Arrival

The Northrend Expedition was gathering before the Gates of Retribution. Commander Daelin was forging siege weaponry specifically to breach the gate made of Saronite—heroes who had fought in the battle of Icecrown Citadel told him that only the power of the Holy Light could shatter the fang-like iron gate. Aiden had done the same when attacking Frostwing Halls.

Under Krasus's guidance, Jaina, along with the archmages of Dalaran, constructed a massive portal at Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight. Here, a node of abundant energy made establishing the portal much easier.

The other end of the portal was in Dalaran—a vast amount of troops and supplies were continuously transported through this portal connecting the two continents to Dragonblight, where they gathered and marched toward the Gates of Retribution.

The righteous army converged here. Their morale was high, ready to break through the Scourge's last base and bring utter destruction to the Lich King and his evil servants.

"The Scourge's end is near!" Everyone believed so.

Antonidas looked at the angel before him, somewhat hesitant, "Kayle, I deeply understand your urgent desire to find Lord Aiden, and I am very willing to provide you with assistance in this matter. Dalaran is also willing to share the burden for our allies. But not now. We have more important matters at hand—you see, the forces to punish the Scourge are continuously heading to the Gates of Retribution. I will also be departing soon. The matter you proposed, to infuse energy into the summoning array you created—how about we do that after the Scourge is eliminated? I guarantee that by then, not only the mages of Dalaran, but I will also persuade others to contribute to this! Valoran is our ally, and an ally of the Alliance. We will not stand idly by regarding Aiden's safety."

"I understand," Kayle said, standing up, "Farewell."

After speaking, the angel turned and left the reception room. She took a deep breath, flapped her wings, and quickly disappeared from Antonidas's sight.

The archmage with snow-white hair had some worries in his eyes. He had heard of Aiden's heroic deeds in Icecrown Citadel, knowing the sacrifices he had made for the Alliance and Azeroth. But…

Antonidas sighed and turned to walk towards the portal. He too had to go to the Gates of Retribution to participate in the final battle against the Scourge.

'I hope Aiden is safe and well.'

—

Aiden made up a reason and bid farewell to this world's mother. After closing the door, he leaned weakly against the wall, his heart in turmoil.

His senses had become very acute due to the increase in his strength. Even through the wall, he could hear the voices in the room.

"Who is it?" This was his father.

"Aiden's friend—hey, old man, this young man looks a bit like you! Tell me honestly, did you have other women before? Was it that nurse at the county hospital back then? Your sister-in-law told me you used to—"

"Hey, old woman, that's enough! People already have a family. It's just baseless rumors. What are you gossiping about here?"

"You can't deny this young man really does look a bit like you. Put him next to Aiden, and everyone would say they're brothers."

Aiden shook his head, shook off these chaotic emotions, and left this place.

In the past two years, he had come into contact with too many secrets about time in Azeroth. He suspected that the current Earth was not the Earth he had left, but a parallel space with a slight deviation in a certain point in time—the biggest change being the difference in his birth. Other than that, there seemed to be no other differences.

For the next two days, Aiden was investigating this world's version of himself—perhaps it should be considered his brother?

Aiden Williams did indeed look seven or eight parts similar to him, and anyone would say they were brothers standing together. However, their experiences were not the same:

Before Aiden transmigrated, he studied liberal arts and worked in a publishing house after graduation.

Aiden Williams studied computer science and now has some success in a software company.

The other person was not another version of himself; he did not follow the exact same path as Aiden. The real Aiden never existed in this world.

Aiden Williams was already married and had a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. And the person he married was a woman with the exact same name and appearance as his fiancée before he got isekaid.

Aiden saw this happy mother walking with her daughter in the community park. He watched this scene from afar, feeling both happy and bittersweet.

He walked closer and saw the little girl's rosy, adorable face, feeling as if his heart was melting.

The little girl's mother also saw him, looking somewhat surprised—the person walking towards them looked like her husband's brother.

"You must be Alex?" She obviously recognized him.

"You are…?"

"I am Aiden's cousin, you could say, my name is also Aiden, I just returned from overseas." Aiden smiled, fabricating an identity.

Alex hurriedly said, "Ah, you're his cousin! You should have said something before you came, we haven't prepared anything! Come in and sit for a while, Aiden won't be back until after work."

"It's alright, I just got back too. Is this your daughter? What's her name? She's so adorable!" Aiden squatted down and reached out, gently pinching the little girl's face. The power of time, nature, and the Holy Light quietly blessed her through his hand. This was the only thing Aiden could do for her—this power would protect her and help her grow up safely and healthily.

"Her name is Emma. Emma, this is your uncle, say hello to your uncle!"

Little Emma giggled, "Uncle… uncle!" The blessing of the three powers made her feel incredibly comfortable. The usually shy girl immediately found this adult incredibly kind.

"They really are family. Emma is usually very shy. She cries if a stranger touches her!" Alex smiled seeing her daughter's happy face.

"So good!" Aiden hugged Emma and kissed her little cheek, feeling a sense of joy and contentment in his heart.

—

While the various countries and forces of the Eastern Kingdoms were tensely mobilizing their forces and heading to Northrend to eliminate the Scourge, the other side of the Great Sea seemed very peaceful.

The tauren had been living very well recently. Cairne Bloodhoof had agreed to an alliance with Valoran. With the help of this external force, the tauren had finally defeated the centaur's offensive, regaining control of Mulgore. He was finally no longer worried about the fate of his people. At least he didn't have to fear becoming the last chieftain of the tauren race.

The Valoran coalition had an even greater harvest: Gangplank and Alistair had perfectly completed the task Aiden had given them—to win over the tauren. They even managed to win over the Darkspear trolls, which was the icing on the cake. Through these days of getting along, the trolls' performance had fully earned their recognition: the Darkspear trolls were brave and good at fighting, very loyal, and had no cannibalistic habits. Vol'jin and his tribe changed everyone's inherent impression of trolls, truly treating them as allies and brothers who watched out for each other.

Gangplank used his diplomatic skills to send a team to contact Theramore, the human base in Dustwallow Marsh—these vanguard teams from Kul Tiras and Lordaeron had been steadily advancing for the past six months, and their colonization had only just stepped into the Barrens and Thousand Needles.

The supreme commander of Theramore was Grand Admiral Barry Westwind of Kul Tiras. Now that the Alliance's military operations against the Scourge were going smoothly, they naturally did not pay too much attention to this last retreat. So he didn't have many troops on hand. Compared to the Valoran coalition that swept across half of Kalimdor, it was simply worlds apart.

Gangplank also contacted the goblins of Ratchet. These greedy green-skinned fellows had made astonishing profits by reselling supplies between the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.

Before Aiden guided the Alliance navy to open up a sea route to the continent of Kalimdor, the goblins were the only force that controlled this route. They bought cheap furs and minerals in Kalimdor and sold them to the nobles and kings of the Eastern Kingdoms, and transported the Eastern Kingdoms' excellent weapons, fabrics, and grains to Kalimdor to sell them at sky-high prices to the tauren, centaurs, and quillboars who were in dire need of these things, making a fortune. The goblin merchants, lacking competition, were simply rolling in money.

But now they no longer exclusively enjoyed this route. The Alliance's keen-nosed merchants had already begun to compete with the goblins for business.

Gangplank found the goblin Trade Prince Gazlowe here and brought them a generous order: Gangplank wanted the goblins to establish complete zeppelin air routes in Thunder Bluff, Theramore, and the original site of Orgrimmar to facilitate communication and contact between the three.

According to Aiden's instructions, Gangplank and Alistair, after completing their assistance to the tauren, began to build a new city on the northern end of Durotar, the red land in the original history, at the original site of Orgrimmar, the orc capital—a city belonging to the Valoran Federation.

Durotar now had a new name—Justice Land! It was taken from the name of Summoner's Rift in League of Legends, which sounded very high-end.

As for the name of the new city, it hadn't been decided yet. Several heroes argued endlessly, and none could convince the others, so they had to hand over the naming rights to Aiden, to be decided in the future. For the time being, it was referred to as "New City."

Establishing a new city naturally required a large amount of building materials, especially wood. Plank rummaged through Aiden's "Azeroth Travelogue" and found the key points:

Try not to cut down trees in Ashenvale. You can go to Azshara, which has been abandoned by the night elves.

You can contact the night elves in Ashenvale and try to win them over. (Hint: Fly the flags of the moon goddess Elune and the forest king Cenarius to avoid accidental injury.)

Below are the approximate marks of the two.

Aiden had seen Cenarius in the Emerald Dream, so he naturally knew what the other party looked like, especially since he had also obtained the Cenarius mark. Ashenvale was Cenarius's back garden. If the Valoran Federation rashly went to cut down trees and caused an attack by the night elves, it would ruin everything.

So, after arranging the construction of the new city, Plank and Alistair began the final task of the Kalimdor expedition—winning over the night elves!

For this reason, he also specially found Cairne's son Baine Bloodhoof, as well as the tauren druid Mu'un Earthfury, the leader of the Earthen Ring. Both the elven and tauren druids were guided by the forest king Cenarius. During the War of the Ancients, the two had fought side by side with the Burning Legion. Bringing them along was just in case!

However, their team walked for several days in the dense forests of Ashenvale, but never encountered a single night elf—they couldn't find anyone, so how could they talk about winning them over?

Where were the night elves? Where had they run off to?

Just as they were full of doubts, the old tauren druid Mu'un suddenly said, "I seem to know why we can't find them."

Everyone turned their attention to him.

"I just remembered that the ancestral books mentioned that night elves are nocturnal creatures. They sleep during the day and only become active at night."

Plank was dumbfounded. So the reason they couldn't find them was because of different lifestyles? "Then let's stop and not rush deeper! Let's sleep during the day and march at night!"

"This is really hellish," Plank cursed in a low voice, "I'm going to take a leak. You guys rest and set up camp here first."

Plank hummed a little tune, turned a corner, came to a big tree, unbuckled his belt, and was enjoying his pee. Suddenly, he heard something landing behind him, followed by the very familiar sound of a bowstring being drawn.

"Don't move, mortal!" A cold female voice sounded behind him. But the woman was speaking in Elvish.

Although Plank didn't understand, he could guess what the other party was saying with his ass. He immediately raised his hands and hurriedly said, "Don't, don't, don't misunderstand! I'm a good person!"

"Turn around slowly!" This time, the female archer behind him switched to Common, which he could understand.

"Y-you, you you sure?"

"Otherwise, I'll shoot!"

"Don't, don't, I'll turn around right now!" Plank twisted and turned around. A female elf was aiming an arrow at his head.

Unlike the fair-skinned high elves he had seen in Los Angeles, this female elf had violet skin and was very tall, half a head taller than Plank. There were some strange black face patterns on her face, and even during the day, her eyes glowed, making it impossible to see the color of her pupils.

"Lewd!" The female elf's face darkened. That was because she was angry.

"No, no no, it's not flowing… It's already been scared back by you…" Plank said with a mournful face.

Why hadn't he found any night elves after searching for several days, but as soon as he stopped to take a leak, he met one in such an embarrassing situation?

—

When Plank returned to the camp, everyone had already been subdued by the night elves who suddenly emerged from the jungle—well, not really subdued, because they hadn't prepared to resist at all.

Whether it was because they were flying the flags of the moon goddess and the forest king, these night elves didn't directly attack them. But their attitude was still very cold.

The leader was a night elf druid, wearing a hawk-headed helmet. After seeing the female archer bring the last intruder, he asked in Common, "Now, tell me why you are flying our flags."

Plank looked at Alistair, Alistair looked at Baine, Baine turned to Mu'un, and finally Plank said, "Don't misunderstand! Our boss knows the forest king! We came here specifically to find you night elves. Everyone, put down your weapons and let's have a good talk!"

"Then who is that? Your boss."

"Aiden! Our boss is called Aiden! He met the forest king in a dream—no, no, that's called—"

"The Emerald Dream, you idiot!" Alistair prompted.

Plank quickly said, "Yes, yes, the Emerald Dream. He met the forest king Cenarius there. They are acquaintances! We're here to find him!"

The druid said, "But the forest king didn't say you would come."

"Why don't you take us to see him, and then we can explain everything clearly?"

"No."

"Why not? Do you think I'm lying to you?" Plank said angrily.

Seeing that he didn't seem to be lying, the druid replied, "The forest king is still sleeping in the Emerald Dream. Mortals cannot disturb him."

"Then let's wait for him to wake up! How long will it take?"

"Maybe tomorrow, maybe a few months, maybe hundreds of years."

"…What a ripoff!" Plank was a little frantic. "Then don't you have anyone else who can make decisions, or wake up the forest king! We have urgent matters, very important matters, matters concerning the survival of the world to discuss with your leader!"

"What important matters?" The druid thought he was exaggerating.

"I heard that the Burning Legion in the Void is coming to screw you over again!"

—

After many days of preparation, the Northrend Expeditionary Force finally built a powerful siege engine. In order to break through the Gate of the Scourge, this siege engine would be filled with fifty of the most powerful paladins. They would infuse the siege hammer with the power of the Holy Light, using it to break through this gate made of Saronite steel.

Today was the day of the official attack, and the siege engine had already been pushed up. The leaders of the Northrend Expeditionary Force had all come to the front lines to watch this exciting moment.

Quinn merged with Valor and transformed into a giant eagle, and the angel Ophiel had been responsible for monitoring Icecrown Citadel. Today was the day of the official siege, and they were conducting a final reconnaissance.

"Did you feel it?" Ophiel noticed an anomaly outside the barrier surrounding Icecrown Citadel. "It seems like there is an unusual dark power surging on Icecrown Citadel!"

Quinn soared in the sky above the barrier and replied, "It's shrouded in darkness, I can't see—but I also feel a dangerous aura, intuition!"

"I'm afraid something bad is going to happen! You continue to monitor here, I'll bring Archmage Anna up to take a look!"

"Go quickly!"

Ophiel rushed down, found the low-profile Anna in the crowd, and said in a deep voice, "Come with me, Anna!"

"What's wrong?" The other leaders around were as surprised as Anna.

"Something's up, something very important!"

Ophiel took Anna into the sky and stopped outside the barrier of Icecrown Citadel. She had already explained everything on the way. Anna knew what she should do, and as she approached, she had an ominous premonition.

"I will temporarily dispel the mist of the barrier!" Anna whispered the incantation, and arcane energy gathered on her staff. After a moment, a beam of light shot out from the gem on the staff and struck the magic barrier of Icecrown Citadel. The arcane energy blasted a hole in it, and the remaining energy temporarily dispelled the magical mist, allowing them to see what was happening on Icecrown Citadel—

The Lich King Dar'Khan stood in front of a huge magic circle, holding a pure black gemstone in his hand. Opposite him stood the lich Kel'Thuzad, holding the Book of Medivh. Around them, the blood elf prince Kael'thas, the Lich King Arthas, and the liches and mages of the Scourge were constantly pouring power into the magic circle.

Their energy converged on the black gemstone. It was like a black hole, constantly devouring and distorting the surrounding light. It transformed all these mixed energies into pure negative energy and poured it into the Book of Medivh.

A huge portal was forming. It exuded a terrifyingly evil aura, and no one knew what kind of terrifying being would emerge from it.