As if she had been pulled out of the hot springs of the Blessed Isles, Isolde, in her soul form, took a deep breath.
After a thousand years of slumber, when she opened her eyes again, Viego was standing before her, staring at her in a daze.
Yet when she lifted her gaze, what entered her eyes was a ruined scene. The Sentinels of Light had carved a bloody path forward and were following tightly behind Thresh.
However, Caleb had already finished gathering his strength, and the blood-colored tissue on his body crawled out once again.
He had already drunk the remaining vial of liquid. All he was waiting for now was Yaanogel to frantically draw the blood from his body.
These tissues would grant Caleb even greater power, pushing his attack to the absolute limit.
Likewise, after gaining these tissues, Caleb was now closer to Yaanogel's Ascended form.
After this attack, there would be almost no strength left in Caleb's body.
Manaflow Band operated at full power, sustaining his body as its arcane energy was continuously consumed.
Absolute Focus had been activated, not to mention Caleb had already been operating Gathering Storm earlier.
This strike would be absolutely terrifying.
Regarding the Ruined King and everything he had done over these years, Caleb had already figured out quite a lot.
But after this, what should he do?
Caleb's palm was covered in sweat, his eyes locked firmly on the man before him and on Isolde, who was about to transform into a spirit and return to the mortal world.
"Viego."
Isolde looked at the man before her, her gaze complicated.
Within it was the joy of returning to the world, the emotion of seeing her beloved again, yet most of all, there was sorrow for this world filled with such suffering.
"You turned the summer of our love into a surge of pain and madness."
"Bones piled high. Everywhere I look… Ruination…"
Yet even as she said these words, the way Isolde looked at Viego was still filled with tenderness.
Behind them, Atreus had already been swallowed by the tide of corpses. The mortal will that had returned to his body had defeated the Aspect once again.
The Ruined Legion's Pantheon was gone. All that remained was the golden war god who had Ascended.
With an unyielding spear, he would overcome the Ruination before him.
The moment monsters met Atreus's spear and shield, they turned into flying ash.
"Now, please rest with me."
"I am happy that you have remembered me until now."
After Isolde whispered those words, Viego seemed to find much more release.
Strands of Black Mist drifted out from the triangular wound in his chest. The Black Mist across the entire world slowly dimmed, no longer able to blot out the sky and cover the sun.
Viego turned back and looked at Caleb, who had long since prepared himself, then nodded.
"What I wanted was so simple, yet I was willing to pay any price for it."
Viego had completely let go, but behind them, Thresh, who had just used Flay to throw Irelia aside, shouted in unwilling fury.
"No…"
A thousand years of planning seemed about to turn into nothing more than an illusion in this moment.
From that island full of monks to the night when the Black Mist filled the sky.
Every effort had been destroyed in an instant.
This time, the sound of Caleb's step breaking through the sound barrier was louder than any time before.
Yaanogel's spear also emitted a light unlike anything it had ever released before.
By the time the smoke cleared, everyone could only see a single figure standing up amid the layers of mist.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Thresh turned to flee, but all he could see were the Sentinels of Light closing in around him.
By the time he realized something was wrong, he could only take a desperate gamble. Because of that, the lantern he had kept as a backup did not have many souls left inside.
Outside, the people who had been corroded by the Black Mist gradually regained clarity in their eyes.
The triangular wound was gone, and so was that eerie green crown.
Thresh's skull mask slowly detached, revealing a handsome face beneath it.
Senna climbed up from the ground. The Black Mist that had just surged out from Viego's chest had now come into her hand.
Raising the enormous gun in her hands, Senna fired at Thresh without the slightest hesitation.
Lucian slid forward as well, The Culling erupting from his twin pistols.
A line from Akshan's gun locked onto Thresh, followed by a violent downpour of bullets.
Jinx and Zeri also emptied all the bullets in their weapons into Thresh's body.
"You think you represent light? You think the force that drives your weapons is justice?"
Now, a truly mocking expression could be seen on Thresh's face. He slipped into the Black Mist, attempting to escape.
However, after one bullet struck him, pale moonlight made him unable to break free for a moment.
Immediately afterward, a spear nailed him hard to the ground.
"That was merely a tool the monks on the island used to punish heretics…"
Thresh's smile continued. Even Caleb, who was slowly walking over from the distance, seemed unable to stop him from continuing.
"Where do you think the water from that spring, the one you believe could save people, came from? What did the monks use to build their grand halls and towers?"
"Why was there a treasure vault beneath the Blessed Isles? And what kind of people were allowed to enter that island?"
Even Caleb roughly understood what he meant, the Blessed Isles had never been some truly blessed land, but a place where sanctimonious hypocrites gathered.
"And what does that have to do with your current situation?"
Caleb had no intention of following the other party's train of thought. He also knew that if he fell into the other party's logic, being persuaded would only be a matter of time.
"Can we take him with us?"
What had just kept Thresh here was Aphelios's Gravitum, combined with Pantheon's spear.
However, just as everyone crossed through this side of the Black Mist, an even more terrifying aura spread out from Noxus's Immortal Bastion.
"Destiny! Domination! Guile!"
Those three words poured into Caleb's mind almost instantly, and his expression became extremely ugly on the spot.
Mordekaiser!
How had this guy come out of the realm of the dead again?
Caleb's expression grew ugly to the extreme. At this moment, he was almost entirely relying on Yaanogel to feed the blood tissue back into him, as well as the last remaining effects of that potion, just to keep himself standing.
He had not expected that the moment they sent one away, an even more terrifying one would arrive.
Thresh's smile did not last long before his face changed into another expression.
Before Caleb could react to what had happened, Thresh had already disappeared from where he stood, turning into a point of light that shot toward the Shadow Isles from afar.
Jinx tried to hit him, but the bullets seemed to pass straight through the point of light, unable to affect him at all.
The terrifying aura disappeared along with him. Caleb secretly let out a breath of relief, then immediately began thinking without stopping.
Why exactly had that aura appeared out of nowhere?
Had Mordekaiser returned to the mortal world?
"Let's go back first."
Seeing the questioning look in Zeri's eyes, Caleb spoke softly.
This battle had consumed far too much of him, but in the end, it could still be considered a completed mission.
What they needed to do now was return to the Twin Cities, recover, and prepare for the war that could arrive at any moment.
Yaanogel also needed to return to Shurima. There were still more things waiting for him there.
…
In the empty hall, at the place where everyone had already left.
In the silence so deep that even the fall of a pin could be heard, the music box where two figurines had once stood was still slowly turning.
However, there was nothing left on it now.
The two people who had once been unable to touch each other now lay on the ground, seemingly embracing.
A love that crossed a thousand years had begun like a fairy tale.
Though the ending had been stained by Ruination, not even death could separate them.
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