Chapter 10:
After reaching the top of the staircase again I take my time watching how the Argent Crusade is trying their best to get into the citadel.
The sound of the heavily working battering ram is filling the air of this part of the Icecrown Glacier until the door finally is burst open with a loud crack. The last line of defense falling, the last stand of Arthas is near.
It doesn't take them too long to secure the first smaller room. The soldiers of the Ebon Blade are quickly setting up a few barricades which are able to hold off the lesser skeletal soldiers that come flooding in, attacking us quite constantly.
It's cold inside I notice, apparently even colder than outside, darkness surrounding everything as it has taken this place as a whole. No light ever comes here. It has been banished from this place. Makes me wonder how many of the paladins by our side are already losing their hope.
Darion seizes me with his eyes, tracking my every step. I don't talk to him, nonetheless. If the things about Shadow's Edge tell the truth, I'm as much of a threat this world as Arthas is.
The rest of the soldiers arrive soon afterward setting up camp, together with the fighters that were determined through the tournament as worthy enough to join the charge at the Lich King we prepare ourselves for the onslaught. Amidst all of them I spot a few familiar faces, Cassiopheia, for example. Leaves me to be one of the first of those to arrive here, even a bit too early in fact, but I guess I was right on time to settle my own business beforehand.
Tirion and Darion are still having a chat off to the side while a few minor supplies are carried into the room, seems this should be our base of operations for now.
The old Fordring then returns to the middle of the entrance welcoming the other arrivals. Without any further delays it begins.
Tirion directs a few groups to each side and takes a step forward towards the corridor up ahead.
"Our march upon the Icecrown Citadel begins now!" He calls forth while lifting the Ashbringer high above his head, chasing away the darkness close by.
It is a foul wind blowing through the hallways then suddenly we can all hear his voice.
"You now stand upon the hallowed ground of the Scourge. The Light won't protect you here, paladin. Nothing will protect you..." The on-going attacks of the skeletons stop for no clear reason.
I listen to him and hatred overcomes me. I try my best to suppress it, but I'm hardly able to. He seems to be nowhere near by, probably another one of his tricks to fool us though.
"ARTHAS!" Surprisingly enough, hearing his former name calms me down a bit. I don't know, maybe it shows me that even he was once human. "I swore that I would see you dead and the Scourge dismantled! I'm going to finish what I started at Light's Hope!" Tirion calls at the looming darkness.
With faint laughter accompanying his words, the Lich King speaks up again, "You could've been my greatest champion, Fordring. A force of darkness that would wash over this world and deliver it into a new age of strife!" He makes it sound as if he actually pities the old Fordring. "But this honour is no longer yours! Soon I will have a new champion." the Lich King continues after a short moment.
Mograine doesn't seem too impressed by all this, whilst Tirion takes another step towards the hallway in front of us.
"The breaking of this one has been taxing. The atrocities that I have committed upon his soul... He has resisted for so long, but he will bow down before his king soon." A vile laughter of him follows.
"NEVER!" The outburst of another person interrupts the scene. "I... I will never ... serve... you!"
I turn my head around to see if anybody might know the other person and I think I hear how someone mumbles something that sounds like "Bolvar?"
The voice of the Lich King rises from the shadows once more.
"In the end you will all serve me."
The moment the echoes of his words die away in these black halls, a growling sound announces the arrival of his mindless minions. Without warning they jump out of the never ending darkness around us. Bone golems, hideous creations, completely made of bones from fallen heroes, with scythe-like arms crafted of unused spines.
A smile comes to my lips as anticipation floods my mind. So many souls to harvest!
Tirion calls out to attack and so we do. The melee fighters charge out at the golems immediately, careful not to run directly into their huge blades, while the casters behind us prepare their first volley of spells.
I'm quite sure Armageddon would also have been quite effective at smashing the bones of these monstrosities, but Shadow's Edge is more than that. It is simply amazing as it cuts through them as if they were made of paper.
As I dodge the blade of another golem by only a few centimeters I cut the creature down. No matter how many of the fall, there seems to be no end to this flood of undead monstrosities. Cutting down another minion his voice is audible anew.
"Your hearts... their incisive drumming disgusts me. I will silence them as I did my own..."
Something none of his servants managed to do this so far.
If you ask me he has grown far too overconfident concerning what had happened to his army during the past few months. But the better for us! With each failure he sends my way I will grow stronger!
Landing strike after strike on my enemies, cutting them down one after the other I can't hold it back any longer. I let out a loud laughter as I take down the next few in front of me with a clean swipe of my axe, absorbing the remains of the wretched soul of a living creature trapped still inside this creature with me.
The threats he offers are idle. Had he fallen already?
He might be strong if you'd have to face him as an opponent, but I think he still relies too much on his servants, his minions. And if I learned one thing in the past ... you shouldn't rely on other people.
"I see you have returned to me, my child." His voice echoes through my mind, intruding my thoughts. A hated feeling I had been spared for so long. He seems to be confusing some important things though.
Ever so slowly we are pushing the golems backwards into another barely lit hall.
"You stumble about in darkness. There is no light here, no mercy! Icecrown has claimed the souls of better heroes than you!" The words he speaks sound hollow, almost hapless.
"I don't rely on the light. Consider that next time!" I say to myself and the obscurity close by as I lift my axe to welcome the next minion of the Scourge charging at me.
The next wave of skeletal warriors in this hall attacks us without hesitation. I parry the first attack easily with the edge of my blade and kick the bony figure away so I have more room for my own swing of the axe.
"I had cause to regret sparing your life." He whispers to me.
I only reply cold-heartedly, "Then you shouldn't have done so..." whilst Shadow's Edge crashes down onto the head of another undead. My weapon happily sucks the remains of a soul out of the carcass, leaving me with the sting I had already gotten used to.
"Your time has come! And I will be the one to wield the weapon that brings your end!" I mumble to myself.
"I see you too are gathering souls for your own ends. Are we really so different?" He asks.
Maybe we are, maybe we aren't anymore. I can't even tell. But now it is too late anyhow... I have already started to venture on this path of fate and there is no turning back! I knew this would not be for the faint hearted and I never considered backing out to begin with.
"Always you find ways to amuse me..." The words are followed by a short laughter.
"Your amusement won't last for long, trust my words!" I speak as I take down another skeleton. Their numbers may be extremely high, but they aren't too much of a challenge for me, for any of us.
"Remember, hero, I too sought a weapon of great power." Again he tries to show me that were are both the same, that we are equal.
"I'm not like you! Accept it finally! I never wanted to be like you!" I yell at the shadows as I look for the next opponents. And just as I began searching for more the next wave of skeletons and bone golems charges into the room. Taking them again head on, the others who can't keep up with my pace fall behind. As I smash the first skeleton with a single strike, the sting I feel indicates the 'death' of my opponent. This one had clearly been stronger than the others.
"Look at you, child, would-be wielder of souls. You cannot fathom a power that thrives at my commands." Once more he is mocking me as we are slowly drawing nearer to the frozen spire, seating of the Frozen Throne.
He will see. I will collect more souls for my axe. Shadow's Edge will grow strong! Strong enough to shatter his armor! Strong enough to devour him!
I keep on rushing forward without taking a single look back. As more and more of his minions fall to my blade, he speaks up again.
"Take them, mortal, these souls will again be mine soon enough." He hasn't lost any of his confidence at least. As we enter the next room, I let the rest of the charge catch up to the front row. From here I can spot several strange nerubians among the troops of Arthas. The large undead spiders already try to spray a white liquid at our soldiers from the distance, which seems to harden pretty quickly and forms a kind of cocoon around them. Poor bastards that get trapped in there...
"Come to me, pretenders. Feed my blade." He whispers full of cunning. I know that he's talking about the warriors of the Argent Crusade and the members of the troops gathered via the tournament. Most of them are simply too weak to be here. A disgrace for this kind of crusade!
With every undead that falls I become more and more of a spearhead for the charge. Most enemies that face me don't live long enough to be a real danger for either me or the rest of the group.
Again laughter arises from the shadows.
"Soon you too will have your own blade for a prison."
I've gone too far to be concerned about this anymore. Reminding me won't make any difference.
"The hunger that your weapon feels is but a shade of what awaits you. Do you want to see real hunger? Real power? Continue on with your evil. I am waiting." He speaks to me calmly.
But I don't listen to his treacherous words. I focus again on what lies directly ahead of me, which means another two bone golems that are coming right for me. Dodging their claws is easy once you figure out how they usually try to attack, for they are, as you might expect from zombies, rather simple.
I shatter the legs of the right one, before I take down the left one with an upwards strike. They are surprisingly swift for being undead, but without their legs they can hardly move at all. As the right golem clumsily tries to crawl along the floor I decapitate him with a single blow, claiming his mangled essence as a price.
"More souls! Yes! More! You will find it hard to stop!" He turns euphoric all of a sudden, almost yelling at me.
The frozen spire directly in front of me now, I let my eyes come to a rest upon the horrors of the Lich King's creations: A large bone golem hovering in the air with four skulls turning hectically in every direction. The four spikes upon its back look like the remains of wings long rotten away, but I heavily doubt that a creature like this would exist in Azeroth. Not even amongst the faceless ones.
The rest of the group catches up to me and stares at the ... thing ... in front of us in horror.
"This is the beginning AND the end, mortals. None shall enter the master's sanctum!" The creature announces in a strange, cold voice.
"The Scourge will wash over this world as a swarm of death and destruction!" It calls out as it attacks immediately upon us setting foot into its room. We have hardly any time to regroup, forcing the crusaders to use rushed tactics. The blade of the gigantic bone axe it is swinging is about twice as tall as I am. The huge weapon crashes onto the black floor leaving a large dent behind even in the Saronite floor. With a strike from the right it manages to hit two or three of our warriors.
"Languish in damnation!" It calls out as the bloody remains of our soldiers are flying through the hall.
I decide to go right for it the next time it strikes with the large axe. I just have to wait for another few members of the Argent Crusade to be an involuntary lure for my purpose. And just as expected, it doesn't take too long to find someone who is dumb enough to run forward.
With a loud crashing sound the poor bastard is buried beneath the weapon, a leg hanging out the side directly in my way.
I hurry towards the monstrosity to strike at it, managing to land the hit so that at least one of its ribs is damaged. Unfortunately I already have to retreat again as the four spikes on his back shot directly at me, leaving a large hole in the ground where only seconds before I was standing.
Whatever this creature might be, one thing is for sure, it's bones are more persistent than normal ones...
It takes us a good while before we manage to take it out eventually. A few more lives are lost. Some others are lucky to only receive flesh-wounds or shattered bones that our healers can cure without too much trouble.
"My challenges have strengthened you, champion. You will serve me well." He announces in my head.
"Serve you?" I ask "I won't serve anybody!"
I receive a few awkward looks from members of the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade. For they it must seem as if I'm talking to myself.
"The moment is soon at hand, you shall toil for eternity in a new Azeroth!"
The path now leads around the spire of ice.
It winds up a bit and opens up into another big hall. Cultists are kneeling on the floor allocated all around the room listening to the sermon of a Lich. I already raise my weapon as I notice the higher undead hovering at the end of the room preaching to them - an interesting sight to behold.
But it was upon me to disturb their peace! Eager I make a step forward as suddenly somebody is seizing my right arm.
I turn around and look straight into the two green elven eyes of Cassiopheia. I haven't paid too much attention to her since we last met each other after the tournament if I'm completely honest. For a moment I expected wrath or at least the typical annoyance of her, but it comes different.
She looks concerned about something.
"You can't go on like this..." She almost whispers to me, forcing myself to lower my weapon I let the blade of it rest on the floor.
"What are you talking about? Why shouldn't I?" I ask her straight forward.
"You're giving in to the rage. Members of the Argent Crusade already call you insane because some of them believe to have heard how you are talking and screaming at the shadows in here. You might..."
At first I only chuckle as a response.
"So what? What do they know?" I only ask her.
She looks deep into my eyes for a few seconds before she speaks up again.
"I don't see any insanity in your eyes, only loneliness."
With my left hand I remove her grip from my arm while I'm still looking at her.
"Welcome to my world..." I answer in a low voice, already turning away from her.
The blade of my axe scratches along the floor as I rush up to the nearest cultists.
A frantic smile comes to my lips.
Shadow's Edge in my hand is ready and waiting to unleash its symphony of demise.
Soon, this will all be over with.