A year ago, Black Dragon Prince Nefarian obtained the best experimental materials for developing the Chromatic Dragon gene. In the past, he wouldn't have dared to imagine that he could gather the purest bloodlines of the five dragonflights to synthesize the Chromatic Dragon gene.
Chryssos was the daughter of Malygos, Malygos' offspring. Mylestria was the daughter of Ysera, and Kerestrasza was the son of Alexstrasza. Although Anachronos had become an Infinite Dragon, the blood of Nozdormu still flowed within him, and becoming an Infinite Dragon did not affect the purity of his bloodline.
Nefarian himself was, of course, a Black Dragon Prince, the son of the Black Dragon King Deathwing and Queen Sinestra.
His Chromatic Dragon research progressed rapidly. Even before he had synthesized the perfect Chromatic Dragon gene, he obtained the Focusing Iris, which could grant the Chromatic Dragon unparalleled power. However, the final result of the Eye of Eternity battle caused some problems in his research. The intense bombardment of Twilight Highlands caused him to lose a lot of important experimental data, and more importantly, he lost three of the best offspring of the Guardian Dragons.
By the time the Twilight's Hammer reacted and prepared to recapture Chryssos and the other three Dragon Aspect scions from the ruins of Twilight Bastion, they had already been rescued by the Red Dragons of the Ruby Dragonshrine.
For the past six months, Nefarian had been working hard to restore the progress of his experiments. Although he had made some progress, it would still take at least a few months to perfect the experiment and truly create the Chromatic Dragon in his heart.
But he no longer had that time.
When Aiden refused to travel back to the ancient times, things became a mess.
N'Zoth immediately ordered Deathwing to have Nefarian create a Chromatic Dragon that could be driven immediately.
"This is impossible!" Nefarian received the order from the Twilight's Hammer messenger. Seeing this request, he immediately said angrily, "Experimentation is a very rigorous matter. An imperfect Chromatic Dragon body cannot withstand the immense power of the Focusing Iris. The 'materials' we have now can only accommodate about ten percent of its energy! Such a Chromatic Dragon is simply a failure!"
Ten percent doesn't seem like a small amount, because it means that ten Chromatic Dragons can be created. But this is related to quantitative and qualitative changes, just like ten children with 30KG punching power cannot defeat a boxing champion with 300KG punching power.
Nefarian knew very well that even if he created ten such Chromatic Dragons, tying them together would not be enough to defeat any Dragon Aspect.
Only when all these energies are gathered in the same body can a peerless Chromatic Dragon be created!
"I am only responsible for conveying the order, Prince Nefarian." The Twilight's Hammer messenger looked up at the Black Dragon Prince's half-black and half-red face and said seriously, "The master's intention is to have you inject the Chromatic Dragon gene into the body of Ultraxion."
"Ultraxion? Are you talking about that twilight dragon who is as idiotic, foolish, and arrogant as an imbecile?" Nefarian seemed to have heard the most absurd thing in the world, and his voice involuntarily increased by eight degrees. "This is simply impossible! The Chromatic Dragon gene comes from the Guardian Dragons and uses the power of the Guardian Dragons. The Twilight Dragon's gene is completely different from the Five-Aspect Dragons. Don't think I haven't researched it! Forcing the fusion of the two will most likely result in the mutual conflict of the two genes. In the end, that stupid dragon will directly collapse and die before accepting the power of the Focusing Iris!"
The messenger couldn't understand these words at all.
There were not many people in all of Azeroth who could understand his words.
Nefarian knew very well that what he was researching was the most advanced biotechnology in the world, the most mysterious genetic research. He admitted that his father, Deathwing, and mother, Sinestra, had some achievements in these fields, but Nefarian's research direction was completely different from theirs!
In terms of Chromatic Dragons, he was the expert!
Even his father and mother were not qualified to interfere in this field.
In Nefarian's view, forcibly fusing the Chromatic Dragon gene with the Twilight Dragon gene was like putting a cow's head on a horse's body.
Necromantic magic might be able to do it, but what you get is just a stitched monster, not a fusion of two different genes!
"The great master has his own arrangements. Please come with me. If you have any questions, please explain them to the master," the messenger replied coldly.
Nefarian said sarcastically, "I understand. How could a humble mortal like you understand such a cutting-edge field!"
Although he was indignant in his heart, he did not dare to truly disobey his father's will.
Nefarian packed his things, took the perfect Chromatic Dragon gene that he had just matched not long ago, and went to his father's residence.
His eyes stared at the light blue Chromatic Dragon gene in the test tube, and he felt extremely regretful in his heart.
"My hard work, it seems it's going to be wasted."
Eternal Dragon Prince Anachronos asked, "What's wrong?"
"Annoying things." Nefarian was in a low mood. He briefly told the news brought by the messenger and complained, "I really don't understand. In at most three or four months, a real Chromatic Dragon will be born from my hands. Why do they want to do this?"
"Something must have happened." Anachronos frowned. He observed the changes in the timeline and quickly knew what it was. His expression changed drastically, and he said in a deep voice, "Something really happened. Go quickly!"
"Huh?" Nefarian looked at the Eternal Dragon Prince in confusion, but the other party just had such a strange expression. Before he could continue to ask, he disappeared directly.
He realized that this Eternal Dragon who held the secrets of time must have discovered something.
Could it be... something really happened?
It seems that it is not a small matter.
Nefarian suddenly felt that time was pressing. He no longer had other thoughts, took the test tube, and went with the messenger to his father's residence.
— —
Twilight Dragons were researched by Sinestra in Outland. She created the first Twilight Dragon, Dargonax, who could grow rapidly, but unfortunately, this Twilight Dragon was captured by Kil'jaeden before he could show his strength and has been missing ever since.
After returning to Azeroth with Aiden and the others, Sinestra was silent for a while. However, she always had a restless heart. After the Nightmare Crisis passed, she once again escaped from everyone's sight and prepared to continue her research.
Twilight Dragons have unlimited potential, and Sinestra believed that the previous tragedy would not repeat itself. She prepared to find a very safe place to create Twilight Dragons again.
Unfortunately, before a safe place could be found, the "tragedy" really repeated itself—she was captured by the person she hated the most.
That person was her consort, the former Earth-Warder, and now the "Destroyer"—Deathwing!
Deathwing wanted Sinestra to serve him and hand over the research results of the Twilight Dragons.
She would rather die than obey. However, Deathwing fully knew the importance of the Twilight Dragons. After suffering all kinds of torture, Sinestra became another servant of N'Zoth.
Because of her addition, Deathwing had a Twilight Dragon army under his command. Ultraxion was the result of the joint research of this Black Dragon couple.
More importantly, because of the intervention of the Old Gods, the method of manufacturing Twilight Dragons was optimized.
The new generation of Twilight Dragons, after being injected with the power of the Old Gods, became more powerful, more obedient, and grew faster.
The Twilight Dragon Ultraxion is currently the most powerful Twilight Dragon. It was only born a few months ago, but its power has already surpassed Sinestra and reached a level second only to the Dragon Aspects.
Now, because time is too rushed, the heroes who came to crusade against Deathwing have already reached the door. N'Zoth has to use a risky method to increase Ultraxion's power.
As an Old God, N'Zoth understands the danger involved very well.
Under normal circumstances, such a fusion would definitely end in failure. Even if there is a way to successfully fuse the two genes, it cannot be experimented with in a short period of time. The Black Dragons need more time and experiments to achieve this goal.
But now there is no time—N'Zoth can only use a risky method to forcibly create a Chromatic Dragon that fuses the power of the two dragons.
This requires a tool—the Dragon Soul!
But this tool was destroyed more than ten years ago. How could N'Zoth possibly obtain it?
Of course, there are ways. For example, the simplest and most direct way is to have the Infinite Dragonflight go back to the time point before the Dragon Soul was destroyed, take out this artifact, and bring it to the present.
However, this method is fraught with risk, because the Bronze Dragons would inevitably notice once the Infinite Dragonflight invaded the timeline. This action might not be meaningful. More importantly, Aiden's previous refusal of a time-travel mission served as a warning to N'Zoth, making it realize that the concept of "timeline" was unreliable.
Its past understanding of the timeline was very one-sided, while its enemy, Aiden, had a better understanding of the nature of events. It would be unwise to place hope in a domain where the enemy was more proficient.
N'Zoth was using another, more laborious but safer, solution—reconstructing the Dragon Soul!
More than a decade ago, during the Second War, Deathwing secretly instructed the Dragonmaw Clan to excavate the sealed Dragon Soul, allowing the orcs to use it to control the Red Dragon Queen Alexstrasza and some red dragons, forcing the dragons to assist them in attacking humans.
Later, with Krasus's secret help, Rhonin and Vereesa rescued Alexstrasza from the Grim Batol prison, and finally, they joined forces with the four Dragon Aspects to defeat Deathwing and destroy the Dragon Soul.
The fragments of this artifact were scattered everywhere. Sinestra spent more than a decade finding most of them, trying to piece it back together. Unfortunately, she was still missing the most crucial fragment.
However, she was not discouraged. These fragments contained the power of the Dragon Aspects. By implanting the fragments of the Dragon Soul into twilight dragons, she could completely control them, ensuring their loyalty.
Dargonax originally had such a fragment in his body. Unfortunately, he was captured by Kil'jaeden, and that fragment was naturally lost.
Sinestra did not know where the most crucial fragment of the Dragon Soul was, but N'Zoth knew—that fragment had always been held by Krasus. But now, because of the missing fragment from Dargonax, the Dragon Soul could not be completely rebuilt no matter what.
Fortunately, N'Zoth already had an alternative plan.
Although this plan was somewhat risky, at this point, he believed it was worth taking any risk. As long as he could complete this step of the plan, as long as he could prevent those mortals' wishes from coming true!
Deathwing, Sinestra, and the later-arriving Nefarian gathered in the Temple of Earth. The improved twilight dragon leader, Chromatus, was also present.
"Place the fragments on the ground, Sinestra."
N'Zoth's will was conveyed to the Black Dragon Queen.
Sinestra was now in the form of a high elf, but anyone who saw her would not think she was still a beautiful woman. Beneath her skin, the blood vessels became very clear, with black blood flowing inside. The winding veins were like claws, making her look incredibly ferocious. Ordinary people would be scared half to death at a glance!
This was exactly what she looked like after being tortured and transformed by the power of the Old Gods.
Hearing her master's command, Sinestra did not hesitate. She took out a pile of golden fragments and placed them on the ground.
N'Zoth transmitted his power through the parasites within Deathwing's body.
Deathwing only felt a tearing pain throughout his body. More than a dozen fiery red tentacles suddenly grew out of his shoulders, chest, and abdomen. They drilled out of Deathwing's body, and the ends of the tentacles adhered to the fragments of the Dragon Soul, sticking them together.
With the infusion of N'Zoth's power, these fragments immediately began to undergo obvious changes.
They began to melt, like fat encountering high temperatures. The golden liquid slowly gathered together, turning into a smaller sphere. It constantly emitted green, red, blue, and yellow light, which was quite beautiful.
Seeing the first step completed, N'Zoth was very satisfied. It continued to command: "Deathwing, Sinestra, infuse your power into these fragments!"
The two black dragons acted according to the order, and two beams of red light immediately enveloped the fragments. The golden sphere constantly absorbed this new power. Some grayish-black light mixed into the four colors. At first, it was inconspicuous, but gradually it became equal to the other four colors, finally reaching the same intensity.
"Very good, that's enough!" N'Zoth finally called a halt after seeing that the black dragon's power injected into the sphere was completely equal to the power of the other guardian dragons.
"The perfect Dragon Soul is born. It can allow Chromatus to accept the power of the chromatic dragons. My servants, do not disappoint me."
N'Zoth's voice disappeared, and the tentacles that had emerged from Deathwing's body also retracted.
"The perfect Dragon Soul!" Deathwing reached out and grabbed the golden sphere in his hand.
During the War of the Ancients, Neltharion deceived the other four Dragon Aspects, tricking them into injecting their divine power into a golden container to create a powerful artifact to deal with the Burning Legion's demons. The other four Dragon Aspects listened to his advice and injected their power into it, but Neltharion deceived them.
This artifact did not contain the power belonging to the Earth-Warder.
When Neltharion betrayed the Dragon Aspects, he used the power of this artifact called the "Dragon Soul" to almost wipe out the blue dragonflight. Even Malygos's consort, Sindragosa, was severely injured and died. Malygos was deeply immersed in the pain of being betrayed by his most trusted brother and the near annihilation of the blue dragonflight, becoming isolated, sensitive, and even almost insane.
Later, after the Dragon Aspects defeated Neltharion, who had fallen into Deathwing, they joined forces to seal the Dragon Soul and placed a curse on it that the black dragonflight could not touch it.
However, this did not stump Deathwing. Ten thousand years later, during the later invasion of Azeroth by the Horde, he guided the Dragonmaw Clan's warlock Nekros to excavate this artifact and secretly controlled the orcs to enslave Alexstrasza and the red dragonflight, which was considered revenge for what happened back then.
The orcs had never seen this artifact before. They called this golden disc the "Demon Soul."
Now, the fragments of the Demon Soul were melted by N'Zoth's power, and the power of the black dragons was added, reforging it into the "perfect Dragon Soul."
This should be its original appearance. The power belonging to the Earth-Warder, which was missing ten thousand years ago, has finally returned.
However, this is very bad news for the heroes who are going to fight Deathwing. No one would have thought that N'Zoth would spare no effort to recast the Dragon Soul for his own plans.
How powerful will the new dragon species, which combines the characteristics of chromatic dragons and twilight dragons, be? No one knows, and no one has seen it.
But one can imagine that it must be more terrifying and threatening than the complete chromatic dragons!
—
Anyway, the final moment will always come.
Aiden had already made very thorough plans before opening the seal of the elemental planes.
The best-case scenario was that they would enter Deepholm before Deathwing broke the World Pillar, kill him after a great battle, and clean up the remnants of the Twilight's Hammer and the various monsters and demons like the chromatic dragons. That would mean they had won the war.
Of course, that was just the ideal situation.
Aiden guessed that with N'Zoth's cunning, it would never lose so easily. It would definitely try every means to fight back.
So, the normal situation would be that Deathwing broke the World Pillar and left before they arrived in Deepholm.
This was very likely. When the earth elemental plane was sealed, he could freely enter and exit relying on his authority as the Earth-Warder, and it would be even more so after the seal was lifted.
Aiden had already prepared for failure.
But this situation was also within his expectations.
Aiden dispatched all the air power that the Alliance could use, monitoring key locations in the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and even Northrend. During this sensitive period, the sky was full of airplanes, airships, wyverns, gryphons, bats, dragonhawks, hippogryphs, and floating fortresses. The Tempest Keep and the dragon legions were also patrolling key areas.
Countless eyes on the ground were also staring at the sky. Once Deathwing appeared, they would get the information immediately and rush to stop him!
After Aiden opened the seal of the elemental planes, he immediately teleported back to Los Angeles. But as soon as he said, "Split up and act according to the plan," the ground under his feet suddenly shook violently.
Everyone present changed their expressions, and they all realized what it was.
"The war has come." Aiden looked serious.