Thresh's lantern possesses a magical power, capable of pulling friendly forces to his side.
However, Xin Zhao immediately selected a Scourge Ghoul near the lantern and charged towards it, arriving first despite starting later. Garen, enraged, cursed Zhao Xin for being shameless.
But Xin Zhao didn't get to be smug for long. Before he could step on the lantern, the Grandmaster at Arms, Jax, flashed and jumped onto the lantern from the air. Then, in an instant, he used the lantern's power to fly towards Thresh.
Xin Zhao and Garen exchanged speechless glances.
"Kill steal!" They shouted in unison, then immediately charged towards Kel'Thuzad. Anyway, it's a gank; what's the difference between two people ganking and four?
Kel'Thuzad, seeing so many people suddenly pop up, was so frightened that he immediately prepared to flee again. But it wasn't that easy. With a wave of Thresh's hand, a spectral prison immediately appeared around them. Kel'Thuzad attempted to escape, but found that his soul was temporarily imprisoned within this prison, making escape impossible.
Kel'Thuzad's heart sank. While releasing a Frost Nova, trying to trap the two people, he tried to summon help.
The Lich King Arthas heard his cry for help, and the Banshee Queen also heard it, but Sylvanas couldn't break away, and Arthas gave up on the rescue.
So, after a while, Kel'Thuzad was still inevitably beaten to pieces by the four heroes.
Thresh collected the lich's soul. Last time, Tichondrius soul fetched a good price, and presumably this time wouldn't be bad either—Karthus needed these powerful souls, while Thresh only needed the weaker ones.
The situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable for the Scourge. Arthas retreated while fighting, his troops suffering heavy losses. Now was the time for the Burning Legion to bleed and sacrifice!
"Truly useless trash!" Anatheron couldn't help but curse, seeing the Scourge defeated so quickly. The dreadlord's commander turned to the demons of the Burning Legion behind him and shouted:
"Kazzak, lead the Doomguards to ambush these natives from the houses, high walls, and corners on both sides; Azgalor, lead the Abyssal and Helfire to intercept them head-on; Mal'Ganis, take some brothers and disguise yourselves as these natives to disrupt and assassinate their heroes!"
"As you command!"
The dreadlords' disguises were difficult to detect, except by their own kind. But coincidentally, the Alliance did have their "own kind."
Aiden didn't directly kill Varimathras. However, he would never trust and use them like the Banshee Queen of Undercity did in history.
The Nathrezim demons captured in the Battle of Timbermaw Hold were all fitted with special Holy Light shackles. Aiden brought them with him in the army. Their purpose was to sense their brethren.
To prevent these dreadlords from playing tricks, Aiden divided them into pairs and told them that within the same sensing range, if one discovered a fellow demon and the other didn't, the one who didn't discover it would be killed; if neither discovered it, or both discovered it but chose to conceal it, and an enemy dreadlord caused losses to the Alliance within that range, then one would be killed at random; only if both dreadlords discovered it at the same time and reported it at the same time could their lives be guaranteed.
Faced with the threat of death, the Nathrezim captives were thoroughly tamed. Varimathras, because he had previously betrayed important information about the Burning Legion to save his life, could no longer turn back. Therefore, now when attacking the Burning Legion, he was even more willing to risk his life. When his former brethren infiltrated, he immediately sensed their presence.
"There! The one disguised as a male ranger not far from General Sylvanas is approaching her! Goth'amos, that's him, I remember him!"
"You know what the consequences are for lying to me!" Ranger-General Lor'themar Theron said, holding his curved blade, his golden eyes fixed on the other party.
Varimathras quickly said, "I wouldn't dare, I swear, it really is him!"
Over there was the dreadlord Goth'amos, also a lord among the Nathrezim. He targeted the several heroes who were besieging the Banshee Queen Sylvanas. The banshee looked battered and on the verge of collapse. It was estimated that she would soon shatter her body, revealing her true face. The mental shock caused by the Banshee Queen's shriek was indeed very powerful, but it was indiscriminate. If she were to scream like that, not only would the Alliance suffer, but the Burning Legion's demons would also suffer. And looking at the troop ratio, this would obviously cause even more damage to the demons.
Goth'amos, disguised as a ranger, held a bow in one hand and a rapier in the other, pretending to shoot arrows at the Scourge's undead while approaching Rhonin—with three female heroes restraining her, this male mage posed a great threat to the Banshee Queen. So the dreadlord also aimed at him.
"Hey, Goth'amos!" The dreadlord suddenly heard someone call his name, and was immediately stunned, then he immediately realized something was wrong.
But it was already too late. Lor'themar's curved blade slashed over fiercely, and the angel Irelia's Flameblade was even more merciless.
"You!" Goth'amos let out a miserable cry, reverting to his original form and attempting to counterattack. But it was too late.
Not only him, but other dreadlords who had infiltrated other parts of the battlefield also suffered such misfortunes.
Dreadlords had a special sense of each other, and Anatheron quickly sensed that several of his brethren had been utterly destroyed. His deputy, Mal'Ganis, ran back in a panic, with a look of horror on his face, saying, "Lord Commander, it's bad! These natives have a way to see through our disguises. The brothers who just infiltrated—"
"I know!" Anatheron waved his hand, interrupting his deputy's report with some annoyance.
At this time, the Scourge had already been defeated and retreated. The Lich King Arthas and his servants were almost all wounded and crippled, in a state of disarray. The Burning Legion was not doing well either. The Doomguard commander Kazzak was killed by Kael'thas and Aiden, and the pit lord Azgalor was also killed by Thrall and Grom's siege.
Anatheron, after receiving the battle report, waved his hand weakly, "Retreat, retreat to Elder's Rise and the Trade Quarter. Fight a street battle with them!"
At this moment, he only wanted his invincible master to complete the summoning as soon as possible and immediately come out to crush this group of native Alliance forces. In his tens of thousands of years of following the Burning Legion to conquer countless worlds, he had never been so embarrassed!
He discovered that the natives of this world were a bit difficult to mess with!
—
The archmages of Dalaran basically did not participate in the ground battle. They gathered on three airships, with a more important task: to bombard the Sunwell Plateau and destroy Archimonde's summoning ritual!
Now that the Burning Legion was in a great rout, the flying enemies no longer had the ability or courage to come up and raid them, because that was basically an impossible task, no different from sending themselves to their deaths.
Anna was on the airship, the "Belief," at this moment. Her mood was rather peculiar: before she traveled to this timeline, Garrosh had sent Horde troops on goblin airships to bomb Theramore with a mana bomb created by the Focusing Iris, leading to the destruction of her nation and the death of her family.
And now she was about to do the same thing, but the target had changed: she and the mages of Dalaran had also created a large number of mana bombs, also traveling by airship, but the target was the Burning Legion, was Archimonde!
Now the airship was above the Sunstrider Isle. Archimonde was inside, summoning a long-lasting portal, preparing to bring endless demons into this world!
Jaina, who was very sensitive to energy, could already feel the frantically surging negative energy below, as it was trying to tear apart the stable space.
The demolition expert, Ziggs, dialed the arcane communicator, and Evelyn's voice sounded from the other end: "You'd better hurry up, that big guy is almost done!"
"Roger that. You guys get out of the way, we're going to drop bombs!" Mentioning bombs,Ziggs became unusually excited, the corners of his mouth almost reaching his ears.
"We're already in a safe place." Evelyn's voice was a bit lazy. Her and Valeera's infiltration into Silvermoon City was thrilling but without danger. Among the demons and undead, there were many monsters that could detect invisibility, but fortunately, both of them were masters of stealth, and with Valeera, who was familiar with the terrain, leading the way, they successfully sneaked to their destination. However, the battle had nothing to do with them, they only needed to monitor the situation here.
"Alright, alright, let us drop the bombs!" Ziggs hung up the communicator and immediately shouted, "Hurry up, hurry up, Evelyn said that big demon is about to finish!"
Anna nodded and said, "Then prepare to drop them!"
She sent a magical signal to the other two ships, and quickly received a response.
Anna led the archmages to inject mana into the magic devices. In the pod below the hull of the "Belief," a mana bomb was activated by magic and detached from the pod, falling towards the Sunstrider Isle. The same was happening on the other two airships.
"Rumble!"
A violent explosion rang out in the Sunstrider Palace, and in the midst of the violent explosion, nearly half of the magnificent palace collapsed.
This scene evoked some bad memories for Anna. That was the scene at Theramore back then.
Seeing her in a daze, Ziggs immediately called out, "Hey, hey, Anna, what's wrong with you? Keep dropping bombs!"
"Oh, I see." Anna came back to her senses, nodded apologetically to the archmages beside her, and then continued to pour mana into the magic devices.
Each ship had 9 pods hanging below, a total of 27 mana bombs, enough to level the palace below four or five times.
When the first wave of explosions arrived, the ground alliance immediately knew that the critical moment had arrived.
Now the Burning Legion was in a terrible state, resisting desperately in the streets and alleys of Silvermoon City, but the high elves knew the terrain better than these demons. Led by the elves, the alliance soldiers attacked everywhere, and these demons were also running into walls everywhere in street fighting.
Seeing that the overall situation here was set, Aiden immediately shouted to the heroes who had fought against Archimonde with him last time, "We're going to Sunstrider Spire to hold off Archimonde!" This time Anna was in the sky, so he added Thrall as a replacement, this shaman was also very powerful and should be able to take on Anna's task.
Then he instructed Swain, "After the bombing is over, after you see the signal, lead the troops to retreat according to the original plan."
"Yes, Commander!"
Kayle, Aiden, Kassadin, Karthus, and Thrall rushed to the Sunstrider Isle, their goal was to see Archimonde's progress. If the mana bombs failed to interrupt him, then they would try to harass him, and if the bombing disrupted the opponent's spellcasting, then they would bear the responsibility of blocking Archimonde from chasing the ordinary troops, providing enough retreat time for the main force.
Anatheron also saw the movements of these heroes. He wondered if he should take the remaining people back to "loyally protect his master," but where did he have any troops now? They had all been scattered and divided by the alliance forces, and were all fighting on their own.
At this time, a thought couldn't help but pop into Anatheron's mind: "Could we fail?"
If his master Archimonde failed to summon the portal, the remnants of the Burning Legion would inevitably face the fate of fighting alone. Archimonde was indeed powerful, indeed invincible, but wasn't Sargeras even more powerful during the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago? The Burning Legion had almost come out in full force that time, but in the end they still failed.
There were quite a few extraordinary powers here.
What if Archimonde failed—Anatheron shuddered and quickly threw the thought aside. What was the use of thinking about those things? It was better to take care of the present. His most urgent task now was how to survive the mad attacks of the native alliance.
—
The mana bombs fell when Archimonde was at the critical moment of summoning the portal. He and Kil'jaeden in the Twisting Nether were working together, and were almost successful. In front of him, a large mass of dark green energy appeared in the air. It was not stable enough and seemed a bit violent. But Archimonde could already smell the aura of the Twisting Nether coming from the other side.
With just a few more minutes, the portal would be completed!
Once the Burning Legion's army entered this world through the portal, who else could stop him from completing his plan!
But at this moment, the Sunstrider Isle collapsed in a violent explosion. The giant stones of the dome rolled down one after another, smashing towards Archimonde, who was casting the spell.
Even if all these boulders hit his head, they would not have any impact on him. However, after the mana bomb exploded, the surrounding energy became violent. He could feel that the portal energy, which should have been more stable under the spellcasting of him and Kil'jaeden, was becoming chaotic.
His progress in summoning the portal was severely delayed!
Archimonde was furious. He immediately poured more energy into the magic circle. The portal began to gradually stabilize again.
But the second wave of bombs arrived.
Then came the third wave, the fourth wave… It was like it would never end.
Archimonde let out an angry roar, his voice spread outward, and everyone in Silvermoon City heard his angry voice. Not only that, just like the declaration he had issued when he first arrived that spread to the entire world, this time his voice enveloped the entire Lordaeron.
In the Royal Court of Lordaeron, Terenas, who was in secret talks with Admiral Daelin, also heard this voice. The two kings looked at each other and saw the different colors in each other's eyes.