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Sea of Sorrows - North of Malchor's Leap

It was a calm and peaceful cloudy day, the rainfall having stopped a short time ago. The waves of the ocean calmed somewhat but continued to crash into nearby stones and coastlines. Very small sections of towering columns penetrate the ocean's surface, where the kingdom of Orr once stood.

On a small isolated small rocky hill with a flattened top, a mysterious portal formed. Moments later, two female figures emerged from it, stumbling to the ground with a slight case of dizziness. The portal slowly closed in on itself as the duo slowly try to get on their feet. They are both human and wearing a Vortex Manipulator on their right forearm near the wrist.

The taller of the two is Selene Lion, a ranger. The other is Azeena Videll, a guardian of smaller than average height. Both are co-leaders of the Unified Heroes of Tyria guild. They realize the danger of what they have volunteered to jump into, understanding the risks involved, including the possible erasure of their very lives in the unfortunate event of failure. Given what is at stake, failure was clearly not an option for them.

The plan, as agreed upon before the timejump, will begin with Azeena. She will engage Zhaitan first in a melee strike. Her Zenith greatsword contains an embedded absorbing crystal, whose magical properties is seeping throughout the sword's mystical blade. Selene's legendary Kudzu longbow has specially crafted arrows with arrowhead-shaped absorbing crystals. In case something happens to Azeena where the melee attack goes wrong, she will fire the crystal arrow into Zhaitan from a distance. The dizziness is almost gone now.

"Azeena, you okay?" Selene asked.

The guardian took a deep breath before responding. "Yeah, I'm fine."

The two women took a few moments to just stand there and take in the environment surrounding them, admiring the beauty of it all. But there's a time and place for everything. There is a mission to complete.

Azeena began to wonder. "Are we in the right place?"

Selene checked her VM, which would show a timedate stamp of where and when they were. For some unknown reason, it was not working properly.

"Strange, it's not telling me. Is your VM working?"

Azeena checked her own and saw the same result. "The timedate part is blank but the rest of it appears to still be operating."

After trying to get the time function to work without success, Selene tried something else. She switched to a communication feature. "Selene to Zojja, we arrived on the other side. Please verify our time and location." There was a long pause with no reply. "Zojja, please respond."

No answer. Perhaps her VM was more damaged than originally assumed but there was no way of knowing.

Azeena took a shot at it. "Zojja, can you hear us?"

Nothing. Selene cursed under her breath. "Great. Looks like we're on our own."

"So what do you want to do now?"

Selene looked around again for a few moments, pondering what to say. "Let's just assume this is where we were meant to be and go from there. All we can do now... is wait."

Azeena nodded in agreement, showing slight signs of being nervous.

A half hour has passed since their arrival. They both remained on the same rocky hill, pacing around, looking for signs of Zhaitan's awakening. Not a word had been spoken during that time. Selene started to chuckle to herself.

Azeena overheard it and turned to face her. "What is it?"

"Just thought of something. We're going to be living witnesses to history itself. No Tyrian - or anyone else for that matter - was around to see this when it originally happened. We will be the first to do so. Too bad we have no way of documenting our being here."

"When we get back, maybe the Asurans could come up with something, like a recording device of some sort."

"If we get back..."

The ocean waves started to move around a little stronger. The women felt what seemed like a slight rumbling in the ground.

"You feel that?" Selene asked.

"Yeah. I think it's about to start."

In the minutes that followed, the wave intensity has been increasing, as well as the ground rumbling. They prepared their weapons and assumed a battle ready stance, back to back, continuing to visually scan the area for Zhaitan.

"In case we don't make it, I just want to say..." Azeena said, "...it's been an honor to be with you and the guild."

Selene paused before replying, smiling. "We're in UHoT, remember? We WILL make it!"

Azeena then smiled too as something began to rise from the ocean in Selene's view.

Selene pointed out in a specific direction. "There!"

Azeena quickly turned around to see what Selene did. It looked like a lizard-like creature emerging from the depths. From other parts of the ocean nearby, rocky land masses were rising from the water. It was the remains of the Kingdom of Orr. But then, Selene noticed something unusual. The creature coming out of the water was definitely a dragon, but had a regular appearance like any other normal dragon and was smaller. It wasn't even undead and didn't look like Zhaitan as they remember it.

They looked at each other in confusion, then back to the dragon. "What's going on? That's not Zhaitan," said Azeena. "Was there a second dragon during the Awakening?"

Selene thought for a moment. "Not that I'm aware of." They start quickly scanning the area for signs of the actual Zhaitan they expected to see. "Did Zojja say how long the magic in these crystals will last?"

"Unfortunately, no. It could be one hit only or multiple hits. I'm hoping for multiple."

"I agree." Selene then made a decision. "I say we take this other dragon out quickly then wait for Zhaitan to appear. What do you think?"

Azeena adjusted her grip on her greatsword, then glanced over to the dragon with confidence. "Let's do this!"