Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned

by Blackdrag-rose

Timebreaker: The Second Scarlet Massacre

It took Murozond some time to actually pull off his endeavor, carefully manipulating the Scarlet Crusade and their history to make a timeline where they won, that the Scourge lost, especially since some of his forces were altering other events to draw in the heroes and distract them. Sunset found that he attacked several key moments that drew the bronze dragons in like moths, one being trying to stop Arthas from reaching Icecrown when he transitioned from death knight to Lich King, a second being altering Gul'dan's course so he'd stay with the Horde, especially when he left them behind, and a few others for added distraction. This time around the infinite Aspect had his distraction force pull out and not engage the heroes, as he knew that most of them would fall, especially since the heroes were far stronger than before, meaning they were able to pull out of their chosen points in history and attack another one. It had to be maddening to the bronze dragons, seeing so many infinite dragons attacking at the same time, trying to alter the history of so many important events, yet none of them had any idea that this was a ruse, to distract them from what was really going on, and the heroes were running around like they were chickens with their heads cut off.

Sunset had to admit that it was humorous and would have laughed, if she had the ability to do so, as the aspect of her that was the soulless killing machine was absolute, just as the Lich King intended, before she turned her attention over to the area that Kairoz and Mira were currently working in.

From what she could tell they could alter the trajectory of her entry into Azeroth, so instead of landing in Icecrown, near the Lich King, her alternate selves ended up landing in other locations, the first reaching Dalaran and learning about the power of the Arcane from those who watched over the city. Another was split in half, as part showed her landing in a chapel and becoming a paladin of the Light, even though such a thing sickened her, though the other half showed her being found by a group of shadowy priests that taught her how to tap into the Void's power. The fourth one revealed what would happen to her if she fell to the Fel's influence by being found by warlocks, showing a twisted demonic version of her that was eager to burn all of reality, complete with new tattered bat wings, spikes, and other additions. She found that the last one they found showed her landing in a forest and being tended to by some dryads, causing her alternate self to be transformed into the same centaur creature, even if they were mixed with fawns instead of horses, while showing Sunset that Life had taken an interest in her as well.

"So, all six Cosmic Forces are interested in me... I was destined to land in one, regardless of our tampering." Sunset said, a fact that caused Kairoz to nod his head for a moment, while Mira didn't seem to care all that much, but the amusing thing was, thanks to all of Murozond's tampering, they were able to make five other timelines without interference, leading to new worlds being created for her other selves, "Death rules my life, while the Arcane has wrapped around me, the Light aids a paladin version of myself, the Void whispers into the head of another version, the Fel has twisted one into a demon of destruction, and Life gains an unyielding champion to spread nature and enforce it's wrath."

The last one was true, as they could see the dryad version of Sunset running around, spreading the power of Life to every corner of the area she had landed in, before moving onto the Plaguelands, utilizing some sort of teleportation magic, likely attuned to nature, to battle the Scourge. To be honest it was rather interesting when she observed her other selves from this point, finding that there were aspects each of them shared, such as the fact that all six of them were brutal in combat, tearing through enemies like they were nothing, while also having started out serving some master, but, just like her, the others seemed to be plotting their takeover. Sunset smiled as she watched them, they were just like her and wouldn't bow to a force for too long, as no master could hold sway over them for long, but out of them the only one that seemed more in tune with their chosen force was the dryad, who spread Life's influence with every step. Out of all of them she felt that the dryad would be the toughest one to take down, if it came to such a thing, especially when she added elegant metallic armor, likely made out of chain mail that was enchanted by nature to empower her, that helped keep her safe as she tore down some of the abominations that the Scourge used.

Sunset was sure that the dryad had made a new name for herself, to show that she was one with nature and Life's power, and part of her wanted to learn it so if they ended up clashing, and she might slay her alternate selves to ensure she was the only version of her in existence, she could meet the dryad as an equal.

"All five of them are impressive, but she's on a level that's above the others." Kairoz remarked, as he and Mira knew about the dryad Sunset, given that they had been watching her as well, and it was staggering to see how Life was overtaking the version of Azeroth that was made by altering Sunset's trajectory so she'd land in a special forest, "If she's like you, Sunset, we might have created a problem that will come back to bite us when we make our move on the blade... we're lucky she doesn't have any bronze dragon allies, otherwise we would have felt her sting by now."

"Don't worry, I'll deal with her if she becomes a problem for our plans." Sunset said, in fact she was hoping that the dryad would become a problem, just to see which power was stronger, Death or Life, before she turned towards Murozond for a couple of seconds, who seemed to be done with his own task and stepped away from the orb he had been focused on for some time, "So, do we have a new timeline?"

"Yes, the Scarlet timeline, as we call it, has been created... a world in which the Scourge lost, and the Crusade is amassing for an assault on Northrend, to destroy the source," Murozond replied, which everyone suspected was the Lich King, even if that was false since the true source was far different than what many believed, before he turned his attention to Sunset for a few moments, "Are you ready to get the show on the road?"

Sunset nodded as Murozond opened the time portal again, allowing her to travel to the new timeline they had created, to which she appeared in what appeared to be the edge of Tirisfal Glade, on the western coast to be exact, and she was able to recognize her location thanks to the massive city off in the distance. In her time the city in question was a corpse of it's former self, the Undercity that was ruled by the Forsaken, though with the Scarlet Crusade having succeeded in driving the Scourge back it had been restored to it's former glory, to that of Lordaeron City, a bastion of humanity as they waged war on the remaining holdings of the Scourge. She knew that making such a timeline had to confuse some of her allies, as the blade she was after was still in the Lich King's hands at the moment, at least in her world, but she was here for two very specific reasons, unrelated to her quest to claim Frostmourne. The first was obvious, she didn't like the Scarlet Crusade and wanted them all dead, meaning this was going to be a massacre unlike anything they had seen before this point, while the second was a confirmation test of her runeblade's powers, to be sure it siphoned the anima of those she slew and that she could gain additional knowledge or skills by doing so.

In that moment she readied her power and found that she could still summon her deathcharger, where she climbed onto it's back and started to ride towards the Plaguelands, or whatever they had been called before being twisted by the power of the Scourge, all while finding several white stone towers that rested all over the province. Those were watchtowers that the Argent Dawn maintained, at least in her timeline, which seemed to be empowered by the Light, allowing them to keep an eye over everything and stall the spread of death that was trying to wash over the land. Since they were maintained by her enemies they were the first things she was going to destroy, where she found some crusaders standing guard over the first of the four towers, at least in Tirisfal, even if they didn't exist in her timeline, and found that her foes were waiting for her arrival. Of course she wasn't trying to hide herself, not this time anyway, though once she reached the edge of the first tower Sunset climbed off her steed and approached the crusaders as she drew her weapon, all while feeling that a val'kyr might be watching over her with some interest.

As the first group of crusaders approached her, however, Sunset called forth her powers, yanking enemies into the open air without giving them time to understand what was happening, where she slashed and hacked at the ones who stayed up in the air, as the others landed and regrouped to rush at her. It was perfectly fine with her, as it gave her more exercise as she exterminated her enemies, smashing through their defenses with ease as she confirmed the other thing she had experienced during the fight with the orcs earlier, when she cut her foes down their souls were marked by the runeblade and, more importantly, she stole their power. The anima stealing aspect wasn't something she had been expecting when she told Kairoz to have the blade forged with Frostmourne as the inspiration, meaning the smith added some power to it to make it like the legendary runeblade, or at least mimic some of it's immense power, but, in the end, she wasn't about to complain about the outcome. As she considered that one of the crusaders lashed out with a bit of holy power and Sunset smashed it with her own magical barrier, much to the surprise of her foe, before cutting him down as she turned on the rest of the foes that wanted her dead, who rushed to their deaths without even realizing it.

Once the first watchtower was overrun, and the crusaders were all dead, Sunset climbed onto her steed and traversed the land, where her magic pulled apart the tower, a sign to the other crusaders that their time was coming, though she found that those she slew were raised into undeath and followed her, a sign that a val'kyr was watching over her and, more importantly, the Lich King of this world was interested in her.

From there she made her way to the northern coast, to cut off the potential escape route, and found a harbor in addition to a few towns and homesteads, showing her that the Scarlet Crusade was planning on invading Northrend, with food and supplies being prepared before her very eyes. She found that two of their ships had their cannons positioned where they could be used on the harbor, where an idea formed in her mind as she rode into the homesteads, slaughtering the couple of defenseless farmers so she could siphon their anima and the val'kyr could raise a new army. As the undead ravaged the landscape, with the poor val'kyr calling for aid from Icecrown to find new leaders to watch over these new soldiers, Sunset continued on her rampage, riding into the harbor before anyone could stop her, where she heard the people screaming as they found a death knight ruining their way of life or their beliefs that the Scourge had been repelled. Sunset, however, slashed her way through the crusaders that were guarding the harbor right now, barely giving them time to defend either themselves or those they were worn to protect, and when some of the cannons were turned on her she used her magic to catch the cannonballs and send them flying back into the ships, blowing them away in mere seconds.

The gray val'kyr watched all of this with a look of shock on her face, for Sunset was beyond the power of the death knights and members of the Scourge she had witnessed in the past, especially since one being was capable of annihilating a whole village and harbor on her own, and the val'kyr reinforcements were equally shocked, but they got to work raising the fallen to serve the Lich King.

With the harbor in flames, and a new wave of the Scourge born from the slain, Sunset marched south on the massive city, swinging to the southwest to cut off another escape route and make sure that no enemies could send word about what was going on, before entering the city itself. Sure enough the people were surprised by her arrival and she wasted no time in slaughtering them, using her dark power to yank innocents to her so she could cut them down, enraging the crusaders in the process, which was the point as she slipped through their defenses and ended each one with ease. The terror came after that as the remaining citizens and crusaders watched as all of their friends, family, and defenders were raised before their very eyes, as new members of the Scourge, creating a wave of enemies that the defenders, despite their victories in the past, couldn't stand against, not with Sunset leading them. As she expected some high ranking member of the Scarlet Crusade ruled over the reborn city, showing her that her enemies had definitely seized control of everything in this land, to ready themselves for their Northrend expedition, but the warrior was nothing compared to her.

Such a thing told her that the leaders were either in the monastery or were already fighting the Scourge of Northrend, to which she finished off the last of her enemies and departed, leaving the val'kyr to raise the fallen before following her so they could see what else she had planned for her enemies.

The monastery had some warning of her arrival, as Sunset tore down their watchtowers and slaughtered the guards that were in her way, though even they weren't ready for the slaughter that had come for them, as she hacked and slashed her way through the crusaders that were guarding the building. More joined the Scourge as the val'kyr worked their magic on the fallen, causing them to be targets for the crusaders that were trying to keep the undead at bay, though she swung her blade and cut her targets down before anyone could do so, despite the fact that she noted that some of the val'kry were novices, in comparison to the ones she was used to dealing with. It just confirmed that this timeline was one that the Scourge weren't victorious in, as the ones in her world knew when to come down and raise the dead while these, in her eyes, were far too eager to serve and do their duty, especially in the case of one who must have been raised into her new form not that long ago. The figure in question ended up getting stabbed by multiple crusaders in the process, where Sunset yanked her back with her dark lasso, as if saving her from total death, before slaughtering the rest of the crusaders that were in the area, even though she also slew the annoying val'kyr when she got in the way, only to call on the power of Death to force her to serve the Scourge once more, to learn from her mistakes.

After that, as Sunset started to slaughter the remaining crusaders, she thought about what had happened and realized what had happened, she had the other piece of confirmation that was part of why she had this world created, she could steal or copy the skills of those she killed, even if the slain happened to be a val'kyr that she had killed in annoyance.

"How interesting." Sunset remarked, where she stabbed a female crusader, the last one of the group she had confronted, in the chest and waited for her to stop moving, though when that happened she pulled her blade out and let the body fall to the ground, before she gathered her unholy power and raised her runeblade, returning the souls of the slain to their bodies as she created the newest batch of death knights.

As she marveled at her boosted power, and the skill she had stolen in her annoyance, a male crusader of high standing, a commander, informed Sunset that he would destroy her, as he was the son of Tirion Fordring, something that caused her to simply kill him, his fault for leaving himself wide open, before raising him into undeath, all while wondering what might happen if she killed and raised a dragon into undeath.

"And with that, Tirisfal Glades belongs to the Lich King." Sunset remarked, where she enjoyed seeing the looks of despair on the faces of the newly born death knights, as it was true justice to force the undead slaying Scarlet crusaders to serve the Lich King as replacements for those they had slain before this point in time, "Listen to me: all of you are tasked with the protection of this province, to make sure our enemies don't retake it, while I ensure that the will of the Lich King is being enforced elsewhere... don't worry, I'll be back in no time to continue our war on the living."

She enjoyed leaving them in despair, knowing that there was nothing they could do but serve the Lich King, which meant listening to her and obeying her orders, not to mention fight their old allies, to which she found a more private area and used Murozond's portal to return to the present, as it was time to plan out the next stage of her plan.

Comments

[midnight arrow]

great chapter