Legends of Runeterra

There is light underground too, the key is knowing where to look.

The key is knowing how to look.

But I don't need light. Not like before.

Before, my eyes could only see so far into the dark, but the vision I possess now allows me to see worlds I've never known before. I can now perceive colors, contrasts, and shades that don't exist in nature. I can see that the walls that hold back monsters are not impenetrable—they are like the colorful curtains on a stage, easily shattered.

Sometimes I wish I couldn't see what was in front of me, but then I remember that if I hadn't adapted to life down there, I'd be dead by now.

And sometimes I wonder if it would be better to die.

The man I was dragging had worse eyesight than I did. In fact, he was practically blind in the darkness. Only the pod on my shoulder cast a faint light in the pitch black.

This amount of light is not bright enough for human eyes to see clearly, let alone the speed we are moving at.

He was panicking and stumbling with every step.

He was nothing down here, but above ground he was a leader, the chief of a desert settlement.

So I took him captive. He must see the danger below, must fully realize the fate that awaits his people.

I practically carried him. My incredible strength was due to the living armor covering my body.

It covered my entire body, clinging to my skin like a thousand tiny hooks digging into flesh. I wasn't even sure how to distinguish this rugged, hard shell from my own body. I was no longer the same person I once was. My body was once aching, and the feeling of being enveloped by these fine, cat-tongue-like needles filled me with hatred.

But now I don't mind anymore because it feels like it means I'm never alone.

I used to think I heard the shell's voice whispering inside my head, as it grew and covered me as it spoke to me, but now I think that voice was just me, trying to stop myself from going mad in the pain and loneliness.

At least, I prefer this.

The rock beneath my feet was smooth and level, formed not by the flow of lava but by the coming and going of things that lived deep underground, emerging from the subterranean soil like maggots from a rotting honeydew.

Void.

I've been down here for a long time, and I know for sure that name has no idea of ​​the true threat and terror lurking in this darkness—they simply don't understand the true nature of the Void. Those who reach the surface to hunt are merely outposts and pioneers; no one on the surface can truly understand the creatures that truly live beyond.

If they truly understood the truth, they would have shunned it, never setting foot near the lands where Icathia once stood. But mortals are all too quick to forget. Time has dulled the horrors of the past. Lessons learned in blood and pain are now mostly etched in ghost stories told by travelers around campfires, or linger in folk customs like hanging a bunch of moon pearls over the hearth, praying to Nasus for good fortune, or leaving a few sheep outside the door to sate the beasts.

But the creatures of the void are no ordinary predators.

As a babe, I remember watching a hunting pack of krimi-kros bring down a wounded skarosh. I cried my eyes out, but I didn't hate the krimi-kros for killing that gentle giant. That's their nature. The animals on the ground fight simply because they're hungry, not because they're evil.

The reason the Void creatures kill you is simply because you are a living being.

"Please," the man behind me begged. I almost forgot I was still dragging him along. "Let me go."

I stopped and slammed him against the wall, causing him to let out a pained sob.

I didn't know if he thought I was going to kill him or let him go.

A purple halo swelled in my hands, the flickering blade of the light of death.

The sudden appearance of the halo switched my vision, allowing me to see the intricate magical light in his body, flowing through his body along with the blood.

A few wisps of magic, accompanied by his panicked breath and terrified tears, drifted into the air. Though faint and insignificant, the void predators could still sense them and swarmed from all directions like desert flies to feces.

My armor wanted to eat him, but I suddenly realized that I also had the urge to share the food, so I took a step back.

He was weak, like everyone else on the surface. Piercing him with my blade of light would be a mercy, better than having his soul torn apart by the monsters below.

No! I wanted to protect the people on the ground. That's why I became the girl who came back.

I suppressed the murderous urge within me, and the light faded from my stiff fingers. I took a deep, trembling breath and clenched my hand into a fist.

My vision returned to normal and I looked around, realizing we were in a different place than I'd expected.

We were closer to the surface than I'd expected, which made the sight I witnessed doubly dangerous. The rock surrounding the tunnel glowed faintly, like a cavern reflected in an underground lake, reflecting ripples from another dimension, unknown to the creatures on the surface.

We stood at the edge of a bottomless abyss. The boundary between the two realms ebbs and flows like the sand sea of ​​Soongsa. This abyss is like a vast ocean shimmering with evil light, a constant vortex of dissolution and regeneration. Turbulent energies churn within, occasionally forming hideous forms—like the legendary Leviathans that dwell beneath the sea, though I've only heard of them in stories.

It's extremely dangerous to be so close to the abyss, but I need this man to see it with his own eyes.

Countless soulless black pupils condensed out of thin air, looking up from the abyss.

Spirals of matter formed sickening shapes.

The hunched spine stretches and flattens, the unsatisfied limbs stretch and lengthen, the hooked claws take shape from the liquid sea of ​​madness, and the frenzied evolution weaves into translucent monsters, giving them the sharp and piercing newborn cry.

They are coming...

"Open your eyes," I said to the chief.

My voice, distorted through the mask in front of my skin—a wet, animalistic rasping sound that sounded nothing like a human voice. He shook his head. He didn't understand me.

Every word I spoke sounded like I was coughing up blood.

As I thought, the chitinous plates of the helmet flipped back and overlapped one another, like an insect retracting its wings into its shell.

"Open your eyes," I said again, and this time he understood.