Arcane: The Gods Want Me to Pick a Route-Chapter 176: Gods and Gods, People and People—An Unexpected Guest (EC)

A breeze converged. Azure blades hung in the air. Janna's figure floated behind Logan; as her snow-white arms swept, her staff swayed, and countless wind blades speared toward Illaoi.

At the same time, a voice slipped into Logan's mind.

[Logan, I can't beat Nagakabouros. What's here is only a strand of Its consciousness, not the true body. We can end this fast—subdue that woman first.]

[I'll hold Nagakabouros back. You handle her.]

Janna wasn't good at brawling, but that didn't mean she couldn't fight. A god who had lived for a thousand years had seen more slaughter than most mortals could imagine—Ascended, Darkin, and everything in between.

So when Janna truly attacked, she didn't hold back.

Just the commotion she created—the dense, teal storm of wind blades—could sweep past in a single breath and kill thousands of Bilgewater locals.

The power of a demigod… even a demigod like Janna, whose strength hadn't fully returned, was a natural disaster to any city-state or nation.

Logan lifted his head and looked at Illaoi.

Her eyes were glowing green. Standing upright atop a massive tentacle, she held the idol in both hands. One look at her face told Logan Janna was right—there was a dull vacancy to her expression, like a puppet whose soul had slipped free.

It was the same as when Logan had been Ahri's anchor—only Nagakabouros was in Runeterra, while Ahri had been in another world.

"Jinx, use the ship—get them out of here!" Logan shouted up at the sky.

"Got it!" Jinx snapped back. She immediately guided the descending ship to Miss Fortune and Akali's position, ready to pick people up and evacuate Bilgewater—four or five at a time. She'd drop them on a main road in the lower city, and they'd find their own boats to leave.

And as for Logan… if Janna was here, there wasn't much to worry about. Besides, didn't Logan secretly know a certain flirtatious fox, too?

With that thought, Jinx didn't hesitate. Akali and Miss Fortune were decisive types as well.

Especially Akali. Right now she felt like the whole world had gone insane.

Back when she first left the Kinkou Order, Akali had been a little full of herself—more than a little, really. Gifted beyond measure, she'd inherited the title of the Fist of Shadow at twelve, and by fourteen she had fully taken up the mantle. In the Order, there weren't many who could beat her.

But after stepping out into the world, she realized she'd inflated too early.

First this Zaunite, Logan, had taught her a lesson—there was always someone stronger.

Then she met someone her own age who was even more outstanding: Irelia.

Then she met Karma, the seer even Shen couldn't simply request an audience with.

And now… she was caught in a battle between gods.

Seriously. If she went back and told Shen, told Kennen—would they believe her?

Ink-black tentacles shattered the teal wind blades. Then two more tentacles snapped out from the edge, launching toward Jinx's position as Nagakabouros spoke in a low, hoarse rasp.

"Not… one… leaves."

Its voice came in broken pieces, as if squeezed out of the deepest ocean trench—blurred, heavy, like something inhuman imitating human speech. The wrongness of it crawled under the skin.

"Clang!"

Janna lifted her staff and tapped upward without even turning her head. A teal barrier formed—wind condensing into a shield—blocking the strike for Jinx and the others.

"What you have here is only a thought," Janna said coolly. "Nagakabouros, are you really going to treat me as if I'm nothing? And besides—if your true body came, even at my peak I wouldn't necessarily fear you."

Years spent in the little blue bird's body—living among Logan, Jinx, Vi, and the rest of Zaun—had taken a sliver of divinity from Janna and replaced it with something more human.

She'd even learned how to taunt!

She knew it—whether it was Shurima's Ascended or an ancient, primal thing like Nagakabouros, beings like them looked down on her.

Emperor Azir called her a false god. Nagakabouros mocked her as nothing but a breeze.

But Janna wasn't without a temper.

Was she truly weak?

She wasn't.

Logan had told her himself: she had become divine through faith. Across all of Runeterra, there were only a handful of gods who rose that way—Janna was one of the rare few.

And the difference between her and the primordial gods might simply be this: her floor was lower, theirs was higher.

But her ceiling was high, too.

The faith of Zaun and the coastal cities alone had pushed her into demigodhood.

So what if… she became the faith-god of all Runeterra? If most of humanity knew her—and truly believed?

She would become a storm.

A real storm.

Logan believed that completely. Janna was gentle. Kind. But people should remember her title—

The Storm's Fury.

Not the Storm's Love.

Even the gentlest wind, when angered, could cut.

"You… are… bold!"

Nagakabouros heard Janna's words and instantly abandoned trying to stop Jinx and Miss Fortune. Instead, It launched a frenzied assault at Logan and Janna.

[Logan, move—now!]

Unlike the calm on her face, the voice in Logan's head carried a sharp edge of urgency.

And Logan?

He swallowed hard, staring at the endless wave of tentacles that knit together into a gray-black net across the sky. Unease twisted in his gut.

Seriously… he was supposed to go in?

Could Janna really protect him under Nagakabouros's power?

Others might not know Janna's condition, but Logan did.

At best, she'd recovered to about sixty percent of what she'd been a thousand years ago.

Sure, the twin cities' faith campaign for her had never stopped. In both Zaun and Piltover, there were story booklets and murals about Janna everywhere.

But the times had changed.

Back then, old Zaun (when Piltover and Zaun were still one) was backward. People needed Janna's help for so much. There were no Hexgates. No tech cargo ships. Zaunites at sea weren't much different from Bilgewater sailors—storms, monsters, disasters. So they believed in Janna with real devotion, praying for safe voyages and calm waters.

But Zaun wasn't like that anymore.

Jayce built a new era. With Hextech, Piltover people trusted their own hands more than they trusted gods—and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It was exactly why the city's technology advanced so quickly.

But it also meant that even if people still "believed" in Janna, the purity of that faith wasn't what it used to be.

Back then, Zaunites going to sea would place Janna's statue on the ship. Before departure, they'd kneel at the household shrine for one or two hours.

Now?

Who had time to pray for one or two hours? In one or two hours, a Hexgate could send you from Zaun to Ionia—or to Demacia.

So even if Nagakabouros was only a manifested consciousness, Logan still worried.

What if Janna was bluffing?

Ever since she started taking the blame for him, her whole "role" had drifted toward being the twin cities' lovable mascot—the cute little blue bird you could tease—rather than some lofty, untouchable god.

What if she'd taunted Nagakabouros, then talked herself into believing her own trash talk?

"Stop freezing up!" Janna snapped aloud when she saw Logan standing there.

A being like Nagakabouros couldn't just appear whenever It wanted. Its true body was far too vast—an entity bound to the edges of Runeterra itself. That was why everyone in Bilgewater knew the name, yet hardly anyone on the isles had truly seen It.

Most of the time, It could only take form through Buhru faith. To come out, It had to pay a price.

That was why Janna told Logan to subdue Illaoi. If Illaoi's link to Nagakabouros was severed, Nagakabouros would vanish.

As for whether It would pay an even higher price and descend in Its true form to come after Zaun…

Don't be ridiculous. It had plenty of enemies.

Janna knew at least one—and she'd been watching the seas. The wind knew all things in the world, and she was its master.

That was why, not long ago, she'd sensed a powerful human woman.

A human woman—walking Bilgewater with a bladed whip, hunting terrifying monsters. She'd already killed a mighty serpent-like demigod, and now she was searching for Nagakabouros's trail.

Hearing Janna's voice, Logan gritted his teeth and dove under the "net."

Fine. Worst case, he died.

He had Lamb's Respite. Even if he died, he'd just return to the "respawn point." Ahri and Kindred would find a way to deal with it.

So there was no point being that scared.

He stepped forward and Flashed, ignoring the tentacles striking in. His eyes locked only on Illaoi.

And then came the sounds—horrific impacts cracking behind him and in front of him, one after another.

Janna's beautiful face tightened, eyes heavy with focus, lips pressed thin. One hand gripped her staff; the other extended toward Logan, long fingers spread wide as immense divine power layered over his body.

With her staff hand, she moved with airy precision. Dozens of meters-long teal wind blades kept forming without pause. Every instant, she unleashed hundreds of attacks at Nagakabouros, shredding the net of tentacles.

She carved a path for Logan while shielding him—yet every so often, the white radiance around her dimmed. A sign of divine power burning away.

But it worked.

Logan closed the distance to Illaoi—and stared straight into Nagakabouros's evil, countless eyes.

"Believe… in me, human. I am… the true… god…"

The many eyes rolled, fixing on Logan, the voice low and hypnotic—pure temptation.

"I worship your mom's ass!" Logan shouted, springing upward—stepping on a tentacle to launch higher. Wind-Style Swordsmanship gathered in his right hand as he drove a thrust straight at Illaoi's head.

He was Zaunite too. This ugly, fish-headed thing kept fixating on him, calling him over and over like he belonged to It—how could he not get angry?

They'd already torn off the mask.

So Logan stopped caring!

But before his blade could reach Illaoi, his body was thrown backward like he'd slammed into an invisible wall.

Janna could protect Logan—so how could Nagakabouros not protect Illaoi?

Logan twisted in the air, landed, and rolled hard to the side—catlike, scrambling across the ground as Janna's wind shoved him faster.

He dodged the tentacles, but when he looked back and saw what was left…

A crater—about three feet across, plunging dozens of yards down. And the ground around it wasn't even cracked.

Logan's mouth twitched.

Three feet across. Dozens of yards deep. No fractures.

What did that mean?

It meant that tentacle punched through Bilgewater like it was stabbing tofu.

Logan did not believe he could take that hit.

If that thing tagged him, he'd be skewered like meat on a kabob.

[Logan, hold on a little longer. Jinx and the others will be out any second.]

Janna's voice echoed in his mind. Logan lunged forward again, attacking Illaoi once more.

He wanted to ask what they'd do once they reached open water—because the sea was Nagakabouros's true home field.

But he couldn't ask now. If he did, Nagakabouros would realize they were stalling.

So Logan could only grit his teeth and force himself forward, clearing the obstacle in front of him first.

And if it really went to hell…

Then he'd have to call Ahri.

Janna held on as well—attacking nonstop to disrupt Nagakabouros, never letting her guard slip around Logan.

Now, war between god and god, human and human, had reached a fever pitch.

Above Bilgewater, wind and cloud converged. The clash of divine forces warped the natural world around the isles.

It started to rain.

Every Bilgewater resident—Gangplank and his men included—had already fled the upper district, running for shelter in the lower city. They stared up at the colossal tentacles and teal radiance while the entire island trembled beneath their feet, fear and confusion swallowing them whole.

Gangplank even felt regret.

Damn it… Bilgewater wasn't going to vanish today, was it?

———————

Ionia, within the The Lasting Altar, Karma opened her eyes.

Sensing the disturbance from beyond, she frowned slightly.

She rose, gazing out at the sky beyond the hall. Green light shimmered in her eyes. After a moment's thought, she stepped out—moving to Ionia's coastline.

"The Serpent Mother…"

"But why hasn't the Spirit of Salvation appeared?"

Those two presences—one belonged to the Serpent Mother, and the other to the wind spirit. Karma didn't sense the Spirit of Salvation at all, and it felt wrong.

By all logic, wasn't she supposed to be Logan's true backer?

But then Karma froze.

She narrowed her eyes, turning her gaze away—toward Noxus.

And she gave a cold snort, disgust flickering in her eyes.

She sensed another presence. Two, in fact—both coming from Noxus.

Closing her eyes, a spectral dragon of green light rose behind her. Karma aimed her divine sense straight at Noxus.

First she saw one of the presences—and its owner seemed to notice Karma in return. After all, Karma wasn't trying to hide.

After speaking with Irelia, Karma was certain: Ionia needed change. It could not remain as it had been. The outside world needed to understand—Ionian people would no longer allow themselves to be carved up at will.

So she made her strength known openly.

That presence was far weaker than her… yet something was strange. When Karma's divine sense reached it, she found only a withered black rose left behind, while the lingering aura at the scene was terrifyingly complex.

Like hundreds of souls fused together.

Like her—yet different.

Those souls felt eerily similar, as though they'd split from one single source.

Then Karma looked deeper—toward the presence seeping out from beneath the Immortal Bastion.

And she heard an ugly sound.

"Caw! Caw!"

A bird's cry—like a child sobbing.

The sound of a raven.

And then her vision flashed red. Her divine sense was severed by force.

But in the last blurred instant, she saw white hair, a black coat, and a many-eyed raven perched on a blood-red arm and shoulder.

It was staring straight back at her.

When Karma came back to herself, she looked toward Bilgewater.

And she made a decision.

A decision she hadn't received the elders' approval for.

She raised her hand, gently flicked her fan—

And a rainbow bridge with no visible end appeared across the sea's surface.

She stepped onto it, and Karma vanished from Ionia's shoreline.

In the next heartbeat, she stood upon the endless waters of the Guardian's Sea.

"There are far too many unexpected guests," Karma murmured as she walked the rainbow bridge.

She would help Logan.

And she would also make something clear to the outside world.

Ionia was not without divine protection.

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