It had been over three months since I arrived in Northrend. Vereesa had never known she possessed a talent for diplomacy, nor had she ever commanded a force of more than thirty people. But today, tens of thousands of warriors had gathered under her banner. There were Frostborn Dwarves, Tuskarr, Humans, and even Nerubians… She had won over almost every race she encountered that could communicate and held a grudge against the Scourge or other enemies, uniting them all under the banner of the Silver Covenant. They, in turn, revered her as the General of this army.
Recalling her previous impetuous and arrogant nature, Vereesa felt like she had become a different person.
Indeed, a person's potential is always forced out…
In fact, the Tuskarr possessed ships capable of long voyages, but after all this time connecting with them, she felt she couldn't just leave. These allies believed in her, and she couldn't betray their trust by abandoning them to face the Scourge alone.
Let's just consider this as preparing for the Alliance's expedition to Northrend! She thought to herself.
"Rhonin would be astonished to see me as I am now!" She thought of the Human mage she loved. She wondered how he was doing now and if he missed her.
Vereesa coordinated everything within this makeshift alliance while also leading scouts to explore Northrend in depth, creating detailed maps to guide the Alliance in the future.
Today, her people arrived at Howling Fjord. This was the easternmost part of Northrend, with incredibly steep mountains, buffeted by strong winds for most of the year, creating a harsh environment. However, they discovered an ancient ruin—a magnificent and imposing ancient castle. It was mostly intact, but no one lived there anymore. The castle's architectural style was similar to Human fortresses, but Humans had clearly never set foot here, let alone built such a stronghold in ancient times.
"Who built this place?" Vereesa wondered, filled with questions. No one could answer her, not even the Tuskarr tribe that had lived near Howling Fjord for generations. Vereesa found the place strange and led her people to withdraw.
However, she didn't know that the scouts' entry had awakened some ancient beings within the castle. After they left, these giants gradually awoke from their millennia-long slumber.
After marking the location on the map, Vereesa quickly put the ancient castle out of her mind. Because the Frostborn Dwarves used snow owls to deliver a message from Valgarde: an Alliance fleet had arrived!
"Are they here to take us back?" Vereesa suddenly became radiant. It seemed the Alliance hadn't forgotten about them.
—
Just a day earlier, Liam's fleet had arrived at Valgarde. The Courage had a high sailing speed, and he had set off a few days earlier than Aiden, so he arrived first.
He raised his telescope and the first thing he saw on the dock were several green-skinned Orcs moving various supplies. "Why are there Orcs here?" Liam wondered, filled with doubt.
Gilneas's isolationist policy meant they were completely unaware of the outside world. Naturally, the news of the Orcs and the Alliance's peace talks had not reached their ears.
He ordered the fleet to slow down, ready for battle at any moment. But then he saw something even stranger—not only Orcs were working on the dock, but also a small number of Humans, and more Dwarves and a peculiar species with exceptionally long tusks on their upper jaws and short stature, whom he had never seen before.
It was almost a melting pot of races here, and he couldn't figure out what was going on.
Lord Hervel, seeing this, volunteered, "Your Highness, there must be something we don't understand. Let me take a skiff and scout ahead."
"Mm, go ahead," Liam nodded. "Be careful."
The person in charge of the dock was the Orcish squad leader Nazgrel. Orcs were not good at diplomacy, so he had divided the labor with Vereesa, with them responsible for construction and Vereesa leading people to handle diplomacy. Now, Valgarde was almost restored to its original state thanks to their efforts, and the dock had long been rebuilt.
After Hervel's skiff docked, the guards brought him before a burly Orc. At first, he was somewhat apprehensive, fearing the Orcs would kill him without rhyme or reason—he remembered that Orcs used to treat Human envoys this way. But after some communication, he learned the whole story and gradually calmed down.
He learned from the Orc that in the past three months, the High Elf ranger Vereesa had raised an army of tens of thousands, immediately dispelling the prince's plan to seize the fortress by force. Instead, he fabricated a story, telling the Orcs that they were reinforcements sent by the Alliance, led by Prince Liam himself.
Without a doubt, Liam was of noble status. If he could seize command of this multi-racial army from that ignorant Elf ranger, it would definitely be very beneficial to his plans!
And Liam adopted his suggestion.
There were still a few Alliance squad members in Valgarde. Some of them confirmed his identity, and seeing that the Alliance had indeed sent such a noble prince to support them, they cheered and shouted "Long live the Alliance."
The Frostborn Dwarves stationed here used snow owls to send news of his arrival to Vereesa, but Howling Fjord was very far from Borean Tundra, and it would take her at least ten days to get here.
Liam obviously couldn't wait that long. The Alliance navy might cross the sea at any time and expose all his lies. He had to act quickly!
So he said to the representatives, "I came here this time because I learned of an important artifact from Lord Aiden. It is the key to our victory over the enemy. Time is of the essence, the Scourge is ravaging Lordaeron, and I cannot delay."
He spoke these lies calmly, his face showing no emotion. Since deciding to avenge himself against the demons, he had given up everything: status, honor, pride, even dignity.
If he needed to give up anything else, he wouldn't hesitate. As long as he could achieve his goal and make the demons pay the price!
Lord Hervel immediately chimed in after he finished speaking, "This trip is somewhat dangerous, is anyone willing to help?"
"No, no need, they have their own responsibilities. This is our matter, it's not appropriate to involve everyone," Liam said, rejecting the offer.
The Frostborn Dwarves, the Tuskarr, the Alliance guard captain Brad, and the Orc Nazgrel exchanged glances. Now that things had come to this, how could they stand idly by?
After discussing, they said they would send out a thousand elite troops to accompany Prince Liam. This number exceeded half of Valgarde's total strength.
Liam appeared very grateful, but his heart was cold. He used to be warm and upright, never deigning to use these political tactics, but now he wielded them with great skill.
Once the seeds of corruption are sown, they will sprout quickly, plundering the light and justice in other people's humanity until they wither completely.
Kassadin watched this scene, his heart calm.
"Frostmourne," he whispered the name. People who crave power are most easily enslaved by it.
—
The Azure Guard arrived here the next day. Aiden saw the three Kul Tiran warships docked at the pier from afar. Liam had arrived here one step ahead of him.
He had a contractual connection with Kassadin, but he really couldn't figure out what this guy wanted to do. Aiden felt that this guy should have the ability to kill Liam, and could even have prevented Liam from making that mistake when they were in Gilneas. But he didn't do that.
Unable to contact the other party, he didn't know how to cooperate with Kassadin.
Now there were two paths in front of him: one was to believe that Kassadin had his own way of resolving Liam's threat, and Aiden himself would still lead the people on the ship to attack Icecrown Citadel; the other was to chase Liam, get rid of him, and then settle the score with the Lich King.
Aiden thought for a while and decided to trust his hero once. Since Kassadin had done this, just go along with it!
Nazgrel showed great surprise when he saw Saurfang: "High Overlord, is the Northrend campaign about to begin?"
After disembarking, Rhonin looked around, but unfortunately didn't find the person he longed for. Captain Brad told him that General Vereesa was still on her way back.
Rhonin learned from Captain Brad that in the past three months, Vereesa had formed a multi-racial alliance of over ten thousand people in Northrend and was revered as the General of this Silver Covenant alliance. He was so surprised that he could have stuffed an egg into his mouth with room to spare—although he loved Vereesa, he never thought that the impetuous and arrogant High Elf ranger could patiently do these things.
Although after the mission to rescue the Red Dragon Queen in Grim Batol ended, they both began to serve as Alliance ambassadors to various Alliance countries, most of the time, Vereesa was responsible for etiquette and he was responsible for negotiations. Vereesa basically played the role of a "mascot."
Seeing the results before him, Rhonin couldn't help but marvel. He really underestimated this proud elf. Her charm not only conquered Rhonin, but also seemed to have conquered others.
During the subsequent conversation, these Silver Covenant representatives learned the truth about Prince Liam's corruption.
Captain Brad suddenly realized and regretted, "No wonder I found his ship so familiar, and had some doubts. This is indeed the Kul Tiran flagship 'Courage'!"
"Let's chase after them and kill them all!" Nazgrel said murderously. Being fooled made this Orc furious.
Aiden looked at the others and asked, "What do you think?"
Mograine said, "We can't let Liam run wild."
Saurfang nodded: "And he will definitely use these people who were deceived."
"Kassadin is there, we don't need to specifically chase Liam," Aiden said, "The other task is the key to success or failure. So send some representatives to bring back those deceived Alliance soldiers!"