Pawn

Aiden thought about his identity as certified by the Titan system. Then, what was he? A pawn in the hands of the Titans?

"No, absolutely not!" Aiden roared, unwilling to be manipulated. He fiercely swung the staff at one of the hourglasses. The transparent, glass-like barrier shattered instantly before this artifact that controlled time. The reversing sands of time within, losing the restraint of invisible power, flowed out from the opening like gushing blood.

"Alarm: System error. Alarm: System error..."

A series of alarms sounded.

When Chromie arrived, she witnessed this scene and exclaimed, "Good heavens, what are you doing? Stop!"

As the hourglasses shattered, the time sands, imbued with divine power, emitted countless wondrous sounds as they flowed. Aiden seemed to hear countless people wailing and crying, begging him to stop.

"No, I won't stop! Fate shouldn't be like this!" Aiden's eyes were bloodshot. He shattered the other two hourglasses as well.

When the other Bronze Dragons finally broke through the previous jungle barrier and rushed in, they saw a scene that completely devastated them:

The semi-transparent wall isolating the real world collapsed with a deafening roar, and countless Bronze Dragons still soaring in other timelines were suddenly pulled back to reality by an irresistible force.

Nozdormu, filled with terror and anxiety, rushed into the depths of the Caverns of Time, only to see Aiden, seemingly insane, had completely shattered the three hourglasses supporting the Caverns of Time. The time sands within the hourglasses, attracted by the same force, were gathering towards the Staff of Time like moths to a flame, rushing into the purple crystal at the head of the staff, merging with the previous ones.

"That scene... it really happened..."

"He, he really destroyed the Caverns of Time and absorbed the power within!"

"Madman, madman!"

Nozdormu completely collapsed. Previously, his divine power was only affected by the power of the Staff of Time, making it impossible to exert its full potential. Now, he felt that with the collapse of the Caverns of Time, the divine power bestowed upon him by Aman'Thul had also disappeared completely.

He could no longer fulfill his duty as the Guardian of Time, and neither could any of the Bronze Dragons.

The power to control time had forever left them.

After the Staff of Time absorbed all the time sands, Aiden used the power of time again to observe the trajectory of fate of this world. He saw a scene completely different from before:

Even with the divine power of the Guardians of Time, Aiden could no longer clearly see the trajectory of even the next second of this world. The future became blurred, and everything became unknown.

"This is a truly free world." His eyes suddenly cleared.

Aiden looked at all the Bronze Dragons surrounding him, yet not daring to attack, looked at their Dragon Aspect, Nozdormu, who had become mortal: "You should be grateful."

He left this world amidst the Dragon Aspect's shame, anger, and incomprehension.

Nozdormu would not understand the true meaning of his words, only thinking that Aiden was humiliating him, thinking that the meaning was that sparing their lives was a great favor to them, which made him even more angry and frantic.

But Aiden's real meaning was that without the ability to travel through time, Nozdormu would not see the future fate and frantically become Murozond, the Aspect of Time. This world would no longer have the Infinite Dragonflight born, and Nozdormu would not fall into the tragic fate of killing himself. Because they had lost the foundation to become the Infinite Dragonflight—the power to control time.

Shouldn't he be grateful?

Escaping the Pantheon, escaping the fate that had been set long ago countless years ago, being able to choose one's own way of death. This is also a kind of happiness.

Aiden's figure blurred, gradually disappearing in the countless Bronze Dragons' hateful and fearful gazes. After understanding the secrets of the timeline, he already knew exactly how to escape.

What Chromie had said before reminded him: For those who travel through timelines, anything in other timelines is an illusion.

He remembered the question that Zilean had once asked: "If time and space are both illusory illusions that blur the senses, how can you prove that you exist, that you have meaning?"

Now Aiden has found part of the answer. This part is enough for him to understand the partial meaning of time in this world.

He felt his true body. When his consciousness was about to leave this time and space, his body also lost its constraints. Like pulling open the cork on a wine bottle, with a "pop", Aiden felt that he had completely broken free from the constraints of the original world.

Aiden came to a world outside the constraints of the timeline.

In his expectation, this should be a more real world than the Warcraft world, more real than Azeroth. The timeline would not constrain anyone's fate, the past would not determine the future, and the result would not reverse the cause. There would be no inverted cause and effect, no time that could be arbitrarily traversed, and no fate that controlled everything. Everyone's every thought, every action could make the future unpredictable. Instead of having an invisible hand strictly limit all people and all things in squares like a chessboard, each person can only walk in the role they play, not one step more, one step less, or one step astray.

Aiden was very curious, what was the first thing he saw in this world?

He soon found out.

He saw a bookshelf.

This was not a bookshelf in the conventional sense—because it was hundreds of meters high, divided into countless layers, and wide enough for a normal person to walk for ten minutes to reach the end. This was an extremely huge room, filled with extraordinary power, obviously beyond the reach of mortals. To get those books on the upper levels, one would probably have to be able to fly.

These bookshelves were filled with books written in various languages. There were many that Aiden had never seen before, but he also saw some that he recognized, because some of them were written in Common, Thalassian, and Darnassian.

"The Art of Playing the Bagpipes," "Research and Application of Automated Magic Theory," "Sunwell Magic Network Design Diagram," "Architectural Styles and Art of the Dath'Remar Dynasty"—these were all written in the High Elven language of Thalassian. The content was of course also related to Quel'Thalas.

The others were naturally the same. This seemed to be a collection of scriptures from various civilizations of Azeroth.

Could this be a scholar's study? Is this still Azeroth?

Aiden speculated.

He could sense that this place was indeed free from the control of the timeline. To be precise, he could not feel the flow of time, nor could he use the power of the Staff of Time to detect the past and the future. Just like the Earth of the past, it was a completely free world.

If this place was the real Azeroth, then what were those worlds under the control of the web-like timeline?

Coming to this world that had broken away from the timeline, Aiden instead developed even greater doubts.

He walked further outside, wanting to see what this world was like, and it would be best to find the owner here and communicate with more people.

The books collected here were estimated to be at least several million volumes—even the literature accumulated by the High Elves over thousands of years was not even one-tenth of it. Especially since it also contained so many kinds of civilizations. Aiden couldn't help but be curious, who exactly was its owner?

Leaving the long library, Aiden came to an even larger hall. The previous one was for storing books, so this one was for storing various items. He saw some unique gems, pearls, as well as various huge skeletons and fossils of extinct creatures, as well as various exquisite antique collections, and even armor and weapons containing powerful forces.

He quickly came to the weapon collection area. At first glance, a large pile of familiar or unfamiliar weapons were emitting strange energy. He saw Frostmourne, saw "Fallen Ashbringer" and the normal "Ashbringer" placed side by side, and also "Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian", and the legendary bow "Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury", and the sister swords Quel'Serrar and Quel'Delar forged by dragons, and the oak axe enchanted by Cenarius... all kinds of legendary artifacts gathered together.

Most importantly, he also saw the Silver Hand and the Staff of Time in his hand, as well as Kael's sword, the Blade of Sin'dorei. They all emitted fluctuations that were extremely familiar to him, definitely not fakes! He hurriedly summoned his own weapons. The two Silver Hands were exactly the same, and so was the Staff of Time.

If collecting books was something that normal people could do, then who could easily collect these artifacts?

Aiden grasped the Staff of Time among the collectibles, and only after careful examination did he realize that the crystal at the head of the staff had not integrated the time sands, and was still in its original state, but this was still real, not a fake!

Who could collect these things?

Aiden could only think of one person, and then he immediately realized—this was not a real world at all!

"Don't be so rough with that staff, handle it with care!" A gentle and magnetic voice came from Aiden's ear, the owner of the voice seemingly afraid that he would damage his collection.

Aiden felt his hair stand on end. He had heard this voice before, and was even extremely familiar with it, but the owner of this voice had never spoken to him in such a gentle tone.

He turned around warily. Appearing before him was a high elf with a very thin face and an extremely pointed chin. He was very tall and had broad shoulders, but his thin beard, thin waist, and gaunt triangular face gave the impression that he was very skinny.

This middle-aged man with chestnut hair looked at Aiden gently, as if looking at a friend: "Don't be nervous, I don't have any malicious intent!"

He indeed did not release any malice, but in Aiden's eyes, this person alone was enough to make him extremely vigilant.

"Nozdormu?"

The middle-aged elf generously nodded in acknowledgment: "Yes, it is I—please don't look at me with such hostile eyes. The world is different now."

Nozdormu's words seemed to contain a deeper meaning. It seemed that he was simply reminding Aiden to handle the staff with care, and had no other hostile thoughts.

"Where is this?" Aiden frowned, pondering what the other party meant by "the world is different now." He was eager to know what this place was.

Nozdormu smiled and said, "Relax, this is my realm, an independent dimension, nothing more."

Aiden was somewhat disappointed. He thought he had come to a completely new and real world, but he didn't expect to have only arrived at Nozdormu's realm.

"Then you are the real Nozdormu?" He guessed the other party's identity.

"Indeed, it is I." Nozdormu nodded politely.

"The time here is just stopped, like on the Timeless Isle, right?"

"That's right, indeed."

Aiden realized that he had rejoiced in vain. It turned out that everything he had experienced upon entering here was just an unfounded illusion.

However, the polite and humble Nozdormu in front of him gave him a strong sense of incongruity. If the two he had encountered before were as easy to talk to as this one, wouldn't the world be at peace?

Aiden couldn't help but say: "Then you should know what I did, aren't you angry?"

"Are you referring to those unpleasant interactions between my avatars and you in the two timelines? Well, I was just about to say this—I am very sorry, although they originate from me, I do not control them." Nozdormu bowed sincerely, "I am deeply sorry for the trouble they caused you!"

Aiden felt somewhat unnatural, even feeling very absurd. He had a feeling that the whole world had gone crazy and turned upside down. He slowly uttered a sentence: "I really hope this is just my illusion."

"Reality and illusion do not actually have strict boundaries. You should understand what I mean since you were able to come here. Please rest assured, this me before you has no old grudges with you. I treat you as a guest and a friend." Nozdormu smiled and bowed, "Come, come with me, my friend. Since you have come to my realm, then I should show you something to fulfill my duty as a host!"

Aiden really had no way to be angry with such a person. Besides, he also understood that the Nozdormus in those two timelines could not represent the Nozdormu before him. He could even regard them as three completely different people. It was just that they had such a close relationship with each other.

Those two Nozdormus who were always causing him trouble were all from the scales of this guy in front of him!

However, he was also quite curious, what was Nozdormu going to show him?

Aiden was soon brought to a kingdom of sand, which reminded him of the Caverns of Time in Tanaris. The sand here flowed freely in every part of the space like countless ribbons, crisscrossing in the air. This scene immediately made him associate it with the structure of the timeline.

"Welcome to the Kingdom of Time!" Nozdormu bowed very gentlemanly after reaching the destination, showing the enthusiasm and thoughtfulness of a host to the fullest.

"Here?"

"Many of the answers to the mysteries in your heart can be found here—I know the purpose of your previous departure from your own timeline. Now the secrets of time are truly revealed before your eyes. If you want to understand anything, you can find the answer here!"

Nozdormu seemed to see Aiden's concerns. He smiled and said, "Rest assured, I won't lie to you."

Aiden looked at the smiling Nozdormu, the true Bronze Dragon Aspect. He indeed did not feel any malice from the other party.

"What if I want to understand the secrets beyond this world?" he suddenly asked.

Nozdormu encouraged, "Then you should try it even more—because even I have not fully understood the secrets of this Kingdom of Time. I am bound by my own cognition and can only explore the secrets of the world I am in. If you can have cognition beyond this world, you can obtain secrets beyond this world here!"

"Cognition beyond the world—" Aiden immediately thought of his origins. If this place was truly as omnipotent as Nozdormu said, then he should definitely try it.

"What should I do?"

"Observe, use your heart to observe this world. That is the only thing you need to do."

Aiden took a deep breath and strode into this kingdom full of golden sand, the Kingdom of Time.

"Will the secrets I want to know be hidden here?"

He opened his mind and began to explore the secrets of this world.

There were too many things Aiden wanted to know, and now he didn't know where to start. He tried to explore the first question—where did the Nozdormu of his timeline go?

A golden ribbon in the distance arose with his question and automatically wrapped around him.

He saw it.

All the scenes that Nozdormu saw in the Caverns of Time appeared before his eyes. Except for summoning the Valoran continent using the power of Deathwing, which had not yet been realized, everything else had become reality.

But in the first illusion, he destroyed the Caverns of Time and absorbed all its power in another timeline. Why did this Nozdormu think that Aiden destroyed the original timeline's?

Thinking about it, he got the answer.

Nozdormu had long been unable to distinguish between them. The scenes he saw in this world and the scenes seen by the other self all converged in one place. Therefore, those things that happened in other worlds would also be regarded as his own experiences.

Thinking this way, he somewhat understood Nozdormu's crazy behavior.

Then he observed Nozdormu traveling to other timelines to find the power to deal with him. And when he and Chromie traveled through time, Nozdormu would happen to appear in that timeline most of the time. It turned out that this was not a coincidence, but that the past Nozdormu had gone to these timelines to find "helpers."

"The heroes from other timelines in the Battle for Icecrown were created in this way?"

Aiden discovered that he and Chromie had also played an important role in it.

If there had not been those dozen or so trips through time, would Nozdormu not have had these helpers during the Battle for Icecrown?

He threw these boring assumptions out of his mind, and the previous feeling of being bound by the theory of causality arose in his heart again.

It was clearly something that had happened more than a year ago, but now the process was being completed for the result. No matter how you looked at it, it felt very unreasonable.

Next, Aiden tracked Nozdormu's traces and found that this Dragon Aspect would return to his original timeline one day before he returned, seemingly also because of him.

Another destined result. Aiden knew that no matter which day he went back, the prerequisite for Nozdormu's return was one day earlier than him. It was like a series of quests in a game. Only after completing the first step could you continue to the next.

After determining the cause and effect of this Nozdormu, Aiden became uninterested again. He felt that the entire Azeroth was still controlled by an unknown existence, and everyone was like a puppet. As for whether it was the Titans controlling it, he could no longer tell.