As usual, after the changing of the guard, Baron Rivendare returned to his home. He was somewhat famous in the nobility circles of Stratholme, not just because of his wealth. Relying on the blessings of his ancestors and his own efforts, he had obtained a position in the army of Lordaeron as a knight—the city defense officer of Stratholme.
This dutiful knight returned to his room after having dinner with his wife and son, then opened a mechanism on the bookshelf and stepped into the revealed secret door.
In the secret room, there was only a dimly lit oil lamp. In the dim light, the appearance of the person who had been waiting in the secret room could not be seen at all.
"You saw my mark."
The figure turned around, facing the light.
"Yes, Kel'Thuzad."
Rivendare sat opposite him and asked with concern, "What happened?"
Kel'Thuzad frowned slightly: "There may be a traitor among us. The Scholomance has been destroyed."
"What!"
Rivendare looked at him in surprise, "Then what should we do?"
"Don't worry, my friend.
A little setback.
Soon we will regain our strength and become even stronger."
Kel'Thuzad revealed the Cauldron of Plagues behind him, pointing to the boiling green liquid inside, "I have successfully developed the plague, and our era is coming."
Rivendare looked at it in surprise and delight, and said fanatically: "You are a genius, Kel'Thuzad.
Now, what do I need to do?"
"We need some helpers," Kel'Thuzad smiled evilly, "You told me a few days ago that a dozen orcs rioted in Stratholme, and one of them almost killed Gavinrad, the powerful First Generation Paladin.
His body must be very strong."
"I understand, I will find a way to get their bodies over here!"
…
Without a doubt, Vayne's abilities were fully worthy of the title "Night Hunter."
Using her special ability to sense evil, she quickly captured the target—Kel'Thuzad's aura.
She came to a magnificent city, and she could feel that Kel'Thuzad was hiding in this city.
However, she overlooked several important issues: First, this is not Valoran, no one knows her reputation, and no one knows her mission; Second, important strategic cities like Stratholme are no-fly zones; Third, the gatekeeper is Rivendare, who has already secretly fallen into darkness.
So she was first targeted by the city's defensive crossbows, ordering her to land for inspection.
In order not to conflict with these "natives", she did so.
Then the city guards needed her identification: because of the recent purge of the Cult of the Damned, the city defense was strictly investigating all people with suspicious identities.
Vayne's dress didn't look like an ordinary person at all.
Of course, Rivendare, the secret high-level member of the Cult of the Damned, was the commander of the city defense.
The real members of the Cult of the Damned were all let go by him, and those who might threaten them were detained instead.
For example, this female hunter who kept saying that she was going to hunt down Kel'Thuzad, the leader of the Cult of the Damned!
Although Rivendare was calm on the surface, he was terrified in his heart: Did she really have special hunting skills, or did she just happen to come to his door?
No matter which one it was, he had to stabilize this dangerous woman first, and then let Kel'Thuzad avoid her quickly.
Rivendare said with a dutiful look: "I'm sorry, madam, we don't know what Valoran is.
We hope you can show us an identification certificate recognized by the Alliance.
Otherwise, we cannot allow you to enter this city.
Recently, the remnants of the Cult of the Damned have been active everywhere, and we cannot let go of any suspicious people."
Vayne looked coldly at this conscientious knight.
Although his behavior seemed impeccable on the surface, her intuition told her that there was something wrong with this person.
"My commander and the Judicator Kayle personally participated in the siege of those cultists.
I am ordered to clear those remnants.
Are you sure you want to stop me?"
Rivendare felt a little uncomfortable under the gaze of those strange red visor hiding her eyes.
He tried to calm down: "Please show your identification, otherwise we will temporarily detain you until the investigation is clear, or someone can prove it for you."
At his signal, the nearby guards surrounded Vayne.
"You have that person's aura on you," Vayne finally confirmed her intuition.
She stared at Rivendare, and the huge arm crossbow instantly appeared in her hand, the cocked holy silver arrow pointing at Rivendare, "You are Kel'Thuzad's accomplice, a cultist!"
"Catch this crazy woman!"
Rivendare shouted, and then quickly retreated into the crowd, and the nearby guards immediately rushed over.
Vayne stared at Rivendare, knowing that she had no chance.
She deftly dodged the guards' siege and jumped back onto the gryphon.
Her cold voice came from the sky: "Wait, you cultists who have fallen into darkness, you will be purified by my holy silver crossbow!"
Seeing the crazy woman fly away, Rivendare was still in shock.
At the moment when he was pointed at by the arm crossbow just now, he truly felt the breath of death.
That was really terrible!
The guards looked at him, seemingly with a hint of suspicion. Ravenholdt forced himself to calm down and explained to them, "This woman doesn't even have identification. She's likely an evil cultist of the Cult of the Damned. We must guard the city gates well and not let them slip through!"
… …
"It was my negligence," Aiden said, slapping his forehead in annoyance after hearing Vayne's report. He had almost forgotten that Baron Ravenholdt, whom he had defeated hundreds of times to farm the Death Knight mount, had secretly joined the Cult of the Damned and was good friends with Kel'Thuzad.
Now it seemed Kel'Thuzad was hiding in Baron Ravenholdt's home. But with this delay, the other party had probably already escaped without a trace.
However, it was better late than never. Aiden immediately found Fordring, who was currently in charge of clearing the ruins of Scholomance. After listening to Vayne's report, Fordring widened his eyes and said, "Kel'Thuzad dared to hide in Stratholme, where the headquarters of the Silver Hand is located? Unbelievable!"
"As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is also the safest place. It's like hiding under the light!"
"I'm going to Andorhal right away. There's a gryphon station of the kingdom there, and I can fly to Stratholme." Fordring acted with swift efficiency and set off immediately. Of course, he took Vayne with him. He hadn't fully understood the abilities of this new female hunter who had appeared by Aiden's side, but he hadn't expected that their first move would almost catch a big fish—unfortunately, it was ruined by an internal traitor.
"Don't have too much hope!" Aiden shouted.
"If I could find him the first time, I can find him a second time!" Vayne said coldly.
Aiden turned to the angel and said, "Vayne is really impatient, a workaholic."
Indeed, after summoning her, she immediately asked about the mission, immediately began the pursuit, returned to seek assistance at the first sign of trouble, and then left immediately.
Kayle didn't take up this topic but said, "Summoner, I have some of my people also in Valoran. To deal with the possible Scourge that you mentioned, as well as the Burning Legion demons in the future, I hope you can put summoning them on the agenda."
"What you said makes sense. Angels are indeed the nemesis of the undead and demons. In a few days, we will go to Lordaeron City to see how the negotiations are going. If we can obtain a territory, I will summon them in my own territory. If it's not suitable, we'll go to the Hinterlands and snatch a little territory from the forest trolls there." Aiden nodded in agreement, having already considered the idea of targeting the trolls. After all, the Hinterlands are surrounded by natural barriers, and the Wildhammer dwarves are easy to get along with. Most importantly, the trolls there are easier to bully—since their main force joined the Horde and was defeated in the last war, the remaining troll tribes in the Hinterlands can only hide in the forest.
"Are you willing to learn how to master our divine power?" Kayle suddenly asked.
Aiden was stunned and said, "Can I learn?"
"Yes," Kayle nodded. "The Holy Light power mastered by the human paladins here is essentially similar to the power mastered by our angel race. New members of the Silver Hand receive a baptism when they join, and formal paladins use a ritual to allow them to feel and master the Holy Light. Our race also has a similar method. Although we are born with the ability to use divine power, some other races that depend on us do not. So, we developed a blessing ritual that allows non-angels to master divine power."
She paused. "This ritual requires three angels to perform."
"If I master divine power, can I learn invincibility, ah no, Divine Protection?" Aiden asked expectantly.
"Yes."
"Then I must learn it!" Aiden said loudly. This wasn't a game where you could run back to your corpse after dying or have a priest cast a resurrection spell. In the real Azeroth, it was common knowledge that people couldn't be resurrected—of course, this only applied to mortals.
Demigods could be resurrected, but it required a huge price.
As a mortal, Aiden felt that having invincibility might give him an extra life!
He had previously asked Fordring whether paladins had invincibility, and Fordring had looked at him in surprise and asked back, "How could there be such a skill that allows people to avoid all damage?"
Aiden thought to himself, "There really is: Kayle knows it."
Of course, the League of Legends game not only had resurrection skills but also resurrection items and even the summoner spell "Revive"—although basically no one took it. If you encountered it, it was mostly used for reviving and teleporting back to base to discourage the enemy.
But the real summoners didn't revive, and the heroes' related abilities were greatly limited.
Aiden had asked Zilean in the Emerald Dream whether his ultimate move could resurrect someone, and Zilean had said, "Yes." Aiden was overjoyed at the time—because Zilean had taught him time magic, and when he mastered it sufficiently, he could also use Time Warp.
Then Zilean immediately poured cold water on him, saying that every time this magic took effect, it would permanently strip away his lifespan. The more powerful he became, the more it would strip away because such magic, which forcibly interfered with the timeline, would inevitably be punished by time.