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"So, is this the reply from you elves?" A young shaman from the Frostwolf clan opened his ferocious mouth full of fangs and said in a muffled voice to the elf in front of him.
"The elves of Quel'Thalas will not submit to anyone or any force. There will be no peace between us until you use some despicable means to influence the Sunwell." The speaker was a high elf who had fully participated in the previous meeting about the orcs and strongly criticized and disdained the orcs' demands in harsh words.
And his words were also recognized by many upper elves.
"Then, let's prepare for war." The young shaman didn't care about the elves who were full of hostility and staring at him with weapons in hand. He knew the danger of this task when he took it.
Maybe he will die in this mission.
But what's so scary about this?
Death was merely the beginning of another journey. Or perhaps a new life imbued with holy light. Regardless, he believed that the high priest and his people would make all of Quel'Thalas weep for them. This was an honor!
"What on earth did you do to the Sunwell?" The leading elven nobleman obviously did not want to let the young orc shaman go, so he asked aggressively with his men.
"What did we do to the Sunwell?" The young shaman smiled grimly. "So you still don't know what we did. But soon, soon you should know."
"Playing tricks!" The elven nobleman was a little impatient. He wanted to capture the orc in front of him and torture him, if he hadn't obtained permission. His Majesty, Anasterian Sunstrider, had issued an expulsion order for the orc shaman who delivered the letter. Unless the other party actively attacked, he would not dare to disobey Anasterian's wishes.
"The next time we meet, maybe you will send someone to look for us." The young shaman said meaningfully, turned around and left the Silver Moon Forest.
Looking at the opponent's broad back that looked like a warrior, the elven noble hesitated for a moment and still did not give the order to attack.
…
Orc camp.
"In other words, the elves rejected our proposal?" Ner'zhul looked at the young shaman who was teleported back to report the news, and a cruel smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
The young shaman nodded.
"Pride is the greatest sin of any living creature! The high priest has already given them a chance. Since they can't grasp it, let's give up on them." Ner'zhul shook his head.
He knew better than anyone what kind of terror was brewing beneath the Sunwell's waters. Even though his power had risen to a level that even shocked him, thanks to the High Priest's teachings, he still felt a lingering fear about that heart.
That was not the heart of an ordinary creature at all. In Ner'zhul's view, that heart was perhaps more terrifying than the evil dragon, more like a part of a god.
Even though the heart held no hostility towards him, just by being near it, he could feel the energy and vitality in his body slowly draining away. And the object being devoured was that strange heart.
That being, called an apostle by the high priest, possessed a powerful force, almost like a law. Given the hunger that heart had evoked in him, if it were awakened in a place rich in energy, it would likely transform that area into a barren wasteland, or even a land of death.
What a pity, the last chance was also given up by those elves.
…
Stratholme.
The plague was forcibly delayed by Uther using the Holy Light. Although the danger was not over and it was still spreading and multiplying tenaciously, it at least bought some time for the residents of the city of Stratholme.
Lordaeron's court mage, the elven grand mage Luo Bihua, and some doctors all devoted themselves to researching how to solve the plague.
What is certain now is that it is not a naturally occurring plague, but rather a man-made one, centered around some dangerous force. It is ineffective against elves and orcs, or at least has no impact on their health.
This energy, confirmed by the court mages, is somewhat similar to the power wielded by the minions of the Burning Legion.
Alonsus submitted a proposal to King Terenas of Lordaeron, suggesting that the king seek help from Dalaran. As the main force against the minions of the Burning Legion, the mages of Dalaran might understand this power and be familiar with the solution.
The messenger rode a griffin back and forth, and in a short time, he brought Alonsus a reply from King Terenas. In the letter, Terenas told Alonsus that he had previously sent a request for help to Dalaran, but a huge change had occurred in Dalaran and no one could be sent to help at the moment.
However, in the letter, Terenas said that he would soon send Kel'Thuzad, the chief mage of Lordaeron. He was also a mage from Dalaran and had a way to curb the spread of the plague.
After reading the letter, Alonsus was not excited about Kel'Thuzad's arrival and the so-called "good news" on the letter. Instead, he had a premonition that greater trouble was about to come.
Stratholme was under siege, Lordaeron was threatened by the orc army, something happened to the elven Sunwell, and something also happened in Dalaran. All of this was connected, and it seemed that there was a black hand behind the scenes, controlling and manipulating all of this.
After all, it was hard for Alonsus to believe that the forces around Lordaeron would suffer major changes almost at the same time, making it difficult for them to provide assistance to Lordaeron.
The other party deliberately created this isolated situation, so it is natural that they will have corresponding back-up plans.
In Alonsus's view, Lordaeron was like a fly that had entered a spider's web. If it could not find a way to break out, it would be stuck in the web and eventually become food.
The orcs' strength was fully demonstrated during the battles and wars of this period. A single ordinary orc required at least two or three well-trained soldiers to withstand and even kill. Elite orc warriors blessed by the totem, such as Durotan, could single-handedly annihilate a human squadron of several dozen.
Alonsus even sometimes thought that even with the fortified city of Stratholme, the orcs could break down its gates at any time. But why there hadn't been a proper siege so far was something Alonsus couldn't understand.
"At night, someone saw a phantom similar to a wild beast in the city? And more than one person saw it?" Uther, who was in charge of dealing with the plague incident, just woke up and received a shocking news.
"There is also a patrol soldier among them. I brought him here, sir." said the person responsible for handling the reporting information for Uther.
"Bring him in." Originally, if only one or two people had seen something like this, it would have been a case of misjudgment due to fear and darkness, and Uther would have ignored it. At most, he would have sent some soldiers to investigate and calm the anxious hearts. But since multiple people had seen it, including a soldier, he couldn't help but ask more questions.
A patrolling soldier was called in, and when Uther asked him, he repeated everything he had seen in detail.
"A beast tall enough to be a grown man, over five meters long?" Uther's expression darkened. This size would almost be different from the livestock raised by the residents. But Uther still wasn't sure if such a dangerous beast truly existed within the city.
After all, in the darkness of night, even a cat's shadow, shrouded by light and shadow, could appear like a massive creature. Both the residents and the soldier before them saw only a phantom. They were either too frightened to approach, or had approached and investigated only to find nothing.
Uther believed that soldiers had already inspected the area before the message reached him. If there was indeed a problem, his secretary would have attached the corresponding information to the message.
In the current situation, people are probably still in a panic. If we leave it alone, rumors may start to spread.
After Uther figured it out, he personally led his soldiers to investigate the scene. What made him look grim was that the area did indeed contain some residual energy that was opposed to the Holy Light. Although it was very weak, it could easily be overlooked without careful investigation.
Next, Uther went to other places where he had seen the phantom and walked around. In these places, he also vaguely detected the same energy residues. Among the five locations, only one was clean and had nothing left, and nothing was found.
This situation was enough for Uther to take it seriously and no longer just treat it as some rumor.
By marking the places where the phantoms appeared with red circles on the city map, Uther discovered a common pattern: these areas were near the isolation rooms for people severely infected with the plague.
These places housed many severely infected people who had already suffered limb deformities. Every day, the church's Holy Light priests would come to baptize them with Holy Light to suppress the plague in them.
Outside the quarantined area, soldiers and at least one Holy Light priest were guarding it. With the help of the court mages, small magical barriers were constructed.
After discovering the anomaly, Uther had no choice but to return to the Cathedral of Holy Light to handle affairs as he could not obtain more information. However, he had decided to guard these areas at night for the next few days. He really wanted to know what kind of monster that phantom was.
…
Quel'Thalas.
The third day after the orc messenger left.
The energy concentration around the Sunwell began to decrease significantly, even showing signs of being unsustainable. This only intensified the anger of Anasterian Sunstrider and other upper-class nobles.
Luo Bihua, who was assigned to investigate intelligence, was even criticized by the Noble Council of Quel'Thalas.
But as the Sunwell's energy [drained], an inconceivable behemoth finally revealed itself. It was a massive creature, resembling a turtle, occupying the entire Sunwell. It appeared to be dormant, but with every breath, the surrounding vast energy was absorbed into its massive body.
The Sunwell continued to produce arcane energy, but all of it was consumed by this unknown creature. With each energy it devoured, its size would grow slightly. As its size grew, its energy consumption, or rather, its appetite, grew ever greater.
Only then did Anasterian Sunstrider and other elves understand where the Sunwell's energy was weakening.
Previously, the monster was still in its growth phase and could not consume too much energy, so the Sunwell continued to provide arcane energy to Quel'Thalas. However, as the monster consumed more energy, the Sunwell's energy supply became increasingly difficult to sustain. Eventually, the energy released by the Sunwell became less and less, almost to zero.
Once the root cause of the problem is discovered, the next step is naturally to solve the problem.
What relieved Anasterian's many high elves was that the Sunwell wasn't the problem. If they could kill the turtle-like monster that was hogging the Sunwell's energy, or rather, expel it, the Sunwell's energy would once again cover all of Quel'Thalas. Everything would return to normal.
"We can use magic to banish it to another plane," suggested a high elf.
"This is a good idea, but the problem is, don't you think it's too big? Like a small island. And it's still getting bigger!" Another high elf wizard nodded in agreement, but pointed to the monster that occupied the Sunwell, which was like an island, and showed him how to open a giant space gate that was large enough.
You have to know that this world's space is shrouded in a thick barrier, and the space is very stable. Although the disaster ten thousand years ago shook the stability of space, opening a space portal large enough to accommodate the Sunwell still requires a large amount of processing and casting materials. As for the mages of Quel'Thalas alone, even if they were drained of their magic power, they would not be able to successfully summon a space portal of such a large size.
The Sunwell was a massive energy source, providing them with enough energy for their spellcasting, but not a single drop of it had leaked out, completely drained by this monster. Therefore, the unbridled use of magic, using the Sunwell's energy as they had in the past, without scrupulous expenditure of mana, was no longer possible.
"Furthermore, opening a massive portal on the Sunwell isn't a good omen. What if something unexpected happens and it explodes like the Well of Eternity?" Some high elves expressed their concerns. After all, according to elven history, opening a portal on a source of arcane energy was a lesson learned once. While that incident was an accident, who could guarantee it wouldn't happen again?
"Then find a way to expel or kill it first. At least, don't let it stay in the Sunwell anymore," Anasterian ordered swiftly. It's okay for a short time now, but over time, the condition of these magic addicts will inevitably decline.
"What a pity! We might be able to seek help from humans, but they don't seem to be able to help." A high elf sighed as he looked at the monster that looked tough just by looking at its size.
"Damn orcs!"
"Damn orcs!"
An angry curse was met with many voices of approval.