No POV

Lordaeron has fallen and Terrenas is dead.

Those words still ring around Uther's head even weeks after Arthas had returned and murdered his father. He now leads his small party eastwards to Andorhal.

"Faster all of you!" Uther shouts, looking back at the nine other Paladins riding to keep up with him. "We're nearly at Andorhal."

"Why are we going there? Shouldn't we join the rest of the army in the resistance against the Undead?" One of the younger Paladins asks.

Uther stops and wheels his mount around to face the one who said that. "Because lad, Terrenas led this kingdom fairly and justly for fifty years. The least we can do for him is make sure he receives a proper burial." His face hardens. "And I'll be damned before I let Arthas get his hands on this."

They all respond by urging their mounts forward.

He hefts the urn that is cradled under the crook of his arm while the other grips the reins of his charger. The urn was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship with intricate carvings of the late king and the monarchs before him, stubbed around it are a few jewels.

It was no surprise that Uther was hit hardest by the loss of their king so no one complained when he continued to push his men to their limit.

After an hour of riding, a settlement comes into view.

Andorhal was once one of the largest cities in northern Lordaeron. Everybody gasps to see what is has been reduced to. Out of the four city districts, three were destroyed.

Much of the buildings were once proud buildings have been reduced to ash while the rest were merely the skeletal frames. The corpses of the dead are still, rotting on the ground. The smell of charred and rotting smell flesh assaults the nostrils of the riders, with the less experienced members gagging and throwing up.

"I can't believe the Scourge did all this." The Paladin who spoke up a while ago breathes out. He slows his mount down, running one hand across the ruins of a building.

Uther nods stiffly. "Ironically, Arthas was the one who saved what's left of this town Arius."

Arius looks away, feeling a knot in his stomach twist tightly. Before he could do anything else one of the Paladin shouts at him to catch up.

Keeping their weapons close at hand they keep moving. The Paladins horses slowly trot through the empty streets.

Uther suddenly orders them to stop. "I hear something." He says, drawing his hammer and dismounting from his horse. The sound of feet trudging on the ground begins getting louder.

The other paladins follow suit and make their way to the source of the sound. They're all relieved to see a squad of Lordaeron soldiers, though many don't look like they're native to the region.

"Captain, what are you and your men doing here?" Uther asks the leader of the soldiers.

The man salutes, lowering his sword. "When it was clear we weren't going to hold the Capital City, me and my men gathered any survivors we could find and regroup here. Some men told me that Andorhal still had hundreds of civilians living in it's walls."

That last part is what surprised everyone. While the news that there survivors within the city was expected, the Paladin's had assumed most fled southwards, away from Arthas's army.

Uther was the first to compose himself and nods. "Captain. Arthas's army is advancing eastwards, right through Andorhal."

"T-then why are you here then?" He asks, stuttering in his shock.

Uther shows him the urn in his arms. "We have some unfinished business."

The captain nods in understanding and gestures for them to follow him. As they walk, Arius moves beside Uther. "So what of the people here? We can't just leave them to the undead."

The senior Paladin smiles at his younger friends compassion. "I have no intention of leaving the people lad. As soon as we bury Terenas, we'll lead them through the mountains to Dalaran.

The captain waves his hand at the sentries in the gate towers. The gates creak and groan as the guards begin to open it.

To everyone's surprise, their group was greeted by a sector of the city abuzz with activity. Most of the people were residents who quickly shrink away for cover as they see the Paladins entering. Though there were a few armed soldiers watching in a nearby street.

Some of the guards reach for their swords, but they quickly salute as they see their captain. "Captain Felwyn!" They snap at attention. "Whats going on here sir?"

"These are Paladins are from the Capital City." Felwyn explains. "They've come to bury King Terenas ashes. I need you men to gather the citizens and prepare them for an evacuation. Once they're finished, we're all leaving."

The soldiers nod and run off. "I know a nice spot you can use." Felwyn smiles sadly and walks to the park.


Captain Felwyn leads them down to a small patch of grass in the park. "This is a nice spot." Uther nods appreciatively.

Arius nodded back as well and picks up a shovel that he brought with him. Slowly he sticks it into the earth and starts to dig. Another Paladin joins in and so do some of the guards. Meanwhile, the rest of his group are making preparations for the funeral.

Uther himself pulls out a mammoth leather wrapped book from his satchel and starts to look through songs. Once everything is in place, he hands Arius his song book and nods at him.

The younger Paladin mumbles to himself as he reads the song. He removes his helm and places it on his belt as he begins to sing. At first it was a quiet whisper, his voice steadily grows louder as he pours his emotions out. Damn it Arthas. Why?

Beside him the other Paladins join in the singing adding their own voices filled with raw emotion to the mix. Two of them approach the open grave and place two candles that were lit at the graves. Another steps forward, bearing a painting of the late king and sets it in between the two lamps.

Uther finally steps forward and gingerly places the urn into the hole and wipes a tear from his eye. One of the older Paladins leads the prayer.

Throughout this the soldiers watch at a respectful distance, keeping their heads bowed in silent mourning. Only Felwyn steps forward beside us and joins in the prayer.

"And lets us offer our final blessings to our king as he departs this world to return to the Light." The Lightbringer finishes his sermon and extends his hand to the urn. His hand begins to glow as he begins his prayer.

Arius soon follows along with the other Paladins. The urn glows brightly as we offer our blessing.

But their concentration was interrupted by a scout running forward. "Captain!"

All heads whirl around to face him, including the angry glares of the Paladins. Had it been under different circumstances the scout would have been given a furious reprimand, but after seeing his badly beaten armor and terrified expression Uther's face becomes a bit softer, but firm nonetheless. "What is it boy?"

"It's Prince Arthas!" He rasps out weakly. "He's approaching here with a large force of Undead!"

The Paladins change from anger to shock. Their town guard counterparts look at each other with uncertainty. Arius could easily sense the panic about to overtake the men.

Luckily their captain was quick to restore order. "Prepare yourselves men!" He shouts, his voice carrying across the crowd. "We knew that the Undead were going to come sooner or later. What difference does it make if it's now or in a week."

"But sir, didn't you just hear? It's a large army of Undead!" One protests.

"We signed up to protect our lands from bandits and gnolls! Not from monsters this unnatural!" Another cries, throwing up his arms.

"This is just like the Second War all over again!" One of the older one adds.

Felwyn slams his sword against a stone so hard it sparks. "Enough! What does it matter what we fight. Or how many they are. Our duty is to protect the people of Andorhal." He looks around, daring anyone to argue. "Well then if you are willing to uphold your duty and fight for their safety then prepare yourselves. If not, then leave now."

One of the men shifts around nervously, then drops his weapons and leaves. Another joins him, and soon a third joins. Soon at least twenty have left, the rest stand stoically, ready to fight and die. Arius nods in approval before turning to Uther who's already has his hammer drawn. "How long?"

The scout closes his eyes to think, the opens them a moment later. "An hours march perhaps."

The Paladin nods, unaffected by the grim report. "Very well then. We will need to prepare. I think the first thing to do is get the town's citizens out of harm's ways."

Around him the other knights nod in agreement. "How long will that take." Uther says, meeting the Captains brown eyes.

"Longer than an hour." He replies.

One of the other Paladins slams the mace of his hammer on the ground and pounds one fist onto his armored chest. "I will do what I can to buy you the time to get the people out of here."

Uther clasps the man by his shoulder. A sad smile appears on his lips as he looks at the bear of a man who said that. "Thank you Gavinrad. Take whoever you need to keep Arthas back."

Gavinrad bows his head humbly and salutes to him. He gestures to the two men who brought the candles. "Sage, Ballador! Come with me!" He roars and leads his horse to the city gates.

Felwyn orders three platoons to join them. Arius begins to murmur silently, praying for the souls of those men.

Uther did not spend that hour idly. Quickly he began organizing defenses while the townspeople were gathered in groups and began to be evacuated one by one. Slowly as the hour draws to a close the sounds of battles grow much louder and closer.

Arius only hopes that the time Gavinrad and the other brave men gave them won't be in vain.

He does his best to keep the troops morale up. "Well this time you have seven experienced Paladins at your side." He says, trying to sound upbeat. "That would be more than enough to deal with Arthas."

Right?

Finally, the battle dies down and the sound of steel ringing on steel is replaced by the noise of boots marching across the floor.

"I see them sir!" A sentry at the top of the wall shouts.

Before anyone can react, I hear the distinct sound of a catapults payload being launched, followed by the sentries screams as he hits the ground with a sickening crack.

At last a mounted man rides through the ruined walls, swaggering bordely as if killing Paladins was a menial task.

He would have once been quite handsome before. His once golden hair is now snow white which is wild and hangs loosely around his scalp, his face has a number of wrinkles and seems to have a mad gleam in his eyes.

Behind him are hundreds of undead warriors marching behind him.

The silver and white armor of a Paladin is gone and replaced by dark plate armor that gives off an icy aura to all nearby. Arius feels his stomach turns as he watches all of this. "Damn it Artas, what happened to you." He laments quietly.

"Well, I hope I'm not too late to hear your magnificent singing Uther." Arthas smiles cruelly. He dismounts from his skeletal horse and approaches our groups. He catches Arius's murderous glare. "It's good to see you too old friend."

Uther grinds his teeth together. "You're father ruled this land for seventy years, and you've ground it to dust in a matter of days."

The fallen prince rolls his eyes and draws a wicked blade covered with runes that sends a chill down Arius's spine. "Very dramatic Uther." He points his sword at the open grave. "Just give me the urn and I'll let you die quickly.

The vein in Uther's neck bulges out like it's about to pop. For a dreadful moment it would seem he would snap and attack Arthas, but he takes a deep breath and looks at Arthas with righteous fury. "Those ashes contain your fathers ashes boy!" He cries indignantly. "What? Were you hoping to piss on it before leaving your kingdom to rot?"

For a moment, Arthas insufferable grin disappears and he seems to falter. But then a moment later, he truly showed that the once noble Prince of Lordearon was no longer there as he laughed and chuckled through the quiet breeze of the desolate plains. "I didn't know what is held in there." He said as he unsheathe THE WEAPON, a runeblade of frost and ice, its aura shivering the ghosts of the land as noticed by the sudden change of temperature, not even the legendary Uther can resist the shiver that he felt down his spine. Arthas readied the blade as the hilt was held by one hand, while the other touched the tip of its blade, grinning as he watched the older Paladin narrow his brow for what was to come. "Nor does it matter I will take it one way or the other..." He ended, his voice was filling the air with the essence of despair

In response the senior Paladin readies his hammer. "The last promise I made to your father is that I would make sure his ashes are treated with respect." He slams the head of his hammer onto the ground with such force that it sends a shockwave all around him.

Several of the undead are thrown off their feet, more are killed on the spot and even Arthas stumbles a bit. "I WILL NOT LET YOU DESECRATE THE LAST REMNANTS OF HIM!" UTher roars and throws himself at Arthas.

The attacks was so sudden that Arthas only barely manages to block Uther's attack. Still, the force of the attack causes his hands to shake. His opponent pulls his hammer back and prepares for another attack. "Kill them all!" Arthas shouts to his monstrous warriors.

As one the Undead let out an ear piercing roar and charge. Arius was one of the first to react, he smashes in the skull of a ghoul that came at them. He whirls around and swings his hammer fluidly in a wide arc that takes several more.

The other Paladins and soldiers let out their own warcry and move to attack the Undead force. They rely not only on their weapons to fight, but also the Paladins Light given gifts to either heal the injured or literally burn the Undead to ash.

Uther found himself holding his own quite well against Arthas. Although he was much faster, the aging Paladin had decades on this boy. A golden aura that radiated from him, protects him from Arthas's attack and counters his own frozen glow.

The fallen prince swings his runeblade down at the Uther. Though at the last second his warhammers shaft comes up to meet his attack and halts it. With a clever twist of his wrist he swings the hammers pommel at Arthas's face and sends the traitor careening into the side.

Arthas snarls furiously and points his sword at Uther who's fighting off a group of undead. At sickly green skull surrounded by shadows fires out of the tip of Frostmourne like a bullet from a gun.

The skull smashes into Uther and the shadows wrap around him like an octopus's tentacles. Uther roars defiantly, the Light around him grows stronger and shadows melt immidiately.

Arthas, screaming incoherently as he presses his attack.

Around them human and undead continue to clash. One of the Abominations, patchwork creatures made up of dozens of corpses sown together swings an oversized cleaver at a line of men and easily bisects all three of them and begins to advance.

Arius looks up from the soldier he was healing and shoots one hand forward. A hammer made up of pure Light strikes the monsters abdomen and leaves a large gash where it's insides pour out like water from a bucket.

Still it continues to move, only hindered from slipping on it's own innards. Arius readies himself to attack the creature head one when a flash of gold and blue rushes past him.

There Felwyn stands behinds the Abomination. As the creature begins to turn around, the captain leaps up, using the Abomination's exposed spine to hoist himself up on it's back and slashes his sword at it's thick neck.

Arius doesn't watch as the monstrosity tumbles to the ground, instead his focus is on the battle around him. The Abomination's attack had weakened the men's left flank and now undead advance through the gap. Most of the Paladins stand in the heat of the battle, a golden speck amongst a sea of dead, and thus too occupied to do anything.

Arius rushes forward and swing his hammer at a skeleton warrior as it raises his sword. As the warrior falls he sends a blinding light across the advancing undead. The creatures hiss and cover their eyes as it singes them.

He rams his shoulders at them. The older corpses quickly break under the full weight of Arius's armor and break apart. He climbs to his feet and spots a group of Necromancers directing the undead.

Without thinking he hurries forward to the group, perhaps without the cultists directing them the undead will lose any semblance of order. "Light, give me strength." He whispers quietly as a holy aura envelops him.

With renewed strength he lowers my hammer at waist level and charges forward. His hammer acts as a battering ram, throwing undead aside. He spring at a cluster in a kneeling position in in the center.

All have sword and dagger pointed at Arius and advance. He counts three heartbeats and whirl around in a circle with his hammer. The mace sails at them, shattering skulls and cracking bones.

Almost as once they all collapse to the ground. The lesser knight raises his hammer to launch the killing blow against one of the dying cultists. He spats at him and raises his arms. "D-death and decay." He rasps weakly and summons the spell.

The knight recoils in pain and doubles over as he tumbles down. A tar black beam of energy strikes him in the chest. The holy aura dissipates around him as he feels his strength sapped from him. He crawls around like a dog to where he dropped his hammer.

Looking at a puddle Arius looks at his reflection in shock as he sees himself. His raven black hair is now streaked with grey from age. "To arms!" Someone shouts behind hi,.

Arius spare a quick glance to look behind, to his relief it's captain Felwyn and about a dozen of his men running to help them.

Five of his men are armed with pikes, jabbing at the nearest Scourge. The rest are armed with sword, cutting down undead who get too close or those attempting to flank the pikemen.

Felwyn fights his was beside him. "Milord, the undead are blocking the southern gate. My men cannot get past them alone. Until then the last of the refugees are trapped here."

"Uther!" Arius shouts, scanning the battlefield for his mentor. Biting his lip he sees him near a destroyed house. He sidesteps one of Arthas's sword swings that shatters the pillar where he stood a moment ago.

Even so Uther was exhausted. The color has drained from his face and part of his hammer had been broken off. Arthas kicks him into the building with a loud crash. Arius rushes forward and swings his hammer at Arthas.

It was only a glancing blow, but still the blow causes Arthas to wince and turn to face him. Arius feels a chill run down his spine as he gets a close up view of his former friend. His green eyes are glazed and have a dead look into his eyes as if being controlled.

Arthas's face twists into a grin as Frostmourne lashes out. Now having any room to dodge, Arius instead bends backwards. His spine strained at the effort but the blade passes over his head.

He drops the ground and Arthas grins. "You never could beat when we sparred old friend." He chides, putting particular emphasis and venom on the last two words. The Death Knight raises his sword at his throat and prepares to deal the killing blow.

At the last moment Arius's foot hooks around his adversaries leg and yanks it back. Arthas screams as he loses his balance and hits the ground with a loud thud, his blade falling dangerously close to him.

"And you always fell for that trick." Arius replies coolly, he hurries to Uther who's still trying to climb to his feet.

"We have a problem. The undead have blocked the last group of refugees from leaving."

Behind me Arthas snarls, trying to stand "Arius, go with the refugees." Uther urges.

"B-but my lord, my place is with you." He protest.

"Those refugees need you to protect them."

"But-"

"As your superior I order you to go with Felwyn!"

Arius knuckles tighten around my hammers hilt and I bite my lip. Finally, I salute. "Light be with you."

Uther nods. "Light be with you as well." He leaps past me and brandishes his hammer. "ARIUS GO, NOW!" He shouts, lunging at Arthas.

The fallen prince was taken by surprise and barely manages to bring up his blade to block the attack.

Felwyn gathers his men and signals a retreat back to the gate.

He takes a quick detour to the stables to get some horses to ride. Mounting quickly on his warhorse, Arius follows him to the gate.

There several rows of soldiers have formed a shield wall against at least two hundred undead. Although the soldiers are protected by their shields and heavy plate-mail armor, the undead are slowly wearing them down with their relentless attacks.

By the building, dozens of civilians are hiding.

One of the soldiers in the rear lines breaks off and runs up to us. "They just keep on coming sir. I don't know how much longer we can last."

"Captain Felwyn, have several of your men mount on horses. I have a plan." Arius says.

Felwyn rushes off, barking orders and pulling men away from the back rows.

Soon Arius and over twenty men are mounted on warhorses. He raises his arm in the air. "On my signal."

He counts quietly to three then brings his fist down. "NOW!" Felwyn shouts at the top of his lungs.

The soldiers react quickly, opening their lines enough for four horses to pass abreast.

Many undead who were trying to stream through the gap are either cut down by swords or trampled beneath our horses hooves.

Behind him a knight lets out a short cry as he's dragged off his horse. Another is thrown of his mount and lands a few feet beside Arius. The undead quickly surround the man and tears him apart. The rest of us however, manage to make it.

The other soldiers charge out no longer in formation but in a giant mass, killing any remaining undead. Thankfully with the refugees close behind.

"An excellent maneuver," Felwyn compliments "though it cost us fifteen men."

"At least now we can lead the civilians to safety." He mutters, looking to the Alterac mountains.

A/N: So this the first rewritten chapter. What do you guys think about it? Good? Bad? Feel free to leave a review and don't forget to Follow or Favorite.

Again a big thanks to HammerTide in editing and proof reading this.