Chapter 203: Shurima Gaiden 1: Malzahar, the Void Prophet of Icathia
After the story of Quesanti was told, all the characters of Shurima also appeared.

The Shurima chapter has the most complete story structure in Runeterra, and it seems particularly grand due to the large number of characters involved.

From the Protoss on the top of Mount Targon to the ancient empire, from glory to desolation, Shurima has been passed down to the present day.

And the aftertaste is still there.

The next story to be shown is another story of Shurima, a story that takes place in Icathia, a land that was swallowed by the void.

……

Under the blazing sun of Shurima, there always emerge those gifted with the ability to foresee the future.

As the only son of an elderly grocery peddler, Malzahar's parents were already terminally ill when he discovered his talent.

Soon after, a homeless child appeared on the streets. A young boy, distraught, fending for himself on the streets of Amakra.

What he used was his gift - Malzahar discovered that he had another vision, and through it, he could see a future that others could not see, and perhaps this was the destiny of others.

This allowed the young boy to make a living on the streets, fortune-telling for people in the slums in exchange for a few coins or a few slices of bread.

His reputation grew as his predictions became more accurate, and he used his second sight to predict who a camel rider would marry or where a knife would land in a gambling game at the bazaar.

Soon, the people who came to patronize him changed from wearing mud-stained straw sandals to jewel-encrusted slippers.

Everyone wants to see their own destiny and predict their own future, and Malzahar becomes a famous prophet in the local area.

Yet even so, Malzahar still could not see his own destiny clearly. His future was obscured.

His success increasingly opened his eyes to the truth. He observed the unequal distribution of wealth and witnessed those who were dissatisfied with their lives fighting for it with malice and violence.

In his eyes, humans are doomed to an endless cycle of suffering, usually of their own making, and not even the most hopeful prophecies can break the curse.

Malzahar soon felt a sense of emptiness, and finally abandoned all his possessions and left Amacra, ending it all once and for all.

In the years that followed, he wandered the land, traveling through the trackless wastes of the Lesser Sai Desert and the ruins of ancient Shurima.

The solitary life finally allowed him to meditate quietly.

He foresaw not only how callous human beings could become, but also how corrupt the world could become.

Feverish visions began to invade his waking vision, and he heard whispers from otherworldly realms that spoke of war, strife, and untold suffering.

He walked further and further until the sand turned to salt.

Malzahar came to the place that changed his destiny, and the prophet also saw his destiny here.

Although he didn't know where he was, the audience in front of the screen were looking at the area where he was with emotion.

The twisted land is home to Icathia, a city that fell in an ancient war.

The void came from here, destroyed everything, and was also sealed here, but the void has never been eliminated.

Malzahar came to that primal abyss, where the mages of Icathia summoned the Void, and here he gazed into the depths of the craggy abyss, opening his wavering mind in a desperate desire for enlightenment. And the Void answered him.

……

——"Shit! The Void is coming again?!"

——"I knew it! The Void has always been sealed!"

——"That's right! Azir has been resurrected, the Shuriman Empire has returned, and the Void is about to make a comeback!"

——"Oh no! Could it be that Malzahar has been bewitched by the void?"

——"Looking at his thoughts, it seems that he wants to destroy the world!"

His gift, the ability to see the destinies of others, brought Malzahar wealth and fame, but it also allowed him to see the world as it really is - as he thought it really was.

Others have no way of knowing how Malzahar predicts fate, but he can see other people in the second vision, and perhaps, he can also see the void?
Perhaps he had already been contaminated by the void when he first realized his talent!
When he wandered alone in the desert, the illusions floating before his eyes were actually calls from the void.

Malzahar, the Prophet of the Void, will call upon the Void once again for this world!

……

In any other story, the story would have ended here, but Malzahar miraculously survived.

Something beneath the abyss caressed the shattered soul of the prophet, and in an instant, a strange and unknowable energy filled his mind.

A lone figure finally walked out of Icathia, but he was no longer just a human, but something more powerful.

In the Abyss, Malzahar saw the end of all the earthly suffering he had ever witnessed, and he realized that the reason he could never see his future was because this vision was his true calling: to hasten the world's destined oblivion.

He must return to the world and tell it that the divine nothingness will welcome all, believers and deniers alike, and he will be the forerunner of this great redemption.

He found his first followers among a nomadic tribe deep in the desert.

As people looked on in amazement, he used the new power bestowed upon him by the void to split the earth, summoning nightmarish creatures that screamed and carried away anyone who dared to deny him.

Within months, caravans were traveling with strange tales of people willingly offering themselves as living sacrifices to unseen forces, and of powerful earthquakes tearing through Shurima’s bedrock, creating fault lines that stretched for miles.

In the years since, the legend of Kamalzahar has spread to the northernmost ports. The Prophet's followers have grown in number, and nearby settlers are said to have felt ominous visions grabbing at their hearts, and fear and suspicion have grown wild - even the hardiest villagers in the most remote wastes now offer livestock as sacrifices to satisfy the spirits below.

What they don't know is that by doing this they are only helping Malzahar to usher in the end of the world step by step.

Malzahar is a fanatical prophet who has devoted his entire life to the unification of all life.

He firmly believed that the recently emerged Void was the salvation of Runeterra. In the desert wasteland of Shurima, he once followed the whispers in his mind all the way to ancient Icathia.

In this ruin, he glimpsed the dark heart of the Void, and was given new power and purpose. Malzahar now sees himself as a shepherd of lost sheep, bringing others into the corral or freeing the Aetherials that hid beneath the earth.

"Bow to the void! Or be consumed by the void!"

(End of this chapter)