> World of Warcraft: Burning Skies > by Blackdrag-rose > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prelude: A Strange World > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a nice day out in Ponyville, as the sun was shining and there were only a few clouds in the sky, where the residents of the city could see the local pegasi flying through the air and adjusting the clouds, if they were part of the Weather Team and were supposed to be working, while there was a chance of them seeing a certain rainbow maned mare practicing her stunts or other pegasi just delivering mail and other things. That was common in this town, as the residents were used to seeing all of that, just like the rest of Equestria was used to seeing it, so the residents barely glanced at the skies as the pegasi worked and went about their days, either heading to school, be they students or teachers, or heading to the shops to see what was available for purchase, or whatever they wanted to do with the rest of their days. Most of the residents in this town, like a good portion of the cities, towns, and villages scattered throughout Equestria, were ponies, who walked on four legs and came in three varieties, earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, where most earth ponies were connected to the earth in some manner, unicorns used their horns and their magic to perform interesting feats, and pegasi used their wings and weather related abilities to move clouds and do other things. There was a fourth type of pony, the alicorns, who had the best of all three races and had both a longer unicorn's horn and larger pegasi wings, and their powers were extraordinary, as two of them were capable of moving the sun and moon with their magic, and there were a few more in the land with powers that were also amazing. Spitfire, who was walking through the town at the moment, was just a normal pegasi who had a brilliant golden coat while her mane and tail were a vivid orange color that had light brilliant amber colored stripes, even if her mane was styled to look more like flames, and her Cutie Mark, the marking on her flanks, was some flames that sort of resembled lightning, a bolt to be exact. The reason she was here, instead of being in her office at the Wonderbolt Academy or training with the rest of the team, was because today happened to be one of the days off that she had and she had figured that it was time for a well deserved break, even if it was for a single day, and felt that seeing what Ponyville, a town she had heard so much about, was a great way to spend her day. Like all ponies, save for the nobles, she wore nothing and that was perfectly acceptable, though there were pegasi that came over to where she was walking and either wanted to talk with her, about getting into the Wonderbolts at some point, or just wanted her autograph, something that she gave out before returning to her walk through the town and took in the sights. Truthfully, there wasn't much to look at, as most of the buildings were similar to each other, save for some of the really special ones like Sugarcube Corner and some of the other businesses, before she glanced out at the large castle that was at the edge of the town, where Princess Twilight, the newest alicorn, not counting Flurry Heart, Princess Cadance's daughter, resided. It was a crystalline castle that was unlike anything she had seen before, and she was sure that all of the other ponies in the town thought the same thing whenever they saw it, and there were openings that lead to some of the rooms that were inside the structure, though from what she heard, from Rainbow Dash at one point, there was a table of some kind in the castle that was magical and sent ponies out to restore friendships to the rest of the land. She had no idea if the tales about the table were true, or the magical properties that it supposedly possessed, but she had to admit that it was rather interesting to think about from time to time, before she shook her head and focused on everything else that was around her at the moment, since there were more buildings for her to look at and more ponies for her to talk to. Of course there was one other location she wanted to check out at some point during her visit, the castle that Princesses Celestia and Luna used to live in a thousand years ago, a ruin that Princess Twilight and her friends visited every now and then, so she was a little eager to see what was so special about the old castle, hence the reason that she was heading in the direction of the Everfree Forest, even if it meant walking through town for a few minutes. She figured that it would take her an hour for a round trip, even if she didn't know the exact location of the castle in question, though she would be back in Ponyville in no time and could pick out the next part of the town she wanted to visit as soon as she returned, which was why she was so focused on the task that she had set for herself and nothing else. Once she reached the edge of the town, the one that was the closest to the Everfree Forest, she spread her wings and took off, taking to the skies so she could fly over the forest and not have to deal with all of the creatures that called this part of the world home, as she had heard some interesting rumors about the forest and was able to determine that flying over it was the best course of action she could take. As it turned out none of the creatures that lived in the forest seemed to be up at the moment, and if they were awake they were hiding under the trees or just out of sight, while at the same time Spitfire was sure that she spotted a glimpse of the local zebra that called the forest home, Zecora if what she recalled was correct, but it was hard to see if she was right and not a few moments later she didn't see the same signs that lead her to that thought in the first place. After that she returned her attention to the fact that she was flying above one of the most dangerous locations in the land, even if the forest seemed rather quiet and tame in comparison to what she had heard, and focused on pinpointing the location of the castle that she was looking for, since that was the entire reason she had even come to this place, instead of choosing a location like Manehatten or Canterlot for her day off. What surprised her was the fact that it took her probably ten or fifteen minutes of careful flying to pinpoint the location of the ruined castle, which looked even worse than what she had thought it would, based on what she had heard when Rainbow talked about all the times she and the other heroic mares visited the castle, but that didn't stop her from flying down towards it, only to stop a cave in the gorge that separated the castle from the rest of the forest. Not a few seconds later she landed near the opening and walked into it, mostly because she was interested in seeing what was inside the cave before bothering to check out the castle, as Rainbow Dash certainly never mentioned a cave that happened to be close to the castle, before she found herself staring at a tall crystalline tree, the same shade as the castle back in Ponyville, one that had six important looking gems in its branches... but as she looked at the tree she felt her world start to shift, almost like she was drunk or something, and before she even hit the ground she passed out. Spitfire honestly had no idea how long she had been out, especially since she wasn't expecting to suddenly pass out while she was entering a cave that was below where the ruined castle was resting, though the moment she was able to think like this again she started to feel the rest of her body waking up from whatever had knocked her out, only parts of it felt a little stranger than usual. What came to her next was her ability to smell what was going on around her, where she was able to smell some smoke that came from a fire, one unlike anything she had encountered before to be exact, which made her wonder if the ground in the cave had collapsed and she fell into a pit that was below ground, one that was near a source of constant fire or something similar to it. Her front hooves felt weird, which would make sense if she had fallen through a hole in the ground and had either landed on them badly or they were crushed by some rocks, but after a few moments she found that she could feel more with her hooves than she could in the past, confusing her as she finally forced her eyes open so she could see what the damage was and figure out how he was going to get back to the surface. That was when she discovered that she wasn't underground, like she first thought, rather she was in an entirely different area that looked nothing like the lands that existed in Equestria, or the rest of the world for that matter, making her wonder what in the world happened to her and if there was a way she was even going to be able to get back to the land that she called home, which was when she really focused on what was in front of her. She appeared to be resting on a blackened ground, one that looked like a wildfire of some kind had swept through this entire place and had charred it in some manner, where the sky above her was an eerie green color and seemed to be filled with black clouds, meaning that something had to have happened in the past, before she spotted the fact of the smoke, green flames that were erupting from cracks in the ground, and that was followed by her noticing the vile green lava that was also in the area, like a small lake of the stuff that flowed into a river. "Okay, that's not normal." Spitfire commented, finding that she was able to talk just fine, meaning that nothing was wrong in that department, though at the same time it meant she was regaining more of her bodily functions and that soon she could be able to explore this area and figure out where in the world she was, before she turned her gaze to the more immediate problem that was bothering her, "Now then, let's see what's... wrong with my hooves?" What she discovered was that her hooves, the front ones to be exact, had been changed into a brand new form, as they now reminded her of a minotaur's hands for some reason, due to the fact that she had five odd digits as well, though even as she took that in she realized that her front legs had been turned into the arms of a minotaur and that her body had been twisted in an odd manner. The reason she thought that way was due to the fact that her body was longer than she remembered it being, as she really did look like a minotaur now, only with her natural pony appearance instead of the rest of the minotaur horns and whatnot, while the lower part of her body was still hooved and she still had her tail, though that was when she used her hands to force herself off the ground. Not even a few seconds later Spitfire staggered for a few seconds as that happened, mostly due to the fact that she wasn't used to standing on two legs, something that wasn't natural for the ponies of Equestria, and, as she expected, it took her a few seconds to fall back onto her rear, which was the moment that she discovered that she had a dull grey robe on over her body, and that there were some weird lumps on what she assumed was her altered chest. At the very least her hind legs, which were now just her legs she guessed, were pretty much the same, she could tell that her tail was intact, and her wings were right where they belonged, with neither of them being broken by anything she had encountered recently, so despite all of her changes she felt fine, which was rather weird when she thought about it, before she glanced at the area she was in once more. Instead of trying to walk again, and falling on her rear like she did the first time she tried to stand up, Spitfire sat on the ground and looked out at the area that was around her, taking in the fact that this was nothing like any of the lands she had heard about, and when she looked up at the sky again she could have sworn that she spotted multiple planets or moons resting a decent distance away from this planet, even though they seemed far closer than her home world's moon had been when she looked into the sky during the night. "I'm not in Equestria anymore, that's for sure," Spitfire commented, though at the same time that was a hard truth to accept, that she had entered a cave, purely to see what was inside it, only to be knocked out by some magical force, which was followed by her being teleported to a brand new world and given a modified version of her body to work with, but it just meant she was going to have a hard time figuring out what to do next, to which she sighed for a moment as she took a few seconds to consider the task that was now in front of her, "which means that I need to figure out how to walk, before looking for someone that can help me get back home, though that might take some time since I'm not sure if anyone calls this place home... I would be surprised if there were creatures living in this fiery place." A few moments later she paused as the ground below her shook, making her think that the entire area was going to suffer an earthquake, which was bad since she was just now noticing the rather active looking volcano that was spewing the green lava that she had seen earlier, before something hit the ground near her location, almost like a meteor had struck the area she was in. What she discovered, when she looked in the direction that the sound came from, was an area that was on fire and happened to have a stone hand resting in front of the flames, but as she stared at the limb it pushed whatever it was connected to up off the ground and caused the bits of smoke to disappear in a matter of seconds, only for Spitfire to freeze when she finally realized what was in front of her. Standing there was a tall creature, easily almost twice her new height, that was made up of the same dark grey stone that made up the creature's arm, as the hands had been covered by stone, giving her a false idea of what its hands looked like, and were actually made up of some green type of energy that looked like the eerie green coloration that was in the sky, but just staring at it told her that this couldn't be a natural creature, meaning it was some sort of magical construct. There was the other possibility, as this thing could easily be a demon that had been sent to kill anyone that invaded this area, not that there was anything here for her to take or steal, save for an altar area off in the distance, which didn't have anything on it, but in the end her focus was on the large imposing creature that was standing before her. When the large creature stepped towards her, however, something flew through the air and spun right into the chest of the demonic beast, causing it to stagger for a moment as whatever it was dug into the stone that it was hitting, meaning it must have been created to do something like this, before it seemed to spin backwards and head back to whoever threw it in the first place. It was in that moment that Spitfire discovered a pair of what she had to assume were hairless apes, minus the tail and monkey parts, standing on the edge of the area that she was in and watched as one of them grabbed the weapon, for that was what was flying through the air, with their left arm, though that was when the pair rushed at the beast and ignored her for the next couple of moments. Their weapons, as she discovered, looked like a sword that had a second blade attacked to the end of the handle and was pointing in the opposite direction of the first one, which she had to assume was a double-bladed sword based on that, which happened to have a shield of some kind over the handle so that the wielder wasn't harmed when someone tried to break the weapon in half, or at least those there her thoughts on the matter, while noticing that the blades themselves were curved with the tips pointing near the wielder. She wasn't sure what the weapons were, but it looked like both of the individuals that had come to her aid were using a pair of them and moved like these were natural in their hands, which was bad for the demon as they jumped into the air and started to swing their blades at their foe, clearly ready to fight it to the death. One of the two beings that had come to her aid was more muscular than the other one was, meaning one had to be male and the other female, while the former wore nothing on his chest and the latter had a vest of some kind, though they had similar looking armor pieces and had bandages over their eyes, not that such a thing mattered since they were able to find their foe with ease. The demonic creature stood no chance against their attacks, as it tried to pin one of them into the ground and failed due to both of them dodging out of the way, only for their weapons to cut into its rocky skin like it was made of fabric or something that was really easy to cut through, and it wasn't long before the pair stood victorious over their foe, who had broken down into a pile of rocks as the flames that kept it alive were snuffed out. "It feels good to be on the hunt again, as I was afraid my skills were starting to get rusty." the female creature said, the tone of the voice revealing that Spitfire was right to assume its gender based on the shape of the body, though even as she said that she placed both of her weapons on her back, where they seemed to float just above the back of her vest, another thing Spitfire wasn't sure about and couldn't explain, though she was also turning to glance at her companion, like he was the leader of their little group, "Any signs of the warlocks that summoned that Infernal to this area, or possibly agents of the Legion that might have done the deed?" "No, there's no sign of anyone being here for the last couple of days," the male replied, as he had moved out into the area that Spitfire had been sitting in before the demonic creature, the infernal as they called it, had suddenly appeared and tried to attack her, though it was clear that he was looking for something that may or may not be there, even if Spitfire wasn't what they were looking for, "Whatever disturbance Lord Illidan felt was not the work of warlocks trying to summon more demons into this forsaken world, nor does it look like there were any agents of the Legion here, rather it seemed to be something else entirely... I would wager that the Infernal was sent to engage whatever appeared in this area and we intercepted it before it could even start its mission." "Um, that's good... right?" Spitfire asked, deciding to make herself known to the pair, even though she was sure that they had seen her and had been ignoring her for the sake of whatever protocol they were supposed to follow when they went out on these 'hunts', as the female being put it, though her statement was more of a guess since she had no idea what a warlock was and was totally lost when it came to everything that the pair were talking about, even if it was also in the hope that they would tell her what was going on. "Hardly. It means there's an enemy in this province that we know nothing about and that means they could be spying on our operations as we speak," the female replied, though that was when she and the male paused so they could look at Spitfire for a moment, almost as if there had been a line of dialogue that she had been waiting to hear and never got to due to the fact that someone had spoken before her partner could, but instead of drawing her weapons again, to point them at the other person in the area, Spitfire found that the pair were just staring at her, "though you are definitely the product of whatever happened here, be it a warlock ritual or something else, and that means our Lord will be interested in meeting you, since its not everyday we find someone like you in this world." "...okay..." Spitfire said, though she wasn't even sure what to make of the situation that she had found herself in all of a sudden, because it was clear that the world she was currently on was not her home world, meaning that she must have been transported to an entirely different planet, somehow, and that meant she was going to have to find her way back to her home world, how she had no idea, before she focused on the words that had been said as a thought appeared in her mind not a few seconds later, "So I'm a pony of interest, right?" "A person, to be more exact... even though we aren't sure what you are, exactly." the male answered, though his tone did reveal that Spitfire was right about part of what she said, showing that she did understand what the pair was trying to tell her, in their own way of course, but at the very least it meant that she might have an audience with someone very powerful, if they were going by 'Lord', only for the male to turn his head for a moment, "We should get moving, as there's no telling when the demons and our mysterious foe might attack us again." Spitfire said nothing to that as the pair started to move, heading towards a massive structure off in the distance, one that the flames and smoke must have been hiding from her sight, before sighing as she tried to follow after them, though when she fell the pair sighed and returned to her so they could help her stand, even though she had the feeling that both of them were going to be tired of her presence by the time they reached their destination. > Prelude: The Black Temple > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire found that there were a number of things to look at while she and the mysterious pair of beings walked towards the large temple structure that was off in the distance, giving her a chance to see what else was in this land and if there were other people, as the pair said, that lived in this province, even if she was still sure about the fact that no one could really live in this area due to all the fire, potential ash, and lava. Any trees that might have been in this land were burned and withered husks of their former selves, showing her that whatever had happened to this place had done a lot of damage, which was sad to see since she was sure that this place had been full of life at some point in the past and that there had been a lot of people living in this, but now there was nothing. In fact the only other thing she noticed, besides the temple, were a couple of buildings off to her right, where they looked like a mage's tower of some kind and had spheres floating in the air around the top of the tallest structure, like a planetary or something, where the spheres looked like they were made of some polished stone and there were red stones that were embedded inside certain parts of the structures. After that she spotted an area that was covered in massive blue crystals, something that was rather interesting and weird at the same time, but that was all she saw over there, so she turned her attention to what was going on at the moment and focused on walking with the support of the pair that were helping her out. What was surprising was that, even with her transformed body, she was able to walk on her own a little while they were making their way to the temple, though when they finally reached their destination she discovered that they had only done a part of their trek, as there was a long main road that seemed to lead to the inside of the structure, along with two paths that lead up to the upper reaches of the sides of the temple. From what she could tell the temple had one main structure and two wings, sort of like the castle in Canterlot and some of the other major structures that were scattered throughout the areas of Equestria, though it made her wonder what was up on top of the wings, and, interestingly enough, her escorts did head up a ramp so that she could see everything else that was in the area, even though it was more due to the fact that this was likely the way they entered the temple, without using the front door. It was during that moment that she found something interesting, there were beings that walked on two legs patrolling the area that had been further along the main path they had been following, before heading up the ramp of course, though they were much more muscular than the pair was and seemed more angry about something, along with the fact that their skin seemed to be darker and they had tusks in their mouths, though that was before she discovered something else that nearby caused her to freeze for a moment. There were several demonic beings, including a massive Infernal with blue flames that seemed to be resting, in front of the temple's front door, which meant that the pair that was escorting her had picked this route after seeing how she had reacted to the first demon she had seen, since she had frozen the moment she had seen the infernal the pair had taken down, before she focused on something else. The other thing she noticed was the fact that there were a number of beings, like the pair in front of her, positioned all over the top of the wing that they were on the roof of, where it looked like whoever this Lord Illidan was happened to be in the middle of training an army, revealing that there were far more people in this province than what she originally thought there were, and all of them had the same weapons that the pair in front of her were carrying. It appeared that whatever these weapons were there happened to be plenty to go around, as all of the trainees had a pair like their mentors did, making her wonder how many of them the army had and how they were producing so many that there were way more than there were individuals to use them, but for now, instead of asking the pair that was escorting her, she decided to say nothing as she studied the area they were in, finding that the temple was darkened as well, no doubt due to whatever happened to this land. Her thoughts were interrupted by the fact that there was another figure approaching them, one that looked more like the female being did, though that was the moment Spitfire noticed that there were some differences between the two beings that had rescued her, like they were two varieties of the same race. "Kayn, Kor'vas, it seems your mission was successful," the newcomer said, revealing that it was male, which Spitfire was able to gather due to the lack of a vest on the being's chest, something that was rather odd in her mind since the male creatures in the area by the temple's front door had been wearing armor over their chests, before the newcomer turned to look at her for a moment, where his expression made her think that he wasn't too happy to see his allies return with someone new, "Did you bring a new recruit to join the cause?" "No Altruis, we brought the product of what Lord Illidan felt back to our base, before our enemies could capture her and torment her." the male, who Spitfire had to assume was Kayn, replied, though his words meant that it was a good thing that they had picked her up when they did, otherwise she would have been in a much bigger mess than what she was currently in, before he gestured to the highest point of the temple for some reason, "We're also delivering her to our Lord, so he can figure out what is going on... it will be up to him as to whether or not she joins the Illidari." The other being, Altruis as Spitfire learned, just stood there for a few moments, was clearly debating what he should do with the situation that was being presented to him, as if he was worried that something might happen to Spitfire if she were allowed to meet the Lord that they were talking about, before eventually moving to their right to allow them to press on to their destination, like he was now sorry for delaying them. From there Kayn and Kor'vas, as Spitfire had to assume that was the name of the other individual that was standing beside her, basically carried her through an opening that was in front of them, leading the three of them to what seemed to be some of the quarters for the army she had seen, before locating a walkway that let them access the upper levels of the temple, where Spitfire found more and more chambers, most of which had to be taken by the forces she had seen outside. While it did take them some time to walk through the temple, following whatever path her escorts were following, the pair eventually brought her to the top of the temple, not to mention the fact that they had to walk up some more steps to get up there, before they finally arrived on the final level of the massive structure and came to a stop at long last, which was when they finally let Spitfire go so she could walk on her own and not be carried everywhere. It was in that moment that she noticed the individual her escorts had brought her to, Lord Illidan she determined, who seemed to be the same type of race that Kor'vas was, only he was far more muscular that Kayn was, he wore a sash and some tattered pants, while his hands seemed to be sharpened, almost like claws, he had large hooves in place of what her escorts had, green tattoos that had the same coloration as the sky did, large curved horns that made him look imposing, and large demonic wings to go with the horns. From what Spitfire could tell, just by looking at the being that was in front of her, who may not have noticed them due to the blindfold around his eyes, which some of the others had been wearing, Lord Illidan was a rather imposing being and he definitely looked dangerous as she took in everything that she was seeing at the moment, though that was when she noticed that his own weapons, styled in the same manner as the other paired weapons she had seen, had the same green glow on the edge and looked far more imposing than any weapon she had seen so far. "Kayn Sunfury, Kor'vas Bloodthorn, it would appear that you have returned," the intimidating figure said, turning to face the group not even a few seconds after they came to a stop, where it should have been impossible for him to see any of them due to the blindfold, but even as that happened, and Spitfire's thoughts were proven to be incorrect, both of her escorts knelt towards the figure that was now approaching them, "and that you have brought a guest to our sanctum. Tell me, what did you discover on your mission?" "Lord Illidan, I regret to inform you that we were unable to discover anything, besides this strange girl," Kor'vas quickly replied, not even bothering to gesture to Spitfire as she spoke, showing that she was more focused on speaking to her Lord so he would know everything that she and Kayn figured out in the short period of time that they were in the area that Spitfire had landed in, "There were no signs of any warlocks preparing a ritual in the area that we investigated, after you felt the disturbance and sent us out to investigate it, save for an Infernal that could have been sent to study the area for some unknown enemy we have not yet faced." "It sounds like the Legion is trying to gain a new foothold on this broken world," Illidan commented, clearly talking to himself for a moment since neither Kayn or Kor'vas said anything to that statement, or at least that was what Spitfire had to assume since she was unfamiliar with how these beings interacted, even though she knew who the boss was and knew that being his enemy was a bad thing, as she was sure he would crush her in no time, before he turned his gaze towards her for a moment, "So, you were found at the site of the disturbance I felt. What is your name? What plane of existence were you summoned from?" "My... My name is Spitfire," Spitfire replied, as the first question she was asked was rather easy for her to answer, as she would have had to have lost her memories to be unable to answer something as basic as that, before she took a few seconds to even consider the second question, even though she was a little terrified of what he might do to her if he didn't like any of her answers, despite the fact that she was trying not to show him any of the fear she was feeling, "and I come from the land of Equestria, located on the planet of Equus. Look, I don't know what you mean by 'summoned', but all that I remember is going into a cave, suddenly getting knocked out by something, and then ending up in this place, surrounded by fire, smoke, lava, and apparently demons... I honestly have no idea what happened to me, especially since this isn't the body I had a few hours ago." As she paused for a moment, mostly to think about the situation that she was in, she could see that Illidan, along with the pair that was kneeling behind her, seemed to be considering the limited amount of information she had given them, not that she really knew what to say since this was the first time she had been in this situation and there were no ways for a pony to prepare for something like this, so she decided to remain quiet as the imposing figure shifted a little, like he was getting ready to talk to her again. "I do not know of this Equus, but there are countless worlds out there in the Great Dark Beyond," Illidan said, almost as if he was taking the fact that she was from another planet without even questioning it at all, something that confused Spitfire since this was the first time she had even heard of another world before, hence why she was shocked when she first discovered the area that she had landed in, but she decided to say nothing to that, mostly so she didn't annoy Illidan while his soldiers were near, "It is not that hard to believe that we aren't alone in the universe, not when I was born on the planet of Azeroth and was banished here, to Outland, many years ago, discovering races that didn't exist back on my home world, though it would seem that your planet has escaped the Legion's sight... for now." "I don't like the sound of that 'for now'," Spitfire replied, though she had no idea what those words meant in the context of what Illidan was saying, especially since she had no experience in this sort of thing, but that didn't stop her from waiting to see if the three mysterious beings would give her any additional information or if they were going to leave her in the dark for the foreseeable future, even if she was beginning to suspect that none of them were going to help her get back to her home planet. "Lord Illidan means that the Legion might be able to trace the energy that brought you here and locate the planet that you came from," Kor'vas explained, almost as if she was explaining this to a new recruit for the army that was stationed in this massive building, instead of someone that had no idea what was going on and was totally lost when the group was talking, though Spitfire did get the idea that such a thing was bad, before Kor'vas sighed, "that means the Legion will be able to launch an offensive against your world and burn it to the ground, before converting it into another outpost as they ravage the rest of the universe... and, based on what I can tell, it would be easy for them to do it." "Now Kor'vas, let's not be too hasty. There is more to Spitfire than what you can see," Illidan said, though that was one more thing that confused Spitfire, mostly because there was no way the blind individual could see her or even judge what sort of skills she had, and she was basing that decision on the fact that his eyes were covered by the blindfold, just like what Kayn and Kor'vas were wearing at the moment, before he let out what Spitfire assumed was a chuckle, "Take her to one of the spare rooms for now, to let her rest and recover from the journey that was forced upon her, while I speak with Kael'thas about the possibility of opening a portal back to her home world... but if such a thing is impossible, and it very well might be, you'll have to get used to living in Outland, Spitfire." Spitfire resisted the urge to moan, as she was hoping that whoever this Kael'thas was would be able to open a way back to her home world, though before she could say anything her escorts bowed their heads and made sure she followed them, to which the three of them headed back down the steps that had brought them to the summit of the temple and headed down into one of the living areas that she had seen earlier. Because she seemed to be a person of interest to the Lord of the temple, and who lead the army that was preparing for whatever conflict it was going to be fighting in, Spitfire discovered that the room she was being given for the duration of her stay was a ten foot by ten foot space that actually had a rather well kept bed, a few pieces of furniture that included a dresser, a desk, and a chair, and a weapon rack that had to go with the weapons that Kor'vas and Kayn were using. It still surprised Spitfire that the pair were able to see what was around them, despite the fact that they were either blind or weren't fans of using their eyes, like they had purposely lost one sense to enhance all of the others, but it was hard to imagine that an entire army had done it, if what she had seen earlier was any indication. At the very least all of the walking she had done since the pair had found her was enough for her to gain the ability to walk without falling over, something she was grateful for since such a thing would have caused problems at some point in the future, though even as that thought ran through her mind she kept her mouth shut as both of her escorts shifted, like they were going to tell her something. "This will be your room for the foreseeable future, until Lord Illidan can talk with Kael'thas," Kayn said, where he raised an arm and beckoned to the chamber that was around them, even if Spitfire was under the impression that all of the rooms were the exact same and that there had to be some labels that revealed which room belonged to which member of the army, not that they could see them due to the blindfolds, "though while we're waiting for that to happen one of us will be near you, mostly to answer questions and to keep you out of the restricted areas, of which there are a few." "I fully expect there to be areas that I can't visit, given that I'm an unknown individual that shouldn't be trusted, not to mention being under watchful eyes," Spitfire replied, because some of the training she had gone through in the past, to become the leader of the Wonderbolts, had taught her some valuable lessons and it wasn't hard for her to determine the reason behind why they would keep her from the more restricted areas of the temple, just in case she was working for their enemies, thus limiting the information she could steal from them, not that she was planning on doing that, since they could be the only way she could get home. The first thing the group did, instead of just sitting around and doing nothing, was leave the room and just explore the rest of the temple, the Black Temple as Spitfire came to learn, though the name was either due to the state of the province that was outside the structure or due to the fact that these guys were allied with dark powers, but, as Spitfire found out, the Illidari weren't allies of the Legion, they were their sworn enemies and that they wouldn't rest until the demons of the Legion were put down. That was interesting to some degree, mostly due to the fact that she was surprised that they were willing to share all of this with someone who may or may not be staying in this world, depending on what Lord Illidan said after he spoke with Kael'thas, but despite that fact she made sure to put the information away where she might need it later on, since she had the feeling that if she was going to stay in the temple they were going to put her to work and that meant joining the Illidari. She wasn't sure about that, since she had no idea what the group even did, with the exception of killing demons based on what she had seen earlier, but at the very least she would have some time to come up with an idea of what she was going to do if she was forced to stay in this world, because from the sounds of it whatever had let Lord Illidan come to this land might not be active at all anymore. The most interesting fact that she learned from both of her escorts was that the Legion had three leaders, the ones who commanded the others even if two of them were nothing to the third one, and the two that the Illidari were interested in taking out at the moment, if they could get their hands on them, were Archimonde the Defiler and Kil'jaeden the Deceiver, two incredibly powerful demons that were the right and left hands, respectively, of their master, the dreaded Sargeras. Sargeras, from what Spitfire learned, was the leader and master of the Burning Legion, or the Legion as the Illidari had been calling them for a long time, and he was much more powerful than either of his trusted generals were, but as she thought about all of that, and learned more about the threat that the Dark Titan posed to the universe, she came to a stop as she spotted something interesting, there was a large dark green structure off on the side of the temple that was out of sight, and the only reason she had noticed it was because they had walked near its location. "What is that?" Spitfire asked, mostly because she had no idea what she was looking at, though as she stared at the odd structure she found that there was an image of some kind between the pillars, one that looked like a desolate world that was similar to what was outside the temple, save for the fact that it didn't seem to be filled with green flames and green lava, before noticing the group of Illidari that was returning from the area in question. "A portal to one of the Legion's worlds." Kayn explained, as he had asked the same question when he had seen that structure the first time, back when he was a novice in the Illidari, and Kor'vas had been the same way, in fact most of the Illidari had questioned what the structure was and why Lord Illidan would have something like it so close to their base of operations, "we found a keystone to one of the planets that the Legion conquered, where Lord Illidan will sometimes send a batch of newly empowered Illidari to test their might against our enemy's forces, even though there are a few times where our Lord will head out to hunt demons as well, just to make sure his skills don't rust. I don't know the name of the world that we gained the keystone for, but that is what happens to the worlds that the Legion conquers, they either keep it intact and drain it of whatever resources it has, or they shatter the unfortunate world and use its remains for whatever foul purpose they have in mind, though usually they house interrogators who enjoy snatching people from the new world they're invading so they can learn more about their new enemies and the weaknesses they might have. They're also used as staging grounds for the endless armies that make up the Legion, preparing Infernals and other demons for the time that they are called upon to do battle against whatever world Sargeras or his generals are throwing them at, so to wipe out the Legion we must either cut off the heads of their leaders or wipe out the worlds they have taken." Spitfire stared at the image of the barren world that was on the other side of the portal the Illidari had opened, where she took a few moments to wonder what would happen to her home world if the Legion found their way to it, especially due to the fact that they wouldn't be able to withstand an assault from the forces that she was just discovering, before an idea came to mind as she braced herself for what she was going to say next, which was perfect timing since it appeared that Illidan was approaching the area they were standing in. "Kael'thas is leaving for Tempest Keep, to ready himself for the future, but he has given me some unfortunate news, in regards to your situation," Illidan said, informing Spitfire that the being he had been looking for, so he could ask him about opening a way back to Equus, had been somewhere inside the Black Temple and that he must have been rather easy to locate, though at the same time she remained silent as she waited to see what he had to tell her, "without knowing the exact location of your world, along with being unable to contact a powerful mage on the other side to stabilize a portal between Outland and Equus, returning you to your home world will be impossible for the foreseeable future." "Really? Well, that's a shame," Spitfire admitted, because while part of her did want to go back home, and forget that any of this even happened in the first place, just staring at the portal to one of the worlds that the Legion had taken over and ruined, to the extent that the image revealed to her, there was another part of her that was much louder and it was the one that she was going to follow, hence why she focused on Illidan, "but, after hearing more about your fight, and what happens to the worlds that are conquered by the Legion, I have decided that I would like to join the Illidari and take the fight to the Legion, to save both my world and the other worlds that are out there." "Are you sure about this? Being a demon hunter, one of my Illidari, is not an easy burden to bare." Illidan replied, but where some might expect him to be worried about a member of an unknown race joining his forces, and the health of the individual in question, it seemed that he was more interested in making sure she could handle everything that was thrown at her, which was why Spitfire nodded with a look of determination on her face, "Very well then, tomorrow we'll start your training and get you up to speed on how to move with your new body and fight with the weapons of the Illidari, and make sure you have the proper attire as well." Spitfire said nothing to that as Kayn and Kor'vas placed their hands on her shoulders, from the sides to be exact, as both of them knew they were going to be some of her trainers and that made her a little eager to see what they sort of lessons they might have to offer her, though she knew the next couple of days were going to be intense and that she was going to meet them head on so she could help bring the Legion down. > Prelude: Training Day > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire spent the rest of the evening, as that was what it had been when she told Illidan, soon to be Lord Illidan to her, that she was going to join the Illidari and combat the Legion that was apparently trying to ravage all of the universe, though she had no idea how someone could tell what time it was given that she hadn't actually seen the moon or sun for this planet, save for the planets that one could barely see in the first place. Apparently, according to her new Lord, Outland used to have a red sun, but when the planet was shattered and set adrift, by an event that they would tell her about later, it left the area it had been resting in for some time, though the event also caused the inhabitants to change the name to what it was now, an interesting decision in Spitfire's mind, but one she wasn't about to argue with. As for telling time that was thanks to the blood elf mages that were allied with the Illidari, those that served Kael'thas and were here to help the Illidari until their own master called them back to Tempest Keep, though even as she was told that Kayn, who was a blood elf, sat her down and gave her an idea of the various races that made up the Illidari, with the demon hunters being made up entirely of elves, at least until she decided to join them and their Lord stated that she would be one of them. There were a number of races that made up the forces she was joining, as there were naga, orcs, the blood elves and night elves, the Broken, and quite a fair number of demons that had defected to their side when Outland was taken by Illidan, when he conquered Magtheridon, the Pit Lord that ruled this world, meaning the demons had sided with the stronger warrior. Truthfully, it was a lot to take in, though Spitfire figured that learning about the various races that she was allying with was a step in the right direction, that way she could identify allies and potential enemies rather easily, though she had to admit that the naga, who were apparently half serpent half elf creatures that were both strong warriors and powerful mages, were the only race she hadn't actually seen yet, since she had seen plenty of the others during the first couple of hours since her arrival in the Black Temple. Following the lecture on the various races that made up the Illidari, giving her an idea of who her allies were, Kayn moved onto another subject and produced one of the maps that contained the layout of Outland, as in the provinces that their Lord ruled over and the areas that his allies were positioned in, allowing them to prepare for their eventual invasion of the unbroken worlds that the Legion had taken over since their crusade had started. The Black Temple was located in the province known as Shadowmoon Valley, which also happened to be the darkest, bleakest, and most Fel-infected region in the entirety of Outland, something that was rather easy to believe based on what Spitfire had seen since she arrived in this broken world, before Kayn moved to the closest province that was near the one they were in. The area in question was Terokkar Forest, a province that contained a large forest, a dead area known as the Bone Wastes, a city known as Shattrath City, and a few other minor landmarks that weren't important at the moment, hence the reason that he moved onto to Nagrand, a land that was sacred to the orcs, even if their own allies were hesitant to explain why that was. There was also Zangarmarsh, a swamp province that had massive mushrooms and served as one of the major sources of water in Outland, as well as being where Lady Vashj, the leader of the naga that was one of their allies, was preparing her own forces for the future, along with Blade's Edge Mountains, the home of the ogres and Gronn, brutal monsters that were better left alone, even if Kayn was sure their Lord could convince a few to join the cause. Other than that there was also Netherstorm, which was the area that Kael'thas ruled over due to Tempest Keep being located there and was slowly falling apart at the moment, and Hellfire Peninsula, a grim place that housed the Dark Portal, the portal that would allow one to head to Azeroth, if it was active. Based on that information Spitfire was under the assumption that the portal must have been active at some point in the past, due to the fact that Illidan had come back from Azeroth at some point in time, though instead of focusing on that she paid more attention to what Kayn was telling her, since Kor'vas had wandered off to do something else, showing she didn't care about what they were doing at the moment. Since the day was nearing its end, according to Kayn, Spitfire found that there wasn't much for her to do, other than learning about Outland and the provinces that were near them, along with the races that made up the residents of this world, she was given the rest of the day to do whatever she wanted and found that a number of demon hunters had come back to the area that was right outside her room. She had no idea how many of them there were in the first place, giving her more than enough names to make it so she wouldn't remember all of them at the moment, but despite her odd form, something that wasn't like anything they could have possibly seen, the rest of the demon hunters actually accepted her as one of their own the moment Kor'vas informed them that Lord Illidan had allowed her to join his forces. Kayn also told her that the reason none of the other Illidari, as some of the Broken and a few of their allied demons also came to greet her for a few moments, was because they had all seen more outlandish things than a pony, a pegasus as she corrected them, being turned into some sort of hybrid between their original form and a human, who Spitfire knew was a native to Azeroth due to their earlier lessons, especially since there was supposedly a fort of them in Hellfire Peninsula, with some members of the other races that were native to the other world. With that in mind Spitfire was actually able to relax a little as the rest of her fellow demon hunters did the same, allowing her to listen to whatever stories they had to offer her, be they about the worlds they visited or the demons they fought, giving her an idea of the life that she had signed up for, even if it was probably too late for her to change her mind, not that she was planning on doing that anytime soon. When it was time for them to get some rest, to ready themselves for what the next day had to offer, Spitfire found that she had to figure out a good way to sleep without hurting her wings, a problem she never had in her previous form, before finding a position that had one wing open and the other closed, something that seemed to work quite well and let her get some much needed sleep after everything that happened to her after waking up in this odd world. Morning arrived by the sound of one of the more senior members of the Illidari, Kor'vas to be exact, waking everyone up so they could get ready for the day's training, and whatever else their Lord had in store for them, informing Spitfire that the schedule would be changed depending on what the scouts found, if they discovered anything of importance that made Lord Illidan issue such a modification. Breakfast, as she discovered, was mostly bread, water, some cheese, and a couple strips of meat, which Spitfire learned was from a boar and would help her maintain her energy throughout the day, given the type of lessons she had seen during her tour the previous day, but since leaving food behind seemed to be frowned upon she went ahead and ate them, mostly washing the taste down with her water and cheese. Despite her appearance, which was more like her old pegasus form, she found that her body was able to stomach the food she had been given and didn't feel sick at all, something that freaked her out when she thought about it, though she also discovered that she didn't have that much time to really consider the type of food that was given to her and the fact that her body could handle it, as once she was done eating Kor'vas walked over to her. What interested Spitfire was what was in the night elf's hands, as she was carrying a small crate of some kind and it made her curious as to what might be inside it, though instead of just stopping in front of her the night elf headed inside Spitfire's room and beckoned for her to follow, to which the door was closed not a few moments later, to give them some privacy. The contents of the crate, as she soon discovered, happened to be a set of armor that matched what the majority of the other demon hunters were wearing, a vest, a matching set of pants, some bracers and a pair of gloves, and a belt, even though it looked like they were forgoing the need of the shoes, which wouldn't fit anyway, along with dropping the cloak, shoulder pads, and whatever they wore for a head piece. "Since you're joining the Illidari, Lord Illidan wanted you outfitted as soon as possible," Kor'vas explained, though as she said that she set the crate down on the bed, not that Spitfire was surprised by this feat anymore since all of the other demon hunters seemed to be the same way, with the blindfolds and the ability to tell what was around them, before she headed for the door, "as such that will be your outfit for the foreseeable future, until you reach the level that Kayn and I are on, which is when you'll be able to modify it however you want. Once that's on I'll take you to Varedis Felsoul, one of our master tutors when it comes to training new demon hunters, though he'll be a bit rough and might knock you out, so don't feel bad if such a thing happens to you when you face him for the first couple of times." Spitfire was given a few moments alone, more than enough time for her to switch what she was currently wearing for the attire of the Illidari, finding that it was rather light and didn't slow down her movements at all, though once that was done she set the crate near the door and figured that someone would come by at some point in the future and take it, to do whatever they wanted with it, before joining Kor'vas outside her room. From there the two of them headed for the area that the Illidari trained in, the newest recruits to be exact, though when they reached the area in question Spitfire found out something interesting, there was an entire area with only a single elf standing in it, while the rest of the trainees were off training in another area of the terrace they were standing on, meaning her teacher wanted a personal session to see just how skilled she actually was, despite Spitfire having no skills at the moment. The demon hunter that was standing all on his own was one of the blood elves, as evident by his light blond hair that flowed down to the top of his bare chest, and he, like all of the other demon hunters, had a blindfold over his eyes, though Spitfire noticed that he wore a shirk of some kind that went down to the lowest part of his legs, though he did have black markings on his chest that seemed to be like what Lord Illidan had, only with a different color of course. His weapons were the same as what the other members of the army had, the demon hunters to be exact, but his had a red glow to them and made them look more deadly than they already were, though he turned towards them as they approached the area that he was standing in, where Spitfire had the feeling that he was Varedis Felsoul, the one that would be teaching her for a time. "Ah, you must be the new recruit that I was told about," the blood elf said, his tone informing Spitfire that he had to be arrogant or prideful to a degree, like he felt that his position among the Illidari placed him above the rest of the group and that no one could touch him, before he paused and seemed to study her for a few moments, "Truthfully, I don't think you are suited for the training that you will be going through, not to mention the fact that you'll break before the first day is even over... I don't know why we're wasting our time with the likes of you." "Varedis, you know that you cannot turn away those our master accepts," Kor'vas stated, showing Spitfire that this had to be a common occurrence in the Illidari, that one of their members had a big head and suddenly felt that he was the one that deserved to be at the top of the chain of command, though it remained a mystery as to why Lord Illidan didn't just punish him or pull him aside for his actions, since this might cause the group to fall apart, which seemed unlikely after what she had seen the previous evening. "Yes, as you and Kayn are fond of telling me," Varedis replied, where he turned around and approached the rack that was right behind him, like he was looking for something specific that could only be found with the rest of the weapons, only for him to pull out a pair of what appeared to be wooden swords, practice blades Spitfire guessed, and she found that each one was about the total length of one of her arms, just like the blades that the demon hunters used, before Varedis turned and tossed them over to her, "Here, these will serve as your practice blades, until you are ready to actually use the warglaives that you'll be using for the rest of your life, provided that you actually survive your lessons... I will give you one minute to get a feel for how to use those weapons, but once that minute is up I'm starting the first session." Spitfire, while curious about where in the world they were able to acquire the wood to make practice weapons and all of the other stuff she had seen, even if she was sure the wood was from the nearby forest, realized that Varedis seemed to consider the task of training others to be beneath him and that he really didn't care about it at all, especially since he was giving her such little time to get used to the wooden swords, which she had to pick up since she wasn't expecting them to be thrown at her like that, but she did find that they were rather light and likely very durable. "Training begins now!" Varedis stated, his voice snapping Spitfire out of her thoughts rather quickly, mostly since that meant the minute she had been given to prepare herself had been the longest minute she had experienced in a long time, possibly in her entire life based on all the flight training she had done in the past, though before she could even react to what was happening her instructor appeared in front of her, not holding any of the training weapons at all, and punched her in the chest, hard enough to make her drop her training weapons on the ground and then fell to her knees not a few seconds later, causing Varedis to frown, "You weren't ready." "Really, Varedis? You couldn't wait a few days to do something like this?" Kor'vas asked, her tone revealing that what had just happened had to be a common occurrence when new recruits were starting their training, that this one mentor would do something like this to test those that had been assigned to him and that it usually resulted in whoever he struck falling to the ground for a time, though at the same time Spitfire could tell that she wasn't all that annoyed by what had just happened, only disappointed in Varedis. "I did it to test her reflexes and her attack speed, and she's got nothing." Varedis replied, though this time around he did seem disappointed in what had happened, as if he had been expecting Spitfire, who was a brand new species to the members of the Illidari and the other residents of the Black Temple, to be much stronger than this and to have reflexes that were more attuned, like a senior member of the group she had joined, before he shook his head, "She won't be able to survive a week with her current abilities... I have no idea why I'm being told to waste my time on her..." Spitfire, in that moment, growled as she pushed herself back up and then, before either Varedis or Kor'vas could do anything to stop her, she rushed forward and threw her fist into her instructor's face, knocking him backwards for a few seconds as she huffed, though Varedis did have to rub the area that she had struck and seemed to be annoyed by what she had done, even if she was pretty happy to have returned the favor and made him pay for hitting her with such a cheap shot at the start of her first training session. "She has a fire that you cannot extinguish, or so I have been told." Kor'vas said, but even then Spitfire noticed that she had a light smirk on her face, as if she believed that Varedis needed someone to knock his block off and set him straight, or at least attempt to do so, though that was when she walked over to where Spitfire was standing, "That was a good blow he dealt, but, despite all of it, you don't seem to be all that injured. So, do you feel like continuing, or would you rather take a break and come back later?" "I'm good to go," Spitfire replied, and that was the truth of the matter, because while that punch had taken a bit out of her and her energy, even if it forced her to lay on the ground for a moment or two, she found that she was still good to go and that she was willing to continue the training session that was being offered to her, even if punching Varedis in the face was going to complicate things to some degree, not that she had a problem with that since she had faced some terrible flight instructors in the past, so this was nothing new to her to deal with. Spitfire found that Varedis, despite whatever anger he might be feeling towards her at the moment, restrained his desire to get back at her and simply allowed her to pick up her wooden practice blades again, where he walked around the area that she was going to be practicing in and adjusted her stance a few times, moving her legs and arms a few times so they matched the placement of how the rest of the Illidari stood with their weapons drawn. Of course he did nothing with her tail or her wings, mostly due to the fact that he either had no experience with those parts of her body or this was a way for him to mess with her, but once he was done messing with her body he pulled out his own warglaives again, which had been resting on his back while they were standing there, how Spitfire wasn't sure since Varedis was wearing nothing over his chest, though Kor'vas said nothing about that as the real training started. For now the lessons revolved around how to move with the weapons she had been given and going through the motions that all of the other demon hunters used to take down demons, even though they were allowed to change it up when they completed their training, though for the former she was given her own pair of warglaives, light weapons that could clearly cut through any demon she happened upon, while the latter was spent using the practice blades. The reason for that was because they wanted her to get used to the movements so she didn't accidentally cut herself or those that were around her, though when she was allowed to use her new weapons it was mostly to walk around the area they were standing in, to get used to their weight before actually fighting the dummies that the Illidari practiced on. While that was happening Spitfire noticed that Kayn came into the area that they were in and seemed to inquire as to how the first day of training was going, where it wasn't long before Kor'vas informed him of what happened during the first few moments of the session, Varedis attacking her while she wasn't ready and then getting punched in the face when he declared that he felt that training her was a waste of time. From what Spitfire observed Varedis wasn't happy about the pair talking about him like that, nor was he happy with the fact that Kayn did chuckle after hearing that, even though it did seem like they might be friends to some degree, but that was just fine with her since it allowed her more time to focus on what she was doing and less on whatever tricks her mentor had in store for her. Another thing she learned was that some of her lessons might need to be shifted at some point, as the only one that would be able to teach her how to hunt, as the Illidari seemed to call it at times, was Lord Illidan himself, which made since considering that he was the only other winged creature in the Black Temple that walked on two legs, though she felt that such a thing might not happen since he was the Lord of Outland and that he might not have the time to do such a thing. Despite that fact, however, Spitfire poured her energy into mastering the basic training that was being thrown at her, so she could prove to the senior members of the group she had joined that she wasn't messing around and that she had the skill necessary to match what the others had, though she did have some military experience thanks to her former position as head of the Wonderbolts, as that was a position that would be filled in no time, especially since it appeared that she wasn't going to be returning home anytime soon, hence why she devoted herself to the lessons she was being given. What was interesting was that she was sure that Lord Illidan had been watching her at some point during her training session, as there was a moment where she felt someone's eyes on her and had to pause for a moment, not that she had seen anything when she glanced around the area, even though it could have easily been the other trainees that she would be joining in the future, but she was positive in who she thought it was and kept that to herself, as she was sure that Kayn and the others had felt the same thing and didn't want to distract her from her lessons. Other than getting the feeling that someone was watching her, and that she knew who it was by the reactions of those that were around her, Spitfire's first day of training continued without nothing special happening to her, meaning she was able to continue switching from carrying the warglaives around and swinging her practice blades, along with spending a few minutes every now and then getting used to how she was supposed to walk, which was becoming easier and easier as time went on. She was sure that, by the end of her second day in Outland, which happened to be her first training day, she would be able to walk in her strange pony-human hybrid form without anything bad happening, allowing her to focus her attention on the more important lessons, which were the combat training and, eventually, flying around the temple and the rest of Shadowmoon Valley with her wings, something she was going to have to relearn at some point, since she was sure a few things had changed since she had come to this world. Once all of those lessons were complete she would turn her attention to the more demanding lessons that Varedis might have for her and the other trainees, which might include how to kill the various types of demons that made up the forces of the Legion, which would come in handy once the Illidari started attacking the locations that the Legion controlled, once Lord Illidan deemed them ready for whatever he happened to be planning at that very moment. One thing was certain, she was going to prove herself to the rest of the Illidari and show Lord Illidan that she was able to withstand whatever burdens the demon hunters had to take on, all for the sake of the rest of the universe, and that also included her home world as well, as she wasn't going to rest until Azeroth and Equus were safe and the Legion had been brought down. > Prelude: Into the Field > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A week had gone by since Spitfire had found herself in the strange land known as Outland and had been taken to the Black Temple by Kayn and Kor'vas, where she encountered the lord of the ruined world, Illidan Stormrage, and joined his forces, the Illidari, so she could help them combat the Legion and save all of creation from their crusade across the stars, killing any that stood in their path as they conquered the planets that were in their way. Spitfire had spent her time learning the basics on how to fight like an Illidari, how to move like the rest of the demon hunters, and how to walk with her new body so she didn't fall over in the heat of battle, allowing her to walk like this had been her form since the day she was born, even though it was different from her original pegasus form that she had been used to. In addition to her actual lessons Spitfire learned more about the other races that made up Lord Illidan's forced, as in the orcs that were hanging outside the front of the temple, with their huts and their dark purple scaled dragons that were apparently their mounts, meaning that the front entrance was guarded against invaders, as there were a few factions out there that did want to bring them down, despite the fact that they didn't have the means to do so yet. In addition to the blood elves and night elves, along with the few members of the Broken that she had seen, Spitfire also had the chance to see the naga that were their allies, where the males were bulkier than the ladies were and seemed to be the warriors, while the ladies, who had four arms instead of the usual two, seemed to be the magic users. Spitfire had to admit that she had never seen creatures like the naga before, but at the same time she wasn't about to complain, as they were here to help them take down the Legion and save the rest of the universe from being wiped out, just like all of the other races that were part of the Illidari, though the fel orcs were another matter, since they seemed to have been following the orders of the demon that Lord Illidan killed, so he got them along with the land he ruled over, but they seemed to be in the mood for a fight and nothing else. She did learn that there were members of the Alliance and Horde stationed in Hellfire Peninsula, guarding the bases they had established nearly twenty years ago when the Dark Portal was opened and they chose to remain on this side to make sure no one used it again, or at least that seemed to be the gist of the information she had learned, and there might be more scattered throughout the other provinces, but for now they weren't a threat, hence why Lord Illidan had spies to study their movements, just in case the situation changed. Spitfire was sure that if the Dark Portal was reopened, which might be possible due to there being a powerful demon somewhere in the same province as the magical gateway that connected Outland to Azeroth, Lord Illidan would feel it and would likely start preparing for whatever happened next, be it them trying to talk to the two factions or readying their defenses in case they were attacked. Of course she was hoping for the latter, where they could try and convince the two factions that they weren't enemies and that they could benefit from combining their forces into a single force, at least until the Legion was taken care of, but for now that rested in the back of her mind as she focused on her lessons, since there was no use worrying about something that wasn't happening. The rest of the Illidari, especially the blood elves and night elves, didn't share her opinions on the matter, clearly thinking about the fact that the two factions didn't like each other all that much, but she didn't let that get in the way of her considering the peaceful option, even if such a thing didn't exist when one thought about the Legion, because she was sure that there might be some way to get the Alliance and Horde to stop whatever feud was between them. There was one major change to her training sessions after the first day, which was Lord Illidan taking the time to show her how he fought, due to him having wings as well, giving her several pointers and demonstrations on how one fought with wings and how to avoid doing damage to their own limbs, something that caught Spitfire off guard since she wasn't expecting him to go out of his way to do for a newcomer like her. She also discovered that there was more to the sessions than what she originally thought, as he did seem interested in the world that she came from and asked about the life she had, before being brought to Outland, and so Spitfire told him about some of the cities she had been to, the training that she went through to become a Wonderbolt, how she became the leader of the group, and a few of the events that had happened since the return of Nightmare Moon, a pony they had thought to be nothing more than a story. As it turned out he was rather interested in everything she had to talk about, as whenever they stopped their actual training he would have her relax and just talk, no doubt to let her cool off and prepare for what was coming next, be it another round with him or a session with Varedis and the other trainees, who, despite what she had worried about, weren't annoyed that she was spending a few hours with their Lord, rather it appeared that they expected it to happen and were okay with it, even if she was weirded out by their actions. Still, the couple of chats reminded her of what she was fighting for, as in all the ponies and creatures back home, in addition to the worlds that she was only just discovering, and she was happy to go through with them whenever she trained with Lord Illidan, even if she had to wonder if there was another reason as to why he was asking her questions about her home world. In the end, however, she decided that it wasn't worth worrying about, since he was trying to save the universe and was entitled to have some interests in the worlds that he and his forces encountered on their quest to stop the Legion, so Spitfire focused her efforts on going through the lessons that were being offered to her and making sure she was ready for whatever the future held. It was during the morning of her eighth day in Outland, after spending seven days training with the Illidari mentors and even Lord Illidan, that Spitfire felt that she had a good grasp of the basics on how to fight like one of the demon hunters that lived in the Black Temple, though at the same time she knew that there was plenty of room for improvement, since a week was barely enough to allow her to make any real progress, but it was a start. Some of the other trainees, as she soon found out, were actually impressed by her current skills and pushed themselves to at least learn at the same pace that she was doing at the moment, to show their mentors that they would not be done in my someone that just joined them, even if she was only tackling the lessons like that to catch up to those that were ahead of her. Fortunately such a thing didn't mess with the mentors at all, rather some of them even seemed happy by the fact that Spitfire was encouraging the others to do so well, but none of them flat out said such a thing and seemed to keep their opinions to themselves, which was fine since Spitfire was used to all of the Illidari keeping most of their feelings to themselves, with a few even appearing to be totally emotionless to others at times. Almost all of the Illidari, be they demon hunters, naga, or the other demons that had joined them after their previous leader's defeat, seemed annoyed at the Legion, something she understood after a few days of just being near several members of the group, meaning that some of them must have lost their friends or their family to the Legion, but she decided not to bring it up at all, just in case that anger was directed at her for a few moments, or something similar to that anyway. It was when she was training with Varedis, this time without any supervision since Kayn and Kor'vas knew she could handle herself quite well, that Spitfire found the session interrupted not by enemy forces coming near the temple and an alarm being sounded, like she would have expected, rather Kor'vas stopped Varedis in the early stages of the lesson and a quick glare from her was enough to make him growl and walk away for a moment. "Spitfire, Lord Illidan has called for you, Kayn, and I to join him at the temple's summit." Kor'vas stated, where her tone revealed that it was likely a mission that they were going to be assigned, though at the same time Spitfire found it a little odd that she might be doing something like this so soon after joining the Illidari, especially with her lack of overall skills due to this being the start of her training, but at the same time if their Lord was calling on her there was no arguing with what she was hearing at the moment. Instead of arguing, and trying to figure out what was going on, Spitfire nodded her head and followed after Kor'vas as she led the way to the temple's summit, though she had to hold onto her warglaives with her hands, since she couldn't place them on her back like the rest of the demon hunters, thanks to her wings being in the way, but it was a good way to make sure she had the strength to wield her new weapons. The path to the summit took them through the quarters that the rest of the demon hunters rested in, even though all of them were busy training at the moment and the area was basically empty of people, so she focused on what they were doing as she followed Kayn through the halls and reached the start of the stairs that would take them to their destination, where the Lord of Outland rested every single day. Spitfire did wonder if Lord Illidan had a room that he slept in, one that none of the Illidari knew about, though it was hard to say if that was wishful thinking on the part of her new friends and allies, to make their Lord more like them, or mere speculation to pass the time as they rested between the various training sessions. She honestly didn't care one way or the other, as it was none of her business to talk about whether or not Lord Illidan slept in his own bedroom, or if he slept in the open area of the temple's summit, hence why she pushed that thought out of her mind, even if she was surprised that it had even come up for a few moments, and focused on why he might be calling upon her, Kayn, and Kor'vas right now, something she was going to learn the reason for once they reached their destination. It only took her and Kor'vas a few minutes to arrive at the temple's summit, where they found that Kayn had arrived before they did, which made sense to Spitfire since Kor'vas had to come and get her, but none of them said anything as Lord Illidan got up from the area he happened to be crouched in, a motion that meant he had either been thinking about something or he had felt something, which was what Spitfire's understanding of the form meant, before the three of them knelt as their Lord came to a stop in front of them. "I am sure that you are all eager to learn why I have called upon you," Illidan said, where Spitfire, Kayn, and Kor'vas readied themselves for what he was about to tell them, because he could be sending them out on a mission to kill some of the demons in Shadowmoon Valley, or he could order them to head out for one of the other provinces and see what was going on in the area in question, or this could even be a progress check on how Spitfire was doing with her lessons, to see if any changes need to be made, but none of them said anything as he continued speaking, "One of Kael'thas' mages has informed me that the Legion has started to build a new forge at the entrance of Shadowmoon Valley, no doubt believing that we are here and that such a place will be able to stop us and our allies from joining forces in the future, when it comes time for our assault to begin. I want the three of you to head out and find the area that the forge is being built in, so that we might gain some intelligence on what they're doing, how many demons they plan on bringing to this ruined world, and any weaknesses you might be able to spot while you are there, to give us an edge for when it is time to deal with them and push them out of Shadowmoon Valley." "It will be as you command, Lord Illidan." the group replied, where Spitfire had quickly learned that when their Lord gave an order it was followed without hesitation and that whoever he sent on missions usually gave this sort of response, to let him know that they understood what he was asking them to do and that they would do their absolute best to succeed in their mission. "Then fly, my Illidari," Illidan stated, a command phrase that was basically him dismissing them in his own way, to let whoever he was talking to know that he was done briefing them and that it was time for them to move, hence the reason that Spitfire, Kayn, and Kor'vas bowed their heads before standing up and leaving the summit, so they could prepare for the trek to their destination. Since neither of her superiors were in the mood to talk, since they were focused on gathering whatever gear they felt they might need, mostly food and water by the looks of it, Spitfire reflected on what she had learned and recalled that a forge, in the terms of the Legion, was an area where Infernals could be made and, this part was unconfirmed, could be an area where Fel Reavers, massive machines that could tear an entire base apart in minutes, might be built. If the Legion was able to build one of those camps, without the Illidari interfering with their plans, the demons would be able to assault both the Alliance and Horde bases that rested throughout Outland, and possibly send them at the Black Temple as well, to bring down the one massive thorn in the Legion's side, which was them. It was easy to understand why they were being sent to scout out the area, so they could determine how much progress the demons were making, what type of demons might be in the area, and the progress they might be making on the Fel Reavers that they were planning on constructing, that way their Lord could determine the best course of action for them to take, in terms of when they were going to ruin the forge and disrupt the Legion's forces. As she finished thinking about that, however, Kayn and Kor'vas started to leave the temple, to which she followed after them as they made their way to the area that was in front of the temple, so they could follow the path that would eventually bring them to their destination and allow them to start their scouting mission, even though it would take half an hour or so to reach the forge. Spitfire found that neither of her fellow demon hunters seemed to be in the mood to talk, rather they seemed to be focused on making sure there were no enemies in the immediate area for them to take out, be it demons or any of the other creatures that called Shadowmoon Valley home, but as far as she could tell there was nothing out there for them to worry about and focused on making sure they were headed in the right direction. As it turned out it took them about forty minutes to reach the area that Lord Illidan had told them about, as all three of them had moved fast while making sure to keep themselves safe from the potential enemies that were in the province, before they reached the area that the forge was in and they couched behind some of the large rocks that were in their way, which provided some decent cover for what they were going to do. The area in question looked like a ruined fortress of some kind, one that must have belonged to the orcs before the world was ruined to the point that it was currently in, but that was when they spotted a few large brutish looking creatures that had a mechanical pincer for their right hand, a cannon or something for their left hand, mechanical parts over their arms, shoulders, and back, and looked like they had been patched together, either by their own accord or by their superiors. Spitfire identified them as Mo'arg engineers, who had gone through the process of replacing parts of their bodies to enhance their own abilities and skills, hence the various mechanical parts that she was seeing at the moment, though they weren't the demons that they needed to worry about at the moment, as they were the lesser demons that served the true leader of this area, which was who Kayn and Kor'vas were looking for at the moment. There were some Shivarra, tall six-armed female demons that looked like humans to some degree, who carried six identical weapons into battle and might be overseers for the demon that ruled the forge, but as Spitfire spotted them she knew there were a number of them in the Illidari as well, at least according to her mentors anyway, and that was before she spotted a demon that was around the Shivarra's height, only more brutish with dark orange colored skin and a pair of wings, that was walking around the area, a Doomguard to be exact. That was when they spotted a red skinned creature, who was shorter than both the Shivarra and the Doomguard, and had legs and feet that looked like they belonged to a goat or something, who also had a tail that allowed him to balance while he walked and plate armor that covered a good portion of his body, while the fel green eyes gave away the fact that he was allied with the Legion, where Spitfire realized that he was one of the Eredar, or the Man'ari as some of the demon hunters called them, meaning it was a powerful member of the Legion... but, as luck would have it, the Eredar nodded his head and opened a small rift in the space behind him, disappearing from the area as his minions worked. "So, the Legion has sent an Eredar to maintain this forge," Kayn commented, though he wasn't at all surprised by that piece of information, and Kor'vas shared his feelings on the matter while Spitfire focused on studying the types of demons that were in the area that the forge was being built in, causing him to glance at the rest of the ruined fortress, be it outside the structure or inside the part that they could see, "though it doesn't look like they're making any progress on building any Fel Reavers at the moment... its sloppy of them to not have something in the works." "Well, we were told that they were just starting to turn this place into a forge, so it makes sense that there would be next to nothing here," Spitfire replied, not that she wanted to piss off one of her mentors, as that was the last thing she wanted at the moment, but the only reason she was even saying that was due to the fact that it would be rather hard for the Legion to already have something partly made when they came here as soon as someone discovered it was here, and by the looks of things their enemies had nothing set up yet, hence why the other demons were moving pieces of metal and other pieces of equipment out to the areas they were supposed to be in, "Still, it looks like it might take them a day or two to get things set up, to the point where we can identify any weaknesses in their operation, but at least we have an idea of the types of demons that we're dealing with and who their leader is, even if they aren't making anything, despite an area that looks like it could house a number of Infernals." Kor'vas opened her mouth to say something else, to add to the discussion with her own observations, but before she could actually say anything there was a blinding flash for a moment, which both she and Kayn were able to resist thanks to their blindfolds while Spitfire had to look away, though it happened to be located in the area that was near where they were standing, knocking several of the demons off the ground. When the light faded Spitfire found that there was no holes or craters in the area, or at least no new ones, though that was the moment that she spotted someone who looked like she did, as there was a female figure not too far in front of them that had the same type of legs that she did and had a pair of wings as well, though it was the cyan colored body and the rainbow hair and tail that gave away who the pony girl, as some of the Illidari called her, was, as it had to be Rainbow Dash, even if she was wearing some ragged clothing over the majority of her body at the moment. As the Doomguard and the couple of Shivarra started to get back up, and were able to see what had happened to the area they were in, even if a new arrival was the only major difference, Spitfire, Kayn, and Kor'vas were the first ones to react as all three of them rushed forward and assaulted the dazed and confused demons, where Spitfire quickly swung her warglaives at the lone Doomguard and cut it down, while at the same time both of her mentors cut down the couple of Shivarra that were starting to realize that they were under attack, meaning they would be leaving behind a number of dead demons that would inform the Eredar that someone didn't want him and the rest of his forces in Shadowmoon Valley. With that done Spitfire handed Kayn her weapons and picked Rainbow up off the ground, who seemed to be out cold from whatever had brought her to this planet, before they started to pull out of the area and headed back to the Black Temple, as none of them wanted to be around to witness the Eredar's rage at seeing a number of his forces dead, so they could tell their Lord what they had discovered. The first thing that Illidan did, upon the group's return to the Black Temple, was wait for all of them to take a moment or two to catch their breath, since they had done a brisk walk to get back to their base of operations without any demons finding out what they had done, though upon their arrival in the quarters of the Illidari Rainbow had come to and Spitfire helped her walk up to the summit. Once the four of them were in front of him, however, Illidan inquired as to what they had found at the forge and listened to their report, which mostly came from Kayn and Kor'vas as Spitfire made sure Rainbow didn't freak out or faint in his presence, since he was one of the strongest beings in the entire planet, but their report did give him a good idea as to what the forge held for them. Of course he spent a few moments considering what he had been told and thinking about the fact that it was odd to have two residents of the same planet end up in Outland, with the same sort of event happening both times, as both of them had felt the exact same to him, but none of them said anything as they waited for him to think about what he had learned over the last minute or two. He did have to wonder if there was a chance of Rainbow joining them as well, since it would be impossible for them to find a way back to Equus, but that question would come later, once she had some time to consider what it was that she would be signing up for, but if she was anything like Spitfire he suspected she'd join up in a heartbeat. "So, the Legion sends an Eredar to oversee their new forge, only for him to leave before his minions are cut down after a new arrival appears in Shadowmoon Valley," Illidan commented, though from what he could gather from the bits of information his Illidari were able to gleam the forge was a place they could ignore for a week or two, before they started to make a few raids to ensure that the demons failed to complete their mission, which would annoy the demons that they served and cause problems for the Legion, minor ones to be exact, before focusing on the newcomer, "Tell me, Rainbow Dash, how did you come to cross the distance between Equus and Outland?" "Honestly, I have no idea what happened. I was heading into a cave, when suddenly I was knocked out and ended up in this odd land, being carried by Spitfire, of all ponies!" Rainbow stated, clearly not caring about the fact that her body had been changed or the fact that she was in a new world, rather she cared about the fact that she had found Spitfire and that she had, apparently, rescued her from a terrible fate, or so she had been told, not that Spitfire was at all surprised by what they were seeing, before she focused on Illidan himself for a few moments, "And you... you look awesome! I bet if Spitfire and I joined you we would become more awesome as well!" Spitfire chuckled for a moment, because it seemed like Rainbow might be coping with being stranded on a brand new world with her, in unfamiliar territory with unfamiliar creatures, but she was going to do everything in her power to make sure Rainbow understood what joining the Illidari meant, even if she didn't know everything herself, and then they would see if she was willing to join them. > Prelude: Demon Hunting > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow spent the next two weeks going over the lessons that Rainbow needed to learn so she could walk with her new hybrid body, making sure that she understood how to wield the warglaives that she was given, as Rainbow insisted on joining the Ilidari, especially after hearing that they were stopping to Legion from wiping out the rest of the universe, and all of the other techniques and motions that Spitfire had learned over the week before Rainbow's arrival. At first Spitfire had been surprised that what happened to her had occurred to another resident of Equus, especially one like Rainbow Dash, but over the course of the last few weeks she had gotten used to the fact that a repeat of what had brought her here had happened again and stopped worrying about it, while Rainbow came to terms with the fact that they were stuck on the ruined world of Outland for the foreseeable future. Of course Lord Illidan had told them that, once the Legion was brought down and the rest of creation was safe from their evil, he would figure out a way to send the two of them back home, if they didn't figure out a way back on their own first, but Spitfire wasn't counting on that happening at all, hence the reason she was focused on making sure she and Rainbow were ready for the future. Her lessons also extended to Lord Illidan making sure the two of them came to him to continue learning how to fight like he did, before they added their own modifications to his routine and created their own battle styles, meaning that once Rainbow learned the basics they would be able to rejoin the rest of the demon hunters and continue learning from their mentors. At first the rest of the demon hunters had been a little surprised when they met Rainbow for the first time, but, just like what happened when Spitfire was introduced to them, they accepted her without too much being asked and started to include her in the conversations, just like they had done when Spitfire first joined the group, and that caused Rainbow to smile as she joined them, though she did make sure Rainbow had the attire of the Illidari and replaced the ragged clothing she had landed in before they did anything else. Lord Illidan, of course, also asked Rainbow about her life, just to see what she had to say about the world that she had been calling home until arriving in Outland, and she went into great detail about her life and everything that she and her friends had been through, giving both Spitfire and Illidan a chance to understand the bonds that connected her to the rest of her friends, who the rest of Equestria called the Elements of Harmony. What surprised Spitfire was that Rainbow was able to talk about the six Elements without getting any of it wrong, or at least she assumed that none of it was wrong when she saw the confidence that was on her friend's face, and it interested their Lord to some degree, since he had them talk about it for a few more minutes after the first explanation was over. Whenever they finished their chats he would have them resume their training so they could master the art of using their warglaives without cutting their wings up, which both of them were grateful for since it allowed them to get used to the style that he was using, even if it might annoy some of the other Illidari, especially when they considered how much time they spent in his presence, though once could argue that their meetings were progress checks to be sure they were handling the training. Spitfire didn't let it get to her, as she was focused on the fact that she was trying to bring down the Legion, and Rainbow, who was fairly new to this whole thing and had to be told what Spitfire knew, had the same opinion on the matter, that the massive army of demons needed to be taken out so they could save their home and the rest of the universe. As such the pair spent their time learning the various techniques that the Illidari used when they fought demons, or at least the ones that the mentors wanted to share at the moment, having their occasional sessions with their Lord so they could master the art of fighting with their wings, getting walking down so neither of them would fall over, and using their wings to fly through the sky above the temple. it was the best exercise they had gotten for their wings, as Lord Illidan had told them to stay nearby so they didn't startle the soldiers in the various settlements that were scattered around the province that they were positioned in, showing Spitfire that he wanted to keep their existence a secret from their enemies, the Legion to be exact, which made sense when she thought about it. In addition to that Kayn and Kor'vas spent some time going over the races of the Alliance and Horde, just so they knew who they were dealing with, and the known demons that made up the forces of the Legion, basically making sure that both of them were ready for whatever the future had for them, that way they could identify the types of demons they encountered. There were a few other demon hunters that spent some time with them, most notably Jace Darkweaver, a night elf that was one of the more intelligent members of their new order who usually tinkered with technology so it would benefit their forces in some way, and Allari, a blood elf who excelled in capturing demons and interrogating them for information, which was good for them since it gave them clues on what their foes were doing. The most interesting thing that they learned about Allari was that she had some crystals that could contain the souls of the demons that they killed, whenever she wanted to interrogate a particular demon and didn't want to let their soul leave the area she was in at the time, basically taking the soul home for some additional sessions, but the crystals did help whenever it was time for the trainees to become true demon hunters and truly join the ranks of the Illidari. All Spitfire and Rainbow learned about that statement was that there was a special ritual that the trainees partook in to become true demon hunters, as in gaining the horns and the demonic tattoos that all of the others had, which was one of the things that Spitfire had taken an interest in shortly after her arrival in the temple, but since none of their mentors wanted to explain things they simply nodded their heads and moved on with their sessions, to prepare themselves for whatever the future held for them. While all of that happened, however, it was the second week after Rainbow's arrival that things in the Outland started to change on them, as there was a Doomlord, a stronger version of the Doomguard demon, located in Hellfire Peninsula that went by the name of Kazzak, or rather he called himself Doomlord Kazzak, who was responsible for reopening the Dark Portal, as he hadn't been in that province the day before. Lord Illidan was sure that the Doomlord must have located an artifact on Azeroth's side of the portal, one that he used to reestablish the connection between this world and the one that was the Legion's prime target these days, though since there wasn't much the Illidari could do at this point, since the portal had been reopened, Illidan turned his attention to the fallout that would come from such an event, which would be the arrival of additional forces, from the Alliance and Horde, which would join the other defenders of this world. He clearly wasn't worried about them storming Outland and fighting the demons, as that would allow them to turn their attention to other things, but there was a chance that they might attack Lady Vashj and Kael'thas at some point, hence the reason he was focused on making sure they were ready to weather the incoming invasion and prepare for what he was planning, as they were getting closer to what he had been planning. While all that happened both Spitfire and Rainbow continued their lessons, knowing that their Lord would tell them what was going on when he felt that they were ready to understand what he was doing, though that would come once they finally became true demon hunters, like Kayn and the rest of the Illidari that they trained with. It was the day following the date of Rainbow's second week in Outland, marking Spitfire's third week here, that they were told not to bother with the day's sessions, something that both interested and worried them when they considered what they had learned so far, before Kor'vas told them not to worry and escorted them to the summit, causing the two of them to wonder what they were going to do when they reached their destination. Spitfire knew that they could be sent out on a scouting mission to one of the Legion's forges, thanks to their wings and the fact that whatever information they were able to acquire would be of great help to the rest of the Illidari, or they could be sent to one of the other provinces to see what might be happening in the other provinces. Both of them knew that being sent on a mission to kill some demons would be rather unlikely, given that those missions were generally reserved for the more senior members of the Illidari, or at least until their Lord determined that the trainees were ready to handle such a responsibility, though he hadn't been annoyed with Spitfire when she told him of the demons she had taken out when Rainbow first arrived in this world, so they thought about the other types of missions for a few more seconds before eventually determining that they would find out what sort of mission they would be sent on in the next couple of moments. Even Kor'vas was silent during their walk, either due to the fact that she had nothing to say right now or she wasn't allowed to actually reveal what they would be doing until they had a chance to talk with Lord Illidan, to which the pair kept their mouths shut as they walked up the stairs and made their way to the temple's summit. It didn't take the three of them all that long to arrive at their destination, where Spitfire and Rainbow found that Lord Illidan was definitely waiting for them, something they knew right away because he hadn't started in the area that he liked to crouch in, rather he was standing where he usually talked to those he called upon, to which they knelt before him as Kor'vas did the same, even if she wasn't going to be involved in the mission they would be assigned. "Thank you, Kor'vas, for bringing Spitfire and Rainbow to me. Now then, I know the two of you must be eager to hear what I have to tell you," Illidan said, where the pair only nodded their heads as they waited to hear what sort of mission he would be sending them on, or what alteration to their training he might be making for the foreseeable future, though they had gotten used to the fact that every demon hunter, both those like Kor'vas and their own Lord, were able to see their actions despite the blindfolds they wore, "Normally I would wait until you two had more experience under your belts, and at least two to three months of training in the art of fighting demons, but, from what I have discovered, both of you are like Varedis, potential prodigies based on how quickly you have taken to the training I have offered you and how quickly you have caught up to the rest of the trainees... if there were any new recruits for the Illidari, besides the two of you, I have no doubts that your skills would have motivated them to do better, just like they have motivated the others. Based on that I have decided to give the two of you a rather special mission: you are free to scour the entirety of Outland and hunt down the demon whose essence you will be absorbing to become a true demon hunter." Spitfire and Rainbow froze for a moment, as this was far more than what they were expecting to talk about, as taking a demon's essence into their bodies would make them more demon, which was a price that all demon hunters had to pay for the more powerful skills and abilities that they used to combat the Legion's forces, but it was one they were willing to go through with since they had decided on this path, only they were surprised that they were being allowed to do this now, rather than waiting another month or two. "I had Allari prepare some soul trapping crystals, that way you can capture the souls of your chosen demons and bring them back for the ritual," Illidan continued, where he produced two fel green crystals as he said that, which was when the pair noticed that the crystals would fit inside the palms of their hands, before depositing each of them in a pouch, one that he tossed to Kor'vas, who tied them to the belts that Spitfire and Rainbow were wearing, encouraging both of them to take a moment to stand up while she did that, "Each crystal can only hold one soul, so you should take your time in deciding who you want to take down, though we have spotted some powerful demons trying to claim parts of Outland for their own plans, so we can point you in the right direction, if that is what you wish. Despite your skills, however, I would recommend staying away from Hellfire Citadel, in the heart of Hellfire Peninsula, as that is where Magtheridon, the former Lord of Outland, is being held for the rest of his days, and steering clear of the Throne of Kil'jaeden, as that is where Kazzak was last seen by our scouts. I tell you this for your own safety, as both of them might be too much for either one of you to handle on your own, so that way you can focus on other demons and not waste time on those you cannot best, but, in the end, the decision is up to the two of you." "We won't let you down, Lord Illidan." Spitfire and Rainbow stated, because if he was willing to put this much faith in the two of them, and let them head out way before they were supposed to hunt down their demon essences, the least they could do was make sure they succeeded in finding a demon that they were comfortable with taking down and then retrieve the souls of their individual targets for the ritual. "Then fly, my Illidari. I will be eagerly awaiting your return." Illidan replied, where a smirk appeared on his face, like he knew that they would be able to face down whatever demons they ended up picking out and would return with news of their success in due time, especially since they could fly through the air and scout out an area without being seen by the Legion's forces, giving them a greater advantage over their targets. Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads, taking a moment to make sure that they had both of their warglaives, even though it was hard to lose the weapons when they were actually holding onto them, and then checked their new pouches to make sure the crystals were in there, not that they were expecting them not to be, before they opened their wings as they rushed towards the edge of the summit and jumped into the air. Not even a few seconds later the pair was flying over the Black Temple and the rest of Shadowmoon Valley, just like they would have done back in Equestria had they not been brought to this world by whatever accident had brought them here, but instead of focusing on what couldn't be changed the pair focused their attention on flying over the fel riddled landscape that was below them as they sought out a demon to take down. Both of them knew that there were a number of captured demons back inside the temple, ones that were used as training dummies because of their high levels of endurance, and that Lord Illidan would allow them to take one of those demons if they failed to find one on their own, though that was an option neither of them really wanted to do, since they wanted to prove themselves to their Lord and the rest of the Illidari. From what they knew most of the other demon hunters had spent some time hunting around the forsaken landscape of Shadowmoon Valley for the their target, instead of heading for one of the other provinces for the demon whose essence they would take to empower themselves, but that wasn't about to be repeated by Spitfire and Rainbow. Thanks to their ability to fly it didn't take them all that long to reach the hills that rested near the road that served as the entrance of Shadowmoon Valley, where it was easy to see that the demons of Legion Hold, which was the name of the forge area that Spitfire, Kayn, and Kor'vas had scouted out before Rainbow's arrival, were busy making sure everything was to their leader's specifications, even if that meant missing the pair as the landed on a taller hill that overlooked the demonic camp, though they would only be there for a few moments. "So, this is where I landed two weeks ago," Rainbow commented, where she looked out at the demonic camp and took in everything that was Legion Hold, as in the demons, the Fel Reavers that they were attempting to put together, and the number of Infernals that they were trying to assemble, no doubt to destroy the outposts that the Alliance and Horde had so the Legion could be the second major player in this province, "the only demon down there, that's of any interest to us, is the Eredar commander, but we can't kill him yet, since Lord Illidan wants him to remain in this area, for now." "That's right, which is why we're leaving Shadowmoon Valley," Spitfire replied, because based on what she knew this province, while being the best place to find a demon for each of them to kill and steal the soul of, just seemed far too easy for them and wouldn't demonstrate that they had a firm understanding of their skills, hence the reason she was focused on either Hellfire Peninsula or possibly Netherstorm, as they seemed to be the best places for them to find a demon to kill, so they could return to the Black Temple with their heads held high. What they did was take off from the area they had been standing in and headed into Terokkar Forest, where they took a few moments to look out at the trees and the creatures that lived in the area, especially the Arakkoa, a race of intelligent bipedal avian creatures, though as they flew over the area Kayn had told them about earlier, which had a couple of trees and a number of huts, both on the ground and in the branches, they found that the Arakkoa were either sleeping or they were trying to hide from something, to which they shrugged and headed into Hellfire Peninsula. It wasn't hard to tell when they were leaving Terokkar Forest and entering Hellfire Peninsula, as the forest gave way to a reddish hued barren land that didn't seem like it had much vegetation for whatever animals called it home, but even as they entered the province it didn't take either of them long to spot the areas that Lord Illidan recommended that they stay away from. Hellfire Citadel, as the name implied, was a large almost blackened looking structure, which had large walls that connected the two sides of the province together, that had orcish fortifications on it, indicating who was in control of the area, even if the fel orcs, to a degree, were supposed to listen to their Lord, even if he was only commanding them to keep Magtheridon chained up for the foreseeable future, until he determined what to do with him. It was possible that the fel orcs, the ones guarding the demon, might have taken to the demon's blood and were refusing to listen, but the only way they, or the rest of the Illidari, would know anything would be if someone went into Magtheridon's prison and scouted out the area in question, which Spitfire was planning on ignoring for the time being. Beyond the citadel that Magtheridon was imprisoned inside rested a large raised section of earth that was blackened at the top and had fel flames coming from it, which meant that it had to be the Throne of Kil'jaeden, a massive area for a powerful demon to call home while waiting for their superiors to issue them new orders, though that was where Kazzak was waiting for the forces of the Alliance and Horde to invade Outland so he could focus on Azeroth... but as Spitfire took a few seconds to think about that, however, she spotted what Rainbow was looking at. "Rainbow, don't even think about it." Spitfire stated, as it was rather easy for her to determine that Rainbow was in the middle of looking down at the citadel that was below them, no doubt thinking about the fact that Magtheridon happened to be down there, waiting for someone to come and free him from his chains so he could repay them with death, and she was going to snip that idea in the bub before her friend did something ridiculous, "I know Lord Illidan said that we might be prodigies among the Illidari, and that we were catching up to those that were further along in the training, but that doesn't mean that we can just tackle a demon like Magtheridon, even if he's been chained up since our Lord defeated him in battle and took control of Outland from him." "Come on, what better way is there for us to show that we're serious about becoming demon hunters by taking down a Pit Lord like Magtheridon?" Rainbow replied, as that was the name of the type of demon that Magtheridon was, though they were also called Annihilan, according to what they learned from Kor'vas and the others, but demon hunters used both names when referring to demons like Magtheridon, though she was looking down at the opening that seemed to be the way into the prison that held the demon they were thinking about, "Well, for one of us, anyway. You'll have to find your own demon to take down." Spitfire moaned a little as Rainbow flew down to the opening that would allow her to enter the prison that contained the demon she was so interested in, mostly because it didn't seem like Rainbow had learned anything since her arrival in Outland, but since it appeared that talking wasn't getting her anywhere she decided that she might as well follow Rainbow and make sure she didn't get herself killed. It didn't take them long to reach the area in front of the opening and land in front of it, where they could see the natural stone of the area changed to metal when they found the tunnel that went under Hellfire Citadel, which seemed around the size needed for a Pit Lord to fit through, based on what they learned in their lessons, before coming to a larger room that was far larger than the tunnel they had been in. They noticed that there were a few fortifications pointing in the direction of the walkway that descended deeper into the citadel, to the area that Magtheridon was imprisoned in, and all the sharpened spikes were in place in the off chance that the demon broke free and tried to escape the area that he was imprisoned in, with an opening for them to walk through so they could reach the area Rainbow's target was in. At the bottom of the first ramp stood three fel orcs, red skinned orcs that were similar to the ones that were guarding the outside of the Black Temple, only these ones appeared to be either mages or warlocks, which made sense due to the fact that they were here to watch over Magtheridon, though there was no telling whether or not they remembered the mission that Lord Illidan gave them. For a moment Spitfire wondered if the watchers would allow them to descend into the pit that Magtheridon was in, so Rainbow could face him and then be pulled out when she had enough, but in the end the orcs proved to be too hostile and mad from partaking in the Pit Lord's blood, as they attacked the pair the moment they walked down the ramp, where both Spitfire and Rainbow dodged the incoming fireballs that were thrown their way and attacked the mad watchers with their warglaives. It was hard to tell if it was their training that was kicking in or if the watchers had lost all reason before the pair had arrived, but both of them found that it was rather easy to avoid the incoming attacks and deal with the watchers, even if they had to actually cut all three of them down and drop their bodies to the floor, something that did cause the two of them to pause, since their foes hadn't been demons, before they forced themselves to move. From there they had to split up for a time, as there was a ramp to their left and a ramp to their right, both leading down into the depths of the prison, not to mention that both directions had three more watchers guarding the way, so that meant they would have to cut the two groups down, and whoever was right in front of Magtheridon's prison, to eliminate all of the enemies that might come running once Rainbow attacked her target. Fighting the watchers in a three on one battle would normally seem like too much, but Spitfire found that, once again, these orcs had to have lost their minds at some point and were hardly worth the effort to dodge the incoming attacks, something that Rainbow seemed to be experiencing on her side of the area, as it only took them about a minute or two to cut their way through the watchers and continue down their individual ramps so they could meet up near the entrance of the area that the demon was imprisoned in. When they regrouped it was at the bottom of the ramps they had been walking down, allowing them to turn and stare at the area that was in front of them, where Spitfire and Rainbow found five more fel orcs binding a weakened demon to the middle of the large room he was in, though that was when they found out what a Pit Lord was for themselves, because Magtheridon was much larger than what they had been expecting him to be when they heard about this particular type of demon during their lessons. The demon in question resembled a giant lizard that had six limbs, four legs that held the massive body and allowed it to walk while the other two were the hands on the chest part of Magtheridon's body, along with a powerful looking tail, large wings that appeared to be useless, and he had a large horned head that had a pair of mammoth tusks near his mouth, which was full of sharp teeth. The Pit Lord did have a weapon, a large polearm that was in his right hand, one that had had a bladed point facing the area that the pair were standing in while having a second blade on the backside of the weapon that happened to be pointing at the wall behind the demon, though since he was stunned by the group of warlocks it appeared that Magtheridon had no idea they were even there, allowing the pair to focus on what was going on at the moment. Since the warlocks weren't paying attention to them, due to the fact that they seemed to be more focused on keeping the demon contained, Spitifire and Rainbow lashed out at them and cut the first one of the five down, drawing the other four to them in the process while breaking the demon's bindings, allowing them to cut down the warlocks before they had a chance to take them down. The moment the last warlock fell Magtheridon was freed from his bindings and roared in anger, where he wasted no time in raising his polearm and swung it down on where Rainbow was standing, where Spitfire backed off to let her friend fight the demon that she had picked out to take the soul of, even though she still believed that Rainbow was in way over her head and that they would be leaving in defeat. The ground shuddered as Rainbow raised her warglaives and stopped the attack before she could be crushed into the floor, something that Spitfire wasn't expecting to see and that told her that the area had to be weakened from everything that's happened since the demon had been imprisoned in this area, even if there was nothing below them, but she was surprised that Rainbow had stopped the first attack. It was hard to tell if the demon might be happy by the prospect of someone being this strong, even though Spitfire was totally caught off guard by what she was seeing at the moment, which was followed by another unbelievable event in the form of Rainbow pushing the polearm away from where she was standing, showing that she had overcome the attack her weakened foe had sent at her, before she rushed forward and swung her warglaives at her opponent, the curved blades slicing through the air as she advanced on Magtheridon, who stayed in the same position that he had started in and swung his polearm at her, to which their weapons collided and the air shuddered as the two of them dueled. It was painfully clear that Magtheridon had some anger issues, as taking one look at either of them seemed to remind him of Illidan, who had beaten him to take over the entirety of Outland, and that seemed to be what was driving him at the moment, even though he was weakened from everything that the fel orcs did to him since his imprisonment. Despite Spitfire's earlier thoughts on the matter it actually seemed like Rainbow was doing fairly well for herself, as she was using her new Illidari skills to avoid some of the attacks that were coming her way while lashing out when a new opening was revealed to her, allowing her to cut into the demon's arms and infuriate him more than he already was, and when it came time for a change to the battle she was ready for it. Magtheridon, apparently thinking that slamming his front legs down into the ground to cause a quake, to throw Rainbow off her balance so he could hit her, didn't expect his foe to take to the air the moment she saw that coming, meaning that he wasted precious seconds in an attempt to cause his foe to stagger, though seeing a flying enemy just annoyed him all over again and he continued to go on the offensive, even though Rainbow was fine with him doing that. The battle wasn't one sided, as Magtheridon was able to swing his other arm and smack his target a few times, knocking Rainbow around the area that they were in, but that didn't stop her from lashing out at the demon and cutting into his body, purposely avoiding the armor that was protecting his chest and parts of his arms, showing that they were equal in power and that the fight might drag on until one of them bested the other in combat, though the way things were looking now Spitfire was starting to have second thoughts on Rainbow's chances of victory, as she was fighting the demon like a true demon hunter would. That fact seemed to piss Magtheridon off even more than what Spitfire was thinking, no doubt due to the smile that had to be on Rainbow's face, and so he used what appeared to be a desperation move, he unleashed what power he had and the enter area that he was in, the cylindrical prison they were fighting in, was blown apart in seconds, stone walls collapsing as his energy shattered them and caused both Spitfire and Rainbow to brace themselves as they avoided the stones... not to mention the sections of the ceiling that fell as well, though it looked like the ceiling would hold for the foreseeable future. It was in that moment, while her foe was weakened even further from what he had done, that Rainbow lashed out with her warglaives and sliced open Magtheridon's neck, causing her foe to stagger in the process, though that was what she wanted as she drove one of her weapons into his head, causing him to scream in agony as bits of green energy started to erupt from his body... though Rainbow, seeing her chance, landed near the entrance of his prison and pulled out the crystal she had been given, draining the demon's soul into it, and once that was done she and Spitfire ducked behind the ruined stone walls as Magtheridon exploded in a powerful burst of fire. "I'm glad we remembered that fact," Spitfire commented, though once the flames were done she and Rainbow looked at the fallen body of the demon, who was totally still at this point, where Rainbow claimed her warglaive and found that it hadn't been damaged by the attack, before holding the crystal up, which glowed to show that she had been successful in claiming a demon's soul, "and the others are going to be impressed by what you did." "They better be, given everything we had to fight to get here," Rainbow remarked, though there was a smile on her face as she said that, because she was happy with what she was able to do, before she pocketed the crystal and turned to look at Spitfire for a few moments, who already had an idea of what she was going to say, "So, have you decided on which demon you're going to kill and take the soul of?" Instead of responding, and giving Rainbow an answer, Spitfire headed for the opening that had allowed them to enter Magtheridon's prison, as in the two of them spread their wings and flew up to the highest point of the area, where they landed in front of the spikes that were near the exit and walked outside, knowing that they wouldn't be coming back to this area after today, or at least not for a while anyway. Once they were standing outside the opening they took to the air and Rainbow followed after Spitfire, clearing curious as to where she wanted to go to look for the demon whose soul she was going to take, though it appeared that her deed might have excited Spitfire, as she was heading to the northeast of where the citadel was located, as in she was heading towards the Throne of Kil'jaeden. Thanks to their ability to fly it only took them a few minutes to reach the top of the area in question, where the pair found a pair of Fel Reavers that appeared to be in the middle of repairs, with no one near them, meaning that whoever was supposed to be fixing them was in one of the other provinces of the ruined world, before spotting the demon that Spitfire had been looking for, after seeing what Rainbow was able to do to Magtheridon. Kazzak, as they quickly discovered, was a tall demon that stood taller than the one that had just been taken down, had orange skin, cloven feet, and had wings that likely allowed him to fly, though he was carrying a large blade that would cleave through the area and some armor on his chest and arms, making the pair a little curious as to why the legs were always exposed, before Spitfire left Rainbow behind and flew into the area. Kazzak, much like Magtheridon, rushed into battle the moment he spotted Spitfire coming at him, even if he didn't have the same hatred for Lord Illidan like the previous demon had, though instead of trying to parry the incoming attack, like Rainbow had done, Spitfire rolled to the right as she was flying and avoided the attack entirely, allowing her to lash out at her foe's exposed head and cut a gash just above his left eye. That seemed to piss his off, as he swung at her again and then loosed a bunch of shadow bolts, basically twisting the shadows into projectiles that were fired from his empty hand, but she was having none of that as she spun around with her warglaives and countered each of the bolts as they neared her, deflecting all of them and annoying her foe even more. This time around, when her foe swung his massive sword at the area she was floating in, she moved around the blade and then used it to launch herself forward, allowing her to cut into the Doomguard's neck before he had a chance to stop her, causing him to stagger as a look of surprise appeared on his face for a few seconds. Spitfire than used that opportunity to attack Kazzak a few more times, cutting into both his arms and legs before he could even react to what was going on at the moment, and when he finally did regain himself it was too late as she cut into the other side of his neck, dealing additional damage to her foe in the process, though even then it appeared that her foe had no idea what was going on at the moment and couldn't do anything to stop what was coming up next. She dodged the next couple of attacks that were coming her way and then lashed out at Kazzak, dealing a fatal wound to his chest after finding an opening that she could slip her warglaives through, though as the demon fell to the ground, with a look of surprise on his face, she pulled out her own crystal and made sure to steal the soul that would be leaving Kazzak's body, just like Rainbow had done for Magtheridon. With the deed done, and both of their crystals were filled with the soul of a powerful demon, Spitfire and Rainbow headed back to Shadowmoon Valley, as it was time to report their success to Lord Illidan and see what else needed to be done so they could finally join the Illidari as true demon hunters, even though they were both sure that the end of one road was in front of them. Lord Illidan, as it turned out, was fully expecting them to return from their mission with their crystals filled, hence why he had both Kayn and Kor'vas take them the moment the pair returned to the Black Temple, though even he seemed a little surprised when they informed him, and the nearby Illidari, of who they killed, especially since he had told them not to go after Magtheridon and Kazzak. What this did, however, was prove to him that they were talented in the ways of the Illidari and that they would make fine demon hunters once the ritual was over, where he explained that this would be the time that both of them would take the essence of the demons they had killed into their bodies and gain the powers that would allow them to better hunt the demons of the Legion, and he had no doubts that this would make them even stronger than they had been at the start of their mission. As such he led the pair into part of the temple that they hadn't been in, where they eventually came to a chamber that had a circle in the center of it, one with runes that belonged to the Legion all around the area that someone would stand in, where they were informed that this process would be tricky and that they would have to use a pair of special daggers, ones small enough to stab someone's eyes out with while avoiding going too far into the skull, to activate the ritual. In that moment the pair discovered that the ritual also taught them about sacrifice, that to save all of creation they would have to be willing to give up certain things to gain the power needed to stop their foes from destroying everything, but instead of backing down the pair stepped forward, as the Illidari had prepared two circles this time so they could both do it without having to wait for the circle to be made ready again. It didn't take the pair long to set aside their warglaives and pick up the daggers that Kayn and Kor'vas had prepared in record time, one set having the power of Magtheridon and the other containing Kazzak, where they wasted no time in driving the blades into their eyes, where it did feel like they had ruined their own eyesight as the fel energies of the souls they had stolen flowed into each of their bodies. The pain of such an action was great, while the power they gained was incredible, but that was when Spitfire discovered that they were different from the other demon hunters, besides the fact that they were Equestrians, as when she opened her eyes she found that she could see Rainbow and that Rainbow could see her, like the daggers hadn't destroyed their eyes, rather they had a fel green mist rolling out of their eyes. Spitfire found that she had orange tattoos on her arms, shoulders, legs, and parts of her chest now, which could either be from her own hair or from Kazzak's essence, and that there were a pair of curved horns near her ears, ones that wrapped around her ears and pointed at whatever was in front of her. Rainbow seemed to have a set of tattoos as well, nearly the same as to what Spitfire had, though they were red colored, as opposed to what her friend had, and her horns were coiled a bit differently than what her friend's were, though that was when they noticed that their wings were more like Lord Illidan's now, more leathery and like a bat's than what they were used to, but they felt the same and that meant that they would function the same way as their normal wings. With the ritual done the Illidari cheered and welcomed them into their ranks, truly this time, and escorted them to the area that they would be celebrating in, as there would be time for them to be trained on how to control their new powers in the morning, so they could be turned into weapons to destroy the Legion, something that both Spitfire and Rainbow were looking forward to. > Interlude: Nathreza > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow, after becoming true demon hunters after absorbing the essences of the demons they had picked out when Lord Illidan gave them the mission to do so, spent the next week learning how to control the new powers they had acquired, which meant training with the strongest of the Illidari, those who had been using their powers for a long time and had a mastery that they didn't have. One of the things that they learned about was their increased mobility when they were on the ground, because now they could rush forward quite a bit and either slam into whoever was their target with their shoulders or cut into their foes before they had a chance to actually fight back, starting a fight with a slight advantage over their chosen foes, something that the pair wasn't expecting but were glad to have. Another thing they could do was channel the fel power that they now had access to and empower their strikes, meaning they would be able to do more damage to all of the demonic enemies that they would be fighting in the future, which was a useful power to have in the grand scheme of thing in their opinion, something that was practiced on the more rebellious demons that they caught, the ones that didn't defect to their side like the coven of Shivarra that served their Lord. The real power neither of them were expecting to gain from the ritual was one that they could now retract their wings, as in they could convert their wings into fel energy and store them in the tattoos that were resting on their backs, which explained why the attire of the demon hunters had openings in the backs, so their wings didn't tear all their chest clothing to pieces, also giving them the power to fight without actually having to worry about damaging their wings, if they wanted to fight like the rest of the Illidari, whose wings were temporary and only came out when they were gliding through. Of course there was one other power that benefited them, as they had gained the power to do what their Lord did, as in they could convert their warglaives into fel energy and store them in their horns, that way they didn't have to carry them all the time whenever they walked from place to place, since neither Spitfire or Rainbow could carry them on their back while their wings were out, so it was a great alternative to another skill they had gained. During the lessons that their mentors gave them there was one other person that trained them, and who that was came as a surprise to both of them, as Lord Illidan insisted on seeing what the pair could do with their newfound power and skills, which also came as the best time for him to curb any arrogance they might have gained from facing and killing Kazzak and Magtheridon. Spitfire was fine with the time that he spent with both her and Rainbow, as it allowed them to gain some knowledge on how they were supposed to act now that they were demon hunters, understand the skills that they had unlocked thanks to the ritual, something that was still talked about due to the fact that both of them still had their eyes, and, if they were lucky, learn more about the Illidari, if there was something they didn't know. Rainbow didn't care about how the group was run and everything that had to be done to make sure everything moved smoothly, since she was more interested in fighting the demons and killing them, but Spitfire was more than willing to learn more about how to run the organization, just in the off chance that something happened to Lord Illidan, even if had had to agree with Rainbow on the fact that such a thing was unlikely. Of course some of the Illidari were less than thrilled at the fact that the pair were able to take down two powerful demons, despite the fact that Magtheridon was weakened from what happened to him and Kazzak was nowhere near as strong as the weakened Pit Lord, but they accepted it without arguing abut what they had done, especially since they had gone against the warnings of their Lord to tackle those demons, though it did weaken the Legion's forces on Outland, which was great in the grand scheme of things. The other thing that happened during the last week was that the Alliance and Horde had met up with the forces that resided in Hellfire Peninsula and it seemed things might be heating up in that area, with the two factions focusing on all of the various enemies that were in that province, before they bothered thinking about the other provinces around them, something that meant their allies, Lady Vashj and Kael'thas, were safe for the time being. In addition to that there were a few whispers of a Warden stalking the provinces of Outland, something that hadn't been happening before the Dark Portal had been reopened, accompanied by allies that were attacking the various camps the Illidari had set up, even though none of the demon hunters were posted out there, though none of this information surprised their Lord, rather it appeared that Lord Illidan was expecting this. He explained that Wardens were night elves that held a special position in their society as jailers, assassins, and sometimes even executioners, depending on the crimes of the target in question, so the fact that there happened to be a Warden in his domain, looking for clues and attacking the various small camps that they had set up in the other provinces, meant that one of them was looking for him and was trying to find a way to get to him without going through the entirety of the Illidari. At the same time, however, that provided him with something that would allow them to further themselves in their war with the Legion, though instead of telling them what he had planned, mostly due to the fact that he wanted to keep it to himself, he used some of the fel orcs to set a trap some distance from the Black Temple with a few clues that would draw the Warden. Spitfire, Rainbow, and the rest of the Illidari said nothing to that as they waited for their Lord to tell them what he was planning and if there was anything that they could do to help him, though for now the best they could do was return to their training and prepare for what the future held for them, since all of them knew it was a matter of time before they learned what he had planned. Three days later Lord Illidan called the Illidari, the demon hunters to be exact, to the area that he had built the structure that housed his portals to the various worlds that the Legion held, so he could train some of the recruits and give them a taste of what their foes did to the planets that they conquered, though this time the portal was closed and their Lord was standing on top of the structure, holding an orb of fel energy between his hands. "I am sure that all of you are curious as to why I called you here," Illidan said, where Spitfire and Rainbow found that all of the demon hunters that were standing around them, while definitely curious as to what was going on, did remain silent as they waited for their Lord to tell them what was going on so they could ready themselves for whatever he had in mind for them, which might be an assault on one of the Legion's worlds, "I have spent the last few weeks conducting a very special ritual that allowed me to spiritually visit a number of our enemy's worlds, carefully looking for a very specific world that keeps the records for everything the Legion has done to every planet they had conquered, a planet that is the home of the Dreadlords: Nathreza." Spitfire and Rainbow knew of the dreadful Nathrezim, the more common name for the Dreadlords, as they were keen and cunning demons that acted as intelligence agents, interrogators, and even emissaries for the Legion whenever they visited a new world, or rather one that they hadn't visited at some point in the past, and they were even tacticians and lieutenants for when they were at war with the forces of a world, so they were a force to be reckoned with, even though they were sure that Allari might have the soul of a Dreadlord, given her nature as an interrogator at times. "The reason I am interested in Nathreza is because it houses all the information we could possibly need in regards to our true target, the home world of the Legion: Argus." Illidan continued, having waited a few moments to let what he had just said to sink into the mass of demon hunters that he had called to this area, though hearing that he had a way to find out where their true target was located, the planet that served as the major base for the Legion's activities, was enough to excite the group, because if they could attack the Legion while they were distracted with another world, and cut down all of their commanders, all of creation would be saved in a couple of days, "Thanks to the Warden that has been stalking our camps lately, who blindly walked into the trap I set for her and ended up getting her allies killed, this sphere holds the power we need to open a portal to the world of the Dreadlords, so we can assault them and take the information we need so we can locate Argus, and whatever we might need to get there. That is the reason I have called you all here, as when I open this portal we will be launching an offensive on Nathreza and its inhabitants, both to cut down on the number of Nathrezim that the Legion can sent out to the rest of the universe and to acquire the information we seek, and I have a good idea on where that information will be located." It was a worthwhile plan, Spitfire had to admit that much while they listened to what their Lord had to tell them, one that would allow them to take down the Nathrezim and acquire the information that would allow them to locate Argus, or at least would give their Lord an idea of what they needed to do so they could locate their planet that their enemies were using as their main base of operations. At the same time Rainbow seemed to be in the middle of thinking about the foes that they would be fighting soon, rather than worrying about the information that they would be looking for when the way to Nathreza was opened, though the rest of the demon hunters seemed to be having mixed feelings about what they had learned, since this was the first time they might be able to deal a critical blow against the Legion. Argus was the end goal of their entire campaign against their demonic enemies, a planet that many of them learned about when they first joined the Illidari, it wasn't a secret that Lord Illidan kept from anyone that sought to end their terrible reign of the Legion, so hearing that they might be able to get there much faster, and not waste time on many of the smaller worlds, meant they could bring an end to their foes that much quicker, especially with their attention focused on Azeroth and the other worlds of the Great Dark Beyond. It seemed hard to believe, but there was the very real possibility that they could be close to their true goal and taking down the greatest evil in the entire universe, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and the rest of the demon hunters readied themselves, showing their Lord that they were ready for him to open the way to Nathreza so they could find the information that he was looking for. Illidan, on the other hand, smirked for a moment as he focused on the sphere, which separated into two halves and were absorbed by the posts that served as the sides of the portal, causing the gateway to flare to life before their eyes, or at least it did for Spitfire and Rainbow since they still had eyes, before all of them paused as their Lord landed in front of them and stared at all of them for a few seconds, only to beckon to the portal with his head as he charged through it, an action that caused the demon hunters to follow after them. As they passed through the portal Spitfire and Rainbow found that the world of Nathreza seemed to be a collection of large asteroids that were connected together by some powerful magics, where the pair found that the ground seemed to be made out of some darkened stone, like the Nathrezim might have taken fragments of destroyed worlds and pieced them together to form their own world, which could explain the green light that came from the ground at times, since it also came from the sun. The other odd thing, besides all of the floating stones that were in the air, were the numerous small moons that were scattered around the sky, though that was when they spotted the area that Lord Illidan was keen on attacking, the area that held the archives he was looking for, a city that had been constructed out of basalt, which was a dark fine-grained volcanic rock, no doubt mined from the various worlds the Legion took over. The city itself seemed to have a number of towers made out of the same material, how many they had no idea, and they were illuminated by green fel lanterns, but the real prize was the taller tower in the center of the entire city that their Lord was staring at, a tower that had no windows and had a number of green runes etched into every side of the structure, like it was an important building to the Nathrezim. If the central tower happened to be what Spitfire and Rainbow were thinking it was, the more important structure that housed the archives that their Lord was searching for, that meant they were going to have to fight their way through all of their enemies, the Nathrezim, to get to the tower and find whatever piece of information that would tell them how to get to Argus, or at least figure out where the key to getting there was located... of course that was when they spotted a force of tall, dark grey skinned creatures, standing slightly taller than the Eredar, who had large purple wings and hoofed legs, coming in the direction of the portal they had opened. "So, it would seem that the Nathrezim are going to defend their city and their archives," Illidan commented, though at the same time he held his hands up close to his large horns and they glowed for a moment, to which he drew out his own warglaives, the Twin Blades of Azzinoth as they were called, from the area that he stored them in, something that caused both Spitfire and Rainbow to do the same, since the two of them kept their weapons stored inside their horns so they could use their wings with ease, "very well. Come, my Illidari, the hunt begins!" To some the massive army of Dreadlords would be a sign to give up hope and surrender, but to the demon hunters it was a challenge to overcome as they charged and glided down the hill that was in front of them, allowing all of them to get closer to their enemies as they followed their Lord into battle, as he was the first one to crash into the swarm of enemies and started hacking into them, moving with a level of grace that inspired all of them to do better. Spitfire, Rainbow, and the other demon hunters watched as he dodged the incoming claws from several of the Nathrezim and sliced off the limbs that they were attached to, allowing him to cleave his way through the enemies that were rushing at him, though instead of worrying about any of them Spitfire and Rainbow crashed into their targets and cleaved the demons they struck in half without wasting any time. Once upon a time the two of them had been unnerved by the fact that they were actually killing beings that lived in the universe, even if most of their foes happened to be demons, but after the amount of time they spent with the Illidari, and learned about the struggle they faced, both of them had adapted to the situation and stopped being freaked out whenever they killed something, hence the reason why the two of them were able to cut down their foes and move forward without freezing. As the three of them continued to press through the ranks of the Nathrezim, who had to be surprised by the fact that their armor was being cut apart by the warglaives the demon hunters were carrying, which had been modeled after the pair that their Lord was carrying and had been forged for the purpose of cutting through the hides of certain demons, not to mention the fact that their arms and legs went flying as the trio tore into them, though that was before the rest of their forces slammed into the mass of Nathrezim that they were fighting, allowing all of them to spread out and continue what they were doing. Despite the overwhelming numbers of the Nathrezim, of which there had to be at least a hundred or two hundred of them trying to stop them from reaching the city, Spitfire and Rainbow, the newest members of the Illidari, were the very first ones to breach the gates that let them enter their enemy's stronghold, as they had outpaced everyone in their group, and that even included their Lord for a moment, opening the way for the Illidari to swarm into the city and leave the bodies of their foes outside the gates. This showed the overwhelming power of the demon hunters that their Lord was in the middle of training, because even with a few moments of warning, to get the force of Nathrezim out to defend the city, it still wasn't enough to actually stop the Illidari as they hacked, slashed, and cleaved their way through the demons that stood in their way, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies as they headed for the center of the city. Even though this was a surprise attack Spitfire was surprised by how effective they were being, tearing through the demons that tried to protect the central tower, without losing a single member of their group by the looks of things, and focusing on the mission that their Lord had given them, especially since he was in the middle of hacking a few demons apart as well, crushing any foe that dared to challenge him to a fight. Rainbow, on the other hand, was focused on dispatching as many Dreadlords as she could, to better clear the path to the central tower for their Lord, though when they actually got near their objective, and saw the opening that would allow them to enter the tower, she spotted something that might complicate things, as in two Dreadlords that seemed much stronger than the ones they had felled so far. In addition to the limited powers that the other Nathrezim had, of which there weren't many other than swinging their claws at someone and trying to disappear into the shadows, these two did possess some arcane powers and tried to blast the group as they got close to the tower, which was why Spitfire and Rainbow were on the scene, smashing into their bare chests and knocking their foes apart from each other, something that also opened the way for their Lord and a few others to enter the tower, leaving the rest of them to guard the entrance. Spitfire dodged the incoming attacks that were coming her way and cut into her foe's chest a few times, preventing the demon from actually doing anything to her in the process, though interestingly enough the Dreadlord she was fighting didn't even try to target the other demon hunters that were near her and focused solely on her, which was perfectly acceptable as she used her wings to get around her foe as well, putting them on an equal playing field. Rainbow, on the other hand, advanced on the demon that she was fighting and actually took a few moments to hack into her foe's body, as in she purposely severed its claws and removed one of her foe's major weapons, allowing her to focus on dealing damage to the rest of its body as she dodged the incoming attacks, because she left its palms behind and that allowed it to attack her. While the pair were doing fighting those two the rest of the Illidari got ready to form a protective wall near the tower, as the moment they took down their foes the others would come in and let their Lord get to work on figuring out the information that he was here for, especially since it would allow them to find Argus. Spitfire quickly came to the conclusion that all of the really powerful Nathrezim were off world, no doubt doing the work of their foul masters, but, at the same time, the pair of foes that they were fighting didn't stand much of a chance against her and Rainbow, to which they dropped both Dreadlords to the ground and opened the way for them to enter the tower at long last. "Spitfire, Rainbow, Jace, Kayn, Kor'vas, you will accompany me while I search the tower," Illidan stated, as he knew that time was of the essence and that it was only a matter of time until one of the Dreadlords called for aid and their foes were given backup from Argus itself, something that would end their invasion of the Legion's worlds before it even started, to which he turned and looked at the rest of the assembled demon hunters that had followed him to this world, "the rest of you, stand guard and keep the demons from entering the tower." The demon hunters that had been told to remain outside turned around and readied themselves for what was going to be coming their way, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and the other three followed their Lord into the tower itself, though that was when they found that there was a set of stairs heading up and a set of stairs heading down, where they paused for a few seconds as they wondered which was the correct path. Illidan, on the other hand, headed down the stairs to their right and started to search the lower levels of the tower, though as they followed him he had Jace access one of the nearby terminals that the Dreadlords had installed in the tower, as it would allow them to better locate the item that they were near to claim, leaving the others to keep an eye out for any demons that might be in the tower. As it turned out all of the Nathrezim that could have been in the tower must have headed outside to keep the demon hunters away from the city, even though their attempts had failed and their city was overrun, though those thoughts had to be pushed aside as Jace revealed that he had located the Seal of Argus, the item that held everything their Lord could possibly need to plan the next stage of their invasion of the Legion's many worlds. As such the six of them descended deeper into the tower, where they followed Jace this time around, passing by floors that had a vast number of metallic disks on the various walls and the shelves that filled them, before he came to a stop of the fifth floor that was under the ground, something that surprised both Spitfire and Rainbow since they weren't expecting the structure to be this deep, before they spotted the item that they had come for, a metallic disk that practically radiated fel energy, and Jace confirmed that it was the Seal of Argus that their Lord had discovered during his search for this world. With the Seal in hand, as in Illidan was the one that grabbed it, Spitfire and Rainbow were the first ones to charge back up the stairs and head outside, rejoining the demon hunters that were guarding the entrance so they could inform them that it was time to leave, that way the moment their Lord emerged from the tower the group could be on the move and not waste what precious time they had. Once everyone was outside the tower they charged forward and followed the trail of bodies that they had left on their trek to reach the central structure of the city, where the Nathrezim had regrouped and were coming at them once more, to prevent them from leaving the planet with the information that they had stolen from the archives, even if none of them had actually seen what the disk in question held. Still, that didn't stop the Illidari as they smashed into the incoming force of enemies and cut their way through them, just like they had done when they first came to this world, though the rather strange thing was that none of the Nathrezim had bothered to find the portal they had used to come to this world, as it was still open, and attempt to block it so the Illidari would run into a trap, meaning that one of the smartest races the Legion had recruited into their ranks had made a gigantic mistake once they realized their world was under attack. Thanks to that the group was able to make their way out of the city and put a good bit of distance between them and their enemies, though Spitfire and Rainbow stayed behind to ensure that the rest of their forces could get through the portal, hence the reason they turned and hacked into the demons that had been following them, which prevented the Dreadlords from following their Lord and the others, not that the pair was actually worried about their foes taking them down, especially after everything they had witnessed so far. Once the majority of their forces had made it through the portal Kayn called out for the pair to stop what they were doing and retreat, to which Spitfire and Rainbow finished off the foes that they had been facing and took off, heading up to the area that the portal was in and followed Kayn through it... though when all three of them were on the other side, back in front of the Black Temple's portal, Lord Illidan waited for a few seconds, just to be sure everyone had made it through the portal, before using his magic to sever the connection between Outland and Nathreza, where the last sounds any of them heard were what seemed to be the ground breaking, only for silence to reign once more. "You did well, my Illidari," Illidan said, where he looked at the disk that they had recovered from Natherza, something that the rest of the group, the ones that hadn't gone into the tower anyway, looked at for a few moments, clearly curious as to what sort of information such a simple looking object might hold, before a smirk appeared on their Lord's face, "with this victory we are one step closer to finding the location of Argus, which will allow us to bring an end to the Legion. You may revel for the rest of the day, if you wish to do so, but I am not to be bothered while I go over the information that the Nathrezim have on Argus." Spitfire and Rainbow watched as their Lord went about his business, walking off with the disk that would give him all the information he could possibly need on Argus and what they needed to do so they could be ready for the eventual assault on the Legion's home world, to put an end to their terrible crusade and restore peace to the universe, before they joined the rest of the Illidari to celebrate their success. > Inderlude: Time Passes > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the raid on Nathreza, and the acquisition of the Seal of Argus, life pretty much returned to normal in the Black Temple, as in the Illidari continued their training in the art of using their warglaives against the training dummies, not to mention the instances where they sparred with each other to vastly improve their skills, as well as taking the time to master whatever side skill they were interested in, if they had one. Jace, for example, continued to tinker with the various items that he was able to obtain, to give the rest of the group wards and other useful tools for when they were out in the field, in case they had to do something like invading another Legion world and had to stay there for a longer period of time, just in case their Lord decided to test them without being there with them, as there was always a chance they might be sent to another world to raid it on their own. For the most part the demon hunters sought out Varedis for any additional training that he might have for them, along with the likes of Alandien, Netharel, and Theras, three night elves that also served as masters for the rest of the group, or at least they were the training masters that revealed how to use the warglaives and all of the other abilities that the rest of the demon hunters used in battle. It also made sense that there were more than just one master, since both Spitfire and Rainbow knew that there was no way Varedis could be the only mentor for them and the others, so they were rather happy to officially meet the other mentors, just to see if there was anything they could teach them, to prepare for what the future held for them. For the first couple of days after the raid it was mostly the three night elves that taught whoever came to them for any additional training, mostly due to the fact that Lord Illidan hear a rumor that the remains of the Shadow Council, which was a rather dangerous group of warlocks that served the Legion, might be active somewhere in Outland and that he was going to send Varedis to see if there was any truth to the rumor. Spitfire and Rainbow learned that this wasn't the first time he had been sent out on a mission that was similar to this, as there was a point before their arrival that Varedis found a tome called the Book of Fel Names and discovered that he couldn't remove it from the area he had found it in, so he did the next best thing and absorbed as much power as he could from it before returning to the Black Temple, something that explained the level of power that the blood elf possessed, not to mention the pride he felt since their Lord had praised his actions, just like he had done to everyone after the raid on Nathreza. It also meant that Varedis was the one that their Lord was entrusting all the Shadow Council related business to, since there was a chance he might find artifacts of power for all of the demon hunters to drain, to boost their already considerable powers even further for when it was time to invade some of the other worlds that the Legion controlled. Varedis, on the other hand, clearly felt that not everyone needed any additional power, showing that his pride and arrogance had definitely affected him over the years, but for the most part Spitfire and Rainbow decided to ignore that side of their mentor and go about their usual business as they waited for their Lord to assign a mission to them, or to group they would be joining. One thing that was of interest to everyone was the fact that the Legion forces in Hellfire Peninsula, which they were planning on dealing with before they got out of hand, tried to invade the Dark Portal and besiege Azeroth once again, only this time around the forces that were sent through the portal ended up defeated and, after some time, the forces of both the Alliance and Horde were able to truly entire Outland. By that Spitfire and Rainbow found out that the Alliance was able to reunite with the forces of Honor Hold, which was a stone fortress their allies had built two decades ago before the way between worlds had been closed, granting the weary soldiers some long awaited reinforcements at last, especially since they were dealing with enemies that wanted to take them down. At the same time the reinforcements from the Horde were able to do the same thing in Thrallmar, the more tribal orc camp that existed on the other side of the province, from where Honor Hold rested, granting the forces there the same thing the Alliance gave their allies, where Lord Illidan knew that the two factions would remain focused on Hellfire Peninsula and wouldn't worry about the other provinces for a time, hence why he didn't appear to be worried, though to be on the safe side he made sure that Leotheras, a demon hunter that trained with Varedis in the past, to ensure Lady Vashj was safe and sound. Varedis didn't seem to care when he heard the news, so a few of the other Illidari wished him well as he departed after Lady Vashj's latest visit to the Black Temple, which had been around the same time that Kael'thas had come as well, showing the pair that it had been a meeting between the leaders of their army. Of course Kael'thas left a little parting gift, four powerful blood elves that would serve as advisers and assistants for Lord Illidan, where Spitfire and Rainbow learned that they were called Gathios the Shatterer, Veras Darkshadow, Lady Malande, and High Nethermancer Zerevor... however, even though they called themselves the Illidari Council, despite the little time they sent with the rest of the forces, they found that the group of four didn't piss off anyone, rather relations between the various races actually improved, something that made the pair happy as well. The Council, as the rest of the demon hunters called them, quickly proved themselves to Lord Illidan, who decided to allow them to deal with everything that he didn't want to focus on, meaning he could devote more time to making sure the demon hunters were ready for the future, even though Spitfire could see that the Council did plot against each other every now and then, to get their Lord's favor, something he didn't give very often, if at all. From what Spitfire could gather each of the four blood elves had their own strengths, as Gathios was supposedly a master of war and logistics, Veras dealt with espionage, Malande was the one that focused on making sure the relations between the various races were good, and Zerevor was a master of the arcane, one of the forms of magic that existed in this part of the universe. Most of the demon hunters decided not to worry about the Council, given that they were loyal to Lord Illidan, despite coming from Kael'thas' camp, and that they were quick to locate anything the Illidari, be they one of the demon hunters or one of the other races, needed to perform their duties, which was great for Jace and the engineer demons that he was working with. It appeared that Lord Illidan had seen what Jace was capable of and was making great use of his talents, just like everyone else in the Illidari, as no one was left hanging in the grand scheme of things, and that also applied to Spitfire and Rainbow, who were some of the strongest recruits the group had seen in a long time, something that even Varedis had to admit, despite the fact that he didn't like it... even the Council, despite the fact that they had only just met the pair and had only a few tales to draw upon, admitted the same thing, which really caught them off guard. What really caught some of the Illidari off guard was the instances where Lord Illidan called upon Spitfire, not for any normal training, like they did in the past, rather he wanted to have her go through battle scenarios with him and see what she picked out as the various scenarios progressed, while Rainbow was free to do whatever she wanted, which was spent honing her skills. Spitfire knew what was going on, as she had told her Lord about her past during her first week in the Black Temple, about how she lead the Wonderbolts and everything, so now he was seeing how she would approach some of the battles that he had been in and the ones that might be coming in the future, no doubt to see if he might have found a new leader for the Illidari, in case something ever happened to him, despite the fact that most of the group saw him as an unbeatable figure that they were striving to replicate, to a degree. Spitfire was willing to humor him, since she knew that the only time she would ever take over was if she was sent to a world with a force of demon hunters for an extended period of time, to gain some leadership skills or to relearn them in a new context, but so far it didn't appear that anything was different and she just focused on making what she deemed to be the right choices, even if they were different from what her Lord would have picked, or did pick depending on which scenario they were talking about. She was sure that some of the scenarios they talked about were real events that her Lord went through, and if they weren't he had a rather active imagination to come up with something so believable, hence why she knew he wasn't making things up since he didn't seem to be the type to do something like that, and went through them to learn whatever lessons he might have for her, or just to keep him company during her breaks. Rainbow, of course, teased her a few times with the whole 'Spitfire and Lord Illidan, sitting in a tree' joke, something that caused many of the demon hunters to think she had gone crazy until she explained what she was talking about, even if it was easy to tell that Lord Illidan had his sights on someone else, though Spitfire ignored that and focused on the task at hand as the days went by. It was at the end of the first month since the Dark Portal opened that something interesting happened, where Spitfire and Rainbow happened to be at the summit with Lord Illidan, the former getting ready for whatever scenario she and their Lord were going to talk about while the latter moved to the edge of the area to practice with her warglaives for a time, only for them to be interrupted by the return of Kayn and Kor'vas, who had been sent to Hellfire Peninsula some time ago to see how the Alliance and Horde were faring in their war with the Legion. "Ah, Kayn, Kor'vas, you have returned at last." Illidan commented, as he knew that they would have returned at some point in time, so he wasn't angry with them for taking a few additional days to gather as much information as they could before their return, to which he turned towards the pair as they knelt before their Lord, "Tell me, did you discover anything of interest during your time in Hellfire Peninsula?" "The Alliance and Horde have broken the Legion's forces and have prevented them from using this side of the Dark Portal to invade Azeroth," Kor'vas replied, where Spitfire and Rainbow paused for a few seconds, as they weren't expecting to hear that piece of information, that the forces from the other world have actually broken the army that the Legion had summoned to deal with them, but at the very least it was easier on the two factions since Spitfire had taken out the demon that would have been leading the others, "from what we could gather the Legion constructed a number of gateways to call in reinforcements, so they could wipe out the soldiers that were guarding the Stair of Destiny, only for the forces of both factions to gather together, where they took down the Fel Reavers protecting the gateways and then used some bombs to blow up the structures, leaving behind little for us to salvage. The two factions also disrupted all of the forge camps that the Legion happened to be making near the base of the Throne of Kil'jaeden, effectively crippling the Legion's presence in Hellfire Peninsula, before they mounted a join effort to take down Kazzak the Supreme and 'succeeded' in killing him at the peak of the Throne of Kil'jaeden." "Hold up, are you telling us that the Alliance and Horde are taking credit for Spitfire's actions?" Rainbow asked, as that was something that she wasn't expecting to hear during the report, since they knew who had taken down the demon in question, especially since she had watched Spitfire take down Kazzak with her own eyes, though both Spitfire and their Lord remained silent, clearly thinking about what they were hearing. "That is what we discovered during our mission." Kayn stated, though if he and Kor'vas were annoyed by Rainbow's outburst, and the fact that she was interrupting their report as they informed their Lord about what they found out, both of them weren't showing any annoyance, rather Spitfire found that both of them were being patient so Rainbow could back down and let them finish their report, "From what we can gather both factions are telling a similar story about how they stormed the area, took out the guards that were protecting Kazzak, and then killed the demon to reduce the Legion's hold on this world, complete with the Alliance taking his horns and the Horde taking his head." "Oh man, Spitfire, that sucks!" Rainbow remarked, because she found it funny that the Alliance and Horde had taken the time to gather their forces for an assault on the Throne of Kil'jaeden and, upon finding their target dead, they decided to take the glory of the kill for themselves, rather than ask who had killed Kazzak and wonder if they had additional allies in this world, besides the ones that had been here before their arrival. "If they want to take credit for the kill, more power to them... though the fact that they shared the kill, by dividing up part of his body to prove they did the deed, means something," Spitfire remarked, because she had been thinking about it since the pair of demon hunters had started talking and shared what they had seen during their mission, though now she had an idea of what was going on, while at the same time noting that their Lord was silent, "it appears that the heroes that went to the Throne of Kil'jaeden don't want the others of their factions to know that someone beat them to the punch, so the heroes of both the Alliance and Horde agreed to tell a similar tale where they banded together to take down an agent of the Legion. They're working together to cover up who actually killed Kazzak, while showing that the Legion held no power in this world... so I'll let them have their 'kill', otherwise telling them that someone else killed the demon would wreck the unity that they have created between their factions." "Indeed. I was thinking the same thing." Illidan said, showing the group that he had been thinking about what they had been told and that he agreed with what Spitfire had said, even though he had a feeling that the unity would vanish in the near future, given what he knew about the two factions, to which he turned towards the pair that had scouted out Hellfire Peninsula, as per his orders, "Did you discover anything else while you were scouting the province out, or is this all you have to report?" "There is more, as the Alliance and Horde have been assaulting Hellfire Citadel as well," Kayn stated, though even as he said that Illidan and Spitfire noticed that there was something else that had happened that he was debating whether or not he should tell them, with Rainbow standing nearby, before deciding that he might as well get it over with, "from what we were able to tell the heroes were able to take down Vazruden the Herald and claim the letter that you sent him, so now they know the fel orcs are part of our army and not the Legion's, and they also invaded the Blood Furnace, allowing them to take out the commander of that area as well. We suspect that the Alliance and Horde are trying to figure out how the fel orcs were created and are possibly trying to figure out a way to reverse it, and the Shattered Halls were assaulted as well... but that's not all, they went down into Magtheridon's prison and, somehow, dragged his head outside so they could split the kill and encourage their soldiers to push forward." "Hey! You mean they're taking credit for my kill?!" Rainbow remarked, her tone revealing that while she was okay with the factions taking the credit for Spitfire taking down Kazzak, since she was the one that killed the demon in question, she wasn't okay with the Alliance and Horde taking the credit for her kill, especially since the Pit Lord had been quite the foe in his weakened state, causing her to cross her arms for a moment. "That appears to be the case, though it seems that part of Hellfire Peninsula belongs to them now," Illidan said, not that he actually cared about who actually owned the provinces of Outland, since he had taken this world so he could ready himself and his forces for the war with the Legion, and only for that reason, but this did tell him that the Alliance and Horde might be coming for them at some point in the future, "Kayn, Kor'vas, good work on figuring out what has been happening in Hellfire Peninsula. You are free to return to what you were doing, after taking a break to relax, while I plan out our next move." As Kayn and Kor'vas nodded their heads, and departed from the summit, Spitfire and Rainbow returned to what they had been doing with their Lord before the pair had returned, as in Rainbow returned to practicing with her warglaives and Spitfire focused on the scenarios that she would be going over for the next hour or two, but while they did that she had the feeling that there was more to the situation than what they were told and that they would see what the Alliance and Horde were up to in the coming weeks. Over the next couple of months Spitfire's feelings on the matter seemed to be validated, as it wasn't long before both the Alliance and Horde moved the majority of their forces and headed into Zangarmarsh, once Hellfire Peninsula was free from the Legion, though that also included them felling the couple of taskmasters that the Illidari had stationed in part of the province, effectively terminating their hold over the province that held the Dark Portal. It didn't take the two factions, or their allies, the Cenarion Expedition, to decide that the pumps Lady Vashj and her naga had installed, which allowed the Illidari to ready their water supplies for their war against the Legion, were wrong and that they needed to be taken down, hence why they started to sabotage all the hard work that their allies put into making their dream a reality. Even though there were a number of them that wanted to rush out and aid their ally, who hadn't called for assistance yet, Lord Illidan had them stay in the Black Temple, knowing that he would respond the moment they heard the distress call from their ally, as he had faith that she wouldn't be stubborn and could call if she needed help. As such Spitfire, Rainbow, and the others learned that the Alliance and Horde aided the Cenarion Expedition in some of their other plans, cutting down a vast number of the naga that were in the province, while at the same time invading sections of Lady Vashj's home, just like they did before they attempted to take on Magtheridon, even though the demon was dead before they even arrived. Clearing out Hellfire Peninsula had taken the two factions three whole months, since they were getting familiar with the land and learning what they needed to know about the fel orcs that had been positioned in that province, and it was when their fifth month in Outland came to an end that the Illidari got the bad news, that Lady Vashj had been slain and all of her operations had been terminated. Spitfire and Rainbow had only seen the leader of the naga forces on occasion, but it was hard to believe that such a powerful magic user, as both Lady Vashj and Lord Kael'thas were rather powerful when it came to using magic, had been brought down, her forces terminated, and all of their operations in Zangarmarsh had been put on hold, though that also meant that S'theno, a lieutenant before all this, was now the leader of the rest of the naga, who resided both inside and outside the temple, getting ready for the attack on the next Legion world. Of course that was just the first bit of bad news they received, as about two months later, with the Alliance and Horde finished saving the rest of Zangarmarsh and started to push into Terokkar Forest, so they could reach Shattrath City, the Illidari got word that a vast number of blood elves were going to be attacking the city, likely on Kael'thas' orders, only to learn that a good portion of their ally's forces had defected from his side and were no longer allied with the Illidari, which was a blow to both them and to Kael'thas. None of the Illidari knew what had provoked Voren'thal, the leader of the group that defected, into this decision, but they were accepted by the leaders of the city and the faction of blood elves spent the incoming weeks helping the Naaru, beings of Light ruled over the city, in whatever they needed help with, where one thing the Illidari weren't even expecting was one of the Naaru, Xi'ri, breaching the front of Shadowmoon Valley, giving them access to the area that the Black Temple was in, for a time anyway. Oddly enough that seemed to be a test of the forces that were within Shattrath City and they pulled back, leaving the Illidari to truly ready themselves for whatever was coming next, as they knew that it was only a matter of time until all of their new enemies would be knocking on their door, since it was clear that Voren'thal likely told them about the potential danger that they posed to the rest of Outland. Instead the Alliance and Horde focused on sending some of their forces into Nagrand so they could aid the allies that were positioned out there, namely the Kurenai, a group of Broken draenei, and the Mag'har orcs that called the province home, allowing the forces to improve their relations with their new allies, while at the same time taking out the various threats that were bothering them in the first place. Interestingly enough Nagrand was the province that seemed to slow down the advance of the Alliance and the Horde, as they ended up spending a great deal of time dealing with the various threats that sought to take down the groups that they were in the middle of helping, which allowed the Illidari time to make sure their forces were ready and the gateways were prepared, because once they figured out which world they were going to they would need everything in position in a short period of time, especially since the two factions saw them as enemies. Another bit of interesting information was that Altruis, who had left the Black Temple some time ago, fearing that Lord Illidan was becoming more like a demon and had lost his purpose, had been seen in the same province and was actually working with the Alliance and Horde to take down the couple of forge camps that the Legion had set up, showing the Illidari that while he had disrespected them by jumping ship, he was still honoring his calling as a demon hunter, even if some would hold this event against him for the rest of his days. By the time a year passed, since the reopening of the Dark Portal, the Alliance and Horde had succeeded in purging Lord Illidan's hold on Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, and what little he actually had on Terokkar Forest, while also taking the time to make sure Nagrand was safe, before they pushed northward and headed into Blade's Edge Mountains, where Gruul, the Gronn overlord of the area, resided in. Gruul was an ally to the Illidari, not to the extent that Lady Vashj or Lord Kael'thas were anyway, but he and his seven sons were powerful warriors, even if they were giants that were capable of defeating large dragons, so many of the Illidari believed that Blade's Edge Mountains would be safe and that the factions would be forced to retreat to one of the other provinces they had taken. Another three months went by before the Illidari learned that all seven of Gruul's sons had been defeated, showing the raw power that the Alliance and Horde had to offer, before they shattered the Legion's small grasp on that province and moved into Netherstorm, the last province they had yet to visit during their time in Outland, where Kael'thas and the rest of his army was stationed, supposedly getting ready for the assault that Lord Illidan was planning. It was then that Spitfire and Rainbow learned what was taking their Lord so long to pick a world to invade, as he was having a hard time locating the world known as Mardum, which he claimed was a shattered world, in a worse state than Outland was, and that it held the key that would allow them to invade Argus, though he was getting closer to locating its exact position so he could open the way to where it was located. It took the two factions another three months to deal with everything that was happening in Netherstorm, where the Illidari didn't have many places to gather information from, but from what they could tell the Alliance and Horde not only dismantled the manaforges that Kael'thas had built across the province, to ensure his people didn't go mad while also weakening the province even more, and cut down another force of Legion soldiers that were under the command of an Eredar called Socrethar. From there they sought out the seat of Kael'thas' power, assaulting the ships that the blood elves had taken over some time ago, cutting down the majority of their ally's forces as they reclaimed the Botanica and the Mechanar, the former being a place to study plants and other types of natural life while the latter was an area that their ally stored manacells, which apparently contained great magical power. After those two ships were reclaimed the forces then turned towards the Arcatraz, a ship that served as a jail for some of the most dangerous creatures the Naaru had ever encountered over the years, only for the Alliance and Horde to purge it of every enemy they came across, so that way the Naaru could reclaim their stolen vessel. Once those three areas had been taken down the forces of the two factions invaded the Eye, the ship that Kael'thas and the rest of his forces were in, where it appeared that most of their allies were killed in the attack and that the leader of the faction was taken down as well, though upon returning to Shattrath City both the heroes of the two factions and the Illidari learned that Kael'thas was alive and, more importantly, he had betrayed all of them so he could summon Kil'jaeden into Azeroth. Instead of heading back to Azeroth, to stop the summoning of Kil'jaeden, Spitfire and Rainbow found that the Alliance and Horde foolishly spent the next couple of months assaulting Shadowmoon Valley, apparently caring more about the fact that the Illidari were still a 'threat' to them and not worrying about the potential disaster that might be coming to the world they were trying to save... and not a few months later, exactly one year and ten months after the reopening of the Dark Portal, the demon hunters gathered at the summit as the forces of the Alliance, Horde, and Shattrath City attacked the main gate of the Black Temple. "Illidari... my demon hunters," Illidan said, drawing the attention to everyone that had gathered on the summit of the Black Temple, as per his orders, and that even included Altruis, who had been allowed to rejoin some time ago, before he opened his wings and took to the air for a few moments, where he flew over the assembled group and landed near the edge of the area they were standing in, allowing him to look down at the invasion force for a few seconds, though while he did that Spitfire and Rainbow stood beside him for a few seconds, "with countless worlds burning in the Legion's wake, you answered the call. Yet these mortals, in their own ignorance, have come to destroy their own salvation... our time is short, so I will deal with these intruders. You must venture to Mardum and retrieve the Sargerite Keystone." As he said that last bit, and mentioned the Sargerite Keystone, he used a bit of his power to conjure an image of a fel green stone above his right hand, before he crushed it and raised his left hand up to the area he had been standing in a few moments ago, where he channeled some of his power and opened a fel green portal that would be temporary, as long as he used his power to fuel it, before he focused on all the demon hunters that were around him. "Now go!" Illidan commander, where the demon hunters nodded their heads and started to charge into the portal he had opened for them, so they could finally invade Mardum and retrieve the item that would allow them to invade Argus, to put a stop to the Legion at long last, before he glanced at Spitfire and Rainbow, who were some of the last ones to head through the portal since they were standing near him, "Remember this, should you fail in your mission, ALL of the worlds in the universe will burn!" Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads, knowing that he was referring to their home world as well, before the pair turned and headed towards the portal as they joined the rest of the demon hunters, to which they quickly passed through it and headed to the world that they and the rest of their group would be invading for the foreseeable future, until they found the item they were after and returned to aid their Lord in defending the Black Temple. > Mardum: Invasion > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After entering the portal that their Lord had summoned, so they could travel across the distance between Outland and the area that Mardum was located in, it didn't take Spitfire and Rainbow that long to appear on the other side of the bridge, where they stepped out onto an area that, at first glance, reminded them of Shadowmoon Valley, with the darkened ground that looked like most traces of life had been removed at some point in the past, a dark sky that would normally suggest that it was nighttime, and had rivers of Fel green colored liquid, which was likely lava. Behind them, resting at an angle for some odd reason, was a gateway that Lord Illidan must have tapped into so he could get all of the demon hunters to Mardum, even though the structure, which had a wide base with a half oval opening for the portal to rest in, along with two prongs that seemed to serve as the top of the entire frame, was inactive, meaning the only way they were going to get back to the Black Temple was with the Sargerite Keystone. In front of them rested a path that seemed to head down to where another gateway was resting, this one looking more intact than the one that was behind them, before they noticed what appeared to be a massive Fel volcano off in the distance and, more importantly, a dark Fel green vessel flying through the air, with the material that went into making it looking like the same material that the gateways were made out of. That was a Legion ship, one of the vessels some of their forces used to launch invasions on a world that caught their interest, something the people of Azeroth didn't know about and something they only recently learned about thanks to some of the demons they had caught and interrogated, and off in the distance the pair could make out one more ship, one that seemed to be horizontal, instead of vertical. Mardum itself was a shattered world, far worse than what Outland was like, as there were a number of bits and pieces of the former planet floating all over the place, where Spitfire and Rainbow would actually have to fly to reach them if they wanted to look at them more closely, though it did look like the fragments were just floating through the space between worlds, just like the ruined world they had been living on for the last year and eleven months, before they decided that it was time to move forward and walk down to the area that Kayn and some of the others were standing in. "So, this is Mardum... what a lovely place." Spitfire remarked, though she was being sarcastic when she said the latter part of her statement, mostly because she really felt that this ruined world was terrible looking and didn't much care for what the Legion had done to it, mostly since it told her what to expect if Sargeras ever got his hands on Equus, a planet he would surely destroy within seconds of invading it, since there were no armies to counter the Legion. "Indeed, and it is here that we'll find the Sargerite Keystone." Kayn replied, knowing that, out of all the demon hunters that he had trained with, both Spitfire and Rainbow were the only ones that hadn't actually seen what the Legion did to the worlds that they conquered, as they either ended up slowly being torn apart or ended up like this, before he focused on the task at hand as he looked out at the area in front of them, "Lady Spitfire, what are your orders?" "Well, seeing how we might have announced our arrival with the gateway becoming active, we should head down to the bottom of this hill and kill all of the demons that we find." Spitfire stated, though while she would have sworn that she would have been listening to someone like Kayn the entire time they were in Mardum, due to him being one of the more senior members of the demon hunters, she had an idea of what was going on and went with it, before she spotted an area they should claim, "Once that's done we can take control of the area and then access the gateway... maybe call in some of the reinforcements Lord Illidan prepared for this day." Kayn nodded his head and ordered the rest of the group to move forward, to which the demon hunters readied their weapons and charged down the hill so they could greet the demons of Mardum at long last, so they could start their quest to find the one item that would allow them to invade Argus, to which Spitfire looked out at the area once more before she raised her hands and withdrew her warglaives. "I figured that killing demons would be the first order of business, given that we're demon hunters, but since when were you the leader of our invasion force?" Rainbow asked, though at the same time she withdrew her warglaives from her own horns, just like Spitfire did, something that would never get old and she was glad to have unlocked the trick when she finally became a demon hunter. "Must be all the time I spent talking to Lord Illidan about strategy, its convinced the others that I'm more suited to be the leader this time around." Spitfire replied, as that was the only reason she could give as to why Kayn had asked her for orders, instead of her asking him and the others what they were going to do, though with that said she focused on the area that was below them once more, where she saw the others already attacking the cluster of demons that happened to be guarding the gateway that was near the bottom of the hill. As Spitfire took to the air, so she could race down to where the first unoccupied demon was located, Rainbow flew right by her and kicked one of the demons in the side of the head, effectively claiming it as her foe for now, even though Spitfire was sure that her friend had said something about a race to kill the highest number of demons between the two of them, to which she chuckled as she focused on her foes. The first foe she encountered was a Wrath Warrior, a variety of the Wrathguard demon she had learned about, which was a tall creature, standing at least her height and then half of it again, and wielded a long sword in its right hand, even though it had armor on its legs, arms, the main part of its body, and a helmet to cover its head, showing that it was ready for battle. What she did was parry the incoming attack with one of her warglaives and then, before her foe could push her back and swing at her chest, Spitfire swung her other warglaive not a few seconds later and cut into the Wrath Warrior's chest, cutting through the demon's chest and spilling the fel blood that was inside it, allowing her to push onward as she joined the rest of their group. Rainbow, on the other hand, took to the air and swung her warglaives at the Felbats that were flying around the area, a gargoyle-like enemy that had two large bat-like wings, sharpened claws for its hands and feet, and large bat ears, where she cut through her foes by aiming at all of their heads and dropped all of them to the ground in a matter of seconds, even though they came in groups of three and stayed pretty close to each other. There was also one or two Imp Mothers in the area that the demon hunters were assaulting, which were large demons who rested in pools of Fel lava and seemed to be all female, though they summoned the smaller Imps into an area by some unknown method, even though Spitfire wasn't seeing many Imps at the moment, and she spotted some Felstalkers, demonic beasts that devoured the magic and life force of their enemies, patrolling part of the area. Even with all of those demon guarding the area that was near the first intact gateway structure it didn't take the Illidari that long to route their foes and take control of the area they were in, where they were fortunate that Mardum seemed to be surrounded by the Twisting Nether on all sides, because that meant every demon they killed here wouldn't be coming back, cutting down on any enemies the forces of Azeroth might have to fight, before Spitfire and Rainbow came to a stop near the Legion device that was a minute from where the gateway rested, where they were joined by Kayn as the others moved forward to scout out the rest of the area they were in. "We did well, capturing this point and obtaining a gateway to call in reinforcements... and drawing the attention of the demons that rule Mardum," Kayn commented, though at the same time Spitfire held her hand out towards the device that was in front of them, which was basically something that displayed a magical version of the flag of whoever happened to own the area that the device was resting in, where it changed from the symbol of the Legion and took on the symbol of the Illidari, to signify their first victory against the forces of Mardum, "Now then, onto the matter of summoning in some of our reinforcements and continuing the search for the Keystone. Lady Spitfire, I know he didn't have time to tell you this before we left the Black Temple, due to the army that was approaching, but Lord Illidan has placed you in charge of our forces and gave me a rundown on what we should be expecting in the near future, where he informed me that there are three Legion gateways that we can tap into to summon the rest of our forces, and this first gateway should be the one that the Ashtongue were assigned to." "With all the demons we've killed, we should have more than enough souls to open the gateway and summon the first part of our reinforcements," Spitfire replied, showing that she understood the information Jace and the others had gained since her and Rainbow's arrival in Outland, though at the same time she was a little caught off guard by the fact that she was being promoted to being the leader of the Illidari, for the time they were in Mardum, before she focused on what they needed to do next, "Kayn, you and the others should press on to the next part of this world, to figure out what targets we need to hit as we look for the Keystone, while Rainbow and I activate the gateway and call in the Ashtongue... we'll catch up once we have our reinforcements." Kayn nodded his head and soon he and the few remaining demon hunters were moving on to the next part of the ruined world that they were invading, to which Spitfire sighed for a moment as she walked over to where the gateway was resting, with Rainbow in toe, though they did pass by some heavily armed Mo'arg corpses, meaning that there were more types of demons in Mardum for them to worry about, before coming to a stop as they reached the activator that would open the first gateway, where Sevis Brightflame, a blood elf demon hunter with red hair, stood guard over it. "Lady Spitfire, plenty of demons were sacrificed to power this activator." Sevis stated, where he bowed his head a little as he said that, to show that he knew about Spitfire's promotion to being the temporary leader of the Illidari, something she definitely missed before being briefed on their mission to this world, before he returned to a normal standing position and moved to the left, so Spitfire could activate the gateway. Spitfire nodded to Sevis for a moment and raised her left hand towards the activator, where the two halves of the key seemed to snap back together and then disappeared into the ground, which was followed by the fel energy of the gateway being activated as a temporary bridge to where the Ashtongue were waiting appeared between the two support pillars for the structure... which was shortly followed by a number of Broken, who were the Ashtongue, appeared between the two sides of the gateway and marched out, lead by their leader, Battlelord Gaardoun, and what seemed to be a demonic saber that had a bone-like face guard, sharpened claws, and a skeletal tail. "Lady Spitfire, I bring with me the Ashtongue forces that have sworn to destroy the Legion," Gaardoun stated, taking a moment to bow his head towards Spitfire as he said that, while at the same time his forces did the same thing before they moved deeper into Mardum, showing that they must have been briefed on what they needed to do as soon as they were summoned to this world, which was just fine with her, though that was when he gestured to the saber, "and a gift, from Lord Illidan himself: a loyal Felsaber. Normally only the high ranking members of the Illidari are given these, and our Lord felt that it was time that you had one as well, though we were unable to prepare a second for you, Rainbow, so that will be something for the future... and, instead of this one being trained as a mount, since you have wings, we have trained it to be a companion that will fight at your side." "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this, but another companion is nice," Spitfire remarked, though as she said that the Felsaber walked over to her and stared at her for a few seconds, where she rubbed the top of what she had thought was a helmet of some kind, but the almost purring-like sound told her that it was actually the saber's head, meaning this was a cat, like a tiger or something, that had been corrupted by the Legion and twisted into this shape, only for Lord Illidan to find it and tame it for his elite soldiers, of which she was apparently one, before she focused on Gaardoun, "though we should move forward and claim the area that is just ahead of the area we're currently in, since there's no telling when the Legion will send reinforcements to stop us." Gaardoun nodded his head and issued a command to the rest of the Ashtongue, where they started to move out not a few moments later, leaving Spitfire, Rainbow, and the new addition to their little group standing near the gateway, as the moment the gateway had been opened Sevis used his own mount, a grey coated saber cat, to head off into the distance so he could join the others, making her wonder how he even summoned it here in the first place since none of the demon hunters had mounts when Lord Illidan opened the portal to Mardum. "Seriously, who died and made you the leader?" Rainbow remarked, as she would have thought that there would have been two of these Felsabers waiting for them when the first gateway was opened, since she was at the same level within the Illidari that Spitfire was at, though at the very least this gave her a chance to see what else awaited her when she was raised to the level that her friend was at. "No one died, obviously, but Lord Illidan has put me in charge, as Kayn told us." Spitfire said, where she was still a little surprised by that information, since she figured that Kayn or Kor'vas, at the very least, deserved the position, but this was the hand she was dealt and that meant she had to roll with it, to which she faced the area that the others had ran in, which was to the right of where they were currently standing, since they were facing the structure of the gateway, and started to leave the area, followed by Rainbow and the Felsaber. As they started to follow the path that would bring them to the next part of Mardum, and bring them closer to finding the Sargerite Keystone, Spitfire paused as she found a device that looked similar to the demonic flag device, though this was a communicator between this part of the ruined world and another part, where she tapped it and overheard that a demon, likely a commander class demon, had seen the gateway open and that he wanted a full report on what was going on immediately. From there the next item they discovered was a floating device that looked like a box, or the base of it did at the very least, that had a Fel green crystal at the top and a tiny bit of it pointed at the ground, no doubt enchanted to the item could float above the ground, but the pair recognized it from their lessons, as Jace had discovered it thanks to the few engineer demons he had 'persuaded' into helping him, where he said that it was capable of spewing Fel energy into an area so the Legion could corrupt it for a future invasion. The fact that one was here, on Mardum, meant that it was likely leftover from when the demons first created it or it fell off of one of the ships that was flying through the air, of which the pair could only see one moving vessel at the moment, but instead of leaving it behind, for the Legion to take and use on the next world that they invaded, both of them lashed out with their warglaives and shattered the spewer, breaking the frame and the crystal at the same time. After that they continued to travel along the lone path that was in front of them, which allowed them to break another spewer along the way, before they discovered a cave with a few Wrath Warrior bodies around the opening, which was where Allari and Sevis were standing, though it appeared that Allari was involved in interrogating one of the Inquisitor demons, a race of hooded demons that sought out all sorts of information, regardless of whether or not it was useful to Sargeras and his plan to destroy all of creation. "Ah, Lady Spitfire, I was wondering when you and Rainbow were going to show up," Allari commented, where Spitfire had no doubt that Allari had sensed their coming without looking back, as she was sure that Sevis hadn't turned away from the demon they were in the middle of interrogating, since it appeared that he was acting like a guard and would no doubt attack the moment the Inquisitor tried anything funny, "We saw the Ashtongue run by not a few minutes ago, so we knew you weren't too far behind, though I'm afraid that we've run into some problems. As you know, some of the others were sent to Mardum ahead of us, to scout out the area and prepare a camp when Lord Illidan decided it was time to send the rest of us, but thanks to this Inquisitor we've learned that Cyana and a few of the others were captured and there's a brand new demon, a Jailer type by the sounds of it, that is trying to suck their souls out... so if we don't help them soon we will lose a few of our allies. Also, there's a more powerful Inquisitor demon up ahead, Inquisitor Baleful according to what this one has told us, one that you and Rainbow might be able to steal the powers of if you kill him, which will allow Jace to spy on our enemies with one of the toys he's been working on." "Also, this next gateway should bring in our Coilskar allies," Sevis added, referring to the force of naga that they had left behind in the Black Temple, who were waiting to be called to Mardum so they could join the demon hunters in their mission to claim the Sargerite Keystone, though at the same time it was clear that he didn't trust them all that much, but was willing to work with them since they swore to serve their Lord, "so just find a way to activate the gateway and call in the next batch of reinforcements... or at least that was the plan we were told before coming here." Spitfire knew that there was more that Sevis wanted to say and that he had decided to keep his mouth shut, no doubt due to the fact that he would have mentioned that she was the leader of the Illidari for the foreseeable future and that she could make amendments to Lord Illidan's original plan, if she deemed such a thing to be necessary, before she shook her head as she looked at the Inquisitor demon. "Its a good plan of attack: free our captured comrades, kill the commander of this area, and call in the next group of reinforcements before pushing into the next area," Spitfire stated, because she had to agree with what she and Rainbow had been told, especially since it made sense in the grand scheme of their assault, though she did hope they were able to rescue the others before the Jailer demon, or demons since there could be more than one of them in the next area, ripped out their souls and killed them. Allari and Sevis nodded their heads, to show that they understood what she told them, before Spitfire and Rainbow headed down the path that was beyond where the pair of demon hunters was standing and advanced into the next area that was controlled by the Legion, though it only took them a few moments to discover another foe, a Felguard, which was a variation of the Wrath Warrior demon, who carried all manner of weapons and this one seemed to favor the polearm over the other types. That was followed by them getting their first look at the Jailer demon, a creature that had a decent muscular body, much like the couple of Wrath Warriors and Felguards, only it wore armor over its wrists to prevent the loss of its hands and some around its waist, where a skirt of some kind rested and covered its legs, which the pair believed that it didn't have any normal legs, though the more interesting thing was the Fel cage that was on its back. It seemed like a dangerous foe, though as the pair ran into the area that it was standing in front of, so they could take it down, they did discover that part of the area in front of them seemed to be a holding area for the Legion, so they could interrogate all of the demon hunters that they caught, but the truth of the matter was that the Jailer wasn't that hard for them to kill, as it only used its sharpened claws to fight them. As such it was rather easy for Spitfire and Rainbow to avoid the incoming attacks, allowing them to cut down the demon before it was able to really do anything, though it carried no key and that meant they had to find more Jailers and kill them until they found the key that went to the cages that the others had been stuffed inside for the foreseeable future, and they knew that there were more Jailers because there was one standing near the entrance to the camp they were heading towards. Of course they weren't the only ones assaulting the Legion camp that was in front of them, as the Ashtongue were in the middle of assisting the demon hunters in slaying all the demons they found in this area, be they Jailers, Felguards, the small Felstalkers, and possibly a few more that they couldn't see at the moment, though there was a massive Infernal off to the far right of the camp they were entering. Instead of worrying about the Infernal, which seemed to be inactive at the moment, Spitfire and Rainbow focused on targeting the Jailer demons, cutting them down where they stood so they could search for a key to open the cages their comrades and friends were trapped in, while at the same time the Felsaber that was following them jumped onto the back of one of them and tore into its neck with ease, dropping it to the ground within seconds as it confirmed that it was a combat companion that could help them out. Interestingly enough the Jailer that the Felsaber tore apart happened to be the one that was holding the key to the cages that were around the area, which was when it gave the key to Spitfire and let her walk over to the first cage, which happened to be located to the left of the opening that they had walked through, though that was when they found that the first demon hunter they freed was the one that Allari had mentioned, Cyana Nightglaive, a night elf demon hunter who thanked them and then declared that she would never be held prisoner again, before rejoining the fight. From there they found their way to another part of the area they were in that held one of the Legion communicators, which just so happened to be where Belath Dawnblade, one of the blood elf demon hunters, happened to be imprisoned by the Jailers of this area, so they freed him and found out that whoever had spoken during their visit to the last device had realized that the Illidari were using the gateways, meaning they would have to be careful in the future. As they kept their eyes open for the other cages they were looking for, before making their way over to the gateway that the demons had been guarding, which was where Spitfire and Rainbow found some dead demons, one or two of the Ashtongue laying dead on the ground, and Sevis standing beside another one, a mystic, that seemed to be in the process of dying, only he also seemed to be clinging onto what little bits of life he still had. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, its good that you came when you did," Sevis said, where he took a moment to glance down at the clearly severely wounded Broken mystic that was sitting on the ground, who was trying to keep himself alive for a few more seconds, before he focused on the pair and what he was going to tell them, even though it was pretty obvious to Spitfire what was going on, "I'm afraid that you don't have a lot of time to spare." "Please... use my soul to power... the gateway..." the Broken mystic stated, speaking despite the fact that he was hurt to this extent, showing them that he only had enough power to hold back his dead and that he would rather sacrifice his soul to power the gateway and summon the Coilskar to Mardum, instead of leaving it behind for the demons of this world to take it and torment him for the knowledge he knew. "Very well..." Spitfire replied, though while she knew that there could have been a chance that they could have healed the wound, and gotten him back on his hooves, the Broken mystic seemed convinced that this was the only way he could do things and that there wasn't much she could actually do to save him, but that didn't stop her from feeling terrible as she drove one of her warglaives into his chest, "don't worry, your sacrifice won't be in vain." That statement seemed to bring a faint smile to the Broken mystic's face as the life faded from his body and his soul was sucked up into the activator for the second gateway, which was when Spitfire walked over to the device and opened the gateway, revealing a force of heavily armed naga, lead by Lady S'theno, that were brought to Mardum from the section of the Black Temple that they had been waiting in. "Lady Spitfire, I bring with me the forces of the Coilskar," S'theno said, where she beckoned to the group that she was the leader of, having gotten over the death of Lady Vashj and accepted her role as the leader of the naga that served Lord Illidan in his quest to stop the Legion, and, given Spitfire's new position as the second-in-command of the Illidari, only with their Lord above her, that she was here to serve her as well, before she glanced at the area they were in and frowned for a moment, showing them that she wasn't a fan of the area in question, "how lovely... another Fel volcano. Anyway, we shall press onward and join the others at the next foothold... and Lord Illidan sends his best wishes for a speedy success, as he has faith in our abilities to claim the Keystone." With that said Lady S'theno and her forces moved out into the area that the rest of the Illidari were taking over, which was when they joined the battle against the demons and prepared to open the way to the rest of Mardum, though instead of following her and her naga, like some of the Broken were doing, the pair headed down the path that lead to the rather massive Infernal that was clearly being prepared to assault their forces. They were going after Inquisitor Baleful, the one that was in charge of the demonic forces in this area, where the pair knew that if they were successful in killing him, and there was a great chance of that happening, the demons in this area would lose their commander and become that much easier to route, hence the reason Spitfire and Rainbow held their warglaives at the ready as they carefully crossed over the fel lava infested river so they could reach the area their target was waiting in. Inquisitor Baleful was waiting for them, as he was eager to beat them and take the secrets that they held for both himself and for the Legion, no doubt because their forms interested him and he was eager to figure out which world they came from, so Sargeras could send the Legion to a brand new world, something that definitely pissed the two of them off the moment he spoke up about it. While Spitfire went on the offensive immediately, slicing off bits of her target's attire as he tried to dodge her, Rainbow flew up into the air and crashed into the massive Infernal's chest, using her warglaives as she came into contact with its body so it would be pushed off the edge of the area and fall into the Twisting Nether, where it would die and never rise to hurt anyone again, before she landed near the Inquisitor and joined the battle. One thing Inquisitor Baleful did was unleash a few Fel eyes into the area that they were standing in, which looked like dark green stone spheres, about the size of a fist, that had two crimson red areas that looked like eyes, though they were parallel with each other, and it was from those eyes that the demon loosed small Fel beams from them, to try and hit one of them while they were distracted... of course he didn't even think about the fact that they could take to the air, so Spitfire and Rainbow mostly ignored that attack. After a minute it became clear to Inquisitor Baleful that, despite the fact that he was able to take more damage than the other demons, he was losing the battle and surrounded himself in a dark barrier for a few moments, no doubt thinking that he could bomb the area they were standing in, before remembering that Rainbow had silenced the large Infernal and, at the same time, crippled his ability to fight back, so when the barrier fell again the pair and the Felsaber were on top of him in seconds, only to deliver the final blow this time, allowing the pair to steal his power for themselves, which resulted in them firing what appeared to be beams of Fel energy from their eyes, before it went away. "Wow, what was that?" Rainbow inquired, because that wasn't a power that she and Spitfire had seen before, in fact the only demon hunter, among their entire group, that might know about it was the first one, Lord Illidan himself, and he hadn't taught them or the others this trick, or at least not to her knowledge, though at the very least she felt stronger after slaying the Inquisitor and taking some of his power for herself. "Some sort of eye beam I guess," Spitfire remarked, as she shared what was going through Rainbow's mind right now, that wasn't a skill they had learned about and it was possible that they would have learned it in due time, if they had more time to train with Lord Illidan, before she shook her head and looked in the direction that their forces were heading in, as she spotted a path that seemed to head to where the third and final gateway was located, "Come on, let's free the rest of our captured allies and get a move on, we still have one more group of reinforcements to summon to Mardum before we can make a play for the Keystone." Rainbow nodded and followed her lead as they headed over to the area that the rest of the Illidari were using to cross over to the next part of Mardum, though along the way the pair stopped by a cave one of the Jailers had been guarding and found Izal Whitemoon, a night elf from the advanced unit, in a cage, so Spitfire freed her and their ally promised that such a thing would never happen again. Across the path from that cave there was a sunken area that held one other cage, one that was being guarded by a pair of Broken warriors since they didn't have the key, and that was when the pair came in and rescued Mannethrel Darkstar, another night elf that was actually part of their group, who thanked them for saving him before the Jailers tormented him and forced him to give into the demonic energies that were inside him, which would have likely either killed him or forced him to transform into a demon. With Mannethrel saved from his cage, and the area that Inquisitor Baleful ruled over had been taken by the Illidari, the group moved towards the rock bridge that would let them move into the next part of Mardum, where they quickly reached a temporary camp that had been set up while they were busy taking care of their previous targets, to which Mannethrel separated from them and let them approach Jace for a moment, since they needed to inform him of the fact that they had killed Inquisitor Baleful. "Ah, Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, its good to see you again," Jace said, sensing their arrival before they even said anything to him first, just like all of the other demon hunters had been able to do whenever the pair approached them, something that they were used to after all the time they spent training with the demon hunters, before he turned to face the pair for a few seconds, "and it appears that you have stolen the power of a powerful demon." "We did, by killing Inquisitor Baleful." Rainbow remarked, though even as she said it she was hoping for a better foe to appear before they left Mardum, as the demons they had killed so far had been rather easy for them to cut down and take control of the parts of the ruined world that were behind them, cutting into the land that the Legion controlled, even if she knew that there wasn't a lot of actual land in this world in the first place, "We also freed our captive allies and summoned in the Coilskar, so we can move forward and take the land before the next portal." "Good, that means we can use the Nether Crucible at long last," Jace stated, referring to the cauldron-like device that was set between three of the ward devices that he was fond of making for the rest of their forces, so they could be set out and attack the demons that approached them, leaving the Illidari to focus their efforts on their true foes, or protect them from being spied on, "now then, place your hands on the crucible and focus your minds, as I'll be seeing whether or not we can use a bit of that Inquisitor's essence, what gave you the new power you surely gained, to spy on our enemies and get some information before we enter the next part of Mardum." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads, placed their hands on the edge of the crucible, and closed their eyes as they focused on what they were doing, though it didn't take them long to figure out what Jace was doing as they peered into part of Mardum, an area that seemed to be the one that might be in front of them, where they spotted a pair of demons in the middle of a conversation. One of them appeared to be a Doomguard, basically a smaller version of Kazzak, though the other one held their attention because it was certainly female, by how the body looked, that stood on two legs that were like what the Broken possessed, only ending in three claws, for lake of a better term, had what they guessed were horns on either side of her head, and had odd looking wings that looked like spider legs with webbing connecting each section together, or at least that was what the pair assumed. This type of demon was an Aranasi, a more rumored type of demon that the Illidari knew next to nothing about and only had rumors to go on, meaning they would have to be careful when they dealt with her, especially since it appeared that she might be the demon that ruled over Mardum, based on how the Doomguard was kneeling to her at the moment. The Aranasi was annoyed about their presence in her world, something that she verbally said to the Doomguard, where it wasn't hard to hear that the Doomguard had some Eredar that were in the process of summoning reinforcements to deal with them, before they got a piece of information that mattered to all of them and their mission, the Sargerite Keystone was beyond the volcano and that Beliash, the demon she was talking to right now, was ordered to stop them at all costs, to which he acknowledged her orders not a few seconds later, before the vision they were seeing faded and they were back with Jace. "So the rumors were true, the Legion has spider demons... like they needed more types of demons." Jace remarked, his tone informing Spitfire and Rainbow that he didn't much care for the Aranasi that they had seen, a queen based on the words that Beliash had used when talking to her, but that was when he shook his head and focused on the area that was on the other side of the rock bridge that rested near them, "But at least she, unknowingly I might add, gave us the location of the Sargerite Keystone, meaning we're close to completing our mission." "Indeed we are. Jace, I want you and the others to slay the Eredar and break their portals," Spitfire stated, though this time she was getting into the leadership role that had been given to her, because she had a good idea of what they had to do next and it was time for her to take charge, while at the same time Rainbow remained silent as she listened to what sort of orders she could be giving, "once that's done I want everyone to head through the pass that's near the volcano, so you can establish another temporary camp, to rest and regroup before our assault on this Queen's lair. While you do that Rainbow and I will open the final gateway and call in the Shivarra, since they're patiently waiting for us to bring them to this ruined world, and we'll be sure to take out Beliash as well." Jace nodded his head and repeated the order to the Illidari that had been assembled in this area, to which all of them, with Spitfire and Rainbow at the head of the pack, charged over the rock bridge and started to assault the Eredar that were in the middle of creating portals to summon more demons to Mardum, though while that was happening the pair went ahead of the others and flew up to the area that Beliash was guarding. He clearly wasn't expecting them to reach him so soon, even though he did have two support pillars active which might actually protect him from harm, but his combat skills left more to be desired, because he couldn't actually fight two demon hunters at once, rather he could only focus on one of them at a time and opened himself up to being attacked from another direction. Spitfire parried the incoming attack that was heading her way and stalled her foe in a matter of seconds, though as Beliash powered himself up, to make sure they couldn't hurt him more than they already had, which was the moment that both of them backed away for a moment and drove their warglaives into the exposed crystals that powered the pillars, stripping their foe of his defense and forcing him to fight once more, which was the very moment the pair activated their eye beams and blasted their way through the armor that their foe was wearing. That attack, combined with what they had been able to do within the first couple of moments of the battle starting, was more than enough to bring down Beliash, proving that the Brood Queen, as Spitfire was going to call her, needed a more powerful lieutenant than the Doomguard she had chosen, as this mistake was going to bring about her end in due time, though she put that train of thought on hold as both she and Rainbow took in another power, due to killing Beliash. Neither of them had any idea what sort of power they had stolen this time, even though Spitfire could make a guess or two on that matter, but instead of wasting time trying to figure it out they, along with the Felsaber that had been tearing into some of the Eredar while they fought Beliash, headed up the hill that was behind them and approached the final of the three gateways, where it wasn't hard to find Sevis standing near the corpses of a few Mo'arg, though he did appear to be worried about the fact that he couldn't power the activator. "Lady Spitfire, while I'm glad to see you and Rainbow again, it appears that we have a slight... problem." Sevis said, to which he gestured to the activator for a moment, mostly to indicate that he had done everything in his power to power the device in question and that he knew she wasn't going to like what he had to say next, hence the reason Spitfire was taking a look at the area as he talked, "It would seem that the demon in charge of this world has done something to this gateway, as the activator didn't power up at all when I offered it the souls of the Mo'arg that are around us... but maybe the soul of something even stronger, like a demon hunter, will work?" "Or I could use the leftover essence of Beliash to power it," Spitfire replied, because while she knew that every demon hunter was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to help Lord Illidan end the war with the Legion, she wasn't about to ask one of her soldiers to offer his life so she could power the gateway, especially since it seemed that the fraction of Beliash's essence that remained was more than enough to awaken the activator, before she glanced at Sevis, "I'm not going to ask you to sacrifice yourself like this, especially when there are other ways of making sure we can do something, but I applaud your resolve in the face of what such a thing would have meant for you." Sevis seemed shocked by what she had done, even Rainbow was caught off guard by the fact that they had enough of Beliash's power to do something like this, before the blood elf nodded his head and headed towards the path that would take him to the camp that Jace and the others were setting up, which was when Spitfire activated the gateway and a force of thirty or forty Shivarra were brought to Mardum, lead by Matron Mother Malevolence, who spotted them a few seconds after she and her forces emerged from the gateway. "Ah, Lady Spitfire, Lord Illidan has placed my Shivarra at your command," Malevolence stated, something that Spitfire was getting used to since she had both Battlelord Gaardoun and Lady S'theno say something to that extent when both of them came through their respective portals with their forces, before she noticed the line of Illidari headed towards the next camp they were establishing, "Oh, before we were summoned this world we heard that a small band of adventurers, made up of equal parts Alliance and Horde, have infiltrated the Black Temple, while the Sha'tari army is still being denied access to the temple, so we are to acquire the Sargerite Keystone with all haste and then return to the temple, so we can aid in its defense." Spitfire nodded before she, Rainbow, the Felsaber, Malevolence, and the rest of the Shivarra departed from the area so they could join the rest of the Illidari, as it was time for them to rejoin their forces at their new temporary camp, take a few moments to rest and see what the situation was, before declaring war on this Brood Queen, take the Keystone from her, and then return to the Black Temple to repel the forces that were invading it. > Mardum: Assault on Inferno Peak > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the final gateway activated, the Shivarra called in from the Black Temple, and Sevis saved from having to sacrifice his soul to power the device that would open the way for Matron Mother Malevolence and her forces to join them, Spitfire and Rainbow joined the force of Illidari that was moving towards the volcano that was the base of operations for the Brood Queen that controlled Mardum, and they were joined by the Felsaber that Battlelord Gaardoun had brought, which the pair noticed was eager for battle. One thing all of them noticed as that their foe was using either using the other Legion ship to rain blasts down upon the area they happened to be the path they needed to use or they were using siege weapons to fire that them, but in the end it really didn't matter to the pair since none of them got hit, meaning they were able to breach the heart of their foe's world without losing anyone. That was when they got a good glimpse of the area that their foe ruled over and found that there was a gaping hole in the world that the vertical Legion ship was floating above, basically preventing them from getting up there by normal means, even though both Spitfire and Rainbow would be able to fly up there with no problems, before they spotted a large number of demons scattered around the majority of the area that was beyond where they were setting up their camp, which happened to be where the rest of the Illidari was resting. Based on what they could see it sure looked like the demon that was in control of this world was prepared for them, as the pair could see an engine of some kind that was no doubt drawing souls to it, an area that seemed to be spawning more of the spider demons, and at least three siege weapons that might be trained on the area they were settling down in. Oddly enough the blasts that were raining down on the pass between the third gateway and the new temporary camp stopped when they reached the area that Kayn and the other demon hunters were waiting in, though that was when the rest of their forces, the ones that had been following them, spread out around the rest of the massive camp that had been set up earlier, while Spitfire and Rainbow approached the main part of the camp. "Kayn, we've killed Beliash and summoned in the Shivarra," Spitfire stated, even though their mere presence should be enough to tell him and the others that they had succeeded in the missions that she had set for herself and Rainbow, but she did know that some people appreciated being told what was going on and liked hearing others inform them of their success, before she and Rainbow glanced out at the massive area they were in. "Thanks to your orders, and the death of the Doom Commander, we've brought the Legion's reinforcements to a stop in the area we just cleared out," Kayn remarked, showing that he was pleased by what Spitfire and Rainbow were able to do on their own, no doubt confirming his thoughts on how strong the two of them were and how fast they were growing in comparison to their own Lord, before he focused on the task at hand, "Lady Spitfire, its time that you took full control over our forces and order your Captains in whatever manner you see fit for the final battle with the Brood Queen's forces, though we do know that the Spider Fortress, the Soul Engine, and the Forge are the primary targets we need to take out before we fly up to the vessel." Spitfire took a moment to look out at the areas that Kayn had mentioned, confirming her thoughts that the others had been scouting out the domain of their main target was located in, while she and Rainbow had been calling in the rest of their forces, before taking a few seconds to consider their allies and where they might be useful in the battle that would be coming in the near future, before turning around so she could approach the areas the Captains were standing in, even though they were separated from each other, hence why she was heading towards the naga first. "Lady Spitfire, its good to see you and Rainbow again," S'theno said, as she was the first Captain that Spitfire had picked out, mostly because she was the closest of the three due to Malevolence and Gaardoun being further away from the area that Kayn and the other higher ranking members of the demon hunters were standing in, though it was clear that she was more interested in what they would be doing next, "though we should focus on the business at hand. What sort of plan have you come up with?" "Based on what I've seen, I would like you to take your naga to the north and assault the Soul Engine our foe had her demons set up," Spitfire replied, though as she said that Rainbow glanced at the area in question and quickly understood what she was talking about, as it wasn't hard to see what she was referring to since the demons weren't bothering to hide the ritual that they were in the middle of performing in the area, "basically kill all of the demons that are guarding the Soul Engine and disrupt whatever ritual they're trying to perform." "A fine task for the Coilskar, I am in agreement." S'theno stated, where she turned her head for a moment and issued a few quick orders to the naga that were behind her, who would be moving out the instant the battle started, which would be whenever Spitfire was ready to declare war on the rest of the demons that called Mardum home, before she faced the pair again, "I am eager to be done with this invasion... a volcano is no place for the naga." The pair nodded their heads to that, as it was easy to see why Lady S'theno and the rest of her forces might be a tad bit uncomfortable when it came to the area they were in, given the heat that a volcano could give off and this was likely far more than what they were used to, though with the first Captain having been given their orders Spitfire moved on to the next one so she could make sure they were ready for the battle to come. "Lady Spitfire, how might I help you?" Malevolence inquired, though before Spitfire could even say anything she knew that the Shivarra knew exactly why she was coming over to the area that she and the rest of her kind were standing in at the moment, but despite the fact that all of the Captains were technically above both her and Rainbow, given that the pair had only been part of the Illidari for nearly two years, they and their forces were waiting for Spitfire's orders, showing that they trusted Lord Illidan's decision to put her in charge. "Matron Mother, I would like you to take your coven over to the Forge the demons have constructed," Spitfire stated, because the Shivarra were the best ones to assault the area in question and terminate the demons that were in the area, based on what she had seen in the past when she and Rainbow had been in the middle of their training, to become true demon hunters, "kill them and disrupt their operations." "We will see it done, though I urge that you and Rainbow remember what I told you earlier," Malevolence, apparently thinking that the pair needed a reminder about the fact that the rest of Lord Illidan's forces were under attack by the foes she had mentioned earlier, the forces of the Alliance, Horde, and the Sha'tari, before she focused on what she had been told a few seconds ago, "Come, sisters, our former brethren await our tender mercies." Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other for a moment, not really expecting the Shivarra to cheer for the chance to take down the demons of Mardum, before the demons departed from their camp and headed out for the area that they had been told about, just like the naga had gone earlier, to which the pair headed for the area that the final Captain and his forces were standing in, waiting to be told what to do like the rest of their forces. "I await your orders, Lady Spitfire." Gaardoun stated, where he saluted her the moment she and Rainbow approached the area that the Broken were occupying right now, and by that they noticed that he raised a fist to his chest for a second or two, while at the same time the rest of the mystics and warriors seemed to be ready to move out, since they did the same thing that their leader did when the pair stopped in front of them. "With the Soul Engine and the Forge taken care of, you and your Ashtongue should focus on the Spider Fortress and cut down the demons that control the area," Spitfire replied in kind, where it didn't take the Broken all that long to nod as she gave them their orders, showing that they understood what she was telling them and that they were ready to engage their enemies, since there were quite a number of them scattered around the massive area that the Brood Queen's lair was located in. "It will be as you say." Gaardoun said, where he turned and glanced out at the area that they were referring to as the Spider Fortress, where there were clearly demons waiting for enemies to arrive and do battle with them, just like the other two areas that the Illidari were getting ready to assault, before he steeled himself and turned towards the rest of his forces as he raised a hand into the air, "Ashtongue, with me!" With that said the Ashtongue marched out of the temporary camp that the Illidari had set up and started to march on the area she had told them about, to which Spitfire and Rainbow said nothing to that as they turned around and walked back to where Kayn and the others were standing, as it was time to see if there was anything else that needed to be done before they declared war on the rest of the forces of Mardum. "Our forces are in the middle of heading out to engage the demons of Mardum," Rainbow commented, as Spitfire did note that she had been rather quiet the entire time she was telling the Captains what sort of orders they needed so they would be able to take down the demons and open the way for them to invade the ship that the Brood Queen had to be located in, before she noticed something that was out of place, "Say, where did Jace run off to?" "He swore, for a split second after we entered this area and started to set up our temporary camp, that he sensed a demonic presence in a nearby cave," Kayn replied, though he did seem to be happy that their allies were in the middle of getting ready for their invasion, by heading towards the areas that Spitfire had specified when she talked with them, only to sigh for a moment as he considered what he was going to say next, "We cannot launch our attack on the rest of the demons until we're sure that we aren't going to be flanked, so, while I loathe to ask you two to waste your time by seeing what Jace might have found, I would recommend heading over there and offer him the use of your spectral sight, to see if he's right or if he's going crazy." "Could be nerves, given what we're doing," Spitfire said, though at the same time she knew Jace and figured that if he felt that there were demons in an area that was near their temporary camp, getting ready to ambush them when the rest of the Illidari moved out to tackle the various parts of the area that they had been commanded to tackle, he would have taken a few of their forces to investigate the area that had worried him, before she took a moment to turn toward the area that Kayn was looking in, "Don't worry, we'll take a moment and check it out... chances are he's right and we'll have some more demons to kill, but regardless if he's right or wrong we'll be right back in a few minutes." Kayn said nothing as Spitfire and Rainbow left the camp and headed for the hill that lead to the area that Jace felt the demonic presence in, where it didn't take the pair long to reach the area that he was in and discovered that the demon hunter they were looking for had a few allies standing around him, a few Broken, a few naga, a few Shivarra, and a two or three demon hunters, which meant Spitfire was right, he had taken some allies with him in the off chance that there were some enemies in this area. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, its good to see you again," Jace stated, as the last time they had seen each other had been a few minutes ago, when he had them use the remnants of Inquisitor Baleful's soul to power his Nether Crucible, which had revealed Beliash and his plans to have his Eredar summon more demons to attack them, before he focused on what he was doing at the moment as they stared at a tunnel that was covered by collapsed rocks, "Listen, I'm positive that there is something powerful residing in this cave, but with all of the immense Fel energy that permeates Mardum, thanks to what Sargeras did to this world when it was still whole, I cannot be sure if I'm actually feeling a powerful demon or remnants of what happened so long ago... however, both of you have a mastery of the spectral sight ability that is far greater than any demon hunter, save for Lord Illidan, and you might be able to see what I cannot." "Yeah, because we're awesome like that!" Rainbow remarked, because that was something she and Spitfire knew, a fact that none of them needed to be told, even though Spitfire had to resist the urge to bring her palm to her face, because she didn't feel the same way, though while she did that some of the other members of the Illidari rolled their eyes as she said that, showing that they were focused on what Jace had called them over for and less on what Rainbow was saying at the moment. Spitfire, on the other hand, closed her eyes as she focused on the cave for a few seconds, though when she opened her eyes again it was while she was focusing on her spectral sight ability, allowing her to see what was hidden in this area thanks to the Fel energy tint that was around her sight, and when she focused on the cave she could see a number of demonic signatures that revealed that Jace was correct, especially since there might be a rather powerful demon resting inside the cave, if her senses were right. "Well, you were right, there are demons in this cave." Spitfire stated, where her words triggered the Illidari that were standing around her and Rainbow, as they were eager to hunt down and slay the demons of Mardum, before she sensed the incredibly powerful energy signature that Jace might have noticed earlier, when he first felt the presence, before she focused on what they would be doing next, "Very well then, let's show these demons that they cannot hide from us and wipe them out so we can focus on taking down the Brood Queen." It was in that moment, after she gave the command, that Jace and the other demon hunters loosed their eye beams at the rock barricade that was protecting the entrance, revealing that the new trick that Spitfire and Rainbow picked up as they killed Inquisitor Baleful was actually a skill they would have learned in due time, so this was more of an accelerated learning session for the two of them, before the rock wall shattered and they focused on what was on the other side, as in the demons Spitfire had sensed. Jace, as the pair started to move forward, quickly informed the pair that he guessed there was a powerful Fel Lord lurking in the cave, which was basically a taller and much more powerful version of the Felguard they had fought in the past, meaning that if they killed the demon in question they would be able to increase their powers even more, making them as ready as they possibly could for when the time came to attack their true target. Spitfire wasn't here for more power, even though she knew a few of the stronger demon hunters were taking what they could get as they let her and Rainbow rapidly catch up to them, but taking out another powerful demon and cutting down its assault force sounded like a plan, especially since Jace insisted that he and the forces he had brought would take out the soldiers so the pair could reach their target. As such the pair rushed through the cave with the small force of Illidari following after them, where the demons were surprised and even revealed the name of their leader in their panic, Caza to be exact, which was followed by Jace and the others cutting their way through the demons that were in front of them, but what surprised both Spitfire and Rainbow was that there were only Felguards in the cave, no Eredar, meaning someone had sent them into the cave while they were making their way to their camp and had closed the door behind them. Thanks to Jace and the others, however, it didn't take Spitfire and Rainbow all that long to reach the area that the Fel Lord was waiting in, where they were correct in assuming that it was just a taller and stronger Felguard demon, though as soon as Fel Lord Caza saw them he went on the offensive, by hurling his axe in the direction they were coming from, to which the pair dodged the attack and then attacked as their foe went to retrieve his weapon. It was an amazingly dumb opening to the fight, throwing your weapon away the moment you spotted the enemy and then had to rush to retrieve it since the massive axe didn't have the shape that would allow it to return to the one that threw it, where Spitfire wondered if such a thing would work on their warglaives, though she wasn't going to complain as she and Rainbow hacked into Fel Lord Caza's legs and arms as he finally retrieved his weapon. Surprisingly enough their foe was rather slow when it came to attacks that weren't hurling his massive axe through the air, so he could catch opponents by surprise when their backs were turned towards him, but since the pair was paying attention to him it was rather easy for them to avoid the incoming attacks and return the favor, even though he continued to brag about how his attacks never missed their mark, meaning he had to be in denial over what was happening to him, which, in turn, brought down his fighting ability. As such it didn't take Spitfire and Rainbow all that long to bring the Fel Lord to his knees and end his life, allowing them to divide his power and essence between them, like Jace had commented on earlier, before they ignored the side passage, which seemed to head back to the beginning of the cave, and retraced their steps back towards the entrance, mostly to see how the rest of the Illidari were doing with their enemies and cutting down any demons that might still be alive. "We've cleared out the demons and, as a result of discovering their existence, you two have become even stronger for your efforts," Jace commented, informing them that the rest of the demons had been killed, which they could see as they looked around the rest of the cave, even spotted the corpses of two Eredar that must have been hiding when they were on their way to deal with Fel Lord Caza, before Jace turned to leave the cave, which the rest of the Illidari were doing as well, as it was time to return to the mission their Lord had given them, "Come, let us return to our camp and then join the battle that is surely unfolding around the Legion ship." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads as they headed outside as well, pausing for a split second as the Felsaber caught up with them, where it was clear that it had been finishing off a demon while they fought the Fel Lord, before they headed back to the camp so they could tell Kayn that they had no reason to fear of an ambush from behind, at least not for some time, since there was no telling when the Legion would send reinforcements to Mardum, hence why they wanted to be done with this mission before such a thing happened. "Kayn, we've taken care of the demons that Jace discovered," Spitfire stated, letting Kayn know that they had returned and that Jace had been telling the truth about feeling a presence in the area that he had run off to, though as she said that both she and Rainbow looked out at the area that their forces were fighting in, taking down demons and clearing the way for them to invade the ship that was floating in the air above the middle of the entire area, "so we won't have to worry about a force of demons attacking us or reinforcements being summoned in at the wrong moment." "And both of you are stronger as a result... I daresay you're almost as strong as Lord Illidan himself," Kayn said, where both Spitfire and Rainbow took a moment to shift their glances towards each other, as it was hard for them to imagine that either of them were close to being as strong as their Lord was, especially since they didn't have anywhere near all of the experiences that their Lord had, only to resume looking at Kayn, who coughed before getting back to what he had to tell them, "As you can see, our forces are in the middle of attacking the demons that call this world home, cutting them down so we can assault the ship, but they've started to use their devastating siege weapons on our camp and we aren't sure how long Jace's wards will be able to hold up." "No to mention that we need to cut down the Brood Queen's commanders as well," Cyana added, referring to demons that were around Doom Commander Beliash's level, which, if that was the case, meant that they would be easy to slay in battle, given what happened when they faced the demon Spitfire and Rainbow were thinking about, before she glanced at them for a moment, "it will help us ensure a total victory over the Legion, and empower all of us at the same time, to make us ready for the assault on the ship." "Also, one of the demons I interrogated gave me a juicy bit of information: there's an Imp Mother in this place that is inscribing the Legion's secrets," Allari commented, speaking for the first time since they arrived in the temporary camp, as if she had been thinking about what to say to the pair, when they weren't busy cutting down demons and making sure their forces weren't going to be flanked by the enemy, "Kor'vas went ahead to see if the information is true and, if it is, to bring back whatever she finds, though she might appreciate some help in doing that." "Then its time Rainbow and I joined the fight," Spitfire stated, where she made sure that the Felsaber realized that it would be sitting this fight out, in the sense that it would be guarding the camp and making sure that the demon hunters that were staying here, of which there were a few, would be ready for what would be coming next, before she opened her wings and glanced at her friend, "You ready to go?" Rainbow wasted no time on talking as she took to the air and headed towards the Spider Fortress, which was further along a path to the right side of the temporary camp they had created, and it didn't take them long to crash into the spider demons that were running around the place, where Rainbow dived down and cleaved her way through several of their foes while Spitfire joined several of the Broken in both saving some of the weakened Illidari, regardless of who they were, as well as cutting through the spiders that were coming after them. While they were doing that Spitfire learned that one of the enemy commanders was in this area, apparently the King that was married to the Brood Queen that Sargeras put in control of this world, and that Battlelord Gaardoun was fighting it at the moment, which was why the pair, as soon as they were done clearing the immediate area of demons, so the Broken could wrap up the rest of the Spider Fortress without having to rely on their skills, headed towards the structure the first commander was located inside. As they did that the pair heard the Brood Queen comment on something, where they glanced in the area of their camp and found that Cyana was in the middle of joining the Broken with some of the other members of the Illidari, meaning she was trying to corrupt one of their order into turning against Lord Illidan's teachings, but for right now it seemed like Cyana was resisting the demon's voice and was cutting down her foes, causing the pair to smile as they breached the building that Gaardoun was supposed to be inside. It was then that they found the King of this world, a Fel green spider demon that seemed to be part spider with a more humanoid chest and head, which could very well be the male version of the Aranasi, but he was in the middle of fighting Battlelord Gaardoun and the pair rushed in to do battle with him, since his death would weaken the Queen's forces to some degree. It seemed like their ally might have been persuaded by the Brood King, in the sense that his forces had been wiped out due to the attack on this area, but Rainbow assured him that his Broken were overtaking the Spider Fortress, while at the same time Spitfire swung her warglaives at the demon and cut into one of his legs, which was the moment that she was joined by Rainbow and the Battlelord. It proved to be the perfect chance for them to use their new skill, as the demon seemed to want to hatch some of the eggs that were in the area so he could quickly flood the area with spiders and kill all those that opposed him, though Spitfire readied one of her warglaives and hurled it towards the closest cluster of eggs, where the sharpened edges of the weapon cut through the eggs and slew the demonic spiders that were inside them, only for Rainbow to do the same thing with the other cluster to clear the entire building out. That infuriated the King and was what caused him to lash out at them without thinking about what he was doing, opening more holes in his defenses for them to attack, eventually allowing Spitfire, Rainbow, and Gaardoun to bring down the King, who yelled about his death as he fell to the ground, something that infuriated the Brood Queen, before the pair bid the Captain of the Broken farewell and returned to the battlefield as they watched more of the Broken overrun the Spider Fortress. From there the pair took a few moments to head over to a lowered area that one of the Legion's siege weapons was located in, where they were quickly joined by a number of Broken that bombed the weapon in question, showing that they had been trying to get to this area and the pair had been able to let them do just that, before the Broken returned to their Captain, leaving the pair to continue towards the next area, the Forge. The Forge, as it turned out, was where all the Felguards were positioned, though off in the distance was a massive Mo'arg that was likely the commander of this area, an Overseer or something of that nature, so Spitfire and Rainbow flew into the area and cut down a number of demons that weren't the Shivarra, who were busy cutting down their foes before they could press onto the area the Illidari were camped in, and the pair knew that it wouldn't be long before the Broken joined this battle. The Overseer seemed to be in the middle of testing his weapon, a massive sword that he called 'new' for some odd reason, as the pair noticed that it seemed like it had been through some battles before this point, on one of the Illidari that were in the area, the Matron Mother to be exact, so it didn't take long for the pair to dive down into the area and cut into the demon's arms, forcing him to swing up into the air and left Malevolence to attack his legs. The fact that both Spitfire and Rainbow had wings, and were using them to their advantage in this fight, meant they could avoid the rather slow attacks that their foe was sending their way, meaning the Overseer might not be able to fight all that well with the massive hunk of metal that he was swinging through the air, but that didn't stop them from cutting the Overseer down where he stood and weakened the Brood Queen's control over another section of this world, as well as give them a bit of additional power to add to their growing strength. Spitfire determined that killing certain demons would grant the two of them new abilities while others would only serve to add to their overall power, and so far the commanders of the Brood Queen's army seemed to be in the later category, but she shrugged that off as they landed near the Shivarra that were standing near the second siege weapon and let them use their magic to lift the weapon into the air and then throw it into the central hole that filled this part of Mardum, basically destroying it in the process. With that are deprived of its commander, and the Felguards starting to lose both ground and hope, which made sense after they witnessed the Overseer die, Spitfire and Rainbow started to move towards the area that the Soul Engine was in, the last of the three locations they had to claim before the assault on the ship, before landing in the middle of a river of fel lava, as that was where they found Kor'vas, who was staring at a cave the lava was coming from. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, its good that you've arrived," Kor'vas said, her words informing the pair that she must have succeeded in discovering the location of the area that the Imp Mother Allari had told her about, hence the reason she was looking in the direction of the cave and was barely looking at the pair, to which a smile appeared on her face as she got ready to reveal what she had learned, "I've discovered the location of the Imp Mother that Allari told us about, and I've also confirmed, without her seeing me, that she does have a tome that should contain a number of unknown Fel secrets, a tome that we must obtain." "So we'll go in, cut her down, gain some power for our effort, and walk out with the tome," Rainbow replied, as she had been around Allari, Kor'vas, and the others long enough to tell what someone was going to say next and what they would need to do, since she and Spitfire usually did the same thing at the same time, but instead of wasting time she just headed into the cave and started looking for the Imp Mother, as she was a little curious as to what sort of secrets this Imp Mother might have for them to take and use against the Legion. As Spitfire moved to join her Kor'vas mentioned that she would leave capturing the tome in their hands, since she was going to move to another location to help out the rest of the Illidari, to which Spitfire nodded and joined Rainbow so they could head into the cave together, only swinging their weapons as they encountered an Imp or two, as they weren't worth all the more elaborate moves in their arsenal. It didn't take them long to reach the end of the tunnel and find their target resting in the middle of a pool of Fel lava, just like all of the other Imp Mothers they had seen so far, though she did notice them as soon as they walked into the area of the cave that was her domain and attacked them by attempting to breath what appeared to be a deadly gas on them, which was the perfect moment for them to realize what Beliash's ability was as Rainbow raised an empty hand and her power cut off their foe's attack before she could even use it. Based on that Spitfire had to guess that they had gained a power cancellation ability from the Doom Commander, a neat trick that was only now coming in handy since none of the other demons had used a magical power against them, though all of this caused the Imp Mother to use her hands against them while trying to defend the tome that she apparently just completed work on, as she even told them that they wouldn't be taking her tome away from her. As the pair discovered that was literally all she did, she used her clawed hands to try and get them to leave her alone, and the rare times she even tried to use her attack on them Spitfire used the ability to cancel it out and force her to just claw at them, eventually informing her that this was all she could do, so in the grand scheme of things it took her and Rainbow about a minute to cut the Imp Mother down and collect her tome, which conveniently shrunk down to the size of a normal book so they could carry it. With that taken care of the pair headed outside and made their way to their right, in the direction of the Soul Engine, the last area they needed to clear out, where they found a Pit Lord in the middle of giving orders to some of the soldiers it was in command of, so Spitfire angled herself low and cut into the demon's exposed neck while Rainbow sliced open the top of its head, quickly causing a small explosion as the demon dropped dead, even though they divided his soul in half so they could both gain a bit of power from it. After the Pit Lord was taken care of, and the Illidari that had been near it, up until one of them spotted the pair incoming and had the others move, headed out to kill more demons, the pair turned to their left and found the third siege weapon, one that the Coilskar were in the middle of freezing so that the brutes could hack it to pieces, showing that they had accomplished their goal as well. Now that the camp didn't have to worry about any additional attacks like that the pair focused on the dreadful Soul Engine and found that it was being commanded by one of the Nathrezim, where the Dreadlord growled as he spotted them and stepped out of his domain, which was the absolute worst decision he could have made in his entire life, as the pair was ready to dive down onto him the moment he was no longer under the cover of the two story Soul Engine, something that allowed them to quickly cut him down as the naga made sure to freeze his legs so he couldn't escape. Killing the Dreadlord took only a few seconds, they weren't the best when it came to actual combat, as they discovered during their raid on Nathreza, so it wasn't long before both of them had a bit of additional power to add to their considerable strength, at least according to what their allies said, before they took to the air and left the Soul Engine to the naga, who were going to destroy it entirely, which was why they flew back to the temporary camp Kayn and the others had set up. As it turned out almost everyone, as in all of the demon hunters and the Captains, had returned to the camp after they had completed their individual tasks, hence why Kayn and the others were patiently waiting for them to come back, while at the same time their soldiers appeared to be resting as they waited for the call to fight once more, even though all of them said nothing for a few seconds as Spitfire and Rainbow landed, no doubt waiting to see what Spitfire had to share with everyone, especially since she was the commander of their forces, for now. "I bet the Brood Queen is shaking in her, ugh... I was going to say boots, but that won't work." Rainbow started to say, but due to the nature of the Aranasi's body, and the fact that the Brood Queen didn't wear any clothing, except whatever natural armor her twisted body gave her, that stopped her from actually completing her thought, before she shrugged and continued to speak, "Anyway, we've taken out her forces, smashed her toys, and killed her commanders... and we got the Fel tome that Imp Mother was working on, so I would think she would be shaking in fear." "The demons made a grave error in inscribing their secrets into this tome, but there's only enough power to enact one of the rituals that it contains," Kor'vas commented, as she and the other demon hunters could feel the Fel energy that was emanating from the tome that Spitfire was carrying at the moment, because while she trusted Rainbow she didn't want to leave such a powerful item in her hands, mostly in the odd chance that she accidentally dropped it, something that might not happen due to how Rainbow had matured since the start of her training, before Kor'vas faced her, "Lady Spitfire, you'll have to pick one of the rituals and embrace it... and then, when you have its secrets, share your knowledge with the rest of us so that we might use this power against the Legion." Spitfire nodded and held up the book, where she found that when she focused on it she could see the various rituals flash through her mind, like it was informing her of what it was able to do and what she was able to do with it, before she found an ability that the Imp Mother had labeled as 'Metamorphosis' and that it was designed to grant demons a second form, an empowered form that lasted for a time, and that one could either be a brutal warrior or a slender fighter, with all the demonic aspects, but when it came to her and Rainbow she saw nothing. Rainbow seemed to be thinking about what she was doing as she placed a hand on her shoulder and focused her mind as well, to which Spitfire could tell that she was seeing what she had seen, along with the mystery image that served if they were to take on this ritual, before feeling a tug that had to be Rainbow suggesting that they take this power for themselves so they could bring down the Legion and the Brood Queen that was their current target. As such Spitfire nodded her head and focused on learning the information that the Metamorphosis ritual had to offer them, though when she did that the tome's energy tore itself in half and slammed into both her and Rainbow, engulfing both of them in Fel energy as they remained still, curious as to what the power was going to do to them since the tome had offered no idea as to what was going to happen next. At the same time the rest of the demon hunters took a step back, obviously caught off guard by the suddenness of what they were doing, but at the same time it was clear, without seeing them, that the group was interested in seeing exactly what was going to come from the pair tapping into the power that had been inside the tome. When the pair were able to see again they discovered that they had gone through some interesting changes, as both of them retained their demon hunter features, though Spitfire's mane and tail had taken on a fire-like appearance due to what they had done, a Fel fire to be exact, her fingernails were sharpened to the point where they resembled claws, and she could see that there were a few small spikes on the back of the lower part of her legs, though that was before she found some flames wrapped around her arms and legs. She found that she looked like a fire elemental that was mixed with a demon hunter, though when she glanced at Rainbow for a moment she found that her friend had been changed in a similar manner, only instead of flames she had blue lightning that seemed to be wrapped around her arms and legs, as if she were a storm elemental or something, though her main and tail only became wavy, instead of taking on a flaming appearance like Spitfire's had done. Rainbow grinned for a moment as they glanced at each other and took in their new empowered forms, especially since these seemed to be similar to the form they had seen for a few seconds before they had tapped into the power the tome possessed, even though the tome no longer existed due to what they had done, but that didn't stop them from glancing at the Legion ship, as this power would allow them, and possibly the other demon hunters, to take down the Brood Queen and take the Keystone, bringing them one stop closer to bringing down the Legion and saving the universe from their crusade. > Mardum: Mission's End > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, how do you feel?" Kayn asked, because he had sensed the drastic change in their energies and had used his spectral sight to see what had happened, fearing that something bad might have happened to either of them, but he found that both of them had been transformed thanks to what they had done, in a way that was more unique than what he had been expecting. "I feel amazing!" Rainbow remarked, where she stretched her arms and legs for a moment, even taking a few seconds to kick an imaginary foe with her hooves as she watched how the elemental bits of her form moved in relation to what she was doing at the moment, where Spitfire waved her hands and watched the flames follow her, something that was quite interesting and rather strange when she thought about it, before she grinned as she glanced at the others, "I feel as if I could take out an entire force of Fel Lords and Eredar without tiring!" "According to the tome, that was a Metamorphosis skill, one that grants the user an empowered form," Spitfire said, as she had a few bits on information to add to what Rainbow had said, even though her friend hadn't said all that much, but it wasn't hard to see that everyone that was scattered around the camp was staring at them, showing that they were eager to see what the pair had done and were surprised by the forms that they had take on, "though this isn't the normal form that it would give someone, since we're so different from everyone else, but even I wasn't expecting this." "Well, it seems that it was worth taking the power into yourselves," Kayn stated, because he had been watching them as they made sure that nothing was wrong in their new forms, before Spitfire and Rainbow were covered by Fel smoke for a few seconds and returned to their normal forms, showing the others that the transformed states they had gained could only be used for a few moments, maybe a minute, at a time, before he braced himself for what he was going to say next as the other demon hunters faced the pair, "Now then, I would recommend sharing the knowledge with some of us, so we'll have a better chance to take down the Brood Queen, but you don't have to if you don't want to." Spitfire wasted no time in walking over to where Kayn was standing and recalled the forms she had seen, the ones the tome had given her when it considered night elves and blood elves, before placing her fingers on his forehead and passed the knowledge onto him, where he actually staggered for a moment, with a look of shock on his face, before he nodded to her, showing that the process had worked out. As such she did the same thing to Allari, who declared that she was now more deadlier than she had been moments ago and enjoyed the power she had been given, while at the same time Kayn commented on the fact that this was why the Legion feared demon hunters, they were able to steal the various powers and secrets their foes were using to take down the rest of the universe and make it their own. Spitfire nodded her head to that and walked over to where Kor'vas was standing, who declared that she could destroy some of the commanders that had been scattered throughout Mardum on her own now, even if they were all dead at the moment, before she did the same to Cyana, who definitely wanted more power and Spitfire determined that she might need to be cut off for a time, as too much could either overwhelm them and cause them to detonate or make them go power mad, though her words did remind Spitfire of the struggles that Mannethrel was going through. The demon hunter in question was one of the last recruits that Lord Illidan had taken on, as he had joined them after their assault on Nathreza, so he didn't have all of the experience the pair and the rest of the demon hunters had, in terms of controlling the Fel energies that were inside them, so she decided not to share the knowledge with him, at least not yet anyway, before focusing on Kayn. There would be time for them to share this knowledge with everyone, but since they were in the middle of a mission, and there was no telling if the Brood Queen had something to attack them with, she decided that the six of them would be more than enough for the moment and that once they returned to the Black Temple with the Keystone, and repelled the forces that were attacking the rest of their allies at the moment, they would share this knowledge with those that she knew could handle the power and raise the others to the same state, all to strengthen them for the future, especially since they had the assault on Argus to plan once they claimed the Sargerite Keystone. "There, we should be good for the time being," Spitfire remarked, where Mannethrel nodded his head as she turned to face Kayn, showing that he understood why she hadn't shared the information with him and was thankful for it, almost as if he had been worrying about what could have happened to him if he was given the same power that the others had just been given, before she focused on what they needed to do next as both she and Rainbow glanced at the ship that was floating in the middle of the area that they were invading. "Right, we cannot afford to lose anyone, especially when we're so close to our goal," Kayn said, showing that he did understand what Spitfire was doing and that he didn't blame her for her actions, rather he had to silently applaud her for being the type of leader that Lord Illidan was hoping she would be and making good decisions for the Illidari, to save them from making terrible decisions and wasting lives, before he and the other demon hunters stared at the Legion ship that Spitfire and Rainbow were staring at right now, "Very well then, I guess its time we took this fight to our foe's command center and deliver a crippling blow to the Legion, one that they'll never be able to recover from... unless there is something else you would rather have us do before we attack the ship." "Unless reinforcements suddenly come in, and assault our camp, I think we're good to go," Rainbow stated, where all of them remained silent for a few moments, just to see if she had jinxed them and brought down the wrath of the Legion on the area that their camp was located in, but when nothing happened she shrugged and smirked for a moment, as she wasn't expecting anything to happen and this meant they could finally bring an end to their fight, by taking down the Brood Queen and claiming the Sargerite Keystone. "While you and Lady Spitfire were waging war on the Legion, Izal captured some Felbats for us to use," Kayn said, to which he gestured to the area that he was talking about, where they found the demon hunter in question standing near a few demons that looked like the Felbats the pair had killed earlier, only these ones were grey colored and seemed much more calm, meaning they had been tamed by the Illidari while the war had been raging around this area, before he turned to face the pair, "this will allow the rest of the demon hunters to join you for the assault on the Brood Queen, since you two have permanent wings and we don't." "Well then, its time we moved out to take the Brood Queen down," Spitfire remarked, though while the rest of their fellow demon hunters charged over to where Izal was waiting, so they could head up to the ship and be there before she and Rainbow arrived, she turned to where Matron Mother Malevolence and the other Captains were standing, since none of them were going to be riding up to the ship with them, especially the Felsaber, who would be staying here and helping the other members of the Illidari, "Once we have the Sargerite Keystone, and make it back to the Black Temple, we'll open the way for all of you to join us so we can repel the invaders and, hopefully, talk some sense into them so they'll realize we aren't their enemies and that we can help them bring down the Legion." All three Captains nodded their heads in understanding, knowing that she wouldn't lie to them about something like this and that they would see her and the others in the near future, before Spitfire and Rainbow opened their wings and took off, heading towards what appeared to be the upper deck of the Legion ship that the Brood Queen ruled Mardum from, though even as they flew through the air it wasn't hard for them to see Kayn and the others already fighting their foe, showing that they were eager to test their new power out and bring their target down. Rainbow saw an opening in the side of the ship and flew through it, where it allowed her to enter the area that the Brood Queen was in and gave her more than enough space so she could transform into her empowered form again, where she crashed into her foe's back and knocked her forward a little, before she used her warglaives to parry the incoming claws that were their target's weapons, the only ones by the looks of it. Spitfire had to admit that it was a rather impressive start to the fight, choosing to use the new power right away, something that Kayn and the others were clearly doing by the looks of it, to which Spitfire found the main entrance and rushed through the air as the flames surrounded her, allowing her to take on her own empowered form as she crashed into the Brood Queen, just before she was able to actually do anything to Rainbow and the others, while at the same time showing the demon hunters that it was time for them to take her down. That first collision gave her, Rainbow, and the others an idea of how strong their foe was, as the Brood Queen was definitely the strongest demon in the entirety of Mardum, and she happened to be wearing a belt around her waist, one that had a single pouch that no doubt held the Sargerite Keystone, the item that they were here to retrieve so they could bring down the Legion and save the rest of the universe from their evil. "Ah, Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, I have heard of you two, but you are no match for me!" the Brood Queen stated, though she was one of the few demons that actually paused to say something to them, not that it mattered since she seemed to be incredibly prideful of the fact that Sargeras had given her the duty to protect the Keystone, meaning that she might just bring herself down during this fight by not fighting like she was supposed to, though a smirk did appear on her face as she stared at all of them, "Besides, none can resist my kiss." Her 'kiss', as it turned out, was the Brood Queen using her immense Fel energy to influence one of them at any given point in time, to basically give herself an ally that would fight on her behalf and weaken the demon hunters that were all around her, though she seemed to think that using it on Spitfire and Rainbow first was a good idea, and it would have been if they hadn't resisted her power and pushed her backwards, stunning her in the process. Still, that didn't stop her from lashing out with her claws and wings as she tried to not only push the pair backwards, but also all the demon hunters that were in the area with them, and the interesting part was when she tried to influence one of the others, as that did work as she intended and the target did move to attack the others, though that was when the rest of their friends would converge on whoever was being influenced and would free them from the Brood Queen's snare, allowing Spitfire and Rainbow to fight her alone for a few moments. There was one ability that she tried to use on all of them, but none of the demon hunters were having any of that and one of them would interrupt it whenever she tried to cast it on them, leaving her to fight without one of the abilities that made her the dreadful ruler of this world, allowing them to cut into her arms and legs before she revealed her next trick to them, disappearing into the shadows to let the smaller spider demons come out to 'feast on their bones', as the Brood Queen told them. While there were a number of spiders that came rushing out to kill the pair and their friends, at their mother's orders no less, it was easy for the pair to pinpoint where their foe was with their spectral sight and drag her back into the battle with ease, something that shocked her when it first happened and caused the others to applaud their efforts, before they all went back to fighting their foe and her demons. The Brood Queen tried her hardest to remain in control of this situation, to stand in the face of the power that was in front of her, and she rotated around the various skills and abilities that she had demonstrated so far, making it easy for Spitfire, Rainbow, and the others to get an idea of what she was doing, and even when they reverted back to their normal forms it was basically impossible for the Brood Queen to regain control of the fight, so much so that the demon hunters were able to deal a fatal blow and caused her to stagger for a moment. "Lord... Sargeras! I... have failed... you!" were the last words that left the Brood Queen's mouth as she collapsed on the floor in front of the demon hunters, where Spitfire and Rainbow were sure to shatter her soul into fragments so that all of them got a piece of her power, even though two large fragments ended up in front of them, something that Kayn and the others were fine with as they absorbed the bits that were by them, causing the pair to do the same. With the Brood Queen slain, and Mardum was technically no longer under the control of the Legion, Spitfire opened the pouch that their foe had been carrying and pulled out a fel-corrupted device that matched the image that Lord Illidan had shown them before they went through the portal that allowed them to invade this world, meaning this was, without a doubt, the Sargerite Keystone. As soon as Spitfire picked it up she and the others smiled with a sense of victory in the air, before all of them headed for the ramps that would allow them to head down to the floor that was below where they were currently standing, only to find their way to a smaller room to the left that had two small Fel spires that would allow them to form a portal back to the Black Temple. Once everyone was in the room, and they were sure that all of the demon hunters were accounted for, Spitfire held the Keystone out and opened a portal back to the Black Temple, allowing the rest of the group to head through it first, since she figured that it would close if she went through, so she and Rainbow were the last ones to leave Mardum and head back to the temple they had called home for nearly two years. When they appeared on the other side of the portal, however, the fact that they had been victorious in Mardum, and had recovered the Sargerite Keystone, was utterly shattered by the twisted and horrible reality that was in front of them when they stepped out onto the summit that their Lord stayed on, regardless of whether it was to think about something that had happened or to fight Spitfire and Rainbow in one of their training sessions. Instead of being greeted by Lord Illidan, as they were expecting upon their return to the Black Temple, they were instead greeted by the sight of his lifeless body that was in the middle of being sealed in a rather large fel crystal, one that seemed to have been made from the fel energies their Lord had been using so he could combat the demons and free the universe from the Legion's evil. That meant they were too late, the band of heroes had stormed the summit, fought with their Lord for a time, and then the unthinkable happened, they cut him down and left his body behind, though all of them were annoyed by something that was missing, the heroes had stolen the Twin Blades of Azzinoth, as those warglaives were nowhere to be seen, before they focused on who else was standing in the area they were in. There were three, at the very least, figures standing around the crystal that Lord Illidan was being imprisoned inside, where all of them were wearing dark grey armor that had a golden trim on the outside of everything, though the helm seemed to be modeled after the brow and eyes of an owl, the gauntlets happened to be the talons of the same creature, and a green cape, though they carried circular weapons that had sharpened points for some reason. Spitfire stared at the invaders for a moment, as they resembled the Wardens that Lord Illidan told them about, which meant that they must have had a hand in assisting the forces that had assaulted the Black Temple and no doubt joined the heroes partway into their battle with Lord Illidan, though just seeing them annoyed her, angered Rainbow, and likely ticked off the rest of the demon hunters that were around them. "No..." Kayn commented, his voice full of despair as he spoke up, being the first one to actually say anything as they looked at the scene that was in front of them, though it was clear that all of them were caught off guard by the fact that their Lord had fallen and that the Wardens had come to claim his body, for whatever reason they might be thinking about at the moment, "it cannot be... Lord Illidan has fallen?!" "The impossible has been made reality... Lady Spitfire, what are your orders?" Kor'vas stated, where she and many of the others held out their weapons as they stared at the Wardens that were in front of them, because if they were ordered to fight the Wardens they were going to head out and cut down the enemies that were standing around the crystal that their Lord was being sealed inside. "As much as I would like to tear them down, we should retreat to Mardum and take control of the world that we just liberated from the Legion," Spitfire replied, because while she wanted to take down the Wardens and collect the crystal that their Lord was trapped in, like the rest of the group wanted to do, there was no way she was going to risk all of them against a trio of Wardens that no doubt had more allies scattered around the rest of the area, "We'll find a way to retrieve Lord Illidan's body later, once we..." "So, the servants of the Betrayer have shown themselves at last," a feminine voice said, where Spitfire and Rainbow turned towards the Warden that was standing next to the crystal and happened to have a hand resting on the prison, an action that revealed who she was to Spitfire, since she was the one that listened to the stories Lord Illidan told her and Rainbow, since her friend focused on the action, before she turned and looked at them as the other two Wardens silently stood there with their weapons at the ready, "Illidari, you stand no chance of defeating us, regardless of the tricks that your demonic master has taught you, or the power that his own demonic masters have instilled in your bodies... either surrender to the Wardens, and be imprisoned for your crimes, or be slain where you stand." "Maiev Shadowsong, the Warden who dedicated her entire life's work to hunting our Lord all over Azeroth as he dealt with demons, and then chased him to Outland at long last," Spitfire remarked, informing the group as to who they were dealing with, as she was possibly the strongest Warden of them all, the leader of the entire faction to be exact, and if they did engage the group both she and Rainbow would have to deal with Maiev, otherwise she would likely slaughter all their friends in a matter of minutes, something Kayn realized easily enough, "and we're not servants of the Legion, since that was what you're implying, rather we're the instruments of their eventual demise. Listen to me, just leave the Black Temple and we'll take our Lord's body with us, so you'll never see us again, or at least until we return from killing Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, not to mention beating the rest of the Legion." "It doesn't matter if you've heard of me or not, for all Fel-touched will be imprisoned or eradicated," Maiev replied, her tone revealing that she didn't care for what Spitfire had to say and that she was going to take them all down, regardless of what they decided, which was why she was thinking of using the Keystone to open the way back to Mardum, so they could leave before the Warden tried anything, before Maiev stepped forward a little and drew her own weapon, "surrender now, or we will put you down and imprison you." "Fantastic, we've got someone who can't see reason," Rainbow remarked, not that she was expecting anything less from the one Warden that their Lord had warned her, Spitfire, and the rest of the Illidari about, where her tone revealed that she was being smart about this and not being arrogant at the moment, especially since they had just fought the ruler of Mardum and were a little tired from the battle, though while she said that she made sure she was in her battle stance, just in case Spitfire told her and the others that they were going to fight Maiev and her allies. "Indeed, though we won't be here for too much longer," Spitfire said, as she wasn't surprised by what they had found and what they had just heard, especially when she recalled that all of the Illidari were told that Maiev was relentless and, if she set her sights on someone, she wasn't going to stop until whoever her target was had been brought down, regardless of how long she spent hunting them, and imprisoned them for whatever crimes they might have committed, though that was when she shifted her stance so she could hold the Keystone at the ready, "Illidari, we are leavi..." It was in that moment that one of the other two Wardens hurled their weapon at the Keystone and knocked it out of her hand, where she was fortunate that she had opened her hand before such a thing happened, as the circular weapon was sharp and it could have taken off her fingers, possibly her hand if she was unlucky, though that was when Rainbow and the rest of the demon hunters glanced at the Keystone, where they found that it hadn't been damaged from what the Warden had done, nor had it opened any portals to one of the Legion's other worlds, which was when Rainbow growled at the enemies that were standing in front of them as the one Warden caught her weapon. "You idiots are lucky nothing bad happened... could you imagine the disaster we'd have if you broke the Keystone that we worked so hard to recover?" Rainbow stated, to which she started to walk over to where the Keystone had landed, all so she could pick it up and return it to Spitfire, though that was when they discovered that there were definitely more than three Wardens in the area, as another one stepped out of wherever she was hiding, stepped in front of her for a moment, and placed her right foot on top of the device, though Rainbow had to jump backwards as she dodged an attack that came from the enemy that stood in front of her, to which she swung her hands and pulled out her warglaives as she growled at the group of Wardens, "Okay, that's it, you guys are so dead!" "Wardens, capture them!" Maiev shouted, to which Spitfire noticed that there were at least as many Wardens as there were demon hunters, though that was quickly followed by the scales tipping in the Wardens' favor, as more of them were in the middle of emerging from the area they had been hiding the entire time, answering Maiev's call by the looks of it, to which the Wardens charged at her friends and she had the Illidari do the same thing so they could claim both the Keystone and their Lord's body, which would be followed by them returning to Mardum to regroup. The summit became a battlefield as the demon hunters collided with the Wardens, actually intending on knocking all of them out so they could claim the items they needed, as there was no reason for them to actually kill the Wardens that would be returning to Azeroth, while Spitfire and Rainbow charged at Maiev so they could force her away from their Lord's body, as the Warden that had been right in front of where Rainbow had been standing had been tackled by Mannethrel, of all people, so the pair focused on the enemy leader. Maiev, on the other hand, didn't seem to care about them wanting to fight her with their warglaives, because a few moments after they approached her, and managed to get a few swings in to push her backwards, her weapon glowed blue for a second and she swung her weapon to her left, where the pair found that their weapons were ripped out of their hands by some sort of magic, before she raised her empty hand and focused on the fel energy that was within their bodies, like she was going to trap them without even facing them. It took a couple of moments for the fel crystal to cover their bodies, but before their foe had a chance to actually move away from the area that she was standing in, to assist the other Wardens in imprisoning the other demon hunters, the crystals shattered as both Spitfire and Rainbow emerged from them, in their empowered forms, and they lashed out at Maiev, who seemed to be a little shocked by what they did. Since their weapons had been taken from them, and were being guarded by some of the Wardens that weren't fighting, the pair decided to see what sort of skills their empowered forms might give them and if they might be useful in the future, which was the reason that Spitfire incorporated her flames into her punches and kicks as she went on the offensive, while at the same time Rainbow zipped around the area and smacked a couple of Wardens into the ground, since they weren't used to her speed. Maiev seemed to go on the offensive as Spitfire attacked her, dodging the attacks to the best of her ability, as Spitfire was still faster than the rest of the demon hunters, even though Rainbow's speed was even faster still, but even then it was hard for her foe to actually avoid her attacks forever, mostly due to the fact that Spitfire was able to scratch the surface of her armor, but that was only the start of things as she discovered something new, she could use the fel energy inside her to loose fireballs at her target. She was sure that she could use the power in a number of other ways, given that there were a number of other fire spells she had see the mages use while they were practicing, but this allowed her to blast her target right in chest and knock her backwards a bit, which was the moment that Rainbow punched her in the side of her face, or helmet to be more exact, and sent her flying into the ground. Spitfire suspected that her friend had seen her tap into her Fel power and reveal a new tactic she could use, if she really needed it, even if she was planning on testing it out with her warglaives at some point, and that had inspired Rainbow to do the same thing, as it looked like the lightning had been wrapped around her fist when she punched Maiev, who was in the middle of picking herself up off the floor so she could rejoin the battle. This time around she went on the offensive, swinging her weapon at Spitfire and Rainbow, as it all depended on who was closer to her, but in the end it didn't matter as Spitfire pushed her crescent weapon back and opened her defenses, allowing her to unleash a fury of fire-infused attacks that, interestingly enough, heated the chest of Maiev's armor and made it warmer than it had been moments ago, before she delivered a powerful kick with the side of her right leg that put a crack or two into the chest piece as she knocked Maiev back a few steps. That was the moment where Rainbow, who had flown away after Spitfire went into the flurry of attacks, rushed into the area that Maiev was in and, with her right fist surrounded by a mass of Fel lightning, she punched the chest of their foe's armor, which was when the armor shattered under the pressure and knocked Maiev backwards... allowing them to see that it wasn't just the chest piece that had broken, but also the leggings as well for some reason, revealing that all their opponent was wearing under all of that was some green ragged looking shorts and, interestingly enough, only a rather simple looking cloth bra that had to be enchanted to resist fire. "Give up, Maiev, you can't beat us." Rainbow remarked, and that seemed to be the truth of the matter, there was no possible way for the downed Warden to overcome her and Spitfire, who was on the defensive in case their foe might have a trick up her sleeve or something, while at the same time the rest of the fighting had stopped, mostly due to the fact that the rest of the Wardens had played unfairly and had imprisoned the rest of the demon hunters, meaning that even if their foe admitted defeat they would either have to contend with the other enemies or slowly break their friends out of the Fel crystals they had been imprisoned inside. "A Warden never surrenders," Maiev stated, though even as she said that her body glowed with the same blue glow as when she tried to seal them away earlier, only this time Spitfire and Rainbow found that all of the Wardens were getting in on the action, combining their magical powers into the same spell that Maiev had tried to use earlier, only this time the pair found that it was rather hard for them to fight against the power that was arrayed against them, especially as their arms and legs were pinned to their bodies as the crystals spread all over them, "Sleep, demon hunters, for that is what you will be doing for the rest of eternity." That was the last thing Spitfire and Rainbow remembered as their grasp on reality faded away and they drifted off into what they guessed was the land of dreams, leaving their bodies to be encased in the same Fel crystal that was covering parts of their bodies and happened to be what had encased their fellow demon hunters, and that was the last thing either of them thought about as they drifted off into an enchanted sleep. > Interlude: Awakening > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the incident at the summit of the Black Temple, where Maiev faced two powerful demon hunters that rivaled the sheer power of the Betrayer himself, the Head Warden had bandaged herself and made sure any cuts were wrapped up so she didn't bleed out as they transported their cargo to the Vault of the Wardens, a prison where she and the others kept the most dangerous criminals in all of Azeroth locked up. Normally it would have been a hard thing to do, transporting all of the Fel crystals from one world, delivering them to another, and getting a boat to take them to an area that was near the Vault so they could make sure their prisoners arrived safely, but fortunately for them, and the rest of Azeroth, Archmage Khadgar had been found and he was willing to lend them a hand in moving their cargo. Khadgar was, as Maiev discovered, rather interested in how they trapped the Illidari, who he knew were demon hunters thanks to his own studies of the temple that the Betrayer called home, along with the fact that Maiev's armor was in pieces, since he wasn't expecting to see that when he answered her call for assistance, even though she disliked allowing anyone to help them. What he did was open up a temporary portal back to this side of the Dark Portal, because the Alliance and Horde were still celebrating their victory in Shattrath City and wouldn't be watching the structure for some time, giving them the perfect chance to transport the prisons without being discovered. Once on the other side of the portal, the side that rested on Azeroth, she gave him the exact area that she needed him to portal them to, allowing him to be the first outsider to see the inside of the Vault, especially since he was a human, but she needed his magical ability and he was more than willing to offer it, giving her the chance to deliver the prisoners in less time than what it would normally take. The crystals that contained the demon hunters were set up in the lowest part of the Vault, so far down that not even natural light would reach that far, hence the special Sentinel owl statues and the various enchantments that allowed them to see everything that was around them, allowing the other Wardens to attach the smaller crystals into slots to keep their prisoners contained, while a much larger room, one filled with darkness, had been reserved for the Betrayer himself, as she had the crystal strung up with chains and let it rest in that position. With that done, and Maiev had a new suit of armor to replace the broken set, Khadgar left the Vault behind and let the Wardens tend to their prisoners as he returned to the world of Azeroth, instead of staying in Outland for the rest of his days, and spent his energy towards trying to assist the Alliance and Horde as they battled the threats that their world might be coming their way in the future. The first thing he discovered was that Kael'thas used the magics of the Throne of Kil'jaeden to teleport himself and a number of his followers to an island to the north of the Eastern Kingdoms, which was the continent that the Azeroth side of the Dark Portal was located on, and that they opened a number of portals for the demons to invade part of the island while their leader tried to use the power of the Sunwell to summon Kil'jaeden into their world. Given the fact that the Sunwell had been shattered, so he heard from those that protected Quel'Danas, that did require the fallen blood elf prince to use a vast amount of power, likely stolen from part of Outland and one of the Naaru that had been captured, to reconstruct the energies that were in the magical font so he could use those energies to summon his foul master into their world. That was when the Aldor and Scryers, joined by the Blood Knight order, joined together and formed the Shatter Sun Offensive, where they and the heroes of the Alliance and Horde lashed out at the demons that were trying to claim Quel'Danas and slew Kael'thas in Magister's Terrace, depriving the Legion of another tool to use in their schemes, before the heroes braved the dangers of the Sunwell Plateau, where the Sunwell rested, and, with the help of the Blue Dragonflight and an ally, were able to banish Kil'jaeden before he could truly enter their world and try to take it over. While all of that was going on there were sightings of undead, the Scourge, that appeared on Quel'Danas in response to the demons appearing on the island, making many wonder if the infamous Lich King might be active again, or if this was the work of a lesser lich or necromancer that thought they were doing what was best for their master, mostly due to the fact that it was the first organized movement of the Scourge in a long time. By the time the Invasion of Outland was complete, a two year campaign that had been mostly focused on taking down Illidan Stormrage and his demonic allies, the heroes were able to return home and rest from their ordeals, not to mention bury the dead heroes that fell during the last couple of battles to save the world, but that followed by the Lich King actually awakening from his slumber and declared war on the living, by attacking Stormwind and Orgrimmar. While that occurred the Lich King claimed the bodies of the fallen heroes and raised them from the dead, adding them to the rank of his death knights, powerful warriors that used dark magics and rune weapons to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies while at the same time having none of their original emotions, as they only had their memories, even if some of those had to be suppressed to turn them into an effective and merciless fighting force. According to what Khadgar heard the Lich King had trained all those dead knights so he could locate and draw out Tirion Fordring, one of the strongest paladins in the world, and was eventually forced to flee after the paladin was able to obtain Ashbringer, an incredibly powerful greatsword that left ash in its wake, when the user used it on the undead anyway, something that freed many of the death knights and allowed them to form the Knights of the Ebon Blade, before sending the resurrected heroes of the Alliance and Horde back to Stormwind and Orgrimmar to rejoin their factions and aid the heroes in stopping the Lich King. That was shortly followed by some additional attacks on the faction cities, through the use of poisoned grain and ghouls, an old tactic that had worked in the past, before sending a small force of undead to assault the cities and force their leaders to sign off on their own expeditions to Northrend, the island that the Lich King called home. As such the Alliance and Horde sent fleets to both Borean Tundra and Howling Ford, so they could deal with the local threats and then, when those two provinces were finally liberated from the Scourge, they could turn their attention to the other provinces and cut down the Lich King's greatest champions over the course of their quest to bring down the leader of the Scourge. While that happened Khadgar assisted the Kirin Tor in moving the city of Dalaran from the ground that it was resting in, back in the Eastern Kingdoms, and teleported it into the air above Crystalsong Forest, another province that happened to rest in the middle of Northrend, and it also gave them a better chance to deal with the threat that Malygos posed to all the magic users of the world, as not only were the heroes of the factions having to fight the Scourge they were part of the Nexus War. Due to them doing that they were also joined by the Silver Covenant and the Sunreavers relocated to the city, to represent the factions in the war against the Scourge, with the former representing the Alliance and the latter for the Horde, though while they were doing that the Lich King attempted to force the invaders from his lands and found that neither faction was able to be forced off Northrend, allowing the Alliance and Horde to set up their various bases and prepare for their assaults on their enemies. One of the assaults they were able to launch was against the vrykul of the Howling Ford, a race of half-giant warriors that were in the process of allying themselves with the Lich King, which was why they invaded the seat of the vrykul's power, Utgarde Keep, to kill Ingvar the Plunderer, before heading into the Pinnacle, where King Ymiron ruled from, and it wasn't long before both of those targets, along with their most powerful underlings and the Lich King's emissaries, were cut down. While the heroes did that the forces of the Alliance and Horde, in their own ways, had to deal with the attacks that the Scourge launched against them, especially since the necropolis known as Naxxramas focused on the eastern part of the province of Dragonblight, where the Alliance set up Wintergarde Keep, while the Horde dealt with the nerubians that were to the west of Agmar's Hammer. It was at that point that the Lich King launched an assault on the Dragon Shrines that just so happened to rest in Dragonblight, to raise the dead dragons into his service, though even with everything that was going on the Alliance and Horde, joined by the dragonflights that were in that province, were able to temporary repel their enemies and ready themselves for what happened next. That was followed by the forces of the Alliance and Horde marching on Angrathar the Wrathgate, a barred entrance in the northwestern part of the province that would allow them to invade Icecrown Citadel, the lair of the Lich King, something that actually caused the two factions to have a temporary truce between them until the Lich King was killed and the Scourge was dismantled, as they understood the threat that the Scourge posed on the world and wanted to bring them down. Of course, just as the Lich King came out to face them, a force of Forsaken, the undead that had sided with the Horde so long ago, unleashed a powerful blight on the entire area, one that killed members of the Alliance, Horde, and even the Scourge as well, and it was only due to the interference of the Red Dragonflight, dragons that tended to life, were lead by Alexstrasza the Life-Binder and burned the area with their power, restoring life and saving who they were able to. It was later revealed that the faction of Forsaken was under the leadership of a Dreadlord by the name of Varimathras and that they had acted without the Banshee Queen's knowledge or consent, leading her to take a force back to her seat of power, the Undercity, and purge of it traitors, including killing the demons that had caused the corruption in the first place, so they could turn their attention back to Northrend and their true enemy... even though the tensions between the Alliance and Horde remained with Varian Wrynn, High King of the Alliance and King of Stormwind, blaming the Horde for the attack on the Wrathgate, an attack that cost the Alliance five thousand soldiers, and he made sure his forces knew to engage their natural enemies whenever possible. After that the Alliance and Horde turned their attention to Grizzly Hills, a province on the eastern side of the continent they were fighting on, where they fought over the rich supplies of lumber and other materials that were in that area, even though both factions took actions with the local trappers in the province, the Alliance trying to recruit them to deal with the Horde and the Horde retaliating by attacking. Eventually it was discovered that the humans of that province were, in reality, worgen, which were humans that could turn into wolf-like individuals, and they were under the command of the risen shade of Arugal, who had been raised by the Lich King to enact part of his plans, though whatever he was planning was brought to an end as the heroes of the factions slew their foe in a grand battle. From there the Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade ventured into Zul'Drak, a province to the north of Grizzly Hills, where they engaged the hostile troll races that were there and, more importantly, the Scourge forces that were scattered all over the province, so they could take out two birds with one stone in a sense, where the heroes of the factions joined them to take down their enemies, clearly not bothering to worry about the fact that the faction leaders didn't like each other all that much. One of the things they did was cleanse Drak'Tharon keep of those that were located within, even though that delivered it into the hands of the Lich King and his newest pawn, Drakuru, who was empowered and became an Overlord that attacked the forces in Zul'Drak, eventually causing the heroes to bring him down as well, both because it was the right thing to do and because they were annoyed with him taking advantage of them in the first place. From there three things happened that the heroes of the Alliance and Horde were apart of, the first of them being that the heroes invaded Naxxramas and fought a long and fierce battle with the inhabitants that were waiting to be sent out to conquer Dragonblight, only to succeed in killing everything inside it, including the lich known as Kel'Thuzad, before gaining a key that would allow them to invade the Nexus, an area that Malygos and his dragonflight were guarding, or, to be more precise, the Eye of Eternity. It was then that they brought the insane leader of the Blue Dragonflight down and his plan to basically strip all of Azeroth of magic by blasting all of it into the Twisting Nether, something that would have done irreversible damage to the entire world, which was why so many were happy that the plan had been foiled and that they were able to turn their attention to the second item of importance, helping the Argent Crusade and the death knights as they breached the border of Icecrown, the province their main foe commanded, at long last. It was around that time that all of them were called upon to venture into Ulduar, an ancient Titan structure that happened to house one of the Old Gods, beings of incredible power that wanted nothing more than to be freed from their prisons so they could corrupt the planet and take it over, causing them to fight all of the Keepers that were supposed to be guarding the prison and freed them from the Old God's influence, eventually coming down to them 'beating' the weakened Old God and driving it back into its cell, as killing a creature such as that was beyond their abilities, meaning keeping it locked up was all they could do in the grand scheme of things. They also stopped a Titan construct from attempting to reoriginate the world, showing it that they had the skills necessary to protect their world, to which it left and they focused on the true foe that was waiting for them in Icecrown, where the heroes rejoined the Argent Crusade and prepared themselves for the longest battle of their entire lives, and likely the most costly one of all. After spending some time training their forces, so they could deal with the greater threats the Lich King had, they also had to deal with a powerful nerubian that ambushed them in the northern part of Icecrown, before they marched on the gates of the citadel and fought their way through the numerous enemies that stood between them and their foe, before eventually facing down the Lich King, who revealed that his plan was to turn all the heroes into his new masters of the Scourge, only for Tirion to shatter their foe's weapon, the dreaded Frostmourne, and with it gone they were able to slay the Lich King, leaving Bolvar Fordragon to take up the mantel as Keeper of the Damned. During the battle for the citadel the heroes forged a weapon that could match the might of Frostmourne, an axe that Darion Mograine called Shadowmourne, which had to be used in two hands and was the sister blade of the terrifying blade the Lich King used, and it was an orc death knight that carried the weapon into the battle, and it was he who was allowed to use it after the war for Northrend was over. From there it seemed that peace might return to the lands, for a time anyway, but it was barely two months after the fall of the Lich King that their world was struck by another disaster, this one causing the very elements themselves to scream out in pain and caused the shaman that were connected to them to do the same thing, for the terrifying black dragon known as Deathwing, the Aspect of Death, returned to Azeroth from the realm of Deepholm and forever changed the world, shattering dams, breaking walls, flooding entire provinces, and causing a wake of destruction that forced the heroes of the world to band together to deal with the new threat. During this point in time the Alliance was able to recruit the inhabitants of Gilneas into their ranks, most of them changed into worgen that had control over themselves, unlike the worgen they had faced in the past, with a lower percentage of the population remaining free, and a few of the humans that killed themselves, rather than siding with the worgen, were raised by the Banshee Queen, even though she later had them killed when they turned on her. The Horde, on the other hand, were able to recruit the goblins of Kezan into their ranks, where a good portion of them were only in it for the money, but there were a few of them that cared more about their world and joined the heroes before they ventured off to save the world from the terrors that Deathwing had unleashed, just as the worgen did as well, even though the previous Warchief of the Horde, Thrall, withdrew to tend to the wounds of their world and left Garrosh Hellscream in charge. It was during that time that Ragnaros, the Lord of the Firelands, attacked Mount Hyjal and attempted to burn one of the World Trees, large trees that were connected to the Emerald Dream, which would have caused untold devastation to Azeroth, hence why the heroes headed to the province the fire elementals were fighting in and assisted the druids in their efforts to drive them back to the Firelands. When they were sure that they had dealt with their foes, who decided to stop attacking for a time, the heroes spread out among Vashj'ir, an underwater province that revealed itself thanks to what Deathwing had done, Uldum, a desert province that held a powerful Titan structure and was close to where one of the other Elemental Lords resided, Deepholm, the earthen land that Deathwing had been hiding in since the last time he had been seen, and the Twilight Highlands, causing a dwarven clan to rejoin the Alliance and an orcish clan to rejoin the Horde as they focused on their true foes. Once the heroes assisted the residents of the new provinces, and the newer heroes of the various races helped stem the tide of chaos that erupted in the old provinces, thanks to Deathwing's actions, the group of heroes turned their attention to the Throne of Four Winds, where they killed Al'Akir, the Windlord that had sided with the black dragon that had reshaped the world, before they were forced to return to Mount Hyjal and laid siege to the Firelands themselves, this time breaching Ragnaros' lair where they and the most powerful druids in the world brought their foe to his knees and permanently extinguished the Firelord so that he would never rise again, effectively allowing the heroes to kill a second Elemental Lord so close to the first one. The world was well into the next year when they finally discovered the means to kill Deathwing, an ancient relic known as the Dragon Soul, something the dragon created when he was still Neltharion the Earth-Warder, where the heroes and Thrall, along with their allies, fought off the Old God minions that tried to stop them and, eventually, used the power of the artifact, combined with the three remaining Aspects and a newly appointed blue dragon to make Malygos' place, to wipe out Deathwing before he would shatter the rest of the world, at the cost of all dragons losing their seemingly immortal lives and ushering in the Age of Mortals. The heroes, fully expecting to be drawn into another world changing event, were surprised when they got to take a break and help their homes heal from the disasters that Deathwing brought to Azeroth, so while the leaders of the Alliance and Horde didn't see eye to eye they made sure that they kept in touch so that when another event sprung up, one that all of them had to deal with, they would be ready to go the moment it did. They were able to spend the next ten months, or the rest of the year, in a strange peace that seemed unreal, as both factions happened to be recovering from what they had been through, even though the heroes of the Horde knew their Warchief hated the peace and that he was looking for a way to take out the Alliance, while those that were the heroes of the Alliance knew their High King was preparing for his foe's plans, since he didn't trust Garrosh one bit. Sure enough when Year 30 began, exactly ten months and a week after Deathwing's defeat, both factions discovered the existence of a new landmass to the south of the Maelstrom, where the frozen land of Northrend was to the north, and both leaders sent out a scouting force to determine what they were able to find, eventually leading to an Alliance airship to crash into another island that they knew nothing about, even though they had been in the middle of transporting Horde prisoners back to Stormwind, before the natives helped them out and sent them on their way, but not before joining both the Alliance and the Horde, revealing the pandaren to the rest of the world and giving many people the change to learn how to be a monk, who fought with their fists and their body in a way that was unique to the pandaren. Of course a number of them joined the heroes of the factions, as they were drawn to individuals like that, before the factions set out for Jade Forest once more, the first province that resided in Pandaria, the new island that they had discovered. What none of them were expecting, however, was the initial confrontation that the two factions had on the opposite ends of the province, which later caused the Jinyu, a race of fish-like individuals who were good at using the power of water to help them out, to side with the Alliance while the Horde were forced to side with the Hozen, basically primitive apes that needed far more training than what the Horde general wanted, and eventually ended with them clashing near a large jade serpent that was nearly complete, only for it to end up destroyed. The beginning incidents between the factions revealed the existence of the Sha, creatures of negative emotions, that had been sealed away for a long time, and the act of destroying the statue caused the Sha of Doubt, the purest manifestation of that emotion, to be released, which set in motion a chain of events that released five other Prime Sha: Despair, which went on to attack the Temple of the Red Crane in Krasarang Winds, Anger, which assaulted Kun-Lai Summit, Violence, one that remained in a temple in the Summit, Hatred, who tormented Townlong Steppes, and Fear, who invaded the Terrace of Endless Spring. The heroes, who knew the Prime Sha couldn't be allowed to get away, focused their efforts on tracking down their targets and put them down one by one, while at the same time helping the residents of the various provinces whenever they were able to, showing the local pandaren that they were more interested in saving the land than doing war with each other, something that did seem to put a smile on their faces. It was during that time that one of the pandaren picked up a plot of land in the middle of the Valley of Four Winds, a place where one could farm and enjoy the simpler things of life, giving her something to do when they weren't busy tracking down their targets and saving the world from disaster, which earned her a few pats on the back from her friends and the locals. It was after the death of the sixth Sha, and the Mantid Empress, basically a massive bug that lead an army that was trying to wipe out the pandaren, that Garrosh made his move against the Alliance forces, though that didn't stop him from having Vol'jin assassinated, who was saved by several of the heroes and they passed false news to the warmonger that was their Warchief as the injured troll leader went into hiding, and that was only the start of his plans. While the heroes moved to the Isle of Thunder, to deal with the newly awakened and revived Thunder King, Garrosh also had some of his loyal agents invade Darnassus, the home of the night elves, to stop the leader of the blood elves, Lor'themar, from even negotiating with the leaders of the night elves, Tyrande and Malfurion, before Garrosh eventually outed everyone that refused to serve him and founded his True Horde, an orcish Horde with goblin allies, something that lead Varian and the other leaders of the Alliance to make a truce with the rebel leaders of the Horde, including Vol'jin, who came out of hiding to lead the rebellion himself. Part of that seemed to be what Garrosh wanted, because in reality he was actually back in Pandaria, instead of in Orgrimmar, where he busted his way into an ancient Titan vault, seized the chest that was inside the vault, and then dumped the still beating heart of the Old God Y'Shaarj, an ancient being that had been torn apart by one of the Titans so long ago, causing a wave of destruction that wiped out nearly everything in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, before he transported the heart back to Orgrimmar, where he and his spoils of war resided as he planned out his assault on the rest of Azeroth. The heroes, shaken by the actions that Garrosh had committed against the entire world, especially since it did seem like he might be trying to reawaken an Old God, returned to Pandaria and waged war on the corrupted inhabitants of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, correcting the mistakes that the Warchief had left in his wake, before finding and confronting the seventh and final Prime Sha, the Sha of Pride. With the last of the Prime Sha dead their allies arrived a few moments later and opened the way for them to teleport back to a fleet of boats that were approaching Orgrimmar from the side, where they had to deal with the guardians that Garrosh had set outside the city before they were allowed to enter his domain and fought their way through both his army and the things he had stolen from Pandaria. The battle was long and hard as they engaged Garrosh's forces and broke their way into the lower depths of the city, following the path that their foe had left for them, before finding the powerful Mantid that had followed the Warchief after he claimed the heart of the Old God, as they were servants of Y'Shaarj and since Garrosh had the heart of their master they were following him, something that resulted in the heroes killing all of them in battle, before eventually finding the area that their target was located in. It was a long and difficult fight for the heroes this time around, more because of the fact that Garrosh was channeling the power of the Old God's heart, by throwing his axe into the heart and draining all of its power into his body, transforming him into a monstrous version of himself, before the heroes knocked that power out of him and forced him to kneel as the leaders of both faction broke into the area, even though the rest of the Old God's power had disappeared forever. Garrosh was tried for his crimes against the Alliance, Horde, Pandaria, and everything else, but just before he could be punished for his crimes one of the Bronze Dragons sprung him free and fled to the past, basically preventing them from tracking him down, so the heroes and the leaders went back to their normal lives, cleaning up the mess that Garrosh had left behind, while Vol'jin replaced the orc as the new Warchief for the Horde. From there the heroes worked to restore order to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, the rest of Pandaria, and all the lands that were plagued by Garrosh and his schemes, mostly hoping to mend the tensions between the Alliance and Horde at long last, though it was only a month or two later that they got bad news that some force had come out of the Dark Portal and had smashed the fortifications that the factions kept in that province, forcing the factions to gather their armies again so they could march on the Blasted Lands. It was during their retaliation of the invasion that they discovered that the force that was invading their world was a new army of orcs, the Iron Horde to be exact, where they discovered that Garrosh had gone back in time to Draenor, before the world was shattered and became Outland, and changed history so he could have an army to take over Azeroth, basically repeating the plan that had just failed, to which Khadgar, who was the expert on dealing with the Dark Portal, joined the forces and lead a vanguard through the Dark Portal, where he and the forces of the Alliance and Horde countered the Iron Horde, freed the magic users that were being used as batteries for the portal, even if one of them was Gul'dan, an orc warlock that was basically darkness incarnate, someone who Khadgar said that he would be searching for later, once they were done with this part of their mission. After the Dark Portal was closed their forces moved backwards through the area that was around the portal structure, where they freed some draenei and orc prisoners, disrupted a blood ritual, smashed a bridge, rescued two important figures, braved a combat arena, forced their way through a tunnel their enemies watched over, disrupted a forge, and then found their way to a weapon that allowed them to totally break the portal structure, followed by the vanguard and their new allies fleeing the area and using two of the Iron Horde's ships to leave the province they had appeared in. Khadgar then assisted the heroes in establishing their strongholds, the Alliance forming Lunarfall in Shadowmoon Valley while the Horde went to Frostfire Ridge and formed Frostwall, where they assisted the locals with their problems and formed alliances with them as they turned their attention to the other provinces, since their mission was to cripple the Iron Horde and stop Gul'dan. To do the latter Khadgar set about gathering a specific set of items that would allow him to forge three special rings, the Savage Hallows as they came to be known as, where Zuleth Stormaxe, the orc death knight that carried Shadowmourne, was gifted the ring that would become Thorasus, the Stone Heart of Draenor, a pandaren monk named Xinyue Windstep was given the beginnings of Maalus, the Blood Drinker, and a blood elf mage called Vytheril Truthseeker was given Nithramus, the All-Seer. This was his move to make the Alliance and Horde ready for whatever might come their way, and as such he had the heroes help him in his quest to both empower their rings, of which he could only make three and let them decide on who should bare them, and to cripple their enemies, by striking out at the various operations that the Iron Horde had across the world and bringing them down. It was a worthwhile plan and for a time it was successful, allowing the heroes of the Alliance and Horde to take the fight to the leaders of the Iron Horde and the Gorian Empire of Highmaul, while Thrall caught up with Garrosh and the pair fought in a Mak'gora, an honor battle that was between the two of them, where it ultimately ended with Thrall using his shaman powers to bind Garrosh and kill him for his crimes, even though part of that went against the melee only battle that Garrosh declared and would have some lasting effects on Thrall, for a time. With Garrosh dead, and the Gorian Empire broken, the heroes empowered their rings and advanced on the area that Blackhand, one of the main leaders of the Iron Horde, was located in, where they invaded his foundry, killed the orcs and creatures that were inside the place, and then cut him down in a great battle that really crippled the Iron Horde's power in Draenor, something that allowed Gul'dan to finally take them over and transform them into the Fel Horde, to use them as a distraction as he readied himself to bring his master to this world. It was during that time that the forces suffered a rather significant blow, one that they could recover from, and that was Gul'dan corrupting the Warden that had come with Khadgar, to protect him from danger and make sure he returned to Azeroth in one piece, where Cordana seemed to disappear after her treason in attempting to take the rings that had been made for the heroes. After that failed attempt the heroes managed to find their way back to Hellfire Citadel, where they began a long battle for the fate of Draenor, taking down demons and fel-corrupted individuals at every corner, and even a resurrected Pit Lord that had been slain too early in this timeline, before tracking down Gul'dan as he created the portal that brought Archimonde the Defiler to the world they were fighting for. In the end, after a long battle, the heroes of Azeroth and the champions of Draenor were able to bring down the Defiler, depriving the Legion of one of its greatest commanders, but just before he died Archimonde sent Gul'dan through the portal that had brought him to this world, as in before it collapsed, and with that done the ancient evil perished, leaving Khadgar and the others to return to Azeroth as their forces pulled back, allowing them to enter Age 32 as he kept an eye out for Gul'dan and his foul tricks. The heroes, despite everything that had happened, were hoping for some time to relax after all the madness they had been through, but they were barely into the new year as Gul'dan revealed his hand, as he found the Tomb of Sargeras, an ancient tomb that contained something powerful, and used the power within it to open a brand new portal for the Legion, ushering in the Legion's Third Invasion of Azeroth. Khadgar and Maiev, despite their tense and uneasy relationship, had failed to stop the warlock from completing his plans and went about their business to prepare the world, where Khadgar headed to Stormwind and Orgrimmar to warn the leaders of the impending invasion while Maiev retreated to the Vault, to ready herself for what was to come when the Legion invaded their world again. It took a week for things to change, as Maiev heard that Khadgar was successful in warning the leaders of the impending Legion invasion, only for the leaders and their forces to be caught off guard by the amount of demons that were being called to their world, especially ones that had cost them much to defeat in the past, revealing that any demon they had killed since the previous invasion was still alive and that they were pissed about what had happened. From what she heard the Alliance ended up losing Varian during the attack on the Broken Shore, the area that the portal was in, due to him making the decision to tackle a more advanced Fel Reaver so the other leaders of the Alliance could flee the island, which ended with him being caught by several demons, stabbed in the back by a few more, and then Gul'dan killed him by pushing a large amount of Fel energy into his body to destroy his entire being. The Horde, however, were also in the stages of losing another Warchief, as it appeared that Vol'jin had been stabbed and had a Fel wound that couldn't be healed, which meant that he was on death's door and would soon be departing from this world, but not before he figured out who among the other leaders would take his place as the Warchief, as the King of Stormwind had an heir, who would take his place as leader of the Alliance. Vol'jin, on the other hand, didn't have an heir, or if he did the heir wasn't old enough to take his place as the leader of the Horde, but Maiev turned that out as she walked down the path that was in front of her, one that would take her to the deepest and darkest hole in the entire Vault, as the battle she had been in reminded her of another battle that had nearly cost her her life, the one at the summit of the Black Temple. That was when she felt a disturbance in the air as the seal on the front door of the Vault, which wasn't supposed to be opening due to the fact that she had commanded such a thing while she considered her options on the matter, shattered and the Vault was exposed to the outside world, leading the other Wardens, who had felt the same thing she did, run up to a higher level so they could see what was going on. "The Legion has broken the seal?!" one of the other Wardens declared, where Maiev's stride increased the moment she heard that, as she could feel the Fel energy seeping into the Vault from the outside, with Gul'dan making his way into the depths like he was searching for someone or something, though she could also hear the others getting ready to face him and his demons, "Quickly sisters, defend the Vault! Lady Maiev, we'll need your help as well!" "Go, start the battle without me," Maiev stated, informing the closest Wardens to leave the area and make sure the demons didn't get down to this point, especially since the lowest level was where she imprisoned the body, and possibly the soul, of the Betrayer, hence the reason she was heading to a side chamber first, because the situation called for some drastic measures and she was hoping she was right in what she was about to do, "There is something I must do before I can join the defense." The other Wardens said nothing as she stepped into the chamber that the Illidari were sealed away in, though instead of stopping she headed towards the room that was opposite of the entrance and entered an area that had four prisoners, one being Kayn, another being Altruis, and the other two holding the strongest demon hunters she had encountered, who would give the Betrayer a run for his gold. "Illidari, I have spent my entire life as keeper of the wicked, be it demons of the Burning Legion, creatures from lands that are hardly explored, or dangerous elementals." Maiev commented, where she tapped her crescent against the side of her armored leg for a moment, as there was a good chance that if she broke the Illidari out of their prisons, especially the two that were right in front of her, they would lash out and kill her before she even had a chance to explain herself, but at the moment she was hoping they were in the mood to talk, for the first time in seven years, "For thousands of years my only solace was knowing that the rest of Azeroth was safe from monsters like you, but, given what has happened in the last week or two, I would do anything to save the world I call home... even if it means freeing you!" In that moment she did something she was probably going to regret in the next couple of minutes, she swung her weapon and cut a deep gash into both Spitfire and Rainbow's prisons, where the cracks spread and the crystals shattered under the sheer intensity of the power they were keeping inside, something that gave her a glimpse of the empowered forms that she had faced seven years ago, before the pair reverted back to their base forms and emerged from the smoke that had come from her breaking their crystals... and she could tell one of them was pissed, but she was hoping they were willing to listen to her, otherwise Azeroth would have something worse than the Legion to fear. > Interlude: Escaping the Vault > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow looked around the room that they had found themselves in and found that it looked like a prison of some kind, one that contained a few Fel crystals which interested both of them, where the pair found that they felt the energy of Kayn and Altruis inside them, before feeling more Fel energy on the other side of the door and determined that the rest of the Illidari were on the other side of it. That confirmed the fact that they had been captured by Maiev and the rest of her Wardens, back when they returned to the summit of the Black Temple after retrieving the Sargerite Keystone, which was missing at the moment, meaning that once they determined what was going on at the moment they would have to find it and piece together what happened to the rest of their forces. There was another force of Fel energy in the surrounding area, one that felt like the demons of the Legion, meaning that whatever was going on involved their enemies once more, hence the reason that both of them turned their attention to the individual that was in front of them and that was when Rainbow frowned as they found a Warden standing in front of them, one whose voice they had heard a couple of times over the years, since the Fel crystals had encased them to be exact, and it was easily recognizable, meaning that this had to be Maiev, the one who imprisoned them. To be honest, neither of them were all that happy to see her again, especially after what happened the last time they had crossed paths, at the summit of the Black Temple, and Spitfire had the feeling that this was rather embarrassing for Maiev, having to release those that she had imprisoned inside whatever area they were now standing in, which had to be a prison of some sort and there had to be a few more Wardens fighting the forces of the Legion. Of course that was when the pair found something else in this chamber, there were two sets of warglaives, which looked nothing like the ones they had used to kill the demons of Mardum, resting on either side of the area their crystals had been resting in, which meant that either their weapons had been lost after they were imprisoned or, and this was the more likely scenario, Maiev was adding insult to injury by taking their old set of warglaives and had them remade, using some of the designs that went into the weapons of the Wardens, though after discovering that fact the pair turned their attention to Maiev, since she was clearly waiting to see if she should be regretting her decision or not. In the next couple of seconds Rainbow burst through the space between them and gripped onto the part of Maiev's armor that was near her neck, forcing her through the air and knocked her into the door that was behind her, allowing her to lift the Warden that had imprisoned them in this place after they returned from Mardum, which meant the Keystone they had fought the Legion for had been lost and it was something they would have to recover at some point in the future, though before she could do something else, like punch the Warden in the gut or uppercut her, or even kick her into another wall, Spitfire stepped up to her and placed a hand on her arm, stopping her from doing anything drastic, before focusing on the person she was holding by the collar right now. "Maiev, I would say that it is nice to see you again, but that would be a lie," Spitfire said, because while it was very easy for her to see that Rainbow was mad, possibly outraged, with the Warden, and to be honest she felt the same way since that stunt of Maiev's had stopped the Illidari from cutting into the Legion's forces and likely cost the forces of Azeroth a bunch of people in the long run, she wanted to focus on the more important enemy right now and not on Maiev, even though it meant that they had to talk with the Warden and figure out what was going on, "Anyway, it appears that the Legion have invaded whatever place you imprisoned us and the rest of the Illidari in, which means that you need our help fighting the demons and repelling them from your world." "Yes, the Legion is invading Azeroth for the third time, only this time it is different than what we have seen in the past, so much so that we require your... expertise." Maiev replied, her tone immediately telling them that she wasn't a fan of her own idea, since they were sure that if any other Warden tried to free them Maiev would have likely lashed out at them or something, before she turned her head toward the weapon racks for a moment, since that was all she could do given who was holding onto her right now, even if one was simply watching her movement, "As such I am going against my desire to keep all of you contained, out of fear that the Legion might capture your prisons and torment you until you join their side, by freeing the two of you so you can gather the rest of your forces, escape from the Vault, and then take the fight to our enemies... though just know that if you betray us and join the Legion, there will be nothing that will stop me from tracking you down and punishing you for your treachery." "I ought to punch you for even suggesting that." Rainbow growled, because it was annoying to hear that Maiev had next to no trust in them and thought that there was a chance that they might join the Legion, though it honestly paled when she took a moment to consider the fact that, had the Warden not convinced those adventurers to assault the Black Temple so she could get at Lord Illidan, she, Spitfire, and all of their forces could have prevented this invasion from happening, which made her shift her stance for a moment as she readied herself and then punched the Warden in the chest, who staggered as she hit the ground and carefully forced herself over to where the new warglaives rested, where Spitfire tossed Rainbow one of the sets and they tested their weapons for a moment or two, by remembering and using the motions that they had been taught over the years, before they paused and she frowned, "These might not be the same as the warglaives we were using against the demons of Mardum, as those were lightweight and, unless I'm wrong, these ones have a bit more weight to them, but in the end they're quick and sharp enough to match our old weapons... meaning they'll be decent enough to deal with the demons that are currently invading this place." "We should also release Kayn and Altruis, since we'll need everyone's power to fight our way through the demons that are invading this place," Spitfire commented, as she had been more focused on the fact that all of the demon hunters that had left Mardum with her and Rainbow, and nearly all of them had done that, save for a few who likely stayed behind to make sure the way was clear for them to teleport back to the liberated world they had taken once their Lord had been told the good news, were resting behind the door and knew what she had to do, which was why she walked away from where Maiev was resting and headed for the door. Maiev simply nodded her head as she headed through the door that was in front of them and revealed that a decent number of their enemies had already breached every floor of the Vault, as the demons were flooding into the room that rested beyond the door, to which she forgot the pain from Rainbow's attack and charged out so she could join the rest of the Wardens in the defense, leaving Spitfire and Rainbow to free Kayn and Altruis from their cells, who were confused as to what was going on and even glared at each other once they were armed, but Spitfire told them that there were more pressing matters for them to deal with at the moment. "You're right, we should be focused on freeing the rest of our forces from their cells," Kayn said, as he could feel the rest of the demon hunters that were around the room they were in, despite the fact that he could tell a few were missing and were likely back on Mardum, though even as he said that Altruis cut down one of the Felstalkers that got too close to where they were standing, allowing him to take in some energy and recover from the number of years that all of them spent trapped in those cells. "And killing demons to replenish our power... even if you two might not need it." Altruis added, to which Kayn actually nodded his head, to show that he had to agree with what the night elf said, something that was rare for them to do since neither of them particularly liked each other, but they both knew that Spitfire and Rainbow weren't like the rest of their order and could tell that neither of their powers had diminished over the years, either due to their original nature or the demonic souls they had infused themselves with to become demon hunters in the first place. Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads as they stepped out into the area, where they decided to split up for a time and focus on freeing the rest of their allies as each of the prison cells were smashed as once of them cut into the crystal that was keeping their friends and allies trapped, where Rainbow was lucky enough to free Jace and Kor'vas first, while Falara and Marius were freed by Spitfire. Falara and Marius were demon hunters that the pair really didn't interact with all that much with, back when they were in the Black Temple, but they were skilled and neither of them liked demons, so the fact that there were demons streaming into the room they were in caused them to join the pair that Rainbow had freed, before the two of them focused on smashing the other cells so they could free the rest of their order and make sure all of them were ready to leave the Vault. It was a few moments later when Spitfire freed Allari and Cyana, where the former did take a moment to comment on how bad the situation had to be if the Wardens were letting them out of their cells, while the latter had to take a moment to realize that she had been freed from both her cell and from having to listen to her own before she tore into the Felstalkers and Felguards that were in the room. Rainbow followed that up by freeing the last of their order, including both Lyana and Asha, who were from the group that Falara and Marius were apart of, in terms of while they were trained by the others, before she and Spitfire surveyed the scene, discovering that all of the cells had been opened and that everyone was free to tear down the Legion's forces, allowing them to route the demons and close all of the portals they had opened to this area. There was also a Wrath Lord inside the room, apparently the leader of this particular group of demons, so while the others were tearing the lesser demons apart Spitfire and Rainbow rushed over to him and smashed him into the ground, cutting through his defenses like they were nothing and rescuing the Warden that had been fighting him, before they were able to bring him down without delay, allowing them to split his soul between them as they followed the rest of their order through the opening they were heading through... though after that they headed to the left and came to a stop when they found Kayn and Altruis standing behind Maiev, who was staring at a locked door with a seal on it. "Gul'dan could never break the seal that was on this door... meaning one of my Wardens has betrayed us." Maiev said, as she was focused on the Fel coloration of the seal and knew who had to be the traitor, when she considered what she had been told by Khadgar after he returned from Draenor, to which she waved her arm and the seal broke, allowing them to charge into the darkened room to find that the Betrayer's body was missing, Gul'dan was standing near the edge of the area, and a Warden in Fel armor stood near him, the final discovery revealing something that Khadgar had told her, even if she hated what was in front of her, "Cordana! You shall answer to the High Council for your treason!" "Judge me all you want, sister," the Fel Warden, apparently named Cordana, replied, though at the same time Spitfire and Rainbow watched as the seemingly hunched over orc used his Fel power to summon three gateways, ones that were unlike the ones they had used on Mardum, and through two of them came some rather large brutish Mo'arg, meaning he was going to stop them from following him and his ally, where it was clear that the Fel Warden was focused on them and nothing else at the moment, "but you and your allies cannot stop the Legion." "Spitfire and Rainbow Dash, the Legion has been waiting for your return," Gul'dan commented, as he knew all about the two odd demon hunters that were standing near Maiev and the other two Illidari, as his Legion masters had told him all about them and the power they wielded, from just two years of training and their invasion of Mardum, before he let a smile appear on his face as he focused on them for a few seconds, "I'm looking forward to breaking your souls when the two of you die, especially after everything I've heard about you, as you will be great instruments in bringing down the last of Azeroth's defenses, and then, once this troublesome world is conquered, I'm sure the two of you will be great tools in bringing down the rest of creation." "I wouldn't count on it," Spitfire remarked, though even as she said that Gul'dan and Cordana retreated through one of the portals and Maiev ran after them, barking something about finding an Archmage by the name of 'Khadgar', who she had to assume was someone the Warden trusted, before she headed through the same portal that Gul'dan went through, leaving the four demon hunters to deal with the two large Mo'arg that were in the room, as the demons turned to look at them and seemed to raise their weapons not a couple of seconds later. The Mo'arg were ready for a fight and swung their weapons down at whoever was in front of them, which was why Spitfire and Rainbow took to air, since the room was rather spacious for a prison room, and separated so each of them could fight one of the demons that were trying to hit them out of the air, in vain since the pair was better at this sort of thing, opening the way for Kayn and Altruis to come rushing in to assist them. One of the interesting tactics that the pair of demons employed was rushing from one side of the square arena that they were fighting on and stopped when they hit the edge of the area, somehow stopping themselves from heading off into the abyss, but that was more to deal with the demon hunters that were attacking their legs and the lower part of their bodies, even though Kayn and Altruis were able to avoid the attack rather easily. Of course, as Spitfire predicted, the pair got into an argument about their Lord and how Altruis believed that Illidan had fallen to the Fel energies that he had been fighting, but before they could get too deep into the argument Spitfire told them that there would be time for them to argue once they had escaped from the Vault, where her words caused the pair to focus on the battle that they were in and less on the fact that they had been arguing a few moments ago, once more demonstrating the influence that she had over the rest of the Illidari, since she was the one that their Lord had put in charge of his forces for the invasion of Mardum. Spitfire had to assume that such a thing was still valid until they managed to retrieve their Lord's body and reattached his soul to it, allowing him to walk the world of the living once more, but instead of worrying about that she focused on cutting into her Mo'arg's exposed arm as Rainbow did the same thing, neither of them really needing their empowered forms for their current batch of enemies. In the end it didn't take much for Spitfire and Rainbow to cut down both of the Mo'arg and take their souls, even if the two of them got the larger fragments of them and both Kayn and Altruis got the slightly smaller fragments, though that was when the group headed outside the room and started to follow the path that would allow them to reach the upper levels of the Vault, even though Spitfire did have to tell them to work together and stop arguing as she and Rainbow made sure none of the Illidari were left behind. As they did that the pair found a rather powerful looking Inquisitor demon that was in the middle of stabilizing another portal for demons to use to invade the Vault, so the pair wasted no time in lashing out at it and cut into its robes before it even realized that they were there in the first place, allowing them to deal some impressive damage to the demon as the portal structure shattered, allowing the rest of the Illidari to leave without having to be bothered by additional demons. In the end it didn't take them all that long to shatter the Inquisitor and steal the power of his soul, adding it to what they already had, before they reached the top of the ramp and found that Jace was the only one left down here, even though it wasn't hard to see that the other Illidari must have been using a Felbat to get them to the higher levels of the Vault, since it appeared that the elevator that was in the area was broken, meaning that the rest of their allies had used the Felbat had were no doubt killing the demons that were above them. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, I've been waiting for you to arrive," Jace commented, though at the same time the pair could see that there were a number of sacks attached to the Felbat that was in front of them, meaning that Jace must have discovered something like they were killing the demons and the Wardens allowed him to take whatever he had found, as it would aid them in their battles to come, "Kayn, Altruis, and the others have moved on ahead, to clear the path to where the exit is located, so we can head out and figure out what must be done so we can take down the Legion, and we're lucky that some of the Wardens had collected some of the Legion's toys, meaning I'll be able to create wards and everything once we're out of here." "Then let's get going." Spitfire said, to which she and Rainbow opened their wings and flew through the opening that the elevator would normally ride in, where it took them a few moments to reach the upper level that the others had moved onto and landed near a walkway that would allow them to enter the next chamber, where Jace followed them and landed the Felbat nearby, showing that he wanted to make sure it was safe and secure before he bothered with the rest of the demons that were invading the Vault, since he didn't want to lose what he had been given. "This is sheer madness!" Kor'vas stated, where Spitfire and Rainbow looked out at the area that she and Allari were looking at, as they could see demons pouring into the Vault as they attempted to overrun the Wardens and the rest of the Illidari that were fending them off, though at the very least the pair was happy that the Wardens hadn't tried to kill them since they broke everyone out of their cells, especially since all of the remaining prison guards were working with the rest of the demon hunters to bring down the demons, "The Wardens have lost control of their prison." "That'll happen when one of their own betrays them and attacks them when they aren't expecting it," Spitfire said, as that was all the pair needed to know about the situation, that one of the Wardens had joined the Legion, as insane as that sounded since they were against the Illidari existing in the first place, before she and Rainbow glanced around the area and found that there were three doors that they could go through and an elevator that would take them to another level that they would have to fight through, even though it sounded like someone was fighting above them anyway, "So, what do we have to do before we can leave the Vault?" "Well, according to the Wardens there's a powerful Molten Destroyer in the room to our right," Kor'vas replied, though while she and the others didn't trust their former captors, given the trick that was pulled on them so long ago when they returned to the Black Temple, the fact that none of the Wardens had tried to cuff them was enough to make the Illidari focus on the demons and the other dangers of the Vault, hence the reason she focused on what Spitfire and Rainbow had to know before they moved forward, "I'm not sure if we have the strength to take it out, given that we have been locked in those prisons for a long time, but the Wardens informed us that there are three countermeasures in the room that, when activated, will activate the room's containment device and freeze Ash'golm in place, allowing us to gather our allies and get out of there. There's also a Beholder in the room that's across the way from the passage we used to get up here, trapped in an intricate room that was deactivated when the demons invaded, so someone needs to go in there and help contain it so we can leave, otherwise it might chase us and cause havoc on the rest of the world." "And don't forget the fact that there's an Overfiend in the chamber to our left, Immolanth according to what one of the Wardens told us," Allari added, revealing that there was a third creature that Spitfire and Rainbow were going to have to take down before they were able to leave the area that they were in, and that wasn't counting an Eredar that seemed to be shouting orders at the rest of the demons, who sounded like he was a few levels above them, a demon that would have to die at some point, so they could leave this place and focus on the Legion, before she focused on the rest of everything she knew about the demon, "supposedly he was the ruler of a distant nexus world, but the Wardens were able to find his world, beat him in battle, and then imprisoned him in this Vault, but now that the seals are broken he's trying to break free so he can join the Legion, to have his revenge on the Wardens and their allies... though if you two take him out you can take his rather immense power and empower yourselves even more than you already are." Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other before heading over to the passage that was to the left of where they had been standing, where they found a large being that was made up of concentrated Fel fire, and bound to armor that let it form arms, legs, and an entire body, which seemed to be in the middle of fighting one of the Illidari, though it didn't take the pair long to enter the room and engage the Overfiend. Immolanth turned around to face them the moment they stepped into the room that he had been imprisoned inside, where both Spitfire and Rainbow separated from each other as they used their warglaives to block the incoming attacks, which was their foe swinging his flaming blades at them in an attempt to cut out down where they stood, though thanks to all the demons they had slain so far the pair was ready for him and whatever he had in store for them. It was during that battle that they discovered that the other demon hunter that was in the room was actually Cyana, and the reason they didn't realize it was her was due to the fact that she was in her empowered form, but that didn't stop them from cutting into the demon and dodging its attacks, which definitely ticked it off as it tried to cut the three of them down so it could escape from the Vault. Spitfire also ended up using a skill that just came to her, a 'blade dance' based on what happened, where she used her inner power to transfer her wings into the tattoos on her back and then rapidly moved through the area that they were fighting in, even though she had moved into the air before doing the attack, so she was able to carve several gashes into their foe's chest before he even realized what she had done, causing her, Rainbow, and Cyana to use their eye beam skill and blast the demon into the ground, where he collapsed and stopped moving. Cyana, even though she wanted the demon's power for herself, stepped aside and returned to the rest of the fight as Spitfire and Rainbow divided the power between them, allowing them to absorb it before they headed out and split up so they could tackle the other two rooms that needed to be taken care of before they were actually allowed to use the elevator and leave this part of the Vault. Spitfire, who headed to the room that the Beholder was in, found that her target was a floating head, for lack of a better term, and that it was firing a beam of energy at a mirror, which was being reflected around the room and was preventing the demon hunters that were in the room from actually turning the last mirror so they could stun the creature, something that would allow them to escape. As such she flew over to where the final mirror was resting, since she could just fly over it rather easily, and turned the mirror so that the beam was redirected right into the creature's face, allowing Altruis and the others to flee from the room while the creature was stunned, though for how long none of them new and didn't want to stick around to find out. Rainbow, on the other hand, found that Ash'golm was basically a massive fire elemental that looked like it came from beneath a volcano or something like that, though while Kayn and the others distracted it she activated the three nodes that powered this room's countermeasures and froze the creature where it stood, allowing them and the other demon hunters to flee from the room and meet up with the rest of their forces, even if Kayn and Altruis lead the others upstairs as Spitfire and Rainbow informed each other about their success with the rooms they had picked out. "I just knew the two of you would have succeeded in killing Immolanth and keeping the other two contained," Allari commented, as she wasn't surprised by what Spitfire and Rainbow could do at this point, in fact none of the Illidari were at all surprised by the sheer power and skill that the pair possessed, after two years of training with them and their Lord, and it only made her and some of the others wonder just how far their power was going to rise, which was a good thing since she was sure the Legion would be sending some of its stronger demons to attack this world, "Come, its time that we used the elevator and joined the others... there's an Eredar that needs to be slain so we can have our freedom to fight the rest of the Legion and save Azeroth." It was then that the three of them, the last of the demon hunters to leave this level, stepped onto the elevator and let it bring them up to the highest point that it could possibly take them to, where they passed by a few floors where they did see a few Wardens killing the rest of the prisoners that were trying to escape from their cells, though since a few of them were demons the pair decided to help the Wardens out by hurling their warglaives out at the demonic prisoners and made sure their attacks killed their targets. That allowed them to pull the souls of the slain demons to a single spot so they could divide each of them between them, adding bits and pieces of power to what they currently had while at the same time making sure none of the demonic prisoners escaped from the Vault, which would appease the Wardens and allow them to focus on whoever was still inside their cells, or let them focus on tracking down Maiev. After all of that the elevator came to a stop and allowed them to stop off of it so they could use the walkways that were near them to leave the area and head for what they hoped was the exit, though Spitfire couldn't fault the Wardens for how they created their Vault, as this was designed to house dangerous creatures so they didn't harm Azeroth, even if most of them were now dead and the Illidari was leaving to deal with their true foe. When the three of them reached the next room, however, Spitfire and Rainbow came to a stop as they stared at Kayn and Altruis who were arguing with each other as they tried to cut the other's head clean off, showing that the anger they had towards each other had finally exploded and both of them wanted to prove whose ideals were the strongest, or maybe whose ideals were correct was the right way to think about it, though it did cause the pair to sigh as they realized what was going on. Spitfire waited for a minute, just to see if Kayn and Altruis were going to stop what they were doing and realize that they were acting rather foolishly in front of the rest of the Illidari, including Jace's Felbat, to which she sighed and stepped forward, rushing right in between their attacks as she parried them with her own warglaives and then pushed them both backwards as she slammed a hoof on the ground, her power flaring for a moment as she stared at them, which caused the rest of the Illidari to stop in their tracks as well. "Would you two stop fighting like children and grow up?!" Spitfire stated, because back when she and Rainbow first started their training Kayn and Altruis, despite their differences in what they believed in, followed the path that their Lord set them upon and trusted them to do everything in their power to bring the Legion down, and yet here they were, acting like kids and making themselves look like fools, "I know you two don't get along, since your ideals clash with each other, but you need to grow up and start acting like the demon hunters that Lord Illidan trained, as many of our brothers and sisters still look up to you two and if they see you trying to tear each other part that will only divide the Illidari and bring about our eventual end." "Still, our dispute cannot be wrapped up just because you tell us to stop," Altruis stated, where many of them faced him for a moment, more in the sense that they were interested in what he had to say and less in the fact that he wasn't listening to what Spitfire had told him and Kayn, who was standing off to the side as he listened to them, "Since you are the leader of the Illidari, in place of Lord Illidan, there are only two ways we'll be able to truly settle our dispute: the first being the death of one of us, in a battle that you interrupted, while the second is you choosing a second-in-command for our order, whose ideals will color our decisions from this day forward." "Is that all? Than neither of you deserve such a position." Spitfire replied, where she heard a few gasps from the rest of the Illidari, because these two were generally considered to be the greatest commanders under Lord Illidan, meaning that they naturally assumed that she would pick one of them and the other would run away, never to be seen again as they waged their own separate war on the Legion, to which she turned towards the fountain that the rest of the Illidari were standing by, "Kor'vas Bloodthorn, would you accept the position of my second-in-command?" "I would be honored, Lady Spitfire." Kor'vas stated, because while she really wasn't expecting this when the rest of the group had come up to see what was going on, before they escaped from the Vault and began their survey into what their enemies were doing to Azeroth, she was going to take the opportunity that was being presented to her, while at the same time noticing that Kayn and Altruis were standing there with a stunned look on both of their faces. "What about Rainbow Dash? She's just as powerful as you are, so shouldn't she have that position?" Kayn asked, as he had no idea that Spitfire would even do this when offered the chance to choose a new direction for their order, even if it meant picking between him and Altruis, though he would have been sure that she would have given Rainbow something to put her higher than the rest of the Illidari. "I don't care about the leadership responsibilities, I'm fine being a champion and killing demons," Rainbow remarked, as she trusted the direction that Spitfire would take them in and knew that it would be similar to what Lord Illidan would have set them on if he was still with them, even though that thought reminded her of the fact that they needed to find the orc that had taken their Lord's body and recover it, despite the fact that they were going to have to figure out where his weapons were located, since they had been stolen. "Very well... I will accept this and offer you my services." Altruis said, where he actually knelt towards Spitfire as those words left his mouth, showing that he meant what he said and that he was interested in seeing the direction that their order went in from this point forward, something that Kayn replicated not a few moments later, revealing that they were able to set aside their disagreements and agree on something, though maybe this would allow them to stop focusing on their ideals and focus more on killing demons. Spitfire acknowledged what Kayn and Altruis were doing, to which she and Rainbow stepped into the front of their group and headed up the stairs that were in front of them, something that allowed them to reach what appeared to be the area that was between them and the exit of the Vault, where they found a large Eredar in the center of the area, who seemed ready for them to come and fight him. The Eredar, that declared that his name was Bastillax and that none of them would see the light of day again, raised his massive sword and swung it at Spitfire and Rainbow as they clashed with his weapon, allowing the others to crush the Felguards, Infernals, and Inquisitors that were in front of them before even being able to join the main battle for their freedom, but this time around neither of them held back, as both Spitfire and Rainbow transformed into their empowered forms as they engaged Bastillax. There was a magical power that the Eredar wanted to use on all of them, where Spitfire and Rainbow nodded as one of them cancelled the skill and the other kept on the offensive, causing Bastillax to growl in annoyance as he tried to crush Spitfire with the edge of his blade, where she used her new warglaives and stalled the attack in its tracks, allowing her and Rainbow to cut into the demon's arms as the rest of the Illidari swung at his legs, cutting between the pieces of armor to deal some damage to him. There was one skill that interested the pair, as it allowed the Eredar to become transparent and either evade their attacks or take less damage from all the cuts that followed him using it, like a blur ability or something, but after that ability expired Rainbow made sure to use the stun skill they got from Immolanth and caused the Eredar to stagger for a few seconds, allowing them to get some good hits on him while he could do nothing to fight back. Thanks to their skills, and the fact that Bastillax seemed more interested in calling them arrogant for thinking that all of them could stop the Legion, Spitfire, Rainbow, and the Illidari were able to bring the Eredar down and made sure his power was divided among them, with the pair, once more, being given the stronger fragments while the others took the smaller bits, before they declared that they were free and headed for the exit... though once they ascended the stairs, and passed through the open door at the top of them, before they came to a stop as they noticed the mass of Fel energy that was off in the distance, the portal the Legion was using to invade this world. "Well, that's certainly bad news." Rainbow commented, because she was sure that there were demons pouring into Azeroth from the area that the mass of Fel energy was in, no doubt to protect the area from the heroes that would be coming to try and stop them from saving their world, but before she could say anything else she noticed a raven coming down to the area they were standing in, one that seemed different from ordinary ravens. That was when the raven transformed into a human that was dressed up in what Spitfire and Rainbow assumed were mage robes of some kind, even though there were a few patterns on the collar area that seemed to reflect the raven part of what they had seen, and he was carrying a staff that had a wooden raven carving at the top of it, though the pair stood at the front of the group, to see if he was friend or foe, before the others did anything. "Hold, demon hunters, I am not your enemy." the mage said, where the pair determined that he was in the later years of his life, probably around forty-five to fifty-five years old based on their estimates, which might be wrong since they had no idea how humans looked throughout the years, given that they had been working with elves, orcs, the Broken, and all of the other races that made up the Illidari, before the individual beckoned to himself and then gestured towards the area that the mass of Fel energy was coming from, "I am Archmage Khadgar, leader of the Kirin Tor, and I have come to ask you for your aid in saving Azeroth from the Legion and its sinister masters." "I am Spitfire, leader of the Illidari in Lord Illidan's place," Spitfire replied, because based on what she could tell their new friend was sincere about asking them to join him in taking down the Legion and bringing peace to the universe, even if their original plan had been blown to pieces by the Wardens imprisoning them for who knew how long, before she took a moment to gesture to Rainbow and the others, "and these are Rainbow Dash, Kor'vas Bloodthorn, Allari the Souleater, Kayn Sunfury, Altruis the Sufferer, Jace Darkweaver, and a number of other blood elves and night elves that make up the rest of the Illidari, though we don't have time to introduce everyone to you. What's the situation like?" "The Alliance and Horde launched an assault on the Broken Shore, intending to stop Gul'dan, but they sailed into a trap and lost many lives in the process," Khadgar answered, though at the same time he waved his hand and three portals appeared in front of them, magical ovals that seemed to be made out of arcane energy and not the usual Fel energy that most of the demon hunters were familiar with, before he glanced at them, "I will spare you the details, as we would be here for a few hours at best, but just know that the two factions aren't exactly happy with each other and that you'll only be able to gain an audience with the High King and Warchief if you send some night elves to Stormwind and some blood elves to Orgrimmar... the rest of the Illidari can move to Dalaran, to assist myself and the others in figuring out how we're going to save our world." Spitfire barely had to be told that as she ordered Jace to take some of the night elf demon hunters and head through the portal that would take them to Stormwind, while at the same time making sure Allari did the same with the blood elves and the city of Orgrimmar, and as she told those that weren't selected to head for Dalaran she made sure that she and Rainbow, at the very least, went out as well, to see who the leaders of the factions were, where she left Stormwind to her friend while she took on what might be the harder of the two cities, knowing that there might be some demons for them to kill when they reached their destinations. > Interlude: Saving the Leaders > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It took Spitfire, Rainbow, and Kor'vas a few minutes to determine who was going to which city, since most of the Illidari were in the mood to kill some demons and take the fight to the Legion, but they did know that Spitfire wanted some of them working on ways to repel the current invasion and contain it to the area that the Tomb of Sargeras, as Khadgar called it, was located in, a landmass known as the Broken Isles. According to what Khadgar told her and the others he already had some of the other mages of Azeroth, and some dwarven explorers, looking over their notes, their tomes, and anything else that might help them figure out a way to seal the Felstorm, as that seemed to be the name for the mass of fel energy that had opened a rift for the demons to march through, and that it would take some time before he had any answers. As such it was easy for Spitfire to figure out what they needed to do first, because based on the bit of information she was able to gain from their new ally the Alliance had lost their High King, a man named Varian Wrynn, on the Broken Shore and his son, Anduin Wrynn, was to replace him, while at the same time the Horde's Warchief, a troll called Vol'jin, was dying from a fel wound and would soon name who his replacement would be. It was the perfect chance for the Legion to invade both cities and cut off the heads of the factions that were arrayed against them, because the leaders of the Alliance were gathering to mourn the loss of their High King and the leaders of the Horde seemed to be in the middle of making a pyre for their fallen Warchief, meaning the Illidari needed to be there and save the leaders from the disaster that was coming. "Remember, show the High King and the others that we are to be trusted, then start figuring out where the Legion will strike next," Spitfire said, as while she knew Rainbow would be focused on the 'slaying demons' part of the mission, she did want her friend to be focused on the rest of the mission and had faith that Rainbow would help Jace show the Alliance that the Illidari were to be trusted, maybe enough to allow the blood elves into his city, "with any luck the heroes of the city will flock to your side and welcome you into their city, no doubt to figure out where the demons will head next and what they can do to help you out." "I got it: get in, kill some demons, save the leaders, and then establish connections with the new High King," Rainbow replied, revealing that she had been paying attention to what Spitfire had said, because at this point in time there was no reason for her to be slacking off, not when they were demons to hunt down and people to save, especially since this would give Khadgar the time he needed to figure out what they were going to be about the Felstorm and the individual that was responsible for opening it. Spitfire nodded her head, to show that Rainbow had gotten the information right, before turning her attention to the rest of the Illidari that would be heading to Dalaran for the foreseeable future, at least until they figured out what their foes were planning after the attempted assassinations of the remaining faction leaders, leaving Rainbow to follow Jace and the night elf demon hunters he had picked through the portal to Stormwind. What she discovered on the other side of the portal was a rather well constructed city that seemed to be made out of a near white stone, or something close to that, that had the sea to one side, as Khadgar had teleported them to what appeared to be an area that overlooked the harbor, where there were a number of wooden ships resting in the water, along with what she assumed was an airship, based on the large propellers that were keeping it in the air. Once she had a chance to see this part of the city an arcane image of Khadgar appeared nearby and escorted them to their destination, where they walked down some streets and passed by a number of shops that seemed to be closed at the moment, no doubt to mourn the fallen High King, and she also spotted some canals that seemed to supply water to the various parts of the city, before locating a large keep that seemed to be the seat of the Alliance's power, as it was where Khadgar's image stopped and disappeared, leaving them to walk up the stairs, pass a fountain, and enter the building that was their destination. There were a number of citizens moving from the entrance and the highest point of this area, no doubt paying their respects to the new High King, to which Rainbow and her forces kept their eyes open and surveyed the situation before they made their move, since once they activated their spectral sight the demons that were here would know something was coming. It was at the top of the final walkway, which had brought them to what appeared to be the throne room, where Rainbow found a number of individuals standing around a casket: a female panda-like creature, two dwarves that were wearing different attire, a draenei that seemed quite old, what appeared to be a tiny person that was even smaller than the dwarves, a female night elf that looked like a priestess and a male night elf that looked like a mix of elf and animals, as he had long white bird feathers attached to his arms, stag antlers growing out of his head, sharpened nails that made her think about bears, and a pair of cat feet, and finally the new High King, a young man who was sitting on the throne with a confused look on his face, which was understandable considering what had just happened to him and the others. "Good, we arrived before the demons could enact their plan," Rainbow commented, where she glanced at the soldiers that were in the throne room, making sure not to draw attention to herself, or at least more than she already had since the animal-like night elf glanced at her for a moment, no doubt worried that she and the other demon hunters would cause chaos at a time like this. "Yes, and I can tell something is amiss," Jace replied, where he and the others did the same thing that Rainbow did, as in they took in the sights and made a map of the rooms and passages that the Legion could use to attack the leaders that had gathered in this room, which was when he attempted to use his spectral sight and found that he was still recovering from the time they spent in those prisons, before he sighed as he realized what he was going to do next, "Rainbow, I'm not strong enough to pierce whatever veil the demons are using to hide themselves, so you'll need to repeat what we did in Mardum to verify whether or not our enemies are actually here." Rainbow was of the opinion that whatever demon Jace had taken the essence of wasn't as strong as the demons that the rest of the Illidari had picked out, even though one would have thought that all the power he recovered and gained back in the Vault would have been enough to restore him to his full power, but decided that now wasn't the time to argue and awakened her second sight, allowing her to pierce the veil that the demons were using and found that some of the guards in the throne room were actually Wrathguards, to which she carefully walked over to the High King so she could share the news with him and then drag the demons into the light. "I am sorry, demon hunter, I don't have the time for pleasantries," the young King, Anduin Wrynn as Rainbow recalled, said, stopping her as she neared the throne, showing that she did respect the new ruler of the city and his right to rule, as he had inherited the city and his positions from his father, while at the same time recalling that she would have done the same if she had been standing in front of Princess Celestia, before he glanced over to her for a moment, "I have much to think about, given that I must prepare the armies of the Alliance to do battle with the Horde... even if there are those that cry out for the Horde to be punished for their 'treachery'." "That is fine, because I don't have time for them either... you have demons in your throne room, and I can prove it to you and the other leaders of the Alliance." Rainbow replied, though the second part of her statement was where she made an effort to whisper it to the High King, who raised his eyebrow for a moment as he focused on her and glanced over to the rest of the Illidari for a moment, clearly debating what he had just been told, before deciding to take a leap of faith as he nodded his head to her, to which she bowed her head and walked over to the guard that was the closest to the throne, where all eyes were on them for a moment, "You cannot hide what you truly are from us, Wrathguard." "You are too late, Illidari! You cannot stop us!" the guard replied, to which he dropped his disguise and revealed his true demonic form as Rainbow felt several Fel portals open in the rooms that surrounded the throne room, causing both Anduin and the rest of the leaders to raise their weapons and arms, to ready their spells, as the real guards did the same thing, showing the demons that they were ready for battle and that they wouldn't go down without a fight, which caused the demon to point one of its blades at the new High King, "Felblade, kill them all!" Rainbow was the first one to react as she summoned her warglaives from her horns and cleaved the Wrathguard that was in front of her in half, slaying it before it even had a chance to fight her as the rest of the Illidari spread out, where all of them cut into the demons that were foolishly trying to invade the throne room and sought out the portals that they had used to get here, as Jace could make use of their components for the future. She also had assistance in her fight against the rest of the Wrathguards, as it appeared that the leader of the draenei was either blessing or healing anyone that got hurt and was blasting any demon that foolishly approached him, while the two night elves attacked those that got close to the throne, where Anduin had a hammer and smashed a demon's head open with it, showing that even he had the desire to save his world and that he wasn't going to fall that easily. The rest of the leaders armed themselves with the weapons that they usually used in battle, where they joined Rainbow in slaying the Wrathguards that were trying to invade the keep and kill everyone that was inside it, though as they did that she found that Jace and the other demon hunters were in the middle of destroying the portals that allowed the demons to enter the building and were cutting down the flow of foes at the same time, hence the reason she stayed close to the High King and slew any demon that got too close to them. The only leader that worried Rainbow was the animal-like night elf, even though it was hard to make out which parts of him belonged to which animal, but she pushed that out of her mind as she cut down the next couple of Wrathguards and took their souls, all to prevent them from returning to face the forces of Azeroth in the future, even though she was sure the rest of the Illidari were doing the same thing with the rest of their enemies. In the end the Wrathguards, or the Felblade as they decided to call themselves, were wiped out by the combined skill and power of Rainbow, the Illidari, and the forces of the Alliance, where no one calmed down until Jace reported in that all of the portals had been shut down, meaning that there was no way for the Legion to get into the keep without having to make a brand new portal somewhere, causing Anduin and the other leaders to breath a sigh of relief as all of them put their weapons away and relaxed a little. "Thank you for your assistance, as you just prevented what could have been a rather unfortunate event," Anduin said, as he was happy that the Illidari had come to Stormwind when they did, because if they had been a few minutes later they would have discovered all of their dead bodies and a crippled Alliance, though now he had more reasons to go to war with the Legion, before he considered something for a moment, "Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am Anduin Wyrnn, the new... well, the new King of Stormwind and High King of the Alliance." "Its a pleasure to meet you, King Wyrnn, I am Rainbow Dash, champion of the Illidari," Rainbow replied, though it did seem like she had succeeded in her mission of saving the leaders of the Alliance and earning some level of trust with them, even if the male night elf didn't seem all that keen on her being there as he stared at her more demonic features, which was why she was focused on the ruler of this city, "My forces and I were sent here by our leader, Lady Spitfire, to help you and the others prepare for the next stage of the Legion's invasion and to repel any attacks they might make in the future, while our new allies in Dalaran look for a way for us to stem the tide of this invasion and seal the Felstorm." "I will admit that I was a bit uneasy when all of you wanted into the throne room, but its clear that you want the Legion brought down as much as we do," Anduin remarked, to which he thought about something for a moment as he stared at her and the other demon hunters, something that the rest of the leaders and the guards were doing, showing that all of them were waiting to hear his decision on whether or not they should be welcomed into the city, "Very well, I hereby grant you and the other members of your order the right to set up your camp in the Mage Quarter of the city, as there is an area that isn't being used at the moment and should be more than enough for all of you, especially given the fact that you have a presence in Dalaran by the sounds of it." "Just know that if you or your kind fall to the Fel energies that corrupted my brother, we shall treat you like one of the demons of the Legion." the animal hybrid night elf declared, showing that he didn't much trust Rainbow or the Illidari, and that he was only accepting them because of the fact that his High King had given them the okay to make their camp in part of the city, even though that would be cleaned up once they found a new spot to set up a more permanent camp, though once of the dwarves did bring the palm of one of his hands to his face. "Noted." Rainbow said, though even as she said that she realized who this had to be, Malfurion Stormrage, the twin brother of the founder of the Illidari, Lord Illidan Stormrage himself, which made her realize why he didn't trust her as the other leaders did, even if they were still worried about the potential threat she posed to them, all because he felt that his brother succumbed to the Fel energies and became a monster that needed to be killed, though she decided not to say a word about that as she and the other demon hunters left the keep. She was sure that King Anduin and the others would be ready once they figured out what the Legion would do next, as it wouldn't take too long to find something from one of the demons that would tell them what they needed to know, but even as they left the keep, and returned to the city, she had to wonder how Spitfire, Allari, and the blood elves of their order were doing in Orgrimmar, especially after everything she had witnessed so far. Orgrimmar wasn't what Spitfire was expecting, as it appeared that the city had been constructed between two rather large and strong earthen peaks and had a massive gate that seemed to serve as the entrance for the city, and supposedly there were two more, one serving as a back entrance and the third as a side entrance, all of which were staffed and made ready in the event of an assault on the city, of which there weren't many. The inside of the city appeared to be full of a number of structures that were either made out of wood or metal, where some were definitely the latter based on what she could see at the moment, and there were a few buildings that seemed rather important to the denizens of the city, like the towers that zeppelins docked at so they could carry supplies to some of the other lands that the Horde called home. That wasn't the only thing she could see, as there were a number of orcish guards that seemed to line the way up to what appeared to be the most important location in the city, the throne that the Warchief ruled from, something that seemed out of place in her opinion since there seemed to be a few other key locations to place such an important structure, without giving any enemies a direct path to where it was located, and it seemed like there was a second story that some warriors might be in, either training or waiting for someone to come talk to them about lessons. In addition to all that Spitfire and her group of Illidari noticed that there were civilian orcs scattered around the area, along with small green skinned creatures that had long ears, a number of blood elves, people who looked like they might be undead given how one of them had a piece of their skin missing and the elbow bone was exposed, a creature that looked like a draenei that had fur and looked more like a bull, while missing the tendrils on the neck, and slightly hunched over beings that might be trolls. These were the races that made up the Horde, the orcs, trolls, undead, tauren, goblins, blood elves, and pandaren, though the last one she hadn't seen yet and made her wonder if they were hiding somewhere to mourn the loss of their main leader, before she spotted a rather intimidating orc in red armor, which had spikes on it, and a large axe that looked like it would need two hands to wield, though as Khadgar walked into the area, and Spitfire followed him as Allari and the others headed out to check outside the city, she could tell the orc was glaring at them. "So, you're the demon hunter that Archmage Khadgar sent me a message about," the orc stated, where Spitfire had to assume that Khadgar must have sent a magical message to a few people in the cities that he had been opening the three portals to earlier, as that was the only way the orc would know about her so soon, especially since the mage had only just met her and the others, before he glanced towards the mage that was standing beside her for a moment, "I don't like the looks of her, mage... she smells of demon filth." "Yeah, well I don't like the demons that serve in the Legion... killed quite a few of them back in Outland too, and I've taken down Pit Lords, massive Mo'arg, a few Nathrezim, and a number of others," Spitfire replied, though while she knew that there was a very good reason for why the orc didn't trust her and the other demon hunters, given that no one who charged into Outland cared much for demons, save for the warlocks anyway, she could see that the orc did like someone who had an impressive amount of demons killed, or rather types for that matter. "Maybe you will prove me wrong, demon hunter," the orc said, where it seemed like he was basically putting himself on the fence about what to think about her, clearly not willing to trust her all that much, due to the demonic part of her nature, but at the same time he did seem willing to give her a chance due to the amount of demons she had killed and the types she had taken out, before he gestured towards the structure that was behind him, "Regardless, Warchief Vol'jin told me to wait for the arrival of the one that commands the Illidari, so, since you're with Khadgar, I have to assume that you are the one he was talking about... though why he would want you present for when he declares who the next Warchief will be is beyond me, but you had best get inside before I change my mind." Spitfire decided that now wasn't the time to argue with the orc, because if he were to attack her she was sure that the rest of the city would lash out at her if she defended herself, to which she walked through the door, which he opened for her and sealed behind her not a few seconds later, though as she headed into the chamber that was on the other side of the door she found one of most of the races she had seen outside, as in two blood elves, a pandaren, a tauren, a goblin, and a troll that looked weak, which made sense due to the Fel wound in his stomach, and those were just the leaders that she noticed, as they seemed more important the the other few individuals in the area. "Warchief, I believe the demon hunter you were waiting for has arrived," one of the blood elves said, who Spitfire had to assume was the leader of the blood elves, Lor'themar Theron based on what Khadgar had told her earlier, though all of the leaders had glanced in her direction the moment she entered the chamber that they were in, even though she did lean near the entrance since none of them trusted her, "now we're only waiting for Sylvanas to arrive." "Demon hunter... da spirits call you... Spitfire..." the weakened troll spoke up, revealing that he was definitely running out of time and that he would be dying in the next couple of minutes, though Spitfire understood that healing this wound would be impossible, not with the length of time its been since he was stabbed by the demon that did the deed, but that didn't stop him from focusing on her, "it's good ya came, despite things..." Spitfire said nothing to that as the tauren and the others spoke up, where the tauren leader, Baine Bloodhoof, made a comment about his healers and Vol'jin shook his head, showing that he didn't have much time, while the other leaders told him that they would ensure the downfall of the demons, basically telling the dying Warchief that they would avenge his death and the deaths of the fallen soldiers, before the door opened again and the last leader joined them. That was when she discovered that the final leader was a female elf, one who looked more like one of the undead due to the pale, blue-white nature of her skin and her red colored eyes, though she received stares from most of the other leaders, revealing that many were wary of her presence and that they might not trust her, though she wasn't focused on them. Spitfire also noticed that she liked to wear a hood that covered her head and that her hair was a pale blonde, while her armor looked like it might have revealed her stomach at one point in time, though the undead elf had added some extra protection to make sure she didn't offer any weaknesses to her enemies, and it appeared that she might be a ranger, based on the bow and quiver that were on her back. There was one other being that she caught wind of for a moment, a dangerous looking human that had red eyes and was definitely a member of the Forsaken, the group of undead that Sylvanas Windrunner was the leader of, and he appeared to be her personal champion, meaning that she might not feel safe if he wasn't near her at any given moment, though he stood by the other side of the doorway and watched what was to come, which just so happened to be the instant Spitfire glanced at Sylvanas again, noticing that even the light seemed afraid of the elf, like she radiated darkness or something... not that she trusted the undead elf, since both she and her champion had glared at her for a second as they entered the chamber. Regardless of whether or not the pair liked her, and Spitfire was sure they disliked her despite the fact that they had only just encountered each other, this was what everyone was waiting for as the conversation died down as the rest of the leaders focused on Sylvanas as she came to a stop when she neared the throne Vol'jin was resting on, who raised his head as she finally approached him, meaning he must have been waiting for her to arrive before he said anything about who the next leader of the Horde would be. "Windrunner... come... forward..." Vol'jin stated, where he coughed for a moment as he said that, showing them that he was getting ever closer to meeting his end and that they were right to assume that there was something he needed to talk about, even if he was starting with the leader that had arrived late, though Spitfire also considered the possibility that Vol'jin had talked to the others and he was only waiting for two individuals, her and Sylvanas, to arrive before he said his last words and passed away, "Da Loa spirits say death will claim me soon..." "In the end, death claims us all..." Sylvanas replied, though while Spitfire knew that being undead could mess with the emotions and make it harder to feel things, or at least that was what Lord Illidan had told her about one of his encounters with the undead, it didn't seem like the leader of the Forsaken even cared about what she was seeing and was hoping that the meeting would be over soon, so she could get back to whatever she had been doing earlier, though what worried her for a moment was the way the Banshee Queen said the word 'death', before she focused on Vol'jin again, "but the Horde will live on, that I can promise you." "I have never trusted you, and neither do da spirits... dey have granted me clarity... a vision..." Vol'jin started to say, as if he was going to reveal what sort of vision he had been given, before a coughing fit silenced most of what he was going to tell all of them, where Spitfire could make out the words 'darkness', 'war', and 'destruction' as he focused on Sylvanas, like the vision revealed that choosing her to be the Warchief would spell the end of the Horde and the entire world, but that was when he shifted his gaze towards Spitfire for a moment, instead of the other leaders, "Many will not unda'stand, but you... must be... the... War... chief..." It was in that moment that Vol'jin, declaring that a vision had shown him a dark future if Sylvanas was to become the next Warchief of the Horde and that she would bring ruin to their world, closed his eyes as he finally succumbed to the Fel wound he had been carrying, which just so happened to be the moment that Sylvanas' champion called in some trolls so they could collect the body and prepare it for the funeral pyre that was just outside the city, but as soon as that was done the Banshee Queen turned around and left the chamber... though as she passed by where Spitfire was standing she gave her a glare that was basically the type that told someone not to interfere, before she headed outside. "Well, she's certainly going to be a problem," Spitfire commented, though she waited for Sylvanas' champion and the rest of the Dark Rangers, which were a protective force for the Banshee Queen as well, to follow their Queen outside this building before she even bothered to open her mouth and speak her mind, where she found that Lor'themar, Baine, and the pandaren, Ji Firepaw, stopped near her and did seem concerned for their future as well, which made sense due to the fact that they knew Sylvanas better than she did. "Truthfully, I do not understand why the spirits would tell Vol'jin to pick you, but there must be a reason for it, even if the Banshee Queen is going to claim the Horde for herself," Lor'themar said, where the others nodded their heads as he said that, revealing that all of them had been listening to what their fallen Warchief had said and knew that he had picked a total stranger to lead the Horde, instead of picking one of the existing leaders to take his place, something they had to be shocked by, "then again I've never truly understood the Darkspear and their faith, so maybe that's why it doesn't make any sense to me... either way, we need to honor Vol'jin's dying words, regardless of how much Sylvanas hates it." "She'll be announcing her desire soon, so we'll just have to roll with her being the Warchief... even if it appears that we might be facing two wars with her at the helm." Spitfire stated, because based on what little she knew about Sylvanas she had come to the conclusion that the Banshee Queen might be focused on her own goals and not the goals that the rest of Azeroth were working towards, which at the moment was stopping the Legion from taking their world, to which she sighed as she stopped leaning against the wall, "Hopefully I'm wrong and she focuses on the Legion, instead of trying to wipe out the Alliance while they're distracted by the more immediate threat... but, in the event that she betrays the interests of the forces of Azeroth, we need to be ready to dethrone her and punish her accordingly." The three leaders agreed with her and followed her outside, where Spitfire noticed that the citizens were following the stretcher that Vol'jin's body was resting on, heading towards the area the pyre was in, so she followed them outside and found that Allari and the rest of the Illidari were keeping an eye on things, even though a quick scan of the area with her spectral sight revealed that there were several Wrathguards waiting to strike, though no portals, meaning they might not have any backup this time around, which was good news for them. As Vol'jin's body was laid on the pyre, and the flames consumed the troll's body, that was when Sylvanas made her move and claimed the Horde for herself, where Spitfire did understand that no one would trust the word of a demon tainted individual like her, at least not with the leadership of an entire army, so even if she claimed that the Banshee Queen was lying, and the leaders that were on her side backed her up, it might cause the entire Horde to destroy itself from within, without letting the demons do anything, so she remained silent as she earned what appeared to be a victory smug from the undead elf. Spitfire knew that ponies were friendly and that it could take a lot for some to really dislike someone else, especially if the pony in question was Pinkie, but she didn't like Sylvanas and that was mostly due to the short period of time that she knew her, as they had yet to exchange a single word with each other, which just meant it was probably impossible for the Banshee Queen to have friends and that she preferred to have loyal subjects instead. Still, despite the fact that Sylvanas had rubbed her the wrong way, she had a duty to do and revealed the demons to the rest of the Horde, where she and her demon hunters were joined by the heroes of the Horde, who were paying their respects to the fallen Warchief, where they declared war on the group of Wrathguards that were trying to assassinate Sylvanas and the others, even if Spitfire didn't rush to the Banshee Queen's aid... and it really only took them about five or six minutes to clear up the demons and the Infernals they summoned. "Your fighting skills are decent, for one of the Betrayer's ilk," Sylvanas commented, where Spitfire did nothing as she raised her arms and stored her warglaives back in her horns, since it was easier than losing the usage of her wings, but her words did inform Spitfire of the fact that Sylvanas only considered her a liability and that she would be the first one to deal with her or her Illidari if they turned on the Horde, showing that she didn't much care for them, "My champions and I will be keeping an eye on you and your forces..." Spitfire knew the reason behind why the Banshee Queen didn't finish her statement, it was a silent threat to them if they joined the Legion or betrayed them in any way, though there was one blood elf, a male mage by the looks of him, that beckoned for them to leave the area and brought the Illidari to an area where they could be above the rest of the city and do what they needed to so they could learn about the Legion's movements. It was then that Allari revealed that they had already captured one of the Wyrmtongue, little demons that were about the size of a dwarf, based on what Spitfire was told by one of the other Illidari, and had red skin, though the Legion used them as laborers and they, as a species, liked to hoard items, supplies, or whatever interested them, so seeing one in a circular Fel cage, an ability that all demon hunters had access to and rarely used, meant it had been in the city and her forces had captured it. There was also one of the square shaped communicators resting nearby, no doubt sent with them by Jace when she told them who was going to each of the cities, and it was easy to see that it was hooked up so that the Illidari that were in Stormwind could talk with the Illidari that were in Orgrimmar and Dalaran, allowing her to make sure everything was fine and that all of the leaders were still safe, of which Rainbow confirmed the Alliance leaders were still alive. It was then that Jace informed her of some interesting news that he had discovered from one of the Wrymtongue that he and the others had captured, the Legion was planning on assaulting six regions of the world in order to weaken the forces of the Alliance and Horde, to make this world ready for the true invasion, and those areas were Dun Morogh, Azshara, the Northern Barrens, Tanaris, Westfall, and the Hillsbrad Foothills. With that knowledge Spitfire issued her orders to the Illidari, to make sure they were evenly divided between the six regions their enemies were going to attack and, more importantly, that they warned the leaders of the impending attacks so they were ready for war, as she had the feeling that the Legion was going to retaliate soon and that the forces of Azeroth had to be ready for when it happened, all while hoping Khadgar found the information they needed to save this world from their terrible enemy. > Interlude: Repelling the Demons > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once Spitfire had determined that the leaders of the Alliance and Horde were safe from danger, and that all of the Illidari had done a wonderful job in making sure the factions knew they weren't on the Legion's side, even if there were a few that didn't trust them, she spent the rest of the day going over everything that Jace had and what he might need, along with everything else the Illidari might need for their operations. It gave her another look into the world that Lord Illidan dealt with whenever he talked with them, even though she had a good idea of what to expect, and luck was on their side as a few of the captured Wyrmtongue offered them the Legion supplies they were carting, which seemed to have all the stuff Jace and most of the others were asking for, so Spitfire didn't have to figure out how to acquire the items, especially since the demons that attacked Orgrimmar didn't leave anything behind. There was one thing she knew her forces needed and those were weapons that would allow them to deal some rather impressive damage to the Legion, warglaives that would cut through their enemies, but to the best of her knowledge only one part of weapons like that even existed and those were the Twin Blades of Azzinoth, which none of them had seen since the last time they saw their Lord use them in battle. Kayn told her that he would look into any leads that might allow them to find some weapons of power that she and the others could use against the Legion, though he promised nothing since he was sure it would take some time to follow each lead and there was no guarantee that he would find something, to which she wished him luck and went back to figuring out all of the other things she needed to know. It was during the rest of that afternoon that the blood elf mage she had encountered earlier approached her and talked with her for a time, introducing himself as Vytheril Truthseeker, where he seemed to have rather striking features, golden blonde hair, and a rather slim build for someone like him, though she had to assume that it was due to being a mage and the fact that he didn't use swords or wear heavy armor like the warriors did. Vytheril informed her that it had been about six or seven years since the assault on the Black Temple and that the world had been through some tough times since their Lord's defeat at the hands of the heroes and Maiev, confirming Spitfire's thoughts on the fact that the Head Warden had been involved in the battle that toppled the individual that had built the Illidari. He didn't bore her with all of the deeds that he and the other heroes did over the years, even though he made sure to specify that he meant the heroes of the Alliance and Horde as a whole, working together while their leaders tried to tear each other apart, which did give her hope for the future of Azeroth if the heroes were willing to do such a thing, if Sylvanas didn't rip them apart and destroy what little unity this world had left. What was interesting was that Vytheril didn't trust the Banshee Queen, just like Allari and the other blood elves that were near them, and there were a number of others, spread out throughout the rest of the Horde, that didn't trust her, but since she had declared herself as the Warchief there was nothing they could do but follow her orders and follow the path she would set for them. Spitfire would have said something about that, given what happened earlier, before one of Jace's devices went off and the Illidari approached it, where Spitfire informed their new friend that it was supposed to help them detect areas that the Legion were attacking, though it was easy to see that two places were under attack at the moment, the first being the area known as Northern Barrens and the other being Westfall, though it was only a few seconds later when she heard Rainbow saying that she and the night elf demon hunters would deal with the one near Stormwind. "She seems very sure of herself and her forces," Vytheril commented, though even as he said that Spitfire was in the middle of making sure Allari and the others knew about the incoming demon threat to the Northern Barrens and that all of the heroes of the Horde knew it as well, especially since she made sure they also revealed the attack on Westfall as well, to make sure both fronts were taken care of. "Well, we did assault a demon world and overran it, about seven years ago, while the forces of the Alliance and Horde laid siege to the Black Temple and killed Lord Illidan," Spitfire replied, though even as she said that she opened her wings and stretched them for a moment as she looked at a map that revealed the location of the nearest invasion point, which seemed to be a province or two away from where Orgrimmar rested, which would likely be thirty minutes to an hour if she were to run to that area, "Maybe I'll tell you about it later, when we're not dealing with an immediate invasion, but for now we need to get to the Northern Barrens and repel the demons that are getting ready to attack the province." It was in that moment that Vytheril and some of the other heroes that had come up to this area surprised her with how they were going to get to the area she had mentioned, as all of them just so happened to have what they referred to as 'flying mounts', creatures that allowed them to take to the skies and fly over areas, to make traveling that much easier since they wouldn't have to worry about enemies attacking them. There was an orc death knight, a term she hadn't heard before, who had what appeared to be an undead dragon whose full height was at least one and a half of Spitfire's height, though it looked like it had been reanimated by some powerful magic, where she learned that it was a frostwyrm, but that wasn't the only thing she saw, as a few of the blood elves had netherdrakes, dragons that had been part of the Illidari due to their riders siding with Lord Illidan, so they likely tamed them in some manner. This was Vytheril's answer to how they were going to get to the Northern Barrens, some of the Horde's heroes were going to fly to the province and join her in defending the area, and, despite the general mistrust of the Illidari, the heroes that were joining them were more than willing to allow Allari and the others to climb into the backs of their mounts so they could carry their allies into battle, as they knew that the Illidari were part of the solution to bring the Legion down. Some of the heroes would be heading to the area that the Horde's mages happened to be resting in, where they would get as close as they could to Westfall and join the heroes of the Alliance in defending that province as well, even though a few of the Alliance heroes would be doing the same to reach the Northern Barrens. As such Spitfire nodded her head and took off, heading in the direction of the province that she was going to assist for as long as the Legion was attacking it, though it wasn't long before Vytheril and the others departed from Orgrimmar and followed her through the air, where she fell back a little and let them take the lead, since they knew their way around the land and she only had a map of the area. Even with her limited knowledge of the lands she realized that it didn't matter if she let someone else take the lead for once, as it was easy to see a Legion ship off in the distance, no doubt resting above Northern Barrens as the demons prepared for their assault on the area, so that was the direction they headed in as all of the heroes noticed the vessel their foes were using, no doubt something that was new to them. According to Vytheril the ship was resting above the Crossroads, the Horde settlement that happened to rest in the middle of the province, so that was where they headed, leading to Spitfire and the heroes landing in the middle of the settlement, though that was when she saw that each hero had a whistle of some kind that allowed them to summon their mounts and seemed to be how they dismissed them as well, though she decided not to comment on it. Based on what she was seeing the Legion wasn't actually ready for their assault, or if they were they were waiting for more heroes to arrive so they could kill more of them, but as they waited Spitfire noticed all of the weapons and armor that her allies were using, especially the orc death knight, Zuleth Stormaxe based on what she was told, who had a rather powerful looking axe that might be useful in dealing with the demons that would be attacking them in due time. It also didn't take the heroes of the Alliance, made up of humans, gnomes, dwarves, night elves, draenei, worgen, and a number of pandaren, revealing the last race was split between the two factions, all that long to open some portals to this province so they could join the heroes of the Horde, though the two groups nodded to each other as they gathered in the center of the town, showing Spitfire that there was definitely some unity between the factions, before all of them focused on the Legion ship and the demons it would send against them. Fortunately it didn't take the demonic commander long to start the invasion, as a few minutes after the heroes of the Alliance joined them the demons started to teleport down into the area immediately surrounding the town, where four groups of Felguards rushed into the area that the group was defending, while at the same time Infernals rained down on the settlement so they could assist their allies. A few of the Horde's heroes moved out as the fighting began, making sure any civilians that hadn't been moved to the safety of the inn, the main structure of the settlement, were moved before the heroes truly fought the demons that were trying to take their world, and it wasn't long before the Eredar joined the battle that was unfolding all over the Crossroads, engaging in magical duels with the magic users and lashing out with blades as they sought out the warriors and other melee fighters. The Legion also sent down a force of Felstalkers to tear them apart, but that was around the time that Saurfang and a force from Orgrimmar charged into the battle and hacked into their enemies, where Spitfire nodded her head and used her warglaives to cut through the demons that were in front of her, as she dropped a pair of Felguards in a matter of seconds, before moving onto her next target, all while Saurfang encouraged the heroes of Azeroth to tear down the demons and make them regret trying to take their world. Spitfire knew that the Legion was foolish for allowing them the time to gather their forces, as that was now biting the demons as the heroes tore their foes apart, but she also knew that the demons of the Legion were arrogant after so many years of burning away each planet they found, which was why they kept making mistakes when it came to dealing with Azeroth. Thanks to the skill and determination of the assembled army it didn't take them long to route the demons that were sent down to attack the Crossroads, leading the commander of this invasion force to send down two of their lieutenants, in the form of a large Mo'arg and a powerful Fel Lord, before one of the more powerful demons, a Pit Lord that rivaled the size of Magtheridon, and no doubt rivaled the demon in question's power, was beamed down outside the settlement and was the one that Spitfire assaulted. The reason she went up against the Pit Lord wasn't because she was seeking glory or anything, since she was sure some of the orc guards might think she was after the glory of the kill, rather it was due to the fact that she happened to be the only one with enough power to push the demon backwards and force it away from the settlement they were fighting over, because once a Pit Lord was slain their final act was to detonate themselves to kill all that were around it, before their soul escaped to the Twisting Nether for the body to be remade, if the soul wasn't taken by a demon hunter anyway. Saurfang, on the other had, seemed to know what she was doing and made sure that the rest of the heroes focused on the two lieutenant demons that were trying to take down the Crossroads, and since Allari and the other Illidari were present they could increase their own powers by a small degree when they killed their targets, though Spitfire turned her attention back to the Pit Lord, who went by the name Vorgroth and carried the common title of 'Fel Commander', and the only reason she knew that was due to the demon's boasting nature and the fact that he told her his name so she would know who killed her. Battling a Pit Lord was the best way to test the warglaives that Maiev had given her and Rainbow, as she was sure that Rainbow would be fighting a hard opponent as well, as they allowed her to stall the glaive that her foe was using and were able to withstand the pressure of the demon's attacks, before Spitfire drove them into Vorgroth's head and slew him, to which she pulled her weapons back and retreated as the demon exploded some distance from the settlement, though she made sure to grab the soul and absorb it before returning to the others. "It seems I might have been wrong about you," Saurfang commented, though as he said that he pulled his axe out of the Fel Lord's head as Allari claimed the demon's soul, preventing another one from returning as one of the others made sure to do the same with the Mo'arg's soul, before he faced Spitfire for a moment, his expression showing that most of his attention was on the invasion that was taking place at the moment, "Tell me, Spitfire, what is the Legion going to do next, now that we've defeated three of their stronger demons?" "There are still more aboard it that will be troublesome, so once they're teleported down here we need to attack those ones and make sure each group has an Illidari with them," Spitfire replied, where Allari and the others nodded as all of the heroes started to form groups, even making sure to have one of the demon hunters with them, before she glanced out at the rest of the area that the Northern Barrens consisted of, even if it was a mostly barren landscape like the name seemed to imply, "and they're likely going to send down their siege structures, to try and corrupt the land, so if you see any floating Fel crystals that are resting near a structure be sure to break them, as that will send the structures back to where they came from... though once we do all that we need to be ready for when the commander of the ship comes down, since the Legion won't like the fact that we were able to repel them that much." Saurfang nodded and gave the command, to which the heroes and their new allies dispersed from the settlement they had been protecting and spread out around the province that was going to become a battlefield, where the structures Spitfire had mentioned started to phase into existence as their foundations were laid and more of the more powerful demons were sent down to lay waste to the defenders. Such a thing was met by the heroes that sought to protect Azeroth from the Legion, where the Illidari sought out the stronger demons and faced them with their allies, while the groups that didn't have a demon hunter with them focused on the structures, killing the Eredar and Felguards that guarded them as they sought out the crystals that powered them, allowing them to watch as the structures were destroyed when all of the Fel crystals were smashed. Spitfire wasn't surprised to see that the Legion was sending a few of every demonic race they had in their arsenal, save for some of the much more powerful ones, as she didn't see any that were like the Brood Queen that the Illidari had taken out during their assault on Mardum and she certainly didn't see any Dreadlords, but that didn't stop her from joining the fight as she sought out the demons and cut them down where they stood, all while making sure to keep an eye on the ship so they could fight whoever was in control of it in the near future. She did get to see several of the heroes in action, watching Vytheril blast some of the demons with the arcane power that he commanded, a troll she didn't know the name of blasting her targets with lighting, and Zuleth using an interesting power to forcefully grab one of the demons and yank it over to where he was standing, where he cleaved the unlucky Eredar in half with a single swing of his mighty axe, proving just how strong and deadly he really was. By watching the other heroes as they hunted down and slew the demons they were fighting, while the demon hunters made sure to target the more powerful demons, Spitfire understood just how strong all of them actually were and had an idea as to how they might have been able to topple Lord Illidan, before she turned her attention away from her new allies and focused on the demons that were trying to take over this province. Another thing she discovered were a few gateways, much like the ones from Mardum, scattered around the land and the Illidari were already on it, making sure to smash the crystals that allowed the structures to bind themselves to the ground and, once all of the crystals for one of them were gone, the gateways were destroyed and sent back to whatever world they were coming from. That was when she found a large walking machine that seemed to be similar to the Fel Reavers that had been in Hellfire Peninsula, though this was more armored and had a darker Fel coloration to its body, where she flew through the air and dodged the attacks that were coming her way, allowing her to swing her warglaives into the arms of the improved Fel Reaver and cut into the metal that it was made of, only she noticed that she needed something stronger since her attack only went so deep. Fortunately driving her weapons into the head of the creation was enough to break it and topple it to the ground, showing her that not even the Legion seemed to be worried about such a weakness, but she huffed for a moment, since fighting that thing was more than she had thought it would be, before she returned to the battle that was currently unfolding around the rest of the Northern Barrens and cut down a few demons as she headed for one of the gateways. When at last the majority of the invasion forces had been taken care of, and Spitfire was still amazed by just how good the heroes really were, she felt the disturbance in the air and ordered all available hands back to the Crossroads, meaning those that had finished off that area should return immediately while those that were wrapping up their targets should finish their battles before rushing to join the final fight... where a massive Eredar, about the same size as the inn, warped down to the Crossroads, declared that none of them stood a chance against him while revealing that his name was Zyrel and that he carried the title of 'Arch Magus', and then attacked the heroes. Zyrel, as it turned out, used the large staff he was carrying to attack his foes with melee attacks and had some rather interesting spells that he could use against them, such as calling down large fireballs on areas that they were standing in and sending out waves of flames to hit those that were far away from him, though the heroes were more observant than what he seemed to assume and they dodged the attacks that there coming their way, before retaliating as they rained down blows on the Eredar's armor and body. Besides the fire spells he had some similar frost type spells, allowing him to call down several clusters of ice and even froze a few heroes to make sure they got hit, while also making sure to blast a few of them with the power of the arcane, but other than that he didn't seem to have much else in the ways of abilities and that let the heroes turn the tide on him, much to his displeasure. In fact he even tried to call down the rest of the Infernals that were aboard his ship, where Spitfire took to the sky for real and carved them up before they could even hit the ground, though the force of her attacks knocked each Infernal off course so they could perish just outside the area her new allies were fighting in, allowing the heroes to focus on killing Zyrel and bringing an end to this battle. What amused Spitfire was the fact that the big bad Eredar, as she knew they considered themselves to be something like that, in terms of their position among the Legion, was being overpowered by the heroes of the Alliance and Horde, so much so that he was unable to withstand the sheer power that was arrayed against him, even with Spitfire and the demon hunters taking a step back just to see this for themselves, since it happened to be a hard thing to witness, before all of them cut Zyrel down and let his body fall down just outside the Crossroads. That brought a cheer from the heroes of Azeroth as the Legion ship teleported out of the area, signaling that this part of the invasion was over, though Spitfire made sure that her Illidari captured Zyrel's soul and divided it among themselves, both to empower them and to stop another foe from returning, while at the same time Saurfang walked over to the area that she was standing in. "It would seem that we are in the Illidari's debt for discovering the attack so quickly and getting everyone to move to the area they were planning on attacking," Saurfang said, where he looked out at the demon bodies and knew that he, the heroes, and the residents of the Northern Barrens, at the very least, would have to clean up this mess before the Legion tried to attack one of the other provinces the Illidari knew they were going to attack. "Don't worry about it, we're here to save Azeroth from the Legion." Spitfire replied, though at the same time she knew a little bit about how the orcs of the Horde operated and what they respected, so based on what Saurfang said it seemed like she might have won over one of the orcs and several of the heroes into warming up to the idea of the Illidari fighting beside them in their war against the Legion, before she glanced in the direction of Orgrimmar, "Though we should get back to the city and see how the others are doing in Westfall, since that's the other area the Legion is attacking right now, even if they're facing Rainbow and the other heroes." While many heroes would think she was worried about Rainbow, even if they hadn't met her yet, Spitfire knew that Rainbow would be able to handle herself and that whoever she faced would be taken down in no time at all, meaning they and their new allies would be able to push back the Legion and give Khadgar the time he needed to figure out how in the world they were going to stop the Legion. Rainbow stretched for a moment as she stood on top of a downed Felguard that was attacking Sentinel Hill, which seemed to be the center of Westfall, while the heroes of the Alliance and Horde dealt with the demons that were attacking the area at the moment, though the reason she had stopped for a few seconds was because it was nice to be on the hunt again and she felt the need to make sure her body was ready for the fight ahead of her. All around her the various types of demons fell to the might of the heroes, especially the couple of monks that were lead by a pandaren that went by the name of Xinyue Windstep, something that interested her since this was the first time she had seen such a race and was amazed by how well they fought, which she was sure Spitfire had seen at some point during her encounters with the Horde. The other part about this that was so interesting was that the heroes of the two factions were working together quite well, as if they were ignoring the fact that their leaders were stubborn and didn't want to wage total war with each other over a world that was constantly in danger, so it was nice to work with them as they cut down the Felguards, Infernals, Eredar, and all of the other demons that Spitfire was likely dealing with as well. Even the commander of the forces that usually watched over this province, a human named Gryan Stoutmantle, was amazed by what he was seeing at the moment as he and the rest of the usual defenders flocked to save the province from the terrifying might of the Legion, even though the defenders forced their foe to send down the bigger demons. By that Rainbow counted three lieutenant level demons, a Doomlord like Kazzak, a tall Eredar, and a Fel Lord, that rose to face her and the others, which was fine with her since that meant the rest of the Illidari could take down more souls and deprive the Legion of more of its stronger forces, hence the reason she let Jace and the others deal the finishing blow to their foes, so they could gain more power for the future. Of course the commanding Pit Lord, Urgoz, demanded her attention and she gave it to him, pushing the demon out of the area that her new allies were in and made sure it was far enough away from Sentinel Hill when she drove her blades into its head and then pulled back as it exploded, because killing a Pit Lord was easy once you knew the trick and she didn't have time to waste on them, though she did take the demon's soul for herself so it didn't fly away and return in the near future, which was the last thing they needed. From there the Legion spread out their forces and attacked every spot that rested around Westfall, trying to corrupt the land and kill whoever stood in their way, so Rainbow issued the order she felt that Spitfire would use in this situation, destroy the structures, break the gateways, and make sure there was a demon hunter in each group as they engaged the stronger demons, like the Dreadlords and whatnot. While they spread out to take down their enemies and targets, however, Rainbow heard the commander of the ship, Darkmagus Drazzok, state that all of them were going to die and that there was nothing they could do to stop him, though that only prompted everyone to lash out at the demons and focus on their objectives, all so it would force the demon to come down and face them for himself, which would allow them to kill him. She and several of the other demon hunters had to admit that it was refreshing for them to be doing this, taking the fight to the Legion and not hiding while their enemies sought them out in their homes, reminding her of what she knew about each of their pasts, though none of them talked about that as they cut down the demons that were attacking this province, broke the structures the Legion summoned to the area, and annoyed the commander of the ship. Once they had cleared out everything, and Rainbow felt the change in the air, they returned to Sentinel Hill as Drazzok teleported down to fight them himself, where they discovered he was an Eredar and that his powers weren't as grand as the Brood Queen from Mardum, as he sent out waves of darkness and then tried to blast them with a burst of it, before all of that did nothing as he was quickly brought low by the group of heroes. "Honestly, I was hoping for something better than that... oh well, this means there's a lower number of enemies for us to worry about in the future," Rainbow remarked, her tone revealing that she had been hoping for a better fight and that this wasn't what she was expecting, but at the same time she made sure to take the demon's soul and share the fragments with the rest of the Illidari, to strengthen them for the future, before she turned to leave, "Come on, let's get back to our camp in Stormwind and give Spitfire the good news, before we strike out at the other areas the Legion are thinking of sending another invasion force to." Even as she said that, however, she hoped that Khadgar was able to find the information he needed quickly so all of them could begin the true counter attack against the Legion, since that was what they needed to do after everything they had done so far, but for now she had to focus on defending the provinces and taking out any demon that tried to topple their forces, before worrying about the Archmage and what he was looking for. > Interlude: Important Information > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow, along with the Illidari and their new allies, spent the next six days making sure the Legion gained no ground during their invasions of the six provinces that they decided to target, something that surprised them due to the fact that they would have assumed that their enemies would have picked somewhere else to attack after seeing that they weren't making any headway in the first couple of places they targeted. Not that they were complaining about what their enemies were doing, as the more times they sent their ships out to the six provinces the more times the forces of Azeroth were there to repel them and cut them down, allowing the demon hunters to gather the souls of the stronger demons that happened to be the commanders of each invasion, either giving them the ability to empower Jace's machines or empower their bodies for the future. While they did that Spitfire asked Kayn if he could locate any warglaives of power, an artifact or two that would allow her and Rainbow to turn the fight against the Legion, and he said that he would get right on it, which left her and the others to cut down demons as they wanted for both him and Khadgar to figure out what they needed to do so they could stop the Legion from taking Azeroth. What was interesting was that on the sixth day of their attempts to repel the Legion they had to stretch themselves more than normal, as their enemies attacked four of the provinces at the same time, leading Spitfire to make sure the heroes knew what was coming and that the forces of the Alliance and Horde were there to deal with the demons that were coming to claim the various provinces. While all of that was going on, and Spitfire was making sure that Allari, Jace, and the others had everything they could possibly need for their missions, she and Rainbow found something interesting that happened to them in the early hours of the morning of the seventh day, as an Arcane elemental, a purple colored creature that was roughly the size of an orc based on its form, that seemingly appeared out of nowhere and focused on the pair for a few moments, which told them that someone needed to talk with them, or at least that was Spitfire's thoughts on the matter. "Greetings Lady Spitfire and Rainbow Dash," the elemental said, where they could tell that it happened to be speaking in Khadgar's voice, meaning that he must have discovered something and sent the creature in front of them to tell them about whatever it was that he might have found, hence the reason the pair turned towards it for a moment, "word has reached me of your efforts to push back the Legion's invasion forces, and while I am reluctant to pull either of you away from such important work I require your help with a matter of... diplomacy. I fear that I am about to anger an old friend of mine and could use a little assistance, so you will find Dalaran above Deadwind Pass... oh, and once we're done, I can share with you the information I have gathered since you were freed from the Wardens' Vault." Spitfire and Rainbow said nothing to that, as there wasn't much they could do since the elemental disappeared once the message had been delivered, to which Spitfire made sure the others knew what they were doing and mentioned that one of their allies might have valuable information for them, so they wouldn't be around to assist the heroes in taking down the Legion and defending the provinces that were under attack. Interestingly enough Saurfang, who had started with a dislike for the demon hunters, nodded his head as the pair took to the air and headed down into one of the lower areas of Orgrimmar, an area that the mages and warlocks called home, and found that Khadgar wanted to make things easier on them and had created a portal to Dalaran, hence why they headed through it without delay. Once they were on the other side of the portal they found themselves in a rather nice looking city, made of a different type of stone from what Stormwind looked like, and even they, as demon hunters, could tell that there was a hint of magic in the air, which made sense due to the fact that, according to their allies, Dalaran used to be a city that rested in the ground, but during the war against the Lich King it had been teleported into the air above a province in Northrend and now it floated in the air above whatever area the leaders wanted to investigate. The only thing in Deadwind Pass, based on their knowledge, was the tower known as Karazhan, though neither of them really knew anything about it and this wasn't the time to ask about it, hence the reason they quickly flew through the air as they sought out the area that Khadgar was standing in, which just so happened to be in front of some steps that lead to a rather important building. Inside the building, from what they could see, stood a few important looking figures that were likely mages, so named the Council of Six based on their number, which was rather odd since seven would have been nicer for when they had to debate about certain happenings, and from what they could see all of them appeared to be humans, four males and two females by their estimates, but that was when they landed in front of Khadgar and focused on him. "Thank you for coming so quickly, especially since it means leaving the fight to the others," Khadgar said, to which he turned towards the set of stairs and focused on what he was going to do once he reached the top of the steps and faced the Council that was no doubt waiting for them, before he sighed for a moment as Spitfire and Rainbow wondered why he needed them to be here, "As you know, the Legion's attacks are only going to intensify, and for our forces to fight at their full power we need to reintroduce the Horde to Dalaran, so that we present a united front to our enemies... sadly Jaina is not so easily convinced of the need to bring them and their forces back, hence why I asked you to join me, as she might listen to someone like you two." "We'll see... Spitfire is nothing but persuasive." Rainbow remarked, though Spitfire said nothing to that, as her words did have some truth to them when she considered them for a few moments, especially when she considered the fact that her actions had convinced Saurfang, who disliked the Illidari the instant he laid eyes on her and Allari, to change his own opinion on them and even welcomed their assistance in taking down the Legion, so it would be interesting to see if they could do something to that effect in regards to Jaina and her attitude towards the Horde. It didn't take them long to enter the structure that the Council was standing in, where the pair found that one of the mages wore blue robes and his shoulders had a red glow to them as he carried a staff on his back, another seemed like he was ready for war, the third wore a robe that looked like it was channeling Arcane energies, and the fourth appeared to be more like a civilian in terms of how he dressed, even though the pair could tell there was more to him than what they were seeing, before they noticed that one of the ladies wore the armor of the Kirin Tor, while the other was wearing the attire of a mage at sea, or at least they assumed that was the case, and she was immensely powerful in their eyes. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, allow me to introduce the members of the Council of Six: Kalec, Karlain, Ansirem Runeweaver, Jaina Proudmoore, Modera, and Vargoth," Khadgar said, where the six powerful mages either nodded their heads when he said their names, to show them who was who, or they did nothing as they stared at the pair that had accompanied him to the area they would be meeting in for a few moments, though Spitfire had the with the sea-like attire had to be the mage she and Rainbow were here to talk to, before he got to the serious information, "Members of the Council of Six, thank you for coming to this meeting on such short notice, especially with the Legion increasing their attacks on the provinces of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor that we've been defending." "Khadgar, as much as I want to study these two, we don't have the time to waste on meetings." one of the mages, the one called Jaina according to what the pair had just learned from Khadgar, stated, her tone revealing that her focus had been on something else lately and that this wasn't a welcome distraction, though Spitfire was hoping that she wasn't in the mood to attack the Horde for what happened in the past, since all she knew was that the two factions really didn't get along, save for the heroes anyway, "Based on what we have seen the Legion is starting to push itself into our lands and the Horde is preparing themselves for war against their enemies, so we need to be ready for what is coming our way and what our enemies have planned for us." "Well, we can agree on one thing, and that is that the Legion needs to be stopped," Khadgar said, where the mages did nod their heads to what he was saying, as none of them liked the demons that were trying to invade their world and that they would stand against them, even though it was clear that Jaina might be the only one that needed convincing on what she needed to do, "and to do that both the Kirin Tor and the forces of Azeroth need to be at their full strength, which is why I'm proposing that we bring the mages of the Horde back into our fold..." "NEVER! Do you hear me, Khadgar? We are NEVER allowing those monsters back into this city!" Jaina snapped, where she spoke before any of the other mages had a chance to speak up, as Spitfire and Rainbow were sure that one of them might have said something either to the same effect or maybe even the exact opposite, but now that she had done this the others remained silent as they waited for her to calm down, "They obliterated Theramore, left us to die on the Broken Shore, and have committed countless atrocities since they were formed by Thrall... they're monsters and cowards, which they have proven time and time again, and if we allow any of them to enter Dalaran we'll suffer a terrible fate that will no doubt leave Azeroth in the hands of the Legion!" "And yet they are rushing to defend Azeroth from the Legion, instead of handing it over to them, like you believe that they will eventually do," Spitfire remarked, where Jaina turned to stare at her for a moment, her expression showing her that the mage didn't appreciate being interrupted and that she was very angry with the Horde, so instead of seeing them as allies that are fighting the Legion, like they were were, she was likely seeing them as enemies and was considering all of the heroes in the same manner, "Tell me, Jaina, have you actually asked any of the leaders that were there when you and your allies assaulted the Broken Shore, to get their view on what happened? Surely as a powerful mage, as I'm assuming such a thing since this is the first time we've met each other, you would have some sort of spell that might allow you to see the memories of one of the Horde's leaders, to see everything that they witnessed during the assault on the Broken Shore and learn the truth of what actually happened... such a thing is within your power, right?" "I... yes, its a simple enough spell, as long as the subject is willing... and the only Horde leader that I remotely trust is Baine Bloodhoof," Jaina said, where she was caught off guard by what Spitfire had said and had no idea why she cared for the Horde, even though it was clear that both she and Rainbow had no idea what sort of horrors they had committed, but that was when she sighed and turned towards Khadgar for a few seconds, who also seemed surprised by what Spitfire had just said, since he and the other Council members weren't expecting this to happen, "Fine. While I don't trust the Horde, I know you and the others too well, to the point where you will keep pestering me to see what really happened to Baine and the rest of the Horde's leaders, so I'll allow Baine to be brought here... but know that if the Horde tries anything, and a city falls due to their actions, I'm exiling all of them from Dalaran until the day I die!" Khadgar nodded and moved to send out another Arcane elemental to find the High Chieftain of the tauren, while also readying a portal that would allow him to bring the individual in question to the area that they were in, and it only took a minute or two before Baine to appear near the area that they were in, where Khadgar made sure that he knew exactly what they were doing for the next few moments. Baine agreed to what they were asking of him and braced himself, due to that being when Jaina approached him and channeled her power for a few seconds, allowing all of them to place a hand on Baine's shoulders and back for a few seconds as they delved into the memory that he was showing everyone, one that might change their opinions on what happened during the assault on the Broken Shore. What they saw was Baine, along with the other leaders of the Horde, fighting a large amount of demons that would have flanked the Alliance forces and would have slain all of them, where they did their best to stem the tide of their foes, but as they did that many of them were knocked to the ground and it was clear that they were going to be overrun, especially since Vol'jin was stabbed by a Felguard. When Sylvanas mounted up and rushed to Vol'jin's aid she also summoned a host of undead flying creatures, ones that were humanoid and female, to take the wounded back to the ship that allowed them to return to Orgrimmar, despite the fact that it opened the way for the massive army of demons they had been holding off, though the horn she used to do that was to signal the retreat for both sides, not just the Horde. Based on what Spitfire knew the leaders that were present on the Alliance side of things weren't happy with what Sylvanas did, especially since it cost the Alliance their High King, but, at the same time, they fled not because they were cowards, rather it was because they didn't want to fight a losing battle that had wiped them out and their cries to flee were unheard by the Alliance. By the time they returned to reality Spitfire could see that Jaina was red-faced, not from rage and anger, like someone might expect her to be after that they had just seen, rather from sheer embarrassment due to the fact that she had been under the impression that the Horde were cowards and that was why the Alliance had suffered such a terrible loss on that fateful day, when the reality of the situation was that it was the Alliance that didn't listen to the signal to retreat and had taken it as the Horde fleeing like cowards. "I... it would seem that I owe Anduin and the other leaders of the Alliance an apology, for what I said to them, and the same applies to most of the Horde's leaders... except Sylvanas," Jaina said, her tone showing that she now understood that she had been wrong and that she had allowed her anger to rule her decisions since the attack on the Broken Shore, along with the fact that she didn't trust the undead Warchief that now ruled over the Horde, before she glanced at Khadgar, the rest of the Council, Spitfire, and Rainbow for a moment, "Council members, I will be leaving for a time, so I can take some time to mend my relationships with the leaders of the Alliance and those of the Horde that I trust, but while I'm gone I would either like to increase our number from six to seven, and have Khadgar take the opening, or nominate Khadgar to take my place... something that we can go over when I get back." Before anyone could say anything she and Baine disappeared from the area that they were standing in, leaving them to do whatever they wanted for the foreseeable future, though before anyone could say anything, and the Council took a moment to disperse as they waited for Jaina to return to the city, Spitfire heard a huffing sound behind them, where she found a dwarf, dressed as an explorer that reminded her and Rainbow of the Daring Do books, coming to a stop at the top of the steps that lead to this structure, where a smile appeared on his face not a few seconds later. "Heroes! Khadgar! Thank the Forge I found ye!" the dwarf remarked, though it was interesting why he would care for Spitfire and Rainbow, since neither of them had met him before this point in time and had no idea who he was, despite the fact that their new friends would be able to tell them who this was in a matter of moments, but, while they might have no idea who was in front of them, it was clear that Khadgar and the Council members knew who he was and were curious as to what he might have found. "Brann Bronzebeard? Well now, this is an unexpected surprise," Khadgar replied, naming the dwarf so his new allies would know who they were talking to, even though he would do the same thing for Brann once they had a moment that didn't involve Spitfire and Rainbow running off to deal with the Legion and the demons that were being sent to take over the landmasses of the world, which was when he turned back towards the dwarf in question and asked the question that was currently bugging him and the other Council members, "What did you find?" "Its me brother Magni! He's returned!" the dwarf, Brann, stated, where Spitfire and Rainbow considered the name for a moment and realized that he was referring to the previous ruler of Ironforge, even though that was all they knew about the individual in question, though that was when he reached into his pack and deployed a circular device that assembled itself in a matter of seconds, impressing the pair with what they were seeing, "Listen, he got turned into crystal statue by a Titan ritual and has been stuck in the belly o' Ironforge for some time, but last I heard he was moving and said somethin' about Ulduar and the Legion, so I'm headin' to see what's going on... and I was hoping that you guys, the three of you to be exact, would help me out." Spitfire and Rainbow wasted no time in agreeing and approached the teleport pad, as that was what Khadgar called it once he stared at it for a few seconds, where the four of them took turns stepping onto the pad and disappeared not even a few seconds later, where the pair waited to see what Ulduar looked like and what they might find when they reappeared on the other side of the teleport pad. They had no idea what they were expecting, though what the pair found was that they were inside a tube shaped structure and that there was a long walkway in front of them, one that lead to what they had to assume was the area that Brann was interested in, though the walls and floors were made out of smooth stone that just so happened to be set in a pattern neither of them recognized, and that was only the basics as they spotted bits of what had to be Titan machinery, even if most of it was hidden away from their sight. That was when both of them spotted something that appeared to be a mechanical gnome standing some distance in front of them, one that had been waiting for their arrival and welcomed them the moment all four of them had appeared in the chamber the teleport pad brought them to, stating that the 'Speaker' was waiting for them, which got a response out of Brann, who declared that the person the contraption was talking about was his brother. Khadgar found it amusing and stated that Ulduar was much quieter this time around, since none of the adventurers that had come through here some years ago were present, even though their guide was quick to point out that the heroes, while great at fighting, tended to leave messes behind, something that the mage agreed with, before they came to a rather sudden stop for a moment as the energy in the air shifted, though that was shortly followed by Spitfire and Rainbow pulling out their warglaives, because there was demonic magic in Uldaur and that meant they had enemies to hunt. It was in that moment that eight dark green vapors appeared around them, forming what seemed to be a circle on top of the ring that was around the group, before two humanoid creatures appeared at the top of the stairs, which had purple skin, tendrils attached to the mouth area, a massive body, and two misshapen hands, one being larger than what might be normal for a creature of this size while the other seemed to be a tendril as well, and both of them looked like they wanted to take down the group. You are pawns of forces unseen. a voice whispered, where Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other for a few seconds to confirm that they had both heard the strange and rather unnatural voice, like they were hearing a powerful being that was capable of crushing their minds if it willed such a thing to happen, but it only seemed to be a whisper and nothing more, even though it did prompt the face of Faceless, as Khadgar called them, to attack the group, as if whoever had spoken was trying to eliminate them before something terrible happened. The pair of Faceless rushed at them as their guide ran off to the area they had appeared in, moving rather fast for a metallic creation, though that didn't stop Spitfire and Rainbow from dodging the attacks that were coming their way, as the creatures swung both of their arms at them, even though they only used one at a time, though they also parried a few of the attacks with their warglaives. The Faceless were tougher than some of the demons they had recently fought, which was a rather nice change of pace for the pair, as they could cut into their strange skin and deal some damage, but it was clear that it would take some time and that these weapons might not be the best in the world, hence another reason as to why Spitfire had Kayn and the others looking for any pairs of warglaives that they might be able to use against the Legion, when they weren't busy saving Azeroth anyway. Fortunately neither of the Faceless were able to really do any damage to them as the battle progressed, though as both of them started to really cut down their foes they did notice that Brann and Khadgar were assisting them in taking them down, as they were just now noticing the arcane blasts that Khadgar used to blast his target and Brann seemed to be hitting his targets with either his fists or a mace that he kept hidden. As such it didn't take them long to bring down the Faceless and cause the green vapors to disappear, where Khadgar commented on the fact that it appeared that Yogg-Saron, the Old God that was imprisoned deep within Ulduar, must have sensed what was going on across the planet and was trying to push through his weakened prison, though even as he said that both Spitfire and Rainbow paused for a moment as they felt what could only be described as a malevolent force of energy that was deep below where they were standing. Spitfire and Rainbow were sure that the source of power they were feeling, which was faint and wasn't demonic at all, had to be the Old God that Khadgar had mentioned, even if either of them had any idea what he was talking about, but instead of worrying about what was in the depths of Ulduar they readied their weapons as their guide returned to them and started to lead them further into the Titan city, while mentioning that the units that were assigned to guard Magni, or the Speaker as it insisted on calling the dwarf, weren't responding. That caused Brann to mention that the Legion had to be invading Ulduar, why he had no idea since this was a prison of an Old God and weakening the defenses would only lead to Yogg-Saron trying to escape again, which would be bad since the heroes of Azeroth couldn't afford to divide their attention between the Legion and an Old God. The pair remained silent as they walked up the stairs that were in front of them and headed down the right passage, as it seemed that Magni was supposed to be down this way, before they rushed over to where a Fel barrier was resting, to prevent them from progressing any further, though Khadgar used his power and smashed his way through it, or in the magical sense he rapidly brought it down, allowing the pair to rush into the area that was on the other side of the barrier. It was then that they found an Inquisitor demon, who was in the middle of tying to tear whatever information it was after out of the moving crystal dwarf that was in a floating Fel cage, which had to be Magni, and two Felguards that were guarding it, though none of the demons liked the fact that Spitfire or Rainbow were even there and rushed to attack them, trying to cut them and Khadgar down so they could get back to gathering the bits of information that they were after. The Felguards, which were smaller than the stronger ones they had fought during the Legion's invasions of the six provinces they had repelled, were easy to take down and the Inquisitor had to face two demon hunters, a mage, and an annoyed dwarf who didn't like how the demon was treating his brother, hence why it was so easy for them to cut down the demon, allowing Spitfire and Rainbow to break its soul and absorb the fragments so it wouldn't come back, before the Fel cage shattered and the diamond dwarf landed near them. "Magni! 'Tis good to see ye again! But why did ye leave Ironforge?" Brann asked, showing that he was happy to see his brother again, especially after everything that had happened in the past to face Magni to become what he was, but, at the same time, he was curious about many things and wanted to ask them before they did anything else, even though he was trying to refrain from asking Spitfire and Rainbow questions as well, "Why come here? What happened to..." "I know ye have questions, but they gotta wait. Time is short. She wants me ta pass along an important message to ye and yur friends." Magni replied, where he beckoned for the group to follow him further down the passage that was just behind him, leaving no room for anyone to argue as they rushed to follow after their new guide, as the old one left the moment they found him, all while Spitfire and Rainbow kept their eyes open for any additional demons as they followed him to the area that he was leading them to, "The ritual that changed me body into this form also opened me ears ta the voice o' Azeroth herself. She ain't just a bunch o' rock, like many have assumed... she's a Titan!" "A Titan?! That... actually, that explains quite a lot." Khadgar commented, though Spitfire and Rainbow had next to no idea what they were talking about, but instead of worrying about it they figured that Khadgar would tell them what was going on at some point in the future, after their visit to Ulduar, so that was why they kept their mouths shut as they let the crystalline dwarf tell them what was going on, as their allies had an idea of what was going on right now. Brann was clearly surprised by this information, since he was still getting over the fact that his own brother had been turned into crystal and now, after awakening after the long period of time he had been sleeping, and now he was caught off guard by the fact that Magni could speak to the Titans, or Titan since Azeroth was the only one he could speak to, and that was based on what they had learned. "There's more I gotta say." Magni commented, where he paused for a moment as they came to a stop in front of a metal door that seemed to be locked, or at least that was what Spitfire and Rainbow had to assume since they weren't at all familiar with everything they were learning at the moment, and Magni waved a hand at the door to show them that this was their destination, "Come inside the Celestial Planetarium and I'll show ye the truth." "Don't we need a key to get inside?" Brann asked, showing the pair that he did have intensive experience exploring the halls of Ulduar and that he was familiar with many things that the guardians of the city watched over, though at the same time Khadgar raised an eyebrow as he recalled what the dwarf was talking about, as he had learned something about this from the heroes that had delved into Ulduar so many years ago. "Brother... I AM the key." Magni replied, which was the moment that he approached the door and the locks that were attached to it, which Spitfire and Rainbow couldn't see, were undone and the door opened before their eyes, allowing the group to walk down a ramp and enter a circular chamber with an odd flooring that seemed to be made of glass, or at least that was what the pair believed it to be as they entered the area. "Do ye remember this place, Brann?" Magni asked, clearly showing that there had to be something about this room that was important for them to come here and talk about whatever information he had to give them, though his words did seem to resonate with his brother, who shivered for a moment, while at the same time Khadgar, once again, recalled what had transpired in the past. "Yes, I do! I'm gettin' flashbacks o' Algalon!" Brann replied, though his words meant nothing to Spitfire and Rainbow, something the pair feared would be the case for the majority of the conversation that was going to be happening for the next couple of minutes, though Spitfire did make a note of what was said so she could ask Khadgar about it later, once all of them returned to Dalaran. "The Constellar was jus' doin' his job, such as it was. And in the end, ye and yur friends taught him a lesson." Magni stated, though at the same time the center of the room seemed to change as a large humanoid shaped creature, this one made out of blue energy and looking like a constellation that had taken a human's form, appeared in the middle of the chamber that they were standing in, though based on how Magni acted it looked like this was just an echo. Perhaps it is your imperfection... that which grants you free will... that allows you to persevere against all cosmically calculated odds. the echo said, repeating the words that Algalon had spoken to the heroes that had fought it at one point in the past, no doubt around the same time that they had stopped Yogg-Saron from escaping from his prison, though both Spitfire and Rainbow had to assume that the Constellar had been surprised by who stood in his way, as if he wasn't even expecting the possibility that Azeroth's champions would beat him in battle, You prevail where the Titan's own perfect creations have failed. "After defeatin' the Old Gods, the Keepers were giv'n the task o' orderin' the world." Magni stated, though as he spoke up the echo of Algalon disappeared, leaving them to talk about what he needed to tell them, before sending them out to save their world from the Legion, hence the reason that Spitfire and Rainbow were waiting to hear what he had to tell the four of them, "The Titans gave 'em five mighty artifacts, which they called the Pillars o' Creation! When their work was done, the Keepers sealed the Pillars away, but, just like so many of our world's relics, they ended up in the hands o' certain individuals and races." "Okay, you've lost me." Rainbow admitted, because it was clear that the only ones that had no idea what was going on was her and Spitfire, even though her friend was taking in all the information they were being given rather well, though it did sound like they might have a way to save Azeroth, despite the fact that she had no idea how they were supposed to go about locating where these relics were located. "I will tell you and Spitfire everything later." Khadgar promised, as he trusted the two demon hunters and knew that neither of them would betray Azeroth, as they would have likely done so already if they were agents of the Legion, before he turned to face Magni again, as there was something about his words that seemed familiar, "Your tale sounds familiar... I'm sure I've heard of these Pillars before, but I cannot be sure where I first heard about them." "The knowledge o' the Pillars was placed in the care o' the Guardian of Tirisfal, and remains there still!" Magni stated, where his words caused Khadgar to remember where he had learned about the Pillars in the first place, which was good since neither Spitfire or Rainbow would have been any help to him in figuring out where he might have learned of their existence, so they could skip a step and move onto the more pressing matters, "Ye and yur allies must find the Pillars! Combined, their power kin seal the Legion's gateway to Azeroth. 'Tis the only way to save her!" "Well, that's good to know. At least we know the information we seek is in Karazhan... I likely read of these artifacts in one of Medivh's ancient chronicles." Khadgar replied, though at the same time he gave them a light chuckle as he started to channel his magical power into forming a portal for them to take, as now that they knew where the information they were looking for was located it would take them a few minutes to locate it and return to Dalaran, "You know, it is not every day that the planet we live on points me to my own library. Thank you, Magni, I will go to Karazhan at once and find the tome we need to locate the Pillars. Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, would you follow me through the portal and provide me with some protection, in case the Legion tries something?" "Sure, we can do that." Spitfire remarked, mostly because it seemed like they were onto something and helping their friend find the information he was after would allow them to figure out where the Pillars of Creation rested, so they could break the Legion's invasion and save Azeroth, giving her and the others a chance to fulfill Lord Illidan's plans and topple the demons that sought to burn all of creation. Rainbow nodded her head and followed Spitfire through the portal the moment it was ready, where they left Ulduar and appeared in front of what appeared to be a massive tower that reached into the sky, where Dalaran happened to be above the tower, and it wasn't long before Khadgar appeared behind them and closed the portal he had used, to which the three of them entered the front door and headed inside the tower. As they walked into what appeared to be the entry area, and connected to a stable and maybe a cellar, Khadgar lead them up some stairs and informed them that he knew where the information they sought was located, or at least he had an idea of where it had to be, and brought them to what appeared to be a hall that was used for dancing, near what seemed to be the hall people ate in. While they did this the pair got to see ghosts of the past, of what appeared to be a young Khadgar on the first day he came to study under Medivh, even though Khadgar claimed that it wasn't that long ago that such a thing had happened, before they reached an area he had set up some safety measures in, only it quickly became clear to him that the energies of the tower must have messed with his spells and that he needed time to fix them. What was interesting was that one of the odd arcane constructs woke up and turned towards them, like it was going to engage them, before a figure appeared nearby and faced them, merely waving a hand and caused the construct to turn off, allowing Spitfire and Rainbow to see that it was a human that was wearing what appeared to be a robe that had raven feathers and seemed to be black colored. Despite the fact that neither of them were all that familiar with magic, and had only just felt the power of the Old God while they were in Ulduar, this individual, who could either be a real person or just a projection that had been sent to see what was going on in the tower, radiated magical power and seemed far stronger than anything they were expecting to feel while they were helping Khadgar retrieve the information they needed on the Pillars of Creation. "Madivh?!" Khadgar inquired, his tone revealing that he was both shocked and surprised by the sudden arrival of an individual that he knew about, even though both Spitfire and Rainbow had no idea who the person was or why he was here in the first place, hence the reason that they kept quiet while the two stared at each other, "Is that really you, or is this another trick of the Legion?" "I left many fragments of myself in this tower, Young Trust, but the one you faced on your own was not mine." the odd individual, Medivh as Khadgar called him, started, where it looked like he might be disappointed in something he stared at Khadgar, who seemed a bit embarrassed about something that had happened recently and he hadn't told anyone about it, though it was clear that someone did know about what he was trying to keep to himself. "As I realized, after a few moments... yes, you are the real Medivh." Khadgar said, though his quick glance to where Spitfire and Rainbow were standing was enough to tell them that he would either tell them what he meant later or this was the only time they were going to hear about whatever happened while they were guarding the provinces from the Legion, which was followed by Khadgar getting back to the point of the conversation, "What brings you here, Medivh, after all the years of staying in the shadows, being a prophet to the lands and people of Azeroth?" "The bonds of fate have been... twisted. The futures I saw have been rewritten." Medivh replied, where Khadgar raised one of his eyebrows for a moment, as only he and a few others really ever knew what the former Guardian meant when he talked, mostly because there was always a cryptic warning or something in whatever he said, and he suspected that this would be no different, though that was when Medivh waved his hand at them and a thick scroll, which seemed to contain a number of papers, was throw to Khadgar, who caught it, "The Legion seeks its end goal, thus you and your allies require a little assistance... relics to help you in your battle..." In that moment, however, Spitfire and Rainbow were the first ones to react as demons burst up the stairs that had let them access this area and swung their warglaives into the Felguards that were at the front of the line, making sure to cut down the Fel Lord that was leading them, even though that was followed by Medivh waving a hand as he banished all of the living demons to the Twisting Nether and deposited the fallen in it as well, before moving his other hand to open a portal to part of the tower. Khadgar, initially taken back by the fact that his former mentor, whether he was alive or was a spirit of some kind, was helping them out, nodded his head and ventured into the portal, something that Spitfire and Rainbow did not a few moments later, but as both of them thanked Medivh, even if they had no idea who he was, he did take a moment to touch both of their foreheads, why they had no idea, and said that it wouldn't be long before they even understood what was going on. From there they teleported to what appeared to be a massive library, one that Rainbow knew Twilight would die to have based on all the books about subjects she had never read before, though Khadgar was hard at work looking for the tome that would allow them to learn about the Pillars of Creation and what they needed to do to find and recover them so they could save their world. While he worked Khadgar commented on the fact that it felt like Medivh was using his power to bolster Karazhan's defense, to prevent the Legion from ever breaking into the tower again, meaning that whatever defenses he had placed in the past had either fallen or he didn't have any to begin with, but now it seemed like he was working on their side, something that caught Khadgar off guard, not that he thought about it for too long as he found the tome he was looking for, allowing him to open a portal for them to return to Dalaran. Spitfire and Rainbow knew that the Legion had to know about the Pillars of Creation, as that was the only reason that a small group of demons would have come to Karazhan, meaning Dalaran might be under attack, to which they charged through the portal and waited to see what was on the other side, mostly hoping to see that they were wrong and that the city was just fine so they could turn their attention to finding the relics that would allow them to stop the Legion's invasion in its tracks. > Interlude: Artifact Recovery > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow had questions about what they had seen in Karazhan, especially when they thought about Medivh and what he had done in the brief time they had seen in, but before either of them could actually voice any of the questions that they had, and get some answers, the first thing they noticed when they returned to Dalaran was that the Legion was in the middle of attacking the city and had a number of ships in the air, all no doubt getting ready to blast the city out of the sky, though they were pleased to see Kayn and the other demon hunters cutting the demons down. "Interesting. Dalaran has become a focal point for the Legion's attacks," Khadgar commented, though at the same time he blasted several Felbats out of the air and dropped them to the ground with just a bit of his arcane power, while the unlucky Felguards that were nearby fell due to Spitfire and Rainbow cutting them down before they had a chance to even fight back, "which means that this city will be crucial in our campaign against the Legion... and that they're sore losers when it comes to claiming the knowledge about the Pillars of Creation. Come, we must gather the Council and prepare..." "...to teleport to the Broken Isles." a voice finished, where another wave of magic froze several Infernals that had just landed nearby, preventing them from burning the place to the ground and allowing the demon hunters to make short work of them, before Spitfire and Rainbow found that it was Jaina, of all people, that had come to their aid, and she was focused on Khadgar at the moment, "Khadgar, the other members of the Council of Seven are waiting in the center of the city, gathering their power so that we can jump to the isles that the Tomb of Sargeras is near, and with you joining us we should be able to bypass the unnecessary blackout periods the city undergoes whenever we change locations... and yes, thanks to your new friends, we have decided that it is time to change the rules of the Council." "Medivh mentioned that the 'bonds of fate' had been broken," Khadgar commented, which told Spitfire and Rainbow that he knew Jaina enough to mention the rather odd individual that they had seen during their brief visit to Karazhan, so they could figure out what their next steps were, even though the pair had no idea what was going on and kept their eyes on the sky, mostly to take out whatever demons tried to attack Dalaran while the mages did whatever it was that they had to be preparing right now, even though it appeared that the skies were clear for the time being, "He said that to the three of us while we were exploring Karazhan a few minutes ago, as we had been told that the key to defeating the Legion was inside the tower, and he gave us what appear to be some notes on relics we might be able to use against the demons as well, no doubt containing weapons for all the heroes that have defended Azeroth since the invasion of Outland, though I am sure he's sealing the tower so the Legion can't invade it." "The Guardian spoke to you?!" Jaina nearly exclaimed, showing that Medivh must have been an important individual to the people of this world, or at least that was what Spitfire had to assume, before Jaina regained herself and took a few seconds to think about that as they stepped into the central area of the city, where the other five members of the Council happened to be located, gathering their magic for what they were about to do, "We will discuss this later. For now we need to focus on moving Dalaran to the Broken Isles and making sure the heroes of Azeroth have everything they might need for the battles that are ahead of them, as something tells me it will take a day or two for all of the relics to be recovered and delivered to the hero that can use it to its fullest. Also, when we arrive at the Broken Isles, the two of us will need to call upon Alodi's spirit and see if what little information we have on our objective is correct, though hopefully he has an idea on where we might start looking." Spitfire and Rainbow, once again, said nothing as their allies talked to each other, as this mostly gave them what they needed to know about a certain situation and they didn't have to interrupt what was going on with their lack of knowledge on a subject, though as they watched the seven mages gather their energies into an orb in the middle of the chamber it was easy to spot a number of lesser mages running around with crystals. As it turned out there were anomalies that they needed to take care of first, that way they would be able to blink a city over to where the Broken Isles were located, or at least that was the terminology one of the lesser mages used when describing what was going on to the pair, so they left the mages alone and focused on killing any demons that might still be in the city, even though there were a low number despite the fact that there were a bunch of ships nearby. Once they were sure that all of the demons had been cleared out they felt the magic in the air gather as Khadgar, his voice amplified by magic, informed the citizens that they were going to be moving the city again and that they had found the key to the Legion's downfall, where it was clear that he wasn't saying anything about where they were going and what they were looking for because of the demon ships that were nearby, that way he could deprive the Legion some information, even though it wouldn't be long before the Legion discovered where Dalaran had been moved to and followed them to the Broken Isles. The moment he stopped speaking the city started to shimmer as the Arcane energies washed over Dalaran, forming what appeared to be a barrier of some kind between them and the approaching ships, something that destroyed all of the Legion vessels without wasting a single second, before the world disappeared around them and they closed their eyes to wait for the magic to stop. A few moments later, when they were sure the magic had died down, they opened their eyes and took to the skies for a couple of seconds, which was when the two of them discovered that Dalaran was now resting near a large island that seemed to be made up of at least four or five provinces, not counting the area that the Tomb of Sargeras was located on, meaning they had reached the Broken Isles and quickly landed to tell Khadgar the news, even though they were sure that he and the other mages knew that they had arrived at their destination. "Well, that was exciting," a voice said, where they found that Khadgar had moved out to find them the moment he and the other mages had stopped channeling their spell, though he did seem winded from the ordeal and would likely need to spend some time resting before he was able to use his more powerful spells again, and he seemed to be holding onto the papers they had been given during their time in Karazhan, "Medivh gave us a number of relics that we can pursue for our fight with the Legion... hm, Apocalypse, the Scythe of Elune, Aluneth, Felo'melorn, and a number of others to pick from... and Frostmourne? Odd, that weapon was shattered during the fight with the Lich King several years ago, so why would it be listed among the artifacts we could acquire?" "Highlord Darion believed that Frostmourne was created by the Legion, or the Dreadlords to be exact." a voice stated, though that was when Spitfire and Rainbow found that someone else had been in Dalaran before it was teleported to the Broken Isles, as the orc death knight known as Zuleth stood near the area they were standing in, though he seemed to be focused on what they were talking about at the moment, even though it was clear that he was ready to use his wicked looking axe on their enemies, "I do not know the specifics, but it seems like whoever told you that the runeblade could be used against the Legion is expecting someone to acquire the fragments and reforge them, which might be possible since the Illidari are on our side now... even if some would be surprised to see the weapon again, after all these years, and there are a number that would dread seeing it again." "Some of these artifacts will do that as well, but it seems that we have no choice if we wish to repel the Legion and save Azeroth," Khadgar replied, to which he pulled out some of the papers and handed them over to Zuleth, who took the pages and glanced at them for a few seconds, mostly to look over what sort of weapons he and the other death knights would be gathering in the near future, before he turned towards Spitfire and Rainbow again, "I don't see any mentions of a pair of warglaives, so it appears that Medivh either has no clues for you to work with or he knows that you'll figure it out on your own, where the latter is the most likely scenario... so I guess you'll have to find your allies and see if they have any information on some artifacts that you can use against the Legion." "Lady Spitfire!" a familiar voice said, where Spitfire and Rainbow turned and spotted Kor'vas coming their way, which meant that she must have recovered from the city being teleported to the Broken Shores and wanted to tell them about something the rest of the Illidari must have discovered, "Kayn and Altruis, despite their differences, have done what you asked and are waiting for you two at Krasus' Landing." Spitfire and Rainbow quickly bid Khadgar, and Zuleth for that matter, farewell and headed towards the circular area that served as the point where the Flight Master, someone who rented out griffins to those that needed to fly somewhere, as the creatures were taught to fly to certain points and then return once they delivered their passengers, but it didn't take them long to find Kayn, Altruis, and a few other demon hunters standing near the ruined wall that would allow them to glide to the camp they had set up earlier. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, we have good news," Kayn stated, where Altruis nodded his head in agreement, to show that they had reached an agreement on whatever they had been talking about earlier, before the city had been assaulted by the demons, before he picked up two pieces of paper and handed them over to Spitfire, "We have discovered two other pairs of blades that are rumored to be even stronger than Lord Illidan's weapons, the still missing Twin Blades of Azzinoth, and we have it on good authority that they are still within our reach, though one pair is known as the Twinblades of the Deceiver, no doubt empowered by Kil'jaeden himself, and the other is known as the Aldrachi Warblades, apparently used by a race of warriors that wouldn't bend to the Legion and took the might of Sargeras himself to kill their King, who he took the weapons from and gave to one of his commanders, Kil'jaeden, who gifted it to someone else. Based on what we have determined the Twinblades are held by Varedis Felsoul and the Warblades are held by Caria Felsoul, though to find either of them we'll need to devise a plan before they escape to whatever realm they've been hiding in." "Wait, Varedis and Caria joined the Legion?!" Rainbow remarked, as she knew that a number of Illidari had stayed in the Black Temple to assist the defenses, at the order of their Lord, and both of the demon hunters had stayed behind to repel the invaders, though this was the first time they heard about what might have happened during the attack, meaning the pair had likely died during the attack and Kil'jaeden tormented them into joining the Legion. "Yes, and they now possess weapons of power that we can use against the Legion," Altruis stated, though while he didn't much care for either of the fallen demon hunters, as they were both arrogant with the amount of power they had and that likely drew the attention of the Legion, even if those were his thoughts on the matter, he did know that this gave them a chance to take the weapons and turn them on the demons, hence why he and Kayn decided to call the pair over and tell them their findings on the matter, "The problem is locating them, as we have only reports on where both of them might be located and nothing solid, but we believe that Archmage Khadgar might be able to help, as he reportedly brought in an Eredar for questioning a few days ago and he might have something we need, a power source for one of Jace's toys, to locate Caria." Spitfire and Rainbow looked at the papers that they had been given, as both of them bared sketches as to what the weapons might look like and from what the pair could tell the Twinblades were just like the other warglaives they and the other demon hunters used, only they were empowered by Kil'jaeden, while the Warblades looked like they were half the total length of a warglaive, as in cut in half and held like a tonfa, which was rather interesting when the pair considered what they were used to. "You know, the Warblades look like they're more my style," Rainbow remarked, though she drew her weapons for a moment and stared at them, no doubt imagining how she would have to change up her fighting style if she got her hands on the pair of blades that she was referring to, where Kayn and Altruis said nothing as they waited for the pair to come to a decision on the matter, "What do you think, Spitfire?" "I think we need to talk with Khadgar... again." Spitfire stated, as it would have been nice to know that Khadgar had captured an Eredar that might be able to give them the location of a weapon of power that would tear the Legion down, instead of only just now discovering what the mage had been up to since the last time they saw him, before she sighed and put the papers away as she turned to head back to the area they had seen Khadgar in, "We'll ask him about the Eredar he captured and if he might have something we can use to power Jace's communicator, though we should tackle both of our former comrades at the same time, that way neither of them can escape to the worlds they've been hiding in, then we can turn our attention to the Pillars of Creation." The plan was rather simple, she was going to go after Varedis and the Twinblades while Rainbow went after Caria and the Warblades, where each of them would have to fight their way to the area that their target was in, no doubt duel them for a time, and then claim the artifacts in question and get out of the area after making sure their foes were dead, so they could regroup in Dalaran and figure out what their next move was. As such the two of them bid their allies farewell and started to head back to the tower that the Council of Seven would be located in, since that was where they had found the powerful mages earlier, but stopped when they discovered that Khadgar was in the middle of a crowd of heroes, from both factions no less, and was handing over the rest of the papers he had been given, allowing the various classes to get together and determine who was the strongest among them, that way they sent the right people after the various artifacts Medivh had pointed out to them. Based on what Spitfire had seen during the Legion's attempts at invading the six lands they had picked out, and the heroes had beaten them back, she suspected that even if Zuleth was chosen to go after one of the death knight artifacts he would likely decline the quest entirely, as his battleaxe, Shadowmourne, was a powerful weapon that rivaled the strength of Frostmourne, a weapon that might have been made by the Legion a long time ago, a tale she wasn't sure if it was true or not, but the battleaxe was a fearsome weapon and she was sure that the demons cowered when he stepped up to fight them. Both she and Rainbow knew that the heroes they had worked with were the best Azeroth had to offer, and a number of them would be granted the ability to use weapons of power to save their world from the Legion, so they said nothing as Khadgar handed out the papers and the classes went their separate ways, likely to find ways to acquire the weapons in question, before turning to face them again. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, I was not expecting to see you again, so soon after our last encounter," Khadgar said, as he was surprised that they had come to him once more, even thought this time he had nothing to offer them, though at the same time he had the feeling that he would soon know why they were here and what he could do to assist them in finding weapons to use against the Legion, if his thoughts were correct, "What can I do for you?" "I need to speak with the Eredar you captured earlier," Spitfire replied, revealing the reason behind why they were standing in front of Khadgar again, though at the same time she made sure to gesture to Rainbow for a moment, to make sure he realized that they were going after two different artifacts and that they both needed his assistance, "it holds some information I need, in regards to where an artifact we can use is located, while Rainbow needs to borrow a power source, a demonic one to be exact, so we can power one of Jace's communication devices and find out where a second artifact might be resting." Khadgar considered the information and their request for a moment, even though he wasn't surprised that someone had told them about the Eredar he had captured a few days ago, before he lead them over to the Violet Hold, the prison that contained some of the foulest creatures in the world, or at least some of the most dangerous, and spoke to the Head Warden for a few seconds, arranging for Spitfire and Kayn, who was standing nearby, to head inside the prison so Spitfire could get the information she needed, even if the rest of the guards would be behind safety when she did that. As she and Kayn headed inside the Violet Hold, however, Spitfire noticed that Rainbow as being taken to where the Council had been gathered earlier and knew that was where she would find the Fel power source Khadgar had brought with him, before she turned her attention to the inside of the prison as they entered it, finding a number of cells, of different sizes since some were as tall as a human and some were far taller and wider. It didn't take her long to spot the Eredar in question, as he was positioned in the center of the highest point of the prison, up some stairs that were directly in front of her, but the part about this that was amusing was that she realized who Khadgar had caught, Kaldrath the Destroyer, an Eredar that took great pleasure in wiping out cities and settlements across the worlds that he assaulted, according to their information on him anyway, which was why she drew her warglaives as the Head Warden undid the sealing spell and retreated as the cell Kaldrath was imprisoned in was undone, where Kayn stood guard over the entrance, just in case the demon managed to overpower her or something. For a few seconds the demon did nothing, giving Spitfire a moment to determine how she was going to go about this battle, before Kaldrath noticed that the way was open and marched out to find that she was waiting for him, to which he jumped down into the area she was standing in and swung his clawed hands at her, to which she defended herself by parrying the incoming attacks. As it turned out Kaldrath knew about her, just like she suspected the rest of the Legion knew about her and Rainbow, since they knew about the Illidari at this point in time, but that didn't stop her from annoying the Eredar as he tried to take her down without even using his magic, which she knew he had, and he kept bragging about how Varedis, his 'master' as it turned out, wielded power far beyond what Spitfire possessed and even revealed the piece of information that they were after, that Varedis was in Suramar, one of the provinces of the Broken Isles based on what Kayn said, to which Spitfire did the sensible thing and cut Kaldrath down, taking his soul so he wouldn't be able to report this to his boss. "Arrogant demon should have kept his mouth shut," Spitfire remarked, to which she banished her warglaives as soon as the Eredar's body collapsed on the floor and headed for the doorway so she could leave the Violet Hold, though she was thankful that Kaldrath was as arrogant as he was, because without him saying those lines they would have no idea where Varedis was hiding, but now they knew and she stretched her wings for a moment, "Kayn, I'm going to fly into the part of Suramar that our former comrade is in, alone I might add, and see if I can't find the Twinblades and their owner, but I want you and the others to help Rainbow figure out where Caria and the Warblades are... and maybe keep working on figuring out how to communicate with the rest of our missing forces." She was speaking of the rest of the Illidari that they had left in Mardum, since they had left behind the Captains during their test of the Keystone's powers and had been captured by the Wardens upon arriving and finding out that they were taking Lord Illidan's body away, though Kayn nodded his head as they walked outside, informing her that he understood her orders, and returned to the temporary camp they had set up. From there she and the others could actually see part of Suramar from where Dalaran was located, as it was a massive city that was on the province of the Broken Isles that was directly in front of where the city was located, so it would take a few minutes to fly down there and see if she could find out where Varedis was hiding, though it shouldn't be hard since there was an entire portion of the left side of the land that was corrupted by the Fel. Since there was a Legion ship there and everything, as in a number of structures that were in the middle of tainting the rest of the surrounding land, it seemed like the sensible place to start and she wanted to make sure that the rest of the demon hunters knew that she was tackling this alone, as she didn't want anyone else rushing in and dying when going in alone seemed to be the best course of action, especially since they had no idea what was down there and she could be flying into a trap, hence why she wanted the others to stay safe and help Rainbow out. As soon as her forces understood what she wanted of them, and that they would be helping Rainbow out when she returned with the demonic power source, Spitfire took to the skies and flew towards the corrupted part of Suramar, knowing that Varedis had to be expecting someone to be coming after him due to Kaldrath being captured and that she would have to work a little to reach her target. As it turned out her thoughts on the matter were correct, as Varedis had set up a few thin towers around the area that he was hiding in, which powered a barrier that covered the area she was sure he was hiding in, and that wasn't counting all of the other structures and the few gateways that had been positioned around the corrupted area, showing Spitfire that he and his allies were certainly ready for guests. Not even a few moments later she was spotted by a number of demons who rushed to power the couple of massive siege cannons the Legion used in battle, along with about five Doomguards taking to the air to intercept her, though she wasted no time in summoning her warglaives as she flew through the air, her blades cutting into the demons that were in her way as she avoided cutting into her wings, something that was incredibly easy for her to do thanks to her training, before she gathered their souls and Fel energy as she rushed right into one of the cannons and tore it to pieces. Once she was on the ground she banished her wings once more and assaulted the demons that were guarding the ramp that would allow her to get deeper into the territory that Varedis was hiding in, where she swung her warglaives at any demon that got close to her, felling Eredar, Wrathguards, Felstalkers, and a pair of Mo'arg, who were summoned when two Eredar sacrificed themselves to briefly power a gateway that was resting nearby, though both of them fell rather quickly as Spitfire cut through their chests and dropped them to the ground, allowing her to focus on the other enemies and the three wards that were scattered throughout the area. In fact, once the two Mo'arg were taken care of, she gathered her power for a moment and blasted apart the first ward tower that was near the gateway the pair of demons had come from, allowing her to rush over the stone bridge, if it could be called that, and entered the area that the second tower was located in, where she found a Fel Lord waiting near the structure. Spitfire found that the Fel Lord was definitely stronger than the other demons and was worth the couple of minutes she ended up spending as she fought it, dodging or parrying the melee attacks, avoiding any of the magical based ones, and cutting into the demon's body whenever an opening presented itself to her, allowing her to topple the demon in due time and opened the way for her to break the second tower. Once that was done she walked down the path that was to the right of where the stone bridge was located and jumped out of the way as an Infernal was dropped in the middle of her path, a demon that barely had a chance to defend itself as she cut it down and added its soul to the number she was collecting from this trip, even though her focus was on her target and the weapon he carried. Varedis was definitely here, how she knew that was because she had heard his tainted demonic voice from afar after the second tower fell, and he did mention her by name, revealing that he realized she was invading his domain, but that didn't bother her as she cut her way through the rest of the Eredar and reached the area that the final tower was located in, where she spotted a demonic blood elf standing on the other side of a Fel river, meaning Varedis had been empowered by the same ritual, or something like it, that matched what she and the others went through back in Mardum, even if she and Rainbow were more unique than the rest of their allies. She did, however, have to stop for an Overfiend that Varedis and his Eredar had summoned as the second tower crumpled, where she used her warglaives to parry the incoming attacks and dealt some in return, where she found that the demon was slightly stronger than the one that was in the Vault of the Wardens, even if the demon the Wardens had captured had been weakened from his imprisonment, but in the end she somehow managed to avoid all of the flames and bring down the Overfiend, allowing her to break the final tower. That was when she turned towards the area that Varedis was in and he grinned for a moment, as if pleased by what she had done and was happy to have such a powerful foe be his next target, before he backed off to an area that a portal was resting in, which was followed by Spitfire leaping over it, landing on the ground, and then rushed at Varedis, who used his Twinblades to parry her attack. "As you know, I was once one of the Illidari... left for dead at the Black Temple," Varedis stated, where he swung his arm for a moment and pushed Spitfire backwards, showing her that he was definitely stronger than her in his new form, despite the fact that she hadn't tapped into her true power yet, before he smirked and readied himself, "but now, after all the betrayal I have suffered at the hands of my former allies, I will use the power my new Master has given me to wipe you and the rest of the Illidari out, then Kil'jaeden can corrupt your souls and turn you into our weapons!" "Good luck with that, because I won't be so easily beaten." Spitfire remarked, though as she said that she jumped a tiny bit backwards and focused her mind for a moment, because when she jumped back into the battle she shifted into her empowered form and landed in front of Varedis, where the two of them lashed out at each other and their first couple of attacks seemed to be on par with each other. At first the battle seemed to be equal, where anyone could see that Spitfire and Varedis commanded the same level of power their their transformed states, but that was soon followed by the battle shifting in favor of one of them, as in it started to shift in Spitfire's favor, because while Varedis was able to parry her attacks he was discovering that it was slowly getting harder and harder to deny her any sort of victory. In a matter of seconds Spitfire forced her former instructor on the defensive as she lashed out with her warglaives, causing him to growl in annoyance as he declared that she shouldn't get in over her head and that he would show her the power of the 'demon within', even though it was obvious that his power was failing in light of what she was capable of, which would annoy Kil'jaeden, something she happened to be totally fine with. From there she eventually broke through his defenses and started to cut into his chest and arms, demonstrating the fact that she was definitely stronger than Varedis was and that she wasn't backing down, even if that made him angry at what was happening, though his rage did blind him for a moment as Spitfire parried one of his desperate attacks and then, by sending a warglaive away for a few seconds, used her flames to blast him in the chest, before lashing out with both of her weapons again. Spitfire also discovered that her foe might have become a little insane since she last saw him, as he claimed that he was a god that that there was nothing she could do to stop him, and she even heard the voice of who she assumed was Kil'jaeden telling Varedis not to fail in his mission, even though it ended with Spitfire cutting into her foe's hands, near the Twinblades, and caused him to drop his weapons on the ground. With that done Spitfire placed herself between Varedis and the Twinblades of the Deceiver, mostly to stop him from arming himself once more, and prepared to put him down where he stood, even though the portal that was behind where Varedis was standing flared to life, like Kil'jaeden wanted to save his minion so he could use him again in the future, even if that annoyed the former demon hunter more than he was willing to admit. "I have no need for mortal armaments... and I will return to destroy you and the rest of the Illidari," Varedis said, as if he was the one that had been winning the fight and was pulling out so he could allow her to grow into a worthy foe, even though it was clear that he had no chance of winning against her and that Spitfire would be the one to take him down the next time they encountered each other, before he turned around and disappeared into the portal, which closed up behind him, preventing Spitfire from following after him. In the end she shrugged and walked over to where the Twinblades rested, where she stared at the silver coloration of the blades as she noticed that the handle area had a faint blue Fel-like aura around them, though she could feel the power that was inside the blades as she placed her warglaives on the ground and claimed her prize, switching to a stronger pair of weapons before sealing them inside her horns, before taking off with her former weapons, to be given to one of the other demon hunters, as she wondered how Rainbow was doing. Rainbow found that Khadgar did have something for Jace to use to power his communicator and that she was more than welcome to take it, as long as they didn't blow up part of Dalaran in the process, so she took the demonic power source from the chest he had stored it inside and headed back to the area that Jace and the others were waiting in, since they were waiting for Spitfire to return with the Twinblades. "Here, this is what Khadgar had to offer us," Rainbow commented, handing over the Fel crystal that she was carrying at the moment and let Jace take it, who would no doubt make sure it was everything he needed to power the device that he had been working on since they arrived in Dalaran, though she remained silent after that, as she didn't want to be a distraction for Jace since this would require his upmost concentration so he wouldn't blow them up. "Good, this should be enough to reestablish our connection to Allari and her group," Jace replied, referring to the fact that Kayn and Altruis, at Kor'vas' orders, had sent out a few of their forces to find Caria and the Warblades that she had been given, and if they had something to report it would give Rainbow an idea on where she needed to go next, allowing him and the others to wait for her and Spitfire to return. An image of Allari appeared on the communicator not a few moments later, where they were able to determine that she and her small group had apparently found the area that Caria was in, though the message was garbled due to some sort of interference and it appeared that their target was located somewhere on the Broken Shore, the same place that the Alliance and Horde lost a number of their soldiers and the individual that was leading them at the time, before the link was broken not a few seconds later. "At the very least we have their position," Kayn stated, as he had been watching what they had been doing and could figure out where on the Broken Shore Allari and the others were located, hence the reason he marked something on the map he was holding and gave it to Rainbow, who studied the map in question for a few seconds, "You should do what Lady Spitfire decided to do, head in on your own, assault the demons that you find there, and take the weapons from the one that is currently holding them, and assist our allies in the process." Rainbow nodded and took off the moment she understood where she was going, though instead of heading towards the land of Suramar, like Spitfire had done, she headed for the small island that the Tomb of Sargeras was positioned on, which was the Broken Shore, though her target was near the edge of the island and it was painfully easy to spot it as she flew through the air, because not a few minutes into her flight she noticed an area that was littered with the bodies of fallen demons, and it wasn't the paths that the Alliance and Horde used earlier. By corpses she meant a few Mo'arg, a number of Felguards, and a few Infernals, before she found Allari chained down in some ruins that were nearby, to which she smashed the chains and freed her ally from her bindings, though fortunately it appeared Kayn and the others knew that she might find someone and sent a few Felbats to serve as the way for Allari and the others to safely return. That was when a few of the remaining demon hunters moved out of the area they had been guarding, which seemed to be a larger part of the ruins that she hadn't looked at earlier, but Rainbow flashed over to where they were fighting and cut down the Felguards that were coming at them, allowing the weakened demon hunters to flee from the area and return to Dalaran so they could regroup with the others. There was a Doomguard protecting the portal the demons were coming from and she engaged it without wasting any time, cutting into it as she loosed her eye beams on it and the demons that were right behind it, all while smashing the portal as well, cutting down on the number of demons as she used her warglaives to cut down the rest of them, all while hearing Caria's demonic voice taunting her, to which she rolled her eyes as she cleaved the Doomguard in half and continued to move through the area. After that she smashed through another portal and found an area where there were a few dead demon hunters that looked like their souls had been ripped out of their bodies, no doubt taken to one of the Legion worlds to torment until they succumbed to the Legion's will, before she landed in an area that two Eredar, one male and one female, happened to be standing in, where she took the female's head off before they could even lash out at her. The second Eredar fared no better than the first one did, allowing Rainbow to avoid the magic that it was trying to us against her, mostly blasts and an occasional fireball, before she cut it down and glanced around the area as she looked for the path that would take her to where Caria was hiding, only to stop when a Pit Lord rose out of the nearby mass of Fel lava and roared at her, like it was going to attack and bring her down. Instead of playing around and seeing how skilled the demon was, like she might have done if she really wanted to, Rainbow flew up to where the demon's head was located and buried her warglaives inside it, before she pulled back as the demon detonated and she took its soul for herself, adding a bit of power to what she already had, even if the demon only gave her a small boost, before she resumed looking for her target. It was a few seconds later that she tapped into her spectral sight and discovered a few Felguards standing behind what appeared to be a tunnel that had caved in at one point, to which she loosed her eye beams at the rocks and blew them up, revealing the passage while causing the Felguards to flee as the rocks fell, where they mentioned that the 'temple' had been breached and that they needed to guard the Warblades, though that didn't stop her from following them and cutting them down as she followed the passage she had revealed. It wasn't long before Rainbow found Caria, a night elf that was twisted into a more spikier version of the empowered form the other demon hunters used, at the end of the passage and watched as she retreated into the underground area, a temple, that was right behind her, to which she rushed forward and shifted into her empowered form as she collided with her target and knocked her to the ground. What surprised Rainbow was that Caria rushed over to what appeared to be an area she had set up for a ritual or something and gathered the power her minions had set up ahead of time, either to give her some additional power or to open a portal to Argus, though she didn't waste any time in lashing out at her foe's rather glaring weakness, the fact that she exposed herself and didn't have any defenses. That allowed her to score several attacks in rapid succession, where she cut into Caria's arms, legs, and her chest, before the corrupted demon hunter even had a chance to stop what she was doing and defend herself, even though she apparently had time to declare that her power was absolute and that soon she would rule all of Azeroth, showing Rainbow that her mind must have been broken by the demons that she had allied with so long ago. It wasn't long before Caria even considered dropping the ritual so she could defend herself, but by the time she did that Rainbow had done enough damage to her body, enough to cripple anyone else and leave them weakened, to which she jumped away and used the power of the Warblades to try and tear Rainbow's soul out of her body, either to take it for herself or to give it to her master, but that was only followed by her being struck in the chest as Rainbow collided with her, causing the Warblades to fall out of her hands. As soon as that happened Rainbow banished her warglaives and collected the Warblades, finding that they were like bladed tonfa, exactly like the sketch she had seen earlier, and her first action was to cut Caria down where she stood, but as that happened the demon's soul was pulled to safety by Kil'jaeden's power, even though she managed to cleave part of it off and take it for herself, before she sighed and departed from the area, as it was time to report the good news to Spitfire and see what else they needed to do before they started looking for the Pillars of Creation. > Interlude: The Fel Hammer > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire was the first one to return to Krasus' Landing, where she found the rest of the Illidari gathering near the broken part of the wall that would allow them to glide down to the area that their camp was set up in, to which she landed near them and walked over to where Kor'vas, Kayn, and Altruis were standing, though she did toss her warglaives over to one of the other demon hunters and then summoned the Twinblades from her horns. "The Twinblades of the Deceiver... impressive." Kor'vas commented, as she and the others knew that Spitfire would return with the weapons that she had set out to recover from Varedis, just like they believed Rainbow would do the same thing and return to them in no time, though that didn't stop her and the others from smiling a little as they stared at the blades Spitfire was showing them, "You're also stronger than when you left to take down Varedis, so I'm assuming you were able to take his soul while you were at it so we could deprive Kil'jaeden of one of his minions." "Sadly not, Kil'jaeden forced Varedis to return to Argus before I was able to cut him down," Spitfire replied, which was rather annoying and it meant that the traitor could be anywhere in the future, where she knew that she, Rainbow, and the rest of the Illidari were going to have to track down Varedis and kill him before he came after them, and potentially Caria as well, depending on how well Rainbow did her job, but she did pause for a few seconds as some Felbats returned, baring Allari and a few of the demon hunters that went to the Broken Shore to track down Rainbow's target, meaning her friend would be returning in the next few moments, "I did, however, kill a number of demons and took their souls, so all of their Fel energy has been added to my own... but we have Varedis' warglaives, and the fraction of Kil'jaeden's power that sleeps within the blades, so that's one less weapon pointed at this world and its guardians." "And I have the Aldrachi Warblades," Rainbow stated, where she touched down a few moments later and produced the weapons she had been chasing, much to the joy of Allari and those that had gone down there to make sure Caria was even on the Broken Shore, before she smirked for a moment, as she had heard Spitfire's comment about Varedis and this happened to be one of the few moments where she was able to do something her friend didn't, "not to mention that I was able to cut Caria down and cleave a part of her soul off, granting me a bit more power in the process, though Kil'jaeden took the rest with his power and will no doubt bring her back to life in the near future." "Still, the two of you have struck multiple blows to the Legion, showing them that Varedis and Caria aren't the best of our order anymore," Kayn stated, while at the same time Kor'vas, Altruis, and the others nodded their heads in agreement, as he was correct in what he was saying and there was no arguing with him yet, before he considered something, despite the fact that he was sure Spitfire or Rainbow, or possible both, had considered this idea as well, "still, they might decide to empower their corrupted demon hunters, or rather their pet half-demons, so they'll be ready to fight you again, meaning you can take their power for yourselves, when you're ready to do so." "The Legion is going to regret having you two as its enemies," Kor'vas added, though even as she said that she knew that she would have dreaded having Spitfire or Rainbow as her foes, because they were stronger than any demon hunter their Lord had trained, way stronger than what she thought they were first possible of, and she had to wonder if they were beyond the level of power that Lord Illidan, whose power supposedly came from Sargeras himself and was amplified by all the things he did over the years, or at least those were the stories she and the others heard during their training, though it was in that moment that she refocused on what they were talking about right now, "Now that we have both sets of blades, and have deprived the Legion of their power at the same time, its time for us to glide down to the small island the Council is letting us use while this invasion is happening... Jace discovered something after you both left and we might have access to more allies than what we currently have." Spitfire and Rainbow had to assume that Jace had a way to communicate with their allies in Mardum, no doubt aboard the Legion vessel they had assaulted so long ago, to which they lead the way over to the small path of land that their camp was set up on, where a few trapped demons, some Imps in one Fel container and a Wrathguard in the other, were resting near what appeared to be a portal structure, with Jace standing near a communicator, and it wasn't long before everyone landed near him, though it was easy to see that there was another prison off to the side with a Dreadlord inside it, which was interesting and they would have to ask the others about it later, once they were done with Jace. "Ah, Lady Spitfire, Rainbow, it seems your hunts were successful," Jace said, as he could see the Twinblades that were in Spitfire's hands and the Warblades that Rainbow was currently carrying, though that was quickly followed by a smile appearing on his face as he decided that it was time to share with them the news the others had briefly mentioned, as he knew that they were interested in what he had to say, "After helping Rainbow figure out where Caria was located I was able to make contact with the rest of our forces in Mardum, and they have secured the Fel Hammer, the Legion ship that we assaulted all those years ago, though we are unable to open a way between here and there due to Malevolence using the energies of the ship to teleport everyone aboard the vessel. However, there is another way, as both of your new blades contain a fragment of Kil'jaeden's great power, so we should be able to use them and open a more permanent opening between this small patch of land and Mardum, and we have gathered a few demons to sacrifice to such a thing, you only need to give the command to do so." "Very well then, do it." Spitfire stated, as she knew that having the full might of the Illidari on their side would be good for them and the heroes of Azeroth, especially since their allies had to have spent years discovering everything that was aboard the Fel Hammer, which meant they could get the rundown once they reached the ship, before she prepared for what they were about to do. Kor'vas approached the imprisoned Imps and wiped all of them out with a quick burst of her eye beams, while at the same time Belath cut down the Wrathguard that he had been staring at, allowing all the demonic souls to gather right in the center of the portal structure they had set up, no doubt enchanting it so this would happen, before Spitfire neared the structure and swung her new Twinblades at the mass of souls. The power of the Twinblades interacted with what she was trying to do and connected to the souls that were in front of her, where she carved open a tear in reality, one that allowed her and the others to move between Azeroth and Mardum, or at least that was the plan if everything worked as intended, and based on what she heard it sounded like Malevolence had noticed the tear on their side, so she had to assume that the way was open. As soon as that was done, and Spitfire was sure that there had been no consequences of her doing this near Dalaran, she beckoned for the other demon hunters to follow her as she and Rainbow marched through the portal she had opened, where they quickly found themselves on the ledge that they had landed on before they engaged the Brood Queen that had been holding the Sargerite Keystone. On this side of the portal, where she and Rainbow found that they were definitely back in Mardum, they discovered that there were a pair of Shivarra powering the portal on this side, before they noticed that Malevolence was standing in front of them and was pleased that they had returned to Mardum after so long, no doubt due to the fact that she and the others wanted to resume their war on the Legion. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, it is good to see the two of you, and the rest of our forces, again," Malevolence stated as soon as the pair came to a stop, while Kor'vas and the others did the same behind them, before she beckoned for them to follow her inside the actual ship and they found that most of what the Brood Queen left behind had been cleaned up to make the place livable for the forces that had been trapped in Mardum, "We have been dutifully guarding the Fel Hammer since you and the others went to join Lord Illidan in the Black Temple, but, due to some decisions and other things, we have been unable to tap into the majority of the ship's resources... though we have theorized that the mark of a Lord of the Legion, like something with Kil'jaeden's power, would reawaken the ship." It was in that moment that Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other, as they knew what needed to be done, before Rainbow joined the others who were standing behind them and let Spitfire standing in front of what she assumed was the main console that powered the entire ship, to which she faced the console and held her new Twinblades up in the air for a few seconds as the Fel energy danced around her, followed by the sounds of the ship coming online. How she knew that was due to the ring of light that appeared in the central area that the Brood Queen had been standing in when they found her and cut her down, though Spitfire also noticed that the demon's body was currently hanging from an area near the roof of the chamber, a trophy of their victory over the forces of Mardum, and once all of the powering up was done she watched as the central terminal came online and revealed a star map, detailing Azeroth and, more importantly, the Broken Isles that they would be heading to next. With that done Kor'vas, Kayn, and Altruis lead the way down to the lower area that was in front of them, giving them time to see Battlelord Gaardoun and his Ashtongue warriors teleport into the left side of the chamber, Lady S'theno and her Coilskar did the same in the area opposite of the first group, and Malevolence took her position across from where the demon hunters were standing, joining the rest of her Shivarra as all three groups proclaimed that there was more work for them to do and that they would serve Spitfire until their dying breath. Kor'vas and the others declared that they would finish the mission their Lord had given them, that they would find the Sargerite Keystone and recover it, take down both Varedis and Caria so they couldn't come back, and strike out at the Legion as they sought out the prison that their Lord was trapped in, even if there was no real order to that sequence of events, rather it was just her reminding them of their current tasks. Spitfire, on the other hand, was happy to see that the vast majority of their forces had, against all odds, overcome the challenges of Mardum and had survived long enough for her, Rainbow, and the others to join them again, though as she took all of it in the rest of the demon hunters got settled in before they were sent out on missions to the provinces that the Pillars of Creation were supposed to be located in, and it appeared that Gaardoun had something he wanted to tell her before anyone was sent out on a mission. "Lady Spitfire, while it is good to see you again there is something you need to see," Gaardoun said, where he started to walk towards one of the ramps that would take them down to the lower level of the ship, the area that they had used all those years ago when they acquired the Keystone, though both Spitfire and Rainbow followed after him as the others went about their business, "I apologize for us not attempting to follow you back to the Black Temple, because as soon as you and the others went through the portal we were assaulted by Legion reinforcements and they wiped out the portal, which is why we have spent the last seven years defending the Fel Hammer from our enemies, but during our conquest we did find something truly wonderful: an ancient Nathrezim Forge, one that the Dreadlords used to make some of the most dangerous and deadly weapons that the Legion have used in their crusade. At first we had no idea what to do with it, to which I posted some of my best soldiers near the opening leading to it so they could keep it safe, but now, after seeing the weapons that you and Rainbow are wielding, I would think that you could use the forge to make your weapons sharper and more deadlier than they currently are... though the only way to truly tap into the full power of the forge would be if we had a Dreadlord on our side, not that such a thing is possible since they dislike us." "Well, there is the Dreadlord the others captured... maybe we could convince him to join us?" Rainbow stated, though at the same time she did know that the odds of such a thing working in their favor were slim to none, since Lord Illidan was the one that detonated the world of the Dreadlords all those years ago, wiping out the majority of them, so if one of their kind were to join the Illidari it would mostly be to destroy them from the inside, so she was talking about something that was an impossibility. Spitfire considered it for a moment as they stopped in the room that the forge was in, which looked like a forge that had been enlarged so a creature like the Nathrezim could work on it, not to mention the Fel energies that happened to be coming from the item, though instead of worrying about all of that she thanked Gaardoun for showing them to the area it was in and headed back to Kor'vas... who, upon their arrival, escorted them out to the island they had left the shackled Dreadlord on, as if she knew what Spitfire was going to ask her. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, allow me to introduce Loramus Thalipedes, a demon hunter who was unable to join our Lord when he returned to Outland," Kor'vas said, though that revealed so much to Spitfire, who quickly determined that the individual that was in front of them, while looking like a Dreadlord, was actually in possession of two souls and they were constantly fighting with each other for control, sort of like how some of them had to constantly fight the demon soul that was inside them, even though neither her or Rainbow really had to do that, "though now he's sharing a body with a Dreadlord called Razelikh the Defiler. Khadgar and his mages found him trying to derail several Legion operations in the land of Azsuna and decided to pull him out before he was caught, so to the best of the Legion's knowledge he's dead and will be reborn in the Twisting Nether again, to be thrown at Azeroth again, but we made sure he was delivered to us with all the speed they could muster, as we intend on helping Loramus take control of his foe and use his power to assist us in our mission to destroy the Legion." "I see." Spitfire replied, as that was good news for them, because having someone who was in control of a Dreadlord's soul like this would give them all the knowledge that the demon in question had access to, and, if the stories about their ability to craft terrible weapons was true, this would give them the power to forge even stronger weapons for the future, and maybe some other things as well, before she faced the imprisoned demon hunter, "Loramus, I trust that you know what we'll be doing in the next few minutes? Are you ready to tame the Dreadlord?" "Y... Yes." was the reply she got, though where one would assume that the voice belonged to the demon, and in truth they were partly correct, it was the full word that sounded more like the elf that had been stuck with this fate so long ago, showing that he understood wha they were going to be doing and that he would do his best to keep Razelikh contained for the duration of what Kor'vas had planned. As such Kor'vas had the demon hunters that were tending to the prison shift the Fel energies and escort the structure into the portal that was in front of them, as none of them wanted the Legion to see them turning a Dreadlord to their side, and in the off chance that this failed they would be near the Twisting Nether so they could kill Razelikh and he would never come back again, before the group reappeared in the Fel Hammer. Once that was done Spitfire and Rainbow moved to the side for a moment and watched what happened next, as usually the demonic tattoos were created when a demon hunter took in the soul of a powerful demon, to help the demon hunter restrain and seal the soul inside them, something that the two of them had bypassed when they seized control of the demon souls that served as the bases of their power, so this was the first time they saw someone apply the markings to the body of another demon hunter. Hence the reason the two of them watched as the others applied some markings to the Dreadlord's body, Fel green colored to be exact, before they pulled away as the Fel energy danced around the shared body for a few moments, causing Loramus and Razelikh to fight each other for the next couple of minutes, the body seemingly shifting between the form of a night elf and a Nathrezim, showing that both of them were trying to overcome the other and assert their dominance over their body. Fortunately it didn't last forever and there was a brief flash that made everyone look away, but when they were able to look again they found a night elf, who had long purple hair, red gloves, and a red pair of Illidari pants, along with a red sash around his eyes, standing where the Dreadlord had been, though it appeared that Loramus had been successful and they could add the knowledge of a Nathrezim to their arsenal. Loramus, of course, was caught off guard by the fact that he had succeeded over Razelikh and that he still feared that he might lose to the demon that his soul was connected with, hence the reason Spitfire made sure the others that stayed inside the Fel Hammer kept an eye on him, because if he was worried about losing to his inner demon the best thing they could do was end both of them before something happened, ensuring neither of their souls were taken by the Legion to be used in this war... though once that was done Spitfire and Rainbow returned to Krasus' Landing, mostly to think about what they needed to do next, before they started to figure out which province they would tackle. "Ah, there you are." a familiar voice said, where the pair turned the moment they landed on the area that all of the heroes were running around, who seemed to be heading out for the locations that their artifacts happened to be located in, so they could claim them and return to the city so they could begin their work in the Broken Isles, before they found Khadgar walking over to where they were standing, accompanied by a worgen that was wearing plate armor, which looked more death-like than what the paladins wore, meaning the light grayish blue furred lady was a death knight, as if the blue glowing eyes didn't give her nature away, "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, allow me to introduce Scarlet Chillhowl, one of the four death knights that have been chosen to lead the rest of the death knights in our battle against the Legion, though she specializes in wielding the power of frost, as opposed to the power of blood or unholy... the only reason they'll have four Deathlords, as that is what they are going to be calling their champions, is because Zuleth prefers to wield Shadowmourne and doesn't want to give it up for a different artifact of power." "Considering everything he went through to make that weapon, I wouldn't give it up either," the worgen, Scarlet, said, though at the same time she focused on the two of them for a moment and revealed a sack that she had been carrying the entire time, one that the pair was only just now noticing, but it seemed that it was rather important and that was why Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at it for a moment, "Since I specialize in using the frost version of a death knight's powers, and not the other two, I was tasked with heading to Icecrown Citadel and had to recover the fragments of Frostmourne, not to mention I had to put down a few lingering souls that were around the fragments, but this sack contains every piece of the shattered runeblade, both the blade fragments and the handle... I was told that you might be able to reforge the weapon and turn it into a tool to destroy the demons of the Legion." "Correction: neither of us can reforge the weapon," Spitfire stated, though at the same time she gestured to the small island that the portal to the Fel Hammer rested on, giving Khadgar and Scarlet a moment to look down at it, before she and Rainbow opened their wings once more as they prepared to head back to the ship their comrades were resting in right now, "but we know someone who might be able to help you out." As soon as she said that Spitfire and Rainbow jumped backwards and flew back to the island, where Khadgar used his magic to move him and Scarlet down to them, before the four of them entered the portal and then sought out Loramus, even though Khadgar had to pause for a moment to take in what he was seeing at the moment, only to find that the newly freed demon hunter was resting nearby and wasn't even attempting to wield any warglaives. Loramus seemed surprised by Scarlet's request, once they told him what she was asking them to do, but in the end he nodded and took the sack from the death knight so he could check out the fragments, all while no doubt going over the knowledge that the Dreadlord had granted him as they walked down to where the Nathrezim Forge rested. When they reached the forge, however, Loramus had them stay on the upper floor as he walked down into the chamber that was his destination, where he shifted into his empowered form, which was him stealing Razelikh's Dreadlord form interestingly enough, and then poured the contents of the sack out onto the forge as he acquired the necessary tools that would allow him to work on the weapon. As such there was nothing for the group to do for the foreseeable future, to which Spitfire and Rainbow agreed that the Broken that were guarding the opening could come get them once Loramus was done with his work and then they headed back up to the highest level of the ship, to stare at the map of the Broken Isles and see if there was any information they could gleam from the Fel globe, before they decided on which province they headed to first. Khadgar and Scarlet followed them, as they were guests inside the Fel Hammer and the other demon hunters, and the Illidari, kept their eyes on them while they were visiting their base of operations, mostly to make sure they didn't try anything funny, before they stared at the map as well as they came to a stop near the pair. While they were staring at the map, however, Khadgar informed them of what he knew about the four main provinces that their forces would be focusing on for the first stage of their search for the Pillars of Creation, giving them an idea as to which Pillar was supposed to be in which province and what they might expect if they were to head down to that area and start exploring it. There was the land of Azsuna, where there was a significant Legion presence, weaker than what was in Suramar anyway, a number of ruins that looked like they were ten thousand years old, and supposedly there had been a few sightings of some blue dragons in the province as well, though from what the tome told him Azsuna was where they would find the Tidestone of Golganneth. To the north of Azsuna rested Val'sharah, a forest province that was the home of some ancient druids and the Wild God Cenarius, though it was where they would find the artifact known as the Tears of Elune, which struck Spitfire and Rainbow as odd since Elune wasn't the name of one of the Titans that would have created the Pillars of Creation, but they said nothing to that as they listened to what he had to say. To the northeast of Val'sharah rested Highmountain, the home of three tribes of tauren that were different from the tauren of the Horde, not to mention a number of other creatures, while it served as the location of the Hammer of Khaz'goroth, one that might be difficult to track down and that was why they were reaching out to the locals to find it. After that was Stormheim, which rested to the southeast of Highmountain and served as the home of the Aegis of Aggramar, though from what they knew there were some vrykul settlements in the area and some Titan structures, but the most important thing Khadgar had discovered was that Sylvanas Windrunner and Genn Greymane were both heading there, meaning conflict would spark once they found each other, even though Scarlet determined she would be joining her leader in his quest. That gave Spitfire an idea as to what to expect from the provinces, with Suramar being the last province that held the final Pillar of Creation, the Eye of Aman'Thul, though before she could really think about it they were interrupted by the arrival of Loramus, where Khadgar and Scarlet gasped as they stared at what he was holding, a two-handed runeblade that was wicked looking and seemed to have an air of frost around it. "Frostmourne... you repaired the blade?!" Scarlet stated, as she recognized the sinister weapon that the last Lich King had used before his demise, the one that had been shattered by Ashbringer when the heroes engaged their foe all those years ago, but while she collected the fragments and purified them, as per the new Lich King's orders, she hadn't been expecting this to even happen. "Yes, though it will feast on the souls of demons, instead of the souls of people like you and the people of Dalaran," Loramus said, though at the same time he switched his grip on the weapon and held it out for Scarlet to take, showing that he understood why Spitfire had brought the worgen to the Fel Hammer in the first place and he had rapidly put the knowledge of the Dreadlords to use in reforging one of the Legion's most dangerous weapons, and he had changed part of its nature in such a short period of time, "though that's not all I changed, as you can focus on switching it from a two-handed greatsword and make it a pair of one-handed swords... go on, try it out." Scarlet stared at the weapon for a moment as she gripped the handle and took it from Loramus, where she focused her mind for a moment as she considered what he had just told her and tried to switch the blade into the one-handed form he had told her about, though that was when they watched as the blade seemed to separate into two smaller blades and the handle did the same, giving Scarlet two shorter one-handed swords, instead of giving her a massive one-handed sword, like a longsword for example, where she stared at the new blades in shock for a couple of seconds. "Allow me to introduce the second form of Frostmourne: the Blades of the Fallen Prince, Frostreaper and Icebringer," Loramus stated, where they weren't the only ones looking at the weapons Scarlet was now carrying, as everyone was a little interested in what the five of them were doing at the moment, even though this would freak out the heroes that had fought the Lich King all those years ago, "I don't know if you know this or not, but Varian Wyrnn carried a weapon known as Shalamayne, a sword that was two swords merged into a single entity and could be separated back into Shall'tor and Ellemayne whenever the wielder willed such a change... I figured that we could do the same thing with Frostmourne, just in case carrying the greatsword into battle is too much for you to handle." "Personally, I prefer using two one-handed swords when I fight," Scarlet replied, where Spitfire could tell she wasn't kidding, since there were a pair of blades attached to her belt and looked like some of the swords the other death knights had carried into battle, before she brought her hands together and the two blades became one as she willed it to happen, showing that she could either carry Frostmourne or the Blades of the Fallen Prince into battle, "however, it will be good to use one of the Legion's most dangerous weapons against them, especially when they learn that we were able to reforge it from the fragments that were scattered around Icecrown Citadel." "We should keep an eye out for any other weapons of power while we're fighting the Legion, just in case we can claim more artifacts to use against them," Rainbow commented, because she was sure that their enemies had made more than just the blade Scarlet was carrying or the Twinblades that Spitfire was now carrying, since the latter had been twisted by the power of Kil'jaeden, and she felt that it would be nice to have more weapons to use against them, despite the fact that it would take them time to locate all of them. "I will return to Acherus and see if the other newly crowned Deathlords were successful in finding their artifacts, save for Zuleth of course," Scarlet said, where she took a moment to remove her old blades and put them in a pack that she had been carrying, before withdrawing a sheath that looked like it belonged to Frostmourne, only she experimented with the defusing and refusing aspect of the weapon and found that the sheath mimicked it, meaning she could carry either into battle and have a place to return her new weapon. With that done Spitfire and Rainbow turned their attention to the map once more, though this time Spitfire was going to have their forces focus on assisting the heroes that went down to Azsuna, since that had the largest Legion presence in the four provinces that they were starting with, but neither she or Rainbow were going to head there, rather she felt that Stormheim had to be their destination, more because she had the feeling that Sylvanas and Glenn would attack each other and not focus on the mission, so she was going to deal with the Banshee Queen while Rainbow went along with Genn, even though Spitfire was hoping her feelings on the matter were wrong and that she was just being paranoid. > Stormheim: Into the Fray > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow spent the rest of the day making sure everyone had what they needed, as in ensuring that Kor'vas and the others had everything they might possibly need for their mission in Azsuna, which included a few tents, some supplies that Gaardoun helped them acquire, a number of crystals that would allow them to seal a demon's soul inside them, or more than one if they felt like it, and a few of Jace's toys, the wards that kept demons at bay. Kayn and Altruis, despite not being the leader of their group and had to work under Kor'vas, did as they were told and made sure to get whatever they and their forces needed, as not all of the Illidari were heading down to the province Spitfire was sending them to, as she didn't want to risk all of them at the beginning of their war. That left Malevolence and the other Captains to make sure they and their forces were ready for the future, as once the others returned from Azsuna all of them would be working on the other missions Spitfire had for them, the first being finding Lord Illidan's body and the other being discovering the location that Varedis and Caria had fled to, the latter being so they could track the traitors down and kill them. Once the traitors were taken care of they could turn their full attention to helping the other heroes find the Pillars of Creation, if they were in need of some help anyway, though the majority of them would switch over to figuring out where the Legion took their Lord's body and figuring out where the Keystone had ended up, since that was vital to their plans. Spitfire, on the other hand, was going to make sure that she and Rainbow stopped Sylvanas from starting an all out war with the Alliance by attacking Glenn and his forces when they reached Stormheim, as the last thing they needed at the moment was a faction war raging while they dealt with the Legion's current invasion. Of course Spitfire was hoping that she was wrong and Sylvanas was smart enough to make peace with the Alliance so they could deal with the larger threat Azeroth happened to be facing at the moment, but there was always the chance that the Banshee Queen might prove her thoughts correct and that was what she was hoping to avoid, hence the reason she had asked Khadgar to get a message to whoever was taking Glenn to Stormheim, to arrange for Rainbow to join them and see if she could quell whatever rage the Alliance might have towards Sylvanas, while she was planning on following her target so she could stop them as well. Despite being in a formerly held Legion world they were able to get some decent sleep, even if they and the rest of the Illidari had to take turns to be sure no enemies snuck up on them, before morning on Azeroth arrived without anything happening to them, save for the arrival of a magical sphere that seemed to be from Khadgar, who informed them that he could teleport both Spitfire and Rainbow to the vessels that would be heading for Stormheim in the next hour. As such the pair bid the rest of their forces farewell for the time being, knowing that Kor'vas would make sure the others were ready to go in the near future, and headed through the portal so they could head back to Dalaran, which was followed by them making their way to the building the Council of Seven gathered in when they discussed things. While they walked through the city they discovered that there were a number of heroes gathered in the streets and shops, where each of them had to be the chosen representatives of their class based on the artifacts that they were carrying at the moment, revealing that everyone was taking this threat seriously and that they wanted to stop the Legion, causing them to nod their heads a few times as they reached the building that was their destination. What they discovered was that two individuals, in addition to the Council members, were waiting for someone to arrive, where a lady that was dressed as an admiral of a ship and had a blue coloration to her attire was standing to the right of the stairs, while Nathanos Blightcaller was standing to the left of the stairs, only he seemed annoyed by something, no doubt due to the fact that he had to wait for them to arrive so they could leave for their destination. Of course there were two other individuals in the chamber and it didn't take them long to recognize both Vytheril, who was carrying a staff on his back that seemed to radiate arcane energies, and Scarlet, who was happy to see them as she stood near the human to the right of the stairs, the opposite of what Vytheril was doing, though neither Spitfire or Rainbow were surprised to see Scarlet again. The fact that Nathanos put some distance between him and the human meant that he didn't like the Alliance, even though both of them were in neutral territory and only had to tolerate the others presence, but the pair didn't think about it too much as Khadgar approached them, as it was time to them to see what was going on and then get the show on the road, or whatever the Azerothian version of the saying was. "Friends, it is good to see that you are well and ready to start our quest," Khadgar commented, which was followed by both of them nodding their heads in agreement, as they knew it was time to start looking for the Pillars of Creation and that anyone who hadn't found their artifacts yet would be joining the rest of the heroes at some point in the near future, even though they could see that Jaina was glaring at Nathanos, "Rainbow Dash, the Alliance has sent Sky Admiral Rogers to collect you for their flight to Stormheim, as they intend to leave Stormwind in the next thirty minutes, while the Horde has chosen to send Nathanos Blightcaller to make sure you, Lady Spitfire, make it to the docks near Orgrimmar, so they can depart once Sylvanas is ready to depart... and both Scarlet and Vytheril will be joining their respective factions to aid them and you in finding the Aegis of Aggramar." That was when the pair nodded again and Rainbow walked over to where Scarlet and Rogers were standing, where a piece of paper was handed over to her and she took a moment to read what Spitfire assumed were the official summons to join the mission, before the three of them departed through the portal that was nearby and headed for Stormwind, and it was closed once Khadgar knew they had reached their destination, which was the moment Spitfire and Vytheril walked up to where Nathanos was standing. "Greetings, Vytheril Truthseeker... and Spitfire... I am here on behalf of Lady Sylvanas Windrunner. I would hope the both of you recognize the name." Nathanos stated, as if they needed to know who he represented and everything, despite the fact that it was pretty clear that he was here on the new Warchief's orders, before he thrust a sealed envelope into Vytheril's hand not a second later, with little regard for what the two of them were thinking at the moment, even though Spitfire felt his tone was unacceptable, as he sounded like he thought he was their superior, "Just read it and follow me... you can read, can't you?" "Of course I can read." Vytheril replied, though his tone revealed that he was growing tired of Nathanos' attitude and that he might snap at the undead that was trying to boss him around, but he restrained himself so he could see what was inside the envelope, which was just a letter that was from Sylvanas, revealing that she had a fleet that would be sailing for Stormheim and that the heroes who went to the province would have her full support. Once that was done the three of them headed through the portal that was in front of them and appeared somewhere outside Orgrimmar, where Spitfire noticed that they were on a metallic dock that had a number of ships resting in front of where they were standing, each of them looking like a pirate ship that had been twisted into a more deathly state with the large skull near the front, which she was hoping was fake, the darkened sails, and the undead crew, like the undead she had seen when Vol'jin died, that was getting the ship ready to depart, even if one ship even had some crew members that were in the middle of brewing something. "Ah, champions, so kind of you to show up." a voice said, where Spitfire turned her head a little and found Sylvanas looking down at them from the deck she was standing on, as she happened to be a floor above where she, Vytheril, and Nathanos were standing, though that didn't stop her personal champion from walking up to the deck that she was on so he could be ready for their departure, though it was also easy to tell that she was glaring at Spitfire, "Tell me, are you at all familiar with the vrykul? No? Well, they are towering and brutish warriors that stubbornly hold fast to the past, though they lack all forms of subtlety, regardless of what form it takes... and their legends speak of the Aegis of Aggramar, where to claim it one must be found... worthy. Truthfully, Stormheim holds another treasure, one different from the relic that you will be hunting for, though I shall be pursuing it while you and your allies track down the Aegis, as this treasure will allow me to ensure that the Forsaken will endure, regardless of what the future throws at us... especially since there are still those with the power to stop death." "You know, its nice that your thinking about your people and their future, but it would be better if you focused on the here and now, which means stopping the Legion," Spitfire remarked, because what she was hearing was that this was an escort to Stormheim, mostly to show the forces of the Horde that Sylvanas was siding with their mission, when the reality of the situation was that she was more interested in the immediate fate of her people and herself, rather than the fate of their entire world, hence why she was a little annoyed with her at the moment, "though that's only a recommendation from me, after hearing your little speech." "Oh, are you trying to tell your Warchief what to do?!" Sylvanas inquired, though her tone revealed that she wouldn't tolerate Spitfire's presence if she was trying to undermine her and her authority, which caused some of the Forsaken to stop what they were doing as they looked at the pair, worried that a fight might break out before they even left for their destination, "As the leader of the Horde I am your superior and my word is law..." "And I would only care about that if I were a member of the Horde, which I'm not," Spitfire stated, reminding Vytheril and the others that knew her, of which there were a few present that might have seen her while she was helping Saurfang take down the demons that were attacking the areas near Orgrimmar, though she focused on Sylvanas, who didn't seem at all happy with her, "nor am I a member of the Alliance. The Illidari are allied with the forces of Azeroth and are focused on stopping the Legion, though the reason I even joined this little escort was so that I can make sure you and Genn don't blow each other apart and spark another faction war, in the middle of our war with the Legion... stay focused on the task of stopping the Legion and I'll be out of your hair." Sylvanas seemed to be glaring daggers at her, not that Spitfire cared since she had faced worse enemies in battle than what the Banshee Queen could do, before the Captain of the ship reported in and it seemed to be the information that she was waiting for, to which she turned away and retired to her private quarters so she could wait for them to reach their destination, causing Spitfire to focus on something else. "You know, its not a smart move to challenge the Warchief, especially since many don't trust those that channel the Fel power through their body," Vytheril commented, though at the same time he had to admit that Spitfire was rather brave for even doing that, especially when the leader of the Horde happened to be the Banshee Queen, but even as he said that he did notice something interesting, Spitfire was focused on the Forsaken that were brewing something near the stairs that would take them to the level that was below them, "Um, is something wrong?" "Don't know." Spitfire replied, though at this point she was sure that whatever the alchemists were brewing had to be bad for them and the Alliance, which was the reason that she walked over to the area that the three Forsaken were in and came to a stop when she neared them, seeing that all of them glanced at her, and Vytheril since he joined her, but kept on doing what they were supposed to do, "Excuse me, what are you making?" "Blight, as per the Dark Lady's orders." one of the alchemists, no doubt the leader of the group, stated, though at the same time the other two focused on what they were doing as she focused on them, clearly wanting to get back to work while apparently deciding to take the time to talk to her and Vytheril, which was rather odd when she thought about it and didn't say anything about it, "To deal with our enemies, Genn Greymane and his forces." "You're serious? You're making Blight, after what happened at the Wrathgate?" Vytheril asked, where Spitfire had no idea what he was talking about and was just listening at this point, as she could tell that whatever the alchemists were in the middle of making didn't sit well with her ally, meaning it might be bad if Genn saw it on the Forsaken ships, before the blood elf sighed for a moment, "A number of years ago the forces of the Alliance and Horde gathered to fight the Lich King, and it was at Angrathar the Wrathgate that we were supposed to do that, only for some of the Forsaken, who we learned were under the control of a Dreadlord, released their own special Blight on us and the Scourge, a Blight that was incredibly dangerous to both the living and the dead... it would have been worse had our red dragon allies not come in and burn the area to purify the Blight. Did the Banshee Queen learn nothing from that day?" "We do not know, as we are only doing as we're told," the alchemist replied, though that was the moment that Spitfire had enough of what was going on, because if they were making Blight, which seemed to be on the level of what was used in the past, she and Vytheril needed to shut them down before they reached Stormheim, otherwise Genn was going to assume the worst and attack them. As such she had the alchemists test their Blight and discovered that they had a dead Forsaken aboard the ship, which was just odd and totally weird to her, where they apparently removed part of the individual and carefully dipped it into the Blight they were making, only for the piece to wither away in a matter of seconds, showing Spitfire that they were carrying something that was as deadly as the Blight that was used on Angrathar. Once that was determined, and the alchemists realized exactly what they had been making, Spitfire called for them to carefully contain the Blight that they had created and flew over to the other five ships Sylvanas was sending to Stormheim, which meant the majority of the Horde was left defending the lands that their capitals were located in, waiting to be called upon once the Pillars had been gathered, and informed the rest of the alchemists of the error they were making, much to their dismay when they realized the truth of what they were carrying for themselves. Not a few moments later, when all of the Blight was carefully contained in barrels and sealed with lids, Spitfire carried the barrels off to a small patch of land that wasn't connected to anything and set all of them down, doing that a few times before all of the Blight was contained on the island, which was when Vytheril joined her and loosed a few fireballs down at the barrels, explaining that all mages learned a spell or two from all three aspects they could learn about, he was just more proficient in wielding the Arcane. That was followed by the barrels exploding as his fireballs tended to the Blight itself, burning away the foul substance before it could spread anywhere else, allowing them to put a smile on their faces, and the same was true for the alchemists now that they weren't lugging around the terrifying substance, before they returned to the ship and found Nathanos glaring at them, no doubt unhappy with them blowing away the Blight, especially since he was the Blightcaller, but he said nothing before returning to the room that Sylvanas was waiting in, leaving them to their duties. Spitfire learned that they were heading to a predetermined area so that Khadgar and the other Council members, of which she was sure Jaina wouldn't be a part of, could teleport them to the northern part of Stormheim, something she was sure Jaina and some of the other members would be doing for the Alliance, so she settled in for a ride and asked her new friend about a few things that came to mind, like who the Lich King was, since that was a mystery she hadn't unraveled yet, and what a Mak'gora was, mostly to pass the time. True to what Vytheril said they reached a point where the small fleet disappeared from the sea that was in front of them and reappeared near a coast that was different than what Spitfire had seen earlier, as there was a massive stone statue, of a vrykul warrior if Spitfire had to guess, though the time it took them to reach the teleport area gave her time to get some answers to her questions, but now she and Vytheril stopped talking and looked out at the area they were in. There were a few rocks in their way, between them and the coast that they would be docking at so they could disembark and start their quest for the Aegis of Aggramar, though from what little she could see she had to guess that there was a river that lead deeper into the province, one that Sylvanas would likely be taking once she dropped the two of them off. There weren't many trees in the area, and the ones she saw were a healthy green color, though as she glanced out at the area the couple of alchemists that were aboard the ship made sure to hand out a couple of vials that had a red liquid inside them and a few that contained a blue liquid, where she learned that they were health and mana potions, meaning that someone could down one and either heal their wounds or restore their magicka if they were in a pinch. She had no idea if she would need the health potions, given what had happened in the past, but she decided to pocket them and keep them for later, even though she was happy to see that the alchemists had given up on the notion of brewing any Blight with what was left in all of their supplies, and then focused on what might happen next. As few moments later, as they drew closer to the coast, Vytheril turned and beckoned to an area for Spitfire to look at, where she glanced over to the part of the sky in question and found an airship, a wooden contraption that had metal to hold everything together and had four propellers that allowed it to fly through the air, which informed them that Rainbow and the Alliance forces had arrived in Stormheim... and, as they got closer to the coast, she noticed that there was a much smaller vessel, one that came from the airship, that was heading down to the area Spitfire and the Horde were heading to, which meant Genn was coming to talk with them. "Oh good, the beasts are coming down to play." Nathanos commented, where Spitfire had to resist the urge to turn around and slap him for the insult, as that was the last thing they needed at the moment, for Sylvanas or her champion to say something that pissed off Genn and his forces, though she was sure that their mere presence would likely piss off the worgen that were coming down to speak with them. "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all." Spitfire stated, because she wasn't about to let either him or his leader sabotage her attempts to stop the Alliance and Horde from going to war with each other, which she now knew was going to be a challenge since Nathanos couldn't help but insult the worgen while they weren't within earshot of them, before she turned and glanced at the couple of vessels that Rainbow was following, which seemed to be another type of flying vehicle, gyrocopters according to what Vytheril told her. When they drew closer to the coast, and no shots were fired by either side, Spitfire and Vytheril disembarked from the ship and came to a stop not a few seconds later, where Spitfire watched as a human, whose hair and beard were trimmed and he wore a suit that revealed he was a lord or a king, even though the pair of worgen that flanked him were wearing metal armor, though from what she could tell this had to be Genn Greymane, and another reason she knew it was due to the fact that Scarlet was standing near him. "So, you're Spitfire, the leader of the Illidari? Its an honor to meet you," the human said, where he sounded very polite and well mannered, even though it was clear that Rainbow and Scarlet had told him about her while they were traveling to the location of the teleportation magic Khadgar and the others had prepared for him and his forces, before he turned his gaze towards the pair that were behind her, Sylvanas and Nathanos, where a look of pure anger filled his eyes, despite the fact that his features remained the same, "the same, however, cannot be said for the individuals that you traveled with, despite Rainbow telling me what you were trying to do... I only stopped myself from firing the cannons due to the fact that the Legion is our main concern." "Its an honor to meet you as well, Genn Greymane," Spitfire replied, and that was the truth, because while she knew the man that was in front of her was incredibly angry with Sylvanas and Nathanos, why she had no idea even though she could hazard a guess as to why he didn't like either of them, it was his restraint and willingness to work with the heroes of the Horde that she was impressed by, despite the fact that she knew he was having a hard time restraining himself as he stared at the pair that was approaching them. "So, the boy-king sends his mutt to recover the Aegis and to stop us from being here," Sylvanas commented, her tone reflecting that she viewed Genn and his worgen in the same way that Nathanos did, that they were little more than beasts and weren't people, though Spitfire wasn't the only one who seemed to be annoyed with the Banshee Queen, as all of the soldiers that Genn brought were fighting the urge to snap and attack the pair that mocked them, "How does it feel, Genn, to serve a child that knows nothing of war and won't lift a finger to aid you in your quest for revenge, not unless you lost something important to you... like your whelp of a daughter, for example." "We're here to assist the heroes in finding and recovering the Aegis of Aggramar, so we can stop the Legion and push them back once more," Genn replied, showing Spitfire that either Rainbow, Scarlet, or someone else must have convinced him and the other leaders of the Alliance to focus on the Legion, instead of crying out for vengeance for the loss of the last High King, where she had to assume it was Jaina who did most of the work, before he growled for a moment, more like an angry beast than a person, as he stared at Sylvanas, "but if you so much as harm my daughter, in any way, shape, or form, then I'll come at you with everything I've got and I won't stop until one of us is dead!" "Is that a promise I hear?" Nathanos inquired, almost sounding like he wanted to engage Genn and his soldiers right here and now, hence the reason his bow was already at the ready, that way if the worgen lashed out first he would be able to defend himself and his Queen from their attacks, and both Spitfire and Rainbow had to wonder if he was smirking right now, as if he was waiting to spark a faction war between the Alliance and the Horde, "Maybe I'll go to Dalaran later and see what your whelp is up to, though since she has no guards it would be a walk in the park for me, not to mention terribly dull since she wouldn't see me coming..." It was in that moment that Genn and the other worgen, knowing that he didn't want any harm to come to his only remaining child, growled as their leader transformed into a large gray-white furred worgen and started to advance on the area that Sylvanas and Nathanos were in, though that was when Spitfire stepped between them and summoned both of her warglaives from her horns, pointing one of them towards Genn to stop him while the other was pointed at her real target, the ones that were the aggressors in this situation. "Are you trying to start a faction war?" Spitfire asked, her tone displaying her annoyance with Sylvanas, because she had been hoping that the Banshee Queen would have been smarter than this and would have made sure not to annoy the worgen while they were in Stormheim, but it seemed she underestimated how stupid Sylvanas was, especially since she did nothing to quiet Nathanos and let him annoy Genn, even though Genn was a little to blame for this as well, but most of the blame was on the two Horde figures. "A war with the Alliance is inevitable, there's no stopping such a thing from happening," Sylvanas stated, because that was the truth of the matter to her, as she knew that the two factions didn't like each other all that much and they she knew that they would be at each others throats at some point in the future, especially if she was able to force Genn into firing at her and her allies, before she stared at Spitfire as her rangers had their arrows trained on her, something that caused her to smirk for a moment, as if she believed that she had the upper hand in this situation, "though I must admit that it was rather foolish for you to draw your weapons on the Warchief of the Horde, as attacking me means you'll be making the entirety of the Horde your enemies... whatever will your traitorous master think of your actions?" "Listen to me, you are not to do anything that will spark a faction war with the Alliance... focus on repelling the Legion from Azeroth and nothing else," Spitfire replied, though based on what she had seen so far, where Sylvanas and Nathanos had ignored her earlier statement and aggravated Genn within a few moments of meeting him in Stormheim, she knew it was only a matter of time until this happened area, before she withdrew her warglaives from where they were resting and started to walk up the beach, as there was a large lift off in the distance that looked like a sensible place for them to start their quest to find the Aegis, before she glanced by at Sylvanas for a moment, "Oh, and I highly doubt that Saurfang and all of the Horde's heroes would suddenly listen to you if you told them I told you to focus on the Legion and not the Alliance, since all of them are interested in bringing down the demons... so think about that before you do anything, and while you do that I'll be starting our quest for the Aegis. Oh, and don't badmouth Lord Illidan while your in the presence of the rest of the Illidari... just a little warning for when you encounter the others." Sylvanas looked like she might have something to say to her, to display her dislike for Spitfire's attitude, before she decided to leave it alone and returned to her fleet with Nathanos and her rangers following her, which was where Scarlet, Genn, and the rest of the worgen watched as the ships started to depart for the area and head to another area of this province, before the group sighed and Genn reverted back to his human form, even though he appeared to be one of the few worgen that even bothered with such a thing. "Thank you for stopping us from attacking each other. Anduin told me to try for peace, and I'm willing to give it a try, but, well..." Genn said, where Rainbow nodded her head, showing that what the leader of the worgens had said was true and that the new High King of the Alliance was trying to make peace with the Horde, which was going to be hard with the Banshee Queen being the one in charge of them, before he sighed for a moment, "Anyway, we're here to find the Aegis and return it to Dalaran, but after hearing what Sylvanas and her champion have in mind I'm afraid that we'll have to focus our attention on making sure she doesn't do anything that might jeopardize the mission... so my forces and I will have to take our leave and focus on the Banshee Queen, though Scarlet will be joining you." Spitfire nodded her head as Genn called for his forces to move out, to which she, Rainbow, Vytheril, and Scarlet stood still for a few moments as they watched the worgen depart from the area and use their gyrocopters to return to their ship so they could move into Stormheim and keep an eye on Sylvanas and her forces, though she was hoping that they didn't declare war on the Horde, otherwise things would become far worse than what they were at the moment. With both the forces of the Alliance and the forces of the Horde, or what had been sent to Stormheim anyway, were gone the group started to head over to the section of the beach that the lift connected to, something that was apparently common when one was dealing with the vrykul and their ancient settlements, and since it lead to a higher level it was where the four of them were headed. She was glad that she had stopped the Blight from being deployed in this area, as she she was that it would have wrecked the beach they were walking on, polluted the water that was around them, and possibly kill all of the animals that were in the area, of which there were none and she had to guess they had been scared off by the sounds of the airship and the gyrocopters, allowing them to reach the area that the lift was in. Both she and Rainbow were a little impressed by the size of the lift and the fact that there didn't seem to be any power source that powered all of it, but the pulley worked rather well and moved the lift without any difficulties, to which they waited for it to come back down to where they were standing and then used it to head up to a new part of Stormheim. When they reached the top of the lift and stepped off of it, however, Spitfire and her companions got a glimpse of the land that was in front of them, as it was easy to tell that the terrain was uneven, not that such a thing bothered the vrykul, there were long fjords and possibly even steep ravines, according to what Vytheril told them, though there was no telling what else there was to see and that they would have to wait until they got over the hill that was in front of them. The group paused as a pair of large ravens, one of them having a blue tint to some of its feathers like the other had a purple tint, flew down to where they happened to be standing and landed in front of them, allowing Spitfire to notice that the birds were about half their height and seemed to be cawing her name, or what sounded like her name, which was a little interesting since she was sure she had never been near these ravens before, only that was when she noticed that one of them, the blue one, held a scroll in its mouth and the purple one beckoned to it with its head, to which she accepted the scroll and opened it, finding a sea of runes that she knew nothing about. Hero, I sense that you and your allies possess great strength, though strength, alone, will not win you what you are seeking... but it will set you down the right path. a voice said, one that Spitfire didn't recognize and she could easily tell that she wasn't the only one that felt that way, as Rainbow didn't recognize it and both Vytheril and Scarlet, who were the real heroes that had saved this world many times over, were in the same camp that they were in, to which she turned back to the scroll to see what else it had to say, or what else the voice had to tell her, Head to the east of the hill that is in front of you, so you can head towards the Valley of the Sword, where Aggramar's Vault rests... I shall put your strength to the test and put you down the path that will guide you towards your goal. Spitfire had no idea that they would find an ally so quickly, since they had only been in Stormheim for a few minutes and hadn't encountered anyone that wasn't part of the two major factions, but at the very least someone was willing to aid them in their quest and she wasn't about to turn down the help, since they had no idea where to start, to which she rolled up the scroll, tucked it away in her pouch, and walked forward as the pair of ravens took to the sky, no doubt heading to the same place they were headed, as it was time for them to really begin their quest for the Aegis of Aggramar and secure it before the Legion discovered what they and the rest of the heroes were doing. > Stormheim: Valley of the Sword > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire, Rainbow, Vytheril, and Scarlet followed the pair of ravens as they headed towards the area that the mysterious voice told them to head to, or at least that was what the group was assuming since they knew nothing about what was going on, where they walked over come wooden planks that formed a path over some stones as well, before they reached the start of the hill and started to head up it. There were some worgs and some bull-like creatures, the former on the right side of the path they were following and the latter on the left side, where they were surprised that none of the worgs were going at the bulls, but that meant they were able to make their way through the area without being bothered by any of the wildlife that were in the area and conserve their energy for the potential enemies that they might face. Something they discovered were a few posts with lanterns that lined their way, which had sharpened points near the bottom for some reason, though they were part of the vrykul style, according to what Vytheril said, and for some reason all of them were lit despite the fact that it was daytime out, but they paid it little mind while walking along the path the ravens were following. The only other thing the four of them noticed was the massive humanoid statue that was resting near their location, which appeared to be a warrior that was different from what the humans looked like, meaning it had to be a vrykul, though at least it gave them an idea as to what the ancient residents of this province looked like, or at least that was what Spitfire and Rainbow gained from staring at the statue for a few seconds. At the same time they realized that the statue had to be of some importance to the residents of Stormheim, because part of its exterior looked like it was cleaned to a degree while the upper reaches of it seemed to be out of their reach, though after staring at it for a few moments, and they were left alone by the animals that were resting near the area they were standing in, they continued down the path that they had been following and kept an eye out for whoever the ravens happened to be leading them to. After a few more moments of walking the group paused as they finally reached an area where a cloth wearing vrykul, who was tending to what appeared to be a pot of food, happened to be standing, though it was what was beyond him that caused the group to pause as they stared out at the valley that was in front of them, one that had a number of camps set up and had three factions resting in front of what appeared to be an ancient stone vault that was underground, or at least part of it was anyway. One group of creatures happened to be a humanoid like all of the others they had seen, those these seemed to be more earthy than the others were and there were even fragments of stone growing out of their arms, legs, and the back of their heads, with some being even more brutish looking than the others did, though it was a race that none of them were at all familiar with and that meant they had to be on their guard when they approached them. Another camp contained what appeared to be tauren, though all of them seemed to have moose-like antlers for some odd reason, and they were armed as well, meaning they had come for the Aegis as well, just the like brutish stone creatures must have come for the relic as well. The third camp seemed to be made up of vrykul warriors, that much the four of them could see from where they were standing as they gazed out at the area around the vault, even though there were a number of them on top of the vault, doing who knew what since they were too far away to make anything out, but Spitfire and Rainbow could tell that there was more to these vrykul than what they happened to be seeing, as there was the taint of Fel magic in the air, meaning someone had sided with the Legion, and so far it was looking like the vrykul were prime suspects, which wasn't good for them and their mission. "Gul'dan sure works fast. I had no idea he already had allies in Stormheim," Rainbow commented, referring to one of their enemies, the orc warlock that was behind the opening of the Felstorm and everything that they had learned about after Maiev had freed them from the Vault of the Wardens, though she was more amazed by the fact that their foe had allies in at least three provinces, those being the demons in Azsuna, the mass of demons Spitfire had seen while she was in Suramar, and now a force of vrykul in Stormheim. "Indeed, though I believe its safe to say that he has allies in Val'sharah and Highmountain as well," Vytheril replied, as it was one thing to have allies in three of the five provinces of the Broken Isles, not counting the Broken Shore which was entirely dominated by the Legion, but given who they were talking about he was sure that the other two provinces were the same way, the problem was that they had no idea who those allies could be, "this is one of those times where I would like to be wrong, though we'll have to wait and see what the others tell us once we've recovered the four Pillars of Creation that we are currently seeking." Spitfire said nothing to that, as she had the feeling that Vytheril was right about the Legion having a foothold in each of the five provinces of the Broken Isles, before she headed over to the camp that was near them, as it was time that they figured out what the scholar vrykul wanted to tell them, even though he did have a battleaxe or two leaning against the posts of his mostly open tent, but as they walked over to him he snapped his head up as the pair of ravens flew around the camp and settled down, both on top of the tent. "I see that you got the letter my ravens delivered," the vrykul said, his voice matching the mysterious voice the group had heard earlier, meaning they had definitely found the person that wanted to talk with them, especially since he did just tell them that he was the one who sent the letter in the first place, which was when he gestured to himself, indicating that he was going to tell them who he was, "I am Havi, and I shall tell you what you need to know about the path that will lead you to your goal." "That's right, we got the scroll you sent us, but how did you know we came for the Aegis of Aggramar?" Spitfire asked, because while it was nice to have allies in this land, which weren't trying to blow someone else up, she wanted to be sure that Havi was on their side and that this wasn't a trap set for them by Gul'dan, even though she and Rainbow didn't fell any Fel energy coming from the area they were in, while at the same time Vytheril and Scarlet stood at the ready, in case any of the enemies in the area below them tried to rush up to the area they were in. "I could sense your power the moment you arrived in this land... besides, why else would you come to this land?" Havi replied, informing the group that the only reason Stormheim even got visitors was due to the Titan relic that was located here, or at least that was what Spitfire and Rainbow, at the very least, had been lead to believe from what Khadgar and the others had told them earlier, "The Aegis of Aggramar is what everyone seeks, and it rests in the High Hall of the All-Father, or the Halls of Valor, as they are more commonly called these days. How would a mortal claim it?" Spitfire thought about it for a moment, as it sounded like Havi was suggesting that the Halls of Valor were a realm of some kind that they would need to find a portal or gateway to access, if her thoughts were correct, but before any of them could respond to what their ally said they heard an interesting noise, which happened to be Havi's stomach, which let out a loud growl to indicate that he was hungry, causing the four of them to stare at the vrykul for a moment, as it somewhat ruined the mood of the situation. "Excuse me, that was inappropriate, but it does tie into your first test..." Havi stated, almost like he had planned all of this from the very beginning, which was totally possible since they knew nothing about him or the land of Stormheim, and that was when he turned for a moment and pointed at the cauldron that was currently resting over the campfire, though it was obvious as to what he was going to say next, or at least it was to Spitfire and Rainbow, after everything they had seen and learned from the rest of the Illidari, "Stir. That. Cookpot!" Since neither Spitfire or Rainbow really had any idea on how to cook the food of this world, something that they were going to have to learn on their own at some point in the future, Scarlet stepped forward and took a look at the cookpot for a few seconds, stirring it to make sure none of it burned, before heading over to an area that some crabs were tied up in and brought one or two over to the cookpot, while adding some vegetables and some grains to the meal that Havi had been preparing before their arrival, even though their new ally spoke while she did that. "The Vault that rests before you holds not glory, like many assume, rather is holds wisdom." Havi stated, though as he said that Spitfire, Rainbow, and Vytheril stood nearby and listened to what he had to say, while at the same time Scarlet did the same as she made sure the meal, which would be enough for one, was done and wasn't burned, as everyone was curious as to what they might learn, "Yotnar is the Vault's lock, and glory is the Vault's key... if you forge a key in the blood of champions, as in those that have come to best the trials, perhaps the lock will turn. Inside the Vault you will find paths... and possibly more... oh, that smells delicious." "Thanks, I learned how to cook like this when I was alive, before I was revived as a death knight," Scarlet said, where she put the finishing touches on the meal that was inside the cookpot and made sure it was pulled out at the proper time, so all Havi had to do was wait for it to cool down a little before he dived into his crab stew, as that was all she was able to make with the ingredients that had been laying around the camp, though such a thing was likely due to this being a test for them and not an actual cooking requirement to move forward. "Anyway, the Watcher Yotnar keeps the Vault, and he is, well, he's a fickle one." Havi continued, where he pulled out a bowl and served himself some of the crab stew Scarlet had made for him, something that he put off to the side so it could cool down a little before he ate it, allowing him to focus on the group once more so he could give them the final pieces of information that they needed to know, "Challengers come from far and wide, seeking the knowledge of the trials, but the Watcher chooses not to see them, silently declaring them to be unworthy of the trials... if you wish to catch his eye, all of you will have to show him that you are worth being seen. Some of these challengers I mentioned are waiting in the camps that rest throughout the Valley of the Sword, so I would suggest bringing their heads to Yotnar, so that he may see them, and, more importantly, the four of you." "Okay, kill the champions and take their heads... one of those should be easy for us to take out, considering that the one in question is full of Fel energy." Rainbow commented, though instead of waiting for Havi to say anything the four of them started to head down the path that was near the camp and quickly headed down into the area that was outside the Vault of Aggramar, where they focused on the three types of enemies and wondered who would be the best one to take out first, even though she and Spitfire headed for the camp that was laced with Fel energy. What was interesting was that they were able to reach the area that the Fel-corrupted vrykul warriors were camping in without being attacked by anyone else, as it appeared that the three camps were in different parts of the area and none of the challengers bothered to lash out at anyone that might be passing on the road that lead deeper into Stormheim, which allowed the group to lash out at their foes. Spitfire parried an attack with her warglaives and heard one of the vrykul say something about the Tideskorn being the ones to dominate the trials and that no one else would beat them, where she felt that these ones would be the Felskorn, due to their Fel nature, and lashed out at them with little remorse, as those that allied with the Legion deserved no mercy from her and her allies. Rainbow clearly felt the same way as she parried the attacks that were coming at her and then cut down the Felskorn that were in front of her, while Scarlet drew her blade and switched to the dual one-handed sword mode, allowing her to use two blades to parry a few attacks and cut down those that decided to challenge her, and Vytheril stayed at the back as he blasted some of their enemies with arcane magic so he could weaken them before they joined the battle. As it turned out the Felskorn were definitely stronger than what the group had been expecting, even though none of them had any idea as to how strong the Tideskorn vrykul actually were, but that didn't stop the group from forcing their way through their foes and smashed their way into the heart of the camp the Felskorn had been resting in, only to discover that whoever their champion was happened to be missing, something that one of their enemies mentioned before he hit the ground, dead from his wounds. "Okay, so either the Felskorn champion hasn't arrived yet, or they've gone missing," Vytheril said, where the group spent the next few moments studying the camp that they had found and knew that whoever Havi wanted them to kill was nowhere to be seen, though at the same time Spitfire and Rainbow made sure to take the Fel-corrupted souls of the fallen so they could use their power to improve their weapons in the future, before he found a small handheld box that just so happened to have some treasure inside it, "Well now, this is interesting, it appears that the challengers are carrying some bits of treasure, potentially offerings for this Yotnar that Havi mentioned earlier... should we gather some of the boxes our enemies have brought, so we can offer them to the Watcher of the Vault?" "Might as well." Spitfire replied, because there was no telling what the Watcher was expecting a worthy challenger to offer him, so they could learn about the trials that were necessary to locate and recover the Ageis, but if everyone that was in this area was carrying these boxes of treasure, despite their size, than it might be worth collecting a few of them so they could add them to their offering, once the other two champions were taken care of and their heads had been collected, just like Havi had told them to do. Vytheril nodded and made sure to pick up the couple of boxes that the Felskorn had been carrying with them, even though all of them were amazed by the fact that none of the treasure had been corrupted by the Fel energy their foes had used to empower themselves, though as he did that Spitfire focused on the antlered tauren that were nearby, where there seemed to be an equal number of male and female members of the group. Fortunately one of their enemies mentioned that they were members of the Bloodtotem tribe, which sounded like a weird name when they considered it, and that they would crush the group like the Drogbar that were on the other side of the valley, meaning the earthen creatures the group had seen, the ones without an actual camp, since the earthern warriors had no tents and whatnot. Still, it appeared that all of their enemies were warriors and that there were no mages, shamans, or any of the other long ranged fighters, so that allowed Spitfire, Rainbow, and Scarlet to fight up close and personal while Vytheril stuck at whatever openings he could find as they moved towards the hill that the Bloodtotem champion happened to be standing in at the moment. The tauren in question clearly wasn't happy to see them and naturally assumed that they were here for his head, since they did take down the vast majority of the Felskorn vrykul that were across the way from where he and his tribe members were resting, so it was pretty much all out war between the group and the rest of the Bloodtotem that were in this area, where they had to hack and slash their way through the incoming attacks, while parrying a few every now and then, all while each of them focused on trying to take down the champion so they could put an end to this battle and move on to the last group that they needed to fight before they approached the Vault. The Bloodtotem champion was a big fan of stomping his hooves on the ground, in an attempt to stun whoever was the closest to him, but that didn't stop Spitfire from jumping into the air to avoid the tactic and swing her warglaives down as she landed behind her target, where her foe's battleaxe fell to the ground not a few seconds later and was followed by his body doing the same, along with his head rolling to where her hooves were, though Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril took care of the rest of the enemies before approaching her. "Well, that's one confirmed kill and one missing in action," Spitfire remarked, where she banished her warglaives back to her horns for a moment and headed inside the tent that the Bloodtotem champion had been using before they arrived in the Valley of the Sword, where she looked around it for a few moments and found a couple of sacks that were definitely large enough for the head of her enemy, even though she went about her business quickly and didn't think about the head all that much, before putting it inside her pack, "Well then, I guess its time we sought out the last remaining champion and take them out as well, so we can see what we need to do to find and recover the Aegis." Rainbow and the others headed over to the area that the Drogbar had made their camp in, where a number of them seemed to be hanging out in small groups around the various parts of the area they had claimed for the duration of their stay in the Valley of the Sword, but, interestingly enough, many of the groups were out of the way and that meant they didn't have to waste their time on the other warriors that were around the area. The champion noticed them coming and, instead of calling for the rest of his tribe to assist him or anything, swung his axe at them, showing that he had an actual weapon while some of the others carried tools that were made out of stone and wood, all while declaring that the Aegis belonged to him and that anyone that dared to oppose him would fall beneath his might. As such Spitfire, Rainbow, and Scarlet focused on fighting the Drogbar champion, as both his words and the finer area he was standing in confirmed who he was, while Vytheril made sure the rest of the tribe stayed away from them, even though it appeared that the rest of the Drogbar either didn't care about the individual that was their champion or this was a personal test of might and they weren't supposed to assist whoever was under attack. Basically that allowed him to make sure they had enough boxes of treasure while Spitfire dodged an incoming axe swing and slashed into the outstretched arm that held it, Rainbow swung at their foe's chest, and Scarlet hacked and slashed with the pair of blades that she was carrying, allowing them to deal a great deal of damage to their foe while he was unable to deal anything to them, allowing the trio to drop him in the next couple of moments so they could take his rather large head and carry it to the Vault, and Vytheril informed them that they had enough treasure as well, which was good to hear. With the final champion taken care of the group headed towards the area that the Vault was resting in, though as they got close to it a tall vrykul, this one possessing an amount of Fel energy that was stronger than the Felskorn they had taken care of earlier, and there was evidence of that by the Fel cracks in his left arm and the majority of the left side of his body, and that included the curved demonic horns that were on top of his head and came out of his helmet, stepped out of the Vault, carrying a stone or metallic item that had to be the head of Yotnar, the Watcher of the Vault. "Your ancient rites and rituals mean nothing to me, Yotnar! I will conquer your trials and take the Aegis for my own!" the vrykul stated, where he held the head up for a moment, to show that he was speaking to the Watcher that he fought and likely dismembered, considering the fact that there was no body attached to the head, before he hurled the stone head at the ground and it came to rest near a path that lead to the upper reaches of the Vault's exterior, not to mention the path that lead into the Vault itself, "Cower here in your cave, while it still stands!" "The gods will not tolerate your actions, vrykul! You will answer for your heresy!" a voice declared, where it wasn't all that hard for the group to determine that it had come from the head that the vrykul had thrown to the ground, and all of them could tell that the Watcher, as the Fel-corrupted vrykul had confirmed who the head belonged to, was enraged about whatever had happened inside the Vault, but even as Yotnar said that statement the vrykul turned around and tore open a Fel portal behind him, which told the group that they had been right about Gul'dan allying himself with someone that lived in Stormheim, even if the corruption his body had endured was more than enough to tell them everything they needed to know, before their true foe escaped to wherever he wanted to hide. As soon as Spitfire and Rainbow were sure that the vrykul was gone, and that he wasn't going to be returning to this area with a force of demons to break the entire area down, they beckoned for the others to follow them as they headed towards the Vault, as it was time to speak with Yotnar and see if he was willing to give them the knowledge that would lead them to the Aegis of Aggramar, or maybe give them a clue as to where the vrykul had teleported himself to, as the pair would take hunting the Fel-infused individual down first if that was what it took. "It is a shame to see the first worthy challenger for the Aegis is treating the trials with such disrespect... such hubris cannot win the Aegis, for the gods will surely strike him down for his arrogance." Yotnar commented, where it was clear he was talking to himself, as if the group wasn't approaching the area his head was resting in, before his eyes darted to the group and he seemed to focus on them, which meant they might have taken the first step to learning what they needed to learn so they could recover one of the Pillars of Creation, and it was clear that he was staring at the sacks that contained the heads of the two champions they had taken out, "You four, however, seem different, even if two of you possess the Fel energy that vrykul used. You have shown that you are worthy challengers... and, unless I'm mistaken, it seems that you have brought a tribute as well, to honor our ways. I will allow you to begin the trials." "I'm glad we've convinced you to allow us to take on the trials," Vytheril stated, as he and the others had been worried about their chances after seeing what the vrykul had done, because the Fel-corrupted warrior could have easily broken the trial that Havi had told them about, which would have made it incredibly hard for them to do anything or learn what they needed to learn for the future, but this meant they would be able to tackle the trials and figure out what was going on, even though he suspected they would be seeing that vrykul again in the near future, "So, what do we need to do so we can access the area that the Aegis of Aggramar is being held in?" "To seek and claim Aggramar's Aegis, all challengers must complete three great battles before they are allowed to ride through the Gates of Valor," Votnar stated, informing the group that they needed to prove their worth by completing three trials, which were likely scattered across the whole of Stormheim, which would make sense in Spitfire's eyes since it would give the ones that were judging them time to observe them and either judge them worthy or deny them access to the area the Aegis was located in, before the head spoke up again and the group listened, though while he spoke the group made sure to place their offerings near him, "This Vault serves as the holding place for the knowledge all challengers need to know, if I deem them worthy to take on the trials, and it will allow you to learn about the first test you will face, though to learn about the Trial of Valor you must head to the central plateau and access the archive that is located up there. As for the Trial of Will, you will have to head to the highest point of this plateau and take in the knowledge that lies inside the archives, but be warned, the one known as Skovald, who I assume you saw as you approached the Vault, left behind some of his followers so they could destroy the Titan archives, to prevent anyone from following him, so be on your guard." "Okay, so we'll explore the upper sections of the Vault, kill the Felskorn that Skovald left behind, and learn what we'll need to do to pass the Trials of Valor and Will," Spitfire remarked, as she was repeating what they had been told purely so they knew exactly what they would be doing for the next couple of minutes, so they could gain the information that would point them towards the other parts of Stormheim and what they needed to do to impress those that were part of the Trials, so they could gain access to the Halls of Valor, where the Aegis of Aggramar rested, "We can do that, but you said that there were three Trials and have only mentioned how to gain the knowledge of two of them to us, so what do we need to do to gain the knowledge of the third Trial?" "I am the one who tests those who seek to complete the Trial of Might," Yotnar stated, informing the group that there was something they had missed, that Havi had been pointing towards the first of the three Trials that they needed to take on so they could access the Halls of Valor, though at the same time he didn't sound like he was annoyed, rather it was more like he was disappointed about something, which was Skovald breaking his body, "When Skovald bested me he used his ill-gotten powers to sunder my physical body, preventing me from allowing anyone to take on the Trial of Might, and I would have to wager that he tasked his forces with guarding the fragments of my body... if you can recover the fragments of my body, and allow me to put myself back together, I will allow you to take on the first of the three great trials that you are required to pass before you can ride through the Gates of Valor." "Sounds easy enough, especially if these Felskorn are as strong as the others we fought," Rainbow stated, as she knew that there was a chance that the next group of enemies might be stronger than what they were used to fighting, especially since the vrykul in question were empowered by the Fel energies of the Legion and were definitely serving the demons, or at least that was what it seemed like since Skovald had shattered Yotnar to stop anyone from following him, but she was willing to figure that out as they reclaimed the fragments of the one that watched the Vault, "Don't worry, we'll be back soon enough with the rest of your body and the information that we need to know, and then we'll see what Skovald has done to the other Trials when we catch up to him." Despite everything Spitfire found herself agreeing with Rainbow, as the Felskorn that were left to destroy the archives didn't seem all that powerful, at least from where they were standing right now, and she had the feeling that they would be back to the area that Yotnar was resting in within the next ten to twenty minutes, giving them plenty of time to clear the area of enemies, learn what they needed to know about the other two Trials, and then return with the rest of the pieces that went to the Watcher's body so they could complete the first Trial... and then, once all of that was done, they could head out and hunt Skovald down. > Stormheim: Trial of Might > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After talking with Yotnar, and learning what they needed to do so they could learn about the rest of the Trials that would allow them to access the Aegis of Aggramar, Spitfire lead Rainbow, Vytheril, and Scarlet up the stone ramp that was right behind the area that Skovald had tossed Yotnar's head to, as it would bring them up to the plateau that housed the two terminals they needed to access, so they could access the information on the Trial of Valor and the Trial of Will that was in this area. As they did that one of the things they discovered was that the various Felskorn that had been left behind were certainly messing with the stones and exterior of the Vault, almost as if they were trying to use their Fel powers to destroy the entire structure and bring it down, thus preventing anyone from actually completing the first of the three Trials, the Trial of Might from what they had learned earlier, where Spitfire had to wonder if their actions were annoying the Watcher that was supposed to call this place home, even if he was already annoyed by Skovald's actions. Of course none of them were going to let Skovald's forces do whatever they wanted, especially since all of them were tainted by the Fel energies and were fulfilling the mission that the Legion had ordered them to do, so what they did was walk over to the area that the first of the two terminals they were looking for was resting in and engaged their enemies, where Spitfire rushed over to a robe wearing vrykul and lashed out at it, causing it to use a small dagger to parry her attacks as best as he could, though she felled him in seconds before moving forward. While she did that, and her foe's body fell to the ground, Rainbow leapt over to where one of the warrior vrykul happened to be standing and swung her warglaives at him, where he parried her attack and she knocked him backwards, something that opened his guard so she could slice open his chest and bring him to the ground, though both of their actions allowed Vytheril and Scarlet to attack some of the other vrykul that were in the middle of trying to tear apart the Vault, where the former blasted his targets into submission and the latter cut down her foes as they rose to her challenge. Once they reached the top of the ramp the group spread out for a moment and focused on the vrykul that were standing around the top of the Vault, where they lashed out at their enemies and stopped whatever they happened to be doing at the time, though Spitfire did find a rather large stone leg of some kind, one that appeared to be made from the same type of material that Yotnar was made out of, so she killed the vrykul that was guarding it and then picked it up, even if that meant she had to banish her warglaives for a time. What she did was deliver the leg to where Yotnar was resting, as in the head to be exact, though as she did that she noticed something that she had missed earlier, the stone that rested behind the Watcher's head was actually the rest of the body, the chest and waist area, meaning all they had to find were the two arms and the other leg, but that only made her question how the body came to rest outside, when Yotnar was inside the Vault when Skovald destroyed his form, but, given the position of the other body parts, she guessed their foe had opened a portal to scatter Yotnar's body. After thinking about that for a moment she left the leg behind and returned to the area that the others were currently standing in, where she landed not a few seconds later and used her warglaives to clash with one of the vrykul that were trying to take her comrades down, though before she landed she had spotted what appeared to be Yotnar's other leg resting near one of the warrior vrykul, while one of his arms rested near a pair of vrykul that were on the level that was above them. As such it didn't take her more than a few seconds to bring down her foe while the rest of the group cut down the enemies that were guarding the fragments of Yotnar, where they were able to confirm that the warriors were definitely stronger than the vrykul that were wearing robes, which made sense given the former were more of the melee variety, though once their enemies were taken care of, and the area was cleared for a time, both Spitfire and Rainbow banished their weapons, collected the two fragments they had defeated the guardians of, and delivered the arm and leg to the shattered Watcher, who was pleased by their efforts. Once that was done the pair quickly returned to Vytheril and Scarlet as they approached the first of the two terminals that held the information they were after, the one that supposedly held the information of the Trial of Valor, and it wasn't hard to find the machine that needed to be accessed, as there was something that looked like a rectangular metal box, one that their companions identified as a Titan device, and it had five small circular slots resting in the ground behind it, where they came to a stop and Vytheril stepped forward, allowing the others to stay on guard in case more vrykul came to stop them from accessing the terminal's information. Powering up archive device. a voice said, a voice that both Spitfire and Rainbow determined had to be coming from the interesting metallic box that was in front of Vytheril, due to the lack of any other machines in this area, which wasn't counting the five circular slots, though even as they came to that decision they held their warglaives at the ready as they waited to see what sort of enemies would come to stop them from accessing the terminal's knowledge, something that Scarlet followed not a few seconds later as she held the Blades of the Fallen Prince at the ready. It was in that moment that one of the demonic portals opened up in the area that was just beyond where the circular slots were resting in the ground, in front of the throne to be exact, which was when an Inquisitor demon floated out of the new portal and came to a stop as soon as it was on this side of the portal, though that was when Spitfire noticed that Rainbow had a smirk on her face, as the demon had foolishly closed the portal and cut off it's own escape route, almost like it was of the opinion that it would be able to beat the four of them, where they and their allies stood still for a moment as they gripped their weapons and stared at the Inquisitor for a few seconds. "You cannot win, mortals." the Inquisitor stated, showing the group the typical Legion arrogance that all of the demons in Sargeras' army possessed, as all of them believed that they were better than the residents of the world they were invading and that none of them could be beaten, despite what happened during their previous invasions of this world, though the group really wasn't expecting anything less and shifted their stances for a moment as they waited for their new enemy to finish talking, as they were waiting for it to finish before they attacked it, "Skovald has tasted the Legion's power and has accepted our offer, meaning that he will claim the Aegis and grant it's power to us, allowing us to claim this section of the Broken Isles, eventually leading to the downfall of your armies and Azeroth being conquered at all last!" "Geez, you guys talk too much," Rainbow remarked, where she rushed through the air and swung her warglaive down at the demon's head, causing it to move to the side as her right weapon cut into the Inquisitor's shoulder and tore part of the robe apart, something that actually caused the demon to hiss at her as it moved to the side, even though Spitfire made sure that Vytheril and Scarlet stayed back and focused on looking out for any vrykul, as it was possible some might be in the middle of heading their way, before Rainbow landed and stared at her foe for a moment, "and you put too much faith in your pawns, because they'll fail you in due time, as we'll be walking away with the Aegis and the other Pillars... oh, and we'll also kill Gul'dan, once we finally figure out where he's hiding." That seemed to annoy the Inquisitor as it gathered its power and started blasting Rainbow with its eye powers, where Spitfire informed their allies as to the nature of this type of demon, since she was sure that neither of them knew all that much about the Inquisitors, while at the same time Rainbow dodged the attacks that were coming her way and smiled as she lashed out with her Warblades, cutting into the demon's chest as she knocked it to the ground, something that was soon followed by her taking its head clean off and claiming its soul so it wouldn't be able to tell anyone what she had just told it, not that she gained all that much power from the soul in question. "You said that the two of you were trained by Illidan Stormrage, correct?" Vytheril asked, because while he had been part of the large force that had invaded the Black Temple, and eventually engaged the being that he and everyone else had, at the time, assumed was an ally of the Legion, something they now knew had to be wrong after speaking to the Illidari and seeing them fight the demons that were invading their world, he could see the similarities in how Spitfire and Rainbow fought when he recalled how the Betrayer fought him and his allies, to which he noticed that the pair nodded their heads to show that his statement was correct, "Fascinating. We'll have to talk about what you did and what your daily lives were like in the Black Temple, as this is our opportunity to learn more about the Illidari, especially since all the information we were told was given to us by Maiev... of course, after seeing everything that's happened and hearing you two talk, I think its safe to say that she lied to us so we'd attack the Black Temple without considering the truth of the matter." Spitfire and Rainbow said nothing to that, because now they knew that the Alliance, Horde, and the forces of Shattrah City had gotten all of their information from Maiev, a Warden who had been entirely focused on Lord Illidan and had eyes for no one else, so much so that she deemed their Lord to be an ally of the Legion, despite all the signs pointing to him and the Illidari being the opposite, but it was also nice to see that some were now questioning what Maiev had told them in the first place, before they focused on the reason they had come to the Vault in the first place and activated the terminal that rested in front of them. Archive device activated. The record is now accessible. the odd voice said, where it was hard to pinpoint whether it was organic or something more mechanical in nature, even though it sounded similar to Yotnar's voice, before the image of a warrior appeared above the central slot and four mighty vrykul warriors, three male and one female, appeared in the four slots that surrounded it, before the voice spoke up again to tell them what they were seeing and, more importantly, what this trial entailed, At the end of their life, a vrykul's worth is determined by the great rulers of their people. If any challengers wish to claim the Aegis, they must seek out these ancient rulers and prove to all four of them that their merit. Only those deemed worthy shall pass the Trial of Valor and be one step closer to the Halls of Valor. "Well, that's pretty straight forward," Scarlet commented, waiting for the images to cheer for the central warrior, one that looked like an untainted vrykul since they were likely the ones these Trials were made for, before all of the images quickly disappeared and the terminal powered down, no doubt waiting to give the information to whoever activated it next, only for her to turn towards the highest point of the Vault, where the other terminal waited, "find the ancient rulers and show them that we're worthy of being allowed to enter the Halls of Valor... even though we'll have to figure out where they're located and what sort of tests we'll need to do to prove ourselves." "Figures. Nothing in this world is ever easy, and if it is that means there's a trap nearby," Vytheril added, revealing that he and the other heroes were used to this sort of thing, even though Spitfire and Rainbow were starting to get used to it, as they had spent their time fighting demons and not going on adventures like their friends had done, though that was when he sighed and started to leave the area that they were in, mostly since there were a few more things for them to gather before they headed back to the area that Yotnar was resting in and tackled the Trial of Might. What the group found to be interesting was that the rest of the vrykul that were in the area, as they knew that there were a fair number of them still standing around the various points of the Vault, happened to be in the middle of testing out all of the new powers as they gotten from siding with the Legion, as it was easy to see the Fel energy around them, though it was clear that their enemies were in the middle of trying to break all the stones and whatnot that were scattered all over the outside of the Vault, showing little respect for the area. What was interesting was that it appeared that the Fel vrykul seemed to be ignoring them for the most part, where one would assume that it might be due to how they tackled all of the enemies they had faced so far, but Spitfire remained unconvinced that things would be this easy and kept her guard up as she and Rainbow followed Vytheril and Scarlet as they headed up the ramp that lead them to where the second terminal happened to be resting, just in case the vrykul tried to attack them from behind. Of course there were a few vrykul at the top of the ramp, guarding the terminal that would allow the group to discover what they needed to know for the third and final trial, the Trial of Will, though the rather interesting aspect of what was going on was that none of their enemies had their guards up and that was when Spitfire channeled her inner energy to loose some Fel fireballs right into the back of the mystic vrykul, while at the same time Rainbow leapt over a few of their foes, the ones that Scarlet challenged with the full power of Frostmourne, and blasted one of the warrior vrykul that she was targeting in the chest with her Fel lightning, only to follow that up with parrying the incoming axe attack from the second one so she could cut it down where it stood. That was when Vytheril walked over to where the terminal was located and stared at it for a few moments, studying it to make sure none of their enemies had damaged it before their arrival, before he determined that the machine was just fine and that no damage had been to it, to which he tapped it for a second and the power seemed to flare into the area that they were standing in, meaning that they would soon learn the information they needed to know. Powering up archive device... the odd voice from earlier said, meaning that the voice had to be attached to both of the terminals and that it would have more to tell them, though at the same time its statement meant that they had to wait for a time before they were able to learn what the Trial of Will required, but it was around that time that one of the Felskorn called out for the others to invade the area that the four of them were standing in, apparently commanding the others to make sure that the 'outsiders didn't learn about the trials', which was followed by the remaining vrykul in this area rushing towards the ramp that lead up to where they were standing. Upon hearing that the group turned towards the ramp that they had walked up and readied themselves as the Felskorn charged up to the area that the terminal was resting in, to which Spitfire and Scarlet stood at the upper part of the ramp and parried all of the incoming attacks that were coming their way, as the Felskorn wanted them dead and they were all coming to kill them, while at the same time Vytheril jumped up to a higher point so he could hurl blasts of arcane energy into the group of enemies, targeting those in the middle of the group, which was when Rainbow flew into the air and took up a position at the back of the group of enemies, attacking them from behind to divide their attention. It was a good tactic in the grand scheme of things, as the Felskorn were forced to send their warriors either up to Spitfire and Scarlet or down to where Rainbow was standing with her warblades, while at the same time the mystics focused on Vytheril, where the pair of energies collided in the air and lit up the area they were fighting in, though it quickly became apparent that the vrykul were going to have a hard time beating all four of them, even if they were empowered by the Fel energies, a small amount from what Spitfire and Rainbow could tell. Scarlet parried an incoming attack that was aimed at her head and pushed her foe backwards for a moment, opening its defenses so she could cut it down by thrusting Frostmourne into its chest, before pulling it out so she could use the Blades of the Fallen Prince to quickly eliminate another Felskorn warrior, though as she did that Spitfire used one of the warglaives to parry and push back the warrior that was in front of her, something that let her cut down the foe that was in front of her and then behead an unsuspecting mystic, cutting down on the enemies that Vytheril had to worry about, who was able to blast two of the other mystics into the ground as well, even though Rainbow was in the middle of cutting down the warriors that were at the back of the pack. At the very least they knew one thing as they faced the Felskorn that were trying to overpower them and ruin the terminal that they were guarding, there were no more enemies resting in this area, meaning no more reinforcements despite the fact that one of the warriors called out that they were 'unworthy' of Stormheim and the Halls of Valor, while another called for allies to come and aid them, which was ignored since there were no more allies to rush to their aid and the Legion seemed to be focusing on another part of the Broken Isles, which worked in their favor. It did take them some time, given that there were about twenty enemies trying to reach the summit of the Vault and use their Fel powers to break the terminal entirely, but in the end the group was able to lay low all of the Felskorn Vrykul that had been rushing towards them, to which Rainbow rejoined Spitfire, Scarlet, and Vytheril as they lowered their weapons and turned to face the metallic device that was in front of them, as it was time to see what in the world they needed to do for the third trial that would allow them to gain entrance to the Halls of Valor and, more importantly, gain access to the Pillar of Creation they were looking for, the Aegis of Aggramar. Archive device activated. The record is now accessible. the odd voice stated, which was when Vytheril quickly tapped the terminal before taking a step back so they could see what sort of information that they would be learning, though that was when an image of a powerful looking dragon, one that seemed to channel the power of the storms, appeared in front of them, which just so happened to be facing an image of Spitfire and Rainbow, with the images of Vytheril and Scarlet also standing in front of the storm drake, a name that may or may not be true based on what they were seeing, before the odd voice spoke up again, "The Thorignir are the oldest and wisest dragons in Stormheim, and to fly with them is to sail in the company of the gods themselves. Seek their blessing to pass the Trial of Will." "Well, that's also pretty straightforward," Scarlet remarked, speaking as soon as the terminal had powered down and all of the images had disappeared from the area that they were currently staring at, because she had been expecting that they would have to do some hard, if not outlandish, trials to gain access to the Halls of Valor, with the exception of the Trial of Might since that seemed to be the easiest, though as she said that the four of them started to head down the ramp, even though Spitfire was the last one to walk down the ramp since she found Yotnar's other arm and was carrying to the area that they were now heading back to, "seek out the Thorignir, see what sort of tasks they need help with, and then get their blessing to move forward... certainly sounds more straightforward than the other trial." "Still, we should be cautious whenever we tackle the other two trials, as Skovald knows more about this land than we do and will likely have a head start on us," Vytheril stated, meaning he was sure that their foe might have some traps waiting for them and that he was likely trying to subjugate everything that happened to be part of the other trials, though since he had no way of confirming or denying his thoughts the rest of the group glanced at each other for a few moments before they headed down the rest of the ramp and started to make their way back to where Yotnar was resting, as it was time to give him the good news and see if he was ready to receive them as proper challengers for the Trial of Might. Spitfire and Rainbow, once again, said nothing to that as they walked down the path that would take them to where Yotnar was resting, where they could see that the Watcher had been patiently awaiting their return with the limbs they had found resting around him, showing that he still needed some help, to which the four of them walked over to his body and looked at the four limbs for a few seconds, where Spitfire attached the left arm that she was holding, Scarlet picked up the right leg and carefully attached it to where it was supposed to go, Rainbow picked up and put the right arm in its place, which left Vytheril with the left leg, though once all four of those limbs were in place Spitfire picked up the head and reattached it not a few seconds later, causing the Watcher to push himself up into a standing position. "Wonderful! It is good to be whole again!" Yotnar declared, where he took a moment to flex his arms and shift his legs for a few moments, mostly to make sure that everything was working as they should be and that nothing was out of place, even though it seemed like the group had put his missing limbs together in the correct locations and had restored him to what he had been like sometime ago, before Skovald had shattered his body and scattered the fragments, though that was the moment that he focused on the group once more, "I owe all of you my gratitude for helping make me whole again, along with the fact that you cleared out the Vault of those unworthy Felskorn, who were attempting to destroy this place so the worthy would be unable to follow in their master's footsteps. It is clear to me that you are worthy to take on the trials, so I will grant you access to the Vault, where you will find the terminal that will activate the first trial you must undertake, if you wish to claim the Aegis of Aggramar." The group nodded their heads and walked over to the path that seemed to lead into the Vault, where they found a couple of tall stone or metallic warriors that were standing still, statues to be exact, who looked like sentinels that would punish whoever entered the Vault without permission from Yotnar, so since they had been granted access the group was able to walk down the path that lead into the Vault and turned to the left when all of them reached the bottom of the steps, which was when they found a large chamber that had a decent sized mechanical slot in the middle of the area, not to mention a number of yellow energy orbs that seemed to form some images, before they approached a terminal and tapped it, as it was time to see what the Trial of Might entailed. Activating sequence: Trial of Might... the odd voice said, not that they were expecting anything else at this point, not after everything they had seen when the group accessed the other terminals that were scattered throughout the outside of the Vault, though as that happened all four of them noticed that the energy of this area was rushing over to where the large slot seemed to be resting, before a burst of energy erupted from the area in question and they paused for a second to shield their eyes, but when they opened their eyes again they found that Yotnar was standing on the slot, almost like it was a teleport device of some kind. "I hope you are ready to face your first trial, heroes." Yotnar declared, where Spitfire, Rainbow, Vytheril, and Scarlet paused for a moment as he shifted his great body and seemed to take on a fighting stance of some kind, one that seemed to be at the ready for whatever they threw at him, while at the same time parts of the chamber they were in shifted as well, like he might use something against them while they fought for a time, hence why the four of them readied themselves for what was coming their way, "As the Keeper of this Vault, it is my duty to test the might of those who wish to proceed, and I have deemed the four of you to be worthy of facing me in battle. Prepare yourselves, for I won't make this easy for you!" What happened next was that Yotnar rushed at the area that they were standing in, where Spitfire raised her warglaives to parry the incoming punch while the other three spread out to give themselves some room, but that didn't seem to bother their foe at all as the power of the chamber came to his aid, in the form of several mechanical spheres that started to float around the area that they were going to be fighting in, though while they seemed to be dormant for a few seconds, though it was quickly followed by each of them loosing bolts of light energy into the areas they were positioned in. That wasn't the only safety measure that the chamber seemed to be using against them, as Spitfire could see that there were beams that appeared to be coming from the small constellations that rested in the four corners of the chamber, though Rainbow and their new friends saw the beams and dodged them accordingly, though that was when she returned her focus to Yotnar for a moment as he applied a little more pressure and knocked her backwards, something Spitfire was fine with as Scarlet ran in with the Blades of the Fallen Prince and sliced into his stone arms. In that moment they learned just how touch their foe had to be as Scarlet barely did any damage to their foe, something that sort of made sense when they considered the fact that Yotnar had been made by the Titans to guard the information pertaining to one of the Pillars of Creation, so to be a guardian of that information he had to be sturdy and be able to deal a decent amount of damage, which meant Skovald had to have been empowered to a significant level to break the Watcher's body, especially his own body when Spitfire and Rainbow thought about it, though that was when Rainbow dropped out of the air and swung her warblades down at their foe, who raised his other arm for a moment and stopped the attack in its tracks not a few seconds later, even though that was followed by a few arcane blasts hitting Yotnar in the back, showing that Vytheril was hitting him as well. While the four of them had the advantage of numbers, something that was useful in other battles, it didn't appear that the same applied to this battle, as Yotnar charged at whoever he deemed to be the greater threat, at least giving each of them a little bit of his attention over the next few minutes, but for the most part he deemed Spitfire and Rainbow to be worthy of his focus, as he charged after them more than he did Scarlet or Vytheril, so much so that the pair had to banish their weapons and take on their empowered states, challenging the Watcher with their full powers. Using their full power seemed to be the right course of action, as Spitfire was able to stall Yotnar with her clawed hands as Rainbow loosed a few lightning punches and kicks while he was distracted, something that opened the way for Spitfire to fire a more powerful Fel fireball into her foe's chest, but even then it was clear that either their empowered forms weren't going to be of use to them or the Watcher was far stronger than any of them were expecting to discover, something that was followed by both Spitfire and Rainbow landing near each other so they could combine their Fel elemental powers into a single attack, one of fire and lightning, that smashed into Yotnar's chest and caused him to stagger with a smoking hole near where his heart had to be. "That is enough..." Yotnar declared, to which he fell to one of his knees for a moment, on top of the large slot he had been brought to earlier, when the terminal had been activated, though as he did that both Spitfire and Rainbow powered down for a moment and huffed as they stared at their foe, while Scarlet and Vytheril came to a stop near them, as they had no idea if he was trying to lure them into a false sense of security or if he was admitting defeat, "Unbelievable! I have spent a unknown number of years guarding this Vault, waiting for a worthy challenger to appear and challenge the Trial of Might, only to be beaten twice in the same day, even if one opponent was completely unworthy! Heroes, after everything I have seen since your arrival, I have determined that the four of you have passed the Trial of Might, though two more trials are waiting for you to tackle them. Seek me at the Vault's entrance before you leave, as I will grant each of you the blessing of the Watchers, to help you tackle Skovald and his allies." Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril nodded their heads in agreement before the Watcher teleported out of the large chamber that they had been fighting in, where each of them heard the terminal declare that the fight was over, to which all of them took a moment to gather themselves before bothering to retrace their steps to the Vault's entrance, though when they emerged from the Vault it was odd for them to discover that Yotnar's chest had healed, either due to his innate power when his body was intact or it might be possible that he was covering his wound with something, but none of them said anything as they stopped in front of the Watcher. "The Trial of Might is done, and you have emerged victorious!" Yotnar stated, this time sounding more impressed than he had been before they headed down into the Vault to see what the trial would have entailed, which had been when the four of them discovered that their opponent had been the one they put back together, though the group remained silent so the Watcher could reveal to them whatever it was that he wanted to talk about, before they headed out to tackle the next of the trials and whatever Skovald might have put in their way, "It is a great feat that the four of you have done this day, but, at the same time, you are not through yet, as you will face many more great challenges on your path to claim the Aegis of Aggramar. Furthermore, to aid you in your trials to come, I will bestow upon your artifacts the power of the Vault's Keeper, to strengthen you for whatever Skovald throws at you. Now, hold aloft your powerful weapons, heroes, and receive a gift from the Titans!" In that moment the four of them raised their weapons up into the air and Yotnar waved his hands for a moment, to which a ring of glowing silver energy wrapped around the ground that each of them were standing, though that was followed by several strands of pure blue colored energy emerging from the rings and rushed into their weapons, but the real reward, as Spitfire and Rainbow discovered, was that the power of the Titans, the small slivers that Yotnar had been granted so he could reward those that he deemed worthy, actually strengthened their bodies and pushed their powers to new heights, or at least that seemed to be for them, as neither Scarlet or Vytheril noticed such a change. "It is done. May our power aid you when you need it most." Yotnar said, though as he said that the rings disappeared and the group lowered their weapons not even a few seconds after that happened, with the pair returning their warglaives to their horns as Scarlet sheathed her greatsword, but none of them said anything and simply bowed their heads as each of them waited to see if Yotnar had anything else that he wanted to share with them before they left the area that the Vault was located in and headed for the area the next trial was located in, "Go forth, Champions of the Vault, and bring down the unworthy vrykul that dares to disgrace our sacred trials as you work to gain the Aegis of Aggramar!" The group nodded their heads and exited the area that the Vault rested in, where they headed up the path that would take them back to where Havi was standing, since all four of them agreed that they might as well tell the odd vrykul that they had been able to pass the first of the three trials that rested throughout this province, before asking for directions or even a hint on where they should go next to complete the next trial so they could get one step closer to where the Aegis was resting, though those thoughts had to be shelved as they walked to up Havi's camp and found that he was still standing in front of the fire, with his ravens resting on his tent. "The trial is done and the four of you are still alive. This land is full of wonders, yes?" Havi asked, where his tone betrayed his feelings on the matter, as it sure sounded like he had known they would have impressed Yotnar and pass the first trial with flying colors, though if that was the case Spitfire understood why the odd vrykul would have held his tongue while he was talking to them, as knowing they would succeed might actually tip the scales and make them mess up, and right now they couldn't afford to make any dangerous mistakes, before Havi raised a hand to his chin for a few seconds, no doubt thinking about something he had seen, "But it looks like the God-King intends on giving you additional trials, on top of the trials you need to pass to acquire the right to enter the Hall of Valor. Your next trial awaits at the summit of storms where the Thorignir reside, roosting above Hrydshal, where their children used to serve the Drekirjar... but, due to certain events, they are no longer allies to man or vrykul, and so you must earn their blessing to pass the Trial of Will. My ravens will show you the way to your destination, where a pair of allies await your arrival." Spitfire and the others thanked Havi for his assistance in understanding Yotnar and everything that allowed them to speak to the Watcher in the first place, before the four of them followed after the ravens as they departed from the area, where each of them had the feeling that they were going to be tested to their very limits before anyone was able to gain access to the Halls of Valor and get closer to the Aegis of Aggramar, and they hoped that their adventure in Stormheim would end with Skovald meeting his end, all while trying to prevent all out war between the Alliance and the Horde. > Stormheim: Into Hrydshal > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril followed Havi's ravens as they flew down the path that would lead them to where the Vault was located, even though that was when they noticed that there was another section of the path that they had likely missed while they were dealing with the Felskorn and the other groups that had been trying to get into the structure that Yotnar had been guarding since the Titans had constructed this place, though as they turned the corner all four of them came to a stop as they stared out at the open area that was in front of them. Hrydshal, as it turned out, was a rather massive city-like place that seemed to be resting at the base of a mountain, even though it looked like there was an equally sized ravine that had a few large wooden bridges that allowed someone to walk from the area that they had were standing in and walk over to a new area of the province, though the city itself seemed to have a number of chained Thorignir resting on some of the walls, even if the storm dragons were red colored. In fact, to even get close to their destination, the group had to walk over a bridge to access another part of the mesa that everything they had seen so far had been built on, even though it did look like there was a path up to their right that headed into the mountains, possibly heading all the way up to the province known as Highmountain, while to the immediate right of the city, from where they were standing, rested a second path that seemed to head right into Suramar, the final province that some of the heroes would be exploring once the time was right for them to begin the search for the fifth and final Pillar of Creation. Everything to their left seemed to be a sort of wide open area, one that had several important looking structures, even though that was hard to tell from the area that they were standing in, but all four of them were sure that the elegant bridge off in the distance had to lead right to the Halls of Valor, or at least the gate to the area in question. It wasn't long before they found a camp resting near a bridge that seemed to lead right to the gates of Hrydshal, where a female human, wearing the attire of the soldiers that were on the airship Rainbow had ridden on, meaning she was likely a worgen who was using her human form, was standing near a female undead who had dirty blond hair and happened to be wearing the attire of Sylvanas' soldiers, though the human was accompanied by a black griffon that appeared to have light blue feathers on its head and the undead had one of the large red bats that the Forsaken used, but what interested the group was the fact that the pair seemed to be just fine with each other, possibly following Spitfire's suggestions for peace between the factions. "It's good to see you again, Rainbow, not to mention your friends," the human said, though while she said that the group could see that the undead was in the middle of spying on the city that was resting across the ravine that rested near the area they had set their camp up in, possibly keeping track of everything the vrykul that called Hrydshal home did, just to make sure they knew what they were doing when they eventually invaded the city and made their way towards the area that would allow them to access the Trial of Will, before she realized something, "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself the last time we met. I am Lorna Crowley, and this is Dread-Rider Cullen, though while Greymane sent me to scout out this village, to try and get you some more information on the Aegis of Aggramar, it seems that Nathanos sent Cullen to cause some chaos among his Lady's enemies, which apparently includes the vrykul that call the village home." "Actually, this looks more like a city than a village," the undead, Cullen, commented, where she lowered the binoculars that she happened to be using at the moment and glanced at everyone that was standing at the camp, though it was incredibly easy for the group to determine that she didn't care about the vrykul all that much and was simply doing what her bosses had told her to do, as Spitfire had to imagine that Sylvanas gave the order herself and Nathanos went into more detail as she was leaving the ship, "but so far the vrykul haven't done anything since we've been here, save for saluting someone who has a lot of fel energy around one of his arms, who headed up to the mountain that the city is built below, meaning he has to be someone of great importance to these guys." "Skovald, of course he'd be here. He's probably going to force the Thorignir to allow him to pass their trial," Rainbow said, showing that she had been listening to what they learned from the pair of terminals that rested outside the Vault, where the others nodded their heads to show that each of them understood what was going on and, more importantly, if these vrykuls were in league with Skovald, as it sure seemed to be, they needed to figure out how they were going to weaken all of their enemies as they made their way up the mountain. "Well, it seems that you have gained more information on our target than either of us have," Lorna said, her tone revealing that neither she or Cullen had really learned anything since their arrival in the area they had set up camp in, a temporary thing that would be dismantled once they figured out whatever there was to learn about the Aegis, even though now it did look like they would be tackling a trial of some kind and would be dealing with all of the enemies that were waiting on the other side of the gate, before she sighed for a moment, "however, based on what we've seen, our best course of action would be to sneak into the city and figure out our next move from there, and there just so happens to be an area off to the left of the main gate that should allow us to enter without being seen, as long as the guards outside don't notice us and all of the dragons remain silent while we sneak passed them. However, I have to ask this: are you sure that these trials will allow us to find and recover the Aegis?" "It's what we were told by the Watcher that the Titans assigned to it," Spitfire remarked, though she couldn't fault Lorna for assuming that they might have been lied to, so none of them got their hands on the Aegis of Aggramar, but the look that graced Lorna and Cullen's faces confirmed something for her, lots of people in this world regarded the Titans as gods and if they did something for a reason that was usually enough to convince someone that it had to be the truth, so since she had revealed that the Titans set up the trials, to a degree anyway, it seemed to be enough to convince the pair that all four of them were sure that they were on the right track. Lorna and Cullen glanced at each other for a moment, showing that the pair were surprised by what they were hearing at the moment and that there might be hope for the united front the Alliance and the Horde could present if they got over all of their differences and anger, before the six of them carefully walked over to where the bridge rested and started to walk over it, going slowly so they could see where all of the vrykul were positioned and found that the couple of storm dragons that were supposed to be watching the front gate appeared to be sleeping at the moment, or at least that was what the group hoped as they moved forward. One thing Spitfire and Rainbow noticed was that there were a few yak-like creatures that seemed to be beasts of burden for the vrykul that ruled over this city, musken as Vytheril called them, though for the most part the musken didn't seem to care that they were walking near the end of the bridge that was near the main gate, but once all six of them reached the other end of the bridge Lorna and Cullen headed to the left and the others followed after them as they walked along a path that seemed to lead to an outpost for a guard and a small farm for the musken, though there were no enemies for them to fight. Spitfire had to assume that the arrival of Skovald had caused this small opportunity to reveal itself and that whoever was supposed to be out here would be back as soon as the Fel-empowered vrykul leader was done with whatever he happened to be doing at the moment, though as they walked along the path the group also noticed that there was a worg resting nearby, but it didn't seem to hear them and remained resting where they had spotted it, allowing the six of them to reach an area that had a large stone that seemed to be a way to get into the city, even though Rainbow could tell it wasn't near the wall and a normal person would need a machine of some kind to launch themselves over the wall that was in front of them. Fortunately none of them needed something like that since both she and Spitfire could use their wings, so what the pair did was open their wings took a few moments to ferry the others over the wall so they could get a good idea as to what in the world they were dealing with and whether or not they should even disrupt the vrykul that were living throughout Hrydshal, though since they carried Lorna and Cullen first, as the pair had been staring at the city before the rest of the group had even arrived, that allowed the two ladies to jump down into the area that was below the wall they had been placed on and rushed over to a hidden area that was behind a pair of decent sized rocks, to prevent the vrykul from noticing them. "Okay, so far so good," Cullen commented, where Lorna nodded her head in agreement, as while the two factions didn't get along most of the time they knew the danger that their world was in and were doing everything in their power to not attack their temporary allies, something that Spitfire hoped would carry on into the time that was after the Legion's total defeat, even though she knew time would tell on that matter, before the undead beckoned out to the area that rested just behind the city's front gate and drew their attention to where she was pointing, "now, while we were unable to gain any information on the Aegis, we were able to figure out that these vrykul have specialized gear that helps them on their trips up the mountain, so while two of you might be immune to the storms, or not, I would recommend that you look around this city and help yourselves to a few things: some climbing treads to help you keep your grip on the slopes, some oiled cloaks to keep the rain off of you, and some of the lodestones they use to keep the lightning at bay." "There's also the fact that the vrykul are harvesting the scales off of these drakes so they can make armor and gear for all of their warriors, something we should take from them," Lorna added, where it was easy for the group to see that there were a few storm drakes that seemed to be in the middle of having their scales stripped from their bodies, or at least that was what it looked like might have occurred had Skovald not arrived when he had, to which she turned back to the group for a moment as she considered how they were going to go about liberating the scales, "Given what we can see, you might have to kill a few of the storm drakes and then destroy their bodies in some manner, to prevent the vrykul from getting at the scales they're after, not to mention open all of the cages and free the whelplings that are trapped inside, as I'm almost positive that none of the little blue guys are allied with these vrykul." "The blue ones must be the Thorignir then, and saving the whelplings might put us in their good graces for when we reach the top of the mountain," Vytheril commented, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and Scarlet nodded their heads in agreement, as they had come to the same conclusion that he had, before bidding Lorna and Cullen farewell for a time as they headed down the path that they had walked over to reach the area that was hidden behind the boulders, though at the same time each of them readied their weapons as they walked, because there had to be a few vrykul who hadn't been called to the area that Skovald and would be standing in their way once they crossed paths. One of the few things they discovered was that there were several buildings that were styled in the same manner as all of the vrykul structures they had seen since their arrival in Stormheim, meaning these were either houses or buildings that were supposed to hold supplies, though what they found was that the first house that was to the right of the section of the wall they had flown over happened to have two vrykul warriors and, more importantly, a sleeping storm dragon who woke up the moment it heard them coming. As such Rainbow rushed over to where the storm drake, as Vytheril revealed that it was more like a drake and less of a dragon, whatever that meant, and clashed with it as the rest of the group moved over to where the pair of warriors were standing, even though that was more along the lines of Spitfire and Scarlet parrying the incoming attacks and cutting their foes down while Vytheril walked over to the nearby cage and discovered that, while all of the openings in the cage were big enough for one of the vrykul to stick their hands through them, probably to feed the whelplings or whatever they did to the small dragons, they weren't large enough for the small dragons to slip through, so all he had to do was push open the gate and they flew out not a few seconds later. One thing Rainbow did was channel her power for a moment and released a small wave of Fel lightning at the storm drake, who just so happened to loose a burst of its lightning breath at her, so the two attacks collided in the middle of the area that they were fighting in and blasted a small home into the ground not a few seconds later, to which she rushed forward and parried the incoming attack with one of her warblades as she used the other to slice open part of her foe's neck and open the way for her to drop it to the ground, which was about the time that Spitfire and Scarlet disarmed and defeated their opponents. The interesting thing about these particular vrykul, as the group discovered over the course of their brief battle, was that neither of them had a trace of Fel energy, meaning that while they followed Skovald, and in term served the Legion by helping the demons get ever so closer to the Aegis of Aggramar, none of them appeared to have taken the Fel energy yet, either due to it not being offered to them or they needed to prove their loyalty to their new ruler before he allowed them to become more demonic and follow the Felskorn they had killed outside the Vault. Once the storm drake was dead the group found something inside the area it had been sleeping in, a pair of oiled cloaks happened to be resting on a post that was near where the drake had been in, to which Vytheril stepped forward and took a moment to slip them into his bag, making sure to put them somewhere where the oil wouldn't get to everything else that was inside his bag, even though he informed Spitfire and Rainbow that he had his bag divided into sections by magic and anything he collected was stored into the appropriate area, where Scarlet simply shrugged for a moment as they headed down the rest of the path. Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other for a moment as they combined their Fel powers for a moment and loosed a blast at the storm drake's body, wiping it out in a few seconds, before doing the same to the main gate, a small one that opened a hole and, somehow, didn't alert the drakes that were positioned near them, meaning one or more of the vrykul must have knocked them out for scale harvesting at some point in the future, though while they did that Scarlet cut some of the ropes that were nearby and let the rams that the vrykul were keeping as food for the future out of the pen they were being kept in, though once that was done they turned towards the couple of structures that were nearby and kept their eyes open for any vrykul who might be lurking around the rest of this section of the city. One thing the group made sure to deal with were the other storm drakes, as in let Rainbow rush over to where each of them were resting and engage them in battle, which was when Spitfire, Scarlet, and Vytheril dealt with any vrykul that happened to be in the area, especially one that was guarding a crate full of blue stones that had a light blue rune etched into one of their surfaces, meaning they had to be the lodestones the group was looking for, which was why Vytheril blasted their magical foe in the chest with an arcane blast and drew him out of the building he had been standing in, opening the way for both Spitfire and Scarlet to ambush him and cut him down before he even had a chance to stand against their might. Spitfire, at the same time, also kept an eye on what Rainbow was doing and made sure to join her Fel powers with Rainbow's when she was done with the various storm drakes, obliterating all of the corpses so none of their scales could be taken by their enemies, especially since Skovald could be planning on assembling an army out of Stormheim's vrykul and using them to invade the other three provinces if he claimed the Aegis of Aggramar, which was more than enough reason to bring down his army and stop him from getting the Pillar of Creation. With the lodestones claimed, and they made sure to take all of them so the vrykul of this city would have to create a whole new batch and would slow them down in the long run, the group headed over to where one of the warriors seemed to be in the middle of training, meaning it had to be an arena of some kind for the city, but since it appeared that the vrykul was busy, and those that were watching him were preoccupied with what he was doing, the group focused on walking up the earthen walkway that was nearby, which happened to be on the other side of the rocks that Lorna and Cullen were hiding behind, and they could see a blacksmith was hard at work making the shoes that the rest of his clan used to climb up the mountain... and, since he turned his back and didn't notice them, Vytheril was able to use his magic to turn the smith into a white sheep so Scarlet could collect two pairs of shoes before they headed back to the rocks. "These guys are fearsome warriors? They barely noticed that there were intruders inside their city." Rainbow remarked, as she was slightly disappointed in some of the things she and the others had seen inside the city, because while it was easy to assume that Skovald's presence was causing the vrykul not to notice any potential intruders inside their domain, given the Fel-corrupted vrykul's importance to the other clans, it was hard to imagine that their enemies would ignore the more destructive attacks that she and Spitfire had created to deal with the corpses of the storm drakes, before she focused on Lorna and Cullen as the others moved themselves behind the rocks, which was when they found a pair of vrykul that were laying near the area the undead was standing in at the moment, "So, how are things on your end? We found several of the items you mentioned, killed some storm drakes and wiped out their bodies, released some of the whelplings that were in cages, and made decent time without anyone raising the alarms." "We did some quick scouting while you were busy, not to mention the fact that we both killed a few vrykul that stumbled upon us, and found that these harpoon launchers can turn around in a perfect circle," Lorna commented, where she took a few seconds to beckon to the device that was resting on the wall above them, something that caused the group to glance up at the area she was looking at right now, while at the same time Cullen had her daggers at the ready in case more of the vrykul appeared and tried to attack this area, even if they weren't planning on staying in this spot for too much longer, showing the group that the pair was actually working together quite well, where it was easy for them to see some devices that had a large projectile inside it, and that there were a fair number of them scattered around the rest of the city, before she drew their attention back to her for a moment, "we're not entirely sure what sort of range these things have, since none of them have been fired since we infiltrated the city, but we shouldn't take any chances, since there's the possibility that the vrykul might fire them up at you guys when you start climbing up the mountain, so you should break as many of them as you can, before we do anything else." "And while you do that, we'll kill some of the vrykul as we move to another part of this city," Cullen added, though it was in that moment that a vrykul warrior stepped into their view and she lashed out at it with her daggers before he even had a chance to fight back, cutting into her target's neck with ease, surprising the group was they watched what she was doing, before she moved herself around so she was on her foe's back and drove the vrykul into the ground, right on top of the other two that she and Lorna had killed so far, before she climbed off its back and cleaned her weapons as she glanced at the group for a few seconds, "Hopefully we'll take out a portion of this Skovald's army before we leave the city, as we'd be able to make things easier for our combined forces, not to mention any allies you find along the way to the Halls of Valor... you heroes always find allies, regardless of the situation or land you're thrown into." Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other for a moment, as that statement was certainly true in their case when both of them landed in Shadowmoon Valley all those years ago, when they first arrived in this part of the universe, before the pair jumped up the rocks that Lorna and Cullen were hiding near and landed on top of the wall, where they found that there were no enemies up on the wall, not even a slumbering storm drake, and that allowed them to walk over to the brass device that was resting nearby and studied it, finding that it was already loaded with one of its harpoons, meaning it was kept in a ready state in case the residents of the city needed it. From what Spitfire could tell most of the vrykul that were in this city, save for the ones they had seen and fought, were up near a structure that appeared to be massive, like the hall of a king or a leader, meaning she and Rainbow had to be fast before the ones who remained down here noticed that they were breaking the harpoon launchers, even though it did look like they might have to kill one or two enemies before either of them were able to reach the area that Lorna and Cullen were heading towards, something they would worry about as soon as they were done with their main objective. Of course that was when Scarlet and Vytheril revealed that they weren't going to follow the pair along the walls as they smashed the harpoon launchers, where the pair headed over to the area that the vrykul warriors were standing in and engaged them, meaning that they were leaving the harpoon launchers to them, which both Spitfire and Rainbow were fine with as they split from each other so they could cover more ground and not give their enemies a chance to realize what in the world was going on. This time around the pair kept their Fel powers in a smaller state than what they had done earlier, when they were wiping out the gate or the corpses of the storm drakes, so Spitfire used her powers to melt the insides of the harpoon launchers she targeted, something that interested her and made her wonder about her inner power, because at this point she was starting to wonder if she might have had some sort of magic that had been awakened by being sent to this part of the universe, or maybe it had been awakened after she underwent the Metamorphosis ritual back in Mardum, before she glanced out at the area that Rainbow was in and took a moment to watch as she placed what appeared to be a disc shaped charge of lightning inside her targets and let the Fel lightning ruin the devices she was targeting. One thing that Spitfire was surprised by was how effective this strategy was, even despite the fact that Scarlet and Vytheril were in the middle of taking down any vrykul that might have noticed the invaders that were wrecking their city, but she wasn't about to complain about what was going on as she and Rainbow made sure to wipe out almost all of the harpoon launchers that were lining the walls of the city, where the only place they didn't head up to was the wall that rested right in front of the massive hall, since that would no doubt alert their foes as to what was going on, before they headed over to where Scarlet and Vytheril were standing... at the start of a path that had a tower to their right and a bridge that seemed to connect to part of the mountain, where they found that the bridge was broken and Skovald was riding a blue scaled storm drake, who had chains around its neck and looked like it didn't want to be here. "You are too late, pitiful weaklings! Even now my forces are breaking the Thorignir, to make them serve the Legion and to kill anyone else who dares to follow in my footsteps," Skovald declared, his voice loud enough for the group to hear, while apparently not reaching the main hall that rested on the other side of where the tower rested, meaning they didn't have to worry about any foes coming at them immediately, though that didn't stop Spitfire and Rainbow from staring at him while both Scarlet and Vytheril readied their weapons in case their foe dropped down into the area to face them, "We will be the only ones to command the power of the Thorignir and you will never be granted their blessing, meaning the Aegis will be mine to claim... and once I have it I will crush you weaklings into the ground!" "Great, he has a dragon... and he's smashed the bridge leaded up to the mountain," Cullen said, her tone revealing that she wasn't at all happy with what was going on at the moment, not that the group could blame her since Skovald and his allies were making this much more difficult than it had to be, before she turned her head to their right and stared at the tower that the group had noticed when they entered this area, where she glanced at the top of it for a few seconds as an idea came to her, or at least that was what the group was hoping had happened, before she noticed an armored vrykul who was standing in the middle of the path that lead to the tower's entrance, "Say, I think you guys can use the top of that tower to get over to the path the Skovald don't want you to access, though we'll have to take down that armored warrior first by the looks of things, as he seems to be the type to punch first and ask questions later." The group nodded their heads in agreement and Rainbow enraged their foe by hurling one of her warblades through the air for a moment, where it spun around and struck her target in the side of his head, something that knocked it off course and allowed it to head back to where she was standing so she could grab it, but as that happened the vrykul growled as he stared at them for a few seconds and then charged down towards the area that they were standing in, where they dodged to the side, to avoid the attack, before lashing out with their weapons as Lorna and Cullen joined the battle. What Spitfire found was that their foe, possibly a champion of the vrykul that lived in Hrydshal from the way his armor looked, since his gear seemed above what the other warriors in the city had worn, had to be great in battles where he fought two or three enemies at the same time, just six of them at the same time, five warrior types and one ranged, was enough to push him back and even when he used a more devastating attack, a downward swing that could decapitate a normal foe, they made sure to dodge the attack, as none of them were dumb enough to stand in the way of the incoming attack, but that did give them a chance to attack their foe whenever his guard was open, since such an attack came with the consequence of such a powerful attack. Some of them had their attacks blocked by the large shield that their foe carried, which was fine with the group since it allowed the battle to be fair between both parties, though the incoming arcane blast from Vytheril caused the vrykul to stagger for a moment, opening the way for Spitfire and Rainbow to leap towards their foe's neck and take it clean off in a matter of seconds, dropping his body to the ground with a thud that would have alerted the other warriors of the city to what was going on, had any of them been in the area they were heading through. With the deed done the group headed into the tower that the warrior had been guarding and found that it was basically a bunch of wooden ramps that lead up to the roof, or, to be more exact, an observation area that made this more of a lookout tower, meaning someone could easily keep an eye on the mountain, the Thorignir, and could spot any enemies coming towards Hrydshal from the area the lookout was standing in, though that was when they noticed that the peaceful looking sky had shifted into what seemed to be the early stages of a storm, based on all the lightning that was dancing around the darkened clouds, before they spotted a side path that lead right to the main path. "You know, I have no idea why the Dark Lady is so angry at you, as you two are skilled warriors," Cullen commented, as if she wanted to tell Spitfire and Rainbow that they were grand warriors and that the forces of Azeroth were lucky to have them on their side, something that was followed by Lorna nodding her head as well, even though they both knew that the leader of the worgen, Genn Greymane, was grateful to have them on their side and wasn't pissed off at them, unlike how Sylvanas was pissed off at Spitfire for telling her to focus on facing the Legion and their allies, before she and Lorna looked at the path that the others were staring at, "Lorna and I will return to our respective leaders and tell them that all of you are doing good work in tracking down the Aegis of Aggramar... and, hopefully, stop a pointless war from springing to life while you deal with whatever Skovald did to the Thorignir." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded for a moment and that caused the pair of warriors, or maybe they were rogues based on the speed they both possessed, to head back down the ramps and leave the tower, to which the two of them carried Scarlet and Vytheril over to the path they had spotted, though as soon as they touched down all four of them moved forward and passed by some rams that were likely the food for the Thorignir, before finding a well worn path that was connected to the now destroyed bridge, hence the reason they followed it not even a few seconds later. What they found out was that there were a number of small wind gusts resting between them and the highest point of the path, as in they started beyond a small wooden bridge and went on for quite a while, along with several elemental creatures that looked like they were bolts of lightning given life, where Vytheril revealed that there were lightning and storm elementals standing in their way, or at least that was what it looked like from afar, because when they got closer it looked like all of the elementals were ignoring them or hadn't noticed them at all. As such that meant all the group had to do was move around the tornados that were in their way and kept their guards up in case some of the elementals decided to attack them, even though Rainbow was a little convinced that her affinity for lightning might be somewhat influencing the elementals in question, but she decided to ignore any funny ideas that were in her head and followed after the others as they made their way up to the highest point of the path they were following, before they found a wooden bridge that seemed to be leading towards a second one, or at least that was what they thought it was bringing them towards, though standing on a raised stone between the pair of wooden bridges was one of the storm drakes, though instead of the red, like those that had been scattered throughout all of Hrydshal, this one had blue scales, just like the one that Skovald had been rising on earlier, though from what they were seeing the dragon had been in the middle of a fight, as it seemed to be huffing as it stared down at three bodies, ones that were the vrykul that they had seen back at the start of this city, before they noticed that all of them were tainted by the fel energies that Skovald and his allies were using, which was when the storm dragon paused what it was doing and glared at them for a moment, to which Spitfire held her hand up. "Peace, Thorignir, we're not with Skovald or his allies," Spitfire said, because if she was right the reason the storm drake was staring at them was because she and Rainbow had demonic energies from what they had done to themselves in the past, when they truly became demon hunters and joined the Illidari, though she made sure that she and the others put their weapons away to show that they meant the storm drake no harm, even though she and Rainbow could see bits of Fel energy off on the other side of the second bridge, which further confirmed that the Legion, in some sense, was here and that there were Fel-corrupted enemies for them to deal with. "You two... are not like the others. You have been touched by the Fel energies, but the air around you is different from the energy I felt earlier." the blue storm drake stated, showing that he, as it was easy to tell that it was a male dragon and not a female one, not that such a thing really mattered in the grand scheme of things, before he sighed for a moment as he took a moment to stare at the group and then glanced over at the area that was on the other side of the second bridge, which was enough to cause the others to do the same thing, "You are here for the Trial of Will... I'm afraid that you are too late for such a thing, as the battle with the Drekirjar has taken its toll on me, as I am too weak to grant any of you the power that you are seeking... but perhaps you may be able to help us with our situation." At this point Spitfire and Rainbow weren't even surprised by what they were hearing, though they had to assume that the Drekirjar were either the clan that called Hrydshal home or they were another clan that lived in another part of the large province that they were in the middle of fighting their way through, though they were interested in what sort of help the storm drake might ask them for, even though it would include killing either demons or Fel-corrupted vrykul, before any of them even bothered to worry about the Trial of Will, as that would come once the Thorignir were ready to do whatever test they had in store for those that came looking for their blessing. > Stormheim: The Thorignir > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Tell us what needs to be done and we'll take down these Drekirjar, not to mention their demonic allies," Rainbow said, as she wanted the storm drake to know that they were willing to do anything and everything that he asked them to do so they could bring justice to the Fel-corrupted enemies that were currently scattered throughout Stormheim, especially since she and the others could see that there were a number of them scattered around the area that was beyond the wooden bridge that rested between them and the next area they would be exploring. "First, know who I am: my name is Vethir, and I lead the Thorignir," the storm drake stated, apparently wanting the group to know what his name was before he informed them of what sort of things he needed them to do in their fight against all of the Drekirjar, even if two of them knew that such a thing would involve killing demons and any of the Fel-corrupted vrykul that Skovald had left behind, to do whatever it was that he, or his Legion masters, desired, "Now then, if you wish to aid us in our battle against the Drekirjar and their Fel allies, the first thing I would have you do is hunt down and slay as many of their soldiers as you can, as to thin their ranks for an assault on their city at some point in the future, as they shall know of our fury before this day is over. While you do that I would have the four of you deal with a demonic creature, a commander based on what I overhead earlier, who has captured our mother and seeks to bend her to the God-King's will, to forever prevent anyone from attempting the Trial of Will, and if you free her we will be able to regain our power, enough to aid you in your quest, though I would also ask that you free my brothers and sisters from the Drekirjar as well." "Kill a demon, free all of the Thorignir, and smash the Drekirjar that are attacking this area, we can do that," Vytheril said, as he wanted to make sure that they got the gist of what Vethir was saying, where the storm drake nodded his head to show that he had understood everything that he had said and that the rest of the group understood it as well, though both Spitfire and Rainbow were interested in seeing what sort of demons had been brought to this area, as they were under the impression that there had to be more than one demon in this area, but after he said that he and the others noticed that the next wooden bridge was smashed as well, to which he sighed for a moment. Spitfire and Rainbow did the same thing that they did earlier, where one of them carried Scarlet over the bridge while the other side the same thing for Vytheril, though once the four of them were on the other side of the totally wrecked bridge, and understood that if a bridge was breakable then Skovald was likely going to break them to slow them down, they took out their weapons and focused on the peak that the Thorignir called home, as they knew that there were enemies in this area that needed to be taken down and they were ready to engage them accordingly, especially since they wouldn't be any stronger than the ones they had faced outside the Vault earlier. The first order of business was to track down the demon that was keeping the mother of the Thorignir captive and kill it before it could complete its mission, though once that was done they could tackle all of the Felskorn that were scattered around this area and disrupt what they were doing, to which Scarlet and Vytheril patiently waited for a few moments, as they were giving Spitfire and Rainbow a chance to track down the demon they had been told about, even if Vethir didn't give them any information on what sort of demon they would be finding, before the pair glanced at each other and nodded their heads, showing their allies that they had tracked down the demon and knew where they could find it. Once the pair knew where the demon was located, and had a path leading right to their target's destination, they started to walk forward and both Scarlet and Vytheril followed after them, though what was interesting was that it didn't take them long to discover what sort of enemies were lingering in this area as they tried to fulfill Skovald's orders, where they could see a number of Felskorn hunters, which were leather wearing vrykul that had Fel energy lingering around their bodies, and some Felskorn warriors, before they noticed some Jailer demons that were floating around the place, though all of them were accompanied by a small pack of Imps, about three of the small critters based on what the group was seeing right now. In fact one of the Jailers happened to be heading up a path that was to the immediate left of where the group was standing, after leaving the ruined bridge behind to be exact, hence the reason that the group charged at the demon in question, as it happened to be heading up to an area that one of the bound Thorignir was bound in, where Spitfire and Rainbow noticed that it was trapped in one of the Legion's Fel traps, a circular device that was supposed to keep someone or something bound to one area so they could break the will of those that were contained inside it, which made sense due to what Skovald had said earlier. The Jailer wasn't too happy to see them at all, mostly because of the fact that two of them were demon hunters, and that caused it to lash out at them with the power of the souls that were trapped inside the cage that was resting on its back, all to torment whoever was trapped inside the cage until they broke, even if the pair suspected those sad souls might have been corrupted by the Fel energies, though Spitfire and Rainbow lashed out at the demon with their warglaives, one using her blades to cut through all of the attacks that were coming her way while the other got behind the demon and cut into its back without wasting time, even if she had to avoid damaging the cage it was carrying. It didn't take them long to bring down the Jailer and drop its scarred body to the ground, where they discovered that their allies had moved around them so they could deal with the Felskorn hunter that was guarding the Fel prison that was keeping one of the Thorignir trapped at the moment, though once both of their enemies were taken care of Rainbow tore apart the Jailer's cage and let all of the souls that were trapped inside it out, where she made sure to cut down the more Fel-corrupted ones that flew around her, just to make sure none of the Legion's new tormented allies were revived in the near future, leaving Spitfire to use some of her own power to drain the Fel energy from the trap, breaking it and allowing the storm drake to emerge from it at long last. The Thorignir in question, who was apparently called Hrafsir, thanked them for freeing him from his prison and then declared that the Drekirjar would pay for their crimes, something that the group assumed the rest of the Thorignir would say once they figured out where they were being kept and freed them as well, though before they could really say anything Hrafsir took to the air and flew to a higher point of the peak that the group was currently exploring, no doubt heading to an area that all of the storm drakes usually gathered in, or at least that was what they assumed was going on, to which the four of them turned towards the path that was heading away from the main cave that seemed to have a fair number of enemies guarding it, where Spitfire confirmed that the mother of the Thorignir was inside the nearby cave. Before the four of them headed over to the cave, however, they headed down the path that was to the left of where Hrafsir's prison had been in and spotted a few Felskorn hunters that seemed to be guarding the area in question, meaning the warriors their foe had left behind had to be guarding their demonic ally, or at least that was what Spitfire and Rainbow assumed based on what they had seen in the past, where they found a small stream running through the area and headed down into the ravine that was far below them, giving the storm drakes a small source of water. What was rather interesting was that all of the enemies that could have been trying to break the next storm drake were all outside the area the cave had been resting in, allowing the group to take care of all their enemies in a matter of seconds before even heading into the small cave, where Spitfire raised her hand and drained the Fel energy from the Fel trap that the Thorignir was trapped in, where they learned that he was called Aleifir and that he would meet them at the summit of this mountain, before he flew outside and seemed to be heading towards the same area that Hrafsir was heading towards, to which they left the cave and headed for the main cave the mother of the Thorignir was resting inside. From there they returned to the area that contained the path that had lead up to where Hrafsir had been imprisoned and found that there was another storm drake off to their left, who was being guarded by a Jailer demon and one of the Felskorn warriors, the latter appearing to be bored of what was going on at the moment, hence the reason that Vytheril blasted the armored foe in the back and drew it over to where he and Scarlet were standing at the moment, allowing Spitfire and Rainbow to lash out at the Jailer demon as it realized that it was under attack, even though the Imps stood no chance as they were quickly cut down as they got in the way of the ensuing battle, though Spitfire was the one that removed the demon's head and let it's body fall to the ground, allowing her to take its soul before it could fly away, just like she had done to the last one they had faced, while Rainbow smashed the cage and made sure to absorb the Fel-corrupted souls before they could leave this area, adding their power to her own, which was when they drained the Fel trap and freed the storm drake, Hridmogir, from its prison, who thanked them and then flew off so he could join the rest of the Thorignir that had been freed. From there the pair joined Scarlet and Vytheril as they engaged the larger group of enemies that were standing between them and the cave entrance that was their next destination, though their enemies included several Felskorn warriors, a few Felskorn hunters, and a Jailer demon that was ready to bring them all down so it could torment their souls, Spitfire and Rainbow's to be exact, but that didn't stop the group from lashing out at the enemies that were in front of them so they could move forward, where Scarlet parried several attacks that were coming her way and cut her foes down, Vytheril stood off to the side so he could strike his targets with a few arcane blasts, and both Spitfire and Rainbow danced around their foes for a few moments before they cut them down, which included breaking down the Jailer demon and taking its soul, and all of its Fel-corrupted souls that were inside its cage, before the area was cleared out. Once those enemies were taken care of Spitfire walked over to the nearby Fel trap and drained it of its power so the storm drake that was inside it, Erilar, could be freed from his prison and take to the skies as well, joining the other Thorignir that they had freed so far, before they headed over to the cave entrance and found that they weren't the only ones that had been fighting the Felskorn, as Vethir was off to the side and was in the middle of smashing and cutting down a few of the warriors, hence the reason they headed into the cave so they could see what sort of demon was in the middle of trying to corrupt the mother of the Thorignir. There were a few Jailer demons resting between them and the area that a large storm drake was resting in, one that was being chained by a rather powerful Fel trap, even if it was still a minor one since all of the major Fel traps usually required runestones or magical items that acted as keys, according to what each of them had learned over the course of their adventures or lessons, before they spotted a female Eredar that was surrounded by Fel energies and seemed to be focused on the Fel prison the storm drake was trapped in, meaning part of what they had to do was kill the Eredar and then free the mother of the Thorignir. The Jailers were annoyed that the group was even there and they charged at them as soon as they laid eyes on them, allowing Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril to lash out at all of their enemies as the Eredar glanced in their direction for a few moments as she weaved her Fel magic around the Fel trap, confirming that she needed to be defeated first before they could free the large Thorignir, though as the Jailer demons fell both Spitfire and Rainbow make sure to snatch the souls of their enemies so none of them could be reborn and smashed the cages to free the souls within, causing the Eredar to frown as she noticed that all of the Fel-corrupted souls were taken as well, preventing the Legion from gaining any additional allies or information from the souls these demons had been carrying inside their cages. Once all of the Jailers were taken care of the group walked down to where the Eredar and the Fel trap rested, where it was rather easy for them to tell that she wasn't too happy with what she had witnessed, which was fine with the group since they liked to annoy the Legion and the demons that served Sargeras, before she waved a hand so she could move the focus she had been using off to the side for a moment shifted her stance for a moment, as if she was ready for a fight to break out. "You are all fools if you believe that you can stop the Legion from claiming the Aegis!" the Eredar stated, where she took a few seconds to channel her Fel power and that seemed to ignite her hands with Fel fire as she focused on the four of them, even though her tone revealed that she, much like all of the other demons they had faced over the years, believed that the Legion was practically unstoppable and that, even with their various losses to the forces of Azeroth since they started their attempts to invade this world, they all believed that this invasion would be different and that they would walk away with the win this time around, "Skovald will break the trials that protect the Aegis, invade the Halls of Valor, and will rip the Titan artifact from those that are guarding it, though the four of you shall not interfere with his mission, for I, Azariah, will make sure none of you survive this encounter!" "Rainbow was right, you guys do love to talk big," Vytheril replied, where he blasted the Eredar in the chest with a blast of Arcane energy and caused her to stagger for a moment, showing that he wasn't holding back and that their foe had better be ready for a fight since none of them were going to allow her to get away with what she was doing, hence the reason the others had their weapons at the ready and were simply waiting for Azariah to make the first move against one of them, as that would be followed by everyone lashing out at her with the appropriate amount of strength and power, before he raised his hand for a moment and beckoned to the Eredar, "not that you have the power to back it up, given what we've seen in the past when the Legion tried to invade our world... which they failed, in case you didn't know that fact." Azariah growled for a moment as she raised her right hand and loosed Fel fireballs at the group, who separated from each other as they dodged the attack, something that allowed them to notice that she actually went out of her way to avoid the Fel trap that the mother of the Thorignir was trapped inside, meaning she wanted to keep the storm drake in the condition she was in for later, so she could resume tormenting her and eventually break her to the Legion's will, though while both Scarlet dodged the attacks and Vytheril counted with his own Arcane blasts, the latter looking for a weakness to use, some of the attacks were cleaved in half as Spitfire and Rainbow moved around part of the cave that they were in. Part of the reason that the pair did that was because the Fel fire really didn't bother them all that much, either due to their training or the demonic energy they used, though whatever the reason was didn't seem to matter to Azariah all that much, because she growled as she loosed a number of Fel fireballs at them in an attempt to blast them into the walls of the cavern and either wound them enough to make them submit or outright kill them so their souls could be sent to the shattered world the Legion used to torment those they wanted to break, though that was when Spitfire got close to the Eredar and swung one of her warglaives at her chest. The demon barely had a chance to move as the edge of Spitfire's weapon cut into her robe and whatever happened to be holding her chest up, leaving a diagonal slash behind, though that caused the demon to growl in annoyance as she summoned her power and opened small portals in the ceiling of the part of the cavern they were fighting in, loosing a burst of Fel meteors down on her targets so she could smash them all into the ground and take out several of the Legion's enemies in a matter of seconds, though Vytheril used some of his magic to form a dome over him and his friends so none of them took damage, but when that failed Azariah decided to try something else as she took a moment to raise her right hand up to her lips and blew a kiss at Spitfire, who tilted her head as Rainbow slashed open the back of the Eredar's robes, where they discovered that the Eredar's tail was no longer the same as the others of her kind and the blue skinned draenei that had sided with the Alliance, rather it looked thinner and ended in a spade, just like the tails of the Sayaad, or the Succubi as they were more commonly known as among the warlocks and scholars of this world, along with the demon hunters, as that was what Spitfire and Rainbow knew them as. "I see, you must have taken in a vast amount of Sayaad blood to transform yourself," Spitfire commented, referring to the fact that Azariah was actually part Eredar and, thanks to whatever actions she had done before being called to Azeroth for the third invasion, part Sayaad, even though she was now noticing that their foe's body was more defined than a normal Eredar's was, as it was more the bodies of the various Sayaad she and Rainbow had seen in the past, before Maiev sealed them and the other Illidari in those crystals, her tail was totally different from a normal Eredar's, and Spitfire was sure that her chest was a size or two larger than a normal Eredar's as well. "That's right. Xazariel, the Queen of Sin, ruler of the Sayaad, has decided to bestow a mighty gift upon me, and once I take all of you down I'll ascend once more," Azariah stated, showing the group that she was happy that someone noticed what was different about her body, even if most demons would have continued attacking Spitfire once she started talking about what she had noticed, before she glanced at her form for a moment as she raised her right hand, almost like she might be imagining the full changes that her body would be experiencing in the near future, though as that happened she glanced at Spitfire for a few seconds, "of course, the powers I have awakened so far are nothing compared to what a true Sayaad, or someone who has fully ascended to that level, can wield, as you easily broke out of my seduction spell, though had we fought in my ascended form, instead of facing each other in this cave, I would have ensnared both of you pitiful demon hunters in my grasp. Lady Xazariel would have rewarded me greatly for delivering two unique demon hunters to her, all so she could break you down and either use her unique brand of torment on you until you snapped and joined the endless armies of the Legion, like all those she's broken over the years, or corrupted you to the point where you forsake all of your morals and become Sayaad as well..." In was in that moment that Azariah stopped her statement short as Spitfire's warglaive found its way into her heart, which caused her to look down at the area in question with disbelief written all over her face, though instead of giving the demon a chance to understand what was going on, and maybe launch one final attack at the group that was taking her down right now, Spitfire ripped her weapon out of the twisted demon's chest and swung the other one right at her head, which was when she took Azariah's head clean off and let it roll on the ground as it headed away from the Fel trap. Once Spitfire did that, and surprised their friends with how quickly she had taken the demon down, she absorbed Azariah's soul before it could return to whatever world she would have been reborn in, allowing the demon's half-Sayaad body to hit the ground with a dull thud, before she paused for a few seconds as she felt a bit of pressure in her chest and was sure that her chest had grown a little, maybe a size or two based on what she was seeing, though that was something she would worry about later, where Rainbow tilted her head for a moment and decided to remain silent as well, even though Spitfire made sure that the extra weight didn't ruin her movements and found that she was as nimble as ever. "So, the Sayaad have a Queen... that's interesting and worrisome at the same time," Vytheril commented, to which Scarlet nodded her head, as she knew that a Succubus demon could do some serious damage to a village, city, or even a kingdom if they weren't quickly taken down, though the reason this piece of information was worth what he had said was due to the fact that no one in Azeroth even knew that the Sayaad were organized enough to have someone, not counting Sargeras or his most powerful followers, order them around, while he noticed that Spitfire and Rainbow seemed to be thinking about this information as well, meaning neither of them had known this bit of information as well and that meant the Illidari had to be in the dark about it as well. "Well, this Xazariel won't be happy that Spitfire took out her latest recruit," Rainbow said, where she walked over to the fel trap their foe had been guarding and raised her hand for a moment, as she used her own powers to drain the energy that was around the container and shattered the structure that had been keeping the mother of the Thorignir pinned to the floor of the cave, who raised her head for a moment as she realized that she was no long being forced against the ground and could raise her head at long last, even though her statement would be something they would talk about later, even if Spitfire would likely send a message back to the rest of the Illidari, so they could hear this information themselves and act on it while the two of them were searching for the Aegis of Aggramar. "I am FREE!" the mother of the Thorignir roared, where it was easy for the group to determine that she was pleased with what they had done, as her tone suggested that to them and none of them were about to question her at all, before she lowered her head and focused on the group for a few seconds, no doubt making sure that Spitfire and Rainbow weren't allies of the Legion, something many had done and they were okay with since they would have done the same thing until the individuals in question had proved themselves to be allies, before she nodded her head for a moment as she opened her wings, like she was getting ready to leave, which made sense given everything that had happened to her, "You four are truly champions of the Thorignir! Speak to Vethir, as he will take you to the summit, where we may talk in private and plan our next move against the traitorous Drekirjar!" The group nodded their heads for a moment before heading for the cave's entrance, which was when the large Thorignir took to the air and flew out of the cave, even if she had to land for a few seconds so she could walk outside and then take to the air once more, though as they walked outside Spitfire collected Azariah's body so she could carry it outside, where she would find a good place to dispose of it before they headed to the summit, just so it didn't annoy the rest of the storm drakes that called this place home, but as they walked outside Vethir turned his head towards them, where the look on his face suggested that he was pleased with that the four of them had done. "I am relieved to hear, not to mention see, that our mother is safe, though I am sure she will wish to thank you herself at some point, since she's heading for the summit," Vethir stated, where his tone revealed that they were correct in believing that he was pleased with them, as he sounded happy that all of the Thorignir were saved from the Legion and that none of Skovald's forces had been left behind to do any lasting damage to the peak they called home, though it also meant that all of the younger storm drakes must have left before the assault happened, as there were no whelplings up here, but they figured that was something that Vethir and the others could focus on later, once they were done teaching their enemies a lesson for betraying the ancient pact that existed between the storm drakes and the Drekirjar, "I am also thankful that all of my siblings have been saved from the Drekirjar, or these Felskorn as I overheard them call themselves, and stopped them from becoming slaves to our enemy's foul masters... also, I witnessed all of your skills in battle, as you took down all of the Felskorn that were attacking our home, and I must say that I am impressed by what you were able to do, though I'm afraid that we're not done with the traitorous vrykul that betrayed our ancient pack." "We would be honored to help you, and your brood, in getting your revenge on the traitorous Felskorn that attacked your home and tried to bend you to the Legion's will," Vytheril said, though at the same time he readied himself as Scarlet did the same, as they were the only ones that couldn't fly on their own, due to the fact that Spitfire and Rainbow had wings, as he knew that the storm drake was going to take them up to the summit and speak to the mother of the Thorignir, so they could formulate a plan of attack before they headed out to deal with whatever plans Skovald was setting into motion for the third and final trial, plans the four of them would have to dismantle at some point. "Climb on my back and I will take you to where Thrymjaris, and the rest of our brood, are waiting for us," Vethir replied, to which he shifted his body for a moment and opened the way for some of them to get up onto his back so he could take off and head to the summit, though he was mostly waiting for Vytheril and Scarlet to do that since he noticed the wings that both Spitfire and Rainbow possessed, where the pair in question climbed up onto his back before he took off, heading up towards the summit as the pair of demon hunters followed after him, with Spitfire finding an area to place Azariah's body and head in, so they wouldn't upset the Thorignir, before she rejoined the group. The flight was short and sweet, given that the summit was rather close to where Vethir had been standing, though as they did that Vethir confirmed their thoughts as he flew through the air, that the former Drekirjar had broken their ancient pact with the Thorignir and that they would soon be suffering the consequences for their actions, and when they reached the summit the group found that the four storm drakes they had saved from the smaller Fel traps were peacefully resting all over the place while the mother of the Thorignir, Thrymjaris according to what they had just learned, was off to the side of where all of the others were resting, no doubt waiting for them to arrive, hence why Vethir landed and let them off so they could walk down to where she was standing. "As I said a few minutes ago, you four are truly champions of the Thorignir, and your actions during your time here have gained you a powerful ally." Thrymjaris stated, where her tone made it clear that she was quite pleased with them, just like how Vethir was pleased with what they had done since his first encounter with them, though it was in that moment that she chuckled as she thought about something, where the group assumed that she was thinking about Skovald and all of his Fel-corrupted allies, before she focused on them once more, "The God-King, as he prefers to call himself, has reason to fear the four of you, and to show that you have rightfully passed the Trial of Will I would like to give you a gift from the Thorignir, the power of the storm and thunder for your selfless acts, so hold aloft your weapons and prepare yourselves for what's coming next." The group braced themselves for a moment as Thrymjaris called upon the power of the storm to empower them and their artifact weapons, as in she breathed a burst of her lightning breath on each of them and the power she was bestowing on all of them was absorbed by their weapons, even though part of the power was also absorbed by Spitfire and Rainbow's bodies, just like what happened when they passed the Trial of Might earlier and were blessed by Yotnar, though once the deed was done Thrymjaris pulled her head back and nodded her head for a moment, showing them that she was pleased with her handiwork and allowed them to sheath their weapons. "You have proven that the Drekirjar, or whatever they call themselves now, are not our allies and have proven that you are more worthy of our strength, yet, if you'll allow me, I would ask for one more favor," Thrymjaris said, where she raised one of her wings for a moment and beckoned for Vethir for a moment, who was currently staring down at Hrydshal and all of the vrykul that called it home, no doubt wishing to rain death upon their former allies and teach them a lesson for going against the ancient pact, before the group focused on the large dragon that was in front of them, "Vethir, despite freeing our home from the traitorous vrykul who turned on us, awaits his vengeance against them and won't settle until he has had a chance to teach them a lesson, so I'd like you to join him in his mission and show our former allies what it means to cross the Thorignir... their toll must be paid in blood." Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril nodded their heads as they headed back up to where Vethir was resting and two of them climbed onto his back for a moment, where the storm drake took off and descended down into the area that he and all of the other Thorignir had been trapped in, though as he followed the path that lead back down to Hrydshal the group found that an army of Felskorn were marching up to where the storm drakes were resting, where Scarlet and Vytheril let Vethir loose a number of lightning blasts down on the vrykul that were coming towards his home. While they did that both Spitfire and Rainbow flew down into the marching army and targeted the Fel-corrupted enemies that were marching at the moment, mostly because doing that allowed them to absorb the souls of those that were tainted by the Fel energies and prevented their souls from leaving Azeroth, while also depriving the Legion of any useful information that any of the vrykul could have possessed, which was good for everyone except the God-King, though as they cut down those enemies they noticed a few enemies use ropes to try and get onto Vethir's body and kick their friends off his back. Fortunately that was a failure as Scarlet lashed out with her blades and cut apart the ropes and hooks their foes were using right now, which prevented their enemies from getting onto the storm drake's back and allowed Vethir to fire upon the areas that the ropes had come from, wiping out a number of the Drekirjar in the process, though it wasn't long before the rest of the Thorignir, as in those the group had freed and those that must have been calling another part of Stormheim home, flew into the air above Hrydshal and rained lightning down upon the traitors that turned against them, where the group could actually hear some of the vrykul crying out in pain as death came for them, though this did confirm that they had powerful allies for whatever the future had to throw at them, which could be anything given that they were dealing with the Legion, but for right now the group focused on punishing the traitorous vrykul. Vethir even lead the rest of the Thorignir in an assault on every location in the vrykul city, making sure their former allies knew the consequences for betraying the ancient pact, mostly so they didn't try something like this again in the future, before he nodded his head and the rest of the pack left, no doubt heading back to the peak the rest of their kind called home, while he turned and flew over to the camp that both Lorna and Cullen were waiting at, or not since the group could see that neither of them were present, even though Vethir flew a little past it and landed so Scarlet and Vytheril could climb off his back. Vethir waited for a few moments, just so Spitfire and Rainbow could land nearby and come to a stop as well, though it was clear that the storm drake was overjoyed to get his revenge on the traitorous vrykul that had assaulted his home and tried to corrupt them so they would join the Legion, before he regained himself and focused on the four of them, as he likely had something he wanted to tell them before he let them head off to deal with the final trial that stood between them and gaining entry to the Halls of Valor, where the Aegis was waiting for someone to claim it from its resting place, even though Spitfire was sure there would be a few more tests between them and the artifact. "You have done well in completing the Trial of Will, and freeing the Thorignir, but your trials are far from over," Vethir said, which pretty much confirmed what everyone was thinking right now, as they knew about the Trial of Valor, thanks to what they learned from the Vault, but anything after that was a total mystery to all four of them, hence the reason the group was keeping quite as they listened to what the storm drake had to say before he flew back to the peak they had freed and rejoined the rest of the Thorignir, though that was when all five of them noticed one of Havi's ravens resting nearby, even if Vethir shifted his head for a moment, "When you have need of me, or the rest of the Thorignir, we shall be ready, though it appears that a messenger is waiting for you, so I won't keep you for the next trial that you must face. May the gale winds carry you towards victory, my friends." The group nodded their heads and wished Vethir well, even though they were sure that he and the other Thorignir would be spending some time cleaning up the mess the Felskorn had made of their peak before they were able to rest and figure out a plan to destroy the path so their former allies couldn't get to them, which was when Vethir took off and headed back towards him home, to which the group turned towards the raven that was resting nearby and walked over to the rather small fence it was resting on, as it's arrival meant Havi must have something important he wanted to tell them and might have some directions for them to follow. All four of you are indeed mighty, as the trials have shown. a voice said, which was definitely Havi's and was coming from the raven, meaning they were definitely messengers and speakers for the odd vrykul the group had encountered at the start of their journey through the province of Stormheim, though they remained silent as they waited to hear what else he might have to tell them, even though they could see that Vethir had brought them to an area that rested near a rather long bridge that would bring them closer to the elegant bridge and their final destination, But valor is a different animal, one that is not so easily tamed. If valor is what you seek, then to the bones you must speak! Follow Huginn and he will lead you to me so you can prepare for your next trial. The group glanced at each other for a moment as the blue colored raven, Huginn, took to the air and started to fly away from where Vethir had dropped them off, apparently heading for the larger wooden bridge that was near them, to which they started to move out of the area and followed after him, figuring that they would have time to discuss what they had seen and learned later, when they weren't looking for one of the Pillars of Creation, hence why they were focused on what Havi might have to tell them before worrying about what the Trial of Valor might entail, even though it would likely involve crushing Skovald's forces in some manner, which they were looking forward to doing as they focused on the path that was in front of them and left Hrydshal behind. > Stormheim: Trouble in the Runewood > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril walked down the path that was in front of them and headed for the bridge that would allow them to access the next part of the partly fractured plateau that the Titans had built the Vault and Halls of Valor in, not to mention the vrykul that built their homes where, though one of the things that they could see as they walked was a house of some kind off on the right, one that was different from what the vrykul had built over the years, where Vytheril revealed it was more like the various tauren huts that he had seen after his race joined the Horde, though for the most part it appeared that whoever owned it was likely hunting. It struck Spitfire and Rainbow as a little odd, since there had been no reports of tauren living in Stormheim, but they quickly accepted it since there was a path near the Titan Vault that headed right into Highmountain, the home of another type of tauren from what they had learned, so seeing a hut here wasn't totally strange, but for the most part the group ignored it and headed down the path to their left, the one that would allow them to walk over the bridge and enter the next part of the province they were exploring. While the four of them did that, however, Spitfire had to wonder what Sylvanas was doing and if Cullen or the rest of the Forsaken had convinced her to hold off on the faction war, until the Legion had been brought down and were totally crushed, but, even as she thought about that, she realized that the Banshee Queen was just going to ignore all of her warnings and might try to incite a war while another war was going on at the moment, meaning she might have to take her down at some point, just to stop the Legion from gaining the upper hand in this invasion, mostly because she didn't trust Sylvanas at all, which Genn and many others shared with her. The false Warchief of the Horde was only going to cause problems and Spitfire knew that they were going to have to nip the problem soon, otherwise it might be too late to stop whatever the Banshee Queen had in store for her enemies and allies, given that she had allowed her forces to prepare the Blight and it was due to Vytheril telling her what it was so she could stop the undead from doing something stupid. While she thought about all of that, however, Spitfire noticed that Scarlet glanced over to her a few times and seemed to be studying something, no doubt what had happened to her body while they were fighting the twisted Eredar that was in the middle of trying to corrupt Thrymjaris and the rest of the Thorignir, though Vytheril didn't seem all that bothered by what had happened in the last ten minutes, despite the fact that she suspected he was studying her for any changes that might awaken sometime after absorbing Azariah's soul and power. "Is something wrong?" Spitfire asked, mostly because she wanted to get this out of the way before they reached the area that Havi was having Huginn bring them to so they could learn what they needed to do before attempting the Trial of Valor and then made their way to where the Halls of Valor rested, even though that was the only thing that none of them knew about, as Havi had elected not to share that information with them when they first started tackling the trials, while at the same time she noticed that Rainbow and Vytheril were slightly interested in what they might talk about as they started to walk over the bridge the raven had brought them to. "No, just making sure you're okay after absorbing that half-Sayaad's soul... and being surprised by what happened to your body when you did that," Scarlet replied, which was understandable given that some demon hunter had been known to be consumed by the Fel energies they were messing with and were twisted into the very things they swore to destroy, just like Spitfire and Rainbow had seen earlier, when they hunted down their artifacts and had to face the corrupted forms of both Varedis and Caria, before she glanced at Spitfire's chest area again, "you are alright, right? I know you made sure that your body moved like it had before fighting that demon, but I just wanted to make sure everything was just fine with your body before we reached the area that Havi is having Huginn lead us to." "Trust me, I'm perfectly fine." Spitfire stated, though she appreciated the gesture, since it seemed like Scarlet was actually more concerned about losing a friend that was trying to save Azeroth and, more importantly, stop the impending war that Sylvanas had to be preparing for Genn and the other leaders of the Alliance, and while she did that she glanced down at her chest for a moment, since that was still something she was coming to terms with, due to the fact that it had been quite a surprise when she felt the pressure, before shaking her head as she focused on the path ahead of them, "Sure, what my chest went through was certainly quite a surprise, but that appears to be the only change I'll be experiencing, which kind of makes sense given who our foe was... though at the same time I probably incurred Xazariel's wrath, so I'll need to keep an eye out for her at some point after we finish recovering the Aegis." "If only we could do what Lord Illidan did all those years ago," Rainbow remarked, where Spitfire understood that she was referring to opening a portal to the world of the Sayaad and then, after verifying that it was the world in question, using all of the portal's power in a forced closure of some kind that would detonate the entire planet and wipe out the Sayaad, or at least the vast majority of them, just like what their Lord had done to Nathreza, the world of the Nathrezim, all those years ago, though while many assumed that the Nathrezim shared their world with the Sayaad, however, the Illidari had found nothing on Nathreza that looked like it belonged to this Xazariel and her Succubi, so there was a world out there that held all the Succubi that existed in the Burning Legion and it would have been where Azariah would have been reborn in due time had Spitfire not absorbed her soul, though Spitfire understood that Rainbow wanted to blow the world of the Succubi up, just like they had done in the past, before she shrugged for a moment, "oh well, we'll come up with a plan for her once we're done with this province... its not like she's going to send some of her forces through the Felstorm and task them with hunting us down for what we just did, and even if that happens she'll end up losing them." Scarlet and Vytheril looked like they wanted to know what in the world they were thinking about, though at the same time Spitfire decided that it was for the best, despite the fact that she knew many members of the Alliance and Horde would be happy with the destruction of Nathreza and the depths of many of the Nathrezim, though her attention shifted to the end of the bridge that was in front of them as Huginn flew through the area and lead them towards one of the vrykul towers they had noticed inside Hrydshal, one that happened to be where Havi was standing, along with a red storm drake and a couple of vrykul that appeared to be his allies, despite the fact that they were sort of different from the other vrykul they had seen so far, which was when the raven circled over Havi's head before landing near the purple one. "Ah, the heroes of the hour have arrived!" Havi stated, his tone revealing that he was happy to see them again and that he was pleased by two of the three trials being completed in the proper manner, instead of what Skovald was doing to each of them, though while he said that the group noticed that there was a dead moose resting nearby and suspected that their friend might ask one of them to butcher the creature for some food, before giving them the information they needed to know for the final trial, "The Trial of Valor will be your next test, a long test at that, and it will test you more than the other two trials you have encountered... but only a fool fights on an empty stomach." "I do hope you are referring to Skovald, since it would be nice to have something to use against him," Scarlet replied, even if she and the others suspected that he might be referring to the four of them, given what she and Vytheril knew from the tales of another land that the vrykul had been found in, even if the Stormheim ones were vastly different to the ones that they had faced in the past, before she noticed the tools that were resting near the moose and understood what Havi was suggesting, just like what they had noticed the first time they met him, "Let me guess, you want someone to carve up the moose before we do anything else?" "If you would be so kind, as these old bones can hardly hold a weapon, much less butcher a moose for our meal, since I was planning on sharing this time." Havi said, revealing that he had made sure someone had brought him a creature that would produce enough meat for all of them and then some, as Spitfire suspected that this moose would be enough for the five of them and the other vrykul that were guarding the tower, where a voice in her mind informed her that it was called Valdisdall, "While you do that, I will tell you what you need to know... which will involve spinning a small tale of rocks, trees and spirits, and it will give you an idea of who you'll need to take to next." As Scarlet started to hack into the moose's corpse, and did so with a level of skill that was like what she had used back in the first camp they had met Havi in, the vrykul in question revealed that the next area that they would be exploring was called Haustvald, even though they would be visiting the Runewood first, and that the Bonespeakers tended to the dead, in a manner that caused him to inform them that these vrukul would not help the group, as their ways were twisted and that they had forgotten the old vows they took, either due to Skovald's interference or something else, but he did tell inform the four of them that there was one who could help them, as the individual was 'rooted in the old ways' and that his name was Vydhar, who would be the key to them passing the Trial of Valor and gaining entry to the Halls of Valor. "So, find this Vydhar and get what we need to know from him," Rainbow commented, as that was the gist of what they had been told, along with the fact that the Bonespeakers were enemies, just like the Drekirjar had been during their assault on Hrydshal earlier, though at the same time she wasn't surprised by the fact that another ancient group was breaking their ancient vows and were possibly siding with the Legion, meaning they had to break them down while doing whatever it was they needed to do to impress this Vydhar so he would trust them enough to reveal how they were going to pass the Trial of Valor, in the proper manner anyway. "Indeed... your cuts are fine, by the way," Havi said, the first part of the statement referring to Rainbow's comment while the second part was directed to Scarlet and her work, as she had carved up the moose and had started cooking the strips of meat over the fire that was resting in the middle of the camp that was in front of the tower, though they could tell that the storm drake didn't seem interested in the food, meaning someone must have fed it before the group arrived, before he focused on the four of them for a few moments, "Also, Vydhar is a tree, resting inside the heart of the mystic Runewood that rests outside the area known as Haustvald, and he will offer you sound guidance... and possibly leaves as well, if he's in the mood for something like that." No one said anything to that, as they really didn't have any response to what Havi said, but at the very least it didn't take Scarlet all that long to prepare the meat according to how Havi preferred it, soft and tender, like someone could peel it off the bone, and the seasoning was like what she had done back at the odd vrykul's camp that was near the Vault, something that impressed everyone that happened to be standing around the camp as she dished the meal out, especially since she was a death knight and many assumed that her class had lost many sensations when they were brought back from death, but she had found that her taste buds weren't as damaged as the rest of her kind, though while she didn't need to eat at all, due to her new nature, she found the practice to be helpful. Another thing that Scarlet and Vytheril discovered about Spitfire and Rainbow was that, despite their appearance, they were capable of eating meat without getting sick, since both of them had been worried about such a thing happening to either of them, but this informed their friends that they didn't need to worry about this and they nodded their heads accordingly, all while Havi and his vrykul allies helped themselves as well, as they apparently enjoyed the meal as well and there was enough for all of them to have seconds. While they took a few moments to rest, however, Spitfire did think about what Rainbow had said and knew that the Felstorm needed to be closed soon, before the Legion made recovering the Pillars of Creation a useless quest, and not just because of the fact that she had likely annoyed the strongest Sayaad in all of existence, since there was no telling when Sargeras would show up and take the planet for his own, hence the reason she was so focused on finding the Aegis of Aggramar and returning it to Dalaran, hopefully by the time the other heroes of the Alliance and Horde recovered the other three that they were in the middle of looking for, as Suramar's was the last one they would focus on. Rainbow's idea to open a portal of immense power to the world of the Sayaad, after finding the coordinates to the planet like Lord Illidan had found Nathreza, and then closing said portal rather violently to cause a cataclysm to destroy Xazariel's world, and wipe out the Sayaad, was a good idea in the grand scheme of things, but they lacked the power to do something like that and had to focus on the task that was in front of them, something her friend understood based on what she had said earlier. Once they were done with the meal, and the group thanked the vrykul for gathering the components that had been used to prepare the dish, they walked over to another path that served as a secondary entrance to Valdisdall and followed it for a few moments as it brought them down to an area a few rams were wandering around in, something that allowed them to access a well worn path that seemed to be heading into the forest that was their next destination and they kept their eyes open for the tree, Vydhar as he was known as, that they were looking for. It actually didn't take them all that long to find another path that clearly lead to a rather large tree, one that rested inside the middle of a clearing, meaning they must have found what they were looking for, though as they followed the side path it was easy to find that there were a few Bonespeakers in the immediate area, outside the clearing the tree was resting in, where some of them looked like they were mystics, others were warriors of some kind, and there were earth elementals wandering around some of the areas, meaning they would have to be careful when they lashed out at their enemies, to which they approached the large tree and found that a large face had been carved into part of the bark. "Um, Vydhar? We were told to come speak with you." Rainbow said, as it was hard to tell if the tree was sleeping or if there might be something that they were missing, though there were a few deer hanging out nearby and there were a bunch of large roots that were half submerged in the ground and half resting above ground, though as she said that she and the others were curious as to whether or not Havi had been messing with them or had been telling the truth, but before any of them could say anything the 'eyes' of the face shifted and Vydhar seemed to awaken. "Bound... twisted... the Bonespeakers..." the tree, Vydhar, moaned, where they could tell that the voice that came from the tree was in pain and that his words, since Havi repeatedly mentioned that Vydhar was a 'he' while they were talking, gave them an idea as to who they needed to get some revenge on, which appeared to be the Bonespeakers Havi had told them a little about, which wasn't too much of a surprise based on what the group had seen so far, before the tree glanced at the four of them as he tried to focus, "The Bonespeakers... they are corrupt... hungry for power... cut them from my woods... and turn the runestones... to release my bonds... and stop their attempts to... silence... the Runewood..." "Well, we were already planning on wiping out the Bonespeakers, but now we have something else to do," Vytheril said, as this was good for them, because they had found the individual that they were looking for and had seen a few areas while they were walking towards Vydhar's resting place, meaning it gave them a good idea of where they might be able to find these runestones that they needed to 'turn', which was odd given that most of them assumed that he would have asked for them to be destroyed, but his words would likely become apparent once they found one of the runestones, though as he said that Vydhar moaned a little, no doubt due to the pain that his body was in, before the group moved out of the area and started the next stage of their quest. Fortunately it appeared that one of the areas that contained one of the runestones was close to where Vydhar was resting, where the group could see one of the mystic Bonespeakers channeling his magic through the stone as it pulsed into the ground, showing them that the tree had been right, the corrupted vrykul that were scattered throughout the Runewood were trying to silence the wood and dominate everything that was contained in this area, and it was easy to see that the Bonespeakers weren't corrupted by the fel energies, like Skovald's forces had been. Of course they discovered a few of the earth elementals wandering around where the mystic was standing, so Scarlet and Vytheril dealt with the five elementals that were lingering in this area, leaving Spitfire and Rainbow to deal with the mystic, even though Spitfire let Rainbow take care of their target as she focused on taking down any warrior vrykul that might be in this area, as two of them rushed at the area they were standing in and she drew her warglaives to deal with them, where she parried the incoming attacks and made sure to push her foes backwards so she could cut them down, due to the fact that these guys fought with the same grace as the other enemies they had fought so far. While she did that Rainbow dodged the mystic's attacks for a few moments, where she found that her foe used a dagger that had some runes on it, but for the most part it didn't look like he had any spells to throw her way, save for a single spell where he tried to carve a rune into the air with the purpose of damaging her, though Rainbow did the smart thing and took her foe's hands off before he could complete his runic spell, causing a look of disbelief to appear on his face for a moment, before she spun around and delivered two diagonal cuts to the mystic's chest, dropping him to the ground in the process as she faced the runestone. That was when she noticed that Scarlet and Vytheril had taken down the group of earth elementals, which had shattered into a number of fragments after the pair had taken them down, though once Spitfire was done with the warriors they approached the runestone and took a moment to figure out how in the world they were going to turn it, since none of them had the same knowledge that the Bonespeakers did, only to find out that a simple application of one's magic, Vytheril's to be exact since he was the one to test the idea out, caused the upper half of the runestone to turn and lock into a new position that caused a small blue circle to appear around it, which seemed to be what they were shooting for. The reason they knew that was because they could hear what seemed to be Vydhar's voice in their heads, claiming that he could hear the woods once more, to which the four of them continued their hunt for the other runestones that needed to be altered, even though they had no idea how many even rested throughout the Runewood, because based on what they could see there was another vrykul complex carved into a quarry of some kind, further beyond where they were standing at the moment, which Spitfire assumed had to be the real Haustvald, since the name certainly didn't fit the woods that she and her friends were currently exploring. Interestingly enough the second runestone was resting in another small clearing that was close to Vydhar's resting place, where a single mystic was tending to the magical stone in question while three of the warriors walked around as guardians of some kind, though that didn't stop the group from walking into the area they happened to be guarding and lashed out at their enemies, where Spitfire, Scarlet, and Vytheril focused on the warriors as Rainbow lashed out at the mystic that was guarding the runestone. It didn't take the group all that long to bring down all of the Bonespeakers that were in this area, given that their foes didn't appear to be expecting any 'intruders' to invade the section of the Runewood they had set up shop in, and once all of the traitorous Bonespeakers in this area had been taken care of Vytheril used his magic to turn the second runestone and it wasn't long before they heard Vydhar's voice in their heads once more, where it sounded like whatever pain he had been in had been replaced by a desire to free himself from the bonds the Bonespeakers had placed upon him. From there they returned to exploring the rest of the Runewood and kept their eyes open for the next runestone, though that was followed by the group noticing that there was a small vrykul settlement near the edge of the Runewood and the next runestone was just outside it, unguarded based on what they were seeing at the moment, so what they did was have Vytheril turn the runestone with his magic and they heard Vydhar declare that he was free from his bonds, meaning the Bonespeakers had set up three runestones, before stating that his roots would seek the throats of those that betrayed him, and they could see that the vrykul that were inside the village had such a thing happen to them, showing the full extent of Vydhar's wrath, before they joined in and made sure to kill all of the Bonespeakers that were inside the village. Once all of their enemies had been slain, and Vydhar's wrath had been sated for a time, the group pulled back and headed back to where the tree was resting, as now that he had been freed from the corrupted magic of the Bonespeakers, and his betrayers had been taken down with no survivors remaining to tell the tale of what happened, he should be able to give them the information they sought, since this seemed to be the start of the Trial of Valor and they needed all the help they could get, at least in the sense of understanding what needed to be done to pass the trial anyway, as they could handle fighting anything that was thrown at them. "So it was your footsteps I felt upon my woods as the runestones released their grip?" Vydhar inquired, speaking once the group came to a stop in front of his tree, where this time they could see that he was fully awake and that he was no longer in pain from what the Bonespeakers had been doing to him, even if he likely wanted to strangle the rest of the vrykul that broke the pact that had been made with him in the ancient past, before he focused on them for a moment, even though they were waiting to ask him about the Trial of Valor, "You have my thanks for freeing me, heroes, and my gratitude for punishing the Bonespeakers... it is a good beginning." "We're happy to be of help, especially after seeing the sort of pain that the Bonespeakers were inflicting upon you and the rest of the Runewood." Scarlet said, as that was the truth of the matter, all four of them had been happy to be of help to the tree that was resting in front of them, because it meant that he might be willing to assist them in tackling the final trial that stood between them and the Aegis of Aggramar, or at least it was the last trial that they were aware of, hence why her next words reflected what she had been thinking about, "We're here to start the Trial of Valor, and we were told that you might be able to help us with whatever we need to do next, since it involves seeking the ancient rulers of the vrykul and earning their judgement in some way." "I see... so, you wish to be judged by the ancient rulers of the vrykul," Vydhar repeated, his tone revealing that he was a tad bit interested in what Scarlet had said, while at the same time seeing that the rest of the group nod their heads, showing him that they agreed with what their companion was saying at the moment, before he seemed to pause as he considered something important, which the group hoped was the decision to help them, only for him to focus on them once more as he opened his mouth, "I admit, this is most curious... just know that the ancient rulers will not take to your presence kindly, heroes, however if you are so hasty to meet their judgment, you can call them forth with a ritual of wakening. To complete this ritual, you will require an aromatic to burn and an offering to present, and there is a plant that grows in the Runewood that will make a suitable incense, so I would suggest that you gather twelve Soulcaps to complete... also, the afterlife leaves the dead hungry for the delicacies of their former lives, and for the ancient vrykul kings there is no greater offering than the Bjornharta, which is a celebratory feast of an engorged bear heart. You are in luck, as the bears of the Runewood eat well, and they have long been prized for their tender meat, so I would suggest hunting them for a time so you can find a few suitable hearts, four to be exact, to offer to the ancient rulers... they will not be able to resist such an offering, that I can guarantee with ease." Spitfire and Rainbow tilted their heads for a moment as Vydhar said that, because they were a little surprised that the four of them needed to kill a number of bears and tear out their hearts, all to offer the hearts to the dead spirits of the ancient vrykul kings, before they nodded their heads and both Scarlet and Vytheril did the same thing, as they were used to some strange things since they joined the Illidari and guessed that this was another thing that they would have to get used to as they overcame the Trial of Valor. As such the group walked away from where Vydhar was resting and headed over to the side of the Runewood that looked like it might descend down towards part of the coast, or at least that was what it looked like from where they were standing, though as they walked around the area that was beyond the tree, and sought out the bears that needed to be slain, Spitfire found some odd white colored mushrooms that were growing near some trees and noticed that they had a rather odd scent to them, making her wonder if they were the Soulcaps they had been told about, to which the rest of the group glanced at each other before Scarlet pulled the mushroom out of where it was resting and stored it inside a bag that the others would go in once they found them. From there they found a number of bears that were resting in front of an area that a number of white mushrooms were scattered around, some of them resting and a few just wandering around, with two or three eating some of the mushrooms, where Rainbow had to assume that eating the Soulcaps might be part of the reason that these particular bears were prized by everyone, or had been in the past, so that was when Vytheril loosed an arcane blast at one of their foes and pulled the bear in question away from its group, all to allow Spitfire, Rainbow, and Scarlet to cut down the bear as it rushed at them, clearly annoyed by the fact that they had interrupted its meal. The group found that their foe was rather strong and that it tried to knock Scarlet backwards, but it only opened the way for Spitfire and Rainbow to cut into its back and neck, making sure not to damage the chest area, due to the heart being what they were looking for, and it wasn't long before they brought down the bear and caused it to crash onto the ground, which was when Scarlet sheathed her blades and pulled out a smaller knife that she carried in case she was given a quest like this, allowing the pair to follow Vytheril as he lashed out at another bear so they could repeat what they had just done to the first one. What they discovered was that the heart that Scarlet pulled out of the first bear was large, far more than what both she and Vytheril were expecting, meaning it had to be the engorged heart they were looking for and she made sure to pocket it accordingly, before she moved onto the other bears that the others had taken down and proceeded to carve them up as well, leaving the collecting of the Soulcaps to the rest of the group as she quickly pulled out a second engorged heart and added it to what Vydhar wanted them to collect, and due to the fact that everything they needed was nearby the group was able to collect all four of the hearts they needed and all twelve Soulcaps, to which the four of them headed back to the section of the Runewood that their new ally was resting in. "We've recovered the Soulcaps and the engorged bear hearts," Rainbow commented, speaking up the moment they came close to where Vydhar was resting, where Scarlet removed the bags that contained the items in question and opened both of them so the tree creature could see that they weren't lying, as they made managed to find more than enough Soulcaps and the first four bears had the type of heart Vydhar had told them to find in the first place, before she focused on seeing if he was ready to share with them the next stage of their quest, "So, what do we do now?" "Yes, you have acquired the necessary Soulcaps for the incense, and the hearts are fat and bloody... you are ready to face the ancient vrykul rulers," Vydhar stated, his tone revealing that he was pleased with what they had done, despite the fact that each of them suspected that he knew how easy such a task had been, but they remained silent as they waited for him to reveal what needed to be done next so they could complete the Trial of Valor, "Now that you have the incense and the Bjornhata, it is time for the four of you to head to the northwest and visit the graves of three of the four rulers that you will need to be judged by, who will have a small brazier near their grave to indicate who you need to call back to this plane for your trial, and their names are Heimir of the Black Fist, Rythas the Oracle, and Oktel Dragonblood... once you have been judged by those three, you must then venture to the mouth of Haustvald and be judged by Ashildir, the final ruler, before being able to succeed or fail the Trial of Valor." "Out of curiosity, will they have us pick a champion to fight them, in a one on one battle, or will they fight all four of us at the same time?" Spitfire inquired, because that was something she had been thinking about since she and the others had learned about needing to prove their worth to the ancient vrykul rulers, which appeared to be three kings and a queen by the sounds of it, as while it would be easy for all four of them to overwhelm their opponents, such a thing didn't show their individual skills at all, so there was a chance that their opponents might arrange for a one on one battle with a member of their group, though she was hoping Vydhar might have some information to share with them before they headed out to face the ancient vrykul rulers. "It all depends on what the ancient rulers want to do for your challenge," Vydhar stated, informing them that there was a chance that they could get lucky and have a four on one fight with the four ancient rulers of the vrykul, even though they felt it was more likely that they would have to fight them one on one, which was great since there were four of them and four of the rulers, so everyone got a turn to show off their strengths to their foes, though in that moment the tree's carved face shifted for a moment as a branch landed near Spitfire, "I would also ask for a small favor, as you travel to the graves of the ancient rulers you will find the spirits of the restless dead, who have been agitated by the Bonespeakers misdeeds, though they should be returned to their slumber and this bough should help you calm them as you face the spirits of the ancient rulers for your judgement." The group nodded their heads and collected the enchanted branch, though as soon as that was done, and they knew what they needed to do for the next stage of the Trial of Valor, they departed from the Runewood and headed in the direction that Vydhar had told them to head in, which seemed to head straight towards an area that wasn't covered in trees and did look like a graveyard, the vrykul variety from what Scarlet and Vytheril said, as it was more rocky and there were some tall stones that seemed to be markers, as the first tall stone they noticed just so happened to have a brazier near it, which was why Scarlet placed one of the hearts inside the offering bowl and three of the Soulcaps, which she lit so the incense could work its charm... which caused the skeleton of a mage, or a mystic, to rise from the grave they were on top of. "What's this? Some outsiders seek my judgement?!" the spirit declared, where Scarlet determined that this had to be the one called Rythas the Oracle, based on what they were seeing at the moment and due to the runes she found resting off to the left of the offering bowl she had placed the items in, runes that revealed the name of the ancient ruler that was in front of them, which was when Vytheril nodded his head to confirm what the ancient ruler had said, "Insolent worms! You would disgrace Valhalas with your presence! Come, mage, and seek your doom!" Vytheril moved to the side as he summoned his magic to his side for a moment and loosed a burst of arcane missiles at his foe, as Rythas had signaled him out and he was more than willing to oblige the ancient ruler, since that was the reason he and the others were here in the first place, though while he did that, and Rythas countered with the runic spells that they had seen earlier, Spitfire noticed some transparent looking vrykul, the spirits they had been warned about, that were in the middle of floating through the area. As such she and Rainbow focused on all of the angry spirits that were scattered all over the section of the graveyard that they were in and swung their warglaives at their targets, though to make sure their attacks hit their targets, and not pass right through them, the pair had to channel a tiny portion of their powers through both of the blades they carried, something that actually allowed them to deal some damage to the spirits, but they also had to dodge some punches and kicks that came from the spirits, as the attacks sure felt real and it made the pair happy that none of their foes had any real weapons, even though they were sure that the spirits had been buried with whatever weapons they had when they were alive. Scarlet, on the other hand, spent her time watching both Vytheril's fight, which he appeared to be winning by the looks of things as he dodged incoming attacks, countered others, and managed to get one or two through his foe's defenses every now and then, and checking out what Spitfire and Rainbow were doing, where she made sure to stop them when they got close to taking a spirit down and used the branch Vydhar had provided to free the spirits from whatever foul magic the Bonespeakers were using on them, allowing them to depart with smiles on their faces while the pair made sure to move onto the next spirit, so it could be weakened to the point where Scarlet could repeat what she had just done. By the time they were done clearing out all of the angry spirits, in this area at least, Vytheril took down Rythas, who returned as a spirit as his bones returned to his grave, where the ancient ruler declared that he had been mistaken about all four of them, showing that he had witnessed what the rest of the group had done, and waved his hand as he declared that their worth could not be denied, to which they took a moment to thank him before they started to search for the next ancient ruler, though that didn't stop Rythas from digging into the bear heart they had left for him, even if it weirded Spitfire and Rainbow out. The next ancient ruler they found was a skeletal warrior that carried two axes into battle, Oktel Dragonblood, and Scarlet was the one he decided to challenge to a fight, to which the two of them clashed with their pairs of weapons, as this time around Scarlet carried the Blades of the Fallen Prince, so while she engaged her foe Spitfire and Rainbow headed out and dealt with the rest of the annoyed spirits that were floating around this part of the graveyard, where this time Vytheril was the one to use the branch and free all of the vrykul spirits that the pair fought, though after the fifth and final spirit had been freed they found that Scarlet was the victor of her battle, just as they expected. Upon his defeat Oktel declared that Scarlet had the blood of dragons in her veins, which had to be a reference to her might or something, before he revealed that the four of them were worthy to enter the Hall of Valor now, meaning they had earned his favor and his judgement, to which they thanked him as well and started to head to the highest point of this large graveyard, as that appeared to be the area that the third and final ancient ruler was resting in, though that wasn't counting Ashildir, who the group would visit as soon as they were done with what they were doing at the moment. When they reached the summit of the graveyard, or at least this side of it since there was a raised section of stone nearby that seemed to overlook the quarry that the Runewood and the graves were resting outside, before they raised the final ancient ruler, Heimir of the Black Fist, from his grave and discovered that he was a skeletal warrior with a greatsword, though he declared that all of them were unworthy and was quick to pick Rainbow as his opponent, who grinned for a moment as she readied her warblades and charged into battle as soon as the ancient ruler was ready to start, where she parried Heimir's greatsword, much to the surprise of her foe as he witnessed what was going on, before she pushed his blade backwards and lashed out with a flurry of blows that were empowered by her energy, showing the rest of the group that she had picked up a useful trick, which resulted in Heimir being taken down. Heimir, of course, was shocked by how quickly he had been defeated and declared that they were all worthy of his blessing as well, to which the group headed down from the area that his grave was resting in and headed for the area that the grave of Ashildir had to be resting in, given the offering brazier that was nearby, though when they got close to their destination they discovered that it had been defiled, as the grave had been dug up recently and the offering brazier had been rudely discarded, before they spotted a transparent female warrior spirit kneeling at the edge of the now desecrated grave, and she was joined by four other female warrior spirits that seemed to be keeping an eye out for those that had done such a terrible crime. "Ashildir's grave has been disturbed, outsiders." the female spirit declared, to which she picked herself up from where she had been kneeling and turned to face the group for a moment, where they could see that she was annoyed by what was resting behind her, possibly even outraged to the point where she was forcing herself to remain as calm as she possibly could in this situation, though she wasn't the only one that was slightly outraged since Ashildir was the final ancient ruler that the group needed to talk to, before he refocused on them once more, "Do you know something about this?" "Yeah, I think we might know who did this, given what we've seen so far," Spitfire remarked, though she sighed as she told the spirit why they were here and the reason behind them taking the Trial of Valor in the first place, mostly because all five of the warrior spirits seemed to be worried about Ashildir and wanted to avenge the desecration of her grave, so letting them know what was going on might convince them that they were also here to help, though time would tell what would happen next since there was no telling how deep Skovald's corruption ran in Stormheim. Given the corruption of an entire vrykul clan, not to mention two of them betraying the ancient packs they made with the races and creatures that lived near them and were part of the trials that had been set up a long time ago, Spitfire figured that the Bonespeakers were behind the desecration of Ashildir's grave and that giving the warrior spirits that information might convince them to allow the group to assist them in fixing this mess, even though she felt that they might discover something terrible in the near future and that it might be connected to either Sylvanas or Skovald, though while she hoped that she was wrong about the former she knew that only time would tell her if she was right or not. > Stormheim: Crimes of the Bonespeakers > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So, you came to this land to complete the trials that will allow you to enter the Halls of Valor, and to pass the Trial of Valor you seek the judgment of the Queen of the Valkyra?" the spirit warrior said, speaking up only after Spitfire stopped telling her the reason she and her friends had come to Stormheim, even though now it included taking down Skovald and all of his twisted allies, especially after discovering what each clan was doing to those they were supposed to be allies with, just like how the Drekirjar were willing to give the Thorignir to the Legion, before the spirit focused on all of them as she came to a decision on what to do next, "As much as I hate to say it, this is partly your fault!" "Oh come on! We're not the ones going around corrupting the ancient ways and breaking pacts!" Rainbow stated, as she couldn't believe that the warrior spirits were so angry at her and her friends, despite the fact that they weren't the ones that were doing all of the unspeakable acts that Spitfire had just told them about, though before she and the other did anything, not that she was really planning on getting violent with the spirits, Spitfire moved her hand in a motion to stop them from drawing their weapons. "Still, to some we're breaking the trials because of the fact that we're not from Stormheim, which means that some of the residents of this province are likely to blame us," Spitfire remarked, showing that she understood where the warrior spirit was coming from, even though she did partly agree with what Rainbow had said, mostly in the sense that they weren't to blame for what Skovald's forces and allies were doing, before she focused on the spirit that was floating in front of them, as it was time to get started on punishing the Bonespeakers, "however, that doesn't excuse what has happened, as in the desecration of this grave, so allow us to help you and your fellow warriors out, so we can punish the Bonespeakers for all of the crimes they have committed." "Indeed, the Bonespeakers of Haustvald have committed an atrocity by desecrating this grave and have stolen Ashildir's bones from their resting place," the warrior spirit said, where she raised an eyebrow for a moment as she stared at all of them, even though Spitfire was sure that she was the center of the spirit's attention, before she turned her head towards her fellow spirits, who seemed to be thinking about something as well, before she focused on them again, "which means that they're doing this to keep any and all outsiders, regardless of their goals, from completing the trials. Heroes, you must not let this stand! I, Shieldmaiden Iounn, charge the four of you with entering Haustvald and retrieving her remains from the Bonespeakers that have stolen her bones... I hope, for your sake, that Ashildir is in a forgiving mood." "The crimes of these ritualists must not go unpunished," one of the other warrior spirits added, something that caused all of the other spirits to nod their heads in agreement, showing that they disliked what the Bonespeakers were doing, but at the same time it appeared that there was something that was bothering the speaker as she glanced in the direction of the quarry that rested near their location, "but, sadly, we cannot be their executioners. The rune magic the ritualists practice grants them untold power over the dead, as in the spirits of the dead, and all five of us can sense the great power that is coming from all four of you, so we would ask that you take the fight to these heretics and, at the same time, show Ashildir that you are truly worthy of her judgment!" "Don't worry, we'll kill the Bonespeakers and recover Ashildir's bones," Scarlet replied, as she knew that Spitfire would say the same thing once the spirits were done talking, where she found that her friend was nodding her head to show that she agreed with what she was saying, though that was followed by the warrior spirits and Iounn turning their attention back to Ashildir's grave, something that they took as the sign to move away from the area that they had been standing in, to which they headed towards the opening of the quarry and started to explore Haustvald at long last. As the group walked down the path that was in front of them, and passed by a number of large stones that seemed to be channeling runic energy, which Rainbow smashed with her warglaives since she didn't trust them at all, Vytheril noticed a rather large stone tablet resting off to the side of the entrance, like half a minute away from where Ashildir's grave was resting, to which he called for the others to stop so he could study what was written on the stone tablet, though as he did that Spitfire hear the sound of wings and glanced up into the sky for a moment, where she spotted Skovald in the air, who was riding his forcefully tamed storm drake, a creature that seemed to be in pain at the moment and she suspected that the God-King might be trying to corrupt the Thorignir he had taken from the summit. "You fools again?!" Skovald declared, his voice booming all over the place, meaning the Bonespeakers would know that his enemies had caught up with him and that it was time for them to either step up their game or rush out to kill the group he was one step ahead of, though that was when a wicked smile appeared on his face as he glanced down at them for a few seconds, almost like he was of the opinion that he was unbeatable at this point in time, something Spitfire and Rainbow were used to thanks to their dealings with those that used the Legion's Fel energies, "Do you really think you can beat me, with the Legion at my side? Give up, fools! The Bonespeakers will never let an outsider, much less four of them, be judged worthy and allow them to pass the Trial of Valor!" "He sure loves to hear himself talk, even though he has no idea what sort of power you two wield," Vytheril said, though as he said that Skovald flew off into the distance and seemed to leave Haustvald behind, no doubt after having forced all four of the ancient rulers to acknowledge his valor, or maybe the Bonespeakers had declared him to be 'worthy' before tearing into Ashildir's grave, before he turned his attention to the stone tablet that was resting in front of them, so he could see what it had to tell them, "This stone tablet describes a ritual where a powerful spirit can be broken into weaker pieces by binding them to special runestones... and, based on everything we've learned so far, I'm sure that the Bonespeakers may be using this very ritual to weaken the spirit of Ashildir, which means that it will be impossible for us to summon her with her spirit fractured in this manner, meaning we need to stop these rituals as well." Spitfire and Rainbow weren't even surprised by such a thing at this point, as the Bonespeakers had done enough damage in the short time they knew about them and they weren't even shocked that this vrykul clan even had a way to break down a powerful soul into smaller fragments, though both of them drew their weapons as they noticed some of the mystics that were coming right at them, accompanied by large skeletal warriors who had to be some of the vrykul warriors who had been called back from their resting place, or the bodies themselves had been raised and forced to serve the Bonespeakers as guards and sentinels. Scarlet and Vytheril noticed what was going on and joined them, where Vytheril blasted one of the bone warriors in the chest and caused it to stagger for a moment, mostly to give Scarlet an opening to rush at their foe as she switched to her greatsword, allowing Frostmourne to clash with her foe's rather large weapon, as it was also carrying a greatsword into battle, though their actions allowed Spitfire and Rainbow to focus on their real enemies, the mystics that were guarding the entirety of Haustvald, even though there were sure there were a few mystics that were in the middle of a dark ritual. One thing the pair noticed as they dodged the runic magic of the mystics, and dealt some damage in return, were that there were a few bones, ones that had a slight shimmer to them, that were scattered around the upper part of Haustvald, though the fact that there were Bonespeakers guarding each and every set of bones informed the group that the bones had to be Ashildir's, so when Rainbow cut down the pair of enemies that were in front of them, and made sure both of them were dead and they weren't coming back, since they had no idea what sort of powers the Bonespeakers could be hiding from them, Spitfire walked over to the nearby bones and found that it was a woman's arm, the right based on what she was seeing, so she carefully collected it and stored it inside her pack before they regrouped with Scarlet and Vytheril, who were victorious over their foe as well. With the first group of enemies taken care of the group moved deeper into the domain of the Bonespeakers so they could find what they were looking for, where they headed to the immediate left of the path that had served as the entrance to Haustvald and found that there a few more groups of enemies guarding the area, working their magic on the stones as they did whatever it was they were trying to do, probably stealing the souls of the dead that were scattered outside the quarry for some reason, which was likely pissing off whoever ruled the Halls of Valor, or at least that was Spitfire's thoughts on the matter. It didn't take them all that long to locate an area that one of the runestones they were looking for was located in, an area that looked like it was a chamber of some kind, due to it being carved into part of the hills the quarry rested in, and there were three mystics channeling their magic into the large glowing blue stone that was in the center of the chamber, where Spitfire tackled the mystic that was in front of the stone while Rainbow dealt with the foe that was to their left and left the third one to Scarlet and Vytheril. While they fought their enemies, and slowly cut them down since they did have to dodge some of the attacks the mystics sent their way, Spitfire noticed that not all of them had one of the skeletal warriors near it, which made things easier for the group since that meant they didn't have to worry about the powerful undead attacking them at any point, but once they dealt with all of the mystics that were in front of them the group turned their attention on the runestone that was in the middle of the chamber and lashed out at it with their weapons and magic, as Vytheril lashed out at it first and such a thing caused Spitfire, Rainbow, and Scarlet to follow his lead. That was mostly due to the fact that he had been the one to read the stone tablet and knew what it said, though once the runestone was shattered into a pile of fragments, and all the magic had left them, the group took a moment to look around the chamber that they were in and found a few more bones, with the same shimmering nature that Spitfire had spotted earlier, that were added to what they had found earlier, though once that was done they headed out through the opening that had brought them to this area and exited the structure so they could head out for the next chamber that held the next runestone. What they found was that there were more mystics and bone warriors guarding the entrance to the next area they had to enter, which rested to the right of the main entrance to Haustvald, so Spitfire and Rainbow focused on batting the more powerful bone warriors, as their skills and grace were more suited for these foes than Scarlet's skills allowed, even though she did a fantastic job when she fought the first bone warrior earlier, though this allowed her and Vytheril to engage the mystics and either cut them down or blast them into one of the nearby walls, but, at the same time, Spitfire and Rainbow found that their foes had a bit more power than they were expecting and battled them accordingly, dodging attacks that would cause great harm to them and lashing out when an opening revealed itself. With the next group of enemies taken care of the group was able to march into the chamber that the second runestone rested in, where they found another group of three mystics guarding the area as they channeled their magic into the stone that happened to be resting between them, though that didn't stop Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril from attacking them while they were busy, even though Spitfire and Rainbow turned her attention to a pair of bone warriors that just so happened to march into the chamber a few moments later, no doubt having been called to action by the will of the three Bonespeakers that they were fighting. That fact informed Spitfire that either the previous group of mystics didn't have the time to call in backup or they had been arrogant in their power and felt that just the three of them could overpower any and all invaders that dared to invade Haustvald, but the reason didn't matter in the slightest as she and Rainbow cut down the pair of bone warriors and dropped their reanimated corpses to the ground, which just so happened to be around the same time that Scarlet and Vytheril cut down the rest of the mystics that were in this area, even though that meant those that guarded the next runestone were going to be more prepared, given what they had just witnessed. Once their foes were taken care of the group smashed the runestone that was in the middle of the chamber, took a few moments to pick up all of the shimmering bones that belonged to Ashildir, and then left the now totally empty chamber that they had been standing in, where they headed to the right of the chamber's entrance and headed down the steps that lead right to what appeared to be the third and final chamber, as Vytheril determined that the power he had been following only extended to the two chambers they had been in and the one he was leading them to, as there was a fourth one on the other side of the quarry, from where he and the others were standing, but he detected no power coming from it, the powerful runic magic he had been following. As such they clashed with the pair of bone warriors that were standing guard outside the chamber and found that four more were waiting inside the actual chamber, in addition to the three Bonespeakers that were resting around the final runestone, though when they heard a group of bone warriors walking up the stairs that they had walked by when heading to the first of the four chambers, which contained a path that lead straight down to the lowest point of Haustvald, Rainbow tapped into her true power and flew down into the group of bone warriors that were coming to attack them from behind, calling the lightning down with her attacks so she could smash them to pieces. Spitfire did the same thing as she shifted into her own demonic form and smashed into the group of bone warriors that were guarding the chamber itself, allowing Scarlet and Vytheril to pass into their next destination as she swung at her foes and used her power to smash them into the walls and ground that rested around them, where she found that the enemies were strong and that her demon form was much stronger than they were, allowing her to scatter her foes in a matter of seconds before checking how Rainbow's fight was going, even though she didn't have to worry as Rainbow danced all over her foes and cut them all down. "Those demon forms sure come in handy," Vytheril commented, because he had to admit that the forms his friends used in battle, when they required their full power to face something or someone, were rather powerful and this allowed them to overcome large groups of enemies that would normally do serious harm to normal adventurers, but even as he thought about that he knew that Spitfire and Rainbow's demonic forms were different than what he had seen the rest of the Illidari use when they needed a power boost, in both terms of power and form, something he wasn't about to complain about as it sure saved him and Scarlet from having to face the large group of bone warriors. "Indeed. Against enemies like these, especially with their numbers, using our full power was necessary," Spitfire replied, as while she knew that some would have preferred to keep such a powerful card hidden until they were sure they needed it, or at least that was the feeling she got from some of the heroes of the Alliance and Horde, which was fine since all of them were far more experienced than she and Rainbow were, she knew that the bone warriors were strong and that they had to be taken seriously, though in that moment she sighed and reverted back to her base form, "So, did you smash the last of the runestones, or do we still need to do that?" "The two of us were able to shatter it without needing you or Rainbow to help us," Scarlet said, though that was when she walked out of the chamber that the final runestone was resting in and allowed Spitfire to see that it had been shattered by both her and Vytheril's power, but even as she said that she shared Vytheril's thoughts on the matter, as both Spitfire and Rainbow were far stronger than what they originally thought they were, especially when they tapped into their true forms to deal with their foes, and such a thing made her wonder just how much stronger the pair could get, since demon hunters absorbed the souls of demons and Fel energy to boost their own powers, something both of them did every chance they got, though she was thankful they were on their side and not the Legion's side. "That's good to hear," Rainbow stated, where she landed nearby and sighed as she landed nearby, even though she also reverted back to her base form as she stood up, but as she did that she glanced back at the stairs that had a number of the bone warriors resting on them, ones that were still smoking from what she had done to them with her lightning based powered, something that was followed by her turning back towards the others as she jerked her thumb up the stairs that had brought them to where the third runestone was resting, where they could see that Iounn had flown into Haustvald to see what sort of progress they had made, "and it looks like our new ally is waiting for a report on our progress, so I would suggest that we tell her what's going on before she gets angry." Spitfire nodded her head as she and the others walked up to where the shieldmaiden was floating, as it seemed like she might be taking stock of the damage each of them had done to the ranks of the Bonespeakers, which she and Rainbow had done the most of thanks to their demon forms, and based on the somewhat nervous look that was on her transparent face it was clear that she had witnessed the two of them tearing apart the bone warriors in their transformed states, but she made sure to switch the look on her face to a calm one before they stopped in front of her. "We've crushed many of the Bonespeakers that were guarding the upper reaches of this place and have recovered all of Ashildir's bones," Spitfire stated, where her friends nodded their heads and Scarlet revealed that she and Vytheril had the last of the shimmering bones, as they had been scattered around the final chamber and had been claimed while Spitfire and Rainbow were dealing with the groups of bone warriors that wanted to bring them all down and bring their bodies or souls to those that they served, which would have been bad since Skovald was tied to the Legion and would have offered his foul masters both of their souls, "also, we took care of some runestones that the Bonespeakers were using to weaken the Queen of the Valkyra, so her soul should be much stronger than it would have been otherwise." "With the rituals disrupted, the traitors dealt with, and her bones returned, we may be able to wrest Ashildir's soul from the grasp of these Bonespeakers." Iounn said, her tone revealing that she was pleased with what the group had done since she had last seen them, even though it was possible that she was nervous about two of them thanks to what she had seen, before she glanced down the stairs that lead deeper into the area that they were currently invading, where Spitfire could see that there was a ritual device or an altar of some kind, before she spotted what appeared to be a swirling mass of dark energy even deeper than where the oddly placed altar was located, "Deeper within Haustvald, from what I've heard, the mystics possess a special altar which can reunite the body and spirit of a fallen warrior... with this altar, we may be able to return Ashildir's spirit into her bones and free her from the grasp of these foul mystics, who would dare to betray the pact they forged long ago. Go, heroes, I will rally her guard and prepare for her return." In that moment, without waiting for anyone to say anything in response to what she had said, the shieldmaiden took off and headed out to find those that followed Ashildir, to draw them to her side when she was put back together by the altar that the group would be heading towards, to which the group said nothing as they walked down the steps that were near where they had found the transparent warrior and headed down to the active rune that rested on the slightly raised altar that appeared to be their destination, where they carefully laid the collection of bones on the altar and Vytheril activated it without delay, leading to another transparent female warrior appearing before them, one who seemed to be on the same level as the ancient rulers they had encountered so far. "Where... where am I now?" Ashildir inquired, where it sounded like she was dazed from what had happened to her spirit, which made sense due to the fact that her spirit had been fragmented and pulled away from her bones, not to mention all of the other stuff that the Bonespeakers must have done since they defiled her grave and stole her bones from where they had been buried, before she stared at the group as she seemed to recognize them, or at least that was what Spitfire was hoping, since a still fragmented ancient ruler was useless to them, "I... I know the four of you... In my fragmented state, I captured glimpses of a small group of heroes meting out justice to the corrupted mystics of Haustvald, who shattered all of their runestones, collected my stolen bones, and slew those that would betray the ancient pact... I now see that the four of you were the heroes in question, and, though listening to what was said by the one called 'God-King' Skovald, that you seek my judgment. I'm afraid that I must give you some bad news, as my spirit is still fragmented and, as a consequence, I am still in a weakened state, though while we talk one of the stronger Bonespeakers, one Runeseer Faljar, is calling upon dark and forbidden magics in an attempt to banish my spirit, in its entirety, to the realm of Helheim... and if he succeeds, well, I will be trapped in a realm of damnation and your trial will be lost." Spitfire glanced at the others for a moment and they nodded their heads in agreement, as it appeared that killing the one known as Runeseer Faljar was the next step of their journey to gain access to the Halls of Valor, and, based on what they were seeing in the deepest part of Haustvald, it appeared that they now knew what was going on in that area, a portal to the realm of Helheim was in the middle of being opened by their target, to banish Ashildir and, if he was lucky, possibly banish all four of them to the dark realm, but before they did anything the spirit that was in front of them shuddered for a moment and caused the group to glance at her for a moment. "My connection here is fading." Ashildir commented, where it was clear that she was starting to fade, or at least her spirit was being called over to the area that Faljar was currently resting in, something that seemed to piss off the Queen of the Valkyra as she focused on the deepest part of Haustvald for a few seconds, no doubt staring at the Runeseer, before she focused on the group once more, no doubt having a command for the four of them to follow before they departed from the area the altar was resting in, "Go, there is little time!" Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril nodded their heads as they headed down the stairs that were behind the altar and started to make their way over to where the main ritual area was resting, where they found a much larger runestone that was resting near the stone wall of the quarry, with a bunch of runic magic flowing through the area that a mystic, who was wearing a rather simple and plain looking robe, which looked like what the other mystics had been wearing, was standing in and happened to be channeling his power around, though that was when they found the fully formed spirit of Ashildir resting on top of an altar that was between Faljar and the runestone, even though there were two smaller runestones in the area as well, showing just how determined their foe was to banish Ashildir. "You have defiled the old ways, mystic!" Ashildir declared, where this time the group could tell that she was definitely back together and that her full form was resting on the altar, meaning Faljar was either trying to fragment her and send all of her pieces to Helheim or, as Spitfire was beginning to believe, he had set up the three runestones and the guards to buy him the time he needed to gather the necessary power to banish someone of Ashildir's power, though that was when the ancient queen struggled against her bonds once more, "The God-King is not worthy of the Halls of Valor! He will destroy everything in his wake and bring ruin to Stormheim!" "I spit on your ancient rites, shieldmaiden!" Faljar stated in return, his words informing the group that he was too far gone at this point and that nothing they did would bring him back to whatever senses he had before the corruption of the Bonespeakers, meaning they would have to kill him like they planned and that was the reason that each of them readied their weapons accordingly, before he shifted his stance for a moment so he could focus on all of them as he growled, no doubt to show them that he didn't like them, "And you, outsiders, you shall be punished accordingly as well, for all shall be as the God-King wills it!" "Oh yeah? You might be strong, but you're nothing compared to our true strength!" Rainbow remarked, because that was mostly true, as in his current state, from what they could tell, Faljar had the magical power to be equal to one of the sheer power of the bone warriors they had faced so far, at the very least, and that wasn't counting any Fel enhancement he could have received since he was an ally of Skovald's, and both she and Spitfire could feel the familiar energy coming from the mystic that was in front of them, which suddenly explained why he had the power to do what they were seeing, to which she and Spitfire nodded to each other before racing into battle. At first Scarlet and Vytheril were wondering what in the world Spitfire and Rainbow were doing, since they usually tackled things as a group and then determined the tactic that would be used against a foe or a group of enemies, but that was the moment that the pair transformed before their eyes and used the full power of their demonic forms to lash out at Faljar before he could move, who raised his hands to stop their attacks and the air around them shuddered for a moment as all three of their energies collided with each other, though it was in that moment that they understood what was going on as they witnessed what happened next. Faljar's energy was tainted by the familiar sinister Fel energy that they were used to seeing among the ranks of the demons, or those that were corrupted like Skovald and his entire clan, which already told them everything that they needed to know, but then the runes that were on the Bonespeaker's arms flared for a couple of seconds as the normal coloration was replaced by a more sickly Fel green and several spikes grew out of his arms, which showed them that Skovald had definitely empowered him to carry out his duties to banish one of the ancient rulers of his own people, possibly all of them to ensure no one else could complete the Trial of Valor, and the transformation included the eyes taking on the Fel green coloration that they were used to seeing, before Spitfire and Rainbow broke away from their foe as part of the ground all around them cracked. Faljar, as if sensing that he would have to pour his full power into fighting both Spitfire and Rainbow at the same time, summoned his magic for a moment and called forth the spirits of the dead to fight for him, as in some of the lesser bone soldiers that usually served a necromancer of some kind, though to prevent them from bothering their friends, since they needed to focus on the Fel-infused individual, Scarlet and Vytheril turned towards the new enemies and fought them to make sure none of them reached the area that the runestones were resting in, something that allowed Spitfire and Rainbow to shift their stances as they focused on what would happen next. The pair was a tad bit surprised by the fact that their foe was able to rapidly call out his Fel power and use it to stop their attacks in seconds, even if it did end up cutting his palms in the process thanks to the tainted blood that was on the ground, but that just informed them that the skill he was using as an armor based skill, one to help him withstand their attacks, and the difference in their powers would no doubt be the end of him after they shattered his defenses and broke the spells he sent their way. In response to them cutting open the palms of his hands, and causing him to bleed, Faljar used one of his powers over the next few moments to heal his wounds and harden both of his hands into a more stone-like state, like an Infernal's hands to be exact, and it seemed like he might be doing the same thing to the rest of his body, to make sure none of their blows did anything to him, but that was where he made his mistake, as they were demon hunters and they knew know to deal with foes that channeled the Fel energy like this. Spitfire and Rainbow stepped into the area that their foe was standing in and lashed out with their warglaives, where they forced Faljar to go on the defensive immediate as he raised his arms and showed them that he had definitely hardened more parts of his body to resist their attacks, not that such a thing really mattered as Spitfire cut into part of his arm and Rainbow pulled away so she could spin around and deliver two diagonal cuts to his chest, surprising the Fel-corrupted Bonespeaker in the process, even though the pair was only getting started on showing him the error of his ways. In the following moments he loosed a number of Fel fireballs at them, showing that he wanted to burn the both of them to the ground or knock them backwards for an instant, though the pair channeled their own elemental powers and countered his attacks, Spitfire taking half of the attacks with her own fireballs while Rainbow took the other half with her lightning bolts, though as Faljar noticed them do that, and the look of surprise stayed on his face for a few more seconds, Spitfire rushed into the area that was right in front of him and brought her right leg up, as in she kicked him right in the chin and sent him up into the air, which should separate him from the magic he was channeling before their arrival. Rainbow was waiting for that as she flew up into the air as well and made sure that Faljar was resting between where she ended up and the area Spitfire was still standing in, where she loosed a burst of lightning bolts down at her target, who used his Fel-empowered magic to counter the attacks as best as he could, though as he was pushed backwards a larger Fel fireball rushed up at his backside, coming right from where Spitfire was standing, where the pair of Fel attacks exploded in the air and caused the upper reaches of Haustvald to shudder for a moment, with some spots even cracking under their power, and when the smoke cleared the pair found that they weren't alone, as four shieldmaidens had appeared and proceeded to stab Faljar in the chest with their spear, so much so that they knocked him out of the air and sent him back into the ground. As Faljar landed on the ground, near the edge of the area that he had been performing the ritual in, Spitfire and Rainbow stood between him and Ashildir, with Scarlet to their left and Vytheril to their right while they were flanked by the newest members of their group, where they could see that Faljar was bleeding and that he wasn't happy with what was going on right now, not that such a thing really mattered in the grand scheme of things since neither Spitfire or Rainbow were going to take him down and put an end to the God-King's plans. "I've had enough of this!" Faljar shouted, where he channeled his magic for a moment and slammed his palm onto the cold stone floor that they were standing on, something that was followed by a dark purple rune, which was tainted by the color of his inner Fel energy, appearing under everyone who dared to challenge his power, though that was when he raised his hand for a moment and focused on Ashildir, as he loosed a beam of twisted energy that struck her right in her chest, who moaned for a few seconds as he worked his magic on the area they were in, "Ashildir, I would see you banished before I allow you to grant judgment to any outsiders!" "No... you can't..." Ashildir started to say, though in that instance she felt the corrupted mystic adding his Fel power to his banishment spell and realized what was going on, not to mention the fact that she had underestimated the sheer amount of power that the Runeseer had, because if he was able to take all of the attacks that Spitfire, Rainbow, and her own select guards, the latter only arriving after realizing what was going to happen to her, it meant that he was far stronger than all of them and that they might have to admit defeat. "Oh, but I can. You fates have been sealed, shieldmaiden," Faljar stated, showing them that he believed that his power was far beyond any of the powers that were being used against him at the moment, though as he started to raise his hands, so he could complete the spell and banish the Queen of the Valkyra, the two normal heroes, and the four shieldmaidens to the realm of Helheim, as he intended on keeping his Fel-empowered enemies out here so Skovald could cut them down before either of them could cause trouble for them in the future, "Enjoy your eternity of damnation! Helheim awaits!" "You know, we ought to thank Maiev for what she did," Spitfire remarked, referring to the fact that they had been trapped in Fel crystals for a long period of time, because right now it came in real handy as she and Rainbow flexed their powers for a moment and shattered the Fel-empowered runic magic that had been below their hooves, though as that happened, and before their foe could do anything about it, Rainbow rushed forward and swung her warblades at her foe as she flipped over his head, the edges of her weapons taking his arms clean off, which was followed by Spitfire rushing towards Faljar not even a few seconds later. Her attack was designed to take Faljar's head clean off and cut open his chest, separating him into three sections and, at the same time split his soul into two fragments, but just as her blades made contact the spell went off and the pair had to watch as both of their friends and Ashildir, not to mention the four shieldmaidens, were transformed into dark purple orbs that flew into the air and passed through the portal to Helheim, to which the pair nodded for a moment as they absorbed the two halves of Faljar's Fel-corrupted soul and then flew into the portal as well, because they were going to undo all of Faljar's efforts, save their friends, complete the Trial of Valor, and then, eventually, take down Skovald and restore order to the entirety of Stormheim. > Stormheim: Helheim's Darkness > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What Spitfire and Rainbow found on the other side of the portal they had flown through was a realm that seemed to be full of darkness, shadow, and fog, made from rocks, ships that were both ruined and whole, had a dock down in the area that was right in front of them, there was the sound of water, which suggested an island of some kind, the sky was dark, like a storm could happen at any moment, and there was a feeling of dread and despair as they moved out of the portal that had allowed them to enter this realm. Another thing they discovered was that there were two types of individuals in this realm, the first being the spirits of those that had been banished to Helheim, who were transparent versions of their normal selves, while the second were vrykul who weren't transparent, though these vrykul were covered in green scales, barnacles, and seaweed, plus the fact that they seemed much angrier than the other types of vrykul they had encountered so far, making them wonder what sort of name this clan possessed, if they were a clan anyway. While the pair took in what was in front of them, and wondered what else they might find in this cursed realm, they heard a trio of howls as a large beast of some kind, who happened to have three separate heads from what they could see, walked over to a passage that connected this area to the next part of Helheim, an area that looked like it might be a throne area of some kind, meaning it had to be a guard dog and that it had moved out of the way to either escort someone to it's master's throne or had moved due to some soldiers bothering it while it was sleeping, beings it couldn't slay since they served the same dark master, or at least that was what they thought for a moment. In that instant they both glanced down at themselves and found that neither of them had the transparent appearance to their bodies, meaning that those who were transparent were definitely banished and those that were normal were visitors, no doubt either allies to this realm's master or allies of Skovald, and if they were the latter than all of them, or the vast majority, would end up perishing in due time, given that this would cut down on the number of soldiers their foes had to throw at them and their allies. Once that was done they turned to the right for a moment and found that Scarlet, Vytheril, and Ashildir standing near the stone face that contained the portal they had walked through to get to Helheim, though from the looks of it they either had tried to breach the magical gateway and were forced backwards or Ashildir had convinced her companions to not try so they could form a plan of attack from the inside, though all three of them were a little surprised to see them again, as both Scarlet and Vytheril expected them to chase after Skovald or something. "You two continue to surprise me, as this place is Helheim, the realm of the unworthy dead, and not many would actually willingly venture to this realm." Ashildir commented, confirming that this place was indeed Helheim and that she felt that Spitfire and Rainbow were a little insane for coming here after she and the others had been banished, though that was the moment she noticed that both Scarlet and Vytheril were happy to see the pair again, meaning that while they were very confident in their own powers, which was good for heroes of the Alliance and Horde from what she had learned, they felt better knowing that the pair of demon hunters were with them, where she decided to have some faith in the pair and trust them like the two banished heroes did, hence why she focused on what she needed to tell them, "Here, the spirits of the dishonorable spend eternity in an endless futile battle, always seeking glory but never able to attain it. Obviously none of us should not be here, which means that we must find a way out and soon, before Helya notices us... trust me, our time in this realm will be better if she doesn't know we're here. I will scout ahead and see what I can find, though the four of you should try and release some of the captive spirits that are in front of us, as one of them might have some answers for us, and a possible way to get around Helya, though be careful, as the Kvaldir are not to be underestimated, especially with the power you two possess." "We'll be sure to scout out the area and see if we can find anyone that can help us out," Scarlet said, to which Ashildir took a moment to nod her head before she walked out of the area that they were standing in, where they were sure that, based on what they had seen so far, she would do everything in her power to make sure these Kvaldir didn't notice her while she was investigating the area, but once the Queen of the Valkyra was a decent distance away from them she and Vytheril took a few seconds to turn towards Spitfire and Rainbow, "Why are you two here as well? Shouldn't you be back in Stormheim, hunting Skovald down and making sure that he can't get to the Halls of valor before we do, since that's where the Aegis of Aggramar is resting?" "We weren't about to leave our friends in here, after killing Faljar and breaking part of his magic," Rainbow stated, though she suspected that this was just part of her and Spitfire's nature as Equestrians, as they made friends with those who did the right thing and right now that applied to both Scarlet and Vytheril, as the pair wanted to bring the Legion down and it didn't feel right to just leave them stranded in a realm like Helheim, especially after everything the pair had done to help them get this far in the first place, though she also knew that if Sylvanas had been banished here, well, Spitfire would no doubt leave her here to fend for herself, to which she pushed the thought to the side and beckoned for the others to look out at the area they were in, "Come on, let's go find a spirit that might help you two and Ashildir leave this realm." Scarlet and Vytheril nodded their heads, as they were happy to have the pair of demon hunters with them again, even if they had been separated for only a few moments based on how quickly Spitfire and Rainbow had reacted to them being banished to this realm, to which the four of them walked down the path that was in front of them and decided not to alert the Kvaldir of their presence just yet, where they hid behind a rock for a moment and allowed the nearby warrior to walk away with a dog that looked like it was cursed like the warrior was, before they walked over one of the cages that were scattered throughout this realm and found that it was easy to unlock from their side. What they discovered was that some of the spirits that were freed from their cages wandered into the lower area that the Kvaldir happened to be working in, or at least the group assumed that was the case, and were surprised that the vile vrykul didn't even consider the possibility of someone undoing their hard work as some of them lashed out at the now freed spirits, though that gave them the perfect cover to walk over to several of the other cages and see if the spirits inside them were who they were looking for, only to find that many of them didn't seem to care and that they just wanted to cause havoc on their captors, especially when they found some shieldmaidens among their number. That was until they found someone, a vrykul warrior that reminded them of Havi's friends, meaning it might be an ally that was wrongfully imprisoned by Skovald and his desire to stop those that sought to complete the trials he was breaking to his will, and once they freed him from his cage he nodded his head, as he could see that there were a number of Kvaldir standing nearby, before silently beckoning for them to follow him back to where the entrance of this area rested, something that they did without delay and noticed that Ashildir was definitely in the middle of seeking some information on the vile realm that Faljar had banished three of them to. The vrykul also took a moment to stare at the Queen of the Valkyra, as if he was interested in why she was here and not back in whatever realm her spirit was supposed to be resting in, until someone called her back for the Trial of Valor, before he focused on the path that lead back to the entrance of Helheim and only came to a stop when he reached the safety of the area in question, as it was higher than most of the parts of this half of Helheim and allowed them to see what the Kvaldir were doing. "Ye have my thanks for freein' me, outsiders!" the vrykul stated, showing that he was pleased with the fact that someone had come along and saved him from the cage that he had been trapped inside, even though they had no idea how long his stay inside the container had been, though instead of worrying about that, and the past he had been condemned to until this point in time, he turned towards them for a moment with a smile on his transparent face, "These Kvaldir caught me while I was tryin' to put together a plan to sneak past that foul guard dog, a beast called Guarm, and have kept me locked up ever since... I thought surely my fate was sealed." "Well, now you're free to do whatever you wish," Vytheril said, as that was the truth, because they knew that the spirit was tired of being trapped inside the cage he had been trapped inside for who knew how long, but even as he said that he, and he was sure Spitfire was of the same mind, realized that there was something odd about the figure that was standing in front of them, as he suspected that someone mighty, like the ruler of the Halls of Valor, might have sent one or two of his or her followers into Helheim to keep an eye on what Helya was doing and if they needed to move against her, before he focused on what he needed to ask, "however, this plan you were thinking of... maybe you could complete it if you had a few helping hands gather the items you needed or kill a few guards that might be blocking your way?" "I'm not sure what yer doin' here, but ye have my thanks. If ye want to get any further, though, ye'll need to get past the foul guard dog," the vrykul replied, his tone revealing that part of him might not care why they were here, where if he was a watcher of the ruler of the Halls of Valor they might actually be ruining his mission or putting it in more danger than it had been earlier, before he seemed to think about something as he glanced in the direction of Guarm, no doubt thinking about his plan and what needed to be done so it was successful, "I've tried meself a few times, and I think I have a plan. If we can get some of the seaweed these Kvaldir wear, we might be able to trick the mutt... Guarm's mean, ye see, but not too smart. Also, these vrykul also be carrying bones with them... worn all over like jewelry. If ye can get yer hands on some of the bones they got lyin around, it'll add to the disguise. So, what ye waitin for?" It was a simple task, kill the Kvaldir that were roaming this part of Helheim and take whatever seaweed or bones they just so happened to be wearing on their bodies, hence the reason the group nodded their heads, to show the vrykul that his tasks would be done so he would have the material necessary to make what they assumed were disguises so they could get by Guarm, though as they walked down the path that was in front of the entrance to Helheim and found that one of the Kvaldir warriors happened to have returned to where he had been standing earlier, who raised his weapon the instant he noticed them and charged forward to do battle. Spitfire was the first one to move, parrying the incoming attack before it could hit any of the others, though instead of calling on her more impressive powers and charring this area, which would no doubt awaken the guard dog and alert Helya to their presence, she stayed in her base for and pushed her foe back for a moment, allowing Rainbow and the others to advance down into the rest of the area they had explored earlier, where each of them basically declared warn on their own targets and, at the same time, Vytheril made sure to free some of the other imprisoned spirits, who eagerly tore into the Kvaldir as well, all without asking any questions as to why two of them had different forms and why they were being freed. Sure enough the Kvaldir weren't expecting something like this to even happen and rushed out to greet the spirits that had been imprisoned or shackled earlier, of which they were certain of that fact, while Spitfire dodged an incoming attack and cut down her foe when his defenses were opened, though she did find that this foe had nothing for her to take from him, to which she headed down into the raging battlefield and joined in as best as she could, as Rainbow was in the middle of hacking down several Kvaldir, Scarlet used her icy powers to freeze some of her foes in place and cut them down when their guards were lowered, and Vytheril blasted a few of their foes in the chest, though their actions caused one of the taller Kvaldir, a Captain by the looks of things, to walk down the wooden platform that connected to the dock his ship happened to be connected to, to which Spitfire jumped over a few of their enemies and landed in front of the Captain, pushing him backwards so he didn't get close to the others, even though she was still surprised that Guarm was asleep and that Helya hadn't noticed what was going on, though she focused on the task she had given herself as she parried an incoming attack and engaged her foe. Spitfire found that her foe was quite strong, which was great since he wasn't empowered by the fel energies that so many of her previous foes had been channeling during their battles, but even then she was able to use her base power to push back the greatsword that was coming her way, as it quickly became clear to her that her foe was just about overwhelming strength, even though his power was nowhere near the level of the more powerful demons she had faced since becoming a demon hunter and it wasn't enough to even bring her down, allowing her to cut down the Captain before noticing that Rainbow and the others were heading back up to the vrykul, leaving the freed spirits to continue fighting, to which she did the same thing, since she was interested in what might come next. "Ye did well... freein' all those spirits and killin' all those Kvaldir. Yer braver than I thought!" the vrykul said, where it was easy for them to see that he was rather impressed by what they had done, especially since all of the other spirits were in the middle of engaging their captors, which provided the perfect cover for them to walk over to Guarm's resting place and see if they could slip by the slumbering beast, though it was in that moment that Vytheril and Scarlet handed over all of the materials that he had asked for them to recover, which also brought a smile to his face as he stared at the seaweed and the bones, "I'm sure that Helya will see that neither ye nor I belong here once we get past that dog of hers... though give me a moment while I work on all of our disguises." The group stood there for a moment, giving the vrykul all the time that he needed to work on the disguises, and while they did that Ashildir walked over to where they were standing, where it was hard to tell if she had gained some information or if her scouting mission had ended in failure, the latter would make sense and would be their fault given the battle that was currently raging nearby, though she remained silent as Vytheril informed her as to what was going on, where she looked a little disgusted by what they were doing and sighed as she determined that this was likely the best course of action, even if she didn't like the idea of using such a crude disguise to get by Guarm. "There! The disguise be complete!" the vrykul said, where it looked like all he was giving them was a small cape that had a hood that allowed them to cover their heads, even though Spitfire and Rainbow would be hard time hide given their forms and whatnot, before he handed them what he had made and pulled one of them over his upper body, which prompted the group to do the same thing and he noticed that one of them, Ashildir, didn't like the smell that was coming from what he had made, even though he gave a light chuckle as that happened, "Don't mind the smell, as it's better that we smell like the Kvaldir, given that Guarm is so used to them... though I have a feeling I'll be needin a priest to get this stench out of my armor once we're gone." With their disguises equipped, and everyone made sure that they were on correctly, the group headed down the path that was in front of them and used a side walkway to reach the area that was directly in front of Guarm's resting place, though as soon as they reached their destination they slowed down and carefully walked forward, where they walked over the lone bridge that connected to his area and approached the massive beast, who seemed to be peacefully sleeping despite the noise of the nearby battle, meaning they were able to bypass the creature rather easily, though once they got passed Guarm, and passed through a small amount of mist, they came to a stop and removed their disguises, even though both Spitfire and Vytheril noticed the vrykul was missing. "That was a truly revolting, outsiders... even in death I've never witnessed such a disgusting smell." Ashildir stated, where it was easy to tell that she didn't approve of what they had done, despite the fact that it was the only way for them to even reach this area in the first place, and nearly gagged when she noticed that her armor, even with the small amount of time it had been exposed to the seaweed, still smelled like the Kvaldir, before she noticed that they were missing someone as well, even though it was also clear that she didn't care much for the vrykul that had helped them out, "It looks like your friend didn't make it... a pity, but we must move on. You'll want to plead our case to Helya herself, as this is her throne and she receives guests in this area... I would accompany you, but, well, I'm afraid that I wouldn't help you at all, so I'm going to head over to that area over there, to see if I can find the whereabouts of my shieldmaidens." The area that Ashildir pointed to seemed to be an eternal battleground of some kind, or at least that was what the group assumed it had to be, and once they knew where she was referring to, which happened to be near another dock area by the looks of things, she separated herself from them and allowed the group to walk up the stone steps that lead the way to an altar of some kind, though it didn't take Spitfire all that long to notice that Sylvanas was standing right in front of the area they were heading towards and that she was holding a glowing lantern of some kind in one hand, an eerie one to be exact, and the person she was talking to was a massive female giant whose upper half was in front of them, where Heyla looked dark, evil, and had a broken right wing, and she wasn't happy about something. "Remember our bargain, banshee." Helya stated, where she lowered her hands, signaling that whatever she had been in the middle of doing was done and there was no reversing her magic, not without smashing the lantern to pieces anyway, something that Sylvanas stored inside her pack for a moment as she focused on the powerful figure that was standing in front of her at the moment, though the look on her face told Spitfire that, if an opportunity presented itself, she would no doubt double-cross Helya, "Don't you dare cross me..." Sylvanas said nothing to that, purely nodding her head so Helya could pull back and wait for something else to happen in her realm, before she turned around and started to walk away from the altar she had been standing in front of for who knew how long, though as she did that she came to a stop as she noticed that Spitfire and her companions were standing on the path that would take her back to the entrance of this realm, something that brought a frown to her face as she stared at Spitfire and noticed that she and Rainbow weren't like Scarlet and Vytheril. "Ah, the thorn in my side has arrived once more." Sylvanas said, her tone revealing that she was talking to Spitfire and that she didn't care about the others that were standing nearby, even though she didn't like her all that much and it was even reflected in her tone, but neither of them raised their weapons as she said that, because while Spitfire would like nothing more than to knock the Banshee Queen to the ground, and punish her for even trying to incite a war with the Alliance, as the Legion was invading Azeroth, she figured it could wait until after the Aegis of Aggramar had been claimed and Skovald had been beaten at long last. "Lady Sylvanas, I see you're bargaining with a being that watches over death, instead of focusing on stopping the Legion, like I told you to do earlier." Spitfire remarked, because so far it seemed like Sylvanas was more interested in making sure her kind were able to flourish once the Legion had been taken care of, even though she should be focusing on killing the demons that were invading this world and not even be concerned about what she felt was more important, before she sighed for a moment as she stared at the Banshee Queen, "Seriously, I would recommend that you stop focusing on your personal goals and turn your attention towards the Legion, otherwise I might have to tell the other leaders of the Horde that your priorities are messed up and that you need to be removed as soon as possible." "My loyal hero, I cannot understand why you would travel with someone who doesn't respect your Warchief and is always threatening her whenever the opportunity presents itself," Sylvanas said, where she was clearly speaking to Vytheril and no one else, showing that she didn't care much for Spitfire and found her to be more of a nuisance, one that she clearly would have killed by this point had it not been for the power that she wielded, which was being directed back at the foul demons and their masters, before she focused on Vytheril for a few seconds, "You must not languish here, as the Aegis cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands! The future of the Horde depends on the likes of you and I, so find your way back to Stormheim... I will be waiting." The group said nothing as Sylvanas walked down the path and headed towards the portal that would allow her to return to Stormheim, even though Spitfire had to admit that part of her wanted to lash out at her now, to eliminate a potential enemy before she could ruin their war against the Legion, though instead of worrying about the Banshee Queen, as she would deal with her later on, she focused on the altar as she and the others approached it, though before anyone could say anything a powerful force washed over all four of them, where Spitfire and Rainbow were sure that it was coming from Helya, though it didn't stop her from forcing Scarlet and Vytheril to their knees. "You are all unworthy!" Helya shouted, her voice echoing across the entirety of Helheim, though even as she said that both Spitfire and Rainbow resisted the power that was being applied to them and stood their ground, where she growled for a moment as she stared at them, almost as if she was trying to intimidate both of them and force them to surrender to her power, like she had done to a number of spirits and individuals that had come to this realm since it was created, so all of this was likely annoying her, "You will kneel before addressing the great Helya!" "Sorry, but it seems that your magic doesn't work on us, either due to the fact that we're not natives of this world or that we came here in our full power, instead of being spirits," Rainbow replied, showing the others that she was paying close attention to what was going on at the moment and that she understood what was happening, while forming some of her own opinions as well, and she could see that Spitfire agreed with what she had said, before they focused on Helya while Scarlet and Vytheril raised their heads to see what was going on at the moment, "Both of our friends, Scarlet and Vytheril, not to mention the spirit of Ashildir, Queen of the Valkyra, shouldn't be here, in Helheim, as each of them were banished here against their wills and should be returned to the lands and realms that they originally came from!" "You say that your friends do not belong here among the unworthy, outsider, but their spirits are fragmenting so easily, as they are doing so right now... how am I to know you speak the truth?" Helya asked, her tone more of a mocking nature this time around, meaning that Faljar likely shafted both of their friends in the process by adding another spell to what he had done to Ashildir earlier and she might know about that addition, though if she was annoyed by the mention of the Queen of the Valkyra she didn't show it, hence why she focused on them for a moment as she thought about what was going on and what Rainbow had just told her, "I cannot trust your words, so you and your friends must show me that your words are correct and that you don't belong here, in Helheim. Bring yourselves to the Eternal Battlefield and face my champion, Geir... if you manage to defeat him, and the chances of that are slim, then I may grant your friends a pardon." Spitfire placed a hand on Rainbow's shoulder, just to stop her from saying anything that might upset the powerful being that was in front of them, even though there was a chance that such a thing might happen, to which they bowed towards Helya for a moment and excused themselves as Scarlet and Vytheril followed after them, where they headed down the set of steps that were behind them and headed off towards the Eternal Battleground, though from what each of them could see there was a massive undead giant off in the distance, who all of the spirits that were in this area were locked in a futile with by the looks of things, and there was an area with some faint golden lights, where they found Ashildir and her group of shieldmaidens resting in a camp of some kind, which was devoid of tents. "Oh, good, your back." Ashildir said, where she turned away from what she was looking at, where it appeared that her eyes might have been on Geir and the fact that he seemed to be unbeatable, at least with the normal spirits that were trying to bring it down, before she focused on the four of them for a moment as she noticed something, that Scarlet and Vytheril seemed to be far weaker than they had been earlier, which seemed to be a consequence of whatever Faljar did before he had been slain, "Based on your expressions I take it Helya did not prove lenient?" "No, she said that we have to face that giant, Geir she called it, and beat him to earn our pardon," Scarlet said, though at the same time Vytheril seemed to be studying the spell that had been cast on them, to see if he could find a way to work around it or even break it, where she could see that Ashildir was interested in what they were doing at the moment, so she figured that she could tell the Queen of the Valkyra what was going on, "also, due to what Faljar did to us earlier, before we were sent to Helheim, both Vytheril's spirit and my spirit are in the middle of fracturing... in fact, unless I'm mistaken, both of us might be missing three portions of ourselves, which we'll have to obtain before we leave this realm." "It seems that Helya is under the impression that her challenge is unwinnable... we will show her different, especially with the power each of you wield," Ashildir stated, showing that, despite the fact that Helya had issued a challenge to all of them and that the undead giant was standing its ground against the enemies it happened to be fighting at the moment, before she glanced at Scarlet and Vytheril for a few seconds, showing that she was interested in what happened to them, due to the fact that neither of them had showed signs of weakening earlier, "These effects are familiar to me, as they have been used on my shieldmaidens in the past, including those that are currently trapped by Helya's minions, and I might know of a way that we can bypass what has happened, as Kvaldir ships carry special lanterns that are bound to this dreadful place, allowing them to navigate through the fog. It is said that the light of these lanterns can release bonds of the spirit, and, as you might have seen, there is a Kvaldir ship resting nearby, so I could recommend checking it out, to see if you can locate one of their special lanterns." The group took a moment to nod their heads, to show that they understood what Ashildir was telling them to do, before turning back towards the path that had brought them to this area and quickly returned to the area that would lead them over to where Helya's throne was located, where it was easy to see that she was busy with something or someone else at the moment, before they headed up the raised path that rested nearby and let it take them towards the dock that just so happened to be their destination. One thing the group spotted between where they were standing and where the ship was resting, not counting the Kvaldir warriors that happened to be guarding the path and the ship, was that there were a good number of crates and chests lining the way forward, meaning that it was possible that whoever commanded this ship took the possessions of those that were killed at sea and simply deposited their souls nearby for the Kvaldir that lived nearby, or at least that was what they assumed based on what they were seeing at the moment, making them wonder if it was a good idea to search the containers for armor and weapons for whoever they might recruit for their cause. Spitfire, in the end, decided to focus solely on the lantern that Ashildir wanted them to recover, but even as she came to that decision she did inform the others that killing the Kvaldir was a good thing as well, because while they might not recover the gear that was inside all of the containers, and carry them around while they were looking for the special lantern, she did know that the spirits that were resting near the base of this path might come up behind them and loot the gear that they would be leaving, all to help them take down Geir and stop their futile battle at long last. None of the Kvaldir warriors were happy to see them, and that was the only type of enemy on the path and on the docks that the ship was resting near, so the group engaged all of the barnacled covered warriors as Vytheril stayed behind Spitfire, Rainbow, and Scarlet so he could blast his targets with a few arcane blasts, choosing to save his power for the Captain of the ship that they were heading towards, as there was a larger vrykul standing on the deck of the ship and seemed to be covered in the attire of a captain who sailed the seas and pillaged whatever he wanted. Spitfire used her warglaives to parry incoming attacks and cut down whoever she was in the middle of fighting, Rainbow danced around all of her foes and cut them down with her warblades, and Scarlet made sure to use the Blades of the Fallen Prince against those that dared to challenge her, using one of her weapons to block what was coming at her while using the other to cut her targets down, though it wasn't long before the four of them moved up to the edge of the ship and jumped onto the deck, something that caused the Captain to growl at them as he noticed what was going on. The Captain declared that their souls belonged to Helya and drew his massive mace to deal with all four of them, but this was just like what happened when Spitfire fought the Captain of the previous ship, the one that carried the greatsword she had beaten, and while their foe was fast with his swings, while avoiding inflicting damage to his ship, it was hard for him to fight four enemies at the same time and he constantly lowered his guard whenever he attacked, which meant that he must be used to fighting with his crew backing him and they were the ones that stopped those from exposing this weakness, but his weakness allowed them to quickly cut him down, which was rather disappointing to all four of them, before they were able to recover the yellow glassed lantern and headed back to Ashildir's camp. "You've returned a lot sooner than I expected, especially with Spitfire and Rainbow involved in our quest... and, from what I can see, you recovered what we need so we can prepare for Helya's challenge." Ashildir commented, where she spoke the moment the group returned to where they were standing and presented the lantern to her, to confirm that the tales were true and that they had recovered on so she could tell them the next stage of their plan, even though Spitfire had an idea as to what sort of obstacles they had to overcome next, "Now then, while I know that with the power of Spitfire and Rainbow we can fight and defeat Geir, based on what I have seen so far, but right now, thanks to what Faljar did, two of you are too weak for the confrontation, so first we must reclaim the missing pieces of your spirits and return you to your full power, so when we return to Stormheim you'll be at your full power again. Based on what I've seen so far, Helya must have scattered the fragments throughout her realm to keep them from you, but, if you can find them and shine the lantern on them, that should set the stolen pieces of your spirits free and restore you to your full power... but do be careful, as I'm sure that our host has placed guards near whatever the two of you are missing right now." "That will likely draw the attention of Helya, but, based on what I've seen, she might find it amusing," Vytheril said, to which the rest of the group nodded their heads for a moment, as while some would worry about the possibility of the dark ruler of this realm interfering with what they were planning right now, and chaining them to prevent them from escaping, all of them were used to events such as this, where he and Scarlet dealt with the threats that attacked Azeroth while Spitfire and Rainbow dealt with the demons of the Legion, so they were ready for whatever Helya had in store for them, though before they left the area he decided to ask what was on his mind, "Should we do anything else before the battle with Geir, and our escape from Helheim?" "While I know that with our allies' power we can fight the behemoth, and fell it in no time, we should gather some forces to aid us, and, in an odd twist of fate, Faljar was kind enough to aid us." Ashildir stated, though as she said that she gestured to part of the Eternal Battlegrounds and let the group follow her hand towards the area she wanted them to see, where it was easy for them to see that there were a number of shieldmaidens that were surrounded by spheres made out of water, as if the Kvaldir were trying to drown them into submission, since even if a spirit died they would likely be reborn in this dark place and be forced to endure more punishment, "Earlier, during my investigation of this area, I discovered several of our allies, my own shieldmaidens, being tortured by the elemental forces of Helheim, with the Kvaldir being the ones that were directing their actions... you may think the dead can't drown, but with Helya's power, this is not the case. I could not release them from their prisons, when I tried earlier since one of them was left alone for a moment, but now that you have one of the waylights, the lantern I had you collect, you may be able to free them at long last, giving us a few allies for the battle with Geir." The group wasted no time in leaving the camp through one of the other entrances and quickly headed over to where some of the corrupted water elementals happened to be located, where the first pair they spotted were in the middle of trying to break the shieldmaidens that were contained inside the prisons that were right in front of them, so they weren't even expecting someone to attack them while they were working, so Spitfire and Scarlet's blades cut through both of their foes without having to worry about any resistance, and once the elementals were defeated Vytheril raised the lantern and its light shattered the prisons that the shieldmaidens were trapped inside. As soon as the pair was freed, and had a chance to catch their breath, the group informed them of what was going on and headed deeper into Helheim once the warriors understood the situation, where they headed towards what appeared to be a massive dead tree that was resting at what could have been an edge for this realm, or at least a safe place to stand from what they had seen so far, before they found a large thin swamp-like creature guarding the area that two purple spirit fragments had been chained to, as both of the fragments were hanging from the tree branches. This time around Scarlet and Vytheril engaged the mire creature, where the latter tossed the waylight into the air so Rainbow could catch it and flew over to the tree not a few moments later, and once she landed in front of the tree she raised the lantern and shined its light on both of the trapped fragments, as that caused the chains to shatter and released the fragments, which burst into the air and rushed towards their friends, who smiled as part of their power returned to them and empowered them once more, allowing them to fight the creature with more of their skills as Scarlet cut its legs and Vytheril blasted it in the chest. From there they headed to the north of where the tree was resting and found a path that would lead them into a cave of some kind, though as that happened they were assaulted by a group of water elementals that just so happened to be guarding some water prisons, where Rainbow took a moment to use the lantern once more and shattered the prisons in question, something that was soon followed by the now freed shieldmaidens impaling their former captors as they urged the group to move on and do what they had come to do, as they wanted to work out some of their anger before returning to Ashildir. From there the group moved towards the tunnel and discovered that they had to go around a bend to reach the cave that the second spirit fragments, this time colored red, were resting in and what happened during the last battle happened this time as well, where Spitfire stoof to the side as she let Scarlet and Vytheril engage the guardian as Rainbow freed what was missing from their friends, allowing both of them to empower themselves and take down the odd creature, and once that was done they headed outside and made their way over to what appeared to be an odd graveyard or resting place for part of a ship, where the group simply repeated what they had done so far as Rainbow freed the blue fragments this time, but as soon as that was done they headed back to Ashildir's camp... even though it was three of them since Rainbow flew all over the Eternal Battleground and freed the imprisoned shieldmaidens before rejoining her friends. "Yes, I can feel that both of your powers have been returned to you, and that your exposure to this realm might have also given you a power boost... Helya will soon regret what she has done." Ashildir commented, though at the same time she made sure to nod her head towards the shieldmaidens that were freed from their prisons and returned after killing those that had kept them imprisoned for who knew how long, where the look on her face showed the group that she was happy with what they had done for her and her followers, before she smiled as they glanced at Geir, who happened to be in the middle of wandering around his section of the Eternal Battleground, "There is no more cause for hesitation, heroes, as it is time for us to strike. With your spirits restored to normal, breaking Faljar's spell in the process, the power of both Spitfire and Rainbow Dash, and our now freed allies, we will defeat this foul behemoth and meet Helya's challenge, allowing us to depart from Helheim and return to Stormheim." The enlarged group, now made up of them and the shieldmaidens, cheered as they charged out of the camp they had set up earlier and rushed towards the area that the undead giant called Geir was standing in, who roared in response to what was going on and swung its fist down at the ground, even though that attack was stopped by Spitfire shifting into her true form and landed beneath the large fist so she could use her warglaives to push the attack backwards, something that was followed by the shieldmaidens lashing out at Geir as they flew through the air and swung their weapons at it. The spirits that had been fighting this thing for a long time, and had been losing based on what the group had seen, were surprised by what they were seeing at the moment and stood where they had been positioned when their unexpected allies arrived, even though it was clear that some of them were debating whether or not they could even trust their eyes, before several of them cheered and rushed into battle once more, slicing into Geir's legs as Spitfire basically taunted the creature into swinging at her while Rainbow joined the shieldmaidens in attacking the upper body of their foe as Scarlet combined both of her blades into Frostmourne again and hacked into the giant's legs, all while Vytheril blasted their foe from afar, since he wasn't built for melee combat and this allowed him to protect himself from danger. Geir, as it turned out, didn't care much for them and continued to swing his fists at Spitfire, who danced around the air with the usual grace that she and Rainbow had learned how to use while they learned how to be demon hunters, mostly to fight the flying demons that only stayed in the air and never landed, even though she did channel her own Fel fireballs into the area between her and their foe, where Geir punched some of them and they blasted it backwards, causing the spirits to move out of the way so none of them got stepped on in the process, though whether or not it pissed off Geir was hard to tell, given that it was undead and that it seemed to be focused solely on fighting everyone that was trying to tear it down, and its size really worked in their favor since Spitfire could dodge any attacks that came her way with ease, even if some of the attacks she parried just to keep Geir in one place so the others could focus on the legs and not on moving all the time. Rainbow, of course, ditched attacking the back a few moments later and lashed out at the arms as she flew over their foe's head, where her lightning shocked Geir and opened the way for the others to lash out at it, though once they were sure that the giant was weakened enough the pair made sure the spirits and their friends were out of the way before combining their fel powers into a single mass that struck the giant in the chest. The resulting attack knocked Geir backwards and caused the giant to collapse on the ground behind it, where the spirits and their friends lashed out at the arms and neck of their foe after that happened, though it wasn't long before the giant stopped moving and the spirits let out a cheer, celebrating their victory over the creature that Helya used to challenge all who wanted something from her, or at least that was what Spitfire thought about the situation, before she and Rainbow joined Scarlet and Vytheril near Ashildir and her shieldmaidens, who seemed surprised by what they had seen, even if the Queen of the Valkyra was no longer phased by what she witnessed from the pair. "You have done it, the day is won! Now, we must collect our reward." Ashildir said, to which she gestured for the group to follow her as she headed towards the area that Helya's throne rested in, because now that they had met and completed her challenge, something she knew to be easy since Spitfire and Rainbow were on their side, it was time to speak with her and get out of Helheim, though at the same time the shieldmaidens joined them as they walked towards their destination, mostly to see if they would be freed from this realm as well, "Let us hope that Helya keeps her side of the bargain and that she wasn't lying to us." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads as they and their friends followed Ashildir over to where the throne rested, even if they both felt that it was more of an arena than anything else, as there was a large area that looked like a stone circle had been built in this area and then half of it had been cut away after it had been made, resulting in what was resting near them, but once they started climbing up the stairs the pair focused on what they were about to do as Helya turned and glared at all of them, as the expression on her face revealed that she wasn't too happy with them, even though it was her fault for illusing the challenge in the first place, especailly against heroes that did the impossible. "Helya, we have defeated your champion." Spitfire declared, while at the same time the rest of the group nodded for a few seconds, mostly to show that they agreed with what was going on right now, but even as they did that all of them gripped their weapons and shields, just in the off chance that Helya refused to keep her word and sent her minions to cut them all down and return their souls to the torment they had been enduring since they arrived in this realm, "Now, its time that you kept your word and release our friends from Helheim!" "Such insolence! None will leave Helheim while I rule!" Helya shouted, her voice booming all over the entirety of Helheim, something that allowed her Kvaldir to understand that someone was trying to bargain for their freedom with her and that it was time to come cut them down, if what several of the spirits were thinking was correct and wasn't their nightmares coming to life, though before she could do anything a number of flashes appeared in the sky that was above them and a number of pillars of light surrounded Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, Vytheril, Ashildir, and everyone else that happened to have been part of the group that took down Geir, "What? NO! THIS CANNOT BE!" "Your terms were met, Helya." Ashildir stated, where she was the calmest one of the bunch, as she was more familiar with what was going on and knew that what the heroes had done had secured them their freedom, hence why she and the rest of the shieldmaidens stood at the ready as the pillars of light started to raise them and the other spirits into the air, where a number of the spirits were pleased by what was going on and even one seemed to be on the verge of tears, meaning he had likely been trapped in Helheim for who knew how long, before Ashildir focused on the being in front of them, who was beyond upset with what was happening right now, "It seems that even you must honor your word." As Helya shouted out the word 'no', loud enough for everyone to hear her, Ashildir informed the heroes that the instant they returned to the world of the living, as in returned to part of Stormheim and were no longer in Helheim, she was going to grant them her blessing and complete the Trial of Valor, as they had proven themselves to her, especially Spitfire and Rainbow, meaning that they would be able to head out and make their way to the Halls of Valor, to which the group said nothing to that as a light flashed around them and they vanished from Helheim, as they would be able to talk once they figured out where in the world they were ending up and what was happening to the rest of Stormheim. > Stormheim: Danger in Skold-Ashil > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What Spitfire and Rainbow discovered, when the light finally died down, was that they were no longer in Helheim and that they were standing in the graveyard of the camp that Havi had set up in front of the tower, a place called Valdisdall based on what they recalled since both of them had heard the odd voice when they were last here, and found that Scarlet and Vytheril were present as well, which they had been expecting and were relieved to see, as it would have sucked if their friends had been stuck inside Helheim by some magic or power none of them had seen coming, and even some of the spirits that they had freed rested around the graveyard, apparently enjoying the view of Stormheim again. The pair could see that both of their friends were surprised by the fact they were back to normal, meaning that whoever had aided them in escaping the dark realm they had been sent to had forced Helya to totally honor her word, to which they grinned as they walked out of the graveyard and headed up into the camp that rested nearby, where they found that two new arrivals had landed in this camp and seemed to be waiting for something to happen. The first person that was new was Cullen, which meant that Sylvanas or Nathanos had sent her here to get rid of her, since the group knew that neither of the undead in question cared for them and those that sided with keeping the pact between the Alliance and Horde intact until the Legion was dealt with, but they were happy to see her, as this meant they would be able to gather some information before they headed out to deal with whatever madness was going on, as Spitfire was sure something bad was happening between the Banshee Queen and Genn Greymane, based on what she had seen since arriving in Stormheim. The second arrival was another human that just so happened to be wearing the same attire of the soldiers that were aboard Genn's airship, even though she seemed to be wearing plate armor instead of leather armor and, for some reason, only had one shoulder piece, one that was resting over her left shoulder, and she had one of the gryphons resting nearby, though it was hard to tell if she was a human or if she was a worgen, since the human forms of the worgen showed no signs of claws or even fur their normal forms. From what the group could tell it appeared that Cullen and Ensign Ward, as that was the name of the human based on what Rainbow said, were arguing over something, or maybe they were just chatting with each other, to which they turned towards Havi for a moment, who seemed to be in the middle of something with a fish, meaning that someone must have caught it for him, even though Spitfire could tell that there was a bit of light, like the pillars she and the others had seen back when they were leaving Helheim, and wondered if he might be the one who assisted them, before she decided that she would worry about it later. "With Ashildir's judgement, your final trial is complete, but even Valhallas, or the Halls of Valor if you prefer, can wait, for now we must eat... being dead works up quite an appetite." Havi stated, where his words made the rest of the group take a moment to wonder the same thing that Spitfire had wondered, since it was an odd statement for him to say, but at the same time his statement revealed the truth of the matter, that Ashildir had remained true to her word and had given all of them her blessing, meaning they had freed a number of trapped spirits, restored Ashildir back to whatever realm her own spirit usually rested in, and had completed the final of the three trials, before Havi gestured to the fish, "Would one of you bring some of that fish over to the fire? I'm afraid that they are much like the moose from earlier." Spitfire and her friends gathered some of the fish and followed Havi over to where the fire rested, where they assisted him in setting the fish up so they could be roasted, something that required Scarlet's attention since she was the cook and this was right up her alley based on what the group had seen since their arrival in Stormheim, though as they did that all four of them waited to see what sort of information Havi might share with them, since he had a habit of talking while someone worked on the food that he wanted to eat, even if he used the excuse that they were the ones that needed to eat before the next stage of their journey through this large province. "The trials have been won, in a way that I have never seen before, but your Fel-corrupted foe remains." Havi said, where he glanced in the direction of the elegant structure that had to be the Gates of Valor, the entry point for the Halls of Valor, for a few seconds and then sighed as he turned back towards the group, showing that either something was going on or that something would be happening in that area soon enough, meaning this was mostly to prepare them for whatever their future held in store for them, "His tainted flock are attempting to bar the halls of the righteous, possibly to destroy the area or corrupt it with their foul energies, so you must take down his forces and punish them accordingly... but first, your allies are in need of your assistance, and once you finish helping them you can start fighting the Felskorn." "You can say that again," Ensign commented, her tone revealing that there was a reason she and Cullen were here in the first place, even though Spitfire and Rainbow understood that by just seeing that the pair were patiently standing near one of the ramps that lead up to the camp, where their mounts were resting, though even as the group glanced at them that was when Spitfire wondered if Sylvanas had done something to justify what was going on right now, which would be more than enough reason for her to follow them to another part of Stormheim, "We set up a temporary camp called Greywatch near what your friend calls the Runewood, but that's not important, as we learned of the Banshee Queen's location just a few minutes ago, probably five to ten minutes before your return to Stormheim if your friend's tale is true, and Greymane set out on his ship so he could travel to the temporary camp the Forsaken set up." "We call it Dreadwake's Landing... a terrible name is you ask me, but I'm just a lesser expandable soldier," Cullen added, her words confirming that Sylvanas had, in fact, set up her own temporary camp somewhere in Stormheim and that the King of Gilnaes was heading right for it with one of his ships, meaning he would either peacefully talk with them or just unleash a full scale assault on the camp that the Forsaken had set up, though Spitfire was hoping for the former, due to the fact that she was sure that the Banshee Queen would be the one to set off the war between the factions, "All I know is that Sylvanas sent one of her ships deeper into Stormheim, apparently on a secret mission of some kind, and they just returned shortly before you appeared in that graveyard... but I was sent here to bring you to our camp, where I'm sure that either the Banshee Queen or Nathanos will ask you to attack the Alliance, even though I'm hoping that the presence of you two, Spitfire and Rainbow, causes everyone to calm down." "Our work is never done, especially with the likes of Sylvanas around," Rainbow remarked, as she shared Spitfire's opinion on the leader of the Forsaken, she didn't trust the Banshee Queen at all and was waiting for her to spark the faction war that would quickly spell the end of both factions and would end in the Legion, and Sargeras, claiming Azeroth, to which she raised her hand for a moment when Scarlet nodded her head, after adding some spices to the fish and conforming all of them had been cooked, and claimed one of the fish for herself, because she actually enjoyed Scarlet's food, before she glanced at the pair that had spoken, "So, do we have any idea what Sylvanas was looking for, or are we in the dark about that as well? I mean, she made a bargain with Helya, but that's all we know." "Our camp is resting near the settlement of Skold-Ashil, where a temple or vault of some kind rests," Cullen replied, as she figured that there was no harm in saying this with someone from the Alliance standing nearby, because while it was hard for her and Ensign to see eye to eye, totally different from how she and Lorna operated, she could tell that the human did want to stop a faction war from happening, especially when the Legion was trying to invade their world and tear them all apart so their dark master could claim Azeroth at long last, "sadly, that's all I know on the matter, as Nathanos informed me that I had all the information I needed to know so I could 'carry out my mission'... you know, I'm really starting to hate that guy, even if he's my 'superior'." "Skold-Ashil, named after Ashildir, contains the Vault of Eyir, a Titanic Watcher that leads the Valarjar Val'kyr, and just so happens to be the home of those loyal to her," Havi stated, informing the group as to what sort of area the Forsaken had build their camp near, to which Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other for a moment, as this Eyir sounded stronger and more important than the likes of Yotnar and some of the other Watchers they had encountered, maybe even to the point where Ashildir might worship Eyir, though that was when Havi raised a hand to his chin for a moment, "I do not know why this Banshee Queen is interested in Skold-Ashil, but it might be best for you to investigate the area and see what she's up to, least she anger Eyir and cripple your chances of entering the Halls of Valor, since she's one of Odyn's allies and angering her might undo all of your hard work." The group sighed for a moment before devouring the fish that Scarlet had prepared, though once that was done they got up and headed over to where their allies were standing, where Spitfire and Rainbow took to the air as Scarlet and Vytheril used the mounts that had been provided, even though Ensign and Cullen joined them so they could reach the camp in question and not head off to the wrong place, before they left Havi behind, who would be waiting for them to return so he could direct them towards the Gates of Valor and the Fel-corrupted vrykul that would be marching on the area in question, where they focused on what was going to happen when they reached their destination. What they did was head down into the bottom of the bay that the ravine that was outside Hrydshal, where it was easy for them to see another large vrykul settlement that had been built on what could have been a beach at one point in the past, one that had a Titan Vault built into one of the cliff sides, positioned sort of below where the Gates of Valor rested, though while it wasn't anywhere near the size of Hrydshal it was still a place they would have to be careful in, since there was no telling what they might need to do once they landed in Dreadwake's Landing. As such it didn't take them long to spot one of the Genn's wooden ships, one that was resting in the water between where Skold-Ashil rested, a settlement that had a few towers that could light up the area when it was nighttime, and an area that a number of Forsaken tents had been built in, meaning it had to be the area that Cullen and Ensign were taking the group to, though even as they did that Spitfire and Rainbow glanced over to Skold-Ashil for a moment, as they were sure that there were signs of Fel energy coming from them, meaning either someone had succumbed to Skovald's influence or there were a few demons wandering around the area in disguise, something they could deal with once they had a better understanding of what was going on. There was even one of the Forsaken ships in the area as well, which had to be the one that Sylvanas used to get deeper into Stormheim before vanishing so she could appear in Helheim and make a bargain with Helya, though what was interesting was that it appeared that the undead who had been on the ship Spitfire had started on before they came to this province, where she discovered they were making the dreadful Blight, seemed to be refusing to dispense all the vile substances that had been on their ship, causing the Dark Rangers, Nathanos' forces, a vast amount of annoyance in the process. "I'm not sure what you did, but your words and actions have resonated with more of our forces than we originally thought, so much so that many are questioning Sylvanas' orders," Cullen explained, revealing why they were seeing what they were seeing at the moment, though at the same time they spotted a number of Genn's forces standing on the beach just down the way from where Dreadwake's Landing was locating, not to mention the fact that the King himself was standing nearby as well and seemed to be in the middle of talking to Lorna, something that caused the undead to chuckle for a moment as she watched them, "and, despite the feud between the Forsaken and the worgen, thanks to what happened years ago, it seems that some are starting to try out working together, instead of fighting each other and trying to rip each other to shreds, which is what Sylvanas likely wants us to do while she does... whatever it is she's doing here." Spitfire was happy to hear that piece of information, as this told her that something had changed between the factions, or at least it seemed that way at the moment, but she said nothing as Cullen directed them down to the area that Genn, his guards, and a number of the Forsaken happened to be standing, as when they landed in the area that was below them she and the others climbed off so they could approach the King and see what the situation was, even though it was easy to see Nathanos standing off on the other side of the river, meaning Sylvanas was one step ahead of them. "Genn Greymane, it seems you're doing well," Spitfire commented, as the leader in question seemed to be doing rather well, due to the fact that his attire was the same as it had been the last time they saw each other and he seemed calm, way more than what someone would think when one considered the fact that the worgen and the Forsaken really disliked each other due to the bad blood that existed in their past, before she glanced at the assembled group that was around her and her friends, even though she knew where both of their targets were hiding, "or at least I hope things have been going well for you and your forces, just like I would hope the same for Cullen's team, who are certainly smarter than their leaders seem to be at the moment." "As well as they can be, since we built Greywatch near a burial tomb that an ancient vrykul warlord of some kind had been buried in, one versed in the blood arts," Genn replied, where Scarlet and Vytheril glanced at each other for a moment, as they knew that he was referring to one of the more vampiric races of their world, as there were a few they knew about and one of them was the San'layn, a type of undead blood elf that fed off of blood, even though most of those undead, based on what they knew, had been killed long ago, before the King sighed for a moment as he thought about what he and his soldiers had faced before coming to this part of Stormheim, "thankfully one of our greatest warriors, a champion that has been chosen to lead the rest of the warriors in our fight, was able to beat the Blood-Thane and, based on what I head, took his soul either to the Halls of Valor or banished it to the afterlife, plus they did the same to the rest of the poor humans we found outside the tomb, who had been infected by the Blood-Thane's power and had transformed into vampyr as well, so we won't have to worry about them coming to cut us down at some point." "Let me guess, Serilea Lightdancer?" Scarlet asked, showing Spitfire and Rainbow that she and Vytheril knew the individual that Genn had mentioned, even though he hadn't given them much to work with, even though it made Rainbow take a few seconds to think about the heroes she had worked with to bring down the Legion's assaults on the Eastern Kingdoms, as she might have seen the warrior in question, if her thoughts were right on the matter, before Genn nodded his head, just to let them know she had hit the nail on the head, "The night elf must be hunting demons down or cleaning up things that we haven't touched yet... its hard to know what she's thinking, given that both of her sisters were taken by demons a long time ago, or at least that's the story I heard." "Yes, she hates demons, that's all there is to it... but we can't focus on her right now," Genn said, something that the group agreed with, as they needed to know what in the world Sylvanas was planning, why she was heading over to Skold-Ashil, and what they needed to do to stop her plans from becoming reality, especially since each of them felt that she was in the middle of planning a war between the Alliance and Horde, hence why she was focused on Spitfire's group, "Based on what our Forsaken allies have said, Sylvanas took Nathanos and a few of her loyal Dark Rangers over Skold-Ashil, even though it looks like those rangers might have been told to either stay back or return to camp, due to what we've been seeing since we got here, but what she's doing over there is a mystery to us, even though it doesn't look like she's enraged the vrykul that call the settlement home. My best guess at what to do next is that a small group should approach the settlement and tell the vrykul that we come in peace, maybe like how the Illidari came to save the day when we were mourning the loss of our previous High King and when the Horde mourned the passing of their previous Warchief, before explaining why we were visiting their settlement in the first place and, hopefully, get them to tell us what Sylvanas might be looking for, so we can put a stop to her plans." "Maybe she's after Eyir?" Rainbow commented, referring to the Titan Watcher that was supposedly located inside the Vault that Skold-Ashil had been built around, though since it was Havi that gave them this information she suspected that it was the truth and that Helya might be looking to steal more power from the Halls of Valor, since it was clear that she didn't like whoever of the ruler of the Halls was at all and seemed to be lashing out at him in any way that she could think of, ways that resulted in her winning and him losing something important, and the rest of her group took a moment to think about it before nodding their heads as she faced Genn, "According to a friendly vrykul we encountered at the start of our trek Stormheim, who has been helping us understand the trials that will allow us to get inside the Halls of Valor, so we can obtain the Aegis of Aggramar, Skold-Ashil is the location of the Vault of Eyir, someone whose allied with the ruler of the Halls, so there's a chance that what she's doing might ruin our chances of acquiring the Aegis... and, based on the fact that we did save Ashildir and a number of shieldmaidens from Helheim, there's the possibility that we might be seen as allies to those that call the settlement home." "Then why don't the four of you and King Genn head over to see what's going on?" one of the Forsaken inquired, showing that she, as that was the gender of the speaker, seemed to approve of what was happening at the moment, while at the same time a number of the other Forsaken did the same thing, showing the group that they agreed with her statement and that they were fine with all of the guards remaining here to watch over them, or maybe just guard the area and chat for a time as everyone waited for the group to return from what they were doing. The group nodded and, in the end, accepted Genn's company for the time being as they headed down to where someone had positioned a small row boat, one large enough to seat the 'captain' and three others, hence why Spitfire and Rainbow decided to let the others use the small boat and they would follow from the air, though it was a short ride across the river and they reached a small path that lead right up to one of the towers that rested just outside Skold-Ashil, where it took them no effort to see that the rest of the Dark Rangers, of which there were three, resting inside the first floor of it, but, to Spitfire's disappointment, there were no signs of Sylvanas inside the tower. "Ranger Captain Areiel, its a surprise to see that you and your fellow rangers are resting here," Genn commented, where it was easy to tell that he was interested in the fact that the three undead elves, in a nature that was slightly different from all of the death knights the heroes had seen so far, were even resting in this area in the first place, no doubt due to the fact that he believed that Sylvanas would have taken someone other than Nathanos into Skold-Ashil, but if she had told all of her Dark Rangers to stand back her guard would be lower than it normally was and her actions would have annoyed or even pissed off her loyal rangers, to a degree anyway. "We were supposed to guard our Lady as she ventured into this settlement, but instead she ordered us to head out and overtake the area, to secure the vault," the more decorated Dark Ranger, a lady who had to be Areiel, replied, though even as she said that the other two seemed distracted by something, as they appeared to be staring out at the rest of the part of the settlement the tower rested near, before she shook her head and focused on Genn for a moment as she realized who was standing near him, "however, after spending some time investigating the area, we quickly determined that doing such a thing would be somewhat difficult for us, as some of the vrykul that call this settlement home were keeping an eye on us, despite our powers... and when we told our Lady she, um, expressed her displeasure and informed us that she and Nathanos would complete our mission on their own." "Makes sense you would have some trouble with this place, given that they're guarding Eyir, an ally of whoever rules the Halls of Valor, and there are a few demons mixed into their forces," Spitfire stated, as she was able to figure out why Areiel and her fellow rangers might have had some trouble with the vrykul that called Skold-Ashil home, something that Scarlet, Vytheril, and Rainbow knew as well, even though only two of them were able to tell where the demons were located, due to them being demon hunters, before she glanced out at the area in question for a few seconds, "Okay, we'll approach the vrykul that call Skold-Ashil home and tell them what we know, where hopefully they'll allow us to split into two groups and tackle all of the demons that are lurking in the shadows, before we head over to where the Vault is resting and see if we can't stop Sylvanas from making a mistake, because ticking off Eyir might sabotage our efforts to enter the Halls of Valor and acquire the Aegis of Aggramar." Areiel took a moment to think about what was going on and nodded her head, where she informed the other two rangers that they were to return to Dreadwake's Landing and wait with the rest of their forces for a time, to which the pair took a moment to nod their heads and departed from the tower they had been resting in, allowing Spitfire and the others, with a group of six now, to exit the tower and head to the left of the entrance, which was when they walked down the path that was in front of the structure and approached one of Skold-Ashil's entrances, where the group found that the pair of vrykul, both female and they suspected the rest of the settlement would be the same way, happened to be resting on the backs of some brown bears. "Halt intruders, you are not welcome in Skold-Ashil," one of the warriors declared, where she shifted her grip on her spear and pointed it at them, mostly to force them to stop in their tracks, while at the same time the other guard watched them in case they tried anything funny, though a quick sweep with her Spectral Sight ability told Spitfire that both of the vrykul weren't demons and that they could speak with them for a time, if they were willing to talk anyway, "tell us why you have come here and what you hope to obtain, before we force you to do so." "We've actually come to help you, and your settlement, out," Spitfire replied, to which she gestured towards the rest of the small city that the vrykul called home, causing the pair to raise their eyebrows for a moment as they waited for her to tell them what was going on and why they should trust anything she was telling them right now, hence why she was getting ready to tell them everything they knew, and would mention Havi at some point as well, since that might be the key to getting the vrykul to help them, "We've learned that Sylvanas Windrunner, the Banshee Queen, made a deal with the dark ruler of Helheim, Helya to be exact, and that she intends on doing something to Eyir to fulfill the bargain that was struck between them, so after telling Havi what we discovered he informed us of what was in this area and told us to come here first, before heading to the Halls of Valor... also, you have a few demons lurking in the shadows, who are no doubt waiting for a chance to attack your settlement while your distracted by something." "Havi told you about this place? That means we missed something that He easily noticed," the second shieldmaiden said, where it was easy for the group to tell that she wasn't referring to Havi when she said 'He', meaning that Havi might be one of the loyal followers of whoever ruled the Halls of Valor, which would explain why he was so keen on everyone following the proper methods to earn the right to walk over the final bridge of this province, approach the Gates of Valor, and then head up to the Halls, before she and her companion sighed for a moment, "Very well, we shall permit the six of you to step into Skold-Ashil and track down this Banshee Queen, as well as take care of whatever demons are supposedly resting in our settlement, before we head to the Vault of Eyir to make sure it is still properly sealed." From there the group split into two smaller groups, where Spitfire, Vytheril, and Areiel followed the first warrior into the part of the settlement that she and her partner had been guarding the entrance of, leaving Rainbow, Scarlet, and Genn to follow the second warrior as they entered what appeared to be the main section of Skold-Ashil, though as they did that Spitfire noticed that there were only two types of vrykul in this settlement, the warriors and priests, or what she assumed were priests since she had no idea what sort of labels these people used to address themselves. Spitfire discovered that her guide was called Vallaen, while Rainbow's was called Frashe, and that both of them were eager to see if the group was telling the truth or if they were lying, about the demons since they trusted the part about Havi, though as Vallaen took a moment to question how she was going to find her targets, and lure them into the open, Spitfire activated her Spectral Sight once more and found that there were actually five demons resting in the part of Skold-Ashil she was in, though all of them were Sayaad, interestingly enough. Truthfully she figured that some of the demons would have been Felguards, or maybe an Eredar in disguise, or even an Inquisitor that was lurking in the form of someone else, but it did make her take a moment to wonder if Rainbow would be experiencing the same thing that she was seeing at the moment, before she held a hand out and had the others stop for a moment, which was when she informed the Sayaad that she was here and that she wasn't leaving until they were slain, something that caused the demons in question to drop their disguises, much to the surprise of the vrykul that happened to be near them, as this revealed their purple colored skin, their leathery wings, a pair of curved horns on their heads, their twisted legs and hooves, and the slender tail that ended with a spade and went with their more slender bodies, which was covered by armor that showed off their stomachs, sort of covered their chests, and only had a v shaped piece of metal covering the area between their legs, before they rushed over to the area she was standing in and readied their whips to bring her down. Spitfire knew that their whips were designed to inflict pain on those they were fighting, or even force someone to feel pleasure, something that all depended on the Sayaad in question and, supposedly, whatever world they were on, as many among the Illidari assumed that all of the supposed pleasure was done on whatever world the foul Sayaad lived on, even though there was no telling what was going on since they had no idea where that planet rested, but even as she thought about that she spun around and pulled her warglaives out as the tips of the whips neared her, using the flatter edge of her blades to catch the whips, something that allowed her to forcefully pull all five of the Sayaad over to where she was standing, which caught them off guard when it happened. The first of the Sayaad barely had time to do anything as Spitfire shifted her stance, let go of the whips, and cleaved her in half without wasting a single second, surprising the other four as they unleashed their own powers on her in an attempt to slow her down or cause her to submit to their seduction powers, something that was used on whoever they felt like using it on so they could make a thrall out of whoever they were fighting, but thanks to her inner powers Spitfire repelled their efforts and forced them backwards with ease. One Sayaad pocketed her whip and rushed forward to swing her claws at her, where Spitfire dodged the incoming attacks as she noticed that another was coming to kick her from behind, to which she jumped into the air and let the third one hit the second one with ease, though as the two of them hit each other, and fell backwards as that happened, Spitfire spun around before she landed on the ground and swung her weapons, which was followed by their heads separating from their bodies. The fifth demon seemed to be considering her options as the fourth one rushed at Spitfire before she could react, intending on hitting her while her defenses were down, though that was when she weaved her inner flames around her body and forced her target backwards, something that was followed by her swinging and taking the demon's hand off before splitting her body into two halves, an upper part and a lower part, which caused the final Sayaad to take a step back and stop when she found a number of the vrykul pushing her back into the fight, causing her to gulp as she walked back towards Spitfire. What happened next was that she vanished from their sights for a time and nothing seemed to happen, though that was followed by Spitfire focusing on her Spectral Sight for a few seconds and noticed that her foe was trying to leave the area that they were standing in, unsuccessfully given that the vrykul had formed a barrier and the demon didn't want to use her wings since it would alert her to her presence, to which she gestured to the pair of warriors that were in front of the demon and they pushed her back into the fight, causing the Sayaad's invisibility spell to wear off. Spitfire wasted no time in lashing out at the demon as it rushed at her at the same time, parrying an incoming attack before severing the demon's arm, giving her a few seconds to gasp in pain, which was when she spun around and severed her foe's head, dropping the fifth and final Sayaad to the ground, where she double checked and found that there were no more demons in this part of Skold-Ashil, to which she sighed and rapidly absorbed the souls of the demons she had killed, without giving them a chance to flee. Of course, when she absorbed their souls and the power they contained, Spitfire braced herself as she felt a familiar bit of pressure in her chest and was sure that the size had gone up thanks to the fact that she absorbed the souls of the Sayaad, where she made sure that everything was okay with her movements, just like she had done the last time this happened to her, before nodding her head as they departed from the area they were in, allowing the vrykul to return to what they had been doing before their arrival, and headed over to where Rainbow's group was waiting, only to discover that she had six Sayaad resting around her hooves, all dead, and her own chest had gone up a size or two as well. "Fascinating, so it wasn't just a one time thing," Vytheril commented, referring to Rainbow's slight changes, even though he did find it odd that the Legion would send a force of ten Sayaad to infiltrate this settlement, without adding in a few of the stronger demons that made up their forces, but at the very least they were able to show Vallaen and Frashe that they had been telling the truth and that they were here to help, where he found that there were four area in front of the Vault that had what appeared to be pedestals of some kind, "I had no idea such a thing happened when you absorbed the soul of a demon and made it's power your own, though this can have some unwanted side effects, based on all of the other types of creatures that serve the Legion." "Actually, only the Sayaad seem to have an effect on a demon hunter's body, as they are the only things we have seen that have done such a thing," Spitfire replied, though she did have to agree with Vytheril, because if she, Rainbow, and the rest of the demon hunters gained demonic traits from every demon they killed, and absorbed the souls of, over the course of their quest to bring down the Legion, not to mention Sargeras, she was sure that the Illidari would have been twisted into demons before they were able to get anywhere near the end of their quest, so she guessed that a few more pounds to her chest, and to Rainbow's chest, was better than being corrupted entirely, but once she thought about that she turned her head towards Vallaen and Frashe, "but, more importantly, we've taken care of the demons that infiltrated Skold-Ashil, and I mean all of them based on what my Spectral Sight can see right now, so we should head to Eyir's Vault and make sure she is safe as well, before hunting down Sylvanas before she can complete whatever bargain she set up earlier." The vrykul nodded their heads and beckoned for the heroes to follow after them as they headed down to the area that the Vault rested in, where they had spotted the tilted cross shaped area that looked like an x, though as they did that Vallaen informed the group that this area usually required a ritual to breach the barrier that sealed the Vault, and would grant all of them an audience with Eyir, though even from where they were standing it was clear that something was wrong, as they could see that there were several dead warriors and priestesses resting around the four pedestals that rested around a statue of who Spitfire and Rainbow assumed was either Ashildir or Eyir herself. Genn noticed that some of the slain vrykul had arrows sticking out of their backs or chests, ones that he identified as the ones that Sylvanas used against her targets, while at the same time Areiel noticed a few of Nathanos' arrows in some of the other vrykul, showing them that both of their targets had definitely been here and that they had to be nearby, causing both of their guides to growl as they noticed that their home was under attack by enemies, all while they were dealing with the demons that had been positioned near where the Vault was located. It was in that moment that everyone noticed something terrible, the couple of guards that had been guarding the Vault's entrance had been pierced with Sylvanas' tainted arrows, killing all four of them in a matter of seconds since it appeared that the Banshee Queen aimed at their vitals, and it looked like someone had broken through the barrier that separated the rest of Stormheim from the Vault, meaning that their target had to be inside the Vault, with Eyir no less, to which the group stopped worrying about the rest of Skold-Ashil, which was totally safe thanks to what the group had done to bring down the demons, and rushed right into the Vault. What the group found as they entered Eyir's sacred Vault, or at least it was sacred in the eyes of the vrykul of this settlement, was that there was a set of stairs that led up to where they would find the Titanic Watcher that was in this structure, including the fact that there were a number of statues that were carved in the form of female winged soldiers, who had to be Val'kyr, before they noticed that the upper reaches of the Vault had been darkened, something that wasn't natural based on the expressions that were on the faces of the vrykul that had allowed them to enter the Vault, before they came to a stop at the top of the stairs. It was in that moment that they found a large female armored warrior, who had a golden light coming from her body, that was forced into a kneeling position as her arms and wings appeared to be bound near her chest due to a band of sinister blue energy that was wrapped around her body, complete with strands of energy that seemed to be forcing her to kneel in the area she normally rested in, where they found Sylvanas off to Eyir's left, or the right from where the group happened to be standing at the moment, and it was easy to see that the Banshee Queen was entirely focused on what she was doing and not on the fact that she had people who were annoyed with her. "Treacherous Banshee!" Eyir declared, her loud voice echoing throughout the Vault and the surrounding area that just so happened to be resting outside the Vault, where the tone revealed that she wasn't happy with what was going on, which was understandable given what Spitfire and the others were seeing, before the group noticed that there was a long crack near her left eye, meaning either Sylvanas had injured her or that was something from a battle long ago, though the fact that it was glowing made them believe it was caused by the Banshee Queen, though that didn't stop her from struggling against what was going on right now, "You know not what you are meddling with!" "Submit, Eyir. The Val'kyr... are... MINE!" Sylvanas replied, where the group could tell that she was calm as she raised the glowing lantern once more and forced the magic that was around Eyir to inflict more pain on her target, mostly to force the Titanic Watcher to bow her head and submit to her demands, where Spitfire was sure it was to force people into the same undeath that she and the rest of the Forsaken lived with, something that really twisted them into shells of who they used to be and forced them to become someone else, before she glanced at the others and they nodded as the Banshee Queen still had no idea that they were there. In that moment Rainbow flashed into the area that was in front of Sylvanas and quickly raised her left leg into the air for a few seconds, something that allowed her to kick the lantern out of the Banshee Queen's hand, to which she grabbed the foul device and landed nearby as Spitfire appeared in front of the undead elf, spun around as Sylvanas noticed what was going on at the moment, and kicked the leader in the chest, sending her flying into the wall that was near the entrance of the Vault, causing her to grunt for a moment as that happened, but as she removed herself from the wall Genn, in his gray-white worgen form, appeared behind the Banshee Queen and gripped the back of her head, where he crashed her head into the floor and knocked the bow from her hand as he pinned her arms to her back. "Sylvanas, I'm disappointed in you. I told you to stop trying to incite a war between the Alliance and the Horde, and to stop focusing on your own personal goals, and what do you do, you go make a bargain with Helya," Spitfire stated, where she held her hand out for a moment and Rainbow placed the foul lantern in her hand, allowing her to stare at the cold metal for a few seconds as she felt the dark magic that was inside it, before glancing at the Banshee Queen for a moment, just to make sure she was paying attention and found a dark glare, one that was full of anger, which was focused on her, to which she shifted her stance for a moment and smashed the lantern against the floor, shattering the apparently fragile item into a thousand pieces and shattered Eyir's bindings, who stood up as soon as that was done, "well you know what, you aren't good at listening to what anyone has to say, even if the person speaking is someone who is on neither side of the conflict and just wants to bring down the Legion. Genn, Areiel, take our uncooperative Banshee Queen back to the ships and send her back to Orgrimmar, so she can stand trial for the crimes she has committed, and have the guards prepare an arena for the two of us... as while I'd rather not do this, especially with the Legion being a threat, I will perform the Mak'gora with Sylvanas Windrunner, where we will settle on the terms of the match after the Aegis is recovered." "A duel of honor... it seems that some of you are worthy afterall," Eyir stated, though as she said that Genn and Areiel did as they were told, forcefully pulling Sylvanas off the floor and escorted her outside, so they could head back to where the ships were located and deliver the Banshee Queen to Dreadwake's Landing, before she shifted her gaze to Spitfire for a few seconds as she thought about something, even though she, Rainbow, and the others were worried that she might tell them off for not coming sooner or rushing to their aid the moment they knew she was in danger, "Very well then, I shall let you enter the Halls of Valor... I'm interested in seeing your power for myself." Before Spitfire for the others could say anything Eyir glowed for a moment and disappeared from where she was standing, no doubt heading back to the Halls of Valor so she could tell her allies about the fact that they were coming soon, to which they sighed for a moment in relief, as they had been worried about having to do something else to get inside the Halls of Valor, but with this done they headed outside so Spitfire and Rainbow could carry Scarlet and Vytheril back to Valdisdall so they could speak with Havi and see what they needed to do next, before heading over the bridge and approached the Gates of Valor and their true destination. > Stormheim: Defending the Gates > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It didn't take Spitfire and Rainbow all that long to return to where Valdisdall rested, where they flew down to where Havi and all of his allies were resting and dropped off both Scarlet and Vytheril near the main camp fire, though once that was done they landed near their friends and glanced around the camp for a moment, as they could see that all of Havi's allies seemed to be smiling at them, meaning they might have already heard of what had happened in Skold-Ashil, which would be hard to do since they just freed Eyir a few moments ago, not unless the one that was giving them this information was the ruler of the Halls of Valor, before Havi clapped once all four of them were in front of him. "Very well done, heroes, you have saved Eyir from whatever fate Helya had in store for her," Havi stated, his tone showing that he was pleased with what they had just done, especially since it involved making sure the Alliance and Horde didn't go to war with each other while the Legion was invading their world, though as he did that it was easy to see that the rest of the vrykul that were in this area nodded their heads as well, revealing that they agreed with what the odd mystic had just said, before he raised his hand and gestured towards the bridge that would bring them to the Gates of Valor and the Halls of Valor, the resting place for the Aegis of Aggramar, "now then, its time for you to ride to Valhallas and seek what you have been searching for, all while taking the fight to your enemy and his tainted flock." Since it appeared that Havi was dismissing them, after congratulating them on saving Eyir, the group nodded their heads for a moment and headed down the path that had taken them down to where the Runewood rested, but instead of heading to the left, and returning to where they had faced the corrupted Bonespeakers, all four of them headed to the right so they could walk over to the location of the main path that would allow them to approach the elegant bridge and walk over to where the Gates of Valor rested, which appeared to be in the middle of being assaulted by Skovald and his Fel-tainted allies, who needed to be taken down before they even considered entering the Halls of Valor. From what they could see it sure looked like Skovald had prepared his forces, as there just so happened to be a camp on this side of the large bridge, one that had a number of Felskorn warriors and mystics guarding the place as they readied themselves for the assault on the Gates of Valor, though that was when they discovered that Skovald had called in reinforcements, as it was easy to see that a Jailer demon was resting in the middle of the camp and that his power seemed to be connected to one of the Fel cages that they had seen back in the peak that the Thorignir called home. Just thinking about that caused Spitfire and Rainbow to glance out in the direction of the Gates for a moment as they activated their Spectral Sights, which revealed that there were a number of demonic presences on the other side of the bridge, such as a Doomguard, one of the massive Mo'arg, an Inquisitor, and one of the Nathrezim, at the very least, though they could tell that there were some portals scattered throughout the area as well, portals that needed to be taken care of as well, meaning it would be a hard fight for them and their allies. As they drew near the camp, however, that was when the group noticed that someone was resting inside the Fel cage, one of the storm drakes to be exact, and based on everything that they could see right now it sure looked like Vethir was resting inside it, being chained down by the Fel energies the Jailer was using, just to keep him pinned to one area before the Legion came to corrupt his soul, and, based on everything that they were witnessing, it was easy to determine that Vethir had come to fight Skovald and his demonic allies, to make him pay for what he did to the rest of the Thorignir before the group had arrived to help them out. The rather interesting thing was that there were no guards near the Fel cage, which was a mistake in the grand scheme of things and that meant Skovald was focused entirely on smashing his way into the Halls of Valor and claiming the Aegis for his foul masters, where it was easy for them to walk over to the edge of the camp that the Fel cage rested in and quickly approached the area that Vethir was resting in, who continued to struggle against his bindings for a few more seconds before stopping as he noticed that someone new had come to his side. "What is this... that I see?" Vethir asked, his tone revealing that he must be tired from both the assault on his home peak, the attack on Hrydshal, and whatever he had been able to do before he had been knocked out of the air and forced into this fel cage, though it was in that moment that he smiled as he considered what he might be able to do now that he had been reunited with the very group that had saved his brood from the Legion earlier, "Ah, heroes, it is... good to see you once more... even if I wish the... circumstances were better." "That we can agree with," Scarlet replied, as while they would have liked to have met Vethir normally, and not with him or his brood being the center of attention once more, there was nothing they could do in a situation like this and had to roll with the punches that were thrown at them, though even as she said that Spitfire and Rainbow raised their hands towards the Fel cage for a moment and seemed to be studying the magic that was trapping the storm drake, "What happened since we left Hrydshal and continued with our trials?" "My brood and I... we had come to defend the Halls of Valor... and to take our revenge on Skovald... but I was taken from the sky before I could do anything..." Vethir stated, informing the group that there were a few more allied storm drakes for all of them to meet, meaning they had to be on the other side of the bridge and were scattered around the Gates of Valor, but the group said nothing for a moment as they waited for their friend to tell them anything else he might have to share, even though the next step was obvious to all four of them as they stared at the Jailer demon that was lurking nearby, who Spitfire and Rainbow were itching to kill, "I... I am ashamed to admit that I... cannot break free of my bindings. Please, find the jailer who made this cell... Set me free, friends..." "Don't worry, we'll take care of these Fel-corrupted vrykul," Rainbow replied, though even as she said that both Scarlet and Vytheril were on the move already, where the latter lashed out at the mystic vrykul that happened to be near the area they were currently standing in while the former pulled out Frostmourne and parried the incoming attack from a vrykul warrior that was apparently guarding one of the mystics, to which she and Spitfire nodded to each other as they headed down the path and entered the camp that Skovald had set up in this area. The vrykul that were guarding this camp certainly didn't like the fact that the group was invading their area, as they roared at all four of them as the mystics lashed out at them with a few runic spells that reminded them of what the Bonespeakers had used, though when Spitfire got a closer look at one of the mystics she realized that it had to be someone who served under Runeseer Faljar, meaning that either they had seen all of the four power that the mystic had commanded during his battle with her and Rainbow, or these mystics had thrown themselves at the Legion so they could gain the power to bring ruin upon those that broke the Bonespeakers of Haustvald, which was them and their friends. Based on what they were seeing at the moment everyone inside the camp had a decent amount of Fel energy, just enough to grant them a new level of strength and magical might, so they could bring down whoever they caught off guard in the future, but not enough to actually start their transformation into full fledged demons, as that was a price that all who used the Fel energies, and who weren't demons, would have to pay at some point and even Lord Illidan was sort of like that, as he seemed to be half night elf and half demon, even though there were some in Azeroth that believed he was a full demon and deserved to be seen as such, which was one reason why she and Rainbow didn't like Maiev. Of course the same could be said for them, that as soon as they absorbed too much Fel energy they would start to transform into true demons, taking a stance like their Lord had done, but these vrykul, on the other hand, had tainted themselves enough to where they could cut them down and, at the same time, take their souls and Fel energy to use against the Legion and their allies, something that might infuriate the fel-corrupted vrykul in some manner, but at this point neither Spitfire or Rainbow cared what their foes felt, as the instant they joined the Legion in their crusade they became enemies of creation and deserved their fates. The Jailer demon came into the fight a few moments later, apparently only caring about the fact that it might be able to take down two of the foes that were bothering the Legion, like it didn't care for Scarlet and Vytheril since it floated over to where both Spitfire and Rainbow were standing, to which they parried the incoming attacks and lashed out with their weapons, allowing them to cut open its hands as it tried to smash them into the ground and made sure to smash through the cage that it tried to put both of them inside, surprising the demon in the process, before they hacked its arms off and proceeded to cut it down while Scarlet and Vytheril took care of the vrykul that were guarding the rest of the camp. With the Jailer brought down Spitfire and Rainbow quickly slashed the soul of the demon in half and absorbed a half each, allowing their powers to grow a little more in the process, before turning as Scarlet and Vytheril cut down the last of the Fel vrykul, where the Fel energy was pulled into their warglaives to ensure these enemies didn't return to the Legion's side, but after that happened they located a dark green crystalline shard that seemed to be the key to the Fel cage, to which Spitfire walked over to the cage with the others following after her and used the shard key to unlock it, where neither she or Rainbow allowed the Fel energy to leave the area they were standing in. "You still manage to surprise me, friends. You cleared out the camp in a matter of moments, when it would take even the greatest of the vrykul warriors minutes to do the same thing," Vethir stated, his statement revealing that while he didn't doubt their skills, since he had sent them free the rest of the Thorignir from Skovald's forces, this allowed him to see that none of them were to be underestimated and that all of them were quite strong in their own regard, and that wasn't even counting the fact that Spitfire and Rainbow were part of the group in the first place, before he pulled himself up from the area he had been pinned to and stood at his full height once more, "Your trials are complete, and yet you have enemies and challenges to face, as from what I could see, before I was grounded by that demon, the God-King has gathered all of his forces, of which there are many tainted vrykul and demons mingling with each other, but the four of you possess a vast amount of strength and power, which should be able to bring down our enemy! To make matters worse Skovald has done one of the most insulting things in Stormheim's history, he has profaned the Gates of Valor with his demonic allies, and he has a number of twisted mystics spread out through his forces, who are conjuring portals to ferry his Fel allies from their blighted worlds and bring them to our world... if we wish to stem this tide, and prevent these foul demons from spreading to the rest of the Broken Isles, these portals must be destroyed, so to help you out I will give you a signal horn that I was given by our mother, which will call me and our allies down to help you destroy the portals from the skies!" "Okay, that sounds like a plan," Vytheril stated, to which he walked over to Vethir's backside and revealed that a small bag bad been strapped to one of his legs, making them wonder why in the world the demons or the fel vrykul hadn't bothered to look inside it and see what in the world he had been carrying with him, though it didn't take him long to pull out a horn that looked like it had been carved from a horn of some kind, possibly either from one of the animals of Stormheim or one of the storm drakes in the ancient past, before he returned to Spitfire, Rainbow, and Scarlet's side, "Is there anything else we need to know before we cross the bridge and approach the Gates of Valor?" "Yes, and that is the fact that the God-King has enlisted demons of great power to act as his lieutenants, to lead all of his Fel tainted forces in battle against his enemies," Vethir answered, even though this was mostly a confirmation as to what Spitfire and Rainbow had sensed thanks to their Spectral Sight when they glanced in the direction of the Gates of Valor, as that meant that their ability was still keen and hadn't dulled since the last time they had used it, though none of them said anything as they waited for the storm drake to finish telling them everything they needed to know, "so, if we wish to bring an end to this assault, and purge the Gates of those that seek to taint it, we will need to take their leaders. Now normally certain demons can be too powerful for most mortals to face, but with two of you gaining the power of Stormheim, due to the trials you went through, and two of you possessing impressive power on your own, I have the feeling that these foes will be taken down in no time, allowing us to shatter the spine of Skovald's offensive and track down our foe, to punish the Fel-tainted vrykul for defiling the clans and attempting to defile the trials." "Well then, let's get started and not give him much time to react to our presence," Spitfire said, because she was itching to punish Skovald for turning so much of Stormheim against itself, given how many of the residents sudden turned on their own ancient rights and their allies, especially the ones that were tied to the trials for that matter, and she could tell that all of her allies, not just Vethir, were eager to get started and she wasted no time in heading over to this side of the bridge so they could start their assault on Skovald's Fel-tainted forces and demonic allies. What was interesting was that there were no Fel vrykul guarding this side of the long bridge, save for the ones that they had just taken out so they could free Vethir from the Fel cage, though that didn't stop Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, or Vytheril from readying their weapons as they walked over to where Skovald's forces were gathered and discovered that there were a large number of vrykul standing guard over the Gates of Valor, many of whom were in the middle of drinking cups that were filled with the sinister green Fel blood, poured from a cauldron by the looks of things, meaning their foe was readying his own forces for a hostile takeover of the parts of Stormheim that weren't allied with him and then he was going to lead an assault on the other provinces, no doubt to claim the other Pillars of Creation. Instead of allowing their foes the chance to get ready for an assault on the rest of the Broken Isles, regardless of whether or not the other heroes had found the other three Pillars of Creation that they knew about, the group lashed out at the vrykul that were positioned around this side of the bridge, Vytheril raining arcane bolts of energy down on some of them to draw them away from the rest of their allies, which was just a tactic to allow either Scarlet or Rainbow to cut them down, even though sometimes they did take a moment to parry an attack before pushing their foe backwards and finishing the job so they could move onto the next foe and clear the Gates of Valor. Spitfire, on the other hand, noticed a few things while she and her friends cut down the Fel vrykul that were around the starting area for the Gates, as she could tell that there were more demons lurking around this area, instead of the four powerful ones she and Rainbow had spotted, so her first order of business was to take care of all the enemies that were around this side of the bridge, even though she was focused on cutting down the Fel vrykul as she headed up to where the cauldron was located and found a few of Skovald's loyal Fel followers passing cups full of Fel blood to the rest of the clan that had just joined the God-King's army. Rainbow seemed to understand what she was up to and called the lightning to her side as she blasted the foul cauldron apart with a powerful bolt, one that they suspected might have been empowered by the three Thorignir that were flying around the air above the Gates of Valor, where it looked like they were taking down every Felbat that was up in the air, and it didn't take Vethir long to join the others as he raked his claws over those that were in the air and dropped them down into the area that was near a set of stairs. The cauldron exploded when Rainbow blasted it with her lightning powers, scattering metal while knocking the Fel blood into the air and surprised the vrykul in the process, though that didn't stop her and Spitfire from lashing out at all of the blood that had been knocked into the air and cut it apart, mostly because that drew the Fel energy into their warglaives and empowered them further, before they landed and focused on the vrykul as they regained themselves, who quickly drew their weapons and rushed at the pair as Scarlet and Vytheril focused on another group of enemies that were nearby, so they didn't interfere with what Spitfire and Rainbow were doing. Even with their base powers the pair could tell that the normal vrykul and the Fel vrykul were strong, which sort of made sense considering that they had been part of Skovald's clan before he became infected with all the Fel energy that was now coursing through his veins, though that didn't stop either of them from parrying the incoming attacks that were coming their way, cutting down the Fel blasts the corrupted mystics sent their way and siphoned the power of the magical attacks, and either slashed their foes in half or cleanly took off their heads, allowing them to drag the Fel-corrupted souls into their warglaives while the souls of those that hadn't been yet corrupted were no doubt taken to Helheim, to be punished for their crimes. While they did that the Doomguard that was watching them fight growled and flew down into the area that they were currently located in, where he swung his large hand down at both of them as Spitfire parried the attack with one of her blades and then twisted it to knock his hand backwards, allowing her to swing the other blade and deliver a diagonal gash to Garzareth's chest, as the demon gave her and Rainbow his name as he flew down into this area, though Rainbow delivered a pair of smaller gashes to its back at the same time, causing the demon to growl as he drew himself to his full height and lashed out at them without warning, not that such a thing mattered since the pair was used to this sort of tactic. Of course the pair had to admit that Garazeth was slightly stronger than the majority of the demons that they had found scattered around Stormheim, mostly since the ones they had faced so far were minor minions and were nowhere near the power of the demons that had been in Mardum or the other Legion worlds, so it wasn't long before they brought down the Doomguard and split his soul in half, allowing the pair to take one of the fragments and empower themselves before they focused on the rest of the enemies that were happened to be scattered around the Gates of Valor. What the group found was that there were a number of Mo'arg guarding one of the nearby portals, one of the major ones based on what they were seeing, and there were smaller gates that seemed to be calling in Imps, so what the group used a simple tactic in clearing out the area, Scarlet and Vytheril would focus on drawing out and weakening whoever was their targets, be they the Fel vrykul or a few demons, though after weakening them Spitfire and Rainbow would move in and cut down the demons before they had a chance to realize what was going on, which also allowed them to absorb the souls of their enemies and add their power to their own. Another thing that they did was make sure to clear out the area that was around the first of the three large portals that were scattered around the Gates, which involved killing all the Fel vrykul and their demonic allies, and once that was done Vytheril raised the horn Vethir gave them and blew it for a moment, which caused one of the four storm drakes to fly down and loose a powerful blast of their lightning breath into the portal once they were in position, breaking it to pieces within seconds, cutting into the amount of reinforcements Skovald's forces had to call upon if things went south for them, which would be happening soon enough. After the portal was broken the storm drake that came down returned to the sky and rejoined the rest of his brood, allowing the group to continue engaging the Fel vrykul and their demonic allies as they cleared out the Gates of Valor of those that were trying bring ruin to the area that lead to the Halls of Valor, though their next target was the Inquisitor demon, who appeared to be in the middle of a lecture of some kind based on the fact that there were a few Fel vrykul that were kneeling in front of it, but it didn't take it long to notice them and called for its students to attack the group. Given the fact that there were about five or six of the Fel vrykul standing in front of them Scarlet switched to wielding the Blades of the Fallen Prince and parried the incoming attacks as Vytheril blasted the same targets with his arcane blasts, opening the way for Spitfire and Rainbow to tackle the demon lieutenant that served Skovald, no doubt due to whatever orders its superior had given it, but Ravathes, which was the Inquisitor's name, preferred to keep its distance and blast them with the same magics that they had faced in Mardum, when they first encountered this type of demon, which basically gave them a number of openings and allowed them to cut the demon in half before it could even harm them, where they smiled as they split its soul and power, like they did to each of the demons they killed as a team, before assisting their friends once more. As soon as the last of the Fel vrykul were dealt with, or at least that group to be exact, the four of them made sure that the rest area that rested around the set of stairs they had walked down to face Ravathes was clear of enemies, as the stairs had brought them to a lower level than the one that Garzareth had been located on, before all of them turned towards the left of the bottom of the stairs and started attacking the Fel vrykul and the demons that were down here, even though Spitfire recalled that the Gates of Valor had three areas to it, a small lower area, a much larger middle area, and a slightly smaller upper area which also contained the path to the Halls of Valor, but she intended on clearing everything out before they headed for the main set of stairs. Of course they also found one of the other two large Fel portals in this area, which lead the group to take care of the enemies that were in the immediate area so Vytheril could blow the horn and call down one of the other three storm drakes to blast the portal apart, though Spitfire and Rainbow made sure to cut down all of the demons that tried to stop them from breaking the larger portal apart, even though the Imps and Mo'arg failed and it only caused the pair to absorb a few more souls as each of the smaller portals were shattered as well, which cut into the amount of reinforcements their foes could be expecting to come to their aid. Once that was done they cut their way back to where the smashed cauldron was resting and headed to the other side of the section they were fighting on, even if that was when Scarlet and Vytheril headed into the lowest section to clear out the normal vrykul that were part of Skovald's Fel army, just so they didn't have anyone sneak up on them later, and quickly made their way over to what appeared to be a training area of some kind, where they found the massive Mo'arg that was the lieutenant for this fragment of the army it was now apart of, for the time being anyway, and none of the Fel vrykul or other, slightly smaller, Mo'arg were pleased to see the four of them advancing on their position. As such Scarlet raced forward and parried an incoming attack with one of her blades while cutting down a second with the other blade, opening the way for Vytheril to blast some of the Fel vrykul as they approached her, either knocking them backwards or knocking each of them onto their rears so Scarlet could finish what he started, but as they did that Spitfire and Rainbow rushed at the demons and dodged the incoming attacks, as the Mo'arg tried to smash both of them into the ground with their weapons, and even Muorg, the larger Mo'arg, failed to strike them as they moved around its training area. It didn't take the pair all that long to cut into Muorg's arms and legs, something that caused the demon to roar in pain for a few moments, where they used the opening to take its head off and drop its body to the ground, which ended up crushing some of the Imps that rushed down to help them, as in they came from the upper area that the last of the lieutenants was resting in, and by the time Spitfire and Rainbow were done all of the Fel vrykul and the demons had their souls absorbed and their energies added to their power, while the normal vrykul were punished by being sent to Helheim, as Helya would have words with them at some point. Once they were done clearing out Muorg's area the group found a set of stairs that lead up to the area that the third and final large portal rested in, where there were a number of Fel vrykul warriors, several Imps, a small group of mystics that were maintaining the larger portal and a smaller one, and the fourth lieutenant that they had to take down, a Nathrezim some of the vrykul called Karuas, which was an odd name for a Dreadlord based on all of the named Dreadlords that Spitfire and Rainbow had encountered in the past. What they did first was purge the mystics that were guarding the larger portal, something that caused the rest of the Fel vrykul warriors, ten of them to be exact, to stop what they were doing and charge over to where they were standing, even though such a thing drew the attention of Karuas at the same time, who growled and rushed over to them with a look of anger on his face, which made sense due to the fact that Spitfire and Rainbow had helped Lord Illidan invade the world of the Nathrezim and then detonated it to kill off a good portion of the demonic race, meaning he knew what they had done and wanted to punish them for what they did in the past. As such the pair raised their weapons and parried the incoming claws that were heading their way, pushing their foe backwards a little bit, but even as that happened they left all of the Fel vrykul to Scarlet and Vytheril, who nodded their understanding, as they clashed with the Dreadlord and made sure that he was away from where their friends were working at the moment, something that was followed by one of the storm drakes flying down and blowing the large portal apart to sever the connection to whatever Legion world it was connected to, though even then the pair found that Karuas wasn't even putting up much of a fight, as it appeared that he was overwhelmed with anger for the loss of his planet and he might be using that as he fought them, not that it really mattered since they forced him to kneel and then took his head clean off, breaking his soul in half like all of the other lieutenants they had killed so far. Once that was done they headed back to the main path of the Gates of Valor and walked up the stairs that lead right to the Halls of Valor, where it was easy to find a pair of large stone warriors, looking like the guards of Aggramar's Vault and also carried large weapons to defend the Gates, which they had done based on the vrykul corpses that were in front of them at the moment, guarding the steps from any and all invaders, where the pair allowed the group to walk by since they were here to help them out, and they found that Havi was standing directly in the middle of the large opening that was behind him, with Vethir off to his left. "Well, we've cleared out the Gates of Valor of nearly every enemy that was attacking it," Scarlet commented, though as she said that she made sure that the Blades of the Fallen Prince were cleaned before shifting them back into Frostmourne, as the next time they got into a fight she wanted to use it against whoever their enemies were, even though she suspected it might be against Skovald, given that they hadn't seen the Fel-corrupted vrykul ruler anywhere since they reached the Gates of Valor, meaning he was either inside the Halls already or he was still outside the Halls like they were. "With their Fel leaders slain, whatever is left of the God-King's forces will scatter," Vethir stated, his tone revealing that he was pleased with all of the work that the group had poured into destroying the united Fel vrykul and demon front that had been assaulting the Gates of Valor, especially since it also gave him and the rest of the Thorignir that had followed him to this area a chance to lash out at the forces of the one that had tried to force them to serve the Legion as Felbroken slaves, since they had been resisting that when he attacked them, before he growled for a moment as he focused on the group that was in front of him, "however, even with those four demons slain, we are not finished with our work, as it would seem that the portals we have destroyed down here were not the only ones our foe created to summon his foul forces into our world. While you were fighting our enemies, and wiped out the three portals that were scattered around the Gates, I'm sure that you noticed that we were fighting the demons that were pouring in from the top of the Gates of Valor's edifice, as we wanted to make sure that you weren't overwhelmed, but we have determined that they must have been summoned by the God-King himself! Now, we know that none of us, and by that I mean the Thorignir, can face Skovald, as with all of his Fel power he'll bind us to the ground and either torment us or leave us for his Fel allies, so we will carry those of you who cannot fly up to where our foe is waiting and allow you to face the God-King at the summit of the Gates of Valor, where you can break whatever portals might be up there and, more importantly, bring down the one that dares to defile the trials and the entirety of Stormheim!" Scarlet and Vytheril wasted no time in climbing onto Vethir's back so he could take off and head up to the summit of the Gates of Valor's edifice, and once he was in the air Spitfire and Rainbow did the same thing as they followed him, where it quickly became easy for them and their friends to see their target, as Skovald was standing in the middle of the area they had flown up to, where he had four inactive portals resting near his position, though when Vethir got close his passengers jumped off and landed on the ground as they drew their weapons, which was what Spitfire and Rainbow did after landing near their friends and faced Skovald. "Do not think that any of you stand a chance of beating me, simply because you have come this far and overcame all of the challenges that I threw at you!" Skovald shouted, his powerful voice echoing all over the entirety of the area that the Gates of Valor, at the very least, rested in, allowing pretty much everyone in this part of Stormheim to hear what he had to say to the group, though at the same time he shifted his stance and readied his massive greatsword as he stared at the group as he turned to face them, all while Vethir got out of there before the battle started, "All of you are nothing compared to my might! Do you hear me? NOTHING!" What was immediately impressive was the fact that Skovald was able to swing his weapon, which normally required two hands to use its true strength, with one hand and it allowed him to use his other hand, his left hand, however he wanted, though Spitfire raised her warglaives and caught the blade between both of her weapons, something that caused part of the ground to crack as their two powers came into collision with each other, though in the following moment she found out what he used his spare hand for, as Scarlet and Rainbow rushed at him and he used his hands to parry their blades as they came at him, even though it ended with some gashes being added to his gauntlet. At the same time it appeared that he was unfazed by Vytheril's magic, as several arcane blasts hit his arms, legs, and his back as Skovald and Spitfire clashed for the first time, where he simply shrugged off the attacks like they were nothing and tried to push his main foe into the ground, though when that failed the two pushed each other backwards and they rushed at each other again, allowing both of their blades to clash with each other once more, causing the air to shudder a little in the process as their Fel energies came into contact to each other. As that happened, however, Spitfire did notice one crucial thing and that was that Skovald wasn't as strong as he seemed to be, as while he did hold a vast amount of Fel energy inside him, putting him above most, if not all, of the vrykul that were scattered around Stormheim, it wasn't enough to push back the power of a demon hunter that was trained by Lord Illidan and the best of the Illidari, though even if she understood that fact it was hard to see if her foe realized it or if Skovald felt that he was still stronger than she was and would crush her with ease, but even as they did that Skovald channeled a bit of Fel energy with his left hand and one of the portals activated, allowing a number of the Fel vrykul, who must have been training on a Legion world, to respond to his call. Rainbow noticed that and directed both of their friends to the portals, showing that the three of them would focus on cutting down any reinforcements that might be coming to aid their foe, while at the same time leaving Spitfire to parry the incoming Fel empowered strike, which pushed her back a tiny bit before she applied some pressure and knocked Skovald's weapon backwards before lashing out with both of her blades, causing sparks to fly as the two clashed in the middle of the summit. The Fel vrykul weren't the only things that Skovald summoned to aid him, as from the second portal a group of Felstalkers rushed out to bite whoever got in their way, from the third came a Mo'arg that wanted to crush them, and from the fourth came a group of Imps, which was a little lackluster after the previous portal, but Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril dealt with those foes as Spitfire and Skovald danced around the area they were fighting in, before Spitfire knocked the greatsword out of her foe's hand, carved an x shaped cross into his chest piece, and even hacked off one of his Fel horns, before using her right hoof to kick him backwards, even if it pushed him closer to his weapon. "Enough! I grow tired of your pitiful attempts to bring me down!" Skovald declared, where he used his inner Fel energy to push all four of them away from where they were standing and put some distance between him and them, even if Spitfire was the only one that was close to him as he did that, though that ended up breaking the portals and prevented his allies from aiding him, allowing the group to focus their full attention on him and nothing else, which was when he rushed over to the edge of the summit he and Spitfire had been fighting in, grabbed his weapon, and then jumped over the ledge, like he might be committing suicide, before the group noticed that he had landed on his dragon mount and turned to look at the group once he was safe for the time being, "The Aegis will be mine you fools, and there's nothing you can do to stop me! If I see any of you in the Halls of Valor, attempting to take what is rightfully mine, I will cut you down and deliver your souls to the Legion!" The group said nothing to that as Skovald flew off, either heading to the Halls or heading back to where Gul'dan might be observing his actions, and he quickly disappeared from their sight, preventing them from understanding where he might have gone so they could finish what Spitfire started, though as that happened Vethir flew down to the area that they were standing in and landed nearby, mostly since he would be carrying them back down to where Havi was waiting for them to return to his side, since they knew he might have something else to share with them before they focused on heading into the Halls of Valor and finally claimed the Aegis of Aggramar. "Its a shame that we were unable to punish our foe, but at least we saved the Gates of Valor and the rest of Stormheim from what Skovald was doing." Vethir said, his tone revealing that he wasn't too pleased with what had just happened and that he wished he could head after their foe so he could rend the life out of his body, to punish him for what he had done to the land he had once called home, before he sighed and spread his wings for a moment, almost like he was beckoning for Scarlet and Vytheril to climb onto his back once more, "Come, it is time for us return to Havi." No one needed to be told twice as the pair that couldn't fly climbed onto his back and he took off, where it took Spitfire and Rainbow a few seconds to do the same thing and follow after him, where this time around they could see that the area that was in front of the Gates of Valor had been cleared out and that there was nothing for any of them to fight this time around, to which they quickly landed and Vethir shared what happened with Havi, who seemed to be thinking while he listened to what the strom drake had to tell him. "It's unfortunate that the God-King escaped, but his retreat has shown the hollowness of his cause, while breaking all of his portals has stemmed the flow of the Legion into Stormheim." Havi stated, where it was easy for the group to see that part of him was also annoyed about the fact that Skovald had gotten away and that he would be back in either the near future or at some point in the future, while part of him was pleased with what the group had done since they ended Stormheim, as they had remained true to the trials and had gone to Helheim and back to spit in the faces of those that would dare to ally themselves against the rest of this province, to which he gestured to the large archway that was behind him and what was beyond the Gates of Valor, though that was when he transformed into a massive Titan Watcher that was easily twice, if not three times, the size of Yotnar, where his armor looked like something that belonged to a great leader, his helm had what they assumed were metallic spread wings on each side of it, he had what appeared to be a molten beard, and it did look like one of his eyes had been plucked out at some point in the past, given that he had one blue eye and one dark eye that could be the socket, "Now then, champions, the Halls of Valor and the greatest of glory awaits you!" In that moment Spitfire realized that they were standing before the ruler of the Halls of Valor, the being called Odyn based on everything they had learned from everyone that sought to aid them in their quest to pass the trials, and that he either left the Halls and took the shape of Havi to watch over those that sought the trials, of which many failed based on what all of them had seen, or maybe he was still inside the Halls and this was an illusion of some kind, one that looked more solid than anything she and Rainbow had seen, possibly showing just how much power Odyn actually had, before she glanced at the others for a moment and they nodded to her, to which they stepped forward and braced themselves for whatever the Halls of Valor could possibly put between them and their target. > Stormheim: Halls of Valor > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril discovered as they walked by Odyn, and most of them can to terms with the fact that Havi was actually the ruler of the Halls of Valor, the group passed through the massive opening that the Titanic Watcher was standing near and quickly headed up what was left of the steps that stood between them and the Halls of Valor, but as they reached the highest step they came to a stop as they discovered something interesting, there were only three spaces around them, looking like the Vaults they had been to over the course of their adventure in Stormheim, and it appeared that there was no path for them to follow. Of course, before anyone could say anything about what was going on, they felt a bit of a disturbance in the air and watched as a portal opened to the left of the top step they were standing in front of, one that seemed to radiate an identical power to what Spitfire felt from Odyn during the transformation from Havi to his true form, even if that was an illusion, to which she gestured to it for a moment and the group headed over to where it was resting, only to pass through it a few seconds later, so they could see what the Halls of Valor looked like and what else they might face as they kept an eye out for the Aegis of Aggramar. A few moments later, after passing through the portal and moving to the area it was linked to, the group opened their eyes and found that they were standing on some sort of walkway that looked like the bridge that lead to the Gates of Valor, though not a few seconds after that they discovered that they were up in the clouds, far above the surface of Azeroth based on the fact that they couldn't see any of the continents or ground right now, and resting near them was a platform that had the other side of the portal, which would allow something to travel back to Stormheim if they wanted to, though it was hard to tell how long it would remain open. After that they turned their attention to the area that was in front of them, beyond the other side of the bridge they were standing on, and found an enormous structure which rested on a number of clouds, forged in the fashion of the Titan Vaults and the other Titan structures they had seen all over Stormheim, meaning it had to be the Halls of Valor, or a fraction of it anyway, since based on everything Spitfire had seen and heard she was of the opinion that there had to be more than what they were seeing. Despite that fact, however, Spitfire knew that this was, without a doubt, their destination and that the first of the Pillars of Creation was somewhere in this pocket dimension, because there was no way this was actually resting far above the five provinces that made up the Broken Isles, or at least that was her opinion on the matter, hence why she stepped forward a little and walked away from where the portal was located, as it was time for them to tackle the obstacles that were now between them and the Aegis, before Vytheril placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from getting too far ahead of him and the rest of the group. "We need to take a step back and go get a healer," Vytheril stated, his tone revealing that he had noticed something about the portal that had brought them to the Halls of Valor and that he knew what that something was, which only caused both Spitfire and Rainbow to raise their eyebrows as they faced him, even though Scarlet nodded her head in agreement not even a few moments later, meaning they both knew what was going on right now, "Had I known that we would have to fight our way through a dungeon, which requires five people at a minimum to take care of in most cases, given the sheer difficulty of such a place, I would have returned to Dalaran and spent some time looking for one of the healers to come join us, to mend our wounds as we progressed through these sacred Halls." "Well, its not like Odyn is going to allow one of us, or all of us, to leave and find a healer... but, given what we've seen since we arrived in Stormheim, we might as well ask," Rainbow remarked, as while she knew that time was of the essence right now, since they had no telling where Skovald was hiding, she did know that Odyn seemed to like them and that he might give them the opportunity to leave the Halls and recruit a healer into their group, hence why she raised her hands for a few seconds and braced herself for what she was about to do, "Lord Odyn, we have just learned that we require a healer to make an attempt on the Halls of Valor... um, is it okay if we leave and come back with one?" "Hm, allow me to assist you." a powerful voice said, which was when the illusion of Havi appeared in front of them and he raised his hand to the left of where the group was standing at the moment, where they watched as a portal to what looked like Dalaran appeared nearby, though at the same time none of them were at all surprised by what they were seeing right now, as they suspected that Odyn's true power was contained within the Halls and that they hadn't seen his true power was like, before the illusion turned towards them once more with a smile on his face, "This will take you back to your base of operations, one of you anyway, and when you find someone to be your healer the magic of this portal will call you back to the Halls of Valor, so you can rise to my remaining trials and claim the Aegis of Aggramar... though you had best hurry, as Skovald isn't too far behind you and might breach the magic of the Halls before you reach my throne room." Vytheril nodded his head and walked through the portal that was in front of him, disappearing from the Halls for a time as the rest of the group waited on the platform that was in front of the main portal that had brought them to this area in the first place, though as they did that Spitfire knew that Odyn was likely preventing Skovald from entering the dimension that the Halls of Valor rested in, giving them the time they needed so they could truly prove that they were worthy of the Aegis of Aggramar, making her wonder what sort of trials they would have to face, or, based on what Vytheril said, who the five of them would have to take down as they tackled the 'dungeon'. She honestly had no idea why he said it the way he did, as she and Rainbow had never heard of dungeons before and suspected that there were specific rules that they needed to follow so they could reach the end of this place with ease, but they would figure all of that out once their friend returned with whoever their healer was going to be, where she suspected that it might be a paladin, a priest, a shaman, one of the druids, or even one of the monks, since those seemed to be the four classes who could heal wounds. Not even a few minutes later she noticed that the smaller portal shimmered for a moment and focused on it as Vytheril walked through it again, though after he returned to them another figure walked through the portal, a blue skinned individual who had a slender body and was wearing a white robe of some kind that had golden inlay, where it was easy for the group to see that the she looked like an uncorrupted Eredar, meaning she was one of the draenei, and her weapon seemed to be a staff that had a rather odd crystalline object at the top of it, which looked like a Naaru based on what Spitfire recalled. It was nice to see that the Alliance and Horde were still working together, since she had listened to a blood elf and had joined his group, maybe due to the fact that she and Rainbow were part of the group Vytheril was working with, meaning Sylvanas' poison hadn't done anything to the factions, even though the Banshee Queen was being held by Genn and his forces until they returned with the Aegis, though instead of worrying about Sylvanas, and all the trouble she would have caused, Spitfire and Rainbow walked over to the draenei, who had shoulder length blue hair and a pair of horns that coiled around her pointed ears and ended in points that faced the direction she was facing. "Spitfire, Rainbow, allow me to introduce Remeraa, a holy priest that has agreed to aid us in completing the trials that are in this dungeon," Vytheril said, beckoning to the draenei for a moment, who bowed her head as she stopped near him and the portal that they had used to get back to the Halls of Valor closed, showing them that Odyn was watching and that he knew they were now prepared to tackle everything that was thrown at them, before he glanced back at the newcomer to their group, who was staring at two members of their group, "Remeraa, I know you don't need me to introduce our allies, but I'll do so just to get it out of the way: allow me to introduce Spitfire and Rainbow, the leader and champion of our new demon hunter allies... and who stopped Sylvanas from starting a war between the factions." "Its nice to meet the two of you, and see Rainbow again," Remeraa replied, informing Spitfire that the draenei must have seen Rainbow during the Legion's assaults on the Eastern Kingdoms, before they moved Dalaran to where it was resting at the moment so they could recover the Pillars of Creation, even though it was hard to see if Rainbow knew her or not, but she nodded anyway and that seemed to be enough to cause their new friend to ready herself as she focused on the realm that they would be fighting their way through soon, "So, whose going to be the tank of our group? You know, the one who draws the attention of our enemies and makes sure they don't crush the healer or the damage dealers, as I'm sure that you would have considered that before recruiting me to join you." "Spitfire can do it, as I'm sure the vrykul might be interested in challenging her... or whoever is up here, guarding the Halls from the unwanted," Rainbow stated, as she had faith in Spitfire's abilities, even though she was sure that her warblades were actually designed to be a pair of weapons for someone that followed the position of a 'tank', according to what they had just been told, but Spitfire was far stronger than she was, something she wasn't even worried by since she was still the fastest of them, and that meant whatever their weapons were designed for didn't matter at this point, because based on what they had done in Stormheim she was sure that whoever served Odyn would be interested in what they had done and the power that Spitfire commanded, not to mention what she and the others were capable of, "So, are we ready to tackle whatever challenges Odyn has for us?" "I'd say so." Spitfire replied, to which she turned and faced the path that was in front of them, where she could tell that the rest of the group and their new friend were taking up their positions behind her, Rainbow and Scarlet a few steps behind where she was standing with Vytheril and Remeraa standing further back, that way the second pair could lash out at their enemies with ranged magic, that was if the dreanei had any ranged attacks since she wasn't totally familiar with what they were capable of, before taking a deep breath as she pulled her warglaives out once more, "Odyn! We are ready to take on the challenges of the Halls of Valor!" "Long have I waited for worthy champions to enter my realm!" a loud voice, the voice of Odyn, declared, though while that happened the group knew that the enemies of the Halls of Valor had to be getting ready for their assault as they tackled the remaining trials that stood between them and the first Pillar of Creation, hence the reason they readied their weapons and magic before even bothering to move forward, just in case the Lord of the Halls had something else to tell them, given everything that happened back in Stormheim and the trials the group had faced, "Come champions, your first trial is right in front of you: fight and defeat Hymdall to gain access to my realm!" Spitfire nodded her head, even though she knew that it was unlikely that Odyn would have seen her movement, and then walked onto the path that was in front of where her group had been standing while Vytheril got Remeraa, though that was when they found two vrykul warriors, who were more heavily armored than most of the vrykul they had faced back during their journey through Stormheim and carried greatswords, sort of like the ones that had been resting in Valdishdall, that were standing in their way and they declared that they would be experiencing the power of the Valarjar, who had to be the greatest champions among those that called the Halls of Valor home. Spitfire, noticing that fact, engaged the pair as they rushed at her, where it was clear to the group that they were more focused on her than anything else, because when she parried one of their greatswords with one of her warglaives she blocked the other with her second blade, finding that they were definitely stronger than their normal vrykul counterparts, but that made sense when she thought about it, given the nature of this realm, though even as Vytheril blasted one of them, while Scarlet and Rainbow lashed out with their blades, she also found that the pair of Valarjar were mostly focused on her and no one else. Normally she would be weirded out by that fact, due to having no idea how to actually be a group's 'tank', but she determined that either they had seen what she had done back in Stormheim or Odyn had informed his guards as to what all of them had done, something that she couldn't focus too much on as she pushed both of her foes backwards and shifted her stance as she beckoned for them to charge at her again, which caused both of her foes to grin as they rushed into battle once more, focusing on her again as they ignored Rainbow and Scarlet's attacks, despite the fact that the latter's frost powers slowed one of them down a little, meaning they were solely focused on taking Spitfire down. After thinking about that for a moment she determined that it was just fine in the grand scheme of things, as it allowed her to dance around the attacks that were coming at her, some even coming close enough to hit her and forced her to improve her movements, before she cut a diagonal gash into the chest of one of the Valarjar, who staggered backwards for a moment and fell to one knee, where he bowed his head and showed that he acknowledged their might, something that the other one did when he was toppled a few seconds later, as Scarlet damaged his chest and caused that to happen, meaning that they must have succeeded in bringing down the first group of enemies and that they were acknowledging their might, allowing the group to move forward. The next group of enemies that stood between them and their first trial of the Halls consisted of two Valarjar warriors and a Valarjar mystic, to which Spike jumped over to where the group was standing, after walking up the set of stairs the first group had been guarding anyway, and when she landed she made sure that all three of their foes were focused on her at the moment, by accessing her Fel energy to rush around part of the area they were fighting in and hitting all of them with her warglaives for a few seconds, sort of like a Blade Dance in a sense, though once she returned to where she had been standing moments ago she parried an incoming attack as she dealt with the warrior Valarjar. The mystic was who Vytheril focused on, as their spells clashed with each other in the space that was between them and occasionally he had to, as he put it, interrupt one of his foe's more powerful spells to keep the flow of battle moving in the right direction, though as all of that happened Remeraa tilted her head a little as she observed the fight that was going on, because it sure looked like she might not even be needed in this dungeon, but that didn't stop her from calling upon her powers to bless her allies as they faced their foes, and casting a healing spell on Spitfire every now and then, just to make sure she didn't fall while she faced the Valarjar. It didn't take them all that long to force their foes to kneel and submit, though once the trio pulled back Spitfire faced the third group of enemies who stood between them and Hymdall, a group of Valarjar that had two warriors, two mystics, and a storm drake, to which she rushed into battle and drew all of them into the same area, which was easy given that all of them wanted to test her might and opened the way for her to weaken all five of them at the same time as she unleashed another ability on them, Fel Barrage as she was going to call it since it condensed bits of her Fel energy and and they burst out of where she was standing in a rapid barrage of Fel bolts, striking the area that was around her while hitting all of her targets at the same time, allowing her to damage all of her enemies before the rest of the group caught up with her, though once she was done channeling the attack Rainbow did the same thing, as she understood what she had done and knew how to replicate it, before they lashed out at the Valarjar. The added difficulty to this fight came in the form of the storm drake, as it could breathe its lightning breath on Spitfire or the others, generally choosing to follow what Spitfire was doing before loosing it at her, meaning she had to move and direct its attack elsewhere so no one got hurt by the attack, but Remeraa found that, even if Spitfire had no idea what being a tank meant, she was skilled at protecting the rest of the group and that made things somewhat easier for her in the long run. It only took a few more moments to bring down the group that they were fighting, to which Spitfire and her friends took a moment to watch as the defeated Valarjar paused to kneel and bow their heads, which even the storm drake did, before each of them got up and walked away from the area they had been guarding, where they stared at a tall warrior in what looked like gleaming golden armor, with a body that looked like it might have been carved from granite, who also carried a large greatsword in one hand and seemed to be guarding a golden barrier that rested between them and the rest of the Halls of Valor, meaning that this had to be Hymdall and that they had reached the first of the trials that Odyn wanted to throw at them before they claimed the Aegis from where it was resting. "You have done well to reach this point, champions," Hymdall declared, where his tone told the group that he was pleased with what four of them had done during their time in Stormheim and that, while Remeraa was the unknown one, he also felt the same way towards her, meaning that he knew that they were all worthy to tackle everything that was beyond him, but, as Odyn commanded, they had to best him before being allowed to enter the rest of the Halls, to which he shifted his stance for a second and raised his weapon as he stared at them, where the group raised their own weapons and prepared themselves for the battle that was about to happen, "Come, I will test your worth myself!" Spitfire obliged their foe and rushed forward without wasting any time, where she and Hymdall clashed by swinging their blades at each other and allowed them to meet in the middle of the space that rested between them, opening the way for Rainbow and Scarlet to attack him from the sides or the back as Vytheril lashed out with his spells, leaving Remeraa to heal anyone who received wounds during this fight, which became necessary when their foe revealed the first skill that he was going to use against them, by channeling his innate magic for a moment so he could toss an enchanted blade into the air and sent it over to where Vytheril was standing, though as it spun around he moved out of the way and got clipped a few times by the spinning blade. Remeraa took a moment to heal his minor wounds before he got back into the fight as both Spitfire focused on keeping Hymdall's attention on her, leaving Rainbow and Scarlet to continue what they were doing, but she did find that Hymdall's skill was impressive, as he was able to wield such a heavy weapon with one hand, sort of like how Skovald was able to wield his blade with one hand, but that didn't stop her from swinging her warglaives and parrying the incoming attacks that were heading her way, where she even parried an attack with both of blades and then used her power to push Hymdall backwards, who staggered for a moment before smiling, almost as if he was having a good time as he challenged her base powers. In that moment he lifted a horn to his mouth, which had been tied to his belt area, so he could loose a sound for the storm drakes to come in and breath lightning down upon the area that they were fighting in at the moment, though Spitfire found that it was purely to distract the rest of the group and she was more than willing to do what Hymdall wanted her to do, hence why she shifted into her demonic form and stalled the incoming attack with one of her warglaives, while she swung the second one and Hymdall parried it with his hand, but it wasn't long before her flames started to dance around her body, showing her foe that she was serious and that she wasn't going to back down, to which they charged at each other and clashed as their weapons met each other. What Spitfire found to be interesting was that it did seem like Hymdall knew that it was only a matter of time until her allies came and assisted her, so what he did next was take a moment to channel all of his magic into his blade not a few seconds later and swung down at her, to which she channeled her magical power as well and swung one of the warglaives to parry the attack, causing the air to shudder the instant both of their blades connected with each other, before she swung the other and loosed a massive wave of flames right into her foe's chest, blowing up the area that he was standing in as she knocked him backwards. It was in that moment that the storm drakes pulled back and left the area that they were fighting in, though as the rest of the group noticed what was going on, and that Spitfire was in her demonic form, all four of them rushed over to see what was going on, though Spitfire held a hand out to stop Rainbow from transforming into her demonic form as well, because she wanted to see if Hymdall was ready to call it quits, though she suspected that if he was still willing to fight against them he would have done so already, hence why she was waiting as the smoke cleared and revealed that she had scuffed up his armor, though he was still smiling by the looks of things. "A battle well fought!" Hymdall shouted, where Rainbow and the rest of the group raised their eyebrows for a moment, as they were surprised by what they were hearing, though Spitfire wasn't at all surprised, because this was a test that Odyn had prepared, just to make sure their might was strong enough to deal with one of his greatest champions, before he let them enter the true section of the Halls of Valor that the Aegis was resting in, to which Hymdall raised his hand for a few seconds and the barrier that was behind him disappeared, to which he returned to where he had been standing when the group approached him and kneeled towards them, "The path forward is open." "You have done well to get this far, champions," Odyn declared, revealing that he was definitely watching them and that he had to be pleased by what he had seen, especially since Spitfire suspected Hymdall had been holding back the majority of his power, so this was a test to overwhelm a foe that was fighting in a weakened state, though after that she reverted back to her base state as the rest of the group came to a stop behind her, as they were waiting to hear what else Odyn wanted them to do before they were allowed to claim the Aegis, "but don't think you can rest just yet, as your next trial awaits you: you must defeat both Hyrja and Fenryr, the former being a great warrior while the latter is a great beast, to prove your worth to me, before I open the way to where the treasure of Stormheim rests!" Spitfire walked forward for a moment, even though she paused as Vytheril had her stop for a few seconds as Hymdall did something she wasn't expecting, he summoned a chest in front of him and it seemed to be filled with what appeared to be gear that would assist them in the future, though for the most part it looked like there were a pair of cloth boots, a bag or two which had gold coins resting inside them, and a few trinkets that she really didn't know if they needed or not, hence the reason why she was letting Vytheril take the stuff for later, though once that was done he and the others stepped over to where she was standing and they advanced into the next part of the Halls of Valor. What they discovered was that there were two sets of stairs leading up to what appeared to be a mead hall, given that this appeared to be a vrykul afterlife, but the interesting thing was that none of the remaining Valarjar warriors or mystics, and that included the larger more giant like members of their group, wanted to engage the group, rather they bowed their heads and wished all five of them well in their quest, almost like they knew that challenging them was a bad idea after witnessing Hymdall's defeat, and one was even willing to give them directions as to where to head next. According to the mystic the area they had been in previously was known as the High Gate, due to the fact that the portal between the Halls and Stormheim was at the end of it, and the mead hall that they were heading into was called the Hearth of Revelry, where the Valarjar and those that were raised into the Halls of Valor, like the Battlelords, would drink mead, share stories from when they were alive, and sometimes spar for a time, which would then be directed to another part of the realm if they really wanted to left off some steam, before he revealed the other directions that were in front of them. Off to the left rested the Seat of Ascension, which was where Eyir rested and usually performed a ritual to allow a shieldmaiden to become one of her Val'kyr, while off to the right rested a portal that would allow them to head to the Fields of the Eternal Hunt, an outdoor area where some of the greatest beasts rested for the Valarjar to train with, by either hunting them or directly hunting them, meaning they had an idea of where to find Hyrja and Fenryr, before revealing that the path directly in front of where they were standing, which was blocked by a magical barrier of golden energy, contained Ephemeral Way, the bridge that connected the Hearth of Revelry to the Hall of Glory, the latter being Odyn's seat, where the Aegis of Aggramar was said to rest. Once they knew where they were going Spitfire thanked the mystic and headed for the Seat of Ascension, mostly because she wanted to make sure Eyir was fine and that she truly didn't harbor any hard feelings towards the mortal races for what Sylvanas tried to do to her, where the Valarjar cheered as they walked by where they were standing or sitting, showing that they knew what the group had done and that they were overjoyed by their efforts to remain true to the trials that Skovald had tried to break, before they reached a raised section of the Halls, one that looked more like the entrance, where it was easy to find Eyir on a platform at the top, with a number of mystics waiting nearby, along with two who seemed far more important than the others and the shieldmaiden that had to be Hyrja. "Through great deeds of courage and valor, Hyrja has earned this most sacred of rites." Eyir stated, revealing to those that didn't pay attention to what happened in Stormheim that the lone shieldmaiden had done some incredible things in the past, before she ended up here, something that made her wonder if she had stood against Skovald and had been killed by the traitorous Fel-corrupted vrykul, before focusing on the honorable vrykul that was kneeling in front of her right now, to which Spitfire noticed a smile on her face, showing how pleased she was, "She shall ascend as one of my chosen Val'kyr, and her name shall echo in these gilded halls for all eternity." "Are you nervous, Hyrja?" one of the two male vrykul asked, as the main pair of mystics that were standing near the altar that Eyir was on seemed to be male based on the looks of their bodies, where it seemed like the one who spoke was over on the right side of the area that they were standing in, even though Spitfire could see that they were in the final stages of the ritual that they had been working on, something that would allow Hyrja to ascend to being a Val'kyr, which would be a little interesting to witness given everything they had seen so far, "It is understandable if..." "I am not nervous. Only... excited." the female warrior in front of Eyir answered, her tone revealing that she was excited by what was going on, basically confirming what she had just said, though she remained in her kneeling stance as she, along with both of the mystics for that matter, ignored the fact that the group was standing nearby, which was fine with Spitfire since she really didn't want to interrupt what was going on and potentially give Eyir a reason to be annoyed with them, as that would counter what happened earlier, before the warrior spoke up again, no doubt to say one more thing before the ritual got started, "All my life has led to this one glorious moment." "Spoken like a true Val'kyr." the second male vrykul stated, his tone revealing that he was also pleased with what Hyrja had said and that they were eager to have her join the ranks of Eyir's Val'kyr, something that was clearly a tremendous honor for the vrykul that called Skold-Ashil home, or those that followed the teachings of Eyir, since Spitfire had no idea what sort of criteria led to such an event happening in the first place, though it was in that moment that he noticed that they weren't alone anymore, due to the group standing nearby. "Mortal champions approach!" the first mystic declared, where it was clear that he and the other mystic were interested in what might happen next, especially after no doubt hearing about or seeing their deeds in Stormheim, though at the same time it drew Eyir and Hyrja's attention away from the ritual as they stared at the group for a few seconds as well, where it was easy to see that the former was pleased to see Spitfire and her companions while the latter wasn't too happy to have her big day interrupted in this manner, but Hyrja said nothing as she waited for something to happen. "I witnessed their deeds in Stormheim, when they came to my Vault." Eyir said, though her tone made it easy for Spitfire to tell that she was definitely pleased with them and what they had done, meaning that she wasn't annoyed by the fact that they were here, no doubt also due to being told by Odyn that they would be challenging Hyrja and she might have had a chance to argue with the decision before eventually agreeing, before she beckoned to the group and drew the attention to them once more, which Spitfire knew had to be her and not the others, "One of them has a level of honor and virtue that I have not seen in the mortal realm for some time... Hyrja, I believe Odyn was right to have you challenge them when they arrived, however, the ritual is not complete. Champions, do you mind waiting for a few moments so Hyrja can ascend and become one of my Val'kyr?" Spitfire nodded her head for a moment and patiently waited for Eyir and her mystics to finish what they were doing, which caused the rest of her group to do the same thing as the pair of mystics resumed their chanting or channeling the power that was necessary for Hyrja to ascend, while Eyir seemed to be doing roughly the same thing on her end, before a pillar of light enveloped the vrykul for a moment and then peeled away, revealing that Hyrja was now a much taller warrior with all of the attire of a holy Val'kyr, complete with the golden wings that all of Eyir's chosen seemed to have, before she stood up and jumped down into the area they were standing in, causing the mystics to remove themselves to give the group some room for their battle. Once more Spitfire found that she was who their foe wanted to focus on, where she felt that this had to be more like they were challenging her to witness her strength in battle and less due to the fact that she was the 'tank' of this group, but if that was the case she really didn't mind all that much, as it allowed her to focus on parrying the attacks that were coming at her, due to the fact that Hyrja thrust her spear at her while using her shield to block Spitfire's own attack, meaning they were basically exchanging blows before they separated from each other and landed with a small bit of distance between them, leaving the observers watching as Rainbow and the rest of her group remained off to the side, as even they knew this seemed more like a personal challenge at this point. Not even a few seconds later they rushed over to the middle of the area that was between them and clashed once more, their blades hitting each other as they parried any attacks that happened to bypass their guards, showing that they might be of equal power in their base states, as all of the Valarjar and the shieldmaidens knew of Spitfire's true power and Spitfire suspected that the chosen of Eyir was much stronger than she was letting on, so much so that when they separated from each other again Hyrja called upon the power she had been granted, the power of lightning and the Light as she took to the air, where Spitfire summoned her wings and her Fel energies as she transformed back into her demonic form and followed after her foe, where they took the battle to the skies above this section of the Halls of Valor. From there the two of them clashed with each other a number of times as they flew through the air, where Spitfire lashed out with her Fel and found that it was counted by the power of Hyrja's own Light based skills, but, at the same time, there was a distinct difference between their skills as Spitfire was above to take down and overcome all of the Light based attacks that were sent her way, as it appeared that Hyrja had no control over all of the lightning powers she had been bestowed, if she had any in the first place, and it wasn't long before she struck Hyrja right in the back and sent her down towards the Seat of Ascension. Another thing that set them apart was that Spitfire had more knowledge and experience with her wings than Hyrja did, as they were brand new to the newly awakened Val'kyr and it appeared that ascending didn't come with instant knowledge on how to do something, and the battle ended with Hyrja landing with her back on the floor, where Spitfire landed on top of her and pointed her right warglaive down at her throat, like she would have if Hyrja had been a real enemy, while the left warglaive rested near her leg, ready to move in case her foe tried to attack her while she was doing this, since it was a viable option when she thought about it. "I... I surrender." Hyrja said, her tone revealing that she might have been too eager for battle and that her desire to tackle Spitfire before she had a grasp of her new abilities, such as her lightning powers, had brought about her downfall, though that was followed by Spitfire dismissing her weapons as she removed herself from where she was standing, where she did extend a hand towards the Val'kyr, who smiled for a moment as she grasped it and took Spitfire's help in rising to her feet once more, something that was followed by her kneeling towards Eyir as she bowed her head, "Eyir, I am sorry that you were disgraced by my performance..." "Nonsense, you fought well against Spitfire, even if it was too early for such a thing, and Odyn will be pleased with the brief fight you two had," Eyir replied, showing everything that she was pleased with Hyrja's performance and that she wasn't at all disappointed in her new Val'kyr, rather she believed that Hyrja did well when she considered just how strong Spitfire was when she channeled all of her power into a fight, something that made her wonder about Rainbow's power for a few moments, before she beckoned for Hyrja to rise as she faced the group that was standing nearby, "You have passed the trial that Odyn set for you, but Fenryr still stands between you and the Hall of Glory... good luck tracking down and beating him, as he is a true master of the wilds and you'll need all the luck you can get." Spitfire nodded her head and wished both Eyir and Hyrja well, while at the same time reverting back to her base form as she and the others started to retrace their steps and head back to the Hearth of Revelry, where they found a number of the Valarjar toasting to them, apparently pleased with what they had done in Eyir's section of the Halls, before they passed by the golden barrier that would allow them to reach the Hall of Glory and headed over to an area that looked like it had a forest, a incredibly small one, growing around the circular area the path brought them to, which had a portal inside it that would take them to their next destination. It didn't take them long to use the portal and appear on the other side of it, as it moved everyone in the group over to the section of the Halls that had to be the Fields of the Eternal Hunt, where Spitfire could see that the name was correct due to the large amount of trees and vegetation that seemed to be scattered all over the place, where it appeared that they had been teleported to the side of a small hunting camp due to some traps and a few guns that had been left behind by the Valarjar that were in this part of the Halls, meaning the hunters had to be out in this area, looking for the prey they were hunting. From what Spitfire could tell there were deer grazing, a few storm drakes that actually flew down and tore into a deer that they had captured, where she and the others suspected that all of the food that was in the Halls never ran out, which had to extend to the animals that called this place home, and there were a few other animals, like some bulls and some wolf-like creatures that Vytheril revealed were worgs, but for the most part it almost looked like the Valarjar that were hunting in the Fields weren't interested in the other animals right now, leading her to believe that they were hunting Fenryr as well. While that would normally mean they would be in a competition with the Valarjar for the powerful worg, since she was sure that was what Odyn wanted them to do, she decided to take a few moments and find the group of Valarjar that were near them, mostly so she could take to them and see if they were more like the rest of the warriors that called the Halls home, as in she wanted to see if they might come to an agreement on the hunt that she and her friends would be interrupting so all of them could hunt Fenryr down, to share the glory and show the Lord of the Halls of Valor that they were ready to claim the Aegis. As it turned out the Valarjar who were in the Fields, who happened to be off to the right of the main path that allowed the group to leave the camp they had appeared by, were more than willing to partner up with Spitfire and her friends, again most likely due to her nature and the fact that the Valarjar knew about her, even if she wasn't ruling out the fact that they knew of all their powers, before they heard a whine as a nearby trap went off, directly in the middle of the second camp the Valarjar hunters had set up, to which they beckoned for the group to follow them. What they discovered was that the creature they were here to hunt down and beat was a large worg that looked like it was incredibly powerful, with golden runes on his legs and possibly a scar over his right eye, with two or three spears sticking out of his back, meaning that he had either been hurt during one of the previous hunts and had healed in this manner or this was recent damage and it was caused by whatever traps the Valarjar hunters had set up for him, though the instant Fenryr spotted the group he growled and shuddered for a moment as he fought the restraints that came with the trap that his front right paw was stuck in at the moment. Not a few seconds later he broke out of the trap and rushed at them, where the Valarjar hunters took a moment to scatter and started loosing arrows at the beast, while at the same time Scarlet parried the incoming attack, as she used the Blades of the Fallen Prince to stall Fenryr in his tracks for a moment, allowing the rest of the group to take up their positions before lashing out at the mighty beast that they were here to fight, even though this time around it didn't look like Spitfire was the main target, which she was fine with. Once she pushed the worg backwards Scarlet and Fenryr rushed at each other and lashed out at their foe, blades meeting claws as the two pushed against each other, where it did look like the beast was ignoring everyone else that was around him as Vytheril blasted his sides and the hunters struck him with their arrows, something that was proven wrong a few moments later as Fenryr jumped around the area for a few moments and targeted them at random, causing them to dodge so they didn't get bitten by the beast, though the speed of which Fenryr moved was rather interesting, despite the fact that he wasn't as fast as Rainbow was when she used her full power against her enemies. After a minute or two of fighting a losing battle, as it appeared that Fenryr realized that after a time, he howled and leapt out of the area that they were currently fighting in, though that only prompted the Valarjar hunters to follow him to a cave that seemed to be his home, where it looked like he was licking his wounds, before the enlarged group tackled the worg once more and drew him out of the cave he had rushed over to, only for him to howl and call forth a decent sized pack of worg that were nearby, basically him calling allies to fight the group once more, so he could focus on who he wanted to take down first. Spitfire and Rainbow did the smart thing as that happened and loosed their Eye Beams at the group that was rushing towards them, where they tackled the worg first and weakened them to the point where they ran off and left Fenryr to the fight that was going on, though once that happened the pair remained on their guard in case their foe tried the same thing again, leaving the rest of the group to tackle the mighty worg, mostly because it didn't look like neither of them were really needed at this point, so both of them remained on the defensive and kept an eye out for any allies that might be summoned to aid Fenryr. As it turned out the only skill Fenryr had left to use against them was to jump out of the area that he had been fighting in and rushed towards one of the group members, like he was fixated on knocking his target to the ground or something, though for the most part that failed as well when Scarlet got in the way and blocked his attack with her own, allowing the cold power that slumbered inside her to slow down the worg so Remeraa could back off and put some distance between her and Fenryr, something that also gave the Valarjar hunters a chance to close in on the beast and attack it with their melee weapons, be they swords, axes, or spears. In the end it didn't take them long to bring down Fenryr, who fell to the ground and whined in defeat, which caused the mighty warriors that had been hunting him to stop what they were doing, showing that they weren't here to actually kill the beast, even if he might just reappear after a day or two, before Scarlet and the others stepped down as well and sheathed their weapons for the moment, as it looked like they had succeeded in their mission to take down Fenryr and that meant, according to what Odyn told them, that they should be able to enter the Hall of Glory and claim the Aegis of Aggramar. "Champions, you have done well in completing my trials and have earned my blessing." Odyn declared, showing them that he was pleased with what they had accomplished since arriving in the Halls of Valor, even though he had to be far more impressed by everything Spitfire and the others had done during their time in Stormheim, though the group remained as silent as they could be while they listened to the Ruler of the Halls, just in case there was another trial for them to tackle before being allowed to claim the Aegis and secure it before Skovald came looking for it, "I look forward to meeting all of you in the Hall of Glory, where your well earned prize awaits your arrival." In that moment the group wished the Valarjar hunters well and headed back towards the portal that had brought them to this part of the Halls of Valor, where it took them a few seconds to teleport over to the main section of the Halls and found something interesting, the golden barrier was no longer in their way, to which they stepped forward and passed by a pair of tall Valarjar who also cheered for the group for a moment as a magical bridge formed between the edge of the area that they were now standing in and the entrance of the Hall of Glory, something that they walked on without delay, as the Aegis was close and they were eager to bring an end to this stage of their quest. Walking on the bridge transformed them into small balls of light energy that rushed towards their destination, where the spheres floated just above the bridge as they moved, though even as Spitfire noticed that she spotted a number of statues that rested to the right and left of the golden energy bridge, statues that looked like they were the heads of dragons, making her wonder what sort of importance it had for Odyn and those who lived in the Halls of Valor, besides being a reminder of the Thorignir of course, before she turned her attention to the large structure that they were heading towards, which had an opening that was both tall enough and wide enough for Odyn to walk through without any problems. Once they reached the end of the bridge the spheres faded away and the group was allowed to walk forward on their own again, to which they walked through the opening that was in front of where they ended up and entered the Hall of Glory, where they found that it was a decent sized area which did look like it might be an arena of some kind, in addition to a throne room given that Odyn was sitting on his throne, which was directly opposite of where the entrance was located, and resting near the Titan Watcher stood four vrykul, who might be some of the ancient kings, though none of them seemed ready for combat, meaning it was possible that Odyn knew that channeling them with another trial would be a waste of time and that they deserved to claim the artifact that he had been guarding since the day the Titans left it with him. With the Aegis in hand Spitfire and her friends would be able to return to Dalaran at long last, store the Pillar of Creation in a place that Khadgar would have likely prepared for them, and then see how the rest of the heroes were doing, even if Spitfire would be dealing with Sylvanas' madness before doing anything else or facing any additional foes, hence why she braced herself when she came to a stop near the throne and her friends did the same thing, as there was no telling what Odyn would say to them now that they had correctly passed the trials that he had placed in Stormheim and overcame the challenges that rested in the Halls of Valor. "Normally I would make a challenger, or in this case a group of challengers, face four ancient vrykul kings in one last battle, to show off their skills, before calling an end to the trials... but, given everything I have seen, I only have this to say to all of you: to the victor go the spoils." Odyn said, where he sounded amused and pleased by what he had witnessed during their time in both Stormheim and the Halls of Valor, no doubt coming to the decision that he didn't need to test them anymore, though at the same time he raised his hand and magically deposited something on the floor in front of him, a shield that was clearly of Titan make and stood as stall as a human did, though it radiated power that made the group stop and stare for at it, even though they knew what this was and were pleased to have reached the end of the first leg of their quest to bring an end to the Legion's invasion, even though there was more they had to do to stop Sargeras and the rest of his foul army of demons, "The Aegis of Aggramar is yours for the taking, champions." "Noooo!" a desperate voice stated, where the group turned around and glanced at the opening that allowed them to enter the Hall of Glory, though it wasn't long before they found Skovald, of all individuals, in the middle of charging up the magic path that connected this area to the rest of the Halls of Valor, no doubt so he could speak with Odyn and 'plead' his case to the Titan Watcher that had been guarding the Aegis since the day it was left by the Titans, something that didn't stop them from taking the artifact, before he eventually came to a stop in front of Odyn and faced the Watcher, even though he also glared at Spitfire's group for a few seconds as he focused on who he had come to talk to, "I, too, have proven my worth by completing the trials, Odyn. I am God-King Skovald! These mortal defilers are too cowardly to challenge my claim to the Aegis, so they seek to steal it from me in the most dishonorable way possible, and I would have what is rightfully mine returned to me!" "The vanquishers have already taken possession of it, Skovald, as was their right." Odyn replied, though the group glanced at each other for a moment and knew that he had set this up to prevent the Fel-corrupted vrykul from getting his hands on the Aegis, that Odyn must have done something to make it so that the God-King was unable to enter the Halls of Valor for a time, until they had cleared his trials or something, while at the same time Spitfire determined that 'vanquishers' meant those that bested the trials, which made sense when she thought about it, but she said nothing since she figured Odyn had everything under control, "Your protest comes too late." "If these false champions will not yield the Aegis by choice, then they will surrender it in death!" Skovald stated, though it was easy for everyone to tell that he was pissed, not that Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, and Vytheril cared, since each of them knew what the vrykul had done and none of them were happy with him, with Remeraa being the only one that had no idea what was going on between them and their foe, to which he turned around and faced the group, which was when he took a moment to focus on Spitfire, who just so happened to be the one that was holding the Aegis right now, before raising his weapon once more, "Give up the Aegis, outsiders, or die where you stand!" "Yeah, you aren't getting the Aegis." Spitfire remarked, though at the same time she shifted her stance and made sure that the Pillar of Creation was resting on her back, no doubt secured in that area due to some sort of magic and due to the fact that she had no experience with real shields while she was fighting enemies, so using both of her warglaives was the smart move for her to make at the moment, but in that moment Rainbow stepped forward and held her right hand out so it was right in front of Spitfire for a few seconds, who focused on her friend for a very brief moment before nodding her head as she took a step back and made sure that Vytheril, Scarlet, and Remeraa stood back as well, who were confused by what they were seeing at the moment and seemed to be waiting for her to explain what was going on. Not a few seconds later Rainbow burst into the space between her and Skovald as she swung one of her warblades, which was to parry the incoming attack that was coming her way and stop her foe's greatsword in its tracks, something she had expected from the Aldrachi Warblades and what she knew of their history, before she pushed her foe backwards for a few seconds and spun around so she could use the second warblade to cut into the armor the Fel-corrupted vrykul happened to be wearing, though even as that happened Rainbow could see that Skovald must have ran off to Gul'dan or something, as his own Fel energy was much stronger than it had been when Spitfire fought him. Normally someone would be rather concerned by such a thing, that Skovald had more Fel energy inside him and that he was far stronger than he had been earlier, but Rainbow, much like Spitfire, had been trained to fight those who wielded the power of the Legion, especially those who were either demons or took on too much of the Fel energy and became demons themselves, and right now it was looking like Skovald might be half and half, as in half vrykul and half demon, though he had done a good job keeping all of the more serious transformations at bay and was still stuck with his horns and the Fel spikes on his left hand, but she knew that if he absorbed even more power he'd lose that battle and start shifting into a true demon, but she wasn't afraid of what she was seeing at the moment. Even though she knocked him backwards, and put some distance between them, Skovald didn't seem to understand what was going on and rushed at her with a bunch of Fel flames following him, though the flames meant nothing to Rainbow as she shifted into her lightning based demonic form and rushed forward to meet her foe in the middle of the space that was between them, though she did punch him in the chest and the power of what she had done knocked him even further backwards, turning his own momentum against him, even though he stabbed his greatsword into the floor to stop himself from losing too much ground, but once he stopped he glared at Rainbow as he readied himself for what he was going to do next. Once he was ready Skovald called forth a powerful storm of Fel fireballs that he called 'Ragnarok', an attack that seemed to be a total last ditch effort to take them all down, meaning he must have been concerned for his chances after witnessing Spitfire's power and now that Rainbow was just as strong as Spitfire was, well, it pushed him over the edge and cased him to go mental as he used all of his Fel power in that single attack, though as it happened Odyn used his own power to create a barrier around him and the rest of the observers, leaving Rainbow to deal with her foe as she used her lightning to blow up all the fireballs that were in the air. Skovald, caught off guard by what she had done, stood there for a moment as Rainbow flashed through the air and swung her warblades once more, this time taking Skovald's head clean off and let it hit the ground not a few seconds after she did the same thing, where the vrykul's body hit the ground not a moment later and she waved her warblades at it, where the group watched as Skovald's Fel-corrupted soul was absorbed by her weapons, just like all of the other demonic and Fel-corrupted souls she and Spitfire had absorbed so far, and Skovald's Fel energy was added to her own, making her stronger than she had been before the battle started, even if Spitfire was still stronger than she was. "Most impressive, Rainbow Dash!" Odyn said, revealing that he was quite pleased with Skovald's punishment, one that he felt was rather fitting given all of the crimes that the Fel-corrupted vrykul had committed since before the heroes came to the province of Stormheim, though at the same time he was clearly looking at the group that was standing before him, like he might be wanting something else from them, before he shook his head for a second, "All five of you are strong in your own ways, with some of you possessing a level of strength that I was not expecting to see from someone that isn't one of the Valarjar, not counting the three Battlelords that I have recruited for the war with the Legion, and after witnessing you in battle I have determined that I might seek you out for glorious battle at one point in the future, but for now I will return you to the city that you call Dalaran, to safeguard the Aegis of Aggramar... and, more importantly, to punish the one that sought to subjugate Eyir and her powers." Spitfire smiled for a moment, because it seemed that Odyn agreed that Sylvanas was a danger to the world and that, after everything that he had seen during their brief time in Stormheim, he also agreed that she needed to be punished for what she had tried to do, and might have succeeded with her plans had Spitfire not arrived with the others when she did, hence why she was more than willing to head through the portal when Odyn opened it, as it was time to tell Khadgar the good news and then issue the challenge to Sylvanas, to expose her to the rest of the world and punish her accordingly, before turning their attention back to the Legion and its foul master. > Interlude: Mak'gora > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the Aegis of Aggramar secured, and Skovald had been brought down at long last, Spitfire, Rainbow, Scarlet, Vytheril, and Remeraa returned to Dalaran by using the portal that Odyn had provided, where the draenei found that there was no real reason for her to have gone with the group in the first place, since they clearly didn't need a healer, but at the same time she was happy that she had done so, as she didn't like the Fel-corrupted vrykul at all and had gotten a chance to see both Spitfire and Rainbow in action once more, using their power to bring down their enemies so they could save Azeroth from the Legion, where the first step had been reached with the Aegis' recovery. They were also joined by the ravens that were known as Muninn and Huginn, who seemed to be making sure that the Aegis was properly secured, not to mention the fact that the other side of the portal brought them right to the outside of the chamber that the Council of Seven was resting in, with Jaina and the others stopping whatever conversation they might have been in the middle of as they noticed the five of them and their new friends arrive just outside the chamber, something that was followed by them walking over to them so they could hear what had happened in Stormheim. The reason behind their interest was due to the fact that they heard a rumor that Genn had captured Sylvanas, on Spitfire's orders no less, and it made them wonder if she was trying to break the fragile balance between the Alliance and the Horde, the very thing that she supposedly wanted to keep intact, but, at the same time, there were those that were silently overjoyed that such a thing had happened, from both factions no less, which meant that the Banshee Queen wasn't as well liked as she might have believed, no did she have as many allies as she might have thought. In the end Spitfire explained everything that had to be stopped when they left Dalaran earlier, mentioning the Blight that Nathanos had been concocting and had been safely disposed of, Sylvanas' attempts to aggravate Genn into being the first one to attack someone on the other side so she could start the faction war while the war with the Legion raged on, and her attempt to subjugate Eyir, the creator of the Val'kyr, in what appeared to be a scheme to become immortal, even if it could have prevented them from heading to the Halls of Valor if she succeeded, so it was a good thing she had failed and that Spitfire had ensured that she was captured so Genn could ship her back to Orgrimmar. It was in that moment that Spitfire informed Khadgar and the others that she intended on issuing a Mak'gora challenge to Sylvanas once the Aegis was safe, so they could fight in front of the gates of Orgrimmar and that she intended on making sure there were a set of rules in place for her and her foe, because if she was right there was a very good chance that this would seal the Banshee Queen's fate, especially since she had the feeling that the leaders from both factions would be there to witness the fight for themselves, as some of them likely harbored a desire for revenge, or something similar like that, towards Sylvanas, and would want to see her punished for themselves. "You do realize that a Mak'gora is, the orc tongue, a 'duel of honor' and that its usually to the death, right?" Khadgar asked, speaking the moment he and the other Council members knew what was going on right now, though at the same time all of them happened to be leading Spitfire's group to the center of the city, where a teleportation pad rested that would let them access the magically prepared chamber that was designed to house the five Pillars of Creation, with the Aegis being the first one any of the heroes had recovered, even though he had received word earlier, before the group arrived, which revealed that the heroes that went to the provinces of Azsuna, Val'sharah, and Highmountain were close to recovering the Tidestone of Golganneth, the Tears of Elune, and the Hammer of Khaz'goroth, leaving the Eye of Amun'thul in Suramar, the last one they would recover in due time. "I knew it was a duel of honor, though to the death is fine, given what I intend on doing," Spitfire replied, because she had no intentions on dying to Sylvanas, not after how easy it was for her and Rainbow to take the lantern she had been holding in Eyir's vault earlier and to knock her into one of the walls, though at the very least this would allow the factions to see the Banshee Queen in the same light that she did, before she focused on what was in front of her and found that the teleport pad that Khadgar had brought them to allowed them to access what appeared to be either an underground chamber of some sort or it was a chamber located in a tower that could only be accessed by magic, which was when she discovered a lower area that had four pedestals for the four Pillars they knew of, which formed an x by the looks of things, to which she put the Aegis down in the first one to her left, "There, the first of the Pillars of Creation has been secured before the Legion could get their hands on it, which just leaves three more before we focus on Suramar and the final Pillar... and before I can focus on that, I need to find Saurfang and talk to him, as we need to set some things straight before this Mak'gora even happens, especially since the leaders from both factions will no doubt be there to witness it." Khadgar said nothing to that, as based on what he had discovered in the short period of time that he knew both Spitfire and Rainbow, and they hadn't been given a lot of time for him to understand the Equestrians who were in the process of ruining the Legion's forces, Spitfire was fairly set in focusing on the Legion's downfall and that anyone who dared to break her force's efforts to bring down Sargeras, regardless of who that someone might be, would be her target for a time, until she either convinced them to stop doing whatever foolish actions they were doing at the time, like stopping Jaina from just leaving the Council when they needed her the most, or cut them down if their actions were deemed a threat to what she and her allies were doing, with Sylvanas landing in the latter option apparently. As such he moved to the side and waved a hand for Spitfire to follow him, as he intended on leading her right to the part of Dalaran that the Horde was stationed in and had set their portals up in after Jaina was convinced to allow them back into the city, where the portals lead to every major Horde city and they had an idea to set up a barrier around their area so none of the Alliance could bother them, but, even though he had heard of what they had planned, he was more surprised that such a thing hadn't happened, meaning they must have embraced Spitfire's idea to work together with the Alliance, and, in an odd twist, the Alliance had done the exact same thing. Khadgar knew what was going on, in the short period of time that Spitfire and Rainbow had been out of the prison that Maiev had stuck them inside, because she thought they were agents of the Legion, they were breaking the cycle that the two factions had been trapped in for as long as he could remember, where they agreed to take on the bigger foe, like the Lich King or Deathwing, but still attacked each other whenever they found a weakness to exploit, or one of the leaders just felt like inciting a war between the factions, much like what Garrosh had done when he was named Warchief during the time of the Cataclysm, and it appeared that the Alliance and the Horde were rallying behind them, focusing all of their efforts on stopping the Legion and didn't entertain thoughts of another faction war, with Sylvanas being the only one to be different from everyone else. As such he decided not to question what Spitfire was doing and focused on aiding her in her quest to unite the two factions, and the various Orders, into a united front to face the Legion, something that all of the heroes had done since they were so willing to work together as they tackled the dangers that were in the provinces as a team, instead of as individuals who fought each other or only worked together when it was absolutely necessary, and he could tell that many who might have been on the fence about things were feeling the same way he did, meaning it was a good thing Spitfire and Rainbow were on their side. As such he helped the pair and their friends make their way to Orgrimmar, where he found that those who stayed back to guard the city, as the two factions were keeping most of their armies guarding the cities and settlements they lived in until the Pillars of Creation could be recovered, were in the middle of making sure to mark a circular arena in the ground right in front of the city, which made sense when he found that Genn's airship, carrying the Banshee Queen, resting in the air nearby and that several worgen were assisting the orcs, though as Rainbow, Vytheril, Remeraa, and Scarlet moved out to help the others Spitfire headed for where Saurfang had to be waiting, to which Khadgar sighed and simply watched what was going on as a transparent raven landed on his shoulder and waited as well. It took some time, an hour or so by Khadgar's estimates, but eventually the orcs and worgen, who had been aided by the other races that were assembling outside the city, almost making it look like an army might be getting ready to lay siege to Orgrimmar, and sure enough every faction leader was present for what was happening, as he found Anduin standing off to the side with Genn, Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage, Gelbin Mekkatorque, Velen, Aysa Cloudsinger, and the Council of Three Hammers, the three heads of the dwarven clans who ruled over Ironforge, while resting on the left side of the area were the leaders of the Horde, Varok Saurfang, Baine Bloodhoof, Rokhan, Lor'themar Theron, Jastor Gallywix, and Ji Firepaw, leaving only the Forsaken without a leader, which would be corrected once this was over, one way or another. Khadgar was actually amazed that the various individuals who lead the various races were here, but even as he thought about that there were more heroes gathered around the outside of Orgrimmar, as the leaders of the Order Halls, those who had been recruiting and arming the various heroes of Azeroth with the tools to defeat the Legion, were here as well, especially Havi, who he knew was Odyn using an illusion disguise to see what was happening in certain areas of the world with his own eye thanks to what Scarlet had told him earlier, and he figured that Eyir was watching as well, waiting for the battle to start. He also wasn't the only member of the Council of Seven to come to this event, as Jaina was present as well and he was sure two or three more were here as well, scattered around the area as per Spitfire's requests, as she wanted a magical barrier installed the moment she started the fight with Sylvanas, mostly to keep attacks from hitting any watchers and to prevent someone from jumping over the edge of the ring, just in the off chance that the Banshee Queen tried to flee before the battle was over, and with Medivh being present as well, in his transparent raven form, he knew that the chances of someone successfully fleeing was zero. Eventually, however, his attention was drawn away from what he was looking at, as it appeared that Rainbow happened to be in the air, no doubt looking for Nathanos, the loyal ranger that served Sylvanas and had disappeared shortly after she tried to force Eyir to serve her, just in the off chance he came to try and save his master from the fate that Spitfire had planned for her, though it wasn't long before she paused for a moment as she noticed that Genn was walking away from where he had been standing, heading over to the area the airship had been lowered down to while they were waiting for things to get started. Not a few minutes later Genn and his Greyguard walked out of the hut they had locked Sylvanas in and one of them was carrying both her bow and her daggers, where Khadgar could see that she was pissed off and, upon seeing just how many had been brought to this area to witness what was coming next, her expression went still and she showed nothing to all of the guards and leaders that were outside the city, even though it was also clear that she was looking for someone, Spitfire to be exact, who was waiting in the crowd while not drawing attention to herself, and once the guards reached the combat ring they released Sylvanas, who stumbled forward and rubbed her wrists for a moment as she waited for someone to step forward and tell her what was going on. "Sylvanas Windrunner, you stand here, before the leaders of the Horde, the Alliance, and the Order Halls who are fighting the Legion and their dark master, to be held accountable for your crimes in both the past and what you tried to do to my forces and the rest of Stormheim," Genn stated, allowing his voice to carry so everyone could hear what he had to say, as he was giving them an idea as to why they had been brought here, though Khadgar could see that some were overjoyed to hear that the Banshee Queen was going to be face some sort of punishment for what she had done, which was mostly the worgen given that she invaded their home and plagued it when she started to lose ground, though there were others that had the same opinion that Genn's forces had, while the majority of the Horde remained silent as they listened to what was being said right now, before he focused on everyone else, "what I mean is that she ordered her forces to prepare a version of the Blight to plague my forces before she even left Orgimmar, one that would have done severe damage to her own forces as well, and we have it on good authority from those that unknowingly made the batches, as even her apothecaries were taken aback by what they had made, that Sylvanas intended on releasing it on everything in Stormheim, turning such a life filled province into a realm of death." "Save your breath and stop your whining, Genn, no one's believing your barking." Sylvanas said, where it was easy to see that she didn't care for what the worgen was saying, even though those that had been subjected to the Blight in the past weren't too pleased with her statement, as members of both factions had seen the disastrous effects of what Genn had mentioned and couldn't believe that Sylvanas would have created such a vile creation, especially due to the fact that she intended on using it on her own subjects, though the Banshee Queen was focused on something else as she looked at the area that was around the ring, "You might as well show yourself, traitor, and get this over with." "I told you, I'm not one of your soldiers," Spitfire replied, though as she said that she stepped out of the crowd, or the area that she had been lurking in while Sylvanas was being escorted out into the arena the orcs and their friends had made for this event, which seemed to be everything she could ask for given the short notice of what she had asked them to do, but once she was close to where the leader of the Forsaken was standing she came to a stop, with some distance between the two of them, before she readied herself for what she was going to do next, "however, I sort of agree with you, we should get on with the show. Sylvanas Windrunner, given your crimes against Eyir, the Titan Watcher who leads Odyn's Val'kyr, which could have resulted in us being unable to enter the Halls of Valor and claim the Aegis of Aggramar, and would have led to the Legion possibly succeeding in their invasion of Azeroth, plus your crimes against Genn Greymane and anyone else you might have wronged in the past, I only have this to say: I challenge you to Mak'gora!" "And after how you've disobeyed my orders, and even turned my own soldiers against me, why should I bother accepting your challenge?" Sylvanas asked, but even as she said that she could see that she was losing the crowd, the Horde side to be exact, meaning that they, for some reason, believed both Genn and one of the Illidari over her, the new Warchief that was going to be leading all of them to victory against the Legion and, more importantly, the Alliance, as she knew that the moment they beat their main foe the two factions would be at war again, not that anyone seemed to share her thoughts on the matter, based on what she was seeing at the moment. "Because you wish for the Horde to follow you," Saurfang stated, as he had stepped out while they were talking and was now standing near the edge of the arena, mostly to make sure Spitfire's plan succeeded, because out of the two of them he had more faith in Spitfire than he had in Sylvanas, but at the same time he knew how to convince the Banshee Queen to accept the challenge and let the two of them fight to the death, "refusing a Mak'gora challenge brings dishonor to the one who does such a thing, and right now you want the Horde, who values honor as one of its core aspects, to follow you during our time of need, so refusing this challenge will undermine your authority and, eventually, leave you with no one on your side... meaning you would be a Warchief without an army." "Well, when you put it that way, I guess I have no choice but to accept," Sylvanas said, where her tone revealed that she wasn't too happy about the situation that had been thrust upon her, by both Saurfang and Spitfire, but even as she said that she turned and faced the odd Illidari that was standing near her position, as it sure seemed like she had, somehow, convinced Saurfang to side with her before this event started, which meant that she would need to do something to turn him back to her side once this ordeal was over and she could focus on readying her forces against their enemies, "Am I correct in assuming that you have a certain set of rules that you want us to follow for this Mak'gora?" "Yes, and they're rather simple," Spitfire replied, where she took a moment and pulled her warglaives out of her horns, so they were at the ready for when the battle started and Sylvanas came at her with whatever fury she had, which was when the Greyguard who carried Sylvanas' weapons approached the Banshee Queen and remained silent as she did so, even if she knew that the worgen in question had to be dying to cut the vile undead down where she stood, which was good since interrupting this challenge would be bad for both sides, "Both of us are allowed a pair of weapons, such as my warglaives or your daggers, the armor we are currently wearing is acceptable, we have plenty of people to witness our fight, neither of us are allowed to use any form of magic, and this is to the death." Sylvanas stared at her for a moment, as if thinking about the rules that had been put in place, before shifting her head as she picked up both of her daggers from where they were resting, even though she was surprised by the restraint that the Greyguard had maintained since she figured that her weapons would have ended in the dirt at some point, and she was able to tell that nothing had been done to her blades, meaning no one was setting her up for failure, as she had heard of one Mak'gora where a shaman blessed one of the combatants weapons, which Spitfire was ruling out for their match, and had applied poison to the weapon, allowing her warrior to cut down his foe, which had severe consequences when her deception had been discovered. Spitfire, on the other hand, said nothing as she watched Sylvanas for a time, even though they started to walk in a circle around the arena while maintaining the same distance they had been keeping earlier, as if one was silently daring the other to make the first move so the battle could start, but it wasn't long before the motion was broken as Spitfire made the first move and rushed at the area Sylvanas was standing in, without tapping into her powers since that would be breaking her own rules, where she brought her right warglaive down on her foe and quickly found out what her foe intended on doing, as Sylvanas raised one of her daggers into the air and stalled the blade before it could even reach her, or at least she was trying to do that. Not a few moments later the Banshee Queen grinned, like she had a plan as to how she could turn the tables on Spitfire and end this match in seconds, which was followed by her swinging the second dagger right at her chest, as if she was trying to slice open her side or something and leave her with a wound that would weaken her a tad bit, though before it could even reach its destination Spitfire twisted her body for a moment and blocked the incoming attack with her second warglaive, where the force of their blades colliding knocked them backwards a bit and put some distance between them, even though they didn't stay that way for long as they neared each other once more and clashed again. Spitfire found that if she had been a normal warrior, and she didn't have the skills to wield these warglaives, this would have been a significantly harder fight for her since Sylvanas was moving like a skilled warrior, which made sense given that she had been a Ranger-General before becoming the Banshee Queen, but she made sure that their blades connected with each other a few times with neither of them actually taking any damage from the exchange, but the collision of their weapons seemed to excite several of the watchers as some of them cheered every now and then as they watched the battle play out. Of course, as Spitfire discovered, she couldn't underestimate Sylvanas at all, not that she was planning on doing that given the fact that she was the leader of the Forsaken and had to be the strongest of them all, save for the heroes of course, but even as she thought about that Sylvanas was able to bypass her guard for a moment and cut into her side for a moment, which was followed by her kicking the Banshee Queen away from her, though once that was done she found that her foe paused for a moment and that gave her a chance to investigate the wound, where she found that the cut was light and it was surrounded by a sickly black mass, like an infection or maybe the area was cursed with death, before she focused her attention on Sylvanas once more. "A death enchantment, how interesting." Spitfire commented, as it wasn't something that she was expecting, even though weapons with various types of enchantments were scattered throughout Azeroth from everything she had seen during her time out of Maiev's prison, but this did sort of explain how Sylvanas was able to overcome her enemies without any sort of magical powers, but as the Banshee Queen she knew that her foe had some sort of magical power that she wasn't using at the moment, before she focused her attention on her foe once more, "One meant to inflict serious wounds to whoever you happen to be fighting, so that they'll slow down like they're dying and leave them open to more attacks, possibly even bringing about their death, but, even with that happening, you'll find that I'm not so easily beaten." "Please, we both know that you don't have the skill to take me down," Sylvanas stated, her tone revealing that she totally believed that she was going to be the victor of this and that Spitfire had signed her death warrant, after delivering one cut to her opponent, especially since she stood like she was welcoming someone to attack her, all signs that pointed to her being overconfident in her abilities and that such a thing might be her downfall, based on everything that Spitfire had learned during her time with the Illidari, "but you are welcome to try, as either way you'll end up dead and this pathetic duel of honor will be over." Spitfire wasted no time in rushing forward and swung her warglaive down at Sylvanas, where it was easy to see that some of the orcs that were nearby weren't too happy to hear that their new Warchief didn't care for the Mak'gora, though at the same time that was when she applied more of her base power into her next attack and actually pushed the dagger back as soon as Sylvanas tried to block her strike, so much so that it actually looked like she might have loosened her grip on the weapon for a few seconds, but when the second dagger came out that was when things got interesting, especially since she knew what the Banshee Queen was up to. As Sylvanas tried to get the upper hand Spitfire swung her other warglaive and used the shield section that rested in the middle of her weapon, where it stopped the dagger from reaching her and it also didn't leave a gash in the metal of her warglaive, something that seemed to surprise her foe in the process, especially due to the shape of the weapon in question and the fact that one would have assumed that one of the blades would have cut the user at some point, though thanks to everything she had learned from Lord Illidan and her instructors she was able to wield her warglaives without any problems, and to illustrate that point Spitfire swung the first one and lightly cut into her foe's stomach area, something that really surprised her, before quickly spinning and cutting another small diagonal gash from the opposite direction. Members of the Alliance and the Horde cheered when that happened, where some were just doing that because blood was being spilled and didn't want to seem like they were taking a side at all, given the fact that those ones had also cheered when Sylvanas struck her with the death enchanted dagger, an incredibly weak and sort of pitiful enchantment in Spitfire's opinion, though she didn't let the cheering distract her as she went on the offensive for real, where she swung her weapons and shifted her body like she was dancing around the area that they were fighting in, something that seemed to either annoy Sylvanas or confused her, something Spitfire wasn't about to question as she lashed out at her foe and either smashed into her defenses or slipped through them and cut light gashes into her arms, legs, or even the sides of her body, which repaid the cut that had been delivered to her earlier. To those watching she knew that it looked like the two of them had been on equal footing at the start of the battle, before she revealed her true base power anyway, though no one said anything as she fought Sylvanas, who seemed to be getting angry over what was going on at the moment and some of her strikes seemed to be channeling that very anger towards her, which was good for Spitfire, because raising her foe's anger to its highest potential would bring about her downfall when she made a play that was bad for her, which was what Spitfire was waiting for. Sylvanas continued to lash out with her daggers, looking for an opening that could be used against Spitfire and slip one of her weapons into her chest or something, all so she could bring an end to this battle, before she considered a few course and jumped backwards for a moment, allowing her to avoid Spitfire's incoming swing that had been aimed at her chest, or the other cuts to be exact, something that was followed by her rushing at her foe and propelling herself into the air with a good jump, where Spitfire briefly raised her left warglaive into the air to block any attacks that came from above, only to see that Sylvanas was more interested in her back and landed in the space behind her so she could drive her blade right into her back and pierce her heart, only for Spitfire to surprise her by moving to the side and drove the tip of her warglaive right into the Banshee Queen's chest. "Fool, you can't kill me with something like this," Sylvanas stated, where she raised her foot for a moment and pressed it against part of Spitfire's weapon, something that allowed her to force herself off the weapon and spilled her blood on the ground, though instead of staggering and falling to the ground, given the fact that Spitfire was sure that she had pierced her foe's heart with that attack, she stood up and seemed to smile as she looked down at the wound, like she was a tad bit annoyed by it being there in the first place, before she faced Spitfire once more, "Sorry, but I'm not planning on dying to you... in fact, I intend to live forever." "And that's all I needed to know... you were planning on using Eyir and her Val'kyr for immortality, weren't you?" Spitfire asked, because that had been bothering her since she and the others discovered what Sylvanas was doing to Eyir, due to the fact that none of them had any information on why she would do such a thing, but given that most of what Sylvanas had done had been for herself, even if she claimed to be doing it for the Forsaken and possibly for the rest of the Horde, this confirmed that the Banshee Queen only cared about herself, as she could see that a number of the Forsaken seemed upset, as if they didn't want to live forever and were saddened by their ruler wanting it for herself, like it went against their moral code or something, and it even outraged some of the other leaders, from both factions, and it was in that moment that some of the shadows behind Sylvanas shifted for a moment as shadowy Val'kyr seemed to appear. "It doesn't matter if you know or not, because the Horde will do great things with an immortal leader," Sylvanas stated, to which she shifted her head for a moment and found all four of her Val'kyr, the only ones of the original nine she started with after the death of the last Lich King, floating in the air behind her, where she suspected that one of them had stopped her wounds from bleeding, before she turned her head back towards Spitfire for a moment with a smirk on her face, as if she believed that with this trump card she had won the Horde and that they would join her over Spitfire, so she could put her own plan into action, "You should just give up, Spitfire, as you have no hope of defeating me... even though you were wrong to even bother with hope anyway, as it will only lead to despair." "A leader who doesn't care about hope... and you seriously think you're fit enough to be Warchief?" Spitfire inquired, but even as she said that she noticed something in the air around them, Eyir was moving towards the shadowy Val'kyr and was making sure no one noticed her do that, as if she was looking for an opening to move in and wipe out the tainted maidens that were hanging in the air behind Sylvanas, though it was hard to tell if this was breaking the rules or not, where it sure looked like Saurfang was trying to come to a decision on what they were seeing at the moment, before she glanced over to the observers that were nearby, "Oh, and in case anyone was wondering why Vol'jin picked her to be the next Warchief, to take his place so she could lead the Horde to victory against the Legion, its because he didn't actually pick her, as Vol'jin actually named me as the next Warchief and said that no one would understand it at first... Sylvanas just claimed the spot as soon as he died and named herself as the next Warchief of the Horde, while the other leaders and I kept our mouths shut while I observed her actions, and look what she's done since the funeral: she's tried to bring dishonor to the Horde and Blight whatever is around her forces and their camps... and she hates hope, like she's trying to snuff it out in her odd crusade to end all life on this world." "And what proof do you have? Do you expect them to take your word for everything?" Sylvanas inquired in turn, but at the same time Spitfire could see that she was getting very angry about what was going on, meaning that some of the things that had been said so far must have been right, in some way, though even as that happened the rest of the watchers did seem to be interested in everything that they were talking about, just like they had been interested in their match, which was a little odd but she was going to roll with it and not question what was going on right now, and, once more, Sylvanas seemed smug about something that was going on. "No, but I can show them what she means." a voice stated, where the assembled group watched as the transparent raven on Khadgar's shoulder flew into the air and transformed into Medivh's true transparent form, because he seemed to be an ascended being of some kind, though it was in that moment that he raised his staff into the air and a circular globe, one that was made out of blue glass or something, appeared in the air above the arena, to the right of where both Spitfire and Sylvanas were standing at the moment, before his magic rolled over the globe, revealing whatever he wanted to show the group that was watching the battle, which appeared to be a massive tree that was on fire, one that caused the night elves to gasp in pure shock and horror, "in an alternate, yet very similar, timeline you gathered the various forces of the Horde and, after pushing back the armies of the Legion and ended their third invasion of Azeroth, you started the Fourth War with the Alliance, mostly in an attempt to claim a powerful new source of power for your conquest of the world, one which caused you to assault Darkshore and, eventually, ended in you burning down Teldrassil and killing who knows how many innocent civilians, bringing the War of the Thorns, as it was called, to an end with a genocide that severely cut down on the number of night elves that called Azeroth home. You then lured the Alliance to Lordaeron and they laid siege to the city to find you and take your head, for the crimes you committed against the world in the past, not to mention the greater crime you had just committed, where you proceeded to Blight the battlefield in front of the ruined city and decimated all of Tirisfal Glades, a Blight that cased the dead of both factions to rise again and fight for you, and when Jaina countered your play, and saved her forces, you drew them into the ruined city and Blighted the Undercity, effectively making sure that the Alliance had a hollowed victory. In addition to that you did a number of other questionable things, both before the start of the Fourth War and after its start, such as killing your own Forsaken followers when they tried to reunite with their living families from the Alliance, as you felt that giving them any sort of hope was wrong and that anyone who felt hope was a traitor to your cause, so the Dark Rangers reluctantly slaughtered the undead that dared to have hope, and during your attempts to recruit new allies, during which you killed members of the Alliance and pulled them into undeath with the Val'kyr that follow you, you found the body of one of Jaina's family members and proceeded to try and make him into a walking bomb to kill Jaina and whoever was near her... and let's not forget the deal you eventually made with Queen Azshara, which killed off most of the Alliance and Horde's fleets when they found Nazjatar." Just hearing Medivh speak was enough to fill Spitfire with anger, as she couldn't believe that Sylvanas would do so much in the short time that she was the Warchief of the Horde, but seeing the images of what might happen with her as the leader of the Horde, and that even her most faithful of followers, the Dark Rangers and even Nathanos, were reluctant to do her bidding in some instances just showed how evil and dark her heart was, one that could not be redeemed even if Spitfire spared her life, though before she did anything it looked like Medivh had one or two more items he needed to share with them before his presentation was over. "You also arrested Baine, for releasing and returning Jaina's revived family member to her before he could be turned into a walking bomb, and called any who aided him a traitor," Medivh continued, where the images shifted and returned to the front gate of Orgrimmar, but instead of showing what was around them it looked like a united army stood in front of the city and seemed to be ready to tear Sylvanas down, only for them to see her and Saurfang fight before she killed the High Overlord and fled from the battlefield, even though it was followed by her fighting an undead being on top of a citadel in a snowy environment, which ended with the sky shattering in a terrifying fashion, "Saurfang, who didn't approve of what you were doing to the Horde, gathered his allies and marched on the city, to take you down and stop this madness, and in the end he called a Mak'gora and you killed him, after he rattled you and made you proclaim something that severed your ties with the Horde... and then, after that happened, you fled to Icecrown Citadel, where you fought the current Lich King, tore the Helm of Domination from Bolvar Fordragon's head, and then used your stolen power to tear the Helm in half, where your action freed the Scourge to tear a severely weakened Azeroth apart and tore open the sky above the citadel, creating a portal to the Shadowlands." "So, you saw the Alliance and Horde as nothing more than weak pawns to move around your chessboard, only to discard them when you no longer needed them," Spitfire said, though at the same time she contained her anger to the best of her ability, because it could spark her own flames and that would be seen as using magic, something that would cause her to lose the Mak'gora if Sylvanas' healing action wasn't counted as cheating, all while turning her head to face Sylvanas as she rushed forward and went on the offensive once more, mostly because it seemed like Medivh was done showing everyone what the Banshee Queen had done, and even if it was an alternate version of her that did the deeds, and this one wasn't planning on doing them, there was no way the leaders of both factions were going to trust her, not without questioning everything she did and everything she said, though Sylvanas went on the defensive as she seemed to think of a way to get out of the mess she was currently in, "but that's where you would be wrong, Sylvanas, because while I haven't been able to see everything the factions have been through over the years, thanks to Maiev wrongly imprisoning the Illidari, I can tell that that Alliance and Horde are strong, more so than you give them credit for, and none of them will ever give up on the right to have hope, especially in the face of the dangers that are trying to take this world... it seems that no matter what you do, in both this version of reality and the alternate one Medivh found, you just keep failing!" What happened next was that Spitfire's attacks seemed to push Sylvanas backwards, bit by bit, and the frown that was on the Banshee Queen's face just got deeper and deeper as they fought and as she considered everything Medivh had just shown everyone, including the statement that came from Spitfire's mouth, before raising her daggers to block an attack that was coming down towards her head, which caused the ground to crack a little, only to push Spitfire backwards a few seconds later, something that Spitfire was actually fine with as she started to spin by stopping herself with one hoof, the right to be exact, and attacked again, this time swinging the right warglaive to smash Sylvanas' daggers to the side and force open her defenses, which was followed by the second weapon cutting into her foe's face as she light sliced through Sylvanas' right eye and the areas that were above and below it, leaving a nasty scar on her face as the force of the attack made her stumble for a few seconds. "The Horde... the Alliance... they're nothing!" Sylvanas exclaimed, where her voice was louder than it had been earlier, no doubt due to her anger at what was going on at the moment and due to the fact that Spitfire had cut her face, but as she took a few seconds to right herself, and raised a hand to her face to feel the cut her Val'kyr were stopping from bleeding, she ended up dropping her weapons to the ground, either due to the shock of what happened to her or maybe she just felt like she didn't need them anymore, before she noticed how quiet it was all of a sudden, as her sudden statement had caused everyone to stop what they were doing and just stare at her, as both the Alliance and Horde were shocked by what she had said and everyone else was just annoyed, to which she growled for a moment as she stared at Spitfire with a look of pure hatred in her eyes, "You. Are All. NOTHING!" "And now you've sealed your fate." Spitfire stated, because at this point the Mak'gora had succeeded, she had exposed her foe to the rest of Azeroth and now both the Alliance and the Horde knew that the Banshee Queen didn't care about any of them, rather she only cared about herself and immortality, though at the same time, after hearing everything that Medivh had discovered, there was no way that she was going to let Sylvanas flee from this area and set in motion any of the evil things that had been revealed, even if she no longer had the means to do any of them, though as she shifted her stance it was easy for her to tell that the assembled warriors were eager to see what she did next, hence the reason she rushed right towards the area her foe was standing in so she could take her head off. In that moment Sylvanas raised her hands and, with no regard for the rules of the Mak'gora at this point, loosed a burst of dark energy, one that reminded Spitfire of the death enchantment her foe had used against her in the early stages of this battle, and blasted her right in the chest with enough power to kick up a bunch of dirt and dust to cover the area that she was in for a few moments, even though it seemed to leave a veil of death around the area that she was standing in for a time, though as the smoke cleared, and the crowd was able to see that Spitfire was just fine, Spitfire stretched for a few seconds before focusing on her foe. "Is that the best you can do? Because that barely tickled," Spitfire said, where she took a few moments to look at the rest of the crowd, who were outraged by what was going on right now, as Sylvanas had broken the rules of this Mak'gora a few times now and it was about time for them to bring an end to this battle, hence why she started to shift her stance as she realized that Sylvanas was looking at the area of her chest that had been hit, which was barely scratched up, and readied both of her warglaives for what was coming next as the crowd seemed to be waiting for her to make her move, "Citizens of Azeroth, what do you have to say to Sylvanas?" Everyone around her shouted out a single word, that word being 'Death', which was followed by her rushing forward and swinging her warglaives a few times, doing some damage to Sylvanas' chest once more, though the Banshee Queen didn't seem worried about such an attack, where this time around it was Spitfire who smirked as Eyir, in all her glory, appeared in the air behind the four dark Val'kyr that were in the air near Sylvanas, the beings that were keeping the undead elf alive at this point, where she swung her golden spear through the chests of all four Val'kyr and freed their souls, causing them to disappear as they headed to the Shadowlands, as Medivh called it, something that caused Sylvanas to cough up blood as her protection disappeared, though Spitfire ended her existence by ripping her warglaive out of her foe's chest and then used both of them to take Sylvanas' head off. "All hail Spitfire, the new Warchief for the Horde!" Saurfang exclaimed, something that caused the crowd to cheer for her as they followed his chant, showing that the rest of the Horde seemed to approve of what was going on, as they now had a leader that seemed to stay true to their core principles, and the leaders of the Alliance, while shocked by Sylvanas' claiming that everyone in their world was worthless, also cheered and nodded their heads, showing that they approved of what was going on at the moment, though as all of that happened she moved to the side as an arrow hit the ground behind her, one of the arrows that she had seen Sylvanas and Nathanos carry, and it wasn't long before Rainbow smashed Nathanos into the ground, something that caused many to focus on him as well. Nathanos did the stupid thing and tried to rush at the assembled group to avenge his Queen, showing that he was totally devout to Sylvanas' orders and that he was aiming for Spitfire, though that was when the Highlords of the Silver Hand, the three greatest paladin heroes of their world, used their holy powers to stall Nathanos in his tracks and, with a nod from all of the leaders, executed the Forsaken ranger that was in front of them, one stalling him with their shield and stabbing his chest, the second crushing him with a massive warhammer, and the third removing Nathanos' head with a greatsword, removing another threat to the safety of their world... to which Spitfire sighed and walked over to where the others were standing, as she suspected that things were going to get interesting after this event. > Interlude: Dealing with Demons > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I'm glad that's over." Spitfire commented, though even as she said that she banished her warglaives back to her horns for a time and stopped when the neared the area that Saurfang and the rest of the leaders, from both factions, were standing in, even though she could see that Khadgar and the other mages were in the middle of teleporting everyone back to Dalaran so they could continue their efforts to turn the tide against the Legion, especially since she had no idea if the other Pillars of Creation had been found or not, before she sighed as she glanced at the rest of her now fellow leaders, "The first thing we have to do is come to an agreement between the two factions, a ceasefire for the foreseeable future to be exact, though a new leader for the Forsaken will have to be chosen as well, someone who won't do what Sylvanas tried to do and wishes for peace between both the Alliance and the Horde." "Given how you handled revealing Sylvanas' ploy, and the fact that her desires didn't match up with what the rest of what we want, I'm sure finding a new leader will be easy," Anduin replied, because he had faith in Spitfire's abilities, as she would make a good Warchief, even if he suspected that it was temporary in her eyes, and that her power would show the rest of the Horde's leaders that she could defend herself from the dangers of their world, before he glanced at the Forsaken that were standing nearby, who seemed confused as to what was going on and what they were supposed to do now, "and it seems that some of your new followers are in need of guidance, so between those two I'm sure that you'll be busy between now and when we start our investigation in Suramar, for the last Pillar of Creation." "And I'll be sure to do so, given the situation that I have thrust myself into," Spitfire said, to which she turned towards the rest of the heroes that followed her to Stormheim and focused on Rainbow for a few seconds, who was walking away from Nathanos' body, as while she was expecting the undead archer to do something in regards to Sylvanas, like free her from the area she had been imprisoned in before this battle had happened, she wasn't expecting him to make an attempt on her life, and such a pitiful one at that, but right now she needed to focus on everything that was going on and what she needed to do next, "Rainbow, while I'm busy making sure that the Horde doesn't pull itself apart due to Sylvanas' death, and find a new leader to lead the Forsaken in her place, I want you to head back to the Fel Hammer and see what the rest of the Illidari are up to, since I'm sure they've been keeping their eyes on the Legion and might have discovered a threat or something that needs to be taken out before we move forward with Suramar. Oh, and Eyir, did you retrieve Sylvanas' soul, or do we have to worry about her coming back to bother us?" "Her soul, along with the soul of Nathanos and the Lich King's Val'kyr that were following the banshee, have been taken to the Shadowlands, to be judged by the Arbiter," Eyir declared, her tone revealing that she was pleased by what had Spitfire had done, by getting revenge for her and the others that had been mistreated by Sylvanas, be it her, the Val'kyr, and even her own forces, the latter that really made everyone angry, even though she and Odyn were also happy that their new ally had stopped Sylvanas from breaking open a portal to the Shadowlands and really screwing everything over, before she focused on Spitfire once more, "You have done well in stopping the Banshee Queen from doing all of the deeds that the spiritual human showed everyone, and, at the same time, you have shown great honor by abiding by all of the rules that you set, even if your foe broke them all and tried to end your life with a blast of death magic... it seems that Odyn might have found a champion that is truly honorable and full of valor, so you should expect him asking you to deal with Heyla in the near future, when you have time anyway." Spitfire said nothing to that, rather she nodded her head and thought about that, as it would be nice to take someone like Helya down so she would stop trying to bring death to the lands of the living, and making terrible deals like what she did with Sylvanas earlier, to which Eyir and Havi departed for the Halls of Valor not a few moments later, something that was followed by her doing the same thing as she and the other leaders of the Horde headed into Orgrimmar, which allowed Rainbow and the rest of the heroes to head back to Dalaran with Khadgar and whoever was heading back there, as there were a few things she needed to set straight right now, hence why the leaders of the Alliance were following her group as well, to which Rainbow smiled for a few seconds as she walked through the nearby portal. While Rainbow wanted to show off to her new friends and their allies, to reveal her skills and whatnot, she knew that Spitfire was stronger than she was and when she fought someone it was best to stand back and provide support, hence why she might have been in the back of the pack for a time, but now that everyone was going their separate ways for a time, no doubt to check out their Order Halls, Khadgar's name for the places the various 'classes' of Azeroth gather in, such as the Fel Hammer for her and the rest of the Illidari, so they could check in with all of their allies and plan their next moves against the Legion, making her take a moment to wonder what Kor'vas and the others might have for her. What she was thinking was that she could see what the others had in store for her and get moving with their next set of attacks on the Legion's forces, mostly since Spitfire was now the Warchief of the Horde and would be busy for a time, so this was mostly to get the boring or tedious stuff out of the way, so that way, when she came back to the ship, they would tackle some of the harder stuff together, before they tried to find out where the Felsouls might be waiting for them, given that they had fled the last time she and Spitfire had faced the pair of corrupted demon hunters. As such she waited for a few moments, to make sure that Khadgar's portal took them to Dalaran, and as soon as they arrived Rainbow bid the other heroes farewell for the time being before she bothered to make her way over to where the Landing of the city was located, where the Flight Master was tending to all of his griffins and other flying creatures, and then leapt into the air as she spread her wings so she could fly down to the tiny floating island that the portal to Mardum rested in. What Rainbow found was that most of the Illidari were busy, either pouring over the various pieces of information that they had gathered on Spitfire's orders, slashing at some of the chained demons to make sure their skills weren't rusting, or training their allies so they could be ready for what was ahead of them, as in the Broken and the Naga, though that was around the time that she found Kor'vas looking at something and she raised her head as soon as Rainbow returned to the Fel Hammer, where she beckoned her over and it wasn't long before she touched down in front of the demon hunter, as she was interested in what she might have to share with her. "Rainbow Dash, the time has come for us to make contact with the Master's soul." Kor'vas stated, which Rainbow wasn't expecting to hear, as she figured that they would have tackled a few more demons and done something else before they even attempted such a thing, but she remained silent as Kor'vas talked, as while she might be one of Spitfire's champions she was sure that Kor'vas was one as well, before the demon hunter sighed for a moment, "We know that it is somewhere in the endless expanse of the Twisting Nether, which, as you no doubt know, Mardum is located in, so naturally one would assume that such a thing would be easy... however, the truth of the matter is that finding a specific soul is not unheard of, as we've discovered that the Legion have done it a number of times over the years, but it will be exceedingly difficult, even for us, since we might appear on our enemy's radar while we do this. Now, the Matron Mother had us gather a number of components while you and Lady Spitfire were in Stormheim, stopping the Alliance and Horde from tearing each other to pieces at such a critical stage of this invasion, but, thanks to some careful calculations we did earlier, we have discovered that we're going to need a great deal of demon blood to perform this ritual... like, a lot of it!" "Well, Stormheim has next to no demons left at the moment, as I'm assuming you mean fresh blood and not the blood of a demon that's been dead for a while," Rainbow remarked, showing that she understood what Kor'vas was talking about, which seemed to either surprise the demon hunter in question or impress her, as it was hard to tell what the rest of the Illidari were expressing when most of them had burned out their eyes and someone of them were stuck in permanent expressions of anger or thought, because she knew that there was at least one or two who had such a thing happen after they became demon hunters, though that was when she thought about the map of the Broken Isles, "I don't think there are any demons in Highmountain or Val'sharah, so our choices are to either head down to part of Azsuna, since you guys tackled some of the Legion's forces in that province, or head into Suramar, into Felsoul Hold to be exact, and harvest the blood from the demons that call that place home... Azsuna might be safer in the long run, given that we know Gul'dan is either in Suramar or the Broken Shore, so attacking Felsoul Hold too soon might alert him to our presence and cause him to do something to hinder our progress in some manner." It was in that moment that Kor'vas revealed a container, a cylindrical one at that, which she said was supposed to contain enough space to hold the blood of a hundred demons inside it, giving Rainbow a number to work with when she decided which area she wanted to tackle, while at the same time informing her that once she had enough demonic blood that she should return to Kayn and give it to him, where Rainbow wasted no time in letting her know that she understood the next stage of their plan and grabbed the container before heading back to the portal, so she could head back to Dalaran and pick out which province she wanted to assault. In the end she determined to assault Azsuna, given that she didn't want to alert Gul'dan just yet, and once she was on the other side of the portal, standing on the small island again, she spread her wings and took off for the province that happened to be left of where the city was floating in the air, as there happened to be an area where the demons were fighting a force of Illidari that either Spitfire had sent there or one of her champions had done the same thing while they were in Stormheim, though as she did that she spotted a few elven ruins scattered all over Azsuna, making her wonder if Khadgar and the mages were planning on going and exploring some of them for the lost magics they might have. Instead of focusing on all of the ruins, and what might be inside them, she focused on what she had been told and quickly found the Fel-corrupted area that was her destination, where she quickly found all sorts of demons guarding the place from any enemies that might try to beat them down and expel them from Azeroth, such as the Mo'arg, Inquisitors, Imps, Felstalkers, one or two Infernals, a dead Jailer, a number of Eredar, some Felbats, and a Felguard that seemed to be a commander, meaning she had a number of targets to choose from and that none of them would be missed in the grand scheme of things, to which Rainbow grinned for a moment as she drew her warblades and flashed down right into the area that the Felguard commander was standing in, where the demon barely had a chance to move as he noticed her and its body collapsed into a pile of pieces, to which she stood up for a moment and gathered the blood from its body, even though she also absorbed its soul as well. Such a thing caused her to keep the smile on her face for a few more seconds, as this allowed her to cut down on the number of demons in Azeroth, absorb their souls so the Legion didn't learn what she and the other Illidari were up to, gather the blood she needed, and get a power boost for later, all so she could catch up with Spitfire, despite the fact that she believed that Spitfire would find a way to get a massive boost in the near future, how she had no idea. As such Rainbow went on a rampage of sorts, where she carefully hunted down the demons that were in the area that the Felguard had been standing in and swung her warblades at whoever dared to challenge her, which involved slicing Imps in half, cutting down the Felstalkers, dodging the attacks that the Mo'arg sent at her before slicing them open, stabbing the Inquisitors in the back and making sure they stopped moving, cutting the Eredar down before any of the corrupt magic users even knew she was there, and hunted down the rest of the demons that were scattered around this area, which was called Faronaar according to one of the Eredar who claimed that the Legion commanded this area, something she sort of believed based on the more corrupted side of the island that housed who knew how many demons inside it, an area that she and the others would have to investigate at some point. From what she could see as she flew near the other half of the island was that there were a fair number of the demonic spiders that the Illidari had encountered on Mardum, the Aranasi she recalled, and by that she meant both the normal demonic spiders and the more bipedal female demons that were just like the Brood Queen who used to rule Mardum, though she was sure that if she flew over the rest of the island she would find a number of other demons gathering their forces for a push into Azsuna, or at least that was what she would do if she was in the Legion's position, so it was likely that there were more demons to fight. However, she decided to continue with her task for once and take this information back to Kor'vas and the others, since they needed to know of a demonic force that was near where one of their camps was resting, since she did spot the Illidari camp on the other side of the small bit of watch that was between this island and the main part of Azsuna, so she continued to hack into the demons that were all around the area she was in and collected both their blood and their souls, though once she was done here, and the rest of her friends knew of the force of demons, she was sure that the demons would be routed in due time and peace brought back to Azsuna, before they focused on Suramar and the Broken Shore, the last two provinces that seemed to be infested with demons, based on what their readings in the Fel Hammer indicated. In fact the last demon Rainbow needed to take down was one of the Eredar and made sure to take her soul, along with a good amount of her blood, though once she did that she made sure to seal the container, as to not spill any of the blood she had collected, before heading into the air and started to head back to Dalaran, as she was interested in seeing if Spitfire had returned to the city yet or if she was back in Orgrimmar, dealing with the leaders of the factions. When she returned to the floating city, however, she found that many of the leaders were already present and seemed to be in the middle of sending out their forces to the four provinces, as in sending some soldiers to their new allies in case of a Legion invasion or something, like an advanced warning system so they could know where to sent the rest of the armies, before she spotted someone standing near the edge of the Landing and smiled as Spitfire glanced up at her, to which she landed nearby and tucked her wings in as she approached her friend, who seemed to be ready for whatever the rest of the Illidari needed to before they headed to Suramar. "I wasn't expecting you to be done with the other leaders so soon," Rainbow commented, as while she was sure that she had been in Faronaar for some time, like thirty minutes tops, she felt that it was hard for the leaders to come to any sort of understanding in that short amount of time, especially since both of them had been at war with each other for so long and had a history of conflict with each other, something that Spitfire had positioned herself between and apparently wanted to bring an end to it, which she agreed with since they had a much bigger threat looming over this world, "So, tell me, what in the world happened in Orgrimmar?" "As of right now, we've agreed that there will be no war between the Alliance and the Horde, so all of our forces are getting ready for the Legion's next move," Spitfire replied, though even as she said that she seemed pleased with herself, as she had done what she had originally planned when she decided to declare the Mak'gora, stop the potential war between both factions and had now focused their attention on the Legion, which had to be worth something, before she glanced over to Rainbow for a moment and noticed the container that was on her back, "also, we discovered the existence of the Desolate Council, a band of twenty-two Forsaken lead by their Vellcinda Benton, who have agreed to rule over the Undercity and the rest of the Forsaken in Sylvanas' place, while promising that they aren't going to be following in her footsteps, so we won't have to worry about any further interruptions from her supporters. What's with the container?" Rainbow took a moment to explain what she had been doing, that she had been in Azsuna killing demons to take a decent amount of their blood for a ritual that Kor'vas and the others wanted to perform, to contact Lord Illidan's soul, though as soon as Spitfire heard that she decided that her worries about being the Warchief were irrelevant right now and both of them wasted no time in spreading their wings and heading for the small island so they could return to the Fel Hammer, all so they could see what happened when the blood was delivered to those that had requested it, though on the other side of the portal they found Kayn and Altruis waiting near the ship's entry point. "Well, I've collected the amount of demonic blood that Kor'vas said we needed for the ritual," Rainbow stated, where she took a moment to shift her stance for a moment and passed the container to the pair that was in front of her and Spitfire, as she knew that both of them had been informed of the ritual that they were planning on doing and that they must have been making sure everything was ready before all of the blood had been acquired, the missing ingredient that she had claimed from the demons of Azsuna, even though she could see that Spitfire was interested in what was going to happen next, especially since it seemed different than what happened outside Orgrimmar. "If this isn't enough demon blood to contact Lord Illidan, then no amount will be." Kayn commented, though at the same time he sighed for a moment as he took the container from Rainbow, almost like he was considering the changes of them actually being able to pull this off with a success, which would mean finding the soul of their Lord, before he glanced up at the pair that was in front of him and Altruis, where he was reminded of what they had done so far and suspected that if both of them were involved with the ritual this might work for them, "Now, let us see if we can make contact with Illidan's spirit in the Twisting Nether, though we're risking our very position by doing this, given that the Nether is full of creatures with unimaginable power and appetites and the vast amount of worlds that the Legion controls... but, despite how risky this sounds, we have to perform the ritual so we can figure out the next steps of our Lord's plan to bring down the Legion, and we've prepared the Nether Crucible for this event. Its time to make the blood offering." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded for a moment as they followed the pair down to the lower level of the Fel Hammer, where the Nether Crucible was located and found Kor'vas standing near it, no doubt putting some finishing touches on it and what they were planning on doing, to which they stood in front of where it rested, and in front of the ramp that lead right to the forge that empowered their weapons and reforged Frostmourne to use against the Legion, before spilling the blood into the center of the device and readied their Fel powers for a moment, as it was time for them to see if they could figure out where their Lord's soul was located... though not even a few moments later, as literally ten seconds passed after the start of the ritual, a transparent image, which was blue colored for some reason, appeared before them and it just so happened to be the image of their Lord's soul, even if they had no idea where in the Twisting Nether he was since there was nothing else to see. "Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, I have been expecting your arrival for some time now... it is good to see that the both of you are alive and are fighting the Legion." Illidan said, where it looked like he had a smile on his face, even though he was dead at the moment and that he needed to be returned to his body, though even as he said that it appeared that, even as a soul, which shouldn't have to worry about fighting anyway, he had fought something recently and that he was in the middle of crushing the skull of a demon, meaning either his soul was lingering in an odd sort of limbo and was killing any demon who dared to come near his position, or he was hunting them down and devouring their Fel energy to sustain himself until he could be returned to his body, before he noticed the others that were near the pair, "Kayn Sunfury, Altruis, Kor'vas Bloodthorn, it is good to see the three of you again as well." "It is good to see you again, our Lord." the three other Illidari said, where they bowed their heads for a moment and were happy to see that they were able to find the soul of their Lord, something that made Kayn wonder if the power of Spitfire and Rainbow, a power that Lord Illidan seemed to have been studying before the assault on Mardum and might have even been keeping track of in the Twisting Nether, given the fact that he came to their call within seconds of the ritual starting, but despite his thoughts on the matter he, Altruis, and Kor'vas remained silent as they listened to what their Lord had to tell them, as it seemed like he might know why they were calling to his soul. "I would like nothing more than to hear what you have to tell me, about your tales, but there is little time, so I would ask all of you to listen to what I have to say," Illidan said, where the group remained silent for a time as they waited for him to say what he had to say, though both Spitfire and Rainbow seemed happy that their Lord knew something about what they had been through and had been eager to hear what they had done so far, before he straightened his body and faced them so he could give them the information that they sought, "Long ago, before the assault on Mardum, I entrusted the duplicitous Akama with planning the campaign against the Legion and eventually entrusted him with my final plan for our assault, so he, alone, knows every detail of what needs to be done to bring down the Legion, which means that all of you will need his counsel if you are to succeed. Also, I shouldn't have to remind you of this, but I will for the sake of being thorough, as you must also regain the Sargerite Keystone to invade the Legion's worlds, or in this case Argus and a few select worlds that I felt we needed to take down before the main event, so you will need to figure out where Maiev might have hidden it, even if she might not want to part with it... there is more I would like to say, but your ritual is starting to attract attention, and I feel that you won't be able to contact me like this again, so I will pass the leadership to you, Spitfire." Spitfire and the others watched as something found their Lord's soul and he lashed out at them with an Eye Beam, tearing the demon in question apart rather easily, though before they watched anything else the image disappeared and nothing was left above the Nether Crucible, to which Kayn, Kor'vas, and Altruis lead them up to where the rest of the Illidari were waiting for them and declared that they had been successful in their mission to contact Lord Illidan's soul, that they had acquired wisdom and a course of action, and that Spitfire had, as predicted, been named as the leader of the Illidari, just like she had been doing before hand, causing the Illidari to cheer as they walked over to where the Shivarra were standing, as they needed to speak to the leader of their allies. "I overheard that our Lord wishes for you to seek Akama... just so you know, getting into the Black Temple is going to be rather tricky." Malevolence said, showing Spitfire and Rainbow that she understood what they were going to ask her and that she already had an answer prepared for them, though at the same time the pair suspected that there was something interesting that she knew and that none of them were going to like, even though she was focused on the reason that they approached her in the first place, "Following the break-in by the Council of the Black Harvest, where one of them stole the power of the Shrine of Lost Souls and transformed himself into a demon after devouring the Fel energy... something I'm sure one of the Netherlords is looking into, given their interest in demons... Akama had his Sha'tari priests erect a Holy barrier over the temple, one that prevents me from using my teleportation magic to get inside. However, despite having such an obstacle in our way, I might know a way to bypass those protections and take us directly to the summit, as long ago, I had a... liaison with a certain high elf wizard named Lan'dalock, who later joined the Kirin Tor... if you were to ask him very nicely, and drop my name, I am certain that he would help you find something to overcome the barrier." Given the fact that Lan'dalock was a member of the Kirin Tor, and that the base of operations for that particular group of mages happened to be Dalaran, Spitfire and Rainbow headed for the portal that would take them back to the floating city, where Malevolence mentioned for them to give the mage her best, no doubt implying that they had more than a normal relationship in the past, where it didn't take them long to return to the landing and found a guard, who pointed them back towards the structure that the Council of Seven rested in, meaning more Archmages had to be milling around that area, besides everyone they had seen in the past so far, where it wasn't long before they found a person who looked a lot like a blood elf but wasn't, meaning he had to be a high elf, even though it was a purple transparent version of him and he was up on the second floor of the building. "Archmage Lan'dalock? We need to talk with you for a few minutes." Spitfire said, though she made sure that no one else was around her, Rainbow, and the transparent image that was right in front of them, mostly due to the nature of what she had been told a few minutes ago, since an Archmage having a demonic contact would be seen as wrong, even traitorous, thanks to the current invasion that was going on right now, hence the reason that she lowered the volume of her voice as the image turned to face her and Rainbow, "Malevolence told us you might have a way to bypass a Holy barrier that can protect whatever its thrown up around from Fel magic, like teleportation magic to be exact." "The Matron Mother?" Lan'dalock inquired, where the pair watched as the Archmage's face quickly turned red for a couple of seconds as he choked out a cough and looked around surreptitiously, doing exactly what Spitfire had done before even mentioning the part of the demon in question, though he continued to do so for a few moments, meaning he had to be a little paranoid over this matter, even though Spitfire could understand why he would feel that way and act this way, only to stop and sigh for a moment as he faced them, "Yes, of course. Anything for Malevolence... oh, and sorry about using this holographic projection, as I'm literally need to be in two places at once these days." "Understandable, given the invasion we're dealing with at the moment," Rainbow remarked, though even as she said that, and both Spitfire and Lan'dalock seemed to focus on what had been mentioned, along with the Matron Mother's name being dropped, she felt that there was a demon in the nearby area and that it didn't belong to one of the warlocks, even if they seemed to be inside the sewers from what one of the guards mentioned, a rather odd place when she thought about it, but kept her eyes and ears open as the pair in front of her spoke to each other and Spitfire acquired what Malevolence had sent them to collect for their mission. "Now then, you said that you're dealing with a Holy barrier that protects against Fel magic? I actually have just the thing to bypass such a thing and enable Malevolence's to teleport to whatever her destination is." Lan'dalock stated, where the pair watched as the high elf rummaged around in his pack for a few seconds, a pack that had been resting nearby and showed them that even a transparent image could interact with things, revealing what the magic of this world was capable of and that each mage seemed to be prepared for anything, since he must have left all of this here in case some of the other heroes came to ask him a question or look for something specific, before a shocked look quickly came over his face as he noticed something was missing and glanced at the nearby railing for a moment. What they found was that there was an Imp resting nearby and that it was holding onto a grimoire, a spell book that looked like the one they had been sent to collect, though as it turned to jump off the railing that it was standing on, to escape and deliver this information to its Legion masters, Rainbow quickly stopped it by flashing over to where it was located and, in a display of speed that shocked the Imp in question, grabbed the demon before it could even run away, where she quickly sliced its head off and fed its soul to her warblades in a matter of seconds, where Spitfire picked up the grimore and held it out towards Lan'dalock, mostly in the sense that she was asking if it was what he was looking for, and he nodded his head and beckoned for them to take it, to which they nodded and departed for the Fel Hammer. Spitfire wasn't surprised by the speed that Rainbow had displayed when catching the Imp before it had a chance to flee from the building they had been standing in, though even as they left the structure she could have sworn that she felt the familiar tingle of Varedis' magic in the air and sensed frustration with it, meaning he and Caria must have been looking for the tome, to either keep it out of their hands or to use its knowledge to hit somewhere important, like one of the other Order Halls, specifically either the location of the paladins or the priests, since they were the ones that were well versed in Holy magic and would likely have the means to erect such a barrier. Part of her wondered if the Legion was only doing that in order to weaken Azeroth, since both of the Orders had heroes that had thwarted the demons in the past, or if it was due to the fact that they had something that the Legion wanted to get their hands on, like one of the Naaru or something, but in the end keeping the tome to themselves and using it against the demons was better for everyone, since it prevented their enemies from doing anything against their allies, hence the reason that they returned to the Landing and flew over to the small island the portal was resting on. Once that was done Spitfire and Rainbow passed through the portal and stepped out on the other side, where the champions of the Illidari seemed to be waiting for the order to be given for them to do something, even though they were eager to tackle their true enemies, which they would get to in due time, just as soon as they found the Sargerite Keystone and recovered the last Pillar of Creation, though that was when Rainbow took a moment to walk over to Malevolence and handed her the grimoire, so she could study it and figure out if they needed any other components before trying to infiltrate the Black Temple. "Normally, we would do some scouting to make sure you two aren't teleporting into a trap, since we're sure that Akama might have set something up for some of us," a voice said, where the pair found that it was Belath speaking this time, as he was usually quiet and listened to what the rest of his superiors had to say on a matter, though they were interested in what he had to say, since it was possible that he might have an interesting point or two to share with all of them, as Kayn and Altruis, at the very least, were standing nearby and were waiting for him to speak his mind, before they got back to planning the next stage of their operation, "but, based on what I can remember from our time in the Black Temple, I think if we were able to teleport both of you to the summit, and arm you with a return crystal, Akama might be fine with the two of you being there, as he seemed to approve of you more than he approved of Lord Illidan." "So if we tell him that Spitfire is the leader of the Illidari, he might join our cause?" Rainbow inquired, because that seemed to be what Belath was telling them, that all they had to do was teleport to the summit of the Black Temple and tell Akama that there has been a change in leadership in the forces that had occupied the temple for some time, a location that they were sure their Lord had promised to return to Akama once he was done fighting the Legion, but she had to admit that it made sense when she thought about it, especially since she and Spitfire had no idea how Akama would react since neither of them knew the Broken in question all that well. No one said anything to that, since they really had no idea how Akama would react to their presence in the temple, which meant that there was a chance he would attack them or just peacefully talk with the pair, which was eventually followed by Malevolence revealing that the way to bypass the magical barrier was simpler than she originally believed and that with all of her new knowledge she was able to open the way to the Black Temple's summit, to which she channeled her magic into the area that was to her left and opened a Fel gateway, one that seemed to be surrounded by Arcane energy to prevent their enemies from locking onto their location. With that done she beckoned for Spitfire and Rainbow to head out and see if they could convince Akama to join them in their war against the Legion, to which the pair nodded for a moment before both of them walked through the portal that was in front of them, even though the former made sure to keep an eye on Mardum and be ready to defend themselves in the off chance that their enemies tried to attack them, something that all of her champions agreed with, before they passed through the magical gateway and headed towards their destination, an area that they hadn't been in for a long time. Not even a few moments later they appeared on the outskirts of the summit of the temple, where they usually trained with Lord Illidan so they could master their abilities when they originally became too much for their previous teachers, though it didn't take either of them long to find Akama standing in the middle of the summit, in the area that had to be where the heroes of Azeroth fought their Lord so long ago, when they returned from Mardum with the Sargerite Keystone, and it seemed that he hadn't noticed their arrival yet, but Spitfire was no fool and knew that he was likely aware that they had arrived, since Lord Illidan had told him everything and that meant that he had to know someone, be they the Legion or the Illidari he once worked with, would be coming for him. As they walked away from where the portal rested, however, Spitfire held her hand out and shook her head, indicating that Rainbow should keep her warblades hidden for now, as she didn't want Akama to think that they were here to kill him or drag him back to the Fel Hammer against his will, and Rainbow nodded her head to show her that she agreed, to which Spitfire walked away from the portal and approached the center of the summit, leaving her friend to guard the portal, even if there weren't any enemies that could use it to get to the Fel Hammer, and it was the sound of her hooves that alerted Akama. "Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, I knew that it was only a matter of time until the Illidari sought me out, hence the barrier to keep the Legion from entering this temple," Akama commented, where he turned around and stared at both of them for a few seconds, his tone and words confirming Spitfire's thoughts on the matter, though at the same time he wasn't carrying the weapons that they had seen the last time both of them had seen the Broken, rather they were attached to his belt, as if he was showing them that he truly understood what was going on and that he was willing to talk, "Am I correct in assuming that you came to recruit me into your war against the Legion?" "We are, as we spoke to Lord Illidan's soul and he told us to seek you out, since you knew his entire plan to bring down the Legion and its masters," Spitfire replied, deciding that she might as well reveal the reason that they had come to the Black Temple after so many years of being trapped inside the Warden's Vault, even though it would have been best if Maiev had just left them alone and didn't interfere with their plans, as they could have stopped most of this from happening, but she focused on the reason that they were here in the first place and made sure Akama was her focus, "we would appreciate it if you followed us through this portal and returned to the Fel Hammer, which is our base of operations in Mardum, and help us figure out what we need to do to bring down Sargeras' forces... you don't have to stay with us if you don't want to, as I will not force you to stay in a place that you don't want to stay in, but we do need whatever plans Lord Illidan shared with you, so if you just want to write it down and have us leave we can do that as well." "You are different from Illidan... perhaps what I saw might come to pass," Akama said, something that surprised Spitfire and Rainbow, since they weren't aware that he had the ability to see visions, though it was highly possible, if somewhat unlikely, that the Holy barrier that was covering the temple might have awakened some of his former powers, because if memory served he had been a paladin or something before becoming one of the Broken, something he didn't like to talk about based on what they recalled, before he stepped away from where he was standing and walked over to where the pair were standing, "Come, there are things I must tell you and obstacles to overcome, before we can declare war on our enemies and bring down the Legion." Spitfire and Rainbow wasted no time in nodding their heads and escorted Akama back through the portal, where both of them were sure that he would ask to come back and collect his Ashtongue forces for the upcoming battle with the Legion, and they quickly returned to the Fel Hammer, where their ally walked over to Kayn and all of Spitfire's champions, which meant there were things he needed them to do before he revealed everything they needed to do, before the pair paused for a moment as they felt some Fel energy near the opposite side of the ship, from where the portal to Dalaran rested to be exact, and walked over to it as the rest of the Illidari braced themselves for whatever was coming, where they found two sinister Fel green transparent images, of Varedis and Caria no less. "How touching... you've recruited another worthless maggot into your 'army'," Caria stated, her tone informing everyone that she was mocking them and that she felt that all of them were beneath her at this point in time, telling those that were even remotely familiar with her, or had been friends with her before she had been either killed or kidnapped before their assault on Mardum, that their old comrade was dead and that they were staring at the twisted demonic version that was resting near a corrupted Varedis, something that also annoyed many of the demon hunters, especially after everything he did to fight the Legion, "not that it matters, given what we have seen over the years." "This is quite the ragtag bunch you have here, Spitfire, and I would have thought you could do better than this, even if all you had were the Betrayer's leftovers," Varedis said, where many of the Illidari gripped their weapons as they glared in the direction of where Spitfire and Rainbow were standing at the moment, even though Rainbow knew what to do and took a moment to motion for everyone to remain still as Spitfire listened to what their enemies had to say, since this might give them some information on what their enemies were doing and which of the Legion's worlds they were calling home right now, for when they found and recovered the Sargerite Keystone, "But, enough with the pleasantries, even though none of you deserved them to begin with. Our lord, Kil'jaeden, has sent us to let all of you know that the Illidari will soon be joining the Burning Legion and forsaking your foolish fight against us..." "...not to mention to show all of you that you are not safe, not even here on the Fel Hammer." Caria finished, showing that they must have practiced this at some point in the past, after their warglaives were taken from them, though at the same time it appeared that Caria was ticked off, no doubt about the fact that her weapons were being wielded by someone she didn't think was worthy enough to use them in battle, but she said nothing else after that, meaning that she was waiting for Varedis to say what was on his mind before speaking again, though that didn't stop her from glaring at Rainbow and her old warblades for a few moments. "Hear me, Illidari! All present in the Fel Hammer are welcome to join the Legion, be they demons or the hunters that they have foolishly allied with!" Varedis called out, allowing his voice to carry throughout the rest of the ship so it could reach all of their forces, meaning that everyone was listening to what he was saying right now while Caria remained silent, though at the same time Spitfire and Rainbow stared at them for a few seconds, wondering if they were being serious about this or if Kil'jaeden's corrupted allies were just this stupid, before he continued speaking to everyone that was currently inside the Fel Hammer, "Great power will be granted to those who choose to forsake the foolish mission your fallen lord gave you and join us in our glorious crusade, while painful agony awaits everyone who decides to reject this gift and continue down this foolish path, until you break from our Lord's torture and are reborn as Felsworn... Spitfire, personally I hope you, of all the Illidari, refuse, just so I can have the honor of beating you in battle and returning those warglaives to my hands, while delivering your broken body to Xazariel." "Come now, Varedis, fair is fair... even if I feel the same towards Rainbow Dash." Caria said, revealing that both of the foul Felsworn traitors wanted their weapons back and that they were likely gorging themselves on Fel energy to prepare for the battle that would happen when they eventually came face to face with Spitfire and Rainbow again, when they figured out which planet they called their base of operation, though as soon as that was said both of the Felsouls disappeared from the area that their images had appeared in and left the Illidari to their devices, as if neither of them cared about what they did before assaulting Mardum at some point in the future. In that moment Spitfire turned to the rest of the Illidari and found that they were determined to show the Felsouls that they were wrong and that Lord Illidan's path was what would prevail over the Legion, to which she nodded her head and everyone got to work once more, where she walked over to Akama and those he was talking to, as it was time to see what else they needed to do to follow their Lord's plan and assault the worlds that their enemies called home, before worrying about the final Pillar of Creation and Gul'dan, pieces that needed to be taken care of before they sealed the Felstorm and stopped the invasion entirely. > Order Hall: Falling Star > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the Illidari having heard Varedis and Caria's declaration to them and their allies, the demons that betrayed the rest of the Legion, both Spitfire and Rainbow resumed listening to what Akama needed them to do so they could prepare for the upcoming stages of their Lord's plan to bring down the Legion, even though everyone on the Fel Hammer knew that they needed to find and recover the Sargerite Keystone, which had been the heart of Lord Illidan's plans from the moment he discovered its existence, though right now the only ones that knew where the Keystone might be were, unfortunately, the Wardens, the very warriors that had imprisoned the Illidari all those years ago. Truthfully, many of her forces weren't too happy about what Akama told them that they needed to do, that someone had to establish communications with whoever their leader was, as last Spitfire heard it was someone called Sira Moonwarden, even though Maiev was the true leader and would no doubt assume her proper place if she came back, since she was supposedly following Gul'dan's tracks after everything that happened in the Vault of the Wardens, but Belath surprised most of them and said that he would take on the task, as he was sure that he could convince the force of warriors to assist the Illidari in locating the Keystone. Such a thing allowed the rest of the Illidari to focus on everything else that Akama needed them to do, as they were going to be making preparations for an invasion of their own, to go after the Felsouls that were serving the Legion and not only take both of them down, but also show the Legion that they were no longer as safe as they believed they were, despite the fact that everyone knew Varedis and Caria would be taken down by Spitfire and Rainbow, given what had happened when they went to go get the artifacts they were carrying right now, and the pair would be happy to do away with the Felsouls, just to take down another set of enemies. Of course Allari was focusing her efforts on locating Lord Illidan's soul and his body, as if they were to combine the two back together they could restore their Lord to his former glory, and since his body was in the hands of Gul'dan right now, who was probably pumping his body full of Fel energy to ready his body for a sinister and foul purpose, his power would be far greater than it had been the last time they saw him, which would deal a crippling blow to the Legion if they managed to recover his body and soul. While they were working on what they needed to do, and everything that needed to be done before the Fel Hammer was ready for their invasion of the world the Felsouls called home right now, a sphere of Arcane energy appeared nearby and it was easy for Spitfire and Rainbow to see that the energy belonged to Khadgar, which had to be a new type of spell that allowed him to alert the heroes when he discovered something important, or at least that was their assumptions on what they were seeing right now, to which the pair had the rest of the Illidari continue with their preparations as they returned to Dalaran and headed towards the area that the Council resided in, something that allowed them to see that Khadgar was talking to Vytheril about something, only to turn his head when he noticed them. "Ah, Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, thank you for coming so quickly, as I have a matter of some urgency that might require your unique talents for a time." Khadgar said, where the pair found one of the paladins of the Order of the Silver Hand standing nearby, one who happened to be a blood elf like Vytheril and was wearing gleaming plate armor that seemed to reflect the Light, even though the paladin was female and she seemed focused on something else at the moment, where it was easy for them to see that she had white hair that was cut short and her eyes were golden, instead of the green the rest of the rest of the blood elves had, but Spitfire had to assume that since she and Vytheril were here meant that they were going to be joining some heroes in whatever Khadgar had discovered, but they remained quiet as they waited for him to tell them what was going on and what they needed to do before returning to the Fel Hammer, "The Order of the Silver Hand have reported that an extraordinarily luminescent, nearly blinding, object has emerged from the Felstorm and is currently in the process of falling towards the coast of Suramar, though what I find most curious about this occurrence is that the object was reported as having 'cut a swath' through the Felstorm itself, as we have never seen something like that before and we we're planning on sending Vytheril and Syerea Dawnspark down to Suramar to investigate this event... and I was hoping you would join them, just to increase their chances of finding and recovering this object, because if we noticed it shooting out of the Felstorm, so too did the Legion, which means they could be looking for it as well." "If we see any demons, we'll be sure to kill them before they get their hands on whatever it is we're looking for," Spitfire replied, though this wasn't what she was expecting to hear when she noticed the Arcane sphere earlier, especially when she considered the fact that the mysterious object cut a path through the intense Felstorm itself, a feat that might mean it was a weapon of some kind and that they had allies who might be coming to assist them, with this being the first of many tools to turn the tide against the Legion, though she was sure there were other options on what it might be and the only way to figure it out would be claiming the mysterious object and bringing it back to Dalaran. Khadgar nodded and the new group of four departed from the building that they had been standing in since Syerea, both of the other Highlords, and the rest of their paladins discovered the mysterious object flying through the sky, to which they headed for the Landing that apparently had a pair of gryphons readied for the pair that couldn't fly on their own and when all four of them arrived the Flight Master nodded his head as he beckoned to the pair of beasts that would allow Vytheril and Syerea to reach Suramar, though even as he did so he made sure that they were aware of how dangerous Suramar was and wished them well in whatever Khadgar was having them do. Everyone nodded their heads as the wingless pair climbed onto the gryphons that were resting nearby and took off a few moments later, where Spitfire and Rainbow did the same thing as they unfurled their wings and followed after their companions, though as they did so they kept their eyes, ears, and senses open in case the Legion tried to attack them while they headed through part of Suramar and carefully tracked down the mysterious and power object that Khadgar wanted them to find and recover. As they flew towards the area that happened to be their destination the group glanced out at whatever they passed by, such as the massive tower structure off to their left that was a lighter version of the Fel-tainted Tomb of Sargeras on their right, which meant the one on the left was the Nighthold, apparently a legendary place according to Vytheril, and it was a place that many mages had an interest in studying, even though that meant they would have to convince the inhabitants of the city to allow them to enter the structure in question. From there the group headed to what appeared to be an area that was near some rather ancient ruins, possibly elven based on what Spitfire and Rainbow could see, though what was interesting was that there was a vrykul village across the water from where the ruins rested, meaning that the only way the vrykul could get to the ruins would be by boat, even though they didn't appear to be interested in the ruins at all, as every one of them seemed to be resting in their village and following their own customs, though that didn't stop Vytheril from making a note of it as they flew down into the area that was their destination, which happened to be a patch of land, between two large rocks on the back side of the ruined area, and when they landed the gryphons let the pair climb off them before flying off, meaning that returning would either be Spitfire and Rainbow's job or Vytheril's. "Okay, it should be around here somewhere," Syerea commented, where she and the others stood near a ruined ship that was near where they landed, though even as she said that Spitfire and Rainbow sensed something odd and glanced up at the air that was directly in front of the area that they were now standing in, where they watched as an odd human sized item pierced the air and smashed right into the water that was in front of them, though it looked like it had a barrier made of Light energy that was protecting it from the Fel energies of the Felstorm, "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that to even happen, especially since it should have stuck the water before this point, but I'm not about to complain about what we're seeing at the moment, so it seems all we need to do is take a quick dip in the water, pull the object out of the area that it landed in, and then use the hearthstone that Archmage Khadgar gave us so we can return to Dalaran with whatever it is that we are looking for." The group nodded their heads for a moment and was followed by both Vytheril and Syerea heading out into the water, or, to be more exact, Vytheril used his power to make small ice platforms for him and their new friend to step on while both Spitfire and Rainbow remained in the air and tracked down the object that they were looking for, though one thing they could see from above the water was that there were a few goblins underwater, though they were more fish-like than their above ground cousins and Spitfire suspected that they were the gilgoblins, and a few of them seemed to be swimming all over the place, even though there was able a sea giant walking below the water and was heading towards a nearby cave, no doubt to sleep or something. Other than that it took them a few moments to track down the exact area that the object had landed in, as there was a small crater under the water, about the size of the Felsabers that the Illidari trained to be their land mounts, and it had a silvery glow around it, meaning that their target must have struck this area, but there was nothing inside the crater and that meant someone or something had found the item before they did and walked off with it, to which the pair glanced at each other for a moment before sharing their information with their friends, as the giant had to be the one that had the mysterious object, or at least it would be a good starting point. Vytheril and Syerea, after being given that piece of information, wasted no time in jumping off of the ice platforms and dived into the water, where they started to head down to where the crater was located and looked around the area for the sea giant that Spitfire had seen, even though they were joined by Spitfire and Rainbow as the pair dived below the water as well, and it didn't take them all that long to spot what appeared to be the cave that their target had walked into, possibly with the object they were here to collect and return to Dalaran, to which they swam through the water and headed for the cave. Sure enough the sea giant was sleeping in a small cave, one that had an area that was somewhat above the water and happened to be where it put all of its gold, treasure, and other valuables, though while the giant was sleeping Spitfire noticed that it was holding the object close to its chest and that if they wanted to recover whatever had burst through the Felstorm they were going to have to kill the sea giant, to which she and Rainbow glanced at the pair that was emerging from the water behind them as they pulled out their warglaives, who nodded as they readied their weapons, Vytheril readying his staff while Syerea had her greatsword, Ashbringer, at the ready. From there the group lashed out at the sea giant, Spitfire lashing out with her Fel fireballs while Rainbow did the same with her Fel lightning, leaving Vytheril to channel his Arcane energy and blast his foe in the chest while Syerea called upon her Light to smash a hammer that was fueled with the same type of energy on top of their foe's head, something that stunned the giant for a few moments so the others could lash out at their foe, though after that was done she stepped forward and cut into the sea giant's legs, intending to do enough damage before it regained itself and lashed out at them for bothering it while it was trying to sleep. When the giant regained his senses he picked up a massive sword that was resting near his resting place, one that looked like it could have been the mast of a ship at one point in time, and he tried to swing it at all of them, where the group found that he was unable to actually hit them and it worked to their advantage, as Spitfire and Rainbow danced around the upper part of the cave and forced their foe to strike the ceiling with his weapon, which caused it to get stuck in the stone and he was unable to dislodge it, something that opened his defenses and allowed Syerea to cut into his arms while he was distracted. It was hard to tell if the sea giant had any magical spells or if he was used to brute strength being the answer to everything in the area he lived in, but getting his weapon stuck just meant that the group was able to do some decent damage to their foe and not have to worry about being hurt in return, all without having to use all of their stronger skills and spells in the grand scheme of things, of course that was when the sea giant growled as he let go of the sword's handle and started to channel a spell to use against them, one that seemed to involve calling for the water to do something to his enemies, though for the most part everyone was able to dodge the spell when it was cast, Spitfire and Rainbow just remaining near the ceiling while Vytheril and Syerea covered themselves with magical barriers, where the former had an Arcane one and the latter had a Holy one. Once that spell was done, and the sea giant realized that he hadn't hit any of them, the group lashed out at their foe once more and continued to rain blows onto his body, arms, and his legs, eventually causing him to stumble as Rainbow lashed out at the back of his head and knocked him forward, which caused the sea giant to fall awkwardly on his side and his hands loosened, allowing the mysterious object to hit the floor of the cave so she and the others could claim the object and return to Dalaran, though as that happened they found that it was definitely as tall as a human, made out of some odd silvery metal, and had a hole near the top that could possibly be a heart, or pass as one anyway. Spitfire picked up the mysterious object after banishing her warglaives to her horns, though once that was done she took a moment to nod her head as Vytheril had everyone gather around him for a few seconds, or rather they stood around the area that she happened to be standing in, and raised the magical hearthstone that Khadgar had prepared for them before he called for both of the demon hunters to join them, where he used the magic contained in the stone to teleport all four of them out of the cave and they reappeared in the upper part of the chamber that the Pillars of Creation would be placed in until they were ready to assault the Broken Shore, where Khadgar was standing near some bookshelves and closed the book he was reading as the group appeared right behind him. "Ah, heroes, you have returned," Khadgar said, where they knew that he must have been researching something before all four of them had teleported back to the city with the object the paladins had discovered, though as soon as he said that he noticed what Spitfire was carrying and she stepped forward without even being prompted to do so, to which she placed it right in front of Khadgar and stood near it for a few seconds as the Archmage studied the object in question, even though it was pretty clear that this was something none of them had seen before, "As we suspected, this isn't something that the Legion would have made, even if they intended on infecting a planet with their Fel energies and tried a trojan horse, but we won't be able to uncover anything without delving deeper into this mystery..." As he said that, and started to channel his magic for a few seconds, the object glowed with a golden Holy light coming from the heart hole the group had noticed earlier, something that actually caused the silvery object to rise into the air and float in the air before all of them for a moment, before a golden image of someone, sort of like how the Illidari contacted Lord Illidan's soul earlier, who happened to be a human appeared in front of the mysterious Holy object, though it was rather hard for them to determine who was in front of them, even if Spitfire and Rainbow didn't know as many humans as their friends might know, to which they remained silent for a time as they waited for something to happen. Azeroth... I pray that this, the final plea of the Army of the Light, has reached you intact. the image said, where most of them had no idea who the voice belonged to, since they hadn't heard it before this point in time, but Khadgar seemed a tad bit surprised by what everyone was hearing at the moment and that caused him to focus his full attention to what they were hearing right now, meaning it had to be important and that the group had to pay attention as well, hence why all of them focused on the image once more, The thousand years' war has reached its peak, but the nightmare is far from over, as this vessel represents our ultimate sacrifice, and it must reach the Prophet. He... is the key. None of us asked for this burden, but it is what fate has deemed. Succeed, and the Light may yet endure... fail, and all worlds will burn. Once that statement was delivered, and the group barely had time to think about what they had just learned, the image faded as quickly as it had formed in the area that was in front of the mysterious Holy object and the object itself rested on the ground once more, where the glow faded from the object and returned to its previous appearance, meaning the group had to take a moment to consider who they were supposed to deliver this item to and what the figure had meant, as it did seem like there was something important this object had to tell them and only one person had to know what they needed to do to figure out whatever it was that they needed to hear. "We will not fail, Turalyon." Khadgar stated, where Vytheril and Syerea seemed to understand who he was talking about, or at least that was what Rainbow assumed by the shocked expressions on their faces, before the Archmage started to call his magic into the area that was near them and seemed to be focusing on opening a portal to a brand new area, no doubt the location that would bring the group to whoever it was that they needed to talk to and maybe show the object to, which was when he glanced towards them for a few seconds, "We don't have much time, even though I am overjoyed to discover that one of my friends is alive and that he didn't perish on some Legion world, as we must uncover the purpose of what he sent us... and to do that I will open a portal to the Exodar, the crashed ship that the Draenei used to escape from the rest of the Legion and eventually reached Azeroth with, as the Prophet that Turalyon spoke of has to be Velen, the leader of the Draenei, so you should take the object to him and see what you can learn about it, and I will give you a new beacon that will allow you to come back here once that information has been obtained." Vytheril nodded and accepted the magical stone that was exactly like the last one that he had been given, meaning that it was more of a beacon and less of a hearthstone, before Khadgar focused his magic for a moment and the portal opened before their eyes, to which the group nodded their heads and wasted no time in rushing through the magical structure he had opened, allowing them to quickly leave Dalaran behind and travel to the area that the Exodar was resting, which, as Spitfire found, was an island off the coast of Kalimdor and that the ship was massive, not to mention full of crystals, but as they focused on the area in front of them they found something that ruined the mood, as there were Fel fires burning the outside of the ship and there were two Felguards guarding the entrance. "Of course the Legion would attack one of our allies," Spitfire stated, to which she focused her powers for a moment and drew in the energy of the Fel fires, which extinguished the flames and added a small, nearly insignificant, sliver of power to her total amount, something that would change as she and the others stared at the demons that were in front of them, as both she and Rainbow pulled out their weapons and readied themselves, though this was an odd coincidence when she thought about the object that she used her magical bag to contain, before she glanced at her companions for a moment and found that all of them were ready to strike down the demons as well, "Come, let's go kill some demons and make sure the Draenei are safe, even if it means purging the entire ship of demons and breaking any portals they've opened, before we even worry about this object and what it might contain." Once she was done saying that Spitfire rushed forward and smashed into one of the Felguards, using the force of her own attack to knock her target off to the left while Rainbow did the same thing to the other one, and while that happened both of their friends rushed to their aid, Vytheril channeling the power of the Arcane to blast Spitfire's target in the chest or in its arms and legs, while at the same time Syerea channeled her stunning hammer skill once more and stunned the demon she had targeted within seconds, something that allowed Rainbow to spin around and remove the demon's head from its shoulders, and as its body collapsed on the ground Spitfire found her Felguard foe wasn't prepared for her movements and that allowed her to take it down as well, to which she and Rainbow let their weapons absorb the souls of the demons they had slain and added some more power to their overall power. As soon as that was done they stepped through what appeared to be the entrance, which was either a crack in the outside of the ship, created by the crash, or it was a tunnel that had been built long before the Exodar reached Azeroth, to allow the passengers to walk between the inside and the outside of the ship, though as they descended down the path in front of them they kept their weapons at the ready and made sure to keep their eyes open in case more demons rushed up to kill them, given that their enemies were attacking the ship and that they had to run into them at some point in the very near future. "Heroes, I sense that you have come for some purpose, but we are in trouble and we are currently making our last stand at the Vault of Lights!" a voice said, one that Spitfire recognized as Velen's voice, even though she didn't know him all that much, which was understandable given that he was one of the leaders of the Alliance, though even as she thought about that it seemed as if he might be straining under something and that meant he might have created a barrier or something to create a safe area for him and the rest of his race, "If you can make your way here you will find sanctuary, although I cannot say for how long..." "Did your visions foretell of this day, Prophet? Did you see our coming?" another voice asked, though it was much more sinister than that Velen's voice was and it reminded both Spitfire and Rainbow of the various Eredar that they fought over the years after they joined the Illidari, meaning this had to be an Eredar commander or something, a demon who served either Kil'jaeden, who was Sargeras' second in command, or Archimonde, who stood as Sargeras' right hand, and that his strength would be greater than many of the demons that they had faced before this point in time, so cutting him down at this point in time would weaken the Legion a little, "I bring you a message from Kil'jaeden, to be served in the blood of your people! JUSTICE WILL BE MET! A coward's death to these traitorous 'draenei'! Mar their corpses so the living may see the fate that awaits them!" "This demon's name is Rakeesh, and it means 'butcher' in Eredun." Velen said, even though his tone revealed that he was tired of the Legion chasing after them, even if they fought back every time they came into contact with each other, and, at the same time, that he was hopeful that this invasion was the last time they faced the Legion, meaning he was hoping that this ended with them either bringing down the Legion or making the demons understand that Azeroth wasn't worth doing all of this, as in forcing them to admit defeat, as unlikely as the second option seemed, before he focused on what had to be happening near him and those he was protecting, "It is no coincidence that Kil'jaeden sent an Eredar to slaughter my people... the Deceiver revels in his 'creative' punishments for those that dare defy him." Spitfire had no idea if Rakeesh was listening to what Velen had to say or not, since he didn't say anything to the second statement that had been made, but instead of wasting time she, Rainbow, Vytheril, and Syerea quickly headed down the ramp that was in front of them and discovered that there were a few smouldering bodies along the way, all of them being draenei based on what they were seeing, though at the same time it appeared that none of them seemed to have their souls anymore, meaning the Legion had killed them and took their souls for their Fel machines, or maybe some of them had been taken to be twisted into demons at some point, like Varedis and Caria were twisted. It didn't take them all that long to find their way to the center of the Exodar, which happened to be a massive chamber that had three wings for the group to explore, not to mention that there happened to be a curved ramp heading down into the depths of the ship, one that happened to be covered in Fel taint based on what they could see at the moment, though after a few moments they found that there Felbats, Felguards, Eredar, and who knew what else attacking Velen and the rest of the draenei, as it was hard to tell what else the Legion had sent to this place. Three of them engaged several Felguards that were blocking the way down the nearby ramp, as they were on the upper level of the Exodar and the ramp would take them down to where the wings were located, while Vytheril stood behind them to blast his targets with bursts of Arcane energy, where Spitfire sliced her foes in half, Rainbow slashed her targets into pieces, and Syerea used her Light based powers to stun whoever she was righting and then cleaved them in half as well, where she let Spitfire and Rainbow take the demon souls to make sure their enemies didn't respawn in the future. One thing they found was that a number of demons were rushing over to a section of the Exodar that seemed to contain a bit of Light, which meant it had to be the Vault of Lights that Velen had mentioned when he felt them enter his ship, though that caused the group to follow after them and hacked into the foul demons that were marching on the area that the Prophet and his people were in, as there was a barrier of Light energy in the back part of the wing they were entering and it appeared to be disintegrating the demons that were foolish enough to hurl themselves right into the barrier, which seemed to be weakening the barrier with each passing moment, and since there were no demon hunters in the area those demons would return to the Twisting Nether and be reborn in due time, so Velen might be facing an endless swarm of enemies. Another thing they noticed was that there were a few Fel portals in the Vault of Lights, which supported the fact that there was an endless flow of demons for Velen and the rest of the draenei to face, though it also explained why he hadn't taken a moment to call for aid or teleport to Dalaran to get Khadgar and the others to send some heroes to aid him, as it looked like the Legion intended on separating him from the rest of Azeroth, so they could cut him and his forces down without having to worry about reinforcements coming to interrupt what they were doing, though as they reached the barrier both Spitfire and Rainbow turned around and dealt with the demons that happened to be rushing at the barrier, just to relieve some of the pressure on Velen's energy, leaving Vytheril and Syerea to talk with him and tend to any of the draenei that were resting inside the barrier. "Syerea, it seems that fate has delivered you and some allies to us in this most dire time!" Velen said, where he was happy to see the group as Spitfire and Rainbow cut down several demons that were rushing at them, taking their souls as they dropped their enemies to the ground, before he sighed for a moment as he considered what was going on at the moment, especially given their timely arrival in the Exodar, since he hadn't sent out a request for aid and had been stuck like this for some time, "I sense that you came here on a mission of great importance, an urgent one that might help us bring down the Legion, but for now I must ask you to focus on pushing back these demonic invaders, for if we don't break the tide we will all perish beneath their might, or at least my people and I will suffer such a fate, given the Legion's desire to find and break both Spitfire and Rainbow Dash. Sadly, this barrier, which is protecting my people from our enemies, requires all of my energy and focus, so I am afraid that the four of you must venture into the demon infested halls as we hold the line in this location, where I must ask you to search for any survivors and direct them to this area, as well as eliminate the portals the Legion opened to launch this invasion, as I'm sure that you find some scattered across the Exodar... you must hurry, as I do not know how much longer I can keep this barrier active!" Instead of saying anything, as that might waste time that they didn't have, Syerea nodded her head and turned in time to see Spitfire and Rainbow separate from each other for a few seconds, where both of them cut down a few Felguards that happened to be emerging from some of the nearby Fel portals and then channeled their powers to take down the portals, draining them of energy like they had done to the various traps that had been used against the Thorignir, though they also made sure that the souls of the demons were absorbed into their weapons and their Fel energy was added to their own, but as soon as both of them were ready to leave they nodded and both Syerea and Vytheril caught up with them, to which they moved out to take down the demons and rescue the rest of the draenei that were in the ship. As the group started to leave the area that they had found Velen in, however, Rakeesh called out for his soldiers to continue throwing themselves at the barrier, as he was of the opinion that it would fall in due time and that soon Velen would be wide open, even though he had several armed draenei warriors standing between him and the barrier, a last line of defense for the innocents that were behind them, giving the group another reason to lash out at their enemies and break the invasion, since losing Velen meant losing what the mysterious object was and what its purpose had to be. Interestingly enough Rakeesh also punished them for breaking two of his portals by sending three Infernals down for each portal, so six in total, and had them attack the group before they did anything else, meaning that Spitfire and Rainbow would have to wait and cut down a few more enemies the next time they shattered some of Rakeesh's portals, but that didn't stop them from hacking apart the couple of Infernals and cutting down a few Felbats that happened to be up in the air, opening the way for Vytheril and Syerea to quickly search the Vault of Lights and found out that there were a few small draenei children hiding behind some crates, all to keep themselves hidden from the demons who were attacking the ship, who they escorted back to the barrier and made sure that they crossed it safely, to join the innocents that were on the other side. There were also a few adults that were trapped in the Vault of Lights, merchants who likely weren't used to fighting for their lives and settled for cowering once the Legion showed up, and they were escorted back to the barrier as well, to get them out of the battlefield as both Spitfire and Rainbow tore into the demons that kept coming at where Velen was standing, but once this wing was cleared of innocents and Fel portals, and both of them were sure of that, they headed to the north and entered the Crystal Hall, where they found more demons emerging from the Fel portals and, at the same time, discovered that there was a group of draenei, lead by a farseer named Nobundo, who were also under attack. As such Spitfire and Rainbow lead the assault on the demons that were pouring out of the Fel portals, cutting them down as Vytheril blasted some with his Arcane energy and Syerea stunned some with her Light powers so she could hack them to pieces, where none of the demons were particularly happy to see the pair of demon hunters and lashed out at both of them with their full might, which just brought about their ends that much faster as the pair cut into the Felguards and the Eredar that were guarding the portals, including the Infernals and Wrathguards who were summoned to punish them for breaking down the portals, and they made sure to smash the structures as well. While they did that their friends found all of the civilians that were scattered around the Crystal Hall and made sure they were able to escape the area they had been trapped in, which was easy for them to do since Spitfire and Rainbow were clearing out the demons and that meant none of the innocent draenei had to worry about running into any of the Legion's forces, which would make Velen happy once they breached the barrier and joined the rest of the civilians that were with him and the rest of the guards, but once that was done Spitfire located where Nobundo and his small force was holding their ground, in a ruined tunnel that would have gone to another wing of the Exodar, a crushed one by the looks of things. As it turned out Nobundo and his forces weren't draenei, as they expected, rather they were Broken and seemed to be ready for anything, but before anyone could say a single thing more demons started to run up the path that lead to where he and his forces were standing, though at first it was just a group of the small Wyrmtongue that tried to assault their location, with a few Imps that were throwing fireballs at whoever they were targeting, where the group just sighed and slashed their way through their foes, but it wasn't long before more demons marched on their location, consisting of a Doomguard and a pair of Felguards. These ones put up more of a fight, given that they were far stronger than the first two types of demons that tried to attack Nobundo's area of the ship, but even though Spitfire was able to cut off one of the outstretched arms of the Doomguard as Rainbow took off one of the Felguards' heads, leaving the other one to fall to Vytheril and Syerea, eventually bringing an end to that wave of enemies and both of the demon hunters made sure to absorb the demonic souls before they escaped, which was around the time that more enemies came rushing up to kill them. The final wave of enemies consisted of a few Eredar that were using flying discs to move through the air, an odd thing in Spitfire and Rainbow's eyes, a pair of Wrathguards, and, more importantly, a Pit Lord that was getting ready to break them down as it glared at the pair that were standing in its way right now, where the Eredar were rather easy to take down with a quick swing at their necks, dropping their heads to the ground, before both of them descended down on the frozen in place Wrathguards that Vytheril was currently fighting with Syerea stunning her target, where they struck them down in no time, but once those enemies were taken care of the Pit Lord was their full focus and they parried its attacks, even dealing their own attacks to its chest and neck, to which Nobundo and his Broken were surprised by what they were seeing as the demon was felled in no time and Spitfire and Rainbow channeled their powers to cancel out the Fel explosion that came with a Pit Lord was slain, granting them a bit more power in the process. Once that was done, and Nobundo thanked them for the assistance, the group watched as he and his Broken headed for the Vault of Lights, so they could escort the innocent civilians to where Velen's protective barrier was resting and left the area that they had been stuck in since the invasion happened, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and their friends headed out of the collapsed tunnel and headed for the third and final wing that they had access to, which was called Trader's Tier based on one of the directional markers, though that was where they found a large Fel Lord who called himself Huk'roth the Huntmaster patrolling the area with his Felstalkers. The first thing the group did was take care of the Fel portals, killing all of the Infernals, Wrathguards, and Eredar that were summoned to punish them for breaking the portals, whose souls were absorbed by the warglaives that Spitfire and Rainbow carried, which put a small dent in the forces of the Legion, while also making sure to find any trapped civilians and carefully escorted them over to the hallway that linked up with the Vault of Lights, though to do that Spitfire and Rainbow gathered the attention of their foe, with Rainbow using her lighting to shock the Felstalkers into submission and drew their souls into her warblades while Spitfire danced through the air and cut into Huk'roth's chest. In the end the two of them were able to bring down the demon and his pets, allowing both of them to add even more souls to their weapons and more power to themselves, before they regrouped with Vytheril and Syerea for a moment as they looked around the rest of the Exodar, just to be sure that they hadn't missed anything even though they were sure that Rakeesh was located in the depths of the ship, something Spitfire and Rainbow would check out once the rest of the demons had been cleared out and the civilians were saved. After a minute or two Syerea decided to head back to where Velen was standing and the rest of the group decided to do the same thing, where they found that Velen was still powering the barrier while the priests of the ship were healing the wounded and the warriors remained at the ready, just in case more enemies burst through an unknown portal or something and charged at the area that they were standing in, but after everything that Spitfire and rainbow had done with their friends they knew that more portals weren't a thing, not unless their foe summoned more Eredar and had them create more portals while they were distracted, but for now they were going to tell Velen the good news. "Spitfire, Rainbow, it seems that you, Vytheril, and Syerea have crushed Rakeesh's incursion," Velen said, where he took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief as he powered the barrier and noticed that there were no demons in this wing of the ship, meaning that the civilians would be safe for some time, plenty of time for them to deal with the rest of their foe's foul forces and restore order to the Exodar, to which he glanced at one of the armored warriors for a moment, who readied herself the moment his eyes were upon her, "Divinius, it is now time for you to take the Chosen and finish off the leftover demonic taint within our halls, to secure the Exodar for our people once more!" The draenei in question nodded her head and declared that she would do as Velen commanded, to which she and the rest of the Chosen, as Velen called it, marched out of the Vault of Lights and headed for the sections of the Exodar that Spitfire, Rainbow, Vytheril, and Syerea had carefully cleared out before returning to this spot, though once that was done Velen shifted his gaze and focused on the group once more, as he was interested in why they had come here, even though his visions seemed to give him some idea of what to expect, before he tapped the base of his staff against the floor, to show them that he was ready for them to talk at long last. "I fear that we don't have much time, heroes, as Rakeesh is still here... somewhere... and he must be stopped if my people are to find peace again." Velen stated, which made sense to Spitfire and the others, since they couldn't be at peace as long as someone like Rakeesh was lurking somewhere inside the ship that he and the rest of the draenei called home, because he could hide himself until the group left and then just summon more portals to torment Velen and his people, before the Prophet focused on why Spitfire and her group had come to the Exodar in the first place, "Thanks to my visions I know that you have ventured far to find me and have brought with you a dire message... and in your possession is an object of great importance. May I see it?" "Of course." Spitfire replied, where she took a moment to reach into her magical pack and withdrew the mysterious object that they had found before being directed to the Exodar, something that Syerea, Vytheril, and everyone else glanced at as she did that, but once it was out of her pack she made sure to rest it in front of the Prophet, because if Turalyon was right Velen was the only one that held the key to unlocking the object, though in that instant she could see that a look of sheer surprise appeared on the Prophet's face, meaning that he must have realized what they had brought him and that part of what was going on made sense to him. "Mother of Light! I... I am sorry, I did not know you were carrying this." Velen said, his tone revealing that this had to be an object of great importance and that he realized what it was, though even as he said that he beckoned for someone to pick it up and Syerea did that without delay, telling Spitfire that they were going to be doing something and that was confirmed when Velen started to make his way out of the Vault of Lights, though it was hard to tell where he was going and what he might be looking for, to which she and the others followed after him, so they could learn more about the object and why they were told to come to the Exodar, to talk with Velen about it, "What you have brought me, in this dire time, is known as Light's Heart, and it is the sentience core of the Naaru Prime: Xe'ra. Locked away within this irreplaceable core is wisdom, knowledge crucial to our battle against the Burning Legion, yet only a Naaru born of Xe'ra is capable of unlocking the core, which is why you were sent here, to deliver Light's Heart to me... and, at the same time, it reveals the true purpose of the Burning Legion's invasion of the Exodar. The last of Xe'ra's line, O'ros, sits unguarded in the heart of the Exodar, because we never assumed that our enemies would do this, and if Rakeesh manages to destroy O'ros, well, the information within Light's Heart will be lost to us forever, drastically weakening our chances of bringing down the Legion." "For a prophet you are doing a very poor job of making predictions..." Rakeesh mockingly said, as if knowing that Velen was close to where the ramp leading down to the chamber that O'ros was resting in, though at the same time they heard what seemed like a bitter melody emitting from the area they happened to be heading towards, something that told the group that Rakeesh had to be in the middle of beating the Naaru that was resting in the heart of the Exodar, which just ticked Velen off if the angry look on his face was anything to go by, "It makes music when you beat it! What a delightful creature! I will enjoy ending its existence." In that instant Velen channeled the power of the Light once more and rushed down the path that was in front of him, as his new barrier dealt with the Fel mess and opened the way for Vytheril and Syerea to follow him as Spitfire and Rainbow did the same in the air, before they reached what appeared to be the heart of the ship and discovered that there were a number of Fel beams surrounding O'ros, dealing damage to the Naaru in the process, before Velen readed another spell and smashed all of the Fel energy to pieces, while at the same time healing O'ros in the process, before Rakeesh turned around and focused on them, where they found that the red skinned Eredar had no chest piece on and had a single piece of armor on his right shoulder, even though his weapon appeared to be a mace. "You have lost, Rakeesh!" Velen stated, though as he raised his staff, and the group did the same thing with their weapons as they faced the Eredar, he was ready to show their foe that he was done running and that he was ready to bring down any and all members of the Legion that dared assault his race, while at the same time they found that Rakeesh seemed all too calm given that his plan had been ruined and the Naaru he had been sent to kill was fully healed, "Your incursion has been rushed, O'ros has been renewed, and now you must answer for the atrocities you have commited!" "Ah, the fated heroes have arrived at last. I admit, you have bested my incursion, Velen, but before I surrender, and face the judgment of the Light, there is one last thing I must do." Rakeesh replied, where he had taken a moment to raise both of his hands, like he might have been surrendering to them and their judgement for his crimes, though that was when a large Fel portal opened in the air that was above O'ros, where Spitfire and Rainbow barely had time to witness one of the Fel Annihilators, a moddified version of the Fel Reavers they had seen in Outlands, dropped through the portal and landed behind the Naaru, where the demon entered the machine and, in one swift motion, smashed O'ros into a thousand pieces in just a matter of seconds, who let out a woeful dirge as that happened, "Can you know victory without first knowing defeat? Come, face the might of the Legion and die!" Spitfire and Rainbow rushed through the air and lashed out at the Fel Annihilator that their foe was planning on using to bring them down, in addition to Velen and their friends, while at the same time making sure to use their weapons to block the incoming punches and tank the attacks, which allowed them to understand that the Fel Annihilator definitely had more power than the Fel Reavers they were familiar with, but even if that was the case neither of them were planning on holding back at this point, as Fel flames danced around Spitfire as she smashed into the chest of Rakeesh's machine while Rainbow did the same with the lightning, where Vytheril, Syerea, and Velen realized that they were using their demonic forms to do more damage to their foe. Rakeesh, on the other hand, mentioned something about his master's domain and the fact that the smouldering husks of the other worlds existed in Sargares' realm, and that part of his mission was to help prepare this world to join what the Legion covered, even if that meant reducing the Exodar to ashes with the power he had access to at the moment, which meant he might have a way to connect to Argus and was saving his trump card until the point where he might need it, a bad decision based on what Spitfire and Rainbow knew, even though they weren't going to argue with the demon's foolish decision. It wasn't long before the pair loosed their elemental attacks and smashed into the metallic arms of the Fel Annihilator, breaking both of them under the pressure of their powers, causing Rakeesh to pull back up to where O'ros had been waiting and started to channel the power of his trump card, where he opened a small portal above him and summoned Fel meteors down on his foes, while at the same time empowering his machine so that it would self destruct and take everyone in the Exodar out, meaning he intended on erasing this entire area from the face of Azeroth so he could remove some of his master's enemies from the field, so their souls would be sent to the Twisting Nether and have them be tortured until they became Felsworn traitors. Velen, interestingly enough, seemed to realize that something he had been shown in the past was now happening before his eyes, something that caused him to pause as he tried to understand what was going on, before finally understanding exactly what he had been shown in the distant past, where he actually pleaded for them to stop attacking Rakeesh and spare him, though given the nature of what the Eredar was doing there was no sparing him as Spitfire and Rainbow combined their elemental attacks into a single burst and loosed it into the machine's chest, causing a chain reaction that caused the Fel Annihilator to detonate its payload. Thanks to Spitfire and Rainbow's powers the Fel power that was called to this place, to blow all of them up, vanished as the pair cut it in half and absorbed it into their bodies, giving them a decent power boost for later on, while leaving Rakeesh in a pile of ash as they discovered that the lower half of his body had been reduced to ash as well, though that was when the group learned something that had to be heartbreaking for Velen, as he revealed that he once had a son and on the day he was born he was granted a vision of a being that was Rakeesh, meaning the Light showed him that his own child had been corrupted and it could have been a warning, before he closed the Eredar's eyes as he expired and informed the group that it was time for them to leave... though as they prepared to leave the Exodar, and deliver the bad news to Khadgar, Velen also informed some of his Chosen to prepare a vessel, as a fire had been lit in the Prophet and now he was even more determined to bring an end to the Legion, causing the group to smile as they engaged the beacon's power and vanished from where they had been standing. A few moments later, when they returned to Dalaran, or the Chamber of the Guardian that they had found Khadgar inside earlier, it was easy for the group to see the Archmage hadn't moved from the area he had been standing in earlier and he was still reading several books, on whatever subject he was interested in at this point in time, though the act of them using his beacon to teleport back to the city caused his to close his tomes and turn towards them once more, where Syerea was still holding onto Light's Heart while the portal magic vanished over the course of a few seconds and the group focused on the mage that was in front of them. "Ah, good, you have returned." Khadgar commented, where he was happy to see that the four of them had returned and that they still had the object that they had found in Suramar earlier, though as he said his statement he noticed that all of them seemed a little down, even though each of them were still wearing the smiles from when they noticed the fire within Velen ignite once more, causing him to worry about everything that might have happened in the Exodar and why they had taken their sweet time in getting back to him with the information they were after, "What's wrong?" In response to that Spitfire, Rainbow, Vytheril, and Syerea told him what they had seen when they appeared outside the ship that the draenei called home, where they faced an invasion force from the Legion and that Velen was under attack by an Eredar called Rakeesh, before revealing that this object was known as Light's Heart, it happened to be the core of the Naaru Prime known as Xe'ra, and that the key to retrieving the information contained within the crystalline structure had been another Naaru, or rather another that was part of Xe'ra's line, called O'ros, who Rakeesh had killed, only to be killed by the group and his soul imprisoned inside their warglaives, before they revealed the shocking truth that the Eredar had been Velen's son and had been twisted into a weapon to kill his own father. "Unbelievable... Kil'jaeden took the child from Velen, let him believe that the boy had been killed, then raised the child as an agent of the Legion with the express purpose of murdering his own father?" Khadgar recapped, though it was clear, or it was that way to Spitfire, that he was focusing on one of his friends and not on the fact that they had lost the information that rested within Light's Heart, something that the group agreed with since they might have needed whatever Xe'ra and the rest of the Army of the Light had to share with them about the Legion, before he sighed for a moment as he thought about everything that he had just been told, "That bastard waited thirteen thousand years to exact vengeance upon Velen for defying Sargeras and the Legion... for Velen to have to experience such a tragedy, especially after everything that he and his people have been through since they fled from Argus, is just heartbreaking, and such a thing would test anyone's faith in the Light." "Not to mention that we lost O'ros in the process, and the information inside Light's Heart." Rainbow remarked, because while she agreed with what Khadgar was saying right now, about Velen and the draenei, she was more focused on the fact that they had just lost a potential key to defeating the Legion or uncovering one of their darkest secrets, the latter possibly leading to them beating Sargeras' forces and saving Azeroth, something that impressed Spitfire, as the former athlete had matured since they arrived in Outlands and her focus was sharper than it had been back on their home world, which was another reason both of them were fighting the Legion since it kept Equus safe as well. "Well, about that... before you returned from helping Velen, and learning what you did about this object, I was going over a few cosmology tomes and stumbled upon an entry that indicated that the Prime Naaru had been created by Elune during the great ordering of Light and Shadow," Khadgar said, though at the same time he moved out of the area they had found him in when they returned to and walked down to where the Aegis of Aggramar rested, as it was where he planned on storing the Pillars when they recovered them, to keep them safe and sound, before he walked up the ramp and walked back up to where the group was standing, where he was holding an odd crystalline tear-shaped stone that radiated power like the Aegis did, meaning this had to be another Pillar of Creation, the Tears of Elune to be exact, "I figured that, if Elune did create Xe'ra like the passage said, then her artifact might awaken whatever secrets Light's Heart might have... oh, and before you ask, the four Archdruids of the Cenarion Circle recovered this and returned it to this chamber after the honor duel you took part in earlier. Now, this will likely only work for one person, though I'm hoping that my thoughts are right and that this will work as intended... and if not, well, then I'll head back to the drawing board." Spitfire nodded for a moment, as she and the others knew that Khadgar was referring to her and no one else, before she accepted the Tears of Elune as Syerea shifted her stance and made sure that Light's Heart was vertical this time around, resting against one of the bookshelves that Khadgar emptied, and moved the books elsewhere so none of them would be damaged in case something else happened, and he did the same to the shelves around those ones, before the area was cleared out and he nodded, to which Spitfire did the same as her group stood behind Khadgar's protective barrier, which was when she accessed the power within the Tears and suddenly her entire world went black as its power connected to Light's Heart... though off in the distance rested a planet consumed by Fel energy that looked like it was breaking, a world she assumed was Argus, before she spotted a golden light right in front of her position, even though it appeared that she was a white astral body at the moment. Do not be alarmed, mortal, as your consciousness has been projected to my astral presence in the Great Dark Beyond. a voice said, where Spitfire watched as the golden light transformed into a crystalline being that looked like their body was made up of shards of fractured Light, meaning this had to be one of the Naaru, though what she found out was that it had more pieces that looked like they might be a crown or some wings, with a central piece missing based on what she was seeing at the moment, which made her interested in what she was going to hear, I am Xe'ra, one of the first Naaru to be forged here during the great ordering of the cosmos. You have come to the crucible of all creation in search of answers... listen then, and find enlightenment. In a time now long past, a great battle was fought that would determine the fate of all worlds, and it was in that final battle that the all-powerful Titans fell to one of their own: Sargeras. Spitfire watched as an image appeared nearby and noticed that there were two shadowy figures for a moment, which the Naaru said nothing about, before one of them was cut down and then it moved to a battle between the remaining figure and a group of shadowy figures, five to be exact, which ended in the same figure emerging victorious, meaning that either Sargeras was stronger than what Spitfire and the others assumed, which was possible given that he was a Titan and none of them knew the strength of a Titan, or something had happened during that battle and it caused him to emerge as the victor against his former allies, but before she could say anything the image faded and she focused on Xe'ra again, since that meant she had more to say. After their fall, none were left to oppose the will of Sargeras, which allowed the Dark Titan and his Burning Legion to go on and annihilate countless worlds in their Burning Crusade. Xe'ra continued, something that Spitfire knew about due to what she and Rainbow had learned, as Illidan had learned about what the Legion did when they took over a world, or at least they knew some of the things that happened when the demons emerged victorious against their foes, but she kept silent and listened to what the Naaru Prime had to say, From the ashes of those ravaged worlds, survivors arose to stand against the demons, who eventually became know as the Army of the Light... but now, the Golden Army teeters upon the precipice of oblivion as their campaign on Argus nears its terminus, and should they fall in their mission, the Legion will initiate a new Burning Crusade, and with it the cosmos will tremble. As such I came here now on a mission of desperation, for I seek the child of Light and Shadow, a boy destined to end the age of demons: Illidan Stormrage... or at least, that's the reason I came here in the first place, as recently something has changed... What Spitfire saw while Xe'ra was talking was a massive flaming figure who plunged its sword into Azeroth, which had to be a vision of Sargeras winning and claiming his prize according to the Prime Naaru, if the Army of the Light failed, before it shifted to a smaller shadowy figure, about her and Rainbow's height, which was the common height of everyone that called Azeroth home, who had six different colored wings behind their body, one being the golden Light, another being the shadowy Void, one a nature green that felt full of Life, while another seemed to be a dark gray and full of Death, with the fifth one looking similar to the purple Arcane that her friends used, even though the final one was a Fel green... and that was all she saw as she was rushed out of where Xe'ra's astral presence had been located and headed towards her own body once more, though she had the feeling Khadgar and the others would be troubled by her news. > Order Hall: Reliving the Past > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire blinked for a few moments as the power of the Tears of Elune, combined with Xe'ra's, withdrew itself from her body and allowed her consciousness to return without delay, where she found that she was definitely back inside the room that Khadgar had been studying in while they were recovering Light's Heart and taking the object to Velen, with Rainbow and the others being a little worried about her, meaning that she must have frozen up or something after activating the Pillar that was in her hands, though as soon as she regained her senses she staggered for a moment and her friends caught her while the Pillar was caught by Khadgar, who summoned a chair for her to sit on. "Are you alright? You went still for a moment when you activated the power within the Tears." Khadgar asked, where it was easy for them to see that he was worried about her, given his tone at the moment, though it was more due to the fact that he was starting to see both her and Rainbow as friends, even though he suspected that they were the key to defeating the Legion and bringing peace to Azeroth at last, though when the others nodded he focused on what might have happened to her over the last few minutes, as five minutes had passed since she did whatever it was that she had done, "Did Xe'ra show you anything, or did Elune get mad at us for trying something like this in the first place?" "Surprisingly, I'm fine... for the most part," Spitfire admitted, though she didn't go into great detail about what she meant, as she wasn't entirely sure what might be wrong with her body at the moment and suspected that it might be shock due to what had happened to her consciousness, since it was ripped out of her body and projected across the cosmos, before she sighed for a moment and focused on the group for a few seconds as she recalled everything that had been revealed to her when she spoke to Xe'ra in the astral plane, near a terrifying projection of Argus, "but I was able to talk with Xe'ra, or maybe it was her own consciousness, in an area that she called the 'crucible of all creation', and she told me some things, though most of what I learned isn't good news. Apparently, at some point in the past, the remaining Titans engaged in an epic battle with Sargeras and the Dark Titan cut them all down, so none of them are coming to help us with the Legion, the Army of the Light appears to be fighting a losing battle on Argus right now, possibly keeping the full might of our foes from reaching this world, and Xe'ra came here seeking the child destined to end all of this, the child of 'Light and Shadow', as she called him, who just so happens to be the Lord of the Illidari, Illidan Stormrage himself... she also commented that something had changed, which I'm assuming meant that she had a vision of something else happening: a figure with six different colored wings, even though it was hard to see who the figure was." "That... is certainly a lot to take in, and I fear that this was the short version of what you were shown," Khadgar said, even though it was clear that he wasn't happy about what they had just heard, as his hand had been brought up near his face, in the sense that he was thinking about things and that he likely didn't want them to see any hints of sadness coming from him, even though it would have been understandable given the mess that Xe'ra claimed they were in, if what Spitfire had seen was any indication, before he sighed for a moment and lowered his left hand, "The Titans, our very gods, have been dead since before any of us were even born, the Army of the Light is fighting an endless battle in our name, and we are unable to do anything to assist them, and Illidan has been dead since the assault on the Black Temple, even though I do know your Illidari are working to retrieve his body from Gul'dan, wherever our foe is hiding... this is too much bad news to hear at once, and I fear that I will need some time before I can share it with the rest of the Council of Seven and the rest of the heroes who are fighting to save Azeroth, so I will leave you to your own devices for a time and contact you when the time is right... oh, and given everything that's happened, it might be best if we stored Light's Heart in a safe place, like one of the Order Halls, and I was either considering Mardum, since it would be the last place the Legion would think to look for such an artifact, or maybe in the Sanctum of Light, under the watchful eyes of the Order of the Silver Hand. Oh, there is one more thing that I have to ask: did you gain any information about the figure at the end, other than the six wings that possessed different colors?" "All I know is that they seemed to reflect the six Cosmic Forces that exist in our universe," Spitfire replied, as while she had a little information on what those were, given that she was able to identify all six of the wings and their powers when it was shown to her, she had no idea on how someone would go about gathering the power necessary to channel all six of the Cosmic Forces that people could use, like the mages calling on the Arcane or the druids channeling the power of Life to tend to the wild or heal wounds. "Interesting. I have never heard of such a thing, being able to channel all six at the same time," Khadgar commented, to which he sighed for a moment as he thought about that, as having someone who could actually channel all six elements of the Cosmic Forces would be a boon to their war with the Legion, given the sheer power such a being would posses, but he did recall something that might interest Spitfire and Rainbow, even if they would focus on the Legion's efforts after leaving this area, "I have heard tales of one Cosmic Force corrupting or altering another, sort of like how the Nightmare is a Void-corrupted version of the Emerald Dream, but like I said, no one has ever been able to channel all of them... I'll have to do some research and get back to you, when I have the time to do so." Spitfire nodded to that and let Khadgar walk out of the section of Dalaran that they were currently resting inside, mostly allowing Vytheril and Syerea to talking about which Order Hall to store the object inside, since the Archmage was right in thinking that the safest places were either the domain of the Illidari or the hidden area that the paladins that made up the Order of the Silver Hand rested in, though as that happened she felt a brief bout of pain for a few seconds, something that passed by rather quickly and went unseen by both Rainbow and their new friends, to which she glanced around the room for a moment and wondered what in the world that was, before determining that it had to be an after effect of what she had done with the Tears of Elune and Light's Heart. The pain will subside in time, my champion. a familiar voice said, one that Spitfire recognized as Xe'ra's, though at the same time it appeared that none of the others heard it and that had to mean, in some odd manner, that she was now connected in some way to the Prime Naaru that was imbued with the Light, based on what she had seen earlier, but at the same time she remained silent as she listened to whatever the Naaru had to tell her, since it had to be important enough for her to reach out from her core for a time, which seemed to be glowing a little to show that its owner was in the middle of doing something at the moment, You now carry my mark, and through it I am able to see and feel as you do, though I must now tell you the truth that I didn't want the others to hear. Light's Heart is more than just a vessel that contains all of my knowledge, it is also meant to be the vessel for Illidan's rebirth, as my last act of service to the Light, but before I can help you recover his soul from where its resting, and put it in the hands of your allies, we must prepare the vessel for his eventual return, and to do that you must venture out into this world and the broken world to find echoes of his past, only we'll be starting with the place of his birth, located in Val'sharah. Spitfire said nothing to that as she listened to what Xe'ra had to tell her, even though she did feel that it was a little odd for the Prime Naaru to even care about Lord Illidan's past, regardless of whether or not it was important to prepare the vessel for his return, but in the end she decided not to worry about it and pulled herself from the chair that she had been sitting in since she returned from the vision she had seen, where Rainbow, Vytheril, and Syerea turned to face her for a moment, something that caused her to make sure Rainbow headed back to the Fel Hammer and made sure the Illidari were fine, and to help them out if they had something that needed to be done, before letting both of her friends head to their own Order Halls as well, even though for now she was entrusting Light's Heart to the paladins, who she knew would do pretty much everything to keep such an important artifact safe. Once that was done she started to make her way towards the teleport pad that would allow her to return to Dalaran, where she found that her body really hadn't suffered due to what had happened to her when she used the Tears of Elune on Xe'ra's core, either due to her nature as a demon hunter or due to the fact that she wasn't from this world and it didn't effect her as much as it would have done to someone that was from Azeroth, meaning that she was able to walk out of the chamber with ease and head out into the city, though it didn't take her long to discover some of the soldiers from the Alliance and Horde working together, preparing for whatever else was coming their way. That made her happy, to see that her work to unite the two forces into a force dedicated to tearing down the Legion was already bearing good fruit and everyone seemed to be embracing what she wanted, especially since the humans and orcs seemed to be getting along just fine, before she took a few moments to look around the city so she could find one of the night elves, as she intended on asking one of them if they knew where Illidan and Malfurion were born in Val'sharah, even if she wouldn't mention her mentor during her questioning, since most heroes didn't trust Lord Illidan and might not tell her anything if she mentioned the person she was really interested in. What surprised her was that the first one she came into contact with was actually a druid, a member of the Cenarion Circle and worked under the guidance of the four Archdruids, who told her of the village of Loriathil, which was down the road from the Temple of Elune that graced the province, and she even pointed out where the location was on Spitfire's map, before wishing her well on her journey to understand more about Malfurion. Based on what Spitfire gathered she had to fly over the province of Azsuna, which would allow her to look down and gaze upon the naga that were trying to overrun the place and claim the Tidestone of Golganneth, even though the only reason she was thinking about it was due to the fact that none of the heroes had returned with news that they had recovered the artifact yet, just like those that went to Highmountain hadn't recovered the Hammer of Khaz'goroth, the fourth and final of the four Pillars of Creation they were hunting down right now, leaving the Eye of Aman'thul for later, since the fifth one was resting somewhere in Suramar and they weren't ready for that venture yet, not until the other provinces were safe and the four Pillars were recovered. As such she spread her wings, making sure that nothing was wrong with them, as if her wings or body happened to be in pain this would be impossible for some time, but her body was just fine and she was able to take flight without delay, where she headed for the province of Azsuna and corrected her course so she could head right for Val'sharah, though that didn't stop her from glancing down at the elven ruins that were scattered across the bits of the province, some inhabited by spirits and others seemingly inhabited by the naga, before turning her focus to what seemed to be a massive forest, which was pretty much what Val'sharah was, even though the night elf she talked to did claim that this particular province was as close as Azeroth got to replicating the Emerald Dream. Of course the forest was quite large and she had to adjust her course a few times, due to all of the branches that happened to rest in her way, but even with that fact she was able to find what appeared to be a village resting around one of the tall trees, complete with an elegant home that looked like a night elf had made it, given the design of the few structures she found in the area, and that an inn had been made in the roots of the tall tree, which was rather interesting to her, though there was also a small fountain in the center of the village and some wooden gates, of sorts, that rested around the area, serving as directional markers for those who called this place home. For a moment she wondered what this place might have looked like back during the days that Illidan and Malfurion called this place home, since ten thousand years was enough to change nearly anything that her mentor might have known, but as she landed in the village, and found that the inhabitants were busy tending to the druids who likely tended to this province, who had to be exhausted based on everything she had seen so far, Spitfire approached the fountain and felt something in the air stir, even though Xe'ra's voice chimed in and revealed that the memory was stirring and that they could interact with it. When Spitfire reached out to touch the faint memory she found something interesting, her vision was teleported into the distant past, no doubt thanks to Xe'ra's power, where she found a bunch of night elves who happened to be standing near two cribs, containing two healthy male children that a priestess claimed were the Stormrage twins, looking nearly identical save for the fact that one had golden colored eyes and the other didn't, where it was the former one that she was focused on, as it was the one who would later become the Lord of Outland and the Lord of the Illidari, and the priestess even took a moment to say that Illidan had a great destiny ahead of him, before her vision snapped back to the present and, after it happened, she staggered for a moment and was thankful that none of the night elves had noticed it, as such a thing let her walk away without anyone noticing her movements. Illidan's life was one that was full of potential, Xe'ra commented, speaking to Spitfire as she walked away from where the fountain was resting and returned to the main road, more to seem like a wandering traveler or an Illidari that had just a bit of investigation to make sure there were no demons in the area for the druids or the others of this province to worry about, though Spitfire said nothing to that as she walked in the opposite direction of Dalaran, mostly to give her passanger some time to speak her mind before she did anything else, where his destiny was forged in the great ordering and cast to the cosmic winds, where after a long time it, at last, would find a home on Azeroth, and within the tiny vessel that was his body the great cycle began anew. Now, you must continue to the north, to find Dreamgrove, as I sense that the next echo is near the home of the druids. Instead of saying anything to that, however, Spitfire spread her wings and took to the sky once more, where she headed to the north and headed for the Temple of Elune, since it would be a good place for her to figure out the direction that she needed to go in afterwards, though she did pause for a moment when she found a large Doomguard wandering near the temple with a look of anger on its face, either due to the fact that the Archdruids killed it or that it had been killed at some point in the past and had returned to have his revenge, who revealed that its name was Gravax and that destruction had come to their world, though it didn't get very far as Spitfire picked up her speed and drew her warglaives, removing the Doomguard's head and letting its soul be taken by her weapons. Once that was done she sucked up the Fel power that her newly slain demon had possessed and banished both of her warglaives not a few seconds later, allowing the body to fall backwards and crush some corrupted tree roots, which seemed to be connected to the World Tree known as Shaladrassil, or at least that was what the night elf she had talked to earlier had said, when getting directions to this area, but she kept moving and headed to the west of the temple, where she quickly found a path that headed in two directions once more, one heading to a village that seemed different from what the night elves made and the other leading to an area that she felt held the entrance to the druid Order Hall. Something told her to follow the path that lead right to the druids, which just made her wonder how in the world Xe'ra could have known about this place since she had never been to Azeroth before this point in time, other wise she was sure that Khadgar or the others would have known about her ahead of time, but, at the same time, she decided not to argue with it since Xe'ra was allowing her to peer into her Lord's past and likely ready her for when it was time to claim Illidan's soul from the area that it had been sent to, which was what the rest of the Illidari were working on, or at least some since the others were looking for the body and Gul'dan. The path in question lead her to an area that had a few shrines or wells, something that she would have to ask the night elves about since she had no idea how they designed everything in the areas that they lived in, while the lanterns that lined the walkway seemed to be roots that were growing out of the ground and had bulbs that lit up the area, before she eventually reached the area, one that was outside the Dreamgrove, that the echo was resting in, to which she accessed it without delay. This time around her vision showed her an image of an older Illidan and Malfurion, who were talking to a projection of the being that had to be Cenarius, a centaur that seemed to radiate a vast amount of Life energy, meaning he had to be one of the Wild Gods she had heard about, where the conversation was about Cenarius telling Illidan that his anger happened to be misplaced, indicating that he hadn't insulted him in any manner, and that to walk the path of a druid meant that one had to sacrifice things, or maybe go through one sacrifice, even though the Wild God indicated that Malfurion was a very dedicated student and Illidan wasn't, something that left Illidan staring at the area the projection had been in when they were done talking to each other, before she snapped back to reality once more. Few individuals have known such failure and rejection, and while most would have given up, and gone on to tackle a new path, Illidan would continue on, Xe'ra spoke, once more speaking once the memory was done and that Spitfire was back in the present, something that she seemed to be fond of doing when she was showing someone the past, but at the very least this came without harm being done to her body and she was thankful for that, though once she made sure her body was just fine she focused on what the Prime Naaru had to say, even though she knew her Lord didn't care much for fate and would disagree with most of what Xe'ra had said, he was, however, guided by the unseen hand of fate, as his destiny lay elsewhere, in Black rook Hold, where he would become a military leader to Kur'talos Ravencrest. "And so that becomes my next destination... and I'm in luck, since I'm sure that's the hold in question." Spitfire remarked, as she was referring to the large stone hold that was just across the river from where she was standing at the moment, an area that seemed like it had been the domain of a rather powerful individual at some point in the past and right now she was sure that there were a number of spirits lingering in the area, either due to the Legion's actions or someone that had ruined everything in the past, and while she had no idea if her thoughts were right on their own she could feel an echo that was over in the area in question. Spitfire wasted no time in taking to the air and flew over to where the hold was located, though while she did that she also had to avoid being shot at by some of the glaive launchers, the siege weapons of the night elves and elves of old, or that was what she had been told during her time training with Rainbow and the Illidari, but it didn't take her all that long to find the area that the echo was located in, as there was an area that looked like a fighting arena and above it rested an area one could watch the fighting from, while even further above that rested an opening that held a staircase that went down into what she had to assume was a prison, though it was outside the opening that she found the echo in. As such Spitfire landed nearby and raised her hand to the echo, something that allowed her to peer into the past once more, where she found herself following Illidan, who was actually dressed as a mage and carried a staff, as Val'sharah came under siege by the Legion, possibly meaning that this was during the War of the Ancients so long ago in Azeroth's history, and standing near him were the elves that were his forces and one had a more imposing set of armor that showed everyone that he had to be a ruler or high ranking commander, to which she remained silent as she watched what was going on. At first Illidan and his forces teleported into the area and made sure that Kur'talos knew that they were there, before dealing with a few Felbats that emerged from a Felmaw, as Illidan called it, by summoning an Arcane barrier to disintegrate them, which just drained the acolytes that he had either been training or had been put in charge of before this event happened and they did mention that they needed to rest a little, even though his master did order him to do anything and everything in his power to make sure the demons failed in their mission to take them down. The first thing he did was reactivate a nearby portal, to give himself reinforcements and to create a font of energy to replenish his stores for what he was going to do, though as soon as he had some soldiers to fight beside him he had the barrier his master had put up taken down so they could march out and take down the Infernals that were being controlled by an Eredar, who eventually fell as Illidan and his forces took her and her toys down, before he moved deeper into the battlefield and assaulted the demons that dared to attack Black Rook Hold, even though it required sacrificing one of his soldiers to overpower the Eredar and gain a brand new power to strike her down. The interesting thing Spitfire gathered from his encounter with the Eredar was that the past version of her Lord mentioned that Fel was stronger than Arcane, but based on what she had seen so far all six of the cosmic forces seemed to be equal in power and it all mattered on who wielded the power and their own potential, meaning that the Eredar was clumsy and might be more of a novice in the grand scheme of things, while Illidan, at the time, was a master of the Arcane and his own destiny might have given him more potential than some of the other mages that lived during this time period, even though it was only a matter of time until he switched to Fel to fight Sargeras and the Legion more directly. The Eredar, who went by the name Xalian Felblaze, fell and Spitfire wondered if she had been revived at some point in time, to be thrown at one of the other worlds that the Legion attacked after the War of the Ancients, but before she could think about it too much, as it was possible she might be out there still, the Past Illidan resumed moving and headed down into the courtyard, which allowed him to pass by another portal to create a new font of energy to restock his stores and gather some mages who would aid him in his quest to take down the demonic invasion that was happening at the moment. From there he started to fight Doomguards and Felstalkers, of which there were many of them and his forces seemed surprised by everything that was being thrown against them and their master, not to mention taking down a few Eredar that were trained to hunt down mages and kill them, to weaken whoever they were facing and prevent something like this from happening in the first place, though Past Illidan and his forces tore them down as well as they headed down to the courtyard that a strong Eredar was standing in, a mage killer known as Balaadur, where Spitfire recalled Vytheril mentioning him in a story that the frost Archmage had told him, and since the Eredar had been slain on a floating island in the Twisting Nether recently they didn't have to worry about seeing him ever again. Before facing the Eredar in question Past Illidan and his forces fought to recover two more portals, adding two more focal areas for them to replenish their power at and grant them more soldiers for the big fight, though to breach the barrier that his target had summoned the past version of her Lord unleashed the power of the cosmos, in a beam of energy, which smashed through the barrier and forced his foe to engage them, which resulted in a battle that ended with her past Lord siphoning the energy of another mage to loose enough power to slay the Eredar, which surprised Balaadur as he fell to the ground and died. That was, however, around the time that they entered the arena that a massive Infernal was assaulting and it caused the past version of her Lord to siphon the power of the remaining Moon Guard to give him the power to destroy the creature and put a stop to the siege entirely, something that clearly didn't sit well with his master and caused an argument to break out between them once they were sure that the demons had been taken care of, which revealed the time when her Lord realized that were some sacrifices that were absolutely necessary to defeat the likes of the Legion, even if the methods would be criticized by those that witnessed them, before the past version of her Lord left and she snapped back to the present once more, even if she paused for a moment to sit down and think about the vision. Difficult decisions had to be made, especially during one of the Legion's invasions, but you need to understand Illidan's perspective if we are to succeed in our mission. Xe'ra commented, to which Spitfire resisted the urge to sigh as that was said, because she and Rainbow had a good understanding of what their Lord's methods were and understood them just as well as the rest of the Illidari did, but so far the Prime Naaru was starting to be more of a pain and less of an ally, which she kept to herself as she listened to what was being said at the moment, What would you have done differently, if you had been in his shoes? "Given that he's my Lord and mentor, I would have likely done the same thing," Spitfire replied, as while she'd rather not sacrifice some of her soldiers in the manner that her Lord had done, even if it gave him the power to defeat the demons and save Black Rook Hold, she knew that there were some sacrifices that needed to be done to bring about the Legion's end, as it was something that Lord Illidan had made sure she, Rainbow, and the rest of the Illidari knew and accepted, and so far it had been rather successful in bringing down the various worlds they had assaulted, save for when Maiev stopped them by having the Alliance and Horde assault the Black Temple, before she sighed for a moment, "though that hardly matters at the moment, as we're hunting down all of the echoes that he left before he was slain... speaking of which, do you have an idea of where the next one might be located?" Yes, we must now go to the continent of Kalimdor and visit the province of Azshara, which is to the north of where the city of Orgrimmar rests, Xe'ra stated, which was a bit of a surprise to Spitfire, mostly in the sense that they were going to be heading back to Kalimdor, since she had been thinking that they would be heading to Outland at some point so they could see the end of Illidan's reign in the Black Temple, though even as the voice said that Spitfire was under the belief that the Naaru was thinking about who she was showing all of these memories to, once we have seen this memory, the last of the ones on Azeroth, we have one more to track down and witness. Spitfire thought about that as she pulled out her own hearthstone, one of the magical stones that Khadgar gave to her and the rest of the Illidari, so they could attune it to either the main cities of either the Alliance or Horde, being Stormwind or Orgrimmar respectively, or to Dalaran, so they could teleport from one point to another, even though the stones only had a single charge and needed a break to recharge the magic that was inside them, though hers was connected to Dalaran, for when she had no mages with her, and it wasn't long before she used the stone to teleport herself back to the city that Khadgar and the others were using as their main base of operations against the Legion. Once that was done she walked over to the part of Dalaran that was normally under the control of the Horde, as there was a portal back to Orgimmar in a fountain area, one she was able to find within a matter of seconds after entering the section of the city, so it didn't take her all that long to teleport back to the city that she had left Saurfang in command of, for the time being since she was in the middle of dealing with the Legion, and based on what she had seen nothing was out of the ordinary, to which she nodded to the guards for a moment before spreading her wings and took off once more. From there she headed for the north, as she was purely following Xe'ra's directions at this point, though at the same time she had come here at one point during the Legion's previous attempts to break the Alliance and Horde, as in before they discovered the need for the Pillars and before the strongest heroes had gained all of their artifact weapons to use against the demons, so she was sort of familiar with this landscape, where part of the harbor that was on the eastern side of the province had been shifted by the goblins and transformed into an image of the Horde's logo, something she was totally against and really couldn't change at this point in time, since all of the maps had been changed accordingly, so she focused on tracking down the ruins that held the echo she was looking for. The ruin she was looking for, as she suspected, happened to be the large one which rested near a beach, not to mention near what was the center of the Horde symbol the goblins had created, and it was the circular dome that Xe'ra directed her to, where it only took her a few moments to land nearby and fold her wings up as she walked up to the area that the echo was resting in, though since there were no enemies or allies here she didn't have to worry all that much, about someone seeing what might happen to her, before she accessed the echo and braced herself for what it was going to show her. What she discovered was an ancient city, one that the memory didn't show her all that much of, and the focus of this was on a female highborne elf, or the Quel'dorei who served as the upper class and upper sect of the ancient elven civilization, who was wearing an elegant gown and seemed to radiate power, making Spitfire wonder if she was staring at the elf who was known as Queen Azshara, who also seemed to be standing between a large Fel portal and a kneeling Illidan, though all of this told her that this had to be before the Sundering of the world, before she heard Sargeras speak as he channeled a bit of power into Illidan's eyes, burning them out and allowing him to see the endless armies of the Legion, something that wouldn't stop his drive to see the Legion defeated, which was followed by Spitfire coming back to the present, just as fast as the other times she tapped into the echoes. "And that explains the Illidari custom of stabbing one's eyes out, with Rainbow and I being the only ones to somehow keep our eyes and not lose them," Spitfire commented, as she had always wondered how Lord Illidan had lost his eyes and why he wore the blindfold all the time, and due to him saying nothing about what might have happened both she and Rainbow had taken on the same belief that the rest of the Illidari had in relation to it, that he must have lost both of them in a battle against the Legion, or against a powerful enemy before he focused on the Legion with his full attention, but now she had an understanding of what had happened, he had likely sought out power by making the enemy believe he was joing them, which came at the cost of his eyes, but it had granted him both a decent amount of power and a new sight, with the latter showing him the truth of the matter. Illidan sought out the truth, in addition to power, and he was blinded by what he saw. Xe'ra said, though it didn't even sound like she cared about what Spitfire was talking about, meaning she didn't seem to feel anything towards the Illidari replicating what their Lord did to their eyes, which also served as the best way to force the Fel energy into their bodies, so the runic tattoos could be placed on their bodies once the shift to being a demon hunter was made, before she seemed to focus on something else for a few seconds, He was beginning to understand his destiny, but there was one final sacrifice that he needed to make... one that resides inside the final echo, located outside the Black Temple. Once more Spitfire said nothing to that as she headed back towards Orgrimmar, as there happened to be a portal to her destination in the depths of the city and it would take her to the other side of the Dark Portal, which was rather weird as she thought about it, but she decided not to bother with worrying about it, even though she was sure that the mages who controlled those portals were closing them down since there was no reason to keep them open, and as such it didn't take her all that long to reappear in Hellfire Peninsula, a province that she couldn't believe she was in once more, especially given everything that had happened to her recently. She paused for a moment, to stare up at the odd humanoid creatures who stood on either side of the Dark Portal, the stone sentinels that she and the scholars were still confused by since the only ones who might have known why they were important were Gul'dan and Medivh, and given that one was dead, with an alternate version running around, and the other was more interested in watching a modified history play out before his eyes, she had the feeling that no one would figure out why the statues looked like this in the first place. Not even a few seconds later Spitfire sighed and took to the air once more, where she headed to the south and decided to cut through the part of the Twisting Nether that rested between Hellfire Peninsula and Shadowmoon Valley, mostly because if there were demons nearby, waiting to ambush her, and she was slain in battle, as unlikely as it sounded in her mind, the Legion would be unable to capture her soul and her body would be lost, but for the most part she wasn't worried about that since this world seemed to be no one's focus at the moment and that meant she could get to her destination with ease. When she reached Shadowmoon Valley, however, she deviated from her path for a moment and flew over to the areas of this foul province that both she and Rainbow had landed in when they first arrived in this world, though nothing had changed since the last time they had been here, as she was mostly looking in case someone, like Discord or one of the Princesses, broke through to this world as they tracked down the magic that brought them to Outland and, eventually, Azeroth, before she sighed and headed for the Black Temple, which still had the Light based barrier around it and was keeping out any of the Legion's forces, keepings its secrets contained inside while Akama and his Broken worked to make it what it had been at one point in time, even if it took a lifetime of work on their part, where she eventually landed before the main gate and raised her hand once more as the vision took hold of her. What she discovered was the epic battle that was between two forces, the first being the combined heroes of the Alliance and Horde, where Spitfire wondered if Vytheril, Syerea, or any of the others were here, while the second was Lord Illidan, in all of his demonic glory, meaning that this was the battle before she and the rest of the Illidari returned from Mardum with the Keystone, even though the heroes made all the preparations that each of them could think of before actually engaging her Lord, who proclaimed that none of them were prepared and fought against them with all of his might, but at the start of the battle she quickly determined one thing right off the bat. That was that, at the start of the battle, her Lord wasn't going full power, nor was he channeling all of the power that she and the other Illidari knew about, rather he was holding most of it back for when his forces returned, as in her, Rainbow, and everyone else that he sent after the Keystone, which made her realize that the reason behind it was because his hope was that if he revealed his intentions in such a way, with the key to literally every demon world in hand, they would stand down, accuse Maiev of lying to them, and ally all of their forces with the Illidari so they could take down the Legion at long last. She knew that it was both a bold move and a costly one at the same time, due to the fact that it required him to buy as much time as he could so they could return from their mission, but, based on what she had learned and what she was seeing at the moment, as her Lord lashed out at the heroes with nearly lethal moves, with a few being lethal enough to end a few heroes that later became death knights and fought against the Lich King sometime later, he was forced to reveal more and more of his powers to the heroes that he was fighting, some she and Rainbow had seen during their training, since he eventually became the only one that could even train them, and some that neither of them had witnessed, before eventually weakening due to Maiev's arrival, as she wanted him dead and was willing to do anything and everything to bring him down. It was due to the untimely intervention of the Warden that Lord Illidan started to lose the flow of the battle and had to fight harder than he had done previously, especially with Maiev stopping him from taking out any healers that the heroes had brought with them, until eventually he fell to the ground and his warglaives fell to the sides, where one of the greedy heroes, a rogue based on what Spitfire saw, grabbed both of them and claimed them, even though Lord Illidan seemed to glance at the sky for a moment, no doubt thinking about Tyrande, before he collapsed and his body went still, with his soul leaving as Maiev imprisoned his body to be stored inside the Vault that the Illidari appeared in later. A few seconds later Spitfire found herself back in the present, though instead of being mad she just sighed as she thought about what she had seen and knew that her Lord's plans had been foiled by Maiev, someone none of the Illidari liked all that much, but what she was really doing was waiting for Xe'ra to say something about what they had seen, since it was the custom of the Prime Naaru to say something about one of the echoes before trying to direct Spitfire to whatever area she wanted her to go to next, but with this being the last memory she had to witness she figured that returning to Dalaran was in order, to resume the fight with the Legion. Forgive me, noble soul, for I have mislead you. Xe'ra commented, surprising Spitfire for a moment, since she wasn't talking about the memory that they had just seen, where she expected the Naaru to mention Tyrande or something, which caused Spitfire to remain silent as she listened to what she was being told at the moment, though if this was a massive waste of her time she was going to have words with the Prime Naaru and then find a way to block her from speaking into her mind like this, even though its possible that such a thing would fade on its own accord, Light's Heart was not the vessel that required preparation, rather it was yours that we were preparing. You, who sacrificed much for the sake of a world that isn't even your home world and served your master dutifully until his end, these memories served as a way to strengthen your resolve and to look to them when the dark temptation surrounds you once more, to let them grant you the strength to resist and rise against the Dark Titan and his allies. Worry not, we will save Illidan Stormrage and, once more, you will battle at the side of your master for the fate of all worlds. Normally Spitfire would frown at this, since it would seem like Xe'ra was wasting her time, before deciding not to do that as she smiled for a moment, because she was more focused on the fact that the Prime Naaru had said that they were going to save her Lord and bring him back to her, Rainbow, the rest of the Illidari, and the rest of Azeroth, to put an end to the Legion and their foul master to save the rest of creation from their Burning Crusade, to which she took off and headed for the portal back to Orgrimmar, as now she was all the more eager to find her Lord's body and soul and take the fight to their enemies at long last, and soon the Legion would fear the revival of Illidan Stormrage and his campaign to bring them and their master down. > Order Hall: Dealing with the Wardens > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- While Spitfire was off doing whatever it was that she was doing, as Rainbow wasn't entirely sure what her friend was doing right now since she had said nothing to her, save for telling her to head back to the Fel Hammer and check in with the rest of the Illidari while she went off and thought about everything that Xe'ra had shared with her, or at least that was what she was thinking at the moment, Rainbow walked down the streets of Dalaran and headed for Krasus' Landing, so she could quickly glide over to where the portal to their new base of operations rested, to check in with the Illidari and see if any of them needed help with something. Truthfully, it was very depressing to hear that Sargeras was so strong that he had been able to cut down the rest of the Titan Pantheon and scattered their souls across the universe, as that seemed to be what he had done and might have explained part of why he was assaulting planets with the intent of taking them and adding all of their might to the Legion's, like he might be looking for the souls of the other Titans, but all she could do was guess at what the Dark Titan might be doing right now, even though he was focusing on opening the way so he could reach Azeroth and claim his prize. Another thing that caught her off guard was the existence of the Army of the Light, which seemed to be an army of survivors from the worlds the Legion took over, apparently with several residents of Azeroth being among their number somehow, but while it seemed like Xe'ra might be wanting them to head to Argus and either assist them or find a way for them to let the Golden Army retreat to Azeroth for a time. Then there was the prophecy that spoke of what Xe'ra called the 'Child of Light and Shadow', which would imply that whoever the Prime Naaru was looking for happened to hold the power of two of the universe's six cosmic powers, or the powers of this portion of the universe anyway, and it was easy for her to determine that the Prime Naaru had been speaking of the Light, which paladins and priests used, and the Void, which certain priests used to deal damage to their enemies, but neither of those really applied to Lord Illidan, or at least she was sure they didn't. She guessed there was a chance that it was referring to his glorious past, before the day he became the first of the demon hunters, and the darkness the Prime Naaru assumed had festered inside his heart after being locked inside his prison, which had been somewhere in Azeroth, for ten thousand years, but in the end she sighed as she walked towards the edge of her destination, because right now it was best if she focused on figuring out what the rest of the Illidari were doing and if any of them needed help. As such she focused on what she was going to do next and opened her wings as she flew down to the portal to Mardum, though not a few moments later Rainbow landed on the ground and passed through the portal, where she returned to the Fel Hammer and discovered that the Illidari were how she and Spitfire left them, working hard to defeat the Legion, either by training to better their skills, learning new skills to be used against their demonic enemies, or just resting and waiting for a chance to go out into the field once more, though interestingly enough Kayn and others who stood with him, the rest of Spitfire's 'Champions', as Khadgar would have called them, weren't here, so she walked over to Belath, who seemed like he had something that he needed to share with someone. "So, Belath, what's going on?" Rainbow asked, because based on what she could see at the moment it sure seemed like all of the Illidari were busy preparing themselves for whatever missions would be dished out to them, even though it seemed like either Kayn, Altruis, or Belath were the ones dishing out orders for the rest of their forces, given how busy both she and Spitfire were at the moment, especially with Spitfire taking Sylvanas' place as Warchief of the Horde, something they were still shocked by and she was sure her friend would do well in that position, even if it seemed like she might be in the middle of planning out who would rule the Horde when she was busy killing demons, "Everyone seems a little busier than the last time Spitfire and I were here, which was before we went to Stormheim to stop Genn and Sylvanas from sparking a faction war while we're fighting the Legion, and it seems like we've gotten some new recruits, either from the residents of Azeroth or ones that might have been left below the Fel Hammer." The reason she said that was due to the fact that one of the Illidari was a female night elf who was clad in armor that just covered her body, possibly forged during the time she spent in this world after the Wardens stopped the rest of them and imprisoned all of them in their Vault, who she suspected was Ariana Fireheart, a trainer who took Varedis' place once the latter had perished and she was sure that Kayn had made sure she had the same position, even though she and those she trained would likely be sent on missions to improve their skills or make sure the trainees were ready for the dangers that were ahead of the Illidari. "As you can see, we're preparing for the future... though to be honest, I've been looking for the Sargerite Keystone, which involves working with the Wardens." Belath replied, where he paused for a moment and noticed the frown that was now on Rainbow's face, as she was like the majority of the Illidari and didn't like the Wardens, especially after everything that had happened after they claimed Mardum and the relic in question, and he honestly couldn't blame her, though out of all them Spitfire seemed to be the only one that spoke of uniting the factions while they focused on the Legion, so right now he was taking a page from her book, before he returned to the matter at hand, "Based on what I've been able to figure out the Wardens, likely Maiev, took the Keystone from the one who knocked it out of Spitfire's hand and likely placed it in an unknown location, after making sure we were all imprisoned inside that cursed Vault... however, with Maiev missing, the current leader of the Wardens is Sira Moonwarden. On Spitfire's behalf, since she's busy right now, I spoke with Sira and formed an arrangement with her, where the Illidari will assist them in tracking down some of the more powerful creatures that escaped from the Vault, either capturing them so they'll be returned to their cells, or executed, or outright killing the escapees in question, though once we have taken care of the list of prisoners, in whatever way we deem necessary, given the powers each target might have, Sira has agreed to direct us to where we need to go to get the Keystone." "I see. I'm sure Spitfire would approve... though out of curiosity, who did Sira want us to take down?" Rainbow inquired, as while it was easy for her to know that Spitfire would nod her head when she heard about this, since she was trying to have all of the factions present a united front against the Legion, she was interested in who the Wardens might want the Illidari to take out, even though she was sure that Belath had already sent out a number of their forces to track down everyone that Sira wanted them to take out, meaning all she had to do was wait until they returned to hear whether or not Spitfire's forces were successful or not. "The first target is someone we're familiar with: Jade Darkhaven, an Illidari who was turned into a Felsworn traitor, like what happened to Cyana," Belath said, though that was when he paused for a moment as he noticed that Rainbow was totally surprised by what she had just heard, as while she and Spitfire knew that Cyana did have trouble with the Fel at times, as in she was a little power hungry when it came to the power the demonic energies granted her, which they had seen a little of during the assault on Mardum and their escape from the Vault, hearing that she would betray the Illidari and join the Legion, all for more power, seemed to shock and anger Rainbow at the same time, especially since there happened to be a second Illidari who joined her in betraying the Illidari, before he sighed for a moment, "right, you and Spitfire didn't hear about what we faced in Azsuna... suffice it to say that we sent a decent number of Illidari to deal with the demons that were in part of the provice in question and several were captured, with Cyana and Jade, at the very least, being corrupted by Cordana, though to be sure our enemies don't capture our former allies we had some heroes capture Cyana and we imprisoned her down below, and we're going to capture Jade as well. It may seem a little extreme, as we're talking about executing our former sisters in arms, but they have become Felsworn traitors, willingly trading their freedom and souls to the Legion, all for the promise of power to crush those that stand against them or their master, and this is all we can do to prevent their souls from being taken by Kil'jaeden, to be twisted into monsters bent on destroying Azeroth and the rest of creation... putting them down is the best we can do for them, even if their souls will be trapped in the engines of the Fel Hammer, or in either your Warblades or Lady Spitfire's Twinblades." "Not to mention whoever got captured as well..." Rainbow remarked, as she could see that there were a couple of missing Illidari since the last time she had been in the Fel Hammer, more in the sense that they might have been captured, which was due to Belath telling her about Cyana and Jade, before she sighed for a moment and focused on what they were doing right now, especially since it seemed like her aid wasn't needed and she could ask about the other targets, "So, what about the other targets Sira wants us to take down?" "Right, the second target is a Satyr who is known as Skul'vrax, who was last seen near the northern edge of Azsuna, based on what we we're told," Belath continued, where he could tell that Rainbow was troubled by the loss of two individuals she and Spitfire had known, even if she was also angry due to both of the former Illidari betraying them and joining the Legion, but instead of worrying her more than she already was, as he was sure that some of their trainees were missing and must have been taken by Cordana, the Fel Warden herself, they had no guarantee that such a thing was true, not without asking their foe the question, before he focused on her question, "while the third target is a Highmountain Tauren by the name of Mellok, located somewhere in Highmountain, the fourth is a storm drake who was corrupted by the Fel, a drake that the locals call Fathnyr, and should be somewhere near the rest of its kind, which means where you and Spitfire went during your Trials for the Aegis. The last target is an Eredar whose been convincing Warden adepts to betray their order and join the Legion, or maybe the better term is 'corrupting', given the nature of the demons, though we have no idea if any of the Wardens have turned or not, though our target goes by the name Mal'Dreth... I have requested that this one is captured and brought to the camp the Wardens have near their Vault, so you can publicly execute him in front of Sira and have her tell us where the Keystone is located." "Sounds like a good plan, which means I can take this time to rest and prepare myself for when the others return with the targets they were supposed to capture," Rainbow said, though this honestly wasn't what she was expecting to find out as she returned to the Fel Hammer, as some of the news was rather disappointing and having a few Illidari betray them put her in a bit of a bad mood, more than having to work with the Wardens, to which she sighed for a moment as she walked away from where Belath was standing and focused on resting up before she had to fight someone again. Rainbow spent the rest of the afternoon, which they were able to tell thanks to the map in the center of the upper floor of the Fel Hammer that seemed to be linked to Azeroth in some manner, allowing everyone to see what time it was and if it was daytime or nighttime, meaning that when it reached the time that most people went to sleep she found her way up to a perch of some kind that was above the rest of the Illidari, allowing her to sleep and, due to her pony abilities, could easily be woken up by any strange sounds, just in case they were attacked by Kil'jaeden or something. As it turned out everyone was able to reach the next morning with next to nothing exciting happening, as in no attacks and no invasions, which did make her wonder if any of their enemies knew where they had stationed their hideout, as in Kil'jaeden had told no one of the Illidari taking the Fel Hammer and that they were lucking in Mardum, even though she was sure that he had done so and was having his forces hold off on invading them until he was ready to take them out, but when Rainbow opened her eyes and stretched it didn't take her long to fly down to the rest of the Illidari and join them for breakfast, dishes brought from Dalaran that weren't tainted by the Fel at all, meaning they were far better than anything they had eaten since their time in the Black Temple, preparing everyone for what the day held for them. While they were eating Rainbow discovered that Spitfire hadn't returned yet, meaning whatever she was doing was incredibly important or she had been called by one of the leaders of the Horde to settle something, though a few moments later the portal back to Dalaran shimmered and they watched as Kayn and the other members of the Illidari that had gone out to deal with Sira's targets had returned from their missions and seemed to be successful in either capturing their targets or cutting them down, where it was very easy for her and the others to see that one of them was carrying the head of a red haired satyr, a night elf looking creature that had curved horns and were intent on corrupting nature, another happened to have the head of a tauren that had a pair of large moose antlers, meaning it had to be a Highmountain Tauren, who had a Fel taint to his now dead eyes, while the last one had some of the Shivarra help them move the head of a Fel-tainted Thorignir, all of which looked like they were ready to be teleported to Sira and the Wardens to show them that they had done as their temporary leader had asked. After that she found that Kayn came in escorting a blinded Eredar, who was wearing a purple robe of some kind that had a few bits of Fel mist coming from the shoulder pieces, meaning that this had to be the one known throughout the Legion as Mal'Dreth the Corruptor, given his nature to corrupt whoever he captured, and he was blinded so he couldn't see the rest of the Fel Hammer, though Rainbow knew that Sira and the other Wardens would be happy to see him die, for corrupting some of her fellow Wardens into traitors, either stopping at Cordana's level or even progressing to making them into new demons to send at Azeroth. Not a few seconds later she spotted something that disappointed her, a night elf with purple hair that had been twisted into a more demonic form, with hooved legs that reminded her of Lord Illidan, and a large pair of demonic bat wings with tatters at the bottom end, who was basically wearing an armored bra against her corrupted skin and an armored pair of pants that seemed to be made of mail, based on what she knew about armor, though it was in that moment that she noticed the Felsworn's arms were bound behind her back, though according to Belath this was the transformed state of Jade Darkhaven. That piece of information told her that her thoughts had been correct, as in the fact that the Legion was corrupting their brothers and sisters into becoming Felsworn, twisting their bodies into what she and the others were seeing right now, before she noticed that there was a male night elf, whose body was similar to Jade's transformed demonic body, who Belath told her was Cailyn Paledoom, while the next bound target was a female blood elf, with the same twisted form the previous two had, who had darkened skin due to the Fel infusion, who she quickly learned was Lysanis Shadesoul, and the last one was a female night elf, though she was in the early stages of her transformation, as it looked like her feet had shifted into cloven hooves, her fingers were starting to change into claws, and, if one were to look at her back, it looked like her wings were starting to grow in, like they might break out of her clothing soon and give her a form like the others, which meant this had to be Cyana. Based on everything they were seeing, even if it was rather disappointing in Rainbow's eyes, four of their brothers and sisters had been corrupted, a few more were confirmed to be missing in action and Kayn was having a few of their forces look into where they might be location, to see if they could find and rescue them, but not a few moments later the Illidari forced their former allies, one of which had been brought up to this floor from the lower level and three brought in from Azsuna, to their knees so they could see what was coming their way, while Mal'Dreth and the other trophies were taken back to Dalaran so they could be transported to the Wardens, to which Rainbow focused on Cyana and her Felsworn allies. "Cyana, Jade, Lysanis, Cailyn, I'm disappointed in you guys... that you would abandon us and join the Legion, all for power that will bind you to Sargeras' will," Rainbow said, and that was the truth of the matter, as while she was angry that four of their allies had abandoned the Illidari and became Felsworn, which wasn't even counting everyone else that was missing right now, she was disappointed in the fact that each of the former Illidari that were in front of her had joined the demonic army they were supposed to be taking out, which she was sure even Lord Illidan would be disappointed by whenever they retrieved his soul and body, since they were planning on bringing him back to life, "What would Spitfire say if she saw all of you like this, with your bodies and souls twisted into being more demonic than you were the last time she saw you? In fact, what would Lord Illidan say if he saw you like this?" "Come on, Rainbow, join us... the power made us stronger than ever, so much so that it took several Illidari and heroes to bring each of us down," Cyana replied, where a smile appeared on her face as she spoke, one that allowed Rainbow to see that a number of her teeth had become sharp, almost fang-like, and seemed to reflect the demon soul she had taken into her body to become a demon hunter, meaning her transformation into a true demon was still progressing and that, even with all of the Illidari watching them, she and her Felsworn allies were possibly drawing on the Fel energy of Mardum to strengthen them, and if Rainbow was right they would reveal their intentions in the next few moments, "you, on the other hand, could become one of the greater demons, possibly on the level of Archimonde or Kil'jaeden, or even those who live on Argus! All you have to do is accept our Master's deal and convert the Illidari into Felsworn..." "Yeah, not happening." Rainbow remarked, which was when she barely moved her head and the rest of the Illidari took a few steps back, sensing that she had a reason for wanting them to do so, which was when Cyana and her fellows burst out of their bindings, tearing through rope and metal as they started to stand up and rush at her, but instead of even getting remotely close to her, and cutting her down so her soul could be sent into the vastness of the Twisting Nether, she drew both of her Warblades from her horns and activated her inner power, allowing her to move at a speed that was above the speed the Felsworn were using. Cyana and her allies barely had a chance to register what was going on as Rainbow moved her body to avoid the incoming attacks, even the ones that weren't close to touching her, and then lashed out at them without wasting a single moment, as she swung both of her Warblades through the air and landed behind the four of them, where the rest of the Illidari just stood there in silence as they waited to see what was going to happen next, even though Cyana, Jade, Lysanis, and Cailyn coughed for a moment before the effects of Rainbow's attack became known to them. Kayn and the others watched as the Felsworn collapsed before their eyes, dropping to the ground in seconds like they were mere gnats before Rainbow's power, though before anything else happened the Illidari moved and made sure to move the bodies up onto containers so they could use their Fel blood for something later on, like using one of the crucibles or something, though Kayn planned on burning the bodies once that was done, just to make sure there was nothing for the Legion to take, before he and the rest of the Illidari glanced at Rainbow. Four Fel-tainted souls flowed through the air, which had to be the souls of the four Felsworn, before splitting in half before their eyes, where the souls of Cyana and her allies were 'eaten' by her Warblades, to join the souls of the demons and Fel-corrupted she had slain so far, while the incredible amount of Fel energy that had been inside them, gained by joining the Legion and having it infused into their bodies, joined the vast power that Rainbow had absorbed from the rest of the demons she had slain, basically making all of that power hers and giving her a decent power boost in the process, putting her right on the level of Spitfire, possibly even over their leader's level. Rainbow stood there and watched them for a moment or two, letting the new power die down inside her body, before she staggered and dropped her Warblades as she felt a flash of pain in her legs and hooves, where she and the others watched as part of her body started to change, due to the fact that four sharp claws pushed out of both of her hooves, claws that looked a lot like the claws of a Pit Lord's feet, before the rest of her legs followed suit, giving her the digitgrade legs of a Pit Lord, which did come as a shock to all of them and Rainbow walked around for a few moments, finding that it was almost natural for her to be doing something like this, even though she noticed a bunch of dark green scales near her new claws that reminded her of a dragon, since the Pit Lords had no scales. It was in that moment that Rainbow recalled that the Illidari became more demon-like as they absorbed more Fel energy, with Lord Illidan being one of the prime examples of such a thing and the Felsworn confirming it for them, but at the same time the amount of Fel energy that was needed to have the changes happen, which could be anything from clawed hands, clawed feet that weren't this extreme, the cloven hooves all of the Felsworn had, sometimes a spiked tail, and who knew what else, something that made her wonder if she and Spitfire had reached one of the thresholds back in Stormheim and that explained the increase in their chest size, before she decided that it didn't matter and she had Kayn prepare the rest of the trophies for departure. Not a few moments later Rainbow, Kayn, and a few of the other Illidari gathered on Krasus' Landing and found that Belath must have enlisted Khadgar's help in getting them to where Sira and the Wardens had put their new camp, to which they waited for a few seconds as he formed a portal and allowed them to step through it, which brought them over to an island off the coast of Azsuna, near an area that was infested with Fel energy and the corrupting devices she and Spitfire had seen back in Mardum, though it was easy to find a camp with a single tent resting in front of them, where a number of Wardens were in the middle of training new recruits, to replace those that had either been slain during Gul'dan's assault on the Vault or those that had been taken by the Legion, to join Cordana's ranks or becoming true demons in the process. It didn't take her long to locate an important looking Warden, as there was one standing near the tent that had a set of armor that seemed less decorated than Maiev's armor, but more decorated than most of the ranked members of the force, meaning she had to be Sira Moonwarden, the temporary leader of this group until they discovered where Maiev was hiding or the area the target she happened to be hunting was resting in, though their arrival caused all of the Wardens, trainees and experts alike, to stop what they were doing and focused on Rainbow's group as they walked out of the portal and came to a stop near Sira's resting place. Of course Sira seemed silent, just like Maiev before she had the urge to speak to someone, though Rainbow was fine with that as she waited for a few seconds as Kayn and the others made sure everything was in position so they could show the Wardens that they were here to uphold their end of the deal and discover the resting place of the Sargerite Keystone, all so they could enact the plan that Lord Illidan had created and, at the same time, take down both Varedis and Caria, though once Mal'Dreth was forced to his knees, being the last of the trophies, Rainbow shifted her stance. "Sira Moonwarden, we have come to honor the deal you made with us earlier, five criminals for the location of the stolen Sargerite Keystone," Rainbow stated, though just as Mal'Dreth seemed to shift for a moment, showing that the reason he had been corrupting Wardens was to get his hands on the Keystone that had been stolen from Mardum, Rainbow lashed out with her Warblades and separated the Eredar's head from the rest of his body, where he collapsed on the ground as his head rolled over to where the Warden she was talking to happened to be standing at the moment, though she claimed Mal'Dreth's soul before it could escape, sending it into her weapons as she absorbed his Fel energy, before she turned to face the Warden they were here to speak to, "As you have seen, Mal'Dreth, the one that has been capturing and breaking some of your forces into Felsworn traitors, has been captured and slain, while each of the other targets have been slain by the Illidari and we brought their heads, save for Jade's head, to you... we also captured several other Felsworn traitors and killed them as well, to show you that we're serious about honoring the deal that Belath made. So, where did you guys hide the Sargerite Keystone?" "Not so fast, demon. If you want the Keystone, there is one more than you must do, and this time it must be you who goes out and kills the next three targets," Sira stated, something that caused not only Rainbow to frown, but also caused Kayn and the other Illidari to grown, which was due to the fact that the Wardens had agreed to a very specific deal and now they were betraying said deal for some odd reason, like Sira expected Rainbow and Spitfire to go out and kill the five targets she had told Belath about, instead of sending their forces to capture or kill the offenders, before she reached into a small pack for a moment and held out a scroll, which Rainbow took from her and unfurled it, "Your targets are the Banshee that goes by the name of Theryssia, who we last saw outside Black Rook Hold in Val'sharah, a vrykul warrior known as Hertha Grimdottir, who we suspect is hiding in a cave near the border between Suramar and Stormheim, on Suramar's side to be exact, and a Voidwraith known only as Devouring Darkness, a creature we suspect is somewhere in Highmountain, likely hiding with the local Kobolds... once you kill those three, and return to me in one piece, then I might share with you the information you are so desperately seeking." "You know, I'm really starting to hate you guys," Rainbow remarked, which was when she stepped forward and did exactly what she had done to Maiev after she and Spitfire had woke up from their long slumber, which she and the other Illidari either considered to be wasted or stolen time, as in she grabbed Sira by the collar of her armor and lifted her into the air with little to no resistance, where none of the Wardens even made a move to assist their commander, meaning either she had known this would happen ahead of time and wanted no one to get hurt or they knew that she was stronger than they were and were backing down before Rainbow turned her wrath on them, "The way I see it, you set up a deal with us and had us hunt down some prisoners and criminals, since you didn't have the manpower to track them down and deal with them yourself, and we fulfilled our end of the arrangement and then some, by hunting down and killing the Felsworn that betrayed us some time ago... plus, you owe us for the years that Maiev kept us imprisoned inside the Vault, so we'll forgive you for that if you cut the crap and just tell us what we want to know." "You don't scare me, demon," Sira stated, her tone revealing that she likely didn't care about what Rainbow was doing or what she was saying right now, like she had seen the depths of the Legion's evil and couldn't be intimidated by someone just holding her up in the air by using the collar of her armor, though she could see that none of the Illidari were remotely impressed by her attitude, as in they agreed with what Rainbow was saying and believed that the Wardens owed them for the time they spent in the Vault, before she focused on the individual in front of her, "but, just for this offense, I'll have you know that we have far more targets for you and the Illidari to take care of, before we even think about giving you a scrap of information on where your precious Keystone is located... I'll have you take care of every target we have, and we have over a hundred targets, both former prisoners and recent criminals, so none of you will be..." "Sira! What is the meaning of this?" a familiar voice asked, where Rainbow, the Illidari, and the Wardens watched as Maiev, in all her glory, stepped out of the shadows and walked over to where they were standing, meaning she must have heard everything that had been said since the Illidari came to the camp, or at least that was Rainbow's assumption on the matter and it might have been a test to see if they could be trusted with the information, though that was when she spotted a few individuals behind the Head Warden, one being Asha, though she also spotted the still bodies of Cassiel Nightthorn, Sirius Ebonwing, and Arduen Soulblade, meaning four of the missing Illidari had been revealed and three of them appeared to be dead, and given that Asha wasn't fighting Maiev it told Rainbow everything she needed to know, "You made a deal with the Illidari, to hunt down and kill a number of the targets on our list, but instead of honoring your end of the bargain, like I would have done, you decided to cheat them out of their reward and wanted to exploit them to make sure we take care of the entire list... I'm disappointed in you." "Maiev... I... fine, you win." Sira said, where it looked like she might have wanted to say something else to her leader, what Rainbow had no idea since Maiev wasn't the type to be intimidated by anyone, even Spitfire and Rainbow couldn't do that based on what she remembered, as back in the Vault it seemed like she had left herself defenseless to try and stop them from killing someone who wasn't fighting back, before Sira turned her head towards Rainbow and thought about what she was about to say, even though she didn't think the Illidari deserved their item yet, "The one you're looking for is a Warden by the name of Malace Shade, who Lady Maiev appointed as the one to safeguard your precious Sargerite Keystone from any that would misuse it, though we sent her to Stormheim some time ago to deal with a Fel Lord, so to gain the Keystone you'll have to find her and likely help her take down her target, before she gives you the information on your precious Fel-tainted device... that's all I know on the matter." "Malace was, according to my last report, last seen near the Gates of Valor," Maiev added, revealing that either Sira had no idea that such a report had come in earlier, or she didn't care and wanted to make the Illidari waste time hunting down the location of the Warden they had been told about, before she glanced over at Rainbow for a moment and noticed the new changes to her body, but decided to say nothing about them since she needed to lecture Sira on how to go about making deals with those that were helping them bring down the Legion, especially with the likes of Spitfire and Rainbow, given her brief encounter with them inside the Vault, "you should start there... also, some of the heroes saved Asha and myself from Black Rook Hold, even though three of your number died in the process and Asha made sure to claim their souls so they weren't taken by the Legion, so I'll be handing over their bodies to the Illidari, so you can bury them or do whatever it is that you do when a member of your order dies." "I... thank you." Rainbow replied, as while she hated the Wardens, and Maiev especially, this was one of the rare times that she was surprised by what Maiev said and knew that Spitfire would have been caught off guard as well, to which she took a moment to sigh as she let go of Sira, letting her touch down on the ground before doing so, before holding up the scroll she had been given earlier, causing her to glance between the leader of the Wardens and the one that would replace her if anything happened to her while she was out in the field, "I'll head to Stormheim right now and see if I can't find Malace, to assist her in killing this Fel Lord... oh, and I'll make sure Belath sends some Illidari out to kill the targets on this scroll, just to relieve some of the pressure you might be feeling right now." As Rainbow turned to leave the area, so she could spread her wings and take off, that was when she felt a slight shift in the air and knew what was coming at her from the back, where she shifted her body to the side and that was when Sira swung her crescent weapon down through the area she had been standing in a few moments ago, meaning if she hadn't dodged the incoming attack her soul would have likely been sent to the Twisting Nether, that was if she avoided seeing what was on Kayn's face, before she spun around and struck Sira in the chest with the side of her leg, sending her flying through the tent, ripping the fabric of the back apart in seconds, then struck part of the rock wall behind the camp and collapsed not a few seconds later. Rainbow raised an eyebrow for a moment, as she wasn't expecting such a thing when she used her new legs to attack someone who dared to attack her from behind like that, before Maiev walked over to Sira and took a couple of seconds to make sure she was alright, giving Rainbow a chance to stretch her legs and make sure her movements were just fine, just a double check in the grand scheme of things, but one that was done she tossed the scroll over to Kayn and opened her wings so she could take to the air, turning herself so she could fly through Suramar and head to Stormheim, leaving the Illidari to clean up the mess that had been created and start to seek out the other three targets they had been told about just now. Now she was a little conflicted, as normally she would hate every Warden for what had happened to her, Spitfire, and the rest of the Illidari, and Sira's attitude towards her and her forces confirmed her opinion, but Maiev, against all odds, seemed to apologize to them in an odd way by making sure that the demon hunters who were captured and slain had their bodies returned to her and her forces, while delivering Asha and some information to them, but that really wasn't enough for her to really forgive Maiev for what she had done to all of them, however, as she told the Wardens earlier, she would drop the matter as long as they claimed the Sargerite Keystone, so the Illidari could move on with what their Lord had planned before the assault on Mardum. She still wanted to beat up Maiev and punish her accordingly, just because she deserved it and it would finish up what happened inside the Vault, but for now she was going to stick to what Spitfire would do in this situation, make friends and focus on the Legion, while leaving the potential punishment for later, once the Keystone had been claimed and they had stopped Sargeras' crusade, in whatever form that happened to be, to which she focused on the task at hand and headed for Stormheim, even though it was interesting to hear that there were still demons in that province, especially after everything that had happened earlier, when she, Spitfire, and the others went through Stormheim to get the Aegis. It took her some time to reach the province of Stormheim, not that she stopped for anything along the way, but once she entered the part of the Broken Isles her target was resting in Rainbow turned towards the Gates of Valor and decided to head over to the Felskorn camp they had found Vethir in, when he came to help them stop Skovald, where she discovered a brand new Fel cage resting near where the storm drake had been resting, and sure enough there was a Warden resting inside the iron structure, who turned her head a little as she heard the sounds of Rainbow's wings, even though Rainbow landed near her and closed her wings as she focused on the Warden. "Rainbow Dash, is that you?" the Warden asked, though it was easy for Rainbow to determine that this was Malace, given what Maiev and Sira had told her earlier, though of course, due to the fact that every Felskorn had been slain, for the most part, this area seemed to be deprived of enemies, even though Rainbow was sure there were some demons nearby, which she knew that to the cage that Malace was trapped in right now, before the Warden sighed for a moment as she thought about everything that had happened to her, "This is a rather odd turn of events for us, don't you think? The prisoner is free and the jailer is now the prisoner... do whatever you want with me, as the vrykul that imprisoned me realized that a basic cage wouldn't be enough to hold a Warden, so they used their ill-gotten powers to do this, and to break it I would need to find and kill the three vrykul that are holding the rune keys, which would let me break the seal." "I'm not going to kill you... rather, I came to help you track down the Fel Lord you were tracking, in exchange for the area the Keystone is resting in," Rainbow replied, though while there were members of the Illidari that would have been happy to have a Warden inside the Fel Hammer, possibly to keep their existence a secret and give them Fel energy to make them into the very thing they hate, and she was sure there were one or two among their ranks that would do something like that to someone, namely Maiev if she had to put a finger on who their target would be, "Tell me where the rune holders might be and I'll go kill them, then I'll break the seal and we can go kill that Fel Lord you were sent here to take down, provided it is still in this province." "Your targets are Runesage Floki, whose located in Tideskorn Harbor, Runelord Ragnar, who watches over Hrydshal, and Runeskeld Rollo, who should be in Haustvald," Malace stated, though the only reason she knew that was due to the sheer fact that one of the vrykul that had come over to this area, who weren't here right now, had discussed the areas that the three rune holders had wandered off to, so they purposely gave her the information to torment her, but since Rainbow was here she could use that to get her revenge on the Felskorn that had survived her and Spitfire's assault on Stormheim earlier, maybe ending all of them in the process, before she focused on the task at hand, "recover their runes and you can unlock this cage... then we can kill that Fel Lord and discuss the Keystone." Rainbow, without even wasting a second, burst into the air by flapping her wings and spun around when she was a decent distance above the camp, allowing her to focus on Haustvald once more, to which she flew over to the area in question so she could start looking for the first of the three targets she had been told about, though as she did so it was easy for her to see that the Bonespeakers were either totally dead, likely from the shieldmaidens killing them after coming back from the realm of Helheim, though it was incredibly easy for her to figure out where her target, Runeskeld Rollo, was located, due to all of the Fel energy that was coming from him, and he was inside one of the chambers that held the runes that had been holding Ashildir's fractured soul. She gave her foe a chance to pick up his two-handed axe and charge at her, since fighting an unarmed opponent seemed unfair in the grand scheme of things, where she parried the incoming attack with just one of her Warblades, something that surprised Rainbow since she usually needed both weapons to do block such an attack and then push her foe backwards, but that caused her to grin for a moment as she swung her other Warblade and cut into her foe's chest, causing Rollo to take a step back in shock, before she spun around and delivered a series of cuts to his arms, legs, and the rest of his body, causing the vrykul to collapse not even a few seconds later. Once that happened Rainbow paused for a few seconds, where she glanced at her arms and legs for a moment, as she was studying her power and the fact that she was able to overcome someone like Runeskeld Rollo with ease, almost like he was nothing when she compared his power to her own, which made her wonder if she had moved away from normal enemies, such as the vrykul warriors, and that those who could offer her a decent challenge would be the demons of the Legion, to which she sighed and claimed the rune she was looking for, since that was the reason she had killed Rollo in the first place. The moment she had the imbued stone that her target had been holding, and it was placed inside her back, she walked outside and took to the air once more, where she headed over to the harbor that was near Haustvald, since she figured that she might as well take out Runesage Floki next, due to the fact that he happened to be the closest of her two remaining targets, though the moment she had the second rune she would head off and take down Runelord Ragnar as well, hence why she focused her attention down on a mist filled harbor that was near the water, to the left of Haustvald's entrance. Once she was above Tideskorn Harbor, and noticed that there weren't a whole lot of vrykul inside the settlement, which made sense due to the fact that most had joined Skovald and promptly died when they fought her, Spitfire, Vytheril, and Scarlet earlier, Rainbow used her Spectral Sight and noticed that her target was located near the uppermost part of this entire area, to which she landed in front of the hut in question and walked inside, where she found Floki, who carried two axes, standing near the backside of the chamber, as if waiting for someone to come bother him, though not a few seconds later they clashed with each other as he noticed her approaching him. Interestingly enough Floki actually tried to use his Fel powers against her, as in he loosed a Fel fireball into her chest with the intent of knocking her backwards and burning away her clothing, though the reality of the situation was that nothing happened to her and that allowed Rainbow to cut into his chest for a moment, but when he summoned lightning to blast her she just spun around and avoided the bolt that was sent her way, before she cut down her opponent and sent his soul into the Warblades, just like what happened to all of her Fel-corrupted enemies, even though she claimed his rune stone as well. Once that was done Rainbow headed back outside and took to the air once more, this time heading back towards Hrydshal, an area she and her friends had lashed out at when they were trying to complete the Trials to enter the Halls of Valor and claim the Aegis, and sure enough this settlement had a significantly lower amount of people inside it, since those who became Felskorn had been slain outside the Gates of Valor, before she spotted the structure her third and final foe was located in, to which she quickly landed in front of the hut's entrance and discovered who her target was. Ragnar carried a shield in his left hand and a mace in his right, so he could actually defend himself, though when she engaged him she was a little disappointed to discover that all of his ill-gotten powers were basically the same as her previous targets, as in he had the power to fire Fel fireballs and use a bit of lightning to try and blast her, so in the end it was rather easy for her to dodge incoming attacks and cut the large warrior down, allowing her to take the rune stone that happened to be in his possession and depart from Hrydshal before any of the remaining residents of this settlement could rush over to see what the fighting was about, before she focused on her task and headed back to Malace's location. Sure enough there were still no vrykul in the area that Malace was trapped in, either due to someone else coming through this area and slaying them before she arrived or the fact that no vrykul had come back after being decimated by her and the others, to which Rainbow landed nearby and pulled out the three runes she had been told to collect, where she used all three of them and watched as their magic caused the stones surrounding Malace's cage to shatter, though the instant she shattered the last one the Warden opened the cage door and stepped out, revealing that she still had her weapon on her and that she was ready to hunt her target. "It seems I underestimated the power you possess... perhaps we all did," Malace commented, though as she said that she beckoned for Rainbow to follow, where they started to head for the bridge that would take them to the Gates of Valor, an area that seemed clear of Fel energy at the moment, or at least most of what Skovald had left behind since Rainbow could see a large demon off in the distance, thanks to her Spectral Sight, but she remained silent as she waited for the Warden to tell her what her decision was, regarding the demon and the Sargerite Keystone, "As you know, I was sent here to either capture or kill a Fel Lord by the name of Lochaber, but after being captured, and embarrassed, I have decided that I'm no longer in the mood to capture this demon, though I do have a way to convince him to leave his camp, and any allies if he has any, and face us in combat... once he is dead, well, then maybe I'll tell you where the Keystone rests." Rainbow said nothing to that and just nodded her head, because at this point she wasn't even surprised by the Wardens just teasing her and the rest of the Illidari with the location of the Sargerite Keystone, using it as a bargaining chip against her and the rest of her allies, though it was in that moment that she realized that Malace's weapon was a glaive, which was a spear of some kind, instead of the traditional crescent blade the rest of her order used in combat, meaning either they trained in all weapons or Malace was one of the few Wardens who was allowed to use a different weapon in combat, but once they reached the area they would be fighting the Fel Lord in, literally at the end of the bridge, Malace stopped and Rainbow nodded her head, just to show her temporary ally that she was ready to go. "Lochaber!" Malace shouted, her voice echoing throughout the area they were in, allowing the Fel Lord to know that there was someone calling him out and that it would be easy to trace it back to where they were standing, something Rainbow could confirm since the Fel Lord was starting to march over to their position, even though it didn't look like Malace was even close to being done with her taunt, as she likely had one or two more things to say before lifting her weapon so she could be ready for the fight they were about to be in, hence why Rainbow had her Warblades at the ready, just in case the Fel Lord came with reinforcements, "Come demon, face us... this is, if you aren't afraid of us." "I FEAR NOTHING!" Lochaber stated, where he walked down the steps and approached the pair, showing Rainbow that he had quite the ego if Malace's little taunt had worked this well, though that was when he paused as he noticed her standing by the Warden he and his allies had captured, no doubt remembering the fact that she and Spitfire were targets that the Legion wanted to take down, to convert them into demonic warriors to destroy the forces defending Azeroth, which was when the Fel Lord grinned for a few seconds, "I will kill you both on my own... and Rainbow, I will send your soul to Caria and Varedis, so you can be turned into a weapon of the Legion!" Instead of saying anything to that remark, since the demons loved to say that she and Spitfire would fall to the Legion and join the army they were fighting against at the moment, Rainbow rushed forward without wasting a single second, or even responding to Lochaber's statement, and raised her Warblades into the air as the Fel Lord brought down his massive axe down on the area she was currently standing in, where she found that her newly empowered body was able to withstand the attack and not be pushed back, as she stood her ground as her new clawed feet dug into the metal of the bridge and supported her while she blocked the attack. A few seconds later Rainbow shifted her stance and knocked her foe's weapon backwards, opening Lochaber's defenses in the process, allowing her to spin around and cut a few gashes into his legs as he regained himself, while at the same time Malace joined her and found an opening in the Fel Lord's armor, which let her stab his legs and even part of his chest at the same time, where it was easy for Rainbow to see that the Warden was having fun, as odd as that sounded, because she was sure that she heard Malace crush a giggle before it could escape, meaning there might be members of the Wardens that she and the others might be able to get along with, especially since Malace didn't seem to see her as a demon, rather it appeared that she realized Rainbow and the Illidari were allies. Either way, this was likely going to be the only time the two of them fought side by side, though she was going to make the most of this rare event as she joined Malace in attacking Lochaber, where the demon seemed surprised by this turn of events and tried to overcome them, but due to Rainbow's speed and Malace's attack power, as being hit with that glaive had to be painful, as it was a nice silvery weapon that seemed like it might be blessed by moonlight, which made sense due to the fact that Malace happened to be a night elf and likely prayed to Elune every now and then, so her weapon was likely blessed by her patron goddess in some manner. Lochaber, who seemed annoyed by how the battle was going, started to spin around so he could crush the two of them with the force of his spinning weapon, to which Rainbow stood her ground as Malace took a moment to back off, so she would be out of the way, before she spun around as well and lashed out with her Warblades as Lochaber started his attack, where Malace was glad that her helmet was on since she had to sweat for a moment when she saw Rainbow smash all of the Fel Lord's attacks backwards, without her or her weapons taking any damage, and then that was when she witnessed Rainbow jumped into the air, moved by Lochaber's head, and then landed on the ground behind him, where his head was separated from his body a few seconds later. Malace had heard stories of the power of Spitfire and Rainbow Dash, how they were stronger than most of the Illidari, and some of the Wardens even wondered if they were already stronger than Illidan Stormrage, but this was a surprise that she wasn't expecting to see and it told her that one of them was just as powerful as the stories said, though based on this one battle she had the feeling that Rainbow was far stronger than what Maiev had said, and had gotten stronger since the Fel Lord's soul was eaten by the Warblades and his Fel energy was added to everything Rainbow had taken from the demons she had slain before this point in time. "You are a formidable warrior, Rainbow Dash, and we are fortunate that you and Spitfire are on our side," Malace said, and that was the truth of the matter, as while there were those that were worried about the arrival of two demon hunters that could rival Illidan Stormrage, the first of his order and the one who carried the title of the 'Betrayer', she counted herself and the others lucky that Spitfire and Rainbow were even considering helping Azeroth after everything Maiev did to them, not to mention the rest of the Illidari, and being on their good side seemed to be the right thing to do, hence why she took a moment to think about what she had done in the past and cleaned her weapon at the same time, "and you have earned the information you were seeking: the Sargerite Keystone is located in the depths of our Vault, hidden in the chamber that we imprisoned the body of your master inside... normally, I would give you the combination to unlock the hiding place, but due to the fact that we know Cordana was last seen heading into the Vault, about two days ago anyway, its likely that she has already smashed through my defensive measure and will be holding onto the Keystone, so you'll have to kill her to get the artifact in question." Rainbow thanked Malace for that information, since it was far more useful than anything she had been told so far, before spreading her wings and took off not a few seconds later, as it appeared that the Warden planned on hunting something else down before heading back to Maiev, though she was headed for Dalaran, because if the Keystone was located in the depths of the Vault, and she was sure that was the truth since Malace didn't seem to be one to lie to her or try to cheat her out of what she was seeking, Rainbow knew that she would need a few allies, like Vytheril and Scarlet for example, to head inside with her and take down any enemies they might find along the way. > Order Hall: Return to the Vault > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow wasted no time in returning to Dalaran, where inside of flying all the way there she remembered, just a minute or two after leaving Malace behind, that she had a Hearthstone and used the magic inside the stone to return her to the city, or at least the set of stairs that were near Krasus' Landing, to which she smiled as she slipped it back into her back and headed out to see if she could find some of the other heroes to join her in tackling the Vault of the Wardens, given that there had to be some that would be interested in tearing through the place and punishing Cordana for assisting Gul'dan in doing what he had done since he came to Azeroth. What she found was that there were a number of heroes already gathering inside the city, with those wielding the artifact weapons already passing on instructions to those that followed them as they readied themselves for completing their own missions, as in whatever the various Order Halls needed to do before focusing their full might on the Legion, though one other thing she noticed was that a few members of the Illidari were with them, meaning some of the Orders might be encountering demons during their missions and they understood that the demon hunters could permanently deal with their foes by either sealing their souls in crystals or devouring the essence themselves. Another thing she discovered, and this would put Spitfire in a good mood when she heard the news, was that not only had they recovered the Aegis of Aggramar and the Tears of Elune, but they had found the Tidestone of Golganneth and the Hammer of Khaz'goroth, which left the Eye of Amun'thul as the last Pillar of Creation that needed to be obtained before anyone thought about assaulting the Broken Shore again, which would be when they pushed the Legion out of the Tomb of Sargeras and sealed the Felstorm so their enemies couldn't invade Azeroth, then, if everything proceeded as planned, the Illidari would invade Argus and put a stop to the Legion. The last part of the plan was what she assumed Lord Illidan had planned and, once they revived him in the future, he would be working towards that ending, possibly using the Fel Hammer as a scouting ship for the assault on Argus, but for now there was nothing she could do about that and focused on what was in front of her, finding some heroes that weren't busy at the moment to aid her in her in attacking the Vault of the Wardens, to reclaim the Sargerite Keystone and put down the Warden that had betrayed all of Azeroth with her actions, which would please Maiev when she heard the news. Interestingly enough she found both Vytheril and Scarlet standing near one of the city's fountains, one that was near what appeared to be a fishing fountain that had to be connected to part of the Broken Isles or another part of Azeroth by magic, since there was no way it could be constantly stocked with fish, something that caused her to raise here eyebrow as she walked over to where they were standing, because there had to be a reason behind why they were waiting in this area and it made her wonder why neither of them were helping their Orders prepare for the incoming attacks on the Legion's forces or whatever is threatening their individual forces. "Vytheril, Scarlet, I'm surprised you guys are here, and not helping your Orders out," Rainbow said, and that was the truth, even though she was sure that they were waiting for something to happen in their individual Orders before they headed back to help their fellow leaders out, since Vytheril had two other Archmages to assist, the fire and frost artifact holders, while Scarlet had three Deathlords, thanks to one being blood and and another unholy to her own aspect, and that wasn't counting Zuleth, who held Shadowmourne and was counted as the fourth Deathlord, before she smiled, "though I have good news, I'm headed to the Vault of the Wardens to retrieve something... and to punish Cordana, if she's still inside the prison, even though I have it on good authority that she's inside the prison." "The other Archmages are looking for a particular demon, and some other things," Vytheril stated, as it was best not to say too much about what their Orders were planning, since they knew the Legion was likely listening in and might warn those that were the targets of the various forces of Azeroth about what was coming their way, despite the defenses Khadgar and the rest of the Council of Seven had weaved into the city itself, to protect its citizens and the heroes who were working to bring an end to the Legion, but he had to admit that what Rainbow was talking about was interesting and it would be nice to see the Vault the Wardens had put together. "And the other Deathlords are currently speaking to Spitfire, the leaders of the Horde, and the leaders of the Alliance, due to... well, the Lich King wants us to raise four specific individuals as our new Horsemen," Scarlet remarked, her tone telling Rainbow that whoever was supposed to be raised as a death knight, an incredibly powerful one based on everything she had to speculate about, might anger the leaders of the two factions and possibly some of the heroes that lead the Order Halls, since she was sure one or two of those individuals would be there to make sure the discussion went smoothly, even though she didn't envy Spitfire at the moment, "and one of them is going to vastly anger the Silver Hand... hopefully this new direction our world is moving in, with the two factions working together and actually talking as allies, might stop both sides from going to war, as I'd hate to have Spitfire's actions ruined." "Though if you're thinking of running a dungeon, you'll need a healer," another voice said, where they found Remeraa off to the side, meaning her Order must have been busy and she had some free time, though after what Rainbow had seen in the Halls of Valor, which wasn't too much since Spitfire had done most of the work and none of them had actually taken all that much damage during their time in that place, she knew that Remeraa was strong in the ways of healing and that she would have to find one more to fill their ranks for the dungeon, since they needed five and so far they had four, "but since all of the other heroes are busy with preparing for their individual missions, to strike out against the Legion, I don't think we'll be able to find a fifth member... we might be able to get away with the fact that we've filled all three important roles, with Rainbow being the tank, but we'll have to wait and see if the magic works or not." Rainbow thought about that for a moment, since when they tried to tackle the Halls of Valor Vytheril informed them about the healer role and that they needed someone to fill it, but since they now had someone to tackle the enemies, someone to mend their wounds, and another pair to deal damage to their foes, fulfilling the three roles a group needed when they wanted to tackle a dungeon, before determining that she might as well trust her allies and quickly gave them the location of the Vault's entrance, allowing them to make whatever preparations they needed before joining her, though once that was done she headed to Krasus' Landing, spread her wings, and took to the air. From there she headed back to the small island that she, Spitfire, and the other Illidari had been imprisoned in the depths of by the Wardens, giving her a chance to think about the fact that they could have taken the Keystone from its resting place when she and the others were leaving the Vault, had they known it was there in the first place, though at the very least Maiev was willing to assist them in finding out where Malace had hidden it, even though it sounded like Cordana might have beaten them to the punch, which she was fine with since it meant she wouldn't have to worry about entering the combination Malace had told her earlier, just before Rainbow left her in Stormheim. She had no idea what sort of dangers awaited inside the Vault, other than the two creatures she and Spitfire had made sure were still imprisoned, a Beholder called Glazer and a Molten Giant the Wardens called Ash'Golm, as there was no telling how many prisoners were still trapped inside the depths and if the Legion might have sent allies to keep Cordana safe from harm, since she had been vital to their plans for a time, allowing the demons to gain Lord Illidan's soulless body so they could twist it for their own purposes, though once they had the Keystone, and had completed their own assault, she had the feeling she and Spitfire would head to Suramar next. Still, she had to admit that it was nice that they were making progress, as four of the five Pillars of Creation had been saved from those that would have given them to their enemies, leaving just one more to be discovered, the Legion's allies were starting to fall apart as the heroes fought and slew whoever pledged themselves to Sargeras' cause, even if they might not understand what they were doing at the time, just like she and Spitfire had focused on taking down Skovald and his Fel-corrupted allies, saving most of Stormheim from his evil plans, to which she sighed for a moment as she shifted her course and headed for the area that was her destination. What interested her was the fact that the door to the Vault had been sealed since the last time she, Spitfire, and the Illidari had been here, meaning either Sira had placed a seal on it to prevent anyone from entering or leaving it, to ready it for the future, or Cordana had closed the door and intended on using it as a warning sign that someone was coming for her or for some of the remaining prisoners, though Rainbow assumed it was the latter, given everything she had seen so far, though she paused for a moment as she waited for her companions to join her, where it didn't take Vytheril and the others long to fly down to the area she was standing in and left their mounts nearby, even though they would likely disappear from this area and appear in a stable or something, she wasn't sure what the magical explanation behind the vanishing mounts, as she wasn't a master of the Arcane arts, though for now she focused on the task at hand. "It seems everyone is here, so lets get underway," Rainbow remarked, deciding not to waste anymore time and raised her right hand towards the circular door that was in front of them, where she could tell that Vytheril was staring at the rather ancient night elven architecture which rested around the stone door, especially the runes that rested on the door's face, though the magic that rested on the door responded to her gesture and the door unlocked, the two halves moving away from each other to reveal the set of stairs she and the rest of the Illidari had run up to leave their prison, where she took a moment to pull her Warblades out of her horns as she glanced at the others, "Be ready for anything, because I really have no idea what's waiting for us, given the battle that had been raging when we left the Vault some time ago, when we were freed from our crystalline prisons by Maiev." Vytheril, Scarlet, and Remeraa nodded their heads, to show Rainbow that they understood and that they would be right behind her, before they descended down the stairs that were in front of them and entered the Vault of the Wardens, even though Rainbow was sure that Cordana knew they were coming and braced herself for whatever challenges they would be facing this time around, given the fact that scouting out this place would have been incredibly hard for them, if not totally impossible, though it didn't take her and her companions long to reach the first chamber that had been the last one she and the Illidari had fought in before ascending the stairs, where she quickly spotted the corpse of Bastillax resting near the center of the chamber, there large Eredar that had been standing between them and freedom. Another thing she noticed, as they walked down the steps, was the types of enemies that happened to be standing between them and the other side of the chamber, where a hallway rested that would allow them to return to where Spitfire stopped Kayn and Altruis from killing each other when they were leaving this place, where she noticed that there were a number of Satyr, a decent sized cluster of Wrathguard, and a few demon hunters who radiated Fel energy, just like Cyana and the Felsworn she had slain earlier, meaning they had figured out what happened to the rest of the missing Illidari, a fact that angered her greatly and made Rainbow take a moment to have Vytheril send a magical message to Kayn, that way the rest of the Illidari could take a moment to recover the bodies of the fallen, after they cleared out this place. Rainbow was sure that there were a bunch more enemies inside this place, given everything she and Spitfire had seen the last time they had been here, though that was when she raised her weapons and hurled them through the air as she targeted the groups that were on the stairs to her left and the stairs to her right, pulling all of her enemies towards her as she noticed that her companions were totally surprised by what she was doing at the moment, but she knew that she had this as she caught her Warblades and lashed out at the first foe that came her way, parrying the incoming attack from the Felsworn, her weapons blocking the tainted warglaives, and then pushed her foe back before severing his head not a few seconds later. While she did that Vytheril did what he could by focusing on the Satyrs that were channeling their magical powers and blasted them before they could do any damage to Rainbow, who didn't seem to be all that worried about them, while Scarlet switched her stance and pulled out the Blades of the Fallen Prince, allowing her to parry an incoming attack from one of the Wrathguards before pushing it backwards and cutting into it, leaving Remeraa to watch over them and heal any wounds that might appear while they fought their foes, even though she did use her powers to inflict a few bits of damage to their foes, something she could get away with thanks to Rainbow being the one their enemies wanted to kill. It was in the following moments that Vytheril, Scarlet, and Remeraa found themselves surprised by Rainbow's skill and her grace when it came to combat, especially with her new legs, as while two of them had seen her power before hand, during their trek through Stormheim and their battles against the vrykul, as she cleaved the Satyrs apart as they attacked her, the Felsworn fell as she severed their heads and took their souls into her weapons as she absorbed their power, and disarmed the Wrathguards before putting each of them down, collecting more demonic souls in the process, before she continued down the curved set of stairs that were in front of her and noticed another Felsworn demon hunter waiting for them, one that she recognized within seconds. "Glayvianna? Is that you?" Rainbow inquired, as she knew that there were still two missing demon hunters that she knew by name, due to everything that she and Spitfire had learned during their training days before the assault on Mardum, and those were a female night elf called Glayvianna Soulrender and a male blood elf known as Tirathon Saltheril, though that was around the time that she noticed something that revealed which side she was likely on, as the Fel energy coming from the elf in front of her was just all of the Felsworn traitors had, especially since it appeared that spikes were growing out of her arms, her fingers seemed to be at the tipping point between fingers and claws, and it looked like she was getting ready to have wings burst out of her back, to which she paused for a moment as the Felsworn looked at her, "Glayvianna... for Lord Illidan and death to the Legion... right?" "No... for Kil'jaeden! For the Legion!" Glayvianna stated, where she turned around and rushed through the space between her and Rainbow, swinging her Fel-tainted warglaives down at her target and was met by resistance as Rainbow lashed out at the exact same time, their blades colliding with each other as the pair spun around and used a few of the lessons their teachers had taught them and the rest of the Illidari, leaving Vytheril, Scarlet, and Remeraa standing there as they watched what was going on before their eyes, as while it appeared that both of them had mastered the arts of the Illidari all three of them suspected Rainbow would be able to overcome her foe in no time. Rainbow's attacks were powerful, due to the new power that coursed through her body, though at the same time they had the speed and grace that all Illidari possessed when they engaged the demons, or whoever they were fighting, though that didn't stop Glayvianna's descent into madness as her body continued to change before their eyes, her wings bursting out of her back, her feet being replaced by hooves, and even her skin took on a deep red tone, meaning they had caught her right before she fully embraced the new form all Felsworn seemed to get after siding with the Legion, though in the end it was no contest as Rainbow severed both of Glayvianna's arms, sending her warglaives flying, before taking her head off a few seconds later, dropping her body to the ground. "Another Illidari... corrupted and broken..." Rainbow commented, where she paused for a moment and allowed her blades to eat Glayvianna's soul, while allowing the Fel energy that had been inside her opponent's body, adding to the power she had gathered so far, strengthening her for whatever rested inside the rest of the Vault, before she sighed for a moment as she focused on the rest of the path that was in front of them, as she had to wonder if they would find an equally corrupted Tirathon deeper inside this place, no doubt twisted into a Felsworn traitor by Cordana, and this would cause everyone in the Fel Hammer to either be disappointed in the fallen she had discovered or just silent think about them as they turned towards the next part of their mission, to which she stepped forward once more, "Come on, we've got more enemies to take down before we reach our destination..." Instead of waiting for her companions to say anything Rainbow rushed at the next set of enemies and found that a bunch of Wyrmtongue wandering around the area, who rushed at her and tried to claw her apart with their claws, given that they were small demons and only reached her knees, so while Vytheril blasted some and Scarlet lashed out with her blades, at the time they caught up with her, Rainbow spun and cut down with her Warblades, making sure to deliver the final blow so all of their souls could be swept up by her blades while the meager power they possessed was added to her own, before moving onto the larger group of enemies that were made up of the other foes they had faced so far. There were, to their surprise, a number of naga among the groups that happened to be in front of them, who were tainted by the Fel energy, meaning nearly everything in this place must have been tainted by Cordana and charged with defending her at all costs, or at least that was what Rainbow as thinking as she noticed who her enemies were, though while she felt that their enemies should have run after her allies she was fine with all of them rushing at her, even if she wasn't a tank like her companions were used to seeing, especially since this allowed her to hack apart Fel-corrupted enemies and ensure their souls didn't escape to the Twisting Nether. Interestingly enough the Felsworn demon hunters had already transformed themselves, no doubt after having seen what happened to Glayvianna during her battle, and looked like they were ready for battle, to use their empowered demonic forms against Rainbow, and her allies once they killed the one that their new boss wanted all of them to kill, as Rainbow was sure their 'mistress' was Cordana and their 'master' was Kil'jaeden, though instead of backing down she lashed out and danced through the force of enemies that came at her, her Warblades cutting through those that opposed her and severed spikes, stopped attacks in their tracks, and cleaved her enemies apart as she carefully cleared out the part of the Vault that they were fighting in, and even when one group fell another rushed out to attack her, leaving her companions to aid her while she fought. The best part about this venture, in Rainbow's eyes, was the fact that she was able to clear out all of these traitors and creatures that switched to the Legion's side, because thanks to the more demonic nature of her foes, based on what she thought about earlier, she was able to take all of their souls and deprived the Legion of any and all information that they might possess, not to mention the fact that every Fel-tainted soul she collected added that soul's Fel power to her growing reserves, adding to her power and making her stronger for whatever might be waiting for them in the depths of the Vault. After about five minutes or so Rainbow huffed for a moment as she stopped fighting and found that there were no more enemies for her to fight, as all of the Fel-tainted creatures had been taken out, to which she beckoned for Vytheril and the others to follow after her as she walked into the hallway their enemies had been guarding, before stopping as she came to the chamber that contained the odd pool that had been resting near where Kayn and Altruis had been fighting, despite the fact that Spitfire had stopped both of them from killing each other, which was when she spotted a Warden resting right at the bottom of the stairs, who might be wounded since she seemed to be shaking a little, and a male blood elf standing in front of the raised pool on the other side of the chamber, even though she wasn't sure how they had been beaten to this place, since there had been no signs of someone else entering the Vault. "I wonder what this pool will reveal about you, Drelanim." Tirathon commented, where it sounded like they had found the pair when they were reaching the end of a conversation or disagreement of some kind, which meant that if Rainbow was right about things Tirathon had told his allies to leave the pair alone until he ordered them to do something, be it joining him or capturing the Warden and killing her where she stood, though at least this told Rainbow who the Warden was, even though she had no idea where Drelanim rested on the spectrum of the demon hunters, as in did she appreciate them and their sacrifices or did she hate them and see them as demons. "I have committed no crime, Tirathon." Drelanim stated, her tone revealing that she didn't appreciate this conversation at all and that she was getting annoyed with the Felsworn that was in front of her, as Rainbow could feel the power inside the blood elf and knew that he must have betrayed the Illidari, especially after what happened to Glayvianna, though she had her allies stop as she listened to what was going on, since she wanted to see what Drelanim felt before rushing down and stopping the pair before they got into a fight, "Whereas you and your former associates have answered for yours... or at the rest of the Illidari have, as the Felsworn have more crimes they must answer for!" "Crimes? Our only crime, as you call it, was to sacrifice everything we had to save this world." Tirathon snapped, appearing to focus on a single word and not on the fact that Drelanim was referring to the fact that he had joined the Felsworn, who needed to be punished for turning against Azeroth and joining those that they had sworn to destroy, though Rainbow did agree that all Felsworn traitors needed to be punished, least they try to take over Azeroth or the other worlds that were scattered across the whole of creation, "While we fought for Illidan, attacking the worlds of the Legion, you imprisoned the world's villains here for all eternity... and then you attacked the Black Temple and imprisoned us, leading to your enemies eventually finding their way to Azeroth at long last..." "We protect the lives of those who call Azeroth home, often at great risk to ourselves... too often at great cost, ending in one or more Wardens sacrificing themselves for the greater good." Drelanim, said, where it sure sounded like she might be trying to tell Tirathon that the Wardens were pretty much identical to the Illidari, that they sacrificed their previous lives to become the silent watchers, though Rainbow knew that such a thing wasn't going to happen, since a number of Illidari, or at least the Felsworn, loved to talk about their sacrifices and didn't appreciate what certain individuals said, and it did look like she was right in her thoughts. "You dare speak of sacrifice to me?" Tirathon angrily snapped, confirming what Rainbow had been thinking, that he might be caught up in everything that he gave up to become an instrument of the Legion's downfall, even though he had given up on that and joined the very army he had sworn to bring with with the rest of the Illidari, before he gestured to the rest of his body for a moment, allowing them to see that he was definitely starting to grow spikes on his arms, meaning that he was starting to become a true Felsworn, "I gave up my flesh, my soul... my people shunned me as a freak. And what was my reward? Eternal torment from my 'sisters'." "I live to serve my people and my goddess, expecting neither personal gain or glory." Drelanim stated, informing Rainbow that none of the Wardens did what they did for what some of the world's heroes might have done when they first started tackling the dangers of Azeroth, rather it appeared that they became the silent watchers in the night and only showed up to defend either their allies or to take down someone that one of their members deemed to be a danger to the world, like how Maiev labeled Lord Illidan a long time ago, before she gestured to his form, "Can you say the same as you stand there intoxicated with the power of the Legion? The same Legion that you swore to destroy!" "I will serve MY people, the exiled and the reviled." Tirathon replied in kind, where one would assume he was speaking of the demon hunters that he had joined, and had recently betrayed thanks to Cordana's actions since Rainbow was sure the Fel Warden had broken him like the rest of the Illidari she and her allies had captured, before a wicked smile appeared on his face as he stared at Drelanim, where it seemed like he was thinking about something as he shifted his warglaives and readied himself for battle, "I will slay you and your kin, Warden, and when I'm done with your pathetic order I will fulfill the dreams of my mentor!" "Question: is that Lord Illidan, or are you speaking of Cordana and Kil'jaeden?" Rainbow asked, where she gestured for her companions to take a step back as she walked down the stairs that were in front of her, even though Drelanim seemed a bit surprised that they were even standing there, like she expected to be the only one to come down here, despite the fact that she forced herself to stand and head up the stairs so she could observe what in the world was going to happen next, while Rainbow focused on Tirathon and the fact that she was likely going to have to kill him to unseal the doors that lead to the elevator that would let them descend into the depths of the Vault. Instead of replying to her question, which was irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, Tirathon rushed at her and lashed out with his warglaives, while mentioning that the 'master would reward him greatly' and told her which side the former Illidari was on, that he was definitely siding with Kil'jaeden and the Legion, to which she spun and parried the incoming attacks with her Warblades, which was easy since they were both using the same technique that Varedis had taught them and the rest of the Illidari, even though it sure looked like the progressing transformation was causing her foe to lash out at her with a much slower speed than what she had seen so far. Despite that fact, however, she maintained her defenses and parried the incoming attacks with the same grace she had been using up until this point, where she seemed to cause Tirathon to call upon his new Fel powers and brought down Fel fireballs from the ceiling, as in he channeled his vast inner power and brought down the attacks, much like how an Illidari could channel some of their power and stomp on part of the ground to stun those that were around them, meaning this was more like a Fel mortar attack and Tirathon wanted to bring her down with all the haste he could muster. Rainbow found that she was able to avoid the attacks with ease, even if she kept an eye on what her foe was doing, and it wasn't long before Tirathon jumped backwards and empowered both of his blades with shadowy energy, though once he finished his spell he rushed back into battle and swung his blades at her once more, where she discovered that a shadowy barrier wrapped around her opponent whenever their weapons struck each other and only faded when they separated from each other, something that would bother a normal warrior for a few moments, but thanks to her speed she was able to zip by Tirathon and delivered a slash to his chest, which caused him to stagger for a few seconds, even though they rushed at each other again not a moment later. Rainbow found that Tirathon was definitely stronger than most of the other Felsworn she had faced before this point, meaning that he must have been given a greater amount of Fel energy and that was why it had taken him so long to start transforming into its empowered demonic state, due to his body catching up to his power, but even then she made sure to keep an eye on what her foe was doing, parrying incoming attacks, and lashing out whenever an opportunity presented itself to her, even though she did get a chance to lash out with a kick and cut several gashes into Tirathon's chest, thanks to the new claws that rested at the end of her transformed legs. Rainbow had to admit that having these new legs were actually much better than just having hooves, as the claws allowed her to deal some additional damage to her foes and even caught most of them off guard whenever she used them, though while she thought about that Tirathon leapt into the air and loosed a burst of flames down at the area that she happened to be standing in, where Rainbow quickly flashed over to the right and avoided the attack, while noticing the flames didn't head up the stairs at all, before rushing into the air and swung her Warblades, hitting Tirathon in the side and sent him flying down into one of the walls of the chamber, to which he coughed as she landed nearby. For a few seconds Tirathon did nothing as Rainbow kept her eyes on him, making her wonder if he had regained himself and realized that his choice to join the Legion was wrong, before the Fel energy danced over his body and he shifted into his demonic form in a couple of seconds, the red skinned demonic creature with twisted hooves, wings, and even spikes that Rainbow had seen earlier, thanks to the rest of the Felsworn, which was when he rushed at her and forced her to defend herself from the incoming attack, something that caused the air to shudder for a few seconds. Tirathon was far stronger than he had been earlier, it was easy for Rainbow to see that fact as she blocked his first empowered attack, though instead of backing down she took a moment to push her foe backwards and then tapped into her true power, shifting into her demonic form as lightning danced along the edges of her weapons, something that her foe either didn't remember her being capable of using or just didn't care at all, though either way she reminded Tirathon of her power as she avoided his next attack and then swung both of her blades at his chest, where the blades cut into him as the lightning blasted him backwards, leaving some smoke coming from where she had struck him. From there Rainbow rushed forward and went on the offensive, this time lashing out at Tirathon without really giving her foe a chance to attack her in return, especially when he tried to loose an Eye Beam at her and she just avoided the attack by allowing it to slam into the wall behind her, away from her companions, and cut into his chest again, though this time she unleashed the Blade Dance and delivered a series of attacks to his arms, both of his legs, and then finished with another blow to the chest, all of which were also blasted by her lightning as Tirathon just staggered backwards as he thought about what was going on. In the next moment she rushed forward and spun around, avoiding the incoming warglaives that Tirathon was swinging at her, where she swung her own Warblades and landed behind her opponent as he landed on the floor behind her, though that was around the time that he crumpled to the ground and all three of her companions noticed that she had severed his head, something that brought about the end of another Felsworn, to which she sighed for a moment as her blades ate the Fel-tainted soul and she added Tirathon's power to her own, but once that was done, and Rainbow reverted back to her base form, she walked over to where Drelanim was resting. "Thank you, Illi... no, thank you, Rainbow Dash, as your arrival saved my life," Drelanim said, her tone telling Rainbow and her companions that she was telling the truth right now, that she was thankful for the timely arrival of the group and that such a thing allowed her to walk out of here with her life intact, instead of either being killed by Tirathon or being beaten and dragged to where Cordana was hiding, the latter having the potential for her to be chained up and tortured until she eventually broke under the pressure, either becoming corrupted like the traitor that caused so many of her sisters to die in Gul'dan's assault or be twisted into a demon to be sent against Azeroth, before she focused on Rainbow once more as her allies joined her, "Tell me, what brings you to our fallen Vault?" "We're here to claim the Sargerite Keystone... and kill Cordana, if she's down here," Rainbow replied, because she figured that telling the only Warden that was in this place their plan couldn't harm things more than they already were, due to all of the demons that were scattered around the entry chamber, meaning the Legion might be protecting the Keystone and stopping whoever came for it, even though she was sure they were here to protect Cordana and try to slay whoever tried to take her down, hence the reason she turned towards the pair of doors that lead to the platform that would allow them to descend into the depths and started walking towards it, "oh, and kill any demons and Felsworn we might find along the way, plus those two prisoners we left behind when we fled after Maiev freed us." "There are many more dangers lurking in the depths... not that you need to worry about them," Drelanim stated, though that was when she picked herself up, as she had been resting at the top of the stairs with Rainbow's companions while the demon hunter in question fought and cut down Tirathon, where Remeraa had used a bit of her magic to heal her wounds so she didn't have to worry about bleeding out or anything like that, and walked down the stairs as she collected her only weapon, one that Rainbow discovered was a sword with two blades which looked like a warglaive without the shield part, before approaching the group of four, "however, there are mechanisms in the depths that only a Warden would know how to deal with, so allow me to join you in your mission to take down the Traitor." Rainbow smiled for a moment, as having a Warden on their side would make traversing any traps easier, even though she was sure Cordana wouldn't bother with those since her forces ruled the entire Vault and a demon might trip one of them while they were patrolling the area, but she wasn't about to turn away someone that was willing to help them out and took a second to beckon for Drelanim to fall in line with the rest of her group, though as the Warden did that Rainbow pressed on through one of the now open doorways and found a massive number of Imps standing between the pair of doors and one that happened to have an Imp Mother in front of it. Taking care of the smaller enemies proved to be rather easy, as Imps were one of the easiest demons to fight and kill, of that Rainbow was sure of, so all she did was rush around the area those enemies happened to be standing in and cut them down before the Imp Mother even realized that she and her companions had taken down Tirathon, though when the Imp Mother noticed them Rainbow cut into her fat with one of her Warblades as Vytheril blasted their foe's head, Scarlet stabbed her chest, and Drelanim, despite being new to their group, hacked into the demon's side, showing that she was willing to contribute to their mission. As such it didn't take the five of them long to bring down the Imp Mother, even though Rainbow made sure to move the demon out of the opening so she wouldn't be blocking the door when she collapsed, and sure enough the Imp Mother's death unsealed the door, to which Rainbow made sure to collect the demon's soul and Fel energy before moving through the opening, where it only took them a few moments to discover that the platform that would allow them to head downwards, into the depths of the Vault, was up here and seemed to be waiting for someone to come use it, like Cordana had sent it back up once she and all of her forces had been arranged in the depths. As such the group stepped onto the platform and waited for a couple of seconds before it started moving, allowing Vytheril, Scarlet, and Remeraa to see the rest of the floors that Rainbow had seen when she and the rest of the Illidari had been in the process of leaving this place, while Drelanim silently stared at all of the fallen Wardens that were on each floor, all of them no longer moving as some had missing arms, a few happened to have a missing leg, and one unfortunate Warden had been hacked to pieces, before their new ally sighed and focused on what they were going to be doing in the next couple of moments. When the platform reached the floor that was their destination, which meant the mechanism that allowed one to pick out a floor to stop on had to be broken, once more thanks to Cordana's actions, it took Rainbow a second to spot one of the Inquisitor demons hanging out in front of a sealed door, where it looked like the fiend was stealing information from one of the fallen Wardens, since they loved to find secrets and whatnot, though as it noticed them it stopped tormenting the corpse that it had been focused on and Drelanim made sure to tell them that this demon was called Tormentorum, which Rainbow felt was a little on the nose, given the nature of the Inquisitor demons, but wasn't about to argue with the name the demon had been given. Not even a few seconds later Rainbow rushed at Tormentorum and parried the first incoming attack, which happened to be the demon swinging his clawed hands at her and nothing else, so since she used her Warblades that allowed her to cut a small gash into the palms of both of his hands, something that didn't seem to faze the demon too much as he ignored the wounds and continued attacking her, leaving Vytheril and Remeraa standing close to where the platform rested, with one blasting the demon and another healing wounds, while Scarlet and Drelanim joined Rainbow in her assault, all while making sure not to get in her way. After a few more moments Tormentorum loosed a bit of dark energy into the air, one that seemed to be him targeting a member of their group to weaken them and make them slower at fighting him, but that tactic failed as Vytheril used his own Arcane power to counter the spell, something that caused the demon to tilt his head for a couple of seconds, to show that he had to be a little annoyed with the mage, though that allowed everyone to focus on the battle and not have to worry about the demon slowing down whoever his target happened to be, which would have annoyed whoever he had targeted. One thing Rainbow discovered was that the Inquisitor didn't seem to have any other attacks to use against her and her companions, or if Tormentorum had any other attacks he was saving them to surprise his foes when they were arrogant, so all she and the others had to focus on was interrupting his soul based spell and just lashed out at their foe, cutting into his arms, legs, and chest, or at least his robe, while they waited to see what else he had to throw at them, even though it was possible that they might end the demon's life before he decided to use his full power against her and her allies. The moment after she thought about that, however, Tormentorum teleported away from the area they had been fighting in and reappeared in front of one of the set of cells that were on the lower level of this floor, cells that happened to be sealed right now, before he channeled his power into the set he had selected and shattered the prisons without delay, allowing a Felguard and a pair of Fel Orcs to emerge from their cells, meaning the demon could use any and all of the prisoners as potential allies in this fight, especially since some had to be angry at the Wardens for what had happened to them in the past, hence why they rushed at Drelanim and ignored everyone else, causing their new ally to defend herself and knock her foes backwards in the process. As the group engaged the three new enemies, however, Tormentorum went about opening three more sets of prisons to add more minions to his arsenal, one set being a Voidwalker and one of the large monstrous Mindflayers, meaning they were servants of an Old God, while the second group seemed to be a bunch of goo-like blobs, which happened to be the size of a gnome, and the last set was a large stone monster and a stone canine-like creature that Rainbow had never seen before, where Drelanim informed her that the humanoid creature was a Mogu and the canine was a Quilen. As it turned out none of the freed prisoners lasted all that long, as Rainbow recalled what had happened to the Illidari when she and Spitfire freed them, as their comrades had feasted on the demons attacking the Vault to recover their strength, which was when she realized that these prisoners were weak from their time in their cells, making them easier to slay in the process, though once the prisoners were down Rainbow severed Tormentorum's head and dropped his body to the floor in a few moments, ending the demon's life before he could flee from the Vault. Once that was done her weapons ate his soul and she took his power for herself, just like what happened to every other demon and Fel-tainted individual she had fought so far, before she and her companions glanced at the rest of the floor they were on for a few seconds, where the doors that lead to where Glazer and Ash'golm rested opened not a few seconds after the Inquisitor fell, where they found a Shivarra and some Felhunters guarding the entrance to the Beholder's prison while there was a Dreadlord guarding Ash'golm's area, though Drelanim revealed that the Shivarra was called Blade Dancer Illianna and that the Nathrezim happened to go by the name of Mendacius, informing Rainbow that these demons had been prisoners and that they must have stayed here until they were ready to kill any of the surviving Wardens on either Cordana's orders, Gul'dan's orders, or the orders of their true master. With that information in hand Rainbow lashed out at the demons that happened to be guarding the prisons of Glazer and Ash'golm, due to the fact that it looked like the two prisoners might be tied, in some way, to the seal that was resting on the door to the south of Glazer's prison, which contained the platform that would allow them to head back down to the area that the Illidari had been imprisoned in and, more importantly, where Lord Illidan's body had been locked away, meaning that as soon as they reached that final chamber they could get the Keystone and see if Cordana was here or not. Illianna, as Rainbow discovered, was about as strong as Tormentorum was, though based on what she saw the demon had no special skills to use against her and her companions, meaning that it only took them a few moments at best to take the Shivarra down and kill her Felhunters, allowing the group to walk up the short ramp and pass through the doorway, where they found the Beholder floating right in the middle of his mirror-like prison, like he was minding his own business, while all of the mirror pillars were hidden in the floor, apparently waiting for someone to come and activate them, which was when the group glanced to Drelanim for a moment. The Warden shook her head, indicating that there were no additional traps or mechanisms that they needed to worry about, meaning that what Rainbow had seen the last time she was here was all they had to plan around and she made sure to tell her companions about the mirrors, which would allow them to could redirect the demon's gaze back at him when he tried to fight them with his gaze, though once everyone was ready to go she stepped forward and then rushed through the air, where she slashed at the side of Glazer's massive head, all so he would be focused on her while the others moved into position as a new battle started. What Rainbow found to be amusing was that Glazer lashed out with his teeth and targeted whoever was in front of him, which just so happened to be her at the moment, though while she parried each of his rather sharp teeth she opened the way for Scarlet and Drelanim to hack into their foe's sides, something that might allow the demon in the process, though Glazer also loosed a pair of small blue energy balls, about half the size of Vytheril's more powerful Arcane blasts, into the arena, something that all of them just avoided by moving for a few seconds and then resumed lashing out at the demon, even though they were waiting for one of his stronger attacks to come at them. Glazer also loosed another weak looking attack that happened to be a phantom eye of some kind, one that landed on the ground and created a zone that seemed to be dangerous for some time, as if it had been a lightning zone for example, but since everyone had avoided the attack there was no reason for them to worry about it and it faded away not even a few moments later, allowing the group to focus on hurting Glazer as he fought them, where Rainbow could tell that the battle, for now, had shifted in their favor and that if their foe didn't do anything powerful soon they would cut him down and move onto Ash'golm. That was when Glazer finally surrounded himself with the magical barrier Rainbow had seen the last time she had been in this place and, not a few moments after that, he fired a beam of energy from his eye that lashed out at the area he just so happened to be focused on, where several of the mirror pillars emerged from the floor and came to a stop a few seconds later, allowing the group to spread out and turn each of the three pillars so the mirrors would be pointed in such a way to redirect the attack back at the demon, where Rainbow lead the beam to the first one and stood behind it, where they took a moment to watch as the beam was reflected back into Glazer's shield and it stunned him, to which they lashed out at the demon before he regained his senses. Drelanim made sure to stab the demon in the back of the head, which was way too easy to do since a Beholder was a demonic head, while Vytheril and Scarlet joined Rainbow in attacking the demon as he finally regained himself, even though the first thing he did was curse the Wardens and their accursed mirrors, which made Rainbow wonder if he would wreck the Vault the moment he and the remaining prisoners were freed from the remaining cells, even if most of them had been freed by this point in time, though one of the downsides was that all of the demons that had been killed had returned to the Twisting Nether, to return to the Broken Isles in due time. Of course Drelanim was fine with Glazer cursing her out, not to mention the rest of the remaining Wardens for that matter, though she made sure to redirect the demon's focus to Rainbow, who lashed out and sliced into the side of their foe's head again, something that also caused him to curse her out as well, before he tried another beam attack, one that Rainbow decided to counter with her own Eye Beam and Drelanim watched as she smashed through the barrier and knocked the demon backwards, which showed her that Rainbow was definitely stronger than she had been at the summit of the Black Temple. With Glazer still reeling from his beam attack being repelled like that, and not attacking since he was dazed, the group lashed out at him so they could end the fight and move onto the next chamber, with Vytheril loosing a powerful blast at their foe's side, Scarlet struck the other side with Frostmourne twice, and both Drelanim and Rainbow stabbed him right in his massive eye with their blades, even though Rainbow followed it up with pulling her weapon back and then delivered a number of slashes to Glazer's form, dropping him to the ground. Once they were sure that the demon wasn't moving anymore, and Rainbow made sure to absorb his soul into her blades while separating its Fel energy and adding it to her own, the group headed out of the prison chamber and headed for the area that Mendacius was standing in, where the Dreadlord lashed out at them and focused on Rainbow, no doubt due to either being on Nathreza when Lord Illidan destroyed it, and blamed the Illidari in general, or due to him hating the Illidari in general and had her be his first target because he knew he would be praised for taking her down, though he had next to no special powers, save for summoning Felguards and throwing small meteors, so it didn't take them long to cut him down and move into the next chamber. With the souls of Mendacius and the Felguards added to the Warblades, and all of their energy added to Rainbow's pool, the group walked forward and came to a stop at the top of the stairs that lead down to where Ash'golm was standing, allowing them to see that the molten elemental had smashed his icy prison to pieces and all of the countermeasures were silent right now, though based on everything the group had seen it was likely that Cordana had ordered the prison smashed to weaken whoever came for her, to act as a diversion for anyone that made it past both Tirathon and Tormentorum. When Rainbow jumped down into the arena and lashed out at the elemental's chest, cutting a light gash into the stone in the process, though as she did that Ash'golm called out for his 'Lord of Fire' and the fact that the individual in question hadn't responded for some time, making her wonder if one of the shamans would be able to tell her what in the world the elemental was talking about, which also gave her companions some time to catch up with her before Ash'golm turned his head towards them and swung his fists at her, where Rainbow blocked the blow and made it so Vytheril, Scarlet, and Drelanim could lash out at him with their own attacks with Remeraa making sure any wounds that showed up were healed without delay. While they did that Vytheril also noticed their foe getting ready to hurl a rock which was half the size of one of them and, when a rock hit the ground, it caused a fissure of some kind to open up in the ground and seemed to act like a volcano for the most part, meaning Rainbow had to pull the elemental away from it while the rest of the group stepped away from it as well, though in addition to that he created small pools of fire that had to be avoided by everyone and even summoned small fire elementals to join the fight, ones that Drelanim lashed out at the moment one of them appeared and slew before they could actually fireball her or the others, where Rainbow nodded her head to show that she appreciated the gesture before returning to the fight. When Ash'golm started to channel a rather powerful fire attack, one that looked like it might raze the chamber and quickly turn the tide of battle in his favor, Drelanim rushed over to one of the three countermeasure statues and activated it, just like how Rainbow and Spitfire had done the last time they were here, which activated the mechanisms that were inside the walls of this chamber and froze Ash'golm in a block of ice that actually left him in a brittle state, meaning their attacks did a bunch of additional damage to him and meant they could deal with the molten elemental in a quicker fashion than what they did with Glazer or Tormentorum. As it turned out Ash'golm didn't have any additional skills to use against them when he burst out of the massive block of ice he had been trapped inside, so what the group did was leave freezing him for the moment he cast his strongest attack, which was the one that caused Drelanim to activate the countermeasure, and once he froze they would lash out with all of their strongest attacks to deal the most amount of damage in a few seconds, where Rainbow added her Eye Beam and Fel Barrage attacks into the mix as well, just to make sure Ash'golm collapsed before he came up with a plan to take them down. As it turned out their foe didn't do anything else after the second freezing, which the group was fine with when it happened, and the same was true when they froze him for the third time, though as soon as that was done Rainbow channeled her power for a moment and lashed out with a burst of Fel energy that allowed her to cleave Ash'golm's left arm off, causing the elemental to groan in pain as he stopped fighting for a few seconds, though once he was over the pain Vytheril, Scarlet, and Drelanim lashed out and dealt some more damage to his body, sending him to his knees, before Rainbow loosed a powerful Eye Beam into the elemental's weakened chest and smashed through what she assumed was his core, dropping his body to the ground. Once that was done the group paused for a couple of seconds to be sure the elemental was dead and that his spirit or soul was sent back to whatever realm he came from, due to the fact that Rainbow had no idea what elementals like Ash'golm did when they died, before Vytheril determined that their foe had returned to the Firelands, the domain of Ragnaros, the former Firelord due to the fact that a number of their fellow heroes had defeated and killed him years ago, making him wonder if the shamans of the Earthen Ring might be in the middle of finding new powerful elements to replace two of the four Elemental Lords, since two of them had perished some time ago, before shaking his head as they moved back up to where they fought Tormentorum. When they returned to the main chamber, however, they found one of the demonic Jailers, Grimhorn the Enslaver based on what Drelanim told Rainbow, floating between a now opened door and where they fought, and slew, Tormentorum a couple of moments ago, where it didn't take long for Rainbow to rush over to Grimhorn and hacked into his side while she was quickly joined by Scarlet and Drelanim, even though the Warden stabbed the Jailer in the back and caused him to roar for a few seconds before she ripped her weapon out of him and joined the others, all while Vytheril blasted the demon in the chest as he started to fight back. That was quickly followed by Rainbow cutting Grimhorn down and absorbed his soul, plus his power, where she took a few seconds to determine that the three demons that had been guarding this area must have been recently released, given the fact that they seemed to be recovering from being trapped inside their cells, even though she was sure she took their true full power when her Warblades ate their souls, before she focused on what was in front of her and headed through the short hallway that was in front of them, allowing her and her companions to walk up to where the platform that would take them down into the depths of the Vault was located. A few moments later the five of them stopped on top of the flat platform and it lowered down the shaft it had been built to fit, before they discovered something interesting as they reached their destination, the path Rainbow, Spitfire, and the rest of the Illidari had killed their way through, after first being roused from their cells, was nearly covered in darkness and it appeared that the couple of owl statues might be important to their cause, as Drelanim walked over to the one that was near them and pulled out a glowing orb that lit up the area around her, before turning towards them and informed them that this would allow them to carefully make their way through this portion of the Vault and, if they were lucky, reveal some of the traps that Cordana and her demonic allies might have set up to ensnare them. She was trusting Rainbow to lead the way while she held onto the orb, leaving her with one arm to fight with, to which Rainbow nodded and started to carefully head down the path she had charged up the last time she had been here, even though she spotted a number of new webs and a couple of corpses that were scattered throughout the area, some of which happened to be the Wardens that had aided them in escaping this place, on Maiev's orders, meaning all of the demonic corpses must have been taken to one of the demon worlds for some unknown purpose. What surprised Rainbow was that a green transparent Warden rose from the first corpse she discovered and she quickly swung her weapon at the group, where it was blocked by one of Rainbow's Warblades and allowed her to find out that she was capable of fighting the fallen Wardens, meaning that assisting them in moving on might appease Maiev and the rest of her forces, though based on the sickly green coloration coming from her foe, and the familiar Fel wounds that happened to be scattered all over her armor, both Rainbow and Drelanim came to the same conclusion when they noticed that there were a few small Fel spikes sticking out of the Spirit Warden's arms, something that was confirmed not even a few seconds later as her Warblades ate the Fel-tainted soul. "Cordana has more to answer for... especially with tainting the souls of her fallen sisters," Drelanim stated, something that caused the others to nod their heads in agreement, though she counted themselves lucky that they had arrived when they had, because if Rainbow's group had arrived later than they had, like a day or two from now, she was sure that the souls of her fallen sisters would have been transformed into brand new demons, tormenting the souls of those she fought beside in the past until they shattered and accepted their new roles, but she felt it was sad that this one had been pushed to the point where her soul was absorbed by Rainbow's weapons, meaning the others would share her fate as well, before she shook her head and followed the group as they walked down the path and headed for the massive chamber that Maiev had locked Illidan's prison crystal inside. Rainbow knew that Drelanim had to be devastated by the fact that the soul of one of her sisters had been corrupted to the point where the Warden in question had started her transformation into a demon, as it had to be making her think about what the rest of her fallen sisters must be going through, but the Warden seemed to be saving her thoughts for later and not be distracted while they neared the area that Cordana had to be lurking inside, hence why she focused on the path in front of her and pushed through some sickly Fel webbing, which could be dismissed as Drelanim carried the light over to where the area in question. Sure enough there happened to be some small spider demons, Spiderlings to be exact, resting on the other side of the webbing and Rainbow lashed out at them the moment they approached these enemies, where it didn't take her long to cut her way through them as Vytheril blasted whoever she was targeting, while both Scarlet and Drelanim slashed their way through their targets, though as the souls of the Spiderlings were added to the Warblades, and their power was added to Rainbow's, a new foe rushed out of where it had been resting and Rainbow noticed that it was one of the Aranasi, the humanoid spider demons she and the Illidari had fought on Mardum. The Aranasi used her clawed hands to lash out at Rainbow, apparently declaring revenge for Tyranna and Satine, the former being the former ruler of Mardum and the latter had to be her daughter, who likely died after the initial assault on the demonic world, and it wasn't long before a second Aranasi and a Spirit Warden rushed into battle as well, leaving Rainbow to lash out at their targets as she noticed the spirit was like the first one, she had started to become demonic thanks to some Fel spikes she spotted, to which she made sure to put their foes down and take their souls. As Rainbow moved forward, and resumed following the rest of the path, she suspected that the second Aranasi had been silently corrupting the second Spirit Warden, something they interrupted by being there, which had to be annoying Drelanim, before she sighed and slashed her way through a group of Spiderlings that were in their way, opening the way for her companions to join her as she drew closer and closer to the door that lead to where Lord Illidan's body had been imprisoned, even though she did notice that the passage that lead to where she, Spitfire, and the Illidari had been locked away inside had collapsed, not that she really cared since she didn't like this place all that much. As she approached the large door in question, however, the group found another group of Spiderlings, a single Aranasi, and three more Fel-corrupted Spirit Wardens that Rainbow cut down, where the first one had clawed hands that had torn her gauntlets to pieces, the second was similar to the first and the arms of her armor had been broken due to the bulky and twisted nature of her arms, and the last one was the furthest gone of them, as her feet had three claws and her legs had crushed her armor to pieces, parts of the chest were missing and revealed the Fel energy inside her, she happened to have four arms, two having grown from her transformation, that were more like an Aranasi's arms, and her helm was also broken, due to the pair of curved horns growing out of the sides of her head, though it didn't take Rainbow long to cut all three of them down and take their souls... before they entered the final chamber, where Drelanim's light went out, before they reached the platform and found a familiar figure on top of it. "How utterly predictable." Cordana said, where she turned around the moment she heard the sound of someone walking behind her and faced the entrance of his portion of the fallen Vault, allowing her to see that Rainbow had come and that she had some allies with her, including a Warden, before she pulled out a pouch and tossed it through the air, where the group watched as it sailed right into Rainbow's hands as they all raised an eyebrow, especially since Rainbow reached into the container and pulled out the Sargerite Keystone, something that confused her, "I knew you would come here at some point, seeking that Keystone, so I returned to this place and waited for you to arrive, so I could cut you down and not only deprive the Illidari of their precious toy, but also deliver the soul of a wanted demon hunter to my new master, to spell the end of this world at long last." "Which means that you gave me the Keystone, due to your overconfidence," Rainbow remarked, where she returned the Keystone to the pouch and tossed it back to where Vytheril was standing, who caught the relic a few seconds later, before she readied her Warblades as she noticed Cordana was in the middle of shifting into her battle stance, which was when a square shaped Fel barrier, one which happened to be the size of this platform, appeared around them and forced Vytheril and her allies backwards not a few seconds later, showing her that the Fel Warden wanted a one on one match with her, which just confirmed what she had just told Cordana, "Sorry, you won't be getting the Keystone back... and soon Gul'dan, and his masters, will have one less ally to work with, as this is the day you will suffer for your terrible crimes." Rainbow found out that Cordana gripped her weapon, the usual crescent weapon that most of the Wardens used, despite the fact that hers was covered in Fel energy, with both of her hands and might be getting ready to wield it like it was a two-handed sword, though not a few seconds later the two of them rushed at each other and clashed in the center of the large platform, where she found that her foe was able to block both of her Warblades and stopped her from hitting her target, meaning that this might be a good fight and that she was eager to see what happened next, all while Vytheril and the rest of her group remained on the other side of the Fel barrier, forced to watch the pair battle each other. That was followed by Cordana spinning around and kicking Rainbow in the chest, even though she blocked the attack with her Warblades and found that the Fel Warden possessed enough power to knock her backwards a bit, before Cordana removed a hand from the handle of her crescent and pressed it against the ground, summoning a mass of shadows that seemed to spread out from her feet, where it didn't look like the shadows did anything to her and that meant they were designed to damage her opponents. As that happened Rainbow noticed the four owl statues that rested in the four corners of the square platform and found that one of them had one of the light spheres that Drelanim had carried some time ago, to light up the passage that brought them down to this chamber, where she flashed backwards and used part of her inner power to remove the sphere in question, something that she hurled through the air and watched as it safely landed in the middle of the mass of shadows, which caused the shadows to retreat from where the sphere rested, even though it appeared that Cordana had no opinion on the matter and rushed at her again. Rainbow met her halfway and their blades clashed against each other once more, the air shuddering in the process as they danced around the light, even though Cordana added a new tactic to their battle as she swung her crescent and loosed a sickly Fel image of it in the direction she attacked, designed to weaken her foe's defenses as Rainbow soon discovered when she loosed a bit of Fel energy into the air and it smashed into the Fel crescent, detonating in a small Fel explosion between the two of them, meaning she had to be careful whenever it was in play and maybe use it against Cordana, to turn the tide of this battle in her favor, before she rushed at the Fel Warden and transformed into her empowered form as she lashed out with her Warblades. Cordana staggered as Rainbow struck her with her full power, lightning crackling over her weapons in the process, which was when a burst of Fel lightning lashed out and struck her in the chest, knocking her backwards for a moment, though as soon as she recovered from that, and stood up again, Cordana faded into the shadows and the light disappeared while she did that, causing her foe to be trapped in darkness for a time as she turned her head a few times, even though it took her a few seconds to lock onto a shadowy specter, a shadowy Warden, and blasted it into the platform with a burst of her Fel power, causing it to drop the light. Just to be sure it didn't try anything else Rainbow lashed out with her Warblades, which allowed her to cleave her current target in half, and shifted the light around to reveal Cordana's location, where she found that the Fel Warden had been approaching her backside to stab her in the back or cut her head clean off without having to face her, to which Rainbow spun around and kicked at her foe's chest, her new claws digging into the metallic armor that covered Cordana's chest and left four gashes in the metal, something that seemed to surprise the Fel Warden as she took a moment to fall backwards and roll away from Rainbow. Instead of giving her the chance to go on the offensive, and just turn the tide of battle back in her favor, that was when Vytheril, Scarlet, Remeraa, and Drelanim watched as Rainbow went on the offensive and rushed through the air as Cordana stood up once more, her Warblades smashing against Cordana's crescent in rapid succession as she spun around and activated the Blade Dance skill before her foe could do anything to stop her, where each attack collided with the tainted weapon with more than enough force to knock it out of the wielder's hands, that was if they weren't demonic or empowered by the Fel energy, though that was fine with Rainbow as she took notice of some cracks forming in the weapon's head and lashed out once more, where she smashed the weapon apart as she landed behind Cordana, leaving her foe in shock for a moment. After that Rainbow turned around and rushed back at her foe before she had a chance to do anything else, where she lashed out with a flurry of attacks from her Warblades and both of her clawed feet, attacks that dug into the Fel Warden's chest and body while breaking her armor with new gashes and cracks, though in addition to all of her attacks Rainbow had another set of moves to use as her inner Fel fire, as every demon hunter had access to it and Spitfire's was, by far, the strongest of them all, especially since her power was mostly over fire in the first place, though her fire was enough to heat part of Cordana's armor and, just like what happened in the past, the lightning she had access over coursed through her foe's chest and blasted the weakened Fel armor apart, forcing Cordana to her knees for a moment. "I have fought too long... suffered too much... victory... must be MINE!" Cordana stated, where it seemed like she might be a little mental at this point in time, like she couldn't handle the pressure of this battle or something, though Rainbow really didn't care about the Fel Warden at all and started to move in for the kill, though that was where Cordana reached into a pack that was attached to her belt and pulled out a small Fel crystal, causing everyone to raise an eyebrow for a moment, before she drove it right into her chest, directly into her heart, where Rainbow watched as Fel energy coursed through the Fel Warden's chest and cracked her skin, with Fel spikes bursting out of her arms, sharp claws replacing her fingers, a pair of horns tearing her helmet apart and revealing a look of hatred in her eyes, hooves breaking her leggings and replacing her feet, and a reptilian tail coming out of her spine, "With the power of the Legion coursing through my veins, I will bring about your destr..." "You should have done this sooner, to be more in tune with your power," Rainbow remarked, where she took a moment to flash around the area that Cordana was standing in and noticed that her foe was much slower now, way more than before she injected herself with Fel energy, and several gashes appeared in the Fel-corrupted Warden's body, showing the places that Rainbow had struck her and revealed that her foe was more demonic than she had been a few moments ago, which was followed by her rushing through the air and swung her Warblades once more, delivering a final flurry of attacks that cut apart Cordana's body before she even had a chance to fight back, leaving a pile of parts behind. Truth be told she wasn't expecting Cordana to inject herself with Fel energy and transform into a demon, especially such a powerful one had she taken the time to master her powers before this point in time, but that didn't stop her from having her Warblades eat the Fel Warden's soul and add her tainted power to her own, though once that was done she found the barrier had dropped and walked over to Vytheril and the others, as it was time to deliver the Sargerite Keystone to the rest of the Illidari and see what else needed to be done next, to bring ruin to the Legion and their forces, before marching on the Broken Shore and the massive Tomb of Sargeras. > Order Hall: Invading Niskara > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With Cordana slain, and the Sargerite Keystone had been recovered, Rainbow reverted back to her base form as she walked over to where Vytheril, Scarlet, Remeraa, and Drelanim were currently standing, where it was clear that some of them were surprised by the battle that had just occurred in front of them, while she was sure the Warden had to be pleased with her order's traitor being killed at long last, though as she did that Vytheril tossed her the pouch that she had passed to him just before the final challenge of the Vault had happened, where she double checked on the Keystone and found that it was just fine, causing her to let out a sigh of relief as something else happened, Drelanim walked over to the pile of parts that had been Cordana and pulled her Fel-tainted head from the pile. "Despite the fact that Maiev believes in you, we might as well bring her evidence of your deed," Drelanim stated, because at this point she had determined that the leader of her order had promised Rainbow, Spitfire, and the Illidari the Keystone they had brought with them when they left Mardum, likely as a reward for helping them clear out several targets that were now scattered throughout the Broken Isles, due to the Wardens now being fewer in number and that the potential trainees not being as strong as those who had been serving for a long time, but despite all of that she figured that showing Maiev the head of the Fel-corrupted traitor would put her at ease and allow her to focus on other things. Rainbow nodded her head in understanding, as this time around she wasn't going to question Drelanim's decision, due to the fact that some people of Azeroth seemed to want the heads of their targets to confirm the kill while others just took the word of the heroes in question, and a few even asked for specific items a villain or criminal loved to wear to confirm that they had been slain, before carefully storing the pouch inside her pack and started to head for the platforms that would let them leave the Vault, as the camp that Maiev and her Wardens were resting in wasn't too far from where the entrance of this place was located. That meant they could relax a little and deliver the good news to their allies, even if a good number of Wardens might not trust her and the Illidari, before they returned to Dalaran so she could head to the Fel Hammer and show the rest of Spitfire's forces the Sargerite Keystone, though hopefully that would be when Spitfire left Orgrimmar, with whatever duties being pushed onto someone else until she returned to them, and joined the Illidari for their assault on whatever world her forces had picked out, or whatever Akama was planning at the moment, since he was the only one that knew what Lord Illidan had planned. Leaving the Vault proved to be much easier than taking their time and descending towards the depths, which made sense due to the fact that every enemy they had encountered had been slain, as Rainbow had made sure to kill everything that had been in their way and had her Warblades eat the souls of the demons she had slain, leaving the souls of the non-demonic creatures to return to whatever plane of existence they would go to after perishing in battle, so everyone was able to relax a little as they made their way towards the entrance, with one or two of them keeping their guards up out of habit. Another thing Rainbow discovered was that some of the Illidari, who she had sent a message to thanks to Vytheril helping her out, had arrived and were in the middle of recovering the bodies of the fallen, the Felsworn that had been corrupted into joining Cordana and the Legion, so their bodies could be burned and destroyed in due time, as to not leave anything for their enemies to use against Azeroth, meaning Kayn had got the message and had sent some of their forces to clean out the Vault, something else that would likely gain them some sort of gratitude from Maiev, despite the fact that she hadn't asked for them to clean up most of the Vault after clearing out all of their enemies and taking out Cordana. Once they were back outside the Vault, and Rainbow nodded to each of the Illidari that she and the others had passed by, Vytheril, Scarlet, and Remeraa called their flying mounts to them, allowing each of them to fly away from this place once they were ready to do so, and Drelanim climbed onto the back of Vytheril's mount, the Netherdrake she had seen in the past, before Rainbow took to the air and headed for Maiev's camp, causing her companions to follow after her as she did that, though it didn't take them all that much time to reach their destination and they landed on the outskirts of the camp, something that was followed by their temporary ally climbing off the mount she was on and walked over to where Maiev and Sira just so happened to be standing in, where she dumped Cordana's corrupted head on the ground. "The Vault has been cleared of enemies, the Illidari have what they came for, and Cordana Felsong has been slain, even though she tainted herself in the process," Drelanim stated, allowing the two more experienced Wardens to stare down at the Fel-tainted head of their betrayer, the one who lead Gul'dan right to where the Vault was located and lead him right to where Illidan Stormrage's body was being kept, though thanks to the helmets she had to imagine what sort of expressions the pair had on their faces, with Maiev being more neutral and Sira would likely have a smirk on her face, before she took a moment to gesture to Rainbow's group, "and, thanks to the timely arrival of Rainbow Dash's group, I was able to escape death and joined them in clearing in Vault of those who had taken control of it." "I see... well, you have done well, Rainbow Dash... perhaps we were wrong to imprison the Illidari," Maiev said, where her statement caused everyone to pause for a moment as they heard it, due to the fact that it was strange to hear her admit that they might have blundered and ruined things by forcefully imprisoning Spitfire, Rainbow, and the rest of the Illidari all those years ago, when they returned from Mardum and discovered that their Lord had been slain while they were busy claiming the Sargerite Keystone, before she seemed to think about something, or at least that was what Rainbow had to assume since the helmet made it impossible to tell what Maiev was thinking, "I will send some Wardens to the Vault, to aid the Illidari in moving the bodies of the fallen so that we can properly bury them or destroy them... though tell Spitfire that we will do everything in our power to tear the Legion down, even though Cordana's actions have depleted our strength far more than I'm willing to admit, and that we will be ready to move soon." "That's good to know... Spitfire will be happy to hear that piece of information," Rainbow replied, where she was unsure of what to make of that statement, as she wasn't expecting Maiev to actually say something like that in the first place, which made her wonder if the leader of the Wardens had changed her tune after observing her, Spitfire, and everyone else that didn't fall to the Legion's will, before she turned her head and bid her companions farewell, as she was sure that Vytheril and the others had to return to their various Order Halls and see what their fellow leaders were up to, hence why she took to the air and headed for the island that contained the portal back to Mardum. Rainbow suspected that each of the Order Halls were getting near the end of their preparations to deal with the various threats they were facing, whatever those happened to be since she had no idea what the mages, death knights, druids, or the other classes were up to right now, save for what her companions told her a few moments before they headed for the location of the Vault of the Wardens, and once they were done with taking down their threats they could turn their focus to Suramar, the final Pillar of Creation, and Gul'dan, the last one holding Lord Illidan's body somewhere, which would then bring them to a new assault on the Broken Shore, but before she could do any of that they had to finish their preparations and complete their Lord's plan, hence why she landed just outside the portal that was her destination. "You seem to be in a good mood," a voice said, where Rainbow smiled as she noticed Spitfire standing off to the side, by a lone tree that was near the portal she had been walking towards, as it was good to have her back in action again and not be stuck in Orgrimmar, having to listen to the leaders of the Alliance and the Horde and find a middle ground that both of them could agree on, especially after what happened with Jaina, though that was when she walked over to where Rainbow was standing and raised her eyebrow for a moment as she spotted something new, "nice legs and claws... transformation through additional exposure to Fel energy, right?" "Yeah, from killing some Illidari that were corrupted into Felsworn traitors and absorbed their Fel energies," Rainbow said, though at the same time she raised a hand to stop Spitfire from saying anything to that statement, as she knew that her friend would be saddened and disappointed when she heard about what happened to Cyana and the others, which Belath or one of the other Illidari would tell her about in the near future, hence why she was focused on what she needed to tell her and everyone else, especially after all the effort she went through to get it, "Don't worry, you'll learn about it from the others, since that's how I learned about what happened to some of our force, but before that I have something important to tell everyone, especially after everything we went through earlier." Spitfire seemed interested in what Rainbow had to share with her and the others, hence the reason she nodded and they passed through the portal that was in front of them, allowing them to return to Mardum and the Fel Hammer once more, where it was easy for them to see what everyone was doing at the moment and the Illidari looked like they were getting everything in order, carrying items and gear all over the place, meaning that Kayn, Altruis, or Belath had asked for a bunch of items for the plans that their Lord had given Akama, though both of them returning to their base of operations caused everyone to stop what they were doing as Rainbow took center stage. "Illidari, I have good news to share with you: Cordana Felsong has been eliminated, and those she has corrupted since we were released have been put to rest," Rainbow stated, allowing the Illidari to hear some of the good news, where she and Spitfire could see that a number of them were pleased by the death of the Fel Warden and an end had been put to all of her plans, even though some seemed to be in the middle of wishing they had been the ones to bring about the end of her life, before she reached into the pouch she was carrying and heard a few gasps as she pulled out the Sargerite Keystone, holding it high for everyone to see what her true prize was, "and we now have the Sargerite Keystone!" As Spitfire expected the Illidari started to cheer, as having the Sargerite Keystone in their possession again meant that no world, as in those that were under the control of the Legion, were safe from the fury of the Illidari and they could hunt any demon that they wanted to kill, those that had been bothersome to Azeroth since the Legion started attacking it, but even as she thought about that she knew who their first targets should be and she suspected that Rainbow understood that as well, as it was time for them to show the Legion that Varedis and Caria were no longer the pawns that they could trust and kill them before they could do anything else. "To be honest, I'm surprised by how quickly we've done things... Rainbow has recovered the Sargerite Keystone, our forces are ready for anything, and we even have a plan of attack," Allari commented, where she walked up to where Spitfire and Rainbow were standing at the moment, because she knew that they were the strongest members of their Order, with one being the leader until they found and recovered Lord Illidan's body and soul, which they would worry about once they got to that point, and it was only due to their efforts that they were able to tackle the Legion's plans, stop a faction war from unfolding, and everything else they've gone since they were released from their cells, though that was when she knelt for a moment, making sure the gesture was towards Spitfire and no one else, "now all we have to do is locate the Felsouls and prepare for our first invasion, targeting whatever Legion world they are currently hiding out on. Lady Spitfire, I ask that you leave the information gathering to me, as I can promise you that I will use everything in my arsenal, including the Scythe of Souls, to extract whatever scrapes of information the demons possess to figure out where Varedis and Caria are currently calling their base of operations." "Then I will leave this mission in your capable hands," Spitfire replied, knowing that giving Allari this mission was the best thing she could do at the moment and it seemed like Rainbow, who preferred to fight demons and cut them down, also understood her reasoning and said nothing to counter her as she walked towards the center of the floor they were on, as that was when she raised her hand and the Keystone lifted into place so that it could float some distance above the main console that contained the map of the Broken Isles and, if they expanded it outwards, the continents of Azeroth and many of the other worlds that were close to this one, all thanks to what the Legion set up in the past, "Is there anything else that we need to do before we can begin preparations for our eventual invasion?" "Thanks to Rainbow's efforts, and the efforts of our own forces, we've killed a few more criminals and escapees from the list Maiev created, earning some leeway from the Wardens," a voice replied, where Spitfire and Rainbow found that those that had been sent to the Vault of the Wardens had returned and that they bared the bodies of the Felsworn who Cordana had twisted into traitors, though it was easy for the two of them to figure out that Kayn had spoken up upon his return to the Fel Hammer, while at the same time Allari stood up and beckoned for a couple of their forces, like four demon hunters, three Broken, two Shivarra, and two Naga, to follow her through the portal and begin tracking down anyone who might have the information they were seeking, before Kayn spoke up again, "Loramus has been developing new ways to turn his new knowledge to our benefit, and one of the ways he's doing that is by empowering our weapons with Obliterum, which is usually used to enhance the protective and offensive capabilities of armor, but he's convinced that we might be able to use it to make our warglaives, and both of your blades, far deadlier than they already are, so I sent a few Illidari to Dalaran to see if they could figure out where some of the substance is located and where we can get some, or who we have to kill so we can get our hands on it. In addition to that we would have needed to harvest souls to empower the Fel Hammer's engines, given that everything the Legion uses runs on soul energy... yes, I know, its a horrible thing they do, and that we'll be doing in the near future... but thanks to Allari's actions we were able to harvest a number of souls beforehand, so you two don't have to worry about heading out and harvesting the souls of some powerful creatures to power the command center, as we have more than enough to power the Fel Hammer for the foreseeable future, and if we assault Argus we can use the souls of the demons there to empower our ship for who knows how long. Also, we found out that the Fel Hammer isn't jump-capable, meaning that we couldn't use this to get from world to world anyway, so I sent Jace out to two points in the Broken Isles to gather four parts that need replacing, since they were damaged during the Legion's assault on Mardum after we took control of this world... he's taking a Fel engine injector and a soul configuration matrix from a Legion camp in Felsoul Hold, while claiming a Fel engine ignition and a vile spirit converter from Faronaar." "Am I correct in assuming that once Jace, Allari, and the others complete their missions we can head to whatever world the Felsouls are hiding on and take them out?" Rainbow asked, because that was the main point she wanted to make sure was possible, that they would be capable of jumping to the world their targets were hiding on and take them out, all to anger Kil'jaeden and show the Legion just how vulnerable all of their worlds were, though at the same time Spitfire raised a hand to her chin as she thought about everything that they had learned, as it was nice to see that the Illidari had been getting things ready, to the best of their abilities anyway. "Yes, that's the plan... and then, once that's done, we can focus on assisting the other Orders in killing their demonic foes and ensuring those creatures never come back," Kayn replied, as he was positive that most of the other Orders would be fighting demons in some form, given that the Legion was in the middle of attacking Azeroth, and that they would be happy to permanently end a number of demons, especially those that were quite bothersome to their forces and forced them to sacrifice much to take even one of them down, though he was looking forward to taking the fight to the Broken Shore and force the Legion to leave the Tomb of Sargeras at long last, so they could destroy the Legion at last. With that said Spitfire and Rainbow focused on making sure everything in the Fel Hammer was where it was supposed to be for when the other returned to their base of operations, as in they assisted Kayn and the others in moving things from one point to another, though they also took some time to check in with the new recruits and showed them a few moves to make sure they were ready for the battles that were ahead of them, without pulling a Varedis and punching them right in the gut to knock them down, as both of them felt that such a thing was a dumb move and really didn't teach a trainee anything at all, hence why they dropped it and focused on the real moves a demon hunter used in battle. After doing that the pair rested while the rest of the Illidari continued to work, where Spitfire revealed that she had been told what sort of plans the other Orders would be going through in the near future, no doubt waiting for her and the Illidari to make the first move, where it appeared that the druids were dealing with the Nightmare and not the Legion, the priests would be joining forces with the paladins to take down a Dreadlord called Balnazzar, a blight on both Orders from what she could figure out and a few demon hunters would be sent to help kill him and claim his soul, while the warlocks would be using their rituals to summon two powerful demons, a pair known as the Eredar Twins, and enslave both demons to take their power away from the Legion, which would, in turn, weaken the power of another Dreadlord, Mephistroth, who the heroes would take out in due time. The shamans didn't need the aid of the Illidari, as they were in the middle of recruiting the rest of the Elemental Lords and weren't planning on killing any demons yet, because that was something that would come just after their forces were ready, the death knights also didn't need any help since they were in the middle of assembling their Four Horsemen, who happened to be some of the most powerful death knights in existence, second to the Deathlords of their Order, and both the Alliance and the Horde had agreed to allow their allies to raise three new horsemen to replace those that had been defeated in the past, those being an orc hero called Nazgrim, a human warrior that went by the name Thoras Trollbane, and a human priest called Sally Whitemane, though it was the fourth one that she wasn't sure would even happen, as it was Tirion Fordring, a powerful paladin that had died shortly after the start of this invasion, and she had the feeling the paladins wouldn't give his body to the death knights. In addition to all of that the monks suspected that they would come under fire from a Legion command ship and that was why she made sure a few Illidari were sent to their base of operations, a wandering island by the sounds of it, that way if the monks were attacked they could route the demons and capture their souls, while the rogues were preparing to have a few of their members head into Stormwind so they could unmask another Dreadlord, Detheroc, and Spitfire found that a pair of night elf demon hunters had volunteered to aid the rogues out, something she allowed, though that was when she turned her attention to the mages and the fact that they were going to imprison a fourth Dreadlord, Kathra'natir, inside a magical soulstone so his power could be used against the Legion. That left the hunters and the warriors, where she knew that the hunters were in the middle of preparing a trap for a Fel Lord called Hakkar the Houndmaster and had accepted the Illidari's aid without delay, meaning that once their foe was dead his soul would be trapped and use against the Legion with the rest of the captured demons, while the warriors were planning on heading to a Legion world to recover an ally that had been stolen by their enemies a day or two ago, so a few Illidari had offered to join them in cutting down any and all demons so they could capture their souls and take down Lady Ran'zara. It sure seemed like their allies were waiting on her to make the first move, to sound the horn of war so the heroes could lash out at the Legion from multiple angles and not give them enough time to react accordingly, though she just needed to be patient and wait for her own allies to come back with word of their success, as once that happened they would ready the Fel Hammer and jump to whatever world the Felsouls had picked out as their hiding spot, allowing her and Rainbow to finish what they started when they claimed both of the artifact weapons they were currently using. Spitfire was sure that Varedis and Caria knew they were coming, based on everything that had happened since they started fighting the Legion for real, and that whatever world they were calling home had defenses to make it harder for invaders to do anything, so the Illidari would be in for one grand fight as soon as they jumped to the world their targets called home, though once that was done, and the other Orders were done with their deeds as well, everyone could turn their attention to preparing for the second assault on the Broken Shore, not to mention dealing with the dangers of Suramar, to claim the final Pillar of Creation. As she thought about that, however, she noticed a number of Illidari return to the Fel Hammer, with Jace and Allari among their number, and that brought a smile to her face, even though she was sure an hour had passed since they left this area, hence the reason she got up from where she had been leaning and walked over to the pair, because one happened to be carrying a number of parts, replacements for what the Legion damaged in their assault all those years ago, while one had a smirk on her face, indicating that Allari must have found the information she was seeking, though the crystals that she was carrying meant she had made sure to capture the souls of those she questioned, just to make sure their enemies had no idea what they were up to. "Jace, Allari, its good to see that you have returned," Spitfire remarked, as that was the truth of the matter, especially since these two contained the rest of the information and components they needed to make the Fel Hammer jump-capable, so the Illidari could finally put their plan into motion at long last, and she could tell that Rainbow and the others were pausing for a moment to see if the pair had everything they needed to get things underway, hence why Spitfire focused on the pair as she asked the question that was on her mind, "Tell me, did you recover the components we needed and discovered the location of our targets?" "The demons were very angry with me, but I have recovered the necessary replacements for what was damaged, and took a number of souls as well," Jace replied, where he gestured to his pack for a moment, informing Spitfire of where he had stored the items in question so he could have focused on his task, before pulling out a few Fel crystals that contained the souls of every demon he had slain during his mission, preventing those foes from returning to the Legion, which cut down on the number of enemies that were attacking Azeroth right now, even if it wasn't by a lot since there were more demons ready to invade this world, waiting on Argus and the other demon worlds. "And, through questioning a number of demons, I have determined that the Felsouls are hiding out on the world known as Niskara, a broken world with many identical fragments," Allari added, though at the same time she kept the smirk on her face as she thought about what she had learned before returning to the Fel Hammer, as this piece of information meant that the moment the Fel Hammer was ready to depart they could head to where their targets were hiding and cut them down at long last, while signaling for the rest of the Order Halls to assault their own demonic enemies at the same time, before she returned to the topic at hand as she faced Spitfire again, "and I know which fragment they are on, so as soon as the Fel Hammer is ready to go we can jump to their base of operations and take them down." Spitfire opened her mouth for a moment, so she could congratulate the pair and the other Illidari on a job well done, but before she could do that she, Rainbow, and everyone else felt the air in Mardum shudder for a moment, like some sort of powerful creature had arrived or was in the middle of assaulting this place, the latter being the least accurate since they knew the Fel Hammer would have been knocked to the side if such a thing had happened, to which Spitfire traced the Fel energy that was in the air and found that it would bring her to the balcony that she had spoken to the images of Varedis and Caria at, so she and Rainbow headed over to the area in question and found a transparent image, made from a sickly Fel color, rising out of a mass of Fel energy, which was a massive winged creature that seemed far taller than they were, before the wings unfurled and revealed Kil'jaeden, in all his glory. "Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, your insolence has come to an end." Kil'jaeden declared, his voice louder than what Varedis and Caria had used when their images appeared before them some time ago, back when the Felsworn wanted to taunt them and declared that they would perish in the near future, though the Eredar Lord, which was the term that the Illidari called him and Archimonde by since they were two of the strongest demons in the Legion's ranks, sounded like he was possibly displeased or annoyed by something as he stared down at the pair that were in front of him, "You and your Illidari will now betray the forces of Azeroth and join the Burning Legion, your rightful rulers and superiors, and by becoming Felsworn I will ensure that you will ascend to being some of the strongest demons that will raze creation in Sargeras' name... you may grovel now, demon hunters." "Yeah, how about no!" Rainbow stated, where Spitfire nodded her head as the two of them drew their weapons and took a moment to point them towards the Eredar Lord that was in front of them, making it look like they were going to lash out at him and strike his image down before he could do anything, though even as they did that the Illidari that happened to be behind them, demon hunters and non demon hunters alike, stood behind the pair and shifted into their battle stances as well, where basically everyone was showing Kil'jaeden that they wouldn't bow to his will and that they would do everything in their powers to bring him, and the Legion, to their knees. "Very well. You have sealed not only your fate, but the fates of your allies as well." Kil'jaeden stated, speaking to Spitfire and Rainbow, instead of the assembled force that was refusing his demand, though even as they did that they knew that anyone who fell would be taken by the Legion and tortured until they were no longer the demon hunter they used to be, or at least that was the case for them, Kayn, and the others, before the Eredar Lord folded his wings up and started to sink into the mass of Fel energy, even though he focused on them as he did so, "Varedis and Caria will deal will be the end of you two, and then I will torture your souls until you break and become willing servants of the Legion!" Everyone waited for a few moments, just to make sure that Kil'jaeden was gone and that he wasn't spying on them, before rushing to complete their work before the Legion ships warped to their location, because if Kil'jaeden knew where the Fel Hammer was located it was only a matter of time before he diverted some of his forces to attack them and wipe them out so they couldn't aid the forces of Azeroth anymore, though as they did that Spitfire returned to Dalaran and sought out the Council, as she needed Khadgar to send word to the leaders of the other Orders and tell them that the time had come for them to launch their massive offensive against their enemies. Khadgar and the other Council members were surprised by her sudden arrival, not that they were busy at the moment since they were planning on assisting the Orders as well, and asked why she was suddenly coming to them so she could make sure the leaders of the Orders were ready to go, where Spitfire quickly informed them that the Illidari had been visited by Kil'jaeden, in the form of an image, and that a gauntlet had been thrown between her forces and his army, so the Illidari needed to act now, before their enemies assaulted the world they had taken over all those years ago, something that caused the Council to nod their heads for a moment before they started to weave their magic through the air and send messages to the other Orders. While that was going on Spitfire also made sure that Khadgar sent a message to Saurfang, her chosen second that would take command of the Horde for the time that she was out in the field, and another to Anduin, allowing the High King to prepare his forces for what would come once their assaults were finished and the Legion was pushed back, even though they would be focusing on heading to Suramar for the final Pillar of Creation, though as soon as that was done she bid the Council farewell and headed back over to Krasus' Landing, where she found that the other heroes were running around Dalaran, claiming some last minute items for their own assaults, before spreading her wings as she flew down to the portal in question and returned to the Fel Hammer. The Illidari were taking their battle stations at this point in time, making sure they were ready for whatever might happen when they arrived at Niskara, and Rainbow was standing near the command console that would allow them to use the power of the Fel Hammer to warp from Mardum and head to their destination, where they could begin the assault on Varedis and Caria's base of operations, even though she and Rainbow would crush the Felsouls and deal a telling blow to Kil'jaeden's forces, or at least that was the plan they were working with right now. Once everyone reported that everything in the Fel Hammer was operational, and that every item they fixed was working as they were supposed to, Spitfire took her place at the main console that she had accessed earlier, when she and Rainbow had claimed the ship thanks to the artifacts they carried, and channeled her power through the console as Allari informed her of the exact location that was their destination, where everyone braced themselves for a moment as the energies of their ship channeled through the Sargerite Keystone and then washed over everything, something that was followed by it and all of them vanishing from Mardum at long last... though not a few moments later they reappeared above Niskara and everyone rushed to their positions so they could start the assault at long last. The first thing they did was send everyone onto the top of the Fel Hammer, as when a Legion ship moved through the air it was in a horizontal state and allowed whoever commanded one of the ships to walk on the edge of the vessel, as in on the outside of the ship, and when one came to a stop they did so in a vertical state, so Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies stood on the top portion of the ship and approached the console that was up there, which was an odd place for the console that controlled the weapons of the Fel Hammer, but right now neither of them were going to worry about it and had Jace use the console, where he opened fire on the demons of Niskara. This bombardment was designed to weaken the forces that Varedis and Caria had gathered since joining the Legion, killing some of the demons and putting others in a state where they would be much easier for them to kill, where those that fell would either be devoured by both Spitfire and Rainbow's blades or be cast into the depths of the Twisting Nether, which the fragmented world was surrounded by, ending the lives of those that weren't eaten by their artifacts, though everyone watched as Fel fireballs rained down on Niskara and just smashed into the Felguards that were patrolling the starting point of this twisted Legion world. As Spitfire discovered there was a second fragment of Niskara floating close by where they were located, one that happened to be where a number of hunters were in the middle of assaulting Hakkar's domain, which was rather odd when she thought about it, but this was good since it meant the other Orders were in the middle of starting their own assaults, hence why she focused on their task, especially when she and Rainbow heard Caria screaming in frustration as the Felguards were blasted into the ground and some perished in the process. It even took the Felsoul in question a few moments to order her forces to summon the devastators, the cannon-like machines that Spitfire had the Illidari destroy back during their assault on Mardum, but due to it taking her some time to issue such an order Jace and those that joined him in using the weapons of the Fel Hammer were able to smash each and every devastator that were summoned to the path that would lead them to the heart of this fragment of Niskara, eventually causing Caria to, once again, scream in pure frustration as she watched her forces being wasted by the Illidari and the weapons that they were turning against the Legion, before ordering those that remained to prepare whatever defenses that existed in this place. "Illidari, the time for us to fulfill Lord Illidan's plans and show the Legion that they are no longer safe on their worlds, not while we are hunting them!" Spitfire stated, where she could see that the Illidari were ready for whatever order she had to give them, especially Rainbow and the other champions of their Order, hence why she glanced down at the broken and shattered world of Niskara, knowing that their allies were tearing into the demons that happened to be bothering them at the moment, and gripped both of her warglaives as she did that, "Akama, I'm leaving you in charge of defending the Fel Hammer and using the rest of our forces to stall any Legion reinforcements that might try and flank us... while Rainbow, our champions, and I head down to cut our way to Varedis and Caria." The Illidari cheered as they rushed to their battle stations, a few taking Jace's position as he, Kayn, Altruis, Allari, Kor'vas, Belath, and Asha followed Spitfire and Rainbow as they flared their wings for a moment and took to the skies, where they flew into the twisted and tainted skies of Niskara while focusing on the perfect area for them to land in, which happened to be an area that some Felguards had been in before the bombardment had occurred, one that was just outside the area of Niskara that Varedis and Caria had built their fortress in when they joined the Legion, meaning they were close to bringing down Kil'jaeden's servants and dealing a blow to the Legion. As such the pair landed in that area and waited for a second or two, which was when Kayn and the others landed nearby and informed them that there were three lieutenant ranked demons in this portion of Niskara, a powerful Felstalker called Carnivore, an Inquisitor known only as the Overseer, and a Jailer known as Soulchaser, meaning that they would have to kill the three of them, and probably shatter whatever portals their foes were trying to open, before making their way to where Varedis and Caria were resting, to fight them and slay both of the Felsouls at long last. Once the group knew what they needed to do next, before reaching their targets, Spitfire and Rainbow lead the charge into the section of this broken world and found a number of Eredar in the middle of trying to open portals to whatever demon world they were trying to call reinforcements from, where their champions separated not a few seconds later and lashed out at the demons in question, leaving the lieutenants for them to take out, where it was easy to find the large Felstalker known as Carnivore off to the left of the entrance of this area, where it appeared to be in the middle of eating some bodies, likely the corpses of some animals that were pulled into this world from whatever world Varedis and Caria had assaulted before Azeroth. The demon growled when it realized that they were there and lashed out with its teeth, trying to bite them and knock them into the ground, though Spitfire and Rainbow just dodged the attacks in question and lashed out with their blades, even though Rainbow used some of her lightning to smite a few Felguards that rushed at them from one of the portals the Eredar were opening, despite the fact that most of the reinforcements were in the middle of targeting Kayn and everyone else, allowing them to deal enough damage to their target and removed the Felstalker's head, with Rainbow dealing the finishing blow and claimed the soul, plus the power, that had been inside their foe's body before their arrival. From there they headed down the rest of the path as their champions smashed some of the portals, cutting down on the number of reinforcements instantly, where Spitfire let Rainbow head off on her own and track down Soulchaser, who had to be closer to the fortress that their targets were resting in, while she focused on the larger Inquisitor, the Overseer, that was near her, where the demon in question lashed out at her with both his clawed hands and the eye spells that he had access to, intending on knocking her down and crippling her so that Kil'jaeden could claim her soul, to corrupt her into a weapon of the Legion, but that didn't stop her from removing the demon's head and sending its soul screaming into her Twinblades, with its power being added to her own. While she did that Spitfire found that the Illidari were collapsing all of Varedis and Caria's portals, depriving this fragment of Niskara of reinforcements, which could have turned the tide of this invasion if they hadn't come prepared for an invasion, before they noticed that Rainbow was in the middle of crushing the Jailer that was in front of her, as Soulchaser was already being pushed backwards by the power of her swings and even her new claws, the latter tearing through the Jailer's chest in the process and splattered some of his blood on the stones that were resting around them, something that actually surprised Soulchaser in the process, before she cleaved him in half and claimed both his soul and his power for herself. With the three lieutenants dead, and Spitfire felt that none of them were all that strong in the first place so she had to doubt Varedis and Caria's skills in determining the strengths and weaknesses of those who fought beside them, she walked over to where Rainbow was standing as their champions smashed the few remaining portals that were in this part of their fragment of Niskara, something that allowed Kayn and the others to walk up to where they were standing, despite the fact that Spitfire was walking up to the main fortress, since she was eager to bring down both of the Felsouls and lash out at the Legion. What she discovered was that there was a large Fel barrier in front of the fortress, meaning that either Varedis and Caria were terrified of her and Rainbow and this was a way to keep them from reaching them, which was unlikely given their bravado earlier, or they wanted to stall them so they could just prepare for the battle that was coming their way, where she thought about something before turning to Jace, since he had to have a crystal or communicator that would allow them to keep in touch with the Fel Hammer, who actually pulled out a slightly green colored crystal and held it out for her to use. "Akama, do you read me?" Spitfire asked, because if this worked she should be able to use one of the main weapons of the Fel Hammer against the barrier that was in front of them, which would allow her and Rainbow to invade the fortress and face their foes at long last, though it didn't take her long to hear Akama confirm that he could hear her and that those that were guarding their ship were dealing with some demons that were trying to flank the group, something that prompted all of their champions to turn around so they could guard the ramp to this place, before she focused on the order that she had for their ally, "I need you to use the power of the Fel Hammer to bring down the barrier that's in front of us, and then recall the other Illidari so they can be positioned outside this fortress... that way, when we bring an end to the Felsouls, all of us can be recalled to the Fel Hammer and warp back to Mardum before the Legion comes for us." Not a few seconds later their ship moved into position above the fortress that they were standing near and a beam of pure Fel energy rushed out from one of the cannons, smashing right into the barrier that was blocking the way forward and just smashed it to pieces, scattering a few bits of Fel energy in the process, to which Spitfire had Kayn and everyone else, plus the rest of the Illidari that were teleported down to aid them, ready themsleves to defend this area from the enemies that were coming their way, before she and Rainbow walked into the structure and found that there was a second floor, which happened to be where Varedis and Caria, in all of their Fel-corrupted glory, were standing, though Varedis had a new pair of warglaives and Caria just had her claws at the ready. "Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, we've been waiting for you to arrive," Varedis remarked, where Spitfire quickly noticed that he still had all of the cuts she had dealt to him during their previous battle etched into his skin, like Kil'jaeden had inflicted a new punishment onto the corrupted Felsworn that seemed to be his champion, while at the same time Caria looked annoyed that the two of them had made it this far, which was perfectly fine since it might open a hole in her defenses, where that was followed by him raising one of his new warglaives and pointed at them for a moment, "Today we'll be tearing the both of you down and offer your souls to the Master, who will corrupt you into obedient weapons of the Legion and turn you on the defenders of Azeroth... you will be the downfall of this wo..." In that moment Spitfire transformed into her empowered demonic form and burst into the air, where she rushed towards her foe and spun around for a second, avoiding the tip of Varedis' new warglaive, something that allowed her to kick him right in the chest with one of her hooves and sent him flying into one of the walls that rested around them, something that caused Caria to gasp in surprise since she wasn't expecting her to be even stronger than what Varedis had told her about after their weapons had been taken from them, but before she could do anything Rainbow transformed as well and just landed in front of her target, where she kicked Caria in the side and knocked her into a wall as well, all while separating her from Varedis so the battles could be one on one. Varedis growled as he got back up and rushed at Spitfire without wasting a single moment, where the two of them clashed with each other as their blades collided with each other, though as that happened an image of Kil'jaeden appeared nearby, on a level that was anove them, and he declared that they would now fight for his amusement, almost as if he assumed his Felsworn would be the winners of this battle, and based on the sheer power that was coming from Varedis and Caria she had to assume that both of them had been empowered once more, no doubt right after she and Rainbow knocked them down a peg, though while the Felsouls were stronger the same could be said for them as well. Somehow that was something that Varedis refused to acknowledge as he swung at Spitfire with his new blades and found that they were blocked, as he seemed to have gone insane after his death and the torture that had been inflicted upon him, especially since he continued to declare that he was a god and that she would suffer for what she had done to him the last time they had seen each other, and he even believed that she was one of the ones that had done him in and betrayed him a long time ago, confirming that Kil'jaeden had broken him and made him insane, since she did care for her allies, hence why she focused on fighting her foe. Varedis continued to lash out at her, like he was trying to force Spitfire to go on the defensive and put her into a corner so he could cut her down, but Spitfire parried the incoming attacks like they were nothing and ducked under one for a moment, where she swung her Twinblades and hacked into his hands once more, forcing him to drop his weapons once more and caused him to growl in response, before she went on the offensive and swung her blades once more, delivering a number of slashes into his chest as he staggered backwards for a few moments, no doubt wondering what in the world was going on. Kil'jaeden growled in annoyance as he watched that happened, though Spitfire ignored the Eredar Lord as she slashed into her foe's arms, legs, and chest, before knocking Varedis backwards and banished her weapons for a moment as she raised both of her hands, where she gathered her Fel energy for a few seconds and loosed a massive Fel fireball, one that just so happened to be her size and could be more like a meteor, that blasted the Felsworn in question backwards and revealed that he had burn marks all over his body, though before he could recover himself she rushed forward and swung both of her Twinblades, removing Varedis' head and dropped his body to the ground as his soul spun around her, allowing her to see what Rainbow was up to. Rainbow parried the incoming claw attacks that were coming her way, since Caria seemed to abandon the idea of having blades in the first place and appeared to be etching sigils on the ground so she could empower her body, and found that she was able to use either the Warblades or her own clawed feet to deal damage to her foe's body, especially the four red lines that appeared on Caria's chest a few seconds later as Rainbow spun around and raked her claws against her foe's hardened demonic skin, meaning her demonic state was definitely stronger than Caria's was. Caria growled for a moment and loosed a burst of her twisted Eye Beam attack right at her foe not a few seconds later, something that could easily be dodged given all of the directions that were around her at the moment, though instead of doing that Rainbow grinned and loosed a burst of her own Eye Beam not a few seconds later, where it rushed forward and smashed into her foe's attack, causing the air around them to shudder as they did that, even though it wasn't long before Rainbow shattered Caria's Eye Beam and struck her in the chest, knocking her into a wall in the process. Caria coughed for a moment as she removed herself from the wall and rushed at Rainbow once more, who went back on the offensive and banished her Warglaives for a moment, where she lashed out with her fists and clawed feet not a few seconds later and trapped Caria in a barrage of attacks that she would be hardpressed to escape from, especially since she was using her impressive speed to enhance all of the punches and kicks that were making contact with the Felsoul that was in front of her, which had to be annoying Kil'jaeden as he watched the pair topple Varedis and Caria. Her foe staggered for a moment as that happened, due to not being able to catch up to Rainbow's power, both Fel related and her lightning speed, where Rainbow grinned for a second or two as she summoned her Warblades from her horns and cut into Caria's arms, smashing her demonic skin like it was made of paper and even breaking the jagged spikes that were on her back, as the Felsoul tried to pin her into the wall by charging at her, which gave her an opening to hack apart all of Caria's spikes and deprive her of another weapon, which just annoyed the Felsoul even more than she already was and caused her to lash out with little regard for what was in the area they were fighting in, allowing Rainbow to swing her Warblades and smashed open Caria's defenses with ease, before she spun around and removed her head from her body. "Spitfire, Rainbow Dash... I will take great pleasure in breaking you two when you finally die..." Kil'jaeden stated, where he growled at them for a moment as Spitfire sent the soul of Varedis into the depths of her Twinblades and added all of his Fel energy to her own, where Rainbow did the same thing with Caria's soul and power, even though they focused on the Eredar Lord that was angry with them, though even as he said that Spitfire could tell that Akama had noticed the deaths of the Felsouls and had to be in the middle of recalling the Illidari to the Fel Hammer, before the image disappeared with a rather annoyed look on his face, meaning they had succeeded in pissing of Kil'jaeden. Despite the annoyed look on Kil'jaeden's face, which was rather interesting to see, Spitfire and Rainbow smiled for a few seconds as Spitfire set fire to Varedis and Caria's bodies, mostly to reduce them to ashes so the Legion didn't try to put a pair of new souls inside them, before they were teleported back to the Fel Hammer and found that everyone was alright, to which they nodded and activated the Sargerite Keystone so they could return to Mardum, to see if the other heroes had been successful in their own missions as well, and then, once everyone had a chance to celebrate their successes, they could focus on Suramar at long last. > Interlude: Unexpected News > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It took the Illidari a few moments to warp back to the Fel Hammer's previous position in Mardum, where it returned to it's vertical stance and allowed everyone to head back down to the floors that they were used to working in since Spitfire had claimed the ship, though this time around they were returning with some good news, as the Felsouls were dead and both of their souls had been sealed inside the artifact weapons they had been carrying since they were revived as servants of the Legion, not to mention the fact that both she and Rainbow had absorbed the power of their foes as well, increasing their own power as well, before they walked over to where Kayn and Altruis were standing. "The deed is done, our targets have been vanquished." Spitfire remarked, though at the same time she was surprised that Rainbow's body hadn't changed after absorbing the Fel energy that had been attached to Caria's soul, just like she was also surprised that her own body hadn't changed all that much either, making her wonder if each demon hunter had their own level of Fel energy before a change occurred and the amount increased as they progressed to becoming more demonic, though even as she thought about that Rainbow didn't seem all that bothered by the couple of changes that her body had gone through, especially since she was capable of using the changes against their enemies. "Varedis and Caria have been punished for joining the Legion, and we have dealt a telling blow to our enemies," Kayn said, something that was followed by one of the rare moments where Altruis nodded his head to show that he agreed with the demon hunter he usually opposed, which had to surprise everyone that had to be watching them at the moment, before he noticed that the rest of the Illidari were staring at them and seemed to be waiting to hear something, no doubt waiting to hear the news that they had been successful in their mission and that the main Felsworn had been defeated, erasing one of the Legion's powers, "I believe it is time for us to tell the others the news, and then we can get to telling Khadgar and the rest of our allies the good news as well." "Go ahead, you were always better at speaking to crowds," Altruis commented, showing that he really didn't want to speak to crowds and that Kayn was obviously more suited to take that role, even though he was pleased by the fact that they had done what Lord Illidan had planned out so long ago, taking down the forces of Mardum, claiming a Legion ship, and then taking and using the Sargerite Keystone to unleash a counterattack on one of the Legion's worlds, something he was sure their mentor would be proud of, if he was here to see what they had done, though at the same time Spitfire and Rainbow walked over to face the rest of the Illidari, with Kayn walking up behind them. "Illidari! Servants of Illidan! Hear me!" Kayn called out, where the former was a label for the demon hunters and the latter was for the Shivarra, Broken, and Naga that fought with them, even though Spitfire was thinking of just calling everyone by the former label at this point in time, as there was no reason for such a thing to exist between them, so this might be the last time anyone used the latter when addressing everyone, but she said nothing as she and Rainbow waited for Kayn to do his speech, so they could celebrate and head to Dalaran to tell Khadgar the good news, "We gather here today to pay tribute to the one who has served with both honor and distinction as our indomitable leader, along with the one that has served as her unbreakable spear, as we have regained the missing Sargerite Keystone and killed Cordana Felsong, the Fel Warden who betrayed both Azeroth and her own order, we have defied Kil'jaeden himself, despite his tempting offers, and invaded one of the Legion's broken worlds, and we have vanquished our nemeses, Caria and Varedis Felsoul. For all of our recent successes, and countless others, we shall bestow one of our highest honors, the title of Slayer, upon Lady Spitfire and Rainbow Dash, so they might strike even greater fear into the hearts of the Legion!" Spitfire and Rainbow were surprised, as the title of Slayer was reserved for the highest ranking demon hunters, where the two of them had assumed that either Kayn or Kor'vas, at the very least, would have gained it at some point in time, or even Altruis for that matter, for those that were right under Lord Illidan, though upon thinking about that, as the Illidari cheered after hearing Kayn's short speech on what they had done, Spitfire determined that it made sense, due to the fact that she and Rainbow were now two of the strongest demon hunters in their entire order and that the only one that stood above them was Lord Illidan himself. With that done Spitfire made sure that the Illidari had a break to recharge themselves for all of the fights that were ahead of them, as once the Orders were done with their missions, and had a short break as well, it was only a matter of time until they regrouped, made sure everyone was ready, and launched their second assault on the Broken Shore, even though Rainbow remarked that someone would be tackling the dangers of Suramar before anything else happened to their forces, since they still needed the last of the Pillars of Creation. While they were thinking about that Kayn had them follow him for a moment and revealed that Loramus had completed his work on the Nathrezim Forge, the powerful forge that rested on the lowest level of the Fel Hammer, not counting the very bottom of everything, that their fellow demon hunter had used to reforge Frostmourne into the new form that Scarlet wielded in battle, capable of going from a pair of one-handed swords to a two-handed blade in seconds, though Kayn's statement told them that they might be getting something special in the very near future. Sure enough they found Loramus standing next to the forge, actually in his transformed state, before he stepped to the side and revealed that the Nathrezim Forge was capable of awakening the true potential of their weapons, meaning they were going to become even stronger and deadlier than they currently were and that he had been unable to complete this before the invasion of Niskara, otherwise he would have given them a power boost, even if they honestly didn't need it to tear down Varedis and Caria, before they stepped forward and stopped in front of the forge. Spitfire raised her Twinblades first, where the power within the forge and her blades transformed the weapons into a deadlier pair of artifacts, with the edges being covered by Fel energy, the tips becoming sharper, the points that were curved her way became even sharper, and the horns grew out a little more, though when Rainbow did it both of her Warblades became longer and had orange Fel flames on the tips that were near her shoulders, though that was when a small shield appeared over the handles of her weapons, making them more like warglaives in that moment and it meant that she didn't have to worry about someone cutting her hands while she fought them. Both of them were impressed by their new weapons, even taking a moment to swing them a few times to make sure they worked and that the additional weight hadn't ruined anything that they were used to, before smiling as they noticed that nothing had changed and that this meant they could deal some additional harm to those they fought, mostly to the Legion. With that in mind, and their transformed weapons in hand, the pair started to take a moment to think about what to do next, which was when Jace walked down to where the pair and Kayn were standing, as the other Illidari headed back to the top floor so they could join the celebration before a new threat or something forced them to focus on taking the fight to their enemies or the Broken Shore, hence why they focused on Jace once more. "Pardon the intrusion, but I have something... interesting... to share with you two," Jace said, something that caused both Spitfire and Rainbow to raise their eyebrows for a moment as they banished their new weapons to their horns, as while they had been thinking they would have some time to relax before the next part of their mission, and hear what the rest of Azeroth's heroes had done during their own missions, it seemed like both of them might be getting dragged into a brand new venture of some kind, "there's an odd magical signature near the small floating island near the part of Dalaran that Khadgar and the Council like to gather in... but its nothing like what we have on Azeroth... in fact, as far as we can tell, its somewhat similar to your own magical signatures." "An Equestrian magical signature?" Spitfire inquired, as that was very odd, due to the fact that she had believed it was near impossible for them to open a gateway from Azeroth and have it connect to Equus, based on several things that she had been told at the start of her stay with the Illidari, but if there was a magical signature from their home world near the part of Dalaran that Khadgar and the other Council members resided in, on a floating island with a small pond, there might be another lost soul for them to embrace or someone was scouting out this world for some odd reason, to which she sighed for a moment, "Okay, we'll take a look and figure out what in the world is going on, then one or both of us will return and tell you whatever we find on that small island, so we can get back to the celebration and preparing for the next stage of our operation to bring down the Legion." Jace nodded for a moment and stepped to the side as Spitfire and Rainbow walked by him, as they were all interested in what this might mean for everyone, especially when one considered what the two of them had been able to since they joined the Illidari and escaped from the Vault of the Wardens some time ago, though as they walked up to the top floor Kayn glanced in their direction and nodded his head, showing that he understood what Jace had shown them, before they walked through the portal and returned to Dalaran once more... though upon flying through the air, however, they found a familiar figure standing in that area, one with a noodle shaped body with a number of animal parts. "Discord? What in the world are you doing here?" Rainbow asked, because while she had been expecting to find someone like her or Spitfire, meaning someone who wasn't important to making sure their home world operated like normal, due to him being a counter of sorts to Celestia and Luna, she wasn't expecting the Spirit of Disharmony to sudden show up like this, even though it looked like he had a brown vest over his chest area and a fishing pole in one hand, though it seemed like his getup was more to make him seem like a local or something, but even as she thought about that she made sure that there were no demonic signatures around them, just in case the Legion retaliated by sending their forces at Dalaran, to knock them out of the sky. "I was looking for you two, actually." Discord replied, where he dismissed the gear that he had summoned a few seconds ago, as he had been expecting this to take some time and felt a disguise had been necessary, and turned to face the pair that were in front of him, where he noticed their more demonic features and raised an eyebrow for a moment, since that wasn't something he was expecting to see when he found them, to which he focused on both of them and less on his own thoughts for a moment, "As you know, you went missing from Equus some time ago and I've been looking for you, as we have discovered that there is a demonic threat to our world and that the... soul, I guess... of our world sent both of you here to prepare for the..." "Discord, we're already in the middle of dealing with the Legion," Spitfire said, since that was the only demonic threat that creation was facing at the moment, something that seemed to stop the Spirit and caused him to raise an eyebrow while he listened to what information they had to share with him, though she did wonder if there was another unknown army out there, hiding in the darkness of space, waiting for a chance to burn the universe to ash and might be waiting for the Legion to be taken out first, before they did anything, before she refocused her thoughts once more, "and we're making headway, for the first time in Azeroth's history I might add, so we can't just pack up and head back home, not when doing so would bring the Legion to Equus... we wouldn't want that, not with the potential that all ponies possess and the power that could be unlocked if they were corrupted by the Legion." "Fascinating... simply fascinating." a new voice said, where Spitfire, Rainbow, and Discord glanced to their left, or the right in Discord's case, and found a new humanoid figure standing near their position, whose voice allowed them to determine that it belonged to a young adult male, though it was hard to make out any specific features since the figure was wearing a black coat of some kind that covered pretty much his entire body, with a zipper that went from his feet to his neck, even though the bottom half had been unzipped and showed off the figure's dark gray, nearly black, pants, while he had a pair of ebony black gloves and boots, which had blood red runes on them, and the hood had diamond shaped drawstrings that were silver colored, despite the fact that his hood was up and they couldn't see his face, like some sort of darkness was keeping them from seeing what he looked like, "The rate of your growth is amazing, and I cannot wait to see what you and the rest of your displaced do in the near future, especially since the first pair exceeded my expectations and set the bar pretty high for all of you." "What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow inquired, though at the same time she didn't trust the stranger that was near them, since they had no idea who he was and had no idea if he served the Legion or someone else, despite the fact that she didn't feel any Fel energy coming from the individual in question, even though it did seem like he was spying on the rest of the displaced, which was a surprise that she wasn't expecting to hear and she could tell that Spitfire was thinking about what they had just learned, that there were more like them scattered across the universe, who she hoped were safe from the Legion, even if the demons were focused on Azeroth right now. "That's for me to know and for you to find out in due time," the stranger said, something that was followed by something interesting happening, an oval shaped portal appeared behind him and appeared to be made out of either shadows or a mass of darkness, where the figure made not motions with his arms, making them wonder how he had created it in the first place, but before anyone could even ask him another question and figure out who he was, or why he was so eager to see what the displaced were up to, he stepped backwards and disappeared as he entered the portal, which closed not a few seconds later, leaving them in the dark once more. "This isn't the first time I've seen that individual, who mysteriously appears, mentions something, and then disappears, but we have no idea who he is and why he's so interested in the adventures our displaced are on," Discord remarked, where he sighed for a moment, even though his words gave Spitfire the knowledge that they were the third ones that the Spirit had checked up on since everyone had been displaced, even if it made her wonder who the other two before them might have been, before Discord glanced at them and seemed to take a moment to think about what they had told him earlier, about not returning to their home world, "Are you two sure that you want to stay here?" "We'll be fine, Discord," Spitfire replied, because if she was right, and the threat that Equus faced was, in fact, the Legion, then by staying and fighting beside the forces of Azeroth they could bring the Legion down and not only save this world from Sargeras, but they could also save Equus and the rest of creation, though in response to her statement Discord stood there for a few seconds and then opened his own portal, which was basically him opening a door in midair, and stepped through it, though when he closed it there was no trace of the door, like Discord had never been here in the first place, to which she sighed for a moment and rubbed the side of her head as she thought about things, "Come on, let's get back to the others and tell them what we've discovered..." It was in the following moment that a blue sphere of Arcane energy appeared nearby and caused them to stop again, as neither Spitfire or Rainbow had any idea what was happening right now and they weren't being given any time to consider what was going on, though that was where they found Khadgar's head inside the orb and it made them wonder if this had been a spell of his own design or if someone was using his face to try and speak with them, but since they couldn't feel any Fel energy this had to be from their ally and it, once more, made them wonder what in the world was going on and how much information they would be learning this afternoon. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, I know you would rather be celebrating, but I must ask that you come to the Violet Citadel as soon as possible." Khadgar stated, where his tone revealed that he must have found something interesting and that, while he would be sharing it with the rest of the Council members, they were the first heroes he would be revealing this to, due to the others either being busy with the end of their missions or whatever was going on right now, even though Spitfire suspected that each Order would be unlocking the true power of their artifacts before they did anything else, before both of them focused on the Archmage once more, "I have made a rather interesting, and possibly exciting, discovery that I would like to share with you and the Council of Seven... something that could possibly aid us in locating the last Pillar of Creation and Gul'dan." Spitfire and rainbow glanced at each other for a moment, since they weren't expecting to hear that statement, which was when they nodded their heads and spread their wings for a second, allowing them to take off and land in front of the area that Khadgar, Jaina, and the rest of the Council members resided in most of the time, when they weren't busy fighting the Legion and their enemies, though as they closed their wings the pair found that there was a sphere of Arcane energy in the middle of the chamber and seemed to be what Khadgar wanted them to see, which only made them even more eager to see what their ally had discovered. "So, what's going on now?" Spitfire asked, because that was the best thing she could ask, just see if the Council knew what was going on and if there was anything they could share with her and Rainbow, even though it did look like Jaina had been in the middle of researching a number of subjects, when she wasn't busy flinging spells at the Legion, thanks to a bunch of books that were near her, but right now her focus was on the Arcane magic that was in front of everyone as she focused on whatever they might learn from it, "You said it might help us with Suramar and the last Pillar of Creation?" "Yes, that is the gist of the situation. Just so you know the elven city of Suramar has been sealed in a nearly impenetrable Arcane barrier for the last ten thousand years, much like how Dalaran once was, before we moved it to Northrend... but now that barrier has now come down." Khadgar stated, something that caused Spitfire and Rainbow to think about it for a few moments, as they had seen some massive circular structure on the outskirts of the city in question, with bits of what they assumed was Arcane energy coming from them, that must have been the area that the barrier rested in, though even as they thought about that it made them wonder what the sphere had to do with Suramar, "Since then, waves of magical energy have been emanating from the city like ripples in a pond, and it was in these waves that I sensed a pattern... it was a spell, encrypted among the chaos. I have recreated the spell here... trust me, it's not dangerous, but beyond that... I have no idea what it does, so I wanted you both here in case a demon appeared or something." The pair glanced at each other for a moment before pulling their weapons out of their horns, with Rainbow bracing herself in case a demon surged out of the magic and attacked them, to which Spitfire carefully approached the sphere as Khadgar and the Council summoned a barrier to protect the area they were standing in and all of the tomes, to be sure nothing was lost in case something bad happened, though when she touched it they watched as the sphere expanded into a female elf that looked like she was starving, a shell of her former self, where it appeared that all she was wearing was a brown cloth bra which was attached to a gemstone necklace, which was connected to her cloth hood, and whatever pants she had on were ripped in multiple places, though it also looked like someone had stabbed her recently. Ith'el kanesh! the faint echo said, as her tone was weaker than what they were expecting it to be, a combination of her starving state and the wound that had been dealt to her, though based on everything Spitfire was seeing she came to the conclusion that whoever was in front of them wasn't a night elf or a blood elf, something that the mages had to be looking at as well, before everyone focused on what the echo had to say, since there had to be a reason for this being sent out of Suramar, without the Legion knowing about it, I am Thalyssra, of the Shal'dorei... the Nightborne... and I... I am the First Arcanist in the court of Suramar. My people have made a dire pact, one that spells doom for our world. Time is short, and I cannot explain everything right now... if you have found this message, you are capable of finding me as well. Please, make haste for Suramar... you may be our last hope. Ith'nala kanesh! "A magical message in a bottle, slipped right beneath the Legion's noses... she's a clever one." Jaina commented, as once the echo uttered those final words it faded away and disappeared, the rest of the magic following suit in seconds and left everyone to lower their defenses for a moment, though it was easy for everyone to see that there was a possible ally in Suramar and that she was dying right now, and might have perished by the time they got down to the province that their enemies were in the middle of corrupting, where she could see the wheels in Khadgar's mind turning as he thought about what they had just learned. "Indeed she is, and she's in trouble... I'll send for one of the High Priests to join you," Khadgar replied, where Spitfire and Rainbow knew that he was talking about one of the three priests that lead the rest of their Order against the Legion, which Remeraa was one of, so this meant that they might meet one of the other two leaders of the Conclave, which was what the priests called their Order, though he chuckled for a moment as he pulled out a small wand that looked like it might not be all that useful, at least in terms of fighting anyway, "These Nightborne could prove to be powerful allies against the Legion, even if you two are some of our strongest allies, so we must do everything in our power to assist this Thalyssra, though the first thing you'll need to do is track down her magical echoes, sort of like how I found her distress call earlier. I will use my magic to teleport you near the location where she recorded this message, though from there you must search for ripples in the very fabric of the Arcane itself... and to do that, I will let you two and your new ally borrow this wand, as it is already attuned for this sort of thing. All you have to do is follow the sparks that it creates, as they should lead you to the locations where Thalyssra used her magic, and lend her whatever aid you can give her." Spitfire nodded for a moment as she accepted the wand in question, while at the same time Rainbow quickly banished her Warblades as they took a few moments to wait for the third person of their party to reach this area, though she did notice that whenever they headed down into one of the provinces that made up the Broken Isles one or more of the heroes also joined them, not that she was annoyed by such a thing since it allowed them to divide whatever tasks they needed to go through to reach their end goal. This time around their end goal was to bring about Gul'dan's end, not to mention aiding Thalyssra and her cause, before even worrying about locating and claiming Lord Illidan's body, which would happen the moment they found the orc warlock, though their thoughts were interrupted as a female blood elf, who had long golden hair that almost looked like she had been blessed by the Light, while wearing a light blue robe with golden runes on it and carried a staff that looked like it had stained glass right in the center of its head, walked into the building that they and the Council members were standing in. "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, allow me to introduce High Priest Kelila Lightwhisper, who wields the staff known as Light's Wrath as her weapon," Khadgar said, where the blood elf in question bowed her head for a moment as Khadgar told them who she was and the name of her artifact, even though she knew who the two demon hunters were, because at this point everyone in both the Alliance and the Horde knew who they were and what they stood for, before he waved his hand for a second and his Arcane energy opened a temporary portal nearby, one that seemed to head down to Suramar, "I briefed Kelila on the situation before she left her Order Hall, so you won't need to explain anything to her, but do be careful, as the wilds of Suramar have been untouched for the last ten thousand years and, as a consequence, we have no idea what you might encounter while you search for this Thalyssra." The trio nodded for a moment before walking through the portal that had been opened for them, where they appeared in a ruined area that had a few fallen pillars and what looked like a tiled path that was being reclaimed by nature, and there were a few structures that seemed like they had been broken beyond repair, to the point where new ones would have to be made if someone wanted to rebuild this area, though once Spitfire, Rainbow, and Kelila were on the other side of the portal they watched as it closed and the way to Dalaran was sealed for the time being, even though two of them could just fly back to the city if they needed something, before refocusing on what was in front of them. Down the path that was in front of them stood two male figures who were dressed in decent looking leather armor, or maybe it was made out of mail or even plate that was made to look like lesser armor, who seemed to be in the middle of a conversation, though they had dark bluish colored skin and silvery blue runes on their arms, or maybe they were markings of some kind that were totally unknown to them, but based on what the trio could hear it sounded like these Nightborne were in the middle of looking for Thalyssra, meaning they were either concerned for her safety or had been sent out to track her down and kill her, even though they figured that the latter was the most likely option in this situation. Upon approaching the pair Spitfire discovered that these Nightborne weren't friendly, as she, Rainbow, and Kelila were considered outlanders, just like what happened in Stormheim, and the pair lashed out at the trio without delay, apparently believing that they were superior to everyone that wasn't a citizen of the city, though that didn't stop her and Rainbow from parrying the incoming attacks with their weapons and surprised their enemies for a few seconds, as if they couldn't believe that such a thing was possible and that this was just a fluke, all while Kelila stood at the back of the group and blessed them while they fought their foes, as she knew from Remeraa's tale about the Halls of Valor that she might not need to heal them. As it turned out the pair of guards used their staffs while they lashed out at Spitfire and Rainbow, in addition to channeling and throwing bolts of Arcane energy at them, spells that were easily avoidable as both of them used a single blade to knock the staffs away from their wielders, opening the way for them to cut through the chest armor that their foes were wearing and quickly knocked both enemies to the ground. The trio glanced at each other for a moment, as it sure seemed like Suramar was going to be a rather dangerous place for anyone to explore, and that wasn't counting the city itself for that matter, before Spitfire pulled out the wand Khadgar had given them and activated the power that was inside it, where she and the others watched as a bit of Arcane energy sprung to life nearby, right in front of where they found the two Nightborne, and when Rainbow quickly tapped it with one of her Warblades they found another echo of Thalyssra standing in front of them, appearing to be at the end of her message, the same one that Khadgar had discovered earlier. Please, make haste to Suramar... you may be our last hope. Ith'nala kanesh! I hope someone out there is listening... the echo said, where it was easy to determine that the last bit of her statement had been something she said to herself right after finishing her spell, allowing Khadgar to discover her plea for help, though that was when Thalyssra winced in pain and fell to one knee as she held her side for a time, once more revealing that she had been injured at some point and that her wound was acting up, something that was making it hard for her to do whatever it was that she was here to do, where they found that she forced herself to stand once more, I... need to keep moving... "She's definitely injured... pretty badly, if this echo is anything to go by," Kelila commented, though she was referring to far more than just the wound that she had been told about, as Thalyssra's body was in the middle of withering away, due to the fact that her body looked like it was skinnier than what she imagined, like the First Arcanist had been locked in prison and starved before escaping to this place, something they would only be able to determine if they found her and asked her what was going on, which allowed her to determine that it was a good thing Khadgar had sent a message to her Order Hall and asked for one of the High Priests to join the pair in this venture, "We should get moving... if she's this injured, and progressively getting worse, we might not have much time left to aid her and treat her wounds." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded as they headed down the path that was in front of them, following the direction the echo of Thalyssra had walked in, where it was easy to find that there were two more Nightborne guards patrolling the area and also seemed to be angry with outsiders coming to their province, hence the reason that Spitfire parried an incoming attack and tore through her foe's chest with ease, while at the same time Rainbow blocked and stalled her foe's attack before she lashed out with her clawed feet, dealing four gashes to her chest, since this pair of enemies were female while the last two had been male, before they found another echo near a Nightborne corpse, one that was incredibly withered and seemed to have been starved to death, far worse than what was happening to Thalyssra. Rath! Thalyssra's echo stated, where once she spoke the word of power she blasted the still living creature that had become the corpse that was near them, something that revealed that the creature probably attacked her due to her being there and it being starved, meaning it had been trying to survive and she had likely put an end to it's suffering, which was when she and the others watched as Thalyssra winced again as she walked off to their right and headed over to an area that had two more of the withered creatures hanging out in it, who turned to look at her when she walked up the ruined steps, Withered... I must be getting close... Rath-domaas! Sure enough she struck down the pair of Withered that were in front of her, which gave the group a name to put to these new enemies, and headed forward as the echo faded again, to which they followed her path as it lead them to a ruined stone bridge that was cracked in the middle, with one half resting in the river that was below it, before they walked over to a ruined area with a few stone pillars, some of which were smashed and had fallen on their sides, though that was where they found a Nightborne captain or something suspended in the air in the ruined area, no doubt locked in time magic or something, which was when they discovered another echo to check out. Stand down, Erasmus! Can you not see that Elisande has forsaken us?! Thalyssra's echo asked, where it sure seemed like she was trying to make someone see the light about what was going on inside the city, something that told them that this Elisande was a problem and that, to get to the Eye of Amun'thul, they would likely have to overthrow Elisande, but that was something that would have to wait for later as the Nightborne captain readied himself for battle as he floated in the air that his present day version was resting in, to which she readied her own magic once more, wincing as she did so since she had been weakened by someone else's attack, An'ah! Tha... That will buy me some time... Due to the fact that this Nightborne captain seemed to be hunting Thalyssra down, and might have some information on where she might be located, Spitfire lashed out at the suspended mage and knocked him out of the time spell, which the Nightborne revealed was a time stop spell before lashed out at them, even though he also revealed that Thalyssra had, in his own words, betrayed the 'Grand Magistrix' and needed to be put down, but thanks to the spell he had been locked in for a time, even if it was for a short period of time, his movements were terrible and couldn't hit them at all, so Rainbow just removed his head and they left his body on the ground... though by following the nearby path, which the echo took a few moments ago, they found Thalyssra, in the flesh, kneeling in the middle of an Arcane barrier, to protect herself while she regained her energy. "Ou... Outlanders. You... received my message?" Thalyssra asked, where they could tell, just from listening to her speak for a few seconds, that she was still weakened from whatever had happened to her before this point in time, though as she did that Rainbow rushed by where her barrier rested and swung her Warblades into the two Withered that were coming at them, something that seemed to persuade them to leave them and their new ally alone, while Spitfire made sure no more Nightborne were in the area and Kelila walked over to figure out what sort of wounds their new ally had, which would give her the accurately treat her body so she could move without being in pain. "One of our friends found your message and sent us to assist you, in what appears to be a potential rebellion against the current ruler of Suramar," Spitfire replied, as that was everything she had gathered from what the message said and what they had learned from the Nightborne captain Thalyssra had sealed in the air for some time, even if they interrupted that spell and slew the warrior in question, though for the most part there didn't seem to be anyone else coming for them and that gave them a chance to find an area to make into a base of operation, since she was sure that Thalyssra would want to find a hidden place to plan her rebellion. "I have much to tell you, so you can tell your allies, but it is not safe to speak here... also, I cannot hold this barrier forever, so we have to move," Thalyssra stated, meaning that she was against being healed right now and drew a flask from a small pouch that she happened to be carrying on her ruined sash, something that she carefully sipped from as her magic flared a tiny bit, meaning it had to be a mana potion or something like that, though once that was done she made sure it was put back into her pouch and forced herself to stand once more, "If we push through this area, we might be able to find some sort of shelter, where I will tell you about the situation our world is in." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded as they readied their weapons, just in case more of the Withered, which Thalyssra warned all of them about as she stood up, charged at them and tried to tear them down, due to the fact that these creatures lived on the flesh and magic of those they hunted, to keep themselves alive, though as Thalyssra dropped the barrier she quickly explained something interesting, and rather sad, to the group, that the Nightborne who couldn't drink from something called the Nightwell would be reduced to such a withered state, which would result in them losing themselves if they stayed in such a state for too long. In that moment Spitfire, who paid more attention to the explanations of magic since Rainbow focused on killing demons and stopping the Legion's plans, understood why Thalyssra was in a withering state, as she determined that the mysterious Nightwell had to feed the Nightborne in some manner and that without access to the powerful font, or the product that it had to produce, someone like their new ally would slowly change before their very eyes, becoming more starved as time passed by, but even then there was no telling how long they had before such a fate befell Thalyssra, who also seemed to think about it for a few seconds before pushing herself forward. That was when they spotted a number of Withered in front of them, standing around part of the ruins that Thalyssra happened to be heading towards, who rushed at the group without delay and seemed to be hungry for the power all four of them had, even if one was incredibly weak from what had happened to her before she sent the magical message, which was why Spitfire and Rainbow had Kelila make sure nothing came at Thalyssra and focused on knocking down the Withered that were coming at them, as now that they knew they had been Nightborne before becoming what they currently were, and this had been forced upon them, both felt that keeping them alive might mean that, once someone found a way to reverse the process, they could have their old lives back, or at least that was Spitfire's hopes on the matter. As such she and Rainbow made sure not to go in for the kill this time around, purely knocking out everyone that came at them and leaving their enemies behind as they headed for what appeared to be a small ruined village of some kind, which was called Meredil according to what Thalyssra told them, though as the number of enemies started to increase, as they entered their next destination, she snapped up another barrier around them, even if it put a strain on her mana reserves, which were already weakened thanks to her wounds and her separation from the Nightwell. Instead of leaving the barrier the group let the Withered run into it for a few seconds, which hurt them and knocked them backwards, so they could get to the center of the village, which was when the group discovered that there were more wandering Withered that just so happened to emerge from the ruined stonework and assaulted their barrier with their powers, despite the fact that both Spitfire and Rainbow focused on them while Kelila assisted Thalyssra in maintaining the barrier that was around them and even threw out a bolt of Light magic every now and then to knock her targets away from their position. While they fought to clear out the Withered, with was easier said than done since there were so many of them around the ruins, Kelila knew from the stories that both Spitfire and Rainbow had the power necessary to clear the Withered out of Meredil and make it safe and sound for the foreseeable future, but with Thalyssra growing weaker as time went by, since her spell was eating up the rest of her devastated reserves, launching an all out assault on the Withered, and leaving their ally's side for a time, was out of the question, especially since their new friend was incredibly stubborn and didn't want to be healed until they found a good place to rest for a time. In fact, due to the number of Withered in the ruined area, Thalyssra started to walk backwards towards a cave that was behind them and caused the others to move with her, though when they reached the stream that was between them and the cave, however, the rest of the Withered stopped in their tracks and stared at them for a few seconds, something that was quickly followed by their foes fleeing and left the ruins entirely, as every Withered headed into the wilds and disappeared in a matter of seconds. The group waited for a few more moments, just to be sure that none of the Withered were waiting for them to lower their defenses or something, before Spitfire nodded her head and everyone let out a sigh of relief as they relaxed a little, which was followed by Thalyssra dropping her barrier not even a moment later as she focused all of her attention on the cave that had scared off the Withered, though as she started to walk towards it, looking even weaker than she had been earlier, Kelila rushed over to assist her while Spitfire and Rainbow stood at the back of the group, just to be sure no enemies came at them while they entered the cave. "You... fought well... outlanders." Thalyssra said, where she sounded like that was a good thing, especially since she had been planning a rebellion that might have failed at some point, due to her wounded state, though she had Kelila set her down near the entrance, since she wasn't ready to head into the depths of the cave, and nodded for a moment, showing the group that she had to be ready for the tale she had to tell and finally being healed so she could move on her own, so she could enlist their help in everything that needed to be done in the near future, "Help me patch up my wounds... I will try to explain everything that happened to you, as quickly as I am able to." As Kelila went to work mending her wounds, and Spitfire and Rainbow stood across from them to keep an eye on the ruins that were outside the cave they were currently hiding in, Thalyssra informed them that ten thousand years ago Suramar had been the jewel of the Night Elf empire, as in the city and not the province, before Queen Azshara gave aid to Sargeras and was foiled, bringing about something that everyone in the rest of Azeroth knew as the Great Sundering, which created the continents they were used to seeing. What was interesting was that, to save themselves, the residents of the city raised a mighty barrier, one that ultimately deprived them of sunlight, which caused everyone to turn to the Nightwell, where the prolonged exposure to the font turned them into the Nightborne, and it was the Nightwell that brought the Legion to the city and offered a trade, the Legion got access to the Nightwell and the city got to save their lives, though Thalyssra had failed in her attempted coup and now the Legion had control of her city, through Elisande. "A rebellion, with outsiders as reinforcements... sounds like fun." Rainbow remarked, as that was the gist of what she got from Thalyssra, that she had tried to take control of the city on her own, or either with a small force of followers, and that had failed, resulting in her being wounded and stripped of her most of her clothing, as a final disgrace or insult to her, just in the off chance she survived, and the guards they had seen earlier were to make sure she was dead, though she thought about all of the demons that had to be lurking in this province, inside Felsoul Hold and the other locations, as she wanted to kill them and seal their souls away in her empowered Warblades, despite the fact that their Fel energy happened to be her true target, to strengthen herself even more. "I guess... anyway, Ancient Mana is our lifeblood, and without it we become Withered... and I have been rather reckless, as my reserves are depleted," Thalyssra said, though as she looked inside her small pouch, to pull out the flask she had drank from earlier, she found that the container was empty and that there was nothing left inside it, where she shuddered for a few seconds and thought about what this meant for her, even though she dropped the flask and leaned against the rock wall that was behind her, where Spitfire knew this was more of a tunnel and less of a natural cave, "I thought I could hold on for a little while longer, but I can already feel my senses dulling... I think there might be some mana crystals nearby... at least I hope so... the potent magical power inside those crystals should keep me going for a day, maybe two if the power inside them is strong enough, before I would need to feed again, so maybe you could find me some crystals so we can explore this cave." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded for a moment before heading down the rest of the tunnel that was in front of them, where Kelila joined them due to Thalyssra insisting that she didn't need any additional aid right now, something she was planning on ignoring as soon as they found some crystals to give to Thalyssra, though upon reaching the end of the tunnel, which was rather short and only took a few seconds to walk down, they found a rather intricate ruin of some kind and that there happened to be some sort of ruined tree in the middle section of the chamber, something that just so happened to have a few purple crystals that Spitfire determined to be what they were looking for. As they approached the tree stump, to grab what Thalyssra needed, a Banshee emerged from the air above the stump and shrieked for a moment, causing two bits of magic to appear on the outer ring, which seemed to be moving around and were tethered to the Banshee that was right in front of them, though even as that happened, and they raised their weapons to defend themselves from the undead that was in front of them, Spitfire noticed that there was an area that had several raised circular platforms that were lifeless on the left side, a rest area to the right, and a sunken chamber of some kind that seemed important. Once Spitfire took all of that in she lashed out and found that the Twinblades did nothing to the Banshee, something that was also true for the Warblades when Rainbow tried to strike it, especially when Kelila lashed out with her Light based powers, though that was when Spitfire focused on the tethers and beckoned to the second one so Rainbow could focus on it, where they lashed out at the magic and found that both of them easily fell apart as they struck them, either due to their empowered weapons or due to the tethers being incredibly weak, so in a few seconds both objects were broken and the Banshee shrieked as she flew down to where they were standing and rushed at them. This time around the group found that their attacks could deal damage to their foe, as both the Twinblades and Warblades were able to cut into her form and not pass through her, before they struck her down and banished the Banshee that had been guarding this place, something that was followed by the tree stump breaking down into pure mana as the pieces just vanished before their eyes, no doubt returning to whatever energy source that had created it in the first place, before they sheathed their weapons and found six crystals resting around a platform of some kind that was where the tree stump had been resting, made with some glass components, to which the group grabbed the crystals and made their way back to where Thalyssra was resting. "Here, we found some of the mana crystals you wanted... they should hold you over for the rest of today, maybe for all of tomorrow as well," Spitfire said, where she, Rainbow, and Kelila handed over the couple of crystals that they had been able to find inside the ruin that they were at the mouth of right now, something that was followed by Thalyssra staring at them for a few seconds, like she was surprised that her assumptions were right about there being some crystals in the ruin she had asked them to explore, before she grasped one and took a moment to siphon the Ancient Mana that was contained within it, allowing the trio to watch as her body started to revert back to being a Nightborne's, or as close as she could get right now since this was nothing like the Nightwell, before she thought about something, "also, we found out that there's a whole ruin in this cave, complete with an old guardian that we had to kill so we could get the crystals for you, and I had the feeling that you might be able to tell us what this place is... or rather, what it had been in the past." Thalyssra raised an eyebrow to that and pushed herself off the ground so she could see what the group had discovered while looking for the crystals they had given her, five of which she stored away for later, before they walked down the path once more and Kelila made sure their new ally's wounds were fully healed, even though it seemed that she didn't have to worry due to it looking like the combination of her magic and the Ancient Mana inside the crystal had healed her body in a matter of moments, even if she was stuck in the withering state that was between Nightborne and Withered, a state that Thalyssra revealed was called Nightfallen, even if she didn't like being in this state all that much. When they reached the ruins itself, and passed by some cobwebs that had to be cleaned up in the future, Thalyssra revealed that she had never seen a place like this and was surprised by what she was seeing, though when she spoke the phrase 'In'alah' her magic caused a number of spherical lights to become lit once more and light surged into the rest of this place, showing them far more than what they had seen earlier and confirmed what Spitfire had noticed in her brief glances while they were fighting the Banshee, before she walked over to the area on the left and discovered the small circular platforms as well, revealing that they were old teleporters, much like what were inside the city, and that they were inactive, but could be turned on again. From there they walked over to the other side of the ruins, where a collapsed tunnel seemed to rest, even though there was a space where some could rest if they wanted to, before heading down a curved staircase that brought them to the lower chamber, where they found what appeared to be a map of some kind, an intricate stone map carved into the floor, though from what Spitfire could tell it looked like this place was at the heart of the map and the various nodes or pillars had to represent places of power, or at least that was her assumption on the matter, where it looked like Thalyssra was both curious and worried about what they were finding in this place. While Thalyssra studied the area Spitfire noticed the decent person sized hole in the middle of the map, as it had to be where a bunch of Arcane energy was coming from since there was a hint of that in the air, which made her take a moment to wonder if this place had been built to house a weapon of some kind, something that might rival the Nightwell that was inside the city, though she shelved her thoughts for a moment as Thalyssra headed up a second curved set of stairs and returned to the upper part of the ruins, standing on the front of the walkway that lead to where the tree stump had been resting, before she sighed and faced the group. "This place is fascinating, yet it leaves me with more questions than answers... though I believe this place might be known as Shal'Aran, a place many Nightborne believe to be a mere legend," Thalyssra said, where she glanced at the ruins while she talked, as while she knew that there were many of her race that would want to see this place, just to see if the legend was real or fake, there was another aspect to this that she considered themselves lucky to have found out, as this did look like the best place to hide for the time being and prepare for a new rebellion against Elisande, before she focused on the trio that was in front of her, "one thing is for certain, and that is the fact that Leyline energy is being fed into this place, but from where I have no idea... nor do I know what could have required such power in the first place. At least the Withered have learned to avoid this place, no doubt after losing a few of their number to the guardians, and those inside the city won't come all the way out here, not without orders from Elisande, so we should be safe for the time being, safe enough for us to gather our scattered allies and plan the next stages of our rebellion." Spitfire, Rainbow, and Kelila had the feeling that this was going to be the start of something much larger than what they were currently thinking, given that none of them had any idea of the state of the city or the residents inside it, but at the same time this was the best chance they had, in terms of discovering and retrieving the final Pillar of Creation, so for now they focused on whatever Thalyssra had planned for her rebellion, since it looked like she needed an army and supplies to make sure they were ready for the eventual assault on the city, something the heroes and Dalaran could help with, and Spitfire was sure that when their friend was done thinking about things she would tell them what their next steps were, all she and the others had to do was wait and see what happened in the next few minutes. > Suramar: An Old Ally > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thalyssra spent the new few minutes studying Shal'Aran and everything that was inside it, even if there wasn't a lot of stuff left in this place for someone to look at, though while she did that Spitfire studied a map of the Broken Isles and was able to find out that the ruins of Meredil rested on the left side of Suramar, close to the border of Val'sharah, to which she had Kelila use her hearthstone, the one that was attuned to Dalaran since Khadgar had given every hero a stone that would bring them back to the floating city. The reasoning behind that decision was so their new friend could tell the Council and the other heroes what they had discovered after checking out the magical message, and inform them of the rebellion that was taking place right now, but she also wanted to give Khadgar a warning that repeated teleporting into a single area, as in where he sent them, might arouse suspicion in the city, so that was why she was recommending teleporting anyone else into the outskirts of Val'sharah and have them walk a bit to reach where the ruins rested. Given that Suramar City was an ancient city of magic, and there had to be individuals inside it that were incredibly powerful in the Arcane arts, she felt that teleporting to the same area over and over again would allow Elisande's allies to trace the waves of magic back to either Dalaran or to Shal'Aran, which would ruin Thalyssra's new rebellion before it could get started, so having their allies being teleported to another province might make their enemies come to the conclusion that the residents of Dalaran were still working in the other provinces and weren't in the process of getting ready to take the fight to Suramar. As such this might reveal some weaknesses for Thalyssra to use during her rebellion, so they could bring down Elisande and her allies, and it had caused their new ally and Kelila to agree with Spitfire's plan, hence the reason that Kelila was heading back to Dalaran so she could deliver the news to Khadgar and the rest of the Council, including any heroes that might come down to lend them their aid, and after a few seconds the magic in Kelila's hearthstone activated and she vanished, returning to the city to carry out her part of Spitfire's plan. With that done Spitfire and Rainbow remained standing near the opening that held the tunnel that had allowed them and their group to enter Shal'Aran, mostly keeping an eye out for any enemies that might be brave or foolish enough to make an attempt on checking out this place, but it was like Thalyssra said, the group of Withered didn't like this cave, and there weren't any of the starved creatures outside when Rainbow looked a few seconds after Kelila left, and it didn't look like any Nightborne were coming, confirming their new ally's thoughts with ease, allowing her to focus on her thoughts and plan out what they needed to do next. "Okay, I have gathered my thoughts and am now ready to tell you the first set of tasks I need you to accomplish so we can move forward with this rebellion," Thalyssra commented, something that caused the pair of strange creatures to turn and look at her, something she would need to research as soon as her city was no longer in Elisande's hands and she was no longer in danger of becoming one of the Withered, or at least she was hoping that the pair would allow her to ask a couple of questions and learn more about them, as it wasn't everyday that someone found a new type of creature that seemed to resemble a cross between a humanoid and a horse, or maybe it was a humanoid and a pony, before she focused her mind on the task at hand as she turned and gave the pair her full attention, "First of all, allow me to explain that I was on my way to a ruined town called Ambervale, where I had hoped to find an old colleague of mine and recruit him into my rebellion, but, as you discovered, I was stopped along the way and was injured by my enemies, forcing me to send that message and slowly wander towards Meredil... had you not arrived when you did, I'm sure I would have either been slain by any guards that were looking for me, or become one of the Withered. Now Arcanist Kel'danath, that's the name of who I was looking for, was fascinated by the Withered, so much so that he studied them for years in the hopes of calming their feral nature or even curing them of their cursed state, but when one of his subject escaped and ran amok he was ordered to cease his experiments and kill his subjects, to which he refused and was banished from the city for his 'crimes'... I'm almost willing to bet that someone sabotaged his efforts to get rid of him, given the politics that rage inside the city. Anyway, his exile was put into effect just recently, as in within the last month or two, and if he still lives he will be like you found me, in a state of being on the tipping point between being a Nightfallen and becoming a Withered, and given his interest in the Withered he would be drawn to a place like Ambervale, since Withered are drawn to ancient ruins in the hopes of finding Ancient Mana to devour and keep themselves going... which reminds me, I need to make a crystal sensing stone for you two, so that way you can find more of those crystals and gather them while you search for Kel'danath, to create a stockpile for myself and whoever else we might recruit into our forces, from the Nightborne to be exact." "We can do that, so just point us in the direction of Ambervale and we'll head there immediately," Spitfire replied, though while she was sure they didn't need to know Kel'danath's history, and the reasons that he was banished from the city, she wasn't about to argue with Thalyssra and her information, especially since she understood that the Nightfallen in question might be in the process of finding something that would deal with the feral nature of the Withered and possible cure them of the final state they were trapped inside, though this would give Thalyssra time to study the rest of Shal'Aran and see if there was anything else she might have for them to do once they figured out if Kel'danath was alive or not. Thalyssra nodded and bent down to pick up a pair of stones that were roughly the size of their palms, where she carefully whispered the command phrase to them and both Spitfire and Rainbow watched as a blue rune appeared on both stones, which she looked at for a few seconds before tossing them over to the pair, who caught them and pocketed them for now, as both of them were sure that they would either glow or vibrate whenever they got near an Ancient Mana crystal, before she revealed that Ambervale was to the northwest of Meredil, in fact it was just over the hill that was near the edge of this small village and they would be able to see it rather easily. As the pair headed outside Shal'Aran they found that there was a worn out tiled road leading in the direction that Thalyssra told them about, to which Spitfire and Rainbow walked along it while making sure to have their weapons at the ready, to knock out any Withered that might come rushing at them and to either kill or knock out any Nightborne that could be in the area, though that didn't stop them from keeping an eye open for any crystals to add to the small stockpile they had started, as both of them had the feeling that they would need a lot more in the future, either for Thalyssra or for those she recruited into her hidden army. As the pair walked down the path that was in front of them, and headed for the area that seemed to have another ruined village inside it, Spitfire spotted a large crystal, at least two to three times the thickness and twice the height of the ones they found inside Shal'Aran, resting nearby and walked over to it, though when she touched it the crystal cracked not a few seconds later and fell apart before their eyes, giving them about five or six crystals that happened to be the size of the ones that had been resting inside the ruins before their arrival, where she pocketed all of them inside her pack and returned to Rainbow's side as they headed down the path that was in front of them. After that it didn't take them very long to reach the area that Thalyssra had told them about, as Ambervale was rather close to where Meredil rested, almost like their hideout was actually part of the old ruined village and had been part of the outskirts, but according to their new ally they were two villages and not one, even if it was a little odd for two to be so close together like this, though it was very easy to tell that they were in the right place since there were a number of Withered wandering around the outside of the ruined buildings, hence why they both drew their weapons and kept their guard up. Since they had no idea if Kel'danath was a fighter or not, since Thalyssra hadn't given them a lot of information on what he looked like or what his skills were, Spitfire suspected that this would take some time before they figured out where their target was located, though as they started to search the first set of buildings they noticed a floating scroll in the lower level of one structure and walked over to where it rested, where both of them discovered that the scrolls had lettering on it that were strange to them, but the moment Spitfire's fingers touched it she and Rainbow felt something in the air for a couple of seconds as a voice seemed to speak up, a male's voice that revealed that there were wards in Ambervale that would deter the Withered and that he would spend the rest of the day, his fifth day, resting before looking for subjects to resume his research, meaning this had to be Kel'danath speaking. "Well, he's not here, even though it looks like he's been here recently," Rainbow remarked, where she knew that Thalyssra wouldn't like the fact that they didn't find Kel'danath in the area she had told them to investigate, though even as she took a moment to think about what they would tell their new ally she recalled the size of Ambervale and sighed, because it was large and there might be more hiding places for someone to use, especially if the Withered got out of control and caused chaos like they had been told, before she glanced at Spitfire, who seemed to be thinking about what they had learned over the last few moments, "so I guess we should see if we can find any additional notes that he might have left behind and see if we can activate the wards he mentioned, before we think about returning to Shal'Aran." "I was thinking the same thing, as she might be interested in what Kel'danath was doing after his exile," Spitfire said, even though they already knew what the Nightfallen in question had chosen to do after he had been kicked out of the city and had been forced to live without access to the Nightwell, which was everything that Thalyssra had told them about before sending her and Rainbow out here, to which she carefully placed the first note inside her pack as well, since they had no idea if the elements had damaged it or not, before noting that leaving Rainbow alone with the Illidari for a time must have had an impact on her, because while her friend still wanted to kill every demon she came across she also appeared to fully understand everything that needed to be done, to which they headed outside once more, as it was time to hunt down any additional notes and the wards that Kel'danath had left behind. It was easy to find the first of the wards that the Nightfallen they were tracking had created, as it happened to be right in front of the entrance that lead Spitfire and Rainbow to the first note page, which allowed them to see that it was smaller than what they had been expecting, as the device was a third of the size of one of their legs, and was either made of silver or had been enchanted to look like it was expensive, something that could be a problem due to the fact that if someone was in the middle of looking for Kel'danath, like Elisande's forces for example, this might point them in the right direction and lead them right to who they were looking for. With the first ward discovered the pair took a moment and raised their hands towards the device, which was swiftly followed by whatever Arcane power that might be resting inside the device to come alive not a few seconds later, allowing them to study what Kel'danath had created and give them an idea of what the rest of the wards looked like for when they investigated the rest of the ruined village, though by activating the ward, and restoring it's power, Spitfire and Rainbow found that some of the Withered backed away for a moment and wandered off to another area to look for mana, meaning they likely felt it being activated and recalled what happened the last time they got near one, giving them a reason to activate all the wards they could find. The downside to that was that Spitfire could tell there didn't seem to be any notes or any of the wards down the path that would bring them around the outskirts of Ambervale, meaning it might have been designed to be a wild goose chase for the Nightborne, given that Kel'danath would have been expecting Thalyssra and she likely had a clue she forgot to tell them about, before she noticed that there might be a ward outside the main entrance of the village and that was followed by her moving away from the ruined building, to which Rainbow did the same thing not a few seconds later, even though some Withered seemed to notice them departing from where the ward rested. Instead of cutting them down, like Spitfire might have expected her to do, Rainbow swung a Warblade at her targets and knocked them out, showing that she knew when to restrain her power and when to lash out with her full power, leaving Spitfire to jump over some roots and reach the next ward, something that caused the couple of Withered to flee the area not a few moments, when the ward was activated, giving them a wider area to work with as they looked for the notes that had to be in the ruined village. Of course that was followed by their luck turning around a little, as inside one of the ruined houses Spitfire spotted one of the magical pieces of paper that contained the same energy signature as the first page she carried, and sure enough when she touched the note in question both she and Rainbow gained an understanding of what had been written on it before they arrived in Suramar, where Kel'danath mentioned that it was currently the ninth day of his exile experiments and that he had no luck in communicating with the Withered, but instead of being disappointed with himself, like some would do if such a thing failed, he pushed onward and continued his experiments. As they considered what Kel'danath had written on that floating piece of paper, which was stored away in Spitfire's pack not a few seconds after the magic died down, some of the Withered rushed into the building and started to attack them with their claws, to which Spitfire and Rainbow parried all every incoming attack and jumped out of the back opening of the house in question, something that allowed them to see that there was a ruined statue of some kind resting nearby and that there was another note floating just in front of it, but first the pair had to knock out their enemies, leading Rainbow to spot another ward and quickly dismissed a Warblade so she could wave her now empty hand at it, empowering it and driving off the Withered. Once they were sure the Withered were done, and that took a few moments to make sure their enemies were scared off for now, Spitfire walked over to the smashed statue and accessed the magic that rested on the page, where they learned that it was now the fourteenth day of Kel'danath's experiments and that something interesting had happened, he discovered a Withered that was unlike the rest of the pack, his Arcane power touched by something else, and that he had taken to calling him Theryn, even though it did look like he previously called that particular Withered 'Subject 16', though both of them agreed that his new name was far better than his previous name. As soon as that paper was stored away the pair found some Withered wandering around a collapsed house, one larger than the previous one they had wandered inside, and Rainbow activated a nearby ward that was resting at a fork just outside where the structure rested, though once the Withered left they headed inside the house and activated the note's magic, revealing that it was now the sixteenth day and that Kel'danath had a breakthrough, as he had created a spell that might be able to calm the Withered, with limited success, and that it was drawn from Theryn's own unique magic, which was rather interesting. Upon discovering that Spitfire had to wonder if they could find this 'Theryn', since none of Kel'danath's notes held a small description of what he looked like or if he had any unique features, due to the fact that he was one of the Withered and all of them looked nearly identical to each other, but for now the two of them continued their exploration of the ruined village and Rainbow made sure to activate any wards that might have been left by their target, driving off the Withered as the pair neared what appeared to be a small chasm between two halves of the village. What was nice for them was that there was another note resting inside of the nearby buildings, to which they walked over to where it rested and picked it up, so they could see what sort of progress Kel'danath might have made since the previous entry, before discovering that this one was for the twenty-fourth day of his experiment and it wasn't like the rest of the notes, was it revealed that he woke up at one point and that a Night Elf had a placed a blade at his neck, apparently worried about what he was doing with the Withered he had gathered. Upon hearing that Kel'danath was looking for a cure for the Withered, the figure in question apparently grunted and withdrew his blade, like a sign of good faith or something, before he vanished as quickly as he had appeared, leaving the Nightfallen rather shaken after everything was said and done, which made the pair wonder if they could find a clue or something that would lead them to this mysterious Night Elf, to ask him some questions, since it seemed like there was more to this than what the notes were telling them. With that page collected they discovered that the next note page happened to be on the outskirts of Ambervale, resting in the direction that would allow one to head over to Felsoul Hold, though upon reaching it Spitfire and Rainbow found a few slumbering stone creatures, Basilisk to be exact, that remained where they were resting, meaning they were going unnoticed, before noticing a number of stone statues that surrounded them, of foxes and Withered, meaning that if someone tried to bother them they froze them in this state, hence why they were quiet as Spitfire carefully claimed the note and backed away from where the Basilisks were sleeping, though both of them made sure they were far away from those creatures before seeing what this particular note had to reveal. That was when they discovered that it was the thirty-third day and that Kel'danath's supplies seemed to be running low, given the fact that he wrote down something about his 'Arc-wine' running low, making them wonder if that had been what Thalyssra had been drinking earlier, before going on to state that Theryn had been doing well and that Shal'an, which had to be one of the other subjects he had been working with, remained stubborn, even though he admitted that he was now having a hard time finding mana crystals. That caused the pair to glance at each other for a moment, because based on what they had seen so far there were a fair number of small mana crystals, and even a few clusters that were scattered all over Ambervale, near them, meaning that Kel'danath must have been suffering due to lack of food or mana and the first of the symptoms had started to show itself at this point, driving him to assume that there weren't any crystals for him to pick up and come to the conclusion that he was going to starve, even though they could see that there were plenty for one or two people to thrive on, at the very least. Once they did that Spitfire stashed the note with the others and they resumed taking a look around the ruined village, where they found another note near the first structure they had entered, which make her sigh since this meant that they would have found it a lot sooner and jumped to the end of the notes, due to this page being the fortieth day of Kel'danath's experiments, where they quickly found out that a massive Ettin, whatever that was, had trampled through his small workshop in Koralune Manor, which seemed to be at the edge of Ambervale based on what the writing shared with them. That was something that made them thank the Nightborne magic that they had just discovered, as it was very useful and revealed more than normal magic, even though they spread their wings not a couple of seconds later and headed over to the Manor, where it was easy to see that an Ettin was a two headed giant, easily two and a half times as tall as a human was, and worn torn cloth for their attire, but they paid the creatures no mind as they landed near a backpack that was just outside their destination. "We're fortunate that these Ettin left his backpack alone," Spitfire remarked, though that was when she found one more page that would be added to everything that they had found so far, which would give Thalyssra an idea of what Kel'danath had done after being exiled from the city, though she raised an eyebrow as she and Rainbow received the version of this note that they could read, as it happened to be the fiftieth day of his research, but instead of it being good news they were able to find out that the day he stopped his research, as he released his subjects from their holding areas, was the day the Legion invaded Azeroth, meaning this was within the last week or so, and that he asked whoever found his research, as he had no idea who that someone was, to recover his 'spellstone', though by looking in the backpack they found the rest of his notes, every entry from the first to the last, but no stone, "Well, this ought to make Thalyssra happy, or a little since we haven't found Kel'danath... but something tells me we might be able to find something else if we investigate the rest of this manor, something that might help Thalyssra in her own research." "Let's get moving... I don't think we'll be able to go unnoticed for too much longer," Rainbow replied, referring to the Ettin that were wandering around the part of the village that was near the manor and was on this side of the small chasm they had flown over earlier, as she was sure that some of them had noticed the fact that they were standing nearby and might want to attack them for some reason, hence why she was focused on heading over to the manor that was in front of them and seeing if there was anything for them to collect, in addition to the spellstone that Kel'danath had mentioned, before bothering to return to Shal'Aran with news of the progress they made, and see if Kelila had arrived with any allies to aid them in helping Thalyssra out. Spitfire had to agree with Rainbow and they left the area that they found the backpack in, which had been added to their own packs for the time being, though instead of heading forward, and messing with the Ettin that was in their way, both of them quickly opened their wings and flew over the heads of the large creature, which allowed them to land on the ground in front of the manor's entrance so they could enter it, where they found a Withered that looked somewhat older than a number of those they had encountered earlier, along with a faint trace of magic around it, meaning this had to be the one that Thalyssra sent them to find. Kel'danath shifted for a moment as they came to a stop and glanced in their direction not a few seconds later, where he dropped the bone he must have been gnawing on, which looked like an animal's bone and not a person's leg or arm bone, before rushing right at the area that they were standing in and swung his clawed hands at them, to which Spitfire and Rainbow parried the incoming attacks with their weapons and put some distance between the three of them, though a quick glance between both of them was all that was needed. Instead of moving in to kill the now withered figure that was in front of them, to end his suffering, Spitfire's plan right now was to capture him and move him back to Shal'Aran, because if some of the heroes came to assist them, or clear out the province of additional problems so they could focus on whatever was inside Suramar City, they could make a prison cell or something to keep him inside until a cure for the Withered could be found and reproduced in mass, to save the wandering exiles that were suffering all over Amervale and other parts of this province. As such Rainbow refrained from using her new legs to deal damage to their foe, as she was sure that the claws would leave behind some bad cuts, hence why she joined Spitfire in taking down Kel'danath while not trying to kill him, though neither of them really had to worry about their foe's attacks since he was weakened a bit due to the lack of food and mana, so he was slower than some of the other Withered, possibly due to a part of him still resisting what had happened to his body and mind, and it wasn't long before he fell to his knees and huffed, showing that he was already exhausted, before something fell from his belt. The item in question was a blue crystalline stone that had a bit of power to it, one that seemed different from the wards that had been activated during their exploration through Ambervale, and when Spitfire picked it up she found something interesting, Kel'danath seemed to follow it, though that was when Rainbow found another Withered standing nearby and noticed that it had a tag on a tattered sleeve that read '16' and 'Theryn', who had faded green hair, but since both of them seemed interested in the stone, the spellstone they discovered, Spitfire and Rainbow carefully lead them back to Shal'Aran and avoided drawing any of the Ettin along with them. "Spitfire, Rainbow, it is good that you returned safe and sound... and, as you can see, some of your allies have reached our temporary base of operations," Thalyssra said, speaking the moment she noticed the pair coming towards Shal'Aran, due to the fact that she was outside the cave, a foolish choice since she was the leader of the rebellion and letting their foes know she was alive would ruin everything they were working towards, though there were no enemies near the ruins and it meant Thalyssra was lucky, though Spitfire and Rainbow could see a couple of heroes, Vytheril and Scarlet having joined Kelila, had come down to assist them, before she noticed what was behind them, "Might I ask why you have a pair of calm Withered following you? It's rather odd, given that they tried to kill us earlier." "The one with the faded green hair is Kel'danath, but he seems to be fighting his Withered state somewhat," Spitfire said, to which Thalyssra raised an eyebrow and glanced over the fallen elf for a few moments, where it became clear to her that Spitfire was telling the truth and that she was staring at her friend, even though she also understood why they hadn't cut him down and freed him from his suffering, before they focused on the other fallen elf that was patiently standing nearby, even though Spitfire made sure to hold up the spellstone as well, "and this is Theryn, one of Kel'danath's more promising subjects that he was studying, who we might be able to study in an attempt to learn more about the Withered and how to cure them, or whatever you want to do with him... not to mention we picked up the spellstone that your friend created, a stone that seems to be able to calm the Withered on some level." "Is that so? The power to subdue the anger that the Withered hold inside them, possibly control them," Thalyssra said, as it was fascinating when she thought about it and knew that no one in the city would care for something like this, save for her allies anyway, though that was when Spitfire handed her the spellstone, as if reading her mind and knew that she wanted to hold the stone for the foreseeable future, which saved her having to ask for it, to which she nodded for a second and accepted what was being offered to her, "I will ensure that such a power is used for great good, to help the Withered while we search for a cure, and uphold Kel'danath's legacy, just in case we're too late to save him... for now we'll start with him and Theryn, or just Theryn since he holds so much promise, but I might ask you or one of our allies to gather some more Withered for us to study and help. Give me a moment to make sure they're set up somewhere safe, so that we won't have to worry about harm coming to them, and then I'll give you the next ally that we need to recruit to the cause, as there are two more we need to recruit before we start to plan the next stages of our rebellion." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded as they headed out to see what the rest of their allies were doing, just to see if they needed any help with the supplies that were being brought to Shal'Aran, giving Thalyssra some time to make a holding area for the two individuals that seemed to be stuck between being Nightfallen and Withered, though they were interested in who their next ally might be and what they might have to do to recruit them to the cause, to which both of them focused on helping their friends from Dalaran while thinking about what the rest of the day held for all of them. > Suramar: Searching for Oculeth > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow spent some time assisting Vytheril and the rest of their allies in moving their supplies and whatever other pieces of equipment were being brought from Dalaran, with several mages from the Tirisgarde, which was the Order that Vytheril and the other two artifact wielding Archmages watched over and guided in their war against the Legion, aiding Thalyssra in building a magical holding cell for Theyrn and Kel'danath, something that eventually lead to their new ally taking a moment to walk away from what she was doing and approached the area that the pair were working in, who set down the last of the food crates and quickly turned to face her. "I've figured out who the next person we need to recruit is, and that is Chief Telemancer Oculeth, the man who developed Suramar's teleportation network." Thalyssra said, though she didn't need to explain why he was so important, as due to the hub of magical platforms that resting in the left side of Shal'Aran, a small teleportation network based on what they had been told earlier, it made sense that they would seek out the one who created and worked with the vast network that their enemies used, both to monitor their movements and activate some nodes for themselves, before she reached into her own pack for a moment, as if she was looking for something, "Based on what I remember, Oculeth had a private workshop in the hills just above Suramar, the city to be exact, built in the age before the Sundering occurred, and I'm willing to bet that he might be using it as his refuge, until either I contact him or our enemies find him. After everything that happened during my last failed attempt to bring Elisande down, which caused me to reach out to you and your allies, Oculeth might be wary of any potential traps, so if you find him, and I'm sure you'll be able to do that, show him this coin and he should stand down, long enough for you to explain the situation to him and recruit him to our cause. I have one more recruit in mind, before we start planning out our next moves, but I need to verify some things before I have you go investigate her last known position, so focus on Oculeth for now... I'll let you know when we're ready to find and recruit Valtrois to the cause." Before leaving Shal'Aran, and leaving their allies to aid Thalyssra in building their new hideout, Spitfire gained the exact location of Oculeth's workshop, which, according to their new ally, was located along the border of the Great Promenade, a space of winding paths and open gardens, though as soon as they had that information she and Rainbow departed from their new base of operations and quickly found their way to a path that lead to the northeast, right in the direction of the main city and the transparent wall that some guards had to be keeping an eye on. It was easy for them to figure out that entering the city right now was a bad thing, since they had no idea how many guards would be waiting on the other side of the transparent magic wall, but based on the map, and the ruined path that had been built into the ground ten thousand years ago, their path actually deviated from the main path and headed over towards a hill that was off on their left, which happened to be where the ruined path was. Sure enough the more ruined path quickly turned into a worn dirt path that had to be from either Oculeth moving stuff or someone else traversing this particular path multiple times, though it did lead to a lone ruin that had a crescent shaped body of water around it, meaning that the Nightborne they were looking for would have some actual water to drink, not to mention some decent sized turtles resting nearby, giving him food as well, but no mana crystals, meaning it was possible that Oculeth was more of a Nightfallen, given everything they had learned from Thalyssra earlier. Instead of walking forward with their weapons drawn, and giving Oculeth the wrong impression of why they were here, Spitfire and Rainbow carefully walked towards the entrance of the ruins and kept their eyes open for the one that they were here to see, though they had to wonder if he was like Kel'danath and that they were too late to aid him, which would be unfortunate in the grand scheme of things, before Spitfire noticed a surge of Arcane energy not even a few seconds later and started to turn around, which was followed by her and Rainbow finding themselves trapped inside a sphere of Arcane energy that floated just above the ground. "That is far enough, minions of..." a voice said, where the pair found a Nightborne that had withered to the point where he was no longer like the elves inside the city, as in he was a Nightfallen, where they found out that he was wearing a scarf around his neck, had Arcane tags attached to his belt, and seemed to have faint Arcane runes etched into his chest and his arms, no doubt to help him channel his power or empower him to some degree, before he noticed who he had caught in what appeared to be a trap designed for those who followed Elisande's orders and raised an eyebrow for a second as he took in their forms, "Well, neither of you are from the Palace, that much I can tell from a glance... and, despite the more demonic aspects of your bodies, I can tell that neither of you are allied with the Legion, otherwise I would have dropped you in a molten volcano or something to dispose of you. Quickly, identify yourselves and who you work for, before I use my magic to teleport you to the depths of the Great Sea and use the pressure of the sea to crush you." "Calm yourself, Chief Telemancer Oculeth, we're allies of a mutual friend and were sent to recruit you, though my name is Spitfire and this is Rainbow Dash," Spitfire replied, though she had to admit that Oculeth's trap was better than what she had been expecting, as she had been thinking any traps would have trapped them in a time bubble, like what happened to that one Nightborne who chased down Thalyssra and was frozen in the middle of the air, before she found that she was able to move her arms and hands, despite the sphere they were trapped inside, and pulled out the coin that Thalyssra had given them, something that she tossed over to him, "we were told to show you that in the chance that we found you in this area, as I'm assuming it is a token to show that we're allies and that we can be trusted." "The sign of the dusk lily... this is the First Arcanist's seal! She's alive?! Then there is still a chance, though we must act with haste before we leave this place," Oculeth commented, taking a moment to stare at the coin that had been tossed over to him, where his words referred to the flower image that had been etched into the metal, before he beckoned to the pair for a moment, like he wanted them to follow him, and moved before he even realized that they were still trapped inside the Arcane sphere that was his trap, something that was quickly followed by Oculeth returning to where he had been standing a few seconds ago and chuckled as he called forth his power, "Right, I forgot about the trap. N'eth ana!" Once the words of power left his mouth the pair dropped to the ground, with their hooves and claws touching the floor since both of them had avoided crashing into the floor, which was followed by Spitfire and Rainbow walking over to where Oculeth was waiting for them, which happened to be right to the left of the entrance of the ruined workshop he had been hiding in, though it didn't seem like he had any equipment in this place, meaning it had to be the entry point for the true location that served as his workshop, but the pair remained silent as they waited for him to tell them what he needed to do before they returned to Shal'Aran. "The reason I came out here was because I didn't have the time to gather any of my instruments from the Palace, hence why I came to salvage some from this place," Oculeth explained, apparently not even waiting for them to say anything in regards to his trap, meaning he had to be suffering a little from the withdrawal that Thalyssra was going through, which they would have to deal with in due time, though for now it was best if they listened to his words and figured out what he wanted them to do before leaving the ruins he had been hiding in, "though truth be told, this isn't the entirety of the old workshop, as the workshop is actually several rooms and areas linked together by teleporter pads and control rods, which have to be used in a particular pattern to move from one place to another. Of course Elisande's goons are looking for me and, in a stroke of good luck on their end, have already infiltrated my workshop, but I have been altering the network since their arrival and have been making them go in circles for some time, in fact I am quite surprised that none of them have given up yet, but I will ensure that the network works normally for the two of you, so you can go find two items before we leave this place, my Telemancy Beacon and a Warpsleeve... trust me, you'll know them when you see them, though based on how much time has passed since my last visit they'll likely be aged, so make sure you handle them with care. Once we have those items, and I'm sure that they're good enough for what we'll be doing, I'll tell you what we need to do next, and if we need to kill anyone else who might be tracking me." Spitfire raised her eyebrow for a moment as they followed Oculeth outside, where he revealed a larger platform that was just like the ones inside Shal'Aran, though near it rested three small pillars that had to be the control rods their new ally had mentioned during his explanation, but as she reached out towards the one that was resting on the opposite side of the circle she got the impression that it would allow the user to teleport to a garden area, while the other had to be broken since it gave them no images to go on, hence the reason she tapped the Garden control rod. Once that was done, and it was clear that nothing had happened and no portal had opened nearby, Oculeth beckoned to the center of the platform and caused Spitfire and Rainbow to step on it, where they disappeared from the area that their ally was working in and, in a matter of seconds, reappeared on a cliff side that had been smoothed out, or at least had an area carved into it to hold the small house structure that was near them and the platform that was below them, which included three control rods for them to use. One seemed to be connected to a fountain area, the second to a library, and the third to the 'Warp-Lab' as the Nightborne magic informed them, something that lead Spitfire to assume that the Fountain control rod would return both her and Rainbow to Oculeth's position and the Warp-Lab had to take them to one of their destinations, since usually items that needed to be recovered weren't near each other and that meant either item had to be on the other side, which left the other one scattered along one of the other pathways. As such they activated the Warp-Lab control rod and used the platform to teleport to their next destination, where the pair quickly discovered that this cliff was longer than the last one and it held a larger building than what the last one had, as this was a two story stone structure like the one that they had found Oculeth inside, though at the same time there were a few Nightborne who wore the armor of the guards that had been tracking down Thalyssra earlier, meaning they had to be looking for information and gear that they might be able to use against their enemies. Given that information Rainbow rushed forward and swung at her opponent, catching the first enforcer off guard as she knocked him backwards, allowing Spitfire to make her way into the main structure and lashed out at the Nightborne guard who was standing in the middle of the doorway, knocking her back into the wall behind her and caused her foe to cough for a moment as she forced herself to stand once more, though Spitfire found that her foe was either weakened by having to navigate the endless random teleports of Oculeth's workshop, and any surprises he might have shown his pursuers, or having to deal with some traitors that might have rebelled in an attempt to go home, as there were three dead guards in the lower level of the structure. The couple of cuts and gashes in her armor told Spitfire everything, that this captain, since her armor was slightly grander than those who laid on the ground, must have dealt with a couple of traitors, either those who had been allied with Thalyssra and were trying to help Oculeth or those who felt she was a terrible leader and wanted to usurp her position in Elisande's forces, since it would be hard to prove whatever lie they told their superiors, but right now the battle was tipped in her favor and it was probably going to stay that way. Even so she approached her foe with a level of caution that had severed her well in the past, to never let overconfidence rule her decisions, and made sure to go on the defensive as she studied the captain that was in front of her, finding that her foe's skills were rather good, that she was able to keep up with several of her movements with ease, though it caused the Nightborne to sacrifice several of her own movements, making Spitfire come to the decision that she must also be suffering from withdrawal symptoms, due to not being able to partake of the Nightwell recently, meaning this battle was basically hers for the taking. Of course there was something interesting about this situation, her foe happened to understand the situation that she was in and still she fought with everything she had, like there was something she was fighting to protect, like some siblings or something, and that she wouldn't forgive herself if she fell here, but in the end Spitfire sliced through her chest armor with a diagonal cut, one that went from her left shoulder to her left hip, causing her to fall to the ground for a moment. "You fought well, despite being weakened like this," Spitfire remarked, because that was the truth of the matter, which she was more than willing to admit even though she had been holding back most of her own power, before she gripped both of her warglaives and shifted her glance for a moment, finding that Rainbow had to be done with her opponent since she heard no sounds of fighting outside the building she was in, before returning her gaze towards the Nightborne who was in front of her, "Tell me, have you any final words before I end this?" "Glory... to the Dusk Lily..." the captain replied, though at the same time she coughed for a moment, which was followed by some blood coming up as well, not that Spitfire was all that surprised since the cut had been one of the more deadly ones, even if it looked light from far away, though she purposely intended for her attack to be light and not kill her foe in a few seconds since she wanted to see if she could get any information from her foe, especially since Rainbow was going to kill her opponent without thinking about such a thing. "Hang on... you're one of Thalyssra's rebel soldiers?" Spitfire inquired, as while she knew that Thalyssra had lead a failed rebellion against Elisande and her allies, one of which had to be Gul'dan and his demonic masters, their new ally hadn't told them anything about what might have happened to the rest of her forces, so as such she had assumed that either Thalyssra had no idea as to the fate of her forces or she had purposely kept that information to herself, out of fear that all of her new allies would flee and not help her retake the city, though that was when the elf in front of her nodded her head for a few seconds, to which she banished one of her warglaives and pulled a small healing potion out of her pack, one that Remeraa had insisted she and Rainbow take with them, which she offered to the elf, "Here, since you're one of our allies, as Thalyssra called for reinforcements from Dalaran, it would be wrong for me to leave you like this, though we can't do much about the damage to your armor." As Spitfire expected the elf was surprised by her gesture, even though she took the potion and downed it so the power in the vial could heal her wound, though as that happened she introduced herself as Elylia Starblade, not to be confused with one of the Moonblades, as she was sure Thalyssra had encountered a member of that clan and killed him, and explained that she had been assigned to find Oculeth and any of his allies, though she intended to warn them and join them in their operations, before this mess happened. After that Elylia explained that the couple of guards that were resting around her were ones who fully supported Elisande and her demonic allies, even though the latter didn't show themselves unless it was absolutely necessary, and somehow figured out that she was one of the rebels, hence the reason they attacked her all of a sudden and tried to end her life, all to bin the blame on Oculeth's traps, leading to her being exhausted while the last of her forces had remained outside the building, to keep an eye on her until she figured out how to beat Oculeth. It was an interesting situation, as it meant that there was a torturer inside the city that was extracting information from the rebels that had been captured after the failed rebellion, which Thalyssra would be interested in learning once they returned to Shal'Aran, but before that happened Spitfire and Rainbow would have to return to the main part of Oculeth's workshop to tell the Telemancy expert to inform him that there was another ally in this place, so Elylia wasn't left behind, due to all the changes Oculeth had made to the network in this area. Once they were done talking about how Elylia came to be in this place, and what her superiors had asked of her group before such a betrayal happened, Spitfire resumed looking for one of the items that had to be in this place and, sure enough, found it up on the second floor of the building, under the table to be exact, where she carefully picked up the curved plate looking item, which had some traces of Arcane magic around it and also had a crack running through it, though it was hard to tell which of the items it was, even though Elylia identified it as a Warpsleeve, meaning she had some experience in this field. With the device in hand, or in their pack since Spitfire carefully stored it away for the time being, Spitfire and Rainbow took a moment to walk back over to where the teleport pad rested and Elylia stopped at the edge of it once they reached it, as she had to be worried about being sent elsewhere when she touched it, hence the reason that the pair made sure she was fine before activating the control rod and teleported back to the starting point of this area, the Workshop, and found that Oculeth was in the middle of whatever work he had started when they left to get the items he needed. "We got one of your items, but we also ran into one of Thalyssra's rebels while we recovered it," Rainbow remarked, which drew the attention of the Nightfallen for a moment, who seemed surprised by that fact, since he had no idea that one of his original allies had come to his workshop and had been trapped in his constant changes with the rest of the guards that had been sent to search the area for him and his notes, before she gestured in the direction that she assumed the Warp-Lab rested in, "she's back at the Warp-Lab, waiting for us to fix this so she can leave... we'll explain everything to you and Thalyssra when we get back to our new base of operations." Oculeth wasted no time in altering the network for a few seconds and allowed Elylia to teleport to them, where she was relieved to no longer be trapped inside an endless series of random teleports when she tried to access the platforms and rods that allowed one to move around the entirety of the Workshop, though once that was done Elylia joined them as the pair accessed the Garden control rod and teleported over to it, before accessing the Library control rod, which caused all of them to teleport to a cave of some kind that was filled with Arcane energy, though there were no control rods or the main platform they were connected to, meaning this wasn't part of the network. "Something is wrong... I have lost your position all of a sudden... wherever you are, it is highly unstable and the telemancy will not hold long." a voice in their heads said, which turned out to be Oculeth's since two of them had talked to him just moments before using the control rods to get to this place, though that was when a bit of magic wrapped around them and yanked them out of the cave they had found themselves in, something that was followed by them finding Oculeth to their right, which revealed that he had brought them back to the starting point of his Workshop, "A curious discovery, as it means there might be someone tampering with the network, which isn't for amateurs mind you, but you will not find the equipment we need in there." Spitfire nodded, even though she was sure that Oculeth was going to keep the cave in mind for later, before they used the Garden control rod once more and returned to the fork in the path, though this time around she used the one that would take them to the Fountain section, which, as she expected, brought them to a flattened area that had an elegant fountain and some chairs, along with two more control rods that would allow her, Rainbow, and Elylia to head over to a nook that Oculeth might use for enjoying his meals and another lab, but given that there was a faint energy signature coming from the nook control nod, one that was like the library rod, she decided to use the nearby lab rod. That brought them to what appeared to be an area with a tower, made in the style of the Nightborne, that was flattened for the platform, control rod, and the stones that went into making the path that lead right to the structure, and sure enough there were a few guards waiting for something to happen, be it finding whatever they were looking for or intruders entering the area they just so happened to be guarding. What was interesting was that none of these enemies had a weapon on them, rather every one of the five foes that were here had to be mages of some kind, Warpcasters as Elylia called them, to which Spitfire lashed out at the ones near the tower's entrance as Rainbow took care of the other ones, leaving Elylia to either watch them fight or join in and assist Rainbow in taking down her foes, not that either of them actually needed the help, given everything they had been through so far. In the end, however, the trio emerged as the victors and quickly entered the tower, where it was rather easy to find the Telemancy Beacon since it was resting in the middle of the first floor, to which Spitfire picked up the device, which seemed a little weathered, and stashed it with the Warpsleeve that had been near Elylia's position earlier, before they used the control rod to return to the Garden area and then teleported back to the main hub area, all while finding that Oculeth must have completed his work, since he was standing nearby, which was when they pulled out the items and handed them to him. "These are in rough shape, especially the Warpsleeve, but they will suffice." Oculeth stated, showing the group that he had known the items he requested were going to be in bad shape, given that they had no idea now long it had been since his last visit to this place, though after studying both of the items he had them recover, and making a note of any repairs that might need to be made in the near future, he stashed them inside his own pack and focused on them once more, which meant there was more work to be done before they headed to Shal'Aran and gave Thalyssra the news, "Now that we have these two pieces of equipment, there is something else that must be done: we must lock down the facility and kill anyone who has invaded it, otherwise my esteemed colleagues from the palace would, given enough time, uncover my secrets in the art of Telemancy, which would put any and all teleporters I build for you and Thalyssra at risk. As such, I have taken the time to unlock the last of the attunement devices that I constructed, which happens to be the other control rod right here, which will take us to my secret test chamber beneath the mountain... from there we can begin the lockdown sequence and make our escape to Thalyssra's location." Spitfire nodded her head for a moment before she and the others activated the control rod, opening the way to the test chamber that Oculeth had mentioned, and it only took all of them a few seconds to teleport to the underground ruin that housed his lab, only there was no magic platform and it looked like Oculeth had linked the magic to a control rod inside this place, though from what they could tell there was a tunnel headed into the depths and it happened to have a set of stairs for them to walk down. As such they walked down the stairs and found three Warpcasters standing around a round pillar of sorts that had Arcane energy gathering around and inside it, a coil as Oculeth called it, though that didn't stop the group from lashing out at their foes, giving them a chance to see that the Chief Telemancer was lashing out with weak bits of magic, knocking one enemy out of the area, even though it was clear that he was saving his power for later, even though Elylia made sure to aid him by taking out his foe with a wall placed slash to the backside. Since her foe didn't get back up Spitfire turned her attention back to her opponent and knocked him down as well, even though she and Rainbow killed both of their enemies at the same time and opened the way for Oculeth to safely join them, where he informed them that this coil was tapped into the ancient leylines and that, by touching it, they would be able to crank it to the highest level and move onto the next phase of what they were doing, even though he was disturbed by the fact the defenses were offline, which explained why there were intruders, no doubt guarding the remaining coils they had to overload. Spitfire followed what Oculeth was saying, to a degree anyway since she wasn't well versed in magic like he was, and activated the coil by resting her right hand on it for a few seconds, though once that was done, and Oculeth confirmed that the coil was in the position he wanted it in, they headed down another set of stairs that rested nearby and headed down to a larger chamber, which just so happened to be where they found four more coils resting along the edges of the circular area, each with two Warpcasters standing around them, and a Nightborne mage who was floating in the air with a barrier of some kind around her body, no doubt to protect her from harm. "Thwen... I should have recognized your uniquely oafish meddling on my network a lot sooner." Oculeth said, though even as he said that Spitfire and Rainbow prepared themselves as Elylia stood with her weapon at the ready, as it seemed like a fight might break out and Oculeth might distract their foe while they slew those that were messing with the coils, where all of them noticed that the mage in question turned around at the mention of her name and glanced at them, with a smirk on her face as well. "My, my, you're look rather gaunt, honored teacher. Are you eating enough?" the Nightborne, Thwen, replied, which was followed by her chuckling for a moment as she moved from the area she had been floating in and stopped when she reached the middle of the chamber, though it was clear that her focus was on Oculeth, who must have taught her a couple of things in the past, where Spitfire noticed that their new ally glanced at her for a moment and seemed to indicate that he was going to tackle Thwen, "You should be proud, your handiwork is going to help us reclaim every corner of our ancient lands and bring down whoever dares to oppose us!" Oculeth, instead of replying, lashed out with his magic as Thwen did the same, apparently using her Arcane magic to warp the space around her and form her barrier, meaning she was protecting herself as her foe studied her movements, but as both of them did that Spitfire and Rainbow rushed over to two of the four groups, due to the fact that Elylia was getting weaker as time passed and neither of them wanted her to go overboard, so she seemed to guard the stairs leading down to this area as they focused on their enemies. These Warpcasters were just as strong as the couple that had been outside this hidden workshop, even though it was impressive that they had made it here in the first place, so it wasn't long before they were able to bring down their foes and raise their hands for a moment, overloading the coils that their enemies had been guarding for a time, before heading for the other two coils and repeated the process, focusing on kill their foes and then, once the way was clear, making sure to activate and overload the remaining two coils. While that happened it either looked like Thwen didn't care about what they were doing or she had noticed their movements and felt that she could take all of them down on her own, though once Spitfire and Rainbow were done with killing their enemies and overloading the rest of the coils that were in this area, along with Elylia joining them as she sensed that something was coming, they came to a stop near Oculeth as he was knocked backwards by Thwen's magic, who announced that she had surpassed him in every way and that her new skill would be the end of them, since the barrier seemed to prevent her from taking all sorts of damage, meaning physical and magical. Oculeth, on the other hand, stated that her trick was good, warping the space that was around her to make the barrier that was keeping her safe, meaning she was drawing on the area she was in to make her defensive measure, but that was when he voiced his interest in what might happen if the space in Thwen's area was unstable, instead of the stable space she was sure to, and before anyone could say anything he weaved his magic all over this chamber and teleported all of them out of the chamber they were standing in... dropping them in the odd cave that Spitfire and the others had found earlier, the odd space that was different from everything else. Sure enough Thwen was surprised by what was going on and, at the same time, discovered that her barrier collapsed not even a few seconds later, to which Spitfire and Rainbow rushed over to where she had landed and swung their warglaives at her, where it quickly became clear that whatever backlash Thwen was experiencing from either crippled her magic skills or had cancelled out her powers for a time, allowing the two of them to cut into the exposed sides of her arms and legs for a few moments before she backed off and tried to bind the magic of this place to her will, which caused an explosion that tore her apart... leading Oculeth to criticize his former student and revealed her fatal flaw, that she took magic too lightly and, at long last, had suffered the consequences of her actions. "I... am fading... I used too much magic to bring us here," Oculeth stated, where he coughed for a moment as he said that, which caused the others to flock over to where he was resting since he had fallen to his knees after arriving in this area not a few moments ago, before he glanced up at the and seemed to be thinking about something, no doubt everything that they had told him when they first met him in his workshop, about the new rebellion, "Tell me... where did Thalyssra set up her new base of operations?" "We're based in a cave near Meredil," Spitfire replied, though at the same time she banished her warglaives for a moment and stood beside Oculeth, allowing him to use her as a walking stick in a sense, while at the same time calling on whatever magic was inside her for a time, making sure not to bother with anything Fel related as she focused on their ally, who took a moment to understand what she was doing, even if she was only replicating how Vytheril used magic in the past, before she focused on what she needed to ask him, "can you teleport us to the ruined village?" Oculeth nodded his head and beckoned for everyone to gather around him for a moment, where they did so so he could weave his own power around them, causing them to vanish from the cave they had discovered during their testing of the control rods and reappear close to the area that Spitfire had told him about, as everyone reappeared near the stream that cut through Meredil, though Oculeth happened to be resting on the ground and his body seemed to be in a state that had to be the start of a Nightfallen becoming a Withered, to which Spitfire picked him up and carried him over to Shal'Aran, all while Rainbow located Thalyssra and made sure she had a mana crystal on hand, which was drained of its power as they offered it to Oculeth. "Ah, I am feeling much better now, thanks to your efforts," Oculeth said, speaking once the mana crystal in question had been depleted of power, though at the same time Spitfire and Rainbow knew that someone was going to have to go out at some point and gather more crystals, as Thalyssra had taken one earlier and now Oculeth was taking a second, and that wasn't counting the fact that Elylia would be needing one at some point as well, to regain her strength for the future of the rebellion, before he glanced over to the left wing of Shal'Aran and the number of teleport platforms that were offline right now, where gears were turning in his head, "Now then, it is time that we establish the first connection for your ancient teleportation network, one that should allow you to go from this place to a location that's on the outside, in the Ruins of Elune'eth if memory serves, so take the beacon you recovered and get to work... I'll make sure the connection is stable and prevent anyone from noticing what we're doing, despite what little power this will require." Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads as Rainbow took the beacon and the pair headed outside, with Elylia remaining behind to speak with Thalyssra about things, though as soon as they exited Shal'Aran the pair spread their wings and flew up to the ruins that Oculeth wanted them to use the beacon in, where it was easy to find a teleport pad in the center of the area and caused them to start channeling the power that would connect this area to the inside of Shal'Aran, though as that happened nothing terrible occurred, as in no new rifts opened and no enemies came out to attack them, which let the pair restore the portal that had been in this place to its former glory and teleport back into Shal'Aran... though given the fact that Thalyssra was busy, speaking with Elylia and Oculeth, the pair returned to helping their allies from Dalaran move everything into their base of operation as they waited for Thalyssra to speak with them once more. > Suramar: Feeding Shal'Aran > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow spent a few minutes making sure Vytheril and the rest of their allies were situated well in the section of Shal'Aran that they were going to be calling home for the foreseeable future, or at least until the rebellion was over so they could return to battling the Legion, where they noticed that Thalyssra was speaking to Elylia about the movements of the forces that were resting all over the city, or whatever information their new ally could give her, before she let the warrior head over to a rest area, with one of the mana crystals they had found earlier, before she walked over to where the pair were standing, causing them to turn towards her. "Elylia will be useful in creating and maintaining a fighting force, once we have more soldiers, but there is one more ally that we need to recruit," Thalyssra spoke up, her tone revealing that she hadn't been expecting to acquire two allies for the price of one, though she was happy to have Oculeth on their side and the knowledge that he possessed, given his position in the city before her first failed rebellion, but instead of focusing on that she turned her attention to the pair that was in front of her and beckoned down to the map area of Shal'Aran, where the deep role rested, "now, I know this might not mean much to you two, but scattered around Suramar are a number of facilities, ancient arcways built to tap into the Ley Lines of the land, and as we learned to rely on the Nightwell, due to the barrier that kept us trapped inside the city, these scattered facilities fell out of use and are likely offline. Based on what I can tell, the lower chamber is definitely receiving power from elsewhere, a trickle of power to be exact, but if we can figure out a way to boost the Leyline energy we might have a way to sustain us while we plan out our next course of action... and the closest ancient facility, that I know of based on my studies of the land, is to the north of our current position, in Anora Hollow... it's also where we might find our last ally, Valtrois, so we might be able to take out two birds with one stone." "Well, then we'll head over to the ancient facility and see what we can do," Rainbow remarked, though this time she spoke before Spitfire could, something that was interesting to Vytheril and the others that knew the pair, even though that was followed by her friend nodding her head to show that she agreed with what had been said, that they would head out and see if they could do anything to feed more power into Shal'Aran, but even then both of them had to wonder what sort of person this Valtrois was and how she would react to them, to which they left the area and focused on finding the section of Suramar that Thalyssra had told them about. Once the two of them were outside Meredil the first thing they did was head in the direction of Ambervale, as there was a fork in the ruined road in that direction and it should, at the very least, give them a chance to find and retrieve more mana crystals for those who would be calling Shal'Aran home, given that there were currently three Nightfallen inside the ruins and there was no telling how many more would be coming once Thalyssra's remaining allies inside the city discovered that she had a second rebellion planned. As such the first thing they prioritized using the searcher stones that Thalyssra had given them earlier, to assist them in recovering any and all mana crystals that might be near them, and started to look for more crystals that could be added to what they already had, since the three crystals Thalyssra had wouldn't be anywhere near enough for her and the others, though even then Spitfire assumed that some of their allies might have been given a stone as well, just to make sure all of the tasks weren't pushed onto a single person or group, but that didn't stop the two of them from making sure to pick up some mana crystals along the way. By the time they discovered a northern path that had to bring them to the area that Anora Hollow rested in, or at least that was their assumption since Thalyssra had given them terrible directions to where they needed to go, Spitfire had picked up about ten mana crystals and Rainbow carried seven of them, which they stored inside their packs before walking off the path they had been following and used the dirt road that seemed to head to the base of a cliff or something, far below where a ruin rested, or maybe on the edge of said ruins, which caused them to draw their weapons from their horns once more. It was more in the off chance that enemies might try something as they walked through this area, with them hoping to scare off wild animals while cutting down any Nightborne who wanted to bring them down, before they discovered something interesting, Spitfire spotted a cave some distance in front of them that looked like it had been converted into a tunnel or an underground ruin, but due to the bits of Arcane energy coming from the entrance she had to assume they had found their destination. What was interesting was that there were a couple of large turtles resting nearby, who didn't care about the cave, along with a few sabers that seemed to be resting, though that was when they discovered that the Arcane power was due to the entrance being blocked by a metal bars that were strengthened by magic, but standing near the portcullis, like Thalyssra had told them, was another Nightfallen, a lady to be exact, who definitely looked like she was starving and her clothing was in ruins, though it appeared that her hair was white, either due to her Nightfallen state or it happened to be what her color was when she was a Nightborne, and it took her all of a few seconds to notice that they were there. "You there! Outlanders! Could one of you be a dear and step on the other switch for me?" the Nightfallen inquired, where she even gestured to the device that was to the left of where she was standing, revealing that she was standing on a round device that looked a lot like the teleport pads that were back in Shal'Aran, though instead of arguing, since they were sure that this was Valtrois and that they had found Anora Hollow, Rainbow walked over to the switch and stepped on it, while Spitfire kept her weapons at the ready in case they were wrong about the lady, which was followed by the gate lowering a few seconds later, opening the way for them to enter the ruin, "There we are, the gate is finally open. Well, I will be killing the two of you now... have you any last words before you meet your end?" "Yeah, we do: Thalyssra sent us," Spitfire replied, where she knew that the best thing to do was get to the point and make sure the lady knew what was going on at the moment, especially since she pulled out the coin that they had been given, or at least she pulled it out enough to flash the Dusk Lily insignia in the lady's direction, where she raised her eyebrow for a moment as she noticed the icon in question, allowing Spitfire to stash it in the area it had been in earlier as Rainbow stood by her once more, with a frown on her face since she didn't like people who assumed that they were easy to take down or wanted to kill them once a 'task' had been completed. "Ah, I recognize that symbol... so Thalyssra has recruited some outlanders to our cause... are we truly so desperate?" the Nightfallen said, where it sounded like she was annoyed by the fact that the leader of the rebellion was even asking for any aid from unknown individuals, given that no one in the city knew anything about Dalaran and those who happened to be using it as their base of operations, before she sighed for a moment as she beckoned for them to follow her as she walked into the ruin that was in front of them, "Very well, I am Valtrois, former Arcanist of Suramar, and I was exiled due to being one of the few that spoke out about our leader allying herself with the Legion... truthfully, I didn't take part in the rebellion that ultimately failed, but my opinion caused Elisande to case me out. As such those who live outside the city, so far from the Nightwell, must settle for any source of magic that they can find, be it mana crystals or ancient facilities... though, due to the fact that you two are here, it would appear that Thalyssra and I had the same idea... the old Ley Line facilities might keep us and our allies alive, if barely, and all we have to do is wake them up." "That's why we were sent, as we'll figure out how to wake them up," Rainbow remarked, though even as she said that she knew that Spitfire was likely going to figure out the method to waking this place up and channeling the power to Shal'Aran, to boost whatever power Thalyssra had felt earlier, given that she seemed to be able to take in everything at a much faster rate than she did, in terms of magic and artifacts like the coils, but before she said anything else she spotted a mana coil in the first chamber that was in front of them and noticed that it seemed to be firing a beam of Arcane energy down a tunnel, even if there were two tunnels to pick from, before she thought about something, "Anyway, I'm Rainbow Dash, and this is Spitfire... and before you ask, we're Illidari, who have taken on the demonic Fel powers to combat the Legion's armies and bring down their leaders." "Fascinating... but not relevant to our current situation. This station has fallen into disrepair." Valtrois commented, where it was easy to see that part of her was interested in the Illidari and whatever they might be able to share with her about their forces, while the other side happened to be more focused on fixing Anora Hollow and making sure the power was sent to Shal'Aran, or, in her eyes, to a place where she and the rest of the rebellion could use it to sustain themselves, given that she had no idea the ancient ruin existed, or if she did she wasn't saying anything about it, before she finished studying the mana coil, "The circuit is broken, that much is obvious, and to mend it we must recharge the seals in the central chamber... based on the tunnels, I would say that both a high potency current and low potency current are needed to recharge each seal. That's all I can say on the matter, since I would need to study more before I figure anything else out... oh, and before you ask, I'll be here to supervise your efforts... you two are, after all, the help and I'm sure you guys can, in due time, figure this out on your own, without any additional assistance from me." Spitfire and Rainbow followed the beam of energy that was heading out from where the mana coil rested, an intense one based on what the former was seeing, and stopped a few seconds later as they found a round central chamber, which had the four seals they were looking for, the seals being large human sized devices that were silver colored and seemed to be a perfect fusion of metal and magic due to what Spitfire was feeling right now, and there were four smaller pillars resting around the central chamber, one the intense beam was using to redirect into the top of a seal and another had a smaller beam, a weaker one, bouncing it to another seal. "I see, that's what Valtrois meant when we might need a high and a low potency current," Spitfire commented, where she took a moment to touch the pillar the low beam was reflecting through and watched as it turned for a few moments, only to find that it reflected the beam right into the seal that the high beam was currently coming into contact with, though that was when she walked over to the first seal, which had a moon emblem at the top, and raised her had as she tapped into her own power again, where her magic connected with the Moon Seal and activated it, to which she smiled, "Okay, we just need to redirect both the high potency beam and the low potency beam with these smaller pillars, and possibly the main mana coil and a polar opposite on the other end of this facility, and connect them to empower the three remaining seals to bring this place back online... it's actually pretty simple, when you think about it." Rainbow didn't say anything to that as she followed Spitfire, though she could see that Valtrois, who was following them at the moment to make sure they activated the seals and brought this place online, seemed to have a higher opinion of her friend right now, like understanding a simple mechanism was enough to interest the Nightfallen in question, though she also noticed that the other three seals had a star, a beast's paw, and a tear shape on them, giving them an idea of what to call each of them, before she refocused on what Spitfire was doing. The first thing Spitfire did was check the other side of the facility, just to be sure there was a mana coil over there, before she had Rainbow head back to the opening to turn the first one, something that caused the high beam to strike a new reflecting pillar, though instead of changing with the low beam Spitfire returned to the main chamber and turned both of the smaller reflecting pillars, turning both beams into the Elven Seal that was to the right of where the Moon Seal rested, from the first tunnel, and she activated the seal, restoring half of the facility's power in seconds. As Rainbow returned to the central chamber Spitfire turned the pillar that the high beam was touching and it was redirected to the Beast Seal, which was diagonally across from the Moon Seal, though that was followed by Rainbow knowing what Spitfire wanted and headed down to the lower mana coil, where she redirected it down the other tunnel it could travel down and found that it touched the Beast Seal without having to be changed at all, so she and Valtrois waited as Spitfire activated the third of the four seals. From there Spitfire tapped the pillar the low beam was touching and redirected it into the Star Seal, where Rainbow returned to the high mana coil and returned it to the first tunnel they had found it in, allowing Spitfire to redirect the high beam into the final seal and wasted no time in powering the seal in question, to which Valtrois raised an eyebrow for a moment, like she was surprised by the fact that an outsider was able to understand the mechanics of the facility with ease, especially since she determined that Spitfire wasn't a mage or like those who were inside the city, making her wonder about the intelligence of those from the floating city that they were receiving aid from. "Okay, all four seals have been recharged, and with that done the facility will wake up," Spitfire remarked, as this was far easier than what she expected it to be, given that this place had been built by a previous generation of Nightborne, or the same ones that were currently inside the city since they had no idea how long a Nightborne lived for, and this meant that Shal'Aran would be given a burst of energy to maintain whatever was inside the lower chamber, or do whatever it needed to do while they planned out the rebellion. "Indeed, and now refined Leyline energy will flow from here and travel to Shal'Aran," Valtrois said, revealing that she knew of the area that Thalyssra had made her base of operations in, maybe something that they agreed on the last time the pair saw each other before they were tossed outside the city, before she smiled for a moment as she glanced at Spitfire and Rainbow for a few seconds, as while one had great potential, in terms of a magic student, the other seemed to be more of a fighter or warrior, "I must admit, I am rather impressed by what you did... anyway, I will make my way to Shal'Aran and meet up with Thalyssra, and whoever else you've managed to recruit, where we can plan out our next move against both Elisande and her Legion allies." Spitfire nodded her head as Rainbow did the same, though as Valtrois left Anora Hollow the pair headed outside and spent some time flying around the area, finding a few ruins that seemed to be important in some manner, which either they or one of their allies would have to check out at some point, while they searched for more mana crystals to add to what was resting inside Shal'Aran, due to Valtrois joining them and there was no telling how many more would be coming to join the rebellion, so they felt that it was better to be prepared for whatever the future held. It would also give Valtrois time to tell Thalyssra what was going on and learn just how many allies were coming from Dalaran, even though neither of them had any idea as to how many heroes would be flocking to this province, but at the very least it seemed like Khadgar and the Council understood her instructions to open portals outside Suramar and let the heroes undertake a short journey to get to Meredil, all to prevent Elisande and her allies from figuring out what they were doing, which would be changed as soon as she discovered what they were up to. That was the reason that Spitfire was doing everything in her power to make sure their enemies didn't detect them until Thalyssra was ready, though the only downside to waking up Anora Hollow, in her mind anyway, was that it might also be connected to Suramar City in some manner and someone might notice that it had come back online, which would lead to someone being sent out to investigate if Elisande felt it was necessary to do such a thing, but for now they had to proceed under the notion that no one knew they were in Meredil and that Shal'Aran was a secret from everyone inside the city, along with fighting to keep it that way. Of course they also had to find and reactivate the rest of the ancient facilities that were scattered across Suramar, since Spitfire assumed that there was another way to use all of them besides just channeling power into Shal'Aran, something that they would figure out in due time now that Valtrois was on their side, hence why she focused on collecting the couple of mana crystals that were around her and found that Rainbow was doing the same, even if she might be thinking that this was boring and just wanted to kill some demons, to which she let out a light chuckle as they worked. After some time the pair came to a stop, even though Spitfire was sure it had only taken them ten to fifteen minutes to do this, where they spread their wings and took off without delay, allowing them to return to Meredil and enter the area that Shal'Aran was resting in, where they found that Valtrois was talking with Thalyssra about something, while their allies had moved everything down into the ruins and were off on the right side of the ruins, even though Spitfire could tell that one of their allies had departed already, either returning to Dalaran or heading out to explore the rest of Suramar, no doubt to see if there were any other dangers they weren't aware of, to take them down before the rebellion started, and the pair stopped their conversation "With Leyline energy feeding in from Anora, this chamber can begin to awaken." Valtrois said, quickly jumping from the topic that she and Thalyssra were talking about to a brand new one when she noticed Spitfire and Rainbow walking over to where they were standing, which was right in front of the stairs leading down to the lower chamber of the ruins, which she even gestured to for a few seconds, to show them what she was talking about, before she focused on them once more as she thought about something, "It will be a slow process, and we must take care to mask this activity from our enemies, a process which itself requires enormous effort and focus... fortunately, Thalyssra has several ideas on how we can make such a thing happen and, so far, none of them concern you or your allies. Furthermore, there is the conundrum of actually consuming the mana in this form, as a stream that is too weak won't be able to provide sustenance for us and our forces... while on the other hand a stream that is too powerful would likely vaporize us. There is a mountain of work for us to do, so we can overcome these possibilities and create a stable flow of energy for us to draw mana from... but for now, let us examine the feed and see what else we need to do, or what you and your forces need to do." "Oh, Valtrois?" Thalyssra commented, speaking the moment Valtrois started to walk down the stairs, as she quickly caught the tone that her companion used when referring to Spitfire, Rainbow, and the rest of the allies that were helping them, as it still sounded like she felt that the rebellion didn't need the outlanders or their aid, even though the rebellion would have failed if the pair of demon hunters hadn't come to save her from the Nightborne guards or the Withered that had been chasing her through the wilds, "You would be wise not to turn your nose up at Spitfire, Rainbow, or the rest of their forces, as none of us would be here without their help." "Of course, First Arcanist." Valtrois replied, her tone informing Spitfire and Rainbow that she respected Thalyssra too much to anger her, no doubt due to whatever might have happened between them before they were exiled or thrown out of the city some time ago, meaning there was a chance she might get used to everything that was going on inside Shal'Aran, to which she glanced over at the pair for a moment and beckoned for them to follow her, "Come, we can examine the feed from the lower chamber and gain a better understanding of what needs to be done without having to do too much in the grand scheme of things. Tell me, do either of you have much experience with Leyline energy? I only ask since one of you seemed to know how to recharge the seals in Anora, all by seeing what was in front of us, and quickly restored the power to the first of the ancient facilities that are scattered across Suramar." "Truthfully, neither of us have any experience with Leyline energy, but we know several Archmages and I have been, from time to time, studying how they use magic," Spitfire stated, as that was the truth of the matter, she had an interest in all of the magic she had seen, even though using the Fel power prevented someone like her and Rainbow from using the five remaining Cosmic Forces like a mage or druid could, or at least that was her thoughts on the matter, since Xe'ra's vision showed her that someone would be capable of channeling all six forces at the same time, a being without equal, before she returned to the topic they were talking about, "other than what Vytheril and the others have used in our presence, we have no knowledge of how to tap into the energy that you and Thalyssra are planning on tapping into." "I see... truthfully, I should have expected such an answer, but I wanted to hear you say it." Valtrois said, showing the pair that she had to be taking Thalyssra's order to heart and was trying to not turn her nose up to anyone she talked to, or at least those that weren't from Suramar City, though at the same time it would take her some time to get used to being that way, before she sighed for a moment as she glanced down at the bottom chamber, which caused the pair to follow her gaze not a few seconds later, "Allow me to educate you on the fundamentals." What they discovered, upon reaching the lower chamber, was that there was something new for the to see, due to the fact that there was a beam of silvery midnight colored energy going from the center of the hole to the center of the ceiling, as neither Spitfire or Rainbow recalled seeing it the first time they came down here, along with the fact that one of the nodes that rested around the 'map' had activated, no doubt showing anyone who looked at it that Anora Hollow was online and was pumping out energy once more. "Far below us, rivers of raw arcane power course throughout the land... these are the Ley Lines, which are eternal, primal, and impossible to control." Valtrois continued, where she walked over to the center of the bottom chamber and glanced at the map that was around her, not to mention everything else that happened to be happening right now, before she found that Spitfire and Rainbow had stopped nearby as well, both of them waiting for her to explain things and give them more information on the Ley Lines that likely spread all over Azeroth, before she gestured to the active node, "However, just as one pulls thread from cotton, so too can we draw power from the Ley Lines... as you can see, this is the feed from Anora, indicating that it is active once more, and there are a number of nodes that are still dark, meaning the other facilities are still dormant. If we can restore them to their former glory, like we did in Anora, we can create a new locus of power here in Shal'Aran, one that might be able to rival the power of the Nightwell itself!" "Not counting Anora Hollow, there seem to be seven more Ley Stations that need to be activated," Spitfire commented, as she noticed something interesting about the map and that there were seven nodes outside the city that had to be the ones the rebellion had to focus on empowering, while there seemed to be one in what appeared to be the direct center of the city, meaning it was likely the Nightwell and whatever connection had existed between this place and the city had been cut off at some point in the past, before she considered something for a few moments, "given that Thalyssra might call for one or more of us to help her with the rebellion, and that means focusing on securing more allies and disrupting whatever our enemies are doing inside the city, someone will need to focus on heading out and activating the remaining Ley Stations, to empower Shal'Aran for whatever the future has for us." "Given how easily you activated Anora, maybe you ought to help me figure out where they're resting and then head out to awaken each of the Ley Stations," Valtrois said, though she had to admit that Spitfire's name for the ancient facilities was rather good and made her wonder why none of those who came before her came up with such a name, before she took a moment to glance over at Rainbow, who she felt was more of a fighter and a follower than a leader, given what little she had seen of the pair so far, though there was always the chance that she might be wrong due to what happened after they met each other a short while ago, "your friend, on the other hand, seems to be more like a fighter and should be the one to take the fight to Elisande's enemies, or whatever Thalyssra needs her to do." "Well, we'll just have to wait and see what she decides to do, since she's the leader of the rebellion and whatnot," Rainbow said, though she honestly didn't mind the fact that Valtrois seemed to think that she was more of a warrior, since that was the truth due to her desire to bring down the Legion and focused on the art of fighting, while at the same time she felt that telling Spitfire that everything she should do for the foreseeable future was focus on the Ley Stations was a bit wrong, as it would deprive them of Spitfire's skills in combat for a time, but she kept her mouth shut about that since Spitfire didn't seem annoyed by what Valtrois had said, even though she considered something, "though I can always head to the south and visit Felsoul Hold, just cut down the demons that are scattered around the place, maybe draw out some of Gul'dan's allies and weaken his forces... it's a thought for later." Spitfire nodded her head, as clearing out Felsoul Hold some more sounded like something they could do, punishing more of the demons by trapping their souls inside their weapons, but for now she was more focused on making sure Vytheril and the rest of their allies were fine with the accommodations that were inside Shal'Aran, even though more would be nice for everyone, before she and Rainbow headed out to check on them, knowing that it was only a matter of time until they were called back to where Thalyssra was waiting and informed as to what the next stage of the rebellion might be, which included what they needed to do to bring down Elisande's forces. > Suramar: Masquerade > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It took Thalyssra some time to finish whatever it was she was doing, which seemed to be checking on the area that she had placed Theryn and Kel'danath in, or might be checking out the number of mana crystals that had been brought back to Shal'Aran, thanks to what Spitfire and Rainbow had done earlier, before she called on the pair to return to the tunnel that lead back outside, leaving Oculeth to his Telemancy work and Valtrois to focus on the Ley energy that was currently flowing into the ruins they called home, even though the latter did want to speak with Spitfire about things at some point, due to her having some potential to understand the Ley Lines, and they found that Elylia was standing nearby. "As you two no doubt know, Elisande's decision to welcome the Legion into Suramar earned her plenty of enemies, more than she previously had, though only some of us were bold enough to openly defy her." Thalyssra said, not that Spitfire or Rainbow really needed the reminder of the situation, though they had to admit that every time it was mentioned new bits of information was added to the statement, something that caused them to remain silent as they listened to what she had to say, especially since they knew there had to be allies inside the city, given Elylia's position on the matter, "We have allies scattered throughout the entirety of Suramar City... however, we have no idea know how many allies are waiting for us to reveal ourselves and make the first move. As such I need you to travel to the edge of the city with Elylia and make contact with a spell-fencer by the name of Silgryn, as he is loyal to our cause and has been lying in wait since our failed coup, due to the fact that no one knew he took part in our rebellion... if memory serves he patrols the western edge of the city, near the path that would take one to this 'Felsoul Hold' you mentioned earlier. Address him by name and tell him our cause is not lost, and he'll likely give you some information on what the rest of our allies are doing, not to mention if any of them are in need of assistance." "Then we'll head out and see if we can find this Silgryn," Spitfire replied, as it sounded like a decent plan, given that this would grant them more information on what was happening inside the city and might give them a new place to teleport to in the future, for the bigger operations that Thalyssra had to be planning at the moment, though before any of them could do anything she noticed that Vytheril was walking over to them, something that caused her to pause when she noticed the Arcane sphere that was floating in the air near him, as it looked like Khadgar's spell, "Vytheril, did something happen since we left Dalaran?" "Archmage Khadgar has sent me a message that one of the Horde's leaders wishes to speak to you, and that you might be preoccupied for some time," Vytheril stated, where the image inside the sphere happened to be that of Gallywix, the fat goblin who served as the Trade Prince of his entire race, basically serving as their leader, meaning he was likely after more gold or something, given that he seemed to be fueled by his greed and little else, which told her that he had no true loyalty to anyone and would likely go with the highest bidder, to which Spitfire sighed for a moment, "Don't worry, we'll guard our allies and secure the rest of Suramar while Rainbow heads out with Elylia, that way when you return you'll be able to focus on the rebellion without having to worry about any additional threats or anything." "Already? I just had a meeting with him and the other leaders not that long ago." Spitfire said, though at the same time she shook her head and held up a hand to prevent anyone from doing anything for a couple of seconds, as it wasn't worth her or the others getting upset about, especially since she took over the Horde and made sure to prevent Sylvanas from doing everything she had planned on doing when she took the position of Warchief, before she focused on the group and knew what was coming, "Very well... I'll head back to Orgrimmar and see what he wants, and if there are any other leaders who might have something to ask of me, be they from the Horde or the Alliance, which will likely take an hour or two based on the last time this happened to me... Rainbow, I guess that means you'll have to do this mission without me." "Roger that." Rainbow replied, to which she remained silent for a moment as Spitfire headed out through the main tunnel, where she would no doubt spread her wings before taking off for Dalaran, though even she had to admit that it was odd for one of the leaders of the Horde to call her again, so soon after the last meeting they had with each other, before she noticed that Thalyssra and Valtrois seemed surprised by what just happened, to which she shrugged for a few seconds as she and Elylia turned towards the tunnel as well, "Spitfire was recently elevated to the position of Warchief, which is the title of the person who leads one of the two major factions in the rest of Azeroth, as in the Horde, and it seems one of the other leaders wants a word with her... and possibly some of leaders from the Alliance might want a few minutes as well, so we'll just have to wait and see how long it'll be before she returns." Once that was said she and Elylia departed from Shal'Aran and started to make their way towards the edge of the city, as it was time for them to hunt down their target and see if they could convince Silgryn to assist them in figuring out how many allies were inside Suramar City, to help Thalyssra plan out the remaining steps of her rebellion, even though she was sure that it would take some time before they started attacking her enemies, given the state of the rebel forces, something she kept to herself as they moved towards where the barrier used to rest. Rainbow was slightly impressed that the Nightwell was able to create such a powerful barrier and cover the entire city at the same time, even though she was sure that part of it came from the Eye of Amun'thul, the final Pillar of Creation that she, Spitfire, and the rest of the heroes of Azeroth were in the middle of looking for, something they would have to look for when they dethroned Elisande and torn down Gul'dan, since he was lurking somewhere inside the city as well. This time around Rainbow followed Elylia, given that her new ally had an idea of where they might find Silgryn, even though they were following Thalyssra's directions for the most part, though when they started to walk down the main path that would bring them to the main entrance of the city, where Rainbow could see a number of guards patrolling the garden area, Elylia turned and headed to their right, heading in the direction of Felsoul Hold and caused Rainbow to raise her guard a little, since there was a chance that a demon might wander up at the wrong moment, which would cause her to cut it down before someone noticed them or it called out for allies to attack intruders. One thing that surprised Rainbow a little was that there happened to be a large metallic centaur like creature, likely fueled by Arcane energy that was dancing along the limbs that made up its body, that also patrolled part of the area that it had been assigned to, where Elylia informed her that they were called Constructs and the lower half of the body was designed to resemble a saber cat, instead of a horse like one would expect, and they were incredibly strong and dangerous, even though she suspected that Rainbow or Spitfire might be able to take such a creature out on their own, before refocusing on finding their target. In the end Rainbow spotted a lone figure, who happened to be dressed like a mage of sorts, minus the part of the robe that would have covered his chest, standing some distance away from where a path that lead down to Felsoul Hold rested, though flying around him was an owl that had to be a pet, or at least that was Rainbow's assumption on the matter, and a simple gesture from Elylia informed her of the situation, that this had to be Silgryn, hence the reason that they walked up to where the Nightborne was standing, even though they were fortunate that there were no other guards in the area and no civilians that would have sounded the alarm, even though their target turned his blade on them as he noticed them coming towards him. "You have a lot of nerve approaching me, outlander," the Nightborne stated, though while he appeared to be like the rest of the guards that seemed to be patrolling the city, in how they addressed those who weren't from Suramar or from the city, the pair were able to see that he didn't have the same attitude and seemed to know that strangers might be the key to saving the city from the great evil their leader had invited to the city, before he glanced at them for a few seconds and spotted Elylia standing near Rainbow, "regardless of the fact that you are in the company of a guard." "Honestly, I don't care about your bravado. You're Silgryn, right?" Rainbow replied, because she wanted to get this mission underway and figure out how many rebel forces were resting throughout the entirety of Suramar City, even though she would have taught the Nightborne a lesson if he lashed out at her like every enemy that she and Spitfire had encountered since coming to this province, though at the very least it seemed that Silgryn was smarter than the others were and just stood there for a few seconds as he listened to what she had to say. "Either my legend has spread beyond the city, or we have a mutual acquaintance..." Silgryn said, his tone revealing that he was definitely smarter than the Nightborne guards that Rainbow had encountered so far, as he lowered his blade for a few seconds and stood straight, meaning that he was willing to listen to what they had to say before determining whether or not to capture the pair, just in case the city had a leak or something, but based on the fact that Thalyssra wanted them to come into contact with this individual it meant he was being cautious before deciding his next move. "Silgryn, we were sent by Thalyssra," Elylia stated, showing Rainbow that she likely knew Silgryn in some manner, which was understandable since they had been part of the rebellion and had gone into hiding once Thalyssra had been beaten by those who had taken her down, though Rainbow remained with her guard up since there was no telling what this bit of information might do for the Nightborne that was in front of them, even though she could tell that the mention of their leader seemed to cause Silgryn to falter for a moment. "Thalyssra is alive?" Silgryn inquired, something that caused the pair to nod their heads, to confirm that she was fine and that any rumors related to her death had been exaggerated to squish the wills of the rest of the rebels, to which he took a moment to beckon for them to follow him before he jumped down to the area that was to his right, which was the back of a building, and the pair followed after their new ally for a moment, though once they were behind the building he turned and looked at them, "We should be able to speak in private for a few moments, so tell me what you know and what I might be able to do to help the cause." "We were told to find you and figure out how many allies we have inside the city," Rainbow stated, as that was the current phase of the new plan that Thalyssra had come up with, where Elylia nodded her head to let their new friend know that she was telling the truth, which made Silgryn think about something for a few seconds, though there was more that could be said and she figured that she might as well give him some more information before he revealed what sort of numbers the rebellion had, "With Thalyssra alive, with both Chief Telemancer Oculeth and Arcanist Valtrois aiding her, the cause is definitely not lost, meaning we need to start recruiting new allies into our forces and prepare for the eventual assault on the city... or at least that is what I'm assuming is the plan." "I can help you with that. Many of the Nightborne had pinned their hopes on Thalyssra deposing the Grand Magistrix, but, with her disappearance, those dissenting voices have grown silent." Silgryn replied, which made sense to Rainbow, due to the fact that Thalyssra had been the leader of the rebellion and hearing that she had been taken out must have crushed all of those who would have joined her at some point, causing them to fade back into the shadows and pretend that they had been on Elisande's side the entire time, "We must spread the word, discreetly, among the populace that Thalyssra is alive and that the rebellion is going strong, and to do that I would propose that we seek out Ly'leth Lunastre, as she would be a perfect ally to accomplish this. She is a socialite with many connections, spread throughout the city, and she is no friend of the Legion, even if she tolerates their presence to maintain her standing inside the noble circles and those who are allied with the Grand Magistrix, though she also hosts masquerade parties at her estate where rumors are traded like coin... and brandished like daggers. One such party is happening at this very moment, near the area that I usually patrol no less, so I propose that we invite ourselves in and make a new ally for the rebellion." "I assume you have a plan, since we can't just walk into a party with Rainbow looking like this... no offense." Elylia said, as it would be hard to hide someone who looked like they were a humanoid mixed with a horse, or a pony given what little she had learned from her and Spitfire, and had demonic traits that had overrode some of her normal aspects, though Rainbow simple shook her head and showed that she wasn't offended by the comment, since she had been thinking the same thing that had been said, though that was when Silgryn beckoned for them to follow and walked towards a pair of tables, which just so happened to have a few items resting on top of them. "We shall use the garden entrance." Silgryn stated, where he came to a stop in front of the tables and let his companions discover a few masks resting on the tables, fancy looking masks that looked like they might be made out of enchanted silver or enchanted paper that just so happened to look like it was made out of metal, before he picked one up and placed it on front of his face, where Rainbow watched as the magic seemed to transform him into a transparent moth, before the creature turned and looked at her and Elylia for a few seconds, "These are enchanted masks... simply don the mask and a magical costume will envelop your body, for a time. It should be enough to fool the other guests, but you should avoid the guards at all costs, as they have a magic that allows them to see through the magic of the masks and see who is who, at a certain range to be exact, so if they notice you they'll raise the alarm and our plan will be foiled. I will find Ly'leth. You two stay out of trouble... you know, mingle and have a bit of fun before I beckon for you to follow me." Rainbow raised her eyebrow for a moment, since this wasn't what she had been expecting when she was told that she and Elylia would be heading into the city to meet with Silgryn, though before one of them could utter a word their contact just walked away and disappeared by heading up into the party area that was ahead of where the tables were located, where she sighed and slipped a mask onto her face like she had been shown, something that Elylia replicated and was replaced by a transparent ogre, the mage type of be exact, while she took on the form of a serpent dragon, like one that soared just above the clouds. From there Rainbow and Elylia headed up the path that Silgryn had taken and entered the party area on their own, where it was easy for them to see where the guards rested and where the guests were located, as the former were on the walkways that linked all of the Lunastre Estate together and the latter rested in some of the circular areas that seemed to be where the owner of this place wanted their guests to mingle, to which they separated from each other and did what Silgryn had suggested, just visit the guests and spread some rumors, see who was on which side of the eventual battle for the city. Some of the guards that Rainbow visited seemed to be more interested in the disguises that the masks gave those that wore them, as one happened to be an elemental of some kind and seemed disappointed in being outdone by Rainbow's, though when she mentioned the Legion, however, she found that most of the guests she spoke to had no love for the demons that were now inside Suramar City and now distrusted the Grand Magistrix, while one even accused her of being a genius for wearing a costume on top of the mask's disguise, which was really surprising, but she was happy to find that the Nightborne in question didn't rat her out to the guards. Other than that it sure seemed like the Nightborne that were present at the party seemed to be on Thalyssra's side of the battle, that they would side with her if she revealed herself to her enemies and those who lived inside the city, though that would be something they wouldn't do for a time, as coming out of Shal'Aran might spell the end of her and the rebellion before they were ready, so she focused on making sure these guests disliked the Legion while she waited for Silgryn to signal for her to join him. She even passed around a few rumors about the evils that Gul'dan had committed, which she only knew stories of due to what Khadgar and her new friends told her, though it was around the tenth minute of her hanging with the guests that a change happened, one of the aids came up to her and informed her that Lady Ly'leth wanted a word with her, which had to be the signal she was waiting for, to which she bid the potential rebels farewell and followed the aid over to an area that had to be behind two of the houses that made up the estate... where she found Silgryn standing near a pair of regal looking female Nightborne, sisters to be exact, with two party attendants standing nearby. "This is not up for debate, Anarys." one of the female Nightborne said, who happened to be the one that Silgryn was just looking at while he waited for something to happen, meaning it had to be Lady Ly'leth, since she was more regal looking than the other female was, even though her sister looked like she could pass for a noble as well, but Rainbow and Elylia remained silent as they entered the area, since it seemed inappropriate for them to speak up until the conversation was over and the pair had reached a conclusion, "You are either with us, or against us. Choose wisely." "I will hear no more of your scheming! You are endangering everything that our father worked for!" the other Nightborne, Anarys, stated, showing everyone that she didn't care for what her sister was doing, figuring that Ly'leth was betraying all that their family stood for, before she glanced at the attendants that were standing nearby and watched as her sister just moved her arm a little, to make them stand down and allow her to do whatever she wanted, where Anarys turned around and departed from the area Rainbow had found her and her sister in. "Dear child... do you not realize what he died for?" Ly'leth inquired, even though it looked like she was talking to no one at the moment, while revealing that their father must have fought for the safety of the city and that joining Elisande's forces, and the Legion for that matter, went against everything that he had stood for when he was alive, though that was swiftly followed by her noticing that they had company, to which she hid the emotions she had been showing earlier and took on a more regal appearance as she focused on Rainbow and Elylia, "Ah, you must be the outlander Silgryn has told me about, and that must be your bodyguard." "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Ly'leth." Rainbow and Elylia replied, as while Elylia knew the customs of the city, given all of the years she had spent living inside it and under the Arcane barrier that had protected everything, Rainbow didn't and took a guess as to what she needed to do to show Ly'leth that outsiders weren't the terrible people that everyone believed them to be, though once that was done they straightened themselves, after bowing towards the lady for a moment, and waited for her or Silgryn to say something. "Well, aren't you two charming?" Ly'leth said, where her tone revealed that she likely approved of what they were doing and how easily they blended into the party that neither of them had been invited to, even though she wasn't going to hold that against them, before she focused on the pair for a few moments, as if she was seeing past their disguises, which was where a slight smile appeared on her face, "Those masks suit you... though I'm sure that you will find that in this city it can be quite advantageous to be someone else for a time..." "So I gathered, as no one noticed anything was up with me while we mingled with the guests," Rainbow commented, due to the fact that none of the guards had gotten anywhere near her or Elylia, while the lone guest that had noticed her true form had assumed it was a costume and had given her some praise for her efforts, so based on everything she had seen during her visit to this party the magic of the mask had made sure her true form had been hidden, meaning she could no doubt pass herself off as a Nightborne if such an occasion came up. "As my darling sister just demonstrated, before leaving the area, Elisande's decision to bring down the shield and welcome the Legion into the city has sown unrest among the Nightborne." Ly'leth continued, showing everyone that she was going to focus on the main topic at last and it caused everyone to focus on what she had to say, since there might be more for them to learn before they figured out what needed to be done so they could get the citizens of Suramar City on their side and get them away from Elisande, "Loyalists and demons march together in the streets, while fear and distrust grip our hearts and family turns against their own... I will help Thalyssra stir a new rebellion, but first we must deal with Anarys. Do not mistake my words, I do not wish to spill the blood of my blood... only to help her see reason. Anarys is likely brooding over our father's memorial, though she'll likely attack anyone who disturbs her, so force her into submission and bring her to me... I have an idea that will aid you and her at the same time." Rainbow was a little surprised that Ly'leth was ready to have someone fight her sister and knock her out, or into a more weakened state, though she agreed to help her out and pulled the mask off as she walked over to the area that Anarys had wandered off in, which rested not even a minute away from where Ly'leth and her attendants were standing, though as she approached the tombstone in question her target heard her coming and picked up a sword that was half metal and half Arcane energy, or at least that was what it looked like. With the weapon in hand Anarys rushed at Rainbow's position and swung at her without wasting a single second, though while Rainbow found that her foe had some great agility, which would have helped her become a great member of the Illidari if she had walked such a path, she pulled her Warblades out of her horns and parried the incoming attack, though when she went on the offensive she did her best to deal light cuts to her foe's chest, arms, and legs, which could be healed with magic or healing potions and not being life threatening, since that would defeat the purpose of what Ly'leth had in mind for her sister. She could tell that Elylia and Silgryn were silently observing the fight, mostly to make sure she didn't go overboard and knock Anarys out, though it didn't take Rainbow all that long to disarm her foe, by knocking the blade out of her hand, before knocking her to her knees for a moment, which was when her companions came over and informed Anarys that her sister wanted a word with her, something that caused the angry sister to get up, down a potion that she had stuffed inside her attire and healed her wounds within seconds, and walked over to where Ly'leth was patiently waiting for her. This time around Ly'leth uttered the phrase 'An'anora' as soon as her sister was nearby and bound Anarys in magical Arcane chains, something that caused her sister to inform her sister that someone would come looking for her and was followed by Ly'leth sealing her sister's mouth as well, for now since Rainbow assumed that she would free her sister once her plan had been completed, so she said nothing as the others just waited for Ly'leth to finish what she was doing. "Our family commands great respect in this city, thanks to our father's actions, and through my network of contacts, we can organize the citizens to prepare Suramar for Thalyssra's return." Ly'leth said, where she pulled out a shimmering party mask as she spoke, something that interested Rainbow since it was different than everything she had seen so far, which she figured was going to be the norm as she and her allies tackled everything that was inside Suramar, be it the city or the ruined areas outside it, though while Anarys couldn't speak now it was clear she understood what her sister was up to and likely didn't approve of whatever it was, "To do that you must walk among the Nightborne, to gain the trust of our friends and foes alike... you must, well, become someone else. Put the mask on Anarys, then we can move forward with the next stage of my simple plan." Rainbow took the mask for a moment and turned towards Anarys for a moment, where she carefully placed it on her face and took a step back once it was done, as she really had no idea what sort of purpose the mask was supposed to perform, though that was when Ly'leth pulled out a second shimmering mask and handed it over to Rainbow, who took it and just stood there for a moment as the Nightborne raised a hand and cast a spell on both of the masks, to which she informed her that it would serve her well and Rainbow put it on, where the magic washed over her and changed her form into that of Anarys, only not transparent like what happened when the other masks were put on, before Ly'leth walked around her and made sure she looked like her sister... even though Rainbow could tell that the chest of her disguise was a size or two larger than what Anarys' was, meaning some of her Fel power was seeping through the cracks. "It is sufficient for now... though we have to put your new disguise to the test." Ly'leth stated, revealing that she noticed the odd nature of the disguise's chest area and assumed it was something one of them was going to have to look into later on, when they had time for it, though in that moment she gestured to an attendant and one of them walked over to Rainbow, who offered a corked bottle that seemed to have some glowing fluid inside it, which had to be Arcwine, "Your first contact is Vanthir, a merchant from the common district, who just so happens to be in the Grand Promenade today, visiting one of his suppliers and conducting business, though I'm sure Elylia can show you to where he's located. Tell Vanthir to pay me a visit regarding a shipment of dusk lily bulbs... he will understand the meaning of the message. Beyond that, we will need time to prepare, so once you deliver the message you should return to Thalyssra and give her that bottle of Arcwine, with my regards... we will call upon you once we're ready to move forward." As Rainbow nodded, to show her understanding, there was one other thing she noticed and that was a Telemancy beacon that happened to be resting near their current location, something she would have to come back for once she talked to Vanthir and told him the message, to which she started to walk away from the Lunastre Estate and followed Elylia as she headed for the area she suspected their contact was in, even though they were heading right for the center of the garden area that they had seen earlier, where Rainbow found that no one seemed surprised to see her walking around, since they were seeing Anarys and no one else, and, after some time, Elylia brought her to a male Nightborne who was in the middle of conducting business with someone else, even though he paused when he noticed them. "Anarys... what do you want of me? Are there no more demon boots left for you to lick?" Vanthir inquired, his tone telling Rainbow and Elylia that he didn't seem to care much for someone who wholeheartedly gave everything to the demons and followed them around like she was a lost puppy or a person that was hungry for power, hence why he frowned as he took a moment to look at her while the other Nightborne, a female, raised an eyebrow as she stared at them, meaning she had to be in Vanthir's camp and could be a potential ally further down the line. "Oh, nothing major... just that my sister asked for me to tell you that she wishes for you to visit her soon, regarding one of the dusk lily bulb shipments she got recently." Rainbow replied, figuring that this was the way Anarys spoke to those that were around her, sort of like the nobles and celebrities that were in Canterlot and the other cities or towns of her home world, and based on what she was seeing it sure looked like her assumptions were right, though it seemed that the lady was just confused by her statement as Vanthir raised an eyebrow for a moment. "Dusk lily bulbs? I see, I must tend to this matter soon," Vanthir said, showing Rainbow and Elylia that Ly'leth had told them the truth about whether or not he would understand the meaning of her message, which was great since it meant that this wouldn't reflect badly on them or on Anarys' image, where the latter they were changing apparently, before the merchant turned towards his client and seemed to consider something for a few seconds, before glancing back to Rainbow, "Let me finish with my client and then I'll be along to see what Ly'leth wants to talk about." Rainbow nodded her head and bid Vanthir farewell for now, to which she and Elylia headed back to the estate and nodded to Ly'leth once they arrived, giving her a silent confirmation that the disguise worked and that Vanthir would be here soon, where she repeated the gesture to them and headed into the area that she would be meeting the merchant in, allowing the pair to walk over to the Telemancy beacon so Rainbow could raise a hand to it, where she felt Oculeth's magic quickly wash over her before a faint portal opened, designed to be seen by her and their allies, before they used it and the pair reappeared inside Shal'Aran, only to find Thalyssra standing nearby. "Well, this saves us some time. We made contact with Silgryn and made an arrangement with Ly'leth, who sent this gift back with us," Rainbow stated, even though she knew that Thalyssra would want to have a better idea of what was going on inside the city and have the story expanded so she understood everything, though that was when she pulled the bottle out and handed it over to Thalyssra, who smiled for a moment when she saw it and accepted it without delay, but once it was in her hands, and no longer in Rainbow's pouch, Rainbow removed the mask and returned to her true form, where she made sure to carefully stash the mask away for the future. "The Lunastre family is well-connected, and will be of great help to our cause when the time comes," Thalyssra said, where she showed that she understood who Rainbow had been talking about and agreed with what Silgryn had done, as this let them figure out how many allies they had and, at the same time, opened the door for many more allies to join them along the way, before she focused on the bottle for a few seconds, "Let me store this with the rest of the crystals you and the others collected earlier, then we can talk about what I have planned next." Rainbow said nothing as Thalyssra walked off, as she was more interested in what Spitfire was up to and knew that what she had done would impress her leader somewhat, though she and Elylia wandered off to see what the rest of their forces were up to and if anyone needed help with anything at the moment, namely Oculeth or Valtrois, while they waited for the leader of the rebellion to do whatever it was that she was doing and then come back to them once she was ready to speak about what the next stage of her rebellion would be. > Suramar: Theryn's Secret > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow and Elylia found that neither Oculeth or Valtrois needed assistance for the most part, especially since they had all of the other heroes to fall back on if they needed help with their work, to which they waited near the entrance of Shal'Aran and waited for Thalyssra to return and inform them of what else they needed to do before they truly started to plan out what the rebellion needed to do so they could stand a chance against Elisande and her forces, which included Gul'dan and his demonic allies, who had joined the Nightborne in patrolling the city. During their wait Rainbow found that Spitfire was able to return to them without delay, meaning that the meeting she had been called upon to attend had been rather short in the grand scheme of things, even though it likely took her and the other leaders an hour or so to come to a decision on whatever topic they wanted to talk about, and once she came to a stop Spitfire informed Rainbow and the other heroes that Gallywix wanted an absurd amount of gold before delivering a shipment of supplies to Dalaran, to be delivered to the heroes and their allies. By that she meant that he was asking for bags that were full of hundreds of gold coins, mostly on the principle that moving the crates of supplies was rather dangerous and his workers needed fair compensation for their hard work, only for him to be shut down by not only the other leaders of the Horde, who revealed that the job had been rather simple and he was only blowing things out of proportion to fuel his greed, but also the leaders of the Alliance, the latter disregarding such things as they worked to bring down the Legion, as gold wouldn't help them if their forces were overrun by the demons and Azeroth was finally claimed by Sargeras. Basically, every leader frowned at Gallywix's greed and his desire to force the new Warchief to submit to his demands for unreasonable funding, most of which he would be adding to his own vault no doubt, and Tyrande even reminded him that if he tried anything funny, or stood in Spitfire's way of bringing ruin upon the Legion, he would be removed in no time, maybe not in the same manner as how she took out Sylvanas anyway, something that caused him to back down and resumed his duties. The other heroes that were present were impressed by how well the other leaders of the factions respected Spitfire and knew that she wasn't about to sit still and let someone like Gallywix take advantage of her, or of her lack of knowledge on how the previous Warchiefs operated while the goblins were part of the faction, but once that tale was done they found Thalyssra walking towards them and the other heroes returned to what they had been doing, allowing Spitfire, Rainbow, and Elylia to focus on whatever task the rebellion's leader wanted them to do next. "Ah, it is good to see you again Spitfire." Thalyssra said, her tone revealing that she likely expected that she wouldn't have been able to return to Shal'Aran so quickly, something that Spitfire had assumed as well and was surprised to see that the meeting had been about money and not about the Legion at all, though it didn't take them long to find that she had a few mana crystals in her hands, making them wonder what in the world she was up to, since right now they were waiting for Ly'leth to send word for them to join her, "Based on the notes that you recovered earlier, all of Kel'danath's experiments to connect with the Withered, and possibly cure them, have failed, and some have even made these poor souls even more dangerous than what they had been earlier... at least, that was the case until he found Theryn. From what I can tell, based on the notes and my studies of him, his Arcane essence... the very soul of the Shal'dorei... had been touched by something special, but I have no idea what could have done such a thing in the first place. However, by weaving my Arcane essence together with Theryn's, I can create an empathic bond between the two of us, a form of communion will bare his soul to us all... or what's left of it, anyway, though all we need to do is feed him mana to begin, and I'd like you three to guard me in case a dangerous memory tries to attack us." Spitfire raised an eyebrow for a moment and nodded her head, showing that she understood what Thalyssra was asking them to do, which was around the time that Valtrois commented that she couldn't believe that they were wasting time on Theryn, time that should be spent planning their rebellion, which caused Thalyssra to inform her that she was doing just that, where Valtrois sighed and turned her focus back to what she was working on, allowing the group to follow Thalyssra as she lead the way down to the lower chamber, where they found Theryn standing hear the left wall, minding his own business as he maintained his peaceful nature. Once everyone was ready Elylia took some of the mana crystals and gave them to the peaceful Withered, who carefully took them, showing that he still had some intelligence to him, even though he was one of the weakened and deranged versions of the Nightborne, before he channeled the mana that was inside the three crystals and devoured it, as he was feeding upon each of them, something that caused him to drop the darkened crystals once he had siphoned all of the power from them. As soon as that was done Thalyssra uttered a new command phrase, this one being 'Nar'thala vas manari', before firing a beam of purple Arcane energy at Theryn, who stood still as it happened, like he understood what was going on and was accepting it, allowing her to work her magic while Spitfire and the others readied their weapons, just in case a hostile memory showed up and attacked them, though it wasn't long for something to happen, as an image appeared nearby, made out of Arcane energy, that appeared to be a male Nightborne, no doubt Theryn before he was exiled, who was joined by a female Nightborne and a child, his wife and daughter based on what they were seeing. As it turned out this first memory was of the day he was banished from the city, due to a pair of guards who came and apparently arrested him, while his wife comforted their crying daughter, though Spitfire could tell, with just a glance to Theryn's face, that while he might not be able to truly remember who the two figures were he could still feel anger over being exiled from the city, though it seemed to be outweighed by an immense sadness, one that came from being separated from his family. She wasn't the only one that could see that, as Rainbow, Elylia, and Thalyssra, especially Thalyssra thanks to the bond she had formed, could see the emotion on Theryn's face, before Spitfire walked over to the memory and waked her hand to dismiss it, something that was followed by another memory taking its place as Thalyssra worked on figuring out what sort of change had overcome the unique Withered that was in front of them, this one being three saber cats that happened to be advancing on a weakened Theryn. The Memory Theryn shook from both fear and hunger as his foes neared him, which showed that this was at a later date than what the previous memory had been at, though they didn't need Thalyssra to tell them about those emotions since they appeared on Theryn's face a few seconds later, even if she commented that she now knew what the hunger was like since she was cut off from the Nightwell, before Spitfire dismissed this memory and waited for the next one to show up, which happened to appear rather quickly. This one happened to be of a time where Theryn aimlessly ran around, the memory's face switching between confusion as the last traces of Theryn's person faded away and a vast rage towards those who forced this fate upon him, like he believed he had been falsely exiled for what someone else did, though it wasn't long before Thalyssra started to lose control of the situation, given that she was still a little weak from everything they did to get to Shal'Aran earlier, especially since more memory Withered started to appear all around the area they were standing in. When the transparent memories started to multiply, however, the group moved to dismiss as many as possible since it appeared that everything that was going on was putting Thalyssra under a bunch of pressure and pain, so much so that the weakened Nightfallen might breaking under the pressure, and the sheer amount of memories started to floor the lower part of the chamber, as in pieces from all three memories they had seen, to which Thalyssra gathered a bit of her power and loosed a barrier shaped explosion that ignored Spitfire's group and knocked all of the memories out of existence... leaving a lone memory of Theryn standing in front of a pedestal, one that had an odd seed shaped artifact resting above it, before he left the area and the memory faded as Thalyssra fell to her knees and had to huff for a moment. "Thalyssra, are you alright?" Valtrois asked, as she had come down the stairs and had stayed halfway up them, mostly to stay out of the way while observing whatever her superior was up to, though after everything that had happened she was more concerned for the safety of the First Arcanist, because she was the leader of the rebellion and the citizens of the city would flock to her side, so having her be killed or broken by something like this would prevent them from being able to do anything, giving the city to the Legion. "I'm... I am fine, just exhausted." Thalyssra replied, though she looked pleased by what they had done and the fact that one of her companions was actually concerned for her well-being, while at the same time Theryn remained standing still, likely due to backlash of what she had done while searching for answers as to how he was so different from the rest of his kind, before she sighed for a moment as she turned towards Spitfire's group once more, "I knew that the Withered suffered due to the hunger, but this is the first time any of us have heard that they are tormented by their own memories... truly, it is a fate that is worse than death, and I'm not sure if we can help them overcome this madness. While I cannot leave Shal'Aran right now, since I used more power than what I was planning on using, the three of you must head to the west and find the artifact that Theryn discovered, as I'm positive that it is the source of whatever changed his Arcane essence and also gave Kel'danath the ability to make his spellstone... based on what I can tell, it's located in Moonshade Sanctum, located beyond both Ambervale and the shattered Temple of Fal'adora, and, thanks to the communion spell I used, we should be able to speak with each other... maybe, since I've never tried it with beings like you two." "Well, either way we'll head out and see if we can find the artifact," Rainbow stated, as while she had no idea if she or even Spitfire would have the aftereffects of the spell, given that they weren't from this world and everything, she wasn't about to say anything about it, rather she was more focused on finding the artifact and see what Thalyssra wanted them to do with it, since it didn't seem all that important and that was likely due to the fact that none of them had any idea what in the world the artifact was. Once they knew what they were doing the group headed outside and returned to Meredil, as it looked like Thalyssra didn't need any additional help besides what Valtrois had in mind, before heading to the west of their location and headed back to Ambervale, since it was in the middle of the path they needed to take, where it only took them a few minutes to do that and found that the Withered stayed away from all of the wards that had been activated, opening the way for them to walk through the ruins without having to be worried about being attacked. As Spitfire glanced around Ambervale she spotted a bridge that had the same style as what the rest of the Nightborne ruins and the city had, one that lead to a large building that seemed to be very important, to which she headed for it and came to a stop when she reached it, because it allowed her to see that there was a temple to their right, on a lower level to be exact, one that had a gaping hole in the ground, just in front of where the entrance was located, meaning something bad must have happened here in the past. Elylia stared at the scene as well and shook her head, showing Spitfire and Rainbow that this had to be the first time she was seeing this and had no idea what could have caused such a thing to happen, to which they carefully moved across the bridge that was in front of them and drew their weapons, since they had no idea if there were enemies in this area or not, but they did see one thing that was a little weird, there were a few spiders, the ones that came up to just above someone's ankles, that had a more rocky appearance, almost crystalline in some cases, and suspected that it might be linked to the artifact Thalyssra wanted them to find. For the most part it didn't look like the spiders cared about them, or if they even knew that they were there in the first place since none seemed to be looking in their direction, though Spitfire wasn't dismissing the fact that all of the spiders might be blind and had been driven to the surface, to which they focused on crossing the path that was right in front of them and entered the main structure, where they found the artifact resting on the pedestal Theryn had seen in the past, complete with beams of Arcane energy and three seals in the ground, just like what Spitfire and Rainbow had found inside Anora Hollow, meaning all they had to do was break the seals and retrieve the artifact. As it turned out there were only two pillars that were firing Arcane energy and two that redirected said beams, though only one beam could hit one reflector at a time, something that made Spitfire wonder if this place had been designed to have four seals and the last one never got installed, though instead of wasting time she focused on making the high beam and the low beam connect with each seal, carefully breaking each of them while making sure it had no consequences on the rest of the area... though when the last one fell, and the barrier surrounding the artifact fell, a spider quickly jumped out of the shadows, latched onto the artifact, and pulled it outside the building, where they found a few creatures that looked like a cross between elves and spiders. "Okay, I was not expecting this to happen," Spitfire remarked, where the spider that held the artifact delivered it to a taller creature, whose legs were longer than the others and seemed to have some authority over everyone else, though she and the others could tell it was female and seemed to be wearing ragged clothing, who mentioned that the artifact would make a fine gift for her, as she apparently was the queen based on what she said, and that the power of the Arcan'dor was hers at long last, before she left and had her guards stay behind to deal with them, to which Spitfire sighed, "Oh well, let's kill all of them and get that artifact back, before something bad happens to it." Rainbow grinned as she leapt forward and drove her Warblades into the chest of the spider creature that was right in front of her, surprising her foe with her speed for a few seconds, before she yanked them out and spun around, cutting her foe to pieces before it even had a chance to fight back, though instead of slowing down she advanced on the rest of the spider creatures that were to the left of the building's entrance and continued to hack through the enemies that were advancing on their location. Elylia, while not having anywhere near the power that Rainbow or Spitfire had, focused on the enemies that were coming from the right and hacked through those that were coming towards her, dodging the leg swings and any other move they tried to use against her, though she did have to cleave her way through one's legs and pierced the chest of her target, all while dodging the attacks of the other enemies and then swung her weapon at the others once she was sure her current foe was no longer breathing. The spider creatures coming over the bridge, which revealed that they must have been acting like they didn't care while waiting for the barrier to be taken care of, regardless of how long it took, tried a new tactic by loosing thread and made sure it wrapped around Spitfire's body, who simply sighed as her inner fire came to life once more, burning away the entirety of the thread that was wrapped around her, before rushing through the air as she cleaved one of her enemies in half and stabbed the abdomen of another, the latter being the one she directed a burst of her flame powers into, burning the spider creature from the inside out before she moved to take care of the others that were coming over the bridge. For the most part none of their enemies seemed to understand that they wouldn't be able to overcome them, not with Rainbow flashing around and cutting multiple down at the same time, Elylia slashed at every foe that came near her and left their bodies on the ground, and Spitfire carefully cutting or burning whoever dared to come up and fight her, but what was interesting was that anyone that dared to flee were cut down by a Night Elf who wore a robe that suggested he was part of one of the nature orders of the world, even if neither Spitfire or Rainbow recognized him, and he carried a scythe that he used as his weapon, which ended up pointed at them at one point. "Do you fools have any idea what you have just done?!" the Night Elf asked, speaking the moment all of their enemies had been taken care of, though his choice of words was rather poor due to the fact that Spitfire could see that Rainbow was a bit ticked off by the newcomer using the word 'fool' as a label for all three of them, while at the same time they found that he was annoyed with them, not that such a thing mattered since his tone revealed his annoyance to them, "I have been protecting that seed for ten thousand years, safeguarding it from all sorts of danger and those who would seek to misuse its power... and you idiots managed to let it fall into the hands of the Fal'dorei within five minutes of finding it. I should kill all three of you for..." Spitfire sighed as what coming next happened, as Rainbow banished one of her Warblades and socked the Night Elf right in the chest, bypassing the scythe that seemed rather worthless in the grand scheme of things, before she flashed behind him and gripped the back of his head, slamming it right into the ground and knocked the weapon out of his hands, which was when she grabbed onto one of his arms and pulled it back, mostly to keep him in a locked position until they figured out what was going on and why he was acting this way, even though it was clear that he wasn't from the Alliance, since a warrior from that faction wouldn't do something like this after the battle with Sylvanas. "Listen, trying to kill us like that is a pretty stupid idea... plus, if you had ten thousand years to guard this artifact, you did a pretty lousy defending it, since it took me a few minutes to break the seals," Spitfire stated, and that was the truth of the matter, attacking the two of them from the front like this, even threatening them for that matter, happened to be one of the worst ideas that anyone could have, after seeing what happened when Sylvanas upset her, while at the same time she was also telling the truth when she was referring to the Night Elf doing a terrible job guarding the artifact, which happened to be a seed of something called an 'Arcan'dor', "Tell you what, we'll forgive you for your transgressions if you tell us what in the world that seed is, tell us who you are and why it's so important for someone like you to keep watch over it, and say your sorry for trying to kill us." "I am Farodin... Valewalker Farodin, to be exact, and I cannot do the other two things, not until we recover the seed from the Fal'dorei and take it to a safe place," the Night Elf replied, where Spitfire had the feeling that he might be one of the more difficult individuals that they were going to come into contact with, not counting the Legion anyway, though it didn't take her long to sigh and turned her head a little so Rainbow would get off Farodin, where Rainbow did so and forced him forward, allowing him to rub his arm for a moment as he picked up his scythe, "Now then, if you would follow me, I'll take you to where I think they're taking the Arcan'dor Seed... I have the feeling that I misjudged the two of you, and that you will be wonderful allies in our fight against all of the Fal'dorei that are between us and the seed." Elylia, knowing what Spitfire and Rainbow would do in this situation, beckoned with a blade and Farodin started to move down the path that was to the right of the temple they were currently standing in front of, where they found a stream that lead down to the open hole in the ground, which seemed to house the underground portion of these ruins, before they reached a ledge that would allow them to jump down into the depths, which happened to be crawling with the Fal'dorei, a lot more than what they were expecting since there seemed to be a hundred scattered around the ruins. Once they were done scouting out part of the area, even if it only took them a few seconds to do so, before Farodin jumped into the air and dropped down into a small water pool that was below the ledge they had stopped on, though Spitfire and Rainbow just flew down to the edge of the same area while making sure to carry Elylia, all while somehow being ignored by the vast amount of Fal'dorei that were around them, which meant they could hide in the shadow of a pillar before someone had a chance to spot them. As soon as everyone was together again Farodin informed them that, by carrying the seed, Orathiss was being slowed down and it gave them an opening to recover the seed before it was opened and every drop of power that was inside it was drained, something that would piss him off if it came to pass, to which Rainbow flashed over to the set of stairs that their foe must have headed up, since it had a large opening for someone like the Fal'dorei Queen to use it without difficulty, and cut down the enemies that were around her, dropping both of the more elf-like spider enemies in seconds, opening the way for Elylia and Farodin to follow her. Spitfire, on the other hand, brought her flames back to the surface and hurled the Fel fire around her, setting fire to the various webs and egg sacks that were scattered around this part of the ruins, while also creating a wave of flames halfway through the area to cut off potential pursuers, since she was sure that some of the Fal'dorei might come running once they realized that enemies were attacking them, allowing the rest of the group to find Orathiss before she caught up with them. Sure enough Rainbow found her target at the top of the stairs, totally focused on the seed that had been given to her not all that long ago, though when she lashed out with one of her Warblades Orathiss hissed for a moment before heading up a small set of stairs to their left, showing them that she was more interested in fleeing and trying to snack on the seed that was in her hands, though thanks to the seed decrease Rainbow was able to keep her target in her sights as she and Elylia struck down the enemies that were in front of them. Farodin, of course, followed behind them as best he could, since he was impressed by what Spitfire and Rainbow were capable of doing with their powers, especially Spitfire since she was in the middle of setting fire to the entire ruin and made sure that their enemies wouldn't get any reinforcements, which was followed by Spitfire catching up to them within seconds, allowing her to focus on Orathiss once more, who headed down a passage that was to the right of this pathway and revealed that she was heading into a nest area. What surprised Spitfire and Rainbow as they followed their foe was that Orathiss didn't seem interested in them, even though they overcame all of the Fal'dorei that happened to be scattered around the ruins and tried to prevent the four of them from following their leader, where they would have expected that she would have handed the seed over to someone for safekeeping before using her power against all of them, something that would have given her a feast if she had been successful in taking all of them down, but they focused on what was in front of them and nothing else. From there Orathiss headed through a new tunnel, one that was crystalline in nature and happened to lead right to a new section of the ruins, one that appeared to be nearly identical to Shal'Aran, save for the messed up crystalline tree that seemed to be growing out of the center, one that was shattered based on what they were seeing right now, and not a few seconds later they found their target within mere moments of leaving the tunnel, as Orathiss was standing in front of the shattered tree and appeared to be in the middle of channeling her Arcane power between the seed and the tree. As they engaged Orathiss, however, she revealed that she intended to use the seed to awaken the Arcan'dor, which had to be the ruined tree that was in the middle of this section of the ruins, so that she and the rest of her twisted kind could be freed from their cursed forms and return to being elves, meaning the Fal'dorei were twisted Nightborne that had messed with some sort of magical artifact, the Arcan'dor to be exact, and the shattering of the tree must have twisted them into the spider forms they had been forced to live with... though Orathiss happened to be one of the weakest foes Spitfire and Rainbow had faced, as both were able to remove one of her legs and caused her to fall, granting Elylia the chance to stab her in the chest before Farodin removed her head, which finished her off and the seed floated down to them. "Orathiss has started the awakening process... if we don't get the seed somewhere safe, where we can power it and keep it alive, we'll lose it," Farodin stated, informing them that they hadn't stopped Orathiss from messing with the seed at all, meaning that they had a ticking time bomb on their hands and that it might wipe out the area around them if they let the seed wither, which would be a pain in the rear if such a thing happened, before he turned and faced Spitfire's group for a moment as an idea came to him, "I am not strong enough to carry the seed out of here, not without it sapping my energy and knocking me out, but you two, on the other hand... either of you should be able to carry the seed, as I can tell that you two are just brimming with magical power." Spitfire said nothing as she banished her Twinblades and picked up the seed from where it was floating, finding that it did impose a heavy weight on her, like what they had seen when Orathiss was running away with it, before Farodin informed them that it was time to leave this place, before the Fal'dorei reinforcements overcame the wall of fire Spitfire had left in the first chamber, hence why he headed for the other side of the chamber they were in and headed up a path that had a bunch of crystals growing out of the sides. While they did that Farodin spoke up and mentioned that he knew they were rebuilding the ancient teleportation network that existed throughout all of Suramar, even if they had only awakened two of them so far, and revealed that the chamber he was bringing them to, which was at the top of the tunnel, had a beacon that should allow them to leave this ruined temple before they were overrun, something that was confirmed when they reached the chamber and found the beacon in question. It was in that moment that they heard Oculeth speak up, which meant that Thalyssra had been keeping silent as she watched what they were doing thanks to communication link they all shared thanks to her spell and had informed Oculeth of everything that was going on inside this place, where the Chief Telemancer activated the beacon and established a permanent portal between Shal'Aran and the Temple of Faladora, as having direct access to the ruined tree might come in handy later and he made sure to prevent the Fal'dorei from using the new portal, which allowed them to teleport out of the ruins and returned to their base of operations. Upon arriving in Shal'Aran, and leaving the area all of the portals rested in, Farodin rushed over to the walkway that lead to the center of the upper chamber, where Spitfire and Rainbow had found a banshee guarding this place, and beckoned for Spitfire for a moment, who stared at the device that was in the direct center of the ruin and held out a hand as she approached it, to which the seed floated forward and clicked into place as it connected with the device, though after that happened she and the others watched as the shell split apart, separating into four segments that revealed it was a metal casing that Orathiss had been trying to crack, before revealing the tree seed to everyone. That was when the magic that was contained within the seed caused a few vines to grow out of it and reached for the top of the ceiling, only to stop a second or two after emerging from the seed, meaning that it was in the early stages of the Arcan'dor's growth cycle and that it would likely be some time before anything special happened, though it interested all of their Nightfallen allies, who walked over to where they were standing and stared at the seed that had been brought to Shal'Aran, no doubt wondering what it could do for all of them. "Behold the Arcan'dor, a gift from the ancient magi, which can bring either life or desolation," Farodin stated, though as he said that Spitfire had to wonder if the replica chamber they had seen earlier, which looked like a more ruined version of the ruin they were currently using as a base of operations, had been an attempt to awaken such a seed and it had been a failure, hence why the Night Elf paused when he mentioned 'desolation', before he sighed as he continued to stare at the awakened seed and the tree that might grow from it, "to care for an Arcan'dor is no small thing... it is a great burden that all of us now share... though beneath the Arcan'dor the Nightfallen, and possibly some of the Withered, can be renewed and become Nightborne again, without the need to feed on the Nightwell." "One more thing for us to do while we're planning our rebellion against Elisande." Spitfire remarked, though she could see that Thalyssra and the others were interested in what Farodin had to say, as restoring themselves to being Nightborne was a good thing, especially without needing to rely on the Nightwell, because it would allow them to use their full power and it would give them something to offer those that were inside the city, potentially robbing Elisande of her forces, but for now they had to rely on keeping Shal'Aran alive and preparing themselves for the future. She had the feeling that Thalyssra had an idea on what the next step of their plans were, to fight against Elisande and her demonic allies, though for now they seemed to be waiting for Rainbow's contact inside the city to send word first, before doing anything else that might draw attention to them, and it gave them time to make sure there were no obstacles or any other enemies for them to worry about, scattered throughout the rest of Suramar, while doing everything in their power to make sure Gul'dan was in the dark until they were ready to bring him down and crush his foul plans. > Suramar: The Waning Crescent > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As it turned out, nothing happened for the rest of the day, to which Spitfire made sure that Rainbow stayed with those that were in Shal'Aran as she traveled between this section of Suramar, Dalaran, and the cities that the two factions ruled from as they put together a plan of attack for the Broken Shore, because once they recovered the final Pillar of Creation, not to mention bringing an end to Gul'dan's foul plans, their forces would regroup and launch a second invasion on the section of the Broken Isles that the Tomb of Sargeras rested on, so they could push the Legion back and seal the Felstorm, cutting the Dark Titan off from his prize once again. Of course Spitfire had the feeling that there was more to her Lord's plans than what he had shared with her in the past, and what he had told Akama, meaning that part of her focus was on making sure the rest of the Illidari were tearing into their enemies, gathering information and supplies from the Legion camps that were scattered around the five provinces of the Broken Isles, and figuring out where in the world Kil'jaeden's minions had put their Lord's soul, since it was no longer in the Twisting Nether and Spitfire was sure that their foe would have come back to the Fel Hammer to mock them if he was truly gone. On top of that she and Anduin were making sure that a lasting peace might be possible after this war was over, since Azeroth stood a better chance against her enemies with the Alliance and the Horde working together, instead of constantly fighting each other over every single thing that happened over the years, be they minor or major instances or offenses, though as they talked for a couple of days she found that Genn had calmed down after the death of Sylvanas and Nathanos and was now working with some of the Forsaken researchers to create a cure for the Blight that had been used on Gilneas, to restore it to its former glory. In fact the leaders of the other races appeared to be behaving themselves and were working together, showing her that her method was effective, and that was true of the pair that she wanted to impress the most, those being Tyrande and Malfurion, as while the pair might take some offense to a demon hunter leading the Horde, given Illidan's history, they seemed pretty nice during their brief conversations and it meant she was making progress. During their conversations there were two things that Spitfire discovered that she knew they would have to tackle at some point in the future, the first being that there was an alternate version of Outland, Draenor based on what Khadgar told her during one of the meetings, where both the Alliance and the Horde had potential allies that could be recruited for the war against the Legion, as they helped the residents of that world take down their enemies and even killed Archimonde, who must have been returned to the Twisting Nether. The reason that interested Spitfire was because the leaders of the forces of that world informed Khadgar that if Azeroth ever needed help, such as fighting against the endless armies of the Legion if they happened to invade this world, that they would answer the call and repay their debt to the two factions, meaning there was a force of Orcs and Draenei just waiting to be called upon, all they had to do was find some Bronze Dragons and ask them for assistance in that matter, since they were the caretakers of time and should be able to open a portal back to after Archimonde's defeat, with the proper planning and tools in hand of course. There was the dragon known as Chromie that should be able to help them in that regard, or at least that was what she learned during her talk with the leaders, so she left finding the dragon to some of the other heroes who were just waiting for something to happen, since their foes were being awfully silent at the moment, making Spitfire wonder if they had a chance to go back in time a bit, find those allies, and bring them to Azeroth to face the Legion, boosting their forces to the max for when they finally launched their assault on the Broken Shore and deactivated the Tomb of Sargeras, something that everyone actually agreed with, hence why they wanted to find Chromie and enlist her aid in this venture. The other thing that disturbed her were the three Old Gods that were buried under the surface of the planet, which were immortal creatures of the Void that had been defeated by the forces of Azeroth a few times in the past, or at the very least that was the case for C'Thun and Yogg-Saron, with the last one, N'Zoth, being the odd one out, which only meant he might show himself after this war was over. On top of all of everything she thought about, the potential dangers that the future held for them, Spitfire had to wonder who in the world that mysterious figure Xe're had shown her was, how one would go about gaining and balancing the six Cosmic Powers of the universe, and who that odd figure that had shown himself when Discord showed up, which was the oddest thing she and Rainbow had encountered over the last week, though she had no answers for her questions and just had to deal with whatever was happening on the Broken Isles, with Rainbow taking care of anything that might happen in Suramar, given the fact that a rebellion was still going on. Rainbow, on the other hand, just stayed in Shal'Aran while Spitfire was dealing with the leaders of the factions, protecting the ruins of Meredil from any Nightborne who might wander too close to their base of operations, of which there were no enemies to deal with and no strays running away from the city, though part of her time was spent finding more crystals to add to their reserves, since having more ancient mana meant that none of their allies would become Withered, while also venturing into Felsoul Hold every now and then to cut down some demons, even if there appeared to be an endless army in that place. It was mostly to pass the time, especially since she didn't kill all that many during her visits, though it did give her a bit of power and sealed more demonic souls inside her Warblades, just like she had done in the past, though while she did that Vytheril and the other heroes worked with Valtrois and Oculeth to make sure Thalyssra had everything she and the rebellion needed for when they launched their own attack on the city, once they had enough forces to do such a thing in the first place. Plus they were also waiting for Lady Ly'leth to send word for her and Elylia to join her inside the city or in her estate, since she was their only link to what was going on inside the city and was no doubt spreading the word of Thalyssra's return as silently as she could, so all they could do was wait and see what happened next, even though part of Rainbow was surprised that the Legion hadn't launched a major attack yet, meaning they had to be waiting for Gul'dan to do whatever it was that he was up to, something they needed to stop, even if it meant overcoming Elisande and whoever stood with her. Of course some of the heroes that were inside Shal'Aran, such as one of the druids and one of the warriors based on what she knew, were talking about when they would be tackling the Emerald Nightmare and taking the fight to Helya, referring to two enemies that were also waiting for someone else to make the first move, be it the Legion or even the heroes of Azeroth, especially since taking Helya down would allow Odyn to leave his domain and directly join the fight with the Legion, something Spitfire would be interested in when she heard the news. Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed one of the servants from Ly'leth's estate walking in the wilderness near Shal'Aran, as she happened to be flying at the time since she was returning from wrecking some Eredar in Felsoul Hold, as it gave her some additional Fel energy and her warglaives consumed their souls, before she landed near the male elf and discovered that he had a message for Thalyssra, to which she escorted him down the rest of the road, not that he was in any danger since the Withered seemed to be steering clear of Meredil now, and let him chat with Thalyssra upon arriving in their base of operations... though it was only a few moments later when Thalyssra walked over to where Rainbow and Elylia were standing, which was near the tunnel's opening. "As you know, our friend Ly'leth sent me a message... she has requested that you meet her atop the Grand Promenade as it overlooks the city, an area that Elylia can lead you to," Thalyssra said, even though Rainbow suspected that there was a bit more to the message than what they were being told, as in there was a part that was only for Thalyssra and no one else, which she was fine with since she was more interested in what their friend wanted from her, "she also said to have your disguise on, meaning she might have a few tasks for you to do." "Finally! I was wondering if she had forgotten about us." Rainbow remarked, referring to the fact that it took Ly'leth three days to get everything set up for them to spread the word that Thalyssra was alive and was planned a new rebellion, even if she knew this was a delicate time given that a slip of any kind would inform Elisande that something was up, but she was more excited by the fact that their new ally wanted to meet with her and put her talents to use in some way, something that she and Elylia would discover when they met up with Ly'leth in the city. With Vytheril and the rest of the heroes continuing their work with everyone else, to prepare for whatever the future held for them, Rainbow and Elylia passed through the portal to the Lunastre Estate and appeared near where she first met their new ally and assisted her in tending to her sister, to which Rainbow carefully slipped the mask on and took on the form of Anarys once more, something that was followed by Elylia leading the way forward and returning to acting like she was her personal guard whenever she went out into the city. For all she knew her Nightborne friend could have been a guard that protected a noble family or something, in fact she could have been one of the ones assigned to protect Thalyssra before the rebellion had been put into motion after the Legion's arrival, or she could have been assigned to another family, who might have pushed her into the overall military of Suramar City and that possibility might explain why they were lucky to encounter her when they were looking for Oculeth and his supplies. While she thought about that Elylia lead her towards the section of the Grand Promenade that they had met Vanthir in a few days ago, who had to be in the part of the city that he normally worked in since he wasn't where Rainbow had last seen him, where Rainbow found that they seemed to be heading towards the main garden part of this area, the wider area that seemed to be the main entrance of the city, due to a long massive walkway being off on their right that appeared to head into the heart of the city. Once they found the path in question, and none of the guards were paying any attention to the pair, Rainbow followed Elylia as she walked forward, finding that one of the Arcane Constructs patrolling the area and it caused her to move to the side, out of the Construct's way, so it didn't see through Rainbow's disguise before they reached the area that Ly'leth was standing in, and once it was out of the way they continued moving forward, where it was easy to find their friend standing one of the edges and just so happened to be staring out at the city, like she was taking a break from whatever it was she was supposed to be doing and smiled for a moment as she noticed Rainbow and Elylia walking towards her. "Sister, it is nice of you to join me... this is quite a view, isn't it?" Ly'leth inquired, speaking as if Rainbow was Anarys, which made sense due to the disguise she was wearing, though it did make her wonder what in the world Ly'leth had done with her sister, even though it was likely that the real Anarys had been trapped inside a prison of some kind to fuel the magic of the mask Rainbow was wearing, but it made her wonder what might happen if someone told Anarys that a demon hunter had taken her form, given her desire to learn more about the Legion. "Yes, it is." Rainbow replied, where she did her best to make it sound like she was interested in the sight, and that was the truth as she looked out at the massive city that was in front of her, one that was partly built on land and partly the water that filled the canals that happened to be in the branch of the city that rested in front of them, even though she was sure more of them rested throughout the rest of Suramar City, as a form of travel for the residents who couldn't teleport from place to place like some individuals she knew, "Thalyssra said that you sent for me, and that you might have some tasks for us to do inside the city..." "Indeed, but first, continue to behold our glorious city, our haven, our sanctuary... our prison." Ly'leth stated, where it was easy to tell that her tone became depressed when she said that last part of her statement, no doubt reflacting her opinion on what the Grand Magistrix was doing to the city by welcoming the Legion and Gul'dan into their fold, which the rest of the Nightborne were suffering with right now, before she sighed and maintained her gaze on the city, just to show those who were patrolling the area that nothing was wrong, "Elisande and the Legion seek to bring us to heel, through the usage of fear and hunger, something that has caused the flame of the Shal'dorei to flicker and weaken... we must re-ignite it at all costs, by stirring the noble hearts of my people into action. You, however... must show them that Azeroth has not forsaken them... and to do that, you must enter the city at long last and travel to the Waning Crescent, where you'll be meeting with Vanthir once more, who will direct you two to the tasks that will aid all of us." Rainbow nodded her head as she stood there for a few more moments, making it look like the Lunastre sisters were just enjoying the view of the city before they went their separate ways for the rest of the day, before she bid Ly'leth farewell for now, addressing her as 'sister' as she did so for the guards that were nearby, and followed Elylia into the Waning Crescent, which involved heading down a long set of stairs and heading down the path to their right, even though Rainbow had to resist the urge to hunt some demons since there were a few Doomguards and Felguards patrolling the area near base of the stairs in question. Part of her really wanted to cut them down and then put on her disguise again before one of the guards had a chance to notice what was going on, but instead of doing that she maintained her composure and followed Elylia as she headed for the area that she suspected Vanthir was working in, or might be working in since she was still unclear of how much experience the warrior had with the city, and for the most part it looked like the guards were ignoring them, which made things much easier since neither of them had to worry about the disguise dropping at the wrong time and giving the guards a reason to come at them. One thing she noticed, in addition to all of the demons that were near the area the long set of stairs rested in, was that there were a few thin boats, gondolas to be exact, resting in the water and happened to be moving from whatever location they had started in and whatever location was their end point, revealing that boats had to be a popular mode of transportation in the city and that they might see more of as they explored the rest of the City. The area that Elylia was leading her towards appeared to be the very edge of this section of the city, even though Rainbow was able to see that the city was built like a crescent moon, which could be a reason for the name of the area they were heading towards, though sure enough, when they reached their destination, she noticed that Silgryn and Vanthir appeared to be talking to each other at the moment, something that caused her and Elylia to pause for a few seconds as they waited for the pair to notice them. "Do you think you will have enough?" Silgryn asked, sounding like he was worried about something that had happened at some point after their encounter with Ly'leth a few days ago, which made sense when Rainbow thought about it since the city had a tyrant ruling from her palace and it made her want to take down Elisande even more, where he also turned a bit so he could face Vanthir, who seemed to be checking the couple of casks that were resting near the area they had been standing in before Rainbow and Elylia arrived. "Enough for those most in need." Vanthir replied, though while it seemed like a depressing thing to say, given the state of the city and everyone who lived under the thumb of Elisande, his mood appeared to change when he noticed Rainbow and Elylia standing nearby, since he must have been informed as to what was going on with Anarys and understood that there was someone else under the familiar face that was now acting differently, but it looked like he was acting due to the few guards that were patrolling the area that was near them, "The rest... ah, welcome Anarys, your aid is sorely needed in this desperate time." "So I've gathered, based on what my sister told me," Rainbow said, once more doing her best to present herself as Anarys, where her performance would have been better had she taken the time to understand her target's mannerisms, or some of her personality, anything that would have allowed her to make it look like she was definitely Anarys and not someone who was wearing her form as a disguise, before she focused on why Ly'leth called upon her, "Just tell us what needs to be done and I'll make sure that we get the tasks done as quickly as we possibly can." "The first thing you need to know about is Arcwine, the vehicle by which we imbibe the Nightwell's energies so we can live and prosper, and without it we wither away," Vanthir stated, where he quickly gestured to the casks that were resting off to the side for a few seconds, meaning that they must have held a good amount of Arcwine inside them and Rainbow had a feeling that the reason he was speaking about this was due to the fact that he was running out of it, before he reached into his pouch and withdrew a flask, one identical to Thalyssra's, "Palace lackeys have seen fit to ration it, thinking this will control us... keep us quiet, complacent... I would like you to explore the Waning Crescent and find those that are the most afflicted by this rationing, as they should be pretty obvious when you see them. I want you to take this flask and use it to revive them by ending their suffering... your eyes will be opened to the reality of our situation... once that's done I'll no doubt have something else for you two to do for the cause." Rainbow immediately found one such individual in a building near where Vanthir was working, a father who was giving all of his wine to his two children and was taking none for himself, meaning he was incredibly weak right now and had to be on the fast track to becoming a Nightfallen, which would no doubt lead to him being exiled from the city, with or without his kids, which was when she handed over the flask for a moment and made sure the father had some to energize himself so he could continue to take care of his kids. Another individual happened to be two sisters that were literally around the corner from where Vanthir worked, one weakened from not having any Arcwine recently and another who seemed to be the one who had been given all of their share, once more in the state like the father Rainbow had just seen, to which they stopped and made sure the fallen sister had some of the wine that was inside the flask, energizing her to the point that she was able to walk once more, allowing her and Elylia to go find someone else that was in desperate need of help, even if there were too many in the Waning Crescent to assist with the meager contents of the flask. Next up she found a room that two brothers were resting in, looking like the sisters Rainbow had just helped since one was on the floor, weakened from having no Arcwine, while the other was fine, having been the one their sibling had shared their supplies with, hence why she made sure the weakened brother had some of the wine she carried, offering them a smile before she and Elylia walked outside and sought out one more group, as that would clear out the remainder of the flask. The last group were a husband and wife, or possibly brother and sister since Rainbow wasn't totally sure which option it was, where she found that the male was in a weakened state, sacrificing their share to save their sibling or significant other, something that was followed by Rainbow handing over the flask and watched as it was shared between the two, which told her that even the female, who had been given everything, had been starting to weaken, meaning what little they had between them wasn't enough for even one of them to survive on. Once the flask was empty, and Rainbow was sure of it after she got it back from the last group, she and Elylia returned to Vanthir's shop, which was rather easy to do since they were just to the north of his position, though as they walked over to where they had found their allies it didn't take Rainbow long to spot a Telemancy beacon in the middle of the circular part of the Waning Crescent, a plaza of some kind that had no statue or fountain, meaning once they assisted this place they could open the way to Shal'Aran and return to Thalyssra... though upon their return to Vanthir's location they discovered that a worried mother had come to this area, and that Silgryn was talking to her to figure out the problem. "You have done well in helping those in need, though it appears that we need you to help us with a few other things, more dangerous than what you just did," Vanthir said, showing them that he had noticed them arrive and that it was best if they let Silgryn deal with the lady that was freaking out at the moment, something Rainbow was fine with as she pulled out the now empty flask and handed it over to the Nightborne that was in front of her, who pulled out a silver dagger that looked rather sharp, like an assassin's blade, meaning he needed them to do something else, "Silgryn asked me to hand this over to you, along with a warning that you don't touch the tip, and head out to collect the missives that the couriers are carrying on them, as they might reveal where Verene's daughter has gone... though while you accomplish that task I have another one for you to do, as you need to head into the Bazaar and find a gondolier by the name of Deline... the reason I'm asking you to do this is because I need you to help her acquire the next shipment of Arcwine, especially since my stores are close to running out at this point." Instead of saying anything Rainbow nodded her head and followed Elylia as she headed out for the Bazaar, an area of the Waning Crescent that was across the canal from where Vanthir had set up his shop, so all they had to do was walk across a short curved walkway, one tall enough so a gondola wouldn't be bothered by it, and walked up some stairs to reach their new destination, a market that had several stalls and a number of containers of Arcwine, be they casks or bottles, all over the place, with some guards riding on their mana sabers and some Nightborne who appeared to be wearing cloth armor, to blend in with their surroundings, but the scrolls in their hands informed Rainbow of who the couriers were, something she would focus on later as Elylia lead her to where a lone gondolier rested, a lady who was wearing the attire of a normal merchant as she glanced around the area she was standing in. "Need a ride, stranger?" the lady asked, clearly speaking to Rainbow as she and Elylia approached her, more in the sense that she was speaking to another Nightborne and not someone else, meaning she either knew about the disguise or this was one of the people who had no idea that Anarys had been imprisoned and a fake had taken her place in the city, but since she was sure that this was Deline, given that Elylia had brought her to this area, and that she knew about what had happened to Ly'leth's sister. "Not exactly, as I was told to come help you." Rainbow replied, making sure to pull out the symbol that she had used a few times in the past, to show Thalyssra's allies that she was someone they could trust, while at the same time making sure to not give any guard a chance to see it, otherwise it would bring untold trouble their way and it was the last thing her allies needed at the moment, so when the lady noticed the symbol she returned it to the area she kept it in, where it would rest until it was needed once more. "I see, so you're the one that I've been waiting for... all I need is a full boat and I'll be on my way." Deline said, where she gestured to the boat that was resting nearby, which looked like it could contain a number of wine containers and would be perfecr for delivering Vanthir's latest shipment to his section of the Waning Crescent, before she glanced around the area once more and this time Rainbow noticed some Nightborne guards who seemed more magical than what they had seen so far, causing Deline to sigh for a moment, "I am more than willing to continue delivering the goods to Vanthir, but due to some changes recently it is becoming increasingly dangerous for me, not to mention our allies, to do anything that might help Vanthir and Ly'leth out, and the Duskwatch has assigned three of their Orbitists to the Bazaar... I need you to find all three of them and kill them as quickly as you can... while you do that, however, I would also ask that you acquire a couple of bottles of Arcwine, as the nobles won't miss them, especially since there isn't an Arcwine shortage, something that was created by the Grand Magistrix to keep us in line." At this point Rainbow wasn't even surprised to hear that Elisande had created a false shortage of Arcwine to make sure the lower class citizens were forced into complience, while at the same time all the surpluss went to the nobles and those who directly served the Grand Magistrix, but instead of getting upset, like anyone would in this situation since it was so unfair to the citizens who were suffering right now, she nodded her head and Elylia started to escort her around the Bazaar for a few moments, making it look like they were shopping or looking for something, even though Rainbow was looking for her targets, be they couriers or Orbitists. Interestingly enough she found one such target nearby, down a path that no one else was in at the moment, to which Rainbow headed down the alley in question and, without anyone noticing what she was about to do, silently called out one of her Warblades and wrapped it's curved edge around her target's neck, removing his head in seconds and she made sure to banish the weapon before emerging from the alley so she and Elylia could continue with their tasks, with no one knowing what in the world she had done. The couriers, on the other hand, were even easier for them to take out, as several came running through the Bazaar and happened to cross the same area that none of the guards were patrolling right now, something that allowed her and Elylia to waylay a few targets with the latter standing in the way of a courier so the former could stab it in the side, allowing them to move the courier to a bench, to make it look like they fell asleep, and collected the scroll they were carrying, though both of the following foes were placed elsewhere, just to give them a chance to do their deeds without being noticed. With a couple of scrolls collected Rainbow returned to hunting down her true targets, the Orbitists, and found that one was on the eastern end of the Bazaar and the other was on the western end, meaning both of them had no idea the third had been slain, so Elylia made sure the coast was clear in the area their targets were in and Rainbow silenced her targets as swiftly as she took out the first one, until all three were dead on the ground and they were able to return to the center of the Bazaar with ease, as it was time for them to secure some Arcwine before anyone noticed. Once they were ready to secure some of the Arcwine casks, since they seemed far more important than the bottles, even if Rainbow was planning on gathering a number of those at the same time, Elylia called for the guards as she 'discovered' a fallen Orbitist, something that drew the attention of the other guards that were in the area and, more importantly, every merchant that was nearby, allowing Rainbow to drop her disquise and use her full speed to flash through the air for a few moments, grabbing casks and bottles before depositing them on Deline's boat, who departed once it was full enough, just so the guards didn't see her... though once that was done Rainbow, wearing her disguise again, regrouped with Elylia and headed for Vanthir's position, who was using the last of his stores as his supplier came in to deliver new stock, much to the joy of the citizens who lived in this area. "I must say, you work pretty fast," Silgryn commented, though while he said that Elylia quickly handed him the scrolls they had recovered from the couriers a few moments before their assault on the Bazaar, giving him a chance to read each one as Vanthir made sure everyone had enough Arcwine to make it through today and tomorrow, while maintaining his stores so no one starved before the next shipment arrived from Deline, before he sighed as he noticed something and pulled out his map, allowing Elylia to look at it so she knew where they were going next, "They're definitely taking children, and based on this information they have Korine, Verene's daughter, as well... you should head to this position, where the guards are known to pass by on their shifts, and follow them to where Korine and the others are being held, though your target is in red colored armor, making them easy to spot, but make sure you follow them and remain unseen." Rainbow sighed for a moment, as she was starting to dislike the Duskwatch, and Elisande at the same time, regardless of whether or not the Grand Magistrix happened to be aware of what was going on in the Waning Crescent, before nodding her head and followed Elylia to the north, as their destination was just across the curved walkway that they had walked on to reach Vanthir's location, though they had to be carefully since there were still a few Constructs and three Inquisitors in this area, hence why the pair remained off to the side, in an alley, and made sure no one could see them as they kept an eye out for their target. Sure enough a red armored Nightborne, carrying a staff with a short blade on each end, emerged from a nearby building and started to walk to the north, as if she was heading towards the massive set of stairs or one of the structures that were near it, where Rainbow waited for a few moments, just to be sure they didn't draw suspicion from any of the other guards when they followed her, before moving at last and followed her target as she continued her patrol, unaware of the danger that was currently walking a short distance behind her. Based on what Rainbow could see, by just following their target, the guard loved to inform the citizens to report anything unusual, be respectful of the demons that were in the area, and continue with their daily lives as if nothing was wrong, all of which seemed to annoy the citizens, who hid their expressions before she noticed them, though it looked like she might be heading into a garden area and came to a stop inside one of the houses that happened to be on the other side of a curved walkway that linked the two sections of this area together. The guard was sure surprised when she realized that someone was following her, which was spoiled as the kids noticed that Rainbow and Elylia were behing the guard, though that didn't stop them from lashing out at their foe as the disguise faded away within seconds, even though Rainbow was a little impressed when the guard stopped her first attack with her staff, which opened her side so Elylia could cut into her and weaken her even further, since they wanted to be done with this before anyone else came to check on the noise they were making. Despite Rainbow's thoughts on the matter Rainbow found that the guard didn't last too long and she dropped an orb that seemed to draw a vibrating response from the magical barrier Korine and the other kids were trapped behind, so Rainbow made sure the disguise was up once more before using the orb on the barrier, which dropped it and freed those that had been contained on the other side, even though Elylia tended to the kids for a few moments, to make sure they were fine and calmed them down to the best of her ability. Korine refused to leave the area without them freeing her 'friends', as in there was another area that had cages and she wanted them to make whoever was guarding the area pay for taking those who the little girl called her friends away, to which Rainbow sighed and followed Elylia to the north once more, since that happened to be the direction that she knew they had been taken in, which allowed the pair to discover a decent sized area that had been transformed into a containment camp, filled with Nightborne who were on their way to becoming the same as Thalyssra, Nightfallen, and there was a chance that freeing them would change nothing. In the end, however, Rainbow decided to not play around with this task and dispelled the disguise while no one was near the walkway that was in front of her and Elylia, to which she flashed into the air and smashed the Duskwatch into the ground, doing enough damage to knock them out and not kill them, something that allowed her to find and retrieve more of the magical orbs that seemed to be the keys to the cages, thus freeing more prisoners who disliked how they were being treated and desired a change of pace, meaning they might have some new allies for the rebellion, hence why Elylia beckoned for them to come over to her location before the Duskwatch had a chance to call for reinforcements. Once that was done Rainbow returned to Elylia and their new friends, who followed them back to where Korine was waiting for them, where the normal guards just watched a small group of individuals walking through the area, with Rainbow in disguise, and no one bothered them as they picked up Korine and retraced the steps that had brought them here, where the little girl had a smile on her face while everyone walked with her, making Rainbow wonder if some of their rebellion allies were ensuring their safety, which she was fine with since this was more important. Sure enough Verene was overjoyed to have her daughter back, safe and sound while no longer being in danger, while the rest of the freed captives were given a bit of Arcwine to restore themselves to what they had been earlier, though Vanthir informed Rainbow that her actions, while noble, would bring the Duskwatch to investigate and that meant everyone that had been freed needed to get out of the city with as much haste as they could muster, hence why she headed over to the Telemancy beacon and tapped it, allowing Oculeth to open another two-way portal between here and Shal'Aran, allowing their new friends to travel to the ruins, and Vanthir even gave Elylia a bottle of Arcwine, to be given to Thalyssra as thanks for sending them to him... though it was easy to see that everyone was surprised by their return, especially since they had a group of refugees and new soldiers with them. "I must say, when I sent you to speak with Ly'leth, I wasn't expecting all of this," Thalyssra said, speaking once Elylia gave her the explanation on what happened while they were inside the city, as it was an amazing tale that revealed the people of her city would no doubt be welcoming the new rebellion with open arms once they were ready to dethrone Elisande, before she glanced at the bottle of Arcwine and smiled, showing that she appreciated the gesture, even though Rainbow was sure it would be shared with Valtrois, Oculeth, and everyone else, "I also had Vytheril head to my abode, since it just so happens to be on the outskirts of the city and wouldn't be anywhere near prying eyes, and he recovered some things that would damage our rebellion if any of them became known to the public... along with my dress, some tomes, and a few other things, but those aren't as important. Either way, you deserve a chance to rest before we do anything else for the rebellion, or for Farodin's precious Arcan'dor." Rainbow said nothing to that as she nodded and took a seat nearby, allowing her and Elylia to watch as new alllies came to join them from the Waning Crescent, with some no doubt going to return to the city to ask as spies for Thalyssra and the rest of their allies, though with this done they were one step closer to uniting the Shal'dorei and taking Elisande down, not to mention Gul'dan and his demonic allies, meaning all she had to do was be patient and see what the future held for her, Spitfire, and the rest of the forces of Azeroth. > Suramar: Blood and Wine > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As it turned out nothing happened for the rest of the day, allowing Rainbow to rest and ready herself for whatever the next couple of days might have in store for them and Thalyssra's rebellion, though in the early parts of the following morning she discovered something interesting as she got up and walked over to the main part of Shal'Aran, the Arcan'dor had grown up a little and, more importantly, there were now little glowing locusts that had flown into the cave and were now floating all over the area that the Arcan'dor was resting in, making her wonder what in the world was going on and if Farodin could tell her why this was happening. "I see you, too, have noticed our uninvited 'guests'," Farodin commented, as he, like everyone else, had gotten just enough sleep to make sure he could still function and rose with the sun, even if it might be hard for him to tell the time from the cave they were inside, but for now his gaze rested on the locusts and why there were so many of them just wandering all over Shal'Aran, something Rainbow replicated not a few moments later, "I do not know if these locusts are harmful to the Arcan'dor or not, so it might be worth collecting a few of them and studying them to see if we can leave them alone... or if we need to take immediate action to get rid of them." "Right." Rainbow replied, as this wasn't what she was expecting when she woke up this morning, because she had a hope that she would be sent out to kill some demons and chip at the Legion's power, before she sighed and opened her wings a little as she moved into the space around the growing Arcan'dor, where she carefully reached out and grabbed a couple of locusts that were in front of her, five to be exact, and made sure they were going nowhere, before landing by Farodin not a few seconds later and handed over the bugs, "Here, that should be more than enough for you to figure out whatever is going on with the tree... if not, then tell me how many you need and I'll get it done." "Thank you. This should only take me a few moments," Farodin stated, where he accepted the locusts, which were pretty docile in Rainbow's hands and remained that way when they were in his hands, allowing the Night Elf to study them for a time without having to worry about anything unusual happening while he was doing that, before he let out a sigh as both Thalyssra and Valtrois walked over to where they were currently standing, showing Rainbow that they were interested in what he had to say, "It is as I feared, the Arcan'dor is in peril and these locusts are, in their own way, causing harm to the tree... if we don't do something soon, like within the next day or two, we'll lose the Arcan'dor and its power." "I recall seeing something like this in the Vineyards, so maybe we can enlist their aid," Thalyssra said, though at the same time it looked like Valtrois wanted to say something about the idea, like it was suicide or something along those lines, but instead she kept her mouth shut as she realized that the mission of heading to the Vineyards would be given to Rainbow and Elylia, who had proved they were more than a match for whatever the Duskwatch and Elisande could send at them, before the rebellion leader turned for a moment, "In order to get what we need, to keep the Arcan'dor secure, we're going to need to infiltrate the Twilight Vineyards, and to get passed the guards we're going to need special help... let me talk with Ly'leth and see if she can't provide us with the aid we need." Rainbow nodded and proceeded to simply wander around Shal'Aran for the next hour, keeping an eye on the locusts as Farodin made sure the Arcan'dor was fine, despite the presence of the insects, which she figured might be sapping some of the power from this seemingly powerful tree, based on what little Farodin told them since he didn't want to give away all the information he had on it, or doing something else if her thoughts on the matter were wrong, and when Thalyssra returned to the area she was standing in she found that an hour had already gone by, though she was a bit thankful that she had paused to eat some breakfast before resuming her patrol of the ruins, before she focused on Thalyssra while she wondered if she had been successful in her venture. "Okay, I've arranged for Ly'leth to meet you and Elylia near the entrance of the Vineyards, and she has an idea on how to acquire what we need," Thalyssra stated, showing Rainbow that she and her new ally worked well together, as the pair had quickly come up with an idea on how to get someone into the Vineyards without raising suspicion, which seemed to be a very heavily guarded area of the city, where Rainbow had to assume that it was where Arcwine was produced and bottled before being distributed to everyone else inside the city, meaning they might be able to get some of the liquid for the rest of the rebellion, if they were lucky anyway, "though you need to get moving, like right now, and get to the Vineyards before too many citizens start to go about their day, as this gives us a short window to get in and out of there without drawing too much attention from our enemies... if we can get you two into the Vineyard, and out again without Elisande knowing what we're up to, it will be a major win for the rebellion, in more ways than one." "I see. Then we had better get going," Rainbow replied, because based on what Farodin had said it sounded like the magic tree was in danger of being destroyed by the locusts or unraveling in some manner, or at least those were her thoughts on what he had said, and that danger spurred her into nodding to Elylia before they headed for the portal chamber so they could use the Estate portal, given her a safe place to slip on the mask she had been given and assume the form of Anarys once more, especially since it seemed to be the closest place to their destination. The moment her preparations were done, and Elylia confirmed that they were complete, the pair departed from the estate and started to make their way to the part of the city that the Vineyards rested in, where they walked along the edge of the Grand Promenade that was near where Oculeth's temporary hideout, where Rainbow and Spitfire first encountered Elylia, was located and discovered a group of Nightborne walking away from it with frowns on their faces, showing that they had to have encountered their ally's handiwork and couldn't do anything about it, before they focused on what was in front of them and continued towards their destination. It didn't take them all that long to reach an area that overlooked a bridge, one that Ly'leth happened to be standing on, next to some odd magical item that looked like a noble carrier of some kind that floated above the stone bridge, where Rainbow noted that it had been a ten minute walk, though since there weren't a lot of Nightborne in the area, in fact the only ones were the guards near an area that Ly'leth was staring at, the Vineyards no doubt, and their ally, to which Rainbow carefully removed her mask and spread her wings for a moment so she could fly herself and Elylia over to where their ally was standing. She made sure to land in the structure that was some distance from where Ly'leth was standing, something that was followed by Rainbow replacing the mask and assuming her disguise once more, to which she and Elylia walked over to where she was standing and made sure no one assumed that she was someone taking Anarys' form, which was followed by Ly'leth smiling as she noticed them and even embraced Rainbow in a hug for a few seconds, once more showing those that might be observing them that nothing was amiss and that Anarys was just fine, even if she might have a slight change of heart regarding the Legion. "Sister, it is good that you have arrived," Ly'leth said, pulling away from Rainbow for a moment, since the brief hug had all the effects that she wanted it to have and would make sure everyone watching think they were truly siblings, something that informed Rainbow of the fact that the lady in front of her truly loved her sister and didn't want anything to befall her, hence why she was going through desperate measures to keep her safe and, more importantly, away from Elisande and her Legion allies, before she gestured to the magical device that was resting nearby as she got ready to talk about the task at hand, "I remembered that you had arranged for a visit to the Vineyards a while ago, after looking at our books, and I made sure to procure a palanquin for you and your guard to use, which will take you to the entrance... you're looking for a lady by the name of Margaux, the vintner in charge of the Twilight Vineyards, who should be willing to take you two on a tour for a while, and she's also shown an interest in Thalyssra's movement." Rainbow smiled and thanked her 'sister' for helping her arrange for this visit, since that seemed to be the right thing to do in this situation, before climbing into the palanquin and did her best to look like she was above everyone else, like most of the Nightborne elite did, while taking a moment to think about the fact that they might have another ally inside the city, in addition to the ones they had seen so far, and this one might be able to provide them with Arcwine and everything that might save the Arcan'dor from failing, before she focused as the device moved down the rest of the bridge and Elylia made sure to walk next to it... though upon their arrival at the entrance, where the palanquin came to a stop, she climbed out of it and walked up the diagonal path that was in front of her, trying her best to ignore the weakened citizens who were being bothered by the Duskwatch and focused on a lady who seemed in charge of everything. "Anarys! So good of you to come." the lady, Margaux, spoke up, welcoming Rainbow and Elylia to the Vineyards while the Duskwatch that were in the surrounding area seemed to either ignore them or paid them little attention, believing that all was fine in this area and that nothing was amiss, even though it was easy for them to see that Margaux was bothered by something and was thankful for a distraction, even though Rainbow found that it was quite the conincidence that Anarys had arranged for a visit to the Vineyards, which they were using to their advantage. "Thank you for having us, Margaux," Rainbow replied, doing her best to continue her act, mostly for everyone else that was around them, as there happened to be a number of workers and guards in the section of the Vineyards that they were in at the moment, before she carefully pulled out the coin she had been given, which she had gotten a lot of use out of since Thalyssra gave it to her, and handed it over to her host, in the sense that it was more like a payment of some kind and just hoped the guards overlooked it while they were here, "though my sister said something about a tour... maybe we can take a look at the rest of the Vineyards?" "A tour? Of course, how could I forget... come, I will show you around the Vineyards myself!" Margaux said, making it look like she had forgotten what day it was and that Anarys had arranged for all of this to happen on the same day, mostly as an act for the guards, before she handed over the coin and smiled, as if saying that she didn't need the payment, giving Rainbow a chance to return the coin to where she kept it before she and Elylia followed after their host, so they could get this mission started and retrieve whatever Thalyssra wanted them to grab, before returning to Shal'Aran as she planned out the next move of their rebellion. Margaux, as Ly'leth previously mentioned, was concerned for Thalyssra's sake, since the rumors about her demise just so happened to be too good to be true, and she even made sure to keep her voice low when talking about their friend, which prevented the guards from hearing what they were talking about, while mentioning that the Duskwatch were not kind to her and everyone that worked under her, something that really made Rainbow wonder what in the world the faction did to those they captured, or at least the activities that weren't twisted by the Legion's ideas, before she decided not to plague her mind with those thoughts and followed Margaux. The vintner explained that they were heading to the Tasting Pavilion, which happened to be the open square shaped structure that was in front of them, with four stone posts that held up the roof of the building, giving Rainbow a moment to glance out at the rest of the Vineyards and found that there were a good number of structures scattered around the place, locations that they would likely stop at, and a number of trees that had to be filled with Arcane energy, before she refocused on what was in front of them as Margaux explained that they made sure to prepare some samples for her to test, to sample the product. Rainbow also learned that the area she had been led out of was the only area of the Vineyards that visitors were allowed to be in, which didn't give them a chance to see all that much since it was a small courtyard, and anyone who wanted to see more of the Vineyards had to be escorted by one of her workers, just like what was happening right now, something she agreed with since it made sure everything was secure and nothing was stolen, before they came to a stop and she found that three samples had been provided for her to taste before they moved onto the next part of the tour. As such Rainbow played along and sampled the first one, which just so happened to be honey infused and had a berry taste to it, something she was sure that their Nightfallen friends might like if they got a chance to taste it, the second was made from seventh generation manefruit and was mixed with nightshade flavors and a walnut finish, which made her feel like she was floating for a tiny bit, while the third was rather powerful, as the moment she tasted it she felt like it was strong enough to knock her off her feet, where the aid revealed that it was a mix of shadowberry and manafruit, triple infused with essence from the Nightwell. What Rainbow found to be interesting was that Margaux had arranged for three bottles of Arcwine, each a different color and being one of the three flavors she had tasted, were going to be added to everything that would be prepared for her to take with her, once she reached the end of the tour, where she figured that the first and second could be given to the rest of their allies while the final one might be shared between her and Spitfire, mostly to try and get her friend to relax a little, after becoming the Warchief anyway, before her host beckoned for her to follow and it wasn't long before she and Elylia left the pavilion as they followed her. As they walked, however, Margaux took a moment to inform them that there was a chance that they were going to see some troubling things, given that the Duskwatch was present inside the Vineyards and that usually brought trouble, before she started to inquire about Thalyssra and the rebellion while Rainbow answered to the best of her ability, keeping their voices silent while her host raised her voice every now and then to make it look like a tour was going on right now, even though she did admit that she was relieved that Thalyssra was alive and that she was inspiring those in the shadows to move once more. While they talked about the rebellion, and the First Arcanist's role in all of it, Rainbow learned that the Nightborne had the power to manipulate time, meaning that channeling the power of the Arcane allowed one to control time as well, which actually worried her a little since Elisande was the most powerful being in the city and that meant she likely had a grasp on Chronomancy, time magic, that was beyond what everyone else had, information she would pass onto Spitfire the next time they crossed paths, before Margaux inquired as to why Rainbow and Elylia had come here in the first place, given the danger of such a mission. Of course she was surprised to hear that Thalyssra had mentioned that the Vineyards had a unique way of dealing with insects, since it made her wonder if there was an insect problem she wasn't aware of, before she revealed that they had a good number of mana wyrms in one part of the Vineyards and that they preyed upon the insects that were bothering their trees, where it didn't take her long to figure out a reason as to why Thalyssra had sent them here and promised that she would have a few mana wyrms readied for their departure, in addition to everything else she was gifting them. Of course there came a moment of rage for all of them, one of the Duskwatch was viciously beating one of the workers in an area that they were passing by, all for the crime of taking a break, meaning that they must have been working since the first bit of sunlight hit the city and shined on everything that the Nightborne controlled, no doubt with a small break every now and then given that Margaux was the operator of this area, but seeing the guard beating up the worker enraged all three of them and it was their ally that stepped forward to stop it from happening further, even though it looked like her actions might have enraged the guard in question, before Rainbow assured her that the rebellion was, despite the terrible start they had, was gaining strength and allowed Margaux to get over what just happened as they walked over to the next structure she had for the tour. "This is where I must leave you, even for a short period of time, as I must prepare the next activity," Margaux explained, as she came to a stop near the small bridge that would bring them to the area that Rainbow assumed the next structure had an activity of some kind, making it the second and whatever Margaux had planned was the third in however many Anarys had arranged for her visit to this place, before she beckoned to the figure that was standing in the middle of the next area Rainbow and Elylia would be staying in for some time, "my assistant Sylverin will be more than happy to show you how the infusion process works." Rainbow thanked Margaux for what she had seen so far, despite the instant where the Duskwatch guard was beating up one of the workers, and walked over to where the male Nightborne was standing, who seemed to be waiting for them to show up and do whatever activity that the infusion process might be, where she found an intricate bowl resting nearby and assumed that it might be part of everything, while it looked like Elylia was keeping an eye on the guards in case they tried anything while they were in the Vineyards. "This is a rare treat, I hope you know, as not just anyone is allowed to stand in this hallowed ground." the elf, Sylverin, said, where he took a moment to adjust the cuffs of his shirt, in a dignified fashion no less, reminding Rainbow of Rarity a little as she watched it happen, before he gestured to the bowl that was nearby and then waved a hand for a moment so they could look out at the trees and water that rested around the area they were standing in, no doubt allowing them to take a few seconds to glance around the area before staring at him once more, "To participate in the demonstration, you must simply take up an energy vessel, like the one that we have prepared for you, and wade through the pool that is beside us, to catch the delicate dewdrops of Nightwell energy in the bowl as they fall... this is the only way one can safely manage its essence. Once your vessel is full, proceed to our demonstration cask and gently pour the amalgamation into it. That is the activity we have prepared, and I hope you enjoy yourself." That was followed by Rainbow raising her eyebrow for a moment, as she wasn't expecting something like this when they came over to this area, though it didn't stop her from picking up the bowl that had been prepared for her and walked out into the pool of water that was around them, leaving Elylia by sylverin and the rest of the workers that seemed to be on Thalyssra's side of the war, meaning more additional allies, where she turned her attention to the task that was in front of her and discovered something interesting, her innate Equestrian magic allowed her to see where each drop of magic that fell out of the sky might land, allowing her to carefully catch the droplets with ease and, once the vessel was full, she took it over to the nearby barrel that Sylverin was standing near, mixing the energy into the liquid. "Simple, no?" Sylverin inquired, though while he said that, and made sure the vessel was returned to where it had been a few moments ago, so one of the workers might take it out to gather more droplets and add them to the rest of the barrels that were around this area, he offered her and Elylia an intense fake smile as he beckoned for the pair to follow him once more, meaning they would be heading for the area that the next activity rested in, though as Rainbow expected it didn't take him long before he spoke up again, "The next activity will be taking place in the Juicing Veranda, where you will be the one making some Arcwine by following the instructions you are given." Sure enough Sylverin brought them over to a building that was surrounded by a few more impressive buildings, no doubt where the rest of the workers rested, or maybe the more important staff that distributed everything to the parts of the city and made sure everything arrived on time, before bringing them to where Margaux was standing and Rainbow found a circular tube that was filled with what she assumed was manafruit, blue colored fruit that had purple colored spots, likely a sign of the Arcane power inside them. There were a few things that Margaux had her do after she asked if Rainbow was ready for her activity, where she added some silver jasmine when told to add something floral, a sour note brought some shadefruit to the mixture, had to add a bit of additional water when her or her assistant determined that the water level was lower than it needed to be, and even jump into the vat to smash the fruit, to massage the fruit or something, which she did for a few minutes to make a mixture that, according to Margaux, would be added to everything else they would be taking back to Shal'Aran, before she finished and cleaned her feet, or the disguise's shoes. "You did quite well there... have you made wine before?" Margaux inquired, referring to the fact that Rainbow was able to follow all of her commands when she studied the mixture she had prepared for the activity, where she shook her head not a few seconds later, to show her that this happened to be the first time she had done something like this and that she had been lucky in getting everything right, without messing something up, which was when the vintner shrugged for a second and glanced at the large open area that was near them, the area that the trees rested in, "Our tour is just about over, so I will be letting you loose to 'walk the orchard', as is proper at this stage of a tour, for a few moments, where you'll be able to take in the sheer majesty of our vast manafruit orchard and notice the large number of mana wyrms floating about... I am quite certain that the Vineyard would not miss a handful of them, though to bring balance to the orchard you will have to take out a few silkwing moths at the same time." "Shouldn't be a problem for us," Elylia spoke up, speaking for the first time since they got to the Twilight Vineyards, since she had been doing a good job acting like a bodyguard and letting Rainbow, or Anarys to everyone else, do the talking as they explored the Vineyards, a place she knew about and had never come here before this point, where she was thankful for Spitfire and Rainbow finding the Arcan'dor's seed, since it allowed them to come here in the first place, while her brief statement was due to the fact that Rainbow was powerful and would be able to take out a few moths without being even a little bothered by it. With that done Rainbow and Elylia headed out to the orchard and found that there were definitely a large number of both mana wyrms and silkwings floating in the air, surrounding every tree Margaux and her team tended to, though she found that using her Equestrian magic while touching the wyrm caused the creature to stall, like she was stunning it for a time, so she made sure to do that to several more that were fluttering around the orchard and watched as it repeated itself on all of her targets, allowing Elylia to collect them and deliver them to Sylverin, making it looked like he had asked them to do it and that she was doing her part as Anarys' servant. Once that was done Rainbow glanced around the orchard and found that all of the Duskwatch seemed to be in the previous sections of the Vineyards, keeping to themselves while beating the daylights out of anyone who dared to take a break, something that caused her to smile as she removed the mask and took on her true form once more, which allowed her to spread her wings for a few seconds and flashed throughout the orchard she was in, swinging her Warblades with enough force to knock out several silkwings before they noticed what was going on, while also leaving no trace of her deed, so the Duskwatch would have no idea what happened. This would make them assume that it was either overeating, cauing them to collapse, or possibly heat or something else, to explain them coming to a stop, but once she had made sure to cut down eight of them, which happened to be the same amount of mana wyrms they had collected a few moments ago, Rainbow landed near where Elylia was standing and put on the mask again, which was when they left the orchard and let any Duskwatch that were entering the area, where a few happened to be heading in the direction of this section of the Vineyards, causing her and her companion to raise their eyebrows as they headed into one of the buildings, the same that Sylverin was waiting in. "Anarys, this is usually the point of one's tour where they are escorted from the Vineyards, to return to the city and enjoy the rest of their day," Sylverin spoke up, where Rainbow could see that he was distressed about something, which seemed to be the fact that Margaux was missing at the moment, something Elylia even noticed as they entered the building, but at the same time it made them wonder if the Duskwatch had come for her, which would mean either death or banishment from the city, the latter being the same as the former if the Nightborne in question couldn't get any Arcwine, where it took him a few seconds to regain hmself as he turned towards them, "my mistress is never late, in fact she is on time no matter what happens, so something must have happened to her after she took your Arcwine to be bottled and prepared the rest of your gifts for when it came time for you to leave... please, I need you to find her and make sure she is well." Rainbow nodded and barely had time to move as she heard the phrase 'seize her' to the left of the building they were in at the moment, something that caused her and Elylia to head outside in time to see a number of Duskwatch, flanking one of their number that appeared to be a commander of some kind, an Overseer to be exact, and there happened to be a group of Margaux's workers who were worried about what was going on right now, before she spotted Margaux as the Overseer cast a barrier spell around him and his target. "Margaux, by the order of the Grand Magistrix, you are hereby charged with sedition, as you continue to undermine my authority over this place and must pay the price." the Overseer stated, informing everything that was around him and his guards that they were here under orders from the one who ruled over the entire city, something Rainbow belived to be false since he had been inside the Vineyards earlier and there was no way for Elisande to know of what happened earlier, not unless it happened every day and she had grown tired of hearing this piece of news, though despite all of that it did look like Margaux was ready to stand her ground. "I have done no such thing! I have ensured that the Arcwine flows with no complications, and your authority doesn't give you the right to beat workers for taking a break!" Margaux replied, showing that she had no fear of the Duskwatch, even if she and the Overseer likely butted heads all the time about the subject and it had brought about this confrontation at long last, though before Rainbow could do anything she felt a familiar presence in the air, something that caused her to smile for a moment as she watched what was going on, since it looked like her aid might not be needed, which meant that she could keep her identity a secret and not ruin the Anarys disguise. "SILENCE! I will hear no more of your pitiful excuses!" the Overseer stated, showing everyone that was around him that he was definitely abusing his authority over the Vineyards and that Margaux was right on that, meaning this was just petty revenge for her treating the workers right and not beating them whenever they wanted to take a break, which needed to be given to them since Rainbow was sure that they worked long hours every single day, where that was followed by him forming a ball of magical energy for a few seconds, causing everyone to stop talking for a time, "Your sentence is death, be it by execution or banishment!" In that instant the Overseer loosed his attack through the air and it rushed towards where Margaux was standing, though before it could reach her a wall of fire sprung up around Rainbow's contact and stopped the attack before it could hit her, which would have killed her, though when the flames cleared she and Elylia found that their host was gone, though given the magical power that had been in the air a few moments ago, which was now heading in the direction of Shal'Aran, she had to assume Spitfire had grabbed Margaux and carried her off before the Overseer could figure out what happened to his target, where the Overseer started to bark out orders, commanding his forces to take full control over the Vineyards, which meant workers were going to get beaten up whenever they wanted to take a break. Sylverin was, of course, enraged by the fact that the Duskwatch would dare to lash out at Margaux like this, even if she was safe and sound in Shal'Aran, if Rainbow's thoughts were right on the matter, though instead of lashing out at the Duskwatch in retaliation, like one would assume he would ask of them, he suggested that they leave the Vineyards quickly, though there just so happened to be a small pavilion, a single person one, at the very edge of this section of the city and it had been where they placed the gifts for them to take with them, for safekeeping. Interestingly enough Oculeth spoke into their minds for a moment and made sure to tell them that there were a number of teleportation spells targeting the Vineyards, meaning reinforcements had to be coming, despite the fact that Rainbow and Elylia did nothing to the Duskwatch, though before they left the area they did make sure to thank Sylverin for his aid, even if they came at a bad time, and then departed from the building, making their way over to the pavilion in question rested, finding another Telemancy beacon resting on a very familiar pedestal, one that made Rainbow wonder how many small platforms there were throughout the city, before she raised her hand to activate the beacon and another portal sprung to life. She was sure that this one would be the same as the one that was resting inside the ruined temple Farodin had lead them through, as in she was sure that Oculeth would use his magic to seal the portal and prevent their enemies from following after them, or invade Shal'Aran for that matter, though as soon as that was done she and Elylia made sure to move the few containers that were nearby through the portal and placed all of them down in the portal section of Shal'Aran. Sure enough Spitfire was standing near Thalyssra, with Margaux next to her, looking a little shaken after being swept off of her feet and carried to this area in a matter of moments, so Rainbow focused on making sure everything was in order and left Farodin in charge of managing the mana wyrms, since he was the only making sure the Arcan'dor operated smoothly and had been the first to notice the locusts, which apparently the wyrms liked to munch on, before she and Elylia focused on discovering what sort of task Thalyssra wanted them to do next, especially after learning that Margaux had just been expelled from her own domain, all for protecting the workers from the Overseer's brutality, even though she hoped that the next task was to kill the Overseer, as she didn't like him all that much. "When I sent you two to the Vineyards, to get some mana wyrms for the locusts, I had no idea that the Duskwatch would make an attempt on Margaux's life," Thalyssra said, as it appeared that she had been talking to the vintner since she had been brought to Shal'Aran, thanks to Spitfire saving her life before the Overseer's attack had struck her, and was enraged by the fact that the Duskwatch would do something like this, especially since Margaux ensured that perfect Arcwine was sent out into the city and without complications, meaning removing her was a bad move on Elisande's part, before she sighed for a moment and focused on Rainbow once more, "since the Duskwatch think Margaux is dead, even though both of us have a plan to get a mask for her to assume a new identity to continue her work inside the Vineyards, they're likely going to return to their posts and come back later in the day, and this separation is just what we need... we're going to take down Overseer Durant and temporarily cripple the Duskwatch." "Given his contacts, I'm sure Vanthir will be able to help us out," Rainbow commented, as the elf seemed well connected to the various trades that were scattered throughout Suramar City, or at least it sure looked that way to her, though that was when Thalyssra nodded her head in agreement, showing that she shared the idea and believed that it would be the best way for them to bring down Durant, even though she also knew that Spitfire returning was only temporary and that she might be returning to one of the major cities, or she might stick around and help out the rebellion. Instead of heading out immediately, like one would expect, Rainbow took an hour to rest and make sure Farodin was fine with the amount of mana wyrms that were now flying around the growing Arcan'dor, something Margaux helped with as she waited for their allies to come up with a new mask for her, since her skills were more attuned to wine making and she belonged in the Twilight Vineyards, even though it would be some time before she would be able to return to her normal workplace, though as soon as that hour was up she and Elylia headed out, where they used the portal that connected to the fountain area of the Waning Crescent and made their way to where Vanthir was stationed. "Ah, Anarys, I'm glad that you and your bodyguard are unharmed, after all the unfortunate business in the Vineyards, or so the rumors suggest," Vanthir said, informing Rainbow that someone had definitely spread a story, or several since he had mentioned there were multiple ones that were being told, meaning the Duskwatch likely informed everyone, through one of the magical means that no doubt existed throughout the city, of what had happened in the Twilight Vineyards earlier that morning, before he raised his hand a little, to stop them from saying anything, "the 'loss' of our friend is regrettable, but, sadly, it will be the first of many for the rebellion, since there will be times where someone can't be saved from what is happening to them. News of Margaux's 'death' has hit many in the city hard, especially those who call the Waning Crescent home, but if we're going to carry on with our lives, both daily and the rebellion, something has to be done about this, and by that I mean we have to sent a strong message to our enemies, so that those like Durant will know we are watching their movements and that we will hold them accountable for their actions... and to do that we need the help of someone, Arluin to be exact. He's, well, a rather shadowy figure and might not talk to you if you flash the loyalty coin at him, or maybe he will, but I do know that he'll ask for some sort of compensation before he will lend you his aid, though you'll find him in the alleys of the Evermoon Bazaar." Once more Rainbow entrusted the task of navigating the city to Elylia, since she knew most of the city's layout like the back of her hand, who lead her back over to part of the Waning Crescent that they had walked through earlier, when they saved those that had been abducted and aided them in escaping, who joined Thalyssra's forces after leaving the city behind for a time, before they crossed a bridge and entered the other area of this section of the city, where it seemed like there were a fair number of Duskwatch either patrolling it or just relaxing after what they did this morning, before Elylia spotted an elf that was wearing darker clothing than the rest of the Nightborne and had a hood covering his head, something that was followed by her nodding her head, indicating that this was their target. "Arluin, I was told you might be able to help us," Rainbow spoke up, keeping her voice low so that none of the Duskwatch would be able to overhear what she had to say to the elf, who seemed to raise an eyebrow for a moment as he glanced at her and Elylia, though since he didn't move to grab a weapon, nor did he emerge from his hiding place while she talked to him, that made her hope that the Nightborne was willing to listen to her and then render his assistance when his toll was paid in full, "but first, I must ask: do you know the significance of the dusk lily?" "I see, you're one of hers, aren't you?" the elf, Arluin, replied, showing that he understood the odd question that Rainbow had asked, even though Elylia knew that there was no phrase that would have allowed Arluin to figure out whose side they were on, meaning it was made up and he even understood it with ease, before he seemed to think about why they were here in the first place and seemed to come to an understanding in seconds, no doubt thinking about the rumors that the Duskwatch were spreading around the city right now, "That means Vanthir told you about me... unless you two happen to have something for me to risk my life for, say enough mana to sustain me for a month, roughly twenty mana shards, then I'm afraid we can't do business with each other." Rainbow paused for a moment, since she wasn't expecting something like that to be the price of them doing business, and just sighed as she turned to leave this part of the city, even though part of her wanted to punch Arluin's face since he had a smug look on his face, like he believed that she couldn't pay his price, but since Anarys didn't seem to lash out at people whenever she got mad about something, based on what she had learned from Ly'leth, she just headed back to the portal they had used to get to the Waning Crescent and returned to Shal'Aran without much delay. Once they returned to their based of operations she found a crate that wasn't being used at the moment, making sure that it could hold the number of mana shards that Arluin had asked for, before heading out while Elylia remained inside the ruins, because with her speed and the seeking stone Thalyssra had given her she knew that this task wouldn't take too long for her to complete, even if she needed to collect twenty shards and deliver them to their contact, and sure enough the first two rested at the bottom of a tree to the immediate west of Shal'Aran's entrance. From there it was a simple matter for her to return to Ambervale and started to harvest the mana crystals that were scattered around the place, making sure to target the shards since she spotted far more of them and less of the other kinds, even though she did find a bigger crystal that seemed more ancient, meaning it had to be more powerful than the shards she had found, something she slipped into her pack to give to one of their allies, since Arluin didn't deserve such a thing in the first place and it would be wasted on him. The moment she had the twenty shards needed for their new ally, or at least she hoped he was an ally and wouldn't betray Thalyssra when he felt that Elisande was the better bet, not that she planned on letting such a thing happen, Rainbow returned to Shal'Aran and made sure to put the lid on the crate, before applying her disguise as she and Elylia headed back through the portal to the Waning Crescent, where they retraced their steps and headed to the area that Arluin was hiding in, who seemed a tad bit surprised to see them again, but he returned to his neutral state when he noticed the crate. "It is good to know that you truly value my skills and knowledge," Arluin commented, where Rainbow said nothing as Elylia handed over the crate and allowed the Nightborne in question to check out the contents for a few seconds, finding twenty mana shards, as per his request, something that caused him to close the lid and set it aside, meaning that he would take it away once they were no longer in the area, though Rainbow was amazed they had gotten the crate to him without any of the Duskwatch bothering them, but she wasn't going to complain about what was going on, "Now, I know you want to get back at both Elisande and her Duskwatch, while sending a message to everyone else in the city, both potential allies and enemies, and one way to go about doing that is by stealing the one type of Arcwine that is reserved for our beloved ruler, the Thousand-Year Arcwine to be exact, and it just so happens that Elisande has a daily shipment of it that is currently on its way out of the Vineyards... if you promise me a cut of the Arcwine, my inside man can hold up the shipment for a while and give you a chance to take the shipment. Also, the guards have caught onto one of my favorite havens, where I hide my goods, and I'm positive that whoever has been sent to claim my goods might be leaving soon, so if you could take them out and recover my goods it would show me you can be trusted... I might even kick a few jobs your way, if I feel that such a thing is required." Rainbow had no desire to do such a thing, even though she was sure that it might happen in the future, given that no one had an idea of what direction the rebellion might take next, but she did make sure to learn that the shipment was likely at the entrance of the Vineyards, while the hideout that was being raided was in the Waning Crescent, on the other side from where they were standing, to which she moved to an area that was away from everyone else and removed the mask, all so she could spread her wings and take to the skies once more, even if it was to drop off Elylia at the location of Arluin's now revealed stash. The plan was for Elylia to take out the Auditor, as their new friend called the individual in question, while she rushed over to where the shipment was located, which she would know due to Arluin's agent acting out a scene to stall the rest of the team, basically killing two birds with one stone, even if they were in two different areas of the city, and sure enough the Nightborne that was raiding Arluin's stash barely noticed as Elylia was dropped behind her, allowing Rainbow to focus on her task as she headed through the air and traveled in the direction of the Vineyards. Sure enough she found a group that had to be the ones shipping Elisande's Arcwine, right outside her destination no less, and it looked like Arluin's man had done his job, as he was upholding the others by 'accidentally' dropping a cask and put a crack in the side, but given how important the shipment had to be she assumed that this was a fake cask with a bit of normal Arcwine to hide the real thing, which was no doubt unharmed inside the true container, and, as she expected, the others weren't all that happy and seemed to be approaching the elf that was slowing them down. Not a few seconds later, after she had a chance to determine who the highest ranking member of the group was, as there happened to be an elf who wore a set of impressive armor, in the familiar style of the Nightborne, and carried one of the double bladed weapons, similar to their warglaives, but instead of giving him a chance to slay Arluin's man, as that seemed to be his intentions right now, she just flashed down to where he was standing and used her Warblades to stop the attack, before spinning around and cut into her opponent's chest, dropping him in seconds, much to her surprise. She had to assume that the Nightborne in question was one of the weaker guards, like those that had been sent to find Oculeth or retrieve his Telemancy supplies, though before she could focus on the other members of the shipment, those who sided with the slain guard, they gave up and ran away, causing Arluin's man to thank her and departed from the area as well, leaving her to collect the true cask of Thousand-Year Arcwine, which had been hidden inside a fake cask for safety, and flew back to the Evermoon Bazaar, where she made sure to put her disguise back on as she met up with Elylia, who seemed to have succeeded in her task as well, before they returned to Arluin's location and gvae him the news, all while wondering if he'd actually help him or not. "You two are quite dependable, I'll give you that much," Arluin said, where he made sure that the cask Rainbow brought was the right one, which it was as he soon discovered when he opened the lid and noticed what was inside it, though that happened to be when he divided what was inside it into two casks, one for himself and the other for them, their share of the goods as he called it, before he reached into a pocket and withdrew a piece of paper, one that he handed to Elylia not a few seconds later, "While you were working I took the time to ask around and found that Overseer Durant happens to live near the Shimmerscale Garden section of the Waning Crescent, though while I know you two are both skilled, given what I asked you to do, there are three others that need to be gathered to bring him down with due haste... you need to tell Cyrille that the owl hoots at dusk, inform Lorin the saber prowls the plaza, and tell Sylessa has breathed his last, as all of them will know what to do from there." As Rainbow soon discovered the note contained the physical descriptions of the three individuals they were looking for, who she suspected were additional members of Thalyssra's first rebellion and had gone into hiding, in a sense, when their leader had been taken out, so hearing that she was back and that they were going to punish Durant might have brought them out of their hiding places so they could restore order to the city, to which she and Elylia departed from the area and started to hunt down the three Nightborne that they were looking for. According to Arluin's notes they would find Cyrille in the Bazaar, no doubt shopping and passing the time as he planned his next move out, Lorin was somewhere in the square and should be easy for them to find, given that they knew what she looked like and the Duskwatch didn't apparently, and Sylessa liked to check the canals, meaning she might be near one of the gondolas for some reason, but at least they had an idea of where to find each one and moved out without delay, once more putting on the act that they had been using since Ly'leth started helping the rebellion out. Sure enough it didn't take them all that long to locate there targets, who happened to be minding their business, though when they gave each individual the phrase that Arluin had given them to use for the three targets, while making sure no Duskwatch guards were nearby, each of them walked off with purpose in their step and that meant they might see their new allies when they approached Overseer Durant, which was the moment they found another addition to the note and it possessed the location of their target, hence why they headed out before any of the guards tried to stop them. Thanks to Arluin's notes it didn't take them all that long to track down Durant's place of residence, where they quickly found their target trying to rest after what happened this morning, though once Rainbow was sure that there were no guards around, and felt a slight shift in the air, like someone else was near them, to which she removed the mask and rushed right into her target's side, knocking him into the floor as Lorin and their new allies sprung out of the shadows, their invisibility spells fading away in seconds, meaning it was five on one and Durant really had next to no time to react as he parried Rainbow's first attack, leaving him exposed to the other incoming attacks. Given the circumstances it didn't take them long to bring down Durant, who called Lorin and the others traitors as he fell face first into the floor, though as the trio started to leave, by teleporting out of the building, Cyrille knelt by Durant's body and placed a dusk lily on top of his chest, to which she smiled at them and vanished from the area as well, leaving them to do the same as Rainbow assumed her disguise once more and they headed back to where Vanthir was waiting, as based on Arluin's words he wasn't expecting them to return to him once the deed was done, and sure enough their friend was waiting for them to return, with their new allies standing nearby. "Well done. All of you have ensured that our enemies will be more wary from now on," Vanthir said, meaning he knew all about the dusk lily being placed on Durant's body, which made sense considering that they were trying to send a message and this one was as bold as they could make it, telling Elisande that Thalyssra was alive, or at the very least that those who had followed her during the first failed rebellion hadn't given up hope yet, and that she would likely be glancing at any and every shadow that happened to be near her or her allies for the foreseeable future, before he sighed for a moment as he considered something, "but know that there will be consequences for what has happened today, for both us and those we stand against... for now, I would suggest returning to Shal'Aran and telling Thalyssra the news, as we'll keep an eye on the city and report any strange happenings to her." Rainbow nodded and returned to Shal'Aran without delay, with Elylia following her, where they informed Thalyssra, not to mention Margaux since part of what they did involve her 'death', but they were both pleased by what the pair had done for them and the rebellion, as it showed those that were still on the fence that if anyone like Margaux were to perish at the hands of either the Duskwatch or Elisande, the latter being unlikely, then they would pay the price, but for now they were given some time to rest as they waited for something to happen inside the city. > Suramar: Statecraft > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow found that three days passed before anything interesting happened in Suramar, much less the city, giving the rest of the heroes time to make sure the Legion didn't make any attempts on the rest of the Broken Isles, Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms, or any of the other continents of Azeroth, where the various classes made sure to beat their enemies back and ensure the safety of whatever area they were told to go to, even though Spitfire and the leaders of the factions made sure they had enough people guarding both the main cities and the provinces of the Isles. She still felt that it was interesting that all it took was the death of Sylvanas Windrunner to unite the Alliance and the Horde into a fighting force that happened to be in the middle of overturning the Legion's third attempt to take Azeroth, though when she thought about everything that the Banshee Queen had planned for this world, a fourth faction war that nearly tore apart the world everyone fought for, not to mention breaking the veil between Azeroth and a place called the Shadowlands, but she knew this was for the best and wasn't about to complain about it, since the results were in Spitfire's favor. While those days went by Ly'leth called for her to visit her a few times, where she was mostly playing the role of Anarys during a few events, as in this was to keep up appearances and make everyone think that nothing was wrong, and it was one of the times where she wished that Spitfire had been the one to take the role, as she was better at acting like she belonged in a noble's place like this, but given everything that Spitfire was going through right now, being the leader of the Illidari and the Horde, she just kept her mouth shut and did her best to act like she was Anarys, though one thing she did notice was that Ly'leth did seem happy to have a 'sibling' who cared for her, showing her that her true sister didn't love her that much. Truthfully, it was a little sad that Anarys didn't share Ly'leth's opinion on the Legion, that Elisande allying with them went against everything that their father stood for, not to mention the fact that Ly'leth had to go through a few measures to keep Anarys safe and sound, to prevent her from doing anything stupid and ruining her life, like joining the Legion for example, and she did her best to make it look like she was Anarys, all while waiting for something to happen. While she did that, however, Spitfire spent her spare time studying the Leylines that Valtrois was focused on and seemed to impress her as the days went by, especially since she was able to track down the exact locations of the remaining Ley Stations that were scattered throughout Suramar, which would aid them in powering Shal'Aran and feed the Arcan'dor all the power it needed, something that was followed by the magical tree growing and the branches expanding more, putting a smile on Farodin's face as he saw it. While all of that happened, however, Spitfire also found something interesting while she explored one of the ruins of Suramar, the Mood Guard Stronghold to be exact, and it happened to be a small stone that was smooth and was half the size of someone's hand, though it possessed an Arcane purple coloration to it and she could feel the power that rested inside it, something that might help them out if her thoughts were correct, hence why the stone of infinite power remained with her as she studied the Arcane and the Leylines. Rainbow honestly wasn't sure what was so special about the stone, even though she knew that finding something that contained a vast amount of power in it might aid them in powering the Arcan'dor, but she decided to leave that part of their plans to Spitfire and those that were helping her work on it or tending to the magical tree that was in the middle of Shal'Aran, as she needed to focus on being ready for whenever Ly'leth called on her to come back to the city, be it for another party or heading into another part of the city to deal with another problem for the rebellion, like what happened when she and Elylia headed to the Vineyards to grab some mana wyrms. She was glad to have someone such as Elylia on their side, as it allowed her and the rest of their allies, those not familiar with the city, to know where everything was located and plan out how to aid those who were still under Elisande's thumb, because Ly'leth had acquired a number of lesser magical masks for the other heroes to use when they headed into the city for a time, either to help out at the Vineyards, with the hidden Margaux helping them out at the same time, or to aid the Waning Crescent, obtaining Arcwine and delivering it to Vanthir or just keeping an eye on the rest of the Duskwatch, with the masks making them look like ordinary Nightborne citizens. Once the third day had ended, and the fourth one started with everyone getting up to greet the day, Rainbow found that Thalyssra seemed to be thinking about something, or maybe she was listening to something that had been brought to her, as Ly'leth used a few of her lesser known attendants to deliver messages between her and Shal'Aran, though she did make sure to have something for breakfast, praising Scarlet for the excellent meal once more since she had taken on the role of their chef, joined by a male Pandaren who went by the name of Nomi and was dressed as a chef, before collecting Elylia as she headed for where Thalyssra was waiting, as she felt that a new mission might be available for them. "Ah, Rainbow, I have some news that might interest you: there are new whispers coming from Suramar City, from both the citizens and the nobles." Thalyssra said, though the reason she was saying this to her was because of the amount of time that she was spending with Ly'leth and the rest of her group, even if she had been doing it to make sure no one raised the alarm about Anarys and the fact that she was missing, if such a thing happened anyway since she wasn't familiar with all of the customs of Suramar City, which happened to be one of the reasons why Ly'leth had her join her during the parties and events she invited her to, before she returned to the topic at hand, "Recent unrest in the city, between the actions of our rebellion and the demons being allowed inside our home, has prompted the nobles to seek another advisor to fill a spot on Elisande's council... such positions are rarely offered and hotly contested. This is the perfect opportunity and Ly'leth is the perfect candidate to fill it, almost as if fate smiles upon our cause and is beckoning for us to take the risk to cause her ascension in the ranks of the city's elite, even though she has, historically, chosen to avoid such politics and maneuvering, but we must now ask her to join the fray, to gain more information and resources for our forces. I suspect that she knows I'll be sending you to her, given our recent history with her, so fully expect her to have some tasks for you to accomplish to ensure her position on the Grand Magistrix's council." "Meaning get ready to kill some enemies and assist allies with their tasks," Rainbow replied, showing that she understood what Thalyssra was saying and wasted no time in putting on the mask that she had been given during her first meeting with Ly'leth, one that had the enchantment empowered so that she could use it even when she wasn't inside the city, all to give her time to practice with Thalyssra, Valtrois, and those who knew the customs that Anarys knew about, making a good impersonation of their ally's sister, before she beckoned for Elylia to join her as she headed through the portal that would bring them to the Waning Crescent section of the city. Her reasoning was that it was the best place for Ly'leth to move to while she was working to ensure her position before even making an attempt on claiming the new position on Elisande's council, and even if their ally wasn't near Vanthir's shop, the only place she figured Ly'leth would visit at a time like this, there was always checking out her estate or finding the Nightborne who served as her attendant, since he might know where she might be, though upon returning to the part of the city that seemed to be where they spent most of their time she made her way over to Vanthir's place and found the attendant standing nearby, with Ly'leth and Vanthir talking to each other inside the building, something that quickly came to a stop when they noticed the pair entering the building. "Sister! It is good to see that you are already up, especially after last night's party," Ly'leth said, referring to the event that Rainbow had attended to continue ensuring that no one noticed that Anarys was missing and went to find her, which was definitely last night and happened to be one of the reasons Rainbow wanted a good nights sleep once she and Elylia got back to Shal'Aran, even though it was followed by her and Rainbow embracing for a moment, just in case something was watching from the outside, before separating as they focused on the reason behind their visit to the Waning Crescent, as it was different from the last couple of times they had come here, "Thalyssra continues to ask much of me, for the sake of our rebellion, but I am more than ready to do everything in my power to ensure we secure the position that has become available, as the position and title of advisor would grant us enormous influence over the city, give us more information to use against Elisande, access to areas formerly off-limits to us... I could change the rebellion and save lives. However, to do this, I will need a great deal of support, or endorsement as some like to call it, from the other noble houses that rest all throughout Suramar City, and while I know that many will side with me due to the virtue of my family's name, there are those that are hesitant to do such a thing... and, among their number, Lady Aurore of House Astravar is by far the most prominent of them all, so I would ask that you seek her out and offer her your aid, as it might convince her to put forth her support in this matter." "Of course, sister, I'll be sure to give her whatever aid I can," Rainbow replied, where she did find it easier to slip into the role of Anarys after all the time she spent with Ly'leth, to blend into the nobles and everything, and knew that if Ly'leth's real sister saw this she would likely think that her entire life had been stolen, where in a way she guessed it had been due to the fact that Anarys didn't share her sister's faith at all, before she noticed that Vanthir also had something he wanted to say before she and Elylia departed, especially since he had a crate resting nearby. "There are other houses that must be dealt with in a different manner, who use fear and coercion to get what they want, and Ly'leth must deal with them as well," Vanthir added, though that was when he opened the top of the crate and let the pair peer into it, finding a number of the stronger mana crystals resting inside it, something that told Rainbow they might be heading to see Arluin again, as he was the only one, in the entirety of Suramar so far, who even asked for something like this for the aid or information that he lent them, before he sealed the crate once more, "We believe that Arluin might have a few ideas on how to proceed with preventing those houses from gaining the support necessary to challenge Ly'leth for the advisor position, and, as such, we have prepared an offering for him ahead of time, it just needs to be delivered to his location and he needs to be spoken to." Rainbow nodded, showing that she understood what was being asked of her, before Ly'leth informed her that Lady Aurore should be somewhere in the Gilded Market, an area of the city that was crawling with demons and, if rumors were to be believed, the Felborne, Nightborne that had succumbed to the Legion's power and was aiding them in ensuring the rest of the city followed Elisande, a problem they would have to deal with in time, while Arluin should be in the same place they had found him the last time they sent Rainbow and Elylia to find him. As such the pair grabbed the crate, or at least Elylia did since she was the 'servant' in this situation, before they headed outside and made their way over to where Arluin was hiding out, in the Evermoon Bazaar, though once more none of the guards seemed to care about them and likely figured they were just getting things ready for a venture to another part of the city, given all of the gondolas that were traveling in the canals of the city, and it wasn't long before they found Arluin, standing where they had found him the last time they had been in this area. "Arluin, it would appear that we are in need of your assistance again," Rainbow said, keeping her voice low so only the elf in front of them would be able to hear her speak, while at the same time he gestured to Elylia for a moment and waited for the crate to be placed on the ground between them and their shadowy acquaintance, who opened the lid for a second and noticed what was inside it, though once the lid was closed she spoke up once more, "My sister is preparing to make a play for the advisor position that became available recently and we could use your help in 'persuading' some of the other houses to support her over those they might be supporting right now." "With the rebellion going on, I knew you would come to me at some point in time, so let's talk strategy," Arluin replied, his tone revealing that he had guessed that someone from the rebellion would have paid him a visit again and that he was pleased with the offering that was being given to him this time around, something that he placed to the side and had to be thinking about how he would transport it to another part of the city, to get it away from the Duskwatch, before he took a moment to consider something, "While there are two houses that might threaten Ly'leth's chances of claiming the advisor position, we can only concern ourselves with one of them right now, and that is House Duskmere, who commands respect through fear and fear that is unfounded, and they happen to possess an heir that is quite powerful in the magical arts, a boastful and charming individual called Ruven Duskmere... one of the first Felborne to grace our city, after accepting the power of the Legion so he could, in his words, 'fulfill the destiny' his mother saw in his future, though with this betrayal it is clear, to some anyway, that he has lived long enough." "Meaning he must be taken out before anything else can be done," Rainbow stated, showing that she had figured out all of the phrases that usually revealed someone's intentions and that there were many that might tell someone that another person needed to be slain, though she also knew that those who accepted the power of the Legion usually became worse than what they were before they took the Fel energy into their bodies, her, Spitfire, and most of the Illidari being the big exception to that rule, before she sighed for a moment, like she had received bad news, and focused on Arluin for a few more seconds, "tell me where I might find him and the job will be done in seconds." As it turned out Ruven was in the Gilded Market as well, supposedly down in the canal and was near a set of stairs, which would allow him to emerge once he was ready to do whatever foul business his new masters had for him, something that was followed by Rainbow and Elylia departing from the area as they headed towards the new section of the city that they were going to be spending some time in, which involved walking by the magical cages that were no longer filled with those the Duskwatch had been planning on exiling at some point. From there they made their way through the part of the city that was right under the main bridge that she and Elylia had met Ly'leth on, before she had them head down into the Waning Crescent for the first time, and eventually reached the start of the Gilded Market, where Rainbow found a number of demons and Felborne walking around like they owned the place, all of them no doubt empowered to the point where they might be able to see through disguises. Fortunately, while most of that was bad news, she did see a path they could take that would get them into the section of the city that Lady Aurore was supposedly waiting in, and given it was Ly'leth who gave them that information she was sure it was correct, so she beckoned for Elylia to follow her as she gracefully made her way through the areas that their enemies were watching over, giving none of them a chance to figure out that someone with a mask had slipped by them, before pausing as she reached the central statue, mostly to let the guards in front of her move before continuing towards her destination. Lady Aurore stood off to the left of some stairs, putting her above everyone else that was in the area, something that was the fault of whoever designed this portion of the city and not her own doing, meaning she was far enough away from the Felborne and the demons, while at the same time her own guards seemed a tad bit nervous about something, either due to whatever had happened to House Astravar or the fact that Anarys Lunastre was approaching them, no doubt wondering what sort of business she had with their boss, but at the very least Aurore allowed her and Elylia to approach her, all while she glanced out towards the city and made sure none of the guards or demons came at them. "Anarys, I can hazard a guess as to why you came to find me," Aurore said, showing that she understood what was going on in the city and that it had only been a matter of time until one of the Houses that were making a move came to gain her support for their candidate, which made things somewhat easier for Rainbow since she didn't have to explain herself to one of Ly'leth's close friends, before the Nightborne sighed for a moment as she focused on her, "but I'm afraid that it is impossible for me to assist you. I mean no offense, as I love Lady Ly'leth like she was my own sister, like how she loves you and how you love her, but my hands are tied right now and there is nothing I can do to help you..." "Something must have happened, to make you hold back your support like this," Rainbow replied, where she hoped that Aurore would tell her and Elylia what in the world was going on and what they could do to help her overcome whatever in the world had happened, though given everything she assumed that it might happen inside the Gilded Market as well, but as she said that it looked like her companion might have an idea on where they could find Ruven Duskmere, allowing her to focus on the task at hand for the time being. "I'm not entirely sure how I didn't see this coming, but my son has been kidnapped." Aurore stated, where she wringed her hands for a moment, like she was relieving herself of some of the stress of the situation she was currently in, while taking a few seconds to consider what had happened to her and how much she wanted to tell Rainbow, though it sure looked like she might tell her everything, since she believed that she was Anarys and that she might help her if she revealed what had happened to her House, before she focused on Rainbow and Elylia once more, "Yesterday, after we heard the first couple of rumors about the new advisor position, I was approached by Coryn Stelleris and learned that he wanted to talk about appointing someone to take the advisor role, no doubt one of his friends or even himself, but I did not offer my support to his cause... he, in turn, told me that my son's life would continue as normal if I gave him my vote and, sure enough, this morning my son went missing, no doubt abducted by Coryn. You know that his family is capable of cruel things, which has me worried that they might do something to my son if I don't agree to give them my vote... but you, Anarys, you might be able to either talk some sense into them or even rescue my son from this fate... if you save my son from Coryn, and those who serve him, I'll give Ly'leth my support." Rainbow nodded her head and quickly departed from the area that Aurore was standing in, heading for a bridge that just so happened to link this part of the market to a second section of the same area and found that there was far more to the market area than what she had been expecting, though fortunately there also happened to be a set of stairs further ahead of them that lead down to the canal, the one that would bring them to where Ruven was located, so what Rainbow did was head down it and avoided anyone who might see through the illusion of her mask. Sure enough she found a Nightborne who was wearing the armor of the Duskwatch and happened to be watching over some of the citizens of the city, citizens that had shackles on their wrists and legs, meaning they were going to be delivered to the Legion, something she figured out with ease thanks to the fact that the armed elf had a slight modification to his armor, as his was Fel-tainted and wasn't the silver that the Duskwatch wore, meaning this had to be Ruven and he was, as far as Rainbow could tell, intoxicated by all of his new power, to the point where she was sure that any more Fel energy would begin his transformation into a true demon. Instead of wasting time, given that a group of citizens were about to be shipped off, she pulled away for a couple of seconds and pulled the mask off, which she handed to Elylia, who would slip over to the prisoners and free them before the Legion came for them, before rushing forward and drew her Warblades as she swung at Ruven, who noticed the attack and raised his weapon to intercept it, causing their blades to clash with each other for a few seconds before she spun her body a little and kicked him in the side of his chest, knocking him into a nearby wall within a matter of seconds, causing the Felborne to cough up some blood before he charged at her and tried to strike her down. As they clashed, however, Ruven reached a point where he tried to call upon his innate Arcane powers, the very powers that Arluin had mentioned and the ones Ly'leth told her about during one of their sessions, and found that nothing happened, causing Rainbow to grin for a moment as she spun around and delivered a few diagonal slashes to her foe's chest, dropping him to the ground without him being able to do anything, while the addition of his soul to her blades, and his small Fel power to hers, informed her that Ruven was dead. Based on what Jace and the other Illidari had said a mage can lose their original abilities when they take in too much Fel energy, crippling them and forcing them to take in more Fel energy, which would grant them more Fel related powers at some point in time, and Ruven had been trapped in the crippled state without him knowing about it, which lead to his demise, though Rainbow made sure the citizens were safe, who praised her and Elylia for their actions before heading out to return to their homes, but as she applied the mask once more, and assumed her disguise, they found a gondola moving into the area and Arluin was on it, who glanced towards them for a moment. "It would seem that I was right to leave the fight to you, as you had everything under control," Arluin remarked, showing that he must have been following and watching them since they left the part of the Waning Crescent that he worked and lived in, not that Rainbow was even remotely surprised to see him since they were working to bring down Ly'leth's foes so she could take the advisor position, meaning he likely had another idea to use against the Houses that were in their way, or at least she hoped that was the case, "Now, with you being Ly'leth's sister and all, I'm sure you know that Coryn Stelleris and Ruven Duskmere were close friends when they were younger, but one of them always overshadowed the other and they loved their competitions with each other, especially when it involved gaining something the other had... now that you have done in Ruven, and the guards will soon discover his fate so they tell everyone in the Gilded Market, Coryn and his House stand to gain much from Ruven's death. I think you should redirect House Duskmere's anger and grief towards Coryn's family, with a few well placed rumors that I have prepared for you... though once you've done that, and have made sure to stir things up, you should return to your sister, just like I'll be doing after this conversation is over." Instead of wasting time talking to Arluin, even though she collected the note that possessed the rumors he wanted her to tell to certain individuals, who were included on the list, Rainbow and Elylia headed up into the market and spent a bit of time looking like they might be looking for something to buy or just enjoying the day, even though they were waiting for a guard to discover Ruven's fate, and sure enough, not an hour later, the guards and citizens started to talk with each other as they heard part of the troubling news, which meant Arluin was controlling how much information the people got and was opening a window for her to use to spread her rumors. Once she knew what was going on, and Elylia understood it as well, they made their way over to one of the shops and found a distraught noble inside, a lady to be exact, and according to the note it happened to be Ruven's mother, where Rainbow offered her condolences to Lady Duskmere before taking a moment to ask if she heard the rumor about a small silver crescent near Ruven's body, the mark of House Stelleris, and it was met by Lady Duskmere proclaiming that she couldn't believe that Coryn would do such a thing to her son, based on their relationship anyway, and Rainbow assured her that she didn't mean anything by it, even though she dropped a small bit about the guards knowing about the pendant, causing the lady to break down in tears. Part of Rainbow really hated to do something like this, even though Ruven brought his fate upon him by taking in the Fel energy like that, because for the most part Coryn was innocent in this and it didn't feel right breaking Ruven's mother down like this, but at the very least this would disrupt the communication between the two Houses and maybe cause one to not vote for the other, before she headed out and tracked down one of the other individuals on the list she had been given, just to get this over with and go find Aurore's son, who was at the docks based on what she had seen earlier. The second individual she was looking for, to spread some additional rumors to tip things in Ly'leth's direction, was someone who appeared to be a butler who worked for Ruven, who must have been dismissed before she killed his former employer, which was when she asked him if he was aware of the fact that there was a rumor about Coryn buying all of House Duskmere's personal, causing the butler to say that such a thing didn't make sense and that it would never happen, before apparently buying into her rumor and took a moment to inquire why Coryn was purchasing Ruven's attendants as he walked away in a huff. The third and final individual was a noble who looked ashamed of siding with Ruven, apparently due to him making plans for when his lord ascended to the council, plans that have now shamed him in the eyes of the remaining Houses, and that was when Rainbow mentioned overhearing a joke while visiting the Stelleris family, something that outraged the shamed noble and caused him to walk away in a huff as well, which was when she and Elylia headed over to the dock and found a stroke of good fortune, Ailen Astravar was unharmed and his guards had fled after hearing some of rumors about what their boss was up to, allowing them to free him and deliver him to his incredibly grateful mother, who embraced her son the moment they returned to where she was standing. "Anarys... thank you. I owe you, and Ly'leth, a great debt, one I will do my best to repay," Aurore said, her expression and tone revealing that she was overjoyed to see that her son was safe and sound, especially after all the worrying she must have been through since his kidnapping the previous day, which made Rainbow better about this entire ordeal, since part of what they had done didn't sit well with her at all, but before they did anything else she beckoned for them to move and Rainbow started to lead the way back to the Waning Crescent, as it seemed that Aurore might be worried about Coryn or his henchmen coming for her son again and wanted him to be safe before the vote happened. While they walked through the city, and headed back to where Ly'leth, Vanthir, and the rest of their allies were waiting, all of them heard several guards talking about the rumors that had been spread about Ruven, be they those that Rainbow had dropped before retrieving Ailen or ones that Arluin had spread, no doubt having prepared a few items to make sure their story stuck, and based on what she could tell it sure sounded like no one was going to side with Coryn or his House from this point forward, meaning they might have crippled one enemy House and the other had no candidate to place in the new position, something she stopped thinking about as they reached Vanthir's shop and informed Ly'leth of what was going on right now. "Sister, I must thank you for assisting Aurore, and everything else you did at the same time," Ly'leth said, showing that she appreciated Rainbow going out of her way to make sure Coryn didn't do anything dangerous to the son of her friend, one of her friends anyway, even if there wasn't much she had to do to save Ailen from those that wished him harm, while also making sure not to reveal anything about the rumors, or Rainbow being the one to start them, while Aurore was nearby, before she thought about something else, "Please, head upstairs and rest for a bit... it will take some time for the rest of the Houses to determine who they want to lend their support to, and I'd like for you to be ready for when we heard what all of them have to say on the matter." As Rainbow discovered an hour went by before anything happened, because once sixty minutes went by they received the news that they had been waiting for, that nearly every House in Suramar City was lending their support to Ly'leth, save for House Stelleris anyway, which meant they had succeeded in raising Ly'leth to the new council position that had been made available recently, something that told Rainbow these seats were filled rather quickly and took only a day or two to fill, but once the courier disappeared Ly'leth had her attendant, along with Rainbow and Elylia, follow her to the Sanctum of Order so they could witness the ascension process, while Arluin parted ways with them. Apparently he didn't like being in the company of such esteem figures, or something like that based on what Rainbow was seeing, but she paid it no mind as she and the others followed Ly'leth as she lead the way back to the main bridge that connected the main structure of the city, the Nighthold, to the Grand Promenade, meaning that the Sanctum of Order had to be one of the buildings that rested close to the main road, even if they had to make their way through the Duskwatch and several demons to reach the area that was their destination, without fighting them anyway. Sure enough it was easy to see that there were a few nobles that were making their way to the same location, meaning they were interested in seeing what in the world happened when everyone was in attendance, and it wasn't long before everyone made their way up the large set of stairs that would bring them closer to the building that they were going to be gathering in, for the formal ceremony that would grant Ly'leth the position of advisor, though many of the nobles, even those who had sided with House Stelleris in the first place, were a tad bit pleased by what had happened to Coryn, that he was made a fool and paid for his hubris. From everything Rainbow had seen and heard since she started hanging out with Ly'leth, which might be coming to a stop with her ascension, it did look like Coryn was one of the most unliked nobles in the city and everyone was happy to see him knocked down a peg or two, especially since he likely threatened many of them in some manner to try and get their support for the position that had become available, to which she remained silent as she waited for them to see what happened next. What they discovered was that the Sanctum of Order had a set of stairs that lead to two teleportation devices that took all of them to a lower floor, one that was circular in nature, with a raised section for some reason, and Rainbow was sure that there was a Telemancy beacon nearby, in addition to a hole that seemed to lead to somewhere important, since a couple of guards were protecting it, or patrolling the area, before Ly'leth made her way to the platform in the center of the large chamber and everyone waited for the ceremony to be done. Once the crowd stopped flowing into this area, and the heads of both House Astravar and House Stelleris, the other two major Houses with the others being lesser than them, stood up on the upper balcony, no doubt in the high ranking section of the area, something that was followed by Ly'leth starting to talk as she addressed everyone, as was custom at this point in time, but for the most part Rainbow tuned her out and kept her eyes on those who were in attendance, especially since not a few seconds into the speech the Grand Magistrix herself teleported into the highest point of the upper balcony and focused on Ly'leth. It took every ounce of Rainbow's will not to simply drop the disguise, access her true power, and rush through the air so she could take Elisande's head off, which she knew would bring an end to the rebellion in an instant if she was successful, and if not it would reveal that the rebellion had spies in even the noble houses, so she kept her cool and smiled as Ly'leth spoke, maintaining the illusion that she was her sister and that she was happy for what was happening right now, even if it was clear that Coryn was outraged by what he was seeing at the moment. Rainbow knew that it made sense for Coryn to be upset by Ly'leth taking the position from him, no doubt believing that he deserved it more than anyone else and couldn't believe that everyone had taken to the rumors about his involvement in Ruven's death, and the more he heard of Ly'leth's speech, which seemed to be getting to the ending, the angrier he got, to the point where it looked like he might snap and teleport down onto the platform so he could lash out at the one who was stealing the council position from him. "...I humbly accept this appointment, as it is an honor beyond words." Ly'leth finished, coming to the end of her speech at last, even if it hadn't been all that long and seemed to only be more of the ceremony that she had talked about, while she also bowed her head and accepted the council position that the other Houses were allowing her to take, some no doubt knowing that she would use it for the betterment of their people, something that seemed to be the final straw for Coryn, hence the reason that Rainbow readied herself for whatever was about to happen next. "Filthy backstabbing cretin! That title should have been mine!" Coryn declared, his tone and expression revealing to all that he was totally outraged by what was happening at the moment and that he wouldn't stand for it, which was when he took a moment to weave his magic around him and teleported down from where the rest of his entourage had been standing, as he reappeared right in front of Ly'leth and seemed ready to continue speaking to her face, while the guards stood down for a time while Elisande waited to see what happened next, "You impinge upon my honor and besmirch my name with all of these baseless accusations and rumors!" "Lord Coryn, you have lost your sense of decorum. I have done nothing to damage your image... besides, the rest of the Houses have already come to a decision." Ly'leth replied, doing her best to make it seem like she had honestly done none of the things that her opponent had accused her of, even though she had asked Rainbow to carry out a few jobs to make sure the vote went in her favor, to which she turned for a moment and made it look like she was starting to leave, which told Rainbow that, unless something else happened, the ceremony was over and that the decision was truly set in stone, something that Thalyssra would be pleased with when she heard the news. "No, I will punish you and reclaim my honor at the same time... for I invoke the ancient rite Tal'ashar!" Coryn stated, where his words reached everyone in the chamber and caused them to pause for a few moments, even though Rainbow took a moment to think about it and recalled some of the sessions Ly'leth had with her, where one was on an ancient rite that, in a sense, was basically the Nightborne version of the Mak'gora, with the loser generally losing their life, and whatever else was at stake, while the winner took everything, even though nobles could name champions to defend both them and their honor, meaning that if Ly'leth accepted it, with no champion, her life was on the line and Coryn might kill her, robbing the rebellion of an ally and Rainbow of someone she had come to see as a friend, even though that was when her eyes locked with Ly'leth for a moment and they both put a light smile on their faces. "Tal'ashar it is... and I name my sister, Anarys Lunastre, as my champion!" Ly'leth replied in kind, as she knew the sort of power Rainbow possessed and was planning on using it to crush Coryn in battle, even though the rest of the nobles were a tad bit surprised that she would put her faith in her sister, meaning that Anarys was either a spell user or whatever skills she had access to had been hidden from the rest of the nobles and the public, and if that was the case she assumed it was due to Ly'leth protecting her sister, but in the end it didn't matter, as Rainbow as more than willing to do battle with Coryn and put him down, otherwise he would just come back to bother her in the future. Coryn didn't seem to care about Ly'leth naming someone as her champion, even though it pleased him to know that if he was successful in taking down his foe's champion it would rob Ly'leth of both her new title and her sister, even if the latter would be incorrect, something that was followed by him teleporting out of this area and headed to the upper part of the Sanctum, where Rainbow headed down to where Ly'leth was standing and readied herself for what was going to happen next, something that was followed by her ally weaving a bit of magic into her mask, while to everyone else it looked like it was her blessing her sister for the battle ahead, to strengthen it and grant her a bit of power, even though she knew that Rainbow didn't need the help. Once that was done she teleported them up to the summit of the Sanctum, which just so happened to be a rather flat area that would also serve as a fighting arena, before Rainbow discovered that her form had changed slightly, as she was still wearing Anarys' form, only it looked like her noble attire, or at least the shirt, had been removed and revealed that she happened to be wearing a silver bra, with Nightborne inlay, while she carried two blades that matched what the Duskwatch and the other warriors of the city carried, even though under the illusion she knew that they were her Warblades, meaning she looked like a true warrior, in the sense of the Nightborne anyway. The instant she was done taking in her form Rainbow walked forward for a second and then rushed at Coryn, who carried a single blade and seemed to be using his magic as well, loosing a small burst at her that she just avoided by turning her body to the side for a few seconds and let it hit a wall behind her, with Ly'leth using a barrier to protect herself from harm, before rushing at Coryn and swung at him, cutting into his chest a little as a look of surprise appeared on his face, revealing that he had no idea that Anarys was capable of doing this. What she discovered after a few moments of battle was that Coryn, while believing himself to be able everyone else in the noble Houses, wasn't that good of a spell user or a warrior, as Rainbow was able to dodge his attacks with ease and avoided being blasted by his Arcane spells, the latter striking the pillars that were around them, before she spun around and lashed out at her foe with both of her weapons, delivering a number of diagonal slashes to his chest and dropped Coryn to the ground. Of course Rainbow hadn't pulled any punches when she engaged her foe, so he was as good as dead and she made sure that Coryn was down for good, otherwise the battle would have gone on until someone died, though the moment she was able to confirm that Ly'leth teleported them back into the Sanctum and informed her that she would be teleporting both her and Elylia back to Vanthir's place, even though Elylia had activated the Telemancy beacon for later, since they had no idea what Thalyssra would ask of her allies in the coming days, and by returning them to the Waning Crescent this gave the pair a chance to leave without being seen by their enemies. Not a few moments later Rainbow and Elylia appeared outside Vanthir's place and found that, in anticipation for her victory over the other Houses, Ly'leth had ordered her attendant to wait for them with a group of lesser attendants, the main one having far more experience than the others, who had a good number of comfort items for Thalyssra and the rest of her forces, meaning they could actually outfit Shal'Aran and make it a true home for those who had been exiled, at least until Elisande was defeated and Gul'dan's plans were smashed into the ground, with the orc warlock paying for his crimes against everyone. Rainbow was more focused on breaking Gul'dan and tearing down all of his plans, including every demon that was inside the city right now, but at the very least this meant everyone would be able to relax a little and patiently wait for either Thalyssra to come up with a new plan of attack or have Farodin discover something wrong with the Arcan'dor, as either of those would have them head out to obtain something to boost their chances of success, but instead of saying anything she beckoned to the group with her head and started to move towards the protected portal that was nearby, which would allow them to return to Shal'Aran. She knew that most of the attendants would be a little bored without Ly'leth being there, given that being an advisor would keep her busy for a time and make it harder for her to visit the estate, and that she was glad to accept them, since it would grant the others a few missing comforts, though once they reached the beacon both she and Elylia made sure the Duskwatch weren't near their location, of which there were none of them near, before allowing the group to head through the portal and headed through once they were the last ones left. When she reappeared on the other side, however, Rainbow found that something had changed in Shal'Aran, which was the that that the Arcan'dor had grown even larger and it was in the middle of producing a storm of Arcane energy that did no damage to all of the stones that were around the ruins, with Thalyssra and Farodin standing away from it, Valtrois was down in the lower chamber, most of the exiles were near the walls to get away from all of this, and Spitfire was used that stone she found in an attempt to stop whatever was going on, causing Rainbow to sigh as she walked over to Farodin, as she had the feeling that something bad had happened since she was last in this place and that something needed to be done before the Arcan'dor exploded. > Suramar: A Growing Crisis > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing Rainbow did, after seeing the danger that the Arcan'dor posed to the rest of Shal'Aran, was make sure the attendants and the others that had joined them were safe and sound, since it would be an insult to Ly'leth if harm came to any of them, so soon after they were assigned to work for Thalyssra and the rebellion, or for her thanks to the time she spent with Ly'leth, though once that was done she walked over to where Farodin was standing and hoped he had an idea of what they needed to do to stop the Arcane storm that was building in the center of the ruins, even though she was sure that Spitfire was doing something to prevent things from getting out of hand. "Farodin, you have some explaining to do." Rainbow stated, because he was the only one among them that knew anything about the Arcan'dor and had prompted them to 'plant' it when the Fal'dorei Queen broke the seal that had been placed on the metallic container that they had discovered inside the ruin Theryn had showed them, due to the fact that he must have been worried about it fading into nothingness, and she was hoping that the Night Elf had some information about what was going on right now, something Thalyssra seemed to agree with since she was standing near him as well, "What in the world is happening?" "...the Arcan'dor is, despite our efforts, failing..." Farodin replied, where he stared at the tree for a time and thought about what he needed to tell them, even though Rainbow had the feeling that the tree failing meant it might detonate the vast amount of Arcane energy that had been fed to it since it had been planted, an explosion that would ruin Shal'Aran and the area that was around their base of operations, possibly even further since there was the hole in the ground that the Ley energy happened to be coming out of, meaning this could have disastrous effects for all of Suramar, before Farodin took a moment to glance at her, "This energy was once bound in its boughs and fueled its growth, the same growth you and the others have witnessed since it was planted, as there happened to be a delicate balance between the energies that went into creating the Arcan'dor, the energies of Life and Arcane... but now, thanks to all the Arcane power that has been fed to it, that balance is broken, and all of that energy is currently breaking free. When the heart can no longer hold it, this tree will kill every living thing in this hall... I know this because I have seen it happen once before, as in the past there were two seeds and one was used by the elves in the Temple of Fal'adora, something that lead me to seal the second away, and now I must find a way to stop such a terrible fate from happening again." "Basically, you want to head back to the first tree, to the Temple of Fal'adora, and use its bones to guide you," Spitfire said, taking a moment to divert her attention away from what was currently going on in front of her, where Rainbow found that even with her friend taking her eyes off the stone and the tree none of the storm lashed out at everyone else that was in the ruins, but even then she had the feeling that Spitfire was thinking about what Farodin had said and was considering if it might be a clue as to how someone could go about obtaining the power of the six Cosmic Powers that existed in this part of the universe, "Don't worry about me, I'll keep the Arcan'dor in check and make sure it doesn't expand, or detonate and take everyone with it... if it comes to that, we'll flee and escape the explosion, but I'll buy you as much time as I can before that becomes a reality." Rainbow, sensing the urgency that was in Spitfire's voice, nodded and made sure that the head attendant had her mask, as it needed to remain safe and she knew that taking it the Temple of Fal'adora might damage it, or the enchantment Ly'leth had placed on it, before heading over to the portal that would take them back to the chamber that the beacon Oculeth had activated for them was located in and used it to move herself back to the temple, leaving Elylia with all of the other heroes that were in Shal'Aran, though not a few seconds after she reappeared on the other side of the portal she drew both of her weapons as she glanced around the area, just in case some of the Fal'dorei were nearby. "As you know, in the hall beyond rests the bones of the failed Arcan'dor, shattered into fragments that now line the rest of the chamber it is located in," Farodin spoke up, speaking as soon as he appeared behind Rainbow and readied his scythe for a moment, even though she had the feeling that he wasn't about to use his weapon against the remaining Fal'dorei that were scattered throughout this portion of the ruins, before he sighed for a moment as he considered something, even if Rainbow was half paying attention to him as she kept her eyes open for danger, "so here's my plan: I will explore the hall and collect any fragments of the crystallized tree that I can find, in an attempt to read them and discover the root cause of this destruction, because through understanding the past can we prevent the same from happening in the present, but while I do that I'm sure the guardians will try to stop us. What I want you to do is engage the guardians of the fallen tree as I do that and kill them, as the dryads who once walked this hall have been totally corrupted by the twisted energies of the failed Arcan'dor and cannot be saved, much to my sorry, so I must ask that you end their suffering while I collect as many fragments as I can." "I kill everything in the hall, while you gather the information we're after. I understand the plan," Rainbow replied, to which she quickly walked over to the tunnel that would bring them back to the chamber that looked like Shal'Aran, the area that the fallen tree rested in based on what she recalled, and braced herself as Farodin followed behind her, as it was time for him to put his knowledge of the Arcan'dor to use while she dealt with those that would be trying to bring them down, and once they had the information they were after she was sure that they would flee before Fal'dorei reinforcements came to get revenge for their fallen Queen. As they walked down the tunnel, but before they reached the chamber that the fallen tree and their enemies were resting inside, and proceeded with their mission, Farodin gave her some bits of information, which would be given to the others once they returned to Shal'Aran, where he explained that many years ago he encountered the first of the Nightfallen that had been forced to flee Suramar City, the unfortunate ones that had been trapped outside when the barrier sprung up to protect everyone from the Legion's invasion at the time, cutting them off from the Nightwell in the process. Such a thing lead to him withdrawing one of the two seeds that had been created and granted them access to one of the ancient gifts he had been guarding, where he aided them in making the first Arcan'dor and found that it sustained them for a time, a fact that had lead him to grant the second one to Thalyssra and her rebellion, but, as Rainbow and the others knew, it was a short lived peace before the Arcan'dor tore itself apart and the energies inside it transformed those around it into a new type of being, the Fal'dorei. He realized that he had made a mistake by granting them access to the first seed, which lead to him sealing away the second to the best of his ability, something they knew was terrible since Spitfire broke the seals in record time, and take up watching over where it rested for all of the years that it had been safe, or at least it had been that way until they came to Suramar and found the seed, and he endeavored to make sure that he didn't make the mistake a second time, hence why they had come here, to uncover the secrets of why the first tree failed. Rainbow felt that it was, in some senses, a good plan and decided not to argue with it as she turned her attention towards the enemies who might be down in this area, allowing Farodin to focus on his task and nothing else for the foreseeable future, as once they reached the chamber in question she rushed out and swung her weapons at the corrupted dryads that were standing on one part of the walkway, giving her companion a chance to slip over to the shattered tree and either collect the fragments he was looking for or study them for a time before they were overrun, where she hoped that he was doing the former and not the latter, before dodging an attack and slashed at her target. The blue skinned dryads, accompanied by some of the small crystalline spiders that accompanied the Fal'dorei, or at least that was due to the last time she had been near these creatures, lashed out at her with their spears and the volatile power which now rested inside their bodies, where she avoided their attacks, as they were slower than what she was expecting them to be, allowing her to slice through her foes and dropped them to the ground as every enemy nearby rushed over to where she was located, hence why she stood near the second tunnel and pulled them away from Farodin. That was one of the reasons behind why she was doing this, as another happened to be the fact that she had to worry about the Fal'dorei rushing up the second tunnel and joining the fight, which would give her foes a chance to overwhelm her, since she wasn't using her transformed state against these enemies right now, but she welcomed them to try and bring ruin upon her, as it would be a real chance to test her skills, even though it became clear she was better than them. Still, this gave Farodin the chance to gather as many fragments as he could possibly get his hands on, which would give him a chance to determine what had happened to the first tree and what they could do to prevent it from happening to their tree, before she turned her attention back to her fight and dodged another spear thrust as she took the head of the dryad that tried to hit her with the weapon, even though it had been a good attack in the grand scheme of things, and her luck held as their enemies just focused on her. Not a few moments later, after about a couple of minutes of fighting with the dryad, Farodin beckoned to Rainbow as he headed for the portal chamber, indicating that he had all of the fragments he needed for his studies on the first Arcan'dor, something that caused her to lash out with a bit of lightning and struck part of the crystalline branch that was above her at the moment, breaking part of it and dropped the limb on top of her enemies, either crushing them with the weight or just knocked them out for a time, but once that was done, and none of them had a chance to recover from her attack, Rainbow landed near the first tunnel and followed after Farodin, where they passed through the portal and returned to Shal'Aran without delay, leaving Oculeth to weave his magic and prevent their enemies from using it to travel to their base of operations. Once they were back in Shal'Aran, and were reminded of the situation when they witnessed a bit of purple lightning that branched out and was sucked into the stone of infinite capacity, as Rainbow felt like calling it at this point, which stopped it from dealing damage to either someone who was walking around the ruin or to the ruin itself, where Farodin walked over to an area that happened to contain a desk of some kind and got to work studying all of the fragments he had collected... though it didn't take him all that long to sigh as he seemed to figure something out, which brought Thalyssra and most of the group over to where he was standing, all while Spitfire seemed to be listening to what he had to say as she focused on containing the unbound Arcane energy. "This Arcan'dor is one of an ancient species, as they were not bred, in the traditional sense, but rather they are created by ancient rituals and powers." Farodin commented, revealing the true nature of the ancient tree to them, even though it was possible to guess it based on what he had said the first time he talked about it, before he focused on the fragments that were in front of him for a moment as he considered everything that he could see right now, almost as if it wasn't good for all of them and it would require them to do something else to fix the mess they were in, "In both of them the Arcane and primitive druidic magics, or Life magic as they are sometimes called, have been merged into something far greater than what the parts are capable of on their own, creating something that would be a boon to whoever cultivated it... sadly, the Arcane side of this Arcan'dor will soon devour it whole, resulting in a massive detonation..." That was as far as he got in his statement before Rainbow growled and punched him right in the face, knocking him to the floor in seconds, though Spitfire understood why her friend was upset over this situation, given that Shal'Aran was an area that all of the Leylines in Suramar were connected to, and that may or may not include the city itself, so having something like the Arcan'dor, a magical tree that looked like it was about to explode, linked to an end of the Leylines was a very bad thing, because if it exploded there was no telling how much destruction it would cause to Suramar, the Broken Isles, or the rest of Azeroth for that matter. "Seriously? You could have told us the consequences of planting this thing!" Rainbow snapped, because while she and the others knew the positives of the Arcan'dor, to heal Thalyssra, Oculeth, Valtrois, and the rest of the Nightfallen of the curse that plagued all of them, their need to feed on the Nightwell's energies to survive, or at least that was the tale that Farodin had told them earlier, when they brought the seed of the Arcan'dor to Shal'Aran and planted it in the circle able the hole the Leyline energy came out of, this was a massive downside that none of them had seen coming, that it came with the risk of detonating with the power to wipe everyone in Shal'Aran out, at the very least, since they had no idea how dangerous the Arcan'dor truly was. "I weighed my options when the Fal'dorei cracked the casing open, and I was convinced that we could stop this from being the end of this Arcan'dor," Farodin replied, though even as he said that, where he took a moment to rub the area that she had struck in her anger, he glanced at the magical tree for a few seconds and considered what he had seen when he took a few moments to stare at the fragments of the first Arcan'dor, something that caused him to glance at the group and the fact that Spitfire was doing her best to keep everything in check and not break this area, before he sighed and turned to face Rainbow once more, "however, we can restore balance between the two powers, but it will require a great deal of Life magic to do so, even though said power is currently trapped in another realm, the Emerald Dream to be exact, which is the only place where we might be able to find such a powerful essence of Life... if we had that, we could bring stability back to the Arcan'dor and it would be able to thrive once more, granting the Nightfallen a boon that might be able to turn the tide of the rebellion in our favor." "I don't think we'll be able to find such a thing right now, given that the Dream has been taken over by the Nightmare and its foul ruler," one of the other heroes, a Night Elf who was one of the four Archdruids of the Cenarion Circle, the order of druids who stood against the Legion, and happened to be the one who fought in the feral aspect of what a druid could use, meaning she was constantly in the form of a black cat, a saber to be exact, while she fought her foes, while the rest of her fellow leaders happened to be back in their base of operations, an area called the Dreamgrove as Spitfire recalled, but that was when she took a few seconds to consider what she had just said as she glanced at the others, "meaning we would have to fight through Xavius and the Emerald Nightmare to get to the Dream, which should be the location where we can find such a powerful essence of Life... though that is easier said than done given everything the Nightmare Lord has at his disposal, since he's corrupted druids and other protectors of nature, bending them to his will... we would have to gather all of our strongest heroes and march on the Nightmare, like we were raiding it." "Then that is what we will do." Spitfire stated, speaking the moment Kyrianna, the Night Elf druid, was done speaking her mind and had countered what Farodin had just said, where Rainbow and the others could tell that the storm had died a tiny bit and assumed that it had to do with her and the stone she had used to contain all of the potent unbound Arcane energy that had been coming from the magical tree, before they spotted that she had pulled herself away from the area she had been standing in when this mess first started earlier, before she gestured back towards the tree and they found that the stone was resting in the air, doing everything in its power to stall the storm that was no doubt building inside the Arcan'dor, one that would determine the fate of the Nightfallen rebellion, "We shall venture into the Emerald Nightmare, tear down anything and anyone that this Nightmare Lord can throw at us, including Xavius for that matter, and figure out where the Life Essence is located so we can balance the Arcan'dor, before it detonates and wipes everything out... but, to be sure the rebellion doesn't fail, we should evacuate everyone to somewhere safer, just in case we fail to make it in time with the essence." "I don't think that will be necessary, but temporarily moving everyone sounds like a solid plan," Thalyssra said, to which she and the other Nightfallen started to make sure the residents of Suramar City, and the rest of their forces that would fight against the Duskwatch when the time came, carefully moved out of Shal'Aran, heading to another ruin by the name of Tel'anor, which was apparently an ancient graveyard built in the style that the rest of the Nightborne structures had, and they had a teleporter linked to that area thanks to the other heroes who made sure the rest of Suramar was safe for the rebellion, so not only did they have a means of transportation they also had a safe area that Elisande wouldn't think to look for them in, granting them some peace while the heroes worked to save the Arcan'dor. While they did that Vytheril, Kyrianna, Scarlet, and the rest of the leaders of the Order Halls returned to Dalaran for a time, where Spitfire informed Khadgar and the Council of what was going on, not to mention that the main heroes of Azeroth would be venturing into the Emerald Nightmare to confront and destroy the Nightmare Lord, so they could obtain a Life Essence to balance the now unstable Arcan'dor, something that caused Khadgar and Jaina to inform her that they would head down to Suramar to help Thalyssra make sure her forces and citizens were safe, meaning they would be an extra bit of security in case their foe actually found them. With that done the pair took a few more minutes to make sure that Kayn, Altrius, Kor'vas, and the rest of the Illidari were fine and had a few places to visit so they could crush the Legion's forces, as in around the Broken Isles anyway, before discovering that they were now much closer to finding where Lord Illidan's soul was resting, meaning soon they would be able to recover him from wherever his soul had been left, which excited both of them since it meant all of them would be reunited with their master sooner than they originally believed they would, even though they still had to get his body back from Gul'dan. Both of them would be happy to have Lord Illidan back, as both his skills and knowledge would be useful in bringing down even more of the Legion's plans, especially since Spitfire was sure that there were a few more plans that he hadn't told anyone about, but for right now their focus was on making sure their allies had an idea of what was going on and several rushed to aid the Nightfallen, to make up for the heroes that were now departing for Val'sharah, to face one of the dangers that happened to be threatening Azeroth, even though Spitfire was a little worried that Xavius hadn't done anything since he appeared in Val'sharah, meaning he was waiting for something to happen. Once she made sure the rest of their allies were informed of what was going on, with the Arcan'dor and the fact that the heroes were planning on tackling the Emberald Nightmare, she and Rainbow came to a stop in front of the steps that would lead to where the Council met and discussed things, where Khadgar and Jaina stood so they could prepare a portal for them to use once everyone was ready to go, as the heroes were making their final preparations for what they were going to do in the near future. What interested Spitfire was the fact that the heroes weren't the only ones to come over to their location, as Malfurion, Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, and a few others joined her and the others, something that caused her to raise an eyebrow for a few seconds as she spotted them walking towards them, though given that some of them were Night Elves and some were were Blood Elves, the Kaldorei and the Sin'dorei respectively, meaning they had to be interested in helping the Shal'dorei in freeing themselves from the tyrant that was in control of Suramar City. "Lady Spitfire, word has reached me that you and the other heroes are getting ready for an incursion into the depths of the Emerald Nightmare," Malfurion stated, where it was easy for them to see that he had gotten over his initial dislike for every demon hunter that had followed his brother in the past, no doubt due to seeing Spitfire's determination to protect Azeroth from those who threatened her, especially after seeing what Sylvanas had planned for their world, including the destruction of Teldrassil and a near genocide of the Night Elves, "allow me to aid you in your endeavour, to free the Dream from the corruption of the Nightmare and its foul master, Xavius, as you will need someone well versed in druidic magics to bypass some of his defenses, especially since you'll be facing my Shan'do, the demigod Cenarius, and Ursoc, one of the Wild Gods that is supposed to protect Azeroth, not to mention any other corrupt individuals who might be lurking in the depths of the Nightmare." "Your help is appreciated, Malfurion," Spitfire replied, as while this was a welcome surprise, since she wasn't expecting one of the strongest druids in the world to come to their aid to face the Nightmare, given that they were in the middle of a war with one of Azeroth's greatest enemies, the Legion, but she wasn't about to dismiss someone of his caliber, because many revered him and his power was no doubt on par with Xavius' own, meaning he had to be a god in his own right, or maybe a demigod, which was when she turned from him to the others that had joined them, "Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, are you and those behind you thinking of doing the same thing?" "No, we're planning on heading to Suramar to help the Nightborne... sorry, Nightfallen... out with their rebellion, and keep an eye on Elisande's movements," Tyrande replied, knowing that Spitfire had no idea what might happen while they were away, since the Grand Magistrix was allied with the Legion and such a thing made her unpredictable in most cases, but her statement allowed Spitfire and Rainbow to understand that some of their allies were going to assist Thalyssra in making sure everything was fine, while at the same time preparing for the eventual invasion of the city, the end game that should lead them to bringing down their targets, "given that she's allied with Gul'dan, and his Legion masters, we're facing what seems like a repeat of Queen Azshara siding with Sargeras all those years ago... we can't underestimate her, least we walk into a trap they might have set or lower our guard at the wrong moment." "Fair enough, given what they're currently going through," Rainbow said, as none of them had expected the Arcan'dor to suddenly become unstable and start churning out an Arcane storm that could break everything in Shal'Aran, despite the fact that Spitfire had used that stone she found to siphon some of the power, which allowed her to weaken the storm and give them the time they needed to figure out how to save the magical tree they had planted, something that apparently involved fighting both the forces of the Emerald Nightmare and the Nightmare Lord, Xavius as the druids called him, and that seemed like it was going to be one hard fight, though she had no idea who Tyrande was speaking of and suspected it might be something Spitfire would ask about later. Spitfire had to agree that having the two groups of elves, even if they were small in number since most of their races were in the middle of dealing with anything or anyone that the Legion threw at them, would benefit the Nightfallen and protect them from whatever dangers might happen while they're in the Emerald Nightmare, and before she could say anything else the rest of Azeroth's greatest heroes, those who carried every powerful artifact that would bring ruin to their enemies, emerged from the buildings that they had been preparing in. What they had been doing was creating potions, making sure all of their armor and weapons were ready for the battles that were ahead of them, given that they had no idea what was waiting for them in the Nightmare, and whatever other items might be useful for the task that was ahead of them, while each of them made sure to exchange those items to the rest of their allies, to make sure everyone was ready for their trek into Xavius' domain. Once all thirty-five of Azeroth's greatest heroes were done with their preparations, and everyone was positive that their gear was as ready as it could be, each of them gathered around Spitfire and Rainbow and waited for the others to join them, allowing the pair to find that there was one member from each race in the two factions surrounding them, not to mention a near equal number between them, given that Scarlet seemed to break the balance a little, but once everyone was ready to move Khadgar raised his hands and started to channel his power for a moment. It only took him a few moments to achieve what he was trying to do, where he opened a decent sized portal in front of them, which Spitfire and the others suspected would allow them to teleport down to Val'sharah, and nodded to the heroes once his task had been completed, allowing them to enter the portal and reappear in front of what had to be a Void-tainted tree, or rather in a section that rested between the bottom of the tree and the ground, as there happened to be a ruined village resting near their location, across a lake anyway. They quickly discovered that the tree in question was massive, blackened, and twisted by Xavius' power, meaning he was capable of corrupting the 'World Trees' of Azeroth, though she also had the feeling that Malfurion would reveal things to them, about the tree and everything, Spitfire and Rainbow started to walk towards the portal in front of them, as it was time to enter the Emerald Nightmare and face the Nightmare Lord, to wipe out one of the threats to the safety of Azeroth and acquire the Life Essence they needed for the unstable Arcan'dor. > Suramar: Darkbough > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After passing through the magical portal that had been resting in the side of the tree, or one of the sides anyway, Spitfire, Rainbow, and the rest of their allies readied their weapons as they appeared on a ramp of some kind that was made from a thick darkened root that had to be connected to the massive tree that Khadgar had brought them to, even though the mage in question had no doubt returned to Dalaran so he could join the others that were heading for Suramar and the area that the rebellion was resting in, as there was no telling what in the world might be waiting for them or for any heroes who might be looking to bring down Xavius. Malfurion was, of course, with them and agreed with her course of action, as he also had his clawed hands at the ready and might be getting ready to case of one his spells at whatever they discovered as they headed through the corrupted limbs of the tree they were going to be climbing, or at least the corrupted interior since she was sure the portal had moved them a little bit, dropping them off near the path that would bring them to where their foe had to be resting, or his henchmen anyway. Before they moved forward, however, Malfurion quickly informed them that the portal had allowed them to enter Shaladrassil, which happened to be the name of the World Tree they had entered, and he suspected that the path in front of them would lead them right to the top, where he sensed portals that would take them to where Xavius' main followers, corrupted or otherwise, would be resting and waiting for either invaders to come or for the word to be given so they could invade Val'sharah, and a town had been built under the roots, a ruined place called Shala'nir, which they had avoided thanks to Khadgar's magic. Spitfire found that to be interesting, even though she was more focused on the fact that Shaladrassil had been corrupted by the Void, due to the fact that it appeared to be Xavius' power, despite Malfurion informing them that the Nightmare Lord had been an elf that had been transformed during the first invasion of Azeroth, back before his brother started down the path he now walked, meaning that Xavius was far stronger than she or Rainbow believed, going from Arcane to Fel and finally to Void. "If memory serves, we should be approaching the resting place of Nythendra, a green dragon who serves as a guardian of Shaladrassil, though she's usually asleep and will need someone to awaken her," Malfurion continued, referring to the part of the tree that they were entering right now, as while he talked he started to walk up the root path that was resting right in front of them, before he came to a stop as he noticed something that bothered him, resting in the circular area that was at the top of the root path happened to be a decomposing dragon, one who stood almost as tall as the building they had found Oculeth hiding in, where it looked like it was partly skeletal and appeared to be infested with insects, which had to be what reanimated it when someone approached it, "oh, Nythendra... what has the Nightmare done to you? Its twisted her into a mockery of life by devouring her while she was sleeping and has no doubt corrupted her personality entirely, meaning she is now one of Xavius' pawns... we'll need to bring her down to move forward." "Wonderful, we've only just entered Shaladrassil and there's something in our way already," Spitfire remarked, as while all of them had been expecting to find some enemies before locating Xavius, where defeating the Nightmare Lord would be the key to finding the Life Essence that would stabilize the Arcan'dor, none of them were expecting the first thing that they laid eyes on would be one of the more powerful minions who were forced to serve Xavius and his foul masters, as it was hard to tell if he was still allied with the Legion or if he only served his Void masters, before she spotted some foul dirty brown looking creatures that looked like moving blobs, oozes according to Scarlet when she noticed them, "based on what we're seeing it looks like Nythendra is sleeping, or whatever passes as sleep for a now dead dragon whose corpse is being forced to fight whoever invades Xavius' corrupted World Tree, but something tells me once we take down the oozes she'll wake up and attack us, so be ready for anything." Rainbow and the others nodded their heads in agreement, as the more experienced heroes knew that this screamed trap, after everything each of them had witnessed over their years of protecting Azeroth, which was followed by them walking out of the area they had been standing in and approached the oozes that were scattered around Nythendra, five of them to be exact, who paused in what they were doing and started to move towards them, moving incredibly slow and made the four death knights laugh for a moment. Spitfire suspected that they had observed oozes in the past that could move at a much faster speed than what they were seeing right now, even if it wasn't by a great deal, but that didn't stop them from lashing out at their enemies, Scarlet using the Blades of the Fallen Prince to slash through the dirty brown colored liquid substance these foes were made of, Zuleth used his battleaxe, Shadowmourne, to slice his way through another as he was joined by the blood spec death knight, a male blood elf, while a female human hacked into Scarlet's with a greatsword that radiated unholy energy. While they did that the rest of the heroes joined them, doing their best to divide themselves and their power among five enemies, though out of everyone Malfurion stood back and seemed to be focused on the energies that were around them, the Life energies that all druids used, no doubt trying to form a counter of some kind to possibly restrain Nythendra, meaning he might be hesitant to end her corrupted form and let her soul move on, but, after a couple of moments, he shook his head and indicated that he couldn't do anything, not without potentially drawing Xavius' gaze to them before they were ready, before he rushed into battle and used his power to call down a burst of lunar light that just so happened to burn the ooze he had targeted, causing it to hiss in anger for a moment, or Spitfire assumed that was the case, before it fell back. Fortunately the group found that none of the oozes stood much of a chance and were easy to take down, despite the fact that each of them tried to explode insects to injure them or plague the area to weaken those that were nearby, though when they fell Spitfire found that they left little puddles behind that just stood there for a couple of seconds, but once the fifth and final one fell all of the puddles moved and rushed towards Nythendra's body, allowing the decay to empower her once more and caused the heroes to gather in a crescent formation between her and the root path that had brought them to her domain. For a few seconds nothing happened, as Nythendra just laid there, as still as a statue in Spitfire's eyes, before the insects and decay surged through her body and forced the dead dragon's skeleton to rise up, something that enraged Malfurion as he witnessed it happen, not to mention their druid friends, before she faced them and seemed to be waiting for them to come at her, no doubt pausing to give herself a chance to understand what had happened to her and the powers that she now had access to, something that caused Spitfire to nod to the others before advancing towards the dragon, as she was standing between them and the Life Essence they were after. "The Dream has changed, and yet I will continue to protect it with all my power!" Nythendra roared, showing the heroes that there had to be some fragment of the green dragon trapped inside the twisted shell that was currently standing right in front of them, even though that small piece was corrupted by the Void-infested Life energies that were controlling her body and made her see anyone who wasn't one of Xavius' allies as enemies, so instead of seeing Malfurion as an ally, like they would have been before her corruption, she now saw him as an intruder who wished to bring Shaladrassil and the Emerald Dream harm. Instead of wasting time by challenging Nythendra in their base forms, like they would have done had they headed into one of the dungeons of the Broken Isles, such as when they went into the Halls of Valor to find the Aegis, Spitfire and Rainbow, sensing the difference in power between the corrupted green dragon and the enemies they had fought in the past, as she was far stronger than what they were expecting, transformed into their demonic forms and rushed at Nythendra without wasting a single moment, allowing Malfurion to shift into a massive light black furred bear that possessed his hair on the back of its body, while the rest of the heroes raised their weapons and charged into battle as well. The corrupted dragon lashed out at them with her right front claw, swinging at Spitfire as she flew through the air, though that was when Spitfire raised the Twinblades and parried the incoming attack before it could hit her, finding that her suspicions were correct and that none of them could take their foe lightly, otherwise she would knock them back and either seriously hurt them or, if she was lucky, kill them, though while she did that Rainbow flashed by the side of their foe and hacked into the side of her chest, cutting a gash that just seemed to spew out insects for a few seconds, which sealed itself not even a few seconds later and let her continue fighting like nothing had happened. Nythendra also opened her mouth and released her breath attack on them after that, where for a normal dragon it would have been fire, or possibly a burst of the element they were attuned to, but due to her corrupted nature their foe loosed a burst of vile corruption at them, a tainted breath that had a bunch of insects that would return to her in due time and had a dirty brown coloration to it as well, which was followed by the ground her attack hit becoming infected by the decay that had empowered her corrupted form. Fortunately the rest of Azeroth's heroes avoided the corrupted breath and the corrupted ground that was left in its wake, which would no doubt infest them if they were to step in it, and she even had an ability that allowed her to corrupt more of the ground that was around her, by slamming her claws into the ground and channeled her foul power into the arena they were fighting in, but those who were slashing at the dragon's sides made sure to avoid it like the plague while all of their ranged allies avoided any pools that appeared in the area they were standing in. One thing Spitfire found was that none of her flames did anything to the surrounding area they were in, as the roots didn't burn when her flames touched them and nothing happened when Rainbow's lightning accidentally struck one a couple of moments later, meaning they had to be in an area that was empowered to resist falling apart, or maybe the World Tree was stronger than what both of them assumed, but such a thing didn't stop them from lashing out at Nythendra's sides as Malfurion clawed into their foe, who staggered as she continued to fight them. Something that caused a problem for them was that Nythendra also had the power to dominate the minds of those who were sufficiently infected by the plague she happened to be spreading, which everyone discovered when it happened to one of the rogues who was righting by the back legs of the dragon and accidentally stepped into the pool of decay that had been resting nearby, where he was forced to turn on his own allies and tried to lash out at some of their healers, as it would weaken the group if such a thing happened, and he was stopped when Rainbow zapped him a tiny bit, allowing him to head back into battle while his actions gave them an idea of what might happen with the vile corruption. Spitfire had the feeling that the key to that power was resting inside the decay that their foe was using, a power derived from Life and had been corrupted by the Void, with the Void being a force that was known to totally corrupt everything and everyone it came into contact with, or so she was told and had a hard time believing since one of the priests in their group called upon the power of the Void to deal damage, even if it was a small amount of power so she could avoid being corrupted, but all that just confirmed why Nythendra was able to take control of whoever met some specific conditions, which they would just avoid from that point forward. Of course that was when Nythendra seemed to pause for a moment as her energy seemed to shift, something they noticed due to the unnatural energy inside her shifting away from her limbs and chest as every bit gathered in her mouth, showing that she was getting ready for a blast that could deal some massive damage to them if it were allowed to go off or hit someone, though that was when the dragon shifted her head and loosed a burst of dark gray energy, Death energy, that rushed towards Spitfire, almost as if Nythendra knew that she was the more dangerous one of the entire group and was trying to eliminate her before focusing on the others, or maybe Xavius knew that they were here and wanted to cut down on their forces before they reached him. Spitfire, on the other hand, swung her Twinblades for a moment and clashed with the incoming attack, stalling it before it could actually hit her chest or something, which was a good thing since she was sure Nythendra's Death power was far stronger than Sylvanas', and Helya had to be far stronger than the Banshee Queen, and it took all of her concentration to divert it into the ceiling of the chamber they were in, even if it just broke apart when it struck the roots. Nythendra, however, collapsed on the ground a few moments later and seemed to go still for a time, where her energy did something interesting in Spitfire's eyes, insects swarmed out and seemed to litter the surrounding area as they gathered more decay inside their bodies, pulling in all of the Death energy that happened to be lingering in the air thanks to Spitfire breaking her foe's attack, so what they did was shift their attention and smashed the insects that had appeared, because all of them happened to be the key to bringing down Nythendra and even Malfurion got in on the action as well as he used a bit of his power to blast his targets into the ground while clawing others to death... and when the last insect fell they took a moment to watch as Nythendra raised once more, only to collapse into a pile of bones that no longer moved, meaning the battle had to be over. "She was stronger than what I was expecting," Spitfire remarked, as while it might have appeared that they had beaten the undead dragon with ease, without sustaining any serious damage to them or losing someone, which was thanks to their healers making sure they were at full health, she knew that if that Death Breath had overpowered her, or struck someone else that wasn't her or Rainbow, most of them would have been seriously injured or even killed, especially since her arms were still shaking a little from having to cancel out that attack, before she glanced at the root path that seemed to be the way forward, one leading to the heart of the Nightmare, "and I have the feeling that we'll be facing foes that are around her level of strength, possibly higher in some cases... it's the Nightmare's doing, isn't it?" "Indeed. The Nightmare can give those it corrupts incredible strength, even matching that of the Ancients at times, but the price Xavius' unwilling pawns pay is losing their free will and becoming slaves to his will," Malfurion replied, reverting to his base form once he was sure that Nythendra was dead, for real this time and that she wouldn't be getting back up to fight all of them the instant they lowered their guard, before he sighed as he laid eyes on the fallen dragon, knowing that she did everything in her power to stop Xavius from corrupting her, but at the very least she had been freed from this fate and could move on at long last, "...poor Nythendra, who faithfully served as the Guardian of the Dream for many years, she didn't deserve this... to be perverted into a gatekeeper of corruption and twisted by Xavius' madness." "Part of me is excited to be facing strong opponents again, while another part is worried after witnessing that attack and thinking about what it could do," Rainbow said, though as she said that both she and Spitfire returned to their base forms not a few moments later, as while they could hold them for long periods of time, longer than most demon hunters, it was best not to remain in them for too long, especially since they weren't fighting such a powerful creature right now, before she glanced at the ceiling for a moment and imagined what sort of being was waiting for them at the end of the Emerald Nightmare, which equally excited and worried her, "I'm not sure how to feel about facing Xavius, but something tells me he will be one of our greatest challenges to date, more than most of the demons we've fought in the past." Spitfire was happy to see that Rainbow was actually thinking about things and not rushing into battle without a care in the world, especially since they had no idea what sort of obstacles might be in front of them, hence the reason that she had all of them pause for a moment, to rest up and make sure everyone was ready for whatever else might be waiting for them in the rest of the Emerald Nightmare, because they really had no idea what might rest between them and Xavius, meaning a quick rest after a big fight was the smart thing for them to do in this situation. Once everyone was ready to move deeper into Shaladrassil, and see what sort of enemies might be waiting for them this time around, Spitfire walked forward as the rest of the heroes joined her, heading up the path that Nythendra had been guarding during both her life and unlife, even if they quickly found a group of satyr guarding part of the path and, by looking higher up the path, it sure looked like there were more enemies waiting for them, meaning they would have to fight their way through several groups before reaching the top of the path. Based on what she could tell it looked like the satyrs were skilled in using magic, Void-tainted thanks to being allied to Xavius and his dark master, who Malfurion revealed had to be the final of the four Old Gods of Azeroth, the one called N'Zoth, though the satyrs who had joined Xavius all those years ago, back when they were transformed into their new forms and joined their new master, had been sealed under Shaladrassil with the intent of giving them an endless sleep, but now they had returned and they were angry with the druids, hence why they came to Xavius' call and were now preparing to bring down Val'Sharah. Of course, since these guys were enemies of those who called Val'sharah home, the druids were the first ones to lash out and lashed with several of the satyrs, mauling and slashing at them while the rest of their group slashed at the corrupted enemies that happened to be around them, one being a lumbering one eyed beast who appeared from the mist that was around them and another being blackened trents who had been allies of the druids, now corrupted by Xavius, causing them to scatter branches and logs as they cut and blasted their way forward, dropping bodies on the ground and throwing the misklurkers, as the one eyed creatures were called, against some of the vines that the heroes walked by when they perished. While they fought their way through all of their enemies, however, Malfurion paused every now and then to inform those who had no knowledge of his past that he had fought the Nightmare several times in the past, but this was the first time it had been this powerful and have such a hold on the Emerald Dream, showing him that Xavius was stronger than what the last time they had faced each other, something that worried and excited many of the heroes that were with them, and it wasn't long before they reached the top of the root path, where they discovered a number of branches that seemed to be connected to a number of portals that had to lead to a number of locations that the Nightmare had a grasp on, possibly an alternate dimension or something like that... which was when Malfurion rushed forward and came to a stop in the center of what appeared to be a root crossroads, with a large dormant flower of some kind in front of them, a bulb of some kind, to which the heroes gathered around him for a moment. "This is an Iris, one that allows someone to travel from this part of the Dream and arrive in a section that reflects a version of Moonglade that exists only in the Dream," Malfurion said, though that was when he channeled his powers for a couple of seconds and immediately flinched when he came into contact with the power of the Iris, where Spitfire and the others could see that a foul dark magic was emitting from it and seemed to be preventing him from doing anything, which meant someone, no doubt Xavius, had to be blocking any intruders from moving deeper into the realm that they were invading at the moment, before he sighed for a moment and focused on the remaining paths, "I can sense tendrils of power radiating from each of the paths that are connected to this area, which happen to be fueling the touch of Cenarius that I feel on the Iris, though since this is the way forward we're going to need to sever each tendril and deprive the corrupted magic of all the power it is receiving... I will stay here and attempt to penetrate the corrupted power that stands between us and the portal that would bring us to Moonglade." "Good luck, Malfurion, as I have the feeling that you'll need it," Spitfire replied, as while she knew that losing the power of the first druid in the entire history of Azeroth, an incredibly powerful figure who was likely a god at this point in time, was quite the blow to her, Rainbow, and the rest of the heroes, but given that Azeroth's heroes were used to dealing with foes like Xavius, as they had faced Archimonde at the height of his power and two Old Gods, three if one counted the various fragments of Y'Shaarj, she had the feeling that they would be able to overcome their enemies, even if it meant engaging in an epic battle and exhausting themselves to bring each of them down. As Spitfire considered which of the four paths they should take first, which meant there were four powerful foes they had to bring down so they could move forward and find Xavius' hiding place, one of the druids pointed at the four portals and revealed that the one to their immediate right, which was heading diagonally downwards a little, would take them to an area called Un'Goro Crater, the one resting to their left went down a little as well and connected to Grizzly Hills, the one to the right of the second portal would bring them to the Dreamway, and the fourth one, between the first and third, would allow them to reach Mulgore. Given that each area had a powerful guardian protecting the Iris, or powering it based on what Malfurion had said, Spitfire glanced at the others for a moment and inquired as to which path they might take, had they done this without her and Rainbow, and found that while some would have tackled Grizzly Hills, a few picked heading into the twisted Dreamway, and a couple felt Mulgore was the correct choice, most of them revealed that they felt that the first portal they would have headed through was the Un'Goro Crater portal, as each of them felt that whatever might be resting on the other side needed to be destroyed first. As such, while Malfurion focused his energies on the Iris and told them that he would speak into their minds while they were taking down Xavius' guardians, which might be reports of his progress, Spitfire, Rainbow, and Azeroth's heroes headed down the path that would take them to Un'Goro Crater, where they passed through the portal and appeared in their destination, a massive Nightmare twisted area that had a dark red sky that seemed to be coming from a rotting World Tree in the middle of the crater, even though it looked like there were a bunch of twisted plants and what appeared to be a T-Rex that was guarding the path that would bring them to the front of the tree, which had a tumor of some kind growing in it. Before they did anything else the group took a few seconds to glance around the area they were in and took in what sort of enemies were between them and the tumor, as it had to be the guardian of this version of Un'Goro Crater, where the heroes informed Spitfire and Rainbow that there was no World Tree in this part of Azeroth, in the real world to be exact, meaning Xavius had been growing one in the Nightmare and that was bad news for everyone who called Azeroth home. What foul horror is this? Malfurion asked, speaking into their minds for a moment, no doubt using the link that had been made when Thalyssra worked her magic over them and Theryn earlier, for Spitfire and Rainbow anyway, while using some of his own power to speak into the minds of the other heroes that were beside them, though none of them were remotely surprised by what was going on, even though it was clear he was focused on the corrupted World Tree and the tumor that was currently growing on it at the moment, which likely disgusted him, A tumor of the Nightmare's foul power, infecting an unknown World Tree, here in the reflection of the Titan's own playground? Heroes, if this seed is allowed to grow anymore than it already has, and the growth we're seeing is rather shocking, the roots of its corruption will wind their way all the way down into the very heart of Azeroth, something that would allow Xavius and his foul master to consume everything, granting N'Zoth the power of our world with little to no resistance. "Then we'll destroy the tumor and destroy the corrupted World Tree," Spitfire remarked, as she had heard that there was a fallen World Tree somewhere in Azeroth, on the continent of Northrend if her memory was correct, a tree the druids had been forced to fell at some point in the past due to one of the Old Gods, or multiple, corrupting it, where they decided to call it Vordrassil, effectively renaming it in the process, though even as she thought about that she knew there were only two options for them to purify Shaladrassil, the first being to fell it once Xavius was defeated, which would devastate the druids of Val'sharah, or find and kill N'Zoth so his corruption was stopped, the latter likely being impossible since she knew that the Old Gods were unkillable, given that C'Thun and Yogg-Saron were still around. With the rest of their allies agreeing with her, as this seemed to be the correct path forward, the group marched down the path that rested in front of them, as there happened to be one cut through the earth and lead right to where the corrupt tree was located, though along the way she and the others lashed out at the plant creatures that were resting around the path, due to the fact that they rushed at the group and started to use their thorny vines as whips, where she focused on loosing small bursts of Fel fire at spots to stop more of their enemies from advancing on them. While she did that, and the heroes dealt with the plant creatures, Rainbow flashed forward and slashed into the side of the T-Rex's head, knocking it to the side for a moment before it roared at her and tried to bite her, where she used her speed to avoid the attacks and swung her Warblades as she hacked into her opponent, showing the couple of heroes that paused to watch her that she was incredibly fast and that none of the T-Rex's attacks would be able to touch her, even though she did feel sorry for the creature since it had been forced to do this against its will. One thing Rainbow noted was that there were a couple of large tendrils growing out of the space that her foe had been guarding, tendrils that seemed like they were linked to the tumor that was growing on the false World Tree, or maybe it was a slumbering World Tree that hadn't grown in the waking world yet, though thanks to their positioning she found that they could simply walk by the tendrils and avoid them entirely, and it would give them a chance to conserve their power for a few seconds before engaging the foul tumor, which seemed to be waiting for enemies to approach it. When they got close to the corrupted World Tree, however, the group found that the tumor split open and revealed a massive eyeball that was now staring at them, one that was surrounded by the red color of the corruption and had a pair of thick tentacles, as wide as one of their bodies and had a dragon-like face, and it rested there as they gathered in the open area that was in front of it, granting Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes a few seconds to gather themselves before doing anything, though one thing they understood was that the energy in the air seemed to give them a name to call the tumor, Il'gynoth for some reason. Instead of saying anything, as Spitfire could see that the rest of the group was ready to do battle with Il'gynoth, she shifted her stance and leapt into the air for a few seconds, allowing her to rapidly cross the distance between them and the tumor as everyone followed her, but that was when she discovered something that would complicate things as one of her blades bounced off a faint crimson barrier that seemed to be protecting Il'gynoth, or at least that seemed to be the case, and sure enough it was confirmed when the magical attacks from the mages bounced off of it. Truthfully, this was rather annoying since it prevented them from dealing any damage to their opponent, who just stared there and seemed to taunt them by spouting what seemed, at first, to be utter nonsense, mentioning 'to find Him, drown yourselves in the circle of stars', that they should 'welcome death', and a few other things, but as Spitfire listened to the tumor she realized something, it was, in a way, giving them information about the future, with the first phrase, the 'circle of stars', being a reference to where the prison of N'Zoth rested, meaning they might encounter him at some point in the future. Of course, while all of that went down, the two tentacles continued to try and assault them, even though the group was ignoring them for the most part, as all of them were sure that they were just guards in some sense and that they were doing a terrible job at stopping them from annoying Il'gynoth, but that was when Rainbow flashed over to one and just cut it down by delivering a couple of cuts to her target, breaking the tentacle down in seconds, though when she turned around, however, four crimson blood oozes appeared around her foe's form and moved towards her with the intent to bring her down. Scarlet, seeing that happen like all of the other heroes, instructed Rainbow to bring the oozes over to where Il'gynoth's eye was resting, who just stared at everyone as the tentacles tried to bring them down, where she made sure to bring the oozes over and everyone moved out of the way as they caught up with her, though once that happened all four of them seemed like they might be getting ready to explode, causing her to fly into the air for a moment and avoided the explosions that followed, red explosions that might have been fueled by potent Void energies, the same that were coursing through Il'gynoth's eye and the rest of its body, which seemed to do some damage as Il'gynoth growled in pain. As such the group assaulted the remaining tentacle and hacked it apart in a matter of seconds, which was easy to do given that it was one foe against a full force of Azeroth's heroes, and once the blood oozes spawned the majority of the group made sure to pull away as Spitfire and Rainbow pulled them over to Il'gynoth's eye, where it didn't take them long to blow up all of the oozes in the eye's face, enraging it to the point where it started to loose small blasts of red energy at them, as if it had to be annoyed with them and wanted to bring it down. For the most part the group avoided the blasts and moved around the arena they were fighting in. Of course there was a corruption spell that Il'gynoth had access to, one that was scattered around most of the arena to stall them before they could do any additional damage, but what was interesting to Spitfire was that there were more enemies that emerged from the ground, a few being thin stalks that had eyes at the top of each one and, more importantly, there were a few tentacles that sprung up as well, which caused the heroes to divert their attention to the new enemies and blasted or hacked into them without delay. The reason was because they hoped all of the new arrivals would act like the pair of tentacles they had taken out just a few moments ago, which was confirmed in a matter of moments as one eye stalk fell and a single blood ooze formed around it, while a tentacle created four when it was crushed under the weight of their power, which they detonated on top of Il'gynoth's eye and delivered a blast of Void-tainted Life energy to it, causing the thing to shriek in pain as that happened, though while everyone felt that this creature was easy to fight, more so than Nythendra, none of them lowered their guard since one false move would allow it to turn the tide on them and gain the upper hand. Due to that fact the heroes were able to contain the tide of the blood oozes as they fought Il'gynoth's minions, or maybe appendages since it would make sense for its own power to be turned against it in this manner, though along the way Spitfire and Rainbow noticed that there was a hollow inside the corrupted tree that the creature seemed to be protecting, which contained a massive red twisted heart of some kind, meaning if they took out its eye they would be able to get to the heart and destroy Il'gynoth entirely, or at least that was their hope since this thing was quite durable and would take some time to take down if it stopped summoning minions. Not a few moments after Spitfire thought about that, however, the latest batch of blood ooze managed to wound the eye enough to where it vanished in a matter of seconds, which allowed her, Rainbow, and the heroes to invade the hollow that the heart was resting in and found that it had no such barrier resting around it, meaning everyone was able to deliver their most powerful attacks to the organ in question as Il'gynoth shrieked in pain and spouted more nonsense, saying that this pain 'would be returned a thousand-fold', as if it would be reborn at some point in the future, but in the end it didn't even matter as the heroes crushed the heart and brought an end to the corruption that was called Il'gynoth. "I'm not sure whether to be overjoyed that we beat it, or be annoyed that it had a cheap trick to bring it down," Rainbow commented, as she really didn't like Il'gynoth and that meant she wasn't going to like Xavius or N'Zoth, when they got to beating those beings since she figured that they would track down N'Zoth once Sargeras and the Legion were taken care of, and she could tell that a number of the other heroes were thinking the same thing, that Il'gynoth had been annoying in the grand scheme of things, even though everyone was pleased to have brought it down in the end, cutting off the power between it and the Iris. "I have the feeling that we'll be seeing it again, if it is allied with N'Zoth," Spitfire remarked, though as she said that, and the heroes left the corrupted tree's hollow so they could return to the area that Malfurion was currently working in, she took a moment to engage her power and set fire to the World Tree, allowing the Fel fire to burn away the corruption and most of this area of the Nightmare, before she returned to the others and walked up the path that they had been walking up, as it was time for them to pick another path and head into another part of the Nightmare. Crushing Il'gynoth would give Malfurion an edge in his work, to turn the tide against Xavius' power and open the Iris so all of them could head to Moonglade, so they could track down their foe and bring him down, but for now her place was for them to stop near the Iris and take a short break, just so everyone would be ready for the next powerful creature that had to be standing in their way and get over the battle that had just ended, all while knowing that time was of the essence and that the moment everyone was ready they would descend deeper into the Nightmare, even though she hoped Thalyssra and all of their allies were fine, something she and Rainbow would figure out upon their return to Suramar. > Suramar: Tormented Guardians > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies took a few minutes to rest and recover after the battle with Il'gynoth, even if it had been far easier than when they faced Nythendra, though once everyone was ready to go, and Spitfire was sure of that since she wanted to make sure no one was exhausted, they got up from where they were sitting and headed over to one of the other portals that were resting around the Iris that Malfurion was working on, where the heroes, once more, waited for her to pick a destination and head through it, despite the fact that they were more experienced at this than she and Rainbow were, as this was their first 'raid', as some heroes called it. Spitfire, in the end, picked out the portal that would take them to the corrupted version of Mulgore, the province of Kalimdor that Baine Bloodhoof and all of the Tauren people, not counting the Highmountain Tauren, called home, where it was easy for them to see that there were a lot of Nightmare vines growing out of the ground and reached multiple areas, along with a path carved into the ground that appeared to be heading towards the area that their next foe rested in, which they noticed was a trio of large rock pillars which had been connected by a large amount of spider webs. The sheer amount of webs meant that whoever or whatever was in this area had to be a spider, a form she and Rainbow knew wasn't one that the druids could take on and that, in turn, revealed another individual that had been corrupted by the Nightmare, something no one was surprised by since this was the Emerald Nightmare, before she noticed that the webs looked like they might be strong enough for them to walk or run on, though at the same time it was easy to see a few creatures who had been tainted by the Nightmare, as a few plainstriders happened to be walking nearby, flightless birds who were hunted for their meat, who didn't care about them. Of course they knew that there had to be a few more creatures resting throughout this part of the Nightmare, since the corrupted version of Un'Goro Crater happened to have a couple of foes for them to fight, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and everyone else kept their guards up as they started to walk down the path that was in front of them, as it was time to hunt down their target and cut it down, to give Malfurion a better chance of overcoming the power that was resting on the Iris and open the way to Moonglade. That was when they spotted a large spider creature, a blacked beast with red energy dancing around its body and limbs, who seemed to be walking on six legs and had a torso with the other two limbs, arms and scythe blades for hands, but it seemed to be ignoring everything that was around it and that was fine with Spitfire, since this would give them some time to clear the area of enemies before they approached the powerful being that was guarding this portion of the Nightmare, even though her thoughts were interrupted as the creature turned its head and seemed to stare at the area that was all around it for a few seconds. "Betrayers! Liars! Murderers! Has Hamuul sent his lapdogs to fetch the knife from my back?" the creature shouted, almost as if it, or rather she since it spoke with a twisted feminine voice, actually knew that they were there and that it was just waiting for them to come over to where she was waiting, which happened to be the furthest platform from the location of the portal they had used to reach this place, but it was also possible that she was being paranoid and was just talking to pass the time as she waited for Xavius to give her some orders, "Do you remember murdering me? Or have you grown so used to slaughter that my cries of agony are long forgotten? I recall my final moments surrounded by those I had trusted, and hearing your satisfied sneers as I drew my last breath!" "I don't think she's talking to us... rather, it looks like she might be under the impression that she's speaking to whoever brought about her demise," Vytheril commented, where the rest of the heroes nodded their heads to show that everyone agreed with the thought and that none were questioning what he had said, though at the same time they decided to take a moment to observe the spider creature as she moved around the area that was her domain, even though there was a secondary reason for this, as their connection to Malfurion would allow him to see what was going on right now and that meant he might be able to offer them some idea as to who this might have been. I'm sorry, heroes, but I have no idea who this creature might have been before coming here, Malfurion spoke up, as he was taking a moment to distract himself from trying to force open the Iris and focused on what they were currently looking at, though while he said that Spitfire had the feeling that the spider had been a druid before her demise, a rather powerful one at that, and Xavius had twisted her spirit into a guardian for the Nightmare, granting the Nightmare Lord a bit more time so he could further his twisted plans, but I do know that she has been twisted into a terror that Xavius has positioned outside Thunder Bluff, awaiting her master's order to unleash her corruption on the spirits of the Tauren so more can be twisted into servants of the Nightmare... I would ask that you bring her down, both to eliminate her flow of power to the Iris and to free the spirits of the Tauren from the lingering threat. "For now, let's focus on taking down her minions, before we worry about her," Spitfire remarked, though she did like the fact that Malfurion was willing to speak with her and Rainbow, given their nature as demon hunters and happened to be following in his brother's footsteps, and inform everyone as to what was going on right now, as the couple of Tauren that were with them seemed annoyed that Xavius was trying to corrupt the souls of their ancestors, but once she said that she drew her blades once more and resumed walking down the path in front of them, with Rainbow and the others following not a few seconds later. The first foe they encountered was a large corrupted bird, blue feathered with a crazed look in its eyes, that tried to peck everyone to death when they approached it, showing that it was, in some manner, under the sway of Xavius and that they were definitely on his list of enemies to take out, given the fact that they had taken down two of his main minions so far, hence the reason Rainbow went on the offensive and swung her Warblades at their foe, blocking the peak attacks while making sure to open its defenses so that the melee heroes could attack its sides while their ranged allies loosed a couple of blasts at the same time. Spitfire, however, focused on observing the spider creature for any potential weaknesses as she quickly moved around the upper part of her corrupted domain, an area that none of them would be able to hit easily since there didn't appear to be a pathway leading up there, though she and Rainbow could fly up there and lure her down to the area their allies were in, but for the most part it didn't seem like the spider had a weakness, meaning they might find one during their battle with her or just bring her down by overcoming her attacks and whatever tricks she might have to throw at them when they stated to fight her. In addition to that there were a few smaller spiders, like the small spider demons in terms of size, which joined the battle and tried to bring them down, though in the end it didn't matter as Rainbow and the heroes brought down the massive bird, plus its allies, which granted them access to the two paths that were open to them right now, where it looked like they were going to have to take out every enemy that was lurking in this place before even being allowed to fight the massive spider that was partly ignoring their presence. With those foes defeated the group came to the decision to head over to the right and carefully walked on the thick webbing that was in front of them, since none of them knew if it could maintain its form as they walked on it, but, as Spitfire and the others quickly discovered as they did that, was that the webbing held and that everyone was able to reach the second rock pillar that their enemies were just wandering around in, waiting for their master to order them around or for intruders to reach them, before they found that the next group was foes was just a bunch of spiders, with one slightly larger one no doubt being a leader of sorts, which was followed by them lashing out at their foes without delay. With the second group bested the heroes marched over the next bit of webbing and headed over to the third pillar, which was followed by the spider creature dropping down from where she had been waiting not a few seconds later and glared at all of them, as if she still felt that they had betrayed her at some point in the past, before her death anyway, even if all of them knew that the spider creature was wrong and that no one here was behind her demise, but that didn't stop Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies from readying themselves as they prepared to face another powerful creature that was under Xavius' foul control. A few seconds ticked by before the spider screeched at them and rushed over to where they were standing, even though Rainbow rushed forward this time around and swung her Warblades at her foe, clashing with the spider's scythe limbs as the heroes lashed out with their weapons, spells, and arrows, intending on doing as much damage as they could to their foe so they could move onto the next part of the Nightmare, and the next powerful foe that might be waiting for them, but as that happened the spider shrieked and looked some webbing at some of them, which appeared to stick her targets to the ground and might have been designed to deal a bit of damage to the mage and rogue she struck. In response to that attack the pair broke out of the bindings as one of the priests made sure to mend their wounds, even if they were light and didn't go too deep, since it was just webbing and not one of her scythe limbs, something that prompted her to start a new tactic, which happened to be lobbing bits of poison into the air and letting them land all over the top of the pillar they were fighting on, scattering poison and reminding the group of what happened during their battle with Nythendra, hence why all of them avoided the new pools of poison while focusing on their foe. Another thing the spider did was try and make a number of them into poison bombs, as in her power allowed her to transfer some of her poison over to those she picked as her targets, to spread more of her poison to the rest of the area they were fighting in at the moment, where those that were inflicted by such a condition actually spread out and made sure that when the pools of poison were dropped none of them would be near where the group was fighting, showing Spitfire and Rainbow just how experienced the heroes were and let them understand a few things in the process. Of course there was another trick to this, the spider actually let out a sound that informed the group that she had to be calling on reinforcements, as some of her brood, which happened to be the smaller spiders that had been in their way earlier, dropped down and rushed at the group as the main spider took a few seconds to retreat to the ceiling of her domain once more, showing them that she might be a bit cowardly and didn't want to die in her 'quest to get revenge', or whatever lie Xavius was feeding her. While the heroes dealt with the spiders that were around them, taking down the main spider's brood before focusing on their main foe once more, Spitfire and Rainbow decided to tackle the massive spider and raised their hands, Spitfire going with her right and Rainbow with her left, where they combined both of their Fel energies into a single attack that took the form of a sphere that had both fire and lightning attached to it, something that shook the area as they loosed it right into the area the massive spider was in, blasting her right in the area below her and knocked her down onto the ground, near all of their allies, allowing them to lash out at their spider without delay... which was followed by Nightmare power surging around the spider as it transformed into a creature called a roc, a massive bird that looked like a raven, before she lashed out at all of them again. That confirmed something in Spitfire's mind as the roc headed over to the first pillar, the main one that was connected to the path that had brought them here, which forced everyone to follow after her so they could continue the battle, and that fact she came to understand was that they were definitely dealing with a fallen druid, a powerful one that took on a couple of shapes that none of the others had taken on in the past, though it was hard to tell if these forms were forbidden to the rest of the druids or ones granted by the power of the Nightmare, but right now that didn't matter as everyone caught up with their foe and lashed out at her when she turned to face them once more. The roc turned her attention towards them as such a thing happened, swinging her wings at them to knock any of them off of their feet and pecking at those who got too close to her body, though everyone knew that those weren't the only abilities that she had access to and made sure to keep up their guards as they waited for her to reveal one of her new attacks, since her spider form had possessed a good number of powers and that meant this one had to be the same. Sure enough the roc spread her wings at one point and started to channel the power of the storm as she focused on them for a few moments, a blackened storm that would do a bit of damage if it was allowed to come into contact with the heroes, hence why Rainbow pulled away from the battle for a few moments and rushed around the attack in question, using her innate peagsus powers to calm the wind and force the storm to die down, much to the shock and surprise of both their allies and their enemy, though the latter was great since it allowed them to bypass some of the roc's defenses once more. That didn't stop the roc from spreading her wings for a few seconds and swung them at everyone that was in front of her, where she was sending out what appeared to be a fair number of sharpened feathers that were designed to do harm to whoever they came into contact with, and while most of the group dodged the attack, without getting hit in the process, a few had to tank the feathers and the healers made sure to mend their wounds, allowing them to rush back into battle and strike the roc before she had a chance to flee, though that attack wasn't all the roc was capable of. In addition to all of that their foe had the power to create smaller dark tornadoes with a swing of her wing, ones that could form faster than the big one she tried to form a few moments ago, with the speed making it much harder for Rainbow or Spitfire to break any of them apart, but for the most part the heroes just avoided the incoming attacks and lashed out at the roc, knocking her to the side for a moment as they dodged her incoming talons, which showed them how desperate she truly was to win this battle, but that was when Rainbow rushed forward and spun as she swung her Warblades right into their foe's chest, cutting two long diagonal gashes into the roc's body and dropped it to the ground, where it stopped moving after a time and caused everyone to calm down a little. "That's another twisted guardian defeated," Vytheril commented, though he was pleased by how things were going at the moment, something that he knew Spitfire was thinking about since she had been considering their fights with Nythendra and Il'gynoth, but before anyone could say anything else a surge of power rushed over the roc's body and they responded by shifting their stances in case the battle wasn't over just yet, something that pulled away a few seconds later and let all of them stare at the body of a fallen female Night Elf, a green haired individual who was wearing the attire of a druid, not that they had questioned such a thing, which had been twisted by the Nightmare, "at least she is now free from Xavius' grasp and can move onto her next life." Her name was Elerethe Renferal, a powerful Archdruid who was like a sister to me... and whose loss I felt deeply when I heard the news of her death, Malfurion commented, speaking to them in their minds once more, even though they could hear the sadness in his voice as he remembered the day he learned of Elerethe's passing, where many were sure he wasn't the only one who felt sad and angry over her death, but they remained silent as they listened to what he had to tell them as each of them offered a silent prayer for the fallen druid in front of them, she was ambushed and murdered by the cult known as the Twilight's Hammer, who had disguised themselves as members of the Horde during the days before we were struck by Deathwing's world changing Cataclysm, though it appears that she was lead to believe that the one who was responsible for her death, and the death of the other Night Elves who had been with her, was Hamuul Runetotem, and that thought infested her spirit with such a powerful anger... something Xavius used to twist her into the shade you just fought, to bring ruin to those she felt had betrayed her. Elerethe, my old friend, you had a deep love for the lands of Alterac... I vow to rename the vale in your honor and tend to it in your name... Spitfire wasn't sure where Malfurion was talking about, as in the vale since she had an idea of where Alterac was located, but for now that wasn't important as she and the others took a few moments to rest up and regain their strength for the remaining battles that were between them and Xavius, since there were two more portals to go through and that meant there were two more powerful creatures for everyone to contend with, not counting Cenarius once Malfurion broke the magic that was preventing the Iris from opening. She could, however, tell that most of the druids were angry about what they were seeing right now, as in everything from the Nightmare Lord corrupting the Dream, twisting the guardians into his personal toys to be thrown at anyone who tried to set things right, and forcing his will upon the spirits of the dead, to turn them into angry tools to spread his foul corruption, and honestly she couldn't blame them for feeling angry, as just staring at all the corruption, after hearing about how glorious the Dream was, made her dislike Xavius, especially when she thought about all the pain he was forcing everyone to feel. A few moments later everyone group up from where they had stopped and headed back up the path that had brought them to this place, allowing them to return to the area that Malfurion was working in at the moment, before Spitfire headed over to the portal that would bring her, Rainbow, and all of their companions to the corrupted Dreamway, as she felt like facing whatever was on the other side first, leaving the powerful creature in the Nightmare's version of Grizzly Hills as the last guardian of the Iris, before she refocused on what she was doing. It didn't take her or the others long to pass through the portal and reappear in their new destination, which was a twisted path with Nightmare roots, one that looked more like a path one might find while they were heading to one of the settlements the Night Elves lived in or to one of the ancient ruins that dotted Azeroth, though in front of them stood a decent sized group of enemies that were all corrupted by Xavius' power, with three beings who looked like the union of a female Night Elf and a fawn, since their lower bodies were the bodies of a fawn and their upper parts were a female Night Elf who wasn't wearing anything save for a bra made out of leaves, with two others looking like male versions of the ones she had spotted first. According to the others these enemies were dryads and keepers of the grove, the former being the females and the latter being the males based on what the druids told her and Rainbow, though since each of them had been corrupted into mad minions of Xavius the only thing that could be done for them was to slay them, hence why everyone rushed forward not a few seconds later and lashed out at their enemies, surprising the dryads and keepers in the process as they tried to raise their magics to defend themselves. Behind this group of foes happened to be a decent sized dragon, who was roughly one and a half times the size of Spitfire and the others, Rothos according to what Malfurion was able to tell them, who was, as everyone suspected, corrupted by the Nightmare and had twisted red scales over his body, in addition to the blackened nature of the Nightmare, that seemed to be guarding the wider arena that four larger dragons, who happened to be as tall as Nythendra had been before her death, were resting in, waiting for enemies to reach them. As such Spitfire nodded for a moment and watched as Rainbow flashed through the air not a second later, where she crashed into Rothos and knocked him to the ground, giving the others a chance to topple the dryads and keepers that were in front of them, even though that was when Malfurion informed them that this place was sacred to the green dragonflight, or at least that was the case for the Dream's version of this area, and that the four dragons in front of them were the guardians of four portals which connected Azeroth to the Dream, while their names were Ysondre, Emeriss, Lethen, and Taerar, not that such it mattered since all four of them looked identical thanks to the Nightmare's corruption. The first thing they did was make sure Rothos was slain, freeing his soul so it would no longer be under of Xavius' control and be forced to turn against everything he had sworn to defend prior to his corruption, though once that task was complete the group advanced into the large area that the four dragons were waiting in and started the battle without delay, where two dragons took off and headed into the air not a few seconds later, to which Rainbow burst into the air again and followed after them, leaving Spitfire to turn her own attention to the pair that were in front of her while allowing the heroes to either focus on blasting the dragons in the air or focusing their efforts on the ones in front of them. One thing all four Nightmare Dragons, as Spitfire was going to call them, shared was that their breath attacks had been, as she and the others expected, corrupted by the power of the Nightmare and empowered to some degree, given that one of them fired it right at her and she loosed a blast of her own flames to cancel it out, while Rainbow forced one of her foes to fire their attack up into the air as she hacked into the chest of her main target, giving the others a chance to open fire on the other dragon that Spitfire was currently fighting, showing that they wanted to take down the ground foes before even worrying about the other ones. Based on what happened next Spitfire came to the decision that each Nightmare Dragon had their own powers, where she suspected that the one called Ysondre seemed to have the power to channel the power of the Nightmare into blasts that would damage whoever she was fighting and cause dread to flood the area everyone was fighting in, Emeriss had the power to inflict a terrible infection to the surrounding area and attempted to burn everything that was around her, Lethon used his twisted powers to try and tear out fragments of the heroes so he could boost each of their powers and weaken their foes, while Taerar seemed to have the power to use his shadow as a second him, like a diversion or something, to attack someone from two directions. It was rather interesting fighting against enemies that had access to all of those skills, at the same time no less, instead of focusing on them one at a time and switching once one fell to the ground, but as far as Spitfire could tell the two she was fighting with Vytheril, Scarlet, and the other heroes were the ones called Ysondre and Emeriss, leaving Lethon and Taerar for Rainbow to deal with in the sky, something she was doing without needing any backup, which impressed their allies whenever they noticed what she was doing, where it didn't take her long to blast the pair of dragons backwards before rushing at Lethon and swung her Warblades at him as she kept the pair distracted and away from everyone else. Everyone was fine with that, since it allowed them to focus on the dragons that were their targets and not have to worry about those that were in the air, hence why Spitfire stayed in her demonic form and slashed into the sides of her foes while avoiding the Nightmare empowered blasts that were coming at her, even if she gathered her own flames into a single large fireball and blasted one dragon in the face, causing it to pull back so she could focus on the other one for a few moments. Something that surprised her and the others was that no additional enemies rushed into the area to do battle with them, nor did any of the Nightmare Dragons reveal any new powers that might change the course of this battle in their favor, to which Spitfire focused on taking down Ysondre and Emeriss, where her allies hacked into the scales of both dragons as all of their ranged heroes blasted or fired arrows into their sides at the same time, before she was able to hack into Ysondre's neck and dropped her to the ground, before Scarlet shifted to the Blades of the Fallen Prince once more, as at one point she had switched back to Frostmourne, and severed the head of Emeriss, which was followed by Rainbow landing as both Lethon and Taerar crashed into the ground behind her, with both of their heads severed as well. "They were strong, I'll give them that, but not enough to bring us down," Rainbow remarked, as it had been quite the fight and had to wonder what would have happened if she had faced all four of them at the same time, something that would have been quite a battle based on what she had seen from the other two Nightmare Dragons, but for now she knew that Spitfire was more interested in heading through the final portal and deal with whoever the last guardian was, before they went through the Iris and figure out where Xavius was hiding. Malfurion, of course, spoke to them once more as they took a moment to rest after the battle with the Nightmare Dragons, revealing that it was quite unfair for the four of them, who had been corrupted at one point, by Xavius' power in the past and freed from the weaker version of it, only to be twisted by his power again and sentenced to death for their actions, all while their actions had freed their spirits from this torment, to which they focused on what was going on right now, just to get some energy back before they moved forward. Once Spitfire was sure that everyone was ready to move forward again, which took a few minutes to figure out, they returned to the portal and headed back to the area that Malfurion and the Iris rested in, where everyone turned not a few seconds later and walked over to the final portal, which took them to an area which looked like it might be leading to a World Tree, up on a cliff of some kind that was above a forest, where she had to assume they were above the area called Grizzy Hills and noticed the Nightmare lingering in the air once more, just like all of the other regions they had been in so far. Sure enough there were a number of tentacles, born of the Nightmare's foul power, though the other enemies that waited in front of them happened to be a number of tainted eagles that the hunters fired upon to clear the air, along with some bipedal bear-men, furbolgs based on what the others told them, that were in their way, who happened to be hunters and warriors, hence why the ranged heroes and several melee heroes stepped up to face them as Spitfire and Rainbow focused on any additional enemies that might be in this area, all while listening to the statement that Malfurion had to give them about this area. What they learned was that this was the domain of Ursoc, who was the corrupted Wild God that Xavius had captured at some point in the past, where Spitfire recalled it was after the first battle for the Broken Shore, meaning his corruption had to be complete and was now forced to serve Xavius, meaning they were going to have a grand fight on their hands and that seemed to make Rainbow eager to see what happened next, as in when they found Ursoc, which had to be at the end of the path that was in front of them, leading to the World Tree, or at least a massive tree that could pass as a World Tree, which might be the felled one in Grizzy Hills, only it had been restored to its full glory in the Dream. Either way that didn't stop Vytheril and the heroes from engaging their enemies, this time choosing to have both Spitfire and Rainbow save their energy for later, as in for when they found Ursoc and drew him into battle, since he was no doubt tainted to the point where he couldn't see friend from foe and would attack anyone Xavius saw as an enemy, and given all of the power that the pair had he, Scarlet, and everyone else felt that allowing Spitfire and Rainbow to engage him was the best course of action. Fortunately it seemed like their enemies were either weaker than the guardians of the other tainted creatures they had faced so far, or cutting down three of the four Iris guardians had cut into all of the foul power that was coursing through the regions of the Nightmare, weakening those that had fallen under Xavius' control, but either way none of them were about to complain about the situation they were in, choosing to focus on the enemies that were blocking the way forward and making sure no one ran off to grab more than they were comfortable with. Spitfire noticed that Rainbow was a little annoyed about not being able to fight, not until everyone reached the area that Ursoc was resting in, though at the very least she didn't do anything stupid and stood near her the entire time, though of course there were a few eagles who tried to fly away and Rainbow knocked them back down to where their allies were waiting, allowing them to finish the birds off before they moved deeper into the region of the Nightmare that the portal had brought them to. Of course that was when Rainbow told Spitfire that there were massive tentacles all over this part of the Nightmare, ones that came close to where they were standing right now, so they didn't have to worry about a terrible foe coming up on them at some point in the very near future, allowing them to focus on watching Vytheril, Scarlet, and everyone else blast and slash their way through the furbolgs, eagles, and all of the smaller tentacles that were up here, before reaching an area that contained a decent sized opening that seemed to lead into the heart of the corrupted tree they were on the outsides of, to which both of them stepped to the front once more as they raised their weapons, since Ursoc had to be near and they wanted to be at the ready for when either of them spotted the Wild God in question. It didn't take them long to reach the center of the tree, which was where they found a large arena of sorts inside the tree's hollowed center, though that was when they spotted their target, a massive bear that was easily twice as tall as Spitfire or Rainbow were, and that included their transformed forms, whose fur was blackened and had red tips that had to be the power of the Nightmare, which had been forced upon him after Xavius captured him, who growled for a moment, which showed that he was definitely aggressive, before Rainbow stepped forward and held a hand out, as if telling everyone else that she was going to take over from here. "Don't be mad, but I really want to fight this Wild God on my own," Rainbow stated, as while she knew she was strong, due to all of the power she had accumulated since they were freed from the Vault of the Wardens, most of the enemies she had faced so far hadn't been a decent enough opponent for her to gauge just how strong she truly was, and with Ursoc being under the sway of Xavius' power, granting him a power boost in the process, he was far stronger than what he had been before being captured, even though she assumed Cenarius and Xavius were on a level or two above him, which was when she turned her head and faced the angry bear. Spitfire was tempted to say something, to stop Rainbow from doing something incredibly stupid, though before she could do so Ursoc roared and charged right at the area that her friend was standing in, which was when Rainbow shifted into her demonic form not even a second later and replied in kind, charging right at the incoming bear before raising her hands for a moment and gripped onto the pair of large fangs that were growing out of Ursoc's mouth, one on each side, using all of her strength to stall the corrupt Wild God as her clawed feet dug into the ground as well. What surprised everyone, both the heroes and Ursoc, was that Rainbow's strength was more than enough to stall Ursoc for a few seconds, as in he came to a stop and stood there for a moment, something that caused Spitfire to gesture for the others to back up and give Rainbow some space, hence why they returned to the passage which connected the inside of this large tree to the outside, though she stood in front of everyone else in case Ursoc changed course and came for them, showing them that she was leaving this to Rainbow, even if it was a bad idea in her mind. Once that was done Rainbow focused on what she was doing and found that Ursoc was trying his best to overwhelm her, so he could barrel through her and tackle the druids that were behind her, since she figured Xavius wanted to kill them first so their souls could be stolen and added to his corruption, though she wasn't about to let that happen as she summoned all of her strength and lifted Ursoc off the ground for a few seconds, allowing her to turn and hurl him into one of the wooden walls, not really doing any damage to the wall in question as the Wild God bounced off of it. The instant that was done she pulled out her Warblades again and rushed over to the area that her foe was resting in, swinging her blades to counter the incoming slash attacks that he sent her way, where she found that his claws were definitely stronger than what she was expecting and was thankful that her blades were able to take the attacks in her place, since she was sure that each attack would have torn through her armor and dealt some decent damage to her body, so for now Rainbow focused on making sure none of Ursoc's attacks reached reach and picked when to lash out at the Wild God. Along the way she discovered a few more things, such as the fact that Ursoc tried to barrel into her several times, to deal a good bit of damage and knock her out of the way so he could focus on the others, but for most part she was able to move off to the side as such an attack came towards her, allowing her to swing her Warblades at him and hack into his side as he attempted to bring her down, though the more interesting skill he showed off was when he let out a mighty roar and a red tinted image of him appeared nearby. The reason she was even remotely interested in such a thing was thanks to the fact that the Nightmare Shade could either stay still and just roar occasionally, usually when Ursoc did the attack and that would cause another one to spawn in another corner of the hollow they were fighting in, or the Shade could move on its own and it would rush over to her location, hence the reason that Rainbow readied a few bolts of lightning to blast any of the Shades that dared to move towards either her or her allies. Of course there was another reason behind her taking out all of the Nightmare Shades when they started to approach her, as they seemed to spread a dark mist or something that would no doubt damage whoever came into contact with it, so by eliminating each Shade it prevented them from reaching Spitfire and the others, since it appeared that those enemies might have been tasked with wiping out those who weren't taking part in the battle right now, though thanks to Ursoc's corruption it was hard to tell if he was pleased that she had stopped her allies from taking damage or if he was annoyed by her actions, the latter being due to Xavius' hold over him no doubt. Regardless of what opinion Ursoc had on the Shades being destroyed in such a way, since Rainbow didn't care all that much, he did seem to enjoy charging at her in an attempt to knock her down and open up the path so he could fight everyone else that was watching them, something Rainbow wasn't about to let happen as she spun around to use a few swings to block the incoming attacks once more, a small number even passing through to cut into his sides, especially his head, but for the most part it looked like Xavius had twisted him to the point where the Wild God had no concept of pain and just attacked without a care in the world, as if dying for Xavius was more important to him. Of course, when it became clear that he might be losing this battle, as Rainbow had, against all odds, taken no damage so far and he had taken a beating thanks to everything she had done since they started fighting each other, Ursoc roared not a few seconds later and seemed to gather all of his Nightmare energy into the area right in front of his mouth, like he was planning on firing a powerful blast to take everyone out at the same time, to which Rainbow banished the Warblade in her right hand for a second and started to gather her own power, creating a lance out of Fel green energy that was shaped like a lightning bolt. At first she honestly wasn't sure if this would work, since she hadn't tried creating something like this since she gained her elemental powers, but based on what she was seeing the weapon looked like it was stable and that meant it could be ready for what she had in mind, to which Rainbow pulled her arm backwards for a moment and then hurled it straight at Ursoc, intending on either catching her foe's attack before it could be completed or cancel it out and make her foe suffer the detonation of both attacks. The lance rushed through the air and collided with Ursoc's incoming blast, as the Wild God had been preparing to fire the sphere he had been readying, where the tip struck the attack and seemed to push it backwards, even though it did look like his Nightmare power might be pushing it away from him, but Rainbow smirked for a moment as the lance smashed its way through the sphere and struck Ursoc in the side, as he turned the instant his attack started to break, something that was followed by a powerful surge of wind that erupted when the lance detonated and they watched as a large crater was blasted into the ground. Ursoc, despite his nature as a Wild God, staggered out of the crater and huffed for a moment, showing that the damage must have been more than what he was suspecting, which surprised the heroes of Azeroth when they noticed all of the cuts and bruises that had been dealt to Ursoc, especially since one of his fangs appeared to have been broken, like the lance had struck his throat or something, but before he had even a chance to do anything Rainbow summoned her other Warblade and flashed through the air, delivering a number of cuts and slashes to the corrupted Wild God's body, before landing on the ground behind him, where she and the others heard a sigh of relief as Ursoc collapsed on the ground and the life seemed to fade from his body. Despite the recklessnes of her decision, to fight the Wild God alone, whose power must have been compromised by all of Xavius' power and torments, Spitfire smiled for a moment as Rainbow reverted to her base form again, as this meant that they might not have to worry about facing an all powerful Nightmare infused Cenarius, though at the same time she knew he would be stronger than Ursoc had been and would take all of their power to bring down, not to mention the same had to be said for Xavius, though they watched as Ursoc's soul departed from his body before they headed back to the Iris, as it was time to bring an end to their venture and save the Dream from Xavius' foul grasp, all while gaining the Life Essence they needed to save the Arcan'dor. > Suramar: Rift of Aln > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With Ursoc taken down, in a battle that pleased Rainbow since he had put up a better fight than anything they had faced so far in the Nightmare, Spitfire and the heroes walked back to where the portal that had brought them to the twisted version of Grizzly Hills happened to be resting, even though it was easy for Spitfire to know her friend was happy to have fought a being like the Wild God that Xavius had corrupted, before she focused on what was in front of them as they headed back to what she was personally thinking of calling the 'Core of the Nightmare', where the Iris rested, and found Malfurion was still working on breaking through the magics that were resting on the bulb. "Malfurion, we've beaten all four of the guardians that Xavius has left in charge of the corrupted sections of the Dream, and that includes Ursoc," Spitfire stated, speaking to the powerful Archdruid that was aiding them in their venture, to bring down the Nightmare Lord and secure the Life Essence that would allow them to save the Arcan'dor, not to mention the soldiers and citizens who had come to Shal'Aran to fight Elisande or escape what was happening in the city, before she focused on what was happening in front of the powerful Night Elf, "Please tell me that crushing all four of them was enough to break the magics protecting the Iris and that there isn't another foe was need to bring down before we move forward." "Not to worry, all of you have done well... behold, the Iris opens!" Malfurion stated, where his tone revealed that he was also pleased with them and their actions, especially since it seemed like the souls of those who had been corrupted by the Nightmare had been allowed to move on to the next stage of their lives, which was either moving on to the Shadowlands or sticking around in the Dream, before he finished whatever spell he had been channeling and the magic that had been defending the bulb came undone in seconds, where the petals pulled back and revealed a portal that would take them to the next section of their foe's domain, "Thanks to your efforts, the way to Cenarius is clear, and, as I have said before, his power seems to be coming from Moonglade, which just happens to be the most sacred place in all the Dream, but thanks to Xavius's foul power he's likely been taken over as well... to think that my Shan'do could play any part in its corruption... This time I will be coming with you, as I must see what sort of horrors have befallen my beloved teacher with my own eyes and, more importantly, if we can save him from the Nightmare Lord's power, so I would suggest that you take a moment to steel yourselves for whatever we might discover on the other side of the Iris." "The only one who might need a rest is Rainbow, since she tackled and beat Ursoc on her own," Vytheril remarked, which caused Malfurion to pause for a moment, as while he knew that the heroes were strong enough to bring down a number of Azeroth's greatest enemies, be they masters of the Legion or the terrifying Old Gods, he wasn't expecting to hear that a demon hunter, even one personally trained by his fallen brother in the art of hunting and killing demons, was capable of bringing down someone like Ursoc on their own, even after Xavius had corrupted and empowered him to be a barrier for those who made it this far. Spitfire found that Malfurion glanced at her for a moment, no doubt considering the implications of the fact that Rainbow had taken down a Wild God on her own, meaning her current full power was enough to topple one, even one corrupted by the Nightmare, and that he had to be wondering if she was the same way, that her power was far beyond what he might have seen since they were freed from the Vault they had been trapped in for so long, before she turned her attention back to the Iris for a moment. Based on what she could see Moonglade was once a peaceful place, untouched and unsoiled by everything that was happening right now, but the Nightmare's corruption had caused some measure of destruction to the area in question, as it looked like the area was slanted, pointing to a dark maelstrom of Nightmare energy, which she felt had to lead to where Xavius was resting as he corrupted more of the Dream and, at times, even portions of Azeroth if he was lucky to get that far, but since they were here she knew he had to be waiting for them to arrive. Nightmare tentacles, massive ones which looked like the ones that were back in the depths of Grizzly Hills, graced the Dream's version of the province known as Moonglade, where she suspected that Malfurion had peered into whatever the Iris had shown him and knew that the area had been corrupted in part, given his words to all of them, meaning they had to be prepared for what was waiting for them on the other side of the Iris, as Cenarius was a demigod and Xavius' foul power was coursing through his body, meaning he had to be stronger than Ursoc had been, but that only meant the Nightmare Lord's power was on a while other level. Rainbow seemed to understand that as well as she took a seat and accepted some of the food that had been prepared before they ventured out into the Nightmare, showing that she was going to rest and gather her strength for the battle that stood between them and Xavius, a smart move given everything they had seen so far, which was why a couple of the other heroes passed around a few vials and revealed that they were going to give them a power boost, or at least it would work for them, since they had no idea if they would work for her or Rainbow, something they would have to test at a later date, just so they didn't waste any useful items. Once Rainbow was ready to go, and the heroes were as prepared as they could possibly be, everyone stood up and just walked over to where the Iris rested, where it took them no time to raise one of their hands and access the power that the portal possessed, allowing all of them and Malfurion to teleport to the Nightmare's version of Moonglade, and standing on a rocky platform in front of them, one that looked like it could be the bed of a lake, was a centaur that looked similar to all of the keepers they fought on their way to the area the Nightmare Dragons had been in, where it was easy to tell that his strength was far stronger than his sons, especially with the red bits of the Nightmare that were attached to his body, to show that he had been corrupted. "Cenarius... oh, it breaks my heart to see my Shan'do twisted and torn this way." Malfurion commented, where it was easy for everyone to tell that he seemed totally heartbroken over what had happened to the being that had been his master, as it this being had taught him most of what he knew, if not everything about the Life magics druids wielded, but no one said anything as they stared at the area that was around them as he steeled himself for the battle that would happen once he and the heroes reached the blackened lakebed, "If we can subdue him, I will do everything in my power to purge the vile touch of Xavius from his spirit... even if the chances of such a thing happening are slim to none, due to our foe's power, I will still try to save him from this madness." "Malfurion!? No, it cannot be!" Cenarius called out, nearly shouted based on what Spitfire and the others heard, but at the same time this meant that he knew they were here and that meant he might attack them before anyone reached the area he happened to be standing on, hence the reason they started to walk down to where the lakebed rested, before a look of sadness crossed over the Wild God's face, "I prayed that my Thero'shan would never fall to the Nightmare... yet here you stand, casting a shadow upon the purity of the Dream! "Can it be? My old master is blind to the lies of Xavius and thinks WE are the source of the infestation!" Malfurion said, as if he was asking Spitfire and the others their opinion on the matter while everyone walked down the path that was in front of them, even if they would have to cross over a small bit of water to reach Cenarius' location, though everyone shrugged for a moment, since Malfurion was the expert on the Nightmare and the heroes had either encountered it a few times in the past or not at all, at least not until today, to which he focused on the Wild God and raised his voice, "You have been deceived, my teacher, as Xavius has twisted your perceptions and is making you see former allies as enemies, while also making you see former enemies as allies! I beg of you, let me cleanse you of his evil, while my friends deal with his foul darkness and save the Dream from his madness!" "Liars! Traitors! Servants of Xavius!" Cenarius stated, showing Spitfire and the others that he was like Ursoc, corrupted by the power of the Nightmare Lord's powers and twisted to believe that his allies were actually enemies, that they were the ones spreading Xavius' will across the Dream and across Azeroth, meaning that there was no chance for them to talk this out and see if they could convince the Wild God of the truth of this situation, though even as that happened Spitfire and all of her friends arrived at the lakebed, each drawing their weapons for the battle that would be starting soon, "It will give me no pleasure to destroy you, but my duty is to the Dream. Andu-falah-dor!" Spitfire really had no idea what the phrase meant, given that she wasn't familiar with the various languages of Azeroth that everyone spoke, hence why she was happy that the common language was mostly accepted by everyone, but for now she focused on what was going to happen next as both she and Rainbow transformed into their demonic forms as they rushed over to where Cenarius was standing, finding that he used his arms, not to mention the blackened mass that had formed on his hands and took the shape of claws to dispatch his foes, to parry their incoming attacks, which allowed the heroes to take up their positions and start assisting them, with Malfurion joining them once more. Cenarius also used his hooves as weapons in an attempt to try and bring them down, lashing out at whoever happened to come near him, where his claws reached for both Spitfire and Rainbow, who parried his attacks like he had done to them and put some distance between them, even if it was just for a few moments, before they rushed forward and clashed with the Wild God again, causing the air to shudder for a second as their powers came into contact with each other, all while giving the other heroes a number of openings to tackle their foe. This time around Malfurion stuck to a healing role as they fought his master, which caused Spitfire to wonder if he had sworn to never fight him or if the thought of fighting him in his bear or cat forms just crushed his fighting spirit, but the main thing was that he was saving his power for his main task, trying to purify Cenarius of Xavius' foul corruption and return him to his original state, which she was fine with since she was sure that he might speak up if something important happened over the course of this battle. Of course even fighting Cenarius like this didn't do much to stop him from channeling his corrupted powers into the area they were in, as odd Nightmare branches appeared in small pockets around the lakebed, a druid spell that rooted enemies to the ground and damaged them when someone stepped on them, though instead of wasting time dodging them the Archmage who wielded fire magic swung her arm and loosed a number of fireballs into the air, which slammed into her targets and quickly set fire to Cenarius' spell, granting her allies more room to spread out as they engaged Cenarius, making sure no one but Spitfire or Rainbow stayed near him for more than a few moments at a time, just in case he tried to crush them. Something they had to deal with was Cenarius channeling his power into the surrounding area and created four spaces for them to wory about, one that seemed to spawn a number of corrupted wasps that seemed more aggressive than what the heroes had seen so far, another spawned a massive trent that was also twisted by the Nightmare, a third brought a couple of corrupted green drakes to do battle with them, and the last had one of Cenarius' daughters charge into battle, to which the rest of the heroes divided their ranks and made sure none of those enemies could reach the Wild God, since there was no telling what in the world might happen if one reached Cenarius. This seemed to stir Malfurion as he created patches of Life energy around each zone, calling for the heroes to purify those who entered them and allow them to flee from Xavius' power, least they be captured and twisted again, and the first one that received such a thing was Cenarius' daughter, who was in the middle of using her corrupted powers to hurl blackened javelins at her enemies and even healed the wounds that Spitfire and Rainbow had dealt to him so far, before Malfurion's power purged her body of the corruption and was the moment she returned to her original form, to which the dryad blinked for a moment, as if coming to terms with what was going on around her. That was when something interesting happened as the dryad lent Malfurion her powers, giving him a boost so he could purify more of the Dream's inhabitants and free them from Xavius' hold, allowing those who couldn't do much to flee while those who wanted to help moved to the edges of Cenarius' domain, aiding the Archdruid in his venture to save Cenarius, who was in the middle of clashing with Spitfire and Rainbow as they kept him away from the maelstrom of dark energy that had to lead to where Xavius was waiting. Part of the reason behind that decision was because Spitfire had to wonder if Xavius was feeding Cenarius power or if there was a connection between the two, even though she also suspected that there might be nothing between them save for the corruption, but as they fought Cenarius, who seemed to be holding back for the most part to gauge their skills before getting serious and using his full power, he actually growled when Malfurion purified his daughters and cursed him for 'corrupting' his children, going so far as to lash out at one with a blast of Nightmare energy, where Spitfire flashed into the middle of the space between the two and redirected the attack before it could reach Cenarius' target, which angered her. One thing she had confirmed, repeatedly over their venture through the Emerald Nightmare, was that Xavius was going to pay for all of the pain and suffering he was causing to the druids and everyone else who might have been affected by the Nightmare's sheer existence, especially after seeing Cenarius fight his own daughters like they were about to bring about the end of the world, which in his Nightmare-tainted eyes was the truth thanks to Xavius' dark magic, though that was the moment that Cenarius charged and fired about sphere of Nightmare energy, one that rushed towards Spitfire's position so he could hit her while she was distracted, but before it could get halfway to her a dryad, one slightly larger than the rest, as she was closer to her father's size, dropped out of the air and stabbed the sphere with a spear, breaking it before it could hit her father's target. "Lunara? Is that you?" Cenarius asked, naming the long green haired dryad who had appeared out of nowhere, as it looked like her hair reached the part of her back where the Night Elf part stopped and the fawn part started, or at the very least it was that long in Spitfire's eyes, where Spitfire found that the dryad had a pair of curved horns growing out of her forehead and happened to rest above where her eyes were located, even though said eyes were either red or a brilliant orange, as it was hard to tell from this angle, before she noticed that Lunara was wearing a few bits of armor fashioned from bark that were on her hands and stopped at her elbows, a sash wrapped around her waist that was green colored, and carried an interesting spear that looked like it had been fashioned from something ancient. "Yes, father, I came to help Malfurion heal you, and I brought backup as well," Lunara replied, which was when the heroes noticed that there were more people on the outskirts of the arena that Cenarius was fighting them in, as it looked like his sons, his daughters, and even a number of druids from the Dreamgrove were present in this place, where they seemed to be channeling their energies into Malfurion, granting him their powers so he could purify Cenarius and release him from Xavius' hold, allowing the heroes to go after Xavius once this battle was done. "No! Damn you, Xavius... how many of my children have you corrupted, forcing me to fight them to ensure the Dream is safe from your madness?!" Cenarius shouted, his tone revealing that he wasn't pleased by what he was seeing right now, once more confirming that all he was seeing was corruption and not the reality Spitfire and the others were seeing, but as he said that it looked like things were about to change for the worse for her and the others, as a terrifying red and black aura, more of the Nightmare's energies, showing that he was getting serious after seeing one of his main daughters, who could very well be the first of the dryad and possibly even the first of his children, 'fall to the Nightmare', which meant they would be facing him at his full power. "It pains me to see you like this, father, though I hope you'll forgive me once we're done," Lunara said, where it was easy for Spitfire and Rainbow to tell that she was saddened by what was going on, that her father couldn't see the truth of the situation, as in he was being used by Xavius so the Nightmare Lord could buy himself some time before he was found and the heroes engaged him, before she sighed for a moment as she spun her spear and pointed it at her corrupted father, as if she really didn't want to do this and had to be forcing herself to actually fight him, though Spitfire could tell her spirit was fierce and that she would do anything to protect Azeroth, be it the wilds or everything else, even if that meant fighting her own flesh and blood father. One thing Cenarius did, after creating the aura so he could fight all of them with his true power, was move his left hand for a second and a twisted Nightmare version of Lunara's spear appeared in his hand, where he lashed out at those who were in front of him as Spitfire and Rainbow parried his attacks, doing everything in their power to withstand the pressure that came from a Wild God who was going all out and wasn't holding back at all, something that surprised Rainbow when she thought about how strong Ursoc had been and how strong Cenarius truly was, even when thinking about the Nightmare power that had been forced onto him. While they did that Lunara jumped into the air and seemed to move from one part of the area her father was in to another in a matter of seconds, as in her jumping power was far greater than what the pair had been expecting to find and a single bound allowed her to sail over where her father happened to be standing, where she channeled her own energies for a moment and lashed out with her spear, sending a number of phantom spears down at his back, intending to hit him while he was distracted and open a hole in his defenses so one of her allies could deal a good blow to her father and knock him out, even if he swung his own spear at them to cancel them out. Of course taking down Cenarius was easier said than done as the Wild God attacked them, thanks to the power he was using against the pair right now, though that didn't stop the Wild God from channeling Xavius' power throughout Moonglade and mode spots of Nightmare energy gathered, creating more pools that summoned more wisps, ancients, corrupted green dragons, and even his twisted children, to do battle with Vytheril and the rest of the heroes who were preventing any of their corrupted allies from reaching Cenarius, something that allowed Malfurion and all of their allies to purify those who were under Xavius' control. That stole more power away from Xavius and granted it to them, so more of their friends could be saved from what was happening to them, which caused the corrupted Wild God to cry out in rage when he saw it, once more assuming that they were servants of Xavius and that each of them were corrupting the Dream, not to mention those he had called upon to aid him, including his own children for that matter, hence why he just focused on channeling his power, and Xavius' as well, as he lashed out at Spitfire, Rainbow, and Lunara, where it was clear he intended on taking all of them down so he could move onto Malfurion and the rest of their group. In his rage over everything that was going on right now, all lies thanks to Xavius' powers, Cenarius lashed out at them with a relentless barrage of attacks, each infused with the power of the Nightmare, causing the pair to swing their warglaives at the incoming attacks and did their best to make sure he did no damage to either of them, or to Lunara for that matter, but he was able to cut into the tops of Spitfire's arms and the sides of Rainbow's legs, which surprised the heroes since both of them had done well to avoid taking any true damage since they came here, but it only pushed them to do their best in this fight, since saving Cenarius was important to everyone else. In that moment Spitfire came up with an idea that just might work for them, given what she had seen earlier and what was going on right now, to which she flashed over to Rainbow for a second and told her of her plan, who smirked as she picked up her speed, pushing it to the max, and flashed around the arena they had been fighting in since they arrived in Moonglade, keeping Cenarius' attention on her for a time, which allowed Spitfire a chance to reveal her plan to both Lunara and Malfurion, who seemed eager to give it a try since both of them were afraid that they might lose Cenarius if this battle went on for much longer. With that done Spitfire returned to Rainbow's side as Lunana, Malfurion, and all of the Dream's inhabitants started to channel their energies into a point that was above the lakebed, to make a concentration of Life energy that would surely free Cenarius from Xavius' control, but at the moment such a thing required Spitfire and Rainbow to stall the Wild God before he did something drastic or noticed what they were doing, just in the off chance that he tried to ruin it and twist it into a sphere that would corrupt the rest of Moonglade, not to mention everyone in the area as well. To that end Spitfire and Rainbow focused on channeling their full power into this fight, as in the fullest extent of what they were capable of in regards to their elemental powers, hence the reason Rainbow backed off for a moment and started to channel her lightning skills, this time banishing both Warblades as she formed two spheres of energy, ones that wouldn't be as devastating as the lance she used earlier, while flames quickly danced around Spitfire's arms, legs, and weapons as she lashed out at Cenarius, parrying his attacks and tried to slash at his chest with her powers, which didn't seem to work thanks to his spear and his twisted powers. Fortunately, that was part of Spitfire's plan since she knew getting through the Wild God's defenses would be difficult, so her part in this was to keep him contained in a single area, and the moment Rainbow was close to ready she made sure to have Cenarius distracted before flashing through the air so both lightning attacks slammed into the Wild God's chest and kicked up a bit of smoke, with both the smoke and the shock being designed to stall him as Spitfire flashed into the space above the massive Life sphere she had everyone else prepare, where she rested her hands on the side of the sphere and sent it down to where Cenarius was standing... where the corrupted Wild God used his aura to protect himself from the large attack, even though it detonated on top of him and knocked him to the ground, but when the smoke cleared, and all of the Life energy had settled down, they discovered Cenarius resting in a crater, with no Nightmare energy lingering on his person at all. "It is done, we have saved Cenarius from Xavius' corruption," Malfurion said, where it was easy to see that he was happy to see that his mentor was no longer under the sway of the Nightmare Lord's power and had been returned to who he had been before hand, while at the same time Lunara and everyone else, those from the Dreamgrove and the Dream, where also overjoyed to have stolen Cenarius back from their foe, saving him from death, before he focused on what was at the edge of the lakebed, while Spitfire and Rainbow revented to their base forms once more, "though the true threat remains, as the Nightmare Lord lies ahead in the Rift of Aln, the true heart of the Emerald Nightmare and the one place that none of us, as in those with a bond to the Dream, can step foor in, as we'll be instantly ensnared by Xavius' power and corrupted into more of his minions. We will stay here and heal Cenarius, to restore him to his former glory and make sure there are no lingering effects from being under Xavius' control since the start of the Legion's invasion..." "Either way, I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart." Lunara stated, something that caused the heroes to pause for a moment as she bounced around Moonglade, once more showing off her agility and her powers for a few moments, even though she landed nearby and embraced all of them for a few seconds, as in she actually hugged most of them, which also included the death knights despite the power that had brought all of them back from the grave, given that Life and Death were polar opposites on the cosmic scale, before she reached the remainder of the heroes and planted a kiss on each of their foreheads, those being the four Archdruids and Rainbow, and then kissed Spitfire on the lips for a few seconds, since it was her plan that had purified her father, but once she was done she pulled back and pointed at the rift, "Now, go kick Xavius' butt and terminate his foul Nightmare!" Based on the chuckles that erpted after Lunara's kiss, Spitfire assumed that the dryad didn't have a lot of interactions with the races of Azeroth, outside all of the druids that worked with her father and Malfurion anyway, and that she might not know several of the customs that each race had, or maybe she did and just didn't care, since her job was to protect nature and the Dream, and this was just her way of thanking someone for freeing her father from Xavius' control, but in the end she just nodded her head and decided not to worry about the gesture, choosing to focus on taking the fight to Xavius and purging the Emerald Dream of the Nightmare. While Malfurion worked on Cenarius, with a number of druids and residents of the Dream that had come to assist him in his task, the heroes took a moment to rest and gather their strength, as what they were about to do was face Xavius, the Nightmare Lord, and if he was capable of corrupting someone like Cenarius, a being who pushed both Spitfire and Rainbow to their limits thanks to his Nightmare power, they were going to need all of their power to bring him down, since he was the strongest Nightmare user in existence and it meant this fight was going to be one of their toughest yet. Even with their normal preparations Spitfire and Rainbow knew understood that facing Xavius in the Rift of Aln was basically fighting him on his home turf, especially since he would be using his full power against all of them when they breached the rift and found their foe, something that eventually made Spitfire think about the being she had see in Xe'ra's vision, a person capable of channeling all six cosmic powers, a wonderful power that would have been useful since it would have overpowered Xavius, before she sighed and focused on the here and now, because they were going to the heart of the Nightmare, meaning none of Lunara's reinforcements, Malfurion, the Dream residents, or even Lunara herself would be able to follow them, which also included the fact that they won't have a connection to any of the Life energies they had used to free Cenarius from his corruption. Eventually everyone started to move as Malfurion got up from where Cenarius was resting, as the residents of the Dream had moved him to the opposite side of the lakebed to put some distance between the Wild God and the rift that would take them to Xavius' domain, where the Archdruid channeled his powers for a moment, as if he was undoing something, before he stopped and nodded his head, to which everyone got up and charged at the large rift, so they could jump into it and head to their foe's location. After passing through the rift Spitfire, Rainbow, and the other heroes appeared in what appeared to be an area where the ground was white with a mix of red and black mist surrounding their feet, mist that also formed a massive dome around all of them, one that was twice as wide as the central area of Shal'Aran and twice as tall, meaning they couldn't see past the mist and were stuck here, before Spitfire glanced up at the top of the dome and found what looked like the shadows of a number of Nightmare tentacles far above them, where she readied her weapons as the others did the same thing, as it did look like there might be enemies that stood between them and the Nightmare Lord. This was the Rift of Aln, a dark and foul place that radiated the same dark energy that each and every corrupted individual they had fought so far had used in an attempt to kill them, all for the sake of the one they were forced to call their master, and Spitfire knew that Xavius had to have some sort of trap waiting for everyone, given that this was his domain and it had to be a source of Void energy, or at least that was what she and the others had been told since they started this venture, before they discovered that there were a number of Nightmare plant creatures, small ones that barely came up half the length of one's legs, resting around the central area they would be fighting Xavius in. Once everyone was down in this area, and they were sure none of their allies had been left behind in Moonglade, the four death knights used their powers and gripped one target each, pulling some of the creatures over to them so they could crush them with a single swing of their weapons, leaving the rest of the group to focus their fire on the rest of their enemies, bunching all of the plant creatures into four groups so everyone had a chance to take one or two of them down, even though the first battle was over before it really started, leaving them with their guards up since there had to be more to fight before reaching Xavius. Of course they realized that the plant creatures had been too easy for them, especially so late into their venture into the Nightmare, and sure enough it didn't take long for a few more enemies to emerge from the mist, three Faceless Ones, servants of the Old Gods, who had either been tainted by the Nightmare or had been created like this in the first place, approaching them from three directions, hence why the group made sure that one of the death knights attacked one, the guardian bear druid fought another, and Rainbow struck the third without delay, leaving everyone else to divide and conquer their enemies. Despite the strength of these enemies, and they were nearly as strong as Ursoc was in Rainbow's eyes, the heroes struck all three of Xavius' Faceless Ones down in a matter of moments and cleared the area once more, granting everyone a few seconds to collected themselves and watch as this group of enemies collapsed into mist particles and vanished, which was when three more emerged and rushed at them, which appeared to be elementals that had been twisted by the Nightmare and had all of the corruption on their forms that they had seen since they came to this foul place. The corrupt elementals weren't much of a threat to them, as Spitfire found that all three of them were near the level of one of their previous foes, the Nightmare Dragons based on what she recalled, meaning the foul amalgamations were far easier than the Faceless Ones and it didn't take long for them to bring them down either, something that caused them to form up once more as all three of their enemies faded back into the mist, just like what happened with the last group. A few moments later a third group marched out of the mist, this time being two Faceless Ones and another amalgamation, who charged at them and the heroes responded immediately, Spitfire and Rainbow lashing out with their warglaives as they saved their powers for when Xavius emerged from the mist that was around them, something that had to be soon since it was clear that none of these enemies had the power to stop anyone from moving forward, and it didn't take the heroes long to bring down this group either, casting all three of them back into the mists that they had sprung out of, allowing them to focus on the mist that was around them as they waited for something else to happen. In the following moments everyone watched as a new being stepped out of the mists, a satyr who was just as tall as they were, though it was clear that he was corrupted by the Nightmare, far more than what they had seen so far, and the druids froze for a second as they recognized the horns that were growing out of his head, in a manner that was different than a demon hunter's horns, plus all of the thorn-like items they had seen on him when he appeared in Val'sharah, as his shoulder gear looked like feathers with Nightmare a large thorn growing out of them, he had claws that were tainted by the Nightmare, his tail had thorns growing out of it, making it a weapon for him to use on them, and his eyes burned with a familiar twisted red color. Based on the power that Spitfire and Rainbow were feeling right now, which had to be coming from all over the Rift of Aln, they knew that this was Xavius, the Nightmare Lord, but even then they kept their guard up, because there was a chance that this was just a temporary form and that he would transform once he was ready to engage them, which had to be very soon since they were trespassing in his domain, something that caused everyone to raise their weapons as they waited to see what sort of trick their foe had for them. "Heroes of Azeroth, know that you have sealed your fates by stepping into my domain, as you will waste away slowly, and as painfully as I wish, before I claim your souls for the Nightmare!" Xavius declared, his tone revealing that he believed that he was unbeatable and that nothing they did would result in them bringing him down, thus ending the Nightmare, but at the same time he held his hands out like he was offering someone a chance to attack him while his guard was lowered for a few seconds, which had to be a trap so their foe could do whatever he had planned for whoever attacked him, before he stepped back into the mist and seemed to vanish. Not even a few moments later Spitfire noticed something else emerge from the mist, which at first looked like Xavius, but as it stepped out of the mist they noticed that he was a hulking beast, easily five times their size, whose clawed hands had been twisted even further, five fingers becoming two fingers and the thumb claw, the thorns on his shoulders changed and seemed to resemble wings for some reason, and his face looked more bestial than what they had seen a few seconds ago, revealing that he had shown them his normal satyr form to taunt them, before switching to his monstrous form for the upcoming battle. A few seconds later, once she was sure the heroes and Rainbow were ready to go, Spitfire flashed through the air as she shifted into her demonic form and smashed into Xavius, or rather her attack sunk into his right arm, which had been raised to block the attack, before he swung his arm and knocked her backwards, though given that the light gash disappeared in seconds, no doubt due to healing magic, meant that something incredibly light wasn't going to be enough to deal damage to the Nightmare Lord. Once she did that Rainbow rushed into the area and lashed out at their foe as well, swinging her Warblades and channeling her lightning for a few seconds, before she moved out of the way and let the heroes of Azeroth lash out at their foe, just like they did against all of the other foes they had fought so far, but at the moment Xavius was focused on her and Spitfire, showing that he knew that both of them were the more dangerous enemies and that he wanted to bring them down before he focused on everyone else. After that both of them rushed over to where their foe was standing and lashed out at him, intending to distract them as they came up with a plan of attack to bring Xavius down and purify the Nightmare, and this time he parried their attacks with his own, as in he swung his claws at them in return, but as she and Rainbow backed away after the lash Spitfire noticed two interesting things that would no doubt impact this battle, the first being that each of Xavius' attacks had the air of corruption around them, which meant he wanted to take them down by corrupting their bodies, and the second was that there was another presence in the Rift, one that was unlike the Nightmare infused enemies, meaning Xavius had one more enemy to worry about. Whoever the other presence was definitely wasn't revealing themselves to the heroes or Xavius, as if they were worried about being discovered and attacked before the point in time they were waiting for, so Spitfire decided to keep it a secret as she focused on facing Xavius and his attacks that inflicted whoever he touched, even if he was purely defending himself from attacks, with a bit of the Nightmare's foul corruption, meaning they were in a race against time and were racing the foul taint of his power, and based on what she could see the others understood the situation, hence why they focused on bringing the Nightmare Lord down as they looked for a small opening or weakness to use. As they did that Xavius showed that he was ready for them by calling upon the power of the Nightmare to summon allies from the mist once more, to deal with those that were hurling spells and arrows at him while slashing at his legs, as he called upon creatures that were half as tall as a human and seemed to be bestial in nature, infused with the twisted power of the Nightmare, though they were called haunts and were sort of dangerous in their own right, so Xavius having some meant that they were stronger than all of the ones the heroes had fought in the past. Of course that wasn't the only trick Xavius had up his sleeve, as he had the power to summon a wall of Nightmare blades that rushed in whatever direction he swung them in, which cut into those who were in the way and inflicted a bit of his corruption upon them, something that caused him to chuckle as the attack hit a few of the heroes, even though they did their best to avoid it in the first place, not to mention the fact that he had a power that allowed him to basically inflict someone with a bit of corruption, meaning he had an unfair ability which gave him a chance to hurt his foes. Such a thing annoyed Spitfire and Rainbow as they moved around the Rift, as while it fit the information that they had gathered so far, about Xavius being a sneaky individual who didn't play fair when Malfurion and others came to take him down, they had thought that he might actually fight fair and not go the route of corrupting them with a spell that basically allowed him to bypass their defenses and any magical barriers that might be between him and his target, to inflict someone directly and without any sort of resistance. For the most part it looked like Xavius was planning on corrupting them in turn, as in pour a little into someone and then move onto the next in line, meaning he wanted to make sure they all fell at the same time right now, but as that happened something else occurred in the Rift, the heroes faded into some other realm as Spitfire noticed that the presence she had felt earlier was assisting them in their battle, which summoned a number of Dream images to do battle with Xavius, even though they looked like all of Spitfire and Rainbow's allies did, only with a faint light green aura to their transparent forms, and it appeared that whoever was aiding them was shielding them from the Nightmare's taint, purifying everyone while they faced the Nightmare Lord. From what Spitfire could tell it appeared that whoever was aiding them was an enemy of Xavius, as he roared in anger when he noticed what was going on and lashed out accordingly, though to be sure that this chance didn't slip by them Spitfire and Rainbow flashed through the air and struck their foe with their powers, where both of fire and lightning danced through the air and slammed into Xavius' chest, causing him to stagger backwards for a couple of seconds, allowing their allies to assault the Nightmare Lord as he attempted to recover from the attack, or this was one of his tricks and wanted them to get closer so he could smite them. Sadly, as it turned out, the latter was the correct idea as he slammed his clawed hands into the ground and crushed some of their allies without much resistance, which caused those who fell to return to their original forms so they could resume fighting, meaning the Dream state was something that allowed the heroes of Azeroth to become immune to the corruption, at least until Xavius crushed their projections like he had done to a decent number of them. At the same time Spitfire had the feeling that this was pretty taxing to whoever was assisting them right now, meaning they would likely only be able to do it one or two more times before using up most of their power and had to retreat, but she was planning on making sure to use those moments to topple the Nightmare Lord, or at least push him back so they had a fighting chance to figure out a true weakness. Despite that fact Xavius continued to lash out at them with the same sort of attacks he had used at the start of the fight, as if he was testing them or something, which was just fine everyone since it meant they could focus on avoiding his attacks and determining a pattern to his madness, before he seemed to pick up the pace on everyone and started to use some of his stronger attacks, blasting the souls of his targets with an empowered version of his corruption attack, call upon parts of the mist to unleash more Faceless Ones on them, create corrupted patches of ground to contain whoever stepped on one of them, and even called on the Nightmare itself to empower his claws to cut gashes into the ground and left corruption in its wake. Spitfire suspected that there was another attack Xavius wasn't showing them yet, one he was saving for later, just in case they survived longer than he had been planning, though that didn't stop her from lashing out with waves of flames and Rainbow called upon the lightning to blast him several times in a row, where they found that it was hard to tell if their foe was actually taking damage or if they weren't doing anything to him and he was just tricking them to make them lower their guard at the wrong moment, even though he also managed to use the Nightmare to create small blades that slipped by both of their warglaives and cut into their arms and legs. Truthfully, both of them were annoyed with Xavius, for more than reasons than what was going on right now, though he swung a fist and Rainbow tanked the blow without lowering her guard, something that sent her flying towards the mist and caused some of the creatures in the mist to attack her as soon as she reached it, not that it mattered since she loosed a surge of lightning bolts that struck down the creatures and allowed her to race back into battle, but the Faceless Ones stopped her and she lashed out at them, intending on taking all of them down so she could get back to the battle. Spitfire, on the other hand, continued to lash out with her Fel flames as she avoided hitting her allies, even though Xavius swung his empowered fists and smashed his way through her attacks, almost as if they were made out of paper or something, but that didn't stop her from flying around Xavius and lashing out with her weapons, intending on doing some sort of damage to the Nightmare Lord so they could purify the Nightmare and free the Dream from the grasp of the Old Gods. In the following moments something interesting, and bad at the same time, happened to the heroes as Xavius sent out a wave of Nightmare energy, striking everyone that was around him, even Spitfire and Rainbow since they were in the air as the attack happened, which scattered them around the Rift and chained them to the ground, in thorn like chains that had more of Xavius' foul power attached to each and every vine, before they watched as the Nightmare Lord disappeared and reappeared not a few seconds later, this time appearing in the air above them... along with a massive sphere of energy, a meteor by the looks of it, that seemed to be strong enough to wipe out everyone in the Rift if it hit the ground, showing that he was done with them. "It is time that we brought an end to this, heroes, by having you feel the devastating power of the Nightmare," Xavius said, his tone revealing that he was done with them and that he was going to crush them, so he could scatter their souls and taint all of them in the process, though instead of talking after that he swung his clawed hand and sent his meteor down at the ground, which started to descend as soon as he did that and his laughter filled the Rift of Aln, as if he believed that it would take all of them down. Instead of worrying about that Spitfire focused on calling all of her power to the surface to shatter the bindings that were on her body right now, though as that happened she could have sworn that she heard the laughter of Lunara as she did that, which made her think that this was a possible 'life before her eyes' scenario, but even if that was the case, and Xavius was destined to win this fight, she wasn't going to go out without a fight and it looked like everyone else agreed with her, as they channeled their powers into the air in an attempt to stop the massive attack from hitting them. In the next couple of seconds she felt a surge of energy that felt like what she felt whenever one of the druids healed her wounds, which was when Spitfire determined that Lunara, Cenarius, Malfurion, and the other Dream protectors must have discovered a way to send or force a powerful mass of Life energy through the rift in Moonglade, sending it to them so they could deal with the Nightmare Lord, or that was her guess on the matter. The interesting thing was that it seemed to focus on seeking her out, something that had to be blamed on the kiss that Lunara had given her earlier, not to mention the rest of the group to act like a beacon of sorts, to which she called out with her power and latched onto the mass of Life energy, which seemed like it might be a fragment of the Dream itself, possibly given from Cenarius as thanks for saving him from the Nightmare and from Xavius, a potent piece of Life energy based on what she had heard in the past, something that slammed into her not a few seconds later. Due to that her power was pushed to new heights before she had a chance to do anything, where she found that the tattoos on her left arm took on a light green coloration, to reflect the Life energy that was now a part of her, but instead of worrying about that right now she called upon her enhanced power as she banished her warglaives, an action that surprised Rainbow and the others, before she formed two spheres above her hands, the left being a Life green with the right being a Fel green, which was the moment that she pulled her hands to the right side of her body and made sure to combine the spheres into a single mass, as she intended on firing a beam of potent energy that would be a mix of two of the six Cosmic Forces. Once she was ready, and everyone was watching her as they waited to see if this would work out, she swung her hands at the meteor and fired her attack right at her target, where a beam of energy, which was a mix of Fel and Life energies, burst from where she was standing and rushed right at the meteor, something that it barrelled into and lit up the sky as both of them battled for superiority, as she was sure that Xavius was trying to push it down with all his might, but, as she and the others watched the two attacks clash against each other, the meteor came to a stop and then it started to head backwards a little... before Spitfire applied all of her power, every single drop of what she had, and shattered the meteor into pieces, or scraps of energy, even though it seemed that she had more than enough power to keep going and the attack slammed into Xavius, consuming him in a blinding flash which caused everyone to divert their eyes for a time. What happened next was when the light faded the heroes discovered that Xavius had disappeared, making them wonder if he was trying to trick them again and made nearly everyone raise their guard as they waited to see what happened next, only for the Rift of Aln to shudder around them and collapse, almost as if revealing that Spitfire's attack had killed Xavius and was causing the downfall of the Nightmare itself, to which they remained still as everything seemed to vanish around them, leaving them in an empty void. A few seconds later reality snapped back into sight as they discovered a sight that made everyone come to a stop for a time, as the Rift had been replaced by a wonderful forest, one that was totally unlike any of the forests Spitfire and Rainbow had seen during their time in Azeroth, as it was so full of trees, plants, flowers, and all sorts of things that druids and the protectors of the Dream watched over and protected, and behind them happened to be an area that the spirits of the slain green dragons resided in, though they were looking at the path everyone was now standing on, looking pleased with their actions. What was resting right in front of them, however, was the corpse of Xavius, or at least the elf he had been before being twisted into a satyr and corrupted by N'Zoth's dark power, which Spitfire was sure Malfurion would dispose of at some point in time, to which they stepped forward and followed the path as it brought them to a large circular area that had a lake, an alter, and a number of paths that had to represent all of the places that had been corrupted by the Nightmare, though it was clear that the Nightmare was gone, smashed to pieces with the death of the one who controlled it. Standing on the alter was none other than Cenarius, with the spirits of the slain standing off to his right while those who were still living stood to his left, though the smile on his face indicated that he was pleased with all of them for not only saving him and the others from being Xavius' slaves, but also utterly destroying Xavius and his foul Nightmare, to which he beckoned for them to approach him and that was what Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes of Azeroth did, all while putting their weapons away since none of them needed to fight anymore, at least not until after they were able to return to Dalaran and take a day off. "Heroes and champions of Azeroth, you have accomplished a great deed today, one that none of us will ever forget for as long as we live," Cenarius stated, his tone confirming Spitfire's thoughts on the matter, he was pleased with them saving all those who had been forced to serve the Nightmare, be it those who fell in battle and those who had been purified before the battle with Xavius, while also being overjoyed that they had done what many likely deemed to be impossible, they were able to bring down and slay the Nightmare Lord, destroying the Nightmare in its entirety, "The Nightmare has long been a cancer and a blight to those who protect the wilds, one that is all too eager to consume the Emerald Dream... had Xavius succeeded in his mission, his corruption would have overwhelmed Azeroth, giving rise to a living Nightmare, a Void-tainted Titan in service to the Old Gods. Your triumph this day not only restores the Dream and safeguards your world, but it also cuts off Xavius' allies from this place and will prevent them from returning... though to honor your courage, and the deed that you have accomplished today, I offer each and every one of you passage into the pure heart of the Dream. As you feel the essence of Life blooming beneath your feet, know that it endures thanks to what you achieved this day... and I have been told of your other mission, to balance this 'Arcan'dor', so I shall gift you the essence you need for that as well, as I'm sure it will give way to a bright future for your friends." Spitfire smiled as an orb of Life energy appeared in front of them, the Life Essence they had come here for, because it told her that they had completed both of their missions, to eliminate a threat to Azeroth and to claim the essence that would allow Thalyssra and the Nightfallen to balance the Arcan'dor before it detonated, to which she held her hands out and the orb floated over to where she was standing, something that caused Lunara to cheer and jump around as Cenarius and all of the Dream's protectors cheered as well, with the dryad stopping for a moment to kiss her again, but this time she just rolled with it and watched as Cenarius formed a portal for them to use, to get back to Suramar and complete their main task, though she hoped that they weren't too late to save the Arcan'dor. > Suramar: Change of Seasons > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cenarius' portal, as it turned out, was a direct link to the area of Val'sharah that they had used to enter the Nightmare, so it allowed the heroes to leave the Dream without having to backtrack through everything that they had passed through to get to Xavius' location, though once everyone was outside the Dream most of the heroes pulled out the hearthstones that had been given to them after the assault on the Broken Shore and returned to Dalaran, to inform everyone else about their success and the downfall of the Nightmare Lord, even though Spitfire and Rainbow were the only ones left, showing that all of their allies did want a short break before resuming their duties. For a moment they had been thinking that Lunara might follow after them and see what they were up to, as she seemed to like being around both of them, but it seemed she had chosen to stay with her father and make sure Cenarius was ready for what came next, as at some point the forces of nature were going to go to war with the Legion, they were just waiting for the order to do do to be given, once more something that Spitfire would have to give once she was sure everyone was ready. Once she and Rainbow were sure that they were alone, and that none of the heroes had stuck around to aid them, they spread their wings and took to the skies once more, this time heading for Suramar so they could deliver the Life Essence to the Arcan'dor and bring balance to the power that was coursing through it, where Spitfire made sure to keep their package safe and sound since damaging it would ruin all of their efforts to get it from the Dream, all while Rainbow remained in front of her as they headed for Tel'anor, since that was the area their Nightfallen allies had been moved to. Part of this was also due to the fact that they had no idea if the Legion might attack them while they were moving through the air, which would make sense if their enemies were paying attention to them at all, but as both of them flew towards their destination it became clear that no one seemed interested in them, as no enemies flew out of the clouds to attack them, even though it was night out and meant they had spent a good amount of time inside the Dream, before they focused on reaching the ruins their allies were currently resting in. It didn't take them all that long to return to Suramar and reach the area that the ruins of Tel'anor rested in, given the fact that they were flying slightly faster than normal so they could deliver the Life Essence to Farodin and see if it was enough to save the Arcan'dor, where they found that Thalyssra was speaking to Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, Khadgar, and Jaina, whose forces were making sure the Nightfallen had everything they needed and were protected from any attackers, of which it looked like they had been left alone, though the conversation ended as the pair landed nearby. "Spitfire, Rainbow, you have returned from the Dream," Thalyssra commented, though she was happy to see them again, as it meant that they must have been successful in their mission and they could tend to the Arcan'dor, while at the same time she seemed happy with the fact that so many of their allies had come to aid them, to make sure her people were safe until they dealt with the problem, hence why she wasn't ordering everyone to return to Shal'Aran yet, since there was no telling what might happen when they presented the other power to the magical tree, "I take it you have the Life Essence we need to balance the Arcan'dor?" When Spitfire held up the Life Essence they drew the attention of Farodin for a moment, who she handed the essence to before they, and by that she meant herself, Rainbow, Farodin, Thalyssra, Oculeth, and Valtrois, departed from Tel'anor and headed for the portal that would return them to Shal'Aran, where Tyrande stopped Spitfire and asked how Malfurion was doing, where she told her that he was fine and he was just tending to Cenarius and the spirits who had been saved from Xavius' hold, which put a smile on her face as she let them leave, so she, Lady Liadrin, and their forces could ensure the Nightfallen remained safe... before the main force returned to Shal'Aran and approached the magical tree, where Farodin began to channel the essence into the tree as the others watched. "Even in this state, the Arcan'dor continues to grow... I can only hope that a pure life essence is enough." Farodin said, as it was easy for everyone to see that the tree looked like it had grown to its full height, all in the time that it took the heroes to tackle the Nightmare, while his tone revealed that he was worried about the Arcan'dor, including the Nightfallen and the rest of Suramar once he felt the fierce gaze of Rainbow fall upon him, but before they could say anything the essence melded with the Arcan'dor and disappeared, causing the Arcane lightning to dissipate and was followed by him sighing for a moment as he backed away from the magical tree, "Balance has been restored... the Arcan'dor will not fail due to a lack of balance between the Arcane and Life energies." "We will carry this burden, Valewalker. Have a little faith in us." Thalyssra commented, where she was pleased with the fact that they had been able to avoid the detonation of the Arcan'dor and prevented something that could have destroyed all of Suramar, due to the Leylines that were linked to this place, though before she could say anything else, and before the others could say something, the lights in Shal'Aran seemed to dim as the Arcane energies seemed to shift once more, as if their work wasn't done yet, and it seemed to be centered on the Arcan'dor, hence why she and the others turned to face Farodin once more, "What in the world is happening to the tree now?" "The Arcan'dor has reached what I assume is the final stage of its growth." Farodin stated, to which he held his hands up for a moment, as if afraid that Spitfire or Rainbow might hit him again for holding out information on them, just like what had happened when the Arcan'dor became unbalanced, which was earlier, but for right now they looked like they didn't care enough to hit him, only gesturing for him to continue with his information, "I suspect that, without enough power to mature into its final form, it will die... though I have no idea if it would wither away or just detonate if we allowed such a thing to happen." "Valtrois, can you figure out how to do such a thing?" Thalyssra asked, to which everyone quickly headed down the set of stairs that would allow them to see the map of Suramar and all of the nodes that were connected to Shal'Aran, even if all but one of them had been connected to this place, while the reason she was asking Valtrois about this was mostly due to the fact that her area of expertise, or one of them anyway, was on the Leylines and she might know a way to get around this problem, or she could just tell them to seal the Leylines to prevent Suramar's destruction. "The Arcan'dor is drawing on incredible amounts of energy to sustain itself... even with the Leyline feed at full capacity, it looks like we may not have the necessary power to do feed this insufferable plant" Valtrois commented, as while she knew that Farodin cared for the Arcan'dor, and they had done pretty much everything in their power to save the tree and let it grow into what was above them, part of her was done tending to this cursed thing and she was only helping them since Thalyssra was convinced that the Valewalker had been telling the truth, that it could aid them in their rebellion, before she sighed and focused on what was in front of her, "but, based on what I can tell, we're giving it everything we've got and it's not enough to feed the tree." "Come on, there has to be something... anything... that we can do or something we can steal to boost the Arcane power that is being channeled into the Arcan'dor!" Rainbow stated, as while she had no real knowledge of what the Nightfallen were talking about, and Spitfire had some understanding given the moments she spent with Valtrois, she knew that there had to be something they had overlooked, something that had to give them the push they needed to let the Arcan'dor finish its growth and become what Farodin had promised earlier, before she thought about something, "Should we head into the city and steal from the nobles that are on Elisande's side?" "Wait... that's it! We can tap into the main conduit that rests beneath Suramar City," Valtrois stated, showing that she had been thinking about the situation and that Rainbow's words had, in some way, clicked in her head and revealed a useful piece of information for them to use for the Arcan'dor's sake, while at the same time the others focused on what she had to say and what sort of plan they might be talking about doing to make sure the Arcan'dor had all the power it needed to finish its growth, "it easily pulls ten times as much power as we can, so if we were able to make that Leyline flare up for a time, well, the surge should theoretically reach Shal'Aran, giving us the power needed... though causing such a flare is no easy feat and will take some time to fig..." "No need, for I have an idea... we create a manastorm to get the job done!" Oculeth stated, though the look that appeared on Valtrois' face revealed that such an idea, while being able to do exactly what she had just proposed, was also highly dangerous and could spell doom for all of them, be it those inside the city and those outside the city, but at this point in time Spitfire knew that they didn't have much of a choice in the matter, not unless they wanted to see the Arcan'dor fail at the end of its growth and possibly destroy all of Suramar in a terrifying detonation of power. "Valtrois, Oculeth, please spare us the details, and your upcoming argument, and just tell us what we need to do to make such a storm," Spitfire stated, because she could see that the pair were about to get into an argument about the idea, one that seemed to be the only one they had that might make sure they had all the power they needed to aid the Arcan'dor in its growth, though her words stopped the two and they glanced at each other for a few seconds before focusing on her not a moment later, showing that the argument would come later. "The conduit we're talking about is located in the Arcway, one of the sections of Suramar City with the greatest amount of security, with the Nighthold having more than it," Oculeth replied, though at the same time he reached into the pack that he had taken to carrying since they retrieved him from his old workshop, which meant it carried all of his supplies and had been stuffed when they fled Shal'Aran earlier, and pulled out one of his Telemancy beacons, one that seemed to be more important than the others they had seen during their time in Suramar, "thus the only way to get to it, without fighting all of the guards and alerting them to your presence, is to teleport you and your strike team to the area the conduit is in, which will give you the chance to pull off what we're planning... however, teleporting into the Arcway is incredibly hard since it doesn't have a fixed location inside it, so we'll need to get some readings from the commons of Suramar City to locate the best area to send the team to." "While you do that, you'll also need to recover a few things so we can create the warp-field that will aid us in making such a powerful manastorm," Valtrois added, though while it was clear that part of her still didn't agree with this plan, since it was the most reckless thing she had heard in her entire life, she did know what Spitfire and Rainbow were capable of and the lengths they would go through to ensure the downfall of their enemies, or the well-being of their allies for that matter, so she knew that putting her faith in the pair would result in good things for the Nightfallen, "I'm going to need several plates from the high end security constructs you've seen across the city, four of them by my estimates... though I'll take more if you happen to collect too much... but we also need to seal several of the vents that are located around the city, least we vaporize hundreds of Nightborne in the process, and I can provide you with the knowledge to seal them for a time, long enough for us to complete our new mission." The first thing the pair did was figure out the locations that Oculeth wanted them to survey and the areas that the couple of vents were located in, to seal them before putting their plan into action, though once Spitfire had an idea of where she had to go, as she was planning on letting Rainbow take the fight to the Arcane constructs they had seen around parts of the city and claim the armor plating that Valtrois needed for her part of this plan, they headed over to the portal section of Shal'Aran without delay, leaving the others to tend to the Arcan'dor and make sure nothing else happened when they were in the city. Spitfire used the portal that would take her over to the Waning Crescent, as that was the closest area to one of the three locations Oculeth wanted her to check out, while she hunted down the couple of vents Valtrois needed someone to seal, while Rainbow headed to Ly'leth's estate and took to the air, as this time around she wasn't going to worry about her mask and just focus on taking the fight to the Arcane constructs that were guarding the barrier between the outside of the city and the inside of the city. A few moments later Spitfire appeared in her destination and spread her wings before taking off, leaving the area before the citizens noticed her, since she was sure that someone would notice her and call on the Duskwatch to defend them, or at least that would have been the case if those who resided in this part of the city were on Elisande's side of the war, and tracked down the locations that Oculeth had told her about, where she discovered that most of the Nightborne were alseep and the Duskwatch seemed to be rather spread out, as there weren't any in this part of the city and it allowed her to land without someone calling the guards on her. As such she pulled out Oculeth's beacon and let it scan the area she was in, doing whatever it was designed to do as she kept her eyes open for any guards or any random citizens who might step out and bother her, though for the most part it looked like she was able to stand still for a time and not actually attract any attention to what she was doing, meaning she was able to fully scan the Common area of the Waning Crescent and collect the beacon before moving over to the Bazaar, since it was the second target Oculeth had told her about, with Siren's Vigil being the last. Once again she found that none of the Duskwatch were in the area she headed to, allowing her to stand in the Bazaar for a time, without a disguise to hide her true form, while the beacon went about scanning the area and collecting every bit of information that was available, before it completed its task and she collected it as she headed for Vanthir's shop, because the final location she had to scan was just down the road from where Vanthir's shop rested, allowing her to reach her new destination with ease before letting the device scan this section as well, and soon she had the information from Siren's Vigil as well, allowing her to stash it inside her pack before taking to the skies. The first vent she had to deal with happened to be located inside the section of the Waning Crescent that was known as the Artisans Gallery, an area Rainbow and Elylia had passed through when they freed those who had been wrongfully imprisoned by the Duskwatch, who had been getting ready to exile all those who were trapped in cages, though the vent in question was at a fork in the path and looked like it was designed to resemble an unmoveable sewer grate or something, where she knelt by it and placed a small metal item Valtrois had given her, three of since she needed to seal three vents before returning to Shal'Aran. When she placed it on the vent, and removed her hand, a small magical dome appeared over the vent, which seemed to be what she was waiting for and caused her to pull away once the deed was done, to which she headed for her next destination, even though she knew that the seals would for some time, at least until they caused the surge anyway, before discovering that the second vent was located in a canal that rested near the section of the city that had more demons wandering around, hence why she made sure to keep herself hidden before placing the seal and departing for her third destination. According to what Valtrois had said the third destination that needed to have one of the seals placed on it was located inside the Midnight Count, the area that Rainbow had been send to earlier to deal with some of Ly'leth's enemies and assist her allies so she could obtain the advisor position, and there were more demons wandering around it as well, causing Spitfire to keep her location a secret as she sought out the vent that needed to be sealed, before she discovered that her target was near one of the city's fountains, or the only one in the Midnight Court area, and quickly placed the seal on it before leaving as soon as it was in place. With that done she smiled as she took to the skies and headed for Shal'Aran, as her tasks were complete and that left the collection of the armor plating from the Arcane constructs that patrolled part of the city, though the bolts of lightning she spotted a few seconds later suggested that Rainbow was tearing her way through her enemies and, sure enough, upon her arrival on the area that her friend was fighting in she found a number of constructs that had fallen in battle, either hacked to pieces or shattered by Rainbow's power, and once the tenth foe fell she watched as Rainbow focused on her fallen foes and tore the plates from them, choosing the ones that were more intact than the others, before putting everything away so they could return to the estate and pass through the portal that was there. "Its good that we attacked at night, as it made things much easier for us," Spitfire remarked, where she pulled the beacon out of her pack the moment they returned to Shal'Aran and walked down to where the group was standing, where she passed the beacon over to Oculeth as Rainbow placed a small pile of armor plating near Valtrois, showing them that they had completed their tasks, though at this point Thalyssra chuckled as she witnessed them deliver the items to her allies, as she had grown used to hearing and seeing some of the impossible tasks that the pair had done, "the seals are in place, all three locations have been scanned and recorded, and Rainbow cut into the guardians of the city to claim the plating that Valtrois needed... is there anything else we need to do before we try to set off this manastorm?" "I should have known something big was going on," a voice said, where they found that Arluin had either followed them to Shal'Aran, which wasn't hard since there were multiple portals that could bring someone to this place, or had decided to come after noticing that no one was causing a mess inside the city, namely the rebellion given what he knew, though that was when he glanced up at the Arcan'dor for a moment as Valtrois and Oculeth got to work making sure everything was ready for their operation, "you weren't thinking of leaving me out of this, were you?" "I thought you were more interested in lining your pockets with mana and gold," Rainbow remarked, as whenever she had to interact with the Nightborne in question he usually asked for something big in return, usually in the form of crystals that contained good amounts of mana, something that she had to gather before paying him off so he could give her some aid on whatever was going on at that particular moment, and while she said that it was clear that Thalyssra understood what she was talking about and was interested in what their ally might have to say to them. "Look, I may act like I don't care about your plight, but I'm not blind to what's going on inside the city, with all the demons and the terrible acts that have happened so far," Arluin stated, something that surprised Rainbow and Thalyssra, as they were used to someone who didn't care about the rebellion and right now it sure seemed like he had switched his opinion on the matter, where Spitfire could tell that someone important to him might have been exiled from the city or had been killed by the corrupt Duskwatch, meaning his intentions were to fight for that someone's survival or to avenge whoever his important someone had been before their demise, before he focused on the here and now, "so I'm not sitting this one out, as the stakes are too high for someone like me to just turn a blind eye to everything and just ignore the injustice that has been going on inside our city... look, I'll even wave my usual fee for this sort of thing and collect whatever payment I'll get once the job is done." In the end Thalyssra accepted Arluin's aid, even though it really wasn't needed since Spitfire and Rainbow were going to be part of the assault team, to which the Nightborne in question walked over to one of the walls and leaned there, watching Oculeth and Valtrois work since that was their area of expertise and he had no knowledge on the subject, everyone else stood near the stairs and waited to see what happened next... though it took thirty minutes for Valtrois to create the item that would aid them in their mission, something she called an E.M.P. and revealed that it stood for Ephemeral Manastorm Projector, before Oculeth turned to face them as well, showing he must have been successful as well. "I know exactly where to teleport you, so you can create the manastorm with Valtrois' device," Oculeth said, where he took a moment to pull out a brand new beacon, which he must have made dozens of thanks to their friends from inside the city providing them with all sorts of goods, everything they needed to maintain a daily life in Shal'Aran and make sure every soldier that joined them was outfitted for the battle that was coming, before he handed it over to Spitfire, who accepted it and stored it inside her pack for a time, just like she carried Valtrois' E.M.P. in her pack, since Thalyssra trusted her to make sure they were safe while trusting Rainbow to kill anything that stood in their way, "once you are ready to leave the Arcway behind, just activate that device and I'll pull you guys out... now this is important, you have to activate the beacon before the manastorm gets going, as once it reaches a certain point there will be too much interference for me to teleport you all to safety, which might be fatal to anyone caught in it." Spitfire, Rainbow, Arluin, and Thalyssra readied themselves, even though they were joined by Elylia since she wanted to be part of the mission as well, as Oculeth had them gather near each other and weaved his magic around the area that they were standing in, something that caused everyone to vanish before they reappeared inside an area that looked a little like a library that was combined with an underground ruin, one that was much cleaner than what they had seen so far, but, of course, there were a few members of the Duskwatch standing guard, some with a Fel-taint to them while others appeared to be normal. Based on the robes they were wearing these had to be Archivists, those who took care of libraries and other areas that were similar to where books happened to be stored, though while some of them noticed the group materialize in what appeared to be the end of the chamber Oculeth had sent them to, which was the normal Archivists, the Fel ones were more focused on searching several of the tomes for information, but what Spitfire found to be interesting about this situation was that the normal ones actually turned on their allies and distracted them for a moment, allowing Rainbow to step forward and cut all of them down before they had a chance to escape. With the Fel Archivists dead Thalyssra found that she had far more allies in the Duskwatch than what she and the others previously knew, due to Gul'dan offering the power of the Legion to those who were willing to accept it, which resulted in Fel-tainted individuals like what they had seen so far, and each of them were tainted to the point where one could almost consider them to be demons, as they were very close to the transformation stage, hence why Rainbow was able to absorb their souls with her Warblades and add their Fel power to her own. As such the members of the Duskwatch that were loyal to the city, and refused to accept the Fel energy into their bodies, had taken to calling the other half of their organization, the ones who joined the Legion and would likely be turned into demons once they had taken a liking to the power that was being given to them, the Felwatch, but instead of fleeing and joining the rebellion once they knew what was going on, like most of their allies had done, their allies in the Duskwatch had remained to gather information and stay out of trouble whenever they were sent into the city, before they inquired as to why Thalyssra was here, with her allies no less. Normally Spitfire would have suggested not telling anyone their plan, since they could be lying to get on their good side so they could backstab them later on, but Thalyssra seemed to trust them and she revealed the mission they were on, which surprised the trio that they were here to create a manastorm to grow a magical tree that would free the Nightfallen and all of the Nightborne from their addiction to the Nightwell, something that caused the trio to pause for a few seconds before falling in with the group, showing that they were going to help them and then teleport out of here before the storm hit, as it would be dangerous for anyone who remained in the Arcway. With that done the group headed over to a short walkway and approached a large locked wooden door that seemed to have magical locks and normal locks on it, one that opened as they walked up to it, which revealed a tunnel to them, one that had a path to their left and one to their right, something that caused the Archivists to turn to the right and pointed at the wider door that was blocking their way, where Arluin took a moment to study it before applying his skills to it, where the Archivists stood there in shock as he opened the way for all of them to move forward, all in a few seconds no less. As it turned out the door was supposed to have some defenders to prevent them from leaving this area, but, as it turned out, there were twenty more Duskwatch that weren't happy with the situation inside the city and vowed to join the rebellion in their efforts to save the rest of the Nightborne, and topple their demonic allies, before they advanced into a circular chamber that had one of the mana conduits resting inside it, close to the wall that was the opposite of their entrance, which appeared to be what Thalyssra was looking for and beckoned for Spitfire to place the E.M.P. near it, to which Spitfire pulled the device out and placed it near the conduit. Fortunately there was a pedestal near the large conduit, the perfect place for her to place the device, and once it was in place she found out something that immediately worried everyone that was gathered around this chamber, the fuse section of the device was broken and Thalyssra came to the difficult decision in regards to that information, some of them would have to wait here and manually activate the device so they could generate the manastorm, meaning Valtrois had made a mistake when she made it, but instead of leaving the area their new allies formed a circle around the center of the chamber and started to channel their Arcane energies into a barrier, one Thalyssra joined as they waited to see what happened next. Once everyone was ready to go Thalyssra channeled part of her magic into the device and activated it, something that was followed by a storm, identical to what happened to the Arcan'dor earlier, started from Valtrois' device and Arcane lightning branched out as it striked the surrounding area, causing everyone to fall in under the barrier as they waited to see if there were any additional enemies for them to worry about, foes that might stop the manastorm from happening and ruining all of their hard work to reach this point. As Spitfire expected more of the Duskwatch came to investigate what was going on and were surprised by what they were seeing, especially since some of their own allies were standing with Thalyssra, but, as she predicted, those same Nightborne fell in and aided them in powering the barrier and lashing out at the members of the Felwatch, as it was only a matter of time until those who were tainted by Gul'dan's energies to come running to check out what in the world was going on in the Arcway. Rainbow lead the defense with Elylia, making sure to strike every single member of the Felwatch that came to this chamber and tried to bring them down, basically allowing her allies to cut down their foes as her weapons drew in the souls of their enemies, adding more Fel energy to her growing pool of energy while containing their souls inside her Warblades, though neither her or Spitfire were surprised by the fact that there were those who allied with the Legion and were starting to walk down the path of gaining more power, even if it corrupted them into monsters that sought the death of everything that existed throughout the universe. The only thing that worried anyone was when one of the Arcane constructs emerged from another hallway and marched over to where they were standing, as it seemed to be a guardian of the Arcway and didn't care much for the fact that they were invading this place, tampering with the conduit with a manastorm, hence why Rainbow and her group lashed out at the mechanical creation without any wasted time, hacking into its arms and legs while avoiding the attacks that were coming their way, once more impressing Thalyssra as she watched them do battle with the creature, while Spitfire grasped the small pouch that contained that odd purple stone that she had found previously, which might be useful in this place if something terrible happened. When the Arcane construct fell the power of the manastorm picked up and caused the Duskwatch to join Thalyssra in her actions, empowering the barrier so they could protect everyone from what was going on, but as the seconds ticked by one thing became clear to everyone that was in this chamber, the sheer power of their manastorm was picking up and might be getting close to the point where the walls might start taking damage, especially since tornadoes of Arcane energy were starting to form and touch down all over the chamber, like they were actually in the eye of a storm, watching as it tore into the chamber and tried to smash through their barrier... Spitfire even pulled the stone out and tried to weaken the growing manastorm by drawing the power into the stone, though while it that it formed a faint path to the device, but it didn't do anything to weaken the storm at all. "The manastorm is only getting stronger! We need to shut that thing down!" Arluin stated, because at this point, while he did agree that allowing the Arcan'dor to bloom so it could save the Nightborne from their addiction to the Nightwell, and would save everyone that was still inside the city, he knew that if things went on for much longer the power of this storm, if what he heard earlier was correct, would do some serious damage to the city, possibly even the Arcan'dor if they were really unlucky, and he hoped that his companions agreed with him. "Are you mad? We can't do that, as the Arcane torrents would tear whoever tried such a thing apart!" Thalyssra replied, as while she understood Arluin's feelings on the matter, given the danger that they were placing the city and the rest of the Nightborne in by creating a manastorm so close to the main conduit in the Arcway, there was no way for anyone to get to the device in question without being killed in the process, not unless Spitfire forced that stone of hers to the maximum and drew in the rest of the storm that was around them. "Damn it... you guys owe me..." Arluin said, though before someone could stop him, since everyone was busy trying their best to not be caught by the storm that was tearing into the chamber, he charged through the barrier and burst out into the area that the pedestal was resting in, where he immediately felt the Arcane torrents starting to tear into him, without even wasting a second, to which he forced himself to focus on the matter at hand and marched over to the device with all the speed he could muster, but he did notice Spitfire was trying to save him by forging a path with her stone, allowing it to absorb whatever power was in front of him, though there was too much for her to grab and he was grateful that she was even trying to help him out. In the end Spitfire's aid was more than enough for him to reach the device and slash at it several times with the dagger he carried on him at all times, breaking it to the point where the power inside it seemed to break, as the tornadoes died down and the lightning vanished within a few seconds of it breaking, allowing Thalyssra and the others to take down their barrier before rushing over to where Arluin had collapsed, since the device had been in the middle of an Arcane tornado and that had done some damage to him, to which she called for Oculeth to evacuate them and, sure enough, their ally teleported all of them outside Shal'Aran, and that included their new Duskwatch allies. "Arluin... why did you do that?" Thalyssra asked, as she had been sure that if the need had been so dire that Spitfire would have found a way to force the stone to absorb all of the excess power, to find an easier way to survive their mission, but as she said that she noticed that Spitfire was storing the newly empowered stone into her pack, which seemed to be far more powerful than what it had been before the mission started, before she focused on the dying figure that she was holding, as the Arcane torrents had done a great deal of damage to his body, something that not even the druids would be able to heal in time, especially since none of them were near Shal'Aran. "We... pulled it off... didn't we?" Arluin replied, though as he said that he coughed and wheezed a little, where it was easy to see that his body had suffered thanks to his reckless action, even if it had saved them from something they might not have been able to escape on their own, despite the fact that Thalyssra was sure Spitfire might have found a way without this happening, given her ally's growing knowledge of things, but before anyone could say anything a wave of pain went through Arluin's body, cutting away what little time he had left, "Hey... tell Vanthir... thanks for..." In that moment Spitfire, Rainbow, and the others watched as Arluin died before their very eyes, to which Thalyssra had a pair of their new allies pick him up so he could be carried inside Shal'Aran, so his body wasn't left for the wildlife to eat at some point, before they headed into the cave and came to a stop when they noticed that the Arcan'dor was fully grown at long last, with a silvery white coloration to its bark while also having what appeared to be indents that radiated Life energy for all to feel, and it had branches that went in all directions while vines hang from each branch, stopping just an inch or two above a Nightborne's head, though Spitfire smiled as she saw that, as it meant they had been successful and that Arluin hadn't given up his life for nothing, and now it was only a matter of time until the rebellion was ready to take the fight to Elisande and her foul demonic allies. > Suramar: Gift of the Ancient Magi > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Its... beautiful." Thalyssra commented, speaking after taking a few seconds to stare at the fully grown Arcan'dor, the fruits of their labors since it had been planted not that long ago, while the rest of the Nightfallen who called Shal'Aran home came up to see the tree and stared at it once they laid eyes on the center of this ruin, while their new allies from the Duskwatch just stared at it in shock, since they weren't expecting to see something so powerful in this place, but this told Spitfire that all of their hard work had paid off and that, in due time, they would have the key to restoring Thalyssra and the others to their former glory, strengthening the rebellion's power for the next stage of their rebellion. "That it is... even I have never seen a fully grown Arcan'dor." Farodin stated, showing that he agreed with Thalyssra and the rest of his new allies, though at the same time his statement made sense considering the fact that there were, according to what he had said in the past, only two Arcan'dor seeds that had been created and the first one had been a massive failure, which had exploded and created the Fal'dorei, but this time neither Spitfire or Rainbow did anything to him as they stared at the Arcan'dor, "You can call the rest of your people back to Shal'Aran, as there is no need for anyone to fear the Arcan'dor anymore." Thalyssra nodded and gave the order for Oculeth and Valtrois to call the others back to Shal'Aran, where they headed over to the portal that was connected to Tel'anor and disappeared for a few seconds, allowing everyone else to focus on the tree once more, where Spitfire noticed that a few pieces of fruit, which were the size of a plum and had an Arcane purple color to them, were already growing from some of the vines, making her wonder what was so special about them and felt that they might be the key to saving the Shal'dorei. Not a few moments later she and the others watched as Oculeth and Valtrois returned to their temporary home, this time joined by Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, Khadgar, Jaina, the rest of the elves who had joined the rebellion, and all of their allies from the Alliance and the Horde, once more showing a unified front to Spitfire and Rainbow, before everyone stared at the fully grown Arcan'dor as they gathered all over the chamber, as this was the result of their hard work and many were overjoyed that it hadn't exploded on them. Those from Dalaran were a bit taken aback by what they were seeing right now, as they had heard Spitfire's reports on what Farodin had said about the Arcan'dor, even if parts might have been wrong since he withheld information from them, though they could tell that it was incredibly powerful and that it would be able to do anything and everything that Farodin had promised, something even Spitfire could tell just by looking at it, and even the members of the Duskwatch just continued to stare at it, as while it might not be the Nightwell, the strongest magical font in all of Suramar, even they could tell that great things could now be done with this massive tree. In fact they weren't the only ones that returned to Shal'Aran for a time, as Vanthir, Ly'leth, and a few of their allies from the city actually came to their base of operations and stared at the tree that everyone had spent so much time working on, marveling at the beauty of the tree and the power that rested inside it, a power that would be able to aid Thalyssra in her rebellion against Elisande and her demonic allies, though once everyone was inside Shal'Aran, and Rainbow was sure of that as she stood beside Ly'leth, Farodin stepped forward and rested his hand against the bark of the Arcan'dor with a smile on his face. "Thousands of years ago, as the Quel'dorei, or High Elves as they called themselves, were just beginning to unravel all of the mysteries of the Arcane, a small enclave of druids met with the first of the elven magi." Farodin said, where it was clear he wanted to give them a bit of a history lesson on something before doing anything to the fully grown Arcan'dor, while at the same time Spitfire noticed that Khadgar and Jaina, at the very least, were interested in what he was sharing with them, no doubt due to the fact that it had to be knowledge that no one outside Suramar knew, knowledge that could be shared with the rest of Azeroth at some point in time, "In the pale moonlight, they formed an order that would seek to bring the Arcane into balance, using nature and its Life energies as a vessel... thus the Arcan'dor were created. Sadly, my masters who belonged to this order have long since faded away, never being able to witness the fruits of their labor, yet, thanks to my actions and what you all have done, their legacy remains... their gift will mend the spirit of the Shal'dorei. If you eat the fruit of the Arcan'dor, it will make each and every one of you whole once more, and it will take away the need to feed on the Nightwell's energies." In that moment Farodin reached up and carefully plucked one of the fruit from the vines that were all over the chamber, even if it had come off rather easily while not being damaged at all, before he referred to the fruit as an 'Arcfruit' and told them that it was the gift of the ancient magi that had created the Arcan'dor seeds, before holding it out towards his allies for a moment, showing that it was for one of them, but based on what Spitfire could see most of the Nightfallen weren't sure what it would do to them and didn't want to be the test subject, while noting that there were only four fruit in total, meaning more had to be growing for the rest of the Nightborne. "Please, allow me to be the first one to taste the Arcfruit... any ill effects will affect me and me alone." Oculeth stated, as he knew that many needed to be shown that everything was fine and that there was nothing to fear from eating the fruit that was growing from the Arcan'dor, while at the same time stepping forward so he could stand in front of Farodin, giving the rest of the Nightborne, exiles and citizens of Suramar City, a chance to see what might happen when he actually bit into the Arcfruit, something that was followed by Farodin handing the first of the four fruits to him and he started to eat it as everyone watched him, "hm, it is a little tart, with a hint of... of my, I think I'm feeling something..." As Oculeth said that, however, several rings of Arcane energy appeared around his feet and the energy started to emerge from the items in question, where it looked like they were moving through the air and wrapping around his body, like he was absorbing the Arcane energy into his body, before something astonishing happened, the weak and frail body that all of the Nightfallen were cursed with seemed to fill out, returning to what he had looked like in his Nightborne state, and the moment all of the energy died down he glanced down at himself, marveling at the fact that he no longer felt the hunger he had been forced to contend with since the rebellion started and that he now had access to his full power, revealing that Farodin had been telling the truth. "You know, I think I'll have what Oculeth had." Valtrois said, her tone revealing that she approved of what she had seen in the last couple of seconds and that she was more than willing to eat a single piece of fruit to leave the hunger behind, but as she said that Spitfire noticed everyone else in the chamber, as in the Nightborne and Nightfallen, were overjoyed to see that the tree did exactly what they had been told, that the hunger was cancelled out in its entirety and they could return to a normal life, the latter would come completely true once Suramar City was freed from Elisande, Gul'dan, and the demons who were inside it. Farodin nodded and offered the second fruit to Valtrois for a moment, who accepted it and ate the fruit without delay, all while mentioning that this was a new path for the Nightborne, before the Arcane rings formed around her feet not a few seconds later and the energy started to seep into her body, showing that it would happen to whoever ate the Arcfruit and that it was unavoidable, before Spitfire and everyone else watched as her body filled out and the color returned, including her natural beauty, even though it wasn't long before the energy disappeared and Valtrois moved her arms to make sure everything was just fine, including the restoration of her full power. "Astonishing... to think that the Arcfruit have the power to restore us to our normal forms and give us access to our full power, all in a matter of seconds," Thalyssra commented, as she shared the opinions of the others, that this was amazing and would be a step forward for everyone, once they got around to making sure everyone had a taste of the Arcfruit, even if she took a few moments to watch Oculeth and Valtrois for any side effects, of which there seemed to be done based on what everyone was seeing right now, before she glanced over to Farodin, who happened to be removing the third fruit so it could be given to someone, even if it was offered to her not a few seconds later. With the Arcfruit in hand, and everyone watching to make sure it worked like the other two, Thalyssra ate the fruit without wasting a single moment being wasted, where she found that the rings of Arcane energy formed around her and wrapped around her body, like what had happened to her companions, even though Spitfire watched as her body was restored to its former glory and lost the sicky form she had been cursed with, not to mention her own beauty, which surprised the elf for a moment, like how it had surprised the others, before she opened her left hand and her power danced around part of her hand and her arm. "We are on the brink of a new path for the Nightborne, one we never would have been able to achieve without our brand new allies," Thalyssra stated, her voice reaching the rest of the rebellion, who cheered while others nodded their heads for a few moments, everyone showing that they happened to approve of what they were seeing right now, before she took a second to glance at the Arcan'dor for a moment and the remaining fruit that was hanging from the last vine, as she knew that having a small number growing at a time would make freeing her people much harder than it currently was, before she focused on her people again, "Today is a turning point in our rebellion against Elisande, those who serve her, and her demonic allies, as we have gained the means to free ourselves from the Nightwell and not be chained down to its power, but for now we must prepare ourselves and make sure we're ready for our incursion into the city... so rest and relax, as all of us will need to be rested for whatever the future has in store." The members of the rebellion, both Nightborne and Nightfallen, separated once she said that and started to return to the spots of Shal'Aran that they were calling home for the foreseeable future, until things were settled with Elisande and her allies, before their allies in the Duskwatch heading through the portal and returned to the city, so they could resume their duties and make sure no one knew what had happened earlier, inside the Arcway, while Ly'leth informed Rainbow of the next event she would have to make an appearance in before she headed back to the city, leaving Vanthir as the only one from the city remaining inside Shal'Aran. "Thalyssra, what are you going to do about the last fruit?" Spitfire asked, as three of the four fruit had been eaten and she knew that it was a matter of time until the Arcan'dor produced more for the Nightborne to eat, something that would no doubt happen soon since it looked like it was already in the process of creating more on the various vines, though she did notice that the last one had been left alone and that meant she had plans for it, since there were so many individuals who could benefit from eating it. "I'll give it to one of our allies, I'm just not sure who yet," Thalyssra replied, because she now knew what the Arcfruit meant to the Nightborne and it was hard to determine who deserved it more, especially with all of their allies and every skill that could be turned against Elisande, including the fact that they were drawing closer to the main part of the rebellion, but as she thought about that she noticed that Vanthir was standing nearby and happened to be carrying a scroll in one of his hands, which interested her and the others for a moment as they turned to face him, "Vanthir, what's wrong? You look like there's something I need to be aware of." "Its... Arluin left this with me before he came to Shal'Aran," Vanthir stated, where he held a hand out for a moment and let Thalyssra take it with her spare hand, even though she slipped her staff onto her back for a few seconds, before looking at the contents of the parchment, something that interested Spitfire and Rainbow since there was no telling what might be on it or what it might mean for the rest of the rebellion, if it affected everyone else, "He... well, he made plans in the event that he fell... he wanted whatever rewards were to be gained from this venture, and all work I had for him, to be delivered to a specific part of the city, to a woman named Arluelle... he wanted whatever came from this mission to be given to her, and we might make more allies by showing that we gave the last of the Arcan'dor fruit to someone who truly needed it, as I'm positive that she might be nearing the Nightfallen stage." "It would appear that we were wrong about him," Rainbow commented, as while she had originally disliked the elf, given the fact that he had them pay with mana crystals and didn't seem to care about anything or anyone, even if this scroll had disproved their original thoughts, she had to admit that doing everything in his power to save someone dear to him, like a sister or something, had redeemed a little and it made her wonder what sort of person Arluelle was, before she focused on Thalyssra for a few seconds, "do you know where we might find this Arluelle?" "According to the map, she's in the Terrance of Order, near those cages you freed several of our friends from," Thalyssra replied, revealing where someone had to go to find the lady that Arluin wanted them to give his rewards to, in the event of his death during the mission, a death they could have avoided if he just stayed still and let Spitfire use her stone to forge a path for them, something they were going to talk about at some point in time, before she thought about what was going on right now and what Rainbow might be thinking about doing, "if she's as weak as we're thinking, she'll need a method of transport to get out of the city, since it will be dangerous for her to stick around once the rest of the city realizes Arluin is dead, so you might want to stop at the gondolas and see if you can't grab one for her to use." Rainbow nodded as she carefully retrieved the last of the Arcan'dor fruit and pocketed it inside her pack, though that was the moment that Elylia joined her while Spitfire stayed behind, to rest after the battle with the guardians of the Nightmare and their corrupt Lord, to which they headed over to the Waning Crescent portal and used it to get back to Vanthir's part of the city, where Rainbow made sure to assume Anarys' form once more with the mask before she and Elylia headed out to acquire a gondola to use. Once they were back in the Waning Crescent, however, Rainbow noticed how there weren't any guards running around the place, especially given what she, Spitfire, and the others had done during their venture into the Arcway, something that should have parts of Suramar City stirring in her mind, but instead of worrying about it for too long she focused on the task at hand and walked over to the Bazaar section of this area, since that happened to be where they could find one of the gondolas, even though she was hoping that Deline was up and about, since she figured she might be able to assist them. Sadly when they reached the Bazaar it became clear that Deline was either asleep or she stayed somewhere else to watch over the rest of the city, but that didn't stop Elylia from locating one of the gondolas and hopped into it, allowing Rainbow to take a seat in it before they headed out into the rest of the city, even if that meant they had to find their way to one of the canals and then make their way back up to where those Arcane cages had been resting earlier, an area that still angered Rainbow since the corrupt members of the Duskwatch had been willing to exile a number of children and the rest of the undesirables. Fortunately it appeared that no one had been rounded up since the last time they had been in this particular section of the Waning Crescent, meaning none of the citizens had been stuffed into the Arcane cages and left to rot before they were exiled from Suramar City, though what concerned her, and she did know it could have concerned Spitfire if she was here, was that there were no guards walking around, meaning this would have been the perfect chance for someone like Arluin to go out and gather whatever he wanted, to make sure Arulelle had all the comforts and mana she needed to survive. "Seriously, what happened to all the guards?" Rainbow commented, keeping her voice low as they traveled down the canal and headed towards the location that Arluin had instructed them to deliver his payment to, even if everyone in Shal'Aran had different plans for Arulelle, because while her normal eyes couldn't see anyone, which might be different if she took a moment to switch to her Spectral Sight, she didn't want any guards to come down on their heads while they searched for the location they had been given, even if it looked like there weren't any guards to worry about. "I agree, this is strange... usually the Duskwatch are patrolling the streets and canals, doing their jobs," Elylia replied, as it was easy to agree with Rainbow, something about this situation was odd, with the fact that there were no guards down any of the streets and canals, even the demons who had joined the Duskwatch seemed to be missing, even though none of their allies had lashed out at Elisande's foul allies yet, which worried her since it might mean the Grand Magistrix had a plan of some kind in motion, one they were in the dark about since Ly'leth hadn't reported anything strange yet, before she focused on the area around them once more, "We had best be quick about this, since there's no telling when some of the Duskwatch might emerge from their homes and start their patrols, or whatever the Grand Magistrix is planning might be set into motion, or maybe Gul'dan will betray us and force our leader to cancel her deal with the Legion... there's no telling what might happen, so we should find Arulelle and get out of here, so we can plan our next move and see what sort of plan Thalyssra has in mind." Rainbow nodded and kept her eyes on the canal that was in front of them, knowing that it was only a matter of time until Thalyssra determined what the next stage of her rebellion might be, now that the Arcan'dor, the driving force behind most of their previous actions, was fully grown and was no longer in any danger of exploding in a way that would have torn all of Suramar apart, before they located a small opening that seemed to lead to a storage area of sorts, just beyond where all of the cages rested, which happened to be where a number of crates rested, partly covering the entrance, and, just as they suspected, there were three or four Nightfallen who seemed to be getting close to Withering entirely, with a fifth one resting on a few mats, a female who stirred as Rainbow entered the small chamber. "Who is there?" the lady asked, though at the same time she forced herself up onto her feet for a moment, even though it was followed by her coughing for a few seconds, showing them that everything Arluin had been trying to prevent had been happening to the one he was trying to protect with all his power, as it looked like she was getting dangerously close to the change from being a Nightfallen and becoming a Withered, and the way she looked around the area seemed to suggest what was happening to her, "Arluin, is that you? It is so dark..." "You're Arluelle, right?" Rainbow asked, because she figured she might as well ask the question, even though the lady had named the individual who sent them to this location, just in the off chance that this was a trap to catch Arluin and make him pay for everything that he had stolen to provide for this lady, which was when the Nightfallen elf nodded her head for a new seconds, "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Arluin isn't coming... he died ensuring that this piece of fruit reached you... it has the power to restore you to your Nightborne state and then some. We also brought a gondola since we figured you might be weak from being in this state for too long, though your friends are welcome to join us and leave this place for a time, at least until we retake the city from the Legion's foul grasp." Arluelle, as they expected, was saddened by the passing of Arluin, mentioning something about how he couldn't stay out of trouble and that she understood that everything he had done recently had been for her, before she accepted the fruit and followed Rainbow outside, so she could make her way over to the gondola that would take them back to the portal that had allowed them to reach this point, though a few seconds later her friends got up and climbed into the gondola as well, which meant each of them might have heard the rumors about Anarys and wanted to be on her side, or they wanted what Arluelle had, before she and Elylia joined them and headed down the canal again. Once everyone was ready to go Rainbow walked on the streets and allowed the rest of the weakened Nightfallen to ride with Elylia, where she knew that the lady they had come for was waiting until she reached a safe place to eat the Arcfruit she had been given, though once more she found that there were no guards coming out in an attempt to stop them from heading to the portal that allowed them to return to the Waning Crescent, but she remained at the ready in case her thoughts were wrong and an ambush happened in the near future. Interestingly enough they were able to reach the area the portal was in without anything slowing them down or stopping them outright, once more making Rainbow worry about what might happen next since she had seen none of the guards during her walk as she followed the gondola down the canal, but once they reached their destination Elylia made sure to help the couple of Nightfallen as each of them made their way to the portal, heading over to Shal'Aran and the safety it provided, with Arluelle being the last one to do so, but once she was through the portal that was when they made sure to return the gondola to where they had taken it from and then headed back to Shal'Aran, only to stop by Thalyssra's location to inform her of the fact that no guards had been wandering the streets and canals while they sought out Arluelle, who was sitting in the rest area of Shal'Aran and eating the Arcfruit she had been given, to get her strength back before worrying about whatever the future held for her and her brand new friends. "You're sure that there were no guards wandering the streets? No Duskwatch and no demons?" Thalyssra inquired, as that fact surprised her and she found it hard to believe that after everything they had done to the corrupt guards of the city, to make sure the Arcan'dor was able to grow into what was near them, that Elisande would allow something like this to even happen in the first place and made her wonder if this might be a trap of some kind, to lure them into the city so she could crush the rebellion in one swift motion, hence why she was debating what they should do next, even though speaking to Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, and Spitfire provided her with some good insight as to what they should do next. "There were no members of the Duskwatch wandering around and no demons walking about," Rainbow replied, though everyone that was around her shared her opinions on the matter, that they were worrying that this might be a trap for the rebellion and Elisande was trying to call them into her domain for a time, to smite them and uphold part of her bargain with Gul'dan and his demonic allies, but one other thing they all agreed on was that their forces needed some time before they were ready to assault the city and take it back. "Well, we aren't planning on heading into the city anytime soon, so if this is a trap it won't be sprung for a few days, maybe more depending on how long it takes to ready the rebellion," Thalyssra said, revealing that she was more interested in all of them getting a good nights sleep, since most of them had spent a great deal of time being busy and this was a good chance for them to rest and regain their strength for whatever the future held for them, where she could see that Spitfire agreed with what she was thinking about right now, to which she turned towards the others for a moment, "I would say that we should take this time to rest and get ready for whatever the morning brings, as I have a few ideas on what we can do, after speaking with Tyrande and Lady Liadrin earlier, before we're ready for our attack on the city." Once they were done talking everyone went their separate ways, most of them taking up their positions to rest for the rest of the night, while Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, and some of their guards made sure no one approached Shal'Aran from outside, though one thing Spitfire thought about was the search for Lord Illidan's soul, as none of the Illidari had said anything yet and it made her wonder if the Legion was just messing with them, to make them waste their time on a useless search for him, before she sighed and fell asleep so she could get a few hours of sleep... only to be awoken a few hours later, by the sound of something exploding, which caused her, Rainbow, Tyrande, and Lady Liadrin to get up and rush over to the area it came from, which was the portal room, where the Waning Crescent portal was missing. "Oculeth, what's wrong?" Thalyssra asked, as the Chief Telemancer happened to be standing near the portals and was also staring at them for a few seconds, meaning he had seen the missing one and was thinking about what in the world it might mean for everyone in Shal'Aran, not to mention the rest of their rebellion, while at the same time her allies were curious as to what might be going on right now, even though one thing was for certain to everyone, something had happened and it meant that they were being forced into action once more. "I... I don't know! I was just checking the portal network, to be sure everything was going smoothly, when suddenly I saw a flare from the Waning Crescent and an explosion knocked the portal out," Oculeth replied, gesturing to the platform that normally held the portal in question for a few seconds, allowing everyone to focus on it for a few seconds before switching back to him again, even though he was scratching the back of his head as he tried to figure out why this had happened, as it cut them off from Vanthir and his allies, not to mention stopped those who wanted to flee from the city from doing so for a time, "and now it has gone totally dark, as if the beacon was destroyed or something..." "Strange... and I cannot contact Vanthir," Thalyssra added, meaning she must have had a magical way to contact their ally, like a crystal or something that she focused on so she could speak with him in his mind, or whatever method she used to speak with Vanthir, before she frowned for a few seconds as she considered the situation that was now unfolding before them, something that caused her to turn towards Rainbow for a moment, as while she didn't want to do this, after she and Spitfire had gotten back from dealing with the Emerald Nightmare, there was no avoiding what was coming next, "It would seem that something dire has happened inside the city, something that warrants investigation, so Rainbow, I would like you and Elylia to head into the city and see what you can find... and don't worry about getting there, as I'm sure Oculeth is eager to understand what's going on and will send you into the city without much delay... we need to figure out why the beacon was knocked out and what is happening to the Waning Crescent." Rainbow nodded her head and made sure her mask was at the ready, as there was no telling what was going in inside the Waning Crescent and if there were any enemies for her and Elylia to worry about, while Spitfire stayed here and took a bit of time to talk with Tyrande and Lady Liadrin, though she had the feeling that this was the start of either Elisande's move against the rebellion or Gul'dan's plan to weaken his allies and make them more submissive, something they would find out in due time as she braced herself for what the new day had in store for her and the rest of her allies. > Suramar: Lockdown > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Oculeth, are you ready to teleport us to the Waning Crescent?" Rainbow asked, as while she knew that the Nightborne in question was highly skilled in his art, after everything she had seen so far, it was also clear that such an expert didn't need to take a lot of time to prepare for what they were doing, though she and Elylia were being patient as they waited for him to come to a decision as to where he should teleport them to, so they could investigate the strangeness that was occurring inside the city at the moment, given the fallen portal and their sudden inability to contact those who resided inside the Waning Crescent. "Well, as close as I can get you, but yes, I'm ready to fulfill my duties," Oculeth replied, though as he said that he started to weave his Arcane energies through the air as he focused on her and Elylia for a few seconds, which confirmed his answer and caused the pair to hold their weapons at the ready, as there was no telling what might be happening inside the part of the city everyone wanted to investigate, even though it was clear that some were worried that the Grand Magistrix had done something in retaliation to their rebellion existing as long as it had, before he considered something as he focused on them, "anyway, Thalyssra is right to be concerned, as the network has not responded to my attempts to re-establish a connection to the beacon that rests in the Waning Crescent, so scouting out the area and investigating what might have happened is the correct course of action for us to take." Not even a few seconds later both Rainbow and Elylia disappeared from Shal'Aran and reappeared somewhere inside the city, as it looked like they might have been teleported to one of the safehouses that their allies had used in the past, or at least that was Rainbow's thoughts on the matter, to which she carefully applied her mask and assumed Anarys' form once more, while both of them heard Oculeth's voice in their heads, revealing that this wasn't where he wanted to send them in the first place, but given the situation they couldn't complain and he warned them to be careful. Once he was done talking Rainbow and Elylia headed outside, where it was easy for them to see that Oculeth had teleported them to the Artisan's Gallery, where demons and members of the corrupt Felwatch were wandering around the area, like what happened the last time they passed through this area during the normal work hours of a day, before discovering that they were near one of the small arched bridges that would allow them to enter the Waning Crescent and see what happened, to which both of them waited for no one to be watching before moving out. Before they even reached the middle of the bridge, however, it was easy for Rainbow to see the truth of the situation and she growled as she took in what was in front of her and Elylia at the moment, Fel flames were dancing on many of the buildings of the Waning Crescent, designed to keep citizens away from their homes or places of work without actually destroying the structures, there were Doomguards and Inquisitors, at the very least, wandering around, some with the Felwatch standing nearby, some on their own, and some forcing citizens to move by tugging on Fel chains that were wrapped around their necks and hands, and there were a number of bodies that were scattered around the section of the Waning Crescent that was in front of them, all of them covered in Fel flames based on what they were seeing. The explosion that had knocked out the telemancy beacon had been real, something had exploded or someone had launched an invasion of this place, leading to so many Nightborne dying as a result, though she was sure that Oculeth and Thalyssra, if they were watching what they were seeing, were shocked and outraged by what they were seeing right now, and even Elylia looked like she was ready to explode, to cut down the demons and the corrupt Felwatch that had joined them in this area. "Elylia, I know your angry... I'm pretty livid myself... but we cannot let the demons know we hate them," Rainbow said, as while she knew that her companion would want to avenge those who had been slain, and if it was the demons attacking it meant it was likely to install fear in the rest of the Nightborne who called Suramar City home, to subjugate them in some manner and force Elisande to tighten her grip on her city, which was why she was trying to remain calm and not give any of the demons a sign that something was wrong, before she focused on the Waning Crescent and the sight that was right in front of them, "for now, let's just investigate what happened and see if we can't find someone to talk to, if anyone even survived this terrible assault." Her companion said nothing to that, deciding to remain silent and keep her anger to herself, though once she was ready to go they walked forward and headed down the rest of the stone bridge, where Rainbow found that it was a good thing that many in Suramar City still assumed that Anarys liked demons, as the Felwatch did nothing to them save wave or nod to her as they went about their business, like they knew she would be fine with this and not raise the alarm, even though all of the smoke could likely be seen from every corner of the city, allowing them to go about their business without the demons suspecting anything. The first thing they did was check out the area that the telemancy beacon had been resting in earlier, where the pair found that someone, likely a demon based on all of the scratches and cuts that rested on the pile of fragments that rested in front of them, had smashed the beacon to pieces and purposely severed the connection to the outside world, preventing the citizens who were attacked from leaving this area, and Rainbow was sure that she heard a faint version of Oculeth's voice coming from the pieces, but she couldn't make it out and had Elylia collect the pieces, all in the name of 'tossing out the trash' when a Felwatch soldier asked them what they were doing, which caused the soldier to nod and allow them to go about their business as he resumed his patrol. Once that task was completed, so none of their enemies could reconstruct the beacon and use it to invade Shal'Aran, Rainbow and Elylia continued to explore the rest of the Waning Crescent, finding more Fel fire covered bodies resting all over the place, Inquisitors forcefully questioning the poor souls that had been captured, Jailers greedily snatching the souls of those who had been slain so they could be taken to one or more of the Legion's foul machines, or even another world to be twisted into demons, Doomguards marched as they kept an eye out for more foes to crush into the ground, and the Felwatch walked around with a smug look on each of their faces, taunting anyone and everyone who might be in hiding to come out and face their fate. Despite the fact that the two of them were investigating what had happened to the Waning Crescent, and weren't fighting anything right now, one thing was for certain and that was the fact that Rainbow was going to purge the demons that were inside Suramar City at the moment, starting with the ones that were in this part of the city, and that even included the Felwatch, as she knew that none of the Duskwatch would do something this terrible, even if Elisande ordered them to do it. Eventually they reached the part of the Waning Crescent that Vanthir's shop was located in, as it was time to check and see if their allies were fine, keeping themselves hidden from what had happened while they waited for someone to some and rescue them, but what Rainbow and Elylia discovered wasn't good news, as they found a number of bodies, all covered in Fel flames like everyone else they had seen, who had been the attendants and assistants of Vanthir, while the Nightborne they were looking for was missing, though they did find Silgryn getting up after searching one of the bodies, as one just so happened to be a Felwatch soldier that he must have killed. "Anarys, Elylia, thank goodness you two are alright," Silgryn said, sounding like he was looking for them and not Vanthir, just in case anyone was listening to their conversation and was trying to get some information, while also making sure not to reveal that Anarys was a fake, though they could tell that he was troubled by what he was seeing at the moment, all the bodies the demons and Felwatch had burned during their assault on the Waning Crescent, before noticing that those who had been nearby had left the area, to which he lowered his voice so only Rainbow and Elylia could hear him, "Listen, I have no idea how they figured it out, but Elisande and Gul'dan know of Vanthir's involvement with the rebellion, though I'm also sure that the orc in question was the one to attack this part of the city, as Elisande would have been more discreet in how to approach this sort of situation... she certainly wouldn't burn down a portion of her city, even if the citizens were siding with a rebellion, rather she would have had them captured in the middle of the night, to be interrogated and then, once all of that was finished, punished for their crimes. This... this is beyond what she is capable of..." "Then Gul'dan is definitely behind the attack, with the Grand Magistrix no doubt being forced to accept the reality of the deal she made with the Legion," Rainbow stated, though at the same time she was starting to wonder if there was more to this situation than what she and the others were aware of, something Spitfire would no doubt think about when she heard about what was happening to Suramar City and what sort of information Silgryn had shared with them, as it sounded like the orc warlock had more control over this ancient city than what they originally thought, before she sighed as she turned towards their ally for a moment, as he seemed sure of something, "and I take it you have a plan of some kind? Hopefully it involves tearing apart the Felwatch and their demonic allies, as there's no way either of us are going to let this slide, not without punishing our enemies for what they did." "It would seem that all three of us are thinking alike, as I was going to suggest taking the fight to our enemies, the Felwatch and the demons," Silgryn replied, though his words put a smile on Elylia's face, as she was going to tear apart every single enemy that was in the middle of attacking the Waning Crescent, while Rainbow did the same thing, as it would allow them to vent their anger on those who had turned against their own kind and, at the same time, she could sentence the souls of their enemies to join every soul she had captured so far and also add their Fel power to her own, before Silgryn spoke up and continued his train of thought, "We must show Elisande's allies that they cannot get away with attacking our city and killing our people, not without retribution for those who have fallen, and it would send a message to the rest of those who live inside the city as well, telling them that the rebellion stands against Gul'dan and his Legion masters... also, there are a few families who are still trapped inside the Waning Crescent, as this attack came without warning and no one was ready for such a thing, not after all the years we spent under the protective dome, so if you can evacuate them I'll see to finding an area to use to contact Oculeth." Rainbow and Elylia nodded their heads and headed outside, even though Rainbow removed her mask and put it away, so it sustained no damage from what happened next, though the first thing they spotted was a Felwatch soldier who was in the middle of heading into the house that was across from where Vanthir's shop rested, where she rushed forward for a moment and found that her target already had his weapon at the ready, to harm the weakened and worried father who was inside the house. Based on everything that was going on right now it was easy to tell that he was trying to make sure his children were safe and sound, so they could leave the city or find shelter for later, something that was when Rainbow caught the soldier's weapon before it had a chance to hit the Nightborne, giving Elylia a chance to make sure to find the elf's kids and had the three of them depart with Silgryn, which was followed by Rainbow cutting her Fel-tainted foe down and adding his soul and power to her collections. Once the survivor was out of this area, and Silgryn disappeared with him following behind him, Rainbow and Elylia continued to search the rest of the Waning Crescent and wondered how many more Nightborne were trapped in this place, though while they did that both of them lashed out at their enemies, Rainbow rushing through the air as she hunted down the demons that she had seen in this place, knocking them to the ground as she avoided their attacks and cut them apart for their crimes, both anything they had done before coming to Azeroth and what they had done to Suramar City, and while she made sure to add their souls to her Warblades, just like all of the Fel-tainted enemies she had faced so far, Elylia hunted down the Felwatch. Of course Rainbow made sure to snatch the souls of the Felwatch as well, just so the Legion didn't get wind of anything that was happening in the city right now, even if she knew Gul'dan and any of the higher ranking demons would be able to do that, while she slashed and hacked at the foes that were in front of her, allowing them to see that she was angry over what had happened this morning, especially since she knew some of the elves who lived in the Waning Crescent, thanks to Ly'leth and Vanthir's actions. Of course it looked like Elylia was outraged as well, as she happened to be a whirlwind of death and pain as she hacked and slashed at the Felwatch and demons that dared to challenge her in battle, though this time none of them got close to dealing damage to her, thanks to the fact that she fully on mana and had learned from watching both Spitfire and Rainbow whenever they were in fighting their enemies. It didn't take them long to depart from the area that Vanthir's shop was located in and headed down towards Siren's Vigil, as it seemed like a good place to check out before the rest of the Waning Crescent, where they found a few buildings that were on fire, scattered corpses that looked like their souls had been stolen, and a potter who was under assault by one of the Felwatch soldiers, even though Rainbow wasted no time in cutting the soldier down as Elylia made sure to help the elf flee the building, despite the fact that he insisted on taking a very important vase with him, claiming that the master's vase was worth a hundred times what his life was worth. The next place they were able to check out was a house that was up the street from where Vanthir's shop rested, where two male Nightborne adults, the older one being a father while the younger one had to be the son, were gathering themselves before leaving the building, though as they approached it one of the annoying Felwatch charged at them and tried to get to the adults, to take their souls and add them to everything the demons had stolen so far, leading to Rainbow cutting her foe down while Elylia tended to the adults, making sure both of them were fine and ready to travel. Once the Felwatch soldier was dead, and both adults were ready to move, the group headed out and resumed searching the rest of the Waning Crescent, the survivors heading for the Bazaar, since it looked like a safe haven for those who lived through this attack, before Elylia spotted a house that had one of the Jailer demons in front of it, being beaten to death by a female Nightborne who happened to be carrying a sword, where Rainbow slew it not a few seconds later and added both its soul and power to her collections, allowing the survivor to spit on the corpse for a moment before retrieving her daughters, who appeared to be the main reason behind the Jailer attacking her house, all to take their souls as well. With the area cleared of enemies, as Rainbow killed several more Felwatch that were around this house and tried to tear the souls out of Scarleth's daughters in the process, she and Elylia came to the decision that they had killed more than enough enemies, as they had taken down what appeared to be half of the Felwatch, at the very least, hence why they left and headed for the Bazaar, since that was where Silgryn had wandered off to and it seemed to be the best place to go, allowing the trio to follow after them for a time. Rainbow knew Scarleth from one of the parties she had attended, even if the lady had no idea of the fact, something she might have to reveal at some point in time, when they had a chance to do something like that, though as they headed for the Bazaar Elylia spotted one of Silgryn's soldiers near Siren's Vigil, who seemed to be beckoning them over to where she was standing, to which they headed down there and found that she brought them to a house that was literally next door to the one with the potter, where said Nightborne was standing off to the side with his vase, though Rainbow did notice a couple of runes around the doorway that formed a faint illusion, making it look like this place was on fire and had no one inside it, forming a safehouse where no one would look for potential survivors. "Silgryn, it seems you were lucky as well, finding a place for us and the survivors to rest," Rainbow spoke up, though it was odd that the first safehouse he created would be one that was currently behind enemy lines, deep in the territory that the Felwatch was watching over as they hunted down everyone who opposed their Fel-tainted leader, but at the very least all of the individuals they had saved from the Felwatch and demons were safe and sound, or at least it sure seemed that way based on what she was seeing right now. "Indeed, though we've had to kill a few of our enemies as well, so we haven't been resting while you two did all the work, dealing with our enemies and saving innocents," Silgryn replied, his tone revealing that he approved of what the two had been able to do since they came to investigate what had happened to the Waning Crescent, as it meant more had survived this ordeal and would no doubt hold a grudge against Elisande, not to mention her demonic allies, which could give way to more joining the rebellion and readying themselves for whatever the future held for them, "I also did some scouting while you were doing that, leaving the rest of my companions to secure this place..." "Excuse me, but who are you exactly?" Scarleth inquired, as she seemed to be focusing on Rainbow and the fact that her body was different from everything she had seen in the past, both the pony parts and the demon parts, even though most of most of the survivors didn't care about her appearance after being saved from everything that was happening outside this building, but it was clear that she was thankful for them getting her daughters to safety, so the Felwatch didn't obtain their souls and add them to the rest that had been stolen from the Nightborne, "I can see that Elylia and Silgryn act like they know you quite well, though this is the first time I've heard of someone like you fighting for the rebellion and those who follow Thalyssra." "Our allies don't talk about me and Spitfire all that much, but you'll recognize me soon enough," Rainbow said, where she pulled out her mask for a moment and slipped it onto her face without much of a delay, something that was followed by the magic inside it washing over her body as Anarys' form replaced her own in a matter of seconds, which caught Scarleth and the others by surprise for a moment since they weren't expecting such a thing to happen in the first place, though she held up a hand for a second to stop anyone from saying anything, "Don't worry, Anarys is still alive, as Ly'leth had to use a bit of her magic to lock her up, as she was afraid that her sister would turn to the Legion at some point in time, similar to how many of the Felwatch did when their new powers were offered to them, and to make sure no one suspected that her sister was missing she enchanted this mask so someone could use it, to maintain her appearances in the various parties and events she had promised to appear at... suddenly saying she had something else to do, after her promises, could have lead to someone figuring the truth, so Ly'leth secured her sister's safety and aided the rebellion at the same time." Scarleth seemed surprised by this information, but after everything she had seen since this attacked had happened, and a number of her friends or neighbors had been slain by the Legion's lackeys, it wasn't long before she nodded her head and showed that she understood why Ly'leth would do such a thing to her own sister, even if the two disagreed on all sorts of subjects and Anarys loved to delve into the knowledge they had on the demons who were attacking the Waning Crescent, to which she stepped backwards and let Rainbow, Elylia, and Silgryn speak about what they were going to do next, since she knew they had to have a plan of attack to show the Legion that this wasn't okay. "We might be able to hold this area for some time, but we won't be able to hold it forever, not with all of the demons that are currently burning the Waning Crescent to the ground," Silgryn stated, returning to the topic at hand so they could get the citizens to safety and come up with a plan to repay Elisande for her ally's cruel actions, as he was sure Thalyssra had a few ideas already, if she had seen what had happened to the Waning Crescent through what Rainbow or Elylia had seen, before he seemed to think about something as he glanced through the illusion that was around the doorway, which even he knew wouldn't last forever, not unless some of their new allies from either the Alliance or Horde joined them and put forth the power to fuel the spell in question, "every second we spend here places us further and further in danger of the Legion regrouping and retaliating against what we just did, meaning we need to get out of here and find a new place to set up a temporary base of operations... everyone, follow me, as I have an idea." What Silgryn did was head outside, with Rainbow and Elylia protecting him and the others as they exited the building, and stopped when he reached the small dock area that was resting near their location, where he searched some of the rather small containers and found what he was looking for, a set of fireworks that he could light to give away their location, hence why he set them aside for a moment and used a bit of fire magic to light them, allowing everyone to watch as they went up into the air and exploded with a display that, interestingly enough, formed Thalyssra's emblem, meaning it was a sign for an ally to come and investigate, or so Rainbow assumed anyway. Sure enough her thoughts were right, as not a couple of minutes later, which were long and no demons or Felwatch happened to come over here, oddly enough in her eyes, they found someone coming their way from the water, where she spotted Deline and one of her gondolas, one that was larger than the ones they were used to seeing, not that far from the area they were standing in, though it didn't take her long to come to a stop and beckoned for them to get on so they could leave this area. Rainbow and Elylia waited for the others to climb into the boat, along with Silgryn as well, before doing the same thing and taking the rest of the seats, which allowed Deline to move them out of the Waning Crescent and headed out into the water for a time, allowing everyone to look out at the flames that were spreading around their homes and the death of those who had been living near them, and the fact that each and every one of them had escaped certain death or enslavement by the Legion, though while Deline carried all of them around the part of Suramar City that was near them. Silgryn was looking for a location that they could use as their new base of operations in the rest of the Waning Crescent, the parts that weren't on fire at the moment, before he noticed the lone tower that rested on the outskirts of the Bazaar that Deline worked in, where he informed them that, if his idea worked, Evermoon Terrace would serve as a new point for the rebellion, as he recalled seeing an old teleport pad at the top of the circular tower, to which he had Deline take them in so he, Rainbow, and Elylia could disembark for a time, but once they were off the boat she should take the citizens some distance away and not draw attention to them, meaning she would be watching until Silgryn was sure it was safe for them to join his group. Once they were off the boat, however, Rainbow found that the Evermoon section of this side of the city was fine, as there were a number of Duskwatch who were staring at the burning Waning Crescent, each of them looking like they were near the point where they would snap and turn against Gul'dan and his demons, though the few who noticed Rainbow, Silgryn, and Elylia did nothing as the trio approached the tower, rather it seemed like they what was going on and were allowing the rebellion to do whatever it was that they were doing, maybe hoping that it would give them a chance to face their true enemies at some point in the future. Based on that information Rainbow was sure that Thalyssra would want to recruit all of the Duskwatch into the rebellion, as it sure looked like the guards had truly been split into two factions, with one being the protectors of the city, even if they were failing in their mission thanks to what was happening to the Waning Crescent, while it was clear that the darker faction intended on slaying the citizens who were suspected of being allies of Thalyssra and her rebellion, allowing the Legion to siphon more souls for every machine they had in their army or twist them into brand new demons to spark fear in those who stood against the demons. The Duskwatch clearly hated the Felwatch, even if they had known some of the now corrupted Nightborne who had sided with the Legion, and that meant many of them might be willing to side with Thalyssra and her outsider allies, though it was hard for them to tell if Elisande was an enemy at this point or if she was being trapped inside the Nighthold against her will, forced to allow this to happen by Gul'dan, and the only reason Rainbow even considered that was due to what she had been told earlier, about how the ruler of the city would have gone about an assault on part of her city, since it wouldn't be what had just happened this morning, but she knew that having a powerful Arcane user, in addition to all of the mages and Council members, would make Spitfire even happier as their war against the Legion progressed. Her thoughts were interrupted as Silgryn found what he was looking for, a small metallic pad that looked like the warp platforms that had allowed someone to go from one floor of the Sanctum of Order, where the Nightborne stepped on it and they watched as it caused him to disappear and reappear at the top of the tower they had stopped at, something that caused him to beckon for them to follow and that was what the pair did without delay, since it seemed like his plan was working to some degree. What they discovered at the top of the tower, save for another small warp pad that was connected to the one the pair had used to get up here, was that there was a decent sized area for a number of guards to stand around and watch from, all to keep an eye on the demons and report their movements, with some cushions, pots, chairs, and tables scattered around a central flame, which might provide light for those in the Evermoon section of the city, and, sure enough, there was an old teleport pad resting on the other side of this area, just like the ones they had seen, not to mention used, in the past, which put a smile on Silgryn's face as he spotted it. "Thank goodness this wasn't torn out of the tower or attacked before the Waning Crescent," Silgryn said, though Rainbow knew that if more of the city had come under fire, and not just the section they had seen when they came to investigate what had happened to one of Oculeth's telemancy beacons, pretty much everyone else in the city would have raised up as such a thing occurred and would have likely gone to war with the demons, but for now the rest of the civilians were safe and the rebellion could focus on making sure this didn't happen again, "Now, all we have to do is make con..." Rainbow! Elylia! Can either of you hear me? a voice asked, where they determined that it was Oculeth speaking, which took Silgryn by surprised since he heard it was well and that meant it must have come from the platform that was resting right in front of them, though at the very least this allowed them to fulfill part of their plans, to which Rainbow confirmed that they could hear the Chief Telemancer, something that caused him to breath a sigh of relief as he heard the news, even if he and the others would be outraged by the rest of the news, I'm going to teleport a new beacon over to your location, so you can restore our access to the section of the city that you are currently in and rescue those who want to flee what is happening inside the city. The moment the beacon appeared in front of them, true to Oculeth's words, Rainbow activated it like she had done to the others that she had come across and opened a new portal that was connected to Shal'Aran, where Silgryn beckoned for Deline to bring the boat back to the dock and allowed all of the civilians they had saved to disembark as well, where each of them used the warp pad to get up to where the portal was located and headed through it, departing from the city for a time, as none of them would be returning until everything was under control once more, but they were joined by a good number of Duskwatch, who might be heading to pledge their allegiance to Thalyssra, where Rainbow waited for that group to head through the portal before doing the same. "Ah, good, you have returned, safe and sound," Oculeth commented, speaking the moment Rainbow and Elylia appeared in Shal'Aran, which was much busier than it had been earlier that morning, as now there were members of the Duskwatch actually helping the citizens and outsiders who came from the rest of Azeroth's lands, several heroes had arrived during their absence, no doubt rushing over once they heard that something was wrong in the city, and were tending to those who survived the assault, and Thalyssra had seen fit to put on her Arcanist robes, recovered from her estate by some of the other heroes back during the early stages of the rebellion, attire that showed off parts of her legs, her arms were bare, and part of her cleavage was showing in the front of her robes, something she wasn't worried about at all, which was the moment Oculeth spoke again, "After I teleported you both to the Waning Crescent, to investigate what was going on, you suddenly vanished from our awareness, and I got a faint glimpse of what happened through the broken beacon you were able to recover the pieces of... given the expressions of the Duskwatch, and those you saved, I can tell that something foul must have happened earlier this morning." "You can say that again, as Gul'dan launched an assault on the Waning Crescent, setting fire to the buildings, killing many of the citizens and stealing their souls," Rainbow stated, though she could see that everyone who was around the portal area of Shal'Aran right now, to get her report on what had happened when she and Elylia went to investigate one of the portals suddenly going dark on them, was either angry over what they were hearing, which she agreed with since she was outraged over what she had seen during her visit to the Waning Crescent, or saddened by the loss of life that had struck their new Nightborne allies, before she sighed for a moment, "of course the orc warlock wasn't there, since he ordered it from wherever he's hiding for the moment, but we were able to save some of the citizens... I wish we could have done a lot more for them, instead of arriving during the aftermath of the attack." "Still, you did everything in your power to save those that were still alive, so don't beat yourself up over it," Thalyssra said, even though she knew that Rainbow was going to be annoyed and frustrated over everything that occurred in the Waning Crescent earlier, and would mostly blame all of the demons that were scattered throughout the area in question, before she sighed as she thought about what they were going to do next, as none of her plans actually involved part of the city falling under such a heavy attack, not in this manner, and it would take some time for her to determine what sort of plan she could make from this terrible mess, "anyway, Arluelle wanted to speak with you, though she said that she would wait until you returned from the Waning Crescent and said that she would be burying her brother outside Shal'Aran, for when you and Elylia returned... given everything that we've discovered, well, I'm sure she might be lending us her aid in taking down the demons and securing our home." Rainbow nodded and headed through the tunnel that would allow her to head outside, where she found Arluelle kneeling off to her right, to the left of the entrance if one was staring at the tunnel from the center of Meredil, where she found that the Nightborne had dressed herself in a set of clothing that was similar to what Arluin had been wearing before his death, making her a near mirror image of her brother, and in front of her rested a small stone pot with a single flower in it, which had to be the grave she had set up for Arluin while she was waiting for Rainbow and Elylia, though once they approached her she got up and faced them. "Arluelle, it seems that you're doing well," Rainbow said, as she knew that the lady had eaten the Arcfruit that had offered to her and that it would have restored her to her true form in a matter of seconds, with someone going out to grap her a new set of clothing to replace the rags that had no doubt been forced upon her before Arluin hid her away and fed her all of the mana he got his hands on, and she looked determined to do something, anything, to bring down those who stood between them and saving the rest of the Nightborne. "Indeed, and it is thanks to everyone in the rebellion for growing the Arcan'dor, which my brother gave his life for and will be remembered by us once this ordeal is over," Arluelle replied, where she glanced down at her body for a moment and knew that she had taken some time to make sure her body was exactly what it had been when she was a Nightborne, as in before she and Arluin had been forced into the situation that came with the barrier falling and the demons invading parts of the city, where the days of her being a Nightfallen had been terrible and she was glad to put them behind her, to which she glanced at the pair once more, "As such I've decided to offer myself, and whatever skills I have access to, to Thalyssra and the rebellion, to repay the kindness that has been shown to me and to avenge my brother's death... after everything that has happened this morning, with the portal being deactivated and the smoke that's coming from the city, I'm sure she and the others will be happy to have another soldier, be it a blade or magic user." Rainbow nodded and beckoned for Arluelle to follow, where the three of them returned to where Thalyssra was standing and found that she was, as the lady expected, more than willing to welcome more allies into their growing rebellion, even after a good number of the Duskwatch's soldiers joined them after seeing what happened in the Waning Crescent and all of the death that followed the demons, so she had Arluelle head through the Evermoon Terrace portal and report to the one in charge of watching over that area, Silgryn, while Rainbow took a few moments to relax and stayed near Spitfire for a time, allowing the others to figure out what was going on inside the city before Thalyssra had them proceed with the next stage of their rebellion. > Suramar: Missing Persons > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the hours of the morning went by Spitfire and Rainbow noticed something, those who were fleeing from Suramar City were devastated by everything that was happening in the Waning Crescent and that meant the mood in the city was still the same, gloomy and full of anger when they glanced at most of the Nightborne who came to Shal'Aran, as none of them were pleased by the destruction and death that had filled the city that morning, which told the heroes of Azeroth that both the Felwatch and all of Gul'dan's demons were now the most hated individuals in the city, including Gul'dan, as he ordered his minions to set the event in motion, according to what Khadgar had to say. Khadgar continued to be the one that Thalyssra turned to when she wanted to know about Gul'dan and what he was capable of doing, as he happened to know the most about the orc warlock and even went into detail about everything that happened on Draenor, the world that had attacked Azeroth not all that long ago thanks to the efforts of the Iron Horde, even though it was an alternate version of Outland, the destroyed world that Spitfire and Rainbow appeared on all those years ago, which interested Thalyssra and gave her an idea of the sorts of evils the orc warlock was capable of. According to his information it had taken the heroes of Azeroth some time to hunt down and kill most of the leaders of the Iron Horde, leaving only Grommash Hellscream, the Warchief, alive, while he was only one of two Chieftains to survive what happened on Draenor, the other being Durotan, who lead the Frostwolf Clan, and there was another leader who fought beside them and the heroes to take down Gul'dan and Archimonde, a female draenei by the name of Yrel, but out of all of that there was another fact of the story that just stuck with Spitfire and made her think for a short period of time. Yrel, Durotan, and Grommash had promised to aid the forces of Azeroth in their time of need, to repay them for freeing Draenor from the Legion's grasp, which was why Spitfire was wondering if they could call in said favor and get some reinforcements for this war, something many of the leaders of Azeroth's factions agreed with when she pitched the idea, meaning at some point they were going to have to figure out how to do that, to which she sighed before refocusing on what was happening right now. In addition to all of the citizens who were upset and outraged by what was happening to the city and their homes, not to mention the friends that had been slain in the assault, the members of the Duskwatch that were joining the rebellion were totally outraged by the assault, most pledging to bring down Gul'dan's demons and secure the city, while tracking down all of the Felwatch and cutting them down for their betrayal, even though Spitfire knew that everyone in Shal'Aran was taking some time to think the same thing, and that was whether or not Elisande had approved of the attack or if she had been forced to allow it to happen, like she was tortured or threatened in some manner. "Based on what the scouts have seen and heard so far, there's no news from the Nighthold or Ly'leth," Thalyssra said, as it was something that concerned her, more than she was willing to admit, because if something had happened in the place that the Nightwell rested in, the Nighthold as they called it, that meant the Grand Magistrix either didn't care about them or her hands were tied by something else, while at the same time Ly'leth not sending them anything had to mean she was busy trying to get information on what might have happened to the Waning Crescent, though right now she was staring at the Arcan'dor while she talked, mostly to see what Spitfire might say when she was done, "meaning the rest of the city has to be taking in the fact that it was actually attacked and that nothing is being done to figure out the culprit, even though many of our allies aren't pleased with what is going on." "Given what everyone has said about Elisande so far, about how she would go about this, I would say that Gul'dan is the one behind this attack," Spitfire replied, knowing that Thalyssra was talking to her and that she likely wanted her opinion on something, hence the reason she had been thinking about what Rainbow had seen and what she had learned during her time in the Waning Crescent, though so far all of her thoughts lead to the fact that Elisande might not be responsible for what was happening to Suramar City, as in Gul'dan must have forced his way into control of everything to get the rest of the things he needed for whatever ritual he was trying to perform, if Khadgar's thoughts were correct, meaning there was a chance that the Grand Magistrix was innocent in this attack and could, if approached correctly, be an ally to them in their war against Gul'dan and the Legion, "if that's the case, maybe we can convince Elisande to join us in chasing out her unwanted guest, to show she truly cares for her city and not all of the promises that the Legion might have made when the deal between them was struck... but, if she's inside the Nighthold, it might be near impossible to get at her, not without us alerting Gul'dan as to what we're up to." "You know, when I set out to rebel against Elisande and drive the Legion out of Suramar City, I didn't plan on most of this happening to me, as in the Arcan'dor, you and Rainbow, this attack," Thalyssra commented, showing that she had planned for something else to happen when she tried to rebel against the lady who ruled over this city and her people, but she did understand that no one could really plan for the emergence of a magical tree being part of a rebellion, though it did make her remember what happened back in Karazhan, where Medivh mentioned that the 'bonds of fate' had been twisted and that the 'futures he had seen had been rewritten' in some manner, meaning she had an idea of what Thalyssra was talking about right now, though before she could say anything one of their soldiers emerged from the new portal and walked over to her for a moment so she could whisper something into her ear, news that surprised her, "Really? We've got more allies coming from the Duskwatch?" "Yes, and even Silgryn was surprised when she showed up." the soldier replied, something that caused Rainbow and Elylia to focus on them for a few moments, as the pair had been resting off to the side and practice their weapon movements for when they were called upon to return to Suramar City, or anywhere else that might need their attention, though it was all too clear that the soldier was annoyed about something as well, just like everyone else who had learned of the assault on the Waning Crescent, before she glanced at Rainbow for a few moments, "she's also asking to see the one who 'carries the guise of Anarys', meaning someone else knows about Anarys' disappearance... or Ly'leth is using a code of some kind to make sure it remains a secret." "Well, if a defector is asking for me, I would be rude to ignore them, especially since she might have valuable information for us and the rest of the rebellion," Rainbow stated, showing that she knew what was going on and that she had an idea of what she needed to do next, especially since it seemed like the Duskwatch were flocking to Thalyssra's side so none of them were caught by the wrath of the rebellion, when they made their move on Elisande and Gul'dan anyway, though as she said that Elylia walked over to her side as she pulled out the mask, something she was going to need once they were back inside the city, after speaking to whoever wanted to see her, "We'll be back once we figure out what our new allies want to tell us, and assist them in taking the fight to the Felwatch, since I'm assuming that they'll want to make sure we can be trusted before truly siding with us." Thalyssra nodded and let the pair head through the new portal, where they quickly reappeared in the new lookout tower that Silgryn was using to check on the rest of Suramar City, or the Waning Crescent anyway, though when they arrived the pair noticed that both Silgryn and Arluelle, the latter having left Shal'Aran after officially joining the rebellion so she could learn from the one who might as well be Thalyssra's military commander, not counting Tyrande or Lady Liadrin, standing nearby, with another Nightborne, dressed in the armor of a Duskwatch soldier, maybe a captain since she had a bit more on her than the rest of the Duskwatch, though her weapon rested on the ground near Silgryn, showing that she was here to talk and even gave them a sign of good faith by handing over her weapon. "One of our soldiers told Thalyssra that you wanted to speak with me," Rainbow said, something that was followed by the soldier in question raising her eyebrow in surprise for a moment, as if she didn't believe her, hence why she pulled out her mask for a moment and slipped it on, allowing the magic to wash over her body and restore her disguise, which caused the Nightborne to pause for a second as she realized what she was seeing right now, as the magic that was lingering on it was far more than a simple party mask, as the disguise was far stronger than anything she had seen so far, "I am Rainbow Dash, or 'Anarys' when I'm using the mask to sneak through parts of the city, and this is Elylia, an ally who joined us back at the beginning of the rebellion." "I am Victoire, one of the many Nightborne who are fleeing the Nighthold to join the rebellion, to bring down the Felwatch and their demonic allies," Victoire replied, showing that she knew what Rainbow was doing and that she was replicating it to show that she was here to talk, not to mention assisting them in taking down the Felwatch, though as that happened Rainbow noticed that Arluelle had her weapon out and Silgryn had her put it away for now, since they had allies waiting to join the rebellion, before both she and Rainbow focused on each other, "Anyway, I have disturbing information that needs to be acted upon: a large number of citizens are being dragged out of Starcaller Retreat, bound in Fel chains, and it looked like their destination might be Astravar Harbor... and they're being escorted by both the Felwatch and their demonic allies, to make sure no one is able to flee, even if they break their bindings. I know the patrols started earlier this morning, just before the assault on the Waning Crescent, and no one who has been taken to Astravar Harbor has returned, though we have been unable to figure anything out thanks to all the demons that have overrun the place, especially when we take the fact that the Felwatch doesn't like the Duskwatch at all, as now they've started to attack any who dare to interfere with any of the missions they are given. I would suggest taking down the demons and seeing if they have any notes about what in the world they are taking the citizens... while you do that, I would also suggest that you locate more of the Duskwatch and inform them that my group is defecting to Thalyssra's side, because if they're smart they'll defect as well and take the fight to Gul'dan and his demons." "This definitely has Gul'dan written all over it, an attack on the city and stealing the civilians while everyone else is focused on fighting the flames," Rainbow remarked, recalling what Khadgar had said earlier, when answering Thalyssra's questions so she understood just how dangerous the orc warlock was, though as she did that she glanced out at the patch of water that rested between the Evermoon Terrace and Astravar Harbor, as it was to the east of where the tower rested, if one was looking at the city from the water anyway, focusing on the area in question as she spotted a number of demons and enemies for her and Elylia to take down, before she sighed for a moment, "Don't worry, we'll be back with whatever sort of communication devices the demons and Felwatch might have on them, along with word of new allies joining the cause to bring down those who are attacking Suramar City." Before Victoire could say anything, and before either Silgryn or Arluelle could do anything to stop her, Rainbow removed her mask and placed it inside her pack as she gripped onto the back of Elylia's armor, where she hauled her companion into the air for a few seconds and flew over to Astravar Harbor, though once they arrived at their destination she let her friend go and Elylia touched down on one of the larger boats that were in this place, but instead of landing beside her, as she would have done in any other situation, Rainbow focused on the Jailer demons that had chained up a number of the city's citizens, accompanied by Felstalkers. Her plan was simple, she was going to hack apart the demons and the various members of the Felwatch that were scattered around the circular area that was Astravar Harbor, leaving Elylia to talk with the Duskwatch who were stationed in this place and convince them to leave, to join the rebellion and take their city back from Gul'dan, and since she spotted Deline's boat nearby, exchanged for an even larger one that was still smaller than the ones that were around the harbor, that meant she was aiding them in transporting the captured citizens, who would be freed once their captors were defeated, in fleeing the city. As such she focused on her part of their mission and less on the pair that were assisting her in the other part of it, where she spun around and slashed her way through the demons that were in front of her, while lashing out with her clawed feet to deal some additional damage, even though each enemy she slew had their soul snatched by her Warblades and their Fel energy added to her ever growing pool of power, and none of the Felwatch were safe from what was going on, as she made sure to cut down some of them as well, as punishment for each of them turning their backs on their city and accepting the power of the Legion, corrupting them to the point where they would attack those who might be neighbors or even family members. The demons in this place were, of course, very angry at what she was doing and tried to bring her down, wrapping their Fel chains around her body in an attempt to drag her to the ground and take her down, but Rainbow wasn't about to let that sort of thing take her down as she smashed all of the chains and lashed out at her would-be captors, slashing into the chests of the Jailers while stabbing the Felstalkers right in the center of their heads, leaving dead demons in her wake as she stole their souls. While she did that, however, Rainbow spotted every group of Duskwatch that happened to be in this place, basically being forced to watch what was happening to the citizens they were sworn to protect with their lives, lashing out at the Felwatch as the freed captives rushed over to Deline's boat, to be taken to the tower and delivered to Shal'Aran while Thalyssra and her forces readied themselves for battle, though it looked like their new allies were mostly focused on knocking down all of their foes so Rainbow could finish them off and add their souls to her growing collection. Another thing she kept an eye on was the warp pads that were connected to the upper level of the structure that Astravar Harbor was connected to, just in case additional enemies came out and tried to bring them down, but while she waited for that to happen, because she was sure that someone would come at some point to see what was going on down here, she focused on hacking her way through the demons that were around her as she freed more of the captured civilians that were here, allowing Elylia and their new allies to usher them to safety. She was also sure that Shal'Aran would run out of room at some point in the very near future, especially with all of the citizens that were currently fleeing the city so they didn't get caught by the Legion or the corrupt Felwatch, where she had to wonder if the latter would start to become demons to deal with their enemies, as it would grant her more Fel energy if such a thing happened, but for now she was sure that Thalyssra would find room in Shal'Aran for those who were coming from the city, before possibly spreading out to one of the other ruins of Suramar to make a brand new camp for them, their allies, and those who had been forced to flee the city. A few moments later she cut down a Jailer demon and noticed that it dropped something interesting, a crystal that was touched by Fel energy and had an image of an Eredar in it, the very thing that she and Elylia were here to claim, a communicator that would grant all of them some information on what was going on right now, though once that was in hand she lashed out and quickly cut down all of the remaining demons that were in this place, allowing her to collect their souls as Elylia finished convincing all of the Duskwatch to defect to the rebellion and ushered the freed civilians to get on Deline's larger boat. Once they were done in Astravar Harbor, and Rainbow was sure of that fact, she and Elylia headed back to where Silgryn and their allies happened to be waiting for them to return with news on what was going on, though instead of speaking up the moment they landed on top of the tower, and showing them the crystal Rainbow had picked up, the first thing they did was make sure everyone that had been freed was sent to Shal'Aran, while the members of the Duskwatch swore to serve Thalyssra and bring down their corrupt enemies, but once everything was said and done she held the crystal out to show Silgryn, Aurelle, and Victoire what had been recorded in it, by channeling a bit of Fel energy to play the message that was contained inside it. Tichar, I have news for you and your forces: Gul'dan has given the order for us to start extracting elves from the city, as a punishment for their foolish Queen trying to stand against us, a voice said, where they found an transparent male Eredar appearing above the crystal, who had to be one of the commanders of the Legion's assault on the city in Rainbow's mind, though that also meant that one of the Jailers had to be the 'Tichar' that had been mentioned, despite the fact that none of them had any unique appearances to set them apart from every other Jailer that was in Astravar Harbor, but that was the moment they heard a female scream, like she was being tortured by someone, something that caused a grin to appear on the Eredar's face for a few seconds as he heard it, while Silgryn and Victoire froze, Lord Gul'dan is... showing her the errors of her ways... to make her realize her place and ensure she doesn't repeat the same mistake, but while he does that the way to Felsoul Hold is now open and he wishes for the prisoners to be fed to the Soul Engine. Once that is done you are to continue capturing these pitiful elves and either deliver them to Felsoul Hold, or deliver those with potential to our Lord for... special training... "Felsoul Hold... the situation is more dire than what we originally believed," Silgryn commented, speaking once the image of the Eredar was gone, even though he held a hand out and Rainbow gave the crystal to him so it could be delivered to Shal'Aran, because he was sure that Thalyssra would want to see this and make a plan of attack, to either topple the new Felwatch or persuade more of the city to join the rebellion, to avenge their fallen and push the demons back to whatever place they had come from, before he considered what he felt was the more important implication, "but this does confirm something: Elisande, despite reaching an agreement with the Legion and bringing about the existence of the rebellion in the first place, seems to be regretting her decision and is trying to make amends by refusing to let Gul'dan do whatever he wants to her city and those she's supposed to protect." "Yeah, by tortuing her in the Nighthold," Victoire replied, revealing to Rainbow that the voice that had screamed out near the end of the message was the voice of the Grand Magistrix, meaning Gul'dan was asserting his dominance over the city by likely chaining her to part of the Nighthold and inflicting punishments on her by using Fel energies to hurt her, as that was what some of the Eredar and other races of the Legion did to break someone to their will, before she sighed and took a moment to glance over to the massive structure that was off in the distance, the Nighthold to be exact, "at the very least we know that she hasn't totally betrayed the Nightborne, since it sounds like she's trying to stop Gul'dan from taking over her city, but there's no telling how long its going to last." "Should I fly over to the Nighthold, break into whatever location she might be being held in, and retrieve her so she can't be tortured anymore?" Rainbow inquired, as she figured that if her allies told her where in the Nighthold Gul'dan might be holding Elisande, regardless of the size of the place in question, she could rush over to the structure in question, scout out the areas that the ruler of Suramar City might be resting in, free the Grand Magistrix if she found her, and get her out of an enemy infested nest so she could be delivered to Shal'Aran and, more importantly, Thalyssra and Spitfire, who might be able to talk some sense into her. "No, we'll leave that decision to Thalyssra, who will need some time to determine if we're being played or if what we heard was actually real," Silgryn spoke up, as he had been thinking about this since they heard the message in question, as while he and many others were hoping that Elisande would turn against the Legion, for attacking her city and everything else the Felwatch had done since being formed, only the leader of their forces could make the decision and he was fine with that, before he focused on what they were going to be doing next, "however, we should be focusing on putting an end to what is going on in Felsoul Hold, and by that I mean killing this Eredar and saving those who are being held captive. Now this is normally where I would offer the idea that you, Rainbow, play the part of a captive and let them capture you so you can lead us to the area that our people are being held in, but given that they might be able to sense your Fel power we'll have to use someone else, hence why I think Elylia would be perfect for this, just put on a mask that makes you look like one of the citizens and they'll capture you in no time... once you arrive, as we'll be following behind you in one of Deline's boats, we'll free you from your bindings and then take out the demon in charge of capturing our people, before freeing those who have been captured and deliver them to Shal'Aran." Elylia, even though she didn't want to be the decoy, decided that it was better than asking one of the citizens to do this for the rebellion, since there was no telling what might happen once the demons took her group to whatever area of Felsoul Hold they would be stopping at, before Silgryn found a mask that could be enchanted with the form he had spoken of and handed it over to her once it was ready, where he made sure his group was ready as Rainbow carried Elylia back over to Astravar Harbor, as there were a few more Jailers in the area, who had been inside the city, and they had chained up more citizens, before she lowered her friend on the ground and departed for a moment. Once Elylia was ready she slipped her mask on and appeared as an ordinary citizen, where a Jailer happened to float out of the center of the harbor a couple of seconds later and chained her to the group with his Fel chains, all while Rainbow happened to be far above them and just watched without drawing any attention to herself, though it appeared that they were in time for the next ferry to come to the harbor, a ship that was tainted with Fel energies and had spikes growing out of the wood, showing that it had been twisted by the Legion's power. Not a few moments later, once everyone was forced onto the deck of the ship, the Jailer and his allies headed out onto the open water and departed from Suramar City, though it didn't take Deline long to leave the area that was near Evermoon Terrace, making sure to stay behind them and maintain a good distance, where she left her perch and followed after the corrupted ferry as well, where they watched as it headed to the south a little before turning to the west, like it was heading over to Azsuna, though everyone knew that the demon's destination was Felsoul Hold and not another province of the Broken Isles. Sure enough the demons came to a stop at an beach that allowed someone to see a long stone bridge that rested on part of Azsuna, before they spotted a bunch of Fel prisons which had been piled up on the beach, in an odd fashion, and Rainbow watched as their targets landed and forced the captives off the boat, but the instant Elylia and the captives were on the beach, and the couple of Jailers paused, Rainbow flashed down to where her targets were standing and swung her right Warblade down at one of the demons before it had a chance to see what was going on, cutting it down while their allies arrived in their boat. As that happened Arluelle jumped off the boat with Victoire and together they cut down another Jailer, while Elylia took off her mask and disguise before cutting apart another demon, leaving Rainbow to claim their souls as she cut down the last of their foes, clearing the beach of demons and opening the way for Silgryn and Deline to join them, smashing the chains that were wrapped around each of the citizens who had been snatched from their homes, even though Rainbow had her attention on what was up the path in front of them, which was Felsoul Hold. "The next step of our plan is obvious: I'll find the Eredar in charge of this operation and kill him, and those who follow him as well, while you focus on freeing the other captives and getting them out of here," Rainbow stated, because even if the only way to actually stop this operation was to kill Gul'dan, the Legion's true commander in Suramar City, taking out those who followed him would slow everything down and would also grant their allies more opportunities to save everyone who were being stolen from their homes, to build a grand army for when Thalyssra decided that it was time to take down their true enemy, and based on what she was seeing all of her companions agreed with her. With that done Rainbow started to head up the hill that was in front of her and used her full speed for a few seconds, as it allowed her to flash around the beach and cut down the couple of foes that hadn't noticed the arrival of the boats a couple of seconds ago, as in there were a few Felwatch soldiers hanging around, or maybe it was more accurate to call them the Felborne, due to the fact that they seemed to love adding more Fel energy to their bodies and gaining more power, even if said process corrupted them in the process, and some Jailers, the latter being her first targets. Part of her knew that all of her Nightborne allies would want to capture several of the Felborne and put them to death for betraying their people, as in bring them to the city for a public execution to show everyone else in Suramar City that the legion wasn't getting away with anything they did to the Nightborne, but that didn't stop her from lashing out at them and taking their heads off, dragging the souls of the Felborne into her Warblades as she consumed their power as well, so she could put it to better use as she waged war on the Legion's forces. Of course several of the Felborne that were scattered around the beach were far more corrupted than those who were inside the city, meaning this must have been going on since before she and Spitfire came to find Thalyssra, as most of the ones she spotted had Fel spikes growing out of their arms and legs, with a power hungry look in their eyes as well, while there was a single corrupt elf who seemed slightly different, as her body was slimmer than the others of her corrupt kind, her eyes were a crimson red and were surrounded by a Fel green color, she had a slender Sayaad tail swinging behind her form, her breasts were a tab bit bigger than what the others had, and there were a pair of demonic horns growing out of her forehead, peaking out of her hair and started to coil back towards the back of her head, but since her transformation wasn't complete the horns were only half the distance. None of that stopped Rainbow from cutting off the head of her corrupted foe, before she had a chance to fight back, though it did make her wonder why there were so many that were willing to sell their souls to the Sayaad, instead of the other races that made up the Legion, but it did make things so much easier for her since those who walked down that path were arrogant enough to believe that no one could touch them, leading to their demise. As the twisted Felborne fell, however, Rainbow had to pause as her own breasts pushed against the fabric of her attire for a second or two, only growing a single size based on what she was seeing, which she was used to thanks to all the Sayaad she and Spitfire had killed so far, before she continued up the hill that rested in front of the beach and discovered that the Eredar she was looking for was resting nearby, which was strange since she thought he'd be inside Felsoul Hold, but she wasn't about to complain about the situation and rushed at him... only to find that he was incredibly weak, as she found that a single swing was enough to sever his right arm and that his defenses couldn't save him from her brief assault, as it ended with him resting dead on the ground while his soul and power were added to her collections. "Well done, you made that fight look easy," Arluelle stated, speaking the moment Rainbow returned to the beach, where she and the others had freed the captives that had been locked inside all of the Fel cages that were resting around them, who were waiting on the boat that was behind them right now, though as she said that she had to admit that Rainbow was stronger and faster than what she had been lead to believe, thanks to everything the other Nightborne who had fled the city had told her about. "Thanks... though, to be honest, that Eredar was weaker than most of the demons I've fought," Rainbow remarked, as that was the truth of the matter, even though it might be possible that she was expecting some of the Legion's forces to be just as strong as Ursoc, Cenarius, or even Xavius were, even though to reach that level she realized that she would have to find and tackle Kil'jaeden and the other strong members of the Legion, since there had to be more than what they had faced so far, since she and Spitfire became demon hunters. Silgryn, instead of saying anything, beckoned for them to get moving and everyone departed from the beach, returning to Deline's boat before she turned around and headed back to Evermoon Terrace, where Silgryn mentioned that there was no sign of Vanthir among those who had been stolen from their homes and dragged out to the beach near Felsoul Hold, meaning he was likely in hiding somewhere else in the city and hadn't come out for fear of enemies finding him, or he had been captured and their foes were holding him prisoner somewhere, but Rainbow was sure that they could locate him at some point in time. Upon their return to Evermoon Terrace Deline positioned her boat near the tower and Silgryn made sure the citizens disembarked without anyone bothering them, allowing them to use the warp pad to reach the top of the tower and use the portal to head over to Shal'Aran, though Victoire stayed at the tower with Silgryn and Arluelle, which left Rainbow to return to Thalyssra and give her the news of what they discovered, something that would enrage her and the rest of the rebellion once they heard what she had to say. Sure enough, when she returned to Shal'Aran, no one was even happy when they heard what she had to say, as the thought of Elisande being tortured by Gul'dan, after refusing to allow him to assault the city with his forces so he could wipe out the rebellion, seemed to bother more people that she realized, and that was on top of the fact that Vanthir was still missing and that the citizens of the city were being stolen from their homes, to be sacrificed to either Gul'dan if they showed promise or sent to Felsoul Hold if they were ordinary folk, or at least that seemed to be how the citizens were being categorized. The only change to Shal'Aran, save for some of the now freed individuals vowing to fight for their city and others taking up other methods of helping the rebellion, like being one who tended to others, was that there happened to be a small image of Ly'leth resting on a table that Thalyssra had placed near the teleport section of the city, which she assumed was a message that had been delivered by whatever magical spell the pair had sent up earlier, allowing Ly'leth to inform them of whatever movements were happening inside the city and any information they might find to be interesting. Despite all of that Rainbow returned to Spitfire's side and rested, as she had the feeling that nothing important was going to happen for some time, given that Gul'dan needed time to figure out what his next move was and the same would be true for Thalyssra, meaning all they could do for now was just wait and see who made the next move, even though it was likely that those who were still inside the city would flock to their side after what happened to both the Waning Crescent and Astravar Harbor, though she knew that time would tell and she was more than willing to wait to see what happened next for their rebellion. > Suramar: Waxing Crescent > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What Spitfire and Rainbow discovered was that nothing else happened for the rest of the day, meaning the demons must have been tired after attacking the Waning Crescent and stealing the Nightborne from their homes, to deliver them to Astravar Harbor and have them be sent out to a beach near Felsoul Hold, but thanks to Rainbow's efforts the latter had been stopped for the time being and it gave the rebellion a chance to recover some of the city's citizens, while sending a brief message to those who were still unsure if they should support the rebellion or not. Spitfire's focus was on making sure the leaders of the Alliance and Horde were still preparing for the eventual attack on the Broken Shore, as that just so happened to be their end goal right now and many of them agreed with her, while at the same time she was exploring her options on any potential allies they might be able to add to their forces, to boost their chances of bringing down the rest of the Legion once and for all, even though there was a chance that the Highmountain Tauren might want to permanently join up with her forces, due to seeing how the factions of Azeroth functioned while they were aiding the residents of Highmountain. Of course she was also sure that Thalyssra and the Nightborne would do the same thing once their city was no longer infested with demons, not to mention once they were freed from their connection to the Nightwell, though given the nature of the factions they would have to pick one to join, even if they would be working with both, something they were going to have to take care of once the invasion was taken care of and the Legion was either destroyed or crippled, but that was something she and the others would have to think about later on, once they were safe and sound. Even then she could see that Tyrande and Lady Liadrin were talking with Thalyssra, who also took some time to speak with Khadgar and Jaina about magic, which meant that some of her allies might be considering the same thing and were just sharing information with her, while also making sure Thalyssra understood that the Alliance and Horde were, against all odds, no longer declaring war on each other and that she didn't have to fear such a thing happening again, not with Spitfire tearing down whoever tried to force the two factions to go to war with each other. While she did that, however, Rainbow spent her time training with the new recruits from the city, mostly to see what sort of training and techniques the Duskwatch were taught, even though she was planning on sticking to Lord Illidan's lessons, but from what she could tell Victoire and those who were fleeing the city, in regards to the Duskwatch, were well trained in the various arts they were taught, while everyone else happened to be catching up at a rapid pace, meaning that in a short period of time Thalyssra would have a fighting force worthy of Suramar, one that, with the aid of the Alliance and Horde, would take back the city and topple Gul'dan at long last. When the next day arrived Spitfire and Rainbow found that more demons were trying to steal more Nightborne from their homes, or their businesses in some cases, which was when Thalyssra had the rebellion form small groups, large enough to free everyone who was in danger while making sure not being large enough to pull the full weight of the Legion's gaze on them, before sending them into the city, with Rainbow and the forces of Azeroth moving to assist them, even though both Tyrande and Lady Liadrin gave all of their soldiers an order to capture the demons so Rainbow or Spitfire could seal their souls inside their weapons. Before such a thing happened they found that the Arcan'dor had several Arcfruit for them to give to the Nightborne and Nightfallen, seven to be exact, which instantly told Spitfire that the magical tree could produce a good number of fruit overnight, meaning that every day they would be able to distribute more of them to the rest of the Nightborne and free them from their fond to the Nightwell, which was why Spitfire assisted Thalyssra in giving out the few pieces of fruit and watched as each of them went through the same process that Oculeth and the others went through after eating the Arcfruit that had been given to them. Of course Thalyssra also revealed that Ly'leth's image also had a few messages for her, hence why she was able to gain information on what the Felborne were doing and what Gul'dan might be doing, and one of the messages happened to be hours before the assault on the Waning Crescent, where she revealed that the other advisors knew about the rebellion's efforts and that most of them knew that they were right about things, in regards to Gul'dan and the Legion, though Elisande, while agreeing with them, had everyone act as if everything was just fine in the city, a sign that she had to be regretting her decision and didn't want others to suffer. The following message came just after the assault on the Waning Crescent and the demons trying to haul Suramar's citizens off to Felsoul Hold, to be sacrificed or twisted into demons, depending on whatever potential was inside them, revealing that many she spoke to were outraged by what was happening to their city, especially with a decent number of the Duskwatch turning to Gul'dan and becoming the Felborne the rebellion had to deal with, while noticing that Vanthir's name was absent from the rest of their conversations, meaning she was looking for him while not arousing suspicion. The weirdest thing they discovered, which came on the second day after Rainbow and the others freed the citizens that had been taken to Felsoul Hold, was that there was a new fashion trend in the palace, one that many seemed to be taking a liking to, and it involved placing an ornamental orange bird on their heads, which was the size of one's hand, though that was also when one of the night elf warriors mentioned they had seen a bird like that in Draenor, back when they were in the middle of taking down the Iron Horde, a bird that both the Alliance and Horde came to call 'Pepe', who turned out to be a passive bird and loved everyone, especially since he sat on their heads and joined them in their quest for a time, even if it meant watching fights go on... making Spitfire wonder if the Nightborne had seen Pepe on someone's head and picked it as the next trend to follow for a time. It was on the third day after Rainbow's assault on the demons in the Waning Crescent and the Felborne, and freeing those who had been snatched from their homes, that Ly'leth sent them a massage and caused Thalyssra to raise an eyebrow for a moment, as it was encrypted and that meant she had to be worried that someone on Gul'dan's side was spying on her and all of the other advisors that served Elisande, something that had to mean she must have discovered something they could use to boost the morale of the rebellion and possibly turn more away from the Legion's power, as more might flee to Shal'Aran and join them to take back their city. Rainbow and Elylia stood nearby, as both were sure that once this new message was decoded, and Thalyssra had a chance to tell them what sort of information Ly'leth had sent them, they would be sent out to deal with whatever threat would be bothering the rest of the city or undo whatever assault might have been planned by Gul'dan, but they remained silent while they waited for her to give them an idea of what was going on, as time wasn't of the essence right now, or at least they hoped that was the case. Of course the other members of the rebellion were a tad bit interested in what was going on right now, given that some of them had been depending on Vanthir to get the Arcwine they needed to survive and not wither into the mindless creatures that were roaming the various ruins that rested on the outskirts of the city, so they were hoping that Ly'leth had news about what might have happened to him and, more importantly, so he could be repaid for his actions in saving so many from the hunger that everyone felt. Such a thing was the reason why Thalyssra stopped anyone from touching the Arcfruit that had been produced this morning, because no one in Shal'Aran or Suramar City had seen Vanthir since Gul'dan ordered the attack on the Waning Crescent three days ago, meaning he was getting close to becoming a Nightfallen, or possibly even a Withered if the orc warlock siphoned his energy out of him, something that Khadgar considered a possibility that they couldn't ignore, given the history of Gul'dan and his actions, but they remained silent as they waited for something, anything, to happen so they could be ordered out to take the fight to the demons that were inside the city. "Okay, I've finished decoding Ly'leth's message," Thalyssra spoke up, where she sighed for a moment and tapped the new crystal on the table that she used to display all of the messages that they received from the city, one of which happened to be the one that revealed what was happening to those who had been taken from their homes and shipped out to a beach near Felsoul Hold, something that was followed by an image of Ly'leth appearing before her, just above the crystal, before she glanced at those who were near them, who seemed eager to hear what the message had to say, "Now, let us see what sort of message she has to share with us, and what sort of response we'll need to put into motion if its the Legion setting up another operation against us or the city." I have urgent news, Thalyssra. the image stated, something that caused everyone to raise their eyebrows for a second or two, because they were curious as to what she classified as 'urgent', given that she was more of a noble than those who resided in Shal'Aran right now and her definition of the word might be different than what someone else might use, but, at the same time, this meant she must have something for them to use against the demons and Gul'dan, though the image glanced around whatever area she had been in when she recorded this message, before focusing on the crystal again so she could get this over with, The portal to my estate is secure, and my staff have ensured that the surrounding area is also clear of Felborne and their demonic allies... you will want to hear my news in person. Thalyssra wasted no time in making sure Rainbow and Elylia followed her as she headed for the portal that would take her to the Lunastre Estate, while ensuring that everyone else remained at the ready in case this metting informed them of an attack on the city or something, so she could send them out depending on what sort of attack or operation it was, hence why Spitfire, Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, Khadgar, and Jaina remained at the ready in Shal'Aran, because if a demonic attack was coming this would allow them to prepare their forces accordingly... though it didn't take the trio long to appear in the part of the estate that Rainbow had first met Ly'leth in, who turned and looked at them upon their arrival, where Rainbow put on her disguise to ensure that any spies were left in the dark as to what happened to Anarys. "Welcome home, First Arcanist, sister. Thank you for coming on such short notice." Ly'leth said, speaking once the trio had arrived at the edge of her estate, where it was clear that she was acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary, in case there were any spies staring at this place from afar, by either magical means or with one's eyes, while also acting as if she hadn't seen Rainbow's true form and had only seen Anarys emerge from the portal that was on the outskirts of her estate, which brought a smile to Thalyssra's face, as it felt like nothing had changed for her and the others. "Thank you, Advisor," Thalyssra replied, though as she said that some of the servants came and offered them some drinks, nothing that would get them drunk since there was work to do in the city no doubt, but it didn't stop her, Elylia, or Rainbow from taking something and sipping on their chosen drinks, making it look like this was a social visit and not something that would decide the fate of the city that was resting near them right now, before she focused on why they were here, since she knew that Ly'leth wouldn't call them unless it was as urgent as the message had stated, "What sort of news do you have for us?" "I have heard terrible rumors about the fate of Vanthir, as many are worried that he is 'to be made an example' for all to see, in the words of Gul'dan," Ly'leth stated, informing them that she finally had news about what might have happened to Vanthir, even though it looked like the orc warlock was planning on killing their ally in a place where many would be able to see the event, to cripple those who chose to stand against the Legion and prevent more Nightborne from fleeing the city, though Thalyssra frowned as she heard that and Rainbow imagined the day when she could run her Warblades through the orc who Khadgar called 'Darkness Incarnate', to indicate his evil, before Ly'leth sighed, "honestly, I have no idea how long we have until that foul orc makes his move, but I can tell that it hasn't happened yet... and I pray that you free him to prevent such a terrible fate from befalling him." "Do more demons need to die? Because I'll gladly kill them if that's the case," Rainbow remarked, referring to the fact that the Legion loved to use Fel cages to hold someone for a specific amount of time, before doing whatever it was that they wanted to the individual who was contained inside them, and that each cage or set of cages came with a specific key that would unlock them, made from either Fel-tainted metal or a Fel crystal that had a rune etched into it, which meant she was more than willing to declare total war on the demons in the city and find anything and everything that would point to the area that Vanthir was being held in, not to mention free him as well. "Normally, I would say yes, but we should restrain ourselves for a time," Thalyssra said, as she understood that Rainbow, like most of the residents of Azeroth, would want to declare war on the Legion and force them off this planet, maybe even break their forces entirely, but right now they were in a race against time to find Vanthir and needed a better method to locate him, before Gul'dan made an example of him, before an idea came to mind as she considered something she had learned in the past, "rather, we need to head out and find a few locations where his Arcane Essence is the strongest, as it will allow me to form a spell that will track down the exact location that he's being held in." "In a city this old, such a feat will be near impossible... if it was anyone other than our allies, anyway," Ly'leth stated, as she knew that Rainbow and Spitfire weren't to be underestimated and that, if someone gave them a task to do, they would go out and accomplish that task without much delay, while also doing it to the letter in most cases, so she knew that if one of them were to give Rainbow the means to find the Arcane Essences, and directions on how to find said essences, she would be able to track them down in due time and recover whatever number Thalyssra needed for her spell, before she thought about what had happened inside the palace earlier, "I would recommend starting in the promenade, since that was where he spent most of his time before all of this happened... but while you do that, I need to quickly make sure my guest is well taken care of, before heading back to the palace to make sure Gul'dan isn't planning anything else." Rainbow knew that Ly'leth was speaking of the real Anarys, as she was keeping her sister contained until this rebellion was over and the city was freed from Gul'dan's grasp, due to the fact that Ly'leth was worried that Anarys would run to one of the demons, or even the orc warlock himself, and join forces with the Legion, who would no doubt corrupt her sister to the point where she was a twisted version of who she used to be, possibly even a demonic one based on how changed one of the Felborne had been, though the group nodded as Ly'leth walked away. Once she was gone Thalyssra weaved her magic through the air and cast two spells, the first allowing Rainbow to track down the essences they needed to find, which she would pick up once they located one of them, while the second was an invisibility spell to hide herself from their enemies, that way she could follow Rainbow and Elylia without drawing any unwanted attention from of the Felborne they might see as they moved through the city, though once she was ready to go the three of them headed out into the Grand Promenade once more so they could track down some of Vanthir's essences. As such Rainbow followed the slight tug of the spell Thalyssra had cast on her while her companions followed after her, one making it look like she was a bodyguard while the other remained in the shadows, though the feeling brought her to the front of the Lunastre Estate and directed her to a building that was a few minutes away from Ly'leth's place, a tavern that was built into a tall rectangular shaped structure and happened to have no customers right now, including no workers, but there were a few transparent echoes of Vanthir either standing around the area or sitting in some of the chairs. Rainbow tapped one of them as Thalyssra took a moment to reveal herself and gathered what was currently resting right in front of them, mentioning that this was where their friend had taken many meals, back before the barrier had dropped and demons invaded the city, but once the first essence was theirs the group emerged from the building and Rainbow paused for a moment as she felt the direction that the spell wanted her to go in next, where it seemed to pull her in the direction of the Waning Crescent, hence why she and her companions headed for the main stairs, just for her and Elylia to maintain their disguises and not make the Felborne suspect that something was up. It didn't take them long to reach the large set of stairs, nor did it take more than a few minutes to walk down them, but as they silently headed for their next destination, which Rainbow had to assume was located in the Shimmershade Garden part of this section of the city, they had to avoid taking the fight to the demons that were scattered throughout this area, given that the Waning Crescent was still on fire in most places, something that showed Thalyssra that Rainbow could hold herself back and not go crazy as she hunted down the demons that were plaguing the city. Sure enough the next essence was located inside the garden area that Rainbow and Elylia had moved through when they first discovered all of the small Arcane cages Gul'dan's allies had been trapping citizens inside, back before the Felborne made themselves known to the rest of the city, resting around in a circle near one of the buildings and seemed to be of a time that Vanthir was relaxing, or at least that was how it looked to Rainbow, where Thalyssra noted that this essence was bright and strong, meaning their friend spent many hours here. With that essence in hand, and they made sure that no Felborne or demons were coming after them, Thalyssra and Elylia continued to follow Rainbow as she felt the spell pull her in the direction that the area the next essence was located in, one that seemed to be taking them in the direction of their friend's shop, though it changed course and pulled her towards the Evermoon Bazaar section of this portion of the city, meaning the spell must have found an even stronger essence since it seemed to be seeking out the strongest ones for Thalyssra's spell. What they discovered was that the spell brought them to a building that was literally not even a minute down the road from the location that the tower Silgryn, Arluelle, Victoire, and the rest of their group happened to be positioned, watching over most of the city and seeing how the Felborne or demons were reacting, to which she entered the building and found the essence Thalyssra's spell had been pulling her towards, where she found that the echo of Vanthir was being served something by someone who had to be one of his suppliers once the rebellion started, causing Thalyssra to gather the essence with her magic once more before heading for the warp pad that would take them to the top of the tower. Rainbow knew it made sense for them to head over to Evermoon Terrace, to join their allies and give Thalyssra some time to cast the spell that would allow her to locate Vanthir, hence why she and Elylia followed her as she headed for the tower and quickly used the warp pad to reach the top of the structure in question, where they found their allies were staring out at the city as they waited for something else to happen, like when Victoire came and informed them of what was going on in another part of the city, which had been helpful in the grand scheme of things, before Silgryn and the others paused for a moment as they appeared nearby. "Lady Thalyssra, we weren't expecting you to come here," Silgryn commented, speaking as if this was a normal occurrence, like a military leader checking up on their soldiers or something, before he noticed that all three of them were focused on something rather important and the others noticed it as well not a few seconds later, as it caused everyone to pause for a time as they considered what might have caused the leader of their rebellion to suddenly leave Shal'Aran, especially since nothing terrible was happening to the Arcan'dor right now, "Has something happened?" "Vanthir is still missing, and Ly'leth said that Gul'dan might be planning on making him an example for the rest of the city, to break their spirits, so we collected some of his essences to locate him," Thalyssra replied, though while it looked like all of their allies wanted to say something about Vanthir, given that they knew he had been missing and this was an outrage to hear he was going to be slain to show the city what happened to those who stood against the Felborne and the Legion, she focused her mind and power on the essences they had recovered so far and the spell that would allow her to figure out where Vanthir was being held against his will. What Rainbow discovered was that the spell was similar to what happened when they worked with Theyrn, which lead to the discovery of the Arcan'dor seed, though this time it didn't seem like she or Elylia had to touch any of the images that appeared in front of where Thalyssra was working, where the first one happened to be Vanthir being confronted by one of the Felborne and a Doomguard, even though their ally cowered in fear as the demon stood over him and felt fear, not for himself, as one might expect, rather it was for everyone who called the Waning Crescent. That was when the image took a turn for the worst as Vanthir reappeared in front of them, where it looked like he was being confined to a specific area for some time, where Thalyssra mentioned that it was 'dark and isolated' as he started to undergo the effects of the hunger that all Nightborne underwent when they were separated from the Nightwell's energies for an extended amount of time, a hunger that grew until he was forced to wither to the Nightfallen state, only she told them that someone, be it one of the Felborne or one of the demons, had siphoned even more of his power from him. Gul'dan's minions were cheating Vanthir out of the normal process that all Nightborne went through when they were forced to transform into Nightfallen, pushing him almost all the way to the point where he would devolve into a Withered and they would lose him forever, unless they were able to figure out how to bring someone back from that state, meaning that it was only a matter of time before one of the demons or Felborne pushed him over the edge and made him transform into one of the Withered, hence why all of them were waiting for Thalyssra to finish her magical search. A few moments later she discovered something during her search, the Nightfallen Vanthir was running around a cage in a frantic manner and there were a few Felborne watching the area he was trapped in, even though it became clear that something else happened as he was transported elsewhere for a time, before the guards saluted someone and walked away, leaving Vanthir resting on the ground, before Thalyssra broke the connection and fell to one knee for a moment, though as the group moved to aid her it was clear that she had found out what they were looking for. "Vanthir... he's being held in the Terrace of Order... it must be time for Gul'dan's 'display'," Thalyssra stated, meaning that time really wasn't on their side if the orc warlock was planning on making his move, to cripple anyone who still stood with the rebellion, and they were sure that there were individuals inside the city who understood that the Felborne could force someone to become Withered if they really wanted to, but at the same time the darkness those same elves possessed was a counter to what was going on, meaning the citizens might turn on the demons in due time, before she glanced at them for a moment, "however, I am familiar with his captor... its Thoramir, one of Spellblade Aluriel's soldiers and a skilled spell-fencer, meaning that freeing Vanthir will be slightly harder than what we originally thought, especially since it seems there might be demons near where they're holding him. Rainbow, you'll need to return to Shal'Aran and grab one of the Arcfruit that grew recently... I'm glad I stopped anyone from taking one, now that we know what happened to Vanthir... because as soon as you free our friend from his cage he's going to be near the breaking point and won't be able to survive the brief journey back to Shal'Aran, so if you have a fruit on hand you can save his life." Rainbow, instead of wasting time, informed those that wanted to aid her in freeing Vanthir that she would meet them near the Terrace of Order, since she was sure that some of them might want to take down some demons and Felborne, before she removed her mask once more and stashed it inside her pack, something that was followed by her bursting into the air as she headed back to Shal'Aran, as while she could have used the nearby portal, to return to their base of operations, she found that it was far faster for her to speed through the air, fly into the ruin, quickly inform Spitfire and the others of what was going on, and then grab one of the Arcfruit before heading back towards the part of the city Vanthir was being held in, an area that their enemies were gathered in. The Terrace of Order was actually the partial bridge that was closer to where the Waning Crescent rested, instead of being higher up near where Ly'leth gained her advisor position, and sure enough she found a number of Felborne and Doomguards patrolling the area in question, along with a more armored elf who had delved into the depths of Fel energy, who had to be Thoramir, a male Felborne based on what Rainbow could see from the area she was flying in, before she spotted her allies, Silgryn, Arluelle, Elylia, and Victoire, charging at their enemies, which meant a battle was about to break out. Thoramir seemed pleased with the enemies of Gul'dan coming to save Vanthir, no doubt because this seemed to be a trap when Rainbow considered that the Fel-tainted Nightborne had a large number of soldiers guarding the area, even though it looked like it might have been a trap to contain Thalyssra and no one else, but it didn't stop Rainbow from dropping down on the enemies that were on the outskirts of the Terrace of Order, where she raised her hands and drew her Warblades as she spun around and removed the heads of a pair of Doomguards that were near the area she was in, allowing the others to advance on their enemies and cut them down as they moved towards the location that Vanthir had been imprisoned in, with her using her own powers to draw in the souls of the Fel-tainted elves and demons who were around them. "So, you believe that you are capable of stopping this demonstration?" Thoramir inquired, spinning his weapon around for a moment as he faced them, even though a few Felborne rushed at them and were stopped by Arluelle, Victoire, and Elylia parrying their attacks, leaving Silgryn standing by Rainbow's side, where she noticed that the Fel energy was radiating from the Fel-tainted elf that was in front of them, more than enough to start the corruption process for most individuals, which caused Thoramir to laugh for a second, "Aluriel was disappointed in you, Silgryn, since you turned your back on the power that has been offered to the Nightborne, and the one who made sure all those who train under her know her techniques, as she was so sure that you would have replaced me, once I moved up to a new position... instead, you ally with a traitor, all of her allies, and turn your back on the power that would have allowed us to conquer the world... no, the entirety of the remaining planets in our universe!" "Unlike you and Aluriel, I have a conscience and have chosen to serve the First Arcanist as she purifies the corruption that has infested our city," Silgryn stated, though instead of saying anything else about the matter, since he felt that time would be wasted if he talked with the Fel-tainted elf that was in front of him, Silgryn charged forward and clashed with Thoramir not even a few seconds later, while Rainbow focused her attention on clearing out the Doomguards that were around the area, dodging the incoming punches and claw swings as she sliced her foes apart, drawing in more demonic souls and Fel energy as she did so. As it turned out the majority of the Fel forces that were in the Terrace of Order fell before the might of their force, even if there weren't that many enemies to begin with based on what they were seeing, though Rainbow had to remark about a stroke of luck as Thoramir dodged an attack that would have removed the control crystal for Vanthir's prison, where she flashed into the area he was fighting in, removed the crystal before he even noticed that she was there, and then used it to bring down everything that happened to be around Vanthir, though once the cage was down she grabbed onto him and flashed out of the area, returning to Evermoon Terrace to place him near Thalyssra and the Arcfruit she had taken before heading into battle. Once that was done, and Vanthir dug into the fruit while the Arcane rings appeared around his body, she returned to the Terrace of Order and swung her Warblade down at Thoramir, who parried the attack with the blade he carried and kept his smile up, something that was followed by him pushing back against her and knocked her backwards, where Rainbow landed on the ground and frowned for a moment as she and the others took in what they were seeing at the moment, as parts of Thoramir had transformed once he realized that he was going to be fighting Rainbow. His hands had shifted into claws that were made for slashing up whoever he was fighting, and given that they now resembled those of a Wrathguard it meant he had a bit of power added to his base, while his feet did the same thing, from the same demon as his hands, while Rainbow could see that Fel energy was burning in his veins, due to his tainted skin color, but it revealed how he was able to stall her attack and push her back, even if she had been using the level of power that could take down all of the other Felborne they had come across since they became a thing in Suramar City, and also explained why the elf thought he was superior to them, given the newfound power that was coursing through his veins. Unlike the previous foes who did this, infusing their bodies with all sorts of Fel energy to make themselves stronger in the heat of battle, Thoramir had done it when Gul'dan offered the Felborne power and spent the time since then honing his new skills, which meant his body could handle the power that was coursing through his body, unlike what happened to Cordana when she tried to do such a thing, it crippled her and left her open to attack, so this meant he negated that problem. To most this would make fighting him that much harder, if not impossible to some degree, while to Rainbow this was more like a challenge that she could enjoy to some degree, as fighting harder foes was perfect for her and such a thing made her wonder what sort of power the demons of Argus, those who called the Legion's main world home, possessed, though that was when she focused on her foe and flashed through the air as she tapped into her own true power once more, using her full speed to move around the area he was standing in as Silgryn and the others watched her. Of course her allies were a fair bit surprised by how quick she happened to be moving right now, which also applied to Elylia since she had fought by Rainbow's side since the rebellion had started, and even Thoramir was caught off guard a little as Rainbow swung a blade and hacked off his left arm entirely, sending it flying through the air and hit the ground some distance away from where they were fighting, something that caused the Fel-tainted elf to rush into battle once more as he looked for an opening to use against her. Lightning danced along part of her blade for a moment and rushed into Thoramir's body, shocking him as she parried his incoming attacks, something that seemed to annoy him while they were fighting and she used that to her advantage, as it opened a number of holes in his defenses and she made sure to exploit them accordingly, slicing into his legs, leaving some cuts in his remaining arm, giving him diagonal gashes on his chest, and even one on his back, since he had opened his defenses to allow such a thing to happen in the first place, before she swung her Warblade and removed her foe's head from where it was resting. In that moment she sighed as the Fel-corrupted body hit the ground, as she had been expecting more from Thoramir and made her wonder if all of the Felborne were going to be easy foes whenever she faced them, since they would be adapting to their new bodies and whatnot, before she released her power and reverted to her base form once more, while taking the Felborne's soul and adding it to her growing collection, though once she was done Silgryn stepped forward and weaved a bit of his magic over the cage that Vanthir had been contained inside, where a magical image of Thalyssra's emblem appeared above it. "Gul'dan wanted to send a message to the rest of the city, that any who defied him would be punished, and now we have stolen that message and have placed our own," Silgryn stated, where Rainbow knew that more of the citizens who lived in the city would take one look at this and likely flock to their side once they realized what was going on, as the demons were losing ground and it was only a matter of time before Thalyssra had all of them advance on the Nighthold, to tear down all of their enemies and liberate the city at long last, which was followed by him sighing for a moment, "Come, let us return to Shal'Aran and tend to Vanthir, so Thalyssra and the others can figure out what our next move is." Rainbow nodded as they were teleported out of the Terrace of Order, no doubt by Oculeth, though when they reappeared inside their base of operations it was easy for her and the others to find that Vanthir was resting nearby, where the fruit of the Arcan'dor had restored him to his Nightborne state and that meant he was no longer in danger of withering, just like all of the others who had eaten the fruit in question. Vanthir thanked everyone who rushed to his aid and put on a spare set of attire that was offered to him, but one of Ly'leth's attendants, while informing them that he approved of what they did to Gul'dan's message, as it would serve to strengthen the resolve of those who were still in the city and might lead to an increase of soldiers for their cause. As that happened Rainbow returned to Spitfire's side, mostly so she could keep an eye on everything that was going on and be ready for whatever the next stage of Thalyssra's plan might be, even if Spitfire was waiting for news about where the Legion had hidden Lord Illidan's soul, as once someone figured out where his soul had been hidden they would move out immediately, to which they simply rested and waited for whatever the future held for them and their allies. > Suramar: Crafting War > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After freeing Vanthir from Thoramir and the cage he had been trapped in, as well as taking down the demons that had been assigned to guard the area in question, Shal'Aran saw a massive increase of soldiers within one to two hours, due to the rest of the Duskwatch, as in those who hadn't defected to Thalyssra's side beforehand, said their farewells to the Felborne that were inside Suramar City, gathered their kids and loved ones, and then fled to the edge of where the original barrier rested some time ago, before the Legion started this invasion, allowing their new allies to flee to safety and make sure their loved ones were safe for the foreseeable future. Of course the ordinary citizens, who weren't trained to be soldiers, departed from the city as well and moved to Shal'Aran, knowing that Thalyssra would do anything and everything to make sure the demons were pushed out of her home, to restore Suramar City to what it had been like before the demons and Gul'dan came to take the Nightwell from them, leading to Elisande's bargain to save them, though many of her followers knew that everything that was happening inside the city right now was beyond anything the Grand Magistrix could have seen, as she was one of the few Nightborne who specialized in Chronomancy, or magic that manipulated time. Spitfire had the feeling that if they were to free Elisande from her desperate bargain with the Legion, and purged Suramar City of the demons who were trying to tear the Nightborne apart, she might be a decent ally in the fight against the Legion and would likely lead a charge of sorts against those who were trying to take over her city, something they would have to figure out once they reached the part of the city that she was likely being contained in, the legendary Nighthold, though she could tell Thalyssra wanted to save her at some point in the future. There was also the fact that an increase of residents meant that Shal'Aran was being pushed to the limits, hence why Tyrande and Lady Liadrin suggested using the other ruins as temporary camps as well, until they freed the city from the Legion's grasp anyway, and Thalyssra found herself agreeing with the suggestion, especially since the enemies who had been in those areas had been taken care of and that meant no one would be bothered while they worked to free the city. While they did that, and an entire day passed them by, Tyrande and Lady Liadrin took some time to talk with Thalyssra, Khadgar, and Jaina about their plans for the future, something that also gave Spitfire and Rainbow a bit of knowledge on their allies, as Tyrande mentioned that the last time she had been in Suramar had been when they were fleeing from the Legion, all the way back during the first invasion, though a few more individuals showed up to aid them, such as Vareesa Windrunner, one of Sylvanas' two sisters, though she was still living and breathing, meaning not one of the Forsaken that the Banshee Queen had lead, while the other was Rommath, a Grand Magister for the Sin'dorei. With everyone together it was clear to the rest of the Shal'dorei, Nightborne and Nightfallen alike, that they were preparing for the eventual attack on the demons who were inside the city, where Thalyssra's first action was to make sure that the citizens who were still in the middle of fleeing from their homes were pulled to Shal'Aran and welcomed into the rebellion, while at the same time Tyrande and Lady Liadrin sent out a scout to see what the Felborne were doing to the Grand Promenade, as it appeared that they were preparing to defend the area in question and stop the forces of Azeroth in their tracks. With the additional heroes who had been waiting in Shal'Aran, since the demons weren't doing anything to any of the other parts of the Isles and seemed to be focused on securing Suramar City, Tyrande and Lady Liadrin had one or two heroes join the scouts to see what they could do to sabotage the efforts of the Felborne who were patrolling the first part of the city, along with a number of Arcane constructs who had been tainted by Fel energy, twisted into Fel constructs and making them slightly more dangerous than they had been previously. Of course, with the sudden influx of demonic energies that were around the Grand Promenade, even a number of Illidari showed up to disrupt the Legion's efforts and claim any souls that Spitfire or Rainbow didn't claim during the first stage of the upcoming battle, though before they went to war Spitfire made sure to give out the majority of the Arcfruit to those who needed it, even if Thalyssra made sure one was kept on the vines, just in case an event like what happened to Vanthir came up, so they would have a fruit on hand in case something happened to, say, Ly'leth or one of their other allies inside the city. Once that was done Spitfire headed out, since it had been some time since she actually helped the rebellion out and took down some enemies, and landed by the sentinel that Tyrande had sent out to part of the Grand Promenade, where Scarlet was standing to the female night elf's right, while Rainbow headed out to join the magus Lady Liadrin had sent to scout out the other part of the area, meaning all they had to do was figure out what sort of information the scouts had found so far and then act upon it, as that was the plan. "I've found a portal that might hinder our progress," the sentinel spoke up, keeping her voice low so none of their enemies could hear her talking, or her companions when they said something in return to her information, though as she said that it was clear that she was staring at a Fel-tainted portal that the Felborne were focused on, where four Felborne were in the middle of focusing on four Fel crystals, one a piece anyway, that were drawing on the power area this part of the city in an attempt to open a portal, one that happened to be a Fel portal and was either connected to where Gul'dan was located or to Felsoul Hold, "and its guarded by a number of Wrathguards, in addition to the four Felborne who are focusing on the crystals and an Eredar whose serving as the portal master... however, I can't tell if they're calling on reinforcements from part of the Nighthold, Felsoul Hold, or from one of the nearby Legion worlds." "Based on the rebellion that's going on, I'd say its either the Nighthold or Felsoul Hold," Spitfire remarked, because based on what she was feeling right now there wasn't enough power in the crystals or the portal to connect to a Legion world, or at least it sure seemed like what might be going on, hence why she was focused on what was going on in the section of the Grand Promenade that was near where they were standing, as they were hiding behind a building that was in the middle of the area and was an equal distance between the former border of the city and the edge that dropped off into the rest of Suramar City, "I have the feeling the Eredar is in the middle of trying to summon some of the more powerful lieutenants of the Legion to this part of the Grand Promenade, as a way to deter the rebellion from getting into the city and taking down Gul'dan, meaning that demon has to die and the crystals need to be smashed... Scarlet, I'll leave killing the Felborne and breaking the crystals to you and our friend, I'll take down the Eredar and whatever might come through that portal, since she has to be close to summoning something." Scarlet nodded her head for a moment as she drew her weapon and pulled it apart, choosing to wield the Blades of the Fallen Prince this time around, before she and the sentinel charged out into the area that the Felborne were positioned in, surprising their enemies for a moment as the two engaged their enemies, giving Spitfire an opening to advance on where the Eredar was standing, who growled not a few seconds later as she noticed that she had company and pulled herself away from the portal she had been working on. The Eredar raised a hand and hurled a large Fel fireball at Spitfire before she even had a chance to get close to where she was standing, showing that she was strong and that she wanted to bring her down before returning to her duties, though as it reached her Spitfire raised her right hand for a moment and stalled the attack, like it had struck a barrier or something, which was followed by the fireball being drained of all the Fel energy that had been attached to it, causing the attack to disappear in a matter of seconds. While the Eredar was surprised by this turn of events, as she wasn't expecting it to happen in the first place, Spitfire flexed her fingers for a moment as she took in what she had just done, something that must have come to pass thanks to her taking in the power of a second Cosmic Force, as the reason she had done next to nothing since the battle with Xavius was because her body had been adapting to the Life energies that had been gifted to her, especially since her left wing had changed into a white feathery wing, like the ones a regal harpy might have, or similar to what Aviana, an Ancient like Ursoc, might have, and she knew that each of her new feathers had a light green tint to them, reflecting the Life energy they had been made from. It reminded her of what she had seen in Xe'ra's vision, of a being who had six unique energy wings and channeled the power of the six powerful Cosmic Forces through their body, and since it appeared that she might be the one to fulfill that vision, given that she had two of the six right now, it meant her power was going to be far above anything Khadgar and everyone else had seen, but for right now she didn't let that bother or distract her as she focused on her objective as the Eredar swung her scepter at her in an attempt to bring her down, just like all of the other demons she and Rainbow had faced in the past. What Spitfire did was channel a bit of Life energy into her left hand and flicked her pointer finger upwards, something that caused the Eredar to pause for a moment when she realized that her attack had missed, due to Spitfire jumping back a bit as she did that, before a couple of vines bursting out of the ground and grabbed the demon before she could move, who seemed surprised that this was happening, which was understandable since anyone in the Legion who knew what she and Rainbow were capable of wouldn't have seen this move, something that was followed by Spitfire shifting to her Fel power for a moment as she removed the demon's head, causing the portal she had been powering to fall apart and vanish, just as all four of the crystals were broken as well. "I had no idea you could do that." Scarlet commented, as she had smashed the crystals that had been laying around this part of the Grand Promenade, with the sentinel helping her out, while Spitfire dealt with the Eredar that had been trying to open a portal to one of the Legion's locations, though it was what happened to the demon that caught her attention, as in the opening movements of Spitfire's battle with the demon her friend had no weapon in her right hand, but that changed after the vines sprouted, as one of the Twinblades appeared in a second and allowed Spitfire to kill her foe with ease, and it was followed by the Eredar's soul being added to her collection, just like the souls of the Felborne were drawn in as she and the sentinel killed them. "Wasn't totally sure it was going to work, but this just means I have more tests to do," Spitfire remarked, because she had taken some time to talk with the druids that were hanging around Shal'Aran, be they one of the four Archdruids or those who followed the four heroes who lead their order now, and learned what sort of skills they could use in battle, giving her an idea of what she could do in the future once she had a better understanding of her new power, even though she knew that killing demons and adding all of their Fel energy to her own power, while sealing their souls inside her weapons, gave her a slight power boost as well. "So, does this mean we need to go help Rainbow now?" the sentinel asked, as she and the others had accepted Spitfire's views on the Alliance and Horde working together, regardless if it was against the Legion or anyone else who might want to bring down their world, and felt that since they had taken care of their tasks, while crippling the Felborne who had been in this section of the Grand Promenade, it was about time to see if Rainbow and Lady Liadrin's magus needed help taking down their foes, before a flash of lightning appeared in the area they were supposed to be in. "No, Rainbow's got this," Spitfire replied, due to the fact that she believed in Rainbow's power and it sure looked like those who stood against her were falling within seconds, especially since the Felborne and their demonic allies were falling in a vain attempt to bring her down, though it looked like Rainbow had found a staff or something from one of her enemies, one that was also tainted by Fel energy, just like the scepter she was taking from the Eredar, as the demonic relics would give both of them a bit of a power boost once both of them were drained. Once Rainbow was done with her area, and that seemed to be the case as the magus nodded to them, the six of them, as Vytheril had joined the blood elf magus in his mission, turned around and departed from the Grand Promenade without wasting a second, though as they breached the area that the barrier used to rest in, back when this city was protected by the Arcane barrier that had been summoned during the first Legion invasion, they found Thalyssra standing nearby, which was interesting and dangerous at the same time, given that she was the leader of the rebellion and taking her out might do all sorts of damage to their cause. "Spitfire, Rainbow, you two, with these heroes and our ally's scouts, have done well in taking care of the Felborne and their demonic allies, but I have some bad news: the Felborne have activated the Arm of the Magistrix," Thalyssra stated, which caused the group to raise their eyebrows for a moment as they listened to her, though Spitfire had the feeling that Elylia might have given her a different expression if she heard the news, something that caused their ally to realize who she was speaking to and sighed for a moment, "sorry, sometimes I forget that you aren't familiar with some of the things that are in our city... the Arm of the Magistrix is an incredibly powerful, and very deadly, Arcane construct that we had to disable right after it was brought online, as it decimated an entire district of the city when we created it and Elisande sealed it as soon as it was disabled... after everything I've learned, I know Elisande wouldn't betray us by giving the Felborne the Arm, meaning Gul'dan likely tortured her to get that information and likely forced her to undo the seal on it." "Let me guess, you want Spitfire and I to break it, while you and the others prepare for the next stage of the rebellion, like we originally planned?" Rainbow inquired, once more showing those that assumed she was just a warrior who focused on tearing down her foes and not thinking too much about things, as some liked to think that about her, though Thalyssra nodded her head for a moment and that caused Rainbow to smile for a second, as she knew that fighting such a creature would be interesting and dangerous at the same time. Thalyssra informed them that the Arm of the Magistrix was resting just outside the Twilight Vineyards, meaning that place was either the Felborne's first target or it was where they stationed it before sending it straight for Shal'Aran, so once they knew where it was located the pair took to the air and headed towards the Vineyards, both a little annoyed that their foes might be planning to harass this particular part of the city again, before spotting what appeared to be a massive construct, one that was easily twice the size of the normal ones that patrolled Suramar City and likely was powered by a good bit of Arcane energy, that was marching towards the Vineyards. Of course there were a number of Felborne and demons that were scattered around the area it had started in, meaning it had crippled those who woke it up, so the first thing they did was land near their wounded enemies and eliminated the Felborne, adding both their souls and power to their collections once more, before turning around once the area was cleared and advanced on where the Arm was walking, which seemed focused on whatever task it was supposed to be carrying out, something that had to be either 'protect the city' or 'serve the Magistrix', but either way that didn't matter since it posed a threat to Thalyssra and the rebellion. As such they took a moment to make sure their weapons were at the ready before Rainbow burst into the air once more, this time sending a bolt of lightning at the Arm's back and caused it to pause for a moment, even though it quickly turned around and swung at her with one of its fists, leading Spitfire to gather a bit of power and flick her finger upwards once more, causing vines to grow around the four legs that the construct had, in an attempt to slow it down, but its power was definitely one neither of them should underestimate since it shattered the vines not even a few seconds later, using the Arcane power inside it to do such a thing, before charging that same power to strike them down. Spitfire, on the other hand, shifted her stance for a second and withdrew the stone she had been empowering since she found it inside part of the Moon Guard Stronghold, since she had been feeding it Arcane energy while trying to make sure certain terrible events, like the Arcane lightning that had been striking the rest of Shal'Aran when the Arcan'dor became unstable earlier, and used its power to suck up the bit of Arcane energy that came from the Arm's attack, opening the way for Rainbow to attack it. For a moment or two that seemed to be how the battle would go, Rainbow would distract it and avoid the attacks that it sent her way, while Spitfire focused on draining any and all Arcane attacks it might have for them, since damaging the area and parts of the city was something she wanted to avoid, before the Arm went into overdrive and seemed to become a lot faster as it attacked Rainbow, who picked up the speed as well as Spitfire focused on draining all of the Arcane energy into the stone, something that was eventually followed by Rainbow tearing off one of the Arm's legs and an arm, before just removing its head and left a pile of metal behind... to which they headed back to Shal'Aran to give Thalyssra the news she was no doubt waiting for. "I'm not surprised to see that you two have emerged unscathed," Thalyssra commented, where a smile appeared on her face for a moment, as she was no longer surprised by everything that Spitfire and Rainbow did during this rebellion, even if one of their deeds involved breaking the Arm of the Magistrix, a dangerous creation that even the Nightborne were just a tiny bit frightened of, even though it was possible it had only been in the process of waking up and didn't have access to all of the powers she and the others had seen in the past, "though while you two dealt with the Arm of the Magistrix, in a timely fashion I might add, we have been planning the next stage of our assault on the city and Khadgar, joined by those of the Duskwatch who could see through illusion spells, has been finding and capturing any Felborne scouts who might be trying to disrupt our combined forces... apparently Gul'dan's forces have been trying to place all sorts of items around the camp Tyrande and Lady Liadrin have set up near Meredil, between here and Amervale, to make the Kaldorei and Sin'dorei believe that the other is messing with them and chaos in our ranks." "We're smart enough to know that the other force wouldn't do something like this, and even if we tried such a thing there is the chance Spitfire would come after us," Tyrande remarked, because it would be seen as disrupting their fight against the Legion and those who stood in the way of a unified Azeroth pushing the demons back would end up meeting Spitfire in battle, just like what happened to Sylvanas after the Aegis of Aggramar had been recovered, before she focused on the meeting they were having right now, "Khadgar and the Illidari have imprisoned the captives nearby, so you and Rainbow can interrogate them if you wish or just kill them to save yourselves the trouble... though while they have been doing that, we have been coming up with ways to improve the overall fighting power of the Nightborne's army. Yes, the Duskwatch are mighty and they have the skills to stand with all of Azeroth's heroes, and I know a few are already thinking of what the next part of their lives will be once we free their city, but there are those among the citizens who don't know how to fight and don't have the skill to quickly grow and adapt to whatever training they're given... fortunately, we have a way around this problem, as all we have to do is send them to Black Rook Hold and have them face the risen spirits of Lord Ravencrest and his ghostly army, who have sworn to aid us in our war against the Legion." "Of course they cannot leave Black Rook Hold, as the power that Gul'dan used to sever the connection between Illidan's body and soul has trapped them in their current state," Lady Liadrin added, informing everyone that while they couldn't use the ghosts to destroy Gul'dan and the Legion, as she knew that some had considered the idea after hearing about the events that had happened in Val'sharah while the heroes were claiming the four Pillars of Creation that rested in Dalaran, they could use them as temporary training partners for the Nightborne, granting the citizens who wanted to fight for their city and the rest of Azeroth a chance to learn the skills necessary to do such a thing, "so when we kill Gul'dan they'll return to their graves and depart from this world once more, but until then Lord Ravencrest has agreed to let us train with those who serve under him, meaning we can hold mock battles with Black Rook Hold and prepare the Nightborne for the siege that's coming in the near future. Lord Ravencrest has also offered us some other ideas that will help us defeat Gul'dan, his Felborne, and any demons who might be guarding the Nighthold, one of which is allowing us to gather a number of tomes that he wrote before his death, as he was a master tactician and his works will be invaluable for the battles ahead, as we're going to fight the Legion once Gul'dan is taken care of, and another idea was that we could borrow some of the weapons that are scattered around his keep, as in we can have Oculeth give you some beacons and use them to teleport a couple of siege weapons back to Meredil, so we can outfit them and ready them for our assault." "While you do that, Jaina and I are going to be keeping an eye on Gul'dan's magic, just in case he notices what we're up to and decides to throw a demon at us or something," Khadgar said, which was perfect given that they had no idea what sort of plans or tricks Gul'dan might be setting in motion at that very moment, even though Spitfire and Rainbow knew that if a force of demonic enemies were summoned to do battle with their forces or attack a weakened Meredil, as both were good targets once their forces separated from each other, before he thought about something else, "and the Illidari are keeping an eye on Kil'jaeden's movements, even if some are trying to figure out where Gul'dan sent Illidan's soul, since Xe'ra said it was part of the reason she came to aid us in the first place." Spitfire nodded her head in agreement, as their plan of attack seemed to be good and she saw nothing that needed to be changed, as they had an ally that was willing to aid them to the best of his ability, giving them tomes of knowledge and all sorts of weapons to aid the Nightborne, to which Oculeth stepped forward and handed over a number of small beacons to her and Rainbow, as they would be watchers for this mock battle and not be fighting at all, so that meant they were going to be acquiring the weapons and siege machines that were being given to them. Once they were ready to go Oculeth used his magic and teleported them all the way over to Val'sharah, the part where Black Rook Hold, a massive fortress that had a number of ghostly night elves gathered around the various levels, before the citizens who were volunteering to be the soldiers in the army appeared outside the hold and Silgryn appeared in front of them with Victoire at his side, which meant they were acting as commanders for what was to come next, as they only took a few seconds to organize their soldiers before sending them into the fortress. As that happened Spitfire and Rainbow headed out to check out the siege machines and weapon caches that were being gifted to them for their assault on Suramar City, even though Rainbow did most of the work since Spitfire was more interested in watching what each and every single soldier of theirs was capable of, where she found that many of them had some grasp of the basics of using a weapon, but other than that many weren't totally skilled like the Duskwatch and those who had joined Gul'dan's side. Based on what she was seeing the ghostly soldiers of Lord Ravencrest's were incredibly skilled in what they were doing right now, hence why coming to fight them had been offered in the first place, and even then the ghosts knew not to kill the Nightborne they were fighting, meaning that if someone was knocked down the ghosts helped them back up and pointed out where each of them went wrong in their battles, as it allowed them to know what sort of weaknesses they had and what to improve upon, including whatever flaws Silgryn and Victoire spotted while they watched the mock battle unfold, no doubt pleased with Lord Ravencrest agreeing to aid them in training their forces, before she glanced at Rainbow and found that she was using the beacons to teleport the items she was looking for back to Meredil, be they weapons or books. For a while, about an hour to be exact, it seemed like things were going good for the rebellion, the soldiers were learning how to fight and seemed to be slowly adapting to the roles that Silgryn and Victoire had for each and every one of them, as some looked like they had the potential to be great warriors and others could be great mages, though that was when both Spitfire and Rainbow found Oculeth's magic wrapping around them once more, as they returned to Shal'Aran once more and raised their eyebrows for a moment as they focused on Oculeth and those that were near him. "Apologies, but there is a Pitlord heading for Meredil, meaning Gul'dan must have sent him to destroy us," Oculeth said, as it looked like Thalyssra and the other leaders of the rebellion were making sure none of the innocents were inside the ruin, just in case the demon found Shal'Aran and tried to detonate itself to blow everything away, which could also bring ruin to the Arcan'dor and who knew how much of Azeroth, due to the Ley Lines this place was connected to, before he got to why he called them back to their base of operations and drew them away from the first mock battle, "normally, we'd leave this to Scarlet, Vytheril, or some of the other heroes who have been aiding us, but, well... this Pitlord has been feeding on all sorts of Arcane energy, strengthening him to a point where we felt that sending you two at it would be better than calling on some of the other heroes to take it down." While Spitfire was sure that their allies could deal with a single Pitlord, even one empowered by Arcane power from what he had eaten during his time in Suramar City, she wasn't about to leave her allies hanging and, as such, she and Rainbow headed outside once more, finding that everyone who was usually outside in Meredil had hidden themselves and left no evidence that someone was living in this part of Suramar, allowing them to stand in the middle of the ruined village for a moment or two before they found the Pitlord in question walking towards this part of Suramar. Sure enough the demon was just as tall as the rest of his kind, though they could tell that he possessed an increased amount of power thanks to all of the Arcane energy he had eaten since Gul'dan called him to Suramar, though Spitfire stood back as Rainbow flashed through the air and swung her Warblades down, allowing both of them to collide with the glaive that the Pitlord carried as his weapon, an identical one to what the rest of his kind wielded, causing the air to shake for a moment as their energies collided with each other for a moment. All that meant was that this Pitlord was as strong as Rainbow's base form, unlike the vast majority of the Fel-tainted enemies they had faced since coming to Suramar, though, at the same time, she was holding back most of her power and this was a simple test to see how she had to go about this fight, which was followed by Rainbow allowing the demon to push her backwards for a moment before she flipped backwards and pushed herself off part of the air that was behind her, where she swung her weapons again and pushed the glaive out of her way as she slashed into her foe's arm, causing the demon to growl in annoyance. After cutting into his arm Rainbow quickly landed on the back of the Pitlord and hacked into her foe once more, where the demon turned to swing at her and caused her to do something interesting, she deflected the attack and caused the Pitlord to actually slice off one of his legs, all by redirecting the glaive that was coming at her, though that didn't stop her from slashing at the rest of the Pitlord's body as she started to drive the demon away from where Meredil was resting, before the demon stopped and decided that it had enough of this and that he was going to kill Rainbow, by piercing his own heart with his glaive, which meant he was planning on using a self detonation to take her, and anyone near her, out. Rainbow, on the other hand, tapped into her own power for a moment as she charged at her foe, where she actually made a barrier behind her, to stop any of the explosion from hitting Meredil or Shal'Aran, which was a surprise since Spitfire had no idea she was capable of such a thing and blamed it on Rainbow's ever growing power, before the area exploded as the Pitlord killed himself, only she watched as her friend captured the demon's soul and absorbed his power, as in both his Fel energy and the power of his explosion, though when the smoke cleared she found that Rainbow's tail had shifted from just hair and had transformed into a Pitlord's tail, scaled down to fit her body, which also had the flames a Pitlord had, rainbow colored flames to match her hair. "Sweet, my power has gone up and I've gained a new weapon to use against our enemies," Rainbow remarked, where she stared at her new reptilian tail for a moment, as if taking in the fact that she had gained enough Fel energy to change her body once more, something that would likely make her wonder how much Fel power she needed for whatever her next change happened to be, before she spun around and swung her new tail at the skeletal body of the Pitlord, as the demon had burned itself out in an attempt to kill her, smashing several bones to pieces in the process, to which she smiled before lowering the barrier at long last, "oh yeah, I can use this against our enemies and make killing some of them much easier, though Tyrande is going to freak out when she sees this, due to the fact that she doesn't like seeing what happens to those who delve too deeply into the Fel energy." Spitfire nodded her head, as she understood Tyrande's point of view, given that she had been one of Lord Illidan's friends before the events she had seen and heard about played out, before heading back to Shal'Aran to inform everyone that the Pitlord was dead, though as they started to head inside the tunnel in question, however, they found that one of the Illidari had come to Shal'Aran for some reason, hence the reason they focused on Allari as she turned to face them for a moment, even if everyone else was interested in what had happened outside their base. "Don't worry, the Pitlord is dead," Rainbow replied, which caused many of the Nightborne to breath a sigh of relief, as that meant that none of their forces had to die while fighting it, while noticing that Tyrande was surprised by the change to her tail, something she had been expecting and even made sure to move it for a few seconds to show everyone that it wasn't a trick or an illusion, before she focused on what was going on at the moment, "Allari, what's wrong? You look like you flew all the way here from Mardum." "I did, but that's not important... we found Him!" Allari stated, where they were able to tell that she must have flown here due to how out of breath she was, though when she mentioned the second part of her statement, which caused several of those that were around her to raise their eyebrows in surprise, both Spitfire and Rainbow gave her their full attention, as she might have the information they've been waiting for since tasking the Illidari to search for the soul of their Lord, due to the fact that he knew what to do after the Sargerite Keystone had been obtained. "Where have the Legion hidden Lord Illidan's soul?" Spitfire asked, though as she said that she could see that Khadgar and Jaina moved to call forth the heroes of Azeroth once more, as it seemed like they might be heading somewhere that might need the combined power of those who took down the Old Gods, Archimonde, and all those who tried to take down their world, allowing her to focus on what Allari had to tell all of them, because if her information was accurate they could take immediate action and free their Lord's soul for later on. "We've tracked it to Helheim, in the hands of Helya no doubt." Allari replied, naming the dark realm that was connected to Stormheim, where one of Skovald's allies sent the souls of Scarlet and Vytheril when all four of them sought out the Aegis of Aggramar and brought an end to any battles between the Alliance and Horde, though before she could say something else there was a caw and they found a large blue raven, Huginn, landing near their location, indicating that Odyn wanted to speak with them or something, given that his forces were being bothered by Helya. Spitfire, in that moment, called to Khadgar and Jaina for a moment, to have them inform the other heroes that Odyn was calling on them for aid and that they were to gather outside the Gates of Valor, as she had a feeling that they were going on another raid and were going to need all of their strength to deal with whatever foes stood between them and Helya, but, at the same time, this brought a slight smile to her face, as Helya had made a deal with Sylvanas, whatever that deal had been, and might be looking for someone else to do the same thing, so putting the ruler of Helheim down would save who knew how many people and grant them access to Lord Illidan's soul, and she suspected that Odyn was willing to give them some sort of aid to see their mission done. > Suramar: Return to Helheim > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once Khadgar and Jaina informed the other heroes, those who weren't in Shal'Aran, Meredil, or Tel'anor, as those just so happened to be the main camps of the Nightborne rebellion, of what they had just discovered, Spitfire and Rainbow bid Thalyssra farewell for now, as both of them knew that she would be able to handle training an army with both Tyrande and Lady Liadrin, at the very least, assisting her while keeping an eye on Gul'dan and his demons, before heading outside their base of operations, where Allari followed and handed Spitfire a large crystal that would hold the soul they were after, to which they nodded their heads and took to the skies once more. Truthfully, Spitfire was a tad bit surprised to learn that the Legion would make such a deal with Helya in the first place, for her to take Lord Illidan's soul and keep it safe from all those who might come looking for it, but in the end she figured that it had to be due to Kil'jaeden or Gul'dan thinking the ruler of Helheim might be able to bring down some of Azeroth's heroes and weaken them even further, cutting down on the number of enemies either of them would have to fight later on, making their jobs that much easier if such a thing were to happen. In addition to Helya being in possession of their Lord's soul, which was the main reason they were heading to her domain, something that would happen after they spoke to Odyn, the other reason Spitfire wanted to take Helya down was because she had formed a pact with Sylvanas during their last visit to Stormheim, meaning the ancient being might be wanting to make another deal with someone else, to fulfill what the Banshee Queen couldn't accomplish, so she knew that eliminating her would help safeguard Azeroth from another threat and would likely appease Odyn as well. The reason for calling all of their new friends to their side was because she was also sure that this would count as another raid, the time where every hero of this world, as in from both the Alliance and the Horde, would form a united front and attack whatever location that their foe was located in, similar to how their allies had raided a place called Hellfire Citadel, back during their time in the alternate version of Draenor, which lead to them beating Archimonde and Gul'dan being sent to this world to fulfill his mission, which they wanted to stop at all costs, especially since there was no telling how many guardians they would have to face before finding and fighting Helya. Of course it also made her wonder what in the world Odyn wanted to talk about, even if she had a pretty good idea due to Helya standing against him and his forces, and figured that he would tell them what was going on when they reached the Halls of Valor, since he seemed to be calling them to his domain and it was best to flock to his side, instead of ignoring him and possibly getting on his bad side, hence why she and Rainbow landed in front of the Gate of Valor after a short flight from Suramar, something that was followed by their allies slowly gathering, as some had been busy when the call came to them and likely finished whatever they might have been working on. "So, we're heading back to the Halls of Valor," Scarlet commented, as she had been one of the three heroes that had been with Spitfire and Rainbow during their last visit to the halls that Odyn called home, even though someone joined them to run through the dungeon style location that had been presented to them, though while she talked they waited for the rest of the heroes to join them before heading into the structure that was right in front of them, which would bring them to the edge of the Halls of Valor, "I wonder how many minions Helya will throw at us, before we reach the area that she rules from and actually fight her in, especially when we think about how many we faced in the Nightmare." "Well, we know she has that dog chimera that's guarding the barrier between her area and the starting area, so that's one foe to take down," Rainbow replied, recalling the three headed creature that had been guarding what she assumed was the midway point of Helheim, Guarm based on what she recalled that one spirit telling them about when they headed into Helheim to recover Scarlet and Vytheril's souls, since both of their friends had been unfairly condemned to that place by a Fel empowered foe, one they killed before heading into Helheim after their brand new friends, before she shrugged for a few seconds, "other than that, I have no idea what she might throw at us... but it makes me eager to see what sort of foes she be planning on throwing at us, especially after what we faced off against during our venture through the Emerald Nightmare, including facing Xavius himself." Spitfire knew that they would find out that information soon enough, once everyone was assembled and was ready to go, and they only had to wait for a few more moments as the last of the heroes joined them, the three Battlelords who served under Odyn himself, as leaders of his armies, though once they joined the group everyone turned towards the Gates of Valor and walked towards the portal that would bring them to the Halls of Valor, as it was time to see what he wanted all of them to do as they took out another threat to Azeroth and claimed Lord Illidan's soul. It only took them a few moments to reach the portal in question, which quickly brought them to the edge of the walkway that lead to the area Odyn rested in and caused everyone to start walking when they appeared in this realm, though one thing Spitfire noticed was that they weren't alone, as there were Val'kyr and Vrykul heading for the area that they would find Odyn in, meaning a trial might be taking place when they reached their destination, like a final test before sending them straight to Helya's domain, but she kept that to herself in case she was wrong. Of course the heroes who hadn't been to this place were interested in what they were seeing at the moment, which was understandable considering that the Halls of Valor had to be one of the places that the Titans had made when they ordered Azeroth, according to what she and Rainbow had been told by Khadgar in the past, so many of them were glancing around as they took in everything they were seeing, while many of the Vrykul spirits who lived in this realm nodded towards the group for a moment, no doubt knowing what was coming and were eager to see what might happen next. Other than that it looked like Hymdall wasn't guarding the main entrance to the Halls, as the large figure was nowhere to be seen, allowing the group to walk through the Halls without having to worry about having to prove themselves to the guardian of the Halls, as only five of them had done what while they were obtaining the Aegis and stopping Skovald's dark plans from becoming reality, and it didn't take all of them long to reach the energy bridge and use it to access the part of the Halls of Valor that Odyn was no doubt waiting in, since it held his throne and where he liked to challenge mortals who came to his realm, or at least it seemed like that was the case. What they discovered was that Odyn was definitely sitting on his throne, with both Hymdall and Hyrja standing in front of his throne, both carrying their weapons, before Spitfire and the others noticed that the stands that wrapped around this area, like a colosseum or fighting area of sorts, had a number of Vrykul, the iron like Iron Vrykul, a number of Val'kyr, and two individuals who seemed to be somewhat weaker than Odyn, if one was speaking in terms of power, Hodir and Thorim, as Vytheril informed her and Rainbow, who were the Titanic Watchers of Winter and Lightning respectively, guardians of Ulduar, the prison of the Old God Yogg-Saron. "Champions! Many of you have spilled the blood of Helya's minions and those who tried to aid her cause," Odyn declared, showing that he appreciated what had happened during the time that Spitfire, Rainbow, and their friends had spent in the province his realm was connected to, especially since it meant bringing an end to the plans that Helya had been trying to set in motion since the Legion started their invasion, even though some of the heroes had been taking the fight to Helya's forces while Spitfire and Rainbow helped the Nightborne with their problems, before he became serious once more, as the rest of the heroes stopped in the area in front of his throne, "but the time has come for you to enter Helheim and bring an end the sea witch's dark reign, thus allowing both the Valarjar and myself to leave the Halls of Valor, increasing the forces that you will have access to and, more importantly to some, securing the soul of someone important to two of our allies, a powerful one at that. But first, before I open the way to send all of you to Helheim, I have a final challenge for my chosen Battlelords and their allies, which means that two of you, Spitfire and Rainbow Dash, shall rest and watch, as I do not need to test either of you in battle!" As Spitfire raised an eyebrow for a moment, because it was a little odd for the two of them to remain silent and just watch their friends fight whatever trial Odyn had in mind for them, she could have sworn that she heard a familiar laugh coming from behind where they and the heroes were standing, something that was followed by Lunara, of all people, landing near her and Rainbow, to which the dryad picked them up and jumped into the stands, to a slightly large circular area that she could lay in while having two people near her, leaving Rainbow to her left as she had Spitfire rest in front of her as she laid on the area that Odyn had prepared for the pair to watch this battle, meaning he must have known they were coming just before Allari discovered the location of Lord Illidan's soul. "Hymdall! Hyrja!" Odyn declared, where he stared down at the two figures who stood in front of his throne, who turned as he called their names and bowed their heads towards him, reminding the heroes that he was the Lord of the Halls of Valor and that all Valarjar followed his orders to the letter, though Spitfire glanced around and came to a quick decision that the vast majority of the watchers in the stands had to be Odyn's highest followers, those under Hymdall, Hyrja, and Eyir, as she did spot the Val'kyr Queen as well, "Test the mettle of these mortal heroes, as I must be certain that each of them have the necessary courage and skills that are needed to pave the way to Helya's cursed domain." "Shall we be lenient with these pets of yours, Odyn?" Hymdall asked, where he gripped the handle of his sword for a few seconds as Hyrja did the same with her spear and shield, showing the heroes that they were eager to do battle with them, after their Lord had sent a messenger to beckon them to the Halls of Valor, though both of their actions caused the heroes of Azeroth to grip their weapons as well, as it looked like a battle was about to unfold and everyone was ready to show off their skills, all to let Odyn know they had the skills he was currently looking for. "No! Hold nothing back, as I must know if they are ready for this task!" Odyn stated, letting the heroes know that Hymdall and Hyrja would be using their full power against them this time around, meaning that when Spitfire and Rainbow fought them they might have been holding back, before Spitfire determined that such a thing was true in Hymdall's case, thanks to Eyir elevating Hyrja to the rank of a Val'kyr when they first visited the Halls of Valor, so by now Hyrja had her own skills and power to use against those Odyn sent her to fight. "So be it! The unworthy shall be purged from the Halls of Valor!" Hyrja replied, sounding a little excited for this fight, as if she wanted to make up for what happened when Spitfire's group had made their way through the Halls the last time they had been here, though at the same time the heroes braced themselves, showing that everyone was ready or whatever she and Hymdall had in store for this battle, while the crowd seemed eager to witness their fight and see if the heroes had the power to fulfill Odyn's mission. "The battle is yours to begin, heroes!" Odyn said, revealing that neither Hymdall or Hyrja would make the first move this time around, rather they would be waiting for the heroes to make the first move, giving the heroes time to talk with each other for a few moments before starting this battle, though he remained on his throne and observed them as Spitfire and Rainbow remained on their platform with Lunara resting behind one of them, as all of them were eager to see what sort of battle might take place. What happened next was that Zuleth raised his powerful axe and charged at Hymdall, leading to the two clashing for a few seconds as the guardian druid, still in their bear form since they never seemed to switch back to whatever their true form might be, did the same thing and focused on Hyrja, though what instantly interested Spitfire was that the pair pulled both of Odyn's fighters away from each other, that way whatever power either of them possessed wouldn't aid or empower their partner while they were fighting the heroes. Of course the remaining heroes split themselves in half as well, where half of them focused on attacking Hymdall and healing those who were fighting him, with the others doing the same with Hyrja, though Hymdall raised his horn not a few seconds later and started to blow into it while he parried several attacks, something that caused a bit of magical energy to resonate with the heroes and lead them to separate from each other for a time, putting some distance between them so whatever the attack did wouldn't hurt their allies. This showed them that the forces of Azeroth were highly skilled and understood things in a matter of seconds, instead of being surprised by the tactic and letting it lead to them being taken down, before they regrouped and continued their assault on the pair, where Hyrja used her power in that moment and enchanted one of the heroes with a burst of light, something that caused the hero in question to pull away before it went off, so only they were damaged by the attack and none of their allies took any damage from it, before she gathered some light in her shield and then bashed it in the direction of another hero, one that caused a beam of light to burst off of her shield and hit those in line with the one she was targeting, which also caused the hero to move to an empty area to avoid hurting their allies. The crowd cheered as all of that happened before them, as it seemed like this fight was far better than what they were expecting it to be, and even Hymdall revealed another attack to use against their enemies, hurling enchanted magical blades that rushed at whoever his target was and hit those that just so happened to be near them as well, another move that required the heroes to move it away from the group, which did seem to impress Odyn. In fact Odyn also threw in an additional challenge for the heroes, just to make sure they had the skills he was looking for, as the five runes that formed a circle in the middle of his large chamber started to glow as five chosen runecarvers took a moment to jump down and joined the battle, where the heroes noticed that and some of them diverted their attention for a time, pulled each runecarver over to the rune they were connected to and, with the help of their allies, took them down, knocking them out in the process, which actually empowered the runes and gave everyone a resistance to the massive blast of light energy Odyn fired at the arena... though once that was done, and the runecarvers were pulled back into the stands, the heroes managed to knock Hymdall and Hyrja to the ground. "You have done well, heroes of Azeroth... but your final trial is not yet over!" Odyn declared, where several Val'kyr quickly flew down into the arena they had been fighting in and lifted both Hymdall and Hyrja up with their powers, healing them as they were carried to two other platforms that had been added to this place ahead of time, granting them a place to rest and watch, while also giving them a good view in case one of them was called upon to land a hand to this fight, since there was no telling what might happen next, though once they were in the stands Odyn got up and walked down into the arena at long last, showing the heroes his true intentions as a large spear appeared in his right hand, "Come and face me, for I shall determine whether you are truly ready for this important mission, or if you lack the skills needed to ensure Spitfire reaches Helya's dark throne!" In that moment Spitfire understood Odyn's intentions, he was planning on having her sit out for each and every fight that was between them and Helya, meaning that once this battle came to an end Rainbow would be able to join the heroes and fight whoever might be standing in their way, all while allowing her time to make sure she was rested and ready to face off against Helya with all of her power, to which she remained silent as she and her friends waited for the heroes to engage Odyn and show them just how skilled they were. Not a few seconds later the heroes charged at Odyn and started the final trial at long last, where the massive Titan Watcher swung his metallic spear at those he deemed the greater threat, such as Zuleth or one of the other heroes who served as a tank, though in addition to that Odyn also called forth one of his powers as he did that, which allowed him to summon thick metallic spear heads from the ground, in five different locations, which forced the heroes to avoid the attacks, even though they broke apart a few seconds after emerging from the metallic floor and formed five balls of energy that moved outwards, forming another attack that they had to avoid. What Spitfire found out was that this spell seemed to be one of Odyn's favorites when he was actually testing a group of heroes, as every ten seconds a new set of five spears burst out of the floor, without damaging it since they were made out of energy, and burst into orbs to stun and hurt whoever happened to touch one of the orbs, as one of the rogues actually let one hit them so it didn't hit one of their healers, allowing them to focus on healing everyone else and not be knocked out for a few seconds, as they wanted to prevent the tide turning in Odyn's favor. After some time he called for five Valarjar to join him in battle and focus on the five heroes he picked out, marking them with the five different colored runes once more, something that was followed by his targets pulling the Valarjar that were targeting them to the runes as most of the group focused on the new enemies that had joined the battle, allowing them to knock down their enemies and depower Odyn's upcoming attack before it could hit all of them, as it was a repeat of his massive burst of light that he had used when they were facing both Hymdall and Hyrja earlier. Interestingly enough both Hymdall and Hyrja, after some rest, would jump down into the arena and engage the heroes for a time, though it was only one of them and never both, so the heroes made sure to divide their number in half to quickly take down the warrior that was aiding Odyn, with the couple of powers they had used earlier, and they departed from the arena after taking a bit of damage, meaning they were skill exhausted from the first part of this trial, but it did reveal that they could deal with any additional enemies that might bother them. After Hymdall and Hyrja were forced to retreat to the stands again, as in the third time since this battle started, Odyn declared that he would be using his full power against all of them and that was followed by a golden glow appearing on the floor, forming a circle around the area that the couple of runes were located in and three lines that branched out from it, cutting the rest of the area up into three sections, but as that happened Spitfire quickly noticed something interesting about this move, three of the four areas were turned into dangerous storm-filled areas. Basically this move was designed to force the heroes from one point of the arena to one of the others, to make sure they understood that dodging certain attacks was necessary for when they ventured into Helheim and faced Helya's forces, especially when a number of small tornadoes touched down in the central area, but even as that happened Odyn also summoned bolts of lightning to strike whoever he wanted to, as he targeted the heroes at random as they fought each other and offered no pattern for them to focus on. Eventually Odyn switched which areas were fine and which ones were dangerous, forcing the heroes to move over to the new safe zone as they continued to battle the Titan Watch who ruled over the Halls of Valor, where Odyn continued his assault as the heroes fought him, throwing lightning at his targets as Scarlet, Vytheril, and the others channeled their own powers at him in return, impressing all the watchers as it happened and caused many to cheer as they witnessed what was going on, while Eyir and the others simply observed the fight while saying nothing as their Lord clashed with the heroes, and even Lunara was cheering for the heroes to win this fight, which made sense given what happened during their attack on the Emerald Nightmare. Eventually the heroes launched Zuleth into the air and he swung Shadowmourne at Odyn, cutting a light scratch into the metallic armor that he wore over his chest, causing the Titan Watcher to stagger for a moment as the golden light faded a few seconds later, something that caused the heroes to pause as they waited to see what he did next, even though a few looked like they were hoping he was going to admit defeat since everything he had thrown at them had been exhausting, so a rest was necessary before they advanced on Helheim. "Enough! You have proven your worth, Champions of Azeroth!" Odyn declared, something that was followed by the crowd letting out a massive roar as they cheered for the rest of Spitfire and Rainbow's new friends, while at the same time Odyn lowered his hand and banished his spear as he returned to the stairs that his throne happened to rest on top of, where he turned and faced the heroes as Spitfire and Rainbow flew down into the arena, with Lunara jumping down after them, all while the heroes focused on the Titan Watcher that they had just finished fighting, "With you as my champions, Helya's forces will fall in due time and her reign will be broken, allowing both myself and the Valarjar to finally leave these Halls, to take the fight to our unwelcome foe... but rest for a few moments, as all of you will need your strength for the upcoming battles against her minions." Spitfire knew that it was mostly to prepare themselves for whatever powerful creatures stood between her and Helya, as Odyn informed her that, while she might not be the most honorable person in the world, in fact she had next to no honor and he had to pull Scarlet, Vytheril, and the others out of Helheim after they fulfilled Helya's 'impossible' bargain during their first visit to her foul realm, the dark witch might call her out for a 'one-on-one' battle, due to the fact that she killed Sylvanas and ended whatever plan both of them had come up with. Basically, Helya was going to be pissed and would call her out once she and her companions reached her throne, to kill her and take revenge for the fact that her plans had been ruined, though at the very least it would make things easier since the ruler of Helheim needed to be taken down so they could claim Lord Illidan's soul, so it could be returned to his body once they tracked Gul'dan down and killed him, and she had the feeling that facing Helya would be the key to acquiring the third Cosmic Force. Rainbow, of course, was interested in why Lunara had come here in the first place, where the dryad revealed that while she was a defender of nature, given who her father was, she was also a warrior in some sense and liked to watch battles take place, even though it was rather rare for Odyn to allow her to come to this place, but she wanted to cheer on the heroes who had freed her father and the Lord of the Halls of Valor seemed to think it was a good idea, either to see if any of them got distracted or whatever his reason might have been for allowing her to come here. Whatever her reason was Spitfire didn't care, mostly since it was good to have someone cheer for the rest of the heroes as they faced Odyn's trials, where she found that a few Valarjar came from the feasting halls and placed some plates down so Scarlet and the others could eat for a time and get ready for the fights that were ahead of them, especially since they had no idea what sort of enemies would be waiting for all of them when they departed from the Halls and invaded Helya's dark realm, given that the dark witch likely knew they were getting closer to her domain and had no doubt prepared for their arrival. Once everyone had rested for a few minutes, and head something to eat to recover most of their strength, Odyn raised a hand towards the assembled group and weaved his magic over them as Lunara moved over to his throne to get out of the way, before they vanished from the Halls of Valor and appeared in the air above Stormheim, though as they fell towards the ground Spitfire found that all of them were shrouded by Odyn's power, allowing them to safely touch down in front of Haustvald, where the portal to Helheim rested. Of course Helya's forces were waiting for invaders to come to this place, as there were a number of Vrykul skeletons that had been raised from the ground and seemed eager to kill the heroes, but it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things as Rainbow parried their incoming attacks with her Warblades and pushed the first pair backwards, allowing the heroes to lash out at the skeletons in question as Spitfire stood back and watched what happened as her companions fought their enemies, given that Odyn wanted her to face Helya. She wasn't sure if Helya might do what Odyn thought or not, as in seek out a one-on-one battle or fight the entire force of heroes, but either way she knew that Helya would perish in due time, the seal on the Halls of Valor would break and allow Odyn to leave at long last, and they would be able to recover Lord Illidan's soul, giving them a partial advantage over Gul'dan that might ruin the orc warlock's plans, once they figured out where he was hiding anyway. After the first group of enemies they found a few Kvaldir, the seafaring Vrykul whose spirits served Helya in death, standing between where they landed and where their destination rested, and they joined the reanimated bodies that were being forced to fight right now, which showed them that Helya really had no care for those that were dead, rather she used them until their souls were trapped in Helheim like all of the other souls she collected, allowing her to use their bodies in this manner. Such a thing didn't stop Rainbow from leading a charge as they engaged their enemies, as she hacked and slashed her way through the enemies that were right in front of her while Scarlet, Vytheril, and the others focused on weakening more of their foes, or outright killing those who survived Rainbow's first attack, allowing them to press deeper into Haustvald as they kept their guards up, since this did seem like a place that a powerful foe would attack them in. The only downside to killing the Kvaldir was that their souls were taken to Helheim, meaning they would likely have to kill those that were guarding this side of the portal a second time, which Spitfire's companions considered for a few seconds as another group fell before their might, but right now they were focused on keeping their guards up in case there was a powerful enemy waiting outside the portal or waiting on the other side, the latter to ambush them, even though they did split up at one point so Rainbow could head down the main path as the remaining heroes headed to her left and right, as those two paths met back up right in front of the stairs that lead down to Helheim's portal. Interestingly enough it didn't look like there were any powerful minions standing between where they landed and where the portal rested, like the few they had faced in the Emerald Nightmare, meaning Helya was either underestimating them or wanted them to lower their guard at the wrong moment, but the heroes smashed through the rest of the Kvaldir and sent their souls to Helheim, even if they would have to fight them a second time around. Once that was done Rainbow made sure everyone was ready to do before marching down towards the portal and passed through it, where Spitfire brought up the rear and watched as the rest of the heroes followed Rainbow's lead as they headed through the portal as well, before appearing on the other side and discovered that they were, in fact, in Helheim, where a number of Kvaldir were standing in front of them and down the walkway that lead to where Guarm happened to be resting, leading to another fight breaking out as everyone stepped into Helheim. While the heroes engaged the first group of Kvaldir that happened to be in front of them, however, Spitfire found that there were a lot more Kvaldir, as in those who had been camping out in this place, who were in the middle of getting up and heading over to where her companions were fighting in, meaning enemy reinforcements were coming to bother them, something Rainbow noticed as well as she loosed a bolt of lightning into the chest of an advancing Kvaldir, blasting her target into the ground before parrying another attack so she could remove her foe's head, leaving the heroes to face all of their enemies and let Spitfire notice something else, Guarm was awake and seemed to be focused on guarding the pass between this part of Helheim and Helya's throne. In fact she could see Helya off in the distance, who seemed to be busy doing something specific and barely glanced in the direction of the portal, meaning she didn't care for them and might turn back to look at them once they were closer to her throne, which would involve besting Guarm in battle and killing the three headed beast, before noticing that Rainbow and their companions had dealt with the rest of the Kvaldir, to which she allowed them to step into the large area Guarm was resting in, something that caused Helya to glance at them before raising a hand and summoned a barrier to trap the group in Guarm's resting place, meaning they had to kill it to move forward. Fortunately, that was the plan from the beginning, as Rainbow tapped into her true power and rushed through the air not even a few seconds later, smashing into Guarm's middle head as the heroes followed her into battle, leaving Spitfire to see the large beast turn its head away from the heroes as her friend slashed into Guarm's body, meaning she suspected that letting Guarm face the heroes was a bad idea, though as that happened the beast lashed out with all three of his heads as he tried to bite into Rainbow, who dodged and let him bite into the stones and ground around her. It was a good strategy since it allowed the heroes to strike at Guarm's exposed necks and his unguarded body, without having to worry about an attack coming towards them, though it wasn't long before the beast pulled all three of his heads back and started to ready another attack, as each head happened to have a power unique to it, the right seemed to channel the power of darkness, the middle contained frost, and the left had fire, and that was coming from Guarm's perspective and not the perspective of Rainbow and the heroes. Thanks to the fact that Rainbow seemed to be the main target she didn't have to worry about all of her companions being hurt by Guarm's attack, a cone style attack that had all three side by side, so someone could be hit by frost and another could be hit by fire, or at least that was what Rainbow assumed the normal attack might be since Guarm was focused on her and fired his attack straight into the air with the intent of taking her down first, which allowed her to prevent her allies from taking any damage for the time being, since Guarm might turn on the others once he tired of fighting her. Of course that didn't stop Guarm from firing his attack multiple times in a row, as he tracked Rainbow as she moved through the area they were fighting in and directed the breath away from her companions, and when he focused it on them for a moment Scarlet, Vytheril, and the others moved out of the way to avoid being blasted by it, showing that he was smarter than what some of them might think and that he wasn't going to waste time on someone he couldn't hit at all, and he even used his tail to try and smack everyone into the stones that were around the edges of the area, mostly in an attempt to open some defenses so he could take them down and please his master. Despite all of that Spitfire noticed something that either Rainbow hadn't noticed or didn't care about, the fact that Guarm was unable to hit anyone with his breath attack seemed to cause a bit of anger to flare in the beast and likely added to his power, meaning that when someone got hit it would hurt a lot more than it would have done normally, where she waited for a moment and found Rainbow glancing at her for a second, something that caused her to raise an eyebrow for a few seconds, to which her friend looked at Guarm and seemed to understand the situation, leading her to charge back into the battle and change up how they tackled the breath attack, by actually allowing Guarm to hit half of the group to take away some of his power, since hitting them seemed to relax the beast to some degree. She had to admit that it was an interesting tactic, that naturally dodging the attack would cause Guarm's power to increase as he missed, meaning the key was to tank the attack and allow the healers to mend their wounds before the next attack hit them, though that was when Guarm let out a roar from his heads and knocked all of the nearby heroes away from the area he had been standing in, to which he turned and rushed at a group of them, showing that he was changing targets for a time and that the heroes had to follow whatever he did. Of course that wasn't the end of it, as the beast remained at the edge of the area he was fighting the heroes in and started to charge over towards the other end that he had started in earlier, when Rainbow and the others encountered him, though it looked like he was going in a rectangular pattern at the moment and that forced everyone to avoid his charges for a time, just to be sure that the powerful attack didn't hit them at all, though once he did a lap Guarm came to a stop and marched into the middle of his arena again. After that Guarm started to repeat his movements, either meaning Helya didn't give him anything else and had shown them everything he had in his arsenal, or he had a few more moves and was trying to lure them into a false sense of security before showing off a few new attacks to weaken them, though that happened to be when Rainbow spun around and smashed the edge of her new tail onto the top of their foe's middle head, causing Guarm's heads to stagger for a moment as she heard part of the skull crack, showing her allies that her new addition was useful in battle, just like her clawed feet. Rainbow, however, used that opportunity to fall backwards for a moment and flashed around the area their foe was standing in, kicking all of Guarm's heads and knocked them away from each other for a few seconds, which only seemed to enrage the beast as he snapped at them once more, but as the heroes avoided that attack, and prepared themselves for the breath attack he was no doubt going to use, Guarm moved his heads and positioned them closer to each other than they had been earlier, this time gathering all of his flames, frost, and shadows into a single point, which meant that this beam attack was going to be far more devastating, as it reminded Rainbow of what happened when Spitfire wiped out Xavius. In that moment Rainbow gathered her own power and banished her Warblades for a moment, where she channeled all of her Fel lightning into a lance that she spun around as she floated in front of where the heroes had gathered, because she knew that it had been a good attack during their time in the Emerald Nightmare and she was hoping it would remain true for this fight, though as Guarm opened his mouths, to fire his beam at them, Rainbow pulled her arm backwards for a few seconds and hurled the Fel lightning lance through the air, where it collided in the middle of the arena as it struck Guarm's attack head on. The area the two attacks met up in caused the rest of the arena to shake for a moment, showing that their powers might be evenly matched to some degree, where Rainbow smiled for a second as she flexed her hand and a burst of speed was applied to her weapon, sending the lance straight up towards Guarm's heads, or as close as she could get since the beam was a constant problem for her and her companions, before crushing her hand and watched as the lance exploded right in front of the beast's faces, cancelling out the beam attack and kicking up some smoke that prevented him from seeing what she and her companions were up to. What Rainbow did was rush up high into the air for a few seconds, just to make sure Guarm couldn't see her at all, before rushing downwards and attacked the middle head again, only this time around she did a forward flip and swung her clawed feet at her target's exposed neck, as she gathered her Fel power for a moment and sharpened her claws for a moment as she made contact, which was followed by several energy waves, about the size of her Warblades and possessing a Fel green color, cutting through his neck and took off the middle head, causing Guarm to roar in pain and anger for a moment, which actually drew Helya's attention for a moment, since even she wasn't expecting something like that to happen in the first place. In response to that Guarm only focused on her and tried to bite her to death, which happened to be the wrong move as Rainbow avoided the attacks and struck the backs of his two remaining heads not a few seconds later, causing them to fall closer to the ground, but before he could recover from this attack the druids in their group summoned a number of vines and yanked his heads closer to the ground, where the paladins called upon a Holy chain version of the ability to lock them in place. Once that was done Spitfire watched as the heroes lashed out at Guarm, hacking, slashing, and blasting his heads and his body before he could free himself, though that was when Zuleth leapt into the air for a moment, raised his powerful axe high above his head, and brought it down like he might be executing someone, removing Guarm's right head in seconds and caused the beast to roar in pain again, even though that was quickly silenced as the blood death knight and several of the other heroes cut through and removed the final head, slaying Guarm in the process and caused a look of pure hate to appear on Helya's face as she lowered the barrier for them to approach her dark throne. "It seems that we've pissed her off, more than we did in the past," Rainbow commented, though while she was happy with how the battle with Guarm had done for her and the rest of Azeroth's champions, as Guarm had been a powerful foe and had, despite not actually hurting anyone with most of his attacks and only dealt damage because they let his breath attack hit them to weaken his power, been an interesting challenge for her to face, she could tell that felling the beast had made Helya even angrier than she had previously been, to which she turned towards Spitfire for a moment, who pulled out the crystal they had been given and handed it over to her, "Are you sure that you want to face her on your own?" "Yes I am, but the moment she cheats and summons her forces, well, you know what to do," Spitfire remarked, due to the fact that she had a feeling that Helya would try to overpower her by cheating at some point during their 'one-on-one' fight, and they knew she was dishonorable thanks to what happened the last time they had been here, so she wanted Rainbow and the others to rest before such a thing happened, that way their power would be back to normal before charging into battle once more, to which Rainbow sighed and nodded her head for a moment as she joined the others in resting for the time being, where she stepped forward and walked into the area that served as Helya's dark throne, where she stared at the massive dark skinned Titan keeper who served as one of Azeroth's Gods of Death, or Keeper of Death anyway, while keeping her hands empty for now, "Helya, we have come to make you answer for your crimes against Odyn, the Valarjar, and the rest of Azeroth, though I am ready to face you in a one-on-one match for Lord Illidan's soul..." "Oh no, Odyn's mighty 'champion' has come to face me... you don't scare me, Spitfire, though I will take great pleasure in slaying you and your allies," Helya stated, where she snapped her fingers for a moment and a new barrier appeared in the area between Guarm's domain and the area her dark throne rested in, even though the dark keeper was currently resting with the lower half of her body resting below the water and the upper part was above, meaning her lower body might be more aquatic in nature, like an octopus or something, before Helya pointed at her for a moment, "You killed Sylvanas and derailed our plans, as she was meant to bring war to this world and leave death in its wake, to gain the power to break the cursed Helm of Domination and bring Death to Azeroth... I'm going to enjoy sending your soul straight to the Maw, so you can be tortured until the end of time!" "Well, seems you haven't changed at all... makes this so much easier for me." Spitfire replied in kind, as it sounded like the dark keeper was totally mad, either having gone mental or just outraged by her grand scheme failing so hard, and that she wanted to kill her for taking down Sylvanas, to which she shifted her stance for a moment and called upon her power while she stared at Helya, allowing the Fel and Life energies to gather around the area she was in for a moment as Helya did the same thing as the dark energy of Death did the same thing, though hearing that Helya still wanted to break the Helm of Domination, which the Lich King wore, meant killing her was a good thing. Rainbow growled for a moment, as she couldn't believe that Helya was going to stop them from rushing to Spitfire's aid if the dark keeper called on reinforcements, though before she or the others could do anything Spitfire rushed through the air and zeroed in on where Helya was currently standing, where she raised her right hand as Helya did the same thing not a few seconds later and they clashed by allowing both of their fists to collide with each other, and their energies clashed at the same time, even though that was when the sky seemed to divide in half as that happened. Such a thing meant Spitfire and Helya were either had the same level of power or someone was holding back to accurately test how much power the other had, or maybe both were holding back, but this sight, with a line actually dividing the sky into two halves, caused her and the heroes to pause as they watched what was going on right now, because this meant that the battle might be more than what happened when everyone faced Xavius earlier, which had been an interesting battle and made her interested in witnessing the upcoming fight. A few moments later a detonation caused the pair to separate from each other, despite the fact that Helya had to stay in the water while Spitfire moved backwards through part of the air, which had likely been due to the Life and Death energies colliding with each other, where only a few seconds went by before Spitfire flew through the air and rushed towards her target, which caused Helya to growl as she gathered her power and hurled several head sized orbs of Death energy at her, showing that she meant business and wasn't going to hold back, even if it was clear that she was going to hide some abilities until the need was great. Spitfire, on the other hand, raised her own left hand and loosed a few small magical blasts in response to her foe's attack, where her blasts collided with the orbs and exploded when they came into contact with each other, causing smoke to fill the air as she rushed through it and appeared in front of Helya's face, allowing her to spin around and kick her foe in the side of her head with the side of her right leg, knocking her head into the side of the raised stone section that they had found Sylvanas in when she and Rainbow came to free Scarlet and Vytheril from what Skovald's minions had done to them, which caused Helya to growl as she regained herself and pulled herself up to face her once more. In that instant Helya glowed for a few seconds as her form shrank down to Spitfire's size, allowing her to remove herself from the water and revealed that her legs had been octopus legs, which was understandable due to the tentacles she had used to attack her a few moments ago, though it looked like she was compressing herself into a smaller form, which was more humanoid since it looked like her turned her animal legs into normal legs and put armor over them, and fixed both of her wings so they didn't look broken, meaning she looked like a dark corrupted Valarjar, or Helarjar as she called those she twisted into her dark champions. Once that was done Spitfire and Helya rushed through the air and let their fists collide as they tried to punch each other for a moment, causing the sky to crack in half once more, but neither of them let that bother or distract them as they focused on fighting each other, as both of them moved into punching and kicking at their foe as they moved into the air for a time, where black lightning branched out from where they were fighting from time to time, which struck the ground and water as the heroes watched what they were doing. Spitfire was sure that it was due to her Fel-Life energy was colliding with the Death energy that Helya was using, given the effect it was having on the rest of Helheim, though even then she moved to the side for a second and avoided a punch that would have hit her in the face had she not been paying attention to her foe's movements, to which she kneed Helya in the chest and caused the dark keeper to stumble backwards, opening the way for her to spin and kick her in the side of her head, sending her flying straight down into the stone structure again and broke it into pieces as she collided with it. A few seconds later she gathered her power and loosed a burst of blasts down on the area that Helya was currently resting in, blowing up the entire area that she had been knocked into and kicking up a bunch of smoke in the process, though that was when Helya proved that she wasn't going to take this and summoned her aura to create a barrier to protect herself from Spitfire's attacks, which was followed by her cancelling out the attack and rushing through the air as she reached the area her foe was currently resting in, though she had to avoid a few more orbs of Death energy, which raced into the air and disappeared. After that another clash between their fists happened, as while Spitfire was thinking that Helya would cheat at some point it sure looked like she was maintaining some sort of honor this time around, which worried her a little since it made her wonder what in the world her foe might have planned this time, even though that was around the time that Helya revealed her hand by opening her mouth and loosing a twisted shadowy breath attack, similar to Guarm's flames, which hit Spitfire in the chest and knocked her backwards, as she had been ready for a punch or kick, before blasting her chest with a volley of Death orbs, which seemed to be her favorite attack out of the couple she had shown off so far, even though she fired another volley a few seconds later. This time, when the smoke cleared, Spitfire sighed as she emerged with a barrier made of Life energy wrapped around her body, which had protected her from the second volley of attacks and had healed her body after the first volley had struck her dead on, a somewhat painful attack she had to admit, though this revealed that Helya was willing to use tricks to take down whoever she was fighting and, as such, that meant that she needed to be careful with how she approached the rest of the fight, hence why her current plan was to gather her power for something big. Helya, on the other hand, switched to hurling all sorts of Death empowered attacks in her direction, such as orbs, beams, blasts, and even a wave for two, but for the most part it looked like they were missing since Spitfire was able to avoid them with ease, though it made her wonder if Helya was having a mind break or something that might be causing her to make terrible decisions right now, though she had to quickly reevaluate her decision when she loosed a wave of Fel-Life energy, sending it diagonally down at Helya, and her foe avoided the attack in question, allowing it to cleave into the ground and blast a small sized hole into the stone not a few seconds later. After that Helya went on the offensive once more, this time more aggressively than she had been in the early stages of their fight, forcing Spitfire to defend herself and either parry or dodge the incoming attacks, but despite her actions Helya, being a fighter with more experience than Spitfire might have, was able to kick her in the side and sent Spitfire downwards for a few seconds, forcing her back towards the ground for the time being, though she turned around before hitting the ground, allowing her to take a moment to figure out Helya's next move before rushing back into battle, as she was sure her foe had something planned. As that happened, and she found her opponent once more, she noticed something odd as she felt a shift in the energy that lingered all over Helheim, as it appeared that Helya was channeling the power of Death that rested all over her realm into a single attack that would be used against her, or at least that was what Spitfire would do in this situation if she was having a hard time fighting someone and had the power to do such a thing in the first place, and she found the source of what she had felt not a few seconds later, as Helya was in the middle of making a massive sphere of Death energy in the sky above them. By massive she meant something that anyone could mistake for a moon or something, as it seemed big enough to destroy all of Helheim if it hit the ground, though she honestly had no idea why Helya would even do such a thing in the first place since this was her realm, especially since the sheer power that was coming from it seemed to be breaking anything that might be around it as it formed in the air, to which she weaved her energies into a single mass and hurled it into the air so she could counter the attack... something that seemed to form a sort of barrier in the air above them, or at least it looked like it, and the sphere hit it not a few seconds later, causing Helheim to shudder thanks to the collision. "Are you insane?!" Spitfire shouted, as she really couldn't believe that Helya was planning on dropping such an attack on all of them, which would likely wipe out all of Helheim if she let it collide with the ground, and right now she needed to stop it from happening, because if everyone died that meant none of the heroes would be left to stop the Legion, since all of their artifacts would be wiped out as well, save for those who were leading the Alliance and the Horde at the moment, though she could tell that it was taking all of her power to stop Helya, "This attack of yours will level all of Helheim if it manages to hit the ground!" "That's the point! I'll be sending you, all of your companions, and every soul in Helheim to the Maw!" Helya replied, where Spitfire felt Helya's power shift for a moment and figured that the connection to Stormheim was being sealed, so no one could escape and return to Odyn with news as to what was currently going on, before she felt another shift in the air and figured that her foe was doing everything in her power to win this battle, especially since the massive sphere was pushing down on the barrier and kept creeping ever closer to her location, "And to ensure that you fail to stop me, from blasting all of Helheim to pieces, I'm calling in two of my Mawsworn, demons from your past, to make sure my plan is successful and all of your souls end up in their proper destination." Normally Spitfire would have said something to that, though what she found was that Helya had opened a small portal to the 'Maw', or at least she assumed that such a thing was happening since the sphere prevented her from seeing anything else, and discovered two figures, both clad in sinister looking dark gray armor, one that made them look like they served a Lord of Death, someone far above Odyn and Helya's station, and both of them had black feathered wings that radiated the same type of energy that Helya was using, though one was much taller than the other, just as tall as Tyranna, the Brood Queen of Mardum, had been, while the other was just as tall as Sylvanas had been. "Spitfire, we meet again," a familiar voice said, where the small figure raised a hand and waved a hand over her face for a few seconds, causing the mask part of her hood to disappear and revealed that it was actually Sylvanas, before she caused a pair of dark gray curved blades to appear in her hands, which she used to cut into Spitfire's arms for a moment, just to weaken her so she couldn't focus on the sphere, which caused that smirk of hers to appear on her face again, despite the fact that Spitfire could tell that she was angry, "thanks to you, I've spent an eternity in the Maw, being shaped into a grand weapon to bring you down... Tyranna was ordered to come as well, to chip away at you until you die..." "Titans almighty, you just never learn!" Spitfire remarked, as it seemed like Sylvanas had come to Helheim with revenge on her mind, instead of whatever her master might have ordered her to do, and that meant she believed that her mission was the correct path that Azeroth should have taken and that forcing the Alliance and the Horde into another war was needed as well, and honestly she really didn't care about Sylvanas all that much since she was just a nuisance at this point, but in that moment she smiled, as based on what she could tell Tyranna was still a demon, even if her power was no longer tied to the Fel like the demons who were alive, hence why she smiled for a moment. In that moment Spitfire did something that she knew the others might be shocked by, she let go of her connection to the barrier she had summoned, which would stall the sphere for a short period of time before breaking, and called out both of her Twinblades, where she hurled one of them at Sylvanas' soul, causing her to parry it with her blades for a second, but that was all that needed to happen as she ducked under one of Tyranna's incoming claw attacks and sliced her true target in half, discovering that the armor was more like a suit with a soul trapped inside it, or it was in Tyranna's case, but despite that fact her Twinblades snatched the demon's soul as the demon's Death power was separated from it. As that happened she knew that the heroes of Azeroth and Rainbow knew what was coming next, as that fragment of Death energy rushed into her body and empowered her, causing a massive surge in her power, something she was blaming on how long the former demon had been trapped inside the Maw, before the barrier she had summoned shattered and the sphere came closer to where she was standing, causing Sylvanas to chuckle as she pulled away with her wings, but even that didn't stop Spitfire from acting. Even though she didn't have any experience wielding Death energy, like she did with Fel and Life, she gathered all of the power she had access to and split it in half, where the power she would wield with her left hand would be used to stop Helya's attack in its tracks and the right hand would have an attack that would shatter what was in front of her, breaking the sphere apart and soaking up all of the Death energy so it didn't take out Helheim, or at least that was her plan at the moment. A few moments later she pushed herself into battle as she raised her left hand and her power stalled the sphere, something that likely surprised Helya when it happened, though before her foe could do anything she shifted her stance and threw a punch towards the sphere, like she was an arrow being loosed from a bow, causing a burst of her power to rush into the base of Helya's attack and then pushed through the center of it, piercing the sphere like butter or something, and it kept going as the massive sphere started to unravel, with all that power surging into her Death Arrow, as she would call it, to ensure that no damage was done to Helheim. Not a few seconds later she felt the arrow burst out of the other side of the sphere and pierced Helya's chest, before she even had a chance to understand what was going on, causing the sky to light up as an explosion rocked all of Helheim for a few seconds, even if the smoke was contained to the air since Spitfire had prevented the sphere from hitting the ground, though that was when all of the Death energy surged into her body and the tattoos on her right arm took on a dark gray coloration, where she was sure that her right wing had the same thing now, but before she could do anything something hit the ground, Helya's smaller form, and it looked like she tried to reach for her. However, due to the gaping hole in her chest, where the arrow had struck her a few moments ago, Helya was dying and that meant her magic was breaking apart before her eyes, though as Spitfire walked over to the fallen Keeper of Death, to put her out of her misery, Sylvanas picked that moment to land near Helya and seemed to be protecting her so they could get out of Helheim, to which she sighed for a second and disappeared, only to reappear behind Sylvanas as her head and body, now separated from each other, hit the ground. She had summoned her Twinblades and used one to behead the stubborn Banshee Queen, while using the other to remove Helya's head and put an end to her magic at long last, though as that happened she could have sworn that she felt someone touch her shoulder for a second before noticing that the crystal she had given Rainbow had a faint glow inside it, meaning Lord Illidan must have been watching and had known what to do ahead of time, meaning they had succeeded in their missions. Something that confirmed that they had been successful was the fact that Odyn teleported into Helheim, meaning he was no longer confined to the Halls of Valor and didn't need to use projections as his only way to communicate with those outside his realm, though as she noticed that she felt a wave of exhaustion hit her and she had a new seconds to return her Twinblades to her horns before falling and impaling herself on accident, but before she even hit the ground someone caught her and she found that it was Lunara, who must have come with Odyn's group, though all she did was smile before letting exhaustion claim her. Rainbow, on the other hand, had to admit that the battle between Spitfire and Helya had been epic and that she had done a fantastic job freeing the souls of Helheim, in addition to everyone else that was freed upon the dark keeper's death, and smiled as she and her companions started to depart from this realm, with Lunara letting a slumbering Spitfire ride on her back in a secure position, as it was time to return to Suramar and wait to see what might happen before Gul'dan figured out that they had claimed Lord Illidan's soul, or made his next move against them and the Nightborne rebellion. > Suramar: Stalled Siege > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With their job in Helheim complete, due to Helya being dead, and whatever she had been doing to her realm had ceased, and Lord Illidan's soul being recovered at long last, Rainbow, her companions, and Lunara departed from the dark realm and returned to Stormheim, even though Odyn declared that, once Spitfire was ready for such a thing, they would have a feast to celebrate what she did for all of Azeroth, in stopping the dark witch's foul plans and freeing the Valarjar from the Halls of Valor, allowing them to officially join the war against Kil'jaeden and the rest of the Legion. Rainbow was positive that many would like a day off, to celebrate and feast in their accomplishments, but such a day would have to wait, as Gul'dan was still running around Suramar and they still had to seal the Tomb of Sargeras, to cut off the flow of demons into this world, but once that was done she was sure that they would be able to relax for a day or two and just have some fun, hence why she was focused on heading back to Suramar to rejoined the Nightborne rebellion and see if anything might have changed in the hour or two they had been gone. Of course she had the feeling that Thalyssra didn't need any assistance, not when she had Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, Khadgar, and Jaina aiding her in making sure their forces were ready for the siege on the city, but, at the same time, she knew that having her key players back would put their ally in a good mood, even though most of their allies would be returning to their Order Halls to prepare their forces, as once they were ready to assault Gul'dan's position they would be called upon for another raid, and after he was dead they would begin their assault on the Broken Shore and the Tomb that the demons were guarding right now. Still, that didn't stop a number of Valarjar from gathering outside Helheim, in Haustvald, to cheer and salute them as they moved towards the path that would allow them to return to Suramar, and among them stood Hymdall, Hyrja, and Eyir, where this brought a smile to the faces of the heroes as they smiled and waved at those who were around them, though it appeared that a small group of ten was going to escort Rainbow, Lunara, and the slumbering Spitfire to Shal'Aran, so they could rejoin Thalyssra without delay, with the other heroes departing for their Order Halls. One thing she noticed as all that happened, however, was that the tattoos on Spitfire's right arm had darkened to a dark gray coloration, matching what everyone used when channeling Death energy, while she noticed that the tattoos on her left arm had a light green color, Life energy, though it looked like Spitfire's right horn had some small markings etched on them, while she had gained a small fang-like marking on her right cheek, where the markings and new tattoo possessed a twisted green color, representing Spitfire's inner Fel power. It was hard to believe that channeling multiple Cosmic Forces was even possible in the first place, as in two at the same time, though it looked like Spitfire was going to fulfill whatever warning or prophecy that Xe'ra had told them about, about the six winged figure who could channel all six powers at the same time, something she knew would terrify Sargeras once he realized what was going on, that someone more terrifying than Azeroth was waking up, or at least that seemed to be the case right now. Still, based on what she knew they could find something in the Nighthold to empower Spitfire even further, granting her a fourth Cosmic Force, but that left Light and Void as the only ones that she wouldn't have access to, as Rainbow had no idea where they might find a fragment or individual who might grant her some of their power, and right now Xe'ra, a Naaru, didn't count since most of her power was with whatever she had left with the Army of the Light, plus they had no leads for Void, so for now Spitfire was going to have to deal with having only four of the six Cosmic Forces under her belt. Other than that there wasn't much for her to think about, save for whatever Thalyssra, Ly'leth, or their allies might have discovered during the time that they had been in the Halls of Valor and Helheim, as she had the feeling that the Felborne must have done something bad while they were busy facing Helya, but she was hoping that things had calmed down and that they would have some time to rest before a new mission came to Shal'Aran, since there was no telling what their allies might have discovered. Thanks to the Valarjar they were able to get to Shal'Aran without anything happening to them, even though they walked in the wilds near Oculeth's old workshop for a time to make sure none of the Felborne noticed what was going on, and the moment they reached their destination Odyn's forces saluted them before departing for the Halls once more, to tell their Lord that Rainbow and Spitfire had reached their final destination, allowing them to enter Shal'Aran and find that nothing had changed yet, as Thalyssra, happy to see them once more, reported that everything was silent in the city, for the time being anyway, and that more were fleeing to Shal'Aran, to escape Gul'dan's wrath. Lunara, however, walked over to part of the ruin and laid Spitfire on the ground, before sitting near her to make sure she recovered from her battle with Helya, to which Rainbow quickly pulled out the crystal she had been given earlier and handed it to Khadgar, who was both surprised and pleased with what they had done, as now he could transfer Illidan's soul into Xe'ra's heart for safety, since it was the vessel for his rebirth, before Rainbow informed them as to what happened in Helheim. Of course no one was remotely even surprised by this bit of news, as at this point Khadgar was used to hearing about what she and Spitfire had done to those who tried to bring Azeroth down in some manner, while Thalyssra and the rest of their new allies, while originally a tad bit shocked by what they and the heroes could do, were getting used to hearing about their deeds and the shock was starting to go away, allowing them to truly focus on what was going on at the moment. Rainbow was sure that everything the heroes had done in the past, taking down Old Gods and the powerful commanders of the Legion, would impress their allies far more than what she and Spitfire had done so far, but she decided to say nothing as she took a seat nearby and accepted a drink from one of Ly'leth's attendants, as it was time to rest and see what sort of tactic Gul'dan had in store for them and their rebellion, since he had to be plotting something while they trained their army and prepared for the attack on the Nighthold. What Rainbow discovered was that none of the scouts had anything to say about what was going on in the city, as in there were no new demonic attacks and the Felborne were just patrolling the areas they had been assigned to, which meant all of their soldiers in Val'sharah could train without having to be pulled away just yet, something that she knew would have Spitfire thinking about what sort of trick Gul'dan might be playing on them and suspected there had to be something they might have missed. When morning arrived, however, things were basically the same as the previous night and that nothing new had happened inside the city, which was also around the time that Spitfire woke up and joined them once more, even if she quickly voiced her suspicions that Gul'dan had to be doing something terrible and that they had to be careful when they patrolled the city, since there was no telling what sort of trap he might have set for them or if any demons might be sent out to bother the citizens of Suramar City. The one thing that worried all of them was that Ly'leth hadn't sent any new messages for them to decipher, either meaning that nothing was happening or she hadn't learned anything to share with them, nor had she sent for 'Anarys' to join her in one of the parties that Rainbow had to attend, to ensure no one raised an alarm about a missing person, though at this point Spitfire was sure if her friend skipped one or two parties the citizens would suspect the Legion would be behind Anarys' 'disappearance', but that all depended on what Ly'leth wanted to do in regards to her sister. Despite that fact Thalyssra discovered more allies were coming to join the rebellion, as the rest of the citizens inside the city were coming to fight for their freedom, to tear down the demons that were currently infesting their home, though in addition to that several groups of soldiers from both the Alliance and the Horde had joined them, as in a single decent sized group from each race that made up the two factions, showing Thalyssra that the rest of Azeroth stood with them and that they wouldn't stop until Suramar City was freed from the Legion's grasp, something that caused her to smile before focusing on the plans that she, Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, and everyone else was coming up with for their assault on the Nighthold. While they were discussing their upcoming missions, none of which Rainbow or Elylia would be part of until Thalyssra was sure she needed their assistance in taking something down, one of Odyn's ravens, the purple one called Muninn, entered Shal'Aran and delivered a message from the Titan Watcher it served, dropping it into Spitfire's hands before leaving just as quick as it had arrived, to which she opened it and found that their ally was tending to the Kvaldir, as some of them were being given a second chance among the Valarjar, even if it meant forcing them through some trials to ensure that none of Helya's darkness stuck to them, while the others would be sent on their way to the Shadowlands, meaning they might gain some more allies for the war with the Legion. Other than that they didn't find anything else happening, to which Thalyssra made sure that whatever Arcfruit had grown since the last harvest was delivered to those who needed it the most, just like they had done in the past, even though it was mostly regulated to Rainbow and Elylia as Vanthir made sure to haul in a few barrels of Arcwine for everyone else that needed substance to continue living, before becoming Nightfallen or Withered, and those who had been freed from the hunger now had to eat like normal people, allowing Thalyssra and the others to enjoy real food for the first time in a long time. Sure, curing the Nightborne was going to take a lot of time, given that the Arcan'dor only produced a certain number of Arcfruit per day and it was always a different number each day, so like today there were five fruit available and the previous day there had been only four, while tomorrow there might be six or seven, or even eight if they were lucky, but such a thing didn't stop them from making sure the Arcfruit was given to those who needed it and freed as many as they could from their dependence on the Nightwell. Silgryn and Victoire continued to stay silent as they watched the city, waiting for the Felborne or the Legion to make a move against them, though as their foes did nothing Spitfire found that more and more of Suramar City turned towards Thalyssra for guidance and those that were willing to fight joined the rebellion, so much so that she was sure seventy-five percent of the Nightborne had formed their own true army, lead by those personally chosen by Thalyssra, and many were working with Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, and all of their new allies, meaning they might have gained a new ally for the future. On the fourth day, after Odyn called the heroes to the Halls of Valor so they could battle Helya's forces, Spitfire discovered that many of the Nightborne who had trained with Scarlet, Vytheril, and all of the other heroes had chosen to turn to being heroes once Suramar City was freed, as in many were mages, hunters, monks, priests, rogues, warlocks, and warriors, as it gave them a diverse collection of soldiers for the upcoming battles, but during that time she found that her right wing had changed into the dark feathered wings that Helya's 'Mawsworn' had possessed, something that meant her power was now stable until she found another Cosmic Power to take in... something she turned away from as Rainbow approached the area that Thalyssra was currently standing in. "Thanks to all of the hard work our combined forces have put into saving the citizens of Suramar City, and making sure our enemies make no progress in branching out, we're ready for battle," Thalyssra stated, something that caused Tyrande and the other leaders that had joined her to nod their heads in agreement while they gathered their weapons, while Khadgar and Jaina replicated the movement as well, showing that they were eager to free the city as well and would be using their magic to make sure Gul'dan didn't try anything funny, like summon a massive Fel machine or something to stop them as they advanced on the Nighthold, "and we've even cleared out all of the citizens who lived between here and the area that Astravar Harbor, as they're either holed up in the other sections of our city, the ones that are out of the way and won't be attacked by our enemies, or, in the case of many of them, they're part of our combined army, ready to fight to free all of Suramar from the Legion and their foul masters." "Indeed, and we've come up with a plan," Khadgar added, to which he weaved his power through the air and summoned an image of the part of Suramar City they had been talking about for some time, Astravar Harbor, where Spitfire knew the bridge rested and would bring them right to the front gate of the Nighthold, meaning they were taking the fight to an area their enemies still held, for now anyway, and soon they would be within striking distance of the area Gul'dan was currently hiding out in, "Rainbow, Elylia, and Lady Liadrin's group will be marching on our destination, where we're sure a significant portion of Gul'dan's forces are preparing for something, while Tyrande's group will be flanking our enemies as Thalyssra's group, with Spitfire joining them, will be following after the main group, though as all of you do that, and distract our foes, Oculeth and I will teleport a group of Kirin Tor into their midst and ensure none of them escape... with any luck, we'll be able to take out most of the Felborne and a chunk of demons before Gul'dan realizes what we are doing." Rainbow nodded her head for a moment as she, Elylia, the heroes who had chosen to join the assault on the city, and all of the assembled leaders marched out of Shal'Aran at long last, to which they headed for the worn path that happened to be connected to the Grand Promenade, though when they left Meredil, however, Rainbow and her companions found that all of their forces were gathered and were currently standing at the ready, but once Thalyssra arrived everyone stopped and stood at attention, which she figured might able be due to Spitfire standing nearby, given how many respected her among both the Alliance and the Horde, to which she came to a stop and ordered their forces to get underway. As soon as she did that, and both Tyrande and Lady Liadrin stood at the head of their own forces while Khadgar and Jaina remained standing back with Oculeth and Valtrois, their combined army separated into the couple of groups that they had been assigned and marched on the city, which included bringing along the equipment that had been brought along and having the couple of Sin'dorei arcane constructs that would do battle with those that the Felborne corrupted, to which Rainbow and Elylia took their place with the front group, to declare war on their enemies and free the city. Sure enough they found a massive force of Felborne standing guard in the Grand Promenade, no doubt assigned by Gul'dan to make sure no one attacked this part of the city while he was working on his project in the Nighthold, to which Rainbow and her forces clashed with the tainted forces that were in front of them, allowing the soldiers to spread out and make sure none of their foes escaped, though as the two forces clashed Rainbow made sure to do what Spitfire had done earlier, she weaved her Fel power through the air and made sure a net of sorts lingered in the air around the entirety of the Grand Promenade, which surprised her and put a smile on her face, which would allow her to catch every Fel-tainted soul that was freed from the bodies of their enemies and add them to her collection, along with adding their Fel energy to her own. She also meant for the net to catch the souls of the demons that were taking part in this fight, as their enemies happened to have a couple of Doomguard, Felhunters, and Inquisitors with them, making sure none of them returned to the Legion's worlds and be reborn with the knowledge that Gul'dan's position in the city was in trouble, hence why she smiled when a demon or one of the Felborne died, as their souls joined her collection and their power became her own. As they brought down the defenders of the Promenade, and allowed the rest of their forces to enter the city at last, one of the Felborne growled as she summoned a creature to come aid her forces in taking back this area, which happened to be one of the Arcane constructs the Nightborne had created, an Ancient Shieldguard based on what Thalyssra said when she laid eyes on it, though as her group joined the main force Spitfire stepped forward and raised her hand for a moment as she called forth the power of the Arcane Stone she carried, drawing out most of the construct's power and adding it to all of the energy that was inside her gem, allowing Rainbow and Elylia to dismantle it in seconds. Once the area was cleared, and everyone was sure of that, Lady Liadrin had some of her constructs and a few of her magus stay back to protect the Grand Promenade, to ensure that no Felborne tried to come take this place from them, while Tyrande and her forces rode into the city and started to advance down the main path that would bring them to Astravar Harbor and, eventually, where the main gate of the massive Nighthold rested. Sure enough they found more Felborne and demons guarding the section of the long birdge that connected the Grand Promenade to Astravar Harbor, including the large warp pad that had to be connected to the area all of the city's larger boats were resting in, where Rainbow shifted her net over to this area as their forces engaged all of their enemies, surprising their Fel-tainted foes in the process as their combined smashed through all of their defenses and slew those that happened to be standing in their way. While they did that Khadgar, Oculeth, Jaina, and all of the Kirin Tor that had been chosen for this mission, or had volunteered to take part in the assault, happened to teleport into the area behind their enemies and lashed out at them as well, while one quickly informed Spitfire that their forces had taken Astravar Harbor, even if the leaders of the magic group seemed to be discussing teleporting Dalaran and the fact that they had to compare notes on the various applications of Telemancy, before they combined their powers for a time, while focusing on a group of Felborne who were guarding the part of the bridge that lead to the Nighthold, which allowed them to teleport their enemies off the bridge and dropped all of them into the water, where Rainbow shocked all of them to death with her lightning and collected their souls and power for herself. Once that was done, and they were sure none of their enemies did anything after the guardians that had been positioned on the bridge had been teleported off of it, Oculeth pulled out a new Telemancy beacon and connected this area back to Shal'Aran, adding another portal to their network in case they needed to go back to their base or if more soldiers wanted to join the assault on the city, though once that was done Thalyssra stood near the edge of their expanded territory and just stared at the Nighthold for a time as the other leaders waited for her to say something. "I spent most of my life studying the Arcane, within the safety of the Nighthold... but I never considered the possibility that one day I would have to fight my way back in," Thalyssra commented, something that caused the Nightborne who knew what she was talking about to nod their heads for a moment, as many likely never considered such a thing to be possible, back before Elisande made her terrible deal with Gul'dan and the Legion, a deal she might actually regret making and had tried to get out of, leading to the orc warlock tormenting her to get her to remain silent, before she focused on what they were about to do and readied herself for what they were about to do, "however, we cannot waste this opportunity that has been presented to us, as to hesitate now would give Gul'dan time to organize his defenses and counter our attack, so we'll take the fight straight to the gates of the Nighthold, break them down, and free our city at long last." Their forces wasted no time in moving around the circular area that rested above Astravar Harbor, which allowed them to position themselves for the assault on the Nighthold's gates, while Thalyssra, Spitfire, Rainbow, and the rest of the leaders took up their positions right in the middle of their army, the heart in this case, before marching towards their destination so they could breach the magic protecting the gates and open the way for them to finally assault Gul'dan's location, but as the army reached the halfway point of the bridge, however, everyone paused as a large Arcane image of the orc warlock suddenly appeared in front of the Nighthold, with Elisande, who looked like she had been beaten recently, thanks to some bruise markings on her arms, pinned to the ground as Gul'dan had a foot on her back, pushing her front against the stone floor of the area they were in. "Ah, our guests have arrived. I was wondering when you would attack this place," Gul'dan said, his tone revealing that he didn't care much for them or their army, even though they had toppled most of his Felborne and demons and broke all of his plans, in terms of trying to use the souls of the Nightborne for his own means, before he focused on all of them for a time and seemed to overlook the fact that Spitfire and Rainbow were standing with the rebellion, meaning he likely didn't care about them and felt that he had the power to bring them down, even though the pair was planning on bringing him down at long last, "Kaldorei, Quel'dorei, Sin'dorei, and Shal'dorei, I understand that all of you have have proud lineages, as I have studied you while this 'rebellion' has gone on, but in the end none of you will be left standing once I open the way to Argus and allow Sargeras to claim what is rightfully his... and, to ensure that all of you fail to stop us, Elisande here will use her power to stop you in your tracks." Elisande, on the other hand, seemed to be struggling to get out from under Gul'dan's foot and likely attack him, which had to explain why she was so beaten since she likely had to restrain her power to avoid hitting someone, as Khadgar had told them that the orc warlock was known to use hostages whenever he needed such a thing and it seemed like he was doing such a thing right now, though in response to Elisande resisting his orders once more he called forth a small sphere of Fel energy and slowly pressed it into her back for a few seconds, causing the Grand Magistrix to scream in pain as the warlock tortured in front of them, before pulling it back after scorching her back and burning whatever clothing happened to be in resting between him and her skin. "Perhaps you need some motivation... how about I summon a Worldbreaker to lay waste to your precious city and those who call it home?" Gul'dan stated, where Spitfire had the feeling he was referring to a highly advanced Fel Reaver, one that was far stronger than the other massive mechanical creations they had faced in the past, meaning this type had the power to wipe out a city or two and would likely be a terrible thing to face on whatever battlefield it was called to, or at least those were Spitfire's thoughts on the matter, "Go ahead... the fate of your city is in your hands... cast the spell and I won't destroy everything you hold dear, or fail and watch your city burn before I kill you." Based on what Spitfire and Rainbow knew, while being in the position that she was currently in, Elisande was likely to fold and cast the spell that Gul'dan was talking about, meaning all of them had to be careful since they had no idea what sort of spell she might use, though that happened to be when Elisande turned towards whatever was projecting the image of her and Gul'dan to all of them, where it looked like she was mouthing something to someone, maybe Thalyssra since they had been friends or acquaintances before this event, which happened to be followed by her uttering the magic words for the spell in question... which was followed by a massive wave of Arcane energy washing over the bridge that rested between the Nighthold and Astravar Harbor, freezing everyone in place in an instant, causing Gul'dan to laugh as the image quickly disappeared from where it had been resting. "His arrogance knows no bounds," Spitfire commented, as she and the leaders had been spared from the time spell due to the combination of her Arcane Stone reacting to Elisande's spell while Thalyssra, Khadgar, Oculeth, Jaina, and Valtrois had started to stealthily channel their magic to protect themselves from the unknown magic spell, though her statement was for Gul'dan, as he didn't even stop to make sure everyone was frozen in time before the image disappeared, meaning this allowed them to make their way out of this area and create a new plan, since the attack on the Nighthold had failed and left their army in a frozen state, even though she hoped that the Legion wouldn't take advantage of this and kill them while they couldn't fight back. "Indeed... though I'm afraid that we might have underestimated Elisande's power, even if she didn't want to use it against us and was forced to do so," Khadgar stated, where he and the others looked around the area that they were in and were a tad bit shocked by what was going on at the moment, as a good chunk of their army was frozen in place and would that way until they found a way to reverse this spell, and he could see that even Thalyssra and those who knew Elisande were taken aback by their leader's true power, to which he let out a light chuckle, "I have the feeling that she would make even the Bronze Dragonflight, who watches over time, jealous of her power and might even make some of them come to check on what's going on... and we should be thankful that she didn't join the Legion, otherwise I'm sure even you and Rainbow would have difficulty taking her down." "We can worry about that later, as we need to retreat and figure out what to do next!" Rainbow said, as while she wanted to see if Khadgar's statement was true, that they would have a hard time fighting Elisande when she used her full power to bring them down, she understood that now wasn't the time for such things and that they had to retreat for the time being, something Spitfire agreed with, to which the magic users glanced at each other for a moment before carefully readying a bit of magic so they could teleport back to where the new beacon was resting. It didn't take them long to use their power to teleport back to the structure above Astravar Harbor, where they made sure to check everyone and ensure that no one had lingering Arcane energy, from Elisande's spell, lingering on any of them, as it might mean there was more to the spell than what they had seen so far, but even then Oculeth mentioned that using a spell of this magnitude required great energies, far more than what Elisande should have on hand, meaning she had been forced to tap into the immense power of the Nightwell, or there was another reason behind the plan to capture so many Nightborne, as Spitfire was starting to wonder if it had been for the sake of tearing the power out of Elisande's citizens, in front of her no less, and then force that power into her body. "Still, why didn't Ly'leth tell us about the potential danger we walked into?" Valtrois asked, because that was the thing that was bothering her and the others, especially Rainbow since she was the one who spent the most time with Ly'leth, due to the fact that being an advisor should have given their friend some information on what was going on and she would have warned them ahead of time, leading them to find another path or something so they could invade the Nighthold and take down Gul'dan, before she considered something, "You don't think Gul'dan has captured her and is tormenting her, like he is currently doing to Elisande... do you?" "I'm afraid that we'll have to uncover the truth for ourselves," Thalyssra replied, as she didn't want to think about Gul'dan pushing a sphere of Fel energy into Ly'leth, since that seemed to be his preferred form of torture, as it burned the skin and caused pain to whoever it was used on, something she felt was particularly nasty and knew that if Khadgar knew about it he would have likely refrained from telling her or the others, though it was more likely that not even he knew about this sort of thing, given the fact that he and Jaina seemed disgusted with Gul'dan's actions, "though from what I know Ly'leth was making sure to hide her messages in such a way that only the most observant of scryers could detect them. I have the feeling that the Felwatch might have created an outpost in the Terrace of Enlightenment, as its far away from this part of the city and would allow them to bypass the interference of the Nighthold... I would suggest checking that area out for any clues or messages that might have been captured, and cripple part of Gul'dan's forces as well, though I'll stay behind and see if we can come up with another plan of attack." Rainbow wasted no time in taking to the skies and departed from the area the others were standing in, though instead of heading for the Terrace of Enlightenment, which was where she and Elylia found Arluelle while she was in the Nightfallen state, she turned and headed straight over to Ly'leth's estate, as there was something she wanted to confirm and quickly landed in the area that was her destination, even though she found that no one was around right now, which made sense due to most helping Ly'leth in the Nighthold and others joining the rebellion, and that Anarys was missing as well, due to the fact that Ly'leth had used a room in the estate to hide her sister. That meant her mask was void, since the spell had to be broken at this point in time, to which she left the area she had checked out and rushed over to the next area that their enemies were currently trying to take over, where Rainbow found a number of Inquisitors and Felborne working, meaning Thalyssra had been right about them forming an outpost here, which they overlooked in their preparations to assault the Nighthold, a mistake she knew Spitfire would try to avoid making again. Once she knew where her targets were located, as the area their camp was in wasn't all that big in the grand scheme of things, Rainbow tapped into her power and set up a new net over her foes, just like she had done a few times so far, before dropping down on one of the Inquisitors and killed it by cutting the demon in half in a matter of seconds, causing the Felborne and the other demons to turn towards her in shock for a moment, before lashing out at her in response to her actions. That didn't stop her from hacking, slashing, and cutting into several of her opponents while smashing a few of them into the ground with her new tail, surprising a few who had no idea how powerful she was in the process, and in the end her enemies were littered across the area she was in, as their souls were caught in the net and added to her collection once more, granting her more Fel energy, before Rainbow took a moment to glance at four Arcane spheres that looked like what Thalyssra wanted her to search for while she took out the outpost, before sighing as she tapped into the power of the devices to see what sort of information their enemies might have stopped them from receiving. Sure enough they contained four messages from Ly'leth, ones that were stopped before Thalyssra could find and decipher them like she had done with those that came before this particular set, and Rainbow quickly learned what each one had to offer her, so once she made sure they each had a message from Ly'leth she swung her Warblades and removed the orbs from the pedestals, allowing her to collect them before heading back to where Thalyssra and the others were waiting for her to return, near their frozen army to be exact. "The guards were easy to take out, but I've confirmed that the Felborne and demons stopped four messages from leaving the city," Rainbow said, where she hand the orbs over to Thalyssra, since she was sure there might be more information that she might have missed during her brief search of them, before taking a step back as she glanced out at their army, as Elylia was among the frozen and would likely be unfrozen when they smashed through whatever was powering this spell, even though she figured she might as well tell the others what she knew, "apparently the advisors were called to a meeting some time ago, likely before Gul'dan forced her onto the ground, a new First Arcanist was chosen, a Felborne who goes by the name of Andaris Narassin and is likely one of Gul'dan's chosen followers, and she mentioned that attacking the main gate was a bad idea, meaning the advisors knew about the orc warlock's terrible trap." "There's also a breach in the Sanctum of Order, which runs beneath the Nightwell and leads into the Nighthold, which our enemies are currently trying to seal," Thalyssra spoke up, something that made her consider what Ly'leth had learned, as that piece of information was interesting and clearly made the others wonder if such a thing was possible in the first place, given that she and the others had said nothing about such a thing, before she pulled out the final orb and had it play the message it contained, where they watched as Ly'leth started to make another report for Thalyssra and her forces, before she was captured by what appeared to be Felborne, ending the message on a sour note, where she glanced at Rainbow for a moment, "don't worry, we'll save her and anyone else who has been captured by Gul'dan. Now, before we do anything else, we have to make sure Ly'leth's information is accurate, so Rainbow, I want you and Valtrois to make your way over to the Sanctum of Order and see if you can discover the breach she uncovered, and break any seal that might be placed on it, if it does, in fact, exist." The pair in question nodded their heads as Rainbow took to the skies and Valtrois teleported over to their destination, as it was easier this way for them to travel to the Sanctum of Order, though when Rainbow reached the top portion of the large structure, near the Grand Promenade, she found some of their Duskwatch allies guarding the area, now more annoyed more than ever before, likely due to having seen what happened on the bridge, who allowed her to access the wap pads that were inside the building and travel down to the lower section. Once she reached the lower level, since it seemed to be where a breach might be located, she found Valtrois standing near where the beacon to this place rested, including a hole in the wall that she might have ignored the last time she was here, though as soon as they were together Valtrois told her that she could feel energies converging below them and beckoned to a set of stairs that lead downwards, where a couple of Felborne were standing guard right now. As such Rainbow stepped out and slashed at her foes, cutting them down with ease and taking their souls and energy for herself, before moving down the steps and removed the enemies that rested between them and whatever their destination happened to be, which turned out to be a decent sized metal portcullis that had an Arcane seal in front of it, one that looked like a star pattern or something and covered the entire area to prevent anyone from accessing the portcullis, and what rested behind it. Valtrois stepped forward and studied the spellwork that was in front of them, leaving Rainbow to defend the area, and capture any additional souls if the Felborne or demons were to try and defend their magical seal, before making several comments on the seal, as in figuring out that it required a large amount of power to maintain and that it had to be coming from the Ley Lines, which was rather odd considering that they had access to all of the ones that were outside the city and she would have noticed if one of them was being tapped into, but once she was done with her investigation, and figured out what was going on, she teleported herself and Rainbow to the Ley Station that the Felborne was tapping into so they could power the seal, where Rainbow found that they were right at the opening of the Crimson Thicket station, near the Twilight Vineyards. Valtrois revealed that their enemies were siphoning part of this Ley Station's power to fuel the seal, though she wanted to see it up close, to study it and come to a conclusion on what they needed to do next to break open the breach that would allow them to enter the Nighthold, and she used a spell to reveal it, as the Felborne tried to hide it from them, and it was in that moment that Rainbow killed two more of them, taking their souls and power, before Valtrois sighed and said that she needed a day or two to figure things out, to which they teleported to Spitfire and the others, as it looked like the assault on the Nighthold would have to be put on hold for a few days... though Rainbow knew that once Valtrois was ready it would mean the end of Gul'dan's life. > Suramar: Strong Wills > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thalyssra and the others were relieved to find that there was a breach in the Sanctum of Order, despite the fact that their enemies had placed a seal on it, and agreed with Valtrois' plan, to spend some time studying the magic involved before they broke it and opened the way to the Nighthold, to which the leaders posted some guards over this area, to watch over their frozen army and make sure no demons or Felborne came to kill them while they were trapped in such a state, and then used the new portal that Oculeth had set up earlier and returned to Shal'Aran. Once everyone was back in their base they started to go over ideas and plans on what they could do next, since there was no telling if Gul'dan would force Elisande to use her 'Time Lock' spell, as that was the name Khadgar came up with for what had happened to their army, on another part of the city, to stall them and make what remained of their army back off for a time, though it was still a surprise to see that the Grand Magistrix had access to that much power, even if she had to be drawing on the Nightwell to do so. It was easy to see that everyone was happy that Elisande was still trying to fight the orc warlock, even though he was punishing her and was using the city against her, which seemed to be her weakness based on what Spitfire could tell, though while they took the time to discuss what in the world they were going to do next, since the Time Lock spell had stopped them in their tracks, she decided to ask the question that had been on her mind since the attack on the Nighthold's main gate, as she was curious as to what Elisande had mouthed towards them. Thalyssra informed her that the Grand Magistrix silently informed her that 'the heart rested in the depths', where she had to assume that it meant whatever was powering her Time Lock spell had to be located in the lowest part of the Nighthold, where most didn't wander or explore since there was no reason to do so, or at least not these days, meaning to free their armies they would have to break whatever the 'heart' was, and to do that she wanted to be sure Valtrois was ready before making a move on the seal. While they were discussing what they needed to do next, to bring down the remainder of his Felborne and demons, they had a guest appear in Shal'Aran, a female gnome who was dressed up in a white robe with black and gold markings on it, with white hair that was done up in buns on the sides of her head, though Khadgar introduced her as Chronormu, one of the Bronze Dragons who called Azeroth home, though she preferred the name 'Chromie' for some reason, though Spitfire was right in assuming that she was interested in Elisande's spell, which gave them a new ally who might be able to help them free their forces. In addition to that Spitfire asked Chromie about finding a way back to Draenor, since Grommash and Yrel had promised to come and aid the forces of Azeroth if they ever needed some assistance, like fighting the Legion for example, and she felt that it might be worth heading to that alternate world to recruit some additional soldiers for the assault on the Broken Shore, as she was sure that the Legion would have plenty of demons to fight and many from that world would likely come for the chance to get some revenge on Gul'dan's foul masters. She knew that some might see her question as a lack of faith in both the Alliance and the Horde, when in reality she had a lot of faith in the two factions and knew that they could defeat the Legion if it came to it, and it likely would reach that point at some point in the near future, but Tyrande, Khadgar, and Lady Liadrin, at the very least, could see that having some additional reinforcements would be great in the grand scheme of things, especially since they had no idea what was going to happen once Gul'dan was dead at long last. Chromie had to admit that since the fall of Deathwing, an event that caused the remaining Aspects to sacrifice a great portion of their power to bring him down, left all of the dragons in a weakened state and that to do what Spitfire was thinking about would require the use of nearly every member of her dragonflight, to link Azeroth to the point in time of Draenor's history that Spitfire was talking about, but, at the same time, had the feeling that if they had access to Elisande's power they might be able to do that and so much more, giving them another reason to take Gul'dan down and free the Grand Magistrix from what was happening to her. Rainbow, on the other hand, discovered that nothing else happened over the course of the day and that meant Gul'dan likely assumed that any surviving members of the rebellion might have fled for the time being, even if some soldiers had been left behind to watch over the bridge and all of their frozen forces, so eventually they went to bed and in the morning she found that more Arcfruit had grown on the Arcan'dor, to which she picked the five fruit and offered them to the elves who needed it the most, while Vanthir tended to the others with his Arcwine stash. Valtrois spent the day studying what they had found over in the Ley Station and researching what needed to be done next, even though Thalyssra happened to be doing the same thing with their allies, those who remained inside the city to keep an eye on their enemies anyway, and so far it looked like it was going to be a peaceful day for them, which only made them wonder what in the world Gul'dan was doing in the Nighthold, to Elisande and those he had captured. Rainbow suspected that things would change at some point in time, since a peaceful day seemed weird after everything that happened yesterday, hence why she turned to just scouting out the city and attacking any Felborne or demons who might be searching the city for citizens to capture, all to feed Gul'dan's power, and sure enough she found several opponents to cut down and captured their souls, but she knew there were no random citizens inside the city since all of them had fled to Shal'Aran, something they weren't about to tell their enemies so they could chip into Gul'dan's forces. While she patrolled Suramar by flying through the air, to see if there were any enemies or events that Thalyssra needed to know about, Rainbow did spot a Pit Lord walking out of Felsoul Hold at one point and it seemed to be marching up towards Meredil, to which she dropped out of the air and smashed into her target's head, using her tail to crush the demon into the ground before it had a chance to fight back, before backing away to allow it to stand up and swing its glaive at her, where she dodged the attacks that were coming her way and lashed out at the demon that was in front of her, delivering cuts to her foe's body as it failed to touch her, even though it ended with her emerging victorious over the Pit Lord and added its soul and power to her collections. It was the second day after the failed attack on the main gate of the Nighthold when things changed, as Rainbow was busy handing out all of the Arcfruit that had grown overnight, just like she did in the past, though everyone stopped for a time as a scout, who had been tasked with watching over the city and making sure the demons didn't try anything, returned to Shal'Aran and handed Thalyssra a crystal, one that he claimed to have found near the area that Vanthir had been trapped in, where she called Rainbow and the others over for a moment as she tapped into the message it held, revealing one of the Felborne to them, with a smug look on her face. "Poor foolish Thalyssra, you try so hard to save your people... yet you cut them off from the one thing that can save them from their fate," the Felborne, who had to be Andaris Narassin, said, her tone revealing that she believed Thalyssra wasn't as smart or as cunning as she claimed to be, especially since the elf believed that she was dooming her people to starve as they left the 'safety' of the city, even though it confirmed that Gul'dan had no idea that the Arcan'dor existed, otherwise all of them were sure that he would have tried to attack Shal'Aran to destroy the tree, "and I fear that Ly'leth will pay the price for your arrogance, in defying Gul'dan and his masters... just like Elisande will continue to be punished until she learns her place. Allow me to teach you a lesson: send the best of your rebellion to face me, outside Ly'leth's estate, and I will show you that defying the Legion was the biggest mistake you could have made... though you should do it quickly, before I pull more of Ly'leth's servants to the side for... questioning." "Oh Andaris, she has no idea what she's getting into," Thalyssra commented, to which she switched off the message that was contained inside the crystal, as there was no reason for them to be worried by most of the information that had been inside it, due to the fact that they knew about Gul'dan punishing everyone that was in his way or tried to resist the power of the Legion, before she turned and glanced at Rainbow for a moment, who understood what she was thinking without having to be told anything, hence why she focused on the others for a moment, "Rainbow will head to the estate and take care of Gul'dan's arrogant 'First Arcanist', though while she does that I'll send a few soldiers in after her, to free those who might be imprisoned in the estate, since I'm sure Andaris will have a few prisoners with her." Rainbow nodded and headed through the portal that would bring her to Ly'leth's estate, where she expected the Felborne that was challenging them to battle to be somewhere nearby, since the portals inside the city weren't all that well hidden and only had a magical spell to prevent enemies from using them, but when she appeared in the area she had met Ly'leth in for the first time, and took in her surroundings, she found a number of Withered chained all over the estate, though the question was why such a thing was even happening, before she found that Andaris had placed an image of herself in this area, plus one of Ly'leth, while a Felborne stood nearby. "Are you scared, Andaris?" Rainbow asked, though at the same time she glared at the Felborne that was standing nearby and caused it to stand there for a time, instead of rushing at her to fight her, while focusing on the fact that Andaris was a coward and didn't want to come here to face her, even though this had been a challenge from her, but even if the corrupt elf had created a trap for Thalyssra and the strongest fighter of the rebellion, which they weren't falling for since she knew the leader of the rebellion was waiting in Shal'Aran, watching events in the estate unfold, "There must have been some slim pickings among the Felborne if Gul'dan picked out a coward like you as his 'First Arcanist', not that such a thing really matters to me since I'll be killing you at some point." "Is this the best that Thalyssra could do? An outsider?" Andaris inquired, apparently choosing to ignore Rainbow's words and ask her own statement in return, while at the same time she chuckled for a few seconds, as if she believed that there was nothing Rainbow could do to overcome whatever her foe had set up in this area, something that caused her to nod to the Felborne that was standing nearby and caused the figured to raise a hand as she cast a spell into the area they were standing in, where Rainbow watched as Fel spikes burst out of the ground, in the middle of the couple of Withered groups that had been prepared ahead of time, impaling one and burning all of the others in the process, "We will crush you with ease, just like how we easily crushed these pitiful Withered... I have left a crystal containing my true location, for when you work up the nerve to come and face my power." Rainbow frowned as she watched that happen and flashed over to the Felborne that was standing nearby, before they had a chance to flee the area, removing her head from her body and dropping it to the ground as the images of Andaris and Ly'leth disappeared, allowing her to collect the crystal in question before heading out into the estate, aiding the forces that had been sent to aid those who had been captured or were being terrorized by the Felborne, though once every foe was taken out, and she was sure of that, she headed through the portal and returned to Shal'Aran without wasting time, as she wanted to see what the others had to say about the situation. "It is a good thing we didn't consider sending any of the Withered with you, since they would have been taken out before they had a chance to fight back," Thalyssra commented, as part of her plan after being exiled from the city had been a tad bit weird, using the stone her friend had created to calm and train a number of the Withered into a fighting force that she felt could take down those that stood in their way, but after discovering that she had a full army, a combination of her own citizens mixed with the forces of Azeroth, such a plan had been set aside, even though she did spend a great deal of time trying to work with a few of the Withered that Rainbow and Spitfire had brought to Shal'Aran, "however, we might be able to use this to our advantage, as there are plenty of Withered who possess a deed hatred for Andaris and the Felborne, or the elves who became twisted by the Legion's dark power, and we might be able to ask them to aid us in taking down our enemies... such as draining several of the Fel crystals that rest throughout Felsoul Hold, which should grant them some sort of resistance to the Legion's Fel energy." "Are you hoping that a new source of power might bring them back from the brink of madness?" Spitfire asked, as while it looked like Thalyssra was willing to kill off the Withered, to bring peace to Suramar once the Legion had been pushed out, she knew that the elf had to be thinking about ways to overcome the final stage of a Nightborne's former life, if they were cut off from the Nightwell for an extended period of time, and while using the Fel might not be the best idea to do such a thing, given how it corrupted almost everything it came into contact with, it might destroy their hunger for Arcwine and Ancient Mana, allowing those elves to bring themselves back, or at least that seemed to be what Thalyssra was suggesting that they do. "I am, since I'm not sure the Arcfruit will work on the Withered... it might seem odd to try something like this, but if we can save the Withered it is worth trying," Thalyssra replied, revealing that Spitfire had hit the nail on the head, that part of the reason she was even considering this was to try and bring the Withered back from the terrible madness they were dealing with, as they had seen when she looked into Theryn's memories earlier, while also crippling anything and everything they could get their hands on in Felsoul Hold, an area Rainbow would be glad to tackle at long last, before she focused on her plan and what Rainbow needed to know before she left Shal'Aran, "regardless of how things go with the Withered, I think you should also destroy the Soul Engine that our enemies set up inside Felsoul Hold, as it will help cripple Gul'dan's plans and show the remaining Felborne that we aren't backing down." Rainbow nodded and headed over to the portal section of Shal'Aran, as Oculeth had given one of the others a beacon and the hero in question had placed it inside Felsoul Hold, in case they needed to attack the place Gul'dan's forces were trying to maintain, so it allowed her to travel over to her destination and stepped out into a ruined underground tunnel area that looked like it was part of Suramar City, and it likely was, before walking out and found that a trio of Withered appeared in the area around her, teleported over to her by Thalyssra no doubt. Instead of worrying about it she glanced around the part of Felsoul Hold that she was in, the lower half to be exact, and found that there were a number of Fel crystals resting near her location, hence why Rainbow headed over to the closest ones and gestured for the Withered to feed on the Fel energy that rested inside the gems, where the hungry Withered channeled their powers and latched onto the crystal that she had focused on, showing a bit of the scattered intelligence Thalyssra had been working on in her spare time, but they weren't left alone as several Eredar and Felguard started to converge on their location. Rainbow focused on killing them as the Withered continued to devour every single drop of Fel energy that rested inside the crystals, where she cut down her foes and sucked their souls into her Warblades, with their power being added to her own, even though it looked like there were a good number of demons surging down into this section of Felsoul Hold, though as she did that Rainbow found that someone was watching her, one of the Withered to be exact, which lead to the mad elf attacking an Eredar she had cut the arm off of and killed the demon in question. She raised an eyebrow when she saw that, as she wasn't expecting it to even happen in the first place, though what was interesting was that the Withered in question seemed to extract the demon's soul and seemed to devour it as well, where a rush of Fel energy surged out of where the elf rested and Rainbow watched as the life seemed to return to the elf's body, like he had eaten an Arcfruit, and she could tell he was male now as his body had returned to him, though he had a faint Fel mist emitting from his eyes and a pair of small horns poking out of part of his hair, making her realize what was going on in an instant. They could actually revive the Withered and restore them to their Nightborne state, even if they would be empowered by Fel energy and not Arcane anymore, though in that instant she noticed that the other two Withered that had been brought over to Felsoul Hold seemed to be studying what had happened to the first one and assaulted two other weakened Eredar, devouring their souls in a matter of seconds and lead to them regaining their original forms, with some horns to reflect the change they had undergone, and Rainbow could see that one was male and the other was female, where it was easy to tell that the latter was female was due to her breasts causing the rags over her chest to shift push out for a moment, to which she carried the three of them back to the portal and returned to Shal'Aran. Thalyssra and the others were, understandably, surprised by what she had discovered and were overjoyed to discover that there was actually a way for them to revive the Withered, to which Ly'leth's attendants rushed over to help the elves who had been revived, no doubt to measure each of them for a new set of attire, before Thalyssra and Khadgar joined Rainbow as she returned to Felsoul Hold, only this time around her companions started to track down the magical signatures of the remaining Withered and, with the aid of Oculeth, Valtrois, and Jaina, summon the remaining Withered of Suramar over to Felsoul Hold. As they teleported in Rainbow demonstrated what she had done while the first trio had been watching, as in gesturing to the various Fel crystals that were scattered around this place and watched as the Withered devoured the Fel energy, giving them a base for what was coming next, where she flashed around the area and weakened as many enemies as she could find, something that caused the Withered to move out and kill those she struck, surprising the demons in the process while causing Thalyssra and the others to watch with interest. Once that was done they watched as the Withered did as the first three did a few minutes ago, as in they underwent a transformation for a few seconds as they returned to their original Nightborne forms, revealing who had been male and who had been female, since being a Withered made it impossible to tell who had been which gender, which was made even more obvious when all of the ladies regained their former chests and some moved to cover themselves in that area, though all of the newly revived elves found that they had a pair of horns on their heads and a light Fel mist coming out of their eyes. After some time Rainbow was positive that the one hundred Withered that had been brought to Felsoul Hold were freed from the hunger that all Nightborne felt when they were cut off from the Nighthold, including the hunger that had been forced upon them when they transformed into Withered, and Thalyssra confirmed that they happened to be the rest of the Withered that were above ground, so if there were any other fallen elves they were far below ground, shrouded by some power which was preventing them from being brought up here, but that didn't stop her and the others from teleporting the revived elves to Shal'Aran. Once that was done Rainbow advanced on the area that the Soul Engine was resting in, which was near the path that lead right to Meredil, and only came to a stop when she reached her destination, pausing near the vile machine in question for a moment as she raised her right hand and activated her power, where she took a page out of Spitfire's page and drained all of the Fel energy that was inside the Soul Engine, surprising the lone Eredar that was still working on the machine, until it was forced to go offline and she noticed cracks forming all over it, to which she channeled a bit of her power into a lance, a low powered one, and dropped it on the machine, blowing it apart and left a small crater where it had been resting... but as soon as that was done she returned to Shal'Aran, finding that Spitfire had called the Illidari in to give the restored elves a set of demonic tattoos, like all demon hunters had. "Well, I've smashed the Soul Engine and, well, completed the other objective," Rainbow commented, as the restored elves were inside Shal'Aran, learning what in the world was going on in Suramar and getting new clothing to replace their rags, and also learning about their new abilities, even though it would take some time before they were used to what was going on to their bodies, to which she focused on what else needed to be done and glanced over at Thalyssra's group, who were still coming to terms with what they were seeing, "so, what's next?" "I was thinking that understanding Fel energy might not be enough to aid us... and I'm currently rethinking that, since you just revived the Withered," Oculeth replied, as he was amazed by what he, Thalyssra, Valtrois, and the rest of Shal'Aran was seeing right now, since none of them had considered the possibility of using the Withered to drain some Fel crystals and even steal the souls of demons to transform them back into Nightborne, before he focused on what he had been doing in the time before Rainbow found out how to bring their friends back, "but I was going to ask that someone take a beacon into the city and survey several locations for me, more accurately several points of the Terrace of Order, to grant me extreme accuracy with my spells and, more importantly, take away our foe's ability to run away when Thalyssra sends you to take her down." "Sounds simple enough, so I'll be back soon," Rainbow said, where she collected the beacon that Oculeth had prepared for this mission, one that seemed a tad bit stronger or more advanced than the previous Telemancy beacons she had seen so far, though once it was in her possession she headed for the tunnel and departed from Shal'Aran the normal way, as her plan was to fly to the Terrace of Order, get the information Oculeth wanted her to obtain, and then use the portal in the depths of the Sanctum to return to their base of operations. It didn't take her long to reach the Grand Promenade, where Rainbow found their allies were protecting the area in case Gul'dan sent the Felborne to take it back, and many had to be hoping for such a thing to happen so they could get some sort of revenge for the Time Lock spell he had forced Elisande to use earlier, on the portion of the army that marched on the gates of the Nighthold, before she flew over them and landed in the middle of the Terrace of Order, where she pulled out the advanced beacon without delay. All she had to do was activate the device for a second and let it scan the area with a white beam of energy, sort of like what happened when she learned how to use the beacons after they found and saved the Chief Telemancer from those who had been looking for him, though there were no demons in the Terrace, as she and her allies had killed all of them earlier and it looked like Gul'dan hadn't gotten around to reinforcing this location, which had to mean he was gathering his power for whatever his masters wanted him to do. Of course she had to move several times as the beacon did its job, allowing her to gather as much positional data for Oculeth as she possibly could, and just did so without delay, since she wanted to get this task done with as quickly as she could and return to Shal'Aran with all do haste, as she was sure that Thalyssra had confirmed where Andaris was hiding, though even then she suspected that they would find Ly'leth inside the Nighthold, instead of outside the city, but she pushed that out of her mind as she focused on completing this task, knowing that they would save their allies in due time. The beacon beeped once it was done scanning the area and had the information Oculeth needed, to which she carefully placed it inside her pack and opened her wings once more, allowing her to take off and head to the entrance of the Sanctum of Order, since there was only one entrance to the structure in question and it was in the Grand Promenade, which was a tad bit odd and she had the feeling someone would tell her why it had been built in such a way, before using one of the teleport pads to get down to the level that the portal to Shal'Aran rested in, including the location of the stairs that lead right to the breach Ly'leth had told them about in one of her previous messages, before she returned to Shal'Aran and handed the beacon over. "Good, I shall quickly study this and prepare for what Thalyssra has in mind," Oculeth said, where he smiled as he stared at the beacon for a moment and Rainbow could see that he was already focusing on the information she had collected for him, before he focused on something else as he raised his hand and opened a portal for someone to take, where it only took Rainbow a moment to raise her eyebrow as she glanced at him, clearly curious about why he had done such a thing and if he needed more of her assistance, "Now, I need you to quickly return to my old workshop, the one we forced into a lockdown before coming to Shal'Aran, and recover a few things for me so we can move forward with our studies, and the plan that Thalyssra has in mind for Andaris... all I need are my notes, which should be easy to find, and a crate of orbs that I had been working on before all of this happened, and before the barrier fell over the city... with those in hand, we should be ready to move forward." Rainbow nodded and headed through the portal in question, returning to the hidden workshop Oculeth had brought her, Spitfire, and Elylia to when they recruited him into Thalyssra's growing army, even though she noticed that she had been sent to the section of the workshop none of them had walked through during their last visit, but after noticing that she focused on walking around the area and quickly found a decent sized journal that had to be Oculeth's notes, something she found on a lone table, and nearby she found the crate containing the orbs their ally needed, though she felt that this might be a waste of time as Oculeth had her collect things they didn't actually need, to which she sighed for a second and collected the crate before using the portal to return to Shal'Aran. "Good, you've gathered what I needed," Oculeth said, where he accepted the notes and the crate, which he placed in the area that served as his workshop in Shal'Aran and pulled out of the orbs so he could study it, finding that none of them had sustained any damage, despite the amount of time it had been between his last visit to his true workshop and when his new allies came to recruit him into Thalyssra's rebellion, meaning he would be able to do complete whatever plan he was currently working towards, "now the fun begins!" "Indeed, though I have received news that a group of Felborne are trying to take over part of the Crimson Thicket, and that the leader of the group, Valthis Ama'ran, reports to Andaris directly," Thalyssra spoke up, knowing that Rainbow had to be thinking about what to do while she waited for them to finish what they were doing, before launching an assault on where Andaris had to be lurking, though as she said that she could tell that Rainbow was already thinking about what was going on at the moment and the information she was being told, while at the same time Spitfire continued to aid the Nightborne who had been turned into demon hunters, before she refocused on her friend, "while Oculeth is working, I would like you to take the fight to our unwanted enemies, especially since Valthis' death might help us take down Andaris, or at least that is a potential side effect... also, the first three Nightborne you saved earlier wish to go along with you, to test out their new powers in a real battle." Rainbow glanced to her left for a moment and found the three elves in question, the two males and one female who had been the first ones she restored to their former glory, where each of them were wearing the attire of the Duskwatch, as if they had been members before withering or were joining the force in question, armor that was a little revealing in places and gave them the flexibility that the Illidari were used to, while they were carrying the shieldless warglaives that most of the Duskwatch carried, giving them something to fight their enemies with. Once she was done glancing over them, which only took a few moments of her time, Rainbow raised a hand and beckoned for them to follow her as she headed through the Twilight Vineyards portal, due to the fact that it was the closest to the Crimson Thicket, and found that her new allies were following her without wasting any time, which caused her to smile as they moved out of Shal'Aran and arrived in the small structure that was their destination. Not a few moments later Rainbow walked towards the edge of the city that was nearby and stared at the lower section that held a path leading to a Vrykul village, which they would ignore for now, where she focused on the ruins that were in front of her, which was where Valthis was trying to take over thanks to the number of Felborne that were around the area, meaning it was only a matter of time until they tried to attack the Vineyards, since it was the closest to where they were trying to set up a camp. In that moment she made sure her new companions were with her, and found that each of them had followed after her without wasting time, which was amazing since the three of them should have been recovering from the sudden transformation into their new forms, but she wasn't about to argue with Thalyssra, since she knew the rebellion's leader understood when it was time to rest and when it was time to fight, to which she pulled out her Warblades and watched as her companions held up their own weapons, indicating that they were ready, before descending into the ruins that the Felborne and their demonic allies were trying to take over. As it turned out the Felborne and their demonic allies were totally caught off guard by Rainbow's assault and many of their foes fell to their deaths before they were able to do anything, where she made sure to set up a net around the area so she could catch every soul that was released from every foe they killed and add them to her collection, while she tracked down Valthis and assaulted his location, who lashed out at her with his Fel-empowered spells and she tanked them by draining all of them as they hit her, allowing her to cut him down and take his soul before watching what her companions did, as all three of the restored elves slew every foe that was in front of them and showed that they had recovered from being stuck in the Withered state... though it wasn't long before the area was cleared of Felborne and demons, allowing her and the Nightborne demon hunters to return to Shal'Aran. "I've got to say, you guys did great out there... and now I'm curious to see if the others can do the same," Rainbow said, as she felt that the restored elves deserved some praise for their efforts, even though it made her wonder if the others could fight on a similar level to the three that had been with her, while she spoke up the moment they returned to Shal'Aran, so Thalyssra understood that those who had been restored had the potential to have all of the skills they had before being forced to become Withered, to which they smiled and headed over to join the other restored elves, allowing her to focus on the leader of the rebellion and their new friends, while noticing that the other heroes were starting to gather around Shal'Aran, causing her to raise an eyebrow, "so, um, what's going on in here?" "Valtrois and Oculeth have placed several disruptors near three key Ley Stations, cutting off their power and weakening the seal on the breach," Thalyssra replied, though at the same time she beckoned for Rainbow to follow, who felt that the task to recover the Telemancy stuff and kill the Felborne had been designed to keep her busy while they made sure they knew how to crack the seal, to which she brought her over to where Oculeth was standing, as he created a portal that had to lead her to where Andaris was powering the rest of the seal, "since we've moved so quickly, we've prevented Andaris from setting up any sort of base of operations inside our city, meaning Oculeth has been able to track down her location and, with Valtrois' aid, have sealed most of the power she has access to, meaning when you go to face her you won't have to worry about reinforcements coming to aid her or have to worry about her running away." Rainbow smiled as Thalyssra revealed that they had trapped Andaris in the area of the Sanctum of Order that the portal lead to, to which she used the portal in question and teleported over to her destination, where she quickly found the Fel-tainted elf standing in front of a set of stairs, which would lead to where Ly'leth had gained the advisor position, though it was in that moment that she noticed something interesting about her target, Andaris had a pair of demonic ram horns on top of her head, growing out of her hair, her hands had a Fel green color to them now, she had ditched her Arcanist robes for a Fel-tainted version of the Duskwatch's attire, both of her feet had been replaced by Eredar's hooves, and she had the tail of an Eredar. This told her that Andaris, realizing that she was going to have to fight for her life, had handed her life to the Legion in exchange for power, as she could also tell that her Fel power was stronger than most of the Felborne that had been created by Gul'dan, and sure enough the demonic elf's chest had enlarged as well, as it was roughly twice what Thalyssra's was, just another sign of her corruption in Rainbow's mind, hence why she stepped out and readied both of her weapons for a moment, which caused Andaris to turn and growl as she noticed that someone else was here. Not even a moment later they clashed with each other, as it appeared that her foe had switched her staff for a Duskwatch blade, as in a warglaive, but it quickly became clear that she had next to no idea how to use it and she used that to her advantage over the next couple of moments, pushing the weapon to the side as she added cuts to Andaris' arms, legs, and chest, all of which annoyed her opponent and lead to her charging into battle without thinking, meaning she would fall in due time and Rainbow had to be patient to see it done. Of course Andaris tried to blast her several times with her Fel-tainted magic, in an effort to take her down and bring her soul to Gul'dan, or her corpse if she missed her soul, though Rainbow tanked each blast and absorbed the Fel energy that her foe was using right now, allowing her own power to grow, before deciding to get this over with as she swung one of the Warglaives and removed her foe's head from her shoulders in an instant, to which she paused for a moment as her weapons took Andaris' soul and she absorbed her Fel energy... even though she remained still as her breasts enlarged a size or two in response to that. Once that was done, and she was sure her body wasn't about to change anymore, Rainbow returned to the portal she had used to get here and quickly passed through it, returning to Shal'Aran and found that the heroes were gathering around the upper ring, meaning they were getting ready for their raid on the Nighthold and Gul'dan's forces, where Thalyssra was happy that Andaris was dead and that the seal was no longer being powered, due to Valtrois and Oculeth, with their allies, cutting off the power and silencing the magic that had been on the breach's entrance, though now they could declare war on the Legion's puppet, once all of Azeroth's heroes were ready to go anyway... and she made sure to harvest both of the Arcfruit that had been left on the branches, as she had the feeling they were going to need them. > Suramar: Arcing Aqueducts > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow stood in Shal'Aran as the heroes of Azeroth responded to what Khadgar liked to refer to as the 'Call to Arms', something that one or both factions used when their heroes went on a raid to take down a powerful foe that was in the process of threatening their world, such as the time when they waged war on Deathwing, or when they challenged the dangers of Icecrown Citadel, to face the Lich King, or the dangers of Uldaur, eventually bringing them to the Old God Yogg-Saron, and it was the call that was sounded some time ago, when they had to face the dangers that Xavius had placed in the Emerald Nightmare and to head to Helheim to take down Helya. Many of their allies had been working with their Orders to take down the Legion, as in each and every one of them had been focused on the Broken Shore and what would happen as soon as they got their hands on the final Pillar of Creation, the Eye of Amun'thul, as one they had it in their possession they would be able to close the Felstorm and cut the Legion off from Azeroth, despite the fact that Spitfire was sure Lord Illidan had a plan to assault Argus directly, attacking their enemies while they were taking a moment to lick their wounds. To that end Spitfire had asked Khadgar to bring Light's Heart with him, the literal heart of the Prime Naaru Xe'ra, who sent it to them so they could reunite the soul of Lord Illidan with his body, so right now the crystalline object was the temporary home of his soul, rescued from Helheim and carefully stored inside the powerful object, and the reason she asked Khadgar to retrieve it was because she was planning on having him follow her and the heroes as they made their way through the Nighthold, so the moment they had access to Lord Illidan's body, and Gul'dan was no longer focused on it, he could transfer the soul into his body and bring the true leader of the Illidari back. Of course Thalyssra was coming with them, so she could inform them of the various areas that they might come across and help them find their way to the Nightspire, where the Eye of Amun'thul, and likely Gul'dan, would be waiting for them to arrive, though before that they would have to fight and slay a number of skilled and powerful enemies, just like what they had seen during their last two raids. In addition to all of that they had a few other objectives, the first being that they needed to smash the heart of the Time Lock spell that Elisande had been forced to case on their army earlier, which happened to be resting in the depths of the Nighthold according to Thalyssra, while another mission was to ensure that any prisoners that were inside the structure were freed from their bindings and escaped before the Legion found them, which included tracking down Ly'leth, but the more important one was finding and freeing Elisande, as she would be a formidable ally in the fight against both Gul'dan and the Legion, and Spitfire was sure the Grand Magistrix would want to settle the score. "Spitfire, we're ready to depart," Thalyssra said, speaking up the moment all of Azeroth's heroes were assembled inside Shal'Aran once more, an amazing sight when she thought about it and knew that she was fortunate to have them on her side, because she was sure that if they had been enemies the heroes would have laid waste to her and whatever forces had followed her, though it was in that moment that Spitfire stopped thinking about whatever she had been focused on and turned towards her allies for a few seconds. "Good, then let us depart before Gul'dan sends someone to reseal the breach," Spitfire replied, as she knew that none of them needed her to repeat their mission once more, as they understood that this was the raid that everyone had been waiting for since the events of Draenor, given that this would grant them the ability to bring down the orc warlock at long last and cripple whatever his masters had ordered him to do, to which she turned for a moment before heading through the Sanctum of Order portal. Not a few seconds later she appeared in the area that Rainbow had faced Andaris in, the arrogant corrupted elf who had tried to set an unsuccessful trap for Thalyssra and had paid for her hubris with her very life, though it didn't take Rainbow and the others all that long to step out of the portal as well, each hero looking like they were ready for war since they had their weapons out and were glancing around in case enemies might have been placed in the Sanctum since the last time Rainbow had been here, which wasn't all that long ago. While she understood why they were being cautious, and she was thinking the same thing as she glanced up the stairs for a few seconds, she knew that the heroes had rushed to Shal'Aran as soon as the Call to Arms had been sounded and that meant Gul'dan didn't have a chance to reinforce this area or the seal that had been on the breach earlier, which Thalyssra confirmed the erasure of not that long ago, meaning they didn't have to worry about something blocking their way. Valtrois, Oculeth, Tyrande, Lady Liadrin, and everyone else didn't come with the group, as the rest of their forces would be waiting near their frozen army, so once the heart of the Time Lock spell was slain or destroyed it should undo the spell in question and free everyone so they could recover from what had been forced on them, before even thinking about marching on the main gate of the Nighthold, which would make this more of a pincer attack in some manner. As soon as everyone was inside the Sanctum of Order, and Khadgar was sure of that as he carried Light's Heart in his hands, Spitfire headed through the hole in the wall that was near the portal and headed down the set of stairs that would bring them right to the breach Ly'leth had informed them about earlier, even though they had missed her original message thanks to Gul'dan's minions, and it didn't take her and her companions all that long to reach the bottom step and come to a stop in front of the magical breach that would take them to the Nighthold, as it was more of a magical portal that would take them across most of the city. In that moment Spitfire glanced back at everyone and made sure they were ready for whatever might be waiting for them inside the depths of the Nighthold, where the heroes nodded their heads to show that they were prepared and even Thalyssra and Khadgar replicated the motion as well, to which she focused on the magical portal and headed through it, as it was time to tackle whatever challenges might be in their way this time around. Sure enough they appeared in a decent sized tunnel that looked like one of the Ley Stations that were scattered across the whole of Suramar, though directly in front of them, near the opening that lead to a wider chamber of sorts, was a group of Withered that looked like they were even crazier than those they had freed from the hunger, which meant they had to be stronger than the last group of Withered they fought, but such a thing didn't stop her and Rainbow from rushing at the small group and swing their weapons at their current enemies. As Spitfire expected these Withered were definitely a tad bit stronger than those they had faced when they first arrived in Suramar, even though one could argue that it was due to her gaining the ability to use both Life energy and Death energy, giving her control over three of the six Cosmic Forces that one could use, but even with that fact she could see that her companions were parrying the incoming attacks and cutting or blasting the Withered who were in front of them. It didn't take them that long to eliminate all of the Withered and find a set of stairs behind them, heading downward a little and lead to where a number of knee sized scorpions happened to be resting, some with red scales, others with blue scales, and a few with green scales, meaning that some likely contained the power of fire, frost, and possibly poison, or at least that was her assumption on the matter, even though there were more in the curved tunnel to their left, where more of the green ones were coming from. As such the group carefully spread the scorpions out, just in case they had an ability that activated when they died so they could minimize the damage everyone might take from such an attack, while Thalyssra and Khadgar brought up the rear, the former no doubt telling the latter about the Nighthold so he could add the information to Dalaran's archives at a later date, even though she knew both of them were keeping an eye on the Arcane energies to make sure nothing surprised them. Over the next minute or two the group took down the first batch of scorpions and then the hunters pulled the others down towards the section they were currently standing in, as they figured that there would be more in the upper chamber and wanted to cut down on just how many enemies they had to fight, though in the end that batch stood no chance against their combined might and neither did the third batch of scorpions. Of course when they finished off the third batch, and come move deeper into the depths of the Nighthold, Spitfire and the heroes stopped for a moment when they found a large circular chamber in front of them, one that had Arcane crystals, as in massive ones that were nearly the size of a house in Suramar, growing out of one of the walls and part of the floor that was on the other side from where they were standing, and standing in the middle of the chamber, devouring part of one of the massive crystals, was a large scorpion, easily two to three times their size, who had crystalline scales that looked like they might have been formed from devouring all of this Arcane energy. "Okay, that is one big scorpion..." Rainbow remarked, though at the same time they were fortunate that Gul'dan or one of his allies hadn't corrupted this with the Fel, as it would have been more demonic than what it currently was and would be much more powerful than what it might be at the moment, but as she said that Spitfire and the others walked into the edge of the chamber as Thalyssra and Khadgar remained inside the tunnel and raised a barrier in front of them, as neither of them were going to be involved with this so they could keep their energy up for when they found Gul'dan. "I'm not sure what sort of madman thought it was a good idea to infuse a creature with the energies of the Nightwell, but it looks like it might be tough to bring down," Thalyssra commented, as that much she could tell with a glance at the beast in question, where it made it hard to tell if Spitfire's additional powers would be able to turn the tide against this creature or not, though at the same time she could see that there was a Fel barrier blocking the way forward, meaning that Gul'dan likely knew that they would come down here at some point in time and wanted to slow the heroes down enough to make sure he could complete his mission. Spitfire held out an arm for a moment, with one of her Twinblades at the ready, and the heroes quickly spread out around the chamber without wasting even a second, though once everyone was prepared she shifted her stance as she hurled the warglaive through the air and let it strike the side of the scorpion's back, where it actually seemed to do nothing to its back as the weapon returned to Spitfire, but her attack had done what she wanted and the scorpion turned to face them not a few seconds later, indicating that a fight was about to start. As such both she and Rainbow shifted into their empowered forms and rushed through the air, colliding with the scorpion as the rest of the heroes joined the battle, hurling spells and arrows while hacking into the exoskeleton that was protecting it from the majority of their attacks, meaning they needed to find a way to smash through it and expose their foe's weakness to everyone, because once such a thing happened they would be able to even out the battlefield to some degree, though for right now the pair had to parry the pincers that their foe was using against them. As they faced their foe, and their allies lashed out at it to do something to the hard crystalline nature of its body, Rainbow banished a Warblade for a second as she channeled her power into a lance and thrust it down into their foe's backside, causing a small detonation that scattered some large crystalline chunks around the chamber, an odd consequence of her actions, something that caused the beast to roar in annoyance as it started to channel a bit of its own power into a blast of pure Arcane energy right in front of its face. In that moment the heroes knew that it was going to fire it right at all of them. Spitfire, on the other hand, remained in front of the scorpion as she reached into the small sack she carried and quickly pulled out her Arcane Stone as the blast came at her and her allies, though the reality was that the attack hit the gemstone and was pulled inside it, transferring the attack back into usable energy once more, but once that was done she and the heroes rushed at their foe once more, this time targeting the crystals on the scorpion's back as they fought to pry them off, like what Rainbow had done on accident, as it looked like it might be a way for them to shatter the crystalline exoskeleton and open their foe's defenses. Rainbow's next attack, however, shattered the exoskeleton and caused the scorpion to flinch as its defenses were open for all of them to take advantage of, displaying that it had some sort of intelligence that was different from a normal animal or creature, but since it insisted on fighting them they had no choice by to take it down and lashed out with all of their power, as this time they could actually deal some decent damage to their foe, though while they did that Spitfire noticed that the scorpion was gathering power and, once everyone was done with their big skills, she had them hide behind the scattered crystals and they avoided taking damage when the beast fired off a shockwave at them, even though it was followed by it regenerating its exoskeleton as it shattered the crystals. From that point onward it was just a matter of reading the scorpion's movements and countering them accordingly, as in the heroes were focused on clearing out the group of normal sized scorpions that the main one summoned to fight them, as they happened to be waiting for Rainbow to deal the first blow to the beast's back, Rainbow used her low power of her lance to blast a hole in the scorpion's defenses while making sure to parry any and all incoming attacks, and Spitfire made sure to use the Arcane Stone to absorb the focused Arcane blasts that would seriously hurt them, all while the healers did their best to make sure no one sustained any damage. It was rather simple because the scorpion didn't do anything odd or different from the first set of attacks it showed them when they started the fight, meaning everyone could focus on each attack it used against them and either move into position to bypass taking damage or dishing out their own damage to the massive scorpion that was blocking the way forward, though as it happened they could tell that the scorpion was trying its hardest to bring them down, something that was followed by Spitfire doing something different. What she did as Rainbow took their foe's focus was that she raised two fingers, just like she did sometime after balancing the Life energies she had gained from fighting Xavius and being blessed by Lunara and all of the other inhabitants of the Dream, where a large mass of roots burst out of the opening that was near the crystals the scorpion had been devouring and wrapped around one of its pincers, stalling it when she yanked it backwards, where Rainbow shoved a lance down the scorpion's throat and let it explode in its mouth, sending a massive shock through their foe's body and shattered the exoskeleton once more, which opened the way for the others to face it. Once that was done Spitfire leapt into the air as Rainbow and the heroes used all of their power to bring down the scorpion at long last, since they had been fighting for a time now, where she moved her right warglaive over to her right for a moment as she spun around so the scorpion would be right behind her, while the direction her body faced would be the tunnel they used to enter this chamber, before she gathered a new type of energy into the edge of her weapon, the dark gray Death energy, and swung a crescent wave of energy that sliced into the back of their foe and caused it to stagger for a moment as pain raced through its body. Once that happened there was no stopping the group from breaking down the scorpion, who was trying to kill them and fulfill its mission, and the final blow came from Scarlet stabbing its skull and brain with Frostmourne, causing it to go still a few seconds later as it crashed into the ground, something that caused the heroes to huff for a moment as they put away their weapons and sat on the floor, as it was time for a short break before even delving deeper into the depths of the most important structure in the entirety of Suramar City. "Impressive. All of you did well to take down that creature," Thalyssra commented, speaking the moment she lowered the barrier she had raised to prevent that massive scorpion from breaking out of the depths and making its way into the city, even if it would have taken some time to reach that point considering its size and the size of the tunnels it would have had to pass through, though she agreed with Spitfire, as the heroes needed rest after a powerful foe and she knew that there had to be more creatures like the scorpion down here, before they found a path out of the depths, "also, not counting the demons of the Legion, all of you are the first outsiders that have been allowed inside the Nighthold, even if its the depths at the moment... though breaking that barrier might have alerted Gul'dan to the fact that we're coming." "Good, as no matter what he does we'll kill him!" Rainbow remarked, where the heroes nodded their heads in agreement, as many of them wanted to bring down Gul'dan and make him pay for everything he did in the past, including what he had done since coming to their timeline, and this was a long time in the making for them, since they had been looking for him since the Felstorm opened above the Broken Shore, so all they had to do now was rest and wait for whatever else might be down in the depths of the Nighthold. It took a few minutes for Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes to regain their energy, though once they were ready they got up and headed for the tunnel that the Fel barrier had been placed in front of to make them waste time fighting the scorpion, to which Thalyssra and Khadgar followed after them as the heroes braced themselves for whatever else the depths of the Nighthold might have in store for them, since there was no telling what sort of enemies they might have to take down before they reached something that Thalyssra was familiar with. As they reached the top of the short tunnel, however, it was easy to find that the new group of enemies were made from Arcane energy, meaning some of the Nightwell's energy had to be seeping out of where it was being contained and was taking form before their eyes, to which Spitfire rushed out and smashed into one as Rainbow did the same thing, while the heroes joined them and attacked the new enemies that were in front of them, though as all that happened Thalyssra noticed that bits of energy were breaking away from the new enemies and wrapped around Spitfire, no doubt focused on her Arcane Stone. Thalyssra wondered if it was the power of the Nightwell, reacting to a force of Arcane energy that was similar to it or had a bit of its own power inside it, or if it might be something else entirely, though while she was wondering if the stone had some sort of limit, since she knew Spitfire had been using it to absorb all sorts of Arcane power, but decided that now wasn't the time to worry about that as she and the heroes smashed their way through the first group of Arcane enemies that were in front of them, even if one needed to be attacked from behind to take down. Once those enemies were taken down the group moved forward and continued to make their way deeper into the Nighthold, which involved walking up a short set of stairs and brought them to a very short bridge, guarded by another group of Arcane entities, though it lead them to a door that seemed to be sealed by a seal that was a fusion of Fel and Arcane energies, meaning they needed to take out these enemies and the next group before the seal would break and they could enter whatever was on the other side of the large door, hence why they rushed into their enemies and pushed them backwards as they fought them. As they engaged the final group of enemies Thalyssra weaved some of her power into the door and, somehow, broke the Arcane section of Gul'dan's seal, since she had to assume it was the orc that had created it due to Elisande refusing to do his bidding, though that might be false given that Gul'dan could have threatened to destroy the city to force her to comply with his demands, but once their enemies collapsed the seal shattered and the door opened, revealing a massive chamber that had a circular object that she knew, from a glance, was the base of the Nightwell, which had a massive Arcane being floating around it, even if there were three more groups of enemies standing around the rest of the chamber, but for the most part they were focused on the elemental. "Shanar daloras... this must be the heart of the Time Lock spell that Elisande informed us about!" Thalyssra exclaimed, as she could see the tendrils of power radiating from the dark purple entity that looked like it was incredibly dangerous and might actually put up quite the fight, which made sense when she considered that it had to be made from the energies of the Nightwell, though it also meant that if Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes of Azeroth faced it they would be more wiped out than when they faced the scorpion or the enemies that came before it, "I can feel her power, attached to the creature in front of us, meaning that once you beat it we'll be able to break the spell and free our army!" Spitfire said nothing to that as she, Rainbow, and the heroes headed down into the rest of the chamber and focused their attention on clearing out the three groups of enemies that were resting around this large area, as they didn't want any of them to charge at them when they engaged the massive Arcane Elemental, as some of the powerful enemies liked to call on minions that were around where the heroes found them, so wiping out the three groups meant that they could cut off their target's forces for a time, since it might have the power to summon allies to its side. Once Spitfire was sure that all three groups of enemies were taken care of, and that there were no more for them to worry about for the time being, she and the others gathered near the stairs that lead to the rectangle area that Thalyssra and Khadgar were standing in, as an area like that happened to rest between the door that lead to this chamber and the stairs that allowed them to walk down to this area, and waited for the Arcane Elemental to get closer to where they were currently standing. As soon as it neared them, however, she rushed through the air as she and Rainbow struck their target's chest, causing the elemental to roar in pain for a moment, or at least it sure felt that way, while the rest of the heroes lashed out with their weapons and spells as well, though what was interesting about this was the fact that the creature actually spoke to them, asking why they were trying to 'defy that which devoured all things'. In that moment Spitfire determined that Elisande likely didn't give this being a mind of its own, rather she only created it to maintain the Time Lock spell and it had developed a mind and personality on its own, one that was likely corrupted by Gul'dan or the Fel energy in some manner, and for the first few seconds they didn't see it do anything else besides trying to punch its targets into the ground, like it didn't have any moves despite it having a connection to the Nightwell, which changed when it dropped a person sized orange colored sphere on some of them, no doubt filled with Arcane energy. Of course Spitfire pulled out the Arcane Stone and set it around the area they were fighting in, allowing it to soak up the scraps of Arcane energy that were around the base of the Nightwell and, at the same time, sending it into the orange attacks to weaken the spheres as her allies dodged them, as they weren't moving all that fast and were easy to avoid, allowing them to continue lashing out at their foe. Something changed a few moments later as a small fragment of the Nightwell's energy broke off the base and landed not too far away from where the heroes were standing, forming a slightly larger Arcane elemental, as in bigger than those that had been resting around this chamber and not the massive one they were fighting at the moment, to which some of them broke away from the main elemental and focused on the smaller one, as it was an ally that would do harm to the group and they needed to take it down before returning to their main foe. It was clear to Spitfire and Rainbow that both of their enemies, in some way, had the ability to tap into the power of the Nightwell and tried to use that to their advantage while the heroes fought them in two different areas, as the smaller one channeled a bit of its power at the base and caused a small wave of energy to emit from the Nightwell not a few seconds later, though the healers were able to overcome all of the damage that the attack did to and allowed the heroes to bring the smaller elemental down, causing them to turn back towards the main one. Of course that was when their true target revealed its power to them, as it connected to the power of the Nightwell and time seemed to slow down around Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes that were around them, as the massive elemental was causing everything inside the chamber to slow down thanks to its spell, while both Thalyssra and Khadgar remained untouched, as they were rested just outside the area they were fighting in and that meant the decent sized rectangular area was safe from being affected by the Nightwell's energies, for right now anyway. Even Rainbow, who was in her empowered state and was moving faster than most of the heroes that were around her and Spitfire, had been slowed down as well, meaning all of them were sitting ducks for as long as this spell lasted and they could see that their foe was lashing out at all of them before the spell broke, hence why the elemental punched and blasted them while none of them could do anything to it, all while Spitfire noted that the Arcane Stone was absorbing bits of Arcane power again, so it might be able to aid them against this foe once it had enough of their foe's power inside it. When the Arcane Elemental was done attacking them it restored time to what it had been earlier and watched as its foes were knocked back for a few moments, as everyone was now feeling the attacks their foe had used against them while it had slowed time for them, something that prompted the healers to weave their energies around the heroes and healed all of them to the best of their ability, which was easy since none of them were missing limbs or seriously wounded in some manner, so once they were ready to go the group resumed fighting their foe. Of course that was when their foe started to channel its power into the base of the Nightwell again, causing waves of energy to pulse out of the structure as small blue Arcane orbs were sent out between them, almost like the Arcane Elemental was trying to overload the Nightwell and take all of them out with it, in the oddest way possible, but based on what the group could see no damage was done to any of the walls and both Thalyssra and Khadgar informed them that none of the energy was moving out into the palace, so the reality was that it was a move designed to bring down those who challenged the Arcane Elemental. As such Spitfire used the Arcane Stone to weaken the attack in question and opened several holes in both the waves and the orbs so her allies could get through and lash out at their foe, while Rainbow flashed through the air and struck the massive Elemental in the head area and the backside a few times, all to make it stop channeling its power into the base of the Nightwell, but based on what she was seeing it didn't want to budge at all and was followed by Spitfire focusing her stone on their foe for a few seconds. Sure enough the power of the Arcane Stone siphoned some of the Arcane Elemental's power from it, despite the fact that it was only a small fraction and shattered its focus so it was no longer trying to use the Nightwell against them, though at the same time she wasn't about to argue with the results as they reengaged their foe and continued to fight it as it tried to move around the chamber, almost like it might be running scared or something, as she, Rainbow, and the others focused on dodging attacks, countered the smaller elementals that were fragments of the Nightwell, and lashed out at the main Arcane Elemental that was in front of them. Eventually Spitfire and the others brought down the massive Arcane Elemental, where it staggered for a few moments as they dealt the final blow to their foe and caused all of them to pause for a second as it unraveled before their eyes, energy breaking away as the heart of Elisande's Time Lock spell fell apart before them, though as most of it returned to the source it had come from, as in the Nightwell, a fragment of it was sucked into Spitfire's Arcane Stone, empowering it again, leaving the heroes to rest for a time before they did anything else. "I can feel it... the Time Lock spell has been broken!" Thalyssra said, confirming what everyone had been thinking after the main Arcane Elemental fell apart, though this meant that their army was no longer trapped on the bridge and their allies had to be moving in to make sure the soldiers weren't too bothered or disoriented by being stuck in such a state, though at the same time she noticed that another Fel barrier, which had been blocking the other doorway that had to lead them to a way up into the Palace Grounds, fell apart and the door opened, revealing another tunnel for them to use, "With this our allies can make sure our soldiers aren't disoriented by Elisande's spell, though I'm sure some will need some time to rest before doing anything else, and we can even unlock the gate from the inside... I can only hope that we reach Elisande before something bad happens to her." "Don't worry, Gul'dan is likely keeping her around to see that its 'futile' to resist the Legion," Khadgar stated, as he was the one that knew the most about the orc warlock that was in the middle of trying to do whatever his masters wanted him to do for them, which was either summoning Sargeras to Azeroth, to use Illidan's body as his vessel, or to tear open the way to Argus and rain destruction upon this world, before he focused on Thalyssra for a moment as he considered what might be happening to Elisande, "she's either being tortured by his hand, being tortured by a demon Gul'dan assigned to watch over her, or she's at the peak of the Nightspire, to witness the completion of his mission... given what I know, the first or third options are likely what we'll find in some manner." Thalyssra didn't want to think about Gul'dan, or one of his demons, torturing Elisande, as she didn't deserve it and knew it would take some time to heal any wounds that might come from such a thing, though once the heroes were ready to go all of them got up and followed Spitfire as she headed for the other doorway that a Fel barrier had been wrapped around for a time, where they headed up the stairs in question and reached another rectangle area that was identical to the one that they had passed through earlier. This time around they found a few small sized oozes wandering around the now opened doorway, aggressive oozes to be exact since the group wanted to take them down for some odd reason, to which they cut and blasted their new foes a few times and watched as the oozes collapsed within a few moments of fighting them, leaving small puddles behind that seemed to disappear after five to ten seconds, causing the group to raise their eyebrows for a moment as they noticed all of that happen. Once that was done they walked through a small tunnel that was beyond the door that had been protected by a Fel barrier earlier and found that there was a new chamber for them to explore, which had a number of oozes wandering around it, not to mention a larger pool of light blue liquid that had a couple of bones in it, though there were a few Arcane constructs that were resting around this area that looked like they were broken, likely beyond repair, and there was one that looked like it might be online, just resting behind what appeared to be the path that would bring them outside. Thalyssra, on the other hand, instantly recognized what was going on and informed everyone that the foe in this area was an Arcane construct known as Trilliax, who had been a servant to a specific noble at one point in the past and had been discarded when it went on a terrible rampage, sort of like the Arm of the Magistrix, and another reason for them doing such a thing to the mechanical being was because the Nightborne nobles suspected that Trilliax had killed its master and buried his body somewhere, and since time had passed since that day the personality matrix of the construct was no doubt compromised, so if it engaged them it was likely to switch between two to three personalities, and based on the Fel barrier behind it, a sure sign that they were on the right track, that meant they were going to have to fight Trilliax so they could move forward. As such Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes focused on breaking down the oozes as Thalyssra and Khadgar remained in the tunnel to watch what was going to happen next, and when all of their foes fell the essences of the oozes quickly rushed over to where the larger pool rested and caused a larger ooze to form, something that collapsed within a few moments of fighting the heroes, though when it spilled out into the area Trilliax stirred for a moment before coming online and quickly smashed through the metal bars that were between it and them, to which they remained near the walls for a few seconds as it cleaned up all of the ooze before glaring at all of them. What Spitfire noticed was that Trilliax's coloration was orange, instead of purple like most of the other constructs that rested throughout Suramar City, though when she struck him not a few seconds later, to get this fight started so they could move out into the Palace and focus on their true foes, Trilliax had a leak of some kind and when he swung his left arm at her a bit of Arcane energy broke off of him and struck the ground not all that far from where the construct was standing, creating a small pool of harmful energy that they needed to avoid while they faced their foe. Rainbow and the others joined in on the fight as she engaged it, where it seemed like their foe wanted to create pools around them so he could bring them down, but what was interesting was that a bit of Arcane energy just gathered on his head and leapt over to one of the offline constructs, empowering it as one of Trilliax's personalities came to life before their eyes, forcing some of the heroes to engage the smaller foe while most of them focused on their main foe, even though they were making sure he didn't have any tricks up his sleeves or something, especially when they took a moment to think about what the scorpion and the Arcane Elemental threw at them during their previous battles. For right now it looked like Trilliax was being simple, as in he didn't want to use any serious tactics against them, save for sending out all of his Arcane pools and trying to slice them with some Arcane energy, before he switched to something else not a few seconds later and leapt into the middle of this chamber, so he could channel a beam of Arcane energy at the wall that was in front of him and the wall that was behind him, even though it also involved him rotating around in a circle for a few seconds in an attempt to bring them down. As that happened Rainbow leapt into the air and spun around to bring her tail down on Trilliax's head, crushing part of the construct's head in the process and caused his attack to stop as he staggered backwards, where she was, once more, glad to have this addition, before she rotated and sliced through her target's chest with her clawed feet, doing more damage to Trilliax as she pushed him further backwards, while at the same time the heroes lashed out at the weakened construct and even removed his right arm in the process, before Spitfire stabbed his heart and crashed him into the ground, cutting off all life that was inside Trilliax and deactivated the Fel barrier. The heroes glanced at each other for a moment, figuring that their foe had been weakened from when the Nightborne discarded him, since they had to fight Trilliax and take him down so they could seal him in this place, though since he was dead, and Thalyssra confirmed that not a few seconds later, the group decided to take a quick break before heading up the stairs so they could see what the rest of the Nighthold had in store for them, since they had no telling what Gul'dan might have added to the Palace, but soon they would find him and battle for the fate of the Nightborne. > 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. > Suramar: Demons of the Nightspire > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As soon as Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies were ready to go, they departed from the Eternal Observatory and headed for the fountain that Aluriel had been guarding, though this time around two new allies walked with them, as both Tel'arn and Etraeus seemed eager to bring the fight to the Legion and take down those who were trying to bring ruin to their city, not to mention the rest of Azeroth for that matter, while Thalyssra remained at the ready in case she needed to fight some of their enemies and Khadgar kept hold of Light's Heart, leaving the astrologers and gardeners to head over to the main gate of the Nighthold's main, to give them aid. It didn't take them long to leave the chamber that they found Etraeus inside and headed down the stairs that brought them back to where Aluriel had been patrolling, as it was time to head to the area that was directly across from where the main gate rested, not the Nightspire anyway, as from an aerial view there was a cracked bridge that used to connect this part of Suramar to the Broken Shore, back when it was just Suramar and the structure that had become the Tomb of Sargeras, a bridge that had been broken thanks to the barrier that had been placed over the city all those years ago, and it happened to line up with where the Nighthold's main gate rested. Spitfire's plan was simple, they were going to take out whatever powerful creature had to be guarding the bridge area, as she could feel something in that area and knew that Rainbow, at the very least, could sense it as well, even though Etraeus confirmed that there was some sort of demon resting in that area and was guarded by whatever minions served it, while informing all of them that there was a Dreadlord inside the Captain's Quarters, the other tower that was across from the Eternal Observatory, so once they toppled whatever the other demon was they would take the Dreadlord out, before heading for the Nightspire to take down another demon and free Elisande, with killing Gul'dan being after that. The heroes considered her plan for a few seconds and quickly agreed with it, as going in a clockwise pattern right now seemed to be the best course of action, especially due to the fact that the Fel barriers seemed to be leading them in such a way, though once everyone was ready to go they headed to their left and started to march on their next destination. What they discovered was that there were a few types of demons resting in their way, as they expected since this part of the Nighthold was covered by Gul'dan's forces for the most part, where the first one that rushed over to them happened to be one of the Darkglares, a demon that was similar to the Observers Spitfire and Rainbow had faced during their time with the Illidari, only they were dark purple skinned demons that had plenty of spikes all over its head shaped body and its eye was a Fel green color. In addition to that they found a number of Doomguards standing guard, between them, the set of stairs that Thalyssra told them would lead to where the broken bridge rested, and the opening that lead into the base of the Nightspire, though they were also joined by a number of Eredar and likely the rest of the Felborne, even though these former Nightborne looked less like elves and were more like demons, to which Rainbow did what she did whenever they faced a large group of demonic enemies and weaved a net into the air to catch the demonic souls. With that in place she, Spitfire, and the group lashed out at the demons that were around this part of the Nighthold, where she spun around and used her clawed feet to carve up some of the Doomguards that were coming towards their location, Spitfire dodged a few attacks and cut down a few Eredar who decided to challenge her, and the heroes lashed out at the Darkglares, Eredar, the demonic Felborne, and the remaining Doomguards that were in this area, even though the healers weaved their power all around them and make sure that none of them sustained too much damage while they were fighting, as losing someone at this point would only annoy everyone. Of course there were a number of captured Nightborne in this area as well, no doubt sacrifices that were being readied for whatever Gul'dan was planning, so while they slew their enemies and dropped them to the ground, with Rainbow making sure her net caught all of their souls a few seconds later so they could be added to her collection, some of the heroes, the rogues to be exact, freed the Nightborne so Thalyssra and Khadgar could make sure they returned to their forces that were resting at the main gate, to be tended to and allowed to head home like the others who had been freed before them. It took a few minutes to actually clear out the demons who were in this part of the Nighthold, not counting any that were in the Captain's Quarters anyway, though as soon as that was done, and Rainbow confirmed that her net had caught all of their souls, the group headed down the large set of stairs their enemies had been guarding, crossed a circular area that had no one guarding it, and started down the path that would bring them to the end of the broken bridge, but before they got too far a massive Infernal, which was easily twice the size of a normal one, crashed into another smaller circular area and reformed as it faced them. Everyone immediately determined that this was the guardian of this area, blocking the way to whatever demon was waiting at the end of the broken bridge, though instead of wasting time the heroes lashed out at the Infernal and hacked into its legs, or its arms when it swung at them, while Spitfire and Rainbow flew around the upper part of its body and lashed out at its head or back, though Rainbow also tanked a few pulsing Fel orbs that were designed to deal damage to everyone in their group, allowing her body to absorb the Fel energy before continuing her attack, which ended with the Infernal falling so they could press on. With the Infernal taken care of everyone was able to see that there were three Eredar, two male and one female, who were standing near the end of the broken bridge and appeared to be in the middle of channeling their powers into what, at first glance, seemed to be a Fel portal located under the water, but the reality of the situation was that it was a Fel seal that was keeping something from rising out of the depths, which had to be the demon that needed to die so they could move onto the Dreadlord that was inside the Captain's Quarters, but this just meant whatever was under the water had to be powerful, which excited Rainbow a tiny bit. Once they understood what was in front of them Khadgar weaved his power into a set of Arcane steps for the group to use to get down to where their target was resting, even though Spitfire and Rainbow used their wings to fly down to the Eredar and engaged them, who had to stop what they were doing to focus on them and the heroes, though it didn't take all of them that long to bring all three of them down and allow Rainbow to capture their souls not a few seconds later, before the seal shattered and they watched as a massive giant demon, with red skin that had a bunch of Fel cracks around its neck and shoulders, burst out of the water and stared at them, with only its upper half facing them. "Krosus... the demon who extinguished most of Tirion Fordring's life, during our first assault on the Broken Shore, which lead to his eventual death," one of the Highlords, leaders of the Paladin order, stated, informing Spitfire and Rainbow as to who they would be facing for the next couple of minutes, even though they were sure that they had gained the name due to Gul'dan giving it to them before sending the demon to kill them, where Spitfire was sure it was the retribution paladin who spoke up, considering that she carried Ashbringer, the very weapon Tirion had carried into battle before his passing, before they stared at the angry looking demon. In the first moment Spitfire informed the heroes that Krosus was a Doom Lord, not to be confused with the high ranking Doomguards who went by the same title that was only a single word, which was a type of demon that was rumored to be part of the Legion, an amalgamation of all sorts of demons that was created to be superior to every other race that served Sargeras, and this was the first time she and Rainbow had found one during their fights with the Legion, but it only made them wonder just how many more Doom Lords existed across the worlds that Sargeras had conquered in the past, before she refocused on Krosus once more. As soon as everyone was ready to go they charged at Krosus without delay, where he swung his blackened Fel cracked fists at Spitfire and Rainbow as they moved through the air, as both of them shifted into their empowered forms without delay since they knew this sort of demon wasn't to be taken lightly, even though when his fists collided with their incoming attacks Thalyssra, Khadgar, and the others watched as the air shuddered for a time due to the Fel energy of Krosus colliding with the power of their demon hunter allies, even though it looked like everyone else was having a hard time wounding the demon's chest. Of course it didn't take long for Krosus to try something else, which came in the form of gathering his Fel energy and fired a beam right at those that were fighting on the shattered bridge, as he intended on breaking them down and killing them for his master, though Rainbow quickly rushed down to where their foe was aiming and used her innate power to absorb Fel energy to counter the Fel beam, not to mention absorb most of its power in the process, which allowed the heroes to get out of the way and continue lashing out at their foe, as while it looked like nothing was working both she and Spitfire could see markings appearing on Krosus' chest, meaning he had to be taking damage from the attacks their allies were using on him. Another interesting move he had access to was that he could send out bits of Fel fire from his shoulders and strike the bits of the bridge that the heroes were fighting on, though Rainbow found that many of the heroes rushed over to where Krosus' attacks would hit and cancelled out the flames as each of them struck the areas that were their destination, though one did hit the water, for some reason, and it turned out that such a thing spawned a Fel fire elemental, which Spitfire cut in half before returning to the first. After that Rainbow tanked two more Fel beams that were meant for the heroes that were fighting with them, even though she did know that Krosus was stronger than what she and Spitfire originally assumed, since this was their first time facing off against one of the rumored Doom Lords, and he seemed to enjoy pounding on the part of the bridge that was in front of him, cracking part of it in the process before eventually breaking it and caused everyone to back up, but as that went down Krosus raised his hands and created a massive sphere of Fel energy that he threw at them without delay, something that Rainbow countered like when she tanked the Fel beams, stalling it in the air for a time before breaking it down and absorbed all of the energy that had been inside it. Such a thing caused her to huff for a moment, as the Fel sphere, likely an orb designed to destroy those who were caught in the area it landed in, had more power than what she had thought it might have and it took a lot out of her to counter it, but the good thing was that it allowed her to boost her considerable power by quite a bit, though once the sphere was taken care of Krosus stepped forward and stopped when he neared the edge of the now shortened bridge, allowing him to engage the heroes once more, even though he focused on swinging at Spitfire and Rainbow as they moved through the air. From that point the heroes discovered that Krosus started to repeat many of the moves he used before shattering part of the bridge, something they were expecting since it appeared that a good number of demons had a specific set of skills and abilities that they used whenever they faced their enemies, and it meant that they tended to use some of the stronger attacks more than once, to which they let Rainbow focus on tanking the Fel beams and any spheres Krosus sent at them while they wiped out the Fel fire attacks, while moving out of the way whenever he tried to slam his fists on the bridge. He even shattered the bridge a second time and forced them to move back before it happened, even though that meant they were running out of room since they were getting even closer to the edge of the bridge that lead back up to the Nighthold, though that didn't stop Spitfire and Rainbow from attacking him and cutting into his Fel skin, tearing sections of it away as he roared in pain, something that caused the heroes to do the same thing as they focused on taking him down and depriving Gul'dan of another ally. A few moments later, as Krosus raised his arms to drop another Fel sphere on their heads, Rainbow smashed through it before he could actually complete it, while her body absorbed the energy in question, and stabbed him in the brain, as she actually pierced his skull and her blades went right into his brain, causing the demon to roar in pain as he staggered for a time and, eventually, collapsed with his head resting on the bridge everyone was standing on, before his body broke apart and formed a Fel crystal at the end of the shattered bridge, which she smashed and sent Krosus' soul into her collection as well, while his immense Fel power was added to her own power a few seconds later. "Good, we have avenged Tirion and have ensured that Krosus is unable to be reborn," Khadgar remarked, as he knew that all of the paladins would be pleased to have slain the demon that had aided Gul'dan in slaying Tirion, not to mention all of the heroes who knew the man in question, though he had to admit that now he wanted to sit down with Spitfire, or even Rainbow, and ask some questions about the other demonic races Sargeras might have under his thumb, since they might know of more like the Doom Lord, something that would have to wait until after Elisande and the Nighthold were freed from the Legion's grasp, and Gul'dan was slain of course. Spitfire said nothing to that as she, Rainbow, and the others took a few moments to rest and recover from the fight with Krosus, as while most of them had emerged unscathed it was better to make sure everyone was rested and ready for the remaining enemies that stood between them and Gul'dan, and right now their next target would be the Dreadlord that was inside the Captain's Quarters, a powerful foe who would be angry at her and Rainbow for the destruction of its home world, when they were looking for information on the Sargerite Keystone. Once they were done resting the group headed over to the part of the bridge that Thalyssra and Khadgar were standing near and found that they had formed a new set of Arcane steps that would allow them to return to the main part of the Nighthold, even if it meant retracing their steps for a short amount of time before heading to their left, to which they simply accepted what was in front of them and made their way back into the main section of the Nighthold without delay, before turning towards the Captain's Quarters, which had a bunch of Fel energy coming from it. Sure enough they found a number of demonic enemies waiting for them outside the building in question, as in Darkglares, Doomguards, and some Eredar, to which the group lashed out at their new enemies as they made their way towards the structure the Dreadlord was resting inside, where Spitfire and Rainbow were sure that these enemies had been summoned to the Nighthold as reinforcements, meaning the Dreadlord knew they had to be on their way and wanted to slow them down, so they called enemies to their side to either kill them or slow them down, all so Gul'dan could complete his mission. Rainbow, of course, created another net to make sure none of the demonic souls left the Nighthold, just like she did in the past, while at the same time she hacked and slashed her way through some of the demons that rushed at her, as she and Spitfire happened to be their main targets since the demons considered them to be the greatest threat to their operations, even if the heroes of Azeroth were also incredibly dangerous in their own right, and as they pushed forward more demons fell and allowed some of their allies to free the rest of the Nightborne who were in this area, who were grateful and fled the area as soon as the way was open, joining those who had been freed since they started to assault this place. When they stepped into the lower level of the Captain's Quarters, however, Rainbow found a few Eredar standing guard in front of an Arcane cell, just like those that she and the others had seen inside the city, before noticing that Ly'leth was the one who was trapped inside it, which confirmed that someone must have kidnapped her some time before they assaulted the Nighthold's main gate and fell prey to Gul'dan's trap, to which they slew the demons, sending their souls screaming into Rainbow's collection, before Thalyssra broke the cell apart and Rainbow caught Ly'leth, who happened to be on the verge of becoming a Nightfallen. "Ly'leth... thank the Titans we found you, before something bad happened," Rainbow stated, even though that was an odd thing to say, since every one in their large group, save for Thalyssra, knew that the Titans had been defeated and that they weren't coming to aid them anytime soon, but as she said that she reached into her pack for a second and pulled out one of the two Arcfruit she had brought with them when they left Shal'Aran earlier, as she had the feeling that they would need them and, after seeing how weak Ly'leth looked, it was a good thing she had done so. "...sister... Rainbow, have you... seen Anarys...?" Ly'leth asked, where it was clear that she was weakened from being stuck in this area, trapped in the Arcane cell like an animal for the Eredar to stare at and observe, while being cut off from the Nightwell and the essence she needed to continue living, though while some of the heroes knew that Ly'leth was worried about her sister, given that Anarys had gone missing around the same time that Ly'leth had, some of them were a tad bit curious as to whether she had been referring to Anarys when she said 'sister', or if she meant Rainbow, given the amount of time that Rainbow had spent in Anarys' shoes. "No, I haven't seen her... we'll find her, wherever the Legion is holding her," Rainbow replied, though as she said that she made sure Ly'leth devoured the Arcfruit that was being offered to her, something that was followed by the Arcane rings appearing around her body as it was restored to its former Nightborne glory in a matter of seconds, just like what she and the others had seen in the past, and once that was done she made sure someone escorted Ly'leth to the rest of their allies at the main gate, allowing her, Spitfire, and the others to focus on what might be at the top of the stairs that lead to the upper floor of the Captain's Quarters. As soon as the hero who escorted Ly'leth to Tyrande and Lady Liadrin's forces returned to the Captain's Quarters, which only took a few moments since they were resting at the bottom of the nearby stairs that brought them up to this part of the Nighthold, the group walked into the passage that was to their right and found a set of stairs that brought them right to the next level of this building, where it took them little time to find a pair of Doomguards, a pair of Darkglares, a pair of Eredar, and a pair of Felborne standing near a large Dreadlord, whose wings radiated a Fel green coloration as he stood still and watched them enter the chamber he was resting in. "Incompetent mortals... even with the power of the Legion fueling their bodies, our 'allies' seem to be incapable of taking down anyone who assaults their palace," the Dreadlord stated, where Spitfire could see that even the Felborne nodded as he said that, showing that they agreed that their former allies were incompetent, though as she noticed that it was easy for them to see that the remaining Felborne were as corrupted as Aluriel had been when they fought her, looking more like demons and less like elves, though interestingly enough the Dreadlord did nothing as everyone stepped into his domain, while Thalyssra and Khadgar made sure barriers were up to prevent him and his allies from leaving, "Very well, I guess we can amuse ourselves by cleaning up the mess that our 'allies' have made... come, mortals, and suffer defeat at the hands of Tichondrius, known as the Darkener and Lord of the Nathrezim!" That statement, alone, caused Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes to lash out at Tichondrius and his demonic allies, with the majority of them focusing on the Dreadlord as a few turned on his allies, deciding to cut down the other demons before something bad happened to any of them, though as soon as the couple of enemies were taken care of, something that did cause Tichondrius to sigh as he realized that his allies had been decimated in a matter of seconds, including watching as all of their souls were caught by Rainbow's net and added to her collection. As soon as the other demons were dead Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes fully focused on Tichondrius as the Dreadlord lashed out with his clawed hands, indicating that he was ready to face them, though it was swiftly followed by him weaving some of his power into the air and summoned a batch of insects to deal damage to everyone that happened to be around him, where the heroes pulled back for a second as Spitfire summoned a flaming aura, burning all of the insects before they had a chance to deal any damage to those the Dreadlord had been targeting, before she spun around and swung at Tichondrius' chest, leaving a burning diagonal slash on his armor, even though she was sure that it struck his chest a little. One thing the demon tried to do was create blobs of what appeared to be blood, either his own blood, the blood of the fallen, or maybe a bit of blood from the heroes, but as he did that Scarlet and a few heroes turned and lashed out at his new allies before they had a chance to do much to the group, while Spitfire and Rainbow flashed through the large chamber and swung their blades at their foe, allowing their Fel energy to clash with Tichondrius' for a few moments, revealing that he was definitely a strong foe based on what the pair could feel at the moment. A few moments later Tichondrius started to channel a different power as four Fel spikes burst out of the floor around them and seemed to be readying a more powerful attack this time around, to which the heroes did the smart thing and dove behind the protections that the Dreadlord had created for them, something that was rather odd when they thought about it for a few seconds, though once he was done he raised his hands for a moment and loosed a number of Void bolts at everyone that was currently fighting them, something that surprised Spitfire and Rainbow, since they had been expecting a Fel attack and had been preparing for Rainbow to tank such an attack, before they dived behind one of the spikes and waited for the attack to be over. Once Tichondrius was done channeling his attack, where several of the bolts had bounced off the Arcane barrier that both Thalyssra and Khadgar had used since even they appeared to be some of his targets, the spikes shattered and that caused all of the heroes to rush back into battle once more, hacking into the Dreadlord's arms and legs for a moment while the ranged heroes fired upon him with all sorts of arrow based attacks and spells, showing him that they weren't going to fall to him and that they were going to bring him down at some point in time. What was interesting was that Tichondrius took a moment to focus on Rainbow and raised his right hand as he did that, where it looked like he might be etching a rune or brand on her, something he claimed was a powerful mark from Argus itself and that she would burn from the inside out as he fought her and her allies, to which she smirked for a moment as she braced herself and her Fel energy quickly devoured the Dreadlord's brand, empowering her even more than she had been before as she burst into the air and punched him right in the jaw, knocking the demon backwards for a few seconds as he rubbed that area. It appeared that he had no idea that Spitfire and Rainbow were capable of absorbing Fel attacks and empowering themselves by adding whatever power was inside the attacks to their own pools of energy, hence why he went and used a Fel attack without thinking about any consequences that might arise from his actions, but before Tichondrius could recover from Rainbow's attack she, Spitfire, and the rest of the heroes lashed out at him without delay, showing that they were planning on bringing him down so they could liberate another section of the Nighthold and move onto the Nightspire. As that happened Tichondrius shifted to a new tactic as his power affected everything that was around him, allowing the Dreadlord to vanish as he affected his foes with an illusory world of sorts, sending phantom bats to attack everyone in this chamber while he lurked in the bits of shadow that were around them so he could loose bursts of Fel energy at the rest of Azeroth's heroes, as he wasn't going to target Spitfire or Rainbow with this attack, not after what he had seen when Rainbow intercepted his first attack, but he did notice that Scarlet and the others avoided his attacks without much delay, causing him to frown, as growling would let them know where he was, which was when Rainbow rushed at him and punched the left side of his face, knocking him out of his illusion and knocked him to the floor. As Tichondrius got up he started to wonder how in the world she had noticed where he had been positioned, because his spell was designed to hide him until he was ready to resume the fight, but before he could open his mouth he noticed that Rainbow's eyes were glowing with a bit of Fel energy, the cursed Spectral Sight that several of the surviving Dreadlords had told him about, a skill that all demon hunters learned and was capable of seeing things that were invisible to someone that had a normal sight. In that moment he growled as he pushed himself back onto his hooves and rushed back back into the fight, as he wanted to avenge his shattered world by killing Spitfire and Rainbow Dash, something that would allow him to capture their souls and present them to Sargeras, who would reward him for his actions and might grant him more power for the future, or maybe a new world so he could replace the one that had been shattered by Illidan and his Illidari, but he knew to reach that point would be no easy feat considering what was in front of him, now that he had a better idea of the power that these two cursed Illidari possessed. Rainbow, on the other hand, decided she had enough of playing around and went on the offensive for real, as in she switched to ducking and weaving as she avoided the attacks that were coming at her, while spinning to use her clawed feet at Tichondrius' chest so she could scratch up his armor and break through to his actual chest, especially since it included using her tail to strike him several times to either crush some of his bones or slow him down so the others could continue to lash out at the Dreadlord, leaving Spitfire to focus on the enemies he called to his aid, as Tichondrius opened some portals to call forth several Wrathguards and Darkglares to attack them from the back and disrupt their efforts. As such the Dreadlord watched as his reinforcements were slain in a matter of seconds as Spitfire flashed all over the chamber and swung her Twinblades at the new enemies that happened to be responding to Tichondrius' call, where she quickly littered the ground with the corpses of the demons who were coming at them while all of their souls were captured by Rainbow's net, not that she cared about taking their souls for herself, but once every single additional demon was slain she returned to the battle and lashed out at the Dreadlord, knocking him back into the wall he had been standing in front of previously, and it was clear that he was weakening before their might. In fact Rainbow channeled some of her Fel energy into her right fist and slammed it into Tichondrius' chest, shattering his chest piece and causing him to cough as she cracked several of his ribs, even breaking many of them and lead to his heart, and his other organs, being punctured in the process, which forced him to drop to a knee for a moment as he realized just how doomed he was right now, before she spun around and called her Warblades out to remove the Dreadlord's head in an instant, allowing her to send his soul screaming into her collection while splitting his power from it to add all of that to her growing pool of power. "Last time we saw Tichondrius was during the Third War, when Illidan killed him... in fact, given a brief resonence from his resting place, I think he's pleased with you killing him again," Khadgar commented, referring to Light's Heart for a moment, as he was carrying it and making sure no one got close to damage it, since it contained the soul of Illidan Stormrage inside it right now, and it sure looked like his spirit was pleased with Rainbow killing Tichondrius and sending his soul to a place where he wouldn't be able to leave, not unless she freed the souls that were trapped inside her Warblades, though before he could say anything else Thalyssra glanced in the direction of the Nightspire, "though it would seem like we can take the fight to the Nightspire and kill whoever is guarding Elisande, before moving onto Gul'dan at long last." Instead of saying anything Spitfire nodded her head as she and the others waited for a few moments, a period of rest once more, before departing from the chamber they had fought Tichondrius in and found a doorway that brought them to a short passage that linked the Captain's Quarters to one of the pillars around the main structure, where they found a warp pad that would, according to Thalyssra, bring them to the Nightspire, the font that Elisande usually stood near while she worked her magic. As such they accessed the device and allowed it to bring them up to the outside of the chamber their next foe would be resting in, since someone had to be watching over Elisande, even though it took Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes some time to get up there since they went one at a time to get up to their destination, with both Thalyssra and Khadgar bringing up the rear like usual, meaning if there were any enemies standing between them and their destination the heroes could take care of them. What was surprising for the heroes was the fact that there were no demons waiting outside the Nightspire, as even Spitfire and Rainbow were taken aback by it when they noticed what was going on, though it did mean whoever was with Elisande felt that they might be untouchable or something, to which they walked up the set of stairs that were in front of them and finally entered the Nightspire, allowing them to gaze upon the font of energy that Elisande usually stood near and worked with, which meant they were near Gul'dan's location, before Thalyssra gasped as she spotted the Grand Magistrix, causing them to see her as well. Elisande was kneeling on the floor, off to the right side of the font of energy, from the direction they entered through, even though it looked like her legs were locked to said floor by some Fel metal shackles, while at the same time there were shackles around her wrists that were connected to a Fel spike that was just as tall as this chamber was, where it looked like someone had been tormenting her and allowed her a couple of moments of rest before they started another session, as it seemed like she could be raised into the air by some chains that were connected to her shackles, while parts of her clothing were torn, her crown was nowhere to be seen, and her shoulder pieces appeared to be shattered and and the pieces were scattered around this chamber, almost as if whoever was in this area was trying to break her mentally. It was in the following moment that Spitfire and Rainbow spotted a demon standing near Elisande's location, a crimson skinned Sayaad to be exact, who had a large pair of leathery wings that had a dark red coloration to the sections between the 'fingers', which ended in curved spikes, though that was when they noticed some golden chains that seemed to be wrapped around part of the upper part of her wings. Based on what everyone could see the chains didn't seem the type that would restrict movement, so it was more like a fashion choice on her part, before finding that she wore far less than the rest of her kind, which was hard to think about when they considered what the other Sayaad wore. The reason for that thought was due to the fact that it looked like she wore a metal bra and the metal only rested below her breasts, which were a full size larger than Rainbow's breasts and the metal likely prevented any sort of sagging, and it was easy for them to see that nothing was covering her breasts. After seeing her chest they found that she also had a red sash in front of her groin, linked to a set of metallic hip protectors, while the fronts of her legs were covered in metal that had red lines on them, metal shaped to fit her legs and stopped just above her hooves. "Ah, Spitfire and Rainbow Dash... I've been waiting to meet you two," the demon stated, where she turned to face them as soon as they entered the chamber and took in what she had left for everyone to find if they made it this far, though they found that she spoke with an alluring and sexy voice, befitting of the one that was known as the Sayaad Queen, as both of them suspected that they had found the demonic queen they had been told about back in Stormheim. As the demon completed her motion it was easy for all of them to see that her sclera were bright orange colored and her eyes were a crimson red, while she had black curved markings that went from the outside of her eyes and stopped near the edges of her mouth, and the demon had long black hair which stopped right at the middle of her back, which made her look gorgeous in her own right. "I mean, you two have been killing many of my daughters and acolytes, trapping their souls in your weapons so they can't return to my paradise for... addition training," the demon continued, showing that she must have been thinking about this for a while, all while watching as her kin were slain in battle, and while she was clearly upset about it she also seemed to think that this was a game, "though when the chance came to claim my revenge I took it... and I've been spending some of my time on Elisande here, as I have found that she will make a wonderful addition to my paradise, once I've broken both her will and her body that is." "Xazariel, the Sayaad Queen that's also known as the Queen of Sin." Spitfire replied, naming the demon that was in front of her, Rainbow, and the rest of the heroes, as she honestly wasn't expecting to encounter this particular Sayaad, figuring she would be busy on another world or something, though thanks to what the demon was saying it made it clear that two of them were her targets and the others were likely bonuses or something similar. Given that comment she and Rainbow readied their weapons for a moment as they focused on the Sayaad that was right in front of them, leaving the heroes to spread out a little and put a bit of distance between them and Elisande, as it looked like she needed immediate care. "Good, you know of me, meaning we don't have to waste time on me telling you who I am," Xazariel said, though as she said that the demon stepped forward and vanished for a moment, only to reappear in front of Rainbow not a second later as everyone turned to notice where she had moved to, which gave her a chance to raise her hands and placed them right under Rainbow's breasts for a moment, like she was studying her or something, before quickly moving to study the rest of her body, and even Spitfire's body for a few seconds, only to return to where she had been standing once she was done with her investigation, "You know, its a shame that both of your souls have been reserved by Kil'jaeden, as I can easily tell that you two would have made fine Sayaad, after spending some personal time with me, so I could reshape your bodies to be true succubi and teach you about our powers... you two are wasted on him and those that serve him, especially after he lost his previous pets... oh well, there are a few heroes in your group that I can spend some time with and turn them into a group of fine Sayaad, in your place." Spitfire glanced at Rainbow for a second, who nodded her head in understanding, as Xazariel's speed was beyond what all of them had been expecting and such a thing meant that they needed to use their empowered forms to tackle her, but as soon as they decided that it was time to start the battle Xazariel seemed to consider the same thing as she held her right hand out for a second and drew a blackened longsword, with a red line going right down the middle of the blade, out of a storage area that only she had access to, and once it was outside she pointed it at them and smiled, like she felt that this battle was already over. Not a few seconds later she, Spitfire, and Rainbow flashed into the middle of the chamber, or at least the part of the chamber they were in, and clashed by swinging their weapons at each other, where it was easy to find that Xazariel used her blade to parry the incoming attack from one of them, push them back with a bit of her power, and then blocked another attack that came from the back, as Rainbow aimed at the Sayaad's neck from the back so she could take her out in seconds, only to be surprised when their foe blocked the attack, showing that she was skilled and not to be underestimated at all. The pair could tell that Xazariel was powerful, as not only could she see their attacks and counter all of them, for now at the very least, her Fel energy was similar to that of Krosus, though since she wasn't an amalgamation of demonic species it was possible that they were facing one of the most powerful natural demons, instead of one that had been created by corrupting another race into a demonic form, but that didn't stop the two of them from flashing all over the chamber as Xazariel followed them, leaving the heroes to rush over to Elisande as Thalyssra and Khadgar joined them, so they could focus on freeing her. What Spitfire found to be interesting was that a few moments later she was able to cut through the right side of their foe's body, even if it was a light gash that barely did any damage to the demon, but as it happened both she and Rainbow heard a moan come from Elisande, which was odd since it didn't look like Xazariel had left anything in her area to torment the ruler of the Nightborne, hence why they resumed attacking the demon while also avoiding her attacks, though it was slightly hard to do that when the pair discovered that her longsword also doubled as a whip, as with a certain movement the sections of the blade unlocked and separated from each other, which allowed her to hit one of them in the leg, even if Spitfire or Rainbow avoided the original attack. Of course Spitfire came to understand something when Rainbow delivered several slashes to their foe's side, wounds that glowed for a few seconds and disappeared as if they had been healed, and the key came from Elisande herself, because as each blow was dealt the Grand Magistrix moaned at roughly the same time, even if she was a little delayed, meaning the Sayaad had done something to her before their arrival and it appeared that wounding Xazariel was connected to what was happening to Elisande, which had to be worrying Thalyssra as she worked to free Elisande from her bindings. "I see... you've made it so that whatever pain you feel is transferred to Elisande as a wave of pleasure," Spitfire said, as she quickly figured out what was going on with the Grand Magistrix, even though it was pretty clear based on what happened whenever someone struck Xazariel and what happened to Elisande at the same time, while at the same time it confirmed that the demon was a true succubus, as she seemed to enjoy breaking others by using pleasure and whatever methods allowed her to use that on those that either wronged her or interested her to some degree. "Indeed. It is a spell that I call 'Pleasure through Pain', and it comes in handy when I capture someone and the rest of their group comes to save them," Xazariel replied, her tone revealing that she did approve of Spitfire figuring out was going on with Elisande in a matter of minutes, even though had originally assumed the demon should have been annoyed with this turn of events, meaning it was possible that she saw this more as a game and less of a fight, where she chuckled for a few seconds as she likely recalled one of her favorite times she used this spell, "in fact, the last group of heroes I used this on ended up condemning their female companions to an eternity of servitude in my paradise, as the pleasure caused them to fall into my grasp and corrupted their souls... it was fun turning them into Sayaad, while their former companions watched me corrupt them, before I sent the remaining heroes to another Legion world... that is the fate of those I use this spell on, and soon I'll break Elisande as well." Spitfire frowned for a moment as they learned that information, as it meant that they couldn't actually hurt Xazariel right now, since all of the pain that was inflicted upon her would be healed in some manner and transferred to pleasure that would would wash over Elisande, likely growing in intensity until her targets broke down under her mental assault, but as she and Rainbow considered this fact Xazariel moved first as she flashed over to Rainbow's position and, instead of using her weapon to attack her chosen target, smacked Rainbow's rear, causing her to yelp as she swung her Warblade and just missed taking the demon's head. In that moment Spitfire determined that this should be a personal battle and silently had Rainbow head over to where Elisande was resting, as her Fel power should be enough to shatter the chains holding her in place, and maybe even break the spell that had been placed on her, and as that happened she channeled more of her own power into her body and rushed at Xazariel, all while making sure to toss Thalyssra her pouch with the Arcane Stone, as it might help them out as well, before swinging at the Sayaad Queen with the intent to push the demon backwards, giving all of the others time to focus on freeing the Grand Magistrix. While she might not be able to actually do any damage to her foe, not without making things worse for Elisande, the same could not be said for the demon, as Xazariel actually attacked Spitfire with the intent of killing her, meaning she had to avoid attacks, parry others, and restrain herself from lashing out at her foe, even though Spitfire was sure that the Sayaad Queen was thinking about ways to corrupt her body before she was handed over to Kil'jaeden, not to mention doing the same to several of her friends and allies for that matter, meaning Xazariel loved to corrupt her targets in both mind and body, before either adding them to her paradise or sending them to whoever reserved the soul in question. Based on what Spitfire knew she was sure that Xazariel would, if given the chance, force the lowest position a Sayaad could obtain on her, to humiliate her for slaying the succubi that she and Rainbow had encountered since being released from the Vault of the Wardens, though she was brought back to reality as Xazariel used a whip she summoned, a normal one with a blackened tip, to strike her breasts for a moment, sending a wave of pleasure though her body for a few seconds before she growled and rushed into battle once more. As she did that Spitfire noticed that Rainbow and the others shattered the Fel chains that were keeping Elisande chained to the floor and the Fel spike, freeing her from where Xazariel had been keeping her, which amused the Sayaad Queen as she witnessed it happen, though that was when the demon frowned as something in the chamber changed not a few seconds later, as Elisande, who had returned to her Nightborne state thanks to the Arcfruit Rainbow had given her, had weaved a bit of her immense and incredible power over Spitfire's foe, slowing down her attacks and movements, before blasting her right in the chest with a burst of Arcane energy. "Really? You slowed time for me and then attacked me? How stupid can you be?" Xazariel remarked, as she was referring to the spell she had used on Elisande earlier, meaning she was expecting the damage to be healed and transferred to the chest of the one her spell linked her to, though a few seconds ticked by before she coughed up some blood and noticed that her chest was burned from the Arcane Blast that had struck her, something that caused her to keep the frown on her face as the heroes smiled not a second later, "What did you do?!" "I broke your spell... meaning that we don't have to worry about hurting Elisande anymore!" Rainbow replied, to which she flashed through the space between her and the Sayaad Queen, who was moving far slower than she had been when they started this battle, something that was possible thanks to Elisande's time manipulation powers, though that was followed by her cutting a pair of diagonal slashes into her foe's chest, causing her to slowly back up as she quickly realized that her advantage was gone and that nothing was stopping them from cutting her down. Instead of doing that, however, the heroes stood near Elisande as Spitfire rushed at Xazariel, going on the offensive for the first time since she realized what sort of trap their foe had set for them, in regards to the Grand Magistrix, where she was able to swing her Twinblades and delivered a number of slashes to Xazariel's body, cutting a few into her chest, some onto her arms and legs, and even one on her neck, before she stabbed the Sayaad Queen in the chest and caused her to pause for a second, but before the demon had a chance to curse her out, or whatever was going through her head, Spitfire just pulled her warglaive out and beheaded the demon, dropping the body to the ground. Once that was done took a second to weave her magic through the air and snatched Xazariel's soul, sending it screaming into her Twinblades while making sure to separate her power, just like what happened when Rainbow absorbed the souls and power of their demonic foes in the past, though before anything else had a chance to happen Elisande raised a hand for a second and revealed that the Arcane Stone was floating above it. Not a few seconds later she connected it to the Nightwell for a couple of seconds, all to empower it with a potent fragment of Arcane energy, before cutting it off and transformed the stone into a mass of purple energy, something that she pressed into Spitfire's body and everyone watched as she absorbed it as well, just like the last two Cosmic Forces they had encountered while they were taking down those that were currently threatening Azeroth, all while the Legion was attacking them again, though all of this caused a sphere of energy to envelop Spitfire for a couple of moments. A few moments later the energy broke apart and revealed that Spitfire had changed a bit, as she now had four wings behind her, where she had a Fel green leathery bat wing above her Death wing and a shimmering purple feathered bird wing, maybe a phoenix's wing, resting below her Life wing, showing that she now had access to four of the six Cosmic Forces, which meant it was Elisande's thanks for saving her, the city, and her people, before they noticed that her body was a tad bit slimmer and sexier than what she had been like previously, likely a benefit from absorbing Xazariel's great Fel energy and adding it to her own, before Rainbow noticed that Spitfire's breasts were now a little bit bigger than her own, a tiny bit anyway, another benefit of absorbing the Sayaad Queen's soul. Once everything was said and done Spitfire smiled and had everyone rest for a few moments, as Elisande needed time to form a portal that would take them up to where Gul'dan and the Eye of Amun'thul rested, because it was time for them to bring an end to whatever mission the orc warlock had been given and then, once they were sure the city had been freed, they could begin their preparations for a new assault on the Broken Shore and Kil'jaeden's stronghold, wherever the latter might be located. > Suramar: Confronting Gul'dan > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Spitfire suspected it took a few minutes before anything happened, as Elisande was working on the portal that would allow her, Rainbow, and everyone else to head up to something called the Font of Night, which happened to be the top of the both the Nighthold and the Nightwell, where the Eye of Amun'thul rested, and Thalyssra was working with her to be sure she didn't stumble, given that she had just been through quite the ordeal thanks to the Sayaad Queen's torment and the fact that she had eaten an Arcfruit to cleanse herself of her dependence on the Nightwell's energies. Such they knew that it would take a while before they had to move, the heroes spent this time preparing for the battle with Gul'dan, due to the fact that they were mere moments away from facing one of their worst foes and putting an end to whatever plan he had been working towards since he came to Suramar, even though at this point many of them had figured out, without being told all that much, that his plan might be to use the body of Illidan Stormrage as a vessel for Sargeras, or at least that seemed to be the most accurate idea they had come up with. It was also possible that he was only using the body as an anchor or something to boost the power of the Felstorm that was building about the Tomb, maybe in an effort to link Argus with Azeroth so Sargeras could come collect his prize at long last, but regardless of whatever his mission was they knew that they needed to be ready for anything and everything, especially with Khadgar informing them of every bit of knowledge he had on the orc warlock in question, though for now he would be sitting out of the fight to make sure Light's Heart remained safe and sound. If Spitfire was right there would come a time where Lord Illidan's soul could be returned to his body, shoving out whatever Gul'dan was trying to do to it, though all of the Fel energy that was being used on him would actually boost Lord Illidan's power and that would be a benefit for later on, when it came time to launch their next assault on the Broken Shore, a successful one this time since both the Alliance and the Horde were no longer trying to kill each other, which was one of her and Rainbow's greatest achievements, not counting everything else they had done to save this world. Once she pushed that thought from her mind Elisande smiled as the portal she had been working on flashed for a second and stabilized before their eyes, meaning that the way to the Font of Night was open and that it was time for them to get going at long last, to which Spitfire made sure everyone else was ready to go, as in they had rested and had made sure all of their equipment was ready, before heading through the portal and found herself on a new circular platform that had a mass of Arcane energy moving through several groves in the floor, had four elven statues that formed an x, four pillars which seemed to be holding up the dome for this area, and found Gul'dan standing in the middle of a light blue glass-like area that had two rings in the ground. "Ah, yes... the heroes have arrived. So persistent, so confident in your 'victory'... but your arrogance will eventually be your undoing." Gul'dan said, his tone revealing that he didn't care much for any of them, despite the fact that they had broken his plans in Draenor and had done the same to most of the plans he had set in motion since coming to Azeroth, though as he said that the rest of the heroes teleported up to the Font of Night as Spitfire noticed that the orc was channeling a bit of Fel and Arcane energy diagonally up into a large Fel crystal, the very one that contained the body of Lord Illidan, which she knew Khadgar would be keeping an eye on, before the warlock glanced at all of them, "Alliance dogs... have you forgotten your humiliation on the Broken Shore, about how your precious High King was bent and broken before me, before I used a bit of Fel energy to kill him? Will all of you beg for your lives as he did in his final moments, whimpering like a pack of worthless dogs once you have been shown the error of your ways? Your pathetic Alliance will fall to dust soon, your new boy King will bow down and serve me, and all of you will be twisted to serve the Legion!" "You will find that we won't be so easily broken," Remeraa stated, causing every hero from the Alliance to nod their heads for a moment when she said that, showing Gul'dan that none of them were scared of him anymore and that many wanted to bring him down for his crimes against them, Draenor, Azeroth, and everyone the orc had messed with since pledging himself to the Legion, even though his statement about the previous High King caused many to frown, as they didn't like the fact that Gul'dan was trying to trash the memory of Varian Wrynn. "And what of you, dogs of the Horde?" Gul'dan continued, either not caring for what Remeraa had to say or simply let her speak before making the rest of his statement known to all of them, even though this time he switched to the heroes of the Horde this time around, where Zuleth and several others gripped their weapons as they frowned at him, knowing that he had something foul to say before they lashed out at him and got this battle started, "Have all of you forgotten how your mighty Warchief was stuck in the belly like a helpless piglet? Will all of you die as slowly as he did, with your bodies being consumed by Fel corruption and squealing for a merciful end that won't be granted to you? Your pathetic Horde will fall to dust as well, as you are made to serve my masters as well, and in the end, death will inherit this world... though the husk of Illidan will prove an ideal vessel for my master's glory, for Sargeras will rise at long last, and together we will watch your world burn in the Fel fires that have consumed countless other worlds." "You done talking? Because you'll soon discover that none of us will beg for mercy... though you might be asking for it by the time this battle is over." Zuleth commented, referring to the fact that Spitfire and Rainbow were standing with them as everyone stared at the orc that was currently in the middle of this area, as one of them now possessed four Cosmic Forces inside her and the other seemed to be a walking incarnation of Fel energies, as each demon slain made Rainbow stronger and prepared her for the battles that were ahead of them. "And let's not forget you two, Spitfire and Rainbow Dash." Gul'dan stated, showing that he had one more thing he wanted to say before he moved on with his mission and the battle started, though at the same time the pair in question pulled out their warglaives, knowing that the moment he stopped talking they would rush into battle and take him down, even if it might take some time for them to kill him since he must have prepared a number of defenses to protect himself from all sorts of harm, which was when the orc chuckled for a couple of seconds, "Once we claim Azeroth for the Legion, and have taken down those who would stand in our way, we will find out where your world rests and drown it in a sea of Fel energy, corrupting and twisting everything and everyone you know into demonic beings that will lay waste to everything else that exists in reality... you didn't think we weren't aware of the power that the two of you possess, did you? You have shown us that the beings who call your world home would be perfect additions to the Legion, once we corrupt and train them, and the two of you will be leading the charge on your own world, once I've killed you and your companions." "Yep, we're so going to kill you." Rainbow remarked, to which she and Spitfire rushed through the air and swung at the orc before he had a chance to react, though that was when they noticed the pair of rings that formed the outside of the Eye of Amun'thul moved out of the floor for a moment and started to spin as both of them passed over Gul'dan's head for a few seconds, forming an Arcane dome from the energies of the Pillar of Creation, something that caused them to stop as soon as it happened and backed off, all while everyone else scattered around the Font of Night, as they knew that it was time to fight Gul'dan, even if the orc was protecting himself for the time being. In that moment their foe chuckled again as three points of Fel energy appeared around the area the heroes happened to be standing in, where a Fel Lord appeared near Spitfire and Rainbow, an Inquisitor formed out of some shadows near the heroes of the Alliance, and a large Jailer was summoned near the heroes of the Horde, showing them that Gul'dan likely didn't think that they would be able to beat him and wanted his remaining minions to take everyone down while he turned his attention to a ritual that he was trying to perform. While it was clear that he was trying to divide them into groups and make sure they couldn't do much for a time, as if he was trying to play on the fact that the Alliance and the Horde didn't like each other at all, the two groups nodded their heads as they glanced at each other before weaving themselves into a single unit in a matter of seconds, something that caused Gul'dan to raise an eyebrow as the heroes lashed out at the pair of demons that had been sent at them, some of the Alliance and the Horde focusing on the Inquisitor while the rest turned on the Jailer. Spitfire found Gul'dan's shocked expression to be amusing, as it meant that he had been assuming that both factions would eventually break down when he targeted them and they wouldn't rush to each others aid, almost as if he might be hoping for something similar to the Broken Shore happening again, at least from his view point since he had no idea why the Horde had been forced to flee and why it prompted the Alliance to flee a little later, though as she took a few seconds to think about that Rainbow flashed around the remaining demon, where she was sure that all three of them had to be lieutenants of the orc, and spun around as she hacked the Fel Lord apart in seconds, while making sure to catch all three of the demonic souls before they left the area. Such a thing caused Gul'dan to pause for a moment, as he was likely expecting his minions to stay alive for far longer than what he had just witnessed, even if he took into account the power that was coursing through Spitfire's body, power that she hadn't used yet since there was no need to do such a thing just yet, though once everything was said and done everyone regrouped and faced the Eye of Amun'thul once more, as now they were waiting for him to make the next move and emerge from the dome that was around him, even though Spitfire had the feeling that Elisande might be able to stall it since she likely had more experience with the Pillar of Creation than anyone else in existence, save for the fallen Titans anyway. In the following moments Gul'dan made up his mind on what he was doing to do about the situation he was in, where he seemed to call upon the Fel power that he was using to bolster his frail body, as his body enlarged before their eyes and only stopped when he was twice, if not three times, as tall as he had been before the battle had started, Fel spikes had also burst out of his arms and were covered in Fel energy, and there was a crimson red glow around his eyes as he stared at all of them, which was also when the Eye stopped rotating and a wave of Fel energy shattered the dome that was covering the Font of Night, even though Spitfire wasn't worried about the debris since Jaina and the others could catch the pieces before they hit the ground. "You have failed, heroes, as the ritual is upon us!" Gul'dan stated, though as he said that none of the heroes were even a tad bit impressed by the display he was putting on for them, as his sudden transformation meant that he had to be very worried about facing off against the powers that Spitfire and Rainbow possessed, despite all of the Fel power that he could call on to complete his mission, before he stepped off the Eye of Amun'thul and glared at them for a time, likely planning out how he was going to go about fighting them, "However, to ensure that the ritual is successful, all of you must fall first, and with my unstoppable power I will bring all of you down and crush your spirits!" With that said Gul'dan actually rushed into battle, as in charged at the heroes, and clashed with Rainbow, as she happened to be the one to charge at him as soon as he started to move, while Spitfire and the rest of the heroes lashed out at their foe, even though it was clear that he was focusing on one of the more dangerous enemies and showed that he was much smarter than those who came before him, given that most of his demonic followers didn't focus on her or Spitfire and just focused on hitting the heroes first, though if he was truly smart he would have lashed out at Spitfire first, given that of the two she was the strongest, but for now Spitfire let him move however he wanted. As such the first collision of Rainbow and Gul'dan's Fel energies caused everything around the Font of Night to shudder for a moment, even though what caused it was the fact that one of Rainbow's Warblades had been caught by Gul'dan's right hand, showing that he knew more than what all of them had assumed, before he channeled more Fel power into his other arm and threw another punch that was aimed for Rainbow's face, something that she avoided by dodging out of the way and swung her other Warblade not even a second later, hitting the orc's chest and cut through part of his robe. Given the lack of a grunt or something it was face to assume that either she had missed his chest or the attack had connected and nothing had happened, as if hard metal had hit a bit of equally hard metal, with the latter being Gul'dan's Fel-hardened chest, though in the following moment both of them separated from each other for a few seconds as the empowered warlock tanked several blasts that were coming his way from the other heroes, where he waved his hand and hurled a number of large Fel fireballs at his targets, though he found that none of them hit their targets as Spitfire raised her right hand and cancelled them out by blasting them with a bit of power. As that happened Rainbow summoned her lightning powers and flashed into battle once more, where she used her enhanced speed to move all around the area that Gul'dan was standing in and watched as he focused on her not a few seconds later, as if his eyes could catch up with her speed, before he hurled a number of massive Fel fireballs right at her, showing that he was less interested in the heroes and wanted to kill her first, though that didn't stop her from using her Fel power to absorb the power that was being sent her way, which caused Gul'dan to pause again, likely thinking that what he had heard only translated to souls, before growling as he moved forward once more. Rainbow was more than happy to engage Gul'dan again, causing the air to shudder again as their energies collided against each other once more, though as that happened the orc warlock waved a hand and formed two gestures, the first caused a number of Fel portals to open up as more demons, as in the types they had faced when they started to fight him and a couple of others that were listening to their master's call, while the second was designed to summon chains made out of Fel energy all around her body, all so he could summon a massive Fel meteor to crush her into a statue, but Rainbow was pleased that Gul'dan was a moron and siphoned all of the Fel energy into her body, cancelling the attack before rushing into the space that her foe was occupying to punch him in the face. As such Gul'dan staggered backwards as Spitfire and the heroes focused on clearing out all of the demons that were pouring out of the portals that were around the platform everyone was currently standing on right now, though of course she knew that Rainbow was maintaining her net to catch all of the souls that were freed from the bodies of their enemies, where it looked like all of the bodies faded away once the demon in question had been slain, being absorbed by the soul no doubt, and it wasn't long before the souls surged into the Warblades as Rainbow lashed out at Gul'dan, causing the air to shudder once more. Gul'dan was roughly as strong as Xazariel was, in terms of Fel power, with the Sayaad Queen being stronger than the warlock currently was, but, at the same time, Rainbow was just as strong as he was and was growing even more powerful as time went on, as it looked like Gul'dan was starting to realize that calling on all of those reinforcements was starting to become a really bad idea, due to the fact that the more Fel energy she absorbed the stronger Rainbow became, be it from absorbing the power of slain demons or siphoning the power from any and all Fel attacks that were directed at her. In fact it caused Gul'dan to channel his power for a few seconds and summoned a number of shadowy orbs that looked a lot like his demonic eyes, so Eyes of Gul'dan if one were to actually name the attack, and he sent them at her, where they fired small beams of dark energy at her, which meant he had either figured out how to beat her, without feeding her more power, or he was trying another attack to try and take her down, to which she sighed for a moment and disappeared as she flashed around the section of the Font of Night that they were fighting on, cutting down the Eyes before they could do anything to her. If the warlock was surprised by the sudden collapse of his Eyes he didn't show them any new expressions, rather he went on the offensive with his spells, weaving shadowy bits of energy into each and every one of them as he focused on taking her down first, where Rainbow found that she was also to siphon less from each attack and had to use a bit of her own Fel power to blast the rest of the attacks, causing the air to light up as the two fought each other, even though this was next to nothing in comparison to what happened when both of them physically clashed with their energies. Not a moment later Gul'dan gathered some Fel power inside his eyes and loosed what appeared to be scythe blades that were made from the energy he had been quickly pulling together, though since each of the blades were made out of Fel energy Rainbow took the orc's attacks and siphoned the power from each attack, but that was when she noticed that there was another benefit to this particular tactic, for Gul'dan at the very least, was that he was now able to attack at quicker speeds and started to do so as he attempted to catch up with Rainbow's speed. Rainbow smirked as she saw that, because she was still faster than both their allies and the orc warlock and was able to outpace Gul'dan with ease, even though it didn't stop her from doubling back to kick her foe in the face and knock him backwards, as while he had hardened his chest with the Fel power that was coursing through his body it looked like he didn't think she'd attack his head like that, but even then she knew his head would be hardened to some degree, in preparation for the fight, and knew that cutting it off would have to wait until she weakened him to the point where he could no longer maintain his empowered state. As such she flashed around the Font of Night as Gul'dan's eyes followed her, which was still impressive despite the fact that his speed didn't match hers at all, before finding that he was summoning a number of Fel fireballs above his head, likely to either toss them at her while hoping that she'd avoid them to burn those that were resting around the Nightspire's base, or drop his attacks on Spitfire and the rest of the heroes, to douse them in Fel fire and hurt their chances of beating him in this fight, where she quickly smashed through each of the large Fel fireballs, siphoning the power into her body like normal, before landing in front of Gul'dan and struck him with a bolt of lightning that pushed him backwards and caused him to stagger for a second, which had to shock the orc warlock as he witnessed it happen. In the following moments Rainbow discovered that while her normal attacks couldn't do much to the Fel-hardened body that Gul'dan was using to fight her, even if she was sure that Spitfire would be able to overcome it with ease, but using her lightning allowed her to actually cut into the orc's chest and blast him hard enough to leave some markings on his arms or whatever part she had struck, something that caused him to growl as he tried to bring her down, though by channeling her power along the edges of her Warblades, clawed feet, and her tail she was able to deal some good damage to Gul'dan as he faltered under her barrage of empowered attacks... before he loosed a burst of energy that knocked everyone back for a second, not enough to knock them off the slightly cracked platform, and teleported into the dome that the Eye of Amun'thul had created, putting up some protection around him once more. "No more distractions, for I have work that needs to be done!" Gul'dan stated, though as that happened his power flared to life once more as a large gaping hole in reality was torn in the air near where they were fighting, a tear that was just so happened to be facing the direction that the Tomb of Sargeras, and the Felstorm, rested in, which meant Gul'dan had to be in the final stages of his terrible mission, though on the other side of the tear Spitfire spotted a familiar sight, a planet that had been corrupted and was partly broken by the Legion's Fel energies, which meant it was Argus and that Sargeras was likely watching everything that was happening in this fight. "No if we have anything to say about it!" Elisande replied, where she and Thalyssra, who had been hanging back near the area she had opened the portal to, finally stepped forward and weaved their Arcane energies through the air, where both of them focused their minds for a moment and Spitfire watched as the rings of the Eye of Amun'thul stopped spinning, as if the two powerful Nightborne had cut off the power that was feeding Gul'dan's ritual, though while Gul'dan growled at her and Thalyssra, to show that he was annoyed with them and should have killed them as soon as he met them, Spitfire knew that the orc was still connected to the Eye in some manner, as the tear still existed, and suspected that if they were to weaken him enough such a bond would break in no time. In that moment Gul'dan raised his arms as he called out for his master's aid in taking them down, where they watched as the Fel energy that was rolling around his body took on a dark orange-red flame coloration as his frame grew larger once more, as he was now twice the size he had been after empowering his body the first time around, which meant they might be in trouble if his body were to resist most of the attacks that the heroes launched at him, though for the time being both Elisande and Thalyssra held the Eye of Amun'thul in check, giving Spitfire and the others the time they needed to take their foe down and stop his terrible mission from succeeding. Based on what Rainbow was seeing if Gul'dan poured any more Fel power into his body there was a chance that he would reach the point where he would detonate with enough power to wipe everyone out, something she would be able to cancel out by absorbing said power if it happened, though the instant he was done changing he rushed at where Rainbow was standing and swung his fist down at her, which she parried with a swing of her Warblades, even though that seemed to be followed by the air shuddering again as she felt part of the large platform crack, showing them that Gul'dan was far stronger than he had been moments ago. As that happened Gul'dan raised his other hand and made another gesture, which was when the wind itself picked up and seemed to push everyone towards the edge of the Font of Night, in an attempt to knock everyone off this area so he could be left alone and not have to worry about them interrupting the ritual he was performing, though for the most part the heroes were able to stand their ground and avoid the terrible fate that Gul'dan had planned for them, especially since Khadgar briefly made himself known as he summoned an Arcane wall to save them from the edge, though once that wind died down he withdrew his power and allowed the heroes to advance on the orc warlock once more. Gul'dan growled when he saw that and swung his hand again, summoning a number of his Eyes, now red colored and likely empowered like the rest of his body, to stall Spitfire and the others as he focused on Rainbow once more, who flipped onto his other arm for a moment and kicked out with right leg, hitting the side of the orc's head and knocked him to the side, which was oddly satisfying as his large frame hit the ground not a few seconds later, though her foe growled as he picked himself up and continued attacking her with all of his power, borrowed or otherwise. Interestingly enough just using brute force wasn't the only thing Gul'dan tried to do, as he called upon his vast power for a few seconds and summoned a dark storm of energy that lashed out with shadowy lightning, targeting the heroes without any sort of pattern, though in response to that the mages and shaman gathered their powers and lashed out with bolts of lightning or bolts formed from the energies they were used to channeling, cancelling out the dark lightning before any bits had a chance to hit them or their allies. Even despite what they were doing the healers made sure to focus on anyone who was hurt and mended their wounds, while avoiding the attacks that happened to be coming their way as well, but for the most part it seemed like Gul'dan had learned his lesson and was no longer summoning demons to come and bother all of them, since his minions would be slain in no time as their souls and power would be sent over to Rainbow, so what he was doing allowed them to focus on him, after slaying any and all of his Eyes that he sent at them. When it was clear that this attack wasn't working, since the heroes were taking care of the shadowy lightning, Gul'dan quickly dismissed it and used a bit of his power to summon a mass of shadowy energy that snapped out at the heroes in an attempt to snatch portions of their souls, likely to either weaken them or to slowly feed them to the power that was being used to open the way between Argus and Azeroth, though it was in that moment that Spitfire focused on another aspect of her powers and channeled a bit of her Death energy for a few seconds. Her tactic was designed to snatch the fragments of all of their souls and return them to their rightful owners, something that caused the orc warlock to growl as he noticed that happen, before she sent a burst of power right into the heart of his well of energy and wiped out the Well of Souls he had created not a few seconds ago, something that allowed Rainbow to lash out at Gul'dan as she struck his chest and knocked him backwards, showing them that one of her empowered punches was more than enough to knock him around, though she wasn't about to back down as she moved into a series of punches and kicks that were designed to weaken her foe even more and push him to the point where Gul'dan surrendered, or just fought to the bitter end and fell by her crushing his body to the point where nothing of him was left. Despite all of that Gul'dan also channeled some powerful flames as he faced them, hurling fireballs at the heroes before they had a chance to get close to where he and Rainbow were currently fighting each other, where Spitfire watched as all of the others avoided the attacks that happened to be coming at them and she simply waved a hand as she dispelled the energy behind the fireballs that came at her, once more showing everyone the difference in strength that existed between her and Gul'dan, where they knew that this would be over in an instant if she channeled her full power for even a second, but since she had taken down Xazariel she was leaving this fight to Rainbow, since her friend didn't need her stepping into this battle at this point in time. As that happened Gul'dan decided that enough was enough as he called upon all of the Fel energy that was inside his body and weaved it into thick Fel chains, ones he wrapped around Rainbow's body and hurled her into the space near the tear in reality, showing that he was going to either send her to Argus and seal her fate or this was a tactic for him to force her to consume too much Fel energy and have her physical form detonate, so her soul could be snatched by Kil'jaeden or someone else, but even as that happened it was easy for Spitfire to see that while Gul'dan's power might be starting to fail him, given that Rainbow was slowing siphoning his power and adding it to her own, that the connection between the orc and Lord Illidan's body weakened. That was what she was waiting for as she flashed over to where Khadgar was standing, as it seemed like Gul'dan was ignoring him for the most part, before placing a hand on his shoulder for a second as he raised Light's Heart and connected it to the Fel crystal, where she found a dark space that had to be filled with a portion of the terrifying energy that Sargeras commanded, something that made sense when she took a moment to consider that Gul'dan had been planning on using Lord Illidan's body as a vessel to assault Azeroth, but, at the same time, not too much of it was here and she could tell that more was trying to traverse the space between Argus and Azeroth, using the tear in reality as a portal to power a new Avatar. Instead of wasting time fighting the dark mass that was resting inside Lord Illidan's body, and giving away what she and Khadgar were doing so Gul'dan could empower it to where no one would succeed in stopping his mission, she channeled all four of her powers for a second and quickly latched onto the stream of power that was fueling the darkness, something she reversed with a wave of her hand and watched as the dark mass found itself being withdrawn by Sargeras not a few seconds later... even though she could feel that something or someone was observing what was going on at the moment, either the Dark Titan or something else. For a moment she had to wonder if he felt her growing power and was recalling his own to not lose it, like he was afraid of her crushing part of his power and preventing him from recovering it, though once she was sure the shadowy mass was gone she smiled and pulled herself back as Khadgar channeled Lord Illidan's soul into his body, allowing her to return to the fight that was going on and found that Gul'dan was chuckling as he continued to chain Rainbow up in front of the tear in reality, clearly unaware of what she and Khadgar had done, to which she nodded her head for a moment and found that Rainbow had noticed her movement as she refocused on Gul'dan. "Submit, Rainbow Dash, for you cannot beat me, not with the power that is being used against you!" Gul'dan stated, which just meant that he was going to continue to channel his Fel energy into the chains and whatever else he might use to keep her in place, until she submitted to him or died in defiance to his demands, but at the same time Spitfire was glad that he was incredibly arrogant, otherwise they would never have been able to get away with what she had just done, especially since the orc chuckled as he continued to pour his power into his spell, showing that he believed he had won despite the fact that none of the heroes had been beaten yet. "Sorry, but I'm not beaten just yet... also, thanks for all the Fel energy!" Rainbow remarked, where she played her hand not a few seconds later and the chains shattered as she finished siphoning all of the power that Gul'dan had been pouring into them, though as the orc flinched for a moment, not expecting her to actually overcome his spell, Rainbow grasped some of the magical threads that were in the air between them and suddenly Gul'dan coughed, something that was followed by all of the heroes witnessing a Fel green mass starting to leave his body, as now that Rainbow had tasted enough of his vast Fel energy she was more than capable of drawing it out of him. Gul'dan found that his form started to shrink as Rainbow siphoned his Fel energy, devouring every drop she got her hands on like she did to every demonic soul she snatched during the opening stages of this fight, where they noticed that both of her hands shook for a moment before her fingers took on a more claw-like form, similar to a Pit Lord's hands, and it even included her fur around her wrists turning into cyan scales, instead of the leathery skin that all of the vile Pit Lords had on their arms, legs, and the rest of her body, scales that also graced her legs as well, meaning she was becoming more of an amalgamation of her original form and the demons whose power she had absorbed. The moment Rainbow was sure the changes were done, since she was still in the middle of siphoning the rest of Gul'dan's power, who was currently back in the first form he had used against them when this battle had started, she rushed through the air and smashed her right fist into the side of the orc's head, knocking him to the ground as he lost more of the energy that was inside his body, an action that caused his former massive frame to decrease once more, causing Spitfire and all of the heroes to pause as they watched what was going on. Rainbow flashed forward not a few seconds later and delivered a few more attacks to Gul'dan as he tried to maintain his focus on the ritual to deliver Lord Illidan's body to Sargeras, something that had been broken as he focused on Rainbow, and with each attack the heroes watched as Gul'dan grew weaker and weaker as Rainbow stole all of the Fel energy that was inside his body, adding that stolen power to her own growing pool of energy, something that did cause the orc warlock to falter for a moment as he realized what was going on and growled as he realized that his power to call on more aid had failed him, as Sargeras had likely abandoned him in this critical moment once he realized that this ritual had been an utter failure. In the following moment Rainbow swung her right hand and let one of her claws connect with the orc's face, cutting a gash from the upper part of his right eye and down to the end of his nose, even though she narrowly missed taking his eye in the process, something that shattered his connection to everything that was around him at the moment and allowed her to siphon the rest of his Fel energy, leaving him with a tiny fraction of what he started with when this battle started, which also caused him to return to his base form and shatter the spikes on his back, before the force of her attack sent him spinning until he hit the ground and glanced at the tear in reality. In the following moment the portal shuddered as the image of Argus vanished and they were staring at a swirling vortex of energy that rested inside his tear in reality, something that caused a wave of energy to escape the tear not a second later, which was above the heads of everyone else that was watching all of this happen, before it connected with the Fel crystal that was resting up above them and sent it flying towards one of the statues, breaking the elven statue in half as the rest of the crystal shattered, though Gul'dan was focused on the tear in reality and nothing else. "No... NOOOO!" Gul'dan exclaimed, where he forced himself onto his feet and raised his left hand towards the vortex that was in front of him, all while there was a lot of Fel fire forming behind where he was standing, a result of Illidan's crystal breaking as it collided with both the statue and the floor, flames that he didn't notice as he focused on the fact that he had been defeated before the ritual could be finished, that his plans had been ruined by Spitfire, Rainbow, and all of Azeroth's mightiest champions, "This... cannot... BE..." As he said that the tear in reality slammed shut and disappeared, leaving the sky as bare as it had been before he tore that portal open earlier, something that caused him to fall to his knees as he finally realized that his master had turned his back on him and left him to the mercy of Azeroth's champions, where he focused on his hands for a moment as he thought of something, anything, that might save his life... though that was when two shadowy wings, ones that Spitfire and Rainbow instantly recognized from the number of times they had seen it, unfurled behind Gul'dan as the orc paused and turned to face the flames, which happened to be when Illidan Stormrage, in all his glory, emerged from the Fel flames and grabbed him by the neck, only to forcefully channel some Fel power into the orc's body as it started to crack, before he closed his wings on Gul'dan and the orc's body disintegrated in a matter of seconds. "You have seen what I have seen," Illidan spoke up, speaking for the first time since he had been slain at the summit of the Black Temple, which wasn't counting when his spirit had spoken to Spitfire, Rainbow, and the Illidari, before everyone was able to see that the only thing that remained of Gul'dan was his smouldering and blackened skull, which the Lord of the Illidari crushed with his left hand, likely a test to make sure that everything was in order and that no aspects of his body had changed since the last time he had been alive, before he turned towards the heroes as they came to terms with what was going on right now, "you now know what we face. Now, heroes and champions of Azeroth, follow me as we wage war on the Legion... and delve into the abyss!" Spitfire and Rainbow smiled as they sheathed their weapons, the first to do so, and approached their Lord, as now that he was back in action, and would retrieve his warglaives from the heroes who had taken them all those years ago, they could listen to what else he had planned and ready themselves for their assault on the Broken Shore, because with Gul'dan dead it was only a matter of time until Kil'jaeden made his move and they wanted to be sure they caught him before he was able to do anything with the Tomb of Sargeras and the Felstorm that was above it... though for now a small rest was necessary before they did anything else, and they were sure their new allies would like a short break before they tackled the next big problem that Azeroth was facing. > Interlude: Aftermath > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It is done... Gul'dan is dead, and both his mission and his plans have been shattered," Khadgar said, speaking up after he and the heroes witnessed Illidan's return, especially since he crushed Gul'dan with a burst of Fel energy and then smashed his skull, though right now he was pleased that everything had worked out to their benefit, as they had just deprived the Legion's foul master of yet another vessel, which he would have quickly used to enter Azeroth with, and brought about the resurrection of the Lord of the Illidari, masters of fighting the Legion on their home worlds, so with Illidan back on their side it meant they might be able to attack Argus at some point. "Indeed, though there is one last thing we need to do before we take the rest of the day off, and possibly take an entire second day off as well," Spitfire replied, as while she wanted nothing more than to rest and recover from all the fights they had been through lately, even though she was thinking of the time when she and Rainbow had escaped the Vault of the Wardens with the rest of the Illidari, it was something that would be impossible for some time, as with Kil'jaeden still being a threat to Azeroth it was only a matter of time until he emerged from the Felstorm with an army to take them out, so they needed to strike first, hence why she glanced at the artifact that she had been thinking about, "we need to move the Eye of Amun'thul, so it can be used to seal the Felstorm and cut off Argus from this world... which should give us more than enough time to plan out a potential counterattack, so we can take the fight to our enemies for once, instead of being the ones being attacked." "If its the Eye of Amun'thul that you are after, then please, take it with my gratitude," Elisande spoke up, something that caught all of the Nightborne that were around them, as Valtrois and Oculeth had come running to the Font of Night when they felt her and Thalyssra use their powers as they joined the battle, showing that they had been worried for their safety, though as she said that the Grand Magistrix focused on the Eye and thought about the fact that it was connected to the Nightwell, but to what degree even she was unsure of, despite the amount of time she had spent near the powerful font of Arcane energy. "Elisande... are you sure that such a thing is wise?" Valtrois inquired, speaking before Thalyssra had a chance to, despite the fact that she knew the First Arcanist would likely agree with what the Grand Magistrix was saying, since Spitfire and all of her allies had been responsible for saving most of the Nightborne and driving out the Legion's corruption from the city, but she was more worried about the potential side effects of the Eye being removed from this area, especially since there were still so many Nightborne who needed to be saved and that the Arcan'dor only produced so many Arcfruit each day, so if something happened to the Nightwell it might inflict some damage to the Twilight Vineyards and their ability to even produce Arcwine. "Yes, and we can counter any side effects whenever they appear... Gul'dan had forced his Felborne to stockpile Arcwine inside the Palace, so now we can return it to the people," Elisande replied, though she was happy to see that Valtrois and the others were concerned for the safety and well-being of the rest of their people, especially after everything they had been through since the Legion invaded their ancient home and attacked those who called the city home, something that was ultimately her fault since she had made the terrible bargain with Gul'dan, back when she felt it was the only path for her to save the Nightborne, which caused her to bow her head towards Thalyssra and her allies, "I'm sorry that you had to go through so much, all because of the potential futures I saw and the fact that there was only one that would have saved my people... had I waited a little longer, before responding to the terrible bargain I made, none of this would have even happened in the first place." "Because the futures you saw were nullified thanks to Spitfire and I escaping from the Vault of the Wardens, where even Medivh said something about the futures he saw being altered," Rainbow remarked, as she sort of recalled the words that the spirit of Khadgar's former mentor had told them when they first visited the tower he had been trained in for a period of time, though she was sure that the wording was different from what she had just said, but since Elisande nodded her head for a second it was clear she didn't have to say anything else about what the last Guardian had told them, or at least what they learned when he spoke to them. "You two changed the future to the point where every future I had seen no longer existed, and instead there was a more glorious future for my people, as saviors of Azeroth," Elisande said, as that had been the future she, Etraeus, and so many others had been working towards since the moment she had noticed it during one of her scrying sessions, where she used her powers and the Nightwell to peer into every potential future, but it came at a cost and she hoped that Thalyssra and the others would be willing to forgive her for her crimes against them, the city, and the rest of the Nightborne, as in she hoped that the good outweighed the bad that she allowed to happen, before she sighed, "though I would like to take this moment to apologize for everything..." Instead of letting her finish her statement, like the heroes had been doing, Thalyssra embraced the Grand Magistrix for a time, where Spitfire was sure that Thalyssra saw Elisande as either a sister figure or even a mother to some degree, as it was hard to tell which it might be due to all of the Arcwine the pair had consumed over the years, though while Elisande stood there for a moment, in shock over what her friend was doing, she eventually returned the gesture, likely seeing it as Thalyssra's way of accepting whatever apology she had been starting to give them. In that moment Spitfire glanced over to Khadgar for a moment, which happened to be when Jaina, Tyrande, and Lady Liadrin used Elisande's portal to get up to the Font of Night, showing that they were worried about all of the heroes, even though it was followed by Khadgar walking over to Jaina so they could pour some of their power into the area surrounding the Eye of Amun'thul, so they could move it to the chamber that the other four Pillars of Creation were currently resting inside, which would please their allies and make all of the Order Halls begin their preparations for the assault on the Broken Shore. Tyrande, on the other hand, just stood there for a moment as she and Illidan stared at each other for a time, where Spitfire and Rainbow knew that the pair had a troubled history with each other, something Spitfire knew about thanks to Xe'ra's visions and decided to stay out of their reunion, since it would be rude of her to bother them, even if they were only friends due to the fact that Tyrande had chosen Malfurion over Illidan, something their Lord had come to terms with in due tie, even though there were times he wished that he had been the one chosen by Tyrande. Still, the two of them had some things to work out and she was sure that Illidan would want to speak to his brother as well, likely to clear the air with him as well, so for now Spitfire left him to deal with Tyrande and hoped that the priestess understood that maybe she had been too harsh on Lord Illlidan, based on what some of the Alliance's heroes had told her and Rainbow some time ago, though her thoughts were interrupted as Khadgar, Jaina, and the Eye of Amun'thul disappeared, meaning that another part of their mission was successful and that they now had all five Pillars of Creation, meaning they could now seal the Tomb of Sargeras and buy them the time they needed to plan their eventual counterattack. Once Elisande and Thalyssra were done they separated for a moment and turned towards the edge of the platform the heroes had fought Gul'dan on, something that was followed by them projecting their voices to everyone in Suramar, as in the rebellion and those who stood against the Legion, announcing that Gul'dan had been defeated and his taint had been purged from Suramar, something that caused everyone that was inside the Nighthold to cheer and celebrate their victory over the Legion, which everyone else in Suramar had to be doing, before Elisande informed the heroes that there would be a feast in their honor, to show her gratitude for them and their allies saving the Nightborne, and it would be held down in the Palace Grounds. Not too long after that Khadgar and Jaina returned to where Spitfire, Rainbow, and the others were standing and joined them as they headed down to the area they had faced Aluriel in, something that caused Elisande to sigh again when she heard that her First Spellblade, the Captain of her Guard to be exact, had betrayed her and joined the Legion for more power, while being grateful that neither Tel'arn or Etraeus had fallen to the temptation of the Legion, but it did mean that she was going to have to find someone to replace her former Captain, which was where Thalyssra spoke up for a moment and suggested that either Victoire or Silgryn take up the mantle of the position. With the existence of the rebellion there were more experienced Nightborne who could fill any positions that had been left in the Duskwatch, due to some of their members joining the Legion and becoming the Felwatch, though Thalyssra informed Elisande that they could speak about how to repair the ranks of the Duskwatch later on, after they made sure the city was fine and ensure Gul'dan hadn't left any surprises for them, something that prompted Rainbow to leave the Nighthold for now, as she was heading out to deal with the Fel flames that had been left in the Waning Crescent, as in absorb all of the Fel energy that had been left in that area and open it so Vanthir and the others could return home at long last. Spitfire, however, remained with the rest of the group and found that an area was being set aside for the leaders of the Alliance and the Horde, as Elisande did want to talk with them and she was sure Thalyssra would be looking to become allies with them, something they would no doubt talk about in due time, even though she noticed that the pandaren cook who had been in Shal'Aran joined them and was directed to the kitchens without delay, as Elisande was eager to see what sort of cuisine the rest of Azeroth enjoyed, when they weren't busy dealing with the threats their world faced. Rainbow returned a few moments later, informing everyone that the Fel flames that had been dancing around the section of the city that the Legion attacked had been cleared out, as she had absorbed the Fel energy and extinguished all of the flames, meaning that the Nightborne would be able to rebuild anything that had been damaged in the attack and could return home once everything was safe for them, allowing her to rejoin the heroes and everyone else, even though it was clear that some leaders were on their way to the Nighthold, allowing her and Spitfire to focus on the one individual both of them were interested in speaking to. "Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, you two have done excellent since the last time I saw you," Illidan said, as he recalled how both of them had been the last time he saw them, adepts in the art of hunting demons and harnessing the Fel energy to take their foes down, but now they were far different from what he remembered, as both of them were far stronger than what he remembered them being, though that wasn't the only thing he noticed as he stared at both of them and the changes that had occured to their bodies, "and it would seem that the Fel energy has been kind to you." "Yeah, we've been killing demons and taking their Fel energy... and we've killed, what, ten to fifteen Sayaad each, so that's contributed to the changes to our forms," Rainbow replied, where she glanced down at herself for a moment and took in how her arms and hands looked now, as the latest change had been interesting and had come from siphoning a bunch of Gul'dan's Fel energy, before shifting her gaze towards something else, as in her enlarged breasts, where she was thankful that the additional weight didn't affect her ability to fight the enemies that were in their way, because if the new weight had knocked her off her balance she would have found a way to alter them, "plus Spitfire killed the Sayaad Queen earlier, so that's why her chest is a little larger than mine... honestly, I'm more interested in the demonic aspects that I've gained and what I might gain later on, since this tail of mine is great for smashing enemies." "The Sayaad Queen... she made a move, after all these years?" Illidan asked, because while he suspected that the Sayaad had a ruler, an incredibly powerful demon that was only spoken of in rumors and was said to be a stunning creature that corrupted any she took a liking to, it was another thing to hear that such a demon existed and that Spitfire had killed her in battle, taking both her soul and her Fel energy, which explained why Spitfire was far more stunning than Rainbow, not that he was playing favorites or anything, merely he was thinking about the facts that were being revealed to him, despite the fact that some of the facts needed to be thought about as he learned them. "Indeed, though she was Elisande's tormentor before we arrived, and she said that she wanted to corrupt the both of us, as she believed that Kil'jaeden didn't deserve to have us," Spitfire answered, though while it was still a little weird that the Sayaad Queen had informed her and Rainbow that she wanted to turn them into succubi, especially with how Xazariel had acted when she was studying both of their bodies during the fight, she glanced at her own body for a moment and knew that in a fight it wouldn't hinder her, including when she flew through the air, though if she was being honest with herself it was going to take some time being on Xazariel's level of beauty, something that had no place on the battlefield, before she thought about something else, "Also, this is going to be quite the surprise, as it was for me and everyone else, but I have access to four of the six Cosmic Forces that people can call upon." Illidan raised an eyebrow for a moment as he watched Spitfire focused for a second and four wings appeared behind her not even a few seconds later, one for Fel, another for Arcane, a third representing Life, and the fourth being Death, and he could see that the tattoos around her left arm had a Life green color to it, the ones on her left leg were an Arcane purple, the horn on the right side of her head had some Fel green markings all over it, and the markings on her right arm where a dark gray coloration that had to be Death, leaving her left horn that would have to represent Light and the markings that were on her right leg would represent the Void later on... and he could tell that Spitfire was far more powerful than what he had thought she would be, with Rainbow no doubt being close behind her. "Impressive. Kil'jaeden should fear the day he faces the two of you," Illidan said, as he knew that if he had to face either of the two in battle, and it was a serious fight where his life was on the line, he would likely be afraid of them and be fearful of any powers that they might bring to bare against him, especially since Spitfire had access to most of the Cosmic Forces and could likely call upon some spells from each element she had absorbed since the Legion attacked Azeroth, making her one of the most powerful beings in existence and explained why the Legion wanted to get their hands on both Spitfire and Rainbow, just so they could raze all of creation without worrying about stronger enemies rising to challenge them, if what he thought about their true powers was correct. Spitfire nodded her head for a moment and dismissed her wings not a few seconds later, where she joined the rest of the heroes in resting and chatting with the Nightborne they had been assisting for the last two weeks, as that was an accurate count of the days based on what she knew, before she noticed that the leaders of the Alliance and the Horde had joined them at last, even though King Anduin had trimmed some of his hair, tying up the rest in a very small ponytail of sorts that rested behind him, while his attire had switched to a light blue shirt and a pair of brown gloves, a set of ornate gold yellow shoulder pads, with black pants and black shoes, but interestingly enough he had no weapon with him, like he couldn't decide which type to use in combat. "Thank you for killing Gul'dan and ending his threat," Anduin spoke up, like he might be nervous about being here, among some of the most powerful individuals in all of Azeroth right now, as he had been learning from his father and Genn for so long, to take the throne of Stormwind when he came of age, not to mention once he was ready for it, so being named as the King of Stormwind, after Gul'dan exploded his father with a burst of Fel energy, had been quite the shock and he was still in the middle of learning everything that needed to be done, so he was more grateful for Gul'dan being killed, but this made him nervous, since he was the King of Stormwind now, before he focused on what was in front of him, "and, at the same time, you've made the forces of Azeroth that much stronger with the addition of the Nightborne... and yet, I have a feeling that this is only a start to something grander." "My thoughts exactly." a voice said, where they turned and found both Elisande and Thalyssra standing nearby, meaning what they had been doing since coming down to the Palace Grounds had been completed, though at the same time they could tell that Elisande had been the one to speak up, which made sense when they considered the fact that she had likely seen something in the changed future, after witnessing the shining future that had caused her to turn against Gul'dan and the Legion, before she faced Spitfire for a moment, "Lady Spitfire, Thalyssra has told me that you have plans to track down another timeline, one leading to an alternate world from the one that currently exists... Outland being the current name of the world in question, while Draenor being the older name before... to recruit more allies for the future." "Indeed, and after witnessing the power of the Nightborne I was planning on asking you if we could come up with a way to do such a thing," Spitfire replied, though she knew that such a thing might not happen soon, given that the Nightborne had just freed themselves from the thumb of the Legion, so depending on Elisande's answer they may or may not be able to call upon any of Draenor's reinforcements, but even as she said that she thought of something else, as she knew Khadgar had been responsible for the creation of three special rings during the Alliance and the Horde's time in Draenor, to help take down Gul'dan, and she could see that Khadgar and Jaina had come over after hearing her words, "actually, we might be able to use the three Savage Hollow rings as a key to link our timeline with the one in question, likely at the time most of our allies faced Archimonde." "Sadly, the Nightwell won't be able to help you in that matter... as its dying," Valtrois stated, where she and Oculeth joined the group that was gathering in the area between Etraeus' section of the Nighthold and the Nightspire, which caused them to turn towards the pair for a few seconds, who, in turn, quickly shifted their gazes and stared up at the area that the Font of Night of rested in, though her words caused them to raise their eyebrows for a few seconds as they waited for someone to speak up, "it seems that, without the Eye of Amun'thul protecting it, the Nightwell will start to dissipate in a day or two, and by my estimates, and those of a blue dragon I know, it'll be gone in a few days and I don't think we'll have enough time to do what you're suggesting." "Could we use the Nightwell to empower the Bronze Dragonflight?" Rainbow asked, as she had been silent for some time, thinking about what was going on and every piece of information she had learned so far, before considering something that might be worth adding to the conversation, even though it was easy for her to see that everyone turned towards her as she said that, with Khadgar thinking about what she and Spitfire had mentioned so far, "I mean, they're the dragons who watch over time and whatnot, and according to what some of the others have said it was a member of their flight that had been partly responsible for the creation of a new timeline, so if we empower them with the power that rests inside the Nightwell, and restore them to their full strength, could we accomplish Spitfire's idea?" Before anyone could say anything to that two portals snapped open nearby, one a golden sandy color that seemed to be a representation of time and the other being a dark version of the first one the group noticed, which was swiftly followed by an elf stepping out of the first portal, who seemed more like a High Elf and wore nothing over his chest, though he had a gown of sorts over his legs, like a mage might wear, while having his hair done up in a diagonal ponytail of sorts and there were two bangs, one on either side of his head, and Spitfire could see he had a single shoulder pad on his right shoulder, one that looked like it had been designed to be a dragon holding an hourglass. She had the feeling that this was the leader of the Bronze Dragonflight, a powerful dragon called Nozdormu and nicknamed the 'Timeless One', and according to what she had learned he, Ysera, and Alexstrasza had been the remaining original Aspects of Azeroth, powerful dragons blessed by the Titans all those years ago, and most of their power had been sacrificed to stop Deathwing a few years ago, before he could unmake the world or something, but of the original five Aspects only he and Alexstrasza remained, due to the fact that Ysera was slain in Val'sharah not that long ago. Of course Nozdormu wasn't alone, as Chromie stepped out and joined him a few seconds later, though there was an elegant female High Elf to his right that wore a slightly revealing dress, more in terms of the sides of her stomach area, that happened to be the color of the portal she had stepped through, where the elven lady had to be Nozdormu's consort or something, possibly the prime one since Alexstrasza had three based on what the heroes told her in the past, something that she felt they shouldn't know in the first place, but she said nothing as they emerged from the portal and faced the other one that was across from them. As soon as Nozdormu and his companions came to a stop, which was only a few seconds after stepping out of their portal, the other portal shimmered and three new individuals stepped out, causing Spitfire to raise an eyebrow for a moment as she noticed that it looked like a mirror image of Nozdormu, Chromie, and the mystery dragon, only all three of them had a dark grey tone to their skin, like they were darker than their counterparts, and their eyes had a light blue coloration to them with faint blue lines coming from their eyes for some reason, even though Vytheril approached them not even a moment later. "Murozond... how can you be here? The forces of Azeroth beat you in the End Time." Vytheril inquired, as he had been part of the group, a combination of heroes from both factions, that had aided Nozdormu in clearing the future of a threat and had gone into the past to recover the Dragon Soul, a powerful relic that allowed them to mortally wound Deathwing, but during the time of the Cataclysm, where Genn and the worgen joined the Alliance while Gallywix and the goblins joined the Horde, his group had beaten Murozond, the twisted version of Nozdormu, and killed him to complete their task, so it was weird to see him again, in a humanoid form no less. "You can blame those two, as their presence has changed Azeroth's timeline," the dark High Elf, Murozond, replied, where he beckoned to Spitfire and Rainbow as soon as both his portal and the other portal disappeared in a matter of seconds, though as he did that the pair glanced at each other for a moment, as at this point neither of them were surprised that it was their fault things were changing even more, especially since it seemed that their involvement with this invasion had changed the Alliance and the Horde into a unified front, instead of being at odds with each other, and had been part of the reason that Elisande had turned her back on the Legion's bargain, "the End Time as you know it exists as a small sliver, as there is a new terrible future in store for this world should you, those two, and the rest of the defenders fail, one that even I can see is hard to reach, and one of their changes has allowed me to come back... though it would see that my good side and I had the same idea, since we both arrived at the same time." "Empowering the Bronze Dragonflight will also empower the Infinite Dragonflight," Nozdormu added, informing them that part of what Spitfire and Rainbow wanted might be a bad thing, as many of the heroes knew that Murozond and his dark dragonflight had tried to damage history by changing specific points in Azeroth's timeline, but after seeing everything that had happened when Garrosh Hellscream had been sent to the past, to Draenor before it became Outland, many of them were curious as to what might happen if any of the Infinite Dragonflight's had been allowed to succeed, "but Murozond didn't come here to interfere with Spitfire's plans, rather it would appear that he wishes to help us out in seeing if we can accomplish what everyone is talking about... and the consequences that might come from such a thing." "Normally, that would be the case... but with Lady Spitfire and Rainbow, consequences seem scared of them and most of us have seen what happens to those that get in their way," Anduin said, as he knew that if Spitfire perceived something as a threat to the safety of Azeroth, like Sylvanas, Helya, Gul'dan, and the demons of the Legion, the offender would be slain in due time, meaning that the Infinite Dragonflight had to be careful this time around, because if the new Warchief of the Horde felt they were a threat she would see them burn, where he had the feeling that Nozdormu and Murozond knew all about that fact, given that the leader of the darker dragonflight seemed a bit worried about such a thing happening to him if he annoyed Spitfire, once more displaying how people reacted to her presence, "Tell me, if we used the remainder of the Nightwell's power to restore the Bronze Dragonflight to their full power, which in turn will do the same to their future counterparts, can one link our timeline up with Draenor's again, put us close to the point where Archimonde was slain and the alternate Gul'dan was sent here to bring Sargeras to Azeroth?" Instead of saying anything the two leaders nodded their heads and that prompted Elisande and Thalyssra to lead the way back to the Nightwell, with Spitfire, Rainbow, and several others following after them, as there was still some time before the feast would be ready and this would be a good time to test whether or not this would work as Spitfire wanted, and if it did work they could begin laying the groundwork for something else she had in mind, though it only took them a moment to return to where Elisande had been contained in by her captor, and where she worked before letting Gul'dan and all of his demons into the city. Once they were inside the chamber Spitfire watched as Elisande focused for a moment as she drew upon the energies of the Nightwell once more, something that she channeled into Nozdormu's body and allowed the watchers to observe as his ancient power seemed to return to him without delay, either putting him near the edge of his Titan given power or actually being brought back to the height of his power, something that caused his Chromie and the other bronze dragon to smile as one seemed to disappear, though not even a second later the gnome reappeared where she had been standing. Sure enough a few more seconds passed before multiple portals opened around the chamber as members of Nozdormu's flight joined them, as they must have been told about this and both Elisande and Thalyssra got to work, even calling upon Valtrois, Oculeth, Khadgar, and Jaina to aid them, all while Spitfire noticed that Murozond and his flight just stood there and watched all of this happen before their very eyes, like they were surprised by everything that they were seeing, especially when Vytheril joined them in making sure the Bronze Dragonflight was restored to what they had been like before Deathwing's fall. She also noticed that Murozond's body had glowed for a moment, after Nozdormu went through the process, and the same was true of Infinite Chromie and the other infinite dragon who stood near them, showing her that as the present version of a time dragon was restored to their full power the same would happen to their future counterpart, and if she could get the Infinite Dragonflight on her side she could boost the power of Azeroth's forces in more ways than one could think about, as there were multiple points in time that could lead to the creation of potential allies, but first she needed the aid of Elisande, Nozdormu, and Murozond to be sure she didn't risk anything by trying what she had in mind. It took a while to get all of the Bronze Dragonflight restored to their former glory, which was fine since the Nightwell had a tone of energy that needed to be used before it was lost forever, something that actually prompted Nozdormu to call on Alexstrasza and the Red Dragonflight, Kalecgos and the Blue Dragonflight, and the remainder of the Green Dragonflight, as all of them could be restored to their former glory as well, but as everyone did that Nozdormu and Murozond walked out with Vytheril, Zuleth, and Xinyue joining them as they headed for the bridge, as it was the safest place Elisande had in mind for testing Spitfire's theory. Once they reached their destination Elisande stepped to the side as the pair of time dragons stood side by side, something that still surprised the heroes that were with them, but once both of them were ready they called on the trio to approach them and present all three of the Savage Hollows to them, which the trio did without delay and stood in front of them as each of them held a hand out, revealing the rings that Khadgar had made for them during their time in Draenor, something that caused the time dragons to channel their magic for a few moments as they focused a bit of their power on the rings as Elisande raised her power to create a blank portal. Spitfire could see that Elisande was allowing both Nozdormu and Murozond to take the lead in this project, since they were older than her and had to be more experienced in manipulating the energies of time than she was, where she watched as they wove their powers together as a portal developed in front of them, one that seemed to lead to Fel darkened area that seemed to be resting in front of a massive stone structure that was broken to some degree, the alternate Dark Portal she realized, which was where a large Fel portal rested in front of the shattered structure, one that was larger than most of the Fel portals she and Rainbow had seen so far. Not a few moments later the time dragons informed them that they had stabilized the time portal and that it was ready to be used, even though Murozond also told Spitfire that he wasn't going to betray her, in case she was cautious about trusting him thanks to her time spent with the heroes of Azeroth, though once that was done she stepped up to the portal and passed through it as Rainbow followed after her, where she reappeared on the other end and found herself in a crater-like area that someone had made to hold off someone or a group of someones. Of course that was when they found that they were at the edge of the area and discovered what was going on, as Gul'dan, the one Rainbow had slain, was standing close to the Fel portal they had seen while a massive Eredar, one wearing nothing over his chest as he wore a golden set of shoulder pads and a golden headpiece that looked like a crown behind his head, with golden pants and hoof plates over his legs, not to mention a massive mace he used as he fought the heroes that were in front of him, which was when they spotted the past version of Vytheril and the others facing Archimonde, because that was who the massive demon had to be. Fortunately it appeared that they had arrived just before the battle ended, as they could tell that the heroes were about to end, which was when Rainbow quickly made sure no one was paying attention to this area, so they didn't disrupt the timeline in some manner, before she flashed through the air and swung a Warblade to slice into the side of Archimonde's left leg, cutting into his leg without him noticing, to which she returned to Spitfire and their time portal, though when Archimonde fell, and used some of his power to send Gul'dan on his way, she snatched his soul as he perished and used some of her power to form a Fel crystal all over it for the time being, before they walked into the portal once more. "It looks like the experiment was a success." Spitfire said, where she and Rainbow stepped out of the portal and it closed behind them not even a few seconds later, though based on the fact that nothing seemed different that meant snatching the soul of Archimonde hadn't changed anything, while also making sure the demon in question couldn't reform like all of those who had been slain before the Illidari had been freed from the Vault of the Wardens, to which she focused on their allies for a moment with a smile on her face as this confirmed something, "With this knowledge under our belts, we can create another portal to a few weeks after the battle with Archimonde, maybe three months at max, and speak to the rest of our allies, to see if we can recruit those who call Draenor home into our cause... and we might be able to find even more allies to call upon before the assault on the Broken Shore." As Elisande and the others smiled, showing that they were pleased that the experiment was a success, Spitfire was setting her gaze on the future, because there was no telling what they might be able to do with Nozdormu, Murozond, and both of their dragonflights, but she was also keeping an eye out for any demonic attacks as her allies prepared for the upcoming assault on the Broken Shore, though before that happened she was hoping to have the forces of Draenor on their side, as it would seriously weaken the Legion's changes of taking Azeroth, even more than what she and Rainbow had done since escaping the Vault of the Wardens, and she knew that things were going to get interesting when they finally assaulted the Broken Shore and the Tomb of Sargeras. > Interlude: Draenor > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the experiment was deemed a success, and they made sure the time portal was closed so nothing could follow them through it, Spitfire and the others returned to where Anduin, Illidan, Tyrande, and everyone else had gathered, as it was time for the feast to begin, with several individuals, such as Nozdormu and Murozond, returning to the Caverns of Time to ready themselves for what the next couple of days held for them, because there were calculations that needed to be made and both of them would return in due time to speak with Elisande about using the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands to link their world back up to Draenor, three months after Archimonde's defeat. Spitfire's reasoning for such a thing was because just appearing right after liberating that world, as in right after the Legion was pushed out of Draenor, would leave the orcs and draenei who called it home weakened from all the fighting both groups had done to save their world from their enemies, so three months meant they should be more at peace and be willing to listen to her, Khadgar, and the heroes who held the Savage Hollow rings, as she was worried that bringing too many might cause Grommash Hellscream, Yrel, and whoever else might be on the other side of their portal. Of course one of the time dragons would have to come with them, or maybe one of the Nightborne who worked with Elisande, that way if they needed to make a hasty retreat they could portal over to the Dark Portal and travel back to Azeroth before closing the path between worlds, in the off chance that Grommash and his allies wanted nothing to do with them, but even then she had the feeling that he would honor the bargain and give them some reinforcements for their battle with the Legion, in fact he might even come with them and lead his forces to assault the demons who had tried to take his world. Spitfire was planning on ironing out the details of the mission with those who who would be participating in it after the feast was over and they had some rest, given that everyone had to be tired after all of the fighting they had done since she and Rainbow focused on Suramar and the rebellion, so for now she joined the rest of the group in enjoying the feast that Elisande had prepared, allowing the others to relax and take a well-deserved rest for a time before they worried about assaulting the Broken Shore. An interesting thing that Spitfire discovered was that one of the rogues left the feast at one point, by a portal that Khadgar opened for him, and the night elf in question returned a few moments later, since it appeared to be a two way portal that the Archmage had opened, where he approached Lord Illidan and presented the Warglaives of Azzinoth, the weapons he had carried into battle against the Legion and had been stolen from him after his death, even though none of the heroes at the time had any idea that demons could be reborn in time and that demon hunters were the same to a degree, but she was happy to see that Lord Illidan accepted his weapons with a smile on his face. Spitfire knew that he would be eager to return to the battlefield and attack the Legion once more, now that he had been revived, his power had been restored and empowered thanks to what Gul'dan did to his body so it could be made ready for being Sargeras' vessel, and his weapons had been returned to him, meaning he was ready to do battle with the legion and any demons who dared to stand in his way this time around, since there was no telling what might be waiting for them on the Broken Shore. She and Rainbow also spent some time telling him and their Nightborne allies about what had happened to them since the Illidari, of which they were part of, headed to the broken world of Marduum, something most of the heroes didn't know about at all, but it was easy to see that many of their allies were interested in their tale, since most of them hadn't heard their tale about how they ended up in the Vault of the Wardens and what had brought them to Suramar, which did cause their Lord to chuckle several times, especially whenever Maiev was mentioned, likely due to him believing that they were stronger than many thought when they first gazed upon them, since he knew them the longest. Elisande was more than pleased to learn that both of them had the best interests of everyone in Azeroth in mind, especially since someone like Sylvanas had tried to drag everyone into a massive war while they were in the middle of dealing with the Legion, all in the name of some death god or something, that part she was still unsure of and honestly didn't care all that much since it was the Banshee Queen they were talking about, but it told Elisande that they would take down anyone who threatened the safety of Azeroth, be it those trying to make the Alliance and the Horde go to far with each other or forces like the vast Legion or the vile Old Gods. Of course the only thing she didn't talk about was the odd sensation she felt when she was freeing Lord Illidan's body from Gul'dan and Sargeras, like some ancient and powerful being, far stronger than Sargeras, had been watching her while she did that, as she was worried that revealing such a thing would worry many of her allies and the other heroes, that there was another being that was far stronger than the Dark Titan and it had its eyes set on Azeroth right now, not counting the dark figure they had seen earlier in their battle against the Legion, though for now she kept the feeling to herself and just focused on everyone else and the glorious feast. Spitfire found that the next day or two was spent preparing for her venture to Draenor, as in Nozdormu, Murozond, and some of their Nightborne allies worked with Khadgar and Jaina to make sure everything was ready for when she wanted to start her mission, because she wanted to be sure that reopening a portal to the world in question didn't bring any harsh side effects, given what happened to the Blasted Lands when the Dark Portal was opened all those years ago, and it was easy for her to see that many agreed with her desire to prevent such a thing from happening. From what she understood the barren landscape that existed around the stone structure had been a forest of some kind in the past, before the Dark Portal had been opened, so the act of creating or opening the portal had twisted the surrounding landscape into what all of her allies knew about and studied from time to time, to learn from the mistakes of the past, though they all agreed that such a thing was something they wanted to avoid, since it would annoy Grommash and Yrel to some degree and damage their chances of talking with them, despite what the Alliance and the Horde did for their shared world. During that time she and Rainbow made sure that the Illidari were making sure none of the demons were doing anything to the rest of this world, finding that, for some reason, Kil'jaeden was gathering his forces all over the Broken Shore and the area that the Tomb of Sargeras rested in, while finding that Illidan took a few moments to make sure his weapons were sharpened for the battles that were ahead of them and their allies, even though the blades of his warglaives became living flames, which showed his newfound power to him, the pair, and the rest of the Illidari. Of course they also focused on making sure the rest of their allies weren't under attack or bothered by Kil'jaeden's forces, as in Spitfire was making sure that the rest of the Order Halls were taking down any demonic threat that bothered them and dispatching the Illidari whenever another threat appeared on their radar, but for the most part it appeared that nothing massive was happening, like Kil'jaeden was waiting for them to make the first move so he could counter them instantly and without delay, meaning they and the rest of their allies had to be ready for when she gave the order to assault the Broken Shore, as for some reason the leaders felt it would be best if she gave the order, but it wasn't something she was going to complain about. On the third day after the raid on the Nighthold, however, Spitfire and Rainbow gathered in the twisted and darkened land that was called the Blasted Land, where they stood in the cleared crater that happened to contain a smaller version of the Dark Portal, something that interested Spitfire since she knew that the one in Outland, and Draenor as well, was massive and imposing in its own right, before they found that Nozdormu and Murozond were already hard at work in front of the portal, even though it looked like one of them might be on the other side. "The leaders of the time dragons, along with Elisande, Thalyssra, and Jaina are reassembling the Dark Portal that rests in Tanaan Jungle," Khadgar commented, informing Spitfire and those that were with her as to what was going on right now, as many heroes had come to witness what was going on with their own eyes, welcome any allies that would be coming to do battle with the Legion, and whatever else might be needed of them while they were here, before the Archmage took a moment to rub the back of his head as he considered something, "during our attack on Draenor, where we dismantled the Iron Horde and most of its leaders, we destroyed one of the pillars that supported the other Dark Portal, to stop an army from marching on Azeroth while we were busy taking down our enemies... truthfully, we never thought we would need to use that version of the Dark Portal, so we left it in the collapsed state we created, though our allies are busy correcting our mistake, so any soldiers that Grommash and Yrel decide to end our way will have a direct path to Azeroth." "Good, it gives us time to prepare ourselves for when the portal is opened," Spitfire replied, because once Nozdormu and his future counterpart were ready, and their allies were back on this side of the portal, they would channel their powers into the stone structure and open the way to Draenor, as they agreed on three months after Archimonde's death to give their potential allies a chance to rest and recover from fighting the Legion, then it would be up to her and those that were coming with her to convince the leaders of both the Mag'har orcs, which was what they called the uncorrupted orcs that hadn't drank demonic blood, and the draenei who shared the world with them. There was a slight change to her plans, as Rainbow was coming with her and the heroes who carried the Savage Hollow rings, while at the same time Khadgar was coming, as there were some in Draenor who might react positively to them if he was there, and both Anduin and Rokhan were joining her group as well, the latter being the new leader of the Darkspear troll tribe that Vol'jin had been the leader of before his demise and, more importantly, he was also a champion who had been present during the events of Draenor, working with Vytheril, Khadgar, and their allies to bring down the Legion, so if he was there as well some of the orcs and draenei might be more open to talking with them. She understood that having more recognizable allies might make things easier when they found Grommash and Yrel, where Khadgar was hoping they were near the alternate version of Shattrath, since it was more of a neutral place, like the one he was used to, and it would be a good place for them to talk with the pair and anyone who was near them, otherwise they would have to track them down and convince both of the figures to gather in the city for a short period of time, long enough to speak with Spitfire and all of her allies, even though many of them were hoping for the pair to agree with Spitfire's idea. Of course there was once more individual coming with her group, as Thrall, who had worked beside Vytheril during their campaign against the enemies of this world, wished to come along and offer his aid in making sure they reached Shattrath City, and she knew that Murozond was with them as well, to show that he was on their side and not going to turn on them while they were in Draenor, plus the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight could make sure there were no time disruptions, or whatever he and the other time dragons watched out for, that formed while they were visiting the other world, as it would be rude of them to cause damage to Draenor when they were just visiting Grommash and Yrel's home. Other than that she and the rest of her group watched and waited, giving the group that was working on the Dark Portal and the connection between worlds all the time they needed to ensure nothing went wrong during their visit, while the heroes seemed eager to reunite with those who had joined them on their quest to stop the Iron Horde, which later became Gul'dan's corrupted Fel Horde, from launching an invasion on Azeroth and allowing Garrosh to take his revenge on those who beat him, or at least that had been part of what was going on until Thrall found and killed the orc in question. Eventually Spitfire found that Nozdormu, Murozond, Elisande, and the others that were working on the Dark Portal were done with their work, as the portal that was on Draenor's side had been restored to normal, something that allowed her and her group to regroup in front of their Dark Portal and make sure everyone was ready to start their mission, along with Murozond, in his elven form, standing with them as they approached it, though once all of them were ready they headed up the ramp that was in front of them and stepped through the magical portal that had been opened. Not a few moments later all of them appeared in a massive jungle that, based on what Spitfire could tell, was somewhat corrupted by the Fel energies, likely a combination of Gul'dan's doing and the blood of Mannoroth, something she and Rainbow might be able to help them with since more Fel energy was always welcome and they could either power the Fel Hammer, aid more new demon hunters in harnessing their skills, or even empower one of them for whatever the future held in store for them, as they were waiting for Kil'jaeden to make a move. Of course that wasn't the only thing she and the others noticed, as there happened to be a large citadel or keep of some kind that had been corrupted by Fel energy, given that there was a moat all around it that was filled with Fel blood, though Khadgar and the others paid it no mind as they started down the path that was in front of them, as it was quite a walk between the portal and the citadel, as the later rested in the middle of the jungle and the portal was at the very edge, but as that happened Spitfire and Rainbow found two structures that seemed to be more like what the Alliance and the Horde might make. The reason for that was because they had built two bases in this place, where Khadgar told them that the Alliance's base was called Lion's Watch and the Horde's was Vol'mar, but as they walked down the path that was in front of them Spitfire noted that there were some orcs stationed inside the Horde's base of operations, some having black skin, others having brown, and a few having gray skin, meaning they had to be part of the Mag'har, while at the same time there were a number of draenei in Lion's Watch, who were wearing silver colored armor with purple stones in certain parts, similar to what Velen's forces wore, meaning they had to be Yrel's forces, given that she was one of the leaders for Draenor's draenei. Eventually they came to a stop as a pair appeared in their path, one being a draenei that was riding an elephant of some kind, an elekk as Khadgar called it, that had a pair of long tusks and seemed somewhat imposing, while having golden gear on its body, to protect itself from harm in case it went into battle, while the orc that was to the right of it was riding a wolf that also looked ready for battle, meaning they had to be guards that had been positioned here in case more demons tried to attack Draenor, or at least that was Spitfire's current thoughts on the matter, and they had to be curious as to why the group was here and why the Dark Portal had been restored to its former glory. "Archmage Khadgar, it is good to see you again," the female draenei said, while the male orc nodded his head not even a second later, showing that he agreed with her statement, even though her words indicated that she must have been one of the residents of Draenor who had interacted with Khadgar during his time helping the heroes take down the enemies who were threatening this world, though that was when she glanced at his companions for a few seconds before focusing on the Dark Portal for a few more seconds, likely confused about something, "though truth be told, we were worried when we noticed that the ruined portal was being put back together and was reactivated by some unknown magic, fearing that the Legion might be getting ready for another invasion." "Sorry about that, we had allies come by and rebuild the portal for us... as to why we wanted that to happen, well, we'll be explaining our reasons to Warchief Grommash and Exarch Yrel," Khadgar replied, revealing the titles of the two figures to Spitfire and Rainbow, even though they were sure that they would have learned them well before meeting either of this world's important leaders, not counting whatever councils either of them might have created since the day the Legion had been pushed back and Archimonde met his end, before he considered something, "Are they in Shattrath City, or are they in another province?" "The Warchief is meeting the Exarch today, about what I do not know, and said they would be overlooking the city during their discussion," the orc answered, not that he was surprised by Khadgar asking such a question, even though he did look at Spitfire and Rainbow for a few seconds, clearly wondering if it was okay to trust either of them since they were slightly different from everyone else, before he glanced over to his companion for a moment and it was clear that the paladin, as that was what the draenei had to be, nodded her head towards the warrior, "Come, we will escort all of you to where they are having their meeting, as they will be interested in hearing why you have returned to Draenor, though we can provide you with mounts if you don't have any of your own." Khadgar, on the other hand, informed him that such a thing wouldn't be necessary for most of them since he and the rest of the group had their own flying mounts, save for Thrall since he only had a whistle to call a frostwolf to his side, though as both the draenei and the orc raised their eyebrows for a moment those who could summon their own flying mount did so without delay, Murozond shifted into a slightly smaller dragon form, as to not shock everyone with his Aspect form, all while Spitfire and Rainbow spread their wings as well, something that really caught the guards off guard as they stared at them for a few seconds. Of course Spitfire had the feeling that they might be staring at her four different wings, or maybe it was just due to the surprise of her and Rainbow even having wings since they didn't have any a few moments ago, but a moment or two later the pair snapped themselves back to reality as they headed for the two bases that were near their current location, where it wasn't long before the pair took off from Vol'mar and Lion's Watch, the orc riding on one of the wyverns that Spitfire and Rainbow had seen around Orgrimmar while the draenei rode on a gryphon's back, meaning that the Alliance and the Horde had left a few of their own mounts as a peace offering or something when they left Draenor and started to hunt down Gul'dan in Azeroth. As soon as the pair took off the group followed after them, where it was easy for them to glance all over the rest of Tanaan Jungle and find that there as a ruined draenei village, no doubt attacked by Gul'dan after he created his Fel Horde, along with a warpath which must have been smashed by the demons at one point in time, but other than that it looked like most of the jungle, or half at the very least, was corrupted by the Fel energy and that meant everyone who was in Tanaan Jungle was sent there to watch and warn everyone else if demons suddenly came back to attack them, confirming what the guards had said. Of course they didn't head just straight to the west, rather once they reached a certain point the pair turned to the southwest and Spitfire's group followed after them without delay, even if it allowed them to stare out at a new part of Draenor, a forest that had been inhabited by the draenei, given that there were a number of settlements that they lived, worked, and trained in, before noticing a massive dome shaped structure in the southern part of the province, as Khadgar informed them that this was Talador, an area that hadn't been touched all that much by the Legion, while the dome structure was Auchindoun, a mausoleum for the draenei's dead. That was, of course, before the group noticed the massive city that was to their right, one that was made in the style of the draenei and seemed to be a place of Light, which was no surprise to Spitfire when she considered what she knew thanks to Velen, where they could see that there were draenei, orcs, and other races trading with each other, such as a large cat-like species called Saberon or the keen avian-like race called the Arakkoa, a race that was split between a hunched version and a version that stood straight, though it was clear that they were focused on a cliff that happened to be overlooking the city, which happened to be on the southeastern side of Shattrath City. Based on what Spitfire could see there were several guards watching over the overlook that they were heading towards at the moment, though she spotted a female draenei who was wearing a more impressive set of silver armor that had golden inlay and purple crystals placed in certain spots, with a large warhammer that was metal with a massive purple crystal at the top of it, with an imposing orc who had light brown colored skin, almost tan colored based on what she was seeing, who wore no chest piece and had a single shoulder piece on his right shoulder, with bracers, pants, and boots that resembled what some of the Horde's orcs wore, which had to come from Garrosh, and his hair was black while being done up in a ponytail of sorts near the top of his head and there were a few bangs on either side of his head. While she was sure that the draenei was Yrel, making the orc Grommash, she did find a large imposing battleaxe resting near the orc warrior, Gorehowl according to what Khadgar told them, but there were a few others standing near the circular table that they happened to be standing at, like the tall blue skinned ogre who wore some decent looking armor, another tall figure who looked like a bipedal tiger and wore some shaman gear, one of the Saberon even though he was only six feet tall, and a third tall figure who was more avian-like, an Arakkoa who stood upright and wore a blue robe over its feathered body, which was pale white colored. It was clear that the five individuals were in the middle of a conversation, likely about dealing with any threats Draenor might be facing right now, which had to be focused on Tanaan Jungle, though they stopped talking as they heard the sound of wings and glanced in their direction for a moment, causing them to turn towards where the guards were leading them, though it wasn't long before Spitfire's group landed at the edge of the area and dismounted before she and Rainbow landed as well. Of course Spitfire noticed that some of the guards, an equal mix of draenei and orcs, turned to focus on them for a second or two, which was when Yrel and Grommash noticed who was among the group and beckoned for the guards to back off for the time being, allowing them to approach the table that they were standing around, something she and the others did without delay since they didn't want to annoy either of the leaders that were in front of them, before they came to a stop at the table and focused on the five figures that were staring at them. "Archmage Khadgar, what brings you back to Draenor?" Yrel asked, because everyone who didn't know who she was had to assume that she was Yrel, given that this was the meeting the guards had told them about, even though they knew that they would be told who was who in the next couple of moments once she and Grommash understood that none of them were here to threaten Draenor or declare war on them, especially since rebuilding the Dark Portal must have worried a good number of this world's residents, given what little they had learned earlier, "You aren't here to craft more rings, like the ones you created for the heroes while they were fighting the Shadow Council and everything they were planning on doing to the rest of Draenor, are you?" "No, we aren't here to make any new rings... three Savage Hollows were more than enough for us," Khadgar replied, which was when the three heroes who wore the three powerful rings rubbed the back of their heads for a moment, something that told Spitfire that there was a tale behind everything that went into making the rings in question, though it looked like his words seemed to please some of the individuals who were resting around this area, be it the leaders or the guards that were making sure no enemies came at this area, before he focused on why they came here, "however, we did come back to Draenor to speak with you and Warchief Grommash about something... but first, allow me to introduce my companions to you and your acquaintances." Spitfire said nothing as Khadgar introduced everyone to Exarch Yrel and Warchief Grommash, even though she spotted an orc who arrived slightly after they did, who happened to be wearing a white wolf's pelt as part of a hood, cloak, and even shoulder pieces, meaning he had to live in a snowy or winter-like environment, who Grommash noticed not even a second after she did and introduced Durotan to all of them, Chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan, before Khadgar wrapped up his own introductions to Yrel and Grommash, making sure she and Rainbow were the last two to be spoken about, since it allowed him to make sure they knew that Spitfire was the one that needed to speak with them. "We came to speak with you because the Legion has invaded Azeroth, thanks to Gul'dan's efforts... whose dead, since we just killed him a few days ago," Spitfire stated, deciding to get to the point and tell them why her group had come to speak with Yrel and Grommash, where it only took the Exarch a few seconds to understand what was going on and Grommash followed her not even five seconds later, showing that they realized that this was about the promise that they had made to the chosen commanders who lead Azeroth's counterattack on the Iron Horde and the demons who eventually invaded this world while they were distracted, before she started to speak again, "however, before we killed him he was successful in opening a massive portal in the skies of Azeroth, one that leads to the Fel-corrupted world known as Argus, and we do know that Kil'jaeden, the Legion's second-in-command, is preparing his forces for a massive assault on our forces and the allies we have right now... given that things are a little dire for us, even with the powers we possess, I figured that it was time we called on our allies to come aid us, to fulfill the promise that was made after Archimonde's death." While things weren't as dire as she made it sound, given all the power she and Rainbow commanded, they had no idea if the demons of Argus were as strong as Xazariel or if they were almost as strong as both Kil'jaeden and Archimonde were, if it was the latter the forces of Azeroth were definitely in trouble and would need all the soldiers they could muster for the final assault on Sargeras' domain, but for the time being she wanted Yrel, Grommash, and their council to know what was going on in Azeroth right now, as the mention of the Legion's home might convince them one way or the other, even if she could see that some of the draenei guards glanced at each other for a second, no doubt at the mention of Argus, which had been their home world before the Legion took it. "Gul'dan... I told him that he would fail, and that your forces would bring him and his demons down... he laughed and told me that 'all would serve the Legion', though we're laughing now," Grommash commented, where it was easy to see that a smile had appeared on his face not a moment after hearing that Gul'dan had been slain at long last, something many of the others agreed with based on what Spitfire was seeing right now, though at the same time he considered what he, Yrel, and everyone else had been told so far, even though he seemed to be glancing off in the direction of the Dark Portal and all of the corruption that the orc warlock had brought to this world, "also, you have our condolences for the loss of your previous High King and Warchief, as they were good warriors and will be missed by those that knew them. Though we are weakened from Gul'dan's madness, and my own failings after beating him the first time around, we should be able to find enough warriors to make a difference in this battle... as while we don't know you or some of your allies, you do seem like an honorable and strong individual..." "Not to mention the fact that Archmade Khadgar is with them, which should reveal that he trusts them," Yrel added, more in the sense that the man in question wouldn't follow someone who was part of the Legion, though while she focused on Rainbow for a time, who did look more demonic than most of the group, everything she could see informed her that she wasn't an enemy and could be trusted as well, before she considered what they were being told and recalled the last thing she had told Khadgar, before he and his forces started to withdraw from Draenor, "I think we can find fifty warriors from each clan that calls this world home, giving you a decent force to take down the Legion and whatever assault is coming up next, while also ensuring that we have enough forces to maintain our own safety, in case our enemies decide to attack us for getting involved with this war... members of the council, what do you say?" "We would lose a third of our clan, but it is an agreeable suggestion," Durotan replied, because he and his clan had been one of the few to survive the battle against both the Iron Horde and the Fel Horde that Gul'dan created, meaning they had a lot more warriors than what Grommash's clan or any of the remaining clans had, though he did know that many of them did have enough members to find the troops to aid the forces of Azeroth in taking down the Legion, and it didn't take long for the Saberon, Arakkoa, and Ogre to nod their heads as well, showing the group that most of Yrel's council agreed with her comment and would be able to find some forces to send their way, before he focused on them, "Draenor has been, well, peaceful since our combined forces pushed the Legion back to whatever foul world they were attacking us from, be it Argus or another world, and those that survived have agreed to aid the forces of Azeroth should you come calling, so we should be able to build a suitable army in a short period of time." "That is good to hear. We should have them meet us at the Dark Portal, as we reassembled it so an army could march into it, because we were hopeful that you would agree to lend us some aid," Anduin spoke up, though even as he said that he was still surprised that Grommash, of all people, was the one to offer them some condolences for the loss of his father and Vol'jin, despite the fact that he never personally met them, before he took a moment to consider something that all of the leaders had been talking about for some time, as an additional part of Spitfire's plan, "I know that this will fulfill your promise to Azeroth, but if there is anything we can do for you and your people, such as enemies to take down or maybe teach you how to use some of the equipment we left behind, please don't hesitate to ask us... we even have locations that could be used as settlements, in case some of your people wanted to see what Azeroth has to offer... I'm not saying that you have to move to our world to aid us, just that such a thing can be done if you want it to happen." "That sounds lovely, and I'm sure there are some among our number who would want to live in Azeroth for a few weeks or a couple of months," Yrel said, as while Anduin's statement was one that none of them had honestly been thinking about, since most of them had been focused on getting reinforcements before heading back to the Dark Portal, it was good to see that many of Draenor's people did like the idea of seeing what Azeroth had to offer and kept their mouths shut while the conversation went on, since there had to be more for them to discuss with each other, but as all of that happened Spitfire felt something odd happen in the air, like someone was using magic and caused her to glance around, finding that none of her allies and none of the council or guards were doing it, "Are the terms not to your liking?" "No, its not that... there's a hint of powerful magic in the air, and yet..." Spitfire replied, as she was wondering if Kil'jaeden had figured out what they were doing, traced them back to Draenor, and were going to attack them while they talked with the leaders of this world, though her statement was cut off as something unexpected happened to Talador and caught all of them off guard, the earth started to quake beneath them and several of the guards, plus some of her group, fell to their knees for a few moments, even though Spitfire forced herself into the air to see what was going on. What she found, however, was that everything around Shattrath City, meaning Talador and the other provinces that were all around where the council was meeting, was shaking like a massive earthquake, a cataclysm in some sense, struck the planet and it took her a few seconds to spot where part of the damage was happening, the ground to the east of this city, starting at the coast based on what she was seeing, started to crack and separate from each other as their side of it stayed in the same area while the ground on the other side was pushed upwards, even though more was happening to the rest of the province. Talador was breaking apart, that much she could figure out by just witnessing the destruction that was in the middle of unfolding before her eyes, as the crack contained to extend towards the southern part of the province, heading right for Auchindoun, though it wasn't long before it connected with the area in question and the mausoleum started to break before her very eyes, the outside material starting to crack as parts of the wall collapsed, causing the souls of every fallen draenei to escape the area they had been held in, likely leaving Draenor for whatever safety the Shadowlands held for all of them. Another thing she noticed was that Talador wasn't the only one suffering right now, as part of the damage went even further to the south, to a more swampy area that had a single massive earthen spire in either the middle of the province, or close to it, while the same was true for the northern direction, heading across a small sea before striking what looked like a frozen region of Draenor and a mountainous region that looked like it was divided between two elements, as if nature and a harsh wasteland were at war with each other, and both provinces were shaking as well, sections rising and falling like what was happening in Draenor. It was in that moment that she glanced up at the sky and spotted someone up in the air, likely near the edge of this world's atmosphere or even beyond it, who seemed to be male based on what she was seeing right now and appeared to be a descendant of a human and an elf, as his ears seemed pointed like an elf's and were sized like a human's, while his body seemed thin and well trained, like he was a warrior of some kind, though at the same time she noticed that his attire appeared to be elven in nature, not like what Tyrande wore, rather he seemed to be wearing a well made silver shirt that had a black undershirt resting below it, not to mention the fact that the figure seemed to have deep blue shorts on and wore a pair of brown footwear over his feet. Of course she noticed a few other things, like the figure's short black hair, the blue coloration to his eyes, and a black sash that rested around his waist, though attached to his sash was a scabbard for a sword, where she found that the blade was sheathed and not in use, one that appeared to be a longsword that had been scaled down to the size of a normal sword, with a horizontal cross-guard and a curved pommel that merged with the handle, while the end was curved like a dome of some kind and was all made out of metal. After taking in his appearance she noticed something else, he was wearing four rings on his right hand, the first one being a band made out of silver and had a brilliant amethyst set inside it, the next was a golden ring with an equally brilliant sapphire, while the third was another ring made out of silver and had an emerald set inside it, once again brilliant like the rest, before finding that the last one was made out of gold as well, only the gem on it appeared to be a diamond that was half white and half black, like a Yin Yang symbol. Instead of worrying about that, and why the rings she noticed went from his pinky to his pointer finger, in the order she noticed them, Spitfire quickly turned her attention to the fact that the figure had his right hand pointed down at the planet's surface, the palm facing Draenor, to which she turned back and headed for the ground, as she knew that there was no way for her to reach the area that the figure was positioned in. "What's going on?" Yrel asked, where it was clear that she, Grommash, and everyone that was around them were worried about everything that was happening to the area they were standing in right now, not to mention everything else that was scattered around them, even though Thrall and those who communicated with the elementals knew that something very wrong was happening to their world, before she glanced up at the sky and noticed what Spitfire had seen, prompting a few of the others to do the same thing, "And who is that?" "As for the latter, I have no idea... for the former, I'm pretty sure he's destroying Draenor," Spitfire replied, though that was when some of the ground violently rocked as Shattrath City was torn in half, the side they were on sinking into the ground while the other half was raised a bit, allowing the water of the coast and sea to start spilling into the lowered sections of the city, something that caused her to turn to everyone else, who seemed to understand what she might say without her even speaking the words, "Listen, we need to get the civilians out of Shattrath City and get them to the Dark Portal... based on how widespread this destruction is becoming, as its heading towards the southern and northern tips of Draenor for the time being, its only a matter of time until that being, that deity or whatever he is, focuses on the other provinces and starts to wreck everything else... if that happens, we might lose the Dark Portal. Exarch Yrel, Warchief Grommash, we need to call the people of Draenor and have them gather whatever supplies and items they need... Khadgar, take whoever you think you need and bring as many mages as you can muster to this world, to open as many portals back to the Dark Portal, since we have no idea how long it will be before that being starts to truly break this world." Yrel and Grommash looked like they wanted to say something, either to talk about what was going on or something else, but that was when the ground stopped shaking and caused them to glance up at the sky again, finding that the figure had lowered his hand for a moment as a golden portal appeared nearby and a new figure, where another male human walked out of it not a second later, a figure who looked like he was in his early thirties, had short golden yellow colored hair, with a shirt of the same color and seemed to be wearing a dark blue pair of pants, though he turned and looked at the first figure for a few seconds, like a conversation was starting between them. "It would appear that they're talking to each other," a voice said, where Spitfire glanced towards the middle of their group, counting those who came with her and those that made up the council, and found the black robed figure who had shown up when she and Rainbow talked with Discord some time ago, when he tried to convince them to head back home, but as all of them noticed the strange dark figure he glanced at them for a few seconds and raised a hand, where he quickly did the shooing motion with his hand, as if he was dismissing everyone that was around him, "the lot of you had best hurry it up and leave this world while you still have a chance, because while this planet's destruction has been stopped, due to the arrival of another, it won't last for too long and you might get caught in the crossfire... though the harvesting of this world will begin in due time." Spitfire was going to ask if the robed being was stalking them or something, since this was the second time they had seen each other, though before she could even get the words out the ground shook again as everyone braced themselves for a couple of moments, but as that happened she noticed that parts of the earth off in the distance, close to a mine based on what Yrel told all of them, broke apart and a sphere of shimmering metal seemed to be extracted not a few seconds later, a mass of black ore to be exact, which was joined by clusters of gems being pulled from the earth, with spheres of blue ore being pulled up as well and even metal being picked up from scattered locations around Draenor. It hit her that the robed figure meant that the golden haired figure was literally harvesting this world of the metals and gems that it contained, not to mention discarded items that were no longer needed by those who lived in every province this world had, which caused her to make sure that Khadgar and the others were moving, the heroes heading down into the sunken area to pick up the citizens who were now trapped in the city that was quickly becoming flooded. To combat the flooding Khadgar and those he called upon from Azeroth were opening portals and redirecting the water elsewhere, not that it mattered where they put the water since it flowed back to the sea, and back into the sunken city as well, giving those who headed down into the sunken part of the city time to aid the citizens in rushing to safety, while Spitfire and Rainbow did their best to fly around to the different parts of Draenor to make sure people were evacuating before the destruction resumed. She could see that many of the orcs, draenei, and other races that happened to be in the middle of leaving their settlements were terrified of what was going on right now, while the warriors were concerned for their well-being, especially since they could see that their next destination was Tanaan Jungle, though they were using the portals that the mages and the Kirin Tor had opened for them to use and that each of them had some items on them, gear or food stocks to help them when they reached the other side of the Dark Portal, meaning she and Rainbow didn't have to worry too much about people being caught in what was happening to every province of this world, as she could see that metal and ore was being pulled out of every province of this world, all thanks to the fact that the golden figure now had a hand pointed down at the world. Of course they weren't the only ones rushing to aid the citizens of Draenor, as Yrel, Grommash, and their council rushed to make sure everyone was using the portals that had been opened for them and were leaving their world with everything they could get their hands on, in fact some of the draenei made sure to start up their space vessels, ships that looked sort of similar to the ones that Kael'thas and his forces had been in control of back in Outland, and head for the Dark Portal, an action that caused some of the Nightborne to focus on opening larger portals for the decent sized ships, where many of the races of Draenor were aboard each of them. Those that were on the other side of the Dark Portal had to be shocked by what was going on right now, as this certainly wasn't part of Spitfire's plan and they had to adjust accordingly, to avoid being caught in what was going on to the world, though as she thought about it she found that several of the spheres the second figure had created were merging into a single mass, meaning it had to make it easier for the being to transport all of them to wherever he stored them, but she focused on making sure everyone cleared out of each settlement she found before doubling back to Talador, where Khadgar and the others were in the process of closing their portals, as everyone in the sunken portion of Shattrath City had been cleared out. As that happened another section of the coast broke and the sea started to truly flood the sunken section of the city, meaning they were just in time since everyone that had been down there had been pulled out before such a terrible thing happened, but that wasn't the worst of it as the cracks in the ground from before widened in a matter of moments as Talador split in half before their eyes, sending a shudder throughout the entire province and the other provinces, leading to Khadgar calling for the council and their allies to depart, as the way this was going they were getting closer and closer to the end of Draenor, especially since it looked like the second figure was in the process of reaching the depths of this world for everything of value. Spitfire wasn't surprised to see that the odd robed figure had joined the two that were up in the atmosphere, as he seemed interested in observing what was going on before heading back to whatever he had been doing before this event happened, though with the planet falling apart around her, with patches of the province rising, some falling, and some being broken into small fragments, she knew that time was not on her side and head through the portal as well. Once she was on the other side of Khadgar's portal she headed through the Dark Portal and returned to Azeroth, where all of the people who were fleeing the doomed world were standing around it in shock, more about what was happening to their planet and less about where in the universe they might be now, though since she seemed to be the last one to cross over the time dragons and Elisande closed the Dark Portal, severing their connection to Draenor, before she opened a new portal to take her, Spitfire, and a few others to the Eternal Observatory, where they found Etraeus observing Draenor as it was harvested by the second figure. As they observed what was going on Spitfire had to assume that the three figures had to be gods, deities of different aspects, given that she assumed the one with the sword had to be a destroyer, the one with the golden shirt might be greed given everything he was stealing from Draenor, and the robed one, while doing nothing at all, might be darkness, since something about him screamed that he wasn't a good person, before her thoughts were put on pause for a moment as the now small moon sized spheres the golden figure had collected disappeared through some new golden portals he opened, depositing everything he was taking in whatever location he was storing them in, and the moment he was done he stepped back. In the following moment the first figure refocused on the world that was below all of them and gathered some of his power for a few seconds, meaning he had to be getting serious, before raising his left hand as he made sure the palm was facing the planet's ruined surface and fired a beam of searing orange energy down at Draenor, striking what appeared to be the middle of Talador and was swiftly followed by cracks spreading out from where his attack was hitting the planet, cracks that were a red-orange color based on what they were seeing, where both Yrel and Grommash, who had come with them to observe what was going on in a vain hope that the figures would leave Draenor once they were done attacking it, cried out in rage as this happened. Sadly there was nothing any of them could do to stop what was happening to Draenor at the moment, and even if Spitfire had decided to fight them she had the feeling that an attack against them would be suicide, especially given that she felt the destroyer seemed to be hiding most of his power and his blade seemed to be a weapon of power, similar to their artifact weapons, so all they could do was observe as the planet's surface continued to crack. Eventually enough was enough as the planet exploded before their eyes, which produced a bright light that most of them had to look away from when it happened, even though Spitfire found that there was nothing left of Draenor when she and the others opened their eyes again, unlike what happened when Outland was created in the main timeline, since the one she and Rainbow were familiar with was a shattered floating world with limited water, before Yrel fell to her knees as she and Grommash understood that their world was gone, leading her to sob as she mourned for their home while Spitfire found that the orc placed a hand on her shoulder without saying much, though his silence told her that he was shocked by this event... to which Spitfire sighed and moved to speak with the leaders of the Alliance and the Horde, as while part of her plan worked they had to deal with the unforeseen consequences of their actions and aid the residents of Draenor for a time, before bothering to focus on the Broken Shore and Kil'jaeden. > Interlude: Preparations > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "How is everyone doing?" Spitfire asked, where she came to a stop in the Palace Grounds of the Nighthold, where Anduin and most of the leaders of the two factions happened to be waiting, as most of their forces were back in the Blasted Lands, tending to those who had fled from Draenor before the destruction had claimed the world in question and preparing them for moving to the other provinces of both the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, as that had been the plan they had come up with in case some of Yrel or Grommash's people wanted to call this world home for a time, to explore it and whatnot, but for right now she was interested in making sure everyone was fine. "Fine... we're just fine, I think." Anduin replied, something that was followed by a number of the other leaders nodding their heads in agreement as he said that, though it was perfectly clear that most of them were shocked by what they witnessed, all the destruction that wrecked Draenor and, eventually, claimed the planet in its entirety, as most of them had seen the ending of the planet in question and were leaving Yrel and Grommash to mourn for the loss of Draenor, even though it did give those who weren't familiar with the Legion a good idea what they were capable of, despite the fact that the figure who wrecked Draenor wasn't a demon, before he sighed for a moment, "I'm glad we managed to save so many people before the planet fell apart... but who was that figure, and why did he destroy Draenor like that?" "No idea... he and his companions are unknown to us, but, based on what we witnessed, he likely destroyed Draenor before something terrible could happen," Khadgar answered, as he had been thinking about that since they noticed the first figure in the sky, not counting the golden figure and the robed one that followed them, though his thoughts had been more on the species of Draenor and everything the forces of Azeroth had seen while they were taking the fight to the Iron Horde, later the Fel Horde and Gul'dan, before he faced the assembled leaders again, "its possible that interfering with Draenor's timeline like this, coming to gather reinforcements for the war with the Legion, might have had another massive effect to how the rest of the planet's future would have played out... its possible that reducing the defenses of the Mag'har and the draenei might have lead to the Sporemounds, an invasive and aggressive strain of plant life that decimated those who tried to study it during our last visit to Draenor, to attack and assimilate the rest of the planet. If such a thing is true, then he eliminated the planet before such a thing could happen, since I'm sure that the Sporemounds would have made an attempt to spread out to the rest of the universe, so he was snipping a problem before it could be created... but even then, even if he was doing the right thing, that doesn't justify destroying the entire planet to eliminate a threat, as I'm sure he could have pulled the Sporemounds from the surface and crushed all of them with ease." "Still, regardless of why he eliminated the planet, it leaves the Mag'har, their draenei friends, and the other races with no place to call home," Baine said, speaking for the first time since everything had happened, as he had been quiet while his Warchief and the others went through the Dark Portal, though while he and the other leaders hadn't seen the destruction of Draenor firsthand, since many of them had been in the Blasted Lands, they had witnessed the planet's end after seeing what was inside the Eternal Observatory, something that also confirmed part of the Nightborne's powers, "I know we had planned on setting aside places for visitors and potential permanent residents, but I don't think either faction had time to prepare for everything that we would be getting ourselves into... it is, however, fortunate that the residents of Draenor happened to grab as much food as they did, along with several animals, so supplies won't be much of a problem, which means we can focus on figuring out where our new allies can make their new home." "That's right, housing is going to be a problem, but fortunately we have some ideas on that already," Anduin replied, as all of them had been making plans when they heard what Spitfire was up to, working with her and even the other faction to make sure their allies from Draenor, those that chose to stay in this world after the Legion had been defeated, had a new home to live in, though as he said that Velen nodded his head as well, as many knew that some of the draenei that had followed Yrel would likely live with them in the Exodar and the surrounding area, but other than that many would have to find a new place to reside, to build other settlements, before he sighed, "that does, however, depend on whether or not we beat the Legion... Kil'jaeden won't be pleased when he learns that we recruited another faction of draenei into our war, especially after everything he's done in his search for Velen and the others." "I will also talk with Yrel, as she will have questions... we're going to have to tell them about time travel, their now ruined alternate world, and everything else," Velen remarked, referring to the fact that some of the Alliance's heroes had told him of what happened to the alternate version of himself that had been living in Draenor, of his sacrifice to save a Naaru and drive back the Iron Horde, and he had seen the way Yrel had looked at him when she and Grommash followed Spitfire to the Eternal Observatory earlier, meaning there was a lot he had to answer before they could get started on making sure all of their new allies were ready for the war with the Legion. Spitfire said nothing to that as she nodded her head, though she was more annoyed with the destruction of Draenor and the figure who had done the deed, not to mention the other figure who had stolen every bit of ore and the various gems that had been below the planet's surface, but before she could say anything else that was when the leaders noticed Yrel, Grommash, Elisande, and Thalyssra had chosen to join them, while the rest of the group that had witnessed the end of Draenor were gathering nearby as well, meaning they had to be thinking of something important. Not a few seconds later she heard the sound of wings flapping and discovered that it was coming from a couple of large eagles, ones that were as tall as one of the Alliance's horses, that landed in the area behind her and she found some Highmountain tauren, the type of tauren who had antler-like horns and called one of the provinces of the Broken Isles home, had come to join them, with their leader, Mayla Highmountain she recalled, standing at the front of her group. She knew the name of the leader of the Highmountain tauren thanks to the couple of heroes who went to the highest province of the Broken Isles to track down and recover the Hammer of Khaz'goroth, which had been stolen by someone who murdered Mayla's father and stole the Pillar of Creation as well, and the heroes also took down a Fel-corrupted tribe of tauren in the process, though she was sure that one of the Illidari had captured the souls of those beings, just to make sure the Legion didn't get their hands on any of their souls. Of course Mayla wasn't smiling, given that her father had been slain recently, so she was still mourning his passing based on what she could see, but at the same time she wasn't frowning like she hated the world or something, meaning she was using the lessons she had learned in the past to make herself more presentable, where it looked like she was wearing the traditional garb of a Highmountain Chieftain, or the one who stood over all the Chieftains, which looked like leather made from some tough beasts, and she carried a spear-like weapon that had a thick piece of sharpened metal at the tip on her back, which had to be her weapon, along with a wooden totem that seemed important to some degree, as it might be a memento from her father or something, and it wasn't long before Mayla stopped by the others. After Mayla came to a stop, and that meant that all of the leaders were assembled in one place again, something that the Legion would normally strike at to cripple their enemies, Spitfire watched as all of the assembled leaders, which included those who lead the Order Halls that were fighting the Legion, knelt as they faced her, something that caused her to raise an eyebrow as she noticed that even the leaders of the Bronze and Infinite Dragonflights did the same thing, while she was sure that Rainbow was waiting to see what happened next, since this was something that neither of them had expected, not after what happened to Draenor. "Lady Spitfire, it is thanks to your plans, knowledge, and efforts that the Alliance and the Horde have joined together to face the might of the Legion," Anduin said, as he was referring to the fact that any enemy that dared to tear apart both the Alliance and the Horde met their end when she, Rainbow, and their allies focused on them, just like what happened when Sylvanas was revealed to be a danger to the rest of Azeroth, by starting up the Fourth War between the factions, burning Teldrassil to the ground, and causing enough death to cause an imbalance in their world before breaking the cursed Helm of Domination that the Lich King wore, and it was clear that Spitfire understood what he was saying, "we have become a united front, a truly united from with neither side trying to tear the other down in some manner, and now stand before you, the one who has ensured that such a thing is possible, even if it meant tearing down someone who wished to bring Death to Azeroth, both in the sense of killing those who call it home and the being who resides over one of the six powers that make up our universe. I cannot speak for everyone, especially those who are just now joining our factions, but I think it is time that we, the Alliance and the Horde, band together to form a great alliance of Azeroth's forces, to put what has happened in the past behind us and embrace the harmonic future you have painstakingly created for all of us... if such a thing is accepted by everyone else, and there are no complaints, save for finding a new Warchief for the Horde, I would like to name you the Grand Commander of our united forces." "Are you sure about that?" Spitfire asked, because this was the first time in Azeroth's history, that she knew of, where the leaders of the two factions decided to actually put their differences aside and nominate someone to lead all of them, as it was usually the High King and the Warchief staring at each other and having different viewpoints on everything that was happening to Azeroth, so by breaking the cycle of hatred between the two factions, in such a way that might change things more than even she had seen coming, she was also creating new history for this world, especially since it meant they were handing the keys to Azeroth over to a demon hunter, even if she was different from the rest of the Illidari. "Anduin might be new to being the High King, but he means what he says," Genn stated, though he understood that even Spitfire might be a little hesitant to accept the role that was being offered to her, as she only accepted the role of the new Warchief of the Horde after Sylvanas claimed what wasn't hers and tried to bring harm to both factions, which she had stopped in due time and exposed to all of them, and based on everything that they had seen so far, especially when one thought about her actions towards Draenor, saving all of them from ruin, he knew that she was a perfect candidate for such a position and the power it commanded, before he raised his head as others did it as well, "thanks to you I have also let go of my ever consuming hatred for the Forsaken, as I have come to realize that the objects of my anger were Sylvanas and Nathanos, and with them dead I have been able to be at peace for the first time since the walls of Gilnaes fell... in fact, due to our new relationships with the Horde, the undead who once served Sylvanas have been hard at work creating what they call 'Anti-Blight', one that will undo everything that was used on my city and other locations Sylvanas and her allies have Blighted over the years... they're willing to help us, their old enemies, reclaim our home. With that in mind, and all of the other things you have done since taking Sylvanas down, especially in regards to what happened during your visit to the world of Draenor, many of us have decided to agree with Anduin, even those who haven't met you yet are agreeing with his decision... the Grand Army of Azeroth is yours to command, Lady Spitfire, as Thrall has agreed to take on the mantle of Warchief once more, instead of leaving it to someone else." Spitfire paused for a moment, as she was surprised that the leaders of the factions had decided on this and assumed they had done so while she and Rainbow were busy taking care of Gul'dan's minions inside Suramar and the city, freeing every Nightborne they came across during their time in this province, though she had to assume that convincing the leaders of the Bronze and Infinite Dragonflights to join forces, due to her and Rainbow's meddling with the timeline, must have been one of the final straws, with her actions in Draenor being the icing on the cake, to which she sighed for a moment as she focused on all of them. "Very well, I accept the position... though first we need to make sure that our allies from Draenor have a place to call home before we focus on assaulting the Broken Shore," Spitfire stated, though the reason she didn't fight the idea was because it looked like all of the leaders, from both the Alliance and the Horde, had agreed to this and she had a feeling that none of them would take no for an answer, meaning they wanted it to happen and would likely continue to chase her until she said yes to the offer, so this would allow them to get most of the formalities out of the way and focus on what was important to all of them, making sure Yrel, Grommash, and their people were settled in before their forces were committed to the war with Kil'jaeden and whatever forces would be waiting for them on the Broken Shore. Even as she said that Spitfire understood why some of the more well known orcs in the Horde, like Saurfang for example, didn't accept the role of Warchief from the rest of the Horde's leaders, and that was due to the fact that many were more suited for fighting on the battlefield, as in it was all each of them knew before this point in time, and while Thrall was also a warrior, a shaman to be more precise, he seemed to be someone who preferred uniting the Alliance and the Horde into a single unit, instead of them constantly being at war with each other, though now that he was back in the position as the Warchief she knew he would lead the faction to greatness. While the leaders tended to the newcomers, however, she did know that the military might of Azeroth had just gone up by leaps and bounds, as four of the five dragonflights who lived in this world had regained their full power, five if they counted the future versions of Nozdormu and his entire flight, they had allies in Highmountain and Suramar pledging to join the fight, not to mention the druids of Val'sharah, the Vrykul who call Stormheim home, and the ancient blue dragons of Azsuna, the latter being restored as well when they empowered all of the dragonflights. Of course that wasn't counting their allies from Draenor, as not only did they have the Mag'har and Grommash, an honorable warrior based on what she knew, they had Yrel and her fellow draenei, who wanted to bring the Legion to justice for taking their home world, and they even had the other races who had called Draenor home, the rest of the Saberon, both the hunched and straight standing versions of the Arakkoa, and a number of Ogres who had sided with Azeroth's forces when the Iron and Fel Hordes were a thing. With all of those reinforcements gathered the military might of this world had been boosted by an alarming amount, or at least it would be seen that way by Kil'jaeden and Sargeras, as it would make it even harder for them to bring ruin to this world, but even as she thought about that she did know that all of this confirmed something interesting, with the power of Nozdormu, Murozond, the time dragons, and the Nightborne backing Azeroth they might be able to recruit more reinforcements from other timelines, now that they proved that doing so was possible, and she would speak with her allies once they had a chance to make sure that Yrel, Grommash, and the rest of Draenor's displaced residents had a place to settle in. Once the conversation was done, and Spitfire had more to think about than what she first thought, she and Rainbow spent the rest of the day assisting the displaced of Draenor, making sure that everything that had been brought from the now destroyed world was transported to the starting locations that the people wanted to settle in, where it was easy for her to find that Yrel's group, for the time being, would head to the isles that the Exodar had crashed into and park their ships in the area as well, while the Mag'har planned on starting in Durotar, even though it meant explaining the origin of Azeroth's Horde to all of the orc clans. In addition to that the hunched Arakkoa decided to call Ashenvale home, due to the fact that there were plenty of dark corners for them to reside in, including the fact that they liked forests for some reason, while the Arakkoa who could fly seemed to be thinking of taking up residence in Mount Hyjal, which happened to be close to where Orgrimmar rested, even though both the remaining Ogres and Saberon didn't seem to have much of a plan right now, as in they either needed time to figure out where a suitable home for them might be or they wanted to fight the Legion and then focus on that after the demons were dead. She was fine with that, since it gave Khadgar and the others time to scout out any possible locations for those who had no idea where to settle once the Legion was taken care of, though even as all of that happened she made sure that Khadgar spent some time with Nozdormu, Murozond, and the Nightborne, since she wanted to get a head start on her plans before making a massive push for the Tomb of Sargeras, where Kil'jaeden would no doubt have a massive force of demons guarding it, once they finally assaulted the Broken Shore anyway. In addition to all of that there was one other figure she needed to talk to before they put part of her next plan into action, she needed to speak with Lord Illidan and learn more about the plan he would have set in motion once he confirmed the abilities of the Sargerite Keystone, especially since she and Rainbow used it to track down and kill both Varedis and Caria, as it would aid her in forming the next stages of her plans to bring down the Legion, even though she had the feeling that Lord Illidan's next target would have to be Argus itself, at least to see what level of power the demons of that world were at, before he shifted his plan accordingly. Of course there was the chance that he never had a plan beyond acquiring the Sargerite Keystone, as in he was waiting to claim it and test its power for himself before making the next stages of his plan that would bring down the Legion, but for now she was going to have to wait until they had a chance to take a short break before such a thing could even happen, to which Spitfire focused on making sure Yrel, Grommash, and the new residents of Azeroth settled in before worrying about the assault on the Broken Shore. Dalaran, as expected, was a rather busy place once Spitfire and Rainbow returned to it, as not only were the heroes being busy with their preparations for the eventual assault, since they knew that the plan had been to attack shortly after they headed to Draenor and recruit some additional reinforcements for their assault, even if her plan had been altered thanks to the untimely arrival of those strange beings and the unfortunate destruction of the planet in question, and they found a number of Valarjar, both ground soldiers and some of the Val'kyr, watching over everyone that was in the city, meaning Odyn was likely waiting for the assault to begin so he could lend them his restored might. Spitfire could see that the smiths were busy sharpening weapons and repairing any damaged armor, for both everyone who followed the heroes of Azeroth and the heroes themselves, the alchemists were working away preparing all sorts of potions and tonics for what was going to happen soon, and the enchanters happened to be busy weaving new powers into all sorts of gear, working to ensure all of their clients were prepared for the battle ahead of them, while everyone else in the city was doing everything in their power to ensure the heroes were prepared for their return to the Broken Shore. Another thing she could tell while walking through the city was that none of the citizens or soldiers seemed worried, in fact they appeared to be in good spirits, and she knew that many of them had to be thinking about their chances since she and Rainbow were taking part in the next assault, because with even one of them joining the assault meant the demons would have a greater chance of failing and, more importantly, it meant they would be able to get to the set of ruins that rested near the southwestern section of the decent sized island, one that was roughly half the size of Suramar's width, maybe a third at the lowest. Of course it would be no simple matter to take part of the Broken Shore back from the demons, not since she suspected that Kil'jaeden might be observing the city and was waiting for them to make the first move before summoning in his reinforcements, as that sounded like something the Deceiver might do, lure them into a false sense of security and then bring the pain while they were trying to complete whatever mission they were doing, but even then she wanted to break his schemes, show him just who he was dealing with, and then kill him so he could join Archimonde in Rainbow's collection of souls, or maybe his soul would fall into her possession, something they would find out once they found him and took him down. Eventually Spitfire returned to the Fel Hammer and found that the Illidari were also hard at work readying themselves for the assault on the Broken Shore, meaning all of Mardum was a hive of activity for the first time in a long time, far more than what happened when they assaulted the broken world that Varedis and Caria had retreated to, though she found the person she was looking for right at the balcony that she and Rainbow had denied Kil'jaeden at in the past, though as she came to a stop Lord Illidan smiled for a few seconds. "You have done well in leading the Illidari, Spitfire, as you have done far more than what I originally thought you might do when I decided to pass on the leadership of my forces to you," Illidan commented, as he had several ideas of what sort of plans she would have put in place once she became the leader of the Illidari, ideas that were all based on everything he had seen of her and Rainbow during their time with Kayn and everyone else that swore to bring down the Legion, and yet, despite all of his planning and thoughts on the matter, Spitfire had blown all of them out of the water and revealed what sort of lengths she would go to in order to protect not only Azeroth, but her home world as well, "you have also done what I have long considered to be nearly impossible to accomplish, that being uniting the Alliance and Horde into a single unit to bring down the Legion... and yet, you managed to go beyond such a thing as well, crushing any flames of hatred that both factions had for each other. Azeroth is lucky to have you and Rainbow protecting it." "Thanks, it means a lot coming from you... also, Azeroth isn't an 'it' at this point, since Magni discovered that there's a Titan sleeping in the depths of this world, a female Titan, to be exact," Spitfire replied, though she told the truth, she was happy that Lord Illidan was pleased with her progress in commanding the Illidari, despite the fact that she had been forced to go beyond leading his forces to make sure the Legion was beaten, but, at the same time, this allowed her a chance to tell him some of the information they had gained since starting their war with the Legion, "it explains why Sargeras is so bent on trying to either claim or destroy this world... he afraid that she'll awaken and threaten his mission, but if he can take over the planet there's a chance he might corrupt her before she wakes up, or just outright destroy her to keep himself and his mission safe from potential harm. Anyway, I came to ask you about what the next stages of your plans were, once you had a chance to confirm the powers of the Sargerite Keystone, as it will help us determine what we need to do while taking on the vast demonic army that is scattered around the Broken Shore." Illidan paused for a few seconds, so he could recall exactly what sort of plans he had created for after he tested the power of the Sargerite Keystone, before explaining that the first stages recovered around making sure he could use it to open the way to some of the more powerful Legion worlds, not Argus since that would have revealed his hand too soon, though at the same time he informed her that he intended to uphold his promise to Akama, that once he had everything he needed he would hand over the Black Temple to his follower, even going so far to clean it up to the best of their ability, remove all of the Fel energy, and move the Illidari into Mardum. Such a thing would have allowed them to also claim the Fel Hammer and, with all of the slain demons that would have littered the ruined planet, there would have been no shortage of souls for his forces to use to empower the Legion ship, plus all sorts of energy so his forces could just from planet to planet as they waged war on the demons, meaning his plans were to attack as many of the Legion's worlds as he could, robbing all of them of demons, power, and components to upgrade the Fel Hammer until it became a weapon to bring ruin to their enemies, a plan that had been ruined thanks to his untimely death, and even now he suspected that they wouldn't have the time to do such a thing. While he talked Spitfire came to a decision based on everything he was telling her, because while she understood why he didn't want to head to Argus immediately, since it was the base of the Legion's power and it had to be home of so many incredibly powerful demons, something Rainbow would enjoy like a kid in a candy shop, there was one thing about the Sargerite Keystone she had to wonder about, something she was sure that Lord Illidan had either found out before even finding the Titan artifact, suspected it of being the case before even confirming what the artifact could do, or maybe it was recorded in what they took from Nathreza. "Basically, my plans were to test the Sargerite Keystone and attack more of the Legion's worlds," Illidan admitted, as that was the base of what he had come up with in the past, before his demise, and he could see that Spitfire understood what he was talking about, just like he thought she would since she had gained a lot of knowledge from working with him and all of the Illidari, though it was possible that she might come up with her own opinion on why he didn't do certain things, something that caused him to sigh for a moment, "but there is a good reason that I didn't start with testing the Keystone and making sure it could open the way to Argus..." "Because you were worried that its keyed to bridge the gap between Argus and Azeroth, as I'm sure Sargeras created the Keystone to do such a thing," Spitfire remarked, though in her eyes it made sense, because if someone from Azeroth knew that the Titan artifact opened the way to any world the Legion controlled, and they had it in their possession, they would be tempted to open the way to Argus and lead an assault on the Legion's base of operations, meaning that it would serve as a beacon to Azeroth's forces and draw them in to claim it, allowing him to kill some of them before someone activated the artifact and opened the way for the Legion to claim his prize, but that was when she noticed that her Lord nodded his head for a moment, to show that she was correct, "however, you're reconsidering the decision now that you have both me and Rainbow, plus the empowered races of Azeroth, to follow you into battle..." "Spitfire, you are the Grand Commander of Azeroth now... no one stands above you, meaning you bow to no one and call no one 'Lord'," Illidan replied, as he knew that such a thing would have happened at some point in time, given the time she and Rainbow had spent with the Illidari and learning about everything Kayn and the others did, and knew that it was best to put a stop to it now, as she was, in terms of power and influence, the strongest being in all of Azeroth, with Rainbow just a step behind her, meaning it was time for her to stop calling him 'Lord' and for her to take her rightful place as the Grand Commander of Azeroth, with everyone bowing towards her in respect, though he could see that she understood, as there was a moment where she started to open her mouth and then stopped a second later, "though we should begin our final preparations, as its only a matter of time until Kil'jaeden decides to attack this city, once he sees all the activity that all of our allies are undergoing to ready themselves for the upcoming assault." That was something Spitfire agreed with and found that the Illidari had all of the supplies they needed, every component that was needed to empower the Fel Hammer and any of Jace's toys were accounted for, every precaution had been taken to ensure they had devices to make sure the Legion couldn't see what was going on in all of Mardum, which they planned on taking some of the blockers with them to shield their base on the Broken Shore, and the weapons and armor of their forces were ready to go as well, meaning that the moment Spitfire ordered the assault to happen they would march on the Broken Shore and the demons guarding it. She knew that the other Orders would be doing the same thing, readying all of their supplies and forces for what was to come next, as most of them had dealings with the Legion, hunting down certain demons that dared to stay in Azeroth or those who moved to one of the shattered worlds, like Varedis and Caria had done after losing their weapons to her and Rainbow, though that, in truth, was only the beginning for all of them, as launching an assault on the Broken Shore would take everything in them to bring down Kil'jaeden's forces. Since she knew that the Deceiver wanted her and Rainbow's souls, to turn them into weapons of the Legion, that meant he was going to have most of his forces standing guard over everything that was around the Tomb of Sargeras and might be watching over his forces as the upcoming battle unfolded, meaning they had to have a force that wanted to bring down the Legion, and with Yrel and Grommash's forces on their side she was sure that the first stage of the assault would happen with some ease, but, at the same time, she wanted to be ready in case it was more challenging than she thought. Other than that there was next to nothing for her to do, so she ventured to the depths of the Fel Hammer, to a platform some demons used to stand on as they assaulted whatever location they wanted to attack, and sat down as she started to meditate, as she figured that she could spend some of her time making sure her powers were in balance with each other, due to having four of the six Cosmic Forces inside her at this point in time, though she planned on taking a short rest after she was done meditating, as she wanted to make sure she was well rested before their eventual assault on the Broken Shore. She got a decent amount of sleep in the end, as it was early morning when some of the Fel Hammer's alarms went off, to which she and the others, including Rainbow who had returned to Mardum after making sure everyone in Dalaran had no problems getting ready, before they found that Kil'jaeden's Fel signature appeared outside the Tomb of Sargeras, only to vanish not a few seconds later, meaning he was taunting them into moving, something that caused Spitfire to chuckle as she returned to Dalaran and called for her allies to gather. It didn't take long for the city to become even more crowded as the heroes of Azeroth woke themselves up and portalled into the city, grabbing some food to ready themselves as Spitfire met with the head leaders of the Order Halls, as in the greatest Highlord for the Silver Hand and the greatest Battlelord for the Valarjar for example, and were joined by those who could have been a previous leader of their Order, save for Odyn of course, who came in the guise of Havi, though they weren't the only ones to arrive in the city, as the leaders of the factions and their new allies had come as well. Yrel and Grommash, even though they hadn't been given as much time as Spitfire would have liked to give them, were ready to go and seemed eager to tear down any demons that got in their way, while Elisande and Thalyssra were standing nearby, the former having ditched most of her royal attire, since it got in her way the last time she faced the Legion, and even the leaders of the dragonflights were nearby, as some of their forces wanted to take part in this battle, now that they had been restored to their former glory, and she wasn't about to deny them a place in the upcoming assault, especially since she called on reinforcements from another world to aid them. Of course she did knew that Khadgar wanted to say something before they got started on heading down to the Broken Shore, as Kil'jaeden had made it known that he was annoyed with them doing nothing and they were going to show him the new might that all of them had, though she and Rainbow remained silent as he stepped forward and weaved his magic into the circular area of Krasus' Landing, as that was where they gathered, before five Arcane images appeared before them, as in images of the five Pillars of Creation: the Tidestone of Golganneth, the Aegis of Aggramar, the Hammer of Khaz'goroth, the Tears of Elune, and the Eye of Amun'thul. "Champions and leaders of Azeroth, our victory over Gul'dan has granted us new allies, restored other to their full power, and has given us the final key to stopping this invasion," Khadgar said, where many of the assembled individuals nodded their heads in agreement as they heard that, even though some of their allies, like Yrel and Grommash, had to be told a number of things before coming to this meeting, something Spitfire knew Khadgar must have done once they had settled down the previous night, before he focused on the Tomb that rested in the distance, "with the Pillars of Creation we can, at long last, seal the Felstorm and cut the Legion off from Azeroth once more, so we can turn our attention to how our forces will attack them instead." "We must remember that Kil'jaeden, the monster who hunted my people across the stars, will be waiting for us to strike at the Broken Shore," Velen added, something that caused the images of the Pillars to disappear not a few seconds later, all while he also glanced at the Tomb and recalled the reading they had noticed earlier, as if daring Kil'jaeden to set into this world again, because with both Spitfire and Rainbow on their side he knew that the monster would fall if he dared to show himself to them, to which he glanced back at them, "Lady Spitfire, you only need to give the word and our initial task force will descend upon the Broken Shore, which will give the rest of our forces time to..." Before he had a chance to finish his statement, and tell them what he was thinking about, the demons hunters felt the Fel energy in the air shift for a moment as they glanced over at the Tomb, which caused many to follow their gaze, which was when a number of Legion space ships, about fifteen of them, warped into the space around the point where the Tomb met the Felstorm, where the front tips of all of them lit up with a fierce glow as each of them started to charge a blast of energy that was aimed right at Dalaran... though as all of the ships opened fire, and the blasts raced through the air, each attack hit a Fel barrier that appeared out of nowhere and were sucked into a central point as Spitfire smiled, as she had her right hand pointed in the direction of the Tomb and all that Fel energy was hers, which caused the ships to warp out before any of them were wrecked. "Call for the task force to assemble, as its time to assault the Broken Shore," Spitfire commanded, where she knew that all of her allies would be even more eager to bring down Kil'jaeden and his forces, especially after the demons attempted to destroy Dalaran just now, though at the same time she could see that Rainbow was ready to get moving and nodded her head, as for now her friend was more than enough to deal with the demons that might be part of the initial assault on the Broken Shore, and once they broke through it was only a matter of time before their enemies perished. As soon as she said that all of her allies started to move, gathering whatever they needed before assembling to attack the demon infested isle, as it was time for them to tear down Kil'jaeden and seal the Felstorm with the Pillars of Creation, and once that was done they could worry about using the Sargerite Keystone from a safe location to invade the other worlds that the Legion was in control of, especially Argus, but for now it was time for them to show the Legion that Azeroth wasn't to be underestimated and that they were about to lose a lot of forces this time around, possibly their entire organization if Spitfire had her way. > Shore: A New Assault > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire stood at the edge of Krasus' Landing and watched the space around the Tomb of Sargeras for a time, mostly to be sure that Kil'jaeden didn't call upon more ships to come and attack Dalaran, though while she did that Rainbow and the forces of Azeroth prepared themselves for the second assault on the Broken Shore, one that everyone knew would likely succeed this time around since it was her plan that they were using and the fact that they had more allies than when they started fighting the Legion this time around, though it wasn't long before Khadgar and everyone else gathered behind her, waiting for her to give the command. "Forces of Azeroth, the time has come for us to drive the Legion back," Spitfire stated, where she turned for a moment and found that everyone that had assembled in Dalaran, after Jace's toys detected Kil'jaeden on the Broken Shore and they told all of them the news, had their weapons at the ready and were simply waiting for her to tell all of them what they wanted to hear, especially since Rainbow was standing still, despite the excitement that had to be coursing through her body as she thought about taking the fight to the Legion, for real this time, to which she braced herself as she raised right right hand for a second and beckoned towards the corrupted isle, "Go, show Kil'jaeden and his forces that Azeroth will not bend to their demands, that we will never surrender to them, and that they have no place in this world... purge them from the ruins that are near the coast and claim Deliverance Point for our forces, so that we might seal the Felstorm and prevent Sargeras from reaching our home! For Azeroth!" In that moment the heroes, soldiers, and leaders of Azeroth repeated her rallying cry, as they agreed with her statement, even Yrel and Grommash's forces felt the same way and they were newcomers, before Rainbow rushed towards the open section of the wall that Spitfire was standing on and opened her wings as she took to the skies at long last, where one of the Kirin Tor flew behind her on a raven that was made from Arcane energy, directing her down towards the coast Spitfire had mentioned, though as that happened Kil'jaeden, as Spitfire predicted, had a number of Legion ships, about three this time and only one was close to Dalaran, to attack the city. Of course Rainbow knew that such a thing was useless and that the demons were wasting time, as the Fel barrier that Spitfire had used earlier sprung up as the demons attacked the city and she added all of that Fel energy to her ever growing reserves, making her even stronger whenever a ship lashed out at Dalaran, though instead of worrying about that she focused on the coast that was down below her, though as she did that another Legion ship warped into the air above the Broken Shore, joining the assault, while she felt a powerful Fel energy signature aboard one of the ships, a Dreadlord based on what she was feeling. She wasn't sure which ship the demon was on, given that there were many powerful demons and some of them were pouring their immense powers into their ships so they could blast Dalaran out of the sky, as it was clear that Kil'jaeden wanted to overpower Spitfire and shatter the Fel barrier she was using to protect everyone else that was inside the city, even though that would only further empower her and push her to new heights, making Rainbow wonder if Spitfire would be as powerful as both Archimonde and Kil'jaeden by the time they sealed the Tomb of Sargeras and the Felstorm, which would mean she could take both of their souls and power for herself. Such a thing would have to wait for later, as right now her focus had to be on the Broken Shore and all of the demons that were waiting for her and their allies, to which she landed on the coast that happened to be the first point of attack and found that there were no guards around the area that her clawed feet touched, though not even a few seconds later a number of Infernals slammed into the ground while Eredar summoned Overfiends, Felguards, Felbats, and a couple of Wrathguards, where the demons turned and faced her direction. Not a second later some portals behind her opened as the task force that was assigned to her moved from the section of Dalaran they had been waiting in and joined her, where she felt the presence of another powerful demons, an Eredar, who happened to be near the ruins that Spitfire wanted them to take over, though once everyone was accounted for, and all of their portals had closed so none of the demons could sneak into the city and bypass Spitfire's barrier, Rainbow wasted no time in moving forward as she pulled her Warblades out of her horns and rushed through the air, spinning around as she lashed out at her targets and landed a few seconds later. What happened was that she cut down the Infernals and drew in all of their souls, before the rest of the demons even had a chance to understand what had happened, though as soon as that happened her forces, made up of at least ten of the races who called Azeroth home, and included those from the now destroyed Draenor, surged forward as the melee soldiers smashed into the demons, the ranged fired at them from afar to keep themselves safe from harm, and all of the healers made sure to mend any wounds that happened to grace the rest of their allies, while the couple of Illidari who joined them either contained the souls of the demons that were slain or just redirected them to Rainbow as she moved forward. Such a thing was designed to allow her to capture the souls and, more importantly, add their Fel energy to her growing pool of power, something that was less than Spitfire's thanks to Kil'jaeden attacking Dalaran with his ships in a vain attempt to bring her barrier down, though she dodged and avoided the attacks that were coming her way while cutting down the demons that dared to get in her face, something that lead to her forces leaving many demonic corpses in their wake, which she knew the Illidari would tend to so the Legion couldn't use them in the future, before she spun around and raked her clawed feet over the chest of an Eredar that tried to approach her from behind, cutting several scratches into the demon's robe and skin, before tearing her heart out and tossing it to one of the Illidari that were nearby, as it could likely be used at some point in the future, and as she moved forward another soul was added to her collection as she absorbed the power the demon had possessed. Rainbow had to admit something as she watched her forces move across the beach of the Broken Shore, she expected a lot more from Kil'jaeden, given everything he had done to this planet since Sargeras set his sights on it all those years ago, and during the initial assault Khadgar and a group of Kirin Tor stepped out of another portal he had opened, joining the task force and tearing down any demons who attempted to flee from the area, making sure to get every demon that was in the area as they made their way towards the hill that would eventually bring all of them up to the ruins Spitfire wanted them to claim for the forces of Azeroth. She also had to hold back a laugh that was building as she watched some of the demons trying to flee from this area of the Broken Shore, as if they realized the folly of their actions or something, due to the fact that the demons usually never ran from those they were supposed to bring down, meaning they might be scared of her and Spitfire, though none of the demons got too far as her task force slaughtered them and scattered their bodies all over the coast she had landed on, which allowed the Illidari to continue gathering components from them and marking the bodies for the rest of their forces to collect, once Deliverance Point had been claimed. Another thing that was nice to see was that both the Mag'har and the draenei of Draenor were no strangers to combat, as their warriors smashed into the sides of the demons who were in front of them, while the ranged dealt some incredible damage with their spells and arrows, and the healers made sure everyone was healthy enough to continue their battles, even though many did know when it was time to back off for a few moment and regain themselves before marching back into the fight, which would no doubt please Spitfire when she heard the report of this assault. She even noticed that the Felbats didn't help the Eredar in their attempts to flee from this area, as many were either blasted out of the air or sniped by one of the ranged heroes that were nearby, but the remainder found themselves falling back towards where the task force was fighting as Rainbow took a moment to flash through the air and cut off one of the wings of her targets, and one Eredar that was unlucky to fall off the back of its mount meant his end before he slammed into the ground, as she cut him apart before he had a chance to hit the ground. "The Legion thought they were ready for our assault, but they have never seen the forces of Azeroth united in such a way, or to this extent," Khadgar commented, where he and his Kirin Tor made sure to blast several of the remaining demons a few seconds later and made sure they were stunned for a time, allowing Rainbow or someone else to cut them down after they did that, though he could see that most of the Illidari that were present happened to be sending the majority of the demonic souls to Rainbow, allowing her to absorb every drop of power and boost herself to higher levels as she sent each soul screaming into her weapons, before he refocused on their mission, "I think its time that we took down the Eredar that is guarding the path to Deliverance Point and take him down, as his power would be a great addition to your growing pool and, at the same time, it would open the way for our forces to fulfill Spitfire's wishes." Rainbow nodded as she, Khadgar, and the rest of her task force marched up the winding path that lead up to an area that was in the area below Deliverance Point, as it was literally down the road from where the ruins in question were located, and there were a few demons standing in their way, a single Felguard, a couple of Eredar, and an Overfiend, who fell not a few seconds after clashing with the might of Azeroth's combined forces, before reaching an area that a large red skinned Eredar, about half as tall as Archimonde and Kil'jaeden were, happened to be guarding, and he seemed to be carrying two large swords in each of his hands. "You think that a few mortals, with some gaudy weapons, are enough to bring the mighty Legion and I, Lord Kalgorath, to our knees?!" the Eredar demanded, where he turned and faced the area that Rainbow and her task force was standing in at the moment, even though Rainbow held a hand up to make sure her forces stood back as she stepped forward, as this seemed more like a one-on-one fight between them, but at the very least the demon was nice enough to tell her what his name was, not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things since she was going to break him, something that caused the demon to growl when he noticed she wasn't backing down at all, "Very well, Rainbow Dash, I will fight you to the death and cut your down, as you are doomed to fail and your forces will pay for your arrogance!" "Sorry, but you don't scare me," Rainbow remarked, though instead of saying anything else she rushed towards the foul demon that was in front of her and closed the distance in a matter of seconds, not that any of her forces were surprised by since they were used to seeing or hearing about her speed, and swung her Warblades at the Eredar, where Kalgorath replicated the motion and brought both of his weapons down on the area she was standing in, causing their weapons to clash for a moment as the air shook a little, showing Rainbow that her foe had a decent level of power inside his body, even if it was nowhere near the level that had been inside Gul'dan's frail body, especially when he empowered him body during their fight. What was interesting was that Kalgorath had a few tricks up his sleeves, like when he used some shadowy power to call on a sphere of darkness in an attempt to damage Rainbow, who just swung a Warblade at it and smashed the attack apart in no time, something that displayed her power for all of the task force to see, and he even called down a rain of what looked like shadowy blades, which seemed designed to hit all over the area they were fighting in as he channeled the attack, to which Rainbow just flashed around the decent sized area, avoiding the fountain that was here, as she completely avoided her foe's attacks and then removed his head not even a few seconds later, allowing her to take his soul and power like all of the other demons she had slain so far. "It would appear that he was the arrogant one, and paid for it with his life," a new voice said, to which Rainbow took a few seconds to glance back at the path she and her task force had used to get to this point, where she found Maiev and some of her Wardens, Velen and a few additional draenei, and Illidan walking out of some new portals, something that told her that they were moving onto the next stage of Spitfire's plan, since their forces were reinforcements for her task force, as odd as it seemed to her, but she wasn't about to argue with Spitfire or question her plans, not after everything that's happened since the two of them were freed from the Vault, "We also bring news, as there just so happens to be a Dread Commander, a Doomguard known as Arganoth, to the northeast of our position and it looks like he's opening portals to call on reinforcements... I know you understand what needs to be done." Rainbow said nothing to that as she nodded her head, as Arganoth needed to die before his reinforcements overran her task force, which would have been a little bit interesting since her forces knew when to fight and when to retreat, but, the nice thing was that Maiev had learned that she and Spitfire had the best interests of Azeroth in mind and didn't seem too concerned about working with them now, even though it was possible that she and Illidan might bicker with each other every now and then, before she turned her focus to the rest of the assault. In that moment she took off and followed the path that her allies would be taking, temporarily bypassing Deliverance Point as she headed down a rocky road that went back down to the beach she had landed on, meaning taking out Kalgorath was more important than claiming the ruins at the start of the assault, before she noticed the path had a second road that went towards the heart of the Broken Shore, as in the center and not where the Tomb of Sargeras rested, and it was down that second path that her targets happened to be resting in. As such Rainbow lead the charge as her forces followed after her, smashing into the front of the demons who served under Arganoth, which involved heading down into a more Fel-corrupted section of this isle, a massive staging ground that Khadgar called the 'Black City', where they found Eredar, Felstalkers, Felguards, Wrathguards, Mo'arg Brutes, Imps, Infernals, Overfiends, plus a couple of wolves that were totally skeletal and empowered by Fel energy and some Fel elementals, meaning the Dread Commander had quite the force protecting his domain, but while one would expect him and his demons to have an advantage in this fight Rainbow proved him wrong. What happened was that the next part of their forces marched out of some portals that opened behind her as she and her task force smashed into Arganoth's foul army, enough heroes and soldiers to level the field between the two forces, though she could almost hear the demon take a moment to gasp as his forces were pushed backwards within a few seconds of the battle starting, all while Rainbow just flashed through the air and focused on clearing up the air as she knocked Felbats down, killed their riders, and even took a few Fel beams that were fired down at her forces, cancelling the attacks that the ships sent down at her allies, while also granting herself a bit more power in the process and caused all of the ships to stop firing at the ground. Honestly, she was still surprised by the fact that the Legion was more interested in bringing Dalaran down than focusing all of their attention down on her forces, making her wonder if they really wanted to beat Spitfire first and then worry about her forces, but if that was the way the Legion wanted to play right now she was going to make sure they paid the price for underestimating her and everyone else who called Azeroth home, hence the reason that she switched targets and cut into the side of an Eredar who tried to blast some of her forces, allowing her to cut him down with ease and capture his soul a few seconds later as she focused on another demon. While they faced their enemies Rainbow found that many of her forces that were injured either escaped on their own, or an ally rushed over to where they were fighting and pushed their enemies out of the way as they intercepted what could be a killing blow, though both actions allowed them to receive some healing from Velen and the healers who had come to the Broken Shore to take down the Legion, and so far it looked like no one had died yet, which was a surprise all by itself, something that seemed to be a rallying point for the forces of Azeroth as they smashed the demons into the ground and killed them, allowing the Illidari to collect the souls as they moved forward. In addition to that Rainbow found that a good number of portals scattered around the Fel-corrupted area that was known as the Black City, which had a number of large Fel structures, the corrupting type, scattered around the place, to which she flashed over to one of them and swung one of her Warblades at the portal, allowing her Fel energy to cancel the Fel energy powering the portal and close it, even though she took that power for herself as she forced it closed and killed both of the Eredar that had been trying to keep it open so their forces could pour out into the Black City. The Illidari noticed what she was doing with ease and focused some of their attention on closing the remaining portals that were scattered around the Black City, of which there were four and made Rainbow's the fifth, though since most of them didn't have her power to absorb all that Fel energy they contained most of the power inside Fel crystals and made sure to channel the souls over to Rainbow, allowing her to imprison them inside her weapons and add their Fel power to her growing pool of energy, and even Illidan smashed a portal with ease, though he smiled as he and Maiev, former enemies at one point in time, hunted down several demons and killed them as some of them tried to run. Rainbow found that to be highly amusing, as at one point in time Maiev and her Wardens hated Illidan and the Illidari, choosing to believe that they were secret allies of the Legion and that they were likely weeding out most of the weak demons who served Sargeras, to empower themselves or something like that, but now, after she and Spitfire had some words with their leader and shown them the truth of the Illidari, Maiev had come to realize something important, she had made a horrible mistake by imprisoning her, Spitfire, and the rest of the Illidari, but the Wardens were making up for their blunder by hunting down the Legion, with the Illidari fighting at their side. Eventually every demon that resided inside the Black City was resting on the ground, dead and soulless since Rainbow and the others made sure to claim their souls, to add them to her collection, and that included an Imp Mother who had been in a large Fel pool near the edge of the corrupted area, before Rainbow had everyone back up as a surge of Fel energy gave her an idea of what was coming, which was when Arganoth flew through the air and landed nearby, where it looked like he was annoyed about losing all of his forces to the Grand Army of Azeroth. "Insolent mortals, I will flay the flesh from your bones and deliver your souls to Kil'jaeden!" Arganoth stated, informing all of them that he was going to torture them once he broke them, even though he failed to account for the fact that the one he was going to be fighting was Rainbow, something that usually meant his days would be numbered, though he shifted his stance for a moment and readied his large sword, which had a Fel flame dancing around the edge of the weapon, while Rainbow did the same thing with her Warblades not a few moments later, meaning the pair were showing each other that they were ready to fight and that she was leaving her forces to ensure no demons came to bother them, in case Kil'jaeden sent more reinforcements to bother them. Rainbow and Arganoth swung at each other not a few seconds later, their weapons clashing in the middle of the air that was between them and caused the air to shudder as their Fel energies came into contact with each other, similar to what happened when she fought Kalgorath not all that long ago, though it appeared that Arganoth had a trick to play as some large Infernals dropped out of the Felstorm and landed all over the area they were fighting in, like they were going to lash out at her or turn their attention towards her forces, to which she sighed as she flashed out of the area she had been in and let her foe's weapon smash into the ground a few seconds later. Arganoth frowned for a moment as that happened, as he was expecting her to remain still and only fight him, before glancing around the Black City and watched as each of his Infernals received several slashes to their chests and heads, something that caused all of them to shatter into pieces a few seconds later as their souls were poured into a central area for a few seconds, where he barely had time to raise the large sword as Rainbow flashed into the space near his head and kicked him with the side of her leg. The force of the kick was enough to send him flying for a few seconds and knocked him into the ground, once more displaying the power that Rainbow possessed to her forces and allies, though Arganoth got up a moment or two later and rushed at her, though this time around he went on the offensive as he swung his weapon at her, intending to cut her to pieces and send her soul all the way to Kil'jaeden, to be corrupted into a weapon of the Legion, but what he discovered was that Rainbow just dodged his attacks like they were nothing, as if she was dancing around his blade and the flames that were attached to it, before she crossed the distance between them again and punched Arganoth in the side of his head, knocking him to the ground in an instant for the second time since this battle had started. Of course the Doomguard was getting annoyed with her, as he must have been involved with bringing down several worlds in the past or killing powerful heroes to make the job of his allies that much easier, something that prompted Arganoth to gather all of his Fel power into a single point, which just so happened to be inside his mouth, before firing a potent beam of energy that would wipe out anyone caught in the way of it, even though Rainbow stood still and absorbed all of it, much to the demon's surprise. Once the attack was over, and she was sure of that, Rainbow flashed towards her opponent and landed a few steps away from where he was currently resting, resulting in Arganoth being hacked into several chunks as her attacks struck him in a matter of seconds, allowing her to claim both his soul and his Fel power for herself, all while Illidan and the other leaders that were present nodded their heads and prepared for the next stage of Spitfire's grand plan, though Rainbow paused for a moment as she felt the power of the Dreadlord shift, meaning her target might be getting ready to face them, and sure enough her forces glanced up at where she was staring and found a Dreadlord with blue wings staring down at the Black City with a look of annoyance on his face, standing on the lowest level of his ship. "So, even Arganoth has fallen... I expected him to take out someone, anyone, and yet none of you are dead," the Dreadlord stated, showing everyone that he was displeased by this turn of events, as if he was expecting someone to die when the Dread Commander attacked the forces of Azeroth, which meant that Kil'jaeden and Sargeras were displeased by what was going on at the moment, though none of them were impressed by his statement, especially after everything they had gone through to reach this point in time, "Very well, heroes of Azeroth, come aboard my ship and entertain me... it will be the last time any of you ever do." "If I were you, Mephistroth, I would not be so arrogant, especially after the warlocks of the Black Harvest took your world from you at the start of this invasion," Illidan commented, as that was something he and everyone else had learned after the Order Halls had gotten together and informed Spitfire of what they had done so far, to track down their enemies and make sure this world was safer from the Legion, like how the Illidari hunted down Varedis and Caria while the members of the Silver Hand hunted down and killed one of the remaining Dreadlords, Balnazzar, whose soul resided in one of the Fel crystals aboard the Fel Hammer, just like every demon his forces had helped the Orders hunt down before they focused on freeing Suramar from the Legion's grasp, "and let's not forget that Spitfire and Rainbow joined me in wiping out your forces on Nethreza, before I detonated your planet and wiped out most of your kind, so you have no reason to be even a tiny bit arrogant." Mephistroth growled for a moment as Illidan finished his statement, though none of the warlocks moved to do anything as Rainbow burst into the air and raced up towards the ship that the Dreadlord was stationed on, where she quickly landed in the area she had seen the demon in and found that her target had vanished after hearing what Illidan had to say, even though there was a Fel portal nearby that lead into the ship and meant that her foe had retreated for right now, leaving a number of Inquisitors and Eredar behind to slow her down, like he was preparing something for her. As the demons took a moment to turn towards her, as if seeing her for the first time or even noticing that she was there, she rushed through the space between her and the Inquisitor that happened to be the first target she wanted to deal with on this ship, where she swung her Warblade and cut the demon apart before it even had a chance to fight her, while she parried the incoming attack from the Eredar that was standing near it, causing the corrupted female to frown for a moment before she was cut apart as well, allowing Rainbow to draw two more souls into her weapons as she moved to take down the rest of the force that was in front of her. The good thing about being left alone in a demon infested area was that she didn't have to worry about any souls being taken by the Illidari, not that she minded such a thing since it allowed them to power the engines of the Fel Hammer and use the machines that were scattered throughout it, and all of Jace's toys for that matter, but in the end she was able to eliminate the demons who had been assigned to guard the area Mephistroth had been standing in as he talked down to her and her forces, sending their souls screaming into her weapons as she absorbed their energy like all of the other demons she had killed so far, before she marched through the Fel portal they had been guarding and warped into Mephistroth's ship. What she found inside the ship were a number of Eredar, a good number of Inquisitors, a couple of Wyrmtongue, and a decent number of Felguards, all of whom appeared to be the forces who controlled the ship and did whatever the Dreadlord commanded them to do, and many of them rushed at her as soon as they noticed what was going on, that she had invaded their ship and was already killing their companions, though several of her targets watched as all of their forces died in vain as she dodged attacks, parried others, and used her clawed hands and feet, plus her weapons, to bring down every demon that happened to stand in her way. In the end it didn't matter what the demons did, as Rainbow slashed and hacked her way through the ship in record time, even though this was the first time she had attacked a Legion ship on her own, before coming to a stop in the area that the command center of the ship rested in, where she found Mephistroth standing in the same area she and Spitfire had found Tyranna in when Illidan sent the Illidari to assault Mardum, who frowned for a moment as he turned to face her, though it wasn't long before he rushed at her and she did the same thing, the collision of their fists and Fel energy causing the air to shake for a few seconds, before she knocked the Dreadlord backwards and sent him into the wall behind him, while she landed near the opposite wall a few seconds later. "Is that all the power you can muster?" Mephistroth asked, almost as if he assumed that Rainbow was weak and that she would be easy to crush if he got serious, even though she was holding back for the time being, so she could see what sort of power the Dreadlord possessed, but all he was showing her right now was his arrogance and it was a little annoying, as she hated how arrogant all of the demons in the Legion seemed to be, before she chuckled for a moment as she thought of something to show her foe just how screwed he was, something that caused the Dreadlord to raise an eyebrow as he heard the noise, "What's so funny?" "You demons always seem to underestimate the power that Spitfire and I possess," Rainbow remarked, though as she said that she banished her right Warblade for a moment and held her hand out towards the rest of the Legion ship, causing the demon to raise his eyebrow even higher as he waited for something to happen, which was followed by the Fel power that was inside the ship being drained before his eyes, as he could see that some of the consoles and runes that were all over this chamber started to go dark as the Fel energy gathered into a single orb that was near her hand, which grew and grew as it took in every drop of energy the ship had, before she turned her hand into a fist and condensed the energy into a much smaller orb, like a marble, for her to pop into her mouth and swallow. Mephistroth paused for a moment as the ship shuddered, as with no more energy it was going to crash into the ground of the Black City, but before he could do anything he felt Rainbow's power surge for a moment as she created a lance of Fel energy and hurled it at him, to which he actually threw himself to his right to avoid it, even though the edge cut right into his right and splashed a bit of his blood on the floor as the attack punched through the wall and tore a hole through the ship as it escaped and reached the open air, but before it could detonate Rainbow dismissed the attack and it vanished not a second later. Once that was done Rainbow watched as Mephistroth actually seemed to sweat for a moment as he stared at her, like he might actually be afraid of her, before he turned into a swarm of bats and escaped from the falling ship, to which Rainbow sighed for a moment as she flew outside and raised her hands to touch the metallic bottom of the broken ship, stalling it before it even had a chance to touch the ground, though that was when she smiled as she glanced in the direction of the Felstorm, which was connected to all sorts of Legion worlds, not just Argus. In the following moments she let go of Mephistroth's ship and switched to the edge of the vessel, allowing her to grip the metallic edge as she shifted her stance and pulled her arm backwards, which was followed by her hurling the ship through the air and let her watch as it vanished as it passed through the Felstorm a few seconds later, no doubt crashing into the surface of one of the Legion's many worlds, something that brought a smile to her face as she imagined what sort of expression the demons would have when they witnessed one of their ships being returned to them in such a way, even though she suspected that the ship in question would be beyond repair and wouldn't be sent to attack Azeroth again. Once that was done Rainbow paused for a few more seconds and held her hand out as she siphoned the energy out of the remaining Legion ships, where there were three remaining ships since she just took out Mephistroth's, and it wasn't long before all that power gathered in a sphere in front of her palm, and Rainbow even made sure to drain the Soul Engine that was below her before shrinking the large Fel orb into a marble that she devoured, and once she did that she flashed over to each of the ships and sent them flying through the Felstorm, returning them to the demons that had made them, though once the fourth and final ship was gone she descended for a few seconds and moved out of the way. The reason she moved out of the way was because Dalaran had been gathering Arcane energy, or at least the Council had done so at Spitfire's command and had been part of the reason she used her power to ensure the Legion didn't blast the city out of the air, and not a few seconds later Spitfire lowered the barrier, allowing a powerful beam of Arcane energy to race down towards the Fel barrier that was protecting the Tomb of Sargeras, a gift from Kil'jaeden no doubt, blasting it to pieces and opening up the path they would take in due time, to which Rainbow landed in Deliverance Point and smiled at her allies, as they had pushed Kil'jaeden's forces out of part of the Broken Shore and it was only a matter of time until the rest of the Legion fell to their might as well. > Shore: Surveying the Shore > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the sky of the Broken Shore clear of enemies, and Rainbow made sure that none of the Legion's ship were trying to get close to where Dalaran, Khadgar and the Kirin Tor opened a number of portals once they were sure Deliverance Point was clear of enemies and that there were none in the surrounding area, allowing more of their forces to move from the city and join them in the ruins Spitfire wanted them to take during the first stage of her assault on the Broken Shore, which just so happened to give everyone a good view of everything else that the corrupted isle had in store for them, since there was no telling what Kil'jaeden might have prepared ahead of time. She found that many of the heroes and forces assisted each other in moving crates full of supplies, be it food or gear for their soldiers, that had been gathered inside Dalaran, which allowed them to start outfitting the ruins with everything they might need for their battle with the Legion, while Illidan, Velen, and Maiev watched over the soldiers while ensuring that everything was set up accordingly, even though Rainbow did note that there was a command table near where Illidan was standing, why she had no idea and she honestly didn't care enough to ask about it. One thing she noticed was that there was a decent sized stone tower near the landing point of their new base of operations, one that had a couple of cracks and a few missing sections, which was understandable given that this place had been without people for some time, while the highest patch of land in this place happened to be where the landing point was placed, a flight area that was an alternate method to get from the Broken Shore to Dalaran, though in addition to that there was also a building which appeared to be a small rectangular hut of some kind, similar to the houses they had seen back in the wilds of Suramar. In addition to all of that there was also the fountain that she had killed Kalgorath near, only it doubled as a font of magical power, nothing like the Nightwell or the Sunwell based on what Khadgar discovered when he and a few mages studied it, but each of them confirmed that it should, in some way, assist them in their mission to bring down the Legion, just none of them had any idea what sort of benefit it would give them at this time, causing her to sigh for a second as Spitfire landed nearby. None of the leaders or heroes had been expecting Spitfire to sit this battle out, though they were happy that she had used her power to protect Dalaran from the attacks the Legion sent at the floating city earlier, both before their forces even had a chance to start their new assault and during the assault, though all of that resulted in her getting a huge boost in power, no doubt putting her firmly on Kil'jaeden's level, but such a thing was why she had Rainbow tackle the assault and would no doubt be sending her to deal with the demons that were scattered across the Broken Shore, as such a thing would give her more power that could be used against the Legion. "Everyone, you have done well in liberating Deliverance Point and pushing the demons back," Spitfire stated, where both she and Rainbow could see that many of their forces were pleased to hear that she was happy with their process and that her plan had worked even better than she originally thought, while the leaders who were down here were pleased to see that the Legion had been pushed back without losing anyone during Rainbow's initial assault, before she glanced off in the direction of the Tomb of Sargeras for a few seconds, "however, we must keep our guard up while we're here, as there's no telling what sort of tricks Kil'jaeden might have in store for us, plus it looks like Mephistroth ran away once he noticed that Rainbow was stronger than he was, so we'll have to take him down at some point as well." "This is a good start, especially with how bad our first assault went down," Khadgar commented, though instead of them being saddened by the loss of life that happened during the initial attack on the Broken Shore, something they had done a number of times since everyone returned from this place, the heroes were ready to avenge their friends and companions at long last, as the members of the Grand Army of Azeroth resumed moving things around and setting up the base they would be using until the Tomb of Sargeras was sealed, which would remove the Felstorm, before he turned his head and lowered his voice a little so only Spitfire could hear him this time, "anyway, I'm glad that the Alliance and the Horde came to a decision and created the united front that you're leading right now, as I was planning on calling our forces something else, the 'Armies of Legionfall'... laugh if you must, but even I'm willing to admit that it was a bad name, hence why I'm so happy that we're not using it." "Either way, Spitfire is right in that we need to be careful, given that we have no idea what Kil'jaeden might have left for us and our forces," Rainbow stated, though as she said that she glanced out at the rest of the Broken Shore and wondered if she could just siphon all of the Fel energy out of the ground, like she had done to the ships, even though it would only be a matter of time before the power of the Tomb corrupted the rest of the area again, given the dark power sleeping inside the massive structure, which looked like a darkened and twisted version of the Nighthold, before she focused on Spitfire for a few seconds as she thought about something else, "So, what do we do now?" "First, we should check out the rest of the isle and take stock of what Kil'jaeden has left for us," Spitfire replied, which also meant that they would be checking out two areas that might be good secondary areas for more of their forces to gather before the eventual strike on the Tomb itself, since she was sure that the demonic Eredar in charge of Sargeras' forces would summon reinforcements if he felt that they were getting close to assault the structure, before she let out a sigh as she thought about something else, "also, I have asked that a few of our forces set up temporary bases in the provinces of the Broken Isles, just in case Kil'jaeden sends his forces to attack us while we're focusing on this corrupted isle... if such a thing happens our allies will send a message to Khadgar and we can respond accordingly." Since the Legion loved to assault places while their enemies were focused on a certain area, such as attacking the Eastern Kingdoms while the forces of Azeroth were busy defending Kalimdor from some of the Legion's forces, which did sort of happen at the beginning of this invasion, before the forces of Azeroth retaliated and struck at the demons one the Broken Isles, so she was fully expecting Kil'jaeden to assault one of the other provinces of the Broken Isles, especially Suramar due to the fact that Gul'dan had perished there, hence why she had a few of their forces standing guard in those areas, just in the off chance her thoughts proved to be correct. "That sounds like an excellent idea," Khadgar said, as he had been thinking the same thing when he first stared out at the rest of the Broken Shore, due to the fact that there was so much they didn't know about this place, though they did know that this island had once been called Thal'dranath, something that was thanks to Thalyssra giving them that small piece of information, though that was when he reached into his pack for a moment and pulled out an ancient tome that had been a surprise to him, the Kirin Tor, and the Council, as it had survived despite all the years spent on this island, something that caused the pair to raise their eyebrows for a moment, "when we took Deliverance Point we discovered this tome inside the ruined tower, an ancient Kaldorei tome that has survived in this harsh environment for so long, and what we have found so far is that many of the enchantments this tome possessed have faded over time... but, since you two are going to be exploring this island, I thought that it might be best for you to take it around the Broken Shore and see what sort of new information you can gleam from it." Spitfire said nothing as she accepted the tome in question, taking a moment to glance over it as she took hold of it and felt that it was hungry for either knowledge or some measure of Arcane energy, making her wonder if it might be a weapon of the Legion, before tossing that idea out entirely, as while the Legion tempted people with knowledge, power, and all sorts of things to pull them to their side, to corrupt them while said individual gained what they desired, she knew that using a book like this wasn't something Kil'jaeden would have done, especially since there was no Fel energy coming from it, due to what she was feeling right now. Once she finished looking at the tome, and made sure it wasn't a tool of an Eredar or one of the other demons of the Legion, Spitfire stashed it inside her pack for a moment before she and Rainbow headed out to see what else the Broken Shore had in store for them, since there were two other locations on this island she had noted before the assault took place and she was eager to see if they could use them as areas to prepare more forces for when the decisive battle for this island went down, meaning she wanted to have all her cards at the ready before taking on Kil'jaeden's forces. While the Grand Army of Azeroth focused on outfitting Deliverance Point with everything they needed for the rest of their assault on this island, and that meant leaving Illidan, Maiev, Velen, and Khadgar in charge of everyone who was there right now, Spitfire and Rainbow took to the air as they headed to the north, as they knew that Izal and a few Illidari would be attempting to set up a forward base for all of their forces, as in they would scout it out and then report to Spitfire with their findings, though based on the scattered Fel energies they were feeling it was easy to tell that there were a number of Fel portals in the area that Izal's forces were gathered in. One thing she could tell as they flew through the air was that the tome Khadgar had found was beckoning for them to visit the eastern part of the Broken Shore, something the two of them would worry about after dealing with the Legion forces that had to be attacking Izal's section of the island, as not a few seconds later they found that they were right to even consider the possibility that Kil'jaeden wanted to ensure no more bases were created, as he wanted to contain the forces of Azeroth to a single position and not let them spread out all over this island. Sure enough there were a number of Felbats and Felguards attempting to bring down Izal's group, who were doing a good job tearing into all of the demons that were coming at them, though in the following seconds Rainbow rushed down at all of their enemies and joined the fight, even though her first action was to draw out the power of the Fel portals and forced both portals closed, granting her another condensed Fel orb for her to add to her growing pool of energy, while she let the Illidari capture the souls of the demons that were marching on their base, as there were more demons to kill and Rainbow was planning on taking their souls when she fought them. Izal was happy to have some reinforcements, especially since she and her small group had left without giving most of their task force time to get ready, which would have been a fatal flaw had the pair not come this way first, though fortunately no harm was done and it didn't take them long to clear up all of the remaining demons, where near the end of their visit to this area Spitfire noticed that Izal's allies came to join them in Vengeance Point, as that was what Maiev insisted it be called, like she was trying to make up for the fact that she and the Wardens had locked the Illidari away inside their Vault, and there were a few Wardens here as well, partly confirming Spitfire's thoughts on the matter. Once she was sure that Vengeance Point was secure, and that Izal's full force could hold the area in question, at least until Spitfire could figure out who else to assign to this area before the big event, she and Rainbow took off and headed to the southeast, as it was time to check out the other base that she and her allies wanted to set up before the big assault on Kil'jaeden and the Tomb of Sargeras, a base that would be tucked out of the way, near the water to be exact, meaning that when the time came the forces posted here could be more like a pincer attack when she gave the order to fight the Legion, an area Khadgar wished to call Aalgen Point. From what she knew some Valarjar and a number of Stormforged, the latter being stronger than the normal Valarjar, would be waiting with some of their drakes, as Izal had a few tamed Felbats to act as their mounts, meaning some of Odyn's forces were there and would be waiting for more soldiers to join them in due time, so they could be ready for when she called for everyone to assault the Tomb and drive Kil'jaeden to his knees, before killing him anyway. It didn't take them too long to reach the somewhat hidden camp that the Valarjar were setting up, on a coast that just so happened to be out of the way and meant most of the demons wouldn't notice them until it was far too late, and found it was just fine, the warriors and ancient members of Odyn's forces that were here seemed to be fine and no demons had come to assault them, making many wish they had taken Vengeance Point instead, but Spitfire informed them that they would get a chance to do battle with the Legion, once they secured more of the island and were starting to push their foes back towards the Tomb. Once that was done Spitfire and Rainbow quickly headed up the side of the nearby mountain that Aalgen Point had been established at the base of, where they found a flat area and a peak, plus a hole that headed down to a hidden temple that one of the Highlords had recovered their artifact from earlier, though from what Spitfire could see there were three ancient elven structures that were scattered around the decent sized mountain, one that happened to be on the side that the Valarjar had built their base on, another on the opposite side of the first, and a third one which rested between the coast and a Fel-corrupted area. What they did was land at each ruin and Spitfire pulled the tome out without much delay, while Rainbow stood back and made sure none of the demons came rushing at them, otherwise they would be in for a bad day when she was done with them, and it wasn't long before she found a number of Kaldorei spirits who appeared all around the various ruins, who channeled their ancient power into the tome and she watched as the pages in the ancient book seemed to fill with whatever knowledge the spirits wanted to share with her, Rainbow, and their forces, but in the end she honestly didn't care since it would be turned on the Legion and she had the feeling that every spirit did understand what they would use this knowledge to do. As soon as she finished with the third ruin Spitfire had the feeling that the tome was full and that there was nothing else it could gleam from the island, even though the latter part of that she had a hard time believing since most of the structures on this island were Kaldorei in nature and each might have a bit of information to share with them, before she sighed as she stashed it inside her pack once more, where she and Rainbow took off and headed for Deliverance Point, taking a few moments to stare out at the rest of the island. Based on what Spitfire could see the main points of the Broken Shore were a web infested area to the northwest of their main base, passed an area that some Eredar were using as a building ground for new Fel Reavers, while a small patch of ground rested to the west, where a ruined airship, from the Alliance, rested in half and the ground seemed to be tainted by the Legion, while to the northeast of their base rested the offline Soul Engine, while further in that direction was both the Black City and the Tomb of Sargeras, and from their direction was the mountain and a northern coast that had some Fel naga, because of course they could be corrupted as well... though as they flew near the coast, however, Rainbow took a moment to chance her course and flashed into the water, causing Spitfire to raise an eyebrow as her friend burst out of the water a few seconds later and stopped by her. "What was that about?" Spitfire asked, though at this point she wasn't even surprised to find that Rainbow's attire and her body weren't wet at all, meaning her aura must have protected her from the water, and was simply asking to see what in the world was so important that it made her friend do something like that, given that time happened to be precious right now since no one had any idea when the Legion would make a move against the forces of Azeroth, which worried her due to the fact that the Legion was know to retaliate and had done so many times in the past, to some degree, so it made her wonder what Kil'jaeden might have planned for them. "I spotted this, and for some reason it called out to me," Rainbow replied, where she held out her hand and revealed that what she had pulled out of the water was a brass compass that looked like it had been battered, likely dropped out of one of the airships during the first assault on the Broken Shore, the failed one that drove the forces of Azeroth to push forward so they could tear Gul'dan, Kil'jaeden, and all of the demons that served the Legion to pieces, something that caused her to carefully grasp the glasp and opened it not a few seconds later, revealed that the glass had been broken and that the needle was twisted to the point where it didn't move, before they noticed a small portrait of Anduin set inside it, which told them that this had belonged to King Varian at one point. Spitfire stared at it for a few seconds, as she wasn't expecting Rainbow to find something that must have been a treasure to the former High King of the Alliance and the King of Stormwind, positions that Anduin had inherited after his father had passed away during the first assault on this corrupted island, before nodding her head as she and Rainbow headed back to Deliverance Point, where they found that Genn and Anduin were chatting with Velen, meaning they must have come to check on their forces before heading back to Stormwind for a time, something that was interrupted as the pair landed in the center of the command section of their camp and folded their wings not a couple of seconds later. "Ah, Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, it seems that we've made good headway in securing the Broken Shore, though we might need to do more to ensure the Legion doesn't overwhelm us," Anduin commented, speaking the moment the pair landed near him and the others, where it was easy for them to see that he was pleased with their progress so far and that he was eager to see what happened in the near future, since everyone here knew that it was only a matter of time until the Legion came with their own attack force to take back every bit of the Broken Shore they were taking from them, before he turned his attention towards them, as he noticed Rainbow was a little distracted and it interested him, "What is it? What did you find while you were surveying this corrupted place?" "You mean besides the bases our allies are setting up, which need to be outfitted, and the fact that the Legion hasn't even tried to take them back yet?" Rainbow inquired, though while she knew that Spitfire would be telling Khadgar and the rest of the leaders what they had found so far, to prepare for further scouting missions and the eventual preparation for their main assault on the Tomb of Sargeras, she focused on the item that was in her hand right now and wasted no time as she raised her right hand, causing Anduin to raise an eyebrow as she opened her hand, only he seemed surprised by the item she was holding, which also caused Genn and Velen to pause for a moment as they noticed it, "While we were flying back to this base, while you guys are outfitting in record speed, I spotted this in the water of the beach we started our assault on earlier, and based on the portrait inside it both Spitfire and I figured it would be best to return this to you." "Father's compass... I had this commissioned for him as a birthday present, which I gave to him a few months before my ship found Pandaria, which feels like a lifetime ago," Anduin said, where he gently lifted the compass from Rainbow's hand and studied it for a few moments as the others watched him, as he wanted to make sure that it was the item in question, something only he and the artisans who made it would know since he had been specific when having this crafted, but the portrait and the brass casing were all he needed to see to figure out that this was his father's compass, something that caused tears to fill his eyes as he stared at it, "After our failed assault on the Broken Shore, where we honored my father and all of our fallen heroes, I went through my father's things and found that this compass was nowhere to be seen, so I just assumed that it had been on his person when Gul'dan... when he... you know what he did... since this war has started the people of Azeroth haven't had a chance to mourn for those who have been lost, something I will have to change once we seal the Tomb of Sargeras... but thanks for bringing this back to me. Oh, how I wish I could just return to Stormwind for a time, to spend a day in the Cathedral of Light, praying for my father and the souls of the fallen, both the soldiers of the Alliance and those of the Horde, to reach whatever their final destination is without delay... but I know that our focus must be here, on the Broken Shore and the Tomb of Sargeras, and that such a thing can wait until we've succeeded in pushing our enemies back to their corrupted world." "Anduin... when I lost Liam, back during the start of the Cataclysm, I mourned his passing as my citizens focused on doing everything in their power to save the rest of my people," Genn spoke up, recalling what happened back when his people had been inflicted by the worgen curse, something they had turned into their power, during the time that Sylvanas had attacked the city and tried to kill him in the process, almost as if she had known his secret before he revealed it to those that were close to him, an event that ended with his son taking an arrow meant for him, "in the end, I chose to evacuate the rest of my people, to honor Liam's sacrifice, instead of tracking down the Banshee Queen and killing her in an act of revenge that, at the time, would have likely gotten me killed... you, on the other hand, haven't had a chance to mourn the loss of your father or those who served under him, and I can imagine that part of you wants to go to where he fell, just to understand his sacrifice and the decisions he made." "The demons are calling it Wrynnfall, just to mock us," Khadgar added, once more showing that the Legion wanted to do some damage to them by naming an area after the fallen High King, who sacrificed himself to ensure Genn and the rest of the Alliance escaped with their lives, though as he said that he took the tome that Spitfire had for him, which he would look at later, before he considered something as he glanced across most of the Broken Shore and focused on the front of the Tomb of Sargeras, "normally, given its position, I would hesitate to allow anyone to go over there right now, since we are still trying to find Mephistroth and figure out how to use the Pillars of Creation to seal the Felstorm, but, due to the power that our allies possess, if you decide to head down there either Lady Spitfire or Rainbow can escort you over there and ensure your safety... also, one of the Illidari informed me that there was an odd Fel signature in that area, one that is similar to what a Nightborne might possess." Rainbow raised an eyebrow for a moment, as all of the Felborne were dead, something she and the others confirmed not all that long after killing Gul'dan and liberating Suramar from the Legion's grasp, but this told her that there was another Felborne near Wrynnfall, meaning that if Anduin went there to commune with the spirits of his father and those that had served him, to understand their sacrifices for the good of Azeroth, there was a chance that the Felborne would appear to do him harm or even attempt to capture him for whatever plan Kil'jaeden had in store for him. As such she nodded her head not a second later and watched as the High King didn't even bother to wait for a decision to be made, rather he knew that someone would follow him and sure enough Rainbow did so without delay, though Genn and Velen joined him as he walked down the path that lead out of Deliverance Point, where Spitfire took to the air to be sure nothing was happening to the Broken Shore, mostly to give Anduin's group the safest walk possible, but based on what she could see most of the demons were elsewhere right now, likely terrified of Rainbow to some degree. One thing Spitfire noticed while Rainbow's group walked towards Wrynnfall was that there were a few figures flying through the air, unseen by everyone else since it didn't look like Rainbow had noticed any of them yet, and based on what she could tell they were blue skinned figures who were wearing interesting armor that had to be from the Shadowlands, silver colored armor to be exact, and she noted that all of them had light blue feathered wings, though she could see that they were gathering the souls of the fallen, the last of them no doubt, before bearing them to the Realm of Death, so they could be judged and sent on their way, similar to how Sylvanas ended up in a realm of torment. Other than that there was next to nothing else happening in this area, meaning they could just walk down the corrupted path and head for the Black City, as it held a path that would bring them to the area that was resting right in front of the Tomb of Sargeras, though thanks to everything Rainbow did earlier most of the demons were either dead or had pulled out before they had been killed, which let all of them reach their destination without too much delay, even though it was about five to ten minutes away from where their base was located. As she, Rainbow, and the others came to a stop Spitfire noted a few things, like the pool of Fel energy to their left that had the head of a powerful looking Fel Reaver resting inside it, one that Genn claimed Varian had slain before being left on the Broken Shore, as he killed it to make sure his forces could retreat and live to fight another day, along with the ridge off to their right, overlooking this area, that was where the leaders of the Horde fought, including where Vol'jin was wounded by some of their enemies, before she focused on the small blast crater in front of them, which was a marker of where Varian had died, especially since his skull seemed to be the only thing left of the once mighty warrior. "To be honest, I've never actually witnessed the horrors of the Legion, not like Velen has in his many years of fighting them as the draenei moved through space... Father..." Anduin said, where it was clear that he was likely speaking to them at first, admitting that he didn't have a lot of experience with fighting the Legion and, since that had to be true, this had to be his first true experience dealing with them, before he switched to speaking to the spirit of his father, where Spitfire knew that those mysterious Val'kyr hadn't taken the former High King's soul yet, as it appeared that Varian might be lingering in this place, as she noticed a faint mist that most of the others didn't seem to notice, though that was followed by Anduin falling to his knees as he rested before his father's final resting place, as if he had been stabbed or experienced the pain that his father had felt before his death, before he moved some dirt and found the right half of his father's weapon, "you never surrendered, no matter who your enemies were... even here, at the very end. Father, even with my allies and everything you taught me, I'm unsure of whether or not I'll be able to do this... I can't be the hero you were, much less the grand king that you were." As Anduin said that Genn walked over to him and knelt near him, where he told the young High King something that was a tad bit interesting to Spitfire, that his father's actions were indeed heroic, something that he would always be remembered for by both the forces of the Alliance and the forces of the Horde, but they were also a challenge to his people, to never let fear prevail, especially when confronted by a place as dark as the Broken Shore, the 'very gates of Hell' as he called part of the Tomb of Sargeras, before he lifted the half of Shalamayne Anduin had found and placed it in the young King's hand for a moment, something that caused Anduin to stare off into space for a moment... but not a few seconds later something interesting happened, an orb made of Light energy, reflecting his inner power, and Anduin raised his head with a new look on his face, fierce determination to lead the Alliance. "How wonderful, the flame of a dead king has been passed on, becoming the light of another," a voice said, though in that moment Spitfire and Rainbow glanced around the area they were in and determined that the speaker was standing to the right of where Anduin and Genn were resting, where everyone noticed a shimmer as a slender female figure appeared not a few seconds later, though it was easy to see she was a demon, thanks to the faint blue skin that looked like it was mixed with the gray of a Dreadlord's skin, her legs were shaped like a Dreadlord's and ended in hooves, she had a pair of twisted dark green curved horns growing out of her forehead, her fingers were sharpened like claws, her breasts were a size larger than a normal elf's, and she had a pair of large bat wings growing out of her back, though she was wearing a chest piece that only covered her breast area and exposed her stomach area, while wearing the leggings that a Dreadlord wore, only it was opened to show the insides, fronts, and backs of her legs, "and it seems like you were able to force his soul to depart from this place... a pity, as it would have been wonderful to twist him into a pawn of the Legion." "Wait a second, I know that voice," Rainbow remarked, though while she wasn't surprised to find that a demon wanted to take the soul of someone who was already dead, to force them into one of the Soul Engines or another machine that the Legion used in their war against all life, the voice of this one was oddly familiar, especially since none of the demons she or Spitfire have killed so far would have returned, given that most of their souls were trapped inside their weapons and the rest had been slain on shattered worlds, before she noted the silver hair and the absolute look of pure hatred that was in the demon's eyes, causing her to realize who was in front of them, "Anarys, is that you?" "Rainbow Dash... no, more like Rainbow Anarys Lunastre, since you stole everything from me!" the figure replied, though in that moment Spitfire understood what was going on and knew that Rainbow did as well, because when Ly'leth had been kidnapped by the Legion their forces found that her sister had been stolen at the same time, hence why Rainbow couldn't use the mask Ly'leth had given her at the start of their incursion into the city, and they hadn't found Anarys inside the rest of the Nighthold, much to the sorrow of Ly'leth when she learned that no one had seen her sister since her kidnapping and imprisonment inside the cage they found her in, but it was easy to see why Anarys was angry with Rainbow, even if it had been Ly'leth's idea and let her keep her sister safe from the Legion, "Just like you stole everything from the various Dreadlords when you, Spitfire, and the Illidari and attacked Nathreza all those years ago... in fact, I bonded with the soul of the last female Dreadlord, taking on her name 'Anzagora', and we'll take our revenge on you in due time, though once we beat you we'll chain you up and force you to watch as we purge your home world, before delivering you to our master so he can twist you into a loyal demon." In that moment Rainbow sighed as she stepped forward and neared Anarys, as she wasn't going to use the demon's name at all, where she dodged the couple of incoming claw attacks that her foe happened to be sending at her, where she knew that Gul'dan had sent her to Kil'jaeden, or maybe it was one of the other demons that had been inside the Nighthold just before their forces assaulted it, though it was clear that Anarys didn't have a strong will and she had been corrupted by the twisted methods of the Deceiver, just like what happened with Varedis and Caria, making her into a vessel for the demonic soul that was now inside her body. The disappointing aspect of this was that Anarys had rushed into battle without taking some time to make sure Anzagora's soul had fully bonded to her body, as in to the point where she was capable of using all of the Dreadlord's power, meaning both of them wanted to have their revenge and it was going to cost them greatly in the long run, though for now she avoided most of her foe's attacks and blocked some with her hands, the latter being the moment when she kicked her opponent backwards and beckoned for her to continue the assault. She knew that Anarys hated her, even though this could have been avoided had Anarys turn away from the Legion's power and join Ly'leth in aiding Thalyssra's rebellion, and that, combined with the rage of the Dreadlord who was sharing her body, made them an easy target to take down since there were numerous holes in Anarys' defenses, ones Rainbow avoided for the time being, as she wanted to use this opportunity to test another aspect of the power she had developed earlier, which happened to be the energy drain power she used against Mephistroth earlier. Spitfire and the others watched as Anarys started to slow down, like she was becoming more exhausted the longer they fought each other, which Anduin and the others assumed to be the case based on what they were seeing, but the reality of the situation was that Rainbow was slowly siphoning more of Anarys' Fel energy and was gathering it into a single point like what she had done previously, before Spitfire watched as Rainbow grasped Anarys by the neck and slammed her into the ground, and when she pulled herself back her foe tried to claw her eyes out and prompted Rainbow to remove Anarys' head, allowing her to seal the pair of souls in her weapons and add the rest of her foe's Fel energy to her growing reserves. "It would seem that the Legion has not yet figured out that you are no easy target to take down," a voice said, which was when she and the others noticed that Illidan and Maiev were standing nearby, even though it looked like the Warden had the Aegis of Aggramar in her hands, meaning there must be something happening and they needed to move the first Pillar of Creation into place, or at least that appeared to be what was going on right now, even though Rainbow as happy to see that her mentor thought her skills met his standards, before he focused on all of them for a moment as they stared at him and Maiev, "Khadgar informed us that, thanks to his studies of some of Aegwynn, we need to place the Aegis in the highest point of the Tomb of Sargeras, in a dungeon that the Guardian in question called the 'Cathedral of Eternal Night', and we have determined that Mephistroth is lurking around where the Aegis must go, so in order for us to fulfill the next stage of our plan someone will have to go in there, kill the demons inside it, and place the Aegis in its resting place... I have been told that the normal rules for a dungeon are to have five heroes gather and face whatever is inside each place, but, due to our enemy being the Legion, I would say that one of you should tackle it. Maiev and I are simply coming along to protect the Aegis, just in case the demons try to come at us from behind." Rainbow smiled for a moment as she learned that, as while she knew that Spitfire could dismantle an entire dungeon with all of her power, due to having four Cosmic Forces inside her, this was more her speed and she knew that Anduin and the other leaders would want to speak with Spitfire for a time as they prepared for the eventual retaliation from the Legion, to which Spitfire nodded and headed back to Deliverance Point with Anduin, Genn, and Velen, leaving Rainbow to head for the entrance to the Cathedral of Eternal Night as Illidan and Maiev followed after her, as she knew that it was going to be fun hunting down the Dreadlord that had fled from her, and putting the first seal in place to take down the Felstorm that happened to be resting above their heads. > Shore: Cathedral of Eternal Night > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow found that the entrance to the Cathedral of Eternal Night rested near the Broken Shore side of the bridge that had, at one point in time, linked this island up with the rest of Suramar, a bridge that was now shattered and most of the pieces rested in the water between the two areas, though once she discovered where her destination was she paused for a few seconds as Illidan and Maiev caught up with her, which was easy to do since the former could fly with his wings and the latter had the speed to match the one she was following, even though it did give her a chance to stare at the massive stone structure that had been corrupted by the Legion, or maybe it was the piece of Sargeras' power that was sealed away in the depths of the structure. It looked like Mephistroth was definitely up there, near the peak that the Aegis of Aggramar had to be returned to as the first step in sealing the Tomb of Sargeras, allowing them to break the Felstorm and made sure that door was closed, even though she knew Spitfire had a plan that was molded from what Lord Illidan had told her, though she did have to reflect on that and mentally refer to her mentor by his name, as Illidan insisted that she and Spitfire were now at the point where neither of them needed to use the title when speaking to him, to which she sighed for a second as both of her companions joined her. Normally dungeons were supposed to be run with five heroes, with whoever else being like a guide or something, sort of like what happened when they tackled the Halls of Valor and Odyn commented on what they had been doing, but at times like this, where most of their forces were needed to make sure the Broken Isles and their new camp were safe from harm, or be ready for when the Legion retaliated, something they knew was coming and were just waiting to see what Kil'jaeden did next. Such a thing reminded her of the fact that she had Archimonde's Fel crystal in her pack, a fitting punishment for one of Sargeras' most powerful followers, the other being Kil'jaeden himself, though she had refrained from devouring the impressive amount of Fel energy that was attached to the Defiler's soul, mostly because he was one of the most powerful demons in existence and she had been worried that devouring his power might break her or something, or focusing on others, like Mephistroth and the others, gave her the time to prepare herself. Once she finished thinking about that, and found that there were no demons guarding the opening that happened to be resting in front of her, Rainbow pulled her Warblades from her horns not a few seconds later and marched through the bit of magic that served as the entrance of the Cathedral, which brought her to a decent sized chamber that looked like part of a temple of some kind, which might be accurate since the Tomb had been, according to Khadgar, a temple of Elune in the past, only now it was corrupted by Fel energy and was home to demons. "Given our recent invasion of the Broken Shore, and what Kil'jaeden is likely planning next, we are fortunate that there are no demons pouring out of the Tomb," Maiev commented, as everyone knew that it was only a matter of time until a large group of enemies, possibly a horde of them based on what they had seen in the past, marched out of the Tomb's opening and joined Kil'jaeden's mission to bring his foes down, though that was when she turned her head to look at the rather short passage that lead to the next part of the corrupted Cathedral, "though it would appear that Mephistroth has taken the last hour or so to pack this place full of enemies, to stop us from reaching the Aegis' resting place." "The Dreadlord is scared, as he should be," Illidan remarked, something he took pride in discovering, as most demons had a vast hatred for the Illidari he had trained to bring the Legion down, since they had the ability to steal the power of their enemies and turn it against them, but it was impressive for one of his followers to install a level of fear in a demon, even one of the powerful Nathrezim, demons who should hate them due to the fact that he raided their planet and had taken a moment to collapse the portal on that planet, to wipe it out and prevent Sargeras from discovering that the Illidari knew of the Sargerite Keystone, which made him even more proud of both Spitfire and Rainbow, "he has no idea that these foes will only serve to strengthen your power and make it that much harder for the Legion to bring you down, even though, in their arrogance, they believe themselves to be untouchable." "Yeah, well the forces of Azeroth have certain torn down the image that the Legion wants to present," Rainbow said, as she was referring to the fact that most demons seemed to be of the opinion that they were immortal and all powerful, that no one could touch or even harm them in anyway, only for most of Sargeras' forces to be slain and sent back to the Twisting Nether, save for the ones that were permanently killed in that very place, or those whose souls were trapped inside both her weapons and Spitfire's weapons, to which she stepped forward and walked out onto a curved hallway that looked like a crescent moon, with the curve to her right and the tips to her left, before she spotted Mephistroth flying in the middle of the open space between the two sides of the hallway, "Ah, Mephistroth, I was wondering if you were going to show up, or if you were too scared after our last encounter... oh, and I returned your ship to Argus, or whatever Legion world that was on the other side of the Felstorm, so you won't have to worry about it at all." "Ah, Rainbow Dash, I'm looking forward to breaking those horns of yours and crushing your body," Mephistroth stated, as if he wasn't scared of her at all, despite what happened when she fought him on his ship not even an hour ago, and she could see that the wound her attack had left hadn't been treated yet, meaning he literally came here and set up all sorts of guards to stop whoever followed him, plus she had the feeling that he was actually scared of her and was trying to make her lower her guard or something so he would have an easier time killing her, "You will pay for your crimes against both the Legion and the Nathrezim, and I will make sure that your punishment is the worst that Antorus has to offer... you will be begging to be turned into a demon before the first day, much less the first hour, is even done." "Are you trying to be intimidating, because if you are... well, its failing to scare me," Rainbow remarked, though as she said that she noticed what sort of demons were lingering around the crescent hallway that she would have to fight through so she could reach the stairs that were on the other side from where she, Illidan, and Maiev were standing, where a number of Felguards, Eredar, and Felstalkers happened to be patrolling the hallway in groups, mostly of four to five and had one of each demonic race in each group, and there were a number of Felbats flying through the air as well, before she focused on the Dreadlord for a few more seconds, "Let me make one thing clear, Mephistroth: you don't scare me. You fled from your own ship when I challenged you, while Tichondrius and the other Dreadlords I've fought, including the last female that was killed just a few minutes ago, faced me with their full might, which makes you more cowardly than every other Dreadlord that came before you... not that it matters, for soon you'll be dead on the ground and both your soul and your Fel energy will be mine." Mephistroth looked like he wanted to say something, anything, to install some fear into Rainbow, though Illidan smirked as his pupil, who had become a master in her own right and was far stronger than he originally assumed she would be when he started teaching her and Spitfire, took a step forward and the Dreadlord actually flinched for a second, something none of the other Nathrezim had done in the past, before he turned into a mist of bats and fled through an opening that was on the right side of the crescent walkway, likely something Aegwynn or the Kaldorei of old had used in the past, before this place stopped being used. Rainbow wasn't too annoyed by the demon's actions, rather she figured that he was really after the Aegis and she glanced back to make sure Maiev stayed close to her, with Illidan making sure any demon that got too close suffered greatly, though once the pair were ready to move she turned to her right and rushed at the pack of demons that happened to be standing nearby, all while she threatened their master and called him a coward, where she parried an incoming attack from a Felguard and used her tail to smash an unsuspecting Felstalker into the smooth floor, allowing her to end it not a few seconds later. The Eredar of the group, of which there were two, lashed out with bolts of Fel energy and watched as their spells did nothing to her, as part of Rainbow's power involved absorbing any Fel attacks that were sent at her, such as Fel fireballs or a wave of Fel energy that was supposed to knock her down, meaning she took no damage from them and added all that power to her growing pool of of energy, before she spun around and swung her blades at the foe that was right in front of her, cutting a diagonal cross through both the Felguard's armor and his chest, which let her drop him to the ground and move towards the last enemies of the first group. Of course both of the Eredar were worried about their chances at this point in time, since she was absorbing each and every attack they sent her way and had crushed both demons that had been near them earlier, but Rainbow wasted no time in crushing both of them, by cutting them down a few seconds later, and collected all of the souls of those she had slain so far, even though she spotted a group of demons that were to the left of the opening she had walked through, a Felguard and Eredar who had a Doomguard with them, but all she did was flash over there and remove their heads before returning to her former position. Illidan, however, smirked for a moment as he witnessed that happened, as it also confirmed just how powerful Rainbow was at this point in time and he could see that her power was still evolving, reaching to new heights, as while her ability to drain Fel energy should have affected him as well, since it was in its infancy right now, it appeared that she already knew how to focus the power of such an ability on those that were around her, as while he remained untouched he could see a few Eredar, on the other side of the crescent hallway, who staggered for a second or two, an almost unseen movement to most, and it meant she was focusing on tearing the Legion down. Once the first collection of souls were added to her weapons, and she absorbed their Fel energy as well, Rainbow started to move once more as she focused on the demons that were in front of her, swinging her Warblades at either the heads or the chests of their enemies, the latter designed to destroy the hearts of her foes, while also spinning around to use her tail to crush some of the demons and used her clawed feet to cut others down, though in her rush to kill them all she made sure to dodge attacks and make sure she didn't get sustain too much damage for now, given that there were no healers in their group of three. While she did that, and her companions followed after them, Rainbow noticed that a new demon was chasing them with the intent of smashing them into the ground, no doubt to finally claim the Aegis in the Legion's name, to which she paused for a moment and flashed backwards as the Doomguard, who called itself Dul'zak, tried to reach out so it could grab Maiev, something the Warden stopped by cutting into the demon's hand as Illidan did the same to its legs at the same time, even though Rainbow finished it off as several slashes appeared on the Doomguard's chest and its body collapsed in a heap of pieces as she landed where she had moved from. Of course the souls of the slain demons flowed into her Warblades as she siphoned the Fel energy of her enemies, focusing on slowly drawing it out of the enemies she wasn't fighting right now while fully taking all of the power from the demons she had ended so far, and while she moved down the crescent hallway Rainbow glanced over part of the edge and found that they were definitely above what had to the main chamber of the Tomb of Sargeras, though it caused her to pause for a moment when she spotted a demon that she couldn't wait to sink her blades into. She was staring at a massive Eredar, red skinned to be exact and who stood just as tall as Archimonde had before his death, who had large red leathery bat wings that showed his demonic nature, if one didn't understand that by staring at the Fel energy coming from his metallic bracers, shoulder pads, hoof plating, and the sash that rested around his waist, though he wore brown shorts that were tattered at the end, and didn't reach his knees at all, while only having a skull of some kind attached to a chained necklace that rested in front of his bare chest, and while he commanded some of the demons to make themselves ready she noticed a scar over the demon's right eye, one that she recognized as soon as she saw it. Of course, after taking in who was down there, she pulled back and allowed Illidan and Maiev to glance down there for a few seconds before pulling back as well, though Rainbow fought the urge to ruin Spitfire's plan by taking down Kil'jaeden here and now, as with a sneak attack and a swift swing at his neck she was sure that she could take him now, before the foul Right Hand of Sargeras even knew what had hit him, and continued moving down the path that was in front of her as she focused on the other demons, though she resolved to strike him down if he was still here once she placed the Aegis in its resting place, regardless of Spitfire's plans. The Felguards and Wrathguards that were in front of her also tried to cut her down with Fel-empowered attacks, ones that she simply caught with the palm of her hands and siphoned all of the power behind the attacks with ease, allowing her to crush those demons and snatch their souls as she cut down the Eredar that were in her way and smashed the Felstalkers with her tail, even though it was amusing to watch as some of her magical enemies tried to cast some of their powerful spells and found that, despite not fighting anyone or casting any powerful magic recently, they weren't anywhere near the level of power they were used to. Such a thing allowed her to cut them down and continue moving without wasting too much time worrying about what the demons were up to, as they were either weakened from her new ability or they used all of their remaining power in an attempt to bring her down with a few attacks, something that didn't work as she cut all of her foes down and sent all of their souls screaming into her weapons while a small smile remained on her face, as she made sure to take all of their Fel energy and adding it to her own. Even a force of ten Felbats flew into the area and tried to bite or claw her into submission, to make the job of the remaining demons on this floor that much easier, though instead of swinging either of her weapons at those enemies, or crushing them with her tail or claws, Rainbow focused on moving down the hallway and Illidan watched as the ten Felbats collapsed on the ground without his pupil even touching them, as if she had simply drained all of their Fel energy from their bodies and, as a consequence, it also ripped the souls out of the demons in question. Such a thing made Illidan realize that if such a thing was true, and Rainbow trained such a power to its full potential, she could likely drain an entire demon world of all its Fel energy and weaken the Legion in the process, as in she would likely target both the planet and the forces that were inhabiting the planet, granting her the power to end all sorts of threats before they could become threats, something they would have to focus on at some point after their visit to the Cathedral of Eternal Night was over, especially since she was sure that Spitfire would be interested in hearing what he and Maiev were seeing right now, even though it was likely Spitfire knew of Rainbow's power and was letting it grow while she kept an eye on it. While he thought about that, and Maiev was likely thinking about it as well, he watched as Rainbow cleared this floor of the remaining demons, as in she killed all of the demons who were trying to bring her down and claimed their power for her own, just like those that had tried to kill her earlier, before she reached the path that would allow them to head up to the next floor of the Cathedral, a curved staircase that was guarded by an Eredar, a Felguard, and a Sayaad, who stood on a small platform that rested in the middle of this floor and the next, though Rainbow cut them down with ease and paused for a few seconds as she absorbed their souls, especially the Sayaad's. "What's wrong? Why have we stopped?" Maiev asked, because while she figured that Rainbow had her reasons, which she had a good idea what those reasons might be, she was worried that if they lingered here for too long Kil'jaeden might take notice of them and come attack them personally, instead of leaving it to Mephistroth, and if such a thing happened while they were here she had no idea if Rainbow would be enough to bring down the one who stood as Sargeras' Right Hand, regardless of the power that she commanded. "Nothing... I was just curious if my body would change more, since the souls of the Sayaad have an interesting effect on the bodies of the Illidari," Rainbow replied, where she stood at an angle for a moment so Illidan and Maiev could see what she was referring to with their own eyes, or Spectral Sight in the case of her mentor, even though she was sure that they were used to seeing her new form at this point in time, to which she sighed as she started to move once more, despite the fact that she was fine with how her body had turned out and didn't want the chest to grow eve more, but this did give both of her companions something else to think about as they moved through this place. At the top of the curved staircase Rainbow found a number of groups wandering around the floor that was above the one they had started on, groups comprised of a single Sayaad and a number of Fel-corrupted Lashers, small plants that liked to lash out at whoever was near them, even though she did spot a small stone bridge that connected to an area that was just above where she had seen Mephistroth had been flying when she first entered this place, an area that had a number of Fel-corrupted plants based on what she could tell. As such the first thing she did was weave her power around the area and watched as the various Lashers that were standing in her way collapsed in what she had to assume was their death state or something, their Fel energy and souls, if they had any of the latter, gathering in her weapons and growing pool of energy, before flashing as she moved forward and attacked the couple of Sayaad that happened to be standing between her and her next destination, demons who lifeless bodies fell to the ground not even a few moments later. Once she and her companions reached the connecting bridge, however, she found that there were a few Felborne left, how she had no idea since she and the heroes had killed every single one of them they had found inside Suramar City, meaning they must have been sent here before they could be taken out, and some appeared to be tending to the plants that were around the area, Lashers to be exact, before she spotted a large tree creature, an Ancient based on what Maiev told her, which had blackened bark and had Fel cracks in its body, meaning it was no longer the being that the Kaldorei created all those years ago, rather it was a Fel Ancient and was likely linked to the Fel barrier on the other pathway. As such Rainbow focused on cutting down the remainder of the Felborne, of which there were only five of them wandering around the garden that they had corrupted, or finished corrupting since the demons had been here for far longer than they had been, and siphoned all of the Fel energy from the Lashers that happened to be in her way, though once that was done she had Illidan and Maiev stand back as she approached the Fel Ancient, who Maiev claimed was called Agronox, a name that existed on a plaque on the side of the stone arch they had walked through earlier. Agronox, as Rainbow suspected, wasn't too pleased to have someone invade the garden it was tending to and lashed out at her the moment she approached it, swinging its wooden arms down in an attempt to smash her into the floor, though she raised her hands and stalled the attack as it came at her, the collision of their Fel energies causing the air to shake for a few moments, something that would likely tell Kil'jaeden what was going on and case him to flee before she got to him, to which she focused on the Fel Ancient and nothing else for the time being. Of course she could tell that Agronox had a decent amount of Fel energy inside its body, not as much as most of the demons Rainbow and her allies had faced in the Nighthold earlier, though her new ability came in handy as she slowly drained its power, making sure it didn't notice what was going on, as she pushed its fist backwards and swung a Warblade, cutting into the bark that rested on its chest and left a mark behind as her foe staggered backwards for a tiny bit, before it lashed out at her again. Once the initial collision was over Agronox continued to attack her with two other abilities that it had access to, one being the release of spores to create a cloud of poison, or maybe it was supposed to infect his targets with bits of Fel energy to weaken them, while the other ability allowed it to summon a mass of Fel vines to wrap around her and restrain her, making her an easier target to hit no doubt, though Rainbow grinned as she siphoned the power out of the vines and crushed them by moving both of her arms outwards, though she also flashed through the cloud and snatched all of the Fel power inside it, allowing her to focus on her true foe. Given that Agronox was an Ancient it was hard to see if it was surprised by her actions or annoyed, though the latter was likely the truth since the corrupted figure continued to attack her with its fists, attacks that she just parried with both of her Warblades, allowing her to slowly siphon more of her foe's energy as they fought each other for the next few minutes, even though it was clear that Agronox was getting weaker and weaker as time went by, due to her actions and the couple of cuts that pierced its bark and struck its core, or at least she assumed that was what she had to be hitting while they fought in this area. Eventually Rainbow carved her way to what she assumed had to be the core of Agronox's body, a wooden item that sort of looked like a heart and had a lot of Fel energy coming from it, reflecting all of the corruption that was inside its body, and tore it out without delay, allowing her to spin around and hack the heart apart as the Fel Ancient collapsed on the floor not even a few seconds after she did that, allowing her to send its corrupted soul into her weapons while devouring its energy as well, though once that was done she made sure everything was stable before moving once more, since they had no idea if Kil'jaeden might be sending reinforcements to deal with them. With Agronox defeated Rainbow headed over the second walkway, the one that would allow them to move deeper into the Cathedral of Eternal Night, where she found a few groups of Felborne wandering around, some accompanied by a Sayaad and others having a Lasher near them, to which she flashed out of the area she was standing in and cut down the demons who were to the left of the walkway she used to leave Agronox's arena, mostly because she knew that none of those were the guardians of the path she needed to take and the fact that she didn't want to leave any enemies behind. With all of the side enemies defeated Rainbow flashed back to where her companions were standing and rushed at the enemies that just so happened to be guarding the next curved staircase that would bring her to the next floor of the Cathedral, though most of the Felborne who were in her way crumbled within seconds of lashing out at her, the Lashers collapsed without being able to do anything, and the couple of Sayaad tried, in vain, to avenge their fallen Queen, even though they were targeting the wrong person since Spitfire had done in Xazariel during their assault on the Nighthold earlier. Once she was sure that all of the guardians were dead, and that included the demons that rested nearby, Rainbow headed up the staircase and quickly found that a number of Wyrmtongue and Imps were guarding the flat section of the stairs, which connected to one of the ancient rooms of the Cathedral, but she crushed them as she spun around the instant she met them, cutting down all of the lesser demons that were in her way and sent their souls screaming into her weapons, and making sure to take all of their power, before reaching the top of the staircase, finding a couple of Imps tossing ancient tomes between them, to which she sighed and cut them down before making sure the books were safe. The reason for making sure the tomes had sustained no damage was because she knew that Khadgar and the other mages, including the Nightborne, would want to check out what was inside these tomes and would be annoyed if something happened to any of the ancient tomes, but as soon as that distraction was completed she walked through the doorway that was raised a little in front of her and found that it lead to a decent sized chamber, which a Mo'arg could fit in with ease, which appeared to be a library of some kind, due to all of the tomes and shelves full of books, before noticing a number of Wyrmtongue wandering around. Based on that information she had the feeling that the Legion, or maybe Mephistroth, had sent these little monsters here to claim some of the tomes for their cause, though based on what she was seeing it didn't look like any of them had taken anything yet, to which she made sure her companions stood back for a few seconds as she flashed around the chamber and quickly cut down the Wyrmtongue that were trying to loot this place, though when all of them were laying on the floor Rainbow found a Darkglare as well and hacked it apart, something that was followed by a Mo'arg Brute falling through the ceiling and landed in the middle of the chamber, though he made more Fel energy than the rest of his type of demons, or at least Rainbow sure thought he did. The Mo'arg apparently called itself Thrashbite 'the Scornful', why Rainbow had no idea and honestly she didn't care all that much as she switched to her combat stance once more, though the demon actually made the first move this time, instead of waiting for her or her allies to make it, where it swung its cudgel down at her with enough power to make it hurt if the attack connected with his target, despite the fact that Rainbow raised her Warblades and parried the attack, which caused the floor around her clawed feet to crack a little as she faced the Mo'arg. Of course it seemed that blocking the first swing annoyed the demon, as it was far easier to read the emotions of a demon since most of them liked to have part of their faces uncovered when they fought and she was sure that she could see something behind the metallic helmet her foe had over his head, though once they separated from each other Rainbow swung her weapons at Thrashbite and found that he parried them with his weapon, meaning Mephistroth had a good demon in charge of defending this part of the Cathedral and that it might take some time to take him out. That was when she found that the Mo'arg did something strange, he just threw his cudgel and it rested on the outer part of the chamber, between the shelves and the walls, where it spun around for a few seconds while making a complete circle, leaving the demon without a weapon for some time and meant that she could attack his armored chest without having to worry about getting hit by the cudgel, even though she was sure getting hit would do nothing but make things that much more interesting for her. Without his weapon Thrashbite swung his fists at her as he waited for his weapon to come back to him, showing that the Mo'arg was more like a brute and didn't seem to think about his decisions all that well, though Rainbow followed suit as she switched to her fists and parried each attack he sent her way, something which caused him to growl at her in annoyance, but it did allow her to open his defenses without too much effort and lash out at his chest, causing the Mo'arg to stagger backwards as he noticed some cuts on his chest, all thanks to her claws. Not a few moments later Rainbow noticed that the cudgel returned to its owner, Thrashbite's right hand to be exact, but instead of swinging at her with it, no doubt after seeing what had happened the last time he tried to do it, the Mo'arg jumped backwards and positioned himself like he was going to charge at her, meaning she could either dodge the attack and let it hit the wall or angle the demon so he struck some of the shelves that were around them, which was when she made sure he was facing her and nothing else since there was nothing between them. In that moment Thrashbite charged at her, bypassing the shelves that were around them as he chuckled as he informed all of them of what he intended to do with the tomes later, smash them and burn everything that was around him, something that caused Rainbow to raise her hands and grip the Mo'arg's chest for a few seconds, stalling the demon as Illidan and Maiev stood there in silence, surprised by just how much strength she had, before she pushed her arms outwards so she could open the demon's defenses, allowing her to deliver an uppercut and knock the Mo'arg backwards, onto his back no less, which was when she removed his head and killed him before he could do anything else. Once that was done, as Rainbow was sure that Thrashbite's soul was where it belonged, she headed through the arch that was on the other side of the chamber and continued to climb the rest of the floors that the Cathedral had, but it did give Illidan some time to tell Maiev what he had learned about her all those years ago, before his forces were attacked by those the Warden had tricked, and he recalled that her friend Twilight was an individual who sought knowledge, so she was used to someone who read ancient tomes and punished the Mo'arg for even mentioning destroying them, given everything he knew about her friend. On the other side of the arch Rainbow found a pair of Wyrmtongue and some Imps around her, all messing with ancient tomes like those they had found before discovering Thrashbite in the main library chamber, though she wasted no time in wasting the demons before heading up the curved staircase that was close to the arch she walked through, which brought her to an area that had a bunch of webs, a couple of small spider demons, and an Aranasi, one of the humanoid spider demons, though the Aranasi growled at her as she stepped up to the area that it was guarding right now, showing that it was angry with her as well. At this point in time Rainbow wasn't worried about the mentions of the demons she faced, rather she rushed into the area the demon was standing in and parried several swings that the demon sent at her, especially from the smaller spider demons as well, before she overpowered the Aranasi and cut it down within the next few seconds, including all of the smaller enemies that were around her, which allowed her to head for the other side of the section of the Cathedral she was in, even though she was stopped by a pair of Fal'dorei, the spider elves, who were also corrupted by devouring some of the Fel energy. As Rainbow rapidly moved around and cut them down, which did open the way for her to progress towards her destination, she had to wonder if there was a timeline where the angry Fal'dorei weren't twisted into what she and the others had seen so far, as in they still became spider elves, that much she was sure would be impossible to change, but instead of being angry with everyone maybe they retained a measure of the lives they possessed before trying to mess with one of the Arcan'dor, but she was going to leave that idea for Nozdormu, Murozond, and Elisande to worry about, since they were working on Spitfire's orders. With the Fal'dorei taken care of, and she was sure that there were no more enemies for her to worry about, Rainbow just walked up another curved staircase that happened to be in front of her and reached an area that had a slot of some kind in the center of a decent sized chamber, where Mephistroth might be lurking, and it contained a lot of Fel energy, likely due to all of the demonic activity that was happening in the Cathedral, though while Illidan and Maiev stood outside this area Rainbow walked into the chamber as a Fel Lord opened a portal so he could step into the chamber as well, to which both of them stared at each other for a couple of seconds. "Kil'jaeden sends his gratitude, Rainbow Dash, for delivering the Aegis of Aggramar into the Legion's hands," the Fel Lord stated, as if Rainbow was betraying Spitfire and the Grand Alliance that was standing against Kil'jaeden's forces, as if she was about to turn around and cut down Illidan and Maiev before claiming the Pillar of Creation, something that caused her to frown for a moment as she focused on the demon that was in front of her, while noting that Illidan was readying himself in case any demons attacked them from behind as a Fel barrier sprung up between the chamber and the passage she had used to reach this chamber, "too bad that doesn't include sparing you, so you shall die now and suffer for every life you have stolen from the Legion, just like what will happen when we tear down Spitfire... and I, Domatrax, will take great joy in being the one to kill you at last." "You demons talk way too much," Rainbow remarked, to which she flashed through the air and approached the Fel Lord's head without delay, where she spun forward and brought the edges of her clawed feet downwards, in a cutting motion so she could do some damage to her foe, only for Domatrax to raise his massive battleaxe and swung it at her, their attacks colliding in the middle of the space between them and caused the air to shudder once more, which would tell Kil'jaeden where she and her companions were, but she grinned for a moment as she was pushed backwards, as it looked like this Fel Lord might be stronger than most of the demons that had been in the Cathedral of Eternal Night. In response to that fact Rainbow landed near where the Aegis had to be placed for a few seconds, mostly to give her a few seconds to see what was going on, before she rushed through the air and swung her claws at Domatrax, finding that he was more than capable of swinging his battleaxe in rapid succession, instead of swinging once and then having to pause for a moment or two before attacking again, though all that meant was that she clashed with the head of his weapon and it demonstrated the strength the Fel Lord possessed. Of course she didn't stick to just trying to claw his arms up, scratch his chest, or claw out his eyes, even though some would benefit her in this fight, rather she made sure to swing her clawed feet at the demon whenever she got the chance to do so and spun around every now and then to smash something with her demonic tail, though it was possible that Domatrax had been studying her since he seemed to understand the couple of changes that had given her more weapons and did his best to parry all of the attacks she sent his way, though a few did slip through the cracks in his defenses. Those attacks were punches that smashed into the chest piece that the demon had on over his chest and she left dents in most of the places she struck, even a few cracks based on what she could see, but all it did was tick off her foe and that was what she was hoping for as they fought, as an enraged demon was far easier for her to take down than a demon who happened to be calm and collected, though that was around the time that Domatrax heaved his battleaxe into the air once more and swung it down at her, which she avoided and let it smash into the ground she had been standing on, only to appear in front of his face and knock him to the ground with a kick to the face. That was an attack that was designed to annoy him and force the Fel Lord to make some mistakes, which would eventually spell his doom if her plan worked as she intended, though as Domatrax got back up he raised his left hand for a moment and tore open a Fel portal near one of the walls of this chamber, showing Rainbow that the Fel Lord was calling in reinforcements to aid him, an army of Imps to be exact, something that caused her to just stare at all of them and the portal they came from, before turning her attention back on the Fel Lord she happened to be fighting right now, which surprised Domatrax as all of the Imps paused and tilted their heads in confusion. Illidan and Maiev, however, understood that Imps were nothing to Rainbow, as she could either kill them all by flashing all over the chamber and reappearing where she had started within a second of moving, like she had done to several groups of enemies recently, or she could just use her drain ability to siphon the Fel energy that all of the Imps had, killing them in mere seconds and before they understood what was going on, and it appeared that she was going with the latter this time around, as the Imps collapsed before their eyes, to the point where they stopped moving, and the Fel portal broke apart a moment later, with all that Fel energy going right into Rainbow's body. While that happened Rainbow went on the attack as she focused on Domatrax, this time dodging the battleaxe that was coming at her as she slashed and punched at the Fel Lord's crumpling chest piece over the next few moments, her attacks dealing more damage to the armor until it shattered before her eyes, much to the surprise of her opponent since he clearly wasn't expecting it to happen at all, which caused him to jump backwards and put his back closer to the wall while he made sure to put some distance between them, even if Rainbow could close the distance in a moment if she truly wanted to do so. In that moment Domatrax raised his hands, as he stabbed the head of his battleaxe into the ground and let got of the handle so he could focus on what he was doing for the next few seconds, before Rainbow found that he was gathering his Fel energy, mixed with some of the Tomb's energy to make it even deadlier than what it might have been before this point, before he fired a massive burst of Fel energy right at the area she was standing in, an attack that would have done some serious damage if it had been used against some of Azeroth's heroes. Rainbow, on the other hand, just stood there and smiled as she weaved some of her power through the air for a few seconds, which was followed by her opening her mouth as the attack was forcefully condensed into a smaller wave as she ate it before the Fel Lord's eyes, and once the attack was over she closed her mouth and licked her lips for a second, due to the fact that she enjoyed doing that while shocking her foes in the process, before she rushed forward and punched Domatrax in the chest, her strengthened attack cracking a few ribs and causing the demon to cough as he took a few steps backwards, all while sweating as if he realized that he was done for and that there was no way he was going to win this fight. Of course that didn't stop him from raising his hands and tearing open more Fel portals, where one had a number of Imps march through, a second had some Felguards rushing out, while the third had some red skinned Shivarra, an interesting color since she wasn't used to seeing that type, not that such a thing mattered since she flashed around the chamber for a second and slew the reinforcements as the portals lost their Fel energy, gathering more energy as she removed the head of the Fel Lord as well, who had been trying to stand up and this ended the fight, allowing her a few seconds to make sure all of the souls were inside her weapons and the energy had settled down before she glanced at the wall that was across from where the hallway rested. "Come on, Mephistroth, I know you're lurking in the shadows, waiting for us to leave so you can claim the Aegis the instant we leave the Cathedral, so you might as well come out." Rainbow stated, as it would be like a Nathrezim to hide nearby, in the shadows, while some of his allies were fighting, hoping to lure the heroes into a false sense of security before striking at whoever his targets happened to be, though it wasn't long before some of the shadows shuddered for a moment as the demon in question materialized before her eyes, with a frown on his face, meaning he wasn't expecting her to notice that he was there and might have been hoping to avoid fighting her. "I will offer you one last chance to join us of your own free will, Rainbow Dash, for if you refuse we will torture you until you bend the knee and swear to serve the Legion," Mephistroth replied, apparently under the delusion that repeating the statement would be enough to convince her to just stop what she was doing, betray her comrades and companions, and just join the Legion because a bunch of demons told her to do so, though that was when she flashed through the air that was between her and Mephistroth within a few seconds, much to the surprise of the demon in question, before she swung her fist and punched him in the side of his face, knocking him to the ground as she landed nearby, causing the demon to growl for a moment, "Fine, I will take great pleasure in breaking you and forcefully converting you into a willing servant of Kil'jaeden, not to mention a vessel of the Legion's terrible might!" Rainbow sighed for a moment, as she was getting tired of the demons repeating themselves and their threats, before she pulled her Warblades out and rushed at Mephistroth, who gathered his Fel energy and, in a display of stupidity that made one question if he was even a true Nathrezim, some of the smartest demons in the entirety of the Legion, hurled a couple of blasts in her direction, even though he switched his hands and sent them around her, targeting both Illidan and Maiev as if he was going to lower the barrier protecting them, but Rainbow flashed backwards and struck each blast as she took in all of the energy that her foe had used. She had to give it to Mephistroth, it did seem like a good idea to make her think she was his target and have her rush at him, allowing him to actually target the ones holding the Aegis of Aggramar, but, at the same time, it also showed Rainbow that the Dreadlord was afraid of her, because he should have targeted her and not those who were just watching, as it looked like Kil'jaeden didn't care to send any reinforcements, and if Mephistroth was afraid of her it meant that things might go in her favor for the next couple of minutes. It was hard to see if the demon had an idea of what was coming his way, as he channeled more of his power and hurled a large sphere of darkness at her, to which she smashed her way through it not a second later, using her tail to break it down, before she let her weapons fall to the ground for a second as she gathered her own Fel energy and swung her claws at Mephistroth's chest, cutting into his armor and chest while leaving six decent sized diagonal gashes, three coming from the left and the other three coming from the right, causing the Dreadlord to howl in pain as he did something new, he engaged his power and slipped into the shadows within a matter of seconds. This was one of the more annoying powers of the Dreadlords, their ability to simply disappear as they lurked in the shadows, leaving heroes unaware if they were still around the area they had been fighting in or if the demon had disappeared to recover before trying to take his foes down while all of them were unaware of what he was doing, to which Rainbow paused for a moment, in the center of the chamber, and closed her eyes as she focused on channeling her Spectral Sight, as she was curious if she could use it like this and see if she could find her target while he was lurking in the shadows. Illidan smirked as he watched what happened next, as Mephistroth tried to attack Rainbow while she was focusing on one of her powers, something she was doing a lot of recently and it was a good idea given what he had seen so far, though as the Dreadlord appeared from the shadows Rainbow dodged the attack with ease, moving her body out of the way while still having her eyes closed, and it caused the demon to attack her several more times with a look of anger on his face, all in an attempt to take her down, before things changed as Rainbow punched Mephistroth in the chin and knocked him just a little bit backwards. That seemed to be the end of the Dreadlord's courage, as he recalled what had happened to his ship earlier and flashed back into the shadows as Rainbow opened her eyes and glanced around the chamber for a moment, as in she turned to look at her left, right, front, back, and even the ceiling, no doubt tracking the Dreadlord as he tried to run without actually abandoning his mission to claim the Aegis, before she spun around and actually kicked Mephistroth with the edge of her left leg, as he had been behind her and tried to attack her from behind. As the demon staggered back for a moment Rainbow took the opportunity to jump up onto Mephistroth's right shoulder, which would normally be very hard for someone to do, before she moved and grabbed the side of his head, coming from the right side, before she pushed him forward and slammed the Dreadlord's head right into the floor, cracking the area she picked out and likely did some damage to his face and horns, though once that was done she pulled back and watched her foe as she waited to see what the Dreadlord might do next. Sure enough the demon attacked her again and again after he pulled himself back onto his hooves, though it failed to do anything as Rainbow punched, kicked, and even slashed into the Dreadlord's body while they fought each other, even though Illidan could easily tell that Mephistroth was weakening as he fought Rainbow, due to all of the damage he was taking and the fact that Rainbow was siphoning his power at the same time, a useful ability based on what he and Maiev were watching, and it wasn't long before the Dreadlord fell to his knees near one of the windows that were in this chamber, which had been ruined over time, and huffed as Rainbow approached him, no doubt taking a bit of time to wonder how this had come to pass. In the end Rainbow raised her right hand and grabbed the demon's neck for a second, which had to hurt a lot due to her claws digging into his throat a bit, before she channeled her power for a moment and pulled her hand back, allowing both her companions and the Dreadlord to see what was going on, that she was extracting all of Mephistroth's Fel energy, and maybe his soul at the very end of it, into an orb that she separated from his body and let it collapse on the floor in front of her as she devoured his power, the soul being separated and trapped inside her weapons... though as that happened the Fel barrier collapsed and her companions entered the chamber, allowing Maiev to place the Aegis in the slot that it needed to be placed it, with its power surging through the Tomb for a moment. "In ages past, this shield defended the young World-Soul against madness and corruption... today, it serves to aid those who fight to protect Azeroth." a voice said, where the trio watched as an Arcane echo of someone appeared nearby, a lady based on the voice and the form that the ancient echo picked, one who must have been powerful in life to create an echo that lasted all these years, and based on her attire, mage robes that reflected her position as an Archmage, even if there was a chance that such a title hadn't been bestowed upon her, told Rainbow who they were dealing with, before she faced the trio for a moment, "I am Aegwynn, Guardian of Tirisfal, and I left behind this echo of my power as a safeguard in the event that the wards I put in place to protect the Tomb failed... indeed, I sense that the master of the Burning Legion now schemes to claim his prize. Yet there is still hope, for if you anchor the Pillars of Creation in the halls below, you will restore my wards and push the invaders out of the ancient Tomb, though once that is done you must venture into the depths and use the Eye of Aman'Thul to eradicate the Felstorm, to sever the Legion's link to Azeroth. Your grand army, from what I have seen so far, has the potential to conquer the Legion and save this world from their crusade, though when you ready yourselves for the final battle my echo will join you once more." Once she was done speaking the echo of Aegwynn disappeared and left the trio to simply wonder what Spitfire and their allies might think about what just happened, to which they started to make their way back to the entrance of this place, so they could return to Deliverance Point and tell their allies the goods news, though as they did that Rainbow found that she missed her chance to kill Kil'jaeden without him reacting, as he was missing the moment she walked by the first floor of the Cathedral, though she had the feeling she and Spitfire would be facing him in due time and would put an end to all of his dark plans. > Shore: Defending the Broken Isles > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With her work in the Cathedral of Eternal Night complete, and the Aegis of Aggramar had been placed at the peak of the Tomb of Sargeras, Rainbow headed outside and found that Illidan and Maiev followed after her without delay, though she could tell that both of them had been hoping to remove Kil'jaeden from the playing field early on, since they had seen him earlier in their trek through this part of the Tomb, and that they had been disappointed to find that the Deceiver had fled at some point in time, no doubt after Rainbow fought Agronox, the Fel Ancient who had gotten in their way as the first boss level creature. Of course she was a tad bit annoyed by the fact that Kil'jaeden fled like that, getting away from here before she had a chance to find him and cut him down, even if it would have messed with Spitfire's plans, but since he was gone there was nothing she could do but return to Deliverance Point and deliver the good news to the rest of their allies, who she knew would be happy to hear that the first of the five Pillars of Creation had been used against Kil'jaeden and the rest of the Legion, leaving just four more they had to place to stop the Legion's invasion of Azeroth. Such a thing made Rainbow take a moment to wonder what sort of demons would be lurking inside the Tomb itself, given that it happened to be the most important place the demons had on Azeroth right now and if they lost it the Felstorm would be cut off from its power source, destroying the connection between this world and Argus, though if she knew her former mentor and Spitfire, and she knew both of them well, to some degree, she was sure that they had created a plan to assault Argus, to bring an end to the Legion at long last and save the rest of creation. Once such a thing was done, and Spitfire were sure that Azeroth was safe from harm, they could turn their attention to finding Equus and heading back home, because there would be nothing stopping them at that point and they wouldn't have to worry about bringing the Legion or the Old Gods, the two most dangerous forces in this universe, to their home world, though she was sure that most of their friends would be interested in what happened to her and Spitfire, given that they had been trapped in the Vault for all those years and she was sure that time had passed normally for Equus. Her thoughts shifted back to the war with the Legion as she and her companions headed outside, finding that there were no demons waiting for them outside the entrance of the Cathedral, meaning either Kil'jaeden had ordered his forces to move onto something more important or those who had been ordered to defend this area had fled after discovering that Mephistroth had fallen in battle, something that had to worry some of the demons since the Dreadlords were dropping like flies at this point and most of them were dead, to which she sighed and flew back to Deliverance Point with Illidan taking to the skies and Maiev just ran across the ground... and it didn't take them long to return to their base, where the two of them landed in the command area as the Warden caught up with them. "Rainbow, Illidan, Maiev, its good to see that you three have returned," Spitfire remarked, speaking the moment she and the rest of the faction leaders noticed them arrive in the area of Deliverance Point that they were standing in, as they had been carefully going over the next steps in her plan to bring down the Legion, focused on holding the Broken Shore and driving the Legion back to Argus, even though the Illidari were hard at work making sure the remaining provinces of the Broken Isles were safe, so if the Legion tried to attack their allies they would know instantly, and she smiled as she found that the Aegis was no longer in their possession, "and it would appear that you were successful in your mission, as I'm sure that if the Pillar of Creation had been stolen Rainbow would have channeled her full power to bring down those who might have taken it, regardless if they were still on Azeroth or had gone to another world." "The Aegis of Aggramar has been placed in the area Khadgar told us about, and Mephistroth is dead," Rainbow replied, as she knew that if someone stole the Aegis from her and her companions she could have done what Spitfire had just told all of them, given that it was an incredibly important artifact for the safety of Azeroth, though she could tell that most of the leaders were pleased to hear that she was successful, especially in placing the first Pillar of Creation, while a few seemed pleased to hear that the Dreadlord had been beaten as well, before she focused on the more important matter, given who they had seen earlier, during their time in the Cathedral, "we also noticed Kil'jaeden while we were there, as he had been in the lower levels of the Tomb, and he fled after I fought the first powerful creature of the Cathedral of Eternal Night, a Fel Ancient to be exact, so we were unable to end his dark existence... has anything happened to the provinces of the Broken Isles since we've been gone?" "Not yet... Kil'jaeden hasn't made the move we're waiting for, the eventual retaliation by attacking the Broken Isles in an attempt to kill our allies and claim all of their souls," Spitfire said, as she knew that the Deceiver had a plan that would, in time, be used against her, Rainbow, and everyone else in the Grand Army, even though it appeared that he was waiting for some odd reason, hence why she was planning on letting the others rest before heading out to deal with their next group of enemies, since it was only a matter of time until Kil'jaeden sent his forces to assault the rest of the Broken Isles and bothered all of their allies, to which she turned to face Rainbow's group once more, "until that happens, you're free to rest and recover from your time in the Cathedral, as I'm almost positive that he'll attack multiple provinces at the same time... we'll get to that once Kil'jaeden shows his hand and tries to bring us down." Rainbow nodded and joined the heroes that were standing around the central area that had been set up while she and the others had been taking down all of the demons that had been waiting inside the Cathedral, as Deliverance Point now looked like a true base of operations and many of the heroes were pleased to have her back with them, even though they knew that she would have been successful in delivering the Aegis to its resting place and killing Mephistroth before such a thing happened, especially since it meant she prevented his soul from returning to Argus and informing the Legion of all he had seen before his death. While she did that, and she took some of the food that had been prepared for all of them by Naomi, Rainbow spotted both Illidan and Maiev walking with Spitfire for a time, no doubt discussing everything they had seen during their time following her through the Cathedral, meaning her friend would soon know about the evolution her powers had undergone lately, making her a much more formidable demon hunter and a possible terror that the demons had to worry about, especially since she could grab a demon by the neck and pull out their Fel energy in an orb that she could eat. She knew that Maiev had to be worried about her, as her powers were growing at an alarming rate, thanks to all of the Fel energy she had been absorbing from the enemies that fell before her might, and she had to be worried about what might happen if she fell into the hands of Kil'jaeden or the rest of the Legion, as the power to drain energy without having to fight her enemies had to make one wonder if it could be twisted so she could use it on everyone, like the druids for example, and drain all types of energy, not just Fel energy, before she pushed the thought away and focused on those that were around her, enjoying their company as they waited for the Deceiver to make his move against them. Of course once the demons assaulted the Broken Isles she was sure that she would be heading to one of the provinces and Spitfire would no doubt focus on another one, which was fine with her since it meant that she wouldn't have to share the souls of the demons with too many people, as the Illidari would be there as well, sealing the souls of the slain demons inside their Fel Crystals to power the Fel Hammer, Jace's toys, and everything else that required Fel Energy. Eventually night came and the forces who were positioned on the Broken Shore found that there were no new changes in the number of demons who were resting outside the Tomb of Sargeras, meaning they were either fearful of the combined forces of Azeroth or Kil'jaeden wanted them to do something else before raising his army to set his plan into motion, so as the sun set most of the leaders used portals to head back home while some of their forces returned to Dalaran for a time, which would allow everyone to rest and ready themselves for whatever the future had for them... but when morning came the Illidari were active while the others had breakfast, telling Spitfire everything she needed to know without being told the information they had discovered. "Lady Spitfire, we have determined that Kil'jaeden has made his move at long last," Kayn said, though as he said that most of the heroes who had decided to remain stationed in Deliverance Point, at least for the night while the others headed out for all of the inns in Dalaran or their Order Halls, turned and focused on him while every leader prepared for whatever he had to tell them, especially since they had been waiting for the Deceiver to make a move and this meant he was ready to tear everyone who opposed the Legion down, before he focused on what he had to tell them, "We've gotten reports that massive amounts of Fel energy are starting to gather in the skies of Azsuna, Val'sharah, Highmountain, Stormheim, and even Suramar, and based on our scans it looks like a number of Legion vessels are preparing to warp into the skies above each province, to oversee the Legion's assault on the Broken Isles." "Kil'jaeden likely thinks that he's being smart, attacking all five provinces at the same time, but our allies will show him that the Legion isn't welcome in the Broken Isles anymore," Spitfire remarked, though at the same time the heroes of Azeroth readied themselves for what was going to happen in the next couple of minutes, as many finished their meals and readied their weapons, while at the same time Rainbow stood nearby, clearly wondering how was sent to attack Suramar, meaning she might have gotten attached to it thanks to the time she spent protecting it from the Legion and the Felborne who had sworn to serve the Dark Titan, before she sighed for a moment, "not to mention the fact that the full might of the Grand Army of Azeroth, combined with the forces of Draenor, will be descending upon his forces and will be cutting all of his foul demons down. Kayn, make sure that our allies have some of the Illidari with them, to capture the souls of the demons that are attacking this world, so we can deprive the Legion of every soldier that is currently being sent at us right now, which should make the Deceiver regret sending his forces to attack us in the first place, though I'm sure he'll be reinforcing the Broken Shore while we take care of our enemies." "May I join the Nightborne in pushing back the demons attacking Suramar?" Rainbow asked, because while she knew that Spitfire had placed a number of heroes in all of the provinces of the Broken Isles, to prepare for this event, and it also had the effect of some leaders rushing to lend their aid as well, she had no idea where she might have decided to send her and wanted to voice her opinion on the matter, despite the fact that she also knew that Spitfire would be heading to one of the provinces to lend a hand, just to make sure her skills didn't rust at all, though she could see that some of the Nightborne were interested in seeing what Spitfire had to say on the matter. "Sure, go right ahead," Spitfire said, though such a thing meant that any heroes who went to Suramar would be backup for Rainbow, as in they wouldn't be necessary all that much and would simply watch as she tore down the demons that might be in her way, but at the very least Elisande, Thalyssra, Ly'leth, and the rest of their Nightborne allies knew that the assault would be over in due time and without too much death on their end, to which she turned her attention to the rest of their allies and found that all of the heroes were waiting for her to give the command to head out, given the fact that she was the Grand Commander and was basically in charge of both factions now, and she nodded her head as she waved an arm at all of them, like she was giving them an order, "Soldiers of the Grand Army, prepare to head out to the provinces of the Broken Isles and bring down each assault force Kil'jaeden has prepared for our combined might, which will involve tearing down his forces and aiding our allies... once we're done, he should move to attacking our bases on this small island, so we can focus on containing him to the Broken Shore and, eventually, bringing him down and sealing the Tomb at last." As soon as the words left her mouth Spitfire watched as the heroes quickly finished their meals before gathering their gear and heading through some portals that their Nightborne allies had prepared for them, sending them to the provinces of the Broken Isles so they could counter whatever forces Kil'jaeden might have ordered to attack Azeroth this time around, though as they did that Rainbow opened her wings and took off without delay, heading across the water that happened to rest between the Broken Shore and Suramar, leaving any heroes destined for that province to use the portals to warp over to Shal'Aran and figure out what the Legion was doing. What she found, as she flew though the air of Suramar, was that a few locations were definitely under attack at the moment, as there happened to be a large Fel Lord fighting a few Arcane Constructs that the guards of Suramar City must have deployed, due to the demon trying to make his way into the Twilight Vineyards for some reason, she could sense some demons harassing several spirits that were hanging around a fortress to the northeast of where Shal'Aran rested, there happened to be a large Doomguard patrolling the ground near Ambervale and appeared to pause so he could stare down at the hole in the ground, near where she and Spitfire found the Arcan'dor when it was just a seed, and a fair number of reinforcements inside Felsoul Hold. Of course there was one Legion ship in the deepest part of Felsoul Hold, it had been there for a long time and she had learned that whoever had been in control of it had perished some time during the start of their assault on Gul'dan's forces, when they started aiding Thalyssra, and she found a second one floating high up in the air above the province, likely the command ship for the Legion's assault on Suramar, to which she focused her attention on the enemies that were currently down on the ground and flashed over to the Twilight Vineyards, because she figured that it would be the best place to start before worrying about the remaining foes that were assaulting this province, even though she could see that some Illidari were joining some heroes in keeping the demons contained inside Felsoul Hold for the time being. Her first target stopped fighting the constructs that were in front of it, which caused the weakened trio of guardians to back off for the time being, something that would allow them to be repaired for whatever the future held in store for the residents and soldiers of Suramar City, though as the Fel Lord swung his weapon at the air Rainbow dodged around it and landed on the ground, surprising some of the Nightborne who had been fighting the demon since he showed up. As Rainbow expected her foe named himself not a few moments later, calling himself Xalza and revealed that Kil'jaeden, in his wisdom, had placed a bounty on her head and Spitfire's head, as the reward was for whoever killed them to be raised to a high position within the Legion and granted the power to back such a position up, meaning it was actually worth it to the demons to try and kill either of them, though while that might be the situation for the demons, and it appeared many would be after their heads, Rainbow knew that the reality was that all of them were food for her and soon to be dead foes for those who stood against Spitfire. While she thought about that Xalza raised his massive battleaxe and brought it down on the area she was currently standing in, where Rainbow raised her left hand and stopped the weapon with the palm not a few seconds later, much to the surprise of both the demon and her allies, before she pushed his weapon out of the way and jumped into the air as soon as she did that, allowing her to punch the demon in the chest and knock him backwards, sending the Fel Lord into the ruined area some of the Felborne had tried to conquer before the forces of Azeroth turned their attention to the Nighthold and the enemies that were inside it. Such a thing meant she forcefully put some distance between the demon and the area he had started in, at least from when she found him anyway, though the Fel Lord took a moment to growl as he picked himself up and swung his battleaxe at her as Rainbow lowered herself into her foe's new area, where she did find a number of Felstalkers and a few Eredar preparing themselves, likely to assault the city once the first group of defenders had been smashed through, but she pulled herself back and avoided the attack that was coming right at her. Once that was done she flashed up into the space near her foe's chest and raised her left hand, which was the moment that she punched Xalza's right arm and knocked his battleaxe out of his hands, much to her foe's surprise since he wasn't expecting something like this to happen, though she then grabbed the demon's left wrist as he tried to punch her into the ground, a foolish attack to be sure, and rushed over his shoulder so she could touch the ground once more, pulling her foe's arm with her, something that was eventually twisted by what Rainbow was doing as she forcefully lifted the Fel Lord off the ground and slammed him into the ground in front of her. Once Xalza was laying on his back, and he was coming to terms with the fact that she was stronger than him, maybe even stronger than what Kil'jaeden had told those who served under him, Rainbow focused for a moment and drained the Fel Lord of his energy, plus his soul as it fell into the depths of her weapons like those who came before him, before she took a moment to focus on the demons that were nearby and found that many of the Felstalkers were already collapsing, as in they were feeling the effects of her energy drain, while the pair of Eredar, one male and one female, growled for a second as both of them rushed at her, even though she grabbed them by their necks and removed their energy, dropping their lifeless bodies to the ground as she ate their Fel energy. With the area cleared out, and Rainbow was sure of that as the Nightborne continued to prepare their defenses for some demonic reinforcements to try and attack this part of the city, she took to the skies and quickly headed over Shal'Aran and all of the enemies she had seen when she flew into Suramar a few moments ago, though her first target was the demon that was patrolling the area near Ambervale, where she descended and kicked the Doomguard in the back, which sent the demon face first into the ground as she landed nearby. Urkel, the demon in question since they loved to reveal what their names were to those who fought them, growled and lashed out at her once he got back up onto his hooves, swinging his large sword down at her with the intent to kill her while smashing Rainbow into the ground, though this time around she pulled her Warblades out of her horns and parried the incoming attack with one of her blades, causing the air to shake for a moment as such a thing happened, though before her foe could do anything else she deflected the attack, pushing him backwards a little and opening his guard in the process. As that happened Rainbow swung her other weapon and loosed a small crescent wave of energy though the air, something that sliced through Urkel's right arm and separated it from the rest of his body, dropping part of his arm and his weapon to the ground as the demon fell back and grasped the area she had cut into, likely cauterizing the wound before he picked up his weapon and growled at her for a few seconds, no doubt taking a moment to consider his chances if she was capable of doing this to him within the first couple of moments of the battle starting. The Doomguard acted as Rainbow expected him to, as it appeared that many were interested in the new bounty that Kil'jaeden had placed on her head, making her sorry for those who dared to challenge Spitfire, though when he lashed out at her with his sword, even if it was harder for the demon since it looked like she took his primary arm clean off with her previous attack, allowing her to end up on the edge of his large blade without him noticing, so when he came to a stop he found that she was no longer where she had been standing earlier and stared at his weapon for a second as he understood where Rainbow had ended up, allowing her to kick out with her clawed feet and sliced into the side of the demon's face, causing Urkel to stagger for a moment before she removed his head. Once she ate the Doomguard's Fel energy, something that was quickly becoming a habit and figured that it wasn't one she had to worry about since it allowed her to empower herself for the future, Rainbow took to the skies once more before heading to the northeast, because it was time for her to check out what was going on in Tel'anor, where she found a good number of Jailers floating around the ancient ruins, apparently setting up hourglass shaped devices that were designed to capture the souls of spirits that were left in an area that the Legion attacked, though there were a number of Inquisitors and Wrathguards patrolling the area as well. As such she flashed down into the area in question and attacked the demons who were in the middle of harassing the spirits of Tel'anor, as Rainbow could see that there were many elven spirits that had chains on their wrists, chains designed to mess with spirits and prevent them from fleeing their home, though at the same time she focused on tracking down the soul snatching devices so she could smash each of them to pieces and free those who were trapped inside them, which would allow her to absorb the Fel energy in the devices. There were even a few harpies who seemed to call this place home, who must have fled whenever the forces of Shal'Aran fled the base to keep themselves safe from the unstable Arcan'dor and the damage it could cause, and, in an odd twist of some kind, none of the elf-bird hybrids seemed worried about Rainbow at all, rather they seemed more interested in tearing apart the foul demons that were invading their home at the moment, giving her some allies that were willing to focus on the threat that the rest of the Broken Isles and her allies were currently dealing with. Based on what she knew the harpies, which honestly wasn't a whole lot if she was being honest, no one really understood where the elf-bird hybrid creatures came from, even if one of the Archdruids happened to be of the opinion that they had been elves who had been transformed in some sort of manner, likely a connection to a Wild God or something, even though it looked like the loss of said deity caused them to lose some of their sanity over the years, making her wonder if it was possible to find a timeline where harpies were more sane and were allies of Azeroth, something she would also leave for the Nightborne and time dragons to figure out as they worked to fulfill Spitfire's request. Once she finished thinking about that Rainbow turned her attention to snatching the souls of the demons who were slain by her hand and the claws of the harpies, allowing her to devour their Fel energy like she had done in the past, and sure enough she shattered each of the soul snatching devices that were around Tel'anor, freeing the spirits and stopping the Legion from claiming them, though once that was done one of the harpies flew near Rainbow, allowing her to see that all of them had large talon bird-like feet, transitioning from bird leg to elf leg at the knee area, while they had sharp claws for hands and they had large graceful feathered wings that started at their wrists and stopped at their elbows, and they had large feathers that served as tails, though the harpy nodded her head before leaving, sending Rainbow on her way so she could tackle the remaining demons in Suramar... where she landed at the edge of Meredil not a few seconds later, where a good number of Nightborne were gathered. "We suspected that the Legion would retaliate against us, after the loss of Gul'dan, but they sent a lot of demons to burn all of Suramar to the ground," Thalyssra commented, as she, Valtrois, and Victoire were standing with their forces near the border between where Meredil rested and the corrupted area that was Felsoul Hold, where they could see a vast army of demons readying themselves for their march on the city, as there happened to be a large assortment of demons down in the foul stronghold, from the Eredar to Infernals, a couple of Doomguards to Fel Lords, and she could see at least three Pit Lords wandering around the corrupted part of Suramar, before she sighed for a moment, "though the Illidari have found that a force of demons are coming from the west, from Val'sharah, and another is coming from the northeast, coming in from Stormheim, so some of our forces are dealing with the potential reinforcements the Legion is sending to assist those who were originally sent to burn our home to the ground." "Don't worry, I'll take care of our enemies... you should focus on cutting down any demon that tries to run," Rainbow said, as while she had a good idea of how to get a force up to the Legion ship that was hanging in the air above Suramar, given all of the information she had learned about Felsoul Hold since the last time she had been here, she knew that fighting her way through all of the demons, with a small force behind her, would be a waste of time and might cause some demons to escape before she or her allies slew them, hence the reason that she walked down the path that a Pit Lord had walked up during their assault on the demons inside Suramar City, leaving Thalyssra and the others to wonder what in the world she was up to this time around. Once Rainbow reached a certain point she opened her wings and flew into the air for a few seconds, making sure she had a good position for what she was about to do as the demons stared up at her, a few even readying their weapons and a bit of magic to blast her out of the air, before she readied herself and unleashed her power on the vast corrupted section of Suramar that was below her, allowing Thalyssra and her allies to see what happened to Felsoul Hold, even though she did see Elisande standing near the group as well, meaning she must have rushed over to defend her home from the demons who had come here, to which she focused on her current task for the next few seconds. Thalyssra and the others watched as many of the demons started to stagger or stumble as they rushed into position, to attack Rainbow without giving her a chance to rest, and as that happened several of the lesser demons, such as the Imps for example, collapsed on the ground and stopped moving within a few seconds, even though she felt her jaw drop as she noticed what was happening to their enemies, the Fel energy of their enemies was being extracted from each demon, including the foul machines that were all over this section of Suramar, and was gathering in an orb in front of Rainbow. In fact she was sure that all of the demons who died due to this process had their souls taken as well, which flowed around the Fel orb and had the remaining bits of Fel energy removed from them before they were sealed inside the Warblades that happened to be Rainbow's weapons, and it was only a matter of time until some of the Eredar realized what was going on at the moment, because one of them even had a look of shock on her face as she stared up at Rainbow, before the demon in question collapsed and stopped moving not a few seconds later. Even the Legion ship that was resting in what had to be the lowest point of Felsoul Hold had the power inside it drained as well, causing it to fall to the ground and rest against part of the cliff wall, while the only thing that wasn't targeted was the main ship that was resting in the sky above Suramar, leaving Felsoul Hold without any Fel energy, even the Fel lava had dried up, and left it full of demon corpses, though Rainbow paid it no mind as she shrunk the orb down to a more manageable size, such as an apple, and devoured it with ease, boosting her power even more as she noticed that nothing had changed, making her wonder if this was her final form or if she needed the power of a really strong demon, like Kil'jaeden or Archimonde, to do such a thing. Instead of worrying about that she turned her attention to the Legion ship in the air and rushed up to it, landing on the flat surface since it was horizontal, not vertical like the one that had been inside Felsoul Hold, where she found a pair of Eredar standing guard as the leaders of this assault, two females to be exact, who rushed at her in an attempt to bring her down with their magic, though Rainbow simply approached them as her power sucked in their Fel fireballs, something that let her grab the demons by their necks and lift them into the air for a few seconds before she tore the Fel energy out of them and devoured it. With that task done, with both demons dead, Rainbow focused on the ship and drained the power from it as well, just like she had done to the ones that had been attacking the Broken Shore earlier, though once it had no power inside it she flashed down to the lowest part of the ship and hurled it through the air, sending it right through the Felstorm and sending it crashing into a Legion world, even though she followed that up by sending the one in Felsoul Hold through it as well, all with a smile on her face, despite the fact that all of the Nightborne had to be shocked and surprised by what she had just done. Once she was sure that Suramar was safe from whatever reinforcements the Legion might have sent, as in that Thalyssra and the others would be able to hold their own and turn back the invaders with their forces, Rainbow headed for Stormheim to see if she could figure out where Spitfire was located, even though she knew that her friend had the power to overcome whatever fought her, especially since she commanded four of the six Cosmic Forces and would, in due time, figure out how to gain the power of Light and Void as well, but watching her fight seemed like a good way to let some time pass by, before they worried about whatever demons were sent to the Broken Shore. They were positive that Kil'jaeden would send reinforcements to the Broken Shore while the forces of Azeroth were busy saving the province their allies called home, allowing the Legion to be ready for when everyone focused on the island that the Tomb of Sargeras rested on, so she and the others were putting their trust in Spitfire's plan and suspected the Deceiver would do what she was thinking about, to which Rainbow focused on the task at hand as she headed for Stormheim as those in Suramar dealt with any demons who dared to step into their home. Sure enough she found that the Legion was in the middle of assaulting Stormheim, with one of their ships parked near the Gates of Valor and happened to be pointed with its tip looking at the sky, though she smiled for a moment as she watched Spitfire fight an Eredar on the lowest level of the ship in question, dodging attacks with the grace that she used whenever she fought her enemies and lashed out whenever an opening showed itself to her, though based on how the battle was progressing it looked like she had arrived too late since Spitfire removed her foe's head, claimed his soul, and then left the ship as Odyn loosed a potent spear at it, blowing it to pieces... though Rainbow smiled as she saw that, as it seemed that they were pushing the Legion back and that, in due time, Kil'jaeden would have to face them in battle before they sealed the Felstorm and put an end to the Legion's ongoing invasion. > Shore: Dealing with the Sentinax > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With Stormheim saved from the Legion's assault, and their forces in this province having suffered next to no losses due to how prepared the forces of Azeroth were for this to happen, Spitfire bid Odyn farewell, as he and his Valarjar would clear the rest of this province of the demons who tried to take everything from the Vrykul who called this place home, before opening her wings and headed off in the direction of the Broken Shore, as it was time for her to return to Deliverance Point and wait for some of her allies to return so she could see where they succeeded and where they failed in this invasion, though she had the feeling that all she would be getting were reports of the heroes kicking the Legion's rear. One thing she found as she flew through the air was that Rainbow had flown over to the border between Suramar and Stormheim, no doubt to see if she needed assistance in tearing down the Legion, or maybe just to watch her in battle, though once they regrouped in the air they headed back to the Broken Shore, but she did notice that Felsoul Hold was no longer powered, meaning Rainbow must have siphoned and devoured all of the Fel energy she must have found in that area, especially with all the corpses that were in that area. It was a good thing that she allowed her friend to join the Nightborne in defending the ancient province, even though Rainbow totally decimated everything and everyone that was in front of her while she aided Elisande's forces in tearing the demons down, and based on what she could tell Rainbow's power had grown since they left Deliverance Point earlier, which had to be making Kil'jaeden worried about his chances of beating them, that was if he was aware of the power Rainbow had developed while she tore down the demons that were either in front of her or in an area that she happened to pass through. Of course Spitfire was still surprised by Rainbow's powers, as she honestly wasn't expecting something like it to be awakened during their battle with the Legion, but it made her that much stronger and it was followed by demons falling as she fought her way through her foes, making her wonder what might happen the next time they went to one of the Legion's worlds, or even Argus when she thought about it, since there was no telling just how strong Rainbow's ability was and knew her friend was eager to make it grow. Her thoughts were interrupted a few moments later as she and Rainbow flew over the Nighthold and focused on making their way over to Deliverance Point, where, sure enough, both of them could see a Legion ship floating in the air above the Broken Shore, one that seemed slightly stronger than the ones that had been with Mephistroth's ship earlier, though when she glanced to her right she was pleased to find that Rainbow wasn't flying off to drain the ship, meaning she had a bit of restraint and would wait until they had more information before doing something... to which they landed in Deliverance Point a few seconds later and approached the area that Illidan and Khadgar were standing in. "It would appear that you were correct in assuming that Kil'jaeden would send another ship to the Broken Shore while our forces focused on tearing down the Legion's assault forces," Khadgar commented, speaking as soon as the pair landed in front of the command table and walked over to where he and the master of the Illidari were standing, which had to mean that Suramar and whatever province Spitfire went to were no longer under siege from the Legion's forces, just like Spitfire had planned, before he turned his attention towards the sky and focused on the ship that was above their heads, as they knew that there were some powerful demons aboard it, not on the level of Kil'jaeden to be exact, "I wonder whose ship that is... it can't be Kil'jaeden's, otherwise we'd see the Deceiver aboard it, and I'm sure it isn't Archimonde's... actually, I'm not sure he even had one since he traveled with portals... so it must belong to another powerful demon, whose trying to come between us and the Tomb of Sargeras." "I'd guess the owner is either a Dreadlord, a Pit Lord, or an Eredar," Rainbow remarked, as the energy she felt seemed to belong to one of those three types of demons, based on what she had felt in the past and knew that whoever owned the ship wasn't close to Mephistroth's power, a disappointment for sure when she thought about the Fel energy the demon had inside their body, before she shifted her gaze to focus on Spitfire for a few seconds, as it was clear that her friend was currently thinking about something and was sure that it had to be about the ship that was in the air, or maybe waiting to hear what the other heroes and leaders had to tell her about the other assaults. "What we do know is that this is the Sentinax, a powerful demon ship involved with the downfall of countless worlds, yet another treasure I found on Nathreza," Illidan spoke up, where he crossed his arms for a moment as he considered why it had been chosen by Kil'jaden, even though having one involved with countless conquests might make the invasion much easier for the Legion, but in the end he knew that every demon aboard the ship would be fuel, or food in some sense, for Rainbow to devour and add to her ever growing power, which he knew all demons should fear with every fiber of their foul beings, as even he, who wasn't subjected to feeling the effects of her power, felt a little afraid when he considered what his former student was capable of, before he focused on the Sentinax again, "We know that the easiest way to deal with the Sentinax would be to allow Rainbow to just drain it and send it flying through the Felstorm, like she's done to the other Legion ships that have attacked the Broken Shore, but so far the ship has been sending down reinforcements and firing at anything they deem to be a danger to the Legion's plans for this place... Khadgar and I have determined that we should spend some time studying the Sentinax, to have a better understanding of its power, before we make our move against it, unless you have a better idea on what to do about it." "In the end, Rainbow's going to end up destroying it, that much is for certain," Spitfire said, where she stared at the ship that was in the air and knew that it might have a connection or small portal network that linked it to a number of Legion worlds, as that was the only way it would be able to send out a whole bunch of reinforcements and still have a whole lot of demons aboard it, though as she said that Rainbow nodded her head for a second, showing that she agreed with part of her plan already and was looking forward to draining the ship, before she turned away from where the ship rested and focused on the rest of Deliverance Point for a time, "for now, studying the Sentinax and keeping an eye on its weapons is a good first action to take against this turn of events, though once we know how the other provinces tackled the assaults the Legion sent their way, and everyone is ready to retake the rest of the Broken Shore so we can get at the Tomb of Sargeras at long last, we can focus on taking down the Sentinax." The others nodded their heads as Spitfire returned to the command table and turned so she could overlook the rest of the Broken Shore, her mind already at work as she thought about what the Sentinax's presence meant, as there was a chance that it had terrible weapons aboard it that would be turned on their forces while they faced the demons that had been in the ship during their travel between Argus and Azeroth, since she was sure that it came from Velen's corrupted world and not one of the other numerous worlds that the Legion had conquered over the years. As she considered the next stages of her plan, part of which Elisande, Nozdormu, and Murozond's groups were dealing with right now, Spitfire found that some of the heroes were returning to Deliverance Point, using the portals the Nightborne had created earlier, and a good bit of them were from Stormheim, those who had assisted her in bringing down Lord Commander Alexius' forces, though most of his forces had been a diversion so his main force could attack the isle of Shield's Rest so he could draw them out to that small island and contain them there so he could assault the Gates of Valor, not that it mattered since she caught up with him and cut him down so Odyn could tear his ship apart. Not too long after the saviors of Stormheim returned with their heads held high, as they were proud to tear down the Legion and weren't annoyed that Spitfire had joined them, Spitfire found that the heroes of the other provinces returned as well, including a number of leaders and champions of their allies, as she spotted Lunara with those who came from Val'sharah and suspected that the Dryad wanted to make the Legion pay for all the damage they had done to the forests of Azeroth, or maybe she wanted to take part in the battle and knew that joining them was the best way for her to do such a thing. What Spitfire and the others learned was that Azsuna had been under assault by a Fel Lord known as Xeritas, who transformed a ruin that was known as the Temple of a Thousand Lights into a conduit to link up to a number of Legion worlds, a booster to the Tomb of Sargeras no doubt, while messing with the spirits and blue dragons who called the province home, who joined forces with the heroes to push the demons out of the ruins, contained them inside the Ley-Ruins of Zarkhenar, and then slew the demons before toppling Xeritas and blowing his ship to pieces, leaving no trace of the Legion ship behind. While that happened the heroes aiding Mayla and her forces found that the Legion that attacked Highmountain loved to focus on trying to bring down Thunder Totem, the central home of the Highmountain Tauren, and once the heroes made sure the rest of the province was secured they secured the city, pushed all of the demons out of it, and then flew up to the Legion ship so they could free some prisoners, plant some powerful Arcane bombs the Kirin Tor had provided, and slew Fel Commander Erixtol in battle, who had been a Doomguard, before blowing the ship up as well. The heroes who went to Val'sharah joined Cenarius, Lunara, and the rest of the guardians of the ancient forest in driving back all of the demons who dared to invade the forest that Malfurion held in high regard, eventually pushing the Legion out of the area of Black Rook Hold that they had taken over, drove them back to the tower they had taken over, and then launched a direct attack on the Legion ship, allowing them to kill Dread Vizier Gra'tork, a Darkglare, before blowing its ship apart as well, much to the joy of those who called Val'sharah home. Since Spitfire had assisted the heroes of Stormheim she already knew their report, but she allowed them to do so anyway since there was always something she might have overlooked and quickly found that their report matched what she had found during in time in the province, while those who defended Suramar reported just how powerful Rainbow's ability had gotten since she started using it against their enemies, though many of the Nightborne were pleased to have them as allies, no doubt worried about what would have happened if they had been enemies with the forces of Azeroth. Another thing she discovered was that the Kirin Tor had a number of crystalline orbs that they showed her once the reports were done, another method of sealing demons that they had created with the aid of Kayn and the Illidari, though while the demon hunters would use the captured demons as fuel for the Fel Hammer she knew the Kirin Tor would likely focus on using the orbs to power several Arcane devices, meaning the power inside each of the demons they captured would be used to safeguard Azeroth, likely starting with Dalaran since it was vulnerable when she wasn't there to defend it against the Legion's attacks, though it did remind her of what the Archmages did, as they had tracked down a Dreadlord, a red winged demon called Kathra'natir, and sealed him inside an ancient artifact at the end of a long journey, much to the demon's annoyance. Of course the Illidari who joined the Tirisgarde in their final mission told Spitfire about the Dreadlord's fate, given that they had killed many other demons and made sure each demon was contained inside a Fel crystal, though she was pleased to find that the commanders who attacked the provinces of the Broken Isles had been trapped in a similar manner, so they could be used to power all sorts of devices and empower whatever defense mechanisms might be in place but she wasn't about to argue with the results and congratulated the heroes, leaders, and champions for a job well done, as the Legion had been pushed back and Kil'jaeden had made his move against them. "Lady Spitfire, we discovered something interesting during our scouting," Kor'vas stated, speaking up when her group of Illidari returned to Deliverance Point, as Spitfire had sent them out to see if there was any new additions to the Broken Shore, besides the Sentinax, and she spoke up once the heroes gave her their reports on what happened while she and Rainbow were busy in Stormheim and Suramar, as she didn't want to interrupt what was going on and found that many of the assembled heroes were pleased to have a chance to speak, before she pulled out a small sack and set it on the table that their Lord, along with Rainbow and Spitfire, were standing near, revealing a couple of dark crystalline shards that had a purple outline to them, "some of the demons we killed happened to be carrying these shards, so we felt that we might as well bring them to your attention, in case they might be useful in the near future." "Are those... Nethershards?" Khadgar inquired, where he picked one of the shards up and studied it for a few seconds, to which Spitfire and the others did the same thing so they could see what Kor'vas and her group had found, though Spitfire had an idea of what these had to be, especially when she considered the name that Khadgar gave them just now, which all of the assembled forces seemed to agree with as they passed around some of the shards, since there were only a few, as in six or seven, before he sighed and set the shard aside for a moment, allowing it to be passed around as well, even if it was clear that he had been thinking about something, "These are crystalized fragments of residual Nether energy, as in a solidified form of the Twisting Nether itself, likely formed thanks to all of the Legion ships that have been traveling to our world lately, since I'm sure they still have to traverse the vastness of the Twisting Nether to get here in the first place, even with the Tomb of Sargeras aiding them... the Legion likely has a vast number of these shards with them, and I can think of a few experiments that these can be used for, if we had enough shards anyway." "This isn't going to be like when you asked us to go collect Apexis Crystals, to empower our rings, is it?" Vytheril asked, as he and the heroes who carried the Savage Hollow rings glanced at their powerful artifacts, likely remembering what they had gone through to empower each of them to the point where they could do everything Khadgar asked them to do, as in track down Gul'dan and his minions, which had ended with Cordana betraying the forces of Azeroth while Khadgar freed Garona Halforcen from the control of the foul warlock, though Spitfire had to wonder what sort of tale the heroes had to tell and knew that Khadgar understood what the Archmage had mentioned. "Oh, is this the tale of how he sent the three of you to obtain four thousand, nine hundred and eighty-six Apexis Crystals from all over Draenor?" one of the Arakkoa inquired, meaning that each hero who carried the rings had to acquire a very specific number of Apexis Crystals and Spitfire suspected that the trio had worked together to make sure they had every single crystal that Khadgar has asked them to acquire, though this also meant that others knew about the rings, which she figured given everything that must have happened during the time of the Iron Horde, before the figure thought about the statement he had just said as he came to understand something, "Each I might add, so each of them had to acquire that amount so they could empower their rings." "Yes, well, that was due to the nature of the Apexis Crystals, so being precise was a necessity given what we were doing to the Savage Hollows," Khadgar replied, as Spitfire knew that he had spent some time studying the crystals in Outland, as he must have seen some crystals before the forces of the Alliance and the Horde came to the shattered world, giving him an idea on how powerful they were and allowed him to skip several steps when it came time to tackle the dangers that they had found in the alternate world, before he sighed for a moment as he stared at the Nethershards that had been brought to them by Kor'vas and her fellow Illidari, "however, we don't really know anything about these crystals, save for the fact that they came from the Twisting Nether, so we're going to need a fair amount to study and experiment on... I think one Nethershard is enough for our basic studies, though we're going to need more for any major tests and experiments, but how much I'm not entirely sure." "Well, we have a force of demons coming from the Sentinax," Rainbow pointed out, as she could see that there were a fair number of enemies teleporting down to the Broken Shore and gathered near the drained Soul Engine, an area they would have to deal with before they made a move against Kil'jaeden and his forces, where she glanced back and found that many of the heroes and other assembled soldiers were staring out in the direction of the area that she happened to be looking at, meaning they had to be thinking about what Khadgar wanted from them, "maybe we can kill two birds with one stone, as in kill the demons of the Sentinax while claiming whatever Nethershards they might have on them." "It is a sound strategy, as effort is required for us to bring down Kil'jaeden and secure the Tomb," Velen added, showing all of them that he agreed with the idea of assaulting the forces of the Sentinax, to kill any demons who teleported down to the Broken Shore and acquire all of the Nethershards they might have on them, though at the same time Spitfire had to wonder if he might have seen something in one of his visions, even though it wasn't long before everyone glanced at her for a moment as they waited to hear what she had to say on the matter, do they assault the Sentinax or do they focus on another Legion infested area. In the end Spitfire gave the command everyone was waiting for, she had some of their forces stay near Deliverance Point, just in case the Legion sent some forces over here to attack her and the others, while most of the assembled group would be focusing on tearing down the demons who were coming down from the Sentinax, as right now it looked like they were gathering near the fallen Soul Engine and it seemed like a good place for her forces to strike, but she did have some of the soldiers leaving to check some of the other locations of the Broken Shore, to make sure the Legion weren't trying to hide any of their forces from the Grand Army of Azeroth. Rainbow, of course, happened to be part of the assault group, which pleased her since she wanted to be part of that fight so she could kill more demons and devour all of their Fel energy like all of the demons that had challenged her in the past, though since she would be more focused on killing her enemies that meant some of the heroes that were joining her would be gathering the Nethershards she left behind and nothing else, all to ensure that Khadgar and his follow mages had everything they needed for their experiments, even though Spitfire had a feeling it wouldn't matter in the end, not unless they could empower their weapons with the shards. It didn't take Rainbow and the others long to head down to where the demons of the Sentinax were gathering, an area called Broken Valley, yet another name the Legion came up with to install despair into the forces of Azeroth, due to the fact that the forces of the Alliance had fought their way through it during the first siege of this twisted and corrupted island, while Thrall and many of the Horde's heroes had move through the Black City, even if they had moved through another area to get to the city in the first place. Sure enough the demons were waiting for them, as in Felguards, Eredar, Doomguards, Imps, Wrathguards, a number of Fel spiders with a few Aranasi nearby, Felbats, and all sorts of demons who were supposed to be guarding the Broken Shore from the forces of the Grand Army of Azeroth, but even being sent down to guard this place didn't prepare their enemies for what was coming their way, as Rainbow smashed into a pair of Eredar and knocked them to the ground, allowing her to grab their necks and drain both of them of their Fel energy as her forces struck the demons that were in front of them, even though they did have to keep an eye on the Sentinax, just in case it fired at them. What was interesting was that Rainbow found a circular crystalline device that had been cracked, either before she struck the Eredar or the demons had broken it after stepping out onto the Broken Shore, though she quickly realized that it was one of the Legion's communicators and knew that it had to be linked to the Sentinax in some way, so if they were able to find more of these they could fool the Legion into opening more portals from this one ship and have them summon in a whole bunch of reinforcements, something that would allow her to quickly cripple the powerful ship if she siphoned them like she did to those who had been attacking Suramar. In fact some of the heroes that were in her task force noticed what was in her hand and seemed to understand what it was without asking any questions, and sure enough some of the other demons had a beacon in their possession, some of them being red, others blue, a few green, and even a yellow one, which made her wonder if the Sentinax was actually a massive prison-like ship that carried all sorts of demons around, while also being shrunk down to look like an ordinary ship to those who were looking at it from the outside, meaning it was larger on the inside and had to be shaped differently than the other Legion ships. Instead of using any of the beacons immediately, as someone might do to check what they did, Rainbow and her task force rushed out and focused on assaulting the rest of the demons that had teleported down to this part of the Broken Shore, where she dodged attacks that were coming right at her and silently siphoned the Fel energy of those that were trying to tear her down, since she was a priority target for the Legion to take down so Kil'jaeden could boost his changes of taking Azeroth in Sargeras' name, though while she slew her foes the other heroes and soldiers did the same thing, and there were no Illidari with her, so she was free to capture every demonic soul while they tore into the Legion's chosen assault force. Of course the demon hunters that would have been assigned to her had been reassigned to another part of the Broken Shore, to keep an eye on the Legion's forces and make sure Kil'jaeden didn't have another trick up his sleeve, meaning that if they did find any demons while they were in another part of this corrupted island they could kill them and snatch their souls without having to interfere with Rainbow and her new habits, though she switched her mind to thinking about all of the morsels in front of her and rushed forward, knocking Felguards to the ground and cutting down others who stood in her way. Once they cut down most of the demons that had teleported down to this part of the Broken Shore, and they were sure of that since there was another patch that some of her forces were fighting as she weakened them with her ability, Rainbow found one of the pristine beacons on the body of an Eredar she killed and glanced at her allies for a couple of seconds, as most of them were interested in what these actually did, to which she activated the beacon and several Fel portals opened as soon as she did that, where a number of Sayaad, Inquisitors, and some Eredar stepped out of them to attack the group that had joined Rainbow in this area. Such a thing brought a smile to Rainbow's face as she considered something, with all of the beacons in their possession right now, and they happened to have a good number of them, they could activate each and every single Sentinax beacon in rapid succession and force an army of demons to march out into this area, leaving the ship without most of its forces and giving her a sea of demons to siphon like she had done in Suramar earlier, though once she came to that conclusion her forces lashed out at the incoming enemies and it took no time before demons started to die by the might of the forces of Azeroth. Rainbow was still surprised that all of this Fel energy hadn't changed her body yet, given every drop of power she had stolen since her last transformation, and suspected that she might need the power of someone like Archimonde or Kil'jaeden, the former resting inside the Fel crystal she carried while the latter was either hiding in the Tomb of Sargeras or another Legion world, to prepare for whatever final battle might happen between both of their forces, though either way she was looking forward to tearing him down and making him pay for the crimes he had committed during his time as one of Sargeras' most trusted followers. She returned her focus to the fight as she watched as some of her forces recovered some additional beacons from the newcomers who had warped down to this area, though what interested her was the fact that one of the Eredar she slew had a short list of the commanders who were in control of the vast forces inside the Sentinax, allowing her to seeing that there was a Shivarra by the name of Illisthyndria, the Fel Obliterator, which had to be a Fel Reaver, an Aranasi known as An'thyna, not to mention a Fel Lord called Xillious, who held the title of Force-Commander, a Pit Lord called Skulgoloth, and Than'otalion, a Dreadlord. Based on what she could tell there were six powerful energy signatures inside the Sentinax, far stronger than the demons that were around them at the moment, and suspected that they were just as strong as the demonic commanders of the ships that had been sent to assault the provinces of the Broken Isles, though she was glad to have this information in her possession, mostly since it allowed her to know the names and species of the commanders who happened to be aboard the Legion ship right now, to which she focused on cutting down demons and feeding on their Fel energy while her forces collected the beacons and Nethershards their foes happened to have on them. One thing that happened was that a good number of demons rushed over to where Rainbow was currently standing, lashing out at her without delay, though she closed her eyes and simply dodged the attacks by feeling the Fel energy that was within all of the enemies that were in this area, surprising some of the Eredar and Felguards that were trying to tear her down, before lashing out at her enemies a few moments later and crushed her foes into the ground, siphoning their energies as she fought them and made sure all of them perished. Interestingly enough a number of Eredar, who had been standing far away from where the main battle was taking place, channeled their power into a single mass, a impressive Fel fireball that looked like it might be able to take down a decent group of soldiers, though it was aimed at her and she gladly stood in its path when it was fired, as all she had to do was open her mouth and devour all of the Fel energy that went into making the attack, causing the demons to pause in shock as they realized just how messed up this situation was, not that it mattered since she flashed over to the area they were standing in and started killing them, leaving the last two alive so she could grab their necks and rip out all of their Fel energy in a matter of seconds. The other thing she did was focus on intercepting the attacks from the Sentinax, as it fired down beams of Fel energy or bursts or power that were designed to harm whoever was below it, though with her being with the heroes and soldiers she was able to intercept the attacks and added their Fel energy to her own, until all of the attacks stopped when the commanders realized that trying to blast them to pieces wasn't working, leaving her to watch over her forces and take down whoever dared to target her, as her ability to siphon Fel energy was working like a charm as demons staggered and fell when the soldiers cut them down. Eventually the demons who had been sent down to this place earlier, the first attack force, and those who had been called down as a result of using one of the beacons, to see what sort of ability it had, were dead Rainbow waited for a couple of seconds as her forces spread out and made sure to form a circle around the Broken Valley, though once everyone was in position they pulled out every beacon they had collected so far and activated them without delay, where they waited for a time as nothing happened, even if it was followed by a number of Fel portals opening all over this place as demons of all sorts stepped out to do battle with the forces of Azeroth. Of course that wasn't why Rainbow was doing this, as while she knew that allowing the heroes to face off against the demons would result in the demons dying, and some of their soldiers would perish during such a thing, rather she was setting a trap for the demons that had been aboard the Sentinax, as the six commanders seemed to be absent and might be watching what was going on below their vessel, to which she waited for a second or two before activating her great ability. Sure enough the demons that were down in this area started to feel weak as she focused her power on the Broken Valley for a time, where the heroes watched as demons of all shapes and sizes either staggered for a few seconds, as they felt weak from what Rainbow as doing, or outright collapsed if they were a small demon, such as an Imp or Wyrmtongue, and all of their Fel energy gathered in an orb above her head, just like she had done to those she had fought earlier, where one Eredar seemed to notice what was happening and fired a beam of Fel energy right at her. Rainbow knew that the attack was designed to ruin the orb of energy and prevent her from eating it, as if the demon might have understood what was going on and wanted to stop it from happening, though she grinned for a moment as the attack wrapped around the orb and was pulled into it, its Fel energy being added to the attack while the Eredar's jaw seemed to drop, because clearly he wasn't expecting such a thing to happen, though it wasn't long before she siphoned the rest of the demon's Fel energy and caused him to collapse as well, to which she waited for a couple of seconds, just to be sure that every single enemy was taken care of, and that there were no survivors or scraps of energy she might have missed, before shrinking the orb down to the size of an apple and ate it without delay, adding every drop of Fel energy she had taken to her own growing pool of power. Once that was done she felt a surge of energy as six figures teleported down to the Broken Valley, six large figures that she quickly recognized as the six names on the list she had found earlier, a large Shivarra, an Aranasi of the same size, a Fel Lord, Pit Lord, and Dreadlord of equal size, and a large machine that was taller than its companions, only darker looking than the Fel Reavers she and Spitfire had seen back in Outland, meaning the Legion must have upgraded them since their time attacking the ruined world of Outland, or had been building new machines to replace those that were weaker, making her wonder what might be lurking on Argus. As soon as all six figures were down on the ground, and her soldiers were not in the way, Rainbow focused on the enemies that were in front of her and found that the Fel Obliterator was coming at her first, throwing a mechanical fist at the ground she was standing on while the other demons appeared to be coming from both her left and her right, where she smiled for a moment as she jumped into the air and used a bit of her power to force the incoming fist into the ground she had been standing on, causing the other commanders to hit the fist as they quickly realized that she was no longer standing in that position. In the following moments she swung her left hand and used her Fel energy to sharpen her claws so she could slash through part of the Obliterator's armor, finding that the armor that had been placed on it was harder than the Fel Reavers who had been marching around Outland before all of their new allies followed the demons through the Dark Portal, though the challenge brought a smile to her face as she felt the Fel energy that was inside her target, even though she was slowly weakening all six of her foes and none of them seemed to notice it at the moment. As she did that Rainbow found that the Obliterator was raising its left hand in an attempt to crush her, as in smash her against the armor she was running up, to which she turned so her back was facing the incoming attack and then did a backflip to land on the back of the metallic hand, though as she did that she could see that the rest of her foes were coming up with an idea or two on how to hit her before she tore them down, something that caused her to turn for a moment and flash down to where the Obliterator's core rested, digging into the core protection armor for a few seconds before pulling herself backwards so she could fall towards the ground for a time. As she expected the Dreadlord was the first one to rush at her while she fell through the air, given his wings, though what Rainbow did was move out of the way and grabbed onto the back of her target's armor, before hurling the demon right at the ground and watched as he slammed into the earth below where the two of them had been located, though she rushed down and brought her clawed feet right down into the demon's chest, cracking both his chest piece and the ground at the same time, even though she had to move a few seconds later as the other demons caught on to what she was doing, as in the Shivarra lashed out at her with all six of her blades. Based on what she could tell Illisthyndria didn't have any special attacks or abilities to use against those who challenged her, meaning the demon got this far based on her strength and no other tricks, like magic for example, but Rainbow could feel the Fel energy inside her foe and understood the secret, the demon was using her power to strengthen her body and make sure she brought down her enemies, though as she figured that out she knew something else, the power Illisthyndria was using happened to be fading, due to her siphoning power, and in due time she would be dead as well. In fact she didn't have to wait that long for an opening to be created, thanks to the fact that the Shivarra lashed out with all six of her swords and left herself exposed for a moment, where she swung her clawed left hand downwards and removed three of the demon's arms, the right ones, causing the demon to stagger for a moment as both the Fel Lord and Pit Lord charged at her while she was distracted, but that was a fatal mistake for them as she gathered her power while shifting her stance, causing the Pit Lord to stab the Fel Lord in the chest as she caused the Fel Lord to cut into the Pit Lord's shoulder with his battleaxe, causing a look of surprise to appear on their faces as she did that, before forcing both of them backwards. The reasoning behind that was due to the Aranasi lashing out at her as well, trying to cut her down while giving all of her allies a chance to get up and join the fight again, though she dodged the claw attack and smashed her tail into the demon's chest, crushing her foe into the ground before the Obliterator fired a burst of Fel energy, one aimed directly at her, something that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things as she devoured it in seconds and smiled as she faced the demons around her, who seemed slightly afraid of their chances of wining this fight now that they understood just what she was capable of. Once the demons understood what was going on, and some even lowered their bloody weapons as they considered what to do after figuring this out, Rainbow raised her hand and decided to end this without playing with her food anymore, as in she started to gather up the remainder of their Fel energy, forming a decent sized Fel orb, and silently watched as the six figures collapsed on the ground after a few moments, though once they were dead she focused on the Sentinax and took all of the energy inside it as well, adding to the orb before she shrunk it and ate it, and once that was done she hurled the ship through the Felstorm... though once she did that she joined her forces in returning to Deliverance Point, as it was only a matter of time until Kil'jaeden made his move and she was looking forward to fighting the Deceiver at last. > Shore: The Main Event > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the forces of the Sentinax routed, the ship returned to one of the Legion's many worlds like those Rainbow had hurled through the Felstorm, and all of the Nethershards collected, her force returned to Deliverance Point and gave Spitfire the good news, not that it really mattered since those who remained in their base of operations could see her totally wipe out all of the demons who had been aboard the most terrible ship in the Legion's arsenal, at least it was that way since they knew of no other ship that had an equal power to the Sentinax, something that caused many of their allies to cheer since it sent a message to Kil'jaeden that they would not be brought down. "The Legion should be fearful of fighting Azeroth now, especially with the downfall of the Sentinax," Illidari remarked, as he was pleased to see that the most terrifying ship that could be sent to attack Azeroth had been toppled by Rainbow's might, a power that was constantly growing as she continued to devour Fel energy, making him wonder when she would siphon all of Archimonde's power and add it to her own, though once he said that he found that many were glancing out in the direction of the Tomb of Sargeras, almost as if they were daring Kil'jaeden to show up, "however, they'll likely switch to attacking the provinces of the Broken Isles, to distract us, or our enemy will concentrate his power into unleashing an army to wipe out Deliverance Point... after everything I have seen, the latter seems the most likely." "Kil'jaeden is waging a costly war with Azeroth right now, due to the fact that we've captured so many demon souls since we were freed from the Vault," Spitfire said, referring to the fact that she and Rainbow could trap the souls of their slain foes, at least the demons anyway, inside their weapons and prevent them from returning to Argus or one of the other worlds that the Legion was in control of, so the endless army of the Legion was starting to find that it was growing weaker and that the forces of Azeroth were more than capable of beating them again, before she smiled for a moment, "but I'm fully expecting him to call forth an army of demons to try and take back the Broken Shore from us, hence why I've asked Elisande, Nozdormu, Murozond, and their forces to find allies that can join our fight... if things work as I have planned, we can keep the army contained outside the Tomb while the heroes use the Pillars to seal the Tomb. Elisande, have you made any progress in finding us any additional allies, any at all?" "Using the Infinite Dragonflight's methods, with the Bronze Dragonflight ensuring no harm comes to our world, we have created and studied a number of timelines since you asked us to do this," Elisande remarked, though she was speaking freely since all of their combined mages were capable of creating an area where Kil'jaeden would be unable to hear what they might be talking about, leaving their enemy in the dark, while at the same time knowing that it was about time to tell their allies the plan, or at least part of it since no one knew what would come after the Pillars of Creation were used to seal the Tomb and sever the connection between Azeroth and Argus, before she focused on the question again, "so far we've been able to create a number of different timelines, at least twenty so far, by carefully choosing points in history that not only shape one person's destiny, but the destiny of the everyone else as well... one such example is to find a way to stop the one called Arthas Menethil from purging one of his cities, during the opening stages of the Scourge's existence, which isn't an easy task to accomplish. So far most of the timelines we've created have resulted in what the time dragons like to call 'Bad Ends', futures where Azeroth is either taken and corrupted by the Legion, or overwhelmed by the forces of Death, or where nature has overrun everything and strangles those who don't serve the one in charge, and so on... fortunately, we don't have to worry about those Bad Ends, as we have a familiar mysterious figure to thank for taking care of them all, before they could become a threat to our timeline, the Prime Timeline as our allies call it." "So, the one who destroyed Draenor makes another move while we're gathering allies, and I'm willing to bet the one with the golden attire was nearby," Spitfire remarked, though she could see that Grommash and Yrel were annoyed about the thought about the one who wrecked their world was still bothering them, or their allies for that matter, where she also found Elisande nodding her head to confirm that they had seen the golden god, who represented greed based on what all of them had seen when they were saving the Mag'har and their Draenei allies, which was also annoying and she sighed for a moment as she thought about what she was hearing, "I should be happy that he's ensuring our timeline remains safe, as I'm sure that many of these Bad Ends might have a way to interact with our world and we certainly don't need a repeat of what happened in the past, not while we're fighting the Legion, but right now its hard to say whether he's on our side or if he's just messing with us at this point." "Yes, but so far he's only been destroying the Bad Ends... he even erased what was left of the End Times I created to save our world from a terrible fate," Murozond commented, referring to the point in time where many of Azeroth's heroes took him out to dismiss his magic so they could deal with Deathwing, by recovering the Demon Soul artifact, though that death had been part of the reason as to why Vytheril and the others had been surprised by his return, since they expected him to be dead, though with Spitfire and Rainbow's constant changes to their timeline he had found a way to return, and even he had sworn to assist in bringing down the Legion, before a smile appeared on his face, "but you have to remember that the twenty timelines the mysterious god destroyed were just the Bad Ends, futures doomed to failure and destruction to be exact... we have been able to identify at least five timelines where we can find potential allies and ask them to assist us in our war with the Legion. So far we have found a timeline where many of the Ancients that were slain during the time of the War of the Ancients actually didn't perish in their battles with the Legion, forever altering that timeline and changing many of its residents at the same time, while another one was of Arthas Menethil listening to Jaina and Uther before they took on the undead that were scattered around Stratholme, creating a timeline where the paladin remained attuned to the Light and never fell to darkness... there's even the timeline where a force called the Unliving rule, watching over their world while taking down whoever dares to attack their world. From what we have determined the mysterious figure hasn't attacked those timelines yet, though we have also determined that should someone head to those timelines, and any of the other good ones we have found so far, its possible that we might set in motion the destruction of their worlds, as that figure might destroy them to keep our timeline safe." Spitfire sighed for a moment as she heard that news, as while it had been confirmed that there were timelines where they might be able to obtain more allies for the upcoming battle with the Legion, and some sounded like they might have more experience dealing with demons, the downside was that the mysterious figure who destroyed Draenor was keeping track of where Elisande, Nozdormu, and Murozond looked, appearing in the Bad End timelines they discovered and wrecked all of the bad worlds they had found, meaning they had to be careful since one wrong move might cause the figure to wreck the alternate timelines. As such she focused on making sure the trio and their forces continued to seek out other points in time to find other potential allies, while also coming up with ways to get around the timelines being destroyed by the odd figure that seemed to be watching over them, though she could tell that her allies were eager to get back to work and see if they could recruit any new forces into the Grand Army of Azeroth, because if the alternate timelines were in danger it only felt right to offer the displaced new homes in Azeroth Prime just like they had done for Yrel and Grommash once they came to terms with what happened to their own world. Once the conversation was done Spitfire had her forces return to their duties as she thought about her plan and what might happen if that mysterious figure decided to come down to this world at some point in time, to ask them to stop messing with time or something, before shifting her attention back to the Broken Shore, as she needed to be ready for whatever Kil'jaeden did next in his war to bring them down, so he could take Azeroth in Sargeras' dark name, even if it looked like nothing was happening to the Broken Shore right now. That gave all of them the time they needed to get ready for the next phase of the war between them and the Legion, even if it meant waiting for their enemy to make the first move, though if the Deceiver did what Spitfire was thinking they were going to need those reinforcements from all of the good timelines that her forces were able to find, regardless of the terrible and very real consequences that would likely follow such a thing, but for now she had them focus on finding other timelines and determining if they could find allies there or not. Of course one of the things they did was make sure Khadgar and the others had the Nethershards they wanted, where she found that Rainbow's group had acquired enough to last the mages for a good amount of time, before Spitfire turned back to making sure the Broken Isles and Shore were safe from whatever Kil'jaeden decided to send at them next, since she and the others knew that the Deceiver had to have some sort of plan in the works and would soon turn it on the forces of this world, they just had to be patient and prepare for the future. As Spitfire did that she learned something interesting, that all of the new recruits from both the Wardens and the Illidari, once former enemies like their leaders had been, were busy in part of Azsuna, the Fel-corrupted area of Faronaar that Cordana had been stationed in for some time, though this was just training as they made sure everyone understood the movements and techniques that had been passed to them, while at the same time crushing the demons that had been calling that part of the Broken Isles home, with the Illidari capturing the souls of their slain enemies along the way. Maiev's reasoning behind her decision was that it was good practice for when it came time to launch their assault on whatever defenses Kil'jaeden put in front of the Tomb of Sargeras, which would be in the very near future, something that both Spitfire and Illidan agreed with, so she left them to their business and continued to make sure everyone was right with the Grand Army of Azeroth, where Rainbow seemed to be keeping an eye on the Fel energies of the Broken Shore and stared at the Tomb whenever she had a chance, mostly daring Kil'jaeden to make his final move against them so they could start fighting his forces. So far it looked like the demons were staying away from the Broken Shore, not wanting to feed any additional Fel energy to Rainbow and suffer the loss of the soldiers in question, or it seemed like such a thing might be happening, but Spitfire's forces maintained their defenses and carefully kept an eye out for the next assault on Deliverance Point or the other camps that were scattered around the corrupted isle the Tomb was on, as it was odd for the Legion to allow a force to get this far in a war without forcing their foes to suffer a horrible defeat in some manner, which was just another reason to keep their guards up and keep an eye out for whatever the Deceiver might have planned for them. What was surprising was that the day came to an end with no new assaults or attacks happening, something that caused all of them to tilt their heads for a moment before enjoying supper and going to bed, while having a system to ensure that a group was always up and kept an eye on the rest of the Broken Shore, with Spitfire ensuring that everyone had a chance to get some rest, though when morning arrived they found an equally surprising sight outside Deliverance Point... as there happened to be a decent sized force of Eredar, accompanied by a fair number of Wyrmtongue, approaching their base of operations, which caused Spitfire to stand near the border of their base, under the watchful eye of several leaders, heroes, and Rainbow, just in case this was a trap. "Are you the one called Lady Spitfire?" one of the Eredar, a female who seemed to be the captain of the force that was just behind her, asked, speaking as soon as she and her force came to a stop near the border Spitfire was standing at, though from what Spitfire could see this Eredar was a mage thanks to her robes, much like a decent amount of the Draenei, but at the same time it was clear that all of the demons seemed worried about something, where it only took her a moment to figure out that they might be afraid of either her or Rainbow, with the latter the most likely. "I am. Has Kil'jaeden sent you to intimidate us?" Spitfire asked, because that seemed like something the Deceiver might do, in an effort to make them attack the newcomers and find that they were weaker than what they were expecting, to lower their guard for when his true attack came about, though in the following moments the Eredar shook their heads in the no motion and then, in an interesting display that caught the forces of Azeroth off guard, all of the demons, the Eredar to be exact, dropped to one knee and bowed their heads towards her, like they were recognizing her as their leader or someone they respected to some degree. "No, he has not given such an order, and we don't follow him anymore. I am Yalmora, and my forces and I have decided to leave the Legion, in light of recent events," the Eredar, Yalmora, replied, something that caused many of the heroes to take a moment to raise their eyebrows as they listened to that statement, as this would be the first time that a force of demons actually left the Legion without someone tracking them down and killing them, not that any demons had tried such a thing and that likely meant that Rainbow's decimation of Kil'jaeden's forces had given the Eredar an opportunity to do it, hence why they were here in the first place, before she waved a hand towards the Wyrmtongue, "and, as a sign of good faith on our end, to show that this is not a trick or a trap, we come baring several artifacts and the stolen goods that have been taken from your cities recently." Spitfire had heard that some items had gone missing over the last week, from Orgrimmar, Stormwind, and the other cities that the forces of Azeroth lived in, her Illidari had even caught some Wyrmtongue who had been trying to steal stuff from Dalaran and mostly handed them over to the Council of the Black Harvest, who the little demons seemed to enjoy working with for some reason, though as she thought about that several individuals walked over and studied what was inside all of the crates the Wyrmtongue were carrying, while a warlock, who wore the area of the highest ranking member of his Order, a dark robe with dark purple Fel runes etched into the material, stopped near her and Yalmora. "You do realize that even if we believe you, and welcome your force into the Grand Army, you and your followers won't be starting at the top, like you might be used to, right?" the warlock, a human by the name of Kadin Cromwell, asked, who happened to be the First of the Council, meaning either their strongest or wisest member, severed as the main Netherlord for the order, and carried one of the most powerful Fel staffs in creation, the Scepter of Sargeras, a weapon that could tear open all sorts of dimensional gateways and had been something that Gul'dan had tried to use to end Azeroth after the first failed assault on the Broken Shore, only for Kadin to break his ritual and steal the staff in question, which made him the most powerful living warlock in the universe right now. "We are well aware of that fact, as many of us are willing to join the Council and share our knowledge with you, which you can use to expand the power of Dreadscar Rift," Yalmora said, where Spitfire had a feeling that the immense fear of having both her power and her demonic soul devoured by someone like Rainbow, which would separate all of the power that she had obtained over the years from her before she fell into the darkness of the Warblades, had to be a reason behind why all of these Eredar were defecting from the Legion, as if they knew that facing them was a death sentence and their quest for power would be at an end, though such a thing meant that the warlocks would have to work to change the Eredar for the better, "while others wish to transform themselves, turning their backs on Sargeras and his Fel power while switching to another power, like the Void or the Light..." "So they won't have to worry about Rainbow devouring their souls," Spitfire remarked, to which the Eredar nodded right after she said that, confirming her thoughts on the matter and it did look like they were a little surprised that she was the first one to figure out exactly what they were after, though at the same time Yalmora could see that Velen was staring at all of them, like most of the Draenei that were present right now, no doubt silently judging her group for the crimes they had committed over the long millennia they had spent chasing those who had fled from Argus, to which she sighed as she took a moment to consider this information, since this wasn't something she was expecting to find, "Very well, you may join the Grand Army of Azeroth and the Council of the Black Harvest, if they so desire... we'll go over the specifics later, once we're finished taking care of Kil'jaeden and whatever he's planning." The one thing she didn't feel the need to say was that if the group of Eredar, who Kil'jaeden would likely call the Betrayers, decided to betray the forces of Azeroth than their souls would be forfeit, because if they turned out to be enemies, and all of this was an elaborate trick, Rainbow was going to kill all of the demons that were in front of them and devour both their Fel energy and add their souls to her growing collection, something they seemed to understand as they bowed their heads once more before following her lead, no doubt seeing her as someone who could stand up to Sargeras, given her power to use four of the six Cosmic Forces. If that was the case it made Spitfire wonder why none of the other demons understood the danger that was waiting outside the Tomb of Sargeras, that to face them in battle meant certain death and that their power would only fuel Rainbow's growing might, but if the Legion wanted to play this game she was more than willing to tear them down and show them exactly what happened when they dared to face Azeroth, especially after all the changes she had made since being released from the prison the demon hunters had been trapped inside. Of course Velen and his Draenei were wary of the newcomers, given everything that had happened since they fled Argus, but she expected them to give the Betrayers a chance, even though she did know they needed a new name for the future, if they didn't betray those who were guarding Azeroth right now anyway, and with Velen's force watching over Yalmora's group Spitfire turned most of her attention back to the Broken Shore, which seemed to involve speaking with some of the Wyrmtongue as she figured out what sort of items had been brought to them and what was being returned. For the most part it looked like the couple of artifacts were similar to those that had been stolen from the Legion earlier, after their failed first assault, so basically the items were weapons containing the soul of a powerful being, much like the scythe known as Ulthalesh that had the soul of a Dreadlord inside it, which one of the other Netherlords had in their possession, that were forged to house the souls of certain individuals and use their power against the rest of the universe, while the Wyrmtongue returned the supplies they had stolen while the forces of Azeroth were preparing for facing the forces of this isle. While she did that Spitfire moved forward with the next stage of her plan, calling on the shamans of the Earthen Ring and all of their elemental allies to shift the appearance of the Broken Shore, as in she started from the base of the ramp that lead up to Deliverance Point and stopped at Wrynnsfall, something that was followed by the earth shifting as it turned into a flat surface that looked like a diamond of sorts from the air, perfectly smooth so neither side had to worry about loose rocks or other hazards when she put her plan into action at long last. In addition to that most of her allies made sure that their armies were ready for when the Call to Arms was sounded, so they could march through the portals that Thalyssra, Oculeth, and the rest of the Nightborne would open when the time was right, though at the same time they were adding new portals to the capital cities of Azeroth, in areas that were being set aside for such a thing, to make traveling easier for the heroes, though to permanently power them the Illidari had handed over some of the demonic souls they had captured lately, some of the Dreadlords, to help Thalyssra's forces out. Of course Elisande and her group were working with both of the dragonflights that focused on the timelines of Azeroth, focusing on finding a way to contact the timelines with people who might ally themselves with Spitfire's forces and drive back the Legion, even though there was a chance that the one who wrecked Draenor might show up and ruin those timelines as well, like he had done to all of the Bad End timelines the group had discovered, but if things worked out as she was hoping Elisande and the time dragonflights would be able to call in all sorts of allies for the battle with Kil'jaeden's forces, since the Deceiver would likely have an immense army to take all of them down. Rainbow, on the other hand, stood nearby and stared out at the Broken Shore while their forces readied themselves for what Spitfire had planned, though she did find that the ruins that rested to the northeast of Deliverance Point, in the coastal area anyway, had some demons with some decent power gathering for Kil'jaeden's assault, which she assumed where some of his champions and made her way out into the area in question, mostly to cut down the demons in question and seal their souls inside her Warblades, including taking all of their energy for herself, but for the most part it seemed like most of the Deceiver's champions were in hiding and would show themselves once the order was given to attack the heroes, leaders, and forces of Azeroth. As such Spitfire and her forces worked to prepare themselves for when Kil'jaeden made his move, altering the landscape of the Broken Shore to make it how she wanted it to be while Elisande's group worked to communicate with some of the important figures of the timelines they had found, something they would have to be quick about since there was no way to know what might happen, in regards to the mysterious being who was wrecking the alternate timelines and destroying the worlds that her group created, but at least he wasn't coming to mess with them for trying something like this in the first place. Sure enough Kadin and his fellow Netherlords reported that the faction of Eredar that defected from the Legion were true to their word, they were sharing information with his warlocks, something that would boost their power as they started to steal demons and other artifacts of power from the other lords of the shattered worlds, and some of Yalmora's forces became low ranking members of the Council of the Black Harvest, showing that they were willing to do exactly what they had told her when they approached Deliverance Point. Due to that fact Velen and his Draenei did their best to aid the Eredar that wanted to purify themselves of the Fel energy and return to the Legion, even though this happened to be one of the rare times that something like this happened and caused Khadgar to join in for a time, to both record the method they used and assisting them to the best of his ability, though as that happened Spitfire was pleased to find that none of them tried anything, as it meant that Yalmora's group could, in fact, be trusted, though she planned on keeping an eye on her Eredar for a time, just to be sure nothing bad happened. Other than that it looked like Kil'jaeden was leaving her and her forces alone, giving them all the time they needed to make the land ready for when Spitfire gave the command that all of them were patiently waiting for, and it wasn't long before Illidan, Maiev, and their forces to return to Deliverance Point with news that the remaining demons on the Broken Isles had been routed at last, meaning the only thing the forces of Azeroth had to worry about was facing down Kil'jaeden, though Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes would be focusing on fighting the Deceiver and, eventually, tearing him down for his crimes against both Azeroth and the other worlds that had been purged by the Legion in the past. Eventually that day came to an end as well and Spitfire found that Kil'jaeden hadn't made his move yet, which made her wonder if he was having second thoughts about facing Azeroth at this point in time, though when the morning of the next day arrived, and a few hours had passed so her forces could have breakfast, she spotted the Deceiver standing in front of the Tomb of Sargeras, to which she got up and made sure everyone was ready to move, as it seemed like the main event of their assault on the Broken Shore was about to begin, though while her forces gathered on the southwestern edge of the altered landscape she and Rainbow flew over to Kil'jaeden's position, landing near the Tomb's entrance as they stared at the large Eredar. "Lady Spitfire, it appears that you have been busy," Kil'jaeden commented, where the pair determined that there was no insulting tone to his voice, he was trying to be respectful towards them, unlike how he had been previously, though at the same time he seemed to be staring out at the rest of the Broken Shore that was behind them, a landscape that he didn't even recognize at this point and had to blame it on Spitfire's alterations, meaning she had been getting ready for a battle between her forces and his demonic army, something that caused him to mentally grin for a moment since he had been hoping for this so he could break the forces of Azeroth at long last. "And you've done nothing, other than watch us and lurk in the shadows," Spitfire replied, knowing that the Deceiver had been watching them from whatever area he liked to hide himself in, likely his command ship in the Twisting Nether, which also served as protection since none of her forces could track him if he remained in that area, but with Kil'jaeden standing here it meant he was ready to face the forces of Azeroth in an attempt to bring all of them down, something that would fail if her plans succeeded in the way she had planned, before she focused on the demon once more, "You know, we can bring an end to this conflict if you just surrender, here and now, and allow us to march into the Tomb so we use the Pillars of Creation to seal the Felstorm... even you must understand the power that you and your forces would be facing if you decided to face either of us in battle, not to mention the combined might of Azeroth's races." "Of course, even if you do fight us, we'll cut you down and I'll feast on your Fel energy," Rainbow remarked, reminding the demon of the fate that awaited all demonic beings when they fought her, even though she was hoping he'd be dumb and go to war with Spitfire's forces, since it meant they could capture the souls of more demons and take the Deceiver down at long last, crippling the Legion even more than what had happened in the past, according to what they had been told by Khadgar and some of their other allies, where a smile appeared on her face as she imagined getting her hands on the Fel power that rested inside Kil'jaeden's body, a feast based on how powerful he was. "I have no intention of surrendering to you, nor am I planning on dying this day," Kil'jaeden stated, with a confidence that surprised the pair a little, not that they raised their eyebrows or anything and without their expressions it left the demon in the dark about how he should feel about his decision, though instead of backing down he stood there and stared at the pair for a few moments, showing them that he definitely wasn't backing down and that his forces would stand between all of them and the Tomb of Sargeras, before he smiled for a moment, "however, I am planning on killing you both, make no mistake about that... by the end of today you two will be trapped in Antorus, and I will ensure that you are broken by all of the torture methods we have access to." Normally this would be where Spitfire said something about the demons who had tried to take them down in the past, like Xazariel in the Nighthold, but instead of wasting time on that she simply turned around and found that Kil'jaeden did the same thing, they were turning their backs on each other and heading back to where their forces would be gathering, even if Rainbow had to resist the urge to cut down Kil'jaeden while his defenses were lowered, to which she and Rainbow flew back to the flat edge near Deliverance Point, finding that most of their forces, those who had been on the island, were now arranged like an army, leaving the main force of the Grand Army waiting elsewhere, though the heroes, Khadgar, Velen, and Illidan were lurking near the Tomb's entrance, since it was time for the main event. Sure enough the Deceiver quickly made his move as he connected to the power of the Tomb, like Gul'dan had once done, and started summoning demons to his side, where Spitfire's forces watched as every type of demon that existed in the Legion, those they had seen anyway, teleported down to his side, though it quickly became a matter of Fel portals opening as hundreds of demons marched out and stepped onto the flat land of the Broken Shore, maybe a thousand or more based on what they were seeing, and all of them seemed to be forming the lines a military would use, an interesting change to be sure. Of course this would normally be where someone would freak out and claim that they were doomed, in the face of the mighty Legion, especially since all of them knew that there were more demons waiting on the other side of Kil'jaeden's portals, though Spitfire's forces stood at the ready as they watched as their enemies started to march on Azeroth, but the interesting fact was that the army did come to a stop as many of the demons patiently waited for the Deceiver to declare war on this world, so they could claim it in Sargeras' name. Once she was sure that the demons were done moving, and it appeared that they might have taken a moment to dismiss their Fel portals, Spitfire smiled for a moment as the area behind her forces shifted for a few seconds as a number of portals, these ones fueled by Arcane energy, opened in response to the appearance of Kil'jaeden's army, where at first it simply looked like Anduin, Thrall, and the combined forces of the Alliance and the Horde were stepping out to do battle with the Deceiver's forces, but the truth was that this was only the beginning of Spitfire's plan. The reason for that was due to Elisande's group opening portals to the other timelines, which meant they had been rather successful in recruiting more allies to their cause, where one force happened to be the Unliving, as Elisande called them, an army that, at a glance, seemed to resemble the Scourge in some manner, but Spitfire had learned that this force wasn't made up of the mindless undead or people wanting to destroy Azeroth, rather they were heroes and champions who had been slain while defending their world and had been revived by the Lich King, who didn't force this new 'Light-forged' life on his forces, rather he gave them the option and they accepted being revived in such a manner, while they had purified Frostmourne with the Light, creating Lightmourne or something in the process. In addition to that there were the forces of a version of Azeroth who didn't have a Lich King, either due to the Legion not creating one for their world or the figure was still trapped in Northrend, a world were Arthas Menethil was one of the greatest paladins of his timeline's Silver Hand and was no longer the arrogant person he had been when Mal'ganis revealed himself to him, though his force contained a few paladins who were no longer alive in the Azeroth Prime timeline, such as Uther and Tirion for example, and a number of other figures who died in the various battles with the Scourge. Not only that but Elisande had found a timeline where most of the Ancients, like Aviana and Ashamane, survived during the time of the War of the Ancients and went on to help bring an end to the Legion's invasion, where the Well of Eternity still detonated and ushered in the Sundering, but the fact that Spitfire was interested in was that the elven races of that timeline had allies with the Ancients and brought changes with such a thing, like how the Kaldorei became the Nightwing Harpies, elegant and noble beings who were totally different from the foul harpies of the main timeline, and groups of the other elves followed suit, either being changed by Aviana or by one of the other Ancients. What impressed Spitfire was that Elisande was able to find a timeline that she considered to be an impossibility, one where Queen Azshara knew of the danger that Sargeras posed to Azeroth and didn't contact the Dark Titan at all, or rather she knew of his tricks and didn't use the Well of Eternity to aid him in his plans, creating a grand elven army who marched out of their portal with their glorious Queen among their number, which meant that they were countering and erasing the deaths that the Legion had caused over the millennia. Of course those weren't the only armies that marched out to join them, as Spitfire noticed three large dragons, a blue one who had to be Malygos, a green one who looked like Ysera, and a large black dragon who she suspected was Neltharion, the Dragon Aspect who later became Deathwing, where it looked like he wasn't mad from the Void's corruption, and with all of them were the slain dragons of their particular flight, including dragons from the red and bronze flights, plus there was a smaller black dragon who transformed into a young adult human who was dressed like a prince of some kind, who she assumed was Wrathion, one of the last remaining black dragons from their timeline. "That's everyone we've been able to make contact with," Elisande commented, though she was pleased with their work, as it took some real skill and determination to make all the alternate timelines she and her group had made, espeically with the aid of Nozdormu and Murozond, despite the fact that they had to watch as many of them, the Bad Ends, were totally destroyed before they could interfere with this world, before she noticed that Spitfire had spotted two female elves that resembled Sylvanas, one still living and one brought back to life by the Light to continue defending her world from every threat it might be facing, only to notice that Kil'jaeden seemed surprised as well, "and your tactic worked, as it appears that our enemy is worried about his chances." "Good, though we might as well get the main event started. Champions and Protectors of Azeroth," Spitfire stated, where she glanced at the assembled armies that were on their side of the altered Broken Shore, something that caused many of the leaders and legendary figures in this world's history, and possibly the history of the other timelines, turn their heads a little to see what she was up to and if it was time to repay the Legion for every crime that they might have committed in the past, to which she pulled her blades out of her horns and pointed the right one right at Kil'jaeden, who almost looked like he might have taken a step back, "Charge! For Azeroth, and Death to the Legion!" In the following moments the Grand Army of Azeroth, backed by the armies of other timelines, charged and rushed at the area that the demons were standing in, where Kil'jaeden raised his hand and beckoned for his army to tear down every foe who came at them, causing the demonic army to move a few seconds later, even though he turned and headed into the Tomb of Sargeras, no doubt seeking to awaken the Fallen Avatar, the sleeping weapon that rested in the depths of the massive structure. Spitfire watched as the two enemies clashed with each other not a few seconds later, smashing right into each other in the middle of the area that she had prepared for this event, with the forces of Azeroth instantly pushing their foes backwards a little as demons were sliced, smashed, and blasted apart, though as that happened she flew over to where the leaders of the Order Halls were waiting with the rest of their group, as it was time for them to take the fight to Kil'jaeden and cripple his plans, and while Rainbow didn't want to leave a buffet behind she joined her a few seconds later, deciding to feast of whatever demons were inside the Tomb. Of course Spitfire was curious if Kil'jaeden had placed some traps inside the Tomb, to catch them unaware and damage them accordingly, since it made sense to have someone do it before their enemies entered the structure, but she had the feeling that soon they would be facing the Deceiver in battle, which would please Rainbow since she wanted to take him down for everything he had said and done so far, before they worried about Argus and the potential retaliation that Sargeras might send their way in the very near future. > Shore: Into the Depths > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It didn't take Spitfire, Rainbow, and the rest of their group all that long to enter the Tomb of Sargeras and stepped into a decent sized chamber that seemed to be a rest area, something Rainbow and Illidan recognized since there had been one in the Cathedral of Eternal Night, though Kil'jaeden was nowhere to be seen, which meant he was likely heading for the Avatar that slumbered inside this place, or at least that appeared to be the ultimate goal of the Legion and would provide their foes with a powerful weapon that would deal a great bit of damage to those who stood against them, though for now their goal was to find out where Aegywnn had set up the other pedestals for the remaining four Pillars of Creation. Once Spitfire was sure that everyone was ready to go, which everyone confirmed not a few seconds later, they quickly headed up the short bit of stairs and entered a wide area that looked like it had been a hallway at one point in time, back when this was a temple of Elune to be exact, before they spotted the massive chamber Rainbow had described after her trek through the Cathedral, as she had seen it for a few moments before focusing her attention on the demons that had been in her way, which was a mix of ancient Kaldorei architecture and modern Fel corruption. That was due to the fact that there were a number of cracks in the stone floor, with Fel energy seeping from them, there were Fel flames on all of the braziers, which showed who was in control of this place, and there were a numbers Fel spikes that rested on the left side of the large chamber, where the first of Kil'jaeden's demonic guards would likely show up once he was ready to tear them down, though there also happened to be a decent number of demons in this chamber, at least twenty Felguards and five Doomguards, but that was nothing more than an appetizer for Rainbow at this point in time, even if she stood back and let the heroes take their foes down. As she considered what she was seeing at the moment, and the heroes stopped behind her while Khadgar, Illidan, and Velen waited at the back of the pack, since two of them were here for the Deceiver and Khadgar was here to teleport the Pillars to them when they discovered the points they needed to be returned to, Spitfire spotted some stained glass on the other side of the chamber that looked like the Pillars, above a tunnel leading to another chamber and a stand area that seemed somewhat important. The reason she deemed it to be important was due to the fact that there was already an image resting above one of the four stands, as that was the number of stands that were resting near a circular emblem of some kind, which she and her allies could figure out later, when they had time to look at it, though the image in question happened to be the Aegis of Aggramar, the Pillar Rainbow had placed in the Cathedral earlier, but after checking that out Rainbow paused for a second and had Khadgar call up a shield for everyone else... which was when a Fel meteor tore through a Fel portal and slammed into the floor that was on the left side of the chamber, creating a decent sized hole in the floor as the burst of Fel energy killed the demons in this chamber. "It seems that the first challenger is already here," Rainbow remarked, though as she said that she raised her right hand for a moment and called all of the demonic souls over to where she was currently standing, due to the fact that she didn't want to waste the energy that happened to be connected to each of the souls that were in front of her, though as she took a few seconds to devour their Fel energy, and seal the souls inside her Warblades, Khadgar dismissed his barrier and that was when all of the heroes started to spread out around the chamber that was in front of them, before the demon who had been resting inside the meteor started to climb out of its large hole. At first it seemed like they might be fighting another Pit Lord, given the size of the hand that emerged from the hole, but not a few seconds later Spitfire and Rainbow noticed that the demon's skin was charred to the point where it looked like it was the stony flesh of an Infernal, and when the twisted creature pulled itself out of the hole they found that it was a Pit Lord whose body had been twisted to match that of an Infernal, complete with Fel cracks all over his body, as they were sure that it had been male at one point in time, his hands had a Fel green glow to them, and he was emitting a fair bit of Fel flames, both from his own flames and from his twisted new form. "This must be Goroth, a Pit Lord who failed Sargeras far too many times for the Dark Titan's liking," Illidan commented, as he and the Illidari had been hard at work checking all of the records and worlds that they had access to, especially with the surprising addition of the Eredar that defected to their side, out of the primal fear of Rainbow devouring their souls and power, and there had been a few entries about such a Pit Lord among what he had looked over, though the fact that this demon was standing before them meant he was on his last chance, but this time, if he failed the Dark Titan and fell while fighting them, his soul wouldn't return to Argus, rather Rainbow would snatch it and add his decent Fel energy to her own growing pool of energy, and his soul was added to her soul collection as well, "According to the records, his flesh has been flayed and marred to the point where he looks more like an Infernal and less like a Pit Lord, meaning his punishments for his failures must have been great and terrible to do such a thing to him... in fact, simply walking seems to inflict some sort of torment on his body, so be careful while you take him down." As he said that three Infernals dropped down into the chamber, either part of Goroth's force or reinforcements sent with the intent of making sure he was successful in guarding the first part of the Tomb, though Spitfire was positive that such a thing could have been handed by a Fel Lord who had watched them enter this place before departing for another part of the Tomb, like the area he was supposed to be guarding, but as she did that Rainbow flashed through the air and took all three Infernals down in a matter of seconds, allowing her to draw in their energy and souls before they faced Goroth, who groaned as he finally pulled himself out of the hole he had created. In the following moments the Infernal Pit Lord took a moment to notice that the Infernals had been taken care of and roared for a few seconds, showing them that he wasn't pleased with this turn of events, before he rushed forward without wasting time and caused the heroes to get into their formation as Rainbow tanked the first incoming attack, a fist that was laced with Fel energy to smash whoever he hit into one of the walls, but thanks to her power she siphoned the power of the attack and didn't move at all, which allowed Spitfire and all of the heroes to lash out as Khadgar's group watched them from the wide passage they had been in not a few moments ago. Spitfire did take a moment to wonder if Goroth had been infused with the essence of one of the more powerful Infernals that existed in the Legion's dark ranks, such as one of the Brimstone Destroyers and would explain the level of power he possessed, or if part of his torment had been a massive infusion of Fel energy that twisted his body into what they were seeing at the moment, though in the end she determined that such a thing really didn't matter to them, as Goroth was their enemy and she knew that he wouldn't listen to anything they had to tell him, given that he happened to be one of Kil'jaeden's lackies, to which she pulled her Twinblades out and rushed into battle as well, even though it looked like the Infernal Pit Lord was focused on Rainbow and the tanks. The only good thing about Goroth doing that was that the healers didn't have to worry about wasting their energy on both her and Rainbow, given the fact that she was capable of dodging attacks without being hit in return, while at the same time her friend could just tank an attack and devour the Fel energy that was being directed at her, meaning she emerged without any damage being done to her body, which made all of the healers pleased to have someone like her in the group. Interestingly enough Goroth let himself be knocked back a little, by a swing that came from Zuleth, before he gathered his Fel energy and summoned several large Fel spikes from below the floor they were standing on, an attack designed to deal some decent damage to them, but thanks to the fact that Spitfire and Rainbow could feel Fel energy they were able to see where the spikes would burst out of the stone and made sure their allies were out of the way when Goroth unleashed his attack on all of them, where no one was hurt by the spikes and it seemed to annoy their foe. Rainbow rushed forward and kicked Goroth in the chin after the demon unleashed his attack, sending a wave of pain through the demon's body thanks to how his body looked, something that caused the Infernal Pit Lord to raise a hand for a few seconds, towards the ceiling, and three person sized Fel comets surged out of a decent sized Fel portal that happened to be above them, one that just seemed to a gateway to his arsenal and not to an actual demon world, so they didn't have to worry about reinforcements coming to aid the demon in front of them. The heroes, however, didn't worry about the Fel comets as they focused on the demon in front of them, as Rainbow flashed through the air and sliced the comets apart until each one was a pile of small pebbles that landed on the ground on the right side of this chamber, and when another trio appeared after that, while she was in the process of landing for a few seconds, Spitfire waved her hand for a moment and the comets were blown apart with a small burst of her power, which she was saving for when they got to the stronger foes that were in this place, such as Kil'jaeden or the Avatar of Sargeras, before rushing over to Goroth and sliced into his back, causing the Infernal Pit Lord to stumble forward and growl as he lashed out at the heroes that were in front of him. What was interesting was that their foe, apparently mad with anger over being tormented and twisted into his new form some time ago, channeled his power into a large Fel orb that looked like it was actually an inactive Infernal, one that he hurled, by rolling no less, towards one of the healers, showing them that he might be smarter than they gave him credit for, though Rainbow flashed through the air and appeared in front of Goroth's target, tanking the orb and devouring the Fel energy that was inside it before smashing the rock to pieces, allowing the healer in question to emerge unharmed as both of them rejoined the fight. Eventually Goroth got annoyed with them and gathered his Fel energy for a devastating attack, something that caused all of the heroes to hide behind the Fel spikes that had been left behind while Khadgar shielded the watchers with a barrier, while Rainbow remained out in the open and allowed the surge of Fel energy to wash over her, as Goroth wanted to burn everything that was around him to ash, sort of like what happened when a Pit Lord detonated upon death, though in the end the flames died down and Rainbow emerged with no damage done to her body, not to mention a smile on her face as Goroth seemed to frown as he noticed that none of them had died during his attack. Goroth continued his assault not a few moments later, stomping around the part of the chamber that they were fighting in as he seemed to ignore the pain his body was in, all while swinging his fists at whoever happened to be near him, where Spitfire found that Zuleth and the rest of the heroes either tanked the attacks or dodged them, with the healers mending the wounds of those who chose to do the former, though it was clear that they were pushing Goroth backwards and it seemed to be annoying the Infernal Pit Lord as the battle progressed. What interested Spitfire was the fact that their foe seemed to understand that using his Fel energy against them was a bad idea, since Rainbow would swoop in and eat any attacks that were launched at her allies, so he focused on smashing his way around the chamber as he focused on whoever he felt was the greatest threat, which showed her that he was smarter than most of Kil'jaeden's followers, even the Deceiver himself based on what she and the others had seen so far, but even with this decision the Infernal Pit Lord was losing Fel energy, as Rainbow was siphoning a bit of his power every now and then, just like she did in the past after she developed this type of power. In fact it seemed like Goroth realized that something was wrong with his body, far more than what he had been through when his body had been twisted into its new form, even though there was nothing he could do to stop Rainbow stealing his Fel energy as the fight progressed, something that caused him to stagger for a moment and opened the way for the heroes to lash out at his exposed legs for a time, not to mention hacking into his chest, arms, and the rest of his twisted body as they pushed him into a corner on the side of the chamber he had crashed into earlier, before Spitfire jumped into the air and spun around as she removed Goroth's head. In the following moments, like any Pit Lord did when they perished, Goroth's Fel energy flared as he started to detonate in front of them, though Rainbow held a hand out and condensed all of the power into a small orb in no time, allowing her to devour it as she sent the Infernal Pit Lord's soul screaming into her Warblades, causing the heroes to breath a sigh of relief for a moment as Khadgar lowered his barrier, allowing him and the others to move down to where they were standing as Spitfire came to a decision on which direction they needed to head into, as there was the frontal direction, the new hole, and a door on the right side of the chamber... and, sure enough, the echo of Aegwynn appeared near the stairs that lead to where the one Fel Lord had retreated to, causing them to turn towards her. I sealed each level of this temple so that no invader could descend into its depths and find my foe's Avatar, Aegwynn said, informing them about what she had done in the past, back after she defeated Sargeras' creation and saved the world from what it was supposed to do, where she glanced at the circular area in front of the four pedestals that indicated how many Pillars of Creation were in use at the moment, before she sighed as she noticed something only she could see, I never anticipated that the Legion would find another way to breach its dark heart... meaning that my wards now bar your way to where the Avatar rests. You have already succeeded in stalling one of the wards, with the Aegis of Aggramar, and now you must find the locations of the other three and place them in their proper locations to bypass the remaining wards, but do work fast, as I can feel the one called Kil'jaeden working to infuse the Avatar with the Dark Titan's power and awaken it so it can be used against you... I know that two of you are powerful, but I do not know how such a battle might end if either of you were to fight the Avatar. "Then we have another reason to kill Kil'jaeden," Spitfire stated, though as she said that one of the rogues returned to the slightly raised platform they were standing on right now, as he and the others had headed over to where the locked door rested, and found that it was locked tight, meaning their only options were to head into the chamber the Fel Lord was in, as it was right in front of them, or head down into the open passage Goroth's arrival had opened and hope that it held a path that wrapped around to the locked section of the Tomb, to which she came to a decision on what to do next as she faced her companions once more, "We'll leave the Fel lord alone for now, as I have the feeling that if we follow the path that Goroth opened for us we'll be able to find a way into the locked section of the Tomb, where one of the Pillars has to be placed... we can circle around the lower levels of the Tomb and come back to this demon in due time." The heroes nodded their heads as Spitfire said that and headed over to the hole that Goroth had made, finding that it did connect to a tunnel of sorts that seemed to head into the depths of this place, to which they carefully climbed down into it, which allowed them to find a set of stone that formed a makeshift set of stairs for someone to use to go from one location to the next, though as they headed down the tunnel that the Infernal Pit Lord had opened everyone kept their guard up, as none of them had any idea what might have been left down here. Based on some of the bones that were around them, likely belonging to a whale or some other large creature, they were able to tell that this passage had been a more recent addition to the Tomb of Sargeras, given that it was more curved looking than what was in the entry hall and seemed more natural than anything they had seen so far, and sure enough there happened to be a decent sized pool of water near the bottom of the tunnel, one that had a new Murlocs playing and caused them to stop when the heroes walked into the area they were relaxing in at the moment. In that moment the death knights channeled a power all of them had access to, one that caused the ground around their feet to freeze and allowed them to walk over water, where Spitfire found that it was just an illusion of sorts and that whatever power they were using basically channeled a bit of air towards their feet and let the user walk on water, to which they quickly crossed over the pool in front of them, not freezing it and allowing the few Murlocs to return to their fun, before Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies found something interesting in front of them, due to the fact that the tunnel brought them right to another decent sized chamber. This one happened to have some Naga who were standing guard, three to be exact, and around them stood a few Murlocs, though what Spitfire was interested in was the fact that there was a large figure standing next to a makeshift throne or alter of sorts, a brutish creature that just so happened to have a hunched appearance as it used its fists to help it walk, while it had a bunch of armor on it which made them wonder if it was going to fight them in the name of the corrupted Queen Azshara, where she suspected that it was a Naga Brute as she focused on the more imposing female Naga who was resting on the alter behind it, someone she suspected was a high ranking member of the Naga's forces. "These fools are bringing the Tidestone to us, just as our blessed Queen foresaw!" the Naga sea witch stated, which meant that Queen Azshara was good at predicting what the heroes of Azeroth did, especially after her forces were beaten back in Azsuna some time ago, though her words seemed to cause the couple of Naga to ready their weapons as they waited for the heroes to get closer to where they were positioned, even though there was one fatal mistake she had made and that was the fact that none of them had the Tidestone of Golganneth, as it was back in Dalaran and would be teleported to the area it was needed as soon as they cleared the area of enemies, "Harjatan, slay the intruders that are in front of you and claim what belongs to our glorious Queen!" It was nice of the Naga to name the Brute for them, since it allowed them to know that he was called Harjatan as he took a moment to walk into the center of this area, especially when another Naga informed their leader, Mistress Sassz'ine, that they would claim the Pillar of Creation that their Queen wanted them to claim, though instead of wasting time Spitfire just sighed for a moment and vanished not a second later, allowing her allies to witness the couple of lesser Naga and the few Murlocs that were in this chamber fall to the ground as she landed nearby. With those enemies take care of, and a look of anger appeared on Sassz'ine's face, Harjatan roared and charged into battle without delay, smashing both of his fists into the ground as he targeted Spitfire with the intent of smashing her to dust, though she was capable of dodging the attack and landed near her companions, something that was followed by them rushing at the Brute as he realized that he had missed his target, something that would no doubt annoy him to some degree and piss off Sassz'ine as well, which was fine since it would make fighting with her that much easier, since she would likely fight them next. From there he used the backs of his hands in an attempt to smack them around and turn this battle in his favor, where the tanks simply tanked his attacks while the others, the healers and damage dealers, dodged whatever attacks were sent at them, while dodged to the side and lashed out with one of her Twinblades as Rainbow jumped onto the fist meant for her and lashed out at the arm she landed on, causing Harjatan to growl in anger as it was injured, but even with all of that it looked like it had some good defenses and meant that this might be a long battle. What was interesting about the battle was that their foe had a roar he could use that called in a couple of Murlocs, who would attack the heroes while all of them were busy dealing with Harjatan, though some of them tore their attention away from the Naga Brute and focused on his allies for a few seconds, quickly burning the reinforcements down before they could do anything as they returned to focusing on the big enemy they were currently fighting, even though they could see that Sassz'ine wasn't pleased by them quickly taking down the reinforcements that had been summoned to this battle. As interesting aspect of this battle was that Harjatan seemed to call upon the water that was inside the bodies of the Naga and Murlocs that had been slain so far, empowering himself with even more strength as he lashed out at the enemies that were in front of him right now, though Rainbow found that his punches were definitely stronger than they had been just a few moments ago and she even tanked one so her allies could lash out at their foe's sides and back, doing everything in their power to bring him down so they could move into the depths. Other than calling on additional Murlocs to fight them, and draining the water from the defeated ones to strengthen his body, there didn't seem to be anything special about this opponent, not like most of Kil'jaeden's followers and the demons that everyone had fought to reach this point in time, so it made Spitfire wonder what sort of power Sassz'ine had, especially since she wasn't fighting anyone right now, something that opened the way for Harjatan to punch her in the side of the face and caused part of the chamber to shake as his fist hit her, while the heroes paused for a moment. As Harjatan pulled his fist backwards, however, whatever smile he might have had on his face was replaced by shock when he and his master noticed that Spitfire had taken no damage and took a moment to turn her gaze back towards the Naga Brute that was currently blocking the way forward, where she swung her Twinblades for a moment and an x shaped cross appeared on their foe's chest, causing it to stagger backwards for a few seconds as Sassz'ine raised an eyebrow in shock, but it was more for her allies than for their enemy, as the heroes lashed out at the Naga Brute as he recovered from the surprisingly fast attack Spitfire had used. With that done Rainbow joined Vytheril, Scarlet, and the other heroes in what appeared to be the final attack against Harjatan, all while the creature did his best to take everyone down so his master could retrieve the Tidestone, or at least look for it and find that none of them had the Pillar in their possession, but in the end it didn't matter as Spitfire punched the Naga Brute in the side of the head and knocked him into one of the stone walls, opening the way for her allies to deliver another barrage of blows that lead to him collapsing in the middle of the chamber they had found it in, causing Sassz'ine to huff in annoyance as she headed down another tunnel, which had to lead to the next Pillar pedestal. Vytheril found a small walkway that happened to lead right to a section of the ancient temple, one that had a door that could very well be the path over to the other side of the Tomb, while it also had a path that descended into the depths, as in the same direction Sassz'ine had headed in, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes carefully walked over to where the path in question rested as they kept an eye open for enemies that might want to tear them down, though there was a pool of water below them that might also be a route to take, but it would be falling into Sassz'ine's grasp and granting her an advantage over everyone. Once they were inside the passageway they headed down to their right and kept their guards up as they followed the ancient stone steps, even though part of the area was cracked and ruined as they passed through a door and found a cylinder shaped chamber that had a large elven statue, likely of Elune given who this temple had been built for in the past, so they walked down the curved stairscase and headed down into the depths of the Tomb, which did seem to be a watery place that might secure the foundations of the structure or something, as only Aegywnn knew what each ward was capable of. When the group exited the chamber a few moments later Spitfire found a few groups of Naga, who appeared to be waiting for everyone to come to this part of the Tomb, standing between them and the doorway that would bring them to where Sassz'ine had to be waiting for them, though what was interesting was that every serpent who was in their way suddenly stopped what they were doing before bowing their heads towards Spitfire and Rainbow as they moved to the sides of the walkway, allowing the heroes to continue to where Sassz'ine was waiting for them, though as all of them walked by the Naga Spitfire was sure that one claimed that they were here to serve and that they would be taking the fight to the Legion. Normally one would be surprised by such a thing, but they must have seen what happened earlier, with the Eredar that had betrayed Kil'jaeden, and likely assumed that staying as an enemy of Azeroth was going to come back and bite them at some point in the future, so changing sides meant they could secure their future and show Azeroth that not every Naga was a bad person, though after learning that information all of the Naga departed from the area they were in and allowed the heroes to march down to the lowest point of the Tomb, or at least this section anyway since all of them knew that the Avatar's chamber had to be even deeper than this. After that happened Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies found a watery chamber of sorts, circular in nature, which seemed to be connected to the sea and water that was around the Broken Shore, with a number of creatures swimming around on the other side of the barrier that protected this place, and sure enough they found Sassz'ine standing guard over the next Pillar pedestal, wielding her polearm and whatever powers she had access to, though instead of speaking to them she just waited until everyone was inside her domain before locking the gate and rushed at them. Spitfire rushed forward as their foe did the same thing and their weapons collided with each other as the heroes spread out to focus on attacking either her back, her tail, or the arms that she wasn't using right now, while Rainbow flashed around the chamber and lashed out at the Naga that was in front of them, who expertly switched between her and Spitfire with her single weapon, which did show them just how skilled she was in combat and that they had to be careful so neither of them were cut down during this fight. As they did that, however, Sassz'ine channeled her power with one of her spare hands and the water responded not a few seconds after she made the movement, where some large jellyfish rose out of the water while keeping most of their bodies in the water that was below them, as the ground of the chamber seemed to be solid despite the fact that it was made out of flowing water, though each one seemed to have a range for their electricity as they tried to shock most of the group, likely into submission so the Naga could claim the Tidestone, but the heroes moved out of the way and made her attack utterly useless, causing the couple of jellyfish to return to the depths. It didn't seem like Sassz'ine enjoyed the fact that the jellyfish had failed her in this regard, hence why she continued to lash out at them while doing her absolute best to stop everyone else from hurting her in some manner, where it looked like she tried to curse some of them with a burst of pain to make them easier to take down, though for the most part the healers dealt with her potential curse, which annoyed the Naga even more as Rainbow spun around and kicked the side of her head, which knocked her down into the water for a moment before she pulled herself up and charged into battle once more, showing them that a simple kick was not enough to bring her down. Not a few moments later Sassz'ine called for gray skinned eels that looked like they wanted to bite someone in half, which some of the heroes dealt with by cutting them down before they were able to do anything, though as they did that their foe channeled her power again and summoned some small tornados that swept from one side of the chamber to another, intending on damaging all of them and letting her gain the advantage over this fight, which would have been a great attack if it didn't have a single weakness, some of them struck Sassz'ine's eels, the corpses to be exact, and it cancelled a few of them out, creating an opening for them to slip through and avoid taking damage. Of course that wasn't the only trick she had up her sleeve, as Sassz'ine had an ability that called some sort of twisted fish looking creature to jump out of part of the water in a way like it was trying to eat them, or drag someone under the water, though Rainbow dealt with it before it could hurt anyone as she spun around and swung her Warblades, cleaving Sassz'ine's new minion in half and let both ends hit the ground near the Naga, who growled as she noticed what had happened to her creature, likely since she assumed it would do something, anything, and was annoyed that it had failed her. There was another beast of sorts lurking in part of the water and focused on sucking in the water, which translated to the air of the chamber to draw in those that happened to be fighting its mistress, to which Spitfire extanded her hand towards where she assumed the beast was located, which was easy thanks to the vortex in the water, and loosed a burst of Death energy into the heart of the vortex, which lead to the beast pulling back as it devoured her attack in a matter of seconds, no doubt fearing that she might actually kill it with a more powerful attack of the same Cosmic Power. Her action even caused Sassz'ine to pause for a moment when she saw it happen, no doubt since this was the first time that the Naga had actually seen her channel more than her Fel power as she fought her enemies, so they might not know about how much power was actually inside her body right now and such a thing might make the dark Queen Azshara to think twice about facing Azeroth's forces, especially after calling for a force from the other timelines to defy the Legion their prize, and in the following moment she turned on Sassz'ine and punched her right in the chest with her fist. Since she was channeling just a small amount of the four Cosmic Forces she had access to, and not all her full power, the heroes watched as she sent the Naga flying into one of the water walls with the force of her attack, which caused their foe to vanish for a time, due to the fact that Sassz'ine burst out of the sea and crashed to the ground as she coughed, as the attack had likely broken some of her bones and gave her an idea of what she was standing against, two incredible beings who were holding back most of their strength right now and a force of heroes who could tear down Old Gods, the masters of the Burning Legion, and pretty much everyone who wanted to take over their world, causing her to pause for a couple of seconds as she stared at them, which made Spitfire raise an eyebow. "Mistress Sassz'ine, surely you realized that, for all the vast power that your Queen gave you, you won't win this fight, as it will end with you perishing," Spitfire said, where she stepped up and came to a stop in front of the downed Naga that was in front of them, who continued to stare at her and Rainbow for a time, while the heroes did nothing as they watched her for a time, just to make sure that this place was secure and that Sassz'ine didn't try anything funny, though she suspected that her punch had broken the Naga's desire to do battle with them, especially since she had to know of Rainbow's power and knew that she was holding back most of her power, "however, you can surrender to us and defect to our side, joining the Naga who have already decided to leave their Queen's service and join the forces of Azeroth... you would be alive, not dead and forgotten by the one you serve, and you would have allies in case Queen Azshara decided to attack either force that watches over this world. Live or die... make your choice." Sassz'ine stayed silent for a moment as she stared at Spitfire, where she found that four phantom wings appearing behind her, something that was either under her control or it was something that only she could see, and not a few seconds later two new phantom wings appeared behind Spitfire, one of the Light and one of the Void, while it seemed like her eyes and hair changed as well, making her much more divine than even Queen Azshara in both of her forms, to which she bowed her head for a moment as she came to a decision. "I... will serve the Divine One..." Sassz'ine replied, as while she was terrified of what Queen Azshara was capable of, given all of her Arcane power and what she had gained since striking a deal with N'Zoth, she found the very idea of there being someone who could possibly channel all six Cosmic Forces, possibly to their fullest and without having to worry about all of them destroying her in the process, to give her pause and made her consider her options, though not a few moments later she felt her body being healed and suspected it was Spitfire herself, but all she did was return to a 'standing' position while keeping her head bowed. Once that was done Spitfire switched from her Life powers to her Arcane powers and briefly connected to Khadgar's, all to inform him of their position and which Pillar of Creation that they needed him to send their way, and not a few moments later the Tidestone of Golganneth appeared in front of her, where she turned around and slipped the Pillar into the slot that had been left in this area, a pedestal that raised into position when Sassz'ine surrendered to her, and sure enough the moment the Pillar was in its resting place, and its power was added to the Aegis' power, the echo of Aegwynn appeared in front of it, causing them to turn towards her for a moment. From this stone flowed rivers and seas, the very lifeblood of Azeroth, the echo said, where Aegwynn seemed to smile for a moment as she stared at the Pillar of Creation, meaning she had to be pleased that they were doing everything possible to force the Legion out of Azeroth and safeguard this world once more, especially with all of the changes that had happened recently, all of which were Spitfire and Rainbow's fault, before she turned towards them as she started to fade, meaning this echo had to be done, today it washes clean the darkness that scars our world. As the echo disappeared Spitfire made sure everyone took a moment to rest after the battle with Sassz'ine, while the Naga in question surged through one of the water walls and headed up to the surface so she could join those who had turned their backs on Queen Azshara, as she had the feeling that the next section of the Tomb might be more dangerous than what they had just gone through, not counting the chamber that contained Sargeras' Avatar, though soon they would face Kil'jaeden and put an end to the Deceiver's plans. > Shore: Wailing Halls > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the Tidestone of Golganneth placed in the section of the Tomb that had been made for it, and the heroes were ready to move once more, Spitfire and Rainbow departed from what appeared to be a dead end and started to retrace their steps as they headed over to the circular chamber again, where they passed by the statue of Elune and headed for the top of the passage in question, since there was a doorway their group had walked right by earlier and Spitfire was sure that it had to be the way that would allow them to move into the other side of the Tomb. Of course she understood that she might be wrong in thinking such a thing, given that no one among them had any idea what might be lurking in the rest of this place, save for the Avatar since that was a recorded and spoken about thing, though the heroes of Azeroth followed after them while they kept their guard up, despite the fact that they knew most of their allies were thinking about the defectors who were joining Spitfire's ever growing forces, especially since many didn't trust Mistress Sassz'ine and her Naga, but they did trust Spitfire and that seemed to be enough to make them resist questioning her methods. She understood that such a thing meant that they were allying with enemies that used to be threatening this world, as the Naga were usually involved with disasters and stood against the Alliance and the Horde, though she was, one more, pleased to find that her allies were willing to keep an open mind when it came to everything she did for this world and it's inhabitants, especially since none of them bothered the Naga who swore to defect to her side, something that must have shocked them to some degree when it happened, but for now she focused on their main task as they reached the top of the stairs. From there they found their way back to the area that the door rested in, near the thin passage that would take everyone back to where Harjatan had been waiting for foes to arrive, where Spitfire let the rogues check the ancient door and they opened it without delay, revealing an opening that did bring them to a large chamber that looked like part of the old temple, with a number of Kaldorei spirits lingering all over the place in question, be it on the walkways, large areas with elegant craftsmanship, and a circular area that looked like it might be the resting area of a powerful creature that might be blocking the way forward. Of course that was when Spitfire found two paths in this chamber, one that seemed to be leading back in the direction of the Tomb's main chamber and another that might be heading deeper in another direction, meaning the latter was more important than the former, since it would bring them to the next Pillar pedestal so they could influence another ward and get ready to head into the depths of the structure, though as everyone entered this part of the Tomb Spitfire took a couple of seconds to think about what was in front of them as she felt something in the air. "Okay, so there is a powerful guardian in this large chamber," Spitfire commented, where she beckoned to the larger area that had to be where the being in question rested, causing many of the heroes to focus on it for a moment as everyone took in what happened to be resting around this section of the Tomb, even though there were a good number of ghostly Kaldorei standing between where they were starting and both passages that would take them to other sections that they hadn't explored yet, before she beckoned to the passage that was on the right side of the chamber, if one happened to be facing the larger circular area, "and I'm positive that the path we need to take is that one, though there is a barrier of sorts resting over it, so we're going to have to fight our way through this area and cut down the spirit whose guarding this part of the Tomb... it should, in theory, unlock the way forward and allow us to find the next Pillar pedestal, which is no doubt being guarded by another powerful guardian of some kind. Once we've done that we should be able to return to the main chamber and take down the Fel Lord whose guarding what might very well be the fourth and final pedestal we need to use one of the Pillars on, which will allow us to delve into the depths of the Tomb and, hopefully, take down Kil'jaeden before he reaches Sargeras' ancient Avatar." "That seems like a fair assessment of what's going on in here," Vytheril said, something that caused most of the group to nod their heads for a moment, since they were far more experienced in raiding locations than either Spitfire or Rainbow, even if both of them were, at this point in time, far stronger than anyone they had seen in the past and were constantly growing stronger as time went by, especially since Rainbow was capable of devouring Fel energy to empower herself, but as he said that everyone glanced down the stairs that were in front of them, showing that they were ready to tackle this section of the Tomb and open the way for them to move forward. Spitfire said nothing to that as she, Rainbow, and their allies headed down the stairs and approached the first group of Kaldorei spirits who seemed to be trapped in this structure, as while they might have started as those who were willing to stay behind, to maintain their duties or something, being in this place would have warped their minds and sure enough her thoughts were proven to be right as the spirits lashed out at the heroes, instead of issuing a warning for them to pull back or something, meaning they must have been corrupted by all of the Avatar's energy. With that in mind they lashed out at the spirits that were in front of them, where she briefly recalled that she had been surprised when she struck such a being with one of her weapons, as it had been during her and Rainbow's time in Outland, along with the fact heroes could kill spirits, breaking their grasp on this plane and sending them to the Shadowlands, though in response to what they were doing the group of elven spirits turned and fought back without wasting a single second as they swung their fists and any phantom weapons they might have on them. An interesting fact was that it wasn't just the spirits of the Kaldorei priests and priestesses that had been tending to this place at one point in time, rather they were joined by a few hippogryphs that had been in the area, spirits like the foes the group was currently fighting right now, causing some of the heroes to turn and face them while their allies focused on taking down the priests, though they did make sure not to move too far in one direction since it might attract the other spirits that were resting around this section of the Tomb. While they fought their enemies Spitfire listened in on what most of the Kaldorei spirits had to say, most of which seemed to be broken due to the fact that they had been exposed to the Avatar's corruption for so long, but what she did gleam from those that could still speak revealed that this placed was referred to as the Terrace of the Moon, the area they had come from was the Abyssal Throne, and the powerful creature they would be facing soon was actually three powerful spirits, the Sisters of the Moon as the spirit called them, revealing that their targets were Huntress Kasparian, Priestess Lunaspyre, and Captain Yathae Moonstrike, which told her that they must have been guards for this place before their deaths. Once they were done with the first group of spirits, who had been guarding a short bit of stairs that lead to a small area which contained some bookshelves, having plenty of tomes and scrolls that were protected by magic, Spitfire made sure to focus on the couple of other groups of spirits that were scattered around the Terrace of the Moon and had the heroes tackle them, mostly because there was no telling if attacking the powerful guardians would cause the remaining spirits to rush over to the main chamber and aid them. As such she was eliminating the possibility of their enemies overpowering the heroes by cutting down the enemies before they were capable of doing what she was thinking about, something her allies agreed with, especially since falling here meant disaster for Azeroth and those who were outside the Tomb, save for the fact that she and Rainbow were here, so they spent a few minutes clearing out the ancient Kaldorei spirits who were in this place, allowing them to move on to the next stage of one's existence. While they cleared out the chamber, while at the same time staying away from the guardian arena, Spitfire took another moment to check out both paths that were linked to this place, one that certainly went upwards and had to lead back to the Chamber of the Moon, the main chamber of the Tomb, while the other definitely descended into the depths, likely to where the Pillar pedestal for the next Pillar, the Tears of Elune no doubt, had to be resting, giving her a good idea of the Tomb's layout as the heroes hacked, slashed, and even blasted the remaining spirits. Eventually they cleared the chamber of every spirit that might be a potential reinforcement for the Sisters of the Moon, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and all of the heroes walked over to the raised section and came to a stop as they stared at all three spirits that were in front of them, all of them being female, just like their title suggested, where Spitfire found that the one on their right wore the attire of a priestess, the one on their left seemed to be more like a rogue, and the middle on in front of them, who wasn't as transparent as most of the spirits they had seen so far, wore a set of armor that made her look like an ancient hunter, while she rode on the back of a saber cat who wore enough armor to be classified as a weapon of war, or at least that was Spitfire's opinion on this. The moment everyone was ready to go, since some of the heroes had been mending their wounds and making sure they had all of their energy since this was going to be an interesting fight, they quickly walked up the short of stairs that were in front of them and spread out when they entered the domain of the Sisters of the Moon, where Spitfire quickly noticed that the floor did seem to be made out of glass or something, not that it mattered as they focused on the Kaldorei spirits who needed to be taken down so they could move into the depths of this side of the Tomb. "Sisters, be on your guard!" the hunter exclaimed, who had to be Kasparian and meant that the one to her right had to be Captain Yathae, as the one to her left was clearly a priestess and that meant she was Lunaspyre, though it was clear that she was more eager for battle than the other two were, as she quickly pulled out her circular bladed weapon as her saber cat growled, though since Yathae pulled out her daggers and Lunaspyre held her staff at the ready, which they did right after Kasparian called out for them to raise their guard, this meant they were ready for a fight and that meant there was no way to talk some sense into any of them. With that information in mind Spitfire and Rainbow rushed forward as their allies followed after them, where they learned something new that would help them in their fight against the Sisters of the Moon, as it appeared that only one was out in the open at a time and the other two, who would be in a more phantom state, couldn't be harmed at all, so that meant all of them had to focus on Kasparian for the time being, where Rainbow found that she was the target of the saber's attacks as Spitfire parried the incoming attacks from the rider who wanted all of them dead. Of course that didn't mean they were safe from the attacks of the other two, as Spitfire observed Lunaspyre channeling the power of her goddess, or maybe just calling upon lunar power in general, and blasted some of them with the power she had access to when she was alive, while at the same time Yathae rained phantom arrows on the area everyone was gathered in, arrows that did nothing to either of her companions while dealing damage to the heroes of Azeroth. Such a thing would have annoyed them, given the fact that they could only harm one of their enemies while the other two lurked in a phantom state, but everyone in their group had known that this place would be hard to overcome, given that Kil'jaeden was here and some of his strongest followers were lurking in some sections of the Tomb, and the heroes smiled for a moment as Spitfire decided to try something as she swung one of her Twinblades and forced Yathae to switch to her blades for a moment as she parried the attack, even though it forced her backwards a bit, something that surprised both the heroes and the spirits as her allies continued to fight Kasparian. Spitfire assumed that it was either due to her power, granting her a brand new ability of some kind, sort of like how Rainbow developed her Fel energy absorbing ability that she used whenever she fought demons, or it was due to the fact that she could use the power of Death, something which connected to the world that the spirits were attuned to, though in the end she determined that it really didn't matter as she rushed at Yathae and made sure this foe was focused entirely on her, allowing Rainbow to focus on Kasparian as the healers mended any wounds that Lunaspyre created with her lunar powers, even though Spitfire did keep an eye on what the priestess was doing and threw one of her Twinblades through the air to cancel out an attack that she felt might be too dangerous for the others. One other interesting thing about this fight that Spitfire discovered happened to be that the glass floor appeared to reflect the phases of the moon, as it took on a dark coloration as a while one started to move from the right side of the chamber and headed over to the left side, for what purpose she had no idea, though it did remind her that Azeroth actually had two moons, a large silver or white colored moon called the White Lady and a smaller blue moon known as the Blue Child, even if the former was the one that the Kaldorei seemed to worship as Elune, though she would have to ask Tyrande or one of the other night elves about all of that at some point. Based on what she could tell it didn't appear that the addition of the flooring reflecting the phases of the White Lady did anything to her or her allies, so everyone decided to ignore the floor as she focused on making sure Yathae didn't attack her allies, who were dealing with Kasparian right now, even though it was clear that the hunter was focused on attacking Rainbow right now, something her friend was fine with as she dodged the incoming attack from the saber and the elf on it's back. Due to that Spitfire had to wonder if these spirits had fought any demons when they were still alive, since it appeared that Kasparian was having a hard time keeping up with Rainbow and her power, though it was possible that the powers she had gained and the changes her body had undergone might make this fight that much harder for the spirits, though it didn't seem to matter in the long run as Rainbow punched her foe in the face and knocked her clean off her mount, causing the saber to rush over to where Kasparian landed to make sure it's rider was just fine. Not a few seconds later the pair faded into a more phantom form, becoming mostly immune to harm and causing the heroes to stop attacking for a few seconds, before she vanished and traded places with Yathae, who took a moment to call forth an eagle companion to help her fight her enemies, so while Rainbow and the others focused on her Spitfire made sure to keep Kasparian distracted like she had done with Yathae earlier, as she was sure that she had some sort of attack that was like the arrow barrage and by doing this she could make sure her allies were safe so they could take down the spirit they happened to be fighting at the moment. As it turned out Yathae didn't have any special powers to use against them, save for her arrow volley that was now more realistic and not trapped in a phantom state, so the heroes avoided her attacks to the best of their abilities, while any new wounds were healed by the healers when someone got hurt, though Rainbow tanked her attacks like they were nothing and flashed behind her target, allowing her to grab the back of her head and slam Yathae's face right into the floor, which did seem to surprise the other two as they watched it happen and caused her owl to pause as it hooted in concern for the one it had spent a lot of time with when both of them were alive. Spitfire found it to be a shame that these were spirits and that they weren't fighting the real thing, as they were basically echoes of the individuals who had lived here in the distant past, meaning they fought based on when each of them had been alive and due to the corruption, though the only reason she thought about that was due to the fact that she had the feeling that they would have been able to convince the Sisters of the Moon to stop fighting them by this point in time. That was mostly due to the fact that they would have been able to see what their forces were capable of, while understanding the powers that she and Rainbow had access to, plus it would have lead to whatever barrier was tied to them breaking apart so they could move deeper into the Tomb and take down Kil'jaeden before he completed his mission, but since these were merely echoes there was nothing she or her allies could do to convince them to stand down and that was why Vytheril and the others focused on besting Yathae so she would bow out and switch with Lunaspyre, who had to be the easiest of the three spirits. Not a few moments later the two switched, Yathae becoming more like a phantom while Lunaspyre switched to being more corporeal, though as she lashed out with her lunar energy, in an attempt to bring all of them down and clear the Terrace of the Moon of enemies, Rainbow flashed all over the chamber as Lunaspyre followed her, or attempted to since Rainbow was faster than the moon priestess could keep up with, and soon the heroes could see markings appear on Lunaspyre's body as she suffered under the attacks that Rainbow was sending her way, as she was eager to bring this to an end so they could move down the other passage and find the Pillar pedestal that had to be down here. Eventually Lunaspyre and the others staggered for a moment as they seemed to reach their limits and knelt for a couple of seconds, as if they were gathering a bit of energy or something, before each of them faded away and seemed to move on to the next plane of existence at long last, while at the same time the magical barrier fell and meant the heroes could turn their attention to the other passage that headed down into the depths of this side of the Tomb, to which Spitfire had them take a few moments to rest up before they started to move once more, knowing that another powerful foe would be near the end of the passage. Once everyone was ready to move once more they retraced their steps for a few seconds and headed over to the passage that had been blocked by the barrier earlier, where a short ramp leading up happened to be located and it lead to a small chamber that didn't have anything for them to worry about, save for a hidden rune that Spitfire dismissed with a wave of her right hand, before they found another short hallway that brought them to a large passage which seemed to be moving in the right direction, an area that had a fair number of Kaldorei spirits guarding the way forward, all of which appearing to be hostile towards them. As such Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes lashed out at all of the Kaldorei spirits that had been corrupted by the foul energy that was seeping out of Sargeras' Avatar, more with the intent to free them and allow them to move on, and the warrior spirits parried some attacks while using some in return as any mages and priests used their own power to either deal damage or heal the wounds of their allies, though fortunately they only drew the attention of a group or two and not every spirit that happened to be between them and the end of the passage, meaning none of them had to worry about being overwhelmed by enemies. The ancient spirits did put up a good fight against them, especially since they considered the group to be intruders and wanted to make sure none of them trespassed further in this sacred place, but in the grand scheme of things they were toppled by Spitfire, Rainbow, and all of the heroes of Azeroth, allowing them to progress further down the hallway that was in front of them and continued to fight all of the spirits that were standing in their way, though it didn't take everyone long to reach what appeared to be a split in this hallway and found that the area to the left contained a path that lead upwards, meaning the path to the right was the one they were looking for. That was swiftly followed by them finding a short ramp that lead upward before descending into a messed up chamber, one which looked like it had been broken by all the Fel energy that happened to be coursing through this place, and there was a foul device of some kind set up near what appeared to be the furthermost edge, a Fel machine that looked like a twisted rib cage with a heart of sorts in the center, protected by ribs, and there was a female night elf, garbed in robes that an Eredar wore when they messed with souls, meaning the Avatar's power had corrupted another spirit into fighting for the Legion and Kil'jaeden had granted her new garb to fit her position. The Kaldorei, who revealed that her name was Dejahna, appeared to be fully corporeal and that meant they could hurt her as this battle went down, since it appeared that she and the Engine of Souls, as that was the name of the twisted machine right behind her, were guarding the next Pillar pedestal, but as Spitfire and Rainbow stepped forward Dejahna faded into the spirit realm and seemed to vanish, leaving behind a phantom portal of sorts that one could use to follow her, while leaving the others to fight the Engine of Souls. As such Spitfire rushed through the portal in question and found Dejahna preparing to attack her companions from the spiritual world, to which she flashed over to where her foe rested as Rainbow, joined by the heroes of Azeroth, targeted the Engine of Souls and lashed out at it so they could bring it down before it couple corrupt any of the remaining souls and corpses that might be resting inside the Tomb, though both of them caused their respective foes to focus on them, starting the battle at long last. Spitfire found that Dejahna focused on using her shadowy powers in an attempt to crush her mind, likely in an attempt to break her so she could drop her body onto the pile that the Engine was corrupting or deliver her to her new Legion masters, though those attacks either had no effect on her mind or she dodged out of the way before Dejahna could actually hit her with her twisted power, allowing her to lash out at the twisted Kaldorei's body and left a few cuts in her robe, which actually seemed to mend themselves as the spirit was damaged, as right now she understood that what she and the others had seen earlier was a projection of Dejahna into the physical world and that they wouldn't have been able to harm her anyways. Of course when she came to that decision it wasn't taking into account the fact that she could hurt spirits now, which was still an odd power to have, but at the very least fighting the spirit here, in this world, meant that she couldn't focus on her allies and that was more than though for her right now, hence why she rushed through the air and lashed out at Dejahna, who used her staff like a shield and blocked the attack to the best of her ability, which Spitfire was fine with since it meant her foe wasn't attacking Rainbow's group as they tackled the Engine of Souls. While Spitfire was doing that Rainbow found that the Engine was channeling the corrupted magical energies of the fallen Kaldorei so it could fight them, as it seemed to be hurling spikes made out of bone at whoever it deemed as a threat to its existence, even though it didn't focus on her immediately and when it did she just smashed the spikes while she lashed at the twisted machine, while at the same time it also used the shadow powers it had access to as it hurled spears made of shadows, or maybe anguish given what this thing was supposed to be, at them and even tried blasting them with bursts of energy. Based on those moves the heroes did their best to avoid taking damage, where the healers mended their wounds so they could continue fighting, while at the same time Rainbow struck the Engine and blasted it with her powers, sending a shock through the twisted machine that didn't seem to slow it down at all, though even as she did that it seemed like all of them were making progress in bringing down the metallic creation that was in front of them, before it could spew out a powerful guardian of some kind to take everyone in front of it down. Of course it actually reanimated some of the bodies that were scattered around the area they were fighting in, some being Kaldorei templars, who channeled their powers of Death to try and bring down Rainbow's group, and some were priests that had been twisted into keepers of bone, as they wore robes and tended to the bones as they lashed out at the heroes of Azeroth, though some of them focused on taking down the reinforcements as Rainbow and most of the group kept their attention on the Engine. Between the two of them it didn't seem like there were any special powers or skills that they had to watch out for, meaning Dejahna and the Engine would be easier to take down since the heroes didn't have to worry about being caught by some terrible power that would turn the tide of this battle, allowing Dejahna to gain the upper hand, though the heroes understood that if they kept the pressure on their enemies this battle would be over in no time and they would be able to place the third Pillar of Creation in the slot that had been made for it in the past. A few moments later, when they dealt enough damage to both Dejahna and the Engine, their foes shuddered for a couple of seconds as a skeletal monstrosity burst out of the Engine, which seemed to die as that happened, a massive floating creature that seemed to have no lower body, four skulls that were all facing the frontal direction while one glanced to the left and another glanced to the right, while it had skeletal wings that were just the bones and nothing else, though it had a large battleaxe in it's hands and was tainted by Fel energy. The Bone Wraith, as that was what the monstrosity was called by the heroes of Azeroth, roared as it lashed out at them with the weapon it was currently carrying, while also using the same shadowy energy that the others were using to lash out at its enemies, to which Rainbow flashed forward and swung her Warblades as she quickly parried the incoming attack, stalling the battleaxe before it could hit the floor or whoever it was targeting, opening the way for the heroes to join her in assaulting this creature with their weapons and magic as they kept their guards up. Spitfire made sure to knock Dejahna onto her back and quickly returned to the physical plane once she was sure that the fallen priestess wasn't going to get up after such a thing happened, though as she did that Rainbow lashed out and blasted the Bone Wraith with her lightning powers, sending a powerful shock through its bones as she and the others watched as she shattered it from the inside out, as she had strengthened it with her power and her lightning blast tore the Bone Wraith apart with ease, though that didn't stop her from snatching the Fel energy that had been stuck to the creature and siphoned all of it. Once that was done Dejahna seemed to fade back into reality for a moment before her form started to fall apart before their eyes, meaning she was moving on like all of the other spirits and, in an odd twist that none of them saw coming, she asked them to tell Tyrande that she was sorry, for what none of them had any idea as no one was familiar with her history and connections, though once the spirit was done, and this area was cleared of any enemies, the Pillar platform rose out of the floor not a few seconds later and Spitfire sent a message to Khadgar, to which he quickly teleported the Tears of Elune over to them, which they placed in the slot without delay. These Tears of perfect beauty embody the dream of what our world could be, a voice said, where they found an echo of Aegwynn appearing nearby as she stared at the Pillar of Creation that had been returned to the place that would allow all of them to mess with her ancient wards, where it looked like she was still smiling and knew that Azeroth was safe, even though Kil'jaeden was in the depths and had to be messing with the Avatar as they fought their way through the enemies that had been left behind to stop them, before she turned and glanced at them again, today they purify your hearts for the battles to come. Everyone nodded as the echo faded away not a few seconds later, leaving them to rest for a little while before they headed back to the main chamber of the Tomb, as it was time to tackle the Fel Lord that they had seen earlier and likely claim the last Pillar pedestal that was inside this place, or at least in the upper reaches anyway, something that would open the way to where the Avatar and Kil'jaeden rested, since Aegwynn's echo claimed that he was with the Avatar and they had no real reason to call her a liar, since she was doing her best to help them best the Legion. Once everyone was ready to go, and no one was exhausted to the point where they needed more time to rest, Spitfire and Rainbow started to backtrack to the last section of the Tomb they had passed through, allowing them to pass through the Terrace of the Moon and walk by where the Sisters of the Moon happened to be standing guard, before finding the other passage that headed upward, instead of descending into the depths, and they took it without delay. Sure enough following the path in question allowed them to find another chamber or two that had a few Kaldorei spirits hanging around them, who seemed to be more passive than every other spirit they had encountered so far, either due to the fact that this level was further away from the Avatar and it hadn't reached them with its corruption yet, or they were passive thanks to the Engine of Souls being destroyed by their hand, where Spitfire had to think that the latter was the more correct option in this instance. After that they reached what appeared to be the top of the passage and came to a stop in front of the locked door they had found earlier, where one of the heroes found a lever and pulled it, something that unlocked the door and allowed Spitfire, Rainbow, and the others to step out into the main chamber and find that Khadgar's small group was still patiently waiting near the platform that had all of the Pillar icons that appeared when one was placed, finding two more having joined the Aegis and that they were the Tidestone and the Tears, though as they returned to the chamber the others nodded their heads as Spitfire headed up to where she and the others had spotted the Fel Lord earlier, as it was time to take him down and likely place the fourth Pillar in place so they could open the way down to where the Avatar rested. As such she walked up the stone steps that lead by where Khadgar's group was standing and found a Darkglare floating in front of the doorway that lead to where she and Rainbow had spotted the Fel Lord earlier, where Spitfire channeled a bit of her Death energy and yanked the demon in their direction, like she had seen some of the deaths knights do when they wanted to pull a foe over to them, something that allowed Rainbow to smash the Darkglare into the wall and siphon all of its power in a moment, where she ate the Fel energy and absorbed another soul as they finally entered the final chamber they currently had access to. When they walked into it, and found that the chamber did have a Pillar pedestal, Spitfire did find five demons waiting inside it, two large demons on the far end while the remaining three, who were about as tall as a human was, were near them, where she noted that the main two were the Fel Lord they had seen earlier and a Jailer, while the closer three happened to be a tall Felguard, an Inquisitor, and a Sayaad, all of whom appeared to be busy talking right now and had no idea that the Darkglare was even dead. Such a thing allowed Spitfire to notice some interesting things as she glanced at the Sayaad, such as the fact that her wings were larger than what a normal Sayaad had, with the bottom tips of the webbing being Fel colored, the same revealing chest armor that all of her kind wore, save for their Queen whose armor had been even more revealing when they met her, and the same v shaped armor that covered her lower region, but she did have what appeared to be tight black clothing on her legs, or maybe it was her legs and they had been blacked due to her maturing into an adult Sayaad, since her bust was a size or two larger than a normal Sayaad's. Spitfire had to take a moment to wonder if the demon was one of Xazariel's daughters, as in one of her actual daughters and not someone who had willingly given themselves to the Sayaad Queen, and if she knew what had happened to the leader of her race, though as the demons started to notice that Azeroth's heroes were upon them, even though the larger two, the Fel Lord going by the name Atrigan and the Jailer called Belac, had been talking about corrupting Velen's son and twisting him into the foul demon known as Rakeesh, the Sayaad paled as she noticed who was walking into the chamber and took a step back as she gazed upon her and Rainbow. "What's wrong, Nixa? Getting cold hooves?" Atrigan inquired, apparently not caring much for the heroes that were walking into the chamber that Kil'jaeden had tasked them with guarding with their lives, even though he would gladly tear them all down and offer their souls to the Legion, which would grant him and his ally more power so they could bring down more enemies in the future, though his words meant he was more interested in the fact that the Sayaad had taken a step back when she noticed who was entering this place. "You idiot, this isn't the time for that... the Sayaad Destroyers, or the Demonslayers, are here!" the Sayaad, Nixa, replied a few seconds after the Fel Lord spoke up, where Spitfire noted that Atrigan didn't seem to care much for her words and she had to wonder if her reputation, combined with Rainbow's, was causing a division among the ranks of the Legion, creating one side who didn't care about them and fell to their deaths while another side feared both of them and willingly defected if given the opportunity to do so, but the look on the Sayaad's face told Spitfire that she was frightened, no doubt believing that they were all going to die in the next few minutes, "Kil'jaeden didn't say anything about fighting these two... I'd rather do anything else right now, instead of facing either of these Illidari in battle, as I'd rather live than die at..." In that moment Spitfire found Atrigan marching on Nixa and her companions, as the Felguard and Inquisitor also seemed terrified of her and Rainbow, which meant they might be thinking of fleeing from this area, before he swung his battleaxe right at the three demons who didn't want to fight the heroes, something that caused her to flash between the weapon and its targets as she raised her left hand for a moment, stopping the attack before it make contact and caused Atrigan to frown for a moment as he realized that she had moved to do battle with them. A few seconds later she turned her head a bit and made sure Nixa was fine, while keeping the battleaxe from reaching her and the demons that were her partners or companions, before Rainbow rushed over to where Belac was floating and quickly punched the Jailer in the face, knocking it backwards a moment later as Vytheril approached Nixa and informed her of the defected Eredar who joined the forces of Azeroth after being frightened of being slain by either Spitfire or Rainbow, especially since the latter could devour the Fel energy and souls of the demons she fought. Not a few seconds later Spitfire smiled as Nixa, being smarter than most of the Sayaad she had faced in the past, did the smart thing in the face of betrayal, given that her superior was willing to kill her for wanting to stay alive and not die in a vain attempt to bring down their enemies, as she defected to Spitfire's side and her companions did the same thing, something that seemed to annoy both Atrigan and Belac, though in the following seconds she pushed her foe's battleaxe backwards and jumped into the air, where she brought her knee up right into the bottom of the Fel Lord's chin, knocking him backwards with ease. From that moment Spitfire became the target of Atrigan as the demon lashed out at her with his battleaxe, where she dodged the attacks like they were nothing and decided not to draw her Twinblades for the time being, opting to lash out with her fists and hooves as she fought him, something that Rainbow would do to her foes until she found someone worthy of facing her Warblades, though it was clear that her foe didn't like the fact that she was doing such a thing and continued to lash out like he had no cares in the world, which she was perfectly fine with as she noticed that the heroes were standing back with Nixa's small group. After a few moments Spitfire shifted her stance for a second or two, while lifting her hands to her horns, before she used her full speed for a couple of seconds and disappeared, where the heroes and their newest allies watched as four gashes appeared on Atrigan's chest, the ones going from his left shoulder to right side radiating Life and Arcane energies while at the same time the ones traveling from his right shoulder to his left side had Fel and Death energy around them, showing that she could definitely use all four types at the same time, before she landed near them as the gashes exploded without her looking at them, causing the demon to fall backwards and crash on the ground. While she did that Rainbow lashed out at Belac, dodging his claws as she flashed around his portion of the chamber they were standing in, though one thing she did notice was that the Jailer's powers seemed to mess with emotions, like he was trying to inflict her with guilt or something, but due to the fact that she was fighting a demon that meant his powers were powered by Fel energy and she had nothing to worry about, as her ability allowed her to devour Belac's attacks without getting hurt in the process. Even if Belac understood that fact it didn't stop him from lashing at her with everything that he had in his arsenal, especially when he tried to forcefully send her into his cage and trap her inside it for some time, as she just stood there and let him snatch her, even though she burst out of the container not a few seconds later and kicked the demon in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground with ease as she held out her hand and revealed a Fel core, of a creature that had been inside the cage. Spitfire assumed that it had been something that powered Belac's cage to trap all of the powerful enemies he came into contact with, or maybe Rainbow had discovered a portion of the demon's power in the cage and yanked it out to weaken her foe for a short period of time, but in the end it didn't matter which answer was right since Rainbow devoured the Fel energy with a smile on her face, causing Nixa's group to gulp since they realized they had dodged a bullet as they witnessed the two of them fighting their enemies. A few moments later she flashed around Belac for a few moments and lashed out with her claws, slashing into his arms, chest, and back while he tried, in vain, to hit her and take her down, though while she did that Rainbow noticed that Spitfire's foe appeared to be down for the count, much to the amazement of their new allies, hence why she focused on Belac and knocked him around a few times as she ate every Fel attack he directed at her, even those that were made for her allies since the Jailer wanted to do something to weaken the heroes of Azeroth, and in the end she appeared behind the demon and smashed both of her Warblades into the top of his head, driving him right into the floor not a few seconds later. Once that was done, and she noticed that both of the demons were pretty much dead, Rainbow raised her hands for a few seconds and pulled their Fel energy out of their bodies, allowed her to devour the orbs in question as she sent their souls screaming into her Warblades, though as soon as she was done with the demons, and both of their bodies rested on the two sides of the chamber, Khadgar sent over the Hammer of Khaz'goroth so Spitfire could place it inside the pedestal that emerged from the center of the flooring, causing the echo of Aegwynn to appear once more. This hammer forged ancient wonders and shaped the earth itself, though today it shatters the bonds of fate that seek to crush us all. Aegwynn commented, where the smile remained on her face as she took a moment to stare at the Pillar of Creation that had been placed inside this part of the Tomb, which meant that the fourth and final image had appeared in front of Khadgar and the others, before she turned and faced the heroes for a moment, even though it seemed like she might be more interested in Spitfire and Rainbow right now, Come, it is time that you returned to the main chamber and delved into the dark heart of this ancient temple. Spitfire nodded as she had the heroes rest for a few more moments, even though none of them had fought the demons in this portion of the Tomb, while having Nixa's group head outside to report to the Eredar who defected to her forces, as it would allow those who were outside to have a few more reinforcements as they fought Kil'jaeden's army, though once all of them were rested she knew that they would delve into the heart of the Tomb and face Sargeras' foul Avatar at long last, before tearing down the Deceiver and putting an end to all of his dark plans. > Shore: Avatar of Sargeras > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once Spitfire was sure that the heroes were ready to move onward, and head into the deepest depths of the Tomb to stop Kil'jaeden from awakening Sargeras' Avatar, or destroy it if they stopped him from waking it up, she, Rainbow, and the rest of Azeroth's heroes left the area that they had placed the Hammer of Khaz'goroth inside and returned to where Khadgar, Illidan, and Velen were standing, where Aegwynn's echo stood nearby and seemed to be waiting for them to return, as the way forward was still sealed and that meant she was going to unlock it for them. The elves built this temple upon a site of ancient power, a vault that I believed would safeguard the husk of my fallen foe, in the hopes that it would be forgotten. Aegwynn said, where it looked like she was gathering her magic as she focused on the circular platform everyone happened to be staring at right now, unlocking any remaining seals that might be on the hidden passage that someone like her or the heroes would have to take to reach the deepest depths of the Tomb, before she took a moment to pull her magic back and everyone watched as the passage opened, But, with his disciple's aid, the Dark Titan threatens to return to this world stronger than before! "I wouldn't worry about that, Aegwynn, as we have some incredible heroes among our number," Khadgar replied, where he glanced at Spitfire and Rainbow for a moment, the former looking calm as she stared down the metallic passage that had been hidden by the circular indent that moved out of position, while the latter appeared to be eager to take down any and all demons who might be standing between them and the deepest part of this entire structure, before he considered what had happened since this invasion started, "We might have been beaten during the first battle for the Broken Shore, and all of us suffered some losses that day, we have become a unified force unlike those that came before us, following two of the mightiest heroes our might has every known, and on this day we will deliver a crippling blow to the Dark Titan's plans by sealing the Felstorm, probably destroying the Avatar itself, and killing Kil'jaeden at long last." "The Deceiver will pay for his crimes against our world, my people, and the rest of the universe," Velen added, where the heroes knew that he was referring to everything that had happened to him and the rest of the draenei who escaped from Argus when the Legion took control of the planet, through corrupting Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, twisting them into the dreaded hands of Sargeras, but with Spitfire and Rainbow on their side he knew that the Legion's days were numbered at long last, especially with all of the demons who were joining Spitfire's forces out of fear. "Even if he runs from us, we'll hunt him down and corner him in no time," Rainbow remarked, as she wanted to tear down both the Avatar of Sargeras and Kil'jaeden himself, because she had a feeling that they would be some of the greatest foes she and everyone else might face for some time, not counting when the heroes faced down Archimonde back in Draenor, though she found that many of the heroes were nodding their heads in agreement, showing that they agreed with her and that no matter what Kil'jaeden did next they would hunt him down and punish him for his crimes. Spitfire said nothing as she stared down the metallic path that had been hidden under the floor, which had steps leading down into the deepest depths and, more importantly, to where the Avatar rested, though an interesting thing she found in the first few moments was that there were a number of head sized orbs that were made of Fel energy and some made of Light energy, where she tilted her head for a moment as she noticed such a thing and felt the power that might be at the end of the passage in question. Based on what she could tell there was another powerful creature below them, one that happened to command the power of the Light, a small fragment of it anyway so it would be worthless in terms of gaining the fifth Cosmic Power, while also channeling the power of Fel energy, something that Rainbow would gladly devour once whatever creature they discovered had been brought down, though once she thought about all of that, while Rainbow and their allies gathered behind her, she started to move forward at long last. As she expected Rainbow used her power to eat every orb of Fel energy that was in front of them, while the paladins and priests did their best to dismiss the Light orbs to make the trek easier on them, though what Spitfire discovered was that the path curved a bit as they headed down into the ground of the Broken Shore and found a decent sized chamber a bit under the main chamber of the Tomb, one that had a large stone or metallic female figure, a Titan Watcher to be exact, standing over on the other side of the chamber in question, a creation that had been partly corrupted by the Legion due to the Fel spikes that were on her left side. She had to assume that this was one of the various 'Maidens' Khadgar and the other heroes had told her and Rainbow about in the past, as some female Titan Watchers were important enough to be called Maidens, like the Maiden of Grief in the Halls of Stone or the Maiden of Virtue who resided in Karazhan, so she came to the conclusion that this had to be the Maiden who represented Vigilance, thus meaning she was the Maiden of Vigilance and had been charged with watching over the path that lead to the Avatar of Sargeras. The more interesting fact was that the chamber had a circular shape and there was a massive hole in the middle of it, one that seemed to be large enough for something like Sargeras' Avatar to be placed on so it could be brought down into the depths of the planet, to make sure it didn't see the light of day ever again while protecting it from those who sought to use it for their own twisted gain, meaning once they beat the Maiden of Vigilance the elevator that was supposed to be in the middle of this place would come to them, allowing them to delve into the true depths of the Tomb. Of course the Maiden of Vigilance wasn't the only foe in this part of the Tomb, as there happened to be three groups of small enemies, at least five to each group, who happened to look like small little monsters made out of Fel energy, though such a thing mattered little in the grand scheme of things as Rainbow weaved her power around the chamber and siphoned the Fel energy from the small creatures, leaving only the Maiden of Vigilance in front of them as the heroes readied themselves for another battle as the Maiden turned to focus on them. "What lies below is not for your mortal eyes!" the Maiden of Vigilance declared, where she swung her large hammer for a moment, which looked like it had been created to channel the Light and part of it had been corrupted to use the Fel, just like the rest of her body based on what they were seeing, though her tone indicated that she wasn't about to let them go down into the depths of the Tomb and that she was going to stand in their way until either all of them were dead, just like Kil'jaeden wanted, or she was beaten, "None of you will disturb the master's work!" Given everything that was happening inside the Tomb, with the spirits of the fallen being corrupted by the Avatar's dark Fel energy, Spitfire had to assume that the 'master' referred to either Kil'jaeden or Sargeras, confirming that she was going to be an enemy and that they were going to have to beat her so they could move into the depths of the Tomb, to which all of the heroes spread out as she and Rainbow rushed at the Maiden of Vigilance without wasting any time, as there was no telling how close Kil'jaeden was to waking up the Avatar. While the ranged heroes blasted and loosed arrows at their new foe, keeping themselves at a safe distance from where their main foe was standing, Spitfire neared their foe and quickly swung one of her Twinblades down at the corrupted Titan Watcher that happened to be guarding this area, though they found that the Maiden lashed out with her left fist and parried the incoming attack as she swung her hammer to her right for a moment, where Rainbow smashed into the hammer's head and pushed it out of the way as she swung her claws at their foe's legs. As that happened the Maiden of Vigilance called upon the first of her abilities, where she seemed to infuse all of her enemies with either Light energy or Fel energy, not enough of either to actually corrupt someone into becoming a demon or turning them into a Light-forged, though for the most part it didn't seem like the attack did anything to them, save for giving everyone an aura of the energy they had been infused with, though it seemed that she failed to account for Rainbow's innate Fel energy and gave her the same one, which she devoured behind the Maiden of Vigilance's back, while Spitfire found that she received a Light infusion. Like she assumed earlier, before she and all of her allies found their new foe in this place, the Light power that was inside the Maiden of Vigilance's body right now didn't seem to be strong enough for her to gain the fifth Cosmic Power, though it did given her a chance to fully feel the Light energy in question and might attune her body to track down a true source of power that she could claim, which would grant her one of the remaining two Cosmic Forces she was missing right now, but after thinking about that she focused on the battle and less on the fact that this wouldn't give her another boost in her power. In the following moments the Maiden of Vigilance raised her hammer and made sure the Light side was facing the ground this time around, where she slammed it right into the floor as she tried to smite Rainbow, who dodged the attack without any difficulty, though that did create a burst of Light energy that caused those who had been infused with Fel energy to back up for a moment, likely feeling an aftereffect from the attack or something, and caused the healers to heal them not a few seconds later so they could quickly rejoin the battle. Spitfire had to admit that the power behind the Maiden's attack had been impressive, even though their allies quickly tended to those who had been wounded and did, in a sense, make the construct's attack slightly less impressive, but it did make her take a moment to wonder if there was another version of the attack, a Fel one that would harm the heroes who were infused by the Light's energy, and she could tell that a good number of her allies were thinking the same thing, meaning a good portion of them were keeping their eyes open for the attack while some were ready to heal anyone who was wounded by such a thing. What followed wasn't the other hammer technique, like everyone was expecting her to do so, rather she channeled a bit of her power and targeted three heroes at random within a few seconds of her activating this particular ability, blasting them with a burst of power that caused them to develop a giant phantom appearance that seemed to be more like a bomb, something that caused the heroes that had been struck to move out of the way and let the explosion happen away from their allies, where it looked like the blast was due to a higher concentration of either Light or Fel energy, depending on which one the hero had. After that happened, but before the heroes could deal any decent damage to their foe, the Maiden of Vigilance jumped over to an open part of the circular ring everyone was fighting on and suddenly shielded herself with one of her inner powers, though that was when she started to channel another power as she summoned orbs of Light and Fel energy that moved around the ring all of them were standing on, where those who had been infused with a certain Cosmic Power absorbed the orbs that were made of the same energy and empowered themselves for a short period of time. Such a thing allowed the heroes to boost their power as they lashed out at the Maiden of Vigilance again, which meant all of them did far more damage than they would have done previously, and sure enough Spitfire and Rainbow used this new power boost, in combination with a short burst of power from their true forms, to smash through the barrier that their foe had thrown up around herself, causing the Maiden of Vigilance to stagger for a moment as Rainbow punched her right in the face and left a small indent where her fist had struck her target. Once she regained herself, even if she did look rather annoyed by being hit like that and having a reminder of the attack itself resting on her face, the Maiden of Vigilance picked up her hammer and rejoined the battle, even though Spitfire noted that some of the heroes were hopeful that Rainbow's attack would have knocked some sense into her and were slightly disappointed that she wanted to continue fighting them in Sargeras' name, but everyone turned their focus back to the fight as their foe started to use another ability so she could take one or more of them down, or at least try to do such a thing. The ability in question happened to be the Fel version of the Light based hammer attack she had used earlier, channeling an explosion of Fel energy that caused everyone who had been infused with Light energy to suffer damage over the course of a few seconds, where the healers weaved their magic through the air and healed those who had been harmed thanks to the detonation of the Maiden of Vigilance's hammer, all while Spitfire, Rainbow, and the remaining heroes continued to lash out at the construct. After that Spitfire found that the Maiden of Vigilance didn't seem to have any other attacks or abilities to use against all of them, so the only things they had to worry about when the construct used the Light based hammer explosion, the Fel based hammer explosion, or jumping to a new area so she could channel both energies at the heroes she was fighting right now, giving them a chance to see all of her moves a few more times as they started to break each of them, all while Rainbow made sure to smash her fist into the side of the construct's head whenever she did the jumping attack against them, smashing through the barrier every time it was brought up to protect the Maiden of Vigilance. Eventually Spitfire swung her Twinblades and smashed through what might be the last of the Maiden's barriers, given that all of them had been breaking her defenses while causing her to exhaust herself, something that caused Rainbow to flash forward and uppercut the Maiden of Vigilance not a few seconds later, knocking the construct backwards in the process, before she moved around her foe's neck area and kicked the back of the Maiden's neck, something that knocked her to her knees not a few seconds later as the heroes carefully gathered around her. "This body... my mind... they have been... compromised. I have... failed the Makers!" the Maiden of Vigilance said, where all of the heroes glanced at each other for a moment, as this meant that, though some miracle, they must have allowed the construct to pull herself away from the corrupting energy that made her an unwilling servant of Sargeras, even though it was clear that she was going to collapse in no time, thanks to all the injuries her body possessed, though most of them did know she was referring to the Titans when she said 'Makers', before she turned towards them, "End me, mortals! Then rob the Deceiver of his prize!" Rainbow gladly fulfilled the Maiden's last request, first drawing out all of the Fel energy that was trapped inside her body and devouring it, allowing her to return to what she had been like before Aegwynn brought the Avatar to this place, before she swung her Warblades and carved open her metallic chest with ease, as while they knew she could have healed herself, and could have been turned into another ally, it was clear that she had given up on life, for being corrupted like this, and wanted them to bring an end to her. With that done, however, everyone felt a change in the air as they heard a sound that came from the massive hole that was in the middle of the chamber, something Khadgar's group heard as well when they joined the heroes not a few moments later, to which everyone turned for a moment and knew that it had to be the large elevator that was moving up to where they were currently standing, to which everyone took a moment to rest and gather their power for what was coming next, as it would either be a fight with Kil'jaeden or a battle with the Avatar of Sargeras, or one followed by the other if they were a tad bit unlucky. It took the platform some time to rise up to the area that they were waiting in, meaning it must have been down in the deepest depths of the Tomb and made everyone wonder just how far down Aegwynn had buried the Avatar, after beating it in battle and magically teleporting it over to this place, but it did give them some time to rest and make sure they were ready for whatever might be down the shaft, located in the deepest depths of this area of the world, meaning that when the platform finally arrived everyone finished what they were doing in a matter of seconds and stepped onto the large pad. Spitfire noticed that the platform wasn't just a flat metallic pad, as it had some sort of glass that was inserted into the platform, with some sort of Titan machinery below it, though she didn't have that much time to study it as everyone, including Khadgar's group, stepped the platform and waited for a couple of seconds before it started to descend into the depths of the Tomb, where they stood at the ready, as there was no telling what might be standing between them and where Aegwynn imprisoned Sargeras' Avatar. As they descended into the depths of the Tomb, and drew closer to where their main destination might be, Spitfire noted a few interesting facts that she and the others passed by, as there was an opening in the earthen wall, as it shifted from the metallic nature of the Maiden's chamber to a normal earthen cavern, where there was a molten cavern full of lava and an area that had a large skeleton of some kind, like an ancient dragon, before they reached a section that possessed a good number of cracks in the walls that revealed that they were entering an area that was full of Fel caverns, which meant they were drawing closer and closer to the Avatar. Not a few seconds later the platform seemed to pass through some magic, as Spitfire noticed the Arcane energy as it moved over all of their heads, which ended up sending them even deeper into the depths of the earth, like they had passed through a portal of some kind that had been designed so not too much time was wasted on traveling with this platform, something that made Spitfire wonder just how far down they were, since there were no records of how far down Aegwynn had buried the Avatar, just that she put it deep enough to make people forget it even existed or was just a legend. After emerging from whatever magic had been placed above them Spitfire, Rainbow, and everyone else gathered themselves as the platform entered a slightly larger chamber, one smaller than the Maiden's, which had a large circular locked door that rested in front of them, across from where the stairs that lead down to the last chamber rested, and when the platform locked into place, for who knew how long, everyone walked off the platform and approached the door, where all of them watched as the rings of the door unlocked before their eyes, as if whatever was in control of this place wanted someone to stop Kil'jaeden from messing with the Avatar. Such a thing revealed a short path in front of them, a path that was just a set of stairs that lead upwards a little and brought them to another locked circular door, which unlocked as they approached it as well, revealing what they were looking for as Spitfire found Kil'jaeden right off to the right of a massive stone construct that was twisted by Fel energy, a large amount that had to be a fragment of Sargeras' power, with massive wings like Illidan's that were pinned to a pillar in the middle of the chamber, along with its own pair of curved horns that matched what her mentor had, meaning they were Sargeras' horns and wings, though it did look like the Avatar was still sleeping. Spitfire even noticed that the arms of the Avatar were chained by beams of light, which kept them up in the air, while also seeing that the wings appeared to be torn from its back, or at least that was what it looked like, and that she and the rest of the group were only seeing half of the construct, as what they could see everything from the waist up and that meant that the rest of it had to be resting below the flooring, before she noted that there was another Maiden construct off to the left of the Avatar, or the right from where it was resting and made Kil'jaeden be on the construct's left, before the Deceiver noticed that they were standing there. "Damnable mortals and demon hunters! You scurry through this tomb like vermin, dispatching my underlings, corrupting the weak, and imagining yourselves the equals of the Legion. You are all fools!" Kil'jaeden stated, his tone revealing that he likely didn't care much for them, especially since he hated Spitfire and Rainbow for everything they had done since being freed from the Vault that Maiev and her Wardens maintained, to which he turned towards the Avatar for a moment and just ignored everyone who was filling the entrance of this massive chamber, while Khadgar's group stood back to give the heroes the room they needed, "The husk before you was once a vessel for the might of Sargeras, but this temple itself is our true prize, for it is the means by which we will reduce your world to cinders! Still... I will not deprive you of this chance to fall before an ancient wonder. Let this avatar be the end of all of you!" In the following moment Kil'jaeden fired a beam of Fel energy, one that Sargeras must have readied for him to implant in his ancient Avatar, into the chest of the Avatar and then disappeared a few seconds later, where Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes of Azeroth approached the middle of the arena that they would be facing the Avatar in, where the construct woke up not a few moments later and roared for a few seconds as he, since it was definitely male and there was no reason for them to refer to him as an 'it', pulled his hands out of the Light chains and summoned a large sword made of Fel energy to use against his enemies. Given that this was the Avatar of Sargeras, which was one of the strongest Fel creations to exist in the entirety of the universe, neither Spitfire or Rainbow were going to hold back this time around as they shifted into their empowered forms for the first time in quite a while, flames dancing around Spitfire's form as lightning wrapped around Rainbow's within a few seconds of them accessing their true power, something that caused the heroes to step back a little as they waited to see what might happen in the next couple of moments and, more importantly, if they needed assistance in facing down the Avatar, all while Velen and Illidan kept an eye out for Kil'jaeden. The pair stood there for a moment, just to let their auras die down a little as their bodies got used to channeling this power again, where Spitfire noted that they were causing faint rings to appear around them, likely caused by the pressure of what they were doing, though once both of them were ready to go she and Rainbow rushed through the air and zeroed in on the immobilized Avatar, who raised his head as he followed their movements, something that they should have expected given what the construct was, but it didn't stop the pair from lashing out at their foe. Both Spitfire and Rainbow swung their weapons as they reached the area that the Avatar was locked in, both of them intending on doing as much damage as possible so this battle could be done in a matter of seconds, but what happened next was that the Avatar raised his sword and swung it at them, using the same level of speed that they were using against him, something that allowed their foe to parry their incoming attacks and then, before either of them could really move out of the way, he hurled his left fist through the air and punched them, sending them flying through the air and caused them to smash into the metallic walls that were above the entrance. Spitfire paused for a moment as she and Rainbow pulled themselves out of the craters that were formed in the wall, due to their first collision with the power of the Avatar confirming that he was strong and, more importantly, that neither of them could accord to underestimate him, especially since he contained a small portion of Sargeras' immense power, one that had been boosted by the Fel energy that had enveloped him when he wiped out the planet of Mardum, creating the shattered world the Illidari now ruled over, before she focused on the task at hand once more. Once she finished thinking about the Avatar and his power, and how strong he had to be when he returned to his prime, the pair rushed through the air and swung their weapons down at him once more, this time channeling their powers as well so they could boost their power, something that caused the Avatar to lay his weapon on the floor before swinging his fists at both of them again, only this time around they found that he was parrying their attacks and caused the air around them to vibrate, showing the collision of their powers to the heroes and leaders that were watching them. Tackling the power of the Avatar made all of them understand just how strong Aegwynn had been when she was alive, given that she had faced down this construct and beat him in battle, allowing her to do what she had done to the Avatar and create her wards to safeguard this area, while confirming that they needed to be careful, as one wrong move would allow the construct to best them and that was something they wanted to avoid, though not a few moments later he forced her and Rainbow backwards, though both of them made sure to avoid hitting the walls as they landed near the entrance. From there they rushed forward and lashed out at the Avatar as he gathered some of his power and hurled large shadowy looking daggers at them, intending to do a bit of damage to them before they reached where he was imprisoned, though Rainbow smashed her way through her way through the dagger that came at her while Spitfire spun around for a moment and slashed the projectile in front of her to pieces, scattering the magic with ease, before she moved to the side and quickly swung her Twinblades at the Maiden that was resting nearby, because she might join the battle and neither of them wanted the Avatar to have any reinforcements, even though it did look like Kil'jaeden might have learned his lesson since there were no demons trying to stop them from tearing down the Avatar. In the following moments the Avatar gathered some of the potent Fel energy that happened to be in the air and released all of what he had gathered in a massive blast that was designed to kill or seriously harm whoever was fighting him, where Spitfire used her other energies to form a barrier around her and in front of the group that was just watching the battle go down, especially since two of them were keeping an eye out for Kil'jaeden, while Rainbow just tanked the attack and, like she had done in the past, devoured the Fel energy that was being used against her, something that was followed by her shuddering for a second as several cuts appeared on her arms and legs. Spitfire knew exactly what had happened a few moments after that happened, just like how some of their allies likely knew it without having to be told, as the Avatar's Fel energy was far more potent and destructive than any Rainbow had come into contact with so far, especially since this was also a fragment of Sargeras' power, so what she was trying to do was eat Sargeras' Fel energy and it looked like Rainbow was having a severe reaction to this potent type of Fel Energy, though even as she came to that conclusion she switched to her Life powers for a moment and mended her friend's wounds as they turned towards the Avatar. Of course Spitfire had an idea of what Rainbow was going to do now that she had a sample of the potent energy that came from the Avatar, she was likely going to try and devour all of it, every drop that was inside the stone construct, which would grant her a level of power beyond what she was using right now, but for the time being both of them had to be careful, especially since they had no way of knowing just how many attacks the Avatar had up his sleeves. Once Rainbow's wounds were healed both of them shifted their stances for a moment, summoned their auras once more, and then rushed at the Avatar, showing that both of them were planning on going on the offensive in an attempt to bring down their foe, before he could bring down the chamber or use an attack that might do some damage to Azeroth itself, where Spitfire channeled all four of her powers at the same time as Rainbow focused on her full power while they swung their weapons at his arms and chest, intending on damaging him to the point where they could bring him down. Sure enough the Avatar swung his fists and connected with their incoming attacks, causing the air to shudder again as they clashed, though it was clear that he was making sure that neither of them hit him as he gathered his Fel energy, where it looked like he might be trying to regain his full power, something that might shatter the rest of the bindings that Aegwynn had placed to keep him contained in this place, and when he forced them backwards the pair separated once more, where Spitfire focused on his chest while Rainbow flashed through the air, clashing with the Avatar's fists and cutting into most of his knuckles just a tiny bit. As it turned out the Avatar channeled a bit of his power into a mark of some kind that he used on Rainbow, showing that he was smart enough to know when something could be used in his favor, so when the Fel mark appeared on her for a few moments she devoured the power in question and was blasted out of the air a second later, to which she coughed for a second or two as she regained herself, once more displaying that Sargeras' Fel energy was potent and dangerous to those who tried to devour it. That happened to be when he punched her in the face and sent her back into the wall above where Khadgar and the others were standing, reminding her that the Avatar was a dangerous foe that shouldn't be underestimated, even though she wasn't doing that and the construct was just displaying his full might to all those who were in his massive prison, where Spitfire parried the incoming attack that had been aimed at her and weaved a bit of her Life energy through the air to heal Rainbow again, since the severe reaction must have done something to her body, though Rainbow seemed like she was ready to continue despite her injuries. Fortunately she waited for a second or two as Spitfire mended her body, though once she was done she dismissed her Warblades, flexed her clawed hands and feet for a moment, and smacked part of the wall with her reptilian tail, all of which were designed to make sure her body was ready for what was coming next, before summoning forth her full power, as in everything she had access to, and then burst through the air and rushed down to where the Avatar rested, swinging her right claws at him while he raised his right arm to block her attack, even though she was able to leave a few gashes in his arm, small ones anyway, which meant she was making progress at long last and likely impressed the heroes somewhat. Not a few seconds later the Avatar started to charge the massive Fel explosion that he had used earlier, which had told all of them that Rainbow would harm herself when devouring the energy of Sargeras' Avatar, though Rainbow stopped near the ceiling for a moment as their foe glanced up at her, something everyone else did as they wondered what she was up to this time around, where she quickly raised her hands to her sides for a moment, summoned her aura, and then positioned her hands in front of her as she charged a beam of Fel energy, one that she fired down into the heart of the Avatar's own attack, causing a detonation in front of the Avatar's face. Such a thing cracked the entire floor that was around the large construct and caused the Avatar to grab his blade for a moment, even though it seemed like she hadn't done anything to him, which was slightly annoying, before he brought his weapon down for a moment and shattered the floor, breaking the rest of his bindings as well, causing Khadgar to weave his magic to keep a section of the flooring intact for the heroes to stand on as Spitfire and Rainbow flew after the Avatar, who was falling down into what appeared to be the deepest part of the Tomb, a massive pit of Fel lava with a charred rocky platform for them to stand on. That allowed everyone to see just how tall the Avatar truly was, now that they could see the lower part of his body, and he was a massive construct, far taller than every construct and demon Spitfire and Rainbow had faced so far, though after landing on the charred platform, and taking a second to make sure he could move his legs again, the Avatar gathered his Fel energy again as he prepared yet another Fel explosion that would harm everyone this time around, since he was now capable of using his full power while he fought them and he was planning on using it against them. Rainbow, on the other hand, had a different idea in mind as she brought her hands together and formed her Fel energy into a small sphere between both of them, an attack she had only used once or twice in the past and was planning on using it again to weaken their foe so Spitfire could move in for the kill, or maybe she could do it if she was lucky, though it wasn't long before she pulled her hands back and created the Fel Lance once more, where she hurled it down at the Avatar and watched as it connected with the blast that he was readying for her, Spitfire, and everyone else. The two Fel attacks violently reacted and detonated not a few seconds later, causing everyone to turn away from the light as it happened, though as the light faded Spitfire found that there were cracks all over the bottom area of the depths the Avatar had opened the way to, showing the Fel energy behind them, before noticing a Fel portal that was resting close to where the platform was and found Kil'jaeden standing near it, meaning he had revealed himself to watch the end of this fight, which was when the smoke cleared and revealed that part of the Avatar's body was scratched in places, cracked in a few other locations, and when Rainbow emerged the Avatar grabbed onto her with both of his hands. In that moment Spitfire understood what was going to happen next, the Avatar, having seen that Rainbow couldn't handle devouring his Fel energy and that it hurt her whenever she did it, seemed to be channeling his Fel power into her body as everyone watched, meaning he was either trying to obliterate her from the inside out, playing on the damaging aspect of this fact, or maybe Sargeras knew of Rainbow's ability and was planning on switching the fragment of his power out of the Avatar and forcing it into Rainbow's body to make an even stronger container for it. Despite that fact Rainbow used both of her hands and pushed against the large stone hands that were around her, allowing Spitfire and the others to see that Fel cracks were forming on her arms, chest, legs, and tail as the Avatar worked to break her in this way, where she resisted the urge to scream under the pressure of what was happening to her, or at least that seemed to be what Kil'jaeden might be waiting for, just to get back at her for all the deaths she had caused among his ranks. As that happened, however, there was a change that caused Spitfire to smile for a moment, the Fel energy from the Avatar seemed to be losing the effect to harm Rainbow, as if her body was quickly becoming acclimatized to the sheer power that was inside her foe, something that became true not a few moments later as Rainbow grinned and started to actually steal the power of the Avatar, just like she did whenever she fought the forces of the Legion, which caused Kil'jaeden to frown as he witnessed that, no doubt because he wanted her to die from this and not grow even stronger. Not a few moments later Rainbow called upon all the Fel energy that was around them as she formed a green Fel crystal between her and the Avatar, where she decied to sever the power of the Avatar into two halves, allowing her to eat half of it right now, not to mention adding it to her own power, while storing everything else inside the new crystal, one that was the same size as Archimonde's now blue Fel crystal, and as she drew all the power out of the Avatar he let go of her and collapsed on the ground, kneeling for a moment, before he fell to his side and stopped moving after a time, even though she made sure to break up the Avatar's body and cripple it so Sargeras couldn't use it anymore. With that done Kil'jaeden, sensing that he was in danger with Spitfire and a slightly empowered Rainbow standing nearby, turned and fled through the Fel portal, something that caused Velen to do the same thing since he wanted to bring down the Deceiver at long last, though once they were gone Khadgar summoned the Eye of Amun'thul to this area and used the power that was inside it to sever the Legion's connection to Azeroth, which would cause the Felstorm to vanish in no time, and once he did that everyone, meaning him, Illidan, Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes of Azeroth charged into the portal before it closed, as it was time to end Kil'jaeden at long last. While the heroes of Azeroth fought their way through the Tomb of Sargeras, facing down the obstacles that Kil'jaeden had placed inside it to stop them from succeeding in their mission, Anduin, Thrall, the forces of Azeroth, and the forces of the alternate Azeroths faced off against the army that the Deceiver had called upon to stop them in their tracks, which meant all of them were slashing, blasting, and doing everything in their power to bring down every demon that was standing in front of them, to stop them from turning around and invading the Tomb. Of course Alduin was sure Spitfire and Rainbow could handle it, given everything he had learned about them and their powers, though that didn't stop him from swinging Shalamayne at the enemies that were around him as Genn, Thrall, Saurfang, and their allies tore into their enemies with all of their powers, even though they happened to be the less impressive fighters right now, given that Spitfire's forces now included all the dragon Aspects, a Light based Lich King, and all sorts of allies that had been found. Such a thing was still impressive when he thought about it, given everything that Elisande and the time dragons had been through to call forth these allies, though before appearing on this battlefield Anduin had slipped into a new suit of armor that was shaped like a lion of sorts and reflected the symbol of the Alliance, though his helm, the lion's head, was somewhere the battlefield, as he had been struck by a Pit Lord and it came undone from the connections in his chest piece, even though at this point he was sure it had been smashed by a demon. What had been weird about that event was that both the Lightforged Lich King and Arthas Menethil, both followed by their respective versions of Sylvanas, had struck down the Pit Lord before it could do any damage to him or the rest of his guard, essentially they came to his aid and helped him back onto his feet before charging back into battle, where the Ranger-General rained arrows down on her enemies, the Lightforged Banshee Queen blasted several demons right out of the air, the Lightforged Lich King carefully moved through his foes and cut them down with ease, and Arthas used the Light to bind his enemies before punishing them with his hammer, just like most paladins chose to wield a warhammer of some kind when facing their enemies. That wasn't taking into consideration the fact that all of Spitfire's other new allies used their powers to smash down every demon that was in their way, causing several demons to back up in fear as if some might be figuring out that this wasn't a battle the Legion was capable of winning, not against everything that Spitfire had planned out for bringing them down and breaking Sargeras' plans for the rest of the universe, something he was still coming to terms with and knew that she had to have a plan to get to Argus, since she wasn't about to stop at closing the Tomb and killing Kil'jaeden. As he finished his thoughts on the matter he noticed that some of their soldiers were wounded, and some had been reduced to a weakened state that involved crawling on the ground or moaning behind the rest of their forces, something that caused him to stab Shalamayne into the ground for a few seconds before raising his right hand towards the sky, which the other paladins and those empowered by the Light noticed, despite the fact that some of them were busy tending to their enemies and quickly pulled away for a moment. In the following moments several beams of Light energy shot down from the sky and struck all of the individuals that were calling upon the energy of the Light, where a massive wave of healing Light washed over their massive army as the demons backed up, no doubt confused by what was going on at the moment, before every injured soldier found that their wounds healed in a matter of moments, which even applied to those who had been seriously hurt and Anduin had to assume that it was due to how many powerful paladins and priests were on this battlefield, before the soldiers picked themselves up and started to form ranks between the forces of Azeroth and the demons. The only reason they were able to do this with so much success, and without anyone collapsing from exhaustion, was also due to the vast number of allies they had, as they could spread out the cost of the spell among all of them, basically giving them a cheat of sorts as they faced down the demons of the Legion, and once he was sure everyone had been healed Anduin picked up his blade once more as the others who joined him turned to face their enemies, apparently waiting for the call to charge once more so they could bring down even more demons. Just as he was about to do that, however, one of the Eredar who defected to Spitfire's side pointed at the Tomb and they, along with the demons who stood in front of them, watched as the Fel energy of the Tomb shuddered for a moment, as if something was happening inside the massive structure, before everyone discovered something interesting, the beam of Fel energy, which connected the Tomb to the Felstorm in the sky, broke apart and faded away, which caused the Felstorm to pulse for a moment before closing before their eyes. In that moment, as the Felstorm closed and cut off Kil'jaeden's forces from the rest of the Legion, the forces of Azeroth cheered for their victory over the Legion, since this meant Spitfire and the others were successful and had completed their mission, though the shocking fact was that the demons just stood there for a few seconds, staring up at where the Felstorm had been resting just moments ago, and some looked like they were devastated by this turn of events. The reason Anduin thought about that was due to the fact that there were a couple of Sayaad among the Legion's forces and some looked like they either wanted to cry, why he had no idea, or just collapse on the ground and ignore everyone that was around them, before something totally weird happened, the army of demons that had responded to Kil'jaeden's call to assault this place in the Legion's name, and stop the forces of Azeroth from using the Pillars of Creation to seal the Tomb, basically gave up, as in those who carried weapons placed their weapons on the ground and sat down a few seconds after doing that, showing that they were surrendering to them, even though Anduin knew they might be hoping for mercy from Spitfire and Rainbow whenever they showed up. In that moment he and the rest of his forces let out a sigh of relief as the demon hunters moved to make sure none of the demons were trying to trick them in some manner, though as he sheathed his father's blade he glanced in the direction of the Tomb for a moment, as it was only a matter of time until Azeroth's heroes returned from their venture and started to work on Spitfire's plan that would allow them to dismantle the Legion so they could save all of creation at long last. > Shore: Kil'jaeden's Folly > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the Avatar of Sargeras defeated, and the Tomb itself had been sealed so the connection between Azeroth and Argus no longer existed, Spitfire, Rainbow, Khadgar, Velen, Illidan, and the rest of Azeroth's heroes appeared on the other side of the Fel portal they had chased Kil'jaeden through once he realized that he was in danger of being killed, where everyone found something interesting, they had teleported to part of the Twisting Nether, the astral plane between worlds and was where demons were supposedly created, given the fact that every demon hunter knew that killing a demon in this place was a permanent death for them, even though bringing permanent death to a demon could be achieved by killing them in places saturated with Fel energy, like Mardum. Spitfire noted that the vastness around them seemed to be a black space, like how everyone on Equus saw the space beyond their planet, with an unknown number of stars twinkling in the darkness as they stared at them, one of which had to be Equus when she thought about it, though as everyone looked around them for a few seconds, likely seeing something different or possibly the same thing that she had noticed, she glanced at what was right in front of them and smiled for a moment as she noticed that they had succeeded in following Kil'jaeden through the portal he had used to escape from them. In the following moments she, Rainbow, and everyone else found that they were standing on the edge of a Legion ship, meaning it was horizontal as it flew through the Twisting Nether and traveled between two points in their vast universe, though it did inform them that Kil'jaeden was fleeing to Argus to form a new plan of attack to bring down the forces of Azeroth and, more importantly in his eyes, the Illidari, and it didn't take them long to spot the Deceiver as he moved towards what appeared to be the end of his ship so he could take control of it. The only downside to all of this was that there was no portal behind where everyone appeared, meaning that it had been a portal without a frame and had been dependent on the power of the Tomb of Sargeras, though it allowed everyone to understand the situation, they were stuck in the Twisting Nether and would likely arrive at Argus at some point, but Spitfire already had a plan to get around being stuck, thanks to the Sargerite Keystone that Illidari currently had with him. Standing between them and Kil'jaeden were a fair number of demons, a good number of Fel Lords that appeared to be far stronger than a normal Fel Lord, a good number of corrupted orc who must have been members of the Shadow Council, to join Gul'dan and replace those that had fallen during the battles on Draenor, a couple of Felborne, who Spitfire felt were the last of their corrupted kind, and a new type of demon, a red skinned Eredar that was taller than a normal Eredar and looked more like a brute, given the Fel spikes that must have erupted from his back, which meant it had to be stronger as well, far more than a normal Eredar, meaning it was an Eredar Brute. "These must be the remains of Kil'jaeden's forces, those who didn't teleport to the Broken Shore earlier," Spitfire said, as it was the only thing that might make sense at the moment and most of the heroes seemed to agree with her thoughts on this matter, though at the same time they could see that a good number, if not the vast majority, of the demons in front of them were terrified of something, no doubt Rainbow given everything they had seen in the last couple of days, though the Eredar Brute stepped forward and approached them as the rest of his allies seemed to want to stand down, to which she sighed for a moment as she focused on their would be enemies, "Those who don't want to die, and want to see another day, lay down your weapons and surrender to us... those who want to side with the Legion, while standing between us and Kil'jaeden, keep standing where you are and we'll be sure to get to you before getting to the Deceiver." "Foolish mortals, you don't scare us." the Eredar Brute stated, apparently overconfident in his powers as he continued his walk towards where the heroes were currently standing, though as that happened he noticed that all of the demons that were around him actually listened to Spitfire and started to place their weapons on the ground, showing that they wanted mercy in the face of the overwhelming power that was standing in front of them, to which the demon actually turned back to where he started, like he was going to surrender as well, before he started to smash his way through the demons that had been his allies until they surrendered to the forces of Azeroth, and in no time he was the last one standing, to which he turned his bloody fists in their direction, "Fine, you don't scare me, mortals!" "Really? You should be." Spitfire remarked, to which she held a hand out and stopped the others from moving for now, as there was no reason for everyone to be involved with this fight, before she drew out her Twinblades once more while she walked in the direction of the Eredar Brute that was blocking the way to where Kil'jaeden was waiting, something that did cause her foe to smile as he wondered what sort of epic battle he might have with her, especially when she called forth her true power for a few seconds. In the following couple of seconds Illidan and the others watched as Spitfire stood still as the Eredar Brute charged at her, with a desire to purge all mortal life from the universe and a desire to beat up strong opponents, before she vanished for a second and reappeared where she had been standing as if everyone blinked at the same time or something, where all of them watched as four diagonal gashes appeared on the demon's chest, just like she had done against Atrigan earlier, and it only took a second for them to explode and bring an end to the Eredar Brute's life, allowing them to advance to where Kil'jaeden was likely waiting for them to arrive. Spitfire was slightly annoyed, since there were a lot of slain demons who had been about to make a chance in their lives, to lend Azeroth their aid while keeping themselves alive, though due to the actions of the Eredar Brute there was nothing they could do to save all of the fallen, but it didn't stop Rainbow from using her power to snatch their souls and absorbing all of the Fel energy that was in front of them, especially when she grabbed the soul of the demon Spitfire had slain for his actions against the rest of his former allies. Once she was done the group continued moving forward and headed up the sides of the bottom section of the ship, or what would be the bottom area if the ship was vertical and not moving at all, where both she and Rainbow knew that a large flat area would be resting for Kil'jaeden to fight them in, provided he didn't try to run now that they were cornering him like this, but everyone gripped their weapons as they prepared themselves for what was about to happen next. Sure enough, when they reached the end of their path, the heroes of Azeroth found the area in question and found Kil'jaeden standing still as he gazed in what had to be the direction of the planet that he was leaving, or at least that was what they assumed he was doing as he thought about how his plans had failed thanks to Spitfire and Rainbow joining the fight and crippling the Legion's attempts to take Azeroth in Sargeras' dark name, to which he sighed for a moment as he turned to face the front of his ship, only to frown as he noticed that the heroes were already marching on his area. "Velen, you should have stayed on Azeroth... you would have lived a little longer," Kil'jaeden remarked, deciding that now wasn't the time to speak to Spitfire or Rainbow for the time being, because he was annoyed with them and had an idea of how he could fight them, or at least take down Spitfire, but for right now, before their battle started, he was going to take a moment to annoy Velen and hopefully drive a wedge between him and his allies, to bring them all to their depths and weaken the forces of Azeroth, "but your anger towards me, for your failure to save your son, who hated the father that left him and grew to resent you, will now cost you and your allies your lives!" "That is what you think, Deceiver, but it isn't what will happen," Velen replied, because at this point in time he had a better understanding of the powers that rested inside Spitfire and Rainbow, the former commanding most of the Cosmic Forces while the latter was one of the strongest Fel users in the entirety of the universe, approaching the level of Sargeras, or at least a lower level of what the Dark Titan was capable of using, to which he tapped his staff against the ground for a few seconds as he, Khadgar, and Illidan joined the heroes in the arena and faced the Deceiver, "the forces of Azeroth stand as one, united under the banner of Spitfire, and none of your deceptions will force us apart... if you surrender, Spitfire will show mercy, though you will likely have to pay for all the crimes you committed over the years as you chased the Draenei across the vast universe." "I have given too much to Sargeras to betray him now, even though none of his promises have come true," Kil'jaeden said, his tone revealing that he was a little annoyed with the Dark Titan, no doubt due to the fact that Sargeras likely promised all of the Eredar power, which he did give them based on what Spitfire and Rainbow had seen in the past, and possibly a few other terms were struck when the Eredar joined the Legion, meaning it was the other terms that the Deceiver had to be annoyed with, since he hadn't gotten any of them yet, to which he shifted his stance as he faced everyone that was in front of him, indicating that he would race fight Spitfire and Rainbow, instead of surrendering, "but by taking all of you out my forces should have an easier time tearing down Azeroth, once we find a new portal or font of power to use to bridge the gap between your world and Argus." A few moments later, after hearing that their foe was willing to die rather than surrender, Spitfire and Rainbow flashed through the air and zeroed in on Kil'jaeden, where they swung their weapons at their foe while he punched the air at the same time, allowing their attacks to come into contact with each other and caused a slight vibration in the air while they did that, but it did give Vytheril, Scarlet, and the others the time they needed to move into position and launch their own assault on the Deceiver. Even Velen, Khadgar, and Illidan joined Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies in attacking the demon lord that was in front of them, where Spitfire noted that Velen was using his healing arts to help mend any wounds their allies might acquire during this battle while also doing his best to lash out at Kil'jaeden, Khadgar flew around the area, all due to the raven form of his staff, and reverted to his human form every now and then to send orbs of Arcane energy at their foe, and Illidan lashed out at the Deceiver's back with his warglaives, even though Kil'jaeden did his best to defend himself from all of their attacks. Of course, like all of the other demons they had faced during their assault on the Tomb, and those they had faced before heading inside the massive structure, Kil'jaeden forced his foes backwards and raised his left hand towards the sky, where he called upon his Fel energy and summoned a massive rain of Fel meteors that rained down on the part of his ship that they were fighting on, something that caused Rainbow to pull back for a moment before she flashed up into the air and lashed out at the meteors with her Warblades, breaking them apart while absorbing all of the Fel energy that Kil'jaeden had used to summon this attack. While that happened Spitfire, who lashed out with the full power of her empowered state and found that the Deceiver had parried her attacks, noted that Kil'jaeden seemed to have a smile on his face as he watched Rainbow cancel his attack, making her wonder if he had a plan of some kind and hoped that Rainbow would be mindful of anything their foe sent at them, since there was no telling what sort of plans the Eredar might have in store for them, but she had a feeling her friend was more interested in just cutting down Kil'jaeden so she could take his Fel energy for herself and send his soul screaming into her weapons. Of course Kil'jaeden gathered more of his power for a moment and summoned a much larger Fel meteor that descended down towards where everyone was standing, to which Spitfire spun around and slashed at the Deceiver's chest while the rest of the heroes did the same thing, leaving Rainbow alone as she flew through the air once more and smashed the new meteor to pieces while draining the power inside it, before using some of her power to blast apart the remaining pieces of the rock, so they didn't hurt her allies when they hit the deck of the ship. One interesting thing that Kil'jaeden tried to do to all of them was using his Fel powers to try and make copies of several heroes, Fel clones who were designed to attack the heroes and weaken their forces, a method that he suspected would divide them and make them easier to take down, but as he watched what happened next Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies turned and cut down his dark copies without much happening at all, causing the Deceiver to frown as he watched that happened, since he was expecting the Fel clones to do something or kill someone. As such Spitfire was sure that Kil'jaeden was blaming them for beating this power of his, or at least that seemed like something he might do when something didn't go his way, though once they were sure that the Fel clones had been beaten her forces continued to lash out at the Deceiver while he was distracted, which caused him to turn and attack them with his Fel empowered claws once more, since he didn't have any weapons on him, something that was a mistake given that most of the powerful demons of the Legion carried a blade, a mace, or some sort of weapon to help take down their enemies and protect themselves at the same time. After the Fel clones perished Kil'jaeden switched back to using his summoning ability and seemed perfectly fine when Rainbow smashed her way through each of them, stealing the power of the Fel meteors, something that caused Spitfire to raise an eyebrow as she wondered what in the world the Deceiver was planning, because at this point, even though the battle had only just started between them and the one who stood as the Right Hand of Sargeras, it sure looked like Kil'jaeden might be pumping Rainbow full of Fel energy in an vain attempt to cause her to detonate from containing an excessive amount of that power. Eventually Kil'jaeden decided to do something different as he spread his wings and took to the air, or at least the area that was above where he had been fighting them for some time, where he started to rain more Fel meteors down on everyone while also channeling some rather powerful looking flames in an attempt to blast them to pieces, where Spitfire weaved a bit of her Arcane power through the air and parried the incoming flames that were targeting her and her allies, lighting up the space between them at the same time while Rainbow flashed through the air and sliced her way through the meteors that were coming down towards her allies. In that following moment Kil'jaeden gathered his flames and loosed a focused beam right at Spitfire, intending on burning her to ash while she and her group were distracted by the attacks that were heading their way, though in response to that Spitfire wasted no time and slipped into her empowered state, drawing her flames together as well before firing a beam of flames that collided with the Deceiver's attack, causing the air to vibrate as they fought each other while everyone else remained at the ready since everyone that that they would be able to lash out at the Eredar when he and Spitfire were no longer fighting each other. It was clear to Spitfire, as she fought the Deceiver in this 'beam struggle' as she was sure Rainbow would call it, that Kil'jaeden had to be annoyed with them and wanted all of them dead, given everything that they had done to beat his plans and topple his army, of which a number of demons had betrayed the Legion after realizing how foolish it was to fight her or Rainbow, and he was trying to use his anger to tear all of them down, even though he was appearing to be calm and collected for the most part as he formed a plan of attack to kill everyone who had followed Velen through the portal earlier. Regardless of what was going through Kil'jaeden's mind at the moment Spitfire doubled the power of her attack and her flaming beam of energy burst forward, overtaking the beam that Kil'jaeden was using and caused the Deceiver to pull out of the way when he realized that he was being overpowered by her attack, though when her beam rushed off into the distance, where it would disappear in the vastness of space, she and the others found that Kil'jaeden's hands were smocking, damaged a little from her attack hitting him for a brief second before he moved out of the way, a smart move in the grand scheme of things. After that Kil'jaeden landed near where he had started earlier and paused for a few seconds, giving him a chance to come up with a new plan to bring them down, though it also gave the heroes an opening to attack him and they took it without wasting a single moment, intending on damaging his defenses more than they had done before he flew into the air and tried to hurt them with his flaming attacks, something that caused the Deceiver to growl as he focused on them and just defended himself with his arms and legs for a time, leaving Spitfire to make sure everyone was ready for whatever attack or plan he might have in store for them. What Spitfire discovered was that Kil'jaeden's current plan of attack was to utilize the powers he had used during the first stage of his battle with the fire beams that he just used against them, meaning he wasn't adding anything new for her and the others to worry about, so for now Rainbow focused on cancelling out any and all Fel meteors that were sent at them as Spitfire turned her attention to using her fire powers to do the same thing to Kil'jaeden's beams of fire, leaving the heroes to do most of the damage to the Deceiver as Velen, Illidan, and Khadgar assisted them. While that happened Spitfire kept her eyes open for anything and everything that might turn the tide of the battle in the Deceiver's favor, where she fired a beam of fiery energy at the incoming one Kil'jaeden was sending her way and cancelled it out within a couple of seconds, though at this point she was starting to believe that he might be doing this to either distract her or simply because it might be his best way to keep her contained to a single area, something she was fine with since it allowed her to keep an eye on him and judge the level of attacks that he had access to before they hit the heroes. Of course while she and Rainbow did all of that Kil'jaeden summoned the clones of the heroes again, trying to send them at the champions of Azeroth to tear all of them down at long last, though he found that Vytheril, Scarlet, Zuleth, and everyone else was capable of killing the new clones when they were summoned and without wasting too much energy on them, much to the continued annoyance of Kil'jaeden, something that caused the Deceiver to hurl another massive Fel meteor at them in response. Rainbow flashed through the air and smashed her way through the massive rock without wasting any time, scattering the fragments so she could blast all of them to nothingness and leave nothing to harm her allies, just like she had been doing since they started this fight, though for good measure she punched Kil'jaeden in the face and knocked him backwards, just to lend a hand to her allies as she let the heroes continue their assault, hacking and slashing at the demon lord that was standing in front of them, who seemed to be great at tanking each and every attack that was coming his way, but even then they knew that it was only a matter of time until he collapsed and surrendered to their might. Eventually Kil'jaeden decided that enough was enough as he called forth the shadows and covered the area that Vytheril and the heroes were standing in, covering them in a fog of sorts that limited what they were able to see and adding some new obstacles for them to be cautious about, though in the following moments Spitfire and Rainbow smiled as they took a moment to activate their Spectral Sight as Illidan followed suit, allowing them to see through the fog and direct everyone else towards what needed to be done to free themselves from the fog. They directed them towards the couple of shadowy beings that were hanging around the edges of the fog, creatures that seemed to be linked to the Deceiver's spell, though at the same time both of them kept an eye open as Kil'jaeden fired a few fiery beams and a few Fel meteors down on the heroes, causing the one who took out each attack to move out for a moment and take care of the attack that was coming at their allies while whoever was left helped out the heroes, and if both were busy it was up to Illidan to direct them to the locations that their targets were in. Even with the fog it was easy to see that Kil'jaeden, who was staring at everyone from above since he was flying above the deck he had been standing on earlier, was annoyed with them and couldn't wait for all of them to be dead, though he didn't seem to be doing anything special to bring them down and it meant he was failing to do his job, meaning he was lucky that Sargeras didn't just end his life for his constant failures, before his frown deepened as the fog scattered a couple of moments later, showing that the heroes were just fine and that nothing had harmed them, thanks to the combined skills of Illidan and Velen as they hunted down whatever was powering the fog. In the following moments Rainbow burst into the air and smashed her fist into the side of Kil'jaeden's head, knocking him off to the side in the process, before she lashed out with her clawed feet and clawed hands, making sure to do a bit of damage to him over the course of a few seconds and then, once she was done with her assault on his armor and body, she knocked him down towards the deck of the ship, where he crashed into the metal and left a little indent where he collided with the ship, but as that happened he knelt for a moment and huffed as Rainbow landed in front of him. Spitfire and the others, on the other hand, gathered in the area that was behind Rainbow, mostly so they could watch what happened next since it looked like they might have bested Kil'jaeden and that meant it was only a matter of time until his Fel energy was devoured by Rainbow, while his soul was sent screaming into her Warblades, though what surprised all of them, especially given everything they knew about the demon in front of them, was that Kil'jaeden raised a hand for a few seconds, as if he was admitting defeat, which raised alarm bells as soon as it happened. "Okay... Okay, you win. You want my Fel energy?" Kil'jaeden stated, where the heroes and the others raised an eyebrow as he said that, because it was something that the Deceiver never said and meant, meaning he must have a secret agenda for all of them and it would likely be triggered once Rainbow took his power from his body, which would cripple him and also prevent him from using any of his powers against them, making killing him that much easier to do, though after he uttered those words Rainbow nodded a tiny bit, causing the demon to raise a hand towards his chest and actually pulled out his own Fel energy, which started to condense into a red crystal, "Fine, take it!" In that instant, as Rainbow gripped the crystal and literally ripped all of the Fel energy out of Kil'jaeden, who coughed and fell so that both knees happened to be resting on the deck of his ship, something interesting occurred as the ship they had been fighting on emerged from the Twisting Nether and appeared in the space just above Argus' atmosphere, allowing everyone to gaze upon the Fel corrupted planet that had been broken by Sargeras, as a chunk had been torn out of the planet and it was floating above the twisted surface, far away from the demons who might be ignoring it. A few seconds later Kil'jaeden, who took advantage of his enemies being distracted by what was happening around his ship right now, especially with Velen being shocked by the broken state of Argus, forced himself to stand and grabbed Rainbow while she was looking at Argus, though before she or the others had a chance to move he turned around, shifted the position of his arms, and then hurled her off the ship, with all the force that he could muster, apparently not caring that she still had his Fel crystal in her hands. The interesting thing was that he managed to push her off the ship and made her flare her wings once she was a little distance away from the edge of the ship, though that was when a Legion ship appeared to the right of the Deceiver's vessel and fired a beam of Fel energy right into Rainbow's chest, knocking her further away from the ship, making Spitfire wonder what in the world they were up to, even though that was when a number of vessels, eighteen by her count, warped out of the Twisting Nether a few seconds after the first one, meaning there were twenty Legion ships in the space above Argus. Not even a second later Kil'jaeden called for all of his forces to open fire on Rainbow, intending on killing her while she was in positioned inside the Twisting Nether, because she was more demon than pony at this point and if she died in this place she would perish like a true demon, where the area just beyond his deck lit up as a massive barrage of Fel blasts rained down on the area that Rainbow was standing in, meaning Spitfire and her allies would have to focus on Kil'jaeden, and end his life, before any of them worried about saving Rainbow from what was happening to her... but even as Spitfire came to that decision she also noticed a light coming from the middle of the barrage, meaning Rainbow was up to something. "Even if she uses my Fel energy, with the power of Archimonde and what she stole from the Avatar, that power will break her in no time," Kil'jaeden commented, where a smile appeared on his face as he watched all of his ships firing on where Rainbow was currently resting, meaning that he must have noticed that Rainbow had been in pain during their fight with the Avatar of Sargeras, even if she had found a way to work around the dark power that had been inside the construct and take his power for herself, and was banking on her absorbing the rest of the Fel energy so he could blast her to pieces, or something to that degree since Spitfire had no idea what was going on in Kil'jaeden's mind, "say goodbye to Rainbow Dash while you can, because soon there will be nothing left of her... and once she's taken care of, I'll turn the full might of my fleet on all of you." Normally this would be where Spitfire told Kil'jaeden that he was out of his mind, that there was no way he was going to bring down her and the rest of Azeroth's heroes, though she kept her mouth shut for a moment as she felt the Fel energy in the area shift for a few seconds as she noticed something interesting, an intense Fel aura had wrapped around where Rainbow was floating and it looked like she might be in the middle of channeling her power while defending herself, so if a blast rushed at her from one of the Legion ships she would fire one in return and cancel it out. Of course Rainbow had all three Fel crystals in front of her, possibly trying to overcome the vast power that was inside all three of them while trying to make sure nothing terrible happened to her, meaning she had some sort of plan in mind and was doing everything in her power to ensure that Kil'jaeden's plan failed in a spectacular fashion, though Spitfire was sure that the sparks coming from where her friend was floating had to be her own plan being put into action. In the next couple of seconds she found that all three of the Fel crystals cracked as Rainbow pulled all of the Fel power out of them and added it to her own pool of power, while sending Archimonde's soul screaming into the depths of her Warblades, before she shuddered and quickly collapsed after the power surged into her body, where she was positioned with her head facing towards the area that was below her and didn't seem to move as more incoming blasts were cancelled out before they could hit her, something that caused Kil'jaeden to frown for a moment before ordering the ships to just bombard her location. It was clear that he was growing impatient with this plan of attack, as if he had been expecting Rainbow to be dead at this point in time, instead of her being alive and withstanding every attack his fleet sent her way, and the increased assault was designed to push her to whatever her limits might be and kill her once her guard was broken under all the pressure she had to be facing, mostly so he could turn his attention to Spitfire and the rest of the heroes who were standing close to where he was standing at the moment, meaning once this event was done she and her allies could lash out at him again and bring him down before he did anything else. In the following moments more of the incoming blasts were cancelled out at an increasing rate, as if Rainbow might have overcome her new Fel energy and was ready to go on the assault at long last, especially since it looked like she have to be moving into a straight standing position, before a burst of energy, which must have come from one of her fists, rushed through the space between her and her target within a matter of seconds, giving Kil'jaeden no time to react as the attack struck him right in the middle of his chest and looked rather painful, given the look of pain on his face. Before he or any of the heroes could react to what was going on Rainbow let out what could have been a roar, or maybe it came from the bit of Fel energy that had been tied to the Avatar before she brought it down, and a surge of Fel energy emerged from where she was standing, like a maelstrom or galaxy of sorts forming around where she was floating, one that Spitfire was sure had a bit of heat to it for some reason, causing them to wonder what was going to happen in the next couple of seconds as the Deceiver observed what was going on right now. Based on the look on Kil'jaeden's face he was either in pain from Rainbow's attack or someone might be talking to him mentally, Sargeras no doubt if that was what he was going through, to which the demon lord flared his wings and took to the air once more, positioning himself so he could be above where his foe was currently standing, though Fel cracks were starting to form on his arms as he raised a hand towards the area above him, something that was followed by a sea of Fel energy appearing around his area. In that moment Spitfire knew what was going on without having to be told, Sargeras had to be watching what was going on right now and must have granted Kil'jaeden some of his Fel power, effectively turning him into another Avatar and resulted in the cracks that were forming all over his arms, showing that he couldn't contain the power his master was using, though this also meant that this surge of power was designed to destroy Rainbow while she was in the middle of what she was doing, as it appeared that she was calling all of the Fel energy of the maelstrom into her body, to which she held a hand out and stopped all of her allies from doing anything, as it didn't seem like Rainbow needed any assistance. A few seconds later a massive sphere of Fel energy appeared above Kil'jaeden's head, like a Fel sun, where he turned his hand towards where Rainbow was floating and faint waves of energy radiated from his right hand as he worked his new power on what Sargeras had given him, something that caused the mass of Fel energy to shrink before their eyes and condensed into a sphere of energy that rested in front of his hand, meaning he was going to send that attack straight at Rainbow and blast her into oblivion, before she had a chance to really defend herself. "Your life ends with this attack!" Kil'jaeden shouted, his voice echoing as he fired his attack down at where Rainbow was floating right now, even though his attack was the only one since the Eredar in control of his fleet seemed to have stopped attacking his enemy while they waited to see if he needed any assistance in beating her, where the heroes, Spitfire, Velen, Khadgar, and Illidan watched as everything unfolded before their eyes, as they knew that Rainbow didn't need help and if she did Spitfire would have moved to intercept the attack before it hit its mark. In the following seconds Rainbow vanished from where she had been floating and the condensed Fel sun disappeared not long after that, the Fel maelstrom disappearing in the process as the energy that was around Kil'jaeden did the same thing as his attack vanished, though as everyone tracked what was going on Spitfire noticed where Rainbow had gone, she was floating right behind the Deceiver and was surrounded by a silvery Fel green aura that seemed to be far stronger than the normal Fel aura she used, while Kil'jaeden's attack happened to be floating above her right hand. As Kil'jaeden turned to see what in the world was going on, while catching up to what was going on around him, Rainbow finished siphoning the rest of the Fel energy that had been inside the attack and crushed the sphere, though it also allowed everyone to see that she was covered in a silvery glow of some kind, to which Kil'jaeden raised his fist and swung at his target without delay, as he wanted to crush her before she had a chance to do anything, though what happened next was that Rainbow appeared in front of him, moving from one point to another in a flash. What happened in the following moments was that Rainbow dodged the attack with ease, doing a backflip of sorts to get out of the way, which was accompanied by a pair of punches that struck Kil'jaeden in both his face and his chest, causing him to stagger backwards for a few seconds, where he made sure to regain himself and lashed out with another burst of power so he could blast her into oblivion, something she took out without even moving, much to the surprise of those that were watching, before the Deceiver flared his wings while he rushed at her, intending on crushing her with all of his might. Of course that wasn't what happened, which had to annoy the demon lord more than he was willing to admit, rather Rainbow seemed to bypass his fist and appear behind him once more, now situated above where the heroes and Spitfire were standing, before a number of slashes struck Kil'jaeden, all at the same time, locking him in place for a few seconds before he went flying through the space beyond him and crashed into the side of one of his ships, causing him to cough up some blood as he found Rainbow turning to face where he was resting, with the glow starting to die down. What Spitfire discovered was that, for the most part, Rainbow looked the same, though the scales on her arms now ended at her elbows, where she had a Fel spike growing out of the area near her wrists and both of those new additions just so happened to stop after passing by her elbows, while it looked like her Warblades had remodeled themselves to fit on the new spikes and were connected to a metal band that wrapped around both of her wrists, though in addition to that they found that both of her leathery bat wings had changed, her right wing being red colored now, like Kil'jaeden's, while her left wing was blue, similar to Archimonde's color. The other changes Spitfire noticed was that Rainbow's hair had shifted as well, as she was now sporting rainbow colored flames on her head, like what happened to her tail in the past, and that her existing pair of horns, which had been coiled around her ears before this point in time, had been altered a bit as a new set of points had grown out of the existing pair and were now curved forward, more like a Dreadlord's horns, plus there was a singular curved horn in the middle of her forehead, one that was crystalline and had a Fel green color to it, and Rainbow's sclera were Fel green colored while her irises were now silver colored. "It would appear that Rainbow has reached her final demonic form... she is now Fel Incarnate," Illidan said, though he had a smile on his face as he witnessed what was going on, as he knew that Spitfire and Rainbow were the strongest Illidari he had ever trained, but this was far beyond everything he had been expecting when he took them under his wing, as at this point Rainbow as far stronger than she had been earlier, in fact she was probably stronger than Spitfire, only because she had taken a bit of Sargeras' dark power and survived the infusion of power, and once they found a good source of Light and Void energy he was sure Spitfire would become even stronger than Rainbow was. As he said that, and the heroes observed Rainbow's changes for a time, the battle resumed as Rainbow moved again, as in she flashed from where she had been floating earlier and rushed at where Kil'jaeden was resting, who forced himself out of the way before he was struck, where she struck the edge of the ship he had been knocked into and the sheer power of her new form caused an explosion that ended up tearing out a chunk out of the vessel in question, while knocking the ship off the path it had been traveling previously, causing the Deceiver to pick himself up as he faced Rainbow once more, no doubt debating what he should do next. He then shuddered for a moment, where Spitfire suspected that Sargeras had to be talking to him about this situation and likely wanted him to take down Rainbow, before rushing forward as he started to swing his fists and feet at her, finding that Rainbow appeared to be defending herself by blocking or parrying his attacks with ease, though what annoyed him right now was that it looked like his foe was focused on her while her body seemed to do all the work for her, as if she was relying on instinct alone, making him wonder how much power she had obtained after eating all the Fel energy that had been directed at her earlier. In fact Kil'jaeden was convinced that Rainbow had to be calm right now, despite all the anger she should be feeling towards him and the Legion, especially when he considered the amount of times that Azeroth, her allies, and her home planet have been threatened so far, though her calm nature didn't stop her from using her newly sharpened claws, as they were definitely sharper than they had been so far, or those new spikes on her arms, which were covered in her weapons now, to hack and slash into his body while they fought, but one thing he knew for sure was that he was fighting a losing battle right now, more than before Rainbow's transformation into her new form. When he threw his next punch, however, Rainbow raised her right arm and caught his fist like it was no big deal for her to even do such a thing, allowing her to kick him in the chest and knock him backwards, though as that went down Kil'jaeden opened his wings and hurled a volley of Fel meteors down on where his foe was floating at the moment, something that Rainbow took out by simply raising her left hand and fired a burst of her own energy at his attacks, tearing all of them apart in the process. After that Kil'jaeden spent what felt like a few minutes being knocked around the fleet he had summoned to destroy one of the Legion's most deadly enemies, as no matter what he did his attacks couldn't penetrate Rainbow's defenses, which convinced him that her instincts were stronger than he originally believed, before she bypassed one of his punches and dealt one to the side of his head, sending him down onto the deck he had been standing on when he was waiting for all of his enemies to arrive, and when he landed Rainbow appeared behind him and unleashed a beam of Fel energy that she used both hands to make, one that caused him to scream before collapsing to his knees... to which he sent one last order to his ship's captain, even though the rest of the fleet had been broken by Rainbow's terrifying might. "Our fates... are now one..." Kil'jaeden said, where he huffed for a moment as the ship shuddered for a moment, as it was now on a collision course for Argus' surface and would deliver the heroes of Azeroth into the Legion's hands, because if all of the demons attacked them at the same time he knew that not even Rainbow, with this godly power that transcended everything he and Sargeras knew about, would be able to survive an onslaught of that magnitude, though even as he said that he could feel his body breaking from the inside, as for his failure Sargeras was going to sacrifice him to take everyone in front of him down, or at least kill Spitfire and Rainbow, even though his soul would be snatched by the Warblades if Rainbow survived this event, "Argus will be your tomb." "Sorry, Kil'jaeden, but we're not planning on dying today," Khadgar replied, to which most of the group nodded their heads to show that they agreed with him, while at the same time Spitfire and Rainbow stood nearby in case the Deceiver tried to do anything funny, especially after what he did back when he tried to kill one of them with a rather cheap trick, to which he turned towards Illidan for a moment, something that caused Kil'jaeden to raise an eyebrow for a few seconds as he waited for either the ship to crash into Argus, him to explode, or them to do whatever they were doing. "Indeed, especially when we hold the key to all worlds!" Illidan stated, where he reached into the small sack he had been carefully holding onto since the forces of Azeroth assaulted the Broken Shore for the second time, to which he pulled out the Sargerite Keystone, something that caused Kil'jaeden's eyes to widen for a moment as he recognized it, before taking a second to think about the destination he wanted it to open to and focused on Azeroth for a moment, causing the Keystone to start spinning as it left his hand and headed into the space in front of them as it gathered power for a few seconds, only for it to burst open into a massive portal that revealed Azeroth on the other side, "Khadgar, take us home!" As Khadgar and the mages combined their Arcane energies, to make teleporting all of them to Azeroth that much easier to do, Spitfire watched as Velen approached where Kil'jaeden was resting, where it looked like the Deceiver might have given up at long last and was finally suffering for everything he had done since he, Archimonde, and most of the Eredar joined the Legion all those years ago, though she knew that the pair would have a short discussion before they teleported back to Azeroth and put the next stage of her plan into action. "Velen... I was always... envious of you." Kil'jaeden said, something that caught most of the heroes off guard since none of them were expecting someone like the Deceiver to utter them, though Spitfire felt that he actually meant them, though he ignored the looks he was getting from those who defended Azeroth as he focused on his former friend, as he wanted to get something off his chest while Velen was standing in front of him, before he returned to Azeroth with everyone else and continued to defend it from the rest of the Legion's forces, "Your gift... your faith... your vision. I never believed... that Sargeras could be stopped. Perhaps... you will prove me wrong." In that moment Khadgar called for everyone to get ready as the teleportation spell was cast, which started to transport all of them back to Azeroth, though before that reached him Velen raised his right hand and rested it on Kil'jaeden's forehead for a few seconds, like he was sharing a vision of some kind with the Deceiver, based on the fact that Spitfire noticed that a look of peace seemed to wash over Kil'jaeden's face, as if he was witnessing the fall of Sargeras or something, before they and the rest of the heroes vanished as Khadgar's spell teleported them back to Azeroth. As that happened Rainbow felt a shift in the Fel energy they were leaving behind and understood what had happened, Kil'jaeden likely exploded thanks to all the power that Sargeras had forced into his body, a punishment of sorts for failing to beat the heroes of Azeroth, which included her and Spitfire, before everyone appeared in one of the ancient ruins of Azsuna, where she felt the Deceiver's soul being sent screaming into her modified Warblades, confirming that he was dead at last. "Is everyone alright?" Khadgar asked, where he huffed for a few moments, as the power required to teleport through the portal the Keystone created, even with several Archmages assisting him in powering the spell, had taken a lot out of him, but based on what he could see everyone was just fine and that meant no one had been trapped on Kil'jaeden's ship while the Deceiver detonated, though that was when he heard a rumble and noticed that everyone was looking at the sky that was behind him, to which he turned and found Argus looming in the distance, the Keystone's portal creating a permanent gateway that linked the demonic home world to Azeroth, to which he turned his gaze towards Illidan for a moment, "What have you done?!" "Sometimes the hand of fate... must be forced." Illidan stated, referring to the fact that if they just sealed the Tomb, which cut off the Felstorm, the forces of Azeroth might go back to war against another enemy and not focus on tearing down the rest of Sargeras' forces, like if the Old Gods made a move or something, so by doing this they would be forced to focus on facing the Legion and doing nothing else, because the forces of Azeroth were at their strongest right now and the Legion, with both Archimonde and Kil'jaeden killed at long last, was at its weakest, meaning this was their only chance to take out the Legion and safeguard the rest of the universe. Spitfire and Rainbow nodded as they turned their attention to Argus, knowing that Sargeras was somewhere on the torn world that everyone was staring at right now, likely hiding and waiting for them to leave so he could travel to Azeroth in an attempt to claim it, since that had been his plan for the longest time and this gave him the opening to do so, though they knew that this was the final stage of their war with the Legion, the long awaited final act, and that they would need to do everything in their power to bring down the Dark Titan and his plans for the rest of the universe. > Interlude: The Vindicaar > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow continued to stare up at the imposing planet that was in the sky above Azeroth, as they were curious as to what the demons on the planet might be thinking about right now, seeing a massive rift open near Argus and reveal the prize that Sargeras was after, a world that could either doom the Legion or give them the power to burn the rest of reality if the Dark Titan corrupted the sleeping Titan, though even as both of them considered that Spitfire knew that Equus, her and Rainbow's home world, might have a slumbering World-Soul inside it, a sleeping Titan, and it might be just as strong, if not stronger, than Azeroth was. "I always knew that I would see Argus again, as the homecoming of the Draenei appeared time and again in my visions... but, to be honest, I never imagined seeing it like this." Velen commented, as he, like all of the others, was staring up at the sky and kept his gaze on the planet he was born, the one he used to call home before Archimonde and Kil'jaeden betrayed him, though it broke his heart to see how twisted it was, a planet so tainted by Fel energies that it was likely no longer the planet he and all of the remaining Draenei had left behind all those years ago, before he sighed, "There can be no doubt that the fates of my world and Azeroth are intertwined, not after we opened that portal for the Legion to use... but seeing my home planet like this makes me wonder if Argus be saved at this point. Or must we find that powerful being who wiped out Draenor and convince him to do the same to our former home, to allow it to be destroyed, as a sacrifice to stop the Dark Titan? Sadly, my visions on this issue are clouded, more uncertain than they have been in the past, and it seems that we must continue to forge our own destiny, like we have done since we started following Spitfire's suggestions to make a lasting peace between the Alliance and the Horde." "Still, the Sargerite Keystone tore through the fabric of reality with ease. Now the home world of the Legion looms before us, its armies poised to strike." Khadgar said, where he turned his attention towards the massive portal that the Keystone had created, as while he understood the power of the artifact, as Spitfire had described it at one point, it was another thing to witness that power for himself, especially since it didn't look like the portal was closing at any point in the near future, to which he considered something he hadn't thought about for some time, "Turalyon is out there somewhere... Alleria too, I hope. If we can find my old friends, perhaps we can find the Army of the Light as well, as they would be useful allies in our war against the Legion." "Actually, that's our plan of attack," Spitfire stated, to which she smiled for a moment, as she had kept most of the plan for their war against Argus a secret in case they never got this far, mostly to protect it and make sure the Legion didn't what all of them were planning, to which she turned her head from the air, while Rainbow continued to stare up at Argus, and just glanced over to Velen for a moment, even though Khadgar and all of the heroes glanced at her for a moment, curious as to what she was talking about, "Prophet, is the dimensional ship you were working on operational? Or do we need to use the Fel Hammer to do what I have in mind?" "The Vindicaar should be operational, we just need to check with Romuul," Velen replied, as he understood what Spitfire was asking him and knew the answer she was looking for, but this was the honest answer and there was nothing else he could tell her, to which he watched as Spitfire nodded her head and accepted his response without getting upset, though it didn't tell Khadgar and the others anything and he knew that it was best to leave this in Spitfire's hands, since she was the one whose plans had brought them this far, bringing down Kil'jaeden in the process, and he knew that they would be able to bring down the Legion if they continued to follow her plans. "Can someone please explain what you are talking about?" Vytheril asked, as he knew Spitfire enough to know that there was a plan of some kind that she hadn't told anyone about and that this was the first time they were hearing about it, even if they were learning about it by listening to a conversation that none of them were supposed to be a part of, but thanks to the fact that Argus was up in the air, and that it was only a matter of time until the Legion assaulted this planet again, he had a feeling Spitfire would tell them about what in the world was going on right now and that they needed to be patient so she could give them the information on everything she had planned before this point in time. "Not yet. Khadgar, call the leaders of our army and have them join us in Deliverance Point, as I'll tell you what's going on as soon as our forces are together again," Spitfire said, knowing that everyone wanted an explanation and that it was time for her to give them one, though at the same time she shifted her glance back at the rift for a few seconds, because while she was expecting the Keystone to do something like this, at least a temporary rift, what was in the space between Argus and Azeroth was beyond what she had been expecting to find when it was activated again, meaning Sargeras must have put a spell on it or something so it would do this when it was used near Azeroth. Khadgar nodded for a moment and summoned a sphere of Arcane energy, one that allowed him to speak with someone over long distances, and sent it over to the Broken Shore, where the leaders of each race would be waiting for them to emerge from the Tomb of Sargeras so one or more of them could figure out what was going on, as opening that rift was definitely not part of the plan, though as he did that Spitfire, Rainbow, and the heroes started to make their way back to Deliverance Point, knowing they didn't have a lot of time before the Legion made their move. She was sure that Anduin, at the very least, would be upset by the sudden arrival of the rift, and there might be a few voices among the other leaders who would do the same thing once a short period of time went by, though she was hopeful that they would listen to what she had to say and not break the alliance due to their actions, but after having seen how unified both factions were she had a feeling that neither side would be annoyed with her. The heroes pulled out their flight whistles, the personalized objects that allowed them to call their mounts out of a storage space that each one happened to be linked to, which was followed by a number of flying mounts, dragons and other creatures, filled the air as the heroes followed after Spitfire and Rainbow, who didn't need to use another creature like that since they still had their wings, to which the pair focused on flying to Deliverance Point and meeting up with the rest of their allies. Khadgar, of course, didn't have a mount of his own, rather he used the raven form that happened to be a skill that came with his powerful Arcane staff to fly through the air, whenever he didn't teleport from one place to another, and either of those options would be how he caught up with them once he was done telling Anduin the news, allowing Spitfire to focus on heading over to the Broken Isles once more so she inform the others as to what sort of plan she had been keeping from them and what the rift between Azeroth and Argus meant for all of them, since that was something everyone had to be worried about. It didn't take both of them long to reach the Broken Shore, given that they were close to the edge of Azsuna after Khadgar used his magic to teleport them off of Kil'jaeden's ship, though when Spitfire glanced down at the island she found that all sorts of individuals, despite the sudden arrival of Argus in the sky, were overjoyed by their victory over Kil'jaeden, while at the same time the remaining forces who served the Deceiver happened to be surrendering to her army, similar to what happened when her new Eredar allies betrayed the Legion to join them and, importantly, keep their souls safe since most of them knew that fighting Azeroth meant Rainbow would eat their souls if they perished near her. "Lady Spitfire, it is good to see that you were... successful... in taking down Kil'jaeden," Anduin said, speaking the moment both of them landed near the command center of Deliverance Point, even though he found that Spitfire was just fine and that Rainbow had undergone a transformation of sorts, meaning she had devoured enough Fel energy to change again, like she had done several times in the past, before he turned his gaze towards the demons who had surrendered to them, after the Tomb of Sargeras had been sealed by the Pillars of Creation, and then shifted his gaze at the rift between their world and a place he assumed was Argus, only to end up looking at them again, "though I don't think that gateway was part of your plan." "Don't worry, I'll explain things to you and the others," Spitfire replied, though while it looked like her allies were perfectly fine with the rift between worlds, almost as if they assumed this was part of her plan of attack and that she was going to attack Argus once Kil'jaeden had been dealt with, even if it mostly was and the permanent rift was the only odd thing that she hadn't planned on discovering, before she glanced down at the army that once served Kil'jaeden, who would either surrender to the Grand Army of Azeroth or deny her and perish as Rainbow devoured their Fel energy like she had done to all of the demons she had faced since her new power developed, "and I guess I'll see if the demons who worked under the Deceiver are willing to abandon the Legion as well, since having more allies from Argus might give us more bits of information on what to expect from our enemies." What she discovered was that every demon that had surrendered to her forces, which was still an odd thing to find since the forces of the Legion never did such a thing, looked like they were either terrified of facing Rainbow, once more telling her just how terrifying Rainbow's new power was to the demons, or even crying after realizing that they had been totally screwed, as a few Sayaad were actually crying and the arrival of Argus in the sky did nothing to calm them, before finding that all of Kil'jaeden's forces had decided to join up with those who betrayed the Legion previously, especially after they found out that the Deceiver was no more. She then discovered that Nixa, the smart Sayaad who had been attacked by her superiors when she and her forces encountered the demon inside the chamber that contained the Pillar pedestal for the Hammer of Khaz'goroth, had been nominated to lead Kil'jaeden's forces, meaning the demons who served the Deceiver recognized her for her intelligence, for choosing to stay alive in the face of facing her and Rainbow, but Spitfire suspected that there was more to Nixa than what she was seeing, like maybe she was an actual daughter of Xazariel, something that would actually explain why she was bustier, sexier, and more powerful than an ordinary Sayaad. With that done Spitfire made sure the demons who once served the Deceiver were willing to ally with the forces of Azeroth, or at least work with the Council of the Black Harvest like the other demons who betrayed the Legion, even though she noticed a few Pit Lords seemed annoyed about such a thing and Nixa reminded them that it was either this or become food for Rainbow, which appeared to be a real threat among demons at this point in time, something that caused the trio to frown and fall in line a few moments later, showing they would rather survive and not perish near Rainbow. After that she and the other leaders walked over to the command center of Deliverance Point, with most of the soldiers hanging out near where Elisande had opened the portals earlier, giving them some time to talk about the differences between their timelines or the events that had shaped their worlds and people, where Spitfire stopped a few moments later as the heroes gathered around them, all while Khadgar and Velen stood off to the side, no doubt talking to Romuul in the Exodar, to get a progress report on what was happening over there. "As you all know, we assaulted the Broken Shore with a simple plan in mind: use the Pillars of Creation to seal the Tomb, kill Kil'jaeden, and use the Sargerite Keystone to form a temporary gateway between Azeroth and Argus," Spitfire stated, as she decided to get to the heart of the situation and not beat around the bush, as many of them understood that they were here to seal the Tomb of Sargeras and kill Kil'jaeden, though not many of her allies knew what she had planned for after all of this was done and it was time to tell them exactly what she had planned, because Sargeras had forced her hand given what happened to the Keystone, to which she gestured to the rift for a moment, "however, as you can see, the Keystone has done far more than what we intended for it to do, as we planned on closing the temporary gateway after returning to Azeroth, and I suspect that Sargeras created the Keystone with the purpose of it being delivered to Azeroth if the Legion was pushed to the point where he lost Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, so it could form a more permanent gateway between this world and Argus. My plan was to test the Keystone, to open the way between worlds, and be sure it could bring us to Argus, so that way we could link it to the power of the Fel Hammer, which is the Legion ship the Illidari have been using as our base of operations since the assault on the Black Temple, and launch an assault on Argus with the Draenei sending a ship of their own to join the Army of the Light... but, given that our allies on Argus might not accept having a Legion ship as an ally, Velen and I decided to make sure his new dimensional ship, the Vindicaar, was ready for the eventual assault on the Legion's main base of operations." "I understand why you would keep this a secret, so the Legion didn't figure out what you have planned," Anduin said, as he agreed with Spitfire's desire to make sure none of them knew about the plan to take the fight to Argus, even if they had an idea that she would have launched an invasion on Velen's corrupted and broken home world at some point in time, mostly since her desire was to make sure Sargeras didn't try to stop them, before he considered what might be going through her mind at the moment, "How many soldiers do you need for the assault on Argus?" "For right now, we're transporting the heroes of the Order Halls to Argus, to scout a few things out before calling in most of our forces," Spitfire replied, though at the same time she glanced over at Rainbow for a moment, who had moved off to the side and seemed to be in the middle of swinging her arms and legs at an imaginary foe, like she was testing out the new power she had unlocked during her battle with Kil'jaeden, before turning her gaze towards Velen for a second, as it looked like he and Khadgar were done talking with Romuul, "right now, however, most of our forces will be staying here, to defend Azeroth in case the Legion launches any assaults while we're busy tearing into the demons that call the twisted and broken world home. Prophet, what did Romuul tell you?" "The Vindicaar is ready to depart, we just need to head to the Exodar to get up to it," Velen stated, where the Draenei who were nearby seemed excited for what he and the others had planned, as it meant traveling back to Argus and seeing just how twisted and broken it was with their own eyes, which would fuel their desire to tear down the Legion and break the Dark Titan's plans, whatever they might be, though as he said that Yrel stepped up and took a moment to tap the bottom end of her warhammer on the ground, like he would do to grab everyone's attention, reminding him that the alternate version of him had been training her before the events of Draenor, before Spitfire and Rainbow showed up, had struck the people of the alternate Outland. "Allow us to lend you the aid of our ships as well, as we can use the Exodar... no, maybe we should call it the Axador so we don't get get confused... to house most of those who will assault Argus," Yrel said, showing that she was ready for the final battle against the Legion and those who followed the Dark Titan, especially after everything they had seen since departing from Argus and joining up with the Grand Army of Azeroth, where her Draenei, the ones from Draenor, nodded not even a few seconds later, confirming that all of them were ready to assault Argus and deal a death blow to the Legion at long last, especially with the powerful allies that were on their side. "And we shall throw in the might of Aurobos, the ship that aided the High Priests and Highlords in defending Netherlight Temple, and the reborn Genedar, recovered from Outland," another voice said, where a Dreadlord appeared nearby and walked over to where everyone was standing, though the reason that Spitfire and everyone else remained still was due to the fact that this particular demon happened to be an ally, as he was a member of the Army of the Light and his body had been reborn in the Light, complete with his armor following suit, showing all that he was serious about bringing down the Legion and that he stood on Azeroth's side, while his words meant there were more dimensional ships that could be used to assault Argus, before he saluted Spitfire by resting a fist over his heart. This Lightforged Nathrezim was Lothraxion, High Commander of the Army of the Light, which meant he served under both Turalyon and Alleria, not to mention Xe'ra for that matter, and according to what Spitfire had been told he had been sent to Azeroth to help break the Legion's invasion, even helping to permanently kill another Dreadlord, Balnazzar, during the attack on Netherlight Temple, though since he had gone through the effort to name two more vessels meant Velen must have told him about her plans and that he was trustworthy. Not a few seconds later a set of slow musical chimes sounded for a moment as Spitfire found one more ally she hadn't been expecting to find, there was a silvery white Naaru floating in the nearby area, who had to be A'dal, the Naaru who controlled Shattrath and had been part of the reason that the heroes of the Alliance and the Horde had marched on the Black Temple and killed Illidan all those years ago, but based on all she was feeling right now Spitfire could tell that A'dal was sorry for what happened in the past and was here to lend them the aid of Tempest Keep, the set of four ships Kael'thas had stolen from the Naaru before his eventual death. Tempest Keep's components were the Botanica, a light blue ship that was plant based and likely provided all the food for the people who lived on the ships, a red ship called Arcatraz, a prison ship that contained demons and minions of the Void while the Naaru looked for ways to permanently kill them, the Mechanar, a light purple ship that was more advanced than the others and contained all sorts of machinery, and the Eye, the larger structure that served as the command center for all four of them and likely contained the warp controls for all four ships. In fact, based on what she knew, the Exodar was supposed to be the fifth and final part of A'dal's fortress, the housing and common section of the entire fleet before it had been crashed into part of Azeroth, though the fact that A'dal was here, offering the fleet to them, meant he likely knew how dangerous she and Rainbow were and that if he assisted her in her plans it would show her that his forces were allies and not more targets that needed to be taken out at some point in the future. With Spitfire understanding that her fleet was actually much larger than she originally planned, and would be even larger once they met up with the main ship of the Army of the Light, she made sure that most of Azeroth's forces, as in those that were from the alternate timelines, remained here on Azeroth to defend her from any demons that might be coming their way, while Khadgar opened a portal to Azuremyst Isle, where the Exodar rested, allowing the heroes of Azeroth to head over to the island in question while she made sure their allies spread out to protect this world. Of course she made sure to talk to and divide the Illidari into two groups, one half that would be joining them for the assault on Argus while the other half would be staying here with the rest of the defenders, to capture the souls of any demons who dared to attack Azeroth, though during that time she found one more addition that surprised some of their allies, as Magni wished to join them as they headed to Argus, where Spitfire suspected that he was going to try and speak with the corrupted planet, to see if they were dealing with more than one Titan. It was an interesting theory, and would certainly explain why Sargeras had a vast interest in the world of the Draenei, but for right now there was nothing telling them one way or another, to which she just decided to let him come with them and do his mission once they were sure they had a safe place for him to work his new power, though that was when she noted that everyone was fine with her assignments, both the soldiers from the various alternate timelines and those from this world, before she and Rainbow headed through Khadgar's portal and teleported over to Azuremyst Isle. Resting up in the air above the Exodar was another dimensional ship that was made by the hands of the Draenei and based on the designs of the Naaru, back when O'ros was alive, made out of whatever metal that went into all of the dimensional ships that existed and out of purple crystals that seemed to be powering most of the systems that were inside the ship, where Spitfire and Rainbow found that it was somewhat smaller than the Exodar, though it was easy for them to tell that it was the Vindicaar. After noticing the Vindicaar, and that it appeared to be waiting for everyone to climb aboard while Romuul completed the last of the checks to be sure it was fully operational, Vindicator Boros, the one Velen had left in charge of making sure all new arrivals were directed down into the depths of the Exodar, the Vault of Lights to be exact, though as they headed into the depths Spitfire found that all sorts of Draenei, both those who followed Velen and those who followed Yrel, were in the middle of preparing for their assault on Argus and finishing whatever rituals they were up to, before they finally found out where Velen was waiting for everyone to gather. "Fellow Draenei! Champions of Azeroth! It is as Spitfire says, the time has come for us to invade Argus!" Velen loudly said, raising his voice so everyone aboard the Exodar could hear what he had to say, those who had been here for a long time and those who were just arriving with Spitfire's group, though it was easy to see that most of the individuals who were in this place were excited and ready for the chance to retaliate against the Legion, especially after everything the Draenei had been through since they were forced to leave their home world, "We will save Azeroth, and the rest of the universe, from Sargeras and his foul Legion!" "Indeed we shall, because in their desperation the Legion will make a mistake and we'll exploit it," Spitfire replied, though as she said that they found that Velen and a few others were in the middle of channeling a bit of their power into a golden crystal that was floating in front of the Prophet, which had to be linked to the Vindicaar, to which she weaved her power through the air for a moment and watched as the empowering procedure succeeded within a few seconds, as they took a moment to watch as the crystal was replaced with a triangular shaped metallic device that opened without wasting even a single second, where she had to assume that it was already connected to the Vindicaar, "and with all of the dimensional ships in our new fleet, even if we only planned on one being used in the first place, we'll be able to show Sargeras and his forces that it is time for the Legion to be destroyed at long last." "Sadly, even with the aid of Yrel's forces, it'll take too long for the Exodar to be restored, so we'll have to resort to using the Vindicaar, our instrument of retribution, against the Legion," Velen stated, where the Draenei and other forces cheered for a few moments, once more showing that they were overjoyed to have a chance to bring down the Legion and make them pay for the crimes they committed since Sargeras shattered Mardum, which had resulted in him creating his foul army and signaled the start of his crusade to burn all of creation, but before he said anything else he stepped onto the open beacon and vanished, teleporting up to the Vindicaar. Not even a few seconds later Spitfire and the others started to walk onto the beacon as well, allowing the device to warp all of them up into the first room, which had a decent size for supplies and whatever weapons that might be aboard this ship, of the Vindicaar, where she stepped up to the next chamber and found a massive chamber which appeared to serve as the command center for the entire ship, two tables that might be important in the future, magic that lingered in the air and likely connected to rooms for people to sleep in, and a glass window that allowed them to see out into the area that was around the ship, not to mention a few interesting stands that might be explained once they started their assault on Argus and the demons that happened to be calling the world home. Lothraxion joined them for a time, to oversee what was going on in the Vindicaar and how many soldiers would be joining the fight, before heading over to his ship to make sure his forces were ready to depart for Argus at long last, while Velen walked over to the main console so he could speak with Romuul about their ship, granting everyone some time to get ready for their departure as the heroes spread out and some even took a seat on the floor to rest up a little before they reached the demon infested world. Spitfire, on the other hand, stopped at the very front of the Vindicaar and glanced around the air that was around their dimensional ship, as it quickly became clear that all of the other vessels were now resting nearby, waiting for her to give the command to start their assault on Argus, though it was nice to see that A'dal and the others hadn't been lying to her, they wanted to lend a hand and the addition of these ships meant they would be heading to Argus with a force that was far stronger than she originally planned. Of course the plan was simple, as soon as they reached the surface of the corrupted planet they would be looking for the Army of the Light, to join forces with Xe'ra's forces, though once such a thing came to pass the forces of Azeroth would lash out at whatever demons might be in their way as they figured out what sort of plans Sargeras had in store for the rest of the universe, even though it was possible that Turalyon might have some useful information for them to act on and might change her plan of attack to some degree. It wasn't long before Romuul determined that all of their forces were accounted for, those that were coming with Spitfire and Rainbow, causing Velen to make another comment about how their invasion would begin once they found the Army of the Light and joined forces with them, where it was clear that he might be in shock due to the fact that he and the rest of his people were actually heading back to their home world, though when Illidan walked down one of the curved ramps that lead down to the main chamber, from the entry chamber to be exact, Velen had Romuul check the ship once more as he turned his attention to the console as Romuul departed for a few moments. "Prophet, I know you have visions that are granted to you by the Light, but it is time for you to forge your own destiny and make a stand," Illidan commented, meaning he must have been thinking about all of the information that he learned over the years and knew that, while Velen had ensured the safety of his followers while leaving behind those who decided to serve the Legion, the Prophet was one of the more passive individuals and usally didn't make a stand when he faced down the demon who chased him across the stars, or at least that was the general idea that he got and he wanted their ally to get serious, since Argus was a dangerous place now and he needed to be ready to protect himself, "the visions didn't help you all that much in the past, so I would say that it is time for you to forge your own path." Velen looked like he wanted to reply to what Illidan had said, even though he did understand part of his statement and remained silent for a time, keeping quiet as he debated things inside his mind, before Romuul approached them not even a few moments later and informed them that the Vindicaar was ready, as in the systems were operational, the weapons they installed were ready to be used against whatever demons might be waiting on Argus, and that their forces, those that were on this ship and the others that were around them, were ready to depart. With that information in hand Velen took a moment and turned towards Spitfire, who had been staring up at Argus while listening to what was going on around her, before she gave the order for them to begin as she pulled herself away from the window and came to a stop a couple of seconds later when she reached the right side of the console, with Velen and Romuul in the center while Illidan stood off on the left of the device, even though all of them were focused on what was going to happen next, even though most of their allies, like Yrel and Khadgar, were standing near the backside of the main chamber. Once everyone was in position Romuul activated the console and they remained silent for a time as the Vindicaar rose into the air for a moment, which was followed by the dimensional fleet doing the same thing, before a bit of Light energy gathered around the ship for a couple of seconds, as the warp drive was activating, which was followed by them surging towards Argus' surface while the ship looked like a Light meteor, meaning it was a Light meteor shower when one considered the other ships that were in Spitfire's fleet. Of course it didn't take long for them to actually warp through the space between Azeroth and Argus, as if the first movements were designed to gather additional power for the warp drive, and a few moments later they appeared above the surface of the Fel corrupted world, close to an area Velen claimed was known as Krokuun, or had been known by that name before Sargeras took over his planet and was due to him having no idea if it had been renamed, though as the Vindicaar came to a stop in the air the rest of the fleet appeared behind them, each at the ready in case the Legion even made an attempt to strike them. "So, where should we start our search for the Army of the Light?" Illidan asked, since he knew that Velen and Lothraxion had been talking about this long before Spitfire came up with her plan to assault Argus, likely due to the Prophet feeling that it was time for them to attack the demons instead of waiting for them to come back to Azeroth at some point in the future, and that meant that they must have come up with an area that would serve as their rendezvous, or at least they should have gotten that far before the assault on the Tomb of Sargeras. In that moment, as if in response to his question, a glowing light appeared in the distance and a large dimensional ship, as large as Tempest Keep and possessing a golden coloration, emerged from its hiding spot, as it had been hiding behind a Fel corrupted mountain that allowed them to hide from the Legion for some time, something that caused the Draenei to breath a sigh of relief as they laid eyes on it, and even Spitfire, who didn't know the same of the vessel, understood that it was the vessel they were looking for, especially since Velen was happy to see it. "The Xenedar... wait, something about this situation seems wrong." Velen said, his joy turning to confusion as he felt that something was off about this situation, or maybe it was a partial vision of sorts that the Light gave him, though as they watched the large dimensional ship move out into the open a massive blast of Fel energy, coming from a siege camp that was down in an area below their fleet, surged forward and struck the Xenedar right in the front of the ship, causing it to spin and fall into the ground, where it dig into the ground, crashed into the side of the mountain it had been using as its cover, and left a trail of golden energy behind, causing him to pound his staff against the floor, "Heroes, the time has come for us to bring down the Legion... the last battle for Argus has begun!" As the heroes and soldiers of Azeroth cheered, as they were eager to bring down the Legion at long last and make them pay for their crimes against the rest of the universe, Spitfire and Rainbow paused for a moment to stand near the window and stared out at the Fel corrupted world, as this was what they had been trained for, the eventual assault on Argus, and both of them were glad they had made it this far, to see the mission of the Illidari be realized at long last, as it was time to bring Sargeras' plans down and toppling the Dark Titan, which would come after they broke the Legion and did whatever additional objectives might be revealed in the very near future. > Argus: Invasion's Beginning > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We must strike them first, as the next blast from that weapon will do some serious damage if it hits us," Illidan stated, as he knew that a lot had gone into making the Vindicaar, given that the Draenei had spent a long time building it for this point in time, and he knew that they would hate to see it be damaged in some manner, by the weapons of the Legion, though as he said that there was one other thing he didn't even bother to talk about, as he knew that Rainbow could easily devour the Fel blasts before the Legion attacked one of their ships, even though he could see that some were glancing towards Spitfire, as if looking to her for an order of some kind. "Indeed, which means we need to destroy their siege camp," Spitfire replied, though as she said that Velen had Romuul fire a beacon down to the surface of Argus, one that would land outside the camp in question and serve as a point for them and their forces to teleport down to the edge of the camp, allowing the forces of Azeroth to assault the Legion and start their invasion of Argus, even though she knew that with Rainbow's power, and her own might, the siege camp would perish in no time and the demons would be sent running from this area, granting them some peace for a time before they focused on the other twisted sections of Argus, "Come, let us start this invasion." Romuul nodded his head as Velen, Yrel, Illidan, and a few of their forces joined Spitfire and Rainbow in the middle of the Vindicaar's main chamber, where Spitfire noticed that Lothraxion was carrying Xe'ra's core, before the Chief Artificer took a moment to press something on the command console, which also served as the controls for the navigation systems, and all of them warped down to the surface of Argus, as not a few seconds later Spitfire and the others were standing on the twisted ground, which happened to be near a chasm to their left and a path that headed into the siege camp. Spitfire found a good number of Fel structures in the area that the potent blast of Fel energy had come from, where she spotted the weapon that knocked down the Xenedar not even a few moments ago, a strange circular device that was connected to part of the ground, some ruins that belonged to the Eredar before they had been corrupted by Sargeras, some weapons that looked like the Fel Devastators the Legion liked to use against their enemies, and some demons who were supposed to be guarding this area, such as a number of Eredar and a couple of Eredar Brutes. Based on what she was feeling these demons were definitely stronger than the ones who had been sent to assault Azeroth in the past, meaning Sargeras must have ordered the more powerful demons to stay on Argus to oversee his crusade, or whatever his reasoning was for what he had done since taking over this world, where Illidan gripped his warglaives as Velen raised some of his energy to block an attack that one of the Eredar sent at them, showing the forces of Azeroth that the demons of Argus wanted them dead and that they were willing to attack before anyone else was ready to do battle. Not even a second later Spitfire raised her hand for a moment and waved it towards the demons that were in front of them, causing the heroes of Azeroth to start their advance as they marched forward and descended into the siege camp, though as that happened she also beckoned for the fleet to start moving as well, where Romuul and the other commanders opened fire on the couple of demonic ships that were hanging out nearby, sending blasts of Light or Arcane energy at their targets as the Legion ships started to pull out of the area, showing that this wasn't something the demons were expecting to encounter. "We've barely started our invasion and already the demons are pulling away," Spitfire commented, though as she said that she had the feeling that the demons were swarming where the Xenedar, to capture or kill the forces of that followed Xe'ra, possibly even take and smash whatever remained of her body, to which she focused on what was going on as Illidan took a step forward and parried an incoming attack from one of the Eredar Brutes, which was impressive and showed her that he was just as strong as he had been in the past, even though Gul'dan's ritual had empowered his body, before she took a moment to glance at Rainbow, who stared at the demons, "Rainbow..." "Killing demons, got it!" Rainbow stated, where she didn't bother waiting for a response as she rushed into the area that all of their allies were fighting in and started to hack her way through the Eredar that were in her path, while using her brand new power when she reached the Eredar Brutes, causing the air to shudder when she parried their incoming attacks and lashed out with her own, though that was when a female Eredar, tall like the Brutes and possessing a pair of leathery bat wings, rushed at Rainbow and pushed her into the air, causing them to do battle with each other while being away from all of the heroes, meaning neither of them had to worry about casualties. "That must be a Doommaiden, a rather powerful Eredar who likely followed the path Kil'jaeden took," Spitfire said, though she wasn't even surprised by the fact that Rainbow wanted to cut down some demons and didn't seem at all interested in waiting to see what sort of plan she might have in mind, as she had been planning on cutting Rainbow loose and sending her on a rampage across Argus, just to see what sort of trouble her friend could get into and how many demons would die in the process, so she was totally fine with this and was sure that Rainbow would catch up with her and the others once all of her enemies were dead on the ground, to which she sighed for a moment, "Velen, Illidan, I think its time that we moved out and joined the battle as well." Not a few seconds later she and Illidan rushed forward and swung their weapons at the demons in front of them, cutting into the sides of the Eredar that dared to stand in their way, while Spitfire spun around and slashed at an Eredar Brute that was standing between where they had been standing and where the heroes were currently fighting, though as she killed the demon she found a number of Broken, the twisted Draenei that were like Akama, who seemed to be weakened from some of the Eredar that had been in this area before their arrival, though since he seemed to look more like a sage, which were important to both the Draenei and Broken, Spitfire walked over to him while Velen and Illidan continued to advance on the area the siege weapon rested in. "Help me... help my people... beaten... left within death's grasp..." the Broken sage said, his voice sounding like he was very desperate right now and Spitfire couldn't blame him for feeling like this when she considered how the Eredar, and by that she meant those who didn't know the terror that Rainbow installed in all sorts of demons, treated others, where she took a moment to tap into her powers and weaved her healing energies over the poor individual that was in front of her, as this would allow him to move once more and he seemed surprised by what was going on, though he bowed his head and just pulled out a water skin that likely had something that would help the rest of his enslaved people. As soon as Spitfire had the water skin in her possession she stepped forward and continued to move forward, finding that a few Eredar tried to blast her into the ground with their magic and decided to surprise them by weaving a bit of her own Arcane energy into small orb sized blasts, which she sent out to cancel out the incoming attacks that were coming right at her and smashed her foe's magical attacks apart in seconds, something that caused a look of surprise to grace the faces of the demons that had tried to attack her. Such a thing allowed her to swing her Twinblades and cut down her targets with ease, causing both of the Eredar to hit the ground not a few seconds later, to which she turned her attention towards the Broken slaves that were scattered around this ruined place and proceeded to give each of them the water skin, and she made sure to use a bit of her healing powers to make sure each of them were able to leave this area without drawing the attention of the demons to them. Spitfire noted that the Broken seemed to fade into the darkness on the outskirts of this ruin, once they were sure that they were safe and sound, meaning there had to be a hideout of some kind for them near them and that it might be worth speaking to the now freed individuals, especially since the first Broken must have been the leader and he might be willing to speak with her and her allies once they found a moment to speak with them, but as she thought about that she turned her focus back to the enemies in front of her as the demons fell to the might of those who protected Azeroth. Eventually she stopped messing with the Broken, as the water skin was empty and she had saved all twelve of the individuals who had been trapped here, allowing her to turn her attention towards the devastators that were nearby as the heroes damaged the Fel crystals that were protecting them, something that allowed Romuul to fire a burst of Light energy down on each machine and utterly obliterated each weapon that the Legion had placed in this area to take down the Vindicaar, opening the way for the fleet to move further into Argus as she turned her attention over to the main siege weapon, in an area that had no demons around it. While she did that, however, one of the surviving Eredar chuckled for a moment and claimed that the Antaen would wipe all of them out in the next couple of seconds, not that it mattered since the death knight who stood near her cut her down and moved to assist all of the other heroes in purging this area of demons while Velen's main guards, the Chosen as they were called, assisted them in making this section of Argus safe, for the time being, allowing Spitfire to come to a stop near Velen and Illidan, who happened to be staring at the siege machine. "Let us destroy this foul machine while we still have the chance." Velen stated, because they had no way of knowing when the demon who was in charge of this section of Argus would send reinforcements to stop Spitfire's forces in their tracks, something he hoped didn't come to pass since this was the strongest the forces of Azeroth have been and he didn't want to imagine what might happen if the heroes were pushed back, hence why he turned his attention towards the device that was in front of them. "How strange... the Legion has decided to forgo posting guards this close to their weapon..." Illidan commented, as they knew that most structures and weapons that were part of the Legion's arsenal were always protected, regardless of what world the demons happened to be attacking, including those that were defenses for a demon lord's base of operations, like Spitfire had seen back in Marduum when it was still under the control of the Legion, though as he said that he took a moment to grip his weapons in case this was a trap of some kind. "No, there is something more to what we're seeing," Spitfire replied, as she could feel it in the air, without having to be told anything about this weapon, a device that none of them had seen in the past, though after saying that she switched to her Spectral Sight for a few seconds and stared at what was in front of them, seeing a massive demon resting under the stone ground and that it happened to be waiting for something to happen, something that caused what the Eredar had said to click in her mind as she gripped her Twinblades, "this is no ordinary siege weapon..." In that moment, before she could finish her statement, a massive arm burst out of the ground as the demon, the Antaen, started to pull itself out of where it had been resting for some time, showing them that the siege weapon was actually on his head and seemed to be some sort of crown, while demonstrating that this type of demon had the power to use its Fel energy to sink and rise out of the ground whenever it wanted, meaning it could do the same thing in other worlds, before it pulled both of its feet out and stood at its full height, which was easily as tall as the Vindicaar was. Once the Antaen, who appeared to be a male demon based on what Spitfire and the others could see, was above the ground he started to lash out at them with his full might, swinging his clawed hands and fists at them as Spitfire and Illidan parried the attacks with their weapons, all while Velen created an area for them to be safe in or be healed in if they stepped into it, which Spitfire knew made sense given that he was a priest and didn't have many spells that could hurt their enemies, though in the end his current spell was switched to being just a healing area. The reasoning for such a thing was mostly due to the fact that the Antaen readied his power and proceeded to loose a volley bombardment on them, raining all sorts of Fel energy down on the area they were standing in, though Spitfire used her own energy to redirect his attacks and sent them into the air, as she knew that Rainbow would grab them and snack on them while she finished taking out the Doommaiden she was fighting at the moment, before she flashed up into the air and swung her weapons at the demon. The Antaen was strong, as his might was equal to the might of her base form, something that interested her as she continued to block incoming attacks and dodge others as he focused solely on taking her down, as he seemed to be ignoring Velen and Illidan for the most part, though eventually she found an opening and bypassed the Antaen's outstretched hand, as he tried to punch her into one of the rock peaks around the ruins, before she swung her left Twinblade and released a burst of energy that cut right into her target's neck, a wave of energy that ended up taking off the demon's head, which crashed into the area to their left as the body fell backwards and she sent the soul screaming into her weapons. "It would seem that we need to be more careful during our assault," Velen commented, though this once more confirmed that Spitfire was one of the strongest beings in their army, not counting Rainbow and her strange new power, and that all of them would have a mcuh harder time conquering Argus without the pair of demon hunters aiding them in their quest, but after he said that Spitfire landed nearby and he took a moment to glance in the direction she happened to be looking in, the direction the Broken had used to escape this place, and he could tell they were thinking the same thing, which did cause him to chuckle a little, "Thanks to the combined might of the Vindicaar and the other dimensional ships we didn't sustain many losses, if any at all given how well everyone worked together, but even then I think we should seek out the Broken and see if they are willing to join up with us, or just share information to take down the Legion, as Lothraxion told me that the Army of the Light recruited survivors of the Legion's crusade into their ranks, to bolster their forces for all of the future battles, and we might get somewhere by attempting the same thing." "While you do that I will return to the Vindicaar and prepare for the inevitable counterattack... if the Legion can muster it, after witnessing the start of our invasion," Illidan added, his tone revealing that he was hoping for some of their enemies to attack this area, or do something after witnessing the assault that had torn apart the first demon controlled section of Argus, though Spitfire agreed with him, that someone needed to keep an eye on whatever the Legion might be doing and prepare their forces for a potential counterattack, just in case such a thing happened, and as he turned to leave Rainbow slammed her foe into the ground in the middle of the area they had passed through a few moments ago, revealing that the Doommaiden was dead and that she had likely stolen her power. Spitfire said nothing to that as Rainbow joined her and Velen as they headed over to where the Broken had been seen, as it appeared that there was a passage between two Fel mountains that a large red colored Fel Reaver was patrolling, which seemed stronger than the ones back in Outland, though as they did that Spitfire knew that Rainbow had sent the soul of the Doommaiden screaming into her Warblades and that none of them would be seeing her again, allowing her to focus on the task at hand as they followed after Velen. While they walked Velen explained that there were three groups of Eredar that reacted to Sargeras and the pact that would damn most of his kind, the first being those who willingly followed both Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, the second being those that joined him and fled from Argus with the Naaru's assistance, and the third were those who initially refused to leave their home world, only to discover the truth of what Velen had seen in his visions, that he was telling the truth, but were trapped on this planet and had to adapt to everything that happened to Argus, making Velen wonder how in the world they had survived for so long, against all odds. He also informed them that he was happy that they were with him as he followed after the Broken, as many had seen Spitfire in action, including the fact that many had been healed by her, while also having witnessed the power that Rainbow commanded as she tore one of the Doommaidens down, so he was hopeful that the Broken would listen to them and see that they weren't enemies, as it would grant them a foothold of sorts so they could continue their invasion of Argus and, eventually, reach the Xenedar to assist the Army of the Light. Once the three of them reached an opening that lead down into a decent sized cavern, one that was large enough to be a base of operations or camp that was also covered by the mountain so the Legion didn't find out where they were hiding immediately, Velen walked down the path after Spitfire and Rainbow made sure no demons were in the area around the entrance, even though Rainbow knew that there was a demon infested area nearby, one that should be cleared out before any of their ships moved closer to where the Xenedar rested, though as they walked down the path all of them noticed some shadows moving. Not a few moments later they reached what appeared to be a campfire and Spitfire noticed that there were a number of areas carved out to make sleeping areas, along with places for weapons to be placed, though as Velen came to a stop, so he could glance around the hovel, as he called the area, a number of Broken stepped out of the shadows and happened to be holding their weapons at the ready, just in case any of them tried anything funny, before Spitfire noticed the sage who must be the leader of the Broken, though at the same time she detected a faint Light energy coming from nearby, which she was sure they would learn about after speaking to the Broken. "Velen." the Broken leader said, his voice sounding like he was upset after seeing Velen with Spitfire, though at the same time he seemed a little concerned about Rainbow, since Spitfire could see that some of the Broken were worried an attack might come now that a demon was inside their home, likely believing she might be part of the Legion, but for right now it looked like the sage was going to speak with Velen and no one else, to get over whatever had happened between him and Velen in the past, "At long last, you have returned to the home that you and the others abandoned." "That voice... Hatuun? Is that you?" Velen asked, showing Spitfire and Rainbow that he might know the figure, which meant the Broken sage was telling the truth and that they did know each other, and was confirmed not even a few moments later as a nod came from the Broken, where they found that this information caused Velen to pause for a second as he thought about all of this and what it might have meant for those who fled with him, before he focused on Hatuun, "How did all of you survive this hell for so long?" "We changed, just as Argus did. We endured." Hatuun replied, where a number of the Broken nodded their heads to show that he was telling the truth, even though Spitfire knew that there was no reason for them to do such a thing since she, at the very least, believed what the Chieftain was saying, for that was what Hatuun was since he happened to be the leader of everyone who stayed on Argus after the Naaru ensured Velen's forces safely escaped the planet, leading to Archimonde and Kil'jaeden seeking the Draenei to make them pay, "What choice did we have, when we could no longer flee with those who followed you and we had no desire to join the foul Legion?" "I have no wish to fight you, Hatuun, nor make your people our enemies, for we have come to declare war on the Legion and end their crusade," Velen stated, though this did give him a lot to think about, as he had long assumed that those who ended up trapped on Argus had either been slain by the demons or forcefully corrupted into Eredar, though now he knew that more of his people were alive, even if they didn't feel anything but dislike for him and the Naaru who saved those that became the Draenei, and made him take a second to wonder if there were more Broken scattered around this world and hiding like Hatuun's people were currently doing, "and we would like to offer you a chance to get your revenge on those who both Archimonde and Kil'jaeden when they joined the Legion all those years ago." "You turned your back on your people, Prophet... your world. Such betrayal should be answered with death," Hatuun said, his tone revealing that he was still annoyed with Velen about everything that happened in the past, something that would take some time for him to get over since Spitfire knew that the Naaru must have prevented Velen from returning to save those who had been unfairly left behind all those years ago, before he sighed for a moment as he shifted his gaze towards her and Rainbow for a moment, "but your ally saved many of us from the Legion's grasp, while her friend killed those who served the Legion... perhaps you have changed, especially since you fought some demons as well." "I was afraid that I might have to stop a fight from breaking out, though it would seem that my aid is not needed," a brand new voice said, one that Spitfire recognized since it had come from Light's Heart when she, Rainbow, and Khadgar had found that it held a message for them, where a human in golden plate armor, with elegant crystalline pieces embedded in sections of each piece that glowed with the Light, stepped out of one of the smaller tunnels and approached them, though it looked like he carried a greatsword as his weapon and it rested on his back, though it appeared to be broken in half and the upper part had been reforged by either the Naaru or the Light, "Prophet Velen, it is good that you and your allies have arrived, as now we can take down the Legion and bring peace to the rest of the universe." "High Exarch Turalyon, we meet at last," Velen said, confirming who the person was to Spitfire and Rainbow, which meant they didn't have to guess or say the wrong thing when they spoke to him, though as he said that he patiently waited for the man to come to a stop near where they were standing, which was when Hatuun waved a hand and the Broken spread out, returning to how they had been before Spitfire's group approached their home, before Velen waved a hand towards Spitfire for a few seconds, "but I am not the one who commands the Vindicaar and the dimensional fleet that is attacking the demons right now, rather that honor belongs to Spitfire, the Grand Commander of the Forces of Azeroth, who united both factions under a single banner and turned us into a sharpened spear to destroy Sargeras' army." "Is that so? You will have to tell me about that at some point, but for now we should use this signal crystal I grabbed, just before the Xenedar crashed, to link up with your forces," Turalyon stated, where he pulled out the item in question and it was when Velen walked over to him, as in he claimed the crystal and headed down to the lowest part of this hovel, which seemed to be a prime location for a beacon to be placed, and Spitfire nodded as it was used to connect with the Vindicaar not a few seconds later, causing one of the Lightforged beacons to replace it, where he spotted Lothraxion, who had used the beacon to come talk with him about something, even though they would have to wait for that as he beckoned for both Spitfire and Rainbow to come with him, "Hatuun was telling me of a den of demons that rests nearby, ruled by a Pit Lord called Aggonar, who once ruled Outland at one point in time, and three more of his kind, Kar'aaz, Xeth'tal, and Magraloth, happen to be there as well, though since it appears that they have been harassing the Krokul, as they call themselves, and have been taking Hatuun's people as slaves, it would be in our best interests to take care of them... it'll allow your fleet of dimensional ships to get closer to the Xenedar, and show the Krokul that you are to be trusted." "Killing demons, that's easy to do," Rainbow remarked, speaking once Turalyon was done talking, which happened to be when he reached one of the edges of the hovel Hatuun and the others lived in, just before the road between this area and a Fel tainted area that was across the way from where they were standing at the moment, where Spitfire spotted a good number of demons tormenting those that had been captured and noticed a few Pit Lords as well, confirming Turalyon's statement and causing Rainbow to grin for a moment as she noticed them, where it looked like the demons had no idea they were looking at them, to which she flexed her claws for a moment, "This should be fun." As Turalyon raised an eyebrow and started to open his mouth, to question Rainbow's choice of words since his opinion on fighting demons was more like a duty than having fun, but before he could say anything she burst through the air, where she vanished and reappeared inside the area the Pit Lords controlled, with Spitfire following her movements with ease and was the only reason he even knew where Rainbow was located, and startled one of the three Pit Lords that were her main targets, since it looked like Aggonar was on an upper level. As the Pit Lord swung his glaive at her, intending on impaling her in an instant, Rainbow spun around the weapon as the tip of his glaive struck where she had been a few seconds ago, even though she flew forward in a coiling pattern before reaching her foe's head, all in a moment or two, before she took a moment and punched the demon in the side of the head, knocking him down into the pool of Fel lava that was behind him and caused some of it to splash up around part of his domain. After that her foe got back up and swung his weapon at her once more, where she flashed onto the top of his glaive and quickly kicked out with her right leg, sending the head of his weapon right into the ground and caused him to growl as a number of Eredar and Vilefiends, quadrupedal demons who seemed to be altered pets of some kind, noticed what was going on, but before they could do anything Rainbow took that moment to lash out with her altered Warblades and removed the demon's head, sealing his soul inside her blades as she took his Fel energy. Once that was done she found a number of Eredar turning their magic on her and she smiled for a few seconds as she summoned a small sphere of Fel energy and let it float into the air, where the demons found that their Fel energy was being drained before their eyes, like she had done to those she had faced before this point, but she purposely left both of the remaining Pit Lords along as she flashed over to the one that was on the right side of this pit-filled area and started dodging all of the attacks that were coming her way, just like what happened when she faced Kil'jaeden, and soon she spotted an opening in his defenses and took it, allowing her to get close to his neck and remove his head in seconds, causing the Eredar to cry out in shock as that happened. Of course Rainbow wasn't the only one to enter the area that the Pit Lords seemed to call home, as Spitfire and Turalyon walked in after her, freeing and healing the captive Krokul who were scattered around this part of Argus, looking at what was going on with shock in their eyes, though Spitfire made sure to end the lives of the demons who were still struggling to survive, allowing Rainbow's power to snatch whatever remained of their Fel energy, while Turalyon took a moment to look around the area with shock on his face, as he wasn't expecting this to happen. "Lothraxion told us that you two were powerful, but this... this is far more than what he said," Turalyon commented, as he had known that Spitfire and Rainbow happened to be some of the strongest beings in Azeroth at the moment, as his old friend had warned him about the pair so that way he wouldn't be surprised whenever they eventually met each other and joined forces, but even then the High Commander's words hadn't prepared him for what he was seeing, demons dying as Rainbow happened to be in another part of this area, her spell draining them of their Fel energy, even if it allowed them to cut down any surviving demons and free the Krokul in the process. "Both of us have grown since the last time you spoke to him," Spitfire remarked, though as she said that she spotted the red colored menacing Fel Reaver walking nearby and decided that she might as well take it out as well, to make the area that much safer for Hatuun and his people, to which she shifted her stance for a moment and disappeared from where she had been standing, causing Turalyon to glance around in an attempt to find her, before she quickly reappeared near the High Exarch with her weapons drawn, where he watched as the Fel Reaver shuddered for a few seconds as it was cut into a thousand pieces, creating a pile while ending another threat to Hatuun's people, "I might not be as fast as Rainbow, especially given her new power, but my power makes up for it... and it looks like she's taken down the third Pit Lord who calls this pit-filled area home." Turalyon nodded as he saw that, as Rainbow flashed all over the area that the third Pit Lord was resting in and cut the foul demon apart, almost as if he was made of paper or something, though once all of the demons in this place were slain, all save for Aggonar anyway, something else happened as he watched Rainbow condense the orb of Fel energy that she had created by draining all of the demons and stopped when it was the size of an apple, something that she devoured not a few seconds later, likely adding all that power to her own insane might. Once they caught up to Rainbow they found that she was staring at the upper area and found a larger Pit Lord resting inside the area in question, one that was larger and more dangerous looking than the other ones they had faced so far, though once Spitfire and Turalyon caught up with her Rainbow rushed into the area and lashed out at the demon that was in front of her, allowing him to swing down his glaive at her while she dodged it with ease. Of course she stood still for the Fel attacks that Aggonar fired at her, such as taking a moment to gather his Fel energy and fire it as a beam of energy that should have struck her in the chest while knocking her back a bit, but Turalyon found that Rainbow just devoured the attack like it was nothing and continued fighting like it was no big deal for her to have done such a thing, though as she did that Aggonar summoned some Vilefiends to aid him, not that such a thing mattered since a few arrows flew through the air and struck them down. Such a thing allowed her to steal their souls and Fel energy as she faced off against Aggonar, smashing through his attacks and dodging other like they were nothing, something that seemed to make the Pit Lord angry and eventually lead to him gathering all of his power for a massive explosion, one likely designed to take all of them out while making sure the Legion could turn the tables on the forces of Azeroth once they were missing both her and Spitfire, though Rainbow just stood there and siphoned all the Pit Lord's energy, cutting his attack to pieces in the process, before removing his head. With that done, and Aggonar's energy was hers while his soul was trapped inside her Warblades, she and Spitfire turned in the direction of where the arrows had come from, finding a female elf, a high elf Spitfire realized, who was dressed up in green ranger gear that protected her and had to be lightweight for her to move without slowing down, though the smile that was on Turalyon's face told her that this was Alleria Windrunner, a skilled archer and scout, at the very least. As Turalyon and Alleria embraced, since it seemed like it had been some time since they had last held each other, why she had no idea, Spitfire tapped into the energy of the Vindicaar and had Romuul send down a temporary beacon, mostly to allow the pair to return to the main dimensional ship, as she knew that Arator, a paladin who had joined the team bound for Argus since it was his only shot at being reunited with his parents, was waiting for Turalyon and Alleria, so this would give them some time to catch up while she and Rainbow headed back to the Hovel to tell Hatuun the news about the Pit Lords and those who had been trapped in this place. Once the pair warped up to the Vindicaar, and the beacon was pulled up with them, Spitfire and Rainbow set out immediately and headed back to Hatuun's place, where Rainbow made sure all of the demons were dead as they did that, just to make sure no one tried to attack the hovel once they were gone, and in a few seconds determined that she had killed all of the demon in this place as Spitfire and Turalyon watched her wipe them out, which brought a smile to her face as she walked. Sure enough a few Krokul had taken up defensive positions near the main entrance of the hovel, out of sight so any demons that investigated the area wouldn't be able to see them until it was too late, though one of them nodded to the pair as they walked down into the area that Hatuun and his people had been calling home for a long time, even though Spitfire knew that there was no way for them to know long long the Krokul had been stuck in his part of Argus and how long they had called this particular cave system home. One thing Spitfire found as they returned to the campfire was that Hatuun must have been busy making sure his people were safe and sound, even if he still seemed a little wary of them and their allies, especially since Velen was among their allies, though it did look like a number of Krokul were busy making sure all of them were armed or had food, or whatever they were focusing on, but as they approached the heart of this place it was clear that Hatuun was busy and that it would take him a few moments to get everything done, to which they used the nearby beacon and returned to the Vindicaar as well. Once they returned to the Vindicaar Spitfire glanced around as Rainbow sat down near the navigation console, that way she would be ready for when it was time to head out and continue their war against the Legion, where she found a good number of Draenei were ready for the order to assault the Legion, there happened to be a portal to a beacon that rested on the outskirts of Dalaran, just in case there was something they needed and that something wasn't resting among the fleet of dimensional ships she commanded, and there was an odd forge that looked like two things could be placed into it, which she was sure they would discover the purpose of at a later point, to which she turned towards waiting for Hatuun to send word so they could continue their war against the Legion. > Argus: The Light Mother > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Much to Spitfire's surprise she and the others found some new arrivals on the Vindicaar after about ten minutes of rest, as in a number of Krokul were sent up to their ship and one of them had a message from Hatuun, that he was ready to speak with them about the Pit Lords and what Velen's allies had done for his people, to which Spitfire and Rainbow regrouped near the navigation console and found that Turalyon and Alleria were coming with them, as they wanted to get closer to those who were fighting the Legion near the Xenedar, to which the four of them warped down to the beacon in Hatuun's place and found that the Chieftain was still standing near the campfire. "While you were gone my scouts found the remains of Aggonar, and the rest of his foul kin." Hatuun said, though as he said that it was clear that he must have been caught off guard by the news that had been brought to him, about all the demons who had been laid low by their might, especially since he seemed to be seeing them in a new light, or at least that had to be the case for her and Rainbow, to which he bowed his head a little, likely to show his gratitude towards them for killing the Pit Lords that rested near this place, "We are in your debt, High Exarch, and yours as well, outlanders." "Well, to be honest, I didn't do much to the Pit Lords, except show Spitfire and Rainbow to their domain, so they deserve all of the credit for the deaths of Aggonar and his kin," Turalyon replied, showing that he didn't want to take credit for what one or more of his allies did, even though they all knew it was Rainbow who had smashed the Pit Lords with her power, though at the same time he considered something and Spitfire had a feeling that he was going to try and ask Hatuun to aid them in their mission to bring down the Legion, despite the fact that the fleet had enough power to turn the tide against the demons that called this world home, "but, as you and your people have just discovered, we can only defeat the Legion by standing together and presenting a united front against them, and right now our allies in the Army of the Light are in need of our assistance." "That much we agree on, hence why I sent some of my people to your ship, as I think the Krokul stand a better chance of bringing down the Legion if we join this 'Grand Army' of yours," Hatuun stated, though as he said that he turned towards a section of the rock wall that rested to the left of where the campfire happened to be resting, if one was looking at it from the direction that the entrance was in, where he waved a hand and channeled a bit of his power for a moment, causing all of the fallen stones to fade away and revealed a tunnel that had to lead outside, an escape tunnel in case their enemies found out where they were hiding, "and, as such, we will use our powers to assist you in whatever way we can, because despite all the Legion has done to our world, it still listens to our pleas and refuses to give us up." Spitfire raised an eyebrow as she heard that piece of information, as while Hatuun and some of the other Krokul might be shaman, who spoke to the elements and could commune with the ground to an extent, it was entirely possible that their new allies might have revealed the existence of a brand new Titan to them, which would confirm why Sargeras wanted this planet and offered another reason as to why he offered the power of the Legion to the Eredar all those years ago, because if Argus was a Titan, and it was possible that it might be one, corrupting it into a servant of the Legion would improve his chances of burning all of creation to ash. For now Spitfire focused on the task in front of her and Rainbow as they, Alleria, and Turalyon followed the path that was in front of them, where the tunnel came out in the side of the mountain and they could see that there were a pair of guards, mostly hidden thanks to all of the shadows wrapped around them, who were guarding the opening they were walking through, mostly to make sure that no demons discovered the secret way into the hovel and discovered where the Krokul were hiding. Once that was done the four of them headed down a path that had been carved into the twisted earth that laid before them, likely due to some of those more dangerous Fel Reavers using this area as a patrol route or something, and focused on reaching a bridge that lead over some Fel lava, though one thing all of them noticed was that the remains of Kil'jaeden's ship, which must have been blasted apart when he detonated after Khadgar teleported all of Azeroth's heroes back to Azsuna, rested off to the far left of where they were walking, so if they wanted to check it out they could, but Spitfire decided against it since she was sure that Legion had salvaged it once it had crashed into the planet's surface and the flames went out. After noticing that they continued down the path that would bring them to where the Army of the Light was fighting, as they could see a number of Lightforged figures fighting the vast army of demons that were trying to tear their way into the defenses and kill everyone that was in their way, along with also being given the chance to destroy Xe'ra at long last, or maybe corrupt her to the point where she either fell or detonated from what was happening, something Turalyon clearly wanted to prevent. One other thing that Spitfire noticed was that there was an odd glow in Turalyon's eyes, which looked like the Light might have blessed him in some manner, but since none of the other Light users had such a thing she had to wonder if this was a form of compulsion, as in Xe'ra might have compelled him to follow her orders or something, though before she could question it further an Eredar Brute ran over to where they were walking and leapt into the air a few seconds later, landing between them and where the Army of the Light happened to be fighting, meaning he wanted to tear them down before any reinforcements could be given to his enemies. "Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, this is as far as you go, for the Master has plans for both of you!" the Eredar Brute stated, which told them that Sargeras wanted both of them for some reason, despite their defiant nature and the fact that both of them disliked the Legion as much as the heroes of Azeroth did, meaning he wanted to use their power to take down everything else that might be standing between him and his ultimate goal of ending all life in the universe, where he shifted his stance after saying that and held his claws at the ready, indicating that he was going to kill them. "Not today, demon!" Rainbow replied, though as she said that another feminine voice, one with an echo that sounded like a Lightforged might have spoken, said the same words at the exact same time, but she didn't let that bother her one bit as she rushed forward and delivered an uppercut to the Eredar Brute's chin and knocked him onto his back, breaking all of his back spikes in the process, before a Lightforged Draenei dropped out of the sky and impaled the demon in the chest with her weapon, a glaive that was empowered by the Light. "Fareeya! You survived the crash!" Turalyon stated, his tone revealing that he was happy to see the Draenei that had come to assist them in taking down the Eredar Brute that had appeared in front of them, even though Rainbow could have slain him all on her own, though this allowed Spitfire and Rainbow to see that a Lightforged Draenei had whiter skin than their blue skinned counterparts, either alabaster or marble colored to be exact, and it appeared that her eyes were golden as well, while her hooves were ornamented with gold, though it was possible that she was either the captain or an important member of the Army of the Light. "You know that I refuse to die while the Legion still stands, High Exarch." Fareeya replied, though as she said that she took a moment to glance at Rainbow, no doubt seeing the demonic side of her and wanted to be sure that this wasn't a trick of some kind, where both Turalyon and Alleria nodded to her when she glanced at them, meaning they trusted her and that meant she could place her trust in Rainbow as well, to which she quickly nodded her head and turned around, facing the direction that the camp her forces had set up rested in, "Follow me, we have set up a perimeter between us and the vast army of demons that are seeking to claim the Xenedar for their dark master." Fareeya lead them down the rest of the path that would bring them to the Army of the Light's camp and they found that all of the soldiers that were currently facing off against the demons were Lightforged Draenei, making Spitfire take a moment to wonder how many Draenei had escaped after Archimonde and Kil'jaeden's forces sided with Sargeras, where it looked like a lot of fragments from the Xenedar had landed all over this section of Argus and the Army of the Light was using the weapons, half sphere shaped devices that appeared to be advanced glaive launcher that used Light energy to blast those the user was targeting, before Fareeya stopped at what had to be the heart of their camp. "Now that we have been reunited, our forces stand a better chance of waging war against the Legion," Fareeya stated, to which she nodded towards the other Lightforged Draenei that were near her, some manning weapons while others were in the middle of fighting demons and a number were using magic to heal their allies as a few mages blasted their foes, as she came to a stop in the middle of the camp and studied what was going on around their forces, before she sighed for a moment as she came to a decision on what needed to be done before they could secure the Xenedar and the cargo that was still inside it, "even with the dimensional fleet, a boon we weren't expecting, we're going to have to salvage all sorts of supplies, tear down all sorts of enemies, and destroy whatever machines the Legion brings to bare against us before we're able to reach the other side of this large valley... the demons were waiting for us, that much is for sure, and we're going to need to pull out all the stops to secure the Xenedar." "Well, you've got a Demon Lord killing powerhouse right here," Rainbow replied, where she smiled as she stared out at the vast valley that the Xenedar had crashed into, even though it was hard to know if the valley existed before the event or if it had been created due to the dimensional ship crashing into the area and sliding right into the side of the mountain, as she was eager to head out and kill every demon that dared to step in her way, because based on what she was seeing there were a number of Eredar, Felguards, two Antaen that appeared to be hiding right now, a swarm of Felbats flying right at the edge of the area, and who knew what else, before she glanced at Fareeya, "also, don't forget that you are now allies of Spitfire, who is the Grand Commander of the Grand Army of Azeroth, meaning there are far more soldiers and supplies waiting to be deployed against the Legion." As Fareeya started to open her mouth to say something, mostly about how they haven't had the time to count how many had joined Velen in his assault on Argus, Spitfire had Romuul send down a beacon to a small opening that rested nearby and sure enough one appeared not a few seconds later, where she watched as a number of Azeroth's forces, which were far more than what she was expecting while she heard that Velen was sending down half of the army that had come with them, leaving the other half to man the fleet. With that done she made sure some of the soldiers were fighting their foes while collecting all of the scattered crystals that had fallen out of the Xenedar, she had another group target the machines that had been set up to collect the souls of the fallen, because she had a feeling that the demons might have ripped the souls out of the still living soldiers and, if all of the machines were broken, they might be able to restore some might to the Army of the Light, all while leaving their remaining forces to tear into the demons that were attacking this area. Once her forces had their orders Turalyon, Alleria, Fareeya, and the Lightforged Draenei watched as the forces of Azeroth moved out not a few moments later, heading down into the valley that the Army of the Light and the Legion were currently fighting over, before smashing into their enemies, much to the surprise of the demons who had been sent to this area to tear all of them down, leaving the other groups of her army to march out and complete their missions, which caused Turalyon and his allies to pause since none of them were expecting Humans and Orcs to work so well together. As the armies clashed in the valley, and the Army of the Light took a few seconds to come to terms with what they were seeing as all of Azeroth's heroes hacked, slashed, and blasted the demons in front of them, Rainbow took off and sought out the two Antaen both she and Spitfire knew were in this area, including spotting what appeared to be a more powerful Fel Lord off near the edge of the valley, as it was easy to tell since his armor was more plate-like and covered far more of his body than the normal armor Fel Lords wore, someone she would take out once she had a chance to fight the Antaen who were currently pulling themselves out of the ground and roared at her. Of course that wasn't all that happened, as Spitfire ordered the commanders of the dimensional fleet, as in A'dal and his chosen followers, to open fire on the demons and watched as that was what went down, they fired blasts of Light energy down on the demons that were coming from all of the other directions, meaning the army of demons in the valley would be getting no reinforcements and it meant the tide of this particular battle would swing in the Army of the Light's favor in no time, which caused the Lightforged Draenei to move at last as they joined the fight at long last. It was clear that most of the demons weren't expecting all of this to happen, since they had to assume that the forces of Azeroth were weak and it would have been easy to take them down while they were assaulting Argus, since this planet was the heart of the Legion's power and the demons here were stronger than those Vytheril and the others had faced in the past, though such a thing didn't matter as Spitfire's forces smashed their way through the demons, causing some demons to think about this and likely recalled the reports from Azeroth, meaning this might cause some to surrender, if they were smart enough to take such a path. While all of that happened the Soul Collectors that were scattered around the valley exploded and the souls that had been trapped inside them were freed, many of them slamming into the scattered bodies of the Lightforged that served Fareeya, confirming that many of the Army of the Light's soldiers must have had their souls torn out of their bodies after the crash happened, though as that went down Spitfire watched as a number of healers weaved their powers over the fallen for a few moments as their allies defended them from any incoming attacks, something that was followed by all of Lightforged Draenei to pick themselves up off the ground, shake the stiffness from their limbs, and then charge into battle so they could slay more demons. Of course, while all of this was going down and the demons were starting to come to terms with why the forces of Azeroth were much harder to deal with this time around, Spitfire noticed that Rainbow did take a moment to send a small sphere of Fel energy up into the air and it snatched the souls of the demons who fell to the might of Azeroth's heroes, meaning she was separating their energy from their souls, even though it did come as a total surprise to those who hadn't seen this power in action before this point in time. Spitfire did find that she wasn't left alone as she walked through the valley, as many Eredar and Felguards came at her as she moved towards an area that caught her eye, intending on taking her down while she was down, only for the demons to find that she could pull her Twinblades out of her horns and cut her would be attackers down with ease, freeing their souls to be claimed by Rainbow's spell as their Fel energy was added to the growing mass above the battlefield, before she arrived at her destination and found some Lightforged Draenei who were in the middle of blasting the swarm of Felbats that were trying to swarm the valley, where she assumed the leader of this group was a female mage, mostly because she was the one giving orders to her forces. "Keep firing, even if you have to deplete the batteries to do so!" the Archmage stated, something that told Spitfire that all of the siege weapons that were nearby, and it looked like there were only three of them and the energy inside them was starting to fade away, meaning they were in need of some of the crystals that her forces were collecting and distributing to the Army of the Light that were stationed at the temporary base camp, before the Lightforged Draenei noticed that they had company and the Archmage turned towards her for a moment, "You and your allies are the greatest boon we could have asked for, given the state of the Xenedar and how scattered our forces are... or had been, before your fleet arrived and started to forcefully push the Legion backwards... but we're in need of crystals to power our artillery batteries, as all of them are going to go offline in the next few minutes and will leave us exposed." "I wouldn't worry about the Felbats," Spitfire stated, though while she assumed that this might be Y'mera, someone who Fareeya was interested in finding and making sure was okay, as if her loss might damage the Army of the Light's chances of bringing down the Legion, or maybe she was a friend and the Captain wanted to make sure she was safe, she turned her attention towards where the Felbats were located, something that surprised the Lightforged as she approached the edge of the area and focused her mind as she considered what she was about to do. Y'mera and her small force watched as a number of small magical circles, about the size of one's head, appeared in the air near Spitfire, forming a wall of sorts between her and the massive swarm of Felbats they had been dealing with since all of them emerged from the crash, before noticing that there were four colors among the wall, as in some were a Fel green, a number were a light green that represented Life, others happened to be an Arcane purple, and the rest were a dark gray that had to be Death, though as they noticed that Spitfire waved her hand and fired a massive volley of magical shards, all formed out of the four powers she had access to, at the Felbats without delay... causing the Lightforged Draenei to pause and have their jaws drop as they witnessed the swarm be eradicated in a matter of moments. "By the Light..." Y'mera commented, as she was at a loss for words, because while she was sure that creating a volley like that, from channeling the power of frost, fire, or the Arcane itself, was possible, in fact it happened to be a spell she had learned over the years she spent fighting the Legion, seeing something like this in action, and witnessing all the demons who fell as each sharpened shard struck whatever area Spitfire happened to be targeting at the time, left her speechless for a time, giving Spitfire enough time to make sure each Felbat was dead and that their souls had been snatched by the sphere that hung in the air above them all, before she eventually recovered herself, "Well, now I can see why Lothraxion wanted us to ally with you and your forces, given the power you demonstrated and the army you lead... though he could have given us a little more warning as to what you are capable of doing... though with this power we should be able to find Baraat, the best shot in our entire army, as he should be looking for part of the Xenedar." "Given that there isn't much else in this area, I'm going to assume he's close to where the Xenedar is resting," Spitfire said, as it seemed to make the most sense when she thought about it, especially since Y'mera's group was near the edge of a cliff and it didn't look like there was anything else around the area they had been guarding, save for a small pool of Fel lava and a path that lead back to the Xenedar, so her only choice right now was to follow the path and see where it might lead her, though before she left she turned towards Y'mera for a moment, "oh, and Fareeya was worried about your group, so you might want to check in with her once the valley is cleared of demons, which should be soon given the rate the Legion is dying before the might of our combined forces." Y'mera nodded for a moment, as she wasn't sure what to say since none of them were expecting to see the Legion beaten so badly, as the demons were falling before the might of Azeroth's forces and those who followed High Exarch Turalyon, a feat many of her allies considered impossible, before Spitfire left the area that her forces had been guarding since they had crashed, turning her focus to the enemies that might be between her and Baraat, where she found a few Infernals off in front of her and didn't do anything to any of them as their Fel energy was siphoned by Rainbow's attack, who smashed one of the Antaen into the ground, but it wasn't long before she found a male Lightforged Draenei loosing Light arrows down on a few Eredar, who perished in no time. "The demons are trying to claim the main cannon of the Xenedar, but are now lacking the numbers thanks to you and all of your allies showing up," the Lightforged Draenei, who had to be Baraat since it didn't look like anyone else was here to assist him, even though Spitfire found a large mech suit of some kind, plated in golden armor forged in the Light, while at the same time standing about half as tall as a Fel Lord, so taller than more races in Azeroth, resting off to her left and that one of the Lightforged Draenei was closing the hatch as she climbed into it, allowing her to take off and head over to the main fight, blasting some demons with Light-infused blasts, "we call the weapon 'Light's Judgement', though it happens to have a security feature that allows us to recall it to one of our vessels should something happen to it or to the ship it might be attached to... with the Xenedar out of commission, well, we should be able to bring it to the Vindicaar or another ship in your fleet, as I have a feeling that you can make full use of its power." Spitfire said nothing to that as she beckoned for Baraat to join her, as in the two of them moved further along the path in front of them, which brought them closer to the Xenedar and, more importantly, a large crystalline weapon that she could tell was infused with the power of the Light, thanks to the golden plating that all of the Army of the Light's gear, be it all of the weapons, armor, or mechs, happened to possess, which allowed her to tap a panel and found that Romuul must have been told what they were up to and was preparing to receive the weapon, meaning Fareeya or someone else told him that piece of information. Not a few seconds later, after Romuul started the process of recalling the weapon to the Vindicaar, she found a number of Wyrmtongue approaching the area that Light's Judgement was resting in, one even claiming that it belonged to the Legion now, as in 'finders keepers' in a sense she guessed, though in response to that Spitfire pulled both of her Twinblades out of her horns and focused on defending the area as Baraat loosed a few arrows at his enemies, even though all demons who marched on this area would flal under the effects of Rainbow's spell and would lose their energy as time went by. Sure enough there was one unfortunate Wyrmtongue who decided not to fight them, as he stood there and just glared at her and Baraat for a time as he encouraged the others to claim the weapon, which did make Spitfire take a moment to wonder if he might have switched sides as he realized that the Legion was losing this battle and might lose all of Argus at the rate the Grand Army of Azeroth was pushing, but since he collapsed from having his energy drained, and he went still not a few moments later, she stopped thinking about it and focused on defending the weapon from the rest of the demons who came out of the nearby portal. Of course she knew that Rainbow had decided not to target any of the portals that the Legion opened into this valley, mostly because it allowed her to increase the amount of Fel energy for her sphere while increasing the death toll for the Legion, and when she was sure that no more demons emerged from a portal she closed them by stealing all of their energy and added it to her sphere, though eventually an Eredar emerged from the portal the Wyrmtongue were using and advanced on where Spitfire was standing, where she simply swung her weapons and killed her foe with ease, impressing Baraat at the same time. Once all of the demons were slain, and the portal closed after Rainbow noticed that no more enemies were coming out of it, Spitfire watched as Light's Judgement disappeared and reappeared below the Vindicaar, attached to whatever weapons systems had been installed inside the dimensional ship, where Romuul primed it for a test fire and gave Spitfire an idea on where to use it, hence why she focused on a pile of rubble that happened to be blocking the way up into the Xenedar and called for Romuul to fire the weapon, causing a beam of Light energy to slam down into her target and wiped out all of the rocks in seconds, where she smiled for a moment as she flew down to it as Baraat descended into the battlefield to help take out whatever demons were still down here. "I knew we'd get to the Xenedar eventually, but not... well, not this soon, especially with the aid of your forces," Turalyon commented, as he and Alleria happened to notice what Spitfire had done and rushed over to the opening in question, due to the fact that all of them were interested in securing Xe'ra and getting out of here before anything terrible happened to their forces, though as he said that Spitfire could feel the lingering power inside the Xenedar, which was no doubt thanks to her bond with the Prime Naaru, one that had been forged after using the Tears of Elune on Light's Heart, before they focused on their mission as they turned towards the path in front of them, "Come, let us secure Xe'ra and then we can call our forces out of this valley, so we can restore Xe'ra to her former glory and figure out what our next steps need to be so we can bring down the Legion." As they moved into the Xenedar, and followed the path that was in front of them, Alleria expressed some concerns about securing Xe'ra, that she might be locked away in a new prison for going against the Prime Naaru's wishes and delved into the secrets of the Void against her wishes, a power she believed might be useful against the Legion, which caught Spitfire's attention since it meant Alleria might have an idea on where a potent source of Void energy could be found, something that would allow her to complete her collection and gain all six wings, just like Xe'ra's new prophecy had shown her, back before she even gained the second Cosmic Force. Turalyon quickly assured her that despite the state that Xe'ra was in at the moment, her heart torn from the rest of her limp body, that Xe'ra would understand everything Alleira went through to save her and would either cut her some slack, which would be the preferred option, or he and the others would rush to her aid and convince the Light Mother of her desire to bring an end to the Legion and their crusade, something that made Alleria go silent since neither of them really knew what Xe'ra was going to do. Not a few moments after that they walked up the last of the ramp and entered what appeared to be one of the main chambers of the Xenedar, the area that Xe'ra floated in while the ship was in motion and served as her resting place, where the remants of Xe'ra's body floated around where the Prime Naaru normally rested, waiting for them to be reunited with her core, and sure enough there were a few Lightforged Draenei waiting inside the Xenedar, guarding the fragmented Light Mother while everyone else ensured that the demons were unable to reach this place. As soon as Turalyon spotted Xe'ra he made sure that all three of them carried one of the teleportation crystals that Y'mera had given him as soon as her force rejoined the Army of the Light, meaning she ignored what Spitfire had told her, and they formed a triangle around the center of this chamber, allowing the magic inside the crystals to link up with the Vindicaar and gave Romuul the ability to warp them, along with Xe'ra and those who had been guarding her, out of the Xenedar, which went down not a few moments later and Spitfire found that they were back inside the main dimensional ship, with Xe'ra's body resting nearby, where she called for their forces to finish dealing with the demons and return to their vessels. Sure enough only a few moments went by before Spitfire started getting reports that her forces were no longer fighting for control over the valley, even though Rainbow killed all the demons and ate their energy before returning to the Vindicaar, allowing her to see that Xe'ra's body was resting in the center of the central section of the ship, as in it was in front of the navigation console's ramp, though once everyone was back inside each of their ships, and Romuul set it up so all could see what happened next, Velen, Illidan, Turalyon, and Alleria stood near Xe'ra's form as two Lightforged Draenei carried Light's Heart down to Xe'ra and placed it in the center of her being, causing the Prime Naaru to reform before their eyes as many knelt before her, even if others remained standing to watch this. "We are blessed to be in your presence once more, Xe'ra." Turalyon said, while everyone stared at the golden Naaru that was in front of them, one who definitely radiated Light energy and seemed to be far stronger than A'dal, or at least Spitfire felt that way when she felt the power the Light Mother possessed, where Spitfire found that Xe'ra was even taller than the few Naaru she and Rainbow had seen so far, and she even had crystalline sections which looked like wings of some kind, before Turalyon stood as they waited for Xe'ra to do whatever it was that they were waiting for. Turalyon... you have found the Chosen One. Xe'ra stated, apparently caring more about the fact that they found Illidan, as he was supposedly the 'Child of Light and Shadow' that she believed would, at some point in time, bring about the end of the Legion, though her words resonated with Turalyon as he stepped to the side and beckoned for Illidan to take his place, who did so as Spitfire stood nearby, something that caused the Prime Naaru to glance towards him for a moment, or that was what they assumed Xe'ra had done, Illidan... from birth, the light in your eyes held such promise for the future. "Maybe they did at one point in time, but I sacrificed that birthright a long time ago," Illidan remarked, referring to when Sargeras burned out his once golden eyes and replaced them with what he had now, which he had gotten used to thanks to all the powers that came with his Fel-empowered eyes, though at the same time he didn't like the fact that Xe'ra was of the opinion that he was some sort of chosen one that would bring ruin to Sargeras and his Legion, and even if he believed what she was saying he had a different opinion on the 'prophecy', that it was supposed to lead Xe'ra to the ones that, in due time, would gain the power to topple the Legion, that being Spitfire and Rainbow. Do you not wish to reclaim what was lost? To be made whole again? Xe'ra asked, where it was clear that she looked down on the sacrifices that the Illidari made in order to become demon hunters, that losing their eyes and twisting their bodies into demonic forms, and sometimes even losing their sanity, while gaining nothing in return, or at least in her eyes, was a bad deal and that she likely felt that it was best that all of them be purged into more fitting forms to bring ruin to their foul enemies, all while Illidan, Spitfire, and Rainbow frowned for a moment, My child, you have given so much of yourself, all for so little in return. "No... the Legion's end is all I desire right now." Illidan replied, though he had a feeling that the Prime Naaru was going to ignore him and his opinions on what was going on at the moment, something that he could tell Spitfire and Rainbow were thinking about and that they were focused on Xe'ra, just in case she tried anything, even though it was easy to tell that one of them was looking for a way to obtain the next fifth Cosmic Force and boosted her power to new heights, though for the time being he focused on Xe'ra and made sure he was her focus for the most part, even though he could also see that Yrel, Turalyon, and most of those tied to the Light seemed to be under Xe'ra's sway, being partly here while she seemed to be compelling them to watch. Your true potential, your redemption lies before you. Xe'ra stated, informing everyone in the Vindicaar that she could transform Illidan into something else and grant him far greater power than what he was using right now, even though he would end up losing all of his Fel powers in the exchange, something that caused him to keep the frown on his face for a time as everyone watched particles of Light energy started to move from Xe'ra and wrapped around where he happened to be standing, meaning she might be making her move soon and that they had to be ready for whatever it was, Let go of your shattered form and embrace the Light's power. Illidan muttered something about trading his freedom for power before, though as he started to backup Xe'ra made her move as the Light flared and tried to restrain him where he was standing for a time, something that was followed by all the strands of energy being snatched by Spitfire as she stood in the spot her mentor had been in previously, where she used her bond with the Prime Naaru to make sure Xe'ra didn't do anything to Illidan, all while Rainbow shifted her stance in the off chance that Xe'ra tried to command their compelled allies to attack them. "Sorry, Xe'ra, but that was the wrong move... but, thanks to the mark you gave me the last time we spoke to each other, I'll take some of your power," Spitfire stated, as she was annoyed with Xe'ra, as stripping Illidan of his Fel power and forcing him to rely on a brand new set of skills, at this point in their war against the Legion, was the wrong thing to do and she was going to let the Prime Naaru know that she had messed up big time, though it was in that moment that the Prime Naaru shook for a few seconds as her wings started to dim before their eyes, condensing into a sphere of Light energy in front of Xe'ra's body, and as soon as the crystalline wings shattered the Light rushed forward and slammed into her body, which knocked her backwards and freed the weakened Naaru. The prophecy... must be fulfilled! Xe'ra stated, her voice weakened by what Spitfire had done, finding that Spitfire's left horn had golden markings appearing on it as the stolen power settled inside her body, though while one of the demon hunters was preoccupied she forced herself to move forward with her plan, not willing to give up on her prophecy, and it lead to her ensnaring Illidan not a few seconds later, though despite that it was clear that her power was weaker than what it had been before and that she had to act quickly, hence why she started to fill Illidan's body with the Light, Your old life has passed, as the Light will forge you a new one by healing your scars and reforging your form so you can fulfill your great and glorious destiny! "My life and freedom are not yours to take! Nor are my scars, for all demon hunters are their scars!" Illidan declared, while his voice echoed around the main chamber of the Vindicaar and showed everyone who was watching that the Naaru was the one in the wrong this time around, as he was against Xe'ra's plans and she was forcing her will upon those who were in her way, be they the 'Chosen One' or her own forces, but that was when he called upon his true power and his Fel energy surged for a few moments, allowing him to shatter his bindings as the next couple of words left his mouth, "MY DESTINY IS MY OWN!" In that moment, as the Light bindings shattered under Illidan's true power, Illidan fired a potent beam of Fel energy from his eyes, using the Eye Beam skill that all demon hunters eventually learned how to use, and struck Xe'ra in her core, which caused everyone to look away as a bright flash filled the main chamber of the Vindicaar for a few seconds, and when the light faded Illidan collapsed on the floor as small crystalline fragments landed all over the area, showing that he had slain the Prime Naaru for her actions, and it ended up freeing those Xe'ra had been compelling, as the Light quickly faded from Turalyon's eyes and the eyes of everyone else, causing the horrible realization of what had happened to dawn on those in the ship, both the forces of Azeroth and the soldiers of the Army of the Light. "By the Light... Xe'ra..." Turalyon eventually said, his tone revealing that he didn't know how to react to this, as part of him wanted to rage and call Illidan by his title, that of the 'Betrayer', for destroying the Light Mother in front of them, while the other part of him was simply stunned by the fact that Xe'ra was willing to compel him, the soldiers of the Army of the Light, and those in the Grand Army of Azeroth so she could get at Illidan and force him down whatever path she had in store for him, just like she forced all of them to simply stand there and watch what happened, before he made up his mind as he and Rainbow walked over to Illidan, where they helped him up, before realizing something important, "Wait... what in the world happened to Spitfire?" "I'm fine," Spitfire replied, where the glow that had been around her body faded and everyone could see that she had been successful in incorporating the fifth Cosmic Force into her body, due to the golden Light runes on her left horn and, more importantly, a golden feathered wing that was resting above her Life and Arcane wings, while being opposite of her Fel wing and the Death wing that was blow that, meaning the eventual Void wing would be resting diagonally across from the Light wing, and the Army of the Light, for the first time, could see all of her power as it settled down, before she glanced out at the Xenedar for a moment. Velen watched as Spitfire vanished not a few seconds later, only to reappear outside the Vindicaar an instant later as she stood at the edge of the ship's bow, causing everyone to shift their stances and take up positions as they waited for her to do whatever she was planning on doing to test her new power, to which she opened her wings as she focused her power on the Xenedar for a few seconds and a wave of energy washed over the downed ship, something that caused Velen and many others to raise their eyebrows as they watched her. Not a few seconds later it was like time started to reverse as the downed ship pulled itself from the mountain it had crashed into and everyone watched as every component that had been blown off of the Xenedar, save for Light's Judgement since it remained attached to the Vindicaar, where they merged back together and connected to where they were supposed to be, as if she was reassembling Xe'ra's former ship, even though it amazed Khadgar when he considered that Spitfire really didn't have experience using time based magic and likely learned this from watching the Nightborne. Such a thing seemed to be the case with her, where she learned how to wield the other Cosmic Forces by observing and taking notes from those who were masters of their craft, like the druids for Life, or any of the death knights for Death, though she would likely do the same by recalling what all of the paladins and priests did when any of them worked their powers, before improving on it and worked wonders that surprised all of them, making him and many others wonder what in the world she was going to be capable of when she eventually found and obtained the sixth and final Cosmic Force. That thought made Khadgar sweat, because no enemies have been able to full out Spitfire's true power, as he had to assume she had been keeping her true power hidden so Rainbow and the others didn't feel like they were the unwelcome addition to all of the fights she had been in, likely since she first obtained her second Cosmic Force if his estimations were correct, so once she had all six Cosmic Forces he was sure that Spitfire would stand on Sargeras' level of power, meaning it was a good thing Illidan had found her and Rainbow, instead of the Legion, otherwise he was sure all of them would have been screwed if either of them had been their enemies. Once he finished that thought he and the others watched as the Xenedar stopped moving, as in it was floating in the air in front of them and, based on what Turalyon's forces found, it was fully operational, meaning Spitfire had fixed it up and, at the same time, might be adding it to her fleet, granting them even greater power to bring down the Legion, to which all of them waited for her to return to them so they could make their next move, as he was sure that whatever happened next would bring more ruin to the Legion and Sargeras' plans. > Argus: Assault on Nath'raxas Hold > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With Xe'ra destroyed for her crimes of trying to compel those who followed her, and the Xenedar had been restored to its former glory, Spitfire returned to the Vindicaar and had her wings disappear not a few seconds later, though as she did that it was easy for her to see that Turalyon, Yrel, and most of the Army of the Light, including the paladins and priests, were still upset over the Prime Naaru forcing her will on all of them and just confirmed something for all of them, no one could be allowed to force an unwanted destiny on someone, especially on someone like Illidan, though it was clear that many of her allies needed a moment to come to terms with what had just happened. "We are at a crucial moment, with the fall of Xe'ra... even I did not see these events happening," Velen commented, as he spoke up a few seconds after Spitfire returned to the Vindicaar and stopped near Rainbow, though his eyes were on all the golden fragments that were scattered around this floor of the ship, where he could feel the Light's energy radiating from all of them, which told him everything he needed to know as he shifted his gaze back towards Spitfire and Rainbow, while the latter was making sure nothing was wrong with their former mentor, "the loss of Xe'ra has already affected our allies, even if she compelled them to follow her commands at times, but while I speak with Turalyon and the others, and try to ease their troubled spirits, I would suggest recovering the fragments of Xe'ra before any are lost." "What do you have in mind for them?" Spitfire asked, though as she said that she raised her left hand and called upon her new power, causing all that were present to watch as she picked up all of the scattered fragments that were lingering in the Vindicaar and pulled them over to her hand, allowing them to float above her palm for a time as she waited for Velen to tell her what sort of plan he might have for the fragments, even though she had to wonder if they might be destined for that strange forge in the lower level of the Vindicaar. "When we built the Vindicaar, we fashioned what we call the 'Netherlight Crucible', a forge designed to harness the vast and tremendous power that is at play on Argus," Velen replied, naming the forge that Spitfire had seen earlier, though she had to admit that it was a good idea for the Draenei to have created something which might have the power to contain all of the power they found on this broken world and channel it towards defeating the Legion, and she had an idea on where she needed to place the Light fragments, though as she considered all of that Velen sighed for a moment, "while Xe'ra's power is one of the keys to the full potential of the Netherlight Crucible, we cannot harness the crucible's full power while there is no balance, so we'll have to keep an eye out for something to balance the crucible." Spitfire nodded her head in understanding before heading down towards the lower floor of the Vindicaar, where it took her no time to come to a stop in front of the crucible and raised her hand towards it, something that caused the lingering power in Xe'ra's fragments to move from above her palm and reformed on the right side of the crucible, if one was looking at it from where she was standing, forming what appeared to be one of her crystalline wings, and once that was done she pulled away and headed back up to the main chamber of the Vindicaar, leaving Xe'ra's essence inside the crucible while she considered the next stage of their war against the Legion. With that done the dimensional fleet, joined by the Xenedar after a number of Turalyon's forces teleported over to it to make sure it was fully restored, something that still came as a surprise to many of them, floated in the air above the valley that the Army of the Light and the Legion had been fighting over previously, though since the demons hadn't come back this gave them a place to rest for a time as they considered what their next move might be. Velen was of the opinion that they head over to Antoran Wastes, which was the name that Turalyon gave to the area of Argus that happened to be right outside Antorus, the Burning Throne, the literal heart of the Dark Titan's operations, which would serve as their final goal as Spitfire considered all of the information that was being given to her, while Turalyon wanted to stay here, in Krokuun, to fortify their position and clear out the rest of the demons that were bothering the Krokul, and Romuul glanced up at the sky, towards the floating ruins of Mac'Aree, which ended up giving them three options to choose from. After thinking about it for a few seconds Spitfire came up with a plan of attack that would work in their favor, Illidan and the Illidari could scout out the barren lands of Antoran Wastes and determine if it was possible to set up a foothold near Sargeras' stronghold, and if it was possible to do that then they could send some reinforcements to make sure the camp was secure for their eventual assault on Antorus, but while that was happening the main force of their united army would focus on tearing down whatever demons remained in Krokuun, assaulting an area Turalyon called Nath'raxas Hold, which had to be infested with demons. Of course one of the things they had to do was figure out if Rainbow needed to head out with the Illidari or stay with the Grand Army of Azeroth, as both places had demons and both forces clearly wanted her to come with them, which caused a smile to appear on Spitfire's face since it meant that Fareeya and her fellow Lightforged Draenei were fine with having a Fel-empowered ally, even one as demonic as Rainbow, though during their discussion she noticed that Magni had Romuul send him down to the surface, which she was fine with as long as someone kept an eye on him, since they couldn't lose the one who served as Azeroth's Speaker, which might bare more news in the near future. "Grand Commander, the scout I assigned to Magni has returned," Turalyon said, as he had noticed Spitfire's glance and had tasked one of his soldiers with ensuring the crystalline Dwarf was safe, why he had no idea at the time and had been listening to Khadgar explain the situation while their forces moved out to carry out Spitfire's orders, including the Army of the Light, meaning that he now served under her and, as such, was going to call her by her title from time to time, which she was fine with as long as he didn't go overboard with it, though his words caused some to turn towards him, including Spitfire and Rainbow, "while we were discussing our next move he went down to Hatuun's hovel, likely to speak with the Krokul, and it seems like he might have found something of interest, as he's asked for you to join him... since the Legion has backed off, giving us a breather, you should seek him out before our next assault starts." Spitfire simply nodded her head as she headed over to the navigation console, with Rainbow following after her since she was also interested in seeing what Magni might have uncovered in the short period of time he had been gone, which was followed by them reappearing in Hatuun's cavern while leaving Turalyon, Illidan, and the others to carry out their duties, where it was clear that Magni was standing near the main campfire, where Hatuun was standing, and it appeared that the pair were in the middle of a conversation that was just ending. "The stone's whispers steady my people's hearts, though it is curious that you hear them as well." Hatuun commented, to which both Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at each other for a second as they approached where the pair were standing at the moment, as neither of them had an idea what 'stone' he was talking about and it might be what Magni had discovered during his time on Argus' surface, before they focused on the pair that were in front of them as they came to a stop near the campfire, which had died down a little since their last visit to this place. "It's fainter than the breath o' the wind, but it feels so familiar ta me... it's like Azeroth's call, only... it ain't her." Magni said, where it was easy for those who knew about Magni's ability to understand that he was talking about the Titan World-Soul that rested in the depths of the planet that Velen and the other Draenei eventually came to call home, but this meant that Spitfire might have been right in her earlier thoughts, Argus might have a Titan slumbering inside it and that was why the Dark Titan had been so interested in claiming it, before Magni glanced at them, "Thank ye for joinin' me, lass, as there's something ye have to see... a stone relic that is holy to the Krokul, one they hear whispers from. I think it might have some sort o' link to Argus itself, and Hatuun has agreed to let us tap into it... just know that Azeroth's spirit speaks like a song, but Argus' is, well, distorted, like he's being tormented." Spitfire raised an eyebrow for a moment as Magni lead them over to one of the small tunnels that rested inside the cavern the Krokul called home, one that had a glowing blue stone which had been set on an altar of some kind, made out of some sort of stone that was native to this world, where the pair of seers that were standing near the entrance confirmed that it had to hold some importance to the Krokul who lived in this cavern, before Magni came to a stop and beckoned for them to place their hands on it, which was exactly what Spitfire and Rainbow did. Not a few seconds later their vision shifted as they peered into another part of Argus, likely a section of Antorus based on the massive chasm that rested in front of them and the metallic structure that was off to their left, not to mention a circular platform in front of them which was linked to the fortress in question, before they found a massive stone construct, an Avatar no doubt, which seemed to be of a great warrior that had fiery lines etched into his body, just like the Fel lines that had been in Sargeras' Avatar. Spitfire realized, all in a few seconds and without being told anything about what they were seeing, that this had to be Aggramar, corrupted by Sargeras no doubt since it looked like he might be guarding something of importance for the Dark Titan, which was quickly confirmed when he knelt in the central section of the circular platform and asked what his 'master's' bidding was, only for the pair to hear the voice of Sargeras reply with something that caused Spitfire to pause for a moment, as he mentioned that the 'circle neared completion'. In that moment she came to understand another reason behind the demons' crusade across all of creation, besides purging each planet of life, and that was that they were seeking the souls of the Pantheon, to boost the power of the Legion to considerable heights if they had multiple Titans backing them, which meant that Sargeras not only had Argus and Aggramar's souls, but he also likely possessed the souls of the other Titans, as in Amun'thul, Eonar, Norgannon, Golganneth, and Khaz'goroth, though due to his words Spitfire determined that he hadn't broken the others yet, meaning there was still time for them to break into Antorus and save the Pantheon, and not a few seconds latter they watched Aggramar leave the area, under orders to stop their incursion and, more importantly, kill her and Rainbow in the near future. As they returned to their bodies, however, Spitfire had to smirk for a moment, as it sounded like Sargeras was worried, or even frightened, of her power and the power that Rainbow possessed, meaning he wanted them to be killed and made to never come back to life, given that demons faced permanent death on Argus and they would suffer the same fate due to their demonic souls, though once they were back in their bodies Spitfire had Magni join them as they left the small tunnel, thanked Hatuun for the chance to see his relic, and then teleported back to the Vindicaar, allowing Velen, Khadgar, and a few others to join them. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it: the Legion is in possession of the Pantheon's souls, while Aggramar has been reborn as a servant of Sargeras, and they have Argus' soul as well." Spitfire stated, as there really was no easy way to give anyone this piece of information and could see that everyone was shocked by what she and Rainbow had seen, but at the same time it corrected something they had thought in the past, after when Xe'ra revealed that Sargeras had beaten all of the other Titans in battle they assumed that Amun'thul and the others were dead, which would have left the Dark Titan as the only living Titan left given Azeroth's dormant status, but this meant that Titans were immortal, though their Avatars were definitely mortal, given what happened to the Avatar Rainbow smashed earlier. "That must be how the Legion has maintained the size of their army, as they've been harnessing Argus' power to fuel the Dark Titan's crusade," Turalyon commented, though it was clear that he, along with everyone else present, were worried about their chances now that they knew exactly what they were up against and might be facing in the near future, due to a number of the heroes figuring that Aggramar had been trapped inside an Avatar, after being broken by Sargeras' might or his minions, before he considered something that put a smile on his face, something that seemed rare when Spitfire took a few seconds to think about it, "but if we can sever the Legion's connection to Argus' soul, the infinite army..." "...would become finite... we could break them even more and really push things in our favor," Alleria finished, though she and everyone else could see what such a thing meant, because if demons were killed in normal locations, like in the wilds of Azeroth for example, their soul would be reborn in the Twisting Nether by using a bit of Argus' power to ensure that it happened, but if they freed Argus' soul from Sargeras' grasp it would deal a powerful and crippling blow to the Legion, far more than having someone like Rainbow feeding on them and trapping their souls inside her Warblades, and it was easy for Spitfire to see that everyone knew exactly what needed to be done in the near future. Once they told their allies what Magni had found, and everyone knew that blasting their way into Antorus was the end goal for this invasion, Spitfire and the others started to teleport down to Hatuun's hovel as Illidan's forces used one of the old beacons of the Army of the Light to teleport over to Antoran Wastes, where her forces started to move out and marched down the path that the red Fel Reaver had been patrolling along before Spitfire slashed it to pieces, passing by all sorts of jagged points and ancient ruined walls before reaching an area that Turalyon stopped at. In front of his rested a city-like Fel-infested area that was swarming with demons, Fel structures, and a fortress that seemed to be important, as it looked like there was an area which produced all sorts of Infernals for the Legion's war efforts, meaning if they took this place it would partly cripple the Legion's efforts to create and send armies of Infernals at Azeroth or the other worlds they might be trying to take down, and Spitfire could feel a demon with some great power, not as much as Kil'jaeden anyway, down in the larger structure that was at the deepest point in this area. So far it looked like the Legion had no idea that Nath'raxas Hold was the next destination that the Grand Army of Azeroth would be attacking, as nothing was attacking them and they could see that all of the demons who happened to be in the immediate area didn't seem to scrambling to defend the city against attackers, meaning none of their enemies even knew that they would be under assault soon, though as Spitfire's forces came to a stop Romuul sent down a beacon without a light show, along with a number of small fortifications that came from the Xenedar, to help defend themselves against attackers, if it got that far. In addition to all of that the Army of the Light sent down a number of Warframes, those being the Lightforged mechs that Spitfire had seen earlier, which stood near the back of their camp, Destiny Point being what everyone decided on, though as that happened she and Rainbow took a moment to glance out at Nath'raxas hold as they considered what Argus had shown them, as it sure sounded like they might encounter Aggramar before long, which meant this assault needed to be fast and effective before the broken Titan showed up to ruin their plan, something that eventually caused Spitfire to glance back at the others. "So, this is Nath'raxas Hold... truth be told, its not very impressive, not like Antorus," Spitfire remarked, because she was expecting more from such an imposing part of Argus, and nothing in front of them really screamed that it was imposing or dangerous, making her wonder if she was becoming numb to the Legion's structures or something, not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things since they would be destroying this place over the next couple of minutes or so, depending on how much time Rainbow wanted to spend playing with her food, "Turalyon, you and your forces have been on Argus for a lot longer than us, so I'm assuming that you have tried, and failed, to destroy this place... is there anything we should know before we head down there and start wrecking things?" "Yes, we lost many Warframes during our previous assaults on this place, so we should set aside some forces to salvage as many parts as we can," Turalyon replied, as while he was used to being the one giving out the orders, and having soldiers follow them as he declared war on the Legion, one thing he and his fellow soldiers were coming to understand was that all of Azeroth, even other timelines based on what Khadgar had told him and Alleria earlier, followed her and that her plans often ended with the Legion being ruined in some manner, so much so that even demons were defecting from the Legion to join her forces, out of fear due to the power she and Rainbow possessed, so following her plans meant bringing an end to the Legion in a timely fashion, "there are also more Soul Engines scattered throughout this place, designed to steal the souls of our fallen comrades, so if we smash them we can free their souls and either bring back some more allies or use a charm to sanctify their remains in a way that prevents anyone from messing with their souls, so we can safely carry them back to the fleet for a proper burial at some point in the future... oh, and we should kill any and all demons that are down in Nath'raxas Hold." "Also, one of our scouts found that three members of the Coven of Shivarra, the strongest Shivarra in all of existence that directly serve the Dark Titan as some of his closest allies, are here as well," Alleria added, where she pointed off to the left side of the outer part of Nath'raxas Hold, the opposite of where Turalyon had been talking about since he was looking off to their right, which caused Spitfire to raise an eyebrow and glanced back at Rainbow, finding that the mention of some powerful demons had caught her attention, before she turned her attention back to the pair, "this is a rare opportunity, as it is very uncommon for members of the Coven to leave Antorus, so killing them will weaken the Coven and increase the amount of time we have until they're capable of corrupting the remaining Titans, among other things, and from what we can tell their names are Subversia, Heretica, and Apostriss. There are also a number of Spires of Woe scattered in the area of Nath'raxas Hold that the Coven members are located in, which I am told you are familiar with since you attacked several of the Legion's worlds before this invasion, so breaking them will boost our chances of breaking this area and driving our enemies from all of Krokuun... once that's done, and we've achieved a decent foothold, we can rain destruction down on the demons that are still in this part of Argus." "Well, all of that is good to know... Rainbow, you know what to do," Spitfire stated, where Rainbow flashed into the air that was above Nath'raxas Hold and loosed another sphere into the air not a few seconds later, signaling that she was going to start drawing in the Fel energy of the demons and this part of Argus, before she veered off to the left and started to hunt down all three of her main targets, heading after the Shivarra that were responsible for corrupting and tormenting the rest of the Pantheon, something that caused her to chuckle for a moment as she waved her hand down towards Nath'raxas Hold and her forces started to march on the demons who had been stationed here. Sure enough, as Spitfire expected when she gave the silent order for the next battle to start, her forces smashed into the demons that were in Nath'raxas Hold, surprising all of the Eredar, Dreadlords, Felstalkers, Fel Elementals, and Infernals that had been stationed in this part of Argus, while the surprise of incoming invaders meant their defenses were bad and her forces smashed through whatever the demons had to defend themselves, turning the outermost part of the city into a battlefield in a matter of seconds, just like what happened when they fought the demons near the Xenedar and turned the valley into a rather massive war zone. This time around Spitfire didn't do anything as she watched her forces hack, slash, and blast their way through the demonic forces that were in this area of Krokuun, where one group was focused on taking the time to gather any and all components of the downed Warframes that had assaulted this area in the past, collecting all of them so they could deliver them to the camp in question and be used to either build new Warframes or outfit ones that had been damaged in the past, and it was clear that the group was leaving the fighting to their allies. She could see Velen, Turalyon, Alleria, and a few others getting in on the action as well, using whatever powers and skills they had access to as they tore into the demons that were scattered around Nath'raxas Hold, where she could see that this was good for Velen since he must have been holding back all sorts of emotions since his departure from this world all those years ago, and it was good for all of their allies as well, as it allowed Turalyon to work out his frustration over Xe'ra being destroyed earlier, even if he seemed to understand why it happened, while letting Alleria get over any anger she had for the Prime Naaru for imprisoning her in the past. Sure enough the priests and paladins were divided into two units, one focusing on killing the demons that were standing between where Turalyon wanted to set up Destiny Point and the entrance of Nath'raxas Hold's fortress, while the other unit tended to the wounded, those being anyone from their own army or the fallen soldiers of the Army of the Light when a Soul Engine was destroyed thanks to the might of their forces, where Spitfire noticed that some of the fallen lived once more and some remained still, causing the healers to sanctify their bodies and make sure to teleport them up to the fleet one at a time for their eventual burials. Spitfire glanced over to the left side of the outermost area and found Rainbow had already tracked down one of the Coven members that Alleria had told her about, as she had thrown the Shivarra out of the structure she had been working in and had forced her to the ground, tearing all of the Fel energy out of her body while sentencing her soul to the depths of the Warblades, though once the first one was dead, and the various Fel Elementals were collapsing as her sphere drained their energy, she blasted the body to pieces, just to be sure Sargeras couldn't use it in the future, and then moved out to find the next Coven member, who had to be curious about the battle going on right now. A few moments later she spotted a very familiar Dreadlord overlooking the battle, one with a purple coloration to the leathery bits of his wings while having a normal coloration to the rest of his body, who she knew to be Vagath, a Dreadlord that had been allied with the Illidari in the past, before Akama betrayed Illidan by freeing Maiev and killing the demon with their allies from Azeroth, though it did look like he was being overwhelmed by what he was seeing right now, all while his own Fel energy was being siphoned by Rainbow's attack. In that instant, as if he realized that someone was watching him, Vagath raised his head and found that Spitfire was staring down at him with one of her eyebrows raised, as she had taken to the air to watch over the battlefield and observe what was going on right now, where the Dreadlord sweated for a moment, likely suspecting that she might do something to him since he had betrayed the Illidari after being killed by Maiev, something that propelled him to take flight and flee towards the jagged wall that was off to the right of where she was flying at the moment, causing her to sigh as she focused her energy for a few seconds. Once she was ready she caused the Light energy she had gathered to form a lance, sort of like what Rainbow had done in the past while not possessing any destructive power, as this was more to kill a single demon and not take down an incredibly powerful enemy, and the moment the lance was formed she spun it around a few times before gripping it and hurled it through the air, where Vagath turned around, as if he felt something coming, and the lance pierced his chest, sending him into the jagged wall and impaled him on one of the spikes, his soul escaping from his body as it joined the other demonic souls that were losing their Fel energy to Rainbow's sphere. Eventually something caused her to laugh as the Legion called on several of their ships to warp into the skies above this part of Argus, something that gave Rainbow more Fel energy to steal as the sphere targeted the newcomers, though at the same time Spitfire contacted Romuul and not a few seconds later the dimensional fleet started firing at the Legion ships, blasting them as Light's Judgement knocked one right out of the sky and sent it crashing into the chasm that was resting nearby, exploding within seconds after that happening, before she found that some demons were starting to back up, as if they might be realizing that they were screwed. Not a few moments later the group who happened to be securing all the fragments of the broken Warframes returned to Destiny Point and warped up to the fleet, where the available Warframes that happened to be aboard the Xenedar were deployed and rained a Light-infused barrage of blasts on the enemy lines, focusing on the enemies that were in front of the fortress so they didn't hurt their allies, where some Eredar backed up as it happened, disbelief on their faces as they witnessed the Legion losing yet another battle against the forces of Azeroth, which had to be ruining the moral of Sargeras' forces. As she watched that happen Spitfire glanced off to the left again and found that Rainbow had found another Shivarra, who happened to be hanging around a cliff for some odd reason, but this time around she discovered that a fight had happened and Rainbow was, once more, testing the limits of her new power against a strong opponent, though in the end she crippled her foe by removing all six of her arms and then removed the head not a few seconds after that happened, stealing more Fel energy and sealing another soul inside her weapons as she headed out to find the last Coven member that Alleria's scouts had found. It didn't take her long to find and slay the last of the three Shivarra who were resting in this part of Argus, who really didn't put up a fight and was slain before she could flee from this area, as the demon in question actually tried to use magic to flee once she realized that this battle was lost and that she had lost two of her sisters, though once her soul was sealed inside her weapons, and her Fel energy had been taken as well, Rainbow took to the air and joined Spitfire as they watched the rest of the army smash their way through all of the remaining demons and opened the way into the fortress' dark heart. It wasn't long before her army pushed the demons back into the fortress area and the Warframes rained down death on all of their enemies, with Rainbow moving down to observe what was going on as she stole their Fel energy, but once the demons in this area were slain, and all of the Legion's ships were destroyed, Rainbow made sure to seal the portals that the Eredar had opened and ate the sphere of Fel energy after condensing it into a smaller form, though after making sure to eat the sphere she landed in front of the fortress' entrance. With the demonic army destroyed under the might of the Grand Army of Azeroth, with the added forces of the Army of the Light mixed in with Spitfire's army, Rainbow focused on taking down the commander of this area, as it would forever cripple the Legion's hold on Krokuun and might lead to more of the Krokul joining them aboard the dimensional fleet, leaving Spitfire and the rest of her allies outside to make sure this area was cleared of enemies, even though she was sure that there were no more demons outside the fortress, but if there were some more demons out there she was leaving them to the others. As she walked down the path that was in front of her, heading into the depths of Nath'raxas Hold, she found a pair of Fel Lords guarding the ramp and discovered that both of them were frightened of her, meaning they must have seen her fight her enemies while she was outside and they likely knew that they didn't stand a chance against her might, to which she tilted her head for a second and both demons raised their weapons to strike out at her, where she dodged their attacks with ease, this time without having to use the power she unlocked during the fight with Kil'jaeden, before removing both of their heads. With that done she headed down the rest of the ramp and found a large central chamber that looked like it might be the heart of the fortress, where she found a large Eredar standing in the middle of the area and figured that he had to be the lord or commander of this place, who would be seen as a failure once Sargeras learned that this fortress was taken out, and his weapon was a scythe, not that it mattered since she dodged the incoming attack and struck the demon in the chest with her fist, sending him to his knees in seconds, causing her to sigh before removing his head, allowing her weapons to take his soul as she devoured his Fel energy, all while turning around to head out and deliver the news to Spitfire. As she emerged from the fortress, however, she found that Spitfire's forces were teleporting back to the dimensional fleet for the time being, clearing out all of Nath'raxas Hold in the process, only to find a flaming meteor coming her way, which she quickly realized wasn't a meteor and was actually Aggramar, who landed with his left fist pounded into the ground and all sorts of flames rested around him, something that brought a smile to Rainbow's face as the broken Titan quickly raised his right hand, carrying a broken sword that was like Turalyon's, only the upper part of his weapon was made of flames, all while showing that he was going to strike her down. Rainbow, in response to that, shifted her stance and jumped into the air as she swung her arms, and her altered Warblades, to counter the incoming attack and sure enough she managed to catch Aggramar's attack, preventing it from hitting the ground while causing the air to shudder with the collision of their powers, all while she was sure that Spitfire was watching this with a look of interest in her eyes, though Rainbow was a tad bit amazed by the fact that she stopped the broken Titan's two handed strike, as Aggramar used both hands against her and couldn't overcome her. Part of her wondered what would have happened had this been the true Aggramar, as in the Titan and not the Avatar that housed Aggramar's soul, because fighting against a Titan's true power would have been far more interesting in her mind, though after thinking about that she found an opening and pushed backwards, knocking the broken Titan's blade back and opening his defenses for her to rush at his chest, giving her a chance to punch his armored chest and, as a consequence, knocked him off the area they had been fighting in, as he had landed near the edge of this part of Nath'raxas Hold. Of course Rainbow knew that falling into the depths of this chasm wouldn't be enough to take down a Titan, much less an Avatar of a broken one, but for now it would eliminate the threat of Aggramar, who Sargeras would likely recall to Antorus once he had climbed out of the area she had thrown him into, and would free Krokuun from the Legion's grasp at the same time, to which she turned and headed back to Destiny Point without delay, where she was able to rejoin Spitfire as they teleported up to the Vindicaar, where their forces appeared to be happy with their efforts, in taking down Nath'raxas Hold, while Velen seemed to be considering something. "We knew that the Legion would have some surprises for us, and discovering that Aggramar is a Legion pawn confirms what we learned earlier," Velen commented, speaking to those who gathered around him, as in Spitfire, Rainbow, Alleria, Turalyon, Magni, and Khadgar, at the very least, before he glanced up at the sky and paused when he spotted the floating section of Argus that had been torn from the surface of the planet, where it was clear that he was thinking about what he knew was up there and if it was worth mentioning to his allies, before turning his gaze back to them, "against the powers of three Titans, those being Aggramar, Sargeras, and possibly Argus as well, I'm not sure we have the necessary power to defeat the Legion and stop their crusade, even with the powers you and Rainbow possess... and that's not counting if the Coven manage to break any of the remaining Titans before our assault on Antorus. However, I do know the location of a relic that, if I know Archimonde and Kil'jaeden as well as I think I do, should still be resting somewhere in Mac'Aree, which is the floating ruin in the sky, far above the corrupted surface of my planet... if we can find the remaining fragments of the Crown of the Triumvirate, as in two very special gemstones, we might be able to empower our fleet further, and we might also find something to grant you the final wing to complete your set." Spitfire glanced up at Mac'Aree for a few seconds, as she could feel a faint presence of something up there that might give her the final Cosmic Force she needed, even though part of her was curious as to what the Crown of the Triumvirate was and why Velen had mentioned his fallen former friends when speaking about it, but she had the feeling that he could tell all of them the information they required once they reached Mac'Aree, to which she nodded and braced herself for the next stage of their invasion of Argus, as it would prepare them for the raid on Antorus and the eventually fight against all of Sargeras' darkest and most twisted followers. > Argus: Ruins of Mac'Aree > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing Spitfire did, after giving Romuul the order to prepare the Vindicaar so they could depart for Mac'Aree, was have most of the dimensional fleet remain in Krokuun for the time being, as it would allow them to make sure no demons tried to return to Nath'raxas Hold or any of the other areas that had been cleared out earlier, while at the same time it also gave Illidan's forces more reinforcements, especially if they needed to rain death on an enemy's location or needed a place to fall back to, something that caused the captains of her fleet to nod their heads before carrying out her orders, allowing her to focus on Velen and the relic he was after. "Thousands of years ago, before Argus feel to the Legion, Archimonde, Kil'jaeden, and I crafted three special gemstones that would become the Crown of the Triumvirate," Velen explained, knowing that giving his allies this information would allow all of them to know why he was so interested in recovering the other two pieces of the relic, as Spitfire was sure that he held one gemstone and that it had to be part of his staff, or maybe not since she had no idea what they looked like, but this was good for all of them and no one said anything as the Prophet continued, as he had paused for a moment to gather some of his thoughts before speaking again, "Kil'jaeden created the Crest of Knowledge, which is said to contain the vast sum of knowledge that had been cultivated by our people, Archimonde did the same with the Sigil of Awakening, a gemstone that radiates pure Arcane power, and I made the Eye of Prophecy, which allowed me to focus my visions and bring prosperity to our people, among other things, and together the gemstones make the Crown of the Triumvirate. When Archimonde and Kil'jaeden decided to accept Sargeras' offer, but before my people fled with the Naaru, I took the Eye of Prophecy from the area that we kept the Crown in, as I could only carry one and didn't have time to take the others with me, and I have been carrying the Eye with me since the day we Draenei were forced to leave Argus, keeping it safe in the one place neither of my former brothers would think to look, in the center of my staff." "And you are sure that the remaining pieces, the Crest and the Sigil, are somewhere in Mac'Aree?" Spitfire asked, though at this point she was positive that Velen was telling the truth, as he only lied when he thought it was better than telling the person or group he might be talking to a terrible fact or an equally terrible truth, meaning if they could get their hands on the remaining pieces of the Crown they could empower their fleet even further and grant them a level of power that would let them break into Antorus, meaning neither she or Rainbow would have to waste some of their own energy breaking into Sargeras' dark throne. "Yes, we just need to travel to Mac'Aree and I can do my best to direct our forces to where the other fragments might have been left, when my brothers realized their fragments were useless without the Eye," Velen replied, though that was all he could say at the moment, as he had given Spitfire everything she needed to know about the Crown and the relics that had been created by those he once called his brothers, and there was also the chance that, after some time looking around, a source of Void energy might be found for her to obtain the final wing, something he told her about earlier, meaning all he could do was wait and see if she would actually agree with his plan. "Grand Commander, the fleet is ready to disperse as you ordered... they're just waiting for the order." Romuul spoke up, as all of them, heroes and leaders who had ensured that Azeroth was safe from the dangers that plagued the planet in the past, were following Spitfire's lead and knew that she was in control of their invasion of Argus, so if she changed her mind on something the army was going to assume it was for a good reason and go with it, though A'dal and the other captains were waiting to see what she said before they did anything, showing that they trusted her knowledge on what the Legion might do and how to counter their movements. "Give the order: the fleet will remain here, defending Krokuun and assaulting Antoran Wastes, while the Vindicaar will go up to Mac'Aree and search for the Crown of the Triumvirate," Spitfire stated, showing that she was going to follow Velen's desire to check out the floating ruin that was above them and seek out the remaining fragments of the Crown, to which Romuul nodded his head and relayed her order to the rest of the fleet, who would spend some time making sure that all of the ships were situated in their best places for some time, while each of them waited for the Vindicaar to return, and as soon as that was done he tapped a few buttons that caused the Vindicaar to move as well. Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies watched as they departed from the rest of the fleet, heading for the ruins that were far above the surface of Argus, though while it took a few minutes to reach their destination, since no one wanted to give the Legion an idea they were heading to Mac'Aree, eventually they were able to see a section of Argus that wasn't corrupted by Fel energy, a pristine sample of what Eredar civilization looked like before the Legion arrived, with all sorts of buildings that Velen would have to tell them about at some point in the future, and Romuul eventually brought the ship to a stop as they stared out at Mac'Aree, giving everyone a good view of this section of Argus. "Mac'Aree... the pinnacle of Eredar civilization, which drew the Legion to our planet... I am home," Velen commented, as he had a mix of emotions as he stared out at the place that he, Archimonde, and Kil'jaeden once called home, which his allies could see just by glancing at him for a second or two, before he let out a sigh that sounded like he was heartbroken about something and he seemed to be resisting the urge to shed some tears over those who had been lost when their race was split into demonic Eredar and the Draenei, "The last time I was here was thousands of years ago, when my people escaped from the Legion's grasp, where I suffered another betrayal in the form of my trusted advisor, Talgath, capturing my family and going to Kil'jaeden with my plan to leave Argus before it fell... the rest you know, as Rakeesh eventually found us and tried to kill me... if we find Talgath, and I'm hoping that we do come across him, I will show him no mercy and make him pay for his part in my son's corruption." "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find him... but first, let's scout out the area and make sure we're safe," Spitfire said, as while it looked like there were no demons up here, as neither she or Rainbow could feel any demonic signatures right now, which would change if the Legion found out what they were up to and meant that they had to be quick in finding out where the Crest of Knowledge and the Sigil of Awakening rested, to which she turned towards Romuul for a second, who nodded as he accessed the navigation console. Not a few seconds later she, Rainbow, and Velen appeared near the edge of Mac'Aree, in an area that looked like it had a worn path that lead into a nearby clearing of sorts, where they walked forward and took in what was around them, taking in all of the pristine trees and plants that were still growing in this place, meaning there was still life on this section of the broken planet, and Velen headed for an arch that seemed to be a doorway or marker of some kind, something that caused the pair to follow after him as they kept their eyes open for any enemies that might want them dead. As they walked and took in everything that was around them, while making sure no foes were in this area, Velen seemed to be staring off into the distance, as if reliving the day that he and his people fled Argus before the demons claimed them, where Spitfire found that the Light seemed to grace her and Rainbow as they peered into the past as well, finding Hatuun's people aiding Velen in his escape, before Talgath revealed his betrayal and, as an odd twist that neither of them saw coming, the leader of the Krokul actually stayed behind and defended the area to allow Velen's group to escape, which meant that Hatuun had to be annoyed by Velen never returning for his group. After Hatuun said that, and his group moved to stop the Eredar in their tracks, it was followed by Velen calling on the air of K'ure, one of the Naaru who assisted his people, and a dimensional ship appeared in the air, teleporting the soon to be Draenei off of Argus' surface and aboard the Genedar, as the memory told them which one it had been, though once everyone was on the ship they departed from Argus as Kil'jaeden claimed that he would hunt Velen across the stars, regardless of how long it took. Once the vision was done they returned to the present and paused for a few seconds, just to make sure nothing was wrong with any of them, before Velen stopped as he noticed something odd, where he found echoes of his people, the Draenei to be exact, fleeing from something and caused him to wonder what in the world was going on, to which Spitfire and Rainbow shifted their stances as they drew their sets of blades and followed after him, and when they passed through the arch a few seconds later they found a decent number of echoes fleeing from or facing the echoes of Eredar, with an echo of a Naaru resting in the middle of the area that Velen eventually stopped at the edge of. "Spirits of those who died that fateful day, both Eredar and Draenei alike... along with an echo of L'ura, the Naaru who stayed behind to hold back the Legion so we could escape," Velen said, where he gazed upon what was happening down in the area in front of them, as he honestly wasn't expecting to see this upon his return to Mac'Aree, especially since they could hear the Naaru's song of war, though part of him wondered what in the world happened to L'ura, since neither he or his people had seen her after departing from Argus, or had A'dal and the others told him anything about her, so it was possible that she might be alive, to which he focused on what they needed to do next, "before we start looking for either the Crest or the Sigil, we must put these spirits to rest by doing what we were unable to do when this battle raged... which means finding a way to empower this area's defenses, as I had ordered for them to be turned on when we were fleeing to the Genedar and none of them were activated. Also, there might be an echo of a hulking beast resting in this place, an in an Eredar turned Brute, who volunteered to be the first to undergo the process and whose arrival likely ended this fight... Kil'jaeden and Archimonde were quick to transform their people into weapons for the Legion, and Khazaduum was the first of his foul kind, so be careful as you explore this area, though if an echo of him exists he'll likely be in possession of a crystal matrix we need to secure this place." Spitfire glanced at Rainbow for a few seconds before the pair headed down into the ruined area that the majority of the echoes were lingering in, where Spitfire was mostly looking around, taking in everything that was around her while looking for the important crystal matrix Velen had just mentioned, while at the same time Rainbow rushed over to an area which had a number of Eredar echoes that were hunting down the Draenei echoes who were running for their lives, though due to the fact that they were simply spirits she really couldn't drain them of their former Fel energy, but she was fine with that since she'd track down some demons later to make up for this loss. As such she raised her arms and lashed out with both her clawed hands and her Warblades, blocking attacks that were coming at her while lashing out to take down her foes so the Draenei spirits could flee this time around, though what she found to be interesting was that one of the Eredar had a circular crystalline core in her hands, like she had stolen it from one of the pylons that Velen wanted to restore to put all of the spirits at ease, to which she picked it up and walked over to the central arch, as there was one in the middle, with one on its right and another on the left, before noticing the collapsed pylons in front of them. It only took her a few seconds to find a slot where an item could be inserted and quickly slipped the core into it, where she watched as the device reformed before her eyes and floated in the air once it was fully powered up, to which she focused on tearing down all of the Eredar spirits that were around here as she sought out the ones who were holding the other two cores that would power up this part of Argus, something that might be a mistake since the Legion might be able to lock onto whatever Eredar technology is being used and figure out what they were up to, but Spitfire felt this was worth the risk and she was willing to follow her lead in gathering the remaining fragments of the Crown. As she thought about all of that Rainbow did find two spirits that held the remaining cores that she was looking for, to which she crushed her foes and picked up the stolen items that the Eredar were carrying, allowing her to approach the other two arches and slip them into the slots without delay, powering up both of the remaining pylons that were in this area and formed a barrier of sorts that would prevent the spirits of the fallen Eredar from entering this area while allowing the fleeing Draenei to be safe. While she did that Spitfire found an echo of an Eredar Brute that was hanging out on the outer edge of the area that they were working to make safe for the spirits of the past, to which she landed near it and simply closed her eyes as she took a few moments to dodge the incoming attacks that were coming her way, as the spirit tried to slash her apart with his claws and failed as she used her heightened power to avoid his attacks, even though she did feel some sort of power radiating from the large temple in the distance, but instead of worrying about that she used one of her Twinblades to crush the foul spirit and found that he left behind a crystalline item that she carried over to Velen. "I found, and destroyed, Khazaduum," Spitfire stated, where she took a moment to notice that Rainbow had been rather successful in finding a way to repair the pylons that had been in this area, something Velen seemed happy with, though at the same time she lifted the crystal she had picked up and let the Prophet look over it for a few seconds, since he would know what it was and if it was the matrix he told them about a few moments ago, but he nodded his head and that told her that this happened to be exactly what they needed to move forward, "Okay, now that Khazaduum's echo has been destroyed, and we've recovered the crystal matrix while powering up the pylons of this area, is there anything else that needs to do before we resume the search for both fragments of the Crown?" "We just need to head down into a small alcove that holds the shattered remains of the Argunite Matrix, where replacing the keystone you recovered should restore it to its full capacity," Velen replied, to which he walked down the steps that were in front of him and entered the area that the spirits of his people were still lingering in, even though now they didn't have to worry about the dark spirits of the Eredar catching up with them and dragging them down or outright killing them, before he turned and headed into the alcove he had just mentioned, causing the pair to follow him as they spotted a bit of crystalline fragments lingering all over the floor, "activating the Argunite Matrix should empower this area and grant these spirits the peace they so deserve... those who stayed behind will never know how much I mourned for them, or the sheer depths of my regret to leave so many Draenei behind... even when Argus became smaller and smaller, as we departed for another world to call home, I even begged the Naaru to go back, to let me save as many as I could, but it was not meant to be, as the Naaru had other plans for me." Spitfire said nothing to that, as she really didn't have a good response other than admitting that most of the Naaru were just using Velen and his people for their own gain, as it sure seemed that way and Xe'ra had proven her point earlier, but she did step forward and held out a hand as the keystone slipped into place, pulling the other pieces up to where it was resting, before a surge of power rushed over this area and she stopped hearing L'ura's song of war, to which the three of them walked out of the alcove and found that all of the spirits, plus the echo of the Naaru, had disappeared, which gave Velen a chance to let out a sigh of relief as Spitfire called down a beacon from the Vindicaar. Not a few moments later she found a number of Draenei, normal and Lightforged, came down to defend Velen and assist them in uncovering where the fragments of the Crown might be resting, as the Chosen were here as well and that told Spitfire that they were mostly his bodyguards, which she was perfectly fine with, before she noticed that the Lightforged included Y'mera, Baraat, and a few new individuals that Fareeya introduced to them. One of them happened to be a slightly buff male Lightforged Draenei who carried a greatsword on his back and seemed ready for battle, called Blademaster Telaamon, another was an older male who appeared to be a paladin, Grand Vindicator Sorvos, and the last one was a female Lightforged priest who, like all of the others, was staring out at the area they were in while making sure that the immediate area around the beacon was safe for Velen and their allies, in case anyone else came down to join them, though for the most part the heroes of Azeroth were with the rest of the fleet and were either in Krokuun or Antoran Wastes to assist Spitfire's forces. Of course Spitfire knew that most of those who came from Azeroth were fighting the Legion and wasn't too worried about such a thing, as it allowed them to make sure the Legion's gaze was down near Antorus, instead of up here on Mac'Aree, though one or two heroes were likely still aboard the Vindicaar, with Khadgar and the others who decided to stay with her, Rainbow, Velen, and those who were after the fragments of the Crown, to which she turned her attention towards their main goal and just glanced at Velen, who sighed and nodded his head to confirm that he knew what needed to be done. "Now that we have secured this location, and assisted the spirits who were trapped here, we can begin our search for the fragments of the Crown, and to start we'll look for Archimonde's Sigil of Awakening," Velen stated, to which he took a few seconds to gesture to a structure that was across the way from their current position and caused them to glance at it as he did that, though Y'mera frowned for a moment as she realized what sort of area the Prophet was talking about, but Spitfire said nothing as she listened to what Velen had to say, since his information would be valuable for them to find the Crest and the Sigil, "I'm positive that he left it somewhere inside the Conservatory, the greatest school of magic in all of Argus, as it was where he learned all he knew and gained the mastery he eventually possessed, though I'm not sure where he might have left the Sigil when he learned that I took my fragment of the Crown with me." Fortunately for them Fareeya had an answer to what was bothering Velen, as she had Y'mera follow Spitfire and Rainbow for a time, as her knowledge on the Conservatory and all of its mechanics would come in handy for figuring out where the Sigil might be hidden, to which she started to move out of the area as the other Draenei remained with Velen, allowing Spitfire to follow after Y'mera as Rainbow returned to the Vindicaar, due to the fact that there were no demons up here and she was debating heading down to Antoran Wastes to tackle some demons. From where all of the spirits had been running around Spitfire followed after Y'mera as she headed down some steps, entered what had been a square of an old settlement that had been built around the large temple, and headed for a worn out path that rested between the section of Mac'Aree Romuul had parked the Vindicaar near and where Velen assumed Archimonde left the Sigil of Awakening in all those years ago, though one thing she did see were a couple of large metallic constructs which belonged to the Eredar, as in before they became demons, and most of them were offline. Of course it didn't matter if the constructs were still awake or if they were offline, because if they saw her and Y'mera as intruders she could take care of them with ease, though she found that none of them even came near where she and her guide were walking and it allowed Y'mera to focus on what Fareeya ordered her to do, while confirming that Mac'Aree was rather peaceful, in comparison to the rest of Argus anyway, and that there were no demons hanging out up here, meaning Rainbow's desire to stay behind was acceptable since she wanted to kill demons and would no doubt get a chance to do so, as Spitfire had a feeling that sooner or later the Legion would notice what they were up to and send someone to investigate. The Chosen were likely thinking the same thing, as a few of them had looked like they might be looking for additional places to set up camps or beacons for greater travel for the future, since there was still another fragment of the Crown they needed to find after the Sigil was recovered, so she was fine with Velen and his bodyguards, with some Lightforged reinforcements, doing whatever they needed to make sure Mac'Aree was secure as they searched for the other fragment of the ancient relic. Eventually Y'mera came to a stop after passing through a large arch, one that was tall enough for one of the large metallic constructs to walk through during a patrol pattern, where Spitfire found a smaller construct, like a guide or speaker that was supposed to welcome someone to this area of Mac'Aree, resting a few steps in front of them, though it was offline like most of the other constructs that were scattered around this area of Argus, or at least everything near the Vindicaar, one that they ended up stopping in front of of. "Welcome to the Conservatory of the Arcane, where we should be able to find the Sigil of Awakening," Y'mera stated, to which she gestured to the construct that was in front of them, causing Spitfire to focus on it for a time as she took a couple of moments to consider its purpose in this area, though as she did that the Archmage took a few seconds to glance around the area they were in as she considered something that needed to be done before they returned to their allies and left this place, before focusing on Spitfire again, "though this Gatekeeper will be useful in opening the way to where Archimonde left the relic that the Prophet is after... we just need to wake it up, and to do that we're going to need to stabilize this area, by empowering some of the Power Conduits that are scattered around this place, while also hunting down some of the local Panthara to gather whatever Arcane energy they might have ingested, but with your power you might be able to turn the ingested bits into pure energy again." Spitfire raised an eyebrow for a moment as she listened to what had to be done to this area, since she was expecting a bit more than what she had been told, before accepting a crystal that Y'mera handed her, a source of power to wake up the conduits and network in this section of Argus, where she opened her wings for a moment and took to the air so she could look down on the area that served as the Conservatory of the Arcane, finding a number of buildings off to the right of the entrance that seemed to be where a number of cat-like beasts happened to be resting, the Panthara based on what she had been told. In addition to that there was a circular square just beyond where the Gatekeeper was resting, a building that was either two or three stories with some sort of Arcane barrier preventing anyone from entering it, a small structure with a single story off to the left with a bunch of ruins nearby, and a large building located to the northwest from where the square was located, diagonally from everything else and had to be where Archimonde worked before he became the demonic being everyone eventually knew him as. Once she knew the layout of the Conservatory she spotted a number of Arcane devices that looked nearly identical to those Rainbow had empowered when they were assisting the spirits, where she noticed eight of them were fully active and that meant those were the ones that needed to be given some power to awaken the network Y'mera had mentioned, to which she focused her power for a few seconds and connected it to the crystal that was currently floating above her left hand, before putting her plan into action. Y'mera watched as small beams of Arcane energy erupted from the crystal she had given Spitfire and found that there were eight of them, which quickly struck all of Spitfire's targets and she felt part of the network in this area start to awaken within a matter of seconds, and based on what she was feeling it was clear that it wouldn't be long before they had part of the power necessary to power up the Gatekeeper, though once the conduits were empowered Spitfire returned to where Y'mera was standing and gave her the now dim crystal, indicating that it had been used up, before heading over to where the Panthara rested, since they had a bit of the Arcane energy they needed to empower the Gatekeeper. What happened next really caused Y'mera to raise an eyebrow as she observed what Spitfire did, as she landed near the area that the Panthara seemed to be calling home and such a thing caused the beasts to turn on her not even a couple of seconds after she touched down, but instead of them attacking her, like Y'mera assumed they would do, the Panthara just gathered around her and seemed to be at peace in her presence for some reason, which made her wonder if it might be the Life power at use, before Spitfire used her power to withdraw the bits of eaten Arcane energy from the Panthara, as she created an orb of Arcane energy that she eventually carried over over to where Y'mera was standing. "You know that you are a strange individual, right?" Y'mera asked, as that was the best way she could explain everything she and the others had seen during the time the Army of the Light had worked with Spitfire, which had only been for an hour or so based on what she knew, something that caused Spitfire to nod a little, showing that she did know and that it was likely due to her having control over most of the Cosmic Forces that resided in their universe, before she pushed the orb into the construct and took a step backwards before a frown appeared on her face, "Of course that wasn't enough to awaken the Gatekeeper... these things are troublesome to the end..." In that moment Spitfire tapped the Gatekeeper and the construct stirred not a few seconds later, the arms and legs being the first to move as it came online once more, something that caused her to notice that Y'mera looked like she wanted to give up on trying to understand what she and Rainbow were capable of, especially since Spitfire had access to three more Cosmic Forces besides Life and Arcane, but instead of worrying about that they focused on the Gatekeeper and what sort of information they could gain from it. I am restored! the construct stated, though the voice that came from it, though distorted a tiny bit, sounded like a male Eredar, one who must have been bestowed this purpose before the rest of his kind either transformed into demons or escaped with Velen, while at the same time Spitfire could tell that Y'mera wasn't pleased by who was in front of them at the moment, meaning they might have found another obstacle they needed to overcome before they could find the Sigil of Awakening and claim it for their forces, before the Gatekeeper noticed them, Exile Y'mera, why have you returned? You should know that the Conservatory's resources are not available to someone with your... status. "Quoram... of all the people that could have been chosen to become the next Gatekeeper..." Y'mera started to say, like she was about to get into an argument with the construct and ruin their chances of figuring out where the Sigil had been left all those years ago, before she sighed and shook her head, showing that she understood that such a thing was not the right thing to do at the moment, while at the same time confirming the fact that she did know the rule the Gatekeeper, or Quoram as she called it, had just mentioned, "Lady Spitfire, perhaps you should do the talking." "Vigilant Quoram, Gatekeeper of the Conservatory of the Arcane, we have come here for one reason: to recover the Sigil of Awakening that Archimonde left in this school," Spitfire stated, deciding to get to the point and tell the construct why they were here, while the reason she used 'Vigilant' when addressing it was thanks to a number of Draenei possessing the title, so she figured that there was a good chance that Quoram would have held the title at one point and might like to hear it be used again, before she returned her focus to the topic at hand once more, "I have it on good authority that you either know where the Sigil was hidden, before the Draenei fled from Argus when Archimonde and Kil'jaeden joined the Legion, or you know what needs to be done to open the path to the relic in question." The Sigil of Awakening is the Conservatory's highest honor... only Archimonde's chosen may pursue this accolade, while exiles are not allowed such an honor! Quoram stated, informing Spitfire that Velen and Fareeya's guess as to where they might find the first missing fragment of the Crown had been correct, the Sigil was somewhere inside this place and, if she knew pre-demon Archimonde as well as she thought she did, which might not be accurate since she was going off of what Velen had told her and Rainbow, there was likely a path of some kind that would grant her access to the relic in question, even though the construct seemed to sigh a few seconds later, I am, however, obligated to inform you that the master did create trials specifically for this purpose... I am also required to allow the uninitiated to participate. "The tell me what needs to be done and I'll go take care of whatever trials Archimonde left in this place," Spitfire replied, as she was happy to hear that there was, in fact, a way for her to get at the Sigil of Awakening, because she was sure that the construct would insist that Y'mera stay out of this and just watch her tackle the trials, though the Lightforged Draenei just nodded her head and took a step back, to show Quoram that she understood all of the rules that rested in this place and that she was going to let Spitfire tackle the trials on her own. You have three trials that need to be completed: the Trials of Tenacity, Cunning, and Mastery, Quoram said, even though Spitfire was sure his tone, had he been alive and not stuck in a machine like this, would have been one of displeasure, due to letting an outsider like her tackle the trials that Archimonde put into the Conservatory, even though she was a tad bit surprised by his lack of emotion towards her mentioning that his master had joined the Legion, before he seemed to shift for a moment, likely to give her the last pieces of information she needed, My Master taught by rewarding frustration with more frustration, punishment with more punishment, that sort of thing... and to overcome the Trial of Tenacity, which you will find in the large building at the other end of the Conservatory, you will need absolute conviction to succeed over this particular trial. You will find a trio of statues up and to your left, ones linked to the Trial of Cunning, of which I am unable to give you any hints or information on, simply that only the smartest and most intelligent minds will be able to find a way to obtain three special fragments to form a Mark of Cunning that indicates your success. As for the Trial of Mastery, you will need to fight and best three of Master Archimonde's greatest pupils, or their echoes before each of them became part of the Legion, and if you are successful in beating all three of them I will acknowledge your strength. Spitfire raised an eyebrow as she heard that, mostly because the trials sounded like they would be child's play and that all of them would be over in no time, to which she simply nodded her head and departed from the area they had been in for the last couple of minutes, where she headed up the ancient road and targeted the area that Quoram mentioned that the Trial of Cunning happened to be resting in, something that allowed her to find three golden or brass colored statues of old Eredar who had symbols floating in front of their hands, the left one having a red one, the middle being blue, and the right one having yellow. She stared at them for a few seconds before finding there were three Arcane barriers scattered around the rest of this part of the Conservatory, the one to her immediate right having a green symbol above it, the one that was behind the statues had an orange one above it, and the one to her left had a purple one, something that was followed by her raising her eyebrow for a moment as she realized what this trial was and felt that Archimonde had been trolling those who sought his teachings, as this was simply a test to make sure someone knew how to mix colors. She knew that because the blue and yellow statue symbols, which appeared above her head when she accessed the power of the statues, mixed to become a green icon that unlocked the barrier with the green symbol, granting her a chance to pull out one of the many fragments from inside the chest the magic had been protecting, and once she was back near the statues the barrier came back, waiting for the day when someone else tried the Trial of Cunning out, even though she was sure that this was more like the Trial of Trolling. Mixing the blue and red statues granted her a purple symbol that unlocked the barrier off on her left, something that gave her a chance to pull out the fragment from the chest that was inside that structure, and once she was back at the statues she used the red and yellow symbols to form an orange one to unlock the final barrier, granting her the third and final fragment that formed the Mark of Cunning, even though it sure felt like this had been a troll trial or something, that Archimonde had been wanting a little fun with his students, before she sighed and moved on to the center of the Conservatory, as she was sure the echoes were in the central square. A few moments later Spitfire found that Y'mera, having been granted permission to 'watch her fail' the Trial of Mastery, as those were Quoram's words, had a bit of knowledge to share with her on the echoes that needed to be taken down, or at least her knowlegde of who they were before they joined the Legion, where she quickly discovered that the one closest to them, a male Draenei wearing some mage style robes, was Grand Vizier Jarasum, the female Draenei who stood right in the middle, wearing a different colored set of attire to what the first wore, was Arc-Consul Velara, and the one on the other side of the central area, a male Draenei wearing a robe with another different color, was High Wakener Aargon, which was followed by Y'mera telling her who they eventually became. What told her over the next few seconds was that the Army of the Light knew that Jarasum went on to become an Eredar Lord by the name of Jaraxxus, apparently Velara become known as Velysra, and Aargon went on to become Aargoss the Soulcleaver, to which Spitfire informed her that Aargoss had been slain back during her and Rainbow's time in Suramar, meaning his soul was in the Warblades, and Velysra had been slain during one of the Legion's assaults on Azeroth, but since neither she or Rainbow had their weapons at the time that meant that Velysra was still alive, and she had no idea where Jaraxxus was hiding. As Y'mera took in that information Spitfire took a step forward and approached the three echoes that needed to be beaten, where she quickly approached the area that all of them were standing in and openly challenged all of them to a fight, causing the echoes and Y'mera to stare at her in shock for a few seconds, though instead of being annoyed all three Eredar stepped forward as soon as she said that and rushed into battle without wasting even a single second, most calling upon their Arcane energies to lash out at her as one of them lashed out with his sword as well. Y'mera watched as Spitfire dodged the attacks without even raising either of her hands, rather she channeled her own powers and smashed through the Arcane blasts that were coming at her with ease, much to the surprise of the echoes she was fighting, while she dodged Aargon's sword swings as if she was relying on her instinct alone, as she was using what Rainbow had used against Kil'jaeden earlier, before she channeled a bit of her power into three orbs and smashed all three of her targets into the ground. Y'mera knew that anyone watching the fight would have suspected that Spitfire had used her power to teleport the orbs into the air above her foes and used a spell to drive them into the ground, without damaging the stone flooring, but she suspected that what Spitfire did was actually flash through the air, with the speed created from her odd instinct state, and slam the orbs into her foes without them seeing anything coming in the first place, though in the end the echoes admitted defeat and acknowledged her strength, meaning the Trial of Mastery was successful. With that done Spitfire bit the echoes farewell, where she nodded to them as they bowed their heads towards her, before she headed for the structure that had a barrier in front of the main entrance, where she found a projection of Quoram waiting for her and it said nothing to her as it stepped out of her way, lowering the barrier at the same time, allowing her to enter the building so she could tackle the trial that was associated with this place, because with the Trial of Tenacity finished she would be able to figure out the location of the Sigil of Awakening. What she found was that there were a number of emblems on the ground that switched from a red color to a purple color, with nothing above them at all, to which she stepped forward and flashed through the first chamber of the building, while the next one had a few beams of Arcane energy that seemed to be blocking the way forward, to which she walked towards all of them and simply dodged them like they were nothing, once more like the time that Rainbow fought Kil'jaeden, and in no time she reached the end of the second chamber, finding a set of steps that took her up to the second floor of the building. Of course there were a number of orbs moving down the stairs, which she felt would damage her if she touched them, to which she walked up the steps without letting the orbs touch her once and let her reach what appeared to be a balcony of the second floor, meaning all of the bedrooms were blocked off, if this place even had some since she had no idea what Argus had been like before the Legion came and claimed the Eredar, though it allowed her to find that a projection of Quoram was waiting for her and it sighed for a moment as he admitted that she had passed the third and final trial. With that done she opened her wings once more and flew back to where Quoram and Y'mera were waiting, though as she flew through the air something became apparent to her, the Legion had invaded Mac'Aree at long last, as there happened to be an area on the left side of the Conservatory, which rested near the border between the base of the main structure and one of the ancient roads of Argus, where the Army of the Light had set up a small base and were defending it, while at the same time Rainbow appeared to be tearing into some Eredar that wanted her dead. "There, all three trials are done." Spitfire commented, speaking after landing near Quoram and her ally, where Y'mera had a smile on her face, as she knew that having her tackle the trials was a smart move and it had worked out quite well, as it meant that the Vigilant had to honor his word and give her access to the part of the Conservatory that the Sigil had been left in, to which the two of them faced the construct for a few seconds as they waited for him to say something and give her the information they were after, "You'll give me access to the Sigil now, right?" It would appear that you are not so easily deterred... very well, I shall allow you to move forward, Quoram stated, where it sounded like he might have been surprised that she had survived the trials that Archimonde had placed in this school to test his students, and protect his ancient treasures, to which the construct gestured to the main building that was resting diagonally from where the central square was located, You must go to the Praetorium and face the echo of Archimonde himself to gain access to the Sigil of Awakening... be warned, only a few have overcome this obstacle. Spitfire said nothing to that, save for nodding her head to show him that she understood his statement, before heading off for the Praetorium, this time opening her wings to fly over to where her destination was located, where she found a large area that seemed perfect for a fight, if the echo of Archimonde tried to engage her, and sure enough her foe was standing in the middle of the area, though as she landed the ancient and powerful echo turned to face her, patiently waiting for her to stop so he could tell her something. What was interesting was that Archimonde's echo seemed to think that she was a student and that it was time to humble another one, to which he summoned his Arcane power and lashed out at her with it, where she channeled her own power and loosed a number of blasts to cancel out the incoming attacks, which seemed to make the echo grin as he realized that he might have a good fight on his hands, to which he ordered his power to loose a bombardment on her location. In that moment she waved a hand out and snatched the bombardment out of the air, as in she redirected it and bombed the area that her foe was standing in at the moment, who used an Arcane barrier to save himself from taking damage, though as it went down Spitfire smiled as she tried something new, as she called upon her knowledge of what the Nightborne did and her own inner power for a few seconds, before releasing a spell on this area as a dome appeared around them, one that slowed the echo until he was unable to move. It was her attempt to use the Time Lock spell that Elisande had used back in Suramar, only on a much smaller scale, and based on what she could see it had worked, allowing her to summon a number of energy blasts that formed in the area around the echo, made from the five Cosmic Powers she had access to, before she took a step back and snapped her fingers once she was ready, causing time to resume for her and her target not even a second later, all while the blasts struck the echo of Archimonde and knocked him backwards. In that moment the echo laughed, claiming that she would be a fine addition to his school and that she, in time, would do Argus proud, though as the ancient version of Archimonde faded away a purple gemstone appeared in the center of the area, one that was perfectly cut and radiated pure power, to which she claimed the Sigil of Awakening and walked down to where the Lightforged soldiers were fighting, where a beacon appeared and allowed her to teleport up to the Vindicaar, with Y'mera following close behind her. Once she was back aboard the ship she could see that everyone was interested in what she had done and watched as she walked down to where Velen was standing, who mentioned that Archimonde must have been disdainful of the limitations of the Sigil, without the Eye to give the Crown its full power, before he stepped out of the way as Spitfire walked over to the pedestal that had three posts and held her hand out as the Sigil floated into place, where the bottom point happened to be pointed to the southwest from where it rested, though once that was done she smiled as she returned to the window, as she knew it was only a matter of time until someone figured out where the Crest of Knowledge rested and then they could assault Antorus, bringing this invasion to an end at long last. > Argus: Velen's Revenge > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Spitfire waited for the soldiers of either the Army of the Light or the Grand Army of Azeroth to give her news about the situation on Argus, to give her an idea of what was happening to Mac'Aree given that the Legion had arrived while she and Y'mera were looking for the Sigil of Awakening, Velen excused himself as he headed back down to the part of Argus they were currently interested in, no doubt to help the Lightforged who were fighting near the Conservatory, though as he did that she found that someone else wanted to speak with her, back on Azeroth. Of course she was curious as to who might be interested in speaking to her, especially given the fact that most of the world was united against the Legion, to which she returned to the portal that connected the Vindicaar to Dalaran and followed the Kirin Tor mage who had told her about the one who wanted to speak with her, as it looked like they were making their way over to the tower that the Council mostly stayed in when their members were inside the city, even though right now she knew that most of them would be off seeing to the Legion's end. When she arrived she found a two Humans standing to her right, one female with really short white or light gray hair who wore a set of armor that looked like she was a sailor, like a captain or admiral, while the other lady was much larger than the first one, both in waist size and bust size, who wore expensive clothing and seemed to be annoyed by what was going on right now, while to her left she found three Trolls, only they weren't like the Trolls she was used to seeing among her forces. Each of the Trolls were wearing tribal attire of some kind, even though her knowledge of their culture wasn't enough to tell her anything about them save for the fact that the attire was either golden or brass colored, and the first one she laid her eyes on, a male standing tall and proud, looked like a king, while the younger female near him looked like she was dressed up as either a priestess or a princess, and the third one, a male, was hunched a little, like it was due to old age or something, a prophet or seer she guessed. "Welcome to Dalaran, friends," Spitfire spoke up, disappearing from the entrance of the tower and appeared near the area that Khadgar usually stood in when he and the Council of Dalaran assembled to speak with the heroes of Azeroth, where she did notice that Jaina was standing nearby and seemed focused on the older lady that was now to her left, though all five of them stared at her with a few expressions, some of shock and some of surprise, to which she focused on why they asked to see her, even though she was killing time at this point as she waited for Velen and the others to find the area that the Crest of Knowledge was hidden in, "I was told that you wanted to speak with me." "Your forces have been invading the lands of Zandalar, and the lands of Kul Tiras, recently, and I, King Rastakhan of the Zandalari Empire, order you to full your troops out before all out war breaks out," the proud Troll, who confirmed that he was a king and that he ruled over an entire empire of individuals, stated, though as he said that Spitfire raised an eyebrow for a moment as she listened to that, but his companions seemed to have different opinions, where she was sure that the female was his daughter based on the annoyed look on her face, like she was embarrassed of him or something, and she could see the older male was focused on something else. "And I, Katherine Proudmoore and Lord Admiral of Kul Tiras, have seen the same thing, so I have come to order you to do the same thing, before you face the might of our fleet," the younger Human lady stated, something that caused Jaina to frown for a moment as she heard that, as it sounded like her mother was annoyed by just seeing her daughter, as Spitfire was able to make that connection with ease, though the powerful mage said nothing as she simply waited for her to speak with the group that was in front of them, where it looked like there was a misunderstanding that she needed to correct, before either group left the city to declare war on them. "Tell me, have either of your forces seen long dark green ships in the air, or have they been forced to fight demonic beings that teleported into the area they were in?" Spitfire asked, because that was the quickest way for her to get to the heart of why King Rastakhan and Lord Admiral Katherine were here in the first place, because if the Legion had assaulted the lands of Zandalar and Kul Tiras, or the islands that bared those names, it would inform her that her forces had hunted down the demons and tracked them to another part of Azeroth, something that caused the pair to pause for a moment before both of them nodded their heads as they answered her question, to which she smiled, "Then we weren't invading Zandalar or Kul Tiras, rather the soldiers of the Grand Army of Azeroth, those who have been tasked with guarding Azeroth from the Legion's forces, were tracking down some demons that were trying to invade your lands and kill your people, though I am surprised that they actually attacked another part of this world, instead of staying in the Broken Isles... at least it confirms that I made a good choice in having part of the Grand Army stay behind to protect the lands from any demonic attacks, as you'll find that no demons survived the attacks." As it turned out both Rastakhan and Katherine quickly realized that they had messed up and nearly started a war with the rest of Azeroth, especially when they figured out that the Grand Army consisted of the forces of both the Alliance and the Horde, plus the forces of Outland and those who survived Draenor's destruction, though Spitfire was pleased to find that the two rulers were smart enough to admit their failings, while Rastakhan was annoyed with Zul, the old Zandalari Troll who was a prophet, for screwing up this badly, while Katherine informed her companion, Priscilla, that her scouts needed some additional training to prevent such a thing from happening. At the very least the Zandalari Princess, Talanji, was in a good mood, like she had known this was a waste of time and that she must have known that the forces her father's scouts had seen had been allies and not enemies, and she might have told him that before coming here, meaning Rastakhan might stop listening to his prophet and learn to trust his daughter more, though that wasn't the only thing Spitfire gained from all of this, as both leaders actually acknowledged her authority and asked to join the Grand Army. Such a thing would boost the ever increasing power of the forces that were defending Azeroth from the Legion, even though both forces, the Zandalari Trolls and the Kul Tiran Humans, would have to learn the difference between the demons who sought to end all life on Azeroth and those who had defected to her side, either due to her overwhelming power or their fear of Rainbow's might, or her hunger depending on which demon someone asked, but this would also give them a chance to learn more about two new continents and possibly find more races. One other thing she noted was that Zul, while everyone else was focused on her, seemed to be sick for a moment, meaning he must have seen the future or something, so when both sets were starting to leave she had him stay back for a second and asked him if something was wrong, to which he replied with 'all his plans had been ruined', which meant there was a chance he could have been thinking of overthrowing his king and the presence of the Grand Army, or maybe her and Rainbow, had shattered that future into fragments that he could no longer put together, forging a new future that was different from what he had seen in the past. The only reason Spitfire let Zul go was because he seemed defeated, his plans in ruin before any of them could make it to the light of day, though with both the forces of Zandalar and Kul Tiras joining the Grand Army, and no one else wanted to speak with her right now, Spitfire bid Jaina and the others farewell for now as she returned to Krasus' Landing and used the portal that connected Dalaran to the Vindicaar, as she was curious as to whether or not any progress had been made in locating the Crest of Knowledge, and once she was back aboard the ship she found Turalyon waiting nearby, almost as if he had been debating using the portal to head back to Azeroth, who snapped to attention once he realized that she had returned to her flagship. "Lady Spitfire, as you know the Legion started to show up on Mac'Aree while you and Y'mera were looking for the Sigil of Awakening, hence why we deployed a force to counter them," Turalyon spoke up, falling back to a previous role where he had been a soldier and not a general, even though he was used to being the one giving orders to his forces, while at the same time the two of them walked up to the main level of the Vindicaar so both of them could stare out at Mac'Aree for a time, mostly so Spitfire could listen to his report while she considered things, "however, when you claimed the Sigil it was like a beacon or something went off, as the eyes of Antorus are firmly on Mac'Aree, and, based on everything the Army of the Light has seen over the years, its only a matter of time until more demons start showing up to take us down. While you were dealing with some of Azeroth's problems, whatever they might have been, Velen and his Chosen, along with Fareeya and some of the Lightforged, headed into an area called Arinor Gardens, to look for signs of the Crest of Knowledge, but right now they're behind enemy lines... maybe you and Rainbow can go assist them, while Alleria searches the western part of Mac'Aree for anything that might be useful in our war against the Legion." Spitfire knew that it was only a matter of time until the eyes of Antorus looked up at Mac'Aree and noticed what they were doing up here, though she had been hoping that it would take some time before such a thing happened, though since this was the hand they had been dealt there was nothing she could do but nod her head and make sure Alleria was sent out to scout out the other section of Mac'Aree, since there was something here based on what she was feeling, before she used the navigation console to teleport down to the Conservatory, or the camp that her forces had set up while she was taking on the trials that Archimonde had created for his students and their echoes, where they found Fareeya fighting alongside her forces as they and Rainbow tore down their demonic enemies. "Legion reinforcements arrived after Velen left and have been trying to stop us from moving forward," Fareeya explained, revealing why she and the others were still near the Conservatory and not in Arinor Gardens, where she gestured over to the area that happened to be their right, heading diagonally away from where the camp was resting, while at the same time Rainbow found a Doommaiden and smashed her foe into the ground, claiming yet another soul for her collection as she feasted on the Fel energy of the demons who had been slain so far, though from what Spitfire could see there was a line of demonic corpses that indicated someone was killing demons, Velen's group no doubt, "Rainbow insisted that we wait for you two to show up, as she had the feeling that something interesting might happen if she moved forward, and as such we have been killing demons since we set up this camp... now that both of you are here, however, I think its time that we move forward and continue to show the Legion that they aren't winning this war." In that moment Spitfire called for their forces to gather, a mix of those from the Grand Army of Azeroth that were aboard the Vindicaar and the Lightforged Draenei of the Army of the Light, where Fareeya and the others gathered around her as she and Rainbow started their advance towards Arinor Gardens, though at the same time she noticed a Legion ship in the air and suspected that one of the Legion's remaining lords was aboard it, watching everything that happened down in this part of Argus, though it was interesting to see that Rainbow hadn't broken it yet, meaning she was holding back to see if a powerful enemy might come down at some point in the future. Not even a few moments later the demons formed ranks and charged at Spitfire's forces, where she found Drudges, Fel-corrupted Broken who had red skin, Eredar, Vilefiends, and a large amount of tick-like demons called Bilescourges standing in their way, to which she simply nodded as Rainbow took to the field as the first one to draw blood, as she smashed a pair of Eredar into the ground, before the rest of her force did the same thing and charged into the demons that were in front of them. With all of her soldiers around her Spitfire didn't have to worry about actually fighting anyone, though she did end up on the left side of the area that the Grand Army was currently fighting their way through the beginning area of Arinor Gardens, which appeared to be a housing area that Velen might have lived in before he was forced to flee from his world, and if that was the case it was possible that he might have gone to his old house to push aside or awaken some old memories so they didn't distract him later on, and based on what she could see it looked like this place would bring them to one of the areas outside the main temple that they might end up exploring at some point before the assault on Antorus. Of course Rainbow was cutting her way through the demons in front of her, dropping bodies to the ground as her weapons devoured their souls and she ate up the Fel energy that had been inside her foes, which happened to be to the dismay of the demons who stood at the back of the demon lord's army, observing what was going on at the moment, and Spitfire could see that four Doommaidens, three looking like they were overseers and a fourth one seemed a tad bit taller than her comrades, who looked like they were devastated by the lack of progress the Legion was making in regards to tearing down the forces of Azeroth. As the next line of demons collapsed under the power of the Grand Army of Azeroth, and Rainbow devoured their power for herself as she sealed their souls inside her Warblades, Spitfire found that the Doommaidens came to a decision as to what they needed to do next, where they flew through the air and landed in front of her, causing Turalyon and a couple of soldiers from the Army of the Light to pause for a moment, before the demons knelt before her and, just like many of the demons who chose to be smart in the face of suffering such a terrible fate, submitted to Spitfire's authority and chose to betray the Legion, offering her their names as well, as in Y'Beda, Y'Morna, Y'Sona, and Lah'zaruun, the first three being the smaller ones and the fourth being the taller of the group. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Turalyon asked, speaking after the Doommaidens joined their army, something he was surprised by since he wasn't used to seeing demons willingly betray Sargeras and the Legion, and made sure that the female demons were doing something else, as in heading into a deeper part of Arinor Gardens to tear down the Legion, though Spitfire knew that his statement was due to him knowing that the demons could betray them at any moment and return to the Dark Titan's side, after taking their heads and delivering their souls to their master. "The Legions has been given a healthy dose of fear since Rainbow started to feast on their Fel energy, and many demons, the smart ones anyway, have decided to save themselves while the arrogant ones faced their final death," Spitfire replied, where she found that many of the soldiers were surprised by what was going on and a number of the Lightforged Draenei, who were used to doing battle with these sorts of enemies, were shocked by the fact that such a thing was truly possible, that some demons were smart enough to defect from the Legion and join forces with the very army of the planet they had been targeting for some time, showing Turalyon and his forces just how dangerous she and Rainbow truly were, even if all of them were starting to understand why demons feared them, "you'll be surprised by how many have defected so far, all in an effort to either save themselves from the demons that have oppressed them or to save themselves from such a fate, and how all of them have actually fought against their former allies, so any demons who defect to our side will be allies for the future and will help us bring down the Legion." Turalyon paused for a moment as he heard that information, as he was used to fighting demons and it was hard for him to imagine all sorts of demons defecting from the Legion to join Spitfire's forces, yet there was evidence of such a thing going on as he glanced at the Doommaidens who had just betrayed Sargeras, once more demonstrating just how terrifying she and Rainbow were, though as he considered everything that this meant their force started to push the demons passed yet another old house that had been abandoned, where Velen and his Chosen, and those who followed him, stepped out and rejoined Spitfire's forces. "I apologize for stopping at my former house, to relive a few memories before completing our mission, but I have learned something that would normally trouble me," Velen commented, though his eyes lingered on the terrace of the upper part of this section of Mac'Aree, meaning that he must have figured out where in the world Kil'jaeden might have hidden the Crest of Knowledge, or at least where a clue to where it might be resting could be found, before he glanced at Spitfire and Turalyon for a few seconds, "I've determined that Talgath is here, and it seems that he might have guessed at our purpose behind visiting Mac'Aree, so we're in a race to claim the Crest of Knowledge." "Then we'll crush him, like we're doing to his forces," Rainbow remarked, as she returned to where Spitfire was standing as soon as she noticed that Velen had rejoined them, even though their force continued to march into the depths of Arinor Gardens and kept pushing the demons back, regardless of everything that the Legion tried to do to make sure they didn't succeed in their mission, before she recalled something she had seen while she was fighting and killing her enemies, even if it ended with her feasting on more Fel energy and sending the demonic souls into her weapons, "there are a few portals ahead of us, which the Legion are using to send reinforcements to aid Talgath's already dwindling forces, though it looks like he's already sent down most of the demons that were aboard his ship, as he's the only one left aboard it, and I'd guess he's probably fuming since we caused his lieutenants, the Doommaidens, to betray him and the Legion." Spitfire nodded her head as she watched demons pour out of the portals that Talgath had his forces set up in this section of Mac'Aree, allowing the Legion to wage war on them, though as she watched all of the soldiers fight the demons she did see Talgath's ship move further into Mac'Aree, allowing him to be positioned near where Velen wanted to go, to a terrace of some kind near the main temple, though Rainbow continued to do what she usually did and sent out a Fel orb to start the process of siphoning the energy from their enemies and the portals that were in this area. Demons collapsed over the next couple of minutes, falling under the weight of the power that was arrayed against them since Rainbow was picking and choosing who she fought and who she ignored, though for now she focused on making sure to avoid siphoning any of the power that was in Talgath's ship, mostly that would be the last thing she did while they were in this area of Mac'Aree, as she was planning on sending the large vessel down to Argus' surface and make it crash, to show the Legion just how screwed they were. Once more Spitfire stayed out of the way as she watched her forces smash their way through the army of enemies that stood in their way, something that was likely making Talgath annoyed with his inability to kill them, due to the healers mending the wounds of those who were wounded within a matter of seconds of them being wounded by the demons that happened to be in front of them, though for the most part the demons were falling before the might of her forces, not to mention falling to the Doommaidens who defected to her side. It was amazing to witness what happened as the demons of the Legion realized that their own allies were betraying them, as this had to be the first time this had been done to Sargeras' forces, where the Eredar appeared to be frozen in shock as the Doommaidens tore down the foes who dared to challenge them to a fight, though some did realize just how screwed Talgath was, which also included all of them if they continued to stand with the Legion, to which some of them actually betrayed their own allies, right before Spitfire's eyes, and pushed the other demons backwards as the Grand Army surged around where they were standing, before they also bent the knee and pledged themselves to Spitfire's service. Turalyon had to resist the urge to let his jaw drop as he witnessed that, demons betraying their own allies and joining the forces of Azeroth, it was unheard of, not unless they were planning on turning the tables on those they wanted to deceive with their foul tricks, but what surprised him as he witnessed this was that none of their new demonic allies seemed like they wanted to do such a thing, as if Spitfire and Rainbow eluded a power far beyond what he knew about and it told those who could feel it that betraying either of them was a bad idea, as none of the Doommaidens dared to attack the soldiers of the Army of the Light and actually worked with the Lightforged to break the portals when Rainbow was ready to cut them off from the rest of Argus. "Turalyon, you aren't the only one surprised by this turn of events... we were all surprised when the first demons betrayed the Legion and joined Spitfire," Velen commented, as he knew what the High Exarch was thinking as he watched demons do the unthinkable, betray the Dark Titan while not undergoing a transformation through another Cosmic Force, like what had happened to Lothraxion, a Dreadlord turned by the Light, and while he would have shared Turalyon's concern on this matter, that they might betray them at some point in time, he knew that none of the demons who joined them wanted to do such a thing, as if all of them knew that to betray Spitfire was to forfeit their life and Fel energy to Rainbow, to be eaten like they were simply food, in a sense, "but these won't be the last demons to betray the Legion, rather I'm sure that, as we get further along in our campaign to destroy Antorus, more groups will come seeking to join us and secure a future once the Legion has been defeated... I know it is odd to fight alongside demons, but you must get used to it, because there is no reversing what Spitfire and Rainbow have done to reality." As Velen said that Turalyon glanced over to where the Grand Commander was standing, who wasn't even fighting anything and yet her mere presence in this place was causing some demons to actually back off and reconsider what in the world they were doing, as if knowing that challenging her was a death sentence, while Rainbow slashed her way through her foes and closed more of the portals Talgath's forces had set up to stop the Grand Army in their tracks, the Fel energy of those she killed gathering above them in the orb she created, something that Talgath even fired at and failed to destroy since it just ate his ship's attack. It wasn't long before the four Doommaidens rejoined them and bowed their heads a little as they let Spitfire walk by them, showing him that she was definitely the dominate figure in this part of Mac'Aree and that no sane demon dared to stand against her, as those who had a death wish were slain without her even moving her arms or calling her weapons to her side, like she was moving at a faster speed than they happened to be and she had made sure to slow down so the watchers could see some of her movements. She and Rainbow were beings that he wouldn't want to face at all, as he was sure that to face them would result in his death, while at the same time their existence was causing all sorts of changes in the Legion, something that was totally strange given his vast experience in fighting the demons who did the Dark Titan's bidding, and it wasn't long before Talgath's forces were decimated and the Eredar Lord was still alive, as in he hadn't come down to face them yet, as if he was debating what to do after seeing what sort of power he happened to be facing right now. Thanks to their forces Spitfire, Velen, and Turalyon were able to reach the start of the stairs that lead up to the terrace Velen was interested in exploring while they searched for the Crest of Knowledge, where Spitfire made sure that most of their soldiers stayed behind to guard this area from any reopened portals, though if Talgath showed up she knew it would be near Velen, and, of course, Rainbow joined her as she and her companions walked up the path Velen was following at the moment, eventually bringing them to an area that had a number of statues and three large stone statues that were similar to the formation she had seen back in the Conservatory, only with a bit of distance between them based on what she could see. The interesting thing was that Spitfire could see that the three statues were of the Triumvirate, as in Velen, Kil'jaeden, and Archimonde, where she could see that the right statue looked like it might be of Archimonde, the left had to resemble the old form of Kil'jaeden, and the central statue, whose head was resting on the ground like it had been decapitated, had to be Velen, though in that moment they found an echo of Kil'jaeden and who she assumed was pre-demon Talgath speaking about something, causing the group to pause for a moment. Worthless... without Velen's Eye, the rest of the Crown is powerless. the echo of Kil'jaeden stated, to which he lowered the gleaming gemstone that was the Crest of Knowledge and allowed it to be claimed by Talgath, who simply stood there for a time as the two finished whatever conversation they had been talking about when this echo was made, where he turned his head towards the main temple that was near their location and seemed to frown for a moment, as if recalling what was inside it or something, This relic's time has passed... so throw it into the Temple with the Naaru, where they can rot for all of eternity and be forgotten! "So, Kil'jaeden stored it inside the Seat of the Triumvirate... a place filled with darkness," Velen commented, referring to the dark presence that Spitfire had been feeling since they came to Mac'Aree, though since it looked like there was a large rock wall nearby they would have to head over to the leftmost side of this part of Argus to continue their search, before he took a moment to weave his magic over the area and summoned an illusion of what must have driven him to flee Argus, mostly to share it with his allies before they departed from the terrace and returned to the Vindicaar. Spitfire watched as echoes of a younger Velen, accompanied by pre-demon Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, appeared nearby, in the area just behind them and caused her group to turn around, where they found a transparent of a radiant being who shined with a glorious light speaking to the ancient Triumvirate, the disguise that Sargeras used to trick the Eredar Lords, or at least two of them and most of their people, into his service and be twisted into demonic beings who would burn all sorts of worlds in the Dark Titan's name. Interestingly enough Sargeras told them that, with their aid, that they would take down the hungering Void that sought to consume everything in the universe, his reason behind destroying everything in the universe to deprive the great and terrible Void Lords of the power that they were after, and once the figure vanished it was followed by the fallen members of the Triumvirate discussing the bargain he was offering them, even though she did know that Velen had been hoping that Archimonde and Kil'jaeden would sense the darkness that lingered in Sargeras' foul words and turn down the same path he took. "There you are." a dark voice stated, to which the vision shattered before their eyes as Velen heard a voice that he instantly recognized, where they stared across the flat surface of the terrace and found a new Fel portal opening before their eyes, to which an Eredar, decked out in dark armor that radiated Fel energy and had skulls impaled on several spikes that were attached to the shoulder pads, though based on how Turalyon reacted, by drawing his weapon and growling, that let both Spitfire and Rainbow know that Talgath had finally come down to face them, though this time around Velen, fueled by his own desire for revenge and the knowledge that he was safe with Spitfire and Rainbow standing nearby, stood up and took a moment to turn and face his former friend, "What's this? The Prophet, who usually runs away and refuses to fight back, is actually going to stand and face me at long last? It is a welcome change..." "Talgath... normally, I would try to persuade you to abandon your quest, but this time I think we should skip that and bring an end to this game," Velen simply stated, where he took a step forward and tapped his staff on the ground as he focused on Talgath, even though Spitfire could tell that the Prophet had to be resisting the urge to rush forward and lash out at the demon that was in front of them right now, knowing that a single mistake could bring him down, something they wanted to avoid at all costs, though in that moment Rainbow tilted her head as a rush of Fel energy rushed through this area and gathered around their foe, causing a Fel barrier to form around Talgath. "Sorry, Prophet, you won't be doing anything to me today... and I have more allies than what you've killed so far!" Talgath exclaimed, where his words seemed to indicate that his barrier was one of the unbreakable types and that nothing could be done to him while it was up, though in the following moments a dimensional ship, which had a crimson shade that did remind Spitfire of Xazariel for some odd reason, appeared in the air above Talgath's vessel and, in a surprising twist that caught the Eredar by surprise, it fired several bursts of Fel energy that slammed into his ship and sent it over to the edge of Mac'Aree, even though Rainbow made sure to take all of the power inside the Eredar's ship before it disappeared, which was when a number of Sayaad, with Nixa standing at the head of them, teleported down to where they were standing and caused Talgath to growl, "Stupid succubi, you fired at the wrong ship, as you should have targeted the Vindicaar while our enemies are down here! Once Velen is defeated, and is ready to be taken to Antorus, I'm going to make sure all of you are punished for your actions this day." "Sorry, Talgath, but we aren't afraid of you," Nixa replied, referring to the fact that she knew about the fact that Spitfire and Rainbow were two of the most dangerous beings for a demon to face, which happened to be the reason she betrayed the Legion and joined Spitfire's forces, though in that moment the Sayaad moved over to where Spitfire's group was standing at the moment, gathering behind her while she and another Succubus, who seemed more like a princess of her clan based on her chest being a bit larger than the rest of the Sayaad, which Spitfire felt was around half of what Xazariel had before she fought her and the heroes of Azeroth, "While our forces on Azeroth fought the invaders, much to the surprise of the demons who encountered us, I reached out to Paradisia, the world our previous Queen ruled over until her death, and I told them that my force had joined Spitfire's forces, something that caused the Sayaad, as in all of us, to forsake the Legion and join up with the Grand Army of Azeroth. We made sure to grab Lust's Advance... don't judge me, as it was renamed by Xazariel, after she conquered those who had been in charge of the ship all those years ago and twisted them into demons, most of the females becoming Sayaad while the others were turned into other types of demons... and returned to Azeroth so we could join the fight on Argus, to aid our new Queen in dismantling the Legion and breaking the Dark Titan's plans for the rest of the universe." "You should be seeking the death of your new 'Queen', as she killed your previous one in combat," Talgath stated, showing them that he was annoyed with all of the Sayaad who had come to Argus, that they would betray the Legion after Xazariel had been slain and join their enemies, just like the demons who had chosen to turn against him earlier, who would either be punished for this or be outright slain once Sargeras pulled their souls into Antorus, since he was planning on killing all of his enemies before capturing Velen, before he found that his barrier wavered for a few seconds and paused as such a thing happened, "What's going on?" "While you were talking, and listening to our allies, I took most of your Fel energy," Rainbow stated, where she held a hand up and revealed the Fel orb that she had been gathering the stolen power in since they came to this place, while the rest of Talgath's barrier collapsed and made him vulnerable once more, something that caused her to smile as the Eredar backed up a little bit as he realized that he made a mistake in challenging them, though after doing that she devoured the orb and added all of that power to her body, "so no barrier for you... not that it matters, given what's coming next." In that moment, as Talgath opened his mouth to say something, Velen summoned his power and chained the Eredar with the power of the Light not a few seconds later, locking him in place without giving him the change to do anything, which caused him to growl as he started to think of ways to break out of this hold, something that caused Velen to take a second to contact the Vindicaar and call upon the power of Light's Judgement, blasting Talgath with the full power of the flagship and incinerating him with the power of the Light, leaving behind a charred corpse that scattered into nothingness, all while Rainbow made sure to snatch his soul and send him screaming into her Warblades. In that moment, with Talgath slain and his soul imprisoned inside Rainbow's weapons, Velen sighed and had Romuul deploy another beacon down to where they were standing, even though he positioned it nearby and out of the way in case they needed to come back here at some point in the near future, even though they had gotten what they came for and it was information on where the Crest had to be resting, as they knew it was somewhere inside the Seat of the Triumvirate and it would take some time to discover where it was resting inside it. With that information in hand Spitfire turned to face the Sayaad of Paradisia, as they called the planet that Xazariel had ruled over before her death, where Nixa and her forces knelt before her, which was strange to her and her allies because she now had an army of succubi, at least a hundred in front of her and probably hundreds or so back on Paradisia, to add to the ever growing force that was the Grand Army of Azeroth, before she found that the last of the Sayaad, the princess called Sysira, which she knew from both a fragment of Xazariel's memories and from Nixa telling her the same thing at the same time, being the only one standing, who quickly kissed Spitfire's palm, acknowledged her as the Queen of the Sayaad, and fell in line as well, kneeling towards her like the rest of her kind. Normally one would be surprised by such a thing, having an entire race and their heir to the throne calling her their Queen, though Spitfire had a feeling that it was due to her absorbing Xazariel's essence some time ago, back in the Nighthold, so to the Sayaad she likely radiated a commanding aura that reminded them of their former leader and caused them to fall into line as well, to which she sighed and welcomed the army of female demons into her ranks, which would include the rest of Paradisia as soon as they heard the news. With that done Nixa and Sysira joined her as Spitfire and her group returned to the Vindicaar, leaving the Sayaad to head back to their own dimensional ship and descend into the ranks of the fleet that was fighting near Krokuun and Antoran Wastes, even though she was sure that one of their leaders would join them at some point, before turning her attention to the rest of Mac'Aree while they waited for someone to come to them with news about what was happening or what they might have discovered, as Spitfire was sure that she and Rainbow would be moving out again in the very near future. > Argus: Alleria's Discovery > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As they waited for Alleria or one of their scouts to return to the Vindicaar, since there were some in Antoran Wastes right now, gathering information on whatever the Legion was up to, Spitfire and Rainbow stood near where Velen wanted them to place the fragments of the Crown of the Triumvirate, though he was holding onto the Eye until the other two were collected and brought to their flagship, so it could be empowered with the full power of his people's ancient artifact, though there were a few others around them right now, mostly Velen and Turalyon while the rest of their allies made sure everything was fine with the rest of their fleet. "The shadow that looms over Mac'Aree is L'ura, that much we now know... which means we're going to be fighting the Void to claim the Crest," Velen stated, though it was clear that he likely blamed himself for what happened in the past, given that part of his actions had caused the Naaru in question to stay behind and guard their escape, instead of being safely aboard the Genedar as it departed from Argus all those years ago, and he was referring to the faint dark song that radiated from the temple in question, one that Spitfire and the others sort of knew about, given what each of them had felt in the terrace, right before Talgath showed himself to them, before he faced Turalyon, "High Exarch, I know this might come as a shock to you, but Naaru can fall to the Void and become shadowy beings, what we ended up calling 'Void Gods', when they lose their inner Light... and I'm afraid that such a thing might have happened to L'ura." "I'm afraid that the shadows are gripping Mac'Aree harder than what you know," a voice said, where Alleria walked down to where they were standing and came to a stop when she was reunited with the group, or more accurately Turalyon since the two were husband and wife and neither seemed far from the other's presence, though her words told Spitfire that she must have found something while she was scouting the other part of this section of Argus, otherwise she would still be down on the surface, looking for enemies or potential threats, "instead of just reporting my findings, like most scouts would do when reaching this point, allow me to use a bit of my power and show you what I found." Spitfire nodded and quickly found that Alleria was showing them a vision of everything she had found during her time in the western side of Mac'Aree, where she found a dark purple Naaru with blackened tips for the wings floating in an area that had to be the depths of the Seat of the Triumvirate, where Alleria told them that L'ura was pulsing with Void energy, far more than what was normal and meant she might shift into a Void God at some point in the near future, but there was a consequence to such a thing happening, as the echoes of L'ura's twisted power was causing Ethereals to portal into the area just outside the temple, ones who sought to use her dark power for their own ends. "Normally, this would make things much worse than they already are, but with the Grand Army backing us we should be able to deal with this threat," Alleria stated, showing Spitfire that the elf understood that their best chances of success did rest with their new allies and the army that was defending Azeroth, as in the same arm who happened to be tearing into the demons of the other sections of Argus, before she considered something that might interest the others and cause one of them to follow her into the depths of the area in question, "however, I might know of a way to gain some strength that will allow us to overcome our enemies, without needing an army to take them down... I will, of course, need someone to assist me as I put my plan into motion." "Would this involve gathering the power of the Void to make yourself stronger, and possibly open the way for me to gain the sixth, and final, Cosmic Force?" Spitfire asked, as she had a feeling that she knew what Alleria was planning, especially since it didn't look like the high elf had any true powers of her own, save for what her race had and what she had learned over the years, so this was more along the lines of her gaining some sort of power that would put her on Turalyon's level, though regardless of Alleria's reasons she was fine with it happening, since it would eventually grant her the final wing of her set, something that caused the high elf to nod, "then I will head down to Mac'Aree with you... everyone else, you are free to rest or join the rest of our forces in challenging all of the demons guarding Antoran Wastes." As Velen and the others bowed their heads, which included both leaders of the Sayaad following suit to show that their race was serious about joining Spitfire's growing forces, Spitfire and Alleria returned to the navigation console and used it to teleport down to Mac'Aree once more, as in the point that Velen had created before sending her and Y'mera off to see if the Sigil of Awakening was inside the Conservatory, before Alleria lead the way towards the area she had scouted out not all that long ago. While they walked she explained what she had found, as there were a number of Broken survivors, who seemed to be mentally broken by some of the Void's power, meaning if they searched the area they might uncover a new ally or a key to moving forward, to complete her ultimate goal of embracing the power of the Void, though she did warn Spitfire that the Void-scarred might attack them and that they needed to be ready for anything or everything that might happen next. The ruins she was leading Spitfire to had once been called Oronaar, at least according to the Draenei when she asked them about it, and that it looked like another housing area like the one that Spitfire and her army had marched through when they advanced on the terrace, which had granted Velen some time to reconnect with his past before gaining the resolve to face their enemies and take down Talgath at last, though this one had suffered greatly from Mac'Aree being ripped from the rest of the planet, as the housing area was broken and parts were missing. Sure enough Spitfire found a hint of Void energy lingering in the air of Oronaar, which didn't leak out into the rest of Mac'Aree, like it was an infection that slowly spread from one point to another, though once they stepped into Oronaar, and left the shielded area behind, Alleria started to track down some of the items she had seen earlier, meaning Spitfire was mostly here as a defender and had to make sure no harm came to Alleria while they were here. As such Alleria focused on a wall that had a glowing red rune on it and they found an echo of some Broken and their leader, Arkhaan based on what the energy told them, talking to his followers, where it sounded like he was trying to get his broken people to accept the power of the Void and take the fight to the Legion, or something to that effect, before the echo disappeared and left them to search for another trace of Arkhaan's power so they could discover more information on what might have happened here. From there Alleria started to make her way over to another area of Oronaar, a house that had an abandoned alter with a second echo of Arkhaan, who spoke of holding fast to one's resolve and not giving into temptation, standing in front of the ancient stone, which was when some of the Void-scarred Broken rushed at them with the intent to kill them, though as she noticed what they were up to, and started to draw her bow, Alleria found that Spitfire barely moved as all seven Broken fell not a few seconds later. In that moment Alleria came to realize just how powerful her new ally was, the one everyone else worked for and made sure not to anger, as she was sure that Spitfire had flashed from target to target and likely struck all of their enemies before returning to the location that she had been standing in, all without her actually seeing the motion happen, something that made her wonder what in the world would happen once Spitfire got her hands on the sixth and final Cosmic Power, which would become clear to her once they found a way to get to L'ura's resting place. Once their foes had fallen, or would be foes since Spitfire had made short work of them, she paused for a moment as she found a couple of crystalline fragments that seemed to radiate a faint Light signature and sensed that they might be linked to Arkhaan in some manner, to which she made sure they floated in the air near her as Alleria lead her over to what appeared to be an old figurine of the Naaru, no doubt discarded when Velen and his people fled Argus, where Arkhaan's echo mentioned the stars and that salvation was somewhere out there in the universe. Spitfire knew that the Broken was referring to another force, not the beings who saved Velen's group, though it seemed like he might have found his way into the hands of the Void and started to corrupt his remaining people to spread the dark power to the rest of Argus, or at least Mac'Aree given the separation between this floating section of the planet and everything else that was below them, though with that done Alleria held up a hand and resumed using her skills to locate any other Void sources, so she could track down anything they might be able to use in her mission, before heading towards the western edge of Mac'Aree and revealing that there were far more Void-scarred Broken, some angry at the world and some passive for some reason. That brought them to a sunken area that had far more Void energy than the part of Oronaar they had just passed through, where Spitfire found a number of the Void-scarred Broken who were currently in the middle of spreading their corruption to the rest of Oronaar, and to those who hadn't embraced the Void yet, before they stopped as they found a Broken who resembled Arkhaan resting nearby, though while he did have a trace of the twisted energy radiating from his body, which meant his mind had to be fractured and they would be dealing with someone that was different from the echoes they had seen, causing Alleria to sigh for a moment. "Lady Spitfire, I have some experience with the Void's power, and I'll try to find a sane piece of his mind for us to speak to, as Arkhaan might be the key we're looking for," Alleria said, something that caused Spitfire to nod, as she understood that Alleria had a greater understanding of the Void than most of the individuals in her army, save for the High Priest who had a dagger forged from a slain Old God, a tale she would love to hear about since Old Gods were incredibly powerful and, to her knowledge, unkillable, before she glanced at the area in front of them, "maybe you can use those crystalline fragments to seal some of the Void fonts that are scattered around this place, not to mention take out a few enemies... I think they'll help Arkhaan regain some of his sanity, or help me find the sane piece of his mind." Spitfire simply walked forward and explored the rest of Oronaar, taking in the broken and corrupted lower area while she followed the lingering traces of the more powerful Void essence that happened to be in this area, as it lead her to the five places that contained the most power and would be where she placed the crystalline fragments she had found, though at the same time a number of Void-scarred Broken rushed at her in an attempt to bring her down, just like the last couple had done when they found her. Of course none of them succeeded in touching her, since she was able to use her speed to avoid the incoming attacks and either appear a few steps behind them or return to the place she had been standing in so she could turn and head down another route, all of which ended with these unfortunate Broken being smashed into the ground and slain like all of the enemies she had faced so far, though since it didn't look like any demons were down where it was a good thing that Rainbow wasn't here, since she would head off and do something else, hence why she was either on the Vindicaar or attacking Antoran Wastes to pass some time. Even though Alleria was busy tending to Arkhaan, all to find and pull out the sane part of his mind, she found herself being amazed by Spitfire's power, to rely on instinct to take her foes down with a speed that was likely equal to Rainbow's speed at full power, making her grateful that they had been trained to hunt demons and not corrupted by the Legion, because if either or both of them had been twisted by Sargeras' dark power she knew that Azeroth would have been claimed by the demons by now, to which she chuckled as she focused on her task as Spitfire did the same thing. In addition to that Spitfire made sure to place the crystalline fragments where they would be the most useful, even if the five points were scattered all over this part of Oronaar, something that caused all of the Void energies that were now resting around the fragments to disperse and leave this section of Mac'Aree, likely being drawn into another location so they could be used by someone else, which interested her to some degree and made her wonder who might be messing with Void energy in Mac'Aree, since it wasn't L'ura she was feeling, even though it was easy for her to tell that they would figure it out in due time. After some time Spitfire found that the rest of the Void-scarred Broken stopped coming at her, either because they knew it was impossible for them to harm her, given her powers, or they were scared of her and were running away, though once she was done with her objectives she turned and flew back over to where Alleria was waiting, where she discovered Alleria had made some progress with Arkhaan and it seemed like they had a more sane version of the Broken in front of them, or at least it sure seemed that way, even though she kept an open mind and made sure no dangers were coming to strike all of them down for this. "Arkhaan... reme... remembers something that... can save us." Arkhaan stated, showing that he was going to be speaking in the third person, sort of like that unicorn called Trixie that Rainbow had told her about at one point in the past, but that was when he got up from where he had been resting, sitting while Alleria worked to find his sane side, and quickly raised his hand to beckon for them to follow him, meaning he either had something to show them or this was a trap so he could sacrifice them to the Void, "Come. Follow Arkhaan. Isolon calls!" Without waiting for Spitfire or Alleria to say anything Arkhaan started to move as soon as he was done talking, where he headed down the street and crossed over to a fractured house that only existed as a way to get to the higher point of this part of Mac'Aree, where the pair found that none of the Void-scarred Broken tried anything, as if they were frightened of Spitfire's power and didn't want to cross her at all, which made things much easier for them since neither of them had to fight any of the enemies that were carefully watching them. Of course there were also a number of foolish Void-scarred Broken in their way as well, as at leave five dared to get close to where Spitfire and Alleria were standing, only to collapse a few seconds later as Spitfire smashed all of them into the ground as they followed Arkhaan, who seemed to be mumbling to himself, though it also made Alleria, once more, realize why it was a good thing the Army of the Light had sided with the Grand Army of Azeroth, even though it was becoming clear that the Legion didn't stand a chance, and the only thing that might be able to beat them at this point was Sargeras himself. While she thought about that Spitfire glanced off towards Azeroth for a moment and found a large cosmic cloud of some kind in the middle of wrapping around the planet, like an odd blanket of some kind, which caused her to frown for a moment as she realized that Sargeras had waited until she and her forces, those who could directly challenge him, were fully committed to fighting on Argus, because now he was in the process of securing his final prize so he could destroy all of reality, but in the end Spitfire knew that the Dark Titan would fail, because once they were done with Mac'Aree the assault on Antorus would begin. As such she turned her focus back to following Arkhaan through the part of Oronaar he was using to head to the north, closer to where the more powerful Void energy was resting, and she could see a structure, one of the stargazing buildings that the Eredar and Draenei built over the years, that seemed like it might be their destination, even though there was a chance that Arkhaan might surprise her and Alleria while they walked, even though he seemed plagued by the ghosts of his past or the visions that the Void must have given him all those years ago, based on the echoes they had witnessed earlier. It took a few minutes, but eventually they reached Arkhaan's destination, which was the stargazing structure, where they watched as the Broken came to a stop right in the middle of the bottom floor and paused for a bit, though while this was where one would assume he was going to try to speak with the Light, to save his people, he claimed that Isolon was calling to him and he weaved his powers into the space in front of him, tearing open a Void portal as both Spitfire and Alleria felt his power change, though as Alleria called out for him to stop, given that this magic wasn't to be treated like a toy, Arkhaan stepped through the dark portal and disappeared. Spitfire paused for a moment, as someone had called out to the broken Broken that had lead them hear, an odd statement for sure when she considered that for a second, and had lurked him into a place where he would likely be twisted and corrupted into a monster of some kind, to which she sighed and stepped through the portal that was in front of her, allowing her to enter a dark version of the building they had been standing in and found that Alleria followed her not even a few seconds later, no doubt worried that some dark force might be waiting for her or something. What they found in this dark realm, in addition to the kneeling Arkhaan, was an Ethereal who had a large amount of Void energy inside his body, and happened to be wearing a unique looking set of armor that looked more like a high ranking mage or something, something that meant he had to be a boss of some kind, floating in the air in front of Arkhaan, only for a burst of energy to slam into Arkhaan and caused the Broken to groan as his body once more took in the power of the Void, which caused the Ethereal to disappear as the now Void-scarred Broken lashed out at them with the intent to kill both her and Alleria. Of course he didn't get very far in his attack as Spitfire turned her back to him and just stepped away from where he was standing, causing several strikes to connect with Arkhaan's body, each one consisting of a different power and she struck him with all five in rapid succession, something that caused him to stagger backwards as his body shuddered for a few seconds, before the Void energy surged out of control and caused his form to shatter before Alleria's eyes, who just stood there as she realized that not even the Void stood a chance against Spitfire. Such a thing made Alleria wonder if the only ones that could beat Spitfire at this point were the masters of the six Cosmic Forces, the Titans for Arcane, likely Sargeras for Fel at this point, unless there was a primal demon no one knew about in the depths of the universe, an ancient Wild God for Life, probably an incredibly powerful Naaru that they hadn't met yet who stood for the Light, whatever being ruled over Death, and the Void Lords for the Void, but before she could even take a few more moments to think about that they were pulled out of this world and back into the normal Mac'Aree, where she and Spitfire found another Ethereal floating nearby, one she recognized instantly. "Locus-Walker? What are you and your people doing here?" Alleria asked, referring to the Ethereals that had invaded Argus and were currently seeking to bring more of the Void to the area near the Seat of the Triumvirate, likely to break through the barrier that was keeping L'ura contained inside it, though at the same time it gave Spitfire a name to work with, even if it seemed more like a title to prevent enemies from figuring out who was bothering to stand in the way of those who were seeking to cover this area with the Void. "I came to see what the Viceroy was up to, who you likely just met," the Ethereal, Locus-Walker based on Alleria had said, replied, showing Spitfire that, for the time being, he wasn't a threat to her forces or their operations, even though the look on Alleria's face meant she had to be careful with him, as if she didn't know everything about him or something, before he turned his head towards the north and likely focused on the areas that the Void-touched Ethereals were gathering right now, working their magic and technology to get to L'ura, "and I know you want to know what he's up to as well, including the odd and powerful creature standing next to you... follow, if you can." Spitfire found that Locus-Walker moved as soon as he was done talking, causing her and Alleria to follow her, though that did give her a chance to learn a bit from her companion, that this particular Ethereal had taught her everything she knew about the Void and its dark power, and that he still had far more to teach her since she was likely a novice in his eyes, and that if he was here it made her even more interested in what might be happening to Mac'Aree, especially since having her teacher around meant she might be able to gain some more Void power for their quest to break into the Seat and track down both L'ura and the Crest. When Alleria said that she believed that Locus-Walker was the only one of his kind, mostly referring to Ethereals who messed with the Void, Spitfire preferred to think of him as the only good Void-touched Ethereal they knew about, given what the others were doing right now, before they found their ally standing at the mouth of a cave and that he had torn open a Void portal in front of him, but it did look like he had been waiting for them to arrive and just beckoned for them to follow him. It was clear to Spitfire that Alleria wanted to ask Locus-Walker a number of questions, all of which would no doubt show her impatience given who this Ethereal was and what he was capable of, before she sighed and nodded her head as she and Spitfire followed him through this portal, once more stepping into the dark and twisted version of Mac'Aree, appearing transparent as if they were invisible or something to that effect, which was followed by all three of them moving forward as they entered the cave and sought out answers on what was going on in Mac'Aree, or at least in the Void covered section. What Spitfire discovered was that there were a few Void creatures, seemingly humanoid beings who didn't have legs and floated from place to place, who could likely see through the spell and was why she and the others walked around the area the Void Remnants were currently patrolling, and there were a number of Ethereals all over this place, some setting up devices while others were either messing with the Void energies or messing with some of the local wildlife that called this cave home, though as they studied the area, and Alleria bickered with Locus-Walker about her training and her reasons for not returning to his teachings until now, she heard one of the Void-touched Ethereals say something about the Viceroy finally ending Arkhaan's life. From what she could tell the Ethereals felt that the fallen priest was meddling and deserved his fate, they worked at a fast pace to sample the Void's energies and the effects it had on other creatures, while also discovering that someone wanted Locus-Walker dead while not caring about her and Alleria at all, and that the plan of the Void-touched Ethereals, which one of them told the others about, was to drown all of Argus in the Void's power, either meaning they knew about the World-Soul and wanted to make a Void Titan or they just wanted to devour this world with the Void's energies, though either way she knew they would suffer a great defeat in due time. "I will finish what I started, Locus-Walker, of that you can be sure," Alleria commented, as their conversation, which Spitfire had mostly ignored since they were just discussing what the high elf felt was disappointment coming from the Ethereal who taught her how to channel the power of the Void, had finally reached an end and it happened to be when all of them found the other Void portal that had been created by the Locus-Walker, likely before they met him, where she found that they were on the outskirts of the Seat of the Triumvirate. "Can you, though, with your attachments? What would your mate say about your choices?" Locus-Walker asked, speaking of Turalyon for a moment, though even as he said that Spitfire knew that Turalyon trusted Alleria and, even if she delved into the power of the dark and hungering Void, the opposite of his glorious Light, he still loved her with all his heart and it also meant that he would understand whatever decision Alleria decided on, or at least that was what her understanding of their relationship was, based on the short period of time she spent with them. "Turalyon trusts me to make hard decisions, and I trust him to do the same," Alleria stated, confirming Spitfire's thoughts on the matter, without wasting any time thinking about it, meaning she must have known the question would be coming and had prepared for it while they were walking through the cave earlier, before she considered something as she glanced at Spitfire for a few seconds, taking in her tattoos and the Cosmic Forces they represented, "even with the shining Light at my side, I can embrace the Void and its power without losing myself." "There's also the fact that both are required for balancing the universe," Spitfire added, as without one Cosmic Force the other wouldn't exist in the first place, especially when one thought about the Light and the Void, though her focus was on the area that was ahead of them and knew that the Ethereals were busy doing something, likely trying to call forth a new fragment of the Void's power to help them break through whatever barrier was blocking the way into the temple, and she could see that both Alleria and Locus-Walker were feeling the same thing that she felt, "but for now, we should focus on killing a number of the Void-touched Ethereals that are in this place, while shutting down their harvesters, to give us some time before we assault the temple... though it should also grant us an opening to steal some of the Void's power as well, to give you an edge for later." "And who put you in charge?" Locus-Walker asked, apparently not having caught onto the fact that there was an army, one that was in the middle of assaulting Argus at that very moment, though Spitfire could forgive him since it looked like most of his attention had been on tracking down the Viceroy and his allies, instead of what was happening to the rest of Argus, and she also noticed that the Ethereal wasn't annoyed by her suddenly speaking up, as she had been silent so far, and just taking charge of their efforts in taking down his corrupt people. "I am Spitfire, Grand Commander of the Grand Army of Azeroth, which now includes the Army of the Light and those who followed Xe'ra in her war against the Legion," Spitfire replied, though as she said that she unfurled her wings for a time, as it was the quickest method for her to show someone who didn't know her, such as when Turalyon and his allies found out just how powerful she was, something that caused the Locus-Walker to stare at her for a time as he took in what she was showing him, that five of the six Cosmic Forces rested inside her body, in perfect harmony, "oh, and thanks to an army of succubi who recently joined us, I'm also the Sayaad Queen and likely the Queen of Paradisia, which I'm assuming is due to the fact that I beat Xazariel and devoured her power some time ago." Locus-Walker stood there for a moment, merely talking in the fact that there was someone who could control five of the six Cosmic Forces without one gaining the upper hand over all of the others, shifting Spitfire's alignment to the one that asserted its dominance over the other four she had access to, where he actually considered the possibility of there being a seventh unknown power in the universe, one capable of bringing the others into harmony with each other, though as he thought about that Spitfire disappeared from where she was standing, causing him and Alleria to glance up at the top of the path and discovered that she was entering the area the Viceroy's people were in. After doing that Spitfire took a couple of seconds to glance around the Void-corrupted section of Mac'Aree that Locus-Walker had brought them to, where she could see that the Ethereals were definitely pulling more and more Void energy into this terrace, given that they were over on the other side of the temple's area, and the rate of corruption meant that there knew what they were doing and were totally prepared for something like this whenever they found their way to a new world or something, but she was able to find the locations that the harvesters were resting in. The circular devices were connected to the Void and were manned by a trio of Ethereal, who were channeling their powers into the harvesters and continued to dark this area as time went on, where she found that one was resting near a high concentration of Void energy, one rested across the road from it, the next two were closer to the temple, one was further beyond that, and two rested near a house that hadn't been consumed by the Void's energy, nor had the ground cracked under the pressure yet, but at the very least she had her targets and, as she had done in the past, started to move so she could take care of them. In that moment, as Spitfire stepped forward to break the harvesters and kill some of the Void-touched Ethereals, Locus-Watcher observed something that caught him off guard for a moment, whenever a foe approached her it seemed like the Ethereals in question were knocked back by either the wind or a bit of pressure, all without Spitfire moving her arms or hands at all, even though Alleria told him that she did have a pair of blades resting inside her horns, and when she approached one of the devices all she did was raise had hand for a second and loosed a small bit of energy at her target, the energy quickly wiping out the harvester in seconds, before she resumed moving once more. He stood there, with Alleria at his side, as Spitfire decimated the Viceroy's forces with her immense power, an instinct that allowed her to fight her foes without actually touching them or swinging her weapons at them, and it wasn't long before all of the Void harvesting devices were dismantled and a good number of enemies were dead, even though he knew that the Viceroy would summon more once he understood that his forces had been slain to this extent, but now, after seeing this event, he understood why the Army of the Light joined up with Spitfire, as her power had to be on par with a Titan, and as her enemies fell Spitfire returned to where he and Alleria were currently standing. "Impressive. I see why Alleria spoke highly of you." Locus-Walker stated, as now that he had a chance to see what sort of power Spitfire possessed, even a sample of her incomplete power since he understood that she had to be hunting down a suitable source of Void energy to obtain the final Cosmic Power she was missing, before he glanced over to the left side of this area and found a group of his Void-touched brethren who seemed to be in the middle of a summoning ritual, which gave him an idea when it came to Alleria and her desire to continue her lessons, "I have also been convinced that it will be worth giving her another chance to pursue the power of the Void... and to do that we can use the ritual that my brethren are working on right now." Spitfire nodded her head to that, as she had a feeling that such a thing might happen if they came up here, to which they headed over to the area where a number of Void-touched Ethereal were working to bring one of the more powerful Void remnants to Mac'Aree, even she could figure that out without having to be told, even though Locus-Walker and Alleria just used a Void portal, or a Void Tear as Alleria called them, to reach the area that their enemies were working in, though they paused for a moment as Locus-Walker made sure all of the conditions were right, before nodding to let Spitfire quickly kill all three of them and opened the way for them to do what they were here to do. Once that was done a large Void Tear, as in it was at least twice as tall as those that Locus-Walker used to move from place to place, tore itself open in the middle of the ritual area the Ethereals had been working in, where a large floating Void creature, having no feet while possessing a wisp of darkness to touch the ground and wearing armor over its body, emerged from the tear in reality, where she found that it also had a pair of tendril-like wings sprouting out of the back of its armor, where Spitfire quickly figured out that this was a Void Revenant, a Demigod, and she could hear some whispers calling it 'Nhal'athoth'. For a moment Spitfire had to wonder if maybe the Void had spoke the name of the creature to them, and the other Powers had translated it for her, or something to that extent, though once Nhal'athoth was fully in Mac'Aree, which meant stepping fully through the tear and let its portal close behind it, it roared as it focused on Spitfire, showing her that the Void, and possibly the Void Lords when one thought about it, might actually be afraid of her and her power, so they would be using this as an attempt to end her life before she gained far more power over the Cosmic Powers. Of course it wasn't long before the air shuddered as all of Nhal'athoth's attacks were countered by Spitfire's, the latter not even moving at all as she focused on the Void Revenant in front of them, though as she distracted the Void Revenant, which she was totally fine with since this wasn't about her right now, Alleria channeled her own power at Nhal'athoth, who seemed to ignore the high elf's actions as it focused on Spitfire the entire time, even though trying to drain the creature tormented Alleria to some degree, like she was succumbing to the Void's immense power, before the high elf overpowered what was happening to her and loosed an arrow from her bow as she did that. In the following moments Nhal'athoth, struck in its exposed core since that appeared to be what Alleria was after, fell to pieces and was reduced to nothing more than a orb that was the size of a gnome's head, where Spitfire raised her hand a few seconds later and caused it to float over to her, something that she handed over to her ally once she was done huffing from using a bunch of her energy, something that was followed by Alleria absorbing the power that was inside the orb, or the 'heart' as Locus-Walker decided to call it, and once Alleria was done she handed what remained of Nhal'athoth's heart to Spitfire, who said nothing as she called down another beacon so they could return to the Vindicaar. "We have some Void-touched Ethereals that need to be taken down before we can access the Seat of the Triumvirate, but with our might they'll be done in no time," Spitfire commented, speaking once they returned to the Vindicaar, as she found that Locus-Walker was interested in her power and likely watched to watch over Alleria for a time, to make sure his pupil stayed sane or whatever the next step of her training had to be, where she also found that nothing had changed inside the flagship, save for some additional Sayaad teleporting over to join those aboard the Vindicaar, to which she headed down to where the Netherlight Crucible rested and added Nhal'athoth's now crystalline heart to the device, opposite of where Xe'ra's remaining power rested, "once Alleria is ready to go, since that took a lot out of her, she and I will head down to the Seat of the Triumvirate and take out the Viceroy's forces, before getting to L'ura and the Crest... then, at long last, we can launch our assault on Antorus." "While we wait, I'll keep smashing the portals the Legion opens to this place," Rainbow remarked, informing them that the Legion must have opened some large gateways during their time in the Void-corrupted part of Mac'Aree, which they were fine with since Rainbow was more than enough to take care of whatever Sargeras' forces threw at her, though as she said that, and everyone considered the news for a few seconds, Romuul informed them that the Legion had opened another Fel gateway in the middle of Mac'Aree, something that caused Rainbow to smile as she headed out to deal with it, though at the same time Spitfire knew her friend would take care of it in no time. As it turned out the Legion wasn't the one who opened this portal, rather one of their Sayaad allies, Mistress Alluradel, had studied the gateways in question and was using a combination of her power and knowledge to open portals to a number of Fel-corrupted worlds, or at least that was what Spitfire learned as she joined Rainbow, meaning this was a way for them to rapidly cripple the Legion's firepower and cut down on the number of worlds that they had access to, though the more interesting thing was that there were a number of worlds that were only lightly corrupted by Sargeras' forces, meaning if they purged the worlds of the Legion's influence they could save all sorts of people. Of course these greater portals lead to worlds that were totally corrupted by their enemies, where they passed through the portal and found that it was a world that reminded them of Outland a little, given the cracked Fel-corrupted ground, all of the Fel lava that rested around them, blackened jagged peaks that looked like what rested around Krokuun and Antorus Wastes, and there were a number of demons wandering around, working to create all sorts of weapons and whatnot for Sargeras' dark army. Once Rainbow was on the other side of the portal, and a few others had joined her and Spitfire, such as Alleria, Locus-Walker, and even Illidan, she raised her hand and the patch of ground that the gateway rested in was torn out of the ground, where she let it float up into the air and made sure it wasn't near the rest of the world, before she walked forward and stared down at the planet that was below them, where she weaved her power into the space in front of her and summoned a small orb a few seconds later. In that moment Spitfire and the others watched as Rainbow did what she had done several times in the past, she started to siphon the Fel energy from this corrupted world, targeting everything and everyone that rested below where they were resting, where Locus-Walker observed as demons of all shapes and sizes were starting to wither away as their Fel energy, collapsing as they realized what was going on around them, while the Fel-corrupted nature of the rest of this world crumbled before them, almost as if Rainbow was draining this entire world of its twisted Fel energy, and he did find that all of the energy gathered in the growing sphere in front of Rainbow. Once the world no longer had any Fel energy, and Rainbow was sure of that as she surveyed the death she had caused so far, she collapsed the sphere into a more manageable size and devoured it without delay, showing Locus-Walker that she wasn't to be underestimated either and explained why so many demons were rushing to abandon the Legion, due to the fact that those that did so were afraid of her power, though once that world was done Spitfire and the others returned to the Vindicaar so they could ensure Alleria had the time she needed before they assault the Seat of the Triumvirate and put an end to their assault on Argus. > Argus: Seat of the Triumvirate > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- About twenty minutes after Rainbow devoured the Fel energy of a demonic world, something that had shocked Alleria and all of their allies when they heard the news, even though some were getting used to her doing such a thing, Spitfire got the news she was waiting for, Alleria, despite the surge of Void power she had absorbed from Nhal'athoth's heart earlier, was ready to go and that meant it was time for her, Alleria, and Locus-Walker to head out for their destination, even though the three of them had some company that wished to join them in their assault on the Seat of the Triumvirate and the dark enemies that were guarding the area. What was surprising was that Velen wished to come along, to act both as the healer for those who would be fighting and so he could see the damage to the ancient structure with his own eyes, which also included seeing what L'ura was like when they finally reached where she had been imprisoned, and Turalyon stepped up as well so he could help his wife out with her mission, showing that he, while being a follower of the Light, trusted Alleria and her connection to the Void, even if it was the opposite of his own powers. Since Locus-Walker wasn't going to be fighting anything, and Alleria needed to conserve her strength for when they finally found L'ura, that meant their group of five was really a group of three, but such a thing really didn't matter to Spitfire, because with Turalyon and Velen aiding her they would be able to reach their target in no time, all while leaving Rainbow and the rest of their forces to prepare for the assault on Antorus, even though she was sure Rainbow would be assaulting Antoran Wastes while she was dealing with all of the Void-touched Ethereals. Once they knew what they were doing, and their forces understood that they were drawing ever closer to the assault on the Legion's heart, Spitfire and her group teleported down to where the last beacon had been placed, near where the Void Revenant had been summoned, even though she could see that more Void-touched Ethereals had been called in as reinforcements, but instead of heading straight into the army of enemies, like Spitfire would have done on her own, Locus-Walker head off to his left, towards a place Velen called Triad's Conservatory, and they followed after him without delay. Spitfire understood the decision instantly, as this would allow them to go around some of their enemies and then assault the middle of the army before they had a chance to fight back, allowing them to deal a crippling blow before they focused on tearing down everything the Viceroy had set up in the short period of time his people had been in Mac'Aree, opening the way for them to take down whoever was the Viceroy's second and then the Void-touched leader himself, so they could get to L'ura and claim the Crest that was buried with her. Not a few moments later they found a barrier that the Ethereals had set up, likely protecting something or making sure a potential entrance was sealed off, something Locus-Walker waved his hand at and dismissed, once more showing that he knew the ins and outs of the organization that was trying to pull the Void's energy into Mac'Aree and claim this fragment of Argus for their dark purpose, which made Spitfire wonder if their enemies were seeking to become Void Revenants, given their efforts to summon Nhal'athoth earlier. After that the group walked through the arch that the barrier had been blocking and they entered a large open area that might have been the center of the building, back when everything was pristine, though there were a number of Void-touched Ethereals in this area and all of them were in the middle of trying to pull even more Void energy into Mac'Aree, while some appeared to be in the middle of tormenting one of the Void-touched Broken Spitfire and Alleria had seen before meeting Arkhaan, though it did look like they had been at this for a while, so he must have been grabbed before the pair investigated the darkened area of Mac'Aree. In that moment, after taking in what all of the Ethereals were doing, Turalyon pulled out his greatsword and braced himself as he readied his paladin powers, just like Spitfire had seen the Highlords do during their attacks on all of the powerful enemies that were trying to take over Azeroth, before rushing forward as he hurled a hammer forged of the Light at one of the Void-touched Ethereals, a spell designed to draw the attention of their enemies, while Velen used a bit of his own powers to blast some of their foes with blasts made of Light energy, leaving Alleria to join them as she just used her bow and arrows to hurt her targets, something that left Locus-Walker standing near Spitfire, who observed what was going on right now. Of course the Void-touched Ethereals weren't the only enemies in this area, as there were some twisted Broken who had to be totally broken by the dark power of the Void, as they were crawling on the ground and seemed more feral than most of the animals that were still calling Mac'Aree home, and she also found a number of dark oozes that seemed to be more like containers for the Void's power, so breaking them might not be a good idea when Spitfire thought about it, but, at the same time, it might grant Alleria a boost to her power for later, something she would leave in the hands of Locus-Walker, since he was her teacher and knew more about the method than she did. While she thought about she got a chance to see Turalyon in battle, as he and Velen lashed out at all of the Void-touched enemies that were in this area, one slashing at his targets with a precision that came from a thousand years of fighting the Legion, something she knew was only possible due to all the time he likely spent in the Twisting Nether, while he and Velen rained holy fire down on some of the enemies who were further away from where everyone was fighting at the moment, aiding Alleria as she loosed arrows down on the Ethereals and feral Broken that were around them, everyone doing their part to open the way to the outer part of the Seat of the Triumvirate. One thing Spitfire noticed was that the Void-touched Ethereals and other enemies were using all sorts of Void attacks to take them down, where the Light users channeled their powers into brief barriers to block the attacks in question and also opened a couple of holes in the defenses of the enemies that were standing in their way, and once they were weakened either Alleria took them down with her arrows or Turalyon finished them off with his greatsword, which showed her that her allies were capable of defending themselves, even though she was slightly amazed that the Chosen had stood back to defend the Vindicaar, no doubt placing Velen's safety in her hands, knowing that he would be safe with her fighting beside him. As all of that happened one of the Void-touched Ethereals noticed his forces being decimated, all by two warriors of the Light and a Ranger-Captain that was as skilled as Sylvanas was at hunting enemies, loosed a burst of Void energy straight at where Locus-Walker and Spitfire were standing, where Locus-Walker stepped back for a second as what happened next came to pass, as the sphere shattered into vanishing energy fragments without Spitfire moving at all, due to her swinging her arm for a second to smash it, even though none of the others saw her motion. Once that was done the rest of the enemies were take care of and they watched as the mass Void energy in the center of this area surged outwards for a few seconds as the Void-touched Broken, who Spitfire learned was called Zuraal thanks to what she assumed was the Void telling them his name, emerged from the energy and looked like seventy-five percent of his body was covered in all the dark energy of the Void, given that only part of the right side of his body, and the right side of his head, were still normal colored, showing everyone how corrupted he was. As Zuraal touched the ground, and seemed to regain some sort of rational thought now that the Void-touched Ethereals were taken care of, he turned towards them and rushed right at Turalyon, intending on punching his chosen target into the ground so he could focus on someone else, only for Zuraal to discover that his target wasn't that easy to take out as his fist was stopped by Turalyon's blade, as it had been used to parry the attack, before he pushed their foe back and put a bit of distance between them before the battle really started. Sure enough not a few seconds later Zuraal gathered his power and unleashed a burst of Void energy at Turalyon, who summoned a shield of Light energy to protect himself from the attack, which scattered once it struck his shield, and once that was done he twisted his blade and slashed at Zuraal's chest, leaving behind a faint gash since the Void-touched Broken jumped back after feeling the sting of her attack, while at the same time Velen loosed a burst of Light energy that struck his chest as one of Alleria's arrows found her mark in the left side of his chest. It looked like either Zuraal was listening to what the Void had to tell him or he was thinking about his first exchange with the group in front of him, based on what Spitfire was seeing right now, though it didn't take him long to regain himself and rush back into battle once more, swinging his fists at Turalyon while Velen and Alleria continued to hit him with their attacks from afar, even though she was sure that the Light based attacks might be doing more damage than the arrows, which wasn't stopping Alleria from putting more arrows in his chest. A few moments later Zuraal threw himself up into the air and stayed there for a few seconds, before rushing down at where his foe was standing and swung his fist downward at Turalyon, who jump rolled to the side and avoided the attack, which cracked a bit of the ground in the process once his fist made contact with the stone, though the paladin wasted no time in lashing out with his blade and his Light based powers to make sure he dealt some damage to Zuraal, who just seemed to tank the attacks before jumping backwards for a few moments, once more studying the attacks that his foes were using against him before he lashed out with another attack or some strategy he came up with. Of course that wasn't the only thing that happened after he moved out of the area he had punched, as the Void started to seep through the cracks his punch had created, meaning it had to be reacting to his power in some way and meant they had to move out of where the pool of energy was gathering in, though as the pool grew in size Spitfire found some of the Void Oozes quickly emerge from the mass of dark energy and watched as Alleria took a few out to make sure they didn't get close to either her husband or Velen, though as one fell it added even more Void energy to this place, which meant this battle was on a time limit, before the entire place was covered in Void energy. As such the trio made sure to keep an eye on the remaining Void Oozes that were emerging from the pool Zuraal had created, Alleria killing them before they could escape from the pool, as it seemed it be the best place to end them so they didn't create new pools outside the massive one and spread the Void's influence even further, though Spitfire did have to wonder if this might result in another Void Revenant surging into existence near them or a portal to the Void's realm opening once enough power was here, but she continued to watch the fight unfold as her allies continued to lash out at Zuraal. At one point Zuraal used his Void power to knock Alleria straight into the realm of the Void, though that just gave her more access to some of the dark entities that were starting to gather in this area of Mac'Aree and Spitfire was sure that she took all of her enemies down in no time, as a Void Tear opened up not a few moments later, which stunned Zuraal for a few seconds and opened the way for both of his enemies to attack him, before Alleria emerged from the portal and rejoined the fight, meaning she must have killed all sorts of foes inside the realm she had been sent into and simply tearing open a temporary portal allowed her to return to return to the fight without delay. Interestingly enough it didn't look like the Void-touched Broken had any additional skills to use against Turalyon, Velen, and Alleria, save for lashing out with his fists and making way for the Void's energy to surge into the area they were fighting in, as if he figured out that trapping someone in the dark realm wasn't going to work at all and abandoned the idea once he came to that conclusion, but even then it was easy for her to tell, from a glance, that the Void-touched Broken was weakening thanks to all of the Light based attacks he was tanking. In fact Spitfire could tell that Zuraal understood that fact and was thinking of running from this area before he died, but as he came to that decision, and started to flee by running, he noticed her and Locus-Walker standing near the entrance of this area and raised his fists for a moment, showing her that the Broken was planning on punching his way through them so he could leave, though she vanished and reappeared a few steps behind Zuraal, who paused for a few seconds before a number of cuts appeared on his chest, causing him to collapse not even a few seconds later. "It would seem that he made a mistake in baring his fangs at you," Turalyon commented, as he understood that attacking either Rainbow or Spitfire was pretty much a death sentence for whoever was foolish enough to do such a thing, though at the same time he wasn't annoyed by the fact that Spitfire had stolen the kill from him, Velen, and Alleria, because he had grown used to killing demons and taking down some incredibly powerful foes, while taking credit for some of his actions, and it seemed like his companions shared his thoughts, to which he focused on the task at hand, "though we should move out before the Viceroy has a chance to counter us and stop us from reaching L'ura's position." As everyone nodded Alleria headed for the building that was opposite of where the entrance was located, which seemed to be a dead end when they first glanced at it, where Locus-Walker quickly informed all of them that the Shadowguard, the official name for the group of Void-touched Ethereals they would be dealing with, was increasing their presence and that their commander, not the Viceroy, had a staff that would be useful to him in the future, meaning disrupting their foes and taking the weapon should be the next stage of their assault on this place. In that moment Alleria turned her Void power on the wall in front of them and used a beam of sorts on it, carving open a decent sized hole in the wall for them to use, one that was circular and didn't seem to upset Velen, as if he was okay with her doing that, though once that was done the five of them jumped down into the area that the Shadowguard were working in and watched as a number of Void portals were torn open all over the terrace that was covered in the Void's energies, while one of the Ethereals, likely the commander, loudly informed them that his forces would secure this place and push them back. Locus-Walker informed all of them that the commander was called Saprish, meaning he either knew him before pulling away from the Shadowguard or he knew it due to watching the Viceroy's forces since they delved into the power of the Void, though in that moment Spitfire and her companions discovered that the guardians of the Void Tears were more creatures of the Void, large Voidwalkers that were keeping the tears in reality open, while the Shadowguard and Void Oozes were protecting those creatures, meaning to get at the Voidcallers, as Spitfire decided to call them, they had to go through the other enemies first. While they headed out to take down all five of the scattered Voidcallers and their guardians, to close all of their tears in reality and force Saprish out into the open, so they could take him and his remaining forces down, Spitfire had the feeling that the Shadowguard might be in the process of reaching deeper into the Void, like when they summoned Nhal'athoth, making her wonder if it was possible that they might be in the process of pulling another Void Revenant to Mac'Aree, not that they were in danger if such a thing happened since she could smash it to pieces, which would give her a focus of Void energy for when they finally found L'ura and the Crest of Knowledge. Sure enough it wasn't long before the Shadowguard and their Void allies, the oozes and some of Argus' animals that had been twisted by the Void, lashed out at all of them without delay, causing Turalyon, Velen, and Alleria to lash out with their own powers once more as both Spitfire and Locus-Walker stood back for the time being, which quickly changed this area into a battlefield as the two forces faced each other, allowing Spitfire to see just how skilled her allies were while they took out all of their enemies. Velen, now that they were actually facing the full force of the Shadowguard, called upon the might of the Vindicaar and blasted several areas with the power of Light's Judgement, mostly focusing on some areas that had a decent amount of enemies and were away from where they were standing, while at the same time Turalyon made sure to call in some of the Warframes to help them take down some of their enemies so they didn't get overwhelmed, because the Shadowguard had formed an army to defend this place and calling on a few of their allies meant that they would be able to survive the amount of enemies coming at them. Of course a few enemies decided to come and attack her, even if they first focused on Locus-Walker and then determined that she was a more important target to take down, where Spitfire did nothing as she lashed out at her foes and struck all of them down in no time, just like she had done in the past, though her focus was on all of the Void energy that was lingering in this place, as there was another area covered in Void energy that was across from where Nhal'athoth had been summoned, meaning her earlier thoughts had been correct and that it was possible that some of the Shadowguard might be trying to call forth another Void Revenant to deal with them. Velen also noticed what she was looking at and had Romuul blast the area with Light's Judgement as well, taking care of the Ethereals who were scattered around the mass of Void energy, though both of them knew that there was a chance this had been a wasted effort and that the Void Revenant would be upon them soon enough, so for now they needed to focus on taking all of the Void Tears out before even more Void energy seeped into the rest of Mac'Aree, even though Spitfire was sure that the infection they were seeing would, eventually, cover everything that was up here, something none of them would see once the assault on Argus was complete. Once all of the Shadowguard were dealt with, and Turalyon was sure of that based on what they could see, a new tear in reality opened as an Ethereal, Saprish no doubt, stepped out and was joined by one of the Panthara and a ray creature of some kind, a Mana Ray according to Velen, though it was clear that he had to be annoyed with their efforts to bring down the plans of the Shadowguard and would be standing in their way to get to L'ura's location, though such a thing was why Turalyon, Alleria, and Veln focused on him while Locus-Walker watched them and Spitfire kept an eye on the Void energy that was building nearby, just in case a Void Revenant showed up. Not a few moments later Saprish, using an interesting staff that contained a Void crystal at the top and definitely contained a fair bit of power, which explained why Locus-Walker wanted it, swung his right arm, the one that held the staff, and sent out a number of hunter traps that were likely pulled out of a Void storage area of some kind as both of his pets rushed at them, something that didn't impress Spitfire's allies as Turalyon, Alleria, and Velen dodged the incoming traps that were scattered around this area, causing the Ethereal to sigh for a moment. In the following moment Turalyon spun around and used his greatsword to cleave the poor Void-touched Panthara right in half, all in a few seconds, before he approached his target as he left the Mana Ray to Alleria, allowing Velen to join him as they assaulted Saprish's location and found that he was using the staff as a shield to protect himself, though as that happened Alleria used her bow and arrows to quickly take down Saprish's other pet, who also seemed to be touched by Void energy, which everyone expected since the members of the Shadowguard were trying to push it on everything that was around them and their bases. After that Saprish rushed at his three main targets, as if knowing that picking Spitfire or Locus-Walker was a bad idea right now, and swung his staff at them, where Void energy gathered around the crystal and formed a phantom blade of Void energy that he used to try and take down his enemies, though Turalyon and Velen used shields made of Light energy to defend themselves as Alleria just jumped out of the way to avoid taking damage, before they retaliated once their foe paused to assess the situation he had found himself in. Receiving two Light based attacks and a powerful arrow loosed by a rather skilled archer made someone take a moment to wonder what they were supposed to do next, especially with how quickly his pets had been taken out in the opening stages of the battle, to which he changed up his methods and channeled a bit of the Void power in the staff at part of the area that contained all the Void energy Spitfire had been keeping track of, where a large Void Tear opened not a few seconds later and a Void Revenant entered Mac'Aree, showing that Saprish was planning on using it to kill them, or at least wear them down to the point to where the Viceroy could take them down. Turalyon, Alleria, Velen, and Locus-Walker did nothing as that happened, as not a few seconds later they found a number of slashes being etched into the Void Revenant's body, consisting of the five Cosmic Powers that Spitfire had access to, and once all of them were done Spitfire appeared in the air and happened to be floating near where the creature's portal was located, though this time around she had one of her Twinblades in her right hand as she faced her companions, showing them and Saprish a bit of her true power, before the Void Revenant shattered and an orb of Void energy, its heart, was left behind, which floated above her left hand as she stored her weapon inside her horn again, leading to Turalyon ending the fight by cutting down their foe before he could leave. "You have done well, preventing another Void Revenant from consuming more of Mac'Aree while also removing the last of the obstacles between me and this staff," Locus-Walker stated, his tone showing that he was pleased with their efforts and all of the damage they had done to the Shadowguard in such a short period of time, even though Spitfire suspected that he might be impressed with the fact that she actually cut down a Void Revenant with such ease, enough to make him take a moment to wonder if she could actually deal with the Void Lords, a thought that actually terrified him a little because it would mean nothing could defeat her if she beat one of them, before he focused on their mission, "Now that we have this staff, and Saprish and his forces have been slain, along with a potential threat to Argus being taken out, it is time that we took the fight to Nezhar, the Viceroy, and take him out so we can tackle the barrier he is trying, in vain, to break through at this very moment." The group wasted no time in nodding their heads as Turalyon and Alleria headed to the east of where Saprish stepped out of his Void Tear, using a raised walkway that bypassed the area that Spitfire and the others had stopped in earlier, before she smashed the first batch of Shadowguard to pieces and allowed Nhal'athoth's great power to be siphoned by Alleria, as it would bring all of them over to the sunken area that the Viceroy and his guards would be working in, and the barrier that prevented people from reaching L'ura's location. Such a thing meant they had to wage war on the remaining members of the Shadowguard that were between them and Nezhar's location, where many of the Ethereals seemed like they might be growing less certain in their mission after seeing their commander fall like that, but it appeared that they might be scared of their boss' anger or rage if they failed to stop anyone who tried to interfere with their mission and it spured them into attacking the group, to which Spitfire allowed Turalyon and Velen to step forward as Alleria assisted them. As she thought all of the remaining members of the Shadowguard didn't stand much of a chance against a High Exarch, a Prophet, and a Ranger-Captain, as it brought ruin upon their forces, and any that dared to approach her and Locus-Walker fell before they could even get close to them, once more due to her incredible power, though her companions opened the way to where the Viceroy and his guards were working. What was interesting was that Nezhar said nothing as the group jumped down into his workspace, causing him and the last of the Shadowguard to turn on them not a few seconds later, where Spitfire found that the Viceroy summoned his own Void energy into the area they were in and summoned a ring of it around the rest of this area, mostly to prevent them from fleeing if he happened to overwhelm them, not that they were going to do such a thing since L'ura was on the other side of the barrier Nezhar was trying to break through, but it did prompt three of them to move forward as Spitfire and Locus-Walker stayed back for the time being. Nezhar glanced at them for a moment as Turalyon, Alleria, and Velen dealt with the last members of the foul Shadowguard that were in this area, no doubt a bit curious about why two of them were standing still and not fighting his forces, or maybe he was curious about the fact that Spitfire had the heart of a Void Revenant floating above her hand, before he found that all of the remaining Shadowguard were dead and he focused on those that were coming at him. Turalyon swung his greatsword at Nezhar as Velen focused on mending their wounds and loosed blasts of Light energy at their foe, while Alleria loosed arrows to either keep the ring of Void energy from shrinking, where Spitfire determined that such a thing meant she had to be using her own power to do such a thing, or to hurt the Viceroy, though Nezhar dodged all of their attacks to the best of his ability as he took a few moments to channel his Void energy into blasts to take them down, or at least harm them to the point where he could finish them off. Once more Turalyon and Velen weaved their own Light powers into barriers as Alleria avoided the incoming attacks, showing Nezhar that none of them were easy to take out and that he would have to try harder if he wanted to kill them and get back to his mission, even though he would have to find more workers to breach the barrier, causing the Viiceroy to tilt his head before he charged into battle, though he did have a spell to use against his foes and proceeded to use it without delay. What he did was open small Void Tears all over the area they were fighting in and it caused tendrils of Void energy to enter Mac'Aree, where it was clear that this was an attempt to summon something else into this twisted section of Argus and have it take his enemies out while they were focused on taking him down, though in response to that Velen shifted his focus and rained down several Light blasts on all of the tendrils, wiping them out before they had a chance to increase the amount of Void energy in this place, and once he was sure all of them were done he turned his focus back on Nezhar and blasted him in the chest. From that point it just looked like Nezhar's strategy fell apart as he understood that his three main foes were powerful in their own right, while at the same time realizing that an even greater foe stood near them and was watching his movements like a hawk or some sort of predatory bird, and he was channeling his power all over the place, tearing open Void Tears in an effort to summon more allies to take all of them down and possibly down Mac'Aree in Void energy, to create a focus for reaching deeper into the Void, past the point of calling forth a Void Revenant, something that was only possible once he had access to the Void energy coming from inside the temple he was trying to enter by breaking the barrier protecting it. In the end, however, Nezhar didn't stand much of a chance as Alleria focused her power and temporarily closed the new Void Tears he had opened, while at the same time allowing Velen to blast their foe in the chest as Turalyon delivered the finishing blow and slashed open the Viceroy's chest, causing his energy to dissipate over a few seconds, leaving behind a pile of special cloth bindings that Ethereals used to maintain their bodies or their original humanoid shape, though once that was done they approached the barrier. No one said anything as Alleria stepped forward and channeled her own Void energy at the barrier, likely using some sort of knowledge that the Void whispered to her, to which Spitfire and the rest of the group watched as the magic protecting the Seat of the Triumvirate shattered before their eyes, the fragments quickly disappearing over a few seconds, which also opened the way for them to walk up the steps in front of them and approach the doorway that the Viceroy had been trying to get to since his forces arrived in this area. There was an aura of despair that came from deep inside the temple, a song similar to A'dal's in a way while being tainted by the misfortune that L'ura had suffered after Velen's people fled from Argus all those years ago, and Locus-Walker seemed like he wanted to make a comment about this whole thing, likely about how mortals seemed to result in a rapid change of a Naaru's power, due to the fact that Spitfire suspected that a Naaru naturally cycled through channeling Light energy and Void energy and being hurt in some manner caused one to shift into their Void state much sooner than they normally would. Her thoughts were interrupted as they walked through the doorway, which Velen was able to open with a wave of his hand, and they found a number of Void Oozes standing between where they were standing and the depths of the building, creatures who paused for a second and then disappeared into the darkness when they found Spitfire's group staring at them for a few seconds, no doubt realizing that Spitfire held a Void Revenant's heart and it might have caused them to be afraid of her, but it did open the way for them to reach the bottom of the tunnel, not to mention the lowest level of the Seat of the Triumvirate based on Velen's knowledge, and they found what they were looking for. Resting in front of them floated a darkened Naaru, one with a purple coloration to the center of her body while the outer parts of her form were blackened by her exposure to the Void, which made sense when Spitfire considered everything she had learned about the sequence of events that happened in Mac'Aree all those years ago, though the song of despair did fade away when L'ura found that she had company for the first time in ages, since Kil'jaeden had ordered her damaged body being thrown into this place. Normally this was would be where a foe lashed out at them for approaching them, or at least that appeared to be the case with most of the foes Spitfire had seen so far, but L'ura noticed that Velen was standing with them and just floated in her resting place, as if knowing that they didn't mean her any harm, something that caused the Prophet to approach the darkened Naaru and bow his head for a few seconds as he quickly informed her of what was going on, as in that Xe'ra had been destroyed, despite the fact that part of her power rested inside Spitfire, and that they were here to obtain a fraction of her power for Spitfire and Alleria. L'ura turned ever so slightly as Velen told her about the events that transpired since she stayed behind to ensure his people survived their departure from Argus, a very watered down and quick sequence of events since telling her the whole story would take too long, but he told her the main points, including the fact that they were here to take down Sargeras and that he suspected that Spitfire might be able to do it, if she had access to all six Cosmic Forces, since the Void was the last one she needed to claim some power of, while sharing his feeling that the power of a Void Revenant was a good first step but wouldn't be enough to match the other Forces she had gained the power of. Sure enough L'ura just floated there, allowing them to take in the fact that she was a font of Void energy, which they sort of knew and this just confirmed their suspicions, before they found that the crystalline wings that L'ura had near her, something that seemed to be mimicking Xe'ra's form and made Spitfire wonder if the Void had shaped her to be the 'Void Mother', disappeared as the barrier around her collapsed, though that was when an orb of Void energy came into existence and Spitfire heard a slightly different tune coming from the Dark Naaru, to which she stepped up and raised the Void focus she was carrying, drawing in the power that L'ura was granting her. It was equal to that of Xe'ra, that much she could tell with a quick glance, though once that was done L'ura gave another sound as she focused on Alleria for a few seconds, where Velen nodded his head as he and the others stepped back for a time, allowing the ranger to brace herself as she channeled her Void energy at L'ura, though while it was clear that she and Locus-Walker were expecting the Naaru to put up some sort of resistance, instead of watching as L'ura's form collapsed on itself and a sphere of potent Void energy slammed into Alleria's chest, kicking up some smoke for a moment... though when that faded they found Alleria now possessed a darkened skin tone that was made from the Void and her power did appear to be greater than before, but it wasn't long before her original form returned. "The voices... they are louder than before, but they don't control me." Alleria stated, informing the rest of the group that she was fine, as she had seen that Turalyon was worried about her and this was the best way to answer his unspoken question while allowing the others to see that she was in control, as in the Void hadn't turned her into its slave like many who dared to use its power, before she glanced down at herself and likely imagined what she could do with the power of the Void that L'ura had allowed her to take, even at the cost of the Dark Naaru's existence. "Then we have completed our objectives," Spitfire remarked, where the others turned towards her for a moment and took a moment to stare at what she had found while Alleria was dealing with L'ura, as she had spotted a fuchsia colored gem of some kind and found that it possessed a power equal to the Sigil of Awakening and the Eye of Prophecy, meaning it was the Crest of Knowledge, and that she had picked it up while the High Elf, now Void Elf she guessed, absorbed the power of L'ura, where Velen smiled for a moment as he laid eyes on Kil'jaeden's fragment of the Crown, the last one needed to do what he had talked about earlier, "Come, let us return to the Vindicaar and get ready for our assault on Antorus, to cripple the Legion's power at long last." The group nodded as Spitfire headed outside and called on Romuul to send down another beacon for them to use so they could return to the Vindicaar, which he did without delay and they used as soon as it was down in the area they had found Nezhar in earlier, though upon their return to the dimensional ship she found that Rainbow and most of her forces were waiting aboard the ship, meaning they must have sensed a shift in the wind and returned to the Vindicaar to observe what happened next before they assaulted Antorus. Once everyone was accounted for Spitfire stepped up to the pedestal that had been set up when Velen ordered the ship be constructed, meaning he had been planning on reforming this ancient artifact for a long time, before raising her right hand and allowed the Crest of Knowledge to float over to the device, where it slipped into place to the left of the Sigil, and once that was done she stepped back as Velen stepped forward and paused for a moment as he withdrew the Eye of Prophecy and slipped it into place, causing a surge of power to rush through the dimensional ship. Not a few moments later a sphere of golden energy wrapped around the Vindicaar, meaning that they were about to witness the ship power up to its full potential at long last, before a number of thin beams of Light energy burst out of certain points of the Vindicaar's exterior, even though Spitfire could tell that no damage had been done to the ship and this was likely just a show of sorts on the Light's part, before a golden light caused everyone to cover their eyes for a few seconds, which they were getting used to, and when they opened their eyes they found that the purple and silver of the Vindicaar had been replaced by the golfen coloration of the Light. With this done Spitfire knew that the Vindicaar could punch a hole through Antorus' walls, meaning all they had to do was return to Antoran Wastes and start their final assault on the Legion's dark throne, but before that happened she returned to Mac'Aree's surface for a moment, right in the middle of the fragment of Argus to be exact, and held out her other hand for a moment, allowing the others to see the Void Focus that contained all of the Void energy L'ura had granted her, where she transformed it into a mass of energy not a few seconds later and embraced it like the other Cosmic Forces she had taken in so far. Rainbow and the others watched as the Void energy, a combination of a Void Revenant's power and the portion of L'ura's own power, surged into Spitfire's body not a few seconds later and the tattoos on her right leg took on a dark purple color that matched that of the Void, before a surge of energy burst out of where Spitfire was floating and they found that there were six strands of energy, each representing one of the six Cosmic Forces, which coiled around her not a few seconds later, completely covering her and preventing anyone from laying eyes on her for a time, like the six forces might be trying to fight for dominance or something, causing everyone to observe as they waited for Spitfire to emerge from the energy and lead the assault on Antorus. While Argus was under fire, facing what seemed like the full power of Azeroth, Sargeras had chosen to wait for a time, as he wanted to make sure all of the strong warriors were busy facing his demonic army, before moving across the massive gateway Spitfire had created after Kil'jaeden had been defeated again, opening the way between his throne and his prize, something that almost made him want to thank the terrifying leader for her assistance in giving him the keys to wiping out the rest of the universe, so the Void Lords didn't acquire a Titan World-Soul and use it to corrupt the rest of reality with its full corrupted power. Right now his massive cosmic form, which would appear like a massive twisted cloud of sorts to any who might gaze upon Azeroth from Argus, was carefully wrapping around Azeroth, no doubt being seen by anyone who was down on the planet's surface, and once his mass was in position he would begin bombarding the planet with the Fel energy he had access to, to burn away those who were still on the surface and grant him the opportunity to search for an easy way to find Azeroth's World-Soul, something he would corrupt into the greatest champion of the Legion. The power of Argus had been useful, granting him an anchor point for the souls of his forces and even saving the souls of some of his incredible demons from being wiped out entirely, if they died in certain places, though recently he found that a new power was stopping his forces from being revived in full force, as the demon hunter known as Rainbow Dash had discovered an odd power that allowed her to devour Fel energy and her weapons sucked in the souls of those she slew, meaning she was cutting into his forces with every demon that fell, whether she killed them or not. With Azeroth's corrupted power, which was apparently far greater than any Titan that came before her, at least according to the Pantheon before he crushed all of them in battle and scattered their souls, the Legion's power would become unstoppable and not even the power of the two thorns in his side would be able to stop him from burning the rest of the universe, not to mention the other realms of their universe, as one the mortal realm was done he was planning on leading a crusade on the realms of death, to make sure the Void had nothing to feed on. That was his grand plan, raze all of creation and then raze the realms of death once the universe was destroyed, where he would rest once that was over and his focus could be set on figuring out a way to safely destroy the Void Lords, once there was nothing left for him to worry about, though his thoughts were interrupted as he felt something strange behind him, as it was back on Argus, because it felt like either reality was shaking or the energies of the six Cosmic Forces happened to be shuddering for some odd reason, causing him to pause and glance back for a few seconds. What he discovered when he glanced back at the seat of the Legion's power was that there was a bright silver light coming from Mac'Aree, something he only knew thanks to what Archimonde and Kil'jaeden told him, as they claimed that nothing of interest was up there and it lead him to ignore it, at least until both of his Hands were dead and Spitfire headed up there with one of her ships, which was why he ordered his forces to follow the 'Grand Army of Azeroth' and he switched his focus to Azeroth. Something told him that this had to be Spitfire at work, who had, according to some of his scouts, managed to find a way to obtain more power than just Fel, as in she supposedly had Fel, Life, Arcane, and Death, though what he was feeling right now made him think that she had all six, something that was unheard of given that most of the Cosmic Forces didn't get along with each other, though here was the impossible happening, on Argus no less, and the silver light seemed to be causing the rest of reality to shake in response to what Spitfire was doing at the moment. Of course such a thing made him sweat for a couple of seconds, even though it was the thought that counted since his current state prevented such a thing from happening in the first place, and the reason for that was because this marked the first time, in his long history, of someone being able to wield more than one or two Cosmic Forces, especially all six of them when he thought about everything he was feeling, so if Spitfire was actually bringing Light, Arcane, Life, Death, Fel, and Void into balance it meant that she would be one of the strongest beings in the universe, possibly standing above him, Argus, and even Azeroth in terms of strength, and it wasn't long before the glow became even brighter, causing his jaw to drop for a moment as his new worst fears were realized by one of the demon hunters his forces feared with every fiber of their being. In that moment Sargeras decided to, for the time being, abandon Argus and the souls of the Pantheon, because once he claimed Azeroth as his own he would have all the power he needed to crush everything that stood in his path, where the Dark Titan hoped that such a thing included crushing both Spitfire and Rainbow at some point, to which he turned all of his attention back to the planet he was enveloping at the moment, totally ignoring the sense of dread that was coming from Argus at the moment as he focused on claiming his grand prize and burning everything else in the universe once he claimed the World-Soul of Azeroth as his own ends. Rainbow and the others watched for a time as the six colored strands merged into a silver colored sphere, where it looked like the Void had settled down and joined the others in whatever balance Spitfire had created, something that shocked all of those aboard the dimensional fleet, as everyone was watching this before they assaulted Antorus and brought an end to the Legion at long last, though the most interesting part about what she and everyone else were witnessing was that it seemed like reality, or maybe the universe itself, was vibrating. Everyone who was attuned to one of the Cosmic Forces, no matter which of the six forces it might be, could feel that she was ascending beyond what she had been before this point in time, and she could tell that Spitfire had definitely risen above her own power, making her wonder if she had unlocked the same power that she had unlocked during the battle with Kil'jaeden, before she found something interesting that all of their allies were definitely shocked by when everyone witnessed it happen. Six figures, each one made out of a different Cosmic Force, appeared around the area that Spitfire was floating in and turned to face her, where everyone watched as all of them knelt before her, almost as if all of the ancient beings who were the top of the food chain of each Cosmic Force were acknowledging Spitfire's power and her place above them in the order of the universe, and while that happened she found that it seemed like all of the elements were singing, maybe chanting something none of them understood, though it was possible that it was all tied to everything else that was going on right now. Rainbow was even sure that Sargeras, if he felt what was going on right now, would be worried about the chances of his armies surviving against a power that rivaled that of the Titans, or whoever ruled over the other five Cosmic Powers, if not terrified of the force that had risen to tear all of his plans to pieces, and she could tell that she wasn't the only one thinking about what was going on right now, but just as everyone started to open their mouths, to say something about the scene unfolding before them, the sphere suddenly shifted and the energy burst outwards, meaning that Spitfire had to be emerging from it. Sure enough the sphere broke down and Spitfire emerged from it, floating down to the ground like an angel with all of her wings opened right now, with a dark purple feathered angel wing resting on the right side of her body, below the wing that represented Death, showing that she had completed what Xe'ra had shown her when she used the Tears of Elune on her Heart, though as the silver light died down they could see that Spitfire had changed a bit more, as in her hair had turned silver and Rainbow was sure her eye color had done the same, no doubt unlocking the same instinct power that she had gained before they came to Argus. In addition to all of that there was also a new horn on Spitfire's head, one in the middle of her forehead, much like Rainbow's third horn, which was curved and happened to be crystalline as well, though it was silver colored and seemed to be connected to Spitfire's new power, though she was now wearing what appeared to be a robe that happened to possess a silver coloration, with black lines that looked like they could be something on top of the bit of clothing, even though it was only one thing and nothing more, with a flaming red sash wrapped around her waist, making her look like a being who stood above all others. Once Spitfire landed, and took a moment to glance at the Void wing she now possessed, all six wings disappeared and many of the heroes assumed there were slits on the backside of her new robe for the wings to move through whenever they emerged at her command, where she raised her hands for a few seconds and pulled out the Twinblades, which had transformed into a silvery version of Illidan's original warglaives, while seeming more elegant than what she used before, something that caused her to shift her stance for a moment and swung her blades, no doubt finding them to be just as grand as her old weapons had been. With that done she turned for a moment and the Twinblades, which would likely be called the Twinblades of the Cosmos on account of her new power and form, disappeared as they returned to her horns, though in the following moments she held a hand out and a bit of her energy swirled around her as she did that, where it looked like she was studying her new silver aura and the power she had gained from gaining the sixth and final Cosmic Force. As she did that the six beings in front of her raised their heads for a second, to gaze upon her form and power, before all of them disappeared from where they had been kneeling, as quickly as they had appeared based on what Rainbow could see, but once Spitfire was done studying her new aura and power, which had died down and wasn't swirling around her anymore, she lowered her arms and flashed up to where the Vindicaar was resting, allowing her to rejoin her allies, before she gave Romuul a slight nod as he directed the ship back down to Antoran Wastes, as it was time to assault Antorus and put an end to Sargeras' plans. > Argus: Assaulting Antorus > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire said nothing as the Vindicaar and the Sayaad's dimensional ship descended from Mac'Aree and headed for their final destination of their campaign on Argus, that of Antoran Wastes and Antorus itself, where she and the others found that the rest of their fleet had been busy laying waste to the demons in control of this part of Argus, meaning that nothing would stand between them and the massive fortress that contained the souls of the Pantheon, Aggramar's Avatar, and, in the deepest reaches, Argus' World-Soul, and it wasn't long before both ships joined the fleet and slipped into place, with Romuul telling the others about the Sayaad ship that had joined them. "Champions of Grand Army of Azeroth, warriors of the Army of the Light, and redeemed demons, the time has come for us to assault Antorus!" Spitfire stated, where she immediately heard all of their forces cheering as soon as she said that, as all of them were excited by the fact that they had accomplished so much in a short period of time, even though it was mostly due to her and Rainbow having wiped out everything and everyone that dared to stand in their way, though part of her was pleased to see that the demons who defected to her side were cheering as well, as it meant they had made the right choice and would continue to live once this battle was over, "Romuul, begin charging Light's Judgement, for on my mark we will blast open the walls of Antorus and begin our final battle with the Legion's forces!" Romuul nodded and tapped a few icons on the console that rested in front of him, allowing the power of the Crown of the Triumvirate to be channeled into Light's Judgement, exactly as Velen intended when he and his people made this ship once it became clear that they couldn't use the Exodar to get them back to Argus, though as that happened Spitfire focused for a few moments and stared at the walls of Antorus, sort of like she was using an empowered version of her Spectral Sight that allowed her to see beyond all of the large stone walls of the fortress. Thanks to that it didn't take her all that long to find the best place for Romuul to strike, because behind the section of the wall that she happened to be staring at rested a ramp that lead down into the depths of the Burning Throne, or at least what appeared to be the upper reaches of it, hence why she focused her power for a few seconds and an icon appeared on the wall that she wanted to target, a golden icon that looked like a bullseye, while the section of the wall happened to be near a river of Fel lava. It seemed like it might be designed for some sort of waste line or something, like materials were pulled from the depths of Argus and either used in some part of Antorus or dumped out if the Eredar inside the fortress deemed it unworthy to be used in the Legion's foul efforts to burn the rest of the universe to the ground, but right now neither option mattered as she spotted what rested on the other side of the stone wall and prepared for the final stage of their operation. While Romuul prepared the main cannon for the first part of their assault on Antorus, and the heroes of Azeroth and a few others readied themselves for it, Spitfire made sure that A'dal and the other captains of her fleet opened fire on the remaining Legion ships that were near Antorus, as it looked like the demons of Antoran Wastes were going to make an attempt to blast one of them out of the air or something, so this allowed her forces to safely secure the area as Light's Judgement continued to charge. Once Romuul informed them that Light's Judgement was fully charged, something that caused everyone to assemble in the circular area between where the Crown rested and the navigation console, Spitfire gave the command and a beam of Light energy tore through the space between the Vindicaar and the section of Antorus' wall that she had marked, blowing open a hole for all of them to use to start their assault on the Burning Throne. With the way open Spitfire weaved her power around all of them and Rainbow watched as she teleported them straight down to where the hole in Antorus' wall was located, surprising the Archmages since they weren't expecting it to happen in the first place, allowing all of them to head through the breach and push into Antorus at long last, where Turalyon, Velen, Illidan, and Magni joined them and had been teleported down to Antoran Wastes with them, as Magni wanted to speak with the souls of the Pantheon once they had been rescued, leaving the others to be his guards as they fought their way to the depths of Antorus, and it wasn't long before one of the Doommaidens, Y'Morna, joined them, to give them info on the enemies they would be facing. "Antorus... we dreamed of assaulting this place, but an opening never surfaced," Turalyon commented, staring out at the massive fortress that had been built into the sides of the torn section of Argus that could be seen from afar, which was as large as the chasm in question, allowing him and everyone else to stare out at the dark Fel green buildings that had been built by Sargeras' minions after he took control of this planet, even though it looked like Spitfire had brought them to an area that was a construction site for some of the massive Fel Reavers that they had seen, like the one outside Hatuun's camp, before his group stepped back, "Lady Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, Champions of Azeroth... do what you must to bring down the might of Antorus, and bring an end to the Legion's foul reign." Spitfire nodded her head and gestured to the enemies that were down the ramp in front of them, at least seven Felguards and one Brute standing on a circular platform at the end of this walkway, causing Rainbow and all of the heroes to march down the path in question, as she was planning on sticking back and watching what happened next, only stepping in when she was sure that the heroes needed her assistance, and sure enough her friend launched a small orb of Fel energy into the air and made it follow them from above, so she could drain all of their enemies while they fought. At the same time all of them found that there were a number of Felbats flying around above them, something that prompted Spitfire's fleet to enter the space above Antorus and opened fire on the enemies that happened to be in the air, be they the Felbats or even the couple of Legion ships, prompting a full scale battle that was in Azeroth's favor instantly and likely caused the demons to stare at what they were seeing in shock, even though it still shocked their demonic allies, given that Y'Morna's jaw had dropped when she watched what was going on right now. Of course Spitfire knew that the Doommaiden was happy to be on their side at the moment, given that facing her forces meant being killed and being sentenced to reside inside either of Rainbow's Warblades while their Fel energy was cut off and devoured by Rainbow, or her sphere for later, though once all of them thought about that Zuleth let out a roar as he smashed into the first Felguard that was in front of them and used his battleaxe to cut open the demon's chest, all while everyone else swarmed and attacked the remaining demons that were near him, leaving Rainbow to jump over them and engage the Brute. None of them were even remotely surprised to find that she wanted a piece of the action and had joined the heroes in fighting the demons in front of them, even if she had loosed the orb into the air and was siphoning all sorts of Fel energy from their enemies, despite the fact that Spitfire, while they were in the area near the Seat of the Triumvirate, had stayed back to allow her companions to deal with all the Void-touched Ethereals that had been in their way, but no one was going to argue with Rainbow and focused on killing all of the demons in front of them. In addition to the demons they were currently fighting there happened to be one of the large red imposing Fel Reavers patrolling a section of the path that would allow them to get closer to the main part of Antorus, which Y'Morna informed them was called a Garothi Decimator, or a Garothi Reaver and was named after a race that had been converted into yet another demonic race to serve Sargeras' will, though once the first group of enemies perished Rainbow lead the way down to where the machine was patrolling and found that it had stopped near a few more demons, mostly Felguard, two more Doommaidens, and one Doomguard. Rainbow focused on taking down the Garothi Reaver that was in front of them, so it didn't do anything to her allies, hence why she pushed it backwards as Zuleth's group smashed into the demons, hacking and blasting into them without wasting a single second, since there was no telling if Sargeras would send Aggramar after them in an attempt to make sure their incursion into Antorus was broken, though it didn't take them that long to kill their enemies and continued down the path as Spitfire's group brought up the rear, even though Rainbow shattered the Garothi Reaver a few seconds later and added its Fel power to her orb. From there they continued down the path and found that the ramp lead to a ledge, one that rested above a rocky circular area that looked like it was a fighting arena of sorts, which was odd since most of them weren't used to finding a powerful creature that needed to be taken down at the start of their assault on a location, save for what Spitfire had found in her last dungeon run, to which Rainbow's group jumped down into the area in question and kept their guard up as Spitfire's group came to a stop on the circular area the Doomguard's group had been defending. Y'Morna glanced at the area they had stopped in, even though she could see that the fleet was making short work of any and all defenses that were in this part of Antorus, where a green Garothi Reaver, which was the Annhiliator variety despite the fact that all of the Garothi series commanded the same level of power, landed right in front of the group and seemed to be ready for a fight, though it wasn't ready to be absolutely destroyed by the group, nor was it ready for Rainbow to break it to get at all the Fel energy inside it, which was added to her ever growing sphere as they took a moment to be sure that was it for this area. Of course there was more for them to take on, as once the Annhiliator was taken care of a massive Garothi Reaver, at least the upper half of it anyway, pulled itself up near the edge of the area they had stopped in and turned to face the heroes of Azeroth, where they found that most of it was a Fel green color with some darkened brass around the edges, with a heart of pure Fel energy for power, and it looked far more menacing than most of the Garothi Reavers everyone had seen since the start of their invasion of Argus, not to mention the two massive cannons on its shoulders, one for the left and one for the right, meaning it was ready for battle and it started to swing its clawed hands at them. Y'Morna revealed that this was the Garothi 'Worldbreaker', the latest addition to the Garothi series of Reavers, which had been, according to what she had been told, outfitted with an arsenal of weapons that would allow it to decimate worlds, a weapon designed to destroy both the Army of the Light and the Grand Army of Azeroth, though that had been before the two forces became one functioning unit and decimated everything that happened to be standing in their way, and before Spitfire and Rainbow gained their new powers. In the following moments the heroes lashed out with everything they had as the Worldbreaker continued to block the way forward, though one thing Spitfire determined immediately was that if no one was in front of the Reaver it would pound the ground with its fists, but that attack was worthless since Zuleth and all of the heroes slashed, hacked, and blasted the armor that was protecting the core of the machine, even though Rainbow was slowly drawing out the Fel energy inside it, as there happened to be a lot inside it and it would take some time to take all of it. Not a few moments later one of the Worldbreaker's weapons came online and fired a few Fel missiles up into the air, ones that stayed in the air for a few moments and then came back down as they targeted several of the heroes, even though none of them ended up reaching their destination as Rainbow's power drained all of the Fel energy inside them and dropped each missile into the abyss that rested around this area, meaning no one had to worry about getting hurt by the attack and allowed them to focus on doing damage to the Reaver in front of them. A few moments later they found something interesting as the Worldbreaker declared that the 'Apocalypse Drive' had been engaged and was followed by it shifting its stance so the cannons on its shoulders were pointed at them, meaning the two cannons had to be linked to the Apocalypse Drive it was charging, creating two blasts of potent Fel energy that would hurt those who were hit by the attack, though the reason no one was attacking the cannons was because of Rainbow, who just stood in front of them and the Worldbreaker as it fired at them, allowing her to raise her hands and stall the attack before she quickly devoured all of its Fel energy. With that done her companions continued their assault on the massive Reaver that was in front of them, doing everything in their power to damage the arms and chest of the construct in question, all while it continued to assault them with the same attacks and a few new ones, such as launching Fel fire into the air and causing them to fall to the ground so flames could cover the area, to weaken the heroes of Azeroth, and launching more missiles at those it deemed more important. Of course no one was worried about most of the attacks that were coming at them, as those that possessed Fel energy were siphoned by Rainbow and the others were just avoided by the heroes, only it made some of them wonder why fighting the Worldbreaker was easier than what they were expecting when they heard what it was, though they weren't complaining as they dealt more damage to the Reaver that was in front of them as more of its Fel energy was stolen by Rainbow, something that told the Archmages why it was weaker as they remembered who was fighting beside them at that very moment. None of them were going to complain about the situation they were in, as the Worldbreaker charged up a weapon that seemed to be located just above its heart and released a burst of Fel energy that was designed to do some massive damage to those it happened to be fighting at the time, or it would have done that had Rainbow not used her power to devour the entire attack in its entirety, which prompted the Worldbreaker to charge up the Apocalypse Drive once more as it seemed to pour all of the energy inside it into the attack, causing the heroes to back up as she stood there and waited for the construct to do what it was trying to do. Sure enough the Worldbreaker fired another powerful blast from its cannons at her, intending to wipe her out with the full power of its Apocalypse Drive, to which she stood there and channeled her own power for a few seconds as she devoured all of the Fel energy that was rushing straight for her, though once she ate all of it she channeled a few blasts of her own lightning power into the Reaver's cannons and blew both of them up, causing it to stagger for a few seconds before she leapt into the air and wrapped her Fel energy around the heart of the construct, where she ripped the Fel core out of its chest and caused it to fall backwards, creating a heap of metal in the process. "Not bad, as we would have been in trouble had we fought this back during the assault on the Broken Shore, despite the allies we gained at the time," Rainbow remarked, as she was sure that if they faced the Worldbreaker before this point in time they would have been in serious danger, even though part of her wouldn't call it by the name the Garothi decided to call it, as its power didn't seem like it would be able to decimate a world, but instead of worrying about that she focused on the energy that rested inside the heart she had torn out of the Reaver and devoured all of it, while leaving the orb up in the air, before she turned towards everyone else, "Come on, let's see what else might be waiting for a fight." Zuleth nodded and his group continued to march down the path in front of them, as there was a path to the left of where the Garothi Worldbreaker had been positioned for the majority of their fight with the massive machine, one that lead even deeper into Antorus and just so happened to be what they used next, leaving Spitfire's group to follow behind them as the majority of them realized just how strong Rainbow was and that all of the heroes could take down anything that might be thrown in their way, all while the fleet continued to follow them from above as they fired on the demons who dared to target the heroes as they headed deeper into Antorus. Of course, thanks to the fleet attacking all sorts of enemies, while keeping this path safe, there were no blasts coming down to hurt them as Zuleth, Vytheril, and everyone else walked down the diagonal walkway in question, though there were a couple of Eredar and a few Wrathguards blocking the way when all of them reached the circular platform at the end of the walkway, but some of the Eredar looked like they might be scared or afraid of what was going on right now, though even seeing Y'Morna standing among their enemies didn't cause them to understand the situation they were in. As such the heroes lashed out with their powers and weapons, crushing the couple of demons that were in their way and securing another part of Antorus, which had to be driving their enemies insane since this was supposed to be one of the, if not the most, secure places that the Legion ruled over, though as they walked even further down the path they found a number of small circular shaped ships flying around above them, which had to be for a single demon to use and didn't rely on a team to operate, but none of them survived as the fleet targeted them as well, either due to the captains noticing them or Spitfire disappearing to tell A'dal and the others about them. Either way it let all of them continue even deeper into Antorus, allowing them to watch as all sorts of Legion vessels were blasted out of the air and their Fel energy was gathered by Rainbow's ever growing orb, which also included the blasts that the Legion fired at it to take it out, once more reminding them that her orbs literally ate every bit of Fel energy in the area she targeted and wouldn't stop until she was sure she had drained every drop of Fel energy. That brought them to an area that looked like it had a few paths to pick from, one to the left that Turalyon summoned one of their beacons to as he explained that once they took out everything that was up here they would need to head deeper into Antorus, to another level which could only be accessed by using their ships, a path to their right that seemed to lead straight to one of the more important buildings of Antorus, and a path in front of them that looked like it lead to a den for some sort of demonic creature, where it looked like Zuleth and the others shared Rainbow's idea as they headed for the den with their weapons at the ready. "We are nearing the resting place of F'harg and Shatug, Felstalkers that have been reforged by Sargeras' own hand, as they were his pets after he formed the Legion," Y'Morna commented, while she watched as the heroes of Azeroth tore down a Brute that happened to be blocking the way forward, not to mention the group of Vilefiends that were with it, and noticed all of the souls being added to Rainbow's Warblades as their Fel energy joined the orb she had created at the start of this assault, once more confirming in her mind that joining Spitfire's forces had been a smart move, "they are now known as Charhounds, they're larger than what their original size was when Sargeras started reshaping them, and both have their own powers to contend with, as F'harg was imbued with the power of fire and Shatug was imbued with shadows... usually they're seen running around Antoran Wastes, when not contained inside their den, but give how fast you assaulted Argus I'm sure this will be your first time seeing them in action." Sure enough they found two large hounds resting inside the den that was at the end of the path in question, where both were as twice as tall as a human was and it was easy to see that Y'Morna's claim was true, one had flames and the other had shadows on parts of its body, meaning they had found F'harg and Shatug, who were resting in their den while waiting for sometime to do, though the reason Rainbow was focused on taking them out was because there was a chance that one of the demons might try to unchain them if they left them alone. In the following moments Zuleth charged into the den in front of them and swung Shadowmourne right into Shatug's right side, causing the Charhound to bark for a moment and warned F'harg that they had company, where half of their force turned and collided with F'harg while the others lashed out at Shatug before Zuleth was overwhelmed due to fighting one of Sargeras' pets on his own, even though Rainbow was the one that happened to be in F'harg's sight, showing he might know she was dangerous and wanted to take her down first, before something bad happened to him and his companion. For the first few moments both Charhounds used their front claws to attack them, swinging at whoever they happened to be targeting at the moment and causing the heroes to either dodge the incoming attacks or parry them to the best of their abilities, though it appeared that both enemies had a skill that let them manifest a path of either flames or shadowy energy, like an area they would run through or something, which lead to Zuleth and the tanks making sure they tanked the attacks while protecting everyone else in the process, who lashed out at the Charhounds while their defenses were lowered for a moment. While all of this happened Spitfire noticed that, while both F'harg and Shatug were demons and possessed a vast amount of Fel energy inside them, thanks to the Dark Titan twisting their forms, neither Charhound seemed willing to use their Fel attacks on the group, or maybe they didn't have any attacks that used their Fel energy and what she was feeling might be a remnant from when Sargeras reshaped them into their new forms, though either way Rainbow had already started to drain the two Charhounds of their Fel energy and soon neither of them would have anything left to give her, to which she continued to watch and observe the fight with the others. Both Charhounds tried to spread either flames or shadows around their den, to catch the heroes and weaken them over the course of this battle, though as the seconds passed the heroes avoided all of those attacks while lashing out with their own, cutting into the sides of their enemies while dodging other attacks, though it quickly became clear that neither of the demonic hounds were really doing that much to Rainbow's group, either thanks to the healers mending their wounds in a few seconds after them receiving injuries or they avoided the attacks and dealed great damage to the Charhounds, before Rainbow slammed F'harg into the ground as Zuleth's group ended Shatug at the same time. "There, they should be dead now," Zuleth commented, as one thing they had noticed, during the course of the short battle with Sargeras' pets, which seemed more like two random creatures who only represented the actual pets with how weak the pair had been during the fight, not counting the fact that Rainbow was draining them of every drop of Fel energy that was inside their bodies, was that whenever F'harg or Shatug reached a certain point, where any other demon would have fallen in battle, they collapsed for a few moments and then jumped up not a few seconds later, in a weakened state to be exact, so taking them out at the same time caused both to collapse in defeat. With Sargeras' Charhounds defeated, and a few heroes left wondering if they had been his actual pets or not, the group retraced their steps for a moment as they headed back to the crossroads and picked the other path that headed above the den all of them had been fighting in for the last couple of moments, where they found a bridge of sorts that moved over where the pair of altered beasts had been resting and discovered a Mo'arg was guarding part of it, who roared and swung his large mace at them. Rainbow parried the attack as she opened the way for Zuleth and the others to bring down the Mo'arg that was standing in their way, before discovering that the bridge was really just two ends and that there was no middle material connecting both of them together, to which Y'Morna informed them that there used to be a walkway linking them together and that someone had removed it not that long ago, due to it being one of the security measures that were supposed to protect Antorus, but she didn't have any codes that would help them out. In that moment Spitfire stepped forward and raised her hand as she manipulated the Fel-tainted materials that had gone into making the bridge they were standing on, causing them to hear a sound as everyone watched the rest of the walkway extended and quickly connected to the other end that was across from where they were standing, though once that was done she backed down for a moment and the heroes of Azeroth continued to march on the building that was in front of them, where they found a pair of Felguards and a Brute waiting for them. Of course these enemies that were crushed by the might of Zuleth and his companions, while at the same time Rainbow focused on siphoning the Fel energy of the nearby pair of portals, collapsing both of them and cutting off the chance of demon reinforcements to flank them, before everyone marched through the opening that happened to be in front of them and found that there were a few items that told Velen who they might find at the peak of this area, three generals who were supposed to oversee the defenses of Argus and had joined up with the Dark Titan with the rest of those who joined Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, with Y'morna confirming that statement and told them that they were now known as the Antoran High Command, who controlled the full might of the Legion, now that the two Hands of Sargeras had been taken out. From there they found a group of four Eredar who looked like they wanted to flee from the heroes, instead of facing them in battle and lightly falling before their might, though seeing Y'morna among their number caused them to realize that it was possible to have an existence that wasn't tied to the Legion or the Dark Titan, to which they turned their backs on the Legion and joined up with the demons who had joined Spitfire's forces so far, which she was fine with since they had seen Rainbow devouring the power of the couple of demons outside this area. On the other side of the chamber stood more Eredar, five more who noticed what was going on and ran away from the Fel Lord that was blocking the way forward, as in demons that were loyal to Sargeras were realizing the danger they were in and the smart ones were fleeing to safety as all of the arrogant ones stood their ground, though the arrogant ones died as they faced the might of the heroes of Azeroth, something that the Fel Lord witnessed as a Battlelord crushed his knees and Zuleth beheaded him, allowing them to head deeper into this building. After that they found a few more enemies at the top of the ramp that the Fel Lord had been in the middle of guarding with his life, where they found a trio of Eredar guarding an elevator platform that moved between this area and whatever was resting above them, though none of them were overly powerful and Rainbow's group wasted no time in taking all of them down, to which everyone patiently waited for the elevator to come back down and stepped onto it once it stopped in front of where they were standing. Not a few seconds later the elevator rose into the air and all of them waited for a few seconds, giving them a good view of the center of this structure and found that it didn't look like there were any paths to the middle area of this place, before it came to a stop at the top level a few seconds later and the heroes walked off of it, finding two ramps that headed up to the highest point of this building, finding three Eredar, who looked more powerful than the others they had seen so far, standing around the center of the peak and they happened to be staring at a cosmic map that the Legion must have created over the years, and there happened to be three devices in this area, one to their left, one to their right, and one across from where they were standing. One of the members of Antoran High Command happened to be a rather powerful Doommaiden, Admiral Svirax, a male Eredar with glowing Fel green eyes who had no hair, Chief Engineer Ishkar, and a Brute who was more armored than the other Brutes they had faced since they started their assault on Argus, General Erodus, though all of that information came from Y'Morna, even though she also revealed that Ishkar was the one who gave the command to knock the Xenedar out of the sky, during the opening stages of their invasion, causing Turalyon to frown as he joined Rainbow's group, meaning he wanted to make Ishkar pay for his crimes. Not a few seconds later, with Spitfire's group rested on the outer edge of the building's peak, an area called 'Gaze of the Legion' thanks to Y'Morna informing them of its name, Rainbow flashed through the air and lashed out at Svirax, while all of the others focused on their targets, Zuleth's group lashing out at Erodus while some heroes split off and joined Turalyon in his assault on Ishkar, or at least that was the plan as something unexpected happened, as both Erodus and Ishkar just jumped into two of the three devices, which appeared to be pods, and locked themselves inside them while they left their ally to fend for herself. As it turned out Y'Morna had never seen the Antoran High Command fight and, as a consequence, this was the first time she had seen this happen, though no one was bothered by it as the two groups remained standing in the areas near the pods that Erodus and Ishkar had jumped into, showing that they were leaving Svirax to Rainbow, all while waiting for one of the other two twisted Eredar to emerge and fight them, though what was interesting was that both pods had unique abilities that were used against Rainbow, as Erodus' summoned female Eredar who threw fireballs and a few Felguard while Ishkar's loosed mines of Fel energy. Despite the fact that Rainbow was the target she didn't care about the mines or the blasts of Fel energy that came from Ishkar's pod, rather she devoured each attack that came at her as she dodged Svirax's attacks and punched the Doommaiden in the chest when an opening appeared, causing her to stagger for a moment before she swung her arms at her, finding that Rainbow was able to avoid her attacks with ease, showing their allies just how powerful her instinct power happened to be and made them wonder just how strong Spitfire was given that her power was similar to Rainbow's. Svirax paused for a moment as she studied Rainbow and then shifted her stance for a moment as she lashed out with a new series of attacks, ones that reminded the heroes of what a monk could do, like she might have learned some sort of martial arts at some point in the past, before being reassigned to Argus entirely once the Legion had claimed the first couple of worlds after Argus was taken over by Sargeras, though even as that happened she found that she was unable to actually touch Rainbow, while Rainbow was able to avoid the attacks before they reached her and kick her foe in the side when an opening revealed itself to her. Eventually both Erodus and Ishkar decided that Svirax, who was actually enjoying the fight with Rainbow, had been given too much time to fight the heroes of Azeroth and forcefully pulled her back into her pod, trapping her inside for a time as one of them jumped out to engage them, where Erodus jumped out of his pod and attacked them, leading to Zuleth and his group focusing on the Brute as Turalyon's group waited outside Ishkar's, all while Rainbow stood outside Svirax's for a time, finding that the Doommaiden didn't seem eager to use her pod's abilities against them, rather she seemed to be in the middle of waiting for her turn to fight again. That told Spitfire that one of the members of the Antoran High Command might actually defect if she was given the chance to do so, all in the name of learning from Rainbow no doubt since there was a chance that Svirax might see her more of a rival and less of a threat to her existence, before they focused on the rest of the fight as Zuleth swung Shadowmourne downwards for a moment and hacked into Erodus' shoulder, wounding his foe as he splattered blood everywhere, due to him pulling the head of his weapon out of the demon, and the attacks of his companions knocked the demon back as well, showing Spitfire's group who were dominating this fight. Not a couple of moments later Erodus pulled back and jumped into his machine as Ishkar emerged from his device, showing them that the other two members of the Antoran High Command totally wanted to kill them and that nothing would stop the pair from trying to do that, despite their comrade clearly having second thoughts about her allegiance to Sargeras, though Turalyon was the first one to clash with Ishkar, who found that the High Exarch was stronger than what he assumed he had been, as if most of the Legion assumed that the Army of the Light was weak due to either the Xenedar being blasted out of the air or the fact that they allied with Spitfire's forces. Spitfire knew that Turalyon was skilled and that nothing could stand up to him if he put his mind to fighting someone or something, and if he found something which pushed him to his limits, or was beyond his power, he would make sure to back off and bring in reinforcements to make sure his target was brought down or an area was secured and taken from his enemies, and right now it looked like Ishkar was learning that information as he discovered that his attacks failed to reach the paladin as his body was cut up a few seconds later. As that fight happened Spitfire noticed that cracks were forming on the pod that Svirax was resting inside, who broke out of the device and rushed at Rainbow without delay, where the two surged up into the air and continued their fight above everyone else, as there was no ceiling to this area and it allowed such a thing to happen, though it wasn't long before the heroes found a way to shatter the remaining two pods, preventing Erodus and Ishkar from using them again, but that was followed by Turalyon and his group cutting Ishkar to pieces as Zuleth and his allies forced Erodus to collapse from all the blood loss he had been suffering, before the orc removed the demon's head as well, just to be sure he was fully dead and wouldn't get up a few seconds later... causing Rainbow to descend not a few seconds later as she kicked Svirax into one of the walls, who fell to the ground after a few moments. "I must admit, you are quite strong," Svirax commented, where she coughed for a moment as she considered the fact that Rainbow was able to beat her and the martial arts she had learned over the years, taken from all of the enemies she had faced over her long life, with a technique that was unlike anything she had seen or experienced, as this instinct power was far stronger than her skills and it seemed like Rainbow was refining it to its peak, using strong foes like her to polish it up, before she pushed herself into a kneeling position as she bowed her head, "I can see that to challenge your army is to face Death itself... I wish to defect and abandon Sargeras' dark mission, to survive and learn your skills, master." Rainbow honestly wasn't sure if she liked having a demon call her master, though she did make sure Svirax knew that she wasn't the leader of the Grand Army of Azeroth, rather it was Spitfire who held that honor and her friend welcomed yet another demon into her ranks, who would join those who had been freed from Sargeras' grasp in due time, though once that was done she, Rainbow, and the other heroes returned to the elevator so they could head back down to the area that was outside the den of the Charhounds, so they could focus on another part of Antorus and take down whoever might be in their way. > Argus: An Interesting Discovery > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With two members of the Antoran High Command killed, and both their souls and Fel energy being gathered by Rainbow, Spitfire and her forces retraced their steps and headed back to the crossroads that allowed them to reach the building that their foes had been resting in, only to turn to their left as they headed down another walkway that lead to another section of Antorus, one that Y'Morna claimed would bring them to a very important section of the Legion's systems, the heart of the Portal Nexus that connected all of the Legion's worlds together. It was through this very network that their enemies were trying to call in all sorts of reinforcements to try and take out the dimensional fleet that was bombarding Antorus at the moment, though if they were able to take out Hasabel, the Portal Keeper for the Legion's forces, they would deal a crippling blow to Sargeras' dark empire, and if they were able to convince her to defect to the Grand Army of Azeroth they would gain access to new sections of the universe, unknown planets, and even potential allies who were forced to serve the Dark Titan. If such a thing came to pass it would bring about the end of the Legion, in more ways than one, especially with Rainbow's power to siphon the Fel energy of whatever she was targeting, and she could see that everyone in her group seemed to be hoping that they could convince Hasabel to defect, something they would find out in due time since they were heading right to where she and her portals were resting, as it looked like she was the next important foe that needed to be taken down before they headed into the depths of Antorus. Standing in their way, however, happened to be a few Doomguards who seemed to be guards for the building they were approaching, where Spitfire's group stood back as Rainbow and the heroes rushed forward, even though the heroes happened to be the ones fighting as Rainbow continued to look for good challengers, as she was glad to have run into Svirax and wanted to see if there were any other enemies that matched her power or fighting style, but any demon who fell had their soul snatched by her Warblades and their Fel energy sent up into the orb she had created earlier, which was becoming massive thanks to all of the demons who were dying and would need to be devoured soon. While that happened, however, Magni mentioned that he was feeling something weird coming from the building, as in he was feeling something similar to the voices of Azeroth and Argus, making Spitfire wonder if their information might be a tad bit wrong, that Sargeras didn't have the souls of every Titan in the Pantheon and that one or two might be missing, as it would mean if they could assist such a being they could join them in saving the other members of the Pantheon when they reached the depths of Antorus, to which Spitfire made sure Magni continued to track what he was feeling as the rest of their allies pushed even deeper into the building in front of them. With the Doomguards slain, which included a couple of female Eredar who decided to join the battle and suffered as the heroes cut them down without wasting too much time, the heroes moved forward and discovered that the walkway didn't connect to an actual building, rather it came to an end with a rectangular shaped portal structure and found that it had a good amount of Fel energy powering it, hence why they took turns stepping through it and headed towards whatever was on the other side of the portal. What they discovered a few seconds later was that it brought them to the inside of a brand new building that had to be the resting place of the Portal Nexus, though Y'Morna revealed that this place was called the Halls of the Boundless Reach, implying the reach that Sargeras and his Legion possessed, though the portal they had used ended up on a platform which had two small ramps leading down to the lower sections of this area, with a small pool of Fel energy resting in the middle of the building, while there were three paths to take. As it turned out the chamber to the right didn't have a portal inside it, rather it was more like a trick area for some strange reason, the one to their left lead to a portal that should be connected to whatever world Sargeras or Hasabel wanted their forces to attack, and the path that was across from them happened to lead to the main chamber of this entire building, where Hasabel worked to move the vast army of demons from one planet to another, or from multiple worlds to one in a coordinated assault. Not a couple of seconds later the heroes found that there were three more Doommaidens trying to summon in more demons to defend this area, likely apprentices of Hasabel, one summoning Felguard and two calling on Felstalkers, to which Rainbow and her allies dropped down into the area in front of them and lashed out at the demons that were trying to protect this place, all while Spitfire's group remained stationed near the portal they had used to come to this building, since there was next to no reason for her or the others to move forward at the moment, even though she could see that Magni was taking a few moments to glance around the area as he continued to feel what was in the air. Once they smashed their way through the Doommaidens in front of them, who couldn't see through their arrogance and didn't realize that Azeroth was going to win this war, a decision became clear to them, as they could head over to where Hasabel was working and take her down, as killing her or converting her would cripple Sargeras' forces, or they could head over to the decent sized portal that was to their left, because it seemed to be what Magni was focusing on and he started to raise his hand towards it for a moment, before stopping as he glanced back to Spitfire, who nodded and let him tap into the power in question, something that revealed a massive transparent image of a female figure who radiated Life energy, who wore a metallic bra of sorts and a sash of some kind that revealed the side of her right leg. Champions, hear my voice. the figure said, who seemed to speak in a voice that was similar to Argus' voice, and Azeroth as well when Spitfire thought about it despite the fact that Magni hadn't said anything about that, though this revealed that the information they had been given earlier had been partly wrong, Sargeras had the souls of the majority of the Titans he had worked with before becoming corrupted, but he didn't have the soul of Eonar the Life-Binder, where it looked like she must have evaded the Legion's gaze for a long time, The Legion has found my resting place and have begun to breach my sanctuary... if you stand with me now, we can deprive Sargeras of one of his prizes... In that moment her projection shuddered for a few seconds before disappearing entirely, meaning that her sanctuary was currently under attack and that if they headed to tackle Hasabel they would be surrendering Eonar's essence to Sargeras, to which Rainbow headed back outside for a moment and raised her hand towards the sky, shrinking the orb of Fel energy down to a more manageable size and devoured more of the energy that was inside it, leaving a small sphere behind so it could gather more energy from the remaining demons who stood against the Grand Army of Azeroth. Once she was ready to go they headed through the portal Eonar's image had appeared in front of and traveled to whatever world the Titan of Life had been hiding on since she and the others fell to Sargeras' dark might, where they stepped out of the other portal and discovered that the planet in question was one that was full to the brim with Life energy, as in nature was thriving in this place and looked like it had grown over whatever might have been on this planet before Eonar arrived after her form had been destroyed by Sargeras. As they walked down the mountain path in front of them, however, Spitfire noticed that there were a few interesting creatures residing on this world, some wasp like creatures that seemed passive, a number of birds of prey who were flying through the air, a couple of Titan Watchers who were standing guard outside a building that lead to the area that Eonar's soul had to be resting in, before she spotted a massive giant creature down in the depths off to their left, a green skinned creature with a pale chest area while its front facing horns and claws were red colored, only for her to learn that it was called a Genesaur, something the heroes had seen on Draenor. While Spitfire found that to be interesting, especially since the creature was passive and not aggressive like the ones that her allies had seen, her focus was on the task at hand as Rainbow and the others marched through the entrance of the Titan structure and found two Maiden sized constructs granted them a bit of power for the battle Eonar's image had informed them about, though once they were on the other side of that structure they found a large open area with Titan architecture scattered all over this place, paths leading from three buildings and lead to the heart of the massive area. In the center of the area, near the edge of the entire walkway system, rested a large soul of some kind that looked more like a constellation with energy around it, which had to be the World-Soul of Eonar, though resting near Eonar's soul was a Legion ship that had to be the cause behind her calling for assistance in her vulnerable nature, the Paraxis based on what Y'Morna told them, to which Spitfire's group stood near the area that the World-Soul rested in while Rainbow and the rest of the heroes focused on whatever demons might be portaled down to this place to assault them. Sure enough demons teleported down to three specific locations in this area, the top of the path on Eonar's left, the lowest point from the path in front of them, and the middle path that they had used to get to this point, though they found a variety of enemies for all of them to fight as they defended Eonar, where Spitfire found Felguards, Felstalkers, Fel Lords, Fel Bats, Fel Constructs that looked like the Vigilant who had been guarding the Conservatory, some of the Fel Reavers from another part of Antorus, and a few Fel-infused tank like constructs that seemed new in her eyes. Rainbow, of course, fired another sphere up into the air and started to siphon all the Fel energy of those that were rushing down to claim Eonar's World-Soul, though she took the heavily occupied path with a good number of demons as the heroes split up and focused on the remaining paths that lead to where Spitfire was standing, allowing her to observe her allies tearing into the demons that dared to march on Eonar's World-Soul, though it wasn't long before the souls of the demons left their bodies and gathered around the orb as their Fel energy was stolen and they were sentenced to rest inside Rainbow's Warblades. Whoever was in control of the Paraxis had to be shocked by what was going on right now, that the heroes of Azeroth were basically killing every demon that dared to stand in their way as Spitfire's group stood at the ready in case some demons jumped over the defenders and tried to reach Eonar, though for the most part no demons or constructs managed such a thing, given that they died a few seconds after trying the tactic out, even all of the Fel Bats didn't stand much of a chance of bypassing the heroes and their impressive defensive lines. Of course the Paraxis didn't just send down demons to face them, as it also fired all sorts of Fel attacks down at the heroes in an attempt to take them out, attacks that were stolen by Rainbow's sphere and added to the growing mass, though as all of that happened Spitfire discovered another interesting fact, Eonar's Watchers, who must have been resting since the heroes arrived to defend the Titan, joined the fight and helped them cut down on the number of demons who were trying to take over this area and claim the World-Soul for Sargeras' dark agenda... though in a blinding flash of energy, which all of them avoided looking at since no one was looking at the heart of the area, ended up wiping out the remaining demons and the Paraxis, sending all the Fel energy into Rainbow growing sphere. "You have done well, champions," a voice said, where the heroes turned and found that Eonar had recovered enough to put her form together again, a more whole version of what she had shown them when she used her projection to tell all of them about the fact that the Legion found her sanctuary, though she had shrunk herself down to a height that was slightly taller than a Human for the time being, since it looked like most of Antorus might be too big for her Titan form, though this meant they were successful in preventing the Legion from claiming the last of the World-Souls, "Come, we must venture into the depths of Argus, crush the demons standing in our way, and save the Pantheon before Sargeras can break them like he and his foul Shivarra did to Aggramar." "Don't worry, we'll be heading into the depths soon enough," Spitfire replied, though while she knew that time was of the essence right now, given that they had no idea how long it would be before the remaining Titans were twisted into pawns of Sargeras, they still had to take out Hasabel and cripple the Portal Nexus, just to make sure the Legion would be unable to call in any additional reinforcements during the last leg of their assault on Antorus, where it was easy for everyone to see that Eonar was surprised by what Spitfire was saying, who just beckoned for everyone to follow her, "we just need to take out one more target and then we can head to where Sargeras and his dark Shivarra are keeping the World-Souls of the remaining Titans... then we'll take care of Aggramar and Argus, before worrying about Sargeras." Eonar said nothing to that as she stared at the group in front of her, knowing that Rainbow and Spitfire were far stronger than what she had seen so far, from just a glance anyway, though she was more worried about the couple of demons who hadn't been slain yet, fearing that she might have been tricked or something, but the diamond Dwarf known as Magni was quick to inform her that many demons were defecting from the Legion's side out of fear, due to the sheer power Rainbow possessed and the ability to devour Fel energy, the latter being something that made many demons fear her and caused a number of them to rush to join the Grand Army of Azeroth. Of course Eonar wasn't convinced by that fact, even though it looked like all of the remaining demons were wary of angering Rainbow, despite the fact that they were able afraid of one other thing, drawing the power of Spitfire on them, because many demons knew that Spitfire was capable of channeling all six Cosmic Forces, as opposed to Rainbow's single strong bond to the Fel energy the Legion used, meaning her power had to be far stronger than what the 'Devourer', as they called Rainbow, was capable of using, something that caused Eonar to pause for a moment as she heard that. It was unheard of for someone to be able to channel all six Cosmic Forces, that was what was going through Eonar's mind at the moment, and it would be something the rest of the Pantheon thought about when they were saved from the Legion's grasp, though in that moment she nodded her head and beckoned for Spitfire to do what she and her forces needed to do, hence why they retraced their steps and returned to Antorus, even though this time around the Titan of Life and her forces joined them, even though Eonar had to ask Spitfire to teleport her forces over to Argus so such a thing could happen. As such it wasn't long before her Watchers and Maidens, along with the Genesaur, who carried a massive spear or lance made out of some sort of nature based material, attacked the demons, though at the same time Rainbow made sure to devour the sphere of Fel energy before they left Elunaria, the planet Eonar had called all of them to, though Eonar joined Spitfire's group and stood at the back of the pack as they returned to the Halls that their next target was resting in, as it was time to fight Hasabel and cripple the Portal Nexus. As Rainbow and the heroes walked down into the area that the Doommaiden in question was working in, however, they found that there were three raised sections and each one happened to have their own type of energy, one had Fel energy, another had flames, and the third had shadows, the last one becoming a theme among the forces of Argus based on what they were seeing right now, though Hasabel stopped for a moment when she heard Rainbow's group step into her arena, to which the dark red skinned demon turned to face them. "So, the heroes of Azeroth have arrived," Hasabel stated, where she focused on the heroes and snapped her fingers for a second, summoning a barrier of sorts between Rainbow's group and Spitfire's group, which was fine since they knew that Spitfire could break through it if such a thing was needed, even though Eonar was surprised by what she was seeing and said nothing as she placed her faith in the heroes, who focused on the Doommaiden for a moment as she regarded them for a few more seconds, as if debating whether or not she wanted to fight them, "normally I would say something about how your world would be the next to burn, but given how you have bested everything we have thrown at you, including Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, it seems that we vastly underestimated the power of Azeroth's heroes, not to mention the two of you, Rainbow and Spitfire... you two are far stronger than what we originally thought you would be." "You know, if you don't feel like facing us, we can end this fight now and Spitfire will allow you to defect to our side, so we can move into the depths of Antorus," Rainbow stated, because it would save them time and grant them the ability to do all sorts of things with the other worlds that the Legion ruled over, though as she said that the rest of her allies readied their weapons for a moment, since they were expecting Hasabel to say no and attack them, all while Spitfire's group just watched and waited to see what might happen next. Hasabel stood there for a few seconds, clearly thinking about turning on the Legion and using her powers to bring down Sargeras' forces, before she shifted her stance and lashed out at them not a few seconds later, where Rainbow parried the first attack as Zuleth and the others moved out to attack her from all sorts of directions, even though the first exchange told her that the Doommaiden might not have the heart to fight them, that there was a chance that she might actually be considering joining the Grand Army of Azeroth, even though Eonar still looked like she might be wary of the demons who had joined them so far, despite the fact that she was keeping quiet right now. For the most part Hasabel seemed to fight like Svirax and all of the other Doommaidens, using their sharpened claws and the curved blades that were attached to the edges of her bracers, even though Rainbow knew that Svirax had a number of martial arts and it made her more of a fighter than some of the enemies they had faced so far, though she was true to her position as the Portal Keeper and she opened a Human sized portal that a few demons rushed through, Imps, Felstalkers, and small spiders. Honestly it wasn't much of a challenge, given Zuleth and the others were able to wipe out the incoming demons within seconds as their souls were sent screaming into Rainbow's Warblades, all while their Fel energy floated into the air and gathered in another orb that she would eat in due time, though at the very least it meant that she didn't have to worry about someone trying to interrupt the battle, despite the fact that everyone was waiting for one of the more impressive portals to open, since this chamber looked like it might have room for three such portals to be opened in. Eventually Hasabel seemed to understand that this wasn't enough to bring them down and opened one of the other portals that rested in this chamber, the fiery one which seemed to connect to a world called 'Xoroth', though instead of sending Zuleth or someone else through Hasabel's new portal, and cutting down whoever ruled the world in question, Rainbow smirked as she hurled an orb through it and it caused everyone to stop for a moment as the Doommaiden opened a viewing window of sorts so she could see what was going on the other side of the portal, due to one of the Imps gasping in fear before collapsing on the ground as they found its soul being taken by Rainbow's weapons once more. Hasabel watched as Vulcanar, the Infernal in charge of Xoroth, and his forces fell before the might of Rainbow's ability to absorb and devour Fel energy in a matter of seconds, especially when it drained the entire planet of Fel energy and, once the planet no longer possessed any demonic energies or had any demons alive on it, the sphere shrunk to the size of a marble and surged through the portal, returning to Rainbow as she devoured it and added all of that demonic power to her own growing pool, causing Hasabel to stand there for a moment in shock as she considered what this meant for her and the rest of the Legion. With that done she weaved her power through the air and opened two more portals, where the first went to Rancora, a Fel-infused world ruled by Lady Dacidion, an Aranasi who lead all sorts of spider demons and did everything in her power to please Sargeras, while the second connected to the fragmented remains of Nathreza, lead by Lord Eilgar, one of the last remaining Dreadlords in existence since many of them had perished in the destruction of their world and many of those who survived that event had been slain by Rainbow and Spitfire. Of course all of the demons on the other side of the portals didn't have much time to do anything as two more orbs went flying through both of them not a few seconds later, where Hasabel watched as the two ruling demons and their forces collapsed as Rainbow drained all of them of their Fel energy with a rapid and alarming rate, even the planets themselves were drained of whatever Fel energy they had left, before she withdrew the orbs once their tasks were complete and devoured the smaller orbs once they were back in front of her, causing the heroes to turn towards Hasabel as the three portals closed. Hasabel, as they expected to see, was shocked by the fact that Rainbow was capable of consuming whole worlds and devouring every drop of demonic power that rested in her targets, though as she swung her fist at Rainbow she found that her attack was avoided, her foe swiped out her legs from under her with the use of her reptilian tail, and then a few seconds later her back was resting on the ground as Rainbow grabbed onto her head and forced her against the ground, all without breaking either of her wings in the process, though it was clear that Rainbow was looking to open Hasabel's eyes and was trying to make her see that following Sargeras wasn't the right choice, before letting go of her head as she backed off. Eonar seemed like she wanted to say something about this situation, that it was wrong to convert demons into soldiers for the battle against what was left of the Legion, but after seeing just how skilled Rainbow was in battle, even if this seemed to be her holding back to match whatever power her foe happened to have, and speculating over how powerful Spitfire's true power had to be, she decided that it would be best to just follow what was happening before her eyes and see if the fear that the pair installed in the demons remained once Sargeras was defeated, before she focused on the demon that was in front of them as Hasabel picked herself up and knelt for a few seconds. "I see that the previous path I walked was wrong, and that I risked total destruction... my life is yours," Hasabel stated, to which Zuleth and the other heroes nodded as they sheathed their weapons and cancelled out the rest of their spells once she spoke that statement, as it appeared that she was willing to forsake the Legion, and Sargeras as well, and join up with Spitfire's ever growing army of races, which meant that she had gained an ally that allowed her to decimate the remaining worlds that the Legion ruled over and would bring about a new age for the rest of the universe. "For now, rest with the other demons who have chosen to defect from the Dark Titan's will," Spitfire replied, though it was easy for the heroes to see that she was pleased by this turn of events, as converting Hasabel meant many things for them and their future, before she turned around as the barriers in this area disappeared, and the portals were dismissed not a few seconds after that happened, where she paused and glanced back at Hasabel for a couple of seconds, who was in the middle of standing once more, "once we're doing tearing apart Antorus, and have taken some time to rest on Azeroth, we can focus on taking care of the remnants of the Legion's power." Hasabel said nothing to that as she nodded her head and followed after the group as they left the Halls of the Boundless Reach, returning to the main section of Antorus as she realized that what was going on right outside her post, Spitfire's army was tearing Antorus apart, sections were being destroyed as the fleet fired on anything and everything that might be a potential threat to their crusade against the Legion, and that meant if the surface levels were this devastated it was only a matter of time until both the middle section and the lowest level, the Dark Citadel, were under fire, making her wonder if Sargeras even knew what was going on or if he had abandoned Argus to take his prize. As they marched outside, and just walked towards the end path that Romuul had sent a beacon to for when they were ready to move deeper into Antorus, a path that rested near where the Charhounds called home, Spitfire glanced around the upper level of the Burning Throne for a few seconds, finding that Eonar's forces were using the power of Life to wage total war on whatever happened to be left up here, while the fleet seemed to be waiting for everyone to come aboard, to which her forces focused on teleporting aboard the Vindicaar while their new demonic allies joined the Sayaad. When everyone was aboard their ships Spitfire did take a moment to ask Svirax and Hasabel if they had cleared out everything that was up on the upper level of Antorus, to which they confirmed that nothing remained for her forces to worry about and, at the same time, Hasabel gave Romuul the coordinates to the middle section of Antorus, an area that they should consider purging before moving down into the depths, to where Aggramar, the Council of Shivarra, and the Dark Citadel rested. Her information revealed the existence of a rather powerful Antaen who ruled over the middle section of Antorus, a demon known as Kin'garoth the 'Engineer of the Apocalpyse', though at the same time Svirax also informed her that they might run into a rather powerful Fel Lord as well, Imonar the Soulhunter, a demonic mercenary who actually didn't belong to the Legion and she only knew of him thanks to the couple of bounties Sargeras sent his way, meaning his allegiance might be to one of the ancient demonic entities that rested in the depths of the universe. With that information in hand Spitfire gave the command and Romuul pulled the Vindicaar out of the upper section of the Burning Throne, causing the rest of the fleet to follow after them after teleporting all of their forces back to the ships they had flown in previously, with the Genesaur being placed directly in the heart of the Botanica, though it wasn't long before they found a walkway of sorts built into the side of the chasm that Antorus happened to be built on top of, which just so happened to be their next destination. According to both of their new allies this was the Exhaust, an area that lead to the area that Kin'garoth resided inside, though as they stared down at the walkway, and Romuul fired a temporary beacon at the end of the walkway so the heroes could teleport down to it, something in the area in front of them shuddered as the massive entrance to the Hallowed Felworks, as Hasabel said that was what Kin'garoth's domain was called, closed before their eyes and a smaller Legion ship flew into the area, which caused a Fel Lord to teleport down to the walkway and turn to face the Vindicaar. This particular Fel Lord had a different suit of armor on, as it looked more like tarnished silver and he seemed to have a number of gadgets attached to a sash over his chest, while holding onto an altered weapon that did look like a lance and not a battleaxe, the latter being the common weapon of the Fel Lords, though as they stared down at the Fel Lord, who was staring up at them at the same time, it was clear that this was Imonar and that he had come to hunt down his targets, making Spitfire wonder if any of the ancient demons might not want them to beat Sargeras, though such a thing didn't matter as Rainbow's group teleported down to the beacon. This time around Spitfire's group remained up on the Vindicaar, observing the battle that would unfold while giving Rainbow's group all the room they needed to tackle this demon and open the way to where Kin'garoth was working on whatever foul machine or device that Sargeras wanted him to work on, though as the group neared him Imonar focused on all of them as they came to a stop, likely sizing them up before the battle began, but Spitfire also knew that if a demon wanted to defect to their side it would be after being beaten in combat, if they survived the battle anyway. "Mortals, the Dark Titan has placed a bounty on your heads... I'm here to see why he's so eager to have you slain," Imonar stated, where he lifted his weapon and turned it on the heroes for a moment, showing that he was ready to fight Rainbow and her fellow heroes, though it wasn't long before Rainbow and the others did the same thing as they stared at the Fel Lord that was in front of them, before he rushed forward and brought his lance down on where Rainbow was standing at the moment, who raised her arms and used her Warblades to stop the attack in its tracks. Such a thing opened the way for Zuleth and the other heroes to spread out and attack Imonar, who shifted his stance as he swung his weapon, blocking several attacks while a few more struck him, showing that he was skilled in the art of battle and was capable of minimizing the damage he received, though as he did that he channeled a bit of his power as sparks of electricity danced along the edge of his weapon, which he hurled at some of the heroes and shocked them a bit, though it seemed more like he was testing them right now. Of course that wasn't the only thing Imonar was capable of using against them, as once he noticed that the electricity of his weapon didn't do all that much to them, save for stunning his targets for a few seconds, he raised his left hand and pulled one of the gadgets off his sash, one that appeared to be a metallic cylinder that he hurled at some of the heroes before he lashed out at Rainbow once more, though it was followed by a bit of white smoke pouring out of his device and some of the heroes found that their eyes became heavy for a moment, even if a smack from someone else woke them up instantly. Rainbow understood what it was, as it happened to be a grenade that was designed to make Imonar's enemies fall sleep so he could finish them off, though she also found that a burst of wings, which created a gust of wind that the Fel Lord couldn't stop, was enough to blow away the rest of the smoke and knock the canister to the side as her companions resumed fighting the demon in front of them, even though his attack did make all of them wonder what else he might throw at them over next. Sure enough not a few seconds later he pulled out another device, clicked a button, and rolled it at his targets, where the heroes found that it was designed to emit a burst of energy to wound those he was hunting and push them away from a certain area, as he had placed it between them and the beacon that would allow them to return to the Vindicaar, not that any of them were planning on doing that, and there was also the other attack he had access to, one that called on his small ship to fire missiles, or maybe rockets, at those he was targeting, causing most of the heroes to dodge before his attacks reached them. It was an interesting battle in Rainbow's eyes, as Imonar was strong and he had a few tricks up his sleeves, even if both of the grenades and the rockets weren't enough to seriously hurt her or her allies, though after a minute or two of that the Fel Lord activated what she assumed was some sort of flying pack and headed to the other end of the walkway, placing himself in front of the door that lead to Kin'garoth's domain, to which she and the others followed after him, though they did have to avoid a number of temporary traps to do so. There were Fel traps that were designed to either slow down or imprison his foes for a few moments, fire traps to set an area so none of his foes ran and if someone did that they would be blasted backwards with the force of the attack, and Fel blasts meant to knock his foes back towards the other end of the walkway, though he found that Rainbow smashed through the last ones and simply devoured every drop of Fel energy inside the blasts as she reached him, causing the two to battle each other once more while her allies caught up with her, having avoided the traps Imonar set up behind him. Such a thing caused the Fel Lord to grin as he swung his lance at them for a few moments, where Zuleth and the others found that Rainbow was his main target once more, meaning the bounty might actually be on her head, and likely on Spitfire's as well, and explained why he seemed to be focusing on her more than everyone else, especially since his traps and grenades were meant for them, though despite the fact that he was here on business it was clear that he was having some fun testing his foe's abilities and seeing why Sargeras wanted her dead, with Imonar glancing at the Vindicaar for a second as he wondered about Spitfire. As that happened Rainbow parried the incoming attack, quickly knocked the head of the lance into the floor, and then rushed along the length of the weapon as she punched the Fel Lord right in his face, knocking him right onto his back in the process, though not a few seconds later Imonar got back up and hurled a few more grenades at the heroes, mostly to push them backwards as he swung his lance at Rainbow once more, finding that she dodged his attacks with ease and displayed her incredible instinct skill that made it harder for him to strike her down. When Imonar rushed back to the starting area of this fight Rainbow tracked him down and delivered an uppercut to her foe's chin without delay, before moving into a series of attacks as she struck the Fel Lord repeatedly and knocked him from one side to another, all while knocking his weapon to the side before he could use it to stop her, before slamming the Fel Lord's head into the ground and then backed off for a moment, allowing the heroes to catch up with her as she waited for the demon to get up again. "By the Ancient One, now I understand why Sargeras posted a bounty for your death... one I won't be able to complete, as your power is not to be messed with," Imonar stated, showing that he could be reasonable and that he understood that he wouldn't be able to take down Rainbow during this particular battle, where the heroes noticed him glance over to the area that the Vindicaar was resting in and found a thoughtful look grace his face for a moment, no doubt realizing that this was more of a death sentence and not a bounty, especially since he seemed to understand that his other target might be even stronger than Rainbow was, before he focused on them again, "very well then, I shall withdraw and allow you to continue your work in tearing the Legion apart... you don't need someone like me to wish you luck." Rainbow had to assume that the 'Ancient One' had to be a primordial demon, one that was either on Sargeras' level or was on a level above the Dark Titan, though as everyone nodded Imonar called his ship down to this area and teleported back up to it, allowing him to leave the area and head back to his master's domain with a report on what he experienced, but as soon as he was gone they found Spitfire standing in front of the massive locked door that lead to Kin'garoth's domain and whatever machine he was currently working on. A few seconds later she turned around and walked away from the door as a number of slashes appeared in the material in front of them, the metal being cut apart by her attack as she opened the way for them, even though no one noticed her summon her weapons to do such a thing, before she teleported back up to the Vindicaar as Rainbow and the others marched into the Hallowed Felworks, as it was time to take out the last demon in this area before they headed down to the Dark Citadel. What they discovered on the other side of the door was that there were a large number of Garothi Reavers being manufactured for a battle the Legion was incapable of winning at this point, to which Rainbow moved forward and started to attack the Reavers that were in front of them, causing all ten of them to turn and march on the area that the heroes of Azeroth were standing in, though as she did that Rainbow found a massive Antaen not too far away from where her group was fighting, his upper body resting above the middle of the floor and the lower half was either below them or had been sacrificed to become part of the Felworks. Either option didn't matter to her all that much as she channeled her Fel energy and sent an orb flying straight into the depths once more, mostly to make sure all of the Fel energy from the Reavers was gathered in one place before they faced the demon in question, though a red Reaver collapsed as the heroes cut it down and she smashed a green one into the floor, allowing them to focus on the rest of their enemies, though she heard the large demon make a comment about needing new test subjects and that they were just in time to test something new for him, meaning he didn't see them as threats and that, in the end, would bring about his downfall since he was underestimating all of them. Once the group of Reavers was taken care of, and Rainbow was sure of that, she and the heroes marched into the larger chamber of this area and found that Kin'garoth must have finished something while all of them were making their way to his domain, though instead of saying anything the Antaen raised the massive hammer he carried and swung it down at his target, where he decided to pick on Rainbow while the others spread out and lashed out at him like they had done to the enemies leading up to this point in their assault. Of course Rainbow was fine with that, since it allowed her to be the main focus on their foe's attacks and ensured that none of her allies came under fire, though she parried the incoming attack and pushed the hammer backwards before she flew around the demon's head for a few moments, swinging her clawed hands, clawed feet, and Warblades like she had done to the enemies they had faced so far, doing her best to ensure that none of his attacks went anywhere near her companions. While all of that happened, but before they got too far into the fight, Rainbow noticed that Kin'garoth had replaced his left hand with some sort of forge utensil, something to help him in his work no doubt, before deciding not to worry about it as she lashed out and struck the demon in the face, which ticked him off a little as he continued to swing at her for the next couple of seconds, even though the heroes were waiting for a new trick or something to come into play since he was supposed to be more dangerous than some of the other enemies all of them had faced so far. Eventually Kin'garoth revealed his hand by channeling his Fel energy and loosed what looked like small dark shadow bombs into the circular workspace that he called home, though they contained a good amount of Fel energy and meant that they were more like Fel bombs, attacks that ultimately didn't do anything at all as their energy was absorbed by Rainbow's sphere, which was hanging high in the air above the Antaen's position, something he growled at for a few seconds before resuming his fight with them, intending on smashing all of Azeroth's heroes into the ground and breaking the main threat to the Legion's plans, and if he took out Rainbow he was likely planning on firing something at the Vindicaar to take Spitfire out as well. Eventually Kin'garoth decided to draw on a vast amount of Fel energy, likely taking it from the ruined building that were up on the upper level of Antorus, and fired a large beam at the doorway once he was ready, intending on taking the Vindicaar out first so he could focus on all of them, though Rainbow moved in front of his attacked and devoured every drop of Fel energy the Antaen had gathered, while her companions hacked into his sides and did all sorts of damage to him before he stopped channeling the beam. With that done Kin'garoth activated the machinery in this place and a number of Reavers started to emerge from two points of the area around his resting place, apparently trying to overwhelm them with these numbers so he could activate some sort of protocol and take all of them out in due time, though he didn't account for the Reavers to be destroyed by Rainbow's draining ability, her couple of attacks, and the heroes smashing them to pieces, due to all of them gathering in one point to focus on their enemies while Rainbow tackled the other side. After that Rainbow frowned for a moment as Kin'garoth repeated his previous motions with a higher speed, mostly to try and take them down while they were distracted doing something else, meaning he had to be worried about something, probably her when she thought about it, and his actions allowed her companions to deal all sorts of damage to the Antaen as she stood still for a time and just ate every Fel attack he used in a vain attempt to bring her down, before she struck the demon in the side of his head and caused him to stagger in a sense. Once she delivered that attack to her foe Rainbow went on the offensive and delivered blow after blow to her target, tearing into his arms and sides as they fought each other, all while Kin'garoth seemed to understand that her orb was devouring the rest of his Fel energy, due to the fact that he tried to fire his beam at her again and discovered the fact that he was unable to channel the attack in question, allowing her and the others to do all sorts of damage to his body as in tried, in vain, to bring them down, as if he felt that Sargeras might be disappointed in him if he failed to bring them down, even though Rainbow was sure that the Dark Titan no longer cared about Antorus and the rest of Argus, so Kin'garoth and the others were on their own. Once she thought about that Rainbow sliced open the Antaen's neck as her companions did the same thing to the lower section of his body, eventually causing Kin'garoth to shudder and fall with his body slumping forward, allowing her to take his soul and send it screaming into her Warblades before devouring the orb of Fel energy again, though once she did that her group followed her outside as they returned to the Vindicaar, as it was time to head into the depths of Argus and find the Dark Citadel, to face the Coven of Shivarra and Aggramar before they worried about dealing with Sargeras, putting an end to his plans, and destroying the Legion at long last. > Argus: The Dark Citadel > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With Kin'garoth defeated, and the Hallowed Felworks knocked offline by the loss of the one who operated it, Rainbow and the others teleported back aboard the Vindicaar and paused for a few seconds as Spitfire gave Romuul the command that everyone was waiting for, to descend into the depths of Antorus and bring them to where the Dark Citadel rested, the area that they knew the souls of the remaining Titans were resting in, as in those who were being tortured at this very moment, the twisted Avatar of Aggramar, and the World-Soul of Argus itself. This was the final leg of their journey to bring down the Legion, they just had to track down Sargeras' Coven of Shivarra, kill them before one of the other Titans could be turned into an ally of the Dark Titan, and then face the twisted Titan so they could claim the World-Soul of Argus, because if they claimed the soul of this world it would instantly cripple whatever demons were still following Sargeras, scattering their foul souls throughout the vast Twisting Nether and would make them that much easier to kill, in a more permanent fashion. As everything thought about that, and their demonic allies understood what their former master had been doing with this entire planet, Spitfire focused on the task at hand as the Vindicaar and the rest of the dimensional fleet headed down into the depths of the planet and followed the coordinates that the Doommaidens had given Romuul earlier, mostly because she was curious as to whether or not Sargeras had been smart enough to put some weapons in a defensive position near the Dark Citadel, but given what she had seen so far it didn't look like he even considered such a thing. That was fine with her, since she had been planning on using her power to defend the fleet if something attacked them and this meant she would be able to conserve her power for the time being, since there was no telling what might happen once they reached the end of their quest to bring down the Legion and the Dark Titan that ruled it, though right now she didn't waste any time thinking about what Imonar revealed to Rainbow's group, figuring she could think about it later. Not a few moments later Spitfire raised a hand as she noticed something and drew the attention of everyone else to the front of the Vindicaar, where they found a large metallic structure that was rather dark and imposing from what they could see right now, one that was tall enough for a Titan's Avatar to walk through, though Hasabel quickly confirmed their brief suspicions, that this was the Dark Citadel and was their final destination in their quest, to which Romuul sent down a new temporary beacon and Rainbow's group followed her down to the walkway leading to the Citadel's entrance, as they were eager to bring an end to the Legion at long last. "So this is the most sacred place in all of Argus: the Dark Citadel, or the Burning Throne as its also known as," Spitfire said, as her group teleported down behind Rainbow's and she stared out at what was in front of them, knowing that the dark Shivarra who were inside it wouldn't step down or stop their Lord's work, meaning Rainbow was going to kill them all and eat their Fel energies, before she, Magni, Illidan, and the others allowed the main group to move forward while they just stood there for now, "Rainbow, you know what to do." "Yeah, kill our enemies, free the Titans, and then take down Aggramar," Rainbow replied, though as she said that she and her companions discovered that the Dark Citadel wasn't as defenseless as many of them assumed, where their enemies seemed to be Titan Watchers and Maidens whose skin seemed to be charred, while their attire had been darkened to a deep red color and even black in certain spots, which made sense when they considered that ever Titan had some sort of guards or keepers to watch over them, like how Eonar had Life-infused constructs as her guards, to which she glanced at the others for a moment and found that they were ready to go. Once she figured that out Rainbow shifted her stance and rushed at the Dark Watchers and Dark Maidens that happened to be guarding this area from invaders, even though there were no weapons to do such a thing, where she dodged their incoming attacks as her companions lashed out at them as well, striking them with their spells and weapons, allowing her to kick one of the Dark Watchers in the side of their head before flipping backwards to avoid the punch of another one, as it appeared that these foes were more coordinated than most of the demons she had fought so far. It was hard to know if these twisted constructs had been here before Sargeras created his dark army, leading to the Eredar being inspired to make the metallic creations that wandered Argus, or if they had been created after the world had been handed over to the Dark Titan, after discovering the fact that Azeroth had some Watchers and Maidens to watch over it, but in the end none of it mattered to Rainbow as she spun around and kicked the second Dark Watcher in the side of his head, knocking him to the ground as he joined the first one she had struck. Of course she wasn't the only one taking care of business right now, as Zuleth swung his battleaxe and parried the incoming attacks from another Dark Watcher as the rest of the heroes used their powers and weapons to take down every Dark Maiden who happened to be guarding this area, who were doing their best to bring down the invaders before they reached the inner sanctum of the building and focused on the Shivarra that were currently torturing the souls of the Pantheon, something Rainbow was looking forward to doing since she was sure that those demons would be stronger than most of the demons who were calling Argus home. While that happened she heard a sound coming from the inside of the Dark Citadel, one that sure sounded like a Dreadlord was being tortured for his failures or something, where she found that one of the Forsaken members of her group mentioned that it sounded a lot like Varimathras, a Dreadlord who once served Sylvanas and betrayed the Banshee Queen during the war with the Lich King, meaning he was definitely being punished for his past failures and it was likely that the Shivarra might force them to take him down before facing them, causing Rainbow to nod as she focused on the ongoing battle. It took them a few more moments to take down the rest of the Dark Watchers and Dark Maidens, who offered a decent battle before they fell to the might of Azeroth's heroes, though once that was done the group stepped down the steps that the corrupted constructs had been guarding and approached the main structure at long last, where the door opened not a few seconds later and allowed them to enter the Dark Citadel, where they found a lone Shivarra and a Sayaad standing in front of a hole that would head into the deepest part of this place. Beyond those two demons rested a large chamber that seemed to be the heart of the Dark Citadel, where it looked like the World-Souls of the Pantheon were resting in the four corners of the chamber and it seemed like the Dark Shivarra were taking a break before starting the next session on each of them, though Rainbow could see a barrier resting in front of them and that had to mean that one or more of the foul demons were blocking the way forward, or they had created a path for them to follow before giving them a chance to take them on. When Spitfire's group joined them, and noticed that the Pantheon was definitely resting in this chamber, they got a bit more information for later, as Hasabel informed them that there were four Shivarra left in the Coven, those being Noura, Asara, Diima, and Thu'raya, the first being red skinned and was called the 'Mother of Flames', while the second had a purple color to her body and held the title of the 'Mother of Night', the third had pale blue skin and stood as the 'Mother of Gloom', and the fourth had a faded green skin color and was called the 'Mother of the Cosmos'. Spitfire personally felt that it was a little interesting that there had been seven members of the Coven, which was counting Subversia, Heretica, and Apostriss, who were dead and their souls were trapped inside Rainbow's Warblades, while there were six members of the Pantheon that the Dark Titan wanted them to corrupt, five since Eonar had remained safe and sound before this point in time, though she felt that one might have been assigned to Argus and another to Aggramar, but in the end she sighed and said nothing as she beckoned for Rainbow to continue on her path to bring down those that stood in their way, who nodded and just stepped towards the pair of demons in front of them, causing the Shivarra and Sayaad to cower in fear as they realized who was coming their way. Rainbow honestly wasn't sure why these two demons were here, since neither of them seemed willing to fight, to which she gestured to Spitfire's group for a moment, causing the demons to see that Hasabel had joined the force that had torn Antorus to pieces, not to mention Svirax, though she wasn't surprised to find the pair rush to change sides, where Spitfire made sure they returned to the Sayaad's ship for now, but once that happened Rainbow's group jumped down into the depths of this structure and found a circular chamber that a Dreadlord, missing most of his armor, save for a sash and a pair of bracers, and his skin looked like he had been flayed alive. "Ah, it would seem that the dogs of the Alliance and the Horde have found me... you have survived longer than I thought you might, though the seeds of your downfall have been carefully placed," Varimathras spoke up, showing Rainbow and the heroes that he had seen their arrival and that he wasn't happy to see any of them, where the group walked into his chamber and stared at the tormented Dreadlord, while at the same time it was easy for Rainbow to see that one or two of the Dark Shivarra had glanced down when they heard him speak, to which he chuckled for a second, "Alliance, soon your thrones will run red with betrayal and your holy places will burn... Horde, you are bound to a darkness that will shatter this world and ruin all of your hard work... not that it matters, as no matter what you do all of you are blind to the darkness that is lurking in your midst." "Oh, Sylvanas Windrunner is dead, slain during the opening stages of our defense of Azeroth... Spitfire killed her for trying to open a war between the Alliance and the Horde," Rainbow stated, something that caused the demon to stop chuckling for a moment, as if he had no idea that his former ally had been slain before doing anything he had said, though what the demon said did confirm that Sylvanas had a bond or agreement to someone in the Shadowlands, given the 'darkness' part of his little speech, though as the heroes readied their weapons and spells she stood there for a moment, as there was a little more she wanted to share before they killed Varimathras, "though we did discover that the Banshee Queen had been planning on causing another massive war, to kill as many of Azeroth's heroes and citizens as she possibly could, to fulfill a dark bargain she had struck with someone in the Shadowlands, which would have eventually resulted in a number of dark and foul events, the deaths of thousands of people, and the shattering of the Lich King's crown... yeah, we know all about the Maw as well, though Spitfire's actions have ensured that none of your 'prophecies' will come true." Varimathras paused for a moment, coming to terms with the fact that Sylvanas had failed to do anything and would likely be trapped inside the Maw, being punished for her failures and the fact that she couldn't uphold her end of the bargain she had struck, before he growled and charged at the heroes that were in front of him, showing them that he wanted to take everyone down and put an end to their assault, all while Rainbow and her companions defended themselves for the time being as they spread out, even though it did seem like the Dark Shivarra would be watching them fight Varimathras, before going back to their dark task. Varimathras swung his clawed hands at Rainbow as he ignored everyone else for right now, showing that he understood who was the most dangerous opponent in his area, where she swung her arms and just used her own claws or the Warblades, causing sparks to fly between them as they clashed for a few moments, though the group was waiting to see what sort of dark powers the Dreadlord had access to, even though it was clear that he was able to manipulate shadows to a degree, as the darkest parts of his cell seemed like they might come alive and hurt them, so all of them stayed in the center and focused on their foe. Of course the Dark Shivarra didn't seem to care that this was more like a private battle, as Noura applied a little of her power to the cell and flames sprung up around the cell, meaning it was a method for her and her comrades to inflict pain on the Dreadlord, though as such the group did everything possible to stay safe and not be hurt by this sort of attack, even though Varimathras was hit by Noura's flames and he cursed her out before focusing on the heroes that were in front of him, choosing to use his rage for the Coven against Rainbow and her companions. Sure enough Rainbow noticed that the demon's shadow moved and a phantom image of Varimathras lashed out at them without delay, where Zuleth smashed Shadowmourne into it, instead of going through it, and knocked the foul spell backwards as several slashes appeared on Varimathras' chest, thanks to Rainbow's attacks and her foe's decision to glance up at the Coven for a few moments, but Rainbow knew that their foe was cunning, given the past information she was told about him, meaning that they had to be careful and keep an eye open for any foul trickery. As it turned out they were right in their thoughts, as it wasn't long before Varimathras channeled his shadow energy for a moment and blasted several of them without wasting any time, intending to transfer a bit of his misery to them so they could share in his punishment, likely blaming the heroes for his current situation, though the Archmages and High Priests used some of their spells to cancel out the dark spell and allowed everyone to focus on dealing damage to Varimathras, who was growing more annoyed as this battle dragged on, no doubt believing that he would have killed them by now and that he disliked their determination to bring him down. One thing Rainbow expected to see was that Noura stopped her spell and that Asara sent a wave of frost into the cell, meaning the Dark Shivarra were going to be taking turns tormenting Varimathras while he was fighting them, almost in the sense that this was supposed to spur him on or something, though it also meant that the other two would do the same thing at some point during the battle, so they would have to keep an eye on the Coven members as they continued to wear down the Dreadlord. Not a few seconds later Varimathras used a bit of his power to summon three shadowy rifts around the chamber and tried to strike down three of the heroes that were fighting him right now, though they rolled out of the way and avoided his attack, something that annoyed the Dreadlord and opened the way for Rainbow to cut into his sides, while Zuleth and the others struck him as well, knocking the demon backwards and caused the Dark Shivarra to chuckle as they witnessed him being beaten by the heroes of Azeroth, likely a method to force him to do better, least he fall and experience a new level of pain later on. Rainbow continued to clash with the demon as the Coven glanced at each other and Asara pulled her power back, allowing Diima to pour her shadows into this chamber as she attempted to bring them all down, using Varimathras' own power to her advantage, but as it turned out none of the heroes were falling for such a thing and it caused the Dark Shivarra to stay silent as they watched what was going on below their workplace, especially when they switched to allowing Thu'raya to use her Fel powers and a wave of Fel flames appeared around the chamber, which Rainbow devoured before kicking Varimathras in the chest, causing her foe to stagger for a second, and then she slammed his head into the floor. Not a few moments later Varimathras got up again and tried to keep himself standing as he realized something, Rainbow was devouring his Fel energy while they fought, something he picked up on when Thu'raya's Fel flames disappeared all of a sudden, and he was growing weaker as they exchanged blows with each other, informing him that it was only a matter of time until he had nothing left and he was easy to kill, though Rainbow surprised him by flashing in front of him and swung her Warblades for a moment as she landed near where she had started earlier, causing the demon's head to roll off to the side as his body collapsed a few seconds later. "Annoying mortals, his fate was ours to decide!" one of the Dark Shivarra cried out, sounding more annoyed that she and her companions weren't able to punish Varimathras, even though it was likely he was either going to be killed by them at the end of his torment or he might be sent out on a mission that would result in his failure and being delivered back to this place for additional torment, though as Rainbow figured out who had spoken, because it had been Asara, she captured the soul of Varimathras, devoured his Fel energy, and then sent the soul screaming into her weapons, "Impudent mortals, all of you shall pay for this insolence with your very lives!" Rainbow said nothing to that as she spotted a doorway nearby and found that it opened once Varimathras was dead, one that she took not a few seconds later and discovered that it lead up towards the level that the Coven worked in, even if the path was shaped more like a coiling snake of some kind and quickly brought her group to where their next targets rested, finding that the Coven were standing around the center of their chamber and discovered that the barrier that had been in their way earlier had been disabled, to which she flew over to Spitfire for a moment and told her what happened, mostly to let their demonic allies know they had missed something, before returning to her group. "Normally we would attempt to convince you to stand down and join us, instead of siding with the Dark Titan... but thanks to how twisted you four are the only path forward is death," Rainbow stated, because if these four Shivarra were willing to torment the souls of the Pantheon, all in Sargeras' name, than there was no chance that they would stand down or change sides, so they needed to bring these four enemies down before focusing on Aggramar, hence why she stood at the ready and caused her companions to do the same thing as they stared at the four Shivarra in front of them, who seemed to be ready to bring all of them down. Not a few seconds later Rainbow rushed forward and swung her clawed hands at Noura as Zuleth tackled Asara, as both Diima and Thu'raya jumped to two of the four ends of the chamber and resumed tormenting the souls of the Titans that were in this chamber, though the interesting thing she discovered immediately was that there was a bond of sorts for the two Shivarra that were fighting her forces right now, as it seemed like her attacks were doing nothing to Noura and none of Zuleth's attacks were doing anything to Asara. As such she grabbed onto her foe's head and hurled her at the right side of the chamber, if one happened to be standing at the stairs that lead to the upper level Spitfire was standing on, though a few seconds later it looked like Zuleth's attack did something to his foe and confirmed that the bond had been broken, or at least weakened to the point where they could actually hurt their enemies, to which Rainbow swung her clawed hands and feet at her foe while she made sure to keep Noura away from Asara. Of course each Shivarra had a pair of blades that they used when they were fighting and Rainbow's foe channeled her power to set them ablaze for a time, while Asara did the same with her shadows, though right now it didn't seem like either of them were going to do anything that remotely resembled the techniques that had been used on the Titans, so it was more like they might be underestimating the heroes and would eventually lead to them being ruined by the end of this battle, even though Rainbow did keep an eye on both of the remaining Shivarra who weren't taking fighting her group right now. Noura had some interesting skills to use against her, as in hurling one of her flaming blades at her and causing it to spin as it returned to its owner, a whirlwind attack that caused her to use both weapons in an attempt to bring Rainbow down, and a spell that was designed to ignite the blood veins inside whoever she was targeting, be it an enemy or someone she was tormenting, but Rainbow just absorbed the Fel energy that was used against her and continued her assault. Asara happened to be the same way, she wrapped both of her weapons in shadows as she assaulted the heroes that were attacking her right now, she could conjure shadowy blades and sent them flying at her targets, and she summoned areas of darkness that were designed to harm her foes, though it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things since the heroes knew how to dodge the attacks and struck her in return, all while doing everything in their power to bring Diima and Thu'raya back into the battle. What was surprising, and rather shocking at the same time, was that the Coven of Shivarra were capable of calling upon a power or two from the Titans, as Diima called upon the power of Golganneth and summoned a thunderstorm above their heads and sent lightning at the heroes of Azeroth, while Thu'raya called upon Amun'thul's power and started to collapse a number of small pockets of time that were scattered around the chamber, where it was clear that the Shivarra were trying to crush them with the power of the fallen Titans, something that caused Eonar to frown. While Diima and Thu'raya did all of that, which likely made everyone else wonder what might happen if the Shivarra tapped into the powers of Khaz'goroth and Norgannon, Spitfire glanced at Magni and Eonar for a moment and found them nodding their heads, to which they focused their energies and targeted the four tormented souls, as Spitfire was planning on calming Amun'thul and the rest of the Pantheon while the other two spoke to them, hopefully to the point where they could sever the ties between these foul demons and the Titans that Sargeras wanted to corrupt to his way of thinking. Rainbow noticed that happening and did everything in her power to bring down the demons that were in front of them right now, where it was easy for her to see that Noura was becoming weaker over time and smiled, as her ability was working on the Shivarra and it seemed that Asara was suffering the same effects as well, something that prompted the two Shivarra to jump to where the other two Titans were resting and caused both Diima and Thu'raya to jump into battle as they drew their weapons, the former going with a frosty aura around her blades while the latter had Fel-infused flames. Once that was done the pair rushed at them and Rainbow tackled Thu'raya while Zuleth and everyone else focused on taking Diima down, where it wasn't long before they found out what the powers of the pair were, as Diima empowered her strikes to release bursts of frost to slow down her foes, another power that rapidly chilled the blood of her foes, and an orb that exploded with a massive burst of frost power that was designed to slow everyone down, while all Thu'raya had was a power to blast her target with Fel energy and a skill that allowed her to channel a potent beam of Fel energy at her foe, all of which Rainbow ate as she fought the demon in front of her, who had to be growing annoyed with her. Noura and Asara, who were trying to call on the power of Khaz'goroth and Norgannon respectively, found that neither of them were able to complete their objectives as neither Titan gave them their powers, instead the two were blasted back into the area that their comrades were fighting in at the moment, giving Rainbow and the other heroes more enemies to fight, though Thu'raya fell to Rainbow's might, Zuleth beheaded Noura, Diima was blasted into the ground and slain by a few of the heroes, and Asara was stabbed to death by the remaining heroes, where it didn't take Rainbow long to gather the souls of the Shivarra, cut off and devour their Fel energy, and then send their souls screaming into her Warblades, all while Spitfire's group approached them. "You did it heroes! The souls of the Pantheon are free!" Eonar stated, her tone revealing that she was pleased with them, as this was a rather crippling blow to Sargeras' plans for the rest of the universe, which had been knocked down a peg as soon as she had been rescued by the heroes, and if they were able to free both Aggramar and Argus it meant that all of the Dark Titan's plans would crumble, along with being set back to zero with the destruction of the Legion, though as she said that all four souls floated out of the devices the Shivarra had forced each of them into, "We shall stay here and focus on helping the Titans you have freed, though taking down Aggramar, and freeing him from Sargeras' grip, will be far more challenging than what has been accomplished so far." Rainbow wasn't bothered by that fact, as she knew that they were going to have to take down Aggramar and that he had to be annoyed by what she had done outside Nath'raxas Hold, so in his anger he was going to make a mistake, or more if he had been brainwashed by Sargeras' Coven, to which she and the others stepped out of the chamber they had fought the Shivarra in and headed for the opening that lead outside, to the area that Argus had shown her and Spitfire back when he had information to share, where she spotted Aggramar standing in the middle of the circular platform, with the large World-Soul of Argus floating just beyond where he stood. "Mortals... I wasted millennia fighting to spare your kind from corruption, until at last my eyes were opened to the terrible and horrifying truth." Aggramar commented, meaning he knew that they were approaching and that he wanted to speak with them for a few moments, or likely repeat what Sargeras had his Shivarra implant inside his mind, which would need to be dealt with once he was freed from the dark hold that had been placed on him, though as he said that Aggramar took a second to stand up, as he had been kneeling towards the World-Soul, and faced them before raising his left hand so he could point an accusing finger at them, "You, the very mortals I was trying to protect, were the corruption that plagued the universe and threatened to overwhelm everything in your path... the Master has told me that we will save the universe by wiping all memory of you from existence. To that end we have been waiting for the awakening of my new brother, Argus, and the rebirth of our remaining siblings, who are being tended to right now so each of them can see the truth that I have been shown... together, our new Pantheon will break your fetid world and bring an end to your kind, but none of you will be around to see such a thing come to pass." "Oh come on Aggramar, surely you don't believe the lies that Sargeras put inside your head?" Rainbow asked, because that was a load of crap and everyone behind her knew it, even though it was hard for Aggramar not to know what was the truth and what was a lie thanks to those foul Shivarra, though she was hoping that her words might breach whatever spell had been placed on his true mind, since the demons likely had to bury it to make way for the corrupted mind they were seeing at the moment, though all the fallen Titan did was raise his broken and flaming sword, showing that he was going to fight them and there was no changing his mind. Rainbow sighed for a second before rushing across the platform that was in front of them, with her companions following after her, where she swung her Warblades and parried an incoming swing that was coming from Aggramar, causing the air to shake for a moment as their weapons came into collision with each other, opening the way for Zuleth and the others to spread out and attack the dark Avatar that was in front of them, where Rainbow knew that Sargeras' Avatar had contained a small portion of the Dark Titan's power and made her wonder how much of Aggramar's power they would be fighting for a good while. One thing she noticed was that Aggramar called upon the power of his blade while he was facing her and all of her companions, as in he started to ignite scattered locations that were all over the platform they were fighting on, so he could burn his foes with the intensity of his flames, while at the same time Rainbow found that once she pushed him back a bit he would lash out with a secondary swing and she parried it as well, meaning it had to be some sort of ancient technique he had used back during the days when the Pantheon was on the same side, before Sargeras became twisted by his discovery of a nascent World-Soul that was corrupted by the Void and being dismissed by the rest of his kind, as it had lead to the creation of the Legion. It was a story that Illidan had told them, something he uncovered at some point in time and had been unwilling to share how he learned of it, even though it likely came from one of the few Dreadlords he had convinced to join the Illidari, who were all dead at this point in time, but Rainbow was sure that the demons who told him that information had been behind corrupting Sargeras, or at least twisting his view of reality, though for right now her focus was on taking Aggramar down, so they could bring an end to this assault and topple the Legion at long last. As that happened the fallen Titan called upon more flames and summoned a wave that he sent at his enemies, which caused the healers to rapidly mend the wounds of their allies as they clashed with Aggramar once more, showing that this attack was nothing and that no one was going to allow a simple wave of flames to take them out, which seemed to annoy Aggramar as he allowed Rainbow to push him backwards and then raised his weapon as he called forth more of his power, only to release a massive cone of flames at Rainbow, with everyone else moving out of the way to avoid the attack. Instead of moving out of the way Rainbow gathered her own power and loosed a cone of Fel energy, a spiraling attack that was much like the Cone of Frost spell that the frost Archmages used in battle, which struck Aggramar's attack and quickly cancelled it out in a matter of seconds, where she rushed through the fading flames and punched the fallen Titan right in the chest, knocking him back a little more, but right now it seemed like it hadn't done that much and meant that they had to be careful as the battle progressed. Of course that wasn't the only thing Aggramar had access to, as he released what appeared to be a vortex of flames around him, a tempest of sorts based on what Rainbow was seeing right now, which did summon Human sized fire elementals, though she channeled her lightning for a moment and flashed around the area for a time, releasing a few blasts every now and then as she struck the elementals before they reached any of the heroes who were fighting the fallen Titan right now, wiping all of the additional allies out in a matter of moments before she returned to the battle, clashing with the broken blade once more as the heroes struck their foe's legs. Once that happened, and it looked like Aggramar understood that using the elementals would gain him nothing in the long run, the Titan summoned a barrier around him and started to hurl what appeared to be meteors at Rainbow and her allies, likely formed from either his flaming sword or from his own power, though the heroes dodged the incoming attacks while Rainbow pounded on the magical, and seemingly unbreakable, barrier for a time, using her full power to strike the shield as cracks formed all over it over the next couple of moments. This told Zuleth and the others that an Avatar's might could not stand up to the sheer power that Rainbow was capable of using against her foes, meaning Spitfire's strength would likely shatter it like paper or something, though they were expecting something else to happen during this stage of the fight and assumed that it might have been the elementals Rainbow had slain in a matter of seconds, which informed everyone that her actions had caused Aggramar to not do something that was basically a waste of time against an enemy like her, but they were fine with that as all of them avoided the incoming attacks and waited for the barrier to come down so they could assault the Titan and take down the last of Sargeras' pawns. Not a few moments later Rainbow smashed through the barrier and punched Aggramar in the side of his face, sending the fallen Titan closer to where Argus' World-Soul was resting, though the Titan regained himself and went on the offensive as he lashed out at her once more, intending on striking her down and opening the way for the heroes of Azeroth to be taken down in his master's name, though since there weren't any new powers for her to worry about, which was disappointing as Rainbow wanted a challenge and had to assume that Aggramar's power had been bound to the extreme, to make him more controllable in a sense, to which Rainbow sighed for a moment as she landed near Zuleth, with her back turned to Aggramar, before a series of slashes appeared on her target's body and shattered the Avatar. "He was weaker than the Avatar... how disappointing," Rainbow commented, as she had more fun fighting Sargeras' Avatar in the Tomb earlier, though that was due to it being something that carried a fraction of the Dark Titan's full power and not just a small fragment of his overall power, though at the same time she glanced towards Aggramar's World-Soul, as it was floating above the wreckage of the dark Avatar Sargeras had crafted for the Titan, where it glowed and transformed into a humanoid form that stood slightly taller than a Human, something that would be true for the shrunken forms of the Titans no doubt, who wore some impressive and ancient looking armor. "I'm sorry to hear that this fight didn't impress you... maybe we can spar in the future," Aggramar stated, showing Rainbow and her companions something interesting, that he had been aware of what happened after he had been corrupted into serving the Dark Titan and understood the fight Rainbow had just ended, while at the same time showing them all that he was more than willing to show Rainbow his full power at some point in the future, as a way of expressing his gratitude for being saved from an eternity of servitude, though before he could say anything else something moved near the entrance the heroes had used to get to this part of Antorus. Sure enough it was Spitfire and her group emerging from the Dark Citadel, though standing behind them were four more tall figures who were as tall as Eonar and Aggramar, where Rainbow could see that the first one had a cloth set of attire on that partly cover his chest, while flames seemed to dance on his arms, legs, parts of his chest, and his head, though he had short brown hair and a long brown beard with two thick strands resting near it, one on each side of the main beard, where she assumed that this was Khaz'goroth, who helped shape the ordered worlds of the universe. Near him stood another male Titan who wore less armor than Aggramar was, though his seemed to be flowing with the power of storms while his long blond hair seemed to move with the breeze, illustrating exactly what his power was, even though he could likely use the power of lightning to smite those who challenged him to battle, but all of that information meant that this had to be Golganneth, who ruled over the skies and oceans. Rainbow spotted another male Titan who was wearing a light blue robe over most of his body, a set of attire that meant he had to be a spell user of some kind and had to be one of the best of his craft, while his beard and thin flowing mustache were white colored and he wore a hood over his head, preventing them from seeing if he was bald or if he had short hair, even though she suspected that this Titan was Norgannon, the far more magical member of the Titans and, if the stories were right, the keeper of celestial lore, meaning information of the entire universe, which would have been disastrous if it had been handed over to Sargeras. That caused her to turn towards the last of the new Titans, one who was also wearing a blue robe with yellow edges, as the ends of the arm sections of his robe happened to have golden bands near his wrists, instances that were repeated near his shoulders, though he had a white beard that was longer than Norgannon's, which matched the white of his short hair, but he seemed older than the rest of the Titans and that meant he had to be Amun'thul, the Highfather of the entire Titan Pantheon, who happened to be the oldest member of the group and happened to be the one who had the greatest control over time itself. These were the members of the Titan Pantheon, the six who refused to join Sargeras and had their forms shattered when they fought him, and Rainbow had to admit that each of them were far more impressive than when they had been trapped in either their soul state or stuck inside a Dark Avatar, though with them freed from the Dark Titan's grasp, as the dark side of Aggramar had likely been destroyed with the construct he had been trapped inside, all that remained was taking Argus' World-Soul and putting an end to the Legion, something that put a smile on Rainbow's face as she waited for Spitfire to tell them exactly what they were going to do next, as she knew it would bring an end to their war at long last. > Argus: Seat of the Pantheon > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "With the Coven of Shivarra defeated, most of Antorus wrecked, and the Pantheon freed, there's only one thing left to do in our quest to bring down the Dark Titan's plans," Spitfire spoke up, as she could see that everyone was waiting to hear what the last stage of their assault on Antorus was, since it would also bring about the downfall of Sargeras' plans and end their war on Argus, something that caused her to glance at the World-Soul that Aggramar had been guarding while he was forced to serve as an unwilling guardian of the deepest part of Antorus, "we're going to take Argus' soul to the one place that will cut him off from Sargeras' darkness and allow him to heal, which will cripple the Legion's power, though at the same time we can call upon Argus' power to tear the Dark Titan from Azeroth and send him elsewhere, so we can bring him down and bring some measure of peace to what's left of the universe... once we figure out how to safely seal Sargeras away, since we can't kill him like everything else we've fought so far." "Why can't we kill him? I mean, you and Illidan tore Xe'ra down earlier, and she was an incredibly powerful being who was on the Light's side of things." Scarlet asked, because while most of the heroes would likely go along with Spitfire's plan, and she had to admit that she wanted to tear into the Dark Titan for his various attacks on Azeroth and those who called it home, it seemed like all of the incredibly powerful beings were prone to being destroyed if hit just right, or by someone stronger than the individual in question, so it made her wonder why Spitfire would want to seal Sargeras away and not outright kill her, as her power had to be far above the Dark Titan's own power. "Because fully grown Titans can't be killed," Spitfire explained, though as she said that, and could see the questions already forming in the minds of her allies, she held up a hand to stop them from shouting at her or bombarding her with all sorts of questions, showing that she had some additional information to share with them and she hoped that they would accept the information she had been given while Rainbow and her allies fought Aggramar's Avatar, "as many of you know I talked with Xe'ra once before, back when we recovered Light's Heart and used the Tears of Elune to learn what secrets it held for us, something that gave me the bond I used to weaken the Prime Naaru earlier, and many of us assumed that Amun'thul and the rest of the Pantheon had been killed in that moment, but Norgannon told me that he sent their souls flying across the universe to stop Sargeras from claiming them. Now that means a fully grown Titan cannot be killed, be it in battle or in massive explosions of Fel energy, as apparently something like that happened when Sargeras shattered Mardum, but I've been told that a nascent Titan, such as Azeroth, can be slain if their slumbering World-Soul is destroyed, as Sargeras, back during his days as a member of the Pantheon as one of the universe's defenders, found a Void-corrupted World-Soul that was in the nascent stage and cleaved the planet in half, killing the unborn Titan in the process. That means we can't kill the Dark Titan, even if we really want to end his existence and make him pay for the pain he's inflicted on the universe... I'm not even sure if the full power of the six Cosmic Forces would be capable of ending a Titan's life... so that's why the plan is to beat him into submission and bring peace to the universe, so we can figure out a way to seal him away." "So, where are we taking Argus' soul?" Rainbow inquired, because that seemed to be far more important right now, as she had no idea what sort of area would keep the World-Soul of this planet safe from the Dark Titan's influence, but at the very least this meant they would be able to do battle with the Dark Titan and bring an end to his dark plans, which excited all of them and those who were part of Spitfire's group, though they remained silent as they waited to hear what the last leg of this assault might be. "To the Seat of the Pantheon, the very cradle of creation!" Amun'thul stated, speaking for Spitfire this time around, as she had asked him and his comrades where they could take the World-Soul of Argus and save their fellow Titan from the dark influence of Sargeras, though at the same time he could tell that some of the individuals who were around them knew of the place that he had mentioned and understood what it might mean, while everyone else seemed a little lost and would have this explained at some point in the future, "Once we're there, and we have ensured that Argus' soul is safe, we can call upon his power and pull Sargeras away from Azeroth so you can fight him... like Spitfire said, once that is done we'll try to figure out a way to seal him away and bring peace to the universe." In that moment Spitfire made sure that everyone was off of Argus, because this was the final stage of their assault and it meant there was no reason for anyone to be on the planet's surface while the final battle took place, to which Turalyon told her that everyone was accounted for and she nodded to the Pantheon, who channeled their power around the area that Aggramar had been forced to defend for a long time and Spitfire found that everyone was starting to disappear, not to mention Argus' World-Soul. She said nothing about that as she let the power wash over her for a few moments, though it wasn't long before she felt a teleportation spell latch onto her and her allies, taking them from the depths of Antorus and bringing them to the area that the Pantheon had watched over the universe from all those years ago, where she did have to wonder if the dimensional fleet was included in the spell or not, but she suspected that none of the ships would have been brought with them and the Vindicaar would have to be called upon once Sargeras had been dealt with, once she figured out where the Seat rested. A few moments later she felt something metallic beneath her hooves and quickly found that the area around them was another Titan structure that was unlike anything they had seen before, as the Seat of the Pantheon was shaped like a crescent moon and currently held seven massive seats, the middle one raised slightly higher than the others while having three on the left and right side of it, though with how massive the place was it told all of them, as Rainbow and their forces appeared after her not a few seconds later, just how tall the Titans were, when they were compared to a Human for example. As best as she could tell the Titans preferred to be two to three heads taller than what Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, in their demonic forms, had been, at least when they built this place and met here in the past, though the interesting thing was that the Seat happened to be in space, thanks to the stars they could see, and that Sargeras must have moved it after he cut down his fellow Titans, as it looked like they were resting between where Argus, which was off to the right of Amun'thul's seat, and Azeroth, resting to the left, were located, though as she figured that out she and her companions felt a shift in the air as they turned towards the seats once more. Not a second later Amun'thul appeared in front of his seat, with Eonar, Khaz'goroth, and Golganneth resting to his right, Eonar being the closest and Golganneth resting near the edge of the massive structure, while to his left stood Aggramar and Norgannon, though between them sat an empty seat that had to be Sargeras' old seat, even though the Dark Titan had likely been planning on taking the high seat and force Amun'thul to take his, where Spitfire found that her group had appeared at the base of the Highfather's seat while Argus' World-Soul appeared in the middle of the Seat's center... but as the Titans channeled their power into the soul a burst of red energy knocked them all backwards, meaning they must have triggered something Sargeras left in case this happened. That which you have stolen shall be your undoing. a loud voice stated, where it had to be Sargeras speaking, since it was easy for Spitfire, Rainbow, and the others to see the massive dark cosmic cloud that was covering nearly every inch of the world they were trying to save flash for a moment, meaning the Dark Titan was aware of what they were trying to do and he was going to do something interesting to try and stop this from happening, to which the World-Soul started to shift as the Titans regained themselves, transforming into a male figure who stood as tall as the Titans did, with blue skin that was covered by golden armor of sorts that seemed like they belonged on a king or something, with stakes driven into Argus' skin to hold it in place, and he had a helm that seemed to be linked to Death, in appearance anyway, before he roared as a large scythe, with deathly energy radiating from the head, appeared in his right hand, Rise, Argus, my broken world. Rise and kill my enemies! "Death and pain!" Argus roared, where Spitfire let out a sad sigh as she heard the poor Titan's voice, as it sounded like his mind had been wrecked by the constant pain that Sargeras and the Coven of Shivarra had put him through since the day they seized control of his soul, though with all of the demonic souls that had been pulled towards Antorus, thanks to the power of his soul, Spitfire knew that whatever Argus might have been, had he awakened on his own, had been replaced by all of the Death energy that was attached to him, making him the Titan of Death, though as she came to that decision she found that Argus was turning to look at them. Not a few seconds later she nodded to Rainbow and found that her friend quickly embraced her full power this time, due to the fact that she understood that this was a Titan, and not an Avatar, and such a thing meant that one wrong step could spell the end for all of them, hence why she rushed through the air and lashed out at Argus, who gripped his weapon with both of his hands and swung the scythe at her, causing her to clash with the weapon and caused the space around them and the Seat to shudder for a moment as the heroes moved into position, though Spitfire disappeared and reappeared in the space that was in front of the Seat, where she started to channel her own power. Based on what Rainbow as seeing it didn't look like Spitfire was going to join them in fighting Argus, which in a way was a good thing since it would be so much easier with the two of them fighting side by side, so facing off against a Titan of Death with just her companions, like she had done during their assault on Antorus, was far better in her mind, since it would be much harder on both her and her allies, which she was totally fine with and knew that Zuleth's group had to be thinking the same thing. One thing Rainbow noticed was that Argus was quick, because one their initial collision was over he instantly understood that she was more of a threat than everyone else, save for Spitfire of course, and he swung his scythe with a speed that matched someone who had been swinging weapons for a long time, despite the fact that this had to be the second or third time he had taken on this form, something that caused her to dodge his attacks with her instinct power, which she felt was improving since she had nearly been caught by the first couple attacks and the following couple were avoided before Rainbow parried the next one with her Warblades. Argus was definitely strong, not that she was expecting a Titan who was capable of using his full power to be weak, hence the reason she was going into this battle using her full power as well, as she was hoping that her abilities and vast power were able to match and overcome the full might of a Titan, though while it happened she knew all of the Titans were watching her and Spitfire, likely wondering what in the world Spitfire was up to as she stared out at the cloud that Sargeras was hiding in, but she really wasn't worried about that as she focused on Argus. Another thing Rainbow considered was that this had to be Argus' first real battle, not counting whatever mental training he had been put through by Sargeras and his Coven, as while his speed was no joke it also didn't seem like he was ready to use any of his skills against them, something that changed as he clashed with her and finally noticed that they weren't alone, as he spotted the heroes attacking him as well, which caused Argus to call upon an orb of Death energy that just seemed to move through the air and followed one of the heroes around. Such a thing left a path of fog, also filled with the power of Death, in its wake as it continued to chase down its target, causing the heroes to avoid the deathly fog as they fought the Titan that had created the attack in question, even though it wasn't long before the orb shattered, without even reaching who it was targeting, and left behind a pool of Death energy for them to avoid, but it did tell them that the power of Argus wasn't to be underestimated. Not a few seconds later Argus gathered some of his power into his scythe and just swung it towards Zuleth and his allies, where Rainbow flew into the space between them and swung her blades at Argus' attack, cutting it in half while leaving the right and left halves of a cone attack, one full of Death energy, lingering on the floor of the area they were fighting in while creating more areas that the heroes had to avoid so they didn't get hurt by all of the power he was putting out, even though Rainbow wasn't worried about it since she could fly. Fortunately there were more allies who joined the fight in their own way, as the Titans were in the middle of gathering some of their powers so they could bless Zuleth and everyone else with whatever gifts they were capable of creating, granting them additional power so they could do everything in their power to bring down Argus and put an end to this battle, though right now it appeared that Golganneth was the first one to aid them, granting them a gift from the sea and one from the skies, given those were his domains, both boosting their powers and bodies as Zuleth and the others joined Rainbow in attacking the corrupted Titan that was in front of them, all while Rainbow was the only one not receiving a blessing, as she didn't need it as she clashed with Argus' scythe and caused the air to shudder once more. Thanks to that happening Rainbow assumed that Argus had decided to move into a new set of attacks as he lashed out at her, driving her into a defensive form for the time being, while at the same time he targeted three heroes at random, one being stuck with some Death energy that looked like it was going to detonate like a bomb while the other two seemed to be a slow countdown before an explosion happened, so this was more like an explosive attack and caused the heroes who were targeted with it to walk away from the others so no one else was caught in the attack. While that happened, and the scythe was stopped before it could reach any of the heroes who were with her, Golganneth called forth more of his power and washed away the Death Fog that Argus had created, granting them more room to fight in for the time being, at least until Argus covered more of the floor with the Death Fog again, though it was hard to see if Argus was annoyed with that or not, thanks to his large helmet, so the heroes continued their assault as they attempted to bring down the broken Titan and end Sargeras' plans at long last. Not a few moments later Argus roared, which only seemed to represent his rage and nothing else, before he moved into a new series of attacks as he swung the head of his scythe at Rainbow, who parried all of them with her Warblades as she attempted to push him backwards, though Zuleth noticed that Argus also used what appeared to be a phantom scythe that came down from above and moved in a line behind her, causing him and the rest of the heroes to avoid the attack as it broke apart on the barrier the Titans were using to make sure none of them were struck by one of Argus' many attacks, though Argus also had a sweeping attack and Rainbow did her best to dodge it, as it had been one of the unexpected types of attacks and it made her wonder what else he had to show her. Of course one of the other Titans lent them some aid as the battle progressed, as Aggramar blessed them and also summoned small icons, or totems of a sort that resembled shields, that drew in any damage the heroes would have taken and prevented Zuleth or his allies from taking damage for a time, a very useful ability in their minds and made some of them wonder what his full power would be like if this was just what he had recovered since coming to this important place. For a moment it seemed like things were going to go their way and they were going to bring Argus down, though as that happened Amun'thul noticed that the broken Titan seemed to be weakening and channeled a bit of his power into a blast of Arcane energy that would slow Argus down, making it that much easier for them to bring him down, but it didn't work at all as a surge of dark power coursed through their foe's body and his blue energy turned red, meaning Sargeras had to be doing something to him... but as they witnessed that, however, Rainbow found that Spitfire had glanced back to them for a few seconds and seemed to be beckoning to her with just a quick glance, to which she flared her wings and flew through the air as Argus readied whatever power the Dark Titan was forcing him to use. "Time... Stop!" Spitfire stated, as she had sensed that something was coming, something terrible that would have no doubt killed all of the heroes who were fighting Argus right now, and had prepared a more powerful version of the spell they had seen Elisande use back in Suramar, even though it had been forced out of her by Gul'dan at the time, though as she said that a sphere formed around her and Rainbow before the spell went into effect, preventing either of them from being affected by the spell in question. Amun'thul's eyes widened in surprise as he witnessed everything simply freeze as Spitfire cast her spell, something that also trapped him and the other Titans in time as well, though the reason he was the only one that could see anything, as all of the others had to be unable to see anything that was happening right now, was due to his power giving him power over time itself, so it let him see what was going to happen next, where he noticed that Argus was frozen before he could even gather his power into whatever formidable attack Spitfire must have discovered or felt before it even happened, so this cut off the broken Titan's attack. A few seconds later Rainbow flashed over to the area that was in front of Argus and called upon all of her power as she moved into a series of punches and kicks that were designed to weaken her foe, which struck the arms, legs, chest, shoulders, and even the head of Argus over the course of the next few moments, though the broken Titan wasn't moving and it displayed part of Spitfire's sheer power, once more making Amun'thul realize just who had appeared before the Pantheon. As Rainbow delivered blow after blow to Argus' body, to knock him out of the starting stage of whatever power he had been planning on using against them, the Highfather came to realize that Spitfire, who really had no formal training with five of the six Cosmic Forces, was a force that couldn't be ignored, as it looked like she was drawing on her experiences of the other powers, what she had seen her fellow heroes use during the fights that lead up to this point, and was using those memories as a way to learn the basics of her brand new power. Such a thing made him wonder if she had been practicing with her skills while no one was watching, like doing mental training or something to gain the power that she was wielding at this very moment, but in the end he knew that it hardly mattered how she had obtained her new set of skills, as she had likely just stopped the eradication of her fellow heroes, granting Rainbow some time to punish Argus for what he had been about to do, and he was sure that she was in the middle of a spell that would, if he was right, pull Sargeras off of Azeroth, likely dragging him to the surface of Argus so they could fight without having to worry about anyone else being caught in the crossfire. As he considered that information Spitfire seemed to think that enough was enough and dropped the spell, allowing time to resume for all of them, causing everyone to watch in surprise as Argus' power was smashed to pieces in seconds and he was thrown backwards into a barrier that rested on the edge of the floor, directly opposite of where Amun'thul was sitting right now, though while the rest of the Pantheon was surprised, since time was supposed to be his domain, he shook his head and focused on the fight, as it looked like they might be reaching the end of it at long last, especially with all the cuts and scratches that had been left by Rainbow's barrage of attacks. Thanks to all that damage Sargeras' lingering power did call upon allies for Argus, so he would be able to survive this and not be overwhelmed, which turned out to be a number of Constellars, humanoid shaped beings that looked like constellations, sort of like what the Titans looked like before they manifested their true form, which reminded the heroes of Algalon, the observer who had been overseeing Azeroth and all of them, or those around at the time, had convinced him not to erase everything on their planet's surface. The heroes just stood there for a few seconds as Argus fell to one knee, showing that he was weakened from the damage he had suffered earlier, waiting for the Constellars to either attack them or get out of the way, to which the group glanced in the direction of Spitfire for a few seconds before walking over to where the Highfather was sitting, bowing to him before turning around and kneeling in the direction of the one who commanded all six Cosmic Forces, showing the Titans that even the race they had charged with overseeing every planet they had ordered was acknowledging Spitfire's power, allowing them to break away from Sargeras' control and left Argus without any guardians. As Argus picked himself up and moved into a series of slashes, all designed to take down Rainbow at this point, Norgannon empowered the heroes so their attacks would deal more damage to their foe, Eonar channeled her power for a few seconds and ensured that all of them were as fit as they could be, and Khaz'goroth created small motes of energy that boosted the power of every hero that was aiding Rainbow in taking down Argus, causing the empowered heroes, with the Pantheon backing them, to lash out at the Broken Titan and smashed his gauntlets, boots, chest binding, and even his helmet. In the following moments Rainbow spun around in front of Argus and swung her Warblades with her full power, where she landed near the heroes as an x shaped wound appeared on their foe's chest and Argus' form shattered, where he and all of his gear transformed into mist before reforming into the World-Soul that Aggramar had been guarding for a long time. Such a thing caused the heroes to breath a sigh of relief as they realized they had beaten a Titan, one that had been using his full power to destroy everything around him, and suspected that such a thing wouldn't have been possible on their own, without Rainbow or Spitfire. Of course that wasn't considering what might have happened had he awakened on his own, without someone like Sargeras aiding him, causing them to glance at the dark cloud covering most of Azeroth, due to the fact that their true foe was trying to claim the world they had been protecting. "Okay, I know the plan was to seal Sargeras away, but can we still do that?" Rainbow asked, because the original plan likely required the full power of Argus to be successful in some way, especially since the Dark Titan had all of his power available to him right now, meaning they would have to tear their foe off of Azeroth before fighting him, though after every skill they had faced, and all the power everyone had poured into taking down Argus, most of the heroes had to be exhausted from all of the fighting and even Rainbow huffed for a moment, as while she could fight for a long time she was rapidly reaching the end of her rope. "Yes, but first all of us must recover some power before such a thing happens... meaning we either have to sacrifice all of Azeroth to contain Sargeras, or he needs to be pulled off the planet," Amun'thul replied, though he already knew that none of the heroes, including those who had joined them in the final fight against Argus, would be unwilling to do the former, as it would invalidate most of what had been done in the past, meaning all they could do was go with the latter plan and that required putting his faith in the one being who stood above everyone else, hence why his gaze fell on Spitfire as the rest of the Pantheon did the same thing and the heroes of Azeroth followed suit as well, "Lady Spitfire, I guess all I can say is that proceed when you are ready." Spitfire nodded her head for a second as she noticed that the dimensional fleet was actually resting above the Seat of the Pantheon, placed there so they would be out of the way while Rainbow and the heroes faced Argus, though once she did that she focused on Azeroth for a moment as she flared her wings, allowing Amun'thul and the Pantheon to gaze upon all six of her wings, and gathered her power, forming six spheres that were positioned a bit in front of her, each formed from a different power to be exact, and they lined up with the Cosmic Force they represented. A few seconds later she swung her right hand towards the massive dark cloud that was in the process of covering the entirety of Azeroth and ignited her power without delay, causing massive chains, each one possessing the coloration of the Cosmic Force they had been made from, to surge out of the spheres and rush towards the massive dark cloud that was Sargeras' travel form when he moved through the universe, at least from one planet to another since they knew him getting to Azeroth was near impossible and explained his usage of portals to get to the world. Rainbow, Zuleth, and the others watched as the chains locked onto the cloud and each one seemed to go somewhere else, so they would be spread out over the Dark Titan's form, and slammed into the mass that was resting above Azeroth, one forming a collar around what had to be Sargeras' neck, two becoming cuffs that must have found his arms, two more found his legs and turned into cuffs as well, and the sixth one was either wrapped around the Dark Titan's chest or his waist. "Sargeras! Your crusade. Is. OVER!" Spitfire called out, informing the Dark Titan that his plans had been foiled, his army was in ruins at long last, and the Pantheon had been freed from his grasp, where the last item also included freeing Argus from his dark influence, even though it would be some time before he was back to any sense of normalcy, though as she said that Spitfire closed her right hand into a fist as she pulled backwards, like she was pulling on the chains she had created, causing the massive cloud to shudder for a moment as everyone observed her true power in action, even though she was more focused on her target. In that moment Rainbow's eyes widened as she and the others gazed upon the true form of Sargeras, a massive Titan that was as tall as a planet, or at least everything from his waist to his head was of that size and meant his true height had to be that of two worlds that were stacked on top of each other. Most of his body appeared to be cracked, thanks to the fact that he destroyed Mardum and infused himself with the Fel energy of that planet, and the vast amount of angry red cracks he possessed looked like a furnace of hate or maybe he had veins of magma, while his beard and hair looked like a mass of flowing flames. In addition to that his armor appeared to be blackened, and he had a pair of horns and wings that looked like Illidan's, though as everyone took that in Spitfire swung her hand and pulled Sargeras from Azeroth's surface, sending him into Argus' surface as she followed after her foe. "The battle for the fate of the universe has begun," Rainbow commented, where she found that the Seat was shifting so all of them would see what happened next, while the dimensional fleet remained safe and sound for the time being, before she and the others watched as Sargeras collided with the side of Argus' surface, something that likely caused him to growl for a few seconds before a mist covered his body and he started to shrink before their eyes, meaning he had to be even more annoyed with Spitfire and might be planning on taking her out first. "Spitfire, you dare to challenge me?" Sargeras asked, finding that Spitfire had landed near where he crashed, into an area of Argus that looked like one of the many twisted plateaus that existed around his broken planet, a world in ruin thanks to everything she and Rainbow had done during their brief time in the heart of the Legion's vast domain, and he also found that the mist faded at long last, revealing that he stood at the same height that all of the other Titans used earlier, when they left the Dark Citadel, though he raised his right hand for a moment and a twisted blade, one that almost resembled Aggramar's blade, appeared before him, which he grasped as he stared at Spitfire, "I will smite you, and the rest of your forces, before claiming my prize." "Azeroth isn't a thing that you can just claim, Sargeras. She's her own Titan and she can choose whatever path she wants in the future, once she matures anyway," Spitfire stated, as it was the truth of the matter, Azeroth wasn't a prize for Sargeras to just come and claim whenever he wanted to and it seemed like her foe had no respect for that fact, which bothered her more than she was willing to admit despite the calm expression that was on her face, though as she said that she raised both of her hands for a few seconds and pulled the Twinblades out of her horns, allowing her to assume her battle stance as she focused on the Dark Titan, who had to hate her guts at this point, "however, its about time that you payed for all of the death and destruction you have caused since you betrayed the Pantheon and created the Legion, so you had best be ready for a fight, because I will show you no mercy." Sargeras growled for a moment as he gripped his sword and took on his own battle stance, causing the two to stand there and stare at each other for a few seconds, each one silently daring the other to make the first move, before the Dark Titan gripped the handle of his sword with both hands and stepped forward as he brought his twisted weapon down on where Spitfire was standing, finding that she avoided the attack in question and that the sword had hit the ground, cleaving open the ground a little as his eyes followed his foe. Spitfire flashed into the area Sargeras was standing in and swung both of her weapons at him, finding that the Dark Titan was capable of swinging his large sword with a speed that matched what Argus had used against Rainbow, meaning he must have forced Argus to learn how to do such a thing, where their blades clashed in the space between them and the air around them, including the ground, shuddered under the collision of both their energies and their weapons, before she swung her right Twinblade and caught Sargeras' blade as he raised it in an attempt to defend himself. The attack in question sent the Dark Titan flying backwards, as he underestimated the power of Spitfire's attack, though he stabbed his sword straight into the ground and slowed himself down to the point where he would be able to focus on his foe again, finding that Spitfire had rushed after him without delay and swung his blade right at her once more, only to discover that she went on the defensive and seemed to be dodging his attacks like they were nothing to her or something, though there was an opening he could use and he did so without delay, his attack knocking her backwards as she parried his blade. In that moment Sargeras channeled his power into his sword for a few seconds as he rushed at his foe once more, swinging it down at Spitfire with the intent of crushing her and ending her quest to bring down the Legion, though his foe avoided the attack and quickly struck the edge of his blade with her Twinblades, which locked it into the ground and left a gash in its wake, but instead of letting him leave with his weapon Spitfire lashed out and kicked him right in the chest, knocking him backwards as he let go of his weapon, where he quickly regained himself a few seconds later and found that Spitfire banished her Twinblades as well. In that moment Sargeras, having an angry growl building as he realized that he was going to have to leave his blade where it had struck the ground as he contended with his foe, to which he shifted his stance and called upon his power, which he found Spitfire doing as well, his aura being a Fel green as Spitfire's was silver colored, though instead of wasting time just thinking about things, since he knew that his foe would lash out at him at any moment if he wasn't careful, Sargeras took a step forward and rushed at Spitfire without wasting time. What happened next was that Spitfire burst into the air, and by that the Dark Titan found that she went up into the sky above where they had been fighting, to which he decided to play along and followed after her without wasting time, finding that she was going to travel through an area of Argus that was full of jagged peaks, something that clicked inside his mind and caused him to raise his left hand for a moment, where he loosed a burst of Fel green blasts at his foe's backside, intending on blasting her out of the air so he could call his blade to him and cut her down. Spitfire, on the other hand, smiled for a few seconds as she felt that happen and shifted her course accordingly, where the energy blasts flew by her and struck the peaks that were around the area she had picked out, only to come to a stop as she turned around and swung her hands at a few more blasts that were coming at her, knocking all of them to the side as she prepared for what was coming next, as she was trying to piss Sargeras off and drive him to the point where he couldn't see anything accurately, so she could use his anger against the Dark Titan. To those watching this part of the battle looked like they were wrecking the jagged area she had flown towards, given that the blasts had struck the peaks and ground while blowing up with a bit of smoke following the attacks, though it wasn't long before Sargeras caught up with her and swung his fist at her, finding that her instinct power, while weaker than Rainbow's since this was her first time using it in battle, allowed Spitfire to dodge his attack with ease and avoid taking damage from it, something that was true for the next couple of attacks that he sent her way, even though he got lucky as a punch slipped past her defenses and struck his foe in the face, despite the fact that she wasn't fazed by his attack all that much and launched into a series of attacks as she appeared in front of Sargeras. The air shuddered as their energies connected with each other, even though Sargeras found that he was the one who got hit while Spitfire's skill allowed her to avoid taking damage from his attacks, before she delivered an uppercut to his chin and knocked him backwards for a few seconds, sunning him in the process as he realized she was far stronger than what he originally believed her to be, though he regained himself a few seconds later and threw a punch at her, finding that she moved her hands for a moment and actually redirected his attack, sending it by the left side of her head while opening a hole in his defenses. In the following seconds Spitfire used her right fist and punched Sargeras in the chest, causing him to cough for a moment as he felt the powerful attack against his bare chest, before she spun around and kicked the side of his head with the edge of her right leg, sending him flying down towards the ground and blasted a massive crater into the corrupted ground, even though it told Sargeras that he couldn't accord to underestimate Spitfire, not if her power allowed her to overcome him and send him flying around the area they were fighting in. Not a few seconds later she gathered her power into an orb above her head as she focused on where her target was resting right now, something that was followed by her swinging her hands down towards the Dark Titan and loosed a massive volley of silver colored blasts down at her foe, blasts that slammed into the area that she had knocked Sargeras into and started blowing everything up over the next couple of seconds, though it did look like some of them might have done some damage to the Dark Titan. After a couple of moments Sargeras forced himself to stand and summoned his own power, creating an aura around him that he quickly sent outwards as a counter to what Spitfire was doing, something that was followed by him rushing through the air as he targeted her once more as she stopped channeling her power and beckoned for Sargeras to follow her as she moved out into another part of the jagged plateau they were currently fighting in, even though he punched her afterimage and had to track them down as he followed after her, something that had to annoy him. Spitfire quickly turned back around and moved into a series of defensive movements as she countered Sargeras' attacks, especially when he held a hand out for a moment and called his sword back to him, though instead of stopping the blade with her Twinblades, like one would expect, she swung her right hand and summoned a staff, one that happened to be as long as she was tall for some reason and had two colors to it, the middle part of the weapon being silver colored while the upper and lower parts were golden colored, while possessing a dark orb floating above the top with a silver ring around it, though it stopped Sargeras' attack and that's all she wanted right now. The two of them clashed in the air for a couple of moments as they used their weapons against each other, even though Spitfire found that this staff was more useful in the defensive sense and not as an aggressive weapon, which she was fine with as she parried the incoming attacks and sought out an opening to use against the Dark Titan, before eventually finding it not a few moments later as she spun the staff for a second or two and used the bottom end to stab Sargeras' palm, which allowed her to make a movement that forcefully drew the sword away from her foe. With that done she hurled the weapon at the group and then tossed the staff into the air behind her not a second later, to which Spitfire lashed out at Sargeras and found that the air shuddered around them as they neared the ground for a moment, something that caused the darkened ground to shatter, revealing that this part of Argus happened to have a volcano or a magma lake hidden beneath the surface, made of Fel lava of course, though the pair fought above it while the collision of their energies continued to break the area around them. After that Spitfire and Sargeras separated from each other and braced themselves as they fired a beam of energy at their foe, which caused a Fel beam to collide with a silver beam in the middle of the space that both of them were fighting in, something that caused the area to violently shake for a few moments before everything around her and her foe seemed to shatter like glass, where it seemed like the immense Fel energy of the Dark Titan had reacted poorly to her cosmic power, making it appear that part of reality had broken from the collision of the two beams. In response to that Sargeras went on the offensive and continuously swung his fists at Spitfire as he tried to lock onto her, so he could pin her to the ground and end her existence, where Spitfire dodged the attacks and then parried one punch with her fist, something that sent her backwards for a few seconds, though not a second latter she rushed through the air, this time being turned upside down by the previous attack, and struck Sargeras several times in the chest, before kicking him in the side of the chest and sent him into an area that had been a jagged peak before the shattering occurred and did all of this. Sargeras, in turn, summoned his full power and rushed at Spitfire as she straightened herself, where she used her instinct power to avoid several of the incoming punches, even though some got really close to her and informed her that this skill was still growing as she fought some powerful enemies, before she called upon her own full power not a few seconds later and punched the Dark Titan in the side of his face, sending him straight into the ground, or at least what she assumed was the ground, and shattered everything around where he landed. Of course Sargeras growled as he picked himself up and fired several blasts into the air area around them, Spitfire redirecting a few to other areas so they didn't get close to the space between Argus and Azeroth, blasts that expanded into spheres designed to destroy everything that was around where each of them landed, though after Spitfire did all of that she flew through the air and loosed smaller blasts that struck Sargeras' attacks and shattered the attacks, before they rushed at each other with their energies around their right fists. When they collided once more a shockwave emitted from where they were standing and reality seemed to snap back to what it had been before the shattered occurred not all that long ago, though Spitfire's attack forced Sargeras back and she kicked him in the side of his head and knocked him down into the ground once more, though this time around it wasn't the only thing that happened, as she landed nearby and shifted her stance as the Dark Titan picked himself up and glared at her with the flames of hate lingering in his eyes, showing that he despised her and that he wasn't going to submit to her vast cosmic power. Based on what Spitfire could see Sargeras was losing his cool, growing angrier and angrier as the battle progressed, which she was fine with since it meant his defenses would be weaker and would open more doors for her to use, where the Dark Titan rushed at her, his plated hooves crushing the ground below him, as he shifted into a kick that was meant to send her flying, but she flashed to the side and found that he had an orb of energy at the ready, but she surprised him as she just swung her right arm for a moment and a reflective surface appeared, sending that attack back into his face, adding to his growing frustrations. Once that happened Spitfire jumped into the air and spun around as she kicked the Dark Titan in the face with the side of her leg once more, knocking him a tad bit backwards as she spun around and landed safely a couple of steps away from where Sargeras was standing, who decided to try something else as he gathered his power and fired a beam of energy from his mouth, which struck the ground and rushed at where Spitfire was standing, blowing up whatever was in its path as it zeroed in on his target. Instead of backing away she gathered her power into two apple sized orbs, one for each of her hands, as she rushed towards the incoming attack, using the smoke it created as a cover as she flared her wings and leapt into the air, allowing her to basically flip over his head and land a number of steps behind the Dark Titan, who had no idea what had happened and could only blame himself for what was going to happen next, as the instant she touched the ground Spitfire hurled the right orb towards her foe first and then the left one, where the coiled through the space between them and ignited into an explosion once they struck Sargeras' chest, as he finally figured out his error and had turned to face her. As silver smoke wrapped around where the Dark Titan was standing Spitfire gathered more of her power and loosed another volley of silver blasts that raced through the air and struck her foe, including the area that was around him, trapping Sargeras in place as he felt each blast against his chest, arms, legs, and the rest of his body, though he was stunned by the sheer difference in power that rested between him, one of the strongest Titans in the universe, and Spitfire, someone who was capable of balancing and using all six Cosmic Forces. After a few moments of that Spitfire switched to something else as she gathered all six of her powers into a single point, above her right hand to be exact, and encased it in a silver aura before hurling it through the air, where it slammed into the Dark Titan's chest and delivered the full power of the six forces in a massive explosion that rocked the entire area they were fighting in, though she was sure that she heard a short scream that was cut off, which would mean Sargeras was in pain from the attack and might be understanding that he wasn't going to win this fight. As Spitfire expected Sargeras, who couldn't stand losing to anyone, summoned his aura again and seemed to let out a roar or echo with just his voice, while at the same time it looked like he was calling upon all of his power as he rushed through the smoke and zeroed in on where she was standing, though the Dark Titan never reached it as she flashed up into the air near her foe and then lashed out with a kick to his exposed chest, something he defended with both of his arms and found that the power behind the attack was nothing to laugh at, before she spun around and kicked him in the side of his chest, sending him flying once more. Sargeras coughed for a moment as he regained himself a few seconds later and forced his hooves to dig into the ground, to stop him from moving, before loosing a potent beam of Fel energy from his right hand, this time not caring about the planet they were fighting on since he was packing it with enough power to destroy anything it came across, though Spitfire simply stood still for a moment as she raised her hands and gathered her power, making it look like she was holding onto a large disc of some kind, before spinning it and creating a hole in space that would send all of this power to an empty part of the universe. With that done she flew forward and wrapped around Sargeras' attack for a time, using a bit more of her power as a guiding force to make sure the Dark Titan's attack went into the hole as she coiled around the beam, before she reached the area Sargeras was standing in and punched her foe square in his face, an attack that would have broken some teeth had she used it against anyone who wasn't a Titan or Rainbow, which sent him flying backwards and caused Sargeras to call upon his power as he loosed a volley of Fel blasts at her, showing he was using one of her attacks against her. Spitfire did nothing to those attacks as she flew forward, where she used both the instinct skill and her own experience to avoid the blasts with ease, something that allowed her to reach the area that her foe was in at the moment and delivered another punch to his head with her other fist, as she had used her right during the beam attack and was now using her left fist, though this time around she decided to move into a series of attacks, kicking and punching Sargeras' chest as she pushed him away from where he had been when he fired the beam. She even jumped back after a couple of moments of her beating the daylights out of the Dark Titan, as she felt that such a thing was an accurate description of what she had done, before summoning her aura as Sargeras did the same and took a second to rush at her foe, who was pooling his power into his right fist, though as he swung his fist she happened to do the same thing with her right fist and made sure to push the attack backwards, their power transferring into the area that was around them and wrecked the ground, creating a molten area in a matter of seconds. Of course her power knocked Sargeras backwards and she rushed after him once more, throwing a punch into his chest that caused the Dark Titan to cough in pain before Spitfire moved into another set of attacks that bypassed every attack he tried to use against her, as if he was doing nothing and was just standing still, though it didn't last all that long as Spitfire shifted into another attack that would push this battle towards its end. The attack in question was a rather powerful punch that was delivered to the Dark Titan's chest, with this time her fist actually left a dent in his body like she was fighting a mortal fighter, though not a few seconds after the attack happened the air around them rippled with energy as she transferred her aura over to Sargeras, something that was followed by her pulling her fist back as she backflipped for a moment and used the end of her right hoof to knock her foe up into the air, showing the watchers that she was going to overcome Sargeras and end the Legion at long last. Once she landed, not a few seconds after her attack, Spitfire crossed her arms as she gathered her power for a few seconds, where the power that was around Sargeras seemed to grow in mass as he realized that there was no escape from her attack and that he would have to suffer through it, before raising her hands not a few seconds later and activated the attack that was building around the Dark Titan, knowing that this would push him further towards defeat, which was what she and her forces wanted. Not a few seconds later the mass of power that had gathered around the Dark Titan just flared for a time, causing a massive glow that everyone could see as they observed the fight take place, though without any warning the energy ignited and transformed into a massive explosion that engulfed the entire area that Spitfire and Sargeras was fighting in, where all of the damage was delivered to the Dark Titan while Spitfire avoided being caught by it and just watched what happened next. "How truly magnificent." a voice said, where Spitfire shifted her eyes for a moment as she glanced off to her right, finding the black robed figure who had appeared before her and Rainbow in the early stages of their war against the Legion, back before the creation of the Grand Army of Azeroth to be exact, though it did seem like the strange man was pleased with everything that had happened since the last time he had seen her and Rainbow, before she turned her attention back to Sargeras as he staggered out of the large crater her attack had created, "After that display I think this battle will come to an interesting and exciting finale!" Spitfire stood for there a moment as she brought her hands close to each other in front of her chest, gathering her power into a sphere that consisted of all six Cosmic Forces, before shifting her hands to the right side of her body as six rings of energy formed on the ground around her, displaying her power for all of the watchers to see. At the same time Sargeras staggered for a few seconds and just stood there, no doubt considering his option at the moment, but instead of stopping, and letting the Dark Titan flee, Spitfire swung her hands towards her foe and loosed a large beam of silver energy. Not a few seconds later Sargeras raised his hands and tried to stop the attack from consuming him, to show them that he was still in control, but his hubris struck him hard as the attack dug into his hands without delay. Spitfire heard the sound of her foe grunting in effort as he attempted to stop her beam, though it turned into screams as it barrelled into him before surging off into the distance, almost like she was breaking him apart, piece by piece. As she expected the proud Titan, no matter how wrong he was in his quest to purge all of reality, refused to surrender to her might and soon she was met with silence, where she cancelled her power and found that the mountain range behind Sargeras was gone, before finding that all that was left of the Dark Titan was a cracked World-Soul, which turned to dust before her very eyes. "Heroes of Azeroth, we are victorious! Sargeras, the Dark Titan is no more!" Spitfire announced, making sure the forces of the planet they had been protecting understood that she had been successful, their ancient foe was no more, despite the fact that it meant that they were wrong about the Titans, they were mortal as well. That thought shook her more than she expected, as she had been planning on sealing Sargeras away, but now she had to deal with the fact that she had killed Sargeras and stopped his plans in their tracks, though she decided to shelve all of her worrying thoughts for later, to focus on the aftereffects of this war and what it meant for Azeroth. > Interlude: New Information > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire remained silent as she walked over to where the Vindicaar was resting, as she needed time to think about what she had done and what it meant for the universe as a whole, because she had just killed a matured Titan, a being that all of them considered to be immortal once they matured. It was how Sargeras was able to kill a nascent World-Soul, before it could become a threat to him and the Pantheon, while at the same time being unable to actually end the lives of the other Titans when he betrayed them, even with Norgannon saving their souls in time. It was what they had been told, and what they had assumed based on all the information they had gleamed over the many years everyone knew about the Titans, but now, thanks to her battle with Sargeras, she knew that things were different from what they thought they knew. The Titans, despite all of their vast power over their respective elements, were as mortal as everyone else, which caused her to pause for a moment as she closed her eyes and focused on her Death powers for a few seconds. If her thoughts were right, and she hoped she was wrong, if Sargeras was truly dead than his soul would be sent straight to the Shadowlands, to whoever judged the souls of the dead and sent them to their respective afterlives, be it the land of Bastion, the battleground of Maldraxxus, the nature of Ardenweald, the dark land of Revendreth, or the sinister Maw, the land of the damned. She only knew these things because of Medivh and her innate connection to the power of Death, so she knew far more about the Shadowlands than she previously knew in the days leading up to her gaining this particular Cosmic Force, which could either be a good thing or a bad thing. Either way she knew that Sargeras would be judged by a being called the 'Arbiter', more information she gained from her connection to Death, a godly being who could quickly see everything that a soul had done in their life, as in reading everything in seconds, before sentencing them to the realm that they belonged in. Sargeras' twisted World-Soul, however, caused everything to pause for a few moments, based on what she was feeling right now, before the Arbiter sent him screaming into the Maw, no doubt for all his crimes against the rest of the universe, causing her to sigh before cutting off the connection. The Titans, as much as she didn't want to admit it, were as mortal as everyone else in the universe, which told her that if all of them were mortal, than that meant that the old Gods had to be mortal as well, even though that meant that C'Thun, Yogg-Saron, and Y'Shaarj were dead and N'Zoth was alive, causing her to sigh before opening her eyes, allowing her to see that Rainbow and some of the others were coming towards her. "I cannot believe it... Lady Spitfire, did you... did you...?" Khadgar stated to ask, though he kept catching himself before he could actually ask whatever was on his mind, even though Spitfire had an idea as to what that might be, while the others were staring at the area Sargeras had been in not that long ago. "Kill Sargeras? Yeah, I did... as odd as it sounds." Spitfire replied, even though it would be some time before she was able to wrap her head around that fact, given that it shook their understanding of the Titans, because she was sure that using the full power of the Cosmic Forces like this wouldn't have done anything if he was immortal, "How is Argus doing?" "I held back at the last moment, breaking his form while keeping his World-Soul intact," Rainbow said, which made the rest of the Titans happy, as they might be able to undo all the damage Sargeras did to Argus and restore him to being his own being, though as she said that she glanced at the figure behind Spitfire, "What do we do with him?" "I'm no threat to you or your planet... I just came to observe the final battle between the forces of Azeroth and the Legion," the mysterious figure replied, holding up his hands for a moment to show that he wasn't planning anything, making her and Spitfire raise their eyebrows for a moment, since putting himself that close to the battle was strange, if all he wanted was to watch the final battle, "Very nice by the way. Who would have known that the Titans were mortal? Certainly not me, since I've long believed them to be immortal." "That's been worrying me since the battle ended... and if the Titans are mortal, than that means the Old Gods are mortal as well," Spitfire remarked, turning her head towards Khadgar and the other leaders of Azeroth, those that were nearby to be exact, who were interested in what she had to say on the matter, even if they were racing to understand what this new information meant for their world, "It means that C'Thun, Yogg-Saron, and Y'Shaarj are totally dead, leaving N'Zoth as the last foe we have to deal with before Azeroth is totally safe... also, thanks to my connection to Death and the Shadowlands, I can confirm that Sargeras is in the Maw, being punished for his crimes." That information seemed to please many of the leaders that were near her, though after saying that she returned to the Vindicaar with them following her, which included the mysterious robed figure, before they headed back to Azeroth, as it was time to celebrate their victory over the Legion and their master. As they flew through the space between Argus and Azeroth, however, Spitfire focused on her Void powers for a moment and tried to sense all four of the Old Gods that were imprisoned on the planet they were heading towards. She knew what she had said, and understood that Y'Shaarj was no longer alive, but she wanted to be sure before they did anything else, and based on what she was feeling she didn't sense any powerful Void energies coming from the planet. It confirmed that C'Thun and Yogg-Saron were also dead, though she wasn't expecting to find that someone had come in and killed N'Zoth while they were distracted with the final battle with the Legion, where she had to assume the shadowy figure was responsible for doing it, meaning he had to be stronger than an Old God, as odd as that sounded. In the end she returned her focus to what was going on right now and found that they were heading to Stormwind, even though Khadgar was broadcasting their victory to all of the other leaders of the world, letting everyone know that they had been successful in defeating the Legion and saving Azeroth. Of course he, Jaina, and the Archmages of Dalaran teleported the city to a space near Stormwind, allowing all sorts of people to gather in the city so they could celebrate their victory, all while some were staying in Orgrimmar so they didn't overcrowd the city. Once Romuul got the ship in position he send a beacon down and they teleported down into the city without delay, finding the citizens and all of the heroes that had been told to hold the line were waiting for them, cheering for their success over those who tried to take Azeroth in the past, and it wasn't long before people were getting ready for what was the largest celebration this planet had ever seen. In addition to that she found that the main races of the Alliance and the Horde weren't the only ones in attendance, as there were all sorts of other races joining them, those who came from Zandalar and Kul Tiras, which put a smile on her face as she sat down and watched everyone. To Spitfire this served as another victory, because she had shattered all of the distrust and hate between both the Alliance and the Horde, creating a united front to face all of the enemies that this world might face in the future, and her efforts had borne great fruit as races from both factions were sharing drinks and stories with each other. In addition to all of that she and her forces found some new ships in Stormwind's harbor, as there were a few ships made of wood and had golden additions, which likely belonged to the Zandalari Trolls, while there was an elegantly made pair of ships over on the other side of the harbor, one that seemed to be a master of navigating through storms and belonged to Jaina's own people, the Kul Tiran Humans. Based on what she was seeing the Kul Tirans had brought Gnomes that were half mechanical and half organic, something that she felt could be explained by magic or magic, with them, while the Zandalari brought with them a number of small large-eared foxes who looked more suited for the desert, the Vulpera as she quickly learned. What Spitfire learned was that both races had their own troubles, the Mechagnomes having to deal with overthrowing their former corrupt ruler, who wanted to turn everyone he ruled over into mechanical Gnomes, while the Vulpera had dealt with some Sethrak, a humanoid Snake race who had been plotting to destroy the Zandalari at some point. Of course the races, upon discovering the might of the Grand Army of Azeroth, and their might in tearing down all sorts of demons, as the Sethrak had submitted to their power and turned on the Legion as well, promising to undo all of the damage they had done to Vol'dun, which meant that Spitfire didn't have to be present to resolve conflicts anymore, her army could do that on their own. In addition to all of those races joining them in the celebration, amazing Spitfire with how well she had altered the rest of this world with her and Rainbow's desire to save Azeroth, they were joined by the still unnamed figure, who stood nearby, as they, along with Khadgar and Jaina, wanted to talk with him before joining the others, hence why they were standing on a ledge overlooking the docks. "So, you said that you were eager to see the outcome of our fight with the Legion. Why is that?" Spitfire asked, as that was the part that was bugging her, even though she had more questions about him and the figures they had seen back when Draenor was wiped out, "And what about the others we saw earlier?" "Because I was interested in what sort of power a Titan tainted by Fel energy might have, but your power, however, was far more entertaining to watch." the robed figure replied, who raised both of his hands for a moment and actually pulled the hood back, revealing a young man who had to be in his early twenties, had short raven black hair that was spiked, and had red eyes that suggested he had to be some sort of dark being, "Like I said, your battle was far more interesting than I thought it would be when I first felt you gathering the fragments that allowed you to reach this point, as I had no idea that you would gain all six Cosmic Forces... I figured you'd stop at two or three, instead of going all the way. In fact, at one point I thought Xazariel was going to capture you two and turn you into... what do you call them, Sayaad... after everything you did to her kin, and yet you surprised me then as well." "Well, good to know someone had little faith in our abilities." Rainbow remarked, which made her dislike the figure more than she already did, though as they stood there she felt the energies that were coming from him, a shadowy substance that reminded her of what she and the others faced in during their time in the Emerald Nightmare, "You're a servant of the Void, aren't you?" "Not quite. I am Xahvalan, the Seeker of Darkness," the young man answered, where he even gave them a bow for a few seconds, though whether it was a mocking one or not it was hard to tell, before pulling out a crystal that contained a vast amount of Void energy inside it, which Spitfire was sure contained N'Zoth, how she wasn't sure, "however, if you want a true answer, I guess you could say that I'm the follower of something akin to a Void Lord..." Before he could utter another word Spitfire snapped her fingers and blue celestial chains wrapped around his arms and legs, as she wasn't about to let Xahvalan go after hearing something like that, and she made sure to have a warglaive at the ready as she approached him. "That was a foolish thing to say. You do realize we can't let you leave now, right?" Spitfire inquired, though as she said that Rainbow, Jaina, and Khadgar readied themselves for whatever happened next, because if what he said was true, and he was a follow of something as strong as a Void Lord, he needed to be killed here and now, before he caused problems for all of them. "Actually, I have information to share with you, about the other demonic threat in this universe." Xahvalan stated, as if he had all the cards right now, something that caused the four of them to stop for a moment as they considered what he had said, though he showed no signs of wanting to flee yet, even if he made the Void Crystal disappear without moving either of his hands or using any magic. "One of our allies mentioned that, but we were unable to confirm it." Khadgar said, making it seem like more knew about the other threat than what the reality was, though with the threat of the Legion hovering above their heads that was more than enough reason to not share that information, at least not until something had been done. "Then allow me to enlighten you: King Dymalis and his demonic empire are conquering worlds and add them, plus those who survive the initial assault, to his ever growing domain," Xahvalan replied, confirming what they had been told, there was another threat out there and it was demonic in nature, another force like the Legion was out there and it would focus on Equus and Azeroth at some point in the future, though as he raised an eyebrow Spitfire pulled her chains back, as his information was valuable, for the time being, "based on what I've seen they will, in due time, either focus on this world or the one that these two call home, at which point you will either be attacked without warning or be visited by a demon who serves as a representative of the massive empire... after that, well, it'll be up to whoever is on the planet to fight and die at their hand, as no one has ever repelled one of their assaults. Also, I'm not sure what that succubus wants from us, since she's lurking in some of the shadows since we arrived in this city, but given that she hasn't attacked any of us, well, I think its safe to say that someone has something they want to say." Sure enough Spitfire and Rainbow found a rather slender demon standing in the corner that Xahvalan had pointed to as he spoke, a rather powerful one since she must have been hiding her aura for some time and Spitfire hadn't noticed her arrival since she was learning more about the other demonic threat. In the following moments, after the demon dispelled her invisibility spell, she discovered that the Sayaad resembled Xazariel to some degree, in terms of body shape, the style of her leathery wings, and the jewelry she wore, only her body had a blue coloration to it and she had a number of tattoos all over her body. The tattoos, as she and Rainbow discovered, were Fel green colored and seemed to suggest, if they were seeing things right, that the demon was on the level of a Titan, or maybe just Sargeras as she thought about all of this, but at least she seemed somewhat peaceful. In addition to that she found that the main difference between her and Xazariel was that the Sayaad Queen had worn little over her body, while this Sayaad wore a elegant metallic corset, the main color being black with a golden border, over her chest and stomach area, while her breasts were just as large as Spitfire's were, and a metallic skirt that stopped halfway to her knees. Such a thing told her that the normal succubus' armor they had seen, the bar and v shaped strap that had been modified for battle, had to be her underwear, though based on what Spitfire and Rainbow could see the demon didn't have a single weapon on her, even though she could summon one if she needed to. "Sorry, I was waiting for a good time to speak up. The name's Sarya, by the way, and I'm the Primordial Demon of Lust, as in the mother of all Sayaad," the demon stated, where Spitfire raised an eyebrow for a moment, as this was the first time she, not to mention the others that were around her, had heard of a 'Primordial Demon', "oh, and just to be clear, I'm not here to avenge the Legion. None of us, and by that I mean myself and the other Primordial Demons, cared for Sargeras or his forces... in fact, we are happy he's been taken care of at long last, even though each of us have lost some of our kin in the process of this war... but, well, we're too chaotic to agree on anything, hence why he was allowed to do as he pleased for so long. Basically, think of the Primordial Demons like this: we're basically the Fel's version of the Titans and we happen to form the Fel Council, as there is me and the first demons of Wrath, Pride, Envy, and Gluttony... I'm the only one who had any desire to come here today, so don't expect my brethren to show up and disturb us." "So you came to see who tore down Sargeras' Legion and speak with us?" Rainbow inquired, though as she said that they found that the Sayaad was looking at her body and did the same to Spitfire for a couple of seconds, meaning she had to be interested in how their bodies had changed with all the Sayaads they had absorbed. "Well, mostly I came to see those who killed a lot of my kin... I'm not mad, by the way, since they sided with the Legion and earned their fate," Sarya replied, though Spitfire had the feeling that if the Sayaad had a chance she would capture some people and begin twisting them into succubi, to replace those who had fallen during their crusade to take down the rest of the Legion, before she noticed that the demon's tail was twitching as she considered something, "though I have to say that absorbing all of that Sayaad power has certainly given both of you some wonderful traits... personally, I would love to take a few days to teach you how to wield some of our more unique powers, since both of you are, in my estimations, twenty percent Sayaad. I'm curious as to what might happen if we went through some lessons, to help you understand the sheer power that you possess, but for now both of you might want to have a chat with some of the soldiers in your army, since so many are attracted to your forms, even if they are too nervous to say so." Spitfire sighed for a moment as she wondered what to make of this situation, as it looked like Sarya might be serious, that she wanted to teach them about their latent Sayaad powers, though for now she decided that they would have to focus on the celebration, as Xahvalan had departed after Sarya showed herself, and worry about the future later. > Interlude: Unexpected Awakening > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Spitfire expected the heroes and people of Azeroth spent a long time partying to celebrate their victory over Sargeras and the Burning Legion, something that was a long time coming with all of the conflicts and events that had been started by the various beings who had served the Dark Titan. Of course she and Rainbow joined in after a while, as it was nice to relax and share their victory with their friends and allies, especially since the fate of multiple worlds was no longer on their shoulders, though Spitfire found that some of her time was spent with all of the other leaders. One thing she learned was that Jaina's mother, Katherine Proudmoore, had decided to step down as the Lord Admiral of Boralus, which happened to be the capital of Kul Tirus, and had named her daughter as her replacement for reasons that would likely be shared later, and that Katherine was going to be replacing Priscilla Ashvane as an advisor. The decision was based on the fact that the lady in question had betrayed her by siding with pirates, in an attempt to launch a coup and capture Boralus, hence why they executed her after her failed attempts. Likewise King Rastakhan had stepped down from his position as king, at long last since he had been ruling for so long, and passed the throne to his daughter Talanji, which made her the Queen of the Zandalari Empire and all of Zandalar, while her father had also taken an advisor role to help her adjust to her new role, a thoughtful gesture on his part. The interesting thing was that Zul had helped them take down a rebellion before it could come to light, where Spitfire had a feeling that he was frightened of the futures he had seen and might have used his own allies as scapegoats to save his hide, but the pair were keeping an eye on him, just in case. As for the other races she found that the leader of the Mechagnomes was called Prince Erazmin, but, in addition to that, they reported to the king of the Gnomes, Gelbin Mekkatorque, so that meant their racial leader was like an advisor to one he likely looked up to or respected. It was an interesting change for them, even though the Mechagnomes had all sorts of mechanical advances that might be shared with everyone else on Azeroth at some point, but she knew that they would no doubt come up with a plan and present it to her when they were ready. The Vulpera, on the other hand, had Kiro as their leader, as he helped keep everyone alive during the days before the Legion assaulted Vol'dun, and while he was cautious at times he knew when to act and when not to act, though sometimes he had to deal with one of his race's champions, a female Vulpera called Nisha who actually wore the skull of a dead Sethrak to inspire fear in her enemies. Of course such a thing worried some of the other Sethrak, those who had decided to join Spitfire's forces, but they didn't seem to care that much as they joined everyone else in celebrating their victory over the Legion. Another interesting aspect was that the celebration went into the night and well into the morning, though many fell asleep as the hours went by and, eventually, Spitfire stood near the entrance to the harbor and glanced out at everyone that had partied the night away. "You have done well, Spitfire, far more than what I originally thought when the Illidari found you," a voice said, where she found Illidan had stopped by the area that she was observing from, though he had a smile on his face as he glanced out at the area they were in, plus his voice was full of pride, "you and Rainbow saved both Azeroth and the rest of the universe from Sargeras' dark plans, and that, alone, is worthy of this celebration... even if that dark figure lets us know that there is more to the universe than what we originally knew." Spitfire nodded, as Xahvalan had basically told them that the universe was far larger than what they assumed, without him even saying a word, though as she thought about it she also thought about the people her mentor had angered during the course of his quest to save this world. "How did it go?" Spitfire asked, knowing that Illidan would understand her question without her actually saying anything about the topic she was interested in learning about, though as she said that she stared out at the rest of the harbor and noticed how the citizens who were up were working together without worrying about factions or race, something that put a smile on her face as she watched them. "I told them the truth, that all the power I had gained, and all of the measures I had taken over these long years, were to make way for us to save Azeroth, even if it meant sealing myself and the Titans away," Illidan replied, as that was the plan he had come up with all those years ago, when he first understood the power that the Dark Titan had wielded when his eyes were burned out, but now that plan no longer mattered, "I expected them to be angry with me, something they were entitled to given some of my previous actions, but they held their tongues and told me that they would accept my words for now, though being forgiven by them will take some time... frankly, I'm just surprised both of them were willing to talk to me again, as I figured they would have ignored me and brushed me off, so I guess I have you and Rainbow to thank for that." "I'm glad to be of some help," Spitfire replied, where she knew that he was referring to the fact that everyone seemed to have changed after witnessing her and Rainbow's desire to protect Azeroth, while taking down anyone that annoyed one of them or anyone who threatened the safety of this world, like what Sylvanas was attempting before her demise, and it seemed that she had even affected Tyrande and Malfurion with her actions as well, before she sighed for a few seconds as she considered what else had been revealed to them, "Still, Primordial Demons... should have known that the demons had their own Pantheon of sorts, though I wasn't expecting one of them to come visit us after we beat the Legion and took down Sargeras, especially when the demon in question is the mother of all Sayaad." She had to admit that she was still surprised by that fact, that the Fel had their own Pantheon, the Fel Council to be exact, though when she considered the Pantheon of Death, the Eternal Ones in the Shadowlands, it wasn't so strange anymore, which just meant there was more for them to learn about how the other Cosmic Forces. "We've learned a lot more about the universe thanks to you and Rainbow," another voice said, where Spitfire and Illidan turned for a moment and found that Khadgar had joined them, as he had been with the leaders during the dinner and, as such, had witnessed the arrival of the Primordial Demon and learned about everything they had learned, "We've learned about the Shadowlands, the afterlives that the souls go to, and the forces that lead some of the other Cosmic Forces, and even with all that there's more for us to learn... at least now, without the Legion looming over our heads and no Old Gods seeking to corrupt us, we can learn in relative peace." "Indeed, because Azeroth is safer than she's been in the past," Spitfire stated, as she understood Khadgar's feelings on the matter and agreed that there was more for them to find out about their universe, especially the Cosmic Forces, before she thought about something else for a few seconds, "who knows, we might be lucky and witness her awakening at some point in the future... maybe not now, since I'm sure she's got a few more years, maybe even hundreds, of sleeping to do before she wakes up and manifests into the Titan that the Pantheon has been waiting for." "The 'strongest Titan in all of creation'... yeah, I'm not buying that right now," a third voice said, where Spitfire knew who it belonged to without having to look at all, as Sarya had decided to stick around and scout out potential succubi, those who willingly wanted to walk that path, before finding an unamused look on Khadgar's face and that Illidan had raised one of his eyebrows, "What? Surely you guys can't believe that Azeroth is, in fact, the strongest Titan in the universe, not after the fierce battle between Spiftire and the Dark Titan? I mean, she's certainly strong and would make a great champion for the Cosmic Force she eventually joins, if she ever decides to do such a thing, but you have to realize that none of the heroes who call Azeroth home would have been able to produce someone capable of facing and taking down the Dark Titan! Not that Rainbow taking down Argus wasn't as incredible... in fact that was awesome, how she fought a Titan and toppled it in battle... but let's say there is another Titan out there, one that is capable of producing some of the mightiest heroes and champions that the universe has ever seen!" "Are you suggesting that Equus, the home of Spitfire and Rainbow, harbors a Titan's World-Soul?" Illidan asked, though at the same time Khadgar seemed to be thinking about the same thing that he was thinking, and had spoken the instant the Sayaad had stopped talking, where Sarya nodded her head and watched as the three of them considered her words for a few moments, even though it wasn't long before they came to their own decisions, which put a slight smile on Sarya's face as she waited to hear their thoughts, "Makes sense, given how unique Spitfire and Rainbow were before they appeared in Shadowmoon Valley all those years ago, and joined the Illidari once they learned what the Dark Titan was planning for the rest of the universe, since it also involved their home world, though it does make one wonder something important. Are all of Equus' citizens as powerful as Spitfire and Rainbow were in the past, before taking in the powers that shaped them into the incredible heroes they became?" "The implications of that would be both grand and disastrous at the same time," Khadgar remarked, though Spitfire had a feeling that she knew what he was going to say, since she had been thinking about it since Sarya had mentioned it, where she believed the Sayaad had been thinking of creating a world of overpowered demons, or at least entertaining the idea of such a thing even though she didn't seem to care about avenging her fallen kin, before the Archmage started talking again and drew their attention to him once more, "just imagine what would happen if Equus fell to, say, the Legion, or embraced the power of the Light, or if they were consumed by the Void... whatever Cosmic Force were to take over the world in such a way would gain an army unlike anything ever seen before, one unlike those that came before them, and I'm sure that all of their enemies would fall before the might of their power. Its like we've said in the past, regardless if you two were with us or not, we're fortunate that neither of you ended up on one of the Legion's worlds, or a world taken by the Void, or any of the other dangerous worlds that are out there, otherwise we would have been facing off against an enemy we wouldn't be able to defeat... I shudder to think what would have happened had we faced off against either you or Rainbow on the field of battle." "Depending on who found them... death, destruction, trickery, or stealthy corruption," Sarya commented, where it was all too easy for Spitfire to figure out which one the Sayaad would have picked had she found her and Rainbow all those years ago, as most succubi seemed to want the two of them for their own, before Sarya shrugged for a few seconds, showing all of them that she had no idea what would have happened to the pair had they been discovered by the other types of foul demons in the universe, other than what she just said anyway, "but if the forces of Azeroth were able to ally with the rest of Equus, and teach them how to wield the powers of the universe, you would become allies of possibly the greatest force in the entire universe... not counting this other demonic army that Xahvalan had mentioned." Spitfire nodded her head to that statement, because while all of them had an idea of what to expect with the Titans and all of the residents of Azeroth, given everything she and Rainbow had been through lately, they had no idea what to expect due to the arrival of Sarya. She still found herself thinking about part of the Sayaad's statement, about how if they taught the ponies and races of Equus about the Cosmic Forces they could create a force that was unlike anything that had been seen in the universe. Such a thing depended on what Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had to say on the matter, given what happened to Sombra a thousand years ago, though such a thing would require heading home and seeing what sort of reaction the people had to their return. It was something to consider for the time being, as they still had to find a way back to Equus, due to the fact that she was sure that the Sargerite Keystone might not be of help in this situation, but with the Legion's defeat she knew they had the time to rest and consider their options before attempting to go back home and see what was going on. As Spitfire considered those facts, like the others did at the same time, she felt a shift in the Arcane power that was in the air, the pull coming from Silithus based on what she was sensing, and it was easy for her to see that the others stopped for a moment to see what was up with her. "Something's wrong, though what I'm not entirely sure." Spitfire remarked, though that was followed by the ground below them shaking for a few seconds, not enough to do any damage to any of the buildings around them, which she was happy to see, but it was powerful enough to disturb all of Stormwind, hence why she beckoned to the others and returned to the Keep, finding that Rainbow and everyone else were already getting ready, "Romuul, prepare the Vindicaar for launch... I'm not sure what we'll find in Silithus, since there isn't much that could create a small quake like that, but this cannot be good for the rest of Azeroth." Velen and his chosen captain nodded before heading out for the beacon that had been fired down into Stormwind earlier, where Spitfire and the others followed after them without delay, allowing everyone to board the Vindicaar once more, all while discovering that Magni was worried and meant that whatever was going on was tied to Azeroth's World-Soul, just as she thought. Once everyone was ready to go, and Spitfire was sure of it, they departed from the city and headed for the area that they were interested in, where the Vindicaar's power allowed them to surge through the air at blinding speeds and come to a stop above Silithus without delay. What they discovered was that there was a storm of Arcane energy that was gathering in the middle of the desert they were investigating, though they quickly figured out that this was no normal storm, not when Amun'thul and the other Titans appeared all over the province, meaning they were as worried as Magni was right now. The Titans quickly determined that something was wrong and started to pour their energies into calming the frightened World-Soul, or maybe they were aiding her in some manner, causing her to stand there for a moment and think about the situation they had just discovered. When she came to a decision the rest of the dimensional fleet, sensing that something was wrong after the low quake they experienced, warped into Silithus and gathered around the area that the Vindicaar was resting in, something that gave all of them a chance to see what was going on in front of them and that the Titans had come to Azeroth to assist all of them with this event, to which she nodded to Romuul for a moment as he connected them to the rest of her fleet. "Champions of Azeroth, an unexpected event has occurred and the Titans are in need of assistance," Spitfire stated, due to the fact that she knew that none of the Titans had recovered enough energy to do whatever it was they were hoping to do, especially since the battle with Argus hadn't been that long ago by this point in time, hence why she was aiming to lend them the aid of those who called this world home, including her and Rainbow since it might stabilize what they were seeing at the moment, "call forth your magic, whatever size and element it might be, and direct it towards the storm that Amun'thul and the Titans are trying to calm." What happened was that the heroes, sensing what she had in mind, started to move and divide themselves, arranging all of them and the fleet among the six points that the Titans were standing in, resembling a massive version of the wings that Spitfire had, or maybe a massive version of a map that reflected the six Cosmic Forces of the universe. As that went down she teleported outside the Vindicaar and flew into the air above the storm, watching as the Xenedar came to a stop to the northwest, behind Khaz'goroth, before firing a beam of Light energy into the storm that joined the energy. A couple of moments later the Botanica, which had a Genesaur and all sorts of Life users aboard it, as in the Wild Gods, stopped to the west of the storm, just behind Eonar, and loosed a beam of green Life energy once they were ready. While they aided Eonar the Eye came to a stop near Amun'thul, who was standing to the southwest of the storm, leading to the mages and those who used Arcane energy gathered their power before sending an Arcane beam into the mix. As that happened something caught Spitfire's eye as the Fel Hammer, having sensed what was going on as well, warped into the northeastern space and paused in the space behind Aggramar, who was standing in the space that the Fel wing resided in, where Rainbow joined them and channeled her power into a Fel beam that joined the growing storm. While they did that the Arcatraz stopped near Golganneth before sending out a beam of Death energy, provided by all of the death knights who called this world home, and likely included the Lich King, given that he was the greatest force of Death energy right now. Of course the Arcatraz was to the east of this storm, which left a position to the southeast that needed to be filled, though it didn't take long for the Vindicaar to come to a stop behind the last of the six Titans, Norgannon to be exact, before loosing a beam of Void energy. That led her to a new discovery, as Alleria had been missing during the large celebration, she hadn't had time to think about it due to the fact that Dusk and his allies had so much to share with her, but the Void Elf had found more of her kind, Blood Elves who had been studying the Void and became like her, meaning they had a whole new breed of elves to deal with and it was they who were providing this final beam. As all of that happened Spitfire spread her wings while calling upon her own power, summoning a large sphere of Cosmic energy above her head, one that she hoped would bring balance to Azeroth's own immense power, or at least calm her to the point where no one had to worry about anything terrible happening. As she did that Spitfire found that the remaining ships in the fleet were loosing smaller beams of energy into the storm, the heroes and people of Azeroth were doing their part to aid their world in her time of need. While she was forming her sphere she noticed something, the Night Elves who had been guarding this province from the Silithid were nowhere to be seen, meaning all of the buildings were deserted and no one would be caught up in whatever the Titans were doing, which was fine with her since she didn't want to catch anyone in this. When her sphere was ready, and she was sure of that, Spitfire shifted her arm and sent the mass of energy down towards the storm, where she and the rest of the assembled residents of Azeroth watched as it quickly descended and struck her target, something that was followed by the sphere merging with the storm and all of the energy that was being fired at it. A couple of moments later something interesting happened, the energy started to spill out of the storm and she watched as the natural disaster started to collapse on them, the energy surging outwards as it started to form a massive mirror over the desert of Silithus, a perfectly flat one at that, causing Amun'thul to beckon for everyone to stop. With that single motion everyone, as no one dared to go against the wishes of the Titans, stopped what they were doing and observed the mass of energy that was in front of them, which was losing its storm form before their eyes. The mirror flattened anything and everything that was around it, to make sure it had no problems or obstacles, though it was massive and seemed to cover most of the province they were in, one that had to be enough for a Titan to pass through when they matured into a full Titan. One other thing Spitfire noticed was that it simmered with all six Cosmic Forces working in unison, which was a combination of everyone's efforts, before watching as the energy swirled around for a few moments before she and the others watched as something started to emerge from the mass. What she spotted was a World-Soul, the constellation soul of a Titan, which meant it had to be Azeroth's and told her that they were witnessing something special right now, they were observing and assisting in the awakening of a Titan, the one all of the Cosmic Forces had been fighting over for so long. After she spotted it, however, it sunk into the energy that was below it not a few seconds later, like someone taking a dip in a pool, meaning the Titans must have summoned it to make sure nothing was wrong with Azeroth's World-Soul. Not a few seconds later the energy of the mirror surged into one spot and formed a sphere of energy, one that happened to glimmer in the sunlight, that seemed to be more like a moon when Spitfire studied it, where she was sure Khadgar and the other mages would agree with her on this. For a time it seemed as if nothing would happen, as if the awakening had failed, before she and the others watched as the mass shrunk down to the size a Titan used when they walked on a planet, like when Spitfire faced Sargeras earlier. A few moments later the energy broke off and revealed a beautiful lady standing there, looking a lot like Eonar in terms of her body shape, though it appeared that she was more elven due to her long pointed ears and blue colored eyes, who had light blue skin that was covered by an elven dress of some kind, one that showed the sides of her stomach area for some reason, and she had long blue hair that stopped just below her shoulders. "Azeroth, the Titan of the Cosmos," Spitfire commented, as this was unexpected, seeing the awakening of a Titan, though as she thought about it for a time she decided not to overthink what they were seeing right now, while the figure raised her right arm and stared at her fingers. "I... I am awake at last..." the newly awakened Titan said, where Spitfire discovered that her voice was sweet and songlike, though Amun'thul and the other Titans headed over to the area that she was floating in, causing her to turn towards each of them in time as she felt each of their powers, where she didn't have to worry, as Azeroth had awakened just fine, but that was before she smiled for a moment and bowed her head towards the fleet, "Thank you, citizens of my planet, for protecting me all these years and fighting off those who would do me harm, or use me for their own purposes, and thank you, champions of my sister, for aiding all of my champions in driving off those who sought to claim my soul for their dark and nefarious purposes... I promise to do everything in my power to ensure that both of our worlds remain safe and face no danger." This was all the confirmation that Spitfire needed, as Eonar seemed confused for a few seconds before she and the rest of the Titans understood what Azeroth was even talking about, Equus had a World-Soul slumbering inside it and it explained, to a degree, why she and Rainbow were so powerful, given their connection to their own planet's magic. Before she could say anything, like say 'it was nothing' and actually talk with the awakened Titan, a surge of energy washed over this area and caused her to turn her head for a moment. She and Rainbow found Discord, in all his chaotic glory, nearby, a fact that told them that he must have warped into the area after feeling all of the energy that they had poured into making sure the slumbering Titan woke up just fine. He was unable to say anything as his jaw dropped as he saw all of the powerful Titans staring at him, many studying him since this was the first time they had seen anything like him, while the heroes had to wonder what his arrival meant for all of them. "Well then, I guess its time for Rainbow and I to head home," Spitfire remarked, though as she said that she found that a small item had been teleported over to her, not doubt by Amun'thul, and discovered that it was the Sargerite Keystone, a fact that brought a slight smile to her face for a moment as she grasped it, "and we'll take the Vindicaar with us, as the rest can stay here and take a break... while we see what in the world has happened to our world since we were last there." With the Legion destroyed, and Sargeras felled, it was about time that she and Rainbow headed back home and see what state Equus was in, since it had been some time since the day they were teleported over here, and they were interested in seeing what might have changed before getting ready for the eventual arrival of the other demonic threat. > Interlude: Back to Equus > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once the command had been given Spitfire watched as the majority of the dimensional fleet turned around and headed back to whatever part of Azeroth they had been stationed above before the sudden small quake had occurred, while the Vindicaar remained resting nearby as several of their friends and allies gathered aboard it. Of course they had a couple of special guests who wanted to come with them, as the Titans wanted to see the other world that contained a Titan's World-Soul deep inside it, all while making sure there were no Old Gods to deal with. Spitfire was sure that if their world had one or more of the Void creatures they would have been dealt with in due time, given their history of taking out villains with all sorts of powers, so she remained silent as the Titans, Azeroth included, shrunk to the size of a Human before joining them on the ship. As she expected the newly awakened figure was studying the races that were on the Vindicaar, since this was her first time seeing them with her eyes, instead of whatever she saw in her slumbering state, and everyone else wanted to get a closer look at her. Spitfire was happy to see that everyone was overjoyed about this situation, that they had beaten the Legion and were able to assist in the awakening of a Titan, which meant the universe would be a safer place for everyone, even though it would take some time to crush whatever remnants of the Legion's power remained. As she thought about that a figure stood off to the side, Sarya to be exact, meaning the succubus was interested in her, more than what she had said previously, and it meant those lessons might be coming sooner than she expected. Such a thing made her think about the artifact that had been passed to her not a few moments ago, the Fel-infused keystone that many had fought and died to claim, which she knew had lost its purpose now that the Legion had been toppled. With her power she knew what needed to be done in the future, it had to be converted into a key to their worlds, as in Azeroth, Equus, and the worlds that were allied with the large army she and Rainbow had formed to combat Sargeras' forces. As she thought about that, however, Spitfire found that Velen was walking up to where she was standing, no doubt due to the fact that he was ready to depart from this place but were waiting for her to give the order, and Discord was standing nearby as well, near the navigation console, observing everything that was going on. "Lady Spitfire, we are ready to depart when you give the command," Velen said, as he and the others knew that there was something on her mind, due to the fact that he had observed her for some time since the two factions banded together, and Romuul was prepared to do whatever she commanded, even though he could see Spitfire using a bit of her Cosmic energy to alter the keystone. "Seriously? You're a 'Lady' now?" Discord asked, because he remembered what he discovered during the last time he had been on this planet, that neither Spitfire or Rainbow were high up in the food chain and seemed to be more like soldiers who were following someone else's orders, but this told him that a lot had changed after his last visit, especially when he felt the power in her and Rainbow. As he said that, however, Discord heard a number of weapons being drawn and found that some of the heroes looked like they were offended by him not believing that Spitfire was one of the highest ranking members of this world, but before he could do anything Spitfire beckoned to them and the heroes withdrew their weapons without delay. "Yes, Discord, I am 'Lady' Spitfire now, as I am the Grand Commander of the Grand Army of Azeroth, which formed after the downfall of Gul'dan," Spitfire replied, though while there was a lot more that brought about the event she was talking about, given the events of Draenor, she didn't want to get involved in a long story right now, hence why she glanced over to Romuul for a moment, "Romuul, it is time for us to depart... you may begin whenever you are ready to do so." Romuul nodded his head for a second as he tapped a few icons on the navigation console that was in front of them, which caused the Vindicaar to rise out of the air of Silithus and head towards space once more, despite the fact that this time he knew there was no final destination in mind, since the portal between worlds was gone. A few moments later he reached a good distance from Azeroth's surface and brought the Vindicaar to a stop, even though he knew that it was within range of the area that the rift between worlds had been located in, before bowing his head towards Spitfire. Once that was done Spitfire headed outside, mostly by using magic to teleport herself into the space in front of the ship, before she produced a silver keystone and applied a bit of power to it, just like what Illidan had done when he used it earlier. It only took a few seconds for the Keystone to react to her energy, where it started to spin above her hand and she sent it flying out into the space that was in front of them, which was followed by a new rift in space opening and she smiled when she saw what was on the other side. What they discovered was a planet that was as large as Azeroth and seemed at peace, to which Spitfire teleported back to Romuul's side and pointed at the area she wanted to go to, the plains near Ponyville to be exact, where the pilot quickly confirmed her orders and let her step back. Once the rift was stable Romuul sent the Vindicaar flying through it and they quickly passed into the space that was above Equus, where he focused on the area that Spitfire had marked for him, allowing everyone to stare down at the planet they were currently heading towards. As they did that, however, Spitfire made sure to close the rift once they were on the other side, allowing her to collect the Keystone while making sure not to leave something behind that might startle the races of this world, since she knew some would freak out if they saw the rift. Of course the first thing many of the passengers saw was the rather tall mountain off to their right that had a large city attached to it, where she and Rainbow said nothing as everyone took in the sights of Canterlot for the first time. After that they found some train tracks that left the city and the pair found that many eyes were following the tracks, where it headed out to the plains that Spitfire had pointed at earlier, connecting to a large settlement that interested Velen and the others immediately. Rainbow smiled as she noticed the rather large settlement, a town that she was very familiar with, while the others found a decent sized town hall, what appeared to be a castle made of crystal, all sorts of shops, and a fair number of houses that the residents lived in. She glanced over the familiar sight in front of her for a few more seconds, taking in her house, the place Rarity both worked and lived in, Pinkie's place, Fluttershy's residence on the outskirts, and Applejack's farm with all of the apple trees, as area she would have to visit later. As she and Spitfire took in all of the familiar sights their allies took some time to take in everything that was in front of them, especially the darkness of the Everfree Forest, which no one in the town seemed afraid of, since they set up their settlement near it. They were slightly amused by the looks on the faces of their allies, especially since this world was so different from the one that everyone was used to, regardless of whether they were thinking of Azeroth or Draenor. As they did that Spitfire noticed that there happened to be an odd device resting out in the plains near Ponyville, a stone arch of some kind that had a crystal inserted into the uppermost part of it and seemed to have magic attached to it, which she was interested in and hoped to learn about at some point. "Welcome to Equus, or, to be more exact, the continent of Equestria and the town of Ponyville," Spitfire said, where it felt like a lifetime ago where she and Rainbow had been in this town, a place that didn't look like it had changed at all, which also seemed applicable to the residents if what she was seeing was accurate, as she could see Mayor Mare was outside the town hall and it didn't look like she had aged a day since the last time she had been in Ponyville, causing her to chuckle for a moment as she glanced backwards, "So, what do you think?" "This is the world you and Rainbow fought to protect? It is so... peaceful." Velen remarked, as there was no other way for him and the others to describe what they were seeing right now, this world was nothing like Azeroth, Argus, and all of the other worlds that they had seen during their quest to bring down the Legion and the Dark Titan who lead them, which also explained why she and Rainbow had been so passive when they first arrived in Outland. As Khadgar and the others nodded their heads, however, the heroes found something interesting as they focused on the town that was in front of them, there were a number of quadrupedal horse creatures, ponies Illidan realized since he did recall what he had been told all those years ago, walking around the town. Based on what they knew some were stallions and the others were mares, both types having individuals with large and small frames, while some had horns, others had wings, and some had nothing attached to their bodies. Spitfire took a moment to explain the races that lived in Ponyville, and the types to be exact, as she directed Romuul to head over to the Everfree Forest so they didn't draw any unwanted attention, allowing them to learn about the Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns that lived in Ponyville. Of course she also noticed a fair number of Griffins, Dragons, and, if her eyes weren't deceiving her, Diamond Dogs hanging out with the residents of the town, which was incredibly odd based on what she remembered, causing her and Rainbow to turn their heads so they could look at Discord. "Like I told you earlier, you weren't the first of our displaced... that honor belongs to Spike and Ember," Discord stated, as he must have gotten tired of remaining silent and had decided this was a good time to talk, even though he could see that both Spitfire and Rainbow were interested in the sudden change to Ponyville, the arrival of multiple races that didn't want anything to do with ponies, but now it looked like something had caused them to change their minds and interact with the races of Equestria, especially when he noticed that Rainbow had spotted some Zebras, Yaks, Hippogriffs, and Changelings among the number of races in the town, "they, um, changed things around here... that's all I can say on the matter, since they would do a better job explaining things to the two of you and your allies." Spitfire wondered what could have happened to Spike and Ember to warrant such a thing, though since Discord was, for some odd reason, keeping his mouth shut there wasn't much she could do to learn about what had occurred, though that was when the Titans paused for a moment and then focused on part of the Everfree Forest. Such a thing caused her to have Romuul follow their directions, even though she had a feeling that she knew where they were going, since it seemed like they must have felt a brief surge of Equus' Titan power and were following the echo it must have left behind. It didn't take them long to reach the castle that the Princesses had lived in all those years ago, though when Romuul stopped the ship she, Rainbow, and all of the Titans headed down to the gorge that their true destination rested in, and sure enough a beacon was fired down as well. Such a thing allowed Khadgar, Velen, and a few others to join them in seeing what in the world might be happening to Equus' World-Soul, leaving the others on the ship to make sure the area was clear and talk to whoever might show up, as they didn't want the ponies to think they were an invasion force. Discord, of course, decided to come with them so he could see what happened when they reached the end of the cave, as he must have known about their planet's World-Soul and didn't say much about it the last time he came to talk with them, but they weren't annoyed with him for not sharing that information, given their focus on the war. A few seconds later they found the entrance of the cave, thank to Rainbow's knowledge of the area, to which they landed and walked through the opening, finding a familiar tunnel Spitfire had been in once before, though she suspected that they would find the key to speaking with the slumbering Titan in due time. As she expected they found the crystalline tree that Rainbow had told her about, which contained the six Elements of Harmony inside it and had some sort of connection to something Discord did to the Everfree Forest at one point in time, rested at the end of the tunnel, inside a decent sized cavern at the end of the tunnel, which caused their allies to raise their eyebrows as they spotted it. Based on what she could see that there was nothing else in the cavern, save for the Tree, and she to come to a stop, which caused everyone else to do the same thing as the Titans walked up to where the tree rested, making everyone wonder what was going to happen next. Amun'thul and the others breathed a sigh of relief for a few seconds, meaning that Equus wasn't in danger and that she might have been responding to their arrival, though after that happened they watched as Azeroth stepped forward and came to a stop in front of the Tree. "Sister... thank you for sending some of your champions to help me," Azeroth said, where she raised her hand and rested her right palm on the crystalline bark, something that caused the tree to shimmer for a moment, almost as if in response to what she was doing, while at the same time Amun'thul, Eonar, and the rest of the Titans nodded their heads, to show the slumbering World-Soul that everyone agreed with what the new Titan was saying, "now its our turn to do the same for you, as the other Titans and I, not to mention all of our collective champions, will do everything in our power to make sure the incoming demonic invasion is repelled and make it so that you are able to sleep in peace." "So the Professor was right, more of our displaced have returned," a voice said, to which Spitfire and Rainbow turned their heads and glanced at the opening of the cave for a second, where they found a humanoid dragon standing at the cave entrance, one who seemed to have a lean body while wearing a light blue robe over his body, one that didn't even touch the ground, before they found that it also had a collar made of light gray feathers, before they found that the dragon's scales were purple colored and Rainbow assumed his chest scales were light green colored, and he was carrying a rather interesting looking staff in his right hand, which had a purple gem at the top and a ring of runes around it, "Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, I'm glad that you two made it back safely, especially after what Discord told us you were up to, but before we start answering questions, since I'm sure you have some for us, allow me to introduce myself: I am Spike, the youngest Archmage in the Dragon Realms, brother to Spyro, the greatest hero to grace the Dragon Realms, and Ember, who is the greatest warrior in all of the lands as well." "Spike, it is good to hear that you and Ember are well," Spitfire replied, though while Discord had said nothing about who else had been displaced, since they had been busy earlier, it did seem like the young dragon had been sent somewhere that allowed him to grow into a rather powerful individual and she was sure it was the same for Ember, the Dragon Lord if her memory was correct, before she beckoned to the others for a moment, "Allow me to introduce Archmage Khadgar, one of the members of the Council of Dalaran, Prophet Velen, leader of the Draenei, Illidan Stormrage, Lord of the Illidari and the one who taught Rainbow and I how to fight, and the Titans of our universe: Amun'thul, Eonar, Aggramar, Azeroth, Norgannon, Golganneth, and Khaz'goroth. We also have a number of heroes from Azeroth aboard the Vindicaar, which is resting above the ruined castle right now, though you'll be able to meet them in due time... though we're just checking on the slumbering World-Soul of our world, making sure the nascent Titan is just fine." "World-Soul? Okay, you have my attention now, especially with a brand new topic for me to research," Spike said, where Spitfire and Rainbow watched as he shifted his stance for a moment, as he pushed part of his robe to the side and quickly revealed that he had a pouch of some kind that had a number of writing materials inside it, quills, parchment, and inkwells no doubt. In addition to that they found that he also had journals resting inside the pouch, as if he was waiting for an adventure or something to happen, before he settled on a couple of items and focusing on the Titans as he appeared near the area that they were standing, almost as if he had teleported over to them after gathering his supplies. "Wow, he's like Twilight now," Rainbow commented, as the moment Spike neared the Titans he started to ask questions, as he was eager to learn more about them and the World-Soul that was slumbering inside their planet, though she had a feeling that if he found his way to Dalaran, or any of the parts of Azeroth that contained a bunch of knowledge, he would have a field day, even if it was odd seeing him like this, since it reminded her of Twilight. "You aren't the first one to say that," a new voice said, where Spitfire and Rainbow glanced at the cave opening once more and found that three more dragons had arrived while they were focused on Spike, all standing at around the same height as Spike, finding a blue scaled dragon who seemed to be wearing steel armor, molded to fit her body and likely didn't even weigh her down, another female dragon that had an interesting set of attire on that had to be armor, possibly made out of some material neither of them recognized, while her scales were black colored and she had ivory horns, and a dragon who had purple scales with a yellow color in place of Spike's light green color, though he seemed to be wearing the attire of an aviator, which she and Rainbow had seen on some Gnomes during their time in Azeroth, before the other male dragon stepped forward, "I'm sure Spike already mentioned our names, but I'm Spyro, this is Ember, our sister, and my girlfriend Cynder, plus we have a few others coming as well, namely Elora, Hunter, and Bianca, as everyone else stayed back in the academy, to help with the training our recruits are going through. Anyway, like I said, you aren't the first ones to mention such a thing about Spike, as he's one of the smartest dragons in our world and knows far more about magic than anyone else we know, save for Malefor anyway, and I can tell you that some of the residents of this world were surprised by the sudden change he went through... even though we're used to it, since Ember and I spent fifteen years with Spike and have seen what happens when he discovers something new, be it a new continent, a pair of facilities on the moons orbiting our world, or a long lost treasure trove of knowledge." "I'm still trying to figure out why that happened, and my best guess is that the displacement process mixed with my soon to be repressed memories of Twilight, and that magic might have mixed with the nature of the Artisans Homeworld when Ember and I arrived," Spike stated, showing everyone that he was listening to what Spyro was saying and that he had his own opinion to add to the conversation, even though it was clear that he had already learned a lot from Amun'thul, given that the single page had developed into five and he promised to have a better discussion with the Titans once they were done explaining things to Spitfire and Rainbow, all while Rainbow just stood there with her jaw dropped, as Spike was like a whole new dragon at this point, "though if that was the case, and I'm positive that it is close to the truth of why I turned out like this, it doesn't explain why Ember wasn't affected in a similar manner... best I can come up with, after taking that into account, is that my magic bonded with the power of the Artisans Homeworld and Ember's magic must have done the same with the Peace Keeper's Homeworld, despite the fact that we appeared in the lands Nestor watched over and not in Titan's lands." "Basically, he has a few ideas on what might have happened, but no clear answers," Ember remarked, revealing that all of them were used to Spike speaking in this manner or style and knew what he was talking about, to the point where one or more of them could easily sum up what he might be talking about, something that caused Spike to nod his head for as he made sure his notes were organized and safely stored away, before Rainbow noticed that he was wearing a blue wizard's hat on his head, one with holes for his horns no less, "neither of you are wearing all that much, but based on what I can see both of you carry interesting weapons, ones that I've never seen before." "These are called warglaives, while mine are known as the Twinblades of the Cosmos and Rainbow's are known as the Aldrachi Warblades, though she modified them a little to fit her new form," Spitfire replied, where she held her hands up for a few seconds and pulled her blades out of her demonic horns, surprising most of the dragons while interesting Spike as he took a moment to document what he had been shown, even though Ember ran a hand over the blades as she studied them in great detail while both Spyro and Cynder watched for now, before she beckoned to Illidan, who pulled out his warglaives a few seconds later, "and our mentor wields the Warglaives of Azzinoth, while the rest of the Illidari wield unnamed versions of these weapons, save for Allari, who carries a scythe into battle. As for our attire, we're used to wearing the robes of an Illidari, giving us maximum mobility while not being weighed down by some of the heavier armors that some of Azeroth's heroes wore into battle, though the attire I'm wearing came from me gaining all six Cosmic Forces and balancing them out, which came with this staff for some odd reason... and Spike, before you ask, I'm sure that one of the Archmages would be willing to exchange information with you, since they're likely eager to learn more about Equus and the world that you and Ember were sent to." "Korma. That's the name Malefor, the historians, scientists, leaders, and I came up with for our world," Spike stated, which told Spitfire something interesting as many of them turned towards Spike's group, that the world Spyro and the rest of the dragons Spike and Ember had grown up with, a race of dragons who seemed different from those she was used to, didn't have a name for a very long time and Spike had gotten around to convincing the others to name it, just for the books and tomes no doubt, "though I welcome the chance to talk with your Archmages, as you two have caused so many questions to spring up in my mind and I'm eager to expand my knowledge, maybe learn a few new spells along the way. As Spike said that Spitfire noticed that three new arrivals had appeared outside the cave, where the first was a humanoid cheetah who stood on two legs and was wearing what appeared to be ranger clothing over his body, like he was a scout or something, and he carried a bow on his back, as in it rested inside a quiver with some arrows. They quickly found another humanoid being to his right, a cream furred rabbit girl who was wearing an open purple robe over an orange dress, which did stop halfway to her knees, and it looked like she had a wand in her right hand. The third figure was an oddity, as she looked like a humanoid deer whose body had been twisted into a mix of deer and dragon, which was due to the fact that her fingers looked like sharpened claws, she had clawed feet like Spike and the others had, and she had a pair of dragon wings and a dragon tail. As the group took in what they were seeing right now, and the Titans raised their eyebrows for a couple of seconds, Spitfire glanced at Discord with an accusing look in her eyes, as it seemed like something he would do, only for the Spirit to proclaim that this instance wasn't his fault. "You must be the displaced the Professor detected, and their allies. I'm Elora, and this is Hunter and his girlfriend Bianca," the faun-dragon said, noticing who was standing in the cave as both of her companions noticed what was going on, which also gave the group a chance to see that she was wearing an interesting set of armor over her body, metallic that seemed to mimic a dragon's appearance, as in scales for the most part, though Spitfire had the feeling that her helmet, since she had to have one, likely mimicked the shape of a dragon's head and was scaled down to fit her body, "I know, I know, I'm an oddity, and I can tell you what happened to me: I was just a normal Faun before I met Spike and his siblings, where I had the Professor craft me some armor so I could join them in their adventures, and when we faced off against the villain who tried taking over the lands I called home a few years ago, a tale for another time, his unstable magic struck me and altered my body to what you see now... and, before you ask, I'm fine with it, especially since I have such a supportive and helpful boyfriend." Rainbow's jaw dropped as she and Spitfire watched as Elora kissed Spike on the cheek, something that was so shocking to her since it was Spike they were talking about, though she had to remind herself that Spike and Ember were different now and that she was going to be shocked by them for some time. "Should we retire to somewhere that is more private? There are some things I want to ask and this doesn't seem like the best place to do such a thing," Spitfire inquired, something that caused Spike and Ember to glance at each other before the pair looked over to Spyro, who nodded and beckoned for them to follow, meaning they likely knew a good place that they could talk in and allow her to figure out what they had done since they finished their own adventures, so they could plan out how to prepare for the impending invasion. At the very least it sounded like the pair had started training some recruits for the demonic invasion, even though she did have a few ideas on who might have formed the basics of their army, though this would allow her to figure some things out before seeing how many heroes would be willing to join them in advancing the training that the recruits were getting at the moment, all while waiting to see what happened when all of the other displaced, whoever they were, returned from their adventures and added their power and allies to their might, but for now she focused on the here and now as she and the others followed Spike's group, knowing that this conversation was going to be important for all of them. > Interlude: Visiting the Academy > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire and Rainbow quickly discovered that the area Spyro, Spike, Ember, and Cynder were leading them to was the castle in Ponyville, instead of the ruined one they had parked the Vindicaar above before seeing the Tree of Harmony, which told them that there had to be a reason behind such a decision and caused them to remain silent as they followed the group in front of them. Doing that gave the pair a chance to study the first of the displaced for a time while taking in the changes that both Spike and Ember had gone through, since they were different from what they remembered, and as that happened Spitfire was sure they were studying her and Rainbow as well. Based on everything she had seen so far it looked like Ember was more like a warrior princess than what she had been in the past, while Spike, true to his word, was more knowledgeable in the art of wielding magic, given what Khadgar had found out so far. What surprised them was the spell Spike had chosen to show them, as he could alter the very nature of the rocky tunnel they were walking through, as it turned to quartz for a moment, maybe marble, before returning to rock without leaving him even winded at all. Once they were outside Spitfire made sure to inform Romuul that they would be busy for awhile and that the Vindicaar was to remain in the Everfree Forest, as it was the one place that most of Equestria's residents wouldn't flock to, so they would be safe until it was time to head back to Azeroth. Such a thing prompted Khadgar to inquire about some of the things that he and the others had seen so far, while Spitfire did everything in her power to make sure he and the rest of the group from Azeroth, including the Titans, had a good idea of how things worked in this world. She gave brief descriptions of the races to them, explained how parts of Equus worked in comparison to what they were used to, and that this was, mostly, a peaceful world that didn't have any major battles in the past. Her comment caused Spike to list off some of the events that this world had experienced in the past, such as the battle between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon, with the latter being banished according to history books and what Twilight had told him, the battle for the Crystal Empire that happened before Nightmare Moon came about, the fact that Princesses Celestia and Luna faced off against Discord to free Equestria from his chaotic power. The Spirit shrugged for a moment as Spike mentioned his period of history, where he proclaimed that those days were over and that he was now using his powers for the betterment of the entire world, before Spike revealed that there were a few other events he was in the middle of researching. Rainbow was still caught off guard by how smart Spike was, even though they both knew that most of the events he had mentioned had been exaggerated, given that most of the scribes in the past painted Princess Celestia in a great light and that she could do no wrong, even though she and her friends, along with a few others, knew the truth, and when they reached Ponyville Spitfire thought of something. "Spike, how did the residents of Ponyville take the news of what's coming our way?" Spitfire asked, as based on what she could see it appeared that no one in the town was freaking out about anything right now, which was odd and made her wonder if some of the key figures in this place had gone missing around the same thing she and Rainbow went missing, but she wanted to be sure of something before speaking her mind. "At first we tried to make it so that the civilians didn't know about the demonic threat that's coming, but, well, that failed in no time at all," Spike replied, though at the same time they came to a stop in front of the castle's entrance and he tapped his staff on the steps that lead to the Human sized door, where he used a very small amount of power to undo a spell he had placed on this structure in the past, unlocking the main entrance while keeping the Anti-Teleportation spell in place, before he beckoned for the others to enter the castle and reapplied the spell as soon as everyone was inside, "we mostly told the leaders of the various races about the threat and they sent some of their guards to us, so they could be trained and made ready for what was coming towards our world, but despite our efforts to keep this a secret, and we tried hard to ensure no one panicked, someone learned of the threat and spread the word... only for us to gain an influx of allies in the process, as in those who call Equus want to help us ensure the safety of our world, even if we have no idea when our enemies will arrive." "Titan and the rest of the Peace Keepers were happy to have more recruits to train, since they are warriors trained in the arts of fighting to protect all of the Dragon Realms," Ember added, revealing that there was something that had happened once the residents of Ponyville realized what was going on with her and Spike, plus all of the guards who came from the other parts of this world, though as she said that they made their way to what appeared to be a dining room, a large one that likely didn't see much use these days, where everyone sat at the tables that were in it, "Spike's been trying to create an 'Awakening' Spell, one that will replicate the ability to draw out one's true power without actually displacing them, so instead of turning into a more humanoid state, like what you two gained. Supposedly they'll retain their base form while gaining all sorts of power, to prepare for what's coming our way, though, well, he hasn't completed it yet, and he says that it'll take some time before he's done perfecting the spell." Spitfire considered that idea for a few moments, as awakening the slumbering power within the races of Equus would, in fact, boost how much power they would have access to, even if those who used this spell wouldn't be as powerful as the ones that were displaced by Equus' World-Soul, though after thinking about that she had another topic for them to discuss for a time. "Sounds like you guys have been busy since the end of your adventures," Spitfire remarked, referring to the fact that Spike and Ember, along with Spyro, Cynder, and those who were sitting around them, had been busy once whatever adventure they had been on came to a close, something they would have to tell her and Rainbow about at some point, before finding that many of the individuals that were sitting near the two dragons nodded their heads in agreement, which caused her to truly wonder what Spike and Ember had done on the world they had been sent to, "Rainbow and I were busy as well, as we trained in the arts of fighting demons, taking the fight to their worlds, and killing them in a place that made it so none of them would be able to return, especially given that our warglaives allowed us to capture their souls and prevent any of our enemies from being revived at some point. During our war against the Legion, the army of demons that we ended up fighting against, we joined forces with the two factions that were in the middle of defending Azeroth, the Alliance and the Horde, though I was forced to take down one of their leaders, as she was planning on filling the world with death while we were fighting the Legion. Eventually our allies overcame their differences and formed the Grand Army of Azeroth, a united front that would face the Dark Titan's twisted armies, and all of the leaders decided, after some time, to name me as their Grand Commander. Long story short, the Grand Army of Azeroth, after hearing that there is another demonic army out there, has sworn to do everything in their power to aid Equus and take down our new enemies, a demon king known as Dymalis and his army, though to do that we need to see what sort of skills you and your recruits have, what skills you need to practice, and figure out a good way to travel from one point to another." "So, how did you guys get back anyway?" Elora asked, as that was the big question that she and the others had on their minds might now, even though they knew that Discord was responsible for leaving a trail for Spitfire and Rainbow to use to get back home. "Spitfire used an artifact to open a massive rift, which will freak people out if we use it more often." Rainbow answered, as that was essentially what had happened, though she could see that Spike was already making notes on what she and the people from Azeroth had said, something she was going to have to get used to. "If you give Spike whatever you used to open that rift, which the Professor picked up on since it was a massive amount of magic being used, he'll figure something out," Spyro replied, something that caused Spitfire to grasp the pouch that held the now modified Sargerite Keystone and made sure it wasn't attached to her attire, before she carefully handed it over to Spike for a moment, who accepted the pouch and quickly pulled the device from it so he could study it, before Spyro took a moment to sigh as he considered something that they needed to know, "we'll likely be able to make and power a portal arch, like you likely saw in the plains near this town, that will link Equus to Azeroth, so you can move between this world and the world you were sent to. Unfortunately, I don't think we can make any forts or castles in the surrounding area, as most of the land is owned by certain individuals and Spike is sure that most of them won't simply hand it over, even if it would allow us to prepare for the incoming invasion, and given that Princess Cadance rules over the Crystal Empire she won't be able to help you with anything. If any of the other Princesses, such as Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle, were here than things would be different... now that I think about that, we might want to link Azeroth to Korma, that way you can have easier access to the Skylanders Academy and the training grounds that we designed to prepare our forces for the invasion." "Wait, Twilight and the other Princesses are missing? How many displaced are there?" Rainbow asked, because while this was news to them, especially since Discord had said nothing about the others whenever he came for them, so she was a little curious as to who else might be missing and what that meant for them, given that they had no idea when Dymalis' forces would arrive. "From what we were shown, as Equus showed us the others, there are a good number of displaced and a decent number of worlds they were sent to," Ember said, something that interested Spitfire, as it gave them a good idea of what sort of places their missing friends had been sent to and what sort of skills they might gain before returning to Equus, but it also meant that Equus had used a bit of her power to tell the dragons what happened to the others, "Tirek was sent to a world full of insane individuals and death, Tempest seems to be in a world of ninjas, someone's been sent to a world of fighting, Luna was sent to a world that angels and demons are fighting over, and we've found that the Dazzlings are exploring the stars. In addition to that Twilight, Starlight, and another are traveling in a desert, Sunset is traveling the seas with pirates, two Changelings are lost on another world, Pinkie... well, she seems to be in two different places... Grogar is in a world full of monsters, and Celestia is attending school on another world. That is what we were shown, but Spike has felt a number of changes to the Tree's power and claims that there might be some alterations to what we had seen in the past, though we have been unable to confirm or deny his findings, so its possible that some of the displaced might be elsewhere... there's no real way for us to figure out what is going on right now." "Maybe we can offer her our aid?" Azeroth inquired, as it sounded like the nascent Titan's power was unstable and what she had shown the dragons previously might not be accurate anymore, which meant tracking down the other displaced would be much harder for the heroes to do, though at the same time she and the others knew that if things got worse it might have an effect on the planet itself. "By all means, go right ahead. If we can stabilize this planet's energies, maybe we can figure things out," Cynder said, as she had been silent for the most part and her words told the Titans that they could go do that once they were done with this conversation, though even as she said that Spitfire could see that she and the other dragons were interested in what sort of skills she and Rainbow might have, before she glanced at Spyro for a few moments, "Spyro, why don't we set up a new portal for them in the Portal Nexus, so that way the people of Azeroth can come train with us while not having to worry about freaking out anyone in Ponyville?" Spyro nodded and found that Spitfire agreed with him, to which he called for them to depart from the castle and head for the plains that the lone portal rested in, though since he knew they had a spaceship such a thing meant that they would have to quickly tell the Professor about what was coming and prepare the portal accordingly, though when everyone was outside the castle Spitfire had everyone stop as she had Romuul quickly recall the beacon he had sent down and have it land near their position, something that caused Spike to grin as they teleported aboard the Vindicaar and found all of the races that existed in Azeroth, or the heroic ones anyway. Once that was done Romuul quickly recalled the beacon before directing the Vindicaar back over to where the lone portal was resting, where Spike's group found out how fast this ship was, since it had crossed the distance in no time at all, and lead to Spike teleporting down to the portal and used it not a few seconds later, likely heading to the area that the Portal Nexus rested in, something that actually caused the portal arch to shake for a moment before shifting before their eyes, transforming into a large portal and revealing that the stone was a cover for whatever components allowed it to expand in this manner. With that done Spike returned to them and simply directed them to head through the portal, to which Spitfire nodded her head and Romuul moved the Vindicaar through it, something that lead to Spitfire, Rainbow, and all of their allies to discover a brand new area that seemed to be far above a sea or ocean, as in a set of floating islands that seemed to contain a number of different elements, due to the fact that she was sure that one seemed to contain the power of fire, another for ice, one for earth, and who knew what else. That was when everyone found a large two story building that seemed to be a school of some kind, the Skylanders Academy based on what the dragons had said earlier, which meant these islands had to be the Skylands or something, though what was interesting about what they were seeing was that this structure looked like a master had constructed it in no time, a fact that made Spitfire consider what the Artisans dragons were capable of, before she had Romuul position the Vindicaar off in the distance, so they would be out of the way and not ruin something important. As they did that she found that there was an area that had a number of portal structures, all arches of different designs no less, before spotting an arena off to the left of where the academy rested, though near the school rested a good number of statues that looked like Spike, Ember, Spyro, Cynder, and all of the heroic friends they must have made along the way, where each one seemed to have some sort of weapon that they used against their enemies, different blades that had to command some sort of power, given what they felt from Spike's staff, though while most of them carried what had to be longswords, or possibly just a normal sword in terms of appearance, with Bianca carrying a trident for some reason and Spike seemed to have a katana in his other hand. "I see you've noticed the Runeblades, powerful elemental weapons forged from the pieces of the Elemental Lords," a new voice said, to which Spitfire and the others turned to look before them for a moment and found an adult dragon, one that was far older than Spike, Ember, Spyro, and Cynder, even though his physical appearance seemed to be in his thirties or early forties, as it was hard for them to tell since the dragons of Spyro's world were different from the ones that they were used to dealing with, though while he was wearing what appeared to be a more noble and regal looking version of what Cynder was wearing right now, meaning they had to come from the same part of Korma, he also had purple scales which had been darkened by age and had some interesting horns, "if you ask Spike he'll give you a detailed story about how the Runeblades came into existence, not to mention all of their collective history and what each of them have been used to do in the distant past... his knowledge on them is quite impressive, and that's coming from someone who knows their story by heart, since I was involved with their stories." "You know the most about them since you created them, father," Cynder replied, though as she said that both Spitfire and Rainbow could feel the sheer incredible power that was coming from the dragon in question, one which might rival one of the Demon Lords that had been slain during their war with the Legion, as it felt like they might be standing in the presence of one who rivaled the power of Archimonde or Kil'jaeden, which also meant that he was capable of hiding his power until he was ready to reveal it to whoever he was currently fighting, before Cynder faced them, "Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, allow me to introduce my father, Malefor, the first of the purple dragons, the High Guardian of Warfang, Master of the types of magic that exist in our world and User of the ten elements that a dragon can wield, plus the first User and Master of three special skills: Warrior's Armor, Sage's Vision, and Conqueror's Spirit." Spitfire had to assume that those abilities were ones that Spike and Ember might have learned by this point in time, even if neither of them were sharing that information with her, Rainbow, or the rest of their group, though Cynder's comment did confirm her suspicions of how powerful Malefor happened to be, in comparison to Spike for example, though that was when Spyro revealed another reason for them coming to the area that the academy rested in, as he lead them over to an island that didn't seem to have anything on it. "This is where we train, so our power doesn't wreck the academy," Spyro explained, which was when some of their friends walked over to a section of the somewhat rocky floating island that he had brought Spitfire and Rainbow to, where they could see that Spitfire's forces stood back as well as both of the newly returned displaced walked forward for a couple of seconds, showing both of them understood that this was going to be a test of their powers, hence why he, Cynder, Spike, and Ember stood there for a few moments as each of them considered what to do next, "it also serves as the perfect place for us to see what sort of powers you two might have unlocked, as this island has the power to put itself back together over time, so no matter what happens it will repair itself... just don't go overboard, since we don't want to damage the rest of the academy or the surrounding islands." Both Spitfire and Rainbow stood there for a few moments, watching as Ember stood at the head of her group and shifted her stance a few times as she waited, showing that she was eager to face them, causing Rainbow to grin as she rushed at the area that her foe was standing in and caused Spike, Spyro, and Cynder to jump backwards to give Ember some space, even though the same happened to be true for Spitfire since she was interested in what might occur when Rainbow and Ember clashed with each other. What happened next was that Spitfire found the instinct state fading from her friend's body, likely because Rainbow wanted a fair fight and having something like that aiding her would have annoyed her, as it had been a useful power to face the rest of the Burning Legion, though this meant that the fight would be even between her and Ember, something that lead to Rainbow jumping into the air and spinning around for a few moments, intending on bringing her tail down on where her foe was standing so she could smash her into the ground. Of course that was the moment that something interesting happened, Ember shifted her stance and raised her hands in one fluid motion, which made sense due to the fact that she apparently had been training in the art of combat for a long time, allowing her to grab onto Rainbow's thick tail before spinning around and sending her flying backwards, forcing Rainbow to use her claws to dig into the ground and stop herself from putting too much separation between them, all while Spitfire noted that Ember had no weapons while Rainbow was avoiding using her Warblades. In the following seconds the pair rushed at each other once more and exchanged a number of seemingly basic punches with each other, neither appearing to do that much to their opponent right now, though Spitfire could tell that Ember was at an advantage since she must have been practicing with her hands since the day she and Spike appeared in this world, especially since Rainbow was used to using her blades to take enemies down and used her claws whenever an opening appeared in her foe's defenses, but this confirmed that Ember's base strength was nothing to sneeze at. Of course Rainbow wasn't one to back down from a challenge and brought the backside of one of her legs down on her foe's arms, causing Ember to block it and discovered that Rainbow had pushed her base power to the max, pushing both of her arms out of the way and left her open to a punch to the face, or at least that was what Khadgar and the others had to assume would happen based on what they had seen during all of her previous battles, though that was when the side of Ember's face, the one Rainbow was focused on, blackened as something washed over it for a few seconds and stalled the attack, allowing Ember to tank the attack before punching Rainbow in the chest, sending her backwards as she took a moment to cough as her foe stood up. "That, Rainbow, was a taste of the Warrior's Armor skill," Ember remarked, where Spitfire watched as the black sheen took a moment to wash over her body, showing that she was capable of using it all over her body, though since it showed them that she had an advantage in a hand to hand situation Rainbow shifted her stance and both of her Warblades shimmered in the light, showing that she was planning on using them in the next stage of their battle, to which she shifted her stance not a few seconds later and her bracers shimmered a little, causing a pair of blades, swords to be exact, to appear in her hands in an instant, something that caused a smile to appear on her face, "and these are the Fangs of Felinia, taken from a powerful creature that Malefor fought and beat in the distant past, fashioning the fangs into actual weapons that possess an interesting enchantment... you'll see what that enchantment is in no time at all." Instead of rushing forward, like one would assume she would do, Rainbow stared at Ember for a few seconds and quickly found that her stance was airtight, offering her no openings to use to bring down her opponent and meant that she would have to find a way to break open her defenses, but once she understood that fact Rainbow shifted her stance a little bit, as it wasn't perfect, before rushing forward as she swung her Warblades at Ember, who spun and parried both of her blades with the swords that were in her hands, showing the heroes of Azeroth that she wasn't to be underestimated, even though it did seem like Rainbow was doing that since she took off her instinct power. Spitfire knew better, she was testing Ember's skills with her own base skills and it seemed like Ember was a far better fighter than what they assumed her to be, hence why the next couple of swings were faster and had more power behind them, so she could knock the Fangs of Felinia out of her opponent's hands, though Ember, having studied how Rainbow moved with her warglaives, shifted her stance a few times before transforming the swords into seemingly plain steel warglaives, allowing the dragon to parry Rainbow's own attacks, even though she didn't have the experience using them like Rainbow did. As that happened Spitfire noted that she had two dragons approaching her, Spyro and Cynder to be exact, where she noticed Spyro was drawing a blade which had some wind wrapping around it and Cynder's seemed to have an equal amount of shadows, meaning they wanted to see what sort of skills she had access to and she was more than happy to give them a chance to fight her, though as she pulled out her staff, since using the Twinblades felt like overkill, part of her understood that her instinct power might not be able to be deactivated and reactivated, putting her at a level above Rainbow. Of course the odd thing about this situation was that Spike was the only one not doing anything, as he seemed to be watching everyone right now, with his friends and the imposing dragon that was Malefor, making her wonder if he was planning something or if he was just interested in taking some time to study the Keystone she had handed to him earlier, even though she could see that there was what looked to be a storm building in the sky above them, one that might interrupt them at some point, despite the fact that none of the dragons seemed worried about such a thing and made her keep one eye on it. Once that was done she spun her staff and beckoned for the pair to come at her, something that Spyro and Cynder did not a few seconds after her motion, where she quickly found that both of them moved like they were experienced warriors, as if they had been fighting to protect this world for years, which she knew to be correct, and that when one lashed out at the person they were fighting the other either moved to provide defense or used another attack, one which worked with what the first one used, to catch whoever they were fighting off guard. Thanks to her instinct power she had a good idea of what was coming at her as she swung the staff and used the edge to parry the incoming attacks, while using the tip to aid her in maneuvering around the area without having to use her wings or power to do so, though what she found to be interesting was that neither Spyro or Cynder seemed surprised by the fact that they were unable to touch her and it meant that they must have fought someone who was above their current skills, which had to be Malefor, who was just studying them while the practice fight took place. That was when Spitfire understood the nature of the weapons that her foes were using right now, as Spyro shifted his stance and swung at her, loosing a surge of flames that rushed at her, while at the same time it looked like Cynder moved into the area behind where she was standing, using some sort of shadowy teleportation, before she swung her blade's power straight at the ground and created a wall of shadows that would prevent her from retreating by simply stepping or moving backwards. In that moment, as she understood exactly what the pair were doing, Spitfire just stood there for a few seconds as she called upon her Arcane power and swung the staff at Spyro's incoming flame wave, creating a wave of Arcane energy that struck the attack and cancelled it out in an explosion that knocked some smoke up into the air, before she spun around and swung her staff behind her, striking down Cynder before her sword could make contact with her. In the following moment she found that Cynder's form seemed to fall apart around the edge of her staff, as if she was cutting into paper or something, before her foe smiled as it turned into a shadowy version of her and broke a few seconds later, meaning she had fallen for a shadow clone of some kind, causing her to glance around the area that all of them were fighting in while keeping an eye out for anything that might be a trap or something, something that came to a stop as she felt some rain start to fall. The moment she felt that Spitfire glanced towards the sky and found that the storm had opened on them, though none of Spike's group seemed surprised by what was going on, meaning there had to be a reason that this was happening, which was when she noticed that the Spike she happened to be seeing was a magical copy, which directed her gaze up towards the sky and allowed her, and her companions, to find that there happened to be lightning dancing around the core of the storm, something that was followed by a roar sounding as a massive lightning serpent emerged from the storm and just stared down at them for a moment... before it returned to the storm and loosed itself down at the ground like it had been fired from a bow, striking the area that Rainbow was in while Ember vanished before the serpent struck the ground and blasted a massive crater into the ground. "Okay... what in the world was that!" Rainbow exclaimed, though she emerged from the smoke with a bit of damage to her attire and her body, meaning whatever Spike had done must have been rather powerful if it was capable of dealing any sort of damage to her in her base state, where Spitfire was sure that if she had her instinct power on it would have been a different story, or at least slightly modified from what they had seen, though at the same time she felt that this was also a good reminder for Rainbow, to make sure she didn't want into a trap while she was fighting someone. "Storm's Wrath, one of the most powerful electricity spells in existence, as it requires a vast control over manipulating the weather and controlling lightning to be able to use it," Spike replied, even though Spitfire had a feeling that there was a bit more to the spell than what the young dragon was telling them, where she found that he had teleported down to where his copy was standing and dismissed it, meaning his job for this battle was done, something that was followed by a brief pause as he considered something and then snapped his fingers, causing Spyro and Cynder to vanish, though that made her realize that the spell served a dual purpose, the first to strike Rainbow while the other was to provide cover for both of the dragons she happened to be fighting. In that moment Rainbow, who staggered out of the crater as she reactivated her instinct power, got a good glimpse of the plan their opponents had created in little to no time at all, as through the smoke she could see Spyro and Cynder standing near Spitfire's position and both of them must have been enchanted by Spike to hide their presence, where their fact that they were unfamiliar with this world's magic seemed to be working against them, especially since Spitfire hadn't noticed either of the dragons yet, despite the fact that they were wrapping their auras around their bodies. "Dark Aether." Cynder stated, where it looked like her voice might have been enchanted to come from multiple areas, all to confuse whoever they happened to be fighting, as she weaved a dark purple aura around her body, before Rainbow found that both of them were standing side by side, Spyro to the right and Cynder to the left, where they raised one of their feet into the air, the former raising his left leg and the latter doing the same with her right leg, before stomping on the ground, something that caused the earth below them to crack and displayed the power of the two dragons. "Light Aether." Spyro said, speaking just after Cynder said her part of whatever technique they were making, while taking a moment to wrap himself in a light purple aura, before something interesting happened as Rainbow watched them, the two dragons leapt forward not a few seconds later as they raised their hands, using the same side as their legs they had used in the last step of this technique, and channeled some bits of energy around their hands as they formed what appeared to be a 'yin-yang' symbol of some kind, meaning that whatever was coming had to be special. "Fist of Roaring Magic, Rending Air!" the pair called out in unison, where they lashed out with their fists as Spitfire quickly turned around, having next to no time to do anything besides calling upon some of the Light to form a shield around her right arm, something that Spyro and Cynder's attack collided with and produced ripples of magical energy not a couple of seconds later, the sheer force of their magical and physical attack cracking the entirety of Spitfire's shield in no time, while also causing the air around them to shake at the same time, demonstrating the sheer power that the pair were capable of using against those who dared to threaten this world. In the following moments Spitfire forced herself backwards as the Light shield shattered, though she made sure to flash out of the way to avoid taking that attack to the chest, something that caused her to raise a hand to stop Spyro and Cynder not a few seconds later, as she didn't feel the need to fight them anymore, as they had proven that the dragons Spike and Ember had grown used to living with were strong, far stronger than one might assume, and, more importantly, they would be able to teach the forces of Azeroth some interesting moves, just like how the forces of Azeroth would be able to pass on all sorts of lessons to these dragons. As they moved out of the area to talk about the specifics of the alliance that would be formed between Azeroth, Equus, and Korma, an important step in Spitfire's mind, she weaved a small mixture of her Light and Life energies into a cast of healing energy that rested over her right arm, as that Aether attack, based on what she had heard from the dragons that had used it, had cracked both the shield and several parts of her upper arm, but it only made her happy to form an alliance with them and see what their forces were like in the future, something that put a smile on both her face and Rainbow's as they waited to see what happened next. > Epilogue: New Preparations > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the training session with Spyro, Spike, Ember, and Cynder, during which Spitfire and Rainbow determined that all four of the dragons were no joke and their power was greater than one originally thought, the group returned to the Vindicaar and readied themselves for their return to Azeroth, as the Titans wanted to get to work on aiding Argus in healing after all the pain that Sargeras had inflicted upon him over the long years he had spent under the Dark Titan's thumb, being used as an anchor for all of the demonic souls in the universe, or at least the souls of the demons who had been fighting on the Legion's side. Once everyone was back aboard the dimensional ship, however, Spike took a moment to explore it in detail, as he was interested in the vessel and seemed to be taking notes on everything he saw, which was when Spitfire found that there was a spaceship in Korma, created by the Professor and some of the brightest minds in the dragon world, though based on what Spyro told her it was totally different from what the Vindicaar was like, as the Jupiter 2 had a number of seats and systems to make sure it could fly through the air, not to mention fly into space and travel to the two moons that orbited Korma, which was also interesting since Azeroth also had two moons. It was possible that Spike was looking for ways to improve the lone ship that the Professor had made, possibly even make more of them at some point, though the other interesting fact that Spitfire learned was that the dragons had access to something that they called Ion Crystals, powerful sources of energy they had a generator for, something she would have to ask Spike about since he could get into the technical aspect without even wasting a single breath or pausing while he was talking, but from what she gathered he might be looking to switch the Light crystals with these Ion Crystals. As such she decided to leave that conversation to Romuul and those who spent ages using all sorts of components to make the Vindicaar in the first place, since they knew far more about the flagship of her fleet than she did and would be able to answer Spike's questions with far more accuracy than what she would be capable of, but that did cause her to focus on the space that was in front of them for a time as she waited for Spike to finish his studies. Once Spike was done, which took a few minutes for him to do so and she found that he had a good number of pages filled with notes on the Vindicaar's systems, he returned to the front of the ship and stood in front of the navigation console for a few moments, like he was studying the air or something, before pulling out the Keystone a few seconds later and closed his eyes, where Spitfire had to wonder if he was going to open a portal to Azeroth or head back to Equus so it would be far easier for him to connect with Azeroth. "After seeing what Rainbow was capable of, I'm interested in seeing what the other classes are capable of," Ember stated, as she had see just how skilled her chosen opponent had been, even though she and Spitfire had been holding back most of their power, showing that it had been more of a practice session for them, despite the fact that she, her siblings, and Cynder had fought with all their power, to show their soon to be new allies just what each of them were capable of when they got into a fight, something that made all of Spitfire's allies interested in learning more about what the races of Korma were capable of and seeing if they could learn those techniques as well, "especially since it sounds like you guys have been busy defending your world from all sorts of enemies, or at least that's what I got from Spitfire's words." "The forces of Azeroth are not to be underestimated, as they have taken down the likes of Archimonde, the Old Gods and a number of their minions, defeated deranged powerful dragons, and brought down the rest of the Legion as we fought beside them," Spitfire replied, as she knew that, at one point during the early days of her and Rainbow's quest to bring down Sargeras, Kil'jaeden, and the rest of the Legion, they had been impressed by the resume of the heroes who lived on Azeroth, to the point where they understood that underestimating them and their resolve wasn't a smart thing to do, even if it changed once she and Rainbow started to acquire their true powers, before she considered something that might be of interest to some of the dragons, "Dalaran has a vast library that Khadgar can show some of you around, if you want to do such a thing, and I'm sure that you'll be able to figure out all about the battles that happened in the past and what the heroes had to face in order to protect their world... though after today I would imagine that they will be busy making new tomes about the worlds we've been to, in addition to what they'll add about Argus. Oh, quick word of warning, there was a slight development during our war with the Legion, as a good number of demons actually defected from the Legion's side and joined us in our efforts to bring down all of Sargeras' dark plans, so when you see some of them wandering around whichever city we end up near, and you will see some of them, just know that they aren't enemies and that we might find more remnants of the Legion at some point in the future." Spyro nodded his head for a moment, showing that he understood what Spitfire was saying and that his group also knew what to expect when they headed to Azeroth for a time, though before anyone said anything else they felt the magic in the air shift for a moment, meaning that Spike had to be getting ready for the opening of the portal he was trying to make for the heroes of Azeroth and the newly returned displaced, causing many of those aboard the Vindicaar to stop what they were doing as they waited to see what he was going to do in the next few moments, likely due to the fact that this might be different from all of the other portals they have seen so far. "There you are." Spike stated, his tone revealing that he must have figured out what he was going to do with the Keystone and which planet he was going to open a portal to, though in the following moments something interesting happened, his eyes glowed with magical power as he raised his left hand a little more, which was the one that held the Keystone, where a silver light started to emit from the artifact he was holding as a non existent wind seemed to move a bit of his robes as he worked his magic, causing everyone else to simply watch him for a time. As Spike did that the observers found that some lightning danced in the area that was in front of the Vindicaar, a fair bit of distance away from where the ship rested so nothing happened to this vessel, where Spitfire realized that he must have found a magical trace or signature of some kind and had been attempting to use it to in some manner, before the space in front of the Vindicaar seemed to shudder for a moment as a large portal opened before their eyes, which seemed to be similar to the rifts that the Keystone was capable of opening, only this one was more under control and didn't require the Keystone to be used right in the center of the rift. With that done Spike lowered his hand, with the glows disappearing not a few seconds after that happened, to which Spitfire nodded to Romuul, who did the same thing before tapping several of the icons on the navigation console in front of him, causing the Vindicaar to start moving towards the new rift that Spike had created, all while everyone waited to see what world he had opened it to, even though Spyro's group seemed to have faith in his abilities and it made Spitfire wonder if he had been successful. A few moments later they passed through the portal and the heroes of Azeroth stared at the area in front of them in shock for a second or two, because one the vessel came to a stop, on the other side of the portal, they found Stormwind resting in front of them, something that told Spitfire that one couldn't underestimate Spike's abilities at all, as he had retraced the magical energies of the Keystone back to the planet that she and Rainbow had been sent to save from the Legion, though it also made her wonder what might happen once he started to learn about the Cosmic Forces and their powers. Khadgar and the others were caught off guard by this and just stood there for a moment, no doubt believing that they had been lucky that none of their enemies figured out the process of opening portals to their planet, in the manner Spike had just used to be exact, because if Sargeras had figured it out a long time ago Azeroth would have been claimed by the Legion while they were distracted by something else, like the fight with Deathwing or trying to stop Garrosh from tearing everything apart in his quest to make an Orc ruled world and enslave all of the others, which the remainder of their forces had broken up. Of course the good thing about this, in Spitfire's eyes, was that it meant there was more that the dragons and races who called Korma home could teach those who fought to save Azeroth from all sorts of enemies, meaning they would be able to boost the power of their alliance and ready themselves for the incoming demonic invasion that Equus had discovered some time ago. Once that was done Spike went to work making one of the stone arches they had seen back in Korma, where originally Spitfire had been planning on putting such a thing into the city of Dalaran, since it was the heart of the combined forces of Azeroth, during the war with the Legion, before considering their options. She quickly decided that having a portal in a floating place that moved around from time to time, teleporting from place to place since Khadgar and the Council could do that with ease, meant that they had to find a more stable place to put the main portal. The other side of the portal would be on Korma, that much everyone agreed on without much discussion, though she left figuring it out to Spike and the mages of Azeroth as she focused on other things. While that happened Spitfire found that Elisande and the Nightborne had plans to make teleportation sanctums in both Orgrimmar and Stormwind, to connect the cities of both factions and some of their bases that were resting on the other continents, further linking up the world and races so they could be ready for whatever the future held for them. As they did that the Vulpera were working hard to ensure that everyone had everything they needed, though their head warrior stood near Rainbow with the intent of fighting her and so many other warriors at some point in time, as she wanted to see how strong they were, and it also extended to her desire to see what their new allies were capable of when they had to do battle. Based on that Spitfire knew that it was incredibly likely that Azeroth and Korma would become fast allies, possibly friends if they were lucky, and that all of the races would do the same thing without delay, though she also found that Elisande offered to house the portal between worlds in Suramar City, under the protection of the Nightborne and some of their allies, though this gave Spike and area to place the portal arch once it was done. A few days had gone by since Spike created the portal arch between Korma and Azeroth, giving the races of both worlds a good bit of time to get used to having new allies and learning all sorts of new things from the other world, though the main fact was that the new portal allowed them to bypass having to stop on Equus and possibly worry those who weren't aware of the incoming threat that their world faced, but Spitfire was fine with this since it allowed them to focus on preparing for the future and less on worrying the innocent bystanders. Rainbow, on the other hand, was more focused on training with all of the Illidari who followed her over to Korma, as this provided her with a good chance to teach the demon hunters any techniques they were rusty on, or hadn't mastered yet, while showing Ember and those who wanted to learn how to wield warglaives how to fight with the weapons that she and Spitfire used, though some of the Illidari came with her to learn all about the Jupiter 2 and its systems, so they could compare them to the Fel Hammer. Spitfire understood that they were in the middle of trying to figure out where, in the sheer vastness of their universe, that the other demonic army rested, as it would give them a chance to set up some warning systems in case Equus, Azeroth, or any of the conquered Legion worlds came under attack from the other threat. Part of Rainbow's time was spent with Hasabel and her remaining Rift Keepers, the Doommaidens that had served her and defected once they came to realize the danger they were facing, because they traveled to Argus, using a brand new Fel arch Spike crafted with the aid of the Illidari, and used Hasabel's section of Antorus to open portals to new worlds. The reasoning behind them doing that was so that they could start to harvest the rest of the Legion's worlds, allowing Rainbow to devour the Fel energy of each and every planet, while her actions would remind the remnants of Sargeras' army of who they were dealing with, leading to the smartest demons defecting to their side and avoiding death while those who still refused to submit had their souls stolen and sealed in the Warblades. Such a thing cut down on the number of demons who might run to Dymalis' side, in case they learned about the new threat, and Spitfire was happy that they were doing everything in their power to save the universe. At the same time she found that Sarya continued to follow after them, as in she really wanted to show them how to wield their new Sayaad powers, and in the end she eventually gave the demon a chance to teach them, to master their Fel powers even more. Of course they found that the various races of Azeroth were fine with the new training systems that the Leader of the clan that trained Ember, the Peace Keepers, as it allowed them to learn all sorts of new techniques many hadn't considered or even knew about when they first trained to become a warrior, paladin, or whatever class the heroes had chosen. As such both planets ended up learning more techniques from each other and found out ways to overcome whatever flaws their brand new friends ended up pointing out to them. In addition to that Spike, after having opened the way between worlds, spent pretty much every day in the libraries of Azeroth, carefully removing books and studying anything and everything that was inside the tomes be picked out, though he wasn't alone as a couple of dragons, some scholars from Dark Hollow, who just so happened to be the ones who awakened this side of him, and some from Warfang, a city on a large continent that had been the focus of one of Spike and Ember's adventures, joined him in his studies. Such a thing was also to make sure the young Archmage didn't get too involved in his studies and actually took breaks every now and then, or actually slept for a few hours since he had exhausted himself a few times when he was younger, something that actually caused him to bite into one of the gemstones of Korma, which were magically different from the ones in Equus. Rainbow was still caught off guard when she observed the new version of Spike in what seemed to be his natural habitat, libraries that just reminded her of Twilight and what her friend did whenever they weren't busy in some manner, though Khadgar and the other Archmages of Azeroth were equally as surprised as she was. It was more in the sense that Spike, despite being new to all of this information, was making record time as he studied the tomes and scrolls that were stored all over Azeroth's vast libraries, making them wonder what he would do if he met Brann Bronzebeard. He knew that the Dwarf in question loved to study the history of this world and the continents all of them knew about, including some he might be in the middle of discovering and was withholding information about until he had a good idea as to what was on the places he had found. Plus there was no telling if he might discover more Titan structures, as he seemed to have an eye for that sort of thing, so people were more than willing to let Brann do whatever he wanted so they could understand the world that much better. While Spike was busy the dragon who ended up teaching the rest of Azeroth the basics of dragon magic was Cosmos, who stood as the Leader of his clan, the Magic Crafters, while Titan and his Peace Keepers helped teach some of the basics of the skills his clan used, though Spitfire found that there were a few courses on what the Beast Keepers, Dream Weavers, Machinists, and Artisans did for a living, as while some of their skills might not be useful for battle there were some, from both Azeroth and Equus, who were interested in learning about what the dragon clans did for a living. Of course Spitfire also found something that surprised her, Nomi, and all of the chefs who called Azeroth home, the Artisans dragons had a number of chefs whose calling was the art of cooking, be it actual food or desserts, though it wasn't the fact that they were capable of producing sweets that shocked them, rather it was the fact that all of the food that Alvar and his chefs made, be it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, was delicious, and the sweets rivaled what was made in Sugercube Corner, which would make Pinkie surprised whenever she returned and heard the news. The other part that she found amazing was that Alvar's skill was so honed, after the many years he had spent serving as the main chef in the Artisans homeworld, a fancy way to say island in Spyro's world apparently, that he was able to rapidly create a menu for every race he had encountered over the course of Spike and Ember's adventures across Korma, as in he spent about ten or so minutes with those who came from Azeroth and quickly formed a menu that reflected their diet, something he did for the races of Equus when they first opened the way between worlds and recruited the beginnings of their army. There was something for everyone, as Alvar used his menus as guidelines for them to pick from and wasn't requiring that they stick to what he had decided on during his brief time talking to a member from each race, not that it mattered since everything he made was delicious and those from Azeroth made sure to try everything, even though such a thing would take some time to do when they considered the fact that he had so many dishes that could be made, especially when Spike revealed that he had a large number under his belt, both from training under his mentor and what he created later on. There was one other thing that Spitfire had to do and that was make sure that none of their new allies did anything to the demons who defected from the Legion, though in the end it appeared it was something she didn't need to do, as she and the others found that those from Korma were willing to give them a chance and so far it seemed like they were working well with those who had seen the light and were now fighting to save the universe they had been trying to burn, which told her that they must have embraced giving people a second chance or something, which she was happy to see while finding a number of demons working to help improve the abilities of their forces. "We're off to a wonderful start," Spitfire commented, staring out at the rest of the academy, finding that all sorts of races were in the middle of their lessons and were attempting to learn whatever might make them a better fighter or magic user for whenever they were called to face the demonic army that was closing in on, as everyone seemed willing to learn from their new allies and develop all sorts of new skills, even Spike and Ember were willing to learn new tricks, though for right now it seemed like Spike was sticking to learning how to wield the Arcane as he read up on the other Cosmic Forces that existed in their universe. "It would seem so," her companion replied, where she found Malefor was standing beside her, instead of Spike, Ember, or anyone who was in charge of those who came from Korma, though everyone in Spyro's world respected Malefor to some degree, apparently due to the fact that he was a walking legend and was still the strongest being in Korma, despite the fact that Spike and Ember were there, something that made Spitfire wonder if Spike, Ember, Spyro, and Cynder would be able to stand in his place once they reached an older age, like in fifteen years or something like that, "you and Rainbow have done well in securing the safety of Azeroth, as it has been a boon we were hoping to obtain before the demons showed up to attack Equus... though we're hoping that the other displaced do the same thing, to find a way to return with a vast array of allies and new techniques so we can further boost our chances of success." "The Titans are working to stabilize Equus' magic, but other than that time will tell what happens next," Spitfire said, as that was the truth, Amun'thul and the rest of the Titans were switching between aiding Argus and helping Equus, due to both of them having their own problems that they needed to deal with, though as she said that she had to wonder if there might be more slumbering Titans out there in the rest of their vast universe and if that explained why some of the displaced had been chosen, sent out like she and Rainbow were, "once she's stabilized we'll be able to figure out where the rest of the displaced ended up, giving us a better idea of what they're up to and what we can expect, or at least to a degree, upon their return to Equus... once everyone has returned, well, we can ready ourselves for when our enemies come to invade our world." As Malefor nodded his head Spitfire glanced up at the stars and wondered where the rest of the displaced had ended up, as it appeared that whatever Spike and Ember had seen must have changed rather suddenly, before deciding that most of them would return with their own forces and skills that could be added to their growing alliance, something she was sure that would smash Dymalis' army into the ground, though for now she, Rainbow, Spike, Ember, and all of their allies would focus their attention on training, that way once the demonic threat arrived they would be ready for whatever Dymalis sent at them, they just had to be patient and wait for that day to arrive.