Chapter 276 Belvis, the Swallowed City

Malphite's voice is too deep, but in such a narrow and claustrophobic environment, with the echo, it can be considered a loud voice, not even comparable to the most powerful Hex amplifier.

Even Li Lin, who had strengthened his body, felt that his eardrums were hurt by the shock and his head felt dizzy.

Not to mention Hewlett and Shulay behind him, who had already bent down and covered their ears with painful expressions on their faces.

Li Lin quickly put on his mask, blocking out half of the sounds from the outside world. "I understand the truth, but can you... lower your voice?"

"Oh, sorry."

As if aware of the pain of the villains in front of him, Malphite lowered his voice and even breathed much more slowly.

Then, there was another collapse-like tremor in the mine, the sound of boulders rubbing together, and countless small stones falling from the top.

Malphite moved and rubbed, changing his shape. A rocky face with eyes, a nose, and a mouth that looked extremely human-like emerged. It was about 10 meters high and 20 meters wide, exactly half the size of a stone wall.

Its two round eyes, as dark as deep pits, slowly opened, and the crystal pupils flowing in their eyes were like the precious crystal topaz unearthed from the Shurima mines.

Under the bulging nose, an arc-shaped, jagged ravine rumbled, and a large amount of choking dust was instantly sprayed out, just like a sneeze or a cough.

"Sorry, I'm digesting it," Malphite said.

After a while, Shu Lai regained his composure, frowned, covered his mouth and nose, and walked up to Li Lin, squinting and looking into Malphite's big eye.

For this strange rock life form that she had never seen before, her curiosity far outweighed the fear in her heart.

"Are you...the spirit of the mountain? Or something else?" Shulai asked softly.

When she asked, there was another harsh sound of rocks rubbing against each other. Malphite's eyebrows furrowed tightly, and his voice was full of doubts.

"No, at least I don't think I am... I think I was once part of a whole, and then..."

Malphite paused. After more than ten seconds, he continued: "Later, I was born and continued to fight the enemy... There is so much chaos in this world that it is difficult for me to remember clearly."

"enemy?"

Shu Lai raised his eyebrows and looked back at Li Lin, who was wearing a mask and had an unknown expression, and Hewlett, who had no idea what they were talking about and looked confused.

"What enemy?"

"Something that doesn't exist...a creature that only exists to devour."

Malphite's voice was low and slow, and his colorful eyes were slightly absent-minded, as if he was remembering something from the past.

Shu Lai couldn't help but take a deep breath, but he choked on the dusty air and coughed violently a few times, "Cough cough cough... I think I know them."

After beating her chest hard several times, she took out a Hex breathing mask from the satchel around her waist and put it on her face. Her breathing instantly became smoother.

"They live in the desert in the south and occasionally go to Khalisay to hunt. The locals call their habitat Calixai, but northern Shurima and outsiders are used to calling it the Sea of ​​Bones."

Shulai is originally a Shuriman. Before moving to Piltover, her hometown was in the mountains in the eastern part of Shurima, downstream of the main road of the River of Life, near Khalisai.

In other words, she grew up on the lost legend of Icathia.

Of course, she had also heard from her parents about Rek'Sai and the Sha clan.

"Yes, yes... the sea of ​​bones... they were once imprisoned in the abyss of the salty land, but now it's different... now they travel through the earth's crust, like a poisonous tree of roots."

Li Lin couldn't help but sigh as he listened to the conversation between the two of them, which was not on the same channel at all.

Shulai obviously refers to the Sha clan that once occupied the Sea of ​​Bones, Rek'Sai and its "children" Ek'Sai.

But judging from the look in Malphite's eyes, it was obvious that it didn't know about these desert underground void monsters.

Otherwise, Rek'Sai and the Sha would not have survived to this day. They were killed by Archmaester Nasus, and then devoured by Kai'Sa and used to evolve skin armor.

What Malphite is talking about is just the erosion of Runeterra by the void, which is what it calls the "void vines" underground.

All I can say is that he is really smart, he is quite big, but his brain capacity is quite small...

"Ahem, Calixai's Rek'Sai has been killed by the god warrior Nasus." Li Lin couldn't help but interjected.

"What?!" Shock showed on Shulai's face, and he looked back at him, "The legendary Rek'Sai is already dead? Or was he..."

"I saw it with my own eyes when I was traveling with the Grand Maester on our trip to Shurima last year."

Shu Lai's expression under the mask was already stunned, and he was so shocked that he couldn't speak.

She thought Li Lin was bragging. No matter how excellent a craftsman from Piltover was, how could he be friends with the former demigod?

Moreover, it has been decades since Nasus was last seen traveling with a purple-skinned mage.

This is just a legend, and it’s not certain whether it has ever happened.

But the next second, when Li Lin unfolded the armor on his chest, Malphite's reaction made Shulai completely give up the idea of ​​questioning.

"This...this is...a very familiar feeling..."

Malphite's eyes widened, as if he wanted to break free from this small area.

The mine trembled again, and large pieces of gravel fell from the top of the head quickly into a spider web of cracked stone roof. The wooden support pillars supporting the mine were subjected to pressure beyond their design limits.

Under the control of Zhinao, two mechanical engineers immediately moved forward and deployed the "steel barrier" to protect Hewlett and Shulay from the possibility of being injured by fragments of stones.

"Stop moving!" Li Lin quickly stopped Malphite, "You are going to collapse this mine!"

"Oh, sorry."

It settled down again, covered by dust, and its big, confused eyes blinked again and again, staring closely at the yellow round talisman pendant that Li Lin showed, which was somewhat similar to the sun disk.

"I remembered, this is... the Ascended Talisman! Back then, every Ascendant was equipped with such a talisman... It can bring the blessing of power, coming from the sun disk."

Talisman of the Ascended…

Shu Lai looked at Li Lin with shock in his eyes, and couldn't help but gasp again.

"This was given to me by Emperor Azir of Shurima." Li Lin explained.

"Shurima... Ever since I was born into consciousness, the Shurima Empire has ceased to exist." Malphite's voice was full of sadness.

Apparently, it still retains some memories of its time as a monolith.

"The Desert Emperor has returned. In his perfect posture as a god warrior, you might want to go to the former imperial city, the City of the Sun, to find him." Li Lin said with a smile.

In the original world line, Malphite didn't know about Azir's resurrection.

Azir didn't know that the monolith that could once fight the void would give birth to a consciousness like this.

With his own help, Malphite's return to Azir's command would give him a general who was as powerful as the Celestial Warriors, and it would be much easier to solve Xerath's problem.

"Azir... I understand." Malphite sighed, "Maybe he can reshape me into the complete individual I was originally... I don't like the way I am now."

Azir definitely can't do it, Nezuk doesn't know whether he's dead or not, and you are the last fragment of the monolith...

I can only say maybe, if I have time to thoroughly study rune technology.

"By the way, Malphite, you said before that there are vines under the ground here that are invading the real world from the void... Do you know how many there are specifically?"

The topic finally returned to what Li Lin was most concerned about.

"Not just vines, but also a group of monsters similar to manta rays... But don't worry, I have swallowed them into my body, and it won't take long to crush them."

Malphite smiled softly, and more gravel fell from the ceiling, "But don't dig too deep, there will be more of these monsters."

Li Lin frowned and asked, "A manta ray corrupted by the void?"

"Yes, if I'm not mistaken, this is what you little people call it. When I was floating in the ocean, I was close to the side of the ship. I heard the sailors describe it this way."

As he spoke, Malphite frowned again and sprayed out a cloud of dust.

"But I don't know why. Those little people on the boat yelled at me and attacked me with metal hooks and cannonballs from the boat... Obviously I just wanted to say hello to them."

"They might be scared." Li Lin didn't know what to say. "After all...well, you are so big, they might have thought you were a terrifying sea beast."

"Then I'll be more careful next time... surface early to say hello to them."

Well……

Li Lin fell into silence, and Shu Lai beside him couldn't help but chuckle.

She suddenly felt that this rock creature who called himself Malphite was quite cute.

Li Lin took a deep breath. Unknowingly, he was led astray by Malphite and lost control of the conversation.

All I can say is that great intelligence is contagious...

"Let's get down to business." He said, "Do you know where the manta ray in the ground comes from? Can we solve its source?"

Malphite was silent for a few seconds, and the eyes flashing in his crystal-yellow eyes became more serious, "I don't recommend you go to that place. Even I can't guarantee that I can escape from there unscathed."

"Huh? What if we have the help of Grand Maester Nasus?"

Since they are void creatures in Runeterra, they should all be creations of the void corrupting the material world.

Unless the group of monitors in the Freljord personally infiltrate the material realm and create the disaster beast Wolin, even Alvinia, the incarnation of ice and snow and the demigod in charge of winter, can do nothing. Monsters that can only be solved by dying together, other voids Creatures should be inferior to demigods.

After a long pause, Malphite let out a heavy breath, and the sweeping air almost blew Hewlett and Shulay out.

"I don't know..." its voice sounded even duller, "It was a city swallowed up by nothingness... Belvis... Inside, there was a presence that even made me tremble."

"What?!"

Now, it was finally Li Lin's turn to be shocked.

A void creature that can make even Malphite tremble with fear...

How can this be? !

"That area, southeast of Khalisai, once had a vibrant city."

Malphite frowned in thought, as fragments of memory flashed through his mind.

Those are the remaining memories from the time when it was still part of the monolith.

"Yes, Belvis, the border between Shurima and Icathia...that city was swallowed by the abyss when we were still one and flew over there.

"But at that time, such a terrifying existence had not been born. Otherwise, we would not have flown to Icacia and would have fallen as early as Belvis."

Hearing Malphite's description, Li Lin couldn't help but hold his breath.

Can single-handedly resist the monolith driven by tens of thousands of outstanding elemental mages and a dozen celestial warriors...

How strong should that guy be?

Not to mention Shurai who can understand Shurima.

She obviously knew every word they said, but when they were put together, she didn't understand what they meant.

"...Is it a monitor?" Although he didn't want to think about it, Li Lin still asked the question in his heart.

"Monitor? No no..."

Malphite denied, "Compared to an individual, it is more like a... well, a collection of consciousness, if you can describe it that way.

"If I go deep into that area, I will be swallowed up by it instantly, leaving no room for resistance. So I advise you not to go to Khalisai, especially the swallowed Belves.

"The void there is not something we can contend with...so we cannot solve the source of the corrupted manta ray."

Nothing can't be solved, not even the monitor...

Otherwise, the world would have no future at all.

Li Lin's heart was heavy, "Thank you for your advice, Malphite. It's very useful to me."