Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft

As Velen was on top of a small elevation which gave him a clear view of their enemies, a blast of fel was shot towards him from a higher area. He looked to where it came from and he saw someone he thought was long dead. "Rakeesh..."

"Hello father." Rakeesh greeted him with a glare. "It's been a while."

"But how..." Velen muttered in disbelief

Rakeesh didn't bother to answer this and just charged at his father. He swung his hammer and tried to kill his own father. Velen dodged the initial blows and while he could just end this easily, he couldn't bring himself to hurt his son

"Rakeesh, please. Stop this." Velen pleaded

"And why should I, father?" Rakeesh hissed, putting heavy emphasis on the last word. "You abandoned us to the Legion. You abandoned Kil'jaeden when he needed you most. What happened to him, to our race, is all your fault!" he yelled out and slammed his shield into him. Velen could only look in shame and wasn't able to defend himself which resulted in him being dropped off to a lower level. "You will answer to Kil'jaeden for your abandonment, father." he said and jumped down

In the meantime, the Fel Hammer was flying into position above the battlefield

Before Rakeesh could finish his father off, a blade was thrown in between the two. Rakeesh realized that the blade was Flamereaper and he looked up right as Illidan flew down and kicked him back. The demon hunter then turned to the prophet

"Velen, what's going on?" Illidan asked as he blocked with his other blade. He was struggling for a bit as he still hasn't regained his full strength. "Who is this guy?"

"You dare continue to live, demon hunter?!" Rakeesh demanded and tried to hit Illidan with a blast of fel at point blank range

Illidan saw this and knew that he couldn't block it so instead, he intentionally leaned back and cause Rakeesh to fall forward which gave him the chance to hit the eredar in the abdomen with his knee, dispelling the fel energy. The demon hunter then quickly grabbed Rakeesh's hammer and slammed it right at the back of his neck, instantly causing him to be unconscious. As Illidan raised his blade, Velen panicked and ran over to him, preventing him from killing his son

"Illidan, don't." Velen said, stepping between him and his son. "This is Rakeesh, my son."

That was something that Illidan did not expect and he made his blades vanish. He tilted his head in thought. 'Based on their conversation, when Velen left Argus, he also left his own child.' he thought to himself and fell to his knees, gasping for breath

Velen quickly bound his son in chains before moving to help the demon hunter. "Illidan, why did you come here? You only regained consciousness recently. You should be resting."

"Because he's as stubborn as Sargeras." Vashj said in irritation as she approached the duo. "Sometimes it makes me think the two of them are related."

"This is the final battle anyway. I doubt there will be any battles after this." Illidan pointed out. "Besides, look at the sky towards Azeroth." he said and the other two grew curious when they saw the large cloud from earlier. "That cloud is Sargeras. He is using this opportunity to take Azeroth even if it costs him Argus. This is a race against time and if we lose, all of us will be at his mercy."

"Can't we close the rift?" Vashj asked

"I doubt it. Sargeras is the one who created that Keystone so it stands to reason that he can manipulate it." Illidan answered thoughtfully. "Even if we close it, we wouldn't last five seconds against him. I wouldn't put it past Sargeras to cleave this world in two and get rid of all of us in one go."

Neither could really argue with that since the power of a titan was way beyond imagining. The titans were beyond even the Old Gods since Aman'thul ripped one out of Azeroth. Their only option was to use Argus itself to destroy Sargeras before he could claim his prize. Velen then used his powers to heal Illidan. The naga was busy trying to shoot the demons in the battle that she didn't notice what the prophet was doing until she glanced at them

Vashj panicked upon seeing what Velen was doing. "Wait, what are you doing?! Your holy powers will kill him." she yelled and tried to push the prophet back but Illidan held up his hand, signalizing it was alright. "How?"

"The Light is not naturally harmful to demons. It is only harmful to those who are considered enemies of its wielders." Velen explained, much to her disbelief. He was about to tell her that a couple fel guards were heading to their position but Vashj had already known about it and fried them with a lightning bolt. "Keep us covered, Vashj." he instructed and she nodded. Velen then turned to the demon hunter. "Illidan, I will try to restore your physical strength as best I can but I will not be able to restore your magic."

"It's fine. As long as I can fight, that'll do but if Kil'jaeden shows up, you'll have to deal with him on your own." Illidan said gratefully

"And you..." Vashj said and turned to her lover. "You will only fight where I can maintain eyes on you, do you understand me?" she hissed out and not wanting to have an argument, Illidan just nodded and Velen just observed them curiously. At this point, Rakeesh had slowly regained consciousness but Vashj quickly knocked him out again. She was curious why the eredar was still alive but if both Velen and Illidan didn't kill him yet, there had to be a good reason. A moment of silence took over as the three of them observed the Fel Hammer shoot a beam of energy at Antorus' walls. Now, it was also joined by the Vindicaar

Illidan could feel his strength returning and was genuinely impressed that the Light could do that to a demon, of all things. "Velen, what your son said, you left him when you left Argus, didn't you?" he asked with narrowed eyes. The prophet couldn't really look the demon hunter in the eye and looked away but continued to heal him nonetheless. "Why did you do that?"

"I was following the will of the Light." Velen replied simply. It wasn't a lie as the Naaru did tell him to leave when he did

The demon hunter let out a chuckle. "The Light has always been your weakness. When your closest allies were fell to darkness, you didn't stop them. When the Legion swept over your world and took your people, you didn't make a stand. All you did was watch, convinced you were following the Light's will. The truth is you failed your people. Their blood is on your hands."

Vashj, who was shooting her arrows, stopped what she was doing and quickly jerked her head towards the other two. "Illidan!" she said reprimandingly

Velen had a much harsher reaction and slammed his staff on the ground. "You will never understand what I did to save my people."

"The Light is holding you back." Illidan replied, not at all afraid of the prophet's reaction. "It's time to forge your own path. Instead of letting the Naaru do everything for you, perhaps you should try using its power to create your own place."

While continuing to heal the demon hunter, Velen thought about what he had said. Illidan did have a point. He could have convinced Archimonde to stand down given he was the lowest rank out of the triumvirate but instead, Velen had simply hoped that Archimonde would see the truth or that Kil'jaeden would arrive at the reasonable conclusion. In the end, it was his inaction that was partially responsible for their corruption. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Illidan and himself were the polar opposites. Velen was one who let his faith guide his actions while Illidan would force events to happen regardless of who gets caught up. His thoughts were interrupted when Vashj walked up to them

"The Fel Hammer has created a large hole on the fortress and the rest of our forces have pushed back the demons. Sylvanas and Thrall have ordered to invade the fortress." Vashj said. "Illidan, are you...?"

"I'm fine, Vashj." Illidan said and got up. "In fact, I'm more than fine. It actually worked. I have my strength back." he continued and looked at the prophet. "Thank you, Velen."

Velen just nodded. "I'll go on ahead and make sure Kil'jaeden doesn't slaughter us." he said and the demon hunter ordered for one of their troops to carry Rakeesh back to the Vindicaar. When his son was being taken away, the prophet gave Illidan a grateful smile before moving to aid the rest inside Antorus. While on his way to the fortress, Velen thought hard about what Illidan had said. If this was up to him, he would have evacuated Azeroth the moment the Legion invaded but given what the demon hunter did and how his allies reacted, he had to come back to his former home as he knew this would be the last chance to do so

"Shall we go?" Illidan asked after a while

"Just make sure you stay where I can see you." Vashj said with a glare. Illidan grinned at this and picked her up before taking to the skies, carrying her to the entrance. "What the hell?!" she asked in surprise. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Illidan?" she demanded to know

"Carrying you. Saves time." Illidan replied nonchalantly. "Vashj, I'm fine. Velen has restored my strength. I'm not kidding about that."

"Fine." Vashj said as he put her down. "But you're still staying where I can see you." she ordered in a tone that said she wasn't going to hear any argument and followed the rest of their forces inside the fortress

Inside, the area was swarming with demons. As soon as Legionfall's forces made their way through the large hole, they were quickly engaged by the demons in a very intense battle. The eredar inside the fortress were the most powerful among their ranks. While the demons were immune to the Scourge's reanimations, they were not immune to the Legion's and with the most powerful eredars after Kil'jaeden and Archimonde in the battle, the demons' enemies had to fight both living and undead demons

Despite being completely outnumbered, Legionfall's forces were not at all outmatched. The demon hunters had a field day in slaughtering the undead demons. Most of the reanimated demons would almost get killed again as quickly as they were raised. As the fortress was not that suited for this much fighting, Malygos, Khadgar, Jaina and Kel'thuzad all used their magics to damage as much for the fortress' structure as much as they can in order to open up the space. Malygos himself was forced to stay in an elven form as he would be too large if he was to transform into his dragon form

After destroying some of the ceiling, multiple constructs fell from the upper levels. Fel reavers, infernals, abyssals, and another construct they haven't seen before, a fel annihilator, all dropped from the upper levels. As soon as they dropped down, Legionfall's forces broke apart and the demon hunters, minus Illidan, quickly kept them busy. Jaina and Khadgar teleported a small group which consisted of Illidan, Vashj, Arthas and Thrall right where the eredar warlocks were. The Lich King was quick to slaughter two of them while the others didn't last too long. Arthas and Thrall were able to distract them long enough for Vashj to kill them

Once they were finished with the first few constructs, Legionfall's forces continued to push forward, fully bent on finding the Deceiver and ending his reign of terror once and for all, all the while racing before Sargeras gets his claws on Azeroth. The sheer amount of ambient energy also allowed the reconstituted demon hunters to regain their power although it wasn't enough to restore it fully. They came across another large room which had an odd looking portal. According to the demon hunters, the portal was one used by the Burning Legion but something they had never encountered before has been mixed with it. It became weirder when a voice came from the other side of the portal

"Mortals, aid me. The demons are assaulting my realm and has breached my sanctuary. My defenses will soon be overrun." the voice, a feminine one, spoke

"And just who in the seven hells is that?!" Illidan wondered out aloud. He wasn't convinced that they should help whoever the individual is on the other side of the portal. In fact, he had half a mind to just destroy it and who or whatever is on the other side

Out of all the forces from Azeroth, only one of them was familiar with it, Malygos. He had heard that voice so long ago on the day when the dragon aspects were blessed with their powers by the titans. It was none other than Eonar the Life Binder, the one who blessed Alexstrasza and Ysera with their powers. "That's the titan, Eonar the Life Binder, of the Pantheon." he answered the demon hunter, knowing well enough Illidan wouldn't trust the source of the voice. However, even though the Spell Weaver was familiar, he too wasn't convinced this was the real deal so he created a familiar made out of pure arcane energies and sent it through the portal. On the other side, Malygos saw that this was indeed the real Eonar and that a dreadlord was leading the Legion's forces in desecrating the sanctuary. "Everyone, that is the real Eonar and she needs our help. One of the dreadlords is burning down her sanctuary."

Deciding to trust the dragon's words, Illidan was the first to react. "Malfurion, go!" he yelled out. His brother merely looked at him with uncertainty. "Just do it. You can't do anything here with you unable to access your powers."

With some slight hesitation, Malfurion reluctantly agreed. Allari, Jace and Vandel also decided to go with him and entered the portal first. Tyrande, Thrall, Arthas, Vereesa and Malfurion joined the three demon hunters soon enough

"The rest of you, go. Find Kil'jaeden and kill him. Vashj and I will guard the portal." Illidan said

"Do it. Illidan can't do much if he still doesn't have his magic." Sylvanas yelled out and led the way. Those who weren't part of the Scourge weren't really comfortable with taking orders from the demon hunter but now was not the time for them to squabble with each other

Legionfall's forces soon reached a stairwell which was heavily guarded by the Legion's siege weapons. They were immediately pinned down by it and would have been wiped out if not for Malygos' quick reaction time in protecting them. Kel'thuzad and Agatha combined their magics to create a large pillar of ice to protrude from the ground and freeze them which the demon hunters destroyed with their eye beams

"Let's move!" Illysanna said and led the way up

In the upper level, they were confronted by a group of four shivarra. All four of them appeared to be casting their magics on some kind of weird orbs. But the demon hunters could tell that they were not orbs. They were souls but one they have never encountered before. Kor'vas noticed this and shared her spectral sight with Malygos, who quickly identified that the shivarra were tortuing the Pantheon

"Get away from them!" Malygos ordered and quickly shot a stream of frost magics at them. One of the shivarra was hit and frozen solid. "Get those orbs. They're the spirits of the titans."

The rest of their forces needed no further introductions and Maiev was the first to reach the shivarra and quickly kicked one in the face before doing the same to the other. She then gathered the five orbs they were tormenting and when they were in her hands, the floor suddenly glowed and became transparent. Several levels below them were the physical bodies of the Pantheon, all of which horribly injured. That can only mean that they have been tortured for a long time now. Their bodies disintegrated and moved towards the orbs the death knight was holding. Maiev then threw all of them at the dragon aspect. "Malygos, get them out of here. Bring them to where Illidan is!" she instructed right as one of the shivarra grabbed her by the back of her neck and slammed her into the floor, which glowed with magical energies and the former warden vanished

"Maiev!" Malygos yelled but Sylvanas blocked his way before he could do anything

"Go, Malygos. Leave them to us." the ranger general instructed and the dragon listened. "Kill them all."

"Foolish mortals. This fortress shall be your tomb." Asara, one of the shivarra said as she and another one, Diima, used their magics to open a portal to other worlds, bringing more of the Legion's forces. "Destroy them!

Kel'thuzad took the initiative and threw a large icicle spear at the first doom guard that passed through. He aimed for the head and the demon died instantly. The lich then tried to raise the body but as he expected, it simply burned up. Kel'thuzad then created another mental link. 'Everyone, the magic that is used to prevent us from raising their corpses is also in the portals. I suspect that any demon that passes through a portal to Argus will be affected by that very magic.' he explained the source of their conundrum. 'I will have to close the portal so keep the shivarra busy.'

Their problems got confounded when a large number of constructs, all of them being fel annihilators and abyssals, the Legion's most powerful constructs. Left with no other choice, the demon hunters were forced to engage them and keep them off the backs of their allies. They were already used to fighting these things by now that it wasn't too difficult for them to keep occupied. The constructs also lacked the ability to think which made it easy for the demon hunters to keep one occupied for another to target the construct's weak spots

The shivarra had clear shots in against the demon hunters but they weren't the targets. If Kel'thuzad was successful, then none of them would last long against their enemies. Unlike many of the Legion's warriors, the Coven of Shivarra were not warriors at all. They were torture specialists and even though they had formidable power, they lacked experience in using it in battle especially against these kinds of enemies

One of them even tried to teleport right in front of Kel'thuzad. Thanks to her superior physical strength, Asara was able to overpower Sylvanas, who was protecting the lich, and threw her away. "You traitorous undead. You will suffer for your treachery." she hissed and created blades made out of darkness

Kel'thuzad was forced to stop what he was doing and created his own icicle blades to parry the shivarra's. "We shall see about that, demon." he threw back and released a small bolt of frost at her. Asara was forced to move back to dodge and the lich took advantage of this by blasting her with an even larger amount of frost. Furious, Asara created a whirlwind of shadow magic around the two of them but the lich countered this by created a shield of ice around him. While the ice protected him, it did not slow down the whirlwind at all so Kel'thuzad had it released icicles in all directions, eventually wounding the demon and causing the spell to end

Growing even more furious than she already was, Asara released multiple beams of shadow and fel at the lich. Kel'thuzad was hit by this and was forced back. The shivarra tried again only for the lich to create a pillar of ice from the ground and block it. Deciding to end this now, Kel'thuzad teleported in front of the demon and put a hand on her head, releasing a large amount of frost right into her body, killing her. More demons rushed towards the lich but fortunately for him, Jaina teleported him to safety where more of their warriors can fend off the demons and the lich continued to close the portals

Seeing the archlich try to close the portal, Agatha decided to accelerate the efforts and joined him. Since the demons that came out of the portals were all ground units, she was able to hover in the air with her allies being able to keep the doom guards and succubi on the ground. That was until fel chains wrapped around her and forced her into the ground

"Strange. I've never seen you before. What are you?" Thu'raya, one of the Coven of Shivarra, asked when the val'kyr was forced to the ground

"No one of consequence." Agatha replied and shot a beam of frost at her. Thu'raya countered this with her own beam of fel and both were equally matched. However, Agatha released a death coil which forced the fel beam to combust and cloud the battlefield. While even her own allies were unable to see, the demon hunters can see very clearly. This gave them the chance they needed to pick off as many constructs as possible while Agatha casted a spell similar to the spectral sight. It was nowhere near as good but it was enough for her to make out shapes through the fog

Thu'raya too was unable to see anything and attempted to release a pulse of fel. Agatha immediately picked up on where the the shivarra was. Knowing that it would make the demon hunter's job much more difficult, the val'kyr leader created an anti magic shell around the shivarra. The shell absorbed the pulse of fel energy which kept up the fog and when it reached its limit, Agatha had it collapse upon itself and the demon inside. Thu'raya was badly burned from her own attack combined with the shell's energies that she was brought to her knees. Agatha then ended it by shooting a large beam of frost at her which ended up creating a large hole in Thu'raya's chest, killing her

"Can anyone do something about this fog?" Sylvanas asked out aloud

"Apologies." Agatha said and released a small blizzard which blew the fog away, revealing a lot of corpses and destroyed constructs

The shivarra responsible for making Maiev vanish, Noura, was quickly attacked by both Asha and Sevis. Neither of the two demons hunters were aware of how powerful the shivarra was and they didn't particularly care to find out so after Sevis inflicted a wound on her upper torso, Asha sliced off one of Noura's arms and run her through with her own blade

"You damn pests! I will roast your limbs to a crisp." Noura yelled in fury before releasing a large hellstorm around her

Despite the massive amount of fel energy, both Asha and Sevis weren't bothered by it in the slightest and they simply released flames around their body which mostly negated it

"Enough of this." Asha said and rushed towards the shivarra and completely cleaved her head in two

"Come on. We need to get rid of those constructs before they get rid of us." Sevis said

"How do we even do that?" Asha asked curiously

"Just follow my lead." Sevis replied and flew away

The last of the Coven, Diima, was forced to maintain the portals open. Because Kel'thuzad attempted to close the portals almost as quickly as it was opened, Diima had to to make sure that whatever the lich did would not bottleneck their forces. This left her wide open to attack, something which Khadgar gladly took advantage of. As the shivarra had her back turned, Khadgar casted a complex group of spells which hid him from sight with another spell intended to immobilize her with a third one for the purpose of draining her energies

'I've only got one shot and if I miss, she'll dodge.' Khadgar thought as he was preparing the spells he needed. With the rest of the demons occupied with his allies, the archmage finally took a shot and his first spell bound her in chains right to the ground which then quickly sapped away her strength

"Insolent wretch!" Diima yelled out as she struggled against her binds. "if you think this is enough to kill me, you are-" she was cut off as Velen blasted her with his holy powers. With over half of her energies drained, the prophet was able to kill her with little effort at all

"Thanks for that, Velen." Khadgar said, knowing that his plan didn't work out as well as he'd hoped. Velen simply nodded at him right as the battlefield became clouded in a thick fog thanks to Agatha

When the fog finally cleared, Kel'thuzad and Agatha returned to their task of closing the portals with the rest of their allies protecting them from the demons

In another area of the fortress

After being blindsided by the shivarra, Maiev was sent somewhere else and was knocked unconscious. Some time later, she finally awakened and began coughing. Whatever the shivarra did was potent since despite her body being undead, it caused her to cough. She clutched her head. "How long was I out?" she asked out aloud but got no response. Curious, she turned to her surroundings and saw that she was in a different area. "What? Where the hell am I?' she stood up. 'This is not where the shivarra were.' she observed. 'Kel'thuzad, where are you? I'm in another part of this damn place.' she tried contacting the lich but got no response. "Damn it. He must be occupied."

Maiev then decided to make her way back up but she had no idea which way or if she was even on the correct level. 'If I am to make my way back to the others, I'll have to find an area where I have a view on the outside.' she thought but as she was trying to find the right way, she found something odd. "What is that? A stairwell? There is an even lower level here?" she asked aloud and moved towards it. The place was barely lit so Maiev drew Fel Felo'melorn, which she decided to rename to Fel Strike for the simplicity, and used it to light the ceiling, giving her vision. The death knight followed the path downwards and saw a sight she thought she would never see. Maiev had used Frostmourne long enough for her to tell immediately if what she was looking at was a soul. "Archimonde..." she muttered as she gazed upon the soul of the Defiler and behind him was a large abyss

"So, a foolish mortal managed to make her way down here." Archimonde said, his voice still as threatening as ever despite the fact that he was nothing more than a soul. He tried to use his powers but he found himself unable to

Upon seeing the demon lord completely powerless, Maiev grinned. "Well, well, well." she said mockingly. "The mighty Archimonde the Defiler, rendered completely powerless. I guess Illidan must have done a number on you."

"Shut your mouth!" Archimonde yelled. "I can still rip you apart, foolish elf."

"Really, now?" Maiev continued to grin and draped Fel Strike over her back before letting her arms to the side, completely exposing herself. "Go ahead then. I'll even leave myself open." she said and as she expected, Archimonde was unable to do anything. "As I thought. You really can't do anything. There is no doubt in my mind that Illidan managed to defeat you on his own." Maiev noted before drawing Frostmourne. "Now then, time to finish you once and for all."

Archimonde was utterly helpless to do anything as the night elf turned death knight run him through with a runeblade originally created by the Legion. In such a weakened state, Maiev was slowly destroying his soul. She would love to imprison him within Frostmourne but since he was a demon, it wouldn't work on him

"Just die already, you damn demon." Maiev cursed when just short of half an hour, Archimonde's soul was still not destroyed. However, she did not give up and nearly ten minutes later, the Defiler's soul finally began to crack and he yelled in pain. Eventually, Archimonde was finally destroyed once and for all but it took a toll as Maiev was brought to her knees. "Finally." she muttered. Maiev then walked towards the abyss. If the sight of Archimonde was something she did not expect, what she found shook her to her core

Yeah, the encounter between Rakeesh and Velen was very short. I was originally planning on making it longer but when I looked up Rakeesh's wowpedia page, the guy doesn't have any feats like at all so I just decided to make it very brief. I didn't see any point in extending a fight against someone who doesn't do anything of significance. Instead, I just took the time to add in the conversation between Illidan and Velen on the Vindicaar. Obviously this will pan out differently because the battle has already begun but that scene was so iconic to me that I just had to add it. Rakeesh being alive may be unnecessary given what is already going on but it will have relevance in the final chapter

Other than that, this is mostly the invasion of Antorus. Legionfall is making their way through the fortress and hunting down Kil'jaeden. When I added in the part about Eonar, that wasn't just random. That part will play a key role in how this arc will end

I also decided to finally give Agatha her highlight even though it wasn't that long and just for the fun of it, I added another one for Kel'thuzad as well. Both were pretty brief but I didn't want this chapter to be that long

I'm not entire sure if that's how the souls of the Pantheon were discovered in Antorus. All I know is that Magni had something to do with it but here, Magni is already dead, killed in the previous Legion invasion. That was something I wish I hadn't done but it was too late to do anything so I just made it so that Legionfall would bump into the Pantheon's souls mid torture. Since this is much earlier than canon Legion, Aggramar has not yet been broken and is still being tortured. Those orbs thing that contain the souls of the Pantheon was another thing I made up. Again, not too sure if that was in the canon but it is what it is

Lastly, yes. That was Archimonde's soul that Maiev just destroyed. I'm not too sure of his status in the canon since he died in the Hellfire Citadel in WoD but wowpedia labels him as deceased. I dunno what's up with that but here, I decided to just kill him for good