User:GoldenYak/Chronicle/Volume One/Chapter Four
Related to Worlds of Warcraft - Chronicle of the Titan Worlds
Volume One, Chapter Four - Fall of the Destroyer
The Rage of a Titan
The Pantheon had traveled the universe for countless eons, bringing life and order to a million worlds. Sargeras had ended their lives in one single terrible battle, all of his fear and hopelessness turned to fury and unleashed upon his former brethren. He had unleashed a fel storm of cataclysmic power that had scorched the Pantheon and blasted their bodies apart, and in their death Sargeras had interred their pitiful remains upon the world of Nihilum, renaming it Doomworld forevermore. But Sargeras had not seen fit to let the broken forms of his brethren lie in peace. As he had journeyed throughout the universe on his Burning Crusade, he had shattered world after world, and within several had found the slumbering worldsouls of nascent Titans. None had been as powerful as Azeroth, but Sargeras had known that every nascent Titan was a potential pawn of the true enemy of the cosmos, the loathsome Void Lords. Every broken worldsoul had spilled out cosmic energy into the universe, and Sargeras' demons had feasted on the energy, twisting it towards destructive ends, defiling it and transmuting it into fel energy. Sargeras soon devised a terrible use for the abundance of fel at his disposal. He sent millions of his demon slaves, tothrezim crafters and gan'arg laborers, to reassemble the broken bodies of the Pantheon, rebuilding them with netherstone and infusing them with the corrupted blood of countless demon sacrifices. Finally, Sargeras bound the immense fel essence of the slain worldsouls into the twisted hulks of his former brethren, reanimating them into his ultimate weapon - the Titan Infernals. He hid his vile creations in the furthest reaches of the Twisting Nether, keeping them as a final contingency in the event that the Void Lords should succeed in bringing a nascent Titan under their sway.
Now, having been bested by Azeroth at every turn, Sargeras had no choice but to unleash his abominable weapons. Before the horrified gaze of the gathered defenders of the cosmos, the Titan Infernals were unleashed, six terrible colossi all devoted to the destruction of Azeroth. As the last of hope of the universe looked upon what her enemy had wrought, she felt a new, unknown emotion creep throughout her being. It was not the feeling of fear - Azeroth had long ago conquered fear.
This feeling was anger. This was wrath. For this terrible act of desecration, Sargeras would pay with his very existence.
With a wordless command that echoed in the mind, Azeroth called for her armies and her constellar and naaru allies to remain engaged with the surviving Legion forces, knowing they would be helpless against the Titan Infernals. Slowly, the Infernals spread out and surrounded Azeroth, encircling her like predators seeking prey. Beyond them, standing at the ragged edge of the Netherstorm, was Sargeras. The Destroyer gloated as his enemy confronted the broken bodies of those who had cared for her in her nascency, relishing her torment. But Sargeras knew that even his mightiest weapons would not secure his victory. He needed to repair the damage that Azeroth had dealt him. Turning his back on the spectacle of his creations engaging their foe, Sargeras stretched his hands out into the Twisting Nether, willing the chaotic energies within to come to his call. Sargeras had become a furnace of fel energy over the eons, and now he drew in every last mote he could sense to renew himself. Tendrils of green fel fire, rivers of world-shattering power, began to flow out of the Nether and wind themselves into his body. Slowly, his wounds began to close, his flames grew hotter. If Azeroth survived the Infernals, he would be ready to deal her the final blow.
With a howl that echoed across infinity, the six Infernals hurled themselves at Azeroth. The Infernal built from the body of Aman'thul reached her first, the abomination's face so wracked with fury and madness that it no longer resembled the proud and noble Highfather. The Infernal's screaming visage vanished in an explosion of flame and stone as Azeroth's fist obliterated it with a single blow. Azeroth's fist carried on, sinking deep into the molten body of the fiend, and with an explosion of arcane force the monster was blasted apart, fragments of black stone and meteorites of blazing fel forming a vast cloud hanging in space. Scorched by the immense release of fel energy, Azeroth was slowed for just a moment and the remaining Infernals fell upon her. They battered her with fists the size of moons and breathed torrents of fel energy like solar flares. An Infernal fell away as a colossal blow smashed it in half, both fragments blazing with poisonous flame. Another had its head torn loose, a geyser of fel energy gouting from the wound. From the broken bodies of the slain Titan Infernals, thousands of lesser infernals fell like meteor storms across Azeroth's surface, spreading devastation and corruption as the elementals mounted a desperate defense.
With a monumental effort, Azeroth hurled away the last three Titan Infernals, releasing an awesome burst of cosmic force that blasted them apart and extinguished their fel energy. Her body was scorched and blackened, streaked with fel corruption and bleeding arcane energy. Azeroth was victorious, but the battle had robbed her of much of her strength, and she shuddered with exhaustion as she turned to face the true enemy. At the edge of the Nethersorm, Sargeras blazed like a vile supernova, gorged on fel energy drawn from the Twisting Nether. Sargeras flexed his colossal form, breaking free of the battered and ruined remnants of his armor. His black stone skin was cracked and leaking fel flames, his body covered in blazing geysers of corruption. Sargeras brandished Gorribal and gave a horrible grin. Victory was now within his grasp. Indeed, now that the Demon Titan had regained his full might, while Azeroth's power ebbed, it was all but certain.
The Final Conflict
Sargeras came upon Azeroth like an unstoppable cosmic cataclysm, waves of fel flame blast forth from his body like supernovae. Again and again he struck, Gorribal crashing into Azeroth's armored form and ripping open great rents in her body that bled the cosmic energy that was her very lifeblood. With a savage thrust, Gorribal split open Azeroth's armored pauldron and cut against her neck, releasing a plume of arcane light and prying forth a cry of pain from the final Titan. Sargeras seized her in his talons, trying to force the blade in closer. Seeing their maker and mistress caught up in the Demon Titan's fury, Azeroth's armies moved to support her, legions of starry soldiers riding atop great white wyrms. Sensing their approach, Sargeras turned and grinned evilly at the puny fleas that thought to challenge him. His jaws opened and blazing fel flame rose up in his throat. He would obliterate Azeroth's forces in a gout of fel fire, heightening the agony and despair of his prey. With a desperate blow that crashed into Sargeras' face, Azeroth deflected the blast of flame, sparing her forces and eliciting a howl of pain and fury from the Demon Titan. Azeroth's legions swooped over the two struggling Titans, but instead of moving to attack Sargeras, they altered course and swooped towards Azeroth instead. Starlight warriors gripped the shining scales of their draconic carriers as they knifed through Azeroth's atmosphere and plunged directly at her surface, picking up speed as her gravity caught them. Without slowing down, the white dragons streaked down to her surface like comets and struck, vanishing into the surface in flashes of light. With every dragon and starlight battalion that merged with her, Azeroth felt her strength grow. Every defender, every warrior born of her life and light, returned to their source, their strength and spirit flowing through her. Azeroth would never fight alone.
As her forces vanished completely, becoming one with her once again, Azeroth's power swelled. With a mighty surge of strength, Azeroth hurled the Demon Titan back. Rejuvenated, Azeroth's power once again approached that of the Demon Titan. Furious, Sargeras came at his enemy again, determined to preserve his advantage. Gorribal cut arcs of devastating through the void, rending time and space, cutting again and again into Azeroth's body, but the final Titan gave as good as she got, and her blows split open Sargeras's form again and again, and his fel life-force spilled out in great plumes. The two Titans exchanged blasts of energy, Azeroth's cosmic force against Sargeras' fel corruption, driving both of them apart. Azeroth's allies seized the opportunity - the constellar began to move, leaving the remaining demon forces to the Army of Light and soaring towards Azeroth. As they flew, they changed, abandoning their various shapes and forms and becoming clouds of living stars, swirling around one-another and becoming a single great, glowing mass of twinkling lights. They gathered around Azeroth's arm, offering her their support, becoming an instrument that would let her match the might of Sargeras' blade Gorribal. They became a shield of starlight like a living galaxy, the entire race united in Azeroth's defense. Thus equipped, Azeroth moved to engage Sargeras again. The Demon Titan brandished his monstrous blade and charged.
The two Titans came at one-another, their monumental clash sending shockwaves of power rippling throughout the star system. Sargeras struck with Gorribal again and again, each crashing uselessly against Azeroth's shield. Empowered by Azeroth's mighty aura, the constellar turned the dread blade again and again. With every strike, the shield unleashed cascades of cosmic energy that washed over Sargeras, neutralizing his fel power. Every blow stole more of the Demon Titan's strength, but his unquenchable fury fueled his relentless assault. The two Titans fell through the chaotic clouds of the Netherstorm until, at last, the clouds parted and an immense expanse of burning light shone beneath them - their battle had brought them to the very star that Azeroth had orbited in her nascency. Even the two colossal Titans were dwarfed by the immense celestial body, seen from afar as tiny figures against the burning star. After a furious clash, both Titans broke away and folded their fiery wings, allowing the gravity of the star to pull them towards it. The two stood impossibly on the surface of the star, feet sinking into the roiling corona as if two mortals warriors fought in a shallow stream. Arcs of cosmic flame washed over the Titans unheeded as they braced for battle and then charged at one-another in a run, thundering across the surface of the star.
With every cataclysmic strike, gouts of solar plasma erupted around the Titans, causing the star itself to shudder. The two Titans fought with equal fervor, Azeroth matching with skill and fortitude the savage might of the Demon Titan. Every blow the Destroyer struck on Azeroth's body tore open jagged canyons in her surface that bled arcane light. Azeroth's shield became a weapon too, its cosmic edge rending open the Demon Titan's stone flesh and spilling fel flames. Soon both Titans were wounded and bleeding, yet never once did either of their strength flag. The fate of the universe hung on this final battle, with a clear victor still undetermined.
Sargeras refused to accept that he had met his match. His opponent surpassed him in raw power, and the army of champions within Azeroth's soul gave her a wealth of combat experience and perspectives that Sargeras with all his millennia of one-sided conquests did not possess. But Sargeras knew that he would taste victory, because he was willing to go to any length, commit any barbarism or atrocity necessary, in order to win. Bringing all of his seemingly limitless hatred to bear, Sargeras howled and leapt at Azeroth. Rather than striking with Gorribal, Sargeras balled his other hand into a fist and sent it crashing with all his might into Azeroth's shield. It was a blow like a colliding comet, a blow that would have broken a world, but against Azeroth's shield the Demon Titan's stone fist shattered. Fingers of black stone were crushed to rubble and fiery fel blood erupted from the wound. Azeroth's eyes glowed at the sight, thinking to seize an advantage against her wounded opponent, but she had underestimated the Demon Titan. Sargeras howled not in pain but in triumph, and a great wash of fel flame gouted from his broken wrist, pouring over Azeroth with a greater fury and intensity than any she had ever endured. Azeroth's arcane aura withered in the face of the Demon Titan's very life-force crashing into her, and for an instant she faltered.
Howling in triumph, Sargeras swung Gorribal in a lethal arc, and before the gaze of a horrified cosmos the dread blade sank deeply into Azeroth's side, cutting nearly halfway through the shining Titan's body. Azeroth's cry of agony reverberated cosmically throughout the solar system, causing the very star beneath the two to shudder and release eruptions of solar flame. Arcane radiance, the Titan's life-force, poured out of Azeroth's wound like a thousand floods, as tendrils of fel corruption ate their way across Azeroth's surface. The land around the chasm cut into her body turned black and crumbled away, the surface of her body erupted into fel green flames. Raging elementals fought against tidal-wave sized walls of green flame that poured across the land, devouring everything in their path and snuffing out elemental beings by the thousands with every passing moment. Reeling with agony, Azeroth gathered her will for a moment and brought her faltering strength to bear, grabbing hold of Sargeras' sword-arm, summoning up her might to free herself from the terrible weapon. With a leering grin, Sargeras suddenly wrenched Gorribal back, twisting the blade free from Azeroth's body in a surprise move. Azeroth's voice rang out in anguish again, even louder than before, as the gaping wound in her side was torn wider. Arcane light gushed out onto the surface of the star, a shimmering amethyst fluid that poured down the Titan's body in great rivulets. Her shining wings collapsed into fading flickers of arcane light. Her once-brilliant aura guttered and died, and with it the hope of the universe. Mortally wounded, Azeroth fell to her knees on the surface of the star, lacking even the strength to remain standing, to lift her shield in defense, barely even able to lift her head to glare defiantly at her foe, her features twisted with agony. Sargeras gloried in his victory - his greatest enemy was defeated. The Demon Titan had won. Cackling with maniac laughter, Sargeras drew Gorribal back for a final killing blow.
Then, in a blinding streak of light, the flame of hope was once again ignited.
When Titans Fall
Like a piercing arrow of pure luminosity, the great naaru fortress-vessel of Tempest Keep soared between the two Titans. The naaru's dimensional fortress had shed its satellite ships, which had borne the many armies of draenei and other races to safety. While the two Titans had dueled, the vessel streaked through space at fantastic speeds towards them, avoiding curls of solar prominence and destructive arcs of fel and arcane power. The naaru within had not been able to bring themselves to leave Azeroth to duel alone, for she was the hope of the universe, the hope of a victory over more than just the ravaging Legion and their Demon Titan master. If they could make even the smallest of differences in the monumental clash between the two Titans, they would gladly risk their very existence. When the Demon Titan struck his blade deeply into Azeroth, the naaru knew that now was the moment. Just as Sargeras drew his blade back to deal the final blow, the naaru guided Tempest Keep unerringly, sending it soaring forth at the speed of light directly into the Demon Titan's left eye.
Sargeras reeled back screaming in pain. The dimensional fortress pierced deeply into the Demon Titan's head, bursting apart the Demon Titan's ocular orb in an explosion of fel energy. The raging maelstrom of fel devoured the fortress almost instantly, and the naaru within gathered all of their power together and released it in one monumental blast of Light. The erupting arcane power of Tempest Keep and the naaru blasted outwards, sending spears of brilliant energy lancing into the Titan's head, causing greater pain still. Finally the raging fel flames extinguished the naaru, and they winked out of existence in small flares of Light, but their willing sacrifice had brought precious time. The naaru pilots of Tempest Keep had not been alone in their desire to aid Azeroth - thousands more naaru had followed in the fortress-vessel's wake. While Sargeras reeled from his injury, these naaru now soared towards Azeroth, glowing brighter and brighter as they called upon the cosmic energy of the Light. Each naaru lost definition as it flew, their crystalline bodies fading and becoming pure brilliance, surrendering their physical form to call forth the full extent of their power. Like a cloud of fireflies, the naaru poured down upon Azeroth, streaming into the great rent in her body. A cloud of pure Light infused itself into the Titan's wound, extinguishing the devouring green fel that still burned across her surface, staunching the flow of arcane life force, and rebuilding her geologic form. New life and strength flowed through Azeroth's body, as she drew not only upon the cosmic energies of the living universe, but also upon the limitless reservoirs of the Light that was the very foundation of the cosmos.
Rising up, Azeroth sent an unspoken command to the constellar that formed her shield. The living star-beings shifted and changed, and the shimmering shield became a massive sword of pure starlight. Sargeras, gripping his bleeding head, regained his senses just in time to perceive Azeroth bringing her new weapon up. With a bellowing war-cry, echoed by the innumerable warriors spirits that lived within her own Titanic soul, Azeroth brought the starlight blade down and cut off Sargeras's remaining hand, sending Gorribal wheeling out into space, its hilt still gripped by the severed hand of the Demon Titan. Fel green flames gouted from the stump of Sargeras' wrist, but in his shock Sargeras did not have the focus to bring the gushing power to bear against his enemy, and Azeroth stood prepared for such a tactic at any rate. Sargeras staggered back, his single eye sweeping back and forth between his foe and his own ruined limbs, before finally widening in shock. At last, Sargeras grasped the full reality of his utter defeat. Wordlessly, Azeroth leapt, her cosmic wings unfolding anew and sending her surging towards her foe. Azeroth swept her starlight sword back, overhead, and then brought it down in a lethal arc to slice deeply into Sargeras' chest.
The blade cut down through mile after mile of fel-corrupted Titanic strata, oceans of raging fel fire, and finally split apart the colossal fel-tainted mass that was the Demon Titan's heart. Sargeras screamed in denial as the blade pierced his very core, his body shuddering with his death throes. Fel energy burst from his countless injuries, spewing from his ruined eye and severed wrists, bursting forth from his howling maw. With one final effort, Azeroth channeled all of her cosmic might through her blade into the core of Sargeras' very being, burning away his fel power in a storm of arcane force. Sargeras' volcanic hide split apart, every chasm and fissure gouting the prismatic energy of the cosmos, and his death scream echoed across all of creation. Azeroth withdrew her blade, and a flap of her wings whisked her away from the ruined body of her great enemy. Sargeras' colossal form, flickering with the dying embers of fel power, teetered for a moment and then fell, crashing deeply into the burning surface of the sun. Slowly, as the universe looked on, the Demon Titan sank into the sun's fire, until his body was finally lost from sight.
The Final Titan was victorious. Sargeras, the Demon Titan, Lord of the Burning Legion, was dead.
Additional Information and Sidebars
Sidebar - The Breaking of the Legion
The remnants of the Burning Legion had seen the unthinkable - their lord and master, slain. As one, they turned and fled, racing back for the still-raging rents into the Twisting Nether as fast as they were capable. Azeroth's senses barely registered the demons' mass-retreat, but they drew her awareness nonetheless. Azeroth turned, her eyes narrowing, watching the last pitiful dregs of the Legion streaming towards the safety of the Nether. With a sweep of her starlight blade and a cry that was at once victorious and furious, Azeroth unleashed a supernova of arcane energy. The immense cascade of power shockwaved outwards towards the fleeing demons, washing over their ranks and scorching them to cosmic ash. The spirits of the demons, bound to the Twisting Nether, struggled desperately to escape there, but the ruinous energies unleashed by Azeroth could not be escaped even by fleeing to another realm of existence - the demons were utterly annihilated, their souls consumed, unable to find safety. Not a single demon who was felled in that conflagration would ever return.
Within the Twisting Nether itself, the demons who had remained behind on Legion-controlled demon worlds beheld every moment of the battle, observing through spy-portals and fel augeries. They saw the all-obliterating waves of arcane fury incinerate their fellows, then watched in horror as the arcane storm passed through the very portals the Legion had used to invade, portals that led directly to the Legion worlds. The arcane energies rained down on worlds throughout the Nether, scouring their surfaces of demonic presence and blasting some apart entirely. Demons scrambled to close the portals even as the arcane storm devoured them. All across the Nether, the Legion's vast world-spanning empire collapsed utterly. Nearly the entirety of the Legion was annihilated - only a fraction remained of the army that had once threatened all existence. These last remnants of the Legion would, in time, descend into strife and internecine warfare, endlessly battling one-another in a fruitless effort to claim Sargeras' authority. Utterly broken, the Legion would never rise again, for never again would there be a single force to unite them as Sargeras had.