What Did You Step Forward For?

Unlike Warcraft, Middle-earth is not Azeroth. The undead are not an independent race in the lore; to be precise, they are wandering, aimless ghosts.

Saruman and Sauron were both wandering ghosts, rejected by their superiors, and roamed Middle-earth until they disappeared without a trace.

Sauron forged the One Ring ahead of time, and its powerful magic was not lost. It was able to solidify into a spiritual form and make a comeback.

Saruman, on the other hand, failed to obtain the One Ring or forge his own. As a Maiar, he would not truly die, but would only suffer a fate worse than death.

The ghost of Dunharrow is even worse off Saruman. Saruman is a god, and if the big boss ever thinks of him, he might be able to make a comeback, put on his white robes again, and continue fighting Gandalf.

But the spirits of Dunharrow cannot die even if they want to. They were just ordinary people in life, but because of the curse, they can never be reincarnated.

As long as their oath to Gondor remains unfulfilled, they will find no rest; in life they will be filled with shame and torment, and in death their bodies will rot and their souls will continue to suffer.

This process has lasted for thousands of years. They possess the desires of the living—food, beauty, wealth, and power—but lack the physique and adrenaline of the living. Only pain and regret accompany them.

The saying "better to live a miserable life than to die a good death" doesn't apply to them. The dead dream of how to die a quick and clean death; for them, death is a release.

At first, the dead placed their hopes on the Gondor royal family, but when the royal line broke down, they placed their hopes on Wizard.

As a result, Gandalf smiled without saying a word, Saruman looked down on the good-for-nothings who could only scare people, and the other Wizard had no liking for them, so no one was willing to help them get on their way.

Even the Lord Sauron despised these traitors. You see, the Denhalor Undead originally worshipped Sauron, but when the war broke out, they not only betrayed Gondor, but also Sauron.

After thousands of years of torment, normal people would have gone mad by now, but the dead cannot; they cannot go mad even if they wanted to.

Finally, their savior appeared, and they all knelt down with the Undead Leader. If they hadn't been unable to touch Russell because they didn't have physical bodies, they would have already started licking him.

The spirits chattered incessantly, their thousand words culminating in one sentence. "Please kill me!"

Thud! Thud! Thud—

Dozens of the dead knelt in a row, and with each shot Russell fired, a deafening cheer erupted in the square, rising and falling like waves. Thousands upon thousands of the dead lined up, their turn to die almost bringing them to tears with excitement.

"Well done!"

"Brothers, I'm going first, I'm so happy!"

"The Wizard is so merciful..." a vengeful spirit wailed, though no tears came.

"And he's really handsome!"

"Yes, and he's very handsome..."

Debonair, handsome, dashing, upright, resourceful (4000 words omitted here), the spirits offered these exaggerated words. Although they didn't know idioms, the translation was roughly the same.

Russell's expression remained unchanged when he heard the praise; he was just stating the facts, so there was nothing to be happy about.

Bang!

After firing another shot, Russell shook his arm and put the Desert Eagle into his Space Ring: "I'm done playing, I'm bored!"

The Undead Leader had been kneeling on the ground, panicked and jumped up. "Wizard, how can you get tired of this! We have many other tricks up our sleeves, at least... at least fire that shot at me!"

Russell waved his hand, walked over to the expressionless trio, and pushed Aragorn forward. "I'm tired, let him take over."

The Undead Leader looked Aragorn up and down, circled him twice, and asked with some doubt, "Wizard?"

"No..." Aragorn said weakly, the tone of the scene had gone too far astray, and he was feeling a bit tired.

"Then why did you step forward?"

The Undead Leader immediately raised his voice eight octaves, then bowed and looked at Russell obsequiously. "Wizard, why don't you take a rest first? I can wait a while."

"I am the heir of Gondor, and you fight for me. I can consider you to have fulfilled your promise," Aragorn said.

"Hmph! The entire Middle-earth knows that the royal bloodline of Gondor has been severed. Don't try to deceive us."

The Undead Leader sneered, his face contorted with rage, "If you are truly that person's descendant, I will surely kill you. His vicious curse has made us wish we were dead. Out of respect for the Wizard, I'll give you a second chance..."

Clang!

Aragorn drew his Holy Sword, held it upright against his chest, and glanced sideways at the Undead Leader.

With a whoosh, all the undead in the square knelt down. The Undead Leader, abandoning his previous arrogance, trembled and choked out, "Holy one of the Western royal families, King of Gondor, descendant of the great Elendil, we... we have been waiting for you!"

"Great King of Gondor, we have been awaiting your command!"

"The King of Gondor has not forgotten us; he is truly merciful!"

"And he's really handsome!"

"Yes, and he's very handsome..."

(4000 words omitted here)

Aragorn's expression remained unchanged as he heard the various praises, for he had already heard them once before.

"King of Gondor, my lord..."

The Undead Leader, kneeling, took two steps forward on his knees, but failed to grab Aragorn's leg and missed. However, this did not stop him from declaring his loyalty. He swore, "Tell me who the enemy is, and I promise to lead my army and scare them all to death!"

A bunch of snobs!

Aragorn disliked these undead, but the proper procedures had to be followed. He raised his Holy Sword, exuding Overlord Aura, and roared, "In the name of the King of Gondor, I swear that as long as you fight for me, for Gondor, I will consider you to have fulfilled your promises. Then the curse will be lifted, and you will find eternal rest..."

Aragorn had prepared this line for a long time, and it originally included the line "Do you agree?", but judging from the current situation, it's probably not going to be used.

"We are willing to fight for Gondor, willing to die for our master..." The Undead Leader drew his longsword, responding to Aragorn's oath.

"You only get one chance..." Aragorn said casually. He had subdued an army, but he felt no sense of conquest; instead, he was somewhat disgusted.

This once again proves that licking your boots will only lead to nothing in the end. It's better to be more reserved when you're an undead!

"Rest assured, our Forgotten People will keep their promise. We have waited for this moment for thousands of years. We have never forgotten our vows, and we have lived cautiously, fearing that we would die without being able to fulfill our promises..."

Aragorn: "..."

I'm not blind. I saw you all rushing to your deaths!

Perhaps feeling that his words weren't very convincing, the Undead Leader chuckled awkwardly and explained, "Actually, we responded to the King of Gondor then, but... but it rained too hard that day, so our journey was delayed by two days."