Chapter Ten: Tentacles and Scythes

AN: So, before anything else. I must say that I'm a bad person. I actually had most of this chapter already written by last sunday, but I was so lazy I failed to upload it until now. I don't have any good excuses to that, and I am very sorry for being this lazy. I hope you all can forgive me.

Also, I feel like this Mages x Void arc of the story is quite close to its end. I think it will take only one or two chapters to end this, and next comes the third part of this story. It will probably be the last of this project. After this one I already have quite a few ideas, although no actual plan.

However, it will take some time until I end this story, so you don't need to bother for now.

Kassadin was truly overwhelmed by the facts. He didn't expect an all out invasion so soon. The Void had grown way stronger than he imagined. He expected the Void to be strong enough to destroy whole planets by now, considering those planets had no magic in it. Valoran, though, was different. Magic in Runeterra was developed enough to make him think that the Void would need at least a decade to unleash its power on its surface.

Had he been ready, maybe he could have prevented the inherent defeat of Mankind. There it was no way to hold the front gate by now. Day two had arrived, but the sun hadn't risen yet.

Neither it would, knowing what the Void was doing.

One thing the Void needed to invade efficiently was lack of light. However, night wasn't a possibility: the moonlight's sacred characteristics were as harmful to their portals as the sunlight's cleansing power. What they needed was a day without lights, a day without the sun.

Considering all that, it wasn't surprising that the Void came up with a spell that covered the sun. The surprising part was that they refined it enough to be able to cast them through dimensions. Something was casting a spell to block the sun, and this thing was inside the Void. That was enough to show the magical prowess of the Void.

Ironically, the greatest weakness of the Void is magic. All spells known to Valorians are especially useful against the Voidborn. They are frozen longer than humans by cryomancy, burnt more severely by pyromancy, fooled by illusions more easily. Magic truly was Void's weak point.

However, that detail was unknow to most Noxians. All of their soldiers, even the ones with a bit of magical knowledge, were fighting the Vodlings with brawn instead of brains. That was a good explanation of why they were being pushed back.

Their commander, however, wasn't pleased. He wanted all the reinforcements he could have. He didn't want to lose his grounds to a bunch of aliens. It was truly a shame that the closest reinforcements were two weeks of march away from him.

He couldn't hold his ground much longer. His shield wall was already falling apart. In minutes, he would be forced to retreat.

Hah, he'd prefer to die fighting, but his superiors had other thoughts. He would obey, after all, orders are orders.

At least, they had someone to cover their backs while they fled. His superior was holding the enemy back. He could only pray that she stayed well.

"Xerath, we need back-up."

After the somewhat unnecessary reminder from his former student, Xerath had troubles to contain his thoughts:

'You don't say?'

However, he was able to get a hold on himself and said as calmly as he could muster:

"Annie, I've just called all the possible help I could. You know there's no one else to call."

Annie, with a look of disappointment stamped on her face, said:

"You know there's someone else whose help we could call for. I am saying we should call him."

Xerath, who at first couldn't understand what Annie meant, had his facial expression changed when he finally got who Annie meant. Considering that Xerath's face is made of rock, that was quite the achievement Annie just had made.

"Him? I thought you knew better. We don't need an unstable ally going wild on a field of murder like this one."

There it was no way Xerath would allow her to call him. He was Xerath's ace, but still it was an ace Xerath was afraid of playing too soon. Annie needed to show him that there's no use in saving an ace when you're about to lose. Just… how? How could she convince him?

Her train of thought, however, was interrupted by a squeaky voice that nearly made her cringe. It said:

"Firefly, since when have I allowed you to start wars without my consent? You know, you nearly made it impossible for me to get here in time."

However, the voice wasn't entirely unwelcomed. Actually, it was just what Annie wished: an ally whose help they needed.

Both her and Xerath took the same time to recover from the surprise and finally utter a few words. It seemed like they still had some synchrony from the time she was his student, as they spoke the exactly same words:

"Veigar! How did you get here?"

Another squeaky voice, this time a more feminine once, appeared in the room out of nowhere, answering the question:

"He took a lift with the butterflies. Wouldn't have arrived if it wasn't for that."

Annie's face showed quite obviously that she didn't understand the answer. Xerath also was baffled by it, although his stony face wasn't showing it.

"This time Lulu isn't speaking nonsense. I also had a hard time to believe that I was literally riding a moth."

Annie's face still showed how baffled she was, but she managed to recompose herself.

"Well, I need to go back to the frontline. They need me, and I shouldn't be wasting time here."

"Wait," interrupted a certain Faerie Sorceress, "we are going too!"

Annie, who already was leaving Xerath's tent, looked backwards and saw Lulu smiling at her. Veigar was just aside Lulu, doing a "thumbs up" with his right arm. Even Xerath had risen from his chair. Annie couldn't describe what she was feeling, but she knew that whatever it was, it was good.

"… Thank you guys. Really, thank you."

'Where am I?'

"CHARGE!"

'That voice…

I know that voice from somewhere…'

"RISE, MY ARMY!"

'Oh…

A name…

I think that voice has a name…

Lord? No, that's not it.

Emperor? No, that is just a… a title.

Wait… I think I remember now.

Yes. Azir. That's his name.

And I…

I am his servant. I must obey him.

I must fight for him.

I am his Legion.

I… I AM SHURIMA!'

He never thought he would see a fight between the groud and the skies, but he was seeing it right now.

Above him was a gigantic hole in space. From it, weird creatures, creatures that came out of someone's nightmares, were descending on Valoran. However, Valoran didn't seem to like it. The sands of Shurima were rejecting them, attacking every single Voidborn that fell on it. Thousands of monsters had already been crushed by its might, and, with each passed second, hundreds more were dying. The originally yellow sands of Shurima were now already purple, tainted by the blood of those foul beasts.

Hadn't he been so mesmerized by the display in front of him, he would have felt a presence behind him.

He only noticed there it was someone nearby when he heard Azir's voice.

"So here we meet, Magus. I must say, I thought I would be trying to kill you when I found you. Something had to make me wrong, though."

Xerath, who was really taken aback by the Emperor's appearance and even more taken aback by the fact that he hadn't been attacked yet, took a few seconds to finally speak.

"Azir. I didn't expect to ever feel relieved to meet you. The world's gone crazy."

"Yes, Xerath, the world's gone crazy. Or had it always been so? It doesn't matter now. It isn't like we are going to win this war anyways."

Xerath, for the second time in the last few minutes, was taken aback. Since when had Azir been so negative?

"What makes you say so? We still have force to defend Valoran. We still can win. And I'm sure you know that."

"No, we can't win. Xerath, I am already depleted, and I've been fighting them back only for half an hour. I won't last much longer. I can't hold them back forever."

After Azir's words, an awkward silence filled the air around them. The two could feel the tension in the plain. They knew what was coming. They knew that Azir wouldn't last much longer, and they also knew that, whenever Azir faltered because of his exhaustion, they would be overwhelmed by the power of the Void. What they didn't know, however, is that they weren't alone.

A voice suddenly broke the silence. Both Xerath and Azir were unsettled by its unexpected appearance. Or rather by the fact they didn't notice whoever had spoken up before he actually had spoken.

"How much longer can you hold them back?"

After eyeing the intruder with both disbelief and a slight hint of anger for a pair of seconds, Azir finally answered:

"Forty minutes at most. No, actually only half an hour."

"Give me fifteen minutes. I will hold them back after that."

And, after saying that, the intruder was gone.

"Xerath."

"Huh? What's the matter, Azir?"

"You know the matter, Magus. Who the hell is that man?"

"Oh, that one? He's Erindor. I'll explain that later."

Annie had been doing her best to stop all the Voidborn who were escaping the grasp of the sands. Up to this moment she'd been doing fine, not a single of the monsters having passed through her.

However, that could soon change. A large Koz had just passed the portal and it was coming straight towards her. A Koz she was familiar with.

"Vel'Koz."

"Ahh, so we meet again, Dark Child. I heard that you were stopping us from advancing through here, so I thought about how much information you could have. I expect you to be a very… hmm… enlightening subject."

Annie prepared herself, knowing what was about to happen. She then accepted Vel'Koz's indirect challenge.

"I'm sorry, tentacle guy, but I'm not dying today."

After speaking that, Annie readied one spell. Nothing fancy, just a plain fireball. She did like to keep it simple.

Vel'Koz, however, was one prone to over-dramatic spells. He charged an unnecessarily large spellshield, preventing himself from getting touched by Annie's flames. He then proceeded to charge an also gigantic lazer beam. That probably was a mistake, as it gave Annie a chance to dodge the otherwise lethal beam of Void energy. Annie then decided to try a new technique she had recently perfected.

Fire started to sprout all around her, forming a circle around her. Vel'Koz, however, was a bit too clever to fall in traps, deciding that it was in his better interests to avoid meddling with a suspicious fire ring its enemy had just created. He then rose up to the skies in a decision based off the fact that being above ground level would probably give him an advantage against a fire mage. Fire magic was very deadly, but it couldn't reach very long distances.

Its decision proved to be even better than what he had predicted, as the fire circle exploded, scorching every single centimeter of the ten meters radium of the explosion. Had Vel'Koz been just two feet closer to the ground, the flames would have hit him square.

Now, from above, Vel'Koz observed the waste caused by the fire mage. The intense flames had produced enough smoke to make it impossible to locate Annie.

He then felt a magical presence under him. Annie was just below him, preparing a fireball. However, he knew Annie was not one to make such a mistake, attacking him out of the open like that. No, there it had something else to that attack. A hidden strike…

There! Behind him, he suddenly felt a new presence. He countered the attack from behind with his own strike.

He managed to hit Annie in her chest, piercing right through her heart. Or right through where would her heart be, wasn't it by the fact this Annie was but an illusion. He got hit by a fireball from behind right in that moment, but that gave Annie's place away. She was really in the open, right where he had seen her before, and now she had failed at using the surprise effectively. It was but a matter of time until Annie was disintegrated.

"Hey Eyeball."

Vel'Koz, by force of habit, answered;

"What?"

"Look upwards."

Vel'Koz's eye narrowed after that comment.

"Dark Child, do you really think I'm falling in such a simple trick?"

"You really should look upwards."

"Hah, you know you're escapeless and are trying to do a desperate attempt?"

"Well then, you were warned."

After her last words, Annie turned around with a grin and started to walk away from Vel'Koz. The huge monster became irate after being basically ignored by his enemy. He was about to give chase to Annie when he finally understood what Annie meant. 'Look upwards' was actually a sage advice.

To his dismay, he noticed that a second too late.

He would forever be afraid of furry creatures. Well, that's if he survived to be able to fear anything.

"Good job, Tibbers," Annie said while her bear tortured Vel'Koz in ways not imaginable to humans. "I actually hoped he would live, though… He used to be such an amusing guy back in the day…"

Tibbers, hearing Annie's words, stopped hitting the burnt carcass of the Voidborn, turning back and looking curiously at Annie. He felt something wrong with his mistress, like something was off.

Annie's face suddenly contorted in one that expressed immense pain. A scythe-like limb had pierced through her abdomen, blood coating it after such a crippling blow.

Tibbers, now knowing what happened, ran towards Annie, if only to try to keep her safe until proper help arrived.

However, the assailant had other plans. Leaping towards Tibbers, the Voidborn made shrt work of the bear. After all, he had always been specialized in removal of isolated targets.

The Void's number one assassin then flew away, quickly leaving the area after removing his first key target.

'Only two to go now,' he thought.

His situation suddenly had gone from great to terrible. He wouldn't expect the two ascendant mages to be togheter. That just made his whole assassination plans impossible.

He would have to retreat with only one of his main targets removed.

At least that annoying eyeball wasn't about to keep saying how he "failed terribly" at his only job. Actually, he wasn't ever meeting the eyeball again.

"Holy crap."

That was the last thing Annie heard before passing out. She felt an arm wrapping itself carefully around her. Now she knew that, at least, if she died, her friends would be around. Unexpected, seeing how Kha'Zix had her as a target. That was her luck: even the most skilled assassins failed to kill her the right way.

She hoped she still had time, but if she was about to die, she at least knew it hadn't been in vain. Few could say they fought back hundreds of Void monstrosities before dying.

"Holy crap."

That was all Erindor could say: he had no special phrases to when he would find a friend dying on the ground.

Now he hated himself for never bothering to learn healing magic.

Nah, that wasn't true. He hated himself for being unable to heal. Some were born to heal, to aid, most were born to do whatever they wanted and a cursed few were born with only the power to kill. It was loathsome the fact Erindor fitted only in the last class.

Erindor, with the most carefulness he could afford, slowly wrapped his arms around Annie, carrying her bridal style to…

To where?

Just where would Erindor find a healer?

He had no idea.

However, before he got more desperate, he heard a very squeaky female voice.

"ANNIE!"

Well, weren't Annie and him lucky? The healer, for some reason, was already going in their direction.

"Hey, Annie, remember me to thank the gods later."

Erindor ran as fast as he could towards Lulu. When he got close to the Fae Sorceress, Lulu's face switched from curious to terrorized. She saw how badly hurt Annie was and proceeded to start some healing processes.

"What happened, Weirdo? How did Fire-Sweetie get hurt?"

"I think a Zix got her from behind. It's surprising she isn't dead."

"Hmm…" Lulu said, obviously in deep thought.

After about fifteen seconds later, Lulu had a great idea.

She started a very animated and chaotic chant, obviously preparing some sort of spell. Erindor couldn't understand a single word of what Lulu said, but the chant still brought him a feeling of relieve. The air was vibrating, even, with benefic energies. If that wasn't enough to save Annie, then probably there it was nothing else to do.

However, he had a mission. It was a pity the fact that he wouldn't get to know if Annie would recover, but he couldn't spare the time. He wouldn't risk failing that mission.

Erindor stood in awe right in front of the huge portal to the Void. He knew he had to stop the invasion, but it was hard to focus on something with such an advanced display of magical prowess that close to him. Nonetheless, he would do his job.

However, someone had to discover his plans.

"Don't even think about going in there."

Erindor should've expected. No man on Valoran, except by the Prophet, knew the Void better than his friend. Also, no one knew Erindor better than Kassadin. It was quite obvious that he knew what Erindor had planned.

"Trust me, Kass. It's the best way."

Kassadin scoffed. Since when Erindor had a death wish?

"No. I won't let you go there alone. I've been inside it, I saw its terrors, the abominations that lay in wait there. The one that should be trusting someone else is you. We can hold them back here."

"I second that," announced a very squeaky and high-pitched voice from behind them. "We have what is needed for this battle."

"We might have the resources, yes. However, have any of you thought about how many will die in this battle? We can't fight here, even if we'll stop them this time through a battle. It isn't an option, it would just delay defeat. Their number increases with each passing day. In two weeks they can recover half of their army. No, we have to answer by defeating them there. If I manage to end their sorcerers there, they'll have to flee. They'll be stopped from invading for ages. You know that, Kassadin. You know that even better than me."

"Erindor," Kassadin said with a stern look, "but what if you fail? How will we fight then? You might not have noticed, but your presence on the battlefields is enormous. We won't win a battle without our full power."

"Well, you're right. If I fail, we're doomed. However, I think it's worth the try. It isn't like we would win if we just stayed here fighting them. We would be doomed anyways."

Kassadin still hadn't agreed, and Veigar also followed Kassadin's line of thought. However, from the giant portal, a new creature started to pass. This one was something unexpected, at least. A huge, red Voidborn was coming out of the portal. It wasn't a Gath titan, but it wasn't far from that, according to Kassadin.

Then a very unique feature of this giant suddenly manifested itself. On one of his hands, he was carrying a pipe. He had an attire that was quite like a human's suit. He had a top hat restin on top of his massive head, not showing any actual purprose. He also had a probably unnecessary monocle equipped. He had six limbs, four being arm-like appendages and the other two being legs. The most pronounced feature of his massive body, however, was his massive, gaping jaw. He could probably swallow Kassadin in only one bite. He was one of the most feared Voidborn known to mankind. There it was a reason for him to be known as the "Terror of the Void": every single feature of his body was either made for ruthless killing or for battle.

Cho'Gath, in all of his might and power, stood right in front of them. He seemed to be actually coming in peace, as he had made no move to attack the three mages in front of him.

Kassadin decided to break the silence:

"What do you want, monster? Why are you here, if not to attack us? Say what you want, I don't think we will actually believe in you."

After speaking, Kassadin readied his nether blade. Behind him, both Erindor and Veigar prepared their spells, in case Cho'Gath attacked.

Cho'Gath made a disappointed face. He then said:

"Always the rude one, Kassadin. You disappoint me. I actually hoped we could keep a nice and civilized chat, but I see you can't keep your fiery emotions back. I will teach you all a gentleman's way."

Cho'Gath, who seemed to have been preparing for battle before, now unleashed a ferocious roar. It was so loud that it disrupted Veigar and Erindor, making they take a second to recover. Kassadin however, was unfazed. He quickly luged at the monsyer in front of him.

He managed to strike a good hit, but the monster's tough chitin blocked most of the damage. Cho'Gath counter-attacked bythrowing a volley of spikes on Kassadin. Kassadin had been ready, but one of the spikes was able to slah his arm. Not that Kassadin was truly bothered by it: the cut had been only superficial. However, it was enough to show how mighty Cho'Gath was.

He had suddenly found a very dangerous enemy.

Erindor, after recovering from Cho'Gath's attack, saw his chance. The portal was left free from any protection, and now no one would stop him.

However, he knew he shouldn't just let anyone pass through the portal, going after him. After a few seconds of thought, he made his decision. He would, before leaving, let a final gift to his friends. There it actually were two ways of stopping the invasion: stopping it from inside, which he was about to do, or making all the portals unusable. And a good way to make it unusable was to cover it with fire.

A fire wall. Nothing that Erindor hadn't ever done, but he still needed a huge one.

He had two minutes.

He wasn't going to fail.

Not this time.

AN: Phew.

After a huge, action filled chapter, we finally meet again. I hope I got all the fight scenes right, but if I didn't, I hope you can tell me how to improve that. I don't think they're the best part of my writing.

Also, I know that this sudden self-sacrifice Erindor seems to be doing is a bit OOC from what I had already written about him, but I never told you all of his past. Wait for next chapter. You're gonna have a heca(rim) lot of flashbacks (or just a few).

What did you say? My puns suck? Ok then, I will just go back to my toplane.

You hate me, don't you? T.T

Oh, and is Annie going to die? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Hey, I didn't say she was going to die, just that she might die. Get a cliffhanger.

BUT WAIT A SECOND!

I was nearly forgetting the "Review Reply" corner!

So, I got only one review. Way to go, guys. You know just how to keep me motivated. If you don't review, I can't even feel like anyone is reading this probably crappy story.

Anyways, dear "Guest" that keeps reviewing: First of all, I love you. Don't even think about not reviewing anymore, I'd miss you too much. I need that support you give me, or i probably would give up on this story.

Hey, if you don't feel like creating an account, you could at least come up with a guest name, so I can be sure it's you who I am talking to. You know, somtimes it gets boring not having a name to refer to you by.

So, that's it. Goodbye, my dear readers. See you all next chapter. (if you're going to read it)