["Master, the energy signature of Volibear has completely vanished!"]
Li Lin's face darkened as he looked at the area where Volibear had disappeared. Though he had expected it, the fact that a top-tier demigod was so easily erased still shocked him. The power of the Void Watcher was far beyond what he had imagined. And this... this was only a Watcher...
The tremors in the ground grew stronger, emitting a mournful "groan," and even the fabric of space itself seemed on the verge of breaking apart.
The sea, churning and roaring, surged with icebergs from the horizon. The dormant volcanoes around them, awakened by the violent shift in the earth's crust, began to erupt, but before they could unleash their fury, they were consumed by the Void, their energy siphoned away.
The Abyss cracked open at an astonishing rate, spreading across several kilometers in just a few seconds. The earth itself seemed to rupture, as if a massive, deadly worm from the Shuriman desert were expanding outward. Countless rocks, mixed with shards of ice, fell into that eerie, otherworldly light.
More Void creatures, corrupted and grotesque, emerged from the rift. There were beasts ranging in size from barely half a meter to towering monstrosities hundreds of meters tall.
The moment they crossed into the material world, they greedily devoured the world's vitality. Whether it was the earth's layers, the magical energies of the spirit realm, or the living beings from both realms, everything was fair game to them.
The number of mechanical legions rapidly grew to the millions, but just like when they had fought the Void Empress, even with technological upgrades, these units were unable to resist the Void's invasion. If they were still operating with the old level of technology, even with the gamma laser weaponry unlocked, the mechanical legions would have been swiftly crushed by the Void army created by the Watcher.
And that was assuming the physical laws of the world were normal, but in this case, they weren't. The Void creatures were not affected by these distortions, while the mechanical units found their combat effectiveness severely limited.
As more than a dozen Watchers with different forms but retaining the native style of Freljord crawled from the Abyss, the battlefront continued to retreat under the onslaught of their Void beams. These beams, far more powerful than the Void Eye's disintegration rays, pushed the mechanical forces further back.
The mechanical legions were unable to stop the Void from spreading outward. Since the first Void Watcher had broken free of its seal and arrived in this plane, other Void creatures had experienced a massive surge in power and numbers.
Though most of the civilians from Runeterra had already evacuated to the Starfortress, the remaining mechanical legions had not abandoned the other regions but instead stayed behind to defend them. These legions continued to hold their ground as much as possible.
The AI had begun rerouting forces to the Freljord conflict zone, and soon, the mechanical legions there numbered in the millions—nearly five million.
Thousands of massive Dragonstrike Kings' primary cannons unleashed beams from the sky, filling the air with gray-white rays, creating a vast net of destruction. The collision between matter and antimatter generated overwhelming annihilation reactions.
Floating battleships and airborne fortresses continued to manufacture drones, which assisted in the air support for the heavy aerial combat units while also recovering destroyed mechanical units, repurposing them for further production.
Even the battle mech Kog'Maw, which had surpassed the second-tier Ascendant standard and was now far more powerful, and Xerath, a bio-engineered combat mech whose power had grown exponentially through multiple iterations, joined the fray.
However, the Watchers had not been dormant for millennia in the frozen ice. They had long sent out Void Eyes, which had divided and collected vast amounts of knowledge, feeding it to the Void's will.
The Void Empress, with a million years of knowledge, was like an ancient supercomputer compared to the Watchers, which acted as quantum-level processors. Within mere seconds, the Watchers locked onto the Titan God hovering nearby, having long been observing, but never daring to engage directly with it. They recognized that Li Lin, the commander of the mechanical legions, was inside.
"Li Lin..." one of the Watchers' singular eyes moved, speaking his name in Earth's language.
And then all the Watchers simultaneously spoke:
"We… know… you... and your world…"
Their voices, a terrifying mix of countless voices overlapping, were filled with desire, greed, hunger, and a disturbing emptiness that muddied the mind. The air around them cracked, unable to contain the weight of their words, creating visible spiderweb-like fractures in space.
From those fractures, horrifying, twisted tendrils began to emerge—each one a product of distorted energy, each a fusion of countless beings' souls and the very essence of nature itself, twisted beyond recognition.
The mental realm and the material realm complement each other. When everything in the material realm is reduced to ashes, the mental realm will cease to exist as well. The mental realm is more susceptible to the corrosion of Void energy and has long been tainted.
Despite Li Lin's triple-layered anti-demon mental defenses—provided by the Dragonstrike Mecha, the Dragonstrike Warrior, and the Project Genesis: Infinite Battle Armor—the vile voice that seemed to come from an ancient era still muddled his mind. A human's flesh and blood could not withstand the pressure from the will of a dimension, even if it had already fragmented into countless parts.
Under the control of the AI, more than ten orbital satellites adjusted their orbits. Along with the Starfortress's enhanced main cannons, they fired beams of material disintegration and gigaton-level antimatter cannons directly at the Watchers' heads.
A single Watcher would not be able to withstand the damage caused by antimatter weapons, but a group of them was a different story. They raised energy shields that shimmered with a frosty, ice-blue hue—strong enough to block the anti-energy entirely, leaving the weapons harmless against them.
Originally formless entities of Void energy, the Watchers had never needed to worry about attacks. But ever since they entered the material realm, these beings without a sense of space or time had been forced to adapt to the physical world, acquiring physical forms.
With these forms came the vulnerability of being destroyed. They understood this well, so they dared not directly face the incomprehensible energies. But focusing on defense meant they had to relax their offensive actions. Seizing this opportunity, the AI immediately severed the mecha's connection with the outside world and quickly withdrew from the battlefield.
Li Lin, however, used the watch on his wrist, which had already been infused with time magic and turned into a "perfect timing" world rune fragment. By activating the "Time Reversal" ability, he restored himself to his peak state from earlier.
["Master, with current mental defense technology, you cannot withstand the corruption of your will by the Watchers."]
Li Lin pressed his head through the armor. Even though he reversed his time, the mental influence of the Watchers still lingered faintly. After two seconds, the AI spoke again:
["Ten demigods from Freljord have arrived on the battlefield, including Ornn and Anivia."]
["General Aatrox has also led fifty Ascendants to the Flying Dragon, engaging the Void in battle."]
["I have informed them of the situation and warned them not to approach the Void Watchers."]
["With their arrival, the Void, which I had originally predicted would completely overrun Freljord in half an hour, now has its progress extended to 1 hour and 13 minutes."]
Li Lin furrowed his brow tightly. "World Rune... Get me all the World Runes, and quickly."
["Understood."] The AI's voice fell silent for a moment before continuing:
["Master, Soraka is looking for you."]
Without needing a reminder, Li Lin had already spotted the Star's Daughter floating several hundred meters away. Her once composed expression had been replaced by a look of sorrow, and her violet skin was marred by cracked, broken fissures. Her starry eyes, once dazzling, now gleamed with exhaustion and weariness. Even the staff in her hand had lost its brilliance.
In her desperate attempt to halt the Void's march, Soraka had pleaded to the stars for power. Yet, her current mortal form could not bear such overwhelming cosmic energy, but Soraka was unconcerned with her own well-being.
"Are you alright?" Li Lin quickly dispatched a floating platform to catch Soraka, whose body was swaying dangerously. After a full two minutes of rest, the celestial being finally lifted her tired gaze, locking eyes with Li Lin through the layers of armor.
"Do you remember what I once told you?" she asked softly.
At a crossroads, you could only choose one path...
Li Lin recalled the words Soraka had spoken to him several years ago, words that had left a deep impression. Without thinking, he nodded slightly.
Soraka took a deep breath, her gaze fixed on the world's chosen one with an unspoken intensity.
"The future of Runeterra depends on your decision... Now, the time has come."
(End of Chapter)