Chapter 615: Old Friend

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

On the vast Great Sea, surging waves were rolling, and heavy and dark clouds were in the sky. Lightning flashed in the clouds from time to time.

These meteorological phenomena undoubtedly indicated that a great storm was about to descend, and storms were the nightmares of voyagers!

However, on this stormy sea, there was a small boat riding the wind and waves. It was a typical night elf-style sail warship. Its workmanship was exquisite and elegant, but its hull was very light, so it could pass through the violent and howling winds without any obstruction.

But what really allowed this warship to sail in storms was not the ship itself but the crew controlling it because the crew on this warship was a group of nagas that looked like snake demons!

Yes, the owner of this warship was Illidan, who had escaped from his cage. Now, he had obtained the help of the nagas led by Lady Vashj.

After obtaining the Skull of Gul’dan and waiting for an opportunity to kill Tichondrius, Illidan had met Tyrande and his brother, Malfurion. After seeing Illidan’s demon form, the two of them were furious and thought that he hadn’t changed and once again embarked on his old path of submitting to demons.

But because this meeting was a secret, and no other night elves were present, out of their many years of friendship, Tyrande and Malfurion didn’t have a conflict with Illidan. They only expelled him on behalf of the night elves and forbade him from setting foot on the land of the night elves again.

Illidan was actually very hurt, and it was a psychological trauma. Tyrande was the person he loved the most, and he only agreed to get out of his prison to help the night elves resist the Burning Legion on her account. But after he killed Tichondrius and made a contribution, she fell out with him mercilessly.

Feeling betrayed, Illidan angrily planned to leave Kalimdor. He no longer wanted to care about the war between the night elves and the Burning Legion.

But at this moment, Maiev Shadowsong appeared. She was the warden who had been in charge of guarding Illidan for ten thousand years. When Tyrande released him, she didn’t even hesitate to kill the guards under Maiev Shadowsong. After knowing that Illidan had escaped, Maiev couldn’t pursue the responsibility of Tyrande, the noble Priestess of the Moon, so she could only blame Illidan for the deaths of her compatriots. Thus, she led her wardens to hunt him down.

Illidan didn’t want to get too entangled with Maiev. Although he could easily kill her with his current strength, he still chose to escape from the sad land of Kalimdor.

As a result, when he escaped to the coast, a group of strange creatures found him, and these creatures were the nagas.

After the Highborne elves led by Queen Azshara escaped to the bottom of the sea, their living environment had naturally changed drastically. Coupled with the contract reached between Azshara and the Old God N’Zoth, the Highborne had evolved into the nagas over the past ten thousand years. Although they had completely become creatures living in the sea, their desire for land still existed, and they imagined that they could regain the continent of Kalimdor where the Highborne had lived one day.

Originally, the nagas had been staying at the bottom of the sea for the past ten thousand years and had not gone ashore much. But recently, there had been tremendous changes. When Archimonde crossed the Great Sea alone and passed through the Maelstrom, the immense fel energy in his body alarmed the nagas in the sea. Out of hatred for being deceived by the Burning Legion back then, the nagas had tried to attack Archimonde, but Archimonde had taught them a lesson instead, causing them heavy losses.

Although the nagas had been unable to pose any obstruction to Archimonde, his appearance made them realize that the world on the ground seemed to be undergoing a drastic upheaval. The Burning Legion had once again descended on Azeroth. In order to understand what was happening on land, the nagas decided to go ashore.

Under Azshara’s orders, the nagas gathered a group of troops and handed them over to Vashj, Azshara’s former handmaiden, to lead. They wanted to go ashore to see if there was any opportunity to prepare for their counterattack on land in the future.

Coincidentally, when Vashj was exploring the coast, she sensed Illidan’s immense fel energy.

After absorbing the fel energy in the Skull of Gul’dan, Illidan’s demon form had reached, or rather, exceeded the power of many demon lords. The nagas were quite sensitive to the power of fel energy, so they approached Illidan.

They originally thought that they would encounter a powerful demon lord of the Burning Legion. But after seeing Illidan, they realized that he was actually a night elf. This was interesting.

Moreover, even more coincidentally, during the War of the Ancients, Vashj and Illidan knew each other. At the time, as the handmaiden of Queen Azshara, Vashj had had several encounters with the legendary Illidan. So the two sides didn’t fight but instead chatted after building a relationship.

After this conversation, Illidan learned that Queen Azshara did not die but had instead led the Highborne to survive at the bottom of the sea and become the nagas. While feeling incredulous, he didn’t have any anger toward the Highborne. After all, they had already become like this, and he had been imprisoned for more than ten thousand years. After being released from prison, he felt that things were different.

Upon knowing that Illidan was being hunted down by Maiev Shadowsong, Vashj immediately realized that the nagas could stand on the same side as Illidan.

Illidan now looked like a demon, and his entire body was brimming with powerful fel energy. This powerful force was what the Highborne were chasing after. Coupled with the relationship between the two sides, Vashj decided to join Illidan.

And Illidan happily accepted her. He was now alone. Even if he had powerful strength, it would be very troublesome for him to deal with Maiev leading an entire warden squad to hunt him down. The combat strength of the naga troops led by Vashj was quite strong, so both sides hit it off immediately.

After accepting the support of Vashj and the nagas, Illidan used the power of the nagas to go out to sea. First, he wanted to leave Kalimdor. Second, when he received the power of the Skull of Gul’dan, he also received a memory.

This memory was the last memory of Gul’dan, the legendary warlock of the orcs, when he visited the Tomb of Sargeras more than twenty years ago! Gul’dan had died because he had explored the tomb, and this memory became an obsession engraved in the depths of the Skull of Gul’dan. Although the Skull of Gul’dan had been in the hands of many people, the previous owners had never thought of devouring the fel energy in it and only used it as a powerful artifact, which benefited Illidan in the end.

In this memory, Illidan learned that many years ago, when Sargeras descended into the world of Azeroth, he had been defeated and sealed by the Guardian Aegwynn. Of course, Illidan had never heard of this history. After all, he had been imprisoned. If he hadn’t absorbed the power of the Skull of Gul’dan, he would have never known this.

Illidan learned that after defeating Sargeras, Aegwynn didn’t dare to destroy his body. Strictly speaking, she had only expelled most of the soul in his body. Not only was there a trace of soul power in his body, but the nightmarish and powerful fel energy contained in it would very likely be released if she destroyed his body, causing immense contamination to Azeroth.

Thus, Aegwynn finally thought of a way. She summoned an island from the bottom of the sea. This island, Thal’dranath, was once a portion of the city of Suramar and the territory of the Highborne. It had sunk to the bottom of the sea because of the explosion of the Well of Eternity. On this island was the Temple of Elune, and the power left behind by Highborne when they worshiped the Moon Goddess, Elune, was still in the temple.

Aegwynn sealed Sargeras’s body in the Temple of Elune, hoping to use Elune’s power to purify his remaining power. At the same time, she also cast a powerful barrier on this island to prevent anyone from coveting his power and causing trouble.

After doing this, Aegwynn sank the island into the depths of the sea again. Then she tried her best to delete as many historical documents that recorded this matter as possible, intending to make the secrets of the Tomb of Sargeras disappear from the eyes of the world forever.

Unfortunately, Aegwynn didn’t know that she had only sealed a clone of Sargeras. His power was limited by Azeroth’s planetary shield, and the amount of his power that could enter this world was very limited. Moreover, even if this clone lost, it was only his feigned defeat. It was precisely because of his arrangements that the First War of the Dark Portal and the invasion of the Draenor orcs occurred.

Even Aegwynn hadn’t expected that many years after the island sank to the bottom of the sea, someone had actually dug out this history by consulting all kinds of information and documents. Moreover, the one who had dug out this history was none other than Gul’dan!

About twenty years ago, when the Second War was about to end, Gul’dan had escaped to the sea with a group of warlocks and servants after his defeat. Then, in the Broken Isles, he found Thal’dranath, which Aegwynn had sunk, and raised the island again.

After entering the Tomb of Sargeras, Gul’dan tried his best to destroy the powerful restriction left behind by Aegwynn and found the place where Sargeras’s body was buried.

Over a long time, under the power of purification, Sargeras’s body had decayed and weathered. But because of the existence of the wisp of his soul left in his ruined body, his remaining power finally condensed together with the soul as a guide, forming a powerful gem. This gem was the Eye of Sargeras!

Feeling the mighty power of the Eye of Sargeras, Gul’dan naturally wanted to take it for himself. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that although he had broken the restriction, he had also released the demons in the Tomb of Sargeras!

During the time that Sargeras’s body was sealed here, his fel energy spread without restraint and had long contaminated many creatures on the island. These creatures eventually turned into demons. Originally, these demons were still affected by the restriction and couldn’t go deep into the tomb. But when Gul’dan broke the restriction, these demons swarmed out and attacked him crazily.

In the end, Gul’dan was torn apart by these crazy demons. Only one of the warlocks and servants he brought escaped. After the demons dispersed, he found Gul’dan’s corpse and finally left with his head. As for the power of the Eye of Sargeras, he didn’t dare to think about it. With so many demons protecting this artifact, whoever touched it would die.

After seeing this memory from the Skull of Gul’dan, Illidan immediately realized that the Eye of Sargeras was the best gift of darkness!

Illidan had always been searching for a way to defeat the Burning Legion, but no matter what method it was, it was inseparable from powerful strength. So he had always been pursuing power. The Skull of Gul’dan had made him a demon hunter and gave him the strength to fight against demon lords, but this wasn’t enough. After seeing Archimonde, Kil’jaeden, Osiris, and Sargeras, he understood that the strength of a mere demon lord was not enough to defeat these formidable enemies.

Illidan’s heart palpitated with excitement for the Eye of Sargeras. Since it had been condensed from Sargeras’s remaining power, obtaining it was equivalent to obtaining a portion of his power. There was no reason for Illidan to let it go.

And now, he was on the way to the Broken Isles. Perhaps it was impossible for others to find a small island in the vast sea without any sea map, but because Illidan had Gul’dan’s memory and the help of the nagas, it was a piece of cake.

Of course, he knew that Maiev’s wardens were still pursuing him, but he didn’t care. After he obtained the power of the Eye of Sargeras, he wouldn’t take Maiev’s troops seriously at all.

However, what Illidan didn’t know was that through the thick storm clouds, in the sky high above, a pair of eyes was watching his movements…

After sailing in the storm for more than an hour, when the storm finally cleared and sunlight appeared on the sea again, Illidan gave the order to slow down.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, a naga caught up to Illidan’s warship. After this naga climbed onto the deck tiredly, she brought a message to Illidan.

The Burning Legion led by Archimonde had been defeated, and Archimonde himself had died. But then another demon king, Osiris, had suddenly appeared and led a group of dragon liches to destroy the World Tree Nordrassil and Mount Hyjal. The alliance army of the three races had been utterly defeated…

After quietly listening to this news, Illidan was silent for a long time. Seeing his expression, Vashj asked, “Master, are you sad about the destruction of Mount Hyjal and the World Tree?”

“No!” Illidan shook his head. “From the moment I left Kalimdor, the night elves no longer had anything to do with me. Even though the World Tree and the sacred mountain were destroyed, it has nothing to do with me. What I’m thinking about is Osiris, the King of Despair…”

“Demon King Osiris…” Vashj fell silent after hearing this name.

Yes, Roy didn’t know yet, but both Illidan and Vashj had met him before…