Chapter 12 Chapter Twelve

What? Thrall thought it was some kind of joke, a dragon trying to imitate human humor. But Nozdormu seemed dead serious. Thrall was annoyed and utterly bewildered. Even the other bronze dragons stepped back. walking, whispering to each other. Nozdormu sighed heavily. "I was told exactly when I was going to die and how I was going to die," he said. "I will never subvert it. But only one of the paths of my destiny is correct. In a future unfolding, I became the leader of the infinite dragonflight. So I am lost in the timeline, Thrall. I was trying to understand how things like this could have happened. How I, who had been trying to fulfill the great duty that the Titans had entrusted to me, could have gone astray."

Thrall nodded, though he was still shocked, and more than a little wary. "Have you… found a way to stop this from happening?" he asked. Nozdormu shook his huge head slowly. "Unfortunately, not yet. One thing I do know is that ~all dragonkind must work together against this looming threat. Ysera is right: you have some abilities, ways of thinking , the way they speak, they can reach other people. You have helped me so much, but I have to ask you for more help." Help the future leader of the infinite dragon army?Sal hesitated.However, he could sense nothing evil from Nozdormu.At least not yet.He just felt worried and annoyed.

"For Ysera, and especially Desharin, who gave his life so that I could find you, Eternal Dragon, I will help. But I need to know more. I'm afraid I've been operate in the dark." "Given that Ysera found you in the first place, I am not surprised," Nozdormu said flatly, but there was affection in his voice. "She was barely awake. Thrall, son of Durotan and Draka, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. We will share with you as much as we can...but you must act alone. This theory, this belief—if If I really want to know what we have to do, I have to know more. Don't worry: I won't forget the point you reminded me to remember. I won't get lost in the timeline a second time. I leave it to you Your quest is difficult, but this quest may save all. You must find Alexstrasza the Life-Binder and bring her out of her sorrow."

"What happened?" Thrall asked. "I wasn't there, but I knew," Nozdormu said.Sal nodded.If Nozdormu had been trapped in every moment, he would have known. "Not long ago, many dragon clans met at Wyrmrest Temple. This was the first time since the death of Malygos and the end of the Battle of Arcus." "Alexstrasza's companion, Cleostrasz, known to you as Krasus, remained in the Crimson Temple. Every dragon has a sanctum, some kind of... only In their own dimension. The meeting was aborted due to an attack by an army called the Twilight Dragonflight - loyal to Deathwing and the cult Twilight's Hammer."

Sal frowned. "I know this church," he said. "There was a massive internal explosion during the battle. Everyone in all the temples died. Krasus... and the dragon eggs in every temple didn't survive. He killed them all .” Thrall stared at the bronze dragon.He thought of the Krasus he had seen: calm, wise, considerate. "He... murdered them? All of them?" "So it seems," growled Anacross.He struck his own tail, his eyes narrowed. Thrall shook his head resolutely. "No, I don't believe it. There must be some reason, some explanation—" "The Life-Binder mourns," Nozdormu interrupted. "Think about what she's going to think. Thinking that her favorite is either crazy or allied with the cult - it hurts her. Without the Dragon Aspects, the Red Dragon won't lend a helping hand against the Twilight Cult. Without the red~dragon, we have no chance of victory. Nothing~ will cease to exist."

His huge eyes turned to Thrall, and he said intently, "You must remind her of her duty—her heart, even when it is hurt, can take care of him~ human ability. Can you do it, Sarah you?" Sal has no idea.The task was daunting.Could no dragon have accomplished this?He has no personal ties to her.How on earth was he supposed to convince her to let go of such grief and rejoin the fight? "I'll try," was Thrall's total answer. Alexstrasza couldn't remember where he had been for most of the past few days.Desperate and desperate to escape the pain, she simply flew, letting her wings carry her forward.

She flew across the endless sea, over the land of the elves, the corrupted woods and the winter scenery, and finally arrived at this place that seemed as broken and empty as she was.She made up her mind that her end would be Desolace—a fitting name, she thought bitterly. She took human form and traveled southward from the Stonetalon Mountains on her feet.On the way, she encountered a battle between the Horde and the Alliance, and paid no attention to it; leaving these short-lived races to kill each other.This has nothing to do with her.On the way, she passed a scarred valley with surging lava and heat that only a black dragon could endure, but she just glanced dully.Let the world run its course.Her love was gone—her love, it was possible, had betrayed her and all that she had fought for.

Alexstrasza cursed herself, her dragonborn, and the rest of the dragonflight; she cursed the titans for entrusting her with such a burden.She had never asked for it, and now she realized she couldn't take it. Wanting to feel the hard, lifeless earth beneath her feet, she took off her boots, not paying attention to the blisters on her feet.The road has been bumpy and rugged, but the earth has long since lost traces of green grass and has become lifeless.Oddly, the ground beneath her aching feet was powdery, which made her feel comfortable compared to the hard stone.She felt the magic energy here, but she simply admitted it, and walked forward step by step, with blood-stained footprints everywhere she walked.

Dead bodies littered the field.She saw countless bones, white with age, of kodos and other creatures.Dead bones scattered across the land, like trees elsewhere.The living creatures she saw seemed to be feeding on the dead—hyenas and vultures.A vulture hovered above her, and she just watched listlessly, wondering if it had tasted a dragon before. It will have a chance, soon.This is for her.She won't leave. The female dragon, once known as the Life-Binder, climbed slowly and flew to a mountain peak overlooking the wasteland.She won't eat, drink, or even sleep.She would sit on top of the mountain, waiting for death to take her away, and then her suffering would be, finally, over.

Sal almost missed her. Even sitting on the back of a huge bronze dragon, he couldn't see everything.What he was looking for was a red dragon, which should be easily identifiable in this open place.He did not expect to find a slender elf woman, curled up on a pinnacle alone. "Fly for a short distance, and I'll stop so you can come down," Tik said.She's one of the dragons who guard the Caverns of Time, willing to carry Thrall wherever he needs to go—first and foremost, this barren land. "I don't feel like my presence will be welcomed." She said this not with hostility, but with deep regret.Thrall guessed that all dragonkind mourned what had happened to the Life-Binder.Any sentient life would mourn this, Thrall thought, if it had even an iota of sanity.

"I think that would be best," Thrall said.They moved closer so that he could get a better look at the tiny figure.He couldn't see her face, but her body was curled up tightly, her legs close to her chest, next to her bowed, red-haired head.All the lines that make up her cry out for pain and ruin. The bronze dragon landed some distance away, and bent its knees so that Thrall could come down. "Come here when you're ready to go," she told Thrall. "I hope Alexstrasza and I get out of here together," Thrall reminded her. Tik looked at him sadly. "Come here when you're ready to go," she repeated, before leaping into the sky. Thrall sighed, glanced towards the summit, and began to climb. "I hear you, orc," she said before he was halfway up the climb.That beautiful voice is broken, like a precious glass sculpture broken by a careless hand: still shining, still lovely, but broken. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you," Thrall replied. She said nothing more.He climbed up and sat on a hard rock beside her.She didn't even look at him, or say a word. After a while, he said, "I know who you are, Life-Binder. I—" She rushed forward, her tanned delicate face looking furious, and she growled as she gritted her teeth. "You mustn't call me that again! Never! I'm no longer bound by my life, never again." Her sudden outburst startled Thrall, but it wasn't unexpected to him.He nodded. "As you wish. I am Thrall, once Warchief of the Horde, and now a member of the Earthen Ring." "I know who you are." Thrall was slightly startled, but continued, "And no matter what name I use to call you, I was sent to find you." "Entrusted by whom?" she said, and her voice became dull again as she turned to gaze at the empty and ugly land. "Ysera, partly, and Nozdormu." The slightest interest flickered across her face, like something glimpsed through deep water. "He is back?" "I searched and found him, as I searched and found you," Thrall said. "He's learned a lot—a lot of things he's convinced you need to hear." She played with a few strands of dark red hair rising with the heat, but did not answer.Thrall wasn't sure how to proceed.He had prepared himself for grief and anger, but this silence, this deathly despair— He told her everything that had happened so far, trying to make it sound like a story.If he could arouse a little interest, a little curiosity--anything but that hideous stone-like lifeless death mask on her face--he would be encouraged by it.He mentions Ysera, and the fire elementals who tried to destroy the ancients.Hot gusts of wind blew relentlessly, but Alexstrasza sat as still as if she had been carved out of stone. "The ancient tree said," Thrall continued. "Their memories are getting confused. Someone is disrupting the timeline." "I know that," she replied bluntly. "I know the bronze dragons are worried about this, and they recruited mortals to help them correct it. What you told me is nothing new, so naturally it can't arouse my idea of ​​returning." Her words and tone were vicious.It held hatred—but Thrall knew it wasn't aimed at him.It was directed at Alexstrasza herself. He was determined to continue. "Nozdormu believes that many things are intertwined. They are not separate events. All the horrors that have befell the Dragonkeepers—the mysterious sortie of the Infinity Dragonflight, the Emerald Nightmare, and even Deathwing and The madness of Malygos—Nozdormu sensed a pattern in it, an attack pattern on the dragonlords and their dragonkind. Attacks designed to deplete and defeat them—maybe even send them to kill each other." There was a soft murmur. "Who would want that to happen, even if it was true?" Even if it was just a humble sign of curiosity, Thrall was encouraged. "Nozdormu needs more time to figure this all out," he replied. "Right now, he suspects that at least the Infinity Dragon Legion is connected." silence. "I see." "He asked me to find you. Good—good to help you. Help you heal." It was difficult, and humbling, as an ordinary orc shaman to heal the Life-Binder—perhaps she herself was Shi Greatest healer ever.He half expected her to scoff at Thrall's proposal and dismiss it, but she just kept silent.He goes on. "If you heal, many other things will be healed too. We can go to the Nexus together, talk to the blue dragons, and help them regain their sanity. Then—" "why?" This question, asked so straightforwardly, made him speechless for a while. "Because...it helps them." "I ask again: why?" "If they get help, they can join us so we can figure out what happened. Once we have a clue, we can fix it. We can fight the Twilight's Hammer cultists and defeat They. Find out what the motives of the Infinity Dragonflight are. Stop Deathwing once and for all...and save the world, which is constantly falling apart." She stared at him, her eyes almost piercing him.For a long time, she didn't say a word. "You can't see it," she said finally. "What can't I see, Alexstrasza?" he asked very humbly. "None of this matters." "What are you trying to say? We have the information; we know this is part of a vast and complex plan, and it may have been going on for thousands of years! It is possible we could stop it!" Alexstrasza shook his head slowly. "No. It doesn't matter. It all does. It doesn't matter if everything is connected. It doesn't matter how long this has been going on. It doesn't even matter if we can stop it." He stared at her, unable to understand. "The children," she said flatly, "are dead. Kleostraz is dead. I've lost all hope. I'm nothing but a body, and I won't live long. No hope. Nothing. It doesn't matter." Thrall felt a sudden surge of anger.He still grieves over the loss of Teresa.Losing her is a must if everything is going to go on the way it should.But he's going to miss him, now and always will.He remembered how much she wanted to be able to make a difference, to be able to live with meaning.She felt like there was nothing she could do, but she did everything she could.The magnitude of the change that the Life-Binder can make is beyond even Teresa's comprehension, yet she prefers to stay here, insisting that nothing matters. Things do have their significance.Theresa is important too.Azeroth matters.Whatever she endured, Alexstrasza should not wallow in her pain. He did have sympathy for her, and that sympathy allowed him to suppress his anger now. "I apologize for the loss of the dragon eggs," he said. "Losing the vast majority of a generation—seriously, I can't imagine your pain. And, I'm sorry for your spouse's loss, especially in this way. But... I can't believe you'd throw Those who need you," he said, with anger in his voice. "You are a dragonlord, in the name of your ancestors. This is what you were born to do. You—" She leaped from her seated position into the air, so fast that his eyes could barely keep up.A moment later, a huge red dragon hovered above him.The fine gray dust churned from the dead ground, covering Thrall's skin and robes and making his eyes water.He jumped up and backed away quickly, wondering what was going to happen next. "Yes, I was born," said Alexstrasza, her voice deeper and harsher, full of anger and a certain unspeakable bitterness. "Being a Life-Binder without really understanding what it takes of me. And what I need to do is more than I can take. I sacrifice, I give, I help, I fight, but my reward is More pain, more needs, and the death of all the people I hold dear. I don't wish to kill, but orcs, if you come to pester me again, I will. None of this matters. Everything! Fuck!" He tried again. "Please," he said, "for the sake of the innocent—" "roll!" Alexstrasza threw back, flapping her wings to stay in the air, and opened her huge, fanged mouth, and Thrall scurried away.A billowing orange-red flame scorched the stone on which he had been sitting.He heard her start to breathe again, and half-run, half-fall to the edge of the mountain. A roar filled the gloomy air.It was a mixture of anger and pain, and Thrall's heart ached for the wretched dragonlord.He wished he could find a way to influence her.The thought of her dying here alone, with no food, no water, and above all a hopeless heart, made him sick.He fancied regretfully that travelers would one day come across her skeleton, old and white like the others that dotted the land. He slipped and walked the rest of the way, bruised and listless, shambling to the place Tick had said he'd meet her.The dragon flew above for a while and landed, watching him sadly. "Where should I carry you, Thrall?" she asked in a low voice. "Let's go to the Nexus and follow the plan," Thrall said, his voice weary. "As Nozdormu requested, we will persuade the blue dragon to form an alliance with other dragons." "And...we're going alone." Sal nodded. "Alone." He looked back at the figure of a huge red dragon. Her wings flapped irregularly, her body twisted, and then she threw her horned head back.Maybe, if she saw what other people were doing, she'd change her mind. "Now." They flew north, but beyond the beating of Tik's wings, Thrall could hear the bitter, mournful roar of a disheartened Life-Binder. Like a shadow stretching over the land in twilight, something dark rose from the black hole in which he hid himself.Far enough that he was unlikely to be seen, but close enough to keep his prey out of range, King Aedelas Blackmoore on the back of a twilight dragon followed. His long black hair fluttered in the wind.His face, cruel as it was, was handsome.A neatly trimmed black goatee framed thin lips, and the blue eyes snapped shut under generous black brows. After the first attempt, Blackmoore decided not to follow Thrall through timelines.It was too tricky; the chances of his prey escaping him and giving him a futile pursuit were too great. Better to bide his time, to be where he knew Thrall would eventually show up. Sal.He'd heard so much about Thrall that he wanted to tear the orc apart with a paring knife.Thrall, the man who killed him, whose very existence caused Blackmoore to go further and further down the road, becoming a pathetic, drunken coward.Thrall, who led an army of orcs against Durnholde.No, there will be joy before him.Given the fact that this greenskin is quite challenging, victory will be even sweeter. Fly, orc, he thought, his thin lips curved into a smile.Fly, but you can't escape. I will find you and kill you.After that, I'll help destroy your world.