"A Dark Bargain" - Part 2
The
depths of the forgotten Titan city of Ulduar felt as if they couldn't
possibly be on Azeroth. The walls were lined with black-green
Saronite ore, the presence of which was indescribably disturbing. The
chambers and tunnels below the grand ruin of a city were enormous. At
any rate, no matter how fascinating these ruins might be, Anneke
didn't divert her attention from the task at hand. The Kirin Tor
party including her had entered Ulduar knowing only rumors of an evil
old god imprisoned beneath the city, but as they explored Ulduar,
defeated its ancient guardians, and went farther and farther
downwards, any doubt of the presence of an old god was erased. The
party had not even seen any physical evidence of the old god, but a
terrible, cold dread had built up amongst Anneke and her Kirin Tor
allies: Aesiri Meliamne, her old friend and a prodigious blood elf
frost mage; Devin Grohl, Anneke's lover and a powerful arcane mage;
Dairen Naiodel, Aesiri's lover and a mighty paladin, helping the
Kirin Tor through Aesiri; Rhonin, Jaina Proudmoore, and Aethas
Sunreaver, the highest archmages of the Kirin Tor.
As
the party went farther through the tunnels beneath Ulduar, the cold
amplified. Something terrible was near.
Rhonin
stopped and turned towards his allies. “You all feel that?”
Everyone
nodded. “Yes,” said Jaina, clutching her staff. “Whatever we've
been looking for is close.”
Rhonin
nodded back. “Indeed. We don't know the nature of this monster.
Hopefully it won't be nearing the power it had when it fought the
Titans, but even so we approach a being of incomprehensible dark
power. Be ready.”
The
party turned a corner, into a huge, circular room with frozen walls.
In a large pool of icy water in the center of the room stood... a
tall Vrykul woman?
“You've
come, at last!” shouted the Vrykul. “You are not safe for long!
The time to strike at the head of the beast will soon be upon us, but
first we must defeat his minions!”
“Minions?”
said Aesiri quietly. As if on cue, countless translucent green orbs
began to materialize and swirl through the air. They formed together
into larger orbs that then exploded, leaving in their place faceless,
vaguely-humanoid monsters with sharp tentacles in place of arms.
Before the Kirin Tor party knew it, they were surrounded by a dozen
of these monsters.
“Split!”
shouted Rhonin. He outstretched his hand, from which a barrage of
purple arcane missiles fired at one of the monsters. The beast was
stunned by each of the missiles, and as the last missile hit the
monster, Rhonin blasted it with raw arcane power. The beast was
vaporized, leaving behind only sparkling mist. Anneke smiled. She
expected nothing less from the master of the Kirin Tor.
Aesiri
had tapped into what must have been most of her arcane power. Her
normally light-tan skin was tinted an icy blue. Although Rhonin had
said to split, Aesiri found no need; it seemed that every second she
was firing lances of ice at two of the monsters at once. The lances
impaled the monsters, who both spewed out purple blood before falling
over.
“Don't
exhaust yourself, Aesiri!” shouted Rhonin over the sounds of
combat. “The real challenge is ahead!”
Aesiri
realized the obvious truth in Rhonin's words: any mage as experienced
as her knew that one could not maintain their full power for very
long.
Anneke
shook off concern about Aesiri wasting her power on minions. Sure,
Aesiri was actually probably the most potentially powerful mage
present, but not by much; Anneke's mastery over fire neared Aesiri's
over frost, and the archmages' positions in the Kirin Tor spoke for
themselves. Anneke shot a massive fireball at one of the monsters.
Upon impact, the monster was ignited, yet seemed to not care about
any pain, even as it fell to the ground, its monstrous flesh
scorched.
Soon
enough, the monsters had been cleared. Their bodies turned back into
green orbs, which each started to drift towards the Vrykul woman.
“You!”
Rhonin shouted at the Vrykul. “Who are you?! What is happening?”
The
woman smiled and paused. As she spoke, the chamber echoed with a
booming, harrowing voice: “I am the lucid dream. The monster in
your nightmare. The fiend of a thousand faces.” She rose,
levitating above the pool. The Kirin Tor party each gripped their
weapons. Anneke took a look at her allies; she was comforted to see
in them confidence amidst fear that was mostly contained. Anneke even
smiled; victory seemed assured, given her party's caliber. Her smile
quickly dropped, though, when she noticed Aesiri breathing quickly
and heavily, her eyes anxiously fixed on the Vrykul woman. Could it
be that Aesiri really was depleted..?
“Enough
of this!” shouted Rhonin.
The
woman laughed; if her voice was audible, it was completely muffled by
the darkly booming voice. She looked at Rhonin with a maniacal smile,
her eyes having turned to a pupil-less bright purple. “Enough,
indeed! Now, cower before my true form!” With these words, the
woman's body seemed to melt into a slime of flesh. The slime fell
into the pool, and with that the chamber began to violently quake.
“Bow
down,” echoed the voice, many times louder than it was before.
“Before the god of death!”
What
appeared to be a massive, gaping maw emerged from the pool. Countless
sharp teeth filled the mouth, and huge tentacles grew from the
gray-green being. Before the Kirin Tor party was an ancient being of
terrible, dark power: the old god Yogg-Saron.
“You
are weak!” boomed the same voice. With those words, a massive
tentacle burst from the ground behind Aesiri, and tossed the blood
elf into the air. Aesiri wouldn't be taken this easily; she invoked
an arcane spell to teleport herself to the ground. She turned to the
tentacle to begin casting a spell, but was too slow to act before the
tentacle rose and then slammed down on Aesiri over and over.
Before
slamming Aesiri a fourth time, the tentacle was sliced in half by an
arc of light. As its bottom half retreated into the ground, Dairen
stood over Aesiri, gripping his greatsword. “Coward!” he yelled.
The paladin charged Yogg-Saron and sliced the old god's body, only to
be thrown aside by another emerging tentacle.
“Shit...”
said Devin, his fear evident as he fired arcane missiles at
continuously erupting tentacles. “Two of our strongest down... It's
all on the archmages now. Light protect us...”
“Don't
say that,” said Anneke flatly as she destroyed a tentacle with a
fireball. “No one is going to die. This old god will be destroyed.
And...” She paused.
Devin
turned to Anneke. “What?”
“The
archmages will help.” Anneke raised her hand upwards. A cyclone of
green fire erupted around her, overcoming the cold of the room with a
disturbingly unnatural heat.
“Anneke...”
said Rhonin. “What...”
“Anne...”
whispered Devin. “No way...”
The
cyclone of fire condensed into a pillar of green flame that burst
from Anneke's up-reaching hand. As the fire struck the ceiling, the
ice encasing the walls and ceiling began to visibly melt. The chamber
again began to quake. Once again, fear crept into Anneke's allies,
but one that felt far from cold...
The
old god stood in observation. Its tentacles throughout the room stood
still. “You!” it started, but was interrupted by a massive thud
from the ceiling. The room was silent for a moment, before it filled
once again with the old god's twisted laughter.
Anneke
stood, her hand still channeling a pillar of green fire to the
ceiling. “Come on...” she said, her frustration growing. “COME
ON!” The chamber quaked more than it had before.
“You
are unskilled! You cannot even summon-”
The
old god was interrupted by four green meteors loudly bursting through
the ceiling of the chamber, crashing into the icy ground. Anneke
lowered her hand, letting the last of the green fire reach upward.
From the impacts of each meteor rose a massive being made of stone
and green fire. The infernal beings circled around Anneke, who took a
deep breath, staring at the old god.
“Impressive!”
boomed the old god. “You are beyond your companions!” A tall
tentacle burst from behind Anneke, and it sparked a pink beam from
its tip to Anneke's head.
Anneke
smirked. The old god was trying to corrupt her mind. It was
uncomfortable...
“And
now, you shall destroy them!”
...but
not a problem. Anneke mustered the will to conjure a blast of demonic
fire that scorched the tentacle, but did not break its beam.
“Futile!”
echoed Yogg-Saron. Laughter filled the room once again as Anneke's
allies stood stunned, before the laughter was interrupted by one of
the infernal demons ripping the tentacle from the ground, its flaming
grasp igniting the tentacle's rough flesh. The beam was broken, and,
control regained, Anneke invoked shadowy magic into her hands, then
unleashed it at the old god in a massive dark-green blast. A tentacle
rose near Yogg-Saron which attempted to block the blast, but the
blast pierced through the tentacle and continued to the old god,
exploding on impact in a burst of green fire.
Yogg-Saron
was stunned. Now was their chance, if Anneke's allies would get
themselves together. For the first time since invoking this demonic
magic, Anneke turned to her allies: “Don't just stand there!”
Rhonin
nodded, his face solemn. “You heard her,” he said to their
allies.
Anneke
turned back to the old god, and unleashed a stream of green fire from
her hand towards Yogg-Saron, searing the monster. The flaming demons
each easily fought off tentacles that the old god was still
summoning, before they could harm anyone. Rhonin shot a steady
barrage of arcane missiles at the body of Yogg-Saron as Jaina fired
bolts of frost and Aethas shot fireballs at the old god. Amidst the
heat of combat, Anneke felt her heart sink as she noticed that Devin
was merely standing stunned, staring at her...
“Enough!”
roared Yogg-Saron. “Look upon the true face of death, and know that
your end draws near!”
Tentacles
resumed bursting more rapidly from around the chamber, quickly
overpowering and destroying the infernal demons through their
numbers. With the demons destroyed, more and more tentacles were
freely spawning. Anneke and the mages continued to cast spells at the
tentacles, until Anneke froze when she heard Devin screaming in pain.
She turned; a tentacle had gripped Devin and was squeezing him in the
air. For the first time since since tapping into this fel power,
Anneke started to feel a hint of fear, but she shook it off to call
forth yet more dark power.
“Burn!”
she roared, raising her arm in Yogg-Saron's direction. With this,
black fire rose from the ground around the old god in a growing
vortex. As the cyclone of flame grew, it engulfed the body of
Yogg-Saron, and an ear-splitting screech burst through the chamber.
“Your
fate is sealed. The end of days is finally upon you, and all who
inhabit this miserable little seedling!..” shrieked the old god.
Anneke
only laughed, practically bathing in dark power. She clenched her spell-channeling fist, and with that
the vortex of black fire erupted into a massive tornado of shadowy
flame. Yogg-Saron's screams echoed throughout the chamber, before
suddenly stopping. The vortex subsided, and nothing was left. Anneke
lowered her hand. Her allies behind her were silent. She turned to
them, and first looked at Devin. “It's over. We won... and we all
survived.”
The
party was silent for a moment. “Yes,” said Rhonin, interrupting
the silence. “We all survived... at great cost.”
