Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth

by Xarmar13

Interlude: The Sexy Huntress and the Loyal Demon Hunter

In the weeks following the invasion of Ahn’Qiraj, things have been eventful around the world of Azeroth. While things have changed, some things have stayed the same. Once the threat of C’thun was over and Saurfang returned to Orgrimmar to resume his duties, the racial divide between the Alliance and Horde returned. Though this didn’t lead to anything resembling an act of war, the two factions began to compete against each other for resources in Silithus. The two sides were locked in a bloody conflict once again.

It was several weeks after the invasion that another dark force attempted its own invasion. A number of Scourge necropoli appeared in the skies above several regions which prompted heroes of both factions to work together to thwart the undead invasion.

The Scourge cultists, led by the invasion leader, a powerful lich named Kel’thuzad, launched a different attack on the living by slipping tainted food shipments into ports around the world. These shipments were laced with a deadly disease that would have turned the population into zombies to serve the Scourge.

Unfortunately for them, Thanatas knew this event was coming and had no intention of letting this run its course. While she would have loved to see this plague turn towns into ghost towns…literally…and infect half of the major cities and watch the mayhem, there was too much risk that Sophia’s group might end up infected and irreversibly turned into zombies.

Thanks to the death knight preemptively distributing cures and vaccines to the undead plague to the populus, the disease was nipped in the bud before it became a threat.

With the plague defeated and the Scourge invasion halted, the Argent Dawn, the holy order of paladins, took advantage of the failed invasion to start a recruitment drive to gain more members for a counterattack on the main Scourge strongholds of Stratholme and the dread citadel, Naxxramas.

Years ago, there was one ill-fated attempt to invade the flying stronghold by the Argent Dawn. Among the attackers was the son of a legendary paladin, Darion Mograine. Darion was the sole survivor of that raid, but he managed to defeat his father, who had been corrupted and turned into a powerful death knight, and took from him the legendary sword, Ashbringer; a sword that once incinerated hordes of undead and reduced them to ashes. The sword had seen better days since it was corrupted along with the wielder.

Darion was entranced by the sword to take it to his brother, Renault, who was responsible for his father’s death as he betrayed and killed him with his own sword. Once Darion delivered the sword to Renault, the spirit of their father, Alexandros Mograine, enacted his vengeance on his treacherous son by decapitating him.

Unfortunately, the blade ended up back in the Scourge’s possession soon after that when Darion sacrificed himself to decimate Kel’thuzad’s forces but ultimately transformed the unfortunate paladin into a death knight.

Since then, the Argent Dawn had been battling the Scourge, neither side seemingly able to deal a decisive blow to the other.

Bella and Jaqueline learned about the recruitment drive. However, Bella decided against joining the Argent Dawn because time with them would have cut into her time fulfilling commissions. Jaqueline on the other hand was more than willing to join the Argent Dawn to fulfill her desire to liberate her farm from the undead hordes. Once she signed the papers, she called Winona and flew north.

While Bella wished that Jaqueline could have waited until she brought her friends together to say their farewells, she dearly hoped that the warrior wouldn’t get herself killed for her recklessness.

---

Quel’thalas, a beautiful kingdom of magic and home to a race of elves whose skin tones mirrored that of humans and were shorter than the night elves: the blood elves.

Although their ancestry could be traced back to night elf society, differences of opinion in whether arcane magics should be wielded led to an irreparable divide which led to the elves’ exile and, ultimately, a new evolutionary path for their kind. They called themselves the Quel’dorei; High Elves.

Quel’thalas remained an immaculate kingdom in a land of magically-induced eternal spring for seven thousand years, at least until the Third War. The Scourge forces under the command of Lordaeron’s betrayer and destroyer, Prince Arthas Menethil, invaded Quel’thalas and inflicted a massive blighted scar upon the land. The land showed no signs of recovery as the living dead continued to wander along it aimlessly.

As a result of Arthas’ cruelty, the kingdom was sacked and its ruler, King Anasterian Sunstrider, slain along with his council. The elves’ font of power, the Sunwell, turned out to be the target of the Scourge’s aggression as its magical waters were defiled to reanimate Kel’thuzad into a lich.

Following this tragedy, the survivors banded together under the leadership of Anasterian’s son, Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider, and cried out for vengeance against the desecrators, calling themselves the Sin’dorei; Blood Elves. Their society splintered due to differences of opinion on how to survive without the Sunwell.

Blood elf relations with the Alliance soured due to the actions of a racist Alliance leader who was seeking to reclaim Lordaeron from the Scourge. This drove the elves under Kael’thas’ command to ally with a group of naga and flee with them to Outland.

The elves who remained in Quel’thalas lived under the leadership of Regent Lord Lor’themar Theron, who had been thrown into the lion’s den in the world of politics. Lor’themar carried a heavy burden of leadership but was glad that Prince Kael’thas was able to support him, even from Outland. He also had his advisors to thank for their aid in bringing some stability to their people.

---

A young blood elf yawned in boredom as she closed the history book next to her. There was not much to do after recent events.

Not long ago, she observed the young adventurers training to protect Quel’thalas. Among them were the newest generation of blood knights who were paladins who gained the ability to wield the Light after siphoning from her people’s latest acquisition, a naaru.

When she laid eyes on the creature herself, she couldn’t bring herself to believe the thing was actually alive. From what she learned, naaru were beings of pure light that took the form of giant crystalline shards made into the shape of something vaguely resembling a lifeform. Perhaps that was wrong and naaru were simply bodiless consciousnesses inhabiting a bunch of crystals. She didn’t know nor cared.

The blood elf’s name was Feloma Brightbow, once a timid and reserved huntress who struggled to earn the companionship of any beast as part of a rite to becoming a proper adventuring huntress. She was still unable to tame a beast when she came of age to become an adventurer. Her accuracy left some wondering if she needed visual aid. Overall, she was a laughing stock.

One night of sleep would change that as she emerged from her home a much more confident person in the eyes of her peers and tamed one of the local lynxes like it was second nature. Those who watched her were gobsmacked by the sudden improvement

What really happened was that the poor huntress was tragically cut down in her dreams by none other than Equestrian Liberation Front member, Misty Wing.

In the days that followed, “Feloma” had not only tamed several animals around Quel’thalas, but quickly rose in popularity that she was greatly admired by those around her. However, this popularity was gained through underhanded means. She quickly found out that her pheromone powers that she had as a pony were usable in her new form. She ended up using this power to build up a fanbase for fun, until it was time for her to join her allies on their mission.

Over the months she trained her skills as a huntress, shooting the tragic Withered, blood elves who lost the battle to their addiction to magic and became mindless, emaciated shells of their former selves, as well as the mindless undead minions.

It was during the last couple of months that the period of isolation since Lordaeron’s fall had come to an end. The leadership of Silvermoon City had been visited by envoys the Horde, a relationship that sparked as a result of Sylvanas reconnecting with her people, for reasons that Lor’themar found suspicious. Regardless, the blood elves found a place among the Horde and the Horde not only gained another foothold in the Eastern Kingdoms, but were now able to match the Alliance in magical prowess.

Feloma was called to prove the strength of the Sin’dorei by lending her strength in ending the Scourge threat in the southern half of Eversong Woods, now called the Ghostlands ever since an eerie darkness overtook the area.

It was during the final assault on Deatholme, the Scourge stronghold in the Ghostlands, that the Horde called in reinforcements to assist her with the task of ending their leader. Coincidentally, they turned out to be her comrades in the ELF. Of course, the main reason that Lokosh and the others volunteered to go to the Ghostlands in the first place was to pick up Feloma for their grand mission.

They met in the town of Tranquilien where Lokosh and the others noticed the dreamy stares mixed with jealous stares and a few hostile ones sent their way.

Crystal scoffed, “Figures that you would start your own mob of fans while you waited for the Horde to open relations with these junkies,” she groused through their mental link.

“I see you retained your pheromone abilities when you took that body,” Desert noted.

“There’s no need to be jealous over little old me,” Misty replied coyly.

“‘Old’ is right,” Steel chuckled.

“Did you say something?” Misty asked in a dangerous tone. “I could have sworn that I heard the sound of an orc dying nearby when you said that.”

Steel said nothing else. He liked to make the occasional jabs at Misty but knew when to stop.

Being the veterans that they were, Lokosh, Talia, Groun and Farra’jin rushed the skeletal soldiers and mages, countering their spells with Talia’s felhound. Feloma was highly accurate with her bow and managed to get a few headshots on a few crypt fiends, which were undead spider people. Her inherent magical abilities allowed her arrows to damage the banshees in the Scourge stronghold.

Feloma’s pet lynx was also on a rampage. Thanks to Feloma’s enchantments, Autumn was able to harm ghosts as well. She named the lynx Autumn because it was her favorite season.

Despite being surrounded by death and disgusting blight, they were grateful that Thanatas had let them off their proverbial leashes while she improved her relations with the Horde leadership.

Before coming to Deatholme, Feloma had been given a few tasks to complete while here. She needed to find a few prisoners who may or may not be alive at this point and kill the leaders of Deatholme, including someone who sold out Quel’thalas to the Scourge in the past, Dar’Khan Drathir.

The elf in question was a tenacious one. His life ended when he was burned alive by the physical manifestation of the remnants of the Sunwell taking the form of a human girl named Anveena Teague. He was reanimated by the Lich King as part of an attempt to convert the recently formed Blood Knight Order to undead wielders of the Light. Dar’Khan was killed once again, this time by Lor’themar.

Now the group was to kill the same guy yet again. This time they were expected to bring his head as proof. Thanatas had other ideas.

Before they left on their mission, the death knight gave them a cursed dagger to use on Dar’Khan’s corpse. She never said what it would do.

Once they took out the other leaders of the Deatholme Scourge and rescued the prisoners, the party moved into the spire in the center of the undead bastion and fought their way into its depths where they fought the traitor elf. To ensure the battle ended swiftly, Feloma used a special orb that was given to her for the purpose of weakening Dar’Khan before the others finished him off.

Lokosh proceeded to decapitate the dead elf before he sighed and pulled out the dagger.

“Why are we doing what she says again?” Feloma asked.

“Because if she kills us, the mission is a total failure and Sphere will closely monitor any further attempts at infiltrating this world, making obtaining the Epitaph Fragments nearly impossible,” Talia explained.

“Oh, right, because you idiots got caught within your first few days in this world,” Feloma giggled.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to make that judgment if I were you,” Groun warned. “Thanatas has the power to see our souls. The moment she sees you, she will know you’re one of us.”

“Then she will make an inquiry to Twilight Sparkle who will pull up ya profile. You’re as good as caught as de rest of us.”

“And don’t bother using that ability of yours on her, I wouldn’t be surprised if she used some chemistry to turn your pheromones into a disease that would torture you until you scream for Celestia,” Lokosh added.

Feloma shuddered violently at that, “Noted.”

Lokosh plunged the dagger into Dar’Khan’s headless corpse which caused it to disappear with the dagger. He then stood up and looked at the others. “We’re done here, let’s deliver this head and wait for the next big event.

The group left Deatholme with resigned expressions as they had to wonder what they would be dragged into next.

---

From atop a darkened structure on a distant broken world, two figures observed the landscape, forever scarred by fel magics. An eternal demonic storm loomed over the region. From the summit, they observed their armies composed of blood elves, naga, demons, fel-crazed orcs and broken. The latter were a race of gray-skinned beings who originated from a world that the two knew as their enemy’s homeworld but fel energies mutated and disfigured them.

The world that served as their headquarters against their hated enemy was reduced to a continent floating aimlessly in the Twisting Nether. Some regions were scarred by fel while others still supported life. One region was constantly bombarded by nether energies.

One of the two figures observing the land was a male night elf. He wore no shirt and left his chest bare, exposing his glowing green tattoos that served as protective wards. His only clothes were a pair of baggy, dark purple pants with an ornate green loincloth. Cloven hooves took the place of his feet. His hands were wrapped in bandages and his eyes were blindfolded, though he could see all he needed to see. Some of his black hair was tied into a ponytail and a pair of large curved horns extended from his forehead. There was also a large pair of demonic wings growing from his back.

The other figure was a female night elf. She wore a purple vest that covered most of her body tattoos as well as a pair of navy blue pants. Her feet ended in hooves, though she had to wonder how they ended up cyan colored during the transformation. She also had a pair of wings like the male except the sinew also ended up cyan as well. Her hair was rainbow-colored, though that was because she ended up dying it because of her desire to stand out among her peers, aside from her impressive skills. Her hair was originally navy blue. Her horns curved back over her head.

Normally when one became a demon hunter, they needed to take part in a ritual where they destroyed their eyes using blades coated in the blood of their first demon kill in order to gain the ability to see what mortals cannot. Her circumstances for this were also unusual. Her first kill was some strange gray demon who resembled an armored Xorothian Dreadsteed except he walked on two legs and had hands, a red curved horn and a flaming black mane. There was also the fact that he could cast shadow magic which sometimes took the form of black crystals.

The battle was intense and the demon managed to score a few hits on her but her speed soon overwhelmed him and her warglaives left deeper wounds that he couldn’t heal because of the enchantment on the blades.

She emerged victorious and claimed his heart for her ritual. However, when she gouged her eyes using the blades coated in her enemy’s blood, the blood had an unusual reaction. Her eyes ended up undamaged but now they glowed green and had purple smoke coming from them. No blindfold could keep the smoke from drifting out. Though since she wasn’t experiencing any negative side effects, she forewent the blindfold.

“Tell me, among these potential candidates, are there any who hold potential?” the male asked.

The female narrowed her eyes to the number of blood elves and night elves sparring each other with their warglaives. Her eyes glowed for a moment before she shook her head. “Doesn’t look like it, Lord Illidan. Each of them have their own potential in combat, but I can’t see their bodies holding up very well to the fel infusion. I guess such a capacity is pretty rare, huh?”

“Indeed,” Illidan agreed. “But enough about that, what is your report? Has Kael’thas completed his takeover of Tempest Keep?”

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, but his security is pretty lax. He allowed Velen and his followers to hijack one of the keep’s satellites. He says that his engineers sabotaged its engines so I imagine he will be spending his time trying to reclaim it.” She paused as a serious thought came to her mind. “Are you sure we can trust him? I know you wanted me to learn how to cast spells so you sent me to him, but why? I got amazing combat skills and some cool fel and shadow magic at my disposal, why would you want me to learn how to use spells like a warlock?”

Illidan looked at the female and chuckled, “Let’s just say that I am preparing a contingency plan should the worst case scenario happen. To answer your question, I don’t trust Kael’thas. He’s too desperate to save his people and his loyalty could be easily swayed. There have been rumors that he has been making secret deals with the Legion and will most likely betray me. This is why I must prepare you for the future while he still conceals his true colors.”

“I dunno, after that recent mission, I’m pretty sure that he may try to betray you soon. There’s no way Kil’jaeden will take what happened at Nathreza lying down.”

“Agreed, Kil’jaeden’s wrath will come soon. Though I have no idea how he will do so, we must prepare for anything, including the worst.” He paused for a moment. “Raida Lunarwind, my second in command, you hold the greatest potential of all my demon hunters, a potential that only grew when you took in the essence of that black dreadsteed and gained a capacity for wielding powerful magics. I taught you many powerful spells and so has Kael’thas. You are the first night elf to forge contracts with demons and even form genuine bonds of friendship with them.”

If she were her old self, Raida would have taken Illidan’s words as praise that would inflate her ego. However, she lost too many comrades during the ill-fated attack on the Frozen Throne in Northrend because of her mistakes and her ego. Since then, she had sworn never to lose sight of herself again. She knew that Illidan was testing her to see if she truly had herself under control. As a result, she kept a straight face and thought little of her master’s words, even though every bit of them were true.

Noticing his second keeping a straight face and remaining focused on what went on below, Illidan smirked. “Good, you are prepared.” He looked down at the courtyard again. “With the Seal of Argus, we have the means of invading the Legion’s homeworld, but preparations must be made before we commence the invasion.”

“How do we know that Kil’jaeden won’t intervene before we’re ready?” Raida asked.

“I know he will…”

The duo spotted a blood elf climbing the temple rooftops through high jumping and gliding down with his demonic wings. He soon reached the temple summit.

“Report,” Illidan ordered.

“Lord Illidan, Lady Raida, I deliver ill tidings. The Dark Portal has been activated and a Legion invasion force has been spotted near it.”

Raida gasped, “The Legion is launching another invasion on Azeroth?!”

“Raida, take a few Illidari and eliminate the invasion leaders,” Illidan ordered. “Those ignorant fools from Azeroth will surely mobilize and try to push back the Legion.”

“Won’t they think we’re involved in the attack?”

“Nothing we say or do will make them change their minds about our kind Raida, they see us as no different from the Legion because we wield fel magics. We need to delay them long enough for our preparations to be complete.”

“So what should I do once we deal with the Legion?”

“The others will return to the temple, I want you to observe their progress and report to me regularly. If it becomes necessary to walk among them, do not reveal your true power.” Illidan handed Raida a necklace with a glowing green pendant. “This necklace contains a small fragment of my soul and is enchanted to conceal your fel stench and aura. It also provides you with a direct line of communication to me.”

Raida accepted the necklace and put it on. She then spread her wings and with a single beat, took off into the air and flew toward the resting quarters where she recruited a few demon hunters to come with her on the mission. Once they were prepared, the group flew north toward the Dark Portal.

Raida rolled her eyes as she flew slowly so the other demon hunters could keep up with her. She mentally complained about flight training being low on the Illidari training regimen.

Author's Note:

And now we meet the final member of the Reincarnated 6. Wasn't that hard to figure out that Raida became a demon hunter. Still, what a strange dreadsteed she infused herself with.

The biggest challenge I'm going to have this season is setting events up how I want them and having it make sense. Given the reputation of the demon hunters, that could be difficult.