Arthas's lips twitched slightly at the paladins' rebuke. His voice was particularly tyrannical: "My temper is terrible, and this terrible temper always needs to explode. Since you are unwilling to disband, then I will help you disband!"
Uther's thick eyebrows furrowed together. He raised his right hand to signal the paladins behind him to stop their scolding. He looked at Arthas sadly: "I truly cannot believe that I taught you for ten years. Your betrayal breaks my heart, child."
"I would have given my life for you without hesitation, and yet you repay the Knights of the Silver Hand like this? Perhaps Tirion and Saidan Dathrohan were right, accepting a spoiled prince into our organization was a mistake! You have made the Silver Hand a laughingstock!"
Intense anger exploded in Arthas's heart, almost suffocating him.
How dare he say such things?
Arthas was a death knight, the Lich King's strongest servant!
The living, the dead, and the undead were all under his jurisdiction.
Uther's words simply devalued him to nothing!
He let out a low growl, "Uther! I will kill you, and then resurrect you as my servant, making you dance to my tune, that will be the ultimate mockery of the Silver Hand."
Arthas grinned and raised Frostmourne. The high-ranking undead and Cult of the Damned members behind him all stood silently, ready to rush out and tear the living apart.
"Arthas." The old paladin's voice was particularly hoarse. "When you were in Stratholme, I should have stopped you, but I could never bring myself to oppose the son of my monarch. Back then, you were young and selfish, and I saw it as a child's immaturity. When you stubbornly and willfully moved forward, I thought it was just because a young man needed to step out of his father's shadow."
"Even when you chose the radical measure of slaughtering the city, I was praying that you could find your own path and recognize the mistakes you made when making this decision."
Faced with Uther's incessant lecturing, Arthas became impatient. He began to lead the undead army to flank the paladins.
"I have done many things." Arthas still refused to admit defeat, "But that is all in the past, and I don't think my decisions were wrong!"
Uther saw that Arthas was still unrepentant, and knew that his disciple was unlikely to turn back. It seemed that today would not end peacefully.
Uther raised his warhammer and began to pray. The power of the Holy Light filled the entire warhammer, emitting a pure light.
Arthas sneered in his heart.
Holy Light?
The Holy Light failed to save the people infected with the plague, nor did it save the soldiers killed by the undead. Since he left Stratholme, his warhammer had never shone with the Holy Light again. When Muradin was seriously injured, the Holy Light did not respond to him.
He had long abandoned the Holy Light!
Arthas tightened his grip on Frostmourne, and the Lich King's power surged within his body.
"Charge! Warriors of the Scourge!"
Uther's eyes became firm again. Today, he would personally end Arthas and correct his mistakes!
"Holy Light be with us, brothers, purify the evil before us!"
Uther ignored the other undead, pulled on the reins of his warhorse, and charged straight towards Arthas!
Wings of Holy Light spread out behind him. He raised his warhammer with both hands and smashed it towards Arthas with all his might, the weapon shining with holy power whistling through the air towards Arthas's head.
In the paladin trend led by Galen, learning the Divine Shield was the only way to transition from a knight's squire to a formal paladin. If you wanted to advance to a high-level paladin and become an officer, you had to learn how to open your wings…
Arthas snorted coldly and yanked on Invincible's reins, causing his mount to quickly evade. Uther's warhammer of justice brushed past Arthas's pale cheek, and the strong airflow snapped a strand of Arthas's white hair.
Uther saw that his attack had missed, retracted his warhammer, and then struck again.
His expression was calm and focused, yet extremely deadly.
He only had one thought in his mind: to kill this son who had betrayed his father and his country, and to stop the spread of evil!
Arthas also had a stern expression, and slashed Frostmourne towards the paladin.
He had to kill his former mentor in order to sever his past…
From the moment he drew Frostmourne, in addition to the Lich King's whispers and Frostmourne's sword hum, there was another voice deep within his heart.
This voice always disagreed with his own, and always tried to stop him…
Arthas wanted to completely sever all thoughts and memories of the past, otherwise there would always be sweet but illusory hopes of compassion and forgiveness in his heart.
Uther's warhammer collided with Arthas's runeblade, and their faces were almost touching as they stalemated each other.
The muscles on their arms trembled from exertion. In the end, Uther was somewhat unable to match Arthas's death knight body due to his old age. He could only let out a heavy grunt and forcefully push Frostmourne away.
Arthas staggered back a few steps, and Uther immediately regrouped and launched a fierce attack. His whole body shone with a brilliant light, as if he himself was the embodiment of the Holy Light!
"For the justice of the Holy Light!"
At this moment, the young Arthas finally knew why his former mentor was called the "Lightbringer," and why he was able to become the Grand Master of the Knights of the Silver Hand!
The light enveloping Uther continued to grow stronger. The Holy Light's benevolence and love transformed into raging fire and uncompromising punishment. Under the Holy Light's illumination, Arthas's eyes stung, and the pain in his body and soul distorted his expression.
"You are too slow, my death knight!"
Arthas heard the Lich King's whisper in his ear. Then, he felt the Frostmourne in his hand being raised at some point. Did he inadvertently grab the hilt, or did Frostmourne jump into his hand on its own?
Or could the Lich King directly control this magic sword?
Arthas, whose mental state was already tending towards chaos, could not be sure at all.
He only saw Frostmourne's blade shining with a dark light, and stabbed fiercely towards Uther.
The tip of the sword directly pierced Uther's warhammer: the Justice of the Holy Light.
The hammerhead shattered, and then Frostmourne pierced Uther's chest!
"No…"
The paladins beside Uther's eyes widened in disbelief, and they broke free from the undead beside them, rushing towards Uther regardless of everything!
In a place that no one noticed, the fragments of Uther's warhammer fell to the ground, and a white scroll fell from the hammerhead.
A burst of white light flashed, and Uther and the hundred or so paladins around him all disappeared.
Arthas stood there in a daze. If it weren't for the dozens of paladin corpses on the ground and the red blood dripping from Frostmourne's blade, Arthas would have almost thought he had just had a hallucination.
"Hang the coffin on the city walls of Lordaeron, we continue north!"
Arthas issued the latest order.