At the foot of Mount Targon, a portal appeared, and Luke and Morgana stepped through.
The atmosphere between them was rather quiet. Morgana watched Luke's back, wanting to say something but not knowing where to begin.
"Huh? Why does everything feel so gloomy?"
Zoe's voice suddenly came from behind them. She looked at the two in confusion.
According to the scene she'd imagined, the two of them should have been hugging each other and crying tears of joy by now, creating some incredibly touching moment.
But after secretly following them here, she found that neither of them was saying a word.
Luke turned around and looked at Zoe. "Thanks for helping us back there."
Zoe immediately blinked. "Then how are you going to thank me?"
Luke smiled and asked in return, "What kind of thank-you gift do you want?"
Zoe hadn't expected him to throw the question back at her. She froze for a moment, then immediately scrunched up her face in thought.
"Hmm... I want..."
She looked painfully indecisive, struggling for a long time without coming up with anything.
"I can't think of anything right now!"
Eventually, she gave up with a sigh. There were simply too many things she wanted, and picking just one wasn't easy.
"Then tell me when you figure it out," Luke said.
"Okay!"
Zoe immediately brightened, even her hair floating happily along with her mood. Then she seemed to sense something and glanced up at the sky before letting out another sigh.
"I finally came back after so long and even found something this interesting, but now I have to leave again."
She had been very interested in Luke, but there was a lonely big doggy out in space who needed her company, so she had to go.
After all, she'd sworn that she would protect it.
As for playing with interesting Luke, she decided she could do that the next time she returned to Runeterra. She also needed time to seriously think about what kind of thank-you gift she wanted.
"So that's that. Bye-bye! See you next time."
Zoe waved at the two of them, then suddenly stepped closer and sniffed Luke like a little puppy.
"I've memorized your scent now! Next time I can come straight to you whenever I want to play!"
Luke smiled slightly. "See you."
He watched Zoe open a portal and disappear through it in a single step, and for some reason, he felt slightly relieved.
If she were merely an ordinary mischievous little girl, there wouldn't have been anything to worry about.
But she was the famous Aspect of Twilight.
Among the Aspects, she was unquestionably top-tier. The Darkin War had only been brought to an end because the Aspect of Twilight had intervened.
And that wasn't even the main issue.
As far as Luke knew, the Aspect of Twilight possessed extraordinarily powerful abilities related to omens. Whenever she lingered somewhere for too long, it usually meant something major was about to happen.
It wasn't necessarily something bad, but more often than not, it was.
She was a little like Poppy's hammer, whoever got involved with it tended to have terrible luck.
Zoe carried some of that same tendency. The difference was that she was so overwhelmingly powerful that whatever problem appeared, she could usually solve it along the way.
With Zoe gone, only Luke and Morgana remained in the area once again.
Eventually, Morgana spoke.
"You were willing to go that far for me. Was it really worth it?"
Luke looked at her. "Am I important to you?"
Morgana froze slightly, completely unprepared for such a sudden question.
Yet the answer had already appeared in her heart.
Looking into Luke's eyes, Morgana nodded.
Of course he was important.
It was precisely because he had appeared that her centuries of waiting hadn't been in vain.
Over the two years they'd spent together, his presence had long since engraved itself deeply into her heart.
"Then there's your answer. If someone values me, I'll value them just as much. Besides, didn't we make a promise? Even if you wanted to leave me, you had to explain it to me first."
Luke smiled gently.
"As long as you didn't tell me yourself, I'd assume you were forced to leave. Of course I'd come and bring you back."
Over the years, Morgana had witnessed more good and evil than she could count. She had watched countless lives unfold from beginning to end.
Yet Luke's words still touched something deep inside her.
After a brief silence, Morgana looked at him.
"I won't leave without saying anything again. No... there won't be a next time."
She had already left Mount Targon, and the power she possessed had been taken from her. She had become a mortal.
She no longer needed to worry about her mother or sister.
From now on, all she had to do was remain by Luke's side.
The two walked together toward the outskirts of the mountain range. Luke suddenly thought of something and asked, "Come to think of it, you were Demacia's Winged Protector. Isn't being my maid kind of a waste of your talents?"
"I'm just a mortal now. Besides, there's nothing wrong with being your maid. The work is easy, I get free food and lodging, and you even pay me." Morgana's tone was calm, but she sounded noticeably more relaxed, and there was even a smile in her eyes.
Ever since revealing her identity, she'd suddenly become far more expressive.
At the very least, she looked beautiful when she smiled.
"In that case, tell me the whole story from the beginning. Why did you come to me in the first place?"
Luke had always been rather curious about that.
He already had a theory, but since Morgana herself was standing beside him, he might as well just ask.
"That story begins many years ago."
Morgana wasn't someone who disliked talking.
She had simply kept quiet in the past because she wanted to minimize her presence.
Now, she no longer had to worry about any of that.
Two days later, Luke and Morgana left the territory surrounding Mount Targon as quickly as possible and entered Shurima once again.
Since Luke was already here, he decided he might as well investigate the situation in the region.
He had discovered traces of the Void while in Ionia, but according to what he remembered, the Void should only have appeared sporadically around Shurima.
Back when Icathia summoned the Void into Runeterra, Shurima had been the first place it entered.
Because of that, the Void had established a connection with Runeterra and had spent all these years searching for another way to enter the world.
The Void was a considerable threat.
Shurima might still have those Aspects watching over it, but after his trip to Mount Targon, Luke wasn't particularly interested in relying on them.
It was now noon, with the blazing sun hanging overhead.
A city gradually appeared within their field of view. It seemed to be one of the larger settlements in the surrounding region.
The entire city was colored like yellow desert sand. As they drew closer, they could see cracks running through even its relatively tall walls. Most of the structures were built from mud bricks baked beneath the scorching sun.
Soldiers guarded the arched city gates, but they didn't inspect those entering. Apparently anyone could enter the city freely.
There weren't many people entering, however, and after watching for a while, Luke noticed that almost everyone was going in rather than coming out.
The city didn't seem particularly lively.
After the two entered without trouble, they found the streets similarly subdued. Vendors lined both sides, selling water, various goods, spices, food, and desert fruits.
In Shurima, water could be sold for money.
The cleaner, clearer, and sweeter the water was, the more expensive it became.
Unfortunately, that kind of water was difficult to find.
The water ordinary people drank either came from nearby water sources or was filtered from whatever materials were available. Damp sand was one of the most common sources.
There was actually quite a lot of water in the desert.
The difficult part was extracting it from all that sand.
For example, a vendor not far away was using a copper device fitted with a turning wheel to fill green glass bottles with muddy water mixed with sand.
Wet sand was poured into the uppermost layer. As the wheel turned, droplets of liquid gradually filtered through.
Such was human ingenuity.
Luke, however, wasn't particularly interested in that kind of water and had no desire to try it.
He had known he would be traveling to Shurima before leaving home, so he'd prepared far more drinking water than he could possibly need and stored it inside the space created by his demonic power.
There was plenty of room inside, enough to store a vast quantity of supplies.
Ignoring the vendors calling out to them, Luke continued deeper into the streets.
His plan was to gather information inside the city.
After all, searching aimlessly wouldn't get him anywhere.
If the Void had appeared somewhere nearby, there was a good chance local people would have noticed something.
Before long, the two arrived at a public notice board.
Quite a few people had gathered around it and were discussing one of the notices posted on the wall.
"The reward went up again."
"It's pretty high now. Anyone going to take it?"
"Who'd dare? The last few groups that accepted it never came back."
"Exactly. You might earn the money, but you won't live long enough to spend it."
"Heh, mercenary prices are ridiculous now too. The caravans can't even afford them."
"They're risking their lives. Of course it's expensive."
"What are we supposed to do? The city is eventually going to run out of water. We can't risk our lives every time we need supplies."
"Yeah..."
People continued talking among themselves. Many wore worried expressions, while others simply sighed. The entire atmosphere felt bleak.
Luke had been observing the city since entering and had already noticed something strange.
There were plenty of people inside, yet nobody seemed willing to leave.
The prices of many goods were also abnormally high.
He'd traveled through this region on his way here and hadn't seen prices anywhere near this bad.
Usually, that meant something serious had happened.
Luke approached and casually stopped one of the men nearby.
"Hey, mind telling me what's happening around here?"
The man turned toward him sluggishly. Exhaustion filled his eyes, and he clearly wasn't interested in answering.
Luke simply took out a small bottle of water and handed it over.
The man's expression immediately changed.
He eagerly accepted the bottle.
"You two just arrived in the city, right? Makes sense that you wouldn't know. Honestly, you were lucky just to make it here. Things outside Taro City haven't been peaceful lately. Some vicious beasts have been causing trouble, and several groups of people have already died."
As he spoke, he couldn't resist opening the bottle.
He tilted his head back and took a small gulp.
He deliberately drank very little, and afterward, he even licked the water remaining around the mouth of the bottle.
The people nearby watched enviously, their eyes lingering eagerly on Luke.
After quenching his thirst, the man continued.
"Everything was normal at first. Then, about a week ago, an entire caravan disappeared, including the mercenaries they'd hired. When people investigated, they assumed bandits were responsible. But then it happened again, and they realized that wasn't it."
"According to someone who managed to escape, it was a pack of dune hounds. Those beasts are already nasty enough normally, but now they're moving together in some bizarre coordinated pack. Their movements are unbelievably synchronized, almost like they've been trained, or like something is commanding them. Ordinary groups don't stand a chance."
"The beasts have been ambushing people along commonly traveled routes. Plenty of people who thought they could handle it have already paid the price. Two mercenary companies got wiped out, so now the only two stronger companies left have doubled their fees. Nobody can afford them anymore, and nobody dares leave the city. That's how we ended up like this."
Luke's bottle of water hadn't gone to waste.
The man explained everything thoroughly from beginning to end.
A powerful pack of dune hounds was lurking outside the city, seemingly ambushing people along frequently traveled roads, and they were extremely difficult to deal with.
As a result, very few people were arriving, while those already inside were too afraid to leave.
Everyone was slowly consuming whatever resources the city had left.
In that sense, Luke and Morgana had been rather lucky.
They hadn't encountered the dune hounds on their way here.
Luke thought for a moment before stepping closer to the notice board and reading the bounty that the city's ruler had recently posted.
Five hundred gold.
In a place suffering from shortages, that was already an enormous fortune.
Normally, hiring an ordinary group of mercenaries or armed caravan escorts would cost no more than a few dozen gold coins.
Now, however, prices inside the city had risen into the hundreds.
Even then, those mercenaries couldn't necessarily guarantee anyone's safety.
At this point, people were mostly gambling on luck.
The man with the water continued marveling at Luke and Morgana's good fortune before eventually walking away.
There weren't many soldiers stationed in the city, so naturally the ruler couldn't send all of them out to hunt the dune hounds.
If desert bandits took advantage of the opportunity to storm the city and loot everything, that would be even worse than the beasts outside.
For now, most people could only pray that the dune hounds eventually grew bored and moved elsewhere.
But Luke suspected the matter wasn't that simple.
The entire notice board was covered with postings related to the current crisis.
There was nothing whatsoever concerning the Void.
Just then, a cloaked figure rushed over and yanked the bounty notice from the wall.
A girl's voice came from beneath the cloak.
"I'll take this bounty!"
Surprised gazes immediately turned toward her.
Everyone seemed curious to see who possessed that kind of courage.
Luke looked as well.
The girl pulled back her hood, revealing a plain but pleasant face with thick eyebrows and large eyes. Her short hair was the color of stone, and her eyes were exceptionally bright.
The moment Luke saw her, information flashed through his mind.
Taliyah, the Stoneweaver.
"Don't be ridiculous. This isn't a bounty a little girl like you should be taking."
"Even experienced mercenaries couldn't handle those dune hounds."
"You're still young. Go find some gathering work or something."
"How is this any different from throwing your life away?"
Once the people around her realized how young she was, they immediately began trying to talk her out of it out of genuine concern.
"Thank you for worrying about me." Taliyah's gaze remained determined, and her tone was serious. "But I'm taking this bounty. I'll get rid of those dune hounds."
Seeing her determination, the crowd was about to continue persuading her when another voice suddenly spoke.
"I was thinking about taking that bounty too. Why don't we work together?"
Everyone turned toward the speaker.
He wore a headscarf and face covering, but judging by the visible portion of his face, he was clearly a handsome young man. Behind him stood a woman wearing a similar headscarf and face covering.
Taliyah looked over as well.
"This bounty is very dangerous."
Everyone glanced at her.
So you do know it's dangerous.
The speaker was naturally Luke.
"I know, but we're not weak either. Besides, if nobody deals with this problem, none of us will be able to leave the city. We might as well form a team."
"All right."
Taliyah hesitated briefly before nodding.
Internally, however, she sighed helplessly.
It looked like she'd have to split the reward in half.
She hadn't taken the bounty solely because she wanted to solve the city's problem.
She also didn't have a single copper coin left to her name.
At this rate, she was eventually going to die of hunger or thirst inside the city.
She had only arrived in Taro City earlier that day. After hearing about the situation, she hadn't expected anyone else to dare accept the bounty alongside her.
Of course, she wasn't going to reject their help.
Another person meant another pair of hands.
The only problem was that she couldn't sense anything particularly impressive about Luke or Morgana.
Their presence felt completely ordinary, like two normal people.
What worried Taliyah was that if something dangerous happened, she might not be able to protect both of them.
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