Aethas and Valeera continued to wander around the abandoned sanctum that had fallen ruined to the ages, looking for any possible clues for treasures and hidden knowledge, based on Aethas knowledge about Ancient arcane sanctum that was recorded down in books and many other literature, Aethas can somewhat reference these structures to a type of ancient “nuclear” power plant and Thermal Energy plant back on Earth if there was any similarity, these structures had one purpose, and that one purpose only- that is to generate as much power as possible under a certain period of time, of course the energy has to be under controlled, else it would just be a disaster.

Just like all power plants back on Earth, the Arcane Sanctum also needed a place to store their excess powers, along with a key component that generate those powers in the first place, and that is what Aethas was looking for, the “Keystone” of the Arcane sanctum, along with any possible crystallized mana that were left untouched when the population abandoned the region to escape back to Eversong and Silvermoon.

“Aethas! Look at this!” Valeera quickly went to where Aethas was while holding a small piece of purple crystal that is radiating with ancient mana from the leyline, this is no doubt what Aethas was looking for! [Ancient Mana]- based on it description from the wiki, Ancient mana is basically crystallized mana from the Leyline beneath the Ancient City of Suramar- but in the end, it is just crystallized mana from the Leyline, and where does all Arcane Sanctum were built on? You guessed it! Leyline.

“Great work! Where did you find this?” Aethas asked her, with this clue- it showed they were on the right track, or at least close to where the source is- Valeera then pointed at a pile of broken shelf full of worn out books where their words are barely visible anymore in fortunate case, but most of it were completely rotten for being exposed to the elements.

Seeing that their path is blocked by such obstacle, Aethas cracked his knuckles while looking at the pile of debris, one can guess that he is ready for a spell incantation.

“Valeera, you might want to move away, I’m going to put what professor Sunreach taught me to good use.” hearing that, Valeera quickly moved behind him and stare with curiosity.

After knowing professor Sunreach for years back in Eversong, if there’s one thing Aethas could confidently tell ANYONE about the old elf, is that he is the master of fire magic! Or in many cases, anything that is related to the art of setting things on fire, enchanting and disenchanting is only secondary to him, and as for magic theories and researching into arcane knowledge, that is just a hobby.

By now Aethas has successfully managed to gather a percentage of mana from himself and weaved it into a small infernal between the palm of his hands- this is the spell that Aethas had successfully mastered under the tutelage of his teacher.

“[Incinerate]!” he called out the name of the spell, which is one of the basic spells of the Destruction specialization of the Warlock class.

Maybe it was due to the amount of mana that Aethas had built for himself over the years, but just 2% of that amount put into the spell is enough to completely vaporized the debris that was in front of him, leaving a charred scar radiating an intense amount of heat and revealing a pathway before them, after which Aethas couldn’t help but let out a long high pitched whistle, seeing the amount of destruction he can cause with just one spell.

“Just love the smell of burning books in the morning huh- wait no! Wrong! Books are precious! Those who burn books kill knowledge! But whatever, these books are no longer readable anyways.” Aethas shrugged, it wasn’t much of a loss to him anyway, if they left such tome lying about in the public area- he doubt they would worth much.

What really juicy are hidden deeper within the sanctum and locked away to keep the public from ever laying eyes on them- those are the real treasures! To which might hidden ahead of them- with that said they venture deeper into the maw of darkness itself, on the path that is littered with crystallized mana, either on the ceiling, the wall or the very ground they walked on, it was saturated with magic- even the air they breathe in cannot escape the mana radiation as it too, was filled to the brim with mana.

“Can you feel it Valeera? Of what’s ahead, I there’s a huge condensed power just up ahead.” his eyes glowed brightly as the pressure from the passage ahead of them seeped into his skin, causing his hair to stand right up, they were very close.

When the two children reached the end of the ancient passageway- where a massive door stood, being children and curiosity overwhelmed them they push it open, what greeted them was just awe, perhaps mixed with a portion of sheer terror as they laid their eyes to what’s in front of them, a mass of unstable arcane energy concentrated in an area deep underground.

Part 2

“Isn’t it beautiful, Valeera?” Aethas asked the girl, witnessing such a mass of power, left untouched for so long caused one to be baffled at such a phenomenon, there are many questions Aethas wished to ask after seeing such a scene, such as “why the Scourge didn’t make use of this power?” or “why does no one seem to pick up on this at all?”, only to turn around and found that Valeera is frozen in fear just from the pure pressure giving off from the arcane anomaly.

Unfortunately, his question is soon to be answer as the mass of power began to give off pulse of arcane waves that radiated it surrounding and energized them to an extreme state.

“Oh crap… we need to get out! Now!” noticing that something is wrong, Aethas quickly pushed Valeera down- as soon as he pushed her down, an even stronger wave of power blast out, followed by a deep furious howl.

“FREEDOM!!!!” from the arcane anomaly, borne an aberration made from purely of Arcane energy take form into the physical world- if one could describe the children situation, it would be extremely bad, they need to get out of the sanctum immediately! Screw the Keystone and ancient knowledge! There’s no point in that if they can’t live to use it! Plus they quickly need to warn the local militia!

However, it doesn’t look like it was possible as the creature shot out a beam of energy and collapse their only escape route and trapping the children inside the chamber.

“Shit, we are so dead…” Aethas last shred of hope of escaping alive vanished the moment the tunnel collapsed, “Aethas… are we going to die?” Valeera asked in a shaky voice, finally understanding their current situation.

“Well my beautiful secretary, that might be the case if we don’t find a way to escape.” that is hopeless to begin with, after quickly looking around, Aethas can’t seem to find any possible escape route, this chamber is like a prison if there’s a better word to describe it.

“DIE MORTAL!!! I SHALL NEVER BE IMPRISON AGAIN!!!” the creature quickly turn hostile toward the innocent children below and began to amass mana, ready to launch an attack to obliterate them from the world of the living.

Seeing imminent death, Aethas steeled his nerve, he too himself ready to launch the first attack before the monster, he turned back to Valeera, who surprising already knocking her bow and shot a couple of arrows at the creature. “Well, at least we’re doing something.” Aethas thought as he smiled. “Time to go all out! [INCINERATE]!” Aethas launch a blazing streak of infernal at the Mana elemental, blasting a chunk out of the monster and interrupting it casting ability.

“PUNY MORTAL!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!” the Mana elemental is enraged after being interrupted by an insignificant ants that it dwarf over in both size and power! Seeing that it spell was interrupted, the creature began conjuring up mana elemental to attack.

“You think that you’re the only one who can summon minion! Valeera! Buy me some time, it’s time to show this monster that we’re weakling and just wait to be slaughtered!” with the air of a commander around him, Aethas order the girl- whom quickly rain down arrows upon the numberless Mana Surges that wanted to rip them apart.

Aethas himself utilized this chance and immediately call forth another skill that the Warlock class gained infamy from in this Universe- the art of conjuring forth demons! Although this might be a bad idea as conjuring demons and controlling them had to be done through laborious effort, such as subduing the creature and force it into the Warlock service through the domination of will or master and servant contract, else the creature will just be a menace to all.

But that is just what Aethas needed right now! [Summon: Imp]! A magic circle radiated and a small sprite engulfed in fel flame appeared and shooting fireball like it was fireworks! However Aethas doesn’t stop there, he continued to put in even more of his mana to call forth more horror from the twisting nether and Aethas doubt that he lacked anything but mana itself here! It wasn’t all for naught and soon a terrifying creature heard of his summon, but it seems like Aethas got more than he had bargained the moment he laid his eyes on the creature that step forth from the portal.

“WHO DARE SUMMON ME! THE GREAT ANNIHALASH!” roared the giant creature that looks like a massive lizard with 6 limbs with a humanoid torso with tusk and wings with flames blazing, this creature is without a doubt, a species of Annihilan, better known as the Pit Lords!

*BANG! The Arcane anomaly shot a ball of concentrated arcane energy at the face of the Pit Lord and broke off a tusk.

“Okay, this might work…” that all Aethas could muster out in words after witnessing the stupid action of the Arcane elemental.