Karp
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Chapter 143
🕑 Added 2025-01-07 19:18:27 +0000 UTC(Varrus POV)
During the struggle to claim Malfurion's life, Varrus had twisted his dagger deep into the Night Elf, and Rho'dan was tightly gripping the demigod's hands so that he couldn't remove the dagger, then escape and heal himself back to full health.
“Just. Give. Up.” Varrus growled at the barely living Night Elf.
His perks were preventing him from healing, and a knife was literally stabbed through Malfurion's heart, yet he barely hung on to life.
“This body is finished, the after life calls to me. Yet you, young one, prove yourself to be irredeemable. A villain in all but name. Not only do you desecrate my body, but plan to desecrate my soul! This, I cannot allow! Lady Ysera, I beseech thee, please rescue me in my time of need!” Malfurion pleaded towards the heavens.
With the last of his energy, he opened up a tiny portal no wider than the width of a hand.
“Malfurion?!” A young woman's voice, one that sounded distant yet near came out of the tiny portal. She had an airy quality to her tone, almost as if she was on drugs.
Almost on cue, she belatedly continued the conversation in answer to Malfurion's plea. “Ah, it's you. I've dreamed of you. Please come inside. Although I don't know where you'll land. I'm very, ahhh~, busy.” The woman-who could only be Ysera-yawned.
Then, the tiny portal began to swirl, and a suctioning force started to pull on Varrus.
Looking up, Varrus wanted to wretch as the world stretched. For a brief moment, he saw his body from a 3rd person POV, as if he were looking at himself from a video game character's perspective.
The world then began to spin, and Varrus found his consciousness, along with Malfurion’s and Rho'dan's, were sucked into the portal as if they had been flushed down the drain.
Rapid blinking lights, and all sorts of trippy scenes flashed by his vision within a millisecond. His eyes stung, and the air never smelt crisper.
Rubbing his eyes and barfing his guts out on the ground, Varrus found himself in a disturbing new realm.
It felt like he was in a half finished painting. Some trees, and animals had such fine details to them, it felt like he was looking at some exquisite S tier 3D materials. While some animals sparked a very deep uncanny valley feeling in him, making Varrus weirded out.
There were bushes and trees that were missing details, and out in the far horizon was a blank void. There was an edge to this realm, and the cutoff point was like a big blank painters canvas.
For the first time in a long time, Varrus felt concern for his soul. Death was terrifying enough in a world that had Aedra/Dadra and WoW fuckery, but with the Sunwell, he planned on living forever.
However, this unexpected out of body experience was a reminder as to how despite his power level, despite the fact that he stomped Malfurion, that he wasn't invincible.
Speaking of Malfurion and Rho'dan, were they nearby? Putting a hand over his forehead to block out the light, Varrus scanned his surroundings, but couldn't see either of them.
Before he made any decisions, he checked his status to make sure he was still connected to the Sunwell.
[Sunwell: Unlimited Stamina, 100% Mana Regeneration, Unlimited Lifespan, Immune to Disease, Damage Increased: Elemental: 20%, Life: 10%, Light: 10%, Arcane: 50%]
Eyup, still connected baby!
“Hrm, but what's this?” Varrus frowned and muttered to himself as he noticed a new status condition.
[Emerald Dream: All magic/physical damage-except Illusion-decreased effectiveness by 100%. Illusion magic increased effectiveness by 150%.]
Varrus scratched his chin as he saw this change in his system. On one hand, it really sucked, because using his Mana Stones defensively or offensively would be kind of pointless with this nerf.
On the other hand, some of his Illusion spells were absolutely nasty.
Not to mention the perks.
So while this did hurt him quite a lot-as versatility was what made him so dangerous-it also turned him into an Illusion glass cannon.
Shrugging his shoulders at the strange new rules to this realm, Varrus decided he would find his friend first, then go pay Ysera a beating.
If he was going to get out of here, he reckoned he could absorb her soul, and become the new Aspect of Dreams, just like he had done with Murozond.
Casting the spell Clairvoyance, and thinking thoughts along the lines of ‘point me to Rho'dan’ a blue line spawned in front of Varrus, and started to lead him in a direction.
Following the blue line that only he could see, Varrus did so from within a cloak of invisibility. Shroudwalk was another invaluable Illusion spell, and was even better thanks to the buff.
His stealth capabilities also improved thanks to the Illusion buff in the form of the perk Shadow Refuge.
Shadow Refuge - While affected by an invisibility spell or effect, you take 35%->105% less damage from attacks and sneaking is 15%->36% better.
Strolling his way through this new realm, Varrus began to notice that the verdant trees, bushes and grasslands were beginning to taper off.
The landscape started to take on Fall colors, and pulsing, tumorous growths started to appear on the foliage.
If he had to describe his surroundings, it was as if everything had been infected with super cancer. Pulsating sacs filled with foul smelling liquid dangled from trees, yellow pus leaked from fruits, and swarms of gnats buzzed everywhere.
The animals too, had morphed into something both horrifying and disgusting.
One fox that Varrus spotted had its body twisted like a pretzel, yet it continued to roam the land as if it had been born that way. It was as if Varrus was the anomaly with his symmetrical features.
From his knowledge of Warcraft, knew that there was a Satyr named Xavius, the so-called Nightmare Lord who was to blame for all of this.
In the lore, he was corrupted by the Old Gods, but he also was the one responsible for pushing Queen Azshara to summon Sargeras when he was an Elf. These two conflicting stories had Varrus suspicious of his true motive and master.
While Varrus had been forcibly dragged here by the leader of the Green Dragonflight, Ysera, that didn’t mean he was stupid enough to clap her cheeks, then wipe his hands of the situation and walk away.
What happened in the Dream affected reality. There was an event in Warcraft that got glossed over pretty quickly by the writers, it was known as the Emerald Nightmare.
In the Emerald Nightmare event, Azeroth's entire ecosystem got thrown out of wack, and threatened to basically spread turbo aids directly into every fruit, vegetable, and plant. All the while, that mad bastard Xavius wanted to merge both the dream world, and reality into one singular plane.
That was something Varrus could not allow.
Frankly speaking, upon witnessing such a blatant display of corruption, Varrus wanted to go full scorched earth upon the land.
However, he wanted to make sure Rho'dan was safe first, then maybe he could find out where the asshole Satyr was, and end the threat to Azeroth once and for all.
Shaking his head, Varrus couldn't help but grin. With rhetoric like that, Varrus felt like he was beginning to sound like Thrall or Jaina.
He never thought he'd see the day where he moved towards a goal that wasn't just ‘for my friends, family and country’ but also ‘for the world.’
Witholding a chuckle, Varrus paused in his step as he heard the sounds of extremely violent combat up ahead.
It just so happened that his Clairvoyance spell was taking him right towards the action.
Scanning his surroundings, Varrus noticed that all of the nightmare creatures began to stampede towards that direction as well.
Picking up his speed, Varrus exited the thick woodland area, and came across a clearing.
Verdant purple grass, a small teal colored lake, and orange skies greeted his eyes.
This entire region was chalk full of corruption!
But what really drew his attention was the fight going on above the lake.
The armored figure of Rho'dan was levitating above the water, and he would occasionally Blink here and there.
His redheaded guard was fighting side by side with a Green Dragon. The two of them were combating three other corrupted, house-sized Heroic Dragons, a swarm of Elite drakes, and thousands of dog-sized whelps.
From Varrus’s vantage, it seemed that Rho'dan and the Green Dragon were pressed from all sides, and were struggling to make any headway.
Keeping in mind that he practically should only use Illusion spells as all other trees of magic were currently nerfed, Varrus opted for a mass AOE spell.
It was one of his favorites for taking out trash mobs. It was:
Mayhem!
Red light erupted from Varrus’s position,and as it wasn't technically an offensive spell, didn’t break his invisibility!
The amount of spell power pumped into the magic thanks to Varrus’s enchanted equipment saw a tsunami of red mana cascade all over the place, and cover the entire lake.
At that moment, every single Elite, and Common creature that was present turned on one another, and began to mercilessly kill.
Varrus smirked to himself as the perk, Pandemonium activated, increasing the damage that those under a frenzy effect could output by 50%!
His grin widened even further when one of the Heroic corrupted Dragons failed to resist Mayhem, and unexpectedly bit into the neck of its compatriot.
Rho'dan, never one to waste a good opportunity, capitalized on this surprise opening, and thrust his sword into the flesh underneath the third Dragon's jaw. Blood jetted out of the True Dragon, and it roared at Rho'dan in mindless fury.
Before it could retaliate, the Green Dragon that had been fighting alongside Rho'dan crashed into it, and breathed emerald colored flames upon it.
Varrus remained within his stealthed, invisible state, and started channeling the spell, Evil Twin.
Evil Twin: While concentrating, manifests illusions of nearby enemies to attack them. Illusions take extra damage from attacks.
Ordinarily, he would never use any magic or form of attack that had him sitting still.
But in a massed battle like this, one where he couldn't use his typical Destruction or Arcane spells, Evil Twin got the job done.
While he got to work, thousands of illusory see-through blue clones began to pop into existence. They didn’t hesitate or pause for an instant, and started to back stab the frenzied corrupted creatures with impunity.
The teal colored lake turned muddy brown as vast quantities of blood dripped into it.
Within five minutes, the army that had been besieging Rho'dan had all but killed themselves.
Of the three Heroic Dragons, two lay dead, and Rho'dan was performing the coup de grace on the last one.
“Hm.’ Rho'dan let loose a muffled groan as he parried a clawed attack with his shield.
The brawny tall man then ducked under the next swipe, and scored a heavy stab into its heart. His enchanted blade churned and made a sound like a chainsaw as it ripped into the Dragon's scales, and exploded once it fully entered the creature's leathery body.
As it collapsed, it fell upon Rho'dan, who was just a fraction to slow to dodge it.
“Rho'dan!?” The Green Dragon yelled out in surprise.
Transforming into a practically naked Night Elf, she stood next to the corpse, and hopped from side to side in a fretting manner.
“Will you be decloaking, sir?” Rho'dan asked from Varrus's side.
“Hmm, I almost didn't notice you Blink. You're getting better all the time.” Varrus praised.
In fact, the only reason why he noticed Rho'dan was because they had exchanged bound items, and would always know when the other was nearby. For someone so big and wearing a full suit of plate armor, Rho'dan was scarily stealthy.
“If one is to protect the Highlord, then he should at least have such basic capabilities.” Rho'dan seriously intoned.
“Yeah, yeah, enough tooting your own horn. Anyway, who's the dream girl? Girlfriend number 2 perhaps?” Varrus wiggled his eyebrows, and said in a suggestive voice.
“Please, not another one. I very much wish you did not push that Human girl on me.” Rho'dan broke his always stalwart persona for a moment, and ran a hand through his long luxurious red hair.
“You're a 6’5 rugged Elf with a scar. I can't help it if women find you irresistible. Pretty-Boys like myself are a dime a dozen in Quel'Thalas, but that scar, facial hair, and overall reliable nature that just oozes around you is just something I, alongside 99% of the rest of our race, are lacking. So I might as well use you for the betterment of House Vandercross!” Varrus replied with a cheeky grin.
“Ahem. So, what shall we do with the Dragon, sir? While we were fighting together, it was more as allies of convenience. Our relationship is strictly professional.” Rho'dan coughed into his hand, and looked at Varrus dispassionately as he awaited order.
“You sly dog, she knew your name! What else did you tell her?” Varrus continued teasing.
“I did not tell her my name.” Rho'dan said, his cheeks slightly turning rosy.
“Oh? Then how else would she-hmm, it just occurred to me that we are in the Emerald Dream, perhaps a few nightly, intimate visits-”
“Sir, I think we should see what the Dragon has to say. Although we were dragged here against our will, they do not seem hostile.” Rho'dan said in a curt tone.
“Oh very well. Let's see what the beautiful lady has to say. Who knows, maybe this time, I'll take over an entire realm with my subordinate's good looks!” Varrus laughed to himself as he decloaked from invisibility, and began to walk towards the soiled lake.
Rho'dan stood motionless, much to Varrus’s amusement.
“Well don't just stand there, Rho'dan, get over here! And remember, for House Vandercross!”
“...” Rho'dan remained tight lipped as he followed behind Varrus.
“Ahem, I think I said. For House Vandercross!” Varrus paused, and turned to look Rho'dan in the eye.
Rho'dan's cheek twitched, yet the taciturn man was compelled by duty.
“For House Vandercross.” Rho'dan said as if he were having his teeth pulled.
“Atta boy! Together, we'll make great things, Rho'dan!” Varrus cheerfully slapped Rho'dan on the arm, then resumed his walk.
In a good mood, Varrus was beginning to think this insane adventure would turn out to be a great boost to the Covenant!
Comments
Michael DiVelbiss
FOR THE COVENANT!!! XD
Kasikan
Pretty sure the Kaldorei gave up ever amounting to anything when they let Tyrande and Malfurion hold supreme power for as long as they live. Malfurion felt sleeping all day everyday for eternity beat doing anything useful. Like having kids, teaching them and raising their races numbers. Instead he spent all his time playing tag with his cousins who turned into Satyrs. Which always seemed to fail. Since they never seemed to actually catch them.
Conor McGroarty
Wonder how Malfurion will feel when he realizes he pulled the Emerald Dragon flight into his mess along with Cenarius and other Emerald Dream Allies? Malfy may disguise his actions as objective and logical but the fact of the matter is that he was more emotionally compromised than usual and it caused the death of his body and his wife. Now the mother of all mistakes is coming to destroy what he slept for 10,000 years for instead of being awake and banging his wife (having kids). Though guess Tyrande’s powers as high priestess probably means she worked on “wizard” rules where virginity is power?
