Make Azeroth breathtaking

Ekilson immediately asked Malacas's servants to prepare incense and other meditation materials for him, and sat cross-legged on the ground to enter into a rapid meditation. However, less than a minute later, Ekilson stood up with a furious expression.

"Maracas! Where are the souls of my fallen eagle scouts!"

"Shouldn't they be back by your side, Ekilson? Or do you think I deliberately cast some kind of voodoo spell on them, stealing their souls?"

Malacas narrowed his eyes slightly, exuding a dangerous aura—usurping the souls that rightfully belonged to other Loa deities was a taboo in Voodoo.

"Four of my eagle scouts are dead! Not one of their souls has returned! None!"

"Hmm? This is interesting. Could it be that the souls of the eagle guardians, blessed by the Eagle God, were intercepted by those elves using sorcerer magic?"

"If that's the case, I'll at least receive some warning, unless another Loa intervenes..."

Realizing he had overreacted, Ekilson took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Are other Loa gods involved?"

Now Maracas realized the seriousness of the situation. If they simply fought against the elves and humans, the worst outcome would be the extermination of their race. Given the mysterious and unpredictable nature of the troll voodoo cult, they would inevitably make a comeback sooner or later. The problem was, if other Loa gods intervened—the result would be more than just extermination!

After thinking for several minutes, Malacas gritted his teeth.

“Zu'aman cannot be fully exposed yet. Lord Zuljin's Four Spirits Ritual still requires a considerable amount of time. Ekilson, go and inform Galea and the others to be wary of the whereabouts of the souls of their followers active in Eversong Forest, and try to catch that Loa god who wants to come to our territory to steal things.”

"it is good."

Although he hoped that Malacas would use his sorcery to find the whereabouts of his eagle scout's soul, Ekilson knew what was more important. He nodded and turned to leave the sorcerer's pyramid.

Watching Egilson's departing figure, the sorcerer's face darkened. There was another possibility he didn't voice, because he himself found it somewhat absurd.

That is, the blood elves learned voodoo magic, and without their knowledge, they made some contact with a certain Loa...

V. The Sacrificed Troll Souls

Of course, the blood elves far away in Eversong Forest were unaware of the conversation taking place in Zul'Aman between two trolls whose Loa magic power was sealed within them. However, even if they had known, they wouldn't have cared too much. The blood feud between the blood elves and the Amani trolls had long since transcended time, and the battle between the two races had long since reached its limits.

"Alright, this is the last supply point that the trolls summoned, the closest one to us."

After burning down a troll supply depot hidden behind a rock crevice, Iggy felt refreshed. Seeing the heads of several dead Amani trolls hanging around her chocobo's neck, she felt better than ever before.

"These heads... are lost, aren't they? Your battle record is complete."

After scanning the surroundings with the engineering glasses Tannis had sold them to make sure there were no trolls lying in ambush, the ranger squad leader of Iggy's team rode his chocobo to Iggy's side, frowning as he looked at the troll head that Iggy had hung under the chocobo's seat and that had some strange ointment smeared on it.

"No, no, no, don't underestimate the trolls' voodoo magic. I have no doubt that if we leave these troll heads where they are, the Amani trolls will definitely have a way to extract a lot of information about us from the brains of these dead trolls—although the information will be leaked sooner or later, wouldn't it be better to leak it later?"

"Obtaining information from the skulls of the dead?"

The ranger captain's face turned pale instantly. Undoubtedly, he was thinking of the Scourge that had recently ravaged the entire Quel'Thalas.

"Both voodoo and necromancy involve ways to communicate with the dead; don't overthink it."

Seeing the ranger captain's less-than-ideal expression, Iggy suddenly felt his enthusiasm waning.

'If we hadn't been so arrogant before, and instead humbly learned various mystical knowledge from different races, would Quel'Thalas have been spared destruction—or at least not turned into its current tragic state?'

——————————————Main Camp——————————————————

Haduron felt a slight headache coming on.

Undoubtedly, their battle plan had been a resounding success. With Tannis's drones providing navigation, the sorcerers dispelling the dangerous voodoo magic, and the ranger squad using their purchased anti-jungle goggles to snipe the ambushing Amani trolls, they had reduced most of the Amani troll supply points in Eversong Forest to useless charcoal with almost no effort. But why had these sorcerers brought back all the troll heads they could collect?! And why were they wearing all sorts of random clothes and holding a bizarre ritual?! If Archmage Romans and Archmage Jaina hadn't both assured that the sorcerers were perfectly fine, Haduron would have almost thought they'd been brainwashed by the trolls!

"Excuse me... how much longer until this ceremony?"

Seeing Iggy, dressed in a robe clearly in the style of a troll, with several wooden skulls hanging on his body and a blue-faced, fanged mask on his head, jumping around, Haduron could only ask questions.

"It will take a little more time to remove the remaining souls from these troll skulls. Well, of course, we don't know if we can remove them at all."

Another mage, who had been hopping around for a while before getting bored and starting to eat snacks, shrugged, indicating that he didn't know how much longer Iggy would need to keep hopping around.

"A surviving soul? What does that mean?"

Romans, who had been squatting nearby observing the ceremony, heard some interesting words. Although he had learned a lot about voodoo from the library of Silvermoon City and the royal library of the Sunstriders, he only knew the facts but not the reasons behind them.

"Because most trolls have Loa spirits behind them, the troll race's soul strength is above average among the intelligent races of Azeroth. Furthermore, the special, semi-symbiotic relationship between trolls and their Loa spirits means that, with the right methods, a wealth of information can be extracted from the heads of dead trolls—and skilled individuals can even obtain information from afar. The ritual Ichi is currently performing is a method of banishing the remaining souls from the heads of dead trolls, rendering them unusable."

The sorcerer being questioned answered Romans's question readily.

Is it effective?

Romans had no doubt that the sorcerer's answer was just empty talk. In fact, the arcanists of Silvermoon City had long suspected that trolls could obtain information from the dead, but they didn't know the principles and methods.

"I don't know, after all, this is the first time we've used this ritual."

Romans's eye twitched slightly upon hearing the magic scholar's reply.

"Was this ritual discovered through your archaeological work?"

"This ritual is something we learned from the Darkspear trolls. Archmage Romans, you should know that there are many races in Ratchet, and fighting is forbidden. Over time, our Ancient Literature Society became acquainted with Vol'jin, the leader of the Darkspear trolls who often came to shop there. Since the Darkspear trolls were banished from their homeland by the troll tribes in Stranglethorn Vale and were almost wiped out, they are not so conservative in passing down the less important Voodoo arts."

"Is this kind of strategic ceremony not very important?"

"It's not that important. This voodoo ritual is a ceremony held by the victors after the ancient troll wars. Basically, most troll tribes do it, only the ritual methods are slightly different... Also, there's a point you haven't grasped. The effect of this ritual in preventing the residual souls in the trolls' brains from leaking information is just a side effect. Its true meaning is to sacrifice the souls of the enemy to the Loa they worship."

After completing the last lap, Iggy removed the messy decorations from his body while giving Romans a more detailed explanation.

"You worship the Loa?"

Romans frowned slightly. In his opinion, even for the sake of power, worshipping the Loa, which was... well... only a stepping stone for the extraordinary combat power of Azeroth, was too stupid.

"no!"

"Will this ritual be effective?"

"Since we can't find a better way to solve this problem, isn't it good to go through this ordeal? What if it works? Maybe some bored Loa will collect these souls!"

Looking at Iggy's self-righteous expression, Romans felt as if something was stuck in his throat. He wanted to say something but couldn't. In the end, he could only sigh helplessly.

"As long as you're happy..."

------------at the same time--------------------

Zul'Aman, the Pyramid of the Hex Lord.

Inside this enormous pyramid, the sorcerer Maracas met Egilson once again, but this time, not only Egilson but also Gayalai, whose dragon eagle spirit had been sealed away, came to see him.

"My soul has not returned either, Maracas."

Gayalai spoke in an unfriendly tone, and in his view, Marakas, the one who had given him the power, was a suspect.

"What's the situation with the people of Harraz and Nalorak?"

“Halraz is currently counting the souls. The people of Nalorak haven’t fought yet, so this matter is not his concern at the moment.”

Ekilson spoke in a deep voice.

"They're counting... which means the number of souls on his side might also be inaccurate?"

"It's not a possibility, it's a certainty. In the past few days, not a single soul of a fallen soldier has returned to me."

Halraz's voice reached Malacas's ears from outside the door.

"Then it's confirmed: a daring Loa has stolen the souls of our people from the hands of us Amani trolls. Now, let's hold a divination ceremony to find this audacious Loa!"

"This is a big deal, Maracas. Tell me, what do you need us to do?"

Upon hearing Halraz's question, the sorcerer's face revealed a cruel smile.

"First, of course, we need to find a way to capture enough elves to use as sacrifices."

VI. Malacas's predicament

"Ha... How boring..."

In her own tent at the camp, Tannis yawned widely and drifted into a state of idleness.

A week has passed since the large-scale mopping-up operation. Due to the destruction of supply points and the killing of some lurking Amani trolls, the Amani trolls' battle lines have retreated by dozens of kilometers. The blood elves, with their resources depleted, did not rush to hunt down these Amani trolls. Instead, they chose to build outposts to consolidate their gains. For a time, the battle lines suddenly quieted down.

However, this quiet was only temporary. Soon, news came from the front-line watchtower that there had been casualties there.

——————————————Main Camp————————————————

"Lynx attack?"

Haduron frowned as he looked at the report in his hand.

"Hmm, it seems our watchtower is too close to the lair of a lynx pack. Our animal-driving behavior has affected their lives, so they've come to give us a warning."

The blood elf ranger who came to report looked worried. Although the blood elves are descendants of the high elves, their love for nature is perhaps second only to the night elves and tauren. Therefore, under normal circumstances, their method of dealing with wild animals that have not reproduced excessively is to drive them away.

"Among the dead were a ranger, three workers, and a mage apprentice? And their bodies were all torn to pieces?"

"Yes, General Haduron."

Haduron turned to look at the other people in the tent.

What do you think?

"Clearly, this is not an accident."

The first to speak was Iggy.

"Oh?"

“You think so too, General Haduron. After all, no matter how strong a wild lynx is, it's impossible for it to kill so many combat-capable blood elves before the alarm sounds. Besides, tearing the corpses to pieces is neither in line with warning standards nor with hunting behavior—wild animals don't waste too much energy; it's their way of survival.”

"You're right, Iggy."

Haduron nodded and looked at the messenger.

"Lead the way, we need to check the condition of the body."

——————————————Several hours later————————————————

"The body is right here."

Next to the unfinished watchtower, a small, shady hole had been temporarily dug out. The entrance was only large enough for one person to bend down and enter. The remains of the five blood elves who had died were covered with white cloth and lay quietly inside.

Haduron bent down, entered the cave, turned on his small arcane lamp, and unveiled a white cloth. The horrific scene that greeted his eyes made even this seasoned veteran of many battles feel a slight sense of nausea.

Suppressing his discomfort, Haduron lifted another white cloth, glanced at it, and quickly covered it back up.