"How did you steal my power, mortal?!"
Volibear's voice was louder than thunder, nearly piercing Caleb's eardrums.
"I didn't steal anything. This is my power!"
Facing the utterly enraged Volibear, the only thing Caleb could do for the moment was bluff.
"Your... own?"
Volibear was a little stunned. This mortal really was reckless. He could actually remain calm under his pressure. Generally speaking, after the rule of the Three Sisters, anyone who heard his name and saw his might would submit to him without exception.
This boy was rather interesting.
Across the long years, Volibear had never ignored the thirst for blood and war. However, when the ones pursuing power were always the Ursine, even Volibear would inevitably get a little tired of looking at them.
Unlike Anivia, who was kind to others, or Ornn, who paid little attention to worldly affairs, what Volibear wanted most was for people to return to a savage, primal state.
To make the earth run red with blood. To make people return to the deepest, wildest version of themselves.
"Of course! Look at me. From where could I possibly steal your power?"
"Why don't the two of us sit down and have a proper talk about why I can use this ability?"
Caleb held back one more sentence. After all, calling a bear his father would really be a little humiliating.
Yeah, better not say that for now.
The enormous figure rapidly shrank, quickly reaching a height of roughly ten feet. Yet even at that size, the same as the bear-man guard, Volibear's appearance was still beyond Caleb's expectations.
First, the primitive, wild aura he carried was purer, making the danger around him even easier to feel. Second, he did not have those branch-like things on his back. Those things really were ugly. Besides, waiting for lightning to strike your body before releasing it from your hands looked pretty dumb.
"You said this power belongs to you. Show me again."
Volibear's temper did not seem quite as violent as it had looked just now.
Caleb let out a long breath and drew out the tiny bit of mana left inside his body. Thunder rang through the dark clouds like a roar.
Lightning fell onto Caleb, but not only was Caleb completely unharmed, a layer of shield even appeared around him.
"It truly is not theft..."
Volibear could sense that Caleb was calling upon the purest lightning in this region.
It was lightning itself responding to his call.
Yet the strange thing was that lightning and storm were Volibear himself. Volibear had not responded. Instead, the simplest and purest lightning of this land had answered him.
In other words, the Freljord was responding to him.
"Who exactly are you?"
Although he had figured out what was going on, lightning still flickered in Volibear's palm. It seemed that if Caleb did not give him a reasonable explanation, escaping would be difficult.
"Before I answer that, Volibear, I want to ask you a few questions."
Caleb took a deep breath. The business sense and negotiation skills he had learned in the twin cities were finally proving useful.
He hoped Volibear would give him that much time.
"My patience is limited."
To Volibear, the people who met him either called upon the god they believed in and died in fear, or they answered the call in their blood and became part of the Ursine army.
"If, according to your vision, a war were to be perfect, how many people would have to die? How many would have to take part?"
"I would have them all destroyed. Every enemy would die on the battlefield. There would have to be at least tens of thousands!"
Volibear spoke in a low voice.
This was no joke. What Caleb was asking about was his nature itself.
"It takes over ten years and many life-or-death battles to train a warrior."
"But death might take only a few seconds."
"Volibear, why don't you do the math? If war broke out as often as you wanted it to, how many people would the Freljord need in order to satisfy your demands?"
"At least one huge battle every month, with at least ten thousand Freljordians dying each time."
"At least a hundred thousand infants would need to be born every year, and they would all have to grow up healthy, just to meet your demand for this so-called return to savagery."
"Have you ever calculated that, Volibear?"
Caleb finally managed to finish speaking, emboldening himself as he did.
"In such a bitterly cold land, humans truly do struggle to survive. That is why, as long as they offer their souls to me..."
"And then become a bear that only remembers its instinct to kill?"
"Then who is supposed to give birth to the ones you want sacrificed?"
"Volibear, have you ever considered the essence of life?"
Looking at this ten-foot bear falling into deep thought, Caleb could not help feeling secretly delighted. It seemed he had lucked out, and the god had gained just enough patience to hear him out.
"Living things are born to fight. They are born to die!"
"Then have you ever wondered why your brother and your sister do not share the same view?"
Watching Volibear sink into this life-questioning state was honestly a little funny. Facing a bear with his brows tightly furrowed made it difficult not to laugh.
"Will you be a slave to instinct and let it control your body, or will you seriously think about what you can bring to the world?"
"Excuse me, then."
Caleb looked at him. This guy also seemed like a reckless brute. Across his almost endless life, it seemed he truly had rarely thought about anything.
Maybe that even included the fight between him and Ornn.
Caleb could not help feeling a little emotional. This place really was...
Yeah... one hell of a thrill.
"All right. What happens after I figure it out?"
Under Caleb's few words, Volibear's contemplation had begun. Before this, it seemed no one had ever taught these long-lived beings how to think about important things.
That made sense. Once you had enough power to change the world, you could often simply follow your instincts.
That intoxicating feeling of the world belonging to you could make anyone lose themselves.
Not to mention, from the moment they were born, they might not have had much of a "self" at all.
Perhaps Anivia and Ornn really had found themselves over the course of their long lives. At the very least, they knew how to think, because their instincts were not like Volibear's.
Pure slaughter, destruction, and wildness would only make someone drunk on the pleasure of possessing power.
Of course, for the world to keep functioning normally, relying on instinct alone could indeed let it continue.
"Then come find me at the Winter's Claw."
Caleb was still taking a risk with this matter.
"We will answer each other with lightning!"
Volibear, looking quite enthusiastic, walked toward his treasure vault.
"Whew... I really didn't expect that."
Regarding the world of League of Legends, Caleb believed that whether they were called "gods" or "demigods," they were all still living beings.
So when facing an intelligent life, Caleb had managed to handle it well enough.
"If these three demigods can be dealt with, unifying the Freljord doesn't seem like it would be that difficult."
Caleb thought as he hurried toward the Winter's Claw camp.
If he could really make the Ursine stop causing that incomprehensible destruction, maybe the Avarosans and the Winter's Claw would no longer have to be at each other's throats.
After all, the relationship between Ashe and Sejuani was better than that of the two demigod brothers who had destroyed half a mountain while fighting.
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