Void Beetle Evolution Guide

“Kaisa, the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life was not stopping them. Go find Sejax; even the Void fears the Eternal Flame in his hands.”

When Kasha came to her senses, she realized that time had rewound to the moment before she entered the tower, and the blessed water she sent out had returned to the insect hive space, as if she had never entered the tower at all.

"Was all of that just a dream?" Just as she was thinking this, a tearing pain shot through her skin.

An arrow was aimed at her from afar, and fireballs and lightning bombarded her in turn... Time rewound back to the moment when she was about to be surrounded by the Darkin!

In that critical moment, almost instinctively, Kai'Sa used the time magic that Zilean had taught her.

It was as if a habit used for many years had been firmly engraved in her physical memory, making it impossible for Kaisa to tell whether she had only been in the tower for a short while or whether several years had actually passed.

As a clock array appeared behind her, the hour hand spun at an unreasonable speed, and Kai'Sa felt as if the speed of the whole world had been slowed down many times over.

Accelerating one's own time flow is equivalent to slowing down time in the rest of the world.

The powerful, volleyed arrows appeared limp, Horaz's lightning bolts seemed almost within reach, and Stellat's fireballs appeared to stand still.

The feeling was so amazing. The sense of crisis that had just been on the verge of death vanished without a trace. Kai'Sa calmly dodged the attacks. She felt like she could even take a leisurely stroll amidst the Darkin's siege!

Moreover, thanks to the magic provided by the World Runes, this state seemed to be able to continue indefinitely. The thought of the entire world slowing down while she remained unchanged filled Kai'Sa with a secret sense of satisfaction.

"Wild Hunt, did you see that? I've got them all under my thumb." Kai'Sa ran calmly across Balkux's carpet of roots, letting the roots swirl up behind her, always just a hair's breadth away from reaching her.

"Don't get carried away. Think about what Kieran said to you at the end."

These words were like a bucket of cold water poured on Kaisa's enthusiasm, quickly calming her down.

"We are all fish living in the river of time, and the longer we stay outside the river of time, the more likely we are to get stranded."

Doesn't this mean that... if time magic is used without restraint, the laws of the world will kick you out of the material realm, and like Kieran, you will be forever banished to an abnormal spacetime?

With that thought in mind, Kai'Sa lost all interest in playing around. She accelerated her breakout and headed towards the east coast, leaving the Darkin far behind.

Chapter 382 Adverse Reactions

Kai'Sa's full-speed running was already fast, but after being accelerated by spacetime, it was increased several times over, resulting in an explosive increase in her speed. Now, even Aatrox, the fastest of the Darkin, could only look on in the dust.

She herself may not feel anything, because her reaction speed has also been increased by the same factor, so there is no feeling of being unable to react because the speed is too fast.

Kaisa's subjective feeling was that the world had slowed down while she remained the same, but to others, she was moving so fast that she was almost turning into a beam of light.

As the purple streak of light rapidly shrank to a dot on the horizon, Aatrox, knowing he could never catch up, stopped his pursuit, his chest heaving violently.

"Damn it, she got away!" Tarush chased after her, watching as Kai'Sa disappeared in a flash. He slammed his halberd into the ground and roared angrily.

"Her speed is the fastest I've ever seen in my life; even my eyes can't keep up with her pace," Barkux exclaimed in a deep voice, his dozen or so scarlet eyes trembling in a disordered and disjointed manner.

Aatrox squinted in thought, and only spoke after everyone had gathered around. "She clearly heard our conversation and still ran east. This person definitely has a close relationship with Zolani. The good news is that she went east on her own, and Zolani is there too. We'll stick to our original plan; we shouldn't let either of them get away, no matter who they encounter."

"Yes!" The Darkborn responded with a resounding clang, and, according to their pre-assigned teams, they formed a fan shape and headed eastward alone.

Aatrox flew over first, unaware that he had been targeted by Kai'Sa, who was deliberately luring him there.

Even if he knew, he wouldn't back down. His formidable strength was the source of his pride.

……

"Have they caught up?" Kai'Sa ran to a gray-white field, slowed down, and canceled the time acceleration to return everything to normal.

"No, it might take a while before they catch up," Wild Hunt replied.

For no apparent reason, Kasha felt a wave of mental disorientation. That feeling of temporal and spatial distortion tore at her brain again, and the excruciating pain swept over her like a tidal wave, even more intense than before.

She quickly found a rock to lean against and sat down, breathing heavily, like a stranded fish.

Kasha clearly felt sluggish and out of sync; her brain began to process information slower than her eyes could receive it, and everything she saw seemed a beat too slow.

She turned her head slightly, but felt that her brain took a while to turn back, as if her brain was submerged in water and had become displaced from her body.

"Are you alright?" Wild Hunt asked with concern, while simultaneously sending countless spikes into Kai'Sa's neck, delivering a mild electric shock to calm her down. (The rest of the text appears to be gibberish and unrelated to the question.)

"It's okay, I'm fine."

Kaisa said she was fine, but she had already taken out the World Rune and used the power of the rune's laws to resist the erosion of the laws of time in order to stabilize her condition.

After a while, Kasha felt much better and asked again, "How long did I use time magic just now?"

"...Three minutes? That's how I felt. I don't know how you felt," Wild Hunt said uncertainly, unsure if the time-space acceleration had also affected him.

"Ugh, the side effects are already this severe after only three minutes?" Kasha clutched her head in pain. She turned her head sharply, as if afraid her brain might have gone awry and she wouldn't be able to turn back.

"From now on, usage time should be kept under one minute," Wild Hunt reminded.

It was Kaisa who learned time magic, not him. No matter how powerful Kaisa was as the host, her true form was still a fragile human and could not withstand the side effects of magic.

"By the way, Wild Hunt. What did Kieran mean by his last words? Let's go find that Eternal Flame."

“The Eternal Flame is the special flame I told you about before, the kind that might be able to move Ornn,” Wild Hunt replied. “Its wielder was an Icathian from the same era as Zilean, named Sejax Kayu-Rains Ikason, though I usually just call him Jax.”

Jax is a member of the Icathian resistance. Before joining the resistance, Jax served as a weapon master escorting mages who discovered dark power during the earthquake. He watched them use the Torch Staff and barely managed to contain it with the elemental flames generated by magic.

He escorted the mages to the ruling council, where he met Ziran, a council member. Both attended the speeches, listening to the mages recount everything they knew. They called the dark power they had discovered underground "the Void," and said that the Void's power was strong enough to subdue the Ascended Celestial Warriors of Shurima.

Jax and Kieran both recognized the danger of this power and felt it should not exist in the world, preferring that their homeland's revolution be suppressed rather than that it be released.

But when they thought of the Shurima who had torn down the walls of Icathia for over nine hundred years and refused to allow them to rebuild them; when they thought of the many talents they had provided for the Empire, yet none of them were recognized as qualified for Ascension; when they thought of the emperor's repeated rejections of their petitions without reason; when they thought of the suppressed anger and discontent of the citizens of Icathia, they all chose to tacitly condone and indulge them, unwilling to become enemies of the people.

However, this act of leniency caused the two to regret it for the rest of their lives, feeling deeply guilty.

Jax still regrets not killing those mages on the spot, while Zilean regrets not stopping the council.

That said, the reason Jax has survived to this day like Zilean is because he saw the torches and staffs used by those mages amidst the chaos when the Void erupted.

The eternal flames burning above can harm void creatures. He used this weapon to fight his way out of purgatory, leaving behind the ruins of his homeland and his long name, determined to take good care of "the last light of Icathia".

His life was extended by the eternal flame in his hand, and like an inextinguishable flame, he still wanders the world, searching for someone strong enough to rebuild Kauri.

"So, Zilean thought Jax could help me, which is why he sent me to find him." After hearing Wild Hunt's explanation, Kai'Sa couldn't help but sigh, "Runeterra is so big, how am I supposed to know where to find him?"

"When the time is right, you'll meet naturally." Wild Hunt coughed twice. "Speaking of which, I'm a little curious."

"What are you curious about?"

"Since Zilean and Jax know each other, I wonder what their opinion is of Zolane, who is also an Icathian?"

"Uh, how could I forget to mention Zoran to Kieran!" Kai'Sa exclaimed belatedly.

“Zolani ascended after the cataclysm, so she didn’t have time to change anything. I guess these people are all in the same boat.” Wild Hunt didn’t dwell on this matter and turned to inquire about Kaisa’s health, “How are you feeling now?”

"I'm much better now." Kasha stood up and turned around; her coordination had completely returned to normal.

Wild Hunt patted her bottom and pondered, "Kieran said that the World Runes nurtured your magical talent, and now you are a spellcaster. Perhaps you could study how to better use the runes. To be honest, simply absorbing the dissipated magic power is a waste of your potential."

On

Chapter 383 Blood Altar

"But I remember you were the one who said to hide the runes so they wouldn't be discovered."

"I said that because I was worried a bald guy might suddenly appear and try to steal the runes, but we're in Icathia now, so it shouldn't be a big problem." Even the Wild Hunt wouldn't want to mess with a fanatic who has collected most of the world's runes.

"How should we use it? I really have no idea."

Kai'Sa looked down at her palm, where the cracks in her skin armor were originally meant to fire bullets, but now she had forced the World Rune out of her body, revealing half of it through the cracks.

White, holy mist emanated from her, and Kai'Sa tried to catch it but couldn't. Instead, it split into several swirling fists that began to spin. It looked cool, but it seemed utterly useless.

“This rune fragment’s effect is healing and nourishing. I’m afraid if I punch it, the wound will heal itself.” Kai’Sa fidgeted with her index finger, picking at the rune in her hand. “It feels like the life source and offensiveness are completely unrelated.”

She felt that the healing provided by the Fountain of Life was sufficient for now, but she couldn't come up with any good ideas for using it as a weapon.

"Don't forget how terrifying the Great Devastation caused by the combination of the Curse of Ruin and the Fountain of Life is."

"So, you want me to combine world runes and time magic?"

That's the idea behind Wild Hunt. He offered a suggestion: "Maokai became a spirit of nature by drawing water from springs. You could perhaps use runic power to accelerate plant growth and time magic to speed up the process, making a seed grow into a towering tree in the blink of an eye." (The last two lines appear to be unrelated and possibly machine-generated text: "Mei is here, I'm not free, Lin is here, is she...")

“Plants…” Kasha looked around, but all she saw was the saline-alkali gray earth and the ubiquitous ground sheaves. She muttered, “Where are there any plants that can survive here?”

"I'm just giving an example. It's the same for instant healing."

"It feels like it would be very useful, but it can't compare to the power of the Great Ruin at all."

"If such a large-scale explosion were to occur, you and I would be the first to suffer. Let's take it slow; perhaps we'll suddenly have an epiphany under some opportune moment."

Afterwards, Kai'Sa continued her journey to the East Coast before the Darkin could catch up with her.

The murky blue sky gradually receded into the distance. Although the atmosphere remained deathly still along the way, once they were far from the Great Rift, the land was finally no longer riddled with earth-shattering craters.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Kasha suddenly saw a flock of white seabirds flying across the horizon, the wreckage of a fishing boat abandoned among the rocks, and deep claw marks left on its body by an unknown creature.

“We’re not far from the coastline. Maybe there’s a smuggler’s port or dock here where they can ship the goods to Bilgewater for sale,” Wild Hunt said.

The most dangerous place is the safest place. Setting up a transit point on the coast of Icathia is something that smugglers who are willing to risk their lives for money are perfectly capable of doing.

"Hey, I never said I was going to run away."

Kasha climbed up a rocky cliff, wanting to see how the Icathian coastline differed from other places, but instead noticed something unusual in the distance.

"what is that?"

It was a strange landscape, with many sharp rock spikes growing from the ground, forming circles pointing towards the center. Blood-red thorns broke through the soil, twining around the rock spikes like exposed blood vessels of the earth.

A red altar stands in the middle of the terrain, its shape resembling two giant claws extending from the ground, raised as if holding a heart.

White, sticky material forms veins across the surface of the altar, resembling the marbling on beef, with the gaps between the bricks faintly visible beneath these veins.

Based on the broken statues and totem pillars lying on the ground around her, Kai'Sa could almost confirm that the altar in front of her was reborn from the ruins of some temple.

There are people on the altar, and there are people below as well.

Wild Hunt's reminder made Kai'Sa focus her gaze on the altar above. Between the enormous claws, white matter wove into deformed and twisted tentacles, their shape similar to mutated gene chains, with many parallel gaps in the middle. The earth ravines that broke through the ground looked much the same.

A figure stood at the bend of the tentacle, raising his hands high, with two chains hanging down from his arms, the ends of which were connected to crescent-shaped scythes.

"Could that be...?"

"It's Zolani."

Kaisa's eyes narrowed instantly as she gazed into the distance, her gaze sharpening like that of a predator.

She immediately crouched down and hid behind the rocks. Then, a pulsating light membrane emerged from her skin, and she vanished without a trace.

Concealing herself to avoid alerting the enemy, Kasha peeked out again to carefully examine Zolani.

Before this, Kai'Sa had only seen the faceless statue of Zoran, the Ascended. In her memory, she should have been wielding dual swords, but after being resurrected as a Darkin, the scimitars in her hands had turned into a blood-red chain scythe.

Because the idol's face was missing, Kai'Sa paid particular attention to Zoranny's head. With her neat, short, pale hair and a perforated eyepatch covering half her face, she exuded an indescribable evil aura.

Kaisa hadn't expected to find Zolani before any of the Darkin, which made her hesitate about her original plan to sit back and watch the fight unfold.

Should we form an alliance with Zolani before the other Darkin arrive? After all, Zolani is considered part of the human faction and is an enemy of the Darkin, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

But after watching further, Kai'Sa dismissed this naive idea. Zoranny was indeed an enemy of the Darkin, but she could never be a goddess of mortals.

Below the altar, there were many believers dressed in white robes. They held staffs and wore chainmail over their robes, raising their arms devoutly to the goddess.

Kai'Sa had heard Varus say that Zolani's followers practiced blood magic, and what she saw confirmed this.

The exposed skin of these believers was dark red, like demons, praying for her return, her mercy, and her control.

They poured the collected blood into the stone platform beneath the altar. As the blood slowly filled the groove, the altar began to pulsate with life energy, vibrating the surrounding sand in a slow and steady rhythm.

Almost simultaneously, Kai'Sa felt her muscles twitching at the same frequency as the distant altar, as if some inexplicable force was trying to take control of her body.

She immediately suppressed this strange feeling and looked over again, only to find that the believers had been completely assimilated, and all their movements had become uniform.

They all felt the same resonance; every muscle, every thought, every moment—they were completely under Zolani's control.

Chapter 384 Watching from the Sidelines

At Zolani's command, the believers slashed their wrists and offered their pure blood, cultivated through some unknown evil secret technique, to the goddess.

Instead of dripping into the sand, the blood flowing from the wound defied gravity, extending into thin, vein-like streaks that connected to Zolani's body.

From a distance, it looks as if a goddess is controlling her puppets with silk threads.

"Is this... a sacrifice?!"

Kasha was startled; she could feel Zolani's aura rising steadily. Conversely, the followers, unable to withstand her bloodletting, collapsed one after another.

It's unknown whether they were still willing to dedicate themselves to becoming part of the "goddess" until the very last moment.

"Should I stop her?" Kasha hesitated. Zolani's actions were far from those of a goddess as expected by mortals; they were blatant cultism. Perhaps, after being reborn as a Darkin, she had completely fallen and stood on the opposite side of humanity.

"Don't worry about it, just let them fight amongst themselves. Zolani needs to fight multiple opponents, she can't be too weak." Wild Hunt remained as calm as ever.

Aren't you worried that things will get out of control?