Arcane: The Gods Want Me to Pick a Route

Chapter 218 218: Valhar!

"Come back!"

The moment Aatrox saw Logan leading a group away from the battlefield, he immediately let out a furious roar.

"Insect, where do you think you're running? Get back here!"

Aatrox's gigantic body vanished from where it stood, and in the next instant, he appeared directly behind Logan, smashing his greatsword down at Logan and the troops around him.

For the first time since Logan had begun withdrawing, Aatrox fell into true panic. Fury spread across his face. His huge mouth opened wide, baring his sharp teeth, his white fangs piercing through his lower lip. Right now, he looked frantic.

What kind of joke was this?

He had already had enough of the lightless dark, enough of the frozen blackness beneath the Freljord, enough of those agonizing, suffocating days where he could not breathe, could feel the pressure building inside his body, feel his chest tighten, and yet could not sense his own limbs.

The moment those memories resurfaced, rage flooded his mind and nearly stripped him of the ability to think.

The darkness.

He would never forget it.

He would remember—

That battle.

He had indeed lost.

The Darkin had torn through the armies of mortals like blades through flesh. He had plunged into the crowd and drunk deeply of blood. He knew he should not have done that. He should have protected those people.

But he could not resist the temptation of blood.

Those voices circling through his mind had whispered and enticed him.

His reason broke apart.

He dyed the desert red with blood, used broken human flesh to forge a new body, shaped it into something closer to his original form, as though proving that his former glory had once been real.

He had hysterically craved more flesh, more blood, only to recover the self he once was—even if it was only the faintest, weakest fragment of what had remained.

But all of it had failed.

That day, fire had consumed the sky. Comets had crashed to the earth. Flowing sand had raged like ocean waves. The sun itself seemed to fall, and cities collapsed into the world below. Everything, absolutely everything, had vanished into darkness.

And then all of it had gone still.

After that, how much time had passed?

Aatrox did not know.

What he did know was that inside his prison, he had lost all sense of time. Even someone as proud as he was had slowly become lost in it. In pain, he had begun to long for release. He had even begun to weep, begging like some wretched insect in the dark for mortals to find him.

Only recently had he finally clawed his way back to the surface.

And the very first thing Aatrox had done after emerging was search for a body that could perfectly bear him.

He did not want to return to that lightless darkness ever again.

For that, he was willing to do anything.

He had slaughtered an entire town, drinking blood alone in its streets.

And what had he gained?

Only a grotesque mockery of his former glory.

The bodies of those weaklings could not restore his true self. He needed something stronger, something more perfect, something far more suited to him.

Only that kind of mortal body could help him reclaim what he had once been—the symbol of light and reason, of justice and protection.

And so, Aatrox had gradually accepted reality.

He had once defended this world in its grandest wars, but now this stolen body, made from blood and mangled corpses, was constantly melting, weakening. Pus and rot, muscle and bone ground against one another, tore against one another, crying out in protest, as if telling him over and over again that he had become a monstrosity.

He accepted it calmly.

And because of that, he would never stop again.

He would keep moving forward, dragging his pain across the world itself, until final annihilation came.

And now...

he had found it.

The black-haired man before him was clearly a mortal, yet his physical gifts surpassed every human Aatrox had ever seen.

A body like that...

would make the perfect vessel.

"Come back, insect! You are not allowed to run!"

Logan turned around and saw that Udyr had already appeared beneath Aatrox.

His black hair whipped wildly in the air. Udyr's broad, heavy body planted itself in front of Aatrox, like an insect standing before a mammoth. Then Udyr thrust both hands forward, and red light gathered around them as the phantom of a colossal beast appeared behind him.

"Beast-Spirit Power!"

As Udyr roared those words, his flesh-and-blood palms took on the shape of ram's horns, and two enormous horns drove upward, holding back Aatrox's massive arm.

That was the power of the Forge God.

It was also the beast-spirit power Udyr used most often.

Right now, he commanded three kinds of demigod beast-spirit power:

Ornn, the Forge God.

The Iron Boar.

And Anivia, the glacier god.

If Sejuani and the Ursine truly joined forces, then Udyr would be able to draw close to the Ursine and gain command of the power of the storm-and-thunder god as well.

But judging by the current situation, Udyr believed Volibear's power was forever beyond his reach now.

Because the two sides were about to become mortal enemies.

"Go. The Winter's Claw needs you now."

"Leave this place to me."

Udyr shouted those words at the others.

Hearing that, Sejuani took a deep breath and yanked hard on the reins in her hand, making Bristle rear up on his hind legs. Then she shouted:

"Udyr, you have to come back alive and see me again! That's your Warmother's order, got it?!"

Udyr nodded, his eyes full of confidence.

"Don't worry, Sejuani. Udyr isn't going to lose to Aatrox," Logan said, reaching up and patting Sejuani on the leg, telling her not to worry.

And that was true.

Udyr absolutely would not lose to Aatrox in his current state.

If this had been the Aatrox from the time he fought Pantheon, then Udyr might not have been able to win. He might only have been able to run.

But this?

This was an Aatrox weak enough that even Logan had been able to clash with him.

There was no way this version of Aatrox was Udyr's match.

No matter what, Udyr was still a powerful demigod.

Even if his strength was borrowed,

he was still a demigod.

"Logan, Lady Lissandra got the message and has already set out, but she asked me to tell you something," Fura suddenly appeared beside Logan. The wound in her palm had already healed. Holding a True Ice dagger in one hand, she coldly continued, "You must call in a demigod to assist us. Otherwise, Lady Lissandra will not involve herself in this matter anymore."

Fura spoke with complete seriousness.

"Lady Lissandra says she does not fear Volibear, but she will not let herself be dragged into mutual destruction with him over this. You must bring in a demigod to aid us."

"Otherwise, she will ignore the matter completely. The survival of the Winter's Claw and the survival of the Avarosans have nothing to do with her. Lissandra says that as long as you remain alive, that is enough. She will ensure your safety."

As Fura spoke, the look in her eyes when she stared at Logan turned strange.

Because this was the first time Lady Lissandra had ever cared so deeply about a human.

And that stirred a trace of jealousy inside Fura.

Even she did not hold that sort of place in Lissandra's heart.

Logan froze after hearing that.

Not far from him, Ashe bit down on her lip.

She had always believed the Avarosans were the strongest clan.

But now, looking at all this, Ashe realized just how weak she was.

And how weak the Avarosans were.

The Avarosans had the largest population in the Freljord. They held the most land. But within the tribe, they did not possess fighters as powerful as Udyr or Fura.

Seeing Udyr hold Aatrox off alone left Ashe in shock.

If...

If Sejuani had brought Udyr out while fighting the Avarosans, then could the Avarosans have held off the Winter's Claw at all?

They could not.

Just look.

Udyr had already dragged Aatrox more than a thousand meters away. Everywhere the two of them passed, everything collapsed. The forest was being cut down as neatly as wheat beneath a scythe. The Ice Needle Forest, a forest that had existed in the Freljord for thousands of years, now had an enormous stretch of empty ground carved through it.

And because of that, Ashe made up her mind.

After this was over, she had to win a truly powerful ally over to the Avarosans.

Otherwise, even within the alliance, the Avarosans would gradually lose their voice.

"I understand. Tell Lissandra to go on ahead," Logan nodded and said to Fura.

But Fura shook her head.

"The blood contract has been severed. I can't contact Lady Lissandra anymore."

Logan gave a low sound of acknowledgment, then turned to Sejuani and said seriously, "I'm going on ahead. You're all too slow. If you lead everyone back to your stronghold at this pace, it'll be dawn before you get there."

"But this is so far from our—" Sejuani started to say that the distance was too great, that Logan couldn't possibly make it in time.

But Logan cut her off and patted his chest with a grin.

"Relax. I've got a way. I'm really fast."

"As for Volibear, don't worry. Who the hell doesn't have a few powerful friends?"

"Oh, right. Fura, there's something I need to ask of you."

Fura looked at Logan and nodded. "Go ahead."

Because of Lady Lissandra's attitude, Fura was already starting to see Logan as one of the Frostguard.

Maybe this man would even become her superior someday.

And beyond that, Logan himself was very strong. If they really fought, Fura didn't think she would gain much of an advantage. She respected strength, and so she naturally respected Logan as well.

"Help me look after her," Logan said, looking toward Jinx.

"What? I can't go with you?" Jinx immediately protested, glaring at him. Beneath her hood, her little face was full of displeasure.

"Not this time, Jinx. This time the trouble's a little too big," Logan said to her.

"Then are you going to let Janna go with you?" Jinx immediately asked.

Though she asked the question, she wasn't actually worried about Logan's safety. After all, even if Janna wasn't there, wasn't there still that powerful fox spirit?

"I am. I already got in contact with Janna."

After saying that, Logan took a deep breath and looked toward Udyr and Aatrox.

Faced with the massive sword Aatrox brought smashing down, the ram phantom behind Udyr shifted into the phantom of a boar. A green shield spread out over a range of several dozen meters, blocking Aatrox's blow and protecting the humans who had not yet fully escaped the battlefield.

Seeing that Udyr could suppress Aatrox, Logan stopped hesitating.

"I'm going ahead first!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Logan lightly pushed off with the tip of his foot. Wind gathered around his body, and he skimmed across the snow with featherlight ease. In the blink of an eye, he had already flown dozens of meters away.

"He's so fast..." Fura said blankly when she saw it.

She had always thought she was faster than Logan.

——————

The Ice Sea connected to several of the other great seas of Runeterra. To the west lay Demacia's Conqueror's Sea, and to the east lay the Guardian's Sea, where Ionia rested.

In winter, thick ice formed across the surface of the Ice Sea. Once winter came, the ice became too thick for fishing or hunting by sea, because breaking through it with ships was unbelievably difficult. Because of that, the natural ice became a bridge, allowing the Ursine to travel freely in winter.

And at this very moment, dark storm clouds circled above Ursine Mountain. Accompanied by the rumble of thunder, the mountain echoed with the howls of the Ursine.

"Valhir! Valhir!"

An Ursine shaman waved the staff in his hand, lightning crackling around it. He knelt humbly on the ground, tears filling his bear-like eyes as he gazed at the summit.

The bear spirit was roaring.

The ancient god they served had finally awakened!

Hundreds of Ursine warriors also knelt around the ritual platform, their heads raised as they stared up at the mountaintop with fanatical devotion.

Then the Ursine shaman cried out again:

"Valhir, in your name we kill, in your name we die!"

"Great Valhir, give us your command! Lead us to war! Lead us into slaughter! Let us rise for the rebirth of the Freljord!"

"Valhir, the old ways have been forgotten by the world. We need you. The old ways need you. The Freljord needs you!"

"The Freljord of today has become something twisted and wrong! We do not want this kind of Freljord! Humans hide behind stone walls now. They no longer face the merciless trials of nature! Farmers plow the tundra and grow crops, build ranches and raise livestock. They no longer gather. They no longer hunt! They have forgotten you! They have forgotten the true Freljord! They have bound the great rivers behind dams and deny them the right to run free!"

"Valhir, command us!"

"We—"

ROAR!

BOOM!!!

A heavenly bolt exploded across the sky, cutting off the Ursine shaman's prayer.

Then the silhouette of a primordial beast appeared on the summit.

He stood atop the mountain in towering majesty, a hundred meters tall, his body covered in scars. Blade wounds, spear wounds, axe wounds, hammer wounds, burns from fire, frostbite from ice—there was not a single part of his fur that remained unmarked.

His huge shaggy arms rose high into the air, and an ancient voice rang out across Ursine Mountain.

It was the oldest language of all.

Back in that age, the Freljord had not yet been called the Freljord.

It had been called Vorrijaard.

And now that language rang out once more.

"Vol kau fera!"

The ancient language drove the Ursine into greater frenzy.

Then that language grew younger, shifting into the speech of the Freljord.

The bear spirit lowered his gaze. Lightning flickered in his eyes as he looked down at his people. When his great maw opened, storm clouds and lightning spilled from it.

"If you do not fight, then die!"

The taste of blood and battle had awakened him once more.

Though his wounds had not yet fully healed, he still rose from his sleep, because this battle had restored his confidence in the Freljord.

Just as he had seen hope in that woman called Sejuani, the one who led the Winter's Claw.

He swept one great hand forward.

After thousands of years, he would once again unleash war upon the Freljord.

He had once defeated one of the Three Sisters. Before all of her followers, before all the warriors who served beneath her, he had beaten her and torn out one of her eyes.

But in the end, it was the Three Sisters who won that war.

Anivia and several other gods had sided with the sisters. Ornn had refused to stand with him.

And so...

he had lost.

But what about now?

The age of the Three Sisters was over!

"Born of the wild! Hunt! Kill! Follow the old ways, and the old ways will favor you!"

Savoring the fear and worship of the Ursine,

the bear spirit declared war.

"My followers, let us once more force the Freljord onto the path of the old ways!"

The moment his words fell,

thunder shook the heavens.

Every Ursine on Ursine Mountain let out a savage roar.

"Kill them all!"

The wild was about to sweep across the Freljord!

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