"Cough... cough, cough."
He struggled to cough up a mouthful of blood, and the dazzling sunlight forced him to open his weary eyes.
He tried to stand, only to discover that just under half his body was already gone. The hideous, dark purple wound had stopped bleeding, and extensive burns came into view.
"Hiss... I actually survived."
Al took a pill with a strange smell from his miraculously undamaged spatial backpack and swallowed it in one gulp.
His depleted mana pool rapidly refilled at a rate visible to the naked eye.
"Sunwell water combined with Akil'zon's potent mojo still loses too much mana. Looks like this line of research is wrong. Hiss, ow, ow, ow."
Putting a stop to his resurfacing occupational habit, Al floated up and finally had a chance to examine his surroundings.
An endless white snowfield stretched before him, with layer upon layer of mountains in the distance extending beyond sight.
Sensing that the mana fluctuations in the air had vanished, Al let out a deep breath.
"It's all over..."
Time returned to one day earlier.
Al had just cast Cross-Realm Teleportation when he felt a violent surge of spatial turbulence sweep toward him.
He tried to cancel the spell, only to find a powerful suction coming from the spatial gate. The last image in Al's eyes froze on Belovar's face, his eyes nearly splitting as he tried to stop him...
"Is this Winterspring in Kalimdor? No, this is... Dragonblight!"
Crashing heavily into the thick snow, Al felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. Fighting the urge to vomit, he scrambled to his feet in panic and saw the unbelievable sight in the sky.
"Oh? Another insignificant insect. Aegwynn, your feeble magic truly is an eye-opener."
Deafening, mocking laughter rang out from the sky.
An enormous figure wreathed in roaring flames stood like a mountain not far from Al.
Two curved, spirally ridged demonic horns on his forehead thrust toward the heavens. Flecks of green fluorescence covered his dark red skin, and Fel Flame blazed around his goatlike, backward-curving arches, scorching two enormous pits into the eternal permafrost.
"Sargeras, today is your doom!"
The female mage floating in the air had all her attention fixed on the Fallen Titan Sargeras. She raised Aluneth, swirling with pink radiance, preparing to deliver a fatal blow to the weakened Lord of the Legion before her.
"Uh, Guardian Aegwynn, I'd like to interject..."
Aegwynn, who was chanting a lengthy incantation, stumbled and nearly fell out of the sky.
Aegwynn: "Damn you, long-ears! Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"
Sargeras: Damn insect, daring to interrupt my plan.
Al timidly rose to his feet. Ignoring his inner terror, he hurried to strike while the iron was hot:
"Lord Sargeras, most wicked Fallen Titan, this humble one would like to take up just a tiny bit of your time and Lady Aegwynn's. Just a tiny bit..."
As he spoke, he did not forget to gesture with his little finger, his face full of flattery.
"Oh, an interesting insect. You recognize me?"
"Of course. The founder of the Burning Legion, once the Pantheon's mightiest Warrior, the Defender, the noblest of the gods, and mentor to Aggramar the Avenger."
"After all these years, someone actually knows of that loathsome past. Insect, you have successfully piqued my interest."
Sargeras propped his chin on his enormous claw and watched the tiny Al in the distance with interest.
What a remarkable boy. How does he know the secrets of Sargeras's past? Aluneth whispered.
"Shut up, unless you want to be sealed away again."
Aegwynn fell uncharacteristically silent and did not continue casting. That long-ear seemed to know some secrets about the Fallen Titan. She wanted to hear more; it might give her a slightly better chance of winning the coming battle.
"Thank you for your generosity, Lord Sargeras. What I will explain to you next is..."
Al paused, revealing a sly smile.
"36 signs of a female murloc's courtship."
Ignoring Sargeras's increasingly savage expression, Al rapidly rattled off the teaching material he had prepared long ago.
"Insect, you dare make a fool of the great Lord of the Legion! Die!"
The enraged Sargeras extended his crimson claw, blazing with flames, and pointed one finger toward Al.
"Fuck! Finger of Death!"
The moment Al saw Sargeras extend his claw, he knew he was screwed. He tried everything he could to cast teleportation and escape, only to discover that the Dark Titan had sealed off the entire spatial node.
At that critical moment, [Hyperthymesia] activated.
Intricate, profound, dark blue runes flowed deep within his pupils as Al stared unblinkingly at Sargeras's claw.
Based on the sun's reflection and Aegwynn's position, Sargeras is 98 feet away. Known information about Finger of Death: instant cast, unknown speed, unknown power. A hit to the head would most likely kill me instantly. Then...
Watching the death ray streak across the sky like a meteor, Al unleashed the explosive power of his body, which rivaled an epic Warrior's, and twisted with all his might.
It all happened in a flash. The rose-red lightning struck Al in just 0.1 seconds. The energy seemed to possess an annihilating property: the instant it made contact, half the elven youth's body vanished, and his corpse fell stiffly into the snow.
"Now, the ignorant insect has paid the price. Aegwynn, are you ready? You are the next ant to die a miserable death!"
"Empty boasts, Sargeras. Today, this place will be your grave..."
Aegwynn paid no attention to the elven youth who had fallen to the ground like a rag doll. In her mind, destroying the Dark Titan before her came first. Such a death was not a bad outcome for a noisy long-ear who did not know his own limits.
"How dare you! Aluneth..."
Everything went black before Al's eyes. Aegwynn's furious, flustered shriek reached his ears, but he knew none of it mattered anymore.
Time returned to the present.
"I need to get out of here quickly. The blue dragons may well come to inspect Aegwynn and Sargeras's battlefield."
Al slowly lowered his remaining half-body, crisp Thalassian spilling from his lips. The eerie purple glow of Cross-Realm Teleportation soon enveloped him.
Just as the teleportation spell was about to finish, an ethereal voice sounded beside his ear.
Remarkable boy, how did you do it?
"Who's there?"
He trembled as he twisted around, but it was already too late. The teleportation flared, and Al vanished from the spot.
With only half his body remaining, Al endured the pain and floated up. The hot, humid surroundings made his wound itch a little.
"Whew. Azeroth is far too dangerous. I still have too little research material..."
What is research material?
"Motherfucker..."
Al went rigid and slowly turned his head.
The pink staff floated in midair just as he did. A purple ring radiating a powerful arcane aura rotated at its head, while a purple arcane gem at the base of its nearly two-meter-long shaft shone with a clear, brilliant light.
"Aluneth!"
Al cried out in surprise.
A prophet as well? Interesting boy, Aluneth whispered.