Diablo 3: Hell's Eclipse

It took the group a few moments to return to New Tristram, thanks to Luna's portal, and when the trio arrived Luna gently handed over the fragment of the Stranger's sword they had just recovered, where Deckard looked at the fragment with a smile on his face.

"We were right, there's another force chasing the fragments: a Coven, the same that tried to reach the Stranger while also trying to raise the Skeleton King." Luna remarked, even though this meant the Coven was large enough to have more than enough followers to split them between four different areas, the three fragments and the main Fallen Star, and while they could see that Deckard had no idea about Coven it was clear the Stranger knew something.

"I... do not know of any Coven, but I do sense something darker guiding them." the Stranger said, though there wasn't much he could do right now, since he had no idea what he had been trying to warn the people of this world about, despite the fact that his words allowed them to know that his mission was definitely important, "I know that the second fragment fell to the north of the first, towards a... temple, I think."

"Temple? Must be the old home of the Nephalem... right, uncle?" Leah remarked, as she had heard the tales of that place, all due to the fact that her uncle had so many stories and many of them were stuck inside her head, while Deckard nodded his head in agreement with her statement and told her that this would be another good experience for her, before she glanced at Luna, "We've never been able to get inside the temple, as the bridge was either destroyed or lowered in the distant past, so there's no telling what might await us once we actually reach the old structure."

Luna nodded before asking Deckard about the potential leaders of the Coven, as someone had to be leading Maghda, and he informed them that they were likely remnants of the Triune, a cult that worshiped the Greater Evils as gods, but since Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo were dead, and both Andariel and Duriel had been slain, that left Belial and Azmodan. She found it to be interesting that five of the seven Evils had been slain already, to the point that it would be years before even one of them returned, and Deckard seemed to think that most of them had been banished entirely, permanently slain. Part of Luna wanted to share the old man's thoughts on the Evils, that they were mostly destroyed and that it was possible that she, of all of them, would bring about the end of the remaining two, permanently ending Hell's threat on Sanctuary, but she couldn't share his thoughts. From what she had learned the demons were a persistent bunch, they were always doing things in their attempts to take over this world, and something told her there had to be more plans in motion than what the last two Evils had in mind, something she would worry about later on.

For the time being she, Leah, and Kormac returned to the Fields of Misery, where Luna warped them outside the den that they had found the first fragment of the Stranger's blade in, and once everyone was ready to go Leah started to point them in the direction of their next destination.

Such a thing meant that they had to engage the khazra some more, who were either still enraged to madness by the power of the fragment, like it hadn't worn off yet, or they were just pissed off that the trio had slaughtered their tribe members, in fact Luna was betting that it was actually the latter this time around. Luna continued to swing at the goatmen, crushing each and every one of them who happened to get in her way, once more proving that Leoric's warhammer was a great addition to her arsenal, for as long as it was in her hands anyway, especially when she crushed a khazra into paste. Kormac continued to block incoming attacks with his shield, which he had Haedrig look at while they were talking to Deckard, before piercing his foes with his lance and then tossing the bodies into the piles that his companions set up to stop the slain from rising as more of the undead. Leah, true to form, focused on the carrion nests and the plagued bats, loosing volleys of flaming arrows that just rained down on her targets, setting many of her foes on fire while destroying the nests so she could cut down on how many plagued bats they had to worry about.

Leah wasn't even surprised as they tore through the first couple groups of enemies, and while she dealt with the dangerous walking trees she found that Luna crushed the chargers that were wandering around the Fields, not that she was surprised by this turn of events, it was just like Luna when she thought about it.

The surprising thing was the amount of khazra and enemies that were in the Fields of Misery, as now it looked like the name made sense with just how many dangers were wandering around the place, especially when they found a farmhouse that had been overrun by various enemies. It was sad to see this sort of thing, how the khazra and monsters were willing to just tear down anything and everything that stood in their way, though Luna simply sighed as she made sure there weren't any survivors cowering in this place, or travelers hiding from the dangers. Kormac commented on the fact that they were seeing so many khazra and reflected that the Coven might have corrupted them all, in fact they were likely using them as tools to recover the blade fragments, so they would likely be fighting more of them in the very near future. Luna and Leah agreed with him, they would no doubt find more of them in the future and would no doubt have to tear through them to get to one of their other targets, they just had to wait and see what might be coming their way next.

Eventually they reached the path that lead to the small settlement that was right on the outskirts of the area that the temple of the Nephalem used to reside in, and standing outside the wooden gate they found a man, a rogue of sorts since he was wearing light armor and seemed to have a crossbow, who seemed worried about something, due to his hands being tied behind his back.

"Ah, you three, I need your..." the man said, locking eyes with Luna as he realized that she was different from everyone else in the group, though instead of saying anything about that he seemed to come to the decision that moving onto the main topic was better than wasting time, "I require your assistance: a friend of mine is about to be killed in this settlement. Her name is Sasha, and she has a relic that some bandits are after."

The trio glanced at each other before Leah used her blade to slice though his bindings, allowing him to join them as Luna pushed into the settlement, but instead of talking to the bandits they found that the bandits took one look at the newcomer that was with them and attacked the group. Such a thing told Luna that the well dressed rogue was likely a thief and might have made some enemies before this point, though she made sure Sasha, the girl that was in the center of the bandit group, was safe from what was coming next as she smashed one bandit into a bloody paste. Kormac continued to do the shield and stab routine, Leah focused on those that were hanging in the back of the pack, and the thief used his crossbow to wound his enemies, effectively allowing them to wipe out the bandits. That even applied to the newcomers that were hunting the thief down, since a few more showed up to fight them, though the group wasted no time in slaughtering them, where Luna found that the thief was surprised by this turn of events.

In fact when the coast was clear the thief talked to his beloved friend, convinced her to hand over the relic so he could join the group and sell it when he was next at town, and when they moved beyond the next gate he discovered that the relic was just an elaborate fake, causing him to toss it away when they found a new teleportation device.

"So, who are you people anyway?" the thief asked, because he figured that there might be riches if he traveled with them, as having two dedicated warriors and a ranged fighter meant that there was room for someone to check for traps and all sorts of other hazards, before he bowed his head a little, "I am Lyndon."

"I am Luna, this is Leah and this is Kormac. We are traveling to the ancient temple, to find something that landed up there." Luna stated, though as she said that she and the others glanced at the structure that was beyond where the teleportation device was located and found that it was definitely a decent sized temple, a small outpost most likely, causing her to glance at the thief for a moment, "You are welcome to join us... just be warned, we move fast."

Lyndon locked eyes with her for a moment before nodding his head, he understood, causing Luna to head down the path in front of them before noticing two ancient pedestals that were missing something, one on either side of the passage that would lead into the temple, and yet there was nothing for them to use, save for a floating blue spirit.

"You must be Alaric the Guardian. I've heard the stories about you, but I've seen enough to believe them." Leah remarked, as traveling with Luna told her that there had to be some nugget of truth to what her uncle had told her in the past, causing her to glance at the structure that was behind the blue spirit, "How do we get inside?"

To get inside the temple you must find and recover two orbs from their resting places in the nearby forest... doing so will prove who, and what, you really are. the spirit replied, where Luna and the others found that a stone bridge raised up for them to cross into the forest, connected to the stone walkway that was behind them, and after that happened Alaric didn't seem interested in saying anything else.

"It seems that he thinks we're Nephalem." Luna stated, speaking as they stepped away from the figure, it was a good guess in her eyes since that seemed to be what this place was made for, before the battles caused spirits to be trapped here, or at least that was what Deckard claimed, where she readied her warhammer once more, "Very well then, he wants to test us and I'm more than willing to play along."

Leah said nothing as they moved into the darker forest, where they found that the dead were walking and that the spirits of those slain in the past were wandering around, the latter seeing them as enemies, and this time there were more enemies for them to fight than before. Fortunately having Lyndon meant that they could focus on four different directions now, so all of their enemies had a harder time getting close to the group overall, though at the same time Lyndon admitted that his own reserve of bolts was far lower than what Leah had. Leah told him that she had stopped using physical arrows, rather now she was purely focused on magical arrows that possessed the magical element that she wanted to use, something that first caused the thief to just stand there in shock, before asking if he could have her spare arrows, since he did have a bow in case he ran out of bolts. Leah loosed a volley at some of the spirits and blasted them into oblivion before withdrawing a number of her spare arrows, which she tossed over to Lyndon, as she kept a few for herself in case she ended up running low on her mana, but she had a feeling that might not happen for a long time.

Luna wasn't even surprised by the fact that their melee weapons were able to beat up the specters and ghosts, this world was just full of interesting things to see and experience, and since she was from Equus, a world of magic that had things that were even weirder than this, she didn't even question what she was seeing.

Fortunately she found that the two resting places of the items they needed were easy to find, there were only two places in this area that looked like resting places for special items, and when she brought them to one they found that it was just a small underground area that curved around a pillar of stone. Finding the orb was easy, it was on a pedestal, out in the open, and when they approached it a group of specters came out to defend it, though again none of them were even phased by this discovery and smashed their way through the defenders. With that in mind Leah grabbed the orb once the defenders were dealt with, finding that there were no traps for this sort of thing, meaning once they beat up the spirits claiming both orbs would be easy to do, so she stored it away in her pack before they headed out to track down the second structure and the second orb. Thanks to Luna they were able to find the second area without wasting too much time, even though Lyndon did have to catch up with them after he looted the containers they had passed by, and that was followed by them simply just repeating what they had done previously, smash all of the defenders and then claim the second orb.

Thanks to them working like a team, even with someone new among their number, Luna and her friends were able to get back to Alaric, where Leah placed the two orbs on their respective pedestals and watched as they raised into the air for a few seconds, before a new stone bridge raised out of the water.

Such a thing allowed them to head into the temple, where Luna confirmed that part of the Stranger's sword was here, she could see the energy that was coming from the fragment, and Leah also did her own thing to confirm it was present, due to the fact that she could feel it. Of course there were guardians inside the temple as well, ghosts and skeletons of those who had defended this place at one point in the past, plus the basic skeletons had large dark icy blue shields that required Luna to beat them even harder to smash them. These guardians were definitely slightly tougher than the other ones they fought to get the orbs, and when they collapsed into shattered piles Luna collected their blades and even one's magical item, since it never hurt to have a good arsenal. Alaric appeared after that and nodded, as if he was pleased with their abilities, like he thought he had confirmation that they were Nephalem, before the door opened and allowed them to walk over to where the second blade fragment was resting.

What wasn't even remotely surprising was that they found the magical image of Maghda floating near the fragment, as if she were trying to claim it while being far away from it, and when she heard the door open she turned and faced the group for a few moments, as if debating her next plan.

You know, I finally recognize who you are, girl. You are Adria's daughter, aren't you? Maghda remarked, focusing more on Leah than anyone else at the moment, though at the same time she noticed how Leah carried herself and how she was mastering her magic thanks to Luna's teachings, I was right, you really do have some wonderful power... I have your dear old mother, child, and soon both of you will be meeting the same fate: death.

Luna found that the knowledge that her mother was alive somewhere, and was being held captive by Maghda, ended up just triggering Leah as she pulled out the blade Luna had given her previously before slashing her way through the undead that were sent to destroy them, the edge set on fire, like her rage was personified, and when the undead were defeated Maghda cut off the spell instantly.

"Adria... my... my mother's alive?!" Leah remarked, though at the same time she huffed for a moment as she released the rage that had powered her for a few moments, as that took the wind out of her, just as Luna had described to her when she mentioned some of the potential training they could do.

"Could be. I don't trust Maghda, but I did sense a nugget of truth to what she was saying... which part, I can't say, but Adria could very well be alive." Luna replied, where she took a few seconds to pull Leah close, to let her know that someone was there for her if she needed a shoulder to cry on or something, but for the time being her gesture seemed to be more than enough for Leah.

Once Leah was ready to go Luna wrapped up the second blade fragment and wished Alaric well, since she had no idea what the spirit would do now that the temple had been entered, before they returned to the teleportation device and returned to New Tristram with the fragment, all while eager to see what might happen next.