League of Legends Prologue
It was night in the midst of the Shadow Isles, and yet one cannot always tell when day arrives. The island nation was once a paradise for all who came, as it was the pinnacle to magical and technological advancement. Here was a land of dreams, and as the cities expanded, overtaking the island, so did the ambition of those who resided within it. It didn't take much; only an experiment to go wrong and men to hold on to their pride. With that the island was transformed into a ruined wasteland. People left the isles, and all that was left were ruins of an ancient civilization. Over the years nature fought back to take what was destroyed, but it was never the same as nature itself fell to the corruption at the islands core. Here was now a world enveloped in an endless mist, with crooked trees and underbrush sailing higher than birds flew, and no wildlife in site. As the remains of the old world lay scattered across the island, it invites many who are daring, and many who are monsters. It was here that one such daring individual would seek what lay in the depths of the isles past.
Ezreal knelt above the long drop and peered over the edge carefully, surveying his surroundings. From what he could tell the drop was nearly two hundred feet down, and the end was nowhere in sight. The trees that surrounded the large hole in the ground were tall and thick, each covering the background from view. In between them, mist and fog poured out and into the deep abyss.
In that hole was a treasure, one beyond reckoning. Rumors of it had only started a few months ago, and it was of something that people had only just heard of. The problem was that the artifact was supposedly located in the heart of the Shadow Isles, the most dangerous place in all of Runeterra.
Ezreal grinned as he remembered his own excitement at the news, and the challenge that it presented. He lived for these rumors, the adventure, the thrill, was all part of who he was. As well as the mystery at the end to be discovered.
Turning around, Ezreal wrapped the long rope he had brought with him around the tree near him and carefully prepped himself to fall into the dark abyss below him.
Leaning over the edge, Ezreal dropped the first few feet and bounded off the walls till he could keep lowing himself in a steady fashion. The farther he went, the darker it got, and in turn the worse it was for Ezreal to see what was below him.
Almost as if by design, his gauntlet, which hung on to his left arm, began to glow a light blue. The radiance emanated from the crystal embedded in the top of the gauntlet. As the darkness seemed to increase, so did the glow from his gauntlet, allowing Ezreal to see all around him.
The pit kept going.
Ezreal grimaced as he looked down. He still couldn't see the bottom and he was nearly at the edge of his rope, literally. Dropping farther and farther, Ezreal noticed that he could not see the top anymore. By the time he hit the edge of his rope, there was only pitch black around him.
Ezreal hung there for a moment, and grabbed a small coin out of his pocket and dropped it below him, listening.
For a few seconds, he heard nothing till…
"clang."
The light repeating clash of metal on rock echoed below him, telling him there was ground.
With a light smirk on his face, Ezreal let go of the rope and fell to the floor. With a loud thud, his feet met the floor. It was very wet down here, but as far as he could tell the ground was unusually flat.
Pouring power into his glove Ezreal raised it above his head and allowed the glow to fill the room. The light shown upon a massively elaborate hall, decorated with plumes of innate carvings and sculptures that passed the sides of the walls. The hallway was easily fifty feet high and just as wide, allowing for clear and unhindered passage to the far unseen end. A sense of curiosity overwhelmed Ezreal as he saw the magnificent passage, and many questions burned within his mind.
Taking his first steps he walked forward through the walkway, observing all as he went. The pattern changed as he went. Initially the pattern of statues showed mighty warriors of times long past, then as the hallway began to draw to a close, the men began to look weaker before at last the men before the doors were people screaming in pain.
The hallways end was made of a set of double doors embroidered in runic seals that glowed with a slight green emanation upon it, which meant the door was locked.
Ezreal sighed, a locked door was something that always bothered him. It meant that there was always something behind the door and he wanted to know.
Placing his gloved hand on the door Ezreal began to examine the door. The runes were made as a strong sealing spell, allowing no entry in, or out, of the door itself; but there was always a way around them and Ezreal knew how.
Power began to fill his glove and he started to trace the runes in cross sections, allowing a new rune to form over the first. After a few minutes Ezreal retracted his hand and looked at his work. The rune he drew crossed the sealing ward in municipal patterns and a slight blue glow reached them. Watching his work he noticed that the doors rune began to glow brighter and brighter, lighting the hallway far more than his gauntlet. As the glow began to hurt his eyes the light flashed and the emanation was gone.
Both wards on the door had stopped glowing, in fact Ezreals ward was no longer there. The short circuit had worked.
Eager, Ezreal ran to the door and shoved it open stepping into a vaulted area. The room that he had entered was large to say the least. The ceiling was just as high as it was in the hall, and a thin long bridge stretched to the middle of it over a vast, and deep, chasm. In front of him, across the bridge, was a small pedestal on which hovered a crystalline rock. The room itself was dark with all but his gauntlet illuminating the path ahead of him.
Taking a deep breath, Ezreal approached the strange rock with vigor but airing on the side of caution. As he came closer, the stone began to emanate a small amount of light itself. There was something familiar about it but he couldn't put his finger on it. The stone was shaped like that of a cut diamond if the pointed end was rounded off. On the top of the stone was drawn a strange rune that Ezreal had not seen before and the object swirled with almost physical manifestations of purple and blue light.
Standing before it Ezreal seemed to be drawn to it, as though it wanted him to touch it.
Slowly he reached out his hand.
"STOP!"
Ezreal spun around. Behind him stood a strange man. The occupant had violet skin that contained strange tattooed markings encompassing it. He was bald on top and wore no shirt, with a long, braided, beard that frayed from his jaw. The pants he wore were that of a dessert dweller and he had no shoes on. On his back the man contained a small canister that was connected to a sling that wrapped around him from his left shoulder. A hint of recognition sparked Ezreals mind.
"Ryze, correct?" he asked.
"Do not touch that. You could not handle power it emanates." The man replied.
Ezreal focused on the man. "There are a lot of things that many have said I can't handle, but I have them anyway. What makes this any different?"
Ryze sighed and looked straight into Ezreals eyes.
"That there is a World Rune. If you touch that your mind may not remain your own."
The reply seemed sincere, which through Ezreal a little off.
"I can handle myself." He replied, gritting his teeth.
Ryze shook his head. "You cannot handle that. Hand it here." The man held out his hand.
Ezreals anger began to take hold of him. "You just want it for yourself! If it is so dangerous then I should be the one to take it. I can give it to the university in Piltover and there it can be in better hands."
"Your motives are not malicious young man," Ryze responded "but that rune is best put where no one will ever find it."
"And I suppose you would be the one to do that!?" Ezreals anger erupted from his voice.
Ryze lowered his hand and stared into Ezreals face with a look of sadness on his. "I do what I must, I do not have the power that is imagined of me. I only have the strength I need to walk away from such power. Can you say the same of yourself, or of all of Runeterra?"
Ezreals anger began to fade as the man before him seemed to keep sincerity in his words.
"You give people too little credit." Ezreal responded.
"Perhaps … perhaps not. The fact still remains that the rune is better off hidden away."
The two men stood where they were, looking at each other.
"Well isn't this a party." The voice echoed through the room and the halls, seeming to come from the shadows and with a female grace that seemed poisonous.
The two men stopped looking at each other and scanned the area around them, trying to find the source of the voice. Ezreal felt a pang of uneasiness in his stomach.
"Two men, bickering over their catch. All the while on my island, in my domain, and they didn't invite me."
Ezreal dived forward just in time to avoid the creature that almost landed on him and spun around to see a giant black and red spider that was standing where he just stood.
"Awww." The voice came from the creature. "Did I scare you little boy?"
The spider's figure began to shift in front of him, almost too fast for his eye to catch and he looked now at a young and voluptuous woman with the eyes of a predator. The woman stood at least six feet high and while her face and accessories seemed human, her body was covered with abnormalities that represented a spiders appendages and skin. Like her other form the woman seemed to color herself in red and black.
"You should fire your clothing artist." He commented, keeping the fear out of his voice.
"Oh, so we have a comedian with us." She hissed. "I wonder if you can make me laugh as I drain the life from you."
The woman began to walk backwards towards stone and its pedestal all the while keeping an eye on the two men in front of her.
"Such effort over a small little thing." She began. "I wonder what secrets it holds." She paused to take a small glance at the relic. "But then again I am not here for those secrets."
The flash of power came before Ezreal could even register it.
In front of him the woman became surrounded by a violet chain of magic that encircled her and resembled a cage.
"Why you…!" She cried.
"Young man. Is that the gauntlet of Ne'Zuk?" Called Ryze from behind him.
Ezreal aimed his eyes at the old man. "How did you…?"
"The gauntlet will protect you from the rune just enough to get it to me. Bring it here while I hold her, otherwise it may fall into less trusting hands."
Ezreal looked back at the rune and realized the seriousness of the situation. While he still did not trust Ryze, he would rather it be with the two of them, where they could bicker about it later, than it be with the spider woman in front of him. Quickly he moved forward and used his gloved hand to grab hold of the rune.
Ezreal had never felt so much power before in his life. As he held the stone, it called to him and threatened to envelop him at the same time. He was very tempted to listen, everything he desired seemed at his beck and call … his parents.
"Young man bring it back quickly."
Ezreal snapped from within his mind and brought himself back to reality. Taking a one-eighty he marched across the bridge and met up with Ryze.
"We must leave. Time is not on our side."
With that Ryze and himself left through the door, all the while the spider woman screaming behind them. However, just as they entered the hallway, the ground began to shake and the room began to heat up.
"Just me or is the room getting a tad warm?" Ezreal asked.
Ryze's eyes grew wide. "Brand, he followed me."
Just then the ceiling before them opened up revealing a molten hole in front of them and a man who looked like molten lava appeared through it.
"Fancy seeing you here Ryze." Called Brand.
Ryze didn't even hesitate as the tattoos on his body glowed and he erupted a beam of magic at the approaching foe. Ezreal in turn aimed his gauntlet at Brand and fired an energy pulse, striking him in the side.
Brand shot to the left, encircling the two combatants and melting the ancient hallway along the way. Fire came from his hands in waves as he shot upon the two men who faced him. Ezreal instantly thought of an area farther down the hallway and with a small blink he was instantly farther from the combat. Raising his gauntlet he erupted a small barrage of energy pulses from it, striking Brand in the back and sending him into the wall near the door. Ryze took that as an opportunity and ran too meet up with him.
Just as he came around the door swing open on melted hinges and the spider woman entered, a sea of similar creatures at her feat and charging towards where they stood. Ezreal took one look at Ryze and the two of them turned towards the other end of the hallway and ran. As they met up with the wall where his rope was dangling up in the air, Ezreal pulled out a small device and began to hook it to the rope.
A massive amount of heat struck Ezreal as the cave above him lit up with flames and searing his rope into nonexistence. Ezreal turned back to see the spider woman and Brand catching up to them.
"I can get us out of here." Stated Ryze. "But I need some time."
Ezreal looked at the two members gaining upon them and nodded his head. "You got it."
Raising his arm up to point at the intruders he began charging power into it. The gauntlet glowed brighter as it powered up, on its sides began to form long streams of energy in the shape of a bow. With a last push of energy, Ezreal let loose the power and an arc of yellow light shot forward towards his enemies. The light struck the spider woman and Brand with tremendous force, stopping them in their tracks as they clutched their stomachs in pain. Just as it did so, the light from his gauntlet began to fade but in turn, a light surrounding him and Ryze grew. Before he knew it, they were outside the cavern and in the density of the forest that inhabited much of the Shadow Isles.
"That was close." Commented Ezreal.
"I will be taking that now." Ryze held out his hand.
With all that had happened Ezreal hadn't even noticed that the rune was still in his hand. He brought it up to his face and took another good look at it. The rune still swirled with power, and now that he got a better view of it there was not only blue and violet colors surrounding it but black as well. Something about it didn't sit right with him about it, and now that he knew what it could do, he didn't want anything like it to effect other members in his home city.
"If I give this to you two things are going to happen." He looked up at Ryze, who in turned raised an eyebrow.
"First, you will let me know if you need help for anything like this again. I love the adventure and you seem to have a lot of it."
Ryze's eyebrow dropped and he nodded his head. "Perhaps in the future."
"Second, you will take me to where you will hide this. I want to know that it will be well hidden and while I don't distrust you, I would rather that if anything were to happen to it, I would know where to go."
A dark shadow fell over Ryze's face. "No."
"Then you are going to have to fight me for it, and I rather that not happen."
Ryze's tattoos began to glow as Ezreal finished his comment.
"Before you blast me away, consider the scenario that you may fail."
The glowing receded.
Ezreal pressed on. "If you fail than there is no one else to hide these away. I at least can hold them without issues, that should allow me to help here."
Ryze seemed to be chewing on the thought for a good while before he nodded his head to respond.
"Agreed." With that he held out his hand.
Satisfied Ezreal passed it to him.
The moment it touched Ryze's hand a sharp blast of energy erupted from the stone and he dropped it too the floor.
"Somethings wrong." Ryze looked panicked. "The world rune has void energy in it and … something else. This shouldn't exist."
Ezreal looked back to the rune that had now landed still on the branch infested ground. The emanation of light, which had only recently been a light flicker, was now fiercely shining on the two of them, and increasing its intensity. Ezreal reached forward and grabbed the shocked Ryze by the wrist and dove for cover behind a few trees.
A flash of light shook the ground causing the trees to creak around them. It only lasted for a moment but it was just enough to cause Ezreals head to swim. When he finally got his bearings he realized that the two of them were lying on the floor.
Quickly Ryze and himself stood up and looked around the tree trunk to catch a look at the rune.
It wasn't there. What stood in its place was nothing more than a man in strange clothing. He stood about five feet ten inches with short sandy blond hair and pale skin. With blue eyes and a thin complexion, he seemed to embody the simple pretty boy image.
"Where…?" The man began, but before he could finish another sudden sharp light erupted from the mans body.
Ezreal and Ryze covered their eyes, and when the light vanished so too had the strange man and the World Rune.
Ezreal looked at Ryze. "What now?"
Ryze took a deep breath and waited a good moment before responding. "I do not know."