Official source 
Do not add to, edit, or remove any of the story, unless the official source changes.
- Previous: The Tomb's Fury.
By Robert Brooks
Khadgar slowly climbed to his feet, shivering. Every inch of him ached. Shards of melting ice slid off of him and clattered to the ground. Was this what death felt like? The numbing cold, the misery of utter failure?
The hallway was dark. Khadgar absently conjured a ball of light, revealing the wall of collapsed rock where a doorway had once been.
Gul'dan was on the other side, wielding the means to drag Azeroth into an apocalypse.
Khadgar shoved away his horror. Gul'dan had not flung open the gates for the Legion yet. Perhaps the archmage's history lesson had worked.
He summoned another arcane wedge, then jammed it against the pile of stones, chipping it away. There was still hope. There would always be hope.
He had to believe that.
Kil'jaeden was quiet. Gul'dan was not.
"I don't believe Khadgar was lying," the orc said. He was calm. On Draenor, the garn were calm, too, just before they feasted. "The other one. The other Gul'dan. He died here at the Legion's hands, yes?"
—YES, HE DID.—
Gul'dan lowered his head. "So. The Burning Legion does not honor its pacts." With this power, he did not need the Legion. He could claim Azeroth alone and rain fire upon all who opposed him. The first victim would be Khadgar. But fire was too glorious an end for him. The other Gul'dan had raised this island; it might be fitting to sink it back to the deep. How long could an archmage survive underwater? It would be amusing to find out. "There was always a part of me that believed our arrangement would not last," he said.
—THAT IS BECAUSE YOU ARE A FOOL. AS MUCH NOW AS THEN.—
Kil'jaeden's words echoed with disapproval. Gul'dan laughed.
"A forewarned fool, at least," he said.
But Kil'jaeden was not done.
—I WAS THERE WHEN YOU FIRST BOUND YOURSELF TO US. FALSE AMBITION HAS ALWAYS POISONED YOUR MIND, GUL'DAN.—
Anger pierced Gul'dan's contentment. "False?" He used his new strength to reach through his link with Kil'jaeden. He saw the eredar's face. "You planned to discard me from the beginning."
Kil'jaeden's blazing eyes met Gul'dan's without blinking.
—NO, GUL'DAN. WE TEMPT THE WEAK WITH TRINKETS AND FLEETING REWARDS. WE PROMISED YOU MUCH, MUCH MORE.—
Gul'dan sneered. "Bigger bait for a bigger fish. But you would have gutted me all the same."
—YOU DIED BECAUSE YOU BETRAYED US. YOU WERE MEANT TO HELP MY HORDE EXTERMINATE ALL RESISTANCE ON THIS WORLD. YET AT THE MOMENT OF TRUTH, YOU ABANDONED THEM. YOU SPLIT THEIR ARMIES TO CLAIM THIS PLACE. OUR PLANS CAME TO NOTHING. YOU EARNED YOUR FATE.—
"That was not me!" Gul'dan roared.
—BETRAYAL IS IN YOUR NATURE. I DRAGGED YOU HERE BY THE SCRUFF OF YOUR NECK BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL TOO FOOLISH TO UNDERSTAND YOUR FULL POTENTIAL. EVEN NOW, YOU BELIEVE THE POWER YOU HOLD IS SIGNIFICANT. YOU LACK VISION.—
Kil'jaeden had been sitting on a gigantic throne made of metal and polished crystals, strata of materials that Gul'dan had never seen. Now he stood up. Gul'dan's heightened senses were granting him a glimpse of another world. There was a smell to it. A weight to it. He wondered what this land was called. He wondered if he would ever visit it. What would it take to conquer such a place?
—I HAD HOPED YOU WOULD HAVE GREATER VISION THAN YOUR OTHER SELF. PERHAPS YOU STILL WILL.—
"I'm afraid you're about to be disappointed again, master," Gul'dan said. "I see no reason to overcome my false ambition."
This was hopeless. It would take Khadgar days to get back into the chamber with the wedge. He might have only seconds to stop Gul'dan. The pile of rocks looked endless.
Perhaps there was a better point of attack. A place where the walls weren't so thick. A place where the floor was thinner. Anything. Maybe he should conjure more arcane elementals? No. They were not strong enough.
Khadgar's thoughts would not let him focus on the here and now. What will the end of Azeroth look like? How much of it will burn? How many of its people will be enslaved? How many of its champions will fall to corruption rather than die?
How many more worlds will they conquer on the Legion's behalf?
Then a voice changed everything.
"You seem to be doing as well as I expected, Archmage."
Khadgar didn't turn around, not wanting his relief to show. "I'm glad we made enough noise to get your attention. Is here a place where we can break through? A spot with less rock between him and us?" he asked.
Maiev Shadowsong stepped next to him, studying the wall of debris. "We can find one. Is Gul'dan alone?"
That was a strangely difficult question to answer. "Let's say yes, for now. We don't have much time."
"Of course not," she said.
"Maiev." Khadgar was grim. She had come back; she deserved to be warned. "I have failed."
She gave him a flat look. "And?"
"You and I are not capable of stopping him now."
"I do not see you running."
Well, there was no arguing with that. "Then that's settled," Khadgar said.
"This way." She led him down the eastern tunnel.
Kil'jaeden leaned forward. The air seemed to quake.
—FROM THE BEGINNING, YOU BELIEVED YOU WERE DESTINED FOR POWER. YOU ARE. YOU ALSO BELIEVED YOU WERE DESTINED TO BE YOUR OWN MASTER.—
His next words thundered with finality.
—THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.—
"No?" Gul'dan said softly. "Given the circumstances—"
—EVERY CREATURE SERVES A MASTER. EVEN I. THAT IS THE CHOICE OF ALL: SERVE ANOTHER, OR DIE ALONE.—
Gul'dan was unmoved. "Perhaps you will bow to me one day, Deceiver," he said.
—HOW FAR CAN YOU GO? HOW MANY WORLDS CAN YOU RULE? THE POWER YOU HOLD WILL NOT LAST FOREVER. YOU ARE NOTHING BEFORE THE LEGION.—
"We shall see."
—SERVITUDE IS NOT IMPRISONMENT. YOU WILL SERVE ME. OTHERS WILL SERVE YOU. IMAGINE BEING THE MASTER OF SO MANY. IMAGINE THE RANKS OF THE LEGION AT YOUR COMMAND. IMAGINE WHAT YOU WILL BURN FOR US.—
Gul'dan regarded Kil'jaeden. All his power. All his fury. Yet he cannot make me obey any longer, he thought. I do not need his empty promises.
Kil'jaeden seemed to feel the distance growing between them.
—ENOUGH, GUL'DAN. MAKE YOUR CHOICE. YOU CAN PROVE YOURSELF LOYAL. RETURN YOUR POWER TO THE PORTAL, AND THE WAY WILL OPEN. OR YOU CAN BETRAY US YET AGAIN. YOUR ONLY SATISFACTION BEFORE WE DESTROY YOU WILL BE MEANINGLESS VENGEANCE ON INSIGNIFICANT MORTALS.—
The eredar offered a parting thought.
—KNOW THIS: YOU CAN CALL ME "DECEIVER," BUT I DID NOT LIE TO YOU. NOT ONCE. NOT IN THIS WORLD, AND NOT IN YOURS.—
With that, Kil'jaeden pushed Gul'dan's mind away.
The chamber was quiet, and Gul'dan was finally alone. Kil'jaeden was far away from this place.
The only disturbance was a slight tremor. Khadgar was trying to claw his way back in. A useless effort.
And as for the Burning Legion... It was not a difficult decision. Gul'dan's days of servitude were done. There was nothing that could stop him. He would have no master.
A speck of doubt crawled in his belly. He grimaced and waited for the power coursing through his veins to melt it away. It didn't happen.
Gul'dan was getting annoyed. Perhaps this was a mortal weakness that could never be overwhelmed: self-doubt. He examined his feelings. He was supremely confident in the strength he held. Where was this uncertainty coming from?
The floor quivered again. Khadgar. And he was no longer alone. Gul'dan could sense Maiev Shadowsong, too. She had come back. That was unexpected.
When Gul'dan had observed them earlier, he had noticed enmity between them. They had overcome it unsettlingly fast. Now they were working together.
They wanted to break in? Wonderful. Let them rush to their deaths. Killing them would clear Gul'dan's head nicely.
And then there would be nobody left on Azeroth to oppose Gul'dan.
Except...
There. That was the doubt.
Khadgar had been utterly defeated, and yet he wasn't giving up. Shadowsong objected to the archmage's very presence, and she was risking her life to aid him. They were just two. There were others.
Those others...
Together... they had faced the Iron Horde and won.
Together... they had run toward battle against the corrupted Horde. They had entered Gul'dan's citadel and torn it to pieces.
Together... they had opposed the Burning Legion. They had defeated Archimonde. If they would not flee from him, they would flee from nothing.
Genuine horror spread through Gul'dan's mind. He was standing on a unique world with creatures far more tenacious than even the archmage. Gul'dan would have to face all of them.
Alone.
Answering to no master.
But alone.
Gul'dan had no measure of his new power, but he had a measure of theirs. He stood in the tomb for a long time. Thinking. Calculating.
Rocks tumbled in the chamber. Khadgar shoved through the hole and pulled himself inside. Maiev followed, her umbra crescent poised to strike.
Together, they ran toward him. Gul'dan only watched. They struck. He brushed them away without lifting a finger, and they were hurled across the chamber. Maiev rotated in midair and gracefully hit the wall in a smooth crouch, and Khadgar simply blinked from the air back to the ground, landing easily. They tried again. This time Gul'dan actually had to move; Maiev's blade missed his throat by a hair's-breadth. Khadgar rained down ice. Gul'dan clapped his hands. Walls of green fire slammed together. Khadgar should have been squashed like a bug. Instead he leaped free. And there was Warden Shadowsong, trying again to carve him up. He reached out, intending to rip the very soul from her body. But Khadgar's power was there, redirecting Gul'dan's strength until she could retreat.
"Help me understand." Gul'dan's voice was strangely calm, even to his own ears. "Why do you fight? You can do nothing here but die."
"Then kill us, if you can," Khadgar spat. Shadowsong set her feet and slammed her blade twice against a pillar, a wordless gesture of agreement.
Gul'dan had no doubt that he could kill them both. But they should have been dead already. Their stubborn resistance was exactly what he would face on this world, over and over again. Khadgar and Shadowsong were only the first of many.
I cannot defeat them all alone.
Gul'dan could kill these two. Or he could obey the Burning Legion.
He closed his eyes. With a groan, Gul'dan let his wondrous power slip from his grasp. Kil'jaeden seized it and sent it straight into the tomb. The walls glowed ever brighter, rivaling the midday sun.
Gul'dan felt a keen sense of loss. All that power gone. The tomb was not simply using it; it was consuming it. Terrible sounds, magnificent sounds, deafening sounds, they heralded the creation of a bridge that joined two worlds. Suddenly the way was open. Air rushed from another plane of existence, roaring through the chamber at hurricane speeds. Khadgar and Maiev dropped to the floor, holding on.
And then he heard that familiar voice.
—WELL DONE, GUL'DAN. YOU DO INDEED HAVE THE VISION I HAD HOPED FOR.—
Kil'jaeden's words no longer rattled in his head. They no longer needed to. Gul'dan felt something new from the Burning Legion: trust. It was a dizzying sensation.
"What do I do?" Gul'dan asked.
—WATCH. SEE WHAT YOU WILL INHERIT.—
Kil'jaeden pulled Gul'dan through to witness the Legion's glory.
Light spilled into the infinite shadow, illuminating the ranks of an army that stretched beyond sight. They were ready. They always had been. But they had never before had a clear path. Not like this. Whirling power beckoned them to another realm, and they gladly obeyed.
"It is more than I had dreamed," Gul'dan whispered.
—IT IS THE BEGINNING OF AZEROTH'S END.—
And there it was: Azeroth. Gul'dan stood aside as the Burning Legion's forces surged forward. Ever forward. Soon he would join them. Not as a servant.
As a leader.
Khadgar's heart was pounding in his ears, drowning out his nightmare that had come to life. "Keep going, Maiev!" he shouted, running.
She kept pace but didn't respond. There was nothing more to say.
The Burning Legion is here.
Gul'dan had vanished in front of their eyes, immediately replaced with others. So many others. There had been nothing that Khadgar and Maiev could do but flee. Already the Legion was pursuing them. Khadgar dared not look back. The walls around him were shimmering and crumbling.
Somehow Gul'dan had destroyed the five seals under Khadgar's nose, and the dormant portal was awake.
I can't rebuild the seals, Khadgar thought desperately. He couldn't even conceive of the power required to accomplish that. So he ran.
Sunlight poured through a doorway ahead. Maiev reached it first and wheeled north. "I am going back to the vault! You draw them away!"
Khadgar veered east. "Good luck, Warden!"
"Fight and die well, Archmage!"
He spread his arms wide and took to the sky as a raven, channeling magic into a dazzling display of light and sound.
It did the trick. A chorus of screeches erupted behind him. He risked a glance back. The ground was already writhing, swarming with the vanguard of an army that sought to conquer everything. The sky was darkening, hidden behind a blooming tower of green smoke that rose from the island. He saw a familiar figure there. Gul'dan levitated in the midst of the inferno, his laughter serenading the horrors he had unleashed. He pointed at Khadgar. Flocks of winged demons rushed to obey. Khadgar strained to gain more speed. The Legion's forces would pursue him hard. That might give Maiev and her Watchers the time they needed.
Or it might not.
But she came back. It was a small victory amid such failure, but a victory nonetheless.
He caught a draft of air and let it propel him through the sky. This was no longer about Maiev. Or Khadgar. Or even Gul'dan.
There must be a way to stop the Legion.
Khadgar had failed. He needed answers. He needed help. If he stayed, he could do nothing but die.
So he kept flying. The demons showed no signs of slowing even as he soared across the open ocean, leaving the Broken Isles far behind. He would warn the Kirin Tor. The Alliance and the Horde. Everyone. They would answer the call as Maiev had.
He had to believe that.
The great nightmare was beginning, and no one on Azeroth would be able to wake from it alone.
END