"This is a blessing," Arthas said, assessing Magni's condition.
The power of Azeroth, after they defeated N'Zoth's army and revived the Dream, had blessed these champions of Azeroth.
Everyone besides Magni had, more or less, felt the surge of joy, which was Azeroth breathing and singing.
However, perhaps because Magni was severely wounded in the previous battle, Azeroth had "cared" for him a bit too much, leading to some unusual changes in his body.
After dealing with N'Zoth and escaping Nyalotha, Arthas almost immediately received a magical message from Jaina, asking him to come see what was going on with Magni.
"Uh… while I'm grateful our planet healed my injuries, if I stay in stone form…" Magni sat on the bed, his heavy body bending the wooden elven bed.
Even though stone form was much harder and stronger than flesh, it was far less convenient for daily life than his original body.
Arthas understood Magni's thoughts; even he wouldn't maintain that iron-clad appearance.
Setting aside other things, just the changes in daily habits would drive one mad.
"Is there no way to fix it?" Muradin, standing beside him, asked.
"If Magni stays like this, I'm afraid the people of Ironforge will think their king has been replaced."
"Replaced?" Brann chuckled.
"They'll just excitedly run over to marvel at the first dwarf in history who can remain in stone form!"
After resolving the threat of the Dark Empire, everyone left the Emerald Dream.
Except for the Druids and Shamans who stayed behind to heal the wounds the war had inflicted on the Dream, everyone else had moved to Mount Hyjal, temporarily resting on the Night Elves' sacred mountain.
Tyrande even permitted the Horde champions to rest there temporarily and ordered preparations for a post-victory feast.
Brann's words quickly earned him a retort from Magni, who smacked Brann's forehead with his heavy stone hand, making the old dwarf stumble.
Ignoring the grimacing Brann, Magni shook his head and said, "It seems for now, someone else will have to take on the burden of king…"
He glanced at Brann beside him, but Brann, as if facing a great enemy, frantically refused, "Why are you looking at me?! I can't handle all those messy documents!"
"I wasn't counting on you," Magni sighed, disappointed.
Although Brann had made significant achievements as an adventurer, in his eyes, Brann was still that naturally free-spirited younger brother.
Brann shrugged and casually said, "Although your change comes from Azeroth's 'blessing,' if you ask me, it's no different from a curse—it's very similar to those fairy tales where people are turned into stone or statues at the drop of a hat… though you can still move."
"A blessing doesn't necessarily mean it can't be a curse."
At this moment, Arthas, to everyone's surprise, agreed with Brann's view.
"If a blessing is forced upon someone without regard for their wishes, then that blessing is no different from a curse.
After all, accepting power of this level often means gaining qualifications beyond the mundane, and such individuals often end up living solitary lives."
These remarks made several leaders ponder deeply, with Prophet Velen being the most affected.
He suddenly remembered his old friends… Although they had long since parted ways, Arthas's words inadvertently made Velen recall when he left Argus, though his old friends were the opposite, treating that curse as a blessing.
Velen sighed, "Arthas is right.
These great beings, beyond our imagination, can no longer be measured by normal concepts."
"The good news is, at least our world is on our side," Arthas checked Magni's condition again.
"It's just that she hasn't fully awakened yet, her self-consciousness might still be dormant, and she can't control the amount of blessing.
She merely bestows blessings instinctively, so Magni's change is entirely a coincidence."
"You've said so much, but is there a solution?" Brann tapped Magni's stone head, listening to the dull thudding sound.
"I can try to help Magni revert to his original form, but it might take some time," Arthas pondered for a moment, and a preliminary idea formed in his mind.
Although Magni's change did have some negative effects on him, this stone-like transformation was ultimately not a bad thing.
At least in this stone state, Magni's skin could ignore most physical attacks; only extremely powerful damage could break through his defense.
Not to mention bleeding and poisons, which are quite fatal to flesh, Magni could completely ignore them.
So, if one doesn't think from a mortal's perspective, this change could almost be considered a "racial advancement."
And coincidentally, Arthas happened to have a poor soul who had received a blessing from another being that could be called a "great existence"—Xal'atath.
Although this Void creature stubbornly refused to admit her defeat, she was still no match for Arthas's power and could only humiliatingly remain in that small dagger.
Studying the changes in Xal'atath and Magni might allow Arthas to explore certain characteristics of the Void Lords and Azeroth.
He had a premonition that they would need this knowledge in the future.
In fact, the Flesh Curse of the Old Gods could perhaps also be seen as a "blessing."
It could even transform inorganic matter into organic matter, and even the power of the Titans could not completely block this influence.
Arthas could easily understand why the Titans were curious about the life forms of the Old Gods, because these unique creatures could almost be called a cosmic marvel, not to mention the Old Gods of Azeroth, who probably, more or less, drew some power from the Azerothian World-Soul.
Just as creatures in Maw are basically aggregates of fragmented souls, creatures nurtured by specific environments will also have unique characteristics.
Azeroth is also special in the entire universe, so such changes are not surprising.
"No hurry, as long as my problem can be solved, that's fine." Magni trusted Arthas unconditionally.
"If anything, I've caused you trouble."
Arthas nodded.
He looked out the window at Nordrassil, which stretched straight into the sky, and said, "Let's first celebrate this hard-won victory.
After the feast, I will take you back into the Emerald Dream, where we can better analyze the influence of Azeroth's power on us."
"Arthas, someone wants to see you."
After the banquet, Jaina suddenly found Arthas and whispered to him, her gaze constantly flitting towards the edge of the banquet, seemingly a little displeased.
Arthas couldn't help but notice Jaina's little gesture, which was full of personal emotion. He smiled and comforted Jaina, "It's fine, I have no objections, and I expected him to ask you to bridge this connection."
For Jaina to be so awkward about delivering a message, Arthas knew without thinking that the other party was certainly not a member of the Alliance. Compared to other Alliance leaders, the only special thing about Jaina's permanent residence in Theramore was its proximity to the Horde.
Soon, Arthas walked out of the noisy crowd at the banquet and arrived at a secluded corner on Mount Hyjal. Jaina cautiously followed beside Arthas, not forgetting to cast protective magic on both of them.
This whole process made Arthas feel a bit amused and helpless, "You should still trust in Thrall and Vol'jin's character."
Jaina snorted, "They're fine, but the Horde has more members than just them. Who knows if there are any ill-intentioned individuals among them—and that guard next to Thrall this time makes me very uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable."
Jaina's extremely high magical attainments always made her intuition quite accurate. With her kind and gentle nature, it was difficult for her to bear grudges against a specific person. In the past, her displeasure was usually only directed at those who committed many evil deeds. However, the guard next to Thrall was the first person to make her feel inexplicably disgusted after only a few brief meetings.
After all, Jaina had been to the future timeline and understood what hateful crimes the next Warchief of the Horde had committed against Theramore in other timelines. Although that was something from another timeline, she shouldn't have brought those emotions into their timeline, but Jaina still couldn't help but feel a sense of revulsion towards Garrosh.
In the garden slightly away from the grand banquet, under the tranquil night sky of Mount Hyjal, Arthas met the person who wanted to see him.
"Good evening, Arthas."
Thrall seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. At least Arthas's willingness to come had already sent some kind of signal, which greatly reduced his pressure.
"Good evening, Warchief Thrall—thank you for the Horde's contributions to Azeroth. I heard your warriors held back a considerable amount of the Dark Empire's forces on the flanks of the war."
Arthas did not show any unusual gaze because of Thrall's orc identity, as if he was not seeing a former hostile leader, but an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time. Just this small act of goodwill made Thrall grateful.
He was well aware of how tense the relationship between the Alliance and the Horde was during normal times, and now the Alliance's power far surpassed that of the Horde. As long as Arthas wished, countless people would be willing to eliminate the Horde for their King, to eliminate the orcs who had once brought pain and war to Azeroth.
"We are fighting for our homeland. Every child of the Horde knows that fighting for our homeland and loved ones is the meaning of our struggle." Thrall looked at the green expanse of Mount Hyjal, restored to its former glory after the Third War, and couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
When the Burning Legion invaded for the second time, Mount Hyjal suffered greatly from fel energy, and even now, at the foot of the mountain, there is still a continuous forest polluted by fel corruption.
Thrall's good friend, Grommash, the silent father of Garrosh, who was beside him, also died in that battle against the Burning Legion. Although Thrall repeatedly told Garrosh that his father's death was a glorious sacrifice, Thrall himself wished Grommash could have survived.
War never brings anything good. Even if it is a righteous act to defend one's homeland, it will bring endless pain to the people, like the Horde at that time, and Zandalar now.
"I came for Vol'jin. My old friend wanted me to ask you, how does the Alliance plan to deal with the Zandalar Trolls?" Thrall sighed, finally stating his main purpose.
"What do you mean, 'deal with'?"
The result was beyond Thrall's expectation. Arthas directly retorted, seemingly not understanding the term—and Thrall could guarantee that his Common language proficiency definitely surpassed most linguists; he had not used the wrong meaning of the word.
"Zandalar was unwilling to join Azeroth's allied forces, causing some damage to the Emerald Dream and our world, but the Zandalar Trolls under Queen Talanji are gradually abandoning their arrogance and beginning to integrate into this world."
Thrall tried to plead for Vol'jin's kin, although this also made him very difficult. He knew that Zandalar's fate was entirely self-inflicted. In the fierce war with the Old Gods, they played themselves into sacrifices. Not only did several of the gods they believed in fall under the claws of the Old Gods, but even the kingdom's capital was largely destroyed by Mythrax and the Dark Serpent God.
Countless Zandalar Trolls were displaced, forced to wander in the jungles of Zuldazar, and had to be wary of the crazy Blood Trolls who escaped from Nazmir, as well as the terrifying monsters formed by the fusion of the Old Gods' lingering influence after the Loa fell.
Fortunately, the Zandalar Trolls were not entirely without hope. Through the sacrifice of their former King, Rastakhan, the revived Serpent God Sethraliss utilized the opportunity created by Rastakhan's life to completely end the rampaging Mythrax and the Dark Serpent God, reclaiming Dazar'alor.
Talanji also used her father's legacy to gather a team among the trolls to revive Dazar'alor. She no longer held the arrogant mindset of the Zandalar, and began to cooperate with other races, attempting to restore Dazar'alor. That team included some Vulpera who were unwilling to leave Zandalar, still wanted to live in their homeland, and hoped that one day they could return to Vol'dun and make its barren land as fertile as Zuldazar.
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Vol'jin also temporarily stayed there to help Talanji and Zandalar. He didn't even have time to attend this banquet. As a friend, Thrall could understand Vol'jin's actions, but as the Warchief of the Horde, he felt that Vol'jin was quietly dedicating himself to something not worth it.
Zandalar's desire for change was not an overnight matter. Even after paying such a heavy price, a considerable portion of the Zandalar Trolls were unwilling to accept outside help. They even began to hate the existence of the Horde and the Alliance, wanting to unite with other troll tribes to revive the ancient trolls, rather than a Zandalar that could integrate into the new world.
Although Talanji was trying her best to quell such voices within her tribe, she was, after all, a newly appointed Queen. Moreover, the death of Rezan, the Zandalar Empire's patron god, also created many opportunistic individuals. The benevolent Serpent God, for some reason, also seemed unwilling to protect the new Zandalar royal family like Rezan. She instead chose to protect the ordinary Zandalar Trolls displaced by the war, as well as other races on the Zandalar islands.
Thrall didn't quite understand how the trolls' Loa worship worked specifically, but this didn't affect his judgment of the situation in Zandalar—it was a disorganized mess, incredibly chaotic.
That's why he didn't approve of Vol'jin's actions, believing that he was very likely wasting his efforts, and might even bleed and sacrifice for matters that didn't concern him. But because he was worried about Vol'jin, he had no choice but to come and inquire about the Alliance's intentions.
And as one of the leaders of the Alliance, the person with relatively less animosity towards orcs and the Horde was probably only Arthas. Thrall was quite ashamed of this. He only truly realized how foolish the Horde's past actions on Azeroth were when he looked back on them today, and it made him increasingly alarmed.
To be honest, the Alliance, after consolidating its strength, not immediately razing Orgrimmar to the ground, could already be considered peacemakers. Thrall put himself in their shoes: if Draenor had been invaded by humans and elves, and after destroying several tribes, they still wanted to find a piece of land on Draenor to live as a new home, Thrall couldn't even imagine what kind of dissatisfaction and opposition would arise from the other orc tribes.
Even though there were extremely complex factors behind the orc invasion, Thrall could not say that the entire existence of the Horde was completely innocent. He had to face this history to ensure that the future Horde would not follow the old path.
And Arthas's next words greatly calmed Thrall's mood.
"It's clear that your kindness matches your courage and honor," As Arthas himself said, he had never thought of dealing with the Zandalar Trolls; their fate was simply self-inflicted. "But you don't have to worry about potential problems. Sethraliss won't let these things happen—none of the Loa will."
Thrall was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood the reason. He looked at Arthas with a complex expression and sighed, "You are truly the embodiment of benevolence and justice, Arthas."
With Sethraliss watching over the nascent Zandalar, there would be no more major troubles there. Arthas greatly trusted the reborn Sethraliss; that snake Loa was a noble and wise Loa who understood her responsibilities.
However, one thing Thrall said did make Arthas a little wary—he said that a group of Trolls who did not submit to Talanji's rule were trying to contact other Troll tribes to rebuild the glory of the Troll Empire era.
But the truly threatening ones were not the four major Troll tribes. It wasn't that Arthas looked down on them, but rather that he was very clear that the Gurubashi, Amani, Drakkari, and Farraki Troll tribes did not trust each other. The only ones who could integrate them were the Zandalar, but the Zandalar Trolls with that kind of energy were either dead or simply too busy to bother with them.
Zul's death also saved Arthas a lot of trouble. After all, this prophet was one of the few figures, besides the Great King of Zandalar, who could unite the other Troll tribes.
But this led to another problem: Prophet Zul, in order to seek power to revitalize Zandalar, even resorted to using the corrupt power of G'huun. So, would other Troll tribes also, due to such fanatical beliefs, go and worship some strange evil gods?
After all, the Loa in the Trolls' perception were not just native creatures of Azeroth. Those beings from various parts of the universe, as long as they possessed enough power, could potentially be summoned and worshipped by them.
"It seems I need to send someone to specifically guard against the Gurubashi…" Arthas murmured to himself.
The Farraki had long since declined, almost becoming barbarians in the desert; it was basically impossible for them to have any connection with powerful beings in the universe. As for the Amani, they were on the edge of Quel'Thalas. Due to the influence of the High Elf's great barrier, that location was also difficult to attract the attention of extraterrestrial beings.
The Drakkari, on the other hand, were completely under the monitoring of the Scourge. If there was any unusual movement, Arthas could easily suppress it.
But the Gurubashi were different. This ancient Troll tribe had a long history of worshipping various evil gods. After all, Hakkar the Soulflayer was an evil Loa they had brought forth, and even a witch doctor in their tribe had been deceived by Xal'atath, leading to the awakening of a K'thir, which brought devastating disaster to the Trolls.
Yet the Gurubashi had learned absolutely no lessons from these incidents. They always provoked beings they shouldn't provoke. If it only brought disaster to themselves, that would be one thing, but often the beings they brought forth would covet Azeroth.
While he was thinking, Arthas heard Xal'atath's voice.
"What, are you worried about the Gurubashi tribe?"
Arthas had not blocked Xal'atath's awareness of the outside world. This time, he had only limited Xal'atath's power, preventing her from escaping his side. With her years of experience in manipulating schemes and tricks, she quickly guessed Arthas's thoughts.
"If that witch doctor named Zandou, whom you deceived back then, had truly destroyed the Gurubashi, it would have saved a lot of trouble today." Arthas directly hit Xal'atath where it hurt.
"I also didn't expect that useless person to be so weak, unable to even deal with a half-dead K'thir, and instead becoming that guy's meal."
Xal'atath seemed a bit sullen. "I was supposed to enjoy the essence of Kith'ix and those Trolls, but Kith'ix, in turn, used me to try and bring the Old Gods back into the world."
Of course, she wouldn't be so kind as to revive a loyal servant of an Ancient God. Xal'atath's true purpose had always been to accumulate power and prepare for her own ascension, but due to Zandou's foolishness, she ended up only making things worse. Fortunately, Kith'ix then launched a war against the Trolls, and she absorbed a lot of power from that war.
"Alright, let's solve your problem first. The Gurubashi will naturally be watched."
"Is it your warrior king brother? Hmm… he does have a bit of Thoradin's shadow from back then. It's a pity that such warriors often die unnatural deaths."
Xal'atath still maintained her venomous tongue, but Arthas wouldn't get angry because of her few words. Xal'atath often felt annoyed when she couldn't provoke Arthas's emotions.
This guy was as if he was born to counter her. Even though she had already regained her lost power from N'Zoth, she was still trapped in the dagger now.
"It seems the Void's transformation has had a considerable impact on you. I guess when you were still a mortal, you probably weren't so bad at speaking?"
Arthas was already accustomed to Xal'atath's words; he could even retort.
"Why do you think that? Maybe I was born a child who couldn't speak?"
"Because if that were the case, you probably wouldn't have lived until the day Dimensius turned you into a Void creature; you would have been beaten to death long ago."
"Very good."
Xal'atath felt her fists harden, but the problem was, no matter how hard her fists were, she couldn't beat Arthas.
At this moment, a hint of disgust flashed in her heart again, but she quickly calmed such emotions—having transformed into a pure Void creature, she shouldn't have so many mortal-like thoughts, yet her mortal predecessor still influenced Xal'atath, preventing her from being as cold and ruthless as a true Void creature, as rational as the fundamental order of the universe.
But just as Void Lords cannot restrain their craving for the real universe, Xal'atath also cannot completely eliminate the influence of emotions on herself. She can only suppress her emotions, maintaining calmness and rationality in countless calculations.
Although she had been captured by Arthas, she had actually been contemplating how to escape Arthas's control—she wasn't an idiot and certainly wouldn't take Arthas's words seriously. What kind of nonsense 'blessing'? She could probably guess it was the same method Dimensius used to turn her into a Void creature.
She didn't want to be turned into a Light creature by Arthas; to her, that was no different from dying. The Light would alter her will just like the Void, rendering all her backup plans useless. By then, she would no longer be her current self.
Xal'atath had already experienced such a situation once, so she didn't want to experience it a second time. But the problem was, how could she escape from Arthas, who had defeated N'Zoth?
While she was still thinking of countermeasures, Arthas didn't give her any more time. He directly arrived in Northrend with the dark empire blade. In an underground space there, a secret Guardian emerged from the underground jungle.
"You've come?"
Fandral looked at Arthas with a complex expression. Although he was grateful to Arthas for giving him another chance to see his son, he couldn't fully accept such a blasphemous method.
But Arthas didn't care about that much. He just asked indifferently, "Are the preparations ready?"
Fandral nodded, "Everything is ready."
"Uhm, what is this thing?"
Magni sat on a bed made of vines grown by Fandral using druidic magic, looking at the strange, pulsating mass in Fandral's hand that looked like both plant and flesh, feeling a little unnerved.
Fandral replied expressionlessly, "This is bionic tissue created using the Primal Thornbeast's vitality."
"Primal Thornbeast?" Magni mumbled to himself. While he wasn't as knowledgeable about the cultures and histories of various places on Azeroth as his third brother, Brann, he could confidently say he recognized most of the creatures on Azeroth. Yet, he had never heard of this Primal Thornbeast.
Arthas, who was drawing the ritual array nearby, answered Magni's unspoken question, "This is a native creature of Draenor. However, after Draenor's destruction, these creatures, along with that planet, became history forever—the plants you see now all originate from Draenor. I found a Primal Thornbeast seed in the ruins of Outland and used it to recreate the ancient natural landscape of Draenor."
"No wonder I felt like the plants in this underground jungle were familiar yet not quite…"
Magni's curiosity was piqued by the explanation. He began to scrutinize the seemingly ordinary plant ecosystem around him. It was only thanks to Arthas's hint that he noticed these plants were different from any he had seen before, and most grew quite wildly, possessing extremely strong vitality.
"Be careful. Draenor's native plants aren't as docile as those on Azeroth. A large portion of them are carnivorous—though in your current state, you probably don't need to worry about being bitten, just don't let them parasitize you."
Fandral, seeing Magni trying to poke a snake-like swaying carnivorous vine with his hand, couldn't help but warn him. However, when he remembered that Magni was still in his stone form, he realized his warning was somewhat redundant.
"Carnivorous?"
Magni was stunned for a moment, and in that instant of distraction, the vine opened its large maw at the front and bit his finger directly. He quickly shook his hand to free himself from the vine—after all, the pine forests of Kaz Modan only had meat-eating snow leopards and brown bears, not tree branches that would suddenly bite you.
"But what does this have to do with me returning to my original form?" Magni was, after all, a warrior and a blacksmith; he didn't quite understand the purpose of this Primal Thornbeast tissue.
"I believe Arthas intends to use the powerful vitality contained within the Primal Thornbeast to neutralize Azeroth's blessing, because Azeroth bears you no ill will, and those powers cannot be simply removed like ordinary curses or magic. Furthermore, as beings born on Azeroth, our bloodlines and souls have long had an inseparable, close connection with this planet."
As an ancient Arch Druid, Fandral easily analyzed the anomaly in Magni. Azeroth had never intentionally done anything, but even orcs were no exception; the intelligent life on Azeroth had inevitably come into contact with and absorbed Azeroth's essence and energy through generations of inheritance.
They had drunk the water from this planet, eaten its crops and livestock, and even utilized and wielded the energies pervasive throughout the planet. "Children of Azeroth" was not an empty phrase; they were an inseparable part of Azeroth itself.
As Fandral continued his explanation, Arthas's ritual was nearing completion. Magni looked at the array on the ground and asked, "Am I supposed to stand in this?"
"No, this isn't for you."
Arthas's answer surprised Magni, but Fandral had already handed the tissue produced by the Primal Thornbeast to Magni.
"Hold this. I will use the power of nature to make its life essence flow into your body—this process will be a bit uncomfortable, but please don't be nervous. This small amount of life energy will at most make you feel energetic for a while."
"I understand."
After Magni took the biological tissue, a emerald green light glowed in Fandral's free hand. He was communicating with the will of nature, transforming this unique substance into a blessing.
The product of the Primal Thornbeast itself was an excellent medium for natural magic, and the ritual personally conducted by Fandral maximized the essence contained within it.
As a Arch Druid possibly second only to Malfurion in the path of druidism, Fandral effortlessly extracted this life essence and slowly integrated it into Magni's body, continuously neutralizing Azeroth's blessing.
Magni also felt that strange energy filling his body, making him feel his body constantly bursting with new vitality and life. This was completely different from the awkward feeling of transforming into a stone statue, as if every muscle in his body had its own consciousness, cheering with joy.
After only a few seconds, Magni's skin gradually revealed its normal, healthy reddish hue, and the stony color was steadily fading.
When the essence in his hand completely disappeared, Magni found that his entire body had fully recovered; he was no longer a stone man!
"It worked!"
Magni was pleasantly surprised. He was about to wave his arms to stretch his body but almost lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Fortunately, Fandral grabbed him, preventing Magni from falling to the ground in his moment of joy. However, the Arch Druid's expression was somewhat awkward as he turned to ask Arthas, "Uh… is his condition normal?"
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Even Arthas almost couldn't keep his composure when he saw Magni's current state. "Don't move yet, Magni. Wild life essence isn't that easy to control. It will take some time for Azeroth's power to neutralize it. It seems her will has also realized something and is protecting your brain."
Indeed, although Magni's body had fully recovered, his head was still made of stone.
Magni touched his face, and after feeling the hard sensation from his fingertips, his features almost twisted into a knot. "Alright, I knew it wouldn't be that easy."
"The results are actually quite significant." Fandral, after his initial surprise, returned to his usual state. He examined Magni and began to use magic to probe Magni's condition. "Hmm… all physical conditions are excellent, or rather, too excellent. And the power of that essence hasn't completely disappeared; it's merging with another power within you, which should be Azeroth's blessing. I guess once this process is complete, you should be able to fully recover."
After all this, Fandral also nodded to Arthas, "Your conjecture was correct. The wild power from life can indeed reverse the erosion of primal forces to a certain extent."
"As expected."
Arthas didn't just use Magni as a guinea pig for no reason; he had already conducted similar experiments with the power of Death and the power of the Light. Of course, if the life energy was too abundant, the biological form would undergo some unexpected changes. While that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it was clear that if too much life energy was infused, the mortal form would cease to exist.
However, Magni's transformation indeed validated his hypothesis: by using other primal forces to balance, creatures like Entropius or Naaru could be transformed into a quasi-mortal existence.
This transformation was not like the extreme binary conversion of the Light infusing Entropius to turn it into a Naaru, or a Naaru collapsing into Entropius when its energy ran out. Instead, it was more akin to how the Old Gods subtly altered inorganic beings through the Flesh Curse.
Undoubtedly, lives that regained mortal form no longer possessed certain characteristics of extreme energy beings, but given the balanced energy within them, powerful entities in specific domains could no longer arbitrarily control subordinate entities in their domains as they once did.
As the answer to this question was about to be revealed, Arthas also took out Xal'atath. Five Chains of Domination extending from five directions firmly bound Xal'atath in the very center of the ritual array.
"You must be joking, Your Majesty."
Even Xal'atath couldn't remain completely calm now. She had witnessed Magni's transformation and heard Arthas's thoughts, so she had some guesses about what Arthas intended to do.
Although Xal'atath was also curious about the ultimate answer to the problem, she did not want to be the guinea pig herself.
"I'm not joking, Xal'atath," Arthas stared calmly at the blade. "Don't you want to escape Dimensius? Then this should indeed be considered a boon."
Now it was Xal'atath's turn to fall silent. She did want to escape Dimensius, but this method was not quite what she had imagined… As for whether the outcome would be good or bad, Xal'atath's heart was actually quite conflicted.
If successful, she would indeed be fearless of Dimensius's control, but after that, her future would completely fall into Arthas's hands—completely trusting others was something Xal'atath could not do, even if that person was Arthas, whom even she herself could not fault.
But she felt she probably had no power to refuse, or rather, everything she was experiencing now was atonement for her past sins.
One Chain of Domination had already begun to extract Void energy from the dark empire blade. In one corner of the ritual, energy originating from Dimensius, the "Eater of All," was continuously gathering.
Next, Arthas took out five items.
The Arcane radiance of Order—the waters of the Well of Eternity.
The fervent wish of the Holy Light—a fragment of a primal Naaru.
The cold stillness of Death—a shattered remnant of Maw.
The chaotic rage of fel—the essence of a fallen avatar's fury.
And finally, the last item: an ancient technique from The First Ones, extracted from the memories of Primus and The Jailer, a body crafted to mimic the physique of the Eternals, utilizing the wild life energy contained within the Primal Thornbeast.
When the last item was taken out and placed in the center of the ritual, directly beneath Xal'atath, even Xal'atath was shocked by it.
"You… how do you have something like this?!"
The Void had once invaded the Shadowlands. As Dimensius's vanguard, Xal'atath also knew some secret rumors about the Shadowlands, but she had never imagined that she would witness what was probably the world's primordial model.
Of course, the craftsmanship and materials of this body were certainly far inferior to the Eternal prototypes created by The First Ones' techniques, but Arthas's ability to replicate a creation of this caliber already far exceeded Xal'atath's imagination.
"All preparations are complete. Now, all that's left is your decision, Xal'atath."
To Xal'atath's surprise, Arthas, at this final moment, left the choice to Xal'atath herself.
"May I ask, if I refuse, what will be my fate?"
"I will send Dimensius to the deepest part of hell to meet you, trying not to make you wait too long," Arthas replied decisively.
Xal'atath smiled, "Void creatures don't enter Maw after death—so what choice do I have?"
"Do as you wish, Your Majesty."