Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
Tomb of Sargeras
Maiev, Allari, Malygos, along with a few undead minions, have entered the Tomb of Sargeras just as Illysanna ordered. The former warden had arrived in the Broken Isles some time ago
"Before we go any further, haven't you already checked this place out, Maiev?" Allari asked right as they were in the entrance
"Not necessarily. When Illidan and I came to this place, we only retrieved the Eye of Sargeras and nothing more. We never bothered to see what else this place holds. After all, we needed to build our fortresses and take down Deathwing as soon as possible so most of our resources were occupied. There is also the fact that there are some crazed demons here." Maiev replied
"Demons? Here? How?" Malygos asked surprised
"Apparently, when the Avatar of Sargeras was defeated, the body was sealed in this place along with the demons that were with it. Illidan and I were able to avoid every single one that we came across so that just makes it more complicated for us." Maiev answered right as a single very pale fel guard saw them, which the death knight killed fairly easily
"I see. So, that's why you wanted to bring along some of our forces." Allari said thoughtfully
"Indeed. Now listen up." Maiev said as she walked forward. "If we keep moving forward, the path diverges into three different directions. I have only been on one and it is the one that leads to where the Eye of Sargeras."
"Then each of us will have to take one path." Malygos concluded as they all began moving forward. They eventually came across the fork that the former warden mentioned. At the fork, they encountered a single pit lord which they very easily killed. Since this pit lord was crazed, it couldn't fight as well as a regular pit lord could and went down easy
"So, which one do each of us take?" Allari asked curiously, being perfectly fine regardless of the decision
"I'll head towards the chambers of the Eye and see what else lies in its vicinity." Maiev said and went through the pathway that heads to the right followed by two abominations
"Guess I'll take the left one." Allari said and from what she can tell, the path to the left and went alone
With no other options, Malygos took the center path along with the rest of the undead minions they brought. The dragon aspect encounter a few crazed doom guards but with a little help from the undead, killed them all without taking any significant injuries. The group continued down the path which was slowly descending. Malygos came across some random rooms but there was nothing too significant. 'Maiev, Allari, I found some chambers. I'm checking them now but there is nothing to take note of.'
'Be as thorough as you can and take note of whatever you find no matter how small it may be.' Maiev replied
'I understand.' Malygos replied as he began to check the room for anything hidden. Using his magic, he scanned one of the rooms but found nothing while the undead with him went on ahead. The blue dragon repeated the process and included the walls but as he expected, they were just that. 'This is the former Temple of Elune, isn't it? If that is true, then that could explain why there are very little secrets in these rooms and hallways. That also means that deeper in the tomb is where the secrets lie.' he reasoned as he continued down. On the way, he came across something interesting. It was an odd shape on the wall. Malygos checked this out and sensed a great amount of power. 'A seal? To what?' he wondered to himself. 'I'll have to keep note of this.' he said to himself and continued walking down
Eventually, the blue dragon arrived saw a sight that he never thought he would see. "Sargeras..." he muttered as he gazed upon the upper body of the dark titan's avatar. What was clear is that one of its eyes is missing which meant that what they really used against Deathwing was the avatar's eye. Malygos looked down and realized that there must be some lower levels to the tomb as only the upper body was in the chambers he was in
In the meantime, Maiev was headed to the upper levels, in an area a bit deeper from where one of the avatar's eyes was somehow severed from its body. She did encounter two crazed demons which she killed with no effort at all. She had been in this area once before and even though there was nothing significant she and Illidan found, the former warden was still being very careful. She was glad that Illysanna wanted this tomb to be thoroughly investigated as she found something that she didn't before. Some specific areas, two to be exact, holding great amounts of power. 'What is this thing? And did Illidan know about this?' she wondered considering that both of these were not that far from the area of the eye chamber. Maiev walked out of the chamber where the seals were before freezing the entrance solid
Allari, on the other hand, found something completely fascinating. The path she took led to areas of the tomb that was still submerged in water but beyond that, it led to a massive underground chamber with the floor being filled with water. The demon hunter looked up and saw the lower half of a giant creature. Based on what she was told of this place, Allari assumed that it was the Avatar of Sargeras, being suspended by the upper floor itself. With her spectral sight, she found nothing out of the ordinary with the exception of two spots in the walls. Allari could see that it was a seal holding in a vast amounts of power and that it was similar to the energies that she saw on the demon gates in Outland. 'Is this the energy that Legion used to invade ten thousand years ago? But this isn't Zin Azshari, at least according to the Night Elves, so why would this power be here?' she wondered suspiciously before scanning the room again. There was nowhere else that had any energy in it. 'Maiev, Malygos, you need to come to my location, now.' she said
A few minutes later, Malygos arrived with the undead minions followed by Maiev slightly later. The first thing that they noticed was how wide the area was. While observing the vast space, Malygos noticed the avatar's lower body and was completely surprised at what he saw. Maiev followed his line of sight and she too became surprised
"Enough sight seeing. Come over here." Allari said while she was near one of the seals. "Take a look at this. It's a seal." she said before pointing to the other seal. "That's a seal too."
"A seal? So, you found one too?" Malygos asked surprised which Maiev noticed that the dragon kept this information
"Yes. The energy it holds is similar to the ones I saw on the demon gates in Outland." Allari pointed out. "And you said 'too'? Did you find one yourself?" she asked
"I did but I only found one. I came across the upper body of the avatar before you called. Near the area of the upper body, I found one of the seals." Malygos explained
"And you only mention this because?" Maiev asked suspiciously
"Because I wanted to be sure of everything in the area before informing you of my discovery. The other rooms I found were empty with nothing of significance." Malygos explained and not even the slightest bit afraid of the former warden
Maiev seemed satisfied with this explanation and she was able to relate to it. "I found two seals myself. It was not too far from the chamber of the eye." she said and surprised the two
"Wait, does that mean that Illidan did not bother to investigate further?" Malygos asked
"That's what I find confusing. Illidan is a very careful and observant individual so I find it odd that he never did anything more than retrieve the eye." Maiev replied thoughtfully. "Even if he has no immediate plans for something, he usually takes note of important things."
"True, but then again, Illidan isn't a god." Allari said and confused both them. "When I was still among the Farstriders, there was a common belief among us and that was no matter how good an individual was, there will be one or two things that said individual will miss. If you are the best archer, you will miss some shots now and then. If you were a swordsman, you may miscalculate your swing. The point is, no one is perfect no matter how good or powerful one is." she explained. "In this case, there is also the possibility of Gul'dan's memories. Since he was the first one to scour this tomb, he probably knows a lot, which in turn means that Illidan knows everything that he does. Perhaps that's why Illidan decided not to investigate any areas further than the eye chamber."
"That makes sense and it's a very strong possibility. When we were here, we didn't bother to be thorough. We simply retrieved the eye and got out as soon as we can." Maiev reasoned but still found it hard to believe
"That's probably part of the reason why Illidan wanted my help in the first place. It makes me wonder if he knew if I would continue helping the Scourge after dealing with Deathwing." Malygos wondered
"Could be. But regardless, what do we do? We can't break any of the seals. We don't know what it will do." Allari pointed out
"Earlier, you mentioned that this the energy is similar to the demon gates, right?" Maiev asked the demon hunter who nodded in response. "We need to turn our outposts outside into actual strongholds. We need to monitor whoever enters the tomb at all times otherwise the Legion might just manipulate someone to get in here and open their gateway."
"I agree. The terrain within the tomb is not fit to build outposts in but we need to ensure the entrance is always watched." Malygos agreed
"That makes three of us. I also had more shades enter the tomb and search for any other entrances." Allari added
"That's good. We will also need eyes on those and we need to make sure that the shades maintain eyes on the entrances at all times." Maiev said before motioning to the entrance. "For now, we have no way to do anything with the seals so..." she trailed off before she completely sealed the entrance to the room with ice using Frostmourne. "This should buy us some time to figure this out. Illidan had better wake up soon otherwise this will continue to be a threat."
"Let's head back to the entrance and discuss this with Illysanna. I really don't like talking about this information in this kind of place." Malygos said
"I feel you. Even though the coast is clear, it feels like something is watching us." Allari muttered as they all headed back to the main entrance
What they didn't know is atop the tomb, there was a certain individual looking at the Scourge's forces. It was obvious that said individual wanted to gain access to the tomb but couldn't do so otherwise the undead would just find him and kill him, or worse, reveal the individual's intention. Instead, the individual just cursed and left the tomb before the Scourge would turn their sights in its general direction
Emerald Dream
Ysera, Malfurion, some green dragons and druids, were in the Emerald Dream, investigating the corruption. They've been at it for a few hours since they discovered it and have found nothing thus far. They have sent word to the mortals to be very careful when they take a rest and of their surroundings lest the corruption claim them too, a corruption that has been dubbed as 'Emerald Nightmare' by Ysera
The vast wilderness of the Emerald Dream only made it more complicated. Ysera had been informed by Malygos that this corruption has began over four thousand years ago which only furthered the complications. The corruption could be anywhere in the dream. The green dragon aspect was furious at Malygos for not mentioning this but the blue dragon defended that the difference would not be that huge since it wasn't that long ago that he learned of it himself and that delaying their plans to take down Deathwing was not what Illidan wanted. This only further proved that Malygos had truly changed from who he once was and in the other dragonflight's eyes, for the worse
In an area that reflected most of Northrend, one of the green dragons noticed something odd with the energies in the area. As small group of dragons then began to investigate it but as soon as they got close, black tendrils suddenly came out and wrapped around three of the seven dragons were wrapped in them. The other dragons tried to free them but the tendrils quickly vanished, revealing a very warped dragon, colored with mostly gray or black with red spots in certain areas. This became clear that it was the corruption. The remaining four dragons tried to get away but three of them became pinned to the ground by their corrupted brethren
"Run, inform Lady Ysera..." one of the pinned dragons said as tendrils came out of the corrupted one on its back and wrapped around it
The surviving dragon quickly flew away as fast as it could, being very grateful that none of the corrupted dragons flew after it. It took a few minutes of searching before it finally found Ysera who was with Malfurion and a few other green dragons. "Lady Ysera!" the dragon called out as it reached its leader
"You found the nightmare, haven't you? Where is it?" Ysera asked, knowing there would only be one reason why one of her own would be in a panic
"In Northrend, specifically the Grizzly Hills. The part of the dream that reflects the shattered continent. We tried to get close to it but the corruption suddenly spread. Six of us have fallen to the corruption then and there. It could force its influence on us in a matter of seconds." the green dragon replied
"This is bad. There's no telling how powerful this corruption truly is." Malfurion commented with worry in his voice
Ysera thought about this for a few moments. The corruption had grown powerful enough to corrupt a fully grown dragon in seconds which means there is no guarantee that even she would be immune to its influence. "We need to go. If the corruption can influence a fully grown dragon in such a short amount of time, it is very likely that it is the source." she spoke up
"That would make sense. Malygos had mentioned that the corrupted World Tree was in Grizzly Hills but Lady Ysera, are we really going to take that risk? We can't just go there without a plan otherwise we will just be corrupted as well." Eranikus argued with his leader
"She is right, mother. We need to be prepared for this or we-" Merithra said but stopped midsentence when the surroundings suddenly became misty. After a while, the mist cleared and revealed fifteen corrupted creatures, mostly trolls, night elves and one dragon, all of them being gray in color with various red markings. "Crap." the daughter of Ysera muttered as they all got into a fight with the emerald nightmare forces
The very brief battle ended with no casualties on the defender's side while all of the corrupted creatures were killed
"That was too easy." a druid commented, noticing that they only suffered slight injuries and nothing too severe
"For now, yes, but something tells me there's more to this nightmare." Merithra pointed out
"There always is." Malfurion confirmed before noticing Ysera inspect the fallen bodies. He did the same and without even a word said, the group began to study them in order to learn how to negate its influence, or at the very least, resist it
"What do you think, Lady Ysera?" Eranikus asked after some time have passed
"It is possible but difficult. We would need to return to The Dream's Heart and I will try to see if I can make something that would shield us from the corruption." Ysera said before looking at her consort and daughter. "Eranikus, you and the others try and contain the corruption. Prevent it from spreading as much as you can but be careful. Malfurion, you're with me." she said as she got down to let them on her back
"Yes, mother." Merithra answered as all of the dragons with them left towards the dream reflection of the grizzly hills
In the meantime, Ysera had managed to reach the Dream's Heart in only a matter of minutes and found one of the individuals who might be able to help them
"Cenarius." Ysera said as she dropped off her allies
"Ahh, Ysera. What brings you here? You look stressed?" Cenarius asked with a hint of worry
"The corruption I had told you about, we have found it and it is much worse than we had anticipated. I am very sorry to disturb you about this." Ysera said sadly
"It is alright, Ysera. I have already said that I will aid you in any way I can. So, what do you need?" Cenarius asked and wanted to reassure his adoptive mother
Ysera responded by using the dream's magics to show the creatures they fought. "The corruptions is powerful enough to corrupt even fully grown dragons in a matter of seconds."
"I see. You want to use the Dreamglow Dragonscale to protect you from the corruption." Cenarius concluded. "However, you and I know that using the Dragonscale will only last for so long."
"I am aware but my plan is for us to observe the source of the corruption first hand and see what we can learn. Once we have done that, we can prepare to deal with the nightmare for good." Ysera answered
"I understand. Now, just give me a few minutes and I will attempt to recreate the Dreamglow Dragonscale." Cenarius said before he began casting with everyone present doing the same
Later, Ysera took all of them to where Eranikus was. They noticed that they were fighting off corrupted creatures and from the looks of things, the creatures were mindless and just attacking at random. These creatures looked to be of various beings that lives on Azeroth. It became clear that the nightmare had claimed a lot of creatures, most of them being the ones that lived near grizzly hills in Northrend
"Eranikus." Ysera called out as she finally reached her consort
"Lady Ysera, do you have what you need?" Eranikus asked as the others dismounted the dragon aspect
"Yes, but it will not last that long. We may have to take more tries to deal with this so for now, we will only see what we can learn." Ysera said as she activated the duplicates of the dragonscale Cenarius had made and gave one to her consort. "Stick close to the others. It should prevent the corruption from affecting you but once you feel something off, fall back." she said and her consort nodded in understanding. "Let's go." she said and she, along with Malfurion and Cenarius went to the source of the corruption, which they can see embedded in an area with some trees and rocks around it
When they reached the source, Malfurion broke the rocks surrounding it and found a gemstone which was red in color and it was a perfect sphere in shape. It was also oddly large for a gemstone since it needed two hands to be carried
"Is this the source of the corruption?" Malfurion asked, not believing that this corruption came from one object
All of them were also in disbelief as it just did not make any sense. That was until the gemstone suddenly glowed and it cracked. Before any of them could react, a large piece of the gemstone detached itself and launched towards Malfurion, hitting him right at the center of the chest. To their surprise, nothing happened, until a voice suddenly echoed
"You are perceptive." the voice said out. The source could not be seen anywhere and it was more of an echo. "No, that is not the source of the corruption. You've made a fatal mistake, Dreamer. Because the Spellweaver did not inform you of this as soon as he learned of it, you let your worry cloud your judgment. You rashly thought this was a simple corruption that you would be able to cleanse as soon as you knew how it worked but I assure you, this is much worse than you think. Observe." the voice said and only then did the gemstone piece lodged in Malfurion begin to take effect. Red markings appeared on his chest right before his body turned gray and he turned into one of the corrupted creatures. "The corruption would normally take at least a day to fully corrupt someone as powerful he is but the gemstone was created with a massive concentration of the corruption, which is how we've been able to corrupt fully grown green dragons in a matter of seconds."
"Malfurion!" Cenarius yelled right before he and Ysera were hit by the gemstone when it shattered itself. The demigod was quickly consumed by the corruption and suffered the same fate as Malfurion
Before Ysera could be consumed by the corruption, the voice made sure to rub her mistakes to her. "Since the corruption of the Dream, its influence could not be sent anywhere without alerting anyone of its existence. However, after Stormrage's minions revealed its existence, it was a simple matter to lure you into a trap. All that was needed was to let your dragonflight know about the location and your worry played perfectly into our hands." the voice said before it finally let the corruption take hold of Ysera. "For the record, those creatures were not mindless at all. They acted in that way just to undermine what the Emerald Nightmare truly is and to get you to lower your guard down. Now, with Deathwing gone and Azshara missing, you shall serve in their stead, for this world's true masters." the voice declared
"This world shall fall into complete and utter darkness." the three said in unison, all of them being corrupted by the nightmare
XXXXXX
It had been days since he gained the memories he had of this life and Illidan was still confused as to how he can remember everything that happened in this life as well as the one he had where the War of the Ancients actually happened. 'This definitely isn't the afterlife nor the Twisting Nether. Where the hell am I?' Illidan wondered to himself. Vashj had gone to the lower levels of the palace to take care of some business while Illysanna went training. He was impressed that his daughter in this life shared so many similarities with him in his original life. Even though both of them were already at the top when it comes to skills in battle, they still continued to train
Having nothing else to do, Illidan went to the main palace courtyard and as he expected, Illysanna was there training with a bunch of other night elves. He observed his daughter fend off their opponents with the help of a few others. It reminded him too much of his own fighting style, which was using cheap moves to distract the enemy. He wasn't too surprised as he did recall that he trained his daughter in this life. Eventually, Illysanna's group was able to take their opponents down but there was nothing too serious about it. It was sparring after all
"Impressive. You've gotten a lot better, Illysanna." Illidan complimented once the sparring session was over
"Thank you, father. As you said, I should not let my skill get to my head." Illysanna replied gratefully before smirking. Her father raised an eyebrow in curiosity before he instinctively bended backwards as Illysanna suddenly swung her wooden stick his way
'She really is my daughter.' Illidan commented to himself knowing that if he actually had a child, he would teach her this exact same thing
"Wow, you actually dodged that." Illysanna said surprisingly
"Really, daughter? Have you forgotten who taught you that?" Illidan responded with a smirk of his own. Illysanna grinned in response as without even so much as a word, they began sparring with each other
Illidan was unarmed while Illysanna had a wooden stick yet the sparring was pretty evenly matched. The former demon hunter turned lich king was rather glad that he still had his reflexes and reaction time from his reality otherwise Illysanna would have hurt him real bad. He was confident that she wouldn't do that on purpose but considering how confident she was that he would dodge the sneak attack, it was doubtful that she would even blindside him in the first place
The two of them continued to spar. Illidan remained unarmed but was able to easily dodge his daughter's attacks while Illysanna was trying her best to at least score a hit on her father. Illidan was careful that when he attacked, he wouldn't seriously hurt his daughter, the same went for Illysanna. Eventually, Illysanna managed to lure Illidan into a trap by throwing her stick at him, forcing him to sidestep and in that moment of distraction, she sent a hard kick right to his side. Her father grunted in pain but quickly recovered himself. Right as Illysanna tried to attack once more, Illidan grabbed her stick and swung it but not targetted at her body but rather, at her legs. This caused Illysanna to lose her balance and fall down. Illidan then pointed the stick at her
"Yield." Illidan said and Illysanna raised her arms in surrender. He then helped her up. "That was well done. You may surpass me at this rate." he complimented
"Come on, father. You give me too much credit." Illysanna replied with a smile. The two of them then heard someone approach them and they saw who it was. "Hi, mother."
"I was wondering where you went off to, Illidan." Vashj said before she gave a hug to her family. She was still obviously worried about him
"I had nothing to do so I decided to watch our daughter train." Illidan replied. "She has improved quite a big deal."
"Really?" Vashj said in an excited tone before she went to grab a wooden stick of her own. "Mind showing your mother what you learned?"
"You're on, mother. If I win then I get to do the empire business for a week." Illysanna declared while she ran into the center of the courtyard excitedly
Vashj merely looked at Illidan who nodded that he approved that they would train, which she responded with a grateful smile. "Come on, Illy. Wait up." she called out to her daughter
Illidan then watched the two girls spar and to his surprise, Vashj was actually very good in close quarters combat. 'Since when does she know how to fight?' he wondered as he was well aware that Vashj was mostly a sorceress and that she did not have the skill to fight this well against a trained opponent yet she was easily holding her own and Illidan suspected that she was as good of a fighter as he was, maybe even better. He knows for a fact that he did not train her in this life nor did Azshara train her in both lives. His memories of his training with Azshara in both lives were exactly the same and the queen had never mentioned anything about training anyone else, even after he asked her about it. His mind soon wandered to another point when Azshara trained him
Illidan went to one of the mountain ranges further away from the palace. For whatever reason, Azshara said she wanted to take this one in an isolated area. He had a bad feeling about this but continued walking, eventually arriving at the place. As he expected, no one was there. "Azshara, I'm here." he called out but was met with silence. "Azshara!" he yelled again but out of nowhere, someone hit him and knocked him out
Some time later, he woke up. 'Damn it. What the hell was that?' he thought in annoyance and looked around him. Illidan found himself in some sort of underground prison cell. Rock walls surrounded him with the usual cell bars in one side with the gate being locked. He soon started to panic. 'Did Azshara betray me? Did she sell me out to some random creatures?' his mind began to race. "I have to get the hell out of here." he said and grabbed the cell bars, shaking them violently. "Let me out of here!" he yelled to no one but like earlier, no response. However, the shaking did cause some of the rocks to fall from the ceiling and he looked at it. "Will the ceiling collapse if I keep shaking this thing?" he wondered aloud and if that was true, then shaking it was out of the question
For the next few hours, Illidan simply languished in the cell, completely furious at Azshara had betrayed him. From time to time, he looked around him to see if there was anything that could aid him in escaping but he found none and for whatever reason, he was unable to use any of his magics. When he finally calmed down, he decided to think about his current situation. 'Assuming that Azhsara was serious about all this, then that means she is the only one aware of my situation. It makes sense she was the one that knocked me out. If that is the case then she wants to teach me another lesson by getting out of this cell on my own. Considering that Azshara told me to meet her in the mountain rangers, it's safe to think that no one will ever find me if I don't figure this out.' Illidan tried to rationalize everything and got up. 'How typical of Azshara. When she said she was not going to go easy on me, she really meant it.'
The would be demon hunter then continued to search the cell once more and again, found nothing. 'The walls and floor are empty.' he thought and looked above. 'There is no way to reach the ceiling given how there is nothing to use to climb up and how it could easily collapse. That means that the only thing that I haven't checked is..." he muttered the last part as he approached the prison bars. Carefully, he began inspecting each one. Upon checking the one to the very left, he found that it was cracked. When he took a closer look, he noticed that the damage was so bad that it was a wonder how it didn't shatter yet
With a simple kick, Illidan was able to force out that specific bar and there was enough space for him to pass through. He quickly escaped the cell. There was a source of light in the distance and he realized that it must be the exit. When he finally made it out, he wasn't even surprised that Azshara was there, waiting for him and appeared to be playing a soothing music using a leaf
Illidan frowned upon seeing her and barely stopped himself from attacking her. "You were the one that imprisoned, weren't you, Azshara?!" he growled out
Azshara stopped the music she was playing and turned to look at him. "Yes, I did. I warned you, I would not go easy on you." she reminded him. "This was your lesson and another crucial one if you really want to improve."
"And that would be?"
"Don't be too focused on your goals and keep an open mind. I guess you could call it as 'tunnel vision'." Azshara answered and got up. "Do you remember what I told you about trusting your instincts?" she asked and he merely glared at her. "Then I guess you could consider this as a follow up. If you find yourself in a similar situation, then do not be too focused on achieving your goals. Keep an open mind, consider every possibility. Do not fully trust your sense or emotions. Just like with the cell earlier, the answer could lie right in front of you and it could be last thing you expect it to."
"And you just had to do it without any warning, didn't you?" Illidan growled out
"Well, where's the fun if you know what is coming? And how would you learn if you don't figure it out on your own?" Azshara pointed out. "These kinds of things happen unexpectedly, Illidan. You must be ready otherwise you will get punished if you are not prepared."
Back in the present, Illidan still continued to observe. 'Is she the key to finding out where I really am?'
Before I make any additional notes on the chapter, I want to say that I've made some changes to the notes on the first chapter of the story. I've also edited a small part of Illidan's origin story which was on chapter six. It's not a massive change and I only added a minor detail that will come into play much later. It was on the part on the balcony right before Vashj convinced Illidan to aid the resistance
With that out of the way, the Dreamglow Dragonscale is just a random object that I found on wowpedia. I'm not exactly sure what it does and I'm not particularly concerned. You'll find out why since in the next few chapters, more of the Emerald Nightmare will be revealed and a small foreshadowing is already in this chapter. Speaking of, that gemstone mentioned earlier is something similar to the one Xavius used to corrupt Ysera in Legion. I think that was the Tears of Elune he used but I wasn't able to find that out but it doesn't matter
I also brought back Cenarius and to be honest, I don't know how and when he came back to life in WoW. Since this part is about the Emerald Nightmare, I figured why not. Also, take note about how the Old Gods acquired more minions. This will be a recurring theme since the Old Gods do have a habit of doing these kinds of stuff. On the topic of the Old Gods, I will say this but it will only come into play later in the story. If there is anything that is 'dark / black magics or powers' or anything along that line is mentioned, that would refer to the powers of the Void. Just like with the Naga, those kind of magics will not be referred to as such until it is already mentioned what kind of magics they are
In the Tomb of Sargeras, yes, those are the seals that WoD Gul'dan broke under directions from Kil'jaeden. In the audio drama, it was implied that the seals were not located near each other, at least based on how Gul'dan wasn't breaking them all at the same time, so I just kept that part. In the Legion part of WoW, I simply don't understand how Illidan did not know about them. He ventured into the Tomb in TFT to retrieve the Eye but somehow missed the seals and the Avatar? I simply cannot think of a logical explanation why so I just made one up. Also, the area Malygos found himself in iss the area where Kil'jaeden reanimated the Avatar before it shattered the floor while the one Allari found is the area after the Avatar shattered the floor and where Kil'jaeden was talking trash against Illidan and Velen
Finally, yes. In this story, I made Azshara be the one to teach Illidan about his most iconic catchphrase. I just wrote it that way just so it would strengthen the mentor and student bond between the two and that training under Azshara had really taught Illidan things that no other mentors would teach him