Not only Jarod, but even Andreas was completely caught off guard.
At the time, he had freed Garona from Go'el's deep mental suggestion, and no one expected that when Sargeras fought Garona and others in Karazhan, he would take the opportunity to embed his control deep within Garona's soul.
For years, because Sargeras had never detonated the mental control remotely, Garona herself was completely unaware of it, and she had been silently guarding the Wrynn royal family.
Anduin Lothar passed away peacefully half a month ago, and Archbishop Benedictus and the equally aging King Llane personally presided over his funeral.
With the death of an old friend, King Llane, feeling a sense of sorrow for his own mortality, voluntarily retired after the funeral, preparing to hand over the throne to Prince Varian, who had fully grown up.
Just as the Kingdom of Stormwind was busy with the new king's coronation ceremony, Garona, hiding in the shadows, suddenly felt something was wrong.
Having experienced mental suggestion before, she was very sensitive to her own mental state, and whispers from deep within her soul were gradually influencing her thoughts.
To avoid harming the Kingdom of Stormwind again, Garona endured the discomfort and fled into the mountains.
Although she tried her best to break free from the control that came from who knew where, the opponent's mental power was too strong, and Garona eventually succumbed in despair.
Her soul was suppressed deep within her body, watching helplessly as an unknown entity controlled her body, running around, contacting the Blackrock and Thunderlord clans who had been hiding in Blackrock Spire for many years.
Garona's body, with a silver tongue, persuaded Rend and Maim, and quietly led them to a rotten swamp in the southern part of the Blasted Lands.
Garona's soul watched in horror as the giant beast — a Pit Lord — emerged from the cave.
Garona knew what a Pit Lord meant to the orcs.
Sure enough, Rend and Maim had never given up their hatred for the Alliance, nor their extravagant hope of rebuilding the old Horde.
Under the temptation of "Garona," they drank the Pit Lord's blood without much hesitation, not only regaining the powerful strength they once possessed, but even surpassing it.
In return, their body color also began to change subtly, from green to red.
After many years of peace, the Kingdom of Stormwind, busy with the coronation ceremony, was somewhat lax in its border defenses, and the Blackrock and Thunderlord orcs seized the opportunity to complete their assembly and transformation.
The orcs unexpectedly broke through the Watch Commander, whose defenses had grown weaker year by year, and blocked the entrance from the Swamp of Sorrows to the Blasted Lands.
Following "Garona's" guidance, orc warlocks used the backdoor program pre-set by Kil'jaeden in the Dark Portal to attempt to reactivate the gate from the Azeroth side.
The mad Thunderlord and Blackrock orcs used captured Alliance soldiers as live sacrifices, sending them to the Dark Portal to power the portal.
Varian, who had just ascended the throne, had not yet had time to realize his ambitions when an urgent military report from the Swamp of Sorrows dealt a heavy blow to the new king.
Varian quickly gathered the elite soldiers of the Stormwind Seventh Legion, entrusted them to Gavinrad's command, and marched them to the Blasted Lands, attempting to put an end to the orcs' renewed rebellion.
But as soon as they engaged, the experienced Gavinrad immediately realized something was wrong.
The combat power of these orcs was much stronger than in the previous battle, even surpassing that of the First War.
Thanks to Gavinrad's caution, he did not adopt an aggressive offensive strategy.
Realizing that he had misjudged the orcs' combat power, he immediately shifted the balanced offensive and defensive formation to a defensive stance, and at the same time relayed the latest intelligence to King Varian, who was commanding from the rear.
Upon receiving Varian's urgent summons, the various Alliance nations successively dispatched reinforcements to gather in Stormwind City.
But the orcs, with the geographical advantage of the Watch Commander, stubbornly held back the Alliance army, while the remnants of the Legion, who had been hiding in the rotten swamp in the southwest of the Blasted Lands, seized the opportunity to surge towards the Dark Portal, working with the orc warlocks to accelerate the opening of the gate... "Fire!"
Jarod personally led the expedition, and the newly refitted Second Flight Fleet furiously poured artillery fire from above the Blasted Lands onto the demon encampment in front of the Dark Portal.
The number of demons hiding in Azeroth was not large, and the night elves' aerial bombardment sent them retreating in defeat.
Knowing they could not escape, these demons voluntarily sacrificed their lives to accelerate the opening of the Dark Portal.
At the same time, Danath, who was guarding the Dark Portal on the Draenor side, felt heavy-hearted.
"As Speaker Moonglade said, Kael'thas! Send your gryphon riders to report the situation here back to Hellfire Citadel!"
Kael'thas nodded solemnly, "Scarlet is the fastest, I'll go myself."
The Dark Portals on both sides gradually completed synchronization, and Danath and Jarod anxiously looked at the interdimensional portals on their respective sides that were restoring connection.
Navarre, who had recently been transferred back from Northrend, irritably patted his forehead, "Marshal Shadowsong, the demons are mostly cleared, but the gate has started to operate. What do we do now? Destroy it?"
"No, according to the Highborne Magisters' advice, attacking a spatial gate in synchronization might lead to severe consequences, possibly even tearing Azeroth apart."
Jarod took a deep breath to calm himself, "Don't panic, General Navarre, first airdrop troops to guard the Dark Portal, and prepare defenses for the Draenor side. I will lead the flight fleet to the Watch Commander first to defeat the orcs' stubborn resistance."
"Yes, sir!"
..."The Dark Portal is about to open?!"
Tyrande, who was commanding the battle, widened her eyes, and she subconsciously turned to look at Andreas, who was frowning deeply.
"I didn't expect you to be right..."
Andreas laughed wryly, "I'd rather have overthought it. Although I don't know what Kil'jaeden's plans are, we must now focus most of our attention on the frontal battlefield. The Deceiver will probably take to the field himself very soon."
After a moment of thought, Andreas ordered the Wildhammer Highlord who had rushed to report, "Kael'thas, return to the Dark Portal as soon as possible and guard the portal with Danath."
"The opening of the Dark Portal has both advantages and disadvantages for us. Originally, I was still worried about how to send the native races of Draenor out of this collapsing world, but now it seems I don't need to worry."
"Priestess Ishanah, you are most familiar with the various races of Draenor, so I entrust this task to you."
"After Danath confirms the safety of the gate, organize the refugees to pass through the Dark Portal into Azeroth in an orderly manner."
"Yes!"
Almost at the same time as the Dark Portal issued its warning, a bare-chested Eredar arrogantly challenged them from below the castle.
"Traitor Velen! Come out and answer!"
Tamara, the Prophet's assistant, was momentarily enraged and almost cursed back on the spot, but Velen stopped her with a hand.
"Don't rush, it's very rare for the Burning Legion to show an inclination to talk. Let's see what he has to say."
Andreas had the same thought and followed Velen to the top of the city wall.
The Eredar, holding a warhammer and shield, immediately mocked loudly when he saw Velen, "Isn't this the great Prophet? Did you foresee that you would be besieged in this isolated city today?"
Pounding his chest forcefully, the Eredar loudly introduced himself, "I am Raakish, your destiny's end. I will take you back to Lord Kil'jaeden to be slowly tortured."
Velen ignored Raakish's provocation, merely stroking his beard in confusion, "Raakish... that word means 'butcher' in Eredar. Why would anyone take that name?"
'Raakish?'
Andreas touched his chin; he felt as if he had heard that name somewhere before.
'There was no relevant information in my previous studies of Draenor and Outland.'
A sudden uneasy premonition arose in his heart, and Andreas temporarily stepped back, drawing a shadow veil to conceal himself.
While Raakish continued to hurl insults and provocations at Velen below the city, Andreas immediately took out his memo and flipped through entries related to Eredar.
"Found it! Huh?"
He looked incredulously at the description under the Raakish entry.
"Prophet Velen's son, lost on Argus, captured by Kil'jaeden and subjected to brainwashing and Transformation. Filled with hatred for Velen, he died in a suicidal plan during the Legion's attack on the Exodar in version 7.0."
'Velen's son?!'