Death Never Dies

by Milton Garby

  Taking a step back, she whispered a quiet, "Oh." Then she raised her left hand angrily and channeled more magic. Almost effortlessly it turned to a deathly green aura, and she wondered just how much magic standing on Northrend gave her. Dragon or not, she was going to blow a hole through his chest and anyone else who tried to keep her from Ulduar. And why not? Who cared if they were dragons? Standing here on Northrend, so close to Ulduar, so close to Yogg-Saron, she felt more powerful than she ever had in her entire life!

  Except...

  ... except she kept thinking she could do that to everyone and rarely was it actually true. Plus this was a blue dragon, who knew how much magic he knew about, or the other dragons in the area? To say nothing of how horribly she was outclassed physically.

  "Fine." She released her hold on her magic and relaxed from her caster's stance. "Now what?"

  The dragon shifted back into orc form and nodded. "I'm glad you are willing to be reasonable. Now, I think we can strike a deal. If it is indeed true that you can bring the dead back to life then we sorely need your assistance. In return for aiding an air strike, I think Derestrasz here," he said, motioning to the drake. ", can take some time out of his patrols to fly you to wherever you were headed, so long as it is not too far. Where was it?"

  "Ulduar," she said, intrigued by the offer. "I was going to Ulduar. Exactly how long would I be held up here?"

  "Not long, a day at the most. What are you looking for in Ulduar?"

  "A weapon or spell, or allies of some sort that can put the hurt on the demons," she said. What she didn't say was 'Mainly it's because I suspect some of Yogg-Saron's power got embedded in my soul and C'Thun showed me a vision of the place so I'm going to listen to it.'. "Things aren't going well in the Eastern Kingdoms, so I figured we need something with a little more kick."

  The orc nodded. "Derestrasz, take her with you and grab a saddle and harness. You're taking her on your next air strike. Even if she lies about her powers she can provide assistance with her magic in more forceful ways, and I strongly doubt she's on the Legion's side."

  'Derestrasz' stilled, then nodded. "Understood, Morigos. Follow me, uh, what was your name?"

  To lie or not to lie? They were dragons, they'd be able to smell direct lies or something stupid like that. "Sara. And most of my magic comes from touching the ground." At the moment that seemed to be true. "If you want me to resurrect adult dragons you'll need me to be on the earth."

  "Then he can fly you to the location," Morigos said. "But you will be in a combat zone, understand?"

  She groaned. "I understand, I fought over in the Eastern Kingdoms too, now let's go." The sooner she got this over with the sooner she could finally, finally get to Ulduar.

  The red drake saluted to the dragon one more time and then led Sara through the bowl-shaped camp towards the edge. There, stacked up in a heap, were several dozen saddles and harnesses for people to ride dragons with. He smoothly shapeshifted back into his dragon form - nearly slamming her in the gut with his tail club as he did - and picked out two that were his size.

  "Alright," the dragon growled. "Um, help me put these on."

  After much tugging, grunting, fire breathing and some shadow summoning, Sara was riding a dragon.

  It was much better than the first time she'd been flying with him, as this time she actually had a say in whether or not she fell. Derestrasz flew in the back of a whole group of multicolored drakes, and if their joking Draconic tones were anything to go by? Sara had the uneasy impression that, mentally, she was the oldest one there. Then there had come some signals, and then the ground lurched out from under Sara's feet as she left the outpost, and her belongings, behind to fly on the back of a so-called Wyrmrest Skytalon. She gripped the harness so hard her knuckles grew white under her jacket.

  As Derestrasz angled up, Sara looked to the side for the odd view of the world being slanted, with the sky taking up far more than half of her field of vision. The stars were out in full force, and the northern lights snaked through the sky like magical ribbons. They flew south towards the Dragonblight, which was strikingly even more desolate than Silithus. Vast, uncaring plains of ice and snow stretched in all directions, with the only visible landmarks being the bones of dead dragons, picked clean by wind and scavenger. The aurora overhead colored the snow like paint. The wind howled in her ears, and the cold bit her face, but Sara couldn't help but smile. This detour wouldn't be as long as the others. Depending on how well Derestrasz could fly through the Storm Peaks, she might even gain time.

  There was also the enormous area of snow melted away, replaced by blackened land, demonic technology, and the marching armies of the Burning Legion. Sara blinked. It was a sizable demon encampment, and looking behind her she saw it wasn't the only one. No wonder even the dragons were having trouble, especially if the 'undead dragon' thing was true.

  Sara's goal was simple. Derestrasz would put her on the ground near the fight, and she just had to get to the fallen dragons before the demons did. Then Derestrasz would pick her up, they'd get her bags, and be on their way to the Storm Peaks. Easy.

  Sara frowned and summoned her shadowy barrier around herself. A shiver ran down Derestrasz's spine, but she was focused more on the circling creatures above the approaching Forge Camp. Skeletons. Giant dragon and drake skeletons, with lime webbing between their wings, a fel orb instead of a tail club, and choking green mist inside their ribs and eyes. Fel wyrms, fel drakes.

  They hadn't been joking. Actual, undead dragons. She hoped there were more dragons coming because that was a lot of animated skeletons.

  Derestrasz suddenly dipped and Sara's stomach went into her throat. Luckily there wasn't anything left in her stomach, so she could focus enough to start unstrapping the harness and, Derestrasz pulled back up from the ground so that she was almost stationary, she jumped off.

  This time her burning legs went unnoticed because of the rush of sheer power that pulsed into her. She let out an excited breath and cracked the ice with an unrefined shadow blast. She could get used to this.

  "Just resurrect the dragons, Sara," she whispered to herself, watching the swarm of dragons engage the skeletons high above. Meanwhile, from cleverly concealed passages in the mountains, dragonspawn and drakonids flooded into the area and engaged the demons on the ground. "That's all you need to do," she said, moving towards the Forge Camp.

  The Forge Camp was heavily defended, with felguards by the dozens, fel cannons ringing the perimeter, and all manner of mechanical portals spewing in reinforcements. Mo'arg and gan'arg placed additional mechanical reinforcements down, and she caught more than one dreadlord in the fray. However, the dragons had clearly anticipated the resistance, and came prepared to knock down the Forge Camp in one swoop. Not that it would matter all that much, Forge Camps were a symptom, not the cause.

  Sara's feet left the ice and snow and landed onto the black stone. At that moment, half a dozen fel cannons aimed their broiling faces at her.

  She winced, but forced herself to not flinch as they launched sickly green pyroblasts at her. Each one slammed directly into her shield with a massive burst of felflame, pushing her back. Then the volley ended and, while the smoke still obscured their sights, she pushed on. There was another salvo of fel bursts, but she ducked underneath them and by then, she'd come within range of the fel cannons. She curled over, racing darkness swirling inside of her arms.

  Then she let loose a shadow nova.

  It had very little physical force behind it, but the thick darkness ate away at the cannons' gears and crumpled their grills, and when it passed most of the ones firing at her had collapsed into piles of scrap. The others were so structurally damaged they were of no threat, but a shadow bolt each took care of them to be sure.

  Sara held up both hands, violet magic swirling in them, and panted. She looked around the Forge Camp, searching for anyone who dared challenge her.

  There was nobody, all of the demons were engaged with the land-bound dragons, bitt
erly forcing them back while the stray bolt of fire or poison crashed from above. While looking for someone to blow to pieces, the first drake died.

  They fell with a keening roar and were clearly dead the moment they hit the ground, on the other side of some demon forge. Then, out of the darkness, three gan'arg teleported around it and began channeling fel energy onto its corpse.

  Oh no.

  Sara sprinted at them, and once the gray skinned, stunted demons were in range she let a wave of unfocused darkness wash over them and interrupt the spell. They screamed in high-pitched demonic as they were thrown off the green drake, and Sara skidded to a halt before she tripped over its tail.

  One high-powered shadow bolt took down each of the gan'arg, though one did manage to throw some kind of felsteel bomb at her that obscured her vision with smoke and left her ears ringing. After that, Sara focused her magic on the green drake.

  It was the largest thing she'd ever resurrected, and the demons' work had already dissolved away a lot of the flesh on its left side. It lay in a halo of its own blood, and Sara gritted her teeth as she began reaching for the dragon's soul.

  The slippery thing hadn't gotten far, but it held so much more magical 'weight' than Sara expected. Even so she dug in her feet and began pulling it back. Death energy radiated around her hands and poured out of the dragon's scales, and after a mere ten seconds she pulled the soul back to the body and fixed up the damage. She let go of the magic and took a deep breath, only then realizing she'd been holding her breath.

  The drake gasped and looked around with closed eyes, until it faced Sara. "I revived you, get back up there!" she shouted. The dragon nodded and ascended back into the air. A glance up confirmed for Sara that the Dragonflights had, in fact, brought more drakes than just Derestrasz's group. Even a few fully grown dragons, which dominated the air and cast vast shadows upon the land.

  Another drake hit the ground. Sara groaned, but ran towards it.

  Like the other drake, gan'arg materialized around it and began filling it with fel energy. Just like the other drake they were no match for her, especially with the other demons busy pushing back the dragons on the ground. Sara resurrected the bronze drake, and with the additional power of standing on Northrend it was hardly more challenging than bringing back a night elf. And after all the reviving she'd done in the past week-and-a-half her mana pool had gotten quite deep.

  However, the moment that drake was back up two more fell down and started to be revived as fel drakes. Sara groaned, but went for the one closer to her. It was the same procedure. Wipe out the diminutive gan'arg, resurrect the dragon. Sadly, the moment that she'd gotten the blue drake up and flying, she turned around to see the bony skeleton of a dragon take to the air as well.

  "Damn it," she breathed, running over to where the next dragon had already died.

  While the battle on the ground and in the air rage, Sara snuck about and revived as many dragons as she could reasonably get to. Now and then, demon reinforcements tried to kill her, but either she or the dragons always killed them first. But she couldn't be everywhere at once, and far too many drakes were brought back into undeath. But the dragons were winning, slowly pushing back the demons and smashing first the fel cannons, then the forges, then the first of the portals.

  Then a fully grown dragon died.

  It was a blue wyrm, and smashed so close to Sara the blast of air knocked her and her shield back a few yards. Eventually she stopped herself, and sprinted back to the gan'arg that were already melting its scales with demonic magic. A few shadow bolts took them out, but then Sara was face to face with the body of a fully grown dragon that she needed to resurrect.

  She stopped by the overturned reptile's underbelly and took a deep breath, examining its claws, the horns, the splatter of blood around it. She brought both hands high above her head, squared her shoulders and rooted her legs, then brought her hands down and began the spell.

  Finding the dragon's soul was easy. But then she closed her magic around it and started to tug, and even with her power boost it was like trying to push a mountain. A gasp of breath fled her lungs and she dug in her feet, pulling at the dragon's soul as hard as she could. A yellowish haze descended over the world, but slowly the spirit began to come back towards Azeroth. Sara growled and struggled, as if tugging a rope, pulling the dragon closer and closer as a river of green mist flooded out of the body's scales...

  A doomguard smashed her aside.

  Sara's magic cut out suddenly and the yellow fog over the world cleared away. She spun around, unharmed within her shield, and began casting a shadow bolt at the doomguard that stood twice her size.

  The massive, winged demon cackled and pointed his scimitar at her. "Mortal girl!" Her shadow bolt flew, but he dodged aside with a wing motion. "You... are... DOOMED!" Thick shadow magic raced up his arms and along the scimitar, and Sara's stomach dropped out from underneath her. Before the doomguard could do anything more a drake swooped down and flew off with the demon, clawing him apart, but the damage was done. She glanced up and saw a pale blue skull above her head and gulped. That was going to hurt soon.

  She turned back to the dragon and grabbed its soul again. Her arms burned with the effort of pulling it back and her eyes teared up as she growled, gasped, and panted trying to resurrect it, and in the meantime three more drakes died only to be revived under the Burning Legion's control. A few more demons tried to stop her, only to be knocked aside by drakonids and dragonspawn. Then, at last, she fused body and soul together, and the blue wyrm came back to life.

  A feminine gasp came from the reptile's jaws and she raised her head, looking around frantically. "Wha - what?"

  "I brought you back to life, now get back up there!" Sara panted, already running towards the nearest fallen drake.

  The gan'arg were nearly finished, all that was left of the drake's flesh were a few scraps here and there, but luckily the emerald mist hadn't begun filling in yet. Sara didn't waste time with shadow bolts and instead released a massive shadow nova at them. She was too far to kill them, but it interrupted them long enough for her and the dragons, who were on the verge of victory, to kill them. After that she still had to revive the drake, and heal the missing flesh, but after bringing back a fully grown dragon it was refreshingly easy. All she had to do was pull the soul back a short distance and -

  The blue skull above her laughed, then vanished.

  Sara's entire body, even through the jacket, froze like ice. Her legs were icicles and she fell over onto the solid ground. Her shadowy barrier cushioned the impact, but that hardly mattered because the dark chill went right to her heart, through her lungs.

  The dragons around her, who were about to celebrate shutting down the Forge Camp, crowded around her. Blue scales, bronze scales, green scales, red scales. Sara's vision faded and her eyes began closing. Wings flapped. Draconic words were shouted, she hardly noticed. A lead weight settled on her chest and squeezed harder and harder, and she realized she wasn't breathing.

  Her head swam and her chest ached. Something had gone horribly wrong. That skull, it was some kind of curse. She knew the type but it was so hard to think, her brain was filled with cotton...

  Then something chimed loudly and swirled around her. She gasped and took a shuddering breath when something warm blossomed in her core, then that warmth grew hotter and hotter, then it reached her skin and Sara realized how slimy and does-not-fit-should-not-be the warmth was and she screamed.

  Sara sat straight up, head whipping around frantically to see the source of whatever had done it to her. The dragons had cleared a circle around her, but in front was a red drake - Derestrasz, unless another dragon wore a saddle - reared up on his hind legs with his wings flared out. On the tips of his wings green plasma, with leaves made of energy, swirled. Then the orbs of nature magic pulsed and strands of slimy green energy wove their way around Sara, like ants crawling on her skin and inside her body, lighting a fire inside of her that threatened to turn her to ash.


  "Stop it!" she screamed hoarsely. "Stop it!" A lash of violet Old God magic struck at him, but her aim was off and it only blasted the already-tainted ground.

  Derestrasz landed, slit pupils wide. "You're alright! You had us worried."

  Sara shivered, but the nature magic running through her faded away and she could finally stand again.

  Then she retched.

  When she was done she made her way over to the drake she'd been busy resurrecting when the curse of doom hit. Her magic began its work again, but like a lost puppy Derestrasz padded after her. "Miss, wait! You nearly died just now, you need to take it easy."

  "Fuck you I need to take it easy," she snapped.

  "I just saved your life," he reminded. "Are you really going to just throw it away again?"

  "I'm fine!" she insisted, never mind the burn in her limbs or the little chill that remained in her chest, or how her arms shook with the knowledge that she had nearly died less than a minute ago. Sara lowered her left hand, then raised it to the sky and finished reviving the fallen red drake. "See?" she asked, turning on Derestrasz. It took a lot of effort not to start swaying. "Perfectly fine."

  He stared at her, but nodded and spoke some Draconic to the still confused drake she'd just brought back to life. Sara spent some more time walking around the battlefield, resurrecting other fallen dragonkin, until everyone was back up. It was long work, and it left her almost bereft of mana, but in the end it meant a near total victory for the dragons. "If you insist. At any rate, Kilagosa says we're done here so we're headed back to base." He lowered himself next to her and extended his left wing out of the way. "Climb on."