After successfully mastering a few of the geomancy spells that he’d been learning from Hadix, Krivax should have been in a relatively good mood. Unfortunately, it was hard to feel happy when you were about to participate in a highly dangerous ritual…
Participating in rituals was never something that Krivax would have had to worry about before the creation of the Anomalous Magic Research Division, but things had changed a lot over the past few months.
As Krivax walked through the tunnels of the nerubian enclave in Dalaran while making his way to the enclave's ritual chamber, he couldn’t help but look around and take in those changes.
After all, the enclave’s significant expansion significantly affected Krivax’s day-to-day life.
Where before the tunnels had been rather sparsely populated by a few nerubians who were sent to learn magic in Dalaran, they were now constantly active with Viziers and Initiates moving about their business. There were also several of the High King’s Dread Stalkers stationed in the enclave, presumably to surveil them, but Krivax couldn’t see any as he made his way through the tunnels. Masruk, at least, was enjoying their company and he was definitely learning a lot from them.
Krivax had noticed that his friend was generally in a better mood recently now that he was let into the secret and had more people to spar with.
He had expected that Anub’rekhan would be sent to watch over them as well given that he was one of the High King’s most trusted subordinates, but the Spiderlord was apparently too busy assisting with Azjol-Nerub’s war effort.
It’s a shame he isn’t here. I think I’d probably have an easier time getting along with Anub’rekhan than most of the Viziers…
It was likely Azjol-Nerub would have preferred to send even more personnel to the enclave, but there was a limit to what Dalaran would accept. If there were too many nerubians in the enclave, then they would eventually become an unacceptable security risk to the city. The only reason that they had actually been allowed to send so many Viziers was probably due to a combination of the ongoing war and the threat of Deathwing.
Dalaran’s nerubian enclave had now become the center of Azjol-Nerub’s efforts to combat the Void’s influence in the Eastern Kingdoms. Most of those efforts had been dedicated mostly to research for the first few months given that they needed to avoid attracting Deathwing’s attention, but circumstances had changed a few days ago
To be more specific, circumstances changed a few days ago when a massive wave of Void energy suddenly rippled over the Eastern Kingdoms.
Only those who were familiar with what the Void was knew what they were sensing, but even people who were magically insensitive reported feeling as if something horrible was going to happen. The feeling of an impending catastrophe had only gotten stronger since that moment, and Azjol-Nerub was working closely with Dalaran and the dragonflights to figure out what was going on.
Several Seers had attempted to look into the future in an attempt to gather information, but those who were lucky enough to not be driven insane had simply failed to learn anything definite. Everyone who was ‘in the know’ could tell that Deathwing was likely responsible for whatever was happening. The predominant belief was that Deathwing had probably managed to release some kind of ancient Void-corrupted monstrosity, but it seemed like nobody really knew for certain.
Despite his metaknowledge, Krivax was just as ignorant as everybody else. The original timeline had already diverted so completely that much of what he knew had become completely useless.
I guess hoping that the insane Void-corrupted dragon would’ve been content to just spend the past few months twiddling his thumbs was a bit too optimistic…
Daval Prestor had failed to do anything beyond what he was already doing, and everyone had started to hope that they would be able to find the Dragon Soul and confront him before he could put any of his plans into action. Unfortunately, it seemed like Deathwing was a few steps ahead of them and had managed to secretly pull something off under everyone’s collective noses.
It felt incredibly… unsettling to know that Deathwing might have released some kind of ancient horror due to the choices that he had made.
After taking a moment to banish his pessimistic thoughts, Krivax decided to focus on the things that he could actually do to help rather than worrying about things that he couldn’t change.
Once it had become clear that their Division wasn’t making any progress in learning more, Krivax had made a suggestion to everyone that they should perform one of the more complex divination rituals created by the Order of Kal’tut. The other Viziers would not normally listen to the opinions of someone as young as him, but Hadix had agreed with his suggestion and pushed for it as well.
They had already previously attempted to use this ritual to find the location of the Dragon Soul, but it had rather predictably failed to find anything. It was as if the Dragon Soul didn't exist in the first place as far as the magic was concerned.
There was no guarantee that the ritual would succeed this time around either, but everyone was starting to get desperate for information despite the obvious dangers of attempting to scry what was likely a powerful Void entity.
Krivax had wondered at first why Hadix hadn’t used this ritual during all of the other times that he had been investigating the Void, but it apparently could only be cast through the cooperation of several mages on top of a powerful leyline nexus. Those things had obviously not been available in the Eastern Kingdoms in the past, but circumstances had obviously changed. It sort of made Krivax glad that the Order had been exposed and that people were now being forced to cooperate openly.
Krivax was pulled out of his thoughts as he finally reached his destination. Previously, Krivax had been too busy with his diplomatic duties to participate in any rituals, so it was actually his first time seeing a nerubian ritual chamber.
The cavern that had been dug out for the chamber was several times larger than any other room that Krivax had seen in the enclave. Geometric and carefully placed webbing had been weaved throughout the entire cavern using magic conducting silk, making the whole thing appear like it was some kind of… three-dimensional arcane diagram to Krivax’s senses.
There were also four glowing obelisks in each corner of the room that were being suspended in the air through a combination of webbing and thin spars that looked similar to spider legs. Using his magical senses, Krivax could tell that the obelisks were drawing arcane energy from Dalaran’s leyline nexus and directing it into the ritual… web.
Krivax looked up to the roof of the cavern and saw several Viziers making minute adjustments to the web.
After taking a moment to look around, Krivax spotted Hadix directing a few of the Viziers on the other side of the cavern. As one of the strongest members of the Order and the only one who had any experience with the Eastern Kingdoms, it was unsurprising that Hadix had taken up a leadership role in the new Division.
Hadix called him over the moment that he spotted Krivax, “Vizier Krivax, your assistance in spinning the ritual weave would be appreciated over in this section.”
Krivax quickly skittered his way onto the webs and began heading in Hadix’s direction, using his magical senses to study the ritual weave the entire time. While the ritual weave in its entirety was beyond his ability to understand, nerubians generally tried to develop their rituals to be as logical and modular as possible.
The ritual weave was carefully spun with plenty of spaces within it where different weavings could be added or removed depending on the goal of the ritual without interfering with the base formation.
“Vizier Krivax, I would like for you to take over for these fools in spinning these portions of the arcane modulation weaving,” said Hadix, glancing disdainfully at the two Viziers who he had been directing. “The two of you can go wait quietly for the ritual to begin. I don’t want to waste any more time fixing your tedious mistakes.”
Krivax glanced at the section that Hadix was referring to and found it to be rather… simple?
Did they really have problems with this?
One of the Viziers, whose name Krivax hadn’t actually learned, immediately took insult to Hadix’s words, “Vizier Hadix, you can’t possibly be serious! Are you truly going to replace us with this… hatchling?!”
“I trust this ‘hatchling’ to correctly spin the weave more than I do you,” Hadix said dismissively. “While you two have spent the past century allowing your skills to deteriorate to an embarrassing degree while you played politics, Vizier Krivax has been constantly improving his skills with consistent determination. I’ll listen to your complaints once you remember how to properly cast magic.”
The pair of Viziers looked like they were about to argue, but a single caustic glare from Hadix sent them both storming off while silently fuming.
“Vizier Hadix… are you sure about this?” Krivax asked with trepidation. “I’m sure that those Viziers must be a lot older than me. Shouldn’t they be better at this kind of magic than I am?”
Hadix snorted in amusement before answering. “What you’ve failed to take into consideration is that there were many members of the Order who were recruited for reasons other than their magical ability. Those two have spent most of their lives as administrators, and the only magic that they consistently cast is likely a few cleaning spells.”
Krivax hadn’t actually taken that into account, but he still found their inability difficult to believe. As someone who wasn’t really only six years old, he could actually conceptualize how much more life experience people who lived for centuries had compared to him. Had they really failed to pick up any magic at all in that time?
When he brought up his doubts to his mentor, the older Vizier actually had an explanation that Krivax had never considered before.
“While the higher castes are given a significantly longer lifespan than most nerubians, our ability to retain memories is not increased to a proportional degree,” Hadix patiently explained. "Even we Viziers, though shaped for intelligence and problem-solving, lack perfect recall. It's a trait the Queens have yet to consistently apply."
Krivax was kind of surprised that he had never thought of that, and it seemed obvious to him in hindsight. Although he had noticed an improvement in his intelligence after being transformed into a Vizier, that improvement was actually relatively minor.
Magic wasn’t like a video game, where once you learned a new spell you were guaranteed to be able to cast it for the rest of your life. Expecting a Vizier to successfully cast a spell that he hadn’t used in centuries was kind of like expecting someone to be proficient in the calculus skills that they learned in high school after decades of never finding a use for it.
“Do not misunderstand, Krivax. Those who have lived for a long time still hold a significant advantage over those with less experience,” said Hadix, his words becoming cautionary. “There are spells that can assist a mage in retrieving memories, and consistent use of arcane magic has a tendency to increase intelligence and recall. Even the most untalented of mages can become formidable if they consistently work to improve themselves for centuries.”
Krivax had no doubt that was the case…
After finishing his impromptu lecture, Hadix once again instructed Krivax to begin working on the weaving and then left to go oversee the work of the other Viziers. The work was relatively straightforward, and Krivax even lost himself to his work until he suddenly realized that the ritual was almost ready to begin.
Krivax watched as the Viziers took up specific positions throughout the cavern and began preparing themselves and nervously moved to do the same. Hadix had already explained how things would work, and most of them would simply be providing their own power to the ritual while also helping to properly guide the magic. There were only a few who would be doing the actual work of casting the divination ritual.
Specifically, the difficult portions would be handled by a Seer in the center of the ritual weave as well as a few of the more experienced Viziers, which naturally included Hadix.
“If everyone is prepared and has taken their positions, then I will begin the ritual,” called out the Seer in the center of the weave. Krivax could feel his anxiety growing by the moment now that the ritual was actually about to begin. “The purpose of this ritual is to divine information about the surge in Void energy that has been slowly growing over the past month. While these are not our lands, the Void is a threat to all nerubians, and this new threat must be handled for the safety of our people. I expect you all to do everything that you can to ensure this ritual is successful.”
With his speech concluded, the Seer didn’t hesitate to begin the ritual. Every Vizier in the room, including Krivax, immediately started channeling their magic into the weave, causing the entire cavern to light up with a violet glow. Although Krivax wasn’t able to understand what spells the more experienced Viziers near the center were casting, he could tell that they were extremely complex divination spells. The Seer looked as if he was just staring off into space, but Krivax could sense waves of intense magical energy flowing from him.
This process went on for several minutes until Krivax suddenly noticed inexplicable images forming in his mind, much to his surprise. He had already been informed that something like this would happen and that it was simply a sign of the ritual working, so Krivax only panicked a little. The ritual was designed to show scenes of the past, present, and future of their void corrupted target, and although the vast majority of those scenes would be directed toward the Seer, every mage participating in the ritual would occasionally see a few as well.
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It made Krivax sort of glad that he wasn’t actually a Seer because he couldn’t imagine the training that they would have to go through to handle being bombarded with so much information.
Krivax tried to focus on them, but the images flashed by too quickly for him to accurately interpret any of them. As the ritual progressed, however, they began to appear with more frequency and stay around for much longer.
“Be warned. We approach the most dangerous portion of the ritual,” the Seer called out, pulling Krivax away from his thoughts. “The entity whose nature we are attempting to divine has noticed our efforts and is beginning to probe our defenses…”
Sure enough, Krivax felt his heart drop as he saw several portions of the ritual weave growing dark with the Void. According to Hadix, this was one of the primary reasons that the Order rarely chose to use these kinds of rituals. Large portions of the weave were dedicated purely to intercepting any incoming attacks and preventing the ritual from being interrupted.
Krivax could sense the incoming images growing in frequency and clarity, all the while something on the other side was gradually increasing the strength of its attacks. He distantly noted that the chamber was beginning to grow darker due to the increasing presence of the Void. Krivax could feel a malevolent gaze settle over him and the other Viziers, and he knew without a doubt that whatever they were looking for was now looking back at them.
Thankfully, it seemed like their defenses were powerful enough to hold it back for now.
After a few more minutes of this, the images being produced by the ritual became clear enough that even Krivax was able to understand a little of what he was seeing.
He almost immediately wished that wasn’t the case.
Almost immediately, Krivax felt like someone was trying to push a knife into his brain and he was forced to look away. He wasn’t able to make out much in that short moment but he could tell that their target was large, and it had been involved in some kind of war. It was also incredibly powerful and felt as if it had been made from the Void itself. Krivax could tell from the expressions of the other Viziers that they were having similar difficulties.
What the hell has Deathwing unleashed?
Just as he finished strengthening his mental shields and was preparing himself to look again, Krivax was interrupted as the ritual suddenly ended.
The source of the problem was obvious once he looked to the center of the ritual weave and saw the Seer convulsing on the web with streams of blood pouring from his orifices. Although he wasn’t particularly surprised, the macabre scene didn’t fail to fill Krivax with an intense feeling of dread. Once he realized how powerful their target was, he knew that they had gotten in over their heads and things were going to go incredibly wrong. Krivax had almost expected the walls to start sprouting tentacles and for mind-destroying terrors to pop out of thin air.
The chamber turned into a flurry of movement as soon as everyone realized what had happened and started implementing their contingency plans. The Seer was swiftly taken away to see Queen Kithix in order to receive medical attention, but Hadix doubted that there was much that could be done to help them. According to him, it was likely that the Seer’s mind had already been destroyed long before they started convulsing.
Almost immediately after the Seer was taken away, the participating Viziers gathered together and shared what they saw during the ritual in hopes that they could put together a coherent picture while memories were still fresh. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that their efforts wouldn’t be producing many useful results. The vast majority of the visions had been directed to the Seer, who obviously couldn’t provide his testimony. There weren’t very many people who saw more than Krivax had, and they could barely agree on what they had seen. Many people reported that they had seen a large number of trolls, but that didn’t really tell them anything.
After nearly an hour of frustrated arguments, it was decided that the ritual had mostly been a failure. They had all but confirmed that the source of the increased Void energy was some kind of massive monstrosity, but they didn’t really learn anything else. Krivax tried to rack his brain for any useful metaknowledge, but the details were still far too vague for him to work with.
Maybe I should find a way to get my hands on another memory elixir. They’re really expensive though, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to get anything out of it anyway…
As Krivax left the ritual chamber and began making his way to his room, he found himself feeling more terrified and uncertain about the future than he had felt in a long time.
Krivax dreaded to consider what someone like Deathwing could achieve with enough time now that he no longer cared about subtlety. He desperately hoped that the changes that he had made to the timeline wouldn’t end up causing more people to die. Krivax had known from the moment that he had made the conscious choice to change things that it was possible for history to turn out worse, but everything had sort of turned out mostly fine for him up until this point.
The longer that Deathwing was allowed to roam free, the worse things would get for everyone…
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Malygos sneered in disgust as he examined the orc in front of him. The creature was sitting in front of a campfire and cooking some manner of bird while speaking to another one of its kind. Although Malygos had primarily infiltrated the Horde with the intention of finding the Dragon Soul, another one of his goals was to verify some of the information in the letter sent to Krasus.
The letter claimed that the Horde were pawns of the Burning Legion, and Malygos could conclusively determine that to be true. He likely wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been looking for it specifically, but he had plenty of experience with detecting Fel magic, and every single orc that he had examined possessed significant amounts of it in their system. Such high concentrations of Fel were probably the source of the unnatural strength and resilience of the orcs, as well as their extreme aggression.
It may even be the source of their green skin.
Malygos found his mind wandering to the information provided in the letter given to Krasus. Whoever had written it had only given a very general overview of the Horde’s history, and what had driven them from their world.
Apparently, an orc by the name of Gul’dan had sold himself into the service of the Burning Legion and betrayed his people. He then launched a campaign of careful manipulation to spread the Burning Legion’s demonic magic and turn his people into bloodthirsty monsters. The orc’s homeworld was now almost completely ruined by Fel magic, and they were now invading Azeroth in hopes of establishing a home to replace the one that they ruined.
There was obviously much that the letter’s author had failed to mention in their explanation, but it was still valuable information and Malygos suddenly found himself curious about their identity.
The writer had been decently competent in hiding their traces, but hiding from anything as powerful as an Aspect was not a simple endeavor by any means.
Malygos had no doubt that Nozdormu had simply traveled to the past and secretly watched the author write the letter with his own eyes while looking over their shoulder.
Personally, Malygos thought that it was most likely one of Deathwing’s spawn who had sent the letter. Not out of any sense of moral goodness like his siblings might think, but because his fallen brother’s spawn were as power-hungry and treacherous as Deathwing himself, so one of them would take every chance they could to undermine him for their own ambitions.
Traitorous scum…
Unfortunately, Nozdormu had been more firm than usual when he insisted that nobody search for the letter’s author, at least for a few more months. They apparently needed to remain undisturbed until then for something important to the fate of Azeroth to take place. Malygos wasn’t one to blindly listen to Nozdormu’s words, especially when he knew that his brother was far from omniscient, but it was only a few more months and he knew the Aspect of Time was right more often than not.
Malygos turned his attention back to his current object and began making his way through the orc camp in the direction of the Twilight Hammer Clan, completely unseen to the camp's inhabitants. Currently, they were camped nearby Zul’Aman, and Malygos had learned through searching the minds of a few orcs that they were relatively isolated from the rest of the Horde.
That didn’t surprise him. Despite being equally malevolent, those who served the Burning Legion and those who worshiped the Old Gods rarely cooperated with one another.
The Twilight Hammer Clan was assisting with the Horde’s ongoing assault on Quel’Thalas and was stationed relatively close to the front lines.
Malygos, however, found it difficult to care about any of this when he knew that the war would be ended as soon as the Dragon Soul was no longer a factor. The Dragonflights would not normally interfere with a mortal war, but there were too many greater forces involved in this conflict for them to ignore it.
It wasn’t long before Malygos could sense the presence of the Void begin to increase as he approached his destination. He also started to notice several feral-looking orcs with pale skin walking aimlessly through the camp. Where the green-skinned orcs were full of Fel energy, these paler ones showed clear signs of being corrupted by the Void.
After another few minutes of walking, Malygos spotted the emblem of the Twilight Hammer Clan crudely painted onto what appeared to be a flag made of leather. Malygos felt a wave of disgust as looked at the thing; he was experienced enough to distinguish between the leather of an animal and the leather of a mortal.
Having found his target, Malygos strengthened the magic hiding his presence and walked into the camp of the Twilight Hammer Clan with a greater degree of caution. Neltharion was many things, but he was not an idiot. Malygos had no doubt that if the Dragon Soul was truly in the Twilight Hammer Clan’s possession, then it would be extremely well-protected.
Malygos fully understood the risk that he was taking, and the catastrophic consequences that would occur if he was captured. Just because he had decided to take that risk didn’t mean that he would do so without caution. He’d sooner kill himself and obliterate the entire Horde in an arcane explosion rather than give Neltharion the satisfaction of placing chains around his neck.
Of course, it would be far sweeter to end Neltharion’s life with his own claws. Malygos wanted to watch the despair in his eyes as he saw all his plans and ambitions burn before him.
Malygos shuddered in barely suppressed glee at the thought and forced himself to focus on his current task. He began to thoroughly search the camp for any sign of the Dragon Soul, while also keeping an eye out for the clan’s chieftain. Unfortunately, the pale orcs hardly ever spoke and Malygos did not wish to risk searching through the minds of the Void corrupted creatures.
Doing so would almost guarantee his exposure.
It was thanks to the camp's nearly complete silence that Malygos found his attention being drawn when he heard somebody speaking. They were talking in the native language of the orcs, but it had taken Malygos a mere few seconds to learn the language after ripping it from the mind of an isolated orc scout.
“Cho’gall! When is your disgusting little book going to provide us with more dragon corpses? Those damned gryphon-riding dwarves are slaughtering my warriors! I need more dragons!
“Soon, Warchief. Soon. The great master was silent for a time, but they have now returned. The Twilight Canticle will lead the Horde to new dragon corpses soon.”
“Pray that it does, Cho’gall. My patience with you is nearly at an end.”
Malygos watched as a large greenskin orc stormed out of a large tent with a furious expression. A distant part of his mind recognized the orc as the leader of the Horde, but most of Malygos’ attention was directed toward the tent rather than the irrelevant mortal.
Cho’gall was the name of Twilight Hammer Clan’s leader, and he was also the mortal who was most likely to be in possession of the Dragon Soul. After waiting a few moments to see whether or not Cho’gall would exit the tent, Malygos decided to go inside himself. The nature of his invisibility spell made it rather complicated to cast a silent teleportation spell and he didn’t want to draw attention by disturbing the tent flap, so Malygos instead cast a spell that turned his body intangible and simply walked inside.
It only took a single look at Cho’gall for Malygos to be certain that the creature was one of Deathwing’s minions. Nobody aside from the Old Gods themselves would have been able to so thoroughly empower the ogre with the Void. Malygos had seen a few other examples of two-headed ogres during his walk through the Horde camps, but none of them quite looked like Cho’gall.
Not only did the mortal have several black spikes growing all along his body, but there were also multiple large eyes growing across his bare chest. It was a rather extreme example of Void corruption, and Malygos found himself surprised that the ogre was still moderately coherent.
He was so engrossed in studying the ogre that Malygos failed to notice the female orc until she spoke. Once she did speak, however, any thought of studying the mortal was banished from his mind and his undivided attention turned to her.
“You did well placating the orc, Cho’gall,” said the female orc. “Father will be pleased to hear of your continued competence.”
A black dragon! And she’s one of Neltarion’s spawn!
Malygos could feel the world shrink to just him and the black dragon in front of him. He completely ignored whatever response came from the ogre as he imagined himself killing Neltharion’s child, just as his family was killed in front of him. Malygos didn’t know whether or not the creature that was once his brother would even truly care if he did, but the call for vengeance nearly consumed all rational thought.
It would be so easy…
While Neltharion’s children were all fairly powerful in their own right, Malygos had the advantage of surprise and he was much larger than they were. It would only take him a moment to reveal his true form and end her.
Kill her. Let Neltharion feel the pain of losing his daughter.
As Malygos pushed through the bloodlust and tried his best to rationally consider his options, he noticed that two more male orcs had entered the conversation. Most likely more of Neltharion’s spawn.
Malygos tried to focus on what they were saying, but he felt like his mind was in a fog and every thought led back to violence.
Kill them all. Take your revenge!
As had recently become a force of habit, Malygos subconsciously cast a spell on his mind to check for the Void and was shocked out of his murderous thoughts when the spell confirmed that he was being influenced.
No! I refuse to follow in Neltharion’s footsteps!
Malygos used all the willpower he possessed to pull himself back together and push away any thoughts of killing the black dragons in his midst. If he revealed himself in a mad attempt to kill Neltharion’s children, then it was incredibly likely that he would have found himself at the mercy of the Dragon Soul.
Malygos already knew that it must be here. There was no other reason for so many of Neltharion’s children to be present unless they had been ordered to protect it.
His theory was eventually confirmed after spending a few minutes listening to their conversation.
“Have you made progress in controlling the artifact, Cho’gall?” said the smaller of the male orcs.
Malygos wasn’t familiar enough with Nelharion’s recent children to recognize him.
“Of course. I’m grateful for the honor that the great master has bestowed upon me by giving me such a sacred duty!”
“Hmph. So long as you understand your place, mortal. You will not like the consequences if you attempt to use it against your betters,” said the larger orc.
A part of Malygos wanted to stay and see where in the camp they were keeping the Dragon Soul with his own eyes, but he knew that it would be too dangerous. His objective had already been completed, and it would be better to leave before anything unexpected occurred. He had gotten everything that he needed to finally achieve his vengeance against Neltharion, and he wouldn’t allow his own recklessness to ruin everything.
As Malygos made his way out of the camp and felt the Void eating away at the spell keeping him hidden all the while, he knew that he had made the correct decision. Once he found a relatively isolated location, Malygos immediately cast a spell to teleport himself away so that he could bring the news to his siblings.
Now that the location of the Dragon Soul had been found, the time had come for them to finally launch their assault on Deathwing. The only thing that was left to do was organize the mortals and plan the attack.
And finally, this would all end.