Looking at Janna, Faen could feel Janna's current state.
Although the poison of faith Janna suffered from wasn't as severe as those primitive demigods in Freljord who got high and then suffered withdrawal symptoms after stopping, ending up dead or disabled. But due to the loss of faith power supply for a long time, Janna's current state had weakened to a limit.
Under these circumstances, no wonder Janna couldn't influence Zaun's changes in the material realm—
Because according to Faen's guess, Janna's initial weakness shouldn't be giving up resistance, but recuperating and waiting for the right time.
Because in the era of the Shuriman Empire at its peak, kings from all over the Valoran continent would be shocked and moved to tears just by arriving at the Shuriman capital.
In that era, swarms of Ascended god-warriors could easily crush a few so-called God-Chosen like bugs. For a local minor god like Janna, resistance was useless.
What's more, ancient Zaun was a trade hub with frequent changes in trends of thought; the nascent Janna probably couldn't absorb much true power of faith.
Under these circumstances, Janna could only hide her faith, waiting for the situation to change before plotting Zaun's future.
But who would have thought, after the Shuriman Empire era came the Darkin Warlord era, and the Rune War era. Every era had countless tricks—
In the Darkin Warlord era, the entire Runeterra was almost dragged into the abyss of destruction by out-of-control Darkin god-warriors. In the Rune War era, human warlords abused rune power, forcibly annihilating countless civilizations, shaking the continental shelf several times. Until now, Noxus still had a gap nearly three times the size of the Shadow Isles in the coastal area, blasted out by runes.
Counting one by one, none of them could be influenced by Janna, who had already become weak due to lack of faith since the Shuriman Empire era.
Finally waiting until the peaceful era, when Janna could interfere in Zaun's material realm. Who knew, it split.
Ancient Zaun turned into the Twin Cities. Going round and round, Zaun got worse and worse, and Janna got weaker and weaker. By now, for the current Janna, creating a so-called God-Chosen was really life-threatening—do you really think blessings can be produced in large batches casually like splashing water? Those truly high-level kin, which one isn't customized according to their own characteristics?
Thinking this, after a moment of silence, Faen said: "I'll help you."
"..." Hearing this, Janna fell into silence, then tilted her head and said, "Then what is the price? Are you going to offer Zaun to Ashlesh?"
"No, in fact, Ashlesh is also my enemy." Faen shook his head—Ashlesh was born from joy, but eventually went further and further on the path of extreme sensation, finally getting high enough to impact the Celestial Realm.
Sounded awesome, but actually proved this path was dead. In Faen's view, it was a naked warning; whoever learned it would die, only useful for avoiding pitfalls.
If it were other primal demons, Faen estimated he would have to lie dormant for a while, but Ashlesh...
In the game, Nilah had a line "Rage in vain within your prison, demon. I call the shots now," which was said to Ashlesh.
The reason Ashlesh could gain freedom was a transaction with Nilah. The content of the transaction was Ashlesh granting Nilah the power to become a hero. And once Nilah died, Nilah's husk would be used by Ashlesh, thereby gaining freedom.
Looking at it from another angle, as long as Nilah didn't die, the influence Ashlesh could produce was very limited.
Especially after getting familiar during this period, Faen could basically be sure that the reason Ashlesh blessed him, even giving him her concept, apart from the peculiarity of his soul, another core purpose was that Ashlesh hoped Faen would walk the same path as her. When the time was ripe, she would directly bypass the agreement with Nilah to possess him and be reborn.
If it were an ordinary person, or someone who didn't know much about Ashlesh's background story, after accepting this blessing, they would probably quickly embark on the path of extreme sensory stimulation as Ashlesh thought.
Improving power happily and easily, there was simply nothing more comforting in this world. Unfortunately, Faen knew, and knew very well what consequences would occur at the end of this path.
Precisely because of this, although every time Faen shook Ashlesh's power on a large scale, he could feel Ashlesh's voice bewitching in his ear, essentially tempting Faen to understand deeply. But Faen never had any intention of deep contact.
Always stopping at a shallow taste, filling the vacancy in extreme senses with greater and more ordinary joy and hope.
And now...
"We can conclude a contract, with my essence in the spirit realm as the source." Faen said:
"As the oldest life in this world, you should know the stupid things Ashlesh did tens of millions of years ago in pursuit of peak joy. Now she is sealed, unable to interfere with my decision. I can share the authority I master with you, creating God-Chosen warriors belonging to us... or rather belonging to Zaun."
Hearing Faen's words, Janna fell into a brief silence. Then she frowned and said: "If you are not completely controlled by Ashlesh, then what is your purpose in doing this?"
"For a better future." Faen said frankly:
"I need power, even if this power originates from the trap set for me by Ashlesh. Although dangerous, this is the most powerful ability I can master now. I know parts of the past and future, which let me see many terrible disasters. To protect myself in these calamities, and protect those who love me and those I love, I need power."
"Ashlesh was born from the emotions of all life in Runeterra. Then from another angle, as long as I can establish a joyful connection with all life in Runeterra, then even if she is the master of the authority of joy, I can still wrestle with, contend against, and even usurp her."
Towards the end, Faen clenched his fists. There was no moral pressure in his eyes because of saying the word 'usurp'.
Spirits in the spirit realm could strengthen themselves by creating the emotions they needed. And similarly, besides this, lives in the spirit realm also had a more direct way to become stronger—devouring their own kind.
Demons under the same concept devouring each other was a very common thing among spirit realm lives. Based on this, great demons wouldn't stop their kin from infighting. Because the essence of their mutual devouring was just promoting from low-level drudges to high-level drudges. And in this process of mutual intrigue, it would also improve the intelligence of these drudges themselves, and create more emotions for them to devour.
And what Faen wanted to do, planned to do now, was to eat Ashlesh's blessing—accurately speaking, eat the sugar coating, and then fire the cannonball back.
Based on this, Faen never thought he was some saint or savior. But if this could give Faen power, give Faen enough confidence to protect those he loved, Faen was willing to become a person playing the role of savior.
Looking at Faen in front of her, Janna tilted her head slightly, her ethereal eyes still hanging with a bit of incomprehension. Not being human, as a life in the spirit realm, Janna's thinking was also different from ordinary people. Like now, after getting Faen's response, Janna didn't stop because of this, but continued: "But this is of no benefit to you."
Janna said calmly:
"In terms of status, what you inherited is the concept originating from the Primal Joy Ashlesh, while what I master is only the people's expectation for the future on this land of Zaun. Sharing this authority with me, perhaps in the long run Zaun will become a part anchoring the entire Runeterra. But this also means you have to prepare more things and devote more effort to Zaun. Otherwise, what I get will be far more than what you can get."
"So this is just a contract." Faen said:
"I can't stay in Zaun forever, so I need a friend to help me handle Zaun's affairs. I will be responsible for the control of the general direction, but I don't have enough time to polish the details. As for the contract between us—if we cannot reach a consensus on a certain matter, you must take me as master. If you are still unwilling to give up, then we will part ways."
Hearing this, Janna thought slightly, then nodded, her voice still ethereal and calm: "I am willing to conclude a contract with you, and take you as master. But even so, we don't have enough power to create our God-Chosen blessed ones."
Janna said calmly: "My power has seriously weakened along with the split of ancient Zaun. Although the concept you represent is ancient, the power in the spirit realm is not enough to create large-scale blessings."
Hearing Janna's words, Faen nodded understandingly.
Faen wasn't a pure spirit realm life, which meant Faen was destined not to be able to randomly sublimate other lives in life status according to his own will like a spirit realm life in the true sense.
But this problem was easy to solve—
"Hunt a few demons." Faen proposed: "If I remember correctly, there should be quite a few kin of great demons here in Zaun. Seize their mass in the spirit realm. Even if we can't create kin of the same level, we can still create a batch of elite warriors connected with Zaun's spirit realm."
Hearing Faen's words, Janna thought briefly, then nodded and said: "This is indeed a way. Then let's do as you said, Master."
"..." Hearing this, silence. A moment later Faen raised an eyebrow and couldn't help saying: "Why 'Master' all of a sudden?"