Luke glanced at Snowglance, which was still sealed in ice, and knew there was almost no chance of getting past Xolaani to retrieve his weapon.
Xolaani had no intention of wasting any more words. She raised her hand and immediately launched another attack.
In an instant, countless streams of blood magic came at Luke from every direction. The surrounding air filled with crimson light, transforming the area into a domain of blood.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
With both hands empty, Luke could only dodge at full speed.
Everything along his path suffered devastating damage. Under Xolaani's control, the blood magic moved with the flexibility of something alive.
As she watched Luke evade attack after attack, Xolaani suddenly realized something. Despite how long they had been fighting, she had yet to injure him even once.
He was merely human, yet his movement was absurdly fast. Every motion seemed to carry him along with the wind. Once he unleashed the demon's power, his speed increased even further.
Now she was the one running out of time.
She had just used Lifeblood Conversion. Unless she dealt with Luke quickly and found a new vessel, her current body, which was already on the verge of collapse, would not last much longer.
However, she could not simply bypass Luke and search for another vessel. With his speed, he would likely attack the moment she attempted to seize control of someone else's body.
When she thought about it carefully, everything had gone wrong because she had underestimated him at the beginning and allowed that sword strike to land.
Xolaani did not dislike the pressure of fighting against time. No matter the era, exceptional individuals always existed.
Encountering one immediately after awakening could even be considered a stroke of good fortune.
"No human has ever forced me this far."
Xolaani stared at the evasive Luke as her eyes turned completely crimson. She raised one hand.
"Now we enter the final round."
She had to use everything she had and end the battle as quickly as possible.
The blood magic pursuing Luke suddenly doubled in intensity. It was as though the entire world had been dyed red. Countless blood arrows rained down while waves of blood surged in from every direction, driving Luke into a corner in the blink of an eye.
Luke dodged one attack after another until a massive sphere of blood magic descended upon him, leaving him with nowhere to escape.
At that instant, Luke activated the power of the World Rune without hesitation.
Boom!!!
A violent explosion erupted. Luke was instantly swallowed by a surge of crimson energy that billowed like flames. A massive crater appeared in the ground, and countless cracks spread outward in every direction.
"His presence is gone."
Xolaani carefully extended her senses but could no longer detect Luke's presence.
Once he was dealt with, everyone else would be easy to handle.
Just as she began to relax, her entire body suddenly tensed again.
Something was wrong.
She knew this feeling.
"You finally noticed, but it's already too late. Do you still have enough strength to defend yourself?"
Luke's voice came from another direction. He raised his hand and clenched his fist as an orange glow flashed through his eyes.
"Detonate!"
Powerful magical energy had already gathered around Xolaani. The instant Luke closed his fist, it exploded.
Rune magic, Windburst!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of deafening explosions tore through the air. Xolaani had only just locked onto Luke's location when the blasts struck her. She had no time to dodge. With disbelief still in her eyes, her body was ripped apart on the spot and reduced to a pool of blood.
Luke did not hesitate for even a second. He raised his hand and hurled down another spell.
Rune magic, Fireball!
A blazing fireball as bright as the sun, filled with violently surging energy, descended upon the pool of blood like a meteor heralding the end of the world.
Boom!!!
Flames shot into the sky. The surging waves of fire caused the surrounding temperature to soar.
Luke still did not stop. He rushed toward the frozen Snowglance Blade, shattered the ice, and reclaimed his weapon.
He then turned toward the pool of blood, which was already reforming into a human shape, and unleashed several sword strikes.
The two arms gripping the bone saws fell to the ground. Severing them rapidly drained Xolaani's power.
Throughout Luke's repeated attacks, she had used blood magic to keep her arms connected to her body, preventing their link from being completely severed.
This time, however, there was no recovering.
Xolaani eventually reformed her human body and looked at Luke.
"That power," she rasped. "Was it a rune? You truly are extraordinary. But next time, I will not give you another chance to catch me off guard."
Clearly, she had remained within Luke's calculations from beginning to end.
Perhaps even her taking his weapon had been something he anticipated.
The World Rune had been the final trump card he kept hidden.
Because she had so little time remaining, Xolaani had been forced to increase the strength of her attacks against Luke. As a result, she had fewer resources available for her own defense.
Luke had deliberately allowed that final attack to appear as though it had struck him. He immediately concealed his presence, then launched a magical attack she could never have anticipated as his finishing move.
It was one contingency nested inside another. Whenever Xolaani believed she had uncovered every card Luke possessed, he always produced another method she had never expected.
This time, Xolaani knew she had lost.
Luke looked at her. "You might not get another chance."
The blood-colored armor covering Xolaani gradually faded, and her face began reverting to Linju's appearance. She gave him a faint smile.
"That no longer matters. This time, I lost. I will remember you. I only hope you are still alive when I escape again."
Time no longer held much meaning for her.
She might be sealed inside the weapon once more and slumber for another thousand years. By the time she awakened, Luke might have already been reduced to weathered bones.
Luke noticed that Xolaani was not hysterical as he had expected. Instead, she was unusually calm, even carrying herself with a trace of elegance.
It made sense. To a Darkin who could never truly die, every experience was merely another passing hardship.
As Xolaani's power returned to the bone saws, Linju's body collapsed to the ground.
Luke released a long breath and withdrew the World Rune's energy.
Windburst and Fireball were both level-seven magical skills, and each already possessed considerable destructive power.
This time, Luke had also used the World Rune's energy as a catalyst. Both spells had been empowered through rune magic, greatly increasing their destructive force.
Had he used the World Rune's power from the beginning, it certainly would not have been as effective as it had been just now.
Xolaani was a Darkin who had lived for thousands of years. There was no chance she was unfamiliar with the power of the World Runes.
More importantly, Luke did not know what other trump cards this master of blood magic might have concealed.
She had endured two magical attacks empowered by a World Rune. Had Luke not followed up quickly enough, she might genuinely have recovered. She was a terrifying existence.
Xolaani's guess had been correct. Luke had been searching for an opening the entire time. Even losing his weapon had been a weakness he deliberately exposed.
He did not know whether Xolaani had been telling the truth about Lifeblood Conversion, or whether using it really would drain all the strength from her vessel.
That was why he had needed to test her himself and create an opportunity.
Meanwhile, Yi and the swordsman in the conical hat worked together to defeat the blood thralls one after another. As Xolaani's power vanished, the few remaining blood thralls lost the source of their strength and finally fell still.
When Akali and the others saw that Luke's battle had ended, they were finally able to relax.
"Is it over?"
Akali immediately rushed toward Luke to check his condition.
Ahri followed close behind.
"It's over."
Seeing the concern in their eyes, Luke smiled.
"That was certainly a difficult battle, but I came out on top."
Akali noticed that although Luke looked somewhat disheveled, he did not appear to have suffered any serious injuries.
Even the tremendously powerful attack that had seemingly struck him moments earlier had apparently done no harm.
For the first time, Akali had witnessed the true extent of Luke's strength. He had reached a level so far beyond her that she could barely imagine catching up.
Could she really reach him someday?
"She still seems to be alive."
Once Ahri confirmed that Luke was unharmed, she turned her attention to Linju and noticed the woman's faint breathing.
"This is all her fault! She caused all this trouble for us!"
The sight of Linju immediately filled Akali with anger. None of this would have happened without her.
But after thinking about it again, Akali realized that without Linju, she might have been the one whose body was taken.
Her emotions immediately became complicated.
"Don't overthink it. She really did cause us an enormous amount of trouble. The fact that she took the danger in your place was only because she was driven by her own ambition. The two matters have nothing to do with each other."
Luke could immediately tell what Akali was thinking. He looked down at Linju without the slightest trace of sympathy.
He did not know what her original objective had been, but the devastation throughout Mistfall and the corpses scattered everywhere made one thing clear.
She was undoubtedly the person responsible.
Yi and the swordsman soon arrived as well, accompanied by several surviving disciples of the Ancient Sword School.
When they saw Linju unconscious and covered in blood, they immediately surrounded her and cried out in grief.
Their voices seemed to awaken her. Linju slowly opened her eyes, looking extraordinarily weak.
"The headmaster is awake!"
"Quick, bring medicine!"
"Please hold on!"
The disciples of the Ancient Sword School descended into panic.
"There is no need."
Linju weakly sat up. She looked at her severed arms and gave a bitter smile before raising her head toward Luke and the others, guilt flashing through her eyes.
"I am sorry. I believed I could control the weapon's power, but in a single instant..."
In a single instant, Xolaani had seized control of her body.
Yi asked in confusion, "Why did you do this?"
"At this point, it seems too late to explain."
Linju sighed. Wrinkles began appearing across her face, and upon closer inspection, strands of her hair were turning white one after another.
Ahri could sense that the life force within Linju's body had been completely drained. She was already dying, and no one could save her.
"This weapon was a secret known only to the headmasters of the Ancient Sword School. We claimed that our duty was to guard Mistfall, but in truth, we were guarding this weapon and preventing it from falling into human hands."
Hatred gradually filled Linju's eyes.
"The Ancient Sword School has guarded Mistfall faithfully for generations. Then those Noxian barbarians invaded and began slaughtering everyone. I watched my fellow disciples die beneath the enemy's blades, one after another. My master, his wife, my father, my mother..."
"I wanted revenge. Those coldhearted people who clung to the Balance refused to act, so I decided that I would."
"I thought of the weapon our school had guarded for generations. If I could control its power, I would be able to take revenge on Noxus."
"But I could not pass its trial, so I opened Mistfall..."
By the end of her explanation, Linju's bitter smile was filled with pain, and tears shimmered in her eyes.
Silence settled over everyone present.
Noxus's invasion had indeed harmed countless people.
Akali clenched her fists. She knew exactly who Linju meant by those coldhearted people. Those stubborn fools possessed strength, yet still rigidly clung to the Balance.
Linju had not necessarily been wrong to desire revenge. Her mistake was overestimating herself and underestimating Xolaani.
"I am sorry, everyone. I never intended to hurt any of you. I only ask that, for the sake of the generations the Ancient Sword School spent guarding this weapon, you spare my disciples."
By now, Linju's hair had turned completely white. It was as though she had aged several decades in an instant. Her voice was incredibly weak as she pleaded with Luke and the others.
"We can let this matter go, but this weapon can no longer remain here."
Luke looked at Linju without feeling much sympathy for her.
She was certainly unfortunate, but the moment her reckless overconfidence caused harm to everyone around her, she ceased to deserve his sympathy.
As for the disciples of the Ancient Sword School, there was no reason to punish them.
They had not known what kind of existence they were facing.
It was not that Luke distrusted them. He simply knew they were incapable of safely guarding the two bone saws.
Any ordinary person who touched the weapon would end up like Linju, their consciousness instantly seized by Xolaani.
Someone like Yi, however, possessed a powerful soul and unwavering will. No matter how Xolaani attempted to tempt him, she would be unable to succeed.
In simple terms, a Darkin seized a body by pitting its soul against that of the host.
It was essentially a battle for possession.
"That is enough."
After receiving Luke's answer, Linju slowly closed her eyes.
Her breathing stopped.
The surrounding disciples of the Ancient Sword School cried out in grief.
Yi merely sighed before looking at the two bone saws.
"What should we do with these weapons?"
Luke thought for a moment.
"I will have to ask you to keep them safe for now, Yi. These beings are called Darkin, and they possess tremendous power."
Everyone nodded slightly as they listened to his explanation. They had just witnessed that power firsthand.
"The Darkin's consciousness was sealed inside the weapon. That is why Darkin seek vessels that will allow them to escape. Only someone with a powerful mind can resist their corruption and temptations, and very few people are capable of opposing a Darkin."
"I encountered another one while I was in Demacia, although it was much weaker than Xolaani. It is currently sealed inside a heavily guarded petricite vault."
Luke then turned toward Yi.
"I plan to bring these weapons back to Demacia, but not yet. The Darkin are far too dangerous. Allowing them to escape would be disastrous anywhere."
"I would not feel comfortable entrusting this task to anyone else. I need you to guard them temporarily."
Yi met Luke's gaze and nodded without hesitation.
"If they can be sealed in Demacia, that would certainly be for the best. In that case, I will return to Wuju. There is a treasure there capable of temporarily sealing these weapons."
His voice was firm and serious.
"I will guard them in Wuju until you come for them, Luke."
Luke smiled. "It won't be long."
In truth, Luke was still somewhat uneasy about leaving the bone saws in Yi's care.
It was not that he doubted Yi's strength. He vaguely remembered that these weapons would cause Yi to experience yet another tragedy in which his entire school was destroyed.
Luke naturally had no desire to see such a tragedy happen.
That was why he intended to find an opportunity to bring the bone saws back to Demacia, secure them inside a petricite chamber, and search for a way to eliminate the threat permanently.
At that moment, Ahri spoke with an uneasy expression.
"Something still feels a little strange..."
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