A War of Attrition

Faced with Zul'ra's grave expression, Thassarian and Koltira exchanged a glance, both somewhat bewildered. Though they had served the Scourge as death knights and knew much of its intelligence, they had never realized just how important the Lich King was to the Scourge.

"The Scourge must have a Lich King. Without one, the undead of the Scourge will swarm across the entire world like locusts. Don't tell me you didn't know that." Zul'ra blinked at the two bewildered death knights.

"We really didn't know." Koltira nodded honestly.

"Well, now you do. I didn't pursue Arthas..." Zul'ra began explaining the matter to Koltira and Thassarian, but Thassarian solemnly interrupted him before he could finish.

"Wasn't it because you couldn't beat Arthas?"

"I haven't fought him. I don't know." Zul'ra badly wanted to snap at Thassarian. How did he know Zul'ra couldn't beat him? But on second thought, there was no point arguing, since he had stopped Acherus rather than Arthas.

At Zul'ra's calm answer, Thassarian and Koltira exchanged another glance and said nothing more. As the three spoke, the battlefield in the distance had already been swept clean by the Judgment Army's warriors.

Once Tirion had finished clearing the battlefield and arrived at Acherus with his men, Zul'ra immediately explained the relationship between the Scourge and the Lich King. Without a way to completely resolve the Scourge problem, they could not rush to eliminate Arthas.

"Is this information accurate? How could this be? Is there no solution?" Tirion froze in shock upon receiving the news. Once he recovered, he fired off three questions in quick succession. He and most of the Judgment Army's senior officers had hoped to end their campaign against the Scourge as quickly as possible, then allow everyone to rest and recover.

"Unless we can find someone to