Cover Up

Aiden was a little impatient and was about to stop them. Suddenly, a figure fell from the sky like a cannonball, landing in the open space between him and the knights, smashing out a large crater like a meteorite. A wave of air erupted near the point of impact, blowing the knights off their feet.

A guy dressed as a Spartan warrior jumped out of the pit, his eyes staring at the knights under his iron helmet.

It was Pantheon; he had just jumped off the dragon's back.

When he jumped off the dragon's back, Onyxia was initially worried that her new master would blame her if he died from the fall. Now it seemed that this guy was doing very well, showing no signs of injury, which instead gave her a false alarm.

"Come on, fight me! I'm game!" Pantheon patted his iron shield with his spear, making dull thuds.

The leading paladin saw that this guy who had fallen from who knows where was definitely in cahoots with the two murderers. He loudly ordered the knights to reform their ranks.

"Seize them! Don't let them run away!" the knight captain shouted.

Pantheon coldly snorted, "Which eye of yours saw me running?"

Just as the knights were about to charge, a gust of strong airflow swept over. They looked up and saw a huge black dragon flying low overhead. Another burly man jumped off the dragon's back, landing beside Pantheon. He carried a brass lamp post, wearing a mask and hood, concealing his true face completely.

"Jax, I got here first!"

"I can handle these guys alone!"

"I can handle twice as many of them alone!"

Onyxia went around the forest and transformed back into her human form, coming to Aiden's side. Seeing Benedictus dead, she kicked the corpse twice, still feeling somewhat unsatisfied, and grunted, "Told you to use me! Told you to plot against me!"

"Alright, he's dead anyway," Aiden pulled her back.

Hearing the knight captain's horn, a large number of paladins and priests from Northshire had also rushed over. However, now the knight captain was wary; he ordered the cavalry to surround these five people, not daring to act rashly.

"Who's that lying down?"

"Don't know, doesn't look like a proper person."

The priests who arrived later discussed among themselves.

After death, Benedictus's body rapidly deformed; the parts of his body that had been modified by the Old Gods quickly became apparent, and his appearance underwent obvious changes, to the point that even those who were originally very familiar with him could no longer recognize him.

Soon, the priests turned their attention to Aiden and his group, especially the angel Kayle, whose appearance attracted most of the attention.

An angel—that's a creature that only exists in myths!

Aiden was also happy to avoid conflict with them. He believed that the person who could truly make the decisions would arrive soon.

Sure enough, within a few minutes, gryphon knights escorted King Varian and others to the scene.

Varian dismissed the knights.

Seeing that it was the king, the knight captain immediately reported, "Your Majesty, this group of people murdered Archbishop Benedictus here! Look, his corpse is at their feet!"

The priests who arrived later were immediately in an uproar; they couldn't tell at all where the twisted corpse on the ground looked like the archbishop.

Varian looked at Aiden, who nodded.

The king immediately understood and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He said loudly, "That is not the corpse of Archbishop Benedictus! Now I will tell everyone a painful piece of news—our true, revered, and beloved archbishop was killed several months ago! A demon occupied his body, wanting to use his identity to do things that are detrimental to us!"

The whole place was shocked. The news the king told them was too shocking—their archbishop died several months ago? They were completely unaware!

Aiden secretly praised Varian's handling. He also stood up to testify, "Everyone, please look at this corpse—its blood is not red but purple! This is not the color that human blood should have, but the color of demon blood!"

The priests gathered around and indeed saw that the blood gushing from the wound on the corpse's chest and from its mouth and nose was purple.

"That's right, the blood of that demon corpse that fell on the monastery tower a few days ago was this color!"

"Yes, and there was green too."

"This really is a demon in disguise! Holy Light above, the Archbishop he…"

With this evidence, everyone immediately stopped doubting the two's claims.

Varian also didn't expect Benedictus to undergo such a change after death, and he felt both fortunate and sad. No one knew when this archbishop was corrupted. Old Gods, he heard Aiden and Benedictus both mention this name—what exactly was that? It could even corrupt an archbishop with a steadfast will! What kind of person could resist such temptation?

If the Old Gods targeted other people, like himself—Varian didn't dare to imagine what would happen. He didn't know if he would also be tempted and fall.

Besides the archbishop, he didn't know how many people in the entire kingdom belonged to the Twilight's Hammer. Thinking further, he didn't know how many people in all human nations, even the entire world of Azeroth, were loyal to the Twilight's Hammer.

But one thing was certain: this organization must be eradicated!

—

While Aiden was resolving the two major malignant tumors for the Stormwind Kingdom, the evacuation of Dun Morogh was also in its final stages. The Valoran Alliance's mercenary corps was maintaining order, guiding the refugees to enter Dalaran in an orderly manner, and then teleporting them to Los Angeles.

This group of mercenaries came from places outside of Valoran. There were adventurers, retired soldiers, and even thieves, most of whom possessed unique skills. Their total number was around four thousand. They had performed well in the previous wars.

General Galen served concurrently as the head of the corps, but the actual affairs were entrusted to the deputy head, Zod—the big man who came from Stromgarde to Los Angeles, wanting to quickly get promoted and then marry the daughter of an earl.

Zod guarded the entrance to the city. He had been here all day, and only a small portion of the refugees remained to board the floating city.

His gaze was constantly searching the crowd behind, hoping to find the figure he longed for the most. He didn't know if he could wait for her.

"I probably won't be able to wait." He was somewhat disappointed. Then, he thought mockingly that an earl was, after all, a powerful person, and must have followed Prince Galen Trollbane's fleet westward by ship. The remaining refugees were basically poor people with little money, so how could Yulia be among these people?

Just as Zod was about to leave, a hopeful voice suddenly floated from the crowd: "Zod, is that you, Zod?"

He immediately looked around and finally found the figure he had been longing for in the long queue.

"Yulia, is that you! I'm Zod!" Zod was overjoyed. He jumped off the raptor and strode towards that place in the line.

Zod forcefully parted the crowd and indeed saw that pretty figure. She was wearing a hood, her face plain and haggard. Yulia, with tears of excitement in her eyes, threw herself into Zod's broad chest, tightly embracing her lover.

"This is so great… Zod, I thought I would never see you again..."

Zod gently patted her back and whispered, "How could that be? I said I would marry you. Look, I'm already the deputy head, with thousands of brothers under my command. Where's your father? Now I'm qualified to propose to him, right!"

"Father, he… died…" Yulia cried sadly.

Zod couldn't believe it. How could that high and mighty Earl die?

Yulia sobbed, intermittently recounting what had happened during this time. It turned out that just as the Earl had found a ship, packed his belongings, and prepared to cross the sea, the demon legion descended from the sky. A hellfire happened to smash into the Earl's carriage, leaving him with no remains.

After the accident, the Earl's family suffered heavy losses. Apart from Yulia and their old butler, all the other important people died. Unable to pay enough wealth, the originally booked ship was taken by others. In the end, Yulia could only follow the old king's refugee Team southward.

Although the refugee Team had two old kings to keep order, and the Stormwind City army escorted them, it was not peaceful at all. After learning that the Burning Legion was chasing south, the refugees were panicked. Driven by fear, many people's behaviors became crazy. The robberies, murders, thefts, and rapes that occurred in the refugee Team this month were more than the sum of the Alliance's crimes in the past ten years. Yulia's old butler was almost beaten to death by bad guys in order to protect her.

If it weren't for the hope of seeing Zod again, she would have probably had a mental breakdown.

Listening to her experience, Zod's heart ached like a knife. He softly comforted Yulia and said, "Don't worry, you're safe now. I promise no one will ever hurt you again!"

"Mm!" Yulia nodded in his arms.

Just as the two were pouring out their hearts to each other, a messenger came here and shouted, "Deputy Head, Commander Galen has ordered you to immediately gather the mercenary corps and prepare to set off!"

Zod's heart tightened, and he asked, "Are we going to war?"

"Yes, a branch of the Burning Legion is heading towards Dun Morogh."

"alright, I'll go right away!" Zod loudly agreed. He cupped Yulia's face and kissed her hard, looking at her and saying, "Wait for me to come back!"

"You must come back safely!" Yulia was extremely worried when she heard that he was going to war, fearing that Zod would encounter the same thing as her father.

"Of course, don't forget that I am the immortal Zod!" Zod's voice was full of confidence. He mounted the raptor and waved goodbye to Yulia.

Not long after Archimonde decided to divide his forces, the air force detected this situation.

The Burning Legion split off a portion of its army to attack Dun Morogh, while the remaining main force advanced towards Searing Gorge. This force was led by the demon guard commander Remon, with a total number exceeding one hundred thousand—but only more than twenty thousand of them were true Burning Legion demons. The rest were all indigenous creatures such as gnolls, kobolds, ogres, and trolls that had been subdued on the continent of Lordaeron. A small portion of these semi-intelligent creatures had been corrupted by fel energy, but more of them were forced to submit due to their fear of the Burning Legion's power.

They came from Loch Modan to the towering mountains of Dun Morogh, covering the mountains and plains.