Chapter 498 - 498: The Void’s Evolution

"What about those doors you mentioned? When do they usually appear?"

Luke had already packed away his cooking equipment, and he and Kai'Sa continued making their way through the Void.

"I don't know that either." Kai'Sa shook her head. "Void rifts appear randomly. Sometimes the intervals are short, sometimes they're extremely long. You and I could be walking along right now and a rift might suddenly open in the next second."

Luke nodded. "I see. So where are we going now?"

His plan was to return to Runeterra through one of those rifts, but it seemed he would have to rely on luck.

"We'll find somewhere safe and wait for the next Void rift to appear."

Luke nodded again. For now, that was the only option.

And so, he and Kai'Sa continued traveling through the Void.

Along the way, they encountered all kinds of bizarre Voidborn. The place was almost like a complete ecosystem. These creatures behaved no differently from unintelligent wild animals.

They attacked one another, had their own habits, and even gathered together for protection.

There was no real concept of time in the Void. Stay here long enough, and eventually you would not even know whether it was supposed to be day or night.

Everything remained covered in the same mixture of purple and black, as though no other colors existed in this world.

Kai'Sa was extremely familiar with the environment. It did not take long for her to find a relatively safe location, a sprawling cluster of enormous rocks where the complicated terrain provided plenty of hiding places.

Many weaker Voidborn also chose to hide here.

Kai'Sa drove the creatures out of one of the larger spaces and claimed it for herself and Luke.

Several crab-like Void insects scuttled away with rapid clicking sounds, their retreating figures looking almost timid.

"You're not going to kill them?"

Luke watched her casually settle in and asked out of curiosity.

"There's no point. Sometimes killing them actually attracts other Voidborn." Kai'Sa found herself a place to sit and rest. "From what I've observed, some Voidborn have almost no combat ability whatsoever. They're basically at the very bottom of the ecosystem. Their only purpose is to serve as one link in the food chain."

Luke found somewhere to sit as well.

"Where do humans fit into that ecosystem?"

Kai'Sa looked at him and smiled.

"At the bottom too. Humans aren't suited to the Void at all. I've never seen an ordinary human survive here for very long."

Luke looked at her.

"What about you?"

"Do I still count as human looking like this?"

Kai'Sa raised one hand and looked at the living Void carapace covering her arm.

"Without this, I would have died a long time ago. Maybe I'm just an unusual case. In ten years, I've never seen another person like me."

Then she suddenly remembered something and looked toward Luke.

"People who accidentally fall into the Void seem to hear strange voices. I've seen a few who were driven insane by them. Have you heard anything?"

"Strange voices?"

Luke shook his head.

"No."

"Speaking of which, who exactly are you? And how did you learn so much about the Void?"

Kai'Sa finally asked the question that had been bothering her throughout their journey.

Luke's background clearly was not simple.

More importantly, he acted far too normally in the Void.

That normality itself felt abnormal.

He was easily the strangest person she had ever met here.

"My name is Luke. I'm the second prince of Demacia. I learned about the Void from ancient texts a long time ago."

Luke had no intention of hiding his identity and stated it casually.

"A prince of Demacia?"

Surprise entered both Kai'Sa's voice and expression. She looked Luke over, unable to tell whether he was telling the truth.

But after thinking about it, what reason would he have to lie to her?

She knew of Demacia, though not particularly well.

What confused her more was how a prince of Demacia had somehow ended up dragged into the Void.

It sounded complicated.

Kai'Sa decided it would probably be better not to think too deeply about it.

Based on their interactions so far, she did not think Luke was a bad person.

Still, she did not trust him completely either. A small amount of caution remained.

"My name is Kai'Sa," she said, briefly introducing herself in return. "If you're tired, you can sleep here. My living Void carapace can sense danger nearby. If a powerful Voidborn approaches, I'll know. As for the environment, you'll just have to put up with it."

Luke nodded.

It had probably been more than ten hours since he entered the Void, but he still was not particularly tired.

He raised his head toward the sky.

At some point, the Void's heavens had become filled with countless twinkling lights resembling stars.

They were not as brilliant as the stars of Runeterra, but they were still rather beautiful.

Luke looked surprised.

"The Void actually has stars?"

Kai'Sa looked up as well, showing little reaction before giving a faint smile.

"That's not a starry sky. It's just a poor imitation of Runeterra. If you got close enough, you'd discover those are actually a swarm of ugly star bugs."

"Imitation?"

Luke immediately caught onto the word.

"Exactly." Kai'Sa nodded. "It shouldn't be hard to notice. Whether it's the environment or the ecosystem, the Void seems to resemble Runeterra in some ways. But I can say for certain that many years ago, this place wasn't like this. In the early years, everything here was far more chaotic and far uglier."

Luke considered her words.

"So it's evolving."

"Exactly. Evolution." Kai'Sa unconsciously clenched her fist as a chill ran through her. "Evolution isn't limited to the creatures living here. The Void itself is evolving too."

Her expression grew heavier.

"It's evolving toward something resembling Runeterra. The more it consumes, the more complete that evolution becomes. It's like an endlessly starving beast."

The Void seemed dissatisfied with what it currently was.

That was why it had set its sights on Runeterra, wanting to devour the entire world.

Every time Kai'Sa thought about that, she felt a cold shiver inside her.

And after witnessing the horrors of the Void firsthand, she had come to realize that day might not be very far away.

Even Luke felt a chill hearing this.

That was precisely what made the Void terrifying.

Endless evolution.

Consume, consume, and consume again.

After thinking for a moment, Luke asked, "Do you know how large this place is?"

"No."

Kai'Sa shook her head and looked toward the distance.

"But I imagine it's enormous. I don't have time to waste searching for its boundaries. Maybe it doesn't even have any."

She constantly had to deal with Void rifts appearing in Runeterra. Naturally, she had no time to measure the size of the Void.

But she always had the feeling it was far larger than anyone could imagine.

"This really is a terrifying place."

Luke raised his head toward the false stars above.

Never before had he felt so deeply how frightening an entire world could be.

And now, this terrifying world was already ravenously eyeing Runeterra.

"It is."

Kai'Sa raised her head as well, staring at the vast ceiling above them.

Beneath such an enormous sky, she looked unbelievably small.

Trying to stop the Void alone almost sounded like a joke.

Like someone hopelessly overestimating themselves.

But no matter what, she had to keep trying.

Her father, mother, friends, and elders had all been swallowed by the Void. She had witnessed too many families destroyed by it.

If even she gave up, there would be no one left to save them.

Luke's gaze quietly shifted toward Kai'Sa.

He looked at her young, radiant face, one that should have belonged to a woman enjoying the best years of her life, and felt a deep sense of admiration.

This was the first time Luke had met Kai'Sa, but he knew her experiences better than almost anyone.

He also knew how difficult it had been for her to endure everything she had.

Luke did not think even he could necessarily survive ten years in a place like the Void.

Much less starting as a helpless child.

He had never thought of himself as some hero who wanted to save the world.

Everything he did was driven by his own desires.

And right now, one of those desires was to pull the girl in front of him out of the Void's endless vortex.

Just then, Kai'Sa's expression suddenly changed.

She shot to her feet and looked at Luke.

"Quick. Hide."

Her entire body had gone tense.

Luke wasted no time. He immediately stood and followed her behind a protruding rock wall.

Not long after the two concealed themselves, a massive Void beast suddenly descended from above.

A pair of wings grew from its back, lined with weapons resembling exposed bone spikes. Its four limbs were thick and powerful. Its general shape resembled a bat, but it was far more horrifying and grotesque, with rows of exposed fangs filling its mouth.

Like many Voidborn, it possessed no visible eyes.

Yet it moved its head from side to side as though perfectly capable of seeing everything around it.

Occasionally, it sniffed the air and released deep, heavy breaths.

Luke had never seen a Voidborn like this before.

Even so, he could easily sense the tremendous power radiating from it.

It was clearly nothing like most of the creatures they had encountered along the way.

It reminded him somewhat of the two Voidborn he had encountered in Mistfall back in Ionia.

This creature might even be stronger than those.

That was probably why Kai'Sa had become so tense.

Suddenly, the creature seemed to find something.

It moved without warning, shooting toward one of the rock walls at tremendous speed.

Boom!

The stone wall shattered apart, and another Voidborn let out a furious roar.

It was a Void burrower standing roughly ten feet tall.

Under normal circumstances, it should have counted among the more powerful creatures of the Void.

Yet the bat-like monster immediately overwhelmed it.

The two enormous beasts clashed.

It did not take long for the burrower to fall into a disadvantage.

One of its limbs was brutally torn away, while claws ripped through its body and sent chunks of flesh flying.

Then the bat monster clamped its jaws around the burrower's neck.

The burrower struggled violently a few times before going completely still.

By comparison, the bat monster had barely suffered any injuries at all.

It pounced on the dead creature and began tearing mouthful after mouthful of flesh from its body.

The sight was nauseating.

Kai'Sa looked away and continued suppressing her breathing as much as possible.

After a while, the bat monster consumed everything edible from the burrower's corpse.

It released another hungry roar, apparently still unsatisfied, then spread its wings and took off.

Within moments, it had disappeared into the distance.

Only then did Kai'Sa finally relax.

Luke asked, "What was that?"

"This ecosystem has prey, so naturally it also has predators."

Kai'Sa emerged from their hiding place with him and explained as they walked.

"That Void burrower and the Bonewing Bat are both relatively powerful predators. That burrower was more than ten feet tall and had already passed its juvenile stage, but the Bonewing Bat slaughtered it anyway. That should tell you how close the latter is to the top of the food chain."

She paused.

"In short, it's extremely strong. I generally try not to fight one."

Luke nodded.

The burrower's corpse was lying nearby and already giving off a horrible stench.

They decided to find somewhere else.

But they had not gone far when Kai'Sa's expression changed again.

"It's back?"

Her living Void carapace had sent her another warning.

She immediately pulled Luke into hiding once more.

However, this time, the Bonewing Bat that had flown away came crashing down from the sky.

It slammed heavily into the ground with a miserable shriek.

Its body was in terrible condition, covered in wounds.

Kai'Sa's eyes widened.

She could not imagine what kind of creature had injured it so badly.

But in the next instant, the air itself seemed to become heavier.

A violent warning surged through her living Void carapace, raising every hair on her body.

An overwhelming pressure descended upon the area.

Kai'Sa's breathing became strained beneath it.

At that moment, she could not imagine what kind of terrifying creature had arrived.

Then a towering humanoid figure suddenly dropped from the sky.

With an explosive crash, it landed directly on top of the Bonewing Bat.

The creature let out one final scream and died instantly.

"Filthy animal. You actually dared to hunt me."

The cloud of dust slowly dispersed, revealing the humanoid creature.

Its entire body was covered in pitch-black living Void carapace that resembled heavy armor, with sharp spikes protruding from various places.

Its face, however, looked nothing like a human face.

It resembled a faceless monster.

There was only a vicious mouth, while from where its eyes should have been, a pair of horns curved backward like those of a bull.

There were clearly human characteristics to its body.

Yet there was no doubt that this thing was not human.

Kai'Sa immediately realized that the terrifying pressure she felt was coming from this monster.

She had never seen a Void creature like this before.

Even more astonishingly, it could speak.

Her instincts told her that under no circumstances could she make a sound.

They had to wait until the monster left.

Otherwise, both of them would die here.

"Still hiding?"

The horned creature suddenly turned toward them.

"I went through quite a bit of trouble to find you."

It raised one hand with what looked almost like a vicious grin.

A sphere of purple energy abruptly shot from its palm.

"I'll be taking the first prize."

Driven by the warning from her living Void carapace, Kai'Sa instinctively tried to dodge.

But she was not fast enough.

All she could do was watch the energy projectile close the distance at terrifying speed.

For the first time, Kai'Sa felt death approaching this closely.

Just as despair overwhelmed her, Luke calmly raised one hand beside her.

A barrier formed from magical energy appeared instantly.

It blocked the attack.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion erupted outside the barrier.

The ground shook violently.

Even the residual force of the blast shattered the surrounding rock walls and caused them to collapse.

Luke and Kai'Sa remained completely unharmed inside the barrier.

Kai'Sa stared at Luke.

At his calm, almost indifferent face.

Shock filled her heart.

She had never imagined Luke was this powerful.

He had blocked such a terrifying attack so effortlessly.

"I knew you weren't ordinary."

The horned monster's mouth stretched into what seemed to be a delighted grin, overwhelming confidence radiating from its entire body.

"But that only makes this more interesting."

Its grin widened.

"Go on, human. Excite me a little more."