Lux's Magic Penetration Rod

When Kalya said, "I'm just a bad old man hanging on to his life by the power of demons now," Nasus was silent for a long time.

He widened his eyes, trying to see some traces of joking on Kalya's body, but when he looked carefully, he felt more and more that the teacher's breath was like a candle in the wind.

This undoubtedly made Nasus' heart churn. The obsidian-like muscles on his dull jackal face began to twitch involuntarily. Various complex expressions were added together, as if he was about to collapse at the next moment.

Nasus had already experienced the Death of Kalya.

But at this moment, when he heard Kalya in front of him say these words in an understatement and with a smile, Nasus still felt dizzy.

Unlike the complacency he felt after the last "Kalya's death", this time, an indescribable despair surged from Nasus' heart.

In a daze, he even had the idea of ​​"Is Shurima's fate already destined?"

"Don't look like you're going to cry." Looking at Nasus's appearance, Kalya couldn't help but shook his head, "The reincarnation of life and death is inevitable. I gave up immortality on my own initiative. There is nothing sad about this. - Moreover, you were not like this before."

Nasus opened his mouth, but no words came out.

What Kalya said, "You were not like this before," sounded like a word of relief, but when it fell on Nasus' ears, it seemed to weigh more than a thousand pounds.

The next moment, Nasus withdrew his gaze in fear, no longer daring to look at Kalya.

……………………

Among the many Ascended Ones, Nasus is undoubtedly a very special one - he is a very pure civilian.

As a grand maester of the Shurima Empire, he is considered "the most learned man after Kalya" and is the guardian and inheritor of Shurima civilization.

It seems that Nasus should have a very close relationship with Kalya.

However, the actual situation is that the relationship between Karya and this student who "looks very much like herself in the eyes of others" is not good.

This is not because Nasus has not learned the essence of Kalya's yin and yang, but because Nasus is too conventional and is a person who has set an upper limit for himself.

Nasus is extremely knowledgeable and loyal, but behind this erudition and loyalty is extreme conservatism.

And this conservatism conflicts with Karya in many ways.

From the perspective of Nasus, who was born in the most glorious era of the Shurima Empire, everything in the empire was perfect and wonderful.

With the Ascended One as the skeleton and the Sun Disk as the source of energy, for Nasus, who grew up bathing in this glory and has always been "someone else's child", everything in the Shurima Empire is real. , the greatness that cannot tolerate blasphemy.

It was based on this understanding that Nasus became an opponent when Kalya proposed "developing new energy sources and getting rid of dependence on the solar disk."

Unlike those with vested interests, Nasus's opposition to the vigorous development of new energy sources advocated by Kalya was not out of selfish motives, because Nasus' power did not come from the sun disk, and he himself had never formed a party to operate, and even he was naturally He hated those Ascended ones who focused their energy on clinging to life outside of work - because of the issue of the Ascended family, he and Rebesa once even had a fierce conflict and almost had a fight.

Nasus opposed Kalja's proposal not because he was unaware of the empire's resource dilemma, but in his opinion, the main factor in this dilemma was that the empire supported too many "useless people."

In the eyes of Nasus, many of Shurima's public utilities are purely useless and a complete waste of resources. The real way to solve the energy dilemma should be to reduce unnecessary consumption of magic power.

The method Nasus agrees with to alleviate Shurima's energy tension should be as follows:

First of all, waste away all the scenic spots that are maintained by water pumping and diversion to reduce this waste.

Secondly, cut some public magic expenditures and abandon cities that are extremely remote and difficult to supply energy.

Then, we will intensify our research on the sun disk and strive to raise a second sun disk for the empire.

Finally, vigorously investigate corruption, reduce waste at the source, and begin to limit the power of the ascended ones.

Compared with open source, Nasus cares more about cutting costs.

Objectively speaking, Nasus is not from the same group as those who oppose Kalja's development of new energy sources, but this does not prevent him from becoming the banner of these people, fighting against Kalja, and objectively sharing the power that Kalja can mobilize. , resources used to develop new energy sources.

In order to convince Nasus, Kalya had talked with him many times, but unfortunately, what Nasus determined would not change. Nasus believed more in the future "possibility" outlined by Kalya than in it. Now it has been a successful experience.

Using plants to absorb the magic power of the world for your own use is not just a possibility. Even if it is true, it is not as efficient as erecting a sun disk and absorbing the power of heaven!

Karya actually didn't have much to do about Nasus' stubbornness.

Many of what Nasus said made sense. There was indeed a lot of waste in the magic power of the Shurima Empire, and the organizational structure was gradually becoming bloated. If more sun disks could be erected, the effect would be inevitable. It would be better than studying plants that absorb the magic of the earth.

However, the implementation difficulty of the two is different.

In Kalya's eyes, the empire needs to maintain its forward momentum. If it stops moving forward, the contradictions that were once concealed by prosperity will burst out.

In Nasus's eyes, the current empire should stop, re-examine itself, undergo a profound healing process, and then set off lightly.

This conceptual contradiction is the most difficult to bridge. Both parties insist that they are correct.

This is a debate about the way forward.

Kalya spoke with great weight.

But there were more people on Nasus' side.

Thousands of years ago, Kalya was able to rely on his personal reputation to allow the Shurima tribe, who had the ability to find an oasis to settle down, to stride out of the Sea of ​​Death in the Dashai Desert and take off from the banks of the Shurima River.

But thousands of years later, Kalya found helplessly that Shurima had unknowingly fallen into a larger oasis and was unable to move forward.

And this time, although his reputation still supports him to raise his arms, the gradually bloated structure of the empire makes it more and more difficult to raise his arms...

When he was overlooking this great empire from the heights of Shurima City, and reviewing his decision to make the decision to delegate power to mortals, Kalya's emotions were extremely complicated.

In the end, Kalya, who felt a little softer, chose to take a step back after appraising the situation.

Two parallel lines.

Because the Shuriman Empire is highly dependent on the sun disk, most Shuriman people are unwilling to try another way. Even if Kalya personally leads students to research, there are only a few people who are willing to engage in research in this area.

Compared with researching new energy sources that don’t know when they will produce results, subjects related to the solar disk are more popular.

However, just when the research on the rune tree was about to see the light of day, the outbreak of the Icathia War finally intensified everything.

In fact, until the end of the Icathian War and the Shurima Empire becoming the post-Shurima Empire, Nasus had no regrets.

Even in his opinion, the deterioration of the situation in Icathia is inseparable from Kalya's choice. He mistakenly trusted some of the deceived Icathians, which led to the empire knowing nothing about the void. That made the situation extremely bad.

Even after the war, the empire fell into divisions, Nasus still believed that this was an opportunity to return Shurima to greatness. The new Shurima, freed from its heavy burden, would surely once again write the myths that had been engraved in history. !

Then, reality slapped him mercilessly.

Although the New Shurima Empire still has the Sun Disk, and although it has reduced a lot of "useless consumption", the division after losing Setaka and Kalya made the Sun Disk very difficult to maintain.

Behind the efficient use of the power of the Sun Disk in the past was the integration of all the power of the entire Shurima continent. The raw ore of Kalamanda, the grain of Kumanggra, and the stone of Ixtal, these low-priced products from various places supported The prosperity of the empire.

Now that the empire is divided, many materials that were once low-priced need to be purchased at high prices. Trade barriers block the trade routes in Shurima. Although the sun disk has fewer energy supply objects, the maintenance cost has increased crazily!

What's even worse is that without the suppression of the empire, the Titan believers and members of the Ascension Order began to quietly raise their heads and gradually became more and more unrestrained.

Even though Nasus presided over a lot of purge work and closed many facilities that he considered to be pure waste, the situation in the empire was still getting worse day by day.

Without a clear future and direction, the New Shurima Empire fell into internal strife. The restless royal family even had a shocking large-scale internal fight for the first time...

Faced with such a situation, Nasus was shocked to find that the empire seemed to be declining faster than imagined!

In desperation, in order to aggravate the internal conflicts and avoid further division of New Shurima, Nasus finally watched slavery spread on a large scale in Shurima.

At this point, Nasus no longer wants to recall the dispute between himself and Kalya. He can only force himself to look forward and try to find a path that can completely revolutionize Shurima!

Then he discovered Azir.

Azir looked a lot like a combination of Kalya and Setaka. When Nasus saw him for the first time, Nasus had silently admired him.

Since childhood, the unloved Azir has played and studied with the slave Xerath. Although Nasus knew these two children who were not suitable for the world at that time, he still He chose to keep it secret - because in Azir, he saw something similar to Kalya.

In this way, Nasus watched Azir grow up step by step, and finally chose to side with Azir and help him become emperor.

Perhaps Azir can bring a different future to the empire.

Nasus thought so and did so.

As Grand Maester, he fully supported Azir's every decision, until he boldly asked Nasus to support him and help Xerath ascend.

"It's time to abolish the decadent slavery!" Nasus still remembers Azir's excitement that day. "Teacher Nasus, I think the time has matured. We now have the ability to restore the empire's former glory. !”

Facing the high-spirited Azir, Nasus hesitated, but at this moment, Renekton stood up and stood firmly beside His Majesty the Emperor.

So, Nasus nodded in agreement with Azir's request.

Half a year later, the ascension ceremony, which held Nasus's unlimited hopes, completely failed. The angry Xerath left the words "Shurima does not deserve a wise emperor", then took away Azir's remains and left. The ruins of the city of Shurima.

After Renekton stared at the ruins for a long time, he roared, revealed his ascending body, and rushed into the depths of the desert, never to be seen again.

Amidst this terrible collapse, only Nasus worked hard to return to the Great Library and tried his best to save the last bit of the empire's essence.

Thousands of years passed in a flash.

Outside the Great Library, scenes of the rise and fall of Runeterra were staged, and one empire after another appeared.

In the large library, Nasus mechanically reads one book after another every day, like a self-exile.

Now, when he finally plucked up the courage and walked out of the library, wanting to rebuild Shurima again and restore Shurima to the way he remembered it, what Nasus saw was something completely different. A different scene, a world completely different from the past.

The unspeakable loneliness made Nasus increasingly silent. He visited one royal descendant after another, hoping to try again to find another Azir.

But what he saw were insects and liars fighting for power and profit in the name of the royal family.

For Nasus, the emergence of Xerath was a challenge, but it also pointed out a way forward.

Although no reliable royal descendant has been found, at least Nasus knows that Xerath's behavior is absolutely unworkable. He can't revive Shurima by relying on his method of wooing sand bandits and rogues and ruling with an iron fist. of.

Therefore, Nasus finally gained some strength.

Until now, I met Kalya and heard his words, "I am just a bad old man hanging on to his life by the power of the devil."

At this moment, Nasus was finally able to fully understand Kalya's helplessness and choice, and he was finally torn open that wound that he had not wanted to stare at for a long time.

Perhaps Shurima's decline is inevitable.

The great and glorious country that I once witnessed is gone forever.

Thinking of this, Nasus' tall body finally stooped down, and he knelt in front of Kalya, crying like a helpless child.

"Teacher..." Nasus' voice was full of unwillingness and hope, "I want to rebuild Shurima!"

Extras tomorrow!