Fuck men I can't upload this work on Patreon due to its guideline (About any work that involve insest between blood relation or from same background) So no advance chapters for scum noble work.
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*****
Months later, he found her—Isolde, hidden away in a quiet corner of the world, sharing her life with the very soldier who had once served him loyally in Soest. Yet his arrival could not have been more ill-timed. From the shadows, he watched as they lay entangled in each other's arms in a place very private. At that moment, his heart irrevocably withered and died within him.
But the final, devastating blow came when his gaze fell upon a small, half-elven girl by Isolde's side—their child of nearly four years, a living symbol of the life she had chosen without him. It was this innocent face, a blend of her mother's beauty and her father's strength, that shattered the last remnant of the prince's heart. He couldn't even differentiate the features of the little girl.
Something in Soest snapped. Betrayed, broken, and driven to the brink of madness.
Soest was completely insane. The destruction of the country, the rape and death of his relatives, the blood on his hands, and Isolde's betrayal drove the paladin into complete insanity and madness.
In a fit of rage, he tore the soldier limb from limb with his bare hands, savoring the painful expressions, moans, and begging of his last friend. The holy flames of his former life devoured his enemy. Then he turned to Isolde, demanding to know whose child she bore. Desperate, she cried that the girl was his, but Soest was too far gone. He refused to believe her. His twisted mind saw nothing but treachery in her words.
In his blind rage, he summoned flames from his corrupted power—blue and unnatural. With a single sweep of his hand, the flames engulfed Isolde, reducing her and the innocent child to nothing but ash.
With this, he had burned another child. The only difference this time was that she was of his own blood.
In the aftermath, Soest stood amidst the charred remains, the weight of his sins finally crashing down on him.
Everything he once loved, everything he fought for, had turned to dust by his own hands.
At that moment, Soest realized he had nothing left. He ended himself by burning his body with holy flames, turning the flames blue in the process.
And then he heard the voice.
"Welcome back, my death knight!"
Soest's hollow, tortured scream echoed into the darkness as he realized what had happened. The devil's voice mocked him, revealing the truth.
Only then did Soest understand.
"You did it all, Devil!"
"I only guided your hand, Prince Soest. It was you who brought ruin to everything you held dear—your kingdom, your family, the woman you once cherished, even your own flesh and blood. You stand here, drenched in blood, but every stain belongs to you alone."
"Ahhh!"
With incomparable resentment and strong unwillingness, Soest's body was shrouded in blue flames.
With nothing left, the paladin who had once shone like the sun was consumed by despair. His body, still aflame with holy fire, slowly turned to ash, only to rise again, clad in blackened armor, his soul forever lost to the abyss.
In the distance, a nightmare with four flaming hooves approached with a hiss.
As his final connection to the light shattered, a nightmare steed, wreathed in fire, appeared before him.
It was no ordinary creature but a corrupted Pegasus, dragged from the heavens to serve its new master.
"Your baby is here too! This one is special. This is the Pegasus I caught in the heavenly plane and made into a nightmare just for you!" the devil said excitedly.
After all, corrupting such a promising paladin in this way is a very big deal!
"Go now," the devil whispered. "Spread your corruption. Let the continent fall to darkness. All living things are your prey."
With a chilling roar, Soest mounted the nightmare. His new form, a twisted reflection of the hero he once was, rode into the night. The skies crackled with dark energy, and the nightmare's flaming hooves echoed across the land as Soest prepared to unleash his wrath upon the world.
The nightmare beneath him also became excited. At this time, he already had strength beyond ordinary legends, and it would not be a problem to sweep the continent.
Just as he was about to begin his conquest of death, three brilliant golden lights appeared in the distance. Three figures descended from the heavens, radiant with divine power.
"Evil fiend, how dare you?" A voice thundered from the sky.
"Brahma God Attendant!" the devil hissed, its voice dripping with venom as the scene around me dimmed. Just as the shadows were about to engulf everything, a deafening roar echoed through the air, raw and primal, sending shivers down my spine.
I instinctively looked up, my heart racing. From the depths of the star-filled sky, a blinding light descended, streaking toward us like a falling star, like a celestial spear hurled by the Goddess of Stars herself. But something was different—this was no ordinary star. The light grew brighter, stopping abruptly before me, hovering in the air with an otherworldly presence.
Then, another figure appeared, bathed in silver armor and wielding a gleaming sword, with vast wings as pale as moonlight. The very moon seemed to lend its glow to her, casting her in an ethereal light, as though she was blessed by the Goddess of the Moon herself.
For a fleeting moment, I could feel the sheer power radiating from all these figures, as if the heavens themselves had sent celestial forces down upon these two. I squinted, trying to make out their figures. My instincts told me it was more than just the lights around them—something far greater stood before us.
But before I could fully comprehend what it was, the screen faded to black, leaving only the echo of the lion's roar, the glowing woman in silver light, and a growing sense of dread.
It took a moment for me to process everything, my breath halting as I closed my mouth, the torrent of destruction ceasing in its wake.
I stared at the Death Knight standing before me, a strange, unsettling sensation coursing through me.
I now knew the truth behind this forsaken creature.
By sheer accident, I had delved deep into the abyss of his mind through telepathy, stumbling into the dusty, forgotten corners of his inner world. What I found there was the story of a man torn from another plane, a tale so twisted it could have been ripped straight from a tragedy of mythic proportions.
This knight was no mere creature of darkness. No, he was once a prince—a paladin of unrivaled potential, blessed with a future as radiant as the dawn, beloved by thousands. His strength was formidable, and his charisma enchanting. He had everything... until it all fell apart the day he met her.
Isolde.
The devil had whispered in his ear, but it never lied. No, its malevolent genius lay in subtle suggestions, nudges that turned a prince's loving heart into something far darker. He killed his own wife, turned his daughter into ashes, shattered his future, and set his soul on a path of damnation.
And yet, the moment of his downfall was not entirely orchestrated by the devil. When the celestial forces descended, it threw the careful balance into chaos.
In those final moments, even as the devil gloated, Soest clung to one thing—his love for Isolde. Even in madness, some part of him remained pure, fighting against the tide of darkness that had consumed him. But when the celestial servant of the Brahma God appeared, Soest knew there was no going back. His mind snapped, and yet, in a final act of defiance, he exiled himself with the paladin's Banishment spell.
He took with him the ashes of Isolde and his daughter—the half-elf girl who had never stood a chance. Desperation consumed him as he tried to channel the powers of the Death Knight into those ashes, hoping against hope that the force of undeath would be enough to resurrect them.
But the power of a Death Knight does not revive—it corrupts.
The ashes twisted into a black mist, pulsing with a dark, twisted consciousness of its own, merging irrevocably with Soest's corpse. Together, they formed an unholy bond—a profane symbiosis. The mist granted him rebirth even from utter annihilation, while his body endlessly generated the same sinister mist. Unless both were utterly destroyed, this monstrous cycle would endure, a relentless fusion of the damned.
The black mist coiled around him even now, a shadow of his own ruin, shielding him even as his mind lay shattered. Soest's consciousness had long faded, worn away by time and madness, his soul reduced to a faint whisper lost in the endless wind.
This mist swirled around him, like a specter of his failure, protecting him even as his mind lay shattered. Soest's consciousness was gone, eroded by time and madness, his soul nothing but a distant echo in the wind.
But Soest had also exhausted the last of his conscious power when he brought forth this twisted form of his lover and child.
His fall from legendary strength had been catastrophic, leading him to the Hells and, finally, here, the Underdark.
Instinct, born from Soest's shattered psyche, drove his eternal hatred for elves. Any elf that dared to enter his domain was slaughtered mercilessly, the lingering vestiges of the prince's love now twisted into pure hatred.
A spark of excitement flickered within me. The devil that had corrupted him, the celestial servants that had descended to battle it, and that roar I had heard from afar—these were no ordinary beings. They were powerful, divine, and, as far as I was concerned, they were prey.
And prey can be devoured.
They are all powerful!
They should be edible, right?
The Death Knight gazed at me blankly, motionless, but the black mist surrounding him lashed out, attempting to hold me back. Undeterred, I stepped forward, closer and closer, my telepathy probing deeper into his being.
A connection was made—something stirred within him.
Then I heard it—a voice from within the hollow shell.
"Thank you. You have set me free. The Death Knight is yours now."
The soul chain had linked us, and I could feel the final remnants of Soest's consciousness fading. Without me, the last vestige of his former self would have remained trapped inside that decaying husk forever.
He was truly dead. Or perhaps Soest had died long ago, and now, only the Death Knight remained.
A blank slate of consciousness had been born in its place, an empty vessel waiting to be filled.
I acted quickly, imprinting my will upon the newly formed mind, knowing this was the perfect moment to claim him.
The original consciousness was completely destroyed, and at this time, the new consciousness had no way to resist me.
"Who are you?" the voice asked, the confusion of a newborn apparent in his tone.
"I am your master," I responded, my voice thundering through the soul chain. "The great True Dragon King, Barbatos Caesar Volaric."
"Master?" the consciousness echoed. "Then who am I?"
I hesitated for a moment, a small, bitter sigh escaping my lips. Soest had endured a life of unparalleled tragedy—perhaps, in some small way, this new existence could offer freedom from that pain.
"You are Arthas," I declared. "The Death Knight, Arthas! My creation."
I had originally wanted to say Soest, but I sighed when I thought of that guy's tragic life.
Change your name!
Let him be completely free!
"I am Arthas!" Blue flames erupted from the Death Knight's eyes, a symbol of his rebirth. The old name, the old life, was gone. Now, only Arthas remained.
For me, it is far more cost-effective to subdue this Death Knight than to eat him as food.
After all, eating may grant a Death Knight's talent.
But if I subdue him, I can have the entire Death Knight. And Arthas is not comparable to kobolds or drow or even normal Death Knights. It is clear just by the presence of the heavenly figures who intervened.
After all, after becoming a Death Knight, this guy has 17th-order strength, and he can easily ascend to legend as he was a legend before.
In the future, his strength will definitely improve gradually.
I felt quite comfortable.
After all, this is the first subordinate I have recruited with such a face.
Arthas's greatest ability is not actually how powerful he is.
It's his ability to command the undead.
This guy can use black mist to turn dead creatures into various undead creatures for him to control.
The number is determined by the amount of this black mist.
One must know that the birth of undead creatures is dependent on the right time, place, and people. Other death knights can only control undead creatures at best, but they can't create them.
And I found this guy hard to kill. Ordinary undead creatures have a soul phylactery in their weapons. If the soul fire is extinguished over time, or the weapon is fully destroyed along with the body, then the undead creature will truly die.
But Arthas is different.
Even if this guy's body or weapon is destroyed, as long as the black mist is still there, he can be reborn in the black mist. And if someone wanted to really kill him, they would have to destroy all the black mist and his body simultaneously—something even most legends won't be able to do.
This is what I got from his memory.
I guessed that the devil who caused him to fall didn't know that he had created such a thing.
If he knew, then that guy probably would have brought Arthas back no matter the price.
I suddenly had a bold idea: if this guy was brought to the mortal kingdoms on the surface, would it really trigger an undead natural disaster equivalent to what the Red Wizards of Thay did?
After all, this guy has a lot in common with the Lich King of my previous life.
Armor styles can be changed a bit. Then the only difference is that he doesn't have Arthas Menethil's sword of Frostmourne.
Do I want to give him a weapon with an ice attribute in the future?
Maybe yes?
...
"Master, you actually subdued the death knight?"
Elise was shocked when she saw the death knight obediently standing behind me.
After all, it is not easy to subdue a guy who is so much stronger than the average death knight. Even an average death knight could kill 13th-level creatures with little difficulty.
And this kind of undead creature is not afraid of death; after all, it has already died once.
Arthas looked at the blue light in the female drow's eyes.
"Master, I hate this creature," Arthas said through the soul chain.
"She's still useful. She can't die."
"Arthas, remain here and await my command."
Turning to Elise, I spoke clearly, my voice echoing for all to hear, "From this moment forward, Elise, anyone who defies us, any prisoner, anyone deemed useless—you may hand them over to Arthas. He can make use of... fresh bodies."
The effect was immediate. I didn't need further confirmation; the trembling of those around us said it all.
With a slight flap of my wings, I lifted off into the air and left the place. Now they would be more inclined to work, knowing they would still serve even in death.
Elise felt a little cold when she saw the death knight staring at her and heard her master's orders.
Seeing the back of the dragon leaving, she hastily beckoned to her subordinates to leave together.
It was like running away. Arthas stared at Elise as she left.
He didn't know why he instinctively had so much hostility towards these people.
But since the master asked him to guard the canyon, then he would guard the canyon.
The black mist slowly spread and enveloped the entire area.
Elise didn't dare to look back until she escaped from the canyon. She had a premonition just now:
If she didn't leave soon, that damned death knight would definitely attack her.
At this moment, Maya the drow came out from behind a boulder.
She looked at the slightly embarrassed Elise and said lightly:
"Master asked me to tell you, he hopes you can find out the situation in Charles City as soon as possible. After all, he has no shortage of waste."
******
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