by Milton Garby
She reached the halfway point of the bridge soon enough. Her eyes burned, casting the world in brilliant orange light. Each demon blown up made her head clear. Each one she brutally murdered lifted weight off her shoulders. They all blended together. Sometimes different breeds came. Dreadsteeds. Void terrors. Eredar and dreadlords. It all flowed into an endless orchestra of violence, and the fel cannons couldn't fire at her without causing massive friendly fire. Occasionally a demon powerful enough to dispel her barrier showed up and she took a few hits, but it was nothing one of her health potions couldn't fix. If she focused, she could've sworn the number of demons was slightly lesser than before. Sara was doing it. She was forcing them back all on her own.
"I can fight," she breathed. "I can fight all of you!" she shouted. She brought her hands together and began to radiate death and disunity, forcing the demons to look away lest she fry their minds. They were cowering before her. They were afraid of her and the sheer concept of the demons being afraid to march in her direction made unhinged laughter explode from her lungs. "Hoohahahahahahaha, AAAAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha!"
Then the pit lord appeared.
It was like the annihilian that had assaulted Nethergarde. Maybe it was the same one, but this one's hide bore many more scars and holes than the one in the Blasted Lands. The double ended glaive in his hands smoldered with demonfire, and his nostrils expelled smoke. He squeezed himself between the gates, forcibly widening them, and snarled down at Sara as she dispatched the last few demons. Behind the pit lord, she could see legions upon legions of demons gathering.
"You idiots!" he snarled. "Can't even kill a single mortal!" He dropped his glaive to the ground and lowered his arms. Bright purple fire burned along his talons and up his arms as he stomped from side to side. "Watch and learn!" The pit lord threw his hands up while Sara debated on what to do about him, and then a chill ran down her spine.
She glanced up. There, in spite of her shadowy barrier, was a blue skull and crossbones.
She only had limited time. Think think think. She didn't know how much it would take to kill the pit lord, and she needed every drop of mana she could spare since she was on her last mana potion... wait, idea!
Her magic coiled along her arms and wrapped around the annihilan's head just as he was picking up his glaive. "Grah! What are... you... "
Mind controlling the pit lord was easy. He was a seething cauldron of rage and aggression, every mental line devoted to finding something to kill and then killing it. All Sara had to do was rewire the pit lord a tad and he'd realize that right behind him were thousands of demons he could easily take out his aggression on.
Sara relaxed her magic. The pit lord stared at her, unblinking, for a moment. Then he roared, turned around, and swiped his glaive across the demons with a cackle. Just in time, because then the skull above her head vanished and Sara died.
It wasn't like the curse of doom in Northrend, which attempted to stop her heart. Sara was alive, and then she wasn't. Her soul emerged instantly, watching her body crumple to the ground like a limp doll. The staff clattered off her back and into the waters below, prompting her to curse.
Her soul was in the shape of her human body, but completely purple, so dark it was nearly black. Shadowy streaks whirled across her soul like she was a tornado, desperate to expand from its present form. She didn't pay that any attention though. Sara steeled herself and began summoning her magic again. Her soul's hands glowed and death energy began to flow off her corpse. Sara's soul began to lower, descending into her body at a painfully slow rate. Then she was inside again, and with an internal shout she finished resurrecting herself.
Her eyes snapped open and she instantly got on her feet... just to collapse again. The pit lord was still massacring his former allies with blade and flame, so she had some time to figure out what was going on. She was alive again, that much was for certain. She summoned her shield and downed her last mana potion, but even then she didn't have enough magic to resurrect herself a second time.
The next time she died, it would be for real.
Sara tried to stand again, but her legs erupted into a fountain of agony and she fell again.
"Damn it," she whispered. Alright, standing was out. Sara desperately rifled through Yogg-Saron's memories. "Levitation spell, levitation spell... aha!" She cast it. "Whoa!" Her body lurched into the air. Sara flailed around her a moment before righting herself. It was... strange. Her feet hovered a yard above the ground, but it didn't feel like anything was suspending her. But there wasn't anything she was standing on either. If she didn't have anything to focus on she'd probably get motion sick before long.
Turning her attention back to the fight, she realized the pit lord was doing good work. The fel cannons were smashed under his feet and the walking engine of destruction pushed the demons out of Stormwind. But he could use some help, couldn't he? Sara extended her magic into his tainted soul and let it unravel, let it consume the fel and replace it with the corruption of the Old Gods. The green webbing of his wings turned black, and purple streaks grew along his scales like fungus. The mane of fire going down the pit lord's back turned bright violet, and now each time he swung his glaive a shockwave of shadow magic billowed outwards from it.
She relaxed, breathing heavily, her vision blurred and alight with orange. Sara had actually done it! The invasion wasn't over, of course, but now she could take a moment to rest. Or so she thought.
A towering eredar, as tall as the pit lord, appeared before the annihilan. Sara inspected him curiously as he snarled, red arms bulging with muscle. "Argolash, what is the MEANING of this?!" he demanded.
The newly christened 'Argolash' roared and charged at the eredar lord, but he simply grabbed the annihilan and, with a pulse of magic, threw him back into Stormwind. Sara had to float backwards as the demon crashed onto the bridge, making it heave. The corrupted pit lord righted himself, but by then the eredar - Talgath, that has to be Talgath - had his hands up and was busy weaving a shadow spell. Sara couldn't interrupt it in time, so it was cast before long. The world turned red and an intense chill washed over her entire body. From Talgath's hands a blinding burst of crimson light, so intense as to be nearly white, lanced out and into the pit lord.
Argolash's glaive dropped into the moat below and he reared up on his hind legs, roaring and thrashing his muscular tail. Brilliant purple cracks spread along the pit lord, and Sara had to shield her eyes as the light grew brighter and brighter, before flashing intensely. When she looked again the pit lord was gone, with only a deep crater marking where he once stood.
Talgath stared down at her. She stared back at him. He snarled, narrowed his sulfurous eyes, then blinked in surprise. "It's you," he rumbled.
"It's me," she confirmed. Then Sara summoned her magic, and began.
Leira
With a heave of effort, she leaped at the towering infernal. Her sword and axe came down on its left arm, and while the jolt of attacking solid stone rattled her and the scorching heat singed her skin, she didn't let that bother her. Her momentum carried her forward and detached the infernal's left arm. That was the last straw: the felfire animating it winked out and it collapsed into a pile of boulders.
One down, seven to go.
WHUM-KABOOM!
Eight to go.
Luckily, Leira wasn't alone. Running all around the Cathedral Square with her were... she didn't even know anymore, but they were soldiers and they were helping. Infernal meteors fell like hail all around the city, so many more and so much more widespread than they had accounted for. The Mage Quarter was a crater and the Park was ablaze. Leira didn't know how things were holding up by the gates, but even with Sara there she had her doubts.
But doubts wouldn't kill infernals. She and her group of assorted fighters charged at the nearest infernal and tore it up in seconds. But there were just too many of them, and they were forced back to the Cathedral of Light.
The Cathedral had seen much better days. The spire had toppled off
and craters were blown through it like Alterac Swiss. Within, teams of mages had set up portals to Ironforge and they were all evacuating. Not Leira's team though. Their mission was to buy as much time as possible, and then go back through the portal.
A dark blur crossed the edge of her vision and Leira spared a glance in its direction. Of all things, it was a black drake, breathing a river of molten rock over an infernal. On the adolescent dragon's back, strapped to a saddle and harness, was King Anduin. His robes were dirtied and his staff cracked, but even so he was radiant and powerful, sending out bolts of the Holy Light to fall upon infernals and burn, or fall upon her and heal.
"Keep going!" the king shouted. "The evacuation is almost complete!" Then the black drake took off, and the king was gone from sight.
The clouds were dark, but the raging fires painted the sky brilliant orange. Smoke poured into the heavens. It had been that way for hours... and then the world flashed red. A shockwave of dark energy rushed over her... and it was coming from the gates. That wasn't Sara, her magic had a distinct slimy feel that this magic lacked. That meant there was something there. And if anyone could stay alive against that, it'd be Sara. The damn human had literally resurrected herself from the dead. But if she was there...
WHUM-KABOOM!
"The gates!" she shouted at her makeshift team, screaming to be heard over the falling meteors. "We have to evacuate the gates too! We've got a mage here right?" One of them, a full member of the army, raised his hand. "Then let's go! We'll make a portal there!"
"What about the Cathedral?" the mage shouted.
Behind them, a trio of infernals smashed through the Cathedral's open roof.
"The Cathedral's lost!" a worgen man in full plate shouted. "Come on, let's look for survivors then get the hell out of here!"
"Right!" she shouted, before pointing her two handed sword southeast. "Let's move!" Hang in there Sara, I'm coming, she thought.
Sara
"COME ON!" she shouted at herself, locked in bitter magical battle with Talgath the Inexorable.
A pair of blue crystals floated beside his head, pulsing each time she cast a spell. She gleaned from their design they were manaburn shards; whenever someone in their vicinity cast a spell, they would blast them with an intensity proportional to the amount of mana expended. Luckily she was under a shadowy barrier, or she would have roasted herself in seconds.
She unleashed dark lightning from her hands. She sent out maddening maladies, and summoned death orbs with all four rays directed at Talgath. Lunatic skulls, everything she had. But Talgath seemed to take it all in stride.
His hands moved in a flurry, fel energy forming a vortex around them. He blocked her spells and projectiles, deflecting them with his hands. He maneuvered between her death rays no matter what formation she conjured them in, and dispelled her lunatic skulls the moment they formed. Any damage she did to his mind instantly repaired itself; he must have been expecting her. There were no other demons coming so the portals must have been disabled, but it was little comfort to her because Talgath's own terrible magic poured down upon Sara.
It was... humbling to see. She could barely keep her barrier up for ten seconds before Talgath dispelled it. Molten fire pelted the bridge around her, leaving pools of lava she levitated over. Endless curses, rivers of doomfire, shadow and fel magic beyond her imagining rained down around her and it was all she could to do make sure she was invulnerable for it, but between his stoic defenses and the onslaught of spells?
Talgath's plan was all too obvious. He was going to run her out of mana.
Think, think think. As much as she hated to admit it, Talgath's magic was more powerful than her own. Sara glanced around; the bridge was crumbling, cratered and half molten. She needed to retreat and rethink her strategy, and to do that she needed to buy herself time.
Sara floated back from Talgath, now halfway across the bridge. She raised both hands above her head and summoned a death orb. This time, instead of releasing four rays, it concentrated all its power into one beam and sliced it across the bridge. By then, Sara was already floating away.
Ka-chunk!
Sara levitated, but even so she was startled by the bridge crumbling beneath her. Vast bricks sloughed off, mortar turned to dust, the entire thing plummeted into the frothing moat below. She barely made it back to the entrance in time, and turned around to face Talgath. He had retreated to the gate of Stormwind, staring down at the chasm thoughtfully.
She raised her voice. "You want Stormwind?!" she shouted, hovering above the bodies of her allies. "Come and get it!" she challenged, summoning a lunatic skull on her position to punctuate her demand. With that done she retreated into the heart of the Trade District.
The Trade District had seen much better days. All around her, buildings were collapsed into rubble, strewn about on the streets. Fires devoured wood, and while there weren't any infernals currently marauding about, she saw their craters and the boulders that made up their bodies. Far off in the distance, streaks of green fell from the dark sky, punctuated by flashes of light as they made landfall. There were... so many of them.
Alright, Talgath was certainly going to find a way past the chasm. Think think think. She was an Old God, right? How could she beat Talgath? His magic was more powerful, so the solution was to fight smarter, not harder.
Mind control. Mind control was out. He had anticipated her mental powers and was shielded against them. It wouldn't have surprised her if he was the one that gave immunity to the succubus a while back.
Ripping out his soul wasn't good. Eredar souls were just so powerful, and she was so low on mana. Maybe if he was on death's door she could erase him, but just killing an eredar normally would also erase them.
Trying to blast him was out. His defenses were simply too good, his reflexes too honed.
There was one other ability Old Gods possessed. Corruption. Could Sara corrupt Talgath into submission? Or better yet, could she corrupt her surroundings to aid her in defeating him? Or better still, both?
She glanced around. There was nothing else living with her, but she didn't need something to be alive to corrupt it.
"Alright," she told herself. "It's worth a shot." Her magic began to flow, and this time she 'urged' it to wash over everything around her, urged it to twist and corrupt, to defile and reforge in her image. She also 'told' her magic to hurry; Talgath could arrive any second.
Collapsed buildings and slain infernals melted together into purple slop. The bricks were tinted violet. The mortar between bricks stayed gray, but started to bubble and hiss. Tiny tendrils made of cement reached up, growing larger and larger. Cracks widened, and from them shot massive fangs of black stone half as tall as the eredar she planned to kill. In moments, the area around Sara was defiled. The ground she hovered over was colored purple and the mortar seethed like a boiling pot. From it, tentacles half her height reached up and spun idly in the air. The cracks left by rampaging infernals were transformed into colossal barriers. The buildings had all melted down into goop which slowly flowed towards the gates.
That was when Talgath arrived. He came floating over the gates of Stormwind with a platform of rocks at his hooves. Once over solid ground he dismissed them and landed, falling briefly to one knee. His manaburn shards were still in place, but now he sneered openly at her. He approached warily, eying the modified scenery surrounding her.
"You had your chance," he intoned.
"So did you," she said simply. Then she activated her magic and cast the corruption spell.
It had killed a dreadlord in seconds. Talgath roared as darkness buzzed around him, but a hand gesture from him dispelled the effect. But Sara could see it, she could feel it. A skull on his satchel had turned purple. His soul was ever so slightly corroded. She needed to be careful though. Old God corruption tended to give a lot of power when it wasn't properly controlled and she had hardly ever corrupted anyone so she had no idea what she was doing. Not to mention she was running dangerously
low on mana.
Her vision glowed and her hands held miniature emerald suns. Sara's entire body burned with the force of her magic, but she pointed at Talgath and imagined ordering the twisted land to get him.
The goop surged like a tidal wave, rearing up to crash upon Talgath. He made a surprised noise and stepped back, letting it fall at his hooves. But it didn't rest, and instantly it started to rise again. The cement tentacles around Sara waved around aggressively and sent bursts of gray dust flying at Talgath. They coated his broad chest and puffed against his head, eliciting hacking coughs from the eredar. Sara cast the corruption spell again.
Her foe dispelled it instantly, and smashed his fists together. Fire blossomed out from him like a supernova, nearly blinding her. The dust on his body was burnt away and the slime pulling on his hooves withered, blackened. Fire started to rain from the heavens, blasting the area around Sara. It popped against her shield, it left craters in the land, it destroyed her tentacles.
She needed more. So she summoned more.
Old God magic flowed from her like a river. The fireballs that rained onto the ground twisted into miniature fire elementals, which instantly went after Talgath. Tentacles the size of Sara rose from the earth, clawing at Talgath if they were close enough or sending bolts of dust if they weren't. She kept corrupting him directly as he fought, releasing shadow novas to clear away the elementals and agony curses to dispatch the tentacles. His pants turned purple and little threads of corruption traced themselves along his limbs, to his chest... and despite his dispellings, the corruption reached his heart.
Talgath roared.
From his hands came rivers upon rivers of fire, splitting into hundreds and falling upon the land. The rain of fire ended, so Sara had no more elementals, and the gray tentacles were all shattered. Then Sara's shield vanished and, before she could replace it, Talgath cursed her with agony.