Make Azeroth breathtaking

Looking at Nalorak's mangled remains, Iggy was dumbfounded. She had thought that the battle with the bear spirit's wielder would be as difficult as the battle with the eagle god, but it turned out that all this guy could do besides a bunch of combat skills that couldn't hit anyone was turn into a bear.

“It’s not that he’s too weak, it’s that we’re too strong. If we had known about Ekilson’s tricks earlier, he wouldn’t have lasted more than two minutes against us.”

Sylvanas kicked Nalorak's head away and looked at Iggy.

"Hurry up and do what you need to do, we don't have time to waste."

"Ah...okay, okay."

Iggy put on the mask, danced a ridiculous dance around Nalorak's body for a minute, and then threw a skull at him.

"Alright, alright, let's hurry to the next place."

——————————————Dragon Eagle Altar——————————————————

"I curse you! I curse you!!"

Compared to the giant bear priest who managed to put up a few fights, Gayal's performance was a tragedy within a tragedy. As a former thief, he was completely unable to wield the power of the dragon eagle god like Egilson did with the eagle god. As a result, after Tannis, Iggy, and Romans turned the entire altar into an ice and snow world, the poor guy completely reverted to his old combat thief form—the kind that was too flashy to stealthily move.

Then he was gone in half a minute—barely managing to leave a complete corpse. Therefore, he even managed to leave a last message before he died. In this respect, Gayalai seems to have been a little more successful than Nalorak...

————————————Lynx Altar——————————————————

As for the last host of the Lynx Spirit... Halraz... his performance was nothing. As the strongest hunter of the Amani tribe, he unfortunately encountered the former legendary ranger general of Quel'Thalas and successfully staged a scene where he was ambushed but was ambushed in return. Then, like a dead dog, he was shot against the wall by Sylvanas and died like a dead dog.

"I have this feeling that, apart from the first one, these guys are all just throwing the game around, and their performances are getting increasingly outrageous. If this continues, will the last guy just commit suicide the moment he sees us?"

Looking at Halraz hanging on the wall and swaying, Iggy felt his eye twitch.

"gone."

Completely ignoring Iggy's sentiments, Sylvanas slung her bow back over her shoulder and left the Lynx Altar. After confirming that Halraz was dead, Romans followed Sylvanas away, while Tannis slightly raised her head to look at the sky. In the spectrum seen through her engineering glasses, a lynx was roaring as it departed.

'As Iggy said... apart from Egilson, the other three god-bearers didn't fight seriously, but why is that?'

——————————————Eternal Song Forest————————————————————

"Om—"

A portal opened inside the mage camp of the Quel'Thalas army, and Tannis, Sylvanas, Romanus, and Iggy filed out, Iggy still grumbling.

"I thought there would be a thrilling battle! But that sorcerer lord actually uttered the harsh words, 'The Amani Empire will surely rise again,' and then committed suicide! Have their brains been fried by voodoo magic?"

Romans remained silent, for he had discovered something that troubled him greatly during the battle: aside from the four wielders of the Beast Gods, their priests, and the sorcerer who had committed suicide, no other Amani trolls in Zul'Aman had come to their aid. Sylvanas, too, was equally preoccupied; her mind was completely focused on the impending war of revenge against Darkan, leaving little room for anything else.

“Welcome back, Sylvanas. I hope you won’t mind sitting and talking with a paladin later.”

Lor'themar, who already knew Sylvanas was coming, was already waiting at the portal.

"A paladin, is he from the Alliance?"

Sylvanas narrowed her eyes slightly. Although she had fought alongside the Alliance before, she was now... unwilling to have any contact with them.

"It's not an alliance, but a new ally Prince Kael'thas found in Outland, a race with an extremely high innate affinity for the Holy Light."

"Someone came from the outer realms?"

Romans hurriedly asked—the blood elves' contact with Kael'thas had been severed for over a year, and as the prince's loyal follower, he was constantly worried about His Highness's well-being.

"Yes, but the portal only lasted for less than half a minute before closing, so only one Draenei paladin came to Azeroth through the portal as their temporary ambassador stationed in Quel'Thalas."

"How is His Highness? How is the demon addiction of the people?"

“Very good. According to that Draenei paladin, His Highness Prince Kael'thas successfully found a large area of ​​abundant energy in Outland. Then, in collaboration with the Draenei, he combined Miss Tanis's technology with Draenei technology in that area to establish several large energy bases. This basically solved the mana addiction problem for all the blood elves who went to Outland... Let's go, I'll take you to see him.”

Lor'themar, who was turning to lead the way, was completely unaware of the strange expression on Tannis's face after she finished speaking. The moment she heard the name of the Draenei race, fragments of memories in Tannis's mind happily stirred up again.

'The Blood Elves in Outland...have become allies with the Draenei?'

Interlude: Kael'thas's Diary

(These words are excerpted from Kael'thas's diary after he went to Outland.)

Dark Portal, March 21, 2022:

During the orc invasion, I had already heard descriptions of their homeland—Draenor, which we call Outland—from some orc prisoners. In their words, their homeland was a beautiful world, with customs and culture no less stunning than Azeroth. But... we have entered a fiery wasteland, a barren land where even the air is scorched, a place with a lower concentration of arcane energy than Azeroth...

Fortunately, the five colorless crystal manufacturing devices that my mages improved upon using Miss Tannis's technology worked perfectly in the Outland. They were not picky about what they were fed into the feed chute; anything that could burn could be converted into colorless crystals by the machine with a roar—although things like wood or fur were not very efficient at converting them.

Dark Portal, March 10, 2022:

Lord Illidan—I call him Lord because I have indeed sworn allegiance to him—told me that, apart from rebuilding the Sunwell, he had a way for my people to freely deal with their mana addiction without relying on colorless crystal shard generators. After discussing it with my advisors, I decided to accept his offer, since, nominally, we are now all under Illidan's command.

Dark Portal, March 11, 2022:

Warlock magic—I never dreamed that the solution Lord Illidan taught us would be a variant of warlock magic—to satisfy ourselves by absorbing the magic, physical strength, and even life force of other beings, and to counteract the hunger that surged from the hearts of my people due to their magic addiction!

One of my archmages used a wild boar as a sacrifice to test the method Lord Illidan taught us, and the results were unexpectedly good. If we burned the boar using the colorless crystal generator, it would only provide the archmage with enough mana for one day at most. However, if we absorbed it using Lord Illidan's method, according to the archmage, he wouldn't have to worry about mana addiction flare-ups for at least three days. In terms of conversion rate, Lord Illidan's method is undoubtedly superior.

However, I made a decision that unless I was desperate, I would not allow my people to use this seemingly 'comfortable' method. The only mage who had ever tried this method agreed with me and used arcane magic to erase his memory of it—although this almost triggered his magic addiction.

Today our victims are wild boars, tomorrow we might hunt orcs, and the day after tomorrow, what will we hunt?

Dark Portal, March 2, 2022:

Lord Illidan has discovered an important magical node in this land and said that if we help him complete his campaign, he will give us a bottle of well water. With the well water, we can rebuild the Sunwell in this wasteland and revive Quel'Thalas.

However, I've now come to understand one thing: the establishment of the Sunwell was the result of a confluence of favorable circumstances. The water from the Well of Eternity was only one important factor in its creation, not the only one. Even with the water, the miracle of the Sunwell might not have been recreated. Nevertheless, I ultimately decided to help Lord Illidan complete his battle plan; after all... having more options isn't bad.

The Dark Portal, December 17, 22 years ago

My hunch was right.

After spending almost a month conquering the Black Temple, I bid farewell to Lord Illidan and went to find a suitable place to build a Sunwell so that my people could settle down. Lord Illidan readily agreed to our request.

We spent half a month finding a forest, a forest that, although a bit eerie, was magnificent and beautiful, no less so than our Yongge Forest. We plan to build our new home here.

However, the Sunwell was never built.

I poured half a bottle of water from the Well of Eternity into a small lake, and nothing happened—it was as if I had poured in ordinary water.

The Dark Portal, December 30, 22 years ago

We encountered a race we had never seen before.

In appearance, they are very similar to the Eredar—one of the demons of the Burning Legion; however, the power surrounding them is the Holy Light.

I sent my people to communicate with them (thankfully, the spell of language still works in this land), and they learned that we were refugees whose homes had been destroyed by the Burning Legion, forcing us to leave our homes and come to this world. They told us that they, too, were wanderers who had drifted to this world because of the Burning Legion.

Out of a sense of shared suffering, they invited us to visit their village deep in the forest, and I readily agreed.

The Dark Portal, December 3, 22 years ago

I met the Draenei leader, Prophet Velen, who showed no surprise at my arrival, as if he had known I would come. He led me to a man—a human mage named Khadgar—whom I knew. He had joined the Outland Expedition eight years after the Dark Portal, arriving on this land before us. And among the Expedition was our pride of Quel'Thalas, Alleria Windrunner.

Khadgar was also surprised to see me. He exchanged information with me, and I told him about the current situation in Azeroth. He told me about the whereabouts of some of Alleria's subordinates. As for Alleria herself, he regretfully told me that he had no idea where she was.

The Dark Portal, December 20, 22 years ago

It’s incredible!

This is the first time I've learned that besides elemental beings, which are purely energy-based, there is another kind of being in this world composed entirely of holy light! These beings, called Naaru, could probably fill a thick book with my knowledge and be stuffed into the great libraries of Dalaran or Silvermoon City...

Haha, both cities are just ruins now... Maybe we'll have to wait decades to fit them into a book...

The Dark Portal, December 30, 22 years ago

With the help of the Naaru, we joined forces with the Draenei to retake Shattrath City from the Burning Legion. It was the Draenei's former capital in this land. Velen was grateful and allowed us Blood Elves to reside in Shattrath. He also generously sent his team of engineers to help us further upgrade and improve our colorless crystal production equipment—it was then that I realized the Draenei were not only experienced in the Path of the Holy Light, but also had unique insights into the combination of arcane and engineering—I felt fortunate that the Blood Elves could be allies with such a race.

The Dark Portal, December 30, 22 years ago

Combining Draenei technology, our colorless crystal production equipment now possesses the ability to absorb and concentrate arcane energy from the air, further enhancing the purity of the compressed crystals. Upon learning of our people's needs, A'dal guided us to the Netherstorm—the edge of the shattered continent of Outland, where the magical web formed by flowing arcane energy is even visible to the naked eye…

Shattrath City came to our aid, and together with the Draenei, we successfully erected a tower in this barren land—a tower that could absorb arcane energy from the air for our use—which we called the Mana Forge.

The Dark Portal, December 16, 22 years ago

My people can finally stop worrying about magic addiction!

With two mana furnaces, the blood elves who came to Outland could obtain a sufficient supply of pure arcane energy at any time! They no longer had the risk of becoming mindless!

But have the people still living in Eversong Forest also overcome the crisis of magic addiction...?

The Dark Portal, December 21, 22 years ago

I had a nightmare.

I dreamt that I didn't meet Lady Tanis in Dalaran, nor did I know anything about colorless crystals. After the failure to build a new Sunwell in Outland, I was forced to make my people accept Illidan's solution, which involved feeding on other animals, elemental creatures, and even demons—and eventually, it spiraled out of control... Even innocent Draenei became our prey, and the Naaru, possessing powerful Holy Light, were bound and turned into a source of power that we could extract from them indefinitely...

When I woke up, I wondered, if my experience were exactly the same as the scene in my dream, would I have made the same choice? Would I have chosen to make my people abandon their principles in order to survive?

The answer is yes.

When I realized this, I broke out in a cold sweat—I couldn't imagine what I and my people would become if we continued down that path.

Monster? Demon? Or... something even worse than those?

12. The Blue Dragon in the Ghostlands

In the center of the large camp's tents, a magical map of the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas floated silently on a table, where representatives of several major factions stood around the table, discussing the attack on Desolace.

Among them, Sylvanas was the most radical. As the Banshee Queen, she proposed a simple and clear tactic: gather troops in Tarquerin and then push forward in one wave. Based on her experience, the remaining forces in Quel'Thalas were fully capable of carrying out such a one-wave attack.

However, Lor'themar objected, telling Sylvanas that while Quel'Thalas' current forces were theoretically capable of launching such a swift attack, in reality, most of the soldiers were not in good condition and needed rest, supplies, and healing. In other words, the maximum number of troops that could be mobilized was only what Sylvanas had initially estimated—and that was even including the troops brought by Jaina.

Romans, however, believed that while eliminating Darkan was necessary, launching an attack without intelligence could easily lead to a trap—Darkan's return to Quel'Thalas indicated he had something to rely on, and he advocated sending reconnaissance troops to investigate the situation before making a decision.

Haduron agreed with Romans's opinion, but he also pointed out that Sylvanas was right about one thing: they couldn't give Darkan too much time to set up camp. Otherwise, once he had integrated the undead army in the Ghostlands, it would be a problem whether the remaining troops in Quel'Thalas could withstand his attack, let alone eliminate him.

Tanis coughed twice as she watched the three blood elves arguing and a former blood elf ranger general.

"Ahem... everyone, I've actually already taken pictures of that area with a disposable reconnaissance drone... would you like to see the photos they brought back?"

"Give it to me."

Sylvanas extended her hand directly, a dangerous glint in the depths of her fiery red eyes.

"Give."

Tanis ignored Sylvanas's slightly unreasonable behavior and handed her a stack of photos that she had printed out using her mechanical assistant. Sylvanas took the photos and eagerly began to look through them.