Ch26: Destroying the War Machines
After everyone was shocked and flabbergasted at how my body was back to its original self, revealing that Adria now knew everything and was currently being held captive in the armory, and the fact that Leah had turned the whole Keep into Hell-forged steel, our group then decided that the next course of action was deciding who would be in a set of 3 groups. One group would venture into Azmodan's territory, destroy his war machines, and kill Azmodan himself. And another would be in charge of defending Bastion's Keep, keeping a close watch on Adria, and making sure the Soulstone was still okay. And since me and mom both had cell phones that were still good on energy (and they were the only 2 cell phones in existence in this entire world), we decided to use them as miniature walkie-talkies so that we could know if the stone needed further attending by either my powers or Leah's powers.
"I think we've got our teams now," I said as I laid out the plan. "Me, Tyreal, Serena, and Lilith will be fighting our way to Azmodan and killing anything in our way. In the meantime, Leah, Maghda, mom, Shen, Haedrig, ZK, and Mira will be in charge of defending the Keep and keeping a close watch on the Soulstone and Adria. We clear on this?" I asked, noticing that Leah was still unsure of staying behind with... well... Maghda. "I don't like this anymore than you do, Leah. But this place needs some protection from any invaders," Maghda sighed. "And besides, I need to have a chat with Adria myself."
"Whatever you guys do to her, do not torture her and do not kill her. She is to be checked on every few minutes, just in case she tries to escape. And above all else, keep a close watch on the Soulstone. It is currently stable and tame, but it could very easily become unstable and unsafe in a matter of seconds," I told them. "We know... we will not hurt her with any form of punishment. She is simply to be interrogated without any form of physical abuse," Zoltun Kuelle said. "Good. Now let's get going to stop those damn war machines," I said to my group as I led us out the Keep gates and I sent mom a quick message on my phone. It basically said to use the cell to text me if there was any sign of trouble back at the Keep.
Once our group descended all the stairs and made it to the open fields, Tyreal smelled the air and sighed. "It has been too long since I have last had a battle of such importance," Tyreal said. "I don't know what your angel nose is sniffing, but I have a feeling that it isn't the dead bodies of demons that we will soon create," Serena smirked. "I was smelling the air for Azmodan's presence. And he is definitely in the depths of the Crater. We must destroy his War Machines and then take the fight to his own demonic fortress," Tyreal said as we rushed forward and began to slaughter our foes in Sky Flyers, Heralds of Pestilence, some disgusting Blood Clan Kazrah, and even some Armored Destroyers.
"Whew! These enemies are a bit more difficult to kill since I gained my mortality back," I admitted as my sword slices and hits of disintegration had to be done with great care. One chop of an axe could easily end my life now that I was back to my old self. "By the way, Lisa. I have two questions about this situation you've gotten yourself into," Lilith said. "Sure, go ahead and ask them while I destroy this War Machine here," I smiled as I ran forward and shot a beam of Disintegrate at the giant arrow machine whose name I had completely forgotten. "Well, my first question is how did you turn back to your old self? And my second question is how come your skin color is dark brown?" Lilith asked.
"Well, to answer the first question, Leah hit me with one of her beams of demon energy and, upon getting hit by it, my pain receptors came back in full force," I explained. "And for the second question, me and my family are African American in my world. As in, we have naturally dark skin. But because of this, we are subject to many trials concerning our color and how we get treated for it," I sighed at the last part. "I see... how strange that you and your mom were both a completely different color than the people of this world," Serena gawked. I decided to let her word usage slide, since she had probably never seen a person with black or brown skin before.
After that talk, our group had finished destroying the final two Arrow Machines and our group now had only one place left to attack. The Trebuchet. I knew it would be dangerous, especially for me, but I decided to lead the charge and slaughter the Blood Clan Occultists first, the door opening up right afterwards. "Okay! I'll destroy that thing in a snap!" Serena smirked as she dashed forward and sliced the Trebuchet mechanism apart with her ultra sharp claws. The only issue is that a splash of lava from below came VERY close to touching my feet and I actually jumped away from the molten ooze.
"You have destroyed my war machines, but it is of no matter, Nephalem," Azmodan's visage said as it appeared to us. "You stand before the army of Hell. It will crush you!" he exclaimed. "I know that was a lie, Azmodan. You can't hide your fear from us!" I glared right back at him. His visage retreated as quickly as it appeared. "Who wants to go on an assault on Arreat Crater?" Tyreal asked with a smirk. "We do!" I smiled as Lilith raised her hand with a giggle.