"Quick, full speed ahead!"
"Keep up, don't fall behind!"
Shouts echoed from the depths of the Twisting Nether. Countless demonic legions were gathering, heading in the same direction. Eredar, Doomguards, Hellfire, Nathrezim, Abyssals… countless twisted creatures, each under the command of their respective leader, traversed the void. Wherever they passed, even the primal arcane energy was corrupted by fel energy, turning into green mist.
"The Deceiver" Kil'jaeden floated above the army, his eyes constantly watching his troops.
"Such a large army, just to eliminate a tiny ant." A disdainful voice came from beside him, as if deploying this tens of thousands strong Burning Legion army was overkill.
Another demon with similar features to him appeared at his side. This was his good brother, "The Polluter" Archimonde.
"Everything is for the master's plan." Kil'jaeden seemed unwilling to comment on this.
"Hmph!" Archimonde snorted dismissively, "Wouldn't it be a better way to revive the master if I were to descend upon Azeroth? Eliminating a small reptile is meaningless to me."
He still resented Sargeras for stopping him from answering the call of Azeroth. This was an opportunity he had waited ten thousand years for!
"The Naaru are helping that person. And," Kil'jaeden gave him a deep look, "we must not question the master's orders! Don't forget who gave us our power and status today, remember that, my brother."
"I know." Archimonde turned his head away.
"Let's go," Kil'jaeden followed the army, "I have already abandoned the pursuit of that other little bug because of this person. This time, we can't let anyone escape from our grasp again, otherwise, I will lose all face!"
In the Twisting Nether, thirteen Naaru fortresses were also flying at full speed, successively rushing to the location of the Dawn Fortress to meet. These Naaru technology space fortresses could also be combined. Aiden personally witnessed two other fortresses connecting with the Dawn Fortress, becoming a larger aggregate. It was like Transformers.
Two other Naaru also came to Aiden, circling around him. Aiden asked somewhat unnaturally: "What's wrong?"
"Just curious about you, you don't need to mind." Xidar explained on their behalf.
Aiden couldn't help but feel a little strange, "You have been to many universes, seen countless species, what's so strange about seeing me?"
"What we are curious about is not humans, but you yourself." Another Naaru replied, "You are unique."
"In what aspect?" Aiden pressed. He didn't originally think that he had anything unique, but the Heart of Valoran chose him, Jilan and Kayle had also said some strange things, and now the Naaru also said this, he felt that there must be some reason he didn't know.
The three Naaru communicated with each other for a while, and then Xidar said: "We believe that you are the one who breaks the 'routine'."
Another Naaru continued: "The Reformer."
The last Naaru said: "The Guide."
"But, what are these?" Although Aiden understood the meaning of every word, he completely couldn't understand the actual meaning behind it: Were the Naaru saying that he would guide them to carry out reforms and break the routine?
But what is this?
"We don't know either, only you will know."
"So we will help you."
"Go on, until you find the answer."
— —
In fact, from the moment the cannons sounded, this battle had nothing to do with the tauren who were ambushed. Tokala Whitesnout and Nunsok , the tauren warrior and the bear druid brothers, watched dumbfounded as this multi-racial coalition force rushed into the centaurs and started a massacre. The unity of humans, the strength of tauren, and the agility of trolls were vividly displayed on the battlefield. The centaurs were constantly being slaughtered, turning from pursuers into the pursued.
That centaur wraith, galloping back and forth, was like a terrifying nightmare. Rivers of blood flowed wherever it passed, and corpses piled up like mountains. The halberd was not stained with a trace of blood, and eerie ghost fire was left wherever its four hooves stepped. The souls of the dead centaurs were absorbed by the ghost fire, making Hecarim even more powerful.
Tokala changed from bear form back to his original form. He was shocked to find that hundreds of centaur souls were following this wraith, spreading the fear of the wraiths to the living enemies.
A small number of pandaren also shone brightly on the battlefield. The agility of these monks completely defied their bulky bodies. They waved their long staffs, picking up and knocking down countless enemies. Their fighting style was extremely ornamental, but equally deadly!
"Look at that tauren!" Nunsok pointed to Alistar's position. The tauren chieftain was slaughtering wildly. He rushed up, grabbed the necks of two centaur warriors with his bare hands, and then slammed them together, throwing the two corpses with their brains splattered as weapons, knocking down other enemies. Several centaurs prepared to encircle him, but he was not afraid at all, lowered his head and charged straight up, the sharp bull horns pierced the chest of the enemy in the front, and he continued to charge forward violently with the dead centaur's body, knocking over seven or eight centaurs wherever he passed.
The two brothers gasped. They looked at each other and saw incomparable shock in each other's eyes—perhaps only the most powerful Chieftain Cairne of the tauren tribe could have such great strength?
The battle undoubtedly ended with the annihilation of the centaurs. The Lei Jiao brothers greeted him, and Tokala said to Alistar: "Earth Mother be praised, thank you for saving us!"
Nunsok asked: "May I ask, which tribe are you warriors from? Your horns are really special!"
Alistar said: "We all come from the same tribe, the minotaur tribe! I am their chieftain Alistar! My people and I are loyal to the Valoran Federation, these are all our allies." He pointed to Vol'jin, Gangplank and others.
Tokala was stunned, they had never heard of such compatriots, let alone what Valoran was.
"Are you pandaren?" Nunsok looked at Chen Stormstout and asked, "I have heard the elders describe you, we even thought it was just a legend!"
"Yes, I am Chen Stormstout. Nice to meet you!" He clasped his hands together in salute. "We come from the Wandering Isle. My ancestors did see tauren!"
After meeting each other, Alistar stated his intentions. The tauren brothers were both happy and worried after listening. Now is the most intense time of the war between the tauren and the centaurs. Mulgore is full of war, and the tauren are already at a disadvantage. Although it is not necessarily a failure, it is hard to say in a few months. They are now losing the soil for survival, and when the food crisis comes, the tauren will have to leave the solid Thunder Bluff and compete for survival resources in the wilderness.
They can only support for up to two months. The tauren are struggling alone, and it is difficult for them to refuse, or even extremely desire, external assistance.
But the Lei Jiao brothers obviously couldn't make the decision. Such a major event as an alliance can only be decided by the chieftain and the elders.
The Valoran Allied Forces had just demonstrated their strength to them, and the Lei Jiao brothers immediately strengthened their determination: "We will take you to see the chieftain, as long as he agrees, there will be no problem!"
— —
When the army of Lordaeron gathered at the Lumber Mill front line, the Gilnean Scourge that had rioted before had already retreated. Only the wreckage and bloodstains on the battlefield could still prove their frantic behavior a few days ago. The 100,000-strong army that the Alliance had gathered for this purpose had no use for it, and they looked at each other, not knowing what to do next.
Could it be that they should forcefully attack?
No one could afford the cost of forcefully attacking the Greymane Wall, so they had to withdraw awkwardly.
There are only two possibilities for the Scourge's unrest: one is that Aiden and the others have succeeded, and the Lich King can no longer control the undead of Lordaeron; the other is that they have failed, and the Lich King no longer needs their rescue.
The leaders were anxiously waiting for news. The magical device carried by Rhonin could only be used once, and more news would only be known when they returned.
Because Naxxramas has been moving north, Sylvanas has been ordered to bring back the high elf army. In fact, King Anastarian had already woken up more than ten days ago. He reforged Felo'melorn and was convinced that the divine sword was stronger than before. But reality was also reminding him of how Stupid and arbitrary he had been before.
The high elves were indeed facing a major crisis, but he had rashly driven away the allies who had kindly come to help them.
He had no face to face others, and even more so, he didn't want to stand up and deal with the Alliance, or even bow his head and apologize to them. It just so happened that his son had arranged everything in an orderly manner during this period, so he went along with the flow and delegated all the affairs to Kael'thas, making him the acting High Elf King.
Having received the official appointment, Kael'thas lived up to expectations. He continuously sent out dragonhawk riders to keep a close watch on Naxxramas with the Alliance—this flying fortress was now in the skies above the Ghostlands. No one knew whether its target was Stratholme or Silvermoon City. Of course, the elves inwardly hoped that its target would be the forest trolls who had been entrenched in Zul'Aman—if that were the case, they wouldn't even mind adding fuel to the fire for the trolls. After all, the hatred between elves and trolls ran deep.
Just as Quel'Thalas began full-scale preparations for war, the expedition team finally returned.
Taric was the first to arrive next to the teleportation array. He saw the warriors walking out with solemn expressions, and there was no joy of triumph on the heroes' faces. He realized that something must have happened.
"What happened? Where's the summoner?" He couldn't help but ask when the last person, Braum, came out.
"The summoner... is missing," Braum replied gloomily.
"Missing—how could he be missing?" Tarric couldn't believe it.
"They said," Braun looked at the other heroes who had participated in the Battle of the Frozen Throne, "the commander was disappeared by a dragon."
"To the conference room!" Kayle looked at them. At the same time, she sent mages to send a message to Dalaran. As allies, they should be the first to receive the information.
Saurfang said, "I'll go first."
"Go, and return!"
—
The white-haired Jaina used magic to change her appearance, using the alias "Anna." She begged everyone not to tell others her true identity because she didn't want to cause unnecessary embarrassment because of her current identity.
Kayle told the remaining heroes everything that had happened during the Battle of the Frozen Throne. Although those who had not participated in the battle had already learned some general information from others, what happened that day still made everyone gasp.
"So what's next? What should we, and the Valoran Federation, do?" Darius asked first. He regretted not participating in this battle personally, and his heart was a little uneasy.
"Bring the commander back," Kayle's voice was unquestionable.
Singed said, "But before that, we need someone who can temporarily replace his position."
This was the most sensitive issue in everyone's mind. Without the constraints of the League of Heroes and with Aiden not around, naturally no one would submit to anyone else.
"I nominate Jericho Swain! He was the representative personally designated by the commander before he left," Sion said in a muffled voice. As a member of Noxus, he would naturally choose someone who could represent the interests of Noxus.
"Seconded!" Singed grinned.
"Objection!" Garen immediately spoke out, "I don't think the temporary replacement should be chosen from Noxus or Demacia, or even anyone from the Valoran forces. This is unfair to others!"
Lux immediately chimed in, "Yes, only Lady Kayle is the most suitable candidate! She is the most powerful and followed the commander the earliest to be summoned!"
Seeing that they were about to quarrel again, Kayle snorted coldly, "What are you doing, fighting for power and profit?"
The conference room fell silent. Only Kayle's indifferent voice continued, "The only foundation for the existence of the Valoran Federation is the summoner's leadership. If you want to fight for power, you are welcome to split off. My only mission is to protect the summoner, and your struggle has nothing to do with me."
Everyone was silent. Whether it was the heroes of Noxus or the heroes of Demacia, they quickly stated that they had no intention of splitting off.
With the unanimous support of everyone, Kayle naturally became the temporary ruler of Valoran.
"Finding the summoner is the most important thing for us right now."
"But how do we find him?"
"How we summoned him in the first place, is how we bring him back," Kayle replied.
Initially, more than a hundred heroes of Valoran jointly initiated the summoning. But now they only had twenty or so people. More powerful heroes were still in Valoran. How could they support such a summoning?
"He was far away from us before, but now he is very close to us," Kayle gave the answer.
More importantly, she inwardly believed that Aiden was also trying to return. What they had to do was work together to break through the obstacles between them.
'He will'.
—
There was no concept of time in the Twisting Nether, so Aiden didn't know how long he had been missing. Nor did he know that the heroes of Valoran were working hard to find him.
He felt his heart beating a little faster now, and he tried to take a deep breath to ease his mood. But there was no air here. Breathing would not produce any physiological effects.
Through the virtual screen, he saw countless demons constantly rushing towards the Naaru fortress outside. They surrounded this super-large Naaru fortress so tightly that no water could escape. Aiden didn't have trypophobia before, but seeing such a dense mass of demons eyeing him covetously, he felt like he had it now.
He asked the Naaru next to him, "Do you have any premonition of what the outcome of this battle will be?"
"Relax, Aiden. The Naaru are not omniscient and omnipotent. How could they know what will happen in the next moment?" Xirel comforted him, "We will create the fairest environment for you. These demons you see now will not become obstacles."
"Then who will become the obstacle?" Aiden asked.
"He's coming."
At this moment, above the super fortress, the demons hurriedly made way for a passage. A huge Eredar demon strode forward. Even the abyss demons, whose size was ten times that of humans, seemed small in front of him.
Of the creatures Aiden had seen, perhaps only dragons were larger than this giant.
His appearance was like a Draenei magnified dozens of times, except that his skin had changed from blue to gray-black, and his eyes were emitting an evil green light, which was almost a characteristic of all demons. And his hooves were as if on fire, which was the Burning Legion's iconic fel flames.
"Archimonde..." Aiden recognized this incredibly terrifying guy almost at a glance. He turned his head to look at Xirel, terrified, "You, you're not going to let me fight him one-on-one, are you?"
"No," Xirel denied.
Aiden breathed a sigh of relief.
"There's one more."
At this time, another Eredar demon also walked up, standing shoulder to shoulder with Archimonde. He had a pair of demonic wings more than his brother, and his skin was as red as fire. The flames of hatred burned eternally on him. This was the Burning Legion's most intelligent and cunning third-in-command—Kil'jaeden.
Aiden almost groaned: "I think would it be more pleasant if I committed suicide?"
The Naaru said, "You must believe in yourself. We will also give you strength."
"No need for encouragement," Aiden only felt like he was chewing on Chinese goldthread, "Even if they just stood still, I guess I wouldn't be able to cut them." He remembered that Xirel had told him before that Sargeras only had a dark soul left and was not to be feared, and that the Naaru's power would be used by him. At that time, he thought he was going to fight Sargeras.
But now he realized that he was wrong.
Although Archimonde and Kil'jaeden were only Sargeras's deputies, their actual combat power was definitely stronger than Sargeras, who only had a soul left. They were super beings who could destroy a world on their own. Aiden didn't think he had the slightest hope of winning.
"We are not comforting you," the Naaru said, "Xirel told you that tangible beings are very powerful in the Twisting Nether. That's why the former Sargeras was so strong. But Kil'jaeden and Archimonde are not—their bodies were modified by fel energy to adapt to the environment of the Twisting Nether. In essence, they are only tangible and not substantial in the Twisting Nether."
"Yes, they are actually not as good as you."
"But the premise is that you have to exert all your strength and your advantages!"
"What advantages?" Aiden asked.
"Change the rules."