, as he shouted that she wouldn't be allowed to aid Lyra and her friends in this battle... and it appeared that the dragon was ignoring the Nightmare Lord, if the green aura around half the group was anything to go by.

Lyra, on the other hand, found a red aura lingering around her, indicating that Xavius was purposely aiming at her and wasn't letting Ysera get to her, though at the same time Lyra transformed into her demonic state and stared hacking at Xavius the moment she landed beside him.

Lyra also found more evidence suggesting that the Nightmare Lord was trying to take her out first, because when he summoned creatures to aid him they all targeted her, where some of the heroes branched off and helped her fight them off before they could do some serious damage to her. Xavius also threw sharp Nightmare empowered blades and hurt her in the process, though while it was light she could already tell that he was going for corruption, as she was starting to see some of the hallucinations that she knew the other corrupted druids and forest creatures saw when the Nightmare was cast upon them. Since this was going to ruin the battle Lyra focused on taking out anything and everything that might empower the corruption in those that weren't being aided by Ysera, who seemed to be ignoring Lyra the entire time, as if she didn't remember the end of their battle... which caused Lyra to sigh as she focused on her work.

After some point she started seeing massive Faceless Ones standing on the edge of the fighting area, or more like the upper parts of their body, and they slammed their fists into the ground every now and then, though she and the others could only move to the edge of each area the giants were attacking to take the least amount of damage possible. After some point Xavius, apparently not in pain from all the attacks he was taking, moved towards Lyra and struck her, seeing her flying into the darkness where the hallucinations struck her as well while Xavius swung at the heroes gathering around him again. Lyra, on the other hand, growled as she picked herself up off the ground and stared at her opponent, where she called her warglaives back to her with her magic and rejoined the fight... even though she knew that Xavius was trying to eliminate her first.

Despite her best efforts she and her companions were having a hard time beating Xavius, which made sense considering who was backing him, and eventually Xavius knocked her back into the darkness... though this time around she simply laid there as pain coursed throughout her body.

Lyra Heartstrings... never have I seen you like this before. a voice said, to which Lyra weakly looked to her right and found the spiritual form of Ysera floating beside her, while at the same time she sort of heard the sound of the battle raging in front of her, You are stronger than this... fight Xavius and save the world, just like you and Trixie promised yourselves when you first discovered what was trying to destroy this world.

I'm surprised that you even have any faith in me, Lyra commented in her mind, because she found it humorous that the spirit of Ysera, if it was really her and not a hallucination brought on my the corruption, was trying to get her to fight Xavius, but he's proven that he's stronger than me...

Do not doubt your power just yet. another voice said, to which Lyra slowly turned her head to the left and spotted the spirit of Lord Illidan standing over her, while at the same time draping a wing over her fallen form, I know that you are much stronger than this, if what you did to save Val'sharah is any indication. Stand up, Lyra Heartstrings, and call upon the power that you used to destroy several demons and stop the destruction of Elune's temple.

Lyra, not really sure whether or not she was actually talking with her mentor, groaned as she picked herself off the ground and faced where Xavius was standing, though this time around she left her warglaives behind as she focused on what she was about to do. She knew that Xavius had beaten her body, to prevent her from using her combination attack against him since it utterly ruined Ysera in their fight, but at the same time it appeared that she was going to have to risk even further damage this time around. She groaned as both the fel energy and the dark energy inside her woke up once more, though this time she was going to take this one step further and had her horn light up, as she intended to add her arcane energy to the mix. Trixie, the only person that could feel her usage of this technique, noticed what was she was doing and started calling people to abandon the fight, where several raid members pulled away so they didn't get caught in what she was about to do... where she also noticed that Ysera had thrown up a barrier to prevent the others from taking serious damage when this was over.

"In my right hand, I hold the power of the Legion's Fel energy," Lyra commented, to which she held her right hand to the side and a sphere of pure Fel energy appeared above her palm, while at the same time she pushed herself to stand despite what was happening, before extending her left hand out and a sphere of darkness appeared as well, "while in my left hand I hold the power of King Sombra's Dark Magic... and together they are merged together by my own magical energies, to spell your demise."

Xavius turned towards Lyra as the rest of her allies retreated to the barrier Ysera had created, though at the same time Lyra brought her hands together in front of her and combined the energies into a single sphere, where the ground shook in response to the energy she was generating. Lyra let the energy expand into a larger mass in front of her until a large sphere formed in front of her, while at the same time noticing that Xavius had called the Nightmare energy to be a barrier around him for when the attack came at him. She struggled to keep herself standing for a few more seconds before loosing the destructive sphere through the air, where it raced towards where Xavius was standing and collided with his barrier... though Lyra grinned as her attack consumed Xavius and his barrier, to which she lifted her hands into the air and sent her opponent heading towards the ceiling.

Moments later, when she felt the barrier shatter under the intensity of her attack, Lyra let the energy go and it detonated with enough force to rock the entire area around them... though Lyra remained standing long enough to see that Xaviux had been completely erased by the attack, before she collapsed on the ground and let the exhaustion claim her once more.

Comments

[Ze1a7in]

"In my right hand, I hold the power of the Legion's Fel energy," Lyra commented, to which she held her right hand to the side and a sphere of pure Fel energy appeared above her palm, while at the same time she pushed herself to stand despite what was happening, before extending her left hand out and a sphere of darkness appeared as well, "while in my left hand I hold the power of King Sombra's Dark Magic... and together they are merged together by my own magical energies, to spell your demise."

Xavius turned towards Lyra as the rest of her allies retreated to the barrier Ysera had created, though at the same time Lyra brought her hands together in front of her and combined the energies into a single sphere, where the ground shook in response to the energy she was generating. Lyra let the energy expand into a larger mass in front of her until a large sphere formed in front of her, while at the same time noticing that Xavius had called the Nightmare energy to be a barrier around him for when the attack came at him. She struggled to keep herself standing for a few more seconds before loosing the destructive sphere through the air, where it raced towards where Xavius was standing and collided with his barrier... though Lyra grinned as her attack consumed Xavius and his barrier, to which she lifted her hands into the air and sent her opponent heading towards the ceiling.

Moments later, when she felt the barrier shatter under the intensity of her attack, Lyra let the energy go and it detonated with enough force to rock the entire area around them... though Lyra remained standing long enough to see that Xaviux had been completely erased by the attack, before she collapsed on the ground and let the exhaustion claim her once more.

0_o I think it's safe to say that Lyra is at least on the level of Twilight when she fought Tirek in the show. DAMN!

[Blackdrag-rose]

8738598 I was actually inspired by one of the matches in the Tournament of Power, which was where that scene came from.

[CaraM]

Always been a huge fan of the Warcraft universe. I can't wait to dive into this ^_^