"What's the situation?"
While Caleb was still questioning his life choices, Kai'Sa had already started talking with Sivir.
The two of them could be considered old acquaintances. As the first of the "new Ascended," Kai'Sa naturally held an extremely honored position in Shurima.
After all, Sivir would only become the next empress of Shurima if her Ascension succeeded.
If her Ascension failed, then that hope could only be left to her descendants.
Of course, right now, she was Shurima's royal bloodline. She was not in any great rush to have children.
Her standards were still very high.
Caleb leaned against the stone wall and calmed down for a while. Compared to Kai'Sa, who had traveled through the Void and had long since gotten used to all kinds of extreme environments, he really was a little fragile.
Yuumi was still dizzy at the moment, so Caleb had no choice but to pick the little thing up and walk toward the three women in the distance.
"So this city suddenly appeared overnight?"
Caleb thought for a moment, then turned his gaze toward the distant city.
"The architectural style is very ancient. It looks somewhat similar to the old Icathian city I saw in Ixtal's royal library."
Qiyana's weapon was a ring. Through this exquisite creation of Ixtal, she could command three different elements for her own use.
Sivir's weapon, meanwhile, was the Chalicar once wielded by Setaka, the first empress of Shurima.
Just based on that weapon, Caleb felt that Sivir was definitely destined for Ascension in the future.
"This city has almost completely collapsed. Only one tower is still relatively intact."
A tower?
Caleb could not help frowning. In his understanding of the continent of Valoran, a tower almost always meant time.
Could it be him?
"Let's go take a look."
Unlike the other two, who were more cautious and only willing to disguise themselves and observe from a distance, Caleb and Kai'Sa had enough strength to guarantee their safety.
Even if it was the Void, Caleb was confident he could escape alive and deliver the intelligence back to the Sun Disc.
"What do you think? Can you see anything?"
Taliyah's eyesight was not bad either. In the sky full of yellow sand, she could still see the distant city clearly.
But the clock tower seemed to stand apart from the entire city. It did not sway in the slightest from the desert wind and sand.
"It would be strange if I could see anything from this far away."
Caleb shook his head, then continued moving forward. Unlike a charge in battle, every step Caleb took came after confirming that there was nothing abnormal around them.
"There's no scent of the Void."
In this regard, Kai'Sa had the right to speak.
She was the professional, after all.
"There's no Black Mist either."
Caleb's blade of light had not sensed any Black Mist, so the two greatest current enemies could be ruled out.
Caleb frowned as he looked at the tower, whose level of age and wear was completely different from everything around it.
"It's probably him..."
Caleb thought for a moment. If he brought this guy back to the twin cities, he and Orianna could form a two-unit Clockwork combo.
As for Jhin, he should be modified and added to the PROJECT lineup.
That was, if Caleb could still see him alive when he went to Ionia.
"You're sure? What is it?"
Qiyana asked impatiently.
"It's only a guess. This thing is very likely from Icathia before that great war against the Void."
"More precisely, from Icathia at the moment the Void was summoned."
Seeing the confused looks from the people around him, Caleb opened the door anyway.
"We'll know once we go in."
The instant he opened the door, Caleb's heart seemed to skip a beat.
Because in the next second, an elderly man with a giant clock on his back was floating right in front of him.
"Zilean..."
Caleb spoke with some difficulty.
After all, this man's power was far above Ekko's.
"You came here?"
Caleb frowned. After all, if such a major figure had appeared, then a true disaster might be about to arrive.
"Yes, child."
"We're done."
Caleb slapped his forehead hard, leaving the four women around him completely stunned.
Kai'Sa, however, sensed what Caleb meant and asked tentatively, "May I ask, did you witness Icathia unleashing the Void?"
According to historical records, in order to resist Shurima's long-standing refusal to grant them places among the Ascended, Icathia planned a rebellion.
But isolated and without support, they placed their hopes in a gate that had been accidentally opened, a gate leading beneath the world.
"That was a mistake... People always believe they can control power beyond their level..."
Zilean's sigh was still manageable for Caleb and Kai'Sa, who already knew the truth, but for the remaining three women and one cat, it was a bolt from the blue.
Even Yuumi, who was in Caleb's arms, puffed up in fright and jumped onto his head.
"Then why did you appear after so long?"
Sivir looked at the enormous clock behind Zilean and formed a few guesses of her own.
But for anyone to truly believe it, he had to say it himself.
"I have grasped a certain degree of power over time."
Zilean saw Kai'Sa's identity as an Ascended. In his eyes, Shurima had indeed been something worth resenting.
Yet even so, when facing the Void, Zilean's first thought had been to request support from Shurima.
It was just that Icathia had been destroyed too quickly. Before they could guide the disaster eastward and onto someone else, they themselves had already perished.
"I looked before this moment in time, and I looked at countless endings as well. But no matter which ending it was, none of them contained you."
Zilean's eyes, almost entirely white, made Caleb's scalp go numb.
The powerhouses of this world really were terrifying... They simply did not know about transmigration. Otherwise, they probably would have exposed him on the spot.
"Then it seems I really am insignificant, not worth even a single glance from you."
Caleb laughed it off. The timeline of the entire world had long since been flowing in a different direction because of him.
And this kind of transmigration was probably something Runeterra had never anticipated. That was why Zilean could travel through all of time, yet still never see Caleb's figure.
"Because of your appearance, many of my predictions over the years have gone to waste."
Zilean said it faintly.
He had already prepared himself for sacrifice. He was ready to return the people whose time had stopped inside the clock tower to this land.
But this young man visiting him now probably carried many secrets.
"Sivir, Qiyana, and Yuumi, you have probably seen them many times already."
For Zilean, he existed in almost every place and every moment in time, but only almost. And he could not change the future lightly.
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Caleb. I am the Governor of Zaun, a city north of Ixtal."
During that great war, Zaun probably had not even had that name yet, though Janna had already been there protecting the people.
"And this is Kai'Sa. She comes from Icathia, and she is now an Ascended."
Caleb also knew that to Zilean, this had probably become a deep knot in his heart.
"Ascension? An Ascended... How wonderful..."
Zilean's voice trembled. The bitterness within it was not something outsiders could understand.
But now, thousands of years later, after truly returning to this world, discovering that someone from Icathia had actually become an Ascended, how could he not be moved?
"Actually, back then, Shurima had arranged for you and Saijax to Ascend. What a shame..."
Caleb looked at the white-haired, white-bearded old man and felt somewhat emotional as well.
Zilean playing with time did not mean his own time was endless. In the material realm, his time would eventually run out.
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