"Wait? There are galaxies in here?"
At first, as Luca sped through the dimensional space, all he noticed was an unassuming speck of light in his field of vision.
But because he was moving so insanely fast, that speck grew larger and larger in the blink of an eye, almost like a video skipping frames.
By the time he finished his sentence, the speck had rapidly expanded into a complete "galaxy."
Dozens of "celestial bodies" of various sizes and colors were orbiting each other.
Although judging scale in dimensional space was incredibly difficult, Luca could roughly sense that the white orb of light in the center—which acted like a star—was probably not much smaller than the actual Sun.
However...
"Why are the planets in this galaxy way bigger than the star?"
That's right. In Luca's view, the planets orbiting the "star" were absurdly massive.
The largest one, a pitch-black planet, had a diameter over a hundred times that of the white sun.
No matter how Luca looked at it, the gravitational composition of this system made zero sense.
Perhaps noticing Luca's confusion, the blue streamers of light rushing past him slowed down.
Luca found himself floating above the entire galaxy.
The Ancient One's voice echoed in his mind again.
"Are you talking about those spheres?"
"That's not a galaxy. I'm just temporarily borrowing your place to store some energy I borrowed from other dimensions."
"Oh, just borrowed... Wait... Huh?? HUH??"
Because the Ancient One's tone was so casual, Luca didn't immediately process what she said.
But when it finally clicked, his jaw dropped, his pupils dilated, and he stammered for a good while without forming a coherent sentence.
"You're saying... those planets are dimensional energy? Energy from other dimensions?!"
Dumbstruck, Luca pointed at the distant "galaxy," completely overwhelmed by shock.
Using the central white energy sphere—the "sun"—as a benchmark...
Among the dozens of celestial bodies, the largest one had a diameter over a hundred times that of the sun, meaning its volume was a million times greater. Even the smallest sphere seemed larger than the Moon.
And the Ancient One called this "borrowed" energy?
Maybe Luca's shock amused the Ancient One, because she stopped to give him a tour with palpable interest.
"Before, I tried to store this borrowed energy inside my own body, sealing it away until I needed to release it."
"But you know, maintaining the seals takes effort, and if I eat too much, my old digestive system can't handle it. Since your place is so spacious, I decided to leave it here for a bit."
"See there? That little one in the middle is the power of the Vishanti."
The Ancient One pointed to the white sun in the center.
Luca had no idea why she considered a sun-sized energy ball "little," but compared to the other "planets," this core sphere was indeed just mid-tier.
Then, the Ancient One started listing the others like she was reading a menu, pointing out every mass of energy larger than the white sun.
"That slightly larger red one is Mephisto's power. That guy is shrewd and stingy as hell; I haven't been able to borrow much from him in a long time."
"That gray one is Chthon's power. He's stubborn, so I don't usually deal with him."
"This deep crimson one is Cyttorak's power. He's actually tougher to deal with than Chthon, but he generally doesn't care much about losing his power."
"The purple and yellow ones? Um... I can't remember. Their source entities were too weak; I think they're dead now."
Luca stared at the two masses of energy the Ancient One called "too weak" with black lines dropping down his forehead.
Those two "planets" were the second and third largest bodies in the system, surpassed only by the massive black one.
So, because the creditors were too weak, the old lady just killed them off and 'borrowed' their entire dimension's energy? Is that why there's so much?!
Finally, the Ancient One pointed to the colossal black sphere that took up nearly a third of the galaxy.
"And that one is..."
"Dormammu's?"
"Correct. That's Dormammu's. He's not very bright and never learns his lesson. I wasn't really paying attention, and before I knew it, I'd borrowed this much."
Listening to her indifferent attitude—which basically screamed 'It's not my fault, they're just idiots'—Luca silently offered a second of prayer for the other Dimensional Gods.
Luca didn't know exactly how much energy a dimension contained.
But he knew that the Hextech energy in his dimension was just drifting around like gas.
These dozens of "planets," however, were solid, condensed spheres of energy.
Judging by the massive leftovers of the two unlucky bastards who probably got wiped out, Luca really didn't want a blue planet to be added to the Ancient One's "galaxy model" in the future.
And who knew if those smaller "satellite" energy balls wouldn't suddenly swell up a few hundred times in size one day?
I'd better try not to piss off this violent old lady...
After this "arms exhibition," Luca didn't dare say another useless word. He obediently let the Ancient One whisk him back into the acceleration tunnel, speeding toward the edge of the Hextech Dimension.
And here, Luca saw a scene that looked strangely familiar.
Red and blue energies intertwined, forming a massive energy platform out of thin air in what should have been empty dimensional space.
On the platform, streams of red and blue energy constantly collided and annihilated each other, as if devouring and merging with one another every single second.
"The place of dimensional fusion and dimensional devouring. Or, you can call it... the Dimensional Battlefield!"
Listening to the Ancient One's explanation, Luca observed the colossal red and blue platform in silence.
But as his perspective slowly rose higher, the look in his eyes grew stranger and stranger.
Why? Because this void platform—both in size and shape—looked incredibly familiar.
"This... isn't this New York?!"