Chapter 12 Chapter Twelve

Half asleep, Jaina reached out to Arthas. He wasn't there, and Jaina immediately rolled over and sat up.Alsace was up and dressed, and was cooking some hot porridge for the two of them.When he saw her, the corners of his mouth curled up, but there was no smile in his eyes.Jaina gave him a quick smile, then grabbed the robes around her and ran her fingers through her hair. "I discovered something." Alsace said straight to the point. "Last night—I didn't want to bring it up, but you gotta know." His voice was monotonous, and Jaina cringed.At least he wasn't yelling like yesterday, but it was somehow worse.Arthas handed Jaina a steaming bowl of cereal, which she absently scooped into her mouth as he continued.

"This plague... these undead..." He took a deep breath, "We know that the food is contaminated by the plague; we know it kills people. But it's more serious than that, Jaina. It's not just to kill them." His words caught in his throat.Jaina suddenly understood. She sat there for a while, her breathing became difficult, and she almost spit out the cereal she just ate. "It somehow... transforms them, turns them into undead... right? Arthas, please tell me, I'm wrong." He shook his golden head. "That's why there are so many undead in such a short period of time. The food has been transported to Hearthglen in advance, and this time is enough to grind it into flour and bake bread."

Jaina stared at him, unable to take her mind off of it. "That's why I ran away by myself yesterday. I know, I can't single-handedly take down Mel'Ganis, but - Jaina, I just can't...just sit there, camp out and tinker Armor, can you understand?" She nodded silently, and now she understood. "And that prophet... I don't care how strong you think he is. I just can't just walk away and leave the whole of Lordaeron with this... this Mel'Ganis. Whoever he is, I have to Stop him, whatever it takes. We're going to find every crate of contaminated food and destroy it."

Telling this shocking news seemed to make Arthas agitated again, and he got up and walked around. "Where the hell is Uther?" he said. "He's got a whole night to go." Jaina put down her half-eaten porridge and stood up to get dressed.Her mind was running fast, she wanted to calmly and fully understand the current situation, and she wanted to think about how to deal with it.In silence, they broke camp and set off for Stratholme. Clouds hid the sun, making the gray dawn even more gloomy.Arthas and Jaina pulled up the hoods of their cloaks in the bitterly cold rain, but Jaina was still drenched and shivering by the time she reached the gates of that magnificent city.Jaina heard voices behind them as they drew the reins to their horses.Turning around, she saw Uther leading his men up the now muddy dirt road.At this time, Alsace became excited again, and showed a bitter sneer at Uther.

"Glad you made it in time, Uther," he said loudly. Uther is a very patient person, but at this time he also lost his temper.Arthas and Jaina weren't the only ones struggling. "Watch how you speak to me, child. You may be a prince, but as a paladin I am still your superior!" "Say it as if I forgot," Arthas retorted.He walked quickly up a slope and looked down at the city over the city wall.He didn't know what he was looking for either.Maybe a sign of normal life, a sign of their timely arrival.It is a sign that he can see hope and make a difference. "Listen Uther, there's something you need to know about this plague. Those grains—"

Just as he was talking, the wind direction suddenly changed, and a not-so-smelly smell entered his nostrils.However, Arthas felt as if he had been hit hard in the stomach. The smell, the peculiar smell of bread baked with contaminated grain, is unmistakable in the humid air after the rain. Holy Light!No!Already ground, already baked, already...Alsace suddenly turned pale, his eyes widened, completely stunned by this terrifying scene. "It's too late, we're too late! Food...people..." he went on, "these people are all infected." "Arthas..." Jaina whispered.

"They may look fine now, but it's only a matter of time before they become undead." "What!" Uther yelled, "Son, are you crazy?" "No," Jaina said, "he's right. If they've eaten the grain, they'll be infected; if they've been infected with the plague...they'll be transformed." She thought desperately, there must be something more they could do what.Antonidas once told her that if something is produced by magic, it must be countered by magic.If they would just take a moment to think about it, if they could calm down and respond with reason rather than emotion, maybe they could find a cure—"The whole city must be cleansed!"

Alsace's announcement was reckless and barbaric.Jaina blinked in surprise, he must not have meant that. "How can you think that?" Uther exclaimed, walking over to his former student. "There must be another way. This is not a withered apple tree, this is a city full of people!" "Damn it! Uther, we have to do this!" Alsace walked up to him, and the distance between their faces was only an inch.For a terrifying moment, Jaina thought the two of them were about to draw swords. "Arthas, no! We can't do this!" The words escaped her mouth, and he turned around, his sea-blue eyes filled with anger, hurt, and despair.She realized right away that Arthas really thought this was the only option—that for the rest of the unaffected life to live, those who were cursed, those who couldn't be saved, had to be sacrificed.Jaina rushed forward, and Arthas' face softened a little, and she said before Arthas interrupted her:

"Listen to me. We don't know how many people are infected. Some of them may not have eaten contaminated food at all; others may not have eaten enough to be fatal. Right now we don't even know how much would be fatal. We Too little is known to kill them like cattle just out of their own fear." This sentence was wrong, and she saw Alsace's face stiffen. "Gianna, I'm here to protect the innocent. I swore I would." "They are innocent people - they are victims! They didn't ask for it! Alsace, there are children in the city, we don't know if they are also infected. There are too many unknown factors, we can't just leave it like this Decided decisively."

"What about those who are infected?" he asked suddenly, falling into an eerie silence. "They're going to kill those kids, Jaina. They're going to kill us too...then scatter around and keep killing them. They're going to die anyway, and when they come back, they're going to do things they never would have done before they were born, even Things you never even thought about. What do you choose, Jaina?" She never thought about it that way.Her eyes moved from Alsace to Uther, and from Uther back to Alsace. "I... I don't know." "No, you know." He was right, she realized with despair. "Would you rather die immediately, or die of the plague? Die cleanly as a living, thinking man, or rise as the undead to attack everything you loved in life?"

Her face creased. "I... want my personal choice... as you said. But we can't make decisions for them. Don't you understand?" He shook his head, "No, I don't understand. We need to cleanse the city so that none of them have a chance to escape spreading the plague, and none of them have a chance to be transformed. This is the only way for this plague. Now, here, to kill the roots. And that's what I'm going to do." Tears of pain welled up in Jaina's eyes. "Alsace, give me some time. Just a day or two. I can teleport back to Antonidas and hold an emergency meeting. Maybe we can find a solution—" "We don't have a day or two!" Alsace yelled. "Jaina, it only takes a few hours, maybe minutes, for the plague to affect the human body. I... I saw it firsthand in Hearthglen. We don't have time to sit down and discuss it. We have to act. Act now. Before it's too late." He Turn to Uther, leaving Jaina alone. "As your future king, I command you to cleanse this city!" "You are not a king, child! Even if you were, I would not carry out such an order!" The silence was broken in the tense atmosphere. Arthas...my love, best friend...please don't do this. "Then I must regard this as an act of betrayal." Alsace's voice was cold and urgent.Even being hit in the face wouldn't shock Jaina any more than she did now. "Betrayal?" Uther said excitedly. "Are you out of your mind, Arthas?" "Is that so? Lord Uther, with my right to inherit the royal power and reign over the world, I hereby deprive you of your command and revoke your paladins' allegiance." "Arthas!" Jaina screamed in shock, "You can't just—" He turned around angrily and shouted at her: "My will is decided!" She stared at him, and Arthas turned to look at his men.The soldiers stood silent and cautious, waiting for the quarrel to end. "Willing to save this land!" Jaina felt dizzy for a while.He's really going to do it.He would go into Stratholme and decapitate every living man, man, woman, or child within the walls.She swayed, gripping the reins of her mount.The horse neighed and lowered its head towards her, and the warm breath from its nose and mouth sprayed on her face.She was really jealous at this moment that it didn't know anything about what was in front of it. She wondered if Uther would turn on his former protégé with force.However, Uther had sworn to be loyal to his prince, even after being relieved of his military power.Jaina saw the veins bulge in Uther's neck and could almost hear him gritting his teeth.However, he did not have his own crown prince to use force. However, loyalty did not seal his tongue. "You are crossing a dangerous line, Arthas." Arthas looked at him for a moment, then shrugged and turned to Jaina, searching her eyes.For a moment, just for a split second, he seemed to be himself again, dead serious, young, and slightly frightened. "Jianna?" A few words contain a thousand words, which is both an inquiry and a request.She gazed at him like a bird petrified by a poisonous snake.Arthas reached out to her with an armored hand, and she stared for a moment, remembering how many times that hand had gently held her in his arms, caressed her, and healed the wounded with a radiant light. Yet she could not hold the hand. "I'm sorry, Arthas. I can't watch you do this." There was no mask covering his face, no cold metal benevolently covering his pain.His shocked and disbelieving expression made her dare not take another look.Taking a deep breath, her eyes filled with tears, she turned to Uther for his sympathy and support.Uther reached out to help her get on the horse, and she trembled violently and lay on the horse's back, grateful for his calmness and composure at the moment.Uther got on the horse too, and the two of them pulled the reins and began to move away from the most horrific scene of this terrible experience. "Jaina?" Arthas' voice came from behind. She closed her eyes and burst into tears. "I'm sorry," she repeated quietly, "I'm really sorry." "Jianna? ...Jianna!" She turned her back on him. He couldn't believe it.For a while, he just stared blankly at her receding figure.How could she just leave him like this?She knew him, knew him better than anyone else in the world, even better than he knew herself.She can always understand him.His mind suddenly flashed back to the night they became lovers.First bathed in orange-red firelight, followed by cool blue moonlight.He put his arms around her, pleading. Don't turn me down, Jaina.Never say no to me. Never, Alsace.forever. Oh yes.That magic moment, those magic words.Now it's all reversed.She literally did that...rejecting him and then betraying him.Damn, she would have agreed, killed cleanly before she was twisted by the plague and made an enemy of all that was good, innocent, and natural. She left him alone.Even if a knife stabbed him in the stomach, it would not be more painful than this. A thought pops up, brief, sparkling, sharp: Is she right? No, no, not possible.If she was right, he would be the perpetrator of a mass murder.And he knew he wasn't, he knew he wasn't. He shook his head to get rid of the dizzying horror, licked his suddenly parched lips, and took a deep breath.Some soldiers left with Uther.A lot...to be honest, a lot.Can this few people take the city? "Your Highness, with your grace," Falik said, "I...uh...I would rather be chopped into a thousand pieces than be transformed into one of the undead." The soldiers murmured their approval, and Arthas cheered up, gripping his hammer tightly. "We don't like to do it," he said, "just out of harsh reality. Just to eradicate the plague here with minimal casualties. Inside the walls, those people are already doomed. We know this One point, so even if they don't die, they must be killed quickly and decisively, and we can't wait for the plague to do the same to us." He looked at each one in turn, and these soldiers did not shirk their responsibility. "They must be killed and their houses destroyed, lest those we can't save hide in them." His subordinates nodded in understanding, gripping their weapons tightly. "This battle is neither great nor honorable. It's ugly, it's painful. It was a last resort, and I regret it from the bottom of my heart. But I also fully understand that we have to." "For the Light!" he shouted, raising his hammer.The soldiers raised their weapons and echoed.Arthas turned to the gate, took a deep breath, and rushed in. Dealing with the resurrected dead is easy.They are enemies; no longer human beings, but evil reflections of life.Smashing their skulls and beheading them is no harder than taking down a ferocious beast. But the others—they looked at the armed soldier, at his prince, first with bewilderment, then with terror.At first, most didn't even bother to take up arms; they knew the badge and knew that these soldiers who were dying were supposed to protect them.They don't even understand why they deserve to die.Arthas' heart clenched with pain as he knocked down the first man.It was a young man, almost past puberty.He looked at Alsace with puzzled brown eyes, and asked. "My lord, why—" Alsace yelled, not only because of the pain he had to do, but also mixed with other factors.He slammed the hammer into the boy's chest, realizing with some dismay that the light was no longer shining on the hammer. Perhaps the Light also grieves for the horrible act it had to do.Suppressing heart-piercing sobs, he turned to face the boy's mother. He thought it would be easier next time.Things got worse.Arthas could not back down, and the soldiers held him up as an example; if he faltered, so would they, and Mel'Ganis would win all the way.So he kept his helmet on so they couldn't see his face, and he lit a torch and burned the building with his own hands, despite the screaming and crying of the crowd inside.He strode forward, not letting the horrible sight and sound slow him down. Some of Stratholme's citizens revolted. They were powerless against professional soldiers and well-trained paladins, but at least not now...in Jaina's words, it was no different than slaughtering cattle.Now the instinct of self-defense eased that terrible feeling, and they felt a moment of relief. "I have waited long, young prince." The deep voice trembled in his ears and in his mind... no words could describe it except... evil....Kel'Thuzad said, a dreadlord.The existence of darkness, the name of darkness. "I'm Mel'Ganis." Arthas felt a surge of joy that he was right.Here is Mel'Ganis, the man behind the plague.Alsace's subordinates also heard it, and they turned around to search for the source of the sound. At this moment, the door of a house hiding residents suddenly opened, and a group of zombies rushed out from inside, with green sickly bodies on their bodies. halo. "As you can see, your people are mine now. I will transform the city door by door until the fire of life is extinguished forever. ’ Mel’Ganis laughed, his disturbing voice dark and raspy. "I will not let this happen, Mel'ganis!" Arthas yelled.His heart swelled, knowing he was doing the right thing. "Even if they die by my hands, it's better than being your death slaves!" There was another laugh, and then the disturbing sound came and went quickly.A large group of undead suddenly rushed up from three sides, making Arthas busy in protecting himself. Arthas would never be able to say how long it took that day to kill every living . . . and dead in the city.But finally it was over.The bakery had become a burning building, but the sweet smell of the poisonous bread still permeated the air, mixed with the smell of blood and gunpowder smoke, making Alsace almost sick.He was shaking and exhausted, blood and pus stained his glistening armor.But he knew it wasn't over, and he knew what he was waiting for.Sure enough, a moment later, his enemy fell from the sky and landed on the roof of an undestroyed building. Arthas was shocked, the creature was huge, its blue-gray skin looked like a living stone, its bald head had two long horns that curved upwards, and a pair of bat-like wings behind it were like moving shadows.His back-bent goat-hoofed legs were encased in spiked metal armor adorned with skulls and bones.He smiled imperiously, showing his sharp teeth, which gleamed in the green light of his eyes. He stared up at the creature in horror and disbelief, but the evidence before him took his breath away for a moment.He'd heard tales like it; he'd seen it in illustrations from old books in the Royal Library and the Dalaran Archives.But at this moment, facing the shocking monster standing before him, the sky behind him was covered with blood red flames and deep black smoke - the dreadlord is a kind of demon, something that exists in mythology.It couldn't be real--yet it was here, standing before him, as he had been in all the horrible legends. Dreadlord. Fear nearly overwhelmed Arthas, but he knew it would leave him vulnerable, and die at the hands of this monster... without even fighting it.Entirely relying on the effect of will, he got rid of the instinctive fear in his heart and replaced it with another more suitable emotion.Hate!Righteous wrath.He thought of the living and dead who had fallen under his hammer, rapacious ghouls, terrified women and children, not knowing that he had come to save their souls.He was supported by the faces of victims who could not... and would not die needlessly.Arthas gripped his hammer tightly, and somehow he now had the courage to face the demon face to face. "Let's end it now, Mel'Ganis," he cried, his voice strong. "Just the two of us." The dreadlord threw back his head and laughed. "That's brave." He said in a thunderous voice. "Unfortunately, we won't end here." Mel'Ganis smiled, sharp fangs showing from parted black lips. "Your journey has only just begun, young prince." With a wave of his arm, he pointed at the soldiers under Arthas, his long sharp claws shining in the flames that engulfed the entire magnificent city. "Gather your army and come to find me in Northrend, the extremely cold place. Only there will you know your true destiny." "My real destiny?" Alsace's voice was hoarse with anger and confusion. "What are you—" he broke off suddenly, and the air around Mel'Ganis began to sparkle and swirl, and he'd seen it before. "No!" Alsace screamed and rushed up.This was a blind and impulsive act, and if the teleportation spell hadn't been completed, he might have been cut in two in an instant. Arthas swung his shimmering warhammer, shouting incoherently towards the empty sky. "Even to the ends of the earth, I will catch you! Did you hear that? To the ends of the earth!" He roared in pain and maniacally, and violently swung his warhammer into the air until he was completely exhausted.He was sweating and leaning against it with his warhammer, shaking and sobbing in frustration and rage. Until the ends of the earth.