Jax planted his staff in front of him with one hand, the other tucked behind his back, facing the sands below head-on.

Shaar and the others were completely baffled. By all rights, Rek'Sai had already been beaten half to death by Zaun's ruler and was lying there howling in agony, so why did Logan and Jax still look like they were facing a great enemy?

While he was still wondering that, Shaar suddenly realized the sky had turned a deep violet. It was as if something had appeared overhead and blotted out the blazing sun. Then a streak of purple surfaced in the heavens, and a reflection appeared across the sky.

What it reflected was a strange sea. A pale violet city gave off a faint glow, and the edges of every window and doorway were wrapped in luminous, churning things of all different shapes.

Then a massive, elegant phantom took shape above it, looming over the city. With the city beneath her, her enormous scale and towering majesty were thrown into full relief.

The whole sight was truly eerie, but what was even stranger was that when Shaar tore his gaze away from the sky, he saw a purple figure dozens of meters tall standing before him.

The figure was that of a woman. Her face was beautiful in a disturbing way, but her expression was numb, terribly stiff and vacant. Her hair, slanting to one side, turned out on closer inspection to be a section of fin, and set into the center of her pointed forehead was a massive purple gem.

Below her head, her upper body was covered in savage, grotesque garments. Across her chest and abdomen, it looked like a hard purple shell, but calling it clothing was less accurate than saying it was something living, something uncanny, like living armor. On her chest and stomach, just below the shoulders and spreading outward beneath the arms, were two pairs of tiny spheres like pupils.

Shaar looked at those spheres and saw them move in an instant, turning toward him. At once, he lost focus. His lips parted, and countless voices and images flooded his mind.

"Wake up!"

A thunderous shout exploded beside him, jolting awake not just Shaar but the sandfolk who had fallen into that same bizarre world.

Shaar snapped back to himself, drenched in cold sweat. Just now, he had seen himself transformed into a purple carp, swimming with countless others into a violet sea where there was no conflict, no competition, no profit, only peace and serenity, as if it were some perfect utopia.

But once he was clearheaded, he reacted instantly.

If he'd turned into a damn fish, then what the hell was beautiful about that?

He looked to the side and saw that Zaun's ruler was already standing protectively in front of them, staring at that bizarre existence.

And that man called Jax had already swung his staff and charged at the towering violet phantom.

"Please do not misunderstand. I did not do anything to them."

The purple woman spoke, yet the human mouth on her face never opened once. Instead, when the voice sounded, the white bone spines on the living armor over her chest and stomach shifted up and down.

"Shut your mouth, Void," Jax barked, and the last light of Icathia smashed toward her body at the same time.

In response, she merely sighed. A school of tiny purple fish swam around her and took the blow on purpose.

But the last light of Icathia was a sacred relic left behind by Icathia, and with Jax's overwhelming might behind it, this was not an attack that could be easily stopped. The violet sea around her rippled, and that tiny flame, so small it looked as if the wind could snuff it out at any moment, ignited the seawater in an instant, burning through it and swallowing the entire school of purple fish.

"Saijax Cail-Rynx Kohari Icath'un."

The woman was not surprised. Calmly, she spoke Jax's true name. She drew in the purple feathers on her body, and her massive form swayed lightly in the sea. Then a multitude of asymmetrical tentacles emerged from her back, rising and falling in the violet waters before coming to rest behind her.

"I know the hatred you bear for the Void, but I am not the same as the Void you know."

"My name is Bel'Veth."

Jax's forward thrust halted. The moment he heard that name, his head snapped up and he stared at Bel'Veth's face. In that instant, a thought flashed through his mind, but he rejected it on instinct.

Then, on Bel'Veth's numb face, a trace of emotion appeared, approval for Jax.

"As you suspect, my name comes from a city that sank into the earth countless years ago, a city older than Shurima, older even than Icathia."

Bel'Veth's body shrank in an instant. Her head tilted mechanically as she turned to look at Logan. She only looked once, but a hint of confusion surfaced in those pale eyes before vanishing just as quickly.

Then she said, "I know why you have come, but I must tell you, what you are doing now is useless, Logan. My world will inevitably emerge, and when it does, your world will inevitably be ended."

"The ancient gods of the Freljord, united humanity, demons, celestials, none of them can stop its coming. Do you realize that what you are doing will bring destruction to this world ahead of time?"

"Yes, you do know. And yet you still chose this path. For that, I must salute you." Even after shrinking, Bel'Veth was still far larger than an ordinary person, but at that moment she bent slightly, her violet wings folding around her body as she gave Logan a formal bow.

At that moment, she looked noble and mysterious, every inch a refined aristocrat, her countless unspoken sentiments filled with respect for Logan. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

To her, Logan's actions looked like a moth using the last of its strength to rush into the flame, trying to embrace it, trying to extinguish it.

But when a moth flies into the fire, all it does is make the flames burn brighter, doesn't it?

That courage was worthy of admiration, but the choice itself was unimaginably foolish.

Logan looked at Bel'Veth calmly. Jax shot him a glance, but Logan showed no reaction at all.

Logan knew better than anyone how terrifying the true body of the Void was. Ancient Shurima had indeed defeated the Void head-on, but that victory had come at an enormous price.

On their own ground, Empress Setaka died, the Ascended fell and became the Darkin, but what about the Void?

It lost, yes. It failed to invade Runeterra. But the Void itself had not been fundamentally harmed.

And yet, running away had never been a good answer. Only by facing it could they find a real solution to the Void.

Compromise?

Logan was from Zaun.

So he would not compromise. To hell with compromise.

After glancing at Logan once, Jax fixed his eyes on Bel'Veth again and said in a low voice, "That name, did you choose it yourself?"

"Is that so strange?" Bel'Veth asked.

"How is that not strange? You picked a whole damn city as your name. And since when do Voidborn even name themselves?" Jax laughed harshly and pointed straight at her face.

Rek'Sai's name came from the Shuriman sandfolk. Voidborn were not supposed to see any value in names. Names were just an affectation of the material realm, a made-up thing from the physical world, words invented by humans. They were not something the Void should desire.

But Bel'Veth had her own name.

Why would she do that?

Jax couldn't be bothered thinking about any of that, so he cursed, "If you want to fight, then fight. If not, get the hell out. Stop standing there spouting nonsense."

"I've lived for thousands of years. My will is firm, and my hatred for the Void is not something you can change by wagging your tongue a few times."

Jax was a battle maniac, sure, but after living for several millennia and meeting countless people, he was no fool. He just didn't like using his brain if he could help it.

Bel'Veth had spent the whole time hinting, one sentence after another, that Logan had kept things from him. She was trying to drive a wedge into the trust between him and Logan.

Jax knew Bel'Veth was telling the truth, but how long had he even known Logan? How could Logan possibly tell him everything?

As long as their interests aligned and their enemy was the same, that was enough.

Besides, how could he possibly trust the words of the Void?

"You misunderstand me," Bel'Veth said, shaking her head, her voice still calm.

"I understand you far better than you imagine."

"I did not come here to fight you. You are powerful, especially you, Logan. The strength hidden behind you makes even me wary. But before the true Void, it is still insignificant."

"You captured Rek'Sai because you want to expose the truth about the Void, to let your people know of its existence in advance so they can prepare for war against it. But that is truly a foolish choice." Bel'Veth paid no mind to Jax's provocation. She simply looked at Logan and spoke indifferently.

"Humans are complex creatures. You cannot guarantee that all your people will stand with you. Those who crave power, seek to change their station, or hunger for profit, they will become the Void's weapons. They will become the medium through which the Void invades Runeterra."

"So?" Logan said suddenly.

Bel'Veth stopped short, as if she had not expected him to interrupt her.

Then she said, "So your decision is mistaken. Because for you, your enemy right now should not be the Void, but the celestials. The Void seeks to devour Runeterra, but do they not also treat Runeterra as a toy in their hands?"

"You are ignoring what is near and chasing what is far. Your reach is stretching a bit too wide." Bel'Veth's voice remained even.

But Logan asked something else entirely.

"How do you know I captured Rek'Sai to expose the Void?"

He genuinely wanted to know. As far as he understood, that was something only people inside the Twin Cities should know. Even Yi didn't know it, so how did Bel'Veth?

Did she have an informant inside the Twin Cities?

That was Logan's first thought, but he dismissed it almost immediately.

With Janna there, Bel'Veth could not have quietly created an inside agent in the Twin Cities. Logan might not be able to smell the Void, but in the Twin Cities, in a place steeped in Janna's presence, in his own home, she would absolutely be able to detect it and tell it apart.

Bel'Veth was undeniably powerful. At the very least, she was a demigod, and as a Voidborn her upper limit was impossibly deep, but Janna was no weakling either.

Bel'Veth might be stronger than Janna, but she could not make a move under Janna's nose without being noticed.

"It is not as you think," Bel'Veth said, looking at Logan and shaking her head. "I do not deliberately cultivate followers of my own, because there is no need. In the end, we will become you."

She raised a wing, the sharp bone spines pointing toward her own head, and continued, "I simply used your way of thinking to infer the reason you did this. Of the dozens of motives I considered for your actions, I judged this answer the one most fitting to your current position, your behavior, and your future goals."

The violet sea writhed, growing more active along with Bel'Veth's voice.

Looking at that writhing, false oceanic world, and at the school of purple carp circling Bel'Veth, Logan suddenly thought of something.

He understood what Bel'Veth meant, so he nodded and said, "So you've devoured the memories of countless people? You possess the wisdom and thought patterns of thousands upon thousands of minds?"

"Yes," Bel'Veth replied with a nod.

Logan smiled.

Look at that, LeBlanc. Now this is what it means to be truly crafty. You, who can't think anything through and can't get anything done, really call yourself the Deceiver?

And after hearing Bel'Veth say that, Jax also fell silent.

How fast was one person's mind? How fast were their reactions?

Jax didn't know. But what he did know was this, what kind of thing was this Voidborn in front of him, one who had gathered the minds of countless people into herself?

No matter how smart a person was, they could never guarantee that everything they did was right. No matter how smart they were, thinking still took time, and the answers they came to were usually only rough approximations. But Bel'Veth?

The moment a question was placed before her, billions of possibilities would already have flashed through her mind. The people and events that had once existed in that city she devoured, the city that became both her nourishment and her name, provided her with immeasurable memory and experience.

Among those people were politicians, cooks, husbands, hunters, heroes, merchants, and more.

Because of that, every question Logan and Jax spoke in front of Bel'Veth would be sorted, categorized, analyzed, and broken apart in an instant, producing countless possibilities.

"Let Rek'Sai go. Or kill it here if you prefer. But I will not allow you to take it away. I already told you, I am not the same as the Void you know.

Long before me, the Watchers had already noticed this world. They came here before I did. To them, my existence is an insult. Because of a betrayal, the Void became furious and violent, rejecting every voice, including mine.

Creation scorches them. They are desperate to erase Runeterra, to consume you all, and that includes me. So what you intend to do carries a high chance of letting them escape their prison ahead of time. If that happens, there will be no turning things around. Time itself will come to an end, and all things will return to nothingness.

That is not what I want, and it certainly is not what you want."

Jax had gone completely silent.

He had thought this would be a brutal battle, but from the moment she appeared, this Voidborn had displayed a kind of nobility.

She was different from the other Voidborn. She was not driven by instinct. She had her own way of thinking, her own name, her own will and decisions.

And what she said left Jax feeling powerless. It was precisely because he had seen the strength of the Void that he knew Bel'Veth was telling the truth.

Thinking about it now, Logan really was playing with fire.

The Twin Cities had indeed connected the world and stopped war between the great powers, but that was only on the surface. Beneath it all, human conflict would never truly stop.

That had been true of Icathia and Shurima thousands of years ago, and it was still true of Demacia and Noxus thousands of years later.

Jax even believed that as long as humanity did not go extinct, then once their numbers reached a certain point, internal conflict would never end.

Logan truly had no way to ensure that everyone would follow his lead and oppose the Void together. If traitors emerged from within their own ranks, then what would happen when the Void surged forth?

Bel'Veth looked at Logan and continued,

"I am not saying this to bring you into my camp. I know what we are to each other, mortal enemies. One day, we will fight. But I do not think that day is now. At least for now, our interests are aligned."

"Please look at the situation rationally. Do not let personal emotion lead you into the wrong choice."

Logan was silent at first. Then suddenly he laughed. Looking at Bel'Veth, he said softly, "Just now, you told me that because of a betrayal, the Void rejected every voice, including yours. So I want to know, with the thinking ability of tens of millions of minds, do you already know that the one who once betrayed the Void, the one who froze the Watchers, is on the way here right now?"

Bel'Veth, who had stayed calm the entire time, suddenly became agitated. The school of fish swam wildly, and the shell over her chest and abdomen moved as well, as though she were breathing hard.

"You have made the wrong choice," she said coldly.

Seeing that Bel'Veth had finally shown emotion, Logan laughed, and laughed loudly.

"Bel'Veth, to me, you're nothing but a cancer of the Void. Fine, maybe what you said is true. But do you know something? The human way of thinking you've borrowed is nothing more than blind imitation."

"You will never truly become human. You tell me to choose rationally? But the memories in your mind that led you to these choices, were those people necessarily rational themselves?"

"You don't understand humanity, and you never will become human."

Logan stepped forward, staring straight into Bel'Veth's false eyes.

Jax tightened his grip on the last light of Icathia, ashamed of the confusion and hesitation he had just felt.

He had almost been persuaded by Bel'Veth. But thinking about it now, no matter how much she said, Bel'Veth was still a Voidborn. Everything she said might be true, but she was still a creature of the Void.

From the moment she appeared, she had never hidden what she wanted. She wanted to control everything, to devour Runeterra.

Wasn't someone like that, someone who wanted to become the new master of the Void, far more dangerous than the Void itself?

Because resisting now might bring trouble, they were supposed to stop resisting and work with someone who could become an even bigger disaster later.

All these years, had he really lived his life into a dog's stomach?

The same went for Aatrox. He had been persuaded by Bel'Veth too, because the possibility she described was something Aatrox had already lived through once.

It was exactly because of Icathia's stupidity that the Void had been able to invade in the first place. So just now, he had actually been considering whether he should try to talk Logan out of this.

When they came to Shurima, Aatrox had been the most violent of them all, shouting about killing the Void and slaying celestials.

Saijax was probably the same. There was no way he could stay calm after returning to his homeland.

And yet now, Logan, who looked like the calmest one here, had made a choice that was even more insane.

Facing Bel'Veth, Logan raised Aatrox with one hand. Blood-red power took on solid form, colliding against that violet sea alongside dark green light.

"My choices are mine to make, Bel'Veth. I do not need your advice at all."

"And now I'll tell you what I choose."

"I will kill you."

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