Inside the house, Annie sat in front of the fireplace, holding her teddy bear and staring absentmindedly at the crackling flames. Li Lin and Amoline sat at the table, both silent, lost in thought. Through his "Data Mind" ability, Li Lin had already discerned that the fire demon was bound to Annie's bear, Tibbers. Its name was Tybaulk.
Not long ago, Annie and her father had fallen severely ill, their bodies burning with fever to the point that even Amoline could not touch them. Yet, despite that, Annie had woken up the next day as if nothing had happened, sitting in front of the still-warm ashes of a fire with her teddy bear.
At the time, Amoline and her husband, who was still recovering from his illness, were puzzled. Why had Annie recovered so quickly after one night, and why had she given her teddy bear such a strange name? Now, it seemed like everything was far from coincidental.
The wind outside picked up, and the snowflakes falling from the sky had grown much larger compared to when Li Lin had first arrived. His drone had located Gregori, who had been hunting outside, and he estimated that Gregori would be back in about half an hour.
Amoline anxiously took a sip of the herbal tea in front of her, her absent eyes soon regaining their melancholic glow as she turned her gaze to Li Lin. "To be honest, I've seen it more than once... if it is indeed the demon you speak of," she said, pausing briefly as she glanced at her still-dazed daughter. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "I don't know what it's called, but I saw its true form in the fire. That monster was enormous, covered in countless massive arms, each spewing flames."
"It guided me out of the Ravonbloom Conservatory, away from the Immortal Bastion, and kept leading me toward Gregori..." It seemed that recalling these unpleasant memories made Amoline reluctant to delve deeper into the topic.
"Before I conceived Annie, I was lured into the fire more than once by that creature in the flames, but back then, the fire couldn't hurt me. Even Gregori was utterly astonished by it."
"Only after Annie was born did I realize that my connection to the fire seemed to vanish, almost as though it had disappeared. Even my own magical powers began to fade."
As she spoke, Amoline's eyes shifted back to Annie, her gaze softening with a motherly tenderness before quickly shifting to one of deep concern. "Please, you have to help Annie. Whatever the cost..." Her voice grew weaker and more uncertain with each word, until it became so faint that even Li Lin, with his keen hearing, struggled to catch what she was saying. However, based on the context, he could guess the general idea.
"I don't need anything in return from you," Li Lin replied, "In fact, I was hoping to ask for your help."
Amoline's expression shifted to one of confusion. "Huh?"
Noticing her fleeting look of confusion, Li Lin didn't elaborate further. Without the demon's interference, this family would be like any other ordinary one, and dealing with the world's crises shouldn't be their concern. But this fire demon could very well be a product of the Black Rose and may even have ties to Raum or Mordekaiser, and this was something Li Lin needed to understand.
"Let's talk about your past," Li Lin suggested.
Amoline's eyes faltered, unwilling to revisit those memories. "You won't be interested, but if it helps save my daughter..."
She took a breath, downing the now-cold tea, and sat in silence for a while, trying to reconstruct the memories in her mind. She had once been a child from a remote village, living alone with her elderly grandmother. A few years ago, her grandmother, frail and aging, passed away during the winter. After her death, the villagers, fearing her magic, exiled her, calling her a "witch."
Noxus officially recognized the value of mages, but most of the rural villages and towns clung to outdated and superstitious beliefs, unwilling to accept magic. Weeks passed, and a man named Fynn Retrick, claiming to be the chief scout of Ravonbloom Conservatory, found her and brought hope—he was recruiting gifted individuals like her to join Noxus and offered them a place to belong.
At that point, Amoline, exhausted from loneliness and rejection, followed Fynn without hesitation to the academy. It was a decision she would regret for the rest of her life.
One day, the headmaster of the Conservatory, Telsi, stood at the door of her dormitory, accompanied by an arbiter draped in thorns. They dropped a fiery droplet of liquid onto Amoline's forehead while muttering words like "You are the chosen one," "The empire needs weapons like you," "You will be crowned as queen," and so on. The searing pain consumed her almost instantly, and it became one of the most painful memories she could never bring herself to recall.
Afterward, the academy's training grew harsher, to the point where Amoline could no longer endure it. Coupled with the constant whispers in her mind, it didn't take long before she stole enough food from the kitchen to escape, hiding in the shadows. Seizing an opportunity when the instructors and guards weren't paying attention, she slipped through a gap at a corner of the campus and fled.
The following day, after narrowly avoiding several dangers under the guidance of the voice in her head, Amoline met Gregory, who was passing by on his way to settle in the northern Ironspike Mountains. It was during a campfire that she finally saw the true form of the fiery demon—Tybaulk. The flames flickered, and the demon showed her scenes of the past.
In the image, at the grand stone gate of a magnificent palace, a towering steel giant wielding a war hammer fought against a group of mortals. Two fierce beasts followed the giant, one a pitch-black shadow, the other burning with raging fire.
Suddenly, the scene shifted. The steel giant collapsed in a violent crash, shattered. A pale-skinned woman smiled nearby. As the human mage group cast an incomprehensible spell, the powers of the steel giant's two beasts were drained, their souls compressed into two dark droplets—one black, the other crimson.
Listening to Amoline's recounting, Li Lin raised an eyebrow, deep in thought. As he had suspected, the fiery demon, Tybaulk, had a deep connection with Mordekaiser. But unlike Raum, who was imprisoned deep within the Immortal Bastion, it seemed that Tybaulk was loyal to the once rampaging Iron Revenant. Or perhaps Raum himself was loyal to Mordekaiser, which would explain why he said that Swain's powers were borrowed. However, this was merely Li Lin's personal guess, and there was no concrete evidence to confirm it.
Moreover, if Raum were truly loyal to Mordekaiser, there would be no need for him to seek out Swain, showing him the potential return of the Iron Revenant to the Immortal Bastion, and the impending disaster it would bring to Runeterra. This undoubtedly provided Swain with significant help.
What surprised Li Lin the most was the fact that the Immortal Bastion was also holding another demon—one entirely different from the demon of magic. According to Amoline's description, the fiery demon Tybaulk was difficult to control, which was why Telsi, associated with the Black Rose, sought a host for it, hoping to imprison and bind it with chains. However, they never anticipated that Tybaulk would use Amoline to escape from the Ravenbloom Conservatory. But the shadow demon was a different story. It was likely under the control of the Black Rose, meaning that LeBlanc and Vladimir still had an ace up their sleeve—another shadow demon with power rivaling that of the fiery demon.
Based on the AI's energy assessment of Tybaulk, the demon's power surpassed that of Nocturne, whom Li Lin had faced before. But for him now, such a level of demon was no longer a threat. Thankfully, through Annie and Amoline, Li Lin had learned of the Black Rose's remaining trump card. Otherwise, when the time came to settle the score with them, it could cause significant trouble.
Li Lin glanced out the window, sensing from the magnetic fields that Gregore would be home in less than three minutes. He stood up from his chair, and Amoline, who had been tense the entire time, quickly stood as well.
"Lord Li Lin..." she began.
"No need to call me 'Lord,' just call me by my name, Madam Amoline," he replied, gesturing toward the window. "Your husband is already home. You can discuss Annie with him. If possible, I hope you both will come with me to Piltover."
"Piltover?" Amolin exclaimed in surprise. She had heard of Piltover before. Back at the Conservatory, one of her classmates had spoken of the city known for its advanced technology. But soon, worry replaced her expression, concern that Li Lin might deceive them, just like the former Fain Retrick had done, leading their family into an irreversible trap.
"Let's put it this way," Li Lin said calmly, "I am an enemy of the Black Rose organization, which founded Ravenbloom Conservatory. And as for my reputation, all you have to do is inquire and you'll see I won't deceive you in this matter."
He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a communicator-like device with the Kiramman insignia on it. Pointing to a button on the device, he said, "You can speak with your husband about this matter first. Then, feel free to ask around in any town with a Hexgate about me—Li Lin. If you make up your mind, just press the button, and I will come to pick you and your family up."
(End of Chapter)
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