Light's Dawn of Azeroth

Chapter 97: 52. The Grace of K'ure's Sacrifice: In My Father's House
"No wonder the spirits of the ancestors haven't responded to the shamans' prayers and greetings for so long. No wonder we can hear the ancestors' sobbing near Mount Oshu'gun. We always thought they were suffering from torture and humiliation, but we never imagined that when they chose to sacrifice themselves, the painful loss of their spiritual essence would also cause them to utter such mournful cries.

Alas, we are eager to save our ancestors from hardship, but we have been misled by those with ulterior motives.
We never even thought that there would be a second option other than 'hostility' in the relationship between the two, but it turns out that our ancestors were much braver, more enlightened, and more kind than us foolish descendants."

Inside the sacred mountain of Oshu'gun, on the navigation station of the former Genedar spacecraft, Ner'zhul, who was casting a spell to appease the spirits of the ancestors and trying to reconnect with them, sighed softly, which immediately attracted the approval of Mother Gaiaan beside him.

The old shaman raised his head and looked at the ancestral spirits floating above his head.

She could even find some familiar faces among them. The boundary between life and death was not so easy to break. Although she could see them, it was difficult for her to establish effective contact with them under normal circumstances.

"But I can't figure it out!"

Garrosh, guarding the matriarch with an axe in hand, stared vigilantly at the "crystal monster" emitting a dark aura in front of him. He whispered:

"Why would our ancestors sacrifice themselves to heal this guy?"

"Didn't Chief Ner'zhul just explain that?"

On the other side, General Gayala whispered:

"He told us that the ancestors sacrificed themselves to prevent the birth of a second 'Dark Star'. Although I don't know what that means, but since it could make a legendary shaman so nervous, I suspect it might be a metaphor for some kind of 'disaster'?"

“That’s what it means literally!
If the ancestors had not intervened, this broken Naaru before us might have become a dark star that fell to the earth more than a hundred years ago, which would have meant that the entire Nagrand grasslands and even the continent of Draenor would have been shattered.

While Ner'zhul and the Mother called upon the power of the elements to suppress the darkness that was constantly surging around them, he briefly told the story of "Kara, the Dark Star" to the orcs around him.

That is the secret of the Shadowmoon Clan, and orcs from other clans cannot know it.

But after the truth was revealed, even Griselda, the daughter of Black Hand, who was still seriously injured and weak and unable to speak, felt fear and horror.

They could not imagine the scene of the Dark Star Kara falling on the Temple of Karabor just by describing it in words, but they believed that Ner'zhul, as the spiritual leader of the orcs in the previous era, would not joke about such a thing.

"So, our ancestors have been using this noble sacrifice to protect our world from being devoured by the monsters left behind by the Draenei? But doesn't this just confirm my father's assertion?
The hatred and disputes between us and the blue-skinned people must be resolved by means of war!

Facts have proven that it is us orcs who have been protecting Draenor, while it is the Draenei who have been threatening this world! "

Griselda Blackhand was unable to speak, but she wrote her thoughts on the palm of her Valkyrie guard Sukka, who spoke on her behalf.

These extremely aggressive words were immediately stopped by Zagrel, the old chief of the White Claw clan. The most stubborn old chief among the orc clans lowered his voice and said:

"Regardless of whether your outrageous argument of 'confusing cause and effect' is correct, do you Blackrock Clan truly lack brains? Is it permissible to speak such words in this situation? If that 'Vigilant' can purify a Dark Star, then he can also purify us here.

Blackhand's daughter, I finally understand why your father doesn't value you.

Your train of thought is a bit too horrible. Letting someone like you become the leader will definitely be the beginning of disaster for the clan. And you're injured in the throat, not the eyeball! Open your eyes and look!

The ancestral spirits showed no sadness or reluctance when they treated the broken Naaru. Even an old warrior like me could see their regret and determination, which was very similar to the decisiveness we orcs have in treating our brothers.

They don't consider this sacrifice a burden and even feel a sense of honor, which is enough to prove that the relationship between the two is not as simple as you think."

"really."

Ner'zhul nodded and said:

"After entering here, we could hear the painful cries of our ancestors more clearly, but we did not sense the slightest reluctance or indignation. I can assure you on the honor of the Shadowmoon Clan that our ancestors were not coerced!
They are voluntary.”

"But why? I don't think being swallowed by such a dark creature is a wonderful experience!"

Yolin Deadeye, who had been silent the whole time, asked in confusion:

"What exactly drove our sacred ancestors to transform their final existence into nourishment for the creatures in the astral sea before us? I am a sorcerer, and I know many ways to seduce spirits, perhaps."

"Put away your dark thoughts, young warlock!"

Archon Hatton's rebuke interrupted Yolin's overly dark speculation.

As the legendary shaman leader of the Draenei, he now joined the ranks of summoning elemental forces with Nobundo and Jaid. He looked at Dick of K'ure, who was heading towards darkness, and his deputy, the new recruit Yrel, and said:

"My child will soon use his holy light to cut off the connection between His Majesty K'ure and the spirits of the ancestors. Then your ancestors' noble sacrifice will come to an end, and they will be freed from this terrible burden. The communication between the shamans and the spirits of the ancestors will also return to normal. You can ask the reason yourself.

But I believe that, despite the ominous 'Dark Song' emanating from His Majesty K'ure, as the guardian of the Draenei, His Majesty K'ure would never commit such a depraved act as to tempt spirits to serve as his 'food'!"

"Ah."

Mother Gaiaan nodded.

She really had many questions she wanted to ask the ancestors floating above her head, but there was already a look of deep thought on Ner'zhul's old face.

As the chief of the Shadowmoon Clan, he was definitely one of the people who had the most profound research on the soul realm in the world of Draenor. At this moment, he was carefully observing the ancestral spirits revolving around the broken Naruk'ure, and a bold and bizarre guess quietly emerged in his mind.

At the moment when the holy light of Saint Diak'um in front of him turned into the gentle dawn light, Ner'zhul whispered to Mother Gaiaan beside him:

"Do you remember that the ancient rituals of our orc shamans communicating with the spirits of our ancestors underwent a reform two hundred years ago?"

"Of course, that was a reform initiated by your Shadowmoon Clan. It was you who proposed to regard the Oshu'gun Crystal Mountain that appeared overnight in the Nagrand grasslands as a holy place. Because you found that it was easier to call upon the will of the ancestors around the holy mountain."

The matriarch looked at Ner'zhul in surprise and said:

"It was during that reform that the way shamans communicated with the spirits of their ancestors was transformed into its current form. In the ancient times, we could only talk to our ancestors briefly at specific times and during specific rituals.

But after the ritual reform, the communication between the shaman and the ancestral spirits became smooth, fast and efficient.

For two hundred years, before the Ancestral Spirits suddenly became silent, the connection between the Orcs and the Ancestral Spirits remained strong. This connection changed our clan culture, and the shamans saw it as a sign of the rise of civilization.

Ner'zhul, are you getting senile?
As Chief Shadowmoon, you should know this better than I do."

"Of course I remember, but it was only then that I realized something we had previously overlooked: time! Gaiaan, think carefully about the coincidence in time and space between the activation of the Ancestral Spirits and the fall of the Draenei."

Ner'zhul reminded:

"Is it truly a coincidence? Or is the sudden activation of the Ancestral Spirits not a sign of good fortune for the orcs, but simply part of the many changes triggered by the arrival of the 'Aliens' into this world?
Well, let me be frank.

Do you think it is possible that the reason why the ancestral spirits here sacrificed themselves to save the broken Naaru was not just out of morality but also as a practical act of "repaying a favor"?
Is it possible that it is because of the existence of this Broken Naaru that our orc ancestors were able to break free from the cold shackles of the kingdom of death, allowing them to remain in the world of the living for a long time in the form of spirits, and continue to provide their wisdom and help to future generations?

Perhaps, the activeness of the ancestral spirits and the broken naaru of the Draenei are 'mutually fulfilling'? "

"This"

Faced with this "brilliant idea" of Ner'zhul, Mother Gaiaan didn't know how to respond for a moment, and even the knowledgeable Hatton was shocked by this guess.

He stroked his beard, which was even more exaggerated than Velen's, and said:

"We have never encountered a situation like this before, and our understanding of the Naaru is not that deep. I can't say whether His Majesty K'ure's broken state will affect his spirit, but the remains of another Naaru, His Majesty Deori, are stored in the Holy Land of Auchindoun.

indeed
Judging from the results alone, over the years, those who were sent to the Auchindoun Tombs would occasionally experience the phenomenon of 'spiritual stasis'. Because of this, our soulbinders were able to promptly send the souls of the warriors into the Immortal Guard after their death, allowing them to continue to perform their sacred duties.

"Not 'occasionally', Archon!"

Leland reminded at this time:

"The number of wandering spirits in the Holy Land of Auchindoun is far greater than we imagined. They usually hide in the shadows of the Holy Land. The Auchenai priests have even built shrines specifically for them. That abominable warlock, Teron'gor, was also attracted by these spirits and went to the Holy Land to do evil.

I saw with my own eyes how he captured souls from the shrine, and I was able to escape from there thanks to the help of those spirits.

Hmm, come to think of it, the spirits in the Auchindoun Sanctuary exist in almost the same form as the ancestral spirits here! They all seem to be endowed with some special ability, able to freely travel between the reality phase and the soul phase.

"So, you're saying that the shattered remains of a naaru actually 'strengthen' the spirits it resides in? Some kind of strange 'field' that can block the power of the realm of death?"

Hatton narrowed his eyes.

The orc elders around them also narrowed their eyes and exchanged subtle glances with each other. Even Garrosh, Gaiara and Jorin Deadeye saw each other's astonishment and disbelief.

The orc heroine Draka clenched her fists and muttered to herself. She raised her head and looked at the broken Naruk Ulei in front of her.

Draka's mind was filled with thoughts like a storm.

Right now, the extremist orcs are preparing to launch an extermination war against the blue-skinned people under the slogan of "saving the spirits of the ancestors", but the fact is that the tortured spirits of the ancestors they are talking about have a good relationship with the blue-skinned people's sacred objects.

It is even very likely that the two sides have become sworn brothers and are willing to sacrifice each other to save their brotherly relationship!
this.
This is not even the black humor that can be described as "reversing the Tiangang".

If this is the truth, then Chief Blackhand's reason for launching the war would be invalidated in an instant.

The orcs would instantly lose all moral foothold in the war they were preparing, and would not be able to call this war even a little "justice" or "glory". They would become despised destroyers and the most shameful accomplices of the devil.

This was also keenly noticed by the Black Hand's daughter.

Griselda Blackhand, supported by a female warrior, looked at the broken Naaru and the holy light held high by the Draenei saint in front of her with a complicated look.

Having seen through the truth of the feud between the two races, she felt complicated at the moment. Perhaps in order for her father's great cause of conquest to continue, she should take the risk here and attack the Vigilant Saint who was preparing to rescue the Naaru, so as to plunge the broken Naaru into darkness completely.

Perhaps she should use her own blood as a sacrifice to set the wheel of war in Draenor rolling forward, forcing the orcs and draenei into a desperate war where they could never reconcile.

But just as she reached for the weapon at her waist with her weak fingers, a strong hand grabbed her wrist.

Griselda was startled and looked back. Her most admired orc heroine, Draka, was staring at her with a cold gaze. She seemed to guess what the Daughter of Blackhand was going to do from that cold look.

“Don’t do that!”

In the increasingly bright light ignited by the Sentinels ahead, Draka whispered:

"You must prove that you have more than just a path to victory, my child. Your father has already committed himself to destruction. Blind obedience will not bring you the glory you desire. You also cannot compete with your two brothers who act faster than they think.

Let me give you a piece of advice, ambitious warrior girl.

If your father is desperate to destroy, you must stand firmly on the side of peace!
The moment he fails in front of you, all his honor, reputation, and status will be inherited by you alone! Only by defeating him in this way can you make him face up to your existence.

Only in this way can you prove to your people that you are stronger than your father and win their obedience and respect. Otherwise, you will live in the shadow of Chief Blackhand for the rest of your life."

"Yes, this is also the intention of our ancestors to establish the tradition of 'Mak'gora'."

Gaia Anzong's mother, who was looking ahead, reminded in a weak voice:
"You have won the Mak'gora many times, Griselda Blackhand, and I have heard of your fierce reputation even in Nagrand, but you never seem to truly understand the purpose of this ritual and its true glory.

It was never meant for us to be aggressive.

Take Draka's advice, kid.

If you really want to become an orc hero like her. Also, don't forget that among the ancestral spirits here there are also chiefs and elders from the Blackrock clan. They are watching us, and they are also watching you!
you.
My child, will you disappoint your ancestors?"

------

"Your Majesty, I'm sorry. I'm late. I'm a full twenty-five thousand years late. I missed the perfect moment to help you, leaving you to suffer such humiliation from the cold darkness."

On the broken navigation console, Diakum raised his left hand.

In the release of burning holy power, he spread his holy light like the morning light of dawn, just like a surgeon performing a precise operation, wrapping the warm and bright light on the miserable crystal body of the broken Naaru bit by bit.

He had previously purified the "Dark Star" Kara and had experience in the "legendary operation" of purifying the Naaru.

But unfortunately, K'ure's situation is completely different from Kara's.

Kara was simply forced to transform into a "Dark Entropy Demon" because she was too exhausted and her holy light was exhausted, making her unable to resist the temptation from the boundless void. Her body was intact, and she still had the power of a Naaru and the terrifying endurance of a mythical creature, so she could withstand the "violent purification" from Dick, Velen, and Isana.

That was a very rough "energy infusion".

There is no need to use any special techniques, all we need is “hard work makes miracles happen”!
A "large amount" of pure holy light combined by a demigod and two legends was poured into Kara's dark body, forcibly dispelling the void shadows on it and "relighting" its holy light.

But before K'ure was entangled by the Void, its Naaru body was shattered by the fall of the Genedar.

It was already seriously injured and dying, and its crystal body was full of cracks visible to the naked eye, just like bulletproof glass that had been hit hard. This fragile body condition made Dick dare not try the previous "violent purification" at all.

He was afraid that before the purification even started, K'ure would shatter in front of him on the spot because he was "too weak to be replenished".

Also because of the extreme weakness caused by the broken body, the difficulty of the void on K'ure at this time is several levels more troublesome than that of the Dark Star Kara.

Those void shadows originating from the Lightless Sea are "repairing" it. This is the physiological expression of Naaru's peculiar "duality of light and darkness", but this repair means that the void is corroding K'ure more seriously, which involves the temptation and corruption of "existence".

In the most extreme case, Dick even felt that K'ure could no longer be brought back to the realm of holy light, and that he was becoming a true "God of the Void".

"Respond to me."

Enveloped in the holy light that grew brighter and brighter, even beginning to "ignite" the surrounding shadows, Dick whispered to K'ure, who was constantly emitting the "Song of Darkness" before him:

"I don't know how to fix you, but you understand your situation far better than I do. If you know how to bring you back to the Holy Light, please speak up."

"Saint! Your light cannot grow any stronger."

As the ritual assistant, Yrel endured the scorching heat of the light. While trying her best to merge her own "little splash" of holy light into the saint's raging sea of light, she reminded:

"The orcs' ancestral spirits can no longer hold on. If they continue to gain strength, they will be burned to ashes!"

"Tell the shamans to contact the ancestral spirits and retreat to a safe area!"

Dick's voice echoed in the light, less gentle than usual and more coldly rational. He said:
"I will take over the healing of His Majesty K'ure's sacrifices by the ancestral spirits. Only in this way can I communicate with His Majesty K'ure more directly. Also, thank the ancestral spirits for their noble sacrifices over the years on my behalf!
Without their constant self-sacrifice to protect K'ure's fragile mind, I fear our guardian naaru would have been transformed into a void demon of entropy centuries ago.

We, the draenei, owe a debt to these ancestral spirits, and the world owes them a debt as well.

You can phase out, Yrel.

Next, my spiritual communication with Naaru will drag you into it, but your will cannot resist the spiritual assimilation of His Majesty K'ure."

"You need help! His Majesty K'ure also needs help."

Yrel refused.

The determined and somewhat stubborn recruit shouted:
"I was born on Draenor. Without His Majesty K'ure's persistence and protection, I wouldn't be alive today. I want to help it! At the very least, I can see it off to its final journey. I'm not representing just myself right now!

Saint, please give me this chance!

Let me express our gratitude to His Majesty K'ure on behalf of the children who were born in Draenor like me. At least let me prove to it that the children who were protected by it back then are alive and well.

We may never be able to accomplish the great deeds of His Majesty K'ure in this lifetime, but we are definitely not cowards who can't even thank him in person or remember him!"

"If you insist, fine."

Dick agreed.

At the same time, several legendary shamans and their assistants who received Irel's signal began to work together. As Diakum's holy light enveloped K'ure's broken body, the shamans used the spell of ancestral calling and, with the blessing of elemental power, instantly established contact with the "released" ancestral spirits.

"come back!"

Ner'zhul called out in a spiritual communication:
"The Draenei saints will use the Holy Light to heal Lord K'ure. Ancestors, your years of dark vigil have ended. We have already seen the truth, and you ignorant and foolish children have arrived."

"The truth? No, my dearest, you know nothing of the truth."

A low, tired female orc's voice responded to Ner'zhul.

"Rulkan?"

Amid the exclamations of Ner'zhul and everyone present, they established a brief connection with the ancestral spirits of more than a thousand orcs at that moment.

In this spiritual connection, the spirits of the ancestors presented the truth of what had happened in this Crystal Mountain over the past two hundred years to the Garadar orcs and Draenei archons present.

They seemed to have entered the vision of the ancestral spirits for a short period of time.

From a third-person perspective, they witnessed the "Eternal Day of Glory" triggered by the night when the Genedar, wrapped in heavenly fire, fell on the Nagrand grasslands. That was also the "moment of divine revelation" recorded in the animal skin scroll of orc history.

They saw that K'ure, who was wrapped in holy light, tried his best to protect as many people as possible when the spaceship fell. This kind-hearted Naaru even used his own power to hit the broken spaceship to prevent the crystal impact caused by the disintegration of the spaceship from destroying the continental shelf of Nagrand.

It must have detected traces of intelligent life on the grassland, and it did not want the Draenei's disaster to evolve into a disaster for the entire Draenor world.

It and its brother, Deori, had given everything to prevent the draenei from perishing in the Fall.

The brave Deori was shattered on the spot, and its life as a Naaru ended. K'ure survived, but was seriously injured and knew the fate he would face. It was unwilling to let its imminent transformation into an entropy demon affect the existence of the Draenei in the new world.

The naaru's final choice was to seal the broken navigation station.

It hopes to die peacefully in this cemetery, and hopes that the children it has protected for more than 20,000 years can return here to destroy it before it completely transforms into a dark creature.

That was really its last thought.

However, soon Keure "woken up unexpectedly".

The broken Naaru discovered the "locals" gathered around him, those spirits that were "activated" by his existence. Perhaps the process of falling from light to darkness was full of some inexplicable mysteries, or perhaps it was because the mythical creature Naaru had its own magic. In short, during the time when it fell here and waited for death alone, it accidentally gained a group of orc "friends" because of its "shelter".

The orc ancestors who were guided here were not captured by death. They maintained their clear will but did not know how to help this huge crystal guy who kept emitting the "Song of Sorrow". They could only use the most primitive call to try to wake up K'ure.

They succeeded.

As a result, they became friends with the lonely and dying K'ure. Knowing that his transformation was unstoppable, K'ure used his last time to teach the orc ancestors some of the skills he knew about soul power, in order to help them stay away from the temptation after he fell into darkness.

But the orc ancestors never abandoned it, and they stubbornly believed that saving K'ure was a kind of "repayment of favor".

It was precisely because of K'ure's influence that the group of ancestral spirits became active, which indirectly affected the prosperity of the orcs' shamanism and put the orcs' civilization on the fast track.

The orcs owed K'ure a debt of gratitude, so these simple ancestral spirits have always been with it.

They instructed the shamans of the living world to turn Oshu'gun into a holy mountain to prevent ignorant people from entering and affecting K'ure's already precarious situation. They also tried to pass on the message to the Draenei to come and help.

But unfortunately, the separatism that Osar brought did not begin when he became archbishop.

Spirits can do amazing things, but there are limits to what they can do.

As time went on, K'ure finally met the end of the Naaru.

It said goodbye to its orc friends and planned to die alone, but the orc ancestors made a choice that shocked even K'ure.

They sacrificed their own existence and used the replenishment of pure spiritual essence to become the "fuel" that supports K'ure in fighting against darkness.

The effect was actually minimal. As for the dark transformation of the Naaru, the sacrifice of the ancestral spirit had no impact on the overall situation. However, this inspired K'ure's weak will and made it begin to rekindle its fighting spirit against the dark fate of being a Naaru.

The scene was very similar to that of a strange empire in a distant world that needed to burn a thousand psionicists every day to keep the torch burning.

Although there are slight differences between the two, the essence is the same.

It is struggle, sacrifice and persistence in the pursuit of light.

You can say they are ignorant and cruel, but you cannot despise their determination to fight against darkness.

The orc ancestors did this voluntarily, without any lofty reasons, not even to prevent the emergence of the second Dark Star, but simply because, in the beautiful tradition of the orcs, this is how they would treat their friends.

But Keure felt sad about it.

Just as Diakum was being healed by the sacrifices endured by the orc ancestors over the years, he also heard the first words that K'ure uttered to him in his dying moments:

"I am deeply satisfied that you will carry out my final declaration. Thank you for the grace of the Holy Light that has reunited us, Vigilant. Please protect these children on my behalf, Diak'um, just as I have protected you, and just as they have protected me."

"So, the orc is your child too?"

Dick suppressed his sadness and joked in the spiritual connection:
"I thought we, the Eredar, were your only favorite children."

"Yes, you are all good kids."

K'ure could no longer sing that ethereal sacred song. It now resembled an old man on the brink of death. Surrounded by darkness, it used its last bit of light to touch Diak'um and said:
"Holy Light, as you can see, I have fulfilled my holy vows.

I have fought the difficult battle against the evil energy, I have exhausted the path I should walk in the shadow of the void, and I have kept the path I should keep in the game of fate. I don’t know whether there will be a crown of light that will last forever for me.

I have no strength to move forward, and there is no need to trudge forward.

I have returned to the home where the Original Light called me. The Holy Light is waiting for me, and I have kept Him waiting for too long.

My friends, my children, my successors, when my light is extinguished, please take up my banner, hold high my morality, step over my corpse, and bravely continue to move forward, through this endless storm to reach the other side of victory.

Holy Lightforged Diak'em Zastins, Vigilant from Argus, Lightsworn Hand who fights against fate, may the Holy Light bless you.

May the Holy Light bless you.

May the Holy Light bless this world."

(End of this chapter)