Chapter 48: The Death of Teron Gorefiend |
Marshal Windsor turned around and saw the young man he believed was a dark wizard who had corrupted King Varian.
He saw his youthful face, and the dagger in his hand, wreathed in an eerie purple light, breathing like a living thing.
Allen stepped forward, his voice suddenly ringing out across the blood-soaked battlefield:
“Teron Gorefiend!”
“Your plan won’t succeed!”
Teron Gorefiend spun around sharply, the ghostly green flames flickering in his eye sockets.
“You won’t get Medivh’s Book, you won’t get the Eye of Dalaran, you won’t get Sargeras’s Scepter—”
Allen’s voice grew louder, each name striking the Death Knight’s heart like a heavy hammer.
“You won’t use those artifacts to reopen the Dark Portal and invade—”
Teron Gorefiend’s roar shook the entire plaza.
How did he know?!
These plans—secrets known only to the Horde’s upper echelons—how could this damned mortal know them?!
He no longer cared about the black dragon’s warning.
He no longer cared about Katrana’s order: “Don’t let him die.”
He had to kill this strange bastard.
He had to kill everyone here!
“Kill him!” Teron Gorefiend’s scream came from the abyss. “All of you, attack! Kill that mortal! Then kill them all!”
The Death Knights who had been besieging Morgan, Varian, and Wen Lei instantly withdrew.
They turned, their pitch-black blades all pointing at Allen like a pack of wolves scenting blood, charging madly toward him.
At that very moment, the sky darkened.
The newly risen dawn was suddenly obscured; dark clouds surged from all directions, devouring the sky.
Allen walked toward the Death Knights.
A fierce wind rose.
The wind howled, sweeping up dust and broken banners from the ground, hurling them high into the air before shredding them to pieces.
Allen’s hair whipped wildly in the wind.
Electricity began to crackle in the air.
Sparks of arcane energy danced through the air, jumping between people, flickering across blades and armor.
The storm was coming.
The first Death Knight reached Allen.
He raised his massive pitch-black greatsword high, its blade wreathed in the aura of death, and brought it down viciously toward Allen’s head.
Wen Lei watched the blade fall slowly, and then—
A golden bolt of lightning, like a spear hurled by a god, descended from the heavens and struck the tip of the black sword!
The instant Allen passed him, the lightning engulfed the Death Knight’s entire body. His armor shattered under the bolt, his flesh burned in the electric fire, and the ghostly green flames in his eye sockets were extinguished.
Then, the golden lightning leaped from the charred corpse, split into three blinding arcs of electricity, and shot straight toward the next, the next, and the next Death Knight!
Dark clouds pressed down on the city; the roiling darkness blocked out all light. The battlefield was lit only by the brief flashes of lightning as they tore through the darkness.
Teron Gorefiend didn’t even have time to react as he watched the young man approach.
Behind Allen, the branching Chain Lightning illuminated the dark battlefield.
It also illuminated Allen’s face.
Teron Gorefiend saw that the young man’s pupils seemed to be lit from within, glowing with a blue light.
Three arcs of electricity shot toward Teron Gorefiend.
Closer and closer!
Brighter and brighter!
Anti-Magic Shield! A green barrier rapidly spread around Teron Gorefiend, the ghostly green light about to converge into a single point.
But then, before his eyes, the three bolts of lightning merged into one.
The blinding, searing, annihilating light filled his entire world.
BOOM—!!!
When the deafening roar finally exploded, the lightning had already swept across the entire battlefield.
All the survivors stood frozen in place.
They saw the flash of light vanish in an instant, saw the churning dark clouds suddenly disperse, saw the dawn light fall once again upon this blood-soaked ground.
Then, they saw a pile of charred corpses on the battlefield.
Those Death Knights were now lying in a chaotic heap on the ground; some were still smoking, others were completely carbonized. Their physical forms had been utterly destroyed. Even as undead, they could never come back to life.
And in the very center of the battlefield, Teron Gorefiend knelt there.
His black armor was shattered and broken; the runes no longer glowed; the aura of death was fading away.
His left arm was gone, his left leg was gone, his broken and mangled body lay pathetically among the rubble, gasping in agony.
He was not resigned to this.
His eyes, burning with ghostly green flames, stared intently at the young man before him.
He was Teron Gorefiend. The embodiment of death. The master of life and death. The most fearsome existence in the Horde.
How could he die here?
At the hands of a mortal?
“Allen Prestor…” His voice was hoarse, every word dripping with bone-deep hatred. “Who… are you, really?”
Allen stood before him, looking down at the once-arrogant Death Knight.
His voice was calm, even carrying a hint of exhaustion:
“Stalvan. Helene. Why did you make them do those things?”
Teron Gorefiend was stunned.
“So many innocent people—people who had nothing to do with your grand plan—why did you cruelly take their lives?”
A twisted smile stretched across Teron Gorefiend’s lips. That smile was filled with madness and venom.
Damn little brat, just stall for a little more time, let him come a bit closer, just a bit closer, and I’ll drain his blood dry and restore my physical form…
He was about to speak.
But Allen had already raised Xal’atath, Blade of the Black Empire high.
Just kidding. I actually don’t give a damn about the answer.
“I just like...”
Teron Gorefiend’s voice cut off abruptly.
He saw the purple light on the dagger suddenly swirl.
He saw some indescribable existence behind Allen open its eyes.
He saw—
A pillar of violet-black light descending from the heavens!
It was a torrent from the depths of the Void, an all-consuming nothingness, an abyss from which not even souls could escape.
Teron Gorefiend’s body was engulfed in that torrent.
He opened his mouth to scream, but found his voice swallowed up. He tried to struggle, but found his limbs dissolving.
The torrent scoured his body; his armor turned to dust, his flesh turned to nothing, his bones turned to ash.
The torrent scoured his soul. The last remnants of Teron Gorefiend, bit by bit, evaporated, dissipated, and faded away into nothingness in that violet-black light.
In the end—
There was nothing left.
The Void Torrent drained away completely.
Where Teron Gorefiend had knelt, there was only a patch of scorched earth.
Allen stood in place.
The survivors watched this scene, snapping out of their excitement.
And then, they fell into an even deeper despair.
Were they going to have to face another dark wizard so evil and powerful?
Just then, a loud shout cut through the deathly silence of the battlefield.
“We have won!”
Varian Wrynn raised his arm and shouted:
“Soldiers of Stormwind! We have won!”
He turned and pointed at Allen, his face brimming with pride and excitement:
“See that?! That’s my personal arcane advisor! Allen Prestor! He took down Teron Gorefiend! He took down that Death Knight! We won!”
The soldiers were stunned.
They looked at Varian, then at Allen.
The dark wizard stood there, being pointed at by Varian, a look of innocent helplessness on his face as he shrugged.
Then, someone laughed for the first time.
It was a soft laugh, but it spread like a contagion, quickly rippling outward.
“We won!”
“Long live Stormwind! Long live King Varian Wrynn!”
Cheers surged like a tidal wave, sweeping across the entire battlefield.
Soldiers dropped their weapons and embraced each other. Some knelt to kiss the blood-soaked ground. Some howled at the sky. Some wept with joy.
Wen Lei leaned against a broken pillar and let out a long breath, staring blankly at the sky.
Sister, I... we defeated Teron Gorefiend...
Morgan slumped to the ground, laughing like an idiot.
Another great evil has been purged today...
Stella stood up from a pile of wounded, her small figure jumping and dancing through the cheering crowd, shouting something about “my benefactor is amazing!”
Marshal Windsor stood in place, watching the young man.
Allen Prestor.
The young man he thought was a dark wizard.
A slow smile spread across his face.
“Seems I really am just an old fossil.”
Allen stood there in a daze.
This was the first time, after a big battle, that he hadn’t passed out on the spot.
But he wasn’t dazed because of that; he was dazed because his long-awaited main quest progress had finally changed.
「Main Quest: Warlock Trial (Completed)」
「Quest Objective: Weave a grand deception, 1/1」
「Brilliant. You fooled Xal’atath, something that seems to be at least a demigod. Hell, you even fooled me. It seems I’ll have to update your character card, won’t I, Mister No-Name?」
「Reward: Free Attribute Points x10 distributed」
「Reward: 3 Random Mid-Level Spells being drawn...」
「Reward: Class Change System being unlocked...」
「...」
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