Chapter 369: Young man, do you crave power?

In order to maintain control over the trolls, Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer would certainly have Zul'jin ascend the altar, but he could not let Zul'jin die there.

Now, Duke had won his gamble.

Gul'dan had withdrawn early, leaving behind an altar still brimming with potent energy.

When the rune stone was intact, Duke couldn't risk the wrath of a group of elven sisters by tampering with the rune stone, especially since he lacked the technical skill. When Gul'dan was manipulating the rune stone, Duke didn't have the power to confront a former demigod warlock, now a rising villain. Moreover, with Orgrim and the troll elites nearby, it would be suicidal for a few people to intervene.

But now it was different.

In the rules of this world, an item stolen by an enemy and then taken by an ally becomes the property of that ally. To return the item to its original owner, a corresponding price must be paid.

Even the four Windrunner sisters saw nothing wrong with what Duke was doing.

Duke bowed slightly, showing respect to a significant figure behind him.

"Archbishop Faol, Uther, I need your help."

Gul'dan's fel magic was unpredictable, a bizarre power beyond imagination. Unless absolutely necessary, Duke didn't want to touch it.

To purify evil, professionals were needed. For this, Duke had personally invited two luminaries from the Church of the Holy Light, even providing round-trip teleportation services.

Alonsus Faol, the Archbishop of the Holy Light, nodded with a smile: "Let me see."

A moment later, Alonsus laughed: "Indeed, Gul'dan is a very evil, very powerful warlock. But I find that he seems to have some reservations and has not completely corrupted these rune stones. The curse left on them is not too strong, I can clear it in a few minutes."

"Thank you, Archbishop. If possible, please try not to make too much noise."

Duke was playing with fire.

The Horde's vanguard was less than thirty kilometers away, and the Horde's main force was just over twenty kilometers away. If they made a big commotion, the Horde's dragon riders could arrive in no time.

But Duke had to seize the opportunity.

The high elves' rune array was a complete defense system composed of eight groups. Gul'dan had damaged two more besides here, so the massive power gathered from the rune stones on this land would soon dissipate due to the destruction of the rune stones.

Once this opportunity was missed, there would be no other.

In fact, these rune stones were processed by countless elven mage craftsmen over hundreds of years and took nearly a thousand years to fully debug.

The preciousness of them was self-evident.

In just a few minutes, Faol completed the task of dispelling the evil magic. He wore a warm smile: "My work is simple. But to restore the runes embedded on it, that's a big project."

Duke sighed: "That's my problem now."

Without hesitation, he immediately opened a portal to send Faol and Uther away. If the Archbishop, a revered figure, accidentally fell in Quel'Thalas because of his risky plan, Duke would bet five cents that Lothar would definitely come after him.

"What's next?" Sylvanas crossed her arms: "Don't tell me, Duke, you're going to spend half a month here reassembling these... rubble?"

The Banshee Queen actually wanted to say it was dust. The destroyed rune stone fragments, each one not much bigger than a bean. Regardless of whether they could be pieced

back together like a puzzle, even if they were, how much use could they be?

At this moment, Duke was silently calling in his mind: "Hey, system sprite, time to work."

"Oh, my host, you really know how to order people around?"

"Huh? Is there someone here? Where? Why can't I see them?" Duke looked around, deliberately ignoring what was right in front of him.

"Host, you've lost your integrity, you weren't like this before." The system sprite retorted sharply.

"Less talk, more work." Duke glared.

"Alright!"

A series of system prompts popped up:

"Scanning begins! Analyzing the damage to each rune stone... Comparison begins... Mage Hand, activate!"

Under the astonished gazes of the few who had come with him, more than two hundred Mage Hands quickly picked up the large and small fragments from the ground, then used a special glue prepared in advance to stick them together.

Gavinrad, who was standing nearby, rolled his eyes, looking like he was dealing with an inhuman boss.

The Mage Hands flew at high speed, their movements a dizzying array of crisscrossing paths.

At first, Vereesa Windrunner, the most curious of the Windrunner sisters, tried to follow the trajectory of Duke's Mage Hands with her eyes. Unfortunately, Vereesa quickly became dizzy.

Looking like she was about to faint, Vereesa leaned on her older sister's shoulder and whispered, "Sis... is your boyfriend really a human?"

Alleria's face was a picture of embarrassment.

Boyfriend? Alleria hadn't really thought about that word. Although they had both subtly felt that way, they hadn't broken through that final layer of ambiguity. Suddenly called out by her sister, Alleria's face was burning hot.

To admit or not to admit? That was the question.

Admit? How much to admit, that was also a question.

At this moment, Sylvanas came to her sister's rescue in a roundabout way: "Hmph! Want to pluck the most beautiful, mature flower of the Windrunner family? You'll have to get past us three sisters first."

Vereesa quickly joined in the teasing.

Alleria looked at Vereesa, her sister who had a similar appearance but brighter silver hair, and felt a mix of emotions.

She didn't know how to tell her sister that if they successfully saved Quel'Thalas this time, she and Sylvanas would become Duke's vassals as per their agreement. She felt a sense of reluctance to part, yet also thought it might be a good thing.

While the three sisters were playfully teasing each other, Duke had completed the reassembly of the rune stone.

A rune stone pattern, enlarged tenfold and fully 3D, suddenly appeared in Duke's mind. After comparing Gul'dan's Storm Altar array with the magic pattern of the rune stone, the system calculation finally yielded a result.

This was a result that thousands of elven mages had calculated over hundreds of years.

Just as Duke had once deduced a complete spell from a simple magic model, he easily inferred how the entire Storm Altar system worked based on the remaining materials.

"Done." Duke raised his hand, and the reassembled rune stone instantly vanished with the wind. He turned to the remaining large rune stone fragments. Duke practically used Gavinrad as a 3D printer, guiding him with Mage Hands to start processing them.

After a full hour, a brand new Storm Altar appeared before everyone.

"Young man, do you crave power?" Duke asked Gavinrad out of the blue.