Chapter 24: The Architects of Fear

Writer's Note: All right dear readers, you wanted fast chapters? Then expect for the following arc to be updated once every few days. And the more reviews I get, and the longer they are (within context, of course), the shorter those 'few' days will be. No I'm not holding the story hostage for updates, I'm bribing you with shorter downtime between those updates if you give me what I want. There's a difference. If you have a problem, then go roll up a worgen and track me down with its nose. Oh right, at the time of this posting, you can't. HA.

Wait, what's this about a closed beta?

Oh yes, and sometime in the next several chapters, you will see a line marked with a star. I would like to thank Azzur and his Let's Play of the original Warcraft for creating said line which I am shamelessly borrowing.

"The sewers belch me up
The heavens spit me out
From ethers tragic I am born again
And now I'm with you now
Inside your world of wow
To move in desires made of deadly pretends
Till the end time begins

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
And in your darkest hour
I hold secret's flame
You can watch the world devoured in it's pain…"

Strength all.

Strength keep you alive. Make you powerful. Give you what you want. It cannot, it not strength.

Nothing stop strength.

Nothing stop me.

Not storm. Not hungryness. Not weaklings.

Strength is mine.

All is mine.

"Was that the front door?" Rielle said.

"I don't really know or care WHAT it was. Whatever it was, it didn't sound friendly." Zackel said, grabbing his staff off the wall before he turned back to Rielle. He was not surprised she was trying to get up.

"Don't give me that look." Rielle said, partially up and leaning against the wall with one hand.

"Rielle, you just…"

"I KNOW what I just went through." Rielle snapped, glaring at the mage with defiant will. "But if you think I'm going to hide and cower in a corner…"

"Even if you're feeling better, your body can't be anywhere near recovered…!"

"Then you don't know me." Rielle said. She felt a pang of guilt at the depth of her lie: in truth, she still felt like a herd of Elekk had trampled over her body and one had come back to practice its newly-acquired tap-dancing lessons on her head. But that didn't matter. This was her element, no matter what after-effects a rogue poison had caused. She'd trained for it, and even if she felt terrible, she knew she could muster some sort of effort against whatever was coming. Even if it was only a fraction of her best, it was better then letting Zackel stand alone.

Zackel gazed helplessly at the woman. He wanted to tell her to stop being idiotic, that she was a liability. But he knew all that such an action would do would be to delay whatever preparations they could muster even more.

"All right then." Zackel said, turning towards the table across the room. "Hold on."

"Don't you DARE go off without me!" Rielle said.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm getting our last healing potion." Zackel said. "You can drink it. Maybe it'll give you a boost."

"Zackel, no! You need that potion…!"

"And what I want is for you to be safe." Zackel said, whirling around and pointing with his splinted appendage. "I can make do with what I have. You, I'm not so confident in, and THAT'S FINAL."

"Zackel…" Rielle said, having semi-stumbled over to her axe. While it felt like it weighed three times what she was used to, she still managed to pick it up.

"Maybe we'll be lucky. Maybe it's a rescue effort." Zackel said. Considering he could still feel the storm going with his magical senses, he didn't have much hope of that being true.

"Oh blast. And me in my underwear. People will talk." Rielle said, trying to call up all she'd learned about her art of war. She'd fought with injuries before, and when she hadn't been springtime fresh. She could still fight now. Maybe she couldn't fight long, but no enemy would last long with her…

"Oh like you care…" Zackel said, having reached the table as he picked up the healing vial.

A second afterward, the sensation began.

"What anyone else…thinks…" Zackel said, confusion in his tone.

The buzzing in the mage's head ramped up so suddenly and violently that Zackel felt like he'd been punched in the forehead. He recoiled, the vial dropping from his damaged fingers.

It's time mage to rise or fall destiny awaits us…

The fact that a voice had just spoken in his head might have caused Zackel more alarm, had it not also caused him to drop their vital healing elixir in his surprise. With eyes as wide as saucers at his fumble, he lunged downward for the container.

Unfortunately, he was not the type to command incredible reflexes. Fortunately, the people who had constructed the vial did know how to do their jobs, and as a result, the vial just bounced on the floor instead of breaking. Unfortunately again, Zackel's effort (and failing) to overcome his shortcomings meant he ended up kicking the vial across the room.

"Shit!" Zackel said, chasing after it, transitioning his staff to his injured hand, holding it feebly with his thumb as he reached the vial.

This time, the buzz came in his teeth. Zackel jerked his head towards the door that lead into the room.

It exploded in a cacophony of fire, partially broken apart and partially blown off its hinges. The heat and the shockwave slammed into Zackel, knocking him backwards and against the door behind him. Rielle barely had time to make her own exclamation before the shockwave slammed into her: in her weakened state, it was enough to knock her sprawling.

"Zackel!" Rielle said.

"Fel…" Zackel said, trying to push himself up with his good hand, his eyes locked onto the black smoke where the door had been.

The figure loomed through it, the darkness of the smoke almost closing on him…

Huge and black, the void walker expanded through the doorway…

Through the burning fire came the man'ari, unaffected and filled with sadistic joy…

"So. Human. You live." The ogre said. "Perhaps all this not waste after all."

Zackel stared at the ogre, taking in his form. The ogre's dusky blue face and stained black teeth were new to him, as was the gnarled dyed-red wood staff in the ogre's hand. But he recognized two things, and that was enough.

One was his robes, all midnight black.

And the other was his voice.

"MUG'THOL! HE LIES! HE PREPARES A TRICK! STOMP HIM! STOMP HIM!"

"You." Zackel said.

"So, you understand the past, human." The ogre said. "How fitting it does not ensure your future."

"You yelled at Mug'Thol. Forced me to start this blizzard…to try and survive…" Zackel said, fully getting to his feet. He glanced at Rielle, who was also getting up: she met his eyes and returned a wary expression that indicated she wouldn't just charge in. Zackel, having spared his eyes a second away from the ogre, returned to his form. "…magi. An ogre magi."

"The greatest of all Crushridge. I am Grel'borg the Miser. Your end." Grel'borg said.

"…you threw that fireball too. The one that knocked me through the air, got the ogres' attention…started everything." Zackel said, trying to swallow and soothe his dry throat. "Why…?"
"You are undeserving." Grel'borg said, pointing at Zackel with his staff. "I will show that. I will crush you as my clan should have, and grind your organs into a stew. I have not done all I have to accept otherwise."

"…what are you talking about?" Zackel said.

"You not know. That all is needed." Grel'borg said, thrusting the staff out. "GRITEAK!"

The fireball erupted from the ogre magi's staff, streaking towards Zackel.

The mage's counter, unfortunately, was lacking, the mage attempting to re-route his magic through his good hand.

Which was his left, lesser-used hand.

Which meant that all Zackel did was shave off some of the fireball's power before it struck him and exploded, blowing him backwards through the other door, said door tearing off its hinges in the process.

"ZACKEL!" Rielle yelled, hefting her axe and charging. The weakness struck her immediately, the sensation that she was moving as slow as molasses compared to her usual pace. In her prime, she'd have been on the ogre magi before he finished turning her way.

As she was, Grel'borg shot the fireball at her before she was even two-thirds of the way there. The blast exploded at her feet and tossed her backwards, her usual graceful recovery roll turning into a bone-rattling tumble, her axe flying from her hands. She came to a stop, breath exploding through her lungs.

"You matter little." Grel'borg said, lowering his staff slightly to aim it at the Draenei. "But I no fool. I burn you and then burn him."

The staff tip began to glow as Rielle tried to get up. Weaponless and essentially stark naked, she knew she wouldn't take the blast as well as Zackel's ragged but still magically enchanted for protection robe would.

"…so. You gonna give me some answers on how you got here?" Rielle said as she prepared her last charge.

"No." Grel'borg said, and fired.

The long, thin shards of ice shot out, the barbed hooks impaling themselves into the side of Grel'borg's face and yanking. The ogre magi bellowed as the frost weapons tore into his cheek, yanking him slightly to the side and causing his blast of fire to go wild. The attack missed Rielle by about nine inches, the Draenei feeling the heat searing her skin before it burned a massive scar into the wall behind her and to her right.

"Get the WEERKU away from her." Zackel hissed, leaning on the doorway, the chains of ice extended from his staff. "You have some issue with me? THEN ME YOU GET!"

Another roar sounded from Grel'borg's lips as he turned around, the ice construct shattering in the process. The fireball he hurled at Zackel hit only stone as the mage dodged back into the doorway and then back out, firing a dagger of ice at the ogre's chest. The ogre deflected it with a gesture, even as Zackel followed up his attack with his own gesture, which happened to be considerably rude. A loud snort issued from the ogre, and he began to stalk towards the human mage.

If he noticed Rielle as she charged from behind, he gave no sign. He did not even respond when Rielle ran into the magical shield, the mana-based protection slamming into Rielle like a blow in and of itself and knocking her on her ass. She lay there a few seconds, stunned and hating herself for it. She'd dealt with such magic-shields before. Normally she just smashed right through them like they weren't there.

Not now. It seemed that whatever she could muster now just wasn't enough.

Zackel was on his own.

Zackel watched Rielle fall, and strongly debated going against his mind and going with his heart. But he knew that if he went back into that room, his odds of survival dropped far more then he could find acceptable. With his hand injured and his chance to use the healing potion on it gone (he had no idea where said potion had gotten off to: for all he knew some rat had carried it off), he needed every advantage he could get against his enemy, this ogre magi that had both finally revealed himself in person and as the one who had set all these events in motion, all because of some strange, inscrutable grudge against Zackel. Against an enemy like that, here, he had no advantage, and that just put Rielle in danger.

On the roof…

Another fireball flew at him: Zackel just managed to dodge, feeling hot slivers of stone pelt him from where it impacted on the wall. The ogre magi was still coming, still heading after him. Zackel just hoped that as smart as ogre magi were compared to their brethren, that said intelligence didn't cover certain tactics. Like not following an enemy into a place (such as the storm-hammered roof) they likely knew existed and likely could have suspected the enemy wanted them to be.

Then again, Zackel had done everything he could to wound Grel'borg's pride as much as his body. The mage had seen more than a few humans and other 'smarter' species do stupid things because of their ego. Surely ogres could be exploited the same way.

"I guess your first shot was the best you had to offer!" Zackel yelled, heading up the icy stairs. One advantage to being a frost mage specialist: you tended to get quite good at moving on slippery surfaces. So much so that when the ogre magi emerged through the doorway Zackel was able to turn on a dime and fire another frost bolt at him. This one, Grel'borg negated with his own fireball (and far more successfully then when Zackel had done the reverse earlier).

Zackel tried to pay it no mind, turning to resume running back up the stairs. He gave one last glance behind him to make sure the ogre magi was still pursuing him, and then sprinted the rest of the way up the stairs, disappearing through the open door and into the snow-swept roof beyond.

I am under no delusion that anything has changed. But trouble has come, and it threatens my life.

I am not your master. I likely never will be. I do not ask for your power. I am not so arrogant.

…All I ask is for aid.

Please help me.

Please.

Slowly and carefully, Grel'borg made his way up after the mage, his mana shield going full bore in expectation for a trap. When nothing flew or exploded against him upon reaching the top of the stairs and its doorway, the ogre expressed mild surprise to himself. Said surprise did not slow his pace, the ogre magi stepping out into the howling gale.

A second later blue energy flashed behind him, and Grel'borg turned to see a thick wall of ice forming up in the doorway he'd just gone through.

"Would be rude if you tried to leave." Zackel said, standing on one of the roof top's barricades. He'd been given his answer, and with it he stepped/jumped off onto the main body of the path a moment later, his eyes locked onto the ogre magi. "So. What was that about me being undeserving?"

Grel'borg met the human mage's face, and then gave a low, dark chuckle.

The human thought it would have an edge here.

The human thought that keeping it here would protect the other.

The human was clueless, and Grel'borg planned to prove it. Its regret would make Grel'borg's triumph all the sweeter.

"Only that you remain." Grel'borg said, raising his staff. "Come, little man. Time to die."

Rielle lay where she had been tossed, but not because she couldn't get up. She could, and she was going to.

But she had to truly gather her strength. Her initial efforts may have been laughed off, but she hadn't had much in the way of preparation time. Maybe she was greatly worn down, a shell of her normal self…

But as much as she hated what that ogre magi had done, it had also served her. He'd gotten the blood pumping in her veins, feeding fresh adrenaline and rage to her body. He'd made a dear mistake in not managing to take her out when he'd had the chance. Soon she'd be back, and fighting mad, and the ogre would learn his folly in thinking she couldn't give a fight…

Then she heard the thundering footstep. Rielle jerked her head up.

Something was coming up the stairs. A second something. Unlike the ogre magi, which served to possess the ability to employ stealth, this second presence made no effort to hide its approach.

Rielle drew in a long, slow breath between her teeth, before rising to a semi-crouch position and crawling forward several steps before stopping. Waiting.

She had expected another ogre.

She did not expect the ogre to be so BIG, the monster barely managing to squeeze through the doorway. While Zackel likely would have recognized the ogre, covered in battered pieces of armor and wielding a club so huge he almost got it caught in the door, semi-ruining his intimidating entrance, Rielle did not. Even if she had, it likely wouldn't have made her care much.

Mug'thol looked at the Draenei, a cruel eagerness shining in his eyes.

"Ha. Ha ha." Mug'thol chortled. "Grel'borg still stupid. Not know good bits. Even with no metal. Why no metal, meat?"

"…and you are?" Rielle said, ignoring the question.

"ME MUG'THOL! STRONGEST OF CRUSHRIDGE! STRONGEST OF OGRES!" Mug'thol said, thumping a hand on his chest.

"How are you alive?" Rielle asked.

"You small food, use trick! Call down cold and pain! But I not stopped!" Mug'thol said. "White hide everything! Ogres forced to hide in building not our home! But I know where food is! What food stole!"

"Stole?" Rielle said.

"Steal home! Steal foodself!" Mug'thol said. "But I eat well! White hide everything, so dig! Make ogres dig and dig towards home! Dig to ignore cold, ignore hunger! Those that fall, become food! Dig and dig until home! Now home! NOW…Mug'thol eat. Eat well."

Rielle looked at the giant ogre another second before briefly closing her eyes. As far as she could tell, the ogre and some of the remains of his clan had taken shelter from Zackel's storm in one of the remaining Alterac structures that were dotted around the fortress. Unable to leave or get food due to Zackel's deadly blizzard, Mug'thol had ordered them to dig a path from their shelter to the fortress. How the fel the ogre had managed to actually dig in the correct direction and access the fortress was a mystery, but the fact of how Mug'Thol had made it here without his remaining 'troops' mutinying against him for being forced into intense labor and cannibalism was quite clear. Even robbed of his 'normal diet' for several weeks, the gargantuan ogre seethed with power and kill-lust.

There were other mysteries that remained, like exactly what the ogre magi who had come first had to do with any of this, and what, how, or even if the emergence of the pair had to do with all the strange happenings that had occurred to Rielle and Zackel that had not been explained by the ogres hiding in the basement (and what had happened to them, with their chief's return? Had they rejoiced, or fallen to his and his ogre's likely raging hunger?). But in truth, Rielle didn't really care.

She was a warrior, and she had just been presented with the greatest personal war she would ever fight.

And after all the excrement she'd been through, she would be damned, thrice or otherwise, if she ended up excrement.

Reaching out a hand, Rielle picked up her axe, which had been in front of where she'd crawled. She did not even bother glancing at her armor, the 'metal' that Mug'thol seemed disappointed she didn't have, lying in a corner in a neatly assembled pile. She could not get it on, and hence put it out of her mind. She had what she had, and she would make do.

Standing to her full height, Rielle looked the ogre in the eye.

"Just…so you know…I've had a real bad…last couple of days…" Rielle said, cracking her neck. "And it's put me…in one fel of a shitty mood."

The ogre just chuckled again. Rielle saw the muscles tightening under his armor, as the ogre prepared to storm forth and claim his meal. Rielle relaxed her own, as she slipped into a battle stance.

Time to go to war.

"Just your bad luck…to run into me."