Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto or Warcraft, or any other game or manga, which I used while writing this...unfortunately.
Note: found a good cover image for my fic, all rights reserved.
Dread Lord.
Chapter II.
Malkariss looked at the Zul'Aman from the window of his now building cabinet.
"What do you think about it?" asked he.
"Destroy and build from the scrap." Replied loyal Sharak"Jin.
"Then why didn't Zul'Jin did it?"
His undead general waited for a minute before he replied. "Traditions and memory of the old Empire. Zul'Jin was a bit… fixated on the greatness of the old Empire." stated the undead general, getting his memories from his 'memory banks'. "And of course, his tribe shared his views."
"How fast will they attack?"
"They will not. When we will destroy the walls and start to rebuild them there will be nothing for them to return and fight."
"There is nearly nobody we can use in building these walls." said Malkariss. "We will rise part of the dead and I will get my acolytes here. Right now there will not be many warriors in Zul'Aman. Since Ner'Zul can see through the eyes of his servants, so all those, who I didn't rise myself I will send back to the base."
"They will go themselves?"
"Through the portal." smirked the demon.
"And what we still have?"
"There is few of the undead, who I had risen myself. I didn't send them on frontlines. With those troopers who died… Well deal with the alive and I will show a master-class in necromancy."
"As you wish, lord Malkariss." Sharak'Jin left him and demon summoned one of the still alive necromancers. It was time to rise the lich. Of course they will not be as the elite of Ner'Zul, but still in basic principles they will be the same as Kel'Thuzad.
Back in the start of his mission he has learnt one thing. A loyal necromancer is the one, who you had returned to live yourself. He started with the ones, who died during the siege. Even if he controlled them through magic, he feared that they will be taken from him and they knew way too much.
Meanwhile, Sharak'Jin inspected the result of the first rising, while Malkariss worked with the second necromancer. When he understood that his personal guard Malkariss will rise himself, he assisted in it giving his power. With each arisen lich the process sped up, newly lich necromancers helped in it and Malkariss had a lot of experience already.
For two days they worked on the resurrection of fallen necromancer, rising them as undead, so all other problems lied on adamantinium shoulders of Shark'Jin. Malkariss was in a hurry, intuition screamed, that Arthas will not stay on the borders forever.
At first he had risen the shamans, their bodies were in the improvised freezer and souls were trapped by his magic, there were no second chance so Malkariss decided to not risk anything. Then he remade the still living ones.
Of course none of them were on the level of archlich, since he had no Sunwell. But their 'weaknesses' weren't something that he cared about, he needed commanders of high and middle caliber for his army, not a sole archlich, who can summon Archmonde into this world. However, the necromancer himself, is still in the urn of Therenas, silently whispering to the fallen prince the true policy of their fraction.
The process of the rising was becoming faster and faster, since the number of the necromancers were rising and Malkariss himself was becoming more and more used to it. This moment signaled the start of his personal army.
But this couldn't continue too long, even powerful demons needed to sleep, especially those, who needed their brains in the right state, like nathrezims, and in the perfect shape, to confront a horde of other crafty demons, like Malkariss.
After full-night sleep, our demon has returned to his duties and continued to rise the necromancers. The process took him two days and after the last one, he finally decided to gather a war council and see what he can do aside from rising the dead.
Report from Sharak'Jin stated that he sent one of the lesser lichs to Malkariss' old base, to pose as commanding officer. Such a plan was approved by the nathrezim and eased his worries, because his creation proved to be reliable and independent commander.
Also from the camp arrived the group of acolytes, waiting for orders to create something "For Ner'Zul" as they called it.
"Tell our lieutenant to continue his act. Don't send someone other here, Ner'Zul may have other plans and problems either than one certain nathrezim, but I will not take chances. What about the reconstruction of Zul'Aman?" asked Malkariss.
"Acolytes are few in number and they rebuild in the way they used to do it. If there will be living in the Zul'Aman, the aura of necro-magic will slowly degrade their health and the high level undead, which you prefer to rise, in hopes to prevent the power usurpation in confrontation with Ner'Zul, don't need it." reported Sharak'Jin.
Of course, acolytes can build really fast. Truth to be told, all acolytes were necromancers, who because of their unskillfulness, weren't let to rise the dead. On the building sight, they used the prepared materials and the deep hole in the earth dig by the ghouls, to create the buildings.
After months of work, magical muscles of the acolytes and their control toughened and sharpened enough for them to prepare for the next step.
"That's why the priorities have been changed. How long will the reconstruction take?" asked the demon.
"Main wall will be rebuilt in a week. Necropolis will be built in three months. This is as fast as I can, with current resources."
"Good. Anything else?"
"I'm barely managing the mental control. While you were asleep, trolls panicked and from starting the riot them stopped only their poor physical conditions, numbers or age. This takes at least fifth of my magical power, I'm not a demon, after all."
"So, what do you propose?"
"We need more acolytes."
"Mental control isn't always a way out of everything." Said the nathrezim. "I will need to brainwash them."
"Brainwash?" none of the souls from wich was created Sharak'Jin had ever done something like this.
"Don't worry about this." Said Malkariss. "You are right, I'm the demon here. And I will deal with the problem in my own way. But if you are interested then I will tell you what it means: I will force them to believe that serving me is the epitome of all that they can wish for."
Finally, they reached the topic of their gathering.
The Army.
The so-called 'Amani death knights' were rather good, from Sharak'Jin's point of view, compared to the other Scourge troops. However, some lesser Amani chieftains were estimated by him higher and them he saw as officers and generals.
"Are mages this bad?" asked Naruto.
"As mages they are good." Said the archlich. "As necromancers they are superb. However, to be warrior, means to have a soul and talents of one. That's what they sorely lack."
"Okay. We will need the good rulers later." Said Naruto. "We will create an army and later we will train all available troops and see which one is better suited for different task."
"This is logical." Said Sharak'Jin. "And it is really good that you remembered about the army."
"Elaborate Sharak'Jin." Said young demon. "What are you thinking about?"
Sharak'Jin didn't say anything new. Zul'Jin never commanded the undead. Necromancer always used the same tactic: a lot of undead, fight, rising, even more undead than before. No, he gave really good advices and his head was on the right place, his tactical and strategical genius inherited from the Zul'Jin was great.
However, what he wanted to hear, archlich didn't say and he couldn't be blamed for this. Naruto wanted to create a stable, cadre army. This idea wasn't something new for the Azeroth. Maybe the Medieval times reigned supreme in this world, but the time of Renaissance was coming closer and closer.
Dwarves had created the muskets, powder for them, helicopters, and even primitive tanks and submarines. Elves reached the unimaginable heights in magical research and through it, they managed for months, without any kind of regular army, held the attacks of the nearly limitless armies of the Scourge.
And even the humans from the Alliance, couldn't imagine their armies without the healers and sorcerers of the elves and the mechanics and shooters of the dwarves. Even though the main force of their army was the knights' cavalry and the armed soldiers of local lords, they had a special corps of the officers of the highest rank, the paladins, Order of the Silver Hand, where with great honor served even the heir of the strongest kingdom of the Azeroth, Arthas.
Well most professional army on the Azeroth belonged… to the Night Elves. But it was rather because of the traditions and the long lifespan, than some kind of genius strategic decision. On the other hand, from the demon's point of view, Night Elves were the worst kind of example, during the ten thousand years they heavily degraded and haven't created anything new.
All this crafty nathrezim told to his trusty general.
Two weeks later, Naruto was granted by the visit of his superior officer. Not physically, through the mental projection.
"Malkariss. Report about your status."
"Well, brother dearest, I'm working over the Zul'Aman several month and it will be turned into the worthy fortified post for our cause. Soon the trolls will also become the worthy followers of the Legion. By the way, tell your great undead general to deal with the locals better. I'm thick of cleansing the territory behind him."
"Your sarcasm is out of place, but you can stay there and deal with the pests around you. Arthas took the First Gates."
After this the main nathrezim ripped the mental link, showing his attention to his underling from the opposition.
Several hours later, he teleported to the camp of the undead prince. In the brains of the necromancers Malkariss easily found a reason for his brother's disdain. After he suffered several tactical losses from the Sylvanas, Arthas managed to outplay her strategically, when his army reached the First Gates, most of the Quel'Thalas' army was forced to protect these gates.
The number of the attacks heavily dropped and Arthas instantly counter-attacked on all fronts on nearly thirty kilometers of it. Ghouls and skeletons were too numerous, even elves' magical might, this time. Sylvanas presumed that Arthas decided to use some sort of flung attack and she used all her available forces, to prevent this and several times successfully so.
However, Scourge's troops exceeded that of Quel'Thalas in numbers. Greatly. So soon all army of the General Windrunner was bound in fights all around the frontline. And this moment Arthas used the strategical advancement. He got from the reserves prepared beforehand forces, with consisted of nerubians, abominations and siege weapons. With he attacked the Gates.
And the Gates had fallen.
Elven army suffered the complete and utter defeat. Right now the hordes of necromancers worked over enemy's and their dead troops, to return the numbers of the army to its former glory.
The field where Arthas set up his camp was rather impressive, massive defensive structures, which were the gates, were destroyed to the base, dead bodies of the elves, their battle beasts, necro constructs, roaring undead… Only abominations there were nearly seven thousand. Who will count the losses, when the such an impressive victory was achieved.
Naruto humphed, even Malkariss, if he hasn't known about the betrayal beforehand, would have admitted that he wasn't right. Truth to be told his statements about to high losses was rather… shaky at least. He used it only through sheer statistics, not counting the other problems that faces the Scourge.
However, Naruto slowly gathered the information from the brains of nearby necromancers and acolytes. Arthas started to prepare his elite undead 'fist' month before the attack on Quel'Thalas. He took the high level undead from different garrisons, leaving only the skeleton and ghouls in return. Only the garrisons protected by the first liches, the ones, who were turned alongside the Ner'Zul, and located near the sea, didn't suffer such fate.
As he told, it was to protect the Scourge from the sea attack. However, Admiral Proudmoore still resided in Kul Tiras, waiting for strategical advantage, that will help him to invade the lands and free them from the undead. And none of the ancient undead were summoned to the frontlines, even if these ancient creatures would have been rather handy on the battlefield. Arthas has hidden the best part of his fighters from the eyes of Tichondrius, Arthas destroyed his army, even he could have started the blitzkrieg several months ago. He stood in his tracks, as a good general should, after his army was nearly destroyed, but I reality he didn't care, since his army was still safe.
However, his thoughts were stopped by the one certain high and gloom figure, which went in his direction. Even if he didn't try to hide, nor wanted to be seen, the fact that he was found and reported didn't bother him. Even slightly.
"Who are you, demon?" with his normal tact, or the lack of it, asked the fallen prince. "You look like one of nathrezime and bear their armor, but you look nothing like them."
"I'm Malkariss." Mockingly bowed he. "The commander of the garrison of Zul'Aman."
"Ah! This village." Said Arthas.
"A village you failed to capture with power of the Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas combined." said Naruto.
Arthas grabbed the hilt of his blade. A nathrezim blade formed in the hand of Naruto. He saluted with it mockingly.
"Easy there, prince, none of us want to die, before we will enjoy the fruits of our labor." Said Malkariss.
"Shut up, filthy demon." Said Arthas. "Get out of here and never come again. If you will, I will greet you with Frostmourne and to hell with what Tichondrius will say."
"Isn't it a bit too bold?"
"Too modest." Said he. "By the way, why are here? You must be even more worthless than Mal'Ganis, if you were sent here."
"You speak dangerous things, young prince."
"And you anger the dangerous people." Laughed Arthas. "Go, crawl to that filthy hole of yours."
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"We will meet again." Said Naruto, teleporting away, followed by the loud laughter of the Arthas.
Several minutes later Malkariss' heavy footsteps were heard in the corridors of Zul'Aman. He went in direction of the personal chambers of his archlich. They weren't a chambers per se. Sharak'Jin didn't need to sleep or eat, so all his chambers consisted of small cabinet, where he found him surrounded by shadows, and laboratory, which Naruto usually used to distillate something heavy to ease his nerves.
Naruto made a sign and shadows left, leaving him alone with the general. Sharak'Jin rose from the stone throne in the cabinet, but Naruto raised his hand once again and his general returned to his previous position, while Naruto sat on the wooden chair made by trolls, such furniture was the only wooden chair, which can survive after him sitting in it.
"It's time for you to know something that only I know." Started the demon. "As you already understood, the Burning Legion is trying to take over the Azeroth through the efforts of the Scourge. Demons will lead their elite forces only final battle, to rip the fruits of the undead labor. Everyone knows it, Archmonde, my brothers and most of all Ner'Zul. My brothers still manage to hold him in his chains, but he grows restless with each passing second. They think that they can control the Lich King, but they are wrong. Just as they think that the victory is in their hands. Legion will fail."
"Malkariss, are you sure?" the fact that he didn't call him his lord or some other title, showed how awestruck he was. "You are my Creator and I will obey your any order, but…"
"Legion will lose." Said Malkariss once again. "Ner'Zul was turned into the Lich King, not as reward for his actions, but as punishment for his failures. Archmonde is too prideful to see this large hole in his plans of grandeur, he is one step away from the World Tree and will not listen to anyone. Anetherone is too afraid to lose his place and turned into his yesman years ago and Tichondrius don't want to listen to me."
"I wouldn't have betrayed the Legion, if I was the Lich King." Said Sharak'Jin cautiously.
"He will, he has no other choice. The victory of the Legion will not bring anything good for him. Because Archmonde and his brother will remember everything that he did, and so he will try to destroy the Legion from inside."
"But he isn't powerful enough." Noted Sharak'Jin.
"Legion and Scourge has entire Azeroth as their enemies, he will manage, not himself, but through others, who has successful experience in repelling the demonic hordes."
"That's why the Scourge was created." Said Sharak'Jin.
"And that's why the demons also tried to use the orcs before." Said Malkariss. "Lich Ling knows that demons will not sully their hands themselves, so they will use the oldest tactic of theirs, send someone else's forces to clear the road for them. Ner'Zul knows that his forces will be used as such means, so he will order Arthas to lose as much undead in battles, as possible. Victory resolutions, sent by Tichondrius, will persuade our lord that everything went as planned and he will come here, not expecting anything but easy victory. But because of the Ner'Zul's instructions to the World Tree will not come the unstoppable army, but rather large crowd of undead soldiers. It will be a powerful force, but it will be stopped."
"Will there be someone, who will manage to stop this?" asked the archlich, he trusted the words of Malkariss, he couldn't not trust him, he was his Creator, loyalty was part of his nature, but even he worried when Malkariss spoke so casually about the loss of the Legion.
After all, he knew about it from his master's memories.
"There will be. And even more, local resistance will stage and turn into reality the plan of liquidation of such a dear, but also very unwanted guest, in face of Lord Archmonde. I know for sure that Arthas methodically destroys the undead army, preparing that of his own. Without a doubt he prepares to deal with the leftovers of the Archmonde's forces. I know for sure, that when Mal'Ganus started the plaugue to the king of Lordaeron came the prophet, who told the humans to go to the Kalimdore. I know that Jaina Proudmoore has left there with her followers and ships of Kul Tiras. And I know for certain that Horde has left this continent for the Kalimdore. And every demon knows where the final battle will be."
"World Tree." Instantly understood the archlich. The souls of the necromancers, who served the Legion long enough gave the masterpiece of the nathrezim's magical creation all their knowledge, it wasn't a surprise that he knew. The Tree was, after all, the main goal of the Legion's campaign.
"Yes. The catastrophe will happen there." Said the cunning demon.
"And we will help in it."
"No they will manage without us." Said Malkariss. But we must take from this loss as much as possible. But as you understand, if I wish to stay alive, my career in the Legion will suffer a heavy… loss. For Archmonde's brother we will all be losers, who have failed his brother. So I must stay here. For a long time, maybe forever. So I must build my own kingdom." said Malkariss.
"This will be… problematic." said Sharak'Jin.
"Yes, mostly because the undead can exist only until there are leaving and therefore are incapable of creating the strong and independent country."
"Orcs." Instantly said the Sharak'Jin.
"Orcs, trolls, elves, humans… whoever wishes to serve under my banner will be welcomed near me and my forces. Mine, Sharak'Jin, not Legion's."
"This will be dangerous."
"I know this. But like Ner'Zul I cannot retreat now. I had bet all I had on the Legion's defeat. So all our plans will be created on this basement. First of all, we need to act now, in secret from anyone. After the defeat of the Legion we may be forced to fight against entire world, so we must prepare the army now. If we will manage to do what I had planned… We will manage to crate the kingdom."
"What will be our first step?"
"Who, Sharak'Jin. Who. Elves will become a great asset to our future country. Arthas want the source of their immortality to reanimate the Kel'Thuzad, when they will lose it, I need to… persuade them that I can give them an adequate replacement."
"And why your brothers will not do the same thing?" asked his general.
"They will wait, until the elves will be more… morally prepared to take their clawed, blooded hands. We will not wait for this Sharak'Jin. We will take more direct approach. Right now is the best situation for this, armies of the elves were defeated in the battle for the First Gates, Arthas according to the plans of the Lich King is waiting for the new reinforcements. Sylvanas is preparing her forces to counterattack. Scourge will be forced to move through the very unpleasant landscape: forests, rivers, swamps… And Sylvanas army will prepare the fortifications. So… Arthas will be forced to fight knee deep in the swamp, against the armies, who preferred guerrilla tactics, destroying his and Sylvanas' armies in the process. And soon part of the alves' settlements will be cut from the others…"
"I see." Said Sharak'Jin. "But there is still a chance that they will try to escape."
"Their laziness. Faith in the superiority of their race and the hard path, to their bretheren, which is guarded by the hordes of undead. All will not try… But those, who we will capture hardly can be called the best specimen of the elven race, but yet again all the best ones are already in the Sylavanas' army."
"What must I do?"
"First of all, send shadows to spy on the Arthas amd all commanders of the Scourge, also I need the pinpoints of all nearby elven settlements and the ways out of there, also we will need the squad of undead and maybe a bit of… siege weapons, just in case. Elves will be too occupied themselves, they will think only about the Second Gates."
"And what if they will manage to hold the line?"
"They will not. Arthas has a trump card that Sylvanas lacks: himself and the insanely strong Frostmourne. Truth to be told, Arthas, even before his fall wasn't the best of men and now, when he was turned into cynical parody of himself, he is even worse, but he always and I mean always was a dangerous opponent, maybe not as cunning and skillful as Sylvanas, but dangerous and powerful still, but he has the ghost of Kel'Thuzad, who is wise and cunning to equal the grounds and in power development Sylvanas is way behind the fallen prince. So… when the time will come, Arthas will take the Second Gates."
"And what if during the fight near the World Tree, Arthas will decide to change his master from Ner'Zul, to Archmonde?"
"First of all, he is controlled by the Lich King through the Frostmourne and after Archmonde's arrival, Tichondrius will be promoted to the army's general, since he isn't as good as needed, who do you think will become the second best?"
"So my job will be in takin care of the details? That's how you call it?" asked Sharak'Jin.
"Yes. Also don't forget that nearby forests are full of survived trolls, se we also need to deal with them, before dealing with elves. So many deeds to be done and so little time for it."
Several days later Malkariss looked, how his ghouls cleared the path through forest. Instantly, using the fallen trees, they created bridges through small rivers and holes in the earth. Of course something like this will gain attention from both elves and the Scourge, but the time was cut short for this mission: he could have got to the elves through the forest, but getting them out of there will be a problem.
And of course the elves will take their personal belongings with them and passing through the forest with such luggage was rather… impossible, even for elves, who were notorious for doing really impressive feats in the forest.
Of course there was another problem: food. His army needed to feed. And the storages of Zul'Aman showed the bottom, so elves were needed alongside all their possessions. And with growing of the populace the problem of feeding them will be felt even more sharper.
That's why his army was clearing the path right now, truth to be told, it was rather problematic work, trees in the forests grew on the land that was rich with magic and they had a lot of time to grow. So their branches turned into strange net, their trunks were large and roots grew deep. So under the orders Malkariss, ghouls worked in three groups.
One dealt with trunks, others with tree branches and the third get rid of the roots, acolytes created the road on the cleared territories.
Such complex method needed much more… competent troops than the ghouls in the Malkariss' disposal, so with help of the necromancers, he created a new breed of ghouls, unlike the previous ones, they ate twice as much, fought triple as powerful and work as hard four normal ghouls.
But unlike normal ones, Malkariss decided to not send them to the battlefield, they were simply too valuable to die as normal troops, so through them were created the first division of engineer corps.
To get enough ghouls, Malkariss also needed more materials, so under his orders all Zul'Aman graveyards were emptied. Before the fall of first gates, Sharak'Jin and necromancers managed to reanimate a hundred and half mummies, which were good material for high level undead creatures.
So, while Malkariss observed the progress of the ghouls, Sharak'Jin raided the troll settlements near the Zul'Aman. Also his shadows observed the situation on the fronts and he was forced to deal with local commanders several times. The irony was in the fact that he was forced to deal with the squads of undead. Arthas released the hold of his army and let it feed itself.
The reason was very simple, with so many undead in one place fallen prince faced the same problem as Malkariss, his army needed food. Arthas really didn't care about the needs of his army, but the death of more than half of it from the hunger will without a doubt gain attention from the Tichondrius.
So he just divided it into different bands and sent them to seek the food for themselves. The cunning plan was so simple and effective that even Malkariss, who hated prince with so much passion, that even he himself understood that it was unnatural, was clapping in applause for it.
With one stone, Arthas killed not just two, but three birds: he solved the food problem, forced Sylvana to deal with the undead forces, giving himself more time to prepare for the siege of the Second Gates and destroyed the army of Archmonde with the hands of others secretly.
But even his countless shadows weren't enough to spy on every band in the Quel'Thalas, so when the band of undead, led by the young necromancer came to his old base and their commander ordered to give him the command… Malkariss was rather surprised.
However, the lich risen from the troll shaman, who was commander on said base didn't care about something like this, young necromancer lost terribly in the duel with troll fist amplified by undead power. Unfortunately, he had rather high protection.
So, when the necromancer was crucified and Malkariss prepared the torture devices to deal with the annoying pest, Tichondrius teleported to the Malkariss camp and in rage ordered to tell him, why his agent was captured and tortured.
Malkariss, with anger in voice, answered that even if he was the greatest necromancer of the Scourge, he will not listen to such a blatant disrespect. With such words he ripped the heart of necromancer from his chest. Tichondrius instantly resurrected the necromancer and boiling in rage left the opposing nathrezim alone.
Several days he feared the assault on his base, but he overestimated the importance of the necromancer. Malkariss was in his right and if Tichondrius have tried something other nathrezims would have rebelled against him. Just out of curiosity he found the name of the necromancer. It was Rage Winterchill, judging by the visions granted to him, he will lose his unlife during the assault on the World Tree. Well… whatever.
That conflict also gave the lone nathrezim the freedom in action against the marauders of the Scourge. Not that elven rangers didn't dealt with them, there was nothing complex in it, if you had the right skills: deal with the head and the undead will start to consume each other.
Malkariss even once saw, through the eyes of the shadow, how horde of ghouls hunted down and ate, till the last bone, the abomination that was in their band, after the necromancer, who led them, died from the arrow.
To elves these bands were actually the minor nuisance. Only several villages were destroyed during the march and marauders' raids. But the Scourge cut all the connection between small fortified towns and villages.
Everything was in Malkariss' favor, but being too zealous in destroying the undead soldiers of Arthas wasn't something that he could afford now.
Malkariss cracked his knuckles. There was a work to do.