Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
The army of demons began marching towards Azeroth's forces. Nether dragons and fel bats quickly swarmed the skies. The Fel Hammer's weapons quickly opened fire on the Legion's flyers. The gunship couldn't focus on the ground forces otherwise it would just get grounded. Fortunately for the Fel Hammer, the rest of Legionfall's forces were already engaging the demons, trying to kill them before they could get anywhere near their position
Even though they were greatly outnumbered, Azeroth's forces were more than capable of holding their own. Powerful individuals such as Velen, Agatha and Kel'thuzad were able to turn the tables while most of the Legion's highest ranking members have already been slain and haven't even come close to regenerating. However, both Malfurion and Thrall were almost completely powerless in Argus. Neither of them can access their powers over nature or elements
"What's wrong, Malfurion?" Tyrande asked, noticing a concerned look on her lover's face
"My powers." Malfurion answered. "I can't access them."
"Neither can I." Thrall said, approaching the two after smashing a fel guard with his hammer
Five doom guards then suddenly landed close to the three of them and the archdruid was nearly killed. Tyrande was barely able to block and gave Malfurion the opening he needed to try and kill them with his powers but again, he was unable to use them. With no other choice, he transformed into a bear and slashed one right at the neck, killing the doom guard. Thrall also tried to release a small wind and to no avail but he was able to release a small lightning bolt. To his surprise, the attack didn't do much and only irritated the doom guard so he was forced to fight it directly. Only Tyrande was able to fight them effectively since she was a far better fighter in direct combat. After protecting Malfurion, she was able to quickly kill another one by slicing the head. When the last two doom guards were about to kill Malfurion and Thrall, the demons were killed when a frost magic froze them solid before shattering
"It is only natural that neither of you can access your powers." Agatha said, revealing herself to be the one who saved them and flew down. "Your powers are linked to nature but this place is a barren wasteland and the elements simply cannot lend you their powers this far away." she explained
"You knew of this, didn't you? Why didn't you say anything?" Tyrande asked curiously
"No, I did not know about this. I only had suspicions but there was no evidence to support the theory." Agatha answered honestly. "At any rate, you should be careful otherwise the demons might target you once they realize you can't access your powers." she said and flew back up
"Do you think that the Val'kyr was telling the truth about not having any evidence?" Thrall asked the night elves when they found a small distance away from the demons
"I think so. I didn't tell you this but after the war against the Emerald Nightmare, Illidan visited Mount Hyjal and I took the chance to apologize to him." Tyrande answered, looking at her husband. "I don't think that his own subordinates would want us to get killed if they can help it." she explained and shot an arrow at a doom guard. A wave of frost soon shot near them and froze solid a small group of fel hounds
"Can you three do something other than standing around?" Maiev told them in irritation before cleaving a shivarra in two
"She's right. If we can't access our powers, then we should try to pick off the lesser demons." Malfurion said and transformed into a bear
Up in the skies, Agatha began firing death coils and frost bolts at the Legion's forces. Her ability to make herself immune to physical harm made it too easy for her to avoid their attacks. When the eredar sorcerers would try to use their magics on her, they weren't able to do much since she was above most of them so a simple anti magic shell was enough to protect her although she does have to cast it multiple times since it wouldn't last too long which took a slight toll on her. After killing a small group of demons with a blast of frost, she found a small ledge behind some elven rangers who were providing cover for the rest of their forces. Agatha then tried to raise the demons she had killed but found herself unable to. 'What's going on? Why can't I raise them?' she thought in surprise. Magtheridon seemed to have noticed this and sent a bolt of energy towards them which the val'kyr leader blocked with a shield of frost. She could have sworn the pit lord was grinning at her
"Thanks for the assist, Agatha." Vereesa said, knowing that the pit lord could have killed them then and there
"Don't mention it." Agatha replied before creating a mental link. 'Kel'thuzad, can you raise the fallen demons?'
The archlich, who has been focused on releasing huge bursts of frost and limiting the demons' movements by creating pillars of ice in order to create chokepoints for which Sylvanas and Khadgar can focus their ranged attacks, when he heard the val'kyr leader ask him. 'Why would she ask that?' he wondered to himself but if Agatha was asking that, then there had to be a good reason. Turning into a small pile of corpses, he tried to raise them but was only successful in reanimating those on their side. The demons' bodies would end up burning itself. He then contacted the val'kyr leader. 'No, I cannot raise them, Agatha.' he said and increased the link. 'Maiev, can you try to use Frostmourne to raise a demons' corpse?'
Maiev was busy playing around with the demons who were trying to kill her only to fail miserably. With a single swing, she cleaved off the heads of seven fel guards before releasing a wave of icicles to annoy a couple succubi. After killing a doom guard, she was surprised when the archlich requested her to raise the dead. Raising an eyebrow, she decided to gather magics into her runeblade and thrust it into the ground, releasing a large amount of energy and instantly killing the demons who surrounded her. Maiev was careful not to hit her own allies but just to make sure, the other val'kyrs protected them. "What the hell is that Kel'thuzad thinking?" she wondered since she knew that it has been the Scourge's style for the liches to focus in raising their enemies. Curious, the warden turned death knight tried to raise the bodies. "What?!" she asked in surprise when the ones belonging to the Legion ended up burning itself even when she used Frostmourne to raise them. She did feel something off when she tried to raise them but paid it no heed. 'Kel'thuzad, what the hell is going on? What is up with the demons' bodies?'
A stream of fel fire was soon shot right in the direction of Maiev but it was only aimed at the corpses near her. "Problems?" a mocking voice called out
The former warden turned to where it came from and saw Kael'thas approach her. Unlike the last time Kael was alive, his skin was even paler, almost ghostly white, with fel markings all over his body. His eyes were now bright red and his hair turned from being blond to straight up pale white. His talon like fingers were even slightly larger than before. Despite being forced to regenerate faster, his body was fully restored unlike some of the other demons
"Well, what do you know. I guess they weren't lying when they said that the high elf prince turned his back." Maiev said with a smirk as she put a hand on her hip, not at all impressed with him. "And to think that you allied yourself with the one ultimately responsible for Quel'thalas' destruction. How truly pathetic. I guess some people really are just beyond understanding."
Kael growled as he knew that Maiev was right but at this point, he didn't particularly care. "Shut your mouth, you damn corpse!" he hissed out, causing her to frown and while keeping him distracted, Maiev created a mental link which would allow Kel'thuzad to listen in on their conversation. In turn, the archlich accentuated it by casting a spell that allowed all of Legionfall to listen, all of whom were in complete disbelief at the familiar voice they heard. "Lord Kil'jaeden has promised me more power than one can imagine."
"You really are beyond understanding. When your hunger for magic took hold, it must have eaten half your brain." Maiev responded with disappointment
The former prince chose to ignore this and focus on the matter at hand. "Are you not curious as to why not even you can raise the corpses?" he asked, arousing her curiousity. "Lord Kil'jaeden has made sure that if your disgusting kind tries to raise a corpse, it would instead self destruct. It was a spell created for the sole purpose of fighting the Scourge, the Legion's very own creation." he said and grinned. However, contrary to what he expected, Maiev instead smirked and let out a small chuckle. "And just what the hell do you find so funny?"
"Well, it would seem that this is something that not even Kil'jaeden has properly prepared for." Maiev said, confusing the prince. "I'll have you know that Illidan is incredibly paranoid for one reason or another. Surprisingly, it paid off, something that even I did not expect. After he brought me back from the dead, he made a slight modification to this." she said, raising Frostmourne. "He made it so that I, and by extension, he, would be made aware if some kind of outside magic is affecting a soul it is about to claim. While he wasn't able to undo the part where this runeblade won't affect demons, that modification also affects them. That is how I know that whatever spell Kil'jaeden used to cause the corpses to self destruct is one made recently. With that in mind, I would imagine that he did not intend to invade Azeroth, at least not yet, but for one reason or another, the Legion did. Maybe he was outvoted or someting."
"So what?" Kael asked in irritation
This time, Maiev finally grinned. "Because if what I said is true, then it can only mean that only the demons stationed here are immune to our ability to raise the fallen. If you try to bring in more troops, then they're completely at our mercy." she said and Kael's eyes widened in surprise. "So, come then, Kael'thas Sunstrider. Show me the power that Kil'jaeden has given you." she challenged and raised her sword before cutting the mental link off
Furious, Kael drew the sword given to him by Kil'jaeden, which was basically a fel replica of Felo'melorn, and charged at her. Maiev did the same and the two crossed swords. She quickly forced both blades to the side and spun around so that she could land a kick to his side. This pissed Kael off even more and released a few waves of fel only for Maiev to dispel them with no effort, much to his surprise. The former prince had completely underestimated her abilities and was barely able to parry when she swung Frostmourne at him. Kael was slowly being overwhelmed as Maiev was physically stronger so he gathered energies on one of his hands and was about to slam it right into her face
Knowing that it wouldn't be good if that hit her at point blank range, Maiev pulled back but grabbed his non sword arm and forced it to point at the sky, ensuring that the energy would not hit her. Despite not hitting his target, Kael pulled her close, Fel Felo'melorn at the ready. Maiev was barely able to tilt her head out of the way but his sword was able land a shallow wound at her forehead and burn off a part of her hair. Now irritated, Maiev used her knee to kick him right at his stomach, forcing him to let go. As Kael staggered, the death knight quickly grabbed his head and slammed the hilt of her sword into it, causing his nose to bleed fel
Kael continued to stagger back and glared at her. "Why you-" he hissed but was forced to dodge when she swung her sword right at him again. He then quickly caused the ground to erupt in a massive flame, sending her into the sky from the explosion. "Don't get too cocky, death knight. You don't know just what I am capable of."
In response, Maiev, despite suffering severe burns, blinked behind him inflicted a large wound on his back and cutting off most of his hair. "And neither do you know of mine." she fired back before grabbing what remained of his hair and pulled him towards her, slamming her knee right into his back
The former prince grunted in pain before using a teleportation spell to put some distance between him and the death knight. He then released a huge barrage of fel fire right at Maiev, who easily countered by having frost energies swirl around her. She then decided to blink right behind him once more but this time, Kael anticipated this and protected himself with a fel shield. Turning around, he then tried to slash her but Maiev was able to dodge, barely. Kael was grateful that Maiev wasn't as good as Sylvanas when it comes to direct combat otherwise he would be in far more trouble
Not wanting to give him a free opening, Maiev threw a death coil at him only for it to be absorbed by his sword. Kael then released a blast of energy at her which took the shape of a phoenix. The former warden wasn't fazed and in an unexpected move, she created a an anti magic shell but unlike those used by other members of the Scourge, this one was made out of fel and it easily absorbed the attack
"What?! How can you-" Kael demanded only to be cut off when Maiev redirected all that energy right at him. In his surprise, he took a direct hit and was slammed into a wall
"You stupid idiot." Maiev said nonchalantly. "Have you forgotten that Illidan is part demon? Do you honestly think he wouldn't teach me some new tricks?" she pointed out. 'Good thing I never used these before.' she thought to herself and shot a stream made out of both fel and frost right at her enemy. The attack created a few pillars of ice with fel markings on them
It didn't take too long for Kael to burn his way through the ice and shatter it altogether. It wasn't enough to kill him but he was badly injured. His left arm was bleeding profusely while there were multiple cuts all over his head, each of them bleeding and the rest of his body were in similar condition. Kael was now more furious than ever and he had yet to inflict meaningful damage upon her and by the looks of things, he would have a hard time getting that chance as Maiev was already running towards him. Him burning the former warden in a column of fire didn't do as much damage as her recent attack did on him. The prince was barely able to move and dodged her blade but she quickly backhanded him, pushing him back slightly. Mustering his last remaining magics, Kael released a ball of fel at her only for her to catch it with her bare hand and forced it to dispel, much to his surprise
'Is she truly more powerful than I am?' Kael wondered to himself in disbelief
Maiev seemed to have read his thoughts as she began to smirk again. "You truly are stupid, aren't you, Kael'thas?" she mocked him. "Why do you even bother to use a sword when you are not even familiar with using one? I would have thought that someone who once held the position of prince and Council of Six should be more than aware that one shouldn't fight with a weapon if one is not familiar with it."
"Shut your mouth! Shut the hell up!" Kael hissed venomously. "Who the hell do you think you are to tell me how to fight?!"
"You mean aside from the one who's slowly killing you?" Maiev mocked him with a raised eyebrow
His anger at his peak, Kael forced himself to move despite his severe injuries and teleported right in front of Maiev. He tried to cleave her in two but he only managed to wound the right side of her upper torso. The prince was able to force her to let go of her sword and he quickly took advantage of that and swung his own sword. Despite being disarmed, Maiev shrugged it off and bent her body backwards to avoid his swing before kicking his sword arm. Now, Kael too was disarmed but Maiev reacted faster and kicked him again. She picked up the Fel Felo'melorn and threw it at him, hitting him right below the neck
"And that is why you shouldn't fight with weapons you're not familiar with." Maiev said as Kael fell to his knees. "You could have defeated me with your magics alone but instead, you chose to fight with a sword. You idiot." she said as she picked up Frostmourne. "I'll be sure to rub this in your face when this war is done." she then stabbed him right at the heart, being careful to make sure that it wouldn't kill him yet. Maiev was curious if Frostmourne would trap his soul but didn't want to recklessly do it. 'Kel'thuzad, can you teleport to where I am?' she asked mentally but more demons came at her. Annoyed, she released another wave of frost magics which froze them all solid. She did not have enough energy to instantly kill them so freezing them would do
Kel'thuzad then teleported to her location. "What is it, Maiev?"
"Can you check if I can trap his soul without consequence?" Maiev asked simply
The archilich was genuinely confused at what she was thinking but nonetheless obliged. Kael was a curiosity to him and he wanted to know why the elven prince sided with the one responsible for Quel'thalas' destruction. While he was doing what was requested of him, Maiev fought off the demons that were coming to their location. After a while, Kel'thuzad was surprised that even though Kael was mostly a demon at this point, the former prince wasn't immune to Frostmourne's curse. "Maiev." he called out and saw that she was still engaging more demons. Kel'thuzad then decided to release a large blast of frost so that they would be in the clear. "You can trap Prince Kael'thas inside Frostmourne without any severe consequneces." he said when she turned to face him
"Really? How? Isn't he supposed to be a demon now?" Maiev asked curiously, point her sword at the prince's neck
"Not necessarily. Prince Kael'thas has only been given the demon's inherent trait of having their souls bound to the Twisting Nether but his soul is still elven." Kel'thuzad explained
"Well, that's good to know." Maiev said and quickly thrust Frostmourne into the elven prince's heart once more. Activating the curse, her runeblade began to absorb his soul
"I'm surprised that you want to imprison him instead just killing him. It's not like you." Kel'thuzad commented
"All my life I once saw the world as black and white, lich." Maiev began to explain. "It was only when I witnessed how complex the Old Gods were that I realized that my view was completely naive so I wanted to understand others. I had the chance to imprison one of the Twilight's Hammer's commanders but Illidan told me to kill him. This might be my only chance to get my claws on one." and to her surprise, the lich smiled. "What?" she asked irritably
"I just never expected someone like you to say something like that given what Lord Illidan has told me about you." Kel'thuzad pointed out
Maiev snorted in irritation. "I can't honestly blame him but the experience with the Old Gods have truly changed me, for better or worse." she said and sheathed Frostmourne on her left hip. She then eyed the sword Kael wielded and decided to test it for herself
In another part of the battlefield, Vashj was on an elevation along with a few high elven rangers providing cover for the rest of their forces. As she was shooting her frost arrows, she suddenly felt something odd, a feeling she had not felt since she left for Mardum. 'Illidan.' she thought as she knew that there was only one person she would get the odd feeling from. "Alright, that's enough." Vashj muttered and the rangers who were near her got confused. As the naga put away her bow, she began charging up arcane energies before releasing it at the largest group of demons. After hitting a doom guard, the spell released multiple lightning bolts that bounced from one to demon to another, hitting nearly all of the remaining demons. It was powerful enough to prevent the survivors from moving immediately afterwards
Seizing the opportunity, the rest of Legionfall began finishing off the demons. Thanks to their defensive position, they didn't suffer as much casualties but the fact still remained that the Scourge could no longer bolster their ranks as much as they'd like. It was made even more difficult since the Legion were careful to do as much damage to those they killed so that the Scourge will have a hard time raising them. In a few of them, the damage was so severe that trying to raise one would result in just a skeleton warrior which was next to nothing compared to the demons. The battle soon ended after that and even Magtheridon wasn't able to escape the effects of Vashj's magic that easily. Agatha was the one who finished him off as when the pit lord was disoriented by the naga's magic, the val'kyr leader casted a spell which entered Magtheridon's body through his mouth. Using his very own life force as a power source, large icicles erupted from his body and completely destroyed it, throwing away parts of his body in different directions
Throughout the battle, the Fel Hammer was slightly damaged mostly to its weapons. Azeroth's forces then regrouped at the Vindicaar when the remaining demons were finally killed
"Maiev, what happened to Kael?" Jaina asked curiously
"In here." Maiev answered and raised Frostmourne. An image of the elven prince being bound in chains appeared and he was struggling to break free. "Keep trying, Kael'thas. You're not breaking free anytime soon."
"How is he still alive?" Sylvanas asked venomously and turned to the archlich. "I thought you killed him, Kel'thuzad?"
"I did but Prince Kael'thas' soul has been transformed to possess a demon's inherent trait of having their souls bound to the Twisting Nether. While it would normally take time to fully regenerate, I believe that Kil'jaeden has accelerated the process." Kel'thuzad explained
"Warden." Sylvanas muttered, getting her attention. "Make sure he suffers." she ordered
"I was already planning to." Maiev said and had her sword's prison shock the imprisoned prince, who writhed in pain, much to the satisfaction of the ranger general and her younger sister. Maiev then made the image disappear."Now what? How do we invade Kil'jaeden's fortress? I don't think going through the front door would be a good idea."
"And I don't think that it would be as easy to create our own entrance like we did in the Tomb of Sargeras." Valeera pointed out
"First, we'll have to make our way towards the fortress without getting killed." Vereesa reminded them before noticing something. "Maiev, what's that on your back?"
To answer the ranger, Maiev drew Kael's sword which she had looted from him. "It's the sword Kael'thas was using in our duel." she said and showed it to them
"How are there two Felo'melorns?" Sylvanas asked as she drew the sword of the high elves' royal family. She showed it to Maiev and both swords were nearly identical. The only thing that would tell which is which was their different colors. The original was red orange while the other was fel green
"That's Dath'remar Sunstrider's runeblade, right?" Maiev asked and the ranger nodded. "Somehow, the Legion must have recreated it but with fel energies instead."
While the others were discussing their next move, Vashj didn't pay attention to any of it and used the conversation to slip out unnoticed. The naga was about to go somewhere else when Kor'vas and Illysanna suddenly flew in front of her
"Where are you going, Vashj?" Illysanna asked curiously
Vashj wasn't comfortable asking the rest of their allies for help but knew she could tell these two. "Illidan, he's here and he's still alive." she answered, much to their surprise
"What? How do you know?" Kor'vas asked
"Before, I injected some of my venom into his body. That venom was to make me aware if anything happened to him or if he's still alive." Vashj answered, an explanation they didn't really expected
"If that's true, then that venom doesn't work over great distances?" Illysanna asked, referring to how the naga wasn't aware of Illidan's condition when they were in Mardum. Vashj nodded
"Well, let's go rescue him." Kor'vas immediately said
"Let's keep this between us for now otherwise it could cause trouble. Illidan is the one that dragged the rest of them into this war in the first place." Illysanna said and left. Vashj led the way
The trio made their way through the terrain of Argus in the direction opposite of Kil'jaeden's fortress. Near where the landscape turned into an abyss, there was another structure but it wasn't as large as Antorus
After a long amount of chapters, I finally gave Maiev her own battle highlight. Of course, she won it easily because I don't think Kael is really that much of a swordsman. Regarding the Fel Felo'melorn, it's just the Phoenix's Rebirth with the Balance of Power questline model. If you don't know what that is, just look up Felo'melorn on wowpedia and find the image that has those two stuff I specified. When I was writing this, I'm not sure how powerful Sunwell Kael is compared to Death Knight Arthas and I always figured he wasn't and as mentioned before, Maiev in this story is stronger than DK Arthas so naturally she would win not to mention she is a better fighter, or rather, she should be. Kael also could have won but as the story said, he squandered the chance
Just for story reference, when the word 'abyss' is mentioned here on Argus, it will refer to the large part of Argus that looks like it has been sliced like butter. I'm not too sure what that's called but that's really a minor detail in my opinion
Throughout the story thus far, a battle between the Scourge and the Legion can really go either way. The problem is a demon leaves behind a body when killed which the Scourge can use but at the same time, the Legion has like, over a hundred times more troops. However, the Legion cannot mobilize all its troops at once so that would usually tilt the scales in favor of the Scourge so in this chapter, I took that option out. This was always something that I found odd in the canon. Why didn't the Legion try to retrieve the Scourge in their self titled expansion? Or why didn't they do anything at all when Arthas became the LK? That was always something I never understood and one of the reasons I wrote the story this way. With the Scourge under Illidan, the Legion really couldn't do anything to take it back
The part about how Malfurion and Thrall can't use their powers is one of the things I made up. When I was writing this, Malfurion's powers are related to nature and on Argus, there really isn't any nature. I don't know if canon druids can use their powers on Argus but here, they can't so they mostly have to resort to direct combat. He does still have his shapeshifting abilities as I don't think those are related to nature whatsoever. The same goes for Thrall. It was already odd enough that he lose to some random demons on the Broken Shore. It's not really to underpower them but rather, to give them limits to their own powers
Lastly, the stuff about the Naga venom is something I made up. I don't think there really is something like that in the canon but I just decided to add that although only Vashj did that for obvious reasons