I have forgotten how long it has been.

It was a twilight evening, and a peasant woman from Lordaeron knelt on the side of the path he passed, begging for his help.

"My child is gone, I beg you, Your Royal Highness the Prince, please save him! He's been captured by the gnolls! ”

The poor mother was pained and anxious, her face was filled with fear, and she begged desperately for his help.

In such a scenario, if he ignores the mother's pleas, then no one can help her, and the poor child who was taken by the jackals will come to a tragic end.

So, in order to protect his subjects, he drew the knight's sword and led his men into the gnolls' camp, saving the poor little boy who was almost on the grill.

Timmy.

A lovely name.

He timidly curled up in the prince's arms, looking at the tall warriors around him, terrified and uneasy.

"You...... Who are you? ”

The prince smiled softly at him, "We are the warriors of the kingdom, and we have come to save you. ”

The little boy didn't seem to understand, "Then why are you all wearing armor?" ”

"Because we are the guardians of the country, the knights who protect everyone."

The little boy was stunned for a moment, and his eyes widened cutely, "Then you are the head of the regiment?" ”

He nodded slightly, noncommittal, "Ah, yes, you can call me Arthas." ”

The other knights around him laughed, "He's our prince." ”

So the little boy showed an expression of amazement and pestered him to ask him a lot of questions. Until they returned to the village. The mischievous little boy relaxed his questioning.

At the entrance of the village, the child's parents knelt at the entrance of the village, tears of joy on their faces, grateful for the prince's help.

When I finally watched him leave. The little boy named Timmy had been running after them for a long distance, and finally waved his hand in the distance and said goodbye loudly.

"Your Royal Highness, will you protect us forever?"

He clenched his fists firmly and made his vow to fulfill the duties of a knight and a prince and to protect all his subjects. lest they be evil.

He mounted his horse, left the village, and went into the distance. But the vow in my heart remained forever.

Until......

"Ignorant fool!"

The necromancer Kel'thugad seemed to feel something in his dying roar, and his hand holding the sword trembled.

Anger, or...... Sadness.

"My death won't change anything. Right now...... The punishment of the land. It's already begun, and you're all going to hell! Alsace! ”

As the necromancer said, the punishment of this land has already begun.

Next to the corpse of the necromancer, he stared at the cage in the corner of the room in a daze, almost suspecting that there was an illusion in front of his eyes.

Inside the cage was a skinny ghoul, thin and short. Like a child.

It doesn't have the hideous feeling of other ghouls, nor does it rush to suck blood when it sees a living person like other ghouls.

It just curled up in its cage timidly and fearfully, shivering. Like a homeless child, he timidly hides around.

It was a ghoul that would not actively attack people, and the only one he had ever seen that would not attack a living person.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this peculiarity that it was locked up and studied by Kel'thugad, right?

By this time, however, the necromancer was dead, so it had lost its place once again—even if it was only a place for the undead.

It looked at the human in front of it in horror and uneasiness, curled up in its cage and shivering, the chain on its chest trembling slightly.

"Timmy ......"

He looked at the poor ghoul in amazement, and recognized the identity of the other party when he was alive, "Why are you here......"

The little boy he had saved from the gnoll's grill, who had laughed and asked him many questions, had once again been separated from his mother, and this time there was no one to send him home.

It hid in the corner of the cage in a daze, looking at the prince's outstretched hand, frightened and uneasy, as if it remembered something in its vague memory.

Prince of Alsace......

It stared blankly at the person in front of it, subconsciously held the other party's hand, and felt that hand trembling slightly.

"I will save your ......"

The prince said softly, his heart filled with great sorrow, "I will surely save you!" ”

He had made such a great determination to himself that he would never allow his failure.

Then came the massacre of Stratholme.

Scold...... When a person goes mad and stabs an enemy with an extreme sword, he himself is covered with wounds.

He had arrived alone in Northrend, the top of the Icecrown fortress overlooking the entire dark land, the sword hanging at his side slowly drifting through the icy chill.

A grim shadow appeared in front of him, laughing at him.

"My poor prince, do you recall the experience of your past life? I can feel your emotions fluctuating, do you really care so much about those ridiculous pasts? ”

The wind, blowing from all sides of the sky, and the icy snowflakes fell on the apex of Northrend in the North Pole, silently passing through the cold shadow, as if it had never existed.

The sword in the prince's hand clenched gently.

He looked back at the other side of him.

There, a frail boy looked at him with a smile, dressed in a sumptuous royal robe and with a gentle smile on his face, just as he had ever been.

He knew that these were illusory dreams.

Whether it was the frozen throne, or these ethereal snowflakes, or the two figures in front of him, they were all just his illusory dreams.

One, is Nao Zu.

One is Alsace. Minahill.

The last one is him.

He is......

The Lich King.

"It's time to wake up."

Ignoring the presence of the two images, he muttered to himself and turned to face the entire dark sky.

"It's time to wake up, the Lich King."

As the sound fell, a huge black thunderbolt swept through the air.

The man in the forest widened his eyes and was caught off guard by the sudden rainstorm in front of him.

"This ...... What's going on? ”

As soon as the newcomer to the other world opened his eyes, he found that he had lost everything, leaving only a man alone in the barren forest, with no one in sight.

Before he could find his way out, he was caught off guard by the sudden rainstorm and had to hurriedly find a place to take shelter from the rain.

And in Northrend, in the North Pole, far away from the forest where the traveler was, in front of a throne that had been frozen in ice on a huge fortress, the frost began to peel off.

It was the shadow of a man, sitting silently on an icy throne, covered in frost, dead and silent.

For a long time, he didn't feel it. He sat on the throne, motionless, waiting, dreaming.

As he sat like a stone statue, the frost covered him, but it didn't become a prison that trapped him, but more like a layer of skin protecting him.

He didn't know what he was waiting for, but now he did.

A long time ago, he watched the young prince of Stormwind weeping over his dead father, kneeling in pain and trembling at the tombstone—that was the first time darkness had come to his world.

Since then, he has embarked on a long journey.

And now, he has finally reached the final point of his journey.

The journey spanned Azeroth, reached Northrend, reached the Frozen Throne, and reached the wider skies. He will follow this path to pursue his deepest self, and finally choose to kill all the innocence and goodness that binds him and the evil that has destroyed everything that has destroyed him.

Arthas, the Lich King alone with power and glory, slowly opened his eyes. The frost shattered and scattered from his movements, like frozen tears, gently peeling off in the cold wind of the Arctic, crystal clear.

A smile appeared under the ornate helmet that covered his pale hair and skin in the bitter cold wind of Northrend, but it was no longer as gentle as the sun had been.

"Here we go."

He sat on the throne, slowly opened his eyes, looked at the dark world in front of him, smiled and calm, "The future of this world is over." (To be continued......)