Demigod Ornn

Ato took a few quick steps toward the giant shovel, a relaxed smile appearing on his face.

"Finally found you, a demigod who's been hiding himself away. By comparison, finding Lissandra was much easier. She's always at Frost Guard Fortress in the far north."

"Demigod Ornn? A shovel? Hahahahahaha!" Aatrox let out his signature strange laugh once more.

"Who says that shovel is Ornn himself? You're a sword, so even if he really were a shovel, you still have no right to laugh at him..."

Aatrox's laughter abruptly stopped.

"He's a demigod who lives in his own world, always absorbed in his forging, and so he hates being bothered. In some ways, we're alike." Ato felt inexplicably wistful.

"Remember the first time we met? You were stuck in the ground beneath a broken bridge in Bilgewater. I touched your hilt and entered the world inside the Demon Sword."

"Of course I remember. If I hadn't lost our battle of wills, I'd still be free now." There was clear resentment in Aatrox's voice.

"This shovel works much like the Demon Sword. Touching the Demon Sword takes you to the ancient battlefield in your consciousness, while this one will send us to Ornn's Forge Hearth, a hidden space he created."

Ato stepped forward and reached out to touch the tip of the giant shovel. His vision suddenly blurred, and he vanished from where he stood. The next moment, he appeared in an enclosed space filled with lava.

The temperature made him frown slightly, but it didn't affect him much. After all, the Demonic Sword of the Dark had transformed his body. Even in the cold of Freljord, clothes were more for show than warmth.

The cavern rose over a hundred meters high. Only a few scattered rocks offered places to stand; the rest of the floor was covered in lava.

But it posed no obstacle to Ato. He leaped nimbly from rock to rock, quickly crossing the scorching lava and arriving before a doorway large enough for a giant to pass through.

The door stood open. Beyond it was a room filled with all manner of enormous equipment. A similarly enormous figure stood with his back to Ato, repeatedly bringing his hammer down on an iron forge with a clang, clang, clang.

The powerful figure stood fifty meters tall. Lava seemed to flow beneath the surface of his body, and a pair of curved horns grew from his head.

As if sensing his visitors, he stopped working and turned around. His crimson beard concealed his face, leaving only his glowing yellow eyes visible.

Each time he breathed, hot air poured out, raising the temperature around him even further.

Ato could barely contain his excitement. The corners of his mouth lifted uncontrollably.

Aside from Aatrox, who had no physical form, this was the first truly powerful being from Runeterra he'd ever met—the first being Aatrox couldn't be sure he could defeat.

Demigod Ornn—the elder brother of Freljord's three demigods.

He had drawn seawater to cool Forge Hearth, causing Freljord to endure a hundred years of snowfall. He didn't even need the faith of mortals to maintain his divinity.

"Dangerous sword. You carry a heavy past." Ornn saw through Aatrox's true nature at a glance, but took no drastic action.

"But you, mortal... I can't see your fate. You don't belong to this world. Are you a visitor from another realm?"

"Whoa... His eyes are sharp. Is this what a demigod is like?" Ato murmured.

"How did you get in here? I haven't had visitors in years." Ornn put away his hammer and walked over to inspect the two "bugs," paying no mind to their origins.

"Don't go throwing shovels around. Someone might track you down."

Hearing that he didn't belong to this world, Ato suddenly recalled a memorable scene from a novel he'd read in his previous life. He decided to imitate the character's line.

"I knew it." Ornn sighed. "Throwing that shovel away was a mistake. You may leave. I have work to do."

Without waiting for Ato to respond, Ornn turned and walked back to the forge, once again swinging his forging hammer.

"I knew it." Ato shrugged. Ornn didn't like being asked to forge things for other people.

His brother, another demigod and the embodiment of strength, Volibear, had asked him to make equipment for his followers—and Ornn had refused.

That had led the two demigods to fight for three days and three nights. Their battle had affected the nearby Forge Hearth People, wiping them out completely.

Later, when the Frost Sisters asked Ornn to dig out the Howling Abyss, the process had been no easy task either.

Ato didn't leave. If he could get a Sword Sheath forged by Ornn, the rest of his journey would be far less troublesome.

He walked to a spot where he could get a clear view of the forging and silently watched Ornn work.

Ornn, too, seemed absorbed in his forging. He said nothing more about driving them away, focusing all his attention on the piece before him.

The sound of Ornn's forging hammer striking the iron rang out with strength and rhythm. With every blow, a trace of demigod power flowed into the iron.

As time passed, the iron, once lifeless, seemed to come alive. Ato could even feel it rejoicing.

The final blow fell, shaping the iron into a perfectly formed ingot. A gentle light shone from within it.

Even though Ato knew nothing about forging, he could tell that Ornn's work had made the ingot flawless.

"This is Starfall Iron." Ornn lifted the ingot with a massive pair of tongs, a satisfied look appearing in his eyes.

"It came from the stars. I found that it was rich in iron, so I brought it back and removed the impurities. Whatever I forge with it might be the finest work I've made in nearly a thousand years."

"That's the one." Ato rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Demigod Ornn, the greatest blacksmith in Freljord, would you forge a Sword Sheath for me?"

"Don't rush to refuse. If there's only one blacksmith in the world who can forge a sheath for this sword, it's you."

Ato didn't give Ornn a chance to reply. He drew the Demonic Sword of the Dark from behind him and controlled Aatrox, making him release his aura. A blood-soaked power of an astonishingly high level surged forth.

"This power..." Ornn had been about to refuse, but the power revealed by the Demon Sword drew his attention. He narrowed his eyes, as if trying to remember. "I've felt a similar power before."

"How many years ago was it? Five thousand, perhaps six thousand. A supreme being descended upon this world, far to the south."

"I was far away in Freljord and didn't go to investigate. That being didn't remain for long and soon disappeared. I can feel that the power within this Demon Sword came from that being."

Ato knew exactly what Ornn was describing.

Aurelion Sol, the Aspect of Creation, had been tricked into coming to Runeterra by the ancestors of Empress Setheka. They had placed a crown on him and drained his power into the Sun Disc, then used the Disc to make mortals Ascended.

That was the true origin of the Ascension Ritual and the Ascended, and it was also why destroying Aatrox required power of such a high level.