Aiden ultimately failed to thoroughly inspect the battlefield because something more important had occurred.
In fact, as early as when he heard the thunderclap in Azeroth, Aiden knew that a battle must have broken out between Aman'Thul and Sargeras.
This was obvious. With the current situation, once these two supreme titans personally took action, the target they dealt with would definitely be an enemy no less powerful than themselves. Are there any Old Gods capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with them now? Aiden wasn't sure, but he felt there shouldn't be.
Therefore, that lightning bolt was most likely aimed at Sargeras.
After being coerced by N'Zoth into the Twisting Nether, Aiden could clearly sense the aftermath of the battle between the two.
It was a very special sensation, perhaps a unique connection exclusive to the highest authority titans. In any case, as soon as Aiden arrived in the Twisting Nether, he noticed that Aman'Thul was fighting Sargeras in a certain direction.
He wasn't sure exactly why they were fighting, but at the time, he felt that N'Zoth was the greater threat, so he didn't pay much attention and went straight after N'Zoth.
But just after killing N'Zoth, things suddenly changed—Aman'Thul was asking him for help!
Aiden was immediately shocked—were these two brothers really going at it?
Others might not know, but as a fellow owner of the highest authority, Aiden knew the actual relationship between Aman'Thul and Sargeras. The two had even met when Sargeras connected the simplified Titan platform to the current system, and both were very clear that their ultimate goals were the same.
Previously, due to the system's forced intervention, the two had no choice but to send their lackeys to Silithus to fight a battle, going through the motions. Aiden was one of those who experienced it firsthand, so how could he not know?
But precisely because he knew too well, Aiden was immediately confused when Sargeras and Aman'Thul actually went at each other—what exactly was going on?
He couldn't bother to check the spoils of war any longer and immediately rushed towards the location where the other two were fighting.
Regardless of whether N'Zoth was truly dead, he still had ways to remedy it, but if Sargeras and Aman'Thul were determined to fight, it could really be a world-destroying catastrophe!
Not long after Aiden left, a black shadow drifted out from a multicolored band of arcane light at the place where he had killed N'Zoth. Then, the black shadow rushed towards the Nightmare Essence that Aiden had cut into countless pieces, gathering the remnants like a gluttonous snake. Before long, the black shadow had grown hundreds of times in size.
Although its volume was still more than ten times smaller than when it first fought Aiden, it at least looked somewhat presentable.
The twisted black shadow conveyed a vicious thought: "Just wait! My brothers are in the thousands, endless and infinite!"
An invisible thought emanated from the black shadow, spreading to every corner of the universe, not only in the Twisting Nether but even reaching the real world.
In an instant, countless Old Gods began to respond to the call of this thought.
Now that all the Titan facilities in the universe had failed, the imprisoned Old Gods broke free one after another. Apart from wreaking havoc on the order that the Titans had once left behind, these Old Gods couldn't find anything else to do for the time being. But now, this thought from the Twisting Nether had found something for the Old Gods to do, and it was precisely their ultimate goal—to overthrow the Pantheon and the Burning Legion, and to spread the Hour of Twilight to every corner of the universe!
Now, the two leaders of the Pantheon and the Burning Legion were fighting each other, two tigers fighting, one of them was bound to be injured, and it would be even better if these two titans perished together!
In any case, the Old Gods' opportunity had arrived.
—
From a standpoint, Aiden was undoubtedly closer to Aman'Thul. At least they were both more sympathetic to mortals and inclined to maintain order. More importantly, they both opposed directly formatting "World of Warcraft" when the situation was unclear, not only because Aiden had formed inextricable bonds with mortals in several worlds during his years of adventure, but also because he had returned to the real world and believed that directly formatting "World of Warcraft" might not necessarily be useful or necessary.
"Which side are you on?"
Aman'Thul and Sargeras asked in unison.
The two brothers were still pointing their weapons at each other.
Aman'Thul had been stabbed in his left shoulder. Not only was his dignified robe damaged, but a deep wound was also exposed at the point of the sword.
If it weren't for his metallic body, Aman'Thul's body would definitely have been half-stained with blood at this time.
Sargeras's situation wasn't much better. He had been struck by lightning in his back, and a green flame-like liquid flowed from the wound, like a fusion of blood and fel fire.
The wound wasn't too big, but Sargeras's current body wasn't the bronze body of ten thousand years ago, but a body formed by borrowing the mortal flesh of the half-breed Med'an and modified by fel energy. His resistance to attacks was obviously far inferior to his former steel body at this stage.
So although the wound wasn't big, the degree of injury wasn't much better than Aman'Thul's.
When Aiden arrived, he saw that the two were obviously really going at it, and immediately shouted "Stop!"
He inherited all the authority from the Titan Aiden, and was nominally a brother to Aman'Thul and Sargeras. Moreover, he was a target that both wanted to win over, so after he shouted, both sides stopped attacking.
"Which side are you on?"
Aiden was a little embarrassed.
He knew that once he answered in a way that didn't suit the two titans, the battle would definitely start again immediately.
He had to stabilize these two guys first!
Aiden made up his mind, so he replied, "Tell me first—what's going on?"
Aman'Thul and Sargeras looked at each other, and finally Sargeras spoke and explained the reason.
Since being trapped in "World of Warcraft" and unable to leave, Sargeras had been seeking an opportunity to escape this world due to the constraints of the system.
The method he came up with was to use his soul—that is, the materialized "data disk"—to create a simplified Titan platform, relying on connecting to the system of "World of Warcraft" and taking over the highest authority to restart the ports that were temporarily closed at the beginning, thereby breaking free from control and returning to the real world.
From having this idea to implementing the action, corresponding to the time of "World of Warcraft" was exactly when Sargeras possessed Medivh, so he used this identity to experiment and build a simplified Titan platform in his magic tower Karazhan—that is, the "Reverse Karazhan" project.
Not long ago, after Sargeras' soul was reborn through Med'an's body, this project was completed. However, to break away from this world, the simultaneous authorization of three Titans with the highest authority was required—which wasn't too difficult. Aman'thul was right beside him at the time, and if it was just a matter of leaving "World of Warcraft," he certainly wouldn't have objected.
As for the last one, Aiden—if he knew about it, he naturally wouldn't have had any reason to object either.
But Sargeras never expected that the creation of this system would cause a violent backlash from the "World of Warcraft" system, even leading to a fierce confrontation between the two systems. It was this confrontation that led everything toward an unknown direction.
He hadn't even gathered the three highest authorities before he was forced to confront Aman'thul head-on due to the system's compulsion.
And this struggle, which was originally just a formality, finally evolved into a true confrontation between Aman'thul and Sargeras after the "World of Warcraft" system completely collapsed and the Titan facilities and seals on the Old Gods all became ineffective.
Now that there was nothing to hold them back, Sargeras didn't hesitate to tell Aiden the entire story.
Aiden immediately understood the intentions of the two before him.
Although Sargeras hadn't been able to directly gather the permission of the three highest authorities as he had planned, after the complete collapse of the "World of Warcraft" system, he was fully capable of directly breaking through the barriers of the universe and returning to the real world. Then, he could simply format the world from the outside, and all problems would be solved.
As for Aman'thul—he felt that everything in this universe was out of control. Even if they could escape, the disasters here would inevitably spread to the outside world. Formatting certainly wouldn't solve the problem. Therefore, the real solution wasn't to escape, but to eliminate the Old Gods first, and then consider other options.
Aiden felt that both sides had their reasons. At the same time, both of them were staring at him intently, because his attitude might determine whose plan could truly be realized—if Aiden were to help one side, the other side would definitely not be able to withstand their combined attack. Even if their ideals differed, they would be forcibly dragged onto his chariot.
Aiden carefully considered the situation for a moment, and then replied, "What you both say makes sense..."
Aman'thul immediately frowned, while Sargeras directly shouted, "No need to beat around the bush or try to appease everyone. Just say which side you're on!"
At their level, they no longer cared about those superficial things. Their dispute was a dispute of positions, not something that could be resolved by playing a few emotional cards.
"I'm not on either side! I have my own views!" Aiden said bluntly.
This truly surprised the other two Titans.
"I wonder if you've considered the deeper reasons behind this simplification of the Titan platform and the confrontation with the 'World of Warcraft' system?" Aiden asked in return.
Aman'thul and Sargeras temporarily suppressed their feelings. They already had some mental preparation—it seemed that their brother truly had different views and positions from them.
That made the problem difficult to solve—as the old saying goes, one monk carries water to drink, two monks share the burden, but three monks go without water—this situation perfectly applied to the dispute between the three of them with the highest authority.
Ignoring their gazes, Aiden continued, "Back then, humans externally closed the 'World of Warcraft' port, allowing it to run freely apart from the Titan platform. Now that the simplified Titan platform is attempting to reconnect to the external control platform, why would this behavior cause a backlash from the World of Warcraft system?"
"I suspect it's because of the universe's self-repairing instinct—you and I are well aware that the initial human exploration and modification of the virtual world touched the rules of the universe itself, leading to the differentiation between the mirror image and the real image. That's why there were disasters like the invasion of monsters from the game world and the failure of the originally set rules. Therefore, the overall trend of the universe has always been to destroy differentiation and return the two worlds to unity."
"Hmm," Aman'thul grunted in agreement.
He and Sargeras had already investigated this point more than a decade ago, and Aiden had only discovered it under his guidance.
"Then the matter is very clear—the 'World of Warcraft' system will fail, not because of its confrontation with the simplified Titan platform, but because only in this way can the differentiation be erased more quickly—we can tentatively consider that the 'will of the universe' is guiding all of this from behind. Then, the failure of the Pantheon's facilities is precisely the universe taking this opportunity to release the Old Gods and create a great destruction."
Aiden looked at Sargeras and said with a resounding voice, "We even have reason to believe that this isn't just targeted at the World of Warcraft world, but at all worlds—Sargeras, this platform you created has the function of connecting to the outside world. Since we can use it, wouldn't the Old Gods also be able to use it? Humans closed the passage before to prevent the invasion of monsters from the game world into the real world. Now that another passage has appeared, can we conclude that a large number of mature Old Gods will invade reality through this passage?"
Before Sargeras could respond, Aiden continued to press, "When I went back last time, I already figured it out. The differentiation between the real world and the mirror world didn't start with the real world discovering and modifying the virtual world, but at the end of the 20th century..."
He added in his heart: The specific time was when he was born.
The differentiation between the two worlds occurred when the Titan Aiden discovered the existence of the difference and tried to reverse it.
"You... are you sure?" Aman'thul asked first.
"Sure!" Aiden nodded with great certainty.
At this time, even Sargeras couldn't help but reveal a shocked expression—they could all hear the hidden meaning of this sentence. If Aiden's guess was correct, then this collapse of the 'World of Warcraft' system would ultimately lead to countless Old Gods invading the real world through the simplified Titan platform created by Sargeras.
The current time has already reached the twenty-fifth century. That 'will of the universe' that wants to eliminate differentiation is very likely to, as Aiden guessed, use the power of the virtual world's monsters, mainly the Old Gods, to completely occupy the virtual world and the real world!
At that time, the 'End of Time' will not only be the end of the world for all the planets and universes under the worldview of 'World of Warcraft,' but also the end of time for the real Earth and the virtual Earth!
When the Old Gods completely destroy civilization, it will be the time for their self-destruction, and then the universe will return to chaos.
Only after experiencing complete destruction will 'differentiation' completely disappear. That 'will of the universe' will then subside!