N'Zoth's heart was filled with anger and shame at being tricked, to the point where it felt an urge to destroy the world immediately.
It all started a few minutes ago—at that time, it believed it had seen through Vel'koz's true nature, feeling that this growing member of its kind deeply admired it and was willing to dedicate everything to the cause of the Old Gods, even sacrificing itself without hesitation.
N'Zoth quickly put down its mental baggage and turned its plan into action—eating Vel'koz, absorbing its energy, and plundering its talent for releasing Disintegration Rays!
It did just that, and Vel'koz was indeed swallowed into its stomach. But just as it prepared to digest the other, the little thing truly launched its attack!
Vel'koz released immense Disintegration Rays within its body, while simultaneously using various negative emotions to greatly impact its senses, leaving it somewhat disoriented—if N'Zoth wasn't a semi-corporeal Old God, if it wasn't the God of Nightmare, these two attacks alone would have seriously injured it.
However, this didn't mean it had overcome the crisis, because Vel'koz was never alone; its true trump card had yet to be revealed.
Being eaten by N'Zoth was originally a crucial part of Aiden's plan to eliminate this God of Nightmare. Vel'koz calmly acted according to the plan, activating the teleportation beacon and using its own power to support a temporary defensive position, in order to block attacks from N'Zoth and allow Aiden and the others to have a relatively safe base when they teleported over.
Until this moment, N'Zoth still didn't know that Vel'koz was Aiden's man, and only regarded the other's behavior as a fellow Old God who was good at disguises and unwilling to be devoured by the strong, attempting to launch a counterattack in this way.
Even though N'Zoth felt anger and shame after Vel'koz launched its attack, feeling that it had misjudged, it also felt that it was normal—this was the nature of the Old Gods; there was no trust between them. Devouring or being devoured by their own kind was their innate instinct. Abandoning resistance just because the opponent was strong? No, that was definitely not the character of an Old God.
If N'Zoth itself were swallowed by an enemy several times stronger than it, it would also fight back with all its might, even at the cost of self-destruction.
"I'll give you one last chance, Vel'koz, become a part of me!" N'Zoth threatened loudly, "I can absorb your memories, let us become one. This is already the best ending for a guy with your strength—you will witness and experience the arrival of the end of time in my perfect body! Otherwise—I will completely crush you, including your pitiful soul, leaving only your energy and talent!"
"Do you think I should be grateful, or fearful? Which emotion should I simulate to bring you mental pleasure?" Vel'koz's emotionless tone revealed its true nature.
Its nature only contained greed, greed for knowledge and power. Other than that, nothing could generate negative emotions within it. Not to mention N'Zoth, even if Sargeras was the one making the threat, it would still respond in the same way.
"You should know two things: First, my Disintegration Ray is not a natural talent, but comes from my research and application of mathematics, physics, biology, and many other disciplines; Second, threats and intimidation will not work on me. The only thing that will work on me is—your body—your body is very special, and I am very interested in studying it."
Vel'koz spoke in a ruthless tone, saying words that could make even N'Zoth jump in anger, "A semi-energy being is a very good subject, which will greatly help my evolution. You will become my experimental material, you will make me more perfect!"
"Madman, how can you be so crazy!" N'Zoth was almost frantic, even a little mentally deranged. It had an extremely absurd feeling, as if a three-year-old child who could barely speak was proudly pointing at a strong adult and saying: You are no match for me, kneel down and admit defeat!
To N'Zoth, Vel'koz was that three-year-old child, while it itself had become the threatened adult.
Although the Old Gods were crazy, N'Zoth had never seen a member of its kind who could speak such crazy and illogical words in such a calm tone like Vel'koz.
"It seems you have given up the opportunity to disarm and surrender, to share glory with me. What a pity. My patience has already run out. You want death? Very well, your death has arrived!"
N'Zoth completely lost its patience. It didn't know whether Vel'koz's claim that its Disintegration Ray ability was not innate was true or false, but that didn't matter. Even if it wasn't an innate ability, it still had a chance to obtain it!
The soul was a mysterious realm, but N'Zoth happened to be an expert in this field. N'Zoth had many methods to read the secrets in the enemy's soul, and by then, everything would be exposed!
Just as it was about to launch a powerful attack to solve this arrogant Vel'koz, a figure suddenly emerged from the defensive position supported by Vel'koz.
This figure almost made N'Zoth's eyes pop out—because this was the one it feared the most—Aiden!
Seeing this scene, even N'Zoth, with its extraordinary intelligence, was a little stunned. It really couldn't believe its eyes, and even suspected that this Aiden was a very realistic illusion created by Vel'koz. Otherwise, it would have to accept another fact—that Vel'koz was actually Aiden's mole!
But how was this possible?!
How could an Old God be loyal to a human?
Even if this "human" was relatively special, and even had many Titan characteristics, the Titans were even more the mortal enemies of the Old Gods. Even the primitive Old Gods would not choose to cooperate with the Titans, let alone be loyal to them.
This was simply impossible.
However, when Kael'thas, the five Dragon Aspects, and more heroes from Azeroth and Valoran poured into the defensive position, N'Zoth could no longer deceive itself.
Even if Vel'koz really had powerful illusions, it was impossible to maintain them for so long under N'Zoth's various detection methods.
Moreover, Aiden created an even larger and more solid protective barrier as soon as he arrived, which N'Zoth couldn't break for a while. Illusions could be faked, but energy wouldn't lie.
—This was really Aiden, the nemesis of the Old Gods, the murderer who killed C'Thun and Yogg-Saron.
After confirming this news, N'Zoth immediately became restless. Countless thoughts flashed through its mind, simulating dozens of plans, but none of them gave it more than a 50% chance of winning.
After everyone teleported into the barrier, Aiden leisurely took a few steps forward and asked loudly, "N'Zoth, how about it, a surprise?"
N'Zoth sneered, "I must admit, it's very unexpected."
"I'm glad you like it," Aiden smiled.
"So you think you have everything under control?" N'Zoth hated the smug look on Aiden's face. However, recalling what happened in Silithus, it had to admit that this person indeed had enough capital and strength to be proud.
To be precise, Aiden had indeed stood at the very top of the universe. He could almost do whatever he wanted. Unless Aman'Thul and Sargeras joined forces to deal with him, almost no one could threaten his safety.
However, these three beings standing at the top of the universe's food chain were all targets that N'Zoth ultimately wanted to eliminate. Of course, it had anticipated the possibility of fighting the opponent in advance, and already had a backup plan—the key was that it couldn't die, at least not now.
Such a death would be worthless. N'Zoth was the god who would personally bury the Pantheon and the Burning Legion, the god who would personally open and witness the end of time!
So it would never allow itself to die in Azeroth. Its battlefield was in the Twisting Nether, in the place that determined the fate of the universe.
"Stop your little tricks, N'Zoth, this is not a warning," Aiden suddenly drew his sword, his eyes fixed on a certain place in the darkness. It was ordinary there, and it seemed like there was nothing, just a void.
The actual location here was in the deep sea abyss, but N'Zoth's body was semi-corporeal, and the energy within it constructed a vast nightmare world. It was actually quite similar to the mirror world created by Twilight Dragon Dargonax in Reverse Karazhan before, and it was already an independent world whose changes completely obeyed N'Zoth's will.
And at the position Aiden was staring at, N'Zoth was preparing to launch a silent, tentative attack.
Seeing that it had been seen through by Aiden, N'Zoth not only did not stop, but accelerated the pace of its launch.
The surrounding scene suddenly changed drastically, and a terrifying roar suddenly came from that direction. Then, a nightmare behemoth rushed out of the black mist. Its body was huge, and the entire space was shaking when it ran. The black mist surged around its body, like dark clouds pressing down on the city.
Heroes in the barrier tentatively launched ranged spells and arrow attacks, but these became silent when they hit the nightmare behemoth composed of black mist.
There was no effect at all.
Then, more types of attacks fell, Holy Light, Arcane, Natural Fury, Void Energy, Sword Qi… but all were useless.
Seeing this ferocious and terrifying nightmare behemoth running closer and closer, people couldn't help but feel a little frightened.
"Don't worry!" Aiden suddenly spoke loudly at this time, "This is just a harmless illusion, without any threat!"
He stood at the forefront of the team, not only did he not make any attacking movements, he even let go of his hands and did not make any defenses at all.
And that terrifying and ferocious nightmare behemoth rushed through his body just like that, but he was completely safe and sound.
"It's so cool!" Aiden shouted.
Seeing him taking the lead, the others realized it. It turned out that this nightmare behemoth, although so realistic and terrifying, was actually not even a paper tiger, it was just a slightly scary illusion.