When the good news from Mount Hyjal arrived, Aiden learned immediately that Malfurion and the ancient demigods had together eliminated Ragnaros—the process could almost be described as uneventful. Ragnaros was killed without any resistance.
After losing their master, the elementals of the Firelands fell into a brutal internal struggle.
The strongest among them might, after tens of thousands of years of fighting, become the new Fire Lord, or the deceased Ragnaros might first gather his scattered energy, rebuild his body, and return to the throne.
But that was no longer a problem that concerned the heroes. At least for the time to come, people would no longer have to worry about the threat of fire elementals.
According to the game version, Ragnaros being defeated meant that the penultimate expansion of the Cataclysm, "Rage of the Firelands," had officially ended, and the final version, "Twilight of the Aspects," was about to go live. The ultimate BOSS, Deathwing, would truly appear and attempt to launch a world-destroying cataclysm.
Previously, Deathwing and Chromatus had been in hiding, and Aiden was not worried that they would secretly destroy the world. This was based on his understanding of the basic structure of this world.
Now that Al'Akir and Ragnaros had been destroyed one after another, it was time for the remaining two to truly appear.
And just as he had guessed, only an hour later, he received important intelligence from Voidwalker Kassadin—he had found Chromatus!
"Version 4.3, 'Twilight of the Aspects,' is live," Aiden said, self-deprecatingly, as he put down the information.
He summoned the Heart of Valoran and held it in his hand. He gazed at the crystal, his eyes gleaming with a strange light.
Nozdormu had seen a future scenario in which he used Deathwing's power to summon the Valoran continent. Although this was only one possibility in the future, a deliberate arrangement of the timeline, Aiden gladly accepted this outcome. This was exactly what he wanted to do most.
Now the opportunity to realize it was at hand.
—
Chromatus appeared in a location that Aiden had not anticipated at all—a place called the Ancient Beach, an isolated island south of Dragonblight in Northrend, and also the starting point of the Titan's Road.
In the game, this area was opened as a regional battlefield, providing Alliance and Horde players with PVP combat. At the same time, it was given a very important background—there was a powerful Titan artifact here, called the "Titan Energy Orb," which could charge the Creator Engine, allowing it to produce Titan creations. Creatures such as stone giants, storm giants, Tol'vir, mechagnomes, and earthen were all created there.
After the Shattering, the Titan's Road that transported energy collapsed, and this place became a deserted area. For thousands of years, no one knew that the Titan Energy Orb was hidden here.
But now it seemed that N'Zoth knew about this, and was using the energy within to achieve his own goals.
This was another scene that had not appeared in the classic storyline. Aiden didn't even know what the other party was up to—and all of this, in fact, was related to him.
Deathwing and Chromatus had both come out for a stroll before, but they had both been badly beaten by Aiden. He held Sargeras' Scepter and the Focusing Iris, which completely countered these two dragons who should have been invincible—this obviously did not meet the "system's" expectations.
Therefore, in order to balance the strength of both sides, the hidden system took a series of measures to correct the strength comparison. Rescuing Fandral Staghelm was nothing, and even directly kidnapping Med'an was not a serious matter. The biggest change the system made was to strengthen the two dragons themselves.
And Aiden would soon see how powerful the buffed Chromatus really was…
After learning Chromatus's location, Aiden immediately summoned the heroes under his command and contacted his other allies. After everyone arrived, they immediately teleported to Wyrmrest Temple, joined the four Dragon Aspects who had already arrived there, and together they headed towards the Ancient Beach.
In order to get there as quickly as possible, the Wyrmrest Accord sent a Dragonflight to carry the heroes participating in the battle.
Aiden stood on the back of Alexstrasza, the Red Dragon Queen, and they were among the first to arrive at their destination.
"Look over there!" Alexstrasza suddenly exclaimed, "That's Chromatus!"
"Heavens, it... what has it become?" Ysera looked over and saw a deformed dragon sitting on top of the tallest Titan building in the distance. It had six heads, staring up at the Dragonflight flying towards the Ancient Beach.
Without a doubt, this was Chromatus, but it had only been a short time, and its size had increased a lot, turning it into a behemoth!
Chromatus was already no smaller than the Dragon Aspects, but now it was at least twice as big!
Even stranger was the faint golden glow surrounding its body. No one knew what it was, but it certainly wasn't anything good.
The previous Chromatus was already difficult to deal with, and this Chromatus made the Dragon Aspects feel even more uncertain.
Aiden stared at the golden film on Chromatus's body, and already had a guess in his mind.
He sensed the power of the Titan artifact within, and since the other party was here, they had obviously absorbed the energy from the Titan Energy Orb. No one knew how vast the power inside was, but it seemed considerable, at least no less than the almost fully charged Focusing Iris.
As they approached, Chromatus stood on the rooftop, letting out a hearty roar to the sky. It exuded an extremely dangerous aura, even causing ordinary dragons to hesitate and circle in the sky.
"You're too late! I have already absorbed the energy of the Titan artifact!" Chromatus bellowed with gleeful laughter. "I was just looking for some targets to test my power—welcome to your deaths, Dragon Aspects, and heroes!"
Alexstrasza hovered in mid-air, asking softly, "What should we do? Charge in now?"
"Wait a moment." Aiden took out the Scepter of Sargeras, attempting to read Chromatus's model. In his view, the layer on its body should be a defensive spell from the Titan Energy Orb, and he wanted to see if he could dispel it first.
However, the feedback from within the scepter was disappointing: "Titan energy detected, insufficient authority, unable to read target model."
If the scepter couldn't work, the gem certainly wouldn't either.
He should have realized that only a Titan artifact could restrain another Titan artifact.
Now, Aiden understood why Chromatus had come here. By absorbing the Titan Energy Orb, it had not only gained immense power but also obtained a protective charm. It no longer needed to worry about the Scepter and Gem of Sargeras dispelling its defenses or severing its connection to the energy core, the Focusing Iris.
The current Chromatus was a perfect chromatic dragon, almost without weaknesses—its only weakness was probably the twilight dragon head that Aiden had injured twice before, which still hadn't healed, making it very difficult to use twilight dragon abilities.
"It seems we have to use the backup plan," Aiden said in a deep voice.
The power balance had shifted, and they no longer held the advantage. To fight Chromatus, Aiden had to reveal some of his trump cards and summon more helpers in advance.
At this moment, Chromatus taunted, "Why aren't you attacking? Are you afraid? Haha… good! You should be afraid! Because this is your end! Enjoy your last chance to breathe freely, because next, I—the great Chromatus, the most powerful dragon—will kill you all!"
It raised its six heads, baring its mouthful of white, sharp teeth, and looked down contemptuously at the dragons in the sky and the heroes on their backs, appearing extremely arrogant. It believed it had the right to be arrogant; it didn't take these enemies seriously at all. When it unleashed its power, all enemies would be annihilated!
Chromatus wasn't in a hurry to attack; it was enjoying the moment before the battle—because it could feel the fear in the hearts of its enemies. The dragons in the sky and those heroes were afraid of it, terrified of it, because it was powerful enough that even if they joined forces, they couldn't resist!
This gave Aiden more time to prepare.
—
The Jewel of Justice, Silvermoon City, was the base of the Valoran Federation, and also the settlement of the Naaru and the Draenei.
The Naaru had been in Azeroth for over a year. After A'dal chose to sacrifice himself, exhausting his Holy Light essence and ultimately turning dark, Deori, who had returned to the Light, became the leader of the seventeen Naaru, large and small, in this world.
During the battle of the Shattered Halls in Outland, Archimonde unleashed an extremely powerful self-destruct spell, causing great casualties to the Outland Allied Forces at the time. The four Elemental Lords of the Throne of the Elements in Draenor were devoured by fel energy, and countless ordinary soldiers were blinded and deafened. And when everyone was plunged into unprecedented despair, the Naaru Deori, in his dark form, finally absorbed enough soul power, broke through the limit, and returned to the Light. The Holy Light power emanating from his body healed all the soldiers in the Shattered Halls fortress at that time.
Deori's return injected great confidence into the Naaru, and they eagerly looked forward to the return of A'dal and K'ure.
After Thresh, the "Chain Warden," worked tirelessly and diligently fed him, K'ure finally returned to his Light form half a year ago. Next, Thresh single-mindedly fed A'dal, following Commander Aiden's instructions, wanting to turn this most powerful Naaru back as soon as possible.
After Thresh lost tens of thousands of souls collected in the Lantern of Souls, this day finally arrived!
A'dal had absorbed enough souls from his dark form, returned to the Light, and his strength had increased even more than before!
The Naaru were one of Aiden's trump cards. He had originally planned to save them for Deathwing, but now he had to reveal them in advance.
If they couldn't defeat Chromatus, they wouldn't even have a chance to deal with Deathwing.
Only victory brought the future; failure meant losing everything!
At his summons, bright, holy pillars of light lit up the sky above the Dragonblight, and then the most powerful Naaru, A'dal, led all the Naaru to arrive!