Chapter 496 - 496: Kai’Sa

Naafiri could no longer remember exactly what kind of battle it had been. Or rather, even she was unwilling to remember it. She had buried those memories in the deepest recesses of her mind.

Until today, when they resurfaced once more.

The Void, an alien realm, violent and savage. The monsters it spawned had once forced even mighty god-warriors like them into a bitter struggle.

Naafiri only remembered that many Ascended had fallen back then. The Ascended, beings as powerful as gods and once seemingly unstoppable, died one after another in that war. Some of them had even been Ascended Naafiri knew personally.

The fighting continued for several years before they finally sealed the enormous Void rift.

And now, from the spatial disturbance just moments ago, Naafiri had once again sensed the presence of the Void.

There was no doubt about it.

They had appeared again.

"What I'm more curious about is why that spatial rift swallowed only that human."

Naafiri found that rather strange.

As for the Void's return, she actually no longer cared all that much. Shurima had fallen long ago, and they no longer had a throne they had sworn their lives to defend.

They were Darkin now, a new race altogether.

As long as all the Darkin united, they would fear nothing, not even the Void.

After all, who would fear an enemy they had already defeated once before?

"It doesn't matter. He won't die so easily in the Void. Our battle wasn't finished. I'll wait for him to return."

Aatrox's expression remained indifferent. He believed Luke would never fall so easily in the Void.

Those filthy insects could never kill someone truly powerful.

At the same time, the Void's appearance had also shown him an opportunity.

What he sought was the annihilation of all things.

The Void could hardly have appeared at a better time. It was time to raise the curtain on the final chapter.

Aatrox felt the unbearable hunger within him. He raised his greatsword high, and a blinding crimson light erupted from the blade, shooting straight into the sky. Then he roared, "My commanders, heed my call! In the name of Aatrox, I command you to gather here! All who would answer my summons, return at once!"

It was time to meet his former commanders again.

They were now scattered across Runeterra, each of them sealed away by that damned Aspect of Twilight.

But Aatrox believed in them. He believed they would surely reunite in Shurima.

Seeing this, Naafiri knew Aatrox was finally preparing to make a major move. She spoke up. "Your blood magic is rapidly weakening. That body won't last much longer. The Aspects have probably already sensed us. We shouldn't remain here. We need to leave."

Aatrox looked toward the place in the sky where Luke had vanished.

"Human, I will wait for you."

Then, concealed by Naafiri's blood magic, the two of them finally withdrew from the area.

Not long after they left, two pillars of light descended from the sky. Immediately afterward, another figure plummeted from high above and smashed into the ground, leaving behind a massive crater.

"Pantheon, you sensed it too?"

As the light faded, Mihira, the Aspect of Justice, was revealed. The other pillar of light had brought Kayle, the Righteous.

Their gazes fell upon Pantheon, who had descended from the sky.

Pantheon's expression was cold as he replied, "We're still one step too late. There can be no mistake about that presence. It belonged to Aatrox."

Aatrox's aura was the one thing he would never mistake.

After all, the Darkin Blade had once driven a sword straight through his chest.

"There's more than that."

Kayle stepped forward and made only the slightest effort to sense the lingering traces around them. "There's the presence of a second Darkin. They seem to have fought here. The outcome is unclear. But besides that, I can also sense a disturbance from the Void."

"The second presence should belong to Naafiri."

Pantheon named her with certainty. His body still remembered the names of those Darkin. "Both are among the strongest of the Darkin. For some unknown reason, a battle broke out between them here."

"That's not the important part. We already knew the Darkin were showing signs of awakening. The seals left behind by the previous Aspect of Twilight have begun to loosen." Mihira nodded slightly. "But there was also a disturbance from the Void here. The Void and the Darkin appeared in the same place. I have a feeling something major will happen soon."

There was little need to examine the traces of battle in detail. It was easy enough to imagine that Aatrox and Naafiri had fought a tremendous battle here.

What concerned them far more was the Void disturbance that had appeared afterward.

The Void was a realm the celestial Aspects had taken notice of long ago, stretching back more than a thousand years of Runeterra's history.

At the time, the Shuriman Empire had stood at the height of its power. Its human emperor had used the power granted by the heavens to create immortal god-warriors.

Those god-warriors were unstoppable. Among mortals, they were practically invincible.

Until a small nation known as Icathia summoned the power of the Void.

It was a realm of nothingness that knew only hunger, yet it had spawned a host of terrifying monsters.

Wave after wave of the god-warriors they had created were killed. Though victory was eventually achieved, the prolonged war against the Void took its toll. After the empire itself fell, those warriors gradually descended into madness and became the infamous Darkin.

And among them, those who had survived were, without exception, terrifyingly powerful.

Aatrox was one such example. He had caused even the Aspects no small amount of suffering.

After sealing away all the Darkin, the Aspects had continued observing the Void, making sure it would no longer threaten Runeterra.

Recently, however, they had once again sensed signs that the Void was stirring.

In the eyes of the Aspects, the Void remained a greater threat than the Darkin.

Of course, that did not mean the Darkin posed no threat at all.

As far as Mihira was concerned, both were problems that needed to be dealt with, and there was hardly any need to distinguish which should come first.

"Follow the traces of their fading presence and search the surrounding area."

As Mihira spoke, a pair of pale golden wings spread from her back, and she rapidly flew off in one direction.

Pantheon said nothing more. He chose another direction and set out to search for Aatrox.

Kayle, meanwhile, looked to the right.

She could sense Morgana's presence.

Her sister was somewhere in the distance.

After considering it for a moment, Kayle ultimately decided against going to see her and instead flew off in another direction.

After Luke was swallowed by the spatial disturbance, he shot through a tunnel filled with purple Void energy and, in the blink of an eye, emerged into another world.

Unlike the spirit realm, Luke immediately knew where he was the moment he saw his surroundings.

The Void.

He stood within a bleak, desolate world.

There was no sun. Purple and black dominated everything around him. Everything he could see looked as though fragments of several shattered worlds had been crudely stitched together. There were mountains, and he could even see houses, all of them fused together in ways that made absolutely no sense.

Rocks of every size floated through the sky as though gravity had no hold over them. Black, tendril-like vines twisted across the landscape everywhere, clinging unnaturally to this world.

And then there were the Voidborn, clearly visible to the naked eye.

Countless hideous, insect-like creatures swarmed across the landscape.

This place was not completely lifeless as one might imagine, nor was it truly barren, yet it somehow gave the impression that hope itself did not exist here.

It felt like a land of death.

The Void Riftblade in Luke's hand had also returned to normal.

However, Luke's appearance as an unfamiliar living creature had already attracted the attention of the surrounding Voidborn. Ravenously hungry, they surged toward him as though they intended to devour him completely.

"It's been a while. You should be hungry by now too."

Luke raised the Void Riftblade in his hand.

The energy this evolving weapon had devoured last time was almost completely exhausted.

He wondered whether the Void Riftblade had sensed the Void and deliberately tried to come here for a meal, which would explain why it had behaved so strangely earlier.

Otherwise, there was no reason for it to have reacted that way.

There was no time to dwell on it now.

Looking at the monsters charging toward him, Luke shot forward like a streak of light and began an indiscriminate slaughter.

The screams of dying Voidborn sounded no different from those of any other creature.

Meanwhile, the Void Riftblade rapidly converted and absorbed their energy.

If there was one thing this world did not lack, it was Voidborn.

Luke killed quickly, largely because the creatures appeared incapable of fear. They threw themselves at him one after another without the slightest hesitation.

Several minutes later, not a single living Voidborn remained anywhere in the surrounding area.

Yet even that probably had not filled half of the Void Riftblade's progress toward its next evolution.

These lower-tier Voidborn were not particularly powerful.

They were like endlessly mass-produced foot soldiers. Luke could easily imagine them being unleashed as cannon fodder whenever the Void went to war.

The weakest among them were probably only around the level of an ordinary human.

And that brought up one of the Void's defining traits.

Evolution.

The Void was a realm of hunger. The hunger of its creatures could never truly be satisfied, so naturally, they devoured one another as well.

The more they consumed, the further they evolved, and the stronger they became.

Just like the Void Riftblade.

With such a simple principle governing the realm, a food chain had naturally emerged within the Void.

And the Voidborn standing at the top of that food chain were certainly not creatures to be underestimated.

Luke had no intention of looking down on a place like this.

If he could return to Runeterra, it would be best to do so as quickly as possible.

He activated Destiny and tried to locate a connection to Runeterra, but unfortunately, it failed.

Clearly, conventional methods would not allow him to escape this place.

Luke thought of his special ability, Teleport.

Unfortunately, the skill was still on cooldown, so he could not test whether it worked here. Still, only a few days remained before the cooldown ended.

After that, he took out the Secret Key.

To his surprise, it still had a signal.

Dreamnet was still usable.

When he thought about it carefully, that actually made sense. Dreamnet established its connection through dreams and the spirit realm, so his physical location really should not matter.

Dreamnet's signal was seriously impressive.

Luke quickly contacted Morgana and told her about his current situation so she would not worry too much.

Morgana, still outside the Void, had never expected Luke to be dragged into it.

She did not know much about the Void herself.

Still, after returning to Mount Targon, she had learned a little more about it.

She knew the place was filled with danger, but considering Luke's current strength, she did not believe he was incapable of handling himself.

For now, no matter how anxious she became, there was nothing she could do.

All she could do was wait quietly for Luke to return.

After informing Morgana, Luke put away the Secret Key and prepared to search for another way back to Runeterra.

Just then, he sensed a presence rapidly approaching from the distance.

Soon, a humanoid figure appeared within his field of vision, flying toward him at high speed before landing on the ground.

From the figure's shape, he could tell it was a woman.

Her entire body was covered in a black-and-purple fibrous shell resembling those of the Voidborn, and she gave off the same kind of aura they did.

Luke remembered what it was.

A living Void carapace.

And the instant he saw her, Luke recognized her.

Kai'Sa, Daughter of the Void.

After landing and seeing Luke, Kai'Sa immediately retracted her helmet. The organic shell peeled itself away almost like some kind of advanced technology.

A breathtaking face was revealed beneath it.

Her oval face was framed by long, finely shaped eyebrows that curved like crescent moons. Her cool eyes shone like gemstones, while beneath her delicate, high-bridged nose were soft, glossy lips as vivid as flower petals. Long, pale-purple hair flowed behind her, and the skin exposed beyond the edges of her carapace was fair and smooth.

It was difficult to imagine that a girl this beautiful could exist in an environment like this.

"Are you alone here?"

Kai'Sa looked around, but when she saw no one except Luke, she frowned slightly in confusion.

Then she said, "Don't worry. I'm human too. I know you accidentally ended up in this world. I came to help you."

"Looks like it's just me."

Luke nodded slightly before asking, "So what do you need me to do?"

Kai'Sa could not help taking another look at him.

He had accidentally fallen into the Void, yet he showed not even the slightest trace of fear. He was remarkably calm.

And with that second glance, she also noticed Luke's extraordinarily handsome features.

His presence seemed almost ordinary, yet his bearing was that of some wealthy young noble who had never wanted for anything.

Kai'Sa was curious about how exactly he had managed to fall into the Void, but there was no time to think about that now.

"You're very lucky. I didn't see any Voidborn nearby. If there had been any, I might not have reached you in time. For now, come with me. We need to find something that can conceal your presence."

Luke's human scent was far too obvious.

To the Voidborn, it was an overwhelmingly enticing smell, one that could draw them toward him at any moment.

So Luke followed Kai'Sa as she searched for something that could hide his presence.

As they walked, he asked curiously, "How did you find me?"

"This layer covering my body can sense the disturbances created when the Void breaches the material realm. I followed that sensation all the way here."

Kai'Sa walked ahead of him. Despite her cool appearance, her personality was not nearly as distant, and she readily answered Luke's question.

Perhaps she had simply spent too long in this world and wanted someone to talk to.

"That thing covering you looks just like the shells on those Voidborn."

Walking behind her, Luke studied Kai'Sa's living carapace, naturally taking in her slender figure as well.

He really was just trying to examine what made the carapace different.

Looking closely, he could see currents of purple energy occasionally flowing across its surface.

Kai'Sa replied, "It doesn't just look like them. And this isn't clothing. It's another layer of my skin. It lives in symbiosis with me. It gives me the strength I need to survive in this world."

Luke thought about that for a moment.

"So technically... aren't you running around naked right now?"

Kai'Sa stared at him.

She stopped walking and turned around to look at Luke.

It was difficult to imagine words like that actually coming out of another person's mouth.

What kind of bizarre thought process led someone to that conclusion?

Seeing the look she gave him, Luke smiled.

"I'm kidding. If you really were naked, I'd have to keep my distance."

Kai'Sa fell silent.

She turned around and continued leading the way.

From that moment onward, she had already discovered one major difference between Luke and the ordinary people who accidentally stumbled into the Void.

This guy really did not worry about anything.

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