End of Elaran, The

The End
 * -''by Elaran

The small gnome stared out over the edge of the crater. Un'Goro, the once lush jungle now crawling with silithids. They hadn't had the numbers yet to push into Tanaris in force, but the goblins were already preparing to evacuate Gadgetzan.

"Miss Gearmagus, it's unusual that you're still alive even now...surely, you knew this would happen."

She shut her eyes, tightly. Small rivulets of ice fell down her cheek, and shattered on the floor below. The arcanist's gaze softened. "I'm sorry, miss."

The gloves were half-burned away, but even now she wasn't showing the full glow of a mana burnout. Had to give old Aelannor that much...the man did know his containment runes. She patted them with a smile.

"Ela, you can't do this!", he screamed. Face mottled with tears and spittle, he reached out to grab her, to hold her, to keep her with him. She raised a glowing hand gently against his, pushed it away.

"Ing, you knew this day would come. There is nothing I can do anymore to keep the burn from occurring."

"But there has to be some--"

She shook her head...smiled at him, wryly.

"This is what must be, Ing. But if I'm going to go down, I'm going to go down as what I've been my whole life. A pain in someone's arse."

She chuckled at the memory, and peered into the crater below. She stepped back, and carefully removed the gloves. A leap, a whispered incantation, a slow glide down...

The blast wave was like an enraged sea crashing against the walls of the crater. It sunk into caves, crevices, and hives, a living, burning purification.

Gagdetzan scouts investigated the flames a few days later. They found nothing left in the crater but blackened ash.