"Sir, are you… one of the divine beings from the legends?"
The caravan guide, Sha'ib, spoke in a hushed tone as every pair of eyes turned toward Duke.
While all of them walked soundlessly on the ground using their specialized silent step, Duke floated above the sand, gliding forward effortlessly beside them.
"Divine being?"
Duke chuckled and shook his head. "If you mean one of Shurima's Ascended, then I suppose you could say I'm half of one. But unlike those who've exhausted their potential, I can still… ascend further."
He had taken the Uloya Elixir—Shurima's second path to Ascension, created for sorcerers instead of warriors.
By definition, Duke was half an Ascended.
But his body had not turned into obsidian like the others. He still retained his flesh and blood.
Those who ascended through the Sun Disc shed their mortal forms to become gods. Yet that transformation carried a fatal flaw: once their flesh was reforged, they could no longer evolve further.
They gained divine power at the cost of future growth.
Duke's soul had been tempered for a thousand years, yet his body remained intact. That gave him limitless potential to dig deeper—both literally and figuratively.
His goal was not to become another faded Ascended, nor to stand among the so-called gods who looked down from the heavens.
He sought to reach a higher dimension of existence.
The people around him, however, were utterly lost. Concepts like "ascension" and "dimensions" were too far removed from their world. What they cared about was their next meal and how to survive until tomorrow.
Seeing their confused expressions, Duke sighed. "Why am I even telling you all this?"
"Never mind. I should focus on my own business."
Opening his inventory, Duke released a satellite drone into the air. It rose rapidly, climbing to a few thousand meters in seconds. At the same time, he equipped his headset, Edith, and initiated contact with Rage and Pride.
The higher the drone climbed, the wider its detection range grew. Once it surpassed three thousand meters, Edith picked up Pride's transmission.
"Father!"
Pride's voice resonated through the bone-conduction link.
"Where's Sivir?" Duke asked immediately.
"She was enveloped in a beam of light and vanished before my eyes," Pride replied, his tone heavy with guilt. "I'm sorry, Father. I lost the target."
He stood atop a sand dune, gripping his Darkin halberd tightly, guilt clouding his eyes. When the light swallowed Sivir, he had tried to stop it, but the force had shut him out completely.
Now, not only had he lost Sivir, he'd also lost contact with Duke—and the weight of that failure was crushing him.
"It's fine. I left a tracking seal on her—she won't get far."
Duke's tone was steady as he sent his own coordinates to Pride.
"Find Rage and rendezvous with me."
"Yes, Father!"
The link cut off. Pride threw back his head and let out a furious roar that echoed through the dunes.
It was the first time in his life he had failed his father.
"Kids… always so emotional."
Duke rubbed his temples with a helpless sigh. He could feel Pride's guilt even through his voice.
A tracker on Sivir? Of course not. He hadn't installed one yet.
That was just to reassure the boy.
Still, Sivir carried traces of his mana—enough for him to sense and locate her.
Magic was a far better medium for tracking than any device. After all, a tracker could be found. Mana couldn't.
"Sir, that canyon ahead—that's where you wanted to go," Sha'ib said, snapping Duke back to the present.
Ahead lay a vast cleft in the earth. Calling it a valley didn't quite do it justice—it was more like a wound carved by the blade of an ancient god.
Sunlight failed to penetrate the abyss, and cold air spilled out from its depths like a ghostly breath.
"Where will you head next?" Duke asked, gazing into the shadowed canyon. Deep down, he could feel Sivir's presence somewhere inside.
"We're going west—to the Marrowprint Bazaar."
"Then this is where we part ways. Safe travels."
He floated forward and landed lightly on a slab of black stone. Sha'ib and the rest of the caravan bowed slightly before turning away.
Before long, Duke was alone, stepping into the canyon. The rock was cold and lifeless to the touch. Here, sunlight felt extinct.
Broken stones littered the path. After walking for only a few minutes, Duke came upon an enormous pit—large enough to swallow a building whole.
At first glance, it looked like the ground itself had grown a massive, fanged mouth.
Toxic mist fumed from its depths.
"This massive hole… could it be the work of the Rek'Sai Queen?"
Duke clipped a breathing mask onto his face, peering into the dark chasm. A tunnel of that size couldn't have been dug by ordinary Rek'Sai.
It had to be the work of the Queen herself—the very one players often joked about as "the Shuriman Excavator."
The Rek'Sai referred not to a single creature but an entire species of Void burrowers. Their numbers were beyond counting. The smallest were melon-sized, while the largest… could dig a hole like this.
The Rek'Sai Queen.
"Looks like Kalixei's completely overrun by these things," Duke muttered. "I'd better find Sivir before she runs into them."
He skirted the pit and moved deeper into the canyon. His mana traces confirmed that Sivir was still alive—and moving. Hopefully, that woman had the sense not to provoke the Excavators.
Even if she could kill one, it wouldn't mean much.
Sivir was, after all, still just a mortal with a divine weapon.
This canyon reeked of danger.
Let's hope she's smart enough to stay unnoticed, Duke thought.
As he walked, he idly twirled his lightsaber hilt between his fingers. His drone had already flown ahead to scan for her.
Boom!
A thunderous roar tore through the canyon, shaking the walls. The echo was followed by another—a beastly scream rolling through the rock.
"Hm?"
Before Duke could even look toward the sound, he heard the sharp, staccato rhythm of energy blasts—like rain striking a bamboo fence.
A blur of violet light streaked through the air. Below it, the ground split open as a massive fin sliced through the rock, chasing it from beneath.
Zzzzt! Zzzzt! Zzzzt!
A storm of violet projectiles poured down like rain, bombarding the sand as a figure materialized in front of Duke, landing lightly atop a jagged rock.
The newcomer was encased in strange, sleek armor that shimmered with violet light. Her torso was wrapped in tight, reflective scales that hugged her graceful frame, faint energy veins pulsing beneath like living muscle.
Her limbs were encased in darker carapace-like plating, tough and glossy, their ridges lined with blunt bone spurs.
From her shoulders grew two massive pods, shaped almost like leeches, their forward openings crackling faintly with arcs of electricity.
When Duke's gaze met hers, the armor around her head peeled back, revealing a cascade of black hair and sharply defined features.
Faint markings, etched by long exposure to Void energy, traced her face—yet they only enhanced her wild, dangerous beauty.
Her identity was unmistakable.
The Daughter of the Void — Kai'Sa.
"What are you doing here, outsider?"
Her voice was clear and melodic, like a songbird's call—an uncanny contrast to the monstrous armor she wore. A hint of reproach softened her otherwise stern expression.
"Looking for someone."
Duke shrugged.
Kai'Sa's brows furrowed. "Looking for someone? Here?"
"Yeah. Did you see a few beams of light fall into this canyon earlier?"
Before she could respond, a thunderous crack split the air. A massive burrower lunged from beneath the ground, jaws wide, aiming straight for Duke.
Kai'Sa's expression hardened, her living armor twisting and sealing around her head as electric arcs danced across her shoulder pods.
"Don't," Duke said calmly.
He raised a hand and unleashed a telekinetic blast. The massive beast was hurled backward, smashing into the canyon wall with a resounding boom.
"I got separated from my companions because of a teleportation spell cast by some ancient mage," Duke said evenly. "I'm trying to find them. Have you seen anyone like that?"
Kai'Sa stared at the creature now half-buried in rubble, her eyes wide with disbelief.
That thing had been colossal—tougher than any she had faced. Even her plasma blades couldn't pierce its hide easily. Yet this man had swatted it away without even touching it.
The burrower's impact left a deep trench in the ground, followed by a second crash as it bounced off the wall, spiderweb cracks spreading across the rock.
Beneath the earth, faint rumblings echoed—a chorus of more burrowers closing in.
"Raaaagh!!"
The wounded beast howled in agony, its roar reverberating through the canyon.
"I haven't seen your companions," Kai'Sa said, tightening her grip on her plasma blades. "But instead of worrying about them, you should start worrying about yourself."
Her gaze swept the canyon, eyes narrowing. The armor along her arms contracted painfully, stabbing her with hundreds of tiny needle-like sensations.
She was used to that pain.
It was a warning.
More Void creatures were coming.
Duke's left eye gleamed bright blue as the Eye of God beneath his illusion activated, revealing the true structure of the canyon.
Underneath the rock, several enormous signatures were rapidly converging on their position.
"The Queen's royal guards," Kai'Sa said grimly. "If you don't want to be eaten alive—fight."
As her words fell, her helmet sealed over her face once more.
"Outsider!"
End of chapter....
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