Lucid dreaming was a technique any decent mage had to master. It provided greater insight into one's subconscious, allowed one to puzzle out things that the conscious mind may have filtered out, allowed you to protect your dreams from intrusion and much more.
In Harry's particular case, he happened to be sharing dreamspace with a sleeping titan. Well, 'sharing' might be too generous a term. The dreams of a single mortal, no matter how powerful, were like a drop of water in an ocean. Even if it was Azeroth's favorite drop of water, it was still just a drop.
Inversely, Harry was acutely aware of Azeroth's fluctuating moods and had to exert himself nightly to not be subsumed in its currents. Fortunately, it was something he had plenty of practice in, and was able to let himself drift without being washed away.
Normally.
When the titan suddenly started screaming in fear and the relatively calm 'ocean' abruptly became stomy, a wizard tended to notice.
Harry's eyes flew open and he surged from the bed as if he'd been hit by a lightning bolt. The four women sharing his bed squealed in surprise at the rude awakening as they were forced to roll away. It was a good thing that the bed was so big, or they would have been thrown to the ground.
"Get geared up, we have to go!" His urgent order cut through their sleepy complaints and demands for explanations.
"What's happening?" Luna asked, being the most familiar with sudden emergencies.
"I don't know, but it's big and in Silvermoon." At least, he guessed it was in Silvermoon. Azeroth wasn't the best with precise directions, but that was the general area where his gut was pointing him at.
"Your idol?" Arko asked, already putting on her armor's undersuit. They kept extras in several places, including a special closet in their bedroom.
"It better fucking not be." Harry scowled. He would be very displeased if someone managed to create a crisis through that, and not just because it would wreck his credibility.
"I'm taking Della with me this time." Jessir said, already going to fetch the wolf in question.
"Fine."
Feeding Della a diet of meat taken from powerful predators and marinating it in special magic sauce had produced some results. The wolf had already more than doubled in size and now stood at nearly six feet at the shoulder, with claws and teeth as strong as steel.
Tyrande had advised that a bonded animal companion would grow stronger with time, just as her own frostsaber Ash'alah had done over the past ten millennia. Typical night elf foot-dragging said Harry. Who the hell had time to wait ten thousand years for that kind of thing? Okay, so the first few experiments had turned the wolves he was using as test subjects psychotically violent and bloodthirsty, but that was fine. Orcs loved psychotically violent and bloodthirsty animals, didn't they? Well, even if they didn't, they still received a few packs of them scattered across Durotar. Harry had even been kind enough to make sure that every such pack had a breeding pair.
XXXXX
They teleported in and found relatively mild chaos. Some of the city was on fire and Farstriders were hunting down demons with the aid of arcane golems, but the situation looked to be in hand. It wasn't though, because Azeroth was still full of fear and pulling him further north.
Harry did his best to soothe her even as they flew over the city and found whoever was in charge, which appeared to be a harried-looking Sylvanas.
"What's going on?" He asked without preamble as soon as they reached her.
Relief briefly flickered over her face at the sight of them before she smoothed out her expression and curtly summarized the situation. "Kael'thas has invaded and occupied the Sunwell Plateau on the Isle of Quel'Danas."
"But he's dead!" Arko protested. "We killed him."
The other girls nodded seriously in agreement.
"Then he was resurrected, or perhaps 'summoned' would be a better word, as he looked quite demonic from the brief glimpse we had of him." Sylvanas replied implacably. "We have been struggling to contain the situation and mount a counter-offensive, but Azeroth is making it difficult by pushing us to attack."
"Yeah, she doesn't understand tactics or strategy." Harry grimaced inside his helmet. "I'm doing my best to calm her down, but she's panicking. Whatever Kael'thas is doing is serious enough to threaten the world as a whole."
"The remnants of the Sunwell are not completely without power, and someone like him could still do much harm with it." Sylvanas scowled. "Go on ahead, I will be right behind you."
"Alright, see you there." Harry gave her a nod and the six of them quickly made their way to the teleporter that would take them to Quel'Danas. He hadn't been allowed to go there before, so he was admittedly curious to see the place.
The situation was much more hectic there. A rushed camp had been constructed by the elves to fend off their corrupted kin and Burning Legion demons, but the skirmish was far too low level for it to be a serious attempt by the Legion to push out. No, even at a glance, both sides were clearly playing defense.
"You have arrived quickly, we only just sent out calls for aid." Lor'themar Theron noted with some confusion when they reached him.
"Azeroth woke me up by screaming in my dreams." Harry explained shortly. "What's the situation?"
"Prince Kael'thas has returned, with the intention of using the remnants of the Sunwell to summon his master Kil'jaeden into Azeroth." The one-eyed elf scowled deeply. "With the secret spells of the Sunstrider bloodline available to him, he was able to pass through the protections unchallenged and even turn them against us. More and more demons are being summoned by the minute. We must act quickly or they will become too strong to challenge in time."
Harry would have liked to rag on them for not locking their fallen prince out, but couldn't in all fairness do that. The wards and other spells here were seven thousand years old. That was just a wee bit harder to meddle with than changing a set of locks. "I'm assuming there are problems."
"You assume correctly." Lor'themar's scowl didn't ease up at all as he continued talking and pointing out locations on the map. "The Undead Scourge accessed the Sunwell by smashing through the walls. The hole they made is being guarded by a powerful Pit Lord. We might be able to defeat it, but not if it is being reinforced by forces from deeper in the Sunwell Plateau. Additionally, Kael'thas has taken a number of his felblood elves and situated himself in the Magister's Terrace. If we leave him there, he will be able to devastate our forces from behind with his magic."
"Oh, is that all?" Harry asked, only slightly sarcastically. He was already thinking of a dual-pronged assault.
"No." The Regent Lord – more the true lord these days – of Quel'Thalas said humorlessly. "The blue dragon Kalecgos was investigating the remnants of the Sunwell along with some of our magisters. That there have been no signs of battle on the level that such a being could wage bodes ill."
"You think he's been killed?"
"Or captured. Blue dragons are great fonts of magic unto themselves. Kael'thas knew of Kalecgos and would have prepared a means of dealing with him. It is another reason why we must hurry."
"I completely agree. My party and I can take the Magister's Terrace and Kael'thas, then join you in your assault on the Sunwell Plateau." Harry offered.
"That will work." Lor'themar agreed. "Attacking the Pit Lord directly would be folly and leave us open to attack from the rear even if we won without crippling casualties. Instead, we will fly over the Sunwell Plateau and attack by way of Parthelion Plaza. Of course, we will need to wait for Sylvanas to arrive with reinforcements from Silvermoon and then coordinate our attack." He then turned to Luna. "In the meantime, could I ask you to heal my men, Lady Priestess? We have few healers here."
"Of course, leave it to me!" Luna nodded enthusiastically and flounced off into the makeshift triage center.
"No resurrections!" Harry called after her. "We can't risk even a small break in readiness. Save it for later."
"Okay!"
XXXXX
An hour passed in preparation as the forces of Quel'Thalas and various volunteers gathered. During this time, there were some skirmishes with the Legion forces, but neither side was willing to commit to a true assault.
They couldn't give much time for non-elven volunteers to arrive, some did arrive. Harry had sent an urgent message to Jaina and she had come quickly. A small force of draenei also made it, Propher Velen having apparently seen the trouble in a vision. A much more surprising addition was the blue dragon Madrigosa, who had sensed that something had happened to Kalecgos. Unfortunately, the blue dragon was rather impatient and single-minded, and flew ahead to challenge the Pit Lord herself.
That effectively forced the rest of them to attack as well, whether they were ready or not, because they knew that they were not likely to have a better chance of it then when a blue dragon was helping out, however incidentally.
Since the point was to be loud and draw attention, Harry and his party attacked the Magister's Terrace head on. It had not been meant as a fortress, but as more of a luxury retreat, so it was not terribly defensible. The guards posted at the entrance fell quickly.
"What have you done to yourselves?" Arko muttered to herself, toeing at one of the corpses. "Why would you do this to yourselves?"
The dead elf had cracked, ashen grey skin. When he was still alive, fel energy glowed faintly in the cracks, as if the mortal shell was barely containing the corruption it had taken in. Horns grew from his head and a row of fangs poked from under his upper lip.
"Desperation often leads people to risky decisions." Harry replied to the rhetorical question. "And our own ability to adapt to life's circumstances betrays us in situations like this."
In that regard, elves were exactly the same as humans. Even being consciously aware that your own thoughts will lie to you, Harry had fallen prey to it many times. It had helped to have wives that weren't afraid to tell him when they thought he was doing something stupid. Kael'thas had apparently had only bootlickers who encouraged his every decision.
"I think I know her." Jessir spoke up, pointing at another dead elf, this one a female with black hair held in a fancy top knot. "She was at Tempest Keep, I remember thinking you would have probably cut her hair off if it turned out she was not wearing a helmet because of it. I'm sure I killed her… but she didn't look like a demon then."
"I would have." Harry agreed, although that one was far from the worst offender. There were spellcasters here wearing what amounted to belly dancer outfits, presumably to show off the runic tattoos winding their way across their bodies. "And we'll talk about this Tempest Keep adventure that you apparently had later."
Colette chuckled throatily. "Are you going to spank us for going without you?"
"Oh no, I'm going to do far worse than that. I'm going to demand after action reports. In exhaustive detail."
"This is why I wanted to keep it to ourselves." Garona grumbled. "Your 'after action reports' make me want to just stay home and do nothing."
"I've never seen a fat orc before. It might be interesting." In fact, he had never seen a fat anything on Azeroth. The planet was so saturated with magic that it would probably take a dedicated lifestyle to maintain obesity. That it was also technologically medieval and most people didn't have access to abundant food was beside the point.
"We'll still love you even if you get a little chunky, Garona." Luna 'reassured'.
"Let's just go kill this mage again." The half-orc snarled.
"Right." Harry chuckled. "Jessir, Arko, Colette, you'll be doing most of the killing this time. I'll be disrupting the enemy's magic and Luna will be on support detail as usual. Garona, use the chaos to do your thing. Everyone ready?"
He got five nods in return and a growl and felt an excited grin pulling at his lips. "Alright, let's do this then. Go in loud!"
"In Elune's name!"
"The first kill goes to me!"
"Della, attack! Rip and tear!"
"Awooooo!"
"For Love and Justice!"
God damn it, Luna. Harry rolled his eyes in exasperation even as he himself let out a wordless shout. If nothing else, that giggled 'battle cry' confused the fel-corrupted elves they were charging at. A second behind them, Garona slipped sideways with nary a whisper of sound.
Harry opened up by casting Grease spells under the enemy's feet or by making the ground shake, then followed it up with general magic disruption spells to screw up their casting.
What little got through, Arko and Colette simply tanked, loaded as they were with protection spells over their already highly defensive armor. A step behind them, Jessir loosed arrow after arrow at any vulnerable-looking spots, of which the enemy casters had many.
The resistance to their attack was… haphazard at best. Immediately behind the entrance was a large walkway overlooking a courtyard that had probably been carefully maintained at one point. Now the flowers were trampled and the grass scorched, with groups of felblood elves standing around large green crystals of fel magic and draining them with the air of drug addicts. Others were channeling fel magic into the golem sentinels that Silvermoon used as guards, corrupting them.
The walkway itself was narrow and had only about a dozen or so felblood elves guarding it. They reacted to the attack with demonic fury, much of the vaunted elven skill, supposedly cultivated over centuries and millennia of life thrown away in favor of naked aggression, both swordsmanship and spellcraft reduced to a bludgeon meant to hammer the enemy into submission with overwhelming strength.
Harry had an easy time disrupting such a limited and unimaginative spell selection. Arko and Colette could more than match the melee fighters, both having downed strength-enhancing potions before they started, to say nothing of their superior gear. Jessir and Della worked together to pick off any warlocks that tried to get clever. Garona didn't even really have a chance to get behind them before they broke in the face of the overwhelming attack.
"Retreat!" One of the felbloods that had better self-control cried when they had taken about 30% casualties. "Retreat to Captain Fireheart!"
The corrupted elves, their lust for blood and magic having been denied, were still sane enough to see that the odds were against them, so they obeyed.
"Let them go." Harry said calmly, casually tossing a vial into the doorway they fled through. When it broke, a sticky goop with the consistency of tree sap filled up the corridor. The stuff ate magic to grow and was hell to remove without the proper counter-agent, so nobody would be getting through there any time soon. "We can chase them down later."
The courtyard below was already filling up with more felblood elves and summoned demons who'd been drawn to the commotion. How unfortunate for them that they didn't have the high ground. Harry gave Atiesh a little wave and conjured up a small meteor storm to rain down on them. Some managed to hide in the quasi-gazebo that was underneath the walkway, but there wasn't room for all of them.
The courtyard was completely wrecked, but the fell corruption would have required a lot of work to fix anyway.
"Cowards! Come down and face us." A female voice shouted from below.
"If you insist." Harry agreed, knowing that they had to get this done as soon as possible. He jerked his head towards the opposing edge and the five of them jumped off the walkway. He and Luna made sure to do the Hero Landing™, but Arko, Jessir and Colette landed normally.
When they saw what foe was waiting for them, Harry couldn't help himself.
"Wow, you look like you're going to be quite the handful." He blurted out, drawing immediate groans from the night elves and an eyeroll from the former death knight.
The enemy was a ten foot demoness in standard Slutty Spellcaster garb and a burning pope hat on her head, but her most striking feature were her six arms. A shivarra if Harry remembered his demon lore correctly, generally fulfilling the role of clergy for Sargeras.
"I am Priestess Delrissa, adherent to Lord Kil'jaeden." The demoness declared, doing that cool 'schwing' by sliding the two swords she was holding against each other. "You shall not reach Prince Kael'thas or interrupt his work."
"You sound like a handy woman to have on hand." Harry continued, grinning widely beneath his helmet. "But I'll warn you, you're going to have your hands full with us."
"Harry!" Arko bemoaned. "Please stop."
The night elf paladin's reaction twigged something for the demoness and she looked at him with a frown. "Are you… mocking me?"
"I guess it's only expected that you'd have a quick grasp of the situation. You know, with all those hands."
"KILL THEM!" The shivarra roared in fury.
She had a varied collection of servants with her and probably didn't need to give that order, given how furious they looked.
"You need to get a better hold of your temper." Harry continued mocking even as he stabbed his staff into the ground and sent stone shrapnel at the approaching enemies.
It didn't do more than slow most of the enemies or cause light injuries, but there was this one elf that apparently fancied himself some kind of monk. Or maybe he was roleplaying as an orc. Either way, he was shirtless and got his chest shredded by the spray of supersonic rocks.
"Rise again, Eramas!" Priestess Delrissa intoned, casting a Light-based healing spell on the idiot elf.
"Light magic, from a demon?" Colette's tone was bemused. She was fighting a burly male naga and winning decisively. "How unusual."
"With thirty fingers, I guess she can afford to stick them into many pies." Harry continued to pun, burying frost mage ethereal under a barrage of exploding fireballs. A fat little demon died with him as collateral damage.
"Can you knock it off with the puns?!" Arko snarled, though most of her rage was focused on the satyr she was trying to disembowel. The slippery bastard was managing to keep away from her with some help from the shivarra priestess.
"Arko, go after the handjob queen." Harry ordered. "Don't let her keep you at arm's length. Jessir, show that horny goat what a real huntress can do."
"Harry, Elune thinks that you're getting a little out of hand with the puns." Luna chimed in, doing her usual cycle of buffing and shielding spells.
"Elune is getting in on it, too?!" Jessir sputtered in shock, missing a shot in her surprise. Fortunately for her, Della was able to compensate and pounced on the satyr.
"I know, right? Hands down, the best goddess we've ever met."
"Die blasphemer!" The weird monk elf, Eramas, went for a jumping kick, his foot glowing with arcane power.
Harry pointed the sharp end of his bladestaff at the fool and braced himself as he impaled himself on it. "Polearms, the doom of stupid charges since time immemorial. I know you guys specialize in just arms without poles, but still…"
"Curse you to the darkest pits!" Priestess Delrissa snarled, desperately fending off Arko's Holy Moonlight Greatsword with her twin blades. It was obvious at a glance that she was more of a caster than a fighter. "Ellrys, Kagani, aid me!"
"Who is she talking to?" Luna asked in a loud whisper, looking around.
"I think it's the warlock and rogue that Garona handled at the start of the fight." Harry postulated, having seen the half-orc ghost behind the enemy group while they were busy being angry at his puns.
Said assassin apparently now shanked the shivarra in the back while the demoness was busy with Arko.
"Cuuurse youuuu…." Delrissa slurred in her death throes.
"I had her." Arko complained.
"I know, but he would have continued making bad puns for as long as it took." Garona countered, gesturing at Harry.
"I object, those puns were great."
"No."
"Not really."
"Low hanging fruit."
"They did get a bit repetitive after the first three."
"I'm glad you had fun with them."
Harry frowned at them. "You just don't have what it takes to handle my sense of humor."
XXXXX
"Don't look so smug! I know what you're thinking, but Tempest Keep was merely a setback." Kael'thas Sunstrider sneered as soon as they entered the Grand Magister's Asylum, the innermost sanctum of the Magister's Terrace.
"You can't see what we look like, we are wearing full face helmets." Harry pointed out.
After defeating Priestess Delrissa, she of the six armpits, there had been only a few guards in their way. Of course, there were more felbloods coming from behind, but another one of his magic-eating gunk grenades blocked the passage behind them.
"Don't think you can hide your thoughts from me!" The clearly insane elf raved. His skin had turned a dark red and he now sported an impressive set of horns. He also had a green crystal embedded in his chest. "Did you honestly believe that you defeated me? That I would entrust the future to some blind, half-night elf mongrel?! Oh no, he was merely an instrument, a stepping stone in a much larger plan! It has all led to this…"
"What I think is that you are making shit up as you go and trying to pretend that you have it all figured out." Harry snorted. "If you were this pathetic before, then no wonder that Jaina wasn't interested in you."
"JAINA PROUDMOORE IS WHORE WHO SPREADS HER LEGS FOR BUTCHERS AND MONTERS!" The demonic elf erupted, spittle flying from his mouth.
"Rude." Luna chastised, audibly frowning. "Jaina is a sweetheart."
"Wow, that's one hell of I nerve I struck." Harry was impressed by the outburst. "And is that why you joined up with the Burning Legion? Are you still pining for Jaina? Hoping she'll give you the time of day if you're evil enough?"
He had been hoping for another monumental loss of temper, but the fallen prince took a deep breath and calmed himself instead. "I know what you're doing, but I won't fall for it. Where is that orc assassin of yours?
"Garona is a curious existence. She is everywhere and nowhere, at all times and at no time. Back home, behind the curtains, on the ceiling, under the carpet and within your nightmares. If you try to look at her directly you'll see nothing, but you might catch glimpses of her in the corner of your vision. There is an urban legend among orcs that warns children to not dabble with fel magic or Garona will visit them in their sleep and cut their throats."
Actually more among the Shadow Council, and it wasn't a warning to children so much as a general caution to members that there was a supremely skilled assassin with a grudge out there, but that was all semantics.
While they were 'talking', the Battle Harem had spread out. Arko and Colette each went to one flank while Harry and Luna stayed in the middle, with Jessir and Della behind them.
Kael'thas did not look terribly intimidated by the unfavorable odds. In many cases, this would be a red flag indicating that the odds maybe were not what they seemed, but there was a distinct possibility that the fallen prince was simply insane. Actually, he was definitely insane, but he might be insane in a way that made him overconfident.
"Enough of this, if your pet killer thinks to hide outside the room until I am distracted, then I will simply burn you while she waits." He said, demonstrating absolute confidence in his ability to defeat Garona's stealth.
That was fair. The detections spells he had on this room really were top notch.
"Show me what you go, princeling." Harry taunted. "I, too, am pretty good with fire."
The demonic elf scowled, showing rows of sharp teeth, before lobbing a fireball with an angry yell.
It was an excellent fireball. Dense, compact, controlled, fast, filled with explosive goodness, stable enough to stay coherent, but volatile enough to detonate at the slightest touch of foreign magic. If one of his own students produced such a fireball, Harry would give them a 10 out of 10 for it.
But this was no time to be admiring the enemy's spellcasting prowess. Dispelling the incoming fireball would be impossible and putting up a shield would be just asking for another, so he instead exploited the innate weakness of the classic Fireball spell. His bladestaff was charged with a defensive spell and spun in front of him at rapid speed. The fireball crashed into the spinning staff and exploded, but all the force of it was caught in the funnel created by the spell imbued into it. Harry quickly shaped the force into a bludgeon of hot air and sent it back at Kael'thas.
Meanwhile, the fallen prince had lobbed two more quick fireballs at the approaching Arko and Colette, before being forced to defend himself against the air hammer and Jessir's arrow.
Then the battle was on. Kael'thas conjured up a phoenix that was practically an independent magical creature, which was very impressive and required quite a bit of effort for Harry to dismantle. Meanwhile, the fallen prince tried to roast Arko and Colette, only to be stymied by their own skills, armor and Luna's protections.
Jessir was unfortunately not as effective as she would be normally because she had to keep restraining Della. The wolf wanted to jump into the attack, but the huntress knew she would just get fried instantly. Still, she did fire off arrows that the demon elf had to deal with.
Harry still thought that he could beat this guy alone, powered up on demon juice or not, although it would likely take quite a while and result in massive collateral damage. Spell duels between mages were funny things – most of them were over in seconds, but at the highest level they could drag on for ages.
Kael'thas was fighting defensively; keeping his back to a wall, narrowing lines of approach, denying territory. Clearly, he remained wary of Garona. Smart of him, but he was looking in the wrong place.
The pressure on him started becoming dangerous and he let out a shockwave of force to cause the two melee fighters to back off.
"I won't fall here!" Kael'thas snarled, casting a spell that felt quite familiar to Harry. Everything started floating.
"Oh wow, you turned off the gravity." Harry complimented, not particularly bothered by this development. He'd been screwing around with gravity since he was a teenager. "I didn't think anyone on Azeroth even knew about the concept. Maybe I underestimated the Kirin Tor a little bit?"
"Harry, do something!" Arko shouted at him, flailing helplessly in the air.
"Don't worry, he can't keep this up." He reassured her, conjuring a continuous, high pressure jet of water to fire at the fallen prince. "This is a maintained spell, not a feature of the room, so he's just wearing himself out."
As evidenced by the fact that he couldn't even spare enough focus to do more than block the water cannon.
Kael'thas realized it, too, and canceled the gravity lapse with a frustrated shout, then used a disruption spell to screw up Harry's access to the Elemental Plane of Water.
Arko, Colette, Jessir and Della unceremoniously fell to the ground. They angrily got up and renewed their attack on the fallen prince, once more trying to overwhelm his defenses.
Kael'thas responded by snarling and furiously throwing out waves of felflame. No longer were his spells controlled, now he was just throwing magic around like a berserker. It was a bad move in the long run, but it did force them all to back off and stick to defensive magic.
"Master, give me strength." The demonic elf gasped, visibly getting tired. There was only so much that the body and mind could take and he was reaching that limit. His body was visibly withering as the fel crystal in his chest dimmed. His face became gaunt and his hair started falling out, beginning to resemble the so-called wretched, the elves that had withered due to magic addiction.
"Now, he's vulnerable!" Harry shouted the order. They had been playing it careful on purpose, knowing that none of them could afford to expend too much effort or take any cursed wounds, not with the attack on the Sunwell still ahead of them.
"My demise accomplishes nothing!" Kael'thas screamed furiously, throwing more and more fire around. "The master will have you! You will drown in your own blood! The world shall arrggh!"
The final word was a scream of pain, courtesy of the daggers Garona had rammed into his back.
"Wh…ere?" The fallen prince gasped, glaring at his killer twice over with rage and frustration.
"I did tell you she could be hiding in your nightmares." Harry joked.
Luna had actually shifted the half-orc into the Emerald Dream with the Tears of Elune. They'd known that an archmage as powerful as Kael'thas wouldn't fail to protect himself from another sneak attack, so they'd worked to wear him down until he became convinced that death was coming from the front.
"Woo, another win for the Battle Harem!" Luna cheered. "Go team!"
"I really wanted to stab him, though." Colette sighed.
"You can stab his minions." Harry said, already striding back towards the gunked up exit with the counter-agent in hand. "In fact, we've probably got hours of stabbing ahead of us today."
XXXXX
The hastily named Shattered Sun Offensive had its work cut out for it in their attempts to reclaim the Sunwell Plateau. When Kael'thas had left for Outland in his search for a cure to their race's magic addiction, he had taken the majority of the blood elves' military with him, leaving little more than a garrison force behind.
In the five or six years following that decision, the remaining population had militarized to a considerable degree. There were still civilians among them, but far fewer of them than any race in good shape would consider normal. Feeling deep in their bones that this battle against their traitorous prince would decide their fate, almost every capable fighter had joined the Shattered Sun Offensive
With the addition of summoned demons, the numbers were in favor of the felblood elves occupying the Sunwell Plateau. They were also, on average, more battle-hardened and more powerful thanks to the fel corruption. Compounding this problem was the fact that the Sunwell Plateau had accidentally been built quite defensively.
While the main point had obviously been beauty what with the gardens and gazebos and walkways, it also created a winding path that the Shattered Sun Offensive had to move through in order to reach the Sunwell proper.
The only thing that was letting them make any progress at all was the presence of multiple powerful individuals that were able to smash through the enemy ranks and force them to give ground. Such was often the case when the variances in personal power could be so vast.
Of course, that was when they encountered a new problem – the blue dragon Kalecgos that Madrigosa hand mentioned. And he was raving nonsense about no longer being a slave to Malygos.
"A demon must be possessing him." Lor'themar scowled.
"Barely, its control is obviously fragile." Jaina frowned. "If we could keep him still for a minute, exorcising the demon would be simple."
The problem with that was that Kalecgos was an adult dragon and there weren't many things that could force him to keep still. Simply killing him would be the expedient thing to do, but not a very smart one. Madrigosa likely wouldn't take it well and the Blue Dragonflight's relationship with mortals was already strained enough. On the other hand, they also couldn't allow themselves to be delayed and Kalecgos was blocking the entrance deeper into the Sunwell Plateau.
"Look out below!" Came a shout from above.
People quickly scattered, although it was unnecessary since the people that crashed into the ground wouldn't have fallen on anyone to begin with. Two of them landed in a kneeling pose with one hand brace on the ground, while the other four simply bent their legs a bit to absorb the shock.
"Come on, we said do a superhero landing." Harry complained, standing up.
"You didn't explain what a 'superhero landing' is!" Arko and Jessir retorted waspishly.
"I just assumed it was a landing done by a hero." Colette shrugged.
Garona grumbled something that probably wasn't suitable for polite company.
"Well, there's always next time." Luna said optimistically and turned to the crowd. "Hi!"
"Is Kael'thas dead?" Lor'themar demanded, shaking off the surprise.
"Well, he's a demon now, so he's less dead and more banished to the Twisting Nether, but we won't be seeing him again for a while." Harry shrugged. "What's going on? Why are you lollygagging in front of Big Blue?"
"He's being possessed by a demon and we don't want to just kill him." Jaina quickly explained. "I don't suppose you have any way to do a quick exorcism?"
With how many esoteric magics the extra-dimensional archmage had at his command, it wouldn't surprise her.
"Not exactly… but I've got an idea."
Something about the way he said that inspired dread in Jaina's heart, as it would for any mage of Dalaran. Those were words frequently used by apprentices when they thought they were being clever.
"Give me a second." Harry said, stabbing his bladestaff into the ground and then swaggering over to the blue dragon with exaggerated confidence. "Hey, demon! I know this is going to sound super gay, but why don't you get out of that dragon and come into me?"
"What the hells is he doing?!" Jaina hissed at Luna.
"We'd like to know that, too." Jessir spoke for the other members of the… Battle Harem. "I'd prefer our husband to remain unpossessed."
"Don't worry about it." The priestess assured. "This is fine."
It absolutely wasn't fine!
"That dragon is just a dragon, but I'm the Speaker of Azeroth. I know how to travel across dimensions and fuck with time. I was a god once." Harry continued talking. "Just imagine how much chaos you could cause if you manage to corrupt me."
"Is he mad?" Lady Liadrin, leader of the Blood Knights, the blood elves' recently established order of paladins, wondered.
"Yes." Jaina found herself chorusing with Sylvanas Windrunner. They shared an awkward glance and looked away.
In any case, it seemed that Harry's words proved too tempting and multiple streams of darkness flowed out of Kalecgos and into him, sending him staggering back. Fel energies briefly blazed from his eyes before settling back down to a more natural green, but the extra-dimensional archmage continued staggering back almost dunkenly.
"Heh, demons." Harry chuckled in a pained tone. "Impulsive morons, every last one of them."
Kalecgos shook his massive head and then shrank down into a blue-haired half-elf.
"I thank you for getting that Dreadlord out of me, but are you alright?" The dragon asked in concern.
Jaina would like to know that as well, although she refused to voice it out of fear of inviting more romantic advances.
"Just give me a moment." Harry said in a strangely nasal tone, pulling a blessed crystal vial out of somewhere. "This is going to get nasty."
"Should we prepare an exorcism?" Colette Blaumeux (was she even still a Blaumeux now that she'd married?) asked.
"No, I got this." He assured and started making absolutely disgusting noises in the back of his throat. A wet, gargling sound that called to mind images of ropey mucus hanging in between two walls of flesh.
Jaina involuntarily shuddered in disgust, and she wasn't the only one.
It got worse when Harry brought the crystal vial to his nose, used a finger to cap one nostril and then blew, expelling a disgusting mass of glowing green-black goop.
"Elune have mercy." Jessir muttered.
"By the Light!" Someone else muttered, sounding like they were gagging.
"What are you doing?!" Sylvanas demanded to know. Her tone was of horrified revulsion.
Harry didn't answer, merely continued to blow his nose and expel more and more fel-snot into the crystal vial. Jaina could swear she saw the disgusting mass tremble like it was alive.
Finally, it ended. The vial was full and Harry's nostril looked like the flesh around it had been both burned and melted.
"Fuck, that hurt." He muttered, wincing as he gave the ruined flesh a poke. "Luna, a purge and a heal, if you would be so kind."
"Right." The priestess nodded and blasted her husband with sacred moonlight, the same kind priestesses of Elune often used to clear away corruption.
Harry grunted in pain and then sighed in relief as a healing spell followed it, his nostril thankfully looking fine again.
"Did you just expel a demon from your soul by blowing your nose?" Jaina asked woodenly, having put together what happened.
"Yes." Harry unfortunately confirmed. "I've had a god try to possess me once, and I've worked out counter-measures since then. Plus, I've always wanted a Dreadlord to experiment on, so it was awfully nice of this one to conceptualize himself."
He shook the crystal vial filled with green and black gunk. A face twisted in agony and rage briefly appeared pressed against the glass before fading again.
"But did it have to be like that?" Jaina asked plaintively.
"When we get back home, we are opening up the liqueur cabinet and drinking until I forget this incident." Arko said, seemingly unable to look at Harry directly.
"Agreed." Jessir and Colette chorused.
"We should… continue." Lor'themar Theron said with a pained wince. "Lord Kalecgos, can we count on your aid?"
The question snapped the blue dragon out of the baffled stare he was giving his savior. "Of course, time is short. Let us go."
XXXXX
Now that they were inside the complex that housed the Sunwell, the fighting had changed. Instead of an open battle, it was a hard slog through the hallways. The felbloods had filled the floors with magic traps and turned every doorway into a choke point.
In the interest of expediency, the strongest members of the Shattered Sun Offensive took point so that they could push through without getting bogged down by the obvious stall tactics.
They made it to the spot where Arthas had smashed the wall and backed up a harried Madrigosa. The female blue dragon was able to keep away from the wingless Pit Lord she was fighting by simply staying in the air, but could not really do him much harm because she had to keep defending against the lesser demons and the felblood elves backing it up.
Kalecgos elected to stay and help his fellow dragon with the Pit Lord while the rest of them moved on. With them being able to fly, they should have little trouble with the powerful demon. More importantly, it allowed the Shattered Sun Offensive to keep advancing without delay.
More hallways and defiled rooms passed, the enemy composition notably changing from felbloods to demons. Finally, they reached Agamath, the First Gate, and behind it was a ritual in progress spewing out a steady stream of demons.
It was ministered by two female eredar, the demonic version of the draenei which had taken Sargeras' bargain long ago instead of fleeing across the cosmos with Velen. Identical except for the shades of their skin, one being a shadowy medium between blue and purple and the other a light red. They wore little more than metal bras, tiny skirts with a skull buckle keeping a loin cloth in place to cover their privates, gauntlets and greaves all in colors matching their skin tones.
"Misery…" The darker twin began after the Shattered Sun Offensive slew the last of their summoned demons, strutting around the room and speaking in an unnecessarily aroused tone.
"Depravity…" The red twin strutted in a mirror image of her obvious sister and continued in the same tone.
"Confusion…"
"Hatred…"
"Mistrust…"
"Chaos…"
"These are the hallmarks."
"These are the pillars."
They finished their little spiel by standing side by side at the other end of the room, blocking further progress and posing. Noses turned haughtily up, Hips cocked, one hand at their waist, the other extended in a universal 'stop!' sign, still perfectly mirroring each other.
"Lady Sacrolash…" The dark twin declared.
"… and Grand Warlock Alythess!" The red one followed.
"Bar your way!" They chorused.
Oh no, did we just encounter a demonic super sentai duo? Harry thought with mild horror, knowing what was coming.
"EEEEEEEeeeee!" Luna squeed in absolute joy, gripping her staff in both hands and wiggling in place. "Harry, Harry! Look at how cool and sexy they are! I want them! Can we keep them after we beat them? Can we please?!"
This naturally ignited a storm of protest and questions from the rest of the Shattered Sun Offensive. Among them predictable stuff like 'are you insane?!', 'what is wrong with you?!" and 'blasphemy!', but there were also some more pertinent ones like 'this is not the time for that!', 'you are not bringing demons to our bed!' and 'please lower the pitch of your voice.'
The Eredar twins were momentarily surprised by Luna's outburst, but then identical amused smirks grew on their faces.
"What an interesting priestess."
"What a fun priestess."
"Why don't we strike a bargain?"
"Defeat us and you may take us as your playthings…"
"… but be defeated by us, and you will be our plaything."
And they were perverts, because of course they were. Their deal was also rigged, as they obviously expected to be able to corrupt Luna either way. Heh, shows what they know.
"DEAL!" Luna yelled before anyone could get a word in edgewise, slamming the butt of her staff into the ground. "Moonlight Cannon!"
Harry saw the glowing felfire eyes of the eredar twins bulge in shock for a moment as a great beam of holy energy lanced out from the head of Luna's staff and struck the unattended summoning circle, obliterating it. The eredar twins clearly hadn't been expecting such a powerful offensive spell from a priestess of Elune and reacted too late, barely managing to put up a defense before it hit. Their spells were overwhelmed and they got thrown against the wall behind them, mostly unharmed since it wasn't aimed at them but at the ritual circle.
They slid down and fell to the knees, then rose back up to their full height, still perfectly synchronized.
"Fire and darkness take you!" They chorused, calling upon their magics.
The leaders of the Shattered Sun Offensive were already moving. Harry moved to attack the flame-using Alythess, along with Colette, Jaina, Sylvanas and Halduron Brightwing. Jessir, Arko, Lor'themar Theron, Grand Magister Rommath and Lady Liadrin went for the shadow-using Sacrolash. Luna stayed in the back and acted in support of both groups.
Harry didn't bother asking anyone to not kill them, knowing that they wouldn't listen. Taking these two alive would be a pain and a half, but Luna would pout for months if they didn't.
Sacrolash drew two serpentine short swords from her back that felt cursed even from a distance, then conjured up multiple mirror images with the same blades in hand. A cloak of flame burst into existence around Alythess and she started streams of molten magma all over the ground.
Harry and Jaina worked to cool down the magma so that Colette could get into melee, while Sylvanas and Halduron fired their bows at the red-skinned eredar.
On the other side, the melee fighters engaged the shadow clones while the ranged fighters engaged Sacrolash.
Behind them all, Luna worked to dispel the fire and shadow curses the twins were liberally throwing around.
Everything seemed to be going well. The twins were certainly no pushovers, but they couldn't stand against so many powerful opponents. Their defeat was inevitable… and then they threw a curve ball.
"Fire to the aid of shadow!" Alythess yelled, casting a powerful Conflagration curse… on Lady Liadrin, who was fighting her sister.
The leader of the Blood Knights shrieked in pain as she was immolated, stumbling around in confusion and inadvertently blasting her allies with the explosive blaze emanating from her.
"Shadow to the aid of fire!" Sacrolash yelled moments later, casting a similar Void-based Shadow Nova curse on Colette.
Waves of shadow magic pulsed from the former death knight, making her collapse to the ground and forcing back those of them that had been attempting to press the attack against Alythess.
Luna rushed to dispel the fire curse on Lady Liadrin and then heal her, while Harry did the same for Colette. They managed, but were forced on the defensive by the tricky switcheroo strategy, having to recover while the eredar twins regained all the ground they'd lost and then some.
Eventually, things returned back to square one, but now the Shattered Sun Offensive was more wary. The eredar twins were so in tune with each other that they could seamlessly switch targets in combat and disrupt the flow of the battle. They had kept that a surprise at first for use as a finishing blow, but didn't quite manage to follow through. With the jig being up, they made use of that ability much more liberally, covering for each other whenever it looked like someone was about to make a decisive move. Their teamwork was truly extraordinary – unlike the two separate groups attacking them, they were a single unit.
"Herd them together!" Sylvanas called out just moments before he could.
Conventional wisdom said that it was better to take your enemies down one by one than together, but conventional wisdom didn't account for enemies that had this kind of insane synergy. At least if the eredar twins were together, they would be susceptible to area of effect spells.
To Harry's great concern, the eredar twins went along with their strategy, each one backing away until they were within arm's reach of each other. Then they bought room with a vicious blast of fire and shadow and started moving in perfect mirror motions once again.
That sparked something in his memory that he hadn't thought about in ages. As it was with many anime and entertainment media in general, he had only skimmed through Dragonball for ideas on spells and interesting magical items, such as the Nimbus Cloud. The eredar twins weren't doing the same silly moveset, but he was eerily reminded of the so-called Fusion Dance.
Especially when they started doing another ridiculous thing – each one seemingly casting one half of a spell, so perfectly mentally in tune with each other that it actually worked instead of fizzling out as all conventional wisdom said it should.
"Stop them! Don't let them finish that spell!" He roared. He swung his bladestaff and released a crescent slash of Light energy that was intended to take their legs off. He could put them back later.
But it was too late. "Shadow and Flame." The eredar twins chorused, stepping into each other and exploding in a release of Void-cursed fire.
Colette and Arko had their armor badly scorched, but Lor'themar Theron and Lady Liadrin were much worse off. The daft fools weren't even wearing helmets and received severe curse burns across their faces. They might require his expertise to heal those later, but for now they were out of the fight, yanked away by Luna and given emergency healing.
The others were all ranged combatants and didn't get hit, but all of their attacks had been knocked out of the air or spells disrupted.
Their foe was changed, instead of two being only one. The fused eredar female had gained a few inches, putting her at about 7'4'', but otherwise she was mostly identical to the identical twins that made her up. Her horns still curved around her ears in a way reminiscent of a ram and her hair was still swept back along her head. The only difference was in the coloration, which had turned a distinctive Shadowflame purple.
"Ah, of course. Phase two." Harry sighed. "Should have seen it coming."
"Dare you face us, now that we are one?" The composite being spoke in a dual-toned voice, bubbling purple flames in her hands.
"Yep!" Luna answered the rhetorical question with a Starfall spell.
The composite demon parried it with a sword wreathed in Shadowflame and continued the swing, launching a wave of confounding flames at them.
Jaina blocked it with a wall of ice on one side and Luna blocked it with a wall of moonlight on the other. With that, the battle was rejoined.
XXXXX
Trying to hit mages with arrows could be incredibly annoying. The powerful ones always seemed to have protection spells up that allowed them to defend themselves, or some other trick that protected them from a quick and easy distance kill.
In the case of this new combined eredar female, it was a combination of Shadowflame barriers and mirror images that were just solid enough to take a hit. Jessir and Sylvanas had both been trying to sneak a shot past those problems, to no avail as of yet. Even if they got an arrow past the mirror images, the Shadowflame barrier tended to strip their shots of power and the miniscule amount of 'armor' the eredar was wearing seemed to be enchanted against projectiles.
"Don't go for kill shots, we still want them alive." Harry ordered, making things even more difficult.
"You can't be serious." Jaina retorted, echoing Jessir's – and probably many others' – thoughts.
"I'm completely serious." Harry replied. "Luna's lusts for horny girls aside, these two are obviously high up in the Burning Legion hierarchy. They're not stupidly massive or horribly mutated. I can purge the fel from them and then we'll have a source of information on Sargeras."
"And Luna won't pout about being denied her toys." Jessir snarked.
"And Luna won't pout about being denied her toys." He conceded.
Jessir could only marvel at her own lack of outrage at the thought. It still seemed like only yesterday that she was only a mediocre huntress joining her friend in adventuring. Ever since that horrible moment when Arko and Trey Lightforge hadn't been there to meet her at the Emerald Sanctuary in Felwood, everything just seemed to be moving so fast. It felt like she was in a boat on a fast rushing river, just being pulled along with barely any input of her own.
It was scary… but also exciting. She'd become more powerful than she ever expected to, done and experienced things she never expected to. If it was up to her, she never would have even considered most of what they'd done… and she certainly wouldn't have considered taking these eredar warlocks alive for whatever Luna and Harry had in mind.
But they hadn't led her and Arko astray yet. Despite all their weirdness, she didn't doubt that they cared. She would trust them again, as she had in the past.
"I'll try to take out one of her legs." Jessir said, drawing an adamantine arrow and charging it with burning moonlight. "Just give me an opening."
If this were an ordinary foe, she would have gone with something to paralyze or cripple the muscles, but the bodies of demons didn't work the same way as that of mortal creatures. They were just shells for the fel energies of the Twisting Nether and moved by will alone. Elune's sacred light would hurt them worse than any poison or shrapnel.
"You'll have one." Harry promised. "Everyone, be ready to move. This fight is almost done."
"Oh, you think so?" The fused eredar chuckled sensuously in her dual-toned voice. "We've only just begun."
Pointedly, none of them glanced up at the high-vaulted ceiling, where Garona was carefully and quietly crawling. The ritual being used on the remnants of the Sunwell made it unwise to try the same trick as they'd used against Kael'thas, but the half-orc assassin had more than one way of sneaking up on an enemy.
The Shattered Sun Offensive redoubled its attacks on the fused warlock twins, making sure they had her (or their) full attention. The enemy was throwing around huge amount of power that would have rapidly exhausted a mortal caster, but with a direct gateway to the Twisting Nether being opened, that wasn't an issue.
But even with that and a seeming much greater mental capacity thanks to the fusion, some kind of mistake was inevitable. Harry managed to slip a spell past the enemy's screens of Shadowflame and mirror images, causing the mantle of purple fire to fizzle out.
The fused twins recovered quickly, putting up a temporary screen of Shadowflame to protect themself, but they blundered – it protected only the front. Jessir used her excessively practiced Blink spell to flank the demon and loosed her arrow.
Attacked from too many sides, the fused warlocks couldn't react fast enough and the arrow sank into the knee, immediately forcing them to the ground. A gout of Shadowflame was launched at Jessir's position with an angry snarl, but she was already back in her previous position, shaking off the brief disorientation from the consecutive Blinks.
That proved enough distract to let several more hits through. An arrow from Sylvanas into the gut, another from Halduron Brightwing into the shoulder, a bolt of frost from Jaina, a jolt of lightning from Harry.
"RAAAGH!" The now rather severely wounded fused being roared, scorching the air with Shadowflame to force everyone back. "We are not beaten yet!"
And then Garona ghosted behind them and stuck her knives into the demon's spine, sending her screaming to the ground.
"That never gets old." Harry snickered.
Jessir had to agree. Seeing powerful mages and other boasting enemies felled by a sneak attack really didn't get old.
The fused demon shimmered and split, turning into two severely wounded eredar females. Lesser wounds than what they had together, but Garona's blades for this mission were chosen for their anti-demonic properties. The horrible wounds inflicted on their backs would be a long time healing without any aid.
"Ah, we surrender." The purple one, Sacrolash, chuckled, raising her head to smirk. "Take us into your custody, merciful priestess."
"Yes, we ask for sanctuary." The red one, Alythess, added, just as mockingly. "Please, Kil'jaeden will punish us terribly for this failure."
That was probably true, but they were clearly being sarcastic and didn't expect anything worse than banishment to befall them. Jessir had a feeling they would be changing their minds on that very soon.
"Woooo, we got the goat girls!" Luna cheered. "Harry, take my spoils to the tower please."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going. Contain the calamity that is your mammaries." Harry snorted in amusement, already pulling two sets of enchanted manacles from his so-called 'hammerspace'. She still didn't quite understand why they called it that despite his attempts to explain.
"This still doesn't seem like a good idea." Jaina murmured.
"I'm sorry, Jaina, but you don't get a say on this until you join the Battle Harem." Luna replied sympathetically.
Jessir sighed and rolled her eyes. Back to business as usual.
XXXXX
There was some kind of suspicious fuckery about.
The blood elf leadership had been far too quiet on the topic of taking the eredar twins prisoner. Sylvanas could be excused, her background being what it was, she really didn't have room to say anything on the topic, but the other three and especially the paladin lady should have protested.
Harry had developed a keen sense for what kind of actions people would protest against, and he had expected protest. That there hadn't been any told him clear as day that the elves didn't feel like they could say anything. Their increasing tension as they fought their way past the demons protecting the innermost reaches of the Sunwell Plateau only confirmed his suspicions.
And then they reached a large gathering chamber just before the final approach to the Sunwell. Inside was a naaru, but it did not shine with Light. Instead, it was darkened and radiating Void energies.
"What in damnation have you done?" Despite his words, they came out in a long-suffering sigh, because there was no way that the Burning Legion had a naaru on their side.
"… After the Scourge invasion, our people suffered a mass loss of faith in the Light." Lor'thermar Theron explained woodenly, the fresh scars on his face from the earlier Shadowflame pulling gruesomely. "Prince Kael'thas sent us this naaru he had captured, M'uru, for our Blood Knights to drain and fuel their powers. Very few approved, but we needed the strength to protect ourselves."
"Alright, fair enough." Harry shrugged.
"Just like that?" Jaina was stunned by the brush off, and she wasn't the only one. Pretty much everyone was staring at him. Except Luna, who was looking at the darkened naaru sadly.
"What else am I supposed to say?" He shrugged again. "People do stupid things when they're desperate and I'm sure they're regretting it right now, so there's no point in wasting time ragging on them about it. Although, for future reference, you should have just asked the oversized wind chime for help – naaru are suckers for a sob story."
Halduron Brightwing, Sylvanas' successor to the post of Ranger General, glared at Grand Magister Rommath at that. Come to think of it, Rommath had been as quiet as a mouse this entire time and was practically broadcasting guilt. Well, that was none of his concern.
He was, however, annoyed at not knowing what the elves had been doing. Obviously they weren't going announce their abuse of a naaru, but their ability to keep it secret from him grated.
"Colette, we'll be relying on you for this one." He said.
"Oh? What can I do?" The former death knight perked up with interest.
"The naaru are beings of energy and those energies aren't infinite, as the blood elves have demonstrated. Your skill with Void magic and your sword will be the key here. Drain M'uru's energies into the Voidblade while I, Luna, Jaina and Rommath-"
"Wait!" Came the shout from behind, the shapeshifted form of Kalecgos and Madrigosa jogging up to them. "Apologies for the delay. Brutallus proved a resilient foe."
"The Pit Lord named himself Brutallus?" Harry was amused. "What a tool. Anyway, as I was saying, I, Luna, Jaina, Rommath and the blue dragons will use our magics to contain M'uru while Colette drains him dry. Any questions?"
"Is that a naaru?" Madrigosa demanded in confused outrage.
Harry sighed in aggravation. They really didn't have time for this.
XXXXX
Fun fact: naaru were actually shit fighters. They were powerful, but in a more abstract way, and the nature of their existence made them vulnerable in ways that mortals weren't. With six powerful archmages working together, keeping M'uru contained was pretty easy and then Colette was able to just drain the Void energies into her sword at leisure.
Harry wasn't entirely sure what Kael'thas thought putting a darkened naaru as the final obstacle to Kil'jaeden would accomplish. Didn't he himself prove that they weren't that tough? Or had the cultists summoning the demon lord sucked up the remains of his power for their ritual and then dumped the leftovers on the doorstep?
(But he did appreciate the opportunity to swipe M'uru's heart.)
No matter. They were there and there was no time for pondering.
"Stay on task! Do not waste time!" A deep, booming voice rattled the falls, sounding as if it was coming from a cave in an alternate dimension. "I have waited long enough!"
The all rushed towards the edge of the walkway that led down to the Sunwell proper, fearing what they would see. Three eredar warlocks channeling the summoning ritual. They were utterly defenseless.
Which was really all the invitation Jessir, Sylvanas and Halduron Brightwing needed to shoot them. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite soon enough.
An angry growl resonated from the churning chaos where the Sunwell once blazed, sounding thoroughly displeased. "The expendable have perished… so be it! I shall succeed where Sargeras could not. I will bleed this wretched world and secure my place as the true master of the Burning Legion!"
Reality tore open and a burst of tainted flame heralded the arrival of the Burning Legion's second in command. He was gigantic, a crimson-skinned winged eredar with a maw full of fanged teeth.
Harry found himself inordinately annoyed by the demon lord's decision to wear huge pauldrons and no breastplate, though. Who did that?!
"The summoning was not complete, we still have a chance!" Kalecgos urged, already running down. "He can yet be banished!"
"Archers, stay up here and shoot at him, we'll keep his attention on us." Harry said mostly to Jessir, knowing that there was no sense in giving up the high ground.
"Right!" She acknowledged, visibly relieved that she wouldn't have to get close to the demon lord. "Be careful."
"We will." He nodded back to her and looked pensively at the group's rogue. "Garona, you should probably stay up here, too. I don't think you'll be able to backstab this one."
The half-orc assassin stubbornly shook her head. "I will fight."
There was no more time to argue, so he just sighed. "Fine. Let's go."
"I can't believe I'm running to fight a demon lord." Arko muttered to herself incredulously as they ran down.
"Look at it this way; either we die fighting him or we die when he destroys Azeroth." Colette tried to be reassuring.
"That doesn't make me feel any better!"
"Put aside your worries." Harry chimed in with a last bit of advice. "This isn't any different than C'thun. Everything can die, so pick a limb and start chopping."
There were a few scoffing laughs, but the atmosphere was no longer quite so grim. They made it down to the bottom a few seconds afterwards, facing the towering demon lord.
"I will not be denied! This world shall fall!" Kil'jaeden… well, he didn't quite yell, but it was loud.
That probably had something to do with his size. Even with just half of him sticking out of the portal, he loomed at least thirty feet high. Probably more.
"No, Deceiver, it will not." Kalecgos said heroically. "As long as we stand, you will never have this world."
"A thing easily rectified." Kil'jaeden sneered and pointed a finger at the dragon, shooting a writhing tendril of lightning-like darkness at him.
Kalecgos managed to put up a defensive barrier in time, but the dark lightning bounced off it and chained to the person closest to him, which happened to be Collete. It didn't stop there, though, as magical attack continued chaining to more targets. Madrigosa, Lor'themar Theron, then Harry were all hit.
They all went down with cries of pain, caught off guard by the chaining spell. There had been no time to react to it.
Harry was quick to force himself back on his feet, feeling Luna's cleansing magic purge the lingering fel-taint and repair the damage to his body. Still, that one spell told him that this fight was going to be hard. Kil'jaeden didn't seem as skilled a mage as Azshara, but he had power to spare.
Arko didn't appreciate that and charged forward with a battle cry that had more than a little fear in it, wreathed in a bubble of moonlight for protection.
Kil'jaeden, predictably, swung one massive hand to brush her off. It hit the moonlight bubble and the sword swinging out of it with a sizzling crash of competing magics. Arko wasn't sent flying, but her bubble collapsed. On the other hand, Kil'jaeden also didn't lose a finger like he was supposed to and only received a fairly tiny cut.
The demon lord's next action was to cast a spell that felt vile even from a distance, targeting the night elf paladin. Fortunately, Luna was on the ball as usual and erected a new protection around her, but the spell was continuous and just didn't let up.
Harry got himself back in the game and launched a bolt of lightning straight up the demon lord's nose. He didn't expect it to do much in the way of damage after seeing how resistant he was against the Holy Moonlight Greatsword, but they absolutely could not allow him to stay focused on a single person or else that person was going to die.
The other three melee combatants charged into the fray as well, and arrows began to rain down from the floor above. Even a few brave souls from the Shattered Sun Offensive rank and file began joining the battle, but Harry didn't expect them to achieve much except and early death in a fight at this level. Still, they might make for good distractions.
Kil'jaeden ignored it all except Harry, snarling at him and using the same Soul Flaying spell he had tried on Arko earlier. Once again, Luna blocked it, but this time it was accompanied by a curse that went through her shield. Harry's armor suddenly began to emanate a blistering heat, enough to make it red hot and scorch him… if it hadn't been enchanted to resist fire and if his own fire affinity didn't nullify it completely.
Jaina was less lucky. Not wearing any kind of armor, the heat emanating from him gave her first degree burns before she put up a shield of frost and Blinked away. Luna, the other person standing close enough to him to be affected, ignored it thanks to her own armor.
He was going to tease Jaina about this later and once again point out the benefits of armor. She had to see sense eventually.
Seeing that his flame curse didn't work as intended, the demon lord snarled and conjured up a bunch of floating orbs of darkness… which then started autonomously firing Shadow Bolts at people. Not the most lethal of spells for anyone participating in this fight, but the fact that they were an additional nuisance in an already dangerous situation made them a priority.
Harry immediately started dismantling them, spotting Rommath, Kalecgos and Madrigosa doing the same thing on their end. Meanwhile, Jaina tried to hinder Kil'jaeden by conjuring a block of ice over his eyes.
It didn't work too well, but it did piss him off, so she was forced to go on the defensive with Luna helping out. This left everyone else free to pile on him with arrows, spells and blades.
Roaring in frustration at the game of whack-a-mole, Kil'jaeden made a gesture with his arms and gave them all what might pass for a smirk if you squinted and added some psychotic cruelty to the expression. "The enemy is among you."
Darkness bubbled next to each of them, taking the shape of their allies. The likenesses were perfect, down to the battle damage they had taken in this fight, and they ran in among them as soon as they were fully formed, causing mass confusion as they were suddenly in battle against themselves.
Harry found himself fending off a copy of Jaina, who was fortunately not capable of using any of the original's spells. Instead, she attacked in melee like a berserker, using her copied staff with all the finesse of a sledgehammer and the strength of an ogre.
After learning the folly of blocking with the first hit, Harry easily turned the second one aside and sliced through the copy. The rest of them had slightly more issues. The melee fighters did well enough, dispatching their doppelgangers easily once they got over the surprise and realized what was going on, but the mages were in quite some trouble. Not having any kind of skill in close quarters, they had to Blink away to create distance, but the copies pursued relentlessly.
And it wasn't like Kil'jaeden just stopped to admire the chaos he had caused. Oh no, the demon lord added to it by lobbing explosive orbs of fel magic randomly across the room, laughing maliciously all the while. He was clearly enjoying himself.
With their casters occupied and unable to counter or distract the big red bastard, they were in serious danger of being overwhelmed. Up above, only Jessir and Sylvanas trusted their aim enough to snipe at the doppelganger copies. Nobody dared group up because of the fel bombs and the melee fighters' time was being wasted chasing around the mages in an attempt to protect them. They'd get their act together eventually, but they didn't have that kind of time.
Harry was once again targeted by that damn soul flaying spell and had to put all his focus on defending himself, unable to do anything except watch helplessly as his family and allies were tossed around by the fel explosions or steadily driven into a corner by the doppelgangers. Jaina's and Luna's copies had been killed by arrow fire, but he had no doubt that Kil'jaeden would spring some new bullshit to keep the tide from turning if it looked like it was about to.
The entire thing was a thoroughly disagreeable experience, much more so than the duel against Azshara. At least back then, he had been the only one at risk.
But salvation came in the form of Garona and her as usual impeccable timing. Somehow, the half-orc assassin managed to climb up the demon lord's shoulder without him becoming aware of it and stuck her entire arm right into his ear. Like, all the way up to the shoulder, no doubt with a dagger in her fist.
Kil'jaeden's reaction was no different than a mortal's would be if someone stuck a toothpick up their ear canal – roaring in pain and clapping a hand over the injury.
The difference was that the demon lord's roar made the room shake and his stupid horned pauldrons got in the way of his hand, allowing Garona to escape. The highly distracting injury also resulted in all of his active magics fizzling out immediately.
"Treacherous little pest!" Kil'jaeden screamed in fury, conjuring a great flaming meteor. "DIE!"
Garona barely glanced at it and calculated the landing zone in an instant. She juked sideways and out of danger, much to the demon lord's increasing rage.
Everyone else took the opportunity to go fully on the offensive for the first time in the fight. Six archmages threw their most devastating spells at the gigantic demon, the melee fighters hacked at what they could reach and the archers from above shot volley after volley of enchanted arrows upon his head.
"Enough of this! Die, all of you!" Kil'jaeden snarled, covering himself with his wings and channeling fel magic into a spell, one strong enough that they all felt the air thicken and darken as the power built.
Harry was always one to interrupt spells with long cast times, but the demon lord's wings were insanely tough and acted as armor. His Disruption spell fizzled out against them.
"Stand together! Quickly!" Kalecgos called urgently and everyone deemed it a good idea.
The two blue dragons conjured up a powerful defensive barrier, with the remaining four archmages offering up their own magic in support. Garona just barely managed to dive in before Kil'jaeden unleashed his spell.
A vast wave of darkness rushed away from the demon lord, scouring everything in its path. It flowed over the shield, but continued on unimpeded, crawling up the walls.
It wasn't slowing down, or looking like it was going to stop. Harry had only a moment to make this horrifying realization before he felt Jessir's lifebound bracelet break on his forearm. She was dead, and no doubt so was everyone else who had stayed up top, ostensibly away from immediate danger.
"JESSIR!" Arko howled in grief, having felt her own bracelet break. She rushed at the demon lord with a furious roar, her Holy Moonlight Greatsword leaving behind a trail of blazing moonlight.
Luna was quick to encase her in a protective shield, because the night elf paladin certainly wasn't putting anything into defense.
Kil'jaeden tried to stop her and did manage to break the shield, but it wasn't quick enough. Arko recklessly jumped over his arm and plunged her sword into his chest, the Holy Moonlight Greatsword blazing with power that made it look twice as big as usual.
Kil'jaedend roared in pain again and yanked the paladin away from him, trying to crush her in his fist. Even against his strength, the armor she was wearing refused to crumple, so he smashed her against the floor, forcibly scattering Colette, Lor'themar Theron and Lady Liadrin, then cast an explosion of fel energy against her. Arko's armor once again saved her life, but she didn't get back up, and the lifebound bracelet pulsed against Harry's arm in the manner that meant 'critical injury'.
Luna immediately yanked her away, the armor screeching against the ground, but she was too busy defending the others to cast any healing spells.
Kil'jaeden at this point wasn't looking so great. His immense magic resistance had protected him from being obliterated by the many powerful spells cast at him, but he still took some damage. His head, upper back and chest looked like a pin cushion from all the arrows stuck in him. Most hadn't penetrated his demonic flesh, but the more powerful enchanted ones launched by Sylvanas and Jessir had found purchase.
But the most severe wounds were definitely the ones dealt to him by Garona and Arko. The discerning eye could spot the trail of burning felblood leaking out of his ear, and a veritable river of it from the relatively deep stab in his chest.
"Keep up the pressure, he's almost lost his grip on Azeroth!" Harry shouted, sensing that it was true.
Demons weren't native to the material plane, no matter what they used to be. The stronger the demon, the more effort it took to breach the dimensional barrier and summon them. Kil'jaeden, as the number two man of the Burning Legion, needed a particularly powerful doorway, hence this attack on the Sunwell. With the interrupted summoning and the damage he had taken, he was being pulled back into the portal that he was sticking out of.
Harry decided to give him a little push as well, taking a moment to shape Azeroth's desires to have him gone into a spell of Rejection, making the intrinsic magics of the world actively hostile to the demon lord's presence. It wouldn't have achieved much when Kil'jaeden was fresh and fully able to assert his presence, but with all the wounds leeching his energy and the Twisting Nether calling him back for recovery, it hammered him down.
"No! What have you done?!" The demon lord snarled, using his hands to physically brace against the ground as the portal tried to suck him back in. Being so indisposed, he was in no position to defend himself as everyone took the opportunity to wail on him and further weaken his hold on the world.
"Piss off, you've overstayed your welcome." Harry snarked tiredly, not really feeling it. His thoughts were still on Jessir. He was hoping that she could be brought back. Some deaths were harder to undo than others, and he would rather not suffer another loss quite so soon.
XXXXX
Luna exhausted herself three times over performing mass resurrections, leaving her unfit for any kind of magic use for weeks. Granted, those weeks would pass rapidly thanks to time dilation, but still.
Despite their great victory over a dangerous Burning Legion plot, the mood back at the Guardian Tower was somber. Arko had hardly let go of her old friend since she was brought back and Jessir was much more subdued than normal. Luna had brought out the extra fluffy robes that made you feel like you were being hugged by five hundred kittens and the triple layer chocolate fudge banana cake.
"I really wish you'd let me upgrade your bodies." Harry said, giving one of Jessir's feet a little squeeze. "It might not have made a difference this time, but there's no telling what we'll run into in the future."
The huntress, sandwiched between a clingy Arko and a sleepy Luna, gave him a weak smile. "I appreciate the sentiment, but you're the only bit of troll I want inside me."
Arko snorted and gave her friend another squeeze. "I see you're feeling better."
"This is really good cake." Jessir explained, bringing another forkful to her mouth.
"Guaranteed to make you feel better." Harry joked. "And fat."
He gave a sly glance at Garona, who had eaten three slices with orcish speed. The assassin was sitting in an overstuffed armchair with her hands crossed, acting as if she hadn't just betrayed a monstrous sweet tooth.
The half-orc huffed and glared at him.
"I can think of another thing that would make you feel better." Colette purred suggestively and gave the two night elves smoldering looks despite her professed indifference to the female form.
"Collete's right." Luna mumbled sleepily. "Go have sex. Healer's orders."
Ah, so that's how it was. Not a bad idea. Life-affirming sex was always a great way to shake off a near death (or actual death) experience.
"You heard her, let's go back to bed." Arko murmured into Jessir's ear, pulling her up.
"Can you get Luna?" Harry murmured similarly to Colette, getting an agreeable nod from the former death knight.
Garona, as was her habit when the Battle Harem was about to do what harems do, stood from her chair and began to slip away.
Harry intercepted her before she could vanish and hugged the squirming half-orc. "I'm glad you weren't hurt, but try not to do anything that crazy again for a while, alright?"
Garona, being the adorable little creampuff that she was under all that paranoia, self-control, vindictive rage and PTSD, stammered out an agreement and ghosted out of his arms like the Azerothian Batman she was.
"You tease the poor girl far too much." Colette commented in amusement. She was carrying a snoring Luna in her arms.
"She loves it." Harry argued and knew that it was true. Nobody had ever tried to act like a dad to the half-orc, which made her uniquely vulnerable to it.
"I'm sure." The former death knight chuckled. By now they had arrived in the master bedroom and she deposited Luna on the giant bed, peeling her out of the fluffy robed with some difficulty.
Nearby, Arko and Jessir had already started on a somewhat frantic kissing session, all the suppressed emotion from the huntress' death and resurrection coming back up.
"You joining in?" Harry murmured to Colette, watching the show.
"I think I will just watch for now." She murmured back. "Go make them feel alive, but do save some energy for me, hmm? This is going to get me all hot and bothered."
"As you wish." He chuckled and give her slightly pointy ear a little nip before joining the two night elves in their lovemaking. He had plenty of experience making women feel alive, although doing it after an actual death was new.
Frankly, he was going to appreciate making physically sure that Jessir was alive himself. A part of him was still braced for a new loss and wouldn't relax until he could reassure it that she wasn't going to disappear.