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The Seventh Gate

Post by Neonhyper

What is this I don't even.

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I wasn't even sure what was going on when it happened. A million alarms blaring in my mind, the call of trumpets and screaming, like the ferocity of the morning wake up ritual, except five times as straining. As I stumbled out of the tents set up around the chapel for us soldiers to sleep in, I realized that something big must be happening.

The commanders were out, shouting and barking orders. My equals in rank, and those lower and higher, were rushing at their harsh tones. I didn't know what to do, nobody was yelling in my direction, and I felt like I was even being ignored.

My mind was garbled, their words incomprehensible to me. It took me a very long time to even discern one sentence, but suddenly everything was making sense. As I rushed into the crowd of paladins and soldiers running about, I tried to stop one of them, but everyone was too absorbed in their work. Crates were being moved, weapons being gathered, and one single statement from one of our superiors slammed me into the reality of the situation.

"They found the Seventh Gate!"

The Seventh Gate. That was why everyone was scrambling like the Scourge had just overrun the chapel. Just a few seconds before, their position in the Eastern Plaguelands had been silent, the undead never dared to strike against Light's Hope, as it was consecrated ground.

"Lightwrench!"

I heard my name, or at least, my surname, being called. To be honest, it wasn't my actual last name at all, nobody knew what it actually was. Lightwrench was a pet name the other paladins had given me, on account of my odd race to be a follower of the Holy Light.

"Do you not know what kind of a situation we're in, get a move on!" I looked toward the voice, but barely registered who was talking.

It was okay, I didn't need to know who was ordering me around, I simply followed instructions, and that was what I would do now. With a simple nod, I rushed after the other men and women and helped get the supplies loaded upon the carts that would be heading out with the caravan. I hoped I would be with the brave soldiers going to find the gate.

A long time ago, some of the paladins had captured a necromancer and had gotten him to spill information on the Scourge's plans. Before he died, he explained about the 'seven gates' set up across the Plaguelands to send forces directly from Icecrown. We never learned the locations of the gates from him, but that was okay, because we had found them easily.

Or we had found six of them, and destroyed them with little effort.

The seventh one had eluded our detection, and from what the necromancer had said, there would be not stopping the legion of forces if all of the gates weren't destroyed. That had everyone searching during patrols, but we hadn't discovered it yet. Now, with the location of the nefarious Seventh Gate known, we could halt the reinforcements of the Scourge for some time.

Again, that was what we thought was going to happen.
One of the commanders began selecting troops that would join him along on the expedition. My heart raced as his pointed a finger, downward, at myself. I would be helping the Argent Dawn out on the field for such an important mission, and I could only thank the Light for giving me this opportunity.

Once we set out, not much was spoken. The horses neighed occasionally, but were quickly silenced by the lack of responding noise. Around us, the dead land was void of blighted creatures stirring, and I shivered at the presence of undeath that plagued the entire area.

We traveled in silence until the commander lifted his hand, the force halted, and he looked over each one of us, "Below."

I looked at my feet, there was nothing there, what was the commander talking about? It was just disgusting, tainted earth, like the rest of the area. Again, it was only until one of the other paladins figured out what our superior meant that I realized it as well.

"Underground?" One of them said, his eyes wide.

The commander nodded, and the next hours were a blur in my mind. We dug a hole down into the ground, and I saw that our tunnel lead straight into a labyrinth of caverns that had been right under our feat, undiscovered.

The underground tunnels were cold, and I could feel my small form being chilled to the bone by the very air. There was little I could do but follow the others ahead of me, as I was guarding the rear of our expedition. I constantly looked over my shoulder, hoping that no nerubian creatures were guarding these caverns.

Eventually the ceiling rose up and we entered a large open room. We gasped as we looked into the center of the chamber. I had never been present at any of the other gates, and this amazed me at the sight. It was a large metal ring, with a base that had runes of death carved all over it. The technology was unlike anything I had ever seen, or maybe it was as good as the inventions of my homeland, but I never took an interest into gadgets, so I wasn't certain.

"Here it is, now let's destroy it." One of the paladins announced.

We were about to set to work and get rid of this ghastly mechanism, when a forceful gust of frozen air sent us all to our knees. I looked over my shoulder, realizing that I had been in watching the Seventh Gate in awe instead of watching our rear like I should have.

"I don' tink dats a good idea..." A haunting voice whispered, and behind us, from out of the tunnel, came a Lich.

Evidently female by posture and tone, the floating skeletal caster reached out a bony hand and began causing the ground to freeze. Chains of ice began wrapping our legs and arms, and we worked fervently to free ourselves from them.

Again, this is where my memory has blurred. I remember the ice spikes, drilling into their forms, a few of them attempting to have hit me, but I was shorter than the rest of them, I dodged the deathly sharp weapons. My comrades were not so lucky, they were impaled.

Frozen blood drenched the underground cavern, I shivered and stepped over the corpses of the expedition, backing away from the Lich. She was cackling madly, "Poor leetle gnome, gunna die to a traitor, a traita' to ya' silleh rebellion agains' da King."

I blinked a few times, so this was the character that had betrayed the Argent Dawn? Occasionally I had heard rumors myself, of a troll woman who had worked with them, and then traded the lives of some of the Dawn soldiers to become a servant of the Scourge.

"Now... befor' I keel ya..." The Lich hissed and floated closer, "Who is da leetle gnome I have da pleasu' of turnin' to da Scourge..."

My hands instinctively reached to the shield on my back, and to the sword at my side. I lifted them high in front of my body, my weapon ready to strike if needed. This could be my last stand, my only stand, and if I would die, I would die taking the Seventh Gate down with me. The tabard I wore flapped silently in the arctic air the Lich gave off, my form bristled with Light.

"Anura. Anura Lightwrench."

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Post by Monday

I liked it, although I just kinda skimmed over it, don't have time to read it all =D

Post by Neonhyper

I liked it, although I just kinda skimmed over it, don't have time to read it all =D

Thanks. ^_^

To be honest, I wrote this in twenty minutes while being extremely bored, so it might not be the best thing I've ever written.

Originally, the 'Seventh Gate' was going to be something related to the Titans and I was going to make it into a mini-series involving the Twinspark sisters, but then I had the idea of writing something about Anura before she became a death knight.

It was like, ten thirty at night and I was too lazy to come up with something better so I just mashed the two together.

Geez, I'm amazing.

Post by OgreSound

I liked it a lot.

Continue it please :)

The Seventh Gate

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