He remembered the cloudy sky greeting him when he first walked through the gates of the Institute. Four years ago, he had skeptically entered the main building, already peeved at accepting the terms of the heavily skewed contract which the summoners suggested he sign. He had laughed when they offered him the chance to call up a lawyer, but upon being teleported from his research at the worst of times to partake in League matches, Ezreal had lamented the fact that he did not pay attention to the fine print. The grim weather the day he went to the Institute to formally register his profile as an official champion of the League only worsened his mood.
"When you're not out adventuring and exploring, you have the right to a room in our dormitories," the summoner informed him, a brown-haired woman in her thirties. He had forgotten her name, a piece of information jumbled up with all the other strange names of people he ran into at the Institute and lost to the wind. Ezreal only bothered to remember the names of his fellow champions, mostly because he had to associate with them for the length of the match at minimum, and at the start of his career he had wanted to leave the grounds as soon as he completed his duty. He did acknowledge the merits of owning a bed at the Institute if he wanted to crash there for whatever reason, but he never made plans to actually interact with the population there. Only when the Crownguard girl introduced herself to him did his outlook on the League really change.
He first looked upon Luxanna Crownguard with a bored expression as he strolled upon the slate tiles of their team's base, making his way towards the bottom lane. As per his usual behavior, he paid no attention to the person assigned to serve as his support until he actually stood face to face with them in the actual Rift, only then choosing to go over perfunctory strategies and sharing of abilities for the two minutes they had before actually fighting. Ezreal would have lied if he said the girl had not captured his attention fairly quickly. She was pretty, with long golden locks of hair flowing down her shoulders, and he would even go far as to say she looked adorable with the light armor she chose to don on the Rift, but Ezreal had partnered up with his fair share of breathtaking females during his tenure working for the Institute. Ever the immature youth back then, he would sneak a glance or two every so often to admire Janna's hauntingly perfect figure, or gaze in wonder at how the summoners would allow Sona's very open display of cleavage. But even though Lux wore nothing revealing for Ezreal's imagination to visualize, he still felt drawn to her moreso than the other women he had met. Maybe he saw something in her eyes, bright blue spheres, not like the stormy eyes of Janna, or the aquatic lenses of Sona, but truly authentic sapphires, complete with a twinkle in them which manifested every time she spoke to him.
She acted so much like a princess, even though he discovered she didn't belong to the royal family, rather to the family of the stewards who stood by them for centuries. After they played matches together she would stick around and talk to him, asking a few questions about his life. At first Ezreal only gave her standard stock answers, but Lux had a knack for conversation, an affinity for reaching past the surface and finding the words to get people interested in talking, not just to her, but to themselves. It didn't take long before Ezreal began to share stories of his travels with her. Tales of his wild exploits and swashbuckling adventures dazzled her, and she would always sigh in admiration after he finished, even if she could tell he had clearly embellished a fact or two. His ego seemed content to feed itself upon the praises she would give him, enough to the point that even though she had refused his romantic advances - not because she didn't like him, but because of political reasons - they had agreed to stay close friends. He guessed a big part of aforementioned "political reasons" came from the overprotective nature of her brother, Garen, who had immediately taken a disliking to Ezreal, addressing him by the flattering titles of "common thief" and "villain" whenever their paths crossed.
Only when Ezreal had stepped in to protect Lux from a rogue Zaunite street gang during one of her covert operations (she insisted on "diplomatic vacation," but Ezreal could see right through her) did he finally earn the grudging respect of the elder Crownguard. The one incident eventually served as a catalyst for their friendship to develop, and both found they could learn a lot from each other: Ezreal finally understood enough of the workings of the League from Garen to understand that contributing to its well-being would mean more governments would commission him to survey some unknown frontiers or purchase some of his maps, and Garen had swallowed his pride long enough for Ezreal to demonstrate to him the proper use of a hextech gunblade. Despite the soldier's continual refusal to stoop to such pitiful levels of combat, as he called it, he realized that if he had not familiarized himself with the most current editions of military weaponry, he would find himself sorely outclassed not only on the Fields of Justice, but on the real battlefields during one of his many military campaigns. "You wouldn't want Katarina du Couteau to get the upper hand on you, would you?" Lux teased him, and Ezreal had never quite seen any spectacle which equalled the sight of the Might of Demacia blushing.
But now Garen Crownguard lay in a marble tomb in the Demacian capital, according to Fiora, and the big brother he would never have had left the world on his last campaign, from which he would not return. Ezreal tore his gaze away from the cloudy sky which greeted him once again as the company drew up to the gates of the Institute for what he hoped would be the last time, and set his mind on the impending confrontation. "Let's do this."
"That's my line," Jax cut in, and Ezreal had to hold back a groan. He would never understand how one man could joke so much yet still hold the attention of everyone else in the room whenever he chose to say something remotely serious.
"Vayne is waiting for us in the northwest wing of the main compound. The Institute has not quite erupted into chaos on the surface, but they had quietly taken the Judicator and the Piltover law enforcement duo into custody to prevent them from speaking up," Kassadin told them.
"Makes sense for her to be there," Ezreal said. "No one's been in the northwest wing for so long it's probably filled up with cobwebs by now."
From their meeting with the Prophet, Ezreal and Janna went along with Kassadin through a convergent portal, as the Seer had called it, which Malzahar had opened up for them, taking them directly to the Institute. Before their transit the Prophet briefly explained the way Voidborn portals worked: all of Runeterra had traces of magical flux in it, some regions holding greater concentrations than others. Mages called portals which transported them from denser flux regions to sparser ones convergent portals, while they called the opposite divergent portals. Icathia had one of the densest flux values around Valoran, so Malzahar could use convergent portals to go from it to nearly anywhere else on the continent. Requiring less initial energy from a mage made convergent portals easier to create, which allowed Malzahar to channel the energy needed to create one on such notice. Either way, the two of them had shied away from the idea of using any Void-related method of transport, but they had agreed to doing so when Kassadin himself vouched for the safety of such measures. "I have used some of them myself when I had wandered the Void, but only Malzahar can actually summon them by his own power," the mage had said. The Prophet and Vel'Koz had to stay behind to re-enter the Void, having to wait for sufficient energy to create a divergent portal because the Void had the highest concentration of magical flux in the entire known universe.
The yordles remained behind, and although Rumble had tried to summon up his bravado and volunteered to help in the fight at the Institute, his peers insisted on him staying home to keep the ship afloat. "Someone's got to stay behind to protect the home front," Tristana had told him, and he reluctantly agreed to protect Bandle. Nidalee had went along with them, her duty remaining first and foremost to the forest which the weapons of the Institute had tarnished. Ezreal knew of the mysterious regenerative capabilities within the Kumungu Jungle, but an explosion of that caliber might prove too much for the trees.
He was glad for Janna staying by his side since he had gotten himself involved in the conflict. The wind mage proved herself a true support in all senses of the word, protecting him from any threats which got too close to them and doubling as an understanding, if not relentlessly teasing, ear to confide in. He had begun to see the blonde as more than just another impossibly attractive woman once they had gotten closer, and he considered Janna a true friend. She still acted incredibly coy around him, housing some mysterious secrets which she covered up, out of Ezreal's reach like the winds she commanded, but he resolved to eventually get through to her. Maybe after everything was over he might finally get some time alone with her.
When last he saw Jax and Irelia, Ezreal easily spotted the flirtatious undertones hiding beneath Jax's prompt orders and Irelia's readiness to follow him. The way they looked today, however, one would've thought that they had never met in their lives. While no one still could ever read the Grandmaster's facial expressions, Irelia seemed distanced from Jax and everyone else, her eyes always wandering off to gaze at something in the distance whenever someone addressed her. Jax maintained his playful mood, but Ezreal could sense the tension in his voice increasing the closer and closer the group got to their rendezvous point. The group needed to turn one last corridor, and Ezreal could feel everyone begin to tense up, expecting an ambush. He saw Twisted Fate ready a card from his sleeve, the duelist unsheathing her rapier, and Irelia's blades quiver ever so slightly.
Ezreal heard a dull thud and the sound of a man groaning before he saw the body fly towards the wall at the other end of the hallway, a massive crossbow bolt pinning the man in place. He dressed like the summoners of the Institute except he had white robes over the customary purple and a strange triangular symbol upon his sleeve. Beside him, he noticed Janna's eyes perk up at seeing the man's apparel, but Ezreal didn't have much more time to consider what it might have meant as the group immediately ran at the man, pointing their weapons at him.
"You can leave him be. I've already handled things here," a woman's voice said. The Night Hunter got up from her crouching position, draping her crossbow back over her shoulder. Ezreal caught sight of another body sprawled behind her, a man with a strange gun in nearly identical clothing.
Vayne mopped her brow with the loose end of her cloak, all semblances of decorum long gone. "It'll take more than a couple of dogs from the Institute to put me down." She pointed down the hallway, towards the entrance to the High Councillors' Chamber. "As far as I can tell, whoever's behind all of this is behind those doors with a couple of those creatures lurking around." The Institute normally restricted access to that area, only opening it up at times when a new potential champion made their way to the last part of the application, the Reflection. Ezreal had only gone into the Reflection Chamber after his induction into the League given the strange circumstances in which he joined, and he shuddered as he remembered the mentally taxing environment of the room and the near-reality of the events which the summoners brought up for the champions to witness.
"I'm afraid I wasn't alone in my undercover work," Vayne continued. "The three Kinkou ninjas showed themselves around here a few minutes ago and forced the door open. They probably believed they could handle all the wickedness in the room and bring the Institute back to that equilibrium they love to talk about. I made no attempt to stop them. It would have been counterproductive for me to walk in there prematurely while I was waiting for all of you to show up, and you would have an easier time stopping Malphite than trying to convince the Eye of Twilight that what he was doing was foolish."
Irelia rushed forward after hearing Vayne's tale, her blades quickly following her. "Then we have to help them fight whatever's in there before they get themselves killed!" Ezreal didn't share her enthusiasm, and looked over at Kassadin to see what the Void Walker thought about it, but it seemed the rest of the group was still trying to take in the information Vayne gave them. Even Jax stood there awkwardly, torn between following up on Irelia's idea and wanting to stay back and gauge the situation.
"What are you all doing?" Irelia yelled at them. "Shen, Akali, Kennen, all of them need our help, and you're all too scared to come help them?" Ezreal had encountered a furious Irelia before, and he did not want to cross paths with her, so he started to take a few steps forward. But Twisted Fate decisively moved in front of him and gestured in another direction, prompting a raise of the eyebrows from the Ionian captain.
"You wouldn't be the type to keep going when there's someone at your back, I reckon?" The Card Master threw a card into the air - a jack of hearts, Ezreal saw - and the dark corridor flooded with light, a brightness which revealed a presence in the hallway none of them had noticed before. A shadow appeared on the ground in the shape of a person, a very familiar shade which Ezreal dreaded seeing. It rose up from its two-dimensional position, gaining height and took on a proper human shape, like one of those black and white facial composites Ezreal would sometimes see at the police station. Once it had completed its transformation into a full human form, the color began to flow into the frame, the gray and red filling in the spaces between the otherwise black outfit of the Master of Shadows.
Ezreal stiffened, instinctively preparing his gauntlet, but Zed's appearance confused him. Janna had mentioned to him how Jax and Zed had gone to Piltover together to find her before the Institute's forces could, and while they had successfully taken her away, they had separated from Zed in the process. The wind mage had no idea what had happened to him, although she never really considered him part of the group. Jax had refused to speak about the matter altogether. Had something happened to Zed which made him change his mind about helping the group? Was Zed secretly on the Institute's side? A thousand similar questions passed through Ezreal's mind, but he ended up focusing on only one: What was that green mist surrounding him?
Zed paid no attention to the majority of the group, focusing his gaze towards the center, where Jax and Janna stood. "I see you've managed to survive," he said, and everyone knew who he had addressed.
"I never doubted you'd still be alive, Zed." Jax warily stepped forward, sensing something amiss with the ninja. "What happened to you? Did the Delta Syndicate capture you?"
The sound of a shuriken drawn from Zed's armguard put Jax on alert, and he instinctively adjusted his footing into a fighter's stance. "I took the fall for you," he snarled, spinning the weapon between his fingers. "You have no idea what I had to endure to make it back here. You could never understand."
"We had to save her. It was what we came to Piltover for," Jax calmly replied. "We didn't know who even took you, much less know where you had went. And the Syndicate's thugs were all around the city, so we couldn't spend the time to look for you even if we had any idea what to do."
Ezreal hadn't the slightest clue what kinds of trouble the two referenced, but he figured Zed had some kind of misunderstanding. "And you wish to settle this by attacking Jax?" Kassadin questioned him. "With the support of all of us behind him?"
"He is not alone, Void Walker," an eerie female voice echoed. The narrowness of the hallway made it impossible for Ezreal to place the voice, and he spun around in panic while the others also looked all around for the source of the warning. He soon realized that the mist surrounding Zed began to condense, turning into a thicker cloud of smoke which dissipated and revealed an armored spearwoman, with a green wispy link of the smoke connecting the two.
"The Spear of Vengeance," Vayne identified her, a deliberate tone emphasizing every word.
"There are betrayers in our midst," she confirmed, raising her spear and pointing it at all of them in turn. Ezreal didn't know if she labelled them all betrayers, or if she deemed one of them guilty but could not figure out which of them exactly. What sort of betrayal was she referencing? Ezreal didn't think any of them had done anything of the sorts since their involvement with the Institute's plot, at least not to his knowledge.
Janna spoke up in protest. "We didn't betray him! We never asked him to sacrifice himself for us. We were attacked by surprise, and when we realized what was happening Zed didn't give us any other choice!"
Kalista regarded her with cold, unsympathetic eyes. "The souls of the victims who are wronged do not lie. The outcry has reached its loudest point in this very hallway. We need no further direction. We can read the guilt written on your souls."
"But even with the specter's help, you still cannot hope to take on all of us," Fiora responded defiantly, her rapier at the ready.
"You forget the power of the Shadow Isles," Kalista corrected her, moving closer to Fiora, a short enough distance that Fiora could easily lunge at the spearwoman and slash through her with a quick strike. "You cannot kill that which is already dead… and I shall never let my Oathsworn go with his work unfinished."
Zed had had enough of the idle chatter, and quickly moved towards Jax in an attempt to immediately incapacitate him, but the grandmaster did not easily fall prey to surprise attacks and deflected the blow with his lamppost. The ninja refused to let up, throwing another shuriken at Jax's neck and rushing towards him before the weapon reached him, aiming at Jax's midsection with the two armblades. Jax barely dodged the flying shuriken, but his sudden movement threw him off balance and only the saving gust of wind coming from Janna prevented the Master of Shadows from piercing through him. The rest of the group had begun to respond to Zed's attack, but Kalista raised her hand, and a barrage of green bars descended from the ceiling, barricading Jax and Janna away from the rest of them. Even the bolts from Vayne's crossbow or the particles of energy from Ezreal's gauntlet could not slip through the gaps in the barrier, as they seemed to simply disappear upon making contact with the partition.
"You shall not interfere in my Oathsworn's ordeal," Kalista ordered. "You shall live or die by the black spear's trial."
"Don't worry about us," Jax told them, and Ezreal saw him make eye contact with Irelia. "Go help the Kinkou. We'll be there once we're through with this."
Janna had a determined look in her eyes, which flashed a shade of dark grey. She met Ezreal's gaze, and her face showed unwavering resolve. "We'll be with you soon enough. I promise."
It wasn't right for her to have to get caught up in whatever agenda the Spear of Vengeance had, especially considering they came to rescue her. Janna couldn't have controlled what happened to the three of them, and Ezreal could feel his anger threatening to tear out of his skin right there. But he kept his temper out of control, knowing that keeping calm and staying focus would pay off at such a pivotal time. "Then let's finish this business with the Institute, once and for all," Irelia ordered, the Ionian leading the way towards the door to the High Councillor's Chamber. Ezreal wordlessly followed her along with the others, but before she turned around he could see the fear and worry in her eyes. She couldn't endure the feeling of knowing she couldn't turn around and help Jax, just as Ezreal felt the same way about leaving Janna behind. They had bonded together the entire time during their travels all over Valoran, and Ezreal didn't notice how much he relied on her until her absence bore a gaping hole in his heart.
They found the doors locked, unsurprisingly, but Twisted Fate volunteered his expertise, admitting to a fair bit of thievery in his past. The surprises never stopped with the Card Master, Ezreal thought as the double doors began to swing open, and the six of them passed through into the darkness awaiting them. Ordinarily, a ring of hextech lights would illuminate the large, circular room, but the summoners had either turned them off or broke them, and the only light source came from the electronic display of his gauntlet. He took a position at the front of the group next to Irelia and Kassadin, and they walked through the narthex of the room which opened up to the main portion, an open space which led to the Reflection Chamber opposite them, the High Council offices on the right, and the Field Analysis rooms on their left. An orb of light hung over the door to the Reflection Chamber, granting them some vision, and Ezreal could barely make out the cursive inscription which lay near it: The truest opponent lies within. But as they got closer to the marble doors at the end of the hall, they found their enemy perched upon the ramparts, eyeing a singular figure sprawled upon the ground.
Akali struggled to lift herself even a few inches, one of her kamas lying on either side of her a few feet away. Her customary green outfit had numerous rips and tears, probably a result of the Institute creature's assault leaving it in tatters. Ezreal noticed a gash near her ear, the blood freely dripping down her face, and rushed to her aid before the creature swooped down from its perch and flew between the group and Akali. Like its brethren, black covered its entire body, but none of them could take flight like it, its wingspan wider than the six of them standing side by side. It sported gigantic talons which would mercilessly rip Ezreal to shreds if he got too close to it, and the singular horn atop its head completed its thorny appearance.
Ezreal wondered where the other members of the Triumvirate had gone, but a earsplitting screech from the beast jarred his thoughts. Irelia stepped forward, her blades poised to launch themselves at the beast at a moment's notice. "I've fought this one before, up on Mount Targon, and I can defeat it again. Fate, make sure that you get Akali to safety. We should serve as more than a worthy opponent."
The gypsy grumbled behind them, and Ezreal could make out a few words, something about being left to do guarding duties all the time, but Twisted Fate snuck around the side of the creature while Irelia rushed headlong at the beast, two of her blades going for its legs while she held the other two near her at waist level. Fiora ran up from behind her, leaping onto the blades serving as makeshift steps as she used her momentum to throw herself at the creature's midsection, her rapier making contact with its wings. It didn't seem to mind, however, and threw the duelist off quickly with a beast of its wings. Fiora landed on the ground hard, rolling over to lessen the pain of the impact. At his side, he saw Vayne walk forward, firing bolts from her crossbow, but the creature either dodged them or shrugged them off without incident, and Ezreal pitched in with his own projectiles, firing up at its face where he thought they would have more of an impact. He might as well have thrown confetti at it, as the creature completely ignored his particles and swiped at Irelia, who stood directly in front of it. Kassadin managed to deflect its attack with his own blade, but his smaller mass meant that the force of the blow still threw him across the room. A simple Riftwalk allowed him to return to the battle without incident.
Irelia, left untouched, renewed her assault on the winged demon, using all four of her blades to attack its lower half. It seemed to take more damage from her attacks than either Ezreal's or Vayne's, so the explorer chose to merely run interference, shooting a couple of particles towards its eyes in ways where it would have to deflect them, even though he could not actually harm it. She finally seemed to land a blow as the creature cried out in pain, flinging the offending blade to the side, but Irelia quickly brought the blade back under her control and into orbit. Fiora had gotten back up from the ground, and while she would not try another of her daredevil stunts again, she raced towards the back of the creature and struck it in the back of its knee, causing its weight to come out from under it and making it stumble. Ezreal caught sight of Twisted Fate scurrying off to the side with the Fist of Shadow in his arms, doing his best to get himself out of the battle.
"All horrors like you still have your vitals," Fiora gloated as she expertly parried the incoming retaliating strike, the talon bouncing off the hilt of her blade and allowing her to spin gracefully under its outstretched arm and wound it a second time in its side. But as it started to reel in pain, Kassadin went for the creature once more, unleashing a sphere of purple energy towards its face. Vayne had switched her focus towards the leg which Fiora had not struck, and Ezreal tried assisting her in her efforts. Perhaps their shared focus would amount to as much damage as a strike from Irelia's or Fiora's blade.
He believed they had started to make progress, but the creature backed away, returning to its ramparts and out of the reach of anyone's attacks, save for Ezreal's Trueshot Barrage. He considered casting it, but waited to see what the creature would do, and it stretched its wings once again as they turned completely black. The small wounds Fiora's efforts had gotten them began to disappear from the creature, and a green aura surrounded it as Ezreal realized it was naturally regenerating its health. Casting the Trueshot Barrage, he aimed it towards the middle of the ceiling, knowing that the creature could not dodge if it tried to sidestep the arc of energy. If it remained where it lay, it would take minimal damage, but he hoped any sort of impact would stop its regenerative process.
The projectile did find its mark, as the creature did little to evade it except curl its wings back in, but Ezreal's attack proved to have little impact upon the creature, and it returned to the battle, taking on the offensive as it swooped down towards him, its dive-bomb increasing in speed as it drew closer. He hurriedly shifted backwards, converting his mass into energy for a second in order for him to avoid making contact with the creature, and dove to the side again as soon as he materialized, careful for a follow-up attack. He had dodged its initial advance, but it turned direction in the air and slashed its wings at him, revealing sharp blades on its edges. Fortunately, Irelia had stepped between them and blocked the creature's slash with her own blades, forcing it back onto the ground, where it rolled over a couple of times before it could get back up. She extended a hand, which Ezreal took gratefully. He saw Fiora rush forward, eagerly searching for one of its weak spots, but she seemed to lose her momentum halfway through and could only manage a half-hearted strike at its exposed shoulder. The creature easily blocked her attack, another extension of its wing forcing her back. She staggered, falling to one knee as she caught her breath.
"What happened?" he asked her, wondering what had caused her to lose her focus during her advance.
"I cannot tell if it is just exhaustion… but it has messed up my detection of its vitals. First it shows that it has no weaknesses, then every one of its body parts is weak, and I lost my concentration." Fiora's jaw tightened, and she got up once more. "No matter. Any strike which finds its mark will do damage, regardless of whatever sorcery this beast can use on me."
Their fighting did not improve, however. Every time Fiora and Irelia had made some progress wounding it temporarily, it could simply retreat to a safe height and regenerate its health. Without Janna to assist them, they could not match its sustenance, and quickly found themselves worn out, with neither Vayne nor Ezreal able to find the necessary damage to constantly attack it. It seemed completely impervious to Kassadin as well, shrugging off the pulses of energy he fired off, and only when he attacked it with his nether blade did he find any results.
It came to a point where they couldn't dodge its attacks all the time either, and Ezreal found himself taking a nasty blow to the shoulder where its talons had sunk into his skin. Vayne had managed to push it away with a giant crossbow bolt, but it had done it damage, and Twisted Fate called for him to take over the responsibility of watching over Akali while the Card Master joined the fight. Fate's appearance did little to turn the tide of the battle, as he suffered the same problem as Kassadin: it completely resisted their magic abilities. So Ezreal found himself once again constrained to the sidelines, watching the rest of the champions pull out all the stops in their feeble attempts to wound it, attacks which would completely annihilate him on the Fields not even piercing the tough hide on the creature.
Beside him, Akali began to stir, groaning as she tried to sit up. "Easy there," he cautioned as he examined her once again. Fate had torn off a piece of his cloak and used it to stop the bleeding on the side of her face, and although she still was in no condition to fight, her face had begun to regain some of its usual color, and she did not look like a beggar slumped at death's door any more.
"It must be… stopped…" she murmured, still lost in her delirium, before she realized that she was no longer fighting. "What...the Prodigal Explorer?"
"That's me," Ezreal answered. "What happened to you three before we got here?"
She resumed her attempts to sit up, and Ezreal put a hand to her back as he helped raise her, shifting around so his weak shoulder would face away from her. Her frame fell onto his body, as she still could not summon the energy to sit up by herself, so she resigned herself to leaning into his good shoulder. "We weren't strong enough," came her bitter words, laced with regret. "We just couldn't do anything to it, and it sat there wearing us out with his constant maneuvers while it healed the damage we could inflict towards it. Then it turned the tables on us, and Shen and Kennen jumped in front of me to take its attack. But even with their sacrifice, I could not face it alone, and it eventually got the better of me too. If you hadn't showed up, I would've…" Her words caught in her throat, and Ezreal could see how hard she tried to repress her emotion, attempting to maintain her composure and stoicness as a Kinkou ninja.
He couldn't find the strength to comfort her. Looking back towards the battle, he saw their situation fail to improve, and dread fell over him. They might have saved her, but could they save themselves? "Is it… just unbeatable?"
The two swordswomen had reached their limits, and the creature hovered over their faltering forms, Fiora almost not even strong enough to lift her rapier in her last chance at defending herself. Irelia's blades drooped as they emulated their master, dragging along the floor and not even having the energy to animate themselves. As the last swipe of the creature's talon came down upon them, a strong typhoon threw the creature back against the wall, and a healing aura descended upon the room, eliminating the wounds from Ezreal's shoulder. The cuts and bruises decorating Akali's face had begun to vanish as well, and with her renewed strength she quickly rose back into action, heading towards the group of champions to rejoin the fight. Ezreal got to his feet as well, seeing the new arrivals.
Janna moved a million miles per second pushing the melee ranged champions into safety while hovering around Vayne, giving her the much-needed protection for the Night Hunter to finally start dealing damage without the threat of being jumped on. The demon attempted to resist, but found its strength weakening as bolt after bolt from the Night Hunter slammed into its skin, their speed augmented by Janna's wind magic. And a familiar hooded figure charged down the hallway, leaping into the air ready to smash his weapon into the skull of the winged creature.
Jax did not hold a lamp post.
Ezreal had seen the weapon only twice before the summoners had chosen to remove it from the Fields, deeming it much too powerful. The reddish-orange blade shone with an unquenchable fire, a terrifying blaze which he had not gazed upon in three years. It seemed to bend as he wielded it, the flames dancing and twisting in the air as the arc of the blade curved towards the creature which backed away in fear. Jax's shadow appeared on the wall, lit by the flames of his weapon, and for a second he had transformed into an even more terrifying darkness, a true renegade solely focused on destruction. One did not simply forget the swath of carnage Jax cut when the summoners allowed him to use the weapon on the rift.
The Rageblade had once again found its way into the hands of the Grandmaster at Arms.
The gargoyle didn't stand a chance, as Ezreal watched in gaping admiration. The weapon spun rapidly in his hands as Jax grasped its center and wildly swung at the creature's wings, spreading its fire and causing the monster to howl in pain. It retaliated by tackling Jax, but he retained his footing and forced it back as the conflagration in his hands grew even larger, becoming more like a torch and less like a sword as he thrust the hellfire into the beast's neck, pinning it down while its body spasmed and erupted in giant black drops of liquid as its form began to melt. It did not bleed like Ezreal expected it to, instead becoming more aqueous until it finally dissolved into an obsidian puddle. The fire of the Rageblade still burned under all the ink-colored liquid, and Jax pulled his newfound weapon out of the remains of the creature with a strong heave before facing the rest of the company, who had all nearly been worn out to death from their struggle. The flames still burned brightly, illuminating all of their faces as they drew closer to him, surrounding the sole light source in the room.
Kassadin found his voice first. "The Rageblade…" he muttered in awe. "It has been ages since the summoners had hidden away that power. Why do you wield it now?"
"I guess you all deserve some explanation," Jax conceded. He did not sheath the blade, holding it like a torch as he waved the light around the room. On the far side of the area, slouched into a corner, lay the bodies of the Eye of Twilight and the Heart of the Tempest. "You may want to tend to your brethren first, Kinkou." Akali saw the prone forms of Shen and Kennen and hurried towards them, her steps silent as Jax eased into his story.
"We couldn't free Zed from his enslavement to that woman," he began, turning down the intensity of the Rageblade slightly so they could see his face - or well, his hood. "I didn't want to mortally wound him, but she willed him to fight as long as he could, and I wasn't about to roll over and give it up. So in the end I forced him to submit and beat him down until he couldn't stand anymore, and that's where Kalista stepped in. I couldn't fight her equally after Zed had already worn me out, but Janna is a true queen, bless her heart, and she kept me protected long enough for me to realize that I had no other option. I had to kill Zed."
The weight of his words hung over the group, and although Ezreal felt no love for the Master of Shadows, the concept of champions killing each other was completely absurd to him. Even Irelia, who had defended Ionia against Zed's order terrorizing the other sects of ninjas for not surrendering their arts to the shadow, visibly fidgeted at the thought of Jax bringing about Zed's death.
"Kalista chose that moment to throw spear after spear at me, but instead of impaling themselves in my body, they went for the lamppost. I couldn't deliver the final blow, and it shattered in my hands just as she caused that green barrier of spears to collapse all around us. Janna had conjured up a shield of the winds to protect us from the impact, but when the dust settled, they had vanished.
"I was originally going to come to the fight bare-handed, but as we were opening the door I heard the rattling of chains and that damn warden's maniacal laughter. We had thought Kalista had brought the entirety of the Shadow Isles with her or something, but Thresh had extended his scythe and I couldn't believe what he had brought to me. I didn't think I'd ever see, much less lay my hands on, another one of Guinsoo's creations, but the Rageblade lay in front of me, and I would've been a fool not to take it. 'Consider it a personal favor from me to you,' he said. 'Whatever you're planning on doing, I suggest you do it quickly. I don't think neither I nor the Spear of Vengeance could control the armies of the Ruined King much longer before they tear this place apart, and it doesn't matter if you are fighting against the summoners or not. They will take away every living soul in this building before long.'"
"Believe me, I was just as confused as all of you," Janna picked up, seeing incredulous expressions on Fiora's and Vayne's faces. "But the bottom line is that we don't have much time, and we have to end this now before we find ourselves in the middle of a bunch of the undead."
"And the souls of the Shadow Isles take no prisoners," Kassadin solemnly commented. He pointed towards the door of the Reflection Chamber. "Then, as it says. Our truest opponent lies within."
Ezreal made his way over to Janna, the wind mage throwing herself at him as Jax headed towards the front of the group and prepared to open the door. "You're alive," she whispered.
He couldn't find it in him to crack some smart joke even if he had the wits about him to think of one. "We all are. And now there's this one last fight, and we'll all finally go home, away from this nightmare."
"Don't you dare die on me now, with how far we've gotten."
"I won't," Ezreal promised, "not with you there by my side."
The doors opened automatically to Jax's advance, and a translucent glow came from the center of the Reflection Chamber, the sudden light blinding everyone. He had expected another dark room, but after witnessing what lay in waiting for them, he would've preferred to stay with his ignorance. A giant web of energy filled the majority of the space, thousands of light filaments criss-crossing the sphere. Standing in front of it, channeling a spell to continue fueling its resplendence, lay the very first entity which had begun the plague the High Council had released onto the League of Legends. The dark blue figure, with its skin completely encased in the skin-tight suit, had its back to the champions, but Ezreal saw a lone summoner in the purple robes trimmed with gold characteristic of the High Council standing on the second-floor balcony of the room, his arms outstretched in a welcoming gesture.
"I would expect nothing less than a team lead by my two most beloved champions to come here to challenge us," he greeted them. "You are all familiar with the Dreamweaver, so we need no introduction there." He summoned a pure white orb to float next to him as he descended to the ground level, pulling a strand of the web into the orb and drawing some of the energy for himself. "Jax, would you be so kind as to introduce me to those among you who have not had the pleasure to meet me?"
The Grandmaster raised the Rageblade in pure hatred, flaring up to its full size. "Your crimes end here, Head Architect Myrelos."
A/N: I think this strategy of finding inspiration to write 4000 words the day I finish the chapter doesn't exactly work out. The last half of the chapter is considerably more rushed than the first half from my perspective, but I really didn't want to write more fight scenes after last chapter. So I did my best to give some depth from Ezreal's perspective considering all the events which had to happen in this chapter primarily revolving around Jax.
If you didn't go back to Chapter 1 to read that short bit, you might not understand the Rageblade parts, but I hope it wasn't too confusing even without the added stuff from my rewrite.
Yes this is supposed to be Morello. I'm not sorry.
Final battle really soon hype!