Afternoon

Hearthglen Townsquare

Pelican Cockpit

Letting out a loud sigh, John took his helmet off and leaned back in the pilot seat. He had managed to squeeze the Pelican between the keep and the buildings at the north end of town, bringing his flight to an end for today. 

Earlier that day, while the Pelican blared a curated music playlist by ‘The King’ himself, he started to thin down the undead numbers. After the first few passes over the gates, he managed to get a handle on how that autocannon worked, the town walls creating nearly perfect kill zones for his strafing runs. The gun could quickly put a pile of shells down range, but it bounced all over the place, limiting how close he could support the Alliance troops. It scared him at how close his first volley actually came to hitting his own men.

He then flew around the area outside of the town, searching for the next wave of undead troops and shooting them down with impunity.  He then returned to the town to see Eh himself leading a charge of both his men and the towns’ on a sortie, cleaning up the few undead that he had missed. He waved for John to land in a nearby clearing, then explained that the scouts had the locations of a few of the nearby ‘Scourge’ bases.

This led to the Alphabets loading up in the Pelican again, along with a pair of elven healers recruited from the town’s forces, and they repeated the drop this time behind the enemy’s base defences. 500 tokens (8650 left) more to outfit the two elves with parachutes, both of whom thought this was a novel concept this human had come up with and wanted to experience it for themselves. 

Jaina joined them this time as well, which John had a few concerns about at first, but proved unnecessary as a gigantic water elemental the size of a small house formed when she floated down beside the soldiers. Between that elemental and her ice storms, she was easily the most powerful being on the battlefield, other than the Pelican. Not that there was any doubt about that.

For his part, John just started blasting the pyramid shaped structures that were shooting his troops, along with clearing the undead ranged units he could spot. Then, once that base was destroyed, they did it again at the next one. The best part was that not a single one of his LAADS fell that morning, with the new healer’s support and the Pelican’s firepower more than enough to keep everyone alive without John exposing himself to danger to heal them.

Though he was a little sad to miss out on that training. 

The second best part was that he felt his paladin energies increase as he blew up buildings and the undead. He received a new spell that appeared to make him immune to damage for fifteen seconds, along with upgrades to both his Aura and Holy Light spell, increasing their effectiveness. All from the safety of his cockpit. 

This feels like I am cheating. Wait, I am cheating.  

He started to laugh again, though he tried to stop it. His emotions kept swinging, and it was getting harder and harder not to laugh or cry. He knew he didn’t have much time left before he needed to sleep, else he might go into some sort of fit like he had when fighting the orcs or back in the dungeon in The Great Cleric. He wanted to avoid that at all costs. 

Luckily, this base seemed to be the end of it, so he brought the LAADS back to Hearthglen. After they cleared out enough space for the Pelican in the town square, he brought it down to the sounds of cheering outside. 

“Milord, can you open the door *Yawn* so the men can get out? There isn’t a lot of room back there to even stand.” Eh said, his exhaustion as obvious as John’s. He sat in the third seat beside Jaina, the pair of them joining him in the cockpit after the final drop was completed.

“Right…” he said, absently checking the rear camera before hitting the button that opened the door. “I *Yawn* I suppose we should find somewhere to sleep. Hard to believe this time yesterday we were planting seeds.” 

“Yes, Milord. I would almost rather jump out of this infernal contraption into a horde of the undead again than see you lower yourself like that again.”

“Almost?”

“Well, you made me feel pretty damn guilty in front of the men. Right now, I think I would be happy to watch you shovel a chicken coop on a hot afternoon.” Eh replied, standing up and beginning to shuffle out of the cockpit.

“Sounds good, Eh. It’s only fair. Then, when we go back to the Capital, I get to have your wife cook me dinner while I toss your kids in the air until they squeal in joy. Then I’ll tell them stories about how their daddy sounded just like that when he jumped out of the Pelican.” John said with a half hearted chuckle, thinking of how wonderful it would be to see his great-grandchildren, or maybe great-great-grandchildren now. He was envious of the man having the chance to enjoy family life for the first time. They would need to make a trip back soon so the men could have some R&R.

“Please, Sire. That would be embarrassing.” Eh replied, shuddering at the doorway at the thought of the prince telling his wife and kids he was screaming in terror. 

“You’re a damn Hero, Eh. Don’t worry, your secret will be safe with me… Jaina? You coming?” John said, pausing by the exit. Jaina hadn’t moved from her seat while Eh and John were idly chatting. 

“Sorry… I… umm. Just having issues with this buckle.” She said. She wasn’t actually having issues with the buckle, but was listening to John talk with his Captain like they were old friends. John was never outright rude to commoners before, but always had maintained his station when dealing with others. Now, he was treating Eh like a close friend or a brother. It caught her a bit off guard.

“Here, let me- Ack! *Thud*” John said, turning around to help her, but caught his head on a metal box hanging to the right side of the door, his left eye not seeing it before he slammed into it, knocking himself out cold.

“John!”

“Milord!”

John found himself floating in the ocean of his mind again, though this time it was distinctly different than the last. The blue ocean, almost exactly the colour of Jaina’s eyes, was now streaked with green lines. An ominous green that felt exactly like the energy the obelisk at the orc camp gave off, a green which currently marred his remaining eye. 

“Is whatever that thing was here as well?” He said to himself, spinning his ethereal body around. He was forgetful, even more so than usual these days, but that thing’s visage was burned into his brain. A being without proper shape or form, but a massive eye whose glare set his soul on fire. 

He floated for some time, but his concerns about encountering that being were for naught, as the only thing that surfaced in the vast ocean was three bubbles. 

The bubbles, coated in both energies, began to emit light. Softly at first, they then suddenly flashed into images for him to see.

The one on the left showed a city of grey towers with violet conical tops, with a massive tower built atop a castle that extended high into the sky, well beyond the others. The city was on fire, hordes of the undead bursting through the gates, killing everyone they came across. The scene shifted to an opulent office, where a red tome sat, a golden circle with wings emblazoned on its cover. A hand reached out for it.

The one on the right showed a sea of trees ablaze, a series of massive gates knocked down. A white bridge, destroyed by the defenders to slow the Scourges’ advance. Throngs of undead filled the gorge, sacrificed to allow the rest of the horde to pass unimpeded to the other side. A beautiful city in the forest lay in ruins, elven corpses being reanimated. A grim sight sent shivers down his ethereal spine as a corpse with a sword in its chest screamed, her soul removed and turned into a wraith. He thought she could have been Ash’s cousin. The image shifted again to a giant pond, surrounded by a horseshoe shaped waterfall. In its centre was a burial urn; the soul of something evil was being resurrected through an unholy ritual in this holy place.

The one in the centre was more familiar to John’s fragmented memories, which made it even more disturbing. A massive citadel was ablaze, humans running from the undead hordes, the people trying to find safety where there was none to be had. Thousands of people were being butchered, then raised to be added to the Scourge’s untold numbers. The view shifted, and John gasped as it was the king’s throne room, the man who was this body’s father dead at the foot of the throne. A man was sitting on it, wearing black furs over top of a set of black and silver armour, holding a sword John did not recognize.  But he recognized the silver haired, one eyed man.

It was him.

John’s eye snapped open, his heart beating rapidly, sweat pouring off his face. He took a few ragged breaths as he tried to calm down, that dream, rather than that nightmare, was still running rampant through his mind. It felt real, visceral, a future destined to happen. It felt like the last nightmares he had when he had killed the Blade Master by ripping out its throat, only more intense.

That elven woman haunted him, the look of pain on her face, the sheer terror she was feeling passed into him. She had larger ears, blue eyes, and long eyebrows, but he couldn’t help but think it was Ash that was having her soul forcibly ripped from her body. 

And his father died at his feet in the Capital while he was sitting on the throne as the undead armies destroyed the city. It felt real, felt like it was going to happen if nothing changed. It was confusing, as this body was that of a paladin. Are they not supposed to be the very antithesis of evil like that?

Why in the world would I be in charge of the armies of the undead? 

That first city, he was sure it was Dalaran, The Violet City, where Jaina was from. Wait, no, it was where she was studying magic. He had no idea what that red tome was, but despite the gut wrenching feelings he experienced from the other two visions, he thought it was the most important part of the visions he had received. 

He believed the second city was Silvermoon, an elven city in Quel’Thalas. He couldn’t recall if he had ever been there before, but the fall of the elven nation would be drastic. And the resurrection of that evil soul. Didn’t Alec say something about it not being possible to resurrect someone unless you did it nearly immediately before? Is it different in these worlds compared to the Prime?

John shook his head. He didn’t have the answers to that. He didn’t even know if these were visions or just fever dreams from his failing brain. 

He had calmed down enough to start taking stock of his surroundings. It was nighttime, a cool breeze blowing through the open door of the nearby balcony. He was in a fairly nice looking room, lying in a comfortable bed, with a beautiful blonde haired woman cuddled on his left side, snoring softly. She had her left arm lying on top of his chest, her fingers somewhat intertwined with his chest hair.

He sighed. Of course, she was. 

Giving up, he pulled his left arm out from between them and wrapped it around her body, pulling her in closer. She sighed contentedly, a smile forming on her face that he could not see, but he knew was there just from that sound. 

I’ll give her what she wants just for tonight. Tomorrow, well, we will see what tomorrow brings. But I refuse to live a lie, letting her believe I am the same person this body used to be.

He looked out on the balcony again, then laughed a little. There was not just one moon on this world, but two. 

Maybe one day, I will fly up there and see what they look like up close. Not today, though. Today, I need to decide what to tell them.

With that, John started to make a plan. He needed to pass this information on to Uther and to a lesser extent, Jaina. If these visions came to pass, that could spell the end of both the elven and human peoples, possibly even more. Just like in Infinite Frontiers, he was going to forewarn them with the knowledge he had, but this time, he would actually go into the meeting with a plan.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep