After the orcs left the valley, a Death Knight standing on the cliff face at the top of the canyon walked towards the portal behind him and entered the sealed Demon-Slaying Canyon.
Grommash was lying not far away, his body charred black by the explosion that occurred after Mannoroth's death, but the injuries on his skin were not the cause of his demise; his bones, muscles, and internal organs had been reduced to a chaotic mess by the powerful blast.
Furthermore, when Mannoroth died, the explosion also released fel energy that eroded life force. After Grommash delivered the fatal blow to Mannoroth, he didn't have time to dodge the massive shockwave.
On the contrary, Thrall, who was buried under a pile of rocks, was fortunate enough to survive; otherwise, his injuries would have been far more severe than a simple wound.
Mannoroth's massive corpse lay on the ground, and four Death Knights were using a magic circle to contain the fel energy from corroding the environment, while also preventing the energy within Mannoroth's corpse from dissipating too quickly.
The Pit Lord's soul had escaped back to the Twisting Nether after his physical body was severely wounded by Grommash; the Death Knights didn't have time to stop his escape.
Mannoroth's evil soul was pulled by some powerful force, and their attempts to prevent his soul from escaping failed.
However, it was not without gain, as Mannoroth's body still had value for utilization, but they would have to wait for Arthas to arrive in person; these few Death Knights alone could not study the functions of an Pit Lord's body.
"Have those orcs left?" the Death Knight maintaining the magic circle asked his newly arrived companion.
"They've gone. They didn't try to clear the path, so we can summon reinforcements."
"Good. Go activate the teleportation array connected to Icecrown Citadel. We need to ensure this guy's body doesn't disintegrate."
Without the support of its soul and fel energy, a demon's body would quickly rot, turn into a pile of bones, and finally become dust at an extremely fast rate.
Currently, it was by the power of these few Death Knights that Mannoroth's flesh and blood remained temporarily on his body, but it was quickly disappearing.
As soon as this Death Knight connected with Icecrown Citadel, Arthas, cloaked in black, descended from mid-air on Invincible.
"Your Majesty."
The Death Knight quickly saluted, "We just cleared the surroundings and are preparing to establish a camp here."
"Hmm, very good. You may continue. I just came to check the situation."
Arthas approached Mannoroth's body. He bent down and dipped his hand into the demonic blood flowing into the soil.
"There is still a strong corrupting power remaining within, but it is dissipating quickly. As I expected, even after death and the disappearance of its soul, the powerful body of an Pit Lord can still maintain its activity for a short period."
Although the decay rate of a demon's corpse is much faster than that of normal creatures, before it completely collapses, it still possesses strong assimilative and corrosive properties. For example, the blood flowing from Mannoroth's body still has the power to corrupt ordinary creatures.
Arthas would not forget that the blood flowing from an Pit Lord named Brutallus after he was killed could make the corpse of a Blue Dragon stand up again, turning it into a Bone Dragon consumed by hatred and rage.
In a sense, fel energy also has the effect of resurrecting corpses, similar to the power of death, but their characteristics are simply different.
Therefore, Arthas left Mannoroth's corpse, also wanting to experiment and see if he could use necromantic magic to make the Pit Lord's body stand up again.
If it could succeed, then facing the Burning Legion's demons would undoubtedly be much easier, because the corpses of dead demons could be reutilized by the Scourge, which would become the combat method the undead were most proficient at.
"Maintain the magic."
Arthas said to the four Death Knights, then picked up Frostmourne and plunged it into Mannoroth's skin. He tried to use the power of the soul to make Mannoroth "stand up" again.
However, after injecting some power, Mannoroth still showed no reaction, as if Arthas was not trying to resurrect a corpse, but rather to imbue a rock with life.
After a long while, Arthas pulled out Frostmourne, his brow furrowed. His attempt failed because Mannoroth's soul had already returned to the Twisting Nether. He had initially intended to turn this body into a puppet without self-awareness, but even such a preliminary transformation failed.
No wonder demons don't mind their bodies falling into enemy hands. It seems that this body, to them, is merely an outer shell composed of flesh and fel. The uniqueness of demons as creatures also lies in their souls.
Born in the Twisting Nether, they are vastly different from material beings. According to Azeroth's definition of souls, even the lowest-level demons are as hard to kill as an immortal demigod…
Wiping the stained blood from Frostmourne, Arthas's expression was calm as he pondered how to utilize Mannoroth's "remains."
A flash of inspiration struck him, and he thought of a possibility. Arthas extracted a soul from Frostmourne, and using the power of this soul, he began to try to animate Mannoroth's trunk.
To Arthas's slight surprise, Mannoroth's thick fingers actually twitched.
This attempt actually succeeded!
Arthas's mind quickly churned. He began to gradually mobilize more power, wanting to merge this soul with Mannoroth's body.
Gradually, Mannoroth's huge body reacted. His four legs propped up his fallen body, and he stood up again. The resurrected Mannoroth twisted his body somewhat stiffly.
Arthas stopped, looking up at the obviously sluggish Mannoroth, not entirely satisfied.
The soul used to support Mannoroth's activities just now came from the soul power of Balnazzar and Mal'Ganis after their consciousness was erased. However, because their souls had lost self-awareness, they simply couldn't sustain the activity of Mannoroth's body for a long time.
Just making Mannoroth stand up again had already weakened the residual souls of these two greatly, and Mannoroth's movements after resurrection would only make him a living target on the battlefield, completely useless.
If it required the souls of powerful demons like Dreadlords to barely support Mannoroth's resurrection, Arthas would have to consider whether or not to resurrect this behemoth.
The Pit Lord's physical body is very strong, and it might even be possible to control his body to cast some fel magic, but the cost-effectiveness is still too low.
"My esteemed Majesty, can your humble servant Kel'Thuzad be of any assistance to you?"
Kel'Thuzad's voice reached Arthas's ears, and Arthas responded, "Ah, you've arrived? First, send someone to take Grommash away. You come and examine this corpse, and see if it can still be utilized."
The Archlich sent several skeleton laborers to carry Grommash's remains onto Naxxramas, which had teleported in. Several other skeleton laborers awkwardly climbed onto Mannoroth's body, attempting to reach Gorehowl, which was embedded in Mannoroth's forehead.
Kel'Thuzad pointed a finger, and the sharp axe detached from Mannoroth's forehead, smashing into the skeleton soldiers and sweeping them off Mannoroth's body.
Ignoring the skeletons swaying away with the axe, the Archlich floated in front of Mannoroth and touched Mannoroth's skin with his "jade-white" finger.
A moment later, Kel'Thuzad said with a hint of regret, "Without a soul, driving such a large fellow is indeed very troublesome… You must have tried it just now; a demon's soul should be able to make him react, but the quality after revival simply doesn't justify the consumed soul."
Arthas retrieved Frostmourne. He had done enough experiments and there was no need to continue wasting souls. "Ordinary souls cannot satisfy a demon's body, but the souls of Balnazzar and Mal'Ganis are clearly not enough. Even adding Varimathras wouldn't necessarily be enough."
"Indeed… Generally speaking, the way necromancers solve this problem is to turn him into a puppet, driven by ordinary souls, but in that case, this powerful demon's corpse wouldn't be much stronger than a Stitcher."
Kel'Thuzad tapped his two sharp finger bones on his mandible. "Such material is indeed rarely used in necromancy. Demons as creatures are far too strange compared to normal life."
"Since that's the case, you can take him for research," Arthas temporarily gave up the idea of resurrecting Mannoroth, "This is also a very rare material."
"Thank you for your generosity. I will make good use of it."