"Your Majesty! You have a letter!" A Dwarf guard, holding an exquisite letter, scurried on his short legs into the center of the Great Forge.
Magni heard the shout, and his hand, holding the smithing hammer, trembled, nearly breaking the sword blank he was forging in two.
"Ironfinger! You idiot, who told you to run in here with a letter!" Magni, with a bristling beard and glaring eyes, scolded the guard. He snatched the envelope from Ironfinger's hand and, in a few quick strides, walked out of the core area of the forge.
Sure enough, the high temperature had already caused the edges of the exquisite envelope to scorch and curl. If Magni had been a little slower, it might have completely turned into a piece of scrap paper.
"Ah, Your Majesty, I'm sorry, I forgot that paper burns." The guard rubbed the back of his head, laughing sheepishly.
"Alright, you fool, get back to your post. If you do that again, I'll kick your backside hard." Magni grumpily dismissed his guard. He slowly took the letter and broke the wax seal on it.
But as he read, Magni's expression changed. The wax seal on the letter indicated it was from the Lordaeron Royal Family, but the content of the letter was written by his younger brother, Brann, himself.
The letter stated that the Gnomes of Gnomeregan must have been threatened somehow, and their city and race faced a very severe danger. As for the specific reason, Brann did not explain it clearly. His handwriting was very messy, seemingly written in a hurry.
If Magni remembered correctly, that rascal Brann should have gone exploring in Kalimdor, and he couldn't possibly mistake his own brother's handwriting, let alone that this letter was sent from Lordaeron.
After returning to the Ironforge throne, Magni put down the letter in his hand and asked Senator Barin, who was at the side of the throne, "Is there any news from Gnomeregan recently?"
"News from Gnomeregan?" Barin was a bit stunned by his King's sudden question. "Everything is as usual, Your Majesty."
"Everything is as usual, which means no special news has come from them?" Magni frowned. Although the Gnomes were on good terms with the Dwarves, these little fellows were often engrossed in invention and creation, so losing contact wasn't strange.
"Yes, Your Majesty, do you have any message that needs to be conveyed? We can send our best goat riders, who can reach Gnomeregan tonight."
Magni pondered for a moment. Although Brann's personality was a bit erratic, he never joked about major matters of right and wrong. Therefore, he must have discovered something; the Gnomes might be experiencing or about to face a huge threat.
"Send the best cavalry, with communication devices. It's best if they can send a message as soon as he arrives."
Although Barin found the King's decision odd, he still followed the instructions, only reminding him, "Your Majesty, the communication devices invented by the Gnomes are quite bulky and will affect the rider's speed."
"That's still faster than going back and forth! I want a reply by noon tomorrow at the latest!" Magni squeezed the letter in his hand. He glanced at the Lordaeron wax seal on the envelope and suddenly thought that since this letter was sent from Lordaeron, Arthas, who had acted with Brann, might have some news.
"Also, call a mage who can contact Lordaeron; I have something to ask!"
...
"Gelbin, besides this method, we have no other choice!"
High Tinker Mekkatorque's chief advisor, Thermaplugg, was arguing with The Great Tinker himself, "Look at our city; although it is efficient and precise, we can't bring large war machines into the city!
Without those big guys, how can we possibly withstand the monsters that are pouring into the lower levels of our city like a tide?!
By relying on security robots? Or those few machine guns? Come on, Mekkatorque, you and I both know that those things are useless against large-scale attacks!"
"No, Mekkatorque! Absolutely not, at least not now. We still have many compatriots fighting or fleeing in the lower levels of the city. If we use the radiation tanks now, they will all die!"
Thermaplugg was somewhat angry. "Fine, then drown in the fantasy that they can hold off those monsters! You are an inflexible, utter fool! What if you recall the troops supporting the Alliance? Without heavy weapons, we can't possibly stop those monsters!"
The advisor threw the wrench in his hand, and the sound of it hitting the floor echoed throughout the entire Council of Tinkers' Hall. Mekkatorque picked up Thermaplugg's wrench with a complex expression, watching the retreating back of his most trusted advisor.
The button to activate the emergency radiation tanks was in Mekkatorque's hand, but he believed that it was not yet time to use this device, which would harm a thousand enemies but cost eight hundred of their own.
That thing was never designed to be used as a weapon! It was originally just a device for Gnomes to store waste, but now, it was almost time when even such a polluting device had to be opened.
"The Great Tinker, how much longer do we continue to send people to support the lower levels?" Master Tinker Overspark walked up to Mekkatorque, asking somewhat uncertainly.
For some unknown reason, the trogg suddenly poured into the Gnomes' city of wonders from underground in an endless stream. At first, the Gnomes thought it was just underground creatures accidentally digging through the mountains. They only sent a small number of people to seal the hole and eliminate those barbaric and dark creatures.
But as time passed, the holes through which the trogg entered Gnomeregan not only did not decrease but constantly increased. By the time the Gnomes realized this, it was too late to save the situation. The trogg , dense and numerous, jumped out of the stone caves in wave after wave, beginning to wreak havoc on the Gnome city and slaughter its residents.
Many people unfortunately perished during the first invasion, and Gnomeregan began to increase the number of personnel sent to the lower levels. However, the speed at which the trogg increased exceeded their imagination; their numbers seemed endless, continuously emerging from underground.
The Gnomes instantly felt immense pressure. They had no choice but to recall the troops originally intended to support the Alliance, and they did not explain the reason to the Alliance.
Because they knew that their allies at this time needed to wholeheartedly fight the Burning Legion and could not be dragged down by their own problems, which would affect the entire Alliance.
The Gnomes made a huge sacrifice without anyone else's knowledge, and this still did not stop the trogg . Now, half of Gnomeregan has almost fallen, and the Gnome soldiers and citizens are separated into various parts of the city by the trogg's tide, which is also why Mekkatorque disagreed with using the radiation tanks.
Once the tanks are opened, deadly radioactive waste will leak out. Even if it strikes the trogg, the residents and soldiers in the city will not escape this radiation; they will surely die in this catastrophe.
In fact, it is now even past the best time to use the radiation tanks, because due to the trogg's offensive, more people are trapped in the city every moment, but Mekkatorque received a message that made him hesitate to press the big red button in his hand!