"Chief, nothing unexpected happened in the countries under my watch. In my opinion, Rona II is a wise ruler. He has already discharged a large number of soldiers and is preparing to send them to the Twin Cities to work and study. Even before the minister he sent to the Twin Cities had returned, he was already working on carving roads through the mountains and had stopped guarding against Noxus."
"My side was the same. King Baibu is planning to send all the scholars in his country to the Twin Cities. In this group, I think the one we most need to protect is an expert with exceptional knowledge of minerals. He should be able to help Councilor Talis quite a bit."
"My situation is about the same."
"I ran into a bit of trouble on my end, but it wasn't because that king was unwilling. By the time I arrived, he had already been turned into a figurehead by the nobles in his own country, so I'll need a little more time."
Listening to the various reports from her subordinates, Camille analyzed them and found that most of the matters under her charge had already been handled. Only then did she finally relax a little and set down the wineglass she had been swirling in her hand.
Narrowing her eyes, Camille looked toward another person. A masked man covered in various hextech devices lowered his head and said respectfully, "From everything I've investigated over these past few days, Akali in Zaun has not moved faster than we have."
A flicker of satisfaction passed through Camille's eyes.
But the satisfaction vanished just as quickly.
Because the man continued.
"But Akali isn't slow either. At this rate, it won't be long before she catches up to us," said the Ferros family intelligence agent, his expression complicated.
Camille was displeased when she heard that, though it was not because she had any issue with Akali or with Zaun. It was because Camille's pride would not allow her to lose to anyone else.
Losing in wealth or raw power was one thing. But if she lost at intelligence work, the very profession she had spent decades in, what kind of disgrace would that be?
A real intelligence operative needed to gather information, disrupt enemy camps, and above all be cautious and meticulous. That was true professional skill.
She knew that the girl named Akali was exceptionally gifted. After all, she was someone Logan had personally brought back.
Think about it. Had a single person Logan personally brought back ever been weak?
But no matter how strong Akali was, her work was still that of an assassin. How old was she, really?
On top of that, Zaun's intelligence division had only been established within the past year, while the Ferros family had over a century of history behind it.
If she lost to them, Camille naturally would feel humiliated.
Even so, she did not lose her temper. She simply asked quietly, "Why?"
"Violence," the agent said, lifting his head, bitterness in his eyes.
Yes, violence.
Camille's mouth twitched slightly when she heard that.
The intelligence operative hurried to explain. "The Shadow Guard led by Akali is responsible for nine small countries in total, while we're responsible for ten. Of the nine countries on her side, the leaders of seven have already signed the agreement. As for the remaining two, the Shadow Guard has already infiltrated them. Judging by the situation, it should not take much longer."
"And among those seven countries, aside from three whose rulers genuinely wanted to join the Twin Cities Federation, the rest all resisted. In the face of that resistance, Zaun's Shadow Guard has been carrying out decapitation strikes and assassinations."
"The number of kings who have personally died at Akali's hands has already reached four."
Camille rubbed her brow and, after a long pause, said, "That had to be Silco's idea."
Logan would never give an order like that, and in Zaun, the only person who could give Akali an order like that was Silco.
"And what is the outside reaction?" Camille asked again.
She wanted to know whether Akali's methods would bring negative consequences to the Twin Cities, but the agent proceeded to explain at length.
In essence, the Shadow Guard under Akali was not killing blindly. They were crushing one group while winning over another, tying themselves into each country's internal power structure through status, authority, and money.
After hearing that report, Camille became even more certain of her guess.
That was Silco's plan, one hundred percent.
Who else could it have been?
If you said that girl in her teens was powerful, fine. Of course she was powerful. Whether in Zaun or Piltover, there were very few people in either city who could beat her.
Even a fully armed Camille would find her troublesome to deal with, because that damn ninjutsu and those secret techniques could actually injure Camille.
But if you wanted to say Akali had that kind of political insight, Camille did not believe it.
In the end, Camille only said quietly, "Tell everyone to speed things up. No later than five days from now, I want the final answer from the last country."
The agent nodded hard and shouted, "Yes!"
The spring sun was bright without being oppressive. The density of foot traffic on the streets of Piltover had clearly increased. Strange clothing of every kind, different skin tones, different faces, and yet they all had one thing in common. As soon as they entered Piltover, each of them was holding a small booklet and walking with their heads lowered, reading it while looking for directions.
A closer look would reveal the words written on the cover:
Federation Guide.
That was right. A month earlier, when Zaun had sent out Akali and Piltover had sent out Camille, Mel had already prepared this little booklet in advance.
Inside, it listed all the kinds of labor the Twin Cities currently needed. It also laid out the types of talent that could be cultivated, giving all kinds of advice to those who believed in themselves, wanted opportunities to rise, and hoped to improve their lives.
At the same time, the booklet also included information on Void creatures written by Jax and Kai'Sa.
Jax had seen large Void creatures before, but he had not personally fought in the Void War back then, so his descriptions were more general. Kai'Sa was different. She had lived for years alongside the Void in its lower depths. Across all of Runeterra, there were very few humans who understood the Void better than she did. Because of that, what she wrote was extremely detailed, detailed enough to describe exactly how many mouthparts a Void insect had and even how many teeth were inside them.
At noon, the Hexgates ran nonstop. Cargo transports departed continuously from Piltover to all corners of the world, while airships packed with passengers returned to Piltover in turn.
The noise those Hexgate transports made when they passed through was tremendous, but everyone had already grown used to it. By now, the blue flashes in broad daylight and the roaring thunder of transit barely drew a second glance.
Just then, another hextech airship set off. Blue light washed across Piltover's towering buildings, those that rose above the clouds. From one of the uppermost floors, standing by the window, you could look directly down at the harbor docks.
Sunlight draped the port like silk. In the golden glow, gray-white seabirds circled above enormous ships, tracing messy arcs through the air. They lingered there waiting for people on deck to feed them. Having spent all year around the harbor, they had long since stopped caring about the blast of ship horns. Some of the bolder ones even landed right on the decks, folded up their wings, and waddled happily through the crowd, cooing and squawking for food.
And right now, on one of those large ships, Logan was sailing toward the center of the sea together with the leaders of the Twin Cities.
Jinx was standing on deck.
Today she had dressed for movement. She wore a yellow field jacket over the tactical crop top she liked best, along with a pair of fitted black pants that made it easy to move around.
Her long hair was tied into twin tails, and she wore a sun hat. The outfit was not exactly ladylike, but it was full of energy and life. At the moment, though, she had one hand wrapped around the neck of a seabird, holding it tight, while with the other she forced a small bottle of liquid into the bird's mouth.
Kai'Sa and Taliyah were with her, and Lux, who Jinx had dragged along too, was also watching curiously. What exactly was Jinx doing?
Was this some kind of punishment for the seabird?
Of course, the three girls had no way of knowing that it was not punishment at all. It was an experiment.
Logan had already handed Rek'Sai's corpse over to Singed for processing. To Singed, the flesh and bones of a Void creature were a treasure beyond measure.
Even for someone as knowledgeable as Singed, who would dare say he understood the biology of Runeterra's creatures better than almost anyone, a creature like Rek'Sai had a structure he had never seen before.
Massive head, long body, broad claws, small tail, from the front she looked almost like a crane. Most of all, Rek'Sai's sensory organs were fascinating. They were somewhat like a bat's echolocation, but not quite the same. Because of that, both Singed and Jinx had drawn inspiration from them.
Singed planned to dissect Rek'Sai and see whether this kind of sensory organ could be added to a human body. Jinx, meanwhile, had found another possible use.
She wanted to adapt the idea for her drones. If she could do that, they would be able to detect sound and find enemies.
As for why she was force-feeding a seagull right now, it was because she was helping Singed. Most of Zaun's scientists were currently assisting him.
Piltover people naturally could not help much with work like this. When it came to alchemy, Zaunites completely outclassed them. So whether it was Ekko or Zeri, both had received potions distributed by Singed for all sorts of experiments on animals, after which they would record the data and report it back to him.
That was exactly the work Jinx was doing at the moment.
And on the other side,
"Logan, the Federation matter is finished for now. Every nation worth naming has already joined us. As for information on the Void, the Enforcers have already carried the booklets around the world and are spreading the word."
Silco looked out toward the center of the sea. Strangely enough, this was probably his first time actually out on open water. Yes, the underground king of Zaun had never gone to sea before. Business matters had always been handled by his subordinates. He himself never showed his face.
And perhaps because of that, as he looked out over the vast and calm expanse of ocean, Silco found himself feeling unexpectedly reflective.
Logan nodded and kept his eyes on the sea, judging the scale of the area before them.
"Fiora and Katarina have also returned to Demacia and Noxus. Jarvan III sent word that Demacia can help with manpower. The warriors of the Dauntless Vanguard are incredibly strong, and when the time comes, he will send three hundred of them to Piltover. Swain, meanwhile, said in his letter that Noxus cannot spare manpower right now, but that we are free to use as much Noxian ore and sand as we need," Mel said from the side, also looking over the water.
"Everyone, this, this is even crazier than what Zaun tried three hundred years ago. Are you sure this can actually succeed?"
A sharp voice rang out. Everyone lowered their heads and saw Professor Heimerdinger, who had not shown himself for quite some time.
The professor had been busy building the Hextech T-Rex lately. He had already completed most of its body, but now the problem was power. At their current level, hex crystals were not enough to make the Hextech T-Rex move, so Viktor had been helping too, trying to push the limits of hex crystal technology.
"Of course, Professor. Besides, it's not a question of whether it can succeed. It has to succeed," Logan said after drawing a deep breath.
He pointed at the sea and said in a low voice, "Right here, beneath the ocean, the Void tunnels have already been dug all the way to Zaun. Didn't we just confirm that a while ago?"
Kai'Sa had said before that she did not know exactly where the Rek'Sai tunnels had reached, but one thing she was certain of was that all the lands bordering Shurima had almost certainly already been burrowed through.
And that was exactly what they found. After conducting a geological survey in Zaun, they dug several hundred meters down from one of the mines and found stones saturated with the aura of the Void. Those tunnels crumbled apart with the slightest squeeze. And when they wanted to keep digging deeper, Janna stepped in and stopped them.
She had never thought about this sort of thing before. After all, once Janna's power recovered, she had more than enough on her plate. Just processing all the power of faith she was receiving took up most of her time. How could she have gone out of her way to investigate what lay beneath Zaun?
But now, after sensing downward, Janna declared with certainty that if they kept digging, all they would find would be a sprawling network of underground tunnels. One wrong move, and if those tunnels collapsed, Zaun itself would cave in and be swallowed into the underground world below.
That was why reclaiming the sea and opening a direct path to Shurima was so important.
It would not only make trade easier and create a new route, it would also prepare for Zaun's future relocation.
Zaun had no intention of hiding beneath an abyss forever.
"All right, children, then let us do it," Heimerdinger muttered after hearing Logan out, finally agreeing.
Then he walked forward, clutched the rail, lifted himself up, and peered downward. "But even for us, it will still take quite a long time to fill in a sea."
"Reclaiming the sea, no one has ever done such a thing before." Heimerdinger turned his head to look at Logan.
Hearing that, Jayce clenched his fist in excitement.
Just as Professor Heimerdinger had said, three hundred years ago, Zaun had once wanted to build a great bridge stretching toward Shurima to make trade easier. But that project, the one that might have changed Zaun's future, had failed, and from that failure came Zaun and Piltover as they now existed.
And now, what the Twin Cities were about to do was even more outrageous than that.
They were going to fill in the sea between the Twin Cities and Shurima.
This was absolutely going to be recorded in the history books of the future.
"There's not much I can do to help with this, so it's all going to depend on the rest of you," Logan said with a grin, spreading his hands.
It was true that he now had the strength of a demigod, but something like filling in the sea, even if it killed him from exhaustion, he still would not be able to pull it off.
And as for Jax and Master Yi, yes, both of them were also demigod-level fighters, but in a project like this, they might even be less useful than Logan.
Otherwise what? Jax and Yi were supposed to reclaim the sea? Other than acting as laborers hauling stone around, what could they really do?
At least Logan could use wind magic to lend a hand, but Jax and Yi truly were useless here.
Thinking that, Logan glanced over at Lux, who was following behind Jinx like a little tail.
Tch. If only he could talk Lux into bringing Galio over.
If that big guy were here, with Galio's size and strength, hauling mountains of stone around would be absurdly efficient.
But sadly, Jarvan III would never agree to send Galio out. It was not because Demacia understood Galio's uniqueness, but because Demacia's petricite colossi, as one of the kingdom's greatest anti-mage forces, were never going to be lent out to outsiders.
No matter how good the relationship between Zaun and Demacia had become, they still could not get petricite from them.
That was one of the foundations of Demacia's strength in Valoran. Why would Jarvan III ever lend it out?
Still, three hundred warriors of the Dauntless Vanguard were enough to prove Jarvan III's sincerity.
"Then let's begin!" Logan gave the order and said in a deep voice, "Survey the sea, test the water!"
"Mark out the area, set the boundaries!"
"We don't have much time. From this point on, the Twin Cities will devote everything to the sea reclamation project. We are going to remove the divide between Shurima and Valoran!"
Silco stood quietly behind Logan, watching him issue his orders from the front.
And as Logan's command rang out, the Enforcers, already fully geared up and itching to move, could not hold back any longer. One after another, they jumped from the ship and dove into the sea below.
If Mel had not stopped him, Jayce would already have put on his gear and gone overboard with them to investigate.
"The sea reclamation project officially begins!"
At the start of May in the year 990, after calling together the Federation, the Twin Cities officially began the great sea reclamation project linking Valoran and Shurima. This was the first time that humanity on Runeterra had tried to reshape the world through its own power.
Humans, spirits, demigods, demons, even the Celestials beyond the stars, at this moment, all of their eyes were fixed on the Twin Cities.
Reclaim the sea, reclaim the sea!
//Check out my P@tre0n for 10 extra free chapters //[email protected]/Razeil0810