Speech

"On the way here, I was constantly thinking about what kind of wording I should use to persuade you. I thought about a lot. For example, the hatred between the Draenei and the Orcs actually stems from the Burning Legion's secret instigation; for example, the Orcs, like you, are also victims; and for example, in Azeroth, humans have also suffered disasters almost as great as yours, and now humans and Orcs are already able to fight side by side," Aiden said slowly.

These were the words and reasons he had thought of before, but just like he had thought before, these words seemed empty and high-sounding, and could not move the Draenei.

"But I always felt like something was missing. I put myself in your shoes and imagined myself as a Draenei who had suffered such hardships. Would I forgive the Orcs and fight alongside them?"

Aiden saw the pain and anger in the eyes of many Draenei, and that was the answer.

"I don't think so. I don't think such words can convince even myself. So why should I come and convince you?" Aiden asked and answered himself, "Then I thought of another question—that is, why should I work hard to persuade you to do this. What is my purpose? If you do this, what kind of benefits will I get?"

"This is easy to answer. Whether it is Azeroth or Outland, both are now facing the threat of the Burning Legion. I want to unite all the forces that can be united to overcome this disaster together. I feel that if we don't do this, then we will be defeated one by one if we fight separately. And if we do this, as a whole, we may have the ability to contend with the Burning Legion."

"Then why should we be enemies with the Burning Legion? Why do I think that contending with the Burning Legion is more important than the blood feud between races? On the way here, I thought of one thing—whether it is Orcs, humans, or Draenei, we are all fighting for survival, fighting for a better tomorrow. But the Burning Legion is different. These demons are purely fighting for destruction. They destroy our homes, slaughter our people, pollute our land, and eradicate our civilization. We cannot persuade them, nor can we reconcile with them. We have no choice but to fight to the end! The Burning Legion is the common enemy of all civilizations, so I think that in the face of life and death, other contradictions can be temporarily put aside."

As Aiden spoke, people changed from suspicion to thoughtfulness. Obviously, his words still had an effect.

Aiden continued: "Think about the past, why did the Draenei, Orcs, and humans kill each other? Because the three of us always ignored the similarities because of the differences—our skin colors are different, our blood colors are different, our physical characteristics are different, our levels of civilization are different, our beliefs and customs are different… There are many differences. External differences make it difficult for us to truly trust people of other races, and any suspicion may evolve into racial hatred—'because they are born different from us', this reason alone is enough to erase the long-term accumulation of trust. This is the biggest barrier between different races."

Prophet Velen's eyes dimmed. The war between the Orcs and the Draenei broke out because of this. When the initial disputes between the two races broke out, he tried to save the situation, even at the cost of personally negotiating with the Orc leaders. But besides being insulted and persecuted, he got nothing. He wanted to hear what Aiden would think of this mutual suspicion between different races.

"However, I believe that there is still a basis for communication and understanding between us, and there is a possibility of reaching an understanding or even forming an alliance. But whether it is humans, Orcs, or Draenei, we can never reconcile with the Burning Legion—our failure means death, and surrender means becoming corrupted. Our civilization and beliefs will be completely abandoned, and what else will we have left besides these?"

"We will be no different from the demons of the Burning Legion. We will be full of killing desires, we will be keen on destroying civilization, we will be completely plunged into darkness… What else is different about us besides different skin colors and different body types? It's like the abyss demons, Eredar demons, hellfire demons, succubi… we've seen. Apart from their different appearances, there is actually no difference in their inner selves. And we who surrender to the Burning Legion will become one of them. Fallen humans, fallen Orcs, fallen Draenei—we may have new names, but at that time, our people will forget the Holy Light, forget the ancestors, forget love and hope, and forget all the beautiful things in the world."

"And what will we have left then?"

Everyone in the Holy Light Square fell into deep thought. Aiden's words were not alarmist. If they were defeated, this would be their inevitable end—either death or becoming a demon's minion.

"Then without the Orcs, will we inevitably fail to resist the Burning Legion?" A questioning voice sounded in the crowd.

People began to question again because of this question.

Aiden did not look for the person who made the sound, it was meaningless. He replied: "If we already have a force that is completely capable of competing with the Burning Legion, then whether additional races join or not is no longer a decisive factor, it doesn't matter whether they exist or not. But do we have such a force now? No. Our coalition is still in its infancy. How should this great army, this great alliance, which is envisioned to unite countless races and countless civilizations, be realized? I think it is only possible if races that still have suspicions between each other can put aside their prejudices and choose to unite. Only then can it gather races of different civilizations and beliefs under the same banner with strong inclusiveness."

"If today we have to choose an ally between the Draenei and the Orcs, tomorrow we can only choose allies who have a harmonious relationship with the Draenei, and abandoning the Orcs also means abandoning the forces that the Orcs can unite." Today we choose those who believe in the Holy Light, tomorrow we will have to abandon those who believe in the Shadow."

"After this, what kind of standards will we use to seek allies among races and forces that have mutual conflicts? Our selection conditions will become more and more demanding, the threshold for joining the alliance will become higher and higher, and success will be far away. And this so-called great alliance formed in this way not only has enemies like the Burning Legion, but also countless enemies who have mutual hatred with them. In my opinion, this is just a clique that excludes dissidents."

"Regardless of how powerful such a coalition has, its combination must be incomplete. Without enough inclusiveness, such an alliance cannot grow."

Just as Aiden finished speaking, someone shouted again: "Then is the hatred between us and the Orcs just going to be forgotten?"

Aiden replied: "I am not asking you to completely let go of hatred. Although I hope you will let it go. My idea is that when facing such a powerful external threat as the Burning Legion, all of our races should unite first. When this external contradiction disappears, everyone will have the right to choose freely—at that time, you can choose to understand, or you can choose to continue to oppose. I am only asking everyone to be able to temporarily put aside their prejudices and jointly resist the invasion of the Burning Legion when they unite."

Hearing this, Khadgar whispered to Krasus: "Is this Lord Aiden's true thought? Doesn't he know that by always controlling this great alliance, he will gain supreme status?"

Krasus replied: "He is an extremely intelligent person, do you think he can't see the benefits that anyone can see?"

"I just think that not many leaders are willing to return the power after enjoying the power of the leader." Khadgar shrugged, looking indifferent. Anyway, these things have nothing to do with him. He was just a little curious about the somewhat peculiar Chancellor in front of him.

"So he is not an ordinary person."

Aiden's explanation finally satisfied the draenei, and the people from the Alliance felt the same way. Many in the expeditionary force were from the old Alliance. Some of them had already heard about the discord between the old Alliance, led by Lordaeron, and the new Alliance, led by Valoran. If everyone were forced onto the chariot of fighting the Burning Legion, the people of the old Alliance would inevitably worry that one day they would completely lose their right to self-determination and would have to endure cultures and beliefs they couldn't accept without being able to do anything about it.

Aiden had long considered creating a large alliance similar to the League of Legends, bringing different forces under a common jurisdiction, allowing all conflicts to be resolved without bloodshed.

However, the situations in Valoran and Azeroth were different, and blindly applying the rules of the League of Legends was clearly not feasible. After much deliberation, he believed that creating a loose alliance to jointly resist the Burning Legion was feasible, while a more complete and authoritative grand alliance would have to be gradually realized through exploration.

This speech almost turned into a large-scale Q&A session. Aiden's sincerity finally made the draenei put aside their misgivings and choose to believe in this leader whom even the naaru trusted. They boarded the naaru's space fortress again, preparing for a new journey.

—

According to the plan, after the draenei of Shattrath entered Tempest Keep, it would then fly to nearby Nagrand to pick up the orcs there, then head to Hellfire Citadel to pick up the Alliance forces of Honor Hold, and then directly initiate a warp jump to Azeroth.

The plan was perfect, but when the naaru entered the keep, preparing to activate the warp jump directly to Nagrand, their attempt failed!

A'dal and the other naaru urgently checked the keep's systems and found no malfunctions.

Aiden and the others were urgently called over. Tempest Keep had already ascended, and although it could fly directly to Nagrand, it would inevitably take a lot of time. Now, the Burning Legion's army on Hellfire Peninsula could attack Honor Hold at any time, and what they lacked most was time.

"If short-range warp jumps cannot be used, then interdimensional warp jumps are also impossible," A'dal told everyone through telepathy.

Aiden asked, "What's the reason? Have your ships ever experienced this before?"

"Yes, it has happened."

"Someone must have imprisoned this space-time."

"We suspect it is the power of the Burning Legion."

The naaru's voice came.

"Does it take a particularly powerful demon to do such a thing?" Aiden asked.

He had previously seen the mages of Dalaran imprison an area, preventing people within it from using long-distance teleportation spells. This method was used in both actions against the Scourge. This should be a similar situation. And now, the entire Outland should have its space-time imprisoned—it was hard to imagine how much power it would take to do that.

"Yes."

"Only three people in the Burning Legion can do it."

"Sargeras, Kil'jaeden, and Archimonde!"

Aiden said, "Sargeras is impossible, and if Archimonde entered here, he would have been discovered long ago." Eliminating these two, the remaining person was obvious: "It's Kil'jaeden! Is he coming here too?"

Aiden suddenly felt a headache. He remembered something, Kil'jaeden seemed to be able to directly enter Outland. However, he was also somewhat doubtful: since Kil'jaeden could come directly, then Archimonde naturally could too. Kazzak possessed the Dragon King's Blades of Woe, which could open the Dark Portal, so why didn't the Burning Legion descend on Outland on a large scale and then enter Azeroth directly from the Dark Portal?

If they did this, they wouldn't need to wait for any opportunity to enter Azeroth, nor would they need things like the Book of Medivh or the Sunwell, which possessed great power.

He asked his doubts.

The naaru communicated with each other and then sent a message:

"They can indeed do this."

"Just like we can come to Outland."

"But the rules of the Twisting Nether and the real world are different. If they descend in this way, the power within them will be greatly suppressed by the rules of the real world."

"They will become vulnerable."

"If they enter Azeroth through the Dark Portal, they will be subjected to a second suppression by the Titan defense system."

Hearing the naaru's answer, Aiden felt that this was better. But on second thought, this could only be said to be better for Azeroth. Because after the Archimonde brothers entered Azeroth through the Dark Portal, their strength would be compressed twice, and it was very likely that some strong people who were not enough to threaten their lives could kill them.

But now it was Outland, and he himself was in Outland. If these two great demons came together, how could he resist?

Khadgar asked, "If Archimonde comes to Outland from the Dark Portal, will he be suppressed?"

Everyone hoped to get a positive answer. But—

"No," A'dal replied. "Outland does not have a Titan defense system."

At this time, Aiden couldn't help but complain—why haven't the titans who are so keen on transforming planets found this place yet?

He had a deep sense of crisis, and this time he was afraid that he would not be able to escape so easily.

—

Aiden guessed right, it was indeed Kil'jaeden who used his powerful power to block this space-time.

Kil'jaeden had long been familiar with the coordinates of Draenor. After discussing the plan with Archimonde, he brought a large number of demons here. A'dal was right, if he entered Outland directly, the power within him would be greatly suppressed. Now was not the time for him to descend directly. His current task was to send the Burning Legion's army to Outland, ensuring that they had enough power to eliminate the natives and prevent the naaru's ships from directly warping away.

He stared at the shattered Draenor in the Twisting Nether, preparing to choose a suitable location for the demon armies to land.

His gaze swept across this broken world, Hellfire Citadel, Shadowmoon Valley, Terokkar Forest, Nagrand, Zangarmarsh, and Blade's Edge Mountains. A large number of troops had already gathered on Hellfire Citadel, and there were too many natives in other places. Finally, his gaze rested on a place surrounded by the Twisting Nether.

"Well, this is it, very good!" He smiled. The environment here was very similar to the Twisting Nether where the demons lived.

He created a huge portal leading to this place called Netherstorm.

This time, in order to prevent the portal from being destroyed, Kil'jaeden personally stayed here to monitor it. Xerath and the others received the news from Malzael and gave up their plans to attack, intending to wait for a better opportunity.

Kil'jaeden prevented the destroyers, but he still didn't prevent another traitor. Malzael, disguised as an eredar sorcerer, successfully came to the demon landing point in Netherstorm through the portal.

Previously, Archimonde believed that the manaforges performed well on the battlefield, so this time Kil'jaeden sent more mo'arg engineers to Outland and ordered them to build new hellfire armories in Netherstorm to produce more manaforges.

As soon as Malzael came out of the Burning Legion's portal, he heard a pit lord shout loudly: "Quick, gather together, eliminate our enemies!"

Malzael's heart tightened, he didn't understand the situation, and was pushed and shoved into this pit lord's legion.

"Could it be that the Burning Legion has already fought with the commander's army?" Malzael thought.

He carefully looked at this pit lord, considering when to kill him and return to the commander's command.

But a dozen minutes later, he gradually learned from the demons around him that the enemy was not the natives of Outland or the Alliance army, but a group of creatures who had arrived here earlier. An energy body creature wrapped in bandages.

This group of creatures called themselves ethereals.

And the ethereals were also very innocent. Their technology was very advanced, and they had been able to travel through time and space thousands of years ago. They were keen on interstellar trade, and in order to master a sufficiently rich source of goods, they constantly explored new worlds. Just a few months ago, a group of ethereal star traders found this broken world. They found that this world still had some things worth paying attention to, but before they could officially develop it, they inexplicably encountered a sudden attack by the Burning Legion demons who had just descended from the portal.

They could only be forced to fight.