The Skies Over Felsoul Hold - Suramar, Broken Isles

  Kayn Sunfury’s voice crackled a warning over their comms as Illysaa Ravencrest, Lyana Darksorrow, and Vehlar Stormclaw flew fast and probably far too low on their Fel Bats above Felsoul Hold. “You’ve been spotted! Push forward! Quickly!”

  “So much for ‘undetected’...” Vehlar muttered, as the sky filled with Fel fireballs. Darksorrow peeled off from Illysanna and Vehlar, having her own mission to accomplish, but the two Demon Hunters did see her Felbat get hit.

  And then, in a flash, Illysanna’s was immolated as well, a grinning Varedis Felsoul in the distance behind her, hand still outstretched. Vehlar saw it all. Saw the light of her inner demonic fire go out. And something inside of him broke.

  He’d seen dead comrades before, his kin especially, had this bad habit of repeatedly dying in major world events. He knew how fast they could die in combat, how quickly the cruel strike of fate could end a story.

  But Illysanna had always survived. Always. For ten thousand years. Through Fel starvation and societal shunning, through imprisonment, through the Legion’s latest conflict…and then, in an instant, her light was gone. His eyes watched it leave…and then were overcome with Shadow. The sight replayed, over and over, as his inner demon cackled, and reveled in the first chink in the hunter’s emotional armor in thousands of years.

  “...time to land! You have to dive! Vehlar! Vehlar dive! Now!”

  Ears ringing, and acting mostly on instinct in response to Kayn’s words, the veteran Slayer slid sideways off his mount as it too exploded in fatal Felfire above him, and as he took in the stain on Azeroth’s beauty from above, the Felhole that had stolen the last thing he still loved in this cursed existence, Vehlar, as the humans termed it, ‘lost his shit’.

  “VAREDIS! YOU SIMPERING, TREASONOUS PUSTULE! I WILL DISEMBOWEL YOU FOR THIS!” Vehlar screamed, looking around, as the rage faded in the wake of his expended power. The entire area was blackened, only a few piles of ash marking the demons he’d eradicated. He didn’t remember flexing his wings and landing, taking several demons with him. With rage he’d never felt, Vehlar did something he otherwise never would have. He unleashed the thousands of Satyr souls in his blades by running a long, black demonic nail along the blades, and spoke to them in Demonic. “Behave yourselves…and you can consume every Demon from here to Varedis…but that…brazen Asshole…is Mine…”

  He wouldn’t remember charging for Varedis, breaking through the traitor’s shield with a single Metamorphized leap, or taking out his pitiful lesser lieutenants as their demonic souls were devoured by his captive, starving Satyrs.

  Any demon that got in his way was consumed. His blades, just happy to be free to gorge themselves on Fel after thousands of years of being drained by Vehlar, burned with darker and darker shadowflames as they consumed more demons. The only reason they didn’t rebel was because they were so well fed and many were lethargic or euphoric in the wake of so much power after so very long. By the time they reached Varedis, Vehlar sealed the blades again, and then drew on their power. He would burn through most, but not all, of what they’d fed on. They’d earned that much, at least.

  “Vehlar Stormclaw…” The Sin’dorei started, as the still transformed Vehlar walked slowly into his den, blades drawn. “It’s been years…the one Trainer I never had the chance to best in combat… You should know better than to stand against me!” Varedis raised his Twinblades high and continued monologuing, as a pair of Ereder Sorcerers and a Fel Tank attacked Vehlar.

  The Dreadwing Slayer of Satyrnaar didn’t even blink, as he raised a hand towards the tank, and reduced it to atoms with a potent mix of Fel, Arcane, and Shadow magic. It was an original spell of his he liked to call an ‘Omni Bolt’, and usually he didn’t use it because of how much power it took. But right now…his fury refused to deplete. It seemed his inner Satyr was just as furious at Illysanna’s death as he was, and Vehlar briefly wondered if their demon’s had also had a relationship, of sorts.

  The Eredar shared a look, but Vehlar had already dashed past them. They gurgled, their lifeblood spraying as their necks were opened in the Slayer’s bloody wake, the dark shadows of their souls consumed by the hunter, as he inhaled and healed the few wounds he’d taken in getting here.

  Vehlar advanced, unhurried, on his target. Varedis Felsoul grinned, as he saw actual green-tinged tears sliding down the Demon Hunter’s ridged cheeks from his blazing eyes, uncowled and burning in his sockets for all to see. His hood had fallen off at some point in the fighting, and now the long tail of almost black-blue hair was visible, waving in the wind along with his tattered armor.

  “It’s a shame your allies had to die. Don’t worry…I’ll put their souls to good use…especially Illysanna’s.” Varedis gestured with one of his blades, and Vehlar burned the image of her, broken by the fall and very much dead, into his mind. It kept his transformation going. But the rage wasn’t burning any longer…heat required passion, and Vehlar’s was lying dead on a demon altar.

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  Now, his rage had turned cold, and with that cold, came focus. He came in range of the object of his seemingly infinite fury, as Varedis kept monologuing. “You fools left me for dead at the Black Temple… Now, you will witness the might of my new Master! Behold the infinite power of the Twinblades!”

  Vehlar didn’t quip. He moved. He was a blur of vengeful shadow, zooming in above, behind, all around Varedis, but the prodigy Demon Hunter blocked every strike with that same, irritating, smirk. Their swords shrieked as they continuously clashed, until twin Fel beams burned from Vehlar’s uncovered eyes, and Varedis fell back, but still tanked the beams with his weapon. Vehlar’s burning eyes narrowed. Those blades were starting to irritate him.

  “Join the Legion, Vehlar!” Varedis started up again, as he fired bolts of Fel from above using his full demonic wings. “Unleash your true power! Do not let these weak emotions hold you back!” Vehlar sliced through two bolts, but a third caught him, and sent him spinning, though he did not fall, only taking a knee to regain his balance.

  Varedis landed before him, wrongly assuming his monologue was doing anything other than wasting time. “I heard about you, you know. Surviving for ten thousand years, alone, without Illidan’s guidance…you are the true heart of the Demon Hunters! You kept them alive! And what do you have to show for it?” Varedis’s formerly elven face stretched into a sharp-fanged grin. “A dead Mate, a dead leader, and a pack of fools with no structure. Kil’jaedan would reward a mind like yours with great Power…”

  For a moment, in his darkest hour, Vehlar considered it. Becoming an architect of mindless demon slaughter. Carrying out Kil’jaedan’s whims and schemes for all eternity. Images of his empire, burning in green flame filled his mind. He’d be murdering babies of foreign races at the order of that crimson, smirking Eredar… Who would, if the pattern held, eventually die to a pack of adventurers.

  “No.” Vehlar shifted through the air, and Varedis whirled, catching both katanas with his Twinblades. The old Demon Hunter had gotten faster, somehow. “I’m not murderous Trash, Varedis. I’m. Not. You. Or have you already forgotten what your pathetic Master did to your people? The Legion pulled the strings of the Lich King, imbecile. The masters you serve made Arthas to be their pawn. Every order Kel’thuzad gave him, came from the Legion!”

  He blurred again, shifting past Varedis, and this time, his blades struck. A line in the abdominals on Felsoul’s bare torso appeared, and began to leak a black, green glowing substance that vaguely resembled blood. “What do I care for Quel’thalas!?” Varedis countered. “Kael’thas…my PRINCE…abandoned me…Illidan…my Hero…abandoned me… My Master is the only one who hasn’t!” An explosion of Fel forced Vehlar back, but he was already charging forward again before the effect was through.

  “I am a GOD now! You will KNEEL before me, Mortal!” Varedis shouted, raising the Twinblades. But whatever spell he began, Vehlar consumed the magic for it, and his eyes became twin Fel meteors as he blurred through the air again on his stolen Dreadlord wings, and scored more hits on Varedis. Deeper. In vital organs, and yet the traitor was seemingly unbothered. Once more, their blades locked, but somehow, Vehlar was stronger than before.

  “You are no God, Varedis…and I’m not Mortal.” Another pair of Fel eyebeams tore into Varedis, and this time, carved a bloody trail down his body. Then, Varedis understood. His wards, his Buffs, they’d been stripped. Vehlar’s strikes had targeted the spellwork of his tattoos, altered by the Deceiver himself, and yet rendered useless against Vehlar’s aim and knowledge of demonic runework. Compared to Illidan’s the Deceiver’s was archaic, and had gaping holes that could easily be exploited by a blade empowered with Fel souls.

  “Do not Fail me, Varedis…” Came the voice of Kil’jaedan, omnipresent around them. Vehlar remembered it well, it was hard to forget. “Unleash the Twinblades, and destroy the interloper!”

  Vehlar broke Varedis’ guard, and sliced him twice more. “Go on, Legion dog. Obey your master. It won’t change what happens next…” The dark fire around his Soulblades coalesced into a fine edge of humming shadow that encased the blades, and sharpened them.

  Varedis sneered, and froze Vehlar in place with a trick that Demon Hunters used on demons. Yet, transformed as he was, Vehlar also counted as such. “I have no need of Mortal armaments!” Varedis shouted, inexplicably throwing the only advantage he’d had in the fight away, into the dirt where they stuck fast. “This is not over…Stormclaw.” And with that, the coward fled through a portal, right as the paralysis freed Vehlar. Despite his Fel rush, Varedis was already gone.

  Vehlar roared in frustrated rage, exploding in raging Felfire as it surged upwards, and faded. In the wake, the heavy breathing Demon Hunter returned to his base form, drained, exhausted, and now, completely alone in this doomed world.

  At that moment, Kayn Sunfury descended from above with a spare Felbat. “Well done, Vehlar! We managed to clear the skies while you…” He paused, as the elder Demon Hunter kept his back to Kayn, and simply pointed, with an outstretched arm at the broken corpse of Illysanna, still on the altar, soulless. Now that her soul was in the Legion’s hands, she was either doomed to break and serve them, or perish in their attempts. It was a fate worse than death, one all Demon Hunters risked, and Vehlar had been completely powerless to stop it.

  In cold silence, he mounted the spare Felbat, and prepared to take off. Kayn broke the silence. “Slayer! The…the Twinblades…”

  “You can wield that Demon-made trash.” Vehlar snarled. And with a slap of the reins his obedient bat took off. Kayn sighed, hurried over to grab the Artifact weapon, and then followed after Vehlar.