Make Azeroth breathtaking

"I admire the purity of the Holy Light of the Garrison Commander Haruni, and I am amazed by Chief Vol'jin's voodoo magic—and the ingenuity of Tannis the Great Tinker is truly refreshing."

Faol, leaning on his staff, slowly walked to Varian and Daelin's side. He slightly raised his hand, causing two beams of holy light to flash on the two of them. In less than ten seconds, the burns on Daelin and Varian's bodies from their battle with the lava giants completely disappeared.

"Tannis's idea?"

"Yes, she suggested that the sorcerer forcibly open a dimensional rift, then throw out a simple teleportation crystal. She then used this teleportation crystal to directly connect to the pool in Stormwind City, and then asked Duke Hydraxia, who was still temporarily stationed there, to send a large amount of cold water vapor through magic."

"Then Romans and I joined forces to use a spell to bind the moisture, and Thrall then used shamanistic magic to cause it to erupt within Ragnaros's elemental army."

"However, in the short term, this method can only be used on the edge of Molten Core. As Duke Hydraxia said, Molten Core has become a material plane that slightly overlaps with the elemental plane of fire. Therefore, the deeper we go into Molten Core, the higher the energy consumption of spatial teleportation. Moreover, without two-way anchor points, the probability of teleportation errors will increase dramatically, which is very detrimental to the development of our subsequent plans."

Archmage Romans, who had nearly figured out the spatial structure of Molten Core, frowned as he looked at the fiery red world in the distance.

"Our primary objective is to break this overlap, Archmage. If we consider the entire Molten Core as a magic circle, can you pinpoint the nodes of the fire runes?"

Romans shook his head.

"It's difficult because Molten Core isn't a regular underground cavern, and Ragnaros might not choose the optimal solution. Therefore, applying the rules of conventional magic to Ragnaros's actions won't work."

Romans's answer made Varian frown slightly. Just as he was about to ask the next question, a deep voice suddenly came from afar, growing ever closer.

"Mortals! How dare you step into the domain of the Flame Demon King! And you even bring the aura of your nemesis!"

Accompanied by the rumbling sound echoing through the cave, a tall fire demon carrying a long spear glided across the churning lava path in the distance. Several other fire demons, each wielding a staff or spear, followed him. Behind him, dozens of lava hounds with two heads and dripping lava roared fiercely, as if they wanted to incinerate all the uninvited guests who had entered the heart of the molten lava.

"Fire Demon! State your name!!"

Varian brandished his sword and took a large step forward.

"I am Sulfuron, the forerunner! Mortals! Accept the purification of the Firelord!"

Sulfuron the Pioneer roared, flames raging from the spear in his hand. In the next moment, he raised his hand high and hurled a magical spear completely covered in flames at Varian!

At the same time, the fire priests surrounding Sulfuron the Herald simultaneously raised their hands and formed a strange rune. Instantly, everyone felt a stinging pain, as if they had been ignited, seep into their souls, and the pain only intensified.

"Disperse!!"

Just as Varian endured the excruciating pain, gritted his teeth, and raised Salamence to take the spear attack from Sulfuron's Herald, a ripple of holy light spread out with Faol's soft shout. In the blink of an eye, everyone felt their souls cleansed, and the piercing pain disappeared.

The instant the pain vanished, Sulfuron Herald's flaming spear flew to Varian's side. With a crisp sound, the spear that Sulfuron Herald thought would at least reduce the number of mortals on the opposing side to one was reduced to a shower of sparks.

Before it could even throw its second spear, Varian had already charged in front of it. Salamence, with a flash of cold light, slashed towards its serpentine waist. Sulfuron Pioneer had no choice but to abandon its spear-throwing tactics and parry Varian's attack with its own spear. The fire demons around it were about to help when they were held back by Daelin, Varok, and Baine, who followed closely behind Varian and rushed into the battle. The Molten Hounds were also riddled with spells and arrows by Jaina, Vol'jin, and others, and had to choose to go and kill the small ants in the distance. However, halfway there, the Haruni garrison commander, holding a source material barrier that had been fitted with a handle, stood there calmly. The holy flames emanating from his body caused the Molten Hounds to subconsciously change their target, howling as they pounced on the Draenei garrison commander who was already on high alert.

The battle between mortals and flames has begun.

57. The Fall of the Pioneers

In the eyes of mages, fire demons are very interesting creatures.

From an anatomical and other scientific perspectives, fire demons are undoubtedly a species with bodies composed of organic matter. However, from another perspective, fire demons, whose bodily fluids are entirely composed of fire elements, are difficult to define as true living beings. Therefore, in academic circles, whether fire demons are considered living beings or elemental beings has been a subject of ongoing debate. However, both sides have reached a consensus on one point: every adult fire demon is a natural fire wielder. For them, using fire as a weapon is as simple as breathing for humans. Even a seasoned warrior would need to expend tremendous effort and a considerable amount of luck to defeat a fire demon.

What these researchers didn't know was that the fire demons they were studying were merely the weakest of the fire demons—even the kind that could only be considered commoners among fire demons. In the Firelands, powerful fire demons often possessed one or two unexpected and terrifying abilities, and the power that the Sulfuron Pirate possessed was—a monstrous strength that most fire demons could only look up to!

However, the Sulfuron Pioneer is now deeply mired in self-doubt. Over the long years, it has fought against mortals in the material plane. In its memory, no mortal body can withstand its spear filled with the wrath of the Balrog King. Yet this human in front of it can fight it one-on-one and the two are evenly matched!

"Bang!!!"

Another loud clang of weapons clashing echoed as Salamence clashed with the spear of the Sulfuron Herald once more. A burst of sparks and white shockwaves exploded from the point of impact, scattering everywhere. The Sulfuron Herald retreated slightly, while Varian resumed his stance.

"The blessing of flowing water... the blessing of the earth... and the power of holy light... mortal, without these things, you are not worth mentioning..."

During the battle, feeling that he had almost figured out why Varian, a mere mortal, had been able to fight him to this point, the Sulfuron Pirate slowly spoke. However, the only response he received was another swing of Varian's sword. Sensing the power swirling around Salamander, the Sulfuron Pirate dared not be careless and blocked Varian's relentless attack with a flick of his right hand.

"Do you really think you can defeat me? Mortal! You are insignificant and worthless!"

Saffron the Pioneer exerted force with his right hand, while a ball of white-hot flame rose from his left, which he viciously pressed down on Varian's head. Clearly, if this blow landed, Varian would either survive or be rendered incapable of fighting due to severe burns.

However, the Sulfuron Herald could no longer hold back. The instant it made that move, a crystal-like dagger emerged from the shadow of the flames beside the Sulfuron Herald and precisely pierced its elbow. A chilling current surged from the wound and quickly flowed into the Sulfuron Herald's body.

"Roar!!!!!"

Although the freezing power released by the dagger, formed from condensed cold water, was completely incinerated by the raging flames within the Saffron Pioneer in less than ten seconds, every detail is crucial in a battle between experts. In just that short time and with a loss of power that would normally be negligible, Varian gained the upper hand in the fight.

"You actually ambushed... a mortal! I thought you were a proud warrior!"

Unable to use his full strength due to a stab wound to his left arm, Saffron Pioneer had no choice but to brace his spear with his left hand, struggling to keep his stance from collapsing.

“Your men have been trying to cast spells on me. If it weren’t for Lord Fao’s blessing, I might have been tortured to my knees by the evil magic of those guys under your command.”

When Varian gained the upper hand, he finally spoke, and what he said made the Sulphron Pioneer's eyes narrow. In that instant, Varian's sword had already slashed a wound on its body. Not daring to let the sword leave too deep a wound, the Sulphron Pioneer put all its strength into its spear and slowly pushed it outward.

"In a one-on-one duel, I will not do anything that would damage my honor, but this is war."

After saying this, Varian abruptly pulled Salamence back. Completely unprepared for Varian's move, Sulfuron Herald lost his balance and was sent hurtling forward. In that direction, two druids who had already assisted the other warriors in annihilating Sulfuron Herald's fire demon minions were waiting quietly.

"nature!"

"anger!"

With the angry shouts of the two archdruids, a gust of wind rose up and enveloped Sulfuron Pioneer. Frenzied lightning struck the powerful fire demon warrior's body relentlessly. When the forces of nature dissipated, there was not a single unscathed spot on Sulfuron Pioneer's body.

"what......"

With only half his life left, Sulfuron the Pioneer looked around and found that he was the only warrior left of his group. His fire priests had all been reduced to mangled remains, and his lava hounds had turned into piles of embers that could not be rekindled. The mortals who still had the ability to fight slowly surrounded him, and the flickering magical light and gleaming swords indicated that his future was only death.

"The King of Flames...Eternity!!"

Knowing he had no chance of escaping, the Sulphron Pioneer raised his hands high and frantically channeled the lava blood within him—even if he died, he would make these damned mortals suffer heavy losses!

However, his final strike failed—no, he didn't even manage to deliver his final blow. Thrall's Elemental Invocation struck him, and the water elementals that seeped into his body through the wounds severely damaged his physique once again. When Tannis and Overspark's drones dropped a barrage of frost bombs on his head, the outcome was sealed.

Looking at the Sulfuron Herald, who was covered in frost and barely clinging to life, Tanys clapped her hands in satisfaction and turned to look at Iggy and Vol'jin.

"Can you handle the intelligence?"

"Although I have no experience in this area, I think it should be easier to extract information from a fire demon's brain than to find answers from the brain of a fire elemental."

Iggy smiled and took out his tools, and together with Vol'jin approached the Sulfuron Herald, who was struggling but unable to move due to exhaustion.

"Don't worry! It'll be over soon!"

58. Delve into the Heart of the Molten Core

The interrogation went very smoothly.

Although Sulfuron Herald was a powerful fire elemental, it was in a weakened state, both physically and spiritually, as it was near death. Therefore, with the combined efforts of Iggy and Vol'jin, two masters of voodoo, a large amount of the scattered information in Sulfuron Herald's mind was quickly sifted out and some basic intelligence was pieced together.

“Dagrand, your guess is correct. There are indeed only seven fire runes in the entire Molten Core, and they are each guarded by seven powerful beings from the fire elementals.”

Iggy crouched down and used a heat-resistant alchemy pen to write and draw on the ground. Soon, a map roughly in the shape of a spiral was drawn from her pen.

"Here, here, here..."

Iggy pointed to seven places in one go.

Do you know their names?

“Luciferon, Garr, Incinerator Guremang, Gehennas, Baron Gardon, Shaslar, Magmanda, these are the names of the guards. The closest to us should be Luciferon and Magmanda. It is possible that they are acting together.”

Wojnarowski spoke up, and while Iggy was organizing the map, he also sorted out the names of the guards.

“Alright, contact Duke Hydakxia and ask him if he has any information about these guys.”

—————————————A few minutes later————————————————

"They're all tough guys."

Looking at the information provided by Duke Hydraxia, Jaina frowned. In her opinion, of the seven guards, only Magmanda, who was probably classified as a hound, was slightly easier to deal with. The others were either ancient elementals or mutated fire demons, none of whom could be taken down in a short time.

"Jaina, do you think these guys will gang up on us?"

Varian stared at the map on the ground and spoke. After Tannis used the scale to estimate the size of the Molten Core, he, being an expert in military formations, quickly concluded that if these guards wanted to attack his group, they would be cornered within two hours at most.

"will not."

Thrall took a deep breath and spoke, which drew the attention of several spellcasters.

“How come you see?”

"Because their task is to guard the fire runes, not to drive away intruders, they will not venture out unless we are fighting near the runes where they are stationed."

Sal's words made Varian nod knowingly.

"If we destroy one or two fire runes, will they activate?"

"No, they will instead withdraw their forces to prevent their runes from being destroyed."

"After destroying two fire runes, is it possible to establish a semi-permanent camp? I mean, the kind of camp that can establish contact with Darkhearth—or even further afield."

"If the engineering tools provided by Tannis the Great Tinker have high enough stability, then it's possible."

Romans then spoke. After exchanging technical information with the Draenei, Quel'Thalas's magical teleportation technology had advanced by leaps and bounds. They could now maintain the portal to Outland for about an hour a day, which basically satisfied the personnel exchange activities between Outland and the native blood elves.

"That's no problem. The portal generator I'm carrying is the most stable product in Ratchet."

"That's fine...."

Varian lowered his head slightly and used Salamander to draw two crosses on the two points representing Luciferon and Magmanda on the map drawn by Iggy on the ground.

"Let's get these two 'guards' back to where they belong as quickly as possible."

—————————————————Half an hour later——————————————————

"No, no! Lord Balrog!!!"

Having obtained information about Luciferon from Duke Hydraxia—that it was a mutated fire spirit skilled in using shadow magic and wielding a curse that fatigued its enemies more easily—the two archdruids and two users of nature's power decisively cast powerful defensive spells on everyone before engaging Luciferon in battle. This rendered Luciferon's first round of shadow spells completely ineffective.

As Lucifer roared and ordered his servants to annihilate the mortals he saw as seeking death, Thrall, who had already prepared a small vial of water essence to cast a spell, joined forces with two archdruids. A wave of water extinguished all the fire elementals, and the warriors smashed them into pieces one by one.

Then, Tannis and Overspark controlled a swarm of drones, bombarding Lucifer's head as he gathered his shadow power for a second spell. This forced Lucifer to waste time destroying the annoying drones around him one by one. By the time he finally managed to drive away the drone swarm, the combined spell of several archmages was already in progress. The poor fire demon was blasted into a dazed state by a giant ball of ice. When Magmanda, whose brain wasn't working properly, realized Lucifer was in trouble and roared for her molten hounds to come to his aid, Lucifer had already been perfectly severed in two...

Magmandar suffered a fatal blow because of its own act of sending out its personal guard. Vol'jin, Haduron, and Valeera stealthily approached it and swiftly fired three arrows at it—arrows containing deadly poison infused with the essence of water twisted by voodoo magic.

Under the torment of this highly targeted poison, Magmanda, whose personality was already terrible, went completely mad, venting her excessive rage on the surrounding rock walls and lava.

As a result, after its poison had mostly dissipated, Magmandar fell into a prolonged state of weakness, and was easily decapitated by Varian and Varok, becoming the third Warden to fall in Molten Core. At this point, Tannis and her companions had only been inside Molten Core for a little over an hour...

"This is the Flame Rune?"

Looking at the large plaque on the ground, carved from black iron and bearing an ordinary rune, Tannis's expression became subtle.