Return

Aiden's heart pounded. He had never anticipated that after the Burning Legion's threat vanished, Azeroth would still face a large-scale invasion by the Old Gods, and the situation was even more critical than when Archimonde had descended!

If they had returned just an hour later, the land of Azshara would likely have been stained red with the blood of loyal and brave warriors.

He didn't bother to ask what had happened during this time. After flying out of the fortress, he immediately rushed towards Overlord Zon'ozz—he didn't recognize the creature's identity, but he could sense that this lobster-like Faceless One was the commander of the Old God's army.

To capture the bandits, first capture their chief! Killing N'Zoth was the quickest way to turn the tide of the battle.

Seeing Aiden charging towards him, Zon'ozz immediately raised one of his massive pincers and pointed it at Aiden, unleashing a bolt of purple lightning.

The lightning arrived in an instant. Aiden saw the opponent raise his hand and summoned a barrier of Holy Light to protect himself. The protection of the Holy power completely negated the damage from this lightning bolt filled with void and shadow energy. Then, he swung the Silver Judgment, burning with holy flames, and a pure blue holy flame splashed onto Zon'ozz's body.

Zon'ozz had no intention of defending at all. Its thick carapace's hardness far exceeded that of steel. Ordinary weapons and spells would find it difficult to leave even a mark on it. Moreover, the shadow energy emanating from its body was enough to negate most attacks.

It only wanted to attack!

It opened its massive pincers, grinding the serrated edges, capable of easily crushing granite, towards Aiden, who was flying over.

The burning holy flames splashed out without hindrance. They adhered to Zon'ozz's proud carapace. The shadow energy couldn't defend against the holy flames at all. The splashed holy flames began to burn fiercely, corroding the carapace and leaving a long, pitted scar.

A portion of the holy flames scorched Zon'ozz's flesh. It couldn't help but roar in agony.

"Die!"

Zon'ozz's large pincers slammed down fiercely, but only clamped onto an illusion. The real Aiden had already flown above its head at an even faster speed.

He felt the Holy Light from the Naaru in Tempest Keep being transmitted across the void. When this power was fed back into the holy flames, the Silver Judgment was radiating a heart-stirring, pure blue light.

Taking advantage of Zon'ozz's missed attack, Aiden swung his sword again, targeting the arthropod-like tentacles growing on the back of Zon'ozz's neck!

Under the amplified holy flames, Aiden easily severed the fragile tentacles. Black-purple, turbid blood spurted out from the wound. Zon'ozz let out a deafening roar. Just as it was about to turn around to face this enemy, it almost staggered and fell—the two tentacles on its back were important organs for maintaining balance. The intense pain was bearable, but once the arthropod tentacles were severed, it felt like it was leaning heavily to the left, making it even more uncomfortable than being drunk!

Zon'ozz looked at this despicable little guy with hatred, wanting to retaliate.

Although the arthropod was severed, as a Faceless One, it could grow a new one at any time by consuming some of its power.

Zon'ozz carefully protected its remaining tentacle while doing so. But while it was cautiously on guard, the other heroes had already surrounded it.

Moreover, the warriors from Tempest Keep were quickly joining the battlefield through its sub-ships. This massive fortress was loaded with hundreds of thousands of elite warriors of various races, and their arrival immediately turned the tide of the battle!

The Mountain Giants were indeed powerful, but they would also fall under the bombardment of countless Wildhammer dwarves' storm hammers. What's more, there were three black dragons in the sky breathing scorching dragon breath. Onyxia, Sinestra, Beli'an, each breath of dragon breath turned hundreds of sea monsters into twisted, withered charcoal!

"Commander! You're back!" Tristana joyful voice rang out behind Aiden. He had just landed back on the ground, surrounding Zon'ozz with the other heroes.

"Yes, I'm back." He smiled back at Tristana.

Zhao Xin, Braum, Irelia, Ashe… the other heroes gathered around him one after another.

Anasterian also came over.

Sylvanas saluted him: "Your Majesty!"

He nodded with relief, then turned to Aiden, revealing a relieved expression: "You're finally back!"

Aiden pursed his lips and said in a deep voice: "Let us deal with these monsters first!"

His words revealed great confidence, completely ignoring Zon'ozz in front of him.

Zon'ozz's severed tentacles had already grown back, but the contempt that these "little things" had for it made it furious!

As one of the most powerful commanders under N'Zoth, who among its enemies in the past dared not to respect it, who dared to despise it?

Zon'ozz let out an angry roar. It raised its pair of pincers high, releasing turbid and dark energy. Black-purple sewage immediately emerged from the surrounding ground, and hundreds of thick, bizarre tentacles with eyeballs growing on their tips drilled out from underground, preparing to release destructive power.

In this area created by Zon'ozz, even the light was swallowed by the black negative energy, as if suddenly falling from daylight into the pitch-black of night.

"Holy Light!"

Aiden and Kael'thas raised their longswords, and two pure rays of Holy Light pierced through the darkness, rushing towards Tempest Keep in the sky. Then, an incomparably majestic Holy Light bloomed from Tempest Keep, following the guidance of the two swords, completely enveloping this land polluted by dark energy.

Those tentacles with eyeballs were wriggling, about to unleash their power, but under the illumination of the majestic Holy Light, the darkness receded faster than it had grown. The tentacles were burned to ashes in the scorching energy, the black water also disappeared, and the darkness naturally vanished.

Overlord Zon'ozz, the most loyal, suffered the most severe injuries from being illuminated by the Holy Light energy. It became listless.

"Kill it!" Aiden ordered.

The heroes around him charged up together.

Zon'ozz tried to stop them. It forcibly condensed a purple orb of light, but before it could release it, Kassadin, the Void Walker, suddenly appeared in front of it, interrupting this unformed spell with bizarre void energy. Then, the angels Heart and Pamyel descended, and the two angels swung their swords together, severing the two balance-controlling tentacles at the same time.

Zon'ozz let out a terrifying roar. Its massive body swayed and staggered, as if heaven and earth had been turned upside down.

Braum was the first to jump up. He slammed his shield hard against the knee joint of Zon'ozz's left leg. With a "boom," the unbalanced Overlord fell backward to the ground.

Braum himself possessed unimaginable strength. Such a blow would be unbearable for anyone, let alone Zon'ozz, who had lost most of its sense of balance? When the commander of the Old God's army fell, it faced the heroes' fury.

Zon'ozz still tried to grow back the balance-maintaining tentacles. It thought its thick carapace could withstand the siege of these "little bugs" for a long time, but there really was a bug that emerged from the enemy, constantly spitting corrosive saliva at it.

Kog'Maw's saliva could corrode even the body of "The Defiler" Archimonde, let alone Zon'ozz? The part of the carapace covered by its green saliva immediately smoked and softened. Even ordinary soldiers with a little more strength could pierce the armor in such areas, let alone a group of heroes?

When Zhao Xin's spear was the first to pierce into Zon'ozz's body through the corroded shell, its death was already sealed.

All kinds of powers frantically poured onto Zon'ozz's body. Even though it was more than twenty meters tall, it completely stopped struggling after two minutes. Subsequently, its army began to collapse, until the remnants were driven back into the sea by the allied forces.

---

After resolving the Azshara crisis, Aiden asked about the situation of Azeroth as soon as possible. He didn't expect that in just three months of leaving, the situation would become what it is now.

"The Nightmare Invasion." He carefully recalled the history of this part.

This should have been an event that occurred eight years later. During the War of the Ancients, the most trusted advisor to Night Elf Queen Azshara, a mage named Xavius, incited Queen Azshara to worship the Burning Legion and mobilized the Queen's confidants to build a portal in the Well of Eternity to welcome Sargeras's arrival.

Later, Malfurion and others attempted to stop the Queen's madness. They defeated Xavius and cast him into the Well of Eternity—but the sorcerer did not die. Instead, deep within the Well of Eternity, he met Sargeras, who was trying to cross through the portal.

To commend this "meritorious official," Sargeras used fel energy to transform Xavius, turning him into the first "Satyr" in history, a demonized night elf.

Xavius worked hard for Sargeras, but the Burning Legion still failed. The demonized Xavius was once again defeated by Malfurion, but Malfurion did not kill him directly. Instead, he planted an acorn into Xavius's body and used natural magic to nurture it. This oak tree absorbed Xavius's flesh and blood, bursting through his body. Logically, Xavius should have been dead for sure, but his will did not perish.

When the Well of Eternity exploded, this tree sank into the sea.

No oak tree can survive in seawater. Now Xavius should have truly died—but the Old God N'Zoth used its power to "save" Xavius again, granting him new power so that he would not be swallowed by the sea.

And this new power was the power of the Nightmare.

After ten thousand years, Xavius, with the help of N'Zoth, finally displayed sufficiently powerful strength. In the dream, he used nightmares to control all the souls within, even including Ysera, the master of the Emerald Dream!

In reality, his body—the cursed oak tree—slowly crawled from the seabed onto the land.

The "Tidal Sea Spirit" Fizz tracked the naga and saw the "strange tree" on the cliff that could mutate the naga—that was Xavius's body!

Xavius's form has undergone three transformations, and he has changed from an ordinary sorcerer into a powerful being capable of destroying the world for the Old Gods.

However, Aiden did not know that Fizz had already seen the strange tree.

After thinking about these things and learning that nearly one-third of the people were entangled in nightmares and sleeping soundly, he didn't think much and summoned "Eternal Nightmare" Nocturne, wanting to test whether this hero, who could also manipulate dreams, could wake people from their slumber.

When the summoning ended, a black shadow-shaped terrifying creature appeared in front of everyone. When it appeared, the surrounding temperature seemed to drop several degrees, and many people felt a chill.

This shadow-shaped creature was the materialized form of the Nightmare—Nocturne!

Aiden quickly described the course of events in concise language. After listening, Nocturne let out a low laugh: "This is exactly what I do best, Commander. I know how to deal with it."

Nocturne, led by Zhao Xin, came to the camp of the sleeping soldiers. He glanced at the first high elf soldier and said, "Indeed, he is entangled in a nightmare."

The soldier's face was dark, and under his tightly closed eyelids, his eyeballs were turning irregularly, his expression was terrified, his body was trembling slightly, and there was a dense layer of sweat on his forehead.

The other soldiers were in similar situations, each sleeper as if in a nightmare.

Nocturne floated over and waved the short blade in his hand, slashing it in front of the sleeping soldier's forehead. Aiden saw the soldier's whole body tremble violently, his breathing became heavy, but soon it calmed down, and his complexion became peaceful.

"Is it alright?" Aiden asked.

"Now he has been freed from the entanglement of the nightmare," Nocturne replied.

Anasterian released a small spell, and the sleeping soldier only felt his nose itching. He opened his mouth and sneezed loudly. His body also sat up involuntarily.

When he opened his hazy eyes, he saw a group of people staring at him. Among them was his king, His Majesty Anasterian!

"Ah, Your Majesty!" The elf soldier immediately wanted to get up.

All the heroes saw surprise in each other's eyes.

The Nightmare really awakened the sleepers!

Seeing that it was effective, Aiden immediately asked, "Do you have any way to awaken these people on a large scale?"

"I'm afraid the answer will disappoint you, Commander," Nocturne's low voice sounded very strange, "My strength is suppressed, and the caster is much stronger than me. Even if I exhaust all my strength, I can only awaken a few hundred people a day."

Aiden knew that the other party would not lie to him, but now there may be millions of people sleeping, and even the number of people sleeping in ten minutes is more than the number of people Nocturne can awaken. Wouldn't Nocturne's efforts be a drop in the bucket?

"Is there any way to increase the intensity?" Aiden asked.

Everyone looked at Nocturne expectantly. The number of several hundred people was obviously too small.

"Unless I can devour the power of this nightmare."

Aiden was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth and said, "It seems we have to go to Mount Hyjal."

Because it was Malfurion who originally solved the nightmare crisis, I am afraid that this time we still have to rely on the power of this Archdruid to overcome the difficulties.

But before that, Aiden heard that Anna had also fallen asleep, so he first returned to Los Angeles and let Nocturne awaken the mage.

Kael'thas, who had been fighting for a day, returned to Los Angeles from the Justice Land coastline, preparing to continue to Anna's room to see her.

Just like Tyrande used to try to wake Malfurion every day, these days, regularly coming back to visit Anna has also become Prince Kael'thas's daily routine.

He examined his heart in his spare time, asking himself why he would do this, and then he got an answer—he seemed to have fallen in love with this Jaina from another world.

A woman who is more intelligent, more mature, and calmer than this world's Jaina—most importantly, this Jaina is still single.

He already knew the true identity of the white-haired Jaina, but he still preferred to continue to call her Anna. A brand new identity represents a brand new life.

However, just approaching the door, Kael'thas suddenly felt the cold, negative energy coming from the room. He immediately had a bad feeling—could it be that the Old God's minions were sneaking up on Anna?

"Don't you dare hurt Anna!" Kael'thas shouted, flashing into the room.

He saw a shadowy creature beside Anna's bed, extending a short blade to slash at Anna. He was shocked and angry, and shot a fireball towards the shadowy creature at the fastest speed in his life.

But a golden barrier of holy light blocked the fireball.

"Kael'thas."

He heard others calling his name, and only then did he have time to look around the room.

There was not only the Nightmare in the room, but also a group of other people.

Aiden and Khadgar were both staring at him with strange eyes.

"You... you..." Kael'thas was dumbfounded, but he immediately recovered from his embarrassment and shouted vigilantly, "Put away your illusion tricks! Don't hurt Anna! Otherwise, I will burn you to ashes with flames!"

He was already preparing to summon his contracted creature—a flame phoenix named "Alar."

Aiden, Khadgar, and the others were clearly in Outland and were likely dead. How could they appear here?

This must be an illusion created by the enemy! They want to kill Anna or threaten him!

"Who are you planning to burn to ashes?" At this time, his father, Anasterian, turned around and glared at him with stern eyes.

"This, this..." Kael'thas's head was a mess.

Could it be that his father was also an illusion transformed by the enemy?

And Anna was sitting up from the bed, rubbing her eyes, murmuring, "My head is so dizzy... Did I oversleep?"

Kael'thas widened his eyes and exclaimed, "Anna, you're awake?"

"Prince Kael'thas," Anna was still a little confused, "I was a little tired from casting spells forcefully before. Did I fall asleep for a long time? Have a few hours passed now?"

She shook her head, her consciousness became much clearer, and she looked around, only to find that there were several people in the room.

"Aiden? Khadgar?" Anna exclaimed. Even if she was calm, she knew what this meant.

"We just came back from Outland," Aiden smiled, "But it is said that you have been sleeping for three days."

"It's four days," Kael'thas added.

Anna blinked her eyes, pointing at herself: "I... I was also trapped by the Nightmare?"