Obsidian Aspect.
Part VIII: Another World.
"What happened to me?" Sylvanas wailed.
"This is where she stood, heroes, and this is where she fell." Nozdormu said plainly. "The time-lost echo of Sylvanas Windrunner will reverberate through the rotting limbs of the Dragonshrine for all eternity."
"What happened to her?" Vereesa yelled at Nozdormu, who faded from sight instead of answering. "Touch her sister; I want to know what happened to you."
Sylvanas cautiously approached the echo, who seemed to not realise she was there. She reached out, but before she could place her hand on the echo, it let out a piercing scream and floated upward, as several creatures rose from the blackened ground.
"Another band of Deathwing's converts? I'll be sure your death is especially painful." The echo laughed, before shadowy arrows rained down from the echo.
'-She is not one of the living.-' The voice laughed. '-She is undead!-'
"I will give you one thing, you are still a skilled ranger in this alternate reality," Uther laughed, moving to meet the echo as she floated down and attacked him. "Vereesa, please shift her appearance, I do not want to kill my protégé."
Vereesa waved her hand and the other heroes moved in to assist their Lord, but Uther faultered as the echo continued to slash at him, his arms only just managing to move his swords to deflect its blows.
"It did not work… I still see her," he said quietly, but Uther was heard by Arthas.
"Is there something you're not admitting Uther?" Arthas asked. "I was not affected in fighting the echo of Jaina, but we both know why it did not affect me."
"I do not have those feelings for her!" Uther said, struggling to fight and argue at the same time, especially against someone as skilled as Sylvanas.
"Perhaps not love, but there is something you hide, something between you and Sylvanas that goes beyond student and master." Muradin said, joining the conversation after dispatching the undead creatures.
"We shall talk about this later." Uther said, disarming the echo and summoning the Light to restrain the ghostly Sylvanas. "Time to see what haunts you."
He reached out and touched the echo's ghostly cheek, immediately collapsing to the ground as new memories surged into his mind.
'-Glorious, truly glorious!-' the Lich cackled, as it too witnessed the echo's tortured life.
From being killed and resurrected by Arthas, to ruling over the Forsaken beneath the ruins of Lordaeron, and finally her death during the Hour of Twilight, Uther saw it all, and inparticular, saw that his end came protecting Terenas' remains from the fallen prince, who had also died at Arthas' hands.
"Uther!" Sylvanas' voice said suddenly, shaking him from the misery. "She's gone, Muradin ended her suffering while you were out of it."
"Aye I did, and I take no pleasure in it." Muradin smiled. "What happened Uther? What happened to her that affected you so much?"
Uther looked from Sylvanas to Arthas, and the prince instantly knew.
"You don't have to say it Uther, I can tell that you did the right thing," Arthas said through gritted teeth. "Whatever happened after I took Frostmourne in this reality, I do not want to know, and I will not follow his example."
"Let's just leave this awful place," Vereesa said quickly, pointing to the time portal Nozdormu had opened for them.
On the other side, they were greeted with the largest Infinite dragon they had seen, and Uther quickly recognised the dark truth behind the Infinite Dragonflight.
"The 'End Time,' I once called this place, this strand. I had not seen, by then; I did not know." The Infinite dragon said as it spotted them. "You hope to… what? Stop me, here?" Change the fate I worked so tirelessly to weave?"
"Nozdormu," Uther breathed, recognising the large Infinite dragon as the fallen leader of the Bronze Dragonflight. "Light give me strength."
"You crawl unwitting, like a blind, writhing worm, towards endless madness and despair. I have witnessed the true End Time. This? This is a blessing you simply cannot comprehend."
Muruzond roared and the heroes charged toward him, with Uther leading the charge, while Sylvanas, Jaina and Vereesa providing help from a distance and the two dragons took to the skies.
"So be it." Muruzond snarled, swiping his claws at them.
"Heroes! I cannot follow you any further – accept my blessing and use it to defeat Muruzond!" Nozdormu said briefly.
"Why can't he help?" Muradin asked, the four male heroes grouping together underneath the dragon's chest.
"Because we're fighting him, or more specifically, we're fighting his future, fallen self." Uther said quietly.
"And what is his blessing?" Falstad asked, before all four men were forced to duck and avoid Muruzond's claws.
"I do not know," Uther said, blasting the Infinite dragon with the Light, causing it to snarl and focus on him.
Arthas, Muradin and Falstad were blasted backwards by a wall of arcane energy, and Muruzond breathed white fire over Uther, who barely managed to summon a shield to protect him.
'-Use my power! You are losing the strength of the 'Light'.-' The Lich whispered, sounding almost gleeful.
He ignored the Lich's taunts and continued to weild the Light, though he could feel his connection to the Light growing weaker. He channelled the Light into both his swords and slashed at Muruzond's claws, causing the twisted dragon to roar in pain. Muruzond extended his wings and took flight, blasting all his opponents with repeated arcane blasts until they collapsed dead. Suddenly they were all brought back, and Uther suspected that Nozdormu's blessing was behind it.
"I guess that's his gift, reversing time." Falstad laughed.
"To repeat the same action and expect different results is madness." Muruzond yelled when he saw the heroes suddenly come back from death, feeling time reverse around him.
Uther again channelled the Light into his blades, but his connection was weaker, and he suspected that even with time reversed, dying had affected him.
'What are you doing to me?' he snarled at the Lich.
'-I am restrained by that infernal crystal, I have done nothing!-' it replied. '-Perhaps you are losing faith? Perhaps knowing that your former protege betrayed the Light has put you in doubt.-'
"Cover me!" he commanded, diving sideways and forcing Arthas to take the focus of the Infinite dragon.
He crouched down and clasped the glowing crystal in Ashmourne, feeling its warmth coursing through him again. With the renewed connection to the Light, he charged toward Muruzond, and leapt on to its back, diving to avoid his swinging tail. Sylvanas spotted her tutor leaping on to the Infinite dragon's back and quickly fired arrows at its joints to keep it preoccupied. Muruzond hit them with another powerful blast of twisted magic, and once again they were all mortally wounded, but Nozdormu's blessing brought them back at peak health.
"Another chance will make no difference. You will fail." Muruzond bellowe.
Uther summoned the Light, and tapped into the unholy energy of the Lich, attempting to surprise the twisted Timeless One. He slashed at the dragon's chest, and saw a black wound appear on the white scales on Muruzond's chest, the unholy energy hurt the Infinite dragon.
'-Do it!-' the Lich hissed.
Uther summoned more of the unholy energy into Ashmourne, but imbuing Frostlight with holy energy, before slashing both swords across Muruzond's scales, before plunging both blades into the open wounds.
"Boys! Get down!" Vereesa yelled, and the four men complied.
Vereesa unleashed a barrage of arcane, frost and fire spells at the open wounds, seeing Muruzond recoil and roar in pain. She channelled all the magical disciplines she had mastered into one ball of energy, before hurling it at the Infinite dragon's roaring maw.
"You know not what you have done." Muruzond growled, as the arcane energy burned its throat. "Aman'Thul… What I… have… seen…"
As Muruzond collapsed dead, Nozdormu appeared beside another time portal.
"At last it has come to pass. The moment of my demise. The loop is closed. My future self will cause no more harm. Still, in time, I will… fall to madness. And you, heroes… will vanquish me. The cycle will repeat. So it goes." Nozdormu said, as the heroes gathered around him. "What matters is that Azeroth did not fall; that we survived to fight another day. All that matters… is this moment."
"Are you bound to his fate?" Sylvanas asked quickly. "This is not our timeline, perhaps your demise is different to this event."
"Time is constantly influx, but my death is fixed." Nozdormu stated.
"What about our experiences in this timeline, will we remember what we've learnt?" Jaina asked, tears welling in her eyes as she remembered her alternate history.
"What you learnt from the alternate history will be forgotten when you leave this moment, but echoes will remain." Nozdormu said simply. "But time is not to be wasted in this grim time, step through the portal to the next point in history, the crucial moment where your intervention is needed."
"When are we needed?" Vereesa asked.
"Ten thousand years in your past, during the first invasion of the Burning Legion." Nozdormu stated, while Arthas, Muradin and Falstad stepped through the portal.
"The Well of Eternity," the two Windrunners breathed, and the Timeless One nodded.
"The Dragon Soul," Uther remembered. "You want us to steal it?"
"You have already stolen from the past to help the present, as was intended, and it is the only way to defeat Deathwing." Nozdormu said. "Please step through, and be rid of this desolate place."
"I need to speak with the Dragon Queen, is it possible to open a portal to the Wyrmrest Temple?" Uther asked the Timeless One, who nodded.
"Step through and your companions will be at the Sundering, while you will find yourself in Dragonblight, one day after you defeated Ragnaros." He said quickly.
"Uther?" Jaina asked.
"It's nothing my dear, go on without me; I'll be at your side when we face Deathwing." Uther said brightly, putting a hand on Jaina's shoulder and looking into her eyes. "I'll be fine."