Another choice.
And another one.
Noah felt his head spinning. He was starting to hate multiple-choice questions.
In his experience, choosing one option was a gamble.
Choosing several turned it into a high-stakes game.
Terrifying.
But life was nothing but choices, and there was no escaping them.
If he really had to point to a "best choice," it was probably not choosing a STEM major in his previous life.
He had gone with liberal arts.
And strangely enough, that decision was still paying dividends.
Even magic had its own version of "liberal arts" and "STEM."
Noah was firmly in the liberal arts camp.
He rarely did experiments.
To date, his biggest hands-on experiment had been Dragonborn magic.
Everything else? He left it to the System.
STEM magic was too cruel.
Mana spheres.
Magical particles.
Aggregation. Dispersal. Sub-mana. Mother-mana.
Just thinking about it drained his motivation.
One mistake and you were dead.
That kind of research was nothing but constant choices layered on top of massive risk and cost.
In the end, Noah could only sigh.
Both kinds of magic were difficult.
And so was his current situation.
He made a decision.
Since he was already here, he might as well take a look at the strongest and most terrifying Naaru.
He was curious.
Weren't all Naaru basically tangram puzzles?
How were they ranked by strength?
And if things really went wrong...
He'd just grab the weakest one and run.
"We'll go see the strongest one," Noah said slowly.
"But keep track of which one is the weakest. If things turn bad, we switch targets."
"No problem," the System replied calmly.
"Don't worry too much. You also have a Flerken."
"Ha." Noah rubbed his nose.
"I just hope Goose doesn't get annoyed and swallow me instead."
He hadn't paid much attention to Goose after placing her in the Mirror Dimension.
"She's very happy," the System said mechanically.
"She's sleeping. She didn't want to come with you at all."
Noah nearly rolled his eyes.
That cat did nothing but eat and sleep.
...Wait.
Had she eaten recently?
Either way, she never got fat.
That annoyed him.
He liked orange cats.
He just didn't like them thin.
Round cats were better.
Round things were pleasant to look at and comfortable to pet.
Taking a breath, Noah cleared his thoughts.
Pale golden magic flashed.
He entered the Mirror Dimension.
Originally, he had thought there was only one Naaru in Shattrath.
That was why he'd flown around so openly in the real world.
Now that he knew there was a group, that kind of behavior was basically asking to die.
His left eye couldn't be hidden.
The Naaru would absolutely sense the leaking dark power and the irritation it caused.
Flying toward the ruins of Shattrath, Noah's perspective was completely different from within the Mirror Dimension.
This place was indeed more vibrant than anywhere else.
But he still didn't see any sign of the "puzzles."
As he moved deeper, though, he sensed it.
A golden light, spreading faintly outward.
It was powerful.
It didn't pierce the heavens, yet even through the Mirror Dimension, Noah could feel its majesty.
Frowning, he flew toward it.
Soon, in what resembled a deep valley, he saw it.
A golden tangram puzzle radiating sacred brilliance.
And surrounding it-
Several purple-black puzzles.
Noah hadn't expected them to be gathered together.
That was bad.
Without knowing their true combat power, he didn't dare gamble.
Xera flashed through his mind.
Illidan had blown that one apart.
But even freshly assembled, that puzzle had locked Illidan down and tried to force-feed him the Light.
That wasn't simple.
Maybe it lacked raw killing power, but brainwashing?
It was top-tier.
"What now?" Noah thought.
"How strong is he?"
"Unclear," the System replied.
"But definitely not simple."
"At least stronger than the one you remember Illidan killing."
"...Then maybe we just grab a weak one and leave?" Noah asked cautiously.
"Stop talking," the System said.
"I'll help you control the Space Stone."
"Naaru are Light-energy beings. Spatial power is enough to irritate him."
"And the others can't compare to him," the System added.
"Not even to a single fragment of his body."
Not even a single piece?
Noah's eyes burned with greed.
How terrifying was this thing?
He didn't know.
But he knew one thing.
If the System was right, even stealing a single fragment would bring unimaginable gains.
Noah suppressed the surge of fanaticism instantly.
His expression went cold.
Calm.
He never let emotion interfere during a fight.
He recalled the battle between Illidan and Xera.
It wasn't much of a reference, but it was better than nothing.
He inhaled.
Pale golden magic erupted once more.
Space twisted violently.
The area around the golden Naaru grew blurred and distorted.
A'dal was communing with his kin, contemplating how to resist the Burning Legion.
Then-
Something felt wrong.
In the next instant, under the horrified perception of the other Naaru, the space around A'dal shattered.
A'dal paused.
A brighter golden light burst from him.
But it was useless.
Spatial overlap.
No matter how brilliant his Light was, he was forcibly dragged into the Mirror Dimension.
Outside, the remaining Naaru were stunned.
They didn't understand what had happened.
A'dal himself was briefly disoriented.
Nothing seemed to change visually, yet he could feel it.
Isolation.
His kin were right there, yet something was wrong.
The rhythm was off.
He scanned his surroundings.
Nothing appeared unusual.
Then-
He sensed it.
Pure dark power.
It wasn't particularly strong by his standards.
He had seen far greater darkness before.
But this was different.
It wasn't fallen.
It wasn't evil.
It was pure energy.
Dark in nature.
But pure.
That confused him.
Who was this?
"Do you have business with me, my lord?" A'dal spoke gently.
"Perhaps we can talk. Fearless combat does not suit us."
A'dal had a good temperament.
As a Naaru, he was willing to communicate with anyone not aligned with the Burning Legion.
But this time, his hope was misplaced.
The moment his words faded, terrifying spatial power twisted everything.
An invisible force crushed inward.
A'dal instantly deployed a Light shield.
Space collided with Holy Light inside the Mirror Dimension.
The entire dimension warped violently.
Outside, the other Naaru could only see A'dal and a flickering silhouette overlapping strangely.
They were completely at a loss.
A'dal didn't feel much better.
His opponent was bizarre.
He had encountered spatial power before.
But never like this.
Never this fluent.
Never this unnatural.
His thoughts grew heavy.
He truly didn't want to fight.
Especially not an enemy he couldn't even identify.
If it was the Burning Legion, the consequences were unthinkable.
If it was local hostility, he would rather talk.
Shattrath had once been the capital of the Draenei on Draenor.
Its name meant "Dwelling of Light."
As a sentient embodiment of Light, A'dal believed there was nothing wrong with returning here.
Especially when surviving Draenei priests were still conducting services among the ruins.
In his view, their presence was reasonable.
And as the name Sha'tar spread, this place would one day return to being the Dwelling of Light.
A'dal didn't want to fight.
But that didn't mean he couldn't.
Before anything else, however, he needed an answer.
Because the power his attacker wielded...
Might mean the extinction of the Sha'tar itself.