Though they struggled, none could escape the grasping gray illumination.
The other dragons sought to come to their rescue, but it was already too late. Reduced to dry husks, their magic and their life force drained by the Demon Soul, the dying blue dragons faded at last to dust that scattered in the wind.
'No…' gasped Korialstrasz, trying to rise up. His head spun and he collapsed again, shattering what was left of the hillside he had landed upon. 'No…'
'Fools!' rumbled the Earth Warder without the least bit of regret for what he had just done. 'You have been warned time and time again! I am supreme! All that is belongs to me! All that lives, lives because I allow it!'
And with but a glance their direction, the fiery behemoth sent a hurricane wind that tossed about the other dragons as if they were nothing. Even Alexstrasza and Ysera could not stand against it, the two other Aspects blown back as easily as the rest. Along with the others, they tumbled far, far out of sight, all the while spinning haplessly. Not one dragon out of hundreds escaped Neltharion's spell.
His body swollen out of all proportion, blazing rips covering his torso, the monstrous dragon turned to again survey the night elves and their foes. 'And you! You have not learned yet! You will! You will!'
He laughed again, his free forepaw clutching at one of the tears in his hide. For the first time he seemed to notice the terrible changes wrought upon his form, and his expression shifted momentarily to one of awe. Then, to the onlookers below, Neltharion shouted, 'We will see who is worthy of my world! I leave you to your little war… you may fight to see who will be permitted to live and worship me!'
And with one last insane laugh, the black behemoth turned and flew away.
Korialstrasz gave thanks that the Earth Warder had not been able to continue on his mad path of destruction, but knew that the reprieve was only temporary. While he had gloried in the transformation wrought by the disk, Neltharion had finally realized that something had to be done about the forces ripping his body asunder. The weakened red had every confidence that the black would soon enough find a solution…and then Neltharion would no doubt return to claim his 'world.'
Again Korialstrasz tried to rise, but his body still would not obey him. He gazed up hopefully at the murky heavens, but of his people, of his Alexstrasza, the injured red saw no sign. A fear coursed through him, the fear that they had suffered a fate akin to that of Malygos's flight. Imagining his queen limp and lifeless atop some harsh mountain, a sizzling tear slipped from his eye. Yet, try as he might, even such images failed to enable Korialstrasz to rise.
Rest…I must rest…I will find Krasus, then…he will know what to do…
The red giant let his head fall back. All he needed was a few minutes. Then he could take to the air again.
But it was at that moment that a new and harsh sound assailed his sharp hearing. It took Korialstrasz only a second to recognize it.
The sound of battle.
The demons were attacking again.
A nightmare. Krasus found himself in the midst of a terrible nightmare. He and Malfurion had reached a point that, while it had not given them a view of the battle, it had at least allowed the pair to witness what took place up in the sky.
And so Krasus had watched as his kind fell to one insane creature.
He had seen his younger self bravely-if foolishly-attempting to confront an Aspect. The struggle had gone as the mage had expected, even though his memories of the time were all but gone. A chill had coursed through him when Korialstrasz had finally fallen, but although Krasus felt his pain, he also felt that the red lived…a minor victory at this point.
But worse to him, worse even than the knowledge that so many night elves had perished at Neltharion's hand, was what had happened to the other dragons. With Malygos's flight virtually decimated, now the spellweaver would begin to slip into his own madness as his kind became all but extinct. Gone would be the merry giant, and in his place would loom the ominous, reclusive beast.
And beyond that, the attack that had sent all the others tumbling far over the horizon rattled Krasus to his core. He kept telling himself that Alexstrasza would be all right, that most of the dragons would survive the epic winds that threw them half a world away. History told him so, but his heart kept insisting otherwise.
He tore ahead of Malfurion, trying in desperation to transform. He was older, wiser, and more skilled than his younger self; Krasus could have taken on Neltharion with better hope of success. The dragon mage struggled to change, to become what he should be…
In the end, however, he only succeeded in first stumbling, then falling. Krasus dropped face first into the earth, where he lay for a moment, all of his failures rising up to overwhelm him.
'Master Krasus?' Malfurion lifted him up.
Ashamed of his display, the mage buried his emotions under the mask he generally wore. 'I am fine, druid.'
The young night elf nodded. 'I understand some of what you're going through.'
Krasus almost snapped that the druid could not possibly understand, but realized almost immediately how harsh and stupid such a caustic remark would have been. Of course Malfurion understood; at this very moment, his people, possibly those he cared for, were dying.
Suddenly, his companion looked up. 'Praise Cenarius! We're in luck!'
Luck? Following his gaze, Krasus spied a welcome sight. Tyrande rode toward them, two other sisters accompanying her. She also led along a pair of extra mounts, obviously for the two spellcasters.
Pulling up, she leapt from the night saber and hugged Malfurion without any sense of shame. The other sisters politely looked down; Krasus noted that they seemed very respectful of Tyrande despite clearly being elder.
'Thank the Mother Moon!' she gasped. 'With all that happened and Korialstrasz appearing like that, I feared that you-'
'As did I, you,' the druid replied.
Krasus felt a slight ache in his heart that had nothing to do with either his or Korialstrasz's condition. In the place of the two night elves, he imagined himself and another.
But that would never come to pass unless they stopped both the Burning Legion and Neltharion.
'We must move on,' he told them. 'We must stop the demons if we have even a hope of stopping the Earth Warder.'
With some reluctance, Malfurion and Tyrande separated. When everyone had mounted, the band turned back, heading toward the site of the struggle.
They heard the cries and shouts long before they saw the first bloodshed. The battle had shifted position entirely, even surprising Tyrande and the sisters, who had just left it.
'It should not be this close!' blurted one of the latter. 'The lines are collapsing completely!'
The other nodded, then turned to Tyrande. 'Mistress, we need to find another path. The one we took is overrun.'
Both Krasus and Malfurion noted the term used, but neither understood what it meant. Tyrande added to the mystery by accepting the suggestion in a manner befitting one in command: 'Lead on where you think best.'
They rode on, seeking another way to the host. A path opened up before them, but it brought the group precariously near the fighting. Still, it seemed their only route left unless they wanted to ride completely behind Ravencrest's army, which would add wasted hours to their trek.
As the party rode, Krasus eyed the battle nearby. The demons fought as if they still intended to take the world for their lord when they were, in fact, as likely to be wiped out by Neltharion as the night elves. Archimonde could only be assuming that he would somehow gain the upper hand quickly and then take on the black dragon. How he hoped to accomplish that, Krasus could not determine, but he put nothing past the demon commander. The future was no longer assured; anything could happen.
'Down this way!' called the priestess in the lead. She steered her mount around a descending trail, then vanished briefly around the edge of a hill that they had been skirting.
The others followed suit, aware that each second counted. But as they came around the hill, Malfurion shouted, 'Look out!'
