Chromie sat on a stone platform near where Arthas had left, fiddling with the pocket watch in her hand. The Caverns of Time was incredibly quiet now; besides the occasional Bronze Dragon appearing in the timestream to greet Chromie, very few Dragons appeared in the real plane.
There was nothing to be done. It was the era after Deathwing had fallen, after all.
Although the Bronze Dragonflight was relatively well-preserved, none of them wanted to stay here. Moreover, with the Burning Legion everywhere and dangers lurking, even fewer Dragons were willing to come.
If Chromie herself wasn't dealing with Arthas's matters, she would absolutely not want to appear in this era. Wouldn't it be better to play in a time when the Dragon Race was at its peak?
"Sigh~"
She let out a long sigh. Why was she so unlucky? Every timeline she was responsible for always had some kind of problem, and this time, the problem was particularly big.
Just as Chromie was sighing and wiping her tears, a white beam of light flashed in the empty space behind her. After the light dissipated, Arthas's figure appeared.
"You seem very unhappy?"
Chromie jolted and jumped off the stone, putting away her pocket watch. She lightly coughed twice, "Ah, how could that be? Maintaining the stability of the timeline is my responsibility—uh, you're out. Nozdormu doesn't have anything else, does he?"
Arthas straightened his hunting attire: This outfit was from when he used to hunt with his father, and he hadn't worn it in a long time, but it was the most comfortable for movement.
The quality of his spare armor was not even as good as the set that had been shattered during the previous battle. If Arthas's current body couldn't withstand an attack, then wearing armor of that quality would only be for show.
"Yes."
Chromie stared at Arthas for a while, a bit confused as to why Arthas had suddenly changed his clothes, but this was not a bad thing. The previous Lordaeron armor was too conspicuous; anyone with eyes could tell the unique identity of the armor's owner.
"Then let's talk about business—the way for you to go home is actually very simple. It requires an extremely immense amount of energy for me to open a rift for you to return to your original world.
This matter is both difficult and not difficult. To gather this energy, the Demons of the Burning Legion are a good choice."
When Chromie mentioned Demons, her expression turned utterly disgusted, as if she had mentioned something filthy. "Those guys are stinky and disgusting, but their souls should be a good source of energy extraction for you, right?"
Arthas nodded in confirmation. Although dealing with Demon souls did require some effort, it was not impossible.
"Oh, right, ordinary Demon souls are useless. You can kill as many as you want, it's good to drive those scumbags out of Azeroth sooner anyway.
The hard requirement is that you need to get at least four to five souls of high-ranking generals of the Burning Legion—Dreadlords, Abyssal Lords—any powerful Demon will do."
Chromie counted on her fingers as if solving Demon Lords was not a difficult task.
"You sure make it sound easy. How about you come with me?" Arthas pointed to the outside of the Caverns of Time. "You should be able to help me a lot, right?"
The Bronze Dragon shivered, mechanically raised her head, and forced a laugh, "Ah haha~ I, a weak and ordinary Bronze Dragon, am no match for those ferocious Demons. Saving Azeroth is something only a strong person like you can do!"
Before her words even fell, Chromie's figure flashed, and before Arthas could even react, she had hidden back in the temporal rift. After a while, she even extended a hand, threw Arthas a pocket watch, and said,
"If you complete all the preparations, use this to contact me—be careful, please use it in a safe place. I don't want to be discovered by those Demons!"
Arthas held the pocket watch, truly unsure how to complain about this Bronze Dragon who had completely abandoned the pride of Dragons—but at least, Chromie was the easiest Dragon to approach, and she wasn't entirely without merits.
As for hunting Demons, since Tirion had already given him the Ashbringer of this world, it wouldn't be a bad thing to use this sword to kill more of the Burning Legion's lackeys before he left.
Of course, Arthas wouldn't overdo it. If he attracted the attention of the Burning Legion's master, he wasn't sure if the Titan's gaze could penetrate layers of the long river of time and directly probe his original world.
Speaking of which, while hunting Demons, he could also look for opportunities to scavenge some materials only found among Demons. The enhancement of Frostmourne had to be put on the agenda. When he fought Nozdormu earlier, he already felt Frostmourne was under some strain.
Although it was because the tens of thousands of souls of Theramore residents stored within Frostmourne could not be used and instead became a burden, the weapon Frostmourne did not currently meet Arthas's standards.
Or rather... few existing mortal-forged weapons could meet Arthas's approval.
Perhaps the warhammer Silver Hand left by the Titan Guardian Tyr could meet Arthas's requirements, but that was someone else's weapon after all, and Arthas would most likely need to modify it to suit his own conditions if he got his hands on it.
The Ashbringer had the same problem. Although this sword was forged with the best materials available at the time, the crystal on it was a core left behind after a Naru's death.
However, the metal used for the forging failed to fully unleash the potential of this Holy Light crystal. As the core of a Naru, it possessed incredible affinity and cohesion for the Holy Light, but the metal of the blade could not maximize this potential.
Magni's forging skills were impeccable, almost fully utilizing the potential of these metal materials to complement the crystal. Unfortunately, a clever housewife cannot cook without rice. Magni was a craftsman, not a deity; he could only maximize the potential of the materials, not turn waste into divine iron.
The blade of the Ashbringer had already cracked from the Holy Light Arthas had just infused, and intense Holy Light energy continuously pulsed within those cracks. This not only did not weaken the Ashbringer, but instead allowed the power of the Holy Light crystal to further permeate the blade.
Arthas put away the two artifacts. His goal was now very clear: one was to deal with the Demons plaguing Azeroth, and the other was to find materials to strengthen these two weapons.
Although it was a time when the Burning Legion was rampant, it also brought unprecedented opportunities to Azeroth. At least some materials that were previously difficult to find had now surfaced.
"We have completely lost control of the Broken Shore, and we can't even get eyes in there. The area around Sargeras' Tomb is completely shrouded in mist."
In the war room of Stormwind Keep, Varian gazed at the map of the Broken Isles, his expression extremely grim, "We need to establish a base on the Broken Isles to restrict the Burning Legion's movements.
It would be best if we could also gain the support of the various factions on the Isles to help us fight the Burning Legion together."
After the Burning Legion gained the coordinates of Azeroth, deploying troops became very easy for them; they no longer relied on portals to invade Azeroth as they had before.
With just a simple teleportation device, the Burning Legion's warships could appear in any corner of Azeroth, and in the past few days, every part of Azeroth has received reports of invasion by the Burning Legion.
Although the defensive forces everywhere tried their best to resist the Burning Legion's attacks, this was not a long-term solution.
They had to concentrate the Burning Legion's attention and efforts in one place, otherwise Azeroth's defensive forces would be completely led by the nose by the demons.
Just as they were discussing the upcoming battle plans in the war room, a Royal Guards knocked on the door of the war room.
"Your Majesty, Archmage Khadgar of Dalaran has arrived."
"Khadgar? He's finally here. Let him in quickly."
"Your Majesty Varian, I didn't want to delay this long. Dalaran also suffered a demonic attack a while ago. The Archmages of the Council and I tried everything we could to escape the Burning Legion's encirclement."
Khadgar walked in from outside with a bitter expression, looking dusty, as if he hadn't rested well. "But I still want to say, it's really good that you're okay. When Jaina told me the news, I almost didn't recover."
"Jaina is in Dalaran?"
Khadgar shook his head regretfully, "After Jaina heard about you, she tried to get revenge for you by expelling the Horde, but we ultimately rejected her—although I know the hatred between the Alliance and the Horde is almost impossible to reconcile, we cannot lose their help now; fighting alone has no chance of winning."
Varian walked back to the sandbox in the war room, waved his hand casually, "We'll talk about the Horde abandoning the Alliance later. For now, let's discuss how to deal with the Burning Legion—I have given the Horde the maximum trust."
Regardless of the Horde's reasons, they did indeed put the Alliance in danger. Emotionally and rationally, Varian could not forgive the Horde's actions, but as Khadgar said, now was not a good time for internal strife. One careless mistake could allow the Burning Legion to exploit a weakness.
"Jaina, because her proposal was rejected by us, left Dalaran in a fit of anger. Now we don't know where she went." Khadgar shook his head, having no clue about it.
"Jaina..." Varian frowned. Jaina's mental state worried him greatly, but now the Alliance had no extra strength to search for Jaina's whereabouts. "Never mind, Jaina should be able to take care of herself. She won't do anything foolish at this time—Khadgar, tell me, how do we deal with the Burning Legion now."
"Hmm, I already have a slight idea. On the Broken Isles, several artifacts left by the Titan of Creation are scattered. They are called the 'pillars of creation.' Guardian Aegwynn once relied on their power to seal Sargeras' Tomb at the bottom of the sea."
Khadgar's voice was very certain, "As long as we find them, we can reseal Sargeras' Tomb, fundamentally cutting off the Burning Legion's possibility of invading Azeroth."
"Lost artifacts... Well, there's no other way now. Before we launch another war against the Burning Legion, we need some time to recuperate, otherwise they can easily defeat us." Varian looked at Khadgar, "Can Dalaran handle the task of finding the pillars of creation?"
"We will not hesitate. Dalaran will mobilize all its strength, and all the heroes of Azeroth, to search for these artifacts."
Varian nodded gently, "Very good, then I will gather all the Alliance's forces to establish a base on the Broken Isles. Once the artifacts are collected, we will be ready to march on the Broken Shore again at any time—this is our last chance.
As for... the Horde, I temporarily cannot trust them to coordinate with us. As long as they remember that they are still a part of Azeroth, that's enough."
Khadgar did not say another word about this. Although Dalaran mediated between the Alliance and the Horde as a neutral party, and the Horde also suffered significant losses on the Broken Shore: Vol'jin died, Thrall was seriously injured, and a large number of living forces were sacrificed on the coast.
Their retreat was indeed a helpless move, but such an action inevitably created a rift between the Alliance and the Horde. It is now unlikely for the Alliance and the Horde to unite as they did during the First Broken Shore campaign.
However, it was fortunate that the Alliance and the Horde had temporarily suppressed their prejudices against each other. At least until the Burning Legion was repelled, there should not be any major conflicts.
After bidding farewell to Varian, Khadgar quickly rushed to Orgrimmar. After arriving in Durotar via teleportation magic, Khadgar was about to cover the remaining distance in raven form, but before his spell was complete, he was stopped by a voice.
"Archmage Khadgar, good afternoon."
Khadgar's movements froze. He turned to look at the person behind him, cloaked and standing in the shadows under a tree, and for some reason, a series of warnings immediately rose within him.
This guy in front of him was dangerous, very dangerous!
The magical warning made Khadgar tense up, and his transformation spell immediately changed to a destructive magic spell. The Archmage's expression was serious, "Who are you?"
His teleportation location was random, meaning his whereabouts should not have been exposed, yet the person in front of him seemed to know his thoughts beforehand, waiting for him here.
Durotar's scorching sun shone on Khadgar's face. Even with the protection of frost magic, he still felt sweat slowly trickling down his face.
"The sun in Durotar is truly intense, Archmage Khadgar," the person under the tree stared at Khadgar, and with one hand, he pushed back his hood, "Perhaps you don't remember me. When we met, I was just an ordinary boy by my father's side."
After seeing that face clearly, Khadgar's expression changed from confusion to shock—he had indeed only met this person once a very long time ago, but after the Dark Portal opened, he had heard his name countless times.
"What in the world is going on? There's a second Gul'dan now, will there be a second Lich King too?!"