Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft

The corrupted prince of Lordaeron, Arthas Menethil, and the demon hunter turned Lich King, Illidan Stormrage, clashed blades. Much of the immediate area has been reduced to dust after Arthas' previous battle but Illidan didn't particularly care. This has been the one thing he had been waiting for ever since his encounter with Azshara in his mindscape, something to ensure that he wouldn't be blinded by his own feelings towards Vashj

Throughout their engagement thus far, Illidan had not used Dusksoul just yet. He had only been using his twin blades because he didn't want to reveal he had an ace up his sleeve. The demon hunter was glad he did because Arthas was easily matching his movements in both strength and skill. Y'Shaarj possessing him increased the prince's capabilities ten fold

"What's wrong, Stormrage?" Arthas mocked as he forced Illidan on the defensive. "Is this too much for you?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Old God." Illidan said and easily kicked his opponent back. This time, he went on the offensive and since he had two blades, he was switching up which hand he would attack with and put pressure on his enemy

Arthas was continuously being pushed back until he decided to create a large dark tendril from the ground in an attempt to pierce his enemy. To his surprise, this did not faze Illidan one bit who simply just jumped up and destroyed it with his fel magics. The surprise grew greater as Illidan fired an eye beam at Arthas. The prince managed to create a shield of darkness around him but after blocking the attack for a few seconds, the shield shattered and he was struck by the eye beam. Arthas was barely able to block as Illidan immediately flew down to engage him in another melee battle

"That was good, demon. I'm impressed." Arthas complimented as Y'Shaarj healed the injury, getting further grip upon his vessel

"Never thought that an Old God would actually possess a mortal personally." Illidan said before his opponent forced him back with a tendril growing from the Heart

"Says the one who is going around raising everything from the dead." Arthas countered and took a jab

Illidan sidestepped to dodge before slamming his knee against the prince. "As if you wouldn't do the same." he countered back before firing a fel bolt

Arthas blocked the bolt with his sword before unleashing his own. Illidan countered this with his own and it created an explosion. The prince couldn't see through the smoke and he knew that Illidan could so he quickly forced it away. Arthas then created more tendrils from his back just in time as the demon hunter was about to run him through. Like with earlier, the tendrils barely did anything as Illidan easily destroyed them. Unlike with any of Arthas' previous enemies, Illidan was on a different level of power. The demon hunter had never revealed the full extent of his abilities ever since he was released from prison and now, it was paying off. All Arthas knew was that Illidan, having the powers of Gul'dan and the Lich King, was above the rest of his minions and most of the creatures of this world. Now, Y'Shaarj finally realized that it wasn't Illidan's raw power that made him dangerous. It was how he used that power

It was also around this time when Jaina finally regained consciousness but she was badly injured from the attack. Thanks to her injuries, she was helpless to do anything as the energies from Arthas and Illidan were being thrown around. All she could do was watch, hoping that she would survive this. From the looks of things, neither Illidan nor Arthas cared one bit about her

After slicing some more tendrils, Illidan summoned and threw his falchion swords at his enemy. Both missed but it was intentional as they created chains which bound the prince and Illidan quickly released a combination of ice and fel magics around him that struck at various areas in his opponent's immediate vicinity. Arthas blocked most of them but three managed to hit him. Annoyed, Arthas then broke the chains and destroyed the two blades that created the spell. These attacks were far more potent than Jaina's attacks from before and it caused far more damage to the Heart than hers did. The damage was clearly visible as huge amounts of black blood began rushing out from where the energies hit. However, there was no time to dwell on it as Illidan was already preparing to attack again. Knowing that this would just end up badly the longer he continues to underestimate the demon hunter, decided to use more of his powers and created black flames from his sword. At last, the Old God was finally able to land a blow upon his enemy as the attack did some damage to Illidan, who was forced to pull back as Arthas released more dark energies, hitting his enemy again and creating another explosion

However, while all those attacks did some damage, it wasn't significant enough. Since he took note that Y'Shaarj was finally going all out, he figured he might as well do the same and Illidan released his demon form, forcing the smoke away. He shot another eye beam, this time far more powerful than his last one. Arthas knew that he didn't have enough time to be able to create a shield or fire back with his own magics that would be sufficient to neutralize the incoming attack, he was instead forced to dodge but the beam burned part of his hair. The prince then countered back with his own blast of dark energy, which Illidan dodged by flying up. Arthas didn't let up and quickly created more tendrils from the ground. The tendrils were successful in wrapping around the demon hunter. Before Illidan could burn his way through, he was slammed into the ground right as Arthas jumped up and stabbed him in his left wing

Illidan growled in pain but knew that Arthas was about to release a burst of energy, he beat the prince to it as he released a point blank eye beam, throwing his enemy into the sky while more of Y'Shaarj's black blood dropped down. The attack also pierced the prince right through his upper right torso. The demon hunter quickly got up and created lassos out of pure fel energy and wrapped them around the prince before pulling him down, one of his blades at the ready. Arthas saw this and he didn't know if Illidan's blades were like Frostmourne, which could actually inflict injuries on him, but he did not want to wait and find out. He broke through the chains by consuming it with his dark magics before he used his fall to rush at the demon hunter, both of them locking blades once more

"It would seem I underestimated you, Illidan Stormrage." Arthas said before transforming his off hand into a blade. "It's a shame, you would have made a fine servant. Now, time to die." he said and he tried to stab him with his arm that he turned into a blade. To his surprise, rather than block with his own sword, Illidan blocked the attack with his right wing. The demon hunter then used his free arm to stab Arthas with his other blade, forcing him to pull back and dispelled his transformed arm. Spinning his body around, Illidan used the momentum to slash Arthas across his face. This attack and the previous one drew more of the black blood. Illidan then grabbed him by his face and forced him into the ground before stabbing him with one of his swords. As the demon hunter began to raise his other blade, the Heart around Arthas released a burst of energy along with some tendrils in a desperate attempt to defend its vessel

Illidan's eyes widened in surprise as he was pierced through in his torso and was thrown across the area. Now, he too was bleeding as well but his blood was green unlike Arthas'. He was the one who got up first and got a good look at his enemy. Their injuries were more or less the same. 'Y'Shaarj took the time to fight Altruis and the others but ran from Maiev. That can only mean that Azshara was not lying about how Frostmourne can damage an Old God but does that also mean that my blades can do the same? No, I doubt it as Y'Shaarj's hold on his vessel is still as strong as ever but the injuries are taking its toll. They're healing but it isn't happening quickly. So, why would attacks from my blade have this effect while Altruis' didn't?' he wondered, taking a good look at his enemy, both of them just glaring at each other. He finally realized the answer. 'I see. My blades belonged to the Legion and if it is true that the Old Gods are the creatures that Archimonde had said were the greater evils, then it makes sense that the Legion's weapons can damage them but the extent would vary from weapon to weapon. That must mean that my blades can damage them but not at the rate I originally expected and it makes sense given that Azzinoth's blades are nowhere near as powerful as Frostmourne.'

While the two were glaring at each other, a small draenei ship suddenly landed a good distance away. Aboard were Thrall, Velen, Khadgar and Sylvanas. At this point, the battle in the air was all but finished. The Scourge had successfully secured aerial dominance which allowed the ship to make it to the battle. Thrall had used his powers to locate Jaina and found her badly injured in the area where Illidan and Arthas were fighting. When they got off the ship, they quickly went to the area while killing any naga they come across. Upon finally seeing it with their own eyes, they were completely surprised as Arthas and Illidan were already trying to cut each other down again. The amount of power both were releasing was just mind blowing to all of them

"Jaina!" Khadgar said as he teleported them to where Jaina was

"Khadgar?" Jaina asked weakly as Velen started to heal her. "How did you..."

"Get down!" Sylvanas yelled as energies from the two who were fighting came towards their general direction. It didn't hit them, much to their relief. "We have to get out of here."

Arthas created a dark shield around him as Illidan released a stream of ice at him. It froze the shield but the prince was otherwise unharmed. Y'Shaarj was growing more and more frustrated as the battle dragged on. The demonic energies from Illidan's blades greatly impeded its hold on Arthas and it would only grew weaker the more the battle drags on. Growling in irritation, he released a massive stream of darkness at the demon hunter, who countered it with another eye beam, creating another explosion. Arthas then took this opportunity to make a short distance teleportation and appeared in front of the demon hunter. To his further irritation, Illidan was able to react quickly and block his sword

Illidan then decided to trip Arthas and caused him to lose his balance before stabbing him again as the prince fell to the ground. As Illidan stepped on Arthas' upper body, the prince grabbed his leg and slammed him into the ground using some tendrils. The demon hunter quickly burned the tendrils and they got up in unison. Gathering dark anergies in his sword, Arthas released it with a slashing motion and as he expected, Illidan dodged it easily. It was exactly as the prince wanted as that gave him the opportunity to create another tendril from his hand and shoot it at the demon hunter, who barely managed to side step as the attack grazed him. Illidan then decided to grab hold of the tendril and release his fel powers, which released fire towards the prince. Arthas quickly destroyed the tendril himself and the two of them quickly charged towards each other, locking blades once more. Again, Illidan reacted first by slamming his knee at his opponent's torso

Y'Shaarj was now more frustrated than ever and covered the blade of his sword with his dark energies. To his satisfaction, when Illidan attempted to block the Old God's attack, the demon hunter's blade shattered. Arthas grinned at this as he thought he had finally won but to his surprise, Illidan merely twirled the blade around and stabbed the intact end at his upper body, causing him to growl in pain. Not only that, Illidan still had his other sword and used the distraction to slash the prince from his upper body to his hip. Arthas growled in pain at this and began covering his off hand in darkness, he grabbed the sword when the demon hunter moved to attack him again before using his powers to shatter it as well, disarming his enemy

Illidan's eyes widened in surprise before he instinctively took the the sky and put some distance between them before Arthas could attack again. 'It's just as I thought. Y'Shaarj is getting desperate.' he thought with a barely noticeable smirk. Since he had no weapons left, Arthas was already charging towards him, intending to finish this battle here and now. This time, Illidan's smirk turned into a grin right as Y'Shaarj realized that this was exactly what the demon hunter had wanted. As Arthas was about to cut him down, Illidan summoned Dusksoul and blocked the prince's attack

"What?!" Arthas said in complete and utter surprise

"Too late." Illidan said and forced back the possessed prince. He then quickly slashed his enemy again. Arthas tried to block this but Xal'atath shattered upon impact, completely overpowered by Dusksoul. Unlike earlier, Arthas screamed in pain. It wasn't just an ordinary scream but one that was very distorted, far more distorted than anything before. The demon hunter didn't give his enemy a chance to recover his footing and quickly stabbed where the Heart was, causing the prince to yell once more. Releasing the sword's power, Illidan brought it down through Arthas' hip while releasing a huge amount of arcane energy. It created an explosion as the parts of the Heart of Y'Shaarj were destroyed by the attack

As the explosion died down, Arthas stood there, his body badly bleeding from multiple injuries. Both of his arms badly injured and barely hanging on to the rest of his body. He fell to the ground, unconscious and near dead but finally free from Y'Shaarj's control

"Arthas!" a yell came from behind before the Lich King could kill the prince

Illidan turned around and saw Jaina and the other Kalimdor inhabitants coming towards him. He didn't really care about them and was surprised that they actually came. "I don't know if he's still alive..." he said and turned his sights to the prince. "But he's free from Y'Shaarj." he told them before Illysanna contacted him. "Get him out of here and leave this place. This is not your fight." he instructed them before leaving, not even bothering to speak with them. Despite both of his wings being damaged, he was still able to fly effectively but not without feeling a bit of pain

"Illidan, wait." Velen said, wanting to heal the demon hunter but he already left

"With those injuries, I'm surprised that he didn't want Velen to heal him." Thrall commented as Jaina took care of the prince along with Velen

"There must be something else he wants to do." Sylvanas muttered

Arcane energies soon surrounded the group. "Hold on, everyone." Khadgar said and teleported them back to the ship

While all the chaos was going down in the city, Illysanna and Kor'vas continued to search the largest structure. The upper levels were clear, which did not surprise them considering what was going on but the lack of any traps was a cause of concern for them

"Illysanna, look at this." Kor'vas said as she was at a window

"I still find it strange how an underwater city needs windows of all things." Illysanna muttered as she walked over. She was surprised at what she saw outside. "Seems like we're winning."

"You know, I once thought that the undead humans and high elves we had raised were exaggerating when they said the gunships destroyed any plans of defense they might have had. I guess I was wrong." Kor'vas commented

"Tell me about it." Illysanna said. "Let's move on. The naga are showing inexperience in battle so this shouldn't be too much trouble." she asked

"After you, my friend." Kor'vas said and they went to the door

The two demon hunters checked room after room, making sure not to cause anything as to avoid letting their enemies know that someone was there. A few minutes later, the two of them finally made it to the bottom floor of the building and still found it deserted. However, they were surprised that there was a statue at the main hall

"Is that a statue of Azshara?" Kor'vas asked in surprise

"Probably. Illidan told me she was disguising her true personality as a vainglorious attention whore. She probably had one built to preserve her facade." Illysanna said thoughtfully before noticing that the statue had some magics on it. "Something is not right with this statue. You see it too, right?"

"I do. It has some kind of enchantment." Kor'vas said and deciding to test it, she threw a small fireball at it. To her surprise, there wasn't a scratch and was extinguished almost immediately. "Something is definitely not right." she said and walked over to the statue. "What do we do with this?"

"I think we should..." Illysanna said but noticed a change in the statue's enchantments. "Look out!" she yelled

Kor'vas quickly turned around and saw the statue shoot a stream of water at her and threw her a few feet away. "What the hell?!" she said in surprise and looked at her friend

"This statue must be some kind of security measure." Illysanna said in realization before she was forced to dodge when the hands of the statue fired some lightning bolts. "Damn it. The naga probably knows we're here by now."

"In that case, let's destroy this damn statue." Kor'vas suggested but before they could do anything else, they were suddenly held in place by arcane chains and were knocked unconscious when someone hit them at the back of their heads. Before they lost consciousness, they were confused as to why they were allowed to live

Some time later, they were woken up when they were both doused with water. The two demon hunters regained consciousness and found themselves tied up with some kind of magic suppressing chains and surrounded by a some naga guards. Neither of them knew how long they were out. The guards soon gave way when a female, one that the two demon hunters assumed to be a commander, approached

"So, these two were inside the palace?" the female asked

"Yes, Lady Vashj." one of the guards said, completely surprising the demon hunters. "The statue in the palace activated its magical defenses and held off these two long enough for us to sneak up on them."

'Vashj? That's her?' Kor'vas thought in confusion

Vashj observed the two demon hunters before her. The tattoos that were visible on them reminded her of the ones on Illidan. "What were you two doing inside the palace?" she asked

"To find and kill Azshara." Illysanna lied

One of the naga grew furious at this and pointed his weapon at Illysanna. "What did you do to Queen Azshara?!" he demanded to know. "You killed her, didn't you?"

'Is this for real? Do they think that we would be able to kill someone like Azshara that easily?' Kor'vas wondered to herself

"Enough." Vashj said commandingly

"But, my lady..." the naga said but the handmaiden sent a hard glare his way, shutting him up

"Leave us. The rest of you, go aid in the defense. Do not let the undead reach the palace." Vashj ordered. The others looked at each other but obeyed. They knew that the demon hunters would not be able to escape their bonds

"So, we finally meet at last, Lady Vashj." Illysanna said when they were alone

Vashj's eyes narrowed at this in suspicion. "How do you know who I am?" she asked

Kor'vas got the message that her friend was planning to come clean to the naga before them. "I'll give you one guess."

"You didn't really come here to find Azshara, did you?" Vashj asked again. "You knew that she has been missing ever since the events in Northrend. Now tell me, why are you here?"

"If you really want to know, we came here to take you out of the battle." Illysanna said, waiting for her reaction

As Illysanna expected, that did not surprise Vashj. In fact, she looked like she was hurt by what she had heard. The pain was clear on her face and the two demon hunters realized that she did not want to serve the Old Gods

'Illidan, we found her. We've been captured but we're here in the palace. It's the largest structure in the city.' Illysanna said mentally

Kor'vas was about to play along with Illysanna but was a bit suspicious of Vashj. If not with Vashj, then she was curious if the Old Gods can see or hear through the naga but she didn't want to take that chance. "To be honest, we suspected that Azshara had been missing ever since Northrend. We didn't know about it entirely. It was only now that we have that confirmed." she said, surprising Illysanna and confusing Vashj. "It's a shame though. I would imagine that Illidan would want to get back at Azshara after she had beaten him in Northrend but I guess he'll have to settle with her handmaiden." she said. However, rather than using a mocking tone, Kor'vas had used one that implied that she was lying and that she was disguising the real message. Her expression was also odd. It wasn't a mocking one as well but was dead serious

Illysanna too grew confused at Kor'vas' behavior and words. She had planned to come clean with Vashj but Kor'vas is disguising the real thing. This would not work to their advantage and would only make Vashj suspicious of them. 'So, why would she do that?' she wondered before looking at the naga before them. 'I see. She is not taking the chance that the Old Gods are able to see through her so she doesn't want to spill it.'

Vashj herself was confused at Kor'vas' words. 'Why would she say that Illidan would want to get back at Azshara? Illidan had never been like that and I doubt he would have changed throughout the years. That was never his goal in the first place.' she tried to reason, looking right at the demon hunter in the eye. 'Azshara had been missing since Northrend so is it possible that she had somehow used Illidan's power to free herself from the Old Gods' grip? If that is true, then that would explain how she could have exposed Nazjatar. If Illidan was the one responsible for leaving the city vulnerable, then we would have been dead by now. There is no way that Illidan would leave his enemies vulnerable and not be in a position to immediately wipe them out and he would realize immediately who is responsible for all this. Unless...' she continued to think hard and her eyes' widened in surprise. 'This demon hunter is lying. Could it be that Illidan isn't furious with me? Did he send them so that I wouldn't join the battle? That must mean that he hasn't told his army about us. Is he ashamed about what we had? No, if he was then he would have just wiped this city out. The other one said they wanted to take me out of the battle but the other is lying. That can only mean that Illidan does not want anyone else of his army to kill me.' she finally realized. As she was about to speak, earthquakes suddenly began to happen and since she had no idea what to think at the moment, she recklessly dropped the bonds holding them

"What the hell is going on?" Kor'vas asked as she got on her feet, noticing some strange magic flowing through the ground

The magic also altered the seafloor once more, revealing a much larger but empty landscape as the waters began to separate. The opening was also over twice as large as the city itself. Out of nowhere, a very large tentacle appeared, one that dwarfed anything they have ever seen and made the one Arthas grew look like it was a toy. The tentacle came from outside the city, specifically from the new landscape.

In the skies, Candrael and Sevis were firing their eye beams at the naga from the sky when they were blindsided by the tentacle, which pierced Sevis through his body

"Sevis!" Candrael said before she too was pierced before she could help her comrade. With the sheer power of the tentacle's corruption, both demon hunters were killed

Instead of going after the Scourge's positions, the tentacle instead went towards the palace and wrapped around Vashj

"Vashj!" Illysanna said as the naga was lifted into the air but before she or Kor'vas could do anything, the tentacle was suddenly cut with a huge burst of arcane energies. A very loud and painful sound was also heard but the source could not be seen

As Vashj was falling to the ground, someone broke her fall and the one responsible was the last person she expected to see. "Illidan?" she said weakly. "Is that really you?" she said as they reached the ground

"It's really me, Vashj." Illidan said as he turned to look at the other demon hunters. "Thank you, Illysanna, Kor'vas." he said with a smile. Their reunion was cut short when the earthquakes grew stronger and from where the tentacle came from, the landscape began to collapse. Something was coming out of the ground and given the size, it could only mean one thing. "N'zoth is free." he muttered darkly

"But how..." Illysanna asked but immediately realized the answer. "Azshara." she growled

Just a few minutes later, the landscape finally broke and out was a massive mass of pure and utter corruption. Like with Yogg Saron, N'zoth also made the corruption of the Legion look like it was normal

"I AM FREE!" N'zoth's voiced boomed throughout the entire city as everyone, the naga, the undead and even the ones aboard the draenei ship that still wasn't that far from the city, looked in complete horror. "Now, gaze into the eternal darkness of the Void!" he declared as he began attacking at random, killing both the naga and the undead

"How in the hell do we even fight this thing?!" Kor'vas asked in anger

"We don't have to." Illidan said, surprising the three with him at how he was able to keep his calm. "If Azshara released N'zoth, then that can only mean that she would only be able to kill it. If she really was willingly serving the Old Gods, she wouldn't have bothered to use my power to free herself from their hold." he said and a few minutes, he was proven right as N'zoth suddenly began screaming. The three demon hunters looked at the ground and saw powerful energies, one that looked like the one from the Well of Eternity at Mount Hyjal, was running through the ground beneath them

The very same energies soon began consuming N'zoth, who was still screaming in pain, his voice even intensified the tremors. From the elevated landscape that was holding the waters away, a powerful stream of arcane energies was shot towards the Old God. It did not go unnoticed to everyone who was witnessing the event

"YOU!" N'zoth said in pure hatred when it finally saw the one responsible. "Azshara! You ungrateful witch!"

"We finally meet face to face, N'zoth." Azshara said coldly, the powers of the Well somehow allowing everyone to hear the exchange. "You're much uglier than I ever imagined." she said, a hammer in one of her hands. N'zoth recognized this as one of the artifacts the titans used to shape Azeroth after the Old Gods were imprisoned. There was only one reason why Azshara would be holding one of those in her hands

N'zoth's power was still completely depleted. While its body can still devastate its enemies, it had no defense against what the queen was holding. However, it knew that there would be a price for someone like Azshara to use it on her own. "Do you think you will be able to do that, Azshara?" it asked mockingly. "When you were going to drown, you were more than willing to serve me. You were that afraid of dying. You know full well that using the hammer's power would kill you as well. Do you honestly think that you have the strength to end me?"

"Maybe once I was too weak to reject your offer." Azshara said as she released more of the hammer's power. What nobody saw is that the queen had also attached another object on the hammer. "But now, I owe it to them to end you once and for all." she said before she teleported herself atop the Old God's head. "After all these years, I will finally have my revenge." she said and with a loud battle cry, she slammed it on the corrupt creature, releasing a huge burst of arcane energies

Well, does that come as a surprise that Illidan was the one who fought Arthas? Nah that probably should have been obvious from the previous chapters. I did make that fight not too long as that would end up boring me and I wanted to put in the very end part without making the entire chapter too long for my liking. Also, yes, Y'Shaarj possessed Arthas is just as powerful as Illidan and Azshara. They're not as powerful as the Dragon Aspects in terms of raw power but as mentioned too many times, raw power alone isn't enough to decide who wins in my stories

This chapter also finally named the Blade of the Black Empire, Xal'atath. If it wasn't clear enough, Dusksoul is a sword that is even more powerful than the artifacts in canon WoW Legion even if in they're in their most powerful forms. While none of the artifact forms exist in this fanfic, I only used them as examples to draw a line on how powerful Dusksoul truly is. I wouldn't think this is that unreasonable as the material it is made out of is the Well of Eternity itself. By forms I mean those upgrades to the artifacts when you complete a specific quest, at least if I understand that right

The part about Azshara saying revenge is also just another nod to her origin story and why she does things. Why she said that word will be explained once the story finally reaches that part and I can promise you, you won't have to wait too long to find out what really happened to Azshara

Finally, I did destroy Illidan's blades in this chapter. If you've been observing closely, there was a change Blizzard changed about Illidan in WoW Legion that was literally given no explanation. I'm not going to mention what that is since it could spoil something about the upcoming chapters but this chapter itself is already a clue to it, or part of a clue anyway