Watching Viego make such a definitive declaration, Isolde swallowed the words that had been forming in her heart.
Like her beloved, she too loved him with every fiber of her being—but their love manifested in fundamentally different ways.
Viego's devotion was entirely focused on her alone. He would sacrifice everything to find and reclaim her, no matter the cost to himself or the world around them. Isolde, however, loved not only him with profound depth but extended that same compassion to all living beings. Even though their kingdom had been destroyed long ago, she remained filled with love for all existence.
But now Viego had made his choice. He had chosen eternal togetherness, and the decision for their fate lay not with him, but with the "God of Death" standing before them.
Looking at the devoted couple, Marcus nodded with gentle understanding. A ray of brilliant light suddenly emerged from his hand, enveloping both figures completely.
Whether it was Isolde, reborn through Marcus's soul-gathering abilities, or Viego, the corrupted Ruined King, both were technically among the dead—and before Marcus, the deceased could be manipulated at will.
These two simply wanted to be together forever, so he would make them truly inseparable for all eternity.
Soul-power wrapped around them both as fragments of their true spirits separated from their reconstructed forms, guided by Marcus's precise manipulation to merge together.
The assembled spirits throughout the Shadow Isles could observe clearly as the essential spirits of both lovers intertwined with each other, gradually fusing into a single unified entity with no possibility of separation.
"Then... we wish you a pleasant journey..." the combined spirit whispered.
The merged essence of both lovers waved farewell to Marcus before departing hand-in-hand to wander through all the lands of Runeterra. They would travel together through eternity, never again to be parted.
After sending the united spirits on their eternal journey, the remaining soul fragments of both Isolde and Viego shattered completely, transforming into countless individual souls.
The largest portion of Isolde's remaining essence returned to the shepherd Yorick. Looking at the familiar spirit that had come back to him, Yorick's throat moved with emotion as his hoarse voice emerged.
"You found your path to peace. Why have you returned to this cursed place?"
"As Isolde, I have departed forever," the spirit replied with serene acceptance. "Now I am simply the Maiden of the Mist who will accompany you in shepherding lost souls to their rest."
The Maiden's voice echoed ethereally through the air. Isolde's true spirit had separated from these soul fragments completely—what remained was purely the spectral entity that served as Yorick's companion.
"Then... let us continue our work," Yorick said quietly.
He picked up his weathered shovel and departed with the Maiden and the group of wandering souls he had pledged to protect.
After their departure, Thresh approached with obvious anticipation. The soul that had been extracted from his lantern would not be returning, and while countless other spirits remained imprisoned within the device, he understood that he had suffered a significant loss.
However, he already had a new objective in mind—one that no one could steal from him as long as Marcus chose not to intervene.
"Excuse me," Thresh asked with barely concealed excitement, "do you have any use for this soulless corpse?"
Although Thresh appeared as nothing more than animated bones, he managed to project an expression of hopeful expectation that Marcus found genuinely amusing.
"Viego's body? If you want it, take it," Marcus replied with casual indifference.
The moment those words were spoken, Thresh swung out his spectral scythe with its attached chain, instantly sweeping Viego's empty corpse toward himself.
"Thank you for this generous gift," Thresh said with profound gratitude.
Majestic soul-power erupted instantly from his form. The soul lantern blazed with incredible intensity as green light illuminated the entire Shadow Isles.
As Thresh channeled his power, countless souls imprisoned within the lantern were poured directly into Viego's vacant body. Even Thresh himself began twisting and contorting as he merged his own essence with all the accumulated power of his spectral prison.
"All of this... just for a physical form?" Marcus observed with mild surprise.
Watching Thresh's dramatic transformation, he sighed softly. This sadistic warden had finally achieved his ultimate dream—obtaining a corporeal body.
While he wasn't exactly a living person now, he was no longer merely a spirit animating skeletal remains. More accurately, Thresh had become something between life and death—a true revenant.
As Thresh completed his transformation from disembodied spirit to corporeal undead, significant changes began occurring in several other locations throughout the world.
Elsewhere in Runeterra
A soul fragment returned to an abandoned rag doll, and the moment contact was made, the doll relying on its scissor attachments transformed into a young woman.
"Master... you have returned..." she whispered with reverent joy.
Although she would never see her beloved master again, she understood that Isolde now traveled between heaven and earth alongside the Ruined King. They were everywhere and nowhere, eternal and free.
Meanwhile, in another location, Lucian stared with overwhelming emotion at the soul materializing before him. This was his wife—the woman stolen away by Thresh's cruel magic.
"Senna, you're back..." he breathed with desperate relief.
"I'm back," Senna replied with a warm smile, embracing her husband tightly. "It feels like awakening from a terrible nightmare."
Though Thresh had claimed her life and separated her from her beloved husband, the entire experience seemed dreamlike in its horror. Now that she had awakened from that nightmare, she could hold her husband once again.
After holding each other for several precious moments, Lucian seemed to remember something urgent and asked, "What happened exactly? I witnessed the black mist of the Night of Lost Souls suddenly contracting, and countless souls appeared in the sky."
As a Sentinel of Light, Lucian possessed the qualifications and knowledge to understand supernatural phenomena. While he rejoiced in his wife's return, he remained particularly concerned about the behavior of the Lost Souls mist. After all, it represented a magical disaster that endangered countless innocent people.
"Everything is resolved now," Senna answered gently. "The source of the Ruinous Curse has been eliminated completely. We will never encounter another Night of Lost Souls."
Her response carried absolute certainty. Although her soul had been extracted to help reconstruct Isolde, her consciousness had remained aware throughout the process. She had witnessed firsthand the Ruined King's disappearance and Isolde's peaceful departure.
Hearing his wife's incredible revelation, Lucian stood speechless with amazement. As a Sentinel of Light, their sacred duty involved resisting the Black Mist in all its forms—but now Senna was telling him they would never again face the Night of Lost Souls.
"The Shadow Isles..." he began uncertainly.
"Yes, the Shadow Isles will gradually return to their natural state now that the Curse of Ruination has been completely dissipated," Senna confirmed.
This news filled Lucian with profound happiness. The Sentinels of Light had waited for generations to see this day. Finally, in their lifetime, they could witness the end of this ancient evil.
Throughout other regions of the world, various objects that had contained fragments of Isolde's essence flickered briefly with light before falling silent forever.
Noxus - The Immortal Bastion
Deep beneath the fortress, a suit of ancient steel armor resting on a throne suddenly stirred.
"The magic of ruination has dissipated..." a dry voice emerged from within the armor, sounding remarkably calm as if discussing trivial weather.
Ionia
Karma, who had been deep in meditation, suddenly felt an enormous weight lift from her spirit. The Ruinous Power had been like a parasitic curse, constantly requiring her attention to suppress its corrupting influence.
Just as her mental defenses were beginning to weaken from exhaustion, the ruinous energy simply vanished without a trace.
The power disappeared so completely and suddenly that Karma, inheritor of thousands of years of spiritual wisdom, found herself genuinely confused.
She understood exactly what the Curse of Ruination represented. According to her inherited memories, this curse had once terrorized the entire world.
"It's absolutely impossible for such power to simply disappear naturally," she reasoned aloud. "Someone must have directly confronted and eliminated the source."
Her knowledge of the Ruinous Curse's terrible nature made this development all the more shocking. This was a supernatural plague that the entire world had struggled against for centuries. Ordinary mortals would die from the briefest contact. What kind of being could possess such overwhelming power?
"Notify all our allies to remain vigilant," she instructed her attendants before returning to meditation.
Somewhere in Runeterra
Ryze, who had been searching for World Runes across the continent, immediately thought of Marcus upon discovering the Curse of Ruination's disappearance.
Very few beings in this world possessed such incredible power, and most of those entities preferred to remain in their established territories. Only Marcus, who had previously resolved the Void Watcher crisis, represented an exception to this pattern.
His capabilities were extraordinary. After personally meeting Marcus and observing his casual manipulation of various runes, Ryze felt more than half convinced that he was responsible for eliminating the Ruinous Curse.
"Does he have to cause such dramatic upheavals every time he acts?" Ryze muttered while turning toward his next destination.
He respected Marcus's incredible strength. Someone who could easily resolve even Void incursions would naturally consider a "mere" Ruinous Curse as trivial.
Shadow Isles
After resolving all outstanding issues, Marcus examined the small amount of ruinous power he had deliberately retained when absorbing the curse's full strength.
This energy had a specific purpose—he intended to inject it into blank enhancement cores to observe how other armor configurations might perform when utilizing these forces.
"Excellent harvest," he noted with satisfaction. "I've obtained all the power I require."
His business on the Shadow Isles was complete. He had acquired everything he came for, and now it was time to depart.
"Time to meet this sea beast," he decided.
His affairs here were finished, and next he would encounter the sea beast god worshipped by the Buhru people. If circumstances proved favorable, he would prefer to integrate that entity into his armor's power systems. After all, this sea beast deity bore remarkable similarities to the deep-sea leviathan associated with his Hydroid [Tidal Surge] configuration.
Moving through swirling black mist, Marcus traveled rapidly across the Shadow Isles until he reached the coastal area where he had first arrived.
"Do not extend your reach toward Zaun," he warned the island itself before preparing to depart.
With that declaration, Marcus dissolved into dark fog and vanished completely.
Not long after his departure, a figure carrying a soul lantern emerged from the shadows.
"Your will shall be obeyed!" Thresh declared, placing one hand over his heart while bowing deeply in the direction of Marcus's departure.
He felt profound gratitude toward the death god. Without Marcus's intervention, Thresh had no idea how much longer it might have taken to acquire a physical form.
After bidding farewell to his benefactor, green flames ignited in Thresh's palm. The fire flowed along the chain into his soul lantern, making the device burn even brighter. Many spirits could sense a powerful force drawing them toward the cursed light.
Fortunately, Marcus had claimed all the wandering souls that had accumulated on the Shadow Isles. Otherwise, Thresh's enhanced lantern would have become a supernatural magnet, drawing every spirit in the region into its hellish confines.
Bilgewater Port - Some Time Later
Marcus returned to find divine power spreading throughout the infamous pirate haven.
"Ah, it's Nagakabouros's influence," he observed with interest. "It seems her champion can't wait much longer to act."
He restored his normal human appearance, abandoning the Nekros manifestation he had maintained during his visit to the Shadow Isles.
After walking through Bilgewater Port, Marcus discovered the settlement had undergone remarkable changes during his brief absence.
"Not easy for Miss Fortune to get these unruly people following orders so quickly," he acknowledged with genuine admiration.
He smiled and nodded approvingly. Sarah's leadership abilities definitely deserved recognition. Her growth from simple bounty hunter to effective ruler demonstrated considerable skill and natural talent.
After touring the transformed port, Marcus made his way to Sarah's headquarters, where he could sense the sea beast god's power most strongly.
"That's what happened," Sarah was explaining to someone inside. "Gangplank tried to kill him, but was eliminated effortlessly. And he just returned from the Shadow Isles. You should understand the implications of that, being a priestess."
Sarah's voice carried through the doorway as she described Marcus's origins and recent activities to the imposing woman before her.
The Buhru people were renowned for their physical strength and particularly for their remarkably durable bones—based on their belief that bones only became stronger after being broken.
This philosophy toward life had produced a culture of powerful and resilient warriors. As the high priestess of the Buhru people, Illaoi's strength was legendary even among her formidable kinfolk. After all, very few individuals would choose to fight while wielding their deity's golden statue as a weapon.
Regardless of its spiritual significance, the weight alone of that massive golden idol would stagger most people. Yet this priestess swung the artifact with tremendous force, treating it as nothing more than an oversized mace.
"I have no interest in Gangplank's affairs," Illaoi replied carefully, "but could you tell me more about this individual's other... capabilities?"
Initially, Illaoi had traveled here planning to eliminate a potential threat to her people. However, after hearing Sarah's detailed explanation, doubt began creeping into her thoughts.
Her god was indeed powerful, but not omnipotent. Otherwise, the Buhru people wouldn't need to live in exile on the Serpent Isles, nor would they fear the periodic appearances of the Night of Lost Souls.
But the Marcus whom Sarah described was almost incomprehensibly terrifying—an existence that might actually surpass even Nagakabouros in pure power.
After all, her deity couldn't provide any protection against the Night of Lost Souls. Nagakabouros could only help her and their people survive when the supernatural phenomenon manifested.
But Marcus had not only walked directly into the Night of Lost Souls—he had somehow used that cursed event to assault the Shadow Isles themselves, driving back the black mist permanently.
Facing Illaoi's request for additional information, Sarah felt somewhat helpless. She didn't really know Marcus personally. She had already shared everything she could recall. If not for recognizing Illaoi's respected status and generally honorable character, she wouldn't have revealed even this much.
"Are you discussing me?" Marcus asked as he entered the room.
The moment they saw him, Sarah and Raven both froze with their mouths hanging open, as if witnessing something impossible.
"You... you... you're back!" Sarah managed to stammer.
"Indeed," Marcus nodded gently with an amused smile. "It was just a simple matter of collecting ruinous power. Are you really so surprised?"
Hearing his casual words, both Sarah and Raven appeared even more shocked, while Illaoi—the flat-headed priestess covered in traditional tattoos—also looked incredulous.
"Did you just say you 'collected' the power of ruination?" Illaoi demanded.
"Yes, exactly that," Marcus confirmed. "You don't need to worry about the black mist of the Night of Lost Souls anymore."
Having delivered this reassurance, Marcus focused his attention on the golden statue beside Illaoi.
"So this represents the Buhru people's faith—a sea beast deity?"
As he spoke, Marcus's eyes began glowing with void energy as he peered directly through the physical statue.
His enhanced vision pierced the material form to perceive the actual god residing within. An immense sea beast lay curled up in spiritual dimensions, observing Marcus with ancient intelligence.
"Hmm, I didn't expect it to resemble the Old God N'Zoth so closely," Marcus mused. "Could this actually be an Ancient God?"
Just as he completed this thought, Nagakabouros's mental communication reached out to him.
"Supreme Being, do you have any commands for this humble servant?"