The group quickly entered the secret passage, and propelled by the current, they soared out from a waterfall, landing steadily in shallow water.
After the secret passage's door opened, there was a winding path inside. The lake water was pouring in, but after only a short time, the water had already covered their ankles.
Fortunately, this did not seem to be a completely sealed space. Cracks in the cave indicated that there might be an even deeper abyss below, so the water should not go over their heads.
"Hurry up! If the water completely floods in, we'll be in trouble."
Jaina instantly conjured an ice wall with magic, blocking the water flow, but it would not last long. Judging by the melting speed of the ice wall, in at most ten minutes, a large amount of water would pour back into the passage.
Fortunately, the Alliance heroes' efficiency was much higher than that of ordinary soldiers. Led by Arthas, they spent a few minutes leaving the shallow water passage and ascending a staircase that seemed out of place with the surrounding rock caves.
Magni immediately realized that its style was almost identical to the Titan ruins he had seen in Uldaman, except that Tir's Tomb seemed to be preserved more completely, allowing them to almost glimpse the full appearance of Titan architecture.
"Looks like we came to the right place, lad!" Magni said, pulling the others behind him onto the steps while surveying the structure of Tir's Tomb's antechamber.
These steps were clearly not built for humans and dwarves. Although not as exaggerated as the Guardian's physique, the people who built this place must have been much larger than humans and dwarves.
After some time spent climbing steps that were almost as high as a normal human's thigh, they finally, for the first time, truly saw the "door" of the sealed Tir's Tomb.
Calling it a door was not entirely accurate, because this tomb might never have been intended to be opened since its construction. What blocked the entrance was actually a complete stone tablet.
The stone tablet bore the imprint of ancient runic magic, but the magical seal on it was somewhat dim, which seemed to be the result of Thoradin and his expedition team accidentally entering the tomb.
The stone tablet had some signs of weathering and damage; Thoradin's team likely did not enter the tomb entirely through normal means, and forceful entry must have occurred.
"Do you want me to move this boulder, Arthas?" Jaina walked up to Arthas, ready to use Arcane magic to deal with the obstructing stone tablet at any time.
"Don't use magic yet. The monster sleeping in the tomb is very sensitive to magical energy. If we can deal with him while he's still asleep, that would be the best approach."
Arthas examined the stone tablet, finding a weaker point that looked easiest to break. He immediately gripped light of dawn and brought it down forcefully on one corner of the stone tablet.
The warhammer easily shattered the remaining runic magic and the already violently breached stone tablet. One side of Tir's Tomb's entrance was directly hammered open by Arthas.
The prince kicked away the remaining stones and was the first to enter the tomb's antechamber. The others followed suit.
Muradin was the last to enter the tomb, muttering from behind, "Is it really okay for us to just smash open the Guardian's tomb door like this… They seem to be somewhat related to us."
Magni glared at Muradin. "Desperate times, desperate measures! How else would you get in? Dig another tunnel? Look at those walls around us; by the time you get in, the monster sealed inside will have already reached Ironforge!"
Scolded by his elder brother, Muradin wisely fell silent and followed behind Magni, curiously craning his neck to examine Tir's tomb.
Though called a tomb, it did not actually contain Tir's remains; it was an empty hall, devoid of treasures or complex decorations. The statues holding models of Azeroth that stood around the hall were perhaps the only embellishments.
Tir had chosen to self-detonate to perish with his enemies. Aside from the pure silver arm, revered as a holy relic by Tyr's Guard, the Guardian's body was annihilated in the explosion.
The pure silver arm forged for him by Yoton and Tir's weapon, Silver Hand, were all of Tir's relics. The pure silver arm remained in the mountains of Whispering Forest, protecting Tyr's Guard, while Silver Hand was buried within the tomb.
And at this moment, the warhammer floating on the central platform of the hall, continuously drawing Light power from the surrounding Light altars, drew the attention of the paladins.
"Is that… Guardian Tir's warhammer?" Mograine asked, his Ashbringer emitting a pleasant hum, seemingly joyful as if encountering a kindred spirit.
"Yes, that is Tir's warhammer, Silver Hand, but it is now not only a weapon but also a crucial key," Arthas explained.
The paladins present were masters of the Light, and they quickly sensed that the Light power in the hall, centered around Silver Hand, was being transmitted to a corner of the hall after complex conversion and conduction.
"Silver Hand is maintaining a certain seal. A seal that can remain here is probably meant to contain the monster named Zakas," Uther had already understood the purpose of Silver Hand. "It seems we must take Silver Hand to open the seal."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's gaze fell upon Uther. Uther also understood the intentions of the others. He nodded, "I will temporarily hold Silver Hand and open the seal."
The paladins had no intention of claiming the weapon for themselves; allowing Uther to use it was simply because his mastery of Light power was perhaps the highest here apart from Arthas.
And Arthas already possessed a divine artifact no less powerful than Silver Hand; allowing someone else to use this weapon would better unleash its power.
Uther understood his responsibility. He handed his warhammer to Dathrohan, who, being a paladin with maximized strength, was adept even with two two-handed weapons.
Seeing his teacher ascend the platform, Arthas quickly said to those around him, "Be careful, everyone. Once Silver Hand is taken, the dark power buried beneath the hall will rapidly awaken, and dark creations may continuously pour out.
Mograine, Muradin, Jaina, once the seal is open, we will immediately enter the deeper cave to eliminate Zakas. The rest of you, stay in the Silver Hand antechamber and maintain the basic seal; do not let the darkness quickly take over this place!
Teacher, it's up to you. With the power of Silver Hand, only you here can ensure that the Light does not extinguish."
"I understand. The Light will always illuminate this hall. Evil creatures shall not desecrate this sacred place."
Uther's expression was solemn. He quietly looked at Silver Hand floating in the air, awaiting Arthas's command.
"We are ready, teacher."
Upon hearing Arthas's voice, Uther swiftly reached for the hilt of the Silver Hand's hammer.
The warhammer showed no resistance to Uther, instead, it intimately infused Holy Light energy into Uther's body.
The surging power within his body was mixed with some simple messages, and Uther understood that the Silver Hand was "asking" him if he wanted to weaken the seal.
The Lightbringer chose "yes" without hesitation.
After making the decision, the Silver Hand immediately gathered Holy Light energy onto its hammer.
Accompanied by a bright Holy Light halo, the light in the hall suddenly dimmed.
Everyone felt something awakening beneath their feet, under the floor of the hall.
It was not from direct sight or hearing, but those present clearly knew that the power of the Holy Light was fading, and dark currents were surging within the darkness.
The seal in front of Arthas also dimmed at this moment, its Holy Light power rapidly draining away, replaced by a profound and dark influence.
However, Arthas did not give this influence a chance to spread.
He lifted his right foot and slammed it down onto the sealed underground staircase door, his heavy stomp, imbued with divine light, easily crushing the door into several pieces.
Arthas's Holy Light power surged forward, and the still wriggling, ascending Void energy rapidly dissipated like snow melting in the sun, until a path appeared before them.
Mograine also realized the Holy Light's restraint over this Void energy.
He quickly walked to Arthas's side, raised Ashbringer, and forcefully slashed deeper into the Void's encroachment.
A crescent-shaped Holy Light cut through layers of obstruction, and a brilliant light shone in Arthas's hand, like a beacon in the darkness, dispelling the surrounding Void energy that attempted to devour them.
Mograine, as the vanguard, wielded Ashbringer to clear the way for the team, while Arthas followed at the very rear of the group, preventing any sneak attacks from Void creatures.
It seemed that thousands of years of sealing had greatly diminished Zakas's power; his awakening process was extremely slow.
Even now, only some activated Void energy was continuously attacking the team, with no Void creatures appearing.
With Arthas and Mograine present, along with two Holy Light artifacts, this level of Void energy was completely insufficient to cause trouble for the team.
To reduce the pressure on Uther and the others who were blocking the Void energy from escaping outside, Arthas had Mograine speed up their progress, reaching Zakas's location as quickly as possible.
During their advance, Arthas noticed that, apart from trying to affect their minds, most of the Void energy seemed to be attempting to escape beyond the seal.
This was a very bad sign.
Zakas had fallen into a state of suspended animation twice, which made him instinctively seek his master's help after having another chance to escape Tyr's seal.
Zakas's power continuously surged outwards, even at the cost of slowing down his own revival, just to establish contact with his creators—the Old Gods.
Of course, the Holy Light in the Silver Hand's antechamber still protected the entire hall; until that was breached, all messages transmitted by Zakas would be intercepted by the Holy Light's woven net.
But this also meant that Arthas and his companions had to speed up, otherwise, if the Void energy outside accumulated too much and exceeded the Holy Light's suppressive capacity, Uther and his companions would be in considerable danger.
Zakas's master was Yogg-Saron, far away in Northrend, and Yogg-Saron was currently still in a semi-sealed state.
Nevertheless, spatial distance was almost nonexistent for the Old Gods; their influence could dimensional travel infinite distances, directly reaching the minds of victims or their servants.
Arthas was unsure how such a connection was established and maintained, but with K'thir like Zakas serving as an anchor, a partially freed Yogg-Saron might directly deploy corrupted armies into Tyr's tomb.
Fortunately, the staircase leading to Zakas's slumbering place was not long, and soon, Arthas saw the shattered hall's doorway.
However, Uther and the others in the Silver Hand's antechamber were already feeling the oppressive force of the Void.
"Damn it, I finally understand why Arthas brought almost all the Great Knights of the Silver Hand here."
Magni frowned, his eyes fixed on the corner of the ceiling—even in a hall blessed by the Holy Light, some abnormalities had already appeared due to the infiltration of maddening Void energy.
The originally sacred hall's surroundings had been stained with an eerie dark purple, and this influence was growing at a very steady rate.
Uther was currently holding the Silver Hand, fighting against the Void energy attempting to invade the hall, but the Void power accumulated here had been rooted for too long.
Even with the Silver Hand's help, Uther felt he couldn't sustain it much longer.
He said to his companions around him, "Be careful, these powers are constantly spreading, and I can't suppress them indefinitely."
"Let us lend you a hand, King Magni, please help us keep watch."
Tirion extended his right hand, gathering the power of the Holy Light and sending it to Uther, so he could use the Silver Hand to resist the Void's erosion.
Gavinrad and Dathrohan also began to offer assistance to Uther.
Magni said, "Hey, guys, don't expend too much energy.
I have a premonition that something bad is hidden in those dark corners."
"Don't worry, King Magni, guiding and gathering Holy Light in this way won't exhaust our stamina.
We just need to concentrate.
If we can't suppress the Void with artifacts, we'll immediately engage in combat."
Tirion's words somewhat eased Magni's mind.
To a certain extent, Holy Light was equivalent to a paladin's mental power, and calmly guiding Holy Light in this manner was actually not much different from meditation and rest for these three Great Knights.
They clearly knew that now was not the time to carelessly expend stamina.
By concentrating the power of the four of them in this way, they could both reduce Uther's consumption and maintain their own condition.
Magni blew on his beard, picked up his warhammer, and somewhat irritably smashed it at a shadow on the wall.
He hadn't expected to weaken its power, but to his surprise, the physical strike actually made the shadow's area shrink.
"Hey, I think I've found something interesting."
Magni chuckled twice, then began to search for the dark purple areas that showed signs of spreading, using fearbreaker to shatter their attempts to expand further.
The situation in the Silver Hand's antechamber had temporarily stabilized, but how long it could be maintained, they did not know.
After all, this only slowed down the Void's infiltration rate, rather than completely suppressing it.
The source of the corruption was not here.
Extinguishing the Void power here only reduced its ability to spread.
To end all of this, they had to wait for Arthas and the others to completely eliminate the source of the corruption.
The four-person team deep in the crypt had finally traversed the path filled with madness and distortion.
The Holy Light's protection allowed them to enter Zakas's "fallen" chamber unharmed.
What greeted their eyes was a colossal body, like a small mountain.
The creature was bound by crumbling light-blue Arcane chains, and the energy pool meant to restrict its revival was almost entirely polluted by its endless putrid blood.
Although Zakas had not yet awakened and was still in a state of "suspended animation," all four of them could sense an abnormal vitality emanating from his massive body.
And embedded in the head of this deformed and twisted flesh monster was a greatsword, which had inflicted an irreparable wound on Zakas.
It was Thoradin's sword—stromgarde, the Warbreaker.
This weapon was deeply embedded in Zakas's skull, and such an injury severely hampered Zakas's revival progress.
Large amounts of putrid blood and energy surged from the wound on his head, and it seemed that the pus flowing from this wound was precisely what had polluted the surrounding land.
"What an evil existence this is!"
Mograine's face was ashen.
He had seen the most brutal orcs and personally slain the most corrupted demons, but this mountain-like, dark pink monster before him gave him a completely different kind of shock.
Even though he had not fully revived yet, the corrupting influence emanating from Zakas almost plucked at the most sensitive and fragile strings in the hearts of living beings.
The endless Void and darkness seemed capable of snapping the fragile nerves of mortals at any moment.
Jaina's expression was somewhat pale.
As a mage, she was far more sensitive to energy than the other three.
Zakas's evil malevolence and the Void's endless whispers now seemed to echo in her ears.
However, all these noisy sounds vanished the moment Arthas held her hand.
"Are you alright, Jaina?"
"I'm fine… Thank you, Arthas.
How can we destroy this damned monster now?"
Jaina had personally experienced the terror that Zakas represented.
It wasn't like previous enemies who destroyed you physically.
The Void was like murky water; it was all-pervasive, seizing the most vulnerable points of your mind, and disintegrating your will from within.
She suddenly understood why Arthas didn't bring an army to deal with the threat here.
Because the Void didn't just force you into submission through violence, but rather infiltrated your mind, destroying everything without you even realizing it.
Armies could fight against violence, but they couldn't fight against such whispers—even the madness that Earth Guardian Neltharion couldn't withstand, mortals certainly couldn't resist.
Mograine's hand, gripping Ashbringer, trembled slightly, not from fear, but from anger and shock.
He wished he could immediately eliminate the evil presence before him.
"This guy's body is too massive, Arthas, we probably should have brought explosives!"
Muradin adjusted his helmet, feeling cold sweat seeping out and dampening the inner lining of his helmet.
"Explosives might destroy Zakas's physical body, but his evil essence would not be threatened.
In that case, we would actually be helping him escape this cage," Arthas said.
"Pure violence cannot shatter his existence; we must find a way to completely erase all his threats on multiple levels."
"What do you suggest we do?" Muradin asked.
Arthas's gaze turned towards stromgarde, which was plunged into Zakas's skull.
In the original timeline, Zakas was completely annihilated only after being simultaneously affected by three artifacts.
The Silver Hand eroded his dark power, stromgarde severely wounded and killed his physical body again, and only then did Saratath, the Blade of the Dark Empire, finally shatter his soul.
Mograine, wielding Ashbringer, could naturally crush Zakas's not-yet-fully-awakened physical body again.
The actions of Uther and the others were also weakening Zakas.
In fact, what Arthas needed to do was simply to completely destroy Zakas's soul and essence.
Arthas did not have Saratath.
Although Saratath, which shared the same origin of power as the Old Gods, would be the best choice, Arthas currently had another card up his sleeve: Frostmourne, which hung at Arthas's waist, disguised as an ordinary longsword.
Unlike Saratath's "cannibalism," Frostmourne represented the power of death, and there were no unkillable enemies in this world.
Even the souls of the Titans could be enslaved and tormented, let alone the servants of the Old Gods.
A weakened Zakas would have no chance of escaping Frostmourne's consumption.
Arthas only needed to be careful not to be discovered by Yogg-Saron, because he would eventually confront this "good neighbor" one day, and stirring the grass too early was not a good idea.
"Mograine, in a moment, you will launch your fiercest assault at the wound left by stromgarde on Zakas.
Muradin, Jaina, when Mograine's attack is delivered, Zakas's physical body will instinctively counterattack.
You two cover him well, and don't give Zakas a chance to breathe—I will seize the opportunity to completely destroy this fellow's soul."
Mograine gripped the hilt of Ashbringer with both hands and nodded in response, "Understood, Prince, I can move at any time."
"Although I'm a bit nervous, my axe and warhammer are ready to flatten this disgusting fellow!" Muradin laughed heartily.
Jaina took a deep breath, slowly parting her hands, complex Arcane runes unfolded around her arms, and her eyes lit up with a pale blue Arcane glow: "Me too."
"Then… Mograine, begin!"
At Arthas's command, golden flames ignited in Mograine's eyes, and the Holy Light's flames solidified around Ashbringer's blade.
The paladin roared, swinging the door-like greatsword, striking Zakas's hideous head with a scorching and sacred blade.
The moment the Holy Light touched Zakas's skin, sizzling sounds, like a branding iron on flesh, continuously rang out, and the deceased Zakas's body automatically let out a tragic howl.
His flesh and carapace constantly swelled and protruded, and the pus and foul blood beneath him began to churn ceaselessly.
From within his flesh, vile creations surged out in a swarm, madly pouncing towards Mograine.