Chapter 437 Daughter of the Void
When Kesa woke up from her coma, the sunlight had turned dim.
She suddenly opened her eyes and looked around in horror , only to find that she had not been taken too far by those bad guys.
She was still on a mountain outside the village, just a few hills away from home.
But this is not necessarily good news.
Kesha saw that the purple-robed man who had kidnapped her, whom the believers called the Great Prophet, was now suspended in the air in a strange lavender halo, shining like a god.
The believers were crowded together as if they were holding some sacred religious ceremony, looking up at their great prophet with pious and fanatical eyes.
As for the slaves they brought with them, they were left aside without any care.
The believers did not seem to be worried about the slaves escaping. The slaves stood at the ceremony blankly, looking at the prophet floating in the air with respect and fear, and they did not dare to escape easily.
All these believers and slaves together almost filled the small hillside.
But that’s not all.
Under the mountain, beyond the mountains, one could vaguely see believers escorting slaves, slowly coming from the distant desert.
"The sacrificial teams will arrive in the next few days. Once all the sacrifices are present, the ceremony will officially begin."
"Believers, look forward to this great nothingness!"
"Praise the Lord!"
"Praise my Lord! Praise my Lord!" The fanatical roars of the believers echoed across the mountain.
"Hmm..." Keisha became more and more nervous.
She didn't know why these strange guys gathered here, so close to her home and the village.
What exactly do they mean by the ritual they are talking about?
"You're awake." At this time, Malzahar noticed her.
He turned his head and looked over, looking at Kesha quietly with his eyes glowing purple.
"You, you..." When Kesha saw his face clearly, she was shocked.
Because at this moment, Malzahar no longer looked like a human being.
Malzahar's entire skull seemed to be just a thin layer of... net? There was something horrible inside the net, glowing strangely... pulsating. Expanding. Spreading. Eager to eat.
"Who are you?!" Kesha stepped back in horror.
She instinctively reached for her waist and clenched the dagger her father gave her - perhaps the believers were not afraid of resistance from a little girl like her, so they did not take away her weapon for self-defense.
"Child," Malzahar spoke, but his voice was not a voice at all. It was cast directly into Kai'Sa's mind, an extension of the light that was not light, smooth, clear, and unreasonable.
Kesha's thin legs trembled in fear.
She couldn't comprehend what she was seeing.
“Fear not,” Malzahar said. “Let me awaken you.”
In an instant, many scenes flashed through Kesha's mind.
A huge figure towered behind the prophet, filling the night sky. Buildings... or something like buildings, upside down, clawing and swaying, sank under a vast, strange ocean. Thousands of greedy creatures swam in groups, their bodies so huge that they even blocked the spots of light that were not the scorching sun, and rolled up ocean currents in the abnormal waters.
Then, Kai'Sa saw Noxus again——
Although she had never seen Noxus, strangely enough, she knew that the illusion appearing in her mind at this moment was the distant Noxus Empire.
He saw countless monsters forming incredible waves that engulfed Noxus, the Immortal Fortress broke through terrible cracks, and then overturned in the sea of monsters. The ice surface was broken, and everything was surging and churning.
Noxus was destroyed.
Then, the Twin Cities, Shurima, Demacia, Ionia, Bilgewater, Freljord...
The entire Runeterra appeared in Kai'Sa's eyes, and then disappeared in a lavender ocean.
"You, you guys..." Kesha broke free from the illusion with a pale face.
She understood the visions: "You want to destroy the world?"
"No." Malzahar shook his head: "It's not us who want to destroy the world, but the world will eventually be destroyed."
"The end is coming. The Void will come, cleansing this world and all its suffering. And with it, each of you.
“……”Kesha’s brain was buzzing with fear.
But this strong little girl quickly broke free from the web of fear and asked through gritted teeth: "Then, what about my mother?"
As she spoke, she couldn't help but turn her head and look in the direction of the village.
Kesha was terrified, afraid of what these lunatics would do to her village.
"I told you not to be afraid." Malzahar spoke again: "Destruction is not something to be afraid of."
"I saw the world end in the absence of light and darkness, in utter emptiness. But I was wrong. The void has taken on a new form. A new possibility—"
"Everything will eventually perish, but will also be reborn."
"The merciful Lord will open his arms to everyone and invite you to merge into the great nothingness, and then obtain eternal happiness in that endless purple sea!"
"Crazy, madman..." Kesha bit her lips.
She didn't quite understand what Malzahar said, but she knew that she and her village were most likely in danger now.
She was scared. But...
"Mom!" Suddenly, Keisha turned around and ran away like crazy.
Even if there was only a slight possibility, she wanted to escape back to the village and warn her mother and fellow villagers to flee quickly.
"Alas." Malzahar sighed, "Don't you understand, child? For your mother and those villagers, accepting the integration of the great void is the real liberation."
"Bah!" Kesha's short legs moved faster: "Only a devil wants this kind of relief! I want to save my mother!"
Years of mountain shepherding have enabled this little girl to develop agile and sharp skills.
In the blink of an eye, she ran dozens of meters away, and it seemed that even the prophet's followers could not stop her.
But this is obviously impossible.
The believers didn't even have to do anything. Malzahar just thought...
"Void Swarm!" The space in front of Kai'Sa began to twist strangely.
A narrow lavender door opened out of nowhere, and several void beetles, about the same size as her, emitting purple halos, appeared in front of her without any warning.
"You can't leave." As Malzahar's voice slowly sounded, the void beetles were like solid puppets, blocking Kai'Sa's way from all directions.
In front of these hideous void beetles, Kai'Sa looked like a weak and pitiful lamb.
She had no way to escape and no power to resist.
Malzahar thought so.
However……
"Get out of the way!" The little girl actually let out an unyielding roar in extreme fear.
Although the voice is immature, it is full of momentum.
Kesa gritted her teeth, pulled out the dagger her father had given her, and rushed forward desperately.
A void beetle stood in front of her, revealing its ferocious fangs.
But she still didn't back down.
She slid to avoid the Void Beetle's claws, and then used the momentum of her full-strength sprint forward to stab the dagger into the monster's heart without reservation.
The heart, which was glowing with a strange purple light, suddenly exploded like an exploding fruit.
The sticky liquid that burst out of the void spirit's body almost completely enveloped Kesa's small body.
Kai'Sa "huggled" the half-dead ethereal body and rolled over, falling powerlessly on the sloping hillside.
Her desperate struggle ended so tragically and powerlessly.
"..."Malzahar was a little surprised.
He thought a few low-level Void Spirits would be enough to scare the 10-year-old girl, but he didn't expect that she would have the will and courage to swing her knife at the Void monster.
Is this what makes Kesha so special?
But what does this have to do with the Lord’s cause?
Malzahar was still pondering the reason for his intuition, when...
"Ahhhhh——" Kesha struggled to get up, her little face full of fear and pain.
She wanted to get rid of the ethereal body that was pressing on her, and she did it.
But part of this monster's body still remained on her body——
The strange skin was now firmly attached to her arm. No matter how hard she tore, the tough monster shell remained firmly attached to her skin.
This Void is dead.
But its skin was still "alive" - and gradually merged with Kesha, even devouring her sleeves, collar, and all the fabric and dirt on her body from bottom to top.
Gradually, the clothes on Kesha were devoured, but a layer of tight-fitting purple living skin like armor grew out.
"What, what is this?" Kesha was terrified to the extreme.
She tried hard to peel off the shell, but in her panic she broke the dagger.
But the shell remained motionless. It grew firmly on the surface of her skin, like another piece of flesh and blood extending from her body - when the dagger cut through the shell, she could even feel the pain.
"Help, help!" The little girl ran forward like crazy.
Several other void beetles still faithfully followed Malzahar's orders and quickly blocked her way.
But this time, facing the siege of the Void Beetles...
Kesha's movements were more than ten times faster than before.
She instinctively dodged the sharp claws of the Hollow Spirit that blocked her way, and then punched it—
After the fist was swung out, the layer of ethereal armor wrapped around Kaisha's arm actually squirmed and deformed passively, following the master's will, and turned into an extended sharp claw.
Just like that, Kai'Sa killed the Void Beetle in front of her with one claw, in her own dazed and horrified eyes.
A liquid with purple fluorescent light burst out from the body of the Void Beetle, and after the liquid splashed onto Kai'Sa...it was completely absorbed by the wriggling living skin.
It's as if this layer of skin can eat and evolve independently.
"This..." Malzahar's pupils shrank.
The prophet's followers around him also showed surprise on their faces.
They had never seen such a scene, let alone dared to imagine it.
Is it possible that someone could, after being contaminated by a virtual spirit closely, assimilate the spirit?
This child was not devoured by the void spirit, she... achieved symbiosis with the void spirit!
"So that's it! So that's it!" Malzahar yelled crazily: "Kesha, you are really special!"
"You - you are a symbiotic combination of human and hollow spirit, the daughter of the void! You will definitely be useful to the Lord!"
"I will send you to the Purple Sea to meet your destined, real mother!"
As Malzahar roared, the gazes of the surrounding believers also became fanatical.
Kesha became more and more confused and terrified. She couldn't understand why this skin grew on her body.
She just wanted to run away and warn her mother and fellow villagers to flee quickly.
"If only I could fly." Facing the creepy and fanatical gazes of the believers around her, Kesha couldn't help but think so in despair.
She just had a thought...
The living skin on her body squirmed and deformed, and a pair of beetle wings actually grew on her back.
"This..." Kesha didn't even have time to be shocked.
She instinctively flapped her wings and leaped into the sky with all her might.
"Stay, Kai'Sa!" Malzahar's eyes glowed purple. "The Void is your home! We are your family!"
He raised his arm slightly and was about to summon a void gate to stop Kesa.
But at this moment...
"Kesha!" A whistling sound suddenly came from the sky.
"Father?" Kesha was slightly stunned.
She recognized the voice: "Father! It's Father!"
The little girl burst into tears of joy.
Although she didn't know how her father ascended to heaven, Kesha still flapped her tender wings desperately, following the sound and trying to fly high into the sky.
At this moment, accompanied by a strong airflow descending from the sky, several figures quickly fell from the sky.
They were Kassadin, Taliyah, Sivir and Nasus.
"Kai'Sa!" Kassadin flew down excitedly and bumped into his daughter who was flying into the air.
The father and daughter hugged each other tightly in the air, staging a touching reunion.
"Are you okay?" Kassadin asked while hugging Kai'Sa.
"I, I'm fine!" The little girl threw herself into her father's arms, and tears finally overflowed from her eyes.
"It's good, it's good..." The worry on Kassadin's face finally eased a little.
Taliyah and Sivir, who were standing by, also breathed a sigh of relief.
They rescued the group of slaves in Vikaola yesterday, and also intercepted several believers of the Prophet who were buying slaves in Vikaola.
But those believers were either extremely fanatical and committed suicide, or they were newcomers who had just joined the church to make a living and knew nothing about anything.
Therefore, they were unable to get any useful clues from the captured Prophet. They only knew that the Prophet would hold a grand sacrificial ceremony on Mount Bairat.
This made Kassadin worry about his wife and daughter who stayed at home.
Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of his family, Taliyah discussed and decided with Sivir to temporarily leave the large forces of the investigation team and the mercenary group in Vikora.
She, together with the leader comrade Kassadin, and their two bodyguards, Sivir and Nasus, temporarily left the main force behind and used all their strength to control the wind, flying all the way to the Byrat Mountains in the south.
Then, after a long flight, I needed to rest for a while on the way back to the sky...
When Talia and her four companions finally flew back to Mount Bailat, they happened to see this scene.
Because Nasus heard the little girl's screams from afar, they flew towards the mountain regardless of Kassadin's anxious pleading and urging.
"It's okay, Kaisa, you're okay." Kassadin breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he asked hurriedly: "Where is your mother? Is she okay?"
"Mother is at home, she should be fine." Kai'Sa replied hurriedly, which made Kassadin feel relieved again.
Seeing him and his daughter Kai'Sa reunited and no one was injured, Taliyah and Sivir felt even more fortunate.
Only Nasus remained silent, and his expression looked extremely ugly.
When he was flying over just now, he had already heard some very bad conversations through his sensitive jackal ears.
And now, he saw this scene again with his own eyes:
“Kesha, right? You…” Nasus looked at her seriously: “What is this shell on your body?”
"Huh?" Kassadin was slightly stunned.
Only then did he have time to notice the purple shell that tightly wrapped around his daughter's skin, like exoskeleton.
Moreover, his daughter actually grew wings?
What's going on?
"I, I don't know either." Kaisha cried, "It was that madman - he, he summoned a few purple bugs out of thin air, and then..."
Then Nasus was no longer in the mood to listen.
"You mean, he can summon void creatures out of thin air?"
"Yeah." Kesha nodded timidly.
“……”Nasus was silent for a while.
He looked down at the ground, at the few Void Beetles that were still flailing their arms and legs, and at the Prophet Malzahar floating in the air in the enchanting purple light.
Malzahar stared at him from a distance.
The two people's eyes met silently in the air.
Under the powerful magical fluctuations revealed by the Ascendant, Malzahar did not show any sign of retreat.
He even seemed a little excited, as if he was a hunter who accidentally discovered an extremely rare prey in his trap.
Then, Nasus also saw what Kai'Sa had seen before, the strange flashing of non-light in Malzahar's head.
"This..." His voice suddenly became difficult.
According to legend, this great prophet can easily tear apart the land of Shurima and summon endless horrific creatures from the ground.
Nasus originally thought it was just a coincidence.
He also thought that this prophetic sect, whose doctrines were obviously different from those of the Void, was just a group of ordinary believers of the evil god.
After all, the mission, or instinct, of void creatures is to devour everything in the material realm without limit.
In Nasus's opinion, it is impossible for humans and void creatures to coexist.
In the long and difficult wars of the past, they have never had a record of cooperating with humans, let alone spreading their doctrines and developing believers among humans.
What's more, the purpose of the void is to annihilate everything, not to merge everything. The "doctrines" of the two are also completely different.
So until this moment, until he saw it with his own eyes, Nasus couldn't believe that this Prophet's Cult was really related to the Void.
But……
"Sivir." Nasus looked deeply at Sivir and the Charikar in her hand.
Charikar's previous owner died in this terrifying purple halo.
Even as powerful as the Ascended Empress Setaka, and as powerful as the Shurima Empire with an entire army of Ascended Ones, they could only barely contend with it.
And now, he was left alone.
"What, what happened?" Taliyah and Sivir both sensed something was wrong.
“Run!” Nasus’ voice was so serious for the first time: “The Void is coming—”
"Run, silly children!"
