Chapter 255
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Chapter 255: The Dark Valley
Imp held onto Jesse’s cloak, swaying with his every step.
It tried to diminish its fiery body as much as possible, so that Jesse wouldn’t stand out too much in the night forest, while peeking into the woods for possible dead bodies, living people, or hostile beings.
To the north of Redridge was a vast forest of dead trees, starkly contrasting with the lush forest by Lake Everstill to the south.
When Blackrock Mountain exploded, this great mountain blocked the impact of the heat waves that stretched for hundreds of kilometers, protecting the valley on the shore of Lake Everstill.
Despite this, according to records in Lakeshire, those decades were still the toughest days in history, with many people starving to death, suffering from various diseases due to the pervasive dust and passing away early, only recovering the prosperity of the time before the Three Hammers’ War fifty or sixty years later.
Beyond this half-covered view of the dead tree forest, extending to the plains tens to hundreds of kilometers away, Jesse could only see some red thin lines seemingly crawling on the black plains and hills in the night, too far to discern.
That is the Burning Steppes, the red thin lines are cracks caused by the crazy power of the Firelord Ragnaros.
The trees under the hill looked like twisting corpses in the evening, appearing extremely painful. They stretched their withered limbs towards the sky, as if trying to grasp a little sunshine before their death. It was unsettling to see so many half-dead trees in sight.
"These elemental beings gone wild because of parasites, master." Molofeel appeared beside and softly said, "It’s like a disease in the Twisting Nether."
Jesse knew that the parasites Molofeel mentioned were the Old Gods, spreading darkness throughout the universe and corrupting every place they could influence.
"Are there many worlds like this?" Jesse asked, "Where elemental beings uncontrollably attack other life forms."
"Many," Molofeel replied, "It’s not always because of the shadow influence, master. The elements themselves are very unstable."
"Azeroth is also an irredeemable world!" imp leaned close to Jesse and said, "The fate of this world doesn’t depend on the mortals lingering on its surface… Eventually, the Void and the Burning Legion will clash here, and all living beings will perish in endless torment! The entire Twisting Nether foresees this! You should know this too, master!"
"Okay, okay," Jesse said, "Calm down, don’t get so worked up in the middle of the night!"
It was late at night, with both moons almost directly overhead. Searching for two people in the wild mountains at night was indeed quite difficult, even with the help of demons.
Jesse continued northward along the mountain ridge for a distance. He gazed into the distance from a bare cliff, suddenly feeling a trace of shadowy light flashing in an inconspicuous shadow.
Looking closely, it was a mountain hollow, blocked by piles of dead woods.
Jesse doubted his eyes a bit, not sure if he was just hoping to find something, causing some kind of illusion.
Because the traces were not very clear… It’s like being able to see but not see clearly.
"Did anyone feel something?"
Jesse pointed in the direction of the shadowy trace and asked.
"It’s like… nothing," imp asked, leaning on Jesse’s neck.
"How about you, Molofeel."
Succubus looked over there and said, "I’m better at tracking demons than tracking living beings, master, although I hate to admit it…"
Jesse felt like the distance was about two to three kilometers, which might look different at night, but not too far away.
"Follow me, Molofeel."
He said, jumping off the cliff, sliding and moving forward on the slope below, while the succubus moved much more gracefully, easily jumping on different rocks.
They hadn’t walked for long when more and more dead trees surrounded them. Jesse felt like they were getting close to the place he had seen, so he slowed down. At that moment, the imp suddenly grabbed his collar, whispering, "Master, I can sense a dark power…ahead…"
"Are you sure?" Jesse stopped and hid under a broken tree stump nearby, asking, "I asked you earlier, and you said there was nothing."
"That’s too far away, master," the imp said with a trace of sadness, "And this dark power isn’t very strong, compared to the dragon we encountered in Lordaeron last time… That dragon was like a shining shadow star, dazzling and uncomfortable…"
"So, what is it this time?" Jesse asked.
"I don’t know… but it’s something similar," the imp muttered.
The night wind blowing from the Burning Steppes carried a burnt smell. Jesse had almost gotten used to this smell, but this wind wasn’t carrying the scent from the valley.
But since imp said that… Could it be another dragon?
Jesse remembered that in the game, Redridge was full of black dragon whelps, those flying baby dragons were everywhere, cooperating with Orcs and Gnolls to attack the defense forces in Lakeshire.
Could there be wandering dragon whelps here? But dragons usually don’t appear far from their dragon lair unless there’s an emergency.
The reason there are so many dragon whelps in Redridge in the game is because their dragon lair will be at Blackrock Mountain in a dozen years. These dragon whelps obey the commands of the black dragon prince Nefarian, assisting the Blackrock Orcs in destroying the human territories here.
But has Nefarian taken over Blackrock Mountain now? Even if Nefarian is planning to control Blackrock Mountain, since Onyxia has not yet come to Stormwind, it should still be in the early stages. It shouldn’t be causing trouble by releasing dragon whelps.
Jesse identified the entrance to that valley, telling the two demons to stay hidden, and asked him to try to get closer.
A burst of purple light shone from the valley, reflecting the glow of the strange trees’ trunks and branches, which Jesse saw with his own eyes.
Though the shadow was not strong, it was just too blatantly displayed… After all, he had never seen any warlock in the city show Shadow Power so openly.
The last time he saw such a blatant manifestation of shadow power was when Teron Gorefiend unleashed his shadow wrath on the rooftop.
Arriving at the entrance of the mountain hollow, Jesse tried to peek into the direction of the dark shadows, but couldn’t see anything inside the hollow. The shadows were not flickering at that moment.
"Go check it out, Molofeel, you run faster than imp."
"Okay!"
Jesse softly commanded Molofeel, who heard his voice clearly, to stealthily enter deeper into the mountain hollow.
"Master… I hear voices, have you heard them too, human voices," imp whispered softly.
The sound of the wind rustling through the branches in the mountain hollow made it hard for Jesse to hear anything clearly. However, he acknowledged that amidst the wind, there seemed to be a faint howling, but in this dark and eerie environment, he felt the wind should be stranger instead and thereby overlooked the oddity hidden within it.
He carefully listened to the intermittent sounds, feeling like it was howling and then insults, was it Medeiros?
Was it two people or just one of them?
At that moment, Molofeel appeared beside him and whispered, "It’s a mixed-blood Wyrmkin… Master, that’s a monster infused with the power of shadows."
"What are Wyrmkin?"
Jesse was a bit surprised at first, but then he calmed down.
Wyrmkin can vary in strength, with the most powerful Warlords even more formidable than a full-grown dragon, while the weakest Scouts may not be as strong as a skilled human fighter.
However, Wyrmkin share a common trait- these mutated humans with dragon blood are eager to show off their powers.
To display their identity and status within the dragon race legion, Wyrmkin adorn themselves with a mishmash of armor and ornaments, or carry a huge dragon flag to signify their Warlord status.
Generally, the more extravagant the attire and decorations, the stronger the individual’s power and higher their rank, and vice versa.
"Have you seen its outfit?"
"The creature is wearing a red cloak, master," Molofeel said. "It has a lizard-like body, but very slender, and is mentally tormenting a human tied to a tree."
A red cloak, a Wyrmkin Fire Mage, probably not very strong.
Jesse thought for a moment, wondering why he should be afraid of a Fire Mage when he was protected by fire resistance all over his body and had Soul Link.
"Are you sure there’s only him in this mountain hollow?"
"Only this one," Molofeel replied.
"Are there any other Wyrmkin nearby, Saenor?"
Imp whispered, "I don’t think so… even this one’s shadow power is too weak to notice easily. If there are other creatures, they must be different from this Wyrmkin, master…"
"So coming alone to this mountain is very dangerous." He licked his lips and said, "Today we’ll confront him and save that person."
"Sneak near that Wyrmkin, Molofeel, don’t let it notice you… Wyrmkin might be quite sensitive to magic."
"When I draw his attention, you rush in immediately and use all your strongest moves. We need to defeat it quickly to prevent it from alerting its nearby companions."
"You can’t leave me behind… master."
"I should be more worried about you leaving me behind!"
"Never…"
Watching the invisible succubus move forward, Jesse had a feeling in his heart.
This Wyrmkin Mageweaver might be a scout or spy like himself, sent here by a black dragon, such as Nefarian, to investigate, explore, and gather information, laying the groundwork for the Blackwing Legion’s future presence in Blackrock Mountain and to aid the Burning Legion.
Why did he capture that human then?
Was it because of the dragon scales?