Eastern Kingdoms, the Blasted Lands.
The endlessly rotating cosmic starfield within the Dark Portal had vanished, as if the massive gate connecting to Outland had suddenly passed its warranty and broken down.
But this did not matter much. Outland had already become Azeroth's fully colonized territory. The portals opened by various factions, large and small, had practically turned Outland into a sieve full of holes.
So what if the Dark Portal could not be used? By now, any mage knew Outland's coordinates and could casually open either a temporary or permanent portal.
"Quick! Reinforce the defensive lines and carry out the final inspections! The enemy will open the Dark Portal soon. You have only one task: drive them back to where they came from!"
At the Alliance's forward positions, officers briskly inspected the entire line while soldiers hurried back and forth, reinforcing the sandbags piled at the very front of the defensive lines and checking the heavy machine guns assigned to them.
The heights around the basin containing the Dark Portal had now become a tightly guarded ring of fortifications.
Ever since the Dark Portal had abruptly closed, the Northern and Southern Alliances, the Horde, and the Shaohao Dynasty had immediately deployed troops to the Blasted Lands and begun constructing impregnable positions around it.
In the sky, Alliance and Horde Floating Airships circled above the Dark Portal. Their Main Cannons and all shipboard artillery stood ready, able to unleash a barrage at any moment.
From time to time, a squad of Pandaren Order of the Cloud Serpent Knights cavalry swept past at high speed. They were nimble aerial killers, with a heavy machine gun mounted on each cloud serpent's back and large quantities of aerial bombs stored in the gaps of the side armor. This new style of attack was