It would have perhaps been simpler to hide the usage of the Demon Soul, but the chances of being discovered despite all effort were still too high. For that reason, Harry did not even hint to Aurastrasza that he would like her to not report to Alexstrasza. It turned out to be a moot point anyway, as the unleashed powers of the Demon Soul had been felt quite clearly.
Now it was time to face the music.
"I have been warned that you like to skirt the border of what is acceptable, but I did not imagine you would do such a thing." Alexstrasza scolded him sternly, then turned to his fellow sufferer. "And you, Chromie. I expected more sense from you."
Harry, long impervious to criticism, had to smother a smile. He couldn't help but think that the Dragon Queen was putting out some serious mom energy right now.
"But it worked and I put it right back where I found it." Chromie retorted sulkily.
"It worked, yes, but do you have any idea how disturbed every single living dragon is now?" Alexstrasza countered even more sternly. "You know the fear we lived under while the Demon Soul still existed, the suffering it caused! The revelation that it could be brought out of the past has everyone clamoring for a way to prevent this from being done again. There are members of your own flight who have suggested you be executed, do you realize that?!"
Judging by the look on Chromie's face, she had in fact not known that.
"That seems a bit harsh." Harry commented mildly. "I know that nobody aside from Deahwing is insane enough to want a permanent return of the Demon Soul, but you have to admit that there isn't much else that can be brought to bear against a Dragon Aspect on short notice."
"You could have called upon us for aid." Alexstrasza said. "I would have helped you free my daughter from his clutches."
"We both know that she wouldn't be alive right now if I did that."
And it was true, as evidenced by the Dragon Queen's lack of retort. Malygos was easily the most combat-oriented of the Aspects, with Deathwing surpassing him in power only due to prolonged exposure to the Demon Soul and Old God corruption. Fighting him conventionally was never going to be anything other than messy.
"I will not approve of any further uses of the Demon Soul." She finally said.
"I don't think we'll need it against Malygos again." Harry prevaricated, not mentioning his plans to still use it against Deathwing. "We should be able to exploit his trauma about it to cripple his will to fight."
"You're going to bully him into surrendering?" Chromie raised an eyebrow.
"Bullying makes it sound so juvenile and petty… I'm going to psychologically torture him until he wants to die to escape the fear."
"Because that's soooo much better."
"Your sarcasm has become powerful, young padawan."
"What's a padawan? It sounds like a species of frog."
"I suppose it could be likened to a tadpole… if you squint and tilt your head at least seventy degrees."
"Enough!" Alexstrasza interrupted the banter. She stared at Harry with inscrutable golden eyes. "I am not sure I am comfortable attacking Malygos in such a despicable manner."
"Fighting those who were once your friends and family is never comfortable." He shrugged. "My job is to keep Azeroth safe and right now, Malygos is an existential threat to her. I will use every tool and underhanded trick in my disposal to make sure he stops being a threat."
"I understand your position." She said slowly. "And I cannot disagree with it. Malygos threatens all life on this world. He must be stopped… I suppose I am still hoping that we can save the wise drake I once knew."
"Do you want a hug?" Harry offered.
But alas, Alexstrasza merely sighed and left the room.
Chromie stared at him for a while before speaking. "You've got some nerve, offering Ally a hug. Don't you have enough women already?"
"Believe it or not, that wasn't an attempt to get into her panties." Harry asserted. "That's one battle that would have been lost before it was even fought."
"Uh huh, and you're not at all attracted to her?"
"Of course I'm attracted to her. Have you even seen her?"
"But you don't want to try seducing her?"
"Believe it or not, my degeneracy has limits. I was never the type to yell 'please step on me, Mommy' to big women, and Alexstrasza has some mighty big feet."
"Pffft!" Chromie chortled.
"Frankly, she's in more danger from Luna than from me." Harry continued over the bronze dragon's laughter. "That's why I've been making sure they don't meet just yet. The other girls are going to get jealous if she keeps drooling over new women."
"Maybe you should have stuck to just one woman?" Chromie suggested cheekily.
"Don't give me that – I know how your dragon mating rituals work." Harry scoffed.
They lapsed into silence for a while, then Chromie let out a long sigh. "I guess we're going to have to figure out some other way to handle Deathwing."
"What? No, we won't." Harry denied. "The Demon Soul is still the best way to deal with him."
"But you heard what Alexstrasza said." Chromie protested.
She hadn't had time to check the timestream, so she lacked her usual prescient air. Plus, the Demon Soul was a weighty thing that messed with the flow of time a bit.
"I heard a whole lot of complaining for the sake of complaining, but you'll note that we didn't actually get punished." Harry retorted.
"I'm being threatened with execution." Chromie pointed out drily.
"Meh." He shrugged it off.
"Don't just go meh about my life! I thought you liked me!" She puffed out her cheeks.
"Look, we could wait for Deathwing to wake up and inevitably threaten the world with destruction again before pointing out that the Demon Soul is the most surefire way to kill him. I'm sure it would be very tense and dramatic, with many heroic sacrifices being made and stuff… Or we could kill him in his sleep. Sure, there'd no global catastrophe to leave people too exhausted to whine, but I rather like my wins to be easy."
"Easy makes people complacent, and Azeroth is due for a lot more trouble in the future." Chromie warned.
"Hey, you're the one who wanted to try a less hands off approach with this timeline than the rest of the Bronze Dragonflight." Harry replied flippantly. "It's a bit late to be changing your mind."
"Fine!" The bronze dragon huffed. "But I'm blaming it all on you. I don't want to get executed."
"Look, don't worry about it, they're not going to kill you." Harry assured, reaching over to pat her on the head like she was a child. "At worst, they'll demote you and your job sucks anyway."
"I happen to like my job, thank you very much" Chromie huffed and crossed her arms.
"But your job is to deal with people!" Harry protested, aghast. "We should get something to eat. Clearly, the hunger is affecting your mental faculties."
"You know, I can trap you in a time loop." She groused.
"And I can give you a piggyback ride. Which one would you prefer?"
XXXXX
Although all those in the known disapproved of the use of the Demon Soul, none could deny the tactical and strategic boon they had been handed by Malygos getting spanked by it. Much of his faction, already cobbled together from the insane, the power hungry and the desperate, began to fracture. Moreover, the Aspect of Magic himself had huddled deep in the Eye of Eternity and refused to come out. If there was ever going to be a time to press the attack, it was now.
So they did.
A force of elite soldiers, adventurers and red dragons was organized with the intent of attacking all three levels of the Nexus. These consisted of the ice caverns beneath the Nexus proper, confusingly called the Nexus in spite of that, the magical rings called the Oculus, and Malygos' lair and innermost layer, pseudo-pocket dimension called the Eye of Eternity.
For the purposes of this operation, the Battle Harem would be splitting up. Most of them would be going into the outer layer of the Nexus, where Malygos' remaining minions were holed up and trying to reorganize.
That they had confirmed that Grand Magus Telestra was there was simply a fortuitous coincidence. Luna was not the sort of person who was prone to revenge, but she was happy to help her family get it and the others were fond of the moonlight dragon whelps as well.
Harry would be going into the Oculus with the second wave, bringing only Colette with him as a sort of bodyguard. Most of the heavy lifting would be done by the red dragons and their adventurer allies even so. His purpose was to implicitly threaten Malygos and keep him from retaliating properly.
Alexstrasza, along with the honorably-minded Bolvar Fordragon and Dranosh Saurfang, had been uncomfortable with the psychological warfare he had suggested, but inevitably conceded that fighting Malygos head on when they didn't have to was foolish. What truly convinced Alexstrasza was the slim chance that they might be able to keep the Aspect alive.
"Do you have everything?" A somewhat fretful Aurastrasza asked, fussing over them a bit.
It never failed to amuse Harry how Azeroth's red dragons leaned more towards being mother hens than flaming creatures of tyrannical evil that was their more common characterization. They would no doubt be horrified by the red dragons of Toril.
"Yes, we have everything." He assured her, taking one of her scaly hands in his gauntleted one.
"Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it." Luna added, giving their dragon nanny a light hug.
"Of course." Aurastrasza took a deep breath and nodded. "I will await your return."
They were currently at the Wyrmrest Temple, mostly because none of them felt comfortable leaving Aurastrasza alone at the tower anymore. The many dragons at the Temple would be more than enough to repel anything short of an overwhelming attack. The moonlight dragon whelps were annoyed at being kept indoors for the duration, but they would get over it… and they were still grieving the loss of two of their siblings anyway.
"And we'll make that Telestra woman regret attacking us." Arko promised darkly. Like all of them, she was quite fond of the moonlight whelps and their occasional silly antics. To lose two of them like this made her eager to exact some retribution.
"I bet I can turn her into a pincushion before you get to her." Jessir challenged.
Garona, who had wandered back recently and decided to join the Nexus offensive, looked interested in the brewing game. No doubt she was thinking of kill stealing.
Luna, who would usually disapprove of such blatant murderous intent, pointedly said nothing. She might not have the disposition to exact vengeance herself, but she was perfectly happy to support those who would.
"Don't underestimate her." Harry warned. "Calling herself a grand magus might be pretentious, but she's definitely an archmage of some power. Rhonin described her as being primarily an elementalist and illusionist, so keep your senses sharp."
"You and Colette are likely to be in more danger than us, going after Malygos." Jessir pointed out. "Are you sure this is the best way to split our party if we have to do it at all?"
"I'm just the distraction." Harry repeated what he'd said several times already. He could understand their worry, but the force arrayed to challenge Malygos wouldn't gain much from having the rest of the Battle Harem in it. "Alexstrasza and her chosen champions will be doing all the heavy lifting."
"Alright, just… don't die." The huntress finished. "We're no longer respectable members of night elf society because of you, so you're not allowed to leave us."
That was false on all counts. First of all, they had hardly put up any kind of fight to maintain their 'respectability'. Second, they were stronger than ever and in a world like this, that afforded far more respectability than following social norms. It might not have occurred to them yet, but they were now among the most powerful members of the mortal races on Azeroth. All they lacked was some more experience.
"Don't worry, I still want to see what our babies look like." Harry teased, cutting through the lines of obfuscation.
Jessir blushed a darker purple and jammed her helmet on to hide. Colette's amused chuckling certainly didn't help.
"Alright, let's go, we can tease Jessir later." Arko said decisively.
"Arko!"
XXXXX
The Oculus was technically a pocket dimension. Despite the Nexus being basically a giant set of floating rings, it was impossible to go 'inside' anywhere but at the designated entrance.
"Oh, I guess this place doubles as a nesting ground for the Blue Dragonflight." Harry commented, seeing the many blue eggs lining the edges of the curved walkway they found themselves on.
"Malygos must not have trusted even his flight's hatching grounds." Alexstrasza replied with a small grimace.
"Leave the unhatched eggs be." Kalecgos said curtly, looking quite grim.
That order was necessary, as the group of adventurers acting as a strike team looked like they were contemplating smashing them.
They began moving forward, meeting only disorganized resistance. Nest guardians and already hatched whelps, all of which would be considered accomplished mages by human standards. Still, it was clear that Malygos' recent defeat had left them scrambling and the group was able to make their way forward with relatively little difficulty.
They entered the portal at the end of the walkway and found themselves on a circular platform containing many pedestals with arcane prisons. In front of them stood an especially large and bulky blue dragonspawn. Harry recognized him from his recent confrontation against Malygos.
"Alexstrasza, you dare come here?" He growled.
"Drakos, Malygos' madness must be stopped." The Dragon Queen said plainly.
"His word is law!" The dragonspawn roared back, slaming his polearm into the ground.
It was stupid. No matter how powerful he was, one dragonspawn couldn't win against so many strong adventurers even if Alexstrasza didn't enter the fray.
But dragonspawn would never disobey the orders of their Aspect, no matter how insane those orders were.
As the battle was joined, Harry took a particular bag out of his cloak pocket, the very same bag that had held the Demon Soul not very long ago. He tossed it in his hand, making sure that Drakos saw it.
Predictably, the blue dragonspawn became distracted and took his attention away from the adventurers attacking him. A fatal mistake.
"Your strategy is as effective as you said it would be." Alexstrasza frowned.
"The first and last ground gained in any battle is the ground of the mind." Harry smiled, putting the bag away. The only thing inside it was a completely plain medallion, but the Blues didn't have to know that.
"We have been discovered, I think." Colette commented, looking up at the air that was filling up with blue drakes.
"Took them longer than I expected, honestly." Harry mused. "Malygos must really be out of it if he didn't sense us immediately."
"Then we should hurry." Kalecgos said, grabbing the arcane prisons so they could release the captives later. "Drakes, transform and choose a rider!"
Their group wasn't all adventurers. Precisely half of them were young-ish drakes of various Dragonflights who had volunteered to act as mounts to navigate the Nexus.
"I always wanted to ride a dragon." Colette said with suppressed excitement, partnering up with a Bronze.
XXXXX
Down below in the ice caverns, progress was more contentious. The Blue Dragonflights used the are as a mustering ground for their mortal allies, but it was also a sort of storage space for some of their experiments or test subjects.
The first true hint about how chaotic this endeavor was going to be was when they came upon a large hall full of frozen Horde and Alliance soldiers. Theirs was a joint mission, containing elite soldiers from both the Horde and the Alliance. Both wanted their comrades unfrozen as soon as possible.
That proved to be a mistake.
"What? Where…" The beefy orc in charge groaned in confusion. Then he caught sight of the Alliance races. "Mok-thorin ka! Kill them!"
"Eh?" The dwarven Alliance commander said at the same time. "Don't just stand around, lads! Kill something!"
"Stop!" Luna shouted, letting loose with a wave of force in an attempt to knock them down. To little avail. Such a diffuse spell wouldn't work on what were clearly powerful warriors and the appeal to reason didn't work either. These people had all either been brought straight from battle or had been subject to experimentation that dulled their wits. All they saw were enemies.
It was a huge mess. The attacking force didn't want to just wade in, but the unfrozen soldiers were attacking everything they perceived as an enemy, even if they weren't being attacked.
"Cripple them! We can worry about the rest later!" Arko bellowed over the din of combat, rushing to get into close quarters with the orc commander.
Jessir was glad to follow that direction and started shooting people in the legs, especially any squishy casters she could find. The Blink spell that Harry had forced her to master to an absurd degree allowed her to flit about the battlefield, loose an arrow and be gone before any retaliation could come. She preferred to focus on shooting the Horde, because that way she at least wouldn't feel bad about it.
Everyone else seemed to have the same idea and divided themselves along faction lines. There were inevitable fatalities and Jessir strongly suspected that not all of them were accidental, but at least the fighting end once the dwarf and orc commanders were beaten unconscious.
"Leave the dead and severely wounded here for now. We need to keep going." Arko ordered.
She was really getting the hang of the command position. Jessir was so proud of her friend. Not all that long ago, she would never have had the confidence to take charge like this. Luna looked like she wanted to stay and heal, but didn't protest. The injuries still remaining were the type that couldn't just be waved off with a simple healing spell and would require more effort, effort which they didn't have time to spare.
Thus diminished instead of reinforced as they'd hoped, they continued moving through the ice caverns. Several times, the path split and they had to send out scouts to check ahead. Some suggested that they split up to cover more ground, but that idea was quickly shut down. Even if they couldn't all fight in the narrow tunnels, it would be a bad idea to split up when they were facing powerful magic users. Not every group would have the means to detect or counter magical traps.
Jessir was one of the scouts, cautiously creeping ahead with Della to make sure they didn't blunder into any nasty surprises.
Of course, a less mentioned role of scouts was to spring traps, often resulting in the death of said scout. Jessir had been careful to not let that happen, not straying too far ahead and backing off at the first suspicious sign. Still, all the caution in the world could sometimes fail, especially when faced against someone who specializes in deception.
As Jessir passed the threshold of a seemingly empty chamber, neither her ears nor Della's nose suggesting that there was anything untoward about it, barriers of ice blocked the path behind them and one of their targets revealed herself.
"To think that all our plans would be undone by a group of perverts." Grand Magus Telestra sighed, arms crossed under her breasts.
"Your plans were insane." Jessir spat, hiding her fear behind anger. She didn't feel at all ready to face an enemy like this alone and was already calling for help using the bloodbound bracelets beneath her armor.
Della growled threateningly.
"Of course an ignorant fool like you would believe that." Telestra scoffed. "What do you know of the glory of magic?"
"I see where Kael'thas got it from now." Jessir retorted.
Harry had investigated the former Kirin Tor mage since her attack on the tower. She had been a well known and respected archmage, known to be prideful and demanding, but also knowledgeable and wise. One of her greater claims to fame had been the mentorship of Kael'thas Sunstrider, an association that tainted her reputation after he fell.
"Ah yes, I did hear that you were the ones to kill my old student." Telestra's lips curled into something cruel. "Let us see how you do against the master!"
Jessir immediately Blinked away and let loose an arrow. The blast of frost magic harmlessly splashed against the walls, but her arrow also harmlessly passed through the archmage's body. An illusion.
The huntress knew this trick from spars with Harry and Blinked away again, this time sending out a volley of arrows enchanted with what he called a 'sonar' spell. Sound bounced from the arrows until it collided with the invisible archmage's body. Her night elven ears easily pinpointed Telestra's location and she fired off another arrow at her, this one charged with Elune's wrath.
Telestra Blinked out of the way as well, abandoning invisiblity. The archmage looked considerably more wary now, standing on the opposite end of the ice chamber and being stared at by the huntress and her wolf.
"Perhaps you know more of magic than I gave you credit for." The high elf said cautiously. Her eyes flickered over to the ice barriers blocking the entrances and Jessir figured that Luna was already making good progress on hammering it down. "Your mastery of Blink is impressive."
It should be, after the absolute hell that Harry put her through to learn it to such a degree. She could use it with barely a thought, rapidly repositioning on the battlefield to find an advantageous location to shoot her bow from.
"You're going to pay for killing the moonlight dragon whelps." Jessir promised, feeling much more confident in her chances now. Victory was probably still out of reach, but she didn't think she would be overwhelmed before help arrived.
Telestra merely scoffed and the battle continued. Della lunged at the archmage with a snarl, but she disappeared in a blast of frost. The wolf was covered in a thin layer of ice, but shook it off easily enough. Jessir loosed more arrows at her and Blinked away at the first sign of retaliation.
To the huntress' surprise, they seemed to actually be… winning. The fight was a bit of a stalemate with both of them evading each other's attacks in one way or another, but Telestra seemingly could not muster up the focus for any especially powerful spells with Della constantly hounding her, or perhaps she simply did not think it was a good idea to throw area of effect spells in a closed room.
Then Telestra suddenly split into three, each image already casting a different element.
Jessir ignored the obvious illusions and used her sonar arrows again to pinpoint the real one. All three registered as real, which was confirmed when their spells smashed against her armor and sent her flying at the wall.
"You did not think it would be that easy, did you?" The archmage mocked, all three of her.
How this woman, who clearly favored precise spellcasting and trickery, had trained a mage like Kael'thas who favored overwhelming pyromancy, was a mystery for the ages.
A mystery that Jessir ignored. Her armor had protected her from any real damage and she was once more grateful for Harry's insistence on excessive protection. After experiencing it in the fight against Kil'Jaeden, she was not eager for another death. Blinking away, she reappeared in close-quarters with the fire-using image of Telestra, tossing aside her bow and making a quick slash with one of her shortswords instead.
That caught the archmage of guard and she received a slash across her exposed belly.
"Why do female archmages so enjoy exposing their stomachs?" She couldn't help quipping, knowing that Harry would have done it if he was here.
Telestra didn't say anything, merely faded away. Moments after, the image that Della had pounced on also faded, leaving only one.
The situation further went against the traitorous archmage when Luna finally brought down the ice barrier sealing them into the room. Telestra Blinked away to the other side and quickly took in the rapidly increasing amount of enemies she was being faced with.
Jessir recovered her bow and stood proud at the forefront of them. True, this little duel had not been planned, but she was glad it had happened. She had been feeling a bit underpowered compared to her companions for some time, borderline useless against any foe large or powerful enough to ignore her arrows.
Grand Magus Telestra was clearly not primarily a combatant, and would have done better in a support role of some kind, but she was still an archmage. An archmage that Jessir had been able to fight to a standstill and even win against. Now she was going to pay for everything she'd done.
"Wait!" The blonde high elf said firmly, hand held towards them in the universal gesture of 'stop!'
Surprised, everyone did so, but kept their weapons ready for whatever trick she had in store.
Then the conniving elf smirked and brushed some imaginary lint off the sleeves of her robe. "I would like to negotiate the terms of my surrender."
"What makes you think we want you alive?" Arko asked aggressively, stepping forward and brandishing her sword.
"I'm sure you don't, but I can make it worth your while." Telestra said, keeping her hands in the open. "The Blue Dragonflight has collected a considerable number of dangerous magical artifacts, especially recently. They are held in a secure vault that only a high ranking dragon or trusted associate mage can open, a mage such as myself."
"Kalecgos could probably open it, then." Jessir pointed out.
"No, he could not." Telestra's lips curled into a smirk. "Malygos has rescinded access from all who did not side with him."
"… Harry would have wanted to take a look." Luna conceded.
"Harry isn't here." Arko asserted, audibly scowling.
"There are reasons aside from greed for which you may wish to enter the vault." Telestra piped up again, still smirking. "The channeling of the vast magical energies by the surge needles has damaged the vault's protections. It could be dangerous to leave it be."
The bait was as obvious as it was unignorable. After Malygos was defeated, they might not be able to breach the vault, or it could be too late if they did.
"Fine." Arko snarled in frustration. "Garona, keep an eye on her. If she tries anything funny, kill her."
"Understood." The half-orc assassin acknowledged.
And so they continued through the ice caverns with their prisoner in tow. Telestra did and said nothing as they cut their way through the Blue Dragonflight's remaining forces and rampant magical experiments.
"Here we are, the Nexus Vault." She said only when they arrived at a dead end deep into the caverns.
Jessir sensed nothing and suspected that nobody else did either. She tensed in preparation for the sudden and inevitable betrayal, but Telestra only made some arcane motions with her hands and cast a spell that opened a dimensional fissure.
"It is through here." The high elven archmage gesture to the fissure.
"You stay here and stay on guard." Arko ordered to the Horde and Alliance forces. They were not technically under her command, but none of them were as powerful as the Battle Harem, so a natural hierarchy had developed during the battle.
Jessir was just proud of how her old friend had become so comfortable taking charge.
Still holding Telestra at knifepoint, the four of them plus one prisoner carefully passed through the dimensional doorway. Into a vault absolutely filled with magical artifacts.
"The Blue Dragonflight are as bad as Harry." Luna commented, looking at the piles of weapons, armors and various trinkets.
Clearly, much of the stuff had been recently acquired, probably stolen from the vaults of the Kirin Tor. Either way, nobody had gotten around to organizing it.
"What's that?" Jessir asked, seeing a large staff with a hefty shaft, a purple crystal in the base and three more crystals set in metal holders floating at the head, bound together by arcane energies.
"That is Aluneth, the Greatstaff of the Magna, once used by Aegwynn." Telestra explained. "Many mages have died attempting to harness its powers."
That sounded exactly like the kind of thing that Harry would want to play with, the reckless man.
"And over there is the Light's Wrath." Telestra continued unprompted, gesturing at an even bulkier staff with a massive headpiece. "A flawed creation of the Scarlet Crusade. They thought to create a weapon on par with the Ashbringer to use against the undead, and filled the staff with their hate. It proved… uncontrollable."
The staff was held in place by arcane chains, and even then it seemed to rattle in place. Jessir was uncomfortably reminded of Sally Whitemane. Not just because this seemed like the kind of weapon that she would love to have, but for the white-haired human's constant desire to purge the undead in holy fire.
"We can't leave these here." Luna said, looking between the two staves. "The rest of this stuff isn't too bad, but these two staves are too dangerous to be left behind."
"Be careful not to touch them with your hands." Telestra cautioned. "They are temperamental."
Jessir eyeballed the high elf, wondering what her game was. She was being unusually cooperative. Still, she couldn't do anything except keep her guard up.
Luna, being the most magically adept of them, was the one to remove the bindings on the two staves. Aluneth allowed itself to be packed away into an expanded chest easily enough. Light's Wrath, not so much.
As soon as the arcane bindings were loosened, the staff began blazing with Light, scorching the entire room. Their armor protected them to a large degree and it wasn't exactly an attack, but it was still quite uncomfortable. The walls were scoured and some of the weaker artifacts melted. Waves of force pushed them away from it and the luminosity blinded them.
Jessir could just barely see Luna forcing her way forward, encased in a bubble of moonlight.
"That's enough of that!" The priestess of Elune said sternly, grasping the shaft of the staff in exactly the way Telestra had warned them not to. "Calm down, there are no enemies here."
Strangely, it seemed to work. Light's Wrath dimmed, the outpouring of Light gradually lessening until it only glowed from the headpiece.
"Good show." Telestra gently clapped, pushing herself off the wall where she'd been forced. "You clearly have much greater mastery of yourself than the priests of the Scarlet Crusade did."
Jessir was still wondering where the trick was.
XXXXX
Harry, Colette and Alexstrasza had stayed in the back as the elite vanguard of the Wyrmrest Accord smashed its way through the Oculus. Rituals were interrupted, guardians destroyed, dragons subdued and so on. Even an inexperienced eye could tell that the Blue Dragonflight was not really paying attention to the invasion of their sanctum. Their forces were largely concentrated around the dimensional opening that led to the Eye of Eternity, Malygos' hidey hole.
But with so many powerful individuals and the silent threat of the Demon Soul, all resistance was quelled. And with the Key to the Focusing Iris in hand, the Eye of Eternity was breached.
It was a solemn-looking place, a wide circular platform seemingly floating in the vastness of space, only the titular Focusing Iris in the middle. That was a prize that many a spellcaster would give anything to possess, an object capable of magnifying the power of any spell a hundred fold, which was why Harry and Kalecgos were the only mages in the group. Even Harry's presence was only allowed because he had to be here for the plan to work.
"Malygos!" Alexstrasza called out. "Show yourself!"
"Why? So that you can kill me?" The Blue Dragon Aspect's bitter voice rang out. "Do you so fear the Demon Soul that you would do that one's bidding?"
That was quite the rich accusation, given that Malygos had spent ten thousand years hiding because of the Demon Soul.
"I would prefer to talk, old friend." Alexstrasza said softly. "It pains me that we have had to force our way here, but you must see that what you were doing is wrong."
"Is it wrong?" Malygos challenged. "I was only trying to protect the world from foolhardy mortal mages. You know as well as I do the kind of harm they do."
"And taking my children prisoner? Torturing them? How was that supposed to help Azeroth?" The leader of the Red Dragonflight demanded, heat entering her voice.
Malygos was silent for a long moment.
"I had to make them understand."
That answer obviously did not please Alexstrasza. "If you truly believe that, then you are no longer fit to be the Aspect of Magic."
"Not fit?!" Malygos roared from the darkness. "I AM THE ONLY ONE FIT!"
Harry pointedly dropped the bag into his hand and tossed it to draw attention.
"KEEP THAT INFERNAL DISC AWAY FROM ME!" The most powerful master of the arcane on Azeroth screeched in terror.
"Sure, all you have to do is pass your mantle on to Kalecgos." Harry nodded his head at said blue dragon. It had taken some convincing to get him to agree, but he was the most prominent member of the Blue Dragonflight who had taken a stand against his Aspect.
"And if I do not, you will use the Demon Soul to kill me?"
"'Fraid so."
Frankly, Harry was of the opinion that they should kill him anyway so that he couldn't cause trouble in the future, but he had been overruled. It was dragon nepotism, that's what it was.
"You seek only to use the power bestowed upon me by the titans for your own gain!" Malygos accused.
"You've got me. As soon as you agree to our demands, we're going to redirect the planet's leylines to a single location and fuck up all life on it so that we can hoard all the magic for ourselves." Harry retorted sarcastically. "Oh wait, that's what you were doing."
"I would not have harmed Azeroth!" Malygos insisted. "My intention was to save it!"
"Yes, and Sargeras intends to save the universe with his Burning Legion. Have you ever heard about how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions?"
"I will not be lectured by some insignificant mortal!" The ancient wyrm thundered.
"That you can so callously disregard mortals as insignificant only further proves that you are no longer fit to carry your title." Alexstrasza interjected with the ultimate mom tone. "Without their courage, the Burning Legion and many other threats would have ended the world many times over by now. Will you dismiss that as insignificant as well?"
Oooh, burn. Harry smothered a grin.
Malygos clearly didn't know how to counter, so he resorted to the oldest tactic of a failing debater. He ignored it and went on the offensive. "Many of those threats were of their own making! You should not give them credit for cleaning up their own messes, and poorly at that."
"It is your actions that concern me, Malygos." Alexstrasza wasn't having it.
"I will not be judged by you! Not when you threaten me with the Demon Soul!" Malygos roared, making the whole pocket dimension shake. Even Nozdormu breaks his vaunted non-interference to bring it out of the past after it was finally destroyed!"
Huh, so he'd figured out how there could be another Demon Soul around. Well, there were enough clues.
"You backed me into a corner, took someone dear to me hostage, threatened Azeroth with your plans." Harry recited coldly. "You made me desperate, so don't sound so outraged that I resorted to desperate actions to escape the situation."
"How many times must I repeat myself?!" Malygos demanded rhetorically. "I was not doing Azeroth any harm!"
"You may believe that, but you are wrong." Alexstrasza cut in again. "Everyone could sense the harm you were doing. We could see the web of life and death twisting in pain where your surge needles dug into the earth. Did you even think to check for yourself the consequences of your actions, or were you content to hide here and assume that all was well?"
"I made all the necessary calculations. They were perfect."
Harry could only roll his eyes, spotting the pained grimace on Kalecgos' face. Assuming that basic spells wouldn't have dire consequences was one thing, but when you were trying to shift the mana flows of an entire planet? There were so many variables, so many possible interactions and so many potential complications that no amount of study and preparation could guarantee perfection.
Malygos' calculations definitely couldn't be perfect when he didn't even personally check on anything. What was correct a century ago could very easily be disastrously wrong today.
"Enough, our decision has been made." Alexstrasza put her foot down. "Surrender your mantle, Malygos."
"Or what? You intend to kill me?" He growled.
"If we must."
"I do not bow to Deathwing's lackeys!" The Aspect of Magic roared and finally came into view.
The strange accusation came out of nowhere, but the blue dragon's appearance distracted from it. He had not escaped a brush with the Demon Soul unscathed. His left front leg was crippled and there was a long gash, an ugly canyon of an injury in blue, red and purple, across his flank.
He was taking a deep breath, which everyone present knew was bad news, so they threw themselves sideways. A torrent of destructive arcane energies spewed from Malygos' maw, annihilating one unlucky human and his drake mount that had been too slow in getting out of the way. Everyone present was still mounted, as there was actually not enough room on the platform for more than a few people.
And then battle was joined.
The forces of the Wyrmrest Accord scattered and surrounded the crazed Aspect of Magic, using both their abilities and the abilities of their drake mounts to attack him. Alexstrasza also took on her true form and engaged him.
Had Malygos been fresh and uninjured, the fight would have been hard. As previously mentioned, his domain of magic was the one most easily turned to offensive purposes and general combat. Alexstrasza was a fearsome opponent, but that was more due to the size and power of her dragon form than her domain of life.
As support, however, she had no equal. The two dozen or so drake-mounted elites were thus elevated into a dire threat to the Aspect of Magic. And with his injury from before, his defeat was almost certain.
But Harry preferred absolute wins, so he flew his Disc in front of Malygos' eyes and brandished the bag, yelling out a challenge. "Malygos!"
The ancient blue dragon saw it and flinched. Badly. The trauma inflicted upon him by the Demon Soul ran deep and the threat of having it used on him again distracted him completely. He ceased flinging around magic and froze like a deer in the headlights.
Which was all that was necessary. Numerous injuries were inflicted upon him, making him stagger, and Alexstrasza's jaws closed around his neck.
"The mortals will destroy… everything…" He gurgled accusingly before falling silent.
"He was once one of Azeroth's mightiest protectors." The Aspect of Life said mournfully, speaking mostly to herself. "But he had to be stopped."
Taking a deep breath, she turned to them and continued. "The Red Dragonflight will take on the burden of mending the devastation he wrought. Return to your people and rest, tomorrow will bring new challenges."
"I would prefer something smaller in scale next time." Colette murmured to him quietly.
"Agreed." Harry murmured back. Apocalyptic threats were dramatic and exciting, but having them back to back was a bit much.
XXXXX
It was a strange contrast between the two groups that met outside the Nexus. The group that went down into the ice caverns was jubilant about their victory after they cleared out all the dangerous experiments of the Blue Dragonflight, broke the morale of the minions and took prisoner those who surrendered. The group that went into the Eye of Eternity to confront Malygos, on the other end, was more somber, even if only out of respect for Alexstrasza's mood.
Luna saw this and her eyes welled with sympathy. Without any explanation or preamble she rushed forth to hug the Dragon Queen.
"It'll be alright." She assured.
"I… thank you?" Alexstrazsa said in confusion, looking towards Harry for an explanation.
"Just roll with it." He advised. Luna was immune to the invisible pressure of propriety and reputation. That handled, he turned towards Arko and Jessir. "And what do you have there."
It was a rhetorical question, for he could clearly see that they had Grand Magus Telestra between them, her hands bound.
"She surrendered when it became obvious that her side was losing." Jessir explained.
"Jessir almost beat her all by herself." Arko smirked, much to her friend's embarrassment.
"Is that so?" Harry was amused, but his eyes were narrowed at the bound archmage that was still giving off a smug air.
Then he stabbed her in the gut with the bladed end of his staff, prompting exclamations of shock and dismay from most watchers. Further shock and dismay followed when Telestra simply faded away.
"I'm afraid you've been had." He sighed.
"Oh, I didn't notice that it was an illusionary body double." Luna commented, still hugging Alexstrazsa.
"How did you know?" Jessir asked, scowling at the realization that the smug bitch of a high elf had pulled one over on them.
"I didn't, but it's the first thing I'd learn how to do if I was an illusion specialist."
"But what if it hadn't been a body double?!" One of the other prisoners demanded.
Harry shrugged. "Then I guess I'd have stabbed a bitch."
For some reason, this upset a few people. Apparently it was frowned upon to murder prisoners. Della also protested at being compared to the escaped high elf, which was a far more valid objection in his opinion.
XXXXX
"She must have switched with an illusionary clone when the Light's Wrath exploded." Arko grumbled.
"No doubt." Harry agreed. As far as distractions go, that was as good as it got.
"I am sorry, I should have kept closer watch." Garona apologized.
"Don't beat yourself up over it, she got one over on all of us." Luna shook her head.
"We'll stab her proper if she shows up again." Harry nodded. "Right now, Telestra has no allies and plenty of enemies. If she's dumb, she'll throw her lot in with the Burning Legion or the Old Gods or whoever in which case we'll definitely run into her again. And if she doesn't, then she's going to be forced to become a hermit, which might be even worse for someone like her."
He was guessing on that part, but Telestra seemed like the type to be fond of prestige. Solitude would be quite unpleasant for such a person.
"What are we going to do with those two staves, though?" Jessir brought up the elephant in the room.
The Battle Harem now had in their hands two incredibly powerful magical artifacts, both of which were difficult to control.
"I've already sent a message to Jaina, asking her to come over right away." Harry revealed. "If there's anyone on Azeroth that Aluneth should go to for reasons both practical and political, it's her."
"I can certainly see that, but what about Light's Wrath?" Colette asked pointedly. "I couldn't help but notice that we know someone with a temperament very similar to that staff."
"Sally's been doing better lately, but I'm not sure if she's ready for a big responsibility like that." Luna opined.
"You're talking about a powerful magical artifact like it's a dog." Colette pointed out amusedly.
"It kind of reminds me of a chihuahua." Luna nodded sagely.
"A what?" Arko, Jessir, Colette and even Garona asked blankly.
"A tiny little demon of a dog, made up of 50% tremble and 50% hate." Harry snorted in memory of that particular breed. He hadn't thought about it in ages. "They're an anxious mess and way too territorial and aggressive for something that puny. Aside from Light's Wrath being actually powerful, I can see the resemblance."
They looked dubious, which was fair. They'd never seen a chihuahua before.
Further discussion was put on hold because Jaina arrived.
"Harry? I got your message." She said as she entered the room. "Did everything go well with the assault on the Nexus?"
Despite her power, it had been decided that she would be more valuable elsewhere, which was a fancy way of saying that she was more useful in logistics than the frontline.
"Quite well, but we've had an unexpected complication." Harry said and stood up, opening the chest with Aluneth inside and pointing it her way. "Think fast!"
Jaina had clearly not been on guard and not expecting any kind of attack. Faced with a fancy staff flying her way, her instincts froze up in confusion for a moment and then the staff was in her hand.
Arcane power coursed between it and her. Jaina strained for a minute, but was able to bring it under control.
"Harry… what did you do?" She demanded breathlessly.
"Gave you a present." He smiled innocently. "I knew you could handle it."
"Really?" She asked back sarcastically. "Because this looks suspiciously like something that the Kirin Tor had in its vaults, something that was reported as stolen by the Blue Dragonflight."
"And now the Kirin Tor has it back." Harry's innocent smile widened. "You're Kirin Tor, aren't you? And Aegwynn is your bestie. She can tell you all about her old toy."
"Toy?!" Jaina exclaimed incredulously, then took a deep breath. "Harry, this staff could have killed me."
"But it didn't. See how it purrs in your hands? You were meant to handle that shaft."
The dignified ruler of Theramore and former princess of Kul Tiras stared at him blankly for a long few seconds and then teleported away without a word.
"Too much?" Harry asked the girls.
"One day, she is going to hurt you." Arko shook her head.
"Ah, while we're on the topic of people hurting us…" Jessir spoke up hesitantly, bringing a bloodied cloth out of her pocket. "We had a female draenei in our group and she got hurt. You said you needed a blood sample to make proper bodies for Sacrolash and Alythess?"
"Ooh, this day just keeps getting better!" Harry enthusiastically took the cloth.
"How naughty of you Jessir." Colette teased.
"It's not like we'll be hurting anyone." The huntress defended. "Right?"
"Not at all, I just needed the genetic information to start making proper clones." Harry assured.
"Umm, should we call Sally and talk to her about Light's Wrath?" Luna spoke up.
Harry tried picturing Sally Whitemane wielding Light's Wrath. No matter how he looked at it, he could only see a cackling maniac gleefully scorching everything in holy fire. Either that or burning herself out.
"Let's consider our approach a bit more before we do that."