After the Kirin Tor meeting ended, Archmage Antonidas walked up to Aiden, smiling, and said, "Aiden, come, we have something else to discuss."
"What is it?" Aiden asked.
The other three Archmages smiled at each other, and Modera said, "There is something that originally required all Kirin Tor councilors to agree on before a decision could be made. However, time is of the essence, so the three of us made a decision."
Drenden said with a smile, "We have decided to give you the Book of Medivh!"
"What!" Aiden's eyes widened. The last time he came to seek the Skull of Gul'dan, he had very much wanted to obtain the Book of Medivh. However, at that time, Medivh, the original owner, was present, and the other Archmages did not show any intention of giving him the book to summon new heroes. Of course, he couldn't be greedy and make more requests.
Besides being an artifact, the Book of Medivh itself also contains a lot of precious magical knowledge. Long-term research would definitely be of great benefit to their realm.
For Antonidas and the others to give it to Aiden at this moment to summon heroes, this selflessness made him feel a great sense of responsibility. This showed that he had completely gained the Kirin Tor's approval and trust.
When he received this long-awaited magic book, Aiden was excited. He looked at Antonidas and said, "I want to use it to summon heroes from Valoran. After it is used, it will no longer exist. Are you sure you want to give it to me?"
"Use it, use it. Are you planning to wait until we regret it?" Antonidas joked with a loud laugh.
Drenden also looked like he didn't care at all and said, "Actually, in so many years, the knowledge we have gained from the Book of Medivh is not as much as what we gained from the Medivh Notes you sent us some time ago."
"Since we chose to give it to you, we are prepared to let you dispose of it as you see fit," Modera said with a smile. "Use it with confidence!"
Antonidas saw him stroking the book, looking a little reluctant, and became serious instead: "Aiden, we already know that this book may be the medium for the Scourge to summon the leader of the Burning Legion. Now the Scourge is rampant in Gilneas, and Dalaran is about to ascend to fight Naxxramas. We cannot guarantee that Dalaran will not lose it. Rather than letting it fall into the hands of the Scourge and become a tool for summoning the Lord of the Demons, it is better to let you completely destroy it and summon new heroes to strengthen our strength. Why not do it?"
"I understand," Aiden nodded. He took out a Transformation Stone and used it to fuse with the Book of Medivh. When the transformation was complete, he felt that the book could be used for summoning.
After Aiden signaled to the three Archmages, he immersed his will into the Heart of Valoran and began his summoning.
The Book of Medivh is a much more powerful artifact than the Skull of Gul'dan. What kind of hero can be summoned with it? Aiden was very much looking forward to it.
Entering the familiar space again, he didn't expect that the Keeper of Time, Zilean, would once again take the initiative to appear in front of him.
He still looked the same, smiling kindly, not at all like a strong man who could forcibly suspend the time of a continent for nearly a thousand years. Nor did he look like he was worried about being shattered by the causal impact of the timeline at any time.
"Congratulations, congratulations," Zilean opened his mouth with full blessings, "Summoner, what you have done is far beyond our expectations."
"Haha, isn't it amazing?" Aiden seemed very relaxed in front of Zilean. He didn't have to maintain the appearance of a Valoran Head of State in front of people like he did in the outside world. Zilean was the person in this world who knew him best, so he had no scruples.
"It's very amazing!" Zilean also joked relaxedly. "In these few months, you have summoned a full 19 heroes, and a total of more than 100,000 Valoran residents. Perhaps if you are given another four or five years, you will really be able to summon everyone to Azeroth."
"There are already nineteen?" Aiden hadn't counted them carefully. Each of the heroes he summoned had their own responsibilities, and most of them were not usually seen. The most he saw was Kayle, because she had been protecting his safety. When Zilean mentioned it, he realized that he had already summoned nineteen heroes. There were only a little over a hundred heroes in Valoran, right? So, his summoning progress was already over ten percent.
"That's right, I'm very happy to see that you have found the path you want to take, and your understanding of time is also more in-depth," Zilean's expression began to become serious, "Then it's time to tell you something."
"Oh?"
Zilean said, "Haven't you always been curious as to why we chose you?"
"Yes, but you have never said it in detail." Aiden had this doubt since entering the Emerald Dream. Why would the heroes of Valoran summon him, a person from Earth? And all of them were willing to serve him as commander and be driven by him.
Zilean had said that he and Murozond, the Eternal Dragon, had secretly cooperated, so if they wanted to enter Azeroth, why summon an outsider like him? With the Heart of Valoran, wouldn't it be better for them to send a native person over?
It's just that when he asked this question before, Zilean always evaded the topic. Now, was he finally going to give him something substantial?
"Actually, even if all the heroes of our Valoran exhausted all their energy, they couldn't send you to Azeroth." Zilean opened his mouth and revealed a piece of news that shocked Aiden immensely. "So, the fact that you were able to come to Azeroth is not because of our summoning. The only thing we did was to have you bring the Heart of Valoran with you before you crossed over to Azeroth. That's the only thing we were capable of doing."
Aiden felt his throat go dry, even though he was currently a pure spiritual body. "Are you saying that there's an even more incredible being who brought me to Azeroth?"
Zilean didn't answer directly, but instead said, "Actually, the universe where Valoran is located, the universe where Earth is located, and the universe where Azeroth is located are in three different dimensions. If a spaceship could have infinitely fast speed, able to instantly cross countless billions of light-years, even if it exhausted all its time, it still couldn't fly from Valoran to Earth, nor could it fly to Azeroth. Because what separates these three worlds isn't spatial distance, but dimensional distance."
"We believe that the multiverse uses dimensions to divide different worlds. If we set up a scale, Earth's dimension would be at the 1 mark, and Valoran would be at the 2 mark. Our respective activity ranges are within our own scale ranges. The universe is an abstract flat space. In the parallel direction, it may have an infinitely long distance, but it can't break through the range of its own scale to float up or sink down. This prevents us from entering another universe from one universe—of course, the mysteries of the universe are far more complex than that, this is just a metaphor."
He used an analogy to describe the situation he was depicting: "Our three universes are like three bubbles floating in the air. Our respective worlds are imprisoned in these bubbles, and the eternal barriers prevent any of our entities from passing through. What do you think is a way to pour the water in a completely sealed bottle into another completely sealed bottle?"
Aiden shook his head. He really couldn't think of any normal way. Unless there was some way to cheat. Like a classic magic trick, which is to put a playing card into a soda bottle that hasn't been opened. It seems successful, but that's never the truth, but an illusion that deceives the eyes.
Zilean said, "So, whether it's Valoran or Azeroth, even the most powerful existence born in this universe cannot transcend this dimension, and naturally cannot project an entity into another dimension. Only an existence beyond the universe can do this. We are the water in the bottle, and 'He' is the person who opens the bottle cap."
Aiden saw a profound meaning in the Time Keeper's eyes, but he couldn't understand what it was. He was currently in a state of confusion. He originally thought that the heroes of Valoran had summoned him to Azeroth to carry out a savior's mission, but he didn't expect to only now discover that there was another, more terrifying being controlling all of this in the dark.
"The person who opens the bottle cap?" He couldn't help but have a terrible thought: Zilean had said that Valoran and Azeroth both truly existed in the multiverse. He was now in Azeroth, and everything told him that this was not a dream.
—But he initially learned about these two worlds entirely from the games created by game developers on Earth. Whether it was Valoran or Azeroth, they were both virtual, imagined worlds.
Then, does this mean that he exists in a concrete game world in a special form? And the person who opens the bottle cap is someone, or some people, on Earth who have concretized these two game worlds, a super programmer?
Aiden felt cold all over when he thought that he might be a string of 0s and 1s. If he was currently in a virtual space, and the operation of everything here was secretly controlled by a super programmer with a God's perspective, and his adventures and salvation were only to satisfy the evil taste of that super existence, then what meaning would his existence have?
"Don't think about things too complicatedly, Aiden." Zilean spoke to wake him up, "Whether it's the world inside the bottle or the world outside the bottle, you have to think clearly, why do you exist? If time and space are virtual illusions that blur the senses, how should you prove that you exist, that you are meaningful?"
Aiden woke up from his terrible conjecture. He looked at Zilean and said in a deep voice, "Thank you, I know what to do. I will find the truth!"
He thought of everything he had encountered after coming to Azeroth: Cenarius's help in the Emerald Dream, the guidance from the immortals who sacrificed themselves in the War of the Ancients, the battle in Scholomance, the heated debate in the Lordaeron Royal Court, the rebirth of Durnholde… and the trust and protection of Kayle, Quinn, and all the people united around him, as well as the Scourge's atrocities and the Alliance's resistance.
Even if all of this behind the scenes is a string of data, his experiences are not false. Even when he was on Earth, his twenty years of life were not as wonderful as the short year or two in this world.
—And even when he was on Earth, how could he prove that he wasn't a string of data? Perhaps the entire Earth has always been data in the computer of a super programmer that cannot be fully understood. It's just that he transmitted a signal from Earth to Azeroth.
Aiden thought self-deprecatingly, feeling relieved in his heart.
Whatever, whether it is or isn't, when we reach the end of time, there will always be a chance to prove all of this.