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"I sensed a tremendous fire elemental power emanating from it."

Thrall crouched down, cautiously examining the slightly reddish black iron plate. As a shaman, he easily sensed the terrifying fire elemental power emanating from the plate!

"Then this is indeed the target we're looking for."

Daelin took a bottle of water essence from Sal's hand, strode over to the black iron plate, and poured it all out.

————————————Deep within Molten Core——————————————————

Amidst the raging flames, Baron Garden slowly strolled through a crimson expanse. On his body, ancient karmic fire, capable of burning even the spirit to ashes, rose and fell, as turbulent as the fire element that had existed since time immemorial.

Suddenly, Baron Garden stopped in his tracks.

'Gal...can you feel it?'

'I sense it, the power of our nemesis... has extinguished the master's fiery runes... Should I send my legions, Baron Gardon?'

The massive lava elemental roared and rolled between the rock walls, causing small stones to fall down in a drizzling sound.

'Our nemesis won't last long here... They can't extinguish all the runes... And... those poor water elementals don't know that the runes are almost meaningless to us... Now we just need to do our own thing and bring all your scattered servants back to your side...'

'Baron Garden, could it be?'

'The master's steward has pushed everything to the final step. As long as even one rune remains burning, the master will soon break free from that eternal prison. At that time, all things will be purified by our flames. What are the water elementals' petty tricks compared to that...?'

'Then, the remains of the one we're guarding?'

'Ah, that's right...'

Baron Garden's tone finally showed a slight change.

'It will become our strength, allowing us to unleash a scorching wind that will set everything ablaze...'

59. Lightforged Undead Warrior

"Glug glug, splash splash—"

As the portal opened, several seemingly ordinary and unremarkable water elementals, trailing glistening water droplets and carrying a hint of chill, entered the underground cavern that had been scorched by fire elementals for hundreds of years. The moment they entered the heart of the molten lava, the water elementals visibly shrank.

However, as the pool of water in front of the portal gradually filled up, the rate at which the water elements shrank also slowed down. When they reached a certain critical point, they stopped shrinking and instead slightly expanded back to their original volume.

Seeing the water elementals stabilize their forms within the barrier, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief. This was a necessary condition for the upcoming split-force operation. If the water elementals sent by Duke Hydraxia were unable to stabilize their forms inside the Molten Core, then everyone would have to follow Daelin.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz—"

As the teleportation device activated by Tannis and Overspark began to operate, several more portals opened, and soldiers already positioned in Blackrock Spire and Darkforge emerged in rows. Among them were humans, orcs, trolls, elves, and even... undead.

"Are they the Forgotten?"

Looking at the heavily armored soldiers before them, clad in thick metal armor, wearing helmets resembling bat wings, their exposed skull faces gleaming metallically in the firelight of Molten Core, their right hands gripping warhammers faintly surrounded by holy light, and even having wings of holy light appearing and disappearing behind them, most of the people present could hardly believe that these warriors, who exuded a sense of solidity and strength, were the Forsaken who seemed to fall apart at the slightest touch.

"They are the Forsaken, the Forsaken who made unimaginable sacrifices to fight the enemy that threatens our world—and now they are the blade of the Holy Light."

Fao leaned on his bishop's staff and spoke slowly.

"Lord Fao, could you please enlighten us?"

Not only Varian, but also Daelin, Jaina, and even Romans had a series of questions in their minds about the Forsaken who didn't seem to be undead at all. You have to know that the Forsaken's predecessor, the Scourge, only had one type of heavy cavalry, which was the Death Knights, who were considered high-ranking members even among the undead!

"They are respectable Forsaken warriors who willingly severed all ties with the past and chose to become blades of vengeance. Their birth is a hypothesis proposed by Grand Tinker based on my special circumstances and the research of the sorcerers. That is, the power that supports the operation of the undead does not necessarily have to be shadow or death, but can also be holy light. Grand Tinker speculated that if the undead complete this transformation known as lightforging, then they will be transformed from beings that blaspheme against life into blades of holy light, invincible and fearless, just like the transformation of the Ashbringer's gem."

With that, Fao sighed softly.

"Since the library in Ratchet was not sealed off from the Forsaken, some of them learned of this theory and came to me hoping that I could use the Holy Light to forge their bodies. I refused at the time because I knew that my case was an exception, and that the vast majority... no, perhaps it should be said that almost none of the Forsaken could withstand the soul-deep pain of having the Holy Light slowly replace the shadow power in their bodies—they would lose consciousness and be 'purified' before that. But in the end, nearly fifty Forsaken knelt in front of my door, waiting for my response."

"You agree?"

“I told them that theory was just theory, that they could all be obliterated by the power of the Holy Light, their souls scattered and gone forever. But they didn’t care. I told them that their loved ones knew they still existed and would come to see them sooner or later. They said the meaning of continuing to ‘live’ like this was to prevent their loved ones from suffering the same or worse fate. I told them that this could very well mean they were giving up their last ties to the world of the living. And they remained kneeling there!”

After saying this, Fao remained silent for a few seconds.

"I contacted Ratchet and asked if they had any way to help these venerable undead withstand the baptism of the Holy Light as much as possible—after all, this hypothesis was proposed by them. Grand Tinker Tanis gave me a method. She told me that, at least for now, the undead's body is essentially driven by a certain power, which in turn drives the body. In other words, the undead's body doesn't necessarily have to be made of bones filled with blasphemous power—it can be replaced with other holy metals. I took out the holy silver ingots buried in Lordaeron and commissioned Ratchet to process them into a suitable alloy to replace the parts of their bodies with the most intense shadow power. Then, using a crystal that could slowly release the power of the Holy Light that Ratchet provided after learning of my plan, I began the lightforging of them—the whole process lasted for ten days. The power of the Holy Light poured into their bodies went from feeling only warm at the beginning to becoming white-hotter than the sun at the end."

"How many of them...successful?"

Gianna spoke in a hoarse voice, knowing that such a thing could not be completely successful, especially an experiment that was entirely theoretical!

Fao closed his bright eyes, and after a long while, uttered a single word.

"half."

————————————Strange dividing line—————————————————

"Tannis, what are you thinking about?"

While Varian, Valok, and other experienced warriors were discussing how to divide their forces to suppress the remaining fire runes in Molten Core as quickly as possible, using the detailed maps gleaned from Lucifer and Magmandar's minds, Jaina noticed Tanias sitting blankly by the pool, hugging her knees, seemingly lost in thought.

"I'm wondering... why did I propose that theory?"

“Those forgotten ones were prepared when they made their demands of Lord Fao.”

"Yes, I understand, but I still can't convince myself—that my theory, if proven correct, would come at the cost of the disappearance of dozens of forgotten beings... I should have considered this outcome when I first proposed the theory; perhaps I shouldn't have made this conjecture in the first place..."

Looking at her friend, who, despite being greedy, often acted excessively kind, Jaina moved her lips, wanting to utter some meaningless words of comfort.

“Please don’t say things like ‘I would rather not have proposed the Lightforged Necromancer hypothesis,’ Grand Tinker. Without your guidance, my brothers and I would still be living in pain, bewildered about how to avenge the prince who betrayed us.”

Just as Jaina was pondering how to advise Tanys, a passing Lightforged undead warrior stopped and thanked Tanys in his strangely rhythmic voice.

"Your brother?"

“He failed, but he saw my brother’s success, and I have vowed to carry on his legacy—don’t blame yourself for this, Great Tinker, we Forsaken have nothing left, what do we have to fear losing?”

As he spoke, he gently opened his hands, and a warm, holy light shone down.

"They have not disappeared; they are with us."

60. The Extinction of Baron Geddon

Tumbling.

Tumbling.

Boundless flames surged before them, turning the cave crimson. Fire elements, composed of pure flames, swam slowly in this intensely hot environment, as if swimming in the ocean. Lava elements patrolled alongside the fire elements with heavy scraping sounds, completely unconcerned about the lava dripping from their bodies.

At the very center of the Blazing World, a colossal fire elemental, hotter than the sun itself, stood silently, seemingly oblivious to the uninvited guests who had come to visit. Not far behind this fire elemental, a lava elemental, at least ten times the size of a normal lava elemental, its body shrouded in sparks and choking, scorching smoke, stood with its arms hanging low behind the fire elemental, as if it were its adjutant.

Without needing to ask, the high command of the allied forces already knew the names of these two elemental beings: Baron Geddon, the chief lieutenant of the Balrog King, and Garr, the Lava Elemental King.

"Mortals, once you've come, don't go back..."

As Baron Geddon casually raised his left hand, as if reciting a predetermined matter, the sea of ​​fire in front of the allied forces suddenly surged with this insignificant gesture.

"Form ranks and defend!!!"

"barrier!!"

Even faster than Varian's warning came Faol's single word of truth. Gentle yet sharp holy light emanated from the shimmering gem on Faol's scepter, instantly forming a barrier of holy light in front of everyone. The Lightforged undead silently raised their warhammers, joining High Warden Haruni of the Draenei in pouring their own holy light into it.

"Splash!!!"

Like raging waves crashing against the rocks on the shore, Baron Geddon's blazing flames slammed heavily against Fao's holy light barrier. The powerful force caused the light in Fao's pupils to dim suddenly, and the barrier of holy light trembled.

"element!"

"nature!"

Thrall and Bearskin's roars echoed like thunder. A surge of extremely cold moisture, under the influence of the two archdruids' nature spells, transformed into a dark, all-encompassing cloud that burst forth from the barrier amidst a fierce wind. Stimulated by the fire elementals, it rapidly spread, causing a massive downpour to fall directly within Molten Core. Wherever the cold raindrops touched, the flames were extinguished and the stubborn rocks cracked.

Seeing his fiery storm extinguished, Baron Geddon's leaping flames became even more active. With a clasp of his hands, bursts of flame shot into the sky, scorching the remaining clouds until they disappeared. Then, with a push of his hands, all the aimless fire elementals rushed toward the allied forces. At the same time, Garr, standing behind Baron Geddon, also made a move.

"shackles......"

Unlike Baron Geddon's voice, which evoked a raging inferno, Garr's voice felt like viscous magma slowly flowing through a fissure. However, his actions were not to be underestimated. At Garr's call, the earth elementals within Molten Core, which had become indistinguishable from the fire elementals, rose from beneath the earth and transformed into scorching shackles, fastening them to the legs of all the allied forces present.

"Tide!!!"

Knowing full well that the consequences wouldn't be good if the shackles imposed on everyone by Garr weren't quickly broken, Daelin swung his Tidebringer with all his might. A supernatural current of water surged from his sword with his movement, quickly washing over the feet of the Allied forces. The still-forming, high-temperature shackles were instantly separated and disintegrated by the water current.

"Tidehunter!!"

The moment Daelin drew his sword, Baron Geddon and Garr were both enraged. Baron Geddon's body flared with flames reaching a fever pitch, while Garr's body began to crumble and shed its essence. If the mortals before them were merely ignorant ants aided by water elementals, they might have chosen a slightly more civilized method to incinerate the allied forces. However, the situation was now clear: the one who had ordered this invasion was none other than the fire elemental's ancient nemesis—the lord of water elementals, Neptulon the Tidehunter! And the mortal wielding the sword was the Tidehunter's representative!

"For Ragnaros!!"

"You will all be turned into charred remains!"

Enraged, the two elemental lords held back, unleashing their full power and charging into the allied ranks with lightning speed, determined to burn all the Tidehunter servants they saw to ashes, and then burn the souls of all the allied soldiers for ten thousand years!

"go!!!"

The instant Baron Geddon and Garr took action, Tannis and Overspark also made their move. The two great tinkerers opened several portals behind them, and a large number of drones, each with a simple fire-resistant barrier drawn with ruby ​​powder and each carrying a sphere about the same size as itself, wobbled and flew towards the front line. They quickly encountered the mixed group of fire and lava elementals, and in less than ten seconds, these drones, which were no different from sitting ducks, were completely wiped out by the fire elementals' barrage of fireballs.

"Puff! Puff! Puff!"

As the drone swarm crashed, the spheres they were carrying also fell to the ground. Several ominous-looking milky-white shockwaves rose from these spheres, enveloping the still-charging fire and lava elementals.

"This is?"

Romans, gripping his staff tightly and ready to join forces with Jaina and Thaurissan to unleash a blizzard to block the elementals' path, asked.

"The elemental flame retardant looks to be working quite well."

As Tannis spoke, she dispatched a second wave of drones. Just as she had said, the flames on the fire elementals tainted by this terrible substance had dimmed considerably compared to the beginning, and the lava elementals even showed signs of cooling. As a result, these elemental creatures, whose combat power had been weakened by more than half, were easily reduced to ashes or remains by the blizzard enhanced by the essence of water by the three archmages. At this time, Garr and Baron Geddon had only charged halfway.

"Garn! Look this way!!!"

With a roar, Daelin, carrying the Tidebringer, charged out of the barrier and used the Ratchet's single-person rocket to fly to the side. Baron Geddon wanted to chase after Daelin with Garr, but a cloud of extremely cold mist slowed down its progress.

“I’m sorry, Baron Geddon, your opponents are us.”

Thrall held the Doomhammer in his right hand, pointing it at the massive fire elemental. His azure eyes gleamed with excitement and fighting spirit. Behind him stood two great tinkerers, three archmages, a shadow hunter, a magic scholar, and a great druid, leading a force mainly composed of spellcasters, all standing tall and proud.

"You think you can stop me, mortals?"

Although he sensed that the mortals before him possessed some water elemental power, Baron Geddon did not take Thrall and his companions seriously. With a clench of his burning hands, a strange flame ignited on Thrall and several spellcasters from the allied forces.

"Ugh... What is this?!"

Baron Geddon's strange flames brought not only physical pain to his victims, but also mental torment. Seeing the mortals before him easily subdued by his flames, Baron Geddon seemed to smile, raising his hands high to the sky, and deadly flames began to gather beneath his feet.