American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 563 The Changes at Mount Hyjal

While Rune was still trying to take the Emerald Nightmare with him, some problems arose in the real world of Azeroth.

Elune gently bathed the southern coast of Kalimdor in moonlight, but the Mage Tower within Theramore was destined to remain sleepless tonight. Inside the tower, twelve mages were gathered around the central arcane lens, discussing something.

Judging from their clothing style, these mages are from Dalaran.

This city has always been plagued by disasters. It was founded by mages, and therefore maintains an extremely open policy on the use of magic. The town's rulers welcome and encourage mages from all over to come here to study and use arcane arts.

In Dalaran, mages are not condemned as disobedient to the gods or impure souls for using magic, but those who use curses and are inclined towards evil can still hide among them.

Conservative estimates suggest that there are at least a thousand mages in Dalaran researching shadow magic, fel magic, and necromancy, even though necromancy has been explicitly prohibited.

The famous cat lover, one of the six members of the Kirin Tor Council, and now the Archlich Kel'Thuzad was once a leading figure in the study of necromancy in Dalaran.

In fact, Dalaran's rejection of necromancy was not because of Kel'Thuzad; the former archmage Merry Winterwind was still expelled from Dalaran after becoming a necromancer.

It's important to know that Merry Winterwind was one of the founders of the Council of Tirisfal and one of the first hundred human mages to be taught by elves in the early days of the Arathor Empire.

However, even such a distinguished status could not exempt him, which shows how outrageous necromancy is in the eyes of mortals.

However, the reason these mages can't sleep right now isn't because of any necromancy, but because of those visitors from another world.

"There's a significant anomaly in the mana readings towards Mount Hyjal, mentor!" a young dwarf mage announced, breaking the silence. He pushed up his heavy engineering glasses, his stubby fingers pointing to the rune array in the center of the lens. "Although I don't know the reason, this error is a bit too large."

A high elf mage strode in; her attire was noticeably more ornate, clearly indicating that she held a relatively high position among the twelve mages.

Under the disturbance of the Olympiad's energy, her smooth and beautiful long silver-white hair moved without wind. Through the lens, the powerful mage saw the abnormal readings displayed in the most direct way possible—

In the sky, the spatial rift, which was steadily shrinking, had unstable arcs of purplish-black electricity flickering at its edges. Clearly, some force was expanding this spatial rift.

Mount Hyjal is more important than anyone realizes. At the end of the War of the Ancients, Illidan Stormrage poured the water of the Well of Eternity, which he had kept hidden, into the lake on the mountain, transforming it into the Well of Eternity.

However, the night elves at the time believed that it was the Highborne's misuse of the Well of Eternity that attracted the Burning Legion.

That's why Illidan was imprisoned, while Malfurion, along with three other dragon guardians, planted the World Tree Nordrassil here to seal the Well of Eternity.

During the Burning Legion's second invasion, Darkseid targeted the World Tree. Destroying it would allow the Well of Eternity to reappear, and the energy it contained would be more than enough to open a portal to Azeroth for the Dark Titan.

The demons ultimately failed, but those bastards from another world succeeded. They clearly knew something and seized the moment when the Alliance, the Horde, and the night elves were at their most exhausted and weakest to launch a surprise attack.

Now, the hawkish leaders of the Alliance in Azeroth were right. The dark forces occupying Mount Hyjal weren't content with a small corner, but rather sought to accumulate power and summon more allies. Realizing this, the elven mage immediately shouted, "Send this message back immediately!"

The message reached the joint command center in Theramore within ten minutes. When Jaina pushed open the heavy oak door, Thrall was already standing there, his massive Doomhammer leaning against the wall.

"Have you confirmed it?" Jaina cut straight to the point. She hadn't had a good rest lately and looked exhausted. She had long since lost interest in any formalities.

Thrall, standing to the side, watched the high elf mage, who was even busier than Jaina.

The tribe had just settled on a place to live, but were evicted after only a few days. Faced with a powerful otherworldly force, the orcs...

The minotaurs and trolls must band together with humans and elves for warmth and protection.

-

However, the conflicts among these people were far more intense than imagined. Even with a common enemy, conflicts among civilians were still common, which led to a sharp increase in Thrall's workload.

He was able to free up his time now entirely because Vol'jin and Cairne were helping him handle the conflict. Vol'jin, in particular, had fully demonstrated his wisdom during this period, even surprising Thrall.

Malfurion and Tyrande did not come; they were busy purifying a group of corrupted green dragons.

However, the mage remained completely calm when facing the two leaders, Jaina and Thrall.

"We are quite certain, Ms. Proudmoore. The rate at which the mana is draining from Mount Hyjal is increasing exponentially. At this rate, the size of the spatial rift will triple within seventy-two hours."

A brief silence fell over the room.

There is no doubt that a much larger army is attempting to cross the spatial barrier and reach Azeroth. And they don't even know who the approaching enemy is.

Moreover, Mount Hyjal is located in northern Kalimdor, while Theramore, where they are, is in the south, separated by the entire Barrens and Thousand Needles—time, they need time!

"We need to act immediately." Thrall clenched his fist, his muscles tense beneath his green skin. "But if their goal is to expand the portal, then they must have protective measures in place."

Jaina nodded. "Besides land, we also have air and sea routes. Theramore is a port city, perhaps we can—"

"An aerial route is out of the question." Thrall shook his head. "That airship has far greater firepower than us, and a sea landing would also be overwhelmed by its powerful firepower. I cannot accept the pointless sacrifice of my warriors, whether they are human or orc."

Jaina fell silent. She knew Thrall was right, but—so what? The firepower gap between their air force and that warship was simply too great; casualties were probably inevitable.