Death Never Dies

by Milton Garby

  'I don't know what's gotten into you. Stop it, I'm warning you!' Tsa'Thannon warned, its normally calm and collected voice frantic. Yogg-Saron didn't let up, working around the other Old God's defenses to continue the onslaught, trying to outpace the healing. The god's voice turned furious. 'Fine then. You asked for it!'

  With a twisting motion, Tsa'Thannon escaped from Yogg-Saron and went to a safe distance. Its five main arms extended and bent back, a single orb of enormous darkness on each, and then with a feat of incredible flexibility Tsa'Thannon brought all five arms together to a single point, obscuring its head. In the process, the magical spheres came together and an enormous ray of shadow magic blasted straight at Yogg-Saron.

  It remembered what pain was like.

  Its minions were safely out of the way, but Yogg-Saron had no time to move or to raise any defenses. The colossal attack blasted right into the center of its underbelly. It wasn't just a colossal release of raw power, either. It was a masterpiece of interlocking shadow magic that unfurled around the impact. Shadow bolts, curses of agony and weakness and so many more, shadow orbs with a cutter beam between them, shadow novas, seeds of corruption, and so many more spells of Tsa'Thannon's own creation spilled onto its body by the thousands.

  Yogg-Saron was pushed backwards in the Nether by the force of the impact. In a moment the beam was gone, leaving a gaping hole through Yogg-Saron's middle that was already filling with its own weaponized blood. With a thought, it stopped the bloodflow and healed the wound, and teleported itself out of the way of Tsa'Thannon's follow-up beam. It appeared to the side of the Old God and wrapped two of its tendrils around one of its arm and tossed it away, spinning, and unleashed its barrage. Yogg-Saron teleported its minions back to Tsa'Thannon's head and urged them to renew their attack.

  The battle began in earnest, now. Spells flew like hail between the two gods' bodies. They each ordered their projectiles to move around and intercept their opponent's, they counterspelled the other whenever they tried to unleash a more massive attack, and they dispelled any magical barriers. Like two ships at war their bodies were lit up with impacts as spell after spell tore into the other, and spell after spell undid the damage their foe inflicted, and spell after spell renewed the mana they lost...

  Positioning was a key issue, to keep their most vulnerable spots away while revealing the other's. Yogg-Saron suddenly found Tsa'Thannon underneath it, rocketing upward and impaling it with its many poisoned spines. In response it drove its many, larger tendrils onto the deity and pushed it off, cleansing the necrotic poisons before they could do too much damage. At other times Tsa'Thannon was exposed, its pearl-like head forced to protect itself from millions of striking tendrils while being bitten and clawed by the dragons, roasted and crushed by Vezax and Copalypse, crushed and cut by Therazane, electrified and sliced by El'Jenidu and speared by Neptulon. Each time Tsa'Thannon struck at them, Yogg-Saron capitalized on its distraction and closed in a little more. Every time they died, it simply revived them.

  At other times they were at stalemates, both showing the other their hardest points. Yogg-Saron would hesitate to get close for fear of the spines, and Tsa'Thannon would keep away from its stronger, larger tentacles. Their projectiles streaked through the Twisting Nether, leaving streams of black smoke and droplets of poison hovering in the emptiness.

  Even their blood came to life. Millions of black oozes battled all across the Twisting Nether in a steadily-increasing halo. Colossal animi made of their blood struggled with each other, releasing pulses of profound darkness that cleared away the lesser blood constructs around them. The many living ichors formed a field of obstacles for each Old God, intercepting their attacks and forcing them to maneuver.

  Tsa'Thannon's Boundless Despair spell, the one that had forced Yogg-Saron to limit how many minions it brought, was released as often as its Extinguish All Life spell. Purple chains formed repeatedly between its minions and Yogg-Saron's true head, unleashing a whole slew of various awful effects before Yogg-Saron dispelled it. Luckily, the bloods didn't count as additional targets since they were, after all, a part of Yogg-Saron.

  Out here, far beyond Azeroth and facing each other, both deities were free to utilize their absolute full power. Not even when under attack by the Titans could they do that; the Titans were simply too small to concentrate all their power on. But Yogg-Saron's foe was a fellow Old God. It was an enormous target. Unfortunately, that went both ways.

  The battle raged on. Yogg-Saron's terrible mental magic struck and scarred Tsa'Thannon's soul and sanity, forcing it to divert its own resources to not losing the will to fight back. Tsa'Thannon's unparalleled sorcery shook reality, riddling it with holes and explosions too numerous to count, wracking Yogg-Saron with agony. Barrier spells rippled and flowed across both of them, never able to form completely before being dispelled. At times Yogg-Saron got the upper tentacle. At times it was Tsa'Thannon. Minute by minute, hour by hour, the struggle continued, and neither of them showed any signs of weakening.

  But that wasn't good enough. Yogg-Saron couldn't just hold it in a stalemate. It had to win this fight. It had to think. What could it do to overcome Tsa'Thannon? This was like when it had fought Talgath the Inexorable as Sara. It had to look for the one thing it had that Tsa'Thannon was susceptible to and exploit it relentlessly. Yogg-Saron disengaged, teleporting through the Nether to a spot where it was still well in range to attack, but it would take some time for Tsa'Thannon to catch up. The vicious exchange of spells slowed down. Think, think.

  Magical attacks. No good. Tsa'Thannon was weaving a patchwork of magic, countering half of everything Yogg-Saron threw at it and effortlessly healing the rest. It wasn't going to run out of mana any time soon, either.

  Physical strength. Possible, but unlikely. Yogg-Saron was stronger, but Tsa'Thannon was also smaller so it could slip through its grip easily, if it didn't simply teleport away.

  Corruption. That was what had killed Talgath, but Tsa'Thannon was a whole different beast. Obviously, Old God corruption wouldn't work on an Old God.

  The other strength Yogg-Saron had was its mental magic. Could that work? Tsa'Thannon's ability to manipulate minds was obviously superb. It was an Old God too. But Yogg-Saron had always had the edge. Its minions were firmly under its control no matter how Tsa'Thannon tried to hack their brains. And so far it had repaired any damage Yogg-Saron did to its mind... but what if it tried exclusively that? Could it outpace Tsa'Thannon's sanity reparations and drive an Old God to madness? It was worth a shot.

  Yogg-Saron could sense vast arcane magic gathering around Tsa'Thannon as it gathered the magic to teleport over to it. Yogg-Saron readied itself...

  With the light of a supernova, Tsa'Thannon appeared, with its poisonous spines aimed for Yogg-Saron's many snakelike heads. But Yogg-Saron was ready. Using its tendrils as leverage, it pushed against Tsa'Thannon, spinning around to let the spines thunk against the armor plates along its underbelly. After warping its minions back to its enemy's head, Yogg-Saron gathered its magic and opened its maws...

  "Hoohahahahahahaha, AAAAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha!"

  The maddening spell burned into every yellow eye on Tsa'Thannon's upper body. Its magical sensors which could, like Yogg-Saron's, see every atom of a nearby item were forced to gaze at every single quark and electron of Yogg-Saron's being lighting up with the lunacy-inducing spell. Tsa'Thannon jerked away, but Yogg-Saron reaches its tendrils around and gripped tightly, pulling it closer and forcing it to watch.

  'Grah!' Tsa'Thannon shouted, wrapping itself in arcane energy and teleporting to a safe distance. More spells came pouring from it, and Yogg-Saron saw it already repairing the mental lines that had been altered. It waved its five arms, shadow gathering around each, and fired another shadow beam right at Yogg-Saron. Like an octopus swimming in the ocean, it pumped its arms and swam away from the beam. It retaliated with its own storm of projectiles, tailored to its new strategy. No more curses. No more poisons and death rays. Psychosis rays blas
ted out at the speed of light, and mind maladies bounced between Tsa'Thannon's limbs before it dispelled it, all passing through the battling blood. 'Oh, I see!' it taunted. 'Well then - !' A shimmering, transparent sphere engulfed Tsa'Thannon.

  Yogg-Saron knew what that was, and cursed. Spell reflection barrier. It forcibly dissipated every projectile still flying towards Tsa'Thannon and got to dispelling the reflection barrier.

  Its magic worked at the seams, picking apart the command lines to find the way...

  ... Yogg-Saron didn't know how to dispel the reflection barrier. It was simply too well made. Given time it could decipher it and dispel it, but it didn't have time! It needed to!

  Tsa'Thannon killed its minions with a crack of darkness, and before Yogg-Saron could bring them back the Twisting Nether around it suddenly changed. Yogg-Saron had teleported... been teleported by Tsa'Thannon.

  To right next to it. Tsa'Thannon's spines shot upward, skewering into hundreds of Yogg-Saron's heads and barely avoiding the real one's brain. It growled. That was fine. It just brought Tsa'Thannon close enough to use magic -

  Then Yogg-Saron was elsewhere, staring up at Tsa'Thannon above it. Its gray starfish body glistened with void energy, and suddenly rectangular gateways appeared by the thousands around Yogg-Saron's body. Shimmering void energy shot out like bullets from a spider tank, battering Yogg-Saron back and forth. It could see voidwalkers, void wraiths, and even a void lord or two peeking through the gates to see the battle of two Old Gods. It reached its magic into the gates and slammed them shut, revived its minions and brought them next to Tsa'Thannon's leering, gibbering head. Tsa'Thannon lit up its tendrils, preparing another calamitous laser. Yogg-Saron moved out of the way, but suddenly -

  - suddenly it was teleported back into the path of the beam, the putrid power of which blasted a hole straight through it. Out of reflex, Yogg-Saron opened its many mouths and roared. Already, it was dispelling the anti-healing enchantments and repairing the damage -

  - only to suddenly be yanked through the Nether again, this time to appear off to the side of the other deity. Tsa'Thannon spun itself around, and razor-slices of telekinetic force flew off its tentacles one by one, aimed for Yogg-Saron and cutting deeply into its flesh. It swam down, avoiding the blasts and focused on Tsa'Thannon's barrier again.

  Of course, the moment it was away from the attacks Tsa'Thannon resumed its regular attacks, raining hell upon Yogg-Saron. With part of its vast awareness dedicated to avoiding the attacks and cleaning up the last of Tsa'Thannon's blood, Yogg-Saron concentrated on dispelling the spell reflection barrier. It was a masterpiece of magic, even as far as Old Gods went, with several anti-dispelling techniques in place. But with desperation and adrenaline on its side, Yogg-Saron found the loophole in its command structure and struck the shield with just the right spell needed to dispel it. Now that it knew how, it would be able to dispel it again even if the spell was slightly modified.

  Once the spherical shell faded away like mist it grabbed Tsa'Thannon and pulled it close, activating the lunatic gaze aura and barraging it with thousands of varying madness spells. Enormous, cackling skulls, each the size of Elwynn Forest itself, appeared in the Twisting Nether to ensure that no matter where Tsa'Thannon went, it would continue to have its mind scarred.

  Yogg-Saron sustained the mental barrage, and its minions the corporeal onslaught. Tsa'Thannon's magic and tendrils drew blood, but that blood only formed more soldiers for it to utilize as fodder.

  But the battle continued to rage. Whenever Tsa'Thannon began to twitch its frothing mouths too much it teleported far away and used its tremendous magic to keep Yogg-Saron at bay long enough to repair the mental damage. Similarly, whenever Yogg-Saron was running low on mana to heal itself it warped to safety and evocated. It surrounded Tsa'Thannon with madness spells. It teleported Yogg-Saron into rapidly-shifting magical attacks. No matter how hard Yogg-Saron tried, though, it just couldn't get the lead for long enough to seal its victory. Fear began to grip its gut. This had been a mistake.

  No, Yogg-Saron thought, raising a tendril to block one of Tsa'Thannon's. No, I can do this! I just have to try harder!

  It got closer to Tsa'Thannon, looking closely at its mental lines for something vital. Something it could tug on directly and cripple its fighting ability. But there were so many lines, its focus was so split, they kept moving and shielding themselves from Yogg-Saron, and Tsa'Thannon's onslaught only seemed to be growing more and more intense as it got into the swing of battle. Now magical projectiles weren't just coming from the Old God. They were being conjured all around Yogg-Saron, mere yards from its skin, and pounding into it. That included the head that contained its brain, and waves of nausea flooded Yogg-Saron as it was battered and bruised.

  Well then. If Tsa'Thannon was going to start amping up, then Yogg-Saron had no choice but to do the same. It teleported away from Tsa'Thannon, appearing 'above' its spined body. It rained down magic to Tsa'Thannon, while secretly preparing another spell. The moment the other deity teleported it through the Nether, Yogg-Saron unleashed its own quietly prepared teleportation and instantly vanished - avoiding another shadow beam - and reappeared wrapped around Tsa'Thannon, grappling with the smaller Old God.

  With a heave of effort it summoned thousands of lunatic skulls in a vast sphere around them, and with that done it simply focused on nullifying its magic. The lesser attacks that kept pelting Yogg-Saron, and the moments Tsa'Thannon took to strike down the dragons, elementals, and single n'raqi, it dealt with. But the moment Tsa'Thannon tried to dispel a lunatic skull, or teleport either of them away, Yogg-Saron devoted everything it had to interrupting it, as well as to interrupting Tsa'Thannon's attempt to stop the interruption. It coiled its tendrils as tight as it could, holding Tsa'Thannon in the Old God equivalent of a stranglehold as its mind was scarred.

  Tsa'Thannon roared, blowing away the minions at its head and thrashing desperately. 'Let me go!' it shouted. In response, Yogg-Saron only tightened its hold - both physical and magical - and refused to let Tsa'Thannon go, tightening the ball of thrashing tentacles. Where it could, it blasted its mind directly and searched for a vital line. The smaller deity's struggles slowly but surely started to grow less coordinated, and it started panting through its many mouths. But then, Yogg-Saron noticed something.

  As the Dragon Aspects wove in and out of the tentacle hurricane surrounding Tsa'Thannon's head, Murozond froze and began gathering golden light in his maw. Suddenly the light flashed around him, and Murozond was gone. The Aspect of the Infinite had abandoned it.

  Uh oh.

  'That's it!' Tsa'Thannon said, gathering its mana. Its telepathic voice sounded tired and frantic, and its many eyes had their pupils slit and looked back and forth rapidly. 'I don't know what this is. I don't know why you're trying to kill me. But I'm not having it!'

  Then, a colossal nova of fire magic blossomed outward from Tsa'Thannon, instantly killing the remaining minions and forcing Yogg-Saron off. Like the shadow beam, it wasn't just a simple release of power. As the sheet of flame approached Yogg-Saron it condensed into fireballs, pyroblasts, dragon's breath spells, flame orbs, flamestrikes, fireblasts, searing pains, fiery rain, and so much more. It roared, summoning its shadowy barrier and healing the blackened burns all across its flesh. All of its sentient blood had been scoured from existence.

  Oh, Yogg-Saron thought. That's a new spell.

  But no sooner had it done that and resurrected its minions than another burst of complex magic radiated out from Tsa'Thannon. This time it was not fire, but frost energy that washed over Yogg-Saron, killing its servants - again - and chilling it to the core. Tsa'Thannon laughed, resuming its standard attacks even as its aura continued. 'What's wrong? You should know you'll never win if you don't include some VARIETY!'

  While the lunatic skulls were still doing their work, the next burst of energy caught Yogg-Saron off guard: it was nature magic, vibrant green and nauseating. Wrathful bolts, entrapping roots, and so much more pelted
it. 'We were doing so well! We were friends, weren't we?' Tsa'Thannon asked, before folding its five main arms. 'Yes, friends, that's the word isn't it?' it muttered.

  Another burst, and this time it was arcane. Explosions, blasts, barrages, missiles and more seared Yogg-Saron. But even worse, the two eldritch deities and its dead minions were yanked out of the Twisting Nether by the burst of energy. Instantly, Yogg-Saron's body began to burn horribly. The weightlessness of the Nether was replaced with an incredibly powerful tug and more photons than even it could count flooded its senses. The corpses of its minions burnt to vapor instantly. Cracks of violet energy on Tsa'Thannon's part destroyed their souls, preventing any resurrection. It was just the two of them now.

  That's the Sun, it thought nervously. Before Tsa'Thannon could follow up on anything, Yogg-Saron teleported far away, but as it was slipping away from the colossal star it felt a tug and it emerged into the physical plane still far too close to the Sun for its liking.

  Tsa'Thannon warped next to it and resumed its onslaught. To Yogg-Saron's horror, the barrage now included small portals into the Sun, from which pressurized, burning plasma shot at Yogg-Saron's limbs, forcing it to summon barriers to deflect the plasma. All its lunatic skulls were gone, back in the Nether -

  - another burst of power from Tsa'Thannon, this one made of various shadow spells. It's wasting all the power that billows out into space, Yogg-Saron realized. It's getting careless. While neutralizing magical projectiles from all directions and slithering away from lances of plasma, it summoned another shell of lunatic skulls around them and swam through the void at Tsa'Thannon to grab a hold of it again, all while also retaliating with its own salvo of magic.

  'I never did anything to you,' Tsa'Thannon babbled. 'It was going to be us ruling, just like we did long ago, forever! It was going to be perfect! And you ruined it!' The aura released its sixth pulse of energy.