Chapter 497 - 497: A Feast in the Void

The next stretch of the journey was noticeably quieter.

Kai'Sa seemed extremely familiar with the Void's environment. Before long, she found a strangely shaped purple flower growing beneath a rock beside a wall.

She kicked it.

The purple flower was instantly snapped in half at the stem and let out a miserable wail before going limp as though it had died.

Kai'Sa crouched down, picked it up, tore off its root, and poured a pile of powder from inside.

"This might sting your nose a little. Bear with it."

Kai'Sa glanced back at Luke. When she saw him nod, she immediately flung the powder over him.

Poof.

The powder burst across Luke's body. It smelled almost like chili peppers and was indeed extremely pungent.

"This pollen can effectively mask your scent. With this on you, the Voidborn won't be able to find you so easily."

Kai'Sa briefly explained what it did.

Luke nodded. "How long have you been here?"

"About ten years, I think." Kai'Sa continued leading Luke forward as she spoke. "I fell into the Void when I was ten. You don't seem nervous at all. Did you already know about the Void?"

"More or less." Luke had no reason to lie. "But this is my first time actually being inside it."

"Was anyone else with you? How did you enter the Void?" Kai'Sa had already guessed that Luke must know something about this place. Otherwise, no normal person could possibly remain this calm.

Right now, she needed more information, especially whether anyone else had accidentally entered the Void alongside him.

"Probably just me. There was some strange disturbance in the air, and then I suddenly got dragged inside."

"When it happened to me, the ground collapsed," Kai'Sa said, recalling the details from all those years ago. "The earth opened up into an enormous fissure and swallowed everything."

The Void manifested in all kinds of bizarre ways, so Luke's situation was not necessarily unusual.

"What's strange is that when I came here this time, I didn't find any breach into the Void. Did you see it close?"

"Close?"

Luke thought for a moment before shaking his head. "There's supposed to be a breach?"

"If the Void wants to enter Runeterra, it has to open a door," Kai'Sa explained with a nod. "Every monster, person, and object swallowed by it passes through that door. And since it's a door, naturally it can close. From what I've observed, the Void can't keep those openings active indefinitely."

"I didn't see any door just now. It was more like I was suddenly pulled inside."

Luke sounded certain.

"That is strange." Kai'Sa stopped and turned to look at him again. "Your situation might actually be a special case. I've never seen the Void deliberately pull in just one person before."

"Maybe they needed a handsome guy like me to raise the average around here."

Luke offered his theory.

"Haha."

Kai'Sa could not help laughing. It sounded like a dry joke aimed at the horrifying looks of the Voidborn.

Still, Luke really was the most handsome person she had ever seen. Technically speaking, his arrival had indeed raised the Void's overall level of attractiveness.

A faint smile remained on her lips as she continued walking.

"You're the first person I've met who can stay this optimistic in a place like this."

"Same goes for you." Luke sounded genuinely impressed. "You've spent ten years in an environment like this without completely falling apart. That's pretty incredible."

The Void was simply not a place meant for humans, yet Kai'Sa had survived here for ten years.

Behind the relaxed demeanor she showed now, there was no telling how many times she had fought on the edge of life and death simply to stay alive.

"I don't even know how I made it this far." Something flickered in Kai'Sa's eyes as she spoke softly. "I remember falling into this awful place and crying until I could barely breathe. Eventually, I realized crying didn't help."

Luke casually asked, "If there are doors out of here, why haven't you escaped?"

"If I escaped, there wouldn't be anyone left to find people like you who accidentally fall into the Void, would there?"

Kai'Sa smiled with a trace of self-mockery.

"Besides, looking like this, I'm not exactly suited to returning to Runeterra anymore."

She had certainly thought about running as far away from the Void as possible and hiding somewhere it would never appear.

But whenever she remembered the struggle it had taken to survive this long, she felt that perhaps there had been some reason she had been lucky enough to live.

The Void did not merely want to devour a few scattered villages in Shurima.

The more Kai'Sa learned about it, the more certain she became that it wanted to consume all of Runeterra.

She had to do everything she could to stop it.

Kai'Sa did not know what meaning there was in a single person stubbornly holding out against something as vast as the Void.

She only knew that if she did not do it, there might be no one else who would.

"I think anyone who actually gets to know you wouldn't see you as a monster."

Luke looked at her as he spoke.

"You've only just met me. How could you possibly know me?" Kai'Sa smiled casually. "The truth is, most people react to me like they've just seen some terrifying monster."

She did not care much about how others looked at her, and she understood why they were afraid.

After gaining this carapace, she had never expected herself to be considered normal again.

"I know you came here without hesitation to rescue me," Luke said with a smile of his own. "Is there really no way to take that thing off?"

"Can you take your skin off?"

Kai'Sa countered before continuing, "It's symbiotic with me. It's connected directly to my flesh. Taking it off would be no different from skinning myself alive. And even if I could, I wouldn't. Without it, I would have died in the Void a long time ago."

Luke asked, "If you had a chance to leave the Void behind, never have to worry about it invading Runeterra again, and also remove that second skin, would you take it?"

Kai'Sa turned back at the strange question and raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I would if something that good were possible. The question is, who's going to give me that chance?"

Or rather, who could stop the Void so easily?

If there really were a way, she would have tried it long ago.

It was not as though she did not yearn to return to a normal life.

Luke said nothing more.

He simply looked into the distance, where Voidborn had begun emerging one after another again.

The powder from earlier really did work. The Voidborn did not seem capable of sensing him anymore. Or perhaps they now mistook him for one of their own.

"Are you hungry?"

Kai'Sa suddenly asked in a casual tone.

"Not particularly." Luke was not very hungry, but curiosity quickly got the better of him. "What do you normally eat in the Void...?"

"Exactly what you're thinking. Them."

Kai'Sa saw his expression and nodded slightly.

"In a place like this, you don't exactly get to be picky."

"They can't even feed themselves. Do they taste good?"

Luke was surprisingly interested in this question.

Could Voidborn actually be eaten?

Not that he had any intention of trying one himself.

"They taste awful," Kai'Sa answered immediately. "It's like chewing boiled chicken breast, except ridiculously dry. Practically flavorless, hard to swallow, and there's basically no nutrition in it for a human. Since you're not hungry right now, don't bother trying it."

Luke was still curious.

"Then how do you deal with hunger?"

"I eventually discovered that if I feed my second skin, I become full too."

Kai'Sa's Void carapace needed energy rather than nutrition. As long as it absorbed the energy from Voidborn, her hunger naturally disappeared as well.

That could be considered one of the benefits of their symbiosis.

Luke asked, "How long has it been since you've eaten actual food from Runeterra?"

Kai'Sa thought about it.

"Quite a while, I guess. But I never ate much great food to begin with. The thing I remember most clearly was a roasted leg of lamb I ate when I was eight. It was dripping with fat. The first few bites were delicious, but after that it became so greasy I could barely swallow it."

Thinking about it carefully, she had never cared very much about food.

Fine cuisine or whatever else had never mattered to her.

As long as she could survive, who cared what she ate?

She had gotten hungry enough to eat Voidborn before.

Luke suddenly looked at her with sympathy.

"You've missed out on way too much in life."

"Don't make it sound so tragic." Kai'Sa waved it off. "No matter how good something tastes, it's still just food. Its main purpose is filling your stomach, so whether it tastes good isn't important."

"That's completely different."

Luke's expression suddenly became serious.

"One of humanity's great achievements is creating countless delicious foods. They're the crystallization of human ingenuity."

"All right. You're right."

Kai'Sa's answer sounded like she was merely humoring him.

Deep down, she still did not care.

Food was food.

How good could it possibly taste?

Could it really make someone feel like they were in heaven?

Luke decided this poor girl desperately needed saving.

So, right in front of Kai'Sa, he pulled out a complete set of cooking equipment.

"Where did all of that come from?"

Kai'Sa's eyes gradually widened. She could not understand where he was producing all these tools from.

"My portable storage bag," Luke explained in simple terms. "There's a huge storage space inside. I can keep all kinds of things in it."

Then, like a magician performing a trick, Luke slipped his hand into his pocket and began pulling out jar after jar of seasonings without end.

Next came all kinds of ingredients.

Kai'Sa stared blankly at him.

This was the first time she had ever seen such a convenient tool.

She already knew Luke was unusual, but apparently, he was even more unusual than she had thought.

Then she finally reacted.

"What are you doing?"

"Making food. Truth be told, I'm a chef. What you said earlier crossed a line for me. I absolutely refuse to let you go through life without ever tasting proper food."

Luke looked completely serious.

Kai'Sa had already thought this guy was strange.

She had not realized he was this strange.

Who suddenly decided to cook a meal while walking through a place like this?

He clearly knew about the Void.

Did he somehow not understand what kind of place this was?

Still, seeing Luke smoothly begin his preparations, she opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, then decided against it.

Even now, she still believed there had been nothing wrong with what she had said earlier.

Food was food.

Its main purpose was filling your stomach.

Did it really matter whether it tasted good?

How good could it possibly be?

Could it really send her to heaven?

The soul of a true chef would punish every stubborn girl who dared talk tough about food.

Luke decided to roast a whole leg of lamb right there.

His storage space contained an enormous stockpile of ingredients, all of them exceptionally high quality.

His movements flowed seamlessly from one step to the next. Knife work, heating the pan, building the fire, everything happened so quickly and smoothly that it was almost dizzying to watch.

Kai'Sa had saved some of the powder from before. She did not remain idle either, spreading a circle of it around the place where Luke was cooking.

That was supposed to keep the surrounding Voidborn from smelling the food and coming over.

Unfortunately, she had underestimated Luke's cooking.

As the roaring flames began roasting the leg of lamb, the rich aroma of grilled meat immediately spread in every direction.

Voidborn quickly began arriving one after another.

Kai'Sa had no choice but to fight, desperately slaughtering the creatures as they appeared.

She felt Luke was creating extra work for her for absolutely no reason.

But even while fighting, she could smell the roasted lamb.

It had been an incredibly long time since she had smelled meat this fragrant.

It was even better than the aroma preserved in that vivid childhood memory.

And precisely because it smelled so good, more and more Voidborn kept arriving.

Seeing this, Luke manipulated the surrounding air currents, gathering the drifting aroma together and preventing it from spreading any farther.

Only then did Kai'Sa's workload finally ease.

Eventually, she returned to Luke's side, breathing slightly harder than before.

Waiting for her was a perfectly roasted leg of lamb, golden and glistening, along with a bowl of lamb soup to cut through the richness.

"Try it."

Luke confidently closed his eyes, looking like some secluded master displaying absolute faith in his craft.

Kai'Sa found his theatrics amusing.

After spending so many years in the Void, she truly had not met many people like Luke.

He was strange, yes.

But he was also entertaining.

Looking at the roasted lamb in front of her, she picked it up, then hesitated because she did not know where to begin.

After thinking about it, she simply opened her mouth and took a bite.

The meat yielded with a soft, juicy sound.

A rich aroma exploded across her tongue.

It was not dry in the slightest. Instead, it was unbelievably tender, juicy without becoming greasy, and completely free of the unpleasant gamey smell she remembered.

It had been prepared perfectly.

That single bite struck Kai'Sa's taste buds like a thunderbolt.

Goosebumps immediately spread across her entire body. Every cell seemed to come alive with excitement, while the aroma of roasted lamb felt as though it rushed straight into her soul.

How could something possibly taste this good?

Kai'Sa could hardly believe it.

And once she started eating, she could not stop.

One bite after another disappeared into her mouth, every mouthful bursting with rich, savory juices.

Then she took a sip of lamb soup.

Warmth immediately spread throughout her body. The soup washed away the richness and somehow elevated the pure flavor of the lamb even further.

She could even clearly sense her second skin sharing in the experience.

Excitement and exhilaration flowed through their connection.

Kai'Sa had never experienced anything like this before.

Every bite was another shock to her taste buds.

It really did feel as though she might ascend straight into the heavens.

As the savory fragrance filled her mouth, something she had almost forgotten began rising inside her.

Happiness.

Her appetite was equally astonishing.

The roasted leg of lamb was not small, yet she finished the entire thing within just a few minutes.

Only a bare bone remained, picked completely clean.

Her stomach bulged slightly, but quickly flattened again as everything she had eaten was converted into energy and absorbed by her outer skin.

At the same time, her sense of fullness gradually faded.

She felt like she could eat another whole leg.

Needless to say, she was nowhere near satisfied.

Luke finally opened his eyes and immediately met Kai'Sa's gaze.

"So?"

For a moment, Kai'Sa felt that his very existence was far too dazzling.

Unable to meet his eyes, she looked away.

"It's good..."

Luke asked, "Do you still think good food is unnecessary?"

"Well..."

Kai'Sa originally intended to stubbornly defend her earlier opinion.

But when the words reached her lips, she simply could not say them.

She had a feeling she would remember the taste of that roasted lamb for the rest of her life.

Thinking back on what she had just experienced, she finally understood.

So this was what it felt like to enjoy truly delicious food.

Looking at it that way, she really had spent the first half of her life without ever eating anything decent.

Was it too late to admit she had been wrong?

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