"How is that possible?"
Lissandra's tone rose slightly, no longer as cold and flat as ice itself. Her pale lips parted as she looked at Logan and continued, "I know a fair amount about you. It's true that quite a few demigods have helped you. For an ordinary person, simply meeting one demigod would already be astonishing, yet you have three around you. But even that still doesn't amount to the six you just claimed."
What did six demigods even mean?
To put it simply, if Logan really could gather six demigods to his side, then Lissandra honestly felt they might actually be able to make a move against the icebound Watchers.
After nearly ten thousand years of imprisonment, the Watchers sealed beneath the Howling Abyss in True Ice were currently in a weakened state. Lissandra didn't know exactly how strong they were, but if six demigods could be assembled, along with herself, and if she could then persuade Ornn to help as well...
Then releasing those icebound Watchers and killing them might actually be possible. At the very least... Lissandra felt there was hope.
In a one-on-one fight, she was confident she could handle a single Watcher herself. The problem was that there was a whole group of them sealed below. That was exactly why this had tormented her for ten thousand years.
If she released an entire cluster of Watchers at once, the only thing Lissandra could do would be run. She could only watch helplessly as the Freljord was reduced under their destruction into another Icathia.
And what had Logan just said?
He had said that in the future... he could invite twenty demigods to help?
Lissandra didn't believe it.
Twenty demigods...
Did Valoran and the Freljord even have twenty demigods combined?
The Freljord had just barely more than ten. But what about Valoran?
Demacia had three—one living colossus, plus the two celestial sisters. Noxus had one and a half. Zaun had one. Aside from those, Valoran didn't seem to have any more.
Seeing that Lissandra didn't believe him, Logan looked at her and said with a smile, "Come on, look—Swain in Noxus, Janna in Zaun, Karma in Ionia, Udyr from the Winter's Claw, and the two behind me—"
Lissandra raised a hand to her forehead, cutting him off as she asked softly, "Wait. You said two?"
"Forgot to tell you, Lissandra," Logan said, flashing a bright grin, "in that world you don't know about, I'm able to meet a lot of gods."
"At the moment, I can invite two. But in the future, just from that other world alone, I think I'll be able to call in over a dozen demigods."
Logan wasn't just throwing out wild promises.
The last time he went to see Ahri and Kindred, the way those two had spoken made it pretty clear they intended to introduce him to Syndra and Cassiopeia.
As Kanmei, Syndra should be easy enough to talk to.
Cassiopeia, on the other hand, belonged to Akana, so she probably wouldn't be easy to deal with. But with Ahri helping introduce them, and with Logan being able to help Cassiopeia recover what she had lost, she would probably think well of him.
That was right.
Once friendship reached a certain level, the gifts granted by the system could actually be returned to the corresponding gods. Those were their treasures.
And because of that, Logan was gradually beginning to understand the true purpose of Spirit Blossom.
Spirit Blossom really was the cheat that made him stronger, but at the same time, it was also his trump card. If he used it well, then every god inside Spirit Blossom could form a connection with him.
In the future, Logan really could win the favor of more than a dozen demigods.
"..."
Lissandra parted her lips, and even her lifeless white pupils seemed to shift slightly. She was stunned by what Logan had said.
More than a dozen demigods?
No, wait—if he really could befriend that many demigods, then wouldn't he be able to go anywhere in Runeterra and do whatever he wanted?
"Should I believe you?"
"You can," Logan said, nodding. "When I came to the Freljord, I already figured you might come looking for me. You asked whether I was afraid of you. My answer was no. Because I know that what I'll be doing in the future is the same thing you're doing now."
He continued, "Lissandra, we're on the same side. We're not enemies."
"Not enemies..."
Lissandra seemed to sink into memory. Her head tilted down slightly, her delicate chin tucked in as her gaze lowered. But after a moment, she lifted her head and said, "It's been a very long time since anyone said that to me."
"But even so, Logan, this still won't be easy. Udyr truly does possess demigod-level strength. Once he communes with all things and borrows the power of the beast spirits, he can wield divine strength for a short time. But why would he help you—no, help me?"
"I'm enemies with Sejuani," Lissandra said calmly as she looked at Logan.
Logan shook his head and said with confidence, "He'd be helping me, not you."
"..."
"You can handle that?" Lissandra asked.
"I can," Logan replied.
He took a deep breath, rose from the ice chair, and walked toward Lissandra as he spoke.
"What I'm doing right now is laying the foundation for what we'll need to do in the future. And I need your help too, Lissandra. In this part of the plan, you're extremely important."
"What do I need to do?" Lissandra asked.
"Let go of the hatred. Walk out of the Frostguard Citadel. You need to appear before the world. The old secrets don't matter anymore. What matters now is the future. The Freljord has to be united."
"..."
Lissandra fell silent, as if thinking it through.
Then, a moment later, she suddenly looked up at Logan. Her face, beautiful as a sculpture, was filled with shock.
"So that's why you didn't crush Piltover, why you pulled Bilgewater to your side, why you made Noxus and Ionia set aside their war?"
"You want to bind everyone to your side, and then face the Void together?"
"'Bind everyone to my side' sounds a little dramatic," Logan said, scratching his cheek. "We each need something from the other. They need me for certain things, and I can give them things they need too."
Lissandra had seen straight through his plan, but Logan wasn't surprised. He simply stood before her, looked up at the tall woman, and said seriously, "The Void is the enemy of Runeterra."
"But against the Void, ordinary humans can do nothing," Lissandra said. She nodded first, then shook her head.
Unity...
Once, she and her sisters had come dangerously close to uniting all the humans of the Freljord.
But humans were very hard to unite. In the end, it always came down to interests.
And even if they did unite, what could humans really do against the creatures of the Void?
"Hah. That's where you're wrong," Logan said, a teasing look appearing on his face.
That expression irritated Lissandra.
She had indeed come to Logan with a purpose. She had come seeking his help. But no matter what, she was still a figure out of legend. And the look on Logan's face made it seem like he was looking down on her, like he thought she was clueless.
That annoyed her a great deal.
"What am I wrong about?" she asked, her tone sharpening.
"Don't underestimate humanity, Lissandra. You used to be human too," Logan said in a deep, serious voice.
"Ancient Shurima was also an empire built by humans. The god-warriors never said they weren't human. Human potential can surpass every other form of life. Over ten thousand years, humanity spread from the Freljord to all of Runeterra, going from scraping out a path to survival beneath gods and wild magic to mastering magic for themselves."
Then Logan continued:
"Did you know? The Twin Cities are currently researching new technology. If they succeed, then in my opinion, it'll be something every bit as powerful as Demacia's colossus."
"And it can be mass-produced."
"Producing demigods?" Lissandra frowned.
Logan shrugged. "So-called demigods are just powerful lifeforms. Sure, the ability to call the wind and rain sounds beyond human imagination, but... humans of the future will be able to do that too. More importantly, the level of destruction and devastation demigods can cause? Zaun can already produce that."
"That girl traveling with me—her name is Jinx. The Super Mega Death Rocket! she developed can blow up a small mountain. And if she wanted to, if she used hundreds of Hex gemstones as the core and the best chemtech explosives as fuel, then one shot from her could casually wipe a small country off the map."
"So tell me—would that really be weaker than what you demigods can do?"
Lissandra said nothing.
When she didn't speak, Logan didn't either. He just stood there and looked at her.
Then, at last, Lissandra seemed to make her choice.
She folded her hands together before her stomach and said quietly, "Go on. What should I do?"
That wasn't the same as asking, "What do you need me to do?"
What should I do meant that Lissandra had already agreed to Logan's decision.
So Logan immediately told her his thoughts.
Lissandra agreed.
Then she prepared to leave.
But before she did, Logan asked her one question.
"Lissandra... Sejuani and Ashe... do they count as your sisters?"
Lissandra, who had just been about to end the dream, froze.
Then the hand she had paused midway slowly rose again and waved lightly.
————
Logan woke from the dream and checked his watch.
A little after four in the morning.
He had slept for a little over three hours.
Beside him, he could hear soft breathing. That was Jinxie.
Farther away, there was the sound of Donna talking in her sleep.
"I can't eat anymore... can you save some for me next time? Please... I'm begging you..."
Hearing Donna's sleepy mumbling, Logan couldn't help but laugh.
He shook his head, then thought back to the final thing Lissandra had said before he woke up.
"Yes, but no. They are indeed the reincarnations of Avarosa and Serylda, but at the same time, they are also themselves."
Logan rubbed his chin and chuckled.
"So that's the real story, huh..."
"No wonder she killed so many of Avarosa and Serylda's so-called reincarnations, but didn't kill Ashe and Sejuani in this generation. So Ashe and Sejuani really are the real thing... and everyone else was just rumor and wishful thinking?"
Smiling, Logan tucked his head down and went back to sleep.
At the same time, blue-white firelight flickered in a magnificent hall.
A woman nearly ten feet tall stood there, a ring of floating ice forming beneath her feet. The ice shifted like a moving platform, carrying her body forward. Frost covered her from head to toe, and an ugly crown sat upon her head.
But with a flash of light, the massive figure changed.
Now a woman a little over six feet tall stood in the hall.
She was still tall, of course, but compared to ten feet, six-something felt almost compact.
The crown vanished. Her white hair fell loose over her shoulders. She wore a white dress, and her pale bare feet touched the floor as she lifted one leg and walked forward.
Then she lowered her head and looked at her feet.
Between them, a gaze of pure malice was staring back at her.
It had sensed her presence too, and that evil gaze sharpened further. For an instant, Lissandra seemed to see an enormous eyeball twitch.
Yes.
That was the Void.
And it could move now.
But strangely enough... Lissandra didn't feel irritated.
In the past, whenever she saw it stir, she would feel annoyed, anxious, helpless.
But now, aside from a little speechlessness, there was actually... a trace of relief in her heart?
It was a feeling Lissandra herself couldn't fully describe.
She had been crushed under the weight of the Void for nearly ten thousand years. For ten thousand years, everything she had done had been for the sake of fighting the Void. Other than Ornn, only some of her followers had known the truth.
But now, there was one more person who knew.
And that man... had said she was wrong, but only because she had chosen the wrong path. He had also said she wasn't frightening.
Most importantly, he knew even more than she did.
And he had said that what he was doing right now was also to prepare for the Void...
At that thought, the woman's shoulders relaxed.
She lifted her beautiful face. The hair looped at the sides of her head stirred in the cold wind, swaying softly across her eyes. Her pale pupils remained sightless, but the frost that had lingered for ages at the corners of her eyes began to melt, and a smile slowly spread across her face.
Lissandra's cool voice echoed through the hall.
"You'd better be able to back that up."
————
Two days later, in the Winter's Claw.
The warriors stared slack-jawed at the enormous shipping containers in front of them. When one of the boxes was opened, the things spilling out inside made them swallow hard on instinct.
"My gods!"
"Food! It's all food!"
"This big box is full too. How much food is this? This has to weigh over a ton!"
"Shaman! Over here! These are all clothes! Clothes for the elders and children!"
"There's more over here too!"
The warriors of the Winter's Claw were tremendously strong. In groups of three or five, they yanked the containers out of the frozen ground and carried them back into camp.
"You. Come with me."
Logan had been checking whether the supplies had been delivered according to his instructions when he heard a voice by his ear.
He turned and saw Sejuani, her face flushed red.
She no longer looked as cold and detached as before. A faint blush had appeared on her unnaturally pale face, and her lips trembled slightly as she looked at Logan.
Logan thought for a moment, patted Jinxie on the arm, and brought her with him into Sejuani's tent.
The moment they stepped inside, Logan heard Sejuani speak.
"This afternoon, I'll have Donna take a group and escort the Noxian prisoners out of the Freljord. After that, I'll send every tribe to search the surrounding area and find the man you're looking for. Darius."
Sejuani spoke loudly and clearly.
"Good. In a few days, the second shipment of supplies will arrive," Logan said. "Don't worry, Sejuani. I know you don't want the Winter's Claw to settle into a farming life. You don't want them to become like Ashe's people. So once this is over, the Twin Cities and the Winter's Claw can trade supplies in exchange for crafts."
"Good." Sejuani nodded.
Then she looked at Logan, and her eyes were burning.
Being stared at like that by Sejuani made Logan feel a little strange.
How to put it...
Sejuani really was beautiful. Sure, she was way too tall, and yeah, she had muscle, but if you just looked at her face, Sejuani had strikingly heroic features and a beauty all her own.
And Logan really didn't mind that kind of look.
The whole size-gap-and-muscle-girl thing wasn't exactly his usual taste, but if someone was gorgeous, then they were gorgeous.
"I have one more matter to discuss," Sejuani suddenly said.
At her side, Udyr heard that and closed his eyes.
"Go ahead," Logan replied.
"I want you to become my bloodsworn," Sejuani said, stumbling slightly over the words.
It wasn't because she was shy about romance. It was because she didn't know whether her people would accept the Warmother of the tribe choosing an outsider as her bloodsworn.
"Huh? What? Bloodsworn? Me and you?" Logan stared at Sejuani, mouth hanging open.
No way.
Logan understood perfectly well what bloodsworn meant.
From Ashe's story, he had already learned what it meant in the Freljord.
To put it plainly, that was a marital bond.
Sejuani wanted to—
To—
Logan swallowed, about to refuse.
It wasn't that he looked down on Sejuani. It was just that he had no interest in sharing a woman with other men. Though in Sejuani's case, it was hard to say who would really be taking advantage of whom.
The Freljord was a matriarchal society. They didn't follow the one-man-many-wives model.
They followed the one-woman-many-husbands model.
But before Logan could speak, Jinx, standing to the side, asked curiously, "Logan, does she want to be sworn siblings with you?"
"Just say yes," Jinx said cheerfully. "If you say yes, then Donna can give me that little wolf."
If Logan became Sejuani's sworn sibling or whatever, then Logan would have more influence in this tribe, right? And if Logan had influence, then I'd have influence too.
Heh.
"???"
Say yes?
Logan gave Jinx a very strange look, utterly speechless.
No, because if he really said yes, she'd be the first one to lose her mind.
"Sworn siblings?"
Sejuani frowned, looked at Jinx, and said, "You misunderstood."
"Bloodsworn isn't sworn siblings. To be precise..." Sejuani pointed at Logan with total seriousness. "I intend to take him as my husband."
"?"
"Take who?" Jinx and Logan both went wide-eyed at the same time. Neither of them had quite processed it.
"Him." Sejuani pointed at Logan again.
Logan covered his face with one hand.
And the very next second, exactly as he had expected—
"The hell you are!"
"You think you can steal my man?! The hell is wrong with you?!"
"You crazy—!"
"Are you out of your damn mind?!"
Logan threw both arms around Jinx's slim waist while Jinx stretched both hands forward. Under Sejuani's utterly baffled gaze, a flood of Zaunite profanity exploded from Jinx's cute little mouth as she tried to claw Sejuani's face.
What a joke.
Jinx had exploded.
She had thought bloodsworn meant becoming sworn siblings.
And now it meant marriage?!
No, really—when Sejuani said she was going to take Logan as her husband, Jinx hadn't even fully understood it at first.
Take him as her husband.
A woman marrying a man.
Usually it was supposed to be the woman getting married off, okay?!
No, that wasn't even the point anymore!
The point was—
This woman was trying to steal her man!
Jinx...
Had gone absolutely feral.
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