Chapter 409
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Chapter 409: A Little Bit of the Dead Area
After saying goodbye to Fyodor on the road, Jesse joined the team preparing to head to Nethergarde.
This group of soldiers is led by a group of knights from Stromgarde who have come from Nethergarde. They ride horses taller than the ones from Stormwind, with bright red capes, shiny red armor, and long spears with flags. They wear silver pointed helmets, looking majestic like a group of red baby dragons.
Even though Stormwind is much closer than the Stromgarde Kingdom, it is clear that the people of Arathi have significant influence here, likely connected to Danath Trollbane’s leadership.
Jesse felt a bit regretful that he couldn’t ride a gryphon like the mages who rushed to Nethergarde on the first day. The skies were chaotic and dangerous back then, not to mention dangerous to travel by gryphon from the ground.
With the cavalry accompanying them now, it was evident that the road to Nethergarde from here had been opened.
The group set off in the morning, with over two hundred people carrying supplies from Darkshire towards the south.
In the game, there is a clear distinction between this swamp and the location of Nethergarde to the south, which is in the Blasted Lands.
The Blasted Lands are like a huge crater centered around the Dark Portal, filled with barren red soil where only scavengers like scorpions, buzzards, wild boars, and even creatures that feed on demon flesh can survive.
From the northern part later known as the "Swamp of Sorrows," The Black Morass stretches south, crossing a vast area.
However, here the boundaries on both sides are not as distinct.
Jesse could feel the strong presence of dark magic, the surroundings becoming sparse with streams and swamps, more dead trees appearing, the climate getting drier, but the red soil was nowhere to be seen yet.
Just as Fyodor had mentioned, it was becoming more and more like a dead land, the clouds thickening in the sky, green fel magic lightning hinting at ominous signs, even though it was only three or four in the afternoon, it felt dark as if night was approaching.
Jesse noticed that the mages accompanying him were getting more nervous, even those who had participated in the Orc War had never experienced anything like this before.
Of course, Jesse wasn’t calm either, especially when a creature’s roar suddenly echoed in the sky.
Walking on the main road, he occasionally felt as though something in the forest beside the road was watching him.
He tried to use Detect Demon to look around, but he couldn’t see anything.
In a place like The Black Morass, it was unlikely for bandits to appear. Could there be some wild beasts trying to attract the attention of the hundreds of military personnel?
If it was indeed wild animals, they would probably run away at the sound of approaching hooves. At that moment, he noticed a small silhouette rushing through the woods, not human, not Orc, at a rough glance, it looked more like the back of a Gnoll.
It wasn’t just him who noticed, soon someone behind them asked, "Did you all see that too?"
"Don’t worry about those people, mage," said a rider. "There are some monsters that escaped from another world in this swamp, looking like a group of upright skinny toads. Just leave them alone, those guys may look rough but they have some basic intelligence. As long as they don’t feel threatened, they won’t attack us."
Another rider added, "It is said that they were driven here as slaves by Orcs and demons, and these poor creatures escaped when the tribe failed."
Listening to the riders’ descriptions, Jesse thought of a possibility.
These short shadows might be the so-called ‘Lost Ones’.
The exiles from Argus who lived on Draenor, calling themselves ‘Draenei’, the Eredar were repeatedly defeated in the war against Orcs. Many captives were heavily affected by fel magic and shadow erosion over a long period of time. Some survivors turned into such deformed monsters with severely degraded intelligence and strength.
The Eredar are tall and mighty, standing proud and strong even among the many demons in the Burning Legion. The Draenei who rejected fel magic didn’t fare much worse.
It is unimaginable what kind of changes those Draenei, tortured into such monstrous forms, have undergone deep within. Under the gaze of this dark and dead land, as the team reached a dark depression, Jesse could sense that it used to be a small lake or pond, the entire depression emitting an extremely foul stench.
This stench is different from fel magic but no less unpleasant. As Jesse was searching for the source of this stench, another mage muttered to another mage beside, "Look… at that thing."
Many people in the team looked over there, and Jesse followed their gaze, seeing a broken demon corpse impaled on a tree trunk, its head looking up to the sky, with its arms, legs, and wings hanging down below.
The demon’s body was dark brown, with dark red membranes on its wings. Jesse recognized it as a Doomguard.
He had never really seen a Doomguard before, but the features of this body were clear enough.
Doomguards are the strongest flying demons in the Burning Legion. They come from a demon race called Ered’ruin, and in the Burning Legion, they are second only to the Mo’arg demons.
In the eyes of the common people of Azeroth, Ered’ruin is the most typical image of a "demon" – covered in horns and black fur, with a head full of huge spikes, giant demonic wings, wielding sharp blades, flying everywhere, possessing terrible powers, and able to spew wildfire.
A thousand years ago, when demons infiltrated Tirisfal and Dalaran, the succubi and Felhounds hid in the shadows. These terrifying monsters appeared directly from the light, leaving a very frightening impression on the humans at that time.
"Hurry up!" shouted a Knight Captain ahead, speaking Common with a thick accent from the Highlands. "Don’t linger by this demon body too long, unless you want to wake up tomorrow morning with sores on your skin!"
As night fell, although the forest did not get darker, just as Jesse was wondering when they would reach Nethergarde, he suddenly saw a tall city wall on a high hill ahead.
Have they reached the Blasted Lands already?
It looks completely different here from the game, after all, in the game, the area around Nethergarde is already a red wasteland.
Although this place is not exactly thriving, it’s not completely barren either. At least there is a sparse forest nearby.
In other words, the Blasted Lands gradually transformed into the ghostly place it became over the next decade. Countless demons kept pouring out from the twisted cracks caused by the explosion of the Dark Portal. The ongoing battles and the dark energy spread by the demons never dissipated in the days that followed.
The sentries on the tall tower spotted the approaching group from afar. They blew a few loud horns, and the red-clothed cavalry at the front sped up. Jesse’s mood became more and more uplifted.
Purple violet banners and the Lordaeron flag representing the Alliance hung on that section of the city wall, gently fluttering with the evil wind blowing in from the Dark Portal.
Jesse could tell that these city walls resembled the style of Stormwind, unlike the royal city of Lordaeron, the Arathi-style walls, or even Durnholde Keep. Maybe even the Stonemasons Guild contributed to the design and construction of this castle.
Nevertheless, Nethergarde… the place he had always wanted to see was right in front of him now.
