' = Internal dialogue

¨= Normal speech

* = Sounds / Etc

-Chapter 65-

After punching one of Onyxia's disguised drakonids through the window, which, made a meaty thud several hundred meters away into the hard cobblestone road, Jaina and I assessed the situation as we gazed down from the torn-down wall of the abandoned tower.

My eyes widened, as did Jaina's when we saw what Valeera had left for us in her wake; maybe around a hundred black armored warriors wearing different weapons stared back up at us in silence after seeing their friend fly off into the distance.

'Well... that certainly puts the element of surprise on the figurative bench... if that was ever an option...' As I considered our next course of action, I saw two figures appear as they stood together on a platinum-colored disc; both wore armor resembling the Kirin Tor.

Without hesitation, both the mages started channeling up a powerful spell; above them, a giant ball of fire was taking shape, almost like a miniature sun. I suddenly heard Jaina make a brief 'hm' noise from my side, "Oh... I recognize those two... I'll deal with them while you take care of the ones below?" She asked,"Sure, go ahead. I'll see you in a bit." I said as I realized she wanted to go non-lethal on the two approaching mages.

Just after our brief chat, the miniature sun suddenly blinked out of existence before appearing just a few dozen meters away. It shot toward the building we were at. Jaina blinked toward another rooftop and took out a carpet from her inventory that appeared underneath her. Not doing anything fancy, I jumped off the building, my new weapon glowing with an azure blue in my left hand.

Behind me, I heard and sensed the impact when the giant fireball, which was clear now that it was actually an empowered pyro-blast that had been applied blink onto, crashed into the building, making debris fly everywhere as the abandoned tower collapsed to the side which hit another building, making both collapse together onto the cobblestone streets.

My connection with my weapon was made clear as the energy within it coursed through my body, making clear blue lines all the way up to my wrist that seemed to glow. It kept intensifying as the air around me hummed. As I raised my weapon mid-fall and aimed it at a black knight, I pulled the trigger several times within a brief moment.

As the ethereal bullets, made of solidified lightning and my own mana, raced toward the incoming enemies, they tore through the front line like paper, yet with my command, the projectiles stopped before hitting the buildings at the end of the street as it hit the wall with a dull *DING* before sizzling out of existence.

Turned out I could control the impact with a mental command, though that did not stop me from watching the results of my new favorite weapon, a football-sized hole that the black knights had through their mid-section as they fell face-first into the now bloodied cobblestone, lifeless as can be.

This did not stop the nearly a hundred other knights from rushing at me to utterly swarm me, though this had now turned into some sort of stress relief for me; annihilating mindless Draconids disguised as humans was surprisingly soothing.

*Click* *BANG* *Click* *BOOOOOM* I kept firing into what now resembled a shield wall made of black armor. My bullets kept effortlessly tearing through the masses of mindless Draconis; even their shields made no resistance as they melted before the initial impact of the magical projectiles.

Then, as I had gotten rid of at least half of the black knights in sight, I felt the ground underneath quake as a bright red flame lit up in the distance where Jaina was apparently fighting the two mages. It suddenly stilled when a large glazier-like structure popped up from the ground over one of the houses far away.

As I returned to the situation before me, I saw lights coming from around the corner. This... I hoped to avoid it, but I also knew that it was inevitable when I first decided to make it known that mine and mine were not to be messed with, regardless of whether they were being deceived by a manipulative black dragon or not.

I sighed as a familiar figure rushed around the corner and met my gaze. Marshal Reginald Windsor had arrived at the scene.

His gaze was void of any emotion as he lay eyes on the black knights strewn around on the ground, bleeding into the streets; some groaned, yet most were definitely dead as their wounds, even with draconic vitality, would make even a grown dragon die from less.

Some had lost parts of their human disguise, revealing scaled forearms, spiked tails, and draconic faces that seemed to warp back and forth underneath their dark armored helmet.

This made the Marshal pause before looking toward me in resignation. He had his orders, and he now chose to follow them through, even if the situation was beyond sketchy; Marshal Windsor seemed not to care as his eyes stared at me as he unsheathed his sword.

As the Marshal analyzed the situation for a few seconds, he broke his silent assessment of the situation as he turned back and shouted, "WARRIORS OF STORMWIND! OUR FOE STANDS BEFORE US, DARING TO ASSAULT OUR HOME DURING OUR TIME IN PERIL. OUR PRIDE AS WARRIORS OF STORMWIND WILL NOT STAND THIS HUMILIATION! CHAAARGE!"

Now I felt the cobblestone shake as horses neighed loudly and warriors roared as they, too, rushed into the blood-filled battlefield; several griffons started diving downward from the sky, their riders making them dive from the black night sky, just as hawks ambushed unsuspecting prey.

I stared at the Marshal as he pulled his helm visor down and prepared himself by going into a charging stance.

It was then that I saw a mana signature coming from around his neck; underneath his armor was a twin dragon necklace, which swayed as I could see briefly before it shuffled underneath his armor.

'The Drakefire Amulet...' I thought as I recognized the accessory. This one was used to manipulate other creatures, and even that was all I knew about it as I could only recall briefly a few tidbits of information from my own knowledge.

As I prepared for the incoming temporary enemies, I studied the forces that charged toward me and sighed.

I wasn't wearing my headpiece or hood over my head. I wanted to show myself to warn the people of Stormwind that attacking me and mine was a mistake, even if I was doing them a solid favor by storming into their city this night.

Suddenly, a metallic claw appeared only meters from above me. I sidestepped the razor-sharp claw, which made the griffon crash into the hard stone below, effortlessly going through it due to its momentum and sharpness. Surprisingly enough, it did not damage itself in the slightest, as its other claw was now heading toward my side.

And with one swift motion, the griffon was neutralized in a block of ice, alongside its bewildered rider, who had his blunderbuss aimed directly at me as he intended to follow up with firing it after the griffon's attack.

When I had just dealt with the griffon and its rider, I saw a blade coming my way in the side of my vision. I leaned backward as a behemoth of a sword came sailing in a straight line past my head and into the cobblestone road with a *BOOM*

Small rocks and dust flew everywhere from the force of the blow, though the sword wielder did not rest. The sword now came swinging toward my midsection within a brief second after the first miss, which met my hardened arm with a dull *CLANG* as I heard the wielder groan in pain at the vibration that went through his arms. He used the momentum from the second failure as his sword elegantly followed a path that allowed an overhead swing.

As the figure revealed itself to be the Marshal himself and swung his sword downward, I met his fierce gaze with my own as the sword came down at breakneck speeds, deciding that enough was enough. My wrist flickered for a moment before the sound of a revolver going off signaled the end of my skirmish with the Marshal. His Arcanite sword, now in two pieces, hit the ground as I, at the same time, gave him a solid punch in the ribs, which made the Marshal go limp to the ground.

His armor's chest had been bent inward, leaving the Marshal breathless, which made unconsciousness follow, as the ruthless blow knocked him out directly while blood spewed from his mouth and onto the stone below.

I reached down toward his knocked-out form and reached for the amulet he was wearing, then crushed it with my hand as foul dark magic evaporated into the air a moment after.

Then I gazed toward the Marshal and quickly healed his worst injuries and walked off after setting him up in a seated position toward the nearby wall.

The Marshal would have been a challenge back when I was fighting Galvinrad a year ago, but now, he was nothing more than a common soldier for whom I had gained some respect due to my previous meeting and had gained a favorable impression because of his attitude and morals.

Then as I rounded the corner I was met by the sight of an army, black knights, cavalry, and seemingly an unending swarm of griffons and their riders gushed at the location of Old Town from the sky.

'This is going to be a long night...'

—

—{Jaina Proudmoore PoV}—

—

As I blinked away from the incoming impact and toward the other rooftop, then powered up my magical carpet, I gazed toward my opponents.

One stood proud on top of the platinum-colored disc as he held his blue staff planted onto the platform and stared at me with a stern gaze, an analyzing gaze if I knew the man correctly.

Archmage Nakada, I always believed the man to be utterly harmless due to his whimsy nature when teaching the young children in Dalaran when I was apprenticing under Archmage Antonidas.

But underneath that exterior was a man who had seen very much. My previous mentor always warned me about not underestimating one such as him because even due to a mage's friendly outset on life... a tiger lurks, just waiting for the right moment to strike; in this case... it was especially true.

Beside him stood another archmage, but with a purple staff that radiated arcane magic, Archmage Koreln. Not much was heard about the man when I was studying in Dalaran, only that he was on a journey while studying ancient ruins and was a very experienced mage who preferred to utilize the arcane over fire and ice.

If this was me, under half a year ago... I would not be confident in handling these two alone but after recent events... I felt that this no longer was any real threat, an effort sure, but one I could overcome without any real issue.

Archmage Nakada, who had just conjured a mighty pyroblast with the help of Archmage Koreln, who managed to use blink on the spell to accelerate it toward me and Medan's previous location in an attempt to ambush us, stomped his staff on top of the platform and shouted, "Who are you!? What is your business here!"

This made the current stare-off a bit awkward until I answered, "We're here to deal with a problem you don't even know you have; that's all you need to know. I am sorry for what I am going to do. Know that this is not personal."

My last sentence signaled the continuation of the magical skirmish, as they again started conjuring several balls of fire that seemed to briefly illuminate the dark sky above before I directly counterspelled most of their spells.

As the magic tuned itself out and the fireballs diminished, one of the Archmages activated some sort of item, which teleported him to the side with a blue shimmer before a ball of pure, concentrated arcane magic whirled toward my direction from behind. I held out my hand, and instantly, a solid wall of ice appeared in thin air; as I was blocking the arcane magic ball, a griffon seemed to try to ambush me from above, so I blinked toward Archmage Nakada and stomped my foot on my carpet beside his disc.

This made a layer of ice envelop his feet, glued to the disc. Without hesitating, Nakada's hands lit up in orange light before he had both his palms directly at my head; ducking down instantly, I felt the warm air above me vibrate intensely as the familiar-looking spell fireblast shook the air as whisps of orange flames circled momentarily before sizzling out of existence.

I blinked away after that and prepared to immobilize the archmage as a sharp ice stalactite appeared above my palm, which I sent directly at the archmage. It grew as it raced through the air. The archmage put up a large shield of mana, but it was to no avail as the pointy stalactite now had grown to the size of a two-floor building.

It penetrated through the shield, but right before it impaled the unsuspecting archmage, I clenched my hands as it exploded outward. A humongous sphere of water surrounded the bewildered Nakada before I opened my clenched palm, which made the water suddenly shift and still.

The next moment, white vapor appeared around the twenty-meter or so area around the archmage, then Nakada suddenly froze, his eyes bewildered and full of panic as his last reaction was to reach toward the other archmage in an attempt to flee, who now stood on a nearby rooftop and gazed at the situation in rising panic upon the realization that two archmages was outclassed by an unfamiliar rogue-mage appearing in the city they were supposed to defend.

Before the last archmage standing knew it... he was immobilized as well, as a layer of ice covered his entire body, resulting in him falling off the building and directly onto the street below with a loud crash.

I made sure that they wouldn't suffer any permanent injuries, but I still ended up roughing both of the archmages up quite a bit and winced when I saw archmage Koreln's staff splinter into pieces when it struck his head after him as it tumbled down the roof after him.

Then I heard screeching from above and saw hundreds of griffons and their riders racing through the dark skies.

'Well... this might turn out to be a bigger deal than Medan intended... we might face off against the entirety of Stormwind... oh well, he was going to give them a show of force... may very well make the most of it...'

—

—{Medan PoV}—

—

As I willed the revolver back to my bag, I weaved through the masses of soldiers, knights, and commanding officers, decimating the black knights, rendering the human warriors immobile, and incapacitating the commanding officers to the point it looked like I was playing with children who couldn't fight back.

Which was honestly what this was. The current forces of Stormwind had no way to fight back. After five minutes, the ordinary soldiers seemed to lose whatever inclinations of keeping up their unending assault.

Many directly raised their hands along with their weapons in surrender before pleading mercy. Some seemed to be under the misconception that I straight out murdered their fellow warriors en masse, but that was a misconception that worked in my favor as I froze the soldiers who gave up as I passed them by.

They could only watch as I ran by and dissected the black knights among them with calculated precision with the use of my new white fire as It imbued itself around my darkened arms, which were by now solidified and compressed earth gauntlets up to my elbow, with thin white lines that distorted the air around it.

While I was doing all this, Jaina was also putting in work. Hundreds of griffons and their riders fell on the ceilings and tumbled into the cold cobblestone street below. Most griffons broke a wing or limb while their riders lay unconscious at their side.

Jaina had directly chilled their bodies in the air with the help of the humid night. Their wings and limbs weren't necessarily frozen solid, but she utilized the cold to the point they could no longer stay in the air; luckily, there was no horrible injury on any of the riders of griffons as they kept pelting the buildings of the Old Town district.

Though there was no need to worry as the church finally managed to get their priests and initiate paladins into the frey, the streets lit up with comfortable warm light as the priests held their hands together in prayer and frantically tried to heal some of the griffons and their riders that had gained semi-serious injuries.

I felt a gaze bury itself onto my back as I whipped my head toward said gaze. It was a man wearing a simple white-yellow ornate robe, with a staff that shone with intense white; within was an azure blue gemstone and a mitre, which was basically a white skullcap with the symbol of the church of light.

He slammed the radiating staff onto the cobblestone as most soldiers, black knights, and their officers who had yet to surrender were enveloped by an intense luminous barrier.

'If they think a power-word can stop what's coming... they need to reconsider their choice in tactics...'

I still had hundreds of black knights to kill, and the church appearing to restore the injured and incapacitated was only turning out to be annoying at best. And just as I was going to warp into their midst, I saw the shadows under me become animated as three dark figures rapidly ascended from all sides with their daggers pointed at my heart, throat, and brain.

'No mercy huh.' I thought as I reacted quicker than all three combined as lightning coursed through my body, accelerating my reaction speed dozens of times. This skill was somewhat of a mystery to me, as I had no mention of it in my status. However, I could only utilize it in small intervals, for example, in moments like these.

I decided to show less mercy as the assassin's dagger-wielding arm bent backward at an unnatural angle as they got thrown toward the priests doing the healing.

Of course, the latter was surprised when, out of nowhere, three black leather-wearing figures crashed into them while bleeding profusely from their right wrists and groaning in pain.

As I looked toward the dark corners of the streets that had yet not been lit up by the priest's light, I saw dozens of assassins preparing their crossbows and poisons, sighing, waving my hand upward, several dark areas covered themselves in ice as mist spread around the entire street, several yelps were heard as the assassins who were in the process of freezing over felt the chill.

I then looked up and saw Jaina flying around on her magical carpet, casting several frost bolts at a time toward a distant street as an ice barrier surrounded her in a sphere-like pattern as arrows crashed into it. The ice barrier simply hovered about as the projectiles struck, thoroughly freezing them over as they fell to the streets below harmlessly.

The forces of Stormwind were so hopelessly outmatched it was not even funny. All it took was two individuals, two albeit powerful individuals, and if it were our own city? I would have struggled under the assault of our barrier, and defensive enchantments. Overall, it was simply no use to compare the two... as, in the end, both would have fallen regardless... and that thought worried me more than it had any right to, though I decided to not overthink this any further and went to work.

—

As I weaved through the black knights for around thirty minutes, leaving only bisected and mutilated corpses in my wake, I noticed that they seemed to be thinning out in quantity. I had basically ignored the priests who stood by and frantically spammed some kind of holy smite with their hands pointed in my direction. Apparently, they thought I was evil and could be purged by their light?

As I kept ignoring the priests and what seemed to be their leader, I heard a resigned sigh coming from the man wearing the skullcap, as he whispered dejectedly lower than anyone but I could hear, "So... the light fails us yet again when evil is on the rise..."

This made me stop and turn toward the older man, who seemed surprised at the reaction. He held his staff defensively as I held eye contact and walked up to the man casually while several sword-wielding paladins surrounded him and said slowly, "Old man, perhaps you should consider the meaning of your so-called evil and who the evil ones really are."

I pointed toward a particular corpse whose body was illuminated by its own light for all to see. The corpse in question had lost most of its illusionary human figure. Its arms, legs, and head had been disillusioned, leaving it looking like an abomination close to what you would get if you crossbred a human male with a dragon in its original form.

Several initiates and knights gagged and promptly puked on the cold cobblestone street at the sight. The man wearing a skullcap looked horrified and pale at the realization. His head then slowly turned toward me, and he asked, "Is... this why? Is this... why you're here? to deal with these... things?" his weapon shook as he held himself up with the staff, seemingly aging a decade as the old man finally realized the implications of the black knights in the city.

"Partly," I said as I looked down the street where dozens of black knights walked like they were mindless drones until they spotted me.

I continued, "I'm getting rid of a problem that has festered in your city for years, there is one who wants nothing more than to destroy all of humankind and the majority of the mortal races due to her own fears. She has been manipulating most of the events in the city, like your queen's death as a result of making Stormwind an enemy of the Stonemasons, who I think goes by the name of the Defias Brotherhood now?"

This made the already paling older man's mouth gape in utter horror when he realized who I was speaking of. Apparently, the man was informed enough to puzzle it together as he whispered shakingly, "Lady Prestor..."

"That's the one." I nodded as I walked down toward the dark-armored knights that dashed toward me at an unnatural speed that went far beyond the limits of a standard human.

As I left the priests, paladins, and the old man behind, all of the initiates and priests who had been spamming holy smite toward me had stopped when the old man raised his hand.

"What's your name, warrior?!" The old man shouted as I started sprinting toward the incoming enemies, "You'll find out soon enough..." I told myself and ignored his question as my elbows sank into dragon flesh with a meaty squelch, which was the signal for further reinforcement of the dragons down the street to swarm me yet again.

—

—{Archbishop Benedictus PoV}—

—

I stood there speechless at the slaughter ensuing before my very eyes. I wanted nothing else but to stop the chaos that ran in the direction of the royal keep, but his words made me pause as I pondered their meaning.

'Is this why the light forsook us when we went against this man? Is it because he is not evil for slaughtering the people and abominations within our city?'

I then gazed toward the men wearing the pale blue symbol of the Stormwind forces. I then saw their chest heave as the person I looked at moaned in agony.

'So he is not killing the guard? Only the knights wearing black?' I sighed in relief as the young apprentices beside me had tears running down their pale faces as they could not look away from the slaughter taking place only fifty meters ahead.

A shadow came to life at my side when I heard my old friend's aged and familiar voice, "So... the monster over there was telling the truth?" The hoarse voice of the retiring female assassin said with a calm and serious tone.

"Yes... It seems so Pathonia... how did we not see before now... why has the blindfold suddenly decided to loosen as a presumed to be enemy is the one who to unveil the curtains that had kept us blinded for all this time?"

This made the assassin take off her hood to reveal an aged face and black hair, which was on path to turn gray contained in a pigtail down her back as she replied, "Perhaps it's time for us both to retire, maybe young blood is necessary for the times ahead, and after the ordeal of Lordaeron... everything is going downhill, and if that youth manage to do whatever he sets out to do within our city... we might as well start preparing for our replacements." Pathonia said with a sigh and then gazed toward the royal tower in the distance.

"And, if my knowledge regarding the king is correct... we have already failed our duties as head of SI:7 and head of church by the time he enters the keep.

All that remains in his way are those..." She suddenly kicked one of the abominations in the chin, then continued, "Monsters, now I know what happened to my rogues as they disappeared in observation duty."

"Anyway, Benedict, my dear, I'm going to see the twat of a grandson of mine, might as well make him take over for me after this fuckin' failure..." Then she paused and looked at me and said, "You do what you feel is right." There were her parting words as she held her massively decorated fist full of colorful rings into the air and loosened it as the shadows around the street disappeared along with her.

'Maybe she's right... alas... I cannot. There is just too much to do, and cleaning up this scandal will have to be a start...'

—

—{Medan PoV}—

—

After finishing the slaughter of the last black-plated knight, I stood in front of the large keep where I had my talk with Windsor and Bolvar Fordragon.

As I was just about to start making an entrance by carving up the reinforced door, I felt a cold breeze behind me; Jaina, seemingly done with the air support, arrived beside me smiling. Her face grew curious when she saw my white flame-covered gauntlets of hardened earth.

"What's that? I haven't seen you use that before... have I?" She asked as she came closer and studied it.

"Just a new application of fire. I got this when my fire attunement reached Tier IV when fighting the elemental in Uldaman I told you about." I explained with a shrug as I continued cutting into the door with my arm.

"...Interesting..." She said, clearly pondering about how to do something similar.

A thin layer of ice surrounded her arms as a layer of purple veins spread from her palm and up to her elbow; soon, her ice turned darker, and she conjured some water that seemed to come alive between her skin and the ice encasing her arms.

I had been watching her as I progressed through the door, seemingly an entire meter thick, and I was interested in what she was doing. She suddenly yelped as the purple veins throbbed and the ice shattered.

After snorting at the cute reaction, I returned to the door, which quickly caved in as I decided to go with brute force instead of cutting through.

As the piece of the door flew into the hall, I heard frantic footsteps from within; as both Jaina and I calmly entered through the opening, we were welcomed by dozens of guards and black-wearing knights in the back who grasped their weapons and were ready to fight.

The soldiers that I had previously encountered were nowhere to be seen; all I saw before me were hardened veterans, who were most likely Stormwind's strongest forces.

They all held their weapons, ready for a bloody skirmish with the ones who had managed to get into the keep, their last line of defense.

Without a moment's notice, Jaina's magic swelled, and the entrance was filled with cold mist.

Then she looked at me and smiled, "I'll deal with this. You go ahead and deal with the manipulative bitch." She said as the temperature turned frosty when fireballs started to arrive from further up in the keep.

Nodding, I levitated toward the ceiling and raced through the large keep until I could see the end in the distance where a dozen black knights stood defensively, which I swiftly dispatched as they fell into heaps of sizzling flesh.

Behind them was Varian Wrynn, who looked to be fuming as he held a sword in his right hand; the sword had an orange orb in the middle glowing menacingly as he pointed it in my direction and shouted with venom, "How dare you! Kidnapping my son again after cowering in retreat when Lady Prestor's forces fought you off! What gave you the courage to confront me!?"

After giving the so-called King of Stormwind an unimpressed gaze, I sighed and said, "Honestly? I expected more, but this was not how I thought this would go; from what I remember, you are the one who strikes first and asks questions later... What changed? Also... I didn't kidnap Anduin. My daughter did... unintentionally." And the conversation paused as he unsheated his steel sword that was much shorter than the other."

And to make it clear, I am not here to confront you. I am here for your so-called lover. Who would imagine the King of Stormwind bedding a dragon in disguise... It's pretty funny actually when you think about it..." I told Varian calmly, and It was then I saw something flicker behind the outline of the king's body but pretended not to notice when I activated my new ability to sense heat.

As Varian seemed to be fuming to the point he looked to be wanting to rip me to shreds with his gaze, my words finally registered in his skull, which seemed to contain less IQ than a trogg, "Bedding... A dragon?" He asked, bewildered. Apparently, that was the three words he chose to hear of everything I said.

'Just as musclebrained as I remember...'

Without missing a beat, I stomped my left foot hard into the floor as a spike rose from the floor behind Varian, which resulted in an inhuman and shrill outcry of pain throughout the hall, which surprised the living hell out of Varian who swung his sword on instinct toward the closest thing to him, which was... Katrana Prestor stood grasping her leg, which bled profusely; one side of her face was covered in dark scales, highlighting her reptile-like eye that stared menacingly in my direction.

As the King of Stormwind finally realized who he had swung his weapon toward, his face turned into bewilderment before he remembered my words. He then turned slightly green before he observed the half-human, half-dragon's face that had her entire leg impaled through by a stalactite the same color as the marble floor.

The injury did not seem to hinder her as she shattered it with her hand and winced momentarily, "So... you came. I guess that means it was a success then..." She said with a smirk. Her voice was rough and full of hatred as her smirk widened at my lack of reply.

As Onyxia was going to continue speaking, Varian decided that at that time, he would swing his sword toward the so-called Lady Prestor, his face so full of anger that he had no idea what he was doing.

'Jepp... definitely just as muscle-brained as I remember...'

-Chapter 65 End-