"No."
Swain rejected Caleb cleanly. The two of them looked at each other from a distance through a portal.
Caleb understood now. Noxus's land was barren anyway.
With its extremely long coastline, Noxus could be said to be relatively relaxed when resisting the death realm's corrosion.
The legions under Mordekaiser were different from Viego's Black Mist army. Although their combat power and numbers were no worse than Viego's, Mordekaiser would not command the Black Mist to cross lands he had not yet conquered.
Compared to scattering the Black Mist far into the distance and constantly wasting precious energy, Mordekaiser naturally would not be so wasteful.
But when it was time to summon the Black Mist, he would not hesitate in the slightest.
Bilgewater's fall could probably only be counted in days now.
Yuumi closed the portal, and Caleb's expression still did not look good.
Noxus would not follow him to the Shadow Isles to take down that existence.
They only needed to slow the speed at which they lost territory and concentrate their main forces around the Immortal Bastion.
When war broke out across every front, the pressure Noxus suffered would drop sharply.
To put it more simply, it was like everyone was now threatened by the tiger that was Mordekaiser.
Noxus did not need to join forces with others to kill this tiger.
It only needed to keep running, and run faster than the other people ahead of it.
As for the suffering Bilgewater was currently enduring, and the wounds this world would suffer?
Noxus had created plenty of those itself.
Why would it care about these?
"Maybe we can request reinforcements?"
Kai'Sa reminded him softly from the side.
Along the way, aside from Ionia, which required crossing the ocean, and Demacia, which was far to the west, Caleb had united almost every nation that could serve as an ally.
The reason he had not gone to those two places was simply because their top-end combat strength was not enough, and they were also in a state of peace.
Caleb had no need to force them into the war.
However, Caleb had already decided that he would definitely use the Shuriman Emperor's decree to recall the Darkin in Ionia, and he also had to get his hands on Demacia's petricite.
But those things could only be considered nice additions. It was hard to call them timely aid.
"Not really..."
Caleb silently shook his head. Among the nations and regions he had allied with, almost every single one had to face the threat of the Void.
If he scattered their forces, then when the Void invaded, Caleb would fall into the nightmare of being surrounded from all sides.
But even if they went to the Shadow Isles, Caleb himself had no way to deal with Mordekaiser and Veigar.
The people he could bring over were still not enough in terms of combat power. The only ones who could really help were Ryze and Kai'Sa.
"What about Ixtal?"
Kai'Sa still refused to give up and continued asking.
"If they were that good at fighting... I'd be very happy..."
"Unfortunately, they even had to be careful when dealing with Piltover miners, and their leader's combat ability is also pretty... average."
Caleb thought it over and still chose not to use harsher words.
He felt that if a few of Zaun's guys joined forces and put in some effort, Qiyana's death would only take a few days.
"So this time, the Twin Cities only have two options in front of them."
"First, we build fortifications, enter a state of war readiness, and, like Noxus, wait bitterly for the front line to spread out. Once the enemy's forces split across multiple fronts, we can breathe much easier."
"The second option is for me to bring every bit of usable power to the Shadow Isles, at least Kai'Sa, Ryze, the two Mecha suits, and Yuumi."
"That would be much riskier, but it could still solve the problem once and for all."
"However, without realizing it, we would also be doing Noxus a favor for free."
Caleb had to consider more than just the current crisis.
Even with Hexgates, no matter where he was in the world, Caleb could transport supplies and personnel there.
But there was another point, some people in Ionia might help Caleb out of chivalry or for the sake of the world.
But Demacia and Noxus, those two nations had almost no reason to help him.
With the Noxian homeland locked on as a target, they had only stopped their border invasions against other nations and planned to take a defensive posture.
If it were not tied to the survival of those warlords, they probably would not fight with all their strength.
All that talk of "kings force you to kneel with worldly authority, but Noxus lets you stand again" was pure bullshit.
The so-called "fairness" was just the strong growing stronger and having no taboos. Compared to the kings of small nations, the warlords were not inferior in the slightest.
Mel of the Medarda family had done business in the Twin Cities for so long, but she still could not compare to her mother and brother, who had profited from war.
At the very least, ordinary people in Demacia still had stable and wealthy lives. The unjust treatment mages suffered was the price Demacia paid.
So these two brothers were actually the same kind of thing as the Blessed Isles back then. They sacrificed some things and gained some things.
Back then, the letter Viego's great-uncle Vladimir sent over might not have been only to find Mordekaiser's missing skull at the time.
It may also have been an attempt to take control of the Blessed Isles.
The Trifarix, the Pale Lady, had they ever done good things? Perhaps they had.
But that so-called "good" was not for the world, nor for anything else. It was merely for their own selfish interests.
Maybe there had once been that proud passion to defend their homeland, but under Noxus's later rule, Caleb could say with certainty that not even a trace of it remained.
Even in the Rune Wars three hundred years ago, Noxus's shadow must have been behind the side that started it!
Caleb silently considered the Shadow Isles' top-end combat strength, and still came up with a method.
This method was extremely risky...
Of course, Caleb was not the one taking the risk.
A certain blue-skinned bald man felt a gaze land on him, and his body shook.
Ryze suddenly had a very bad feeling.
"Come, come, come..."
Caleb smiled at Ryze with clear bad intentions.
...
Bilgewater Harbor.
On the day the last Wolf Moon rose each year, Bilgewater would hold a grand celebration.
During the celebration, quite a few people would usually go missing.
But who cared? After all, people died every day anyway.
This festival was dedicated to the eternal death god, Kindred, and it was divided into three parts.
The opening legend, the feast.
And the grandest and most exciting scene now taking place, the duel between Lamb and Wolf.
In this duel, the actors playing Lamb and Wolf would fight each other.
If Lamb won, then before the next Carnival Night, everyone would restrain their beastly nature and drape themselves in the clothing of honesty and courtesy.
If Wolf won, then people would live for their desires.
Lamb was played by a weak man grabbed at random, while Wolf was not only large and powerful, but also had his own special weapon.
The cheering crowd did not notice the occasional disappearances in the corners. As long as it was not them, there was nothing to worry about.
Of course, they also did not notice that a small white figure was weaving through the crowd, squeezing her way to the front row.
And beside her, a huge wolf's head floated eerily in the air.
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