Then, there came from Sintharia a maddened shriek. A great burst of light enveloped Korialstrasz and Dargonax.

And the twilight dragon swelled to even more grotesque proportions.

"Yesss!" Dargonax cried. The twilight dragon let out a roar of pleasure.

He threw a startled Korialstrasz back...and turned upon his maker. Even as he did, he continued to swell.

Korialstrasz fought to stay aloft. He glanced at Sintharia.

Her hand was burnt badly, another addition to her macabre beauty. Yet, the black dragon clutched tight what so burned her... the shard. It was also what fed Dargonax more and more power....

No! Korialstrasz thought. Do they not know what they are doing? We looked down at the source of the energies flowing through the shard into the twilight dragon.

Iridi... with Rhonin beside her. He was the source of the energy now powering the staff. Rhonin should have at least known better what would happen. Why would they—

"No!" Sintharia shouted to the sky. "I will not give it up!"

He looked back at the black dragon and saw that her clenched paw was straining toward Dargonax, as if she—or rather it—sought desperately to join the amethyst juggernaut.

And suddenly Korialstrasz understood what the others hoped to do. They were making use of the same aberration he had sensed in the other dragon.

Dargonax converged on his creator... but seemed to be caught at the end of an invisible leash only a few scant yards. The behemoth strained, but could not go any farther.

It is because she still wields the shard...always because she wields the shard...

Disregarding the consequences to himself, the red dragon pushed with all his might to do what Dargonax could not... reach Sintharia.

His plan would have been certain to fall if not for Dargonax so near and the shard continuing to scorch the black dragon's paw. Deathwing's consort had eyes only for those two situations, nothing else. So long as she had mastery over the twilight dragon, the fate of all else was literally in her hand.

Korialstrasz came up from under her, his snout aiming for her paw. Sintharia noticed him at the last moment, but her reaction was too slow.

With all the force he could muster, the red dragon barreled into her, taking special aim for the paw. His snout slammed into the underside.

Already straining, Sintharia could not maintain her grip. The lone shard from the Demon Soul flew out of her hand... and with astounding speed and accuracy, drove straight into the maw of Dargonax.

"You fool!" she growled at Korialstrasz. Her tall wrapped around the base of his throat. The sharp scales dug in deep as the muscular tail—fueled also by her insane fury—threatened to crush in his neck. "I will tear your head off!"

"No...I will tear yours..." said the twilight dragon's voice.

No longer restrained, the monstrous dragon attacked her. Sintharia's eyes widened in disbelief and even as Dargonax seized her, she roared back, "You are mine! I birthed you! You will obey!"

The amethyst beast's eyes narrowed dangerously. “I obey no one but myself...I am Dargonax, the Devourer of all, including you..."

He tore at her mid-sectlon with his fearsome claws, now twice as great as hers. Sintharia shrieked anew as scale and flesh went flying. Yet, she showed no fear, only fury, and spewed forth from her gullet a torrent of molten lava that matched in intensity that still bursting below.

Dargonax turned ethereal, but not before being slightly burned. Still, he ignored his wounds, so eager was he to claim the life of his hated creator.

Korialstrasz, meanwhile, wondered why the others did not finish what they surely knew was not complete. Glancing down, he saw in the eruption's light that the draenei, clearly the guide, was on her knees. Rhonin, too, looked weak.

Crawling toward them was another figure, the blue dragon. Kalec clearly understood what Korialstrasz did, but weak as he was, it was possible that he would not have the will to successfully help the others.

The red dove as swiftly as he could. Just before he would have crashed, Korialstrasz pulled up. As he landed, he transformed into a more practical form, that of Krasus.

And as Krasus, he helped a changing Kalec to Rhonin and Iridi. Vereesa stood with both her husband and the draenei, keeping them from losing their grips.

"It—It must be destroyed—" the priestess declared to Krasus and Kalec, not needing to explain just what "it" was. "We must... we must focus on the weakness...Zzeraku created! I will guide... guide all the power! But you must give me whatever you can!"

Krasus understood what the flow of their combined energies was doing to her, as did Kalec. The blue hesitated. "No! I won't—"

Iridi stared at him. "You must!"

The dragon mage took the blue's hand and guided it to the staff. The four gripped the naaru gift tight, with Vereesa now helping Iridi to keep the staff pointed where it must.

"Let this...be done," the draenei commanded.

The staffs glow surrounded all of them. Krasus, Rhonin, and Kalec grunted. Iridi made no sound.

A great stream of energy shot up into the air... but this time it struck Dargonax.

As Krasus strained, he knew that the knowledge on which this desperate plan was based was due in part to Vereesa. She had seen the power of Zendarin's staff destroy the indestructible. Why would the same principle not hold true now, even with the shard safely— so the twilight dragon believed—in his gullet?

But it had to be inside Dargonax for what they wanted, nowhere else.

"He shimmered again!" Vereesa called. "Does that mean—" "It means nothing for us unless the shard is also destroyed!" Rhonin responded.

Dargonax suddenly twisted. His body shook and briefly lost cohesion. He was apparently trying to divest himself of what pained him.

And then... a brief golden explosion burst through Dargonax's body. The twilight dragon bellowed. He forgot Sintharia and looked to the ground.

Without a word, Krasus leapt from the group, changing as soon as he was far enough away from the others. As Korialstrasz, he raced into the sky. Now, more than ever, he dared not let the monster reach the others.

Dargonax shimmered. He visibly concentrated, pulling himself together. The twilight dragon eyed Korialstrasz with venom.

"You...I will feed on you slowly, enjoying your torment—"

Korialstrasz cut him off. "She is escaping you!"

Dargonax's reaction was immediate. He turned back to the departing Sintharia—and shimmered again.

"What is—" The gargantuan fiend glanced back at Korialstrasz, who stared determinedly back.

With a mad roar, Dargonax glared at the red dragon... then swooped after Sintharla.

Her wound slowed her too much. Deathwing's consort managed to fly above Grim Batol, but got no farther before Dargonax caught her again.

"Release me!" the black dragon demanded. "Release—" Dargonax clamped his claws onto her torso and wings. The twilight dragon shimmered again and as he did. Sintharia's expression became one of dread. "Release me! I—"

But the Devourer only laughed darkly. "At last!" he shouted. "At last I am free of you—"

Dargonax shimmered once more. He grew as bright as the sun.

The power that he contained burned both him and Sintharia away.

The last shard of the Demon Soul had fed him, but, once destroyed within, it had set loose a chain reaction that fed the slight instability that Dargonax had shared with his twin predecessors but that would not have otherwise proven as fatal as with the pair.

Sintharia managed a muted roar, one that did not hint of fear, but anger. Korialstrasz could almost swear that her last glance was at him, but it might have only been a trick of the flickering light from the eruption below.