Two weeks later, close to the border of the elf territory. Sylvanas and her troops successfully infiltrated the human lands. Aside from a few skirmishes, the Zerg did not encounter the undead army. Now in hostile territory, Sylvanas send out her scouts and what the information they acquired would turn out to be both troubling and promising.

W-A-R

Through the eyes of her Zergling, Sylvanas saw the admittedly impressive undead army. Somehow Arthas has managed to get a solid lead, his army already standing in front of the mountain pass, which would lead to the western lands. The Zergling hid in the bushes, sneaking as silently as possible through the woods until it arrived at the front, where it found Arthas talking to a demon.

"Why was I ordered back in the first place? I could have easily taken the capital!" Arthas shouted.

"Easily? Then why were you forced to run in the first place?" the demon asked in a mock tone.

"A tactical retreat." Arthas boasted. "Wars aren't won by simply attacking the enemy over and over, dreadlord. I was planning on repositioning my troops, but before I had the chance to strike again, you called us back. Thanks to you, the elves have had time to fortify their defenses and activated the shield around their capital."

"Don't speak in that tone with me, youngling! The fact is that you have failed! Now we need to look for another source to-"

"Actually Tichondrius," a new voice echoed through the valley. Everyone, even the zombies, looked for the source of the voice, until in a blast of energy another demon appeared. "The master is not happy with YOU." the new demon pointed at the other one.

"What?! What are YOU doing here?! And what do you mean the master is not happy with ME?!" Tichondrius shouted enraged. Arthas appeared to be curious as to what was going on.

"Simple. You didn't help in the invasion of Kel'Thalas. After giving a full report to Lord Archimonde, he was...let's say disappointed to hear that you did absolutely nothing to help with the invasion. In his opinion, your power would have been enough to turn the tides against the elves."

"What?! But I-"

"FURTHERMORE" the new demon interrupted Tichondrius "you're to report back to the master immediately. And personally, I wouldn't let him waiting, if I were you."

Tichondrius scowled over to Arthas and the other demon, before summoning a portal and disappearing through it.

"Now then, Lord Arthas." the demon turned towards the fallen prince "while the seizure of the Sunwell was a failure, it doesn't mean that all is lost, far from it in fact. However with this new enemy against us, we have to reevaluate our situation."

"Reevaluate?" Arthas echoed. "What exactly do you mean?"

"I will explain on the way. However, something you should be aware of is that a rather large group of humans, as well as an unknown number of orcs, have left this continent."

"They did? Hah, as if they could run away from the scourge." Arthas mocked.

"The humans and orcs aren't of concern for now. A ship awaits your arrival in Lordaeron. Once you've made the necessary preparations, this ship will…" And that was as much as Sylvanas could listen to, as the whole undead army began marching on a silent command. She ordered the Zergling to take a detour back to the main army.

Right now the Zerg have stationed themselves around 50 miles away from the border to Kel'Thalas with the Zerglings scouting the surrounding area, looking for threats and anything useful for the swarm. Veice, who had listened in with Sylvanas, approached the leader of the Azeroth Swarm.

"My Queen, this is perfect. With Arthas gone, the defenses in Lordaeron will be significantly weakened. And if we dig a tunnel to the underground city, we can take the remaining defenders by surprise and the city will be ours."

"Indeed." Sylvanas nodded, stroking her chin. "But we cannot go immediately. Our army quite frankly moves too fast. Even if Arthas doesn't need any food supplies and his army works without sleep, it will still take him a week, maybe even two until he is ready for departure. Until then we cannot afford to show ourselves to Arthas. He might retaliate."

"What should we do until then?" asked the former mage.

"I have an idea." Zaath appeared from the underground, surprising no one. Ever since they left their home, the former elf enjoyed "swimming" through the earth with the Roaches. He even tried to play a prank or two in order to pass the time, but thanks to the hivemind, everyone was aware of where exactly he was at all times.

"The scouts reported that despite all odds, there are a rather large amount of surviving humans in this land. Most of them have come together and are now lead or rather threatened by various bandit groups. They're more of a ragtag group of individuals than an army, but they might prove useful in some way or other. If anything, we could use them as cannon fodder."

"Is this really worth the trouble?" Veice asked. "I say we look for a way to stock up our own supplies. If humans survived the onslaught, so might have the wildlife, not to mention those annoying Murlocs." Veice scrunched up her face in disgust.

"Why don't we kill two birds with one stone?" Sylvanas suggested.

"Huh?" The other two infested elves looked at their leader confused.

Sylvanas looked over to the drones, which were currently digging in the ground, probably instinctively looking for minerals.

"As for combat capabilities, the humans are useless to us. However if we keep them alive, Arthas will "recruit" them sooner or later. The only reasonable thing to do is kill them and collect their biomass for future use."

"My Queen. Isn't that a bit extreme?" Veice asked a little aghast at such a suggestion. He could see the logic behind this, but the elves and humans had been allies ever since the second war.

"Extreme? Maybe." Sylvanas admitted. She closed her eyes and thought about her own suggestion for a moment, before nodding to herself. "But it is necessary. Anasterian will be too busy dealing with the damage the undead did to Kel'Thalas. As for Dalaran, they haven't done anything so far for the people here or for our people for that matter, so I doubt we'll have to fear about retaliation from them."

"If I may suggest" the male infested stepped up "why don't we simply infest the humans and their homes?"

"And what would that accomplish?" Sylvanas asked.

"Simple. Long term benefit. I went over the memories of the swarm and found out that it doesn't take much to turn human houses into makeshift Hatcheries. While they do not have the same capabilities as normal ones, they can give birth to infested Terrans, without the need of additional outside resources. While it wouldn't solve our resource problem, we would be able to get cheap troops, which are arguably better fighters than the undead."

"Wait, please hear me out." Veice intervened. "Do we really need to do this to the humans? My Queen, I know you're feeling resentment towards the humans and for good reasons," she thought about the mages of Dalaran and how they did not aid them. It especially hurt her, since she studied there for many years "but isn't this basically what Arthas has done, if we infest or kill them?"

"It is," Sylvanas replied without losing a second. "I will be the last person to deny that this will make us no better than the slaughterer. But if we're to win this war, we have not much of a choice. Sooner or later we will end up infesting not only humans but other species as well. As I already said the humans in these lands are lost one way or the other. We either kill or infest them now or they will end up as Arthas' soldiers."

"I see." Veice nodded but didn't look too happy about the situation. "Forgive me for being so brash my Queen. You are of course absolutely right. We have no choice, but to go to the extreme, if we want to succeed."

Sylvanas nodded approvingly. "I do not ask you to cast away your morals or believes. However, I can safely say that when this is over, none of us will be the same.

Let's go. We have wasted enough time as it is. I have an idea on what we do with the human settlements. We will infest them and let them grow for a while, before harvesting whatever biomass they produce."

"Using farms...as farms." Zaath scratched the back of his head. "I am not sure whether this sounds stupid or like a pretty good idea."

Sylvanas could only roll her eyes. She leaped into the air and flew ahead, her swarm obediently following her.

W-A-R

The village used to be a lively one, with traders from the big cities coming and going on a regular basis. Children used to play on the streets and normally at this point in time the marketplace would be bustling with activity. Barely anyone was outside.

Obviously, farmers were still working on their fields or herding their kettles. They were lucky, the strange sickness that not only killed people but seemingly sucked the very essence of life out of the land, had not reached this particular village as of yet. However, the Undead were still a threat in themselves and almost none of the villagers were experienced fighters. The few that served in the army organized a small militia with whatever weapons they could get their hold on. So far it worked against the brainless undead, but against bandit raids they stood no chance. Thus they had no choice but come to an agreement with the local bandit chief. Give them supplies on a regular basis and receive protection. It went against the villagers' skins, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It was the only way for them to survive. Unfortunately, those measurements would prove to be pointless.

Sylvanas was scouting the village from the skies, watching the villagers do their daily tasks. She was actually surprised so many were still alive. Her plan was to just infest the village, not pillage it of its biomass. However, she had only three Infestors at hand at the moment and none of her former rangers have yet shown abilities to spread the Zerg virus. In fact, most of them just had increased strength, speed, stronger minds and basic psi powers like mind reading and levitation. It meant for her, she could not afford to lose a single Infestor. If those fools fought back and managed to get some lucky shots, then she could forget her plan. And if Sylvanas knew one thing about humans then that they were a stubborn race.

Infestors! Get to work, immediately! The rest of you make sure the humans stay put!

With a mental acknowledgment, the Zerg began surrounding the village as to prevent that any biomass would be wasted. They weren't exactly subtle about it, as such, it didn't take long for one of the guarding villagers to run into the center of the town, the town hall. In the meantime, the farmers dropped whatever they were doing and ran into their houses. Unbeknownst to the humans, this would only make things only easier for the Infestors.

Speaking of which, they already made their way towards the first buildings at the edge of said town. A small group of Hydralisks and Zerglings acted as their escort, while the remainder of the swarm simply waited. One man in ragged clothing tried to escape the perimeter. He quickly turned around precisely 180 degrees after one fake attack coming from a Hydralisk.

Just as the local militia came together, one of the Infestors "planted" a Virophage on the ground. Like any other Zerg structure, it firstly needed to grow, but at the rate at which it grew surprised even Sylvanas. Mere minutes passed until the structure burst open and began spitting a gray substance on the houses. Almost immediately tentacles and other things began to grow out of the house, which was deformed and damaged due to the process. The shrieks of nearby watching people reached Sylvanas' ears, but she ignored them. Likewise did the Infestors. They instead focused on their task at hand and went to the next set of buildings. At the same time, the people who had been hiding inside the building came out, showing their new infested form. The Queen of the Zerg frowned. If anything they would be good for demoralization and keeping the enemy occupied, but as a true fighting force? Orcs would probably be the better subject to the virus, but there were barely any left in Lordaeron. A problem Sylvanas would have to solve on another day.

As it turned out her worries about the humans fighting back weren't unjust. As soon as they saw what the Virophages did to their brethren, they charged straight at the Infestors with their poor equipment. The Hydralisks turned them to minced meat in a matter of seconds. One soldier came even close enough for one of the Infestors to eat him. After some time the same Infestor spit out a capsule and out of it came the soldier he had eaten before, now fully infested. The psychological effect was very effective, maybe too effective. As the Infestors planted more and more Virophages, the humans panicked. They desperately tried to break out of the perimeter but never came far. The Zerg didn't outright kill the humans, though some were killed on accident, rather they injured them and dragged them to the nearest infested building. Speaking of the buildings, they already started creating more Infested by using the genetic code of the former owners of the houses. The resources it dragged straight out of the very earth itself. Humans weren't particularly hard to recreate.

All in all, it took less than half an hour to infest the entire village. If Sylvanas wouldn't have been so careful, they probably could have done it faster. As soon as they were finished they didn't linger inside the village and instead marched to the next one. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened on the way there. They did manage to hunt down some of the local wildlife, though there wasn't actually much to find. This was most probably due to the fact that undead still roamed in the area. As a matter of fact, the next village they came by was just experiencing an attack by a few ghouls and zombies, controlled by some Necromancers. The villagers were completely taken off guard when Sylvanas came down from the skies and tore the necromancers apart. She followed suit with the remaining undead, using this mostly as an exercise. The villagers could only stare, though they didn't have time to stare for long. Before the village was even surrounded, the Infestors began their work, having Infested the first buildings, in which the people had barricaded themselves due to the attack. It was quite ironic really, but Sylvanas didn't complain, as it made things easier. As for the people? Let's just say their struggle didn't get them much. No one was spared. And soon enough they would be "harvested", once the population had grown a significant size.

Following a street that was in a state of disrepair, the Zerg forces came across a small Undead outpost. Nothing much, a few of those annoying Ziggurats, one or two buildings that from the looks of things acted as research centers. The Zerg had been able to smell the chemicals from a ten mile distance. Now that the base was in sight, the stench was almost unbearable.

"What are they doing in there?" Veice asked with an arm covering her nose. The army was still a fair distance away, out of range of the defensive towers.

"If I had to guess, working on their undead virus," Zaath added his two cents. He actually covered his nose with all four of his hands, one being slapped over the other. "Or maybe just chemical weapons."

"Whatever it is, we will destroy it. Veice? How about a little demonstration of your new powers? I'm genuinely curious about what you're capable of doing now."

"Of course, my Queen."

Truth to be told, Veice was curious too. So far she had only used spells she had been capable of doing before her own transformation. It was easier to cast those spells, as her energy reserves were bigger and her mind was capable of processing thoughts much quicker. However, she had yet to test her limit. And what better way to test her new powers, than by destroying the towers from afar? So far their army lacked proper artillery. So, who was to say that she couldn't turn herself into an artillery unit?

Making up her mind, Veice channeled both her magic and her psi at the same time. The spell itself didn't require any kind of complicated formula, it just required a lot of energy and a lot of time to cast. Although being a very powerful spell, most mages never really used it, since it took so long to channel. Veice managed to pull it off in roughly four seconds. Arms outstretched, a gigantic fireball began to appear in between. Zaath jumped back in surprise, trying to not get burned. Sylvanas stood her ground, despite the temperature increasing at a rapid rate.

Once big enough, Veice made a throwing motion, seemingly physically directing the fireball to the enemy camp. The resulting explosion incinerated the entire area. Luckily there were no trees present and the ground had been already dead thanks to the undead corruption or else the swarm might have to run for its life.

"Ah, I love the smell of Pyroblasts in the morning."

Sylvanas and Zaath gave Veice a look. Said Zerg blushed and looked away. "I'm sorry. It's an inside joke back from my days in Dalaran."

W-A-R

The last village turned out to be a couple of miles away. It was pretty close to Stratholme, a former city the elves occasionally traded with. When scouting from above, Sylvanas was surprised to see a battalion of Knights in the middle of the plaza. They appeared to be talking with the leaders of the village and considering everything they were fairly well equipped. With her curiosity peaked, Sylvanas descended closer to the ground, until she was in hearing range, which generally meant that only one of the humans had to look up and they would have no problem spotting her.

"How long will it take until your people are prepared?" The leading knight asked.

"A day or two at most, my lord." The old villager answered. "For a travel as long as this, we'll need to gather all of the supplies we've managed to gather. And even then we'll have to rationalize everything until we arrive."

The Knight nodded. "I'm sorry we cannot give you any more-"

"No, no it's all right. We are grateful for Lord Garithos for taking us under his protection in the first place. Everything seems better than being here, fearing that one day we might wake up with our flesh falling off our bones."

"Hmph, that's true. I'll have my men help you with gathering everything you need. In the meantime, I need to see a map of the immediate area, in order to find the best route available to us. The one in my possession is heavily outdated."

"Of course, my lord. This way please." The old villager motioned at the town hall.

"I think I have a better idea," Sylvanas said before landing gracefully right in front of the Knights. The horses reacted nervously, some trying to get away, but were held in line by their riders. Swords were immediately drawn, as the Queen continued to talk.

"How about I repurpose your miserable existence and turn you into something useful?"

"What in the name of the light are you?!" The lead knight demanded.

Sylvanas didn't bother answering. She instead used her psi abilities and sent the man flying towards the wall of the nearest building.

"Demonic magic! Kill her!" Another Knight shouted. However, that was about when all was lost for them. The Zerg began their onslaught of the area, the Infestors having split up in order to cover a much larger area. Sylvanas herself jumped into the air and released lightning bolts out of the tip of her claws, perfectly killing everyone in front of her. It was a waste, but at the same time, it was efficient. The rest of the defenders were either killed or rallied into the houses, like cattle. Zerglings quickly surrounded the area, preventing anyone from running away. In a matter of minutes, all fighting stopped and the ground was covered with creep and every building sprouted the Zerg like tentacles, some even growing a carapace.

W-A-R

"All in all, we can look forward to a successful harvest." The Queen smiled approvingly at a job well done. But had there ever been any doubt? "Now with our biomass production in full swing, we will soon be able to grow an army big enough to take over Lordaeron through the Undercity."

Zaath nodded, though a frown was apparent on his face.

"What is troubling you?" His Queen asked. "I can feel that something is worrying you. Is it because of the infestation? Do you have second thoughts?"

Zaath shook his head. "It's not quite that." He said and looked over to Veice. The Zerg woman was busying herself inspecting the body of a Swarm Queen.

"The design is rather bulky and outside of the creep area, you're really slow. I wonder if there's some way to modify your body, to make your movement speed more efficient. Although we might need to make you an overall new body...and I have no idea how to accomplish that."

"Something's bothering me, alright. My Queen, is it strange that I don't feel any remorse, with what we did to the humans?" The Zerg man asked with all arms crossed.

"That depends." Sylvanas answered looking over her "farm". A Hatchery was built in the middle of the plaza. Infested humans already lined up to be turned back into biomass, which would then be used to create new troops. The same procedure went on in the other villages. It was a rather inconvenient method, but it was the best one they had available at the moment. In the back of her mind, Sylvanas was already considering using trees a future biomass resource, though the efficiency of this one had yet to be determined.

"Depends on what?"

"Did you hate the humans beforehand for one reason or another? Did you held a grudge against a specific human, perhaps?"

Zaath shook his head. "Not that I can think off. Humans were just...humans to me like dwarves are dwarves and elves...well I do hold them in higher esteem than the other two."

"Hmm, but back when you suggested this idea, you didn't seem to have a problem." the Queen pointed out.

"Well yeah, but I still had doubts back then. Now that I see the result...I'm somehow satisfied."

"Hmm." Sylvanas closed her eyes for a brief moment. "The only thing I can think of is that you are already showing signs of change in your way of thinking. The Zerg virus, for the lack of better term, already makes you think like a Zerg. Indifferent, possibly hostile to other species, only thinking about the survival of the swarm. Well, we're not that far yet, but you and me…"

"...I see." Zaath nodded. "Somehow this isn't bothering me either." he shook his head. "I think I spotted a river earlier. Maybe some cold water will bring back my conscious or something along those lines."

Sylvanas watched him walk off, out of the village. She could only sigh. "Have you already forgotten what I said earlier today? None of us will remain the same. Guilt will only get in our way to achieving victory." She looked up at the blue sky "Our enemy certainly doesn't let something like guilt or consciousness get in her way."