I know we joked about her raising me before, but I had no clue she could actually do it, let alone do it. I heard living as undead is really difficult for some people, Angel seemed to suffer from it as well. She seemed to have a hard time just thinking about the act she had just committed. She was visibly shaken. I doubted whether the paladins would appreciate it, they didn't look too happy.

"What did you do to her?" their leader asked.

"Can't you see?" I responded bluntly, speaking for Angel, "she saved Estelle's life by reviving her as undead. I know you probably won't like it, but I am pretty sure she did it for both of them." I pointed at Lucas who was still hugging Estelle with his one arm.

He shrugged, "can't say I agree with it, but I can't say it's fair to let her leave this world at such a young age either. If she truly did it for them, and I think she did, You won't hear me complain."

"Thank you."

I turned back to Angel who still looked at the ground, in deep thought it seemed. I doubted whether she was thinking about Estelle, or the fact that that warlock got away.

She was broken from her trance by Estelle, who had walked up to her and then sat on the ground beside her.

"It's alright, I understand why you did it and I am thankful. I just freaked out at the idea of being dead earlier, I'm sorry."

Angel sighed.

"I think we should get moving, we need to get ready," I suggested, trying to snap Angel out of it.

We started moving towards Zul'Aman. The four of us stayed together during the trip. Lucas was more open about his relationship with Estelle now, after confessing earlier. He told us he had had an eye on her from the moment they met in the Chapel. He tried avoiding her since a cross-faction relationship was a taboo, but they had been sent on missions together and grown together. He didn't realise it was love until she died. He hoped they could stay together at Light's Hope or some neutral town together.

Estelle didn't speak much, which was understandable considering her situation. She would have lots of adjusting to do.

"How serious is it, Angel?" I whispered.

"What do you mean?" she whispered back.

"I saw you using holy magics, since when do you need those to raise somebody?"

"You don't, I just tried leaving her bodily funtions intact as much as I could. She will still suffer some undead penalties like I do, just not as severely. She won't look any different either, except for her eyes, because she hadn't been dead for long."

I nodded, "I understand, thank you," I kissed her on her ear which surprised her. I was glad I stole a smile from her there.

"If I die here, don't hesitate to raise me, we could go at it all night that way."

"I don't want you to die Aelana, please don't get the wrong idea, it's not at all fun to be undead, it's a curse, trust me."

I didn't seem to get the effect I had hoped for. Instead of cheering her up, I only dragged her down more.

We cleared up some scourge along the way, a few infected animals that we came across with weren't spared either. We had sent the guard back and asked him to arrange for tents and supplies to be sent to Zul'Aman because we had been so stupid to forget that. While they had some supplies with them, the paladins would not have enough for an extended amount of time.

The sorrow of this forest almost drove me mad, I cannot imagine how big the effect must have been on Angel. She seemed relieved when we reached our destination.

We stopped at the foot of the massive stairs leading up to the troll capital. The area here was as dead as any other in the Ghostlands, a massive army coming from the closed gates would be out of the question.

I wanted to go home as soon as I could, I was sure it would do Angel good. She seemed full of regret again and it made me afraid of what she would do, she was still unstable. I sat down on the stairs and gestured her to sit down next to me.

"We need a plan," I said, "if we are to believe Untarael their numbers are in the thousands, maybe more, and what do we have? Fifteen paladins of which one is already dead, you, and me. We cannot win this without some kind of advantage."

"They are just a bunch of mindless zombies, the only strength they have are their numbers," Angel replied.

"Yes and they will completely overwhelm us, we need to stop that from happening," I gazed at her silvery blue eyes.

"I am sure we can h-"

"Angel!" I yelled.

"I love you, and I know you are strong, but let's be real here, we simply cannot handle all of them. Besides that, don't forget that that skeletal warlock is probably waiting for us on the other side of those doors. We need something to obliterate their numbers fast, so that we can focus him with everything we got."

"Sounds to me you need fire," Lucas walked to us, "lots of it."

"You've been hearing us out?" I asked.

"Yes I did, and I think you are right."

"Fire, huh?" Angel asked, obviously thinking about the idea, "we could set something up with that, but we don't have any mages with us."

I turned around to look at the closed reinforced wooden doors of the old troll capital, "just burning this whole place down would be the easiest way to eradicate the scourge within."

Estelle had followed the conversation as well and sat down next to me, 'I'm pretty sure that won't work. We can't set fire to places without inflammable objects, while it's a good idea, we would not achieve the desired effects."

"We need to stop them," Angel determinedly spoke, "we stop them here and clear this land from the presence of any remaining scourge and we will find a way to restore it to it's former glory. This is my home and I will see it as it once was."

I could see a faint smile coming from Estelle and I couldn't hide one of my own. We had just this day to prepare, tomorrow we would fight for Quel'Thalas once again.

We tried to come up with ideas over the next hour or so, Angel went on a scouting mission and flew over Zul'Aman, she confirmed that it was crawling with skeletal warriors, many of them. She told us there were several necromancers stitching them together with dark magics at the bone piles of the offering altars. This also ruined our earlier plans of using fire against them, our enemies simply couldn't burn. We would have to fight our way through their ranks by means of brute force. The situation seemed hopeless.

We had one saving grace however, a forsaken messenger gave word to us that a small army of their kind led by Sylvanas herself would be here late tomorrow morning. This gave us hope and a new goal: hold back the scourge until they arrive.

We worked through the next hours chopping down a few miserable trees nearby and stutting the door, we did everything we could upfront to delay them as long as we could. I didn't eat anything until it was already night, supplies had come hours earlier but we were too busy to eat at that point. It was when everyone went to sleep that I heard a loud gong noise reverberating from up the stairs. I ran out of my tent with Angel and looked up to the large wooden doors. They squeeked in their hinges as something tried to push them open, it had already begun.