"Logan, you've made the most foolish choice possible!"

The composure Bel'Veth had worn when she first appeared was gone. In its place was fury, twisting across that false human head of hers.

Her two pale pupils rolled upward. At the white jawbone-like structure on her chest and abdomen, the four purple gemstones that had looked like ornaments a moment ago began to blink.

Those were Bel'Veth's eyes.

And that was Bel'Veth's true head.

The false human body split apart. The little purple fish that had been circling her quietly suddenly went mad with panic, lashing their tails as if they were trying to flee from Bel'Veth herself.

But from inside that splitting human shell came countless writhing things, like tentacles, yet also like human arms stretched obscenely long. They shot out in an instant and devoured every fish that tried to escape, dragging them back into her body.

The enormous wings that had been wrapped around her body spread open, each one already over twenty meters long, and still growing.

Her grotesque head was growing too.

Its shape resembled a monstrous fish. The bones of its face had grown in a grotesquely majestic pattern, so that at first glance they resembled a massive crown. A pair of curved fangs hooked upward from the top, while below them hung a hideous maw, every single white tooth as large as a human head.

Her grand body kept swelling with savage life. Gold light traced faint patterns across her stingray-like form. As the lavender sea around her twisted, blood vessels emerged across her body, then peeled away from her skin, each one writhing like a living thing unto itself.

In only a few moments, the ray had grown to hundreds of meters in size, and the lavender sea was expanding outward as well. What had begun as a radius of only a few dozen meters had now spread until the entire Bone Sea was under its influence.

That purple ocean was not merely a spiritual construct.

It had already begun to affect the surface world. Yellow sand floated and drifted through the violet waters. Bel'Veth's true body stood at the center of it all, while endless schools of fish circled their empress the way birds might wheel above distant mountain peaks.

The sight was savage, eerie, terrifying, grotesque, yet it also carried a strange, indescribable beauty.

This was the first time Logan had ever seen the Void.

Even if this was only the Void Bel'Veth had created, it still struck his senses like a hammer blow.

A sharp tearing sound split the air.

The water rippled, and Logan instantly raised Aatrox in front of himself.

Clang!

Under that heavy crash, Logan finally saw what had struck him. It was one of the massive tendrils from Bel'Veth's tail.

Then her left wing stabbed toward him as well.

Not slapped, stabbed.

Along the edge of that purple flesh-wing ran a massive violet spike, and when it crashed into Aatrox's blade, Aatrox let out a muffled groan, and Logan was sent flying as well.

Before Logan could even react, Bel'Veth launched countless attacks in rapid succession.

"You chose the outcome I least wished to see, Logan. Why would you assume I dared show myself without considering a situation like this first?"

Bel'Veth's four eyes fixed on Logan like those of a predator.

"Everything is unfolding exactly as I foresaw."

"Bel'Veth, you really do talk too damn much."

Logan snapped his wrist, and Aatrox immediately unleashed torrents of blood aura to aid him.

With Aatrox amplifying him, Logan's destructive force had already reached the demigod realm.

Green and crimson flared together, and the Wuju blade cut across the sky like a supple willow branch landing on a violet lake, splitting Bel'Veth's lavender sea apart for a fleeting instant.

"He's right. If you want to fight, then fight. Why the hell do you have so much to say?"

Jax sprang up from the flank, raising the last light of Icathia high before smashing it down toward Bel'Veth's head.

Her stingray tail whipped, and a massive tail spike snapped toward Jax, while countless writhing purple tendrils lunged after him.

"The kind of monster I'm best at dealing with is exactly your kind, the oversized kind!"

Seeing that, Jax advanced instead of retreating. He gripped the center of the last light of Icathia with both hands, snapped his wrists, and in an instant a barrier of flame formed around him and carried him straight at Bel'Veth.

The sight looked like a fireball plunging into the depths of the sea to smash into some unspeakable horror lurking in the abyss.

At the same time, Logan took advantage of Bel'Veth's momentary distraction and attacked.

He held Aatrox in one hand, while with the other he made a slight motion, and a longsword of wind took shape.

Then both swords slashed at once.

Two arcs of sword light shot up from the ground and tore through the waves, one green and crimson, the other roaring with tempest wind.

"Utterly absurd!"

"You understand nothing about the Void. You imagine that you are sacrificing yourselves for some greater cause, when in truth you are only pouring oil into the fire! Work with me, and you still have hope. I am far more generous than they are. I am willing to give you a chance!

If the Watchers are destroyed, I will need a long time to digest them, perhaps a year, perhaps longer. During that time, you can find a way to kill me, or gather more powerful allies, you, "

"ROAR!"

Bel'Veth's speech cut off halfway through, replaced by a furious howl.

She turned and saw that Logan had already driven Aatrox into her lower abdomen. Her right wing slammed into him at once and sent him hurtling away.

Blasted back hundreds of meters, Logan twisted in midair, landed lightly, then rolled his shoulder.

He flicked the purple blood from Aatrox's blade and narrowed his eyes at Bel'Veth.

"See? You can bleed too, Bel'Veth. You're nowhere near as invincible as you think."

Bel'Veth shot him an icy look.

At this point, she stopped trying to change Logan's mind with words.

She had already seen it. Jax could be swayed. Even that Darkin greatsword could be talked around. But the human before her could not.

"You insist on going your own way, so I will not waste any more effort trying to stop you. Fine. Let's leave it at that. When your world is finally devoured by the Void, I wonder whether your face will still wear that same expression."

"If I want to leave, you cannot stop me. You cannot possibly kill me."

Bel'Veth spoke coldly, then began to beat her wings with force. The lavender sea in the sky started pressing downward.

"Damn it! Logan, she's trying to run!" Jax shouted.

Between himself and Logan, and with Janna nearby protecting the sandfolk, Taliyah, and Jinx, three demigods were more than enough to suppress Bel'Veth.

But if Bel'Veth was determined to flee, Jax truly did not think they could stop her.

This lavender sea was a world governed by its own laws.

It had appeared in Runeterra, yet stood apart from Runeterra's natural order.

To put it plainly, this violet ocean was another world entirely.

You could think of it as something like the spirit realm or the underworld.

Which meant that Bel'Veth, fused with the lavender sea, was the master of that world.

And if she got away now, entering that lavender sea again later would be nearly impossible.

That was why Jax was anxious.

Logan froze for half a beat as well. The magic in his body was nearly drained dry, and Aatrox was howling as he poured out even more blood aura, trying to intercept Bel'Veth with stronger attacks.

But Bel'Veth only gave a cold laugh.

"I already told you, if I wish to leave, you cannot stop me. Even if you add that wind spirit, you still can't, "

Bel'Veth's voice vanished abruptly.

Her four eyes rolled upward in horror, staring at the sky.

There was fear in them.

Real fear.

Bel'Veth, who had been calm all this time, now had terror shining in all four eyes, along with a thread of rage buried beneath it.

A single snowflake drifted into view beneath the blazing sun.

Then it fell slowly.

And sank into the lavender sea.

Crack.

A crisp sound rang out from one corner of the violet ocean overhead.

The color there changed.

From purple to icy white-blue.

Then water turned to ice.

A detached voice echoed directly through everyone's mind, ethereal, holy, and filled with endless cold.

"What if you add me?"

The moment he heard that voice, Logan let out a breath of relief.

Lissandra.

She had come after all.

When Logan had said earlier that he could call Lissandra over, he had been bluffing. This lavender sea had severed any possibility of sending information outside.

Just as Jax had said, they were inside Bel'Veth's domain now.

Swain, Karma, and the others would have no way of sensing what was happening here.

But Lissandra was the exception.

She possessed a terrifying power that even Logan didn't fully understand, a power that even the official designers had never clearly explained in detail.

Dreamwalking.

With that ability, Lissandra could move freely along the border between worlds and clearly overlook what was happening throughout Runeterra.

And now, she had indeed come.

Her white hair was pinned up behind her head. She wore a white dress. Her face, pale and untouched by makeup, was calm and bloodless. Her eyes remained closed. Her hands moved gently, and her thin lips parted.

"Freeze."

In Nashramae, the coastal city of Shurima, the local Shurimans looked up in shock.

"What is that?"

"Is it raining?!"

Something was falling from the sky.

But then they noticed it was falling too slowly.

When they looked closer, one after another, the Shurimans widened their eyes.

"Oh my God! Mom! Mom, come out, come out!"

"Is this, is this snowing?!"

"How could it be snowing in Shurima?!"

Snow was falling across ten thousand miles of yellow sand.

If the port city of Nashramae on the edge of Shurima could see the snowfall, then naturally the rest of Shurima could see it too.

Deep in the desert, inside an abandoned high tower, a tall figure with the body of a man and the head of a beast was cleaning books.

In the darkness, he seemed to sense something. He set the book in his hands aside and strode upward through the tower.

At the top, he pushed open the door, and the first thing to appear in the sunlight was a face black as night, the head of a jackal.

This was not a figure of speech.

It truly was a jackal's head.

And in that head, you could somehow see every word at once, handsome, wise, refined, steady.

"The weather is changing."

The jackal spoke, then stretched out a hand and let a snowflake land in his palm.

It never snowed in Shurima.

But today, it was snowing in Shurima.

After a moment, he let out a long sigh.

There were many temples in Shurima, especially in the western regions.

Ancient Shurima's capital had once stood there, a sunlit city built around the Sun Disc, and around that immense desert metropolis sat countless temples.

Each temple had once represented an oasis.

But with the death of the Hawk Emperor, Azir, those oases had vanished too.

And now, atop one of those abandoned temples in the western wastes, old chipped plates sat on a stone table, holding a few pieces of fruit and the black bodies of insects.

A small claw reached out, grabbed an insect leg, and then came the sound of crunching.

"Oh man... that scared the life out of me. I'm not going outside. There's no way I'm going out in weather like this!"

A goofy, half-panicked voice rang out.

An armored little creature was sprawled across the long stone table, happily crunching away on the insect leg.

It lazily rolled over, lying on its back, and scratched its belly with one tiny claw. Then it let out a satisfied burp.

"Not my problem."

With that, the odd little creature began sinking into sleep.

It was going to bed.

What, go outside?

No chance.

There was one life rule the little thing had always followed above all others:

Do! Not! Stick! Your! Nose! Into! Trouble!

It had lived by that rule all its life.

That was why it had survived this long.

And why it had stayed so wonderfully happy.

So there was no way it was running out there just because it was curious.

The thing causing this snowfall, whew, it didn't even want to imagine how strong that being must be.

The power to affect heaven and earth, to change the laws of the world, Setaka had done something like that thousands of years ago. It had seen her create a second sun with its own eyes.

But even that wasn't like this.

Setaka had borrowed the power of the Sun Disc, and Shurima was already a blazing-hot land to begin with. The rules of Shurima didn't reject her strength.

But this person?

She had made it snow in Shurima.

This was power with an opposing nature.

So no.

Not going out.

It was being very well-behaved, and everybody better leave it alone.

This snowfall, unseen for tens of thousands of years, awakened certain hidden existences in Shurima.

But the effects of that snow did not stop at Shurima.

They also reached the stars.

The first to notice it were the celestials watching over the northern sky.

Then more celestials discovered the anomaly in Shurima.

"Lissandra has made her move. That means Bel'Veth is dead for sure. On this planet, there are very few beings who can stand against Lissandra. That witch is far too good at hiding her strength. After ten thousand years, no one knows just how powerful that strange ability of hers has made her. Even in her last battle with Volibear, I do not believe she truly used everything she had. She is guarding against us."

One voice in the stars spoke first.

"That's a good thing. Bel'Veth dying is a good thing. If she lives and really does find a chance to consume the Void and strengthen herself, then she'll become a huge problem for us too," said another.

"But Bel'Veth being alive slows the Void's awakening."

"I also think Bel'Veth can't die. As things stand now, Logan is our biggest problem."

"I agree that Logan is a major threat. Runeterra has already slipped completely out of our control. If he really does expose the Void to humanity and manage to unite them... then their next step..."

The celestials all fell silent.

If humanity united and stopped fighting among themselves, then the celestials would no longer be able to profit from human wars.

Faith, followers, whatever they chose to call it, even if they never said it out loud, Runeterra truly did matter to them.

And what was more, if Bel'Veth were dealt with, then the Void would be exposed, humanity would unite, and the next thing to be dragged into the light would be the celestials themselves.

After a stretch of silence, one celestial finally spoke.

His voice was sharp and forceful, filled with resolve.

"Descend."

"Force open the star gate and descend into the mortal world!"

"Pantheon, ever since Myisha was lost, the star gate has not been what it once was. Zoe will never listen to us. To force the gate open, we'll have to spend enormous resources, and at least six celestials will be needed just to keep it stable. We'll also need devout believers to serve as vessels, to offer up their flesh for us to use."

"I am willing to help sustain the star gate."

"So am I. Honestly, we can't keep allowing Logan to grow like this."

"Killing Logan outright is unlikely. Lissandra is at his side, and he also has the ability to cross boundaries at any time. More than that, if we force our way down just to kill Logan, that will very likely enrage Ornn. That old goat pounded his forge hard enough to shake the stars not long ago, and that was a warning to us. If we really do that, no one who descends will make it back alive. But sabotaging their plans is still possible."

Pantheon gave a cold snort after hearing that, but said nothing.

Because he really was afraid of Ornn.

Even as the Celestial of War, no matter how much he longed for battle, he had no intention of provoking Ornn.

Ornn's strength had already reached the threshold of a star-lord. One step further and he would become a creator among the stars.

A being like that was not someone Pantheon could afford to provoke.

"The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Then it's decided."

"Descend."

"Help Bel'Veth escape. After this, with the Void's vengeful nature, she'll keep making trouble for Logan. If she hides herself and keeps growing stronger, she'll become Logan's great enemy."

The celestials came to a decision quickly.

They had noticed Logan as early as Bilgewater, but back then they had not taken him seriously.

And the result was the eruption of battle-spirit in the Freljord.

Logan's growth was simply too fast.

It had taken them nearly ten thousand years to reach their current state.

But Logan?

How old was he?

And already, he was closing in on them.

In an instant, six celestials stepped forward and took up positions at six points, releasing their power toward the center.

A six-pointed star appeared in the night sky.

Then the celestials began reaching out to the humans on Mount Targon, selecting temporary mortal vessels for their descent.

This was not the passing on of power.

This was the forcible seizure of mortal bodies.

And the consequence was simple.

Without any proper inheritance to bear that immense power, the humans whose bodies were seized would burst apart and die.

But to die for beings such as the celestials, that was mankind's honor, wasn't it?

The air began to hum.

Then beams of light appeared one after another.

And then Pantheon was the first to charge into the six-pointed formation.

Boom!

In that instant, a new omen appeared over Mount Targon in Runeterra.

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