What Comes Next

How could things have gotten so bad? Like a pre-arranged "exciting plot" in a stage play. Belorell huddled in a corner, alone in his room, lost in thought. The truth was suffocating him. Many things from the past he had never known before were now flooding his mind.

Chromie, that Gnome! She had shown him the crucial moment that had occurred at Marius Farm. What she wanted him to do was let Alleria know that his father was not at peace. Why did she do this? Belorell quickly understood: his mother didn't want his father to live on as Undead, but his father had clearly not given her that. If his mother knew the truth now, what would she do?

I almost got taken advantage of!

The Elf boy gritted his teeth, cursing the mastermind behind all this in his heart. Soon, a conflicting feeling began to stir within him.

Was the mother's behavior justified? The father, having become Undead and fallen into darkness, should be destroyed. This argument seems reasonable, except for one thing Belorell doesn't understand: are the Undead necessarily evil? During the Scourge's rampage, the Argent Crusade declared an Undead force called the "Forsaken" as allies. They fought against an enemy seeking to destroy the world. They were not enemies; they were allies.

From a young age, Belorell understood that people are often prejudiced, grouping themselves around similar things, and viewing evil in a one-sided way. The Undead army had once breached Quel'Thalas, so in the eyes of the Elf, all Undead must be evil. This journey to the Eastern Plaguelands Belorell not only about learning who his father was, but also about gaining a new perspective on the races of this world. Fiona, a Worgen, was seen as a mindless beast, yet she stood up to protect her companions at a crucial moment, shattering conventional wisdom. And then there was the Undead guarding Marius Farm. In the end, she spared him and his friends of the Argent Dawn.

What amazed Belorell most was that Fiona had earned the respect of others from different races. They trusted each other. Even those labeled evil retained their memories. They possessed reason; they were not mindless zombies.

And what about her father? Does he still have his own reason? If he does... Belorell dared not even think about how she would get along with her mother in the future.

A heavy possibility about the future reminded Belorell of the arrow the Undead had given him; this important item should now be on his mother Alleria's desk.

If you have the courage, give this to your mother.

That's what the female Undead said back then, Belorell now feels a chill run down her spine when she thinks about it. What would happen to her mother if she knew everything? She would be devastated!

The boy shrank back slightly. Fortunately, when he handed the arrow to Alleria, he only said that he had found it in the ruins of Marius Farm. Was such a concealment really a good thing? The boy suspected that his father might retaliate against his mother, or make Quel'Thalas pay the price. Telling his mother in advance was a way to prevent such a thing from happening.

Belorell shook his head in self-reproach. Wasn't this tantamount to already believing his father was evil? Many years had passed; Quel'Thalas was peaceful, and his mother was well. No one had sought revenge on the inhabitants of Eversong Forest. Based on this alone, Belorell believed that Nathanos, like Fiona, retained the goodness inherent in humanity.

Suddenly, the boy was overwhelmed by an unimaginable sense of sorrow. If his father had never been an evil being, then how did he feel when his mother came to hunt him down? I must find out.

I must find my father... He must still be alive, he must be.

He won't live much longer.

The thought flashed through Nathanos's mind the moment he saw the Infinite Dragon burst forth from the time tunnel. Its body was covered in wounds, from which flowed golden Shali like a gushing spring. His time was running out; it was running out.

The Infinite Dragon stumbled and fell to the ground. After a few breaths, it used its remaining strength to open its eyes and fix its gaze on Nathanos. The look of satisfaction amidst the pain seemed to say: My mission is complete.

The Witherer approached him, and with each step he felt the Infinite Dragon's breath grow weaker. Why was he here? The answer to that question is another question altogether.

Where is Malygos?

The dragon didn't answer, Nathanos immediately realized that perhaps it no longer had the strength to speak. The Witherer tried to use the Time Power to help the Infinite Dragon stabilize its injuries, but the time magic had no effect whatsoever. A powerful spell had severed the timeline within the Infinite Dragon, making it impossible to change. Only the Bronze Dragon Aspect Nozdormu, could achieve this. In the realm of time manipulation, apart from the Bronze Dragon Aspect, no one possessed such perfect precognitive abilities as Malygos.

The Infinite Dragon twisted its neck, bringing its face close to the Witherer's, as if trying to speak to him. Nathanos knew this was all the strength he had left.

The leader of the Forsaken knelt on the ground, listening. The Infinite Dragon said in an almost inaudible voice, "The rest is up to you."

Things unfolded exactly as he had feared. Something had happened to Malygos. At the End of Time, in that dark and desolate future, the Infinite Dragonlord had said that he would be destroyed. Nathanos had initially clung to a sliver of hope that Malygos could change his fate, that the future was merely a void, and that many unknown variables shaped what was destined to happen.

"Is this what he wanted to say to me?"

When Nathanos realized what was happening, the Infinite Dragon was already dead. The golden sand was no longer flowing from its wounds, and the entire body of the dead Infinite Dragon was changing.

"May you no longer bear the duties of the Titans after your death," Nathanos whispered. The moment he closed the eyes of the Infinite Dragon, the servants sent by Malygos vanished.

The Forsaken, or rather, his allies on the timeline, have fallen.

The rest is up to you.

The words echoed in Nathanos's mind. A golden light shone on his hands, and in the dim light, scenes of his past flashed before his eyes—all of it. The power Malygos had given him allowed him to glimpse the future. But could the past and the future truly be controlled by man? A cold smile crept across the Witherer's face.

If they could, the Bronze Dragon should know that they couldn't stop him at all.