Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ Frozen Hearts - Chapter 10 ( Chapter 55 )

Chapter 10:

 

 

After reaching the top of the staircase again I take my time watching how the Argent Crusade is trying to get into the citadel.

The sounds of the heavily working battering ram are filling the air of this part of the Icecrown Glacier until the door finally bursts open with a loud crack.

The last stand of Arthas is near.

It doesn't take too long to secure the first smaller room. The soldiers of the Ebon Blade quickly set up a few barricades which are able to hold off the skeletal soldiers that are attacking us quite constantly.

It's cold inside, even colder than outside, darkness is surrounding everything. No light ever comes here, it has been banished from this place. I start to wonder how many of the paladins by our side are already losing hope.

Darion seizes me with his eyes. I don't talk to him, nonetheless.

The rest of the soldiers arrives soon afterwards, together with the fighters that were determined through the tournament as worthy enough to join this charge at the Lich King. I see a few familiar faces, Cassiopheia, for example. So basically I was one of the first of those to arrive here, even a bit too early in fact.

Tirion and Darion are still having a chat off the side while a few minor supplies are carried into the room, seems this should be our base of operations for now.

The old Fordring then returns to the middle of the room welcoming the other arrivals. Without any further delays it begins.

Tirion directs a few groups to each side and makes a step forward towards the corridor ahead.

"Our march upon the Icecrown Citadel begins now!", he calls forth while lifting the Ashbringer high above his head.

It is as if a foul wind is blowing through the hallways, then suddenly we can hear his voice.

"You now stand upon the hallowed ground of the Scourge. The Light won't protect you here, paladin. Nothing will protect you...", the ongoing attacks of the skeletons stop for no clear reason.

I listen to him and hatred overcomes me. I try to suppress it, but hardly manage to. He seems to be nowhere near us, probably another one of his tricks to fool us.

"ARTHAS!", surprisingly hearing his former name calms me down a bit, "I swore that I would see you dead and the Scourge dismantled! I'm going to finish what I started at Light's Hope!" Tirion yells at the surrounding darkness.

The Lich King speaks up again, "You could've been my greatest champion, Fordring. A force of darkness that would wash over this world and deliver it into a new age of strife."

He sounds as if he is actually pitying the old Fordring.

"But this honour is no longer yours. Soon I will have a new champion.", the Lich King continues after a short pause.

Mograine doesn't seem too impressed by all this, whilst Tirion takes another step towards the hallway in front of us.

"The breaking of this one has been taxing. The atrocities that I have committed upon his soul. He has resisted for so long, but he will bow down before his king soon.", a short laughter of him follows.

"NEVER!", the outburst of another person interrupts the scene. "I... I will never ... serve... you."

I turn my head around to see if anybody might know the other person and I think I hear how someone mumbles something that sounds like "Bolvar...?"

The voice of the Lich King rises from the shadows once more.

"In the end you will all serve me."

The moment the echoes of his words die away in these black halls, a growling sound announces the arrival of the minions of Arthas. Without warning they jump out of the never ending darkness around us, bone golems. Hideous creations, completely made of bones from fallen heroes, with scythe-like arms.

A smile comes to my lips as anticipation floods my mind.

Tirion calls out to attack and so we do. The melee fighters charge out at the golems immediately, careful not to run directly into their huge blades, while the casters behind us prepare their spells.

I'm quite sure Armageddon would also have been quite effective at smashing the bones of these monstrosities, but Shadow's Edge is just amazing. It cuts through them as if they were made of paper.

As I dodge the blade of another golem by only a few centimetres I cut the creature down. Still it seems there is no end to this flood of undead monsters. As I cut down another golem his voice is audible anew.

"Your hearts... their incisive drumming disgusts me. I will silence them as I did my own..."

None of his servants managed to do this so far.

If you ask me he has grown overconfident concerning what had happened to his army during the past months.

I can't hold it back, I let out a loud laughter as I take down the next golem in front of me with a clean swipe of my axe, taking the remains of the wretched soul of a human trapped inside this creature with me.

And now he's offering idle threats..., already?

He might be strong if you'd have to face him as an opponent, but I think he still relies too much on his servants, his minions. And if I learned one thing in the past ... you shouldn't rely on other people.

"I see you have returned to me, my child.", his voice echoes through my mind. He seems to be confusing some important things.

Slowly we are pushing the golems backwards into another barely lit hall.

"You stumble about in darkness. There is no light here, no mercy! Icecrown has claimed the souls of better heroes than you.", the words he speaks sound hollow.

"I don't rely on the light. Consider that next time!", I say to myself while I lift my axe to welcome the next minion of the Scourge charging at me.

The skeletal warriors in this hall attack us without hesitation. I parry the first attack with the edge of my blade and kick him away so I have more room for my own swing of the axe.

"I had cause to regret sparing your life.", he whispers to me.

I only reply cold-heartedly, "Then you shouldn't have done so...", while Shadow's Edge crashes down onto the head of another undead. My weapon happily sucks the remains of a soul out of the carcass.

"Your time has come! And I will be the one to wield the weapon that brings your end!", I mumble to myself.

"I see you too are gathering souls for your own ends. Are we really so different?", he asks me.

Maybe we are, maybe we aren't anymore. I can't even tell. But still... I have already started to venture on this path of fate and there is no turning back.

"Always you find ways to amuse me.", the words are followed by a short laughter.

"Your amusement won't last for long, trust my words." I speak as I take down another skeleton. Their numbers may be extremely high, but they aren't too much of a challenge.

"Remember, hero, I too sought a weapon of great power.", again he tries to show me that were are both the same.

"I'm not like you! Accept it, finally! I don't want to be like you!", I yell at the shadows as I look for more opponents. It only takes a few moments before the next wave of skeletons and bone golems charge into the room. I decide to take them head on, the others can hardly keep up with my pace.

As I smash the first skeleton with a single strike, the sting I feel indicates the 'death' of my opponent.

"Look at you, child, would-be wielder of souls. You cannot fathom a power that thrives at my commands.", once more he is mocking me as we are slowly drawing nearer to the frozen spire on whose top the Frozen Throne is seated.

He will see. I will collect more souls for my axe. Shadow's Edge will grow strong! Strong enough to shatter his armour! Strong enough to devour him. I keep on rushing forward without taking a single look back.

As more minions fall to my blade, he speaks up again.

"Take them, mortal, these souls will again be mine soon enough.", he hasn't lost any of his confidence.

As we enter the next room, I see strange nerubians among the troops of Arthas. The large undead spiders try to spray a white liquid at our soldiers which seems to harden pretty quickly and forms a kind of cocoon around them, poor bastards that get trapped in there.

"Come to me, pretenders. Feed my blade.", he whispers. I know that he's talking about the warriors of the Argent Crusade and the members of the troops gathered via the tournament. Most of them are simply too weak. A disgrace for this kind of crusade.

I become more and more of a spearhead for the charge. Most enemies that face me don't live long enough to be a real danger for either me or the rest of the charge.

Again laughter arises from the shadows.

"Soon you too will have your own blade for a prison."

I've gone too far to be concerned about this anymore.

"The hunger that your weapon feels is but a shade of what awaits you. Do you want to see real hunger? Real power? Continue on with your evil. I am waiting.", he speaks calmly.

I don't listen to his treacherous words. I focus again on what lies directly ahead of me, which means another two bone golems that are coming right for me.

Dodging their claws is actually rather easy once you figure out how they usually attack, for they are, as you'd might expect from zombies, rather simple.

I shatter the legs of the right one, before I take down the left one. They are actually quite swift for being undead, but without their legs they can hardly move at all. As the right golem clumsily tries to crawl along the floor I decapitate him with a single blow.

"More souls! Yes! More! You will find it hard to stop!", he turns euphoric, almost yelling at me.

The frozen spire directly in front of me, I let my eyes rest upon the horrors of the Lich King's creations. A large bone golem hovering in the air with four skulls turning hectically in every direction. The four spikes upon its back look like the remains of wings, but I heavily doubt that a creature like this exists in Azeroth.

The rest of the group catches up to me and stares at the ... thing ... in front of us in horror.

"This is the beginning AND the end, mortals. None shall enter the master's sanctum!", the creature announces in a strange, cold voice.

"The Scourge will wash over this world as a swarm of death and destruction!", it calls out as it attacks us immediately. We have hardly any time at all to regroup. The blade of the gigantic bone axe it is swinging is about twice as tall as I am. The huge weapon crashes onto the black floor leaving a large dent behind. With a strike to the right it manages to hit two or three of our warriors.

"Languish in damnation!"

I decide to go right for it the next time it strikes with the large axe. I just have to wait for another few members of the Argent Crusade to be an involuntary lure for my purpose. Just as expected, it doesn't take too long to find someone who is dumb enough to run forward.

With a loud crashing sound the poor bastard is buried beneath the weapon, a leg hanging out the side directly in my way.

I hurry towards the monstrosity to strike at it, managing to land the hit so that one of its ribs is damaged. Unfortunately I already have to retreat again as the four spikes on his back shot directly at me, leaving a large hole in the ground where only seconds before I was standing.

What ever this creature might be, one thing is for sure, it`s persistent as hell...

It takes quite a while before we manage to take it out. A few more lives are lost, some others are lucky to only receive flesh-wounds or shattered bones that our healers can cure.

“My challenges have strengthened you, champion. You will serve me well.“, he announces in my head.

“Serve you?“, I ask, “I won`t serve anybody.“

I receive a few awkward looks from members of the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade. For they it must seem as if I`m talking to myself.

“The moment is soon at hand, you shall toil for eternity in a new Azeroth!“

The path now leads around the spire of ice.

It winds up a bit and opens up into another big hall. Cultists are kneeling on the floor allocated all around the room. I already raise my weapon as I notice a lich which is hovering at the end of the room preaching to them, what an interesting sight.

I make a step forward as suddenly somebody is seizing my right arm.

I turn around and look into the two green elven eyes of Cassiopheia. I haven't paid too much attention to her since we last met each other after the tournament if I'm honest.

She looks concerned about something.

“You can't go on like this...”, lowering my weapon I let the blade of it rest on the floor.

“What are you talking about? Why..?”, I ask her straight forward.

“You're giving in to the rage... Members of the Argent Crusade already call you insane because some of them believe to have heard how you are talking and screaming at the shadows in here. You might...”

At first I only chuckle as a response.

“So what? What do they know...”, I only ask her.

She looks deep into my eyes for a second. “I don't see any insanity in your eyes, only loneliness...”

With my left hand I remove her grip from my arm while I'm still looking at her.

“Welcome to my world...”, I answer in a low voice.

The blade of my axe scratches along the floor as I rush up to the nearest cultists.

A smile comes to my lips.

Shadow`s Edge in my hand is ready for its symphony of demise.

Soon, this will all be over with.