Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ The Kiss of Nightfall - Chapter 2 ( Chapter 32 )

Chapter 2:

 

 

As I step out of the teleporter on the lower floor, my legs are still shacking a bit. I'm not used to travelling like this.

To my left I see two men and a male bloodelf standing there in a full set of armour talking to each other. It has a dark blue, almost violet toning, with the weld in a dark grey. There is nothing especially remarkable to it.

They stopped their conversation for a moment, all three of them are looking towards me with their blue eyes. Was it something I'd done?

No..., no that can't be. They are not looking down on me, not as if I was nothing more than a ghoul or a worthless acolyte. After a short moment the bloodelf even lifts his hand to greet me. I respond with a short nod of my head and keep on walking.

'The spearhead of my army is now complete with you, go now, my champion! Call out the war! Talk to the Highlord..., Mograine will send the troops out to attack!'

I do not question anything what happened, yet again it still is irritating.

I could already see Mograine from the moment when I had stepped out of the teleporter. This lower floor has an upper ring and a circular area in the middle that you can reach by walking down a little slope.

The Highlord with the corrupted Ashbringer on his back and another deathknight with long white hair are sitting on their mounts in the middle of that area. It is a perfect circle with four paths leading to the upper circle. Between them you can see the giant mushrooms of the eastern plaguelands as well as the green fields of the eastern coastline that are still untouched by the plague. Bookshelves store plenty of folios filled with wisdom of the dark arts, a strange looking elf is reading in some of them. He looks strange, fairly different to the bloodelves and nightelves I have seen in Acherus already. His skin is as grey as ashes and his ears are a lot shorter than of all the other elves. The mask on his face shows fangs.

He takes a look over his shoulder and sees me standing near the Highlord. Our eyes meet. Something tells me that his gaze implies a certain lust for blood.

I felt the extreme power coming from the Ashbringer on the back of Mograine. This truly is a fearsome weapon, yet still... something in my mind is drawing me only to the blade of the Lich King himself. I could see it in front of my inner eye. How I hold Frostmourne.

I kneel down before Mograine.

His armour has a dark grey colour showing almost no skin at all. The helmet as well as the shoulder pads each resemble horned skulls with an ice-blue glow coming from their eyes. The steed he is sitting on is also wearing a set of armour. Its fur is black and the mail on its back and neck is crimson, human skulls are hanging down from the side of it, probably some sort of trophies. This undead mount looks by far more suitable for a deathknight than a 'normal' skeletal horse like the Forsaken use.

“Speak, deathknight.”, his voice is strong and demanding, as you expect of a leader.

“I bring order from the master.”, my lips move on their own, but I don't fight it..., on the contrary..., I give in to it. “The preparations are about to be completed. The final judgement has been passed: Death. Send out the first troops.”

“Well then, you and your brethren will lead the charge. The march upon New Avalon shall begin!”

He makes a sign with his right hand and suddenly four Val'kyrs appear on the edges of the platform we are standing on. One of them is blowing a loud horn.

`Armies of the Scourge, hear my call!', I hear the voice of the Lich King in my mind. 'The scarlet apocalypse has begun! Tear this land asunder and leave only death in your wake!'

“You will be send to the breach together with Orbaz, Koltira and Thassarian. Orbaz will be in charge of the ground forces for the moment. The other three of you will be assigned to special tasks to support the march of our army. Now go, deathknight.”

I stand up and back off. The blue eyes of Mograine still keep burning through the back of my head.

As I reach the upper circle I now realize that the three deathknights the Highlord was talking about are the ones standing up here.

`The Scarlet Crusade must be eliminated!', the voice in my head speaks up again.

I draw closer to the three of them. The elf turns to me and offers me his hand as a greeting.

“Koltira is my name, so you are the fourth one of our group?” The colour of his skin is light grey, almost white. His face is haggard. I don't respond to his greeting, I only look at him. Something tells me that he is the weakest of us. He lacks strength in combat and discipline. I know this is only an assumption or a feeling, yet again I look at the elf and somehow I can't deny thinking of him like this.

Opposing him there stands a man with a full white beard and shoulder-long white hair. His eyes are surrounded by strange violet markings. I wonder if that is blood that is still trapped in his veins. The third deathknight standing here is the only one with a dark skin. He is wearing a helmet, leaving not much of his face visible for others. I can only see the glowing blue eyes that every deathknight has. Yet something about this man is bothering me. I know he is dangerous, even for his comrades. But maybe I only lack a bit of cruelty at the moment. Something in my head tells me that this must be Orbaz. At his command, the four of us make our way to the balcony. Another bloodelf deathknight is already awaiting us there. He offers us the possibility to get to the breach below. He has prepared an undead gryphon for each of us.

The moment I get onto the back of the creature it already takes off. I flies quite fast and is eager to deliver me to the land below.

As I set the first foot into the camp of the Scourge there I already know that the plaguelands are spreading. The grass in this area is already rotting away, turning brown while it is still growing. As I look around the first thing I can see is a large banner of the Scourge. The sword of the Lich King in the centre of it, with two shattered alliance maces forming a cross behind it. Not to forget the two human skulls pronged onto two wooden spikes, and the icicles hanging everywhere.

The main part of the camp is a group of tents, offering shelter for various soldiers of the Scourge. A pit filled with dead bodies is nearby, from time to time you can see a ghoul crawling out of it.

After Thassarian had landed, he was the last of us four, Orbaz gives us new orders. He says that I shall stay here for the moment and help out in the base camp and the three of them will launch direct attacks at the enemy. He is sure that I will find something to do back here. He refers to me only as 'the nameless one'.

A lot of geists are roaming the area. They are lower undead minions of the scourge. Despite their human body they tend to crawl and are only seldom able to talk, usually they only emit strange crackling and muffled sounds. Nevertheless, they remain rather agile as I see them jumping around.

Orbaz and the other two had already left the camp before I had a first look at everything. In the largest tent I find another of the strange elves with the fangs on their masks.

I step forth to him. He looks at me and makes some strange sniffing sounds.

“Do you smell it?”, the elf comes closer to me. “This is the scent of fresh meat, so bloody and sweet.”, he makes a short pause.

“My apologies. I'm sure you are not interested in my choice of fine cuisine. You are here to work. The Lich King has told me everything I need to know about you. The time for bloodshed has come! The Scarlet harvest may begin!”

The elf looks around. “My first task for you is simple... Kill for me! Kill without restraint. The foolish humans of the crusade try to push us back. They think they can stop us from attacking them. They believe that they still have a chance in defeating us! They will pay for their foolishness and arrogance. Go out there and kill as many of them as you find, do not hesitate to strike. There is no difference between a warrior of the crusade or what they call a civilian. All of them shall serve a new master... OUR master!”

I back off and leave the tent. Now I have my first mission. Somehow I would have expected something more... challenging than simple killing., but I don't care, my only purpose is to follow the orders my master gives to me, not to question them.

Right outside the tent I'm stopped once again. The man is wearing a strange kind of armour with a shawl covering up his face. He calls himself Salanar the Horsemen.

“So you are the praised deathknight... oh yes my master told me about you. I have an advice for you when you go out into battle later. Try to bring back one of the steeds of the Scarlet Crusade. A deathknight needs an appropriate mount. If you are able to bring me one of the horses from their stables, I will send it to the realm of shadows, where it will merge with the energies there to become a deathcharger...”

I interrupt him bluntly, “I'll consider...”, I sound rather annoyed.

He just ignores what I said and finishes his sentence before he just returns to his tent, “... just like my personal steed or the one of Highlord Darion Mograine.”

The last part of the sentence makes everything about this whole matter a lot more interesting.

I then turn to the east to have another look at the pit filled with dead bodies. Standing up in front of it I wonder whether I am able to control one of the ghouls that come out of it or not. While I am asking myself this question, another Val'kyr approaches me. The only difference to the ones I have seen before is that this one had long golden hair.

“Hear the call of Death's Challenge!”, she comes closer to me. “You too must undergo this ritual that was born from the Lich King's victory over Illidan Stormrage. You are challenged by this initiate and you are not allowed to refuse the challenge.” A human in a set of armour equal to mine stands next to the Val'kyr with a foul grin on his face.

“The fight shall commence now!”, the Val'kyr announces with a lifeless voice and the human dashes towards me.

“Tonight you shall rot with the ghouls!” he yells at me.

I'm still a bit startled, yet I raise my sword quick enough to parry the attack successfully. “I actually did not want to stick around here for much longer, so would you mind to just... piss off?” I ask the human with an annoyed tone of my voice.

“You heard her... you're not allowed to refuse the challenge! If you want to end this quickly then put down the sword and I'll grant you a quick end.”, that idiot ruined my good mood I was in only moments ago.

“You have no idea who you are talking to, human...”, I hate it if people just keep bothering and even worse, keep mocking you. So I decide that I should not bother to reason with him. I'll just make it as quick as possible.

With one strong push I shove him away, making him tumble backwards. I raise my weapon high above my head, yet I actually aim for his right leg. I hope the stance would distract him. With a swift strike I lead my blade towards his legs instead of his upper body and the sword cuts through flesh and bone alike without problems. Now missing half a leg the deathknight falls to the ground. Lying on his stomach I step over him and thrust my blade into his back making him spit out the rest of the blood that was still circulating in the veins of his undead body.

The Val'kyr then draws closer again. “To the victor goes the glory, deathknight. The Lich King looks upon you favourably today.”

I turn around and back off again. Probably it's the best to get going right away before even more of these idiots try to challenge me. In the meantime the Val'kyr revives the initiate that I had defeated as a ghoul. The whole body is trembling as he ... or it got up to its ... well... foot.

I guess getting promoted in this organisation isn't that difficult after all.