N'Zoth was casting Twilight Judgment to destroy all the planets that the Old Gods had infested. It was very pleased to see mortals despair and tremble before the power of the Old Gods, which made it feel very happy.
Tens of thousands of years of preparation, countless days and nights of careful planning, were all for this moment. How could it not enjoy the great sense of accomplishment of reaping the final fruits?
But it soon noticed an anomaly -- those mortals actually slowly calmed down, the fear in their hearts swept away, and something called "hope" flowed in the hearts of every mortal.
If this kind of situation only happened on one or two planets, N'Zoth wouldn't care. Anyway, whether mortals calmly accepted Twilight Judgment or desperately wailed, it wouldn't affect the final result. The only difference was how strong N'Zoth's sense of pleasure was.
But N'Zoth discovered that in a short period of time, almost all the mortals on all the planets showed such anomalies.
How could fragile mortals be so calm? They weren't Titan creations who only knew how to execute orders and didn't know what fear was!
N'Zoth wasn't stupid, and could even be considered extremely intelligent. It immediately realized that these changes must be related to Aiden.
Its guess was very accurate. After Aiden broke free from the shackles of his physical form, he no longer had to worry about his body being unable to accommodate more external energy.
Aiden used Aman'Thul's authority to connect to all the planets that the Pantheon had ever transformed, and then used Sargeras's authority to connect to all the demons in the Burning Legion and the Abyss, and finally all the mortal civilizations that believed in the Moon Goddess...
Almost everywhere there were living beings, they received the thoughts he sent out.
How strong could the will of mortals be?
Very weak, so weak that it could almost be ignored.
N'Zoth didn't take it too seriously after noticing Aiden's actions.
Its current behavior of fusing all the power of the Old Gods was "borrowing" the precedent of Aiden using the "will of the world" to defeat Xavius in the Nightmare Invasion War.
Now, the other party's copying of the original method was also within N'Zoth's expectations.
It's just that Aiden used the power of the whole world to defeat Xavius back then, and Xavius himself was just a servant of N'Zoth.
And now Aiden was facing countless times more power than before. How could the previous methods work?
Could the combined forces of mortals on one planet kill an Old God?
No, that was impossible! Unless the opponent was a Titan or a Great Demon, an opponent of the same level as the Old Gods.
But in fact, the number of Titans and Great Demons was limited, while the number of Old Gods was almost infinite.
N'Zoth sneered: "I thought you had some other method that I didn't expect, but I didn't expect you to run out of tricks. Then now I can directly declare: you have failed -- mortals trying to stop the gods? You're really overestimating yourselves!"
It was fusing the last part, also the strongest group of Old Gods. When the power of all its kind was gathered here, it would definitely be enough to subvert the entire universe -- no power could stop it from launching Twilight Judgment and bringing about the end of the world!
And Aiden, who it regarded as its mortal enemy, was constantly strengthening because he had gathered the power of countless living beings from thousands of worlds, but he was still far behind it.
"I am also a mortal." Aiden seemed to be responding to N'Zoth's provocation, but this voice was also transmitted to the consciousness of every living being he connected to in thousands of worlds.
"Mortals are never humble, nor are they insignificant. Because this world, this universe, was created by mortals. Including you, N'Zoth, and all the Old Gods --"
N'Zoth curled its lip. Of course it knew that this universe was created by mortals, but it wasn't the mortals in this universe, but another group of mortals outside the universe who created the "mistake". They were the culprits that its Old God race wanted to destroy.
"Mortals can create you, and of course they can destroy you!" Aiden issued a deafening voice.
A bad premonition suddenly rose in N'Zoth's heart.
It couldn't help but recall its several confrontations with Aiden -- until now, Aiden had never lost to it. This person could always seize a glimmer of hope in various desperate situations, and even launch stronger counterattacks.
N'Zoth didn't believe in luck. Aiden was able to overcome many obstacles and reach where he was today in just a few years. Even N'Zoth, as an enemy, had to admit that the other party possessed all the necessary conditions for a successful person.
In N'Zoth's own view, no matter what Aiden did now, he would not be able to escape the ending of defeat, because this was a direct confrontation of power between the two sides. On the level that affected the entire universe, all opportunities, luck, and coincidences could not affect the absolute power comparison.
This was a pure power confrontation, without any fluke.
And from the standpoint of the situation, N'Zoth occupied an absolute advantage. The power Aiden currently possessed was less than one-third of its own. When it absorbed the power of all the Old Gods, this comparison would be even more disparate.
N'Zoth tried to put itself in Aiden's shoes. It racked its brains and couldn't find even a trace of Aiden's chances of success.
"Alarmist talk!" N'Zoth made a judgment, and then arrogantly shouted, "Mortals created 'mistakes', and we Old Gods are the gods who bring down divine punishment! Now it's time for you to pay the price for your arrogance!"
The last few most powerful Old Gods also turned into pus, completely merging with N'Zoth.
In the void, there stood an Old God that could not be measured by volume, because its vastness had far exceeded the point that specific volume could describe -- because it was so large that it spanned countless galaxies, so large that people couldn't even feel the edges.
It had no specific appearance, but people who were powerful enough could feel that the mental tentacles of this Old God extended to every corner of the universe. Moreover, in the bursts of agitation, the characteristics of the Twisting Nether had completely disappeared, and that space independent of the real world had completely disappeared.
N'Zoth was steadily advancing towards its established goal, and it was one big step closer to success.
The next step was Twilight Judgment, the end of the world that would spread to countless worlds!
--
The Pantheon was once the most powerful force in the universe. It was not only the name of the Titan ruler's council, but also the name of the Titan's base camp.
As the Twisting Nether merged into reality, this huge and majestic Titan world descended, swaying. Its northeast corner crashed into a meteor shower, and flying meteors hit those tall Titan buildings. Soon, those artistic sculptures, pavilions, and city walls were reduced to ruins.
N'Zoth deliberately exclaimed: "Look, what a beautiful scene! The Pantheon has fallen, and your world will also fall."
"I am destruction!" N'Zoth issued a hideous roar.
It already possessed the power to subvert the entire universe, and now was the moment to execute destruction.
N'Zoth's mental tentacles extending to various planets transformed into huge illusions of the Old Gods. These illusions carried unparalleled terrifying power and began to attack those planets one after another.
On Azeroth, on Silithus, on Draenor, and on countless planets where the Old Gods had existed, this scene was happening.
And just as the attack was about to fall, a figure holding a lightning staff and the Dark Reprisal stood in front of the terrifying Old God.
Bolts of lightning struck N'Zoth's illusion, and the Dark Reprisal even came with an irresistible force.
"Hahahaha", N'Zoth issued a wild laugh. Several of its tentacles were destroyed by the strongest artifact in the universe, but it didn't hurt or itch at all. It roared, "Aiden, is this your counterattack? Look at mine --"
A huge tentacle spanning the galaxy slammed towards Aiden. Aiden used all kinds of methods, but whether it was time magic, holy light, natural magic, or any other energy, it could not completely block the attack of this tentacle. In the end, he was still blown away by the remaining power of this tentacle, leaving a mental wound on his abdomen that was difficult to heal.
N'Zoth was very satisfied with its results. It sneered: "Want to stop me? Then you have to find three more helpers with the same power as you to have a chance!"
It wasn't exaggerating, because the power it possessed now was at least four times that of Aiden!
Aiden didn't answer, he just tried his best to resist N'Zoth's increasingly fierce offensive.
Such a battle was taking place in every world where N'Zoth's mental tentacles extended. Every mortal on these planets could see in the sky, a figure wielding a black giant sword and a white-gold staff was fighting a vicious evil god many times larger than him.
The battle situation was extremely dangerous, and that figure was in an absolute disadvantage, hovering on the edge of life and death several times. And mortals were even more clear that the person wielding the sword and staff was their guardian, the savior who protected them from being destroyed by the power of the evil god.
Whenever he was injured, people felt extremely distressed; whenever he dodged a fatal attack, people cheered and rejoiced.
From day to night, from moonset to sunrise, his unyielding roar echoed in the sky.
In this moment of the Old Gods bringing about the doomsday trial, people only, and only, believed in Aiden, believing that he could defeat that powerful evil god.
However, as the battle continued, N'Zoth gradually sensed something was amiss: Aiden's power was clearly only about a quarter of his own. This was undoubtedly a lopsided confrontation. Even if Aiden possessed the Staff of Superconductivity and the Dark Repayer, two of the most powerful weapons in the universe, it wouldn't be enough to bridge the enormous gap between them.
It's like a seven or eight-year-old child, even if they wield an iron rod, they couldn't defeat an adult holding a wooden stick. Because the difference in weapons wouldn't be enough to change the disparity in strength.
N'Zoth expected Aiden to last only a few tens of minutes at most under his relentless, storm-like offensive.
But a day passed.
Every time he felt that the opponent was about to be defeated and die, the opponent persevered.
"No, this isn't right—"
N'Zoth noticed the anomaly. When he observed Aiden's strength again, he discovered that the opponent's power hadn't weakened due to the prolonged confrontation with him. On the contrary, it had become slightly stronger!
The increase was small, at most increasing Aiden's power by a little over ten percent compared to the beginning. Even with this added power, N'Zoth was still far stronger than him.
But why? Why was Aiden growing stronger as he fought?
N'Zoth was extremely puzzled and unwilling. He truly exerted all his strength, no longer holding back in the slightest, no longer worrying about exhausting too much power after defeating Aiden, possibly making him unable to destroy the countless worlds in one go. Anyway, as long as Aiden died, those mortals would definitely not escape the Twilight Judgment. The only difference was whether they died sooner or later.
However, another day passed, and under N'Zoth's full-force attack, Aiden still stood firm.
And the gap between his current strength and N'Zoth's had narrowed again: he now possessed about one-third of N'Zoth's power.
"Why?!"
N'Zoth finally couldn't help but ask.
Even though he still controlled the situation and possessed power absolutely superior to Aiden, as long as Aiden didn't die, at the current rate, Aiden might become stronger than him in a few days or a dozen days!
N'Zoth had already absorbed the power of all the Old Gods. He couldn't possibly become stronger. Such power was enough to subvert the entire universe, but it couldn't kill Aiden, who had fused the will of countless trillions of living beings in the universe!
Could the power of mortals be so strong?
N'Zoth couldn't help but recall Aiden's resounding voice before the battle: "Mortals can create you, and of course, they can destroy you!"
Could this be Aiden's reliance?
Aiden was clearer than anyone else about the changes in his own body. He dodged N'Zoth's attack and backhanded, severing several of the opponent's mental tentacles. Although such injuries were insignificant, accumulated, N'Zoth had actually consumed a lot of power.
He met N'Zoth's angry and bewildered eyes, pointing his sword at the countless living beings on the earth who placed their hopes on him: "Because of them."
"No, impossible! How can mortals contend with the power of a god! You must have obtained the help of some other power I don't know about, right? It must be!" N'Zoth glared with bloodshot eyes.
He couldn't accept that he would lose to the power gathered by those insignificant mortals. He would rather believe that Aiden had some other unknown source of power. If he lost to a force outside his calculations, he could completely accept it.
"This is the power of mortals," Aiden chuckled, "They are as small as drops of water. Their power can be completely ignored in your eyes, but little by little, grain by grain, an endless ocean is also gathered by drops of water. You ignore the drops of water, so can you ignore the sea?"
N'Zoth roared: "My mental power has enveloped the entire universe. The power of all mortals combined cannot be so strong! Don't even think about deceiving me!"
"Are you so sure that what you sense is all the mortals in the universe?" Aiden retorted.
N'Zoth subconsciously wanted to say "yes," but he suddenly stopped.
He recalled something: on every planet inhabited by the Old Gods, there were Moon Gods. Even though the Old Gods' forces spread throughout the entire universe, and their number was so vast that it couldn't be calculated, N'Zoth had to admit that the planets illuminated by the countless incarnations of the Moon Gods were definitely no fewer than the planets inhabited by the Old Gods.
If the number of planets inhabited by the Old Gods was similar to the number of planets where the Moon God's avatars existed, N'Zoth was confident that even if the Pantheon, the Burning Legion, the Abyss, the Naaru, and the mortals all joined forces against Aiden, N'Zoth would definitely be several times stronger than the opponent.
For example, the power comparison before the start of the war was the best interpretation.
But what if the number of planets not discovered by the Old Gods was many times greater than the planets they had already inhabited?
The moment he thought of this possibility, N'Zoth felt extremely uneasy.
Aiden's constantly increasing power undoubtedly confirmed his guess.
If Aiden became stronger than him in ten days...
N'Zoth couldn't help but shudder.
"No, I must not let this guess become a reality!"
He strengthened his belief, then turned his gaze back to Aiden. The other party's confident expression made N'Zoth unable to calm down.
N'Zoth resolutely thought that if he wanted to seize the final victory, he couldn't fight like this anymore.
"Your plan will not succeed!" N'Zoth growled, retracting all his mental tentacles, "I have to admit, you really impressed me, forcing me to use the last resort to deal with you!"
"Oh?" Aiden also put away his weapons, raising an eyebrow.
"I know you must want to delay enough time in the battle, delaying until your power surpasses mine. But I won't let your plan succeed!" N'Zoth said hatefully, "I am still stronger than you now, my power is three times yours! Let me see how you deal with such an attack!"
N'Zoth suddenly turned into a cloud of black-purple mist, surrounding Aiden. He abandoned the concrete fighting method and switched to launching an attack in a purely mental way.
This was a confrontation between souls. Even if N'Zoth could win, he would inevitably pay a huge price. But in order to prevent Aiden from really growing up, N'Zoth had to do this!
Aiden fought back without hesitation: "You should know that the thing I fear the least is mental attacks!"
In theory, all mental attacks are complex memory fragments. If a normal person's soul is impacted by such disordered memory fragments, they will suffer mental trauma at best, and die immediately at worst. But Aiden was different. He knew all the Naaru codes, and these codes were the programming languages used by humans to compile the game world. Everything in this world was compiled from segments of Naaru codes, and mental power was no exception.
Now, N'Zoth's body condensed the power of all the Old Gods, containing unimaginable complexity and evil intentions. No one other than Aiden could be safe and sound under such a mental impact.
Except for Aiden.
He used the will of hundreds of millions of living beings in the universe gathered on him to fully analyze these mental intentions from the evil gods, turning the disordered memory fragments into memory content with a beginning and an end.
N'Zoth launched a soul attack. Only one person between him and Aiden could survive. The loser's memories would be completely erased by the winner.
But as time passed, N'Zoth despaired.
Three days later, people saw the black mist surrounding their guardian Aiden in the sky disappear completely.
The world returned to peace.
At N'Zoth's body, he knew that his defeat was imminent, and he roared hatefully: "This is only temporary! You can't resist the coming of the End of Time. In ten thousand years, who can stop me from making a comeback!"
Aiden said: "In ten thousand years, mortals will also emerge who will replace me to defeat you. You don't understand, you didn't lose to me, but to mortals, to the eternal hope in people's hearts. For thousands of years, mortals will always make all efforts for survival and growth. Generation after generation, never ending."
"Hahahaha, then I'll wait and see!"
N'Zoth let out an unwilling voice.
The black mist representing the collective will of countless Old Gods dissipated at this moment, and the shadow standing in the void, covering the entire universe, finally collapsed.
The figure who defeated N'Zoth also collapsed in the next moment.
"The shadow has faded, and the world no longer needs my protection. Thank you for your trust, goodbye."
In a place where no one could see, the mirror channel had been opened, and Aiden's last wisp of soul passed through the channel.
He was very clear that this was not the end. Outside this world, there were even greater challenges waiting for him.
—
In 2467, Imaginary Earth, the rebel army's "Eye of Sargeras" top-secret underground base.
Three years had passed since Aiden left.
Three years ago, he brought a supercomputer "Fir" from Fir City, and left the Titan Energy Orb and an almost complete Titan corpse, as well as a lot of relevant information to Aiden, so that she could develop a Titan platform system that could compile the real world here.
Hundreds of years ago, Aiden had already done such a thing. She used Sargeras' heart to analyze the fantasy technology of the Titans in "World of Warcraft", and finally separated three Titans with the highest authority: Aman'Thul, Sargeras, and Aiden.
Later, with the help of the three highest authorities, she opened the passage to the Imaginary Space, using the endless Imaginary energy to create miracles that mortals couldn't imagine.
At that time, she was more omniscient and omnipotent than the God in the Bible; Imaginary energy could help her accomplish anything.
However, she didn't realize then that the transformation of the Imaginary Space would trigger a backlash from the universe's rules, which eventually evolved into the invasion of Imaginary monsters, and her exploration and transformation of this world were reduced to nothing.
She was well aware of the disaster her initial actions had brought to humanity.
But Aiden asked her to create another Titan System platform.
For hundreds of days and nights, Emma tossed and turned in bed. She didn't know whether what she was doing would lead to greater disasters and punishments, or, as her uncle Aiden said, redeem her past mistakes and save the world, even the entire universe.
However, this time, she didn't need to bear too much responsibility, because Aiden had already shouldered all the burdens.
"He's back," Titan Aiden, who had been responsible for protecting Emma, suddenly said.
"Ah, uh?" Emma was stunned, then asked in surprise, "Is Uncle back?"
"Yes."
Emma breathed a sigh of relief, the pressure in her heart completely swept away.
"That's great!"
"I think so too." A gentle voice sounded behind Emma.
"Uncle!" Emma turned around and saw Aiden standing at the door, looking at her with a smile.
"I'm back."
Emma screamed like a little girl, threw the smart terminal in her hand away, and opened her arms to rush towards Aiden.
This uncle was her only relative, and his position in her heart was almost no less than that of her own father.
"Slow down, slow down!" Aiden hurriedly called out.
But Emma still rushed over, and he could only helplessly watch her pass through his body like a gust of wind.
Emma finally stopped, turned around in shock, and asked in a trembling voice, "Uncle, what's wrong with you?"
"It's a long story," Aiden said with a wry smile.
Previously, in order to accommodate the power of faith from billions of living beings in the universe, he had to let his body collapse. Later, in the confrontation with N'Zoth, although he won the final victory, N'Zoth, who concentrated all the power of the Old Gods, was still too powerful, and Aiden almost perished with it.
After the battle, he returned the power from all beings, and only the most fundamental part of his soul remained, passing through the mirror passage and returning here.
With a "thud," Kate, who was leaning against the door, didn't even notice the thing in her hand falling to the ground when she saw this scene, her eyes were red, and tears immediately welled up.
"Hey, don't be like this, don't cry—I'm not dead yet, just don't have a body." Aiden had never been so helpless when facing the most powerful enemy, the more he tried to persuade them, the more sadly Emma and Kate cried.
"Wuwu, then what are you now?" Emma asked, wiping away her tears.
"I'm a ghost!" Aiden made a face.
Emma couldn't help but giggle and reached out to pat Aiden: "You're still teasing me like this when you're like this!"
It's just that her hand still passed directly through Aiden's body as before.
"This is only temporary," Aiden comforted the two of them, "As long as we succeed, I can recover."
After they calmed down, the four began a formal discussion in front of the supercomputer "Fir."
"Uncle, what are you going to do?" Emma asked.
"We all know that the crisis in the Imaginary Space is due to the differentiation between the real world and the mirror world, so we speculate that there is something similar to 'cosmic instinct' trying to eliminate this difference. And its method is to completely destroy both worlds, so that all traces will no longer exist, and the difference will naturally be erased."
Aiden talked eloquently, and Emma and Kate both nodded.
They had already made relevant inferences through Titan Aiden's report and their own research, but they had not associated it with something as mysterious as "cosmic instinct."
No one knows whether this thing exists or not. But Aiden is very clear that behind all the disasters in "World of Warcraft," there is a hand pushing everything towards that ending—the End Time!
And the changes outside the World of Warcraft are also proving from the side that the occurrence of those disasters is not a coincidence.
For example, on this Imaginary Earth, the artificial intelligence "Overlord" turned the tables, making artificial intelligence the ruler of the world, while humans themselves became its pets.
Although no one has returned to the real world in recent years, I am afraid that those humans who returned from the Imaginary Space will not be doing too well, because they simply do not know where the root cause of all disasters lies. Leaving the Imaginary Space and returning to their hometown cannot free them from suffering.
Aiden continued: "And the differentiation between the real world and the Imaginary Space began when I was born. Our attempt to solve the differentiation from the root cause has instead led to the birth of the difference."
Titan Aiden deeply understands this sentence, because he was sent by Emma to the past, trying to make the name "Aiden" not exist, and to make his life trajectory the same as that of Emma's father, Aiden Williams, in the real world.
However, the energy changes caused by his behavior of opening the Imaginary passage to return to the past led to the birth of the name "Aiden." After that, the two worlds gradually became different.
"So we can basically assume that changing the past is not advisable."
This conclusion made Emma a little frustrated, but she had to admit that it should be correct.
"So I have been considering another way of thinking: Since we can use the Titan platform to compile the mirrored world, then why don't we continue to do so and make the worlds on both sides of the mirror exactly the same?"
Emma's eyes lit up: "So three years ago, you asked me to develop a Titan platform connecting the real world in order to do such an attempt, right?"
"Yes!" Aiden nodded affirmatively.
"Sounds reasonable," Titan Aiden said.
"This should also be the only way we can possibly turn the situation around," Kate almost witnessed and even participated in the transformation of the Imaginary Space.
"Whether it succeeds or not depends on this gamble," Aiden said in a deep voice.
"But—" Emma couldn't help but ask, "What about Sargeras and Aman'Thul? This Titan platform requires simultaneous authentication from the three highest authorities to be activated."
"They..." Aiden didn't know where to start. He sighed, spread out his palm, and suddenly three disks appeared on his palm, forming a circle and rotating slowly. The white gold one belonged to Aman'Thul, the bronze one belonged to Sargeras, and the cyan jade disc belonged to Titan Aiden.
Everyone was silent. Seeing this scene, although they didn't know what happened in "World of Warcraft," Aiden losing his form and the two highest authority Titans dying in battle, they could already imagine the fierce battle that took place in that space.
"Let's begin!"
Aiden walked to the front of the Fir.
"Highest Titan authority verification required"
"Verifying..."
"Titan System platform activated"
"Model searching..."
"Loading complete"
"Imaginary Space connected"
A series of system prompts sounded, Aiden's spirit connected to the platform system, and he found himself standing above the vast starry sky. With a thought, he found the blue planet he wanted to reach in the billions of galaxies.
In 2018, he had been here before, but he left behind a Eye of Sargeras from "World of Warcraft" when he left.
This is the Earth in the real world. The time is the same as the Imaginary Earth, and it is already 2467 AD. People who once moved to the Imaginary Space due to the temptation of eternal life have returned here after the disaster.
It's just that the days of suffering have not ended because of this. In just a few decades, humans are no longer the masters of the world. All kinds of powerful and terrifying mutated beasts that don't know where they came from have begun to frantically hunt humans. The situation of humans is even more difficult than when the Imaginary monsters invaded.
It's just that the Titan System platform established by Emma has been closed, and no one can open it, so they can't go back even if they want to.
And the machine that had been silent underground for decades suddenly started again, and the people who had taken refuge in this permanent underground offensive issued bursts of exclamations. And the underground base echoed with the same voice as before:
"Highest Titan authority verification required"
"Verifying..."
"Titan System platform activated"
"Model searching..."
"Loading complete"
"Imaginary Space connected"
Aiden, who entered the two Titan System platforms at the same time, realized that this was the real beginning...