A Lone Warden Sits

Holding Great Evil Within.

Their Quest Offers Peace

The Ruination Saga: Spirit Quest Part IV

The Sleeping Monastery Part III

Irelia stares around nervously as the Azakana push in, while Akali remains on her knees, staring at the man before her.

"Akali…run." he chokes, as the demons fused to his body begin to writhe and snap.

"I can't leave you like his, Master." Akali gasps.

"Incoming!" Erath barks as several of the Azakana suddenly lunge.

Irelia lashes out, carving into them and sending them stumbling backward, wounds knitting shut, blank smiles gleaming in the flickering light behind her.

"What's the plan here?" Rakan demands, firing a shot down the hallway, where one of the possessed Kinkou was crawling along the ceiling.

"We can't leave until we find information on how to find The Green Father." Irelia returns, sending her blades spinning in a protective barrier around them all.

"Ivern?" the man rasps, straining to look up at Irelia.

"Yes." Irelia breathes, stepping closer even as the mass of Azakana wrapped around his body lashes out.

"Why?" he asks.

"To save the Spirit, Master." Akali states.

"And return Balance." he chokes, nodding his head, "I can…I can find him."

"Can you be quick about it?" Erath asks, firing several shots as the possessed close in again, "Cause our friends here ain't giving us much time!"

As if in response, a shriek echoed through the winding halls, seeming to come from every direction, like the one that had awoken the possessed above.

A green light flashes at the end of the tunnel before Irelia, before vanishing.

"I'm with the Noxian," Rakan remarks, "This needs to be quick!"

"Akali…help me." the man rasps, moving the blade closer to her.

"Master the Spirit it…." Akali begins.

"Is corrupted and cold…I know." he returns, "That is why I need your help."

"Do it." Irelia remarks, returning her attention to the slinking demons, "We will keep them at bay."

"Big promises, Ire," Rakan mutters, magic and relic pistol blazing a trail down the tunnel before him.

"We've faced worst." she returns, sending a blade ricocheting down another tunnel as the green light flashes again.

"I'm not so sure about that," Erath remarks as a smoking black feather nearly catches him through the ear.

"Swap me." Rakan orders, pushing Erath back and catching the next blow against his barrier. Xayah briefly emerges from the darkness, glowing eyes burning into him.

Erath nods, lashing out past the ring and batting another Azakana into a wall with his rifle.

Irelia looks back at Akali and gives her an affirmative nod, "We have you."

Akali reaches a shaky hand up, grasping around the blade's hilt, and the world seems to spiral into shadow.


Akali's eyes blink open, and she is standing in the temple's courtyard far above.

Looking down, she sees her body glowing a brilliant mixture of pink and blue, but where once the world around her would have shimmered with a similar verdant glow, it was grey, stained with whips of black and sickly green.

"Akali," Shen says, and she turns, seeing that her Master's form is barely there, patches of his spirit seemingly torn away. In their place is burbling Black Mist, the eyes of the Azakana glaring out at her from within.

"Master!" she cries, reaching for him.

"I know," he says, lifting his hand and watching one of his fingers crumble away, "Our time is brief. Come."

He reaches out a hand, and she grabs it.

"Think of our target," he advises.

Akali nods, closing her eyes and concentrating on childhood stories, boring lectures, and holiday celebrations.

"Ivern." she breathes.

"Open your eyes," Shen states, and she does so.

She looks around, and her eyes widen as she sees a beacon of verdant green atop a mountain far in the distance. Looking down, she sees the seas stirring fitfully around her, and to the east, a small fishing village sits, almost idyllic in countenance.

"Closer," Shen states, and as she glances at him, she sees more of him fall away.

"Master you-" she begins, but he cuts her off.

"I know." he states softly, "I am on the verge of losing myself. That is why you must take my blade Akali when we return."

"I…" she begins.

"You will need a weapon that can harm the monsters that await you on the path ahead." he states, "If you wish to save our home."

"I do." she returns, and the ground shifts around them once more.

Blinking, she looks around at an almost familiar sight. Another monastery, hidden amongst snowy peaks and filling her vision, is the verdant gleam of the Green Father, yet all around, the Black Mist roils and howls like an injured beast.

"Hirana Monastery," Shen notes.

"Why would he be here?" Irelia asks.

"A question you must discover the answer to yourself." Shen says, turning to her, one of his eyes vanishing into the Mist consuming his body, "Guide them well, Akali. Save the Green Father, and return to Omikayalan. Set this right."

"Shen I…I'm sorry." Akali states.

"Whatever you think you need to apologize to me for in this moment is forgiven, Akali." Shen states, and he can hear the pride in his voice, "I am simply glad that you came home."

She grasps him in a tight hug, and he laughs, soft and pained.

"Take my blade." he whispers, "And run."

And the vision fades.


Irelia whirls, slamming another demon aside. For what must be seconds, this fight feels like hours. Dozens of the possessed keep rushing in, are battered back, and repeat the cycle.

And throughout, darker dangers lurk.

Xayah's feathers find their marks as the Vastaya seems to dance about the flickering shadows, her haunted eyes locked on her love, who attempts to interpose himself to various success.

Irelia wipes the blood from her eyes, seeking the wound's gifter, her beloved's pale, gaunt face.

And throughout it, all, the green light, flickering about accompanied by jarring screams and blasts of wind, seems keen on removing Erath's arms from his body.

"Thought they said it would be quick!" Rakan barks, catching one of the cutting blasts of wind on his shield and firing a shot in return.

"Things never go to plan; bit of Noxian wisdom for ya!" Erath shouts back, catching one of Xayah's feathers on the barrel of his rifle.

"Less talking, more fighting, Ionian sensibility!" Irelia shouts back.

Another scream and the green light flares but this time it doesn't vanish and careens towards her.

"Look out!" she shouts, drawing three of her circuiting blades up to try and defend herself.

She is battered back, almost colliding with the softly whispering Akali and the mass of demons that clung to her Master.

Rakan whirls and is slammed into a wall with a furious slash of a long black blade. The green light revealed to be several gleaming runes running up its length.

Familiar runes.

Irelia's eyebrows knit together as looming before her is a tall Noxian woman with a hole clean through her chest, Black Mist spilling from the wound. Her eyes burn with the same green light as her blade, and her face is mostly seethrough.

Erath turns and almost seems to freeze before firing off a shot, which the specter deflects.

"Erath." it snarls, the wind picking up around them, causing a miniature tornado.

"Fuck." the young Noxian spits, switching his grip to swing the blade at the end of his gun more effectively.

Irelia lashes out, blades punching towards the specter, one finding its mark, the others being deflected off to the side.

A metal-clad boot catches Irelia in the chin, and she sees stars as she is sent rolling toward several oncoming Azakana.

Rakan's hand whips out, a barrier forming around her, and he pushes himself back towards the central fight, firing a bolt into the face of one of the Azakana grasping for him.

Irelia finds her feet, and another of her blades lances into the back of the specter's leg, but she remains locked in on Erath.

Erath grits his teeth, lashing out, only for his strike to be expertly parried.

"Come now." she snarls, "Can you only land a blow on an unprepared opponent?"

Erath's eyes narrow, and he feints left, whirling to the right and firing a shot directly into the specter's face.

"No." he returns, dodging back as she grasps savagely for his throat.

"Traitor!" she screams.

Irelia swings her arms down, blades punching into the ground at the undead's feet, and then pulls back, hooking into her armor and dragging her into a wall.

She reaches back to send more blades spinning in that direction as Rakan and Erath turn back to their other attackers.

And Akali snaps back to reality.

"We're leaving," she states, and without another word, she snatches up the gleaming blue blade, pulling it free of her Master's hands.

"Wha-" Erath begins, sliding back as the mass of Azakana begins to wraith and shriek.

"She has the way." the man states as he slowly finds his feet.

The specter pulls herself free, only for one of the twisting tendrils on the man's back to lash out and pin her further.

"Now go!" he roars, and the seething mass on his back echoes the shout.

Rakan claps his hands together, golden light gleaming across his form, "Which way?"

Akali points down the far tunnel.

"Right, in my footsteps, folks!" he shouts and lunges forward, Azakana being battered aside by the radiant buffer surrounding him.

The others take off after him, trailing in his wake as Akali calls direction, clutching the spectral blade she had taken tight to her chest.

Irelia looks back one last time as they turn a corner, seeing the man slam his hands together, forming several signs as the attached Azakana claw and scream at him. The other possessed begin to chase after the group, unblinking smiles staring after them.

"You will have me." he states, "It is inevitable, but right now, you will listen to me!"

And with a roar, the mass of demons lunges out, drawing the other possessed back with snarls and screams of shock, as he becomes a writhing torrent of destruction, the sound of shattering stone echoing towards them, just as rubble falls, blocking him from sight.

"Keep going!" Akali cries.

"Wasn't planning on stopping." Rakan returns.

"What did you learn?" Irelia demands.

"Hirana Monastery." Akali states, "That is where we will find the Green Father."

"We?" Erath asks, continually checking over his shoulder.

"I'm invested now." she returns.

"We got daylight!" Rakan interrupts.

The four shoot out of the tunnel, skidding to a halt amongst the snow and roiling Black Mist, almost careening over the cliff's edge.

"Hirana is a hells of a hike from here," Rakan remarks as the four whirl to look back at Kinkou.

"Then we'd better get on the quick march," Erath mutters, letting out a high-pitched whistle by putting two fingers in his mouth.

Akali stares at him with confusion for a moment and then stumbles back as with a shriek Henrietta comes careening over the walls and crashes to the ground before them. Her armor is covered in new scar marks, and she spits a wad of Mistwalker cloth onto the ground at Erath's feet.

"Good girl." Erath marks, lunging into the saddle.

"What is that?" Akali demands.

"The quick march." he returns, "Hop up; she doesn't bite."

"Much." Rakan amends, his ears flicking about, eyes locked on the tunnel behind them.

"Just me?" Akali demands.

"We can keep pace." Irelia remarks, "But we must move."

A torrent of Black Mist bursts from the upper part of the central tower.

"Now!" she amends.

Akali hops up onto Henrietta, putting the sword over her back, and Irelia blinks in surprise as a scabbard of blue leather and silver metal materializes on her back.

Erath whips the reigns and sends the pair racing away, Rakan a step behind, both kicking up heavy clumps of snow. At the same time, Irelia links her blades together beneath her feet and wills herself after them, racing down the mountain pass, sparing one last glance over her shoulder as the Mist begins to give chase.

It had been a long road to get to Kinkou, but it was clear now their journey was just beginning.

With that thought in her mind, she rounds the corner of the pass and shoots after her compatriots, failing to notice the figure that alights in the path behind them, twin blades carving the tide of Black Mist apart with a deft strike.

"Spirit Remnants guide you." the figure mutters to the receding figures as several Azakana fall from the Mist scampering back as he whirls his blade.

"And may they damn…." Yone mutters, raising his masked face to stare down the assembled demons, "You!"

The first is excised from its victim before its fellow can even take a stolen breath.

And scene! Next time, a regular journey to the east, which surely won't become further complicated for our new party of four.

Sorry, I have been gone for a bit, but life got complicated due to work and other obligations, but I hope you enjoyed it regardless.

Expect the end of Battle for Silvermere next week, but more than that, I do not know if I can promise at this moment.

As always any comments, questions, or critiques are appreciated. This has been VerBeeker, signing off!