CHAPTER 929: CONCERN

On April 5, Duke led an elite group of heroes composed entirely of Alliance warriors into Blackrock Spire. Their goal was completely opposite to that of the Horde. They did not rush to the upper levels of Blackrock Spire, but went all the way down to the Molten Core.

Because Vanessa led the way and left behind the spatial coordinates, Duke directly opened a portal to allow the heroes to reach Blackrock Depths.

The dwarf warrior Magni took the lead, and everyone followed closely behind him. They swept into the passage guarded by fire elements and broke into the Molten Core.

In order to avoid provoking the lords of Molten Core, the portal leading directly to the interior had not been opened before. Now that Duke entered, a portal connecting to Mirror Lake was directly opened.

However, Duke, who hoped to keep in touch with the outside world, soon disappeared without a trace.

The scorching heat of the lava world spawned new fire monsters almost constantly. For example, a lava giant, at least five stories tall, stood guard at the gate. If the attack lasted for more than two hours, as if by design, a high concentration of fire elements would gather and new monsters would begin to emerge from the lava.

They kept devouring and merging with each other until new elite giant creatures appeared and reoccupied this once empty territory.

To make matters worse, this was Molten Core, where monsters couldn’t rely solely on their eyes to sense their enemies. Any impurities not belonging to the realm of fire would be attacked.

The rogue’s stealth is ineffective here.

The extremely high concentration of chaotic fire elements in the air, in turn, cut off all possible magical communications.

"We have to trust Duke. He has led the league through so many crises, and this time is no exception," Turalyon said.

This is not based on any facts or rational inferences, it is definitely a form of personality cult, but the alliance soldiers just believe it.

As if stimulated by the joint attack of the Alliance and the Horde on Blackrock Mountain, a large number of Blackrock orcs began to pour out from other secret exits of Blackrock Spire, like rivers flowing into the sea, gathering into an army of more than 50,000 people. Under the leadership of Maim Blackhand, they counterattacked the mountain tunnel and stone dam trail connecting the Searing Gorge and the Dun Morogh area, and at the same time crossed the Badlands to invade the Loch Modan area.

Brian Bronzebeard began to lead the dwarf mechanized army and once taught Maim what "dead orcs are the best orcs", but with a large number of black dragons and young dragons joining the battlefield, and the griffin army from Eagle’s Nest Mountain confronting them.

The war reached a stalemate.

On the other side, thousands of fire elementals began to pass through the Blackrock Trail, attempting to invade the Redridge Mountains area of Stormwind Kingdom.

With the assistance of the mage corps in Dalaran, Windsor barely maintained the front line.

The most pressing part of the war is the Watchtower that monitors the Dark Portal!

There is no evidence that the current Black Dragon King is colluding with the Burning Legion. If anyone says that there is no trick involved, Turalyon will be the first to disbelieve it.

Almost at the same time when the two major forces in Blackrock Spire attacked the Alliance from two directions at the same time, there was suddenly movement at the Dark Portal.

A green horizon suddenly appeared in the air.

This is completely different from the barren red cursed land, but it also has a similar flavor. Because it was the rampant evil energy that turned the southern part of the Sad Swamp, which was full of snakes, insects, rats and ants, into the barren land it is today.

The league is no stranger to this shade of green.

So when the green line appeared, the patrolling Hippogryph Night Elf Knights discovered it immediately. Seeing the red fireworks rising into the sky, the most shrill alarm bells rang out throughout the entire Watchtower.

In just thirty seconds, the first batch of 18 Griffin Knights on duty took off, fully assembled, and rushed towards the Dark Portal. They were the eyes of the Alliance and the spearhead of the Alliance’s counterattack.

Within five minutes, dwarf gunners were standing next to all the artillery positions on the front line.

In ten minutes, a mixed defense corps of more than 10,000 people was in place on the first three lines of defense.

This is the result of long-term and extremely rigorous training.

Today, this achievement has been verified in the Burning Legion.

Almost at the moment when the gates of hell opened, more than a thousand cannons of various calibers roared at the same time on the first line of defense of Netherworld Fort closest to the Dark Portal.

From the sky, the Alliance’s position resembled a pair of golden wings spread out. The earth shook violently as dark metal shells shot into the air like lightning, following the most precise firing parameters learned through countless rehearsals, heading straight for their target.

It was a precisely calculated, standard carpet bombing.

The falling of thousands of shells created a terrible storm among the surging Burning Legion army.

The demon at the center of the storm was torn into pieces, but even the Doomsday Guard flying in the air was blown to and fro by the aftermath of the explosion.

After twenty seconds, only the most powerful elite demons were left groaning in death on the ground. The demons with slightly weaker physiques disintegrated directly, turning into countless fragments and flying away like butterflies in a storm.

In the second round of bombardment, the shotgun [Type 3 bomb] specifically targeting the enemy air force directly knocked down the remaining Doomsday Guards, and then the ground-to-ground artillery continued to repeat the previous steps to annihilate them.

Everything was going well until a demon lord as tall as five stories came out of the Dark Portal.

It flapped its huge black wings and hovered over the Watchtower position.

His eyes were like burning green torches, filled with the indifference of a master of all things, looking down upon the entire world.

It stared coldly at the Alliance artillery array below, where the flames continued to flash. Its terrifying eyes looked down three times from above.

The massive demon lord flapped its enormous bat wings, and suddenly countless black arrows of light poured down on the ground like a heavy rain in May. As the black light descended, the entire area was engulfed in a sea of black fire.

"Bastard! Come at me if you dare!" Turalyon waved Quel’Zaram angrily, continuously shooting golden arcs of light at the demon lord, trying to provoke the other party and make the demon lord land on the ground to duel with him.

Unfortunately, after letting out a sneer, the demon lord dodged the high-speed holy golden light and continued to concentrate on expanding the area of the black sea of fire.

Using the army to fight against the air force, there is absolutely no chance of winning due to the problem of mobility, not to mention that the other side deliberately ignored Tulayan.

Turalyon, helpless, decisively fired the Cloud Piercing Arrow Duke had given him. Even Kurdran would have a hard time defeating a lord-level demon alone in an aerial battle.

"Can a single cloud-piercing arrow really bring about an army of thousands?" Turalyon thought it was a bit ridiculous, but he was determined to give it a try.

He was not disappointed. Just three minutes later, accompanied by a distant dragon roar, a huge black dragon shadow approached the Watchtower at high speed.

Turalyon’s jaw nearly dropped. "Fuck! What the hell is this?"

Although Turalyon’s personal combat power reached its peak after inheriting the Great Royal Sword Quel’Zalaam, he still gave everyone the impression of being a wise general. Because he was born at the wrong time and had Duke, who was even more powerful in fighting, above him, he rarely swore or lost his temper.

This time, he really lost his temper.

In fact, not only him, but also many high-ranking officers of the Alliance, could not believe their own eyes.

Kurdran, who was riding the Griffin King Skarre in the sky, felt depressed for the first time, and muttered: "Duke! You are a bastard! How can I brag about being the best air knight in the Alliance in the future!"

The black beast that flew in from afar at high speed was almost the size of a bunker. The flames under its wings were like a cloud of fire, and the turbulence it stirred up was filled with dots of hot golden light like the stars when forging iron. The sky it passed through at high speed seemed to be on fire, pulling out a long and continuous line of fire.

the Alliance warriors of Nethergarde were amazed at its size and power, while the Alliance leaders who were familiar with it were more concerned about its identity.

After all, less than two months ago, several people had just fought a life-and-death battle with her.

On the ground, a captain of the Dalaran Mage Corps looked up and stared at the hole in the black beast’s wing. Although the hole began to heal and shrink, its position would not change.

"Oh my god! That’s... the black dragon princess Onyxia, right?"

"Onyxia?" A blood elf ranger who was responsible for covering the captain of the wizards was stunned. "Isn’t she the protagonist of Bloody Valentine? I heard that she has been sealed by Lord Edmund! How come... she is wearing armor? And it’s the family emblem of the Edmund family?"

right!

Onyxia seems to have followed in her father’s footsteps, adding a lot of high-strength mithril armor to her body. Of course, this is not because she was as out of control as her father, almost self-destructed, and was forced to use high-strength alloys to fix her body to prevent it from falling apart.

This was purely because Duke saw that her injuries had not yet healed, so before leaving, he used the metal stored in Karazhan and used not-so-good craftsmanship to make her a set of armor to cover the parts of her body that had not yet healed.

That’s right, she is the ’million-dollar army’ that Duke gave to Turalyon!

As if it heard the whispers of the defenders on the Watchtower, the yellow vertical pupils suddenly swept towards the Watchtower. The next second, the huge dragon mouth let out an angry dragon roar at the defenders in the direction of the Watchtower.

"roar--"

Thousands of defenders subconsciously shrank their heads, and some timid ones even closed their eyes, waiting for the terrifying dragon breath that might come.

However, nothing happened.

Onyxia roared as if out of sheer boredom, and then without even turning her head, she approached the demon lord in the air who looked like Kazzak at high speed.

To unfamiliar species, other races all look the same. As someone who had fought against Kazzak, Turalyon knew that guy was not Kazzak, but a third-rate Doomsday Lord. And the only thing that guy was proud of was his ability to fly.

Seeing Onyxia approaching, the guy also panicked and spoke in Dragon Language: "Wait! The Burning Legion has an agreement with your brother Nefarian!"

Unexpectedly, Onyxia became even angrier. She answered in the common language: "Asshole! Where was my good brother when Duke was tormenting me? Besides - he is him! I am me!"

After saying that, regardless of anything else, he continued to approach the Lord of Doom at high speed.

Since the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago, the dragons and the Doomguard of the Burning Legion have known each other very well.

In a simple one-on-one aerial battle, the flexibility and mobility of the dragons of the same level are definitely superior to the Doomsday Guards. The only thing the Doomsday Guards can rely on is numbers.

This Doomsday Lord was in trouble, and he released a huge rain of shadow arrows in one breath. Then a scene that stunned all beings happened.

Onyxia, with her equally huge body, performed a great show of ’divine dodge’!

The slender dragon neck and streamlined body shuttled through the rain of shadow arrows at high speed like a swimming snake. It didn’t care at all when it was hit by one or two shadow arrows occasionally.

In just two or three blinks of an eye, Onyxia still passed through the three consecutive shadow arrow rains from the Lord of Doom and came behind the Lord of Doom.

"Don’t underestimate the Burning Legion—" the Lord of Doom shouted.

"No! I just look down on you." The Black Dragon Princess complained coldly.

The huge beheading sword, burning with flames and as tall as two stories, slashed an arc of light in the void. Onyxia responded by braking in the air and dodging with her upper body. Then, the terrifying dragon tail that was powerful enough to split mountains and rocks drew a black arc like a meteor hammer and hit the back of the Lord of Doom at a faster speed.

"Woo--" The Lord of Doom whimpered, and then turned into a Cannonball, falling heavily onto the open space less than a hundred meters in front of Turalyon.

"Well done!" Turalyon and Kurdran said in unison.

The Doomlord seemed to be very aware of his own strength in land combat. He ignored his dizziness, fired a rain of shadow arrows in the direction of Onyxia, and then flapped his wings with all his might.

Just as Turalyon and Kurdran had not yet arrived and the Black Dragon Princess was temporarily avoided, a golden pillar of fire fell from the sky and landed on the head of the Lord of Doom.

A domineering, majestic and resonant female voice came: "Evil will be purified——"

"Such an exaggerated Holy Fire?" Turalyon turned his head in surprise.

I saw a huge portal just opened at the edge of the battlefield, and then a giant woman who was at least three or four stories tall and surrounded by holy light came out of the portal. She just raised her huge palm.

Turalyon knew who she was.

She must be the chaste saint of Karazhan whom Tirion and Gavinrad mentioned.

Turalyon was overjoyed, raised his sword high and shouted, "Destroy the evil!"

Turalyon and the Maiden of Chastity formed a perfect combined attack, but Onyxia clearly kept a distance from them. If she hadn’t occasionally taken action to hit back the Lord of Doom who was trying to fly off the ground, one would have thought she was just there to make up the numbers.

Turalyon suddenly smiled bitterly. It turned out that this female black dragon considered herself to be in the evil camp.

It doesn’t matter, it’s enough to be able to restrain the opponent’s flying demon lord.

Having lost his only advantage, the fate of the Lord of Doom was determined.

After defeating the demon leader, the Burning Legion’s offensive was naturally declared a failure. Onyxia turned around and wanted to leave, but Turalyon suddenly shouted, "Wait! Nethergarde needs your strength!"

"Tsk!" No one had ever thought that a giant dragon’s bumpy face covered with stratum corneum could make such a human-like expression. It was naked disdain.

Turalyon felt a toothache on the spot. If there was a way, he didn’t want to ask this unruly black dragon princess who had inexplicably become his ally!

Unfortunately, the Alliance’s weakness is here. The strongest air force is the griffin. Even if the night elves’ hippogryph knights are included, they are still at the same level. Facts have proven that they cannot shake the Burning Legion’s Doom Lord.

Although Turalyon wanted to believe that the guardian dragons of Wyrmrest Temple could intercept all the demons, the fact was that there were still flying demon lords running over.

Seeing Onyxia snort in dissatisfaction and turn around to leave, Turalyon also became anxious and shouted loudly: "Duke said that if Cloud Piercer doesn’t behave, he will punish it when he returns."

As soon as Onyxia heard the word "punishment", countless images of dragon taming flashed through her mind. She fell sharply and seemed to be about to hit the ground.

Turalyon took a look and was surprised! There really is hope!

Since there are punishments, there will probably be rewards as well.

Turalyon subconsciously deduced: "He also said that if you listen to my command, there will be rewards!"

award!?

Humph! I am the noble and supreme Black Dragon Princess, and I don’t want the reward from that bastard master!

Onyxia pretended to be disdainful and raised her dragon head high, but after a few seconds, she narrowed half of her right eye and a magical message was transmitted into Turalyon’s ears: "Did he really say that?"

Is this what Duke meant?

A little uncertain, Turalyon nodded like a chicken pecking at rice: "Absolutely true."

"What exactly is the reward?" Onyxia asked.

"Uh, this... that... he didn’t say." Turalyon had no idea what reward Duke would get. He was a paladin, and a paladin could use strategy to deal with the enemy, but he couldn’t lie to his own people. This was already his limit. If he continued to make up stories or lie, it would affect the purity of his holy light.

Although he had long been the least pious of the Five Silver Saints...

Originally, Turalyon was prepared for Onyxia to be furious and to set fire or demolish turrets even if she didn’t kill anyone. But who knew that he would see the black dragon princess blushing.

Uh, that should be blushing, right?

The next second, Onyxia hesitantly replied: "Very good, human, you did not lie to me. Well, I will reluctantly support Nethergarde for a while."

Ah! Is this possible?

Turalyon was a little confused.

"Okay! I’ll prepare it for you right away..." Turalyon was overjoyed and wanted to say to prepare an empty barn or armory, but suddenly he remembered that Onyxia could transform into a human form, and he didn’t know what to say.

By this time, Onyxia had flown quite close to Turalyon.

Turalyon was surprised to see at this moment that there was a saddle-like seat on Onyxia’s back, but it was more like a comfortable chair than a saddle.

Not only him, many senior Alliance officers on the ground were stunned when they saw this scene.

Soon they could no longer see it, because the huge black dragon was shrinking rapidly in their sight, and in just two or three seconds it turned into a charming and beautiful woman - Countess Katrana Anrestor, who almost stole the power of the Stormwind.

She was wearing a bright red top that was shaped like a trumpet of morning glory, a pure white skirt with a high slit similar to the hem of a cheongsam, and a pair of crystal high heels that reflected the light of diamonds.

With the S-shaped posture she subconsciously struck, she looked like a model!

She dressed like she was walking on a catwalk and had more aura than the queen.

Turalyon couldn’t figure out what was going on with this guy.

"Since it’s Duke’s request, I will do it, but I must not lose out on the benefits I deserve. First, I want to enjoy the treatment of a king. Second, I’m injured and in urgent need of nutrition. Give me three roasted whole bulls every morning, noon, and evening. I want a three-year-old bull, and I also want cumin and other barbecue ingredients. Well, some Bordeaux wine from the Edmund family would be even better."

"..."

Let’s not talk about Turalyon who foolishly worshipped the black dragon princess, who had become his mount, as if she were the queen.

Back in Molten Core, Duke is in a lot of trouble.

This is the real world of Azeroth, so Molten Core is not a dungeon or an alien space that can be cleared in a few hours. It is a huge space that actually exists underground.

How big is Molten Core?

Haha! When Ragnaros got angry, he blew up the Redridge Mountains into today’s Burning Steppes and Scorching Gorge. Therefore, the size of Molten Core is as big as these two areas.

right!

According to the system AI’s scan and comparing it with the Molten Core in his memory, from west to east, the Molten Core is at least two thousand kilometers.

This is really terrible.

Duke had to lead a group of heroes on a long march into this underground world filled with a burning atmosphere.

"Hot! Hot! I’m dying of heat - Boss Duke, can’t you turn up your cooling magic a bit?" Gavinrad complained without holding back.

Duke rolled his eyes and kicked the guy into the lava to take a bath.

Gavinrad rolled away with a strange cry, then came back again ten seconds later.

There’s nothing I can do!

Of course, the players in the game would not feel the heat, but in reality, it was really too hot. The air temperature near the entrance of Blackrock Depths was only about 40 degrees, which was already unbearable for everyone.

After going deep into the Molten Core, the air temperature quickly soared to 70 degrees, and the ground temperature easily exceeded 100 degrees Celsius.

Even if every strong man is wearing three or more pieces of fire-resistant equipment to avoid getting hurt, the problem is that the feeling is still extremely bad!

The sticky, hot air felt as if I were mixing red-hot carbon powder into a paste and then pouring it into my nose.

It was a nightmare.

At the beginning, the dwarf master craftsman Gelbin was still promoting his new invention of dwarf engineering - the air filter mask. Unfortunately, that thing not only made breathing more difficult, but also was blocked by the dense magma dust floating in the air within half an hour.

Only Archmage Antonidas can easily communicate with the frost elemental plane and import the frost element into the Molten Core where the fire element almost dominates.

It’s not that the archmage is incapable of using it, but the magic power consumed by using frost magic is basically doubled.

To maintain their combat effectiveness, Jaina and Solarian can only use arcane magic.

The only two Antonidas Archmages in the team have become the absolute core of the team. They can expand the range of their Ice Shield, isolate the heat, and filter the air to a certain extent.

Because Rhonin was a generation younger than Duke, he was kicked by Duke to take care of the melee group.

The long-range occupation group can only tightly surround the circular area with a radius of no more than 100 meters centered on Duke. It’s not that it’s impossible to go farther, but it’s too hot!

Although both were Sun Mage, the gap between Rhonin and Duke was clearly revealed. Rhonin had to concentrate on sensing the frost elemental realm and use the magic power naturally overflowing from the Sun Mage to maintain a constant temperature area with a radius of about 30 meters. It was not impossible to expand it further, but that would consume his stored magic power.

This is impossible in order to prepare for the battle that may come at any time.

What’s more, even if Rhonin and Duke both lowered the temperature to 20 degrees Celsius, the air on Duke’s side was fresh and cool, while the air on Rhonin’s side was cooled down, but the air around them was still turbid.

It was true that Rhonin was Duke’s disciple, and he thought that he would be promoted to Antonidas, and that he would not be so far away from his master. Who knew that he would encounter such a thing, and it was so clear who was better.

A weak-minded person might use the excuse that he is an arcane mage, but Rhonin is obviously not one of them. After all, at Antonidas’s level, even if he is not so proficient in other types of magic, there shouldn’t be such a big gap. Rhonin chose to humbly ask Duke for advice.

"Master, after opening the Ice Shield, what is the difference between you and me? What details have I not done well in the flow of magic power?"

Duke looked at the prompts in the system:

"According to the air scan every second, the current air quality index AQI is 1180, and the primary pollutant is PM2.5 - fine particles!"

"The air quality is severely polluted and unsuitable for human survival."

"Ice ShieldActivate tornado form. Activate filtering function."

"Add frost elements to exchange heat with the ambient heat. Import thermodynamic formulas..."

"It attaches the excess water to fine particles to form controlled, small-scale rainfall."

...

After reading all these hints, Duke couldn’t help but secretly mourn for Rhonin for three seconds.

Rhonin is undoubtedly a true genius. He can use the human brain to simulate a considerable part of what can only be done by computer systems.

Unfortunately, he is still a human being after all, and it is impossible for him to perform such delicate operations like a computer.

Duke cheated.

The problem is that other people don’t know!

Duke could only teach Rhonin seriously: "This is not a simple magic application. First of all, you have to figure out who your opponent is."

"Temperature?" Rhonin frowned.

"No! Simply using the ice element and the fire element to offset or fuse will only achieve an effect similar to that of the Frostfire Arrow. Now our enemies have more than just ’temperature’!" Duke rubbed his right index finger on Rhonin’s sleeve and raised it up. Everyone could see a hint of black.

"Dust?" Rhonin’s pupils suddenly shrank.

"Yes! No one likes to eat dust. In this environment, the dust inhaled into the lungs is more deadly than the high temperature. My solution is to divide my Ice Shield into two layers, one rotating clockwise and the other rotating counterclockwise. There may be a better way, but for now, I find this is the most effective way to isolate the dust."

Rhonin, who had become the chairman of the Kirin Tor Council of Dalaran, bowed his head humbly to Duke and said, "Master, I am grateful for your teaching."

Duke was not only lecturing Rhonin, but also reminding Jaina and Solarian, who were close to him: "Antonidas, in the eyes of many mages, this is just an increase in strength. In fact, the magic power that a Antonidas-level archmage can mobilize is still limited. Since it is limited, we must maximize the use of magic within the limited magic power."

Three huge balls of magic rose from Duke’s palms - arcane, frost, and fire. He kept splitting, combining, fusing, and purifying the three elemental energies.

This extremely skillful application alone was enough to amaze the heroes of the magic department.

"The use and manipulation of magic runs through the life of any mystic. From the most basic mage apprentice to the Sunrise level, and even to demigod, it is the most basic but also the most useful! And multitasking, or even ten or a hundred times, is the threshold you must cross on your way to becoming a strong person. In addition to talent, this requires a lot of practice."

"Understood!" Several mages nodded at the same time.

"Especially you, Jaina! Molten Core is indeed too suppressive for you who specializes in frost magic. But on the other hand, this is also a rare opportunity. If you can still use your magic smoothly in such an extremely restrained environment, then there will be no place in the world that your magic cannot reach."

Jaina nodded solemnly again.

Originally, everyone wanted to give some face to Rhonin, the Speaker of the Kirin Tor who was equivalent to the king, and keep some people following Rhonin.

But as time goes by, who cares?

They all ran to the area covered by Duke to cool off.

Varian exclaimed: "I have always known that Duke is strong, but I didn’t expect him to be this strong."

"In the field of magic, he is the undisputed number one among mortals. Varian, don’t be discouraged, you can definitely become the number one in another field!" It was Valeera who comforted him. This theoretical blood elf female thief became Varian’s guard after the two Varians were completely merged into one.

Interestingly, she is not loyal to Stormwind, she is only loyal to Varian and his descendants.

the Alliance was quite united, and Duke was the core. There were no small hills. Unfortunately, due to the marching formation, the close combat was in the front to open the way and cover the wings and the back.

The result is that a group of muscular men were sent to the outer circle, and the inner circle was mostly filled with beauties.

It just so happens that most of the beauties in the Hero Group are Duke’s concubines, and the air in the inner circle is better than that in the outer circle. Not only does it have built-in cooling and air purification, it can even eliminate the pungent sulfur smell...

At first, the queens remained reserved.

As time went by, Alleria and Vereesa, who had already been in an open relationship, naturally stayed on Duke’s left and right sides.

A little further out are Jaina, Ilucia, Calia, Queen Sylvia and Tyrande.

No matter how you look at it, there are seven stars accompanying the moon!

This lineup made Mograine and other old ministers grimaced, but they were helpless. If it weren’t for the blazing magma and volcanic ash floating around, everyone would have thought Duke was here for a picnic and showing off his lovers.

Just after they had cleared out a two-headed Molten Hound, they came to a huge cave, from which an unusual aura emanated...