Diablo 3: Hell's Eclipse

Luna and Leah waited for a short period of time before Deckard emerged from his house with the Stranger, the latter now looking more healthy despite the fact that he seemed out of sorts, due to his missing memories, and once Kormac was done with Haedrig they approached the pair.

"I have determined that the Stranger fell with a weapon, a sword, which he says he remembers seeing fracture as he fell to our world." Deckard said, as he knew that Luna and Leah would be able to deal with whatever dangers were out there now, if they were able to wipe out the Skeleton King, plus they now had a templar with them, increasing their power and ability to survive the horrors of the wilds.

"That would explain the three smaller flaming objects that were near him when he fell." Luna commented, as she recalled seeing three items around the Stranger's body, when she and the others were under the assumption that a meteor or an asteroid had fallen, and now they had confirmation on what she, at least, had seen, "A sword split into three fragments, no doubt the handle and blade shards."

"You know, one of the Militia reported that the khazra were rampaging in the Fields of Misery. Could one of the pieces fell in one of their dens?" Leah asked, as it made sense to her, the man in question had commented on the goatmen acting slightly differently after the Fallen Star crashed into the cathedral, and she had only learned about it after they returned from saving the Stranger.

"Yes... yes, that would make sense. Just as the dead rose around the Stranger, the khazra are being driven to madness. We must recover the blade fragments." Deckard stated, because not only would the completed sword restore the Stranger's memories, and uncover whatever message he had for the people of this world, but removing the fragments would cut down on the power that was affecting the rest of the land, silence the dead and calm the goatmen.

"Good, then we'll start there. Deckard, why don't you and the Stranger talk more while we're gone? Maybe you can figure out where the other two pieces went." Luna said, though she knew the Fields of Misery would take some time for them to simply explore, they were a large place that wasn't very good for the people of New Tristram, hence their title, which was why the farms on the town's side of the river were just fine.

Deckard nodded his head a little, causing Luna to nod to Leah and Kormac as they headed for the exit that would bring them to the entrance that brought them to the area they had found the crown in, which Leah had told the templar about during their brief period of downtime. Fortunately for Luna and her friends they didn't have to worry about fighting through more risen, since they had dealt with the enemies that were near New Tristram, and it wasn't long before they reached the area in question, leading to Leah breaking the lock on the other grated door. With that done they stepped out into a new path and crossed the bridge that was on the other side, one that looked like it was getting close to collapsing, so they carefully crossed it before stepping into their new destination. Luna had known that the Fields of Misery had once been fertile farmland, but due to the constant attacks from the khazra clans, and the various carrion nests that were uncovered, the land was now a permanent smoldering place of ruin and despair, with few still living out here.

It wasn't long before they found their first khazra, the bipedal goatmen that were more common out here, who wore little on their bodies, save for loincloths, and carried spears into battle, though Luna knew they had mages as well and those ones had staffs, which might be useful for later.

With that in mind Luna found that the khazra weren't too terribly tough, a single swing from Leoric's weapon was enough to smash one into a bloody paste on the ground, while Kormac sliced one's stomach open with his lance before impaling it with the tip, even though he defended himself with his shield after that. Leah, true to form, channeled her power into flaming arrows and loosed them into the goatmen that were in the distance, where Luna smiled as the arrows separated into a set of five each, a volley, that slammed into their targets with deadly accuracy. One would have thought that Leah would have had problems with killing another living creature, but Luna had to guess that dealing with the risen and skeletons, and those that had been infected, had prepared the young lady for dealing with all sorts of other enemies. She could also see that the more Leah used her magic the more in tune she was with it, allowing her to draw more of it out and lessen the strain she felt, so when she tried to learn more magic she would be able to do well with ease.

After dealing with the first group of khazra the group found one of the carrion nests, which were vile nests riddled with dark energy that spawned out the undead bats they had fought in the past, only these ones seemed to be poisoned, which Leah just hurled a fireball into, blasting it into oblivion.

"Right... remind me not to annoy Leah at all." Kormac remarked, as he was realizing what she had told him previously was the truth, she was crazy skilled when it came to using fire based magic, given her ability with her bow and the volleys, and now there were fireballs for them to worry about, even if Luna wasn't worried at all.

"Good work. When we have a chance to rest, and can train some more, I'll show you a few more fire spells... if you do well I'll even show you other spells as well." Luna said, as Leah had proved that she was good at using this type of magic and she felt that mastering some of the other spells in that category would allow her to master herself more, eventually leaning into her learning how to use and master all of the other elements she knew about.

Leah said nothing to that, as she was more focused on the fact that she was actually growing with her magic, even though it did confirm something for her, that learning from Luna had been the best thing to happen to her, causing her to nod for a moment as she glanced at Luna, since the other spells might help her in the future. Luna, on the other hand, spotted a pair of new enemies, in addition to the khazra, where the first was a massive tree that turned out to be evil and wanted to crush them, to the point that it ripped itself out of the ground to attack them. The other was a large imposing ram beast that was more like a siege device, or it would be back in Equestria based on what Luna was seeing at the moment, though to crush the chargers she leapt into the air and brought her weapon down on their heads, crushing their skulls to paste. Such a thing did mean that Leah and Kormac had to make sure they were out of the way, before Leah set fire to them to be sure none of them rose into undeath, while she also used her flaming arrows on the large walking trees, turning each to ash.

One of the areas they walked by happened to be an old farm, where a cluster of carrion nests had formed, four to be exact, to which Luna nodded to the others as she and Kormac cut into the bats that came at them, including the small scavenger beasts, which opened the way for Leah to burn the nests with her arrows.

"You know, this weapon isn't Nightfell, but it's a decent temporary weapon." Luna remarked, spinning for a moment as she brought down the head of Leoric's weapon on a large scavenger that came out of the ground while they were standing still, to make sure there were no more enemies in the ruined farm, and other than the large scavenger there wasn't anything else for them to worry about.

"Nightfell? What's that?" Kormac asked, though as they relaxed a little, mostly to drink some water and rest for a bit, he had to ask about the weapon that Luna had mentioned, especially since it seemed to be her preferred weapon, something that wasn't present right now.

"Luna's personal weapon, a battleaxe of great power... her sister, Celestia, has such a weapon as well, the blade known as Solarion." Leah answered, though she had to admit that the stories she and her uncle had heard about the weapons told her that they would likely be weapons that would utterly wipe out those who threatened Sanctuary, while glancing at the lady for a moment as Luna cleaned the head of Leoric's warhammer, "Nightfell didn't come with Luna when she traveled to New Tristram, but she's convinced that she could summon it if she really needed it... and right now she doesn't need it, despite the fact that it seems to be the only weapon capable of remaining intact. Luna's a weapon breaker, thanks to her... well, her insane levels of strength... and you've seen her break a few so far."

Kormac nodded, he had seen such a thing and guessed that he'd be seeing it once the dark weapon finally shattered, since it was only a matter of time until it fractured under the weight of Luna's power, and wondered about her mysterious weapon, her true weapon, before noticing that Leah was constantly looking in one direction.

"Is trouble approaching?" Kormac asked, because if it was he would be ready for it, his shield and lance were ready for more, while at the same time he reflected that it would be nice to have someone who could detect enemies, save them some effort while on the battlefield, given the amount of enemies they had seen so far.

"No, just... Luna, can you fly up and check something to the southwest?" Leah asked, as something was bugging her, she felt something that she couldn't explain and was curious if her increasing magical power was allowing her to sense the bits of the blade, which might make things easier for them in the grand scheme of things.

Luna raised an eyebrow before nodding, where she lifted herself into the air and got a good view of the smouldering ruins of the fields that the people of New Tristram used to work in, noticed the amount of khazra and enemies that were around, and, more importantly, a cave den that was glowing with the blue energy of the Stranger, causing her to lower herself down to Leah and Kormac.

"I spotted the cave that the fragment fell into... I'm not sure how you knew it, but you definitely felt a blade piece." Luna said, which was rather interesting when she thought about it, in fact she was sure Leah was the key to figuring out where the rest of the pieces were, once they had reports from the rest of the Militia, which would make this quest more interesting for her and her friends.

"It's... hard to explain. It's like I'm feeling the tug of the Stranger's magic, for some reason." Leah replied, she couldn't explain it herself, not with her limited knowledge on magic, and suspected that once she had more lessons from Luna she might be able to accurately explain what she had felt, and yet, with confirmation on the fragment's resting place, the tug seemed to die down for some reason.

Luna nodded for a moment, allowing the others to get a little more rest before they collected their gear as she started to lead the way over to where the khazra den rested, where she smashed her enemies into paste, Kormac sliced them down, and Leah continued to release flaming arrows and setting corpses on fire. Thanks to Leah's new ability, despite the fact that she had no idea how she had come to possess such a skill, the trio reached the den Luna had noticed and headed down into the lair of the khazra, Sure enough the area was more narrow, to force enemies to move two at a time, but Luna and Kormac kept their guard up as Leah tried her best to focus on the magical tug she had been feeling earlier, and as they walked Luna could see a great deal of dried blood on the ground with bones scattered here and there. Part of her hoped that the bones were from animals and not the people of New Tristram, though it was hard to say based on what she was seeing, causing her to focus on the enemies that were lingering in the shadows of this place.

What they weren't expecting to discover, however, were more robed figures, these ones in dark yellow robes that seemed to be cultists, higher members of the Coven that tried to corrupt Kormac no doubt, and when the cultists noticed them they quickly ordered the khazra to kill them.

"Good, we get to kill more of the Coven. Bring them on." Kormac said, where he wasted no time in slashing through one as Luna swung her warhammer and let it crush her enemies into paste while Leah did her best to target the enemies that were further down the tunnels, to avoid hitting her friends.

While they fought the cultists and khazra, however, they found a group trying to claim the power of the blade fragment that had struck this area, one even mentioned that a 'Maghda' was on her way to claim it, though they slaughtered the cultists in no time, causing the phantom of a lady in dark robes and an odd head piece, a witch, to appear in front of them.

Who are you to take what is rightfully mine? the witch asked, her tone suggesting that she believed that she was of the opinion that everything was hers for the taking and that anyone who took something she had her eyes on would be met with swift justice, or death to her followers when Luna thought about it.

"Sorry, but this doesn't belong to you. Get lost, before we track you down as well." Luna remarked, she had no want to face someone like this right now, as her focus was on recovering the blade fragments and figuring out what the Stranger had to tell them, and she could see that she annoyed Maghda, since that was who the lady had to be.

Sure enough more cultists and khazra were summoned into the area to fight them, where Luna took one tunnel and used her new warhammer to smash her enemies into the walls and into the ground, leaving bloody smears and crushed bodies in her wake, just like before. Kormac continued to do what he did best, he used his shield to block incoming attacks, while also dodging magical attacks since he didn't want to get hit by the dark magic of the Coven again, before skewering his enemies or slicing open their stomachs. Leah let her enemies come to her as she loosed volleys of flaming arrows at her targets, just blasting them into oblivion or setting them on fire, and when one got close to her she switched to the sword Luna had given to her, insisted on her having it, and sliced the cultist's head off. While they did that Leah also noticed that the magical image of Maghda just floated there above the blade fragment, where there was a slight bit of shock on her face, like she had no idea they were this strong, but Leah was sure that the witch was looking at her and not the others, but that only confused her even more.

In the end the cultists and khazra laid dead at their feet, and hooves in Luna's case, where the witch's image floated there for a time, no doubt debating whether or not she should even send more forces at them, before growling as she simply stated that they could have this fragment, since the second was within her grasp, which caused her image to vanish.

"Come, let us get this back to Deckard and the Stranger. They need to know that we have more enemies to deal with, and see if they know anything about Maghda." Luna remarked, where she produced a cloth bundle and secured the fragment of the blade inside it, where this time the energy seemed to disappear as the item was picked up, like it was now contained in the piece and wasn't leaking out, but that meant the khazra might calm down a bit.

"I don't get it... why was she so interested in me?" Leah asked, as she knew that Luna had seen the looks on Maghda's face, the witch seemed to know her in some manner and that worried her, because it meant she and Deckard might have been being watched by someone evil for a long time.

"Simple: she sees your power and not yourself. She likely sees another to corrupt, though I know you are made of study stuff and won't fall easily." Kormac stated, as it was a lot like what happened to him, the Coven had been interested in his power and not in himself, so he could see the Coven's leader being the same way, even though he had a feeling that they would see more of this Maghda in the future.

Luna nodded as she gathered her magic and opened the portal back to New Tristram, as it was time to regroup with their allies and figure out if they could track down the second fragment, and deal with whatever madness was rising around that portion of the Stranger's powerful weapon, causing her to look forward to what the future had in store for them.