Northrend Vanguard.
"How... Why..." Jaina stammered, as Arthas moved to hold her.
"The strain of fighting the Lich for so long must have weakened him, and the sudden purging of such an evil after being bound for so long must have killed him." Alleria said, holding both her sisters close.
"Not to ruin your tragic loss, but my fellow Aspects are still fighting Galakrond beneath you, and that necropolis must come down!" Kalecgos said awkwardly over the communicator. "There will be time to mourn later, but after the battle is over!"
"He's right," Sylvanas said weakly, before clearing her throat. "Uther wouldn't want us standing here mourning while others are fighting for their lives." Her hands quickly busied themselves by placing the Ashbringer crystal back into her chest-plate.
"There's just one problem, how the hell do we get out of here?" Gromm roared, not sadened by the human's death, and more concerned with the portcullis blocking their escape.
"We get on to the roof!" Falstad said suddenly, before a strong wind lifted them up and out of the hole in the ceiling the Lich had made during their fight.
Sylvanas glanced down at Uther's still form as they ascended, feeling a great sadness taking root inside her at his passing. As they landed on the top of Naxxramas, they all ran to the edge, before gawking at the chaos before them.
The entire expanse of Dragonblight was covered in corpses; Nerubian, Troll, Vrykul, Taunka, Tuskarr, Undead, Dragon and Titan construct remains littered the wastes from west to east. The skeletal form of Galakrond was fully formed, and was thrashing wildly, tearing great chunks out of its former grave and the land around it.
"Clearly the death of the Lich has driven it completely insane!" Vereesa breathed.
"If what Alexstrasza told me is accurate, then it was already deranged," Sylvanas said, her eyes scanning the wastes for the four Aspects they had left to fight Galakrond. "Where are they?"
"Who?"
"The Aspects!" Sylvanas said quickly. "Where are they?"
"We should get down and tell Kalecgos to initiate his plan, before searching the scores of dead for them," Alleria said quickly, pulling the communicator from Vereesa's robe. "Kalecgos, are any of your kin able to get us down from Naxxramas before you destroy it?"
"All my kin capable of giving you passage were sent to aid in the battle against Galakrond, all that remains here are hatchlings I'm afraid." Kalecgos said sombrely. "Why not use a little magic?"
"I'm such an idiot!" Jaina cursed, casting spells on each of them. "Jump!"
"Kalecgos, NOW!" Alleria yelled into the communicator, before leaping from the necropolis.
The others were less reckless, choosing to slide down the steep sides of the necropolis, before finding their descent slowed the moment they started to free fall. As they landed among the scores of dead warriors, they felt a rumbling deep beneath the earth, before a bright flash to the south caused them all to turn. A solid beam of arcane energy burst from the Azure Dragonshrine, straight up into the sky, where it hit a floating set of rings and crystals, which redirected the beam smashing into the southern face of Naxxramas.
"Clever wyrm," Alleria smirked, as the beam stopped as suddenly as it had started.
A series of explosions within the necropolis sounded over the howling winds, before it began to fall from the sky.
"Is it..." Falstad began, Muradin interrupted.
"It is..."
"It's going to crush Galakrond!" Arthas almost cheered.
As predicted by Arthas, and planned by Kalecgos, the falling necropolis fell toward the enraged undead wyrm. At the last moment Galakrond realised its end was nigh, and let out a bellowing, enraged roar, before the two unholy abominations collided. The fallen necropolis exploded, burying Galakrond beneath its rubble, before a bolt of icy blue energy erupted from the remains, and shot straight into the sky.
"It's over..." Thrall breathed. "But at such a cost..."
"Northrend will never truly recover from this carnage," Kalecgos said grimly, appearing at their side.
"Nice work with the crystals," Vereesa complimented the Aspect of Magic.
"My father hoarded a lot of arcane energy in the Nexus, it made sense to release some of it in a constructive manner." Kalecgos smiled, before his smile faded. "I'm sorry about your loss, to have fought so hard to save him..."
"We did save him, he died free from the Lich's control," Sylvanas smiled weakly. "He can rest in peace."
"Where are the other Aspects, they should be informed of the developments!" Alleria said quickly.
Kalecgos withdrew his communicator, before raising it to his lips and speaking into it.
"Brann, are you still there?" he asked, and moments late Brann's voice came through.
"Aye, I'm here, what can I do for ye?"
"Where are the Constructs? And do you know where the Aspects are?" Kalecgos asked.
"I've ordered the Constructs to weaken the Nerubian Empire until it can't rise for several centuries, once that's done the survivors will return to Ulduar," Brann explained. "As for the Dragon Queen and the other Aspects, I believe they've taken refuge far from the battle. The queen was injured in the battle with that nightmare."
"Where?" Kalecgos roared.
"I don't know!" Brann stammered, clearly terrified despite the great distance between them. "I only know they're not in Dragonblight, and they're not in Azol Nerub."
"Alright, I have an idea where they've gone, somewhere safe." Kalecgos sighed. "We'll be in touch."
He put the communicator away, before transforming into his natural form, a safe distance away from them.
"Where would they have gone?" Jaina asked, but Sylvanas ran as fast as her armour would allow towards the ruins of Naxxramas, followed by her sisters.
"I'll take you there," Kalecgos said, before taking flight and following the Windrunners and the other heroes.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
With help from Kalecgos, Sylvanas and the others pushed aside the chunks of rubble and mangled corpses, until they found the remains of the Lich's throne room among the rubble. Miraculously Uther's body was not mangled from the crash, but he was now lying in a web of drapes, and Sylvanas immediately moved to free him.
"Lady Windrunner, we should hurry to Alexstrasza!" Kalecgos growled, remaining in his dragon form. "Time is not on our side."
Before Sylvanas could come up with some justification for her actions, Jaina and Vereesa encased Uther's body in a block of ice, also encasing the last whole piece of Frostmourne by accident.
"Alexstrasza will want to see him," Jaina explained, as the others climbed on to Kalecgos' back. "Come on, the Legion is coming."
Sylvanas followed her sisters as they climbed on to the enormous Azure dragon's back, holding on to his scales as he took flight. Kalecgos grasped the block of ice holding Uther's body in his left fore-claw, before ascending into the clouds and flying north-west.
"What do we do now?" Falstad asked after a minute of silent flying.
"Speak with the Dragon Queen, recuperate as quickly as we can, before teleporting to Nethergarde and hope we can stop whoever the Lich sent to open the portal." Alleria stated bluntly.
"Who was he talking about? Who has the Skull?" Thrall asked quickly, as they crossed the western mountain-range, the snow giving way to dense jungle.
"I'm not sure," Sylvanas said, about to say a name before indecisiveness struck her. "Illidan Stormrage is somewhere in Kalimdor, he does have ties to the Legion, but I doubt he would side with them again, or take orders from the Lich."
"Still could be a possibility, hold on heroes," Kalecgos chimed in, before diving sharply towards the coast.
Lying close to one another along the Stormwright's Shelf, the heroes saw the other Aspects recuperating, all clearly exhausted; by the fact they were in their natural forms. As they leapt from Kalecgos' back, the Aspects looked up from licking their wounds, their moods clearly lightened by seeing them all alive and well.
"Heroes, you survived!" Alexstrasza said softly, plants bursting from the soil all around them, causing a fiery warmth to wash over them. "Is the Lich King gone from this world?"
"Yes my queen, however..." Sylvanas said slowly, stepping forward and giving the Dragon Queen a low bow.
Kalecgos placed the frozen block of ice before Alexstrasza, before resting on the ground with his fellow Aspects. Alexstrasza let out a pained cry at seeing Uther's frozen form. Slowly, painfully, the Dragon Queen transformed into her mortal form, and approached the block of ice.
"Oh my dear Uther," Alexstrasza said softly, her hands tracing circles on the surface of the ice, causing it to melt where she touched it. "You brave hero, you noble soul, you were taken too soon!"
"How could he have died? I thought the Lich cursed him to never find rest?" Ysera asked.
"The Light purged the Lich from Uther's body, perhaps it purged the curse as well," Sylvanas proposed. "I did use the Ashbringer crystal to perform the exorcism."
"Perhaps," Onyxia growled, her eyes fixed on her frozen master, seeing the remains of Frostmourne trapped within. "Why is that in there?"
"It clearly can't let go," Sylvanas said through gritted teeth. "But the Lich King IS dead."
Alexstrasza glanced at Ysera, Nozdormu, Onyxia and Kalecgos, before she suggested something outlandish.
"Maybe we could bring our champion back from the dead," she said suggested, making the heroes perk up at this idea. "His fight is not over yet, and the world will be poorer without the Lightbringer standing against the Legion."
"You can bring him back? Do it!" Sylvanas urged. "Please!"
"This may be dangerous sister," Nozdormu warned. "The last time we tried something like this, it turned into a nightmare."
"I remember what it caused!" Alexstrasza snapped. "But that was an object, this is a loyal, noble Paladin of the Alliance, who was taken by treachery and trickery. And to bring him back indefinitely would be dangerous I agree..."
"Are you suggesting that once the Legion are defeated, we kill Uther?" Arthas exclaimed.
"No!" Ysera said quickly. "We are suggesting we bring the Lightbringer back with our combined power, and once the Legion are defeated, and Azeroth is safe..."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Nozdormu noted, though they all knew that he could see how this plan would end.
Alleria quickly added; "What you need to know is the Lich remembered what it saw in the alternate timeline, and it tormented us with visions of that timeline."
"That is troublesome, but you will forget it in time," Nozdormu sighed. "Rest assured that the visions you saw will not come to pass."
"The other thing you need to know is that the Skull of Gul'dan is on its way to the Dark Portal, being carried by an unknown agent of the Lich, and other agents are prepared to strike out and 'cripple' the Alliance." Alleria continued. "What is the status of the Wyrmrest Accord and the other Northrend factions?"
"The Accord is near extinct, our brood numbers are dangerously low," Ysera informed them. "We sent what kin survived to call our flights back to Northrend, we need to regroup and recuperate our numbers."
"And the other factions of Northrend have lost as many people as we have, and they all retreated when Galakrond went insane," Onyxia added. "They will not be interested in losing any more of their people against a greater threat, especially on foreign shores."
"But we still have the constructs of Ulduar, and the armies of the Alliance are untouched by the recent conflicts." Jaina said brightly. "Unless these 'agents' of the Lich has struck."
"This war will be costly, this war will rage on and the world will take centuries to heal from the aftermath." Alexstrasza said grimly, melting some the ice around Uther's body. "Your Alliance will need all the heroes they can muster, and every advantage they can bring."
"We should prepare, the battle weakened us, but to empower our champion will require all the strength we can muster." Nozdormu said, transforming into his mortal form.
"You're going to resurrect him? Here?" Thrall asked in disbelief, looking around at the sparse cliff-side, dominated only by a roof of a Titan facility.
"Thrall is right, these conditions are unsuitable," Ysera said, transforming into her mortal form. "Miss Proudmoore, could you please teleport us somewhere more suitable."
Sylvanas noted that even in their mortal forms, the Aspects once perfect forms were now marked with scars and open wounds.
Kalecgos, Onyxia, Ysera, Nozdormu, Sylvanas, Thrall, Vereesa, Alleria, Falstad, Muradin, Hamuul, and Alexstrasza holding the frozen Uther moved closer to Jaina, but before she could mass teleport them away, a familiar Troll arrived in the claws of a protodrake.
"Ye not be forgettin' me?" Vol'jin joked, landing next to them as the drake flew north. "I was makin' an alliance wit de Drakkari."
"Of course not," Jaina smiled, before casting the spell.