Hey guys, DL here.
The plotline hit me while I was writing this chapter. And I hope you're as excited as I am! Cause it's about to get real. Enjoy reading!
Jaws agape, Renekton licked his jagged teeth, walking toward the battle-ready group, and cutting down any bystanders that crossed his path. "I believe you're still ailed by the wounds I gave you," he observed, continuing towards the champions, and pointing his cleaver at them. In one quick swipe, Renekton cut down a frantic woman that intruded his path, his cold, nonchalant, and careless eyes unnerving the good-hearted Poppy. "I'll take my time with you, and I'm going to savor your deaths." Renekton showed himself to be a master of intimidation, as seen from the appalled reactions of the Kinkou Order behind the four champions. "After I'm done with you, I'll finally rid the world of my brother."
Poppy's heart pained. "Stop this! Renekton, Nasus is gone!" she called out. The crocodile's eyes narrowed. His lips curled back into a snarl.
"Your pointless fibs ceased to be amusing a long time ago." With that, the second confrontation between former Leaguers began, as four protected the meek from a literal war god. Riven and Garen attempted to constrain the beast, but Renekton twisted his body, using his momentum to throw the Demacians to the ground before they had a good grip. Rumble and Poppy rushed him at the front. The mech's flamethrower roared, blinding Renekton momentarily as Poppy came at him from the bottom. The girl swung her hammer, surprised when the Ascended grabbed its shaft just in time, pushing it outward and kicking her in the chest. The Keeper of the Hammer flew backward and crashed through the walls of a building. All while he held up his cleaver-held hand to block the raging fire spurring from Rumble's machine. The fight hadn't even been on ten seconds.
Behind the cloak of the flames, a mace appeared and collided with Renekton's jaw. The Shuriman sprawled onto his back, with Rumble closing in. Poppy passed through the crater she made, watching as Riven and Garen shadowed Rumble, making his second attack. The metal mace smashed and splintered the stone road, however missing his mark, his target rolling sideways and landed his right foot into the mech's leg, dropping forward. Rumble rolled out, turning back to see the looming shadow of doom swooping in from the skies. Poppy looked on in horror.
"Rumble!" she cried out helplessly. Rumble's despaired expression faded as Renekton cannonballed forward, knocking into an Ionian style gazebo in the middle of the market. Poppy turned her gaze to Riven, as the broken sword Poppy remembered was now a full-sized curved black blade that had hot green symbols emblazoned on it. The Demacian humans guarded the boy mechanic, lifting their swords in a battle stance.
"Don't die on me yet, pal. We still need to drink together again," Garen smirked. Riven frowned.
"Keep your head in the game, Garen. This fight ain't over yet." The Shuriman slowly lifted himself from the wooden ruins of the gazebo, hobbling slightly. That's when Poppy's keen eyes saw it. Years of training had given her observation skills an incredible boost. The yordle smiled. Those teachings helped her spot a minute detail that might give the champions a slight chance at victory.
"Riven! Garen!" Poppy yelled. "He has a limp in his left leg!" Sure enough, the Demacians saw Renekton's caution of overexerting his wounded leg as he moved toward the group, a wound he received by Poppy from their last encounter. Though he kept his limp very well hidden, it was something that could not be veiled through Demacian trained vision. Riven and Garen split up, flanking Renekton. Blades clashed. Yells and battle cries filled the streets of the capital. Poppy looked around, spotting the Kinkou Order watching across several rooftops with focused eyes. I have no time for them, Poppy thought.
The yordle girl sped to the now demolished market, contorted corpses filling the streets, blood soaking into the bruised market food. Smashed crates and shops dropped over the sidewalk, caused in the commotion when the civilians attempted escape. Her gaze returned to the badly outmatched fight. Garen and Riven were Demacian legends, gaining their fame for different reasons, but respected among all in their nation for their combat prowess, talent, and abilities. However, their experience was short compared to the years of war Renekton commanded through, fighting in a time where battle was much crueler and grotesque than it is now. Even two of Runeterra's best warriors couldn't fight a war god on their own.
Riven breathed heavily, leaning on her sword. Blood drenched her shirt and trickled down her head. Garen was nowhere in Poppy's sight. Renekton chuckled at the white-haired soldier. "I've heard of your skill on a battlefield. I'm quite impressed," Renekton said, sweating pouring off his temples and wiping away the blood that was leaking into his eyes. "In my time, you could've been one of my captains." Riven spat a red wad from her mouth.
"I don't need praise from you," she scowled at him. Renekton grinned.
"I've also heard about your military disgrace and your banishment," he continued, laughing wickedly. "Scorned by your countrymen under suspicion of treason, conspiring with a rival nation, what was it called…Noxus?" Riven tensed, causing Renekton to sneer. "Was that a tender subject? Even someone like me was once a patriot, same as you. Which makes my stomach turn when I look at a two-faced traitor who had so much potential." Riven spun her blade into a two-hand hold, bending her elbow as she charged at the Shuriman with her low blade.
"Lies!" she screamed, thrusting her sword forward. Renekton sidestepped, firing a bowed arm forward and clotheslining Riven. The Exile flipped before colliding with stone. Renekton snickered.
"You well know what you should've been punished for when you committed treason." Renekton lifted his cleaver into the air. Two harpoons went into Renekton's back, the crocodile stumbling momentarily. He growled, turning back and spotting Rumble, who was now back in his robot with a defiant look on his face.
"Come get some!" Rumble urged. "I'll make you into a coat!"
Renekton snarled. "This fight has gone on long enough." Suddenly, a cloud of sand flurried around the Ascended, his body growing into a huge beast. Now, he stood several feet taller than before, and his muscle build stretched, forming him into a terrifying enemy. Rumble gulped, backing his mech up and turning on his shield. Renekton threw a crate at the yordle, cracking as it hit the shield. Rumble squeaked as the Shuriman used the shattered crate as cover to get close, Renekton pounding the shield with his weapon. The shield held, but the force knocked the robot away, smashing into market stalls. The Shuriman pivoted, meeting his steel with Garen's. The Demacian gritted his teeth as he tried to match Renekton's strength. Garen's eye bandage was stained a shaded crimson, and bits of his armor were cracked and broken off. His muscles groaned, knowing he couldn't keep up this standstill for long against his towering opponent.
"You should learn when to stay down," Renekton said, sand flaking against Garen's armor. Poppy sprinted toward the two.
"We won't back down! For our pride, we won't stop! Because we're Demacians!" she yelled. Garen chuckled.
"You said it," the warrior smiled. Renekton growled in frustration, pushing his sword with his overwhelming strength and sent Garen flying away. Renekton hastily pivoted again, slashing at the yordle. She dodged the blade narrowly, only inches from her head as she approached in close quarters. Renekton moved his gaze downward at the yordle as tall as his shins. Poppy thrusted her hammer into Renekton's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Her long hammer proceeded to strike up at the keeled figure of the Shuriman. The hammer's face smacked into Renekton's jaw, then Poppy spun the shaft, whipping the Ascended's head in the direction of the spinning face.
Renekton groaned in pain, stumbling while Poppy lowered her hammer horizontally. She slid her hands along the shaft of the hammer until one hand grasped its shin and the other palm its end. She aimed for the stunned Renekton's chest, then pushing her palm forward, the shaft sliding across her other hand. The hammer collided with the Shuriman. The blow could be heard throughout the district as Renekton catapulted into a marble district hall. A loud bang echoed through the tense air, the shaken building's thick wall stopping Renekton's momentum and in turn made a huge crater that creaked to the edges of the three-story hall.
Poppy gasped, finding air on her knees. "Damn, Poppy. Should've done that first," Rumble joked, wincing as his own pain flared. Garen and Riven limped over to the yordles.
"Years from now I'm still gonna be feeling it," Garen complained.
"I hear ya," Riven agreed. The Kinkou Order appeared from their rooftop perches. Through Poppy's eyes, there seemed to be about a dozen of them. What she assumed was their leader stepped forward, distinguishing himself from his white-robed colleagues with a golden cloth banner hung over his chest. Each of the Order also wore a strange demon mask, each a different color. The leader wore a silver mask, with a silly, fanged grin and thin lines for eyes.
"We are grateful for your heroic efforts," the leader said. "We will be sure to lock this monster under tight security until the League can retrieves him. It's a shame however, that so many lives were lost today." Poppy wearily peered at her surroundings. The entire market was a disaster, and dead bodies were everywhere, from being trampled to death or cut down by Renekton's blade. A pang of regret and guilt occupied Poppy's heart.
"Actually, we came here to talk about the League," Poppy said. "Maybe not out in the open though. The death in this place makes me uneasy." Riven and the rest of Poppy's party nodded in agreement.
"Oh, don't you worry about death. There will be a lot more blood than what then the Butcher just scraped off."
Everyone turned toward the voice, belonging to a man in a long, tattered black cloak. Poppy's eyes wandered to what wasn't hidden: the man's odd fingers with blades fused into them. The man's skin was a rough purple, and his voice was smooth and slippery. "Who are you?" Riven demanded. Poppy froze. An ominous feeling grew in her belly, one that was familiar. A feeling she experienced when her father died. The man grinned.
"It doesn't matter who I am," he said, sliding his fingers against each other, making a noise of clanging metal. "All that matters is that the carnage is only beginning! Releasing Renekton and the others was only the first step. Soon, spoiled blood will soak Runeterra's lands once again! And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!" the figure cackled. Suddenly, darkness filled the market like a wave, making everyone flinch. It lasted only a moment, and when it faded, the figure was gone.
"That guy doesn't sit well with me," Garen said gravely. Poppy nodded.
"Like he said, it's only the beginning."
The surreal dimension flowed calmly throughout its expansive space. Each step Ryze took rippled the surface of the Astral Plane. Since the two weeks when the League's foundation crumbled, Ryze searched for clues and culprits with a fiery passion. Who really destroyed the capitals of Noxus and Demacia? What power and numbers could they possess to simultaneously destroy the two strongest city states in Valoran? Why were the prisoners in the Institute let loose without a leash? Who was Orus?
Funneling thoughts tempted Ryze toward insanity. A rune glowed inside one of his myriad pouches. Noticing this, the mage spoke an incantation, a sudden image of an Ionian market apparated. Through the image, Ryze spotted an unconscious Renekton in a prison caravan, locked head to toe in an absurd number of shackles. Ryze breathed in satisfaction. Another convict subdued. He faced back to his investigation area. Replays of city destruction sidelined pictures of the convicts and Orus, each one connected in a faint, transparent blue line. "What was the point of it all?" Ryze asked to no one, diving into his own mind.
Something occurred to him, frightening the mage. Anger boiled as a realization crossed his mind. Ryze pulled out his spell book, speaking a spell as his hand coursed with powerful magic energy. Then, Ryze slapped that palm against the ground. He was now suddenly in a deeper, darker area of the dimension. The normal blues of the Astral Plane were extremely darkened. In front of Ryze was a large runic prison, where the only light emitted in the dark space was contained. The mage approached the cage, hooking his spell book back on his belt. The prisoner sat with his legs crossed, having skin like hardened magma with liquid heat flowing through its cracks. The only fire that coursed outside of his body was the lax flame that danced over his head. "Who broke you out of the Institute, Kanan?" Ryze demanded, frowning. Brand returned it with a scold.
"I told you not to call me that," Brand growled. The fire around his body spiked for an instant, then was suppressed back inside him. Ryze folded his arms.
"You don't understand the situation. You don't have a choice." Ryze lifted a cupped hand, a blue aura forming around it. Brand's eyes widened, his body writhing in pain. The mage's hand dropped, stopping the cage's increased bright color, and leaving Brand gasping for breath. "Who freed you from the Institute? I won't ask again."
"I don't know." Brand's figure contorted again in agony. "I really don't!" he continued once the pain stopped. Each exhale from his mouth was a small breeze of fire. "He stayed hidden in the shadows."
"Just one?"
Brand nodded. "He didn't sound human, nor yordle."
"Anything else?" Ryze pressed.
"I remember something about him. I'm not one to talk, but he gave me a bad feeling. One that told me he could and would commit global genocide without batting an eye."
Ryze's cold eyes persisted on the form of Brand. "You're right. You don't have room to talk." The cage coursed with magic once again, torturing the prisoner inside. When Ryze was content, he dropped the volatile magic field that pained the molten man. "You have the power of the sun, and the element that shaped the very tectonics this world was built on. Yet, all you use it for is to spread your hatred and loss to others. After all these years, you're still just a child."
Brand's fire raged, then suppressed back inside by the prison's properties. "How dare you! It's because of you my parents and brother are gone! It's your fault that you turned me into this! I looked up to you, and you betrayed me!" Brand's hands grasped the bars of the cage, glaring at Ryze with spite.
The mage looked down at him pitifully. "You well know I tried, Kanan!" He burst out. "Everyone lost someone in the Rune Wars! Your parents were dear friends of mine, and I spent many sleepless nights thinking if I could've saved them and your brother. But after that, your hatred and rage didn't fade. You weren't even a teenager back then, so don't assume you know how the world worked! Even now, don't assume how life works!" Brand grit his teeth.
"Thousands of years, Ryze. A lifetime of lifetimes ago, and I still remember every detail of that night. Those…monsters…burned down an entire metropolis, along with my family. You were my idol, everything I aspired to be. I looked up to you again when I turned to you to save my parents. But you killed them. That day I realized you were nothing but a selfish warlock! To keep those special runes of yours to yourself instead of helping someone else!"
"Such arrogance!" Ryze yelled. "You criticize me through the eyes of your childish worldview, while you've been recorded for filling entire nations worth of graveyards?! And through my efforts to keep this world stable, you accuse me of being something as vile as a warlock?! Your hypocrisy sickens me."
Brand banged against the bars of the runic prison. "You kept those runes to yourself! To this day, those runes remain on your person. You crave power, Ryze! That's the entire reason you gave up your humanity!"
"Quiet!"
"My hatred burns strong even today. The most fun I've had has been watching you squirm over the Demacian and Noxian massacres. Watching your fiddling, helpless mind was well worth those people's mediocre ends." The cage flared, sending Brand sprawling on his back and screaming out into the astral skies. Ryze flooded with fury, shocking the cage as Brand wailed in agony.
"Your anger and bitterness has clouded your mind, Kanan! You aren't the only one who suffered! How many children died that day in those cities, along with their families?! How many children your own age lost families back in our time?! Entire generations wiped from the map, and you show no empathy for those like you!" Brand's flames died down slightly, while Ryze continued. "The people who released you from your confines, they want the World Runes. Those people want to bring a second Rune War! And this one will be much worse than the first. It will mean an end to Runeterra!"
"Quite right. I'm impressed you figured that out, Ryze."
Ryze flipped around, spotting a bald man with burgundy-colored skin with wolf pelt pants, covered with tattoos. Suddenly, the Astral Plane screeched, a high-pitched, whining howl that reverberated across the space. The features of the plane changed, flipping from a dark blue to a shaded red. Ryze swiftly opened the book on his belt, pulling out magic inside and blasting it at the intruder. The attack roared in a large ball of energy. Orus laxly swatted it aside, the magic faded into sparks in its redirection. Ryze grinded his teeth.
"I'll make you pay for what you did to Nasus," spat Ryze. Orus chuckled maliciously.
"Now don't put the cart before the horse, my old friend. You still need to learn a few tricks before you can challenge me." Ryze knew well. Orus spell power was off the charts, well above an Ascended's. A being the Rogue Mage never imagined existed. Meanwhile, Brand's gaze switched between the two wizards. Though it wasn't the same, Brand felt Orus' aura was very similar to the man who freed him from his shackles. Ryze's eyes narrowed.
"Friend? I think not. Who are you?" Orus shook his head, tsking.
"Such a shame that your memory has degraded to a senile state. But all in due time, Ryze. All in due time."
Ryze prepared himself for battle. "Why are you here?"
This was something Orus was willing to answer. "Why, I was thinking of destroying that measly bird cage you call a prison. After all, Brand and the others haven't finished their job yet." Orus cut himself off, smile fading as he looked away in thought, almost as if he wasn't listening to someone else. A few moments later, he turned back to the blue mage.
"I would love to catch up on old times, Ryze, but there's been a change of plan. Don't worry though, we'll meet again soon!" Orus laughed maniacally as he used his own Realm Warp, disappearing from the Astral Plane. The physical makeup of the dimension returned to normal. Brand shifted his gaze.
"Sounds like you know him."
Ryze sighed. "He's the reason the League was attacked." Ryze turned back to Brand. "He's one of the people who want to bring about the genesis of a new world war."
What'd you guys think? How is Orus as an antagonist? Also, tell me your thoughts on our heroes, and what you think is great and what should be improved upon. Please drop a review as they help me a lot. Anyway, thank you for reading my unknown works, and until next chapter guys.