From that point on, the young king issued increasingly desperate orders. Even if they had to scour every corner of Runeterra, they were to find a medicine or method capable of saving the queen.
But the queen's condition worsened with each passing day. Rage and despair overwhelmed him, and every last coin in the royal treasury was spent on attempts to cure her.
It was all futile.
Isolde died in her bed, and Viego was consumed by madness.
His search for a cure became increasingly ruthless and irrational.
Unable to accept his queen's death, he sacrificed every treasure and every scrap of wealth his kingdom possessed in his attempt to bring her back. As chaos spread throughout his realm, Viego shut himself away with Isolde's corpse, isolating himself from the world as hatred and violence consumed his heart.
Then, one day, the people he had sent out returned with news of the Blessed Isles.
It was said that the waters there could heal any injury or disease.
Viego immediately took the queen's body to the Blessed Isles, only to be told that even the Isles could do nothing for someone who was already dead.
By then, madness had completely overtaken him.
Ignoring all warnings, he attacked the sanctuary and forced his way into the deepest reaches of the Blessed Isles, where he immersed his dead wife in the Waters of Life.
And that act triggered the Ruination.
The entire Blessed Isles were destroyed in the catastrophe that followed.
That was the origin of the Black Mist.
"The mages of the Blessed Isles used the last of their power to seal the Ruined King within what we now call the Shadow Isles. But now, the Ruined King is about to break free."
Senna finally stopped there, giving everyone time to process what they had heard.
"So he was completely blinded by love," Lux muttered under her breath, remembering a phrase Luke had once used.
There was really no better way to describe him.
Quite a few people agreed with her. Being blinded by love was one thing, as long as you did not hurt yourself or everyone around you because of it.
But Viego had harmed countless people for the sake of his queen, and even a thousand years later, people were still suffering because of the Black Mist.
"So even after all this time, he still hasn't given up on bringing his queen back to life?"
Sarah Fortune asked the question.
"That's right." Senna nodded. "Viego failed to revive the queen back then. Instead, he triggered the Ruination. During the catastrophe, the curse caused the queen's soul to shatter into many fragments, which were scattered to unknown places."
Everyone present was quick-witted.
After hearing this, Illaoi said, "So the Black Mist that has spread across different parts of the world over the years was actually searching for the queen's soul fragments?"
"Most likely."
Senna nodded again.
"Although Bilgewater's yearly Harrowings are simply because it's too close to the Shadow Isles."
The people from Bilgewater could only react with helpless expressions.
Their homeland really had drawn the short straw.
Whenever the Black Mist spread, they were always the first ones caught in its path.
Everyone fell silent in thought.
Senna waited several seconds before continuing.
"Until recently, the Ruined King had remained asleep beneath the seal. The Black Mist only moved passively under his influence. But now I have a very strong feeling that he's awake and actively trying to break free."
"Once he breaks through the seal left by the Blessed Isles, the Black Mist will inevitably return, and on a scale far greater than anything we've ever seen before."
As her words faded, the atmosphere in the room grew noticeably heavier.
Some of those present had never personally experienced a true Harrowing, but even they could understand the danger Senna was describing.
Luke took over.
"That's the reason I called this meeting. The threat posed by the Shadow Isles could affect all of Runeterra. We need to prepare ahead of time, unite our forces, and face it together."
No one objected.
Even if it were not for the sake of protecting Runeterra, they would still have to stand against the Black Mist to protect themselves and the people they cared about.
"Then that brings us to the real question," Jarvan IV said. "How do we deal with him?"
Senna answered, "From what I know, the first thing Viego will do after breaking free is try to resurrect his queen. That means his first objective will definitely be locating the soul fragments scattered throughout the world."
"And those places will be the first to suffer attacks from the Black Mist. Anyone cursed by the Mist will eventually become an undead spirit, trapped between life and death. If we don't stop him, Viego will only continue growing stronger."
Everyone understood what she meant.
Any location containing one of the queen's soul fragments would inevitably become an early target of the Black Mist.
They needed to locate those fragments before the Ruined King did, protect them, and defend against the Black Mist so it could not curse more people.
"The best approach would be to gather all the soul fragments in one place and protect them together," Senna said. "That would also prevent the Black Mist from spreading across other regions."
She was confident that the Ruined King would not waste time attacking places that did not contain soul fragments.
In other words, if they concentrated all the fragments in a single location, they could potentially prevent the Black Mist from sweeping across the rest of Runeterra.
"But that's still only defense," Fiora said thoughtfully. "If we don't solve the problem at its source, the Black Mist will simply keep coming."
"Exactly." Lux nodded. "How are we supposed to destroy the Ruined King?"
"That, I don't know."
Senna sighed softly.
"The origin of the Ruination lies somewhere on the Shadow Isles. No one has ever discovered how to break the curse at its source."
All she knew was that unless the curse itself was undone, killing the Ruined King would be nearly impossible.
And as long as the Ruined King remained alive, the Black Mist would never disappear.
Those were problems they would eventually have to confront.
The hall fell silent again as everyone thought.
Luke was doing the same.
Even he had no idea how Viego could actually be destroyed. This was completely outside his area of knowledge.
That was precisely what made the Shadow Isles so troublesome.
Their curse was incredibly difficult to eradicate. If left unchecked, the Black Mist would eventually spread across all of Runeterra.
In terms of sheer threat, the Shadow Isles were hardly any less dangerous than the Void.
After thinking for a moment, Luke took out his Secret Key and scrolled through his contacts.
He found one saved under the nickname "Blueberry" and started a call.
To his surprise, the other side answered almost immediately.
A video feed appeared, and the howling wind coming through it immediately attracted everyone's attention.
A man stood in the middle of the image.
Despite it being the height of summer elsewhere, a raging blizzard filled the world behind him. Everything seemed buried beneath endless white, and simply looking at the scene was enough to make people feel cold.
Ryze was bundled in thick clothing as he struggled forward through the storm.
There was no need to ask where he was.
Everyone recognized it.
The Freljord.
"This thing can even connect from somewhere like this? That's quite an invention."
Ryze's voice came through the device.
His head was buried inside a fur-lined hood to protect him from the cold, leaving only his eyes exposed.
The last time they had parted ways, Luke had given Ryze a Secret Key and explained how to use it.
This was the first time they had actually contacted each other through it.
After thinking for a moment, Ryze asked, "This is about the Shadow Isles, isn't it?"
Before separating, they had discussed the Shadow Isles, and Ryze had already promised to join them when the time came.
There were not many other reasons Luke would suddenly be calling him.
"Yes." Luke nodded. "The Ruined King is about to return. We're currently discussing how to deal with him."
Luke briefly explained everything Senna had revealed about the Shadow Isles.
Ryze himself had once lived on the Blessed Isles. He had escaped the catastrophe because he happened to be traveling with his master at the time, and he had later returned to the Shadow Isles several times, learning bits and pieces of what had happened.
But his knowledge had never been complete.
Now, after hearing a much fuller account of events, he finally understood what had occurred back then.
"The water you mentioned that could heal anything should be the Waters of Life," Ryze said.
He remembered them well.
Long ago, he had secretly slipped into the place where the Waters of Life were kept and had even stolen some to drink.
"If the Ruination originated there, then that's where we'll have to go to uncover the truth. The way to break the curse may also be hidden there."
Ryze naturally did not know how to undo the curse either.
He had not personally witnessed what happened.
But he did know where the Waters of Life were located.
If that place was truly the source of the Black Mist and the curse, then reaching it might reveal a solution.
"I'll head over and meet up with you next. We can discuss the details once I'm there."
Ryze ended the call shortly afterward.
Luke put away the Secret Key.
"That's where things stand. One way or another, we have to go to the Shadow Isles. There's a good chance the answer to breaking the curse is somewhere on the islands. We don't know how much time we have left, so we need to make every possible preparation before the threat of the Black Mist arrives."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
There was certainly a great deal to prepare.
They needed to travel to the Shadow Isles, but they also needed to locate the queen's soul fragments.
At the same time, if ordinary people were going to have any chance of fighting the Black Mist, they would need to borrow the Sentinels of Light's techniques and manufacture specialized weapons and protective combat uniforms.
Fortunately, that part was not particularly difficult.
While imprisoned inside Thresh's lantern, Senna had learned many techniques that had long since been lost.
She could reproduce them herself.
"The most important thing right now is locating those soul fragments."
Luke looked toward Senna.
"Can you find them?"
"I don't know for sure," Senna replied. "I can't determine their exact locations, but through the faint connection between us, I can sense the general region each fragment is in."
"That's more than enough."
Luke nodded.
At least they would not have to search blindly across the entire world.
Once the plan had been established, everyone immediately sprang into action.
Their first priority was working alongside the Sentinels of Light to establish the necessary defenses.
At the same time, several teams were dispatched in different directions according to Senna's guidance to search for the queen's soul fragments.
Lucian had some experience with that.
Only later had he discovered that the Antique Parasol he had found inside a church contained one of the queen's soul fragments.
That explained why carrying the parasol had allowed him to resist both the Black Mist and Thresh's attacks.
With that knowledge, their search became considerably easier.
Any person or object harboring one of these soul fragments would likely display some unusual characteristics.
Combined with Senna's ability to roughly sense the region where each fragment was located, finding them should not take too much effort.
The reason Senna could do this was because part of the queen's soul resided within her as well.
That same fragment of Isolde's soul was also the reason Senna had been able to survive inside Thresh's lantern.
Luke did not remain idle during this period.
He joined the search for the queen's soul fragments as well.
Time passed slowly.
Two days went by in the blink of an eye.
As operations began across multiple regions, an indescribable tension seemed to settle over all of Runeterra.
It felt like the calm before a storm.
Over those two days, the plan progressed smoothly.
They successfully discovered one fragment in Demacia and another in Noxus.
One had been attached to a dressing mirror, while the other was bound to a long dress.
Once they had been recovered, Senna could no longer sense any additional fragments within either Demacia or Noxus, which meant there were no others left there.
There was also a fragment in the Freljord, but Ryze had already found it and was carrying it with him.
That left only the ones somewhere in Ionia and Shurima.
However, Luke knew that although Isolde's soul had broken into many smaller pieces, the core of her soul had actually been divided into only three major fragments.
One of them was inside Senna.
And for some reason, Senna seemed unable to sense the other two.
Whatever the case, they were running out of time.
Late on the second night, Luke suddenly received a video call from Sarah Fortune.
The moment he answered, her unusually grim expression appeared on the screen.
"My people have spotted signs of the Black Mist. It's already beginning to spread across the sea. I ordered the evacuation of the islands closest to the Shadow Isles over the past two days, but there are still some places we didn't manage to warn in time."
She quickly explained what they had discovered.
"What about the Shadow Isles themselves?" Luke asked.
"No idea." Sarah shook her head. "My people pulled back as soon as they spotted the Black Mist from a distance. But the Mist isn't moving quickly. In fact, it's advancing very slowly, nothing like a normal Harrowing."
Normally, the Black Mist moved incredibly fast.
Faster than most ships.
In the past, anyone unfortunate enough to encounter the Mist at sea had almost no chance of escaping.
This time was different.
After Sarah's people spotted the Black Mist through their telescopes, they discovered that it was moving unusually slowly.
Even so, its appearance was already a dangerous warning.
"Understood. I'll head over and take a look immediately."
Luke rose as he spoke, wasting no time before hurrying toward the Hexgate.
At the moment, he was inside the fortified refuge established in Demacia together with the Sentinels of Light.
The queen's recovered soul fragments were being kept there, and defensive preparations had already been completed.
The Hexgate was some distance away, but with Luke's speed, it did not take him long to reach it.
He used the gate to teleport directly to the Bilgewater station.
Sarah was already waiting for him.
After hearing a more detailed report from her in person, Luke decided to approach the Black Mist and observe it from close range.
If the Shadow Isles had already begun to stir, then they would have to respond as soon as possible.
Fortunately, their preparations had not begun only two days earlier.
They had already started laying the groundwork several months ago.
And judging from the situation now, there still seemed to be a little time before the Ruined King fully emerged.
Otherwise, the Black Mist would not be advancing in such an unusual manner.
Once he had made his decision, Luke set out alone.
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