Ultimately, Arthas followed the address in the letter and left the city to find the sender.
However, upon arriving at the agreed-upon meeting spot, he found that there was no one there—only another letter.
When Arthas opened the letter, he found only a single word written inside.
“Wait.”
So, Arthas waited from night until dawn, and from dawn until dusk...
He waited for a very long time.
Just as Arthas began to think he had been fooled and was preparing to leave, the mastermind finally appeared.
It was a woman.
A woman shrouded in a black robe.
She introduced herself as Vina Alice.
Arthas had heard of this name before in the World Daily, knowing that she was once the Saintess of the Holy Kingdom and had even traveled to the God-Forsaken Land as an emissary.
Afterward, for reasons unknown, she had not only betrayed her faith and thrown herself into the embrace of the Abyss, but she also took pleasure in constantly sabotaging the churches of the gods. As a result, she had long since become a household name on the wanted lists across the Eastern Kingdoms.
Yet, for some reason, even though this was Arthas's first time meeting her, he felt an strange, inexplicable sense of familiarity in his heart.
Before he could figure it out, her words quickly steered his thoughts in another direction.
From Vina's mouth, Arthas learned that the reason she had betrayed her faith was because she discovered that the gods had long since abandoned them.
Back in the God-Forsaken Land, after being forced to publicly blaspheme the gods, she had prepared herself to be struck dead by divine punishment, yet she received no response whatsoever.
At that moment, a crack had formed in Vina's faith.
Upon returning to the Eastern Kingdoms, she gathered some beastkin slaves and had them worship heretical beliefs, yet still, no divine punishment descended.
She recalled how, no matter how hard she prayed since childhood, she could never obtain the gaze of the deities.
It was at that moment that Vina's faith had already begun to crumble.
Refusing to accept this, she frantically searched through all kinds of historical records and ancient texts within the church, desperate to prove that the gods had not abandoned her, but that her faith simply hadn't been devout enough.
Instead, she learned a cruel truth.
One day, seven hundred years ago, the churches of all the deities ceased to receive any personal responses or direct gazes from the gods they worshiped.
Even the high-and-mighty archbishops and the Pope had become no different from casual or shallow believers, only receiving the most basic, automated responses.
Furthermore, even if one publicly blasphemed the gods, they would no longer suffer divine punishment.
It felt as though the live customer service of some platform had suddenly vanished, leaving behind only an automated, brain-dead bot that replied based on preset questions.
The naive Saintess felt her entire world collapse at that moment; she believed the gods had abandoned them.
In that instant, Vina suddenly felt that the strict education she had received since childhood, working from dawn to dusk just to stand out from the crowd and become the proxy of the gods—the Saintess—was utterly laughable!
So pathetic!
And so, she fell.
She did not hesitate to plunge into the Abyss, becoming the very antithesis of her former faith, all just to take revenge on the gods.
This feeling was probably like a deeply infatuated young girl who discovered she had been scammed by a heartless scoundrel, and thus degraded herself just to get back at him.
Vina told Arthas that rather than laying low and developing slowly here, it would be better to return to the God-Forsaken Land and spread his faith far and wide there.
The gods had long since abandoned this world, so they naturally would not hand down any divine punishment.
When Arthas asked her why she was telling him all this...
Vina merely said in a sinister tone, “Just consider it payment for Her Grace the Black Dragon. After all, if not for her, I would still be playing the fool as the Saintess even now.”
Having said this, she departed.
Just as she had said, it really seemed as if she only came to deliver a payment.
Although Arthas had some lingering doubts in his heart, in the face of this priceless piece of information, he could no longer care about them.
He only wanted to return to the God-Forsaken Land as quickly as possible to test the veracity of this intelligence.
Yet, his remaining sanity, driven by some inexplicable impulse, led him back to the human city.
Arthas was too lonely.
He wanted to take those 'apprentices' back with him.
These children were among the few who did not fear him.
Though, that was only because they did not know that beneath this suit of armor lay a withered undead corpse.
But when Arthas returned...
What he witnessed was a trial of heretics.
His apprentices were tied to stakes, ready to be burned.
At that moment, for the very first time, Arthas felt anger.
He did not know if this rage was because these church people had branded the church he created for his mother as a cult, or because they were about to burn the apprentices he had taken in.
In short, Arthas was furious!
At that instant, he felt his soul fire on the verge of overflowing from his body.
No, it had already overflowed!
Even the skeletal dragon beneath him, which was originally just withered bone, was now enveloped in a layer of raging soul fire.
Driven by rage, Arthas drew Frostmourne from his back.
For a knowledgeable and rational lich, such an action was undoubtedly extremely irrational.
Yet, in Arthas's eyes, nothing remained but a thirst for slaughter.
Deep within him, the inherent hatred of the undead toward the living was completely awakened by a chaotic force.
By the time Arthas regained his sanity...
that city had already become a city of death and ice.
Frozen corpses lay scattered everywhere, alongside rivers of ice formed from congealed blood.
An unbelievably abundant death energy surged from all directions, continuously nourishing and expanding Arthas's soul fire.
Attempting to push him into that incredible Legendary Rank.
Only then did Arthas finally understand why the world feared the undead.
They were never meant to exist in this world; they were deceased lives, possessing an innate hatred for the living.
Once they failed to suppress that desire in their hearts...
they would turn into mindless killing machines!
Having calmed down once more, Arthas felt deeply bewildered.
He did not understand why he had done something so irrational.
As an undead, although he had an instinctive hatred for the living and a urge to kill them to claim their lives...
as a Gold Rank lich, he should have long been able to freely control this desire. He shouldn't have been so impulsive.
What was even more baffling was why, despite slaughtering an entire city, he had not faced any divine punishment.
He knew full well that the Human Kingdoms and the Black Dragon Empire had long since signed a peace treaty.
Violators were supposed to suffer endless divine punishment.
Yet, did he look like he was suffering even a shred of divine punishment right now?
Arthas felt in his gut that something was wrong, but for the moment, he couldn't put his finger on what it was.
Before he could figure it out, a human abruptly appeared within this dead city.
It was...
...the former Saintess of the Holy Kingdom—Vina.
Looking at the city shrouded in death energy, she pulled back her hood, revealing her pure and holy face.
In the gentlest of tones, she uttered the most cruel words: “Tsk, tsk, tsk... What a magnificent slaughter... It certainly wasn't in vain that I spent so much time setting this up.”
At this point, Vina looked at Arthas. Facing this terrifying undead covered in frozen blood and minced flesh—looking like a demon god descended upon the world—she actually wore a bizarre smile. Her mouth split open all the way to her ears in an inhuman fashion, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth.
“So, do you like the gift I've given you?”
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