Chapter 587
Chapter 587: Arthas’s Mental Journey (Final)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Early the next morning, Jaina and Uther, who had rushed over, stood on the damaged city wall of Stratholme and looked at the city in front of them in grief.
In just one night, the originally bustling city of Stratholme turned into a ghost town. Burned-down and collapsed buildings were everywhere, and corpses were lying all over the place on the streets. There were also some undead monsters that had turned into ghouls, but these monsters were also dead. The blood flowing out gathered in the streets and alleys before finally condensing into dark stains on the ground.
In Stratholme, nine out of ten buildings were empty. The killing competition between Arthas and Mal’ganis had almost wiped out the entire city.
Cries of fear sporadically resounded in the city, but they were immediately suppressed. It was the sounds that the hiding survivors couldn’t help making when they saw the corpses of their loved ones…
After the grief, it was numbness. The survivors spontaneously gathered and piled the corpses everywhere onto the carts before pulling them to the center and burning them together. They had no choice but to do this. After so many people died, if they didn’t deal with these corpses, they would soon cause a new plague in Stratholme.
Looking at the hell-like scene in front of her, Jaina couldn’t help covering her mouth. The pungent smell of blood drifting in the wind almost made her vomit.
. I can’t believe it. Did Arthas really do this?” Jaina said to Uther after finally calming down. “How could he…”
Uther’s face was extremely gloomy, but he still comforted Jaina. “I warned him, but he… didn’t listen. Relax, child. You are not responsible for this… this massacre!”
The two of them walked around the city and finally found a heavily injured guard on the verge of death. Uther recognized that this soldier was one of the soldiers who had left with Arthas, so he grabbed the dying soldier and asked, “Look at what you’ve done?! Where is Arthas?! Why isn’t he here?!”
The soldier didn’t seem to have any regrets. After all, he had already foreseen what would happen when he chose to follow Arthas, so he only used his last bit of strength to tell Uther the whole story.
Just last night, when Arthas killed all the infected in the city before Mal’ganis, he finally found the true body of Mal’ganis. But just as Arthas was about to kill him in a duel, this cunning dreadlord actually escaped! Mal’ganis told Arthas that it wasn’t time to end it. If Arthas wanted revenge, then he should gather his troops and go to Northrend in the extreme north to find him.
This was the trap that the dreadlords had designed. They would continuously enrage this young prince and then lure him to Northrend step by step. Although Arthas also realized this, he was in extreme conflict and grief because he had personally slaughtered his people, and the anger of vengeance had already made him lose his mind. So after Mal’ganis escaped through Teleportation, in order to continue pursuing him, he gathered his troops overnight and set off for the extreme north.
“No, I have to tell King Terenas about this!” Uther immediately realized the seriousness of the matter. “I have to get the king to order envoys to summon Arthas back! He can’t just leave like this!”
Uther couldn’t worry about Jaina anymore. He gathered his soldiers and rushed back.
Left alone, Jaina stood in the silent city of Stratholme, not knowing what to do. But at this moment, Medivh appeared again. In crow form, he descended from the sky. After landing, he transformed into a human and stood in front of her.
“It’s you?!” Jaina was surprised to see this self-proclaimed prophet again.
Medivh said, “In the coming days, the deaths here will temporarily stop and calm down… But don’t be fooled by appearances. All that the young prince can find in the cold north will only be death…”
Hearing this, Jaina couldn’t help defending Arthas. “He’s just doing what he thinks is right! ”
“Perhaps his actions are worthy of praise…” Medivh sighed. “But his passion will only bring him destruction… Young mage, you must lead your people to Ancient Kalimdor in the west. Only there can you lead them to continue fighting against the darkness and save the world from the flames!”
Hearing Medivh’s warning to get them to leave again, Jaina became even more uneasy and asked, “You call yourself a prophet, so what did you see?”
“I saw death enveloping all of Lordaeron and the Eastern Kingdoms!” Medivh said in a deep voice. “The undead monsters killed all the living people they saw. This calamity cannot be stopped. Only by fleeing can you preserve the power to fight back…
“That is all. Make your choice, young mage…” Medivh turned into a crow and left.
After watching him depart, Jaina used Teleportation to leave. What this mysterious prophet said made her have to take it seriously.
Finally, only the survivors of Stratholme continued to struggle at death’s door…
It was an extremely long journey from Lordaeron to Northrend in the extreme north. Arthas led his troops and persisted at sea for nearly three months before finally seeing the coast of Northrend.
The howling cold wind was blowing on the pale land, freezing people’s bones to the point of pain. There was no sunlight on this desolate land all year round. When the ships docked, and Arthas looked at the scene in front of him, even he realized that it would be an extremely difficult challenge for them to fight against the undead army of Mal’ganis on this land.
But under the anger of vengeance, Arthas couldn’t care less. After the soldiers disembarked, he immediately ordered them to find a place to set camp.
But before they could set up the camp, the troops came under attack.
At first, Arthas thought that he had encountered an undead army. But unexpectedly, after the head-on collision, he realized that he had encountered an army of dwarves. And the leader of this dwarven army was actually his old friend Magni Bronzebeard.
After both sides resolved the misunderstanding, not only did Arthas sigh in relief, but Magni also sighed in relief.
Under Arthas’s inquiries, Magni told him that he was here to find a powerful artifact, the runeblade Frostmourne.
Recently, there was a piece of news circulating in Ironforge. It said that in the far north, an earthquake had caused the appearance of the ancient artifact Frostmourne, which was sealed in Northrend. The earthquake had reactivated a portal that could lead to the sealed place. If someone could find this portal, they could enter the sealed place and obtain this powerful ancient artifact.
Without a doubt, the dreadlords had spread this news. They had lurked in the gathering places of the various races and spread this news to attract curious explorers to Northrend.
These explorers who set foot on Northrend would eventually be left behind, and their corpses would become members of the Undead Scourge.
Of course, this was all in passing. The ultimate goal of the dreadlords was to let this news spread to Arthas’s ears. And now, they had done it. Through Magni, Arthas learned the name of Frostmourne and firmly believed it because his old friend wouldn’t lie to him.
Magni wanted to seek help from Arthas, hoping that Arthas could help him find Frostmourne. After hearing this, Arthas felt that if he could obtain this ancient artifact, he might be able to secure his odds of winning in his battle with Mal’ganis, so he readily agreed.
But before they could set off, the envoys of Lordaeron found Arthas. They had specially rushed over on a goblin airship. The envoys brought with them an order from King Terenas, requesting that Arthas’s expedition army immediately give up their operation and return to Lordaeron.
The soldiers of the expeditionary army were originally from Lordaeron’s army, and they were unwilling to fight against demons and undead in this icy and snowy environment. The arrival of the special envoys immediately caused their combat willingness to plummet.
Uther again! Arthas gnashed his teeth. He knew that Uther had persuaded his father to give this order.
Arthas was full of resentment. On the one hand, his desire for vengeance was burning him, and on the other hand, he felt aggrieved for not being trusted. He felt that the entire world was opposing him now.
Although he was so depressed that he was about to explode, he knew that he couldn’t disobey Terenas’s orders. At least… he couldn’t disobey them openly.
Therefore, with a gloomy expression, he thought for a long time before leaving the camp in the middle of the night.
Through Magni, he had learned that there was a mercenary camp formed by the native races near the coast of Northrend. He found this place overnight and hired mercenaries to find an opportunity to destroy his expeditionary army’s ships.
The reason that Arthas gave was clearly a lie. But out of greed for money, the mercenaries agreed to this employment and completed his commission very well. In the early morning, they suddenly launched a sneak attack on the coast and burned down Arthas’s ships.
And Arthas, who had quietly returned to the camp, rushed to the coast with the soldiers after the soldiers informed him. As a result, he bumped into the mercenaries who wanted to ask him for money. But he instead identified the mercenaries as the murderers and then killed them all with the furious expeditionary army soldiers!
All the ships were burned down, and there was no hope of returning to Lordaeron. Arthas took this opportunity to display his eloquence and acting skills, persuading the soldiers of the expeditionary army to follow him and continue to eliminate Mal’ganis!
But even though he had hidden all of this from the soldiers, he hadn’t managed to hide it from Magni. Magni had witnessed Arthas quietly leaving the camp last night and naturally understood what had happened. But he didn’t say anything in public. Instead, he went to find Arthas in private.
“You lied to your people and betrayed the mercenaries who helped you… What’s wrong with you, Arthas?” Magni asked. “Is vengeance really that important to you?”
“Forgive me, Magni!” Arthas said. “You didn’t see what Mal’ganis did to my homeland, so you can’t understand the torment in my heart.”
Looking at Arthas’s expression, Magni fell silent. Although he felt that Arthas had changed drastically compared to his old friend in his impression, he realized that Arthas had probably experienced some great changes, so he didn’t say anything else.
Just like that, the expedition army of Arthas and the dwarven army of Magni Bronzebeard embarked on the road of searching for Frostmourne…