Chapter 748

Chapter 748: Reasonable Speculation

Jesse found himself puzzled. The scroll from Dethmoora mentioned the cries of souls in Demonic, or their howls. Why was it repeated again in Ered’ruin?

Was she trying to translate Demonic into Ered’ruin, or vice versa?

Jesse recalled how he had missed a tense while translating Gorefiend’s orders, which led him straight to Teron Gorefiend himself. This time, he dared not jump to conclusions and looked at the next word.

“Ultherfrikias.” Jesse strained to pronounce the word; he even doubted whether the imp could say the word “maze.” Kallez said, “This comes from a legend passed down from an ancient world you have never seen. It speaks of a maze filled with danger, perhaps a magical one? Where did you hear this word, Jesse Seso?”

Jesse did not answer him. He wondered whether this so-called maze referred to a specific place or was just a metaphor, an image? Or maybe a comparison to some “maze” in Azeroth?

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on these questions.

He glanced at the paper in his hand, picked the longest word, and pronounced, “Orekakindabelderi… Raloberg.”

“A mountain?” Kallez mused for a moment, seeming to get into his translator role. “A mountain, but with a dark feel, fearsome and unreachable. Jesse Seso, I guess that’s what it means.” Finally, there was a bit of location detail.

A mountain with a dark feel made Jesse think of Grim Batol right away. Could Ulthalesh be hidden inside Grim Batol?

Jesse doubted it because it had been eight hundred years since Guardian Skywynn defeated that Necromancer. Back then, Grim Batol was just empty mountains; the Three Hammers War, which split the dwarves and drove the Wildhammer from Ironforge, was still over five hundred years off.

Besides, Grim Batol’s dark reputation came from the black witch Modgud and her dark dagger’s magic. If the place had already turned dark because of Ulthalesh, the Wildhammer dwarves would never have settled there.

The rest of the short words meant little. After figuring out most of the scroll, he pieced together the rest from context.

At noon, sitting on a stone ledge overlooking the altar, Jesse stared at the huge statues around it. He thought about the sentences he’d copied from Dethmoora’s report, trying to link all the clues he’d gathered.

From the imp and Kallez’s translations, and what Jesse had asked about that morning, the report roughly said:

“A dark, uneasy mountain, where souls moan. Find signs of elves. Meet magic-wielding foes. Get lost in a maze. Cut off by deep green walls. Close to the mages’ hidden weapon—can feel it.”

Blackrock Mountain seemed to fit too. The weak soul moans might mean the countless Dark Iron dwarves who died summoning Ragnaros. But the same problem came up: before the Fire Lord arrived, Blackrock Mountain was just part of Redridge, a place like Elwynn, right between Ironforge and Stormwind. Would Guardian Skywynn really hide such a terrible weapon in such a livable spot?

Or had someone found Ulthalesh recently and moved it there? No, that didn’t add up.

At Feathermoon Stronghold, Shandris Feathermoon said Dethmoora had vanished at least one hundred and twenty years earlier. Vereesa also mentioned the Reliquary had found no trace of Dethmoora in the Eastern Kingdoms.

Jesse felt stuck on the Eastern Continent. Could Ulthalesh be hidden in Kalimdor?

A powerful Guardian with teleportation magic could easily reach another continent. And if he wanted Ulthalesh far from humans, Kalimdor made sense.

Thinking of Kalimdor opened Jesse’s mind. But where was that mountain?

Suddenly, it struck him: Dethmoora was a demon. What she saw as dark and scary might be holy or blessed to her enemies.

His heart pounded.

If so, there was only one place: Mount Hyjal.

After defeating the Burning Legion ten thousand years back, the Night Elves and Mount Hyjal were blessed by dragons who planted the World Tree Nordrassil there. Since then, Mount Hyjal barred all evil—a Doomguard fearing it made perfect sense.

That explained the elf traces too.

But what about the deep green walls? Could they mean the endless Ashenvale forest? Very likely. The Ashenvale woods, home to Night Elves, were like a deep green maze…

Jesse worried this was too simple, but Dethmoora hadn’t named places like Hyjal or Ashenvale in her report. He didn’t know why she wrote so vaguely—maybe for the same reason she used Ered’ruin. For now, it couldn’t be checked.

So where was the place of soft soul moans?

The ghostly lands below Mount Hyjal, filled with weak cries, made Jesse think of one spot: Demon Fall Canyon.

In the game, Demon Fall Canyon swarmed with powerful demons. Over a decade later, after the Burning Legion failed to invade Mount Hyjal, many demons hid there, waiting.

But was Demon Fall Canyon named before the demons came, or did it get its name because demons lived there?

Finding out wasn’t hard. Records from Quel’Thalas might hold answers—the High Elves had searched Mount Hyjal for Highborne artifacts years ago, so they’d know the area.

Even if they didn’t, the goblins in Everlook should know. Everlook lay in Winterspring, north of Demon Fall Canyon. A trip to Booty Bay to ask Miserheld might help.

If Demon Fall Canyon already existed there, he could almost confirm his guess. All the clues matched up, fitting Dethmoora’s past movements.

Then, what was the green maze?

The answer might lie in that very canyon.