Chapter 335: Wrath of the Lich King (IV)
The third part, “Titan Guardian”, mainly tells the story of Ulduar.

While purifying Malygos, Alexstrasza discovered a powerful shadow energy. Through Kalecgos’s investigation in the Eye of Eternity, it was learned that it was the Faceless Ones who infused the power of shadow into the magic network. Obviously, this was a premeditated poisoning.

The Faceless Ones are servants of the Old Gods, and they have been secretly infusing the power of shadow into the magic web in the spider’s underground kingdom. And the underground of Northrend is the prison of the Old God Yogg-Saron.

Alexstrasza thought that they should send someone to investigate Ulduar. Ulduar was a city that was specifically used to monitor the prison of Yogg-Saron. Now that Yogg-Saron had come out to cause trouble, Ulduar might be in trouble.

The coalition contacted Brian Bronzebeard who was exploring Crystalsong Forest. After receiving the news, the prince of Ironforge immediately led the Explorers’ League north to the snowfields and headed for Ulduar.

They met another group of dwarves on the snowy plains, who called themselves the Frost Dwarves. The leader of the Frost Dwarves turned out to be Muradin, the brother of Brian Bronzebeard. Muradin had helped Arthas find Frostmourne, and he wanted to stop Arthas from using it, but was knocked out by the ice that shot out when Arthas drew his sword.

The frost dwarves saved Muradin, but Muradin lost his memory. With his bravery, Muradin was recognized by the frost dwarves and regarded as their leader. Brian told Muradin about the experiences of the three brothers from childhood to adulthood, so Muradin decided to go with Brian to investigate Ulduar.

With the help of the Frost Dwarves, they passed the obstruction of the Iron Dwarves and the Iron Vrykul and successfully reached the gate of Ulduar. However, they were defeated by the war machine of Ulduar. Muradin covered Brian’s retreat and led the war machine to another direction.

Muradin was rescued by a group of ice giants, followers of the Titan Guardian Hodir. They told Muradin that there were nine Titan Guardians, namely Odin, Loken, Thorim, Hodir, Lei, Mimiron, Freya, Tyr, and Archaedas.

Ten thousand years ago, Lei went to the south and never returned. Not long after, Odin was betrayed and sealed in the sky along with the Hall of Valor he founded.

Then Tyr and Archaedas suddenly betrayed Ulduar and left with a group of Vrykul, Earthen and Mechagnomes. At that time, Loken, the supreme commander of Ulduar, ordered the pursuit of Tyr and Archaedas. However, the other guardians were unwilling to kill each other, so Tyr and Archaedas successfully left.

Because of this, Loken bore a grudge against Hodir. Soon after, news spread that Hodir had killed Thorim’s wife Sif, and Thorim led his followers to declare war on Hodir. The two sides fought fiercely, and when they were exhausted, Loken suddenly appeared to mediate.

The price of mediation was that Hodir returned to Ulduar and could never leave his home. After that, the ice giants never saw Hodir again, but they firmly believed that Hodir was framed by the brothers Loken and Thorim.

Brian came over at this time, and after hearing about this, he said that he knew the truth of this matter. A few years ago, the dwarves excavated a ruin and discovered an underground city of Uldaman. It was occupied by the stone palate monsters. After defeating the stone palate monsters, they found some discs inside and read some history from them, including the truth about Sif’s death.

When Thorim was away fighting, Sif had an affair with Loken. When Thorim was about to return, Sif wanted to end her abnormal relationship with Loken, but Loken didn’t dare to do so and accidentally killed Sif. Mimiron learned about this, so Loken attacked and killed Mimiron.

Tyr and Archaedas recorded the incident on the disc and left Ulduar with those who were willing to follow them. Later, they were chased by two powerful faceless men. Tyr injured one of them and died with the other faceless man. Later, in order to commemorate Tyr, the land where Tyr died was called Tirisfal. When the ice giant heard the news, he immediately asked Brian to bring the discs. If possible, he also invited Archaedas back, so that he could convince Thorim and prove Hodir’s innocence.

Brian told the coalition about this, and Rhonin activated Dalaran and teleported it to the sky above Uldaman. Then he used the method taught by the ice giants to awaken the sleeping Archaedas. Ironforge also sent the disc over, and Rhonin teleported Dalaran to the sky above the snowfield.

Just as everyone was preparing to look for Thorim, Loken suddenly attacked Thorim, defeated him, and brought him back to Ulduar to imprison him.

Without the help of the military, the coalition forces could only attack Ulduar. The coalition forces drew out most of their forces and entered Ulduar at the cost of a fight. This caused dissatisfaction among Garrosh, who believed that Thrall was obedient to the Alliance and then left the battlefield with the Warsong Clan.

Facing the crisis of the Old Gods, Thrall had no time to care about Garrosh. Everyone who had participated in the War of the Shifting Sands knew the dangers of the Old Gods, except for Garrosh, a newcomer who had just arrived in Azeroth from Draenor.

The coalition forces killed Loken and rescued the imprisoned Hodir, Thorim and Freya. At this time, the mechanical dwarfs told everyone that they had injected Mimiron’s soul into the body of a huge mechanical dwarf.

Five Titan Guardians appeared with the coalition forces and went to Yogg-Saron’s cage and killed Yogg-Saron. After they left, Arthas appeared with the Undead Army, killed the guards who were dealing with Yogg-Saron’s body, and took away part of Yogg-Saron’s body.

When Illidan attacked the Frozen Throne, Arthas returned to the Frozen Throne through the Underground Kingdom. While in the Underground Kingdom, he once killed a Faceless Man. He wanted to turn this powerful creature into an undead, but found that he failed. This made him curious about the Faceless Man, so he investigated the Faceless Man and found Yogg-Saron’s cage.

But the powerful Yogg-Saron devoured all the undead that broke in. Arthas knew that Yogg-Saron was not someone he could deal with. He left some spiders to monitor the place, and when he found that the coalition forces were fighting Yogg-Saron, he rushed over.

After obtaining Yogg-Saron’s body, Arthas returned to the Frozen Throne and began to use the energy from Yogg-Saron’s body to strengthen himself.

After the coalition forces learned the news, they immediately rushed back to the Gate of Retribution. The Titan Guardians gave the coalition forces several war machines. Relying on the powerful war machines, the coalition forces broke through the Gate of Retribution and entered the Frozen Throne.

Under the siege of the allied heroes, Arthas could only passively defend. Tirion took the opportunity to gather the holy light in the bodies of all the paladins present, infused it into the Ashbringer, and launched a surprise attack on Arthas.

Arthas blocked, but Frostmourne was cut off by Ashbringer. Countless souls imprisoned by Frostmourne were released, and they rushed towards Arthas, ending his sinful life.

(End of this chapter)