"Is Elise dead?"
Caleb looked back, but the thick black fog narrowed his vision.
He could not see anything. Still, with the Sentinels of Light's knowledge of this place, they managed to keep moving deeper in.
"Something feels wrong..."
Caleb quietly studied the surroundings. After Elise disappeared, even the little spiders had mostly vanished from sight, but the venomous scent that belonged only to spiders seemed to have never gone far.
"I can't sense Elise's presence, but this unease is only getting worse..."
Caleb frowned. Overall, this island just felt uncomfortable to him, painfully so. His body almost rejected this place by instinct, as if energy from the death realm were pouring backward into it, making him feel worse and worse.
"Human... and... mage."
A towering ancient tree appeared before them, his face full of pain and fury.
"Maokai?"
Caleb recognized the champion almost the moment he saw him.
So he was from the Shadow Isles too?
"You know me?"
The other gave a bitter laugh, then looked at Caleb.
"Then please take this out of here for me."
A point of green life essence pulsed in Maokai's hand. Even Akshan, who was merely mortal, could sense that this seed had weakened to the brink.
"After the new king descended, the entire Shadow Isles sank deeper and deeper toward the death realm."
"I fear I won't be able to hold on much longer. Before long, I may go mad. When that happens, stay far away."
From Maokai's face, Caleb could only see bitterness.
They were both demigods, yet some spirits of nature could comfortably forge iron inside a cave or inspire their human worshippers to carry out the slaughter they loved.
Maokai, meanwhile, could only watch the environment he once knew deteriorate little by little, and watch the species that had once kept him company vanish one by one.
"This is the Shadow Isles' last seed of life."
Seeing that Caleb still had not reached out to take it, Maokai grew anxious.
Would the Shadow Isles' endless night ever see the dawn?
When Thresh ruled this place, there had still been a sliver of hope.
When Viego invaded the whole world, that hope had become faint.
But once the Shadow Isles fell into Mordekaiser's hands, it had truly become a starting point from which he could expand his territory.
Under this king's iron rule, there were only the surrendered and the dead across the entire Shadow Isles.
Now, it seemed Maokai was undoubtedly about to become one of the dead.
Unlike Viego's brainwashing Black Mist, Mordekaiser had turned all of the Black Mist into his own power.
It seemed Atreus's return had also served as a lesson to Mordekaiser.
Caleb looked at the great tree whose vitality was gradually weakening, then at the seed of life whose glow was slowly dimming. After a moment's hesitation, he accepted the seed.
The green light of life flashed briefly in Caleb's hand and vanished. Maokai's eyes were also infected by the ruined gray.
"Let's go."
Kai'Sa looked at Maokai with what seemed like sorrow, perhaps because she was thinking of her own future.
Gwen covered her cherry lips in surprise. In her understanding, the Black Mist should not have been something that harmed people.
But even after Viego had stabbed through his own heart, the Black Mist had not stopped hurting people.
"What?"
Akshan wanted to follow the others, only to realize his feet had somehow been bound by spiderwebs, leaving him unable to move an inch.
By the time Caleb turned around, a grappling hook was already flying toward him.
Caleb grabbed it without thinking, preventing Akshan from being dragged away in an instant.
But more and more force was being applied to Akshan's feet. Before long, his body would probably be the first thing to give out.
"Fast!"
Kai'Sa reacted even faster than Caleb. The moment Akshan's body was pulled backward, Void Seeker was already fired.
But it was like a stone sinking into the sea. Kai'Sa's plasma failed to locate any enemy at all.
"Hurry!"
Inside the Hallowed Mist, Gwen was fast, but spreading the Hallowed Mist still took time.
The moment her scissors cut away the spider silk near Akshan's feet, even more strands wrapped around him.
"What the hell?"
Caleb was almost stunned. This had already far exceeded the range of Elise's abilities.
If Elise were this strong, wouldn't she have been banned every game back in his previous life?
"Go!"
Maokai's voice grew more and more violent. It was clear he could barely resist the Black Mist's corrosion anymore.
He slammed the ground hard, and countless roots surged toward the direction the spider silk had come from.
The earth shook. Screeches filled the sky. Through the fog, Caleb finally saw the source of the attack.
"Vilemaw!"
The boss that had been removed along with Twisted Treeline finally bared its fangs on the Shadow Isles.
Maokai's back swayed slightly, but he still advanced toward the other creature's burrow with unshakable resolve.
Caleb had no intention of getting tangled up with the giant spider behind them. After all, that thing was an epic monster.
While Maokai was fighting it, he could no longer afford to hesitate around the outskirts.
Unlike Viego, who had only wanted to resurrect his beloved, this king had no attachments and sought only to conquer the world.
For Caleb, someone so pure in purpose was a very troublesome opponent.
If Mordekaiser noticed their group and directly poured his main force into this place, Caleb had no confidence in surviving it, even with all his combat techniques, runes, and items.
If he were banished into the Realm of Death, he probably would not be able to withstand it.
When facing this unknown enemy, Caleb felt caution was the wiser choice.
For now, the plan was only to find Lucian and Senna. The moment anything went wrong, Yuumi would open a portal, and Ryze would leave last to cover the retreat.
But judging from the outskirts of Twisted Treeline, the danger level of the Shadow Isles was already nothing like before.
Lucian and Senna had gone deeper inside. The worry on Caleb's face only grew heavier.
If the Shadow Isles broke through Bilgewater, the Twin Cities would be the next to suffer.
If the land Caleb ruled were in Demacia, he could prepare for war on a massive scale and let the sacrifices of others buy him some intelligence.
But there was nothing he could do. As for Bilgewater's backbone, there was no point counting on it. Caleb could only make a risky deal with a tiger and resist the Black Mist together with Noxus for now.
The downside was that while they fought together, the Noxian war masons would very likely uncover the Twin Cities' situation in full.
Even Noxus was tempted by the Twin Cities' daily cash flow now.
However, because of Mecha Malphite's existence and the easing relationship between Zaun and Piltover, Noxus had not acted for the time being.
And now, the three southern regions, Targon, Shurima, and Ixtal, had all established diplomatic relations with Zaun.
So even if Noxus did send troops, those three regions would not let it slide.
Ixtal, where elemental magic combat had declined, was one thing. But Shurima had Darkin and Ascended, while Targon had Aspect vessels.
When the time came, the blow to Noxus would probably be devastating.
But first, the Black Mist had to be dealt with.
"Ahead... there are two figures."
The group moved quickly, and before long, they saw two gun-wielding figures.
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