"Witch, don't mistake this for goodwill from Shurima."
Nasus appeared beside Lissandra, staff in hand, his other arm extended toward the Aspects. Every Ascended specialized in different things. Most focused on a single path, either mastery of magic, overwhelming physical strength, healing, or sorcery that attacked the soul.
Nasus was the exception.
He happened to be good at all of them.
Just like now.
With one hand, Nasus slowed the Aspects' movements with magic. With the other, he swung his staff, and spell circles appeared out of thin air in the sky, filled with black sand and Spirit Fire as they pressed in around one of the Aspects.
Lissandra was not surprised by Nasus's words. The Freljord and Shurima had never had good relations. Ancient Shurima had wanted to conquer the entire world, and the only place where it had truly suffered setbacks was the Freljord. Just like desert and snow, scorching heat and bitter cold could never truly mix, the demigods of those two lands had never shared any real connection either.
But now, because the Aspects had descended without permission, Nasus had chosen to put old grudges aside and help Lissandra.
Rammus had come to the front as well. He only reached Lissandra's thigh, and right now he was scratching his cheek with one small pointed claw as he asked in a simple, earnest voice, "So... can we actually win this? There are way too many of them."
"At most, I can maybe... maybe, maybe take two of them beating on me. If there's one more than that, I won't be able to handle it."
Rammus sounded timid when he said it. He looked timid too. But the meaning behind his words was anything but timid.
Rammus believed he could hold off two Aspects by himself.
Nasus was speechless for a moment.
He could hold off two as well.
Which meant, by that calculation, the witch could at least handle four or five, and Nasus had absolutely no doubt about that.
Because the witch stood on the same level as Setaka.
And Nasus knew better than almost anyone just how powerful Setaka had been.
So with that in mind, what were they supposed to do about the two or three Aspects left over?
"We only need to hold them," Lissandra said calmly after hearing Rammus out.
The moment her voice fell, Jaimon reacted first and flew off by himself, shouting, "Withdraw!"
What kind of joke was this?
Living and dying together had never once been an option in Jaimon's mind. Of the twelve Aspects here, quite a few were on bad terms with him. The Aspects were nothing like they had once been. Each stood in their own camp, and infighting never stopped.
So in an instant, the Aspects scattered. More than a few of them even began calling for reinforcements from the Aspects still beyond the stars.
They were already close to Mount Targon now. The others could project their power here.
At the same time, Logan, Jax, and Janna finally arrived.
There was no need to worry about Jinx or Taliyah. The moment Janna sensed something was wrong, she had already teleported them far away. As for the sandfolk still left back at the Bone Sea, Janna could no longer look after them, but they should probably be fine.
After all, everything over there was already over.
"Kill Pantheon first!"
The instant Logan arrived, he shouted those words.
Nasus did not know Logan, but seeing his overwhelming presence, and then seeing the weapon in his hands...
Holy shit.
Nasus's jackal eyes widened on the spot.
Even though the color had changed, he knew that sword all too well.
Wasn't that Aatrox?
Aatrox, willingly becoming someone else's sword?
"Don't chase every last one of them, kill as many as we can!" Jax also shouted.
With Janna's help, he lunged forward and brought one of the Aspects crashing down to the ground in a brutal blow.
Logan drew his blade. Aatrox gave an excited roar, and a crescent-shaped sword arc split the heavens as it slashed at Pantheon's back.
Pantheon reacted at once and veered aside to dodge, but the moment he moved, he discovered his speed had slowed. He shot Nasus a furious glare, his eyes full of rage.
Nasus's fingers spread toward Pantheon as Wither poured forth, suppressing the stellar power enhancing Pantheon's body.
He agreed with Logan's plan. Kill as many as possible.
Keeping all of them here was impossible.
They were far too close to Mount Targon. The Aspects would definitely be able to escape.
Logan instantly appeared in front of the slowed Pantheon, cutting off his retreat, and then brought Aatrox down in a heavy strike. Wuju sword intent surged out, and amid Aatrox's crimson-pink light appeared a streak of green. Logan shouted, "Pantheon, why are you running? Didn't you say that next time we met, you'd kill me?"
"Come on, then. I'm giving you the chance!"
"Arrogant! You arrogant bastard!" Pantheon's lips trembled with rage. The other Aspects had scattered like startled birds and beasts, but a few of them had been forced to stay behind.
They had miscalculated.
They had never imagined that after they showed up to interfere, Logan would completely ignore Bel'Veth's escape and turn his full attention on them instead.
Damn it.
Did this count as asking for trouble and getting exactly that?
And hearing Pantheon's furious voice only made Logan angrier too.
"To hell with your arrogant! You were the ones who came here to stir up trouble, and now that you've caused it, you're the ones trying to run! Tell me something, do you Targonians really think Runeterra is your personal backyard?"
"In my eyes, you're the truly arrogant ones! Times have changed. This isn't the age where you Aspects can still stand above everyone and rule Runeterra!"
His sword slashed across Pantheon's chest, spraying out a wide arc of golden blood. Logan pressed forward, and with Janna's help he flew up and drove his knee straight into Pantheon's jaw.
Pain shot through his knee instantly, but in the next moment Janna healed the injury. Logan kept chasing Pantheon as he was flung backward, dropped onto him, and drove Aatrox toward his heart.
Pantheon reacted quickly and raised his spear to block the greatsword, but Logan still smashed him down toward the ground.
Planting both boots into Pantheon's abdomen, Logan gripped the greatsword in both hands and drove him downward like a falling meteor.
Elsewhere, Lissandra summoned several ice coffins and shaped a massive claw of dark true ice, seizing one of the Aspects and dragging him into a coffin. The Aspect's face twisted in horror. Lissandra's fingers lengthened, her nails growing with them. She brought both hands together, crossed them, then clenched and twisted outward.
"No, no, don't!"
The cold of the true ice froze that Aspect solid in an instant, and in the very next second he felt his body being divided apart. Realizing what was happening, he screamed in terror.
Lissandra ignored him completely.
"Break."
The moment the word fell, the ice coffin shattered, and with it the Aspect's body was shattered too. A streak of starlight shot free, trying to flee, but after only traveling a short distance, it was blocked by another ice coffin.
"You can't kill me, witch, witch! You can't! I'm an Aspect! If you kill me, our god-king will avenge me!"
"You're starting a war between Runeterra and the celestial realm! When that happens, hundreds, thousands of Aspects will come down to attack Runeterra! You won't be able to withstand it!"
Lissandra frowned when she heard that. Her fingers twitched, but she only imprisoned the Aspect's soul.
Because what he said, it was true.
Those were not empty threats spoken in desperation.
The Targonians really could call down thousands of demigods.
Thousands.
No matter how united Runeterra became, no matter how strong, it could never truly resist the full might of the Targonians.
But then Logan's voice rang out.
"Kill him!"
Lissandra's pale eyes shifted.
In the next instant, her fingers closed.
Amid a shrieking cry of "No," the sky suddenly dimmed. From Runeterra, it looked as if day had become night. A massive star burned brightly for one breath, and then...
Boom!
That star exploded apart, and the Aspect Lissandra had killed fell silent forever.
"Run! Once we reach Mount Targon, we'll be on our own ground!" Jaimon had already fled some distance away, but the moment he sensed the death of one of his own, terror spread through him and his heart pounded like a drum. He burned all his stellar power just to flee faster.
"Don't listen to a single thing they say, not one word!" Logan and Pantheon exchanged hundreds of blows in a short span. As Pantheon knocked him flying backward, Logan shouted to every demigod present.
"The Targonians don't dare truly destroy Runeterra! If Runeterra is really damaged, they'll be more afraid of it than we are!"
Pantheon's eyes narrowed.
His expression changed.
And Logan caught it instantly.
"What, you really think the things you've done are secrets that only you know about?"
Logan looked at Pantheon with a mocking smile. "Does it surprise you that I know how you stole power from Him and turned the Targonians into overlords of the stars?"
For the first time, real fear appeared on Pantheon's face.
He stared at Logan in shock.
Logan knew about Aurelion Sol?
How was that possible?
This was something even many Aspects within Targon didn't know!
Seeing Pantheon lose focus, Logan swung the greatsword at his shoulder, trying to take his head in one strike, but Pantheon snapped back in time and twisted his head aside. The blade hacked deep into his shoulder instead.
Flesh split apart.
Golden starbone showed beneath it.
And golden blood poured out in torrents.
"How much longer are you all going to keep watching?!"
"Do you really want to see us all die?!"
With death looming over him, all of Pantheon's former majesty vanished. He rolled on the ground like a dog to escape Logan's next strike, then desperately threw his head back and roared toward the stars.
Runeterra's restraints kept him from using his true power, and the frustration gnawed at him. The threat of death terrified him even more.
If he had been even a little slower to react to Logan's last attack, then...
His head really would have been cut off.
And the weapon in Logan's hands was no lesser thing than his own.
That was Aatrox.
Aatrox at his peak was someone Pantheon would never even dare look in the eye, let alone fight.
And just as Pantheon's shout faded, another star flared in the night sky.
"Die!"
"Die already!"
Jax's voice shook the entire sky.
Everyone turned and saw him standing there covered in wounds. The worst injury had torn his chest open wide enough to expose his heart. Jax's heart was purple, with blackened traces of lightning scorched across it, yet it still beat with fierce force.
Beneath his feet lay the corpse of an Aspect.
The exact same lightning Aspect he had fought earlier.
Jax held grudges.
Janna immediately appeared beside him, placing both hands against his body and healing his injuries.
"Logan, I already killed one Aspect! What about you?!"
"The hell's taking you so long?!" Blood on his lips and a massive hole in his chest, Jax still laughed and cursed loudly, his voice filled with pride and exhilaration.
He had really done it.
He had traded life for life and cut down an Aspect.
"What's the rush? Take a breather and watch from over there while I kill Pantheon!" Logan burst out laughing too.
Two Aspects had died in quick succession, and morale on Logan's side surged.
Closing the distance again, Logan now wielded Aatrox more like a cleaver than a sword. He drew in a huge breath, his chest swelling as his arms bulged wider, and then he brought the blade down in a savage overhead chop at Pantheon's head.
Hum!
A massive pillar of light from beyond the stars slammed into Aatrox, helping Pantheon block the attack.
Logan felt as though his blade had sunk into mud, the force of his strike swallowed away.
Then an idea flashed through his mind.
After fighting the Ursine in the Freljord, Logan had long since gained real combat experience. He was no longer the rigid rookie who only knew stiff, straightforward moves.
So he stopped relying on raw physical strength and instead poured in the Wuju Style and Spirit Blossom law.
Aatrox shifted from crimson-pink to violet-white.
And the beam of light that had blocked him was cut apart like tofu.
Logan's strike flowed smoothly downward, all the way to Pantheon's chest.
Golden blood sprayed across Logan's face.
In the night sky, the star belonging to the Aspect of War flared to life. But strangely, unlike the other stars that burned brightly and then dimmed and shattered, the war star only lost its color. Its light died, but it did not explode.
Logan looked up and saw a pair of enormous eyes staring down at him from above that pillar of light.
He went speechless for a second.
Damn.
Beat up the small one, and now the old one shows up?
The power behind those eyes was even greater than Lissandra's, and Lissandra's expression grew grave as well.
"Xineos," Lissandra said in a low voice.
One of the Targonian god-kings.
Xineos.
He was also the very being Serylda had mainly fought against.
"Back then, I should have forced my way down and wiped out you disasters of Runeterra."
"Your existence brings this world nothing but trouble."
An ancient voice thundered through the depths of everyone's minds. It struck the soul like a hammer.
Logan grunted. His soul was already immensely strong. Among demigods who did not specialize in the spiritual realm, very few could compare with him in that regard. Yet even so, he still felt the impact.
And Jax was already badly wounded. Under that voice's assault, he passed out on the spot.
"Your death will serve as atonement. I will not vent my anger upon this planet itself."
The voice spoke again.
Then a hand appeared.
A hand so vast it blotted out the sky.
It descended from beyond the stars as though it meant to grasp Runeterra itself.
Lissandra appeared beside Logan in an instant. She didn't need to think to know Xineos meant to kill Logan by force.
"You're breaking the pact! Ornn will not stand by and let this happen!" Lissandra shouted coldly.
"He won't make it in time," Xineos replied indifferently.
That colossal hand pressed downward from outside the planet, covering all of Shurima.
It looked as though it meant to kill every living thing in Shurima.
And in truth, that was exactly Xineos's plan.
Humans multiplied quickly. Kill them all, wait a few hundred years, and new ones would be born here again. As long as the worshipers on Mount Targon remained untouched, he did not care about anyone else's lives. More than that, he did not care about Mount Targon either.
But just as the hand broke through the atmosphere and descended trailing fire, a soft sigh rose into the air.
"Sigh..."
The voice was gentle.
Holy.
Touched with faint sorrow.
The hand that had been about to erase Shurima stopped.
Then vanished.
The night sky returned.
"You, Soraka!" For the first time, emotion shook Xineos's voice.
"You are helping outsiders against us! Have you forgotten that you are one of the Targonians too?!"
Xineos roared in anger.
The voice that answered him remained calm and warm.
"I have already left the Targonians. I am part of Runeterra now."
"That is enough, Xineos. Your side broke the pact with Ornn first, and the pact with the Three Sisters as well. You descended without permission and ruined Logan's plan. When Myisha descended to deal with the Darkin, I could close one eye and let it pass, because the Darkin had harmed far too many innocent people. But not this time. Not when the ones you are helping are the Void."
"And besides, once Ornn arrives, who do you think will calm his anger? Mount Targon will suffer for this. It could even be destroyed."
"Do they truly mean nothing to you?"
Halfway up Mount Targon, in a tiny tribe outside a tent, a woman with a single horn upon her head sat on a stone, a small young goat cradled in her arms. She lifted her gaze to those enormous eyes in the sky, revealing a beautiful, sacred profile.
Then her lips moved, and she said once more:
"Or are you determined to make me step in and stop you myself?"
"..."
"Hmph."
The great eyes in the night sky vanished.
And the beam of light that connected Mount Targon to the stars, the star gate, gradually began to close.
Soraka gazed quietly toward Shurima, stroked the little goat in her arms, and sighed again.
Then her figure disappeared.
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