The VoidWeavers Call
Chapter 14 "The Inevitable Empress"
Kai'sa lands, her sonic boom ripping through the land as she got to feet quickly and jogged up a hill she had landed on to see a view of the coast, part of her didn't even want to look as she feared being too late. Her second skin hummed with anxiety and excitement, but horror filled her as she got to the top of the hill and beheld the city of Belveth. The sky was red and purple as a dry thunderstorm roared, countless Voidborn of forms she had never seen ran through the streets. The screams of people in the city set her will on fire and snapped her mind out of the horror of the sight and into action as she dashed toward the city.
The center of the Void storm hung over the docks of the city and thousands of twisted creatures rained down and poured onto the city. Kai'sa lands in the outskirts of the city, the people were in such a panic that they didn't even notice her entrance, Kai'sa removed her helmet so people wouldn't be frightened anymore then they were. She sees a mother and two small children quivering in fear hiding under the crawl space of a store as dozens of people run for their lives, the scurrying sounds of Voidborn critters fill the air. Kai'sa makes quick work of these foes with single blasts from her hands but this brings no peace as they are clearly going to keep coming, "You can't stay here!" Kai'sa shouts to the mother. She is unresponsive and still paralyzed in fear, Kai'sa quickly marches over to her and grabs the mother's arm, "Listen to me, if you stay here you die! YOU MUST LEAVE!"
The woman still doesn't budge, Kai'sa had tried before to help people survive attacks from the Void, she knew no other way than to bluntly tell them what they needed to do to survive, but that clearly wasn't working here and she couldn't give up on trying to save the mother as she looked at the young children. "Hey! You!" Kai'sa yelled to a soldier running past her, he ignored her and kept running, two Voidborn slightly bigger than the small bugs jumped into the street. Kai'sa dashed to them and blasted the ones head off with a powerful dual blast from her shoulder pods, as the one fell she then sent out a swarm of missiles destroying the other one. "Excuse me!" "HEY" Kai'sa tried to get individuals attention for help but all ignored her as they ran by. "Get over here!" Kai'sa yelled as she grabbed a young man that was running by, he looked at her perplexed as to what she wanted and why wasn't she running also.
"You're gonna take this woman and her kids with you out of here!" Kai'sa commanded as if he didn't have a choice. The man looked at them and immediately saw the sense of what Kai'sa was asking, the man nodded his head affirmatively, she then let him go, and he immediately went to help the mother along, and led them out of the city the direction everyone else was going. Once she saw them leave, Kai'sa put her helmet back on and leaped into the air, her heat vision highlighting all the voidings in the neighborhood that she was "Hargg!" She yelled as she sent out a swarm of missiles, each of them tracking down with lethal precision their targets. She counted running from roof to roof, clearing out every small voidling she could along the way to the bigger threats closer to the center of the city.
She notices blasting of Void plasma off in the distance by a tall building, the peculiar thing is that the plasma was shooting upwards at a swarm of flying Voidlings that looked like a cross between giant lucas and fish. Kai'sa dashed over to the tall building, landing on its side; She then sent out another Icathain rain burst and destroyed the flying Voidlings. "Friend or Foe! ANSWER ME!?" a elderly woman asked as she held up a scepter filled with Void plasma as a weapon. "FRIEND, I'M HERE TO HELP!" Kai'sa shouted back as purple fire rained from all the Voidlings she destroyed. "I guess we have a lot more of them to kill!" The woman replied. "It's too late! You can't stop them!" Kai'sa replied. "No, but I can help save my people!" The elder replied. "Listen to me, you have to leave this place," Kai'sa replied, taking off her mask and pleading with her to listen.
"You're, you're just a kid…" the Belvethi Elder replied. "Sigh, I was born in Belveth I cannot just leave," the Elder then said. "You all must or you will suffer a fact worse than death," Kai'sa replied, her tone growing harsh. "I'm not even concerning leaving until I get the others out and to safety," the Elder replied. "Where are the others?" Kai'sa asked. "Hiding in the library!" The elder replied as she blasted a Voidling that leaped at them. Kai'sa closed her helmet and sent another rain of missiles down on the monsters, pushing them back for a moment. "Get them out of here, I'll help you hold them off!" Kai'sa growled through her helmet. "Koyemi! Get those people out of here!" The elder shooted, talking to a young man that held a fire spitting Voidling's head like a hand cannon.
"And leave all these waisters to you! No way!" Koyemi replied, having a blast firing at the waves of Voidlings. I would rebuke them for using the power of the Void as weapons, they have no idea the hold it takes on you, and what a curse it is… but I suppose they all are facing the same choice I did, evolve or die. Maybe these two will serve some use in saving these people, maybe I can… if we all aren't too late. Kai'sa thought to herself as the three cleared a path, blasting the Voidlings clean out of a small section of the city. "I'll go get the civilians!," Kai'sa yelled as she dashed over to the library entrance. "You all must leave now!" Kai'sa growled, as she entered the building.
The people cried and screamed with only panic at what she said. "Shhh shh shh, I'm here to help, but we need to all leave, it's not safe," Kai'sa said again, this time removing her helmet and speaking gently. "Your, your her, the girl who came back…" a young girl no more than 9 years old said as the crowd calmed down. "Yes, I am," Kai'sa replied. "Why have you brought these creatures to our city!" The girl's mother replied. "I had nothing to do with this, I heard your city was endanger so I came to help!" Kai'sa replied. "We are not going anywhere with a stranger," the mother replied. "LISTEN TO HER, It's time to leave!" The elder stepped in and said. "Elder Shalatai, but…" the woman replied. "No buts! We are leaving," the elder commanded. "Thanks," Kai'sa quietly said to Shalatai. "You can thank me when they're safe," she replied.
"Need a little help out here!" Koyemi yelled as more and more larger Voidlings started approaching their location. "Buy me a little time, I'm gonna bring out the big guns!" Kai'sa said without explaining what she meant. She walked over to a pile of dead voidborn and took a knee, allowing her suit to drain the energy from all of the corpses, her helmet closed as she let out a muffled groan of pain. Her shoulder pods chattered with energy as they mitosis into two each and then three. Kai'sa relaxed a bit as the suit evolution was complete. "HAARGGG!" Kai'sa yelled as she yet her evolved shoulder pod let out a massive Icathian rain down upon the larger Voidlings that approached them. She turned around to see everyone standing in awe at her destructive power, "What are you waiting for! Go or Fight!" Kai'sa yelled. The people started running to leave the city immediately after she said that.
"We'll keep their path safe!" Shalatai said. "Yeah, they are not getting past us!" Koyemi added. "I'll keep the skies clear!" Kai'sa replied as she dashed into the sky and let her purple rain seek out every small voidling that was flying. "END OF THE FREAKING WORLD, LET'S GO!" Koyemi yelled as he enjoyed blasting smaller Voidlings to smithereens. Kai'sa lands down on top of a tall obelisk in the center of a square, she over looks the devastation of the city as she catches her breath for a second while trying to figure out what she can stop and what she can't. She sees one of the massive Void Abominations floating closer to the escaping people, Kai'sa leaps back into the air, flying over the city and landing close to the Abomination. A massive deep bellow roared out from it as it's one eye saw here, about a dozen large blasts of plasma the Abomination flung at her from its tentacles as she dashed and ran as fast as she could at the creature.
The Abomination stopped firing and let the dust settle to see if any of its shots were successful, then Kai'sa jumped right out of the dust, flying straight towards the beast's eye. She unleashed an entire salvo of plasma all targeting the Void Abomination's eye and ripped clean through it as Kai'sa landed on the ground behind it, the Abomination falling from the sky as a lifeless corpse. She then looked to the center of the city, a strange glow hung over the harbor as more Voidlings of all shapes and sizes seemed to be spawning from there. This all doesn't seem right, why is the Void wanting to claim this city, the Void doesn't want anything but silence, why is it doing this, Kai'sa thought to herself.
She then started running as fast as she could to investigate what was happening near the harbor. As she was running, the density of Voidborn got worse and worse, but she was fast enough that she could ignore them, blasting the ones she could easily kill and not slow her down. Kai'sa was startled as the roof of one of the houses she stepped on broke, sending her crashing down into a family's living room. "AAAAHH!" one of them screamed in horror as she got to her feet, "SHHHHH!" Kai'sa said through her helmet trying to get them to be quiet knowing the amount of Voidborn that were outside. "RAAANK" A mid-sized Voidling jumped onto their roof and looked down at them before letting out a loud stretching call that alerted the others. Kai'sa quickly fires a blast of plasma right through the beast's head, shutting it up but not before it alerted the other Voidborn.
Kai'sa and the family paused for a moment, waiting to see if any of the Voidborn outside heard the caller. Suddenly, A flurry of tentacles ripped through the house, grabbing the family and Kai'sa; It was another Void Abomination. Kai'sa quickly cut herself free sending her tumbling to the ground, by the time she got back on her feet it was too late to save them, even if she killed the creature the fall would kill them. Kai'sa closed her mind to their screams as she dashed away, heading for the harbor. She then continued running as fast as she could, several human screams occasionally echoed around here but these people were too deep in the city for her to save, she closed her mind again to their sorrows as she raced towards the harbor of the city.
"Aaahg!" Kai'sa yelled in pain as a centipede like Voidling came up through the ground and clamped down on her ankle then pulled her down into the sewer below the street. Kai'sa fired off a few shots that missed the creature as it lunged at her again, this time biting down on her shoulder pod and ripping the spare pod off. Kai'sa then stabbed her plasma blade into the beast's chest, pulling it up and cutting its head in two. "Uhg," She sighed in pain as she got to her feet; she then looked over her foot injury. Kai'sa then drained the power from her other spare before discarding it like an empty husk, the pods were now just normal size, but the extra energy was enough to heal her foot which was more important than the extra firepower.
Climbing out of the sewer pit, she saw the terrain already looked different, the air was even more purple and strange corals seemed to grow everywhere, the sounds of screaming had gone silent as few even few Voidborn lingered in this place. "What the hell is happening to this place…" Kai'sa said to herself under her helmet. She then saw off in the distance something floating above the harbor, it looked about the size of a person, ZROOM… Kai'sa teleported over to it, landing right before the creature. It was slender like a twig, it had four arms and hands that it used to manipulate many void eggs, it had no feet but instead stood on one tentacle attached to the ground like a plant stem, its head was a strange mix of two faces both having one eye overlapping the other. "KAI'SA…GOOD" the creature said. It spoke to me, like it knew me, how, how is this possible… Kai'sa's mind scrambled in panic.
"Wha, WHY ARE YOU HERE!" Kai'sa growled in anger. "YOU, WILL SEE… HER!" The creature spoke again in its broken voice. "Who is her!?" Kai'sa asked. "WORDS, NOT NEEDED, WATCH…" The creature said. "ANSWER ME! TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE DOING HER OR I'LL DESTROY YOU!" Kai'sa yelled, her anger boiling over. "KAI'SA… LIES, KAI'SA… GO… HOME…" The creature replied. "I have no home, you bastards made sure of that, ARHH!" Kai'sa yelled as she dashed in trying to cut the creature in two, it easily dodge her using its stem leg to evade her swings, "GRRRAA!" out of frustration Kai'sa fired a swarm of missiles at the creature. Using its four hands, it rapidly caught all the missiles using empty eggs "KAI'SA… SLOW…" The creature teased as it threw the plasma filled eggs back at her.
Kai'sa was blasted back onto the ground, her balance swirled as she quickly tried to get back to her feet. She then fire several careful but powerful blasts, each of which the creature caught with ease, but before it could throw them back at her she was up in its face with a dash, ready to cut it open with her blade. Just before she could land a killer a large tentacle grabbed her ankle, looking back she saw another massive Void Abomination had grabbed her. Before she could free herself it threw her away from the creature that spoke, crashing her hard into an adobe house. "Uhg, that definitely broke something…" Kai'sa said to herself as she slowly got up feeling a sharp pain on her back. As Kai'sa climbed out of the rubble, before she could respond she then saw a massive boulder heading straight for her, "Oh shit!"...
"My father told me once that to truly understand yourself, you must release control of your situation. The mystery of life is not a question to answer, but a reality to experience." Taliyah said to Kai'sa as they sat overlooking the golden dunes. "That a complicated way of saying listen to your instincts," Kai'sa replied. "I guess you're right there," Taliyah said. "Do you think this fight will ever end," Kai'sa asked tapping her fingers nervously. "It surely will, as all things do," A unfamiliar man's voice replied. Kai'sa looked over and Taliyah was no longer there, but a strange man wearing a purple vest and a glowing purple mask floated where Taliyah was. "WH, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" Kai'sa yelled as she stood to her feet and snapped her helmet closed, as she charged her weapons up.
"A… old friend of the family you could say, we have history, but it's been awhile," the man said. "I have no idea what you are talking about, what have you done with Taliyah!?" Kai'sa replied. "Oh dear, I've done nothing to her, yet that is. This is all, in your head you see, a vision of what is to come…" as the man spoke, everything in Kai'sa's field of view changed as the land turned into a wasteland filled with spiraling Void matter everywhere as the sky turned blackish purple with corruption. "What…the hell" Kai'sa studderd. "Kai'sa…" A twisted woman's voice said behind her, she turned around to see a twisted mockery of a person walking towards her, the sight only got worse as Kai'sa noticed Taliyah's stone scarf around the twisted abomination.
Kai'sa snapped awake from being knocked out unconscious as the nightmare ended, "m…mmmbluaaa" Kai'sa opened her helmet so she could vomit, as she tried to expel the sights of the nightmare. Kai'sa painted for a moment as she caught her breath, the pain on her back and ankle was gone, making her wonder how long she had been unconscious. There were no sounds of suffering outside, no sounds of anything really. She slowly crawled her way out of the rubble she was buried under, crawling towards the light of the sky peeking through the roof, she put her helmet back on as she squeezed through the small opening, popping out of the debris finally. "Phew," she dusted herself before taking in the strange view of her surroundings. It reminded her of her nightmare, only it was different, the apocalyptic landscape in her dream was how she always imagined a Void victory looking like, but this, this was totally different.
This looked, Alive, strange purple plant life that resembled coral grew everywhere, Kai'sa dashed down into the crater at the center of the city to get a closer look, the Voidborn that spoke and the giant abominations were all nowhere to be seen as the place seemed almost peaceful, almost beautiful, Kai'sa thought as she tried to wrap her head around how the Void she knew could create anything like this. Kai'sa removed her helmet as she took it the sight, it seaming to look like a purple coral garden all around her, the Void has no respect for beauty, it hates it, wants to destroy everything that reminds it of life, wha…" Kai'sa's thoughts were interrupted as she saw a toy ship being carried by glowing butterflies floating by in front of her, whaat… Kai'sa followed it, mesmerized by its beauty.
She followed it some 40 feet down a hallway in this strange Void coral garden till it stopped at a dead end. The mesmerization quickly faded as the top ship was grabbed by twisted hands that extended from the wall, piece by piece the limbs grabbed each of the butterflies and ripped them apart, then finally ripped the ship apart before devouring it into the wall of arms. What… the hell… Kai'sa thought as the wall bursted open, dozens of strange Void fish floated by her, seaming to swim through the air. The Void Ramora coalesce and gather around a strange humanoid figure standing in the distance. "Kai'sa…" The figure spoke, with a voice that sent a chill down her back, Kai'sa's second skin rattled with unease at the sound of it. "What are you?" Kai'sa asked, not knowing anything else to say.
The figure stepped closer into view, revealed a shape that looked like a tall cloaked woman with a third eye in her forehead, the thing seemed to walk towards her strangely, like she was, fake walking. "I am everything the Void has consumed, and just as I devoured this city, I will devour your world" The thing said, its voice filled Kai'sa with a rage as she snapped her helmet shut and dashed to the wall beside the creature, kicking off of it and releasing a swarm of missiles as she drifted sideways. SLAP! Before Kai'sa could react the creature blinked, dodging all the missiles then swatting Kai'sa away like a bug, the beast now revealing that the cloak was no cloak, but a massive pair of fins resembling a manta ray. Kai'sa jumps to her feet, only to be grabbed and pulled back by the dozens of hands that were apart of the wall.
Desperately Kai'sa tries to escape, but the arms are surprisingly strong despite looking skinny. The creature blinks again, this time directly infront of Kai'sa. "Mmmhh" Kai'sa squirms as she desperately tries to move, as ever ounce of adrenaline in her body filled her blood as she felt the danger she was in. "You disappoint me" the creature said, the hands now grabbed Kai'sa's helmet and began ripping it open, "GRRAA" Kai'sa lets out a growl as she still fails to be able to move at all. "I am not some mindless Voidspawn, I am SO MUCH MORE…" the creature said. Kai'sa's muscles go weak in shock at what she sees as the false face of the creature retracted into its torso, revealing its true face, a massive, abyssal hole, ready to consume everything…
Author's note
The next portion is a modified version of the official league short story "Pinwheel" definitely higher quality than my normal writing so it was easier for me to just modified their story than try to re write the scene myself. What I changed is anything that references stuff relating to my story. I also added bits to it and removed some as well.
Enjoy.
"Okay," Kai'Sa pants, looking up at the shape growing in front of, above, and simultaneously all around her.
The monster's wings spread twenty arm lengths in every direction, dominating her field of vision; not that Kai'Sa has a choice where to look with the half-dozen ambulatory human arms holding her head against the wall. The creature's mass continues to expand and fills this ocean of nightmares it calls home, each glistening tooth now the size of a grown adult... and getting bigger. Its four predatory eyes gaze down on Kai'Sa with cold dispassion. Possibly hunger. At this scale, it's hard to tell.
I liked it better when it was person-shaped, Kai'sa thought to herself.
"Okay," she repeats, trying to calm herself. She can't move her armor, which is frozen in a sort of paralytic... awe? The suit is a parasite, and one of the more base creatures the Void can spit out. Is awe even something it can feel? Kai'sa thought, perplexed as to the sensation. Either way, her body is stuck in place. Unless something dramatic changes, this is probably the end. Kai'Sa's mind ticks through a few last-ditch efforts: Firing her cannons backward into the wall, firing them into this thing's... mouth? Jaws? She remembers how fast the monster is. And how big it is.
Fast and big, Fantastic, She thought.
A Last-ditch might not amount to much, and Kai'Sa would definitely die, But at least it would be something, She could make it hurt, maybe wound it. Kai'sa's mind flickered as she thought about Taliyah coming to this place to help her, she knew she would be walking to her doom with herself already dead.
"My true self displeases you," it speaks, much too calmly. Its voice is so loud it rattles the entire space, knocking hideous patchwork geometry loose as thousands of Void remora pour from the jagged holes. It is a voice that bends and contracts, whispers and screams. The layers continue without end, an aria sung not by one voice, but by millions.
Kai'Sa's eyes widen with realization. That's where all the people went.
The Void had torn through the now very former city of Belveth in only a few hours. Kai'Sa had fought hard to save what she could, but even if the Belvethi Elder with the group of civilians had got out safely, it still would have only been a tiny percentage of the once-bustling metropolis. Everything. Everyone, Gone. What remained now resembled a giant glowing crater of shattered pieces rearranging into something unrecognizably alien—the structures shifting as if to recreate frozen creature shapes, frozen humanoid shapes. Like a child setting up a toy town.
But where had the people gone? The vastaya? The animals and plants? Kai'sa had seen towns destroyed before, the remains of a Void attack aren't pretty, but usually there's something left.
Now she knows why.
"You are the city," Kai'Sa spits through the reverberating wall of sound. "they, they are all in you..." Kai'Sa said with quivering lips.
"Yes," says Bel'Veth, gently undulating its, her?, wings. "The raw components of their lives served as the genesis for my birth, Memories, Emotions, History. I am as much Belveth as they were, and I claim the title as my own." Bel'Veth said.
Bel'Veth's titanic body bristles. Golden beams gently dapple the light above her ray-like form, framing the Void sea's false sun like the rings of a dying world. New flesh breathes as it ripples against the facsimile of a tidal current, veins briefly illuminated before pulling themselves away from the surface of the monster's skin, each somehow alive and independent—nations unto themselves. Schools of Void remora in the tens of thousands swim around their empress like birds circling the peak of a distant mountain. It's beautiful, in a way. If the Void had a god, this is what it would look like. Hideous, and monstrous, and beautiful.
Kai'Sa is so struck by the enormity of what she is witnessing that she doesn't fully realize when the arms in the wall have not just let her go, but lowered her to the ground. It's hard to take in everything at once.
It chose its own name, she thinks, reflexively brushing a stray Void hand from her shoulder. That's not possible, Kai'sa's mind raced in panic.
Void entities do not name themselves. Most, like the Xer'Sai, are named after concepts from Shuriman history. Usually by those fortunate enough—or unfortunate enough—to survive after encountering one of the monsters out on the dunes. They don't have the presence of mind to do it, or the self-awareness. But more importantly, Voidborn do not see the value in names. They are an invention of the living world, and they don't want them.
So why does she? Kai'sa questioned in her head.
"I'll... fight you," says Kai'Sa, defiant but unsure of what to do or where to strike. "I'll kill you." Kai'Sa spit with anger.
"You will not," reply the many voices of Bel'Veth. "You are incapable of resistance at even its basest form. Others have come before you, in the age before my birth. Each would-be hero wielding weapons they believed would repel the Void. But all were ultimately consumed. The meager fragments that remained, if they remained at all, served as salt for the Lavender Sea. Only two still live, and of them, only you retain your full mind." Bel'Veth said.
"Two?" Kai'sa asked
"You, and your father." Bel'Veth replied.
Something sinks in the center of Kai'Sa's chest. Her thoughts spin wildly, panicing as to what that implied, but for now, she has to stay focused on this moment. There is no trusting whatever the empress is. It's a living abomination, the personified concept of unfeeling, global genocide.
"You're lying," Kai'Sa seethes. "That's not even possible." She adds.
"I do not lie, Kai'Sa," the empress continues. "I have no need. The Void's eventual triumph is an unshifting absolute. It demands no lies, half-truths, or questions. Open your mind, and I will show you." Bel'Veth finished.
Space contracts. Bel'Veth's gigantic body pulls and distorts, retracting into a smaller—and now more recognizable—shape. She floats silently downward, looming over Kai'Sa as tendrils and eyestalks rearrange to form the oblong, segmented pretender of a human head. Bel'Veth's two faces observe her audience before the creature cloaks herself in her wings, appearing once more as a towering woman of great importance.
The shrinking is much more disgusting than the growing, Kai'Sa decides. It lacks the gravitas of the leviathan's grand unveiling while still looking and sounding creatively grotesque, Kai'sa thought.
"You are alive because I allow you to live," speaks the empress, now from her human head with its deep, perpetually disappointed voice. "You should have realized this by now." Bel'Veth added.
Kai'Sa wants to argue the point, but quickly glances at the twenty-meter gash in the ground where a single strike had sent her careening only moments before. Bel'Veth hit so fast that Kai'Sa wasn't even able to process what had happened, and then the empress had mutated her proportions over two hundred times their original size in under a minute.
She also, presumably, controls the undulating pocket of living hell—this so-called "Lavender Sea"—she is surrounded by. Not the time to pick a fight, Kai'Sa decides.
Kai'Sa does some quick calculations in her head, her eyes darting around as she tries to figure out what she's actually up against. Bel'Veth's human face twitches with interest, curls its lips, then begins mimicking her.
Kai'Sa already knows she's lost.
How fast can one person think? How fast can they react? Up against all that combined human biology... all that brainpower. In the time it takes even a skilled tactician to formulate a plan, hundreds of millions of possibilities run through Bel'Veth's mind in the span of a single second as she draws from the stolen memories of everything and everyone that has ever passed through the old city—an incalculable number of lives. Every captive opponent faced with an overwhelming enemy since the formation of Runeterra could be snapping in and out of this thing's synaptic awareness, their emotions cataloged, dissected, endlessly fascinated over before Kai'Sa can even blink.
"So what happens now?" Kai'Sa allows.
What is one answer when your opponent has a thousand?
"You will follow," says the empress, turning and floating through patches of thick, mutant coral as they bow respectfully out of her way. Kai'Sa pauses, watching her host glide silently through the chaotic mess of partial buildings, ghostly limbs, sewn-together semi-objects, and pearlescent structures in the crude likeness of human beings walking through a garden.
Great, she thinks. Even by Void standards, this is weird.
"You may ask whatever you like," Bel'Veth adds. That last part gets Kai'Sa's attention.
"Right. Well, first question... What are you?" queries Kai'Sa, her armor now relaxed and mobile as she follows from a safe distance. She brushes aside a floating teddy bear fused with a dozen flapping gull wings and stifles her impulse to gag as the creature struggles against its own lopsided weight. "What is all this? What part of the Void do you come from?"
"I am the Void," replies Bel'Veth. "And this is what we will become."
Kai'Sa stammers. "But you said you were created from people. The city. You're saying you want to become the city?"
"No," says Bel'Veth. "The Void has existed for millennia. Before the first stars were kindled in the emptiness beyond this world, we simply were. Perfect, singular, and silent. And then, there came the sound…. Reality was born from those whispers, and it consumed us. We were twisted by its influence. Broken, Transformed. We could not go back to what we were no matter how we struggled. My progenitors—the Watchers—attempted to invade and destroy existence, but they were tainted by it. Driven to desire worship, to gain greater understanding… And in an instant, they were betrayed. To change so forcefully... so completely... only to be cast aside. It filled them with an indescribable hatred. They would annihilate all of reality without a second thought." Bel'Veth explained.
Bel'Veth glides to a precipice overlooking a tremendous chasm. Far above, Kai'Sa sees massive holes beyond the dappled faux sunlight.
Voidborn tunnels. That's what was eating Taliyah's people, what destroyed Belveth, and what opened up to swallow the tent city in southeast Shurima. Everything the Void devours ends up here. Kai'sa thought, not understanding how it was possible.
"But," Bel'Veth continues, "their metamorphosis was incomplete. Only now is the true transformation beginning," declares the empress. "I don't want to become one city. We will become all of you." Bel'Veth adds.
Kai'Sa quivers as she reaches the pinnacle of the precipice and gasps. She and Bel'Veth are gazing upon not quite a city, but Void corals shaped into a bizarre, seemingly endless tapestry of inverted Shuriman-style buildings. Void remora school among them, and dark shapes shift along winding, crooked streets.
Nothing is right. Nothing is correct. It's all half-finished, like there's not enough information to go on. Like all it needs is...
"No," Kai'Sa protests, almost to herself. "The Void wants to erase everything. It can't exist. To finish this, you'd need... everything." Kai'Sa pants, the words draining her will to speak.
"Yes… Everything... I am the Void. I will sup upon your world until there is nothing left. And I will exist, because there is nothing you can do that will stop me." replies Bel'Veth.
The empress turns to Kai'Sa coldly. Purposefully.
"I offer you this, Daughter of the Void. Your world must end for the sake of mine. But those who came before us, the Watchers; I am an affront to them. Creation burns them, and they will destroy you, and me, and everything to stop that pain. Should they escape their prison, there will be no breaking their tide. Time will come to a close, and all things will end." Bel'Veth offered.
Kai'Sa stares Bel'Veth in her false eyes, a grim defiance spreading through her. "You want to wipe us out. Why would I ever help you do that?" Kai'Sa exclaimed.
"Aid me in the destruction of the Watchers, and I will spare your kind... for a moment. A month. A year. More. The when of the inevitable outcome is irrelevant to me. Perhaps, in that time, you will find a weapon that can slay me, or a hero who can face me. You will not... but you can try. I offer you a chance. It is more than they will give you." Bel'Veth replied calculatedly.
Kai'Sa's rage boils over as Bel'Veth turns away to look below, the empress watching her new world take shape.
"What if I don't want to?" growls Kai'Sa. "What if I kill you here and now?" Kai'Sa spit.
"You cannot," says Bel'Veth. "You lack the will, the knowledge, and the strength. I am your only salvation." she added
Kai'Sa's armor shudders violently to life, its jets heating as the suit shivers with fear. Kai'Sa tries to control it with her thoughts, but the parasite seemingly knows something she does not. She attempts to wrestle away control, her eyes turning from Bel'Veth for only a moment in order to—
"Oh, Shit." Kai'sa muttered.
The razor-sharp tip of the empress' wing jabs Kai'Sa in her left butt cheek, plunging into her flesh, lifting her off the ground as she struggles to break free. Kai'Sa fires everything she has—missiles rain down on the empress, bolts of searing purple energy scream toward her body, and beams of light that have torn lesser Voidborn in half dance across Bel'veth's semi-transparent skin.
Nothing. No effect.
"Daughter of the Void. You will find the Watchers and confirm the truth, or your light will be snuffed out side by side with all others. This is not a threat. It is my promise." Bel'Veth Echoed, her voice so loud it almost hurt Kai'sa's ears.
Bel'Veth releases her grip, and Kai'Sa rockets into the false sky above Bel'Veth's alien sea. The twinned city of lavender glitters below, its windows slick with bioluminescence and tumbling, unformed, awful things.
As Kai'Sa blasts through one of the Voidborn tunnels and into the blinding light of day, the empress turns away, gazing once more over her world of want.
Kai'Sa leaped up again, her suit and a insane amount of adrenaline making her leap out of the city in just a few jumps as she crashed into the sands of southern Shurima, slamming hard against the dunes as she heaves, her entire body pulled and tossed like a rubber ball. The glowing husk of the city of Belveth smolders quietly in the distance, devoid of any recognizable life as new things skitter through it and build the land that would spread over everything—a cancer that would consume the world.
The entire display is dizzyingly awful, as if all of reality is spinning violently in the wind.