As the airship returned to the Spire Fortress, Aiden saw a familiar figure on the wall where they had fought Archimonde—or rather, a relatively familiar figure.
It was Anzu, the "Raven God."
When Aiden first met this guardian, he appeared weak, exhausted, and listless, his feathers sparse and dull. As a god who once dominated the sky, he couldn't even fly.
But now, Anzu's appearance had become quite magnificent. His eyes were like sapphires, brilliant and bright. His crest feathers and huge wings had some bright golden feathers, paired with other sapphire or dark brown feathers, making him look majestic, noble, and mysterious.
Seeing the airship docking, Anzu opened his huge wings and gently flapped them to show his welcome.
"It's so good to see you, friend!" Aiden said with a sincere smile. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
"That wasn't an illusion. Fortunately, I merged into the shadows at the moment of the explosion." Anzu's voice was very loud, and he was also very grateful for the situation at the time. If he had been a little later, it would have been an irreversible ending. Thinking about it now, he still felt lingering fear.
In fact, their battle with Archimonde was only yesterday. Looking back, this life-and-death battle seemed like a long time ago.
Anzu showed off his wings again, becoming quite sentimental: "Now I can finally embrace the sky again… I really miss it!"
Aiden smiled with relief. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another energetic, tall arakkoa. Taking a closer look, wasn't that Terokk, the Talon King?
"You've recovered too?" Aiden asked him.
"Yes, thanks to your and the Raven God's help, I finally got rid of the curse." Terokk recalled his past behavior and couldn't help but sigh, "Those were truly crazy days."
At this time, Onyxia joked: "So, I don't have to turn into your daughter now, right?"
Terokk shook his head awkwardly. He was now awake, but he still remembered very clearly what had happened some time ago. His absurd behavior made him feel ashamed. But when he thought of his beloved daughter, he felt a little sad again.
He looked down at the bracelet on his wrist. After thousands of years, it had worn out very badly. The writing on it was already blurred.
But even if it was completely worn smooth, Terokk would never forget the line his daughter had engraved on it:
'Dedicated to my father, may Rukhmar light your way. Love, Lechis.'
Even after thousands of years, Terokk would never forget his love for his daughter, and his daughter's love for him.
Aiden said, "Let's talk about business—what should we do?"
Anzu knew he was talking about entering the Shadowlands.
"I have a plan—" After learning that Aiden had sufficient authority to use the Titan laboratory device, Anzu came up with a way: "Use the power of the Titans to reshape this broken world!"
He slowly explained his plan.
The underground Titan Archive could send out a signal to reshape the planet. After receiving a response from the Pantheon, the Titan device on the sun would melt the entire shattered Outland, completely decomposing it; then the laboratory device would read the Titan's pre-set blueprint—that is, all the data in the Shadowlands—and restore it to the reshaped new world.
"A crazy idea—but I like it!" Aiden smiled.
Since Kil'jaeden had tricked him, he would of course have to return the favor—he wondered if the "Deceiver" could survive the flames of the melting world.
Aiden asked Khadgar to use teleportation to contact the air force on the Exodar sub-ship that had gone to search for the Dark Portal. If they were going to implement this plan, they would of course have to bring their own people back first.
The Wildhammer dwarf hero Kurdran was in charge of overseeing the air force's search for the Dark Portal from the Exodar sub-ship.
They spent half a day flying from the Shattered Spire to the original location of Hellfire Peninsula. Then they began their mission.
At this time, the cataclysmic doomsday scene had ended. Aiden was originally worried that the fragments of the earth would lose their gravitational constraints due to the complete shattering of Outland, and then float into outer space. But because of Vanaar's existence, these small plates gradually began to float upwards after sinking to a certain extent, as if an invisible force was lifting them up.
These large and small plates floated and moved irregularly. The atmosphere had not disappeared, and the oxygen was still normal.
After confirming that it was safe, Kurdran ordered the air force to move out separately to find the Dark Portal.
But because of Kil'jaeden's last move, the plates in the original location of Hellfire Peninsula had all floated to extremely distant places, and the Dark Portal was no longer in its original location, but had floated to extremely distant places. Some people were lucky enough to find the gabled structure of a suspected Honor Hold supply depot in the distance, which clearly meant they were still far from their destination. So the first day of reconnaissance yielded no results at all.
And when Kil'jaeden launched the Hellfire summoning, the Hellfire that landed were still guarding here, so those small lands were not safe.
"Let us go back?"
"Found a way to escape safely?"
"Are you sure you didn't lie to me?"
"Alright, I believe you, old friend, I'll issue the order now!"
Kurdran learned of Aiden's order from Khadgar, who had come here, and he immediately issued it.
"To be honest, this is really not a job for humans—look, where does this look like Hellfire Peninsula?" Kurdran complained to Khadgar.
"It really doesn't look like it." Khadgar agreed.
"We flew the distance we originally thought was to the Dark Portal. Do you know what I found at the end?" Kurdran gestured exaggeratedly, "I found a small section of Hellfire wall! It's really a ghost! According to this calculation, the Dark Portal must have floated thousands of miles away, maybe even tens of thousands of miles!"
Khadgar laughed loudly and said, "Come on, Kurdran, it's a blessing that we can survive such a cataclysm. Why worry so much!"
"Tell me about that Kil'jaeden. You guys fought with that guy. I heard that he was the one who shattered this world? Is that true? Did you get your ass kicked?"
The two old friends joked with each other before retreating.
Under Kurdran's orders, the air force began to return to the Exodar sub-ship. Twenty hours later, almost everyone had returned here. But more than a dozen people were still missing.
No one returned in the next four hours.
"Time's up." Kurdran said in a deep voice, "Let's go back!"
"Those unlucky guys probably encountered demons!" Khadgar guessed.
"Probably, alas…"
Not all of the missing dozen air knights had met with misfortune. At least one high elf named Sephiel had not.
She was an air knight who joined the Shattered Sun Offensive's Skyguard. She was always very low-key and usually liked to have a drink at the tavern in Shattrath, where she was a regular. She had beautiful silver hair and a pretty, delicate face, and should have had many suitors, but in fact almost no one admired her, approached her, or even paid attention to her.
It was as if some magical power made people automatically alienate her.
As a member of the Skyguard, she was of course also sent to participate in the search for the Dark Portal.
When Sephiel received Kurdran's order to retreat, she seemed a little hesitant: "Retreat? But Kil'jaeden is fighting the Old Gods, what's the point of retreating?"
"Forget it, I'll just continue my mission!" Sephiel gently patted the Void Ray under her, "You're free!"
She jumped off the back of the Void Ray, and after a moment of free fall, her body began to swell, bronze scales appeared on her skin, and wings stretched out from her back, her hands and feet turned into dragon claw-shaped limbs.
In the blink of an eye, she transformed into her original form—a dragon, a bronze dragon!
She used the power of time to try to trace the process of Outland's shattering and find the whereabouts of the Dark Portal.
"That direction!" Sephiel—or rather, she should be called by her real name, Sephidormi—turned in another direction, flapping her wings and flying away at high speed.
In order to fulfill their responsibilities, the Guardian Dragons would send out their adult offspring to integrate into other intelligent races, observe and monitor the actions of mortals, in order to grasp the latest trends.
Sephiel was the bronze dragon who joined the Alliance Expeditionary Force more than a decade ago, and no one could see through the high elf she transformed into.
Strictly speaking, Kil'jaeden was initially like that as well. Many dragons have fixed mortal identities, such as Katrana Prestor, the Countess who is Onyxia's incarnation, and Victor Nefarius, who is Nefarian's incarnation.
After Sephidomia obtained sufficiently important information in Outland and contacted her own kind within the Expeditionary Force that had merged with Aiden, she believed that it was time to return and report to Nozdormu, the Eternal One.
Therefore, when faced with Kuralan's command, she chose to disappear and escape.
—
When Kuralan and the others who had gone out returned, Anzu used his identity as a Dream Weaver to open a connecting passage between the real world and the Shadow Realm. The survivors began to enter it one after another.
Aiden remembered the pictures on the door of the Titan Laboratory and his previous guess with Kayle, so he asked, "Anzu, is the Shadow Realm on the moon?"
"Very close," Anzu explained, "The Shadow Realm is a very special space. It is not on the same level as the real world. However, the device that reads the Shadow Realm's blueprint and reproduces its contents is indeed on the twin moons."
"The sun melts this world, and the moon reshapes this world. Is that what it means?"
"That's right."
"What amazing Titan technology." Aiden tried hard to imagine the principle of this technology. Why do the Titans have such abilities?
For them, reshaping a world is as simple as using a one-key restore system on a computer. However, one is simply re-releasing backed-up hard drive data, while the other is reshaping the entire planet and all life. The difference in difficulty between the two is simply worlds apart, even though the principles are similar.
According to Aiden's imagination, such methods are almost like "technology in fantasy."
"If it were Earth, how many years would it take us to master the same ability?" Aiden guessed, "If humans don't self-destruct or get destroyed, it would take... thousands of years, right?"
When Kayle finally entered the Shadow Realm, only Aiden and Anzu remained in the Titan Laboratory.
"Let's start it!" Anzu's voice was filled with anticipation and excitement, "I have a premonition—Rukhmar will return from the sun!"
"Oh?"
"During the final battle, she flew towards the sun. I think she must have gone to find the Titan Laboratory in the sun."
"Then we better pray that she didn't damage the Titan's system." Aiden smiled.
He took a deep breath and reached out to press the red button with the "Omega" symbol.
Archive Voice: "Reshape Order"
"Checking Sender Permissions: Titan"
"Higher than Observer Permissions"
"Code Confirmed"
"Reshape Code will be sent in one hour"
"Reply to Alpha: Cancel Code Transmission"
"Reply to Beta: Summon Observer Algalon Entity"
"Countdown: 59:42"
Aiden stared at the countdown, feeling a sense of indescribable excitement. In one hour, the code to reshape the planet would be sent to the Pantheon. After being confirmed, the planetary reshaping system would begin to operate.
He was looking forward to what would happen to Vanaar and Kil'jaeden when they faced the fire from the sun that melted everything. Would Kil'jaeden and his Burning Legion also be refined into materials for reshaping the world?
—
Kil'jaeden, who Aiden was thinking about, was very irritable. After Aiden and the others left, the battle between the Burning Legion and the minions of the Old Gods continued for another day. At first, Vanaar was extremely afraid of the Broken Sword in Kil'jaeden's hand. Having experienced the pain of being cut by that sword, he never wanted to experience it a second time. Therefore, he dared not fight back even when Kil'jaeden chased him for a long time.
Later, when one of his sons desperately tried to stop Kil'jaeden, he realized that the other party was just bluffing!
As expected, this guy lived up to his title of "Deceiver". Even when he couldn't activate the Darkener, he still used illusions to deceive him for so long, causing heavy losses to his legion and forcing him to flee in a sorry state!
Realizing this, Vanaar immediately launched a retaliatory counterattack.
Seeing that his trick had been exposed, Kil'jaeden had no choice but to temporarily retreat. He ordered all the demons to return to the Legion Fortress and activate short-range warp.
Since he couldn't do anything to Vanaar now, he decided to do something else first. Anyway, Vanaar couldn't escape. When he could reactivate the Broken Sword, it would be the death of this Old God!
His Legion Fortress flew eastward.
On the way, Kil'jaeden suddenly remembered something, "I almost forgot." He opened his hand, and the surrounding space began to distort. Then, a huge Twilight Dragon appeared.
Without a doubt, this was Dralgonax—Kil'jaeden had not killed this Twilight Dragon. He saw the dragon's great potential and special abilities and was prepared to try to cultivate it.
"Little reptile, you now face two choices," Kil'jaeden squinted, staring at the Twilight Dragon, who was covered in wounds. "First, obey me immediately; second, obey me after I torture you. Which path do you want to choose?"
Soon, a miserable howl of a dragon came from the fortress, making the demons outside tremble with fear. They knew that their master was torturing his new toy again.
Just like he had done to Ner'zhul. Defying this capricious Deceiver would definitely have a very miserable end.
However, this time, Kil'jaeden felt that Dralgonax's body still had some use, so he didn't skin him alive, but after a period of soul-crushing pain, the young Dralgonax finally succumbed to the Deceiver's knees.
Kil'jaeden's mood became cheerful. He stared at the Twilight Dragon: "See, I told you, you have two choices, but in the end, there is only one result. Why not be wiser?"
Dralgonax's eyes were full of fear. He had been tortured to the point where he didn't even have the strength to stand up.
"Very good, fear is a good quality." Kil'jaeden was very satisfied with the Twilight Dragon's fear. "Now, I'll give you three seconds to get out of here. Tomorrow, I want to see your size increase by 30 percent."
Dralgonax, who originally couldn't even stand up, almost instantly fled from this place upon hearing Kil'jaeden's order, so fast that he almost left an afterimage.
"I like creatures with such potential." Kil'jaeden was even more satisfied with the Twilight Dragon's performance.
At this time, a Dreadlord respectfully said: "Respected Master, we have arrived!"
"Well, very good." Kil'jaeden's expression became very serious.
He flew out of the fortress and cast a spell to locate it. Soon, he found a direction.
"Don't let anyone follow me," Kil'jaeden ordered.
"Yes, my master!"
Kil'jaeden flew forward alone. Not long after, he found his target.
Before him was a small, broken corpse. It floated between the shattered fragments of the continent, covered in serious injuries.
There were huge wounds on its head, chest, and abdomen, as well as half of its foot missing.
"I'm here, my brother..."
"I know you must think I betrayed you."
"I have experienced betrayal, and so have we. We have both been betrayed by our best brothers and deeply hurt because of it."
"Please forgive my lateness, my brother."
"But I must do this."
"Since the prophecy about you is true, then believe that we will have a reunion... not too late."
Kil'jaeden gently picked up Archimonde's body.
He was still more than twenty meters tall. In contrast, Archimonde, who had become only four or five meters tall due to the loss of power, was like a baby in his arms.
Archimonde's body suddenly burst into flames, and after only a few breaths, it completely turned to ashes.
Kil'jaeden put the ashes into the prepared urn, gently closed the lid, and carefully put it away.
After being silent for a while, he calmed down and strode away.
"Go to the next place." After returning to the Legion Fortress, Kil'jaeden ordered his adjutant.
"Yes, my master."
The Dreadlord suddenly felt that his master at this moment had become unusually terrifying. "The enemy who provokes the master at this time will be very, very, very unlucky."