I hope you all had a lovely Christmas C:

But getting on with the usual notes and things…

Note ONE (dramaticness up ahead!): These next few chapters are going to be a bit less specific about every moment because there is a lot of distance from the southern end of Ionia to the Institute of war so only really important stuff will be written about in detail.

Note TWO (!): For those wondering the summary is still correct. This is still not a romance but I will say no more because it's a plot point so no spoilers (This part of the story is planned unlike the rest).

Note THREE (and another !): only a lil bit of boat and Piltover stuff because other things are more interesting and Piltover is gonna be used later (more spoilers) so I don't want to use it too much now.

Note FOUR (damn this is hype): This note is being written almost a year after the other ones cause it's part of the update! Woo. Honestly, I don't have anything to say here. I just wanted to write a note. Ain't done them this way for a damn long time now. Man, I ramble a lot more than I used to.

Also, just to mention, some of the above notes may not be so relevant anymore considering how old this is but I'll keep them in there anyway for memories' sake.


THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN UPDATED RETROACTIVELY


Chapter 5: Friendly territory

Zoh's POV:

It was times like those where I had to wonder if I was actually straight. On the other side of the table was the sexiest woman alive looking down at a menu giving me a clear view of the everything a straight guy was supposed to love, yet all I was going out of my way to look at the rest of the brimming dining room. Whenever I did find myself peeking over at Ahri she would notice immediately and shoot me a smile that meant something. I couldn't tell what it meant, but it was probably dirty.

How long could it take to find something you want on a menu anyway? She'd been staring at it for ages, putting on a pondering face even though we both knew it was fake. It was fake, right? Either that or she was the single most indecisive person I'd ever met.

Why did that damn ship have to make the wall decorations so boring?! I could only stare intently at dead aquatic creatures hung up as trophies for so long. Would it kill them to put up a crossword or a list of dingbats to distract people trying desperately not to stare at their date?

No. That was wrong. It wasn't a date. Just two friends hanging out. Entirely platonic.

Was this what friends did?

What was taking that waiter so long!?

Thirty minutes later (19:40):

I couldn't have been more irked as I shoved open the door. After yanking my tie off and throwing it aside, I sat down at the end of the bed.

"I hate you so much right now."

"Aww how could you say that after such a lovely night?" She feigned concern while shutting the door.

"That entire time you were making it as difficult as possible to not stare. I can't imagine what the damn waiter thought."

"To be fair, I did say I would be teasing you all day."

I sighed deeply as my head fell into my hands.

"Will it make you cheer up if I promise I won't do it in Piltover?" Ahri questioned, using a tone that made me question how genuine she was being.

"Yes, but we both know that you'll either ignore the promise or make up for wasted time the second we get out of the city limits."

"Actually, you have no idea what I plan on doing. No matter how good you think you are at reading people, you have nothing on me. So, you can either take my offer with a courteous 'please', or I can have a wardrobe malfunction results in something like…" She trailed off while tugging her kimono down a few inches. It looked like it was about to burst when she stopped pulling and finished: "… this."

At that point our eyes met and I tried to stare her down, realising soon after that it had no hope of working. Eventually I couldn't keep it up and had to stare down and mumble: "Please…"

"I'm going to need you to put more effort in than that."

I sighed before looking up and pleading: "Will you please not do anything to make it seem like we are a couple while in Piltover?"

"Okay. I suppose I've enjoyed your awkwardness enough for a little while." Ahri agreed happily while taking a seat next to me. I noticed that there was a hint of mischief in her smile.

"You're going to find some way around this aren't you?"

"I wouldn't offer a deal to anyone without putting in a few loopholes in case I get bored."

"That sounds bad for me."

"Nah, that sounds like a suggestion that you make sure I don't get bored."

The next day (08:00):

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that Ahri's tails were once again holding me in position. The second thing I noticed was that Ahri herself was snuggled up against me. "She really is doing as much as she can while we are not in Piltover." I thought to myself as I tried to squirm out of Ahri's tails with little success.

"I suppose this is one of the loopholes."

I shuffled around again, getting no further than I did with my last attempt.

"Man, Ahri is really strong…"

Ahri's POV:

Any other person would have burst out laughing at the show happening right behind me. A grown man struggling desperately to get out of the grip of nine furry, white tails. It took an incredible amount of effort to not burst out laughing, and even more to keep the relatively-straight face that I was.

After a few more minutes of hilarity I decided I would turn it up a bit. Releasing him from my tails, I turned around and held his head on my chest while still pretending to be asleep. Even though I could not see his face I felt it get warmer and I knew he was blushing even though he thought I was asleep. Zoh attempted to get away but his head was stuck in my iron grip. When he realised, he decided that it had gone on long enough for him to be okay with waking me up.

"Hey, Ahri. Hey. Heeeeey. Wake up... please."

Now was the perfect time to have some more fun.

Just as Zoh was about to escape from my grasp I pretended to wake up, slowly opening my eyes and looking down at him. At the same time, I loosened my grip entirely. He didn't react fast enough and escape my arms before I could put on a surprised face, morphing it into a sly smile after a moment.

"Having fun down there Mr. 'Just friends'?"

"No, I uh, you, well… while you were asleep you… wrapped your arms around my head and pulled me and so it- it was not really me it was you and well, yeah." Zoh tripped over his words while getting up and backing away into the bathroom door as I held my head up with my hand.

"Are you trying to convince me that you, with all your muscles, couldn't escape me, with all my nothing? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly a physical powerhouse over here." I questioned with an eyebrow raised.

"Uh, yeah, well, about that-" He mumbled before rapidly disappearing through the door, shutting it firmly once he was through.

"Oh yes and one more thing."

"What?"

"I have been awake for about thirty minutes now."

An hour later (09:30):

"So that's Piltover then." I acknowledged as I glanced over to Zoh who was stepping off the ship.

"I would hope so. Someone's buggered up if it isn't."

I stared at the shining city for a few moments. Every building was multiple stories tall and had technology all over. The sky was dominated by massive blimps that floated over the city lazily, a few tied to buildings but most gliding freely. The centre of the city and the area near the docks was mostly comprised of tall, strange buildings which seemed to be designed by artists instead of engineers; on the other hand, the buildings further inland were small and more obviously residential. No matter where you looked, confusing technology dominated completely. Everything seemed to be taking advantage of some kind of technology. From bridges made of light to simple things like automatic doors.

It was all very impressive. And I understood none of it.

There was, however, one thing that I did notice which I understood and desired to get away from.

"I don't want to stay here long."

"Why not? It looks nice."

"Oh, you know, small things like the welcoming party. Who sends a lady in a purple hat with a massive rifle to greet visitors?"

"Why is she aiming at us?"

"I would imagine it's the same reason you are currently leaning to the right ever so slightly."

The look on Zoh's face was priceless as he realised his axe was strapped to his side.

"That's a small issue. Just the armour technology malfunctioning I guess."

"Okay miss, uh, hat lady, can you stop pointing that gun at us? He's putting the axe away!" I shouted across the dock while hand-signalling for Zoh to hurry it up.

"Another small issue, the device is broken. Or it's out of batteries. Or it's having a mood-swing. I really don't know these days."

"Both of you be quiet! Put the axe on the ground and kick it over to me. I will then escort you to the police station and we can get this sorted out." The hat lady shouted, despite being mere metres away.

"This is probably some sort of karma. What for, I couldn't tell you." Zoh admitted while dropping his axe and kicking it over to hat lady.

From a distance, Piltover looked like the example of a perfect city. From up close, it pretty much looked the same. There was no litter anywhere and every person we walked past had a smile on their face, and we went past a LOT of people. We even saw the occasional robot! A robot! Those things were always supposed to be nothing more than cool things for scientists to show off when they let people explore the labs!

It was all so damn nice that I could almost forget that I was being taken to the police station.

Apparently, hat lady didn't like me checking out her city. At least that was what I took from the harsh shove that I guessed came from her.

"That was very rude miss hat lady." I remarked while still looking down the street.

"My name is Sheriff Caitlyn and I shall not be taking lessons on manners from petty criminals."

"And I am a criminal how?"

"You and buddy boy here brought an axe into Piltover. That makes you a criminal."

"Everyone has weapons on this damn planet. Why is he not allowed to have his?"

"We haven't had weapons in the hands of citizens in Piltover since I came into office."

I was about to make a joke when Zoh cut me off by declaring: "Woo! Fixed it!"

Before Caitlyn could speak up the axe faded away in her hand.

"What did you do?" Hat lady questioned while levelling her gun at his head.

"I fixed the thing." He announced proudly.

"What device? Speak now before I blow your head off!" Caitlyn demanded in an impatient tone.

"Let's be honest here, that's a dumb question. I've been playing about with it since you arrested us and you just saw what it does. Have to say, I am quite surprised you didn't think it was a bomb."

"Hand it over, scumbag."

"Hold on a second let me just comply with exactly what you're asking."

Zoh held out the button to Caitlyn but, just before she could take it from his hand, he activated it. Once again I felt really quite short.

"That gun is considerably less scary now." He remarked before multiple bullets smashed into his helmet, right between where his eyes would be. Not even a dent.

Caitlyn stopped firing at Zoh when she saw something behind us which brought a smile to her face. When we turned around we noticed both noticed her. She kinda stood out in the crowd of fleeing civilians with her pink hair, odd facial tattoos, relatively heavy armour, and massively over-sized gauntlets.

Zoh was the first to point and remark: "Oh, hey. You look kinda mean."

"You don't know the half of it, bub!" She chuckled before charging forward and smashing into Zoh with her huge iron fists. He was knocked back a few metres and fell on his arse, getting up as the pink-haired lady announced: "The name's Vi. Please, continue to resist arrest!"

"I can do that. Might even make this interesting."

"Great! Now put 'em up asshole!" Vi shouted as she once again charged at Zoh.

Just before she reached Zoh he pulled out his axe and hit her with the blunt side of it, knocking her to the side. He barely had time to pull back his axe before the pink-haired lady smashed into his side, sending him tumbling to the side. Zoh pulled himself back up and punched the approaching Vi in the stomach before going to sweep her legs. She barely managed to hop over his leg but still found time to smash him over the head. It didn't seem to even register to Zoh as he picked her up by the leg and slammed her into the ground before giving a cautionary stomp to make sure she was knocked out. It was only when pink-haired lady was down and out that he turned his attention to hat lady, who had been firing directly at him the entire time. It took about five seconds for him to stroll over to Caitlyn and then she was as unconscious as Vi.

People were starting to gather, so I shouted over to Zoh: "We should get moving before they wake up."

"Agreed."

One hour later (11:00):

Zoh's POV:

After a few hours of running and avoiding police patrols, we reached the western-most outskirts of Piltover. There was a lot less police presence there, and Zoh had long since removed his armour, so we felt safe to walk the rest of the way. The slower pace gave me a good chance to stare at all the pretty buildings. All the houses stood alone and came with big gardens out front and, probably, out back too. They all followed a similar overall design of painted bricks and slanted, tiled roofs. The occasional park or set of shops broke up the otherwise never-ending lines of buildings.

We could see the exit to Piltover and I finally let my thoughts drift off to other things, confident in our escape from the police forces.

"Stop, in the name of the law!" I heard from behind us as we both turned to see a handsome man with a huge hammer.

"How many people am I going to have to knock out today?" I questioned no-one in particular.

"I'm Jayce, and you'll find I'm less easily dealt with than my comrades with badges."

Just as I brought out my axe I saw his attention turn to Ahri. Instantly, he lowered his hammer

"Well, hello there miss…?"

"Ahri. Pleased to meet you." She greeted him with a giggle.

He approached slowly while explaining smoothly: "I came here to apprehend some dangerous criminals, but all I've found is a work of art."

I waved and declared: "Uh, I'm still here you know."

They both completely ignored me.

"How about we find somewhere private and I show you what the piece looks like without all of these coverings?"

The flirting was getting quickly out of hand and I was already developing a headache from how bad it was.

"Sorry, I've got to stop this before I get a migraine." I apologised before stepping up and whacking Jayce over the head.

"What was that for?" Ahri questioned, sounding slightly irritated with me.

"Please never flirt like that again. It's just painful to watch."

"If you wanted to stop it you could have at any point."

"How so."

"We both know how."

Jayce sat up from the ground while rubbing his head and asking: "What happened?"

I stared for a second before knocking him over the head again, asking Ahri: "Like that?"

"God damnit…"

Two hours later (13:00):

Those mountains were a lot smaller from a distance. They were still pretty big, but it was a manageable height. Up close, they were a considerable amount more daunting. The ground curved up slightly on the approach to them, but the actual sides of the mountains were pretty much sheer rock. To climb them would require someone to go pretty much directly up. It wasn't exactly a short climb up either. Most of the mountains I could see were quite happily at cloud-layer and then some. Going around wasn't really an option either. Either way I looked, they only disappeared when they went below the curvature of the planet.

"I would consider this a problem. How about you?" I asked Ahri. All I got in response was a glare before she once again returned her attention to the mountains a few metres ahead of us.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Trying to come up with a solution, I took a few steps back and inspected the areas between mountains more closely. In most places, the mountains were connected by smaller mountains that meant we couldn't just go in-between. However, there was a glimmer of hope. Someone, or something, had carved out a ravine through the mountains to our left.

It seemed like a pretty good way to get through, so I went over to Ahri, tapped her on her shoulder and pointed at the ravine.

"I hate that idea even more than climbing it." Ahri dismissed.

"Why?"

"It is literally dripping in blood."

I glanced back at the ravine and saw blood covering most of the walls.

"When did a bit of blood ever hurt anyone?"

"It's not the blood that worries me. It's the thing that removed that blood from people and splattered it on the walls!"

"You have a point, but it's not exactly like we've got a lot of options. No offense, but you're not exactly in proper climbing gear."

"I'm not sure how I'd take offense to that, but whatever. We'll do your thing, but if I get murdered it's entirely on you."

"I'll keep that in mind."

When we reached the ravine we both stared down it, equally surprised by how well kept it was. Apart from the blood, of course.

From one end to the other it was pretty much a perfect line. The walls looked to be straight all the way through and no clutter could be seen. The walls were high and the path was as pleasant to step on as the streets of Piltover. I couldn't see a single imperfection on the surface of it.

We began making our way through the ravine carefully. However, after a few minutes of nothing happening, we started to pick it up to a normal pace.

I almost felt comfortable and safe enough to get out of my armour, however the slightly eerie feeling prevented such an action. Still, I couldn't help but mention: "You know this isn't too bad. Maybe the blood was a trick of some sort."

"Dunno."

"You seem moody. What did I do?"

"Apart from knocking out someone who could have become my friend you have done nothing really."

"Ok, ok, ok. Ahri, I am sorry for knocking out the hammer guy, uh, James, I think. Or was it Jamie. It was 'Ja' something I can tell you that much."

"I suppose that's as good an apology as I'm going to get." She sighed before going on: "I can't stay mad at you. Just… try not to knock people out unless it is beyond necessary."

"Fine." I answered, trying to hide the disappointment I was feeling. Knocking people out with an axe was so fun. The signature 'DONK' sound was just so endlessly satisfying.

After a few more minutes of walking I heard something coming from ahead of us. Ahri must have heard it too, because she stopped in the same moment I did. I signalled for Ahri to get low, for whatever good it would do us. As we moved forward, I heard the noise again but it seemed much closer the second time. Despite the terrible echoing and how quiet it was, I just about recognised it to be some kind of laughter.

We got closer and the noise got louder until I finally found the source. There was an outcropping in the wall which, upon closer inspection, was playing host to a man in a jester costume, laughing maniacally at a set of jack-in-the-boxes.

To be honest, I wasn't really sure how to react.

"Uh, hi. What are you doing there, buddy?"

The clown simply continued laughing at the boxes and I raised an eyebrow. Just as I was about to speak up again I felt something ping of the armour on my back. I turned to see an identical clown smiling and looking at me with two knives in his hands.

"Hi. Is that your brother or something? I think he may have a problem."

He didn't seem to notice me speaking at all. He just repeatedly attempted to stab me in multiple places.

Still at a loss as to how to react, I turned to Ahri and asked to do the only thing I could think of: "Can I knock this guy out?"

"Be my guest."

Smack!

"That felt good. Now, let's get out of here and hope that knocked some sense into him."

Ahri gave a nod and we hurried away.

Three hours later (14:30):

Ahri's POV:

It had been a while since we left the mountains behind and it was now a straight line to get to the Institute of War according to the map. It wasn't such a straight line in the real world, of course, but the general idea was the same. We had to weave between forests and miles upon miles of farmland on our way to the League. It wasn't a very interesting area, but at least it wasn't miserable. The sky was clear and it was fairly mild. The smell of fertiliser wasn't so great, but it didn't hold a candle to some of the things I had smelled as a fox.

I was starting to get slightly hungry around the same time a small town appeared from behind the cover of a hilly forest. From the distance we were at, I couldn't tell if there would be anything good there. At that point, though, I didn't really care.

We got within a few hundred feet of the town and Zoh decided the area was friendly-looking enough to remove his armour. It felt like a good time to test something.

"Zoh, I need to ask you a favour."

"What is it?"

"I want you to stay right here while I go into the town, and I want you to not move until I come back and tell you to."

"That's a bit odd-" He began before I stepped over and pulled him into a kiss. For a second he didn't seem to know how to react, but eventually he attempted to kiss back, despite not being very good at it.

I ended it a few seconds after we began and waited for his reaction.

"Well, I guess I could stick around here for a while." He complied with an exasperated expression covering his face.

"Thanks. It'll only take a little while."

An hour later (15:30):

I was in a pretty odd mood when I got back to Zoh. Even as I plonked myself down next to him, I couldn't shake the feeling in my gut that something was off. It felt so strange.

"How was your visit to the town?"

"Oh it was, uh, fine. Just fine."

"You don't seem very sure of that."

"I don't know. I've just got this… thing… I think I ate something dodgy."

"Want me to see if I can help?"

"Nah, let's just get moving. I don't think sitting down is helping."

"Okay then."

We got up and started walking in, what was hopefully, the direction of the Institute of War. The weather was starting to turn a bit too. Clouds had been threatening to spill over from up North for a while, but only as we got moving did they make their move. It was getting chilly too. The temperature was dropping the further we got into the afternoon and the wind were rustling their way through the trees and fields.

I don't know if it was from boredom or him trying to lighten the mood, but Zoh consistently tried to get conversations going. Each time, however, I'd end them as quickly as I could, without appearing rude of course. It wasn't that I didn't want to talk to him, he was an interesting guy, but I just had to be with my thoughts for a while.

Why did it have to be so hard the second time around? What changed? What was it that made my arms pull against themselves in the act, my face contort into sadness for a few moments immediately afterwards, and my mind bring up that word ever since. Why did I have to constantly hear it with every step I took? What was so special about 'Please'?

Why did Zoh have to keep being so damn cheerful every time I looked at him? If only he knew what I was going through.

Later that evening (21:00):

"Hey, Ahri."

"What?"

"You asleep yet?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Why'd you ask?"

"I thought that was what you asked during a sleepover."

"I don't think this counts as a sleepover."

"Why not?"

"Cause we're in a hotel."

"So you have to be in a house?"

"Yeah."

"Oh… will it count if we visit each other's rooms at the League place?"

"I guess so."

"Cool…"

It took a while, but eventually Zoh went to sleep. I was trying my best, but there wasn't much hope for me in that state. I couldn't do much of anything. It was the perfect time to make a move on the guy sleeping right next to me, but something was still stopping me. All my determination to do it was gone. Ever since that last town, I was stuck in a terrible mood with no escape in sight.

The way I saw it, there was only one way to get myself out of that rut.

Careful to not wake anyone up, I slipped from bed and went out into the pouring rain. The few lights left in the town disappeared into the downpour and the darkness as I ran to the woods. So much was going through my head and I couldn't barely concentrate on any of it with all that human stuff in the background, taunting me.

The forest was small but the trees were so compact I could barely see a few metres in front of me. As quickly as they appeared, the trees were gone, and I emerged into a clearing around a pond.

I couldn't tell why, but I was drawn to that pond. For whatever reason, I had to stare into it. But as I knelt down at the side of it and gazed in, nothing happened. I was just staring at the image of the new me. That was when I noticed a fox at the other side of the pond, doing the exact same thing I was.

This was a sign. It had to be.

Slowly I got up and stepped around the pond. The fox didn't seem to notice me until I got half way to it. It looked to me and its ears perked up for a moment before, with my next step, it bolted into the trees. Why would it do that?

Through the sound of the rain, I heard movement in the trees behind me. I turned and found Zoh standing at the edge of the opening.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Just go away Zoh! I need to… I have to…"

"Look, I know what you're feeling right now. I've seen that expression once before in my lifetime, and it can only mean one thing. You've done something. I don't know what, I don't know when, and I don't know why, but you've done something that has filled you with such a sense of regret that you don't even remember what anything else feels like. I also know, you have two options available to you right now. You can run and be doomed to repeat the same mistake until fate catches up to you, or you can make a change for the better."

"How would you know?"

"Because the last time I saw that expression, it was in the mirror."

He didn't say another word as he turned and left, fading into the treeline.

Tomorrow morning (09:30):

I pushed the cover off and twisted around a bit before stepping out of bed. At the other end of the light-flooded room, Zoh was adjusting his suit in the mirror. Despite everything that had happened last night, he was still looking as cheerful as ever. That big, dumb smile was going to make it even worse later.

When I approached him, about to speak, he turned and silenced me: "Don't."

"But, about last night-"

"Last night, we talked about sleepovers then fell asleep. I had a dream about vegetables tasting like beef. It was pretty great. Not sure how practical it would be in the long term. Best not think about it."

I put on a thankful smile. He was doing it in his own odd way, but he was being understanding and nice.

"Now I suggest we get moving. It's perfect travelling weather outside and I'm pretty sure we'll get there today if nothing goes wrong."

We bid farewell to the inn-keeper and, after consulting the map, headed towards the Institute.

We didn't really stop at any point along the way. It wasn't a hard pace to keep up and the desire to get there was stronger than the ones to eat or rest.

The landscape got a lot prettier too. Around the same time that the sun hit the top of the sky, we entered an area that had more than its fair share of lakes. In some parts we walked through, the amount of ground underwater was greater than the amount above it.

After a while, we realised that we were going uphill. It was slightly steep, but not to the point where it made the journey any more difficult. On the bright side, we got some really nice views as we got further up. Unfortunately, the altitude also meant that the lakes were replaced by flowing rivers that didn't provide quite as nice a view.

We must have been hundreds of metres up when we reached the sharp and sudden end to the rise. Now THAT was a view. Before us was mile upon mile of verdant forests, broken up by small mountains and towns. Beyond that was a line of mountains with one so impossibly high that I could barely believe that the top was even still in the atmosphere. The line had a hole in the centre, sort of like a natural gate, which led to a desert that stretched beyond the horizon and, likely, much further.

And that wasn't even to mention the League building. A marble giant, it was made in the shape of a giant, eight-pointed star, with the points of the star in the shape of rectangles. All of the wings of the building had slanted rooves and pillars supporting every corner. Statues stood proudly at the end of every wing, facing into the forests that surrounded it all. The centre of the building was one giant spire that got thinner to a point as it reached for the clouds. It, like the wings, was covered in pillars of stone that I was certain were there for decorative purposes. Beams of magical light flew from all over the building, into the sky and the stars beyond. In-between the wings and surrounding the building were intricate gardens with colours of flowers I'd never seen before and bushes trimmed into art.

Whatever that place was going to become to me, it was going to be pleasant to look at in the least.

At exactly the same time, we both muttered: "Whoa."

I turned to Zoh as the slightest bit of hope found itself in my eyes. For the first time, it was him who threw his arms around me. His grip was a bit tight, but I managed to un-pin my arms and hug back.

A few minutes later (13:50):

With Zoh in his armour and me feeling as ready as I was going to be, we approached the huge stone doors. When we got close, they opened themselves. We stepped into a huge open room with pillars like those found outside running adjacent to the walls. All along the length of the room, tables, chairs, benches and a wide variety of other furniture pieces were scattered. A lot of them were occupied by people or monsters of every kind you could imagine, and some you couldn't. At the very other end of the room was a door slightly above the average size and a desk in front of it.

For a few seconds after the doors opened, the attention of most people in the room turned to me and Zoh. Unsurprisingly, considering how average we looked in comparison to some others in the room, their focus left us quickly.

We made our way across the room and got close to the other end without incident when a man in a purple robe walked out in front of Zoh. Neither reacted fast enough to prevent a collision, and the man was knocked to the ground, dropping the many books he had been hauling. In the same instant that they hit, Zoh had drawn his axe and held it above him, ready to strike. When he realised what happened, he exclaimed: "Oh! So sorry, didn't notice you there."

He put away his axe and held out a hand to the robed man who just stared at him in horror. Thankfully, a woman in golden armour with huge, angelic wings came along and helped the man up. He scurried away and she confronted Zoh.

"You must be more careful with where you are walking. There's a lot of busy people around here who don't have enough eyes to keep focused on what they're doing and where they're walking."

"Apologies. But can I ask, why was he so seemingly scared?"

"We've got another being here in huge armour who almost killed that Summoner when they bumped into each other a few weeks ago."

"I should really go apologise."

"He'll be long gone by now and I can see why you are here, so please, go right on ahead."

She beckoned us to move along but stopped Zoh as he stepped next to her.

"If you cause any trouble here I will not hesitate to throw you into the nearest pool of lava with nothing but your socks on."

"… Duly noted."

With that sorted we moved on and reached the door. We went through to be greeted by a large circular room with one end of it raised a dozen or so metres above the ground we were on. Atop the chairs sat three people in robes. Two men and one woman. The first to speak up was the woman.

"You, in the armour. Step forward. Who are you and why are you here?"

"My name is Zoh Kihn, a centurion from another world here to become a champion."

"What makes you think you are worthy of becoming a champion?" One of the males asked.

"Because I so far I have knocked out four people who I believe are champions from this place. Their names were Caitlyn, Vi, Jayce and Shaco. And as you can see, I am completely un-harmed. I have also killed about thirty Noxian soldiers in a single fight. All of this has happened in the past few days."

The second man spoke up. "Very well then. What about you miss? Why are you here?"

"My name is Ahri and well… I am here to confess to crimes I have committed."

"Wait, what?" Zoh questioned as he took off his helmet and turned to me with a quizzical look.

"Over the past few days I have killed two and I hate myself for doing this but… I used magic to charm you Zoh. You were going to be the third."


Cliffhanger! Hahahahah!

This will probably be late but oh well I don't care that much to be honest.

Goodbye all