"What are you thinking about?"
Kai'Sa appeared without the slightest fluctuation, startling everyone around them.
Ever since Xolaani had reshaped her skin, she had become an astonishingly beautiful woman who drew eyes wherever she went. After receiving the blessing of Ascended power and becoming a true Ascended in every sense, Kai'Sa's abilities had improved, and her entire presence had undergone an enormous change.
"I'm thinking it's about time to make a trip to Ionia."
Caleb was not lying. He still wanted to find Varus and Rhaast and tell those two that Shurima had been restored. His own introduction would not be especially convincing evidence, but Kai'Sa, a brand-new Ascended, was living proof.
"Then just go."
Kai'Sa said it as though it were only natural. With Yuumi's portal, Caleb could travel back and forth very conveniently.
But when she thought of the cage, and of that hopeless darkness where no daylight could be seen, she stopped herself from saying anything more.
True, she had no desire to get blindsided like that again.
"Speaking of which, where's Ryze?"
Only after Caleb had finished handling this whole mess did he realize that he seemed to have left Ryze in that stone prison. After all, he only had two hands. He could not grab that many people.
Surely Ryze was not still inside.
Caleb grew slightly nervous, but Kai'Sa beside him rolled her eyes.
"Warwick sent him back to stay with the Firelights. When you went to find Vi earlier, did you seriously not see him?"
Kai'Sa was a little unhappy. Even among the people Caleb knew at the very top, there were far too many women.
Forget the two Warmothers from the Freljord. Just here in Zaun, there was Vi, who had been in prison with him, and Jinx, whose relationship with him seemed anything but ordinary.
There was also Zeri, who had volunteered herself and later been taken by Caleb to fight the Black Mist.
That empress from Ixtal was stunning, too.
Kai'Sa felt she needed to stay alert, or she would end up at a serious disadvantage.
"I see."
Caleb nodded slightly, finally reassured.
As for that squad of the Dauntless Vanguard, making them walk back on their own was a little too cruel. After all, they were in unfamiliar territory and would have to cross the entire continent to get home.
If he sold this group to Noxus, he would probably get a pretty good price for them, too.
But Caleb did not plan on doing that. Garen might not be especially powerful in terms of combat strength, but still.
"How is your petricite colossus's charge coming along?"
Caleb looked at the people in the prison and could not help sighing. Piltover really had been willing to spend money on these people. He clearly had not given any special instructions, yet they had still been fed and treated well.
Their food was almost better than what most residents got.
Caleb did not care about that little detail. Whether Galio could fly back to Demacia smoothly was the truly important part.
As for carving one himself, Demacia would never let him dismantle one to study it, so understanding the working principles of petricite was enough.
When the time came, it would be just fine to use it as a coating on mecha. As for actually manufacturing a petricite colossus himself...
He might as well just ask Demacia to sell him one. That would save trouble.
"It should be about ready."
Garen's attitude was a little more proud than before. Over these past few days, they had not merely been fed and treated well. They had even been allowed to go out for leisurely walks whenever they wanted.
There were still quite a few great nobles who hoped Demacia would put in some effort later and take care of them more.
So during these days, the Dauntless Vanguard squad had even been able to pick up their own weapons and train.
Caleb did not care. Even if they really ran all the way back to Demacia, Caleb would not mind catching another two of them later.
Compared to Noxus's rule of worshiping martial strength, Demacia's anti-magic laws were far easier to break.
No matter how vast the petricite forest was, how many Arcane Comets could it withstand?
Including the Great City itself, Caleb suspected that a single demon could stir up a massive storm there. As for sealing it away...
To a long-lived being, that would at most count as a nap.
Caleb did not dwell on who in Piltover had been secretly aiding this group from the Dauntless Vanguard.
If Demacia was content to cling to its little patch of land, then it would definitely be conquered one day.
Whether it was conquered by Noxus or occupied by the Freljord made little difference to Caleb.
Maintaining the status quo only meant relying on the gifts left by those above to prolong one's national fortune.
This kingdom was only on its fourth ruler. The only reason it had survived was that forest of petricite.
Once everyone else figured out what was going on, or even understood that material better than Demacia itself did, Demacia would not be far from destruction.
Caleb drew back his drifting thoughts and signaled for the person beside him to open the iron gate, though the gate was mostly symbolic.
Inside the city, this group made Caleb hesitate a little, but Galio also did not dare attack freely because of these humans.
If Caleb did not care about Piltover's losses, it would not take long to kill all of them.
"Go command Galio to fly back. I'll use the Hexgate to send you back into Demacian territory."
"If you have a real complaint, then tell that young man from the Lightshield family, the one sitting in that position despite his age, to bring his abilities here and have a proper talk with me."
Caleb's meaning was very obvious, Jarvan IV.
During Jarvan I's reign, Noxus had already fought all the way to the Great City.
Sion's final breath before his death had been used to kill the Demacian king in front of him.
Their later stalled offensive was purely because the petricite had made the Noxians suffer badly.
But Demacia had endless internal problems. Its rulers across the generations might not all have been utterly mediocre, but at the very least, they had achieved nothing of note.
Judging from the fact that Demacia's petricite colossi were still only made by the same few people, that petricite forest had basically gone to waste.
If it had fallen into the hands of those science maniacs from Piltover and Zaun, in less than twenty years, they would have beaten those Noxian war mages until they cried for their mothers.
Caleb really was not bragging. At the very least, judging by the speed at which they had built those two mecha, petricite research had only been temporarily shelved because it did not have many applications yet.
"All right."
After Garen finished speaking with Galio not far away, the colossus spread his wings and flew into the sky.
He was so fast that his enormous stone body disappeared from sight in no time.
"Come over."
The Hexgate kept releasing a deep, thunderous hum as it sent one fleet after another across the world.
"Have the world coordinates been calibrated?"
Caleb patted the private airship he had "borrowed" from Salo's family. Under the operation of everyone present, the coordinates were set near Demacia's Great City.
"After this, you can have a merchant convoy ride this thing and send the airship back."
"Of course, I don't care if you want to keep it."
Fiora's sharp gaze swept across Caleb's eyes, but he paid it no mind.
"Is this thing safe?" Garen was somewhat hesitant. After all, this airship really was about to go high into the sky.
If it failed to fly, what were they supposed to do when an entire ship's worth of people came crashing down?
"Relax."
Caleb only wanted to settle this annoying matter as soon as possible. After stuffing the whole group into the airship, he quickly pressed the button.
After a burst of bright light, the group of people Caleb could not stand looking at vanished from his sight.