Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ Memories of the Twilight - Chapter 7 ( Chapter 23 )

Chapter 7:

 

 

Getting back to Undercity wasn`t as easy as I had thought at first.

The old warlock was impressed that I was able to defeat the felhunter, but he also was furious that I had destroyed his tower. It took a while to talk him into the idea that the warlock guild of Undercity would surely come up for the damage caused to the building. The old man didn`t really trust the Forsaken.

As I left Ratchet I was already thinking about getting my new robe. I could leave the old rags I was wearing behind me, the last part of me connecting me to my former life.

I dismissed Darnys and told her I would call for her again once I had reached Tirisfal.

She was disappointed because I didn`t allow her to ride the airship with me. However, this time I had other plans for the flight. As she started nagging that we would spend less and less time together, I dismissed her, making her leave this realm forcefully.

The flight with the Wyvern from Ratchet to Orgrimmar didn`t take too long. I hurried down the tower to catch the next aircraft to the other continent. I was a bit late for the last one, it departed right before my eyes without any chance of stopping it. So I had to wait. This delayed everything for about two hours. If you think about it how long you travel to get from Kalimdor to the Eastern Kingdoms and how long you have to wait for the next airship, there must be at least twelve of them on their way from continent to continent, strangely enough you never see one of the others while you are on the flight.

Although, this is a goblin transport system, I suppose if you saw another of their aircraft, it would probably be too late to avoid the crash.

As I boarded the zeppelin, I summoned my felhunter to my side. I used the time I had to get to know the creature a bit better. And I have to say, this creature seemed to be the most reasonable one of my demons. Thoonum wasn`t nagging about every little thing, wasn`t crazed by myself or constantly trying to suck out every caster he would see, although I have to admit he seemed to be a bit of a snob, but he followed my orders just as I said, so I would be able to look over his flaws.

As I left the airship in Tirisfal, I dismissed Thoonum and summoned Darnys. At that time I already assumed that these two demons would be the ones I would have by my side for most of the time. The imp was nagging too much and the voidwalker, erm, well... he hated this world and was not too shy to tell everybody.

If I compared Undercity with Orgrimmar, I still would have to say that even the architecture of the Undercity was more appealing to me, not to mention the structure and the flair of the city. But that`s just my opinion, I`ve met several people that wouldn`t agree with me on that, not that it would matter in the end.

I entered the mage quarters and shortly afterwards the Temple of the Damned in its middle. Kaal was already awaiting me and greeted me happily.

From this day on I was a sophisticated warlock, not yet fully trained, but he made it clear that he would address to this issue soon enough. He took me to his side and showed me the private quarters of the guild. Only a few members have rooms in this part of the city. Then he showed me my room. I was shocked, but he explained to me that after retrieving two very important books in the name of the Horde, it would be an honour for them to have me residing here. It felt strange at first, but I got used to the thought of it rather quickly. He told me that my new robe was already in the room waiting for me and that I should join them in the general room as soon as I have rested a bit. Kaal left the room soon afterwards.

I didn`t hesitate to put on my new robe. It was pitch black with crimson parts around my shoulders and below the waist. Along these parts the seam was highlighted with a layer of golden toned cloth.

I spread out my old one on the floor. There it lay, almost completely ripped apart, the last connection to my past. The once so clean white robe with red linings along the seam, the red emblem on my chest torn to shreds. I still remembered how happy I had been on receiving this.

But now the robe was covered in dirt and the blood of my enemies. Darnys sat on my bed wondering why I was looking so sad at this old rag. She asked me whether something was wrong. I only answered with a clear “No..“ and set the robe on fire.

The fire should consume the last pieces of my memories.

I didn`t want to rest any further, I spent enough of my time on that on the zeppelin. I ordered Darnys to follow me to the guild hall.

I brought back two very important books, travelled through half of the two continents to obtain these four demons I have under my command, yet this all happened in such a small amount of time. I already wondered how far I would be able to go.

Kaal was astonished that I didn`t want to rest at all, but I turned down his concerns and told him that everything was okay. Kaal pointed out the way to a large table at the back of the room. I did not know whether today was something special or not, but the room was filled with lots and lots of people, most of them undead warlocks sitting and drinking with their fellows. As we passed through the room my succubus put up quite a show for her surroundings. Simply the way how she walked was alluring enough to make everybody stare at her. The end of her tail sometimes slightly grazed the cheek of the people sitting next to the us purposely as we passed them. She even let her whip drop once `accidentally` so she could stop and bend over to pick it up before she continued following us. The few she winked at were speechless. Sometimes when she put on a show like this I wondered that she kept her cloths on at all.

“Kazile daz, rethul ur?“ I asked her in Eredrun.

The moment I closed my mouth everybody was staring at me, even Kaal. Darnys offered me an angry look because I stole all the attention from her with only a single sentence.

After everybody had calmed down again, I heard some compliments about how beautiful my succubus was and how good I spoke demonic. We sat down on at the table that Kaal had guided us to.

Kaal congratulated me once again on obtaining the four demons and highlighted what a great job I did and especially how fast I was. In only a few weeks I had achieved something that normally took years for a skilled warlock. He looked at me as a kind of genius. I didn`t know what I should respond to the things he told me. At that time he still referred to me as Hector most of the time, but I was never tired enough to remind him that I wanted to be called Ceberus. By the end of the conversation he even got used to calling me this way, so he was a fast learner too.

Most of the things he told me were somewhat like warnings, that I nevertheless should still be careful not to summon a demon too strong or challenge a too mighty foe. But I have to admit this is the only thing I remember about the talk with Kaal. Or perhaps, well okay, there is something else I can recall from that evening. Actually Kaal didn`t want to tell me this, but well, he talked himself into a corner figuratively speaking. He told me something about other demons of the burning legion and which of them already had been successfully enslaved at least once. He told me about the Infernals, aggressive yet mindless demons created from rock and fire. Moreover he also let a name drop, Niby, the self-proclaimed Almighty. A gnome warlock who had been exiled by the people of Stormwind. He now lived in the Felwood planning his revenge. Kaal was laughing about the story, but I saw a chance in it.

I grew stronger with every demon I had under my command. I could feel it. They were all powering me, even if they were in their demonic realm. Infernals were strong, something terribly fearsome.

I wondered how far this could take me.

After a while we all returned to our quarters to rest. I already knew I would stay awake the whole time thinking about all the possibilities I had now. The only thing I already knew when I said farewell for the night and closed the door behind me was that I never wanted to stop at this current level.

The room was designed so that the warlock wouldn`t have to dismiss his pet. If you entered the room to your right there was a large pile of pillows where your succubus or felhunter could rest and on the left side there was a dark alcove where a voidwalker or imp could spend the night. In the back of the room there was the bed of the warlock where I laid down. Darnys sat down by the pillows at first, she definitely liked it there, yet as I had closed my eyes she came sneaking up to me. She didn`t know I was still awake. I left some space between me and the wall, so I felt how she carefully climbed over me and laid down next to me. She huddled against me from the side, her head lying directly next to mine and her hand on my chest. I couldn`t avoid the thought that it felt as if she was in love with me. This was followed by my concern that I was a Forsaken. I kept on thinking about this for quite a while.

But my thoughts shifted to a different topic easily after a while. I was anxious to learn the new spells Kaal had promised to teach me. He said that it would be mainly fire magic, but I didn`t care. He could try to teach me frost magic, I was sure I would be able to learn the spells from him. The name `Niby` rose several times in my head. I also thought about the Forgotten Shadow. At the moment I was following their virtues in a direct fashion. I wouldn`t have thought that this would be this easy. I gained power fast, I offered respect to the high warlocks of the Horde and I kept following my goals with tenacity. As I kept thinking about all of this I wondered whether I was a real member of the Horde or not. I never met any of the great leaders, I never swore an oath to anybody and actually I did not want to do so ever.

All I wanted was freedom. In a way I was free, even now, but just by residing inside the Temple of the Damned in the guild halls I somehow was bound to Kaal Soulreaper and the Forsaken warlocks. I was sure the guild would give me certain assignments sooner or later, especially if I grew to become this famous warlock that they wanted me to be.

This is something I wanted to change. But how? Alright, I have to admit, it was incredibly easy to answer this question - more power!

I kept thinking about my possibilities and came to the conclusion that I should leave again tomorrow, make my way to Felwood. The rest of the night passed by rather fast. Darnys was sleeping tightly huddled to me.

When I heard the first people outside, I decided to get up again. As I had moved for the first time Darnys was looking at me from drowsy eyes with a smile on her face. I got up slowly, Darnys stretched behind me before doing the same as I did.

We left the room and made our way to the general room. I wanted to know who was already awake.

It was still quite empty, I guess it was still rather early. But instead of sitting down and waiting for Kaal to show up I wanted to use the time I still had wisely and so we left the Temple of the Damned to gather some supplies. As I was wearing the new robe by then, most people in Undercity greeted me with more respect. They now noticed how strong I already was.

Strength... the one and only thing a Forsaken lives his cursed life for, strength and revenge.

After about an hour, I would guess, we returned to the mage quarters. I had no idea where I would find this gnome called Niby, but I got a detailed map of the Felwood. I guess that would help at least a bit.

In the worst case scenario he would have allied with the Shadow Council in Jaedenar, but if that was the case I would have to take him by force.

As we returned, Kaal was actually awake for once. He wanted to invite me on a drink and something to eat but I turned down his offer. I wanted to learn the spells he had promised to teach me and then board the airship to Kalimdor.

I looked at me in bewilderment, but agreed to teach me. He was glad that I wanted to search for my own destiny and not keep lingering in the mage quarters of Undercity living from assignments offered by the warlocks guild. I wondered if the mage guild had the same problems.

He taught me three new fire spells and several other things concerning using the power offered by my demons. Sometimes I think I had already used one of these spells. Kaal called them extremely difficult, I never thought that way. Actually I thought that they were all equally easy, just like a shadow bolt.

I also assumed that all types of magic must be more difficult than shadow or fire magic. Here you just stand there and focus on whatever effect you want to achieve. I hardly knew that this principle was valid for every type. But then again, I know that I have been a bit bold at that time.

The most impressive thing Kaal showed me on that day was the rain from the twisted nether. It basically is a spell that summons a rain of fire over a certain area. I would have needed that earlier to deal with the murlocs in Hillsbrad.

After we were done, I thanked Kaal and promised I would return if I made further progress. He was glad to hear that. Although he didn`t admit that he wasn`t able to teach me anything new now. Okay... I guess it was better that way. If he had told me so, I would have never returned to him and to be honest he told me about a lot of other important things when I met him later on, but at that point he still was too careful concerning me and my strength.

Me and Darnys left Undercity and went up to the tower where the zeppelins usually departed. The goblin at the top platform greeted us friendly, but told us that we would have to wait a little longer, one of the airships had a minor accident and crashed at the north coast of Tirisfal. So we would have to wait for the next one. So a crash landing is what goblins call a “minor“ accident, huh?

I used the extra time to practise my knowledge of Eredrun with the help of my succubus. It was particular funny to watch how the goblin reacted to the language. At some point I stopped thinking about the pain you feel when you don`t understand the words. But if I`m honest, by then I liked the language, not only by the sound of the words, but being able to talk in a noble and respectful way and on the other hand every word you spoke sounded wretched and cruel.

As we had arrived in Kalimdor later on I hurried through Orgrimmar in a fast fashion so that I wouldn`t have to stay in that city for too long. As we passed the Valley of Strength there were again a lot of lunatics on the loose. Drunk orcs were lying in front of the tavern. Trolls and tauren were standing around talking about mojo, whatever that was? Half-naked bloodelves were walking the streets. The only race missing were Forsaken, although I guessed I just didn`t see them.

I dismissed Darnys in front of the flight master and asked whether his Windriders could bring me to Felwood. He told me that this would be possible, but only to the so called Emerald Sanctuary, a camp set up by the Circle of Cenarius, which was located in the far south of Felwood. Nevertheless I agreed, going by foot would be dreadful and only slow down everything.

The Wyvern started its flight to the north, then going through the woods of Ashenvale and entering the corrupted lands of Felwood. The Hyjal Mountain was directly to the east, you could not even see the top of it.

After I had landed, I was welcomed by a tall grown nightelf asking me if I spoke Darnassian. I shook my head and after that I didn`t pay any more attention to her. I guessed she tried to tell me something about this area, but I only summoned my succubus and walked away. The elf tried to hold me back from leaving, yelled something that they could need my help. Darnys offered her an angry look, maybe even a bit jealous and let her whip crack once. I just kept on walking, not looking backwards. I wondered why that elf talked to me in the first place, weren`t nightelves hostile towards members of the horde?

After reaching a fair distance to the camp I focussed again on the reason why I was there, to find Niby.

Felwood was a sickened land, cursed by the Burning Legion. The water had a slight green colour and living oozes roamed around the small lakes. The animals were almost completely tainted, similar to the ones of the plaguelands. Their flesh was rotting away from their body with every minute that passed, with every step they took. Most of the old elven ruins were now festered with satyrs.

It feels strange to admit it, but finding this Niby wasn`t too difficult. It took some time because I started in the far south of the region and he was situated more to the north, near the only river flowing through those lands.

Also I actually didn`t find him, but his imp. He was chasing the little demon because he criticized his summoning abilities. Darnys rolled her eyes at the sight of a gnome chasing an imp, I also had back thoughts now that I saw this `almighty` warlock. But I could also take the chance if was already there for once...

I approached him with respect and greeted the gnome friendly. To my bewilderment he understood every word I said. I wondered if he really was so powerful like Kaal had mentioned, there must have been a reason for him being sent into exile, maybe he had murdered an official or conducted forbidden experiments inside the city. He told me about his plan of revenge, to destroy the city of Stormwind.

But for that he would need a stronger demon minion by his side than the little Impsy standing next to him. He also added that the demon he needed should be capable of more than nagging and complaining.

Darnys whispered into my ear that I should be careful in trusting the warlock, he hardly seemed to be able to conduct a single efficient spell. I have to admit it was right what she said to me, yet I didn`t want to judge him only from the first sight.

After Niby had finished his monologue about the destruction of Stormwind he was planning, I interrupted him firmly, asking whether it was true or not that he was able to enslave infernals. The way he talked and the look in his eyes suddenly changed, he became somehow fearsome, for a gnome that is.

He looked up at me and wanted to know who wanted to know such a thing. I told him my name, Ceberus, and that I wanted to learn how to do this from him.

He thought for a moment, looking at his imp. Then he turned back at me and told me that he had an idea how I could probably be of aid for him and then he would be of aid for me. His face showed a grim smile.

He told me of a great infernal that once had roamed these lands, it was called by the name of Kroshius. This infernal would be a splendid minion for him. Unfortunately this infernal was already dead, one would have to reignite its burning core. Luckily his imp, Impsy, knew how to create demonic fire which we needed to revive the demon, to take it back from rock and rubble and light its burning heart once again. Then he directed me to talk to his imp, if I was successful in retrieving the flaming core of Kroshius for him, he would teach me how to summon and enslave infernals.

I looked at Darnys who seemed worried, yet I agreed to the offering of the gnome.

The imp squealed just like Pipfip always did when he disliked something as I approached the creature.

I opened my mouth to speak, yet before I could say a single word, the imp interrupted me telling me that he already knew what I wanted to say.

In order to create demonic fire he would need a perfect demonic essence from certain demons residing in Felwood. Only their essence, one can hardly call it 'soul', would be strong enough to reignite the corpse of Kroshius. Unfortunately for me these creatures, Felguards, are held as minions by the warlocks of Jaedenar and I didn't expect them to be too pleased by the fact that I wanted to kill their strongest pets. But well, I had no other chance.

I didn't need any instructions where I had to go thanks to the thorough mapmaker.

The imp squeaked as I agreed to the task and wished me a quick and painless death. What a nice way to say farewell. I guessed he and Pipfip would get along quite well.

As I left, Niby tried to summon another demon, which ended in a mild explosion. As I saw that, I started to get bad thoughts about this whole thing for myself. But I was willing to take the chance even if it turned out to be a dead end after all.

I followed the road leading south to get to Jaedenar, I already had passed it once on my way to Niby.

Jaedenar was the biggest nightelf ruin in Felwood, the former druidic barrow den had been taken over by the warlocks of Gul'dan and after the slaughter of all former inhabitants renamed in the honour of Kil'jaeden, a commander of the Burning Legion, at least that was what I had been told about this area.

The Shadow Council still resided here, trying to spread the regions corruption to Ashenvale and Darkshore.

As I stood in front of the entrance to the area called Jaedenar I made clear for myself once again that I would retreat as soon as I got the essences I needed and that I would have to face a heavy resistance. I had the feeling that this would be the first time that I really endangered myself. Darnys was standing by my side a bit reluctant while thinking of what could happen. I don`t remember if she tried to hold me back or not, she hadn`t been too pleased with the thought of all this since we had seen the gnome for the first time.

The area was heavily populated with all kinds of cultists of the council. There were orcs as well as humans, or Forsaken, or gnomes.

The foremost of them was a Forsaken just like myself. He was wearing a staff and not looking too dangerous at all. I concentrated on a shadow bolt to take him out with one clean hit. I still stood at a fair distance and did everything rather quietly, nevertheless the cultist suddenly turned around and created a sort of violet sphere around him, the jet of shadow magic flew directly the cultist. A grim smile was on the face of the Forsaken. To my astonishment the spell was completely absorbed by the strange sphere.

Yet this strange kind of shield was shattered by my cast. The look on the face of the cultist suddenly changed to fear.

Aware that my shadow spells wouldn`t be so useful if most of them could create such a shield around them I tried to finish him off with fire magic. This way I could also try the spells Kaal had showed me. I cast an immolate on the other caster. Vulnerable to the full extend of the spell the cultist tried to run away. Then I used a new spell that Kaal had taught me. He called it conflagrate. It uses the fire on the victim and raises its temperature rapidly so that it basically explodes. The cultist had no chance as the smell of burned and rotten flesh filled the air. I guess this would get easier than I thought it to be in the first place.

I carefully killed my way through the open area outside of the ruins. The cultists even had their own felhunter pets and thanks to them I now fully understood why Strahad was so impressed by mine and that I was able to defeat him in the end. I killed one of their felhunter with a single shadow bolt. A spell of this power wouldn`t even have left a scratch on the scale hide of mine. Unfortunately only the felguards in this area would be able to leave parts of their essence behind after dying as dark crystals filled with pure energy of the twisted nether.

If I wanted or not, I had to enter the building to my far right. I approached the open door with the staircase leading downwards deep under the surface of the earth. I guessed down there was once a sleeping place for druids.

As I reached the bottom level, I entered a long hallway. The walls consisted solely of earth, the floor was covered with tiles made from stone, roots of the trees above us were visible in various places. The whole way was lit with torches.

A single warlock was standing guard at the entrance. A shadow bolt of mine pierced his body and heart quietly, making him drop to the ground without a further sound. He probably didn`t even notice why he died right in this moment. The hallway opened into a large room with several levels in height. Right in front of me two bridges crossed the way to the lower levels leading to smaller chambers and to my left I could use a staircase to get downwards. Darnys pointed to one of the smaller chambers. She must have felt the presence of these strong demons. A felguard and a warlock were standing inside the little room conducting a strange spell.

I knew that the warlock would spot me if I used a shadow bolt so I started out with a single immolate so that I would at least land the first hit. The moment the spell was on its target, the demon guard came charging towards me knowing its master was in trouble. I could still conduct the explosion of the spell so that the warlock wouldn`t interfere any further, yet the demon kept charging at me. The moment it reached me I received a hard hit from it with the fist, knocking me backwards so I hit the wall hard. It stood over me with a large axe in his other hand. It waited a short moment. Then I saw why, Darnys was attacking it, trying to save me. The attacks must have hurt, but clearly not enough to bring the creature down. It turned around in a fluent motion and hit her too, sending her flying backwards onto the bridge and almost over the edge. It was hard to focus while seeing how Darnys was hurt so badly, but I got up fast and put all my anger and hatred for this creature into this one spell. I was standing right in front of the felguard, my hand with the charged shadow bold right in front of the head of the demon, impossible to be dodged.

Black blood was pouring out of the neck of the demon, the body fell to the floor twitching and shivering. I kicked the axe out of its hand before the body could hit me or something else with it randomly. I hurried to Darnys and had a look if everything was alright. She was only unconscious, nevertheless I thought it would be better to dismiss her so she could recover properly.

I summoned my felhunter to my side. He looked at the current situation somehow as supper time or something similar. Thoonum immediately attached his two tentacle first to the felguard and then to the warlock.

After he was done with `eating`, the corpse of the felguard disappeared into the twisted nether, leaving a handful of dark violet crystals behind wherever a larger amount of blood had been spilled. My felhunter wanted to eat those too, but I could hold him back in time because I told him I needed those. Yet I promised to give him a few as a treat if he helped me to gather more.

I couldn`t actually say why but I liked the company of the felhunter, even though he seemed a bit hoggish. With him by my side it was even easier to get through Jaedenar than before, although I swore to myself not to tell Darnys about this.

I was sure that I only needed the essences of two or three more felguards. The hard part about this was the fact that there weren`t too many of them. Apparently most warlocks here had trouble with controlling them and therefore switched to pets that were easier to handle, imps or felhunter.

The warlocks and their lower minions were no match for me and Thoonum, actually... I didn`t have to do anything at all. My felhunter basically ripped them apart on his own.

I found another two of the guards inside a pit. Apparently this room was used for some kind of ritual, around the middle of the room there was a circle of burning candles. At first I was a bit reluctant to send my felhunter out to attack both of the guards, but I actually had no choice, I just had to do so. It even went fairly well, Thoonum dodged most of the hits and the one or two strikes that hit him didn`t seem too hard, but as they summoned their axes everything became a lot more dangerous, at least for me. I attacked one of the guards as good as I could, but it hardly did anything except for making the creature notice me. The shadow bolt I used in the fight before must have been a lot stronger due to the situation I was in. Yet again I was quite sure that nothing would happen to my felhunter, he was agile enough.

From one moment to the other everything went quite fast. One of the guards stopped attacking Thoonum and focussed on me. The moment he charged at me I prepared for a close range shadow bolt again. The demon was swinging his axe to deliver a blow that would have clearly chopped me in two.

I dodged the weapon only by inches and the heavy axe dug into the earth to my side. My mind was filled with fear, the spell from this range tore off one arm of the demon. The creature was tumbling backwards letting a fountain of black blood fill the air around us. A few spurts of the blood hit me in the face, the liquid was burning. It burnt the flesh right of my skull, leaving marks that can still be seen today.

The other felguard seemed surprised that his friend suddenly fell to the ground with one limb missing. I used the moment the demon was distracted to aim another shadow bolt filled with anger and the lust for more blood directly at its head. I didn`t manage to hit the target I was aiming at but the shadow bolt dug through the flesh of the demons neck, which also did enough damage to almost instantly kill it.

Blood was pouring out of the injured demons, which I gladly saw as for this would be the essences I needed. After the blood had crystallized I carefully picked it up and put it into my bag.

I just hoped that this was enough for the imp to create this fire of his. I hurried out of the underground structure, yet I have to admit I got lost at least twice while I tried to get out. The different hallways were all so equally looking, a confusing structure.

As I had reached the surface of the earth again, I gave some of the crystals to my felhunter and promised that he would get everything what the imp wouldn`t be needing.

We left the area around Jaedenar, we may have only killed underlings while we were there, yet I assumed the higher ranked members wouldn't be so pleased about finding all the dead cultists of theirs.

As I returned to Niby, Impsy ran away at first as the imp saw my felhunter.

I handed over the essence I gathered to the little demon who gladly squealed as he saw what I had. The imp took all of them, I heard how my felhunter was snarling at Impsy.

With one quick movement the imp put all the crystals into his mouth and swallowed them. With a loud burp a jet of flames shot out of the mouth of the demon and set the ground in front of me on fire. The fire was flickering in a strange light green toning, a bit brighter than the fire surrounding the imp.

I stared at the green flames in front of me for a while, there was something terrifying yet appealing about them. I felt the energy of the twisted nether running right through the air around the fire.

I wondered how I could pick it up without hurting myself.

The imp squealed at me that I should just go on before it ceased. I believed his words that the flames should be as cold as the earth I was standing on at that time and yes as I dug into the earth next to the flame I didn't feel any warmth at all. I tried carefully not to touch it, I was sure even if it wasn't warm at all, the flames would be capable of burning away my arm in only a few seconds. Even my felhunter took a fair distance to the flames. I would need as much of the flame as possible.

From the corner of my eye I saw a long and flat stone lying next to the trees, what a fine tray for the fire. I dug out a very small kind of moat around the centre of the flame so that I could pick up a pile of earth with the green fire on top of it. As I did so a lot of the flame fell to the earth leaving its burning mark wherever it landed. I hurried over to the stone and almost threw the flame onto it, with this solid tray I should be able to get the fire to the stone corpse of Kroshius without any trouble.

Meanwhile the imp instructed me where I would have to go, up in the forest to the north from here on a hill there should lie the corpse of the demon. The area around there was filled with craters where most of the infernals had crashed to the earth during the third great war. I wouldn't have to worry about the flame, it would burn at least for three more days, although I should be careful not to let the flame touch my skin or whatsoever. Niby was also present the whole time, yet he preferred to fish in the lake filled with green water. As I wanted to leave towards the north he shouted at me that no matter what happened I should only return to him with the flaming core of Kroshius.

The only thoughts I had on seeing him sitting there were something like 'arrogant bastard'.

The place the imp had described wasn't too far away at all. The fire on the stone in front of me started burning stronger and stronger with every step I took. It fed on the foul energies in this forest, the spirit of this tainted lands. I reached the top of a hill almost next to the bluff of Mount Hyjal. The fire had now almost devoured the complete stone, it would only take seconds to either spread to my hands and arms or burn right through the stone so it would fall onto my feet.

I saw the huge pile of rocks lying wildly stacked next to a tree. I took my chances and threw the flaming stone directly into their midst.

The flame happily jumped from stone to stone as if it was following a certain pattern after it had landed in the pile of rocks. It grew stronger and stronger until everything was glowing in a faint light green tone. Slowly the rubble was moving. A pitch black stone formed the centre of the creature, the stone was about as big as my head. Around this stone the rest aligned steadily. Four of the larger stones formed some sort of legs for the creature. The smaller ones connected and formed a body and arms. Another smaller stone resembled the head. It was now about twice as high as I was. The fire was burning happily inside the structure.

The demon was still not moving, but Thoonum started snarling at the creature.

Suddenly the fire burned through the little stone on its top, opening three holes, which made it look as if these were the eyes and mouth of Kroshius.

“Lok amanalar il Amanare... Kar daz amanare no? KAR DAZ AZ?“

The voice was dark and loud enough to be heard throughout the whole forest.

The movement of the demon was slow and looked clumsy, yet I already felt the pressure of its presence.

It looked at me and my felhunter.

“Shi ashj lok zar ante theramas no, zennshi?”

The words of the demon were followed by a dull, yet grim laughter.

“X alar buras shi x tiros ruk ashjraka golad kar zila re x mannor .“

The demon came walking towards me slowly. I backed up a bit further. In my mind I heard the voice of my felhunter how he asked me to allow to attack. I granted his wish and my demon charged at Kroshius.

As the felhunter reached the larger demon he tried to bite into the leg of the creature forgetting about it being completely made of stone. The two tentacles on his back attached to the demon for a split second only, but you could see the flames fluttering as the felhunter drained the magic, even if it was only for a short moment.

The infernal hit Thoonum in the side sending him flying away.

“Belaros amir... enkilzar il x karkun.”

Thoonum quickly got to his feet again. I was somehow still paralyzed because I was fascinated by this creature. So tall and dull, a giant of brute force, but then again the creature was overflowing with foul energy. If I could I would have made this creature mine the moment it stood from its shallow grave upon this hill.

Too late I realized that I was already in the reach of the monster.

“Arakalada archim...”

A hard hit with its fist sent me flying to the side, smashing into the rock of Mount Hyjal. Everything ached, but now I was out of direct hit range for the demon. And it still didn`t move any faster.

Everything around me was blurry, I got up staggering. Meanwhile Thoonum jumped at the back of the giant made of fire and stone, attaching his tentacles again, this time long enough to really see how the energy was drained from the infernal. Kroshius couldn`t reach where Thoonum was sitting with his claws dug deep into the rocks of the creature.

I tried to focus and cast a shadow bolt at the creature. It wasn`t too powerful, but it was strong enough to shatter parts of the stone in its right upper arm.

Suddenly the infernal formed a kind of ball, it only took split seconds. It started spinning in mid air for a short moment, sending Thoonum again flying through the air.

The moment it took its usual form again the creature left an opening. I put all my anxiousness into the spell I wanted to perform. The stronger the energy in my hand grew the stronger the thoughts in my head became. I almost yelled at myself in my head. I wanted to be able to control such a being!

The shadow bolt flew faster than usual, piercing the upper part of the chest, if you want to call it that way, of Kroshius making the rocks crumble.

“Shi lok kar karkun kar x maez karkun, zennshi.”

The demon came approaching me, this time faster than the last time. I couldn`t run anywhere, I was cornered in the place where I was standing, so I could only try to attack. I knew that fire magic wouldn`t work on a creature like this, so my only chance was to hit him hard and often with various shadow bolts.

I stood there, trapped between large rotten trees, a mountain in my back and the largest demon I ever saw in front of me approaching me to end my existence.

Shadow bolt after shadow bolt flew at the creature, despair and fear were creeping up inside me making them stronger with every second that passed. Everyone of them hit their target blasting small holes into the body made of stone.

“Zar zennshi, melar golad!”

The demon was standing over me raising his giant fist to smash me into pieces. In this moment Thoonum jumped at the creature and bit into the raised arm. Kroshius was irritated for a mere moment, but my shadow bolt was already flying at the stone neck of the creature.

The head fell to the ground the moment the jet of shadow magic had pierced the body, letting the body tumble backwards. The creature was still alive, the fire was still burning inside the body. It would only be a matter of time until the demon had regenerated itself.

I had to seize the moment, life and death were on a line only separated by moments.

I hurried to the stone body and saw the pitch black core of Kroshius lying open without any protection except for the cold green flames.

I grabbed for it. It wasn`t hot at all, on the contrary it was as cold as ice. Nevertheless I felt how the flames burned away the white skin and rotten flesh right off of my fingers, leaving nothing but bones.

I ripped the black circular stone out of the body of the infernal as if I had ripped out the heart of a living creature. The flames inside the body started ceasing. From somewhere I heard a faint scream upon holding the black stone in my hands.

I wanted to keep it, but I had made a deal with the gnome. If I had known at that time what the gnome wanted to tell me, I would have kept the black orb and resurrected Kroshius as my own minion. But well, that`s too late now.

I returned to the warlock and his imp quickly, my felhunter right by my side. It was a shame that the new robe was already singed from the fire of the demon and a few parts on the back were already ripped open from the smash against the rocks.

The smell of my burned flesh lay in the air. I handed over the orb known as the core of Kroshius.

The gnome was utterly happy about this. Then he handed me a book. He told me that I would find everything I wanted to know inside of it.

As I left together with my felhunter, I was looking at the first pages of the book.

Yes, it was true that this book would teach me everything I had to know about how to summon an infernal from the twisted nether, what I would need and what spell I would have to speak. With every word I read while I was walking slowly along the road to the south I felt how I became stronger. I thought of the flesh of my fingers as only a small price to pay for this, yet soon enough I would change my mind.

Coming from behind me I heard a explosion and the scream of the gnome, I didn`t ,bother to turn around and take a look what had happened.

I closed the book and the expression on my face changed, now showing fury and anger.

All in all, he deserved to die.

The book he had given to me was a copy of some book of the cultists of Jaedenar. I could have found one of these right inside the nightelf ruins.

I screamed out loud letting the urge to kill drive away the frustration.

I headed directly into the woods killing every animal on my way.