Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
Shado Pan Monastery
A few minutes later, all the survivors on the monastery assault finally came out. A large majority was killed including Taran Zhu and only the commanders were left and Arthas was still unconscious
"What happened? Where is everybody else?" Turalyon asked in concern as he quickly moved to heal the unconscious prince
"Dey all dead. Da Sha of Hatred was too much trouble. It possessed Taran Zhu and we had to kill him." Rokhan answered, having been drained of most of his magics
"We need to inform the emperor." Chen muttered sadly and only then have everyone realized that they didn't really know much about the pandaren
"Wait, why did Taran Zhu not let us meet the emperor before now?" Jaina asked curiously
"War is not the way of the Pandaren. We tend to avoid fighting unless absolutely necessary." Chen began to explain. "It is for that sole reason that the Shado Pan was formed, to act as normal citizens while keeping watch over the empire in secret. As such, these kinds of matters were left to the Shado Pan Lord. The emperor, Shaohao, has already been informed of yours and the undead's presence and left the entire matter to Taran Zhu."
"There's also the fact that it hasn't been that long since we arrived and we already got dragged into a battle." Dranosh pointed out
At the Serpent's Spine area near the Kun Lai Summit, the Windrunners arrived right as a small group of mantids managed to get on their side of the wall
"There's no end to these things." Sylvanas said and nocked an arrow. "Kill them." she ordered. A short battle soon took place and the mantid were slaughtered. "We can't afford to leave the wall unguarded for even a second." she commented after the battle
"Indeed elf." a pandaren warrior said. "Ever since they have become more aggressive, we have kept vigilance but they are getting closer to breaking through."
"Have you thought about a more permanent solution to this?" Alleria wondered curiously, knowing full well that keeping your enemies out would not last
"No, we have not." the pandaren said, much to the surprise of the present outsiders. "Long ago, our land was under the control of the Mogu. Their leader, Lei Shen, knew that the Mantid would never submit to his rule so he had the Serpent's Spine built to separate the Mantid from the rest of Pandaria." he explained
'Then this Lei Shen must be dead by now.' Alleria thought to herself
"Most of our people are not warriors and live peaceful lives." the pandaren continued. "As such, we of the Shado Pan have taken it upon ourselves to protect our people from the Mantid and keep them out of our lands no matter the cost."
Sylvanas tilted her head at hearing this. "If the wall has been built that long and if the Mantid have been active, then does that mean that if they try to pass through, you would kill them all?" she asked, not believing what she just heard. While the ranger general would love nothing more than to live in peace, she knew that would not be possible especially if their enemies, the Old Gods and the Burning Legion, still live. She was even naive enough once that the peace they had after the Horde's defeat in the second war would last
"Indeed." the pandaren said simply
Out of nowhere, an arrow was suddenly shot above them. However, it didn't cause any alarm as from the way it was shot, it was not aimed at any of them and was more of a stray arrow
"Sylvanas." Alleria called out
"Right behind you, sister." Sylvanas said as her sister led them both towards where it came from. The pandaren wondered why they both went and they were not aware that the sisters knew the kind of arrow that was shot. After a few minutes, they came across a small section made up of trees. They were informed that the southern area of the Kun Lai Summit was warm and vibrant so they figured that's where they were. To their surprise, the sisters saw something they didn't expect to see this soon. A dark ranger fighting off seven Shas. "Is that..." Sylvanas trailed off in disbelief
"Anya." Alleria confirmed and quickly nocked an arrow, her sister mimicking her actions
The two living rangers hit two of the Shas and got their attention. Even Anya herself was surprised as she never expected anyone to come to her help. 'How did they even know I'm in the area?' she wondered to herself as her former superiors killed two of the Shas. Not wanting to be shown up, Anya quickly drew one of her daggers and with a bit of magic, she killed one of the Shas before firing a black arrow at another, killing it as well. Confused by their new attackers, the remaining Shas were soon killed by the three rangers. The dark ranger even made sure to get their attention so that they would target her instead. "Sylvanas? Alleria? What are you doing here and how did you even know I was here?" she asked after she cleaved the last Sha in two
"I could ask you the same question, Anya." Sylvanas replied in an irritated tone. "I thought we agreed that investigating this place would be left to us."
"She has a point. None of you should even be here." Alleria backed her sister up
Anya sighed, or did whatever was the undead equivalent of sighing, at their reaction. "We did but let's be honest, even if you find something, do you have any intention of letting us know?" she asked back and as expected, neither had an immediate response although she couldn't really blame them since they didn't really have the means to convey information to the scourge. "Besides, it was also said that we would be keeping a close eye on you. However, we never went against our word because if we did, we would have destroyed the Pandaren's temple by now." she said, referring to the monastery
"Wait, you knew it was corrupted?" Alleria asked in surprise
"We did. The demon hunters' vision allows them to see whether an individual is in disguise or not and the kind of magic they have." Anya explained. "After being familiar with the Pandaren, they were able to immediately tell that the people at the temple were corrupted but we chose to leave it to you, after all, we are just gathering information here and nothing more." she pointed out
"And you didn't kill the Sha at the monastery because?" now, it was Alleria's turn to be irritated
"Why would we? It wasn't our concern." Anya asked with a raised eyebrow and she could literally see the irritation on both sisters' face because she was technically correct. "Sorry. Ever since I became undead, I'm no longer the person I once was. Yes, I still have my respect for the both of you, but I had to adapt."
Sylvanas just sighed at this. "Look, I'm sorry about that." she said
"It's alright." Anya said but in her voice, it was clear that part of her still longed for the life she once had
"Anya, I'm sorry for asking this but..." Alleria hesitated
"It's fine, both Durotar and Theramore survived." Anya answered them as if she read their minds
"How did you..." Sylvanas asked in surprise
"I can see it in both your eyes. You're also really uneasy being here as you are considering the possibility that you might be stranded here for months." Anya pointed out. "I don't know all of the details but I figured that the situation must have gotten out of hand as Lady Illysanna decided to join the battle. I heard that even Lord Illidan himself was in the battle but it was not confirmed."
"Thank the Light." Alleria said, sighing in relief. "Are you undead always this well informed?" she asked
"Most of the time. It allows us to be aware of what to expect regardless of where we are." Anya answered. Some rustling sound was then heard. "I have to go." she said and the dark ranger didn't bother to wait for their response as she disappeared into the nearby forest
"Wait." Sylvanas said but the dark ranger already left. "Damn it." she cursed
"At least we know our home is safe." Alleria said with a lamenting voice. "We will have to inform the others of this later." she said right as two pandarens came to check on them
"Are you two alright, Lady Windrunners?" one of the pandaren asked noticing their tense behavior and the dead Shas
"We're fine. We got caught up fighting the Sha." Sylvanas lied. 'Actually, we met one of our old friends and our home is safe.' she thought about telling them but chose not to. Alleria was curious about why her sister and made a note to ask her when they were alone
Kun Lai Summit
At the northern areas of the Kun Lai Summit, Sally Whitemane and Baron Rivendare have found some ruins. The pair of death knights found it really odd that there was not a single soul anywhere
"It's too quiet. I don't like this." Sally commented while they were hidden
Rivendare looked to the distance in the south. He had already been made aware that the monastery was corrupted but they all chose not to make a move. "That temple we saw before. It must have been corrupted by whatever those things we saw were." he muttered
"I believe they were called the Sha." Sally pointed out. "I suppose it doesn't really matter." she said when the male death knight just gave her a blank stare. "So, do we go in?" she asked
Instead of giving a direct answer, Rivendare decided to contact one of the death knights with them. 'Amira, where are you now?' he asked
'I'm at the forest where we first landed. Why?' Amira asked mentally
'If you are not doing anything yet, Sally and I have found some ruins north of the Pandaren Temple or whatever it's called.' Rivendare answered
'Alright. I'll find out what I can.' Amira answered before cutting of the connection
"As for us, let's go in." Rivendare said before leaping out of the area they were hiding in, Sally following him. "You were right. It's too quiet." he commented after they were outside the entrance
"I told you." Sally poked before deciding to summon some skeleton warriors and ordering them to stand guard outside. "Shall we?"
Rivendare grinned. "Ladies first." he said and with a roll of her eyes, Sally entered it first
Inside the ruins, the female death knight suddenly stepped on a specific floor tile which pushed down. "What the hell?!" she asked in surprise
Knowing what was the most likely thing to happen, Rivendare quickly grabbed and pulled her back. "Look out!" he said and just seconds after, large spikes from the ground shot up into the ceiling
"We should have known it would be booby trapped." Sally said in annoyance. When the spikes didn't go down and continued to block the way, she drew her runeblade and froze them. The spikes shattered soon after. After it shattered, nothing happened, much to their confusion. "And why in the hell there was no consequence of destroying that?"
"It hardly matters. We'll have to be careful about our steps from now on." Rivendare said and took the lead, knowing that the female death knight isn't that careful in both life and death. With him taking the lead, they were able to avoid any trap on the way
Out of nowhere, they heard some wierd sounds. Quickly drawing their blades, both death knights looked behind them and saw three lesser Shas approach
"These things again?" Sally said. Before the Shas could do anything, the female death knight stabbed the grouned and encased them in ice, killing them. "If these things are here, there might be more. Maybe one of the stronger ones."
"We're deep inside the ruins by now, or at the very least, should be." Rivendare said before looking at a large entrance right across the room. "Let's go." ordered
Upon entering through the large entrance, they soon found themselves face to face with two Shas, unlike the previous ones the encountered, these two were much larger and looked more menacing. However, neither death knights were even slightly fazed
"Bigger Shas?" Sally commented dryly, hoping to tick them off, which worked
One of the Shas growled in response. "Insolent corpse." the Sha declared. "I can feel Anger within you." it said
"Even in death, you mortals are still as violent as ever." the other one hissed and caused protrusions to come out of the ground, heading for the two death knights
Without much effort, both death knights merely jumped before Rivendare froze the entire ground. Sally quickly charged at the Sha of Violence but the other Sha, Anger, got in her way, blocking her attack with its claws. Raising its other arm, the Sha of Anger tried to kill the female death knight. However, it was futile as Sally simply froze one of its arms and forced it back. In response, the Sha of Anger shot streams of energy, one of which hit the death knight. It then grinned
'What the hell is this?' Sally said. She could feel that the energy was trying to gnaw at her emotions but being already dead, it didn't have any effect so she just stood there and looked at her enemy in a confused manner. When the female death knight didn't do anything, the Sha of Anger only grew furious. 'Are these things supposed to manipulate our emotions or something?' she wondered to herself as she created an anti magic shell around her when more streams of energy came her way. 'I guess these idiots don't realize that emotion based magic doesn't work on us because we're just souls possessing our own corpse.' she thought in amusement
"You stupid corpse. Give in to your Anger already!" the Sha of Anger hissed furiously before moving to kill its enemy
Sally was unfazed at simply dodged the Sha's attacks even when it slammed the ground and its claws pierced through the floor. It simply amused the death knight at how the Sha's power had no effect on her. After a while of only further irritating the Sha, Sally had enough and cleaved its head in two. Instead of simply dropping, her attack froze the Sha of Anger completely solid
At the same time, Rivendare fought the other Sha. Unlike with his companion, the Sha of Violence proved to be a more formidable, albeit annoying, opponent. The Sha would keep its distance by creating protrusions on the ground however, it was unable to target the other death knight with this. It has tried twice and both times, Rivendare punished it. The first time the Sha tried to do so, the male death knight froze and shattered its left leg, preventing it from moving too much. The Sha of Violence growled in anger and fired energy streams at him
Reacting quickly, Rivendare did not allow any of the streams to hit him and quickly summoned an anti magic shell, causing all of them to bounce off harmlessly. 'Would this even have an effect?' he wondered to himself and shot a death coil. It made the Sha growl but nothing too significant
"How can a mere corpse like you not give in to your violent instincts?" the Sha of Violence wondered aloud before creating what looked like spikes made out of smoke from its claws. When it slashed the air, the spikes were thrown at the death knight, spinning quickly as they travelled
Rivendare was surprised at this move and one of them managed to cut him. 'Alright, that's it. I got careless.' he thought before he thrust his runeblade into the ground. Three large spikes made out of ice surrounded the Sha, preventing any movements. "You want me to give in to Violence?" he asked and got the Sha's attention. "Fine by me." the death knight declared before creating an even larger spike of ice right beneath the Sha of Violence. Like with the other Sha in the room, it was frozen solid in addition to being pierced
"Well, well. Someone got careless." a teasing voice said. Rivendare looked to where it came from and saw Sally barely scathed. "What happened?" she asked
"Just chose not to dodge an attack that I should have." Rivendare said plainly
'Rivendare, Whitemane.' Amira called out mentally. 'Found something. That place you're in is called the Ruins of Korune. It was made by creatures known as the Mogu but apparently, they are extinct. If they're not, then they're probably well hidden. The Pandaren I asked have mentioned legends about dark creatures lurking in there and at the hills above it is an artifact belonging to the Mogu. I have no idea what it is but I was told it can only be accessed from inside the ruins.'
'You could have mentioned that sooner.' Rivendare said in irritation
'You talk like getting these kind of information is easy and you know that none of us are particularly good actors.' now, it was Amira who replied in irritation
'Enough you two.' Sally joined their conversation. 'Thanks for the information, Amira. We'll check it out.' she said and cut off the connection. "Let's go get this over with."
"Fine." Rivendare said and they rushed towards a nearby staircase on the other side of the room. Careful of any traps, they climbed the stairs and soon came across an open area. What they found was not something they expected
"The hell? This is the artifact? A bloody bell?" Sally asked in disbelief and annoyance. "Are we sure this is the right place?"
"We should be." Rivendare said and summoned a few shades and had them all scatter around. "We are, actually. I found nothing that would say otherwise." he said a few minutes later
Sally was still in disbelief and decided to summon three skeleton warriors. She had them all touch the bell and all it did was make a very loud ringing sound. "Even that didn't do anything." she muttered
"I don't even sense any magic from this, whatever the hell this is." Rivendare said in irritation as he himself decided to get a feel of the bell. 'Altruis, this is Rivendare. Found an artifact here in some ruins north of the Pandaren's Monastery, near the coastline. I can sense no magic from it. What do you want us to do with it?'
'Destroy it.' Altruis said without hesitation. 'We've found out about that thing from the Mantid just a few minutes earlier. It's fuels the emotions of the Mogu by using the powers of the Sha. We don't need something like that around.'
'Understood.' Rivendare said before grinning, causing the female death knight to raise an eyebrow in curiosity. "Let's destroy it." he said and drew his blade
Sally also grinned and also drew her blade. Both of them unleashed their ice powers and froze the bell. Wanting to do the finishing blow, Sally cleaved the bell the frozen bell which also caused the ice to shatter, which in turn made the bell shatter. "That was easy." she muttered
"Perhaps but that bell was supposed to harness the power of the Sha for the Mogu, or something along that line." Rivendare said thoughtfully. "At this point, we really need more information."
"Well, we won't get it here. Some of the dark rangers should be gathering more information by now." Sally said and motioned for them to leave. Rivendare merely nodded in agreement and instead of going back the way they came, the just jumped on the hillside to the ground level
Vale of Eternal Blossoms
A few hours after the battle at the monastery, Chen led Turalyon, Khadgar, Jaina and Dranosh to meet with Shaohao, the emperor of the pandaren empire. Chen had relayed the story of what had happened
"I see." Shaohao said sadly. "The Sha have indeed returned." he continued before looking at Chen. "In these times, would you be willing to take the place of Taran Zhu? After the funeral, of course."
Chen was surprised at why he was chosen. Yes, he was a warrior pandaren but he was mostly fighting on his own. Before he knew it, he was starting to panic so he decided to take a few deep breaths. He was about to reject the offer but he greatly respected Taran Zhu and he was one of the pandaren closest to him. "Alright, my lord. I Shall accept the position, for Taran Zhu." he declared firmly
Shaohao nodded in understanding before looking at the outsiders. "So, if I am understanding this right, you are here to investigate Pandaria for the Old Gods?" he asked
"More like forced into." Dranosh said and he began to explain what had happened to the best of his ability, mainly about the events in northrend
"Illidan Stormrage, huh?" Shaohao said thoughtfully. "I suppose that makes sense."
"Wait, you know him?" Khadgar asked in surprise
"No, I do not. But I have heard about him." Shaohao answered and everyone just waited for him to explain. "Ten thousand years ago before the world was sundered, there were stories about something that had happened in the Elven Empire. According to those stories, a Night Elf commander had allowed their Troll enemies to capture a village."
"Allowed? As in let them take?" Turalyon asked incredously
Shaohao merely nodded. "That commander took the opportunity to end the Night Elves war against the Trolls but it came at the cost of an entire village put in danger. The Night Elf in question was Illidan Stormrage." he finished but no one was surprised. After all, everyone had already suspected it was him when he mentioned the word 'allowed'. However, they were all stunned into silence because that was something none of them would have ever done no matter what the circumstances
Jaina eventually broke the silence with a sigh. "That's good to know." she said
"Why is that, Jaina?" Khadgar asked curiously. "What do you mean by that?"
"One thing I was always concerned about was Illidan secretly serving the Burning Legion after he became a demon. However, if he disregarded the villagers' life, then that means it wasn't the influence of his demonic powers that causes him to do things the way he does." Jaina pointed out. "Although having said that, I still don't support him."
"Really, Jaina?" Turalyon asked in irritation
"No, she's right." Dranosh said, which surprised them as he was the last one they expected to agree with her. "While it is not guaranteed, it does seem very unlikely that Illidan is in league with the demons, which would be preferable for us should the worst come to pass." he said, referring to their lack of resources to leave kalimdor
"At any rate, I should tell you about the Old Gods and their influence on Pandaria." Shaohao said and everyone nodded. He explained to them about what had happened to Y'Shaarj, his remains that fell, the mogu and their extinction, and how they had an artifact that harnessed the Sha. the emperor also told them what the Sha's real powers were, to forcefully amplifiy the negative emotions of the living
"If that's true, then that would explain why everybody was acting oddly in the monastery." Khadgar said after hearing the story
"Indeed. One of the Shas, the Sha of Hatred, was sealed beneath the monastery. Even to this day, we still do not know what could have caused them to resurface." Shaohao said
"Do you know where the other Shas are?" Jaina asked
"I do." Shaohao said
Unbeknownst to them, two dark rangers were listening in on their conversation on the roof of the building. They were using a different kind of invisibility spell, the one that was taught to them when they still served in the Farstriders but with their enhanced stamina by virtue of being undead, they were able to maintain it for much longer than they ever did
'Altruis, this is Thaoror. I've got some crucial information.' one of the dark rangers said telepathically
Shado Pan Settlement
At the settlement where the Kalimdor inhabitants were staying, those who were gravely injured from the battle at the monastery were still resting
"Arthas." a soothing voice called out
Hearing his name being called, the human prince slowly got up. To his surprise, he found no one else in the room who would have called his name. "What the hell was that? Am I hearing ghosts now?" he whispered to himself
"No, you are not. Only you can hear my voice, Prince Arthas Menethil of Lordaeron." the voice answered him. "I speak to you with an offer to give you what you truly want." it said
"And what, pray tell, would that be?" Arthas whispered to himself, deciding to humor the voice despite not trusting whatever it was
"You wish to bring the Lich King to justice, do you not? You wish to reclaim your home and build a peaceful life for you and your people." the voice said, completely reading the young prince. "I can give those to you but I need your help to do so."
Before anything else, I just want to say that the named Death Knight and Dark Rangers, except for the canon characters, are just stuff I made up just to identify them. I'm not too certain if there really are characters in canon WoW with those names. It's not too relevant in this chapter but will come into play in the coming chapters. On the topic of names, I also decided not to give the area in the Summit where the Kalimdor forces first met Taran Zhu a name because I'm lazy so I just went with something simple
With that out of the way, I made the undead immune to the Sha's powers. The main reasoning for this was explained in this chapter but a more detailed one will come in the coming ones. Again, this is just another stuff I made up for the story
I also made Chen the new leader of the Shado Pan. I'm not sure who leads it after Taran Zhu got possessed and I don't particularly care about the details. Any random Pandaren would do
Just to clear stuff up, the Shas encountered by Rivendare and Whitemane are the Shas of Anger and Violence
So, what might be happening to Arthas?