Rhonin noticed her hesitation on the last. "What do you mean?"

"The staff... It still lies near me? I can't feel it, anymore." The draenei grimaced. "I miss that. I miss the closeness."

Vereesa located the naaru creation. "Here it is."

Iridi managed to grasp it with one hand. She looked at the crystal. The draenei grimaced. Rhonin started to speak to her, but suddenly the crystal glimmered.

The priestess stared at him. "There's something...left in it, but it reacts...reacts to you. wizard...the naaru...have you...have you communed with them before this?"

Rhonin gave both her and his wife a puzzled look. "I've never spoken with one of them. If that's what you mean..."

"Yet...something deep in the staff...woke...something I can't sense...you are touched by someone, if not the naaru...I...wonder... perhaps there is something... please, can you... can you help me up?"

Rhonin was reluctant, but Vereesa urged him to help. With the pair's aid, Iridi managed to stand.

The draenei pointed at Dargonax, who at the moment hovered near Sinestra, a new arrival to the trio.

"This just gets better," grumbled Rhonin. "Vereesa, you stay with her! I've got to go and do what I can for him—"

But Iridi managed to take hold of his arm. "Wait! You can't go! There's something... you need to see it..."

"See what?"

"Look there!" the priestess suddenly called.

However, the wizard saw nothing save impending doom for Korialstrasz. He looked to the high elf.

With a frown, Vereesa said, "I thought—I thought that for a moment—the twilight dragon shimmered—"

"'Shimmered'?" Rhonin gazed at Dargonax. To Iridi, he asked, "Is that significant?"

"P-pralse Zzeraku...he did more than...than he imagined..." The draenei looked grim. She was clearly dangerously near her end. "It may mean our salvation...or it may not..."

"For the final time, Sintharia," Korlalstrasz began, purposely using the name that the black dragon no longer desired. "I warn you to reconsider—"

"You are simply laughable, Korialstrasz! Indeed, there is no more need to tolerate your existence! Dargonax...."

The twilight dragon looked as if he would have preferred to devour his creator, but he certainly had no qualms anymore doing the same to the red. After all, with his mistress guiding the matter, Dargonax stood to gain all that was Korialstrasz...and thus become an even greater terror to Azeroth.

That left only a lone option for Korialstrasz... to take Dargonax with him.

If that was at all possible.

The amethyst leviathan fell upon the red—only to be unexpectedly struck in the side by a sleek, blue-tinted form.

Kalec and Dargonax exchanged furious roars. The pair slashed and snapped at one another. The blue glowed, possibly seeking to further protect himself from the twilight dragon with a magical shield.

But although the younger dragon fought zealously, Korialstrasz could see how weak he truly was. That Kalec had also come from the same direction as Deathwing's consort explained to the red how she had been able to feed Dargonax so much more power when he had been fighting against Zzeraku.

Korialstrasz knew that he should try for Sintharla, but he could not let Kalec fight Dargonax alone. Torn between the two choiceshe finally threw himself into the struggle alongside the blue.

His intervention only made the twilight dragon laugh. "Come then both of you to me... I will merely feast greater..."

He seized Kalec and threw the blue into Korialstrasz. The red could not veer out of the way in time. The pair collided with a sound like a thunderclap.

Wasting no time, Dargonax battered the tangled pair with his long tail. The amethyst beast then brought his tail to Korialstrasz. As he did, the twilight dragon turned ethereal. Dargonax thrust his tall through the red—

And turned solid again.

Korialstrasz barely realized in time what his foe intended. He twisted in mld-air, seeking to escape the tail. He was only partially successful.

The red dragon cried out in pain. Already twisting, he ripped open a gap in his side where the tail had stuck in.

As terrible as the agony was, it surely would have been worse if not for Dargonax quickly reverting to an incorporeal form. The twilight dragon had wanted to slay his adversary, but not at the cost of being dragged down with him.

From his maw, Kalec unleashed a blue cloud. It enveloped the ghostly giant, then crystallized around him.

Dargonax briefly writhed, as if freezing solid. Then, the Devourer opened his mouth—and immediately sucked in the magic that Kalec had unleashed. The cloud vanished.

As he finished swallowing, the twilight dragon momentarily shimmered, then solidified again. At the same time, he caught a stunned Kalec hard in the side with one vast wing.

The blue went hurtling down toward the lava. Korialstrasz dove after him. only to be snagged from behind by Dargonax's claws.

"You first I'll feed upon!" the gargantuan beast declared. "Then his essence will I take! Then... then nothing will there be as powerful!"

"There—there will always be her!" Korialstrasz reminded him.

He sensed Dargonax's ire rise at mention of his creator. "There will come a day..." the twilight dragon murmured between them. "There will come a day...she made me too great to be her slave...I am destined to rule all...."

"Until she creates more..."

"She no longer can! The eggs are destroyed!"

"She protected them! You know she would!"

Dargonax shook. He threw Korialstrasz from him, shouting out, “I save you for last! The blue's magic I'll taste first!"

As the red dragon sought to recover, Dargonax dove down in the direction of Kalec... but Korialstrasz knew that the monster was not actually pursuing the blue, who hovered weakly over the burning mount.

And to verify that belief, Dargonax became incorporeal again.

But just as he was about to reach Kalec—and continue on through him, Korialstrasz was certain—a golden glow surrounded the twilight dragon.

Dargonax struggled, but could go no farther. He twisted around to face his creator.

"Do not be a bad child," Sintharla intoned, holding high the shard of the Demon Soul. "I have had enough bad children...." The black dragon thrust a clawed digit at Korialstrasz. "This one first! As for the other..." She glanced at Kalec, who had crash-landed near the base of Grim Batol. "There may be some pickings left on his corpse by the time you are through with the red...."

"Yesss, Mother..." And with the golden glow still surrounding him—no doubt, Korialstrasz believed, to discourage any further rebellion—Dargonax charged the red.

"There will...be...be...only one chance," Iridi managed. She looked to the high elf. "You're certain of what happened?" The ranger nodded. "I saw it happen."

"Then, we must try now." The draenei sought to stand on her own, a questionable proposition at first.

Rhonin and Vereesa exchanged glances behind the priestess. "Iridi, what do you intend?"

"I know how to...how to guide the staff...but...but I've nothing left...to give..." The draenei peered at the faint glow from the crystal. "But you...you might be able to provide the power...."

"If it can stop that thing, you'll have everything I can give—"

"Beware!" Vereesa interrupted. "She sends the beast at him again!"

Iridi immediately stepped forward and thrust the staff in the direction of the battling dragons. She wobbled for a moment, then murmured to herself, "I made a vow." To the wizard, she gasped, "I need you...now..."

Rhonin stepped up beside her and placed a hand on the staff. The crystal flared as bright as it ever had.

The draenei focused... and prayed.

Dargonax again tore into Korialstrasz. The red tried to fend him off, but so many events had worked to weaken him, and the twilight dragon was at his peak.