CHAPTER III: Demacia

College is coming, and me completing the requirements were a damn hassle, and left me so busy and tired. I'm sorry for the long wait, but here it is, peeps. Be safe, everyone. Enjoy! Long chapter as penance for my absence.

DINING HALL
Citadel of Light

After that speech, they decided to do a little get-to-knowing session. Both parties found it beneficial and agreeable, as it served to lessen suspicions of each other. They were led to the dining hall usually reserved for dinner meetings with important political figures. While waiting for the evening course, the conversation started. On the long dining table, one side had the Avengers and Capt. Stormguard, while the others had the Demacian noble representatives. On one end was King Jarvan III, while the other had Prince Jarvan IV.

"When you explained what these Infinity Stones were, how did you come to the conclusion that the rainbow that just occurred days prior was caused by these?"

"At first, we thought of the color schemes. When Capt. Stormguard described it, Rocket here suddenly thought of the stones since we were about to go on a mission back home to visit alternate timelines since we, at first, thought that all original six stones were destroyed. We were about to proceed, but an old enemy of ours arrived at the scene and messed with the process. When we entered the Quantum Realm, we thought we would be trapped there forever. Until, something happened to us. We didn't know what was happening, then suddenly we landed in your world. Runeterra, am I right?"

"This just keeps getting better and better..." Eric chuckled lightly

"Hold on, what do you mean by 'destroyed'? What you said earlier, was that your mission was to retrieve the stones to undo the massive damage it did to your universe. How massive is that damage?"

A short pause came, but remembering that coming clean may be the best, they all mentally agreed.

"You see, the stones by themselves are powerful. But if brought together, the power combined can only be rivalled by other powerful beings such as deities. Yet, to safely harness all six, you need a vessel. The only known vessel capable for that task came to be known as the Infinity Gauntlet. One such person that wielded it was named Thanos, The Mad Titan. He was able to collect them all. With one snap of his fingers, half of all life in our universe was eradicated. Including some of our closest friends and family."

Murmurs were heard, and never have they heard of or experienced such a catastrophic event. To face against a being comparable to a god was no small feat at all.

"Young lady, to answer the 'destroyed' part of your question, days after the Snap, Thanos said that he destroyed all the stones by turning their powers against themselves. I suspect that even he does not know that they still exist." Thor said to Lux

"This Thanos, where is he now?"

"He's dead. We killed him five years ago."

"So let me get this straight. You killed this Thanos five years before you came here. You said you were about to visit alternate timelines for your mission. For what, exactly? Now, this Quantum Realm, what is it?"

"We wanted to get an alternate set of Infinity Stones from a list of different years when we encountered them. And yes, five years after his death, we discovered that the Quantum Realm can be used to travel through time. That gave us a renewed sense of hope of bringing back everyone killed by the Snap. The Quantum Realm part, I'll hand it to Scott here to explain, since he has had a vast experience of traversing within it. Scott."

"Alright, now the Quantum Realm is a place where all concepts of time and space are irrelevant, basically making it unpredictable. Right before Thanos, I went into the realm through a Quantum Tunnel to collect energy from it. I was supposed to be pulled out afterwards but the Snap killed the people who knew how to operate the tunnel. I was stuck in there. In there, five hours had passed in my point of view. But back in reality, five years had passed. I was lucky that something else occurred to pull me out."

"What pulled you out?"

"I don't know, maybe a rat or something."

All the others were dumbfounded at that reply, especially the other Avengers that weren't aware of that. A little looking at Scott, then Clint started chuckling, followed by Rocket, then Steve, Tony, Thor and so on and so forth. Nebula showed a tiny hint of a chuckle. The Demacians couldn't believe what was happening right now. The serious tone of their tales were foiled by the mention of one little rodent.

"Wait, haha, are you serious? A mere rat?" Thor asked

"Yes I am! One might have gotten into Luis's van, and could've have flicked a switch in the Quantum Tunnel there by accident. That's how I got out, I think. It makes perfect sense! The van was parked in the warehouse and I got launched onto a pile of trash!" Scott replied

That only made the moment a bit funnier.

"Bwahahahaa! An itsy-bitsy rat saved you?! What's next? A roach serving you food? Hahahaaaaa!" Rocket burst out in laughter

"Uh, ehem. Back on track, guys. So, to recap it again, we were on a mission to get the stones from alternate timelines through the Quantum Realm. But, an old enemy of ours tried to use the tunnel to trap us in the Quantum Realm forever. Then, we came to your world by accident. Now, we want to ask some questions. Is that alright?" Steve reminded them

"A fair trade. Ask away." Lux said

"What is Noxus? I heard it from the captain here. He said that we were lucky we didn't land there."

"Noxus is Demacia's greatest enemy for generations. A nation that lies to the east, separated by mountains and forests. We have been at war with them ever since the kingdom's founding."

"Hmm, I see. So, would the location of the Power Stone be in close proximity to Noxus?"

"Thank heavens, no. But, my theory would be that it landed within the Petricite Grove. It lies to the north of this city. The forests have magic-dampening properties, and that might make the search a bit more difficult.."

"So, to recall earlier, this kingdom has a stance against magic, am I right? Capt. Stormguard stated that to us when he found us tonight, as he wanted to make sure if we wielded any, which we do not. What led to such a strong opposition? He said it was a courtesy of some wars here."

"Ah, yes. The Rune Wars. It was heavily saturated with magic, and it doused the battlefield with such volatile energy. Artifacts called the World Runes were heavily used by many against each other. It is speculated that these had a hand on this world's creation. It left a lasting mark on Runeterra, as open warfare raged on. Refugees of the wars tried to seek new ground, and many of them came to found Demacia. Due to their experiences, they abolished magic from within its borders."

"Now I see why Eric asked in the first place. So, pardon me but how far would the forest be?"

"It would take almost a day on horseback. If we had some aerial construct from Piltover, it might be considerably shortened. Now, about this Power Stone, as your little friend said to Garen, it was able to destroy a planet. And that the stones could kill you. How is that the case?"

"So, just to clarify on that, I was with another group of people before I joined the Avengers. We called ourselves the Guardians of the Galaxy. We witnessed firsthand the Power Stone's capabilities."

"Wait, Guardians of the Galaxy? Such a bold title for a group of people. Avengers, and now this? Who churns out these names?" Garen was semi-puzzled

"I guess people who feel like they're awesome? Hehe, Quill came up with it."

"Please continue, my furry little friend. How did you come in contact with it?" Lux was eager for the explanation

"Our leader, Peter Quill, or as he liked to call himself, Star-Lord, found the Orb on a planet named Morag. If I remember, there was a temple on it that could only be accessed once every 300 years, as it was an oceanic planet, and that there was only a short time when the tides receded to reveal the temple containing the Orb, which contained the Power Stone. We were on our way to sell the Orb to the Collector without knowing what was in it. He told us of the history of the Infinity Stones. Then came this part: Some chick that's his slave was listening to the whole thing. She decided to try and use it."

"And then what happened?"

"The Collector said that only beings of immense power could handle the stones. So, when she tried to hold it, she was starting to light up into purple flames and sparks. Luckily I was able to get out of the room before she blew up like a bomb."

"Oh, my. So, have you known others that could handle it?"

"Yup. This guy's name is Ronan. Ronan the Accuser. He was also after the Orb. Remember Thanos? He made a deal with that guy. The deal was that if he brings Thanos the Orb, he would destroy Xandar for him. That's a planet by the way. I don't know what went on with the both of them, but somehow Ronan found out that it contained the stone. He almost destroyed Xandar if it weren't for us, the Guardians of the Galaxy, that is. Wanna hear the best part?"

"Yes. These tales of yours seem to get more bewildering by the minute." Lux quipped

"Anyway, to defeat Ronan, we distracted him long enough for Quill to get it from him. But, when he grabbed it, he was in pain and he was slowly disintegrating. Then we got the idea that maybe we could share the load. So, we held hands with each other, and we were able to handle the energy. Peter used it with our help to destroy Ronan. But it wasn't a pleasant feeling. It felt so painful. Afterwards, we left the Power Stone to the Nova Corps, Xandar's military force, to safeguard it. That's the last time we saw it, until Thanos started to make his move to get all the Stones."

"What led you to join the Avengers?" Quinn asked

"When Thanos used the Stones, my fellow Guardians were killed, leaving only me as the survivor. Just before that, I went with Thor to Earth to fight Thanos's army, as he was staging an attack there."

"Quite the interesting stories you have. Now, we have time until the main course arrives. So, what other stories do you have? To the Avengers, what led you to come together?"

"Um, we came together because during that time, it became clear that Earth needed protecting against domestic and alien forces that could threaten it. And we were luckily able to band together. You see, when we first met Thor, it was rather shaky. We had a little rumble due to misunderstandings. His brother, Loki, had his own story. Thor, mind telling the whole thing?"

"Oh, right. Loki did some catastrophic actions back on my home named Asgard. His ambitions to become king led to the invasion of Asgard by the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. My father Odin and I were able to stop him. We had something called the Bifrost Bridge. It allowed us Asgardians to travel the universe. I had to destroy it to stop the invasion, as it was compromised. It created a wormhole that Loki dropped himself onto as a suicide attempt. You see, my father hasn't exactly been the best when it comes to emotions. All Loki ever wanted was father's approval, but he messed up by saying no. That led Loki to try and kill himself. A year later, he appeared again, this time on Earth. I found out that he made a deal with somebody, to rule over Earth, as he wasn't able to do so with Asgard. His goal was to claim the Tesseract from Earth."

"What is the Tesseract?" Xin Zhao asked

"It was a cube that contained the Space Stone. The surprise is that the wormhole that I thought killed Loki, brought him into Thanos's domain. So, he made a deal with Thanos to claim the Tesseract for him. He failed."

"Your brother seems to be rather treacherous for his own good. How is it that you have resisted the urge to destroy him and end his life?" Vayne asked

"Because he is my brother. He did change years later. But, by chance of fate, we encountered Thanos after Asgard was destroyed. He did his last stand before Thanos killed him right in front of me."

"I'm sorry.."

"No, no, it's alright. It's been five years. Anyhow, I joined the Avengers on Earth when the Battle of New York happened. That was when my brother was still a megalomaniac. I'll hand it to Steve and Tony to continue." Thor ended

"Alright, the Battle of New York was our first fight against aliens. We were able to stop Thanos's invading Chitauri army and brought Loki to justice. Through the portal created by the Tesseract, I entered it and redirected a nuclear missile meant for New York as a last resort, to a Chitauri command center on the other side of space. I almost got trapped in space if I didn't exit in time. I was ready to accept my fate back then." Tony said

"My new companions, it seems that you all live lives of great disaster and these Infinity Stones seem to have had a hand in yours. You have fought adversaries from beyond the endless dark, and have stumbled across artifacts of godly power, and yet you still are here. You have lost much and yet you have not lost the will to live. Fortune must have been smiling on you all the way." Jarvan IV said to them

"Maybe it has." Steve contemplated

A lengthy pause ensued, the other side trying to absorb all this new information about their new allies and what the Infinity Stones truly meant for them.

"Judging from all your tales, these stones must be a greater deal than we thought. I dread that they may be more destructive than the World Runes themselves. There's no telling what will happen if someone on this world would be able to wield them all. Very well. At the break of dawn, you shall head to this Power Stone before others will. All present on this table shall aid our new companions for the good of their world and ours." King Jarvan III declared

"Thank you, Your Highness." Bruce thanked the king

The main course arrived, and both the Avengers and the Demacians dined with comfort. They enjoyed more chatter, but with a more comedic tone to it, to offset the grit and gloom of the earlier question-and-answer. conversation they had.

Meanwhile, in Ionia...

IONIA
Ralin
Hirana Monastery

Karma headed to the Hirana Monastery the moment she felt the great disturbance. She inquired aid for insight on what caused such a powerful pulse in Runeterra's life energies and ley lines. Being the Enlightened One had perks. She was given great access and aid to help her gain at least spiritual clarity on the matter.

She started to meditate in one of the rooms, with the addition of a few incensed herbs and magical potions that increased the effects of deep meditation.

Karma took her first breath, and slowly began to meld into the Spiritual Realm. It was serene at first. Until... entropy started to unfold. The spirits started to show her what they felt.

She began to see six colors, and each started to violently pulsate and erupt. They turned into objects. One was a silver orb with a pitted appearance, the other was a glowing sapphire cube, one was a scepter with a blue core, the other looked like an eye-shaped necklace, the other looked like a red liquid floating freely, and the last one looked like a deep void. She could not understand what these meant, and thus searched deeper.

As she did, they started to break apart. Each revealed what looked like a gem representing the colors she saw earlier. But then, the vision took its own course without her control. They started to gather. A heavy hum was heard, and the gems started to glow brightly and crackle.

Erratic visions started to appear, heralding destruction and total annihilation. She saw Runeterra destroyed by a powerful blast. She saw many lives turning into dust. She heard their screams of fear and desperation. Then she saw the stars disintegrate, and at last, she saw a gauntlet that contained the gems.

She saw, at last, a humongous purple man clad in golden armor wearing the gauntlet. With one snap, the entire universe collapsed into oblivion.

FLASH!

Karma woke from the dreaming state she was in with a scream, overwhelmed by such a horrible collective of visions. Monks went to her with concern. She stated that she might need to do more effort to understand what she saw. She immediately embarked on a quest to find these gems, wherever they may be.

Enjoy it? Thank you! If you want, leave a review or comment. Have a nice day/night! Sorry to have you kept for so long! :(((