More than ten years ago, when Alliance Commander Turalyon led his troops across the Dark Portal to Outland, Deathwing secretly controlled the Blackrock orcs of Blackrock Spire. After Deathwing disappeared, his son Nefarian inherited his will and personally came to Blackrock Spire, carving out the "Blackwing Lair" on the upper levels.
Nefarian turned this place into a new lair for the black dragonflight. He was an excellent biologist, very interested in modifying dragons, and he had been working on a perfect, powerful dragon—a chromatic dragon—that fused all the special traits of the five dragonflights!
To achieve this goal, he had been immersed in research in Blackwing Lair for many years. His experiments produced many strange and bizarre things, but the invincible chromatic dragon of his dreams had not yet appeared.
Nefarian was not discouraged. He believed his direction was right and that one day he would realize his grand vision.
He had just created another failed work.
"Let's call you Chromaggus!" he named this huge, deformed two-headed hound.
He clearly wanted to create a five-headed chromatic dragon—there was a slight difference between reality and his vision.
Nefarian looked at this monster pieced together from the corpses of the five dragonflights. Although it was a failure, Chromaggus allowed him to take a big step forward on the road to chromatic dragon research.
He felt he was getting closer and closer to success!
Nefarian was about to test Chromaggus's attack abilities when a dragonkin entered and interrupted him.
"What is it?" he asked, somewhat displeased. He hated being disturbed during his experiments. If this dragonkin didn't have a good enough reason, he was prepared to put the guy on the dissection table.
"Master, Princess Onyxia has arrived!" the dragonkin warrior said fearfully.
"Her? What is she doing here?" Nefarian asked, as if to the dragonkin, yet also talking to himself.
Although they were siblings, their relationship was distant and they rarely contacted each other. Even their dragon lairs were not on the same continent—Onyxia's dragon lair was in Kalimdor, while he was here, tens of thousands of miles away.
The dragonkin replied, "She brought outsiders... to negotiate with you."
Onyxia had brought Aiden.
"Commander, my brother has a bad temper. If he offends you..." Before the Blackrock Spire fortress, Onyxia's voice was somewhat strange.
Aiden said, "Don't worry, I will be very restrained."
"No, no, you misunderstand me." Onyxia gave a charming smile. "If he offends you, please teach him a good lesson. Don't spare my feelings!" This smile seemed full of malice, and she added, "Just don't beat him to death!"
Aiden looked at her strangely and asked, "Are you really siblings?"
"In terms of blood relations, yes. We have the same parents." Onyxia didn't think there was anything strange about this. "But in terms of how we get along, what I just said is what I want to do most!"
Aiden didn't consider himself a gossipy person, but he couldn't help but ask, "Why? How did Nefarian offend you?"
"That person... I just hate him anyway." Onyxia's expression and tone were full of disgust, and she didn't seem to be faking it at all.
Several Blackrock orcs were in front of them, all holding weapons, guarding them warily.
Half an hour later, a dark-skinned man walked out of Blackrock Spire escorted by a team of orcs. He wore a crown that looked like burning flames and a suit of black armor, but he held a staff in his hand. It was difficult to figure out whether he was a mage, a warrior, or some kind of ruler.
In fact, he was all three. As the King of Blackrock Spire, Nefarian ruled over the orcs and black dragons of Blackrock Spire. He himself was both a powerful mage and a valiant warrior.
"Lady Katrana, welcome, welcome." Although Nefarian in his human form said welcome, he made no secret of his displeasure. He saw that Onyxia had appeared in human form and assumed she had brought some important nobles from Stormwind to discuss important matters such as destroying the Kingdom of Stormwind.
But the black-haired youth and the other angel in front of him were completely unfamiliar to him, and were obviously not well-known figures in Stormwind.
He turned to Aiden, nodded slightly, and said arrogantly, "Hello, I am Victor Nefarius, Lord of Blackrock Spire!" This name was his alias in human form. He didn't know that these people who came knew his true identity.
Aiden smiled and replied in his tone, "Hello, I am Aiden, Head of Valoran. This is Kayle, the Angel Queen of the Eternal Kingdom!"
Nefarian snorted coldly. He couldn't understand what the black-haired young man in front of him was talking about at all. He had no impression of "Valoran" or "Eternal Kingdom" or anything like that. He thought these two people were here to make fun of him.
"Lady Katrana—" he drawled.
"Enough, my brother!" Onyxia interrupted him sarcastically, "They all know your true identity, no need to pretend. We are here to talk business!"
"Good!" Nefarian gritted his teeth. He thought this was a prank by his sister, which had successfully angered him. "If you can't say anything serious, I will invite you to be guests in my laboratory!"
When Onyxia heard the word "laboratory," she made no secret of the disgust on her face. She knew exactly what was done in there. It was a place she hated even thinking about.
Aiden said, "Nefarian, the Burning Legion's army is advancing towards Blackrock Spire."
"So what? Those guys who descended to the ground some time ago have all become my experimental subjects." Nefarian's answer was contemptuous. These mortals feared demons, but he wouldn't.
"This time, it's Archimonde who's leading the army. Aren't you afraid?" Aiden asked.
"Archimonde?" Nefarian frowned. In fact, the sound of Archimonde's descent in Northrend had also reached here, but Nefarian believed that this great demon shouldn't be able to find this place.
"Why would he come here? How do you know he's coming for me?" Nefarian asked several questions in a row, as if questioning why he hadn't received the news yet, but this human already knew.
Aiden said, "His army entered Searing Gorge from Loch Modan and continues south. Do you think he will stop here?"
Going south through Searing Gorge must pass through Blackrock Mountain, and Blackrock Spire is the only passage through the mountains.
Nefarian cast a suspicious look over Onyxia and Aiden and asked, "My sister, what is your relationship?"
"I now serve him!" Onyxia replied.
"Serve?" Nefarian was a little confused as to what kind of service this was. He quickly replied, "Thank you very much for your reminder. I will send someone to investigate immediately. If the situation is true, I will retreat."
Nefarian valued his status and didn't want to get involved with these strangers, so he quickly distanced himself. The other party came specifically to remind him, there must be a bigger plan—he didn't want to be used.
Aiden didn't intend to subdue this black dragon prince. Nefarian was different from Onyxia. He had his own powerful forces and was equally ambitious. Just seeing him calling himself the Lord of Blackrock Mountain showed that he was unwilling to be inferior to others. Moreover, the Blackrock orcs and black dragons had deep-seated grudges against humans, and unlike the Horde led by Thrall, which was now fighting alongside the Alliance, it was difficult for others to accept them—even Aiden himself was unwilling to accept these terrible guys.
His purpose here was to prevent the forces of Blackrock Spire from being used by the Burning Legion.
The number of orcs in Blackrock Spire was not small, and the black dragons in Blackwing Lair were even more powerful. If they were enslaved by the Burning Legion, it would be very bad news for the Alliance.
While they were negotiating, in the Blackrock Depths under Blackrock Mountain, messengers also brought news to Princess Moira Bronzebeard. Moira was the only daughter of Ironforge King Magni Bronzebeard, the future Queen of Ironforge, but she had fallen in love with an enemy of the Bronzebeard clan—Black Iron dwarf leader Emperor Dagran Thaurissan. For this, she did not hesitate to sever ties with her own father and never looked back.
In anger, Magni even had the idea of attacking Blackrock Depths, restarting the war with the Black Iron dwarves, and rescuing Moira from the clutches of Emperor Thaurissan.
Although, in fact, Dagran Thaurissan was already his de facto son-in-law.
Emperor Thaurissan could not be said to be a good person, but he was indeed a good husband. At least the two of them were in love. Although Moira's marriage had not been blessed by her relatives, she did not live in misery, and she did not want anyone to disturb her life. Now she and Dagran had a child, which made her no longer miss life in Ironforge.
But today, a messenger from Ironforge brought her a letter.
This was a personal letter from her father, Magni Bronzebeard. Her father had also written her such letters in the past two years, but the letters were full of accusations and scolding. He felt ashamed of her choice and ordered her to leave Blackrock Depths immediately and return to Ironforge. Moira was also a woman of strong character. She was very stubborn and opinionated, and she simply ignored her father's threats.
So her reply to her father did not contain the slightest remorse and fully expressed her own opinions.
Neither of them was willing to give in, so such exchanges obviously could not have good results. The father and daughter had therefore completely severed ties.
Two years later, Magni wrote again. Moira thought it was the same old accusations and threats, and she almost wanted to throw it directly into the stove. Because according to past experience, the words in this letter would make her unable to eat or sleep well for half a month, and then she would sulk all the time.
She approached the stove and placed the envelope on the red-hot coals. A corner of the letter immediately turned yellow.