Whenever Arygos thought that the sole purpose of his father launching this war was just to charge a Focusing Iris, he felt immense sorrow.
The supreme "Weaver of Magic," Malygos, would lie in his tomb in his twilight years, bearing a lifetime of infamy, becoming in the eyes of the world a mad and overreaching Blue Dragon Aspect, a failure.
Arygos often wondered, if obtaining the Focusing Iris was the entirety of the deal, why not directly hand over a Focusing Iris filled with energy to N'Zoth?
But he knew that Malygos would never agree to do so. Moreover, such internal strife and war between the blue and red dragons, between the Dragon Aspects and mortal races, was exactly the scenario the Old Gods most wanted to see. Given the opportunity to create chaos, N'Zoth would never give it up.
"Where's Arcanagos? Why can't I sense him?"
Arygos looked left and right, not finding this important member of his kin, and he immediately became somewhat anxious. "Now is a crucial moment, if he's discovered, we're finished!"
The mad blue dragon Arcanagos, who attacked Anna and stole her Focusing Iris, was a very crucial figure in the entire plan. The insane him had long been corrupted by the Old Gods, unlike Arygos, who still maintained his sanity and merely wanted to cooperate with the other party.
In any case, if Arcanagos were to be discovered by other blue dragons at this crucial moment, then the entire plan might be exposed, and might even fail!
It should be known that not all blue dragons in the blue dragonflight agreed with launching the Nexus War. Arygos had long learned from Blackmoore that Kalecgos had been secretly contacting those opponents—even knowing that he was the blue dragon traitor who would soon bring the red dragonflight and mortals into the Nexus to attack his own father.
But this was already a destined event, and he couldn't stop it—or rather, couldn't be allowed to stop it. Because this concerned N'Zoth's plan, and if he showed any abnormality, this annoying human before him would kill him.
More importantly, if Kalecgos found Arcanagos, he might be able to persuade Malygos to abandon the Nexus War, which would mean that their plan would completely fail!
Compared to the anxious Arygos, Blackmoore was much more calm.
"No need to worry, he won't leak the secret."
"How do you know?" Arygos couldn't help but ask.
Blackmoore sneered.
"You, you!" Arygos looked at the human in disbelief, a terrifying guess blurting out, "You killed him?"
"Isn't that good? The dead don't leak secrets," Blackmoore revealed a sinister smile.
Moreover, Blackmoore had another reason for killing the other party—Arcanagos possessed a portion of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands' fragments.
The complete Scepter of the Shifting Sands was destroyed by Fandral Staghelm after the War of the Shifting Sands thousands of years ago, and the four fragments were preserved by the four dragonflights respectively. Arcanagos was the preserver of the blue dragonflight.
However, this blue dragon didn't take the usual path. In order to prevent anyone from using the Scepter of the Shifting Sands to reopen the Scarab Wall and release the Qiraji within, he came up with a way, a way to ensure that later generations would never be able to gather the Scepter of the Shifting Sands: he randomly found a large shark in the Endless Ocean, tied the scepter fragment to the shark's body, and released it back into the sea.
The spell to locate this shark was only known to Arcanagos himself. Once he died, no one would ever have the chance to gather the fragments of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands and piece together a complete scepter capable of opening the Scarab Wall.
As an agent of the Infinite Dragonflight, King Blackmoore had of course received this information from his master long ago, so he had killed Arcanagos so decisively, ensuring that the shark's location spell would never have a chance to appear in the world.
Now the Alliance was preparing materials, ready to actively open the Scarab Wall and eliminate the Qiraji and their master, the Old God C'Thun, who were stirring inside. Blackmoore's masters had always been very happy to do things that could cause trouble for the Alliance.
So when Arygos went to find his father, Blackmoore took the opportunity to kill Arcanagos, who was completely unprepared for him.
"You, you..." Arygos widened his eyes, pointing at the other party, his fingers trembling. He didn't expect the other party to be so ruthless!
"Stop pretending, Arygos. Arcanagos was a servant of Master N'Zoth. How to deal with him is not for you to decide. You should focus on how to implement the plan, and how to be your own Blue Dragon Aspect in the future!"
Blackmoore stood up, the black plate armor on his body making a harsh sound. This was the legendary black plate armor he had seized after killing Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer of the Horde in the Battle of Blackrock Mountain. Of course, it was originally suitable for the strong orc's body type, and was a bit too large for Blackmoore, so he had his craftsmen modify it to fit his size.
This black armor, like the giant sword "Fleshrender" in his hand, were his treasures.
He grinned, "I have some small matters to attend to, so I'll take my leave!"
Blackmoore opened a portal and instantly disappeared from Arygos's room.
Arygos stared blankly at the place where the other party disappeared. He couldn't help but doubt, if the Old Gods would even kill their own servants, would they really keep their promise to him?
—
After the portal from Los Angeles directly to Wyrmrest Temple was opened, Aiden was among the first to arrive in Dragonblight.
The upcoming Nexus War was a battle between transcendents and powerful spellcasters, allied with the red dragonflight, against the blue dragonflight, mainly against Malygos. Ordinary soldiers, and even ordinary mages, couldn't play much of a role here.
When Aiden arrived, the Red Dragon Aspect Alexstrasza was already there.
She saw Aiden and nodded to him, "You've arrived."
"Yes."
"My red dragonflight has already gathered at Wyrmrest Temple. We'll depart after all the participants have arrived."
"Of course."
Alexstrasza said in a low voice, "Although Malygos is doing something very crazy and dangerous, we also have a duty to stop him, but I must tell you that this is definitely an exceptionally difficult battle, and we don't have the confidence to win."
The Red Dragon Aspect saw that Aiden and the others didn't interrupt, and she continued, "Malygos was originally one of the very powerful five Dragon Aspects. He is proficient in all the spells of Azeroth, and he can maximize the power of these spells in the Eye of Eternity. To be honest, even if Ysera participates, plus you, we may not necessarily be able to achieve victory."
Her expression was somewhat solemn, because she was indeed not so confident.
The strength that Aiden had displayed in the Nightmare Invasion was enough to attract the attention of the Dragon Aspects. Alexstrasza had even placed him on an equal footing with herself. This would have been absolutely incredible in the past. However, she hadn't misjudged, the current Aiden, using the Staff of Time fused with the Sands of Time, could definitely exert a power far beyond everyone's imagination.
"But we must fight this war, mustn't we?" Aiden was more confident than the Red Dragon Aspect.
In the original history, only the Red Dragon Aspect plus the Kirin Tor participating were able to stop Malygos. Now that so many powerful figures had been added, he didn't think it was possible that they would still lose.
Alexstrasza praised, "You seem very confident, that's a good thing—to be honest, if you feel fear when facing Malygos, it will definitely trigger a very bad situation."
"Of course—in fact, we've already witnessed Malygos's strength during the Battle for Icecrown Citadel."
They chatted idly in the hall.
Karthus seemed to sense something, he looked to the north, and then floated to Aiden's side.
"What's wrong?" Aiden asked, seeing him approach, it must be that there was a situation to report.
"I've discovered a very interesting thing, Commander," Karthus revealed a strange smile, "Not far to the north, there's a group of undead loyal to the Scourge!"
Back then, during the Outland War, Karthus had crossed the Dark Portal as reinforcements, leading the Forsaken army to rescue Aiden and the others. Because of this, those undead in Northrend that were originally under his control lost their master and were eventually ruled by the Lich King Arthas.
Later, although Karthus followed Aiden back, the relationship between those undead and Arthas was already very solid, and he couldn't regain control of these undead.
However, even so, as the Lich King and wielder of the Helm of Domination, Kel'Thuzad could still clearly sense the location of these undead.
The Scourge's activities generally do not include Dragonblight, as it is the sacred ground of the dragons. Especially after the return of the Red Dragonflight, they have retreated back to Icecrown Glacier.
So why are there still a small number of undead lingering in Dragonblight, and gathered in the same place?
This is certainly intriguing.
"We need to send someone to scout it out. Where is it exactly?" Aiden inquired. "For the Scourge to take such a risk at this time, it must be something very important!"
Aiden himself would be joining the Red Dragonflight in the Nexus War, while the regular Alliance forces would advance towards Icecrown Glacier to eliminate the Lich King. If the Scourge were to stir up trouble at this critical moment, it would be absolutely intolerable.
Kel'Thuzad replied, "It's about 120 kilometers northwest of our current location."
"That's—" Krasus abruptly stood up, having seen the same extreme surprise in Alexstrasza's eyes.
The pair of red dragons said in unison, "The Tomb of Galakrond!"
"Those Scourge, are they planning to resurrect it?" Aiden immediately guessed their intention. The Scourge finding the Tomb of Galakrond could only mean one thing.
Alexstrasza couldn't contain herself and was about to rush over there: "We must stop them as soon as possible; we can't let the Scourge's plot succeed!"
"Don't be hasty, Queen Alexstrasza!" Aiden quickly said. "We can't let the Scourge disrupt our own plans—since they've only sent a small force here, then a small elite unit should suffice. Our focus should still be on the upcoming major battle, wouldn't you agree?"
Alexstrasza realized her mistake and shook her head in frustration. "I apologize; I lost my composure upon hearing that name—Galakrond has left us with memories that are too profound and unforgettable."
That battle tens of thousands of years ago left her with an unforgettable memory.
"Of course, I completely understand."
Aiden responded, then turned to Kel'Thuzad and said, "Have Broxigar lead an elite Forsaken unit on frost wyrms to eliminate those Scourge. He wasn't originally slated to participate in the attack on the Nexus anyway; he can better utilize his strengths on the ground."
"As you command, Commander," Kel'Thuzad replied, immediately leaving to relay the order to Broxigar.
---
Meanwhile, at the Tomb of Galakrond, High Necromancer Antiok, a lieutenant of the Lich King Arthas, was leading a group of Scourge soldiers in a frantic excavation of the tomb.
Antiok sat on the shoulders of a giant storm giant, urging them on: "Dig faster, dig faster! Sirus, have you not eaten?"
"Sirus" was the storm giant, standing over ten meters tall, beneath him. Ever since the Lich King pledged allegiance to the Old God Yogg-Saron, Antiok finally had the opportunity to research and modify storm giants. Sirus was the first successful test subject.
Both storm giants and stone giants are powerful creations of the Titans. They once followed their creators to fight against the Old Gods of Azeroth, against the servants of the Old Gods, and against the elemental beings loyal to the Old Gods. Their strength is naturally unmatched.
After Sirus died, he was transformed into an undead, but he still possessed the ability to control lightning. Coupled with his massive size, he became the perfect choice for excavating Galakrond's skeleton.
"Hungry, Sirus is hungry," Sirus mumbled.
He had already lost his own will, becoming a mindless puppet who only knew how to obey his master's commands.
Undead giants do not need to eat, but Sirus still had a strong sense of hunger. Antiok had the ability to eliminate this hunger, but he did not do so when creating this puppet—only undead filled with the desire for flesh and blood possess great destructive power against the living.
Hearing his "pet" say he was hungry, Antiok couldn't help but shout, "There's food after the work is done!"
"Want to eat meat, want to eat meat..." Sirus waved his arms, digging hard, drooling pale yellow saliva, his single eye shooting out a chilling red light, as if treating the clods of dirt as raw meat.
"Such a glutton!"
Antiok cursed under his breath, finally feeling satisfied. However, he had been stuck here for more than two months, staying inside Galakrond's belly every day, which made him a little tired of this monotonous and boring work. Especially since the undead don't need to sleep, which meant that he faced the same scene every minute for sixty or seventy consecutive days.
He missed his laboratory very much, missed the corpses and living creatures waiting to be dissected, and those lovely skeletons and ghouls.
However, he dared not disobey the Lich King's orders, not even to complain. Fortunately, his work was nearing completion, and he could feel that success was only one step away.
"A little to the left. Quick, quick!"
A voice suddenly came into Antiok's mind, but he was not surprised. Instead, he directly gave the same order to his pet Sirus:
"Dig to the left, Sirus!"
"One more step forward!" The voice came again. Antiok also directly relayed it to the storm giant puppet.
"Yes, yes, that's the direction. Speed up, hurry up, and take it out!"
"Is it very close?" Antiok asked in surprise.
"Very close, very close."
"That's just great! I'm finally going to be free!" Antiok felt greatly encouraged.
"I will soon return to the sky!"
"Of course, of course. Don't forget to thank me, and don't forget who our master is, Galakrond," Antiok said with glee, but still deliberately reminded him.
The one communicating with him was Galakrond's soul. The soul of the Progenitor of Dragons had been imprisoned in his decayed body, which had rotted to nothing but bones. For tens of thousands of years, he had only one thought—vengeance, vengeance against all dragons!
Tens of thousands of years ago, Galakrond fell because of the seduction of the Old Gods. Arthas's current master, Yogg-Saron, of course knew the location of his fall, so while the mortals' attention was being drawn to N'Zoth's plan, he arranged for the Scourge to do this.
Antiok had been worried for months, and now that he was close to success, he became extremely excited. If he were still alive, his heart would definitely beat twice as fast! Even as an undead, his soul still trembled with this news.
But at this moment, a portal appeared in front of him, and a black figure walked out, it was King Blackmoore, who had just left Arygos's room.
"Why are you here, living one?" Antiok looked displeased at this guy who disturbed his good mood.
Antiok's master was Yogg-Saron, while Blackmoore's master was N'Zoth. Although the Old Gods were cooperating now, their relationship was not so harmonious, at least at the lower levels, they were still wary of each other.
Moreover, the Scourge never trusted living people. Antiok only liked dealing with corpses and living test subjects.
Blackmoore glanced at the situation. The Scourge were digging with various tools, but Galakrond's body was too huge. Even a tall creature like a storm giant could not fill the other's throat. One could imagine how difficult it was to find something inside this massive body, as large as a mountain.
"A warning, necromancer," Blackmoore looked at Antiok, "You better hurry up, the troublemakers are coming soon."
"Who? Who's coming to make trouble?" Antiok immediately became nervous. Now was the critical moment near success, how could he tolerate someone destroying the results of his two months of hard work?
"Our enemies," Blackmoore replied. He paused, then added, "A group of enemies strong enough to tear you to pieces!"