A/N: Hey all you beautiful people! I'm back in the writing game! Finally found a story idea that the fire burns brightly for, so I hope to have this one last me quite awhile.

Anywho, thank you in advance for reading. Love to see my stories get views; makes my day honestly. Fair warning though, my current predicament with internet leaves me with not too many opportunities to upload stories. This will (hopefully) soon be rectified, but until then my upload schedule for Dimensional Drift could be spastic. As always, feel free to drop a review or favorite it or whatever.

Before we begin though, I'd just like to say a few things. First is that I've done my best to explain the backstory of the main character (my OC Aiden Crownguard) in this chapter without rambling on incessantly. Hopefully I've done a good enough job, but if you have any questions that need answered then feel free to ask me in a PM or Review. Second is that I will probably be doing Omakes after some of the chapters just as little additions I think of while writing.

Ok, time for the actual story! ONWARDS!

Prologue - The Past

The sound of rain resonated around Piltover's empty streets. Every resident with half a mind was sheltered in a building somewhere, waiting for the terrible thunderstorm to end. Every now and then, a blinding flash would light up the sky and the rumble that shook buildings came not long after. It should've been surprising to see someone out and about, seeming unconcerned by the rain and lightning.

To Aiden, it really wasn't.

The dark-haired 22-year-old shook his head again as more and more water accumulated on his head. Crimson eyes peered out from under a grey hood, seeming to glow in the dim light. A sword, longer than your typical blade, shook slightly with ever step he took. To most, he looked much the part of a wandering swordsman, save for his more modern clothes. In reality, Aiden wanted nothing to do with being a sell-sword. The Third Great War (as his teacher and greatest friend Losfar had so grimly referred to it as) was over. Valoran had entered peacetime. Noxus, Demacia, Ionia…every city-state was reeling in shock from the revelation that their treasured Institute of War had been corrupted by a psychopathic shadow.

Gorgreth.

Just the thought of the name made Aiden grimace as he walked down the deserted streets. The self-entitled Overlord, ages older than most beings alive on the face of the planet, had been the cause of said corruption. Naught more than a shadow hiding in a metal carapace of armor, Gorgreth had been vanquished once before in Valoran's history. Dwelling solely in the remains of a powerful artifact known as the Alternis Stone, Gorgreth's soul had waited until the perfect time to gather its strength and re-emerge.

Unlike anything mortal or otherwise, though, Gorgreth was purely constructed of corralled magical energy in his new form. The amount of power was astronomical; Gorgreth stood to rival beings like Aurelion Sol in terms of strength. Said power had been built up through multiple years of gathering strength from other artifacts and living creatures, however. A process that had taken a lifetime, Aiden had undone in the course of one day.

Didn't mean it had been easy.

It certainly didn't mean Aiden got to live like a normal person. Not that he was. Born to a bloodline of powerful spellcasters and warriors known as the Daedrid, Aiden had not discovered his power until he was around the age of 17. That was also about the time he learned of Gorgreth and his duty to stop the Overlord. For three years, Aiden, his adoptive sister Luxanna (born of house Crowngaurd), and Losfar had wandered Valoran, amassing allies and training Aiden to be ready to fight Gorgreth when the time came. They weren't alone however; there was Exavier, an ex-soldier of Piltover who was an expert marksman and weilder of his special exo-suit; Sypher, a sarcastic and highly intelligent inventor who'd taken to the reclusive life to avoid the spotlight; Lyle, a gifted apprentice mage and marksman; the legendary Enforcer/Sheriff duo of Piltover, Caitlyn and Vi; and Rivel, a deformed man who was an accomplished researcher in blood-related fields (and an accomplished Hemomancer).

Their team wasn't necessarily the most normal or most cohesive unit, but since when are teams that way? The three years Aiden spent with his companions were arguably the best three years of his life. Up until the final battle, that was. Fighting Gorgreth himself was, of course, the hard part. Getting to him had been difficult as well. Due to the amount of power he'd amassed, the Overlord had effectively bent all the Champions of the League to his will besides a select few who were already too tainted or powerful for his magic to affect them. Those who weren't fighting for Gorgreth joined Aiden in bringing him down. Not only did Gorgreth have Champions, the best and most capable warriors from every city-state, at his disposal, but he also had an unending army of shadow creatures and warriors. That made reaching Gorgreth's black palace a challenge.

Aiden discovered he could reverse the effects of Gorgreth's mind-control beforehand, and was able to acquire a few more allies from the Champions of the League. Any he couldn't were knocked out. Finally, after hours of carefully fighting and skillfully outflanking the nearly mindless drones of Gorgreth, Aiden, along with Lux, Losfar, Rivel, and Exavier, made it to his palace and engaged the Overlord himself.

Both Aiden and Gorgreth had absorbed the powers of alternate Crystalline Relics, Gorgreth the remaining power of the Alternis Stone and Aiden the power of the Star Fragment, and so the fight eventually fell between them alone. It was costly for both; by that point Aiden had nearly mastered the full strength of his bloodline and a few newfound powers as well, but it was all he could do to keep up with the immense well of power Gorgreth wielded. Gorgreth, similarly, knew every trick he himself could muster, but expended a lot of power on hitting and taking hits.

Aiden was the first to wear out. Caught off-guard by one of Gorgreth's stronger attacks, the Overlord held him by the throat and prepared to finish off the one and only mortal strong enough to oppose him. Fate, it seemed, had other plans, for even the divine beings were against Gorgreth's rise to power. The God of Blood and Pain, patron god to all Hemomancers and known only as The Reaver, made a deal with Aiden. Aiden would trade the Reaver's strength for Gorgreth's soul. It meant that Gorgreth would continue to exist, and the Reaver would have full control over whether or not to finish Gorgreth fully or release him back into the world. Not an easy decision, by any means, but it was the only alternative to dying.

Aiden accepted.

From that point onwards, boosted by the powers of a divine being, Aiden gained the upper hand and held it until the fight was finished. Both stood atop the Overlord's palace as Aiden held his scythe at the ready to dispatch Gorgreth. But he was stopped. Gorgreth, knowing full well that his defeat was at hand, decided to impart some passing knowledge to Aiden. After all, even corrupted beings of pure power had a degree of honor.

"I am not the end," was all he said.

Another year passed. Everyone rested and relaxed in the comfort of victory whilst the continent rebuilt itself. Aiden and Lux, although Aiden was an adopted sibling, found feelings for each other. It became normal once Aiden assumed his family last name; Haftsfell. Don't ask why. (A/N: I SEE YOU ASKING WHY! STOP THAT RIGHT THIS INSTANT!)

Peace never lasts forever though. Soon, Aiden could feel his power waning. There wasn't a reason why; he was in his prime, with no trace of disease or sickness present in his being. That was, until he heard it one day: The chime of a bell. Losfar became frantic at the news, and soon everyone was scouring old texts to find a passage Losfar said he knew was there. It didn't take long; Sypher had a network of spider-drones at his disposal to assist with the search.

The book was ancient, kept alive by careful preservation techniques and enchantments to keep it intact. It told of a great Bell Tower that appeared in Valoran only when the Bell was rung. The Bell itself served to slowly strip beings of their powers to strengthen itself before entirely obliterating the world. How anyone came to understand this knowledge was a question reserved for the divines, but more searching revealed that the Bell Tower had a powerful Divine guardian named Theadrin. The question was raised; where was the Guardian if the bell was being rung?

Thus their search for the Tower of Ancients (for that was the Bell Tower's name) began. Every inch of Valoran was carefully scoured until finally, once the effects of the Bell were felt everywhere, someone found it. Everyone gathered near the Tower before attempting to scale it. Their efforts were halted once they discovered that the inside was a lethal maze of traps. The outside featured no such obstacles, but Aiden was the only person who could scale to the top with his powers. It seemed to project a field that repelled everyone but him.

At the last stretch of his strength, Aiden confronted the being who had been ringing the bell and began to fight him. Throughout their fight the being, a 12-foot-tall man wearing nothing but a loincloth and wielding a giant hammer of stone, continued to attempt to ring the bell. When he wasn't attempting to squash Aiden, that was. In a stroke of genius or luck, Aiden managed to drain the giant's power by striking the bell himself, for whoever struck the bell was unaffected by its resonance.

That allowed Aiden to finish the giant off. All at once, the Bell released its energy and restored Valoran to its previous state. Another being appeared, who revealed himself as Theadrin, and told Aiden what had transpired. Overcome by a dark presence, Theadrin's body had been seized by corruption and made to ring the bell against his will. Restrained as he was, Theadrin himself was unable to stop himself and so continued to ring the Bell.

He thanked Aiden before explaining that there was Divine justice to be done to whomever, or whatever, had possessed his body, and that he would undoubtedly repay Aiden at some point.

To say that Aiden's life was average would be offensive.