Legends of Runeterra

"Okay." Kassa sighed heavily, watching the shape unfold around her and above her head.

The monster's wings, twenty arms square, completely dominated her vision—and Kasa couldn't look away, as six writhing human arms pinned her head to the wall. The monster's form expanded, gradually filling the nightmare-like ocean—its home. Each of its gleaming teeth was the size of a human... and growing larger. Four predatory eyes stared down at Kasa, their gaze cold. Or perhaps hungry. At this scale, it was difficult to tell.

She preferred the monster when it was still in human form.

"Okay," she repeated. The living armor froze against her, motionless. Was it out of... awe? This armor was actually a parasite, one of those low-level creatures spit out by the void. Could it feel awe? Whatever the reason, her body was frozen. Unless something drastically changed, this might be her end. But Kai'Sa's will to live still clung to her: she fired at the wall behind her, the projectile lodging in the monster's... mouth? Or was it throat? She remembered how agile the monster was. And how massive it was.

Swift and massive. Perfect.

The final struggle seemed futile. Kai'Sa was probably dead. But at least it wasn't completely in vain. At least it hurt.

"My true form displeases you," it spoke, its tone surprisingly calm. Its voice was deafening, shattering the seams that held space together. Thousands of void remora poured out from the jagged openings. The sound bent and squeezed everything, a whisper and a roar. Space layered endlessly, boundless. A million voices blended into one aria.

Kasa's eyes widened—she understood. This was where everyone went.

In less than an hour, the Void devoured the former city of Belvis. Before Kai'Sa could reach it, the once-thriving metropolis was reduced to ash. Everything. Everyone. All that remained was a vast, shimmering crater, its debris rearranged into unrecognizable, bizarre shapes—structures shifting constantly, as if trying to reshape into the form of a living being, or the outline of a human. Like a child assembling a city from blocks.

But where had the people gone? The vastaya? The animals and plants? She fought her way through the shattered city and into the tunnels at the heart of the Hollow, but she saw no sign of humanity—only newborn void abominations, iridescent tentacles stretching for miles and what she thought were "spheres of screaming bodies." It didn't make any sense. While places ravaged by the Void weren't pretty, something always remained.

She now knew why.

"You are this city." Kasa squeezed out a sentence through the reverberating wall of sound. "You are... Belvis."

"Yes." Belvis fluttered his—or was it her?—wings. "Their lives became the initial building blocks that gave rise to me. Memories. Emotions. History. I am no different from Belvis, and I carry the name."

Belvis's majestic form bulged with hair and beard. Golden light cast faint streaks across her ray-like form, outlining a false sun on a sea of ​​emptiness, like the halo of a dying world. New flesh swayed against a tide of nothingness, veins briefly lighting up before detaching themselves from her skin, each a living nation unto itself. Schools of millions of void remora swam around their queen, like birds circling over distant peaks. It was a scene of sheer beauty. If there were gods in the void, this would be what they looked like. Horrifically distorted, monstrous, and incredibly beautiful.

Kasa was so shocked by the horror in front of her that she didn't even realize that the arm on the wall not only relaxed, but also lowered her to the ground. No one could understand all this immediately.

It chose a name for itself, she thought, instinctively brushing away a hand still lingering on her shoulder. This couldn't be possible.

Creatures of the Void never name themselves. Most, like Rek'Sai, are named after concepts from Shuriman history. It's often through the extremely lucky—or the incredibly unlucky—who stumble upon these creatures in the desert and survive, that descriptions of the Void are finally revealed. They possess no mind, let alone a sense of self. Crucially, however, creatures of the Void place no value on names. Names are merely contrivances of the real world, and they lack any desire for them.

Then why is she like this?

"I will... stop you," Kai'Sa said, but she didn't know how to do it, or where to aim. "I will kill you."

"You can't," the many voices of Belvis answered in unison. "You are incapable of even the slightest resistance. Some tried before you, in the days before my birth. Each would-be heir wielded a weapon they thought was powerful enough to repel the void. Yet, in the end, all were turned to sustenance. The fragments that remained—if any remained at all—became salt in this lavender sea. Only two survived, and of those, you alone retained your full sanity."

"Two people?"

"You, and your father."

Kai'Sa felt something weighing heavily on her chest. Countless thoughts raced through her mind, pushing her to the brink of madness. But now, she had to focus her attention on the present moment. She couldn't afford to be careless, no matter where this queen came from. She was the embodiment of hatred, the personification of a cold, ruthless act of extermination.

"You lied to me," Kasa said angrily. "That's impossible."

"I never lie, Kai'Sa," the Queen said. "Because I need not. The Void's ultimate victory is an unshakable, absolute truth. There is no need for lies, pretense, or doubt. Open your eyes, and I will make you bear witness."

Space began to contract. Belvis's massive form stretched, twisted, and then shrank—shrinking into a more recognizable form. She floated silently down, hovering before Kasa. Tendrils and eyestalks shifted, reconfiguring into an ellipsoidal sphere composed of several shapes—the shape of a human head. Belvis gazed at her audience with two faces, wrapping her wings around herself, revealing the towering form of a woman of noble status.