1: Trial of the Kin-slayer
"Vis'caerath... Eredar warlock, and lord of the Burning Legion... You have been captured, bound, and brought before us for the treacherous crime of murdering thousands of your own" Kil'jaeden spoke, in front of the many hundreds of demons that watched the trial unfold, underneath the smoldering, green sky, in the hellish, barren, burned landscape of the planet they stood on. The court, consisting of all manners of dreadlords, shivarra, succubi, ered'ruin, and annihilons, to small imps and voidwalkers, watched their lord speaking to the accused eredar in question, whose large, muscular, red-skinned, armored form stood, covered in magic-binding, tempered chains, in front of them all.
Vis'caerath had large, fan-like plates lining his forehead, multiple, small, spike-like horns along his brow, pointed ears, and possessed four, long tendrils, each decorated with small, golden rings, that made up beard-like extensions on the sides of his jaw, while a tuft of black hair made an actual beard on the tip of his chin. His mouth bore several fanged teeth, and his face was set in a grimace, to go with his demonic appearence. At the end of his long, thick legs were cloven hooves, and he had a large, muscular tail as well. For armor, on either side of his head was a large pauldron, around his mostly bare chest was the straps holding them in place, his forearms were garbed in heavy gauntlets, covering his legs were armored plates, and around the lower half of his body was a decorated waistguard.
Aside from the red skin, and fearsome appearance, he, like most man'ari eredar, had more than a passing resemblance to their draenei cousins.
Kil'jaeden, the supreme leader of the Burning Legion himself, sat on an enormous, twisted throne, and was wreathed in black, smoking fumes strong enough to kill any mortal who took but a single wiff of it. The only recognizable parts of him visible to the masses were the monstrous shape that hid behind the dark cloud, and the two, glowing yellow eyes that pierced through it.
"You are here for the killing of several venerated eredar, high-ranking nathrezim, and annihilon pit lords, as well as the murder of well over a legion of loyal soldiers who tried to stop you..." he said again, his deep, venerable voice as seamless as wine, and as commanding as any king or emperor. "...Do you have any regret over your fit of insanity? Do you have any reason for us as to why you did this act, before your final judgement has passed?"
"I..." Vis'caerath started, in a seemingly solemn way, before suddenly lifting his head, his face's expression changing into a malicious glare of happiness, his fanged mouth grinning. "...Regret nothing! I shall tell you not what I witnessed that has convinced me that we are all fit only to be killed as violently as possible, but I will say that I took pleasure in the crime I committed! I took the utmost of pleasure in every second of it!"
The booming, mad laughter that followed echoed throughout the silent area, heard by every demon to inhabit the room, including Kil'jaeden. Before the chortling could cease, each of them had let out cries of outrage and hatred in the purest of its form, each directed at the traitor.
"Kill him, and impale his head on an iron spike!" a pit lord thundered, planting one of the ends of his double-bladed halberd into the ground as he slammed it down, soil scattering from the impact.
"Tear his arms off, and give him to the hounds! Set him as an example!" a multi-armed shivarra shouted, in more of a screech than a voice.
"Torture him!" a dreadlord yelled out in his poisonous tongue, shaking a clawed fist into the air. "Make him suffer for an eternity!"
"Take his eyes! Take his eyes!" a lowly imp chanted with extreme fervor, as it jumped up and down from the rock it stood from, a sadistic look in its bulging eyes. Each of the ideas for the warlock's punishment were silenced no sooner than they were brought up, as Kil'jaeden raised his enormous hand, instantly quieting the crowd. They all looked up to him, as he took the silence they gave him to his advantage, and began to think, stroking his gnarled chin with a claw from behind the smoke surrounding him. Soon after, when he had a final idea in his head, he pointed to the doomguard that served as warden, and beckoned him, silent as death, to approach. Without hesitation, the creature obeyed.
When he was within a few feet of his master, Kil'jaeden whispered something of unholy purpose into his ear, in a volume too low for Vis'caerath to hear. Closing his eyes, and nodding in agreement, the doomguard turned from Kil'jaeden, and walked up to Vis'caerath, withdrawing the knife it had in a sheath by its side. Doing exactly as told, he thrust the weapon into the eredar's stomach once he was within arm's distance.
"Grk-!" Vis'caerath gasped, as the blade hit its mark. As he keeled over, fiery, orange, luminescent blood was spat out of his mouth, and landed on the ground with a steamy hiss, while more leaked from his wound. As this was happening, the doomguard pulled the dagger out, stained with blood, and sheathed it away before taking out the key it possessed, and, with a huff of disapproval, unshackled Vis'caerath's many chains and handcuffs.
Once the objective had been completed, and the shackles had fallen to the ground with a metal clatter, Kil'jaeden himself stood up from his seat, and stepped out from the smoke, revealing his horrible, massive, red, winged, horned form to every being in the room. Many of the lesser demons trembled at the sight of his fearsome visage, and even the highest-ranking ones couldn't help but let a chill race up their spines.
"I may have a use for you in the future, "Kin-slayer..."" the Deceiver bellowed, before flexing a mighty, clawed hand, casting a spell. Vis'caerath was only able to look up from his wound in time to see a large, purple form of magical energy, created by his former master, begin to appear in front of him, before it became obvious that it was a portal.
"...But for now, I banish you from this realm with this painful parting gift! I banish you, never to return, never to be able to even set foot on any world belonging to the Burning Legion! BEGONE, TRAITOR!"
With those words, the wounded eredar felt himself being, slowly, dragged away from where he stood by a powerful vacuum that the portal created. Struggling against its growing strength, he attempted to shuffle away, but quickly realized how futile the effort was.
"I will kill you, Deceiver!" Vis'caerath vowed, screaming at the top of his lungs, as he continued to try his hardest to resist being sucked into the portal. "Mark these words, and prepare! No matter how long or arduous it may take, I will kill you! I will KILL YOU ALL! I WILL KI-"
He was unable to finish his sentence, as he finally lost his hoofed footing, and disappeared into the portal, which promptly closed behind him in a puff of smoke.
Kastina ducked her head under the rock she hid behind, as the orc warlock she was currently facing sent a shadow bolt heading her way. The screaming, purple skull smashed into her makeshift cover, where it exploded upon impact, sending a crack into the stone. Wiping back some of her own sweat-soaked, black hair that was covering the front of her face, the paladin peeked her horned head out once more, and saw the aged orc ready another spell.
For the last three hours, she had been fighting against the cabal of warlocks that she had discovered in the middle of Elwynn Forest, by herself. All that was left of them was the orc she was currently facing, but he was different from the others. He was the ringleader, as seen by his skill with spells, and the fact that he was the only one of them left alive, that was not slain by her hammer or magic.
"I will smite you, you foolish paladin! Tremble before me!" the orc cried out, his long, gray beard flowing in the wind, as he swung his bent, wooden staff in the air with one hand, and sent another shadow bolt with his other, breaking part of the boulder with an explosion when it hit, but not enough to reveal Kastina.
"It's not the first time I've heard that one..." she groaned to herself, in her accented voice, as she remembered back to the hundreds of times she faced off against powerful, but arrogant servants of darkness, such as this one.
After seeing that she wasn't coming out from behind the rock, the orc began to speak in an ancient, evil language, as the tip of his staff began to glow purple. The moment he finished his spell, a purple flash went out in front of him, before clearing, revealing what he had summoned.
Before him stood the shape of a tall, powerful, pale-skinned felguard, dressed in the abysmal black armor of the Burning legion. In its powerful, wide hands was a nasty-looking, large, jagged axe. As it looked around at the new environment it was in with its helmeted head, the orc immediately set to barking his orders to his newest, bound minion.
"You, go find the draenei that hides behind the rock, and end her! Do as I command!" he shouted to the demon, pointing to the boulder in question, his voice beginning to strain as his age caught up with him. Without hesitation, the tall creature readied its axe, and began to approach where the young draenei hid, following the order fluently. When it was within feet of her, she set to action before it could instead.
"Raagh!" Kastina roared, swinging her hammer in its direction, as she jumped from the cover. The felguard, thanks to thousands of years of training, saw the attack coming from a mile away, and parried the hammer with its axe. As the two fighters began to duke it out, the orc, after gathering himself from the energy used to summon the creature, turned, and began to hobble his hunched frame into the cave he was standing in front of, in an attempt to hide and prepare.
Within the span of the minute they fought, Kastina managed to strike the felguard several times in its side and chest with powerful blows from her weapon, but it continued its assault on her, unimpeded. The felguard raised, and dropped its blade at the draenei, but she was able to raise her hammer's head, blocking the attack. She then proceeded to shove the axe upward with a grunt of effort, and then raised her leg, hitting the demon in the stomach with a surprisingly powerful kick, sending him back several meters.
Immediately setting about to focus her mind, Kastina raised a gauntleted arm, and started to speak, reciting an incantation she was all-too-familiar with, as a bright sigil formed over her forehead, and began to float there, magical, holy power welling up inside her.
"By the Light, I banish you from this plane of existence!" she shouted, a burst of light emerging from her hand. A bright, white beam flew from her gloved palm, and struck the felguard in its unarmored, gray-skinned chest. With a shocked bellow, the demon was sent, crying out, back to the Twisting Nether from whence it came, in a bright flash of white, disappearing from sight. After collecting herself, and taking in several deep breaths of air, Kastina turned to the cave she saw the warlock disappear in, and glared at it.
"Your turn..." she muttered, as she began to head toward the cavern's entrance, intent on ending the evil being within.
It was a very short time before she came upon the orc, who had unwittingly cornered himself in the back of it. After seeing no other escape option, he turned with a begrudging acceptance at the situation he was in, at Kastina.
"I'll... I will end you!" he growled, trying to sound as intimidating as possible to the paladin. He raised his staff, and a purple glow began to envelope its tip, as he began to speak in an unholy, evil tongue, reciting the words to an invocation that would send a blast of deadly, fel energy at his enemy. Not giving him the pleasure of finishing, Kastina, using all of the strength at her disposal, lunged forward on her hooved feet as fast as she could, toward the warlock, hammer at the ready.
With a massive swing, the hammer cleaved through the staff, breaking half of the ancient, wooden construct into splinters. The orc, with a cry of horror, fell onto his back as he felt his magic leave him.
"No... no, no, no!" the warlock cried out, as he sat back up, his red eyes scanning the broken wood on the ground. "You... How dare you! I'll... I'll..."
As he continued his whimpering, Kastina slowly walked up to him, and raised her hammer overhead, set to bring it down on the orc one, last time. She was about to do so, when all of a sudden, she heard a sudden "fizzing" sound coming from overhead, causing her to hesitate.
Perplexed by the noise, she was only able to look up, over her shoulder, a confused expression on her face, before a large, heavy shape hit against her smaller body with great force. Letting out a small cry of surprise, she was knocked to the ground several feet away, and her hammer was sent flying from her grasp, where it deflected off of the stone wall nearby with a metal thud, and grated off rock as it slid across the ground.
Kastina shook her head as she recovered from the blow, and sat up. When she opened her dizzied, bright blue eyes, she saw a new, red figure, who was also apparently just sitting up, recuperating from the same blow, that had joined her and the orc, and was currently lying between them. When she realized what the red-skinned, muscular, armored, draenei-like creature that stood before her was, she let out a gasp of complete surprise, just as he looked up at her in return, his glaring, ember-like, yellow eyes slowly bringing her to his attention, exposing his face, and the orange liquid, presumably blood, that ran down his lip.
It was a man'ari eredar, garbed in the armor of a lord. And he was wounded, as seen by the great injury on his stomach.
And he didn't look very happy.