Diablo 3: Hell's Eclipse

After resting for a few minutes, during which they weren't attacked which was an interesting move in Luna's eyes since she was sure that Maghda would have attacked them, Luna and Leah got up as Kormac and Lyndon joined them, causing all four of them to enter the old manor. On the other side of the entrance they found that there was a small group of cultists, who seemed surprised to see the group, though Luna cut through them as Leah and the others dealt with the dark warriors that they summoned, crushing all of them in no time. Luna found that the inside of the manor was rather elegant, despite the rot and decay they were seeing right now, especially since no one had been here for a long time, though it looked like most of the passages had been collapsed at one point. With that in mind they could only walk up the left side of the grand staircase and continued deeper into the manor, cutting down the cultists while keeping an eye out for the Stranger or Maghda, but for the most part it was just the lesser foes.

In the end they made their way to what appeared to be the back end of the manor, where a stained glass window rested, all while cutting down a few more cultists as they saved someone who had been in the middle of being tortured by the group of enemies, who coughed as Luna gently helped him to his feet.

"Thank you. I dread to think what they wanted with me." the older man said, which just showed them that he was totally caught off guard with the fact that he had been abducted by the cultists, while at the same time happy that they had come by to save him, even if he wasn't their target, "You must have come seeking the man with the golden eyes, the newest of the Coven's prisoners... Maghda took him into Leoric's torture chambers, which are below us."

"I see. So we were right that she came through here." Luna remarked, where she used her magic to warp the man back to his home, which was New Tristram right now since he was actually from Wortham and placing him with the survivors was the best move right now, before she closed the portal and glanced at the others, "Shall we head below?"

"Yes... as much as I don't want to, we should end this now." Leah replied, as she was already tired of Maghda and wanted to bring this adventure to an end, but she knew that this would only be the end of the first chapter in their story, especially due to the fact that there were two Evils out there for them to deal with.

Luna nodded as she lead them outside, one of the panels in the window doubled as a door, before heading down the side of the cliff by using the carved staircase that brought them to another elegant opening, though on the other side they found a large underground dungeon that was combined with a torture chamber. It was a sign of Leoric's madness, that he would go through the effort to make such a large place to contain and torment his supposed enemies, where they found that there were all sorts of torture instruments around them, like the rack, flaming cells, stretching wheels, spike falls, and everything else that Leoric had installed. Sure enough they found more of the cultists hanging out down here, in addition to what had to be demonic hounds that were vicious little beasts, more of the unburied that looked like they were covered in dried blood, and dark warriors who happened to be more demonic this time around. This was all the confirmation they needed that the Coven was linked to one of the Evils, even though Maghda had damned herself by revealing that she was allied with Belial, which only fueled them tearing through the cultists and their demonic minions, while Leah and Lyndon focused on loosing arrows and bolts at all of their foes.

Instead of wasting time Luna decided to expand her magical power, like a bat's sonar, though at the same time she swung the angelic sword and sliced through the enemies that came to kill them, including the charred undead as well, which was just strange, but they figured it was just the Stranger's angelic power leaking out of his body still.

"So this is what you guys fought before you found me..." Lyndon commented, loosing a bolt into the head of a cultist while he and the others followed Luna deeper into the torture halls, where he trusted her magic while watching as Leah loosed one of her flaming volleys into one of the other tunnels, blasting the enemies down there into oblivion, "I'm not surprised that you were able to take them down, with how often she's firing off those volleys."

"You must remember, friend, the volleys are new." Kormac stated, though at the same time he jabbed his lance right into the chest of a demonic summoner, before it could summon anything else to fight them, before they joined the two ladies as Luna found the exit tot his portion of the halls, "Just remember the event."

"Right. Though I do have to ask: with how deep this place is, can't we just jump and have Luna carry us down into the depths of this place?" Lyndon asked, because he just realized something, Luna's magic was beyond anything they had seen before and that meant they could do things that hadn't been seen in this world before, or at least for a long time, and he found that all of them stopped and glanced at him for a moment, "Time is of the essence, right? Especially since we have no idea what Maghda is doing to the Stranger... so, why don't we bend the rules and take the fight directly to the end of this place?"

"You know, that sounds like a good idea." Leah replied, where she huffed for a moment, as she was using far too much of her magic right now, in fact she was sure that she would reach her limit in the very near future, and with how deep this whole place was she suspected that Lyndon's idea would save them time and energy.

Luna nodded and used a bit of magic to smash open part of the railing to their left, which seemed to be above the drop that would bring them into the depths, before making a magical platform for all four of them to stand on, and once all four of them were on it she expanded it into a sphere. Once they were shrouded by the barrier Luna lowered them into the depths, finding what appeared to be another floor of the halls of agony, or whatever Leoric called this place, a floor that appeared to be the main prison where the souls of the dead were trapped by the Mad King's lingering power, and a final floor that was just like the two halls of agony. Leah had Luna open the area in front of them a few times and loosed flaming volleys into the ranks of Maghda's Coven, blasting the necromancers and cultists, she had both apparently, and all of their minions while Luna lowered them into the depths. It was clear that she was just venting some of her anger into the Coven, sending them all to Hell where they belonged, as Luna assumed their allegiance to Hell classified them as demons, especially the ones that turned themselves into demonic summoners, causing their allies to nod their heads as that happened.

Eventually Luna brought them down to what appeared to be the lowest portion of the dark halls, a massive area that had a number of smashed and ruined passages that looked like the Butcher had passed through this area recently, where she set them down outside the entrance to what had to be the final chamber and dismissed her magic, before they entered the area and found Maghda's image floating above them.

Oh... I wasn't expecting you until much later. You, dear, are making this boring. Maghda remarked, focusing on Luna for a few seconds, as she was the thorn in her side that the witch hadn't been expecting to discovery and was really wishing she had known about her sooner, so she could have wiped her out much sooner, before the witch sighed, Either way, you and your allies will be dying here and now. The Butcher is waiting for you!

"FRESH MEAT!" a familiar voice declared, where the massive red demon smashed through the wall that was in front of them and brought his cleaver down on the area that everyone was standing in, forcing Luna to block the attack with the angelic blade, while at the same time extending her magic into the floor to shatter the flaming devices, since they didn't need that at the moment.

This time around Luna found that the battle with the Butcher was more like the previous one, he swung the cleaver down on her and she either dodged the attacks or parried them with her weapon, something that caused the air to shudder while the walls around them cracked. Once again Luna realized that the Butcher was likely one of the strongest demons in Hell, nearly on the level of an Evil, a Lesser anyway, and understood how much of Belial's favor Maghda likely had if she was able to use this demon, without it turning on her. Luna also found that their proximity to the angelic Stranger made the blade stronger, like it wanted to go home to the one that wielded it and was ensuring that she was able to survive the Butcher's attacks, but that was easier said than done as she lashed out at the demon for a moment and found that her attacks only left light cuts in the red flesh. Then she found something that annoyed her, the magical image of the witch chained the others to the ground, no doubt to force Luna into defending them since this made them easier targets for the Butcher to go after, though she did that without delay, forming three barriers around them while deciding to keep her magic on keeping them safe.

As she thought about that, however, the power of the sword seemed to dim for a moment, likely a side effect of the angelic Stranger being tortured by the cultists, and as that happened the Butcher slammed his fist right into Luna's chest, sending her into one of the walls while the sword went flying off to another portion of the area.

"LUNA!" Leah shouted, as this was worrying, the Butcher really was one of the stronger enemies they had encountered, she knew that fact after seeing how the demon had smashed and shattered Luna's entire arsenal of weapons, and since she had none, as most of the gear they had found was teleported back to Haedrig for breaking into materials, this meant there was nothing protecting Luna from harm, and all Leah could see was another dead figure, "We... We have to find a weapon... there has to be one somewhere... please, I don't want to lose her either!"

It was as if the universe itself was listening to Leah, as Luna found that a vortex of energy opened up nearby and a weapon flew through it, though at a glance it wasn't Nightfell since it was a sword with a flat edge, like a greatsword, with a curved head that was like a normal sword. It also had this strange circular indent with a floating orb, or maybe it was a flat orb that was like an icon, that had a hand symbol printed on it, while the guard was like an L or a P, it was a letter of some kind, but Luna wasn't about to argue with it as she snatched the blade. A single word came to mind as she grasped the weapons' handle, 'Ashbringer', and swung it at the Butcher's cleaver, where she found that the weapon stopped the cleaver before it could do anything to her, yet the blade itself was pristine and okay, leading to her forcing the demon backwards. In the next moment Luna looked at the sword and moved her arms a little, testing the various stances she had learned since arriving in this world, and yet none of them felt wrong, the blade was like an extension of herself, rather Luna was sure that the blade was like Nightfell, a weapon that wouldn't break if she used her full power.

With that in mind Luna grinned as she rushed at the Butcher, where the demon swung at her repeatedly and she avoided all of them, though when she attacked both she and everyone else found that the blade was definitely stronger than the rest of the weapons she had used, as she was able to scar the Butcher's body instantly.

"Oh yeah, I can get used to this." Luna remarked, where she found that one of the attacks caused the Butcher to stagger backwards for a moment, to which she held the blade out and let her magic gather inside it, causing the sword to glow for a few seconds, before swinging the blade at the Butcher's chest.

Sure enough a wave of silvery lunar energy erupted from the blade and tore through the Butcher's chest, causing the demon to glance down at his sundered body for a moment while Maghda's magical image just floated there, in total shock by what she had just witnessed, before the demon exploded into blood and guts and caused the image to vanish. Once the image was gone, and Luna was sure of that, she summoned the angelic blade back to her side before dismissing the magic that had kept the others safe, causing Leah to run up to her and embrace her, where Luna smiled and embraced Leah as well. A few moments later they pulled apart as Leah continued into the final staircase of the halls, where they found their way down to an area that some cultists were tormenting the Stranger in, where Leah sighed as she released a single volley into them, as all of them deserved to die. Kormac and Lyndon watched as the cultists died, cutting their magic off, while the Stranger let out a pained noise that indicated that something was wrong with him, causing them to walk down to where he was resting, all while noticing how there were no more enemies for them to deal with at this point.

The Stranger coughed as they approached him, in fact it looked like he was coughing up blood, though Luna knew that if this was an angel than this was just his body adapting to having an actual mortal body and the bodily functions that he wasn't used to having, but before he could say anything Luna slipped the angelic sword into his hand, engulfing him in a burst of pure light for a moment.

"I... remember now. I was an Archangel of the High Heavens... I was the Embodiment of Justice... I was... I AM... Tyrael!" the Stranger stated, where angelic armor formed over his body, turning his robes into a cloak that he could now wear over his body and armor, while at the same time the fog fully departed from his eyes, showing them that the figure was fully aware of his true name and duty, and what he had come to tell the people of this world, "I remember the message that caused me to come here in the first place."

"That's good to hear. Let's head to New Tristram, and you can tell us everything." Luna said, using her magic to open a portal back to the town, where Tyrael looked at her for a moment before nodding his head, causing the others to follow after him without delay, as anything was better than staying down here.

Luna and Leah were the last ones to step through, allowing them to return to the town in no time, and when they did so they took the group to Deckard's place, giving them a place to rest and talk while they listened to Tyrael's information, all while wondering what the coming days might have in store for them.