Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
Silvermoon
Most of the Scourge were still occupied with the task of trying to analyze the Pillars of Creation when Illidan was alerted of the Legion's return. Rather than give an immediate counter attack, he ordered all of his forces in the Broken isles to pull back to Lordaeron and the frown on his face did not go unnoticed
"Illidan, what's wrong?" Vashj asked, concerned
"The Legion..." Illidan trailed off. "They're here."
"What? How?" Illysanna asked in surprise. Everyone present knew that the naga did not betray them as not a single naga, living or undead, has ventured anywhere near the Tomb
"I'm not exactly sure. All I know is that Sunstrider has allied himself with them." Illidan answered
"If the Legion's invasion has just begun, then perhaps we should go into the Tomb and close their gateway ourselves?" Maiev suggested
"Would we even be able to do that? We don't know enough about how the Pillars work." Vashj pointed out
"Either that or we wait here for the Legion to attack us." Maiev countered
With their few options, they all turned their sights to Illidan, whose frowned only deepened
"What is it, Illidan? Something happened?" Malygos asked
"The Legion is disrupting our portals." Illidan answered, surprising everyone present. "Some of our forces have already pulled back to Lordaeron but the Legion trapped the rest and slaughtered them. Olrun and Ymiron have already been killed and Anub'arak is trying to fend them off now but he won't last long. The Broken isles is lost."
"But still..." Kor'vas said. "How did the Legion even sneak here under our noses?"
That was a question that was on everyone's mind. They have had a near complete vision in most of Azeroth at all times thanks to their shades. Pandaria was a place of interest but there wasn't even a single trace of the Legion there and it would have been impossible for them to even know about Pandaria in the first place. At the moment, they were unable to do anything and all they could do is observe as a massive storm of fel energy shot into the sky
Illidan soon frowned once more as he realized what was happening. "We've been deceived." he began, arousing everyone's curiosity. "When the draenei appeared through the breach Kel'thuzad created, it was most likely a trap. The Legion wanted us to invade Outland so they can send a dreadlord into this world and break the seals in the Tomb."
"Wait, if that's true, then how did they even manage to get into this world in the first place?" Maiev asked
"It hardly matters now." Illidan answered. "How the Legion manage to sneak past us is irrelevant. At this point, we would have to fight the Legion first before finishing off C'thun."
"In that case, should we launch a counter attack at the Broken Isles?" Vashj asked
"No. That storm of fel energy is just a huge portal. If I had to guess, it would lead to Argus." Illidan answered
"Argus? What's that?" Drak'thul asked
Only then did Illidan remember that he never told them about what he had discovered at the Black Temple. "Back in Outland, when Velen and the others were fighting Magtheridon, I found a small library. It contained some crucial information about the Burning Legion. Argus is the homeworld of Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, and I imagine that it is the heart of the Legion's territory." he explained. To his surprise, nobody really questioned him on why he did not reveal this sooner and it simply proved that up until now, there really was no point of anyone else knowing this information since the Scourge had no plans to fight the Legion just yet
Kel'thuzad soon approached the group. "My king, how have the Legion manage to sneak into Azeroth?" he asked in a concerned voice
After seeing the arch lich, Vashj was soon reminded of an important detail. "Hold on. Wasn't the Legion the one who created the Scourge in the first place?" she asked, getting everyone's attention. "I'll take that as a yes in which case, it is very possible that the Legion had created something that was designed specifically to avoid our detection."
"That is possible." Illidan said thoughtfully. "At any rate, prepare for an assault. They Legion will no doubt attack us sooner or later. Also, there is a strong possibility that Varedis is with them now." he finished and surprised his subordinates
Broken Isles
Not even an hour ever since the Legion made their way into this world, the Scourge's outpost has been almost completely decimated. The undead was able to hold off the demons' onslaught until the fel storm finally took hold. The constant rain of infernals and fel reavers completely threw them into disarray in the very same way the Alliance in the Eastern Kingdoms were during the previous invasion
Anub'arak and the remaining Scourge forces were trying to hold on but they were losing grounds. They had begun to retreat earlier and yet, the Legion was able to forcefully close any portal they made, trapping them in certain doom. The nerubian king held no ill will towards his master since he knew that it wasn't Illidan's doing that the Legion has returned. Instead, the remaining undead forces chose to fight to the bitter end
In the middle of a battle, Highlord Kruul suddenly came down to personally fight the undead. The doom guard was causing huge amounts of casualties until Anub'arak burrowed underground and stabbed him in the back. Kruul growled in pain and managed to grab the nerubian king and threw him into the ground. "That was a nice try, nerubian."
"You will not succeed in your goals here, demon." Anub'arak declared
Kruul merely laughed at his opponent's declaration. "Foolish insect." he said as he charged flames around his sword. "Have you forgotten who is the one that created your miserable kind in the first place?" he mocked and moved to attack
Anub'arak, instead of parrying, created spikes to hinder the doom guard's movements. Kruul was cocky and was pierced by one of the spikes and decided to take to the skies. When the doom guard was coming down, the nerubian king released a swarm of angry locusts which really irritated Kruul. While Kruul was distracted by the locusts, Anub'arak shot some envenomed spikes from his armored back. The nerubian scored multiple hits and the poison, combined with the locusts, brought the doom guard back down
"Enough!" Kruul said in fury as he released fel fire around him, burning all of the locusts and forcing the venom out out of him. He then threw a fireball at the nerubian, finally scoring a hit. "You'll die for that, insect." he said and began charging towards his enemy. Just when he was in striking distance, Anub'arak burrowed himself undergound. "What?!" Kruul growled in frustration. "You won't escape!" and he caused an explosion on the ground. It did force out the nerubian but rather than just take the hit, Anub'arak caused another spike to pierce the doom guard
"Your arrogant kind will die before us, de-" Anub'arak said before he was cut off when a powerful bolt of fel energy hit him from behind
"How disappointing, Kruul." the source of the fel bolt said, which was revealed to be Mal'ganis. "Losing to someone who is beneath you." he taunted his fellow demon. When the dreadlord saw the nerubian trying to move, Mal'ganis trapped him in a fel cage before burning Anub'arak to death. "Enough fooling around, Kruul. Lord Sargeras will not forgive any errors this time."
Ashenvale Forest
Given the hatred, the Legion was quick to send their flyers into the home of their most hated enemies. There were still no ground forces seeing that they were still occupied with the Scourge but their fel bats were already swarming the skies of Ashenvale. When the first fel bats entered Azeroth, they all made a beeline at full speed to Ashenvale. The night elves, who were still busy with trying to cleanse their forest, were caught off guard by the fel bats
"What? Fel bats? Here? How?" Naisha asked aloud
"It's the Legion." a voice called out, getting the attention of the elves in the night elves' settlement. It belonged to Shandris, who was panting for breath. It was obvious that she rushed to get back here and it took her a few minutes to catch her breath. "We don't know the details but somehow, Turalyon was possessed by a dreadlord." she said and everyone could not believe what they had heard
"What?! How did the dreadlord evade Illidan's notice?" Tyrande pointed out
"We don't know. How the Legion got here is a mystery for another time. For now, we have to stop them." Shandris answered as the sentinels fired their arrows
"You're right." Tyrande conceded. These constant battles were really starting to take their toll and to an extent, she began to wonder if she made a mistake in releasing Illidan seeing as all this began when he was free but on the other hand, she wondered if they would even be ready to face their enemies when said enemies were prepared. Before she joined her subordinates in trying to shoot dow the fel bats, Tyrande created an owl to scout out the skies. To her surprise, she saw something she did not expect to see. It was faint considering the distance but there was no mistaking it, a massive amount of fel energies in the skies above where she was told the Broken Isles were
After a few minutes of fighting, the Sentinels were able to eventually kill all of their attackers but their already corrupted home was damaged even further. Part of it was even ignited in fel fire but it wasn't too serious
"Tyrande!" Malfurion called out as he went to the base along with Ysera and Alexstrasza. "What is going on? How is the Legion here?"
"I don't know, Malfurion. I really don't know." Tyrande said in a somewhat depressed tone. "All I know is that we have another fight on our hands."
"This is bad. Neither the red nor the green dragonflight is in any shape to fight right now." Alexstrasza muttered, knowing how dire their situation was and that everyone on Azeroth would have to work together if they hope to stop the Burning Legion
Despite all this, Malfurion was the one who was worried the most as he had a pretty good idea on what Illidan would plan to do if they manage to assault the Legion's gateway itself
Theramore Isle
By dusk on the same day, three Legion gunships have begun making their way towards Kalimdor, specifically towards Theramore. They were ordered by Mal'ganis simply to mock Arthas and to try and soften up their defenses. To their surprise however, two were suddenly shot from a long distance before they could get in range to deploy any grounded demons. Only then did the Legion realize that they underestimated the draenei, who have specifically prepared their artillery to shoot down the gunships. Before the two gunships were shot down after repeated hits, all the demons that were capable of flight instead took off while at the same time, they began shooting their weaponry at random
In Theramore Isle, everyone was already on alert and out of nowhere, fel fire began raining down at random. They were finally here. Upon impact, infernals and fel reavers soon transformed from the gunships' artillery
"To arms, men. The Legion is here!" Falric ordered, all of their forces ready to fight
Unlike the previous times, the Alliance were more experienced in fighting the Legion's constructs. Rather than try to take it down head on, they instead relied or ranged attacks such as from arrows or even their own mortars. While they bombarded the constructs with ranged weaponry, one or two knights would distract them
However, it soon became clear the the constructs were nothing more than a diversion. The demons who could fly such as doom guards and succubi soon came down from the sky, killing some of the Alliance's ranged weaponry
"Don't let them kill the mortars!" Marwyn ordered as he got into a melee fight with a doom guard
"You think you can stop us, mortal." a doom guard said as he tried to kill the captain
In the meantime, some of the succubi seduced the minds of some of the human and elven men which caused them to attack each other, creating even more mayhem in the city. However, there weren't that many of the demons and when the remaining Farstriders finally joined in, they were able to incapacitate the seduced troops and kept them from moving by shooting them in the legs. Even though their targets were the seduced warriors, some arrows did strike the ones who were still themselves
"Sylvanas, the succubus!" Falric yelled
"On it." Sylvanas answered and shot an arrow right between the eyes of a succubus, killing the demon instantly. "Stand your ground. There isn't too many of them." she ordered and began targetting more of the succubi. 'Damn. The demons really didn't waste any time.'
Just like Ashenvale, the Alliance were eventually able to fend off their attackers. Theramore was damage but it wasn't too severe
"Put out those fires and begin evacuations." Marwyn ordered when the battle was finally over
"But where would we even send our people?" a soldier asked
Marwyn hadn't thought of that but luckily, Sylvanas came to his aid. "I've already sent a runner with orders to begin building some tents near the draenei's settlements. We should have our people settle there until we have dealt with the Legion." she said. The soldier nodded in understanding and left while Marwyn only looked at her gratefully. 'If we even stop the Legion this time. This was no doubt just a warning and those gunships could easily kill us all. Even with the draenei's artillery, there is no guarantee we will be able to shoot them all down.'
Lordaeron
Just like with Kalimdor, the Legion has already begun their assault. This time, it was a full scale assault. The Legion's gunships came under fire from the Scourge's defenses but they didn't let up. They knew that they need to have a foothold in the Eastern Kingdoms otherwise the Scourge would simply be able to gather their forces for a counter attack. The gunships returned fire even though they were still out of range to score accurate hits against the Scourge's fortress. Many of the gunships were shot out of the sky but they still pressed on regardless
"Dalvengr, we are taking heavy fire." an eredar said to the dreadlord on the flagship
"Press the attack. If the Scourge manages to regroup, this invasion will only be more difficult for us." Dalvengr replied and with that, the Legion gunship fleet pressed on, deploying fel bats and nether dragons in the process
The Legion was more than aware that even though they would be fighting on two fronts on two different continents, they had the very same advantage the Scourge had except in much larger numbers. With Kael's information, they were aware that the Kalimdor inhabitants do not yet possess the means to move their resources in that large of numbers. They already had some modified zeppelins but they didn't have enough for all their forces so the Legion knew that they had to fight the Scourge first since the undead had a lot of necropolises to spare and they can carry a lot more troops
On the ground, Illidan and the rest of the Scourge high command arrived
"Kel'thuzad, can you use the Medivh's Spellbook to destroy the gunships?" Illysanna asked as they awaited their enemies
"No. I have tried but the gunships are protected. I will need a physical sample of the Legion's new gunships before I am able to come up with such a spell and even if I do, there is no guarantee it would work." Kel'thuzad responded. "I believe that the Legion took that into account when we drove them out last year and have prepared accordingly."
"Then I guess we'll have to do this the hard way." Vashj said as she summoned her bow. She then spared a glance at Illidan and her face silently spoke that she will be fine
Minutes later, the gunships' artillery finally rained down on the Capital City of Lordaeron. It appeared that the Legion was ignoring the other areas of Lordaeron but in reality, they were already deploying down their ground forces and engaged the Scourge. Some of the gunships have been shot down at see but those who were badly damaged in the air above the land instead chose to crash their vessel in the Scourge's positions. In the sky, gargoyles, frost wyrms and blue dragons all engaged the fel bats and nether dragons. Eventually, the surviving Legion gunships, despite the heavy fire, finally deployed their troops on the ground while more came out from those that crashed
"Die, undead!" a pit lord yelled, being the first one to drop down in the Capital City and more demons followed him, dropping down en masse
Seeing an opportunity to irritate the pit lord, Kor'vas killed a fel guard beside him. "You do realize that most of the Scourge is already dead, right?" she asked sarcastically. The pit lord growled in annoyance but the demon hunter simply jumped up and shoved a fel guard's spear into its head, killing it. When the pit lord's body was about to explode, Kor'vas simply jumped up to the sky and let the explosion kill the demons that were converging on her. After the battle in Outland, fighting the pit lords became a lot easier if their fatal weaknesses was exploited and she took a few moments to observe the battle while being careful not to leave herself too open to attack. 'The Legion is still coming despite the heavy losses and they're even making it difficult for our necromancers to reanimate the fallen bodies on both sides. It must mean that they are pouring all available resources they had into this invasion. The only question is, how much do they have?' she wondered, recalling that the Legion is about as old or even older than the entire elven race
In another area, Illidan was easily cleaving his way through the Legion's ranks. Any demon that was cocky enough to take on the first demon hunter dies almost immediately. Once again, he was proving as to why he was such a threat to the Burning Legion. After killing five doom guards in just one slash, Illidan came face to face with someone he killed before but didn't know who
"It's been a while since we met, half demon." the individual said, which was a dreadlord but unlike the other of his kind, this dreadlord's body was greatly scarred which meant that this one was killed in the previous invasion and the body has not yet fully reconstituted
"Am I supposed to know you? I know you're not Tichondrius, dreadlord." Illidan said, not at all fazed at the new enemy. He knew that this was the dreadlord he killed who tried to blindside his brother at Mount Hyjal
"I am Anetheron, the second most powerful dreadlord." he finally revealed his name but to the demon hunter, it didn't matter. "Now, I will finally have my revenge."
That statement caused Illidan to straight up smirk. "Come then, dreadlord." he said and parried the dreadlord's attack
Anetheron then decided to use his magics and hide in the shadows, letting other demons face off against Illidan. It was a futile effort as Illidan saw right through the dreadlord's magics and simply fired an eye beam at the dreadlord while simultaneously creating an arcane shield around him using Dusksoul. Anetheron expected this and created his own fel shield but was caught off guard by how powerful Illidan had grown as his shield was destroyed almost instantly. With the dreadlord distracted, Illidan took the chance to cut down the demons that were attacking him
The Lich King then turned his sights to the dreadlord who was only recovering himself. Illidan knew that at this point, Anetheron was starting to realize that he had greatly underestimated the demon hunter. Illidan didn't give him any chance to do anything and just like the last time they met, the demon hunter rushed towards the dreadlord. Anetheron was barely able to block
"You damn night elf." Anetheron growled, overwhelmed at his opponent's might. In desperation, he tried to use his other hand to inflict a wound but Illidan was faster and grabbed his wrist. The dreadlord was surprised and when he tried to act, the demon hunter simply fired a point blank eye beam. "Why you-" the dreadlord hissed but was cut off as Illidan cleaved his body in two, completely destroying him
Upon the dreadlord's demise, more demons converged on Illidan's location but to his surprise, a powerful arcane magic protected him from their assault and some were even hit by frozen arrows. Curious, he turned his sights to where it came from and his gaze landed on the roof of a destroyed building. He was even more surprised to see how effectively Vashj was fighting the demons. 'She really has changed over the years.' he thought as he remembered that she was not skilled at using any weapons and preferred to use sorcery. He was impressed considering that this was the first battle that Vashj actually participated in. The invasion of Nazjatar did not count since she didn't do anything but wait in the palace. When it was clear that Vashj was serious when she said she could take care of himself, he decided to focus on something else. He sifted through the shades they had in Kalimdor and learned that it too has been attacked
At the same time, Vashj was on top of a ruined building shooting her bow. Even though her aim wasn't as good as the dark rangers' or the ones in Kalimdor, she was doing very well for someone who was only fighting her first battle. She had opted to remain in her hybrid form knowing her tail would only get in the way if any demons came close to her. On the ground, she observed Illidan's battle with the dreadlord and was slightly intimidated at how effective he was in a fight. 'Azshara must have not held anything back when she trained him.' she thought but was forced to duck when a three fel bats landed on the roof she was on. 'Can't think about that now.' she thought and quickly killed one of the bats with one shot before moving to kill the other two
Durotar
Three hours after dusk, the Legion has finally launched a full scale assault on all of Kalimdor. This attack force was not as large as the one that was sent and is still travelling to Lordaeron. Since Durotar was further away, the draenei's artillery could not reach all of the gunships and the Horde's home was under siege. While the draenei's artillery were not of much help, the Horde was prepared for this possibility and they had some medium range siege weapons that had ammunition made by the draenei specifically to destroy the gunships. With the help of those equipments, the gunships weren't able to put that much of a pressure
The ground battle was a different story as the Horde's siege weapons were not as sophisticated as the draenei's and a lot of demons dropped down from the gunships. The surviving red dragons along with the bronze dragons also provided aid against the demons. To their relief, there weren't that many nether dragons that were sent their way otherwise the battle would be much more difficult. Most of the nether dragons were either in defensive positions in the Broken Isles or attacking Lordaeron as the Scourge was a much higher value target
The coastal bases of the Horde have all been destroyed by the Legion. In their place, the demons have begun creating their own outposts right as a massive battle was happening not that far from it. They were able to push them all the way back to Orgrimmar but upon arriving at the Horde's capital, they faced incredibly stiff resistance and their gunships were not able to have that much of an impact thanks to the much better preparations
A large of number of buildings in Orgrimmar were already burning and despite all that, the orcs were a warrior race and nearly every single one knew how to fight. They gave the Legion far more trouble than they originally anticipated. However, it did not change the fact that the Legion was putting up so much pressure on them
"Stand your ground, warriors. We shall not fall to the demons on this day!" Thrall declared, encouraging the rest of the Horde to fight on
"Are you sure about that?" a voice asked, one that was all too familiar to the Horde Warchief
In the middle of the battle, three pit lords were suddenly dropped by a gunship that was hovering directly above before it was finally shot down. While two of them were just regular pit lords, the third one was larger and a skeletal one
When Thrall laid eyes on the pit lord, he realized who it really was. "Mannoroth..." he muttered in complete disbelief. "How? I saw you die? Grom killed you." he pointed out
Mannoroth merely chuckled at this as the other pit lords went to engage the rest of the Horde. "Soon, you will learn that we demons are not as easy to kill." he vaguely responded. "Now, where is Grommash?" he asked mockingly, knowing that the Warsong Chieftain died when they crossed paths before
Thrall then released a large war cry. "Fight them on, my brothers. FOR THE HORDE!" he yelled and charged at the pit lord, who merely sported a massive grin
Here, the Legion continues its invasion. For the next two chapters, everything that is happening will be concurrent with what is going on in Durotar. Note, that is only in Durotar. All the battles before the ones in Durotar happened before this one
Since this invasion is just little over a year from the previous one, some of the demons, such as Mannoroth and Anetheron are not yet back to full power or have not yet fully healed. I was inspired by this in WoD where even though Mannoroth got humiliated, again, he was a boss in the Hellfire Citadel because Gul'dan reanimated his body or something
In this chapter, I decided to give a little highlight to Anub'arak. He was a notable presence earlier on but basically remained as a supporting role. I thought, why not. It wouldn't be too bad especially since I gave Ymiron his
Well, not gonna dwell on this too long