Advance

Brox pulled the crossbow bolt from his knee with force. Smoke rose from the wound, a horrifying hole corroded by holy silver. He could clearly see the pulverized and melted bones and tendons inside. He held the bolt up to his eyes, a wave of heat radiating from the shaft, the undried black blood still smoking.

"This weapon is effective against us," he said, discarding the bolt. He used dark power to nourish his wound. Normally, such an injury would quickly heal under the influence of magic, but now the process was abnormally slow due to the holy silver. It might take another day, or perhaps longer, for him to regain his mobility.

Brox rode on the back carapace of the Crypt Fiend Overlord, that giant beetle, letting it carry him through the underground. The carapace between the beetle leader's raised head and smooth back formed a natural depression, ensuring the death knight wouldn't fall off.

He began to care about this ally who had saved him: "Who are you?"

"I am the Crypt Lord, Anub'arak, King of Azjol-Nerub. You may call me Anub'arak!" The beetle's limbs moved quickly through the underground passage, its speed no less than that of a warhorse. It didn't have vocal organs like humans, but its voice was transmitted directly to the target's mind through a mental connection.

"So you're the Crypt Lord Anub'arak? I've heard my master mention you." Brox remembered that Kel'Thuzad had indeed mentioned encountering such a powerful Lich King servant when he went on a "pilgrimage" to Northrend.

"You mean Kel'Thuzad? He is no longer your master," Anub'arak said.

"Why?"

"Because he has completed what he needed to do." Anub'arak's mouth, full of sharp teeth, emitted a grating sound, which meant it was laughing. "Now you are the Lich King's direct servant, his most powerful death knight!"

…

Karthus' arrival greatly increased the strength of the Dalaran side. The mysterious mage on the magic carpet heard him ask his name and replied in a low voice, "A name only represents my past. Now I have abandoned my past identity, you can call me—the Plaguebringer!"

Antonidas shouted, "Karthus, let's kill him together. He's buying time for the Scourge on the ground!"

"Good idea!" Karthus nodded in agreement. "You are worth my effort."

The mysterious mage raised his head, and the crowd could see a bit of his pale skin peeking out.

"But you are already too late. Our purpose has been achieved." He raised the corners of his lips in an ironic smile.

"Then I'll kill you and eliminate a servant of the Lich King!" Antonidas shouted, and immediately cast a spell.

"But I don't want to die here yet." The mysterious mage laughed, and the magic carpet immediately headed in another direction. He took these mages to the opposite side of where the dreadlords were.

Vayne led everyone north at a frantic pace. The knights killed hundreds of spiders and beetles that were either left behind or caught up with. Some burrowed into the ground before their eyes.

Aiden strictly forbade the soldiers from entering the underground passages to pursue. They had no experience in underground combat. Entering the caves rashly would inevitably lead to great casualties. Anyway, as long as they could catch the death knight Brox, it would be a victory.

However, Vayne sensed that even underground, Brox's escape speed was no less than their pursuit speed. On the contrary, because of the Crypt Fiends' interception, the distance between the two was getting farther and farther. To make matters worse, the fleeing Nathrezim demon escaped to the north, while Brox escaped to the west.

Aiden felt that the task of pursuing Brox was more important. Moreover, regular troops could not possibly catch up with the fleeing demon.

He also guessed the identity of the giant beetle that saved Brox, it should be the Crypt Lord Anub'arak!

He simply didn't expect that the Crypt Fiends and their army would have arrived in Lordaeron so early. At this moment, Aiden deeply realized that his arrival had begun to affect the progress of some important historical events. The butterfly's flapping wings had already caused a strong wind, and a real storm would come sooner or later.

If it were the original history, the Cult of the Damned wouldn't have started polluting civilians with the plague yet. Not to mention Anub'arak leading the spider undead, they only made their debut in the siege of Silvermoon City a few months later.

It seems that I need to be more careful and cautious in "predicting" in the future—because the further I go, the greater the deviation from the original history will be.

"Vayne, how far is Brox from us now?"

"Half an hour."

…

Anub'arak led Brox back to the surface. This was a cave west of Icewind Pass, in the northern foothills of the Alterac Mountains. The crypt spiders were digging tunnels from here to infiltrate the Alterac battlefield.

Brox said, "On the surface, we will be easily caught up."

"So we need some helpers." Anub'arak's thoughts entered his mind, "I know there is an orc camp nearby, they can expand our army and attract the attention of those pursuers."

"Orcs?" Brox murmured. He looked at his big hands and gray-green skin. "Orcs."

After the end of the Second Orcish Invasion War, most of the orcs were captured and placed in internment camps. A small number began a life of escape. For example, Grom Hellscream, chieftain of the Warsong Clan, had been leading his people and some joiners against the humans. For example, the Blackrock brothers, who were entrenched in Blackrock Spire and were infiltrating Stormwind's territory towards Redridge Mountains.

And there was another group of orcs who neither sided with Grom to resist humans, nor sided with the self-proclaimed chieftain Rend. Instead, they chose to continue to believe in demons, secretly planning to build a new portal to introduce demons into this world, and then destroy it.

There was such a group of orcs in the northern foothills of the Alterac Mountains who continued to believe in demons.

These orcs did not engage in production, and all their living needs came from robbery—there were many human villages nearby, and they were far away from heavily guarded big cities, so they didn't worry about being rounded up. Besides, the orcs' strength was beyond doubt, and humans could not possibly wipe them out without mobilizing a large army.

These days, their food was running out, and it was time to go "hunting" again.

"Their speed is slowing down."

"But it's almost dark." Aiden frowned slightly. Their team hadn't encountered any Crypt Fiends for almost twenty minutes. Although not precisely calculated, about two-thirds of the Crypt Fiends had been eliminated in the pursuit. The remaining ones had basically burrowed into the ground.

However, after several hours of continuous pursuit, the warhorses' stamina was somewhat exhausted. White foam was coming out of their mouths, and their fur was soaked with sweat in the middle of winter.

Aiden heard an exclamation from behind—a warhorse lost its strength, its front hooves went soft, it knelt down and fell, throwing the knight on its back off.

"We can't chase like this anymore." Aiden reached out to signal the army to stop, and then said to Mograine, "General Mograine, this kind of weather is no longer suitable for cavalry to advance. Let everyone dismount and pursue now! I have already asked Quinn to notify the garrison in Andorhal, they will intercept in front, we just need to not lose the other party."

"Yes, General!" Mograine had been leading the army for many years, and he naturally knew this principle. Continuing to drive the warhorses might lead to unnecessary losses.

"We will go one step ahead with faster pace." Aiden nodded to him, and then cast acceleration spells on Vayne and himself. Vayne, as the key to tracking Brox, couldn't lose the target.

"We will be there soon!"

At this time, the three angels also found here. Kayle landed in front of Aiden, closely following his footsteps.

"How is it?" Aiden asked.

Kayle didn't answer. Ophiel had to answer for her mistress: "Reporting Commander, we killed one of the demons, the other three ran away."

"It's already good. They don't seem to be simple characters." Aiden comforted.

"But the demon's soul escaped." Kayle's voice was a little displeased. The last time she killed Balnazzar in Stratholme, she felt a little powerless. Now she could only kill the dreadlord's body, but could not completely eliminate their souls. If it hadn't been for Archbishop Alonsus using the power of the soul to bind Balnazzar that time, she wouldn't have been able to kill it before it escaped into the void.

Aiden said, "Then he may not be able to recover his strength for many years."

Kayle snorted coldly, somewhat unwilling and somewhat dissatisfied with her current strength. Simply put—she was being tsundere.

Aiden asked Angel Pamyel in a low voice: "How can Kayle and your strength be restored?"

Angel Pamyel glanced at her mistress, found that she had no reaction, and then carefully replied: "Generally speaking, after leaving the shackles of the League of Legends, our power will slowly recover naturally as time increases."

"How long will it take to restore to the peak?" Aiden asked casually.

"Uh, ten thousand years?" Pamyel's voice was not very sure.

Aiden was quite speechless: "… Ten thousand years is too long, seize the day!"

"There are children crying ahead!" Vayne suddenly stopped, listened carefully, and then pointed in one direction, "That way!"

Aiden and Kayle exchanged glances, and then quickly said, "Lead the way!"