Read upto 10 extra chapters worth of extra content; Simply go to my Patreon and become a Patron.
Patreon Challenge: If I get 100 Paid Patrons then I will officially make writing a job of mine.
Allowing for more consistent updates as well as more Content availability on my Patreon.
Current number: 82/100
Patreon: Patreon.com/ArkNova
merp, Pavel Binnell, LazYn, Jonathan Löfbom and DxM Thanks a lot for becoming Champion-Tier Patrons your supports helps and means a lot for both the story and myself.
You too can become Patrons and get access to future chapters while also supporting the story and helping out in the Patreon Challenge as well.
--------------------------------------------------------
(A/N: Chapter 101 will soon be on Patreon!)
(Also once again if anyone wants to become a patreon member do not do it through the Apple IOS patreon app otherwise you would have to pay 30% extra use the browser version instead so you can pay less.)
(Also for Patreons that already joined through the IOS app, please re-subscribe through the browser version. I swear you won't have to pay double for doing this and would still have this month's subscription.)
(Now back to the story!)
"RRRRRROOOOOOAAAARRRRR!!"
The group was pulled from their thoughts as a piercing roar filled with pure bloodlust echoed through out the area. A hulking red figure shot into the sky with immense force.
Malfurion's eyes widened slightly as he immediately summoned multiple thick roots tipped with razor-sharp ends—each harder than reinforced steel—to attack the incoming figure.
Yet the creature effortlessly cleaved through them with its massive obsidian swords without slowing down in the slightest.
Moments later, the being slammed into the ground before them, creating a sizable crater and shaking the area as though a localized earthquake had struck.
"I AM VULGROTH, EXECUTOR OF THE SEVENTH HOST OF THE BLOOD GOD'S LEGION!"
The group's eyes widened as they realized the figure before them was a ten-meter-tall Bloodthirster, its very presence radiating the rage and bloodlust of endless war as it glared down upon them.
"Mortal warriors, your tenacity, might, and skill have greatly pleased the Blood God! He offers you all a place within the vaunted halls of the Brass Citadel."
"Accept, and you shall be granted the choice between eternal glory as mortal champions or ascension to daemonhood."
"Refuse... and we shall fight! I will take your skulls instead and offer them to my lord so they may adorn the Skull Throne itself!"
Mario's grip tightened around his weapons as savage and violent thoughts unconsciously surfaced within his mind merely from the daemon's presence. Still, he quickly centered himself and regained his composure.
"I knew we'd eventually face much stronger daemons... but not this soon."
"It doesn't matter. In the end, our choice remains the same."
Malfurion's eyes glowed with the power of nature as he once again began drawing upon as much natural energy as he could through his strained connection.
"We fight."
Uther's expression darkened as he stared at the unholy abomination before him.
His grip tightened around his warhammer as, for a brief moment, he forgot all about his exhaustion and prepared himself to unleash Holy Domain once more if only to erase this creature's filthy presence from both his sight and his world.
"We would sooner eat Ork shit than even entertain the thought of consorting with filth like you and your false god of a master!"
Turalyon also looked upon Vulgroth with utter disgust as he entered his combat stance, ready to fight even if it meant death.
"SO BE IT! TODAY, NEW SKULLS SHALL ADORN THE SKULL THRONE!"
Vulgroth raised both obsidian swords, eager for battle and the prospect of claiming worthy skulls.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SK—Gah!!"
The Bloodthirster suddenly gasped in agony as a massive lance of sacred fire pierced through its upper chest from behind, bursting clean through the front.
The group stared in shock before spotting the fast-moving flying silhouette behind the daemon.
Alastor.
In an instant, the group moved with perfect coordination, seizing the opening.
Malfurion fired a concentrated bolt of elemental lightning into one of Vulgroth's hands, wounding it badly enough to force the daemon to drop one of its swords.
At the same time, Turalyon and Mario charged beneath the creature's hulking frame and slashed deep cuts across its legs.
Then Uther moved.
With a powerful leap, the legendary Paladin brought his warhammer crashing down upon the shocked Bloodthirster's face.
The combined force of the strike and the Holy Light infused within the weapon caved in most of the daemon's skull before its head exploded apart in a spray of blood and mangled flesh.
"The only skull going to your master is yours, daemon," Uther said condescendingly as he spat upon the rapidly dispersing physical shell of Vulgroth.
The daemon's manifested essence had been utterly destroyed by the Holy Light, and its true body would likely feel the psychic backlash of its "death."
Worse still, the portion of power invested into its physical manifestation had been lost, weakening the greater daemon considerably.
--------------------------------------------------------
After killing Vulgroth, the group looked upward just in time to see Alastor land before them, immediately lifting their spirits. His arrival meant not only that he had survived... but that he had defeated Arthas.
"Alastor, thank the Light you arrived when you did." Turalyon gave his leader and friend a relieved smile.
"Indeed. With the opening you created, dispatching the Bloodthirster became significantly easier," Malfurion added with a nod of gratitude.
Mario was about to speak when he suddenly froze after noticing the face of the body slung over Alastor's shoulder.
"Supreme Commander, I have the utmost faith in your abilities, but..." Mario pointed uncertainly toward the corpse. "Why are you carrying around the body of the Lich King!?"
That immediately silenced the rest of the group.
They had noticed Alastor carrying someone over his shoulder earlier, but their attention had been focused primarily on him rather than the body itself.
But now that Mario had pointed it out...
Their eyes widened as they finally recognized the corpse of Arthas. Yet strangely, he no longer resembled the dreaded Lich King. Instead, he looked far closer to his former self as a Paladin.
Uther visibly tensed at the sight before forcing himself to suppress his hesitation, grimly reminding himself of what had happened the last time he hesitated. His grip on his hammer unconsciously tightened.
"Alastor..." Uther began slowly. "I trust you, and I believe you have your reasons. But I must still ask... why are you carrying his body?"
Alastor hesitated before ultimately sighing, deciding that honesty would be best.
Just... not yet. Hopefully once they were out of this place.
"Uther... it's complicated. Believe me, even I was shocked while fighting Arthas. But things aren't as they seem."
He paused before continuing.
"Please, just trust me for now. Once we're out of here, I swear I'll explain everything to all of you."
The others still looked deeply hesitant—and honestly, who could blame them?
This was Arthas Menethil.
Once a promising young prince and hero of Lordaeron, he had become one of the greatest symbols of terror and death Azeroth had ever known after his fall.
And that wasn't even accounting for the fact that he was one of the enemy leaders and among the primary instigators behind the current continent-spanning war that had pushed Azeroth into such a catastrophic state.
If his body had been left to rot in a ditch, most people wouldn't have cared in the slightest.
In fact many would have most likely applauded the one to throw it in the ditch in the first place.
"How complicated?"
Alastor and the others looked surprised when Uther asked that question.
"Very..." Alastor answered quietly. "...and it's not good. But you, among others, deserve to know the truth."
Alastor couldn't bring himself to meet Uther's eyes as he spoke, and the older Paladin felt his stomach sink at what those words implied.
Still, after a long moment, Uther silently nodded and stepped back, giving his reluctant acquiescence.
Turalyon, noticing that Uther was still likely uncomfortable—especially with the possibility of hearing troubling news regarding his former student—decided to do him a favor and took Arthas from Alastor instead.
Partly so Alastor's hands would be free, and partly to give Uther more time to steady his thoughts after the recent revelations.
Alastor understood immediately what Turalyon was doing and gave him a small, thankful nod.
Alastor then showed the group the wrapped-up Frostmourne.
That revelation shocked them as well, but unlike before, they quickly arrived at their own conclusions.
All of them knew how difficult it was to destroy legendary artifacts or mystical weapons, especially those aligned with darker and more twisted powers.
Doubly so under circumstances like these, where they were trapped within hostile enemy territory.
"The night elves have dealt with quite a few cursed artifacts and individuals of particular potency dating back to the Stygian Era. If you require assistance in destroying it, do not hesitate to ask."
Malfurion immediately offered his help as he looked upon the covered blade with barely concealed disgust.
Not only was its very nature an affront to life and nature itself, but as one of Azeroth's defenders, he possessed little—if any—tolerance for such objects.
Yet Uther's expression was even worse.
The older Paladin stared at the wrapped blade with a mixture of disgust, loathing, and outright hatred.
And honestly, no one could blame him.
In Uther's mind, everything had gone wrong the moment his beloved student discovered that cursed sword.
Frostmourne was responsible for transforming Arthas into the monster he became, which in turn had led to countless atrocities and ultimately the very war they were now fighting.
If not for the possibility that his strength might still be needed—and for his own immense willpower and self-control—Uther would have brought his warhammer down upon the blade with every ounce of Holy Light his body could endure, even if doing so killed him, just to destroy the accursed artifact once and for all.
"The sooner this damned sword is destroyed, the better."
"That is something we can all agree on, brother," Turalyon replied with a grim nod.
BOOOOOOOM!
The group quickly turned as a massive shockwave erupted from the Warp portal.
They braced themselves as the shockwave passed them while Mario became the first to voice what everyone was thinking.
"What in the name of Arda was that!?"
"IT'S DONE!"
The group turned to see Brann sprinting toward them as fast as he could. Covered in soot and dirt, the dwarf somehow looked both ecstatic and panicked at the same time.
"Brann?"
"Al!? By the Maker, you're here too—! And is that Arthas?"
Alastor quickly waved the question aside and brought him back on track.
"Yes, and I'll explain later. What happened!?"
"Oh, right! Good news—the bomb went off, and the ritual site is completely destroyed. With the focal point gone, it's only a matter of minutes before the portal starts collapsing and reality reasserts itself again."
That was incredible news.
Smiles and relieved grins immediately spread across the group's faces. They had accomplished one of their major objectives and dealt a devastating blow to the enemy.
Not only would the forces of Chaos be cut off from their primary source of reinforcements and power, but Azeroth's connection to the Realms of Chaos would also weaken significantly, reducing the surrounding Warp storms as well.
With the momentum now fully in the Alliance's favor, they could make a direct push toward Lordaeron and begin purging the northern regions of the continent from significant fel influence.
The advantage now firmly belonged to the Alliance.
And at long last...
The end of the war itself was drawing near.
"Uh... there's also some bad news."
Everyone looked toward Brann in confusion.
After everything they had accomplished, what could possibly go wrong?
-------------------------------------------
Murphy: Bet.
-------------------------------------------
"The rift was being supplied by energy from four separate streams, each one originating from a different section of these so-called Realms of Chaos. That means the amount of energy inside it was far greater than we originally thought."
"Now that the focal point's gone, those energy streams have nowhere else to go, and all that accumulated Aether energy is spiraling outta control!"
"Worse, the laws of realspace are reasserting themselves with much greater force. Even now, they're tearing apart this dimension's barriers more and more aggressively, which is drastically increasing the external pressure on this pocket dimension!"
The more Brann explained, the more visibly panicked he became, his words speeding up as he spoke.
Mario, Turalyon, and Uther looked confused since they weren't particularly knowledgeable regarding magical mechanics or the laws governing reality itself.
Alastor and Malfurion, however, visibly paled.
"BRANN, YOU CALL THAT SMALL!?"
"I DIDN'T KNOW, OKAY!? EVEN I WAS SHOCKED WHEN I SAW THE AFTERMATH!"
Alastor immediately turned toward Malfurion, who himself looked deeply distressed.
"Malfurion! Where's our extraction!?"
"Already on its way! As soon as the portal began collapsing, they would have recognized it as the signal!"
Mario looked at both of them in confusion.
"My lords, would you mind enlightening your not-so-intellectually-gifted companions?"
Alastor quickly explained it in the simplest terms possible.
"The portal is collapsing, but the amount of energy inside it is far too great to disperse safely. Instead, it's spiraling out of control and will soon explode with enough force to make a thermonuclear weapon look like a firecracker!"
Malfurion immediately continued where Alastor left off.
"And that's not all. Nature itself is aggressively reasserting its dominance over reality. With the focal point destroyed, nothing remains to stabilize the flow of power within this dimension. The moment this pocket dimension's barriers finally collapse under the pressure of reality..."
"The entire space here will implode with equally catastrophic force."
In short, this entire place was about to simultaneously explode and implode with enough force and energy to annihilate every structure, entity, and living being within it without exception.
Now Mario, Turalyon, and Uther paled just as much as they finally grasped the sheer severity of their situation.
"By Arda, could this get any worse!?"
Mario exclaimed in frustration while Alastor stared at him in disbelief.
"WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT!?"
Unfortunately, the omnipresent Murphy apparently heard him.... and answered.
Another deafening roar echoed across the battlefield.
The group looked upward to see a colossal corrupted black dragon descending from the sky, its body covered in jagged obsidian-like armor plates bolted directly onto flesh filled with searing magma.
"Deathwing..." Malfurion uttered the dreaded name in shock.
Beside him flew another gigantic horned black dragon with purple highlights, glowing red membranes, and a burning underbelly.
Nefarian.
Deathwing's eldest son and one of his prospective heirs.
Surrounding the two dragons were several more black dragons, and to make matters even worse, multiple sections of the forest barrier Malfurion had erected were now torn apart.
From within the ruined sections emerged hordes of daemons led by four Greater Daemons.
A Bloodthirster.
A Keeper of Secrets.
A Lord of Change.
And a Great Unclean One.
"We finally meet at last, son of the King in Gold."
Alastor's eyes widened when Deathwing addressed him that way, immediately realizing the dragon was referring to the Emperor.
But how the hell did he know about the Emperor of Mankind!?
"You have proven quite the thorn in our side, and shockingly enough, my kin—especially Nozdormu—have been remarkably lenient with you all these years."
"But your interference ends today, demigod. At the very least, you shall have the mercy of dying alongside your companions."
The group instinctively huddled closer together while glaring darkly at the enemy forces surrounding them.
The pressure bearing down upon them increased drastically as they were, for all intents and purposes, completely boxed in.
Alastor's mind raced at lightning speed as he desperately searched for a possible escape route. He even briefly entertained the thought of using himself as bait to draw the enemy's attention away from the others.
Whatever happened, they couldn't afford to remain here much longer.
This entire dimension was moments away from destruction!
Then suddenly, another dragon roar echoed through the skies.
At first, they assumed even more black dragons were arriving, only to realize the roar hadn't come from Deathwing's forces at all.
Above them, space itself tore open as another rift appeared—but unlike the Warp rift, this one glowed emerald green.
A colossal red dragon burst out from within and immediately slammed into Deathwing, catching the Aspect of Death completely off guard.
Turalyon's eyes widened in recognition.
"The Aspect of Red! Alexstrasza the Life-Binder!"
Malfurion nodded in visible relief.
"Yes... and our way out."
And it didn't stop there.
Dozens of red dragons poured out of the emerald portal, attacking the surrounding black dragons while others unleashed torrents of fire upon the advancing daemons.
One particularly large and familiar red dragon—Krasus—blasted Nefarian away before landing directly in front of the group.
"Everyone, get on! We're leaving!"
Not needing to be told twice, everyone quickly climbed onto Krasus' back.
However, before Alastor could jump on alongside the others, Deathwing seized an opening while battling Alexstrasza and unleashed a devastating stream of dragonfire directly at him.
"Go without me! I'll be right behind you!"
Without hesitation, Krasus immediately took to the skies with the others aboard.
At the same moment, Alastor summoned his flaming wings and met the incoming dragon breath head-on with his sacred flames.
Yet this time, he had to exert visibly more effort to hold back Deathwing's torrent of magma and fire.
But as he dispersed the attack, Alastor noticed something deeply unsettling.
The energy within Deathwing's flames wasn't like the Death magic used by the Scourge.
Nor was it similar to the chaotic energies of the forces of Chaos.
Instead, it carried a dark, vampiric quality—something unnaturally hungry—that actively devoured portions of his sacred fire before ultimately being overwhelmed.
Alastor was deeply shocked by the discovery, but he forced himself to push the realization aside for now.
Immediately retaliating, he unleashed dozens of massive lances forged from sacred fire toward the Aspect of Death.
Most of them struck Deathwing directly, exploding violently against his armored body.
Yet they seemed to do surprisingly little damage.
"Your flames may prove effective against the undead and the thralls of Chaos, but you shall find no such advantage against me, fool!"
Alastor's response was immediate.
A gigantic tornado of sacred flames slammed directly into Deathwing's face while Alexstrasza seized the opportunity to rake her claws across his abdomen, tearing through both armor plates and flesh alike.
"You really love hearing the sound of your own voice, don't you?"
"INSOLENT WHELP!"
Just then, another massive shockwave erupted from the collapsing Warp rift—far stronger than the previous ones.
Deathwing's rage visibly subsided as he realized the danger, while Alexstrasza released a commanding roar that caused the red dragons to disengage and retreat toward the emerald portal.
Deathwing and Nefarian also withdrew, though in the opposite direction.
"Leave them."
A majestic voice spoke beside Alastor, and he realized it was Alexstrasza herself.
"The battles have been won today, and more opportunities will come. But must live to seize them."
Alastor watched the retreating forms of Deathwing and Nefarian for a brief moment before finally nodding.
He landed upon Alexstrasza's back and held tightly as the Dragon Queen—moving with a speed that should have been impossible for a creature of her immense size—flew toward the portal.
She was the last to pass through before the emerald rift sealed shut behind them.
Moments later, the Warp rift finally lost all cohesion.
And then it collapsed.
Rampant Warp energy erupted outward in a catastrophic maelstrom of light and raw destruction.
--------------------------------------------------------
Author Note: Please remember to Vote, comment, Add to library and give the story a 5 star review to help it get the coverage it needs.
Read upto 10 Chapters worth of content ahead by going to my Patreon and becoming a fellow Patron. As well as supporting both the story and myself as well.
By a 100 Paid Patrons I will officially make story writing a job of mine. Guaranteeing more consistent releases as well as more consistent long form content both her and on my Patreon.
Patreon: Patreon.com/ArkNova