But then, from the fiery mount shot forth a black radiance. The draenei expected it to strike the nether dragon, but instead it hit Dargonax from behind.
Yet, the twilight dragon did not roar in pain, but rather bellowed in pleasure.
"Yesss!" He called to all that could hear. "More! I would have more..."
And before a startled Zzeraku could move, Dargonax flew forward, grasping the nether dragon by the wings with claws that glowed onyx. Despite the fact that Zzeraku was incorporeal, the twilight dragon suddenly had no trouble keeping a savage grip on him. The nether dragon tried to twist free, but his monstrous foe held fast.
"You've fed me many times," Dargonax mocked. "Now you feed me one last feast!"
The twilight dragon drew back his head. Zzeraku shrieked and his body rippled as if not real. His shape then twisted, as if beginning to melt to mist.
"No!" screamed Iridi. She had been so close to saving Zzeraku. "No! Please!"
Zzeraku felt himself slipping away. He was doomed. His only desire now was to keep the brave little draenei from perishing with him. How grand she was! How brave and loyal! He cursed himself for having thought so disdainfully of not only her but all the tinier creatures! Despite their size, despite their soft, easily-crushed bodies, they were far more admirable than he.
But although he tried to break the link, Iridi refused. She was still as determined to help him as he was her.
He had only one other chance. With a last defiant roar, the nether dragon tried to disrupt the spell that enabled the Devourer's claws to hold his incorporeal form.
As Zzeraku attacked, he felt something within Dargonax react to his power. The Devourer shrieked in turn, then, almost immediately pulled himself together.
"No..." sneered the dark beast. "No, you will not..."
Zzeraku felt tendrils of power tear at his very being. He was literally being torn to pieces and there was nothing more he could do to stop it... or help the draenei. The nether dragon tried to maintain his cohesion, but felt himself slipping away. As the twilight dragon took in more and more of what was his foe, he now swelled to horrific proportions. Zzeraku's mind splintered. He no longer even looked like a nether dragon, but rather some grotesque, monstrous blob. He managed one last coherent thought focused at the draenei.
Iam sorry! I am sorry... friend—
And as Dargonax absorbed Zzeraku's full essence, he also took into him from the staff...and Iridi.
The draenei shook. She tried to keep to a kneeling position, but even that was not possible, anymore. With a groan, Iridi fell forward. The staff dropped from her grip... but this time did not vanish. Instead, it clattered on the rocky ground several times, then came to rest near her feet.
The light of the great crystal faded, leaving only a dull stone.
I've failed... the priestess knew. All that, and I've failed you... brave Zzeraku... friend...
She forced her head up, hoping against hope that Zzeraku could still prevail—
But with a wall, the nether dragon dissipated into a swirling cloud of energy, which Dargonax took in with a single inhalation. As the twilight dragon roared his pleasure, he seemed to swell even more.
More than her own suffering, this last terrible vision was too much for Iridi. Her body wracked with pain, she laid her head down... and lost consciousness.
The sphere carrying Rhonin and Vereesa alighted on the ground near the dwarves, then opened. As the two stepped through the gap, the huge orb vanished.
Grenda rushed up to the pair. "Vereesa! Wizard! Praise be! And the others?"
Rhonin shook his head. "I can't say with any certainty about anyone...except Iridi and Rom."
"Rom?" The female dwarf looked fearful. "Do you say—?" "He perished in battle, bringing some drakonid with him."
"Rask, most likely," Vereesa added.
"He—he shall be honored," Grenda replied, her face flushed as she fought to contain her burning emotions. Clearly trying to set her mind on other things, she asked, "What about the draenei?"
"She should be out here somewhere...." The fiery Illumination sprouting out of Grim Batol made it possible to see quite far, if in odd intervals at times.
At that moment, a roar made all peer up. Dargonax fluttered above the landscape like some infernal god. In the eruption's glow, he was frightening to behold.
"What happened to the nether dragon?" the wizard asked.
"A terrible black force shot forth from Grim Batol and it strengthened the beast. There was a pale blue light that touched Zzeraku and made him stronger for a time, but it wasn't enough—"
"A pale—Iridi! She must've been trying something! I hope she wasn't hurt by—"
But before Rhonin could say more, Dargonax looked down at the tiny figures and laughed. "Gaze well upon this wretched place surrounding you and savor that view, little morsels... for it is the last sight you will live to see..."
The wizard grunted. "Why do they always say something like that?" He stepped in front of Vereesa and Grenda. "All of you scatter! There may be a chance I can hold him off long enough for the rest of you—"
"I will not go without you!" the high elf declared.
"And no dwarf runs anymore from an oversized lizard!" Grenda cried, her remark sparking shouts of agreement from those warriors nearby.
Rhonin had no time to argue. Dargonax was already descending. The wizard thought of everything that he had learned about dragons and hoped that something would give him a notion of what to do. He was already exhausted and even at his best, he doubted that he was good enough to beat back a behemoth such as this.
But still he cast.
White tendrils materialized around Dargonax. They were akin in look to what had held Zzeraku at bay, but with a more intricate matrix to their design.
They enveloped the twilight dragon, binding the wings that had stretched out for as far as the eye could see. Dargonax roared his fury as he fell toward the ground.
But suddenly he grew translucent. Rhonin's magical bonds continued their descent without their prisoner.
Dargonax shimmered momentarily, then solidified once more. Shaking his head, he continued his dive toward the tiny figures below.
We 're doomed, Rhonin realized. We are about to die and I don't even have the strength to cast Vereesa to safety.... Dargonax opened his huge maw.
A sharp pain was what finally caused Korlalstrasz to stir, a sharp pain in a familiar place.
The red dragon raised his head and stared at the area where he had been wounded by the black crystal. Yet, it did not strike him that the crystal was to blame... but rather something that had been hidden by the crystal's more obvious presence.
And now, here in Grim Batol, away from all else, he could finally sense it. Korialstrasz could finally tell what it was.
Ever you haunt me, child of Neltharion! The crimson behemoth concentrated his sudden fury on the spot. He twitched as renewed pain coursed through him, but did not give in to it. This time, Korialstrasz would cleanse himself.
From his scaled hide there suddenly shot out a small group of tiny shards. Most were of the black crystal and, thanks to his earlier efforts, absolutely harmless.
But with them was one golden piece no larger than a tiny pea.
"Curse of my life!" Korialstrasz growled. "Damnable Demon Soul!"
Dismissing the other shards, he summoned the lone piece of the Demon Soul to him. It landed in his paw, so tiny and yet so insidious. With it now discovered, the red dragon could sense the secretive spell cast around it.
Already he felt stronger. Korialstrasz prepared to destroy the lone shard—then shut his palm around it. He looked to the chaotic fury going on atop Grim Batol, then stretching his wings full, rose into the air.
Sinestra watched with glee as events unfolded. In her mind, all went exactly as she desired. That Grim Batol itself was in dire turmoil did not matter. What did was that her creation had proven to be all she had hoped for and more... and would be outshone by the next
generation she created once all those who sought to interfere were eradicated.
The black dragon leaned over the blue, who lay frozen at her feet. In her hand, she held one shard of the Demon Soul. It was all Sinestra needed to achieve her glorious future. Let a hundred dragons come; so long as Dargonax obeyed her, they would perish as Korialstrasz had... and the blue eventually would.
A steady golden glow surrounded Kalec. He was not unconscious, merely unable to move. Worse, once again his very essence was being drained, albeit in a more indiscriminate manner than previous.
But with her other devices and spells unavailable to her, Sinestra now used herself to help focus the energies to their final destination. Through the shard and herself, the mad dragon sent them forth in the form of the black radiance to Dargonax.
The nether dragon was no more, but his essence had not gone to waste. Again, thanks to her efforts, Dargonax had been able to ingest that essence and make himself even more powerful.
"Perfect..." she murmured. "It has all come to pass...."
Then, the one thing that could shatter her insane confidence suddenly flew up from seemingly the dead to approach Dargonax. Sinestra roared her fury at the sight of Korialstrasz. The red was moments from reaching the monstrous figure.
And even from where she stood, Deathwing's consort could sense through the shard she held what Korialstrasz carried with him. It was no longer where her long-ago plotting had dictated. Secreted by the sorcerer under her control, under the guise of another magical attack. Now, her cunning trick to see to it that Alexstrasza's meddling consort would never face her with his full strength or faculties was coming back to haunt her.
If Korialstrasz willingly carried with him the piece of the Demon Soul once infecting him, there could be only one reason. It was a mad plan and surely could not work.
It surely could not...
Sinestra leaned forward. Korialstrasz was no match for Dargonax, no match for what she had wrought. There was no need to do anything but continue draining the blue and using it to feed her child. Dargonax would devour the red much as he had the nether dragon. There was no doubt of that.
And yet...It was Korialstrasz...
Sinestra glared at her creation, seeking any hint of trouble... and found something. Something that had been altered in Dargonax and gave Korialstrasz a chance after all...
Something that only the unique energies of a nether dragon might have caused...
With an outraged shriek, the black dragon held her own shard close to her as she soared after the hated red.
Sinestra's foul get was gargantuan. He was not quite as huge as an Aspect, but he certainly was as massive as Korialstrasz and certainly much more refreshed at the moment.
Nevertheless, the red leviathan did not hesitate. Indeed, it was vital that he close with Sinestra's abomination. Only then could he use the shard and hope that he had guessed right. At this point, there could only be one manner by which Deathwing's consort could control such a monster, the same manner by which Korialstrasz hoped now to destroy the fiend.
The hope was a desperate one and not likely to work, but it was all Korialstrasz had. He doubted Sinestra would leave such a weakness in Dargonax and yet...
The other dragon did not see him, the creature in the midst of diving down to terrorize and destroy the dwarves—and Rhonin and Vereesa, Korialstrasz sensed. That further spurred on the red dragon; he was already certain that Kalec was dead, Kalec who had rightly claimed that too many of those who had become involved with Korialstrasz over the centuries had paid the price for that association. The red dragon could not let that happen to the wizard and the high elf, especially not them.
He bellowed as loud as he could, demanding his foe pay mind to him, nothing else.
The amethyst leviathan obliged him.
"The red one..." Dargonax hissed slyly. "Krasus or Korialstrasz, yes? I sense your great power... your energy..."
Korialstrasz said nothing, soaring toward Dargonax. The fiend sounded as mad as his creator.
The twilight dragon's eyes became silts. "The blue told me you were cunning, but I see only a fool! I will enjoy devouring your essence as I did the nether's—"
"Would you rather not be free?"
Dargonax came up short. Hovering before the oncoming red, he growled, "What do you mean? What trickery is this?"
"She will always command you, always keep your head bowed to her! Would you rather not be free of her mastery, you who are clearly more than any dragon ever born?"
"Oh, yes, I would be free..." Dargonax shimmered, "...but not as you'd like!"
He turned ethereal just before Korialstrasz, with a last, sudden burst of speed, tried to thrust the shard into him. The red dragon flew through his foe.
But even in failure, Korialstrasz learned much. First was that there was no shard inherent in Dargonax's physical form. The second was that the shimmering was not a part of his transformation to the ghostly form. Indeed, when it had happened, the red had sensed something altered at Dargonax's core, something that hinted of another force... one akin to the energies of the dead nether dragon.
The red dragon's hopes renewed. Banking, Korialstrasz turned for a second attempt.
A plume of lava struck him full in the chest. Stunned and out of control, he spun around and around. Only barely did he continue to hold onto the shard, although a part of him wondered if it was worth it.
As his head cleared, he saw Sinestra above Dargonax. The twilight dragon looked from one to the other and the loathing he had for the black was clear to Korialstrasz, although Dargonax was careful to hide it from her.
"For shame, Korialstrasz!" she mocked. "You'll not take my Dargonax away from me!" The black dragon held her paw forward. "He will always be mine...as Azeroth shall be..."
"Your insane dream stops here, Sinestra! Deathwing's insane dream stops here!"
As he had expected, mention of Neltharion threw her into a rage. Wings outstretched, she looked to Dargonax. "He is—" Sinestra unexpectedly paused. "Ah, well done, Korlalstrasz! You did want me to send him at you, did you not?" She cocked her head. "No answer from you? Perhaps this will open your mouth!"
The red dragon roared as his paw suddenly thrashed uncontrollably. He opened his paw—
The shard that he had hoped to use on Dargonax was now no more than a puddle that dripped through the air... and with it went Korialstrasz's last hope.
TWENTY-FOUR
The moment that the red dragon appeared, Rhonin tried to get the others to flee. Vereesa, however, had another concern. "We must find Iridi...."
With a nod to his wife's sense, the wizard and she rushed off to where he had last seen the draenei, while Grenda reorganized her people in preparation for any attack, even by Dargonax or his creator.
"She should've been near here," the wizard muttered, eyeing the area in exasperation. "She was supposed to stay out of danger...."
The sharp-eyed ranger studied the ground. "Iridi went this direction."
"That leads her back toward Grim Batol. Of course."
With Vereesa in the lead, they raced to where the trail led. Above, the dragons roared, but Rhonin kept his focus on finding the priestess. At this point, the outcome above was in the hands—paws —of Korialstrasz.
But while Rhonin had often had confidence in his mentor, he wondered exactly what the red could possibly do under these extreme circumstances.
"Rhonin!"
Vereesa pointed at a rocky formation just ahead... a rocky formation that was in actuality a body. The two ran to Iridi, certain that she was dead.
But as Vereesa gently turned her over, the draenei let out a low moan. Her eyes fluttered open.
"Does it...still...fly?"
They knew what she meant. Vereesa answered, "The monster still flies, yes."
"Twilight...dragon...that's what I called it..." She coughed. Twilight of the...dragons...of all Azeroth..." Iridi coughed again. "Perhaps..."
Rhonin noticed her hesitat
ion on the last. "What do you mean?"
"The staff... It still lies near me? I can't feel it, anymore." The draenei grimaced. "I miss that. I miss the closeness."
Vereesa located the naaru creation. "Here it is."
Iridi managed to grasp it with one hand. She looked at the crystal. The draenei grimaced. Rhonin started to speak to her, but suddenly the crystal glimmered.
The priestess stared at him. "There's something...left in it, but it reacts...reacts to you. wizard...the naaru...have you...have you communed with them before this?"
Rhonin gave both her and his wife a puzzled look. "I've never spoken with one of them. If that's what you mean..."
"Yet...something deep in the staff...woke...something I can't sense...you are touched by someone, if not the naaru...I...wonder... perhaps there is something... please, can you... can you help me up?"
Rhonin was reluctant, but Vereesa urged him to help. With the pair's aid, Iridi managed to stand.
The draenei pointed at Dargonax, who at the moment hovered near Sinestra, a new arrival to the trio.
"This just gets better," grumbled Rhonin. "Vereesa, you stay with her! I've got to go and do what I can for him—"
But Iridi managed to take hold of his arm. "Wait! You can't go! There's something... you need to see it..."
"See what?"
"Look there!" the priestess suddenly called.
However, the wizard saw nothing save impending doom for Korialstrasz. He looked to the high elf.
With a frown, Vereesa said, "I thought—I thought that for a moment—the twilight dragon shimmered—"
"'Shimmered'?" Rhonin gazed at Dargonax. To Iridi, he asked, "Is that significant?"
"P-pralse Zzeraku...he did more than...than he imagined..." The draenei looked grim. She was clearly dangerously near her end. "It may mean our salvation...or it may not..."
"For the final time, Sintharia," Korlalstrasz began, purposely using the name that the black dragon no longer desired. "I warn you to reconsider—"
"You are simply laughable, Korialstrasz! Indeed, there is no more need to tolerate your existence! Dargonax...."
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