CHAPTER 455 - Time Magic

[The tower's design resembled an old clock tower, standing several dozen meters tall. Its surface was a mix of yellow ochre accented with mossy green, bearing the faint scars of age. Some sections showed intricate mechanisms, reminiscent of Piltover's Hextech. 

Li Lin's eyes gleamed as he activated "Data Mind" to analyze the semi-transparent structure: 

[Zilean's Clock Tower: The residence of Icathian elemental mage Zilean, removed from the timeline by temporal magic and trapped in a pocket of time.] 

It truly was Zilean's tower! 

Li Lin's gaze flickered. As the doors creaked open, he and Kassadin peered inside. 

The grand hall within was crowded with semi-transparent figures, dressed in garments resembling ancient Shuriman attire. Men, women, children—there were people of all ages. 

Their faces were frozen in terror, their wide eyes fixed on the windows of the tower. Their bodies were locked in instinctive, protective gestures, as though shielding themselves from some unimaginable horror outside. 

What was truly bizarre, however, was that despite the AI's scans confirming signs of life, these people had been stuck in these poses for an impossibly long time. Even the opening of the door failed to elicit a response. 

A ruin in a Void-devoured ancient city, serving as a former battlefield, still harbored this enchanted tower—and living humans frozen by some unknown magic? 

It was too strange. 

Kassadin stepped forward and grabbed Li Lin's arm urgently. "Li Lin, this place is unnatural. Don't go in recklessly!" 

Li Lin didn't reply. Instead, he released two drones, sending them into the tower to scout the area. 

As the drones crossed the threshold, their forms also became semi-transparent, blending into the tower's ethereal nature as though stepping into a space disconnected from reality. 

However, unlike the frozen figures, the drones continued to move freely, splitting up under AI control to explore the halls, which were similarly packed with immobile people. 

Two or three minutes later, the scan results returned to Li Lin's armor interface. He turned to Kassadin and said, "There's no danger inside. Let's go." 

"This place…" 

"Trust me." 

As Kassadin hesitated, his grip loosened slightly. Seizing the opportunity, Li Lin strode into the tower's domain. 

Watching as Li Lin's figure gradually turned semi-transparent and melded with the tower's environment, Kassadin's heart sank. Unable to stand by, he quickly followed suit. 

A strange, timeless sensation swept over him, as though countless eons passed in a blink. When Kassadin caught up with Li Lin, the scenery abruptly shifted. Everything solidified, entirely different from the semi-transparent illusion seen from the outside. 

His expression turned grave. "This…" 

Before he could finish, the sound of mechanical gears turning echoed behind them. The doors gently swung shut. 

Startled, Kassadin instinctively summoned his Nether Blade, intending to use Void Walk to tear through space—only to find, to his horror, that he couldn't fracture the tower's space. 

"Li Lin!" 

He glanced back at Li Lin, who remained unfazed and was busy inspecting objects in the hall. Panicked, Kassadin prepared to use brute force to reopen the door. 

To his surprise, Li Lin appeared beside him in a flash, stopping him before he could act. 

"This place is strange!" Kassadin exclaimed, raising his Void Stone. "You're already being affected!" 

Li Lin couldn't help but laugh at the man's agitation. "It's my fault for not explaining earlier." 

Under Kassadin's bewildered gaze, Li Lin walked calmly to the door and pulled it open. 

The same metallic grinding sounded as before, and the doors opened easily. 

Kassadin: "…" 

"These doors have a clever mechanism involving pressure plates. They automatically close when someone passes through," Li Lin explained briefly. 

With that, Kassadin silently retracted his Nether Blade and Void Stone, taking a deep breath to steady himself. "You're just as bold as you were a year ago." 

"If I weren't bold, would I be where I am today?" 

Li Lin chuckled, signaling Kassadin to follow him. 

"From what I've observed, everything here is caught in a state of stasis," he continued. 

They navigated past the frozen crowd and entered a hall resembling a reception area. Before long, they arrived at a slightly disheveled long table, apparently used for dining. 

Several terrified individuals had collided with the table in various poses, their bodies suspended mid-motion. Spilled wine, white milk, fruits, bread, and meats were all frozen midair, defying gravity and remaining untouched by time. 

Having adjusted to the eerie environment, Kassadin was no longer as shocked by the scene. 

"What happened in this tower?" he asked, glancing at a window. Through it, he could see swarms of Void creatures flying past, seemingly oblivious to the tower's existence. 

As he spoke, Li Lin casually plucked a green apple from midair. Before Kassadin could stop him, he removed his helmet and took a bite. The crisp sound of the bite echoed through the stillness. 

The apple was slightly sour but juicy. 

Even after millennia, the food here had been preserved by time magic, maintaining its condition from before it was removed from the timeline. 

Perhaps in another version of events, Kassadin survived so long in Icathia because of the provisions in this tower. 

"You shouldn't…" 

"Hm, not bad. Want to try? It's an Icathian specialty." 

Li Lin picked up another suspended apple and tossed it to Kassadin. 

Yet the apple, though it moved when Li Lin threw it, immediately froze in place again once it left his grasp. No matter how much force was applied, it refused to move further, completely ignoring the rules of physics. 

Even Newton would be baffled.

Li Lin shrugged helplessly and caught the apple that had fallen from his fingertips. He walked a few steps toward Kassadin and handed it back to him. 

"Forget it," Kassadin sighed. He stared at the apple for a long while but eventually set it down on the table. "I'm not hungry right now." 

He then turned to Li Lin, who had already finished eating his own apple and tossed the core into a container on the table. "What exactly happened here?" 

From earlier drone scans and analyses of the tower, it was clear that the massive structure housed at least ten thousand people. 

The majority of them were humans, with smaller numbers of yordles, vastaya, and even beings native to Icathia that Kassadin despised—an ancient troll-like race that should have been long extinct. 

They were likely survivors of Icathia's destruction by the Void. 

"Have you heard of time magic?" Li Lin's words snapped Kassadin's thoughts back to the present. 

"Time... magic?" Kassadin repeated, confused. "That exists?" 

He recalled Li Lin explaining the various types of magic during their exploration of Shuriman tombs: celestial magic, arcane runic magic, elemental magic. 

And now, time magic? What kind of sorcery was this? 

"Time magic, technically speaking, might be considered a branch of elemental magic," Li Lin said, pausing momentarily as if reconsidering. 

"Or perhaps a fusion of elemental and celestial magic," he added. 

"As the name implies, time magic is the manipulation of time. But throughout history, there have been almost no mages capable of truly understanding its mysteries." 

Li Lin gestured at the tower and said, "To control a structure this large and everyone inside with time magic... such a feat would require a mage of master-level skill—or perhaps, even that wouldn't suffice." 

Kassadin took a sharp breath at the implication. "Whether the master of this tower is alive or not, we shouldn't linger here for too long." 

Li Lin paused, quickly catching on to Kassadin's concern. 

Icathia was once a vassal state of Shurima, but its people harbored an enduring hatred toward their conquerors. Kassadin's display of the Void-infused Nether Blade, a weapon imbued with celestial power, would undoubtedly draw hostility from any surviving Icathians—especially one capable of wielding time magic. 

Li Lin chuckled and waved dismissively. "I know what you're worried about, but you don't need to be concerned." 

Kassadin raised an eyebrow but ultimately decided to trust the enigmatic man who had already proven his exceptional capabilities. 

"Let's go check out the library upstairs," Li Lin suggested. "There might be ancient texts or records that could help us." 

Activating the anti-gravity modules on their armor, the two ascended the spiraling staircases lining the tower walls, navigating through the crowded corridors filled with people. 

Reaching the library—an expansive room with countless bookshelves and thousands of tomes—they were greeted by a surreal sight. 

Streams of sand that had fallen from the ceiling hovered midair, while magical lift platforms of varying shapes floated amidst books scattered across the space. The scene was as peculiar as it was breathtaking. 

Kassadin grabbed a book from a nearby shelf and opened it, finding its contents written in ancient Shuriman. 

Having studied the language extensively during his tomb explorations, he quickly discerned that this particular text was an introductory manual for apprentice mages. 

"Ever since Icathia was subjugated by Shurima, the emperor of the time mandated a unification of language and customs," Kassadin remarked. 

"Over nine centuries of assimilation, Icathian culture was largely absorbed by Shurima. Yet, the flames of resentment in the hearts of the Icathians never faded." 

Li Lin shook his head, deploying a dozen drones to scan the contents of the books and upload them to his AI's database. 

Even with his superhuman intellect, reading through every book manually would take an eternity, especially given that many might contain irrelevant information. 

The drones soon returned to his armor, and the AI began compiling and analyzing the data. Unfortunately, no records on time magic surfaced. 

Glancing upward, Li Lin frowned in thought. "Why hasn't Zilean appeared yet?" he muttered. 

"This place seems to have more levels above," he said to Kassadin before ascending further. 

In just a few breaths, he passed through a corridor that was more ancient in design compared to the rest of the tower. 

But as Li Lin ventured deeper, the sounds around him began to fade. Even Kassadin's footsteps and the hum of his armor's energy core seemed to vanish into the silence. 

The hallway stretched endlessly, and after walking for what felt like an eternity, Li Lin suddenly felt a weight lift from his body—as if he had been freed from an invisible burden. 

Looking down, he discovered his armor had disappeared, replaced by garments reminiscent of those worn by ancient Icathians. 

Tilting his head slightly, Li Lin surveyed his surroundings with calm curiosity. He wasn't particularly alarmed. 

After taking a moment to orient himself, he continued toward the end of the corridor, where a single wooden door stood a dozen steps away. 

When he reached it, the door opened on its own, and an aged male voice called out from within: 

"You've finally arrived." 

(End of Chapter)

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