Light's Dawn of Azeroth

Chapter 335, Section 25: The Demon Comes from Afar - A Lament for Stromgarde

"Great ancestors, save your incompetent children! Ancestors, bestow your grace!"

Sorrowful prayers echoed in the hidden cave; they were the prayers of the centaur elders.

This was part of some supposedly ancient ritual, where, amidst the eerie chants of gloomy-clad Wither Druids holding skull censers, one sacrifice after another was carried onto the altar by "savage" warriors.

The masked executioner gripped a bone knife and drained their blood one by one.

The stench, along with the chilling aura of death, made the underground cave incredibly foul, and the altar ahead remained elusive.

So the centaurs had no choice but to continue offering sacrifices.

This was a "grand ceremony" that lasted for more than a month. Ever since the Bloodhoof Tauren fled Desolation, such tragedies had been unfolding in Maraudon, the holy land of the centaurs. The resurrected spirits almost slaughtered the living centaurs. Unable to withstand such a deadly force, the centaurs could only turn to their sorrowful "mother" for help.

But the rebellious sons who had committed patricide did not deserve help, and seeing that their tribe was on the verge of extinction, the centaurs had no choice but to take a risky gamble.

If the mother is unwilling to help, they turn to their paternal ancestors for assistance.

And so the devil came.

Jars of demonic blood were bestowed upon these savage creatures, granting them renewed power to banish death, but such "salvation" came at a price.

The centaurs' history is too short for them to comprehend the sin of walking with demons in this world. Before they could even recover from their temporary victory, the night elves' silver-winged sentinels came knocking.

And so the second war began.

Even now, the centaurs are once again pushed to the brink of death.

The fierce Kaldorei Sentinels, along with the Druids and the Bristleback Boar Warriors, had already besieged the outer perimeter of Maraudon's Sanctuary, while the elite Moon Guardians continuously summoned meteors to bombard the centaur's last territory.

If they can't come up with a solution soon, the centaurs might be wiped out from Azeroth in the next few days.

"Ancestors, please bestow your salvation."

The eldest clan elder pleaded with outstretched arms, and under the watchful eyes of the deathly silent corrupted servants on either side, some Kaldorei elves captured in the battle were also brought to the altar.

"Don't summon it!"

The elven druid ignored the bone blade pressed against his neck and roared:

"Stop! Fool! You are pointing the way for the Corruptor to enter this world! Its withering army will burn the entire continent to ashes! Stop! We will help you! Do not continue!"

"puff"

The blood-stained bone blade pierced the druid's neck, causing his natural blood to drip into the pool of blood before him.

The thick, fresh blood rippled, like a blood-stained mirror reflecting a dark green starry sky.

The druid's eyes dimmed little by little. He clearly saw a great demon lord with a human head and a deer body, holding a spear that could extinguish stars and trampling on the ashes of all things, approaching. Behind it was a scroll of destruction composed of ten thousand dead and silent worlds!

With each thud of its heavy hooves, laden with scorching vines, a corner of the starry sea would be extinguished.

Cenarius is coming!
The corruptors have approached Azeroth, and these foolish centaurs, through their cursed bloodline, have become the best "guiding light" for the great demons.

The last drop of blood dripped from the wound on his neck, and the druid collapsed into the pit of bones formed by the corpses of tauren, boarmen, goblins, trolls, and bearmen. As he fell in, he began to "melt," his bones falling into a luminous poison as his flesh peeled away.

That's the plague.

That's a complex concept. The Degenerate Spores are just a peculiar variant of the Plague. As the most malevolent power that Cenarius the Defiler used to poison the stars, this thing is the end of all life in the Star Sea.

The urn of plague had already taken shape under the nurturing of the life offerings. Amidst the centaur elder's screams, which were like those of a chicken being slaughtered, the filthy blood pool finally stirred, much like the opening of a starry sky gate. As the druids around it withered away, chanting incantations, they all knelt in worship. Hooves wrapped in withered vines and encased in demonic steel finally stepped into the material world.

The polluter has arrived.

Amidst the interplay of green fel energy and malevolent energy, the Great Demon Lord, with a human head and a deer's body, finally returned to his homeland, which he had left ten thousand years ago.

Cenarius looked down at his powerless bloodline, his green eyes burning like stars, causing the centaur elder to scream and retreat.

Its eyes were burned out, and it stumbled and fell into the bone pit below, becoming the final sacrifice in the plague.

As the polluter raised its claws, the dark green poisonous mist in the bone pit roared and churned, swirling around the polluter like a soaring dragon, bringing a satisfied smile to its face, which was adorned with withered flowers and gray-green whiskers.

"Go."

It spewed Sargeras's flames from its nostrils, proclaiming in a cruel tone:
"Announce my arrival to the Kaldorei and Kalimdor."

As the corrupted murmured, the poisonous mist of the plague boiled and surged, then spread decay across the land, causing all living things around the entire Maraudon Sanctuary to wither and die in an instant.

"No good! Retreat!!!"

Archdruid Naralex was horrified the moment he saw the poisonous mist. He immediately activated his Dreamscape, ordering the surrounding warriors to retreat, while grabbing the Priestess of the Moon beside him and shouting:

"A warning to Mount Hyjal, and to the whole world!"

"The polluter is here!"

------

On the inner walls of Stromgarde, "Dragonheart" Rhonin was casting spells to summon scorching meteors that would crash down on the swarming undead outside the city.

The red-haired mage looked at the corpses that filled the battlefield and felt a chill run down his spine. He even suspected that all the dead in the entire Arathi Highlands had been gathered here.

But these dead are not the most troublesome problem at this moment. Compared to the fel energy rifts that are constantly opening on the hills outside the city, this unshakable sea of ​​the dead is at most an "appetizer".

"There are too many of them! The walls won't hold for long."

Beside Rhonin, Vereesa nocked a Holy Light Arrow onto her warbow, causing the standard weapon of the Holy Light Legion to trigger a purifying aura upon landing. The arrow cleared a small area, covering the Arathi Knights' entry into the city.

But Vereesa knew this couldn't go on, and she said to Ronin:

"The undead are interfering with our plans to destroy the demon portal. The local doomsday prophet cultists are incredibly arrogant. They no longer hide their malice towards this city, which is the oldest city in the Arathor Empire and guards the only bridge connecting the northern frontier to the central continent."

Once this place falls…

“There are only three of us, Veresa. There’s not much we can do in this situation. Now, whether the city can hold out is no longer the most important thing.”

Ronin remained calm. While maintaining the bombardment of the falling meteors, he shouted to the arcane crystals floating beside him:

"Khadgar, how much longer!"

"Shut up."

The newly appointed Guardian of Tirisfal, Khadgar, said in a hoarse voice:

"This is the twenty-seventh portal. The civilians inside Stromgarde are passing through quickly. They will be heading to Khaz Modan for refuge, where dwarves are receiving them."

The good news is that I can maintain at least ten more portals.

The bad news is that I sensed fel energy surging beneath the city! It's getting more and more intense.

Those mad cultists have crawled into the sewers; they're holding a dangerous summoning ritual there—a blood sacrifice! Ronning, the demons' incursion into the city is unstoppable. Be prepared to use your magical pendant soon!
I need you to stay longer until I've delivered all the people.

Upon hearing Khadgar's words, Rhonin gripped the rock pendant hanging from his chest and whispered:

“But I’ve never used this before, so I’m not sure I can stick with it for long.”

"That's a world-class artifact, give it some faith."

In the mage tower of Stromgarde, Khadgar, single-handedly maintaining the simultaneous operation of numerous portals, said in a hoarse voice:

"If the epic accounts of the Great Battle of Argus recorded by the Eredar are true, no, even if only a tenth of them are true, that pendant will grant you 'invincible' power tonight."
Do not!
Something is wrong!
Space was.”

"click"

A crisp sound rang out, drowning out the clamor of the city's war, and was heard clearly by Ronin and Vereesa.

As if something invisible had been shattered, a heavy pressure pressed down on Ronin and the other warriors on the city wall. Vereesa nimbly darted up the nearby watchtower in a few steps and glanced at the mage district in the city.

The portals that Khadgar was maintaining were rapidly dying out, like candles being blown out by the wind.

"Ronin, the space around Stromgarde has been sealed off!"

Vereesa turned around and called out:
"The demons are coming! Strange lights are flashing beneath the city, like bombs dropped by the dwarves."

"boom"

The violent explosion occurred before Vereesa's eyes, like an invisible fist slamming into the city from underground.

The piercing thud caused the ground in the city center to bulge, and then rapidly collapsed, leveling the ancient city. Meanwhile, the fel fire continued to burn outward as the energy of the shock ring spread. In the blink of an eye, the center of Stromgarde was ignited into a dark green torch in the night.

This scene left the Arathor warriors on the city walls dumbfounded. Amid their roars, the opening of the Fel Well in Dalaran was reenacted here, with a rift hundreds of meters high wantonly destroying the spatial structure of the material world, like a vicious claw gripping the edge of the rift and pulling it outwards.

A terrifying, winged scorched hound burst forth like a ghost from a dream, perched atop the Arathi's proudest, millennia-old palace, and ripped the palace apart with its claws, roaring to the heavens amidst the earth-shaking tremors.

That was a battle cry, and also a command!
Then an astonishing number of flying demons poured out from them with screams. They howled and hunted wantonly under the sky, which had turned into a cloud of fel energy. They swept across the city like black clouds, and soldiers and civilians who could not dodge in time were dragged into the sky. Then, in a brutal tearing and devouring, their blood and corpses were smashed onto the terrified earth.

"careful!"

Vereesa shot an arrow of holy light high into the sky, causing a golden halo to explode in the air, thus repelling some of the demons.

But more demons rushed into the city walls, and the sudden impact was like a "desktop organizer expert" knocking away a large number of the guards on the walls.

Even more deadly was that a Doom Lord flapped its wings and crashed down like a meteorite, hitting the area of ​​the city wall where Ronning was located. The next instant, the rolling fel lava exploded, swallowing the city wall and the nearby city gate.

The falling warriors only had time to let out their final screams before they were "melted" into the power of the higher-ranking demons.

Lady Windrunner's eyes widened; she couldn't believe Rhonin was dead.
She even shed tears.

"I'm not dead! Isn't it bad luck to cry now?"

The red-haired mage's scream rang out, and to Vereesa's astonished gaze, a ball of pale blue energy, like a ribbon of light, stretched and surrounded Rhonin, propelling him out of the ever-spreading fel magma.

The Doom Lord, who had failed to kill the enemy, chased after him with his giant blade, determined to behead the damned fellow.

Rhonin came to an abrupt stop in mid-air. Although he had no wings, after activating the Heart of Azeroth, he was granted the power to fly freely in the world. Seeing the ferocious Doom Lord charging towards him, the red-haired mage didn't have time to cast any profound magic and could only try to slow down the opponent with the most ordinary fire blast.

But the moment the spell model was activated, both the demon and Rhonin widened their eyes.

wrong!

This tastes wrong!
"boom"

The flame impact, amplified by the explosive power of the world, instantly formed a lifelike "flaming palm".

A burst of dark blue energy mixed with fiery magic erupted, and with a single slap from Ronin's all-out attack, the Doom Lord was "melted" into the air. The legendary demon only had time to utter a curse before returning to the Twisted Nether to resurrect.

But the shock of the "perpetrator," Ronin, was no less than that of the demon.

He was just an ordinary mage, yet he instantly killed a legendary demon with a single fire blast. Is that right?
Who would believe this?
Do you really think you can use your level advantage to come back and grind low-level dungeons?
"Why are you still standing there?"

Khadgar, wielding the Guardian's Staff and flying in as a raven, shouted from the air:
"Lady Aegwynn told me that this enhancement of the World Soul has a time limit. Your energy is your combat resource, so hurry up! Ronning, we need to get the people stranded in the city out before you're exhausted."

His Majesty Solas and his knights are coming this way. I'll clear the city gates; you hold off the demons!
Don't hold back, tonight's the end of the world.

"Roger that!"

Luo Ning steadied himself, quickly adapting to the surging power within his body. He saw demons continuously emerging from the city center and that damned well of fel energy, and knew he had to suppress the demons' entry.

He took a deep breath in mid-air, chanted a spell loudly, and then cast a meteor spell to strike the location of the Fel Well.

He doesn't even need to worry about accidentally injuring someone.

The place has been burned to ashes by evil fire; there will be no more innocent victims.

The meteorite spell struck.

But not just one, but a whole group!
This scene was a replica of the old lich Farondis's Meteor Fire spell. As Rhonin maintained the mana model, a continuous stream of meteors, under his control, crashed into the direction from which the demons were charging. Each meteor that landed generated a shockwave, blasting all the lower-ranking demons to death.

The demons in the air wanted to fly over and harass them, but Ronning was now confident. As the dark mass of demon bats and doomguards approached, he took a "deep breath".

The Dragon Breath Technique erupted in the next moment.

As Luo Ning shook his head, he transformed into a giant dragon, continuously spewing out high-temperature dragon flames.

Exaggerated flames wove a fiery net in the air, even illuminating the city, causing the Arathor knights rushing below to look up and admire the pitiful sight of the demons being burned to death and falling.

His mighty single-handed fight against ten thousand men managed to slightly revive the city's utterly demoralized morale. King Solas Trollbane even considered relying on this powerful spellcaster to protect his capital, but was subsequently rebuked by his nephew, Danas Trollbane:
"Stromgarde is doomed! Your Majesty, break through with the last warriors before the city falls to the demons!"

Fully armed General Danas, carrying his battle axe, called out to his elders and the king:

"Don't go to the Wall of Thoradin. Take the Sador Bridge to the central part of the continent! The northern frontier is finished. Demons will keep appearing here. You should leave quickly and go to Marshal Lothar."

"And what about you, child?"

Against the backdrop of a city ablaze, a scene resembling the end of the world, King Solas asked with profound sorrow:

"Aren't you leaving?"

“Our army is still guarding the Wall of Thoradin. They need a commander. The Arathi Highlands and Hillsbrad Foothills also need a member of the Thorbane family to sacrifice for them.”

Danas, wearing an eagle-shaped helmet, shook his head and said:
“I will stay here! I will fight the demons and their lackeys to the last moment. Please lead the people to retreat. The laws of Stromgarde need you to uphold them.”

As they spoke, a group of demon guards riding hellhounds charged towards them. Danas Trollbane swung his battle axe, slaying one of the ferocious hellhounds in mid-air. Just before the knights launched their charge, he turned back to his uncle and said:

"If things are beyond saving, surrendering with proper ceremony would not diminish the family's high position. Your Majesty, this is no ordinary time. The Kingdom of Stromgarde can return to the human empire, but it must not perish at the hands of demons!"

The ancestral laws and millennia-old traditions will not allow the Arathi to become cowards.

Having said that, the mighty general led his knights to charge towards the demon. The trampling of iron hooves and the roar of the demon intertwined in that instant, becoming the final melody of the apocalypse of Stromgarde.

His Majesty Solas felt dizzy.

He had a son, but he wasn't very capable. In his mind, only an outstanding member of the Thorbean family like Danas was qualified to inherit the throne. But now, his chosen heir was actually advising him to surrender to Lothar and rebuild the empire?

Does he really think the situation is so critical that it's beyond saving?
"Your Majesty, leave quickly!"

The royal guards risked their lives to escort the king out of the city where evil fire was constantly being hurled.

Above them, the powerful Rhonin was battling the ferocious Scorched Hound Lord, which was not Sargeras's beloved hound, but a loser in the "Dark Titan Pet Selection Contest".

Even so, the demigod-level demon lord still made it very difficult for Ronning to fight.

It wasn't that the Heart of Azeroth's enhancement was ineffective; it was that he himself hadn't yet adapted to this immense power. However, during Khadgar's support and sneak attack, Rhonin seized an opportunity to blink past and strike the monster's gaping maw with a Lava Fireball that resembled a small sun. The Fiery Orb then exploded within its ferocious maw, instantly tearing the monster's body apart.

The great demon's mutilated corpse crashed into the already ravaged ground, taking root and transforming into scorching evil fire that instantly ignited half the city.

Khadgar clenched his fists in anguish.

His previous teleportation was not yet complete; there were still some people stranded there. However, the Royal Mage Tower, which served as a protective symbol, had already turned into a dark green torch in the flames of evil, as if it were a symbol of the beginning of a destructive invasion.

This city is finished.

"Azeroth! A pathetic world! Pathetic humans! Damn Magna Aegwynn! Come, face me! Face the Destroyer!"

A deep roar echoed through the burning city center. The terrifying figure that Rhonin had once seen in Dalaran appeared before him once more. Mannoroth the Destroyer, wielding his iconic Zul'Thun's Spear of Destruction, strode into the material world. This time, there would be no meddlesome Star Soul Guardians to stop him.

This disappointed the vandal, but then it discovered something interesting.

"You! Mage, what kind of power is that within you?"

Manonos's burning eyes were fixed on Rhonin. As a high-ranking demon general favored by Sargeras, this guy, although he did not have the title of high-ranking demon lord, was no less powerful than Kil'jaeden and Sarkil due to the characteristics of his race.

It is already a top-tier powerhouse in the Burning Legion.

Manonos sensed the "fragrance" of the world's power. If this energy could amplify all primal forces, it meant that if he obtained this power, perhaps...
"Ah, the magnificent stairway to godhood is right before my eyes!"

The Destroyer roared, raising its Spear of Destruction high, instantly engulfing the entire sky above Stromgarde with a raging storm of fel flames. It swung its claws, condensing fel energy into tangible shackles, binding itself and Rhonin within them.

it says:

"You want to protect this wretched city? Fine, come on, mage, let's have a go. Before the battle is decided, I'll give you a chance to escape. Ha, how long can these pathetic insects survive even if they escape their nest?"
But if you die, you poor thing!

Your soul and your power will belong to me.

------

"It's here! It's entered this world! It's in the north, I can feel it."

In a camp in the Searing Canyon, Grom Hellscream covered his forehead, the blood-red eye between his fingers like a burning flame, extremely terrifying.

He shouted at Orgrim Doomhammer, who was looking at a map in front of him:

"Let's go, let's go and kill it!"

(End of this chapter)