//------------------------------//
// Blackwing Lair, Part 2: Crimson Laboratory 
// Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth 
// by Xarmar13 
//------------------------------//

The party proceeded deeper into Blackwing Lair. They had to be more careful with how they attacked enemies further in since Sophia was still recovering from unleashing enough psionic energy to blow up two rooms worth of devices.

Thanatas knew that the next part of the area was going to be unpleasant for the party. What they had seen so far were dragon eggs that they had to destroy as well as the nests and shells of dragon eggs in the room they were in. The next room would show the true depths of Nefarian’s depravity.

The next room was occupied by a large number of goblin engineers and orc spellcasters. Strangely enough, they also saw a few blood elf spellcasters. All of them seemed to be working at lab tables. Overseeing the operations were a number of black drakonid like Lashlayer.

The inside of the room looked like a large laboratory. A large variety of scientific instruments could be seen, including alchemy labs, operating tables, hanging cauldrons, tesla coils and huge centrifuges which seemed to be spinning around containers of a red substance that looked like blood.

Their curiosity was put on the back burner when the party was noticed by the lab workers who drew their staves or began channeling their magic. The goblins pulled out a number of small bombs.

Using the doorway to their advantage, the workers were lured toward the previous room. However, this only worked partially because the goblins began tossing primed bombs. The explosive blasts forced the party to back away from the door and allow the spellcasters inside.

They still had trouble getting into the room though as Talia began raining fire on the entrance which set a few robes on fire. What was unusual was that the blood elves ran through the fire like it was nothing. Talia, Farra’jin and Mena began unleashing their magic on the elves only to realize nothing was working on him.

“The elves are immune to magic, cut them down with your blades!” Thanatas ordered.

As she said that a pair of drakonid entered the room, their bulky bodies easily enduring Talia’s magic. Lokosh and Flutashe engaged the drakonid while Jaqueline was left to cut down the elves with her swords. Groun grew some vines in the doorway behind the last of the defenders and had them coil like springs. The next few bombs the goblins threw ended up sent back to them when the vines bounced them back. The explosions occurred near an alchemy table which caused some of the chemicals to become unstable and violently explode, ensuring the goblins died in their favorite way.

The explosion also shattered the containers attached to a nearby centrifuge, spilling the crimson vital fluid all over the floor.

The spellcasters soon fell which allowed Talia, Mena, Farra’jin, Bella and Stella to focus their attacks on the drakonid who were cut down not long after.

The party moved forward into the laboratory, taking care to watch their steps as they walked over the huge puddle of dragon’s blood that spilled earlier. Those with more sensitive noses like Flutashe wrinkled them as their senses were assaulted by the metallic scent. Once they left the puddle, their shoes and feet left bloody tracks as they moved into the laboratory.

They soon found a trio of chromatic drakonid at the end of the room though Thanatas seemed distracted by something that was supposed to be here but wasn’t. She listened for any kind of wind movement caused by flapping wings but heard none.

“Where is he?” She wondered.

The other party members focused on the trio of drakonid who moved to attack. Strangely, the spellcasters in the party found that their magic had little effect on them as their scales greatly mitigated their attacks. The attacks from the warriors, Bella and her holy magic and Flutashe’s claws still harmed them like normal.

“Their scales resist most forms of magic but it makes them vulnerable to one type, you have to find it!” Thanatas called out.

The magic users quickly began experimenting on the drakonid while Lokosh, Flutashe and Bella kept their attention. Surprise found that all three resisted her spells so she let Mena handle them with her offensive holy spells since their scales didn’t seem to affect holy magic. Talia struck one with fire magic which caused him to stagger back, leading her to conclude that he had a fire weakness. Farra’jin and Stella assisted Talia with that one. Stella’s ice magic was effective on another which prompted Thanatas to assist her with bringing that one down. Farra’jin struck the last one with lightning and prompted Groun to assist with his nature magic.

The party moved up a staircase and faced more orcs, blood elves and drakonid. They had to experiment with each drakonid that they came across to find its vulnerability.

As they rose to the upper floor, Thanatas’ concerns increased. Bella noticed the death knight’s furrowed brow and asked, “Is something on your mind, darling?”

“Yeah, this lab is supposed to be under the protection of three powerful drakes: Firemaw, Ebonroc and Flamegor. We were supposed to find Firemaw on the lower floor here being charged up by tesla coils.”

“You suspect that he moved elsewhere?” Lokosh guessed.

“Maybe he flew the coop?” Mena offered.

“No, Nefarian would have ripped his head off if he tried a stunt like that. He’s here.” As they reached the second level of the lab filled with numerous vats of dragon blood, Thanatas closed her eyes and focused as she heard the faint yet rapid sound of wings flapping. She knew that the top level of the lab would be guarded by Flamegor and Ebonroc, though she had a feeling that their upcoming fight was going to be more complicated than that. If Firemaw was with those two, they were in for a tough battle. With Sophia still recovering, it was up to her to make sure everyone stayed alive.

The party proceeded to eliminate more of the orc warlocks, blood elf mages, goblin technicians and drakonid overseers on the second level. A few stray attacks from both sides ended up smashing a few containers of blood and spilled it on the laboratory floor. One goblin among the enemies carried a book about how to make use of a mysterious mineral called elementium. Bella and Lokosh agreed to share the knowledge between them later to improve their skills in metallurgy.

As they reached a ramp that would lead up to the third level of the laboratory, they looked up to see that Thanatas’ concerns were founded. Firemaw, Flamegor and Ebonroc were indeed together and waiting for their enemies to come to them. Facing two of them was already a challenge, facing all three and without Sophia was going to make things much more difficult.



“Looks like we need to separate them,” Lokosh suggested. “Me, Bella and Flutashe each take one and move it away from the others.

“Very well,” Bella said. “Anything about these drakes that we need to know?”

“They all breathe a corrupted variant of their flame breaths. Nefarian has this type of breath attack too,” Thanatas said.

“There are drakonid guards up there with them guarding the door to the next room. Let’s hope they prioritize guarding the door over assisting the drakes. If they do, we take them out first,” Flutashe suggested.

Thanatas was impressed with how everyone was able to come up with a strategy. Their teamwork was coming along nicely. Such a sight made her feel better about leaving them to their adventures when the time came. It would give her time to improve her relations with the Horde leaders and Sophia with the Alliance leaders.

Sophia came up to Thanatas which broke her from her thoughts. The death knight glanced at her cousin and whispered, “How are you holding up?”

“Just need a few more minutes and my psionic powers should be recharged,” Sophia whispered back.

“What about your other abilities?”

“I don’t think I should use my infested abilities without enough psionic power to keep them under control.”

“Alright, keep resting and we will tear up these drakes.”

Once their strategy was ironed out, Bella, Lokosh and Flutashe moved to the base of the ramp while everyone else moved into position. They decided to split into groups of three to face the drakes. Flutashe was grouped with Farra’jin and Jaqueline, Lokosh was grouped with Groun and Stella while Bella was grouped with Mena and Talia. Thanatas would move between battles and assist where needed.

Flutashe shifted into her bear form and let out a bestial roar that echoed through the lab. This roar was in challenge to the drakes who began to move toward the source of the noise. Flutashe ran toward the back of the lab floor with the three drakes in pursuit. Lokosh hurled a throwing ax at Ebonroc before leaping to a wall in the center of the room where he intended on facing him. The ax dug into a gap in the scales on his neck which angered him and made him change the target of his attention to the warrior. Bella hurled a hammer of light at Flamegor but stayed around the base of the ramp. The hammer struck the drake’s head and left him momentarily dazed before turning his ireful gaze at the paladin. Firemaw was left as the only one to pursue the druid.

Farra’jin kept up with Flutashe’s sprint to her position by transforming into a ghostly wolf while Jaqueline’s impressive physique allowed her to sprint and leap into position. Once Firemaw reached Flutashe, he immediately received a slash to his face by one of the druid’s paws which angered him. Flutashe rolled to the side to avoid the retaliation in the form of a torrent of corrupted fire.

Battle soon began between Lokosh’s group and Ebonroc. The drake began his attack like Firemaw and attempted to breathe shadowflame on the warrior. Lokosh wasn’t an idiot who would stand and endure that attack though, he rolled to the side to avoid it. Stella blasted his left forearm with a disintegration beam which damaged some of his scales. She then struck him with several icicles which shattered on his scaly body. Before Ebonroc turned his attention to the dracthyr, Lokosh slapped his face with his shield and followed up with a slash from his ax that would have taken his right eye if he hadn’t lifted his head.

Bella was not having a good time. She ended up facing the most intense of the three drakes who went into a frenzy whenever he could. A magical enhancement from Surprise made her more resistant to the shadowy energies laced into his flame breath and she radiated an aura that repelled most flames to make herself more resilient to the drake’s shadowflame breath. Talia unleashed shadow magic and fire magic alike at Flamegor who ignored the harm he was receiving in favor of attacking with more intensity.

“Groun, would you be a dear and get this one to calm down?” Bella called out. Groun turned around and shifted into his tree form before releasing a relaxing herbal aroma in the vicinity of Flamegor. The herbal aroma took effect immediately as Bella noticed that Flamegor’s attacks slowed. She used the slight respite to use the Light to refresh herself before continuing her attack.

Flutashe soon found her fur standing on end as her body absorbed electricity somehow. She noticed Jaqueline’s hair was looking puffy as well. As she dodged another shadowflame breath, she took that brief moment to remember what Thanatas said earlier. She mentioned that Firemaw should have been on the lower level being zapped by tesla coils but wasn’t. She could only guess that Firemaw was still charged up with electricity.

One more strike from the druid’s claws resulted in her body discharging the electricity from her body. Unfortunately, Jaqueline was nearby and was electrocuted. While the warrior was badly wounded from the electricity, it was nothing that Farra’jin couldn’t heal. As he did so, he set his air totem on the ground and set it to grounding. Eventually, one of Jaqueline’s attacks caused her body to discharge except this time the energy was sent into the totem where it was distributed harmlessly along the stone floor.

Stella discovered that Ebonroc’s scales were slowly mending in places whenever he managed to graze Lokosh. “Thanatas, can you do something about his regeneration?” she called out. Thanatas responded by pointing her sword at Ebonroc and unleashed a stream of sickly green substance on his body from the tip of her sword. Once her disease started taking effect, Ebonroc’s regenerative abilities worked against him as his wounds began to necrotize. Every blow he dealt to Lokosh that should have healed him was instead damage to his own body.

Flamegor was unable to work himself into a frenzy because of Groun’s soothing pollen. In an attempt to blow it away with his wings, Bella struck him in the head with a hammer of light which left him momentarily stunned. Talia’s assault continued without consequence while Surprise’s shadow magic tore at his mind.

One by one the drakes fell. Ebonroc fell first with his own attacks adding to his pain until the disease spread in his body and eventually shut his heart down. Flamegor’s body was battered but the killing blow was the brain damage that Surprise was inflicting. Flutashe found an opening and bit into Firemaw’s throat, her teeth biting through the scales until she bit into flesh and ripped his throat out. The drake’s blood sprayed onto Flutashe while the drake realized that his enemy bit into his trachea, damaging his ability to breathe. Firemaw began to suffocate from lack of air but the druid finished him to prevent any prolonged suffering by shifting into a form that was a mix between a bear and an owl with antlers. With her paws now bulky arms, she was able to twist the drake’s head and snap it. Farra’jin called on water spirits to wash the blood off Flutashe.

The party regrouped once they were sure their targets were dead. Thanatas could tell that they were showing signs of fatigue from their many battles in Blackrock Mountain. It was Talia who asked the important question, “Just how much more is there left to this place?”

“We are very close to the end actually,” Thanatas said. “The next room is where Nefarian keeps his most prized experiment, a two-headed chromatic drakeadon.”

“A drake-a-what now?” Jaqueline asked in confusion.

“It’s like a core hound except draconic. Like with Magmadar, Chromaggus is too loyal for Flutashe to tame. It’s not that that loyalty was earned though, he keeps all of his minions under his control through corruption.”

“So what insanity are we expecting from this creature?” Lokosh asked.

“He’s a beast that’s been infused with some twisted version of the five dragonflights’ magic. If you have kept track of what each type of dragon can do then you know what to expect.”

“And what lies beyond Chromaggus?” Talia asked.

“Nefarian.”

The party felt slightly reinvigorated at that declaration. They could finally see the end to their adventures in Blackrock Mountain. All they had to do was get past his guard dog and they would soon be facing the self-proclaimed master of the mountain.

They proceeded up the ramp to the top level of the laboratory, but as they got there, they beheld a disturbing sight. Numerous holding pens lined the walls and each one looked like they once held a dragon. They were all dead and their bodies were left to rot in their cells. Blood, viscera and chunks of flesh along with dragon skeletons were seen in each cell. The stench of rot and decay invaded their nostrils.

“By the Light, what madness has happened here!?” Bella exclaimed.

“Every mad science experiment needs test subjects and material,” Thanatas explained nonchalantly. “This really is no different than how the Scourge conducts their experiments. Subjects are placed into holding pens and are either subjected to experimental substances or their organs are harvested for the sake of science.”

As Stella witnessed such depravity, the shock jarred something in her mind. She saw brief flashes of herself holding a clipboard and staring at live dragons in the holding pens. The last thing she saw was Victor Nefarius standing next to her with a thoughtful look on his face as he stared at the captive dragons.

The headache that came with the visions came and went, but it was enough for the others to catch her behavior. “Is something wrong, darling?” Bella asked.

“I…I’m not sure,” Stella replied. “I feel like these pens are familiar somehow.”

“Maybe the seal on your memories is weakening?” Mena offered.

“We can worry about that later, we’re almost to the end,” Jaqueline said.

The party prepared to face the trio of drakonid guards, who had surprisingly not followed the drakes into battle, but to their surprise the three were quickly decapitated within a second. Sophia stood in front of the now headless guards with a victorious look on her face. “Guess who’s back in the saddle…”

Thanatas breathed a sigh of relief knowing that her cousin was back at full strength. She would be needed for the next fight.

She then turned to Stella, “This next fight may test your level of mastery over the five flight powers. Chromaggus will throw every type of affliction known at us, but you will need to remember the source of your bronze powers.”

Stella nodded, “I might have an idea on how to access those powers.”

Thanatas decided to trust that she knew what she was doing. She then looked at the others. “I’m pretty sure Chromaggus will have adaptive scales which means that its magical weakness will periodically change. Its scales can’t cover all of its weaknesses at once so where one type is suddenly resisted, another becomes a vulnerability.”

“What about light magic?” Bella asked.

“Light magic was beyond the ability of the five flights to control. Life, dreams, arcane, time and earth have nothing to do with that element and Chromaggus will have no answer to that. However, it’s not a vulnerability either.”

With their questions answered, Sophia entered the next room which was mostly empty save for the massive cell where Chromaggus was and a huge lever which likely opened the way forward and the cell.

The rest of the party looked inside and beheld something very disturbing and horrifying. Several drake corpses were bound in chains hung from the ceiling. Their coloring was nearly gone which made them nearly indistinguishable from any of the five flights. The sinew from their wings was torn off leaving what looked like arms with disturbingly long fingers.

Jaqueline’s face contorted to one of blind rage, “Do you remember somethin’ about this, Stella?” she demanded. “Did you serve Nefarian knowin’ that he was doin’ this ta other dragons?”

“I…I…I can’t remember.” Panic settled in as Stella struggled to remember something while being the target of Jaqueline’s rage-filled gaze.

Jaqueline moved closer to grab the robes of the one she thought was a friend to force something out of her to help her make sense of this but Sophia grabbed her wrist and forced her away from the dracthyr. The warrior struggled to get out of the dark templar’s grip but it was too strong. Jaqueline tried to punch her in the face but Sophia’s other hand caught the attack. She then looked defiantly at Sophia only to be met with a gaze of disappointment, like a mother disciplining her child. Jaqueline withered under her gaze.

“This is pointless,” Sophia scolded. “We will get our answers when we confront Nefarian, and not before. Now calm down and get ready to fight a drakeadon.”

Jaqueline nodded while bitterly muttering something under her breath.

Sophia returned to the room. Once she was sure everyone was ready for a fight, she pulled the huge lever. Both portcullises opened and Chromaggus emerged from one.

The drakeadon resembled a core hound in shape as well as two heads. The heads were narrower than a core hound’s and resembled a pair of drakes. A row of horns lined the top of both heads with larger horns on its back. Its armor was similar to that of a core hound but made of a different metal. Multi-colored scales covered its entire body.



The beast roared in fury while Sophia fled back into the other room. Chromaggus chased after her and the battle began. Lokosh and Flutashe faced one head each while the others repeatedly experimented on the drakeadon’s current vulnerability. Every few seconds its scales shimmered to alter its weak point. It would randomly go between nature magic, which was handled by Farra’jin and Groun, fire magic by Talia and Farra’jin, frost magic by Stella and Thanatas, shadow magic by Talia and Surprise or arcane which was handed by Stella.

Shortly after the fight began, people began to get randomly affected by ailments. Some would suffer a deadly fever as their skin turned red. Mena used her light magic to cleanse the disease. Some suffered a poison that made their skin turn green. Farra’jin’s water totem cleansed them of that. Some ended up with a magical affliction that made their skin turn blue and their movements slowed as they felt a chill course through their bodies. Talia’s felhound devoured the magic with Mena assisting with a Mass Dispel. Some suffered a curse that made their skin turn black but they didn’t feel any different. Groun’s remedies purged them of the corruption.

The affliction that Stella was watching for as she fought the drakeadon was one where their skin turned a bronze color. She sensed that their time was distorted as if time itself couldn’t decide where their current time was supposed to be. This led to their bodies becoming temporarily frozen in time as time attempted to correct the distortion.

Stella thought back to how she found her bronze essence and recalled channeling arcane magic. The refined version was usually channeled into her fire and frost spells. When she focused on the raw variation that was not altered, she found that the energies could affect space and time.

She maintained her focus on the raw energies and channeled them through others. The warp in spacetime ended up driving away the affliction.

However, their actions on cleansing their allies had consequences. Removing the corrupted red essence caused the essence to land somewhere and start a fire, the purged poison left toxic clouds in places, the dispelled magic fled the body and solidified into blocks of ice, the cleansed curse took the form of a tar-like substance that caused the flames to spread, the fixed distortions in time exploded in a dazzling display that temporarily blinded those who were too close to it.

They also had to contend with other issues such as the various breaths that Chromaggus unleashed. It was smart enough to unleash its breath all over the room to attack all of its enemies but the party was able to use the ice that formed in the room to shield themselves. There was also the fact that the beast would whip itself into a frenzy like Flamegor did but Sophia’s psychic waves made sure that the frenzy wasn’t an issue.

Every now and then, and in increasing frequency, some members of the party had their skin becoming a kaleidoscope of different colors. Thanatas warned that the situation would turn grave if anyone was afflicted with all five types of afflictions at the same time. Nobody wanted to know what the death knight meant so the healers of the group worked harder to cleanse their allies of their afflictions.

The fight took some time but the repeated exploitation of the drakeadon’s shifting vulnerability eventually damaged its scales to the point where they were shed from the beast, exposing its soft interior. Jaqueline used her swords to widen its exposed spot by slashing more scales off the right side of the beast until she exposed what she hoped was a vital area. She plunged her swords into the exposed hide and stabbed a couple of internal organs. Chromaggus roared in pain up until the warrior removed the blades and caused blood to spray from the wound. Stella was able to call on her black dragon magic to cause the stone floor to reshape and erupt as a spike of stone that impaled Chromaggus. The pillar pierced its stomach and left lung. Chromaggus could feel its strength leaving it as breathing became difficult and the stone spear only damaged its insides further as it struggled.

The drakeadon let out one last weak breath of flame before the light in its eyes went out.

The party fled into the next room as the lab was now on fire and poison was spreading through the area, contaminating the blood samples as the acid ate through the containers.

The room with the drake corpses was a disturbing sight but they were still safe for the moment from the spreading chaos. They took a break and restored their energy before their fight with Nefarian.

Jaqueline, who had calmed down from earlier, gave Stella an apologetic look. “Listen Stella, ah’m sorry about snappin’ at ya earlier. Seein’ these drake corpses brought up some bad memories fer me. As mah family escaped from the Northlands, ah saw corpses impaled on pikes, corpses hung from trees, and corpses in Darrowmere Lake. Ah saw how depraved the Scourge could be, an’ yet ah saw nothin’. Seein’ these corpses around us reminded me of the terror of the undead. It reminded me of the family ah lost to them and how powerless ah was to stop it. Ah just couldn’t think straight no more…”

Stella placed a talon on Jaqueline’s shoulder and gently spoke to the warrior, “I accept your apology. I also understand that what we’ve seen here is madness. This depravity crosses a line that should never have been crossed. We will end Nefarian once and for all and make him pay for every drake he’s tortured and every whelp he’s corrupted.”

Jaqueline gave the dracthyr a smile and a determined nod while everyone turned their attention to the way forward. They could see a red light filtering through the corridor ahead. What this meant, they had no idea but they had a feeling that Lord Victor Nefarius was in the next room.

The party proceeded through the narrow and short corridor and emerged into a ruined area. The dim red light of the ashen sky greeted their faces which told them that they were entering an outdoor area. The place appeared to be an overlook that faced the east side of Blackrock Mountain. A pair of damaged stone and iron pillars held the ceiling in place. Parts of the floor looked torn up. The overlook was a large rectangular arena that was even larger than the one where they fought Rend Blackhand. To their right were two mysterious doorways that appeared sealed with thick iron doors. A lot of deep growling could be heard inside.

About half a minute passed as they explored the overlook that they spotted an alcove that was decorated with weapons but also had a stone throne. More importantly was the disguised form of a certain psychotic dragon sitting on it.



Lord Victor Nefarius appeared deep in thought but the party was fairly certain that he knew they were looking his way.

In the style of a stereotypical villain, he waited until his enemies were within earshot of him before he began his monologue.

“I spent years shaping that ragtag Horde into something halfway decent. I saw their potential during the First War when they burned Stormwind to the ground. The Alliance showed their tenacity in the Second War, even when my father wore away at their unity from within they still emerged victorious and drove the Horde back to Draenor while my father went with them. 

“I took what was left of them and created an army that would destroy the last true bastion of humanity. With my flight and my experiments, we would have been unstoppable. Stellaglim’s breakthroughs advanced my research by leaps and bounds. In two years, my coming wrath upon humanity had been pushed forward from several generations from now to one. My invasion should have started a few years ago while Lordaeron was busy fighting their losing war with the Scourge and the Burning Legion.”

Victor raised his head and turned his glare toward Stella. “But then my invasion was pushed back, all because you decided to favor the mortals. When I brought you test subjects, you objected to their treatment even when they promised to kill you the first chance they got. You abandoned the research and planned on destroying all your work. You would choose the mortals over dragonkind. I had to dispose of you and because of your treason, I was left with nothing but faulty specimens; specimens who couldn’t even dispose of a few meager insects.

“My plans were brought to ruin within days. Those worthless orcs, my own minions, my specimens were brought low by a handful of mortal insects.” Victor rose from his seat and his expression of rage was made obvious as he bellowed, “AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT, STELLAGLIM! BEFORE I SLAUGHTER YOU IN THE MOST PAINFUL AND SLOWEST WAY IMAGINABLE, I DEMAND TO KNOW WHY YOU WOULD BETRAY THE SON OF YOUR LORD AND MASTER!”

“How am I supposed to know why I did that? How can you expect me to give an answer while your seal on my memories remains?” Stella shot back.

“Then perhaps you need a reminder of your sins…” Victor raised a hand toward Stella. Shadowy energy gathered around his palm before an arcane sigil formed in front of him. The energy struck key points on the sigil and caused it to shatter. The shadow and arcane energies dissipated.

In that moment, Stella clutched her head as her mind became flooded with memories. She remembered many things in the span of seconds. She remembered twenty thousand years ago when she and her kin were the ultimate soldiers trained by Neltharion himself. He kept them united using a Titan artifact that was shattered by a powerful proto dragon. She remembered Neltharion betraying them by having Malygos leave them in stasis for eternity. 

She then remembered waking up in this very laboratory somehow. Nefarian asked her for her assistance in recreating the dracthyr that Neltharion created. At the time she had assumed that he wanted to create more dracthyr to serve as protectors of Azeroth like the Black Dragonflight was charged with. Her talent in alchemy made her a prodigy. She picked up on the modern techniques within a week. She also remembered that he assigned her an assistant who seemed clumsy and incompetent and she was expected to teach him what she knew. Of course, she could only teach so much when the apprentice lacked any potential whatsoever.

Finally, she remembered why she betrayed Nefarian. She eventually discovered the purpose of the experiments and the depravity of the treatment of the captured whelps and drakes. She examined the blood of the black dragonkin and found that their blood had been corrupted by void energies. She learned that Nefarian intended to use the army she helped him create to commit acts of genocide against the mortal races.

She confronted Nefarian about this and he attempted to use his profane magic to corrupt her but a mysterious rainbow-colored barrier drove away all of Nefarian’s attempts to control her. However, this didn’t stop him from placing his seals on her mind and held her down while he forced her to drink one of her apprentice’s failed potions, regressing her to that of a hatchling. The last thing she remembered was the spell that locked her form into that of a high elf infant.

Her consciousness returned to the present. Bella, Mena, Jaqueline and Flutashe were all around her with concern in their eyes. “Stella dear, what happened?” Bella asked.

“I…I remember…everything…!” Stella’s expression turned to one of fury as she got up from the floor and turned her glare to Victor. “You! How could you betray the charge of the Black Dragonflight?! Your kind were supposed to be the protectors of the world and what lay below! The mortal races are a part of this world like all of us and you wish to wipe them out? You dare to call me a traitor when you and your kind have betrayed the charge given to you by the Titans!?”

Nefarian was stunned for a moment. The next was the bellowing laughter of the black dragon. “In the end your excuse is the same spiel that the other flights spout. They adhere to the duties placed upon them by the ones who usurped the order of this world. My father serves the true masters of Azeroth and one day they shall be free. You disappoint me Stellaglim, I would have hoped that you would have the vision to see that the return of the old empire is inevitable.”

“I saw the visions you tried to force on me,” Stella said. “You forsook your duties and sided with the corruption of the void. I can see the mistake the Titans made when they empowered a flight of weak-minded whelps who gave up hope so easily. You prove how weak you, your father and your entire flight really are!”

It took all of Victor’s willpower to avoid snapping at that point. He decided that the time for talk was over. “I grow bored of this conversation. It’s time for you to play my little game.” Bits of shadow magic gathered in his left hand. Everyone drew their weapons to prepare for what came next. Nefarius released the energies into a pair of bolts that flew to the sealed doors, opening them. “Let the games begin!” He then wrapped himself in shadow and teleported to a different location in the room.

In the meantime, a horde of drakonid emerged from the two entrances and moved to engage the party. Lokosh, and Bella engaged the drakonid while Bella attempted to fight Victor. The rest focused their energy on slaying the drakonid.

Thanatas saw what Bella was doing and moved to grab her shoulder, turning her toward the drakonid. “The figure is nothing but an illusion casting spells. He’s intangible so focus your attacks on the drakonid.” Bella glanced at the death knight and nodded before rushing toward the draconic horde.

The drakonid were nowhere near as tough as the ones they fought before. It was apparent that each of them could take a drakonid by themselves. Jaqueline cut down several drakonid using her spinning Bladestorm technique while Flutashe switched to her cat form and swiped her claws wide and slashed through the fragile flesh of her enemies. Bella consecrated the ground around her while summoning a number of light hammers to spin around her which slammed into any nearby drakonid. Talia planted a number of shadow seeds on any drakonid that weren’t black scaled before she made it rain fire on them. The flames detonated the seeds and blew up many enemies. Mena used every light attack spell she knew while switching between herself and Surprise to cause a number of the enemies to suffer brain damage. Farra’jin’s elementals were wreaking havoc on the enemy numbers.

With her memories restored, Stella remembered how to use her draconic abilities to their full extent. She charged up a disintegration beam that tore through the chests of every drakonid that was in her line of fire while avoiding her friends. Lokosh ended up overpowered by a large chromatic drakonid and suffered several cuts because he got careless. He was relieved when a burst of red flame from the dracthyr enveloped him and healed his wounds. The remaining enemy drakonid ended up lined up with their backs to each other which gave her an opportunity to take a deep breath, take to the air and unleash a powerful earth-rending blast that tore the floor under the drakonid and sent them flying. She did some quick mental calculations and conjured ice spikes at their estimated landing location. The last of the drakonid ended up impaled on the ice.

“Quick, gather behind me!” Thanatas ordered.

“I have had enough of hiding behind minions, time for you to face the true lord of Blackrock Spire!” The image disappeared before the real Victor Nefarius appeared at the edge of the balcony. He then jumped off before he transformed into his true form. His wings extended and with several flaps he was hovering over the overlook.

Nefarian bore some resemblance to Onyxia with the curved horns except his were bright orange. His frills on his head and behind his horns were bright orange with black sinew. He had bright orange spines coming out the back of his arms and his tail spread like a fan with three spines on each side. The tendrils under his chin each had a silver ring on them.



The dragon took a deep breath and prepared to unleash a huge blast of shadowfire. Thanatas anticipated this and raised a barrier of bones to block it. “Burn you wretches! Burn!” Nefarian bellowed as he bathed the overlook in corrupted fire. He breathed until he ran out of breath in his anger-fueled attempt to incinerate those who stood against him. To his surprise, the barrier held and lowered to find that his enemies were unscathed.

Nefarian took a moment to calm himself as he prepared to engage his foes directly. “I will not fall so easily like my sister did. Back in Stormwind, you had the advantage of restricting her movements due to her size and you had many allies helping you. Now we are in my lair and the advantage is mine.” He landed, prepared for the final confrontation.

Lokosh charged in and lured Nefarian into turning away from the others. Everyone knew better than to be in front of or behind an elder dragon so they attacked him from his flank. The orc had to move back to avoid any swipes from his claws while rolling to the side to avoid his breath attacks. Occasionally someone in the party would end up enveloped in shadow. They quickly discovered that it was a curse to Groun was able to handle it.

That was when the battle became more chaotic. Nefarian began calling on more of his dark sorcery to affect the battlefield, tailored to each of their classes.

He looked at his current target, Lokosh and decided to ruin his day. “Warriors, I know you can hit harder than that! Let’s see it!” 

Lokosh suddenly found that his shield had been replaced by his other ax while shadows clung to his fists. He also felt compelled to fight recklessly. Nefarian’s claw slapped him away and sent him flying into a wall. Jaqueline felt the same feeling that Lokosh felt but this didn’t affect her as much since she wasn’t Nefarian’s target. Flutashe shifted into bear form and drew the dragon’s attention.

At the same time phantasmal weapons manifested. One flew straight for Jaqueline and slammed the ground, sending her flying into a wall next to Lokosh. Another weapon flew at Thanatas but she shattered it with her sword.

With the target of his aggression focused on the druid, he decided to get her out of the way as well. “Druids and your silly shapeshifting. Let’s see it in action!”

Flutashe felt the shadow magics compel her to shift into her cat form, greatly weakening her defenses. Bella saw this and slammed a large hammer of light at Nefarian. The dragon tried to ignore this in favor of getting his first kill for the fight only for a sword of light to emerge from under his chin and nearly impaling his skull. Knowing what she could do if left alone, he was unable to ignore the paladin anymore. He also noticed that the tauren druid was unaffected by his ability. He had no idea why but decided on an alternative punishment by turning him into an immobile tree for a brief time.

Meanwhile, brambles glowing a sickly green energy started roaming the area. Not wanting to know what they did, the party took care to avoid them.

Nefarian glared at Bella and would have considered using the paladin version of his “Call Outs” but the majority of his attackers were spellcasters and this one would only protect him from physical attacks.

A searing pain throughout Nefarian’s body burned many of his scales. He sensed the power coming from the rabbit girl. The psionic power hurt him more than anything the others did. He wasn’t sure what the girl was so he used his shadows to gather data on her. A few moments later he got his info. A wicked smirk formed on his face as he called her out, “Dark Templars, masters of psychic power. You shouldn’t be giving others a piece of your mind so easily, you never know when they will give it right back!”

Sophia suffered a huge migraine from a psychic feedback thanks to the shadows on the field. She clutched her head in agony and lost her focus on her environment. She did not like that at all and became infuriated. She punched the ground and in the next moment, a spire of Zerg chitin pierced Nefarian’s belly and stabbed several of his internal organs, causing him to cough up blood. The bunny templar regained her senses and forced the spike to retract before anyone realized how he was injured.

The templar drove the point home when she gave Nefarian a menacing look that filled the dragon with a sense of primal dread. He had a feeling that he would suffer a fate worse than death if he tried that again.

Nefarian then turned his gaze toward Thanatas, but the death knight made him think twice when she impaled dozens of phantom swords into his flank all at once, causing him to roar in agony. 

“Try that with me and I’ll mess you up so badly not even your father will be able to reanimate you,” Thanatas threatened. She was already furious with Nefarian for what he did to her cousin and she would be willing to prevent a future event from occurring if he pushed her too far. Thankfully the others were too busy fighting Nefarian to consider her words.

Nefarian did hear the word “reanimate” and had an idea. He then channeled the shadows into the fallen army of drakonid and dissolved the flesh, leaving behind the bones. The bones then started moving and assembled into an army of skeletons. With the army of the dead assembled, he ordered them to serve him by slaughtering his enemies.

This plan backfired spectacularly. Nefarian had underestimated Thanatas’ ability to control the dead and the dragon was not well versed enough in the art of necromancy to prevent the death knight from hijacking his army and turning it on him. His eyes shrank in horror as the army of bone that he rose ignored the mortals and began tearing into his scales. Nefarian swiped and bashed the skeletons with his tail and claws until they were piles of inanimate bones once again.

The party didn’t stay idle, Jaqueline and Lokosh recovered from their hard hits and ran back in. They noticed the skeletons ripping into Nefarian’s flesh and though the female warrior felt unsettled about that, she decided that she wouldn’t let this opportunity pass. She noticed that a few deep gashes were left in Nefarian’s hide from the skeletons and moved to plunge her swords into the wounds to deepen them.

Another roar of agony was heard before the dragon shook Jaqueline off without her blades. He could sense that his consciousness was beginning to fade, so he unleashed what power he had left to stay alive long enough for him to at least have his revenge. He then turned his glare toward Stella and focused his attacks on her. He breathed a wave of shadowflame toward her but Stella lifted off with her wings before hurling several bolts of red dragon magic at Nefarian’s face. He flinched from the attack then spread his wings and lifted off to pursue the object of his ire.

The two left the overlook to fight one another in the open air. Nefarian released wave after wave of shadowflame but Stella’s size and speed played in her favor while her disintegration beams tore more holes in the dragon’s hide. His large size played against him in this battle.

Stella’s training as one of Neltharion’s former soldiers and as a Dalaran combat mage kicked in as she unleashed corrosive globs of acid on his wounds while a well timed huge icicle was launched at Nefarian’s head while he opened his mouth to unleash another wave of shadowflame, only for the ice shard to get stuck in his maw.

As they fought, Stella noticed the mysterious wound in her adversary’s belly. She conjured more acid and hurled it into the gaping wound, reopening it and causing his blood and entrails to spill out. With the acid exacerbating the symptoms, his natural healing was not enough and with his fatigue from the battle, he was at his limit.

Nefarian fell down the side of a lower mountain and landed in the Burning Steppes. She watched as the dragon’s life came to an end with a look of sadness. She was saddened that one who could have been a great protector of Azeroth was reduced to a minion of the Old Gods, saddened that the entire flight was potentially lost, saddened that he threw his duty away.

With the last of his energy, Nefarian looked at Stella. It was not one of anger or hatred, but one of desperation. Desperation to know of something that he truly desired to know. “How can you have hope when there is none? How can you hope to stop the inevitable?”

Stella sighed. She walked up to the dying dragon and looked into his desperate eyes. “Someone has to have it. Even if the chance to change the inevitable outcome is a negligible number, it still exists and is still worth placing my bet on. I have to do my part to make it happen as well.”

Nefarian didn’t respond any further. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he closed his eyes, embracing his death at last.

Despite all that he had done, Stella still wept for him. The Old Gods had twisted such a noble soul into their agent of madness. In that moment, she vowed to finish what the Titans failed to do and purge her home of the menace that corrupted an entire flight.

Meanwhile, the others watched the fight come to an end. Flutashe had a strange feeling that something was hidden behind Nefarian’s throne. She looked around until she eventually found a small red object that appeared to be a part of something. She could only hope that it was the fragment of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands that Vaelastrasz told her about. Returning to her night elf form, she placed the shard in a pocket before rejoining the others.

The others began to relax. Their adventure in Blackrock Mountain had come to an end. All that remained was to return to their respective leaders and inform them of what transpired.

Though as two threats had been removed from the face of Azeroth, another, more dangerous foe loomed over the horizon.