This is...
Miracle!?
Tirion once thought that he had matured, accustomed to separation and death, and after witnessing too many tragedies, his heart had become cold and hard.
I didn't expect that at this moment, there would still be two shameless tears vying to squeeze out of the tear glands and find a way to burst out of the eye sockets.
Obviously, a grown man who has fought in countless battlefields shouldn't shed tears, but his eyes just can't keep up!
At some point, Tirion saw that Gavinrad, who often appeared cynical, also had tears on his face.
"Hey, Tirion, you're an uncle now, do you behave yourself?" Gavinrad complained first.
"Bullshit! You make it sound like you're not even one of the Five Silver Saints." Tirion punched Gavinrad so hard that he vomited blood.
Well, if the Paladin punches with all his strength containing the Holy Light, I'm not exaggerating, you might die!
Of course, the one who got beaten was also a glowing holy light humanoid creature, which was a different matter.
"Great! Great!" Calia happily hugged Jaina and Ilucia. These three queens had often been together in their childhood. Their delicate faces were put together. If Du had not already declared his ownership of them, they would definitely be praised as being as beautiful as a painting.
Most of the female heroes wiped their tears secretly, and the male heroes also laid down their weapons to appreciate this rare scene of redemption.
Duke had no time to care about other people's feelings.
He still looked like a charlatan, unfathomable. He stretched out his right hand full of lightning and thunder, and gently "stroked" the head of Thaddeus' soul.
Duke's voice was filled with a mysterious sense of illusion, and sounded like a faint echo, like a morning bell ringing from a tall building in the misty morning, shocking the heart:
"Justice may not always be rewarded. However, those who wield the sword of justice, even if they have fallen, deserve redemption! I am not a god, but I still hope to bring more hope to this world ravaged by evil. Thaddeus! Answer me, how much does your soul remember? How much of your sanity is left?"
On Thaddeus's soul body, others could easily see the soul tears flowing from his eyes: "Thaddeus remembers everything, from when I became a paladin, to following Lord Uther back to Lordaeron, to Uther being killed, to me being killed, to me enduring the terrible natural disaster experiment. My confusion, my despair, my pain along the way... I remember it all!"
When Thaddeus said this, Calia and Jaina couldn't help but hold each other's hands tightly.
Duke took a deep breath and said slowly: "So, do you still hate it?"
The sound was not loud, but it seemed to have set off a sacred shock wave. Others could clearly see with their naked eyes a brilliant golden light, centered at Duke, spreading out in all directions like an air curtain wall.
"I hate it! But I remember even more the meaning that fate has given to my sword! Since fate has made Master Edmund linger with the three virtues and the words of heaven to redeem my soul. Then for eternity, my sword, Thaddeus, will be the sword of my lord Edmund Duke." Thaddeus bowed his head deeply.
"Huh!" Duke let out a breath.
Fortunately, I didn't lose money this time. Otherwise, if I invested so much and got a brainless fool's soul in return, it would be miserable.
Of course, on the surface, Duke is still very impressive.
"Knight Thaddeus, please kneel."
Not only Thaddeus, but everyone else realized what it was.
Benedictus seemed to want to say something, but ultimately stopped himself.
Thaddeus' soul changed. Although it still emitted a purple-blue glow, his previously blurry soul body became clearer, and the structure and pattern of his armor could be clearly distinguished. It was the standard armor of the Silver Hand!
He knelt on one knee excitedly, looked at Duke, and then lowered his noble head which he had never lowered to the Scourge.
Duke drew out his spiral sword Edmund Song of Light and Darkness and said solemnly: "In the name of Edmund Duke, the Grand Duke of Stormwind and the Guardian of the World, I grant you, Thaddeus, the title of 'Guardian Knight of the Edmund Family'."
After saying that, the blade of the spiral sword lightly touched Thaddeus's shoulders like a dragonfly touching the water.
"Thank you very much! My Lord Edmund——" Thaddeus almost burst into tears.
For Duke, a time traveler without any moral principles, being knighted is no big deal.
On the other hand, this is already the most solemn knighting ceremony in the world of Azeroth.
You know, after the dead of the Scourge came out, the Church of Light had the most intense debate about this, which was an ideological debate. The topic of the debate revolved around whether the dead still had glory and the power and status they had when they were alive.
This debate, which involved the Church of Holy Light and the feudal aristocratic ruling class of all kingdoms, ultimately concluded that the dead could only possess empty names and were not qualified to possess any wealth or power.
Since the dead can also retain the wealth they left behind during their lifetime, then what will their descendants eat and use?
The result, of course, can only be that the living will return to the living, and the dead will return to the dead.
Therefore, Duke cannot make Thaddeus a knight of the kingdom.
Duke took advantage of a loophole here. The so-called guardian knights were, in plain words, retainers who were not protected by the laws of the kingdom. The lord could appoint them however he wanted.
Anyway, the king's vassal's vassal is not the king's vassal.
But Duke also made a lot of money. If Thaddeus's soul was immortal, he would definitely protect the family for thousands of years. The price was just a little divinity that Duke got from the Wind Prince.
It seems that there is not much difference between being a knight and being an ordinary knight, but for Thaddeus, who has suffered torture and been a wandering ghost for a long time, this is the greatest and final redemption.
At some point, warm applause broke out all around, especially from the two paladins, who almost broke their gauntlets.
On the other hand, Thaddeus was a happy guy to be able to complete his redemption under the witness of two first-generation paladins, known as the Silver Five. He was so excited that he could only say "thank you".
"Okay, Thaddeus, your essence now is an elemental soul. I was just acting on impulse. The specific adjustments need to be made back in the Mage Tower. I'll take you back to Karazhan first." Duke had to hold this guy back.
"Understood. I will follow your orders, my lord." Thaddeus responded respectfully, "Yes, there are some things that you'd better take a look at before you leave, my lord."
Seeing the staff that Thaddeus dug out from a pile of junk.
"Huh? Sunset Tower!?" Duke was pleasantly surprised.
Duke was a little confused.
Because of the distortion of history, he couldn't figure out whether he was fighting in level 60 or level 80 Naxxramas.
Because this thing called Sunset Tower is a typical level 80 product of Naxxramas.
Although Duke himself cannot use it, the quality of this staff is quite good.
With powerful spell strength and casting speed bonuses, plus good endurance and spirit added values, it is a good staff for a priest.
The shape is also good, with two golden circles like the sun at the head and tail, plus eight small golden cones radiating in eight directions. When it is waved, it looks like waving two suns, one big and one small.
Benedictus doesn't want this thing, so Duke just gives it to Calia.
After Duke took control of the Naxxramas main control system, traveling to Karazhan became commonplace. Duke took Thaddeus back with him.
He met Khadgar.
"Oh! Dear master, what...what did you bring back? A heroic spirit? Uh, a special spirit that is infused with the power of nature's thunder? Although there are enough strange beings in Karazhan, there are too many. I can hardly control the situation."
The ghost wizard Khadgar put his hands on his hips and kept complaining to Duke.
Duke blinked and looked like he was in a difficult situation too.
Well! Let's not talk about the brainless "curator" and the chaste saint with an overwhelming sense of justice. The manager Executus, who was once a fire demon boss, and the shadowy black witch Falina alone gave Khadgar a great sense of oppression.
Now there is a Thunder Knight with a special soul, and Khadgar is overwhelmed.
Duke sent the other elementalists away and asked Khadgar, "Are they not causing any trouble?"
"No, the fire demon kept asking me if there were any slaves he could use. He wanted to build a fire element furnace for you. I gave him a team of heroic warriors and asked him to capture the monsters that escaped from the space cracks. Those who could successfully enslave them would be his new subordinates."
Then Khadgar rolled his eyes: "And then that ms. Farina who looks like a human but is actually a shadow creature, after I refused her entry into your bedroom, she started asking you indirectly what kind of women you like. I was so annoyed that I said you have recently become obsessed with playing female demons, and the higher the status, the better..."
"Pa!" Someone slapped a ghost wizard on the back of the head with his right hand.
"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll hit you!" Duke complained coldly.
"Bullshit! You already hit him!" Khadgar's eyes were full of stars.
"Pa!" This time it was another slap with the left hand.
"Be careful or I'll hit you again."
"You bastard--" Khadgar felt wronged!
But Khadgar is a guy who will tear down the roof if he is not beaten for three days. Duke is really afraid that when he turns around, he will see Farina playing fake cosplay with him.
Now, Duke had used the divinity he had obtained to create three elemental messengers, which was a bit painful. When he rescued Thaddeus just now, he just did it out of impulse, but then he realized that he had fallen into a trap. If he wanted to maintain a real elemental messenger, it meant that Duke must also master the divine laws of the natural system.
In addition to the basic elements of fire, frost, and arcane, there are also the nature system and shadow system for wind and thunder. For the sake of balance, a light system must be added... If there is one more field, the difficulty of entering the divine realm will be doubled. Now Duke's difficulty is already the normal difficulty multiplied by two to the sixth power.
Duke wailed in his heart: "Damn, I'm not good at math, but I know this is 64 times, okay!"
Although Duke, who had witnessed the War of the Ancients, knew very well that ordinary single-domain demigods were useless, like the Boar God or something like that, a third-rate Void Lord could kill them all, but 64 times was also possible... It was too difficult from hell!
And Duke was still a little confused about the direction of his efforts.
If the three elements of fire, frost and arcane are enough, I can still be considered a wizard god or something, but what the hell is this six elements?
However, things will work out when the time comes.
After comforting Thaddeus, Duke returned to Naxxramas and reunited with the team.
Since they controlled most of the fortress, the team didn't need to run and directly used the portal to arrive outside the hall where the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were.
Before opening the door, Duke sensitively noticed the change in the atmosphere in the team.
The depressing atmosphere of Thaddeus's fall into a monster is replaced by a relaxed atmosphere for the entire team because of his soul's final redemption.
After all, the remaining two groups of enemies are in a state similar to closing the door and beating the dog.
As an honest and reliable young man, Duke could not do anything to Kel'Thuzad who was in the independent space, but he could still trick the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
A portal was opened, and hundreds of tons of holy water were brought in from the holy city of Stratholme, and all poured in through the ventilation ducts in the hall.
The undead can stay alive for hundreds of years with the power of their souls without eating or breathing, but Duke didn't believe they could still swim in the holy light pool.
The holy water blessed by holy light is like sulfuric acid in the eyes of humans to the undead.
Bathing in holy water is definitely not a pleasant experience.
Although he felt that the atmosphere in the team was a bit too relaxed, Duke was confident in his strategy, so he did not intend to sound the alarm for the team members.
"Okay, everyone, did you remember to order?" Duke asked.
"Remember!" the fourteen heroes answered in unison.
"Alright! Let's go! Let's go get the Undead Horses, oh no, let's get the Heroic Warhorses!"
Duke is so easy to pronounce, it's called the undead horse. Although in the game, players are proud to get a cool undead horse, Duke is on the justice side! Before the Ebon Blade Knights turned over a new leaf and gained recognition from the mortals, undead horse mounts were taboo.
Of course, Duke promised that he should be able to use undead horses as raw materials, purify them, and then summon the souls of Tirion and his friends' mounts to make heroic horses.
This idea was well received by the two first-generation paladins.
After all, horses usually need to be 4 years old to mature, but even if a war horse does not die on the battlefield, it is rare for it to be ridden until the age of 15. After the age of 15, it is basically an old horse and cannot bear the burden.
Gavinrad and Tirion had fought on the battlefield for twenty years, and they had changed horses countless times. They were unwilling to change horses again and again, and they had been together for a long time, so they had feelings for each other.
The two paladins did not take Duke's grammatically incorrect call seriously. After all, Duke had single-handedly transformed the shadow energy in his body into a sacred and extraordinary existence.
As for some of the strange little quirks of this great hero of the Alliance, everyone chose to ignore them.
The huge stone door, which was ten meters thick, began to open with a rumbling sound under the push of the Titan mechanism.
Just as Duke remembered, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rode silently on their undead horses, standing in the middle of the hall like statues.
But Duke did not expect that the holy water that was expected to submerge half a person's height had disappeared.
No, it's not missing. A skull emitting an icy aura has sealed all the holy water on the four sides like an ice wall.
If it was just a normal boss defeat, Duke wouldn't feel this way.
But the moment he saw the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Duke felt a strong sense of alarm in his heart. He was not the only one who felt this way. There was no need for him to remind him, as Magni had already transformed into a God-like Being.
The two great paladins strode forward and tightly grasped the divine weapons in their hands.
"Be careful--" Led by Duke, at least five voices shouted this sentence in the same shrill voice.
Almost at the same time as the red highlighted alarm words popped up on Duke's retina, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse changed from extremely precise completion to extremely dynamic.
This seems a bit ridiculous, as it takes time for a warhorse to accelerate. You can see the warhorse bulging its thigh muscles, and then using the strength of its muscles to drive itself and the rider on it to accelerate.
But the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are different. Their movements are even faster than a supercar, accelerating from a standstill to a hundred kilometers per hour in about one second.
This gave most non-melee professionals a trance-like illusion, as if the four of them were still standing on the platform in the middle, nearly a hundred meters away from them.
Baron Rivendare bypassed Magni who was trying to block him at high speed. Even though the dwarf king had activated the warrior skill Intercept, his huge body brought a slight decrease in agility, which was perfectly caught by the baron. The undead warhorse under his crotch drifted like a sports car, easily dodged Magni's fire demon hammer, and quickly approached Calia. The greatsword emitting evil aura was ready to pierce her chest straight.
Rivendare did not consider this a despicable act, after all, he was charging head-on rather than attacking from behind.
If the Alliance's healer is not killed, the battle will likely become a protracted one.
The long and sharp rune sword easily pierced through Calia's Holy Word Shield. However, when the tip of his sword was about to pierce through her heart, suddenly, his eyes blurred.
Duke!
It was Duke's critical moment again. He hugged Calia and pulled her into his arms.
Not only that, the spiral sword also struck Rivendare with a backhand strike.
Duke's movements were so fast that he even took advantage of Rivendare's relative speed.
The divine sword emitting golden light accurately pierced into Rivendare's chest, bursting out with strong golden light.
For almost all undead creatures, being hit by a divine weapon like this, even if it doesn't pierce the head, will cause them to die instantly because of the double damage to their soul and body.
If there were a hateful undead being known for its abnormal vitality and durability, maybe it would be possible to hold on.
For the Death Knight, the chest where the Soul Fire is placed is also a fatal point.
But Duke struck with his sword, and Rivendare not only did not destroy it, but did not even turn his head. What flowed out from the pierced part was not blood, but an unknown object similar to a black shadow.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse didn't care and even had enough time to counterattack with a grab and a sword.
Death Grip plus Cleave!
Even Duke almost fell into the trap, but fortunately at the last critical moment, Duke created two illusions of Duke and Calia that looked exactly like his real self and caught them in Rivendare.
"Hmph!" Duke retreated again and again, while eighteen wizard hands cast spells together.
The next second, eighteen instant Fire Explosion spells blasted directly over.
Even with undead steeds, death knights have never been known for their speed.
Duke's fireball was already very fast, and with Rivendare's speed, it was absolutely impossible to dodge it.
Rivendare was hit by a torrential rain of fireballs that were shot out faster than he could dodge. Faced with this wave of attacks that he could not dodge, he actually dispersed the fireballs with just his left hand.
That was as unthinkable as a mortal catching a flying bullet with bare hands.
Of course, the Death Knight also paid a price. Every muscle on his left hand was torn, his arm armor was broken, and his bones shattered and scattered.
However, although he was a death knight, his regeneration ability was much faster than his injury speed due to his Blood talent. Not only the injury on his arm, but also the way the arm armor was repaired the moment it was broken, made Duke feel creepy.
But Duke knew very well that Rivendare definitely did not suck blood just now.
What the hell is this!?
Over there, Lord Kurtaz and Jaina were fighting each other. Duke's eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw the scene.
What did he see?
Obviously, Jaina has been promoted to the Grand Mage of the Dawn. In the field of magic, there are very few people who can compete with her.
But the super meteor fireball summoned by Lord Kurtaz was suppressing Jaina.
This is not a geographical factor.
Naxxramas is not the Molten Core that rejects the Frost Element. Here, except for the Shadow Element which is a bit stronger, the opportunities to use other elements are equal.
Now it was Kurtaz, the dwarf death knight, who was bullying Jaina with a higher purity and larger amount of fire elements. The gap was so big that Jaina almost despaired.
If it weren't for Ilucia helping her, and Gavinrad using his wind sword to do the damage, and if it weren't for Kurtaz's melee attacks, Jaina would probably have been defeated in just two encounters.
Over there, Tirion was also in a tough spot. He was facing Ser Zeliek. Whether Tirion was willing to admit it or not, he had finally witnessed what it meant to be an undead playing with the Holy Light.
It's very ironic that his soul should be corrupted, but because of the purity in his heart, he still gained the recognition of the Holy Light. Zeliek attacked Tirion with Holy Wrath and Holy Arrow.
It looked like a civil war among the Paladins, which was completely ridiculous.
Finally, there is Duchess Blaumeux, whose skill is the most sinister among the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Without realizing it, she can make you fall into the evil Void Realm. If you are not careful for a second, you won't know when your feet have turned into a shadowy realm full of black mud. By the time you react, you have often been swallowed by the dark void.
Vanessa was almost killed. If she didn't have the Shadow Cloak, which forced her to be immune to magic for a short period of time to save her life, she would have probably died.
However, the most terrifying thing is not the single attack of the Four Horsemen, but when the four of them stand together, there will be four terrifying aura effects, which will continuously add curses to the entire Alliance hero group.
"Separate them!" Duke shouted at the top of his voice!
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse must be fought separately.
This is common sense for every World of Warcraft player who has fought Naxxramas!
It is also a tactic that must be implemented.
When the four knights are separated, each of them can only be considered a second-rate strongman. When the four knights are together, it is a super first-rate combination that will give anyone a headache.
Before Duke traveled through time, he became a famous team leader in the entire server and even in the four districts of the national server because he led his team to destroy the Four Knights and clear Naxxramas.
What's more, the four horsemen of the apocalypse in front of them were definitely not normal. They were extremely strong individually, not to mention the four halo-like curses stacked together. Each mark of the horsemen of the apocalypse was a layer of additional damage imposed on the Alliance's strongmen.
At first, I didn't think much of it, but once the mark was stacked once every 12 seconds, once it reached four layers, the damage would be quadruple. At this point, the person would basically be killed instantly, and five layers of the mark would kill him for sure.
Conversely, if the distance exceeds 60 yards, the effect of the halo will disappear after twelve seconds.
Therefore, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse must be separated, and the entire team keeps turning like a wheel, attacking each Horseman of the Apocalypse in turn.
Normally, there shouldn't be any problem separating the enemies.
Imagination is one thing, reality is another.
No one knew who had ordered them or if they had come up with the idea themselves, but the four death knights riding undead warhorses kept moving around, dodging Magni's charge and the pressure from the other three paladins, refusing any contest of strength and trying their best to keep the entire Alliance hero group within the range of the four marks.
At first, Magni and the other four didn't think the mark Duke mentioned was so terrible, but when the four marks were superimposed to the third layer, Jaina was the first one who couldn't bear it.
Lord Kurtaz's Meteor smashed down with a bang, and the horrible destructive power was already four times greater. This was simply something that a newly promoted Sunshine Archmage could not withstand.
The battle between the ice tornado and the fireball ended with the complete defeat of the frost element. If it weren't for Jaina using the top-quality equipment left by Duke, activating an amulet that temporarily increased magic damage, and risking the damage to the magic circuit in her body, she could have thrown out a second ice tornado to offset the aftermath of the fireball, perhaps Ilucia and Vereesa, who were in the group with Jaina at the time, would have been defeated.
The other groups were equally critical, because if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse didn't increase their distance, they would have to stack more layers of cursed halos.
"Boss, no!" Gavinrad shouted first.
"I'm fine, but the others are dead!" Magni, who was almost immune to magic, was also anxious.
"Is there a plan B?" Even someone as cautious and calm as Tirion could no longer sit still.
Is Plan B something that can be created just as you wish?
It turns out that reality and games are two different things!
The mark of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse cannot be stacked to six layers, even if it is a group of heroes with top-grade equipment and a few Paladins who are all powerful people with one chance of invincibility.
The hesitation and panic of the Alliance's powerful men all fell into the eyes of Baron Rivendare, a truly fallen man who voluntarily became a Death Knight.
Rivendare, who had been silent since the beginning, finally did something. As soon as he opened his mouth, he gave a fierce smile: "Are you uneasy? Are you afraid? It's too late! Living beings. Only eternal death is the destination of all things. None of you can escape the fate of death - come, join us! Together, under the command of the great Lich King Arthas, we will build an eternal kingdom on this land!"
His tone is full of the flavor of a charlatan!
Also very cocky!
As Rivendare spoke, the solid floor tiles even vibrated slightly.
Every strong man in the Alliance reflexively looked at the ground below - in an instant, almost every one-meter square tile on the ground summoned at least ten slender shadow spears.
Like a primeval forest rising from the ground, the sharp shadow spears stabbed at every alliance strongman. If they did not do something, these spears would pierce their bodies one by one and turn them into human sashimi.
If they were ordinary professionals, they would probably be wiped out in an instant!
"Devotion!" Without even a tenth of a second of hesitation, the three paladins directly activated their skills. They injected holy divine energy into the ground beneath their feet to counter Rivendare's ultimate move.
However, I don't know if it's the effect of the mark or something else. Obviously, the range of the three Paladins' Devotion can only take care of teammates within 25 yards, and it is powerless beyond that.
Liadrin's strength is slightly weaker, and the range that her divine power can protect is only 10 yards. If anyone wants to leave the range of protection of the Paladin, unless they can fly, they will have to face such a terrifying wide-area shadow skill by themselves!
Seeing that his skills did not kill any of the Alliance's heroes, Rivendare was not annoyed, because his purpose of delaying the enemy had been achieved.
If Duke was still the new time traveler, maybe after the unfortunate encounter, he would get so excited that he would actually start to lick the idiot's ass.
Speaking of glorious history, Dumouk was a great man who had slept with a queen, tamed a female dragon, and had harems in almost every country in the Alliance. How could he give up the benefits of sword training and become a death knight with a rotting penis! ?
Are you kidding?
The Fuhrer is angry! Oh! No, it's Duke who is angry!
"No matter how Kel'Thuzad has strengthened you, you want to deal with us? You bunch of crappy Knights of the Apocalypse are not qualified--" As if in response to Duke's roar, both the enemy and our side in the hall felt the earth trembling at the same time.
Without giving any being time to react, the floor, which seemed to remain unchanged for ten thousand years, collapsed!
"Help! I'm going to fall to my death!" Magni was almost frightened to death when he suddenly lost his footing. Then, after falling a hundred meters while screaming, he suddenly found that there was a bright light of fire above his head.
One, two... ten...
They are all pure-blooded fire eagles surrounded by beautiful flaming lights.
Damn! I actually forgot! I am also a great person with a flying mount!
Although he was the slowest among the heroes, he was not a fool after all. Magni shouted, "Come out, my rock!"
A small firebird suddenly jumped out from Magni's wrist armor, and in less than one tenth of a second it turned into a huge firebird with a wingspan of more than eight meters. It flew lightly and nimbly under Magni's rapidly falling body and held him up.
Three seconds later, the Alliance's heroes all flew to the side of the frightened Magni.
"Hahaha! No more! I must tell Kurdran about your ugly appearance of almost peeing your pants, and let him laugh at you for the rest of his life." Having just escaped death, Gavinrad was talking nonsense again.
Gavinrad was only a few words long, and then everyone turned their attention to Duke again.
"The other party is obviously a little inconsistent with the intelligence. What should we do next?" asked Jaina.
Duke's eyes narrowed into a line, and he couldn't help but think to himself:
As expected, there is no boss in this world who stretches his neck out waiting to be slaughtered. The current situation is indeed a variable, but variables are good!
As long as the whole team is not wiped out, the variables also mean challenges and surprises.
Although this surprise almost turned into shock and fear, no matter how much Kel'Thuzad thought about it, he would never have imagined that I had such a trick.
"Huh!" Duke let out a long sigh and snapped his fingers. The dark space below suddenly became brighter. He said loudly, "Do you see what's going on below?"
When everyone saw it, they were immediately impressed.
This is the benefit of turning the enemy's formation into your own home ground. The floor that seemed so solid just now collapsed and fell below. In the unknown lower level of Naxxramas, the huge square space was divided into four small squares of equal area. Between each square space, there was a nearly 10-meter-thick wall reinforced with Titan runes, and it was impossible to connect with each other.
Except for one square space that was completely covered by black mist, in the other two spaces, Lord Kurtaz, Sir Selyek and Duchess Blaummiux could be clearly seen falling down. Their respective brilliances were very easy to recognize.
"Someone will deal with Kurtaz. Let's focus on dealing with the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse." Duke ordered.
"This mechanism is amazing." Although she had not had much contact with Duke, Liadrin could only admire the Alliance commander who took away her queen.
But think about it, since Duke can control Farina and let most of the Death Knights and Abominations fall into the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj to feed the bugs, then he can naturally control the fortress's mechanisms and forcibly break up the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Tyrande's eager eyes were filled with curiosity: "Duke, did you think of this idea all along? Or did you just improvise?"
Duke's face was a little gloomy: "I was originally planning to train the team well."
On the other hand, the Death Knights and their Undead Warhorses cannot fly, but the Death Grip is really useful. If it were any other profession without life-saving skills like Slow Fall, they would definitely fall to pieces, but the Apocalypse Knights used the Death Grip to grab the bumps on the walls around them as they fell, and descended safely step by step.
Lord Kurtaz rode his undead warhorse and landed incredibly lightly in this huge square space that was at least two hundred meters long and wide.
He had to land because he had seen the pure-blooded fire eagles ridden by the Alliance's heroes. If he stayed on the protruding wall with little cover when the enemy had air force, he would be a target.
But he was very surprised, because the heroes of the Alliance actually divided into three groups and flew towards his companions.
He felt something was wrong. It was dark all around him, and a strange fog obscured most of his perception. However, he instinctively sensed the location of the other three companions and wanted to get closer to them. Theoretically, as long as he got close enough, his Mark of Kurtaz could still have an impact on the Alliance's strongmen. He even tried to see if he could cross the wall and use Meteor to cause damage to the enemy.
Just as he was riding his horse forward, suddenly a sharp sound of breaking wind came from the darkness.
He and the undead warhorse became one in spirit, and he dodged the blow that was like a mountain collapsing, not too easily.
The undead had no sense of pain, and the rubble that flew out when they struck down crackled against her and the undead horse, which made him extremely fearful of his enemies.
This is definitely not a human or a dwarf from heaven!
This is...
"Hey! Little dwarf, where are you in such a hurry to go? Don't you want to play with me, your sister?" Along with a somewhat evil female voice, two big yellow lights lit up in the darkness.
No! This is not a lamp!
These are actually the eyeballs of two huge dragons!
With that iconic vertical pupil, Kurtaz can be easily recognized even with ashes.
"Onyxia!?"
The dark clouds dissipated a little bit, and the Black Dragon Princess' iconic black dragon scales and her huge head with huge horns and multiple spikes also appeared in the darkness.
At this time, Kurtaz really felt as if he was yelled at by a dog.
How could he have deserved the other party to send the Black Dragon Princess to deal with her?
Unwilling to surrender, Kurtaz raised his hand and used a Meteor. This fire elemental attack was like a meteor piercing the atmosphere and crashing down, and it exploded above Onyxia's head with a rumbling sound.
Faced with such an attack, the Black Dragon Princess didn't even have the interest to use dragon scales to resist.
"Huh!" she blew a breath.
Yes! With just one breath, not even a deep breath or dragon breath, Kurtaz's Meteor was blown away. It deviated from the planned trajectory and exploded thirty meters away.
The huge black dragon's face was full of ridicule: "You want to use fire to deal with me? Haha, wait until you have the strength of Ragnaros."
Lower-level mysteries are destined to be crushed by higher-level mysteries.
It is true that Kurtaz is a death knight who can play with fire meteors, but unfortunately he is just a death knight who has been strangely transformed. Even with the special bonus, the fire he creates is only at the level of Antonidas. Facing Onyxia, the demigod dragon who grew up playing with fire, he is doomed to be miserable!
Onyxia was amused to see Kurtaz's dead face with constipation.
She wouldn't want to fight against a strong enemy unless her hateful master forced her to do so.
On the contrary, she likes bullying the weak the most.
"Come on! Let's play! How about I give you a paw?"
The evil Black Dragon Princess seems fair, but this is like inviting guests to a farm stay in 40-degree weather and saying there is "freshly-baked earthenware, super hot". It's totally a lie and not sincere at all.
The opponent's best attack was useless, and Kurtaz didn't know any elemental magic except fire, so he let a small death knight fight with an ancient demigod dragon.
But this guy is not called Al Fool.
That's really haha.
"Ah!" Lord Kurtaz's miserable screams echoed throughout the space.
On the other side, in the three square venues, the remaining Knights of Apocalypse faced the heroes of the Alliance.
Every time, five heroes jumped out from the suddenly opened portal, and then quickly attacked the Apocalypse Knight. Then, without waiting for the mark of the Apocalypse Knight to stack up, they immediately jumped away through the suddenly appeared portal.
Separated from their companions, in an unfamiliar place, besieged by a group of unfamiliar enemies, and less than twenty seconds after falling, the three Apocalypse Knights couldn't help but feel nervous -
Lord Kurtaz is in trouble.
I don't know what kind of enemy he encountered, but it was obviously a terrifying and powerful enemy that he could not contend with, because the three Apocalypse Knights sensed that Kurtaz had already activated the Barrier of Death.
Death Barrier was a skill Kel'Thuzad had specially bestowed upon them after the fall of Naxxramas. It turned out that this skill was similar to the warrior's professional skill Shield Wall, both of which could greatly reduce the damage from the outside world.
After being revised by Kel'Thuzad, it uses the highly concentrated shadow power stored in a soul gem to forcibly create a barrier to resist external attacks.
If all the Alliance masters in front of them were to focus their fire, they could at least hold out for 20 seconds. However, with the Alliance masters appearing one after another, Duke and his group simply couldn't afford to deal with Kurtaz. Who on earth was that...
Of course, the Knights of Apocalypse had no way of knowing that Duke had shamelessly brought Onyxia, the boss, into the fight.
"Hey! Little bone dwarf, don't die so soon! Play with me for a while!" Along with the teasing voice, Onyxia swept over with her dragon tail.
Death knights are agile and flexible, but that is only for the Alliance warriors who don't have mounts. They can't fly, and it's even more impossible for them to do exaggerated movements like rangers or thieves, such as jumping into the air, doing a backflip nine times, and then standing firmly on the ground.
Faced with dragon tails or wings that are often more than fifteen meters long, Kurtaz is in great pain.
How terrifying is the Dragonflight's fighting instinct?
The dragon's tail, when swung in a round shape, is like a large battering ram. But Onyxia's dragon's tail is much more terrifying than a battering ram. Not only does it have a longer range, but it also has long and extremely hard bone spurs.
That's not a battering ram at all, but more like a meteor hammer used by gods!
When the tail passed by, the sky and the earth collapsed.
There was no way to dodge, the poor Death Knight could only take it.
Who knew Onyxia was so cunning? The first attack seemed to be a sweep of the dragon's tail, but in the end it was a dragon claw that slapped down from the opposite direction, directly breaking the undead horse's limbs.
Lord Kurtaz's heart broke when he heard the "crackling" sound of the undead horse's leg bones.
"Ahhh!" Lord Kurtaz pulled out a battle axe from the space bag and tried to chop the dragon's claw, but the dragon's tail came again at this time.
"Hey! Look at my black dragon home run--" Onyxia grinned evilly and knocked Kurtaz away with her tail.
Kurtaz was a dwarf paladin in life, and he was just a dead dwarf after death. As a result, he was directly blasted against the steep and solid wall by the huge force of the dragon.
The huge impact force almost broke him apart on the spot.
He slid down the wall, but before he hit the ground, a huge dragon wing hit him.
The blow, which was measured in tons and was enough to smash an ordinary professional to pieces on the spot, caused half of his body to sink into the wall.
"Oh! Is this like slapping the wall and not being able to get it off?" Onyxia grinned. Although she had been Duke's mount, as a black dragon born in the evil camp and with a bad heart, she had accumulated a lot of pressure, and now was a good time for her to vent.
Shaking the dragon's head, the Black Dragon Princess said: "Well, it seems that I have also been taught badly by the damn master. Why am I always talking about his lines..."
Kurtaz struggled: "Serving the great Lich King... Wow!"
The poor Apocalypse Knight hadn't even finished his words when he was hit by a dragon's tail and was directly knocked into the Death Barrier state.
"Bullshit! I, who am so beautiful, am going to be an ugly bone dragon? Congratulations, little bone dwarf, you've pissed me off!" Onyxia showed off her female power!
She didn't know that, according to history, she was later resurrected by her father as an ugly undead dragon...
However, the throbbing of fate was like a magical sixth sense, constantly stirring her heartstrings, telling her that only Duke could escape this nightmarish fate.
Her attack couldn't help but become more fierce.
While Onyxia was bullying the weak, Duke finally formed the attack cycle of his dreams.
The fifteen heroes were divided into three attack groups, attacking the remaining three Apocalypse Knights in waves. Duke followed Magni, and then Liadrin, Sylvanas, and Vanessa.
"Duke! Are you going to stop my Lord's great cause again? Why can't you see through it! Only death is eternal--" Rivendare roared, trying to chop Duke with his signature greatsword.
Duke was annoyed by this kind of brainwashing roar, and he directly responded: "Bullshit, what's the point of being an undead! If you have the guts, ask Arthas to train a low-level skeleton soldier into a death knight! How dare you ask me to join a race with no ambition at all!?"
Ignoring Sylvanas's chuckles beside him, Duke continued to complain in his mind: This is not a game. It's impossible to train a small level 1 Forsaken to level 110 like a player.
Bones can be leveled up, but that doesn't apply to the world of Azeroth. Your qualifications in life determine your potential after death. If you were a worthless warrior in life, you can only be a skeleton Cannon fodder after death!
So for Lich King fans like Rivendare, Duke has only one thing to say to him - you'd better be humanely destroyed as soon as possible and don't hinder the rotation of the planet!
Unfortunately, as long as Duke hadn't entered the realm of God, he would not be immune to the mark of Rivendare. After stacking four layers, Duke and his entire team were expelled.
Of course, in the original version of the game against the Four Horsemen, the simplest tactic is for four of the five tanks to carry the boss, while one takes over.
At this time, someone named Du cheated in Duke's place and directly divided the Four Knights into four independent spaces. He also used portals as a means of movement, thus simplifying everything.
"Don't run!" Seeing Duke and the others wanted to run, Rivendare naturally chased them.
However, chasing does not mean catching up.
Magni hit the floor with his hammer directly. The broken bricks revealed the clear power of thunder. The strong electric arc forced Rivendare to slow down his pace.
A heroic warrior can act rogue in such a simple and violent way.
Not only that, there was also Duke's Slowdown Technique. The two guys' moves made Rivendare's movements as slow as a snail.
By the time he regained his mobility, the five hit-and-run guys had already jumped into the portal and disappeared.
Almost at the same time, five guys jumped out of another portal less than 40 yards behind him.
"Come on! Let's have a fierce battle with your grandpa Gavinrad!" A guy whose name is written as Paladin but pronounced as rogue, rushed over waving a huge artifact sword and stirring up the power of wind and thunder.
For a moment, Rivendare didn't want to waste time with these guys, because the final result of the round-robin battle would definitely be the destruction of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Unfortunately, he had to fight even if he didn't want to.
Thunderfury Blessed Sword of the Windseeker is not just a simple melee weapon. With a swing of the huge sword, Rivendare felt as if the air around him was completely pushed away, and he and the undead horse under his crotch were sucked into a black hole. His body became sluggish, and even the powerful undead horse could not move for a second.
At this time, a new team of five people was approaching him at high speed and fighting with him fiercely.
"Damn it!" Rivendare cursed.
who is he?
Who is she?
Both of them are so strong!
It's not that Rivendare didn't do his homework and couldn't tell who the heroes in the Alliance were, but that he didn't have the time to do so.
The sense of shock in his soul made him panic.
He could clearly feel that the distance between him and the other three Apocalypse Horsemen was widening.
At the same time, his strength was declining rapidly.
Has the secret finally been discovered?
Unfortunately, Gavinrad's wind sword, Alleria's wind and lightning arrows, Vanessa's deadly double daggers, Jaina's fireball and Benedictus' holy punishment all came at him head-on, making him unable to take care of himself. Oh, no, he didn't even know how many bones were broken.
At this time, Duke's team had already run through the portal to beat up Duchess Braummiux.
If we were to ask who is the most difficult of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the first one would definitely be that damn dwarf Kurtaz. With that level of fire magic, if it carries more than four layers of marks, not to mention Jaina, even Duke would be vulnerable.
The vicious curse mark can directly reduce the opponent's magic resistance. For a mage, it would reduce the magic output of the magic circuit.
The second most difficult person to deal with is Baron Rivendare.
The remaining two, on the other hand, are just a joke because of their simple attack methods and lack of instant kill capabilities.
So when Liadrin injected holy light into the ground, allowing the team to beat up Braumux, Sylvanas suddenly asked: "What happened to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? I feel like they are weak."
"Weakened? Of course! Did you know that they are now more than 3,000 yards apart from each other?"
"3,000 yards?"
It doesn't seem like it, and there's no counting when there's a flying mount, but the distance is indeed not short. Sylvanas is very smart and immediately thought of something: "Their strength is inversely proportional to the distance between them? The greater the distance, the weaker their strength!"
"Yes! Because they have a stingy boss."
Before Duke could finish his words, Braumux swung his rune sword and chopped him down: "You are not allowed to insult Lord Kel'Thuzad!"
"Poor thing, she's been brainwashed. Would you still say that if you were freed from the Lich King's mental control?" Duke complained as he swung a fireball with a high elemental concentration and hit the Apocalypse Knight in the face, sending her flying.
This time, Duke was right.
There is a reason why the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse suddenly became stronger.
After fighting for so long and the system AI analyzing for so long, the final conclusion made Duke a little upset - Kel'Thuzad injected divinity into all four of them.
Of course, it is not a high-purity good stuff. This kind of divinity, which was not known whether it was obtained from Northrend or looted from somewhere else, has characteristics similar to the animal evil gods of Zul'Aman, crazy and full of chaos.
If he had to describe what this power was similar to, Duke would definitely think that the closest answer was the blood of the Lord of the Abyss.
It can indeed greatly increase the user's strength and destructive power, but it will also cause the user to gradually lose their sanity, fall into madness and killing, and be unable to extricate themselves.
Using this thing on the calm, cruel and powerful Death Knight really left Kel's hands dry.
Moreover, this thing is not a single portion, but an extremely powerful chaos divinity that is forcibly divided into four portions.
The consequence of being split into four, in addition to each having different characteristics, also triggered a telepathic connection similar to that of twin brothers.
However, the distance would cause the divine power to be weakened, which was something Kel'Thuzad had not expected.
So on the surface, Kel'Thuzad threw out the names of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, such as War, Killing, Hunger and Death, but in fact this was to cover up the failure of this experiment.
Of course, it was impossible for others to notice this tiny difference. Duke had a system that monitored the data of the Four Horsemen from beginning to end. When the system had an answer, the team was in crisis. Therefore, Duke decisively dismantled the hall where the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were located and forcibly dispersed them.
Now Duke frowned.
"how?"
"I almost got a chance to escape."
Indeed, after absorbing the divinity of fire, wind, thunder and shadow in one breath, just looking at the total amount of magic power, Duke has become a first-class Sunshine Mage.
But Duke's current combat power is only about second-class star. After all, apart from the fire divinity, Duke doesn't dare to use the other two.
The core of his power is the mage. Before the mage's basic foundation is stable, abusing the divinity of other systems may break the balance of the magic circuit in his body. That would be looking for death.
Under the condition of unbalanced divinity, Duke could only use 70% of his strength at most. Under this premise, he had to take into account the control of Naxxramas, ensure the blockade of the space where Kel'Thuzad was, and open the portal to send three teams to play a round-robin battle.
At this moment, Duke's individual combat power is only half a level higher than Jaina's.
Just now, Duke got angry and shot Braummiux with a huge fireball, and Sir K almost found an opportunity to break out.
There is no other way. Before dealing with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Duke can only be a good boy.
As the battle progressed, the heroes in the Alliance all felt the weakness of the Knight of Apocalypse.
Even though they activated the Death Barrier three times to absorb almost all damage, the slow movements, reduced attack power, and disorder of the elemental attacks they released could not be hidden from the experienced Alliance heroes.
When the third Death Barrier was opened, Duke looked up to the sky and shouted: "Onyxia, stop playing!"
Silence filled the air, and then three seconds passed, and suddenly, a special portal opened in the void. Different from the blue-purple arcane portals Duke often used, this portal was made of flames and was quite large, looking like the main entrance of Stormwind Fortress.
Countess Katrina exudes sexiness and sways her charming figure. She has her snow-white left arm on her waist and her right hand is twisting a huge head that exudes a flaming aura.
Then, the Countess threw the charred head that was still surrounded by the element of fire, drew a standard arc in the air, and finally fell at the feet of Baron Rivendare.
"Kurtaz!?" Even though his face had been completely changed, and even though he had already sensed a broken chain in his soul, Rivendare still froze when he saw his companion's end.
Apart from the bonus of divinity, he himself knows how much he is worth.
If his master had not resurrected him because of his loyalty, he might still be a wronged ghost on the beach next to the Sunwell, or he might have been completely destroyed by the Holy Light.
Unfortunately, it was impossible for him to reverse the defeat.
"No——" he roared and launched a desperate charge towards Magni, who had descended from heaven.
"Hmph!" Magni was quite unhappy, because he had already noticed that Rivendare's scarlet soul eyes were not looking at him, but Duke.
Without roaring, Magni remained unusually silent. He first smashed out with a hammer in his left hand holding the axe.
That's right!
It's a hammer!
Storm Hammer composed entirely of thunder and lightning!
If it were in the past, Rivendare would definitely use his amazing horsemanship to control the undead warhorse to dodge nimbly.
At this moment, he didn't care.
If he drags it on, his end will still be destruction.
It's better to give it a try!
Intense lightning exploded directly on the undead warhorse, and violently twisted electric snakes twisted and slithered on the undead warhorse. Even though the undead warhorse was essentially a spirit, it still twitched uncontrollably under such a powerful elemental attack.
However, Rivendare's entire body had entered the leaping slash state.
It looks like his posture is as standard as that of Grom Hellscream.
"Want to go over? Have you asked me?!" At this moment, Magni's right arm swung violently with such speed and force that others felt that Magni was swinging a huge plate, well, a plate made entirely of flames.
Hand of Sulfuras Ragnaros the Firelord is showing its power!
The artifact hammer turned into a waterfall of fire flowing backwards and hit Rivendare in the middle.
"Die - Duke!" Rivendare roared ferociously, as if he didn't see the huge flaming hammer that was hitting his lower body.
"Bang!"
Fire flashed and sparks flew.
Rivendare, the leader of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, had half of his body turned into charcoal in an instant and disappeared in the wind.
Who would have thought that after the warhammer was swung, Rivendare's upper body holding the sword actually maintained the original flying direction and still flew straight towards Duke.
"Huh?" Vanessa was the first to notice something was wrong. She threw a dozen knives.
Sylvanas's thunder arrow arrived first, accurately hitting the red soul fire shining in Rivendare's chest.
Next came Liadrin's Hammer of Wrath, which was filled with the Paladin's intention to slay evil. The golden holy light hammer directly hit the Death Knight's back, and immediately there was a sound of bones breaking.
But Rivendare still did not hesitate.
At this moment, everyone finally realized that Rivendare had given up all defenses and was relying solely on his own body to withstand all attacks in order to die together with Duke.
"Poof!" Vanessa suddenly burst into laughter shamelessly.
A mere Apocalypse Knight with low health wants to fight to the death with her shameless and beastly Duke master who keeps all his life-saving skills?
Is this Death Knight's brain broken?
When Vanessa turned her gaze to Duke, she was surprised to see that Duke did not dodge or evade, but instead strode forward with a staff in his left hand and a sword in his right hand.
"Damn it!"
Is my master addicted to being a swordsman?
swordsman?
Bastard?
Maybe!
People are just mean!
Being mean is human!
The feeling of being both a human and a mean person is actually quite good.
Duke's motto is to weaken the boss in advance and never let the opponent reach 100%.
But sometimes Duke will act on impulse, like now...
Emotionally, he could tolerate people who were afraid of death and willing to be slaves of the Lich King in order to achieve eternal life, but he absolutely could not stand people who sold out their teammates, their masters, and even their own people to become undead for the sake of so-called eternal life.
This is what Duke told himself: "I will give him a complete destruction!"
Duke draws his sword!
It was an ordinary sword stab that even a militiaman who had only trained for three months could do. The long sword with a strange spiral shape, like a screw, pierced Rivendare's head. It was as if Rivendare was delivering food himself.
With one sword, Duke pierced the pale noble face that always uttered crazy words, as well as the head itself, like piercing a watermelon, and the dried brain matter and shrunken brain tissue scattered all over the ground.
But not a drop or a piece of rotten flesh could break through the Ice Shield around Duke and dirty Duke's blue and white wizard robe.
The layman watches the excitement, while the expert sees the details.
Liadrin and Magni could only sense that something was wrong.
Only Vanessa and Sylvanas were sensitive enough to notice that Duke seemed to have disappeared at that moment.
It was not a disappearance in existence. Duke could still be sensed, seen, heard, and smelled, but it just felt like Duke disappeared for a moment.
"This is..."
"Well, a little trick in the use of souls."
This is a skill that Duke learned when he was a Void Lord. The undead have almost no five senses to the outside world, because of death, the five senses of the living have long ceased to sense. The only thing they can rely on is their soul.
Everything in the world has a soul.
Even the stones that mortals think are lifeless actually still contain a large number of bacteria and microorganisms inside them. These organisms constitute a collection of souls, and the soul fluctuations they emit can still be sensed by the undead.
So in the world of the undead, the only thing left in the world is the color of the soul.
What Duke did was to block all the escape of his soul at that moment.
Therefore, in the perception of mortals, Duke did nothing. In fact, Duke had disappeared from Rivendare's sight for a while.
The result was that Rivendare, almost foolishly, put his head on the blade of the accelerating spiral sword.
"Ahhhh——" That was the last scream of Rivendare's soul.
This strongly stimulates the eardrums and souls of the onlookers.
"Is Rivendare completely dead this time?" Sylvanas asked. She still remembered that she had killed Rivendare once on the island of Quel'Danath.
"Basically."
"Basically?" Sylvanas was curious.
"Alas!" Duke sighed, "The Scourge guys are the most troublesome. I can indeed destroy their souls with Holy Light. If their souls were not complete before I destroyed them, for example, if a part of them was preserved or hidden, then they can still rely on the remaining souls and join other souls to 'resurrect'."
"Resurrection!?" This word made Sylvanas very unhappy.
It sounds like this is never-ending.
Duke pondered for a moment and continued, "It is difficult for a living being's soul to multiply. You can think of it this way: a lost soul can never be brought back. It will disappear forever along with certain memories."
"Then what about involving other souls?"
It feels like Sylvanas's question is asking Duke his own question!
Duke smiled bitterly. "Generally speaking, an independent soul is very exclusive. Basically, there is no real fusion between souls, just like water and oil, they can never mix together. But the Scourge seems to have some means to forcibly sew different souls together. For example, Kel'Thuzad, when we first discovered that he was an undead wizard, we used holy light to purify his soul. Logically, at least 80% of his soul should be gone..."
"Then why..." Sylvanas hesitated to speak.
"He has already lost himself. If it is a fusion of souls, it is inevitable that the will of other souls will be introduced. Even if it is fused with the soul of a blank baby, the concentration of the original soul will be diluted. The strength of the soul affects a person's strength. If the fused soul is too weak, the strength will be greatly reduced. If the fused soul is too strong, it will lose itself, or even he himself will not be able to figure out which will belongs to him."
In fact, another example is the Lich King Ner'zhul and Arthas. On the surface, it was Ner'zhul who had been tempting the lich to fall and dragging his soul into the abyss of despair, but Ner'zhul was too soft-hearted.
From the very beginning, when they met Kil'jaeden, they were afraid of this and that, and didn't dare to take responsibility. This is how Gul'dan came to power. Then when he became the warchief, he was afraid of Kil'jaeden, so he desperately attacked Azeroth, but was finally blown up by Duke.
From the beginning to the end, this guy is just a coward.
If you don't have your soul tortured by Kil'jaeden for ten or eight years, you won't be able to accomplish anything.
Now, he tempted Arthas to merge his soul with his, but who knew that his will was too weak, and as a result, the will of the Warchief and the first Lich King was almost devoured without leaving any trace.
This led to the emergence of the second Lich King, Arthas. If he had given more strength, there would only be one Lich King from beginning to end - Ner'zhul.
In fact, Duke's will is not that strong, but Duke's soul is very tolerant! Most of the souls that have been integrated are the souls of famous saints (morality), so there is the "Saint Duke" in the mouths of the people now.
Duke sighed softly.
While Duke's team was in a daze, the battles on the other two sides were also coming to an end. They just changed their targets once and they were done.
The portal opened, Tirion carried Zeliek's head, Gavinrad dragged the soulless remains of Braummiux, and the fifteen members of the Hero Group finally gathered together.
"It's all solved." Gavinrad breathed softly.
At this time, Alleria, Tirion and Calia came over together.
Seeing that they were hesitant to speak, Duke could only speak: "What's wrong?"
The beautiful and dignified female elf spoke first. Her voice, like a yellow warbler out of the valley, was rarely solemn: "In fact, Blaumeux and Seliek are from the Silver Dawn."
Tirion was a very upright man, and he said frankly: "When they stood in front of us as death knights, we should undoubtedly destroy them, but now..."
Calia interjected: "Can we redeem their souls like we did with Thaddeus?"
After hearing this, Duke was stunned at first.
As a time traveler and veteran player, unless it is a memorable game mission, who would care about the historical background of each boss in a large dungeon with more than a dozen bosses?
If the three of them hadn't mentioned it, Duke would have known nothing about the background of these two Apocalypse Horsemen.
After Tirion's detailed explanation, Duke finally understood -
In fact, this was also the sin committed by Kel'Thuzad when he led Naxxramas to cause trouble a while ago.
The land of Lordaeron, which was originally contaminated by the Scourge plague, has shown signs of recovery.
The problem is that Sir K drove the flying fortress everywhere to cause trouble. Of course, the main cities of the Alliance countries, which had been greatly strengthened, were not a big problem. However, due to the lack of mobility and low visibility at night, there were always remote areas affected.
the Alliance's top brass ordered the defense to be stretched, but unfortunately the rebuilt blood elf kingdom of Sin'dorei was equally astonishingly dependent on the outside world.
As a last resort, after discussion, Calia and Sylvanas decided to maintain the supply line from Stratholme to Eversong Woods.
The most important fulcrum of this supply line is the Northland Fortress, a solid fortress built in the southwest corner of Stratholme.
The predecessor of the Northland Fortress was the Northland Watchtower. Later, under Duke's order, the Alliance concentrated a considerable amount of manpower and material resources to expand the watchtower, forming a small fortress covering an area of 3,000 square meters with five towers in the east, west, south, north and center.
Another fulcrum of the supply line is the Thalass watchtower at the border between Lordaeron and Sin'dorei. This watchtower is guarded by the Silver Dawn, an independent force that is not subordinate to the two countries.
Because of Arthas's destruction of Lordaeron and the Silvermoon City Massacre, many survivors were in great pain and extremely hostile to the Scourge.
The representatives are Duchess Braumux of the Sin'dorei and Sir Zeliek of Lordaeron. The former is the commander of the Thalass Tower, and the latter is the commander of the Northland Tower. They are the core figures of the Scourge defense force.
In order to coordinate how to better protect the continuous delivery of strategic materials to the Sin'dorei Kingdom, the two commanders met frequently in an abandoned village in the North Valley. As a result, the handsome Sir Selyek fell in love with Miss Blaumux, and the beautiful Miss Blaumux was also conquered by Sir Selyek's charming temperament. The kind-hearted subordinates held a grand wedding for the two. People temporarily forgot the terrible natural disaster, and a warm atmosphere reappeared in this sad land.
However, at this moment, Kel'Thuzad played a beautiful trick of feinting to the east and attacking in the west. He first let Naxxramas fly to the city of Lordaeron. In fact, when the fortress flew over the Hinterlands area, he secretly dropped an elite group of death knights led by Rivendare.
"You know what happened afterwards..." When Alleria said this, she couldn't help but feel sad.
Rivendare slaughtered the interracial newlyweds, condemning them to death and miserable slavery.
"As the fight began, I could feel the struggle of their souls," said Tirion.
"Me too," Gavinrad said.
"Duke..." Calia crossed her fingers and made a standard prayer gesture.
Duke's scalp felt numb: "Okay, okay! I'll try."
Divinity itself is not something that can be found everywhere. Finding the right divinity is even more difficult.
If Duke didn't happen to possess the wind and thunder divinity of the Wind Prince, he wouldn't be able to transform Thaddeus.
Now, Duke has no extra divinity to waste.
Then there would be no talk of so-called soul transformation.
However, just because a complex transformation cannot be accomplished does not mean there is no way out. Duke stretched out his hand, and along with a special spellcasting gesture, a blue rune emitting an illusory glow leaped out from his fingertips.
Spirit Sealing Array!
Strictly speaking, this does not fall into the category of mages, but rather the realm of Demonology of warlocks.
Unlike Thaddeus, poor Thaddeus was just an insignificant test subject, and no one knew what he would become. Even if he turned into a Frankenstein-like existence, Kel'Thuzad would only throw him into the abomination zone to guard the door.
Death Knights are definitely a different story.
Death knights and liches, as the backbone of the Scourge, are definitely mature and well-trained troops. From killing designated targets, to using Soul Punishment to force their souls to fall, to brainwashing-style will shocks, the entire process can be said to be impeccable.
However, the Lich King's mind-control mark is actually not that great.
At least in the original history, when the Lich King Ner'zhul broke away from the Burning Legion, he allowed Sylvanas, who had become a death banshee, to break free from his control. In this life, it was the Archlich Anasterian who broke the shackles of mental control.
Now, the new Lich King Arthas is still sleeping, and Kel'Thuzad, the commander who directly controls the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, is temporarily sealed by Duke in the alien space at the core of the fortress.
This is an opportunity!
"Put the remains of the three of them in the formation! Let the dwarf go independently, and put Blaumux and Selyek together. The rest of the clergy, get ready to help me inject holy light into the formation."
The three paladins and two priests immediately stood in a tense and orderly manner at the five corners of the pentagram magic circle condensed by Duke with magic power.
"Hu! Hu! Hu!" Duke adjusted his breathing.
Spread out your perception and spiritual awareness.
External interference...eliminate!
The soul connection between the Lich King and Kel'Thuzad... is cut off!
Good! Let's get to work!
Duke suddenly raised his head, his face slightly tilted up at a thirty-degree angle. His righteous face was filled with a sacred aura, and a golden glow was faintly visible on Duke's face.
At some point, Duke's voice became ethereal. Duke was clearly right beside me, and his voice was chattering, but it sounded like a choir of children in a distant church singing melodious hymns.
"Lost soul! You can see that on the other side of hell, there is still a beacon of holy light..."
"My suffering soul! Can you hear your relatives and friends in this world still calling your name..."
"The darkness will eventually pass, just like the last darkness before dawn..."
"Wake up! Come back!"
"Listen! Your king is calling!"
Duke waved his hand, and the kings immediately understood.
Magni swung his hammer, and the tangible Fire Demon Hammer smashed on the ground, making a crisp thud. "Kurtaz, get back here. I don't want to tell your son that his father ran off to be a running dog for the Scourge while I'm bragging in the tavern."
I don't know if it was an illusion, but Lord Kurtaz's skull trembled.
Sylvanas put her hands on her hips, exuding a domineering attitude: "Braummiux! Have you forgotten our oath? We swore revenge on the Scourge! We swore to hunt Arthas down to the end of hell, and now you have become a death knight!? What does this look like? Get back here!"
The skeleton of Blaumeux seemed to move as well.
Calia knelt down gently and made a prayer gesture. A holy light bloomed on her pure face full of love: "Sir Zeliek, you have done well. But I believe from the bottom of my heart that this should not be the end of a warrior who fights against the Scourge. Come back, I will pray for you."
Following the call of the three kings, the souls of the three death knights seemed to respond somewhat.
"No! It's not enough!" Benedictus, who had saved countless dead souls and had rich experience, gritted his teeth and said, "The salvation of souls is not that simple. The Lich King's powerful will has been infused into their souls. Their willpower is not enough. They must have a stronger stimulus."
More powerful?
Where is the stronger stimulus?
Tirion clenched his fists, but suddenly sighed secretly - yes, not everyone's name is Uther.
Not every soul has such a firm will to resist the soul torture and corrosion of Frostmourne.
"Leave it to me!" Duke said suddenly.
Every fallen soul, besides surrendering their will, has a polluted mind. For example, even though Arthas became a death knight, Mal'Ganis and Kel'Thuzad forced him to do things that he thought would be more sinful, making him even more self-destructive.
Even though these three guys had only been death knights for a short time, as far as Duke knew, Kel'Thuzad had at least involved them in the siege of old Mograine and several massacres of civilians.
Therefore, simply calling out is not enough.
Duke has a system AI, so naturally there is a greater possibility. Using the soul methods learned from the Burning Legion, Duke can read quite a lot of fragmented soul fragments from the souls of the three death knights.
This is not made up, these are all real things that happened to the three of them, but Duke selected them and completed them.
Instantly, a series of illusory projections appeared above the magic circle.
That was a heroic clip of Kurtaz marching across the battlefield and fucking his brothers in the tavern...
That was the scene where Blaumeux and Selyek were having a tryst in the dale...
Although this involved privacy, the souls of the three people soon responded.
Suddenly, a series of metal cracking sounds were heard in the void, as if a chain or something was breaking apart bit by bit.
In the middle of the soul formation created by Duke, the Alliance's heroes were pleasantly surprised to find that three silver spirits, like balloons, rose from the remains of the three death knights.
Soon, the spirit had limbs and a head, eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and finally, even the patterns on the armor it wore became clearly visible.
That's right, it's Blaumeux, Seliek and Kurtaz.
The faces of the three souls were filled with shame.
Kurtaz first knelt on one knee in front of Magni, bowed his head and said in repentance: "I'm sorry, it seems that I can't drink with you, Your Majesty, in the future."
On the other hand, the soul of Blaumeux simply nestled in the arms of the soul of Seliek, and they both seemed a little cowering.
It was Seriek who spoke first: "I'm sorry, Majesty Calia, I messed up."
"It's not your fault!" Calia had tears in her eyes. She wiped them away gently with her slender fingers, then smiled as if she was still crying: "We are too backward. If we could have mastered the technique of flying in the air earlier, you wouldn't have to take the beating passively. If you have to say who is at fault, it should be me as the queen who is at fault first!"
Taking responsibility actively sounds more like a fantasy in this era of demonstrating royal power and informing the people with an unbreakable hierarchy.
For a moment, the couple were stunned.
Sylvanas also came up: "Blaumiux, you did a great job. If you hadn't helped to guard the Saras Trail for so long, perhaps the people of New Silvermoon City would have starved. And... I still owe you a wedding gift..."
Alleria stepped forward, not knowing if she could hug a soul. She looked at Duke, and when he smiled and nodded, she hugged him directly.
I felt like a real spirit being hugged by a living person. The feeling was extremely mysterious and strange.
After a moment of daze, tears of the soul flowed from the corners of Braumux's eyes.
The sighs and greetings lasted for five minutes, and then everyone turned their eyes to Duke.
The question is - is this redemption?
Duke cleared his throat: "In fact, in this world, the soul can stay in the mortal world forever. Perhaps in the form of wronged souls, or... heroic spirits!"
Heroic Spirit!?
This word makes the hearts of all living people beat fast.
The dead are gone, and crossing the boundary between life and death is not accepted by the mainstream point of view, such as being forgotten... Then becoming a heroic spirit is the best choice.
"Heroic spirits! They are not unrestrained. Heroic spirits are similar to vengeful spirits and must also have something like a cornerstone to rely on. In my opinion, the best choice for the three of you is to become the guardian spirits of Naxxramas, the flying fortress that will soon be occupied by the Alliance!"
Guardian spirit!?
The three souls became excited at the same time, as if their hearts that had stopped beating long ago were all leaping for joy at this moment.
With just a few words from Duke, the three souls suddenly found the meaning of their continued existence in the world.
As the former leaders of Naxxramas, they knew how powerful this flying fortress was. They seemed to be able to see that this huge fortress guarded the cursed land, echoing with the Watchtower, forming a terrifying three-dimensional defense system.
No matter how many terrible demons emerge from the Dark Portal, they will all be defeated in front of this terrifying defensive formation that resembles the Wall of Sighs.
"We do!" the three souls said in unison.
Duke nodded, turned to everyone and said, "Okay, let's get ready for the final battle. As long as we take care of Kel'Thuzad and Sapphiron, this great floating fortress will become the guardian of the Alliance and even the entire Azeroth!"
While Duke was cleaning up Naxxramas, fierce battles broke out in various parts of Silithus.
In the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, the Scourge that Duke had thrown down was struggling to survive. They were clinging to every corner of the temple ruins, and even some powerful high-level death knights were trying to form alliances and break through.
In the Cenarion Hold in the north of Silithus, facing the insects rushing out of the Pillar of the Swarm, the Alliance directly used a terrifying barrage to deal with the overwhelming swarm of insects.
"Don't think about it, just fire all the Type 3 Bombs! Lord Edmund has prepared at least 500,000 Type 3 Bombs for this day. Don't worry about the shells. First worry about whether you will have the life to fire all the shells." the Alliance's artillery commanders shouted at the artillerymen below.
Duke had been guiding Ironforge in improving its craftsmanship for twenty years, and now the Cannons produced in Ironforge rarely exploded. The assembly line production, coupled with strict restrictions on the number of times the barrel could be fired, had almost eliminated the casualties of artillerymen due to barrel explosions.
The Type III bullet, which can split into hundreds of small metal bullets when it is fired into the air, is no longer an old-fashioned shotgun, but is close to a cluster bomb. The shotgun explodes directly in the barrel, which is extremely damaging to the barrel. The latest Type III bullet uses a two-stage delayed ignition and detonation system.
The shell will not start the second stage ignition until about two seconds after it flies out of the barrel, detonating the small warhead inside the shell.
At first glance, it looks even more gorgeous than fireworks.
Shotgun shells that are designed to cause area damage are of course useless against big guys with thick skin and flesh like the Skybreaker.
But for large flying insects with relatively slender limbs and no real hard armor, it is simply a nightmare.
If a limb is slightly grazed by a stray bullet or even a single bullet, a hole slightly larger than the mouth of a bowl will immediately appear.
The words "blood and flesh are all over the place" and "limbs are flying everywhere" are not enough to describe the brutality of the Type 3 bullet.
The scene was like a blast from the sky. In the spherical space with a diameter of one hundred meters, there was absolutely no grass growing. All the flying insects exploded and turned into scattered body parts, falling from the sky like rain.
After a round of artillery fire, there were not just hundreds but perhaps thousands of insects falling from the sky.
In order to avoid accidental injuries or even killings by artillery fire, the coalition did not send out the air force. The distance between two hundred and five hundred meters is within the range of the Cenarion Circle's treemen's slingshots, the Alliance's temporary military magic towers and elven archers.
If they get closer, there are dwarven musketeers, humans, and troll spearmen to deal with.
On land, the swarm of insects was like an overwhelming tidal wave.
Unfortunately, in the face of the continuous artillery fire, it looked more like a serving of food.
Ground attacks are not as complicated as air attacks, and dwarf and gnome gunners can use their large-caliber heavy artillery at will.
There are new Cannons for long range, new version of Small Cannon for close range, and dwarf mortars.
A little closer, there are steam tanks and flamethrower tanks blocking the way ahead.
Seeing this scene, Thrall's eyelids twitched, and he couldn't help but think to himself: If the Horde were to come and fight, I wonder how many Horde warriors would have to be sacrificed to defeat them.
The impact of this three-dimensional warfare concept left Thrall's mouth filled with bitterness.
Twenty-one years ago, his ancestors conquered almost half of the Alliance with their muscles and brutal weapons. Twenty-one years later, although he had caught up and obtained a large number of gadgets from the goblins that were considered high-tech by the orcs, he was shocked to find that the gap between the Horde and the Alliance had not narrowed, but was widening.
If there were no magic, the Alliance would be able to crush the entire tribe with just artillery fire. The orcs, trolls, and tauren couldn't even find a place to stay in front of the Alliance.
Just when Thrall's thoughts were a little distracted, an accident happened on the battlefield.