Transcendence

by JMB Fictional Writing

After Ichigo defeated Grimmjow he was attacked and beaten by Nnoitra Gilga, severely wounded and drained he is thrown into a Caja Negación and through event beyond his comprehension he is transported to Azeroth, stuck on an unknown world with even stranger beings he must find a way to return home and save his friends before it is to late. But can he leave this world to its turmoil?

87. Chapter 86: Abandon All Hope

Hello, most of you must find this sudden chapter surprising, and I will tell you that regretfully that this took longer for me to get out, mostly because I have been trying to get a job. Bad news on that part, the job became redundant and I am currently trying to get another one.

Aside from that life has been good, descent and I am trying to keep positive and trying to get a job so I can get a steady pay check.

Now, this chapter has been in the works for a bit, but the funny things is that I had to cut it in half, expect another chapter next week. I hope that you enjoy it.

Review responses at the bottom of the page.

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Transcendence

Chapter 86: Abandon All Hope

Eastern Kingdoms, Burning Steppes, Blackrock Depths, The Molten Core

This place was hell.

Maybe not in the literal sense, or even the biblical, but it certainly was hot as a furnace going full blast and then thrown into lava for good measure. This nightmare was so hot that he wasn't even sweating anymore, he was still perspiring, the heat was so intense that any water molecules that appeared simply evaporated.

His armour had been enchanted to resist the heat, both natural and magical flames could not leave a mark on his armour, not even the hottest forge could melt it while the wards were intact. He had to admit that it was working well, even in this place his armour wasn't warm or taking in any of the heat. Even when he fought against Fire Elementals his armour held strong, with only mild discomfort on the areas of his body that were exposed, but even then it protected him.

But even then, he knew that this place was hot, because while the armour could protect him from getting burned, breathing down here wasn't exactly easy.

He glanced towards Caren and noted the wisps of steam coming off her as the ice armour she was manifesting was doing little to hold back the heat. His armour resisted well, but the few places his skin was exposed did feel the heat. Reminded him of the inside of a sauna, only this was more intense, these walls must be bouncing the heat off them.

His own throat was dry, his lips were cracking, he felt his body heating up despite his armour doing everything it can to try and maintain a comfortable body temperature. Despite his armour offering this protection, which actually can encase even parts of his body that are exposed, even to a lesser degree. He wondered if just breathing the heat in and the exposure to certain parts of his body were the cause, if that was the case this place was more dangerous than he thought.

It made him wonder what this felt like to Caren, who didn't have the same level of protection he did.

At this moment he is feeling what it is like when he was back in the Burning Steppes at midday, if that was what it felt like right now it was a lot worse. If he didn't have this armour on, he was certain he would be dead within a few minutes of exposure, anyone would be dead if they didn't have the right kind of protection on. In fact, if your clothes weren't protected by magical meals, they might catch on fire from the air temperature.

The only other way he could think of surviving down here was through exerting his spiritual pressure to push back the heat. But even then he doubted it would be enough to negate the heat fully, it would however create an area around himself that would be much more hospitable. It would certainly make things more comfortable, especially if Caren stayed close. Although he couldn't risk doing such a thing, if he released his spiritual pressure, it would draw the elementals towards him.

"This is impossible…" Caren said, taking in deep breaths through a rag over her mouth that was partially frozen, a futile attempt to try and not breath in any hot air. "How can it be this hot? It shouldn't be any warmer than outside, how is it hotter inside here?"

"The heat is from spiritual pressure, whatever is pushing it out is also heating up the air." Ichigo said, struggling to feel anything out here, it was like he was under water and being crushed under an intense pressure of an ocean's depths.

Kind of reminded him of the time when he was trying to get his spiritual powers back, being forced out of his body and his spirit feeling sluggish as if moving through water. This was the same, but at least here he could fight against the currents, he had the strength to move through it without difficulty.

"I won't last like this, I am losing too much mana, I can already feel myself reaching my limit." Caren said, hand hovering over her bag where she kept several potions to replenish her reserves.

She had taken two already since entering, the first afforded her two hours but she was using all her power to maintain her frost aura. Without it he was certain she would die, most people couldn't stand being in a sauna for more than ten minutes, down here you would likely be dead in half that time. Given his friends lack of stamina and endurance he was certain that it wouldn't take more than two minutes before she was on the ground and then maybe she would last another minute.

Caren had six veils on her when they entered, that had been seven hours ago, now she had three left.

They had to move as quickly as possible to find Galen, staying down here any longer was going to make things harder when they needed to get out. He really hoped they found Galen within the next eight hours, otherwise Caren had no way to keep herself from being cooked like a thanksgiving turkey. But he was concerned that this might not go the way he was hoping, a few dark thoughts worked their way into his mind as he realised that escaping the Core might not be as simple as he believed.

There were two scenarios here.

If Galen had avoided the elementals down here and been able to bunker down, meaning he had been down here for over two weeks waiting for help. Trapped in this hell with no way out and only having a limited amount of mana to sustain whatever spell was keeping the heat from killing him. If he had been able to survive all that, Galen would have tried to teleport out or create a portal to escape long before a rescue mission was launched.

Most believed the reason he had not returned was because he was dead, having perished in his mission to try and rescue Moira Bronzebeard. That was the theory many in Stormwind had gone with, explaining why he hadn't created a portal to either escape or call reinforcements, they all thought he was dead. But Ichigo didn't think so.

Ichigo was confident Galen was alive, he wasn't so stupid to come down here and not be prepared, so the question was if he was alive and stuck down here then why hadn't he tried to escape already?

That came down to two possible reasons.

He either didn't have enough mana to create a portal and maintain the spell that was keeping him alive. Or, he couldn't create a portal to escape because something was blocking him from doing it. If it was the former they could get out of here easy if they found him early enough, if not then he had to be prepared with what they did next.

"Caren, before we go further, can you try getting us out of here, making a portal to Stormwind?" Ichigo asked, coming to a halt and looking around to make sure they were safe.

Caren hesitated for a moment before she gathered her power and then began channeling the spell, taking her time in creating a breach in space to another location. But as she tried to form the portal and open the way it flickered, instead of creating a doorway all it did was create a shimmering ring that led nowhere.

Caren stopped a moment later, taking in a few deep breaths, she had tried a little too hard to bring up that portal. He hoped he didn't shave too much time off her clock, every second counted right now, but in hindsight he was glad they tested it instead of leaving it up in the air.

"I can't create a portal, it's being blocked." Caren said, quickly looking around the cavern, before settling on something on the ceiling. "There."

Ichigo glanced upwards and saw several veins of an unknown metal, silvery blue, they were coating the walls of the cavern and appeared quite abundant. He moved towards one of the veins closers to the ground, he brushed a hand against the unprocessed ore and senses spiritual energy from it. This must be the material that the doorway was made of.

"This metal has spiritual energy in it." Ichigo said, turning to Caren and hoping she had some answers.

"Spiritual energy?" Caren said, looking at the metal and squinting as she looked at it, her eyes widened a moment later. "By the Light, is this what I think it is?"

"What is it?" Ichigo asked.

"Elementium." Caren said, coming closer and caressing the metal delicately. "This place is overflowing with the ore, it's everywhere."

"What's so great about it?" Ichigo asked.

"Besides the fact it's rare." Caren replied, her sarcasm heavy as she spoke. "A single ounce of that metal would see a family well off for the next fifty years. And when I say well off, I mean well off."

Ichigo's eyes widened, that was some serious money, during his time here on Azeroth he had amassed a decent fortune of around three hundred gold coins. With that he could live a simple easy life without having any money worries for the next thirty years, so long as he didn't go throwing away his money. But if he did, he could live a very extravagant life for ten years or less, depending on how crazy he went with the money.

He had done a little working out in his head how much money he had on him, converting it into Yen just to try and figure out how rich he was. It wasn't exactly perfect, but it went like this, his three hundred gold coins estimated around forty-four million Yen. He had more money in his hands than what his dad had probably made in his entire life as a clinic doctor, several times over more than likely.

But the thing was, that was just for him living on his own modestly with his only expenditures being food and rent. A family of four or more would be vastly different, especially if they didn't have to be frugal in those fifty years, he had to go over it in his head just to try and get into the ballpark. A chunk of ore would be worth hundreds of millions of Yen, easily, and he doubted that he was taking into consideration what Caren's idea of well-off meant.

If they brought a chunk or two with them back to Stormwind it could reimburse the Nobles for the money they put into this operation. Possibly even pay those greedy bastards back double the original amount they gave them to take on this suicide mission. Looking around at the ore he could see lining this section of caves, he could potentially buy up all of Stormwind with what is here.

"I assume aside from the price tag that this stuff is more valuable because of something else." Ichigo asked.

"Because of its unique qualities. This metal is rare because it doesn't normally exist on this plane, but in the Elemental Planes themselves. It is a completely foreign metal from the domain which the elementals call home." Caren said. "It is incredibly hard to find, I have heard that even the Explorers League in the last two centuries have only found five kilograms of the ore in their escapades across the Eastern Kingdoms."

Five kilograms? In two hundred years? That is rare.

"What can it do?" Ichigo asked.

"Forging it is near impossible, its resistant to almost all forms of manipulation, it requires extensive preparation to forge and manipulate. Often requiring a master blacksmith, along with an alchemist and mage, and that is just processing it into a bar without impurities." Caren said. "After that it can be forged into a shield or weapon, and regardless of which the object itself is indestructible, and said to be immune to all elemental forces."

That did sound impressive, but he wondered how much it was true and if it could match up to his Zanpakuto. He was certain that was going to be an issue down the line, because of one thing, there was so much of the ore here that there was no way someone wasn't capitalising on it. After all, the Dark Iron had decided to use a ton it to create a big door, you don't take something ten times more valuable than gold and turn it into a door.

"How could so much of this metal be here?" Caren said.

"I am more concerned about how much the Dark Iron have starting using this metal." Ichigo said. "That door at the entrance was made of the same stuff. If they have enough to make a door, they have enough to make weapons and armour."

Caren seemed to catch on, if this was what the Dark Iron had on hand, they were going to be a threat in the future. Not a minor one, a major threat that could potentially overthrow the Alliance, if the Dark Iron armed their entire army with this metal they would be near unbeatable. Hell, until he figured out how powerful this metal was, he had to assume it could pose a threat to him as well.

"We can leave a note when we get out, or take a chunk of ore when we leave, but for the time being we have to focus on finding Galen." Ichigo said, before he sensed something coming their way.

He grabbed Caren and quickly rushed over to a stalagmite, he got low and tried to keep still, a few moments later he felt the ground shaking as something large walked past. He didn't get a good look at it, but it was big, it had to be around the size of that demonic hound he killed in Eldre'thalass. But this one seemed a lot more dangerous than that thing, because of the fact it was on fire and its body looked to be made of molten rock and was drooling lava.

Sensing the creature, he idly noted that it was giving off spiritual energy, a descent amount of it as well. He was shocked by how powerful it was, above that of a Minos Grande, the fact they had animals like that roaming around without a care was worrying. He kept his head down and tried to keep his senses on it, while also trying to keep his own spiritual pressure contained. He stayed there for a few minutes, not even wanting to risk coming out until he couldn't sense it anymore, and when he was certain it was gone he let out a breath he had been holding.

"Another one." Caren said.

"That's three hounds, two giants, and eight elementals." Ichigo said, having started counting the kinds of enemies they had come across, there didn't seem to be much in the way of variety down here, but he wasn't complaining.

He had wanted to avoid getting into as many fights as possible, last thing he wanted was to get into a fight that drew attention towards himself. Especially after what happened when he engaged the first elemental they encountered in the Core, unlike the one he fought outside the Core these ones were tougher and harder to banish.

Ichigo had countered the elemental spirit easily enough, doing the same thing he had done to the first, but when their bracer had been shattered it didn't vanish. Instead, it remained and kept attacking him, he was at a loss and didn't know what to do for a while. Then he just got the idea to blown it apart with a Getsuga Tenshou, which seemed to work, he came to the conclusion that he would need to try and use his spiritual power to harm them.

A good thing to know, he was concerned about how he was going to try and cut apart fire, but that wasn't going to be a problem now.

After that they had to run, he sensed a lot of spiritual presences coming their way, given how tricky a single elemental could be he didn't want to risk it with what else might turn up. He didn't doubt that he could take on most of what was down here, the problem was he wasn't exactly kitted out to handle these kinds of enemies.

His Zanpakuto could harm spirits but against something non physical like a fire elemental it required using his spiritual pressure and energy to disperse them after their bracers were destroyed. Problem was if he did that it would draw the wrong kind of attention, which was more elementals, and past experience with them wasn't exactly favourable. He recalled his engagement in Maraudon, and the fact he nearly was killed by a swarm of giants.

"Out of all of them the strongest are those hounds, after that it was the giants and then the elemental spirits." Ichigo said.

The hounds seem to patrol a certain area, he noticed this while they were moving and came across one of them on a route, they were likely the main guards for the outer edges of the core. While the Giants remained stationary near large passageways, likely entrances deeper into the Core. From there they ran into random elemental spirits that didn't seem to have any pattern to their movements.

"Galen wouldn't have gotten into the Core, not against things like this." Ichigo mused, besides he wouldn't have gone for the Core he would have tried to get into Shadowforge City. "If we stick to the outer perimeter, we might be able to find him."

"A reasonable assessment, and the less we have to fight those things the better." Caren said, taking a deep breath. "I don't think I have the mana for a prolonged engagement."

They continued on from there, stopping every hour to bring out some water to quickly drink and check their map to update with the magical paperweight. Thanks to that they could map out most of the outer sections of the core and not have to remember where to go, if they did this right they could run back to the entrance if need be.

"The core is larger than we realised." Caren said, looking at the map and seeing the path they had taken, they had gone far and actually travelled downwards deeper into the earth's crust.

"This place likely has a lot of levels to it, who knows how deep it goes." Ichigo muttered, annoyed by the fact they will need to climb their way back up. "We should try and find a way upwards, otherwise we won't find that exit."

They believed Galen would be camped somewhere near the exit leading into Shadowforge City, that was all they could go on really. But if that failed, they also believed that if they knew where both entrances where they may be able to find Galen between two two points based on the quickest path between them.

"The problem with that is we don't even know if Galen is near that exit or even near the outer edge of the Core." Caren replied, letting out a sigh. "We have so much to explore but we don't have the time."

"I know, but exploring isn't what we need to do, we need to find where Galen would bunker down. Which is the main problem, we don't even know where that could be." Ichigo muttered, where the hell would he go if he needed to bunker down in a place like this.

He couldn't think of anything along those lines, after all how the hell do you survive down in a place like this? Mages can create their own food and water, they can keep themselves cool, but it all came down to how much mana they had. Galen would need to find a way to sustain himself down here, how he did that he wouldn't have a clue.

"Hey, if you got trapped down here how would you try and survive?" Ichigo asked.

"Me?" Caren asked, musing on the question for a moment before she replied. "I would try and search for a Ley Line."

"Ley Line?" Ichigo inquired.

"Magical currents that run through the earth, they are underground veins filled with arcane energy, they are concentrated source of mana. I think I recall in the history of the War of the Three Hammers that Sorcerer-Thane Thaurrisan utilised the Ley Lines that moved in and through the mountain to summoned Ragnaros." Caren said. "If you can find one of these conduits it wouldn't be hard to use it to sustain oneself."

"Can you find one?" Ichigo asked.

"I…" Caren muttered, thinking for a moment before she reached over and grabbed his wrist. "Take off your Gauntlet."

I chigo didn't make a fuss over it and removed his Gauntlet, showing her the Mana Sealing Glove he wore beneath. It was a gift from Galen after he saved him in Redridge, along with explaining his own aversion towards arcane energies, which protected him from the negative effects of arcane energy exposure. Thanks to that he didn't have to worry about getting sick or being affected too severely if he was hit by a magical spell.

"What are you thinking?" Ichigo asked.

"The glove disperses arcane energies, redirecting them away from the wearer, depending on the concentration of that energy the glove will react differently. If we find a node the glove should react to its presence, with that we can track a source and go to where it leads. If we follow it upwards we might just get lucky and find Galen." Caren said, before moving towards a corner and channeling a spell.

"You're not going to use a spell, are you?" Ichigo asked, concerned that she was using a her mana unsparingly.

"I need to create a well, or at least something that can hold water." Caren replied, doing as she said and creating a small bowl of ice that was already starting to melt.

She pulled her water skin off her belt and then poured its contents into the bowl, even after draining the entire contents into the saucer it was beginning to evaporate. The ice could only keep it so cold, in fact he could already see the water starting to bubble near the surface, it made him wonder just how hellish this place was. Whatever she was doing, she had to work fast, that water wasn't going to be around for long.

Caren then produced a Stopwatch, golden with a white face and an intricately designed set of numbers and hands inside. She opened it up and quickly took out one minute hand and placed it into the pool of water, surprisingly it floated, and then he realised what she was doing.

"A compass." Ichigo muttered.

"Arcane energies are drawn to one another, most artefacts and trinkets that have magic imbued into them have a unique property, they often become magnets for arcane energy." Caren said. "Touch the hand, once the arcane energies have been dispersed it will look for the nearest and largest source of arcane energy."

"Won't it just point back to you?" Ichigo asked.

"Arcane energies need to be in their rawest form to be drawn in, mana in the body is different, think of mana as water and arcane energies as steam. The object can't hold liquids within itself but it can store energy." Caren clarified, which sort of made sense now that he thought about it.

Ichigo reached down and touched the gold and black minute hand, he saw the arcane energies disperse over the object and dissipate into the air. Then the hand began to move, twisting and turning as it tried to find a new source of energy to latch onto, to draw in to rekindle its lost spark. Then it stopped and and pointed off into the distance, he turned and found a wall on the far side of the cavern.

"That way." Caren said, snatching up the hand and placing it back into the watch.

Ichigo stood up and moved for the wall, placing his hand against it and hoping to see some kind of reaction, but there wasn't one. Guess it wouldn't be that simple, but they had a direction, he pulled out his map and looked it over. He gave an annoyed huff as he saw they would need to go into unknown territory to find it.

"What was it that Vergil said… 'The gates of Hell are open night and day; smooth the descent and easy is the way.'" Ichigo muttered aloud, preparing himself for the descent.

"What are you talking about?" Caren asked.

"An old poem I remember, although really I should be quoting Dante rather than Vergil." Ichigo replied, deciding that regaling her of the Epics of his own world, it would be better than simply moving through this finery cavern silently.

He spoke of Dante Alighieri, a poet from seven hundred years ago that penned three epic tales of a man's journey through the afterlife. Starting in Inferno where he would go through the Nine Circles of Hell, where each ring punished the damned for a specific sin. Then into Purgatory where the souls of the Repentant who sought to shed themselves of their sins and earn redemption in the eyes of the Lord. And finally, Paradiso, Heaven where the virtuous and redeemed would live in bliss and contentment under the Light of the Lord.

He told of some of the theology and cultural significance of some elements of the story, mostly to give an idea of what the author was going for. Caren seemed intrigued, considering she had stopped complaining about the heat, and was actually discussing with him the intricacies of the poem. It kind of reminded him of when he first read it, having so little clue on what it all meant and trying to decipher it. The Divine Comedy had been a fascinating read, the poetry and culture of western writing always intrigued him, it was actually something of a hobby of his to read foreign literature.

Right now he was certainly drawing some parallels between this and the first epic of Dante, the Inferno. While not exactly literal, after all Hell in the Inferno wasn't all fire and brimstone, sometimes it was cold, sometimes humid, most of the time it was just disgusting. That guy really hated the people he was talking about, he liked to throw political enemies and people he disliked into Hell just to give them the middle finger.

Caren found it interesting, mostly how the monolithic faith of Christianity worked, not that his interpretation was anything to be impressed with. He wasn't Christian or catholic, even with his mother's side of the family having ties to Europe, he was a Buddhist at heart and despite what some might think he followed it pretty well.

In fact, she actually shared a little about the Church of the Holy Light, the Church didn't have any gods that were worshiped and it was more of a theology. He found that the faith had some similarities to Christianity, mostly in their tenants and how they structure their ranks, but the main difference would be that the followers adhere to three tenants: Respect, Tenacity, Compassion, from there there is deeper meaning and understanding. He found it quite simple yet also deep.

It was a good way to pass the time as they searched for the Ley Line, which was taking longer than anticipated, it seemed to be deeper into the Core than anticipated. But that was a given, if the Core had a centre it would be where Ragnaros was summoned, which is where the Ley Lines had to be in order for his summoning to take place.

As they delved further they continued to talk, at least to try and take their minds off the heat and the dangers that lurked around every corner.

"Wouldn't take you for a follower." Ichigo said, smirking slightly as he looked at her. "Of any religion really."

"I can assure you that I am tenacious." Caren said.

"Not much for respect thought." Ichigo shot back. "Don't you need to learn that before you get to the tenacious part?"

"There are exceptions to the rule." Caren replied.

"From how you tell it that ain't the case." Ichigo replied, because how it was said being Tenacious wasn't just about going all out to see your goals and wants fulfilled but also ensuring that your change the world for the better.

Respect revolved around mostly forming connections with people, good and bad, and making sure that your anger or negative emotions don't taint those interactions and opinions of others. If was a way to make sure you didn't leave bad impressions that can fester and cause harm in the future.

Tenacity actually was giving oneself a goal in life and also teaching oneself to be resilient when the world throws obstacles your way. It was usually here that many would fail because instead of remaining steadfast they either gave up or lose their faith because they didn't live up to their lofty dreams or because something bad happened.

Caren certainly was tenacious, given that she had a desire to live up to her Grandfather's legacy, but the way she acted left a lot to be desired.

"Can you blame me? I have grown up with some of the vilest individuals that call Stormwind home, the only exception was my older brother. May he rest in peace." Caren said, shaking her head. "I had to sever my connections with them just to spare myself the soul crushing existence of being part of their family."

"Sorry I asked." Ichigo said, glad that despite her past troubles with her family they seem to be the furthest thing on her mind. "Speaking of the House of Nobles are you familiar with a guy called Victor Nefarious?"

"No, the name isn't amongst the noble caste, also likely the last name is a false one." Caren stated. "Are you sure this information is valid?"

"I got no reason to doubt this, Gor'shok's worried that this might be a repeat of the Maraudon incident, and if that is the case, I am worried as well." Ichigo said, knowing that if this was some sort of repeated than what happened in Maraudon with Princess Theradas wasn't even going to hold a candle to what would happen if Ragnaros gets out.

"But that is under the pretence that someone is manipulating events, you can't do that alone, you need help. Lots of help." Caren said. "Who is out there that could do that?"

"He mentioned a Clan that might be involved, apparently they got ties to a lot of different groups, he called them the…" Ichigo started, touching a wall and immediately seeing a reaction, he saw glowing cracks flow against the stone and leak through the rock.

"We found it." Caren said, coming forward and pushing Ichigo away, her hands lay flat against the surface, she concentrated. "We found the Ley Line, I can sense the flow as well, keep your hand close to the wall and start walking, if we stay close, we can move with it towards an endpoint."

Ichigo raised his hand and noticed the energies vibrate through the air, the arcane energies were reacting to the glove and dispersing like mist into the air. The next hour was them following this trail wherever it led, which was difficult at times when the Ley Line moved from the wall to the floor and then to the roof. They lost track of it a couple of time but not for long, a little feeling around sorted that issue out easily enough, and eventually they made some headway. Looking at their map which they updated with the magical paperweight they were certain this was the outer perimeter of the Molten Core. The Ley Line kept going on from here, and if they were luckily it would lead them to either the exit into Shadowforge City or to where Galen may have bunkered down.

They kept going and eventually they came to somewhere that actually showed signs that people had been there, but they weren't alive anymore.

"Oh no." Caren said, kneeling down next to the blackened skeletal remains of what was most likely a mage. "This is Archmage Jarreth, I recognise the necklace and silver teeth, he was Galen's second in command."

Ichigo looked around and counted about nine others down here, not a nice thing to see but also gave him some hope. The initial assault force consisted of a ragtag group of twenty, if only half of them died there was a good chance that maybe Galen and the rest were able to escape. Looking down at some of the bodies he notices that the way they fell, some showed that they weren't killed by fire, their bodies did burn, their cloths combusted but their deaths weren't by fire.

These guys had been cut down, the damage to their ribs made that obvious, the missing limbs as well, even signs of decapitation. They had come into contact with something, it wasn't dwarves or the elementals they have seen through the Core, what the hell did this? Looking down at the walls and floor he noticed marks consistent with blades, so something else was around here.

"We have to keep moving, likely Galen ran away when they lost, we can…" Ichigo started, before he senses spiritual energy, three entities were coming their way.

He turned in time to see something flying towards them, he drew Zangetsu and shielded himself just as he was hit by a bolt of dark energy. Holding his ground he let the bolt wash over his blade, his gauntlet helping in dispel the harmful spell that nearly struck him. That had been a powerful attack, meaning he was dealing with a very strong sorcerer, he had to be careful not to get hit by whatever these guys throw at him.

"Caren, get behind me." Ichigo said, lowering his Zanpakuto and getting a good look at the threat that was coming his way.

There were three of them, their bodies serpentine and scaly, not so dissimilar to Naga but having an orange colouration and more human-like facial features. They were also twice as large than himself, twelve feet in height, and each carried a large silver spear. Despite the fact they looked to be flesh and blood he did sense spiritual energy from them, so they were likely more servants to the Firelord. Power-wise they were somewhat potent, close to lieutenant level maybe, but nothing he couldn't deal with even if there were three of them.

"An intruder… a mage and some boy… no… some sort of spirit…" The lead serpent said, slivering forward and stroking the tentacle on its face. "You are not like the rest, you are something else, something different…"

"You guys responsible for this slaughter?" Ichigo asked, shouldering Zangetsu and gesturing for Caren to move back.

"Yes, any who trespass on the Firelord's domain must be purged, for this is his realm and non may set foot in here without his permission." The creature said.

"This isn't everyone though is it, where are the rest?" Ichigo inquired.

"They fled, ran from me and my guards, now I am forced to hunt them down." He said, snarling as he spoke. "An insult to a Flamewaker such as I, a servant of the Firelord himself, to force me to hunt down lesser beings is far beneath me!"

"Guess that means you haven't found them all, good to know." Ichigo said, levelling Zangetsu in front of him and getting ready to fight. "Now come and get me, your hunt ends here."

"Gladly little ghost." The serpent said, slivering forward quickly and then swinging his large spear at him.

Ichigo braced himself and felt his bones shudder from the strike, that had been a heavy blow, these guys were no slouches and if he had to guess their level of power in his mind showed they weren't fodder. The fact they were also several times his size also likely played a part in how strong they were, any normal human would be dead without much resistance from one of these guys.

Glancing to the right he saw the second Flamewaker flank him and attacked, Ichigo pushed the spear off his Zanpakuto and then leaped back. As he brought himself some breathing room, he was surprised by a wave of fire that washed over the two serpents. The fire enveloped them and kept coming, the third Flamewaker obviously had intended to smother him in flame while he was locked in combat with the other two.

He drew back Zangetsu and then swung forward, releasing a burst of spiritual energy into the approaching fire, forcing it back and saving himself from being consumed. As much as he trusted that this armour would keep him safe, he didn't want to do anything risky, if he was surrounded by fire and couldn't see through it that was just as dangerous as being blind. Like being caught in the middle of a smokescreen, a fiery smokescreen that would probably boil the moisture on his eyeballs.

The three Flamewakers charged out of the fire and attacked, Ichigo ducked and weaved through their strikes and retaliated where he could. But found that they worked oddly well together, their tactics relied on coordinating their strikes in order to defeat their opponents, despite the apparent arrogance they weren't fools and were taking him seriously.

One attacked and kept him immobile while another flanked him to try get in a strike, when that failed the third came in and attacked as he retreated to either force him to a halt or catch him while on the back foot. They also mixed it up as well, casting spells to either force him back towards the three or kept him in range, they were experimenting and trying to catch him off balance.

Ichigo turned and swung hard, his weapon stopped dead in its tracks against the shaft of the spear, he noted that the metal had no marks on its surface, nor did it deform from the strike. He also noted a subtle spiritual pressure from the weapon, it was Elementium, and it could hold its own against Zangetsu. He didn't know if his spiritual power could get through it, he didn't risk testing it, he knew that he had already on the clock and needed to end this fight quickly.

Steeling himself he redoubled his efforts to try and retaliate against the three Flamewakers, ducking and weaving between their strikes, and then one landed a strike on him. The blade sliced into his pauldron, and he watched as the spear tip cut through the metal with ease and melt the edges of the steel. Seeing this Caren reacted, unleashing a barrage of icicles against one of the serpents, it didn't react kindly to her attack and shifted its focus onto her. He watched as it came in close and swung at her, which made his heart clench in worry at the sight, but she dodged out of the way with a burst of speed and retaliate.

That had surprised him, she wasn't usually that fast on her feet or that good when it came to close combat. So, how did she manage that? Didn't matter, he chided himself, he had to deal with these two quickly otherwise Caren was a goner. Just because she could dodge an attack or two didn't mean she was going to defeat a twelve-foot-tall serpent with a spear that could melt through metal that was enchanted to resist that kind of punishment.

As the two Flamewakers closed in he ducked under the first to strike at him and then retaliated with a Getsuga Tenshou, throwing back the attacker. Its scales broke under the force of the attack, leaving the vulnerable soft tissue beneath exposed and slightly bruised from the attack. It hissed and howled in rage, Ichigo ignored it and turned to the other Flamewaker as it attacked.

Ichigo swung wide and knocked aside the spear, letting it impale the ground beside him and noting that it actually melted the stone as it sunk into the rock. As the serpent drew its weapon back Ichigo reached out and grabbed hold of it, he didn't think he could hold it down and he was right, as expect he was dragged off the ground and up into the air.

That's what he wanted, now he was nice and close to where he wanted to be, he was able to sail up and land on its shoulder. Perched on the elementals beings shoulder he drew back Zangetsu and with a casual swing he opened up the neck of the Flamewaker. It's scales broke away from its flesh and the flesh beneath was cut through with little resistance. It dropped the spear and reached for its bleeding neck, trying to stem the flow of its boiling blood, as it choked Ichigo landed on his feet and turned his attention to the first Flamewaker he had wounded.

Despite its chest having most of its scales torn off it slivered forward without regard to its injury, growling as it raised up its spear to smash into him. Ichigo kicked up the discarded spear of the other Flamewaker, the weapon would have been more at home as a jousting lance with how large it was, he turned it towards the charging serpent and with a burst of Shunpo he lunged toward it. The spear impaled the Flamewaker through the chest, it let out a breath of pained disbelief before slouching forward.

The spear he had driven through it began to dissolve its body, slowly cooking the meat of its torso into something that could be consider well done in an upscale restaurant. But he didn't give it much thought as he only kept an eye on it long enough to make sure it was dead. Confirming it along with the one that had opened the neck of, both down all that was left was the one that had gone after Caren.

He turned away from them and moved to help his friend.

"Caren!" He shouted, turning and rushing towards her, but to his surprise she was alright.

In fact, she was doing well.

Having frozen the Flamewakers weapon in place within a block of ice, although it was melting quickly, as the ambient heat along with whatever enchantment was on the spear was quickly breaking down the magical ice. But she wasn't just standing there, taking advantage of her enemy's immobility she was releasing a continual wave of frost magic, covering its body in ice and trying to freeze it.

Or more likely to keep it contained until he could come to her aid.

"You think you can subdue me? Quell my fire!" The serpent yelled. "I am Gehennas! One of the Firelords chosen, amongst the elite of the Flamewakers! I will not be brought low by such a…!"

The now named Flamewaker didn't get a chance to finish his boast as Ichigo charged in and severed both his arms with two fast slashes, leaving the bastard to howl in pain and rage. Seizing the opportunity Ichigo leaped up onto the shaft of the encased spear and rushed up towards the raddled Flamewaker and plunged Zangetsu into its chest.

It gurgled and boiling blood burst from the wound as well as its mouth, it fell backward and slumped to the ground dead. Twisting his blade and getting one last twitch from the elemental creature he pulled his blade free. Ichigo took in several deep breaths, feeling the hot air dry his throat and make it feel raw, he turned to Caren and saw her doing the same.

"Nice work holding him off." Ichigo praised, actually impressed she had been able to hold him off without much difficulty, especially since she had limited magical reserves.

That he noted she had only one flask left of Mana potion.

"Had some help." She produced the pocketwatch. "This is enchanted with temporal magic, allowing me to alter the flow of time as I wish, allowing myself to increase my own movements through time and to keep ahead of anyone I face."

That was an impressive artefact, slowing down time so you can move faster than anyone around you? Who wouldn't want that? He had never really tried to understand or delve deeper into the mechanics of magic, something he was starting to regret at this moment. In fact, he hadn't even considering looking into Kido, another regret that was coming back to haunt him. Learning that would certainly have been helpful, after all it would be easier handling enemies from a distance when getting up close was just too dangerous.

Such as roaming through a cavern filled with elementals made out of fire and lava.

Yeah, that would have been great.

Might as well add it to the list of shit he needed to read up on.

"Let's keep going, i'll try and find…"

He couldn't get another word in before he turned, he sensed more spiritual signatures closing in, they had a lot of enemies coming their way. Then a moment later he sensed more coming from another direction, a lot more, in fact he could feel them coming from every direction.

They were surrounded.

"We got incoming. Lots of incoming." Ichigo said, reaching out with his glove and trying to see if they can locate the Ley Line.

"Where are they coming from?" Caren asked, raising her staff and looking around frantically.

"Everywhere." Ichigo growled, there wasn't much in the way of an escape, every passageway was covered and they had a lot coming their way. "I'll try and find…"

"No time! We have to flee!" Caren said.

Ichigo didn't like the fact they were leaving behind their one lead, but staying to fight was not an option, so he turned his senses towards counting how many were in their way. Most of the groups that were coming their way were in groups of five or more, ranging from elemental spirits to those large lava hounds. Most of them, but not all, one group he sensed three elemental spirits coming up one pathway.

"That one, we blow through all of them, and get somewhere safe." Ichigo said, turning to Caren and throwing her onto his shoulder.

She didn't make a sound as he planned to carry her like a sack of potato's, but he was certain if he made the comment she would complain. Instead of thinking on that funny little thought he turned to that one cavern and charged towards it, and as he passed the threshold he saw the elementals coming towards him.

Three large elemental spirits growled as they spotted him, which he responded to with a Getsuga Tenshou. All three were blown apart, for a few seconds, giving him enough time to rush through and away front the small army of elemental creatures hot on his trail.

"Let me know when they aren't on our asses anymore!" Ichigo called to Caren.

"Keep running! As fast as possible!" Caren shouted.

He didn't need to be told twice, he could sense what was behind him, he could only compare it to being chased by a dozen Minos Grande. But they were on fire, and spitting lava, so this was actually worse.

Keeping ahead of the things behind him required actually using Shunpo every once and a while, mostly because more were closing in on them. They stirred up a hornets nest with the fight before, everything down here knew they were here and was trying to kill them. A part of him wanted to stop and actually try and fight back, but with Caren here doing so would most likely get her killed.

If he could get Caren somewhere safe to hide maybe he could do it, but he wasn't confident he could take on all of these bastards at once.

"I am going to try and find somewhere you can hide, we can't keep running from them!" Ichigo said.

"Can you fight them all?" Caren asked.

"No choice, if I have to, I'll use Bankai." Ichigo replied, hoping that he could still use it.

"Is it safe?" Caren asked.

That was what he was worried about, ever since returning from Maraudon he had never tried to test if he could use Bankai anymore. Would Veles blessing still work? He didn't know if the Primal Spirit had taken back the power that reinforced his body and allowed him to use Bankai safety.

"I'll be fine." Ichigo replied, unwilling to share his concerns with her, if he was fast enough he could deal with the elementals and undo his Bankai before it did any permanent damage.

He kept running, having to make a few turns here and there to avoid more elementals, looking for anything that he could use to store Caren while he fought off these bastards. He rounded a corner and rushed forward, but then stopped when he felt presences coming from ahead of him. They were in front of him and coming the way he just came, they were coming down each one, and there were a lot more than before and there wasn't much in the way of a viable exit.

"Shit! Alright, find somewhere too…" Ichigo said, putting Caren down and trying to tell her to find wherever to hide.

"Over here!"

Ichigo turned and to his surprise found a familiar face starting at him, the emaciated and red face of Galen Runecrest. He waved them over quickly, they didn't raise any complaint and rushed towards him, he turned and ran towards the nearby wall and phased through it. Both of them looked at one another and did as he did, rushing through and onto the other side, finding themselves in a hidden tunnel.

Looking back the way they came they saw a transparent wall, like a barrier that was hiding this passageway, not a moment later he saw several elementals moving past along with a large hound that was salivating lava. Good thing they got away from it when they did, they were just about to make their last stand, he didn't know if they would have gotten out of there in one piece.

They turned away from the barrier and followed after Galen as he moved down the tunnel. No one spoke up for a few moments, mostly out of concern that they might be overheard, it wasn't until a few minutes later that Ichigo decided to greet the mage.

"Galen, good to see you alive." Ichigo said, noticing the mage was wearing a very interesting piece of attire.

It looked like leather, had he been hunting and killing those large hounds out there and made himself a cloak? He had to admit that impressed him, taking on a spirit that powerful wouldn't have been easy for a normal human. Even one that was a mage.

"I am lucky to be alive, along with the rest of my colleagues, but for how much longer remains to be seen. Come, the camp is just up ahead, we can discuss things there." Galen said.

A few minutes later they came to the camp, the entrance covered by a massive hide of leather, pushing open the curtain they were caught by surprise. He didn't know if Galen was being overly positive because it didn't look like much, it looked more like a hovel than anything. Shabby tents had been erected that looked to have been carved from the hides of those large hounds, similar to the garb Galen was wearing along with the massive curtain that covered the entrance.

There were six mages milling about, carrying out a few menial tasks, sewing what scraps of leather together and passing around small portions of meat and bread. While far in the back he noticed a large brass blade with a burning rune emblazoned on its surface, its purpose he couldn't discern but he senses spiritual energy emanating from it.

It wasn't much.

But what certainly made it inviting was the fact that the air was cool, the closer they got to the camp they noticed the temperature drop sharply. As they passed the curtain hiding the camp from view they were struck by a cool rush of air that was so pleasant both had stopped to relish in the feeling. Spending five days traversing through the heat of the Burning Steppes, then into Blackrock Mountain and finally the Core. Even with the protections his armour provided, was draining on anyone's mental faculties, he might actually be able to get some rest in here.

"Oh! By the Light! How I have missed the cold…" Caren said, sounding so relieved to be able to feel something other than agonising heat.

He had to wonder how well her frost power was working down here, because even when covered in ice and frost she was still sweltering. Which again made him happy he forked out the extra gold to keep his ass from being cooked inside his armour.

"Looks like you have been hunting." Ichigo said.

"We take what we can get down here, sadly those Core Hounds only have leather, the rest of them is near useless to us." Galen stated. "If they had any meat on them we could have survived on that, right now we're surviving on rations and what food we can conjure."

He guided them through the camp and to his tent, holding it open and allowing them inside. They took a seat on the ground and watched as Galen dropped his cloak and let out a tired sigh, he wasn't wearing his usual robes. Only a simple shirt and leggings, which made it more obvious that he had lost a good deal of weight down here.

"What happened?" Ichigo asked.

"We have been surviving down here for three weeks, we didn't have enough food and what we could conjure isn't satiating enough." Galen said, shaking his head.

Ichigo recalled that food created from Mana usually didn't have the same qualities of normal food, often having the taste and texture but not all the nutrients and proteins that the body needs. Also not all mages can just make any kind of food, often requiring a lot of knowledge beforehand or a scroll that is used as a medium to create more complex food.

But even so, you make a chicken dinner through magic you don't get the same amount of nutrition from that entire chicken as you could get from a single drumstick from an actual chicken. Hence why it was mostly used to help buffer out a meal rather than being a staple, in fact it was more used as a way to help transfer mana from one person to another. At least that was how Caren explained it.

"How much food do you have left?" Ichigo asked.

"Not much." Galen said. "You have anything you can give?"

"Yeah, I got some preserved meats and cheese." Ichigo said, reaching into his pouch and pulling out everything he had. "Take it all, give it everyone."

"Thank you." Galen said, accepting the offering, he noticed the mage seemed to gaze at the raptor meat with obvious hunger. "I'll send it out in a moment, but for now we have things to discuss."

"How did you get down here?" Ichigo asked.

"I assume the same way you did." Galen replied. "We came through the doorway on the Dark Iron Highway, we concealed ourselves and moved through the door without being seen."

"Yeah… I kind of blew up their command post and just opened it myself." Ichigo replied, raking a hand through his hair as he admitted how they got inside. "After that the rest of them went into Shadowforge City to rescue Moira."

"Rescue Moira? Moira Bronzebeard? You came on the coattails of those sent to rescue the Dwarven Princess?" Galen asked, nodding his head as she rubbed his chin. "Smart, that certainly would have made things easier for you to get here."

"Wait, weren't you sent here yourself to find and rescue Moira?" Caren asked.

"Rescue her? What are you talking about? If we wanted to go and rescue the Princess we would try and infiltrate the city rather than enter the Core." Galen said.

"Word was that there was a second entrance into the Core that was connected to the Imperial Palace in Shadowforge City." Caren stated.

"I never heard of this." Galen said. "Besides as I said, I was never down here to try and rescue Moira Bronzebeard."

Now Ichigo was confused, if he hadn't been sent here to help rescue Moira Bronzebeard from the Dark Iron, why was he down here in the first place? Thinking on it he started piecing a few things together, Mayara Brightwing never met Galen and also never sent information to Stormwind. Most of the information they got on Galen was from the nobility, as of now that was coming into question.

"Why did they send you down here?" Ichigo asked.

"Investigate the Core, our job was to to scout this domain out under the pretence that the Dark Iron were gearing up for war. On that I can assure everyone they are on the warpath." Galen stated. "And that they have access to magical sorcery and resources that Stormwind cannot hope to match."

That confirmed it, he wasn't here to rescue Moira, he was sent here to scout this place out, but how the hell did anyone know anything about here? The majority of people in Stormwind didn't know Ragnaros was still around, even Mayara Brightwing didn't know about Ragnaros or the Molten Core. She was the only solid source of information they had down here, but she had only been able to infiltrate the cities outer district to overhear conversations in a pub, so she wasn't exactly a font of hidden knowledge.

Also, she wasn't here to gather information, she was their sent to collect relics that were in these caverns and the regions outside it. But from what she revealed she had never revealed anything in regards to the city's defences or even mentioned that there was a secondary entrance and exit into the Molten Core. She confirmed it existed, that it was located beneath the Imperial Palace, but that information she had never traded with anyone. And only heard it in passing, something about a Major-domo who had come up from the Core to make demands of Emperor Thaurissan.

"Someone's played us." Ichigo muttered.

"Whatever the case it was good that I came down here to see for myself, the core is littered with valuable resources that would turn the Dark Iron into a threat that would rival the entire Alliance." Galen said. "The caverns are rich in precious ore, Elementium specially, you likely have seen the nodes and veins as you searched for me."

"We did, how can there be so much of it?" Caren asked.

"The Molten Core has a stable connection to the Firelands, the elementals plane of fire, because of that more elemental beings are crossing over into the physical realm. Along with them comes the power of that realm, what I have noticed is that Elementium seems to be forming at a rapid rate. Whatever the reason is it seems that the spiritual energies that are in this cavern are binding to minerals in the walls and forming Elementium ore." Galen said.

Ichigo was surprised to hear that, it would seem that spiritual energy was the key to actually causing Elementium to form. But that was a minor concern at the moment, they didn't have time to waste, they had to get out of here.

"We need to get out of here, we go to the exit into Shadowforge City, if we get out of the Core we can teleport to safety." Ichigo said.

"Where did you get that information from?" Galen inquired, seemingly unaware of such a thing existing, another thing Ichigo had to file away under suspicious. "Even if that was something we could do we cannot leave, not now, not after what we have discovered."

"You mean Ragnaros?" Ichigo asked.

"I see you are aware, then you understand why we must remain and see to its banishment." Galen said.

"You're kidding right? There is no way I can take on something like that, if I went all out it still wouldn't be enough." Ichigo said, fighting against the Firelord was something he could not do, he had faced down some of the most powerful forces in his own world and barely came out without losing his life in many of those fights.

Ragnaros was a level of power he had not faced before, he had felt a presence and power similar in potency and strength, but he was certain he couldn't beat it. Theradras required Bankai to match evenly, then his mask to get an advantage, this guy was a level above her than he couldn't even begin to explain.

"You won't have too." Galen replied, smiling slightly as he stood up. "I had a feeling you would come for me, and I had been gambling on your arrival and what would be needed to defeat the Elemental Lord."

He exited the tent, taking the food with him, Ichigo and Caren followed. Galen dropped the food off with a colleague who took up the meat and smelled it, letting out a laugh as he carried it away.

"In the three weeks I have been down here I have been trying to determine how the Elemental Lord has remained active for so long, and I have discovered how." Galen said, walking over to the brass blade with the flaming runes etched into its surface. "This is a Rune of Warding, known as Blaz is one of seven runes that exist in the Molten Core. Drawing power from Ley Lines that imbue powerful magical effects."

Ichigo stepped forward and looked at the plate, showing two 'I's and an upside down 'V'. He had no idea what it meant but he did sense a lot of power from it, a massive amount of power in fact.

"What's it do?" Ichigo asked.

"Blaz means Protection, it can enhance the protective aura around a person and makes them resistant to harm." Caren said. "The plate is made of some brass, but the letters are Elementium, that would truly enhance the power of the runes. It could make someone nigh indestructible."

"That it did, the Elemental we fought here was a Fire Elemental encased in Earth, its body was strong and highly resistant to harm. Fortunately that kind of enhancement has limitations based on who uses it." Galen said. "But not all things are the same, how they are employed is often based on who uses it. Such as the protection we now find ourselves here, with the heat being repelled by the rune we can survive down here."

So that's how he did it, he altered the Rune or how it was used, good thing to know.

"So how does this work?" Ichigo asked.

"These Runes connect back to Ragnaros, within the Inner Sanctum of the Core, each one offering him some form of protection. The Seven Runes of Warding each help anchor the Firelord here, in the material plane, if we destroy each of them we can force Ragnaros back into the Firelands." Galen said.

They could get rid of Ragnaros without having to fight him? Ichigo was surprised, he didn't expect it to be that easy, it couldn't be that simple but if this gave them a chance he needed to consider this carefully.

"So if we take out all these Runes he should be gone, literally thrown back into the Firelands. No fight, just him pissing off back home?" Ichigo asked.

"It should do it, an Elemental Lord cannot possibly sustain himself, we can banish him without having to even risking a confrontation."

Ichigo looked up at the burning rune for a moment, thinking it over in his head for a moment and wondering if they should bother. Weighing it up he knew that if he didn't do anything this bastard was likely going to be a threat in the future and one that won't be gotten rid of as easily as this.

"Okay, what do we do?"

---

Kalimdor, The Desolace (Mashan'she), Lake Sharaes (Lake Dumont)

Chromie was finding this line of investigation quite tedious.

Finding this individual has proven to be the hardest thing she's had to do in her long life, even as a Temporal Investigator. She had worked many cases where she had to track down and deal with forces that were changing the timeline. But finding this individual was proving to be very difficult, mostly because of the chaos that was being caused by the many alterations to the timeline.

But she had found out a few things, most of them completely shattering her expectations for this investigation.

Her investigation had turned up many loose ends and also many unanswered questions, unable to find the Anomaly they had been searching for as well as to the motives that it was carrying out these alterations to the timeline. Initially when she had been given this mission she had thought that there was a clear objective that she had to complete. But it would seem that she had been grossly underestimating the motivations of the Infinite, for whatever plans they had in store were beyond what her animated mine could conjure up.

Initially she had suspected that there was a second anomaly similar to Abraxus, where they were going around and causing alterations in the timeline. Having detected their presence multiple times causing alterations as they went, from helping Codexia to free Druantia, saving Galen Runecrest and the people at Stonewatch, and recently defeating Princess Theradras.

These actions had caused major ripples across time, which had all changed many major outcomes to the fate of the world.

But what she was finding was that these alterations were actually just the tip of the iceberg. While dozens more were known to her, and some were even more profound, she had come across information that she was unable to decipher.

The original hypothesis had been correct, that the Infinite had somehow attached a Temporal Shield onto someone who was changing events across Azeroth. The premise of this was that they were making slight or major alterations to the timeline in order to enact some major events. Given that the shield would protect them from the sight of the Bronze, along with prevent their future actions from being determined.

They had thought a single individual was responsible, because the changes in the timeline often coincided with a certain proximity to one another.

But after extensive investigation she had discovered that they were completely wrong.

This wasn't the work of a single agent, it was only made to be the case, in truth it was far worse than she imagined. They failed to realise was that there was more than one anomaly, one individual that was protected by a Temporal Shield, going around making changes to the timeline. There was in fact hundreds that had been enchanted with this particular spell, all of them showing signs that their had been touched by temporal magic.

"This doesn't make any sense." Chromie mused aloud. "Why use it like that? How come we didn't notice this before? How is it possible this was kept hidden for so long?"

The idea of the Temporal Shield was meant to ensure that your presence in the past, present or future didn't cause any undue alterations to the timeline. For all the Bronze Dragons power and influence there has been instances where arriving or interacting with the past or future can change things – either minutely or catastrophically. Simply appearing there can immediately cause changes, even if you never intended to do anything, which is why the shield existed.

A Bronze Dragon is an anomalous entity in the timestream, whose actions and behaviours are vastly different from mortal races because they are aware of the malleability of time and what they can do with it. Meaning that simply appearing can cause the timestream to quite literally shake as it goes off into random direction without and idea where it is going.

Hence why they use it before the entire a period of time, as a way to make sure that their arrival doesn't cause any alterations to the timestream. What you don't do is pop in, change the timeline when you arrive, and then activate the shield and revert the timeline back. It causes all kinds of chaos doing that, even if their job is to protect and preserve the timeline there are ways it has to be done.

When a timeline moves off its intended path you are there to nudge it back in the right direction. Like ensuring a certain Orc escapes an Internment Camp, or a mad Mage creates a portal to another world, or even making sure a critical battle for the fate of the world stays on script.

Temporal Shields are meant to make sure that your interference and messing with the timeline further doesn't immediately cause it to shift and bend uncontrollably but slowly move as you make the alterations. That is how they work, so when a Bronze Dragon has this shield up and enters the timeline it won't shift because of this new presence that suddenly just appeared and is going to make all these changes – or possible changes it might have made.

Which is why she was concerned when she had found many who had been touched by Temporal Shields, which had left a mark on them even after it had dissipated. Like the Sentinals Illyria and Anaesia, or the Primalist Codexia Fairchild, and the Highborne Caelyb Greenearth, Tylarwin and Malluineth along with the now dead Nobles they once served alongside.

All of them once had a Temporal Shield upon them, all of them had at once point been shielded form their sight.

This was troubling.

Because the more she thought about it the more she came to realise that something was very wrong with this scenario. She recalled a moment in time many months ago when she had been in Dire Maul and observing the Dreadlords, during his time taking over the eastern parts of the city. Having killed Alzzin the Woodshaper and taken over his forces, setting up a stronghold within the Temple of Eldre'tharr.

She had witnessed the Fruit of Fertility, the Great Tree that would be the housing for the Great Spirit Druantia. Chromie was there, looking into its past and history, seeing its creation at the hands of the Naturalist Millicent Serene as her crowning achievement. But in that vision she never saw Druantia, or her works that had help shape Serene into the naturalist she was or the veneration she received in Eldre'thalass.

None of that was seen, none of it.

Which didn't make any sense.

"I should have seen it, known about it, but why didn't we?"

The Temporal Shield was useful, but it was not infallible or without weakness.

Just because you were protect by time doesn't mean you didn't leave a presence, you could still change someone destiny inadvertently. These interactions often left a mark of some kind that exposed you, after all while the Bronze couldn't see you it didn't mean a random civilian couldn't notice your presence and even strike up a conversation. Name could be found out, appearance could be described, and despite being invisible from all time the mortal eye can still perceive and the mind can still remember.

Hence why it didn't make sense that there was no evidence that Druantia existed, that her presence hadn't left a mark on the city or its people. Even the tree itself should have had some reference made to her, even if she was protected by a Temporal Shield.

That's right.

Druantia, along with all the other Primal Spirits had been protected with a Temporal Shield.

Who could have put it on her? And when? Those Shields don't remove you from the timeline through all time, only up until the point in which it was cast upon you. Looking back on it Druantia had to have had the shield given to her fifteen thousand years ago at least.

Yet again that made no sense.

Because if that was the case, had she and her fellow Spirits been enchanted, the Bronze would have known about it. They would have sensed her sudden disappearance thousands of years ago, along with the massive disturbance it would have wrought, and even if they didn't they would still have sensed the subtle changes in the timeline she would have created by still interacting with it. Druantia played a major role in the development of a city and in the lives of thousands, having her suddenly disappear would have caused a major development to occur that could have potentially unravelled time.

So why didn't they sense it?

Why had their stewardship over time not shown any of these alterations. Because it wasn't just Druantia, it was the other spirits as well and the many others that seemingly popped into existence, such as Codexia, the Marta Mercenary Company, The Highborne Nobles, A Band of Youngblood Braves in the Barrens, Druids from Stonetalon Peak. And in the Eastern Kingdoms there were the Shadow Paladins, several Blood Knights in Silvermoon, a few Scarlet Crusaders, a Blacksmith, a Relic Keeper along with his apprentice.

But it raised the same question as the one with Druantia, but in this case it was much more befuddling. From the looks of it they had been shielded their entire lives, which again was hard to understand because someone disappearing from the timeline for their entire life was very noticeable. Regardless of how short their lives may be, or how insignificant their life was, it just didn't matter, if someone disappeared like that they would know.

This was happening to hundreds of people across the world, most of them were involved in the events that caused major changes to the timeline. There was no plausible way that they could have gone through, years under the effect of the Shield and not be noticed.

"How?" Chromie muttered, unable to piece it all together.

"What are you yammering on about missy?" Brandon Vanderpool asked, looking at her as he was busy fishing for tonight's dinner.

The Dwarf was a resident of the Mage Tower that was situation in the centre of this lake, while its name was Lake Sharaes at the moment it would change to Lake Dumont sometime in the future. Regardless she had come here to speak with this group of people, mostly to try and see if they knew anything about the situation that occurred in the Desolace.

This group was tied to a small organisation that had spies all across Azeroth, if they knew anything they would tell her. Which they did, she a name to an individual that had been involved in the majority of the events that had unfolded across all the major points of change. A young man with orange hair, in armour of silver and brass, carrying a large sword, and having a queer name.

Ichigo Kurosaki.

Word was that he was a Primal Spirit, a God, rumours abound was that he was a human that had ascended into a Loa or had been given the boon similar to that of a Guardian. Many of these rumours she took with a grain of salt, but evidence did show that there was some truth to what they were saying. He apparently had defeated the Dreadlords effortlessly, along with single-handedly conquering Mauradon, then brokering a peace between the Highborne, Kal'dorei, Theramore and the Horde.

She had a name now, along with a description, all that remained was to locate him.

"Business mostly." Chromie replied. "I would like to thank you for your help, also pass along my regards to Xylem, you have given me all I need to continue my work."

"Why do ya wan' to speak to some kid?" Brandon asked.

"If you think someone that can challenge an elemental as powerful as Theradras as a kid I think you don't understand the situation as well as you might think." Chromie said.

"Well my wife is more of the brains than me, I'm just a simple Engineer." Brandon said.

"Simple, right." Chromie mused, knowing he was one of the leading engineers in Ironforge and part of a secret project to create the first of many Airships that the Alliance would build during the War in Northrend in a few years.

"You staying for dinner?" Brandon asked.

"No, need to get back and…"

She didn't finish because she immediately noticed something was amiss, something off in the distance was causing ripples that was changing history. Or more correctly, she was sensing a large amount of temporal energy gathering somewhere nearby.

"What is that?" Chromie muttered, standing up and teleporting away and back to the Caverns of Time.

Leaving behind a perplexed Dwarf, who could only shrug and go back to fishing.

---

Reviews

Anon: Most heroes are someone else's villains, look at the Trojan War, heroes on both sides yet more than likely the likes of Odysseus, Achilles, Ajax and Agamemnon would be considered villains to the Trojans. The Horde did many bad things, this is true, but those circumstances have changed over the last twenty or so years since the Second War. Ichigo is different because he doesn't hold the same animosity, which is also a demerit as well as a positive.

Star: Thanks for the kind words, I am sad really. Because technically I had plans to stay on for ten years to get a ten year long service that actually afforded me an extra two months of pay on top of all my saved up Sick Days and Holiday Leave. If that had happened he would have been fired over a month before my resignation.

It's kind of funny, had I actually been able to appease the bastard I might have been able to stay, and then he would have been fired. But you never know.

Aclux: I have many ideas on groups that would try to utilise Ichigo's unique powers and abilities, some friends and so foes. But what you presented me is interesting and I do have plans for the Black Dragonflight and the Chromatic Dragonflight.

Ricardo753: Glad that you liked the chapter, and that I am doing an alright job with the characterisations, a few people often think that my writing isn't up to snuff. I do have plans for Ichigo down the line involving gaining more powers and abilities on Azeroth that compensate for some of the things he lacks as a Shinigami. One of them is definitely elementals. As for new Shikai forms, I have an idea like that in mind.

Iyfan635: As much as I would like that I don't have the time or resources to deal with that idiot, but if I did find out about him I would basically make his life hell just for Shits and Giggles.

G3neSyS: That is what I was going for with the Raiding Party, mostly because they are all from Stormwind, but I did try to make it out that not everyone in the party was against him. Neutral maybe, but many from Stormwind were not on his side and that is something I did for a reason.

As for the respect for Ragnaros, this is something I often have trouble doing because oddly enough the feats in Warcraft aren't exactly spoken aloud. Ragnaros for example was a pain to figure out, in fact I made some VsBattle pages for the Elemental Lords and other characters a few years ago to have a reference to go off. Sad to say they were the easy ones. Other characters are harder to pin down.

RedTemplar: Just wait till the next chapter and you will see the results of the raid on Shadowforge City, it won't go well.

Ichigo becoming a Knight or Paladin is not out of the question, because mostly how I want the expansions to this story to go is that Ichigo actually gain something from each of them. Either power, weapons, armour, or something unique that changes him for the better. Nefarian, not soon, but there will be developments in that.

I have been watching it, still need to watch the Second Season and plan to do that soon enough. Gonna binge watch it. I have also read up on the novels and other stuff as well.

Are We Alone I am working on, but it is on the back burner for the moment.

Project-Cros: That Pandora's Box is gonna be opened down in the Core.

Black Cross0: Glad to be back. I had so many ideas and plans on what to do with the story but the best way to do it was make sure Ichigo does what he normally does.

Reality Deviant: It does make sense, Stormwind suffered immensely during the First and Second War, their people displaced, slaughtered and forced to rebuild after the War and dealing with the Orcs for years to come that remained in Blackrock Mountain.

It is expected that there is tension there, after all the House of Nobles often ridicule Jaina even when Varian returned to Stormwind. Even when things were peaceful and calm they still held the orcs with animosity. Also Jaina is considered a Queen, yes, but the thing is you have to consider what people say and hear that might be a little wrong. Rumours are like that, not full truths or complete lies, something between, information that has been passed between so many people new stuff pops up.

The interaction between Varian and Ichigo is something I have always considered mainly how they would meet, interacts and what their working relationship would be like. I assume something similar to what Ichigo and Renji had, mostly a nice friendship mixed with arguments and fighting each other over stuff.

Sable Dawn: Theoretically, yeah. Ichigo could give his powers to others. He has never transferred it in the Manga or Anime, but it has been taken from him by Yhwach in one instance.

The Wildhammer Clan didn't rejoin the Re-Formed Alliance after the Third War, Stormwind technically was a separate City State during the Third War and wasn't exactly a major part of the Alliance of Lordaeron during the Scourge Invasion. Most of the survivors from Lordaeron relocated to Stormwind, and the Alliance was reformed there, but the Wildhammer never joined the Alliance. At the moment they are an independent group.

The Highborne at the moment are still a Neutral group, although they are Horde friendly mainly due to the Primalist Arts that the Horde is currently studying in the city. As for the interactions with the Blood Elves, what that could mean for the future is actually a potential alliance between them may bring the Highborne into the Horde completely.

ArgenturnAuream: Ichigo isn't acting morally superior to them, he is acting rationally, he is seeing things from an unbiased point of view. While the people of Stormwind are in the right, to a point, after all Tyresa and Joana suffered personal loss at the Hands of the Horde during the First and Second War, but that is clouding their judgement. Still their hatred is justified, never said it wasn't, but from Ichigo's point of view it is irrational because the Dark Horde isn't the Horde they are dealing with now. After all that Horde hasn't been seen for twenty years. To him it is irrational because he can see the distinction between the Horde and the Dark Horde, while the people of Stormwind are only concerned about them being orcs. Besides he has shown that despite previous interactions with enemies, or even nefarious races, he has never held a grudge against them.

Look at his interactions with the Shinigami, they were going to murder Rukia, and nearly killed him and his friends, but he never held a grudge. He was able to look past their previous interactions and maintain a neutral and beneficial cooperation with then, even when they were still wary of him. He did the same with Nel and her Fraccion, despite them being Hollows. Ichigo isn't hung up on things like that. The actions of the Horde were twenty years in the past, and while the Dark Horde has been a threat they are far removed from Stormwind and act only as a continual reminder. Besides King Varian only recently has departed to Theramore to work on a Peace Treaty with the Horde, something that they wouldn't consider if they didn't think that they could do it.

Astroga121: The next chapter will focus on Tyresa and her forces as they assault the City and the consequences of Ichigo's lack of presence to help them.

Blindluck92: Very true, but ignorance is bliss really because I am certain if she knew she wouldn't have been so aggressive. Technically Joana isn't that much of a Paladin in terms of adhering to the creed she follows. She would fit in with the Scarlet Crusade better in terms of how she controls her feelings and how much she follows the tenants of the Light.