Upon hearing Deathwing's name, Sinestra's eyelids involuntarily twitched, and a charming smile bloomed on her purple lips. She wondered if he would be so enraged as to resurrect if he knew his ex-wife had taken up with someone else.
Given Deathwing's personality, he would surely die with his eyes wide open in fury.
"Why did you bring me here? We should be fixing the timeline right now. The Burning Legion cheated to create this, and if we delay, we won't be able to revert the time."
Arthas didn't understand. There was nothing good here, unless, wait, it seemed there really was something deep within the vault.
Due to her height, Chromie had to crane her neck to look at him, which made talking quite tiring.
"Hey, Little prince, have you heard of the Pillars of Creation?"
"The Titans used five artifacts to reshape Azeroth, and after they finished reshaping the world, these five artifacts were left behind."
Arthas yawned, reaching out to ruffle her golden hair.
"Alright, Chromie, cut to the chase. Readers don't like these educational exposition scenes."
Readers?
It's just the two of you!
And these aren't readers, they're listeners!
"Hmph!"
Chromie slapped away the large hand that had messed up her hair, huffily putting her hands on her hips.
"Don't look down on me because I'm small; I'm much older than you!"
Arthas glanced at the 'mountains' beneath her mage robes and nodded in deep agreement.
"Indeed, not small, but not large either."
"Ah ah ah! You scoundrel!"
Chromie wasn't some naive hatchling who understood nothing; she was so provoked by his few words that she wanted to jump up and punch his knees!
After their playful teasing, the somber atmosphere dissipated completely.
Only Sinestra watched with a smile. As expected of her master, he remained unperturbed by favor or disgrace at all times. This demeanor alone proved that following him was the correct and wise choice.
Chromie tidied her disheveled golden hair, flashing her little fangs.
"This time, we need to go in and retrieve the hammer of khaz'goroth, which Neltharion kept hidden. We'll use it to break through the nighthold's core defensive barrier in Suramar City."
"Afterward, we'll go in, find the Highborne Archmage Elisande, defeat her, and obtain the eye of aman'thul."
"This is an artifact used by the Titan Aman'thul, which granted the bronze dragon the ability to travel through time. Using this artifact, I can send you back to the War of the Ancients."
Arthas listened, nodding repeatedly, then raised a question.
"Will defeating the Burning Legion revert time?"
Chromie nodded with certainty.
"Yes, you just need to defeat The Legion. Don't do anything else meaningless; the laws of time are not so easily manipulated."
"Attempting to change time, playing with time, will only leave you with nothing but time itself."
"Believe me, this is no joke. The Burning Legion can change the timeline because it's also a possibility."
Hearing this, Arthas stroked his chin, asking about the part he found most confusing.
"If that's truly the case, then after I change it, if The Legion goes back and changes the past again, wouldn't it become an endless back-and-forth entanglement?"
"Wouldn't this situation never end? And, wouldn't doing this cause other problems?"
Very professional. If the past could be changed, wouldn't anyone with the ability to travel through time be able to act recklessly?
This was very wrong, very imprecise, and very unscientific!
This touched upon Chromie's blind spot in knowledge. She shrugged helplessly.
"I don't know about that. Perhaps only Nozdormu or Aman'thul would know what's going on."
Not knowing is not knowing; she never pretended to understand, and that was Chromie's charm.
Rubbing his head, feeling a bit of a headache, Arthas felt this was all very absurd, and he thought of the updated main quest.
Time running wild in itself was messed up. Could there be some power that could fix the timeline to be singular and unchangeable?
And since he was going back anyway, if he didn't change something, wouldn't it be a wasted trip?
As for Chromie's warning, he completely disregarded it.
As long as the quest panel didn't explicitly forbid something, it meant the bottom line of the law was still far off.
Above this red line, one could naturally act recklessly and do evil as they pleased. The bold thrive, the timid starve!
After confirming the action plan, the three rested briefly and replenished their stamina. Then, he began to act.
Chromie acted as the driver on a magic carpet, and Sinestra as the guide. As a black dragon Aspect, aside from the secrets of the Old Gods, she knew almost everything about Deathwing, including his hidden stashes and the dragonkin army he created.
She was naturally very familiar with the vault here; she had even helped design some of the mechanisms. However, there was a divine artifact placed inside, which came as a bit of a surprise to her.
She only knew it was a vault; as for what was stored inside, she had no idea.
Although the vault was deep in the mountains, the black dragon had practically hollowed out the entire mountain.
Affected by the Fel corruption of The Legion, most of the creatures and elements inside had become quite insane. Ratmen and Stone Giants fought each other, and murlocs charged into battle with yells.
Even the weakest creatures would become frantic and irritable, an uncontrollable urge to tear apart any living thing they saw!
In a dungeon, one usually had to fight their way through step by step, but the three of them skipped directly to the final step, reaching the depths of the vault.
A massive Earth Elemental Giant, over twenty meters tall, had glowing green rocks for eyes, a sign of Fel corruption.
In front of him lay numerous corpses, all local Ratmen who had tried to seize the hammer of khaz'goroth placed on the altar.
They had been directly trampled into pulp by this giant Earth Elemental Giant, whose massive hands still bore remnants of their bodies.
An indescribable stench wafted through the air, the odor of bodies after several days.
"Look, that's the hammer of khaz'goroth, Little prince, it's up to you."
Chromie exclaimed. Although she had fled in disarray earlier, now with help, she was certain she could reverse time!
Seemingly sensing his peculiar gaze, she shrugged innocently at Arthas.
"Don't look at me; I'm not good at fighting, as you saw before."
Not being able to fight isn't shameful, okay!
Uh, are there still dragons that can't fight?
Even just a couple of dragon breaths would be good. Is she really just a simple pigtail-wearing atmosphere setter?
Arthas shook his head helplessly. There wasn't a better plan at the moment; all he could do was figure out a way to return to the War of the Ancients first.
Damn The Burning Legion! If it weren't for them, he would currently be experiencing the tenderness of the Sea's Daughter.