Li Lin had rarely interacted with Volibear in the past. The bear had always been discontent with the mechanical transformation of Freljord, believing it to disrupt the region's natural, untamed state. He would frequently destroy various facilities in defiance.
Since Li Lin was an outsider and many demigods relied on this "primal wilderness" to sustain their strength, he had never paid much attention to Volibear.
Yet now, Volibear had come to attack him directly.
Li Lin was frustrated. With Lissandra succumbing to Void corruption and the Watchers on the verge of awakening, this was the worst possible time for conflict.
"You've misunderstood—"
Before he could explain, the irritable Volibear raised his hand once more, summoning a deafening bolt of lightning. Thunder roared as massive arcs of electricity rained down, relentlessly scorching the energy barrier of Li Lin's mecha, the Titan God.
Seeing that words were futile, Li Lin's gaze turned cold.
The Titan God's massive jaws opened, its core mechanisms shifting as it quickly began charging energy.
In less than two seconds, a gamma beam burst forth, piercing through the crackling storm and striking Volibear's massive form at a speed beyond his comprehension.
The energy unleashed was far greater than any magic found in Runeterra. Silver-white fur was scorched, and flesh separated from bone.
Had Li Lin fired at full power, Volibear's storm-forged body would have been half-erased in mere seconds.
As a top-tier conceptual demigod, Volibear could never truly die as long as Freljord endured. Yet, it had taken him millennia to recover from his past battle with Ornn.
If Li Lin shattered his physical form now, it would take at least ten thousand years for Volibear to restore himself.
The gamma beam ceased, and Volibear panted heavily. The lightning in his eyes flickered out, replaced by shock and disbelief.
A mere human had just overpowered a demigod.
"You—"
"A great bear, torn to shreds—are you ready to listen now?"
Li Lin's voice, amplified by his mecha, reached Volibear from miles away. The bear remained silent.
Lightning crackled as he breathed, his wounds healing before the eye, but his form had changed.
The once-ancient armor he bore was now stained with a sinister, blackened aura. His once-proud silver fur had been replaced by pulsating, dark-purple flesh, and grotesque, blood-red eyes emerged from beneath his hide.
His face, partially stripped of flesh, was frozen in a terrifying expression.
Only his back remained unchanged—the battle-worn weapons crafted by Ornn still clung to his spine, and his twisted horns stood as the last remnants of his old self.
Li Lin, seeing Volibear pacified after the beating, spoke.
"The Watchers have returned. I assume you know who I mean… Is that not why you came to find me today?"
Not giving Volibear a chance to respond, he continued, "This war is not like the one from millennia ago. Lissandra can no longer maintain their seal. The Watchers are stirring, and I have no time to waste fighting you."
"Do not assume that being a demigod makes you invincible. The Watchers are an entity beyond even the Void. They won't just end Freljord—they will end all of Runeterra."
"Lissandra…" Volibear growled through gritted teeth. He had not forgotten the woman who once defied the natural order. "She brought the Watchers upon us!"
The Void had existed long before the birth of the universe itself, but its peace had been shattered not by the cosmos, but by the presence of Runeterra—an anomaly disrupting the fabric of reality.
The Watchers had long set their sights on this world. Even if Lissandra had not made a pact with them and unleashed them willingly, they would have broken free eventually. It was only a matter of time.
"There's no point in dwelling on that now." Li Lin shook his head. "What matters is how we stop them."
With that, he contacted Soraka, who was currently on high alert at the Institute of War.
A rift in space opened, and a violet-skinned, horned woman stepped through.
She immediately took note of the severely wounded Volibear facing off against the Titan God. A flicker of astonishment crossed her otherwise serious expression.
Turning to Li Lin—who had just exited his mecha and landed beside her—she furrowed her brows. "What happened here?"
"This will take too long to explain… For now, please use the power of the stars to heal Volibear."
Soraka hesitated as she examined the demigod's gruesome wounds but eventually clasped her staff and called upon the stars.
A celestial light, brimming with vitality, rained down upon Volibear. Within moments, his injuries fully healed, restoring him to his prime.
"Child of the Stars."
Volibear did not express gratitude—his nature would not allow it. He simply acknowledged Soraka with a quiet murmur and a firm look.
She forced a smile in return, but when her gaze shifted back to Li Lin, her expression darkened with concern.
"You issued a Tier-One War Alert. The Watchers… they've begun to stir?"
"To be precise, Lissandra has fallen to the Void's corruption."
At Li Lin's command, the containment chamber on his mecha slowly opened, releasing the unconscious Lissandra.
The sight of her sent a visible tremor through Volibear. He looked ready to rip her apart—until his gaze flickered toward the Titan God, and he begrudgingly restrained himself.
Compared to when she was buried beneath the Abyss, Lissandra was no longer human.
Her veins had burst through her ice-blue skin, twisting into tendril-like growths. No trace of her former self remained. Her entire body was overtaken by writhing, purple-black corruption, trying desperately to consume her mind.
Perhaps as an act of final resistance, she had managed to keep it at bay—but only barely.
Soraka's frown deepened as she channeled another pulse of starlight into Lissandra's body, only to shake her head.
"She cannot be saved."
As if awakened by this last glimmer of hope, Lissandra stirred.
Her hollow, corrupted eyes trembled as she reached out toward Li Lin with clawed, silken-white fingers.
"I… I can't… control… The Watchers… they are breaking free—"
Before she could finish, in a desperate act to prevent her soul from being devoured, Lissandra activated a self-destructive spell.
Her body shattered into pieces, ending her existence.
As her life faded, the ground trembled violently.
A pitch-black abyss erupted skyward, swallowing the storm that had once heralded Volibear's arrival.
"—ROAR!"
Sensing his power being consumed by an insatiable hunger, Volibear let out a furious bellow and unleashed a barrage of thunderous strikes upon the darkness.
Yet, each bolt of lightning was effortlessly absorbed, vanishing into the void like ripples in an endless sea.
And then—
A massive, pale-white hand, far larger than even Volibear himself, reached out from the abyss.
The world quaked in terror.
The Void Watchers had arrived!