Chapter Nine: Everyday Madness

Hunger.

The feeling of vast emptiness.

The urge to consume. To kill.

Vladimir's eyes shot open. Using his last bits of self-control he managed to touch the Poro next to him. His brain cleared up, but the hunger stayed. He had not eaten a thing for more than twelve hours! Trying not to wake Ezreal up he stood up. In the pale moonlight that came from the windows the boy looked beautiful. The pale skin, the slender body... Again he had the urge for the young ones blood, even stronger than he ever had before. Maybe this strange "love" thing was responsible for that? Vladimir had no idea how things like that worked.

He should go to the kitchen! The longer he would stay here the more his desires would grown until he could no longer control them. When he reached the stairs he heard a loud snore. Gnar was still in the lobby, sleeping at the fountain. Surely not fit as a guard dog.

Sneaking around the sleeping yordle Vladimir made his way into the dining room. That's where he heard the noises. Someone was in the kitchen. Who would come this late for a midnight snack?

Sneaking through the door he saw one person he did not expect. He would recognize that mask everywhere! The master of shadows was standing in the kitchen, making himself the most overloaded sandwich Vladimir had ever seen. The hemomancer was sure he had made no sound, but the ninja must have sensed him somehow. Without even looking at Vladimir he vanished into the shadows, taking his massive portion of food with him.

Zed lived here? The mansion was a more dangerous place than he might have believed.

Without a second thought Vladimir ate everything he could eat right from the fridge. He couldn't cook and he didn't have the patience to try it, so he just consumed everything he found. Then he smelled it. A fragrance so sweet and alluring that he nearly lost his mind. Rengar had sliced up his prey and put the flesh into the fridge. Small drops of blood fell from the flesh when Vladimir took it out. Vladimir lost his composure and rammed his teeth into the raw flesh. There was no need for him to do that, he could have extracted the blood easily with his magic, but now his instincts had taken over. In his greed he even ate the raw flesh – what made his stomach complain.

Slightly ashamed of the mess he made of the freshly cleaned kitchen, he cleaned up and went back to the room. On the way out he found a bottle on the table. Looked like juice or something like that. Vladimir took the bottle with him, for when he needed a drink later on. He did not see the sticker that was applied to the bottom of the bottle: "MUNDO'S – NOT DRINK!"

Putting the bottle on the nightstand he crawled back into bed. He noticed that Syndra and Vel'Koz had returned in the meantime. Carefully pushing the tentacles aside he laid down close to the blonde boy.

Vladimir and Zed weren't the only ones awake at this hour. Late at night one could hear noises out of Dr. Mundo's room in the basement. The giant pushed everything in his temporary laboratory around as if he was looking for something, but could not find it.

This not good, thought the purple giant, Singed be really angry if I lost this.

Before he had moved into this mansion he had asked Singed for an undiluted sample of his insanity-potion. He wanted to research its bio-chemical effects on the human body, but the bottle was nowhere to be seen. Just where did he put it?

Apart from that little blond guy no one knew where his room was. Ezreal had found his laboratory by accident, but Mundo was sure that he still had the potion at that time. But if Ezreal didn't take it, just where did it go?

He could not say what would happen if someone was to drink it. That would be rather... interesting. Mundo decided to look for the potion tomorrow. Now he had to make a serum to reverse the potions effects - just in case someone would drink it. Secretly Mundo hoped for some fool to drink the potion - then he could analyze its effects perfectly. But the League would cut down his budget if he actually killed a champion during the experiment. What a bother. These morons did not understand that science should not be hindered by boring things like "morals" or "ethics".

They should better let Mundo work in peace or Mundo rip of their heads!, thought the scientist. All night long one could hear the sounds of the giant working from outside the door.

Ezreal tried to sort out his mind when he woke up. For the first time he did not freak out when he woke up next to Vladimir. The hemomancer looked so weak in his sleep, yet so innocent. As if all these years of murdering people and draining their blood had just been a bad dream of his. Then Ezreal saw a small amount of dark blood running out of Vladimir's mouth. Suddenly the blood mage did not look so innocent anymore.

He still was not sure about his feelings for the hemomancer. When he first met him on the Summoner's Rift some year's ago, it had been hatred on first sight. He despised everything about Vladimir: his arrogance, his powers, the way he talked... he hated absolutely everything about him. But there was a vast gap between the Vladimir he knew and the one that was lying next to him. That Vladimir was a nice guy. A helpless fool that couldn't even deal with his own feelings. One might be scared of the power the hemomancer wielded, but Ezreal had seen another side of him.

He pitied Vladimir. No one deserved to be forced to kill and slaughter against their will – even if it's a filthy noxian.

But he had never expected that the bloodmage would fall in love with him! A guy on top of that! Just what should he do now? He had never thought about his feelings towards the guy lying close to him. Did he hate him? No, not if Vladimir was like this. Did he like him? Yes, or else he would not try to help him. But how much did he like him? He could not answer that.

Then Ezreal noticed the bottle on the nightstand. It looked like some delicious fruit-juice. His throat was dry, so he gulped down almost half of the bottle.

With a muffled bump the bottle dropped on the floor.

A primeval roar shook the building. Vladimir jumped up from the bed and looked outside. Did Gnar act up again? His reflexes saved him when the window next to him was smashed by a giant fist. Did Gnar try to hit him? No, he had tried to hit Ezreal, who teleported around the beast with terrifying speed while unleashing an unnatural large barrage of magic projectiles on Gnar. But the animal did not care and tried to crush the annoying enemy.

Vladimir grabbed his Poro and rushed out of the room. What in the world was happening here?

He found the other champions at the entrance of the mansion, who did nothing else but watch the fight. "Just what happened here?", he asked the other champions

To his surprise Mundo spoke up to explain the situation: "Mundo don't know how but Mundo knows that boy has drunk special potion I got from Singed. Super strong insanity-potion. Mundo tried to make serum against it, but it was too complex. Lucky for us he has Gnar to play with."

Super strong insanity-potion? Why did something like this lie around on the kitchen table? Vladimir wanted to stop the fight with his magic, but Mundo held him back. "Mundo thinks that's bad idea. He need to fight or his body burns from inside."

"But what if they kill each other?", Vladimir asked, worried about the blonde boy.

"Mundo don't think that will happen. Also, look how happy Gnar is"

"GRAAAAAAAAHRGH!"

"That doesn't sound very happy to me..."

Vladimir could feel the power that was radiating from the two fighting. To him it felt like he watched two unstoppable forces collide with each other again and again. He knew that Ezreal had achieved quite a mastery in his shots and abilities, but what they could see now exceeded the boy's normal skill by far. Also he looked kind of strange: His muscles had swelled up while his eyes had a red glow in them. Just how strong was this potion?

Apparently strong enough to push a human on the same level as big Gnar. In a sudden moment Ezreal had appeared right before the creatures face and drop-kicked it into the ground. Then he unleashed the most powerful Trueshot Barrage Vladimir had ever seen on the beast. The energy wave hit Gnar's body. A giant cloud of dust shrouded both fighters, hiding them from the other champions. But when they heard Gnar scream in fury they knew that this battle was far from over.

It was obvious that this would go on a long time. Meanwhile Rengar and Mundo started betting on the outcome of the fight. Draven and Pantheon joined with their bets and started cheering on the fighters while Syndra and Vel'Koz seemed to enjoy the show.

Their small viewing party was suddenly disrupted by a floating transmission orb. An incoming call from the institute. The orb flashed two times, then the image of a certain summoner appeared mid-air. "Good morning champions,", he said, "We are almost done with the magical maintenance of the fields, so we will call you home tomorrow. Well, only this cursed EUW unit is acting up again, but we should have it fixed in no time. Ah, I see you met Gnar already?"

"Wait, you know that cursed creature?", asked a surprised Rengar

"Why, yes, he's one of the new champion candidates. But we know that you are taking care of him, so the institute has decided to give you a reward for that. Nothing big, just a outfit for the fields."

The champions looked impressed. Optical enchantments and outfits were rarely given by the institute. Until now Rengar had been rather content with the outfits the summoners had made him wear. They were easy to move and good to hunt in. "What kind of outfit?", he asked the summoner.

"Well, first we didn't know what you would like, but then we decided to give you a outfit similar to one that another hunter uses in the league. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: the new ultimate outfit for fighting on the fields of justice: French Maid Rengar"

The transmission orb was instantly torn into shreds by Rengar, who looked like he was going to explode any second now. Then he walked towards the still fighting Ezreal and Gnar. Mundo tried to stop him, but the pridestalker just pushed him out of the way and jumped right into the battle. He really had a lot of steam to blow of. No one dared to get even remotely close to the fighting champions now.

Meanwhile Vladimir had taken a first-aid-kit out of the mansion and waited for the fight to finish. He felt guilty because Ezreal went berserk because of him putting the potion close to him.

BOMPF

With devastating force Rengar had smashed both Ezreal and Gnar into the ground. Gnar returned to his small form and Ezreal did not even move at all. Vladimir could feel that the boy was still alive, but he was still worried. The blood in the boy's body felt strange. As if it was burning in his veins. Then Vladimir remembered the words of Dr. Mundo. Ezreal WAS literally burning from the inside. Immediately he rushed to the boys side.

Every injury the boy had received in the fight had healed already. That potion was amazing! But the energy building up inside his body was about to kill him. He had to get it out of Ezreal's body! But how?

He used his magic to run a deep scan on Ezreal's blood, where he found the magical remains of the potion. He used his nails to cut a wound in the pale skin and let the blood rise from the wound. Studying the red liquid he came to the conclusion that it was nearly impossible to extract the potion from the blood. But he could transfer it. He laid his hand on the wound that had started healing already and used his powers to drain the potion into his body. He would not be able to drain all of it, but maybe he would save Ezreal's life with that.

After ten minutes of swapping out parts of their blood, Vladimir stopped the transfer. Maybe he should Re-Apply to the league as an independent support? Using his gift to heal would be a great way to start his life anew. That's were the last things he thought before the potion's magic reached his mind. The world around him went black.

"Vlaaaaaad. Vlaaaaaad. Wake up, you insolent brat!"

Someone punched him in the face.

When he opened his eyes he knew he had gone mad. When he looked around he found himself in the old temple. Black and red were the most dominant colors here. In front of him was his old master. Dmitri. "Oh, mad is a good way to call it", he said as if he could read Vladimir's mind, "That thing was called "Insanity-Potion" after all. But where are your manners? KNEEL before your master!"

Vladimir had tried to stand up, but a force that almost broke his spine forced him to the ground. "You are dead!", whispered Vladimir," Dead. You are gone! I killed you!"

"You should know better than that", said Dmitri, slowly shaking his head, "I am a part of you, just like we all are." Behind him human silhouettes of red mist appeared. Vladimir tried to break free of the magic that bound him. He managed to stand up and grasp his masters blood.

"Oh, impressive", sneered Dmitri, "But worthless." He used his magic on Vladimir again, slamming his face on the ground. With a disgusting crack Vladimir could feel his nose break. "This is my realm, you stand no chance against me. First you doubted us, then you defied us and THEN you sealed us away. You know that we have to punish you for that?"

"You are dead!", mumbled Vladimir, his face on the ground

"Stubborn brat! I know I should have gone harder on you back then... but you showed such talent, such potential and yet you have proven yourself so worthless." The master snapped his fingers. Vladimir could feel how the blood in his legs was flowing in strange ways. With an even more disgusting sound he could hear both of his legs break. Then the magic wandered up his body, crushing his knees, ripping muscles, tearing veins and braking more bones on the way up.

"Should I continue or have you learned your lesson?"

Vladimir could not hear him. Pain drowned his mind, making it impossible for him to think. Suddenly the magic grasp on his body vanished. Instinctively Vladimir escaped into his Sanguine Pool, repairing the damages his master magic had done.

"I don't think I allowed you to do that... we are not finished here, my child."

Again the magic took over Vladimir and forced him to take mack his human shape. This time Dmitri started with his arms, breaking every bone until he crushed his chest. Again he let Vladimir repair himself, just to tear him apart once more. And he repeated that. Again. And again. And again. He took his time, as he enjoyed breaking every piece of Vladimir's body one after another.

After the sixteenth Sanguine Pool Vladimir cursed his power. He cursed his immortality. He cursed his very existence, that consisted of nothing else than pain now. He did feel no pain when he was in the Sanguine Pool, but that made the torment even worse. The first times he hoped that his master would let him go, but now it looked like the old monk would torment him until the end of time.

After the 25th Sanguine Pool Vladimir stopped thinking. He just wanted to die.

After the 30th Sanguine Pool he lost the count. The pain engraved itself into his very existence.

After the probably 47th Sanguine Pool Vladimir could no longer feel the pain. Did he die? At least he hoped that much. He could feel nothing, all of his senses had gone completely numb to the pain.

Only a tiny golden spark that he felt in the darkness kept him from loosing his mind entirely. Just when would this nightmare end? When would someone come to safe him? Desperately he clung to that tiny golden light. Just how long would he have to endure?