I traveled through time and space and became the Archbishop of Stormwind!

Alvin's voice fell over the empty square, followed by another suffocating silence.

The colossal treant gazed silently at them with its face inlaid with purple crystals, as if deep in thought. The only sounds in the plaza were the faint whistling of the wind through the cracks in the ruins and the whispering hissing of arcane energy flowing through its trunk.

Finally, that deep voice rang out again: "I saw it."

This seemingly random statement startled both Alvin and Stella.

“I saw how you used that warm light to help Irina, and to help her loyal Fera.”

The tree-man's voice was intermittent, as if each word required a struggle against some invisible constraint.

“My name is Twisted Wood. I am trapped in this body, but my senses have not been completely extinguished. I saw everything that happened in the temple.”

His enormous head, formed from twisted branches, turned slightly toward Elwin, and the purple light in his eye sockets seemed to flicker for a moment: "I saw you dispel their pain and grant them the peace they had longed for for millennia. You... are different from those green-skinned invaders who reek of greed and destruction. You are a stranger with a kind heart."

Elwin's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately seized the opportunity, saying, "In that case, it makes things easier. Twisted Wood, we didn't come here to plunder, but only to track down those orcs and stop them from causing further destruction. Could you let us pass?"

"past......"

Niu Mu repeated the word, his tone deep and tinged with sorrow.

"The door... is right behind me. But... the passage to the underground is sealed by ancient magic."

He struggled to raise his arm, which resembled a writhing dragon, pointing to the center of his head, where his tree canopy was embedded. In the bare canopy was a deep purple arcane crystal core, larger and more dazzling than the others.

"The key to the door... is this."

The twisted wood's sound became even more strained, as if carrying immense pain.

"The only key... has completely merged with my corrupted body."

Alvin and Stella's hearts sank simultaneously.

"The only way to open that door... is..."

The sound of the twisted wood was like a dying sigh.

"They'll kill me. They'll use the crystal core on my head... to open the gate."

"what?!"

Stella gasped in shock, her blue eyes fixed on Elwin, who asked urgently, "Isn't there any other way? Can we try to purify you, or some other method?"

It was truly difficult for Erwin to lay a hand on such an ancient being that had just expressed goodwill and had endured millennia of suffering.

"Twisted Wood, there must be another way! We can work together to find a way to remove the corruption from your body!"

"No...it's gone."

Twisted Wood's voice was unusually calm, a calm born of utter despair after seeing through everything.

"Corruption... has penetrated to my very core. This arcane cancer has been entangled with the very core of my life for far too long... to the point that it is now inseparable."

Its massive body began to tremble slightly, as if gathering its last strength, and the crystals on its torso flickered even more intensely.

"I...have lived for far too long...so long that...I've forgotten the true temperature of sunlight, forgotten the pure taste of dew." His voice seemed to drift from an immeasurable distance, carrying with it millennia of loneliness.

"For me, this world is nothing but eternal imprisonment and endless suffering... I have long since lost all attachment to it."

After saying that, Twisted Wood suddenly turned around and ran away!

"Wait! Twisted wood!"

Alvin sensed something was wrong and quickly stepped forward, shouting loudly.

But it's too late.

Twisted Wood's legs, made of countless twisted roots, suddenly exerted force, and its massive body no longer faced them.

It resolutely launched one last charge towards the massive stone gate behind it, which was engraved with complex elven runes!

He lowered his head and slammed the crystal from the tree canopy above his head against the gate.

"No—!" Stella let out a short scream.

Twisted Wood did not stop; the sound of his footsteps, like an avalanche, echoed across the square.

next moment--

"boom!!!!!!!"

A deafening roar, as if the heavens and earth were shattering, suddenly exploded!

The twisted wood, bearing millennia of loneliness and suffering, slammed violently against the cold stone door with an irreversible resolve!

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Elwin and Stella watched in disbelief as the wooden torso covered in arcane crystals cracked inch by inch the moment it touched the stone door, just like ice being struck by a boulder!

Countless fragments mixed with shimmering purple crystals scattered in all directions. Dazzling arcane energy, like an out-of-control torrent, surged wildly from the twisted wood's shattered body, crackling and popping, illuminating the surroundings with an eerie bright purple light.

The immense impact shook the entire sunken plaza, sending rubble and dust raining down from the surrounding walls and dome.

Amidst the earth-shattering crash, the twisted wood's body disintegrated completely at a heart-stopping speed from the point of impact, transforming into a destructive rain of charred wood chips and shattered crystals, which fell in abundance before the stone gate.

In the blink of an eye, the enormous figure that had stood like a mountain had vanished.

In the square, only the stone door, still tightly closed, and the large, messy ruins in front of it, still flickering with unstable energy sparks, remain.

At the very center of the wreckage, a complete crystal core, about the size of a human head, emitting a soft and stable purple light, lay quietly.

Alvin's outstretched hand remained frozen in mid-air; he hadn't even had time to take a second step to stop him.

Everything happened so fast.

Stella stared blankly at the ruins, instinctively covering her mouth. Her blue eyes, reflecting the devastation, were filled with shock.

The plaza fell into a deathly silence, with only the occasional faint hissing sound of energy dissipating from the wreckage, as if telling the final lament of an ancient guardian.

Alvin was the first to recover from the shock and picked up the key.

He hadn't expected this ancient tree-man to be so resolute.

It seems the world inflicted too much pain on him, for a gentle treant guardian to end his life in such a resolute way.

This Doomhammer is like a cursed realm where the living and the dead, both in life and in death, suffer torment that has lasted for ten thousand years.

Alvin was a little angry.

He now really wants to meet that so-called Prince Tosedrin and see what's going on in that bastard prince's head.