World of Warcraft: Burning Skies

by Blackdrag-rose

Suramar: Strong Wills

Thalyssra and the others were relieved to find that there was a breach in the Sanctum of Order, despite the fact that their enemies had placed a seal on it, and agreed with Valtrois' plan, to spend some time studying the magic involved before they broke it and opened the way to the Nighthold, to which the leaders posted some guards over this area, to watch over their frozen army and make sure no demons or Felborne came to kill them while they were trapped in such a state, and then used the new portal that Oculeth had set up earlier and returned to Shal'Aran. Once everyone was back in their base they started to go over ideas and plans on what they could do next, since there was no telling if Gul'dan would force Elisande to use her 'Time Lock' spell, as that was the name Khadgar came up with for what had happened to their army, on another part of the city, to stall them and make what remained of their army back off for a time, though it was still a surprise to see that the Grand Magistrix had access to that much power, even if she had to be drawing on the Nightwell to do so. It was easy to see that everyone was happy that Elisande was still trying to fight the orc warlock, even though he was punishing her and was using the city against her, which seemed to be her weakness based on what Spitfire could tell, though while they took the time to discuss what in the world they were going to do next, since the Time Lock spell had stopped them in their tracks, she decided to ask the question that had been on her mind since the attack on the Nighthold's main gate, as she was curious as to what Elisande had mouthed towards them. Thalyssra informed her that the Grand Magistrix silently informed her that 'the heart rested in the depths', where she had to assume that it meant whatever was powering her Time Lock spell had to be located in the lowest part of the Nighthold, where most didn't wander or explore since there was no reason to do so, or at least not these days, meaning to free their armies they would have to break whatever the 'heart' was, and to do that she wanted to be sure Valtrois was ready before making a move on the seal.

While they were discussing what they needed to do next, to bring down the remainder of his Felborne and demons, they had a guest appear in Shal'Aran, a female gnome who was dressed up in a white robe with black and gold markings on it, with white hair that was done up in buns on the sides of her head, though Khadgar introduced her as Chronormu, one of the Bronze Dragons who called Azeroth home, though she preferred the name 'Chromie' for some reason, though Spitfire was right in assuming that she was interested in Elisande's spell, which gave them a new ally who might be able to help them free their forces. In addition to that Spitfire asked Chromie about finding a way back to Draenor, since Grommash and Yrel had promised to come and aid the forces of Azeroth if they ever needed some assistance, like fighting the Legion for example, and she felt that it might be worth heading to that alternate world to recruit some additional soldiers for the assault on the Broken Shore, as she was sure that the Legion would have plenty of demons to fight and many from that world would likely come for the chance to get some revenge on Gul'dan's foul masters. She knew that some might see her question as a lack of faith in both the Alliance and the Horde, when in reality she had a lot of faith in the two factions and knew that they could defeat the Legion if it came to it, and it likely would reach that point at some point in the near future, but Tyrande, Khadgar, and Lady Liadrin, at the very least, could see that having some additional reinforcements would be great in the grand scheme of things, especially since they had no idea what was going to happen once Gul'dan was dead at long last. Chromie had to admit that since the fall of Deathwing, an event that caused the remaining Aspects to sacrifice a great portion of their power to bring him down, left all of the dragons in a weakened state and that to do what Spitfire was thinking about would require the use of nearly every member of her dragonflight, to link Azeroth to the point in time of Draenor's history that Spitfire was talking about, but, at the same time, had the feeling that if they had access to Elisande's power they might be able to do that and so much more, giving them another reason to take Gul'dan down and free the Grand Magistrix from what was happening to her.

Rainbow, on the other hand, discovered that nothing else happened over the course of the day and that meant Gul'dan likely assumed that any surviving members of the rebellion might have fled for the time being, even if some soldiers had been left behind to watch over the bridge and all of their frozen forces, so eventually they went to bed and in the morning she found that more Arcfruit had grown on the Arcan'dor, to which she picked the five fruit and offered them to the elves who needed it the most, while Vanthir tended to the others with his Arcwine stash. Valtrois spent the day studying what they had found over in the Ley Station and researching what needed to be done next, even though Thalyssra happened to be doing the same thing with their allies, those who remained inside the city to keep an eye on their enemies anyway, and so far it looked like it was going to be a peaceful day for them, which only made them wonder what in the world Gul'dan was doing in the Nighthold, to Elisande and those he had captured. Rainbow suspected that things would change at some point in time, since a peaceful day seemed weird after everything that happened yesterday, hence why she turned to just scouting out the city and attacking any Felborne or demons who might be searching the city for citizens to capture, all to feed Gul'dan's power, and sure enough she found several opponents to cut down and captured their souls, but she knew there were no random citizens inside the city since all of them had fled to Shal'Aran, something they weren't about to tell their enemies so they could chip into Gul'dan's forces. While she patrolled Suramar by flying through the air, to see if there were any enemies or events that Thalyssra needed to know about, Rainbow did spot a Pit Lord walking out of Felsoul Hold at one point and it seemed to be marching up towards Meredil, to which she dropped out of the air and smashed into her target's head, using her tail to crush the demon into the ground before it had a chance to fight back, before backing away to allow it to stand up and swing its glaive at her, where she dodged the attacks that were coming her way and lashed out at the demon that was in front of her, delivering cuts to her foe's body as it failed to touch her, even though it ended with her emerging victorious over the Pit Lord and added its soul and power to her collections.

It was the second day after the failed attack on the main gate of the Nighthold when things changed, as Rainbow was busy handing out all of the Arcfruit that had grown overnight, just like she did in the past, though everyone stopped for a time as a scout, who had been tasked with watching over the city and making sure the demons didn't try anything, returned to Shal'Aran and handed Thalyssra a crystal, one that he claimed to have found near the area that Vanthir had been trapped in, where she called Rainbow and the others over for a moment as she tapped into the message it held, revealing one of the Felborne to them, with a smug look on her face.

"Poor foolish Thalyssra, you try so hard to save your people... yet you cut them off from the one thing that can save them from their fate," the Felborne, who had to be Andaris Narassin, said, her tone revealing that she believed Thalyssra wasn't as smart or as cunning as she claimed to be, especially since the elf believed that she was dooming her people to starve as they left the 'safety' of the city, even though it confirmed that Gul'dan had no idea that the Arcan'dor existed, otherwise all of them were sure that he would have tried to attack Shal'Aran to destroy the tree, "and I fear that Ly'leth will pay the price for your arrogance, in defying Gul'dan and his masters... just like Elisande will continue to be punished until she learns her place. Allow me to teach you a lesson: send the best of your rebellion to face me, outside Ly'leth's estate, and I will show you that defying the Legion was the biggest mistake you could have made... though you should do it quickly, before I pull more of Ly'leth's servants to the side for... questioning."

"Oh Andaris, she has no idea what she's getting into," Thalyssra commented, to which she switched off the message that was contained inside the crystal, as there was no reason for them to be worried by most of the information that had been inside it, due to the fact that they knew about Gul'dan punishing everyone that was in his way or tried to resist the power of the Legion, before she turned and glanced at Rainbow for a moment, who understood what she was thinking without having to be told anything, hence why she focused on the others for a moment, "Rainbow will head to the estate and take care of Gul'dan's arrogant 'First Arcanist', though while she does that I'll send a few soldiers in after her, to free those who might be imprisoned in the estate, since I'm sure Andaris will have a few prisoners with her."

Rainbow nodded and headed through the portal that would bring her to Ly'leth's estate, where she expected the Felborne that was challenging them to battle to be somewhere nearby, since the portals inside the city weren't all that well hidden and only had a magical spell to prevent enemies from using them, but when she appeared in the area she had met Ly'leth in for the first time, and took in her surroundings, she found a number of Withered chained all over the estate, though the question was why such a thing was even happening, before she found that Andaris had placed an image of herself in this area, plus one of Ly'leth, while a Felborne stood nearby.

"Are you scared, Andaris?" Rainbow asked, though at the same time she glared at the Felborne that was standing nearby and caused it to stand there for a time, instead of rushing at her to fight her, while focusing on the fact that Andaris was a coward and didn't want to come here to face her, even though this had been a challenge from her, but even if the corrupt elf had created a trap for Thalyssra and the strongest fighter of the rebellion, which they weren't falling for since she knew the leader of the rebellion was waiting in Shal'Aran, watching events in the estate unfold, "There must have been some slim pickings among the Felborne if Gul'dan picked out a coward like you as his 'First Arcanist', not that such a thing really matters to me since I'll be killing you at some point."

"Is this the best that Thalyssra could do? An outsider?" Andaris inquired, apparently choosing to ignore Rainbow's words and ask her own statement in return, while at the same time she chuckled for a few seconds, as if she believed that there was nothing Rainbow could do to overcome whatever her foe had set up in this area, something that caused her to nod to the Felborne that was standing nearby and caused the figured to raise a hand as she cast a spell into the area they were standing in, where Rainbow watched as Fel spikes burst out of the ground, in the middle of the couple of Withered groups that had been prepared ahead of time, impaling one and burning all of the others in the process, "We will crush you with ease, just like how we easily crushed these pitiful Withered... I have left a crystal containing my true location, for when you work up the nerve to come and face my power."

Rainbow frowned as she watched that happen and flashed over to the Felborne that was standing nearby, before they had a chance to flee the area, removing her head from her body and dropping it to the ground as the images of Andaris and Ly'leth disappeared, allowing her to collect the crystal in question before heading out into the estate, aiding the forces that had been sent to aid those who had been captured or were being terrorized by the Felborne, though once every foe was taken out, and she was sure of that, she headed through the portal and returned to Shal'Aran without wasting time, as she wanted to see what the others had to say about the situation.

"It is a good thing we didn't consider sending any of the Withered with you, since they would have been taken out before they had a chance to fight back," Thalyssra commented, as part of her plan after being exiled from the city had been a tad bit weird, using the stone her friend had created to calm and train a number of the Withered into a fighting force that she felt could take down those that stood in their way, but after discovering that she had a full army, a combination of her own citizens mixed with the forces of Azeroth, such a plan had been set aside, even though she did spend a great deal of time trying to work with a few of the Withered that Rainbow and Spitfire had brought to Shal'Aran, "however, we might be able to use this to our advantage, as there are plenty of Withered who possess a deed hatred for Andaris and the Felborne, or the elves who became twisted by the Legion's dark power, and we might be able to ask them to aid us in taking down our enemies... such as draining several of the Fel crystals that rest throughout Felsoul Hold, which should grant them some sort of resistance to the Legion's Fel energy."

"Are you hoping that a new source of power might bring them back from the brink of madness?" Spitfire asked, as while it looked like Thalyssra was willing to kill off the Withered, to bring peace to Suramar once the Legion had been pushed out, she knew that the elf had to be thinking about ways to overcome the final stage of a Nightborne's former life, if they were cut off from the Nightwell for an extended period of time, and while using the Fel might not be the best idea to do such a thing, given how it corrupted almost everything it came into contact with, it might destroy their hunger for Arcwine and Ancient Mana, allowing those elves to bring themselves back, or at least that seemed to be what Thalyssra was suggesting that they do.

"I am, since I'm not sure the Arcfruit will work on the Withered... it might seem odd to try something like this, but if we can save the Withered it is worth trying," Thalyssra replied, revealing that Spitfire had hit the nail on the head, that part of the reason she was even considering this was to try and bring the Withered back from the terrible madness they were dealing with, as they had seen when she looked into Theryn's memories earlier, while also crippling anything and everything they could get their hands on in Felsoul Hold, an area Rainbow would be glad to tackle at long last, before she focused on her plan and what Rainbow needed to know before she left Shal'Aran, "regardless of how things go with the Withered, I think you should also destroy the Soul Engine that our enemies set up inside Felsoul Hold, as it will help cripple Gul'dan's plans and show the remaining Felborne that we aren't backing down."

Rainbow nodded and headed over to the portal section of Shal'Aran, as Oculeth had given one of the others a beacon and the hero in question had placed it inside Felsoul Hold, in case they needed to attack the place Gul'dan's forces were trying to maintain, so it allowed her to travel over to her destination and stepped out into a ruined underground tunnel area that looked like it was part of Suramar City, and it likely was, before walking out and found that a trio of Withered appeared in the area around her, teleported over to her by Thalyssra no doubt. Instead of worrying about it she glanced around the part of Felsoul Hold that she was in, the lower half to be exact, and found that there were a number of Fel crystals resting near her location, hence why Rainbow headed over to the closest ones and gestured for the Withered to feed on the Fel energy that rested inside the gems, where the hungry Withered channeled their powers and latched onto the crystal that she had focused on, showing a bit of the scattered intelligence Thalyssra had been working on in her spare time, but they weren't left alone as several Eredar and Felguard started to converge on their location. Rainbow focused on killing them as the Withered continued to devour every single drop of Fel energy that rested inside the crystals, where she cut down her foes and sucked their souls into her Warblades, with their power being added to her own, even though it looked like there were a good number of demons surging down into this section of Felsoul Hold, though as she did that Rainbow found that someone was watching her, one of the Withered to be exact, which lead to the mad elf attacking an Eredar she had cut the arm off of and killed the demon in question. She raised an eyebrow when she saw that, as she wasn't expecting it to even happen in the first place, though what was interesting was that the Withered in question seemed to extract the demon's soul and seemed to devour it as well, where a rush of Fel energy surged out of where the elf rested and Rainbow watched as the life seemed to return to the elf's body, like he had eaten an Arcfruit, and she could tell he was male now as his body had returned to him, though he had a faint Fel mist emitting from his eyes and a pair of small horns poking out of part of his hair, making her realize what was going on in an instant.

They could actually revive the Withered and restore them to their Nightborne state, even if they would be empowered by Fel energy and not Arcane anymore, though in that instant she noticed that the other two Withered that had been brought over to Felsoul Hold seemed to be studying what had happened to the first one and assaulted two other weakened Eredar, devouring their souls in a matter of seconds and lead to them regaining their original forms, with some horns to reflect the change they had undergone, and Rainbow could see that one was male and the other was female, where it was easy to tell that the latter was female was due to her breasts causing the rags over her chest to shift push out for a moment, to which she carried the three of them back to the portal and returned to Shal'Aran.

Thalyssra and the others were, understandably, surprised by what she had discovered and were overjoyed to discover that there was actually a way for them to revive the Withered, to which Ly'leth's attendants rushed over to help the elves who had been revived, no doubt to measure each of them for a new set of attire, before Thalyssra and Khadgar joined Rainbow as she returned to Felsoul Hold, only this time around her companions started to track down the magical signatures of the remaining Withered and, with the aid of Oculeth, Valtrois, and Jaina, summon the remaining Withered of Suramar over to Felsoul Hold. As they teleported in Rainbow demonstrated what she had done while the first trio had been watching, as in gesturing to the various Fel crystals that were scattered around this place and watched as the Withered devoured the Fel energy, giving them a base for what was coming next, where she flashed around the area and weakened as many enemies as she could find, something that caused the Withered to move out and kill those she struck, surprising the demons in the process while causing Thalyssra and the others to watch with interest. Once that was done they watched as the Withered did as the first three did a few minutes ago, as in they underwent a transformation for a few seconds as they returned to their original Nightborne forms, revealing who had been male and who had been female, since being a Withered made it impossible to tell who had been which gender, which was made even more obvious when all of the ladies regained their former chests and some moved to cover themselves in that area, though all of the newly revived elves found that they had a pair of horns on their heads and a light Fel mist coming out of their eyes. After some time Rainbow was positive that the one hundred Withered that had been brought to Felsoul Hold were freed from the hunger that all Nightborne felt when they were cut off from the Nighthold, including the hunger that had been forced upon them when they transformed into Withered, and Thalyssra confirmed that they happened to be the rest of the Withered that were above ground, so if there were any other fallen elves they were far below ground, shrouded by some power which was preventing them from being brought up here, but that didn't stop her and the others from teleporting the revived elves to Shal'Aran.

Once that was done Rainbow advanced on the area that the Soul Engine was resting in, which was near the path that lead right to Meredil, and only came to a stop when she reached her destination, pausing near the vile machine in question for a moment as she raised her right hand and activated her power, where she took a page out of Spitfire's page and drained all of the Fel energy that was inside the Soul Engine, surprising the lone Eredar that was still working on the machine, until it was forced to go offline and she noticed cracks forming all over it, to which she channeled a bit of her power into a lance, a low powered one, and dropped it on the machine, blowing it apart and left a small crater where it had been resting... but as soon as that was done she returned to Shal'Aran, finding that Spitfire had called the Illidari in to give the restored elves a set of demonic tattoos, like all demon hunters had.

"Well, I've smashed the Soul Engine and, well, completed the other objective," Rainbow commented, as the restored elves were inside Shal'Aran, learning what in the world was going on in Suramar and getting new clothing to replace their rags, and also learning about their new abilities, even though it would take some time before they were used to what was going on to their bodies, to which she focused on what else needed to be done and glanced over at Thalyssra's group, who were still coming to terms with what they were seeing, "so, what's next?"

"I was thinking that understanding Fel energy might not be enough to aid us... and I'm currently rethinking that, since you just revived the Withered," Oculeth replied, as he was amazed by what he, Thalyssra, Valtrois, and the rest of Shal'Aran was seeing right now, since none of them had considered the possibility of using the Withered to drain some Fel crystals and even steal the souls of demons to transform them back into Nightborne, before he focused on what he had been doing in the time before Rainbow found out how to bring their friends back, "but I was going to ask that someone take a beacon into the city and survey several locations for me, more accurately several points of the Terrace of Order, to grant me extreme accuracy with my spells and, more importantly, take away our foe's ability to run away when Thalyssra sends you to take her down."

"Sounds simple enough, so I'll be back soon," Rainbow said, where she collected the beacon that Oculeth had prepared for this mission, one that seemed a tad bit stronger or more advanced than the previous Telemancy beacons she had seen so far, though once it was in her possession she headed for the tunnel and departed from Shal'Aran the normal way, as her plan was to fly to the Terrace of Order, get the information Oculeth wanted her to obtain, and then use the portal in the depths of the Sanctum to return to their base of operations.

It didn't take her long to reach the Grand Promenade, where Rainbow found their allies were protecting the area in case Gul'dan sent the Felborne to take it back, and many had to be hoping for such a thing to happen so they could get some sort of revenge for the Time Lock spell he had forced Elisande to use earlier, on the portion of the army that marched on the gates of the Nighthold, before she flew over them and landed in the middle of the Terrace of Order, where she pulled out the advanced beacon without delay. All she had to do was activate the device for a second and let it scan the area with a white beam of energy, sort of like what happened when she learned how to use the beacons after they found and saved the Chief Telemancer from those who had been looking for him, though there were no demons in the Terrace, as she and her allies had killed all of them earlier and it looked like Gul'dan hadn't gotten around to reinforcing this location, which had to mean he was gathering his power for whatever his masters wanted him to do. Of course she had to move several times as the beacon did its job, allowing her to gather as much positional data for Oculeth as she possibly could, and just did so without delay, since she wanted to get this task done with as quickly as she could and return to Shal'Aran with all do haste, as she was sure that Thalyssra had confirmed where Andaris was hiding, though even then she suspected that they would find Ly'leth inside the Nighthold, instead of outside the city, but she pushed that out of her mind as she focused on completing this task, knowing that they would save their allies in due time. The beacon beeped once it was done scanning the area and had the information Oculeth needed, to which she carefully placed it inside her pack and opened her wings once more, allowing her to take off and head to the entrance of the Sanctum of Order, since there was only one entrance to the structure in question and it was in the Grand Promenade, which was a tad bit odd and she had the feeling someone would tell her why it had been built in such a way, before using one of the teleport pads to get down to the level that the portal to Shal'Aran rested in, including the location of the stairs that lead right to the breach Ly'leth had told them about in one of her previous messages, before she returned to Shal'Aran and handed the beacon over.

"Good, I shall quickly study this and prepare for what Thalyssra has in mind," Oculeth said, where he smiled as he stared at the beacon for a moment and Rainbow could see that he was already focusing on the information she had collected for him, before he focused on something else as he raised his hand and opened a portal for someone to take, where it only took Rainbow a moment to raise her eyebrow as she glanced at him, clearly curious about why he had done such a thing and if he needed more of her assistance, "Now, I need you to quickly return to my old workshop, the one we forced into a lockdown before coming to Shal'Aran, and recover a few things for me so we can move forward with our studies, and the plan that Thalyssra has in mind for Andaris... all I need are my notes, which should be easy to find, and a crate of orbs that I had been working on before all of this happened, and before the barrier fell over the city... with those in hand, we should be ready to move forward."

Rainbow nodded and headed through the portal in question, returning to the hidden workshop Oculeth had brought her, Spitfire, and Elylia to when they recruited him into Thalyssra's growing army, even though she noticed that she had been sent to the section of the workshop none of them had walked through during their last visit, but after noticing that she focused on walking around the area and quickly found a decent sized journal that had to be Oculeth's notes, something she found on a lone table, and nearby she found the crate containing the orbs their ally needed, though she felt that this might be a waste of time as Oculeth had her collect things they didn't actually need, to which she sighed for a second and collected the crate before using the portal to return to Shal'Aran.

"Good, you've gathered what I needed," Oculeth said, where he accepted the notes and the crate, which he placed in the area that served as his workshop in Shal'Aran and pulled out of the orbs so he could study it, finding that none of them had sustained any damage, despite the amount of time it had been between his last visit to his true workshop and when his new allies came to recruit him into Thalyssra's rebellion, meaning he would be able to do complete whatever plan he was currently working towards, "now the fun begins!"

"Indeed, though I have received news that a group of Felborne are trying to take over part of the Crimson Thicket, and that the leader of the group, Valthis Ama'ran, reports to Andaris directly," Thalyssra spoke up, knowing that Rainbow had to be thinking about what to do while she waited for them to finish what they were doing, before launching an assault on where Andaris had to be lurking, though as she said that she could tell that Rainbow was already thinking about what was going on at the moment and the information she was being told, while at the same time Spitfire continued to aid the Nightborne who had been turned into demon hunters, before she refocused on her friend, "while Oculeth is working, I would like you to take the fight to our unwanted enemies, especially since Valthis' death might help us take down Andaris, or at least that is a potential side effect... also, the first three Nightborne you saved earlier wish to go along with you, to test out their new powers in a real battle."

Rainbow glanced to her left for a moment and found the three elves in question, the two males and one female who had been the first ones she restored to their former glory, where each of them were wearing the attire of the Duskwatch, as if they had been members before withering or were joining the force in question, armor that was a little revealing in places and gave them the flexibility that the Illidari were used to, while they were carrying the shieldless warglaives that most of the Duskwatch carried, giving them something to fight their enemies with. Once she was done glancing over them, which only took a few moments of her time, Rainbow raised a hand and beckoned for them to follow her as she headed through the Twilight Vineyards portal, due to the fact that it was the closest to the Crimson Thicket, and found that her new allies were following her without wasting any time, which caused her to smile as they moved out of Shal'Aran and arrived in the small structure that was their destination. Not a few moments later Rainbow walked towards the edge of the city that was nearby and stared at the lower section that held a path leading to a Vrykul village, which they would ignore for now, where she focused on the ruins that were in front of her, which was where Valthis was trying to take over thanks to the number of Felborne that were around the area, meaning it was only a matter of time until they tried to attack the Vineyards, since it was the closest to where they were trying to set up a camp. In that moment she made sure her new companions were with her, and found that each of them had followed after her without wasting time, which was amazing since the three of them should have been recovering from the sudden transformation into their new forms, but she wasn't about to argue with Thalyssra, since she knew the rebellion's leader understood when it was time to rest and when it was time to fight, to which she pulled out her Warblades and watched as her companions held up their own weapons, indicating that they were ready, before descending into the ruins that the Felborne and their demonic allies were trying to take over.

As it turned out the Felborne and their demonic allies were totally caught off guard by Rainbow's assault and many of their foes fell to their deaths before they were able to do anything, where she made sure to set up a net around the area so she could catch every soul that was released from every foe they killed and add them to her collection, while she tracked down Valthis and assaulted his location, who lashed out at her with his Fel-empowered spells and she tanked them by draining all of them as they hit her, allowing her to cut him down and take his soul before watching what her companions did, as all three of the restored elves slew every foe that was in front of them and showed that they had recovered from being stuck in the Withered state... though it wasn't long before the area was cleared of Felborne and demons, allowing her and the Nightborne demon hunters to return to Shal'Aran.

"I've got to say, you guys did great out there... and now I'm curious to see if the others can do the same," Rainbow said, as she felt that the restored elves deserved some praise for their efforts, even though it made her wonder if the others could fight on a similar level to the three that had been with her, while she spoke up the moment they returned to Shal'Aran, so Thalyssra understood that those who had been restored had the potential to have all of the skills they had before being forced to become Withered, to which they smiled and headed over to join the other restored elves, allowing her to focus on the leader of the rebellion and their new friends, while noticing that the other heroes were starting to gather around Shal'Aran, causing her to raise an eyebrow, "so, um, what's going on in here?"

"Valtrois and Oculeth have placed several disruptors near three key Ley Stations, cutting off their power and weakening the seal on the breach," Thalyssra replied, though at the same time she beckoned for Rainbow to follow, who felt that the task to recover the Telemancy stuff and kill the Felborne had been designed to keep her busy while they made sure they knew how to crack the seal, to which she brought her over to where Oculeth was standing, as he created a portal that had to lead her to where Andaris was powering the rest of the seal, "since we've moved so quickly, we've prevented Andaris from setting up any sort of base of operations inside our city, meaning Oculeth has been able to track down her location and, with Valtrois' aid, have sealed most of the power she has access to, meaning when you go to face her you won't have to worry about reinforcements coming to aid her or have to worry about her running away."

Rainbow smiled as Thalyssra revealed that they had trapped Andaris in the area of the Sanctum of Order that the portal lead to, to which she used the portal in question and teleported over to her destination, where she quickly found the Fel-tainted elf standing in front of a set of stairs, which would lead to where Ly'leth had gained the advisor position, though it was in that moment that she noticed something interesting about her target, Andaris had a pair of demonic ram horns on top of her head, growing out of her hair, her hands had a Fel green color to them now, she had ditched her Arcanist robes for a Fel-tainted version of the Duskwatch's attire, both of her feet had been replaced by Eredar's hooves, and she had the tail of an Eredar. This told her that Andaris, realizing that she was going to have to fight for her life, had handed her life to the Legion in exchange for power, as she could also tell that her Fel power was stronger than most of the Felborne that had been created by Gul'dan, and sure enough the demonic elf's chest had enlarged as well, as it was roughly twice what Thalyssra's was, just another sign of her corruption in Rainbow's mind, hence why she stepped out and readied both of her weapons for a moment, which caused Andaris to turn and growl as she noticed that someone else was here. Not even a moment later they clashed with each other, as it appeared that her foe had switched her staff for a Duskwatch blade, as in a warglaive, but it quickly became clear that she had next to no idea how to use it and she used that to her advantage over the next couple of moments, pushing the weapon to the side as she added cuts to Andaris' arms, legs, and chest, all of which annoyed her opponent and lead to her charging into battle without thinking, meaning she would fall in due time and Rainbow had to be patient to see it done. Of course Andaris tried to blast her several times with her Fel-tainted magic, in an effort to take her down and bring her soul to Gul'dan, or her corpse if she missed her soul, though Rainbow tanked each blast and absorbed the Fel energy that her foe was using right now, allowing her own power to grow, before deciding to get this over with as she swung one of the Warglaives and removed her foe's head from her shoulders in an instant, to which she paused for a moment as her weapons took Andaris' soul and she absorbed her Fel energy... even though she remained still as her breasts enlarged a size or two in response to that.

Once that was done, and she was sure her body wasn't about to change anymore, Rainbow returned to the portal she had used to get here and quickly passed through it, returning to Shal'Aran and found that the heroes were gathering around the upper ring, meaning they were getting ready for their raid on the Nighthold and Gul'dan's forces, where Thalyssra was happy that Andaris was dead and that the seal was no longer being powered, due to Valtrois and Oculeth, with their allies, cutting off the power and silencing the magic that had been on the breach's entrance, though now they could declare war on the Legion's puppet, once all of Azeroth's heroes were ready to go anyway... and she made sure to harvest both of the Arcfruit that had been left on the branches, as she had the feeling they were going to need them.

Author's Note:

For those wondering, game-wise Nightborne demon hunters don't exist... but lore-wise it is possible for such a thing.

Comments

[Gargon94]

Looks like the next chapter will be the start of the Nighthold raid.

[PrismStrike]

This "first arcanist" really has some gall "send your best to come kick my teeth in" what hubris and then fails to actually show up to said fight

[zachary12]

nice work

[Blackdrag-rose]

10732172 Indeed. We have, at long last, arrived at the Nighthold raid.

10732351 Well, Andaris designed it to be a trap for Thalyssra, as in canon Thalyssra goes with the player, and some Withered, and gets hit by a Fel spike... but thanks to what has happened in this version of the Suramar story such a thing is negated... but yes, Andaris is full of hubris.

[Gargon94]

10732695
Yay!

[Blackdrag-rose]

10732731 Of course it will be slightly different from the canon raid, since this time Elisande won't be a boss, but it will be a grand raid... and set in motion one of my other major changes (the first being removing Sylvanas and preventing her from igniting the Fourth War).

[Gargon94]

10732755
Cool! Can't wait to see what you have planned for what replaces Elisande's fight and what the next big change for Legion.

[PrismStrike]

10732695
Ahhh alrighty that does make sense and your displaced here are definitely far stronger than any demon could conceivably think of