"We're here."
The guard's voice in front of them began trembling again.
This was their home ground, yet they were still afraid the other side would suddenly lash out and hurt someone.
If Caleb began attacking from within ten steps, the loss of several Frostguard soldiers would be unavoidable.
"Lady Lissandra is inside. Go in on your own."
The Frostguard did not enter. Instead, they stood separately on both sides of the door.
"What, are you afraid we'll harm your lady?"
Caleb looked at the way these people kept their hands on their weapons and could not help asking.
"We would not dare!"
Although the answer was extremely respectful, the other party's hand did not leave his weapon.
"Fine."
Knowing these people would not leave easily, and that they were here to protect Lissandra, Caleb simply entered the spacious hall.
The people behind him were a little dazed. Awed by this majestic fortress, they had already lost some of their momentum for a moment.
Even Sejuani, who had seen the form of an ancient god, found it difficult to remain calm right now.
Caleb's thoughts, however, were very simple.
This fortress made of ice did indeed look less impressive than the Sun Disc.
To Caleb, the witch inside did not put much pressure on him personally.
With Ornn, Volibear, and Aatrox backing him, his confidence was very strong right now...
Provided that...
The worst-case scenario had not happened.
If it had, things would probably become very complicated after this.
Caleb stood in place and waited for the people behind him.
"Welcome."
The voice that came from inside was extremely distant. Black ice circled beneath Lissandra's feet as she slowly approached Caleb.
"You... do not seem to belong to this world."
"What makes you say that?"
Caleb raised an eyebrow. Behind him, Sejuani and Ashe were walking rather slowly because they were afraid of an ambush.
Caleb's confident appearance did give Lissandra a modest surprise.
Originally, she had thought the Frostguard she sent out would never return.
But now, not only had he not harmed a single cavalryman, he had also been the first to arrive before her.
Lissandra's heart grew even more uncertain.
From the moment Ashe and Sejuani walked in, she felt the difference.
Those two Iceborn bloodlines had now, through a strange twist of fate, come before her as well.
"It seems you failed to eliminate the bloodlines you wanted gone."
Caleb's tone was equally cold.
"Looks like the Frostguard really need better training in information gathering and pursuit."
Caleb's smile carried a hint of mockery. He knew Lissandra was blind, but she could always sense it.
"That is true."
Rather than getting angry, this human woman who had lived for countless years seriously accepted Caleb's suggestion.
Before the others arrived, the mutual probing between these two speakers from different regions was filled with calculation.
"Tch."
Caleb made a dissatisfied sound.
It seemed this old witch's temperament had been tempered by experience, enough that she could...
Kai'Sa then arrived at Caleb's side.
She had originally wanted to come faster, but Ashe had held her back and signaled that it was dangerous.
Some mechanisms that would not target Caleb might not necessarily spare the rest of them.
After all, Caleb was someone who could still be won over, while Ashe and Sejuani respectively led Avarosa and Serylda.
"I heard the Void is dormant here."
Kai'Sa, never one to beat around the bush, opened with a sledgehammer.
The blow landed so hard that even Lissandra failed to react immediately.
If the exchange between Caleb and Lissandra just now had been both sides quietly calculating the hands they held, Kai'Sa had simply thrown the biggest card on the table and gone straight for the throat, leaving no time to guard against it.
"Nice."
Caleb had not expected his and Kai'Sa's two approaches to create such a perfect contrast.
"How did you learn that?"
Lissandra's tone turned cold at once.
The mechanism that had nearly been triggered also paused with it.
"We saw the ancient evil beast to the north."
"And unfortunately for you, this lady here has spent years fighting the Void in southern Shurima. She knows it very well."
Kai'Sa was also somewhat surprised. Although that evil beast had looked a lot like something from the Void, it was still somewhat different from Voidborn creations.
From Caleb's meaning, had he found proof that the evil beast came from the Void?
Caleb's smile grew increasingly confident, making Lissandra rather uncomfortable.
This man knew far too much, and she could not enter his dreams.
Even after she learned that Ashe and Sejuani had been childhood friends, at that point, she could no longer send Frostguard to kill the two of them after they had already become Warmothers.
She could only take the long view and slowly make plans.
This winter should originally have been an opportunity. At least one of those two should have been lost.
That would have meant the bloodline of at least one of her two sisters was severed.
Yet in the end, the ones who were severed were the Ice Children tribe that worshiped her.
And the key figure was most likely Caleb, standing before her now.
It was Caleb who stole the great cauldron, allowing the Winter's Claw to hold on until they could join up with the Avarosans.
It was also Caleb who organized that night raid. Otherwise, with only the people from those two tribes, they would not have been qualified to summon a lightning strike.
Speaking of lightning strikes, Caleb was not Ursine, so how exactly had he summoned lightning?
These questions troubled Lissandra as well, and Caleb's dreams were something she could not enter.
That was very rare. Among outsiders who fell asleep in the Freljord, very few were beyond her influence.
"Maybe she didn't expect it."
"In our dreams, we saw the other person we hated."
"And that only strengthened our conviction."
Sejuani and Ashe spoke one after another as they also came before Lissandra.
Olaf, Yuumi, Udyr, and Tryndamere followed after them.
"Are we discussing matters while standing?"
Caleb looked at the people behind him and asked with a smile.
Lissandra silently waved her arm, and several seats made of ice appeared in the hall.
Seeing that Lissandra had no intention of attacking for the moment, the corners of Caleb's mouth rose slightly.
His negotiation skills were finally going to be useful again.
As long as they were at the negotiating table, Caleb was confident he could persuade the other side to fight the Freljord together.
If he could make them unite for a time, then that could also count as unification.
Avarosa and Serylda were no longer here. Lissandra sat alone in the empty hall.
And now, their descendants had arrived.
"Let's deal with the matter here first, then handle the demigods."
Caleb thought silently, already beginning to miss the soft wooden chairs of Piltover.
This thing Lissandra made was freezing his ass.
"The Void's seal has already loosened, hasn't it?"
Caleb's opening words went beyond everyone's expectations.
After all, the Void at Icathia had only had a small crack drilled through it, and it had already been sealed up again.
As for Rek'Sai being able to reproduce and thrive, that was only because the crack was underground, and she just happened to be able to burrow.
The remaining "rifts" were only large enough for Kai'Sa and some small Void insectoids to enter and exit.
But what did loosening mean?
It meant the true descent of the Void had already entered its countdown.
"The ice is melting."
This time, even Lissandra's face beneath her covered eyes fell into shock.
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