World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind

by Blackdrag-rose

Suramar: Attacking the Royal Athenaum

Lyra, Trixie, and the other heroes remained in their chosen resting area for a few minutes, making sure that all of their wounds were taken care of and that they were full of energy before they gathered their gear and walked up the stairs that were behind them. At the same time Thalyssra, Khadgar, and the guards that had been following them caught up with the group as they moved forward, though Lyra took the opportunity to ask who they should be going after next, especially since Elisande had to have several powerful guardians watching over her. Thalyssra explained that the heroes should focus their efforts on three key targets at the moment, as their defeat would partly open the way to their target and rob Elisande of aid at the same time. The three Nightborne she named were Spellblade Aluriel, Star Augur Etraeus, and High Botanist Tel'arn, while also mentioning that in order to find the second and third target they would have to head into the building on the left, after defeating Aluriel.

The only downside to the information they were given was that Thalyssra couldn't actually tell them the abilities of their foes, as they might have changed since the last time she had seen them fight, but the heroes simply said that they would make due with the knowledge she could give them... even if all she could really offer them were the names of their targets.

When the group arrived at the top of the stairs, and entered a circular room that had the exit they were searching for, Allvar and the other tanks moved forward and engaged the group of withered that happened to be standing between them and their first destination. The fight progressed like the one at the very beginning of their invasion, where they dodged the incoming attacks and dealt powerful blows against their foes, until one of the withered ran to the group at the bottom of the stairs and came back with some reinforcements. The best part about that fact, in Lyra's eyes anyway, was that she and the other heroes didn't have to waste time calling the other group of withered over to them, as this allowed them to focus on tearing down two groups of foes instead of focusing on one group and turning their attention to another one that showed up out of nowhere.

Even with the addition of the second group of foes, who fought on the level as the first group, the withered didn't stand much of a chance and ultimately fell to the floor, allowing the heroes to advance up the stairs that they had been guarding and open the metallic gate that separated them from the outside world. Fortunately the gate wasn't locked, or they had already broken the seal that had been placed on it, as the tanks lowered the gate and they started pouring out onto the walkway in front of them. The civilians that were nearby, however, took one good look at them and ran in the opposite direction, calling for the guards to save them as they ran for cover, effectively clearing the entire area that they would be walking through of innocent bystanders... and allowing them to focus solely on the Nightborne guards that were standing in their way.

The Duskwatch, which was the official name for the guards that were blocking the way, appeared to be solely warriors at a glance, but at the same time Trixie and Lyra warned their friends not to lower their guard, because the mages of the Nightborne were powerful and usually traveled in packs with their warrior comrades. Sure enough when the battle with the first group of guards started both of the Equestrians noticed that the enemy mages were sticking to the back of their group, to which Trixie and her fellow ranged attacks focused on them while the warriors and tanks focused on the enemy warriors. Lyra, of course, fought alongside the melee attackers and used her knowledge of how the Nightborne attacked to her advantage, allowing her to parry attacks and deal good damage to her foes before they hit the ground, allowing her to focus on someone else... or wait until the group reached the next group of enemies, since the others had finished their foes off in a timely manner as well.

As the first group of the Duskwatch fell the next moved forward to stop them in their tracks, while at the same time the heroes took a few steps forward so they wouldn't be fighting on the corpses of those they had recently slain, as it would have been disrespectful towards their enemies. Lyra was fine with doing that, as long as she was fighting on the corpses of the dead demons that she had slain, but she followed what the rest of her group did and made sure that she didn't step on the Nightborne that she and the others defeated. The larger area ahead of them provided some challenge, as the multiple groups of the Duskwatch were ready for them and attacked the moment the heroes defeated the second group, forcing them to fight throughout the area that was all around them. This time around some of their enemies scored lucky hits and hurt some of them, where one even managed to cut a gash into Lyra's right arm, which she repaid by removing the limb that held the weapon in question before killing her target... where one of the healers mended her wound and allowed her to jump back into the battle without delay.

The battle took some time for them to resolve, as the Duskwatch had come prepared for an invasion like this and wouldn't go down easily, but as the minutes ticked by the heroes brought them low one at a time, removing foe after foe until only they remained, giving the healers a chance to relax as they caught up with all the wounds that needed tending to and restocking their mana for the coming fights. Lyra, on the other hand, found it to be a shame that the Nightborne had sided with the Legion, as they would have been valuable allies against Sargeras and his allies, but even if they liberated Suramar City they wouldn't be expecting too much aid from Thalyssra, not with how many of her kind had been lost since Elisande signed her pact with Gul'dan. About the only thing that Lyra expected that she and the other heroes would get out of liberating the city, besides stopping Gul'dan's plans, was the Eye of Amun'thul, the final Pillar of Creation... and Lord Illidan's body, in case whatever ritual Khadgar had in mind failed to work as he believed it would.

Lyra knew that the safest place for her mentor's body was the Fel Hammer, where the Illidari would watch over it until they devised a way to bring their master back from the dead... but at the same time she simply sighed as she focused on what she and the others were going to do next.

Once a temporary safe haven for Thalyssra, Khadgar, and their guards had been established, and the dead moved into a pile to block the other path that they hadn't come from, the heroes walked up the stairs in front of them and engaged another group of the Duskwatch, who happened to be waiting for them up there. As they fought the new group Lyra noticed two things about the open courtyard area they would be fighting in next; the first being that their first target, Spellblade Aluriel, was patrolling the grounds while waiting for them to come and fight her, while the other was the number of Nightborne guards that she and the others would have to fight through before they fought their first target. All she knew was that she and the others would have to make sure that they fought all of the Duskwatch groups somewhere safe, where they wouldn't have to worry about pulling Aluriel towards them.

The third thing that Lyra noticed, after observing their target for a few more moments, was that she was slightly taller than every other Nightborne they had fought so far, meaning that something was empowering her and made her body even larger than the others... to which she and the others focused on a plan for the area that they would have to fight Aluriel in, before they could hunt down their next target.

The plan was simple, they would engage a group of enemies and take them out, allowing them to move the corpse back down to the lower level and get them out of the way, before they returned and fought the next group of foes that were blocking the way... where they would go around the entirety of the courtyard and remove all the potential allies that Aluriel might call upon when they started fighting her. The only downside to this plan was that it took them some time to defeat each group and move their corpses to the level below them, where Thalyssra and Khadgar shook their heads at the number of the dead that kept increasing, before they had the open area all to themselves and their target. The moment they were all ready for battle, and were fully healed, Allvar and the tanks struck Aluriel at the same time, though as she started to fight back everyone else rushed in to topple their first target.

"Entire armies have fallen by my sword." Aluriel commented, to which she swung the weapon in question and knocked several people backwards, before getting serious and focused her attention on the tanks, "What chance could you possibly have against me?"

As the battle started Aluriel loosed a series of attacks against her main target, Allvar, as if she was trying to show him who the superior fighter was right off the bat, but at the same time Trixie noticed that there was an ice enchantment on their opponent's weapon, meaning that if she cut them, even a little bit, they would start to slow down until she killed them. While Aluriel attacked them she also cast a spell on some of the ranged fighters, branding them with a mark that appeared to be made out of frost, causing the marked heroes to disperse and walk away from the group before they ended up hurting their friends. Lyra quickly understood why that was, because the marks emitted a force of ice that harmed those that were standing near them, which was the reason behind why they were separating themselves from the rest of the group... which also worked in their favor when Aluriel finally detonated the marks, as the explosions of frost only harmed those that had been marked, thus allowing them to return to the group and heal up without fear of actually hurting anyone.

Lyra had to admit that their current foe was both strong and smart, as Aluriel actually managed to cut her as well before kicking her backwards as she focused on Allvar and the other tanks, to which Lyra simply chuckled as the holy magic of a priest washed over her arm and healed her wound before she jumped back into the battle. Aluriel also used her powers to create pools of frost that several icy voidwalkers emerged from, causing the damage deals to focus on them and cull them before they inflicted heavy damage to the group.

After a few minutes of fighting the enchantment on Aluriel's blade and shield changed all of a sudden, as it shifted from an icy enchantment and transformed into a fiery enchantment, which was when she marked several people at random with a fire mark and summoned pools of fire at the same time. Those that were marked had to separate from the group and, instead of focusing on their true enemy, they had to turn their attention to the fiery voidwalkers that had joined the fight, to avoid making the rest of the group take any damage from their foes. Aluriel also repeated her heavy set of attacks on her target, switching between Allvar and Monoskah every time she used the attack to keep them guessing, in order to take one of them out so she could cause havoc on the other heroes. Eventually she reached the point where she detonated the marks and inflicted fire damage onto those that had been chosen to wear them, before she focused on the enemies that surrounded her... giving the heroes time to heal their wounds before getting serious about the fight again.

Sure enough, like clockwork, Aluriel eventually switched from the fire enchantment she was using and took up the arcane element this time around, which was followed by her marking several different foes this time around while also summoning new arcane voidwalkers to battle the heroes. One thing that Lyra wasn't expecting to happen, since Aluriel had proven that she was a combination of a mage and a warrior, was her sudden usage of Fel abilities that would have weakened their chances of beating her. Instead of letting their foe use this power against them Lyra put aside her weapons on her back and raised her hands until they were level with Aluriel, which was followed by her using the Fel energy inside her to latch onto Aluriel's Fel energy... before tearing all of it out of the Nightborne, weakening her target for a few seconds and allowing the tanks to deal the blow they needed to topple Aluriel to the ground.

Since there was nowhere to actually put the Fel energy, save her warglaives, Lyra simply took the Fel energy into herself and added it to her reserves, increasing the demonic energy inside herself, just like Lord Illidan had done over the years to increase his own power... but at the same time she knew that moderation was needed, otherwise she would end up like the monsters she was trying to stop.

"Lyra, are you sure that you should be doing that?" Trixie asked, though at the same time the other heroes were relaxing a little while the healers tended to the wounded, so that way they could be prepared for the next target and the Nightborne that were guarding him.

"It's better that I claim her Fel energy than letting an enemy come and take it," Lyra replied, though she understood why Trixie was concerned, because she could have perished in the battle against Xavius, but she had come out of that encounter even stronger, "besides, it helps me prepare for the eventual battle with Gul'dan."

Trixie nodded her head for a moment, as while she understood that Lyra had a bone to pick with Gul'dan, for stealing her master's body from the Vault of the Wardens, she still didn't understand why she was trying to be like Illidan, especially with the power that was coursing through her veins at the moment. Trixie knew that she and Lyra had already reached the limits of their power, as they now stood on the level that Twilight had been on when she fought Tirek, but it almost sounded like Lyra wanted more, as if she was preparing herself for a battle with Sargeras himself. She knew that they and the other heroes could overcome the Nighthold and the Tomb of Sargeras, saving Azeroth in the process, but taking on the Titan that had killed the Pantheon so many years ago... that was a battle that none of them were prepared for, especially because Sargeras was supposed to be the strongest Titan of them all.

In the end, however, Trixie simply sighed as she tapped her talons against the stones that she and the others were standing on, as it wasn't worth trying to tell Lyra that she was planning for something that would never happen... while at the same time knowing that they would be moving soon enough.

Once everyone was ready the heroes moved into the building that Thalyssra had told them about, the one that was on the left of the main entrance for this courtyard, where they found more of the Duskwatch standing guard for the next target they needed to take out. Trixie noted that these particular enemies used abilities that appeared to be related to stars, meaning that the building was dedicated to astronomy and that their next foe likely studied the stars, since his title was Star Augur. She quickly advised the tanks to take it nice and easy, so that way they didn't fight too many enemies that had the same power, just in case they had the ability to unleash devastating attacks when three or more of the same enemy type were together, something that the tanks agreed with. Another thing they did was clear out the entire entrance area of the astronomy building, liberating it from their enemies and opening the way for them to cross over to where the High Botanist was waiting for them... but instead of doing that they continued their search of the building as they looked for Etraeus.

The heroes marched up the stairs that were next to the main path they had been following, turned to the left and followed the path that Allvar had chosen, and arrived in a dome shaped room with a single person standing in the middle, though his fine clothing revealed that he was none other than Star Augur Etraeus... to which the tanks waited for everyone to gather inside the room before they engaged their foe, while at the same time sealing the door and preventing them from leaving the chamber.

"If only you knew what lay beyond..." Etraeus said, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear him speak, though at the same time he summoned magic into his hands and started throwing bolts of star energy at whoever he decided to pick at random.

As the fight started, however, both Lyra and Trixie noticed something wrong right off the bat, as Etraeus wasn't doing anything other than throwing star energy at his targets, though while the energy hurt a tiny bit it wasn't enough to actually make anyone surrender or give them serious injuries. As they attacked their opponent, with the full might of the heroes from the Alliance and the Horde, they both knew that something had to be coming up in the next couple of seconds, otherwise this fight would be over in a matter of minutes. Not even a few seconds after that thought crossed their minds, and the minds of the other heroes, Etraeus returned to the middle of the room and started gathering his power, forming a spell that was unlike anything Trixie had seen throughout her journeys so far.

"Such insolence... very well, I shall show you!" Etraeus said, to which he cast his spell and the walls of the domed room pulled away from where they were standing, leaving the heroes in what would have been an empty void, save for the fact that they noticed a planet appear in front of the circular floor they were standing on, a planet that seemed to be frozen over, "See for yourself the cruel, frozen void that lies beyond the margin of Azeroth's skies! The stars have judged you, and found you wanting."

When Etraeus started fighting again both Trixie and Lyra noticed that his magic took on the freezing properties of the planet in the background, as if he was calling upon the power of the frozen planet to aid him in his battle, which meant that they needed to watch out for any tricks he might have up his sleeve. Etraeus had the same type of attack that Aluriel had used against them, targeting a select number of their group with explosive elemental attacks that caused them to run to the outskirts of the large platform they were now standing on, while at the same time targeting one of the tanks with a gravity version of that attack. That meant that the tank that was targeted would have to run away and remain separated from the fight until the attack wore off, which meant suffering through several pieces of debris hitting them before they were allowed to rejoin the fight.

Eventually it appeared that they were doing enough damage for Etraeus to use the spell again, so they could return to the domed environment, except when he cast the spell the walls returned for a brief moment before disappearing again... only for Lyra to gasp as Argus, the Legion's homeworld, appeared where the frozen planet had been located.

"The Burning Legion. Slayers of whole worlds." Etraeus stated, though this time around the fighting literally stopped as everyone took in the ruined planet that he had called upon for them to see, while noticing that only one of them seemed to fully understand what they were looking at, "Could we hope to resist? Can you?!"

"Yes we can!" Lyra replied, though this time she raised her hands and latched her Fel energy onto Etraeus' own Fel energy, because the only way for him to call Argus, Sargeras' base of operations that he kept carefully hidden, to this battle in such a manner was if he had taken some demonic energy into himself as well, likely a 'gift' from Gul'dan, "Azeroth will not become the next Argus, even if you show us our enemy's home and try to make us question our mission."

The instant the last word left her mouth Lyra pulled back hard on her energy and ripped the Fel energy out of Etraeus, which not only caused the image of Argus to fade and the original room to return, but it also allowed the tanks to deal some impressive damage... before Etraeus changed the scene once more, calling in a planet that looked like it was being devoured by a great evil.

"Is that not enough? Must I show you the true horror of our reality?" Etraeus exclaimed, though at the same time Lyra could tell that he was slightly scared, because he had never encountered someone that could rip the Fel energy out of another like she could, before he pointed at the planet he had summoned, "Very well... witness what I have seen and TREMBLE! Avatars of non-existence... knowing nothing but hunger. These are the beings who will devour the future you so futilely fight to protect!"

This time around Etraeus attacked them with powers belonging to the Void, something that was on the level of the Burning Legion, and had minions of the Old Gods attack them, which was mostly a single Faceless One that they had to look away from every now and then to prevent themselves from going mad. From what Lyra could tell her taking of Etraeus' Fel energy severely weakened him, just like what happened with Aluriel, which made her chuckle for a few seconds as she and the other heroes focused on taking out their enemies... until the domed room returned at last as their foe and his minions laid dead at their feet.

"Lyra... that planet..." Maraa stared to ask, where Lyra noticed that the other draenei were looking over at her as well, indicating that they were all curious as to what she had said when the second planet showed up, "W... was that..."

"Yes... that was Argus," Lyra replied, knowing exactly what Maraa was trying to ask her, as she was the only person, in both the Alliance and the Horde, that had actually seen the Legion's homeworld, even if it had been in a vision, before she looked into Maraa's eyes, "I'm sorry for what Sargeras has done to your world, I truly am, but he plans on cleaving all of Azeroth in half if we don't stop Gul'dan and Kil'jaeden from completing their terrible plans."

As the heroes started moving down the stairs, and headed towards the door that would take them to the High Botanist, Trixie recalled that Mardum, the former prison planet that the Illidari now commanded thanks to their conquest seven years ago, had once been an actual planet before it had been shattered. She had assumed that Sargeras did that to all of the planets he conquered, shattered them into fragments and used those fragments for his various bases, but now it appeared that Argus hadn't suffered that fate. Instead Argus appeared to be in the process of being ripped apart by the Fel energy that was pulsing from it's core, while at the same time making it the perfect base of operations for the Legion until it finally exploded. Just seeing the state of the planet filled her with dread for a moment, considering what Lyra had told her and Khadgar earlier, but then she found the determination to continue their mission and prevent that from happening to this world... and possibly Equus as well.

When the heroes walked out onto the bridge that connected the astronomy building to the garden area of the Nighthold, and told Lyra they had no idea why this place had such a location, they engaged the first group of opponents that were standing in their way. This time around the heroes fought one group of enemies and made sure they were down for the count before they moved onto the next one, as it appeared that some of their current enemies wanted to fear someone into the next group in order to kill them all. Fortunately the group was much smarter than that and pulled each group of enemies away from the others, allowing them to take their foes out without having to worry about pulling any unnecessary obstacles along for the ride. The only downside was that minutes were ticking away while they took their time, which was bad since they had no idea what Gul'dan was doing, but it allowed them to properly clear the way to High Botanist Tel'arn... who was tending to his garden when they arrived.

The weirdest thing about Tel'arn, in Lyra's eyes anyway, was that he appeared to be a combination of Nightborne and plant life, meaning that he must have used the Nightwell to achieve this state... and making her wonder if any of the other targets they would have to fight had done the same thing.

"It seems I've a bit of pruning to do!" Tel'arn shouted the instant he noticed that they had invaded his portion of the Nighthold, causing the heroes to attack him as he entered the circular area that they had been standing in.

As the battle started Tel'arn upon the power of the sun itself, or so he claimed, and some of the heroes had to move out of an area to avoid being hit by three bursts of power, starting at the highest power and decreasing until the last one hit the ground, before resuming their attacks. At the same time Tel'arn summoned flower like enemies that targeted a specific individual, to which some of the other heroes struck the creatures down in rapid succession before turning back towards their opponent. He even had an arcane type attack that was definitely an explosive, though whoever he targeted avoided the attack before it could reach them and let it explode where they had been standing before they resumed the fight, but Lyra and Trixie noticed that Tel'arn didn't seem phased by not being able to hit his opponents at all. That fact told them that they had to be careful, because there was no telling what sort of tricks their opponent had up his sleeve, especially after what they had been through earlier.

The trick this time around was when Tel'arn took a certain amount of damage and seemed to lose the ability to use one of his attacks, though that was before he separated into two different Tel'arns, one that was golden colored and used solar type magic while the other was green and used nature based magic.

Botanist Tel'arn seemed to follow the same pattern as before, without the solar ring attack he used earlier, while the Solarist Tel'arn had that ability and a few others, such as summoning three large balls of fire that set the area around them on fire, without touching the 'precious garden' in the process. Trixie, having seen a tactic like this in the past, quickly destroyed the three spheres with some help from the other heroes, before they turned their attention back to the Solarist, letting Lyra and the majority of the others fight the Botanist. From what Lyra discovered it appeared that the Botanist and the Solarist shared health, as that made sense considering that they had been the same person a few moments ago, before she and her team dealt a substantial amount of damage to the Botanist... enough so that he separated into two more entities, a Naturalist and an Arcanist.

The Arcanist followed the same attack pattern as the Naturalist and the Solarist, only his attacks were arcane based instead of solar or nature based, meaning that no one had to chance their attacks or do anything different as a third tank focused on the newest addition... until they dealt enough damage to force Tel'arn back into a single body, where he collapsed on the ground in a heap of his own blood. With the third and final target taken care of, for the moment since Thalyssra likely had another list waiting for them, Lyra, Trixie, and the others headed back to the main courtyard they had found Aluriel in. There they planned on resting for a few moments before they took out the next set of enemies that were on their list, before heading up into the spire and taking out Elisande... and then do the same thing with Gul'dan.

Lyra knew that something interesting was going to happen when they reached Gul'dan, though what that something was she had no idea... but she cared more about killing the vile orc warlock before he did anything else that helped the Legion complete their foul plans.