To the two listeners, Ysera was clearly in a delirious state, spouting things like "Reshaping System", "Fault Preservation", "Blueprint", and "Imaginary Number Energy". They understood the meaning of each word individually, but when combined, they were completely incomprehensible.
Cenarius brushed all of this aside, stepped forward to push aside the wings covering Ysera's eyes, and looked at her earnestly, saying, "Don't worry, Mother, Elune has offered us some help."
Ysera looked blankly at Cenarius, her foster son, "What did she say?"
"A group of people has entered the dream. They will be key to our fight against the Nightmare Lord."
"Who!?" Ysera immediately scrambled up, her dragon head almost touching Cenarius's nose.
—
These key heroes fighting against the Nightmare Lord were still struggling on their way to the Mother Tree, G'Hanir.
"No, there are too many of them!"
"Stop talking and keep hacking!"
"Run faster, don't stop! Don't fall behind!"
"Monster, take my old Sun's staff!"
Various voices rang out in the crowd.
Only twenty or so heroes had entered the Emerald Dream this time, and now, except for the area near G'Hanir, which was still under the control of the Green Dragonflight, the rest was all in the hands of the Nightmare Lord.
After entering the dream, they were naturally still at the dream exit in Ashenvale. Although the straight-line distance to the Mother Tree on Mount Hyjal was not too far, it would take at least three or four days to reach it on foot, especially since they had to climb the steep and difficult Mount Hyjal, and the time could only be longer.
But in just two hours, Aiden had a feeling that all the Nightmare minions in the entire dream were besieging them, or were waiting ahead to besiege them. And this was likely not an illusion!
"If only everyone could fly..." Aiden couldn't help but think.
He caught sight of the two Archdruids, Broll and Hamuul, who had both transformed into giant bear forms, charging through the countless Nightmare minions, with a somewhat invincible air. These ordinary Nightmare minions posed no threat to their thick bear hides.
"This is the Dream!" Aiden suddenly thought of a question: Since it's a dream, can things that can be realized in a dream also be realized here?
"Like... flying?"
Because Janna, of "Storm's Fury", was still sensing the wind spirits of Azeroth, which was obviously not something that could be completed in a few minutes, she did not enter the dream with them. Aiden heard Kayle say that Janna could cast a wind blessing on her teammates, allowing everyone to fly. If she had come in, he wouldn't have had so much trouble.
Aiden imagined himself with wings, just like many people had dreamed of flying.
But after a while, the imagined wings still did not appear.
Ryze patted him, waking him up.
"Commander, what's wrong?"
Aiden came back to his senses and found that everyone else around him was looking at him with strange eyes.
Because he had suddenly stopped, the team could no longer move forward, and the other heroes had surrounded him, forming a circular formation to resist the endless Nightmare minions.
"...I'm trying," Aiden explained his thoughts.
"Sounds reasonable."
"Should we try it too?"
The others were somewhat tempted after hearing this.
However, Remulos said, "Don't bother trying, it won't work."
Everyone looked at him, and the Keeper of the Grove explained, "The Emerald Dream does connect to our dreams, but it has its own special characteristics. It has a layered structure. The level that our dreams connect to is different from the level we are at now, and the rules are also different. At this level, we cannot turn those unreasonable fantasies into reality."
This explanation seemed a bit convoluted, so Remulos changed his approach: "In other words, at this level, except for the Titans, we are all limited by the unique rules of the dream and cannot change it in a conscious state..."
Remulos trailed off.
Because when Aiden heard that only the Titans could change the rules, he thought of his special identity—he was at least recognized by the Titan system as a Titan, possessing the corresponding Titan permissions.
So, whether or not he could fly didn't depend on imagination, but on permissions—just like other Titan facilities.
Understanding this, Aiden knew what to do.
Besides animals, which could enter the dream through sleep, trees also naturally possessed the ability to connect to the dream.
Because of this, Xavius, who had been transformed into an oak tree by Malfurion, was able to invade the dream so easily. In the end, the Nightmare Crisis was actually caused by Malfurion's ingenious handling. If he hadn't fancifully placed an oak seed in Xavius's body and then forced it to grow, using the special method of bursting through the opponent's body and absorbing their flesh to execute Xavius, there wouldn't have been so many problems later.
But that wasn't the point; the point was that Aiden had guessed the entry point for connecting to the Dream Blueprint—those big trees!
Aiden walked to the nearest tree and delved his will into it.
Soon, he felt the authentication from the Blueprint System. These trees, as he had guessed, were the access points to the Titan's Blueprint System—just like a network cable connector. As long as he had a system-recognized account and password, he could log into the system.
As before, the verification passed smoothly. Aiden could feel that he already had the permission to modify the internal rules of the Blueprint!
Remulos had just said, "Cannot change it in a conscious state...", and before he could say the word "rules", he found himself breaking free from the planet's gravity and floating into the air!
Then everyone else floated up as well, including the two giant bears.
Most people were confused, not knowing what was happening, but those heroes who had experienced the Outland trip vaguely guessed that Aiden had once again accessed the Dream's system.
"Now we can fly with peace of mind!" Aiden smiled.
He had just directly used the permissions granted by the system to adjust their flight speed to the maximum—but limited by the existing higher-level rules, their speed had a limit, which was that it would not exceed the flight speed of the original guardian of the dream, Ysera.
But that was nothing; being able to fly would avoid a lot of trouble, and they could shorten the journey that would originally take several days to a few hours. After confirming that he could enter the Blueprint System, another thought arose in Aiden's mind: the location of the Blueprint System equipment might be the key to solving the Nightmare Crisis.
If he could directly use his modification permissions to kick the Nightmare Lord and Nightmare minions out of the system, or even destroy them directly, wouldn't that solve a large part of the Nightmare Crisis? And without the Nightmare minions, the main body of Xavius, that Azshara, would not be worth fearing at all!
With such a thought in mind, Aiden immediately wanted to go to Mount Hyjal to verify it. Because he had just learned that the Titan equipment that maintained the operation of the Blueprint was installed on Mount Hyjal.
However, shortly after they took off, a group of flying Nightmare armies flew in from the horizon, blocking their path.
Flying in the front were three green dragons. The one in the middle was the largest. He was Ysondre, Ysera's consort, who had wanted to help Malfurion escape the dream the day before but was captured by the Nightmare Lord. The other two were named Ysondre and Taerar. A dozen days ago, they were all the most powerful dragons in the Green Dragonflight and Ysera's most trusted assistants, but they had all failed to escape the Nightmare's torment and were now servants of the Nightmare Lord!
Behind them, there were thousands of dragons flying over, and further away, griffins, eagles, crows, carrion birds... all kinds of flying raptors and beasts transformed into Nightmare minions were following behind the green dragons. Where they flew, even the sunlight was completely covered.
They were ordered by the Nightmare Lord to stop this group of heroes who were trying to break through the Nightmare blockade at all costs!
Hamuul and Mu'run stared at each other with their bovine eyes, both expressing the same meaning: there seemed to be a few too many enemies...
—
In the real world, Aiden and his team returned to the City of Justice, preparing to gather a large army to attack Azshara and Xavius's main body.
Previously, they had returned from Outland, bringing back a large number of reinforcements that had resolved the threat from the N'Zoth legion on the coastline. After the attack was frustrated, these servants of the Old Gods had slowed down their attacks a lot. Perhaps N'Zoth believed that the Nightmare minions alone were enough to achieve his goals, or perhaps there were other reasons. In any case, the defensive pressure on the City of Justice and southern Azshara was greatly reduced.
Before Tempest Keep arrived in Azeroth, how to maintain the lives of the sleepers so that they would not starve to death was a common problem for all forces. However, the arrival of the Naaru at least ensured that the sleepers in the three large cities of Los Angeles, New City, and Dalaran had no worries.
The Light Naaru released their power, and the Holy Light enveloped the entire city. For at least two months, the Naaru could ensure that these people would not lose their lives.
After returning, Aiden, according to his original plan, summoned 30,000 soldiers, mainly from the three city-states and kingdoms of Ionia, Demacia, and Noxus, as well as twice that number of ordinary people, exhausting all the energy in the Heart of Valoran.
However, his large-scale summoning provoked a very formal letter of opinion from Administrator Rebecca.
Rebecca pointed out from the perspective of the administrator that the current personnel composition of the Valoran Federation was extremely unreasonable. She wrote in the letter of opinion:
"Your Excellency, after the Burning Legion's devastating destruction of the Eastern Kingdoms, it is foreseeable that food will be the biggest problem plaguing the major kingdoms in the next two to three years."
"In order to cope with various wars, you have already cumulatively summoned more than 100,000 troops, while the number of ordinary people is less than 300,000, which is obviously extremely unbalanced. The productivity of 300,000 people can only maintain a maximum of 40,000 to 50,000 troops, and at present, most of the land in Kalimdor is still in a state of reclamation, and the amount of grain that can be harvested is very limited."
"This means that when the war is over, we must use a large amount of living materials stored in Valoran to fill the huge gap. But according to my estimates, the remaining grain in the Heart of Valoran can only maintain the operation of us and our allies for a maximum of seventeen months."
The back of the letter of opinion used a large amount of data to confirm Rebecca's deduction, which seemed detailed and reasonable.
Aiden had to admit that he had never had the experience of leading so many people before, and Rebecca's suggestion made a lot of sense. Realizing this, Aiden felt that he should have listened to these professionals more often.
"Let's consider this issue after solving the Nightmare Crisis." Aiden put the letter of advice aside. After the Nightmare Crisis was resolved, they would have plenty of time to consider future issues.
"Ophiel, how is the assembly going?" Aiden asked his new "secretary."
Originally, Kayle should have been in this position, but after Morgana arrived, the two sisters treated daily taunts and tit-for-tat exchanges as routine, so he had to let Ophiel take over the responsibility of helping him coordinate other affairs.
"Everything is in the plan."
"What about Garen and the others? Any news?" Aiden asked about the reinforcements heading to Theramore.
"No."
If the situation were normal, Garen's legion should have been in contact with the headquarters every day, but from yesterday to today, there have been no reports from them. Aiden suspected that something might have happened.
He felt he should send someone to take a look.
His concern was justified.
On the last night before the reinforcements reached Theramore, they were attacked by werewolves in the wilderness. Although they later defeated the werewolves, in addition to the more than one thousand killed in action, more than two thousand people suffered minor or serious injuries. The more seriously injured received Holy Light treatment, while those with minor injuries were only bandaged.
But these more than one thousand lightly injured people gradually turned into werewolves four hours later!
The sudden mutations in the reinforcement team caught the soldiers off guard. They had fought with such monsters just a few hours ago, but they never expected to see their comrades turn into monsters themselves after dawn!
This group of mutated werewolves completely lost their minds. Instinctively, they pounced directly on their comrades. Another bloody battle began.
Half an hour later, everything calmed down again.
"It's those warriors who were bitten by werewolves and didn't receive magical treatment." All three generals had grave expressions. This conclusion was quickly confirmed, but it made them even more alarmed.
The half-human, half-wolf creatures that attacked them at night could actually transform humans into beasts like themselves through wounds!
They called this sensational transformation the "Werewolf Curse."
"My people have not been infected," Malrad said.
Some Draenei warriors also had minor injuries and did not undergo magical treatment, but they were not transformed into werewolves.
"Neither have my people," said an armored bear, "Thunder Roar" Volibear. He also brought more than a hundred bear people to join the support force.
Darius and Garen exchanged glances. Warriors in their teams had turned into werewolves. In other words, it seemed that this curse was currently only spreading among humans.
Garen called his adjutant, Zod, the leader of the mercenary corps, and instructed him: "Take a few infected werewolves and the corpses of the werewolves we killed last night back the way we came, report the situation here to the commander, and hand over the infected and the corpses to Singed. Understood?"
"Yes, Legion Commander!" Zod saluted.
Garen watched Zod escort the mutated werewolves locked in cages away. An hour ago, that werewolf was still a warrior under his command, but now he was roaring loudly, his ferocious and hungry eyes looking at the surrounding warriors, his claws gripping the steel bars and iron chains of the cage with all his might, appearing extremely crazy.
"Werewolves have stronger physiques, strength, and agility than us humans. If this curse spreads, it will be a crisis even more terrifying than the Scourge plague." Garen frowned deeply.
Darius's expression immediately became very ugly when he heard his words. Gilneas was destroyed by the Scourge's plague, and now most of them have become undead in Karthus's Forsaken Legion, and now the Gilnean survivors he leads have encountered the Werewolf Curse.
"Why does heaven inflict such a tragic disaster on our Gilneas… What have we done wrong?" Darius felt extremely grief-stricken.
"We will get through this, Father!" His daughter Lorna grabbed his arm and comforted him.
Darius looked at his daughter, and Lorna said firmly: "Father, have you forgotten? 'Hardship makes us even more indestructible!' You taught me that."
"Your daughter is right, we will not be defeated by disasters and difficulties!" Garen agreed with this sentence very much.
He looked at Lorna and found that he had a new understanding of this thorny rose.
"Thank you, I'm a little too pessimistic," Darius said self-deprecatingly, "Arrange for reconnaissance! The appearance of these strange green mists is what caused the werewolves to get so close to us before we were discovered. We should learn from this lesson."
Lorna patted her sniper rifle and said confidently: "I just added a thermal imaging scope to this gun, and I guarantee that next time a werewolf will have its head blown off with one shot by me at a distance of one thousand two hundred meters!"
"At the current speed, we should reach Theramore in two hours."
"I hope these werewolves haven't harassed them."
However, they didn't know that the werewolves that caused them heavy casualties came from Theramore.
Archmage Arugal's successful summoning of werewolves caused his ambition to swell, but he did not have the crazy idea of confronting the whole world. At least not yet.
He just wanted others to recognize his achievements, acknowledge his merits, and give him the status and glory he deserved. As for other greater ambitions, they would have to wait for later.
Although Arugal concealed the fact that he could summon a large number of werewolves, at this juncture when the Nightmare and the claws of the Old Gods were sweeping the world, he still chose to stand on the side of the resisters, only with a little selfishness.
When the attack occurred, several werewolves who escaped from the wilderness returned to the walls of Theramore and let out sad wails. Their kind inside the city walls found Arugal and conveyed their thoughts to him.
After discovering that something had happened to his pets, Arugal hurriedly came outside the city. He saw four blood-stained werewolves carefully licking their wounds. Seeing their master arrive, they raised their heads and looked at him with pitiful eyes.
Arugal's heart softened immediately.
He would not feel any psychological burden for plotting against his own kind, but these werewolves, these werewolves that he summoned one by one from the Emerald Dream, were like his sons. After discovering that only these four returned out of the three thousand werewolves, he was also very angry. Who dared to treat his loyal and strong pets so cruelly?
Arugal communicated with the werewolves using magic, and then roughly sorted out the "facts":
When the werewolves were hunting in the wilderness, a large group of humans plus a small number of blue-skinned races and a very small number of bear people attacked them and tried to kill them all!
Arugal's heart was filled with grief and indignation, and he could already guess who did such a cruel thing.
"Why do they do this, why…" Arugal murmured to himself.
He wanted to ask those who were about to rush to Theramore for an explanation, but how could those people listen? Besides him, everyone doubted whether the werewolves were loyal and reliable. They had witnessed the power of the werewolves and used them to help defend, but they could not believe these simple but brave warriors.
He thought painfully that these werewolves would probably be sacrificed in vain.
"If there is a chance, I will help you get justice." Arugal looked at the four werewolves looking at him and said in a low voice.
After he turned around, he didn't notice that the werewolves, who had just had pitiful eyes, had become very indifferent, with terrifying blood-red light in their eyes.
He would never know that the target of the werewolves' predation was the reinforcements he imagined as perpetrators.
The werewolves were not victims, but the real perpetrators!
Arugal came out invisibly, and he couldn't directly bring these four werewolves back to the city. He could only treat their wounds and order them to go south to Dustwallow Marsh to recuperate, avoiding the upcoming reinforcements and avoiding the sight of other people in Theramore.
Back in Theramore, Arugal had just appeared when Marvin, Prince Arthas's captain of the guard, eagerly grabbed him and said: "Archmage Arugal, the sea witches are about to attack the city, quickly order your werewolves to go to the city wall! West side wall!"
The north wall faces the sea and is the section of the city wall that receives the greatest pressure from the sea witch attack. In the past two days, because of distrust of the werewolves, the headquarters arranged the werewolves to the east and south walls, where the defense pressure was average. After two days of observation, the performance of the werewolves obviously made them feel more at ease to use them.
"I know." Arugal broke free from his arm, frowning at the captain of the guard's rudeness and impoliteness.
Now he has the power to decide the survival of Theramore, but these people have not given him the respect he deserves.
Seeing that his face was not good, Marvin smiled embarrassedly: "I was a little rude, I'm sorry, Archmage, it's all because I'm too anxious about the battle. Please understand."
Arugal's face looked better now.
But at this time, a burst of cheers suddenly came from the city. Marvin saw a soldier with a happy face and immediately grabbed him and asked: "What's wrong? Did the sea monsters retreat?"
"No, not sea monsters!" The soldier saw that it was the captain of the guard beside His Highness the Prince and hurriedly saluted, "The reinforcements from the Land of Justice have arrived! Tens of thousands of people!"
"Reinforcements are here?" Marvin's eyes widened, "Did you see clearly?"
"I saw clearly, they are carrying flags!"
Marvin immediately punched his palm excitedly and said excitedly: "Great, great! I have to tell His Highness the Prince this news!"
Then he left Arugal without saying hello.
Arugal's face immediately sank.