Amidst the flickering Arcane glow, Arthas appeared in the council hall of the Alliance's temporary base. He swept his gaze across the room, seeing many familiar faces that had been waiting there for a long time.
"Sorry, I'm a little late."
Arthas apologized to the people in the council hall, "The situation on the front line is not good."
The crowd remained silent, waiting for Arthas to explain the current battle situation in the critical areas of Azshara and Winterspring.
Arthas understood and continued, "The demons will only need at most one day to pass through Azshara and reach Winterspring. In the canyon below Mount Hyjal, the Elves will set up a defensive line, but I don't think they can delay for much longer."
The fate of this canyon defense line being breached was almost predetermined; even Tyrande herself didn't believe they could truly keep the demons out of Mount Hyjal.
The expressions of the high-ranking Alliance officials and generals were all somewhat surprised and shocked. They had personally witnessed the strength of the Night Elves' army. Even the High Elf, who was not friendly towards their distant relatives, had to admit that the Night Elves' strength was far, far superior to theirs.
This was no longer a simple gap in equipment or skill, but a difference in life essence.
The Night Elves, protected by the World Tree, nourished by the Well of Eternity, and blessed by the Dragon Aspects, were unmatched by any other race.
However, even such a powerful race had been defeated under the assault of the Burning Legion.
"Where exactly did these demons come from?" Gavinrad cursed under his breath. He had seen many warlocks and cultists obsessed with dark magic, but the demons they summoned were only slightly more difficult to deal with than ordinary beasts.
"Discussing this problem now is useless. It's better to focus on defense," Uther said, looking at Arthas. "Then we will proceed according to the plan we made earlier."
As early as a week ago, at a meeting, the Alliance had prepared for the worst. They built defensive fortifications as quickly as possible, but they didn't expect to use them sooner than they had imagined.
Arthas looked at the heroes in the room, ready to fight, and a smile unconsciously appeared at the corner of his mouth. He clenched his fist firmly and exclaimed, "Let us unite, for the Alliance, for Azeroth!"
...
Two days later, bad news came again from the Elves' side: the canyon at the junction of Mount Hyjal and Winterspring had been submerged by a sea of demons.
The demons were assaulting Winterspring's last line of defense, and the sentinels there couldn't hold out for much longer.
Arthas took the battle report and handed it to Uther, who was beside him. They were the overall commanders of the Alliance's first line of defense.
"The Legion has arrived." Arthas could almost smell the sulfurous stench of the demons, and one of them even caused a black hole-like blind spot in his Soul Sight.
Without needing to think much, it must have been the Burning Legion's commander, Archimonde. Only he possessed such power to completely block Arthas's perception.
"How long until they arrive here?" Uther asked, looking at the peaceful forest and foothills below the high wall.
"No more than two hours... When the forest below us begins to burn, that means they've arrived."
Whether it was history correcting itself or not, even without the assistance of the Undead Scourge, the Burning Legion's speed in breaking through the Night Elves' initial defenses did not slow down at all.
They gathered in Felwood Forest, Ashenvale, and Winterspring with a more rapid momentum than even the Undead. Every time they captured a Night Elf outpost, the demons would transform it into a demon camp.
And the raw material for building their portals was the souls of the fallen.
Arthas had already used his power to try and plunder some of the souls of the dead, but Archimonde and other demons soon noticed this, and their power made it very difficult for Arthas to snatch more souls from the demons' hands.
Arthas was quite helpless about this. The rise of the Scourge originally represented the downfall of the northern civilization of the Eastern Kingdoms, so the current Scourge was simply useless.
Those low-level Undead and skeletons had no role whatsoever on such a battlefield, and there were even fewer higher-level Liches and Death Knights.
Therefore, trying to stop the Legion's invasion with the Scourge was completely a pipe dream; the true main force was still the power of the Alliance and the Elves.
However, Arthas did want to take this opportunity to collect some demon bodies, which Kel'Thuzad's experiments might find useful.
"Go, tell everyone to prepare."
Arthas said to the messenger beside him. The battle was about to begin. The Alliance soldiers on the city walls were ready, and the Elf Rangers had their arrows nocked, ready to unleash a deadly volley of arrows at any moment.
Jaina led a portion of Dalaran's mage contingent, preparing for some large-scale spell. The mage contingent only gathered at the first and last lines of defense. The mage contingent at the first line, after expending all their magic, would withdraw to the last line to recover their magic.
As everyone tensely watched the mountain path, a green fel spear suddenly descended from the sky. The powerful impact instantly annihilated a large section of the forest, and the ground where the Alliance forces were located trembled incessantly. Uther steadied himself against the wall, staring in shock at the area impacted by the fel.
While they were still horrified by the towering fel energy pillar, the sky's color suddenly darkened, and a large black "cloud" rapidly drifted towards the Alliance's fortress.
Arthas immediately noticed the strange cloud. He shouted loudly, "Everyone, be alert! Watch out above!"
With the power of the Mage's Eye, Jaina also clearly saw the true nature of the cloud: it was not a cloud at all, but a massive swarm of countless flying creatures.
She decisively commanded the mage contingent, "Adjust your angle, target the demons in the air."
As the mage contingent's spells continuously rained down on the Netherwing in the sky, Jaina waved her hand to connect to the surrounding Mana Crystals. These were exquisite items from Quel'Thalas and Dalaran, storing vast amounts of magic.
And this magic, at this moment, formed a sturdy Arcane Barrier. The Netherwing that crashed into the barrier were like moths flying into a flame, incinerated into ashes by the blue Arcane glow.
While the mages demonstrated the power of Arcane magic, the Elf Rangers were not to be outdone. They efficiently picked off the Netherwing attempting to find weaknesses in the Arcane Barrier. Their precise archery, combined with special arrows coated with Holy Water, rapidly reduced the number of Netherwing in the air under the Alliance's firepower.
However, no one was excited by the temporary advantage, especially Jaina, who was overseeing the Mana Crystals, quickly reported bad news to Arthas: the intensity of the Netherwing's assault was too strong, and the magic in the Mana Crystals was being consumed at an extremely fast rate. The Arcane Barrier could not be kept active indefinitely.
Arthas wasn't surprised by Jaina's message. When Netherwings die, they detonate the fel energy within their bodies. Due to the corrosion of fel energy, the consumption of the Arcane Barrier would greatly increase. Even though they were built to a higher standard, it was impossible for them to endlessly withstand the demons' assault.
The existence of the Arcane Barrier was only to reduce casualties for the Alliance.
The rangers on the city walls and the dwarven artillery units continuously poured firepower onto the demons, while the infantry Legions below guarded behind the city gates, standing by in full readiness. Once the demons broke through the city walls, they had to buy enough time before the mages used teleportation spells to lead everyone away.
While wary of the demons' movements, Arthas glanced at the colossal tree on the mountain behind him. He wondered how long it would take Malfurion to prepare. Once the demons broke through the Arcane Barrier and the city wall's defenses, it was hard to say how much time the Alliance soldiers could stall.
The number of Netherwings finally dwindled under the Alliance's magic and artillery suppression. The remaining demons were no longer a threat to the Arcane Barrier; they were either picked off by rangers or fled in disarray amidst a rain of spells and arrows.
After annihilating the demons' aerial forces, the dwarves quickly lowered their cannons, re-aiming them at the mountain path below.
"By the Mountain King, what do these bats eat to grow so big?" Muradin adjusted his helmet and jogged over to Arthas's side.
Although protected by the Arcane Barrier, the Netherwings' suicidal crashes still shocked those within the barrier. Muradin even saw a Netherwing crash head-on into the barrier in front of him, its bat-like face completely distorted by the pressure.
When the green blood splattered, it truly nauseated Muradin. These demons were truly disgusting no matter how you looked at them, enough to make you throw up last night's dinner.
"Who knows," Arthas replied casually. "Anyway, no one's watching in the Twisting Nether, so demons just grow however they want. Is there enough ammunition left?"
"Of course, we almost cleared out half of Ironforge's inventory. That ammunition is enough to fight three Orcish Warss."
Muradin looked at the fel-destroyed forest in the distance. "What are those guys waiting for? Why aren't they attacking?"
"Indeed, given the demons' nature, they wouldn't wait for no reason, nor would they stop attacking due to the loss of cannon fodder." Arthas rested his hands on the city wall, also puzzled by this.
What were the demons waiting for? Were they waiting for the Arcane Barrier to run out? But such a barrier, when not under attack, consumed negligible mana. Even if they waited outside for three days and three nights, the Arcane Barrier wouldn't change at all.
The Burning Legion couldn't possibly misunderstand the principle of such an Arcane Barrier. The Netherwings' previous impact had already caused significant depletion of the mana crystals. If there were two or three more similar waves of impact, the barrier might directly dissipate due to insufficient energy.
However, what Arthas didn't know was that the Burning Legion wasn't unwilling to summon more Netherwing cannon fodder to assault the barrier; it was that they couldn't summon any more.
Archimonde stood on high, observing the Alliance fortress enveloped by the Arcane Barrier, and said impatiently, "What are you doing? Can such inferior magic truly impede the Legion's advance?"
Tichondrius awkwardly scratched his face. "Lord Archimonde, the number of demons the portal can carry has reached its limit. The demons behind haven't arrived yet; we only have this low-level cannon fodder left."
When fighting the elves before, the Burning Legion hadn't been without losses; on the contrary, their cannon fodder troops were scattered under the elves' defenses. Although the portal was continuously replenishing forces, it took time to travel from Felwood Forest to Mount Hyjal.
That fel spear earlier was actually a spatial rift forcefully opened by other generals of the Burning Legion, but this was only a temporary teleportation method. They hadn't expected the mortals' Arcane Barrier to be so resilient; it had absorbed the impact of tens of thousands of Netherwings without any losses.
The demons' envisioned battle plan of using a single wave of Netherwings to destroy the Alliance fortress had failed, and it had now put them in a stalemate.
Although they didn't know how many defensive forces the mortals had arranged in that fortress, it was certainly unrealistic to take down this seemingly easy-to-defend but hard-to-attack fortress with just the remaining forces present.
The Burning Legion wasn't foolish; under such an obvious disadvantage, they wouldn't charge in vain and let their cannon fodder die for nothing. That would merely be a meaningless consumption of their own strength.
Tichondrius mumbled for a while, originally planning to grit his teeth and personally lead the charge to take down this annoying castle. But just as he was about to propose this idea, Archimonde spoke first.
"Enough, wasting time in such a place is truly too boring."
The Eredar Warlock waved his hands, and the dark green fel energy almost engulfed the entire sky. Amidst flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder, countless green meteors broke through the thick clouds, falling towards the direction of the Alliance fortress.
Tichondrius understood, and without further ado, transformed into a black mist and rushed to the forefront, heading straight for the Arcane Barrier—this defense could block low-level demons, but it couldn't effectively hinder him.
Archimonde's intention in summoning the Hellfire was clear: he no longer wanted to waste time with these mortals, because Archimonde's goal was not just to destroy Azeroth; he also hoped to obtain the power of the World Tree and the Well of Eternity to elevate himself to a higher level.
The massive Hellfire meteor shower began to rain down like raindrops among the surrounding mountains, forests, and streams. Archimonde did not target the Alliance's defensive line as the primary objective, but when the first Hellfire touched the Arcane Barrier, the barrier almost immediately let out a groan of distress.
The entire defensive barrier shook violently under the impact. The falling Hellfire was ultimately repelled by the Arcane energy, but the mana crystals that shattered in an instant made Jaina immediately feel that something was gravely wrong.
"Arthas, at this rate, we won't last much longer!"
Jaina looked at the seemingly endless Hellfire meteors in the sky and sent a warning message to Arthas.
The Alliance soldiers watched the apocalyptic scene before them, their hands gripping their weapons unconsciously tightening. Even the indestructible Arcane Barrier was swaying precariously under the impact of the Hellfire. What would happen if such a thing landed on a person?
Arthas, however, paid no heed to anything around him. His gaze seemed to pierce through the vast battlefield, directly towards the demon encampment. There, a burly Eredar Warlock was unleashing his wrath upon the mortals of Azeroth.