As the distortion from teleportation disappeared, six of us could see a vortex of magic spewing power from the depths of Azeroth. This was the source of every change that took place in past millenniums, the Maelstrom.
Standing on a small island just next to Maelstrom, we could feel the elemental energy leaking from inside. From the amount of leaking energy, I quickly understood how dire the situation was.
~"The seal is beyond saving. The only way is to recreate it."
-"Just as we thought."
-"Indeed. We planned to gather shamans from around the world to help us reseal the Elemental Plane. Do you have a better strategy, Yue?"
~"No, this is the best method currently. What may prove more troublesome is containing Elementals that would spill when the seal is fully broken."
-"We were able to narrow down areas where the Elemental Planes would overlap with the surface and organized flights to be ready to relieve local forces there."
~"I'll not meddle in your plans, then. I'll set base here to have everything prepared for shamans when they arrive."
-"Then can you help me set a waypoint so that teleportation here is possible?"
~"No problem, Malygos. Let's get to work."
Aside from Malygos, the remaining Aspects flew in the direction of other continents. Ysera returned to Kalimdor, Alexstrasza flew to Eastern Kingdoms, Neltharion to Northrend, and Nozdormu to Pandaria. Their flights were already on their way, as the seal can break at any moment.
When Malygos and I started cooperating on casting spells to build an anchor for teleportation, the seal finally shattered. The elemental energy quickly started affecting the surroundings. Storms and giant waves soon were trying to sink nearby islands.
I forcefully took control of the forces around us so that they wouldn't interrupt us during the casting. My Moon appeared over the Malestorm, bringing back tranquility to the local environment.
Because the Malestorm constantly emanates magic, forming a waypoint that requires stability in such a situation was much more challenging. Two of us needed to focus on it for over a week to complete it.
After that, Malygos flew to other continents to open portals there while I remained here preparing to open the entrance to the heart of Elemental planes, where World Pillar was located. It was the central place of the seal, keeping the surface and Elemental Plane separated. Making sureWorld Pillar was not destroyed and repairing any damage it might have sustained was essential to resealing the Elemental Plane.
When the spatial tunnel was ready, I entered inside, appearing outside the Temple of Earth in the Deepholm. The temple was in poor shape, a result of elementals trying to break the seal from the inside along with Malestorm damaging it outside.
Walking through the destroyed gates, I could see World Pillar in the center of the room. Its state was not much better than the temple, missing some parts, barely holding together. In this state, it was inadequate to be the core of the new seal.
After locating missing shards of the pillar, I started making some first repairs, restoring the temple to functionality. Together with building a permanent portal between here and the island neat the Malestorm, I organized this place so that everything needed might be found. When most of the preparations were finished, I felt a portal opening outside.
I appeared outside after all preparations in the temple were done. The small island was now full of people who were divided into three groups: Horde, Alliance, and the Elves.
The Horde and Alliance were visibly unhappy to be here together, but no conflict beyond exchanging some sharp words happened. Elves mostly kept to themselves, as aside from leaders, only Watchers were present.
My arrival would be missed by everyone if not for Ysera landing near me. Neither Alliance nor Horde were aware of who I was, but those attuned to magic and especially nature quickly discovered an abnormality in my aura.
~"I presume you are aware of the situation happening, and you were informed of what needs to be done."
-"The Dragon Aspect told us about the Elemental Plane and the state of the seal."
-"The human is right. But who are you?"
~"I'm an Ancient Guardian. You can call me Yue."
-"How is the state of the World Pillar, Yue?"
~"Not beyond saving, Malygos. Some shards need to be recovered, but there would be no problem in restoring it to full functionality. I located all of them, so the only thing left is to recover them."
-"This needs to be taken care of first. I think that forces of Horde and Alliance would be enough to gather the shards."
-"You can leave those to us. Resolving the crisis as quickly as possible is crucial in stopping elementals from wreaking havoc in our kingdoms."
~"I divided the locations so Horde and Alliance wouldn't encounter each other. For Elves, I have a different job."
-"We are at your will, Your Excellency."
~"The rifts between the Elemental Plane and the surface need to be closed, so I want you to assist the dragonflights in sealing those."
-"Do you need Druids to stay behind?"
~"Yes. Druids, shamans, priests, and preferably some mages would be needed to start working on the seal and restoring the World Pillar."
-"Despite your power, you need our assistance?"
~"I'm sadly not omnipotent. In certain fields, I alone can do anything one could imagine, but in others, I may be weaker than even some talented mortals."
-"Isn't that just sophistry? With overwhelming power, one could easily destroy the source of the troubles."
~"Destroying the source is a way to resolve the problem, but it is rarely the best one. Destroying the elementals would lead to the death of Azeroth, and that's why they were sealed by Titans."
-"Even so, why do you need our help?"
~"What is your name, mage?"
-"Jaina Proudmoore."
~"Tell me, if your king would be able to kill a bandit attacking his subject, would you make him attack?"
-"There are guards and knights to defend people. Why would the king need to move himself?"
~"Yet you want an Ancient Guardian, a god, to act in your place despite being able to do it yourself."
-"This..."
~"One must think before taking action, especially if they are in a position of power. The higher your position, the more weight is behind your every move. While it's hard to apply here, there is a principle from a place with much greater power disparity than Azeroth: soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals, kings against kings."
-"Sorry for my thoughtless remarks."
~"It's good to ask questions. No need to feel bad about that."
-"Let's return to the main subject. Can you tell us more about the shards and their locations?"
~"Many minor shards are everywhere around, but those can be replaced. There are two major shards, one located in Stonehearth while the other in Twilight Overlook."
-"So both are here in Deepholm. Those shards won't be just lying around, waiting to be picked up, will they?"
~"And you are not wrong, Warchief of Horde. Stonehearth is home to Earthen, and they won't let you enter and grab their things. Another shard was captured by cultists who have a lair near Twilight Overlook."
-"Cultist again? How could so many people follow those who wish for their destruction?"
~"Never underestimate corruption of power and desire, High King of Alliance. Even the strongest can fall to its temptations."
-"I know, the Lich King was one of my predecessors, after all. Leave the cultists to us. You won't mind, Garrosh Hellscream?"
-"Do what you want, Varian Wrynn. What is important is to end this cataclysm soon. I can't stand cooperating with you, humans."
-"Neither do I, orc."
~"Don't worsen the fragile ceasefire. I won't involve myself in how you achieve your task."
-"Good."-The Warchief left with the Horde.
-"I shall also leave, Ancient Guardian."
~"May the moonlight guide your path."
Soon, only shamans, druids, priests, and mages were left here. Each of those professions had a champion who was their leader. Malygos was already talking with them about the seal, dividing tasks according to their areas of expertise.
As they didn't need my assistance, I decided to use the situation to my advantage and research the Elemental Plane a little more. When I first entered Deepholm, the changes between how it was originally and now attracted my attention.
Despite elementals here being only Spiritual Beings, the Deepholm was the closest thing to the realm created by Spirits of Earth. The symbiotic relation between the Titan soul of Azeroth and elementals was what had originally attracted me to this planet, as I wondered if I could create something similar in my world.
My elemental power was the core of my strength, as this was the only power that was originally mine. During my life, I learned many techniques and abilities, and I even created some of them, but nothing could come close to my control over elements.
To create a new Path, I couldn't use many of the things I learned as they were already influenced by certain Paths or were not fully aligned with me. This was the reason why I couldn't take the last step, as I depended too much on the power granted to me by others.
My first destination was the Firelands, the realm of fire elementals. The original prison built by Titans became fully adapted by the fire elementals to suit their needs, resulting in their numbers growing to horrifying numbers.
Avoiding the wandering elementals, I traveled around the volcanic landscape, trying to understand how the realm of only flame could exist while still being part of nature. While not impossible, such extreme biomes that are not lifeless wastelands are rare.
The first thing that I noticed was that despite being different realms, both Firelands and Deepholm were interconnected at their core. This would explain how four extreme realms could exist in balance with the rest of the world.
The second thing was how, from the Fire element, now countless impure elements, such as magma, lava, and volcanic, existed. Rather than purifying the essence of Fire, it slowly degraded into countless different types of lower elements.
Such a process was natural, as entropy will always increase on its own. The same principle could be applied to many different Laws, from purrer and stronger Laws, such as main elements such as Fire, but also End or Origin, weaker and minor Laws would emerge, Flame or Death, for example.
This was something I wanted to avoid, as my strength would be affected if its foundation would degrade over time. Finding a way to avoid this was why I put such importance on the First Ones, as despite this world being created using six different forces, they hadn't mixed and were still fully distinguishable from each other.
Moving to the next realm, called Skywall, I continued my research while avoiding air elementals. As Air was not an element I treated as a basic one, I held lesser importance to it but focused on what differences the balance of four basic elements had compared to the five basic elements I practiced.
After some time, I came to the conclusion that the greatest difference was in how the elements interacted with each other. The four elements tended to mix together, creating an empowered but impure force that was hard to control and unstable.
Five elements, on the other hand, were characterized by cycles of generating and empowering or destroying and weakening. This made them more stable and less flexible, but that worked to my benefit as it would be much easier to prevent degrading the purity of the elements.
I continued my research in Abyssal Maw, but aside from some minor corrections, I had no major discovery. After finishing my personal matters, I returned to Deepholm, where the united front of Elves, Alliance, and Horde were able to restore World Pillar.
Approaching the leaders present there, I spoke to Malfurion.
~"How is everything going? From what I see here, we can start the sealing at any time."
-"Your Excellency. We encountered some troubles during the closing of the rift between Abyssal Maw and the surface."
~"What kind of trouble could delay you for so long."
-"The rift opened in the underground city of Naga, and their forces are more hostile to us than elements."
~"Naga? I was not aware such race exists on Azeroth."
-"Naga were former Highborn who were on the side of Queen Azshara during the War of the Ancients. They are still hostile to Elven and Dragons, considering us the destroyers of their empire."
~"To think they would continue in their entitled ways even after such calamity, sigh. No matter what, we have to seal the rift, even if we are to bury the Nagas in the process."
-"I'll pass those instructions to Maiev."
~"No, I'll act personally this time."
-"Yes."
I teleported to the beach where the Elven camp was located. My arrival surprised the guards, but they quickly bowed to me and let me pass into the camp after alerting Maiev to my presence.
-"Your Excellency."
~"Maiev, can you contact the leader of Naga?"
-"We can send them a message."
~"Then inform them that they have a day of time to leave the vicinity of the rift. After that, I would mend the rift forcefully, no matter if they are destroyed in the process."
-"I'll send the message quickly."
Maiev quickly exited the tent, leaving me alone. I sat in the empty seat and meditated while getting a precise grasp of the area around the rift. I could perceive what was happening on the seabed, and it was evident that my warning was ignored.
When the given time ended, I exited the camp and walked to the sea. I continued forward, even when the sand turned to water, walking on the surface until I arrived over the rift.
Using my power of nature, I made the waters around the rift part, creating a cyclone around it. After a few moments, the whole rift was no longer submerged, as well as the city that was around it. Both water elementals and Naga were caught in the cyclone, and their life was left at the mercy of the currents.
Next, I made earth around the rift quake, and while using magic to separate the surface and the Abyssal Maw, I buried everything with the earthquake. When this was done, I let go of the water, flooding the area.
Having finished closing the rift, I returned to the Temple of Earth, where everyone was ready to start the sealing. Malygos and I took main positions in cresting the seal, and with assistance from all magical professions, we resealed the Elemental Plane, resolving the cataclysm before it could spiral out of control.
The whole process of creating the seal lasted for a week, after which both Horde and Alliance went their way. I also went back to Emerald Dream, finally returning to the grove I had come to treat as home on this side.