Chapter 592
Chapter 592: The Fall of Silvermoon
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Quel’Thalas was located in the northeast of Lordaeron. The kingdom of the high elves was known as the most dazzling diamond of Azeroth.
For thousands of years, the high elves had been living here and used the natural landforms here to build all kinds of beautiful palaces. They used magic to bathe the land in bright spring light all year round, turning their capital, Silvermoon City, into a glimmering city.
In the periphery of Silvermoon was a large dense stretch of the Eversong Woods. The forest was the natural barrier of the kingdom of Quel’Thalas. In addition, the high elves had also built a powerful magic barrier around Silvermoon.
The proud and arrogant high elves relied on this barrier to greatly reduce their communication with the outside world. They stayed in their own country, studied magic, and absorbed the magic power of the Sunwell to feed the magic addiction that made them happy.
Now, the plague was ravaging Lordaeron and the Eastern Kingdoms, and even the Orc Horde led by Thrall had begun to flee to Kalimdor in the west. Only the high elves continued to enjoy their comfortable lives as though nothing was happening. They were obsessed with the beauty of their clothes and yearned for all kinds of art and literature, and they didn’t have any thoughts of being prepared for danger in times of peace at all.
Of course, not all high elves were like this. As the Ranger-General of Silvermoon, Sylvanas Windrunner was an exception. She was the second child of the Windrunner family, and the rangers led by her had always been in charge of the outer defense of Silvermoon. Sylvanas led the rangers and had approached the periphery of Silvermoon’s forest more than once, so she knew much more about the changes in the outside world than the high elves who stayed in Silvermoon.
Sylvanas had already discovered the plague as early as when it broke out in Lordaeron. After all, Quel’Thalas was adjacent to Lordaeron. After witnessing the destruction caused by the undead monsters with her own eyes, she realized how terrifying they were. But when she reported this situation to the Council of Silvermoon, it didn’t attract the attention of the upper echelons.
The status of the Windrunner family was actually a little awkward in Quel’Thalas. The ones who controlled the kingdom were the Sunstrider family and the Council of Silvermoon, but the upper echelons were all mages without exception. In this country where mages were respected, no matter how famous rangers like the Windrunners were, they were still excluded from the core of power.
The councilors of the Council of Silvermoon believed that the magic barrier of Quel’Thalas was perfect and powerful. As long as the barrier was still there, it was enough to block all enemies, let alone those brainless undead monsters, so they were not worried at all.
Since she couldn’t convince the upper echelons of the kingdom to take it seriously, Sylvanas could only train her rangers and prepare to fight.
And now, her worry became a reality. Arthas led the Scourge Army and targeted Quel’Thalas.
The dense Eversong Woods around Silvermoon caused immense trouble for the Scourge, making it exceptionally difficult for the Scourge to advance. Therefore, Arthas ordered the undead to destroy the forest first.
But during this process, the Scourge suffered a head-on blow from the rangers. The moment the undead monsters stepped into the forest, countless arrows rained down and instantly shot down a large number of undead. Sylvanas led her rangers and used the cover of the forest to deal a huge blow to the Scourge.
Unfortunately, there were too many undead in the Scourge Army led by Arthas. The high elves were not a race with a large population to begin with, and during their long lives, they were not enthusiastic about reproducing. Although the ranger army was powerful, they only numbered a few thousand, and the Scourge Army currently outnumbered them hundreds of times!
Arthas didn’t care about Sylvanas’s attack at all. He ordered the undead to rush forward and fight the rangers at all costs.
The rangers quickly collapsed. They rapidly lost their formation and were submerged by the undead flooding in like a tide. Seeing that it was impossible to stop the Scourge, Sylvanas could only lead the rangers to retreat to the second defense line.
Arthas continued to advance steadily while destroying the forest. During this time, he captured a captive named Dar’Khan Drathir. This high elven magister from Quel’Thalas was an ambitious fellow who was obsessed with researching dark magic. He had always been unsuccessful in Silvermoon. After capturing him, Arthas immediately sensed the darkness in the depths of his heart and quickly bewitched him.
With Dar’Khan’s help, Arthas already knew the defensive situation of Quel’Thalas like the back of his hand. In addition, Dar’Khan provided two artifacts to Arthas. They were the Stone of Light and the Stone of Flame. With the help of these two artifacts, the undead under Arthas wouldn’t be injured by the magic barrier.
As a result, the Scourge marched into the depths of Quel’Thalas with irresistible force. Sylvanas continuously gathered defeated rangers and tenaciously organized defense lines to delay the Scourge.
She had to buy time for Silvermoon. The news of the Scourge invasion had already spread to Silvermoon. The king of the high elves, Anasterian Sunstrider, and the members of the Council of Silvermoon were all stunned by this news. Especially after knowing that the ranger army had collapsed, they truly realized that the strength of the Scourge might have exceeded their imagination.
Now, the troops in Silvermoon had been mobilized, but it happened in a hurry, and it would take some time to complete the defense. The heavy responsibility of stalling for time fell on Sylvanas and her rangers.
Even though she felt helpless and annoyed at the slow reaction of the upper echelons of the kingdom, Quel’Thalas was her home after all, and she was willing to bear this heavy responsibility.
Under Sylvanas’s leadership, although the rangers had never been a match for the Scourge, they had caused countless trouble for Arthas. During the interception, the rangers constantly destroyed bridges and set traps, making Arthas extremely annoyed. As time passed, his cold heart couldn’t help becoming angry.
“Kill all those damn long ears!” Arthas ordered. He was already prepared to massacre a city again.
The rangers were still being defeated, and the disparity in numbers was really difficult to make up for. The Scourge was continuing to penetrate deeper and was about to reach the capital, Silvermoon. There were not many rangers left, so Sylvanas made a very risky decision.
She got the remaining rangers to retreat to Silvermoon to assist in the defense while she went alone to assassinate the commander of the Scourge Army, Arthas!
Sylvanas thought that by relying on her mobility in the forest, even if she couldn’t kill Arthas, she could delay his steps. But what she didn’t expect was that his strength was no longer the same as before. With the ravages of the Scourge, countless living people had died under his sword, and his own strength was growing rapidly. During the battle, not only did she fail to assassinate him, but she was instead heavily injured by him and couldn’t escape.
“I appreciate your courage, elf! But it’s time for this cat-and-mouse game to end!” Arthas said while standing in front of Sylvanas and looking down at her.
“Kill me. I should die honorably in battle!” Sylvanas said while panting and covering the wound caused by Frostmourne.
“No, the last thing I want now is to give you a quiet death!” A cold smile appeared on Arthas’s face as he pinched Sylvanas’s head.
Feeling the pervasive and powerful dark power in Arthas’s palm, Sylvanas understood what he wanted to do. She said in horror, “No! You can’t do this!”
But Sylvanas was powerless to resist this dark power. Arthas used a powerful dark spiritual spell to corrode her entire body and finally turned her into a banshee…
Without the hindrance of Sylvanas, Arthas finally felt good. The Scourge advanced with ease. Although the Scourge Army suffered powerful magic attacks from the high elves when attacking Silvermoon, Arthas still conquered the city with the numerical advantage.
After attacking Silvermoon, the undead monsters began to slaughter wantonly in the city. Seeing that the city couldn’t be saved, the high elves could only retreat in grief and indignation. King Anasterian led the surviving high elves and retreated toward the Isle of Quel’Danas.
The Isle of Quel’Danas was the island where the Sunwell was. Anasterian wanted to use the sea around the island to stop the Scourge because he noticed that the Scourge wasn’t equipped with ships, and the undead monsters didn’t look like they knew how to build ships.
Unfortunately, Arthas used Frostmourne to solve this troublesome problem. When he returned from Northrend, under Roy’s guidance, he had already activated the powerful frost power in the sword, so he didn’t hesitate to brandish Frostmourne and freeze the sea between Silvermoon and Quel’Danas. Then the undead monsters of the Scourge howled while crossing the solid ice and poured into Quel’Danas.
In the end, the Isle of Quel’Danas fell, Anasterian died in battle, and a few powerful and famous magisters of Silvermoon City and the Council of Silvermoon perished in battle. The few surviving high elves could only escape from their homeland.
Arriving in front of the Sunwell, which was exuding golden light, Arthas brought Kel’Thuzad’s coffin. Looking at the Sunwell brimming with powerful magic power energy, he could be said to be in high spirits.
He still had memories of the past. He still remembered that he had come to the beautiful city of the high elves when he was young. At the time, he had always looked at this kingdom with longing in his eyes. But now, the ruins of this kingdom were lying under his iron hooves. This sense of conquest brought about by thi mighty power made him unable to stop.
Just as Arthas was about to place Kel’Thuzad’s corpse into the Sunwell, Tichondrius appeared. Moreover, he didn’t appear alone. Behind him were two figures that Arthas had never seen before.
One of them was a demoness. But what was strange was that this demoness’s appearance was not something that Arthas had seen before. She had grayish-white skin, a pair of long demon horns on her forehead, and the commonly seen demon legs with reverse joints and hooves. But the demon wings on her back were reverse wings with the tips facing upward. He dared to swear that he had never seen this type of demon before.
The other one was even stranger. She was also a woman, and she looked very similar to ordinary human women. She had a beautiful face, but her entire eyeballs were deep black, without any trace of the whites in her eyes. She also had a pair of wings on her back, but they were black. At first, Arthas thought that she was some kind of harpy, but later on, he realized that she was not.
Needless to say, these two women were naturally Benia and Julia. One was a succubus, and the other was a fallen angel. They were both races that had not appeared in the world of Azeroth before…