The spirit realm and the material realm oppose each other, but also blend with each other. Seemingly separate independent individuals, but actually inseparable wholes.
Under these circumstances, even Styraatu herself wasn't sure if those Darkin in the spirit realm were really sealed by the Darkin curse...
"You can rest assured on this point, they are indeed all cursed." Hearing Styraatu's inner voice, Faen on the side said:
"However, they are ultimately Darkin... or rather members of the Ascended. Equally originating from the Sun Disc of the Shuriman Empire, the Darkin curse is equally effective on them. It's just they can avoid partial damage through the spirit realm. Just like you now, separating spirit and flesh, or simply placing the shell into the spirit realm for self-sealing, thereby preventing mental pollution from the Darkin curse."
Hearing Faen's words, Styraatu also nodded thoughtfully. Although looking like having an explosive temper, being chosen by the Ascended Warrior Queen Setaka in the millennia of Shurima, recognized collectively by the Sun Priesthood, and finally successfully accepting the trial of the Sun Disc to become an Ascended, Styraatu naturally couldn't just be an arsonist shrew with only appearance.
On the contrary, calming down now, Styraatu also recovered the focus and calmness once as a fire mage—magic in Runeterra indeed possesses self-consciousness, but this doesn't mean all mages will be affected by magic itself.
Rather, powerful mages in Runeterra either have their own personalities highly compatible with the subconsciousness of magic itself, thus the spellcasting process and power are twice the result with half the effort. Or like Styraatu, exceptionally rational, able to scientifically understand and analyze the composition of magic, thereby releasing powerful magic without being affected too much by the magical elements themselves.
Soon, Styraatu tentatively asked: "Is it... in Ionia?"
As the place where the decomposition of the spirit realm and the material realm is most blurred, Styraatu knew that those spirit realm Ascended always held a special sentiment for Ionia. Not saying greed or excessive fondness, just purely paying extra attention—because knowing the history of that land of Ionia, even during the Shuriman Empire period, few people contacted Ionia.
And in fact, Ionia truly entering people's sight was just in these few decades... mainly originating from Noxus accelerating external expansion, and hiddenly, LeBlanc starting to notice the energy of the spirit realm gradually activating.
And hearing Styraatu's guess, Faen also nodded.
Runeterra is very big; every region has different ideological trends. This also leads to the spirit realm of every region being different from each other, even the environment, creatures, and spirits are different.
The Freljord region has a heavy veil between the two realms, but the wildness of that region nurtured the oldest primal demigods. Noxus advocates strength, war, murder, so there are a large number of demons going there to cultivate, catalyze, and consume the emotions they need.
Including Zaun here, actually there are also large and small spirit realms. Just because of the drastic changes in ideological trends—Twin Cities split, Zaun chaotic, Piltover prosperous. The ideological trends formed by these events themselves are tearing Zaun's original spirit realm. Janna's state before meeting Faen is the best example. If not for Faen, the current Janna should still be restricted in the form of stone statues and bluebirds, only able to intervene in the material realm through indirect storms.
Instead of like now, able to directly bestow blessings, even descend to the material realm with her main body.
And what Faen knew was actually through understanding the League of Legends main universe—new champion Yuumi's master Norra, as a yordle enchantress, was located in the late period of the Darkin War era. Her own story is highly related to Bandle City and portals, while in her personal comics and Xin Zhao's return cinematic and comics, it was proven from the side that the deities in the Spirit Blossom Festival weren't as simple as they looked on the surface.
One point among them is that although the Spirit Blossom series skins use the images of League of Legends controllable characters, they are actually not them. In the setting, they are heroes of the ancient era of Ionia; no one knows what they looked like. Making them into skins was just putting a skin on based on similarity of settings. Actually whether Riven, Cassiopeia, or Ahri, they don't have any actual connection with those Spirits of Kanmei and Akana.
And among these Kanmei and Akana, some deities pretending to be them appeared. Although not all appeared, when Yone prayed to the god he worshipped describing that evil foreign deity pretending to be Kanmei who did many evils, its silhouette was highly similar, if not identical, to the Darkin Fan in LoR.
Considering Ionia originally sealed many Darkin because of the special nature of the spirit realm—like Rhaast, Varus. Later it was revealed that the god Yone worshipped was also disguised by a Darkin (implied/theorized), so it can be basically confirmed that the fan silhouette is the Ascended, Darkin Fan—
"The Riftwalker, Praa." Faen said.
And hearing Faen's words, Styraatu's eyes also flashed, then she sighed with emotion: "Sure enough it's that guy... that guy constantly shuttled through during the Icathian War using the ability to freely walk between two realms. If the spirit realm can really reduce the mental oppression from the Darkin curse, then Praa should be the one most likely to survive."
Hearing this, Faen just showed an awkward yet polite smile and shrugged.
Praa indeed luckily escaped the initial disaster, but unfortunately, the final end was still being tragically sealed—hmm, that's right, Yone (or Nilah/related lore characters) did it. His main deed was getting rid of this evil god spirit pretending to be Kanmei.
And according to what Faen knew, Praa's next appearance was in the Darkin War. That is to say, up to now, Praa should still be sealed somewhere in the spirit realm.
And seeing Faen say these mutually corroborative things so easily, Styraatu asked directly: "Since so, what do you want me to do? And, what can you give me?"
Crossing her arms, Styraatu said calmly: "I indeed don't want to become a mad dog losing reason, dominated by rage and the Darkin curse like before. But if the price of recovering reason is bearing humiliation, I'd rather be resealed."