To ensure Loken's survival, simply infusing him with power wasn't enough. Yogg-Saron simultaneously commanded Vezax, its most powerful faceless general, to lead his minions into the Halls of Lightning to receive Loken.
General Vezax was also a renowned figure among the high-ranking faceless ones, his reputation and strength even surpassing that of Overseer Zon'ozz, who had appeared during the battle against Azshara. His towering body, dozens of meters tall, flowed with the wicked power of the God of Death, and his duty was to obey Yogg-Saron's commands, ensuring that no one could hinder his master's resurrection!
Now was the critical moment!
The corrupted Loken couldn't break through the heroes' obstruction on his own. Just as he faced another desperate situation, Vezax finally arrived with his faceless minions!
These two twisted monsters, empowered by Yogg-Saron's strength, unleashed unimaginable terror. The four Watchers and the four Dragon Aspects were the strongest combatants in the attacking force. The former worked together to restrain the corrupted Loken, while the latter held back Yogg-Saron. The other ordinary heroes led their troops in a melee against the faceless ones.
The path from the Halls of Lightning to the underground prison was filled with the flames of war.
After observing the situation, Aiden quickly made a decision: kill General Vezax first!
Yogg-Saron valued Loken too much. It feared that if Loken truly died, the Watchers would descend and reshape the world. If things really evolved to that point, even if it had the chance to re-parasitize Azeroth on that timeline, tens of thousands of years would have passed.
It couldn't wait until then. This was not the ending it wanted to see!
Because of this, Yogg-Saron had infused Loken with immense power to protect him. In comparison, although Vezax was also empowered by his master, the degree of importance placed on him was clearly not comparable to Loken.
Seeing that the four Watchers could fight Loken to a standstill without anyone else's help, Aiden suddenly had a different plan in mind: the longer this battle dragged on, the more Yogg-Saron's power would be weakened! Since the corrupted Loken couldn't truly threaten them, they should drag it out as much as possible and make Yogg-Saron expend more power!
Since they couldn't kill Yogg-Saron now, they should take this opportunity to make it lose a great deal of power. Even if it had the chance to break the seal in the future, its strength would be relatively weakened. This was good news for Aiden!
"Kill Vezax first!" After figuring this out, Aiden charged towards the faceless general.
The four Dragon Aspects were already suppressing their opponent. The divine power they possessed was not something Vezax could contend with. With the addition of the transcendents, they quickly defeated the ugly faceless general!
Yogg-Saron had been observing the battle from the perspective of its two minions. Seeing that Vezax was being besieged, it immediately transmitted more power. In an instant, Vezax's body became even larger, surpassing the Dragon Aspects in the blink of an eye!
"Yogg-Saron's black blood flows through my veins! I am invincible now! Die, ants!" Having obtained this powerful force, Vezax, who had been suppressed by the Dragon Aspects, instantly became arrogant.
He raised his claws and summoned a vast black tide, spreading it in all directions!
"Careful, this is a corrupting power!" Alexstrasza immediately recognized the characteristics of this evil spell.
"No one can resist the power of madness!" Vezax charged towards Malygos, the Blue Dragon Aspect, his huge claws gathering a blood-red light.
"I hate your magic, die, Blue Dragon!"
Malygos had experienced countless battles. As a master of magic, he would certainly not fight the opponent head-on. Before the opponent charged over, he cast a spell to teleport himself to a more distant location. His huge body did not affect his agility.
But he suddenly felt his mana burning rapidly. There was something strange about this spell!
Malygos realized that an evil and dark force was attached to his back. He had dodged so quickly just now, but he was still hit!
After noticing this, he quickly used arcane energy to clear the negative effect of mana burning, and at the same time, he loudly reminded everyone: "Be careful of this faceless one! His evil energy will burn our mana!"
"My power is more than that!" Vezax didn't care. He released another cloud of strange green mist, and the foul-smelling green mist spread around. Judging from this appearance, no one would regard this as something good.
"Wind Spirit, dispel this green mist!" Thrall immediately summoned the elemental spirit, summoning a gust of strong wind, and rolled the green mist back, but the effect was not obvious. Under the blessing of Vezax's power, it immediately spread again at a faster speed!
Thrall hurriedly summoned the Wind Spirit again. He was about to ask everyone to retreat, because according to the situation just now, the gale he summoned could only play a temporary role. But this time was different.
Janna Stormwind came to his side. She raised her staff, and a gust of wind suddenly spread around, and all the green mist was resolved. Wherever the wind blew, those allies who had just inhaled some of the green mist and felt their throats burning immediately realized that they had returned to normal, while General Vezax was unstable under the roar of the raging wind, stepping back step by step!
Thrall's surprised gaze turned to Janna beside him. He didn't expect that Janna, who had just come to this world not long ago and couldn't even call any wind spirit power, would surpass him in this field so quickly.
At least Thrall felt that he could not cast such a natural spell that could both heal his allies and dispel negative spells and restrain the enemy.
Janna's spell created a perfect opportunity.
Taking advantage of Vezax's almost unsteady footing, Aiden rushed up! The four Dragon Aspects were also the same, as well as other powerful heroes. Countless powerful spells and attacks instantly bloomed with colorful lights, all heading towards Vezax.
The faceless general had no chance to dodge completely. He tried to summon an evil black-purple shield, just like Loken had done before, but this time the effect of this shield was much weaker due to the hasty response.
The powerful spells cast by several archmages of Kirin Tor directly disintegrated the Dark Shield, and then the dragon breaths and spells of the Dragon Aspects spewed out four colors of light. Ice, flames, venom, and yellow sand, all kinds of extreme divine power instantly submerged Vezax.
It let out an angry roar, still wanting to fight back: "The power of the master, no one can resist!"
A beam of strong light accompanied by scorching energy accurately hit Vezax's head, and Lux at the far end satisfiedly retracted her staff.
She heard Vezax shouting in fear "No, my eyes!", obviously under her ultimate move "Final Spark", this faceless general was already blind!
"I am acting for the Valoran Federation, destroying you disgusting monster!" She cheered triumphantly.
No one noticed Lux's little thoughts, but her spell did make a great contribution.
Vezax was blind for only a few seconds, and soon, under the blessing of Yogg-Saron's dark power, he regained his vision. But in just these few seconds, he had suffered too many powerful attacks.
Aiden and Kayle's swords were firmly stabbed into the opponent's vital parts. The Deep Sea Titan Naughtilus rushed up, swung the huge anchor in his hand, hooked Vezax's left leg, and pulled him to the ground.
The Weapon Master Jax, holding an oak axe, rushed forward a few steps, then jumped high, and chopped the axe towards Vezax's head. There was also the "Great Sage Equaling Heaven" Sun Wukong, who even hit it hard on the back with a stick before the opponent could climb up, knocking it down again.
Under the perfect opportunity created by everyone, Jax, who always shrouded himself in a mask, silently pounced on the enemy. The oak axe he held high above his head bloomed with a dazzling light under the infusion of his power.
"Whoosh—"
The oak axe cutting through the airflow made a pleasant sound, but for Vezax, it was like a death knell.
Although he was blind, he was not deaf, especially since Yogg-Saron had been roaring to remind him, but he had no chance to turn over and stand up, let alone resist!
The crisp sound of "Puchi" sounded when the oak axe solidly split Vezax's head. The hard shell protecting his head cracked where the axe blade hit, and splashing black-purple blood gushed out, mixed with some disgusting tissue.
"Ah… hahaha…" Vezax emitted a sound like a wail, yet also like a cry of liberation. For the Faceless Ones, the head remained a fatal weakness. Although it wasn't directly decapitated, its life had entered its final countdown.
At that moment, the power from Yogg-Saron suddenly surged into its body like a torrent unleashed after a dam collapsed. Its body instantly began to expand without limit.
"Terror… awaits you… God of Death… will… descend…"
Vezax's final, frantic voice trailed off intermittently.
"Get back!"
"It's going to explode!"
Alexstrasza and Aiden both sensed the violently surging energy within Vezax's body. It was undoubtedly preparing to self-destruct!
The Red Dragon Queen almost instantly cast a burning flame shield on everyone around, the power of life essence protecting them. But it wasn't enough. Faced with Yogg-Saron's violent power, such a simple shield was insufficient!
Nozdormu unleashed the power of time, pausing it. Aiden also used the power of time, allowing their side to move within the frozen time.
"Holy Light, please protect us!" Uther, leading the Silver Hand paladins, and Maarad, leading the draenei defenders, almost simultaneously summoned the power of the Holy Light to descend upon their allies, adding another layer of Holy Light shield on top of the flame shield.
"The power of death… no one can resist!"
Although time was frozen, Yogg-Saron's will still descended here. Even though Vezax's self-destruction process had been paused by the frozen time, the infusion of even greater power prevented even time from stopping the process.
Vezax's body expanded to its limit, finally exploding with a deafening roar!
"Darkness…"
Yogg-Saron's mad whispers reached everyone's ears as the self-destruction occurred, each person deeply feeling the chilling malice of the evil god from beneath the earth.
Flesh and blood burst forth from Vezax's original location, raining down. Aiden had cast Divine Protection on himself, along with a Flame Shield and a Nature Shield, but when the shockwave of the explosion struck, he still felt an unimaginable, terrifying power. It was as if he had been punched hard in the chest, even his breathing stopping.
This wasn't a pure explosion, nor was it pure dark power. What almost suffocated him was the insane spirit from Yogg-Saron, which no shield could withstand.
After the flesh and blood had rained down, Aiden slowly recovered. He took a deep breath and looked around. Alexstrasza and Nozdormu, who had also fallen behind, didn't look too good either. Some of the paladins who had retreated further back were even spitting blood and collapsing to the ground.
Fortunately, the injured recovered under the Holy Light spells of their brother knights. In reality, the damage wasn't severe.
But no one could be happy—in order to resist Vezax's self-destruction, the four guardians who had been fighting Loken had to activate some defensive measures. This gave Loken a rare opportunity—although the self-destruction was an indiscriminate attack, Yogg-Saron's mental power attack was different. While the four guardians were being shocked by Yogg-Saron's mental power, Loken desperately rushed into the depths of the earth.
When the explosion subsided, Aiden only saw the other's back.
"Rest for a while, and then regroup and attack again!" Aiden instructed.
Loken's escape didn't actually affect anything; at most, it would just make Yogg-Saron more unscrupulous. Because, in fact, even if Loken didn't die, Yogg-Saron wouldn't be strengthened. The evil god beneath the earth was just afraid that they would kill Loken and attract the attention of the observers. If the observers were to destroy the world at that time, wouldn't Yogg-Saron lose very unjustly?
For this reason, Yogg-Saron tried its best to preserve Loken's life, and even, in some ways, Aiden's previous goal had been achieved—Yogg-Saron had infused Loken with immense power, and later twice injected even more power into Vezax, and even personally used a mental attack once at the end.
Its main body was still imprisoned in the Titan's prison, and doing so would cost a great price.
The heroes hadn't officially fought Yogg-Saron yet, and it had already lost a lot of power. It wouldn't be too difficult to defeat it later—Yogg-Saron could accept being sealed again, but it couldn't accept being destroyed by the observers destroying the world!
Before the war, it had already prepared itself mentally to have its seal strengthened. But now everything was still unknown. It believed that if its solid ally's plan succeeded, it would bring great surprises to the other side!
—
Next, everyone would face the most terrifying enemy in Ulduar. Having just experienced a great battle, everyone really needed some time to rest and adjust. Aiden leaned on his sword, standing at the end of the Hall of Madness, guarding against Yogg-Saron inside. At this time, Illidan walked up quickly—this demon hunter now had a special status. It was difficult for the night elves to accept him as he was, but he also had unimaginable honor—he participated in the Outland War, and after returning, he fought against the Nightmare King. Even the night elves had to admit that he was a hero.
Because of his awkward status, Tyrande finally came up with a win-win solution to "settle" him—Illidan had officially become the night elves' ambassador to the Valoran Federation, responsible for coordinating affairs between the Alliance and the night elves and maintaining the relationship between the two.
His crimes from ten thousand years ago were forgiven, and his people also admitted that he was a hero, but they didn't welcome him back to Mount Hyjal.
Maiev Shadowsong didn't continue to pursue the matter, because Jarod Shadowsong had returned to Mount Hyjal. Illidan almost killed her brother back then, which was why she hated Illidan so much. Now that Jarod was still alive, she couldn't keep clinging to Illidan's past mistakes.
This time, Illidan became a hero representing the night elves in the attack on Ulduar.
"Your Excellency." Illidan came to Aiden's side.
"Is something the matter?" Aiden looked at Illidan. This demon hunter had been relatively silent recently and rarely took the initiative to find him, especially at this time.
"I seem to sense the aura of my brother—but he shouldn't be here." Illidan frowned. He believed in his own senses, but the feeling was very illogical. He was a little troubled, so he came to Aiden to tell him in advance.
"Are you talking about Malfurion?" Aiden asked.
Everyone knew that Malfurion had returned to Mount Hyjal after the Nexus War and, according to the plan, led an elite night elf force into Silithus to investigate the situation there, especially to confirm the current situation of the Old God C'Thun. It had only been a little over a week, how could the Archdruid be here?
Illidan nodded. He only had this one biological brother, so he naturally wouldn't be referring to anyone else.
"His aura is coming from inside, which is obviously very unreasonable. How could Malfurion directly enter the interior of Yogg-Saron's lair?" The demon hunter was puzzled.
"That shouldn't be. Could it be Yogg-Saron's bewitching spell?" Aiden pondered.
Of course, Malfurion shouldn't be here at this time. It was even more impossible for him to enter the interior of Yogg-Saron's lair one step ahead.
"Perhaps…" Illidan could only accept this guess. He looked "up" at the depths of the lair and said in a deep voice, "He is rushing towards us quickly."
"Oh?" Aiden looked towards the dark and deep underground, but didn't see anything. He was almost certain that this was just Illidan's illusion and should just be a trick played by Yogg-Saron.
But as soon as this thought appeared, he himself sensed a figure rushing towards them from the depths of darkness.
Aiden suddenly looked up and released his mental power to investigate.
He almost immediately sensed it—the one rushing here was indeed Archdruid Malfurion!
How could he be in Yogg-Saron's lair?
What was going on!