Seekers of the Epitaph: Frozen Wastes

by Xarmar13

Magical Prison Escape

The Magical City of Dalaran was a marvel for the realms of the Eastern Continent of Azeroth or, as it is also called, the Eastern Kingdoms. It was built as a sanctuary for every aspiring wizard, mage, conjurer or practitioner of the arcane arts to study and hone their mastery of the arcane and every aspect of it. The city-state, before and during the Second War, was primarily populated by humans who built the city into a magocratic city state. The high elves from Silvermoon contributed their magical knowledge to the city archives.

In the past years, the city suffered from raids by the Horde and was once leveled by Archimonde through a strange dark ritual. For years the ruins were protected by a powerful magical dome while they rebuilt. With the resurgence of the Scourge threat, the city had emerged from its isolation and literally uprooted itself with the aid of powerful magic from the most powerful archmages of the Kirin Tor: The Council of Six.

Dalaran now hovered over the very center of the continent of Northrend over a small region of forest and ruins oversaturated with arcane energies called the Crystalsong Forest. The city offered relief and shelter to those who would brave the elements of the dangerous continent, regardless of affiliation.

The anchor point for Dalaran was set in a small circular room near the fountain in the center of the city that depicted several mages in a circle looking like they were conjuring the water continuously. Stella and Jaqueline exited the building with the latter looking around her.

The mage city was well decorated with smooth stone buildings with purple tile roofs and decorative windows. The square had eight tall topiary trees with several benches and chairs. Leaving the square, Jaqueline noticed the street that completely surrounded the square. Shops lined every inch of the street with a few exceptions.

“So this is Dalaran? Pretty fancy place.” Jaqueline commented.

“It is. It’s not as vibrant as the blood elf city of Silvermoon, but I like to think that it comes as a close second,” Stella responded. “Let me give you the tour.”

Stella introduced Jaqueline to the Magus Commerce Exchange which was a place for people to practice their tradeskills while being able to sell what they make. She also showed that the city had two banks and even a toy store for the little ones. Then she showed her the two sections that were recently reserved to the Alliance and Horde as rest areas. Neither of them were allowed to visit the Sunreaver Sanctuary since the Sunreaver faction associated with the Horde. Stella was still able to show her the Silver Enclave which belonged to the Silver Covenant who associated with the Alliance. The faction was led by a high elf named Vereesa Windrunner, sister of Sylvanas Windrunner.

“Where do y’all even sleep? Ah don’t even see any houses here.”

“There used to be a residential area but we couldn’t make the dome strong enough to encompass those ruins so they were left outside. Our workers did try to rebuild them but the Forsaken kept raiding the area and many of our workers died as a result. We ultimately abandoned the area after we decided it would be safer to create rooms in pocket dimensions.”

Jaqueline spat on the ground, “More like Sylvanas didn’t like a city of livin’ people havin’ a city in her territory.” An enchanted rag quickly showed up to clean up the spit and flew away. Jaqueline looked at the rag in amazement. “Huh, so that’s how you keep this place all tidy.”

Stella gave an awkward laugh, “On the surface, sure. The underbelly of the city is another story.”

“There’s an underbelly?”

“The surface is neat and tidy and nurtures a friendly environment. The underbelly is where the shady people go for black market deals and other illegal activities.”

“A hangout for rogues ah guess?”

“Among others. It’s also used for arena battles for people to place bets. The guards would rather not get involved in the mess that goes on down there so it’s practically a lawless society down there.”

“Sounds like a place for me to sharpen mah skills. Ah’ll take a look at some point.”

Stella rolled her eyes. She led her friend to the Violet Citadel where the Council of Six gathered. She spotted her former master, Rhonin, who she greeted and introduced Jaqueline to. She then gave her report on what had been happening on the eastern side of Northrend so far.

“At least the Blue Dragonflight have kept their activities to Borean Tundra, Dragonblight and here,” Rhonin said. “We still need to find a way to deal with Malygos. We cannot offer our full assistance to the Argent Crusade while the dragons continue to threaten us.”

“If it helps, I don’t think the other flights are pleased with Malygos’ decision so they can take some of the heat off of us. I saw some blue dragons fighting red dragons at Wyrmrest Temple when I sent one of my mirror images to establish an anchor over there.”

“So at least it’s only one flight against us,” Rhonin mused. “What about the other flights?”

“Unknown, I haven’t seen any others fielded so they could be remaining neutral.”

Beyond that, Stella didn’t have much else to add to her report other than the Scourge losing control of Howling Fjord. Rhonin had learned earlier that the Scourge lost a major stronghold in Borean Tundra. The campaign appeared to be off to a good start, but they still needed to remove the Blue Dragonflight from the list of problems so they could focus their energy on other threats.

Suddenly, a female mage entered the citadel out of breath and with a look of panic on her face. Stella recognized her as Lieutenant Sinclari, the warden of the Violet Hold, a magical dungeon the Kirin Tor used to contain dangerous threats.

“What’s the matter, Lieutenant?” Rhonin asked.

Once she gained her breath, Sinclari delivered her message, “We are on the verge of a catastrophic disaster, Rhonin! The Blue Dragonflight have breached our wards and are now opening portals into the Violet Hold. My men are doing the best they can to hold them off but if the dragons make it into the city we won’t stand a chance.”

“What about the prisoners? What is their status?”

“That’s why we need to hurry and eliminate them. The guards won’t be able to keep them from the cells. It’s just a matter of time before they release the prisoners.”

“Alright, I’ll summon reinforcements and send them to you when I am able. Meanwhile, take Stellaglim and her friend…”

“Jaqueline,” the death knight offered.

“Stellaglim and Jaqueline and hold off the dragons for as long as you can. I have heard about their exploits and I believe that they are more than capable of handling this threat.”

“Alright, we’ll have this threat contained shortly,” Sinclari declared. “Come along, you two.”

Not wanting to waste time, Sinclari teleported all three of them to the Violet Hold entrance where she ordered a guard to open the entrance for a few moments. The guard saluted and did as ordered, allowing the three inside.

The three spotted the guards fighting off a large group of blue dragonspawn and drakonids as well as a few blue hound-like beasts who had magic circles and arcane runes drawn on their bodies. The guards were looking particularly exhausted from holding the enemy back.

“This is bad,” Sinclari voiced. “I will have to activate a defense crystal to purge the room of intruders.” She then turned toward a ruby next to the door. She then pushed the crystal’s holder into the wall which caused a humming sound to resonate through the prison. Moments later, a large orb of pure arcane energy lowered into the room and unleashed a storm of arcane lightning throughout the prison. The dragonkin and hounds were bombarded by arcane lightning until their bodies gave out, leaving charred husks on the floor.

“These crystals are attuned so that no Kirin Tor personnel will be harmed by the defense mechanism. I had to quickly attune Jaqueline so the energy wouldn’t harm her. Unfortunately, these crystals take a whole day to recharge so you will only be able to use them once. There are five others in here if you need to use them, but use them wisely.”

“What about you and the guards?” Jaqueline asked.

“I really don’t want to leave you two to hold off the invasion on your own, but my men are exhausted and I need to get them out of here so they can recover. Once Rhonin and the Council reinforce the prison’s wards, that will be the end of it. Though I doubt that the invasion leader will take their time, knowing this. I will be back with reinforcements as soon as I can.”

With that, Sinclari led her troops out of the prison and locked the door, reinforcing it with a powerful warding spell. The two were now alone in the room for the moment.

With the prison in silence, Jaqueline decided to spend the brief waiting period talking to Stella while they waited for the blue dragonkin to attack again. Both took a seat at the base of the stairs leading into the main area of the prison. “Ah can hardly believe y’all accepted me so easily with how received death knights typically are.”

Stella glanced at Jaqueline for a moment and sighed, “It’s true that death knights are known to slaughter loved ones without so much as a second thought. Of course, you were a passenger in your own mind for a while. It’s a mystery how you managed to break free of the Lich King’s control by yourself. Hearing that you turned into a death knight, and based on what I learned about them from the Dalaran archives, I was afraid that you were lost to us and doomed to commit atrocities for the rest of your unlife.”

“And this didn’t have to do with mah newfound necromantic powers?”

Stella rolled her eyes, “What does having necromantic powers have to do with being our friend? If this is about Raida, which I am guessing Thanatas told you about, I didn’t trust her at first because I didn’t know her all that well. She may have been Flutashe’s sister, but I have seen families where siblings turn evil for whatever reason. Some dracthyr among the weyrns ended up going mad for some reason, though I think that was because of Neltharion’s experiments. Besides, despite my original concerns about fel, my questions toward her being fel-infused were more for scientific purposes.”

Jaqueline chuckled at that last part, though this did bring up a couple of questions. “What’s a weyrn? Also, ah thought that dragon was evil because of all that void stuff or something?”

“Well, to answer your first question, a weyrn is a faction among my brethren. Each weyrn is a sort of brotherhood so each member of a weyrn count each other as their brothers and sisters. It’s like an extended family led by a scalecommander. Overall there are five weyrns. The Obsidian Warders are the shield of the Black Dragonflight, charged with protecting the flight and allies of the flight. The Dark Talons are the commandos of the Black Dragonflight, charged with being the elite force that uses tactics to crush the wills of their enemies. The Healing Wings are the support force of the Black Dragonflight, using green, red and bronze essence to heal wounds and undo afflictions. The Ebon Scales are the assault force of the Black Dragonflight, unleashing destruction upon their enemies. Finally, the Adamant Vigil are the eyes and ears of the Black Dragonflight, acting as spies and scouts to gather information about enemies and potential allies.

“To answer your second question, Neltharion was always a twisted individual, the Old Gods just made him even more twisted.”

“Huh, so what weyrn did you belong to?” Jaqueline asked.

Suddenly, the floor looked very interesting for the dracthyr, though Jaqueline could tell that it was a touchy subject for her. “I never did get placed into a weyrn. Neltharion wanted to create a sixth weyrn dedicated to research and development, but the incident that broke his control over us happened before he could make it a reality.” She chuckled humorlessly, “I overheard that he was planning on making me the scalecommander of that weyrn. My intellect was probably why he decided to take my frozen self and give me to his son, Nefarian.”

Jaqueline placed an arm around Stella who leaned into her. “Sounds like ya never got a chance to be part of a family. Maybe you can count us as part of it, if ya wanted. Ya also got your fellow Dalaran mages to count on for that.”

That got a laugh out of the dracthyr, “Ha! Most of them are so absorbed into their research that they probably forgot the meaning of the word ‘family’. Though I suppose Rhonin is like a father to me.”

The conversation ended there when Stella sensed what was most likely the first of many arcane rifts that would be opening in this prison in the very near future. She quickly regained her composure and went on alert. Jaqueline quickly followed.

The two rushed to the rift to engage whoever came through which turned out to be a single hooded dragonspawn who channeled her magic to maintain the portal. More dragonspawn and hounds began pouring out of the portal in an attempt to bypass the two and head straight for the door.

Jaqueline spread a contagion among the dragonkin to slow them down while Stella unleashed her magic on the portal keeper. Thanatas had taught the death knight a number of useful spells that she could invoke through her runeblade. One of which allowed her to project a spectral form of herself which outran the dragons before her corporeal body caught up and decapitated the lead dragonkin.

The minions began firing spells at her which she blocked with an Anti-Magic Shell before draining the blood of her first dragonkin victim and firing bolts of blood at them. The dark magic infused into the blood brought agony to the scaly creatures.

After several dragonkin minions had died, Jaqueline gathered their flesh into a shadowy barrier to protect herself while she unleashed havoc upon the dragonkin up until Stella finished off the portal keeper and the tide of enemies came to an end. Stella managed to burn a few before her friend could get to them.

“I’m starting to get a sense of deja vu,” Stella remarked.

“What do you mean?” Jaqueline asked.

“You weren’t with us then, but the others and I went back in time to help the Bronze Dragonflight to preserve the timeline.”

“Ya went back in time? That musta been a strange experience.”

“We’ll make sure to bring you along next time the Bronze Dragonflight calls on us for aid.”

With that out of the way, the two decided to focus on a new portal that opened. The odd thing about this one was that it didn’t send out a portal keeper, but a squad of blue dragonkin. Jaqueline quickly infected them with a disease while Stella kept them from casting.

While the two were dealing with the squad, a lone dragonspawn appeared from another portal. However, instead of maintaining a portal or going for the door, this one headed toward one of the six occupied prison cells in the chamber. With how busy the duo had been, they were unable to stop the dragonkin from opening the cell at the bottom left side by the stairs. They teleported out immediately.

“What in Sam Hill is that?” Jaqueline asked as an ethereal emerged from the cell. Stella took a brief moment to explain ethereals to her.

“Back in business!” the ethereal proclaimed. “Now, time to execute an exit strategy.”

“That’s Xevozz, he’s an arms dealer for the Burning Legion.” Stella informed.

“Of course I would sell to them, fleshling, they are my best customers and they pay well,” Xevozz said without an ounce of shame.

“Rhonin gave me orders to execute any prisoners who try to escape the Violet Hold.”

“So how do ya kill someone made of arcane energy?” Jaqueline asked.

“Destroy the bandages and they won’t be able to hold their form.”

Xevozz didn’t have any weapons but he was skilled at casting arcane spells. However, Stella was great at countering mages which forced the ethereal to conjure arcane spheres to empower himself with. However, Stella stole that energy and let her friend have all the fun.

Jaqueline didn’t entertain any thoughts of inflicting disease on Xevozz, being what he was. However, with Stella keeping him under control, Jaqueline only needed to focus on slicing away the bandages. Even though the ethereal managed to get a few shots of arcane magic on her, Jaqueline’s Anti-Magic Shell prevented the spells from doing anything.

In the end, the duo was a bad match for him and could only look in horror as the death knight slashed up his bandages, causing his arcane essence to dissipate into the arcane energies in the air.

Although they didn’t see any more portals at the moment, neither were planning on letting their guards down as long as the enemy leader was still out there.

“It looks like they are counting on help from the prisoners to help them invade Dalaran,” Stella noted.

“Are they really so hell-bent on takin’ this place that they would let out dangerous criminals for it?”

“Malygos seems to think that mortals are the most dangerous creatures on Azeroth so he sees these prisoners as lesser threats to use to deal with a greater one.”

“Sounds like he needs the sense beaten into him.”

“Agreed, but we will have to focus on this for now.”

Two more portals opened. One was soon maintained by a blue winged dragonspawn and the other deployed another squad.

“Wanna switch roles?” Jaqueline asked.

“Sure, I’ve been wanting to let loose.”

Stella initially froze a number of attackers emerging from the maintained portal while she focused on dealing with the squad. She began using her more destructive fire and arcane magics in addition to her draconic essences. Jaqueline and the winged dragonspawn fought one another with their swords. The death knight used the remains of Stella’s victims as a shield to protect herself from the dragonkin’s attacks. Jaqueline’s shield was fortified whenever she drew blood from her enemy as that blood went into powering her shield.

She soon brought the fight to an end when she dodged a slash and left him open to a thrust that impaled him, followed by an evisceration by cutting open the poor dragonkin’s body. Stella quickly finished things on her end once the portal closed.

While they were busy with the two groups, two dragonspawn snuck toward more prison cells. This time the cell on the far right of the room was targeted while the other targeted one to the far left.

The cell on the right unleashed a core hound, which made the two silently agree not to tell Flutashe about it since they had to kill this one. The cell on the left released three arakkoa.

Jaqueline raised an eyebrow before she turned her attention to the core hound. “Ah can understand the core hound, especially when Flutashe ain’t around, but what’s with the bird people over there?”

Since Jaqueline seemed intent on fighting the beast, Stella turned her attention to the three arakkoa. “These three attempted to assassinate the Council of Six but failed. The ringleader of that plot was Erekem over here. Also, for future reference, they are called arakkoa. The beast you are fighting is called Lavanthor, by the way.”

Since Lavanthor seemed intent on unleashing a blazing hell in the area around him, Jaqueline focused on assaulting him with her frost runes, starting with infecting him with her usual diseases. She managed to roll to the side to avoid a blazing breath attack.

Meanwhile, Erekem was showing off his shamanistic abilities while his allies attacked Stella with their blades. The dracthyr had to raise a barrier to protect herself from their attacks while she delivered icy devastation by trying to freeze the two warriors. However, Erekem was a skilled support caster who knew how to free his allies from bindings. Any damage she inflicted would be healed by the arakkoa. Even worse, he placed earthen shields on his allies to protect them from further harm while enhancing their ferocity with a spell called Bloodlust.

Stella didn’t have much time to attack thanks to her enemy’s relentless assault which was beginning to frustrate her.

“Need some help there, Stella?/Wanna switch?” Jaqueline and Stella asked at the same time.

With both nodding, Stella teleported to Lavanthor where she bombarded him with icicles that drew his attention away from the death knight. At the same time, Jaqueline imposed her dark will on the two arakkoa warriors and compelled them to attack her.

Erekem was surprised that his allies would fall for what was obviously the enemy’s tactics. “No! No! Ra-ak! Attack the spellcaster! Attack the dragon thing! Aak!” However, the two were no longer listening for some reason. With no choice, he continued to support his allies.

Jaqueline knew how warriors fought and she could see the sloppiness in their attacks. It was obvious that these two were not nearly as well trained as her in that aspect. After infecting them with her Frost Fever and Blood Plague diseases, she found that Erekem had no real counter to this so he kept trying to heal them.

Things soon spiraled out of control for Erekem when Jaqueline got through the defenses of one of his guards and delivered a grievous wound. The death knight’s blade unleashed another deadly disease on the poor arakkoa which caused the tissue around the wound to necrotize and weaken the effectiveness of Erekem’s healing spells. The guard screeched in pain as his wound began to fester and spread into his body. Within seconds, the arakkoa went into septic shock and was no longer able to fight.

The other guard tried to defend his brother from Jaqueline’s attacks but the death knight used an unholy rune to spread the infection to him. The other collapsed from the shock and dropped his blade on the floor as he held himself and coughed violently.

Jaqueline was not a cruel person, but her abilities were known to be vicious. She wouldn’t let the two suffer more than necessary which prompted her to decapitate both guards to end their agony.

Meanwhile, Stella was having little problem with the core hound. Her icy attacks were the bane of Lavanthor’s existence as each icicle and frosty blast lowered his body temperature. A spellfrost breath on the beast’s back had caused the flame to dim. Lavanthor began to weakly roar in defiance until a Disintegration Beam blasted a hole in his back and burst through the other side. The core hound collapsed to the floor and moved no more.

Enraged at the loss of his guards, Erekem drew a pair of hammers to attack with. He empowered them with lightning and moved to attack Jaqueline. However, she used a frost rune to bind the arakkoa’s feet to the floor before she created a crimson magic circle around him that began to rot everything within the area. Erekem screeched in pain which was followed by a gurgle before his rotted muscles gave out and he dropped his weapons. The death knight ran her sword through his chest to finish him.

Jaqueline converted the blood on her blade into power for her barrier before she moved to sit on the entry steps while they waited for more enemies to come. Stella quickly joined her.

“Wanna bet they release the last three all at once to try and overwhelm us?” Jaqueline asked.

Stella snorted, releasing smoke from her draconic nostrils, “No doubt they will. Ichoron is a water elemental who resides in that pool of water that’s next to Xevozz’s cell. Apparently the mage who summoned her couldn’t control her and ended up dead really fast. Moragg is the observer demon on the upper level. The most dangerous prisoner here, however, is Zuramat the Obliterator.” She pointed at the large armored voidwalker on the second level. “Malygos is really playing with fire if he intends on letting him out. It took hundreds of Kirin Tor agents to capture him.”

They spent the next few minutes talking up until the next wave of invaders arrived.

That was when all hell broke loose.

If the enemy had not viewed the duo as a threat to their invasion before, they certainly did so now. Many portals opened up simultaneously. Stella made a mental note to strongly suggest to Rhonin about strengthening the wards around the prison because this was becoming ridiculous.

From the portals came five portal keepers while the remainder dropped off squads of Blue Dragonflight soldiers. There was no doubt that the dragonkin intended on rushing them and busting through the door to invade en masse.

Thinking quickly, Stella teleported to one of the defense control crystals in the chamber and activated it, unleashing a sphere of pure arcane energy that blasted every dragonkin in the room. However, the portal keepers protected themselves from the blast. On the bright side, the squads were decimated which bought them some time to deal with the keepers before they tried to overwhelm them again.

“Jaqueline, deal with the portal keepers,” Stella ordered. “I will protect the door. You may need to hurry because there are only four more of those crystals I can activate.”

Jaqueline nodded and proceeded to the right-most keeper first before moving from portal to portal. Stella brought all of her magic to bear against the dragonkin.

Thankfully, Jaqueline was brutally efficient in her attacks and only spent a few minutes at most on each portal keeper. Stella ended up activating two more defense crystals in that time.

However, as the two predicted earlier, three dragonspawn snuck over to the prisons of the elemental, demon and void lord and proceeded to open them. However, the dragonspawn who opened Zuramat’s prison bit off more than she could chew when the void lord quickly devoured her life force.

By the time Jaqueline finished off the last of the portal keepers, the three prisoners were ready to attack. Ichoron was a water revenant, an armored water elemental that looked like a chestplate chained to three metallic buckets with one of them broken to serve as a helm along with a pair of gauntlets bearing a shield and a sword.

Moragg the observer demon focused his gaze on Stella until a chain and hook wrapped around his body and yanked him toward Jaqueline. The rogue water elemental chose to go after Stella while surrounded by a shell of water. Zuramat stayed back to observe the fighting. However, Stella could tell that he was casting something but she didn’t know what.

Jaqueline moved out of the way of Moragg’s bile that he spat at her then he tried to lick her to coat her in acid. However, the death knight used this chance to slash the demon’s tongue and infect the wound. Moragg growled in pain but continued fighting by shooting eye beams at her which she avoided by moving behind him.

Ichoron would have proven a tough adversary for anyone as long as her opponent wasn’t a clever user of frost magic. Unfortunately for the elemental, Stella was clever with her ice magic. She ended up using the same tactic that she employed against Naj’entus where she froze Ichoron’s bubble and unleashed a flurry of icicles to shatter the elemental.

Zuramat could see that his fellow prisoners would not last much longer so he decided to get the most out of this by ripping the life force from the demon and elemental to bolster his form. Like other void lords, Zuramat needed to feast on sources of power such as magic and life in order to maintain his form in the mortal realm. Without either, he would be forcibly returned to the outer realm with his brethren.

Zuramat reached the lower level to meet the two in combat. However, as they prepared to fight the void lord they soon found themselves under bombardment by bolts of shadow that came at them from many directions. Jaqueline placed herself and Stella in a dome of anti-magic.

Stella cursed, “Damn, he must have been creating minions and cloaking them in shadow to prevent us from getting to them. If we don’t find a way to go on the offensive, he will drain us too.”

Neither of them had any ideas on how to get out of this and it was only a matter of time until the void lord broke through the barrier. They needed a plan, and fast.

Thankfully, they finally had some relief when the prison doors opened and Rhonin, along with a large number of magi entered the chamber. Rhonin quickly assessed the situation and immediately ordered his magi to unleash their spells on the void lord. Zuramat was bombarded by hundreds of bolts of fire, frost and arcane magic while the magi defended themselves from the minions by conjuring their barriers.

The force was too much for Zuramat. Being trapped in the prison had left him weakened and the demon and elemental provided some relief to his endless hunger but it wasn’t enough for him to put up a proper fight against the mage army before him. Before long, his form fell apart and his essence returned to the outer realm. The minions faded away with their master banished.

Jaqueline lowered her barrier while she and Stella moved to address the leader of the Kirin Tor. “Thanks for the assistance, master. I wasn’t sure how long we would have held out against that void lord.”

“I’m glad to see you are safe, Stella. Is every–” Stella watched in surprise as Rhonin and the mages were all suddenly left in an arcane stasis field. The two looked around but they didn’t see anyone who looked like they cast the spell.

On reflex, Jaqueline raised her barrier again just in time to avoid sharing the same fate as the mages.

“What’s going on? Who’s doing this?” Stella demanded.

“Tch, I was hoping to deal with this city’s defenses in one fell swoop. No matter, I shall deal with you two myself and fulfill Malygos’ wishes.”

The two turned to see a lone high elf wearing violet robes and an azure cape. Her slitted eyes had blue sclera.

“You must be the leader of this invasion,” Stella concluded.

“Indeed, I am Cyanigosa and I am Malygos’ enforcer. He has ordered this city to fall to rubble and he shall have it!” The dragon shed her visage form to reveal her massive draconic form. “I shall end you both here, aberration of death and spawn of Deathwing!”

As much as Cyanigosa wanted to end the Destroyer’s monster first, she had concerns for the diseases that the death knight could bring against her. She was not about to let Jaqueline rot her from within.

When Cyanigosa attempted to incinerate Jaqueline with raw arcane energy, Stella stole some of that energy away while the death knight protected herself with an Anti-Magic Shield. Stella condensed the stolen energy and hurled it at the dragon with explosive force that caused her to roar as her body rocked.

The dragon looked Stella’s way who teleported out of the way just in time to avoid another breath attack. She had to teleport again when Cyanigosa made it rain ice shards on her while raking her claws to attack Jaqueline.

The death knight moved under the dragon’s claws and summoned her abomination arm to wrap its chain around Cyanigosa’s left forearm and pulled her back. What shocked the dragon was that the human was stronger than she looked.

The reality of Jaqueline’s strength was her years of training as a warrior combined with her undead status releasing the limitations of her muscles, allowing her to surpass a bodybuilder in strength without the bulk getting in the way.

Of course, she was having a one on one tug of war with a dragon the size of a two-story building so Cyanigosa was able to meet the challenge. However, this was only a distraction which allowed Stella to channel her black essence to unleash a destructive magma breath that tore into the dragon’s back scales.

Cyanigosa let out a roar of pain which distracted her from the tug of war and allowed Jaqueline to pull the dragon off balance and fall to her side. The death knight saw the dragon’s damaged back scales exposed to her which she capitalized by stabbing her diseased blade into the opening.

Stella decided to give the dragon one last chance to save herself through a diplomatic measure. “Cyanigosa, you must understand! Malygos will destroy Azeroth if he goes through with stealing the magic from the ley lines.”

“It is you who does not understand, dracthyr. The well being of Azeroth comes second to Malygos’ will! His wishes are my wishes! If his plan is to destroy Azeroth, then so be it!”

“Are you insane?!” Stella shouted. “Azeroth is supposed to come first for all dragonkind! His actions will only lead to him following a similar path to Neltharion!”

“If that is the path we must tread, then we shall.”

Stella facepalmed, it was clear that Cyanigosa was so blinded by zealotry that she was incapable of independent thought. She snapped at the dragon, “I really hope that idiots like you are a minority in the Blue Dragonflight because I am seriously starting to question your Aspect’s ability to lead his flight if he encourages you fools to forsake your duties to Azeroth for the sake of this moronic crusade of his! Is he so shortsighted that he doesn’t see the consequences of his actions?”

“HOW DARE YOU! You dare question my aspect? He who has lived for countless millennia? He who personally witnessed the works of the Makers?”

As Cyanigosa struggled to get up, despite the infections coursing through her body and Jaqueline’s blade still plunged into her spine, Stella’s expression darkened as she muttered “Fool!” under her breath. “Jaqueline!” she called out.

Taking that as the signal, the death knight used her unholy runes to inject her necrotic disease to accelerate the attack on the dragon’s insides.

Cyanigosa used what little strength she had left to get up and fight back. She could feel her organs shutting down one by one. She created an arcane vacuum around herself to draw the two to her so she could unleash her arcane might in one big explosion. “FOR MALYGOS!”

Stella reacted quickly and grabbed Jaqueline before she teleported a safe distance away just as the dragon let loose her arcane fury. After that, the disease reached her heart and soon shut it down. Cyanigosa lost the last of her strength as she collapsed, her last breath leaving her body.

With the dragon dead, the spell holding the Kirin Tor mages came undone. The mages were confused by what happened since they were looking at Jaqueline and Stella one moment and the next moment they saw the corpse of a blue dragon, fully grown for that matter.

“Can someone explain to me what just happened?” Rhonin asked. “I felt temporal magic for a moment and now there’s a dead dragon in my prison.”

“I’ll explain when we get back to the Citadel, master.” Stella offered.

Once the situation deescalated, the guards and mages returned to their duties while Stella, Rhonin and Jaqueline made their way to the Violet Citadel.

However, where one adventure ended, another began. Once the three entered the Citadel, the members of the Council of Six who were there at the time introduced them to a human woman with shoulder-length black hair that curled slightly. She wore white and black robes with gold lining. A halo floated above her head. More importantly, her golden draconic eyes were visible to everyone.

Stella easily identified who this woman was affiliated with and knew that her crazy day was about to turn even crazier.

Author's Note:

On the bright side the prison is now empty and has a lot more vacancies which should be filled up again in about 4 years or so.

Next time: An interlude from the dungeon crawling to see what's happening at the Wrathgate.