Demon

"It's me. Liam, my child." King Genn beckoned to him, appearing so real, without the slightest flaw.

"But—" Liam became confused, halting his steps towards his father. A stark fact reminded him—Genn was dead!

"Do you find it strange that I'm here talking to you?" King Genn pointed to his own heart. "Look here, Liam!"

Liam's gaze dropped, and he was horrified to see Genn's chest stained crimson with blood, a ghastly scar marking the location of his heart. It was where someone had viciously stabbed him!

No normal person could survive such an injury. The shocking wound reminded Liam that his father had been murdered. Standing before him was merely a resurrected undead—no different in essence from the monsters he had been slaying these past few days. Except this 'monster' was his father, who had raised him for so many years!

"You see correctly, I am dead." King Genn stated this fact, his tone as calm as if he were speaking of a stranger. "I wonder how they reported it to you?"

Liam's reason told him that he shouldn't continue talking to this enemy of the living, but the anxiety and pressure of the past few days had completely suppressed his rationality. Even if Genn was undead, he was still Liam's father first and foremost! His most beloved father!

"They said… you were assassinated by the Scourge!" His voice trembled slightly.

"Hahahaha…" Genn laughed heartily, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. "How amusing. He spoke with such confidence, so resolutely, as if killing me was acting on behalf of the heavens, yet he lacked the courage to admit that he himself was the one who struck the blow? Is that what Ashbury told you? I truly overestimated him! That ignorant fool, he betrayed not only me but also Gilneas!"

Liam looked at the father before him, unsure how to describe the complex emotions he felt at this moment. His father had died and been resurrected, becoming one of the enemies he had been trying his best to fight against in life. And the truth of his father's death was laid bare before him—everyone around Liam was deceiving him, trying to make him believe a 'beautiful' lie, a colossal lie to cover up the crime of regicide!

But—

"I'm sorry, I cannot accept a dark soul desecrating my father's body!" Liam lamented, repenting. He drew his sword, invoking the blessings of the Holy Light.

"You're going to kill me? Liam, will you betray me too?" Genn was utterly disappointed. "My poor son, come, end my suffering! End my failed life!" He left himself completely unguarded, opening his chest to Liam.

Liam walked step by step towards his father, his sword growing brighter and brighter under the blessing of the Holy Light, as if eager to eliminate the evil creature before him.

Genn continued, "But before that, you must remember: do not trust the Alliance! They are self-righteous, they think they are saviors, they think they are crusading against evil… but they are all wrong! The Scourge is not the threat! If I had known the Lich King's grand plan earlier, I would have even been willing to offer myself to him! I hate the betrayal of my subjects and the Alliance's machinations, but I also thank them for making my life more meaningful."

Liam didn't want to hear any of this. Reason told him that it was all a conspiracy by the masterminds behind the Scourge, just as Aiden, the head of the Valoran Federation, had warned: the Lich King would use evil magic to desecrate his father's corpse and control his mind. The behavior of his father before him completely confirmed this—he was no longer Genn, but merely an evil soul occupying Genn's body!

"Shut up!" Liam shouted, raising his longsword, the tip aimed at Genn's throat. With just a little force, this weapon would end his twisted father.

"Why not strike directly? Liam, you are the King of Gilneas now. A king should not hesitate! You are my only son, and I have poured all my love into you. I have always hoped that you would become an upright and brave prince, and inherit my throne in the future. I am sorry for my premature departure, but I still hope that you will be a good king of Gilneas." A gentle smile appeared on Genn's face, an expression that should not appear on an undead creature at all. Their will was filled with only hatred, they had abandoned all humanity, bloodthirsty and cruel. Except for their own kind, they did not trust any living beings.

Gentle?

Such a word did not exist in the dictionary of the undead.

Liam couldn't bear to look at such eyes. The Genn before him completely overlapped with his impression of his father, and he felt a sense of patricide guilt. His sword trembled, the Holy Light dimmed, until it was extinguished.

Genn reached out and took the blade away, Liam offering no resistance. He still couldn't bring himself to act against Genn, even though he was an undead creature.

"Liam, my son, since you have given me the time, I will now tell you the truth, the truth about the Scourge." Genn gazed into Liam's eyes. "All living beings see the Scourge as their greatest enemy. But they are all wrong. It is because they fear death, fear our existence. But this is only because of the narrow-mindedness and ignorance of humans, they simply do not understand the Scourge!"

"Our world faces a greater disaster. The Burning Legion in the Twisting Nether has been eyeing our world with fierce anticipation! These demons have already destroyed countless worlds, and they are the true crisis of Azeroth!" Genn's tone became impassioned. "They have long coveted Azeroth. They invaded once in ancient times, and countless immortals were buried in that war to defend this world. But soon they will descend again. How many immortals are left in our world? Who can shoulder the responsibility of fighting against the Burning Legion? Only the Scourge can!"

Liam's thoughts were completely confused—he had only heard about the Burning Legion from Daelin Proudmoore these past two days, knowing that there was such an evil demon legion, and also knowing that this group of demons might invade Azeroth—but Daelin said that the Scourge was the Burning Legion's pawn!

Thinking of this fact, he clenched his sword again, ready to eliminate this evil soul that desecrated his father's body at any time.

"Our leader, the Lich King Ner'zhul, was once an orc shaman. Their world was polluted by the Burning Legion. He himself was also tortured by the master of the demons, imprisoned on the Icecrown Glacier in Northrend!" Ner'zhul and the Burning Legion have a deep-seated hatred, and he has never extinguished his fighting spirit against the demon legion!

"The master of the demons thought he had already submitted, but they were wrong! The great Lich King has already formulated a perfect plan, a plan to make the Burning Legion never return!"

"I am honored to be a member of his command, to still be able to contribute to protecting this world after death!" Genn's voice became high-pitched, his expression incomparably fanatical, like a religious fanatic, expressing his worship of the Lich King without reservation!

Liam looked at his father like this, and only felt infinite sadness in his heart. He had been completely bewitched by that evil Lich King, and would even say such lies that even children would not believe!

"If the Lich King is so great, why release the plague and slaughter the innocent?" He responded angrily to his father, "A full two hundred thousand Gilneans died under the plague, becoming the walking dead that everyone hates! They spread death and fear, do you think this is Ner'zhul's 'greatness'?"

"This is just a necessary sacrifice. You are not undead, how do you know what we think after being transformed into undead? We are willing!" Genn replied indifferently, "The Burning Legion has tens of thousands of members, and the entire population of Azeroth is only over three million, and only one-tenth of them can fight! Three hundred thousand people are not enough to fill the gaps in front of the Burning Legion! Moreover, living people have all kinds of shortcomings. They will be tired, they will be afraid, they will slack off, they will disobey orders, they will betray their masters… They have too many weaknesses. But these weaknesses do not exist in the undead! If all humans are transformed into undead, we will have three million troops! Even the Burning Legion will tremble under such a number of troops! What's more, there are gnolls, kobolds, elves, trolls, all living creatures will become undead, how powerful we will be!"

Liam shouted: "You are already crazy!"

Genn's face was full of mockery: "That's because you don't understand the greatness of the undead at all! Liam, life itself is meaningless, only death will let you understand the true meaning of humanity!"

Liam's sword was re-illuminated by the Holy Light. His heart was extremely painful, but the Genn in front of him was no longer his father, but a pathetic soul brainwashed by the evil thoughts of the Lich King. Only by killing him can the real Genn be freed!

"Enough! Put away your fallacies! The Holy Light will not forgive the Lich King's sins! I cannot tolerate an evil soul desecrating my father!" He raised his long sword, only feeling that it weighed a thousand pounds, but he had to swing it down!

Genn was not prepared to defend at all. He just stood there, just smiling and looking at his son: "Liam, you have grown up…"

Just as Liam was about to swing his sword, he saw Genn's face suddenly change drastically. He pounced on him and shouted: "Watch out behind you!"

Liam didn't have time to think about whether it was Genn's twisted soul playing tricks or his father reminding him. Years of getting along made him instinctively choose to believe the latter. He knew that his father was a powerful warrior, and he was even more powerful after becoming undead. In this room, he was fully capable of killing himself alone, without relying on tricks to win.

In the next moment, he heard the whistling sound of the air being torn apart in his ears. Genn pushed him away forcefully, and he fell heavily to the ground, but his ears still caught the unusual sound.

He hurriedly raised his head, and the scene in front of him filled him with fear—a huge demon more than ten feet tall appeared in the room. It had bat-like wings, terrifying eyes emitting green evil light, and a pair of demon horns on its head.

King Genn was pinched by him with one hand, unable to struggle at all.

Demon!

The demon has descended!