Death

Archimonde suffered one heavy blow after another. He roared, his whole body erupting in furious flames, violently attacking any enemy that approached him. But even so, he was still inevitably failing.

When the wound on his right foot, where half of his foot was missing, was struck by a spell cast by Khadgar, he was once again overwhelmed by intense pain, making it very difficult to move.

"Escape," Archimonde suddenly thought.

It was impossible for him to win, and continuing to stay might even lead to his death.

Death?

The mere thought of that word made Archimonde even less willing to fight.

He thought resentfully: If his power hadn't been diminished, how could he possibly be losing to these mortals?

While resisting the attacks of the others, Archimonde looked for an opportunity to escape.

That opportunity soon arrived.

Seeing his master in danger, Kazzak, who had been entangled in the air with other heroes, immediately abandoned Kurdran and Kurchi. With a flap of his wings, he rushed towards Archimonde, wanting to relieve his master.

Kazzak threw himself at the Fury of the Four Elements, pouring all his energy into the Dragon King's Blades, and with a wave of his hand, he unleashed an energy attack that fused the power of the five Guardian Dragons.

The four Elemental Lords, who were battling Archimonde, had no choice but to dodge. If they were hit by this divine sword, they would inevitably suffer serious injuries. This would almost give Archimonde the opportunity to kill them. And if they couldn't withstand the frontal pressure, then the entire defense line might be easily broken through by Archimonde.

They had already felt the immense pressure from the Defiler, so this guess was very reasonable.

They just needed to stall, allowing more heroes to find opportunities!

The retreat of the four Elemental Lords finally gave Archimonde a chance to escape.

Even though Archimonde was severely injured, his ferocity was undiminished, and his attacks became even more violent. He had experienced many battles and knew that he couldn't blindly flee, as that would only give the enemy more opportunities to inflict heavy damage on him.

He had to attack, constantly attack, to find a suitable opportunity to escape.

Archimonde unleashed a bolt of red lightning at Gruul, forcing him back as well. With these few massive opponents gone, his path to break through was immediately unhindered!

Archimonde suddenly leaped off the city wall, beginning to implement his plan to escape by jumping off the wall!

For species that cannot fly, this height of several hundred meters would definitely result in being smashed to pieces upon falling. But Archimonde had a way to land safely.

His sudden escape caught everyone off guard, as they had not anticipated it at all.

But Anzu had been vigilant.

He was the first to notice the anomaly and react. Although this guardian, who could once blow away boulders with a flap of his wings and tear the earth with a shake of his claws, was increasingly weakened by the Curse of Sethe, to the point that Archimonde had forced back the Fury of the Four Elements and Gruul, he had overlooked him. But Anzu would let Archimonde know how wrong that was!

He let out a sharp shriek, and the feathers on his wings shot out like countless sharp arrows. The feathers carried terrifying dark power, reaching Archimonde, who was about to jump off the city wall, almost instantly and surrounding him completely.

"Ah!"

Archimonde screamed, each feather carrying Anzu's original power deeply piercing his body. It was as if he had suddenly grown a body of feathers.

Archimonde didn't bother with revenge. He used only a breath to break free from the shackles of the fel flames, then stepped onto the city wall with one foot and leaped outwards.

He knew that from this moment on, no one, no power, could stop him from leaving!

Archimonde experienced the feeling of becoming free-falling.

But only for a moment.

The next moment, a furious beast grabbed his ankle, just as he had left the city wall, and roared loudly, dragging him back.

Gruul!

He endured the searing pain of the lightning and rushed up, grabbing the opponent!

"Wind!" Kalecgos shouted at Archimonde. Under his command, the omnipresent wind elements gathered, forming a gale that held up Archimonde, who was trying to fall, and drew him back.

With the help of the Fury of the Winds, Gruul exerted all his strength, forcibly dragging Archimonde back and throwing him heavily onto the city wall!

Everyone knew that this was an opportunity to seriously injure or even kill Archimonde, and no one wanted to miss it.

Being slashed in the foot, bombarded by spells, and struck by swords and axes had caused Archimonde great pain, but those were only superficial injuries that didn't threaten his life. He wanted to escape only because he couldn't outlast them here, so he wanted to return to his base camp, wait until his strength was fully restored, contact Kil'jaeden, and then come back for revenge.

He believed that he would have that ability then.

But now the situation was different.

Just as Archimonde was thrown back, Aiden, taking advantage of the opportunity when the opponent was in mid-air and unable to exert force or dodge, blessed himself with the greatest power and thrust the silver-white Judgment, soaked in time, nature, and holy light, fiercely into Archimonde's abdomen; almost simultaneously, Kayle did the same, her Sword of Conviction pierced along the wound on Archimonde's chest, and this time the holy flame-burning greatsword avoided the ribs that had blocked it last time, truly piercing into Archimonde's chest cavity.

And Illidan, who had been lurking nearby, also found an excellent opportunity. His twin blades danced, continuously slashing at the same spot on the heel of Archimonde's still intact foot. The sharp Warglaives of Azzinoth cut through the hard skin and muscles, and the splashing burning blood splattered on the Demon Hunter's body, scalding his bare chest with severe burns, but Illidan still gritted his teeth and persevered until he sensed that the Warglaives of Azzinoth had severed the tendon on Archimonde's heel, crippling him!

In these short few seconds, almost all the heroes had achieved brilliant results, and Archimonde had suffered real damage this time, damage that could threaten his life.

For the first time since the battle began, he felt a sense of fear.

This was unbelievable for the Defiler.

Archimonde had followed the Dark Titan in conquering countless worlds, and had not found any opponents; most of the time Sargeras did not personally take action, because Archimonde was enough.

Almost no matter which world he went to, he was the most powerful creature walking on the earth.

Only after Aiden's journey through the Twisting Nether severely damaged Sargeras's soul did Archimonde officially become the Burning Legion's number one BOSS. Azeroth was the first world he planned to conquer, and Aiden was the most important enemy he wanted to kill.

And now, at this moment, Archimonde was facing the most dangerous battle of his life on this broken Outland. He was being besieged by a group of beings he had never taken seriously before, and his life was even in danger!

Illidan cut off the tendon of Archimonde's intact foot, crippling both of Archimonde's feet, and Thrall poured his elemental power into the Doomhammer, throwing it out fiercely. The shining stone hammer bombarded Archimonde's knee like a cannonball, almost shattering the cartilage.

Archimonde knelt down in great pain.

Now he was truly, even finding it difficult to stand up...

The battle situation here attracted everyone's attention.

Although the war was not over, the Alliance soldiers had already let out earth-shattering cheers; and the demons in the Burning Legion began to panic and lose their composure. Most of the flying demons, who had been relying on their numerical advantage to suppress Outland's air force, had now lost their fighting will, and even some timid and cunning Nathrezim demons began to flee. The aerial battle situation instantly reversed. At first, the Outland Alliance could only rely on defense weapons such as laser turrets on the fortress to fight, but now they had begun a large-scale counterattack!

Three black dragons flapped their wings in the sky, spewing flames and roasting swaths of flying demons into charcoal. It was Sinestra, Sabellian, and Onyxia, the black dragon family.

Compared to Onyxia and Sabellian, who were diligently spewing dragon breath, Sinestra seemed to be somewhat perfunctory. The Dragon Mother adhered to the principle of preserving her strength and fleeing if the situation turned bad. She basically didn't care about those demons who didn't actively come to their deaths. She always focused on the battle between the heroes and Archimonde below, as that was where the victory or defeat would be determined.

When Sinestra saw Archimonde try to escape, only to be grabbed back by Gruul and beaten up by the heroes, she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.

She had witnessed Archimonde's fighting prowess during the War of the Ancients. The mighty keeper of the groves, Malorne, consort of the moon goddess Elune, had been easily killed by Archimonde with a simple neck snap. Malorne, one of Azeroth's most powerful immortals, had almost no ability to resist Archimonde.

But what was she seeing now?

She watched as Aiden, the human commander she had previously hated and who had coerced her, stabbed Archimonde in the abdomen with his sword. She suddenly shuddered, feeling a chill—but how could a black dragon feel cold? Their blood flowed with molten magma!

The cunning Sinestra's dragon eyes darted around. Seeing this scene, she suddenly began to hunt demons with renewed vigor.

As for her previous idea of relying on Draladnu's power to devour Aiden—she had given up hope.

These people could even defeat Archimonde. No matter how powerful Draladnu was, he could hardly reach the level of 'The Defiler'.

(T/N I've no idea)

"I will burn you to ashes!" the Dragon Mother shouted, turning her inability to take revenge into rage, venting it all on the demons in the sky. After taking a deep breath, she spewed out a torrent of flames far larger than Onyxia's and Sabellian's combined, almost painting half the sky red. Countless demons burned in the dragon's breath that could almost melt steel, emitting terrifying screams.

After suffering repeated heavy blows, Archimonde finally erupted in fear and fury. He knew that he could no longer escape easily, and he would have to pay a painful price—a fierce light of hatred bloomed in his green eyes. He could not tolerate being forced into this state by a group of creatures far weaker than him.

"You will pay the price!" Archimonde roared. He gathered all the fel energy in his body, and instantly his entire body began to burn fiercely as if self-immolating. An unprecedentedly terrifying power was released from the Defiler, causing all the surrounding heroes to be shocked and uncertain.

"Careful!"

"Retreat!"

"Quick!"

Instantly, the naaru transmitted the information into everyone's minds.

Many people immediately reacted and began to retreat. No one wanted to withstand a self-destructive blast released by a creature many times more powerful than them. Perhaps Archimonde would die, but anyone who dared to test the power of the self-destruction with their body would definitely not survive.

Such power would definitely be enough to shatter everything nearby.

Even Gruul, a reckless demigod who went berserk when fighting, was frightened and ran backwards on all fours. Behind them were the naaru's holy light shields at their maximum strength; only there could they be safe.

"Feel my wrath!" Archimonde's voice was full of madness and hatred. The look in his eyes as he looked at the heroes could almost kill. Seeing these people trying to escape, he revealed a look of pleasure, but could escape stop him?

Too naive!

This was his true, strongest strike!

An indescribably violent explosion erupted with Archimonde's location as the center. The center of the explosion was a green ball of light. It first expanded slightly, then suddenly contracted sharply, shrinking from a diameter of more than ten meters to the size of a basketball, while the light became more and more dazzling.

When this contraction reached its limit, a violent explosion sound came out, causing almost everyone to lose their hearing, leaving only a buzzing sound. Countless people had their eardrums ruptured, and blood flowed from their ears. Those who looked directly at the green ball of light were blinded, and blood flowed from their eye sockets.

An even more terrifying shock wave swept out, and wherever it passed, the city walls began to collapse, and everything turned to nothing.

This ball of light crashed into the defensive barrier jointly cast by the naaru. In an instant, the people inside the barrier felt the earth shake and the mountains sway. No one knew how long it lasted, perhaps a moment, perhaps one or two breaths. The barrier's defensive power finally reached its limit and shattered. At the moment it shattered, the light on the Light Naaru instantly dimmed, and even they were seriously injured.

Inside the barrier, everyone else also used their most powerful defensive spells: Walls of Wind, Walls of Ice, Walls of Earth. The three Furies of the Elements used their essence to create the strongest defense.

But the power of this explosion was too great!

The heroes watched helplessly as the Wall of Wind dissipated, the Wall of Ice shattered, and the Wall of Earth collapsed. The aftermath of the fel explosion continued to spread, breaking through the final Holy Light barrier set up by Aiden, Kael'thas, and Prophet Velen, and began to ravage the crowd.

"Stop!" Aiden raised the Staff of Time and shouted.

He commanded time to stop. The surrounding space turned gray.

Aiden saw that the violent fel energy in front of them was still very powerful. No one had expected that Archimonde, who had been beaten down by them in the battle, still had such power—in fact, on closer inspection, beating Archimonde down was just an illusion. If Broxigar hadn't had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cut off the opponent's foot, the outcome of the battle would definitely have been different.

After much calculation, Archimonde simply hadn't expected the death knight he thought he had killed to be resurrected.

Without this accident, Broxigar would have died, followed by Grom. If more people had been killed, Archimonde could have killed them all by himself!

The Defiler was never weak. He was just unlucky just now.

When his rage truly erupted, everyone would tremble.

When Aiden stopped time, he felt an unprecedentedly strong pressure. Time and space were combined, and the violent and restless energy released by Archimonde was destroying the stability of space. Even such a powerful method as stopping time could not contend with absolute power.

Aiden knew that time was running out. He tried to move the Fury of Wind at the very front to the rear fortress, but the other party was too large, and he felt that his physical strength was failing after only moving half of the Wind Elemental.

He gritted his teeth and could only abandon these big guys and let them fend for themselves.

Several mages had already used methods such as Blink to escape far away. Aiden struggled to pass through the solidified space, as if walking in mud. He grabbed the angel Kael, who was raising her hand, a casting action to cast Divine Protection. Aiden was very familiar with it.

Aiden pushed Kael hard, pushing her to the back; then came Prophet Velen. Although this old man was powerful, his body didn't look strong. He had just joined them in casting the Holy Light Barrier, so he must lack the means to protect himself.

Then the remaining were Illidan and several orcs. Aiden ran towards the nearest Thrall, dragging him back, and then Grom Hellscream, but as soon as he dragged Grom away, he suddenly sensed that the surrounding space was becoming more and more unstable, and he only had the last bit of time to decide who to save:

Illidan or Broxigar?

Both were heroes in this battle, and it was justifiable to save either one.

Aiden had no time to hesitate. He gritted his teeth and ran towards Broxigar, pushing the death knight back.

And just as he was about to turn around, he felt a "crack" sound.

That was an illusion of the "Stop Time" spell being destroyed by the violent energy. Aiden felt weak all over. He was covered in sweat, and leaned weakly against the wall, slowly sliding down.

Time returned to normal, and the several heroes he had saved suddenly found themselves in a safe place inside the fortress. It took a while for their minds to react.

"Boom—"

The violent energy blocked by time began to continue its ravages.

The first to bear the brunt was Aborius, the Fury of Water. He was almost instantly submerged by the fel energy, and his huge body melted in the energy, leaving only unwilling roars, followed by the other three Furies of the Elements. After them was Gruul. The strong Father of Gronn also failed to escape, and he was swallowed up in the violent roar.