Make Azeroth breathtaking

68. The Plan to Attack the City of Suramar

Hunger and thirst, pain.

In his secluded dwelling, the former chief teleporter of Suramar, Oculus, curled up on his bed, his right hand clutching a small bottle, struggling to suppress the urge to drink its contents—the addiction, like the most terrifying parasite, crawled and gnawed at his soul and body, eroding his will and forcing him to drink the last of his magical elixir.

'I must be crazy to agree to Talisa's suggestion!'

Gritting his teeth and enduring the excruciating pain that felt like he was being torn apart, Euclis silently cursed—or rather, complained—with his still relatively rational soul. But he knew that if he were given another chance to choose again, he would still follow that somewhat foolish woman, Thalyssa, in rebelling against Elisande's stupid plan. Rebel against the Legion would most likely mean death, but following the Legion would most likely mean a fate worse than death!

'Uh oh oh oh oh—'

However, neither belief nor anything else could stop the pain spreading throughout Euclis's body. In an instant, the Nightborne, who had been curled up, tensed up like a shrimp, and the hand gripping the small bottle of mana liqueur involuntarily moved closer to his mouth—he couldn't resist anymore. Admittedly, he knew that drinking this liqueur now meant his sanity would disappear at least three days earlier, but so be it! The Nightborne had lost all hope anyway, and going mad wasn't such a bad thing!

Just as Euclis was biting open the cork of the small bottle with his teeth and trembling as he brought it close to his mouth, a series of arcane energies suddenly swept into his room without warning, causing the arcane mechanisms he had set up to collectively overload. Then, the remaining arcane impact slammed into him, causing him to stagger and roll off the bed, spilling the mana wine he was holding all over the floor.

"My...defense system is overloaded? Is it Elisande...? Damn it..."

Unable to move due to excruciating pain, Euclis stared wide-eyed, resentfully watching his last bottle of mana wine slowly rise into the air. He tried to reach for some wine, but he could no longer control his limbs. He wanted to chant a spell to at least do something, but his magical power was already out of control. He tried his best to activate the magical items he still carried, but his mental strength was no longer under his command.

Is this... my last one?

Filled with resentment, Euclis's will slowly sank into darkness. Just before his pupils closed, he saw a figure clad in heavy armor, whose identity was hard to discern as either a golem or a human, enter his room.

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

"....."

After an unknown amount of time, Euclis slowly opened his eyes. What came into view was an unfamiliar ceiling—or rather, a cave. On the cave ceiling, pipes with faintly shimmering arcane runes were arranged in an extremely regular pattern, and the arcane energy surging within them made Euclis glance at them slightly—undoubtedly, he had arrived in a very extraordinary place!

"What's wrong with me...?"

Euclis took a deep breath of the air thick with arcane free ions, stretched out his hand and looked at it. He found that his hand was no longer pale, and his power had returned. He tried to operate his mental power without any hindrance.

"you're awake."

Just as Euclis was about to stand up and look around, a familiar voice reached his ears.

"Talisa? Is this your secret base?"

Upon recognizing the visitor's voice, Euclis's expression faltered slightly, then quickly turned to understanding. No wonder Thalyssa dared to go against that madwoman Elisande; she had been prepared all along. The arcane power flowing through this place could easily feed dozens—no! possibly hundreds—of Nightborne Magisters!

“No, it was the work of the Sunstrider descendants—I was helped by Tyrande after I escaped, and she found allies for us.”

"Tyrande? Isn't she?"

"Her views on arcane power have changed drastically. Without her help, I might not even have survived."

As she said this, Thalyss walked over to Euclis and helped him up.

"Go forth, for Kael'thas, the leader of the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas, awaits your message."

————————————Go find Kael'thas————————————————————

"Oh My God......"

Although Euclis had some idea of ​​the extent of the cave's construction when he saw the arcane pipelines, he was still stunned when he stepped out of his medical room and saw the scene outside.

A tree! Growing straight up from the deepest pit at the bottom of the cave, every inch of its bark overflowing with arcane energy, even forming arcane symbols, this tree reached towards the cave ceiling. Its outstretched branches were laden with fruit clearly arcane crystals! Several thick pipes were connected to this tree, constantly absorbing and releasing powerful arcane energy. Small, likely some kind of flying golems moved back and forth around the tree, collecting the ripe fruit and placing it into several strange machines nearby. The purified and concentrated arcane liquid continuously flowed from the exits at the rear of the machines, entering another unknown machine. Simple in design but precisely performing various tasks, metal golems moved among them, continuously maintaining the operation of these devices.

"This place...was there a prior foundation?"

After a quick mental assessment, Euclis swallowed hard. However, he knew in his heart that if this place wasn't Thalyssa's backup plan, then Suramar certainly wouldn't have had such a place before.

Two days.

Talisa calmly gave him a time.

"Two days? Putting everything else aside, that arcane tree isn't something that could grow in just two days!"

"The seeds that Kael'thas brought are said to be a variety that druids and archmages improved together, specifically for stabilizing and extracting arcane energy from small and medium-sized magic network nodes."

"Druids, although I've hardly ever dealt with them, aren't those guys the ones who hate arcane magic the most?"

"Times have changed, I suppose."

As she said this, Thalyssa shrugged, her tone somewhat bewildered.

"It's like Elisande has no idea that the people living outside Suramar don't need a regular army to deal with her."

—————————————The dividing line for meeting Kael'thas——————————————————

Before meeting Kael'thas Sunstrider, Euclis had considered many possible scenarios on his journey, including some of the worst. However, upon seeing the gentle-smiling young Sun King, Euclis realized that he had been overly cautious because he had stayed in Suramar for too long.

“It is a great pleasure to meet you, Chief Teleporter of Suramar City, Euclis.”

Upon meeting Oculus, who had come with Thalyssa, Kael'thas did not put on any airs of royalty. Instead, he greeted Oculus with the etiquette of ancient elven mages, which relieved Oculus—clearly, this descendant of the Sunstrider was now meeting him as a spellcaster, not a king.

“That is all in the past, Sun King of Quel'Thalas. Now I am merely a pathetic creature struggling to avoid becoming a withered one.”

Recalling the torment he had suffered due to insufficient arcane energy, Euclis couldn't help but shudder. The feeling was so terrible that even just thinking about it made him feel a pain rising from his soul!

"You don't need to worry about this. Our Kingdom of Quel'Thalas has a wealth of experience in dealing with arcane addiction. If you'd like, you can come to Silvermoon City after this is over. We have a professional medical team to handle this situation."

"Can you cure addiction?"

Euclis spoke in surprise.

"We have cracked the essence of magic addiction. As long as the addict's soul has not been assimilated by arcane power, there is a possibility of cure."

"This is really... It seems that the times outside Suramar have changed a lot."

"You'll certainly have the opportunity to see more changes in the future. Quel'Thalas welcomes all friendly spellcasters. Now, let's talk about Suramar."

"Ah, please allow me to tell you what information I know."

After a brief moment of reflection, Euclis quickly got down to business. He gave Kael'thas a detailed account of the information he knew about Suramar – including but not limited to its people, geography, and some special magic. On the rudimentary map of Suramar in front of them, he even hand-drew a diagram of the magical teleportation nodes in the region.

"A very standard transmission network system, but..."

Kael'thas raised an eyebrow slightly upon noticing the large blank area on the otherwise simple and clear diagram.

"Is this area a zone of dead magic?"

"No, this area is Faldorei territory. They are the last batch of Nightborne who were banished by the community. Because they used mutated arcane energy, they all turned into half-human, half-spider monsters. I believe you don't want to deal with them. Although they are not withered, they are almost the same. My personal opinion is to ignore them."

"Hmm... what do you think the success rate would be if we used teleportation to launch a surprise attack on Suramar City?"

"zero."

Euclis uttered a cold, hard probability.

"Why?"

"Because I currently have no way to establish an additional teleportation node within Suramar City—even though I have the parameters for most of Suramar City's teleportation zones, without help within the city, even if a point-to-point arcane teleportation link is established, there is a great risk that it will become an unstable teleportation array—not to mention, we also have to consider the issue of concealment."

"What if someone helps?"

"You convinced Lilith?"

Euclis raised an eyebrow slightly upon hearing Thalyssa's words.

“She is very interested in a future outside of Surama City.”

"If someone were to lend me the hand, I might give it a try, but the risks..."

Euclis hesitated. Everyone present was a spellcaster, and they all knew how noticeable the arcane fluctuations would be from establishing such a point-to-point teleportation—especially a semi-permanent one. Lilith, as an opportunist, might not be willing to risk her life to help them stabilize it.

"You don't need to worry about that. We have some very interesting technology specifically designed for this kind of risky teleportation construction—you mean, if someone or something helps you stabilize the coordinates over there, then you can definitely build a teleportation array, right?"

"That's it."

"Will the barrier in Suramar interfere with your arcane link with the Stabilizer?"

“At least not now. Elisande doesn’t have the guts to destroy and rebuild the teleportation system in the Suramar region. As long as she doesn’t do that, I have a way.”

"In that case..."

Kael'thas stood up, clapped his hands, and his captain of the royal guard entered the room. Behind him followed several small drones floating on top of crystals. The runes on the crystals on the drones' heads made Euclis frown slightly.

"What are these?"

"Please allow me to introduce you to this, which is currently the most widely used teleportation-anchored drone in Azeroth."

——————————————Suramar City Dividing Line——————————————————

"Um....."

As usual, after afternoon tea, Lilith Moonshire, the mistress of Moonshire Manor, returned to her room and began to admire her jewelry collection. This habit of hers had continued for thousands of years. Although most of the jewelry she owned was the same, she still enjoyed it. It was because this allowed her to forget that she was trapped in a city and to feel like a living, breathing person.

However, Lilith was in a much better mood today because she had obtained a batch of jewelry from Thalyssa, who had escaped and was arguably her best friend. The jewelry was enchanted and beautifully designed! It was obvious that these jewels were not the work of gem craftsmen in Suramar, but came from the hands of elves outside the city!

'It seems Thalyssa has most likely gotten involved with the elves outside. It appears she hasn't given up on her plan to rebel against Elisande...'

As a seasoned veteran of Suramar, Lilith could easily guess Thalyss's intentions. However, although she accepted the gift, which was a reluctant way of stating her position, she had no intention of risking everything to oppose Elisande—after all, she had long since calmed down.

Just as Lilith was happily admiring the new goods, the magic crystal ball in front of her lit up.

“Talissa….”

Lilith, who could immediately tell where the call came from, put the jewelry away, walked to the crystal ball, and resolved to refuse if the request was outrageous, but...

"Put something in there? Nothing too conspicuous, right? No? Okay, no problem."

69. Infiltrating Suramar

If an outsider were to happen to enter Suramar, he would undoubtedly gain a profound understanding of the grandeur and magnificence of this ancient elven city. The towering buildings, the ever-burning magical lamps, the flowerbeds that bloom in all seasons, the animated objects everywhere, the Nightborne sitting leisurely reading and playing, and the enormous constructs patrolling—their power is evident even to a layman—all reveal the fact that this city possesses an astonishing arcane civilization.

However, the secret unseen by outsiders lies a true marvel buried deep underground—the Magic Corridor, a colossal, city-scale magical circuit constructed from the moment Suramar was protected by its barrier until its complete completion a millennium ago. This astonishing underground facility, used to transport the power of the Nightwell to various parts of Suramar, covers an area equal to a third of the Suramar region, far larger than the surface city of Suramar. The overflowing energy accumulated over millennia within makes this place a forbidden zone for mortals—perhaps only Elisande and her core advisors—no, perhaps even they themselves are unaware of this place filled with twisted creatures, abandoned constructs, chaotic arcane magic, flowing pollution, and perhaps something even worse.

However, for the nobles of Suramar, understanding the city's arteries is irrelevant, utterly unimportant. If someone were to manage to interview all the nobles of Suramar, they would inevitably get the bizarre answer that 'the main use of the Magic Corridor is the sewers'—of course, in a sense, this is intentional on Elisande's part; after all, if someone were to master the operation of even a small part of the Magic Corridor's facilities, Suramar could potentially face some unexpected catastrophe.

Therefore, when the servants of Lilith Moonshire pushed a cart full of trash with faint arcane energy to the downward-sloping entrance of a magical corridor and dumped it all in at once, it went unnoticed by any guards or those watching over the arcane constructs. This was commonplace; it was standard practice for nobles to simply throw damaged arcane artifacts into magical corridors—of course, occasionally some reckless, soon-to-be-exiled commoners would try to follow the trash down in hopes of finding some absorbable arcane energy to maintain their sanity. That was when they would strike hard.

"Splash splash splash—"

With the sounds of various objects colliding with the damp stone walls—or harder materials—the trash tumbled rapidly through the passage before finally plunging into the underground culvert below. As it scattered under the rushing water, the crystals on the drones hidden within collectively glowed faintly.

"It's started."

The moment the drones started up, Kael'thas, who was staring at the terminal crystal in the cave, let out a soft breath, while the chief teleporter was already busy beside him.

"Hmm, hmm... this circuit, this circuit, not bad. Lilith has chosen a good place to drop them down. King Kael'thas, please direct the drones in this direction. Okay, stop for a moment, let me check the arcane strength..."