This was Fordring's nightmare, so the following plot was definitely not a reunion of father and son with tearful embraces.
Fordring had Taelan in his middle age and loved him very much. The famous quest "Love and Family" in "World of Warcraft" moved countless players, whether in the old computer game era or in the virtual world game of the future.
What is tragedy? It is tearing up comedy and showing it to people.
Taelan saw his father, but angrily scolded: "You are a traitor, I don't have a father like you! Today, in the name of the Holy Light, I will judge you and settle all your crimes!"
Taelan listed all of Tirion's crimes, and then led the Alliance soldiers to charge at him.
When the young Taelan rushed to the disheartened old Fordring, the old paladin didn't even have the will to resist, only wanting to die.
But N'Zoth wouldn't let him go so easily. It manipulated the dream, causing Taelan's captain of the guard, Yaden, to stab him to death from behind.
Then Yaden, as if seeking credit, said gleefully to the stunned old Fordring: "Lord, let me continue to serve you!"
At this moment, old Fordring's loyalty, faith, family, and compassion were all ruthlessly trampled on. He only allowed a noble old orc to stay in his territory, but ultimately brought about such an ending.
"No, no! It's not like this!" Fordring cried out in pain.
He tried hard to recall how everything went wrong, but his mind was in chaos and he couldn't sort things out—dreams have no rationality, and people in the deepest dreams don't even know they are dreaming. Moreover, the one controlling the dream was an Old God who was countless times stronger than Fordring, and he had almost no chance to escape the dream.
Anyone with flaws in their minds would find it difficult to escape, not only heroes like him and Yasuo, but also the vast majority of people.
Tirion Fordring tried hard to recall everything in the dream just now. He didn't know how long it took, but he seemed to see a glimmer of light in the darkness—that ray of light came from a memory in the dream—he was preparing to rescue Eitrigg from the execution ground, but when Thrall came with the orcish elite soldiers, he actually cooperated with them to launch an attack on the Silver Hand Knights!
No, that's impossible!
Fordring would rather die than swing his sword at his true comrades and brothers, let alone fight against the Alliance with the orcs. If he didn't have such persistence, how could he have given up the opportunity to soften and admit his mistakes when he was on trial, and instead demanded that the court release Eitrigg?
"No, I would never do that! This is not right!"
The seed of doubt was planted, and Fordring immediately noticed the unreasonableness. His own will gradually broke away from the control of the nightmare, and finally a thought flashed in his mind—this is a dream!
After understanding this, his reason instantly returned to his body. When he opened his eyes again, Tirion found himself standing in a barrier, and Aiden was looking at him with some surprise.
Fordring looked around and found that in addition to Aiden, there were two other Valoran heroes, one was "Eternal Nightmare" Nocturne, and the other was a cute Yordle girl with a big hat, "Fae Sorceress" Lulu.
Aiden said: "I didn't expect you to come out so quickly, Fordring."
Fordring recalled the terrifying nightmare just now, and a wry smile appeared on his face. If that became a real scene, it would be simply... he couldn't even imagine it.
Besides Aiden, Nocturne was the first to come out—he was an expert in controlling nightmares, so naturally he wouldn't be trapped by the same trick. As for Lulu, she was more unexpected to Aiden, but after thinking about it, he understood. Lulu's main experiences were in the fantasy fairyland where the little fairies lived. The things she was afraid of were hot feet and things like "tulips in the eyes" that made people completely confused.
The world in the eyes of this whimsical fairy witch is obviously different from the world in the eyes of ordinary people. She doesn't have anything to really fear or be afraid of, at most she is more playful. N'Zoth needs the other party to have something to fear in their heart in order to create a nightmare, so even if N'Zoth has lived for hundreds of thousands of years, he is helpless against Lulu.
The three of them who came out first all had unique characteristics, but Fordring was able to come out entirely by his own strong will.
No wonder this old paladin was able to raise the banner in history, rebuild the Silver Hand Knights, and carry the banner of the Alliance, becoming the mainstay of Azeroth. Even Uther is still trapped in the dream and unable to escape.
Just as they were chatting, the fifth person also came out.
Aiden thought it should be Kael'thas, but he didn't expect it to be someone else—it was Prophet Velen.
This unfathomable Draenei leader is always elusive. He was a person of the same era and status as Kil'jaeden and Archimonde. Later, he experienced countless hardships. Aiden initially thought that it was already very difficult for Prophet Velen to pass the test of the resource library, but he didn't expect that he could escape the nightmare!
You must know that in a nightmare, rich experience is not a good thing, especially if you have experienced many hardships and sorrows, it will leave countless regrets, and the difficulty of escaping the nightmare will be multiplied.
After Prophet Velen came out, Kael'thas came out.
Soon after, "The Heart of the Freljord" Braum, "The Prince of Demacia" Jarvan IV, "The Wuju Bladesman" Yi, "The Mountain King" Muradin Bronzebeard, Chieftain Thrall, Death Knight Brox, and Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage came out of the nightmare one after another. The last one to come out was "The Eye of the Void" Vel'Koz.
Vel'Koz should have been able to come out very early, because he has no fear in his heart, so naturally he would not be frightened by the nightmare, but N'Zoth was more afraid of him, so he took special care of him and delayed him for a while.
There were a total of fifteen people, which was much more than Aiden expected.
After Vel'Koz came out, he didn't wait any longer, but said: "The next important task rests on our shoulders. After we leave this barrier, we will directly face the origin of N'Zoth. It will transform into the images of our respective enemies to fight us. Every time we win a battle, N'Zoth will be weakened by one point, and every time we lose, N'Zoth will absorb our negative emotions and grow stronger."
Everyone's hearts tightened. After all, their strengths varied. The strong ones, like Aiden, could single-handedly defeat ordinary Old Gods, and the weak ones, like Prince Jarvan IV, were ordinary warriors. Although they could be considered invincible on ordinary battlefields, it would be tantamount to a fantasy to defeat an Old God with the power of a pure warrior.
"Don't worry, everyone, just go all out. This isn't a pure contest of strength, but a battle of wills. Remember, don't be intimidated by the enemy; treat them like paper tigers! If you can break free from the nightmare, you have enough strength to overcome those illusions!"
Yi asked, "Commander, does this mean that the opponents we are fighting are actually illusions evolved from our inner fears?"
"That's about right," Aiden nodded.
The difference is that these illusions are not only very realistic, but also have real power.
However, Aiden didn't need to worry too much, because even if the other fourteen all lost, he alone could hold out until the end. Moreover, losing here would only mean waking up from an even more terrifying nightmare, and wouldn't endanger their lives. With him watching over them, he believed that N'Zoth wouldn't be able to kill any of them under his nose.
After a few words of instruction, Aiden dispelled the defensive barrier, and the true scene was immediately revealed to everyone—they were in mid-air, with a huge black sphere beneath their feet. The surface of the sphere was covered with countless tentacles, which waved in the air, as if ready to devour anyone at any moment, looking extremely terrifying.
As soon as the barrier disappeared, these tentacles immediately rushed over like sharks smelling blood.
Aiden, in the lead, didn't dodge or evade, allowing a tentacle to grab him directly. Then, several other tentacles wrapped around him, and the suckers on the tentacles clung tightly to his body.
He felt slimy all over, which was very uncomfortable, but he knew that this was a necessary process, so he endured it. Soon, he felt himself being "sucked" into another place. A bronze titan burning with the flames of hatred was standing in front of him, holding a broken sword in his hand, staring intently at him.
Aiden was very familiar with this titan. Wasn't it the "Dark Titan" Sargeras?
Aiden smiled. He didn't expect that N'Zoth would, in the end, pull out the ancient god's nemesis to deal with another nemesis.
And these two enemies themselves had an unknown relationship.
"Interesting, interesting!" Aiden laughed. He summoned his longsword and staff, and actively faced the Dark Titan Sargeras.
No matter how hard N'Zoth tried, it couldn't change the fact that it couldn't create an illusion stronger than Aiden. Therefore, it could only create an enemy roughly equal in strength to Aiden to fight him.
However, N'Zoth didn't know that Sargeras, who only had the broken sword "Darkness Befouler" in his hand, didn't have complete authority and was no match for Aiden, who inherited all the authority.
Sensing that the battle was not going well, N'Zoth had no choice but to inject its essence into this seemingly strong but useless "Sargeras" to give him a boost in strength.
Therefore, the Sargeras in front of Aiden suddenly underwent some changes—the flames of hatred all over his body became more intense, and the broken sword in his hand instantly turned into a complete sword—Dark Reprisal—the legendary strongest weapon in the universe!
Only then did Aiden's expression become solemn, and he began to take it seriously.
He didn't need to defeat Sargeras, who had completed the highest authority; he just needed to avoid being defeated—anyway, N'Zoth would constantly consume its essence. If this continued, it would be exhausted in at most ten days to half a month.
Aiden was confident that with his current strength, it wouldn't be a problem to delay for so long.
—
The enemies encountered by the other dozen or so heroes were different, but most of them were struggling.
For example, Prophet Velen's enemy had become a demonized Kil'jaeden. Even using all his means, Velen could only maintain his defense and couldn't even think about defeating the enemy.
Malfurion encountered Archimonde—Heaven have mercy, he had never confronted Archimonde head-on in this timeline. Even during the War of the Ancients, they had only met a few times. Here, Malfurion couldn't use the Horn of Cenarius to summon the ancestral spirits of the elves. Even if he could, there wasn't an energy source like the World Tree nearby for him to detonate.
Therefore, Malfurion, the night elf archdruid, was also chased by Archimonde in a very embarrassing state. If N'Zoth hadn't devoted most of its energy to simulating Sargeras to fight Aiden, Malfurion would probably have been defeated by this illusion of Archimonde many times over.
The other heroes also encountered powerful enemies in their own minds, but Lulu's enemies were more special: there were bees hidden in tulip petals, worms in apples, leaves with thorny heads, and very colorful but very unpalatable fruits…
"Too scary, it's too scary…" Lulu was so frightened that tears welled up in her eyes when fighting these "enemies."
On the other side, the "Fallen Angel" Morgana had just arrived at the Nightmare Realm. After hesitating for a second, she straightened her chest and stepped in fearlessly.
—
Dark Reprisal is the strongest weapon in the universe. Once an attack locks onto a target, it is destined to hit. No defensive means can stop its attack, and no weapon can compete with it.
Although the Sargeras in front of Aiden was an illusion, this was, after all, N'Zoth's world. It could manipulate the rules to give this illusion real power. Therefore, Aiden didn't dare to fight head-on, but chose to use time manipulation to fight a guerrilla war against the opponent.
Anyway, he could afford to wait. He could fight like this for a hundred years without any problem.
But N'Zoth couldn't afford to wait.
Its current strength was at least one level lower than Aiden's. This illusion of Sargeras was actually itself. The reason it could create a situation where it was overwhelming Aiden was because it had injected a large amount of nightmare essence into this illusion, thus forcibly pulling itself to a level slightly higher than Aiden's.
Such behavior was no different from forcing growth, increasing consumption exponentially without achieving practical results. N'Zoth understood very well that even if it doubled Sargeras's strength, it would not be able to completely defeat Aiden before exhausting its own power.
As early as when Aiden used Viz'kz as an internal agent to break through its outer defenses and appear in its body, it had expected this.
This was destined to be a failed battle. Its only plan was how to escape and minimize losses.
Timing.
N'Zoth was waiting for a suitable opportunity.
This opportunity came two days later.
A bolt of lightning tore through the void, resounding throughout countless planes of the universe.
Even Aiden, who was fighting N'Zoth in the nightmare, heard this thunder.
He was immediately distracted—because this lightning came from a full-force strike from "Father of the Gods" Aman'Thul!
What happened that would be worth Aman'Thul taking action himself?
Aiden frowned. I'm afraid something big is about to happen again.