"The star gate is open!"

"The Aspect of the Sun on Mount Targon will gather the pilgrims. Now each Aspect will choose believers as vessels and descend!"

From one point of the six-pointed star, the Aspect positioned to the southwest shouted those orders.

To the north, another Aspect, wrapped in leaping lightning and feeding power into the formation through a massive pillar of thunder, spoke at once.

"The star gate can only be forced open for so long. At most, it can support twelve Aspects descending, and only for a limited time. So stop hesitating!"

"This mission carries real danger. Logan has already united many demigods across Runeterra. But if twelve Aspects move at once and unfurl their domains, he won't have time to gather the other demigods. Victory will be ours!"

"Remember, avoid unnecessary entanglements. We strike fast. Stop Lissandra, drive back Logan and Saijax. As long as we do not get greedy and try to kill Logan, once Bel'Veth withdraws, we withdraw as well. If we do that, none of us will be in danger!"

For the Aspects, forcibly seizing the bodies of believers and descending into Runeterra was an extremely dangerous act.

First, Runeterra itself had already developed a self-awareness. She rejected the Aspects who remained among the stars and constantly harried those who tried to capture her.

Second, opening the star gate and descending by force meant erasing the souls of believers and taking over their bodies with their own spirits.

In other words, if they died in Runeterra, then they truly died.

With Runeterra rejecting them on one side, and Logan uniting gods and demigods against them on the other, descending was unquestionably dangerous.

The gathered Aspects, their bodies wreathed in light so their faces could not be seen, all fell silent.

Then one of them stepped forward and revealed his true form.

Bare-chested, hard-faced, wearing a skirt of golden armor plates and greaves strapped to his legs, the man snorted.

"One or two of you dragging your feet is bad enough. Fine, I'll go first. I'll lead the way, happy now?"

Pantheon roared those words and raised his war-spear.

Behind him, at the level of his head, a single point of light appeared.

Then more.

Those lights linked together, one after another, until they formed a vast constellation.

Its glow bathed Pantheon in brilliance, and divine power and murderous intent filled his entire body.

He was the Aspect of War, Pantheon.

Igniting his constellation and drawing the power of the stars into himself, Pantheon vanished from the heavens in the next instant and plunged into the star gate.

"Pantheon... sigh. He's still as impatient as ever."

"Pantheon is powerful, but he has always struggled to find a suitable body. The believers who match him well never satisfy him. Honestly, among all of us, he's the only one who still hasn't shared out his stellar power, isn't he?"

As one Aspect said that, he too ignited his constellation. A star flared deep in the heavens, and he stepped into the star gate as well.

Then another voice rang out, full of contempt for Pantheon. It sounded female.

A lithe female Aspect stepped forward, sword in her left hand and blade in her right, muttering under her breath, "Picky, arrogant, insufferable. Hah. One day he'll pay for it."

Then she too entered the star gate.

The other Aspects looked at one another. Some laughed softly. Some shook their heads in helplessness. Others only watched with cold faces.

This Aspect was named Cecilia.

She had been born hundreds of centuries ago, in the same era as Pantheon. Back when they were young, Cecilia and Pantheon had even been close. But after one particular event, she and another Aspect who wielded the power of the Black Moon had turned into bitter enemies of Pantheon and the Aspect of the Sun.

The Black Moon had lost that war and vanished.

Cecilia herself had survived only by clinging to life after suffering grievous wounds, and it had taken her endless time to recover.

Even now, her relationship with Pantheon and the Aspect of the Sun, Khorcia, was abysmal. They were mortal enemies.

On the surface, the Aspects claimed unity, but in private plenty of them stood in opposing camps. Cecilia, having lost in those struggles, had long since stopped bothering to comment on it.

And her hatred for Pantheon wasn't only because of what had happened to her friend. It also had to do with Cecilia herself.

Because Cecilia's title was the Aspect of Battle.

War and battle.

The two concepts were just too similar.

By now, the followers of the Aspects knew only the name of War and no longer even remembered Battle. Of course, that was also because Cecilia had lost that struggle and been forced to hide herself away while healing for a very long time.

If it came to a real fight, Cecilia was not afraid of Pantheon at all. That was exactly why she had managed to survive being hunted by both Pantheon and Khorcia on her own.

"Let's go. The situation is urgent. The star gate is already open. This is no time to dawdle."

One after another, the Aspects entered the star gate.

Their souls drifted above Mount Targon, separated by an invisible barrier, as they looked down upon the mountain below.

The Aspect of the Sun had already selected a group of believers from the Solari.

They were kneeling in the snow, dressed in thin cloth, their faces filled with reverence.

Pantheon was the first to choose his vessel.

He took a liking to a sturdy young man with a beard. Without any warning, Pantheon plunged straight into the man's body.

In the next instant, the chosen man's face lit with joy, and he opened his mouth to speak.

"Great Aspect, my name is Atre, "

"Silence, human. You have no right to speak to me."

In the man's inner world, Pantheon heard the voice and barked back with cold disdain.

His expression changed at once. The admiration he had felt for the man's body vanished completely, replaced by loathing and disgust.

Damn it.

A body that looked this powerful, yet the man inside was nothing but an ordinary Rakkor?

Defeated again and again, fighting battle after battle without ever once tasting victory, someone like this wearing his body was an insult to his name.

Pantheon felt rage.

He felt deceived, deceived by the outward strength of this flesh. Such a powerful body, and its owner had used it so poorly.

So in the next instant, Pantheon crushed the man's consciousness with divine will, erased his existence, and forcibly took over the body.

Once he had claimed it, Pantheon called upon the Constellation of War. The power of the stars became spear and sacred shield. Bearing lance and tower shield, he launched himself skyward and streaked east from Mount Targon, toward central Shurima.

A few of the Aspects watching from the heavens showed a trace of pity in their eyes.

Then they too chose their vessels.

Cecilia did the same.

After thinking it over, she selected a Rakkor girl she happened to like on sight, but unlike Pantheon, Cecilia had no intention of destroying the girl's soul.

Because if it had been Black Moon, she would not have done that.

And as Black Moon's closest friend, Cecilia would not do it either.

"R, revered and great As, "

"All right, spare me the pointless nonsense. You don't even know my name. And even if I told you, you still wouldn't know who I am."

Inside the girl's mind, Cecilia interrupted her impatient, stammering voice with visible annoyance.

The girl froze, then dropped to her knees at once, clasped her hands, bowed her head, and trembled before Cecilia.

She had no idea what she had done to anger the Aspect, but the faith and upbringing of the Rakkor had taught her one thing from birth, when an Aspect was angry, you apologized and knelt.

Because the Aspect could never be the one at fault.

"What are you kneeling for... It was exactly because all of you were like this that Black Moon, "

Cecilia grew angry, but then let out a long sigh.

What was the point of saying any of this to the girl?

She had been born here. Raised here. The teachings fed to her since childhood were these very ideas. Even if someone tried to lead them into resistance, independence, and standing upright on their own feet, they would still believe that person was wrong.

Black Moon had failed precisely because she had trusted humans blindly.

"All right, get up. You don't need to act like this with me. We're nowhere near as wonderful as you imagine. Besides, right now I need your help if I'm going to move around in Runeterra. You people have really been brainwashed too deeply..."

In the girl's mental world, Cecilia, clad in silver-white armor, waved a hand and spoke more softly.

The girl only stared at her blankly.

She had wide eyes and freckles beneath them. Normally they weren't very obvious against her sun-browned skin, but now her face was flushed bright red with nervousness, making them stand out.

"You don't understand, do you? That's fine. It doesn't matter."

"Just do exactly as I say."

As Cecilia spoke, she raised a short golden sword and bent to draw a circle on the ground.

Then she beckoned the girl over.

"Come here. Stay inside this."

"Without my order, you are not to come out, no matter what. Otherwise you'll die. Understood?"

The girl stepped forward and nodded obediently.

Then Cecilia, who was two heads taller than her, practically stuffed her into the circle. The girl crouched there and looked up at Cecilia.

But Cecilia ignored her now and simply released her divine will, embracing the body.

A moment later, atop Mount Targon, the frail girl rose to her feet.

When she opened her eyes, they blazed with golden light. She raised her left hand high, and the power of the stars formed a short golden sword. Her right hand closed on empty air, and a massive cross-shaped shield appeared in her grip.

The surrounding Rakkor saw it and rejoiced.

Then they all dropped to their knees in worship.

Heavens above.

Within the past century, the Rakkor had already produced one vessel of an Aspect, Leona, the Solari's current saintess and vessel of the Aspect of the Sun.

And now the Rakkor were about to gain an entire new group of vessels for the Aspects.

How could they possibly not be thrilled?

But while the Rakkor outside were rejoicing, inside the Rakkor sanctuary, a girl wearing a golden crown glared furiously at the flames hemming her in.

Golden fire had formed a wall around her, trapping her inside.

"Let me out!"

"Be quiet, Leona. This is their duty."

"Duty? Since you've mentioned duty, do you still remember the oath I swore?"

"I once swore to the sun that I was the sun's chosen, the embodiment of the sun, that I would uphold the Solari's rule, become the guiding light of the people, and lead them onto the right path. I have worked toward that with everything I have, but now, now what exactly are you doing?"

"That is not a blessing of Aspect power. They are not becoming vessels of the Aspects. This is outright possession of their bodies! They cannot endure that kind of power. Once the Aspects leave, they will die!"

The only answer Leona received was the same deep, detached voice.

"I told you, Leona. This is their duty."

"To serve the Aspects, that is their fate."

"Leona, know your place. You are only my vessel. You have no right to interfere in the affairs of the Aspects."

"This isn't fair!" Leona cried.

Everyone had taught her to understand justice, to carry the sun's light and judge the unfairness of the world.

But now unfairness was happening before her eyes, and the very being who had taught her justice was telling her to ignore it.

Was that right?

No.

It wasn't.

But the Aspect of the Sun no longer wished to continue the conversation. He only poured in more power and ignored Leona's voice completely.

This Aspect of the Sun felt utterly foreign to her.

"This is wrong... this is completely wrong!"

The Aspect of the Sun was gone, but Leona still cried out in protest.

Then, as she sank to the floor in despair, memories she had long sealed away began to stir again.

"Leona, don't stop me. The sun is not always right. The Aspect of the Sun as it exists now is not the true Aspect of the Sun."

"I'm leaving, Leona. I'm sorry. I lied to you. But please believe me, everything will get better."

"Goodbye, Leona..."

The face of her childhood friend rose before her.

Diana's determined expression when she left, the words with which she denounced the sun, all of it filled Leona with confusion now.

"Which side... is really the right one?"

Of all the beings in Runeterra, the one best suited to pin Bel'Veth down was naturally Lissandra.

Bel'Veth was a mutation split off from the Void. In raw power she ranked beneath the Watchers, a strange existence severed from the greater whole, but in essence she was still part of the Void.

When Logan compared her to a cancer, it was an incredibly fitting description.

And Lissandra, as the one who had truly been noticed by the Void, who awakened it and then betrayed it, was naturally a severe threat to the Void itself, and to Bel'Veth as well.

Add to that her powerful and mysterious Dreamwalking, and Bel'Veth's lavender sea really did look like a toy in front of Lissandra.

At this stage, even Volibear probably couldn't truly kill Bel'Veth. If Bel'Veth chose to run, Volibear wouldn't be able to stop her. The same was true of Ornn. The old goat could crush Bel'Veth with a single hammer blow, but he couldn't smash apart the entire lavender sea with one strike.

Lissandra was different.

She could enter it.

She could force her Dreamwalking power into the lavender sea itself.

That was why Logan and Jax were standing outside watching now.

And just like this moment.

The lavender sea had been completely frozen over. Lissandra had iced over thousands of miles of desert. Snow covered all of Shurima.

That power was far more outrageous than what she had shown when she fought Volibear.

Had Lissandra gotten stronger again in the meantime?

Yeah, right.

Logan stared at Lissandra's back and badly wanted to vent.

To put it bluntly, she had been sandbagging back then. She hadn't used anything close to her full strength. At the time she'd gone on and on, making declarations, talking like she was risking her life, but that old schemer, Lissandra...

Just as Lissandra was about to seal Bel'Veth inside an ice coffin, just as she had sealed Bel'Veth's ancestors in dark true ice, a streak of cold light split through the snowy sky.

A huge swath of falling snow instantly melted away as a yellow beam flashed forward and stabbed straight toward Lissandra's body.

Logan and Jax moved at once to intercept it, but the yellow light vanished in a blink and reappeared from another angle, shooting toward Lissandra again.

Seeing that, Lissandra swung the ice coffin across and used it to block the attack instead.

Anger flashed across her face.

Logan and Jax didn't know what was happening, but Lissandra did.

Wasn't this exactly why she had kept her strength hidden in the first place?

The true-ice coffin stopped the yellow streak.

As the light faded, a falling-star spear stood embedded atop the coffin.

It had not frozen.

Instead, it seemed almost alive, struggling violently, desperate to escape the witch's power.

The instant Logan saw it, he recognized what it was.

"Pantheon?!"

The name burst from his mouth.

The next moment, as his voice fell, a roar echoed through the sky. The spear on the coffin trembled, and an arrow of light tore through the air. In that golden radiance stood a burly man in battered armor.

"Witch, stop this," he said as he appeared.

Logan looked at him, took a deep breath, and felt only rage.

How could he not be furious?

Logan had always known the Aspects would one day be his enemies, but when it came to killing Bel'Veth, he had never once imagined they would come and interfere.

Because he couldn't understand it.

Did the Aspects not know how dangerous the Void was?

Impossible.

Of course they knew.

Because after Riot's universe rewrite, the Targonian Aspects were no longer some race beneath Aurelion Sol, they were starborn beings like him. There had to be some among them who had seen the Void the way Aurelion Sol had. And even if they somehow hadn't witnessed it in the stars, then what about the war between Icathia and Shurima three thousand years ago? Wasn't that enough to teach them anything?

Suppressing his fury, Logan watched Bel'Veth seize the chance to break free.

Pantheon's sudden strike had snapped Lissandra's hold over her, and now Bel'Veth was already flapping her huge wings, preparing to dive back beneath the yellow sands.

Lissandra saw it too. With a graceful flick of her hand, she immediately moved to stop Bel'Veth from escaping.

One hand froze Pantheon's spear in place, while the other reached toward Bel'Veth, ready to seize her.

But then a bolt of lightning crashed down above Lissandra's head.

It was enormous, a pillar of thunder vast and thick. Lissandra had no choice but to raise the hand she had aimed at Bel'Veth and flick it upward instead.

In an instant, a block of ice hundreds of meters across condensed in the sky and intercepted the lightning.

Another Aspect had arrived.

"So this is how your Aspects deal with the Void?" Logan asked Pantheon coldly.

Pantheon's eyes were full of disdain.

"She's just an insect. What does it matter if she lives?"

"Good. Good."

Logan laughed in fury.

As he did, one Aspect after another appeared.

In the blink of an eye, there were already five of them in the sky.

Five Aspects hovered above, calmly looking down at Logan.

Those five alone were enough to hold Lissandra back, not to mention the other seven who had yet to arrive.

And Logan?

He looked at the Aspects now assembled, then at the omen blazing above Mount Targon, and spoke in a low voice.

"I understand now. I used to think dealing with the Void mattered far more than dealing with you, because no matter what else you were, you were still beings that could be reasoned with. And among you, there were even some who leaned toward humanity."

"But now I can see I was wrong."

"In that case..."

Pantheon narrowed his eyes and sneered at Logan.

Lissandra, on the other hand, immediately understood what Logan meant. She stopped paying attention to Bel'Veth entirely and moved to stand at Logan's side.

"So you like stirring up trouble, is that it?"

Logan raised Aatrox.

The sword in his hand was raging just as fiercely, they had been that close, that close to dealing with a powerful Voidborn.

But in the end, it was the Aspects again.

These bastard Aspects called themselves Runeterra's guardians, but everything they did was rotten.

"Kill them, kill every last one of them, Logan!"

And Logan spoke too.

"Then we'll fucking start with you!"

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