Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

Sarben never thought that he would come back here this day, and it was still so soon.But as he flew behind Narigos, he realized that he was very different from the last time he was close to the Life-Binder. The thought of Agra brought warmth to his heart, and the quiet, ash-like flame supported him and calmed him.He had seen—and, yes, played a part in it—how the blue dragons came to realize the true depths of their hearts and souls.They got the Dragon Aspect they deserved: he was mighty, he was compassionate, he was wise, and his heart was truly for the blue dragon's good. "The last time I saw her, she was there," Thrall pointed to the distance.The giant dragon swooped down steadily and flew towards Shi Feng.As they approached the summit, Thrall felt a sting of concern to see that Alexstrasza was still here.What a heart-wrenching picture, she just sits there with her arms wrapped around her knees.He wondered if she had moved since the last time he left.

"Put me down at a distance," Thrall said. "I think she doesn't want to see anyone now, even if she sees me, it might be better if it's just me." "As you wish," Narigos said, landing gracefully, lowering his body so Thrall could jump off more easily.Thrall turned and looked up at him. "Thank you for carrying me here," he said, "but... maybe you shouldn't be here waiting for me." Naregos tilted his head. "If you don't succeed in convincing her—" "If I don't succeed in convincing her," Thrall said, earnest in his tone. "Then it doesn't make much sense for me to go back."

Narigos nodded understandingly. "Good luck to you, then, for all of us." His huge head touched Thrall lightly and affectionately, then adjusted and flew into the air.Thrall watched him disappear into the distance, before walking towards the Life-Binder. She heard his advancing footsteps, just like last time.Her voice was harsh, probably because she hadn't spoken for a long time. "You dared to come back to me a second time. Of all the Orcs I have ever seen, you were the bravest, or the most stupid." He smiled. "Others have said similar things, my lady," he said.

"The others," she said, looking up, the serious eyes almost piercing him, "not me." Even Thrall, who had seen and fought in a lifetime, trembled at the quiet menace in the voice.He knew she was right.If she decides to kill him, he has no chance of escape. "You came for more torture?" she said, but he wasn't sure if she meant he would torture her, or let her torture him instead.Maybe both. "I wish to bring about an end, or at least a alleviation, of your torment, my lady," he said flatly. One moment she was still full of rage, the next she looked away, making her look more like a poor child than the mightiest of Dragon Aspects yet.

"Only death can bring the end, and death may not necessarily bring about the end," Alexstrasza said, his voice almost broken. "I don't know if I'm right or wrong with you," Thrall said, "but I have to give it a go." She sighed heavily.He studied her carefully.She was even thinner than the last time I saw her.Her cheekbones, not to mention thin, were almost close to the skin.There were dark circles around her eyes, and she herself looked as though a gust of wind could blow her away. Thrall wasn't that stupid. He sat on the rock beside her.She didn't move at all. "The last time we met," he continued, "I asked you to come with me to the Nexus. To talk to the blue dragons. To help them."

"I haven't forgotten. I haven't forgotten my response either." No.It doesn't matter.all of them.It doesn't matter whether everything is connected or not.It doesn't matter how long this has been going on.It doesn't even matter whether we can stop it.The children died.Cleostrasz is dead.All my thoughts were lost, only my physical body was left, and I didn't live long.hopeless.Not everything.It doesn't matter. "I remember, too," Thrall said. "But it doesn't matter that the others don't know, or don't believe, they still hold on stubbornly. Like the blue dragons. They have chosen their new dragonlord: Kalecgos. And they have a new Enemy: a chromatic dragon called Chromatus."

Her face was almost imperceptibly surprised at the mention of Kalecgos, but her eyes darkened again when the name of Chromatus came up. "Where you win, you lose," she murmured. "I fell in that battle," Thrall said bluntly. "Basically, literally. I fell behind Kalek into the snow. I nearly fell to death and despair. But something happened. It made me want to move my frozen Limbs and limbs, clawed our way through the snow—and survived the surprise attack of an age-old foe." She didn't move at all.It looked like she was ignoring him completely.But at least she didn't stand up angrily and want to kill him like last time.That meant she was probably listening.

Ancestors, may I do no wrong.I've done my best, I've done my best. He held out a hand.She felt Thrall's movement and turned her head to look at it blankly.He continued to move his hand towards her, signaling that she should grab him.She turned her head slowly, staring at the horizon again. Sal gently reached out and grabbed her hand himself.Her limp fingers did not respond.Then the strong green hand took her fingers carefully. "I saw a vision," he said quietly, as if trying not to startle a shy beast in the forest. "Two to be precise. To get... one is already my blessing. To be given two, let alone one of them is shared with confidence... This is an honor I never thought of."

There was a sincere humility in his words.Despite knowing his growing power and connection to the elements, he remains in awe of the favor he has received. "One is for me. And this one... is for me to share with you." He closed his eyes. Dragon eggs are hatching. It didn't feel like a place to witness childbirth.This is a temporary laboratory in a huge tent.Outside the tent was a storm, and the whelp was struggling to break through the eggshell that bound it. There are many people watching its birth.One appears to be human, with a hooded cloak covering his face.The others were dressed in robes that made them immediately recognizable as cultists of the Twilight's Hammer.They were all beaming, staring motionless at the baby that was about to break out of its shell.

Standing beside the humans was a charming woman with dark blue hair.The human held a slender chain in his hand, extending to the human female's throat.Her expression was different from everyone else's, with a disgusted look on her face, one hand on her abdomen, and the other tightly clenched into a fist. "Krygosa!" Alexstrasza pronounced the name clearly.Her imposing voice reached only Thrall.The vision is no different from the first time it appears.When he heard the name, his heart ached.It seems——Arygos's sister had encountered such a situation, and everyone thought she had disappeared.She was indeed lost, but she was not dead, not dead yet.Everything he needed to know was written all over her face.

The little creature pushed around, and a piece of eggshell fell.It opened its mouth and let out a breath. It is hideous. It was blue, and black, and purple, with strange spots of bronze, red, and green here and there.One of its front legs became a stump.It has only one mottled, bruised eye, with which it looks at its viewers. Kylygosa burst into tears and turned away. "No, no, dear, don't look away. Look what we've created with your common blue dragon offspring," the human said triumphantly.He reached out a gloved hand and placed the chromatic whelp in his palm.The thing lay limp, its young chest rising and falling.One of its wings is attached to its body. The cloaked man took a few steps and put it on the ground. "Now, little one, let's see if you can grow bigger." A believer stepped forward and bowed respectfully.Human hands outstretched.In one hand, an ancient relic gleaming with lavender energy is held up, which can't be seen clearly.The fingers of the other hand waved as the spell was cast.He uttered a spell, and a stream of white arcane energy shot out from the artifact.This energy wrapped the young dragon like a magic rope, and then began to extract golden life energy from the young dragon.It screamed in pain. "No!" Kirygosa screamed, lunging forward.The man pulled the chain and pulled it hard.Krygosa knelt on the ground, hissing in pain. The wyrmlings begin to grow in size.It opened its mouth, and its convulsed body matched a small scream.Now the magic was draining its life force, aging it rapidly; Thrall could almost hear the creaking of bones and the stretching of skin.For a moment, its high-pitched cry fell to a muffler, and then gathered into a piercing cry.One wing flapped wildly; the other, still attached, simply quivered. The chromatic whelp collapsed to the ground. The human sighed. "It's almost grown to the size of an adult dragon," he mused.He took a step forward and pushed the corpse on the ground with his toes. "It's getting better, Garg. It's getting better. Her dragon blood does seem to make her offspring stronger than most, allowing them to withstand the transformation. Still, not perfect. Take it away. Dissect it, research It will do better next time.” "As you wish, Father Twilight," Garg said.The other four believers stepped forward and began to drag the colorful dragon away. "What are you going to do to my child?" Kylygosa's voice was low at first, coming from the chest, but then it became an angry cry.Once again, ignoring the pain she knew she was going to endure, she rushed to the human being called Father Twilight. "Oh, dear orc," whispered Alexstrasza.Thrall knew she was now also noticing the marks on Kylygosa, the marks she had bled or been experimenting on.Strangely enough, the pain empathy in Alexstrasza's voice gave Thrall hope.Compared with the dead nothingness, pain and fear are much better. "I'm creating perfection," said Father Twilight, tugging on the silver chain again. Tormented, she twitched before being able to breathe. "Although I have to watch, I'm glad I only have a brood of dragon eggs left for you to rape," Kirygosa said through gritted teeth. "My spouse is dead. I will give you no more children and grandchildren." "Ah, but you're still Malygos' daughter," said Father Twilight. "Who said fate—or I—couldn't find you a new consort, eh?" The scene changed.Thrall still had his eyes closed, the vision still playing in his mind.He could feel Alexstrasza's hand, her fingers holding his now, but it felt a little distant, as if he couldn't hear a sound from far away.He knew what they were going to see next, and he knew that if she didn't fall apart, she could save herself. No matter what, he will be with her. This is a holy place.Thrall knew immediately what this place was before, even though he had never been to the Crystal Red Temple himself.It had evidently been attacked recently, and though it had been damaged, the beautiful woods, bright meadows, rustling trees, criss-crossed by the meandering river, had begun to heal themselves.This is what it should be, because this is the heart of the Red Dragon Clan and the real home of the Red Dragon Queen. A huge male dragon lies in the shadow of a tree.The way he was resting was a bit clumsy, presumably he didn't allow himself to enjoy this often, and at the same time he continued to look at the piles of dragon eggs with his half-closed eyes. Her breath is pure and real, full of longing and pain. "Kryostrasz," whispered the Life-Binder. "Oh my love... Sal, do I have to see this?" She was so upset that she was no longer ordering him, but just begging him intermittently.Somehow—despair or hope, he didn't know—the Great Life-Binder, Alexstrasza, seemed to place her hand firmly in Thrall's. "Yes, my lady," he said, making his low voice as soft as possible. "Just bear it for a moment, and everything will be revealed to you." At that time, he immediately stood up vigilantly, put his feet on the ground, sniffed the air around him, and turned his ears to catch the slightest sound.In an instant Kryostrasz was in the air, flying swiftly and gracefully, his eyes surveying the earth. He opened his eyes wide, then narrowed them, and with a growl of protective rage, he folded his wings and swooped down.Moments later, Thrall and Alexstrasza saw what Krasus had seen: several intruders, of all races, all wearing the Twilight's Hammer cult dark maroon and black robes. Cleostrasz did not breathe fire or use magic.The temple invaders were scattered among the precious dragon eggs.He chose to dive, stretched out his huge dragon claws, grabbed the cultists and crushed them to pieces, as quickly and effectively as Thrall crushed a bug.They didn't scream in panic; Thrall saw them laughing and embracing death, angry and nauseated. The threat seemed over, so Kryostrasz landed beside a pile of dragon eggs, lowered his blood-red scaled head, and touched them lightly. One of the dragon eggs cracked open.A sickly ochre-colored smoke rose from the egg, and Krasus stepped back as he saw a small, misshapen polychromatic whelp, eyes wide open. "No!" Alexstrasza screamed.Sal understood her.It was painful enough for the Life-Binder to witness Kylygosa's torment.To let her know that the same terrible fate befell her own children— The terrified Cleostrasz stretched out a dragon claw and touched the young creature tentatively.There was a soft sound, and more and more dragons began to break out of their shells.All that hatched were screaming, misshapen chromatic whelps. Then Krasus looked down at himself, and gasped.The tips of his own front paws had begun to turn black.Slow but relentless, the contagion had crawled from his dragon claws to his front legs. Someone gave a low laugh, weak but triumphant, that caught the red dragon's attention. "In this way, all the descendants became the children of the Mad King, the great Deathwing," said one cultist to himself.He is a troll with dark blue skin.Cleostrasz crushed his ribs, and blood flowed from his mouth to the fangs, but he was still alive. "All of you... will be his.  …" Krasus stared at his infected limb.He clenched his claws into a fist and slammed it on his chest.He closed his eyes and lowered his head. "No," he whispered. "I will not allow this to happen. I will destroy myself and... and my children instead of seeing them go astray." The cultist laughed again, albeit weakly.He began to cough, and the blood that spit out was tinged with pink in the air. "We still-still won," he gasped. Krasus stared at him, then remembered what he had said. "What do you mean 'all children'?" The cultist remained silent, squinting at him as he struggled to breathe. "How many are infected? Tell me!" "All of them!" exclaimed the troll triumphantly.His eyes are bright, and his smile is extraordinarily bright. "All dragon eggs! All temples! You're too late! They're all hatching now. You can't stop." Krasus was very calm.He narrowed his eyes, thinking sideways. "I can," he whispered. "Yes, I can." "All dragon eggs," Alexstrasza whispered. "We...all..." "That was a poor choice," Thrall murmured. "He knew there was a chance that no one would really know what was going on. Without the truth, other people would see him as a traitor. Maybe even you." He heard her gasping and sobbing, and squeezed her hand. "He saved us. . . . He never betrayed us; he saved us . . . !" The two stood in silence, eyes still closed, while Cleostrasz mustered all his energy and magic, focusing it upon himself.He took a deep, steady breath, and whispered a word: "My love." After that, everything became dark. Sal opened his eyes.Alexstrasza's eyes were also opened.She didn't look at anything with her fixed eyes, her face was pale and bloodless, and the hand holding Sal was so tight that it hurt. "He... used his life energy to connect the portal," Alexstrasza whispered. "Destroy all tainted dragon eggs before anyone else gets infected. I don't understand why so much verdant remains... Now I understand. Somehow, I understand. He brings death to life... ok Let the others live." "The Spirit of Life is telling you things it cannot show," Thrall said quietly. "That's why I'm here. Cleostrasz was not a traitor. He was a hero. He died voluntarily and honorably, saving not only his own dragons but all others, and You are in his heart." "He's the best of us," she said silently. "He never let me down, or anyone. I—I failed, fell, but he didn't. Cleostrasz didn't." She looked up at Thrall . "I'm glad I know how brave he is. How proud he makes me. But now...knowing this, how am I going to live without him? Is it possible to understand what I lost when you were so short-lived? " Thrall thought of Agra. "Maybe I won't live long, but I can. I know love. And I know how I'd feel if I lost someone I loved like you did." "Then without this love, how do you continue? What is the purpose of continuing?" He stared at her, his heart suddenly went blank.All the images, ideas, words of comfort and the clichés that came to the lips seemed so blank and meaningless at the moment.Indeed, if a man once had such love, what reason did he, as the only survivor, continue to have? Then, he thought of a reason. His right hand continued to hold the Life-Binder's hand.His left hand reached into his pocket and took out a tiny, almost humble object. It was an acorn that the old tree gave him as a gift.He recalled what Decharin had said: take good care of it.Its mother tree, its grandmother tree... and so on, all their knowledge up to the beginning of things is contained in this acorn.When you feel the location is right, you need to plant it. Though Krasus longed for it, he knew it was something else.Thrall thought to himself, wondering if the Red Dragon had thought about it, perhaps, this thing was prepared for his partner.Thrall hoped so. The orc opened Alexstrasza's hand, placed the acorn in her palm, and let her clasp it gently. "I told you about the Dreamer's Sleep in Feralas," Thrall said softly. "And those ancient trees in trouble. What I didn't tell you is how magnificent they are. What I didn't tell you is their...existence. The simple power of age and wisdom poured out. When I was around I feel so small and amazed when I'm among them." "I... know the ancient tree," Alexstrasza said quietly.She held the acorn in her fist and opened it a moment later. The acorn moved in her hand, so lightly that Thrall thought it was just rolling between the grooves in her palm.Then, a crack appeared in its pale brown base.The crack began to expand, and then a small green sprout about a few millimeters widened from the mouth. Alexstrasza gasped with a whimper.Her other hand flew to her chest and pressed hard on the thin chest. It suddenly rose and fell once, twice, three times, each time with a big mouthful of painful sobs.She continued to press on her heart, as if it hurt her.For a moment Thrall thought it was too much—it was killing her. Then he understood.The door of the Life-Binder's heart is shut -- shutting out the pain of caring, shutting out the torment of losing someone dear to him, shutting out the pangs of compassion. And now, like the husk of an acorn, like the melting ice of spring, her heart was cracking open. "I am what I am," she whispered, her eyes still on the sprouting acorns. "Pain or joy. I am who I am." Another cry pained her, and then another.She mourns for a lost love, tears welling in her eyes, tears of healing long locked away in her broken heart.Thrall put one arm around her shoulders, and she lay on his broad chest; she, who had been tortured and enslaved by the orcs to serve them, leaned against him and wept. Her tears seemed endless, as the Life-Binder's tears should be.It wasn't just about Krasus' death, Thrall thought so.He felt her weeping for all that had fallen; for the innocent as well as the guilty; for Malygos, for Deathwing, and all those they had hurt; for those who would never have a chance to truly live. For the once-infected child; for the dead, for the living; for all who have suffered, tasted the salty taste of pain on their cheeks. Tears were pouring out, and her crying was as natural and pure as breathing.Tears rolled down her face, on the acorn in her palm, and on the ground where they sat. As the first tears gently splashed on the ground, a flower began to break through the surface of the earth. Sal looked around, in disbelief.Before his eyes, more than a hundred thousand times faster than it should have been, he saw plants appear: flowers of every color, small green shoots growing into saplings, and dense soft green grass.He could even hear the sound of things growing: lively and cheerful crackling. He thought of the druids doing all they could to bring life to this place.Now and then their efforts help, but only temporarily.However, he knew from the bottom of his heart that the green new life he saw before his eyes would not fade away with time.Tears that cry because they were born of the life-binder's reawakened compassion and love. Alexstrasza moved back slightly.He raised his arms around her shoulders.She almost trembled and took a deep breath, then knelt on the ground slightly unsteadily.Sal didn't help her; he sensed that she didn't want him involved.Alexstrasza gently dug up the newly green land, pressed the acorns into the soil, and then respectfully covered it with soil.She stood up and faced Thrall. "I... have gone through this trial," she said quietly.Her voice was still hurt, but there was a calmness it had never felt before. "You reminded me of those things that I forgot in the midst of pain. Those... things that he didn't want me to forget, never." She smiled, and although this smile was sad, it was true and sweet.Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, but they were bright and clear.Thrall knew she was safe. And yes, a righteous rage formed on her beautiful face as she stepped back and raised one hand to the sky.There was so much to remember about all that was lost, and he knew she would. But now is not the time.Now, the Life-Binder is turning grief into strength.Thrall felt almost a tinge of pity for those who were about to feel the heat of her rage. almost. Once again, Thrall watched her leap into the air as he had seen her before, transforming from a wizened elven woman into the most powerful Aspect—maybe the most powerful creature in the world.But this time, he knew that there was nothing scary about her like this. She looked down at him, kindly in her eyes, and the Life-Binder bent down so the orc could climb onto her broad back. "We will join my brothers and sisters, if you will come with me," she whispered. "I'm glad to serve," Thrall said, once again humbled and awed by the majesty of the red dragon before him.He climbed carefully onto her back and sat down respectfully at the base of her neck. "After the defeat of the blue dragons, I believe they have retreated to the Nexus." "Maybe," she said. "Either we find them there, or Kalek joins the rest of the dragonfolk, gathering near Wyrmrest Temple." "The twilight dragons will see them," Thrall said whatever came to his mind. "That's right," Alexstrasza agreed, and she steadied herself and soared into the air. "They will. What's wrong?" "Then there's no way to surprise," Thrall replied. "We don't have to do that anymore," Alexstrasza said.Thrall felt relieved by her firm, loud voice. "Our failure or victory will not be determined solely by military strategy or superiority, but by far more important factors." She turned her neck to look at him, her powerful wings beating rhythmically. "It's time for the dragons of Azeroth to put aside their differences and work together. Otherwise, I fear we will all fail."