Chapter 593: Age Problem
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Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Although Arthas couldn’t identify the races of Julia and Benia, he didn’t pay much attention to them. He only knew that these two women had appeared with Tichondrius, so they were most likely demons.
Julia and Benia didn’t say anything and only stood quietly behind Tichondrius. Tichondrius stepped forward and grinned sinisterly at Arthas. “Well done, young prince. You completed the Lich King’s task very well and captured the kingdom of those long ears. I believe that from now on, they will tremble when they hear your name. Now, it is time to resurrect Kel’Thuzad. He is already impatient.”
“What should I do?” Arthas asked expressionlessly.
“It’s very simple. Immerse his corpse into the Sunwell!” Tichondrius said. “There’s no need for a complicated transformation ritual. The powerful magic power of the Sunwell can reconstruct Kel’Thuzad’s body. During this process, you have to protect the coffin. After Kel’Thuzad resurrects, he will become an archlich, and the coffin will be his phylactery.”
Arthas nodded. He didn’t know what a phylactery was, but this didn’t prevent him from following Tichondrius’s instructions.
When Kel’Thuzad’s corpse invaded the Sunwell, the magic power in the well immediately surged, and the exuding golden light became even more dazzling.
The magic power in the Sunwell was originally extremely pure. But during the process of Kel’Thuzad’s resurrection, after this pure magic power flowed into his corpse, it immediately transformed into an immense amount of death magic power. As the transformation progressed, more and more death magic power gathered, and it gradually began to contaminate the pure magic power source.
Arthas, Tichondrius, Julia, and Benia could clearly see the dark color of death magic power beginning to spread in the golden well water, just like ink spreading in clear water.
Seeing this scene, Tichondrius was very excited. This process of contaminating the pure with darkness was what a demon was most happy to see. How should he put it… It felt like facing a tauren…
In fact, the resurrection and transformation of Kel’Thuzad in the Sunwell to create an archlich, which the dreadlords had induced Arthas to do, could also be done through other transformation rituals. But the dreadlords still chose to contaminate the Sunwell in order to cut off the escape route of the high elves.
The Sunwell in Quel’Danas originated from the Well of Eternity. During the War of the Ancients, Illidan had secretly hidden a portion of the well water. After the Well of Eternity exploded, he had used the well water to create the Sunwell.
The Burning Legion had invaded Azeroth under Sargeras’s lead for the Well of Eternity. Of course, the magic power of the Sunwell was inferior to that of the Well of Eternity, so the Burning Legion didn’t take a fancy to it. Since the Sunwell was something that the Legion didn’t want and didn’t plan to use, the dreadlords naturally had to destroy it.
After the death magic power corroded most of the Sunwell, Kel’Thuzad finally resurrected. He floated out from the mouth of the well, and under the lich robes was a skeleton full of death and frost magic power. Perhaps because he didn’t have flesh and blood, and his bones were relatively light, he was full of an elegant ambiance.
“Very good. Very good…” Tichondrius looked at Kel’Thuzad. “The Sunwell gave you powerful magic power, Kel’Thuzad. You are many times stronger than when you were alive. Next, Archlich Kel’Thuzad, you know what to do, right?”
“Of course,” Kel’Thuzad’s hollow soul replied.
“Then, I’ll leave the rest to you,” Tichondrius said as he turned to look at Julia and Benia behind him. “These two demon adjutants will a.s.sist you in commanding the Scourge and completing the next mission.”
With that, Tichondrius immediately teleported away.
His explanation was without rhyme or reason, and he didn’t even explain Julia’s and Benia’s ident.i.ties, making Arthas and Kel’Thuzad a little confused.
“Report your names, demon… adjutants?” Arthas said expressionlessly.
Julia and Benia looked at each other, bowed, and said to Arthas, “Fallen Angel Julia, Succubus Benia, at your command, powerful death knight Prince Arthas.”
“Fallen angel? Succubus?” Arthas frowned. “Your accent… is a little strange.”
“Sorry, we’ve just learned the common language and aren’t used to it yet.” Benia looked up at Arthas with a smile.
“Okay, no matter what race you are, since Tichondrius has arranged for you to be in the Scourge Army, then you will be frontline commanders,” Arthas said coldly.
Then he urged the skeleton warhorse under him to leave. Kel’Thuzad looked at Julia and Benia and floated away with Arthas.
Soon, the Scourge Army withdrew from the destroyed Quel’Thalas. After leaving Quel’Thalas, the Scourge Army turned south and continued marching under the command of Kel’Thuzad.
Along the way, Arthas found an opportunity. While out of Julia and Benia’s line of sight, he walked side by side with Kel’Thuzad and asked in a low voice, “Lich, don’t you hate me for killing you?”
“No. In fact, before this, the Lich King already told me what the outcome of our meeting would be,” Kel’Thuzad said calmly.
“He knew I would kill you?” Arthas was a little surprised.
Thus, Kel’Thuzad told Arthas everything. He told him that the Lich King had already chosen him a long time ago and had chosen him to become the strongest death knight. Everything that had happened to Arthas had been arranged by the Lich King.
During this process, Kel’Thuzad described the greatness of the Lich King in a fanatical tone.
Although he understood, Arthas was still puzzled and asked, “Since the Lich King is so omniscient, why is he under the control of those dreadlords?”
“This is because… both the Lich King and the dreadlords were created by the Burning Legion,” Kel’Thuzad replied. “Obviously, the dreadlords’ status in the Burning Legion is higher than the Lich King’s…”
When Arthas heard the name Burning Legion again, his heart couldn’t help trembling. He thought of the powerful will that he had communicated with through Frostmourne.
Although he was shocked by the powerful will of the King of Despair Osiris and knew that he was the true master of Frostmourne and one of the commanders of the Burning Legion, unfortunately, Arthas actually didn’t have much of a concept of the Burning Legion.
At this point, Arthas’s age had to be mentioned. Tichondrius was right about calling him ‘young prince’. The main point was his young age. He was born four years before the first opening of the Dark Portal and was only twenty-seven years old now.
From the time he could remember, the main enemies of the kingdom of Lordaeron and the other kingdoms of the Human Alliance had always been the Orc Horde of Draenor. Although the orc invasion of Azeroth was driven by the Burning Legion, the Burning Legion had not truly stood on the stage during this period of time.
Therefore, Arthas had never actually come into contact with the demons of the Burning Legion before this. Even though he had seen the words Burning Legion in some history books, the history recorded in these history books was almost all about the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago. It was obvious that this history had long become unclear.
This caused Arthas to lack understanding of the Burning Legion. He knew that it was an evil demon organization, but he didn’t know how powerful the Burning Legion was.
Even Kel’Thuzad, who had described the Burning Legion to Arthas, was a little unclear. His knowledge of the Burning Legion came from the memories pa.s.sed down to him by the Lich King Ner’zhul. He only knew that it was a ma.s.sive demon army that had eliminated countless worlds, and now, they were eyeing Azeroth…
After knowing that the dreadlords had been sent by the Burning Legion to monitor the Lich King, Arthas couldn’t help looking at the front of the army, where Julia and Benia were. “So, those two demons are here to monitor us?”
“That must be the case. Tichondrius wouldn’t leave two demons behind to help us for no reason. In his opinion, the Lich King and we are all p.a.w.ns of the Burning Legion,” Kel’Thuzad said. “But we can’t resist and can’t drive those two demons away.”
Arthas was naturally furious about this surveillance, but he was also under the control of the Lich King Ner’zhul, so he had no good ideas. He could only change the topic and ask, “What are we going to do next?”
“In a valley not far ahead, there’s a remnant camp of the Blackrock clan. The clan left those pitiful orcs behind because their mission is to guard a demon gate!” Kel’Thuzad said. “It’s a portal left behind a long time ago. Because it’s very difficult to destroy, they can only use this stupid method to ensure that this portal won’t be activated. What we have to do is to kill all the orcs in the camp, activate the portal, and contact Archimonde, one of the commanders of the Burning Legion…”
Another commander? Arthas continued moving forward silently.
Soon after entering the valley, the battle between the Scourge and the orcs began. There were no accidents in this battle. The undead surging forward like a tide quickly tore apart the orcs’ defense line and killed all the orcs in the camp.
During the battle, Arthas and Kel’Thuzad stared intently at Julia’s and Benia’s fights but found that they didn’t show too much combat strength.
This discovery made both Arthas and Kel’Thuzad feel slightly relieved.
“It seems like they’re just two ordinary demons. There’s no need to worry too much about them,” Arthas said. “Let’s proceed to the next step.”
Kel’Thuzad came in front of the enormous demon gate, injected powerful magic power into it to activate the portal, and shouted, “I call upon you, Archimonde! Your humble servant awaits your reply!”
With Kel’Thuzad’s call, a tall and majestic phantom appeared in the demon gate. It was the projection of Archimonde. He looked down at Kel’Thuzad at his feet and said, “You called my name, insignificant lich! Are you Kel’Thuzad?”
“Yes, my lord. I am the one who summoned you!” Kel’Thuzad lowered his head. “The first phase of the plan has been completed, and we need your instructions…”
“Very good!” Archimonde said. “You must find a very special book. It was left behind by the last Guardian, Medivh. Only this magic book and his powerful lost incantation can bring me into your world!”
When Arthas heard this, a noun flashed through his mind. The Book of Medivh?!
He was surprised because when he communicated with the King of Despair Osiris, he had mentioned the Book of Medivh.
Why are two commanders of the Burning Legion searching for the whereabouts of the same magic book?
If this book is really found, will two commanders of the Burning Legions appear in Azeroth?
Arthas looked at the phantom of Archimonde in front of him with some emotion. Of course, he could tell that the other party was only an illusory projection. But just this projection alone made him feel immense pressure. He couldn’t imagine what the other party’s physical body would be like after arriving…