"Who gave you permission to act so arrogantly in front of me?"
Luke raised his eyes slightly.
The instant his voice sounded, his figure disappeared from where he stood.
The horned monster still had a grin on its face when, in the next moment, a terrifying sword intent suddenly descended upon it. A snow-white blade came crashing down, gleaming with an utterly brilliant edge.
So fast!
Its breathing abruptly stopped.
It did not rely on its eyes to perceive the world, but on its senses.
With its extraordinarily powerful perception, it could even react before danger actually arrived.
Yet at this moment, Luke's sword was faster than its senses could follow.
The blade had not even fallen yet, but the monster already felt as though its body had been cut apart.
An unprecedented premonition of death surged through it.
The horned monster unleashed every ounce of its power without hesitation, desperately trying to evade the strike.
And it actually succeeded.
Its body shot backward as though blasted from a cannon, smashing through seven or eight rock walls before finally coming to a stop.
Even so, a sword wound had been carved across its shoulder, purple blood leaking from the gash.
Had it been even a fraction slower, its entire head would have been severed.
"Damn it..."
The smile vanished from the horned monster's face, replaced by a vicious expression.
But Luke did not even give it enough time to catch its breath.
He had already flashed in front of it.
Another slash followed.
A violent gale transformed into a razor-sharp wave of sword energy.
This time, the horned monster barely managed to react. It raised an arm, causing a bone-spike weapon to grow from it in an attempt to block.
In the next instant, the bone weapon was sliced cleanly apart.
Its arm went with it.
Normally, losing an arm would mean nothing to the horned monster.
It possessed tremendous regenerative abilities. In only a few seconds, it could simply grow another one.
But this time, it immediately realized something was wrong.
Its regeneration had been drastically slowed.
Worse, power was constantly draining from the wound.
Only then did it finally realize the injury on its shoulder was doing the exact same thing.
And during that brief moment of hesitation, Luke's sword had already begun moving faster and faster.
Multiple razor-sharp waves of sword energy descended through the air.
The horned monster was completely suppressed.
One wound after another appeared across its body.
As its strength continued draining away, an increasingly terrible feeling rose within it.
This human was far more terrifying than it had imagined!
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
The horned monster stopped holding back entirely.
With a thunderous roar, a violent aura erupted toward the sky.
Purple energy enveloped its entire body as its size rapidly increased until it had doubled.
Explosive muscles bulged across every part of its frame, each seemingly packed with tremendous power.
From a distance, Kai'Sa could feel even her living Void carapace trembling.
The horned monster's presence had become even more horrifying.
"Human, I'll torture you in the cruelest way imaginable!"
The horned monster glared fixedly at Luke.
Luke hovered in midair, looking down at it with utter indifference.
"If those are your last words, then you can die now."
"You're the one who's dying!"
The horned monster roared and launched itself at Luke like a fired cannonball.
Luke gathered all of his sword intent and swung.
BOOM!
The collision produced an enormous blast that made even the ground tremble.
Within the cloud of dust, hardened bone spikes grew from both of the horned monster's arms as it launched an all-out assault on Luke.
Every attack it threw generated violent shockwaves.
Luke, meanwhile, drew the Void Riftblade and fought back with a sword in each hand.
Their exchange unfolded at tremendous speed.
And it ended just as quickly.
As Luke's aura continued growing stronger, the horned monster was violently slammed into the ground, creating an enormous crater.
Then, as though it had suddenly been struck by multiple swords at once, wounds erupted all across its body.
In truth, many of those cuts had already been inflicted during their previous exchange.
Luke's sword had simply moved so quickly that the injuries were only now appearing.
"How is this possible?"
The horned monster was horrified.
How could a human possess such overwhelming strength?
It had been born with incomparable power.
Humans were insects that it could crush with a single finger.
And yet this human was actually overpowering it.
At the beginning of their clash, it had possessed the advantage in raw strength.
But after only a short time, even that advantage had been taken away by Luke.
Was this thing really human?
"Next life, remember not to be so arrogant."
Powerful energy surged around Luke, far greater than before.
Both of his swords had already descended.
"Energy Barrage!"
The horned monster's attention briefly froze on the Void Riftblade.
But it had no time to think about that now.
With a roar, it wildly released the energy within its body.
Violent spheres of purple energy flew toward Luke one after another.
Some struck the ground and exploded with tremendous force, sending purple pillars of light into the sky while leaving deep craters behind.
Yet Luke did not dodge at all.
He swung both swords simultaneously.
A violent current created by his sword intent surrounded his body, neutralizing the explosions as he continued advancing one step at a time.
At that moment, fear finally appeared in the horned monster's heart.
This human was far stronger than they had expected!
Run!
That was the only thought surging wildly through the horned monster's mind.
Run!
It released even more energy in an attempt to delay Luke, then seized the opportunity to launch itself into the distance.
Its speed was astonishing.
In the blink of an eye, it had already escaped several hundred yards.
But in the next instant, magical energy suddenly surged across its body.
Its entire form stiffened.
Shackle-like marks appeared around it, producing a powerful restraining force that immobilized it in midair.
The horned monster erupted with energy, trying to break through the restraint by force.
But before it could succeed, Luke had already appeared.
He looked down at the horned monster from above.
Without saying a single word, Luke swung both swords.
Brilliant sword light flashed through the air.
"NO!"
The horned monster let out an unwilling roar as purple energy surged across its body.
But in the next second, its entire body seemed to split apart into pieces before crashing to the ground.
Every severed surface was perfectly smooth and clean.
Luke could now see the structure inside its body.
There was only a single purple heart.
Everything else resembled mechanical tubes connected to that powerfully beating Void heart.
"Human... the Void will avenge me sooner or later."
Even like this, the horned monster remained alive.
Its voice overflowed with hatred.
"Victory will ultimately belong to the Void!"
"You're already a corpse. Stop talking so much."
Luke merely looked at it indifferently before raising one hand.
A blazing fireball appeared above his palm and instantly expanded several times in size.
Then, expressionless, Luke slammed it downward.
BOOM!
Exploding flames completely engulfed the horned monster's remains, incinerating every part of its body within moments.
After confirming that its presence had disappeared completely, Luke returned to Kai'Sa.
At the same time, elsewhere in the Void...
Within a nest, more than a dozen humanoid Void creatures were gathered together.
As though they all sensed something simultaneously, every one of them suddenly froze.
"Horn's presence disappeared."
"I sensed it too."
"So that's why I haven't seen that guy. He secretly went out by himself."
"Heh. That reckless fool finally managed to get himself killed."
"The Prophet already warned him with a prophecy. He refused to listen, so no one could save him."
"Good riddance. He was only born a little earlier than us. Why should that put him above us?"
The Void creatures spoke in human language, mocking him one after another.
None of them seemed particularly concerned about their companion's death.
Just then, a figure approached.
His entire body was hidden beneath a purple cloak, with violet energy swirling around him.
The moment he appeared, all of the Void creatures fell silent and uniformly dropped to one knee.
"Lord Prophet."
The Prophet waved a hand.
"My prophecy tells me Horn is dead. He was born with exceptionally powerful perception. Losing him will make it more difficult for us to locate the key."
"That bastard deserved to die."
One of the prostrated Void creatures spoke resentfully.
"He secretly left without telling us. Obviously he wanted all the credit for himself, only to die so easily instead."
"No matter what happened, it is already done. There is no point discussing it further."
The Prophet's tone remained calm.
"Our current objective is to retrieve the key. Go out together and search for its whereabouts. Remember, do not underestimate the enemy."
"Don't worry, Prophet. We're not useless trash like Horn."
A slender, snake-like Void creature replied with a cold laugh.
"Very well. First go investigate the location where Horn's presence was last detected."
The Prophet raised a hand.
"I used spatial magic to forcibly drag that human into the Void. Unless another rift opens, he will be unable to leave."
A serpent-like strand of energy appeared above his palm and flew into the distance.
"Don't worry, Prophet. As long as that human can't escape, we'll find him."
"Wait for the good news."
"We'll bring the key back without fail."
The Void creatures immediately chased after the streak of energy, disappearing at incredible speed.
Soon, only the Prophet remained.
He raised his head.
His eyes seemed to peer through the Void itself and into the far distance.
"What circumstances could cause foresight to fail...?"
He murmured to himself.
"Still, the Void's victory is inevitable. It is only a matter of time."
His foresight had stopped functioning properly some time ago.
Whenever he looked into the future now, all he saw was dense fog, preventing him from seeing the true course of events.
But that was not a serious problem.
Because the day when the Void achieved victory was something he had foreseen long ago.
And that day was already close.
When Kai'Sa saw Luke return, her expression was complicated.
"You..."
"I'll explain later. We should leave this place first."
Luke knew she must have countless questions right now, but he had a feeling they should not remain here any longer.
Even he had never heard of that horned Void creature before.
Judging from the way it spoke, it seemed to have come specifically for them.
It did not appear to be after Kai'Sa.
That left only Luke.
After connecting the pieces, Luke already had a vague theory.
There was no way he had simply been dragged into the Void for no reason.
Considering the strange reaction of the Void Riftblade earlier, he had good reason to suspect that horned creature had come for the weapon.
Which meant he had probably been targeted.
Continuing to stay in the same place would naturally be dangerous.
Kai'Sa understood that this was not the time for questions either.
She nodded and left with Luke.
Her living Void carapace was capable of flight.
The two energy pods on her back could release concentrated energy, allowing her to fly.
That ability was also how she had been able to reach the place where the rift appeared so quickly.
The two rapidly moved into the distance and did not stop until they had traveled a considerable distance.
Luke did not know exactly how the horned creature had found them.
However, he possessed Stealth Arts, which allowed him to conceal his presence and made him extremely difficult to locate.
If the enemy possessed some kind of tracking ability capable of pinpointing him anyway, then Luke could only wait for them to come.
He and the Void Riftblade were bound together.
Because of that, even in a place like the Void, it should have been impossible for an enemy to precisely track the sword itself.
It was quite possible that the encounter with Horn had simply been a coincidence.
Still, out of caution, Luke had not even allowed the Void Riftblade to absorb Horn's energy.
Kai'Sa had followed Luke across a considerable distance and consumed a great deal of energy in the process.
When she finally landed, she was already breathing somewhat heavily.
Luke's breathing, meanwhile, remained perfectly steady.
He was not even slightly winded.
Remembering the tremendous strength he had displayed earlier, Kai'Sa finally could not hold back her question.
"Who exactly are you? And why do you have a Void weapon?"
She had watched the battle from a distance and clearly seen Luke draw a weapon filled with obvious Void properties.
Her suspicions about his identity had grown enormously.
"I wasn't lying to you. I really am the second prince of Demacia."
Seeing the doubt in her eyes, Luke explained, "I came to Shurima specifically to investigate the Void. As for this sword, that's a long story. Let's find somewhere quiet and I'll explain."
There were many Voidborn nearby, so the two quickly searched for a secluded place.
Then Luke told Kai'Sa what had happened in Ionia.
"I found this sword in Ionia's spirit realm. The Void had already begun corrupting the environment there."
Luke took out the Void Riftblade and directly handed it to Kai'Sa for inspection.
When Kai'Sa accepted it, she could clearly feel the Void presence emanating from the blade.
Her expression immediately became surprised.
"You're saying there are signs of the Void appearing in Ionia too?"
"That's right."
Luke nodded.
"From what I know, the Void usually appears around Shurima. It shouldn't normally be showing up somewhere as distant as Ionia."
"That's true. I've never seen the Void appear anywhere else."
Kai'Sa frowned slightly and carefully considered Luke's words.
She could not be completely certain whether everything he said was true.
But deep down, she already believed most of it.
After all, Luke had no reason to deceive her.
If not for him, there was probably a ninety percent chance she would have already died at the hands of that horned monster.
Although Kai'Sa had survived in the Void for ten years and fought many powerful Voidborn, the instant Horn appeared, she had immediately understood the gap between them.
And Luke had effortlessly slaughtered that same monster.
With his strength, if there were something on her that he wanted, he could simply take it by force.
There would be absolutely no need for him to lie or manipulate her.
Which meant the appearance of the Void in Ionia's spirit realm was almost certainly real.