NOVEL NEXT Uldir
6/14 morning
The Frog God was not easy prey, unfortunately. Nefaria would have preferred to capture the Loa, but she was here with a purpose and Netorarian had soldiers stationed in the area. She needed to move fast. Krag’wa the Huge was a patron of selfless protectors, so he obviously wasn’t a natural fit for Nefaria’s group anyway. It was a fierce battle, but the frog didn’t have a natural resistance to shadowflame, so in the end his incredible bulk meant that he burned for a long time.
Nazmir: Defeat Krag’wa
Reward: Tsundere Service
Nefaria immediately selected an upgrade for Human Paladin that would help her to serve as an infiltrator. Her current plan didn’t focus on combat; so it would be best if Human Paladin expanded her repertoire.
Agility: Nameless- Human Paladin is not a person, per se. People have difficulty picking her out of a group or ascribing intent to her actions. If she doesn’t draw attention to herself she will be ignored unless absolutely nobody would be allowed to do what she is currently doing. In addition, she will typically be forgotten by those outside the retinue within 24 hours no matter what she does after gaining this upgrade.
Nefaria fled Nazmir after killing Krag’wa, hoping to draw attention away from Uldir for just a few more hours. She sent Kazakus and Hakkar through a portal to Kul’Tiras with a handful of injections; Hakkar may be weakened, but she still knew things that could be quite useful with the right support. The rest of the retinue would be attempting to complete missions in Nazjatar while Nefaria learned what she needed to defeat Netorarian.
All of the members of her retinue worth bringing, including her consorts, human Paladin, and several highborn magi from Dire Maul were gathered together on the Kul’Tiras docks. Nefaria wove a spell to allow them to breathe water in near perpetuity before they boarded Katherine Proudmore’s fastest ship and set sail. With any luck, her new lures would be enough to allow Nefaria to capture Azshara and learn her techniques. With just a shade more luck than that, she would be able to use those teachings to ensnare Netorarian. It was a long shot, but she didn’t have many other options. Well, none that weren’t gambits so desperate even she didn’t think they were likely to work.
••••••••••
6/14 noon
I knew that G’huun wasn’t out. There were dozens of safeguards against that; the largest of which being a set of remote seals that monitored the situation in Uldir and would activate supplemental defenses if it seemed like the least of the old gods might be escaping. The Zandalari trolls had built their capital around one of those seals, and thus far were refreshingly free of crystal based brainwashing. Jewelry and magic circle based brainwashing had recently started to make an appearance, though. Despite that, I just flat out didn’t want to leave this to chance.
I’d already set up to bust the door down when instead it was opened for me. “Designate Eros.” A feminine monotone echoed from inside. “You have been approved to tour this facility. Please report to the decontamination chamber.”
I know, it may have been dumb of me to go in, which is why I sent Thrall disguised as me instead. Of my heroes, he was probably the best general solo combatant with the possible exception of me or Jaina. He had strict orders to attempt to capture the overseer of the facility the moment he had an opportunity to do so.
It was a good call. Once he was inside, he was escorted to a room for decontamination while MOTHER stood behind a wall of force. Once he entered he was exposed to heat intense enough to melt steel. It killed him fairly quickly, but that’s what Heroes are for. I stopped playing nice at that point and started sending in my legions through the front door.
I sent in my demons and heroes first, fully expecting a meat grinder, and that’s exactly what I got. Both my enemy and I dropped all pretenses at more or less exactly the same time. As my demons started to swarm in, Uldir’s defenses started to kick in and a swarm of Quiraji took defensive positions. Each time a purification beam fired, several of my troops were seriously injured or killed, and nearly every single inch of the facility could be targeted at any moment. I had enough reserves to plow through anyway, and my heroes could take hits well enough to be healed through by the Queens as long as they didn’t get cocky.
I found out later that Uldir had a small Forge like the ones in Uldum and Ulduar, which could be used to crank out dozens of Aqir every minute. That was how they managed to have a near infinite supply of disposable chaff; well, that and the substantial number of research specimens MOTHER released from stasis.
I personally joined the charge, trusting that I’d be resurrected first if something actually managed to kill me. I’m not primarily a front liner, so my primary role was intercepting anyone that tried to threaten the block of elite spellcasters consisting of five dozen Man’ari (formerly Highborne) students of Doan and 40 of Xal’atath’s puppets. The constant stream of powerful energy flowing out of that group of 100 easily melted the minds and bodies of most things that confronted us.
It wasn’t a “cool” fight, there wasn’t much back and forth, though I was certainly happy that Nefarian hadn’t bothered capturing all of the Specimens. One was apparently a near-universally fatal plague sample infused with the blood of G’huun; without Body defense that would have probably been very unpleasant. My forces were progressively ground down and replaced with… well, more demons; I had more than 5000 of the things, so even when I ran out of Chargers, I could just plug the holes with Titanic Dommes or Nathrezim.
The only non-resummonable troop I had was Nanna, who was leading the charge and mowing down bug people like wheat. She was having a grand old time, having had her limbs regrown by my Druids per her request. The other option would have been summary death and resurrection, followed by stationing her in some other job. She wasn’t interested in that, not until she died legitimately.
We made our way in, fighting past armies and using Archaedes’s access codes to shut down the machinery as we reached access panels. We only ever brought him in for short bursts, not wanting to risk him in actual combat since he was frankly not very good at it and was far more valuable as a titanic VIP. The tide really started to turn once he was able to shut down the forge, cutting off enemy reinforcements.
I had my chromatic fist, the team of identical chromatic draconids led by Gina and Varian, guarding the gates of Uldir from outside of laser range. They were being assaulted by corrupted trolls, but compared to the mess we were dealing with inside they were in negligible danger.
Finally we reached the inner chambers, where the Synthetic Old God could be found. Somewhere along the way, Nanna caved in MOTHER’s skull. It was a shame, but she belonged to Nefarian now. I couldn’t afford to have her running around and catching her mid-combat was not likely. The gates to G’huun’s chamber were ominously open, the entire entryway covered in white mushrooms that oozed red liquid when we stepped on them
It couldn’t leave the chamber, but it seemed unlikely we’d be able to kill it from outside. I tried tossing an amulet into the middle of the room, and to my pleasant surprise Jewels of Discord worked. He hadn’t been captured by Nefarian, not quite yet. Unfortunately, as I went to open my app to apply paralysis the giant tick lunged out the door, seemingly suicidally.
“Containment breach” rang out the prerecorded voice of MOTHER. I tried to blink out, but we were deep underground. I started summoning a portal to flee to my demiplane.
“This Facility will be Reoriginated in 5…” I focused on the wall, imagining it parting like a curtain and revealing a portal.
“4” I did a bit of mental math and started booking it out of the room, knowing that the portal summoning just wouldn’t give me time to get out.
“3” Katherine the Pure enveloped herself in a sphere of invulnerable light and started teleporting back to Stormwind.
“2” Jaina finished off an enemy and began casting Mass Teleport mere moments too late.
“1” I blinked again, arriving right outside the front doors of the facility among the Chromatic Draconids.
“Zero” Varian activated his shield wall ability as the word zero was spoken, and so he was able to watch as the all consuming light enveloped the entire facility. I was too busy being killed instantly. Varian was immune to all damage for a few seconds, not quite enough to outlast a blast meant to cleanse an Old God from this world. Of the beings in and around the ancient research complex, the only one to live was Katherine unless you count Xal’atath. She died 40 times but she was also fine.
••••••••••
On the Kul’tiran vessel, Nefaria checked her app and was pleased to see that G’huun had successfully been captured before his death. In all likelihood the act of causing a fatal containment breach before it was safe to do so finished out the process. After all, there was no higher taboo for an immortal than to embrace true death. It was a shame to lose such a valuable asset, but ultimately G’huun was a child throwing tantrums. His influence or power did not substantially increase while in captivity according to MOTHER, so in all likelihood he was operating on pure instinct. He had little to teach. Sacrificing him to possibly take down Netorarian was an easy decision.
She found herself hoping that Netorarian survived, as the thought of him truly staying dead put a devastating weight on the dragon’s heart. Despite that, she also gained a rush to see that Netorarian was currently dead. If he stayed that way for 3 days, Nefaria won; no questions asked. She could resurrect Netorarian later.
“Ebonroc.” She commanded shortly. “Come with me into the water. I need to check something.”
She injected the black scaled drake once they were a little bit away from the ship. As the subordinate dragon shuddered and her eyes unfocused, Netorarian leaned in and whispered in her ear. “You are an old god who serves me willingly and utterly.”
And it was so.