Hearing Zach’s words, Kai’Sa looked like a child who had done something wrong, and a flash of panic suddenly passed through her eyes.
But soon, as if she had thought of something, the panic in Kai’Sa’s eyes suddenly turned into stubbornness.
At that moment, Taliyah, who had been buried beneath the yellow sand, also staggered to her feet.
When she looked toward the place where she had just been standing, her expression was even more exaggerated than Kai’Sa’s.
Her small mouth fell wide open, her face full of disbelief.
“Zach…
you…”
But Zach did not respond to her, because Rek’Sai’s other massive claw had already stabbed toward him again.
Under Kai’Sa and Taliyah’s gaze, an unbearably dazzling light suddenly burst out from Zach’s body.
As the light spread, Rek’Sai’s pair of massive claws were forcibly pushed apart.
Immediately after, Zach’s figure shot into the sky, appearing more than ten meters up in the air in an instant.
Even Rek’Sai did not react right away when she saw Zach suddenly appear before her.
Ever since the war against the Void, Shurima’s Ascended had withdrawn one after another, and she had lived as a remnant of the Void in the Shuriman desert for thousands of years.
During those thousands of years, she had held an absolutely overwhelming advantage against every living being she faced.
But now, Zach suddenly gave her the same feeling she had felt when facing the Ascended during the war against the Void.
This human could actually contend with her using only his own body.
The instant Rek’Sai froze, Zach’s heavy fist smashed into the side of her head.
“Boom!”
Rek’Sai only felt an enormous force erupt from Zach’s fist.
Her body flew backward out of her control, and behind her was that deep pit.
Just like that, Rek’Sai, who had only just climbed out of the burrow, was punched straight back into it by Zach.
After doing this, Zach hovered in midair, his entire body covered in golden light.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he stared fixedly at the deep burrow ahead.
Below, Taliyah looked up at Zach in the sky, her eyes trembling violently.
“An Ascended…”
Kai’Sa was confused.
Kai’Sa had only heard others speak of the Ascended, so she did not know exactly what the Ascended of ancient Shurima looked like.
But weren’t the Ascended supposed to undergo a transformation in form?
For example, turning into a jackal-headed man, or a crocodile-headed man, or something like that.
But Zach’s appearance had not changed at all.
Even his size was exactly the same.
While the two of them were still hesitating, Rek’Sai’s roar came once again from inside the burrow.
Her body, covered in black-purple armor, burst out of the burrow and rushed straight toward Zach in the sky.
At the same time, the Xer’Sai that had just been blasted away also surrounded them from all sides.
Even more Xer’Sai began rushing out of the burrow.
Seeing this, a grave look flashed through Zach’s eyes.
If he allowed a large number of Xer’Sai to crawl out of the burrow and surround them, then even if he was strong, he would probably be worn down little by little.
Right now, their goal was not to kill as many Void creatures as possible, because Void creatures could not be killed off completely.
Their final goal was to leave this place.
Zach was not the only one to realize this.
Kai’Sa and Taliyah below realized it as well.
Kai’Sa flashed behind Taliyah and stood back-to-back with her, staring closely at that incredibly deep Void burrow.
After the long battle earlier, the magic inside Taliyah’s body had nearly run dry.
If they were truly surrounded by the Xer’Sai, it would be very difficult for her to provide Kai’Sa with any help.
Thinking of this, Taliyah’s heart filled with complicated feelings.
She regretted so much that she had not listened to Kai’Sa back then, indirectly causing Zach and Kai’Sa to fall into danger.
Zach and Kai’Sa had been willing to risk themselves to help her, but right now, all she could do was become a burden to them.
Looking at the deep pit ahead, wreathed in purple light, and then at the towering cliffs around Xolan, the look in Taliyah’s eyes began to change.
“Kai’Sa, can you keep these Xer’Sai away from me?”
Hearing Taliyah’s words, Kai’Sa looked at her in confusion, only to find that Taliyah’s entire body was completely wrapped in a dense, muddy yellow light.
Seeing the Xer’Sai already reaching them, Kai’Sa did not hesitate.
Icathian Rain poured out.
For a time, the battlefield was split into two parts.
On Kai’Sa and Taliyah’s side, there were still the few Xer’Sai left from the beginning.
On Zach’s side, there was Rek’Sai and the countless Xer’Sai inside the burrow.
The next instant, the clash between Zach and Rek’Sai rang out once more.
Amid the violent roar, one of Rek’Sai’s massive claws was actually broken off by Zach’s bare hands.
But at that same moment, countless Xer’Sai had already appeared behind Rek’Sai, at the edge of the burrow.
He stomped down hard in midair and charged straight toward Rek’Sai as she fell backward.
Because every time Rek’Sai charged out of the burrow, she went straight toward Zach above it, which meant that every time she fell backward, her massive body would completely cover the burrow’s entrance.
The instant Rek’Sai blocked the burrow again, Zach reached the area near her abdomen.
Buzz.
Immediately after, the short blade that had always been fastened at his waist appeared in Zach’s hand, resonating with the Ascended power inside his body.
Zach drove the short blade, now filled with Ascended power, hard into Rek’Sai’s chest.
And the moment the Ascended power seeped into Rek’Sai’s body, he stomped down hard on her abdomen, using the reverse force to return to the sky once more.
Rek’Sai, along with the countless Xer’Sai below her, fell back into the burrow beneath them.
At that instant, Zach looked toward Taliyah.
“Taliyah!”
At this moment, Taliyah was biting her lower lip tightly, and the muddy yellow light swirling in her hands had already reached its peak.
Her hands reached through the air toward the cliff beside her, the one carved with the statue of Xolaani, the Faceless God, while a single memory echoed over and over in her mind.
It was something her master, a swordsman who wielded the wind with his blade, had said to her when they parted ways.
He was the one who had taught Taliyah how to control the magic within her body, and how to use that magic to protect the people she wanted to protect.
“You will soar freely between the mountains.
Use your power, whether to create or destroy, embrace it without holding anything back.
“I believe you will weave the right path of balance.
“Travel safely, little sparrow.”
“Little sparrow, you can do this!”
“Gaaah!”
A piercing roar tore from Taliyah’s mouth, and at that same moment, the magic surging out of her body wrapped around the entire mountain.
Under the pull of Taliyah’s hands, the statue of Xolaani, the Faceless God, collapsed in an instant, and the cliff behind it shattered into countless falling stones that rolled down into the burrow below.
In the next instant, the burrow connecting Xolan to the underground kingdom of the Xer’Sai was completely sealed.
Do you remember Taliyah’s in-game voice line easter egg?
“Master Yasuo, it has been too long.
Allow me to show you what I have learned!”
Felix, a transmigrator from Earth, wakes up in Zaun before and during the events of Arcane.
He becomes connected to Silco’s side, gains a Skin Master System, and uses League skin-based weapons, tech, armor, and abilities to change the fate of Zaun.
Instead of letting Arcane’s tragedies play out exactly the same way, Felix tries to protect the people around him, especially Powder/Jinx, and push Zaun toward open rebellion against Piltover.
The story starts with the Piltover-Zaun conflict, then expands into the wider Runeterra setting: Noxus’s invasion of Ionia, Demacia’s internal conflict, the Freljord, Shurima, the Void, and eventually the Ruination/Shadow Isles plotline.