Twentieth chapter awakening

The echoes of the battle cries had been silenced long before they dared out of the room.
Well, they didn’t dare, they just threw hvenfifar out on its ears.
Ankthar was of course very upset and pointed put that a high elf would have thrown the cat further.
When the cat was still alive after a few minutes they dared to peek out onto the open wastes of zul’gurub.
The cat sat atop a white stone and licked his fur, waiting for its master.

„Something’s not right here,“ Exen’tor whispered cautious as if ready for a horde of trolls in the next shadow,„they are probably getting ready for us somewhere out there.“
„Also I’ve got a pretty good feeling that she is in there.“
„Feeling?“ Mizra asked , „we’re supposed to charge a Horde of trolls based on your feeling?“
„Fine its more than a feeling… just trust me okay?“
She shrugged,„ sure why not its as good a way to die as any.“
I’m gonna need another healing potion though, Ankthar said carefully.
Why ? Mizra spat out, angry.
Oh for no reason at all, he begged with his hands held out in front of his bulged blue eyes, the results of Mizra’s many hits.

Mizra ignored him and walked out. Exen’tor tossed Ankthar a vial filled with a red substance.
Ankthar grabbed it and gasped: „thanks!i owe you one“
Exen’tor shrugged, blinked for a long time and said,„no worries I found it near that cat of yours, she must have eaten a patrolling troll or something.“
Ankthar swallowed in one gulp, burbed afterwards and said with a dwarfen accent: „that’s some good stuff.“

A new star was born.

Exen’tor looked at the temple that was obviously guarded.
Mizra was in there he knew it, he just knew it. but how to get in there?
Obviously the whole place was a trap but they needed to turn that trap onto the defenders themselves.
He looked at mizra who was also deep in thought and asked: how good are your controlling techniques?


Sworddevil staggered back , wrongly named since his sword was now in pieces on the floor.
Hakkar had already attacked him in ways that would leave no mortal standing.
A quarter of sworddevils face had chipped off here and there, the right side of his chest was literally gone and how his feet managed to stay in one piece was a wonder to all rational physics.
But he was no mortal and he still had that identifying wry smile.

„You fool“, he said as he circled around hakkar, „you have no idea,you have no idea what is upon you now. Not even death will be your salvation, and all for that piece of blood elf.“
„ELF?!“ Hakkar hissed violently, waving his „hands“around, „ssshe is no elf! You are the one that doesssn’t know what is upon you.“
Swordevil’s smile lessened,„what do you mean?“
„You really don’t knossssw? Your eally don’t know whyss she issss the only one that can be sssacrificed?“

Sworddevil shrugged, „I thought it was just a fetish with you trolls.“
„You really don’ssst know what wess hold there?what sssshe issss? She iss just a being to you, yet sssshe is so much more.“
Sworddevil had grown bored of his proclamation of stupidity.
„No I don’t know get over it.“
Hakkar seemed to blink.
„She is the destruction and creation of this world incarnated.“
„Bloody cultists!“ Sworddevil yelled, ran towards the handle of his sword, grabbed it jumped towards hakkar, swung himself backwards in the air and sliced hakkars head cleanly off.
He landed behind hakkars body and said with a conceited smile on his face: „you’re wrong. I am destruction incarnated! I am creation’s defilement and its end, and i….“

A menacing laughter shook the room.
Sworddevil looked back and his dead pupils lessened into tiny stones in the white and lifeless eye.
Hakkar stood there unharmed and laughed.
„Youss don know who the gatekeeperssss are, you rely on a being only as powerful as cssenariuss and medivh, and you thinksss you are sssomehow sspecial“ hakkar hissed with a smile on his reptilian face, „I will enjoysss killing you.“

They’d known it was a trap. Minutes before they even reached the clearing in the ruines they’d seen the hiding trolls.
They kept going though knowing that no high priest would be hiding in such a manner.
They were right for that matter. Without the high priests the trolls posed little danger.
Exen’or and Mesfer let bygones be bygones, an fought as never before under Mesfers battle cry: „I’VE GOT THE CHIPS!“

They made short work of the trolls, only using minor spells and Ankthar even managed to land a few hits with his wobbly blunderbuss.
„They’re getting desperate,“ exen’tor stated as he wiped off some troll blood off his face.
It meant little for Mesfer to do that since he’d found out that trolls were great for diving, his favorite way of taking care of nuisances.
Not more than a hundred strides from the middle they could now see the temple in all its splendor.
And the trolls infesting it.

They hid behind a crumbled wall readying themselves. From here it would be a straight charge towards the temple.
„You ready?“ Exen’tor asked mizra.
She looked like breathing out and said:„yes.“
„You sure you can do this?“
She smiled a distant smile and said heartfully: „don’t you worry…. its for sira.“
„For sira“ exen’tor echoed.
„For that friend of yours“ Mesfer and Ankthar said in unison.
„Best of luck guys,“ exen’tor said as a general to his troops„ do what you can and then some. Try not to die and do whatever you need to survive, lets get through this.“

He looked in mizras icy eyes and said: „it’s all up to you now.“
She peeked towards the temple and scanned the area.
„Okay“ she said with icy voice, „lets go.“
They ran towards the temple, mizra in front.
No movement was to be seen on the trolls that stood there like golems, motionless.
They reached the temple and its stairs without the trolls even flinching,
But when they continued running without hesitation up the stairs the trolls began charging against them.
And in the middle of the stairs they clashed, the crazed trolls of zul’gurub and the suicidal gatekeepers.

She looked at the darkness as if she didn’t believe it was there, as if she actually thought that she was standing in a field of sungrass during the hot summers in Quel’thalas. She most certainly wished she was there.

What he had told her had been impossible. Yet it clarified so many things.
„But they wouldn’t would they..?“
„Everyone of all races fear power. People fear power and respect it. But absolute power as I have given you will only create envy.“
„But they are my friends she said with a broken voice.“
„Were your friends, many things have changed in the time I have known you.
Consider your current situation, why do you think you are being held on a sacrificial alter with the main purpose of summoning some ancient god or the other?

Don’t you think its strange that only you are the one able to summon him?“
„what do you mean? What do you know?“
„I know enough to know you can handle the truth.“
„Do you know what it was that imprisoned the ancient gods?“
„There are some druidic and dwarfen rumors about something called the titans.“
„YES they bound the ancient gods because they were not powerful enough to defeat them. And the only thing that can free them is the titans power.“
Sira’dreth sniggered, „then they are going to become really upset as they slash my throat, i´m not a titan!“
„One thing i‘ve learned from my experience from cultists is that they’re rarely wrong on important facts. You do possess the tiniest fraction of one titans power.“
Sira’dreth was dumbstruck. How was that possible.

„And for that power all will envy you, all will fear you and all will hate you.
And all you can do is to fight back and become a power of your own, a force to be reckoned with. Trust none and love none, let all fear you and hate for that is the reason for your existence.
Destruction is your name, death is the path you will leave behind and fury will be your way.
Now wake up and face your enemy, the world and all its denizens.„

Sira’dreths eyes were orbs of fire as she opened her eyes to the surprising sight.