Arthas cut off communication with Kel'Thuzad, but his final order still delighted the Archlich.
The Lich King had initially affirmed Kel'Thuzad's work capability; although he still had some "debts" to repay, this did not prevent Arthas from utilizing him in more crucial roles.
For example, he promised Kel'Thuzad that if he could eliminate or capture those Dreadlords and reclaim Naxxramas, Kel'Thuzad would not need to return to Icecrown Glacier. Instead, Naxxramas would be stationed above Whispering Forest for deeper exploration of the area.
This undoubtedly fulfilled Kel'Thuzad's greatest desire, so the Archlich was naturally willing to serve Arthas with all his heart.
Moreover, the progress of the event was quite smooth; the Dreadlords indeed sent out scouts to investigate the anomalies in Whispering Forest.
After those Necromancers "expended" some effort, they finally found the ruins of the town Kel'Thuzad had built.
Upon detecting this town, suspected to have been attacked by orcs, still had many wandering souls, those Necromancers were undeniably pleased.
After all, they were not truly undead creatures in the full sense and had no fear of death. If Naxxramas's energy were to face another crisis, it would probably be them who were thrown into the Soul Furnace.
Therefore, finding enough "energy" to sustain Naxxramas for longer delighted the Necromancers. They eagerly reported to the Dreadlords who controlled Naxxramas.
"Lord Detheroc, as we advanced in the direction of the energy anomaly, we found a town plundered by orcs! There are still a large number of living souls here, enough to sustain Naxxramas's energy output for some time!"
Detheroc's expression remained unchanged. "A town destroyed by orcs? Your location is in the deep mountains of Tirisfal. How could there be a town of this scale there?"
The Necromancer quickly replied, "You may not know, Lordaeron Kingdom is incredibly wealthy, and many places have towns that have not yet been marked on the map."
The work of marking various villages and towns only began when Arthas started to take over some of the kingdom's administrative affairs. The Necromancer, who was once a Lordaeronian, was not entirely ignorant of this.
"What about the orcs?" Detheroc was still somewhat uneasy. He always felt that having a pillow when one was sleepy was not a very realistic thing.
The Necromancer explained even faster now, "We just checked; some traces clearly indicate the style of Warsong Orcs. They had indeed been active and plundering in Tirisfal Glades before, so their appearance here is not strange. After all, First Legion has been pressing them too hard."
"However... we still haven't discovered the cause of that mysterious energy burst, but the forest here is indeed filled with intoxicating energy."
After listening to the Necromancer's explanation, Balnazar glanced at Varimathras beside him and sneered, "Do you want to come with me this time? Or are you even afraid of mortal ghosts?"
"For collecting souls, there's no need for us to be there in person." Varimathras completely ignored Balnazar's provocation, calmly scraping his claw-like nails.
"Can you only see such a small matter as collecting a few souls? That mysterious great riot likely signifies something." Balnazar was very clear, "This planet is filled with all sorts of mysterious ruins. If we discover one..."
Balnazar did not finish his sentence; he knew his two brothers understood his meaning.
Detheroc's fingers kept tapping on his runic armor, seemingly making a difficult decision. "The powers of Holy Light, Arcane, and Shadow are mixed together... This indeed could very likely be 'that kind of ruin.'"
"Right, you think so too. To perfectly use these two powers and be an enemy of the Void, I can only think of them." Balnazar shrugged, "This time, it's not just about replenishing energy; I think we need to go and see."
After speaking, Detheroc and Balnazar both turned their gaze to Varimathras. This Dreadlord felt the pressure from the two sharp gazes, and he finally said, quite unhappily, "I have no objection."
"Very good, then you stay in Naxxramas this time, Detheroc?" Balnazar nodded slightly, discussing the upcoming action plan with Detheroc.
...
"Only a few Necromancers." Thassarian observed the movements of those wizards. Although the main targets had not yet appeared, the Death Knight had plenty of patience.
As long as the Dreadlords dared to appear in the town themselves, a grand "banquet" awaited them.
After those Necromancers procrastinated for several hours, they finally began to prepare some kind of ritual. Thassarian, who had recently studied many forbidden knowledge, quickly recognized that they were performing a summoning ritual.
The ritual they were preparing was very elaborate, surely for summoning a higher-ranking entity, so the answer was obvious: the other party had clearly taken the bait.
On the other side, Archlich Kel'Thuzad was also closely monitoring every move in the town. His magic was far more profound than that of those Necromancers. From the very beginning, they did not know they were being watched by the Scourge's Archlich.
At this moment, an unusual spatial fluctuation distracted Kel'Thuzad. He turned to look at the teleportation node in his camp—a portal shrouded in black mist tore through space there, slowly forming.
A "tall and short" figure stepped out of the portal. Their black robes were tattered, and even the saronite-forged armor had many scratches and dents.
However, the oppressive aura they exuded indicated that these two individuals only looked disheveled but had not suffered any actual harm.
Lothar threw his tattered black cloth cloak onto the ground and gasped, "Damn Karazhan, I never want to go there a second time."
Ogrim said nothing, but he involuntarily nodded. For two Death Knights skilled in combat, especially close-quarters combat, Medivh's mysterious tower was a bit too "stimulating."
After they defeated the Curator and entered Medivh's library and exhibition hall, they initially thought there would be no more danger, so they planned to quickly find the necessary items and then withdraw.
However, the two, who were both warriors in life, never expected that Medivh would set up layers of magical protection even for his bookshelves.
Most importantly, those spells were quite different; some were direct magical attacks, some summoned Arcane creatures, and even more, Medivh's residual magic activated the spell formulas within the grimoires, creating all sorts of tricks.
After fighting countless ghosts, mana fiends, mana wyrms, Arcane golems, and even slaying a few summoned demons in the library, Lothar and Ogrim took away a considerable portion of the collection.
However, for Medivh's seemingly endless library, the knowledge and wealth they took seemed to be only a very small part. The upper space of Karazhan was larger than they had previously imagined; Medivh's magic had detached it from the real world, making it a small, independent space.
"It looks like you two encountered a lot of trouble?"
Lothar glanced at the Archlich, took out a magic tome from his spatial pouch, and threw it to Kel'Thuzad. "Hope this is what you're looking for."
Kel'Thuzad took the book, scanned the text on the cover, and chuckled a few times, "Thank you very much, this will help us considerably."