Make Azeroth breathtaking

"boom!!!!"

A ball of white-hot flame formed without warning among the allied forces and exploded in less than a second. Amidst shrill screams, dozens of allied soldiers were thrown high into the air, crashing into the rock wall or falling directly into the lava, disappearing in a few gurgling sounds.

"Spread out! Spread out! Move in small groups of 5 to 10 people! Stay away from lava pools! Don't get blown in!!"

Before the second ball of white-hot flame could even appear, Thrall screamed at the top of his lungs. At the same time, he pushed his hands forward, summoning a stream of water power that delayed the explosion of the second ball of flame by about 0.3 seconds.

"boom!!!"

Another loud bang, and several more Allied soldiers were blasted away by Ragnaros's Flame Bomb, crashing into the rock wall or rolling into the lava. But the others couldn't help them now—the Firelord's third attack was coming soon, and they had to ensure their own safety first!

"You...don't go on like this!!"

Sensing that the focus of the Balrog King's attack had shifted, Daelin gritted his teeth and activated the Tidehunter's Blessing from the Tidebringer. In exchange for reducing the power of the Tidehunter's Protection on himself, he injected an extremely pure stream of water into the body of the Balrog King's clone!

"Ah! I want you to die first!!!"

The power of pure water had an immediate effect. A portion of the pure fire elemental power from the Fire Source Realm within the inferior clone of the Fire Demon King was instantly extinguished, and its size visibly shrank. In the blink of an eye, the Fire Demon King made a terrible decision.

Dalyne must be the first to die!!!

So Ragnaros once again gathered the power of the fire element and swung his burning warhammer at Daelin, who had not yet withdrawn Tidebringer. However, Sulfuras was deflected halfway by a large ice ball created by several archmages and Thrall, so it did nothing but create a few waves of lava.

"Dailin, that's a good sarcastic remark."

Varok pulled Daelin to a relatively safe spot and gave him a thumbs up. Daelin ignored the orc warrior's teasing, dodged the fireball larger than a washbasin thrown by the Firelord with a small roll, and continued to poke Ragnaros with Tidebringer. At the same time, the two archdruids and Thrall, who had found suitable casting locations, and Faol and the others quickly chanted spells, covering the four warriors at the front line with various blessings.

"Feel it! This is pure flame from the Land of Fire!!!"

Ragnaros swung his warhammer a few more times, but each swing missed Daelin, who was blessed by the power of nature and wind invoked by the two archdruids and Thrall. Ragnaros, in a state of extreme rage, was completely overwhelmed and directly activated the Eye of Sulfuras, forged in his own throne in the Firelands, which he had finally managed to obtain from this clone's weapon, unleashing an incomparably pure and intensely hot flame!

"retreat!!"

Daelin roared, dragging Baine, who still wanted to deliver a few more blows to the Balrog, and activated the still-functioning Ratchet rocket on his body. They left the Balrog's side at an even faster speed than when they arrived. Varian and Varok also used their special abilities to quickly escape the rocky platform next to the Balrog.

Warriors, hurry! The white, fiery waves summoned by the Balrog King were even faster. This silent inferno vaporized the magma, sublimated the rocks, and sucked out the air, catching up with the rear of the allied forces.

"barrier!!!"

Faol slammed his staff into the ground, roared out a single word of truth, and together with Guardian Haruni and the Forsaken Paladin, they created a reverse barrier with holy light infused with the power of the Tidehunter, enveloping Ragnaros's pure flames within. Thrall and Naralex also lent a hand, infusing it with even more pure water power.

but...

"Snap!!"

With a crisp cracking sound, the barrier shattered in less than twenty seconds. The white-hot flames engulfed the entire low-lying area of ​​the lava lake at an explosive speed. In less than a minute, everyone felt as if the Heart of Molten Core had returned to its original state—returned to its original state where it was completely dominated by fire elements.

However, Ragnaros, having delivered this blow, was left with a bitter pill to swallow. After activating the power of the Eye of Sulfuras and calming down slightly from his rage, he realized what he had done—he had released the pure fire power that maintained the rift between the Firelands and the material world! The pressure from the material world was gradually increasing! Before long, the rift beneath his feet would be closed into a tiny crack, and he would be banished once more to that place called the Elemental Realm of Fire, which was actually his prison!

"Mortals, let me give you the final—purification!!!"

Sensing the increasing pressure, Ragnaros roared and completely released the restriction on the Eye of Sulfuras. The magma chamber in Blackrock Mountain began to churn heavily in the pure fire power, threatening to erupt at any moment.

"Damn it! We can't get close to it, and our ranged attacks can't penetrate the flames around it!"

Watching Ragnaros slowly gathering his strength, Varian was extremely anxious. If Blackrock Mountain erupted again—not only would Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes be affected, but Elwynn Forest would most likely also be impacted!

"Can you feel it, you ants...? The power of the Tidehunter is utterly useless before me, utterly useless..."

The helpless expressions of the allied forces in the distance were reflected in the eyes of the Flame Demon King, who was completing its final power-up. This made it feel a little happy—yes, it might be sent back to spend tens of thousands of years, but before it left, being able to set off a big fire was not a bad choice!

"Perhaps the Tidehunter's power is on par with yours, but what about the Void?"

Tannis's voice, amplified by the loudspeaker, entered the ears of the Fire Demon King with a calm and even tone. Accompanying Tannis's voice was an energy sphere surrounded by red ions and with an interior as black as ink, which entered the Fire Demon King's body. In the blink of an eye, the evenly distributed pure fire became chaotic.

"What! No! No!! Mortal! Do you know what you're doing?!"

As the power of the void entered his body, the elemental power within the Balrog King's avatar, which had already been thrown into chaos by the Tidehunters, completely collapsed. Amidst screams, the towering Balrog King shattered into a sky full of lava, and his warhammer fell under the force of gravity, embedding itself deeply into the lava lake.

Ragnaros, the Firelord – banished.

69. What happened after the victory...

"it's over?"

As the fiery body of the Firelord dissipated and the falling Sulfuras Hammer splashed up lava, Dagran Thaurissan, who had lost most of his eyebrows and beard due to the scorching winds from Ragnaros's final attack, stared blankly at the gradually calming lava lake, seemingly unable to believe that the nightmare that had shrouded the Dark Iron dwarves for centuries had simply vanished.

"It's only temporary."

While fiddling with the X-1 compressed quantum cannon that she had brought over as a fuse but which had turned out to be crucial, trying to see if there was anything inside that hadn't burned out due to overload, Tannis answered in a muffled voice.

"temporary?"

The Grand Commander Haruni, who was not entirely clear about the specifics, spoke with a puzzled expression.

"Yes, the Ragnaros we defeated was merely a minor avatar of the fire elemental lord of Azeroth. Banished back to its cage, it will sooner or later unleash even more frenzied flames to take revenge on the world beneath our feet."

Exhausted, Thrall sat on the scorching ground of Molten Core, staring at Sulfuras's Hammer, still slowly enveloped in fire elementals in the distance. Ragnaros's final roar still echoed in his mind—a roar filled with boundless rage, containing the emotion of wanting to burn everything in the world to ashes.

“If it comes back once, we will defeat it once; if it comes back twice, we will defeat it twice. If it still entangles with us, we will delve into its seal and annihilate it on its throne.”

Forged from an alloy of black iron and mithril, and covered with a layer of dragon skin as insulation, Varian, whose armor was riddled with holes from being scorched by the magma carrying the power of fire, and whose hair had been burned into a regular buzz cut by the flames of the Balrog King, leaned on Salamani and walked to Thrall's side, patting the orc chieftain forcefully on the shoulder.

"...But the sacrifice is too great."

Jaina spoke softly, explaining that the area affected by the Firelord's final blow was so vast that the entire allied forces had lost nearly a third of their men in just one minute! If Daelin hadn't forced out the last bit of Tidehunter power from the Tidebringers, none of the warriors who went to charge into battle might have returned.

“This loss is surprisingly small, Jaina. I thought we would lose at least twice as many people—how could there not be a heavy price to pay for driving out an ancient being like the Balrog Lord?”

Wearing his admiral's uniform, which was almost half burned off, Daelin carried the Tidebringer, which had lost its spirit, and looked at the Allied soldiers who were cleaning up the mess in the distance. After a few seconds of silence, he stretched out his hand, and with a gurgling sound of water, the Heart of the Fleet fell back into his palm.

“Let’s go, Jaina. I believe Varian will fight for a fair share of the spoils for us. Now, we must return to Kul Tiras to welcome your brother back.”

————————————Dark Furnace City———————————————

In the Royal Council Hall of Darkforge Palace, Thrall, Varian, Dagranthorison, Tannis, and envoys from Ironforge sat formally around a round table, discussing a series of matters concerning the distribution of spoils and future cooperation.

Soon, after a brief discussion, the faction leaders settled on the basic price for the compensation. This money would be drawn from the proceeds of selling the precious metals and jewelry collected in Blackrock Spire and Molten Core, and distributed according to certain rules to the families of fallen Allied warriors or the disabled Allied soldiers themselves. Following this, after about an hour of discussion, an agreement on the distribution of various rare materials was also signed.

Then, there are a few major problems.

"This is the left half of the Windseeker's cage."

Thrall took out the left half of the cage that had imprisoned Sunderland's form.

"This is the right half of the Windseeker's Cage."

Varian took out the other half.

"Then, this is the essence of the wind of the wind chasers."

Dagran placed a bottle in front of him. While cleaning the lava lake at the center of Molten Core, he discovered a wisp of wind power that was too pure to be counted. He captured it and entrusted it to Duke Hydraxia for identification. It turned out to be part of the essence of Thunderaan the Windseeker that had been devoured by the Balrog.

"Is this a gem embedded in the Firelord's hammer—or rather, a coalescing of fire elements?"

Tannis controlled the mechanical assistant to open an elemental suppression box, revealing the Eye of Sulfuras, which was still churning with fire elementals.

“These things are very dangerous, extremely dangerous. I suggest that they be sealed away separately to prevent them from causing a huge disaster.”

Thrall, as a highly professional shaman, offered his insights, but Tannis dismissed them with disdain.

“Thrall, I understand your caution regarding the elements, but we have at least two elemental powers that are essentially unclaimed, aren’t we?”

"You mean the Essence of the Windseeker and the fire elemental orb in your hand that we named the Eye of Sulfuras? They are indeed unclaimed, but they still possess the power to flatten a city."

"I have no comments on the Essence of the Windseeker for now, but I do have an idea for how to use the Eye of Sulfuras."

Tanis closed the box sealing the Eye of Sulfuras, opened the 3D projection of the mechanical assistant, and displayed an image of Ragnaros's hammer, metal fragments recovered from the Incinerator by Ratchet, and the appearance of a strangely shaped robot.

"The main material of Sargeras' warhammer is the same as the metal we found in the bodies of the Incinerators. This material has an amazing melting point and unimaginable fire elemental adaptability. It can also hold a large amount of fire element as a fire element battery. The Eye of Sulfuras is, in a sense, a perpetual motion machine of fire element. So I want to build a huge engineering machine so that its power can be used by us. In this way, when facing some opponents who are too beyond common sense, we will have one more trump card."

"...That's a good idea, but who has control of this machine?"

Varian pondered for a few seconds, agreeing with Tannis's assessment, but he also had a concern: what if one day such a weapon were pointed at Stormwind...?

"If my plan succeeds, and if you, King Varian, don't mind learning a bit about engineering, then you can take control of it if permitted, and of course, you, Warchief Thrall, as well."

"We'll see. But, Tannis, the great tinkerer, where do you plan to forge that metal?"

Although Thrall felt that Tannis's idea was a bit dangerous, he couldn't very well stop her. As Tannis said, the power of the Eye of Sulfuras was essentially free.

"Ah, isn't it a waste not to use such a large place as the Molten Core? It's a natural forge, and there are even tiny channels connecting it to the elemental plane of fire that can increase the furnace temperature!"

Tannis waved her right hand, and all the 3D projections floating on the tabletop distorted, with huge machines, blast furnaces, and pipes replacing the original structures.

"I propose that a neutral city be built within Molten Core—the Iron City!"

1. Onyxia's Frenzy

"what--"

In the Tinkerman's Mansion in Ratchet, Tannis threw herself into her soft bed and entered "lazy mode."

It has been almost ten days since the battle of Molten Core ended, and all sorts of follow-up work are proceeding in an orderly manner in accordance with the spirit of the Darkheart City meeting. Ratchet City has also sent professionals to take over her position. Therefore, she found herself to have some rare free time—or so she thought!

"Tan-ni-s!!!"

With a furious shout, Onyxia, the black dragon princess, rushed into Tannis's bedroom through the window at incredible speed, smacked the Great Tinker on the head with a smack, and bit Tannis's still thick golden hair with her little white teeth.

"...You are a black dragon, not a dog."

With a stern face, Tanis plucked the Black Dragon Princess off her head, pulled her in front of her, stared at her incredibly cute face, and shook her with slight annoyance.

"Stop, stop, stop! I'm going to throw up!! Ugh! I'm really going to throw up!"

After shaking Onyxia a few times to vent her anger, Tanis placed the black dragon princess, whose eyes were still covered in mosquito coils, on the table, sat up from the bed, hugged her arms, tilted her head slightly, and her pupils flashed with a dangerous aura.

"My dear Onyxia, why did you choose to repay kindness with enmity? You should know that I've been busy with your brother for a long time without rest. Disturbing a young girl's sleep is an unforgivable crime!"

"A woman who'll be thirty in a few years saying she's a teenager—ouch, ouch, ouch, I'm so annoyed..."

Because she said something she shouldn't have, Onyxia's face was pinched and kneaded by Tanis for a long time. By the time Tanis felt comfortable, the poor black dragon princess had become much rounder. Tanis, having calmed down, got out of bed and began putting on her equipment.

"You came to see me because of your old corpse? Let me make this clear first, most of those things were put there by your brother. I think he might be a siscon, even wanting to play with your corpse."

"My brother has always been a siscon, no, he is! No! What am I even agonizing over! Tanis the Great Tinker, can't you just have a change of heart and bury my old corpse? Although many parts of an adult black dragon are valuable, you don't seem like the kind of girl who's short of money, do you?"

Onyxia clasped her hands together in front of her chest and tried to use her starry-eyed attack, but Tanis was unmoved.

"I lack it, and your corpse is worth far more than you imagine. Although your brother is a pervert, he is also a qualified researcher. From his research notes, we in Ratchet City have gained inspiration for some professions..."