After the death of his eldest son, Derek, Tandred was Admiral Daelin's only son and the future king of Kul Tiras. Tandred's predicament threw Admiral Daelin into disarray. He immediately convened a meeting with other leaders, hoping to use the Alliance's power to eliminate the sea monster—or at least try to rescue Tandred!
Now leading the Valoran Federation is Swain, who was appointed as the temporary supreme commander by Aiden before his expedition. Therefore, the notice of the Alliance meeting naturally had to be forwarded to him.
Swain opened the letter and quickly read through it.
"Tandred Proudmoore?"
He had a good memory and immediately recalled the name.
Wasn't this the "idiot" who proposed destroying the Dark Portal at an Alliance meeting to discuss supporting the Outland Allied Forces?
Although Tandred's proposal was not adopted, Swain would not forget how many people secretly wanted to do so at the time. He also realized that the discord between the New Alliance and the Old Alliance would eventually lead them to part ways.
"How unfortunate," Swain's deep voice didn't reveal whether he was genuinely regretful or gloating.
At this moment, Governor Rebecca came to find him. This strong woman, who coordinated the government's operations, wore an anxious expression: "Lord Swain, the situation is getting more serious!"
"Hmm," Swain knew what she was talking about.
In recent days, people had been falling into a strange slumber, as if deeply hypnotized, and could not be awakened. At first, people thought it was an isolated incident, but unexpectedly, more and more people were falling into the strange sleep. Even with a joint government investigation, no useful clues had been found.
The heroes of Valoran did have some guesses. They were generally aware that the "Eternal Nightmare" Nocturne possessed such abilities, so they speculated that Azeroth should also have such a being, invading people's dreams.
But how to find him was a mystery to almost everyone.
Swain believed that only by having the Commander summon Nocturne could the nightmare fight against the nightmare.
Rebecca leaned on the table and said loudly: "Today, we've tallied over one hundred and fifty more people who are in a coma, adding to the previous numbers, there are already over two thousand people within the population we control! Lord Swain, you must take this matter seriously!"
"I do take this matter very seriously," Swain stated his position, "but I don't have any specific solutions."
"Then what should we do? Are we just going to watch more people die in their sleep?"
"No, this time we will need someone's help," Swain replied, "There is another lady who should be very clear about the cause of this. Madam Rebecca, you just need to maintain order."
"Who exactly is it?"
"Madam Anna."
After saying this name, Swain stood up from his seat, "Alright, I have to deal with another group of people."
He was referring to the meeting invitation sent by Admiral Daelin.
---
When the strange nightmare invaded the world, Anna was indeed alarmed. She knew what was happening—the "Nightmare Lord" Xavius must be up to no good!
But the timing was so much earlier!
In her original experience, the Nightmare Invasion should have occurred on the eve of the Cataclysm, nine years later.
After learning that Aiden might have "sacrificed" himself, Anna consciously took on the mission of saving Azeroth.
She remembered that in the original history, the protagonist who dealt with the Nightmare Invasion was the Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage, and another key figure was Fandral Staghelm.
History had changed too much. She didn't know if this Nightmare Invasion had anything to do with Fandral, but after hearing from Maiev Shadowsong that Malfurion had not awakened from the dream, while Staghelm had awakened, she believed that Staghelm had likely been controlled by Xavius.
Anna was a mage, and what she could do now was to expose Fandral's conspiracy. As for other things—she would take it one step at a time!
Only after truly making such a decision did Anna realize that saving the world was not such a simple matter.
She was completely powerless against the Nightmare. She had no idea how to fight this enemy.
"Sigh…"
She sighed, now realizing that Aiden was no ordinary person. He had done so many things and ultimately solved so many difficulties, but when she personally tried to do the first thing, she didn't know where to start.
Anna planned to travel from New City, through Azshara, to Mount Hyjal to contact Tyrande and expose Staghelm's conspiracy. As she was flying through Azshara Forest, a strange magical fluctuation came from nearby. The Focusing Iris she carried suddenly detached from her.
"Who!" Anna immediately shouted angrily.
Directly in front of her, a handsome, blue-haired human youth appeared, the Focusing Iris falling into his hands.
"Hello, Madam," the blue-haired youth greeted Anna with a gentle smile. After greeting her, he said with a slight apology, "No matter where you obtained this replica, it doesn't belong to you, and I must retrieve it!"
Anna's eyes narrowed slightly. The blue-haired youth thought Anna didn't recognize him, but how could Anna not recognize him?
This was Kalecgos, a blue dragon disguised as a human.
"Return it to me," Anna tried to keep her voice calm. She was able to use the power of the Focusing Iris precisely because she had received Kalecgos's help in the original timeline. Otherwise, how could an ordinary person drive the artifact of a blue dragon?
For this reason, she didn't want to fight Kalecgos immediately.
"I am very sorry," Kalecgos firmly shook his head.
Anna drew her staff: "Then I can only retrieve it myself."
Seeing Anna begin to cast a spell, Kalecgos still looked composed.
The Guardian Dragons each had their unique powers, and the Blue Dragonflight guarded the power of magic.
Blue dragons knew all the spells that humans mastered, and many humans had never even heard of the spells that blue dragons knew. Kalecgos was confident enough to defeat this female mage.
But Anna was by no means an ordinary mage. Her current power was definitely in the top ten, or even top five, among all human mages.
With a wave of her hand, she summoned a large-scale blizzard to engulf Kalecgos, followed by sharp ice arrows in quick succession. All kinds of ice spells almost instantly submerged Kalecgos.
The intensity and power of the spells completely exceeded Kalecgos's expectations. He desperately activated defensive spells, but before that, several wounds were still scratched onto his body by the ice shards, and the once elegant and handsome youth became disheveled.
He almost had the urge to transform back into his dragon form and fight the female mage, but after thinking about it, he shouldn't expose his identity and provoke the hatred of mortals, so he could only fight in human form.
However, with the Focusing Iris, he didn't need to worry about failing.
"Please stop, Madam!"
"I'm going to fight back!"
"I don't want to hurt you, Madam!"
"…You forced me to do this!"
The once composed Kalecgos finally became exasperated. He infused his magic into the Focusing Iris, and after it amplified the magic, he shot out a frost ray.
Anna used Blink to escape the attack range and continued to cast spells to attack.
Not far from where the two were fighting, a group of high elves were hunting a giant blue dragon.
Leading them was Prince Kael'thas.
After relocating to Kalimdor, some high elves left New City, preparing to establish their homes in the forest.
Ashenvale was the territory of the night elves, so they couldn't go there. Therefore, they set their sights on Azshara.
They established a small base east of Lake Mennar. But before they could enjoy any peace, a crazed blue dragon suddenly came to harass them.
Prince Kael'thas, stationed in New City, heard the rangers from the Mennar base calling for help and immediately led elite forces to this side. Those who knew about the Battle for the Frozen Throne didn't have any goodwill towards the blue and bronze dragons. Upon learning that a blue dragon was attacking, Kael'thas prepared to hunt it down.
Although the crazed blue dragon was powerful, it was still no match for the elite of the high elves. The blue dragon prepared to flee from the sky, and the direction in which it fled was the direction in which Kalecgos and Anna were fighting.
"Roar!"
The blue dragon's roar reached Kalecgos's ears.
"A dragon?" He recognized that the voice sounded familiar. Holding the Focusing Iris, he could still handle Anna relatively easily, at least he wouldn't be defeated.
At this moment, he saw a blue dragon flying over from the sky, and a group of dragonhawk riders were chasing after it.
"Arygos?" Kalecgos widened his eyes.
The blue dragon Arygos in the air also noticed the magical fluctuations on Anna's side. Sensing the aura of its own kind, it immediately shouted: "Save me, Kalecgos!"
Seeing Kalecgos become distracted, Anna immediately realized that this was a good opportunity to retrieve the Focusing Iris.
"Freeze!" Anna waved her staff and also emitted a frost ray.
By the time Kalecgos reacted, it was already too late, and he couldn't dodge.
The Frost Ray froze Kalecgos into an ice statue, but before that, he threw the Focusing Iris out.
Arygos, flying through the air, caught it.
"The Focusing Iris!"
Arygos felt the power of this orb.
He immediately turned to face the pursuers and roared, "This time, I will make you pay a heavy price!"
Arygos poured powerful magic into the Focusing Iris, and the surrounding temperature began to drop rapidly, with frost forming on the grass and trees.
Kael'thas, who had been chasing after them, saw the Focusing Iris in the blue dragon's claws, as well as Anna standing not far away, and immediately guessed what had happened. He felt the terrifying magical energy surging in the air, and his expression changed drastically: "Retreat now!"
But the speed at which the icy power spread through the air slowed people's movements, and even their thinking became sluggish.
"I will freeze you all into eternally unmelting ice!" Arygos's mad voice rang out. His long-accumulated power was being released through the Focusing Iris.
The terrifying power of frost was truly erupting; in just an instant, Kael'thas, Anna, and everyone else would be turned into ice sculptures by this power.
At the critical moment, Anna finally made a move. She struggled to wave her staff, and powerful teleportation energy surged around everyone.
"Mass Teleport!"
With a "whoosh," everyone disappeared as the power of frost reached them.
A moment later, Kael'thas found that they had appeared in a somewhat familiar room. He shivered, both from the lingering cold and the excitement of surviving a close call.
"This is... Los Angeles?" He looked around, recognizing the unique architectural style of the new city.
Anna, her face pale, leaned on her staff to avoid collapsing. Forcibly casting Mass Teleport had placed a severe burden on her body.
"Are you alright, Anna?" Kael'thas noticed Anna's weakness and went over to support her.
"I'm fine, thank you..." Anna's voice was hoarse and tired.
"You..." Kael'thas's mind froze in shock when he saw the face she revealed as she looked up, a face completely different from her usual one. "You are!"
Anna was very dizzy. She touched her face—the spell that changed her appearance failed due to the forced teleportation. Her true face was now displayed without concealment in front of Kael'thas.
"Please keep this a secret," Anna whispered. She lowered her head and used magic again to transform herself back to her original appearance.
"I... alright," Kael'thas forced himself to suppress his surprise at seeing her true face. "I will keep the secret!"
No wonder—Ms. Anna possesses such powerful magic, and since she is from several years in the future, how could she not be famous now? Kael'thas suddenly understood.
"Hmm..." The aftereffects of the Mass Teleport became even stronger. Anna felt weak all over and could barely stand.
Kael'thas immediately supported her, whispering, "Let me help you to rest!"
"Thank you."
"I haven't thanked you for saving us yet," Kael'thas held her body, looking at her head full of silver hair and her haggard face. He suddenly felt a surge of pity.
Anna is the future Jaina—after learning the other party's true identity, Kael'thas's heart became strange. He slowly reached out his other hand to hug Anna's shoulder, carefully supporting her. Close to Anna, the fragrance emanating from her made the prince a little distracted.
"What am I thinking? She is so weak right now."
"Walk slower, even slower."
—
After Anna, who was exhausted, collapsed, she fell into a deep sleep. Prince Kael'thas stayed by her side. After a night, Anna still hadn't woken up. He thought she was just too tired, but when he tried several times to wake her up to eat something to replenish her strength, and Anna didn't respond at all, Kael'thas finally realized something was wrong.
Anna was also trapped in the Nightmare!
Just after Anna fell, the number of people falling asleep began to increase dramatically. The day before, the entire Righteous Land, including Los Angeles and New City, could count 152 people who were unconscious. Before that, it had basically maintained a growth rate of a few, a dozen, or at most dozens per day, but on the day Anna fell asleep, more than two thousand people fell asleep, more than the total number of the previous ten days!
Moreover, this nightmare was not only troubling the people of the Righteous Land, nor only humans. High elves, tauren, trolls, goblins, dwarves, and even night elves, who were blessed by the Guardian Dragons to be immortal and immune to disease, began to fall asleep.
A terrifying nightmare swept the entire world. The Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, wherever there were intelligent creatures, no one could escape this great disaster.
An invisible panic enveloped everyone. They didn't know who their opponent was, and even if they had all the strength in the world, they didn't know how to use it. They didn't know which enemy to swing their weapons at.
Even if the Burning Legion and the powerful Polluters were extremely strong, the demons could always be killed. As long as everyone united, there was hope of victory, but now most people didn't even know what the enemy was, so how could they defeat it?
The whole world was shrouded in shadow, and no one could break free from the shackles.
Daelin's request for help also failed to achieve the desired effect due to this nightmare. There was no navy to protect the safety of the sea, and rashly sending out a fleet could lead to even greater losses. In the end, everyone could only agree to send an airship to the scene of the accident to search. However, almost everyone believed that Tandred could not have survived, and sending an airship to investigate was just to satisfy Daelin's last hope.
The mages of Dalaran all focused on how to awaken the sleepers, and so did the Valorant Federation. Scientific and medical teams are researching ways to rescue the sleepers while maintaining their lives, but no one knows when they will be able to find a solution.
Humans are very panicked.
But when the Nightmare invaded, the night elves of Mount Hyjal were even more panicked.
After the victory of the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago, the Bronze Dragon King Nozdormu blessed the World Tree Nordrassil with the power of time. From then on, as long as this tree existed, the night elves would never age or get sick.
But when the Nightmare Lord invaded, Nordrassil, which had been full of life for ten thousand years, suddenly began to show withered and fallen leaves. When the first leaf fell to the ground, the first night elf fell asleep.
In the following days, the fallen leaves gradually increased, and the druids finally discovered the anomaly. Led by Archdruid Fandral Staghelm, they prepared to heal the seemingly sick World Tree.
The druids began to cast spells according to the spells taught by Fandral Staghelm, and this day happened to be the same day that Anna was attacked by the blue dragon and fell into a coma.
"Quick, increase the power!"
"Concentrate on casting spells!"
"Call upon more power from nature!"
"We are about to succeed!"
"I hear Nordrassil cheering!"
Fandral Staghelm encouraged the other druids while pouring energy into the World Tree.
Tyrande, worried, was on the sidelines. Although she was a priestess of Elune, the World Tree was of utmost importance to all night elves. Therefore, upon learning that the World Tree might be sick, she immediately rushed to the scene.
While the druids were casting spells, Tyrande was also praying devoutly, praying that the moon goddess would bless the night elves, let Malfurion wake up quickly, let the sick and sleeping people wake up, let the World Tree heal, let Cenarius return, let the jungle guardian Remulos recover…
"The spell is complete!" Fandral Staghelm's joyful voice came.
A low, drawn-out sound came from inside Nordrassil.
"Did you hear that? The World Tree is responding to our treatment!" He seemed very excited.
"I heard it, I heard it!"
"This is its response!"
The druids obviously agreed.
They healed the World Tree through their own efforts!