Chapter 61

The Land of Always Winter

In the remote north far beyond the wall, the once cold desolate land full of ruins was no longer what it once was. The land now held a fully completed Icecrown Citadel that towered above all others, it could be seen for miles around. Its dark stone and metal material it was made from stood out amongst the white snow covered land, it gave off a menacing and oppressive aura if gazed upon.

The Lich King had focused much of his magic and power in building up his power over the realm. Many believed that the undead were just mindless beings, this was exactly what the Lich King was purposely conveying to the living. He was purposely sending out hordes of his weakest undead, to lull the living into a false sense of security.

Meanwhile he was recovering his strength, when he had first arrived in this realm his power had decreased dramatically, he used much of his magical power to establish a connection with the Burning Legion as well as summoning a few of his less powerful generals.

Now his strength has grown exponentially and he has been able to bring his own undead dragons into this world such as Rimfang and Sindragossa as well as his more powerful subordinates such as Professor Putricide and Blood Queen amongst others.

The Dark Portal had also been completed thus he was also able to bring over many of the leaders of the Burning Legion, Kil'jeaden, Archimonde, Tichondrius and Hakkar the Houndmaster were just a few of the leaders he was able to bring thru the portal and have them work together to plan the true invasion of Westeros.

Angrathar the Wrathgate, a towering wall of knife edges, had been built at the entrance to the Land of Always Winter. This allowed Ner'zhul the defense needed to accumulate his growing power unhindered even if the living made it this far north, allowing him to conquer the unknown lands beyond and create more and more death knights.

As he filled his forces with key figures of both undead and the Burning Legion his own strength began to grow. Although shipments of the living from south of Always Winter had all but ended due to the efforts of the Stark's, the Lich King's armies had invaded the lands beyond unhindered which was why the Alliance of the living thought they were gaining ground.

Kil'jeaden had been purposely slowly leading the armies of adventurers from Seven Kingdoms slowly to the Wrathgate and they had even built dungeons as a means to empower their armies, any deaths within would immediately taint the soul of those who died within its walls, even if they were resurrected their souls would still be tainted ever so slightly, and after so many deaths they would eventually become servants of the Lich King.

These buildings drained much of Ner'zhul's power since they were ultimately traps connected to the Citadel by means of the Wrathgate which acted as a medium which channeled the power of the frozen throne to any dungeon built between the Wall and Always Winter.

So while the living gained ground and confidence in winning, the horrors that awaited them grew further in the lands controlled by the Legion and the Lich King daily.

As the Lich King sat upon the frozen throne atop the Citadel, although he was in a temporary weakened state after establishing the dungeon connections to his palace, he gazed out across his land and beyond towards the Wall.

"Let this be your first lesson heroes of the living. You will come to this place seeking to bring judgement upon the damned. You will venture deep into forgotten lands and see wonders beyond your imagination. The land itself however shall rise up against you. Long forgotten terrors shall smother your courage. Sacrifice everything as the darkness falls... In the end, all that awaits you is death. Only then shall you realize, you have been following my footsteps on the path I have laid before you, marching to my own drums of war all along. So then come heroes, come in all your power and glory! For in the final hour, all must serve the one true king."

After his proclamation resounded across the North, the Wrathgate opened and legions of the scourge and demons poured out from the lands of Always Winter. Many were heading out to occupy the multitude of dungeons that had been built while others headed south to once again assault the Wall. He wanted to test the heroes and enjoy watching them struggle for survival, making them stronger before they died making them stronger subordinates when he converts them into the scourge.

When the human heroes beyond the Wall heard the Lich King make his proclamation, many had frozen in place in fear as they searched the surroundings looking for the source. His voice rang out clearly as if he was just feet away from them, this put many on edge, for many their previous confidence they had built began to wane. While some faltered there were still those that remained calm, their determination to rid the world of darkness to protect their loved ones south of the wall gave them courage.

Leaders amongst the living knew this marked a turning point in the war, many of them began to head back to the nearest base camp knowing that the enemy had probably prepared an attack. The only reason the enemy would issue such a challenge was that they had finally fully prepared for them, it was all the leaders could think would be the reason for this blatant provocation.

They began to send out scouting teams made of skilled classes to scout farther North. As these groups of scouting parties made their way north, they began to detect the subtle changes the land was undergoing. The temperature, although cold wasn't as biting as it once was.

Unknown to them the Wrathgate along with the multitude of dungeons the scourge and Legion had built was absorbing the coldness in the environment and feeding it into the Citadel, this would in turn empower the Citadel itself as well as the frozen throne and Frostmourne.

This was why the Lich King used up much of his power in order to establish this system, tho he would be weakened it would not be for long as not only would he be able to quickly recover the power used, it would allow his power to grow beyond what it was before.

His ultimate desire was to draw out Arthas' reincarnation, giving him a path that he had no choice in taking, just as he did before in Azeroth. Ner'zhul planned to use Arthas' soul to break the chains that kept him under Sargeras control as he once did in Northrend. He had tricked Arthas into taking the mantle of the Lich King with promises of being able to control the Scourge and stopping its invasion of Azeroth, which Arthas willingly did, but it was all a farce.

Arthas' soul was gradually devoured and merged with Ner'zhul giving him the ability to break the control Sargeras held over him, allowing the Lich King the opportunity to turn on the Burning Legion at Mount Hyjal and become a force to be reckoned with.

Now that Ner'zhul was somehow separated from Arthas' soul and body the chains that bound him to the Burning Legion had been restored.

Ner'zhul unlike the demons of the Burning Legion remembered Azeroth and the events that took place, this was why in the beginning he only summoned Gul'dan. It was a test to Kil'jeaden, Gul'dan was a subordinate of Kil'jeaden and if he had shown any hostility towards him he would know that the Legion remembered his betrayal. If that was the case he would've ended Gul'dan immediately and not use the Legion forces as he did.

But upon searching Gul'dan's soul and listening in on the connection between Kil'jeaden and himself, Ner'zhul determined that whatever caused his entrance into this new world had either wiped away the past or cleared the memories of all but himself and Arthas.

Even now Ner'zhul had plans to once again betray the Legion which was why he continued to entice the reincarnation of Arthas into joining him once again, he knew of the new family Arthas now had and wanted to use it as a bargaining chip once again. It was how he did it the first time, Arthas was a very honorable Prince after all. He was willing to do anything for the greater good, even culling all the inhabitants of Stratholme when the plague threatened to turn the whole city into the undead.

Even with everyone against his idea of killing all whether they were infected or not, his own teacher and father figure Uther had condoned this action, Arthas still followed thru with it. This act, although brutal, did prevent even more deaths in the end due to it stopping a large army of undead to appear behind their front lines due to the shipments of grain being infected.

Stratholme was a major food distributor for many other cities across the realm, this was why Mal'Ganis had chosen the city and oversaw its operation of infection. The citizens unaware of the infested grain began cooking and eating preparing the breads and foods they created to be distributed among the neighboring towns and cities. Due to Arthas' quick response the distribution never occurred, but at the cost of all the lives within the bustling city since they had already been infected, this was also the start of Arthas' descent into madness.

Getting a sense of unease the scouts continued ahead until they started to come up the dungeon's build by the Scourge followed by the massive army that slowly made their way south. They watched in horror as some entered these dungeons while others continued to march south, they thought the dungeons were similar to their own forward bases. This had shaken them to their cores, they had only thought the undead mindless creatures who although knew no fear or fatigue, could still be conquered thru human tactics and ingenuity.

Attacking an army in the open field was much easier than attacking a fortified structure with defensive capabilities. This was why they built bases beyond the wall.

Suddenly a scout using far sight gasped and began shaking, his armor rattling loudly causing his team members to tackle the man to the ground which broke the spell.

"Are you trying to get us killed? It's not even that cold."

"N..N..No... we n...n..need to leave now. They built their own fucking wall.... It's just as big as ours, but worse....much, much worse. Lord Stark needs to know." The scout replied back in a panic, as he began to regain his composure.

"What are you going on about? I don't see no wall, did you have a little too much of that dwarven ale last night?" One of the scouts joked, after all the wall was many miles away and he wasn't a shaman but a rogue.

Turning to the one other shaman in the group he pointed out in a direction and stated, "Use far sight three times in that direction. I was attempting to get a full count of the numbers but on my third jump with the spell to go further it was there."

With a nod the other shaman began casting far sight and followed the instructions that were provided. Far sight was a spell that allowed the shaman to throw his consciousness vast distances away allowing them to see what was in the distance with ease. They could use the first spell as a springboard to cast again thus jumping even further. Although it was difficult to accomplish the shaman. made his second jump, each jump required more mana but did allow shamans a 360° view of the area the spell landed. Upon seeing the man struggle with the third jump the other shaman removed an elixir of mighty thoughts from his pack and forced it into the mouth of the shaman along with a mana potion.

Due to the bonus in intellect from the elixir as well as the additional mana, the lower leveled shaman was able to accomplish the third jump with the spell. Immediately after the third jump the man began to shake even harder than the man before, he was lower level than the other shaman by double digits so the oppressive aura the Wrathgate produced affected him much more.

Thinking the man was having a seizure the leader of the scouting party knocked the man down breaking the spell.

"What the fuck, you trying to kill the man? What was that you gave him?" The leader asked as he cast a healing spell on the man thinking he was hurt by whatever he was forced to drink.

Before the other could respond the man jumped up, still shaking in fright.

"I..Im f..fi..fine... he wa..s r..r..right... There w..as a ma..massive wall... Pure evil... We have to report this.. By the gods, just what are we up against?"