Fortress

But the arakkoa who worshipped Rukhmar had been extinct since the Draenor explosion more than a decade ago. These flying arakkoa originally lived on the Skyreach in the Spires of Arak, but during the explosion, all the arakkoa favored by Rukhmar perished. Those who were exiled and not protected by her managed to survive.

Now, no followers of Rukhmar can be found in Outland, let alone priests who worship her.

Clearly, Anzu and Aiden were well aware of this.

Aiden couldn't help but ask, "Are there any other ways?"

"Yes," Anzu said mockingly, "there are two other ways to open those devices."

Aiden hurriedly asked, "What two ways?"

"The first is to find another guardian. Two or more guardians can break the restrictions left by Rukhmar." Anzu paused, looking at Aiden's expression and noticing his disappointment, which gave him a sense of vindictive pleasure, even though he had no real hatred for this human. "The second is to find a Titan—only a Titan has the ability to directly activate all the defenses in this Apexis fortress, and even the Titan laboratory at the bottom requires a Titan to open it."

These two conditions were as good as nothing—Sethe was dead, Rukhmar had disappeared, where could they find another guardian besides Anzu to make up the numbers? And if they could find Rukhmar, she could open it directly, without even needing Anzu to make up the numbers. And a Titan? That was even more of a pipe dream. Rumor had it that some of Rukhmar's extinct followers might still survive in some corners of Outland, but finding a Titan was simply unrealistic.

Aiden said disappointedly, "So, we can only rely on Terokk?"

"I'm afraid he can't help you much." Anzu was full of malice, now taking pleasure in tormenting this human. "After Terokk was contaminated by the blood of Sethe, he was abandoned by Rukhmar! Since he was expelled from Skyreach, he has lost the ability to open the Apexis fortress."

Aiden looked at Anzu in silence, unsure whether he was telling the truth or not.

In his opinion, the cursed Anzu might also have been contaminated by the Old Gods. If that were the case, Anzu's actions were insidious—otherwise, he was being too negative and pessimistic.

"You don't believe me?" Anzu looked at Aiden and sneered, "Let's go and see Terokk together, it will soon be proven."

This was exactly what Aiden wanted to do.

After taking out the bracelet, Terokk stopped making excuses. He immediately regarded Onyxia as his own daughter. Hearing his daughter say she wanted him to open the fortress, he excitedly led Lexi toward a locked room.

"Inside here are the weapons I used to wipe out the Bloodmane ogres!" Terokk proudly introduced. He placed his claws on the sun symbol on the door, and the sealed door immediately opened.

The heroes following this "father and daughter" were greatly encouraged. It seemed that their actions of summoning Terokk and going to great lengths to gain his trust were correct!

As Terokk said, this secret room did contain many weapons and other spoils of war. Terokk walked straight to the pair of curved swords, dropped the sword and hammer in his hands, and took down the curved swords. Beside the curved swords were the leather armor and decorations he had used in the past. He recounted the origin of each item, as well as which races and people the spoils came from. Through this, one could also see some of the glorious past of this most powerful hero in arakkoa history.

The three arakkoa priests silently recorded these details. Much of the history in Terokk's mouth had been forgotten during the thousands of years of wandering. As arakkoa claw priests, they had the responsibility to reorganize their history.

Aiden watched from afar, looking at Anzu with a victorious expression: "He can still open the door here!"

"Keep watching." Anzu was confident, not at all surprised by the current situation.

Later, under Onyxia's reminder, Terokk prepared to open a weapon depot in his memory, but here, he could no longer open the door.

"Rukhmar, you have abandoned me!" This fact made Terokk go crazy again. Seeing that something was wrong, the others controlled him again.

This time, Anzu looked at Aiden with a victorious expression: "See, the only door he can open is the one just now! That's because that warehouse was Rukhmar's private space bestowed upon him."

Aiden fell silent.

Anzu continued, "The Apexis technology here can only be used by Rukhmar's followers. She initially set several levels of access: the highest is the Titans, who can open all restrictions; the second is her, who can enter all places except the Titan laboratory at the bottom; the third is the joint effort of two guardians, who can enter some secret rooms except those specially encrypted by her; and finally, her followers."

"Terokk later became your follower?" Aiden looked at Anzu.

"That's right, I saved him." Anzu looked at Terokk in the distance, who was somewhat manic due to excitement, and his mood suddenly became low. "I saved him and sheltered those exiled arakkoa cursed by the blood of Sethe."

"Why?"

"At the time, I thought they were cursed because of my mistake. If Rukhmar and I had destroyed all of Sethe's blood, they wouldn't have suffered the curse," Anzu mocked himself. "But I later realized that I was already struggling to protect myself."

Aiden felt some sympathy for the plight of this Raven God. He felt that his previous suspicion that the other party was controlled by the Old Gods seemed unfriendly. At least so far, Anzu, who had been trapped in the curse for countless years, still maintained his sanity. Apart from being somewhat negative, he still had a heart to protect the arakkoa, or to protect Draenor.

"Where did Rukhmar go?"

"Her?" A glimmer of light appeared in Anzu's eyes. "She disappeared, she disappeared after that battle—she used power beyond her control, so she was seriously injured, and then disappeared into the sky and never came back."

"That battle? The battle between you and Sethe?"

"No… later… the battle between us and the Old Gods… that's another story."

Aiden was now uninterested in the story between the three guardians. What he was most concerned about was how to resist the Burning Legion's attack.

When the Ravenfeather Mountain collapsed, most of their defensive weapons, such as cannons, anti-aircraft guns, ballistae, catapults, and many other materials and weapons, were buried in the ruins outside the fortress. Although the Apexis fortress was still strong, without these defensive weapons, the coalition could not be considered its master, only having the advantage of being the first to arrive.

Only with the weapon support in this fortress could they confront the Burning Legion head-on!

He strode toward where Terokk was, hearing the other party chanting something close to collapse. He listened carefully, "Rukhmar, Sethe, Anzu", "I have been abandoned by all the gods", "My permissions have been revoked".

Aiden looked at Terokk, who was still unwilling to give up and was changing positions to put his claws on the sun-shaped mechanism to open it, but such efforts were obviously futile.

"Pull him away," Aiden said to Grom.

He drew his sword, ignited it with holy fire, and said to Anzu behind him, "What will happen if I violently destroy it?"

"You can test whether its defense mechanism is still intact after all these years. Haha, if you do this, the Apexis Sentinels may be activated and treat all living creatures in the fortress as enemies, or nothing may happen. I suggest you can try this when the Burning Legion attacks. That way, you at least have a chance to perish together." Anzu's voice was full of sarcasm and ridicule, which was obviously not a sincere suggestion.

"Raven God Anzu?" At this time, the manic Terokk saw the god who once dominated the sky coming with Aiden. "Great Anzu! You're back!" Terokk broke free from Grom and rushed towards the god who had saved him from the curse. "Great Anzu, you're finally back!" He pointed at Grom and the others, angrily shouting, "These guys want to harm me! Just like the traitors of Skyreach! Please, kill them!"

Grom and Varok exchanged glances, and the others were equally speechless.

"It seems he really is… quite ill."

"Perhaps… he should take some medicine?"

However, just as they were all criticizing this mad king, the door of the armory in front of them suddenly slid open, and Aiden happened to be withdrawing his hand.

"You opened this door?" Anzu was genuinely surprised by the human before him for the first time. "This, how is this possible?"

Aiden looked at Anzu. The other's shocked expression made him feel very comfortable. "It seems the identification system in this fortress isn't so effective anymore!"

He took the lead and walked into the armory, discovering rows of Apocalyptic Destroyers neatly arranged inside, along with some Apocalyptic turrets he had seen on the city walls, as well as some uniquely shaped tables and chairs.

"It must be, it must be a system error!" Anzu couldn't believe that someone from another world could open this secret door that he and Terokk couldn't open. To confirm this, he dragged Aiden to a large table, pointed at a chair, and shouted, "Sit down!"

Aiden sat down as instructed.

"Put your hand on this sun symbol!"

Aiden did as he was told.

He felt a slight burning sensation in his palm, and then a row of Apocalyptic turrets and dozens of virtual images of Apocalyptic Destroyers suddenly appeared on the table.

Aiden had a feeling—he felt he could control these machines and weapons with his mind, and then he did.

Under his mental command, an Apocalyptic Destroyer moved its arm and took two steps forward, followed by a second and more. The Apocalyptic turrets also gathered beams of energy, which then dissipated at his command.

Realizing that he could indeed control these devices, Aiden withdrew his mental power and looked at Anzu with a triumphant gaze, while the Raven God was looking at him with the eyes of someone who had seen a monster.

"Get up, get up, let me try!" Anzu pushed Aiden aside with his sharp beak, and his body transformed into the appearance of a raven person. He sat in the chair where Aiden had just sat, and placed his hand on the sun symbol—but nothing happened. His authority was still insufficient to use the command chair and tactical table.

"Could it require a human form?" Anzu muttered to himself. He himself didn't want to believe such a thing would happen, but he still transformed into a human form and placed his hand on the activation button. As expected, he still failed. He still didn't gain access to the tactical table.

The command chair and tactical table here were a set. The authorized person could use their mind to control the Apocalyptic Destroyers and turrets remotely connected to the tactical table, controlling them for attack and defense. In the Apocalyptic civilization, this was one of the most advanced technologies.

Confirming the fact that the system was not malfunctioning, Anzu silently left the command chair, returned to his raven person form, and looked at Aiden with an incredulous gaze.

Aiden really couldn't stand being stared at by a raven person like this and couldn't help but ask, "What are you trying to say?"

Anzu's voice became very strange. He asked, "Tell me the truth, are you disguised as a human? Are you actually a Titan?"

"How is that possible? Your imagination is too rich!" Aiden chuckled. He joked, "I think with your imagination, you would definitely have a future in writing novels and making up stories!"

Anzu ignored the human's mockery. The more he thought about it, the more he felt this guess was likely. He grabbed Aiden and dragged him to another place: in this fortress, there were many ways to prove his guess.

Anzu dragged Aiden to a locked elevator. Aiden placed his hand on the activation button, and it opened. Then they took the elevator to a huge room, where there was also a set of command chairs and matching tables, but the table was no longer a tactical table, but the strategic defense system of the Apocalyptic Fortress.

"Sit down! Activate it!" Anzu was almost unreasonable.

Aiden did as he was told. When he placed his hand on the sun symbol, he suddenly felt his spirit enter a huge space. He could "see" every active person in the fortress, and he could mobilize the weapons in every part and order them to attack.

A piece of information automatically entered his mind:

"Shattered Peak Fortress Strategic Defense System activated"

"Access permission: Highest Authority"

"System check starting"

"Resource allocation in progress"

"Allocation complete"

When Aiden, who was connected to it, heard "Highest Authority," he immediately remembered what Anzu had said. Among the several activation permissions set up in this fortress created by Rukhmar, the highest authority belonged only to the Titans—and he had obtained the highest authority… Could it be that the question Anzu had just asked… was true?

Aiden's emotions suddenly became very strange.

"I… might be a Titan disguised as a human?"

"But, how is that possible?"

"Impossible, something must be wrong!"

Aiden was very clear about his life trajectory. He was just an ordinary person. The only time he had any interaction with the Titans was when Sargeras tried to occupy him in the Twisting Nether, and he had also received help from Aman'Thul.

Thinking of this, he immediately had a reasonable guess: Although Sargeras's forced fusion had failed, Aiden's soul also had some memories belonging to Sargeras.

"It is very likely that these memories belonging to Sargeras have given me some of the characteristics of the Titans… or imprints?"

This was the only possibility Aiden could think of, and the probability was very high.

"It seems that Sargeras's fusion was not all bad." Aiden thought.

As he gradually became familiar with the system, Aiden tried to use its more powerful function—assigning sub-permissions—he sensed the angel Ophiel patrolling on the upper level of the fortress, immediately assigned her the permission to operate the top-level Apocalyptic turrets, and notified the other party via telepathy.

Ophiel received his telepathic message and immediately descended from the sky according to the order. She found the turret behind the city wall and entered it, sitting in the command chair. Following Aiden's instructions, she placed her hand on the sun symbol, and the tactical table was immediately activated.

She tried to control a turret to emit a laser beam—and a turret on the city wall began to gather energy. The top of the turret became brighter and brighter, and then it shot a laser beam at a Doom Guard that was monitoring the area in the distance. The demon, who didn't react in time, had its upper body melted away by the extremely hot laser, leaving only two legs falling down.

The nearby demons were in an uproar, and the soldiers on the city wall were stunned for a moment before they began to cheer loudly.

Everyone knew what this meant.

"Quick, report this news to the Legion Commander!"

"The mortals have activated the fortress's weapons!"

Aiden roughly inquired about the fortress named Shattered Peak, and found that it contained hundreds of thousands of still intact Apocalyptic Guardians, as well as a considerable number of other guards and weapons, and all of these equipment were now at his disposal.

"With these things and this fortress, wouldn't it be useless for the Burning Legion to come twice as many?" Aiden, who was in control of this fortress, was full of confidence.

Leaving the command chair, he nodded to Anzu and Kayle's gazes.

"There's no other explanation." Anzu murmured, "You must be a Titan, right?"

Aiden said helplessly, "I'm really not a Titan, but I've had a little interaction with the Titans."

Anzu didn't listen, but stared at Aiden eagerly: "I'll help you defeat the Burning Legion, and then you help me eliminate the remnants of the Old Gods and free me from the curse! It's settled then!"

The Raven God laughed loudly, like a prisoner who had been imprisoned for decades and was seeing the light of day again.

Aiden opened his mouth, but he hadn't agreed yet!

But since it was about dealing with the Old Gods, he had no reason to refuse. Anyway, whether it was the Burning Legion or the Old Gods, they were both terrible enemies that had to be eliminated.