Aaron looked at Rhonin and struggled to stand. "All right, I'll summon my mount to take you down. I want a closer look, too..."
"Sit down. You're injured, so stop moving around." Vereesa caught hold of Aaron from beside him, speaking with concern.
Before Aaron could say anything, Falstad suddenly seemed to remember something. He took a whistle from his pocket, put it to his lips, and blew hard, but the whistle made no sound.
Watching his strange behavior, Vereesa asked in surprise, "Falstad, what are you doing?"
"Oh, elven lady, I'm calling my gryphon. He shouldn't have gone far."
No sooner had Falstad spoken than his gryphon flew over. Falstad glanced at Rhonin and said, "Climb on, mage. I'll take you down. As for you, Aaron, you'd better rest here for a while. The way you look... tsk, tsk. Just rest here for now. I'll come back for you both once it's safe down there."
Watching Rhonin and Falstad fly down on the gryphon, Aaron forced himself to the edge of the summit and looked down. From this angle, he could only see the densely packed orcs below and the Red Dragonflight locked in prison wagons. As for where Alexstrasza was... Aaron couldn't see her at all.
"What are you looking at?" Vereesa approached Aaron and sat beside him as she asked.
Aaron gave Vereesa a puzzled look. "Why didn't you go with them?"
Vereesa rolled her eyes. "If I left, what would you do? What if some orcs came up here? How would you fight them in this state?"
"I..." Aaron wanted to say that he could summon his mount and leave at any time, but after a moment's thought, he held his tongue. After all, Vereesa was looking after him out of kindness.
"Aaron, look!"
Following Vereesa's gesture, he saw another enormous dragon burst out of the clouds. This one was much larger than the previous dragon, and with the sky now brightening, Aaron could clearly see that it was a Black Dragonflight member clad in metal armor, with red light glowing through the gaps—Deathwing had finally arrived.
Deathwing swooped down, then flew back up again. Unlike the dragon earlier, he hadn't been shot down in utter disgrace after merely drawing a little closer. It looked like...
"Does the Dragon Soul have no effect on Deathwing?" Vereesa asked.
Aaron nodded. "Deathwing didn't put his power into it back then, so naturally the Dragon Soul has no effect on him. But the other four Aspects placed another spell on it, so he can't use the Dragon Soul either. That's why he told Nekros about it. Then, when the Red Dragon Queen learned that someone had taken the Dragon Soul, she came to investigate, only to be controlled by that warlock. That's how these orc dragonriders came about."
At this point, Aaron sighed inwardly. Whoever had hidden this thing had been far too careless. If it had been him, he would definitely have hidden the Dragon Soul in the most heavily guarded place, rather than leaving it in the Eastern Kingdoms, where dragons rarely ventured. And now look what had happened.
Just as Aaron was explaining the sequence of events to Vereesa, another member of the Red Dragonflight suddenly shot up from the ground. This dragon was considerably larger than the previous one, but still much smaller than Deathwing. He also looked to be in worrying condition, his scales dull and lusterless, yet he still fearlessly rose to meet Deathwing.
Even Aaron on the summit could clearly hear Deathwing's mocking voice. "Taelan, you're still alive?"
The Red Dragonflight member called Taelan charged at Deathwing in fury. The two dragons attacked each other in midair, their battle looking little better than a fight between ordinary beasts, nothing more than battering each other with claws, teeth, wings, and tails.
But anyone could see Deathwing's overwhelming advantage. Aaron couldn't help remarking, "The old fellow's been draining his stamina like that. No wonder he can't beat Deathwing."
"What did you say?"
"I said, that old fellow's been forced to make eggs with Alexstrasza all day long. Of course his stamina's shot."
Just as Deathwing seized the old and feeble Taelan, three furious roars rang out from the distant horizon. Three dragons of different colors flew toward Deathwing.
"What are those?" Vereesa looked in that direction in astonishment. The three dragons, blue, green, and yellow, had already engaged Deathwing. Though somewhat smaller than Deathwing, they were still far larger than the previous two dragons.
"The Dream Queen, Ysera. The Spellweaver, Malygos. The Timeless One, Nozdormu," Aaron murmured as he watched the three dragons charge at Deathwing.
Although he had seen these three in the game more times than he could count, the shock of seeing them in person still left Aaron somewhat dazed.
"Wait, why are there only three? Oh, right, the Red Dragon Queen is still locked up... No, they're no match for Deathwing. We have to find a way to free Alexstrasza," Aaron murmured, watching the almost entirely one-sided battle in the sky. It seemed that the three Dragon Aspects, missing some of their power, were no longer a match for Deathwing.
"But what about your injuries?"
"My injuries? They're all healed. I'm just a little weak right now, but that's fine. All we have to do is snatch the Dragon Soul from that warlock." As Aaron spoke, he began summoning his gryphon mount, then called to Vereesa, "Vereesa, do you want to come down with me?"
Vereesa rolled her eyes and walked over. "What else? Were you planning to leave me here?"
"Then hold on tight. Let's go." Aaron guided the gryphon into a short trot across the summit before launching into the sky and circling a few times in midair. "Vereesa, look for an orc holding a disc."
After searching from the air for quite some time, Vereesa finally spotted an old orc holding a golden disc and directing the other orcs from among their ranks. She hurriedly pointed him out to Aaron.
"Vereesa, can you hit him from here?"
"No problem." Vereesa seemed to have grown accustomed to shooting from the air. Three arrows in succession struck the old orc's back. Caught completely off guard, Nekros immediately fell face-first to the ground, and the Dragon Soul in his hand fell as well.
"All right, next we..." Aaron was about to say something when he saw a figure abruptly appear beside the Dragon Soul. The man's distinctive red hair revealed his identity, and Aaron hurriedly shouted to him, "Rhonin, pick up the Dragon Soul!"
Rhonin reacted, hurried forward a few steps, and picked up the Dragon Soul. On the other side, seeing that the old orc had lost the Dragon Soul, Alexstrasza immediately took flight. Whatever Nekros had been thinking, Alexstrasza had no restraints on her at all. But Aaron had no way to interview Nekros now-the Life-Binder had already reduced the old orc to ashes with a blast of dragonfire.
Watching the old warlock burn to ash, Aaron guided his gryphon down to the ground, passing right by the Red Dragon Queen as she charged upward.
"This certainly is lively." Aaron took out his shield as he surveyed the scene around him.
By now, the mountain was in complete chaos. Countless dwarves who had appeared from who knew where were locked in battle with the orcs. With all the Red Dragonflight members shut inside cages, the orcs' aerial advantage had vanished entirely. Instead, a certain bearded dwarf's gryphon was repeatedly attacking the orcs below from the air.
Aaron looked at the Dragon Soul in Rhonin's hands, then looked up at the sky, only to discover that even with all four Aspects assembled, they still couldn't gain the upper hand. On the one hand, Deathwing really was stronger than they were. On the other... the Red Dragon Queen had probably damaged her vitality by laying too many eggs. Her joining the battle had made little difference to the situation. They were still getting thrashed by Deathwing just as before.
"Rhonin, do you have any way to return the power in the Dragon Soul to them?" Watching the battle in the sky, Aaron felt that even in the timeline without him, these Aspects in their current state shouldn't have been able to defeat Deathwing. In that case, the only thing that could affect the situation now was the Dragon Soul in Rhonin's hands.