World of Warcraft: Burning Skies

by Blackdrag-rose

Suramar: Royal Athenaeum

As soon as Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes of Azeroth were rested and ready to go, after the battle with Trilliax and the beings that had been before this point of the Nighthold, they got up from where they had been resting and walked over to the curved staircase that lead to the upper part of the section of the structure their enemy was in control of, while both Thalyssra and Khadgar followed after them, as one was going to give them information on whatever or whoever might be standing in their way. It took the group a few moments to make their way up to the top step, so they could reach an area that would lead them outside, placing them near the main gate that Thalyssra had told them about earlier, though once they reached their destination Spitfire found that there were two small groups of Withered standing between where the stairs was located and the opening that looked like it might be connected to an exit, hence why she and the others lashed out at their enemies once more. Of course the Withered tried to claw at them as they attempted to drain all of the heroes of their energies, something that all of the mad elves attempted in the past, though that didn't stop Spitfire from dodging the attacks as she sliced her foes down, Rainbow either smashed her targets into the ground with her tail, clawed them with her feet, or cut them down, and the heroes lashed out with their weapons and spells, once more showing Thalyssra that they weren't to be underestimated, while showing that she was right to call on the aid of outsiders to take down the demons that had infested her city. Given the abilities and skills of each and every hero the Withered didn't stand much of a chance and soon they were scattered all over ground, like all of the enemies they had faced to reach this point in time, but as they did that Spitfire noticed that there was a group of Nightborne, the Duskwatch to be exact, who were guarding the ramp Thalyssra wanted them to use to leave this part of the Nighthold and head out into the Palace Grounds, though once their enemies were taken care of the Duskwatch noticed who was in front of them and lowered their barrier as they knelt towards Thalyssra.

"Lady Thalyssra, we were ordered to hold this position by Lady Elisande and have done so since the demons barged into the Nighthold," one of the Duskwatch, likely a captain or another high ranking member of the force, stated, though as she said that Spitfire and everyone else noticed that there were a few other Nightborne resting in the corner, with supplies to keep themselves going for a time, meaning Elisande likely wasn't the one who imposed the rationing rule on the city, even if many assumed it was her fault for such a thing, and that one of her advisors had done it while serving Gul'dan, no doubt to weaken the city in an attempt to stop them from rebelling, and there were even a few Duskwatch that were wounded, as some had bandages around their arms and legs, "I'm ashamed to say that we were unable to push the demons out of the Nighthold, but we did our best to secure this place and those who were able to leave the Palace."

"You did well to last this long, and know that reinforcements have arrived at last," Thalyssra replied, where she could tell that all of the Duskwatch were ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen on their watch, even if there was next to nothing they could have done when she considered everything Gul'dan had done to her people and her city, before taking a moment to nod her head as the healers moved forward and weaved their healing arts over those that were resting in this part of the depths of the Nighthold, while she and Khadgar made sure the way out was unsealed, while making sure none of their enemies noticed what was going on in this area.

It didn't take the healers long to mend the wounds of those that were in front of them, though once the Duskwatch were ready to depart Thalyssra waved her hand and the portcullis she and Khadgar had been focused on sank into the ground not a few seconds later, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes poured out of the depths and entered the section of the Nighthold that needed to be secured next, the Palace Grounds to be exact, and found a path that would bring them right to the main gate, not to mention the massive wall that surrounded a good portion of the Nighthold. Of course it took them only a second to discover what was going on up here, there were groups of Nightborne who were being watched by Felborne, just the corrupted elves and no demons, meaning Gul'dan's forces were elsewhere in the Palace, which was the moment that Spitfire and Rainbow leapt into action as the heroes followed after them, as they lashed out at the fallen and corrupt elves who served the Legion, allowing the innocent civilians to flee to the safety of Thalyssra and the Duskwatch, even though that was followed by Thalyssra revealing her hand to their enemies. As she waved her hand the seal that had been on the main gate came undone and it opened not a few seconds later, to which Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, and the rest of their forces poured into the Nighthold and smashed into the force of Felborne who were supposed to be protecting this part of the structure, all while making sure each and every civilian was pulled to safety, so they could be escorted back to Shal'Aran and not get caught in the crossfire, allowing the heroes to cut a path to the large set of stairs that would lead up to the Palace Grounds. Of course Thalyssra was still surprised by how many Nightborne had succumbed to the foul power that Gul'dan and the Legion used, as it seemed like ten to fifteen percent of her kind had either willingly corrupted their bodies to gain more power or it had been forced upon them, even though the former was the right answer based on what she had seen so far, but she knew that the Felborne deserved no mercy and made sure everyone understood that fact, all while Rainbow weaved one of her nets above this section of the Nighthold and trapped all the Fel souls that were leaving their bodies, preventing them from being used by the Legion.

Of course all of the Fel-tainted souls were added to her collection, something Thalyssra didn't think about all that much as their army pushed back their enemies and effectively cleared the area of Felborne, allowing the innocents to depart from this place and leave before something happened to them, and when they climbed up the set of stairs across from where the main gate rested they found another group of Felborne waiting for them, not to mention the Palace Grounds beyond where their new foes were standing, where Thalyssra noticed a familiar Nightborne who was patrolling the area, wearing impressive armor that protected her and carried a powerful shieldless warglaive in her right hand.

"Stand down Aluriel, there's no reason for us to fight each other," Thalyssra stated, speaking the moment they finished off the enemies that had been guarding the way to the Palace Grounds, allowing the heroes to stare at the massive structure and all of the innocent elves who seemed to be positioned all over this place, with Felborne watching over them, but since it looked like Aluriel was normal, and wasn't corrupted like the Felborne, she was hoping that the First Spellblade would see reason and stand down so they could wrest control of both Suramar City and the Nighthold from Gul'dan, while also restoring everything to its rightful ruler, "We're here to drive the Legion out of our city, save those who have been taken by the demons, and take down Gul'dan as we save Elisande..."

"Elisande was a fool, making a deal with the Legion and then failing to uphold her side of their bargain," Aluriel stated, to which she came to a stop for a moment, in front of what appeared to be a fountain, and faced the area that Thalyssra and her allies were standing in, where Spitfire and Rainbow stood at the ready while the heroes raised their weapons as well, though that was when they watched as some bits of Arcane energy pulled away from Aluriel, something that caused all of them to sigh for a few seconds, as Aluriel had been corrupted by the Legion's power, due to her skin matching the rest of the Felborne, had a pair of demonic ram horns growing out of her head, not to mention having an Eredar's tail growing out of her spine and her legs had been transformed into an Eredar's legs, "I, on the other hand, have given myself to the Legion and have been granted power to stand on par with what the Felsouls would have had, had they lived long enough to gain more power anyway, and while Tel'arn and Etraeus haven't joined the Felborne in empowering themselves, their loss I say, they aren't on Elisande's side either... should have sent someone other than Melandrus to kill you, as your death would have broken the Grand Magistrix..."

"So they need to die as well, got it." Spitfire stated, as she could tell that it looked like talking things out wasn't working and that a fight was going to break out in the very near future, even though they were planning on fighting all of the Felborne who were guarding the Palace Grounds and freeing those who were being held against their will, especially since she was sure Ly'leth was here somewhere, where she was grateful that Aluriel had informed them of who their next targets were, as it would give Thalyssra some time to think about what she knew on the figures and inform them of who they would be facing after clearing out this area.

Spitfire and Rainbow were the first ones to rush forwards and attack Aluriel, who spun her warglaive for a second before bringing it down on the area that Rainbow was standing in, causing her to raise her Warblades and block the attack, even though some of the stone cracked under her feet as that happened, demonstrating that Aluriel must have channel most of her new Fel energy into enhancing her strength, speed, and possibly a few other attributes to make her that much more formidable, before Aluriel kicked her in the chest and knocked her backwards a tiny bit as she switched her stance so she could parry Spitfire's incoming attack. Thalyssra raised an eyebrow when she noticed that, as it looked like Aluriel had the power to stand on par with the base power that both Spitfire and Rainbow were capable of using, even though this was a rare instance where the pair didn't shift into their empowered forms as soon as they started to fight someone, and she could tell that Khadgar was surprised by what they were seeing as well, but it just confirmed that Aluriel had maintained her formidable power and the Fel power had strengthened her considerable abilities. Of course the heroes rushed out to face Aluriel as well, even though for right now it seemed like the First Spellblade was focused on Spitfire and Rainbow for the time being, parrying their attacks while finding that her own attacks were parried, blocked, or dodged as the seconds went by, showing those who were watching just how skilled all three of them were, even though this might it might take some time before something serious happened, or before they got serious and used their full power against each other, as they seemed to be feeling what their foes were capable of before making the next move. Another thing that happened was that some of the Felborne stopped everything that they were doing and rushed over to where they were fighting, causing a couple of heroes to engage them by swinging their weapons at them or blasting them with spells, while letting Spitfire and Rainbow focus on their main foe for now, meaning that once this section of the Nighthold was clear of enemies they would return to fight Aluriel, who gathered her power for a moment as she spun her warglaive and loosed a wave of ice right at her chosen target, where it rushed though the air and zeroed in on where Spitfire was standing, who activated her flaming aura and shattered the attack before it could reach her.

Rainbow found that Aluriel had another attack besides her elemental power, where she moved into a series of thrusts that were designed to overpower whoever she was fighting and slay them, causing Rainbow to go on the defensive for a time as she dodged the incoming attacks and found that a few got past her Warblades, cutting into her arms for a moment and knocked her backwards in the process, showing everyone that Aluriel was stronger than the foes who had been down in the depths of the Nighthold, hence why she transformed into her empowered for as Spitfire did the same thing, but this did give them an idea of what to expect when they found Tel'arn and Etraeus. Aluriel continued to swing her weapon and channel her ice powers at them, where Spitfire's flames melted the ice and Rainbow's lightning blasted the stuff to pieces, showing that they were on equal group for the time being, along with weaving her impressive power into runes that just floated above whoever she targeted, so someone would have an icon of sorts floating above their heads and it would deal frost damage to them over a certain period of time, including those around them and thus lead to whoever had the mark leaving the area to stand near a wall, as to avoid hurting the rest of their allies. That wasn't the end of her spells, as Aluriel also created a dome of frost over an area that she wanted to damage and focused on where most of the heroes happened to be standing, causing them to scatter when such a thing occurred, while Spitfire and Rainbow lashed out at their foe to bring her down or make her switch to another element, since she was a mage of sorts and they had access to both fire and the Arcane, though when Rainbow jumped into the air and dodged an incoming attack, however, she swung her clawed feet at their foe and cut into the side of Aluriel's face, causing her to growl as her power switched from frost to fire, which was either due to her rage or because she felt it was time to switch elements. Of course the downside to this was that the flames didn't hurt Spitfire at all, rather they wrapped around her and she struck the side of their foe in retaliation without delay, causing her to stagger for a moment as Rainbow went into a series of attacks, swinging the Warblades at her foe as she kept an eye on the warglaive Aluriel was using, not to mention the demonic aspects of her foe's body, since she didn't want to be kicked right in the chest again.

What Spitfire and Rainbow discovered was that Aluriel used flaming versions of the spells she had used earlier, with next to no changes from the frost spells she had used not a few moments ago, so that mean their allies were able to dodge the attacks and lash out accordingly, dealing damage to their foe as the pair kept her attention on them, where Rainbow used her lightning to shock Aluriel and Spitfire remained on the defensive, using her innate fire power to cancel out what their foe was trying to do, though she was refraining from using her Life energies since she was sure their foe would burn what she had in mind. Instead Spitfire used her newest power and tapped into the Death energies she had gained from fighting Helya and her foul allies, mostly in the sense of wrapping the edge of her Twinblades with the power in question, though it had the effect she wanted as their foe avoided the attacks that were coming at her, as if she was terrified of being struck by it, something that eventually caused her to shift to her Arcane powers, something Spitfire had been waiting for after all of them discovered what sort of powers Aluriel had access to. Once Aluriel started to use the Arcane versions of the spells she had used so far, just like when she switched from frost to fire, the heroes knew what was coming next as Spitfire used her Arcane Stone to drastically reduce the power of each and every attack that was sent at them, siphoning the power of the attacks before they could actually hit her allies, allowing Rainbow and the heroes to smash through everything Aluriel sent at them and strike at her while she was coming to terms with what was going on right now, since she had been taken aback by what happened to most of her Arcane spells, while Thalyssra smiled when she saw that happen. Such a thing was followed by Rainbow going on the offensive while Aluriel tried to figure out how to reverse this situation and take down all of her enemies, where she blocked and parried the incoming attacks that the Felborne sent her way as she lashed out with her weapons, both Warblades and her demonic additions, though eventually her speed allowed her to overwhelm Aluriel and cost the First Spellblade greatly, where she spun around and racked her right clawed foot across her foe's tail and, in an odd twist, severed the tail and caused her foe to stagger for a few seconds, as she wasn't expecting such a thing to even happen and it aided her in taking Aluriel down.

Once that happened she banished her weapons and grabbed onto Aluriel's demonic horns, with her face being up in their foe's face as she brought her knew up and smashed it into the bottom of her foe's jaw, her strength being enough to break both of the horns as Aluriel staggered backwards once more, showing the others why she was one of the strongest beings defending Azeroth, before she pulled one of her Warblades out and removed her foe's head, dropping Aluriel's body to the ground and made sure both her soul and all of her Fel power was added to her collections.

With Aluriel defeated, and the Palace Grounds were freed from the Legion's grasp, the heroes paused for a moment, due to the fact that they could see that most of the structures were surrounded by Fel barriers, meaning that to progress they had to follow Gul'dan's path through the Nighthold, even if it played into his hands, and based on what Thalyssra could see their next destination was either the Eternal Observatory, where they would no doubt find Etraeus resting in the chamber that was at the top of that tower, or it was the Shal'dorei Terrace, a garden area that Tel'arn resided in. As she thought about the next two areas, and the heroes spread out to cover the Palace Grounds and purge them of Felborne, as well as freeing any civilians that had been trapped in this place, Thalyssra told Spitfire and Rainbow that Melandrus, who Aluriel had mentioned at the start of the fight, had been someone who agreed that they shouldn't ally with the Legion and had, once the deal had been made, chosen to stand with her and her rebellion, but as it turned out he betrayed her in the end and had been the one to stab her in the back. It had been a betrayal of her trust, that the Advisor she had trusted had turned on her and crippled her first rebellion, not to mention the fact that he disposed of her in such a way that allowed her to leave the city, eventually leading to her sending the encrypted message that Khadgar had discovered and informed them about, meaning if Melandrus had done things differently the rebellion wouldn't have happened and they would be facing a pure demonic version of Suramar City, based on everything that Gul'dan's corruption would have gone to those who called the city home, where she was oddly thankful for such a thing happening since it brought about a successful rebellion, one that was far better than what she had originally planned. Spitfire was sure that they would have tackled the Emerald Nightmare and Helheim at some point in time, since both Xavius and Helya had been a danger to the safety of this world, but helping Thalyssra and the Nightborne had given the raids a purpose beyond just wiping out a threat, or at least that was the case for the Emerald Nightmare, but before either her or Rainbow could say anything the heroes came back to them and reported that the Fel barriers were blocking everything else, meaning the direction that Thalyssra told them about was the one they would have to proceed in.

As soon as everyone was ready they advanced into the structure that was called the Eternal Observatory and paused for a few seconds, because there were a number of Nightborne astrologers who were standing around the chamber that was just beyond the doorway, looking like they were trying to keep busy while not attracting the attention of those who served the Legion, something they figured out as the newcomers stopped what they were doing and knelt towards Thalyssra as she entered the chamber in question. This informed Spitfire that there were more Nightborne trapped inside the rest of the Nighthold, more than the civilians that they had freed so far and that group they had found when starting to leave the depths, and she found that one of them had to be a high ranking astrologer, Jarin according to Thalyssra, but sadly none of them could aid the heroes in reaching Etraeus, as there was a Fel barrier blocking the way, though they did know that someone had to fight and defeat Tel'arn to break the barrier, as that was how it had been set up by the Felborne, which meant they would be heading to the Shal'dorei Terrace to face their next foe. As such Thalyssra lead Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies towards the other entrance of the building, at least on this level anyway, and brought them to a descending set of stairs that lead to a magnificent looking garden, one that looked like it had been tended to for a long time by the same master, which made sense when they considered the long life that all of the Nightborne had, before finding several fonts of Arcane energy, which meant that Tel'arn must have weaved the Life and Arcane energies together to create what they were seeing. The gardeners who happened to be tending to the garden nodded to them as they followed the path, even if they stopped what they were doing and joined the astrologers who were following Thalyssra, before reaching an area that was more open and more like what the Nightborne had created, though it looked like the heart of some sort of plant had been locked away under some glass, likely to aid in its growth or something, before they laid eyes on their next foe, which was a being that slightly resembled one of the Nightborne, given that he seemed to be covered in empowered bark and vines as energy radiated from his body, only that was when they noticed that there were three versions of the being, who had to be Tel'arn, standing near one edge of the area, one with a golden yellow color, the second having an Arcane purple color, and the third had a light green Life color.

Thalyssra informed them that this was common for Tel'arn, that he had transformed himself into a cross between a plant and a Nightborne, making him one with nature and meant fighting him would be difficult since he had the power to make three copies of himself to tend to his vast garden, though since this was a common sight she knew that each of them had a different title, the golden solar Tel'arn was known as 'Solarist' Tel'arn, the Arcane one was 'Arcanist' Tel'arn, and the Life one was 'Naturalist' Tel'arn, though since he wasn't tainted by the Legion's Fel energy that meant they might be able to talk some sense into him.

"High Botanist Tel'arn, can we have a moment of your time?" Thalyssra asked, as that was Tel'arn's true title, something all of his copies usually responded to when someone used it while he was close to the speaker, even though she felt he just responded to someone saying his name and not any of his titles, and sure enough she found that all three turned their heads for a moment and faced the direction she was standing in without delay, where it was easy for her to see that all of them were interested in what was in front of them, mainly the heroes that were behind her, though in that moment she suspected they were staring at Spitfire, the one who housed three Cosmic Forces inside her body, unlike how Tel'arn had access to both Life and Arcane.

"Ah, First Arcanist Thalyssra... you've come to free Elisande and kill Gul'dan, haven't you?" Tel'arn inquired, where it looked like the Solarist was talking at the moment, either meaning that only one could speak at a time or the other two could talk and were keeping quiet for now, just so they didn't confuse the group, even though Spitfire could see that she was a point of interest for the three versions of Tel'arn, likely due to her innate power to wield multiple Cosmic Powers, especially the power of Death, which was the opposite of the Life energies Tel'arn was fond of working with, to which Thalyssra nodded for a second and caused Tel'arn to raise a hand to his chin, "Good, its about time that we drove them out of the Nighthold and rescue our leader... though I would like to test the skills of your allies, before sending them to face the demons who are lurking in our most sacred place."

Spitfire said nothing as Thalyssra and Khadgar took a few steps back, allowing her, Rainbow, and the others to spread out in this open circular area while the Arcanist remained where he was standing and both the Solarist and Naturalist took a moment to take up new positions, so the heroes would have to split themselves into three groups to bring down this foe, though for the most part it looked like Tel'arn was waiting for them to make the first move as he readied his selves for the battle that was about to start. Not a few seconds later Spitfire rushed over to where the Naturalist was standing, serving as a sign for the others to engage the rest of their opponents, leaving Rainbow to focus on the Arcanist while the heroes took on the Solarist, though Spitfire didn't use her Twinblades this time around as she called on her new powers and found that she could mimic what her target was doing, as hard back formed over her right fist as she swung at her target, who raised his own right fist and parried the attack, even though she found that, despite the amount of time the Naturalist had spent on mastering his powers, she was able to push him back. Spitfire was sure that this surprised Thalyssra, or at this point her ally might be numb to being surprised by what she and Rainbow were capable of, though she had the feeling that her new strength was due to having three of the six Cosmic Forces and suspected that her power would grow again whenever she obtained one of the remaining three, though as that happened Rainbow demonstrated some of her speed to Tel'arn for a time as she avoided several Arcane blasts that the Arcanist sent at her, with the heroes avoiding several of the Solarist's attacks as they lashed out at him, allowing them to show Tel'arn just how skilled each of them were. This was also part of the reason as to why Spitfire had meditated after obtaining the last two Cosmic Forces, as it allowed her to make sure her power was in balance with each other and that she wasn't tipping one way in regards to the spectrum, like falling into the depths of her Fel energy or fall into the depths of her new Death power, because she had a feeling that if she didn't have such a balance something bad would happen, like death or something, and she wanted to avoid handing this power over to Sargeras and the Legion, because she knew if they had this sort of power no world would be able to stand against them, no matter what sort of beings defended the worlds in question.

Still, despite that fact, Spitfire hardened her other fist with the hard bark for a moment and swung at her foe, where she switched to her Death energy and punched the Naturalist once more, who raised his arm without delay and stopped her attack from hitting him, though she did find that part of her energy collided with Tel'arn's Life energy and they caused the air around them to shudder a little, before she pushed his counter into the ground and spun around to kick the side of his head with the side of her right leg within a matter of seconds, knocking him into the smooth floor. As that happened, but before the Naturalist could react in time, Rainbow lashed out at the Arcanist and loosed a series of punches at the version of Tel'arn that was in front of her, several of them hitting him in his chest and caused him to stagger backwards, though in the following moment she flashed behind him and slammed his head into the smooth floor, showing him just how skilled she was while at the same time demonstrating that she knew when to use her Warblades and when she didn't need them to take down whoever she was fighting. The heroes also demonstrated their skills by overcoming the attacks that the third and final version of Tel'arn, the Solarist to be exact, sent their way, which involved sending spheres of flaming energy at his targets and summoning small pillars of flaming solar energy, before striking him several times in a row and knocked him to the ground as well, something that had to surprise Thalyssra while Khadgar just nodded his head, as he knew the power of Azeroth's heroes far better than anyone at this point in time, as he had been watching their progress since they stepped into Outland all those years ago. For a few seconds nothing happened as the Solarist, Arcanist, and Naturalist rested in the areas they had landed in, after being pushed back by the heroes and their new leaders, as many considered Spitfire and Rainbow to be the first and second in command, respectively, of the combined forces of Azeroth, even despite the amount of experience everyone else had, before the three versions of Tel'arn glowed for a few seconds and broke apart, swirling around a central spot as they reformed into Tel'arn's true form, that of the High Botanist, who staggered for a second as he fell to a knee and bowed his head towards Spitfire and Rainbow for a time, though he started to chuckle as he thought about what had happened to him.

"You outsiders got me fair and square," Tel'arn remarked, where Spitfire noticed that his true form was the golden form he had shown them while he was fighting them, as the Solarist anyway, and she could see a few traces of the other powers he used against all of them, a Life green and Arcane purple, before he pushed himself to his feet and glanced out at them for a time, as if he was finishing sizing them up, which was around the time he glanced towards Thalyssra, "You did great, as these are good allies and I'm positive that they can push the demons out of the Nighthold... no, all of Suramar... and that they'll be the death of Gul'dan."

"I'm happy to hear that you approve, and that you didn't try to kill them," Thalyssra replied, though even then she knew if it came to a true fight, and not the test Tel'arn had issued to see if Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes were strong enough to take down whatever demons were waiting inside the remaining sections of the Nighthold, this entire garden would have been destroyed in a clash between the High Botanist and Spitfire, especially when she considered the fact that Spitfire had held her power back during that fight, or at least that was what Khadgar told her earlier, "but now that we've 'beaten' you, the Fel barrier leading to Star Augur Etraeus should be down as well... though while he hasn't been corrupted by the Fel energies of the Legion, like Aluriel was, I'm sure we're going to have to beat some sense into him, before getting to those Gul'dan left inside the rest of the Nighthold."

Spitfire knew that Tel'arn was likely hoping to see her true power at some point in time, even though he didn't say a word about it, though instead of saying anything the group turned around and headed back to the Eternal Observatory, where it didn't take them long to find a door that had been unsealed when the Fel barrier unraveled, to which they headed up the passage that was now in front of them, which was wide enough for two people to walk up at a time, while Tel'arn stayed back with his gardeners and the astrologers who sided with Thalyssra, and found it contained an ascending staircase that brought them to a circular chamber, one that seemed to be empty and full of Arcane energy, which was when they found Etraeus standing in the middle of the chamber.

"Star Augur Etraeus, we've come to bring an end to Gul'dan and the Legion," Thalyssra stated, where she and Khadgar just stood on the short set of stairs that lead down to the circular chamber, allowing the heroes to step in and focus on him as they noticed that some of his attire seemed to reflect his nature as someone who studied the stars, who paused what he was doing and turned to face them for a moment, where he raised his eyebrow for a moment and focused on two of them without delay, Spitfire and Rainbow no doubt, "Aluriel was corrupted by Gul'dan and we were forced to kill her, but Tel'arn stayed loyal to Elisande and our people, so he's downstairs with your astrologers and his gardeners... it would be nice to have you on our side as well."

"Thalyssra... truth be told, I considered following Aluriel and becoming corrupted, but something held me back, and it let me see just how bad things were for our people," Etraeus replied, referring to the fact that Gul'dan and his demons did all they could to kidnap those inside their city and feed them to the Soul Engine Rainbow had destroyed, even though he did nothing to stop such a thing from happening since he knew that there were too many demons for a single person to fight, even if he had joined the first rebellion, before he channeled his power into the chamber and the heroes watched as the walls glowed for a moment, responding to his energy as the walls seemed to pull back and disappear as they watch space, stars and planets, appeared around them, even though it seemed like Etraeus was focusing on a frozen area for now and likely had more to show them, "Elisande and I have delved into the vastness of space, seeing the harsh and frozen void you are now witnessing, planets that either never developed for life to inhabit them or were decimated by natural causes, and it lead us to finding planets consumed by the Legion and, more importantly, planets that have been devoured by the terror of the Void, by the Old Gods... originally we planned on joining the Legion, as it gave us a chance at surviving an encounter with the vast never-ending minions of the Void Lords, but then something significant changed... we were able to see a new future, a glorious one, and it all started when you two were freed from the prison the Wardens left you in."

"I don't mean to interrupt, but what in the world is that?" Rainbow asked, though she wasn't talking about the froze planet that was being shown to them right now, as she understood what Etraeus was showing them, rather she was referring to something that suddenly appeared on the projection of the frozen planet, where both she and Spitfire assumed that this was either real time, as in it was happening before their eyes, or it was time delayed and this was happening at some point in the past, only for Etraeus to see it now, causing everyone to focus on what she was looking at.

What she was looking at was a faint red line that suddenly appeared on the frozen planet, one that seemed to go vertically through the entire world, where they watched as the world was split in half before their very eyes, as the left half floated upwards a little as the right half lowered, like how someone would split an apple, orange, or watermelon, before the entire world exploded in a fiery ball of energy and Etraeus weaved his magic to close the walls so none of them went blind from seeing that happen. When the walls returned to normal, however, the Star Augur weaved his magic through the air once again and switched to a new scene, a world that was corrupted by Fel energies and seemed to have a number of floating fragments, chunks torn from the planet in question, that formed a ring around it, though before anyone could comment on what they were seeing fiery cracks started to appear on the planet, showing that there was someone out there that had the power to destroy entire worlds, and sure enough Etraeus had to close the walls once more, since they were about to witness a repeat of what happened to the frozen world. It was in that moment that Spitfire noticed that Etraeus seemed a little surprised by this and seemed to be smiling, as if taking it as a sign that he and the others were right to join Elisande in defying the Legion to the best of their ability, before he switched to a new scene, a dark world that was covered in a couple of shadowy tendrils, a sign of the Old Gods and their corruption, though it wasn't long before a vertical line appeared on this world and it exploded before their eyes, causing the walls to return once more. Once that was done Etraeus gazed on the areas that he had opened the Observatory to earlier, as in the frozen planet, the Fel planet, and the Void planet, where he and the heroes noticed that all three of the planets had been destroyed and all that remained were fragments, or even nothing at all in the case of the Void-corrupted world, something that caused Etraeus to return this place to normal as he had Rainbow punch him right in the face, as it destroyed the magic of the Fel barrier preventing them from heading to the rest of the Nighhold, meaning they could face Gul'dan and his minions, not to mention free Elisande along the way, since she was trapped in the Nightspire.

While that happened, however, Spitfire thought about the destruction they had witnessed, as someone was destroying all of the dead and corrupted worlds in their universe, Fel and Void alike, and it certainly wasn't Sargeras based on what she had seen, as she had noticed a faint image of a humanoid figure who was responsible for the destruction, though she had no idea what it looked like, to which she sighed and figured that she would worry about it later, once Azeroth was saved and the Legion was no longer threatening everyone who called this world home.

Comments

[Gargon94]

So two of the three bosses in this part of the raid remained loyal to Elisande. Interesting.

[zachary12]

nice work.

[Blackdrag-rose]

10741278 Indeed. Aluriel appeared to be the most susceptible to the Legion's promises, as her wiki page stated that no matter how strong she became she was always searching for more power, and hearing of Spitfire and Rainbow's power would have likely lead to her corrupting her body for a big boost of power... Tel'arn and Etraeus, neither of them seemed like the type that would betray Elisande, so that's why they stayed loyal to her and joined the group when the Felborne were taken care of.

[Gargon94]

10741727
Cool, can't wait to see what happens in the third part of the raid.

[Blackdrag-rose]

10741801 All I can say is this: demons. Lots and lots of demons.

[Gargon94]

10741863
Ok

[Xarmar13]

And just like that, the worlds of Warcraft and Dragonball crossed over.