Azure Dragonflight.
Part III: Pinball Wizard.
Another teleportation spell took Uther and his companions from Dalaran back to Wyrmrest Temple, and they were immediately greeted by a similar amount of chaos that they had left two weeks before when the 'war of the dragon aspects' had started.
"Uther!" Alexstrasza called, and they quickly hurried to the dragon queen's side.
"What's going on here?" Sylvanas asked quickly.
"It seems that Malygos did not take the death of Cyanigosa well," Alexstrasza said quickly, as Azure, Emerald and Ruby dragons flew past, breathing fire at each other. "He has sent the remainder of his flight to destroy the temple."
"Should we assisst in the defence of the temple?" Onyxia asked.
"No, I need you to deal with the problem at its source," she said coldly. "We can handle this attack; you must go to the Nexus and end the Azure attack. But I am afraid that your task will not be as simple as just killing the Spellweaver."
"What?" Uther asked.
"Before he launched an all-out assault on my temple, his kin abducted those I had tasked with watching the Nexus." Alexstrasza bowed her head slightly. "One of my proudest kin is now a prisoner of the Spellweaver, I need you to find her and free her, before she succumbs to the same corruption."
"We will not fail you now," Uther said boldly.
"I know Uther, but I realise this request is sudden and unexpected," she sighed. "I should not have been so careless. Hurry now and save her, and then end this madness."
"Yes... Alexstrasza," Uther bowed, before signalling Onyxia to transform.
The two dragon women dived off the ledge and transformed, moments later Uther, Sylvanas and Jaina followed, landing on the dragon's backs. As they passed over the burning remains of the entrance to the ancient Nerubian kingdom, they were joined by a bronze dragon, who flew close beside them.
"Thought I would return the favour for you," Chromie roared.
"Glad to have a representative from your kin helping." Uther called.
Jaina leapt on to Chromie's back, and the trio flew in relative silence, until the Nexus loomed into sight.
"Look at the power they're draining from the world!" Jaina exclaimed. "We have to hurry!"
"Any idea where they'd hold Alexstrasza's kin?" Vereesa asked.
"Probably underground, I do not see anywhere above the base that you could use as a prison, or base of operations." Sylvanas replied.
"Take us down!" Uther commanded.
"Yes my lord," Onyxia growled, before diving toward the base of the Nexus, where a small doorway was carved into the crystalline foundations.
As they landed, they were surprisingly greeted by no resistance, and there was no sign of any Azure dragonkin.
"They must have thrown everything at the Wyrmrest Temple, should make our job easier," Sylvanas commented.
"Let's focus on finding Alexstrasza's kin," Ysondre said, leading them into the structure, and down into the basement.
After hurrying down several ramps, they found the missing Ruby dragon encased in ice. Chromie seemed to wander down a corridor on their left, almost in a daze.
"Chromie, where are you going?" Uther asked, but he got no reply.
They followed the wandering gnome through several empty halls, before they finally found a member of the Azure flight. She was standing on a large circular platform, surrounded by glowing blue energy.
"What's this? Intruders in the Spellweaver's lair?" the woman said with a smirk. "You know what they say about curiosity..."
Before they could think she fired multiple arcane spells at them. Uther managed to deflect them off his swords, before he charged toward her. As he was about to strike, with Jaina, Sylvanas, Ysondre, Chromie and Onyxia supporting him, the woman disappeared.
"There's plenty of me to go around." She laughed, before three versions of her appeared around them.
Each hurled either arcane, fire or ice spells at them and Uther quickly decided to focus on the ice copy. He heard a scream, and saw the fiery copy of the grandmage engulfed in three dragon's fire. Jaina and Sylvanas were dealing with the arcane copy, and it didn't take long for Uther to behead the ice copy when she was momentarily distracted.
"I'll give you more than you can handle!" the real grandmagus yelled, reappearing as her arcane copy was shot full of arrows.
"No, I will!" Sylvanas yelled back, firing a holy arrow at the grandmagus, hitting her in the chest.
"Damn the... luck." The grandmagus cursed as the arrow struck her in the chest, burning through her arcane shields.
As the Grandmagus slumped to the floor, crimson red blood flowing on to the blue stone floor, Chromie seemed to slip into her trance again and wandered down another hallway, following the sound of explosions. They followed and soon found themselves in a vast chamber that contained the single most bizarre sight they had yet seen. Azure dragonkin were fighting against arcane constructs on multiple platforms, while energy and some matter was pulled into a vast crack in the wall on the far side of the chamber.
"It seems that the energy they are draining is too much for them to handle," Jaina chuckled.
"You can interpret what's going on here?" Sylvanas asked.
"I can guess," she replied. "I'm guessing the arcane creatures are a result of the large energy they are siphoning, and the crack is most likely due to the energy exceeding their expectations. The Azure dragons are trying to contain it."
"What would you recommend?" Uther asked.
"Kill the Azure dragons and get as close to the breach as we can," Jaina said as she looked around. "I can try to stem the bleed, but it will take more magi to completely seal a breach this devastating."
"Alright. Sylvanas take care of the dragons overhead, everyone else focus on those who stand in our way." Uther commanded.
"Why don't we take the flying dragons my lord?" Ysondre asked. "We'd be more use to you in the air."
"Look at the Azure ones up there, they are struggling not to be pulled toward the breach, I am not risking you when I will need you to face Malygos." Uther said quickly.
'-Enough talk! Kill!-' the voice whispered.
Uther sighed, that conversation would have to wait. He charged down the ramp and engaged the drakonids standing on the first platform. He was surprised at how quickly he cut through them, but it was clear that they were too busy dealing with the arcane manifestations to realise the six heroes charging through their lair. As Uther moved on to face the arcane constructs that were gathering in the centre of the chamber, he saw Azure dragons dropping from the air all around him and knew Sylvanas was on form with her bow as always. When he reached the penultimate platform, he stopped and froze at what awaited him on the final platform.
"What is that?" he asked Jaina, as she caught up with him.
"For someone your age... you can certainly move fast and fight like a young man..." Jaina breathed.
'-A benefit of my assistance old man-' the voice laughed. '-Part of the reason you'll need me for the evil that is coming, you will not survive if you're so close to the grave.-'
"It says that it is keeping me active and healthy" he sighed. "What is that?"
"We're close to the breach, that is clearly a manifestation of the arcane energy at its strongest," she explained. "In order for me to begin to stem the flow, we need to either destroy that entity, or make peace with the energy itself."
"Is that possible?" Sylvanas asked.
"I don't know, but it's worth a try." She said, stepping past them and approaching the large, pulsing arcane creature.
"Chaos Beckons!" the entity yelled.
"Wait!" Jaina yelled, summoning an arcane barrier to keep it back. "We are not your enemy; we are not aligned with those who hoard arcane energy."
"Reality... unwoven." The entity stated.
"We know, we're here to stop it and restore balance." Jaina said cautiously, noting that the construct was not attacking them. "We mean you no harm, return to the breach, and help us end this chaos!"
"I'm not sure it wants to," Sylvanas said quietly.
"Don't kill us, when you could kill the leader of these dragons and stop their efforts to control and contain you," Jaina said quickly. "Wouldn't you prefer to have a chance to kill the one who believes himself above magic, who sees himself as the only one who can weild arcane magic."
"Of course." It replied, before dispersing into vapour, and floating into the breach.
"Good work Jaina, now stem the breach and we can proceed without worrying about the Nexus imploding." Uther said quickly, signalling Sylvanas and the dragons toward the next area of the Nexus, where two drakonids were watching them from a distance.
"This'll take some time, go on without me." Jaina said, before her fists glowed white with arcane energy.
Uther caught up with Sylvanas and the dragon women, as they stopped at the entrance to the next section of the Nexus. Now they were faced with crystalline trees, plants and ancients, which all contrasted with the dark stone floors and ceiling.
"Where's Jaina?" Chromie asked.
"Attempting to seal the breach, she'll catch us up" he replied. "Which way do we go now?"
"Left. In order to free Keristrasza, we have to kill the three wardens of the Nexus," Chromie explained. "Grandmagus Telestra, the arcane entity Anomalus, and Ormorok the Tree-Shaper."
"Alright, ladies... care to light the way?" Uther asked Onyxia and Ysondre, who smiled brightly.
A few seconds later, the hallway was filled with smoke, and the solidified forms of the crystalline elementals. They moved through the crytal statues, until they found the warden of this section.
"No!" Ormorok yelled when it saw them approaching.
Uther was seperated from the others by a suden wall of crystal spikes shooting out of the ground.
"My lord!" Onyxia roared.
"I'm fine, kill this thing!" he yelled back, as he slashed at the rock creature's legs.
His holy blades managed to pierce the creature's skin, causing bright blue, almost white blood to seep out.
"Back!" Ormorok yelled, swatting at Uther, who managed to avoid the blow.
"Die!" Sylvanas yelled, leaping on to its back.
She held on to its neck as it tried to fling her off, quickly stabbing both of its eyes out when Ormorok tried to throw her off. Ormorok roared in pain, and Uther took this as a golden opportunity. He leapt up and swung both his swords at Ormorok's head as Sylvanas leapt back off the stone elemental. Ashmourne cleaved through Ormorok's neck, opening a wound, which Frostlight finished. Uther landed on his feet, as the elemental's head landed beside him.
"Get back!" Ysondre roared, pulling both heroes away from the elemental as it collapsed dead in front of them.
"That was different," Sylvanas said simply.
"Indeed," Uther smiled.
"Shall we move on and free Keristrasza?" She replied, pointing to a large circular tunnel that seemed to lead back to the central chamber.
They returned to the large red dragon incased in ice, and Chromie instinctively moved to use the three devices that were spread around the room. As she stepped back from the last device, the ice encasing Keristrasza began to melt.
"Here's hoping we're not to late..." Ysondre said, as Keristrasza began to stir.
"Intruders in the master's sanctum!" she roared.
"We are too late," Uther said gravely. "She no longer wants to preserve the balance."
"Preserve? Why? There's no truth in it." Keristrasza laughed, rearing and swiping her claws at them. "No no no... only in the taking! I see that now!"