Bamboggling the Bronze Dragons

"Of course it would." Chromie of the Bronze Dragonflight said, "If he eliminated his own grandfather, then he would never have been born at all, and naturally he would cease to exist."

Chromie felt that this young Defias Rogue resting her chin on her hand and staring into mid-air in thought had a somewhat artistic and peculiar aesthetic, but she did not dwell on it too much and gave her answer directly.

"No, that's not how it works!" Mirok retorted, "If what you say is true, since this person's grandfather died when he was young, and he himself was never born, then who on earth traveled through time and space to kill his grandfather?"

"It seems, my two dragon lords, you have discovered the problem yourselves." Felix wore the cunning smile of someone whose scheme had succeeded, "Since his grandfather died long ago, he couldn't possibly have been born, let alone travel back through time into the past. Since no one went back to the past, no one went to kill his grandfather, so shouldn't his grandfather still be alive and well, and shouldn't he be born normally?"

Chromie and Mirok temporarily set aside their hatred for each other at this moment, scratching their heads in unison like a pair of symmetrical twins.

"So, Mister Bronze Dragon and Infinite Dragon." Felix stood up, suddenly remembering that Chronormu was actually male.

He smirked, concocting a set of rhetoric to continue bamboozling the Bronze Dragonflight and Infinite Dragon before him: "There has never been any such thing as 'changing the past,' you two shouldn't waste any more effort on things that don't exist. In reality, the so-called 'maintaining the timeline' is simply you using your ability to traverse timelines to carry out modifications and counter-modifications against another parallel timeline. The past on our timeline has long been set in stone, with no possibility whatsoever of any tampering."

After all, Azeroth did not have anything like the Book of Ages.

During the War of the Ancients, Rhonin and Krasus maintained a certain degree of disguise, but Broxigar did not. Therefore, it was excusable that Tyrande did not recognize a human, but she could not possibly not recognize Broxigar.

Yet in the Reign of Chaos, Tyrande Whisperwind called Thrall and the others "outsiders" the first time she met them, and the Wild God Cenarius also called the orcs "minions of the demons," which were both sufficient to show that they did not know Broxigar Saurfang.

"Therefore, the stream of time itself is a web-like structure; it splits at every node, then gives rise to two tributaries, and then flows forward parallel to each other."

Felix continued to bamboozle Chromie; regardless of whether this theory was actually right or wrong, anyway, Felix himself believed it.

"What you Infinite Dragons and Bronze Dragonflight can change or maintain are merely other unrelated timelines, and the past of our line will not be affected in the least."

"Then, is the mission of the Bronze Dragonflight just a joke..." Chromie muttered, and a sudden startled jolt went through Felix's heart-what if this transgender Bronze Dragon suddenly became depressed and wrote a long essay to rant at him?

Thus, he spoke out to comfort her: "Of course you still have a new mission. As for what on earth that is, it requires you yourselves to explore and ponder."

"In short, the practice of not prying into the future is correct." Felix said, "The reason why timelines exhibit infinite possibilities is because life possesses 'free will.' If you stubbornly cling to some 'correct future,' this kind of behavior is equivalent to kidnapping all life on Azeroth, forcing everyone to 'perform' according to a script written by you; isn't this behavior acting as an enemy to the free will of all living beings?"

"That's right, that's right." Although Mirok probably didn't understand a single thing Felix had said either, as soon as she heard the word "free will," she couldn't help but express her agreement with the Defias Rogue.

"What difference is there between this behavior of you Bronze Dragonflight and enslaving the entire world?"

The accusation of "enslaving the entire world" that Felix pinned on them was simply too enormous for even Chromie to dare accept; after all, the four dragonflights all knew how the once-respected Earth-Warder Neltharion had fallen into becoming Deathwing.

"Fine, these things really give me a headache." Chromie complained.

Then, she turned her head and looked at Mirok beside her: "But you don't hope the world will become a better place. Don't think I don't know, you corrupted Infinite Dragons simply hope the Hour of Twilight will arrive, but we will stop you!"

"You fool, you will understand everything in due time." Mirok said, "We ought to be free, and not bound by this damned hourglass of time!"

With that, the two gnome girls tumbled into a scuffle once more, and then vanished from before Felix's eyes.

He knew that these Bronze Dragonflight and Infinite Dragons shouldn't come to trouble him again for a short while, seeing as they were busy dealing with each other.

One month ago, Azeroth, Tanaris, the Caverns of Time.

The duty of the Bronze Dragonflight was to protect the history of Azeroth from being tampered with.

Countless flying whelps monitored the timeline without a moment's rest. This was a bitter chore, because they had to repeat checks every day, constantly cycling through the interfaces of time.

"Lord Zaladormu, an anomaly has appeared in the Stormwind City timeline!"

The large dragon lying motionless on the platform beneath the hourglass opened its eyes.

"What is it?" His voice echoed in the empty cavern.

Yet regrettably, before he received any reply, another dragonman shouted: "An anomaly has appeared in the Lordaeron timeline!"

"What!"

"The Northrend timeline has been affected!"

"The Mount Hyjal event has been affected!"

Zaladormu watched as the wildly dancing yellow sands of time gradually calmed down until they returned to normal. Could it be that the world-ending crisis had automatically resolved? Therefore, there were no serious consequences?

Yet he quickly discovered the problem.

"Where are the Forsaken? Where have the Forsaken gone!"

The timeline of the Forsaken had been completely distorted, and even... completely vanished!

Not a single city had become the Undercity.

"My lord, everything is in complete disarray!"

"How long has His Majesty Nozdormu been gone?" Zaladormu asked.

"My lord, who could possibly know? He has been missing for a very long time."

Missing for a very long time. Upon hearing this, Zaladormu's motivation for work instantly dwindled by more than half.

Compared to conscientiously and patiently correcting the timeline, lying on the platform to rest was obviously far more pleasant.

This problem had too massive an impact and involved too wide a scope; wanting to correct it was simply far too troublesome. Moreover, it had not caused any world-ending crisis. So why resolve it with all one's heart and soul?

Therefore, Zaladormu slacked off and gave up, just like the countless corporate drones of modern Earth society.

If some model worker Bronze Dragonflight was willing to handle it, then let her go; anyway, Zaladormu himself didn't want to bother with it.

Just let the stream of time develop this way!