The sky was blood-red.
A hideous blood-red that sent a slight chill down the spine.
A depleted, savage land without any sign of life. Only a Dark Portal still stood there, bearing witness to the bloodshed that had once swept through this place.
The Alliance's Expeditionary Force passed through the Dark Portal... They could see no sign of life around them, only stark white bones scattered everywhere.
Nor did they see any orcs. Clearly, the Horde had abandoned this place and already left.
The cavalry's warhorses let out shrill cries from time to time, clearly not yet accustomed to this world's unfamiliar environment.
And as the enormous Floating City Khardros passed through the Dark Portal... the leaders of the Expeditionary Force also arrived in this world.
"We need to establish a temporary fortress here first!" Danath Trollbane stepped onto this barren land, corrupted by fel, and shouted.
They were attempting to conquer another world...
They needed to make sufficient preparations in advance.
Hellfire Citadel.
Back when the Horde had first formed and was preparing to invade Azeroth, they had built this fortress.
Ner'zhul sat upright on the throne within this fortress.
But he did not like it here.
For this was a thoroughly repulsive-looking fortress; broken ramparts, jagged corners, and twisted corridors were entirely at odds with the Horde's traditional style.
Traditional orc villages mostly had nothing but small buildings, houses, and burrows.
Traditionally, orcs generally used timber to construct the frames of their houses; these buildings, however, were built entirely of black stone, and the corridors made of that stone led all the way to the very top of the fortress... to a throne.
A throne that had once belonged to Blackhand, but now its master was Ner'zhul.
Ner'zhul reached out and gently stroked the throne beneath him...