A hallowed breeze blew drily on my face. I opened my eyes, to find myself in a dark yet familiar world. The ground was covered with a blackish, misty substance that seemed to sift like sand through my grasp. I stood up, and brushed the black dust off of my clothing. My body seemed to have miraculously healed from all types of wounds I had encountered during the battle with Sion, and I was able to trudge freely through the shifting shadows. I appeared to be on some type of black cliffside, my back to an ocean of void. My gaze shifted, and I recognized the dark tower of living shadows I had seen earlier in my dream. Yet this time, I not only possessed consciousness, but thought as well. I recognized it as the alternate version of the Immortal Bastion. I tried to find Mordekaiser as I had been able to see him previously, yet the iron monstrosity was nowhere to be seen.

I detected the steady sound of footsteps from my left, and I turned in surprise to see a familiar snow white fox with many fiery patterns on its face, and a large, glowing blue tail steadily buried into the dark mist behinds it. The fox shifted its head, looking up at me with an adorable expression on its face.

"Ahri?" I asked hopefully, crouching down slightly towards the animal. A swirl of petals surrounded the fox, before dissipating to reveal the gatekeeper, or as I had come to know her, Spirit Blossom Ahri.

"Hello darling." Spirit Blossom Ahri smiled at me, the blue marks on her face glowing with a warm hearty color of sky blue that contrasted the darkness of the realm around us, as she opened her arms. I leapt into them, and Ahri gave me a warm hug. "Welcome back to the Spirit Realm!"

"Why am I here this time though?" I wondered, as I glanced at the tower of shadows in the distance. "Am I dead?"

"Well, not exactly." Ahri shook her head, before giving me a gentle peck on my left cheek. "Though you are at death's door steps, which when combined with your strong connection to the Spirit Realm, gives you the ability to see through the thin tether between life and death."

"Why is it so dark here though?" I complained, kicking the puffs of black smoke on the ground. "I liked it better when it was nice and bright everywhere."

"The Spirit Realm takes a different shape to reflect the real world." Ahri nodded sadly. "In Ionia, where the Spirit Realm is highly valued, we can have a nice, bright world where spirits may find a suitable home for their afterlives. Yet in Noxus, the Spirit Realm has been reforged by Mordekaiser, into a separate region simply known as the Death Realm. I am not going to go into details, but trust me, you would not want to die here."

"What about the others? What happened to them?" I wondered, clinging tightly onto Ahri's left sleeve as we watched the Immortal Bastion from afar. The black mist from the ground rose up periodically to join the living shadows of the tower. "Are they alright?"

"Well," Ahri tilted her head, looking up into the air as if looking for something she couldn't quite find. Her long, pink hair fell scattered around her upper waist, which bellowed behind her in the wind. Finally, her eyes focused on the Immortal Bastion, and she pointed towards it with her left arm, while her right arms were gently placed around my back. Her blue and white patterned sleeves hung around her arms loosely, and when the wind blew into them, you can almost see it's azure particles flying away.

"Yone seems to have been gravely injured by the blast." Ahri explained, while she directed my attention to a red glow inside the tower, which I deduced to be Yone. "He's currently regenerating his strength within the Spirit Realm. It might be an hour or two before he can reappear within the physical realm. Ahri, the other Ahri of course, hehe, seems to be knocked out, though she isn't in any real danger. Yasuo, however, well, I'm afraid the poor man got burnt pretty badly. His windwall seemed to have worsened the heat than to have blocked it. He will need immediate healing."

"What?" I shouted. Although relieved that Ahri wasn't in danger, I still needed to help Yasuo. "What do I do? Quick! Send me back!"

"Hehe. Don't worry little one." Ahri giggled, her soft, azure tails swirling gracefully behind her as she assuringly patted my head, and offered me one of her tails to sit on. "Time passes differently in the spirit realm. In the real world, barely a half a minute has passed yet. But, I do think it's time you return anyhow. Do you think you're ready darling?"

I thought of all that I had gone through. This was now the beginning of my seventh day in Runeterra, which meant I had known Ahri for a week already. Yet, I felt as if she was already part of my family. I felt closer to her than some of the people I had known for years back home. Now, Ahri was knocked out, she needed me. I would not fail her, just as she has never failed me. I looked up towards Spirit Blossom Ahri, and nodded. "I'm ready. Let's do this."

"Alright then, little fox." Ahri laughed, and brushed her pink hair to make them flutter in the wind. "Oh, and a word of advice before I return you to Runeterra. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

"What does that mean?" I wondered, leaning in towards Ahri.

"You'll figure it out. Hehe." Ahri told me, giving me a wink before pulling me in for a hug. "It's like a puzzle. Fun! Alright now darling. See you later!"

Spirit Blossom Ahri stared at me for just a moment with her mesmerizing blue eyes, and I fell into a trance. I felt as she pierced through my soul, glimpsing my entire being as she took me under her control.

"Hush." She whispered, and a darkness fell over me once again as I knew no more.

I awoke to a small area of searing pain on my back, as if all the skin had been stripped from my body, and a pounding headache in my skull. It was as if any moment, my brain would hop out of my forehead and combust into a million pieces. I scanned the room, and saw the humanoid forms of Ahri and Yasuo, both of whom were sprawled onto the floor through the dark spots in my eyes. Yasuo's skin was covered in deep red brunt marks from head to toe, and I realized I must have been sporting similar marks on my back. I wondered how much pain Yasuo was in if only a small area of burns had already caused me so much agony.

Limping over to the swordsman, I clenched my right hand into a fist, and concentrated as I attempted to cast heal. The effect was instantaneous. A green spark of light washed over me, and I felt my head clear up so that it no longer hurts to walk, and the burns on my back started to lessen. The pulsing red marks over Yasuo's body faded slightly, though I could tell there was too much damage to repair. Yet, I hoped that I had at least brought the swordsman some more time.

I turned my attention back to Ahri, who lay motionless a few feet away from me. Part of me wanted to kneel down and cry hopelessly, yet I knew I couldn't do that. I had a duty to fulfill. Racking my brain, I suddenly remembered a piece of information Ahri had told me long ago inside her cabin back in Ionia, when all this had just started. Sprinting from the room, I ran over to the table of smuggled goods in the corridor.

"Come on, come on." I murmured as I flipped through the boxes. At last, I stumbled across a box with a big red label sporting the words, Ionia. Digging through the crate of goods, I chucked what must have been thousands of dollars worth of silk and other exotic goods behind me until finally, my hands closed around a bundle of familiar looking concilileaves.

"Concilileaves have magical healing properties." I thought, remembering Ahri's words to me on that morning so long ago when the Noxians had first used chemical warfare against Ionia. Retrieving a beaker full of water from the nearby laboratory, I jammed the leaves into it and mashed at the greens with my hands in an attempt to release the juices of the plant. At last, I raced back over to Ahri, and tilted her head upwards so I could gently pour the concilileaf concoction into her mouth.

For a frightening moment, nothing happened.

"Ahri! Please wake up. Please." I begged, tears nearly erupting from my eyes as I knelt down and desperately shook her. To my relief, Ahri's eyes flashed open, to reveal their regular, bright, golden glow. Splashes of color returned to her cheeks as the potion did its magic. I leapt into her arms, and hugged her tightly.

"Awww. It's alright little fox." Ahri smiled weakly, patting me reassuringly on my head. Ahri's tails flickered, regaining their usual grace as blue spirit magic raced around her to form her orb of deception. With it, she channeled magic through orb, healing both herself, me, and finally Yasuo. I turned to look as the burn marks faded completely as spirit magic drained the heat from his skin, leaving regular skin in its place. Ahri turned towards me with a dazzling smile, before knitting down.

"Thank you for saving us darling." She said, her face bright as the setting sun as she bent down to give me a kiss on my cheek. I blushed crimson red, as blood rushed to my face.

At last, Yasuo fully recovered from his injuries, as he stood up to face us once more.

"The night's halfway over." He yawned. "If the other groups' progression are as quick as ours, we should be headed for Darkwill if we wish to finish this by sunrise."

"Yes." Ahri nodded, before frowning slightly at the prospect that we might not accomplish our mission by sunrise. Her tails swished behind her nervously. "I'm not quite sure if we have the time to regroup with the others."

"Well, the plan was to improvise wasn't in." I interjected. Ahri and Yasuo turned their attention towards me. "I'm betting there's at least a set of stairs that leads upwards from this chamber. If the other group had similar ideas, we could make it to the top and meet with the others."

"That is true." Yasuo nodded, before giving me a look of respect. "I also have to give it to you, Wentao. Single handedly taking down Sion was no easy task. Congratulations."

"Thanks Yas." I replied, feeling better and better about myself. Ahri laughed.

As it was decided that we would look for an alternate way to the top of the Immortal Bastion, we scouted our surroundings for any signs of a pathway for ascension. At last, I managed to find a locked wooden door that had been previously hidden from view by a few pieces of furniture in the corner.

"Darling, you might want to stand back a bit." Ahri warned me, before spinning to unleash a swirl of fox fires. The door was consumed by a wall of blue fire, before burning up to nothing more than ashes to be scattered in the wind. "Alright little fox. Let's go. Quite does the trick."

Yasuo silently scouted ahead of us after stepping through the doorway, which revealed a set of spiral stairs. Fortunately, however, no guards were positioned in the stairwell, since Darkwill most likely had assumed nothing would get past Sion. And on the off chance somebody actually managed to take down Sion, then it was likely regular guards wouldn't be much of an obstacle either. At last, we arrived at a doorway in the middle of the stairwell that led to the outer ramparts of the Immortal Bastion. Yasuo sheathed his sword, and produced his bamboo flute to play a gentle melody while leaning on the doorframe.

Ahri and I strolled onto the ramparts of the Immortal Bastion, which was so high up that it practically simply served as a large, metallic balcony. The ramparts were void of people, and the only signs that it had been recently manned at all were a few brightly lit torches placed in between the brackets on the walls. Although LeBlanc's spell had removed any possibilities of outsiders seeing into the Immortal Bastion, we could still see the entirety of Noxus from high above in the fortress. Down below, Noxus was so far away that the few people who were venturing the dark streets in the torch light appeared to be merely specks in the night. A similar feeling I once had was when I had stood within the CN Tower and looked down at the city below me back home.

Ahri's hair brushed gently against my face, and her white tails made a half circle around me to shield me from the chilly evening wind as we watched the night sky cross with the busy Noxian skyline.

"This is it, Ahri." I said, as I watched the moon illuminate the night sky directly above me. Stars twinkled up above, and for a moment I wished to reach out in an attempt to touch them. I then turned to glimpse the top of the Immortal Bastion, where our confrontation with Boram was about to take place. I shuddered nervously, not only thinking about the battle itself, but about its aftermath. "I'm scared."

"How so?" Ahri asked as she turned her lamp like eyes towards me, and gazed inwards into my eyes as if seeing through my soul. Her smooth, perfect face reflected the moonlight, and I felt a warm sensation in my stomach, as if I had just eaten a bowl of warm stew.

"I don't know." I confessed, shaking my head as I suddenly grew nauseous. The city of Noxus slightly blurred below me as confusion swirled in my head. "What if when this is all over, I wake up and find it's just a dream? What if none of this is real?"

"Awww." Ahri smiled kindly, her warm eyes melting my worries as chocolate would melt in the candle light. "It's alright little one. The trick is that reality is defined by what you believe, and what you may doubt. Unlike certain problems, like our little trip here in Noxus, this one is truly for you to decide. Do you believe in…this?"

Ahri gestured towards the city of Noxus below her, though I knew she was most likely referring to all of Runeterra, most likely the Spirit Realm as well.

"Of course I believe it." I nodded, and suddenly the entire thought seemed rather silly. I grinned. "How could I not after all."

"See? Hehe." Ahri laughed. Her sounds of joy, combined with the gentle notes of Yasuo's flute, were carried by the wind further and further into the night below. Her tails twirled as a few of them gently brushed against my legs. "It's going to be alright. Now, let's continue onwards. The future awaits for no one!"

I turned back towards the rampart gates, and after one last look at the moon and the stars in the night sky, followed Ahri as we leisurely made our way back into the walls of the Immortal Bastion.