NOVEL NEXT Interlude
6/16 noon
Nefaria grunted with pleasure as Silivaz fucked her. She didn’t like men, she insisted, but since she became female she’d felt a slowly growing desire to feel Erich Bismark inside of her. It was distracting, so when she had seen today’s minor mission for Nazjatar she’d finally decided to give in.
Get Some
Fuck Silivaz the Zealous. You must both achieve orgasm for it to count.
Reward: Piccolo of Flaming Fire, the Naga will have retroactively selectively bred their murloc slaves for beauty according to Naga standards for the last 10 thousand years.
It felt so damn good to be fucked, and she could pretend that she wasn’t having sex with a man thanks to the narcissistic quirk Azshara had embedded in all Naga: each of them, male or female, was a mirror to her. Full breasts, flared hips, a delicate elven face, and a feminine voice. It let Nefaria rationalize, which she was almost as good at as her niece Lividia when she wanted to be.
“Ah.” A smooth voice interrupted. “There you two are. Nefaria, what did I tell you about poaching members of my court?”
“As I recall,” Nefaria responded, frustrated, “you said I wouldn’t be able to.” She was right on the edge. Azshara’s timing was awful.The merman kept thrusting, seemingly unable to recognize the presence of his queen. More accurately, he was incapable of sensing his queen’s illusory proxy thanks to a quick tier two hypnotic command by Nefaria.
“I did, didn’t I?” The spectral image of Azshara, as she looked ten thousand years ago, said thoughtfully. “Regardless, you are overstepping. Stop this at once or I will punish you both. I have need of him.”
Nefaria largely shrugged off the oppressive force of the queen’s glare as her disposable paramour finished inside of her. The threat had no true bite. Human Paladin had used her new stealth trait to get in close to the Naga queen and inject her, Nefaria had become a favored and indulged handmaiden in her court. The actual handmaiden had been killed. What a shame.
From there, it had been easy enough to proceed. A presumptuous request for personal instruction had invited punishment, but as an old god Nefaria didn’t truly feel any physical sensation she didn’t wish to. Tsundere service ensured that the queen's displeasure faded and became affection; to everyone else Nefaria had simply impressed Azshara with her stoicism as the flesh was flayed from her bones. Since then, Nefaria had alternated learning about mind warping magic from the queen, impressing her with the powers she already had, gently provoking her, and joining the leviathan Naga in her boudoir. Crystals had been issued to many of the Queen’s guards, which slowly bent their own minds even as they used them to crush the willpower of slaves. Mere exposure to Azshara’s aura was easy enough to resist as an old god, and if a bit of affection bled in it would assist in her secondary goal.
Nefaria deliberately chose not to command that Azshara love her, nor to deliberately push for her capture. For one thing it would be paradoxically harder to sleep with a captured Azshara. Nefaria was already receiving all she wanted from the vain queen as a tutor and most of what she wanted in a lover. With multiple lures working on her Nefaria hoped that Azshara might complete her penalty mission organically. There were precious few individuals that Nefaria both respected and desired enough to qualify for the position of Queen, and the whispers that Nefaria now recognized as N’Zoth had hinted at a deeply suppressed desire to be thoroughly outplayed deep within the Eternal Queen. She was better than everyone in her own eyes, but if she ever met someone who forced her to question that she would be very interested indeed. Of course, Nefaria thought as she cleaned the Naga’s seed out of her pussy, that might all go out the window if this regional mission is worth forcing the issue over.
Nazjatar: Defeat Azshara
Reward: Deluxe Mission Ticket, Naga Siren skill chip, Power Trader, Waters of Lethe
“Ugh. All but useless.” A high tone sounded from an orb gathered among Nefaria’s possessions, discarded for the tryst. A call from her lab?
“What is it?” She spoke to the goblin on the other side, one of many that fled Blackrock mountain.
“Mistress, your instruments have located a powerful energy signature of high magic.” Pfft. Still using that outdated term for company energy. She needed better servants.
“Yes, and? What is happening?”
“We don’t know! It seems to be focused around the former capital of-“
Nefarian cut off the orb so she could focus on teleporting back to her lab the moment he reminded her of his ineptitude. She’d already attuned to the beacons in Nazjatar, and Azshara wouldn’t punish her in any way that mattered. When she arrived she ignored the useless goblins and assessed the readings herself.
“A large mass of energy with sympathetic lines reaching out across multiple continents, focused on Northrend… Scourge related?” she mused. She knew only too well that a direct confrontation with Bismark’s full forces was likely suicidal, even with eight old gods at her side. For now, anyway. However, he was distracted for the moment, his forces likely split. He didn’t know about her new power, and she would only be able to capitalize on the surprise once. It was time to release an old god.
The lessons that the three surviving gods could teach her were substantial, and would serve as an incredible force multiplier; likely even greater than Azshara. She consulted with her three new siblings, and they grudgingly agreed that Yogg’Saron’s prison was the most plausible target at the moment. The Scarab Gate sealing away C’thun was relatively fresh, and N’Zoth had worked around the Eternal Seal instead of trying to wear it away. The God of Northrend, however, had been slowly widening cracks for eons. It was ready to shatter.
••••••••••
I hadn’t broken too much on my way into Ulduar, thankfully. When I left to oversee the start of the ritual, I ordered the keepers to start cleanup with a focus on defensive measures. I fully expected an attack, I was even considering some options to set a trap, but I didn’t really have time to do more than clean up before shit hit the fan. It was… what, two hours or so?
I was watching from the command center in my pocket dimension’s hatchery. I had all of my big names ready to deploy along with my various armies. Anyone tier 6+ that had a unique skill set was in reserve, ready for rapid deployment, and all the tier 5s were to avoid unnecessary entanglements. That meant the 16 heroes I managed to resurrect since yesterday, the dragon aspects and their consorts, Kerrigan, and a small delegation from Dalaran. I also had quite a few mages I could call in from the alternate timeline, if it should seem necessary. I felt, overall, pretty good about my preparations.
I wasn’t exactly panicking when the army of Kul’Tirans descended upon Ulduar. Impressed that Nefarian had prepped a standing assault team like that? Definitely. Worried that they would actually succeed? Not so much. I sent over Jaina, Kerrigan, and my moderately bored prime consort to reinforce the outer defenses, let my team monitor the situation, and started sending out orders to mobilize the tier 5s and all standing armies from the other factions I owned. My heroes were the strategic reserve. If I might need to use them elsewhere I needed to have more backup ready to go.
I swapped my attention back and forth for a bit, seeing both sides as equally in-hand and not wanting to overcommit. The Bulwark was holding, the outer perimeter of Ulduar had an entire fleet of mechagnome piloted tanks, energy beam firing towers, and giant cyber-Viking infantry. I’ll be level with you: I was more nervous about the giant army of magically enhanced zombies attacking a particularly well reinforced palisade than I was about the age of sail era marines fighting a land war with the cyber Vikings led by demigods. I even watched some TV, checking in on Gamon’s progress. Nothing too exciting, I didn’t want to get too engrossed.
He was continuing his strategy of aggressive expansion against the Frostmane trolls paired with mercenary work for the dwarves. He had a mission, but from his internal monologue he chose the Frostmanes as his target mostly because they could be somewhat reliably beaten unconscious and captured by ritual circle. His whole plan was to build up his power base for later jobs in other regions.
Frostmane Retreat- end the Frostmane threat to Kharanos
Reward: gain access to the Ritual Creation app for magic circles
Patron: Troll Regeneration is added to the benefits of body tune up
Regeneration by default wasn’t actually an incredible buff for me, but my isekais would definitely-
“Erich!” Right. I had something I was working on.
“Talk to me. What’s up?” I looked up and summoned my gear.
“Some of the troops attacking Ulduar are proving unnaturally resilient.” Xal’atath explained, “They blended in with the marines at first but no matter what we hit them with, they are getting back up. I suspect, based on what we have seen of your abilities and Nefarian’s, that he has deployed nascent old gods. I’m sending puppets to check my theory right now.”
“Shit! Any sign of Nefarian?”
“No. A few of his old gods are deploying shadowflame but they are all women.”
I grunted. “Not exposing himself then, eh? Alright. How do we kill old gods?”
Xal’atath stared at me with horror for a moment, then started twitching.
“Uh… are you okay?”
“Shut up, mortal.” She snapped in two asynchronous voices, one grating and guttural while the other was the melodic soprano of her puppet. “I am trying to adjust my deepest moral foundations. It may take time.”
“Right…” I picked up my amulet and tried to figure out who to ask next. “Uh, Hel’Nurath. Sargeras hates the Void Lords, right? Any chance the Legion has an SOP for Old Gods?” I really didn’t want to fall back on my own memory for this.
••••••••••
And a poll regarding the end of the story.