Fate

"It seems that only the Red Dragon Queen Alexstrasza is qualified." Prince Galen Trollbane of Stromgarde muttered.

Many people nodded in agreement.

Hearing people praise his queen, Krasus revealed a proud look again.

As the Guardian of Life, Alexstrasza is undoubtedly the most popular one—compared to other Guardian Dragons.

Because when the plague threatened the world, she selflessly offered her precious life essence.

With it, alchemists like Singed were able to concoct potions to treat the plague.

However, even she is not without flaws—at least Admiral Daelin would never forget the Second War when the Dragonmaw clan orcs controlled the queen, forcing the red dragons to serve the orcs.

These red dragons, who aided the evildoers, brought very heavy losses to the Alliance.

Large swaths of Quel'Thalas' forests were burned down, a large number of warriors were burned to death, and Daelin also lost his eldest son.

All five Guardian Dragons have problems.

How can people believe that the Guardian Dragons are really protecting this world?

The bronze dragons "listening in" on this meeting in the Caverns of Time had different expressions.

Chromie was a little embarrassed.

Although she was not by Nozdormu's side, she could imagine that the Dragon Aspect's face must be very, very bad right now.

She guessed right.

Everything needs comparison to easily distinguish good from evil, right from wrong.

Nozdormu originally insisted that his actions were right, but now, listening to these mortals' summaries, he discovered this terrible fact.

Tens of thousands of years ago, when they received the blessings of the Titans, how high-spirited and ambitious the five dragons were!

But now, apart from Alexstrasza and Ysera, the other three, including Nozdormu himself, have had problems, big or small.

After experiencing the misunderstanding of Aiden and the misleading of Malygos, the Bronze Dragon Aspect was already doubting whether what he saw was the real future or the illusions given to him by the Old Gods.

Nozdormu knew how terrible these Old Gods were.

His once-comrade-in-arms, Neltharion, a dragon with such a firm will, would fall and go mad.

He knew that he might not be able to resist the temptation of the Old Gods any better than Deathwing, let alone the hidden misleading.

Deathwing's fall could still be seen as an isolated phenomenon, but what about now?

He couldn't help but think of the last words of instruction when they received the Titans' blessings and divine power: "What is given to each of you is a blessing; what is given to all of you is a responsibility."

The current situation is that all five Guardian Dragons have abused or misused their divine power, and have abandoned or completely abandoned their responsibilities.

The responsibilities that the Titans bestowed upon them tens of thousands of years ago, and the entire Guardian Dragon system, are facing unprecedented severe challenges.

Will the dragons be able to restore the initial order and re-establish their responsibilities?

No one knows, not even Nozdormu himself.

—

To whom does the world of Azeroth belong?

It seems that no one, no race, can represent the world.

The Guardian Dragons each have their own responsibilities.

What they protect is the world itself, or rather, they protect some sacred rules that maintain this world.

If anyone wants to challenge the timeline and attempt to tamper with history, then the bronze dragons will have something to say.

If any race abuses magic and causes the world to face a great threat, the blue dragons will definitely not sit idly by.

The mortal races believe that the world belongs to them, but the Guardian Dragons do not see it that way.

In their tens of thousands of years of life, they have witnessed the rise and fall of countless civilizations and races.

The short-lived mortal civilizations are merely passers-by in a certain period of time in this world.

These young mortal races will always perish for various reasons, and they certainly cannot represent the world.

Malygos launched the Nexus War precisely because he believed that these young and arrogant mortal races abused magical energy, which led to various disasters that endangered the world itself, especially attracting the gaze of the Burning Legion.

That is why he was determined to launch this war.

Such a thing had already happened once in the War of the Ancients, and he endured it; but now, the Burning Legion is visiting this world again, and in the final analysis, it is still because of the abuse of magic.

This time, he has had enough, and that is why he firmly believes that it is necessary for him to eliminate these mortals.

First, to protect the world, and second, to deter other mortal races and declare to them the blue dragons' determination to maintain the world's safety.

Malygos does not think he is wrong, but as victims, the mortals threatened by the blue dragonflight can never accept his behavior!

Among the five Guardian Dragons, only Alexstrasza's responsibility is to protect life, so facing Malygos' indiscriminate behavior of directly obliterating countless races, she cannot possibly not stop it.

Whose world is the world?

This is a very big proposition, and Aiden doesn't know how to judge it.

However, he knows one thing—the Guardian Dragons also have no right to decide who lives and who dies.

When the world was born, there were no Guardian Dragons; in the not-too-distant future, there will be no Guardian Dragons either.

This is only a specific period of time in which the Titans bestowed the abilities and responsibilities on the five proto-dragon heroes who defeated Galakrond.

Their responsibility is to protect the world, the earth, life, dreams, time, and magic, and to protect these rules.

But does the world need guardians?

Not necessarily.

Without the power of guardians, the five proto-dragons plus Tyr still defeated Galakrond.

But when they had it, Deathwing betrayed, and the Dragon Soul caused countless disastrous consequences, and the Black Dragon Aspect himself would cause great trauma to the world; if the bronze dragons did not have the ability to travel through time, there would be no infinite dragonflight that would painstakingly destroy the timeline and tamper with history.

The Titans appointed guardians, but the world does not necessarily need such guardians.

At least, it does not need those guardians who have forgotten their original intentions and gone astray.

The world does not need anyone to save it.

Azeroth has been born from chaos until today, and this land has borne the rule of the Old Gods and has also experienced the order of the Titans.

Troll civilization, Aqir civilization, mogu civilization, pandaren, night elves, and even the current multiple racial civilizations are competing with each other.

Even during the reign of the Old Gods, they never thought of destroying this world, which would be tantamount to suicide.

All civilizations that depend on this planet for survival, whether they are righteous or evil, whether they are chaotic or orderly, no one will destroy the world.

The world does not need saving, people only need to save themselves and stop those who attempt to destroy the world.

All living beings who depend on this world for survival are the guardians of Azeroth, and not just the five competent or incompetent Guardian Dragons!

—

Malygos' lair is in the west of Borean Tundra, in a place called the Nexus.

His kingdom is not really in Azeroth, but in a small plane attached to the Nexus, an independent dimension.

He calls this place the "Eye of Eternity."

In this place, he is the God of Magic—almost no one can defeat him!

Malygos ordered the blue dragonflight to spread the Ley Line Needles everywhere.

These magical items endlessly draw arcane energy from the leylines spread throughout the world, and all of this arcane energy is gathered in this place, gathered in the blue dragon artifact in the Eye of Eternity—the Focusing Iris.

Now the Focusing Iris has gathered a very large amount of energy.

Malygos thinks it's not enough, he feels it's a little short, but it's already very close.

He can feel that, at the current rate, in just three days, the Eye of Eternity will be able to gather enough arcane energy to ensure the implementation of his plan.

In front of him is a spherical object emitting a faint light.

If you look closely, you can see the shape of the world of Azeroth on it.

Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Northrend, Pandaria, these are all on it.

It's like a globe.

It is covered with many crisscrossing lines emitting a pale light, but these are not lines of latitude and longitude that determine the orientation, but leylines buried in the depths of Azeroth.

These magic ley lines intersected most frequently in three places, making them appear very bright. The brightest one was the Nexus in Northrend, where Malygos was currently located; the second was Medivh's magic tower—Karazhan, where many magic ley lines also converged; and the last place was Dalaran, which had flown back to its original location, where many magic ley lines also converged.

These three places were like holy lands to any spellcaster. Casting spells in these places was very convenient, and the power of the spells would also be greatly enhanced.

The sphere in front of Malygos was called the "Arcane Map," a map depicting the structure of Azeroth's magic ley lines, given to him by the Titan Norgannon. The magic net was not immutable, and the Blue Dragonflight, as guardians of magic, constantly maintained updates to the Arcane Map. It was precisely because he possessed this map that Malygos's actions to draw magic net energy were so convenient.

Malygos stared in the direction of Dalaran and muttered to himself:

"This place must be purged. These mortals never revere magic; instead, they have dabbled in many dangerous areas. If they are not stopped, endless disasters will surely follow!"

Then he looked at Karazhan:

"This place should not be left behind either."

"High Elves—these mortals are too dependent on magic, even to the point of addiction. They must be purged!"

"Humans—this race is too ambitious and overestimates its capabilities. They will definitely create even greater disasters in the future!"

"Orcs—these green-skins still have warlocks who use fel energy. This is power from the demons, and they also retain the curse of the demons on their race. They absolutely cannot be left alive!"

Malygos pointed to different places, commenting on different races one by one, and pronouncing their fates soon after. Whether they would survive or be destroyed, whether it was a death sentence or a suspended death sentence, whether to purge individuals or the entire race—all of this had been decided by him.

"Yes, very good, just like that. Presumably, the world will be more peaceful after purging these tumors, and I will have fulfilled my duty as a guardian."

He was excited about the future he envisioned.

Just then, the Blue Dragon Prince Arygos barged in. With a worried expression, he flew to his father and said loudly, "Father, Alexstrasza has already opened the portal to the Wyrmrest Temple. Those mortals are continuously rushing to the Nexus! They will arrive here soon. We should act in advance!"

Malygos did not take this news to heart. "What's the panic? Even flying from the Wyrmrest Temple will take three days. By then, I will have prepared everything!"

Arygos argued, "But can't you eliminate these enemies first? If we destroy these mortals and the Red Dragonflight, we will have as much time as we need!"

Malygos looked at his son with displeasure and rebuked, "Our enemies are those races that misuse magic, not all enemies! I know why Alexstrasza is coming. She is the Guardian of Life, and protecting life is her duty. She cannot understand my actions, but I cannot kill her directly because of that. This is a matter between the Dragon Aspects. Do not interfere!"

The last time Alexstrasza came to the Nexus, Malygos was very agitated and even wanted to kill her on the spot because Nozdormu had warned him that Alexstrasza would bring a group of mortals to kill him. He had also listened to Arygos's words, believing that Alexstrasza had fallen and become a servant of the Old Gods.

But later, he realized that he should not have believed such nonsense that Alexstrasza would join the Old Gods. She was the Life-Binder, one of the most steadfast guardians. Moreover, Alexstrasza had indeed come alone last time and did not bring anyone else. He had misunderstood her.

Anyway, Alexstrasza couldn't defeat him. Malygos had now changed his mind and was preparing to show the young Red Dragon Queen whether the world would become safer and more peaceful after he purged those established targets!

Malygos was preparing to convince Alexstrasza with facts.

It was also because of Arygos's slander that he had recently become somewhat distant from this son. After all, only Dragon Aspects were qualified to speak to Dragon Aspects. He agreed with Alexstrasza's original viewpoint.

How could Arygos not sense his father's estrangement? Seeing that his father's mind was made up and that persuasion was impossible, he could only take his leave. Malygos would not see the sadness and disappointment in Arygos's eyes, just as he did not know that his son had truly joined the Old Gods.

Arygos returned to his residence, transformed back into his human form, and his face was extremely gloomy.

Another black figure had been in the room all along. Seeing him return, the black figure chuckled, "Looking at your face, I knew I would win."

Arygos had bet with this person that he could persuade his father, but the result was not as he had expected.

"You seem very accomplished," Arygos looked coldly at the figure, who was holding an extremely large sword in his arms, almost like a shield. "This is exactly what you wanted, isn't it?"

"Of course. Isn't this even better? The Focusing Iris will absorb the most abundant energy, and you will smoothly ascend to the throne of the Blue Dragonflight in the future. This is the best outcome for both of us." The figure raised his head, his deep gaze looking at the Blue Dragon Prince.

Aiden and Chromie were both very clear about this person's identity—he was Aedelas Blackmoore from another timeline... a king, one of the representatives of the Infinite Dragonflight!

He had come to this timeline and was secretly helping Arygos because they actually served the same master—Deathwing!

Arygos's fate had changed because of Aiden's arrival. Only a few Dragon Aspects, such as Ysera, knew the truth. Arygos himself did not even know that his life trajectory should have been different from what it was now.

He was no longer the hero of the War of the Shifting Sands; all the glory was focused on his sister, Kalecgos. He was just an insignificant supporting character, useless except for his high status.

Unwilling to be mediocre and unable to find a suitable opportunity, he had embarked on the wrong path of serving Deathwing.

However, Arygos was not like Deathwing, who had completely joined the Old Gods and accepted their power to transform himself. He positioned his relationship with Deathwing as "cooperation."

Arygos felt that Deathwing's destruction of the world would be unstoppable. He had "seen" the scene from the Old Gods where Deathwing would kill the four Guardian Dragons in the Wyrmrest Temple. That was definitely a scene he would never forget.

Following the duty of the Guardians meant that the Blue Dragonflight would be completely wiped out when the "Cataclysm" arrived. Only by cooperating with Deathwing could the Blue Dragonflight have a future.

Under the matchmaking of the Old God N'Zoth, Deathwing readily agreed to this cooperation.

Arygos participated in the cooperation with a spirit of sacrifice, willing to give up his reputation to preserve the Blue Dragon race. Under N'Zoth's instructions, he began to guide his father step by step to launch the Nexus War.

Although this war had not yet officially begun, Arygos had already seen the ending. As Nozdormu had said, with the help of the Blue Dragon traitor, the mortals and the Red Dragonflight would break into the Eye of Eternity and kill his father, the Blue Dragon Aspect Malygos.

His "Great Purge" would be terminated just before it was about to be completed.

For the planners of this Nexus War, the only goal N'Zoth needed to achieve was to allow the Focusing Iris seized from Anna to absorb enough energy!

Even Malygos did not know that half of the magic net energy gathered at the Eye of Eternity was being drawn away by another hidden Focusing Iris. Because of this, his own Focusing Iris had not yet absorbed enough arcane energy to carry out his plan.