Last Resort

The answer was, in truth, already predetermined.

In the Twisting Nether, Kil'jaeden's magic could tear through the Light's protective shields.

Now that he had unleashed his most powerful strike, it was naturally even easier to deal with the Naaru ship, which had entered the real world and had reduced defensive capabilities.

Even though all the Naaru on the Tempest Keep did their best, the light shield was still torn apart by the fel energy beam.

The remaining power slammed into the ship, piercing its dome and damaging a portion of the power system.

Tempest Keep began to shake violently, teetering as if it was about to crash.

The people inside the fortress screamed in panic.

If the ship were to crash—the Draenei, who had already experienced one ship crash, dared not imagine what the situation would be like.

Naaru K'ure and A'dal rushed forward almost simultaneously, preparing to plug the hole and prevent the power of fel energy from contaminating the innocents on the ship.

But K'ure was one step faster.

His light purple body erupted with unprecedented light, propping up a small light shield and blocking the fel energy beam.

The essence of power within him was rapidly draining in the confrontation with the fel energy, and his body also became dim.

The process of transformation into a shadow form, which had been suppressed by A'dal and Aiden, was finally irreversible this time.

His light purple body was gradually turning black, as if it had been soaked in ink.

Meanwhile, the other Naaru worked hard to stabilize the ship.

Fortunately, with their efforts, Tempest Keep did not crash.

The magic in the sky disappeared, and the Naaru all felt that one of their members was dying.

Aiden saw another part of Valoran's reinforcements—the Forsaken Legion led by Karthus.

This group of undead warriors had suffered considerable losses during the previous Hellfire landing, but now that everything had calmed down, most of them had survived.

"Commander!"

Karthus saluted Aiden, who flew over.

So did Thresh beside him.

Aiden nodded.

"You've arrived."

"Just now, that power…"

"It should be Kil'jaeden," Aiden said in a deep voice.

He looked up at Tempest Keep in the sky.

The ship, which had been attacked and severely damaged, was slowly descending, looking like it was going to land.

Aiden received a telepathic message from A'dal and immediately rushed over after hearing the news about K'ure.

Thresh and Karthus exchanged glances.

They couldn't help much, so they chose to stay here and reorganize the army.

The place where K'ure was located was now crowded with people and Naaru.

The transformation that was happening to him terrified the ancestral spirits of the orcs who had come to the ship with him.

Grandmother Geyah sensed the emotions of the ancestors and finally came here, as well as Prophet Velen and other Draenei.

Thrall, who had just arrived in Outland, also came here.

He didn't even know that the old lady next to him was his grandmother, whom he had never met.

The Naaru gathered here, each emotion revealing sadness.

"Begin, my friends," the dying K'ure, who was transforming into a dark Naaru, conveyed this message.

A'dal and the other Naaru surrounded him, preparing to perform the ritual.

"What are you doing?" Aiden asked.

"K'ure is transforming into a dark form."

"This is a very rare occurrence for the Naaru."

"After the transformation, he will become very dangerous."

"As a Naaru of the Light, according to custom, we will use our own power of the Holy Light to purify him."

"Then what happens after the ritual is completed?" Aiden asked again.

"He will return to the source," A'dal's voice was somewhat heavy.

"I will be liberated," K'ure's thoughts had no sadness or fear, but rather some joy, "This is the path I must take."

Aiden was silent.

This Naaru's life was one of selfless dedication.

He had protected the fleeing Draenei and had just protected tens of thousands of people in the fortress.

Aiden had once contributed his meager strength to save this dying Naaru inside Auchindoun.

If K'ure were to die like this, he would definitely be very sad.

He remembered A'dal once saying that if a dark Naaru was to be reborn in a light form, it would need to absorb enough soul power.

However, the Naaru of the Light believed that this method was too cruel, so for the dark Naaru who were accidentally born in the group, they would choose to purify them to avoid the dark Naaru from causing harm.

Now that K'ure was transforming into a dark Naaru, A'dal and the others stepped forward again, preparing to perform the purification ritual.

"Wait!" Aiden suddenly shouted to stop them.

He took out a Transformation Stone, "I have a plan that we can try!"

His mind had been racing, trying to find a way to save K'ure.

"Absorb souls and then be reborn," after learning this condition, he suddenly thought of an expert under his command who liked to collect souls.

He would definitely be able to help.

The Naaru all looked at Aiden, who said to Kayle, "Quick, go get Thresh! He's downstairs, with Karthus!"

Kayle responded and left.

Aiden explained the function of the Transformation Stone and explained his solution: let K'ure accept the transformation to prevent him from becoming frenzied because of falling into darkness; then let Thresh release the souls in the lantern to nourish him and let him be reborn!

The Naaru looked at each other.

If someone else had proposed this method, they would have refused.

But if it was Aiden, they communicated briefly and chose to agree.

Time was of the essence, and Aiden immediately began the transformation ritual.

K'ure did not resist at all.

The transformation proceeded very smoothly, and Aiden quickly felt that he had a new hero under his command.

He could choose to use K'ure as a vessel to summon a dark Valoran hero at any time.

After the transformation ritual was completed, K'ure also completely became a dark Naaru.

The essence of Holy Light on his body had been completely exhausted, leaving only a pure dark body.

He formed a strong contrast with the other light Naaru around him, but after submitting to Aiden, he would not lose his mind.

When Aiden checked this transformed hero, he unexpectedly discovered another thing—in his mind, a brand new code had appeared on K'ure's body.

It was completely different from the Holy Light code that Sidaar had given him before.

Although when viewed separately, neither the Holy Light code nor the dark code could be understood at all, this dark code vaguely corresponded to a special symbol in the Holy Light code.

Combining the two, Aiden immediately parsed out a unique piece of information:

'Code name: K'ure'

'Number: 127'

'Authentication period: 2431 — ????'

'Status: Authentication period expired'

'Recycle redundant data: 0'

Aiden could understand every word in this piece of information, but the information in it made him completely confused.

Authentication period?

Recycle redundant data?

2431?

What did these represent? He couldn't understand at all.

Could it be some Naaru technology?

Now that the Naaru were all in front of him, he threw these questions to A'dal, but the answer he got was that the other party didn't understand the meaning of these things at all.

However, A'dal sent a joyful voice: "Although we don't understand, this proves even more that you are the Guide, the Changer, and the Savior—besides you, no one has ever parsed even a single piece of the Holy Light code."

Aiden was dumbfounded, and he couldn't find any reason to refute.

Grandmother Geyah looked at Aiden and asked, "Young man, are you saving this Naaru?"

"Yes, I'm trying," Aiden nodded in response.

"I hope you will succeed… I feel the sadness of the ancestral spirits, because of K'ure," Grandmother Geyah's tightly frowned brows made her look worried.

After this period of time, she had already believed what Prophet Velen had said—the sacred mountain of Oshu'gun, which the orcs worshiped, was actually K'ure's ship.

And the ancestral spirits were also attracted by the light power emitted by K'ure.

If K'ure died, she didn't know what would happen to these ancestral spirits—perhaps they, the shaman priests, would completely lose the guidance of the ancestral spirits.

"I'll try my best!" Aiden looked at Thrall not far away and asked in surprise, "Haven't you recognized each other yet?" He pointed to Thrall: "This is Durotan and Draka's son!"

Grandmother Geyah then noticed the green orc: he was wearing Orgrimmar's black plate armor and holding Orgrimmar's Doomhammer, so much so that she subconsciously regarded this person as some descendant of the Doomhammer. Only when Aiden revealed the other party's identity did she see clearly the face that resembled her son by sixty or seventy percent, and those unique, wise, azure eyes.

"Go'el?" Grandmother Geyah'an exclaimed.

Thrall turned his head and saw a brown-skinned orc old lady staring at him.

"That is your grandmother, Warchief!" the old orc Eitrigg reminded him.

"Grandmother?" Thrall did not expect to meet his grandmother on such an occasion, just as Grandmother Geyah did not expect to see her grandson so inadvertently.

Originally, she was thinking of having Varok send a message, asking Thrall to come to Nagrand to see her when he had time, but she didn't expect that there was no need to send a message, and now the two had met.

The reunited grandparents and grandson wept with joy, and the female orc shaman Aggra watched enviously from the side. She asked curiously: "Are you a warrior, Go'el?"

Thrall's inheritance of the black plate armor and Doomhammer from the previous Warchief Orgrimmar would indeed give people such an impression. He replied: "I used to be, but later I learned the way of the shaman from Drek'Thar, and now I am also a shaman."

"A shaman?" Aggra widened her eyes, her face full of disbelief, "You are a shaman?"

She had never seen a shaman wearing plate armor. How could there be such an orc shaman? This Go'el simply didn't look like a shaman!

While they were here treating K'ure, the people in Tempest Keep had already begun to leave in an orderly manner, heading towards the Dark Portal. Fortunately, it was not far from the Dark Portal, and they were very hopeful of breaking through the blockade before Archimonde's army arrived.

A large number of troops cleared the way ahead, clearing out the hellfire demons that were scattered across this land and had spontaneously gathered. Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner.

Thresh came here, and after hearing about the treatment plan, although he was reluctant to part with the souls in his lantern, he would not disobey the commander's wishes.

He generously divided some of the souls from the Soul Lantern to K'ure for absorption. However, this was not an overnight process, and it would probably take K'ure some time to 'digest' these souls.

Thresh was not very distressed about the consumption of souls. After being summoned, he had collected countless souls in the successive battles he had experienced. Thresh believed that as long as the war continued, his soul-collecting career would become more prosperous, and supporting a dark naaru should not be a problem.

A'dal indicated that they could repair Tempest Keep within an hour and make it take off again. Aiden felt that this was still very necessary, but he couldn't help much, so he prepared to go to the front line to clear the way for the subsequent troops!

—

After cloaking, Illidan silently passed through the heavy blockade of demons near the Dark Portal. More than once he looked back and found that Allen Searstalker and other night elf warriors had not returned. He was both happy that the other party had obeyed the order, and faintly felt a sense of frustration at being easily abandoned by his own people.

He thought that if Tyrande or Malfurion had issued the order, these people would definitely turn back and fight alongside him if they found that he had not followed.

But these elite night elf expeditionary forces did not do so.

"I have escaped the cage. I should be happy about this." Illidan mocked his own sentimentality.

After he solved the hidden dangers of Darkshore, he received a message from Tyrande, saying that Maiev Shadowsong was leading the Wardens to hunt him down, so he had to say goodbye to Vashj and her naga forces, with whom he had been cooperating fairly well during that time.

Vashj promised that they would not attack Darkshore again, nor would they continue to be enemies with him, which made Illidan very satisfied.

After leaving the dense demon horde, Illidan was not in a hurry to leave. He noticed that the number of hellfire demons in other places besides the Dark Portal had decreased sharply. This was obviously very unusual. He decided to stay and see what tricks the demons were up to.

Soon he sensed a group of demon warlocks gathering together. They created a huge magic circle and began some kind of ritual.

Illidan, who was very sensitive to magic, could feel that this was a summoning ritual. A very powerful being was descending through this teleportation array.

And he had already smelled a familiar scent—his heart suddenly jumped. He remembered this scent, and it was deeply imprinted in his memory—it belonged to the most powerful being that had ever walked on Azeroth—Archimonde's aura!

This great demon would actually appear here!

Illidan smelled a conspiracy.

He didn't know what the movements of the Alliance were now, but this important information must be told to the commander of Outland as soon as possible!

Archimonde's sudden arrival here, and with so many hellfire legions, clearly had an important plan.

In fact, when Illidan discovered that the demon warlocks near the Dark Portal were summoning Archimonde, Kogg'Mog, who had been monitoring the movements of this great demon, also noticed the abnormality.

At this time, Archimonde's army was rushing back from Blade's Edge Mountains. Kogg'Mog personally saw Archimonde suddenly disappear into the teleportation array. He immediately secretly told Evelyn, who had been lurking near the Legion and maintaining contact with him. Evelyn, who also realized the seriousness of the matter, sent a message to Quinn in the sky. Then Quinn used teleportation to return directly from Blade's Edge Mountains to the teleportation beacon of Tempest Keep, and then rushed to find the commander as quickly as possible.

"You mean Archimonde disappeared through a magic circle?" Aiden had a bad feeling as soon as he learned this information.

"What's wrong, Aiden?" Krasus asked.

Aiden revealed the information he had obtained from within the Burning Legion, "Archimonde can only appear on our inevitable path. I'm afraid we can't leave from the Dark Portal."

Although this news had not been verified, Krasus believed that the possibility was extremely high. The scene of the fel beam bombarding Tempest Keep that had just happened made everyone see the Burning Legion's determination to prevent them from returning to Azeroth. Since this was the case, it was almost certain that no matter where Archimonde went, he was definitely doing something to stop them from going back.

"Then should we continue to move forward?" Krasus asked.

"Let's go scout it out!" Aiden said.

They now had a large number of air forces. No matter what, they couldn't retreat before this great demon appeared.

Aiden and Krasus were preparing to go in person, but before they set off, someone brought over a night elf holding a pair of crescent-shaped scimitars. Aiden was too familiar with this outfit—who else could it be besides Illidan, who was wearing a black blindfold and holding the Twin Blades of Azzinoth?

He didn't expect to see Illidan on such an occasion.

"Are you the commander here?" Illidan asked.

"That's right, I am Aiden."

"Good, you are the one I'm looking for. I am Illidan Stormrage, commander of the night elf forces. I just came from the Dark Portal, and there is a very bad thing happening there." Illidan introduced his identity, and then went straight to the point, "Archimonde, the demon warlocks near the Dark Portal have summoned Archimonde over. Now this great demon is waiting for us at the Dark Portal to walk right into his trap!"

Aiden and Krasus looked at each other. They didn't expect this news to be confirmed so quickly.

"Thank you, Illidan." Aiden nodded to the other party, "We have just received similar information and are preparing to scout it out."

"It seems we have to consider the previous plan." Krasus's voice carried deep worry.

They had no doubt that Archimonde definitely had the ability to destroy the Dark Portal again. Now that this road was no longer viable, they could only consider using the naaru's ship to perform a space-time jump.

After going around in a circle, everything seemed to be back to square one.

Aiden, in his capacity as supreme commander, ordered the troops to stop advancing towards the Dark Portal. The people who had previously thought they would be able to return to Azeroth immediately inevitably felt a strong sense of frustration upon hearing this news, and the morale of the troops became somewhat low.

But this was a last resort. Going to the Dark Portal was not a road home, but a road to destruction.