When Lucius Malfoy received Dumbledore's message, he was utterly dumbfounded.
What in the world?
His son had taken down Quirrell, defeated Voldemort, exposed Peter Pettigrew as an Animagus, and captured him?
He recognized every single letter in the message.
But strung together, they felt completely alien.
It wasn't April Fool's Day... and wizards didn't even celebrate April Fool's!
However, Lucius's confusion didn't last long.
Because Draco came home.
After handing him a stack of magic books from another world, Draco took away Tom Riddle's diary.
Lucius, meanwhile, excitedly began gathering the Malfoy family's allied and subordinate families.
What Draco had given him was magic from another universe.
Although they were just basic to intermediate spells, compared to the magic of their own world, it was like opening a brand new door—one that could change the entire landscape of the wizarding world.
The future of the wizarding world belonged to the Malfoys.
Late at night, having slipped into the Gryffindor dormitory completely undetected and successfully extracted the fragment of Voldemort's soul from Harry, Draco whispered to himself...
...
Witnessing Draco's series of actions, Josh could only say "impressive." He hadn't micromanaged Draco's every move; he had only provided resources, comprehensive information, and some suggestions.
So, to a large extent, everything Draco did was his own decision.
But regardless of how Draco handled things, the Harry Potter world was just a side show for Josh.
In contrast, another matter deserved his full attention right now.
After years of effort, the Ancient One had finally fulfilled her agreement with him.
The Seed in Azeroth had been successfully planted and had matured.
The seed wasn't planted just anywhere, but at the site of the Great Sundering ten thousand years ago—the Maelstrom in the Great Sea.
This was the location of the original Well of Eternity, Azeroth's greatest wound, the point closest to the world-soul's core, and the place with the most abundant energy.
As for any forces that could have stopped the Ancient One, she had defeated them all.
The Night Elves of the Broken Isles were driven back to Kalimdor.
Naturally, the Night Elves weren't willing to accept this.
Thus, an unprecedented decisive battle unfolded in the Barrens.
The Night Elves assembled an army on a scale never seen before.
But the army controlled by the Ancient One was even more terrifying.
Qiraji Silithid, Faceless Ones, Naga, Nightfallen, Satyrs, Mantid, and the Elemental Lords.
With all the Old Gods dealt with and their powers fully absorbed by the Ancient One, their subordinate races, like the Qiraji, all fell under her control.
Even the Black Dragonflight, hiding who-knows-where, were dragged out by her. Deathwing himself, the Aspect of the black flight, was reduced to the Ancient One's mount.
On the battlefield, even the Infinite Dragonflight made an appearance.
Individually, any of these factions could serve as the antagonists for an entire expansion. United, they were a force that would make the Burning Legion tremble, let alone the Night Elves.
Of course, the Night Elves weren't without allies.
The appearance of the Qiraji, the Old Gods, and the Black Dragonflight prompted the other four Dragonflights and many Wild Gods to join the fight.
Unfortunately, even ten thousand years after the War of the Ancients, the Dragon Aspects and Wild Gods still hadn't fully recovered their strength.
Furthermore, based on the information Josh provided, the Ancient One had long planted numerous moles within the enemy ranks.
She had also obtained the Demon Soul, an incredibly powerful artifact.
In the end, the alliance led by the Night Elves was utterly defeated.
As for the human, Tauren, and other allied forces led by Abbendis, they remained silent during this war, following the Ancient One's instructions.
Although this war appeared to be between the races controlled by the Ancient One and the Night Elves and their allies, Abbendis understood clearly that the ultimate beneficiaries would be the humans he represented.
The primary reason for this war was Josh's desire for Azeroth's world-soul.
But that wasn't the Ancient One's goal.
Her objective was to reach the pinnacle in this relatively chaotic and lawless world.
So her ultimate targets were the Pantheon, the Burning Legion, the Void, the Eternal Ones, the First Ones...
The races she controlled now were merely her tools.
After fulfilling her agreement with Josh, her next targets would be Draenor and... Argus!
Yes, unlike the original timeline where the orcs invaded Azeroth, in this timeline controlled by the Ancient One, it would be she who led the invasion of Draenor.
At this point in time, Draenor was not yet shattered.
It was vast enough to accommodate all the races under the Ancient One's command, eliminating the need to fight for territory on Azeroth.
And once the Ancient One left with these powerful races, facing the severely weakened Night Elves, humans would completely dominate Azeroth.
Then, Abbendis could establish a human empire far more glorious than the Arathor Empire!
As for the fate of the world-soul, Abbendis didn't care at all.
Just like the birth of the Celestials in the Marvel universe, the birth of each Titan basically meant the extinction of all life on that planet. If that weren't the case, aside from Argus, which was forcibly accelerated, there had never been any records of civilizations surviving on the planets where other Titans were born.
So Abbendis wasn't going to gamble on the mercy of Azeroth's world-soul. A world-soul like Tiamat of Earth-616 in the Marvel universe, who sacrificed herself for the planet's life, was literally one of a kind.
Moreover, the death of the world-soul would only lower the planet's magical concentration, without many other negative side effects. In fact, the reduction in magic might even be a benefit for humans... after all, the race most obsessed with magic on Azeroth had never been humans.
However, Josh wasn't overly concerned about Azeroth's ultimate future.
His primary focus was on the Celestial Seed before him, which had absorbed the power of the strongest world-soul, Azeroth.
He wondered what level he would reach after absorbing the power of this Celestial Seed and completing his ascension.
Could he reach the level of Arishem?
Or even surpass him, reaching...
Josh shook his head, stopping his train of thought.
Learning from Margaret's previous experience, the ascension ceremony definitely couldn't be conducted on Earth.
So, using the Space Stone, he teleported himself to an uninhabited planet outside the solar system, with Margaret standing guard.
Then, he began his ascension!