Just then, her son came running towards her, stumbling, with a face full of innocent smiles, babbling "Mama."
Moira's heart softened; she had been through a lot since this son was born.
'Was I this much trouble for my parents when I was a child?' she suddenly thought.
Thinking of this, she immediately felt that her act of burning the letter was too childish—she quickly retrieved the corner of the letter that had already caught fire from the stove and stamped out the flames with a few stomps.
Moira carefully opened the envelope and unfolded the letter inside.
Several holes had already been burned in the middle.
"Moira, my daughter:
This time, I'm not here to argue or be angry with you, but to tell you something extremely important… the Legion has already moved from the Searing… towards Blackrock… Archimonde commands this army.
You must not… the demons are too strong… detour through the Badlands… it's the only way out."
Finally, there was Magni Bronzebeard's signature and seal.
The letter was covered in scorch marks and holes, and many parts were illegible.
Moira could only discern from the remaining text that it was a warning from her father; it seemed that someone named Archimonde was leading an army to attack Blackrock Mountain, and her father advised the Dark Iron dwarves to retreat.
Who is Archimonde?
Moira had never heard of this name, but she believed her father would not speak without reason.
So she immediately found her husband, Dagran, and told him about the matter mentioned in the letter.
"Let us retreat? Withdraw from Blackrock Depths?" Dagran Thaurissan said decisively, "Impossible!
No matter who this Archimonde is, or how many troops he leads, our Blackrock Depths is impregnable!
My dear, I think this must be some conspiracy of your father's; he knows that the Ironforge army cannot break through Blackrock Depths, so he wants to lure us out to fight him on the surface!
I won't fall for it!"
Just like Magni had considered sending troops to attack the Dark Iron dwarves when he was angry, the Dark Iron dwarves also dreamed of returning to Ironforge and seizing the orthodox position from the Bronzebeard dwarves.
Thaurissan wanted to kill his father-in-law, just as his father-in-law yearned to kill him.
There was no trust between the two clans' kings.
"Dear, don't worry, our Blackrock Depths is impregnable!" Emperor Thaurissan's voice was full of confidence.
Seeing the worry still on his wife's face, he patted her hand and said meaningfully, "What's more, we have a great master behind us.
If anyone dares to attack Blackrock Depths, once he is awakened, those enemies will be burned to ashes by his anger!"
Moira's eyes widened, and she asked in surprise and uncertainty, "Are you talking about that legend?"
"That's right!" Emperor Thaurissan nodded affirmatively, "But this is not a legend, it's a fact!"
More than two hundred years ago, before the dwarves split, High King Modimus Anvilmar ruled Ironforge.
But after his death, the three most powerful tribes of dwarves launched the War of the Three Hammers to Scramble Ironforge's rule.
The final result of the war laid the foundation for the current dwarf pattern—the Bronzebeard tribe became the ultimate victor, occupying Ironforge; the Wildhammer dwarves moved to Aerie Peak; and the Dark Iron dwarves hid in the depths of Blackrock Mountain, building the vast and complex underground city of Blackrock Depths.
In fact, the outcome of the war was very unfavorable to the Dark Iron dwarves.
They were once very powerful, so powerful that it took the cooperation of the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer to resist them.
But it was also this ambition that destroyed them.
The Dark Iron Queen was killed carelessly, and the Dark Iron dwarves quickly fell into defeat.
When this tribe was almost destroyed, the successor, Prince Thaurissan, risked summoning an extremely powerful being—the Fire Lord, Ragnaros.
This fire elemental lord, personally sealed by the Titans, tore apart the Redridge Mountains, which stretched for thousands of miles, with an unparalleled posture as soon as he was born.
The violently erupting volcano turned the Burning Steppes and the Searing Gorge into what they are today—these two places were once fertile and lush lands, but now they are full of flowing lava, and the ground is covered with thick volcanic ash.
Within a thousand miles, almost no grass grows.
The appearance of the Fire Lord immediately ended the war.
The Dark Iron dwarves were able to survive, but they had in fact become slaves of the Fire Lord, serving the master of the Molten Core in the depths of Blackrock Depths, Ragnaros.
So Thaurissan was not worried about his safety at all.
Even though there were constant frictions between them and the orcs and black dragons on Blackrock Spire, they had not really hurt each other, and it was not worth his serious action.
If he got serious and summoned the Fire Lord, the orcs and black dragons on Blackrock Spire would have been burned to ashes long ago—but now he has a wife and children and doesn't want to die.
The Fire Lord was indeed powerful, but the person who summoned him had to pay the price of his life—Dagran Thaurissan's ancestor, Prince Thaurissan, who first summoned Ragnaros, died in this way.
If someone could really threaten Blackrock Depths, when Emperor Thaurissan didn't want to live, the other party wouldn't want to live either!
In the next two days, the Dark Iron dwarf scouts discovered that the orcs on Blackrock Spire were leaving here on a large scale and heading south.
They were carrying a lot of supplies, and it looked like they were moving.
Even the black dragons in the upper Blackwing Lair were flying out.
Thaurissan was relieved to learn of this news.
Their nemesis had escaped!
But Moira didn't think so.
What kind of powerful enemy would an army that even the powerful black dragons and orcs dared not face be?
—
In these days, the Deeprun Tram from Stormwind City to Ironforge was running at full speed day and night, transferring all the refugees gathered here to Ironforge.
Most of them would continue to stay in Ironforge, or go to Gnomeregan, and the vanguard had already boarded Dalaran, ready to evacuate.
After the demon army led by Doom Guard Leimon was completely wiped out, Gnomeregan was no longer threatened.
Unless Archimonde sent more troops, he would not be able to do anything to this ice kingdom.
When a very few surviving flying demons caught up with the army in the Searing Gorge from Dun Morogh and reported the news to Archimonde, the great demon flew into another rage.
In comparison, Doom Lord Kazzak's actions were very smooth.
He sent demons with a message saying that he had brought out more than 100,000 Stone Golems for the Burning Legion in the Titan's testing ground "Uldaman" in the Badlands.
These deformed and ugly monsters were very suitable as their cannon fodder, and their individual combat power was no less than that of trained human soldiers!
This was the first good news Archimonde had heard since his arrival.
Before that, the Battle of Sunwell—the Sunwell was blown up by the elves; the Battle of Silvermoon City, the long-term portal became a temporary portal, and a large number of demons were killed or lost contact due to chaotic coordinates; the Battle of Thandol Span also suffered heavy losses, and the Demon Forges, which he had high hopes for, were attacked and destroyed; then there was the Battle of South Gate of Dun Morogh—the army led by Leimon was completely wiped out.
Archimonde was still invincible, but his army was suffering setbacks everywhere.
In his countless conquests over the past 20,000 years, he had never encountered such setbacks.
Even in the War of the Ancients, he had achieved great results.
He had killed countless demigods, not to mention other heroes.
But now that he had arrived for so long, he had not yet achieved a single decent record.
This feeling of having power but nowhere to use it really made him angry.
"That's Blackrock Mountain?" He strode towards the volcano formed by solidified lava in front of him.
He could feel a powerful creature hiding underground, a creature that was incredibly hot in his perception.
"It's you, my first achievement!" Archimonde narrowed his eyes and shouted to his army, "Charge up and kill all those who resist!"
Two days ago, the demons monitoring here had already told Archimonde that the orcs and black dragons on Blackrock Spire had evacuated in advance.
He didn't care about this.
The other party was going south, and he would also go south.
These orcs would eventually have nowhere to escape!
Now, he would first take the foolish Dark Iron dwarves underground—and the fire elemental lord in the Molten Core—Ragnaros!
Thaurissan didn't get the news until the Burning Legion came to his door.
In fact, a large part of the Searing Gorge belonged to the Dark Iron dwarves.
A day ago, the Dark Iron dwarves who fled back brought back the news that the demon army was marching towards Blackrock Mountain.
When Thaurissan heard that there were mana-powered mechs more than 20 meters tall in this group of demons, as well as abyss demons and doom guards five or six meters tall, and countless other terrifying demons, his heart slowly sank.
And the number of the demon army—according to the survivors' description, it was boundless!
The sky and the ground were full of them.
There were also a large number of native creatures being enslaved, including ogres, kobolds, gnolls, trolls, and a small number of humans and dwarves.
Moira was also stunned.
She finally knew what her father's letter was about—the demons of the Burning Legion were attacking Blackrock Spire from the Burning Legion, and the Dark Iron dwarves could not resist.
He suggested that they detour through the Burning Steppes to the Badlands to avoid the demons, which was the only way out.
But what to do now?
Thaurissan's blind confidence had caused the dwarves of Blackrock Depths to miss the best time to retreat.
If they had retreated at the same time as the orcs above, they would probably have all evacuated by now.
"Dear, listen," Thaurissan swallowed, took his wife's hand, and stared at her beautiful eyes, "Now it is impossible for us to retreat safely.
I want you to take our child and some of the clan and leave here immediately."
"Dagran, will you come with me?" Moira looked at her husband.
Thaurissan avoided his wife's gaze and said in a deep voice, "I'll be there soon."