"Whew..."
Seeing that the "human figure" had finally started to look at least a little human again, Caleb let out a long breath.
The crimson returned to his left eye.
"This..."
Renekton raised his great blade, while the blood flowing from the others finally stopped.
When Ascended were infected by the Void, their bodies gradually began to break down.
To survive, the main Ascended forces back then generally turned to blood magic, a form of sorcery that leaned toward the dark side, to preserve their lives.
They were no longer like ordinary Ascended, and because of that, they began calling themselves Darkin.
Later, after the fall of the Sun Disc, war broke out among the Darkin themselves.
In the end, the Aspects of Mount Targon sealed the Darkin inside living weapons.
So the problem now was simple. If someone had used blood magic to reconstruct a human form, then that person had to be a Darkin.
Which meant the real question was, what kind of Darkin was she, and what was her temperament like now?
Not everything had to fall on Yaanogel's shoulders. That was how Renekton saw it.
Caleb was aligned with Shurima in purpose, willing to work with it, but he was not someone who needed to sacrifice everything he had for Shurima.
Because of that, every time Yaanogel used Caleb's body, he left behind damage that would not show immediately.
That condition would only get worse and worse. Unless Caleb completed something like an Ascension ritual, his body would continue to weaken.
The bleeding stopped, and Sivir and Taliyah both covered their wounds.
The form that emerged was unmistakably that of a woman.
"She looks strangely familiar..."
Kai'Sa frowned as she tried to remember.
Taliyah also felt like she had seen her before, and tried hard to think.
"Xolaani."
It was the mouth on the left side of Caleb's face that spoke, giving everyone the answer.
Xolaani?
Xolaani, the Faceless God, the Ascended?
Sivir had heard the legends of that goddess before, but how could anyone be certain that the Darkin in front of them was really her?
"We can ask her in a minute and find out."
Renekton was much more at ease now, though he still had not fully confirmed it, so he did not lower the great blade in his hand.
"What is this...?"
At last, the blood reshaped itself into a stunningly beautiful woman. She touched her face in a daze, as if she could not believe any of this was real.
At last, she had escaped that endless hell of suffering, that nightmare that had felt like it would never end.
"You were in Rek'Sai's underground nest. We brought you back up."
As for the awful state she had been in, Caleb skipped over that entirely.
Even to an Ascended like Renekton, Xolaani still carried tremendous weight.
"Can you tell us what happened?"
Caleb looked at Xolaani, whose form still seemed a little unstable, and asked softly.
The Void was no small matter. Every appearance of it meant danger had arrived.
Back then, the Ascended host had paid an unbearable price to seal it away.
If the Void returned now, while Shurima was so weak, the disaster it brought would not stop with this continent.
And Piltover and Zaun, the world's crossroads, would not be able to withstand that kind of upheaval either.
Not to mention that during the last Harrowing, Caleb had caught the scent of the Ruination.
If both came at once, then the whole world would be finished, would it not?
Still, it had to be said, Xolaani truly lived up to her reputation as a healer.
She could take in everything.
The blood of Ascended, the royal blood of Shurima, even the blood of Shuriman mages, she accepted it all without issue.
That blood also gave her enough clarity of mind to speak properly.
"I remember... after the Darkin War... I stayed hidden in Shurima, saving people..."
Xolaani held her head. She could not actually feel pain, but she had suffered so much over that stretch of time that old mortal habits had returned to her.
"After all these years, I decided to settle in Xolan, the city named after me."
"Through my efforts, it became a sacred land filled with great oases."
As Xolaani spoke, sorrow crept into her voice.
"The stonemasons wanted to carve a giant statue of me, but..."
At that point, Caleb's heart sank with hers.
Most likely, this had happened to Xolaani just before he first arrived in this universe...
"Rek'Sai killed more than a hundred stonemasons, abducted me, and fed on the energy I regenerated every day until I was reduced to this wretched state."
When she got that far, even someone as strong as Xolaani, who had spent her life saving the dying and tending the wounded on battlefields, could not keep a tremor from her voice.
"That animal!" Renekton ground out through clenched teeth.
Even Taliyah, who was normally such a chatterbox, could not find anything to say.
Compared to the suffering endured by this revered Ascended before them, her own journey through Ionia had felt like a vacation.
"It's a good thing you came today. Otherwise..."
As she said that, Xolaani's body began to tremble violently, as though she might dissipate at any moment.
A beam of light came from an extreme distance away and wrapped around her shaking body, finally stabilizing her.
"The truth is... a few days ago, I almost couldn't hold on anymore... but... some of my Ascended power came back..."
There was no doubt that memory was painful, the endless torment, the daily draining of her strength.
Anyone else would probably have broken on the spot.
"It's over now..."
Ascended were usually over ten feet tall. Even the shorter ones like Renekton and Nasus were no exception.
But Xolaani had only restored herself to roughly normal human height, which clearly meant she had no desire to recreate the form she wore back when she was Ascended.
"The emperor... has he truly returned?"
Xolaani sensed the rushing blood within Sivir and lit up with sudden joy.
"Yes."
Renekton's firm answer instantly brought life back into Xolaani's eyes.
Had that beam of light cutting through the night just now not been the power of the Sun Disc?
"You all worked hard in that battle. Are there any wounded who need treatment?"
Xolaani pulled herself together again and asked with a warm smile.
"Her mental fortitude is unreal..." Even Caleb had to say it.
"You never saw her saving people on the battlefield," Yaanogel said from the side. "She'd be crying her eyes out the whole time, and her hands still wouldn't shake even once."
"Um... Lady Xolaani..."
Taliyah finally spoke, timidly.
"What is it?" Xolaani's smile truly made people feel at ease.
"When I sealed one of the Xer'Sai tunnels before, I knocked over your statue... I'm sorry."
Taliyah lowered her head, like a child quietly waiting to be punished.
"It's alright." Xolaani gently stroked the girl's head. "What matters most is that you're all safe."
"My body's the one that needs checking, before I wake up one day with a whole collection of problems and Yaano just pats his butt and leaves."
Caleb stepped forward and nudged Taliyah aside.
"Go on, go on. Command the rocks and fill in every tunnel. We don't need the Void down there breaking through the stone one day and crawling out."
Taliyah reluctantly moved away from Xolaani's side.
That was Xolaani, after all, Xolaani, who had saved countless lives on the battlefield.
As support, she had still gone deep into the Void with the god-warriors, and had even been infected by the Void and become a Darkin.
Taliyah felt like she could stay by her side forever.
"Your body really has been pushed too hard..."
...
It happened to be the night of a full moon.
Under its silver light, Taliyah began to dance in soft, flowing motions.
The earth trembled along with her will, while giant stones slowly "flowed" beneath the ground, sealing one painstakingly dug tunnel after another.
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