This has been a damn long time coming. I promise, I'm not going to be delaying the true end any further. Whatever the outcome will be, it's going to be found below. Pretty far below this.

Not here, further down.

Keep going.

It's gonna take a while.

Dogs are pretty cool-looking I suppose.


Chapter 57: The Boss

"Why must everything I love catch fire?!" I exclaimed, trying to stomp out the flames that were threatening to consume my precious rocket. That maybe wasn't such a good idea, since I wasn't in my armour and the rocket was made of metal.

Man, that really hurt my foot.

After realising the lack of intelligence in that idea, I scrambled around the lab, searching for something to help me.

"Where the hell did Heimer store the damn fire extinguishers?"

Originally, Heimer's lab avoided any damage from the war. Being underground and heavily fortified, there really wasn't any chance of it being disrupted by the fighting going on overhead.

However, after I gave up searching for the extinguishers, it might as well have taken multiple direct hits from missiles.

I stared at the rocket, trying to think of some way to solve the slight heat problem. Unfortunately, something popped, causing the flames to grow further.

I didn't really have any good plan for it, so I decided there was only one thing I could do. Leaning on the rocket and putting on my best smile, I joked: "Hey baby, you're looking real hot tonight. How about we get out of here and away from the highly explosive fuel cells?"

Apparently, I was nowhere near as seductive as I thought I was, cause that flame didn't move an inch.

"Zoh, are you cheating on me with fire?"

I looked over at the door to find Ahri, looking quite tired, staring over at me. She didn't seem mad or concerned at all that there was a rocket on fire in the centre of the room. Apparently, she hadn't even bothered to get properly dressed, as she was in a red dressing gown. I had absolutely no idea where she'd found it, but I was enjoying the sight nonetheless. It was just so… loose. And silky.

"It's not cheating, it's just flirting. But if you're not okay with it I'll not tell anyone if you kill this fire."

"Does it look like I brought stuff along to fight fires?"

"Well, I don't know, you could be hiding anything under that gown."

"Sorry, just a bunch of body parts."

"Are they your body parts or should I be worried?"

I smiled at her as Ahri shook her head.

"I think I'm funny." I stated before finally giving up and pressing a button. The rocket teleported away to go blow up somewhere away from me.

A great distance away:

"I've finally done it! I've built the largest ever structure made of cards!" An elderly man exclaimed, marvelling at his castle. It had taken him since he was 6 years old and cost the entire family fortune that had previously numbered in the millions.

Suddenly, there was an explosion. However, it was way off in the distance and did absolutely nothing to the castle. The man noticed it and wiped his brow of sweat, saying: "That was almost very unfortunate. I hope the shockwave doesn't reach me."

It didn't, so the castle was fine. A piece of shrapnel did head in that direction though. It missed the castle, but not the dude.

Zoh's POV:

I went over to one of the upturned toolboxes and sat down on it, leaning back on the wall. Ahri strolled sleepily over and stood in front of me, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"Go on then, tell me why you're up at three in the morning. Some other childhood tragedy I need to know about?"

"No, nothing like that. I'm just anxious and when I get anxious I need to do something. To keep my mind off it, you know?"

"So you decided to build a rocket?"

"Yeah. Haven't made one like this since teleportation became more common."

She sighed and sat down next to me, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Anything in particular you're not feeling great about or is it just this whole fucked up situation?"

"All of it."

"Oh man, that sucks."

I peered down at her with a furrowed brow, remarking: "Helpful."

"Sorry, but there's not a lot I can say to help you. We're going in with a risky plan against an enemy that is largely unknown to us. But we've got a group of insanely dangerous ninjas, me, and one of the smartest people ever. If you're not confident about our odds, you're just being a pessimist."

"You're right, but I'm just in a bit of a down mood from being awake so long."

"If it helps, I'm keeping this dressing gown. So you've just gotta survive to see me in it more often."

"That's one hell of an incentive."

"Uh-huh. And you know the best part? There's not a hole in the back for my tails." She whispered while taking her head off my shoulder and staring at me.

Genuine joy spread over my face when I stared down and confirmed it. As if that gown wasn't already perfect enough…

"Well if that's not the best news I've had in weeks I don't know what is."

"Nice to see you approve. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head back to the room. You can either stay here, or walk behind me the entire way back."

It took about a billionth of a second for me to make my choice.

Later that day (11:15):

After giving Rex his orders and dismissing him, I could finally return to the massively confusing task at hand. Chemistry was never my strongest area; I simply couldn't get to grips with the idea of not being able to solve every problem by hitting it with a large object. Plus, I was never able to get away with shouting 'it's the laws of chemistry!' when something went wrong to cover for my mistakes.

Despite my relative lack of confidence in the field, I was still better than anyone else left in Piltover. So, I got stuck with a job that I could barely understand because I overstated the amount of experience I had in a subject.

I was just about to throw something at the wall, out of equal parts curiosity and anger, when Ahri appeared next to me. At least she had the decency to wait for me to catch everything that her unexpected arrival had prompted me into flinging upwards.

"What's up?"

"Caitlyn asked me to make a vaccine for some illness making its way through Piltover. What about you, I thought you were off helping Shen with something?"

"We just got back. Turns out it's really easy for him to find stuff with that vision of his."

"No kidding."

I tried to focus on the task at hand but I could tell from the look on her face and the way she was leaning on the table that something was up.

"Something's bothering you."

"It's probably nothing."

"Seems to be the opposite. Tell me."

"As I said, probably nothing. Nerves or something like that but… did those Archons seem… familiar to you?"

"Yep. Can't tell where from though."

"But that's the thing, why would we recognise them at all? They spent all their lives in the League until we fought them."

"The League isn't exactly averse to the idea of cloning. Could be that."

"Why would they need to grow them though? Cloning was always instant when we were there."

"Magical cloning, yes. Scientific cloning takes a bit longer."

"Why would they bother with scientific cloning?"

"A magical clone always has one weakness: the conjurer. If the person who made it dies, the clone dies too. No such problem with scientific cloning and you can make alterations to the organism as it grows so that it best suits your needs."

"So that's what you think is going on?"

"I'd bet on it."

"So does that mean there might be another me out there somewhere? Or another you?"

"It's possible, but I doubt there's one of me. It probably helps for the clone to be magically attuned to some level before the process begins."

"I suppose it's for the best. Another you would be a pain in the ass. Although, I can think of a few benefits to having two of you…"

"Don't go there."

"One of them includes a more literal pain in my ass."

"Stop. Please."

"I've had my fair share of fantasies about this possibility. I can go on all day."

"Or you could not. That would be good. I'd appreciate that."

She giggled before wrapping a few tails around my back and pulling me closer.

"I might stop talking about it if you show me why I only need the one."

"I'll happily do that, but you've gotta give me a couple minutes to finish up here first. I don't want anyone to die because I left to have sexy-times before finishing the vaccine."

"I know how much you dislike this kind of thing, so just take as long as you want. I'll be in there wondering why Heimer installed mood lighting in his guest room."

She wandered away, allowing me to return to my work. My confusing, dull work.

As I haphazardly threw things together and shoved it into the vial-spinning machine, or whatever that thing was named, I pondered internally: "Maybe I could get some mad scientist from Zaun in to help with this…"

The moment I remembered the kind of weapon Zaun specialised in all consideration of the idea was dismissed. I was more likely to teleport the entire city into a dying star than work with them.

I didn't have much time to dwell on the subject, as the spinning-thing finished quickly and the final product was created. I pulled the vial out and went to the elevator at the other end of the room, taking it up to the surface when it arrived on my floor. As I left the concealed entrance and emerged into the brisk chill of streets of Piltover, I struggled to not reflect on how the damage there was at least partly my fault. Everything from the streetlight wedged in a building to the pile of burnt-out cars at the side of the street. The half-collapsed skyscraper leaning against its neighbour was my fault. Even the dead bodies not yet recovered from the rubble. They were my fault.

It really was starting to get hard to keep up the happy-go-lucky attitude. I was an optimist to the core, yet it was difficult to find an angle to the situation where I wasn't at least somewhat to blame. Instead of treating the original resistance like it was all some grand adventure with my friends, I could have reduced the League to a bunch of individual atoms. I could have teleported the Head Summoner's brain into a meat grinder. But no, I had to act like an immature twat and get thousands of people killed.

At least there was a bright side to look forward to. The sun was peeking over the proverbial horizon, preparing to cleanse the lands of the darkness that had covered them for so very long. Or, in more plain words, I was soon going to kill the leader of the enemy in such a violent way that even Cho'Gath would be telling me to tone it down a notch.

I tried to put those thoughts aside and just plan out my day. It hadn't started off very well, but that changed slightly when I saw an old couple walking down the street, hand in hand. They had such gentle, pleasant smiles on their faces. From what I saw, they weren't doing anything in particular. Just strolling around, enjoying each-other's company.

Maybe life could get back to what it used to be after all.

Sadly, I didn't get a chance to imagine how that would look. I was already at Caitlyn's new headquarters; the old town hall. It was a terrible building to use in a tactical sense, but it would have been an equally bad tactical move for the Summoners to attack Piltover.

Before I could go in, I noticed a certain ninja was sitting on the steps up to the door.

"Zed! Where the hell have you been?" I smiled while walking past the barricade and holding my hand out for him to shake, realising too late that could have been a bad idea. Luckily for me, and strangely for him, he actually did stand up and shake my hand.

"I have been… killing. So. Many. Summoners. I do not know where they are getting them all from."

"I think it's best we don't know. But, if you don't mind me asking, how many have you killed?"

"I lost count somewhere between one and two thousand. That was all in the first four months after the 'incident'."

"Holy fuck man."

"Yes. Somewhere along the way, I realised why Rengar insists upon hunting exotic creatures. Killing the same generic, robed mage over and over again is mentally tiring."

"… Holy fuck man. I think you really should take a break at some point."

"I did. Multiple times in the past nine months. For weeks at a time."

"Can you maybe get a bit worse at killing or something? At this rate we're going to run out of living creatures for you to kill on this planet."

"Do not worry. Today is the first day of my multiple-month long sightseeing tour. I even bought a camera." He stated while displaying chunky hextech camera the size of his head.

I had to stare at him quizzically for a moment before that fully registered in my head.

"Wait. You, the only person I know who can claim to have a kill-count higher than most other Champs put together, are going on a sightseeing tour. With a camera. And you're starting in Piltover."

"Yes."

I squinted at him for a moment before scratching my chest and shrugging: "Okay then. Carry on."

Later that day (23:40):

Sitting atop that hill, the breeze flowing over my face, the stars glinting in the sky, I couldn't stop my mind from drifting back to the first time me and Ahri had been there. The first time that either of us had seen the League building. A smile crept onto my face as I thought about life back then. It felt like decades ago. When I didn't have to worry about much of anything and the only person I felt any obligation to be nice to was Ahri, though that wasn't entirely for the right reasons. In fact, she was one of the only things that I still had in my life from that time.

I picked up my axe from the ground and wiped it clean, examining the blade for any imperfections. It had to be at peak condition for what I was going to have to do with it.

When I was sure it was fine, I set my axe down and grabbed my helmet. Shoving it on, I let out a deep sigh as it sealed itself to the rest of the armour and displayed the HUD. Cancelling out the pop-up with the card game on it, I checked all the systems for any fault whatsoever. Everything was optimal save for the energy crystal, which hadn't fully drained.

After spending a few moments to calm my breathing, I took hold of my axe and got to my feet. Holstering the weapon, I sent out the message: "Op commencing."

I immediately dived off the edge and, for a few brief moments, freefell through the air. Extending my arm out, it wrapped around the grappling-rope the moment I felt my armour contact the wire. The League building rapidly grew larger until I dropped onto one of its many ledges. I hugged the stone while peeking down tentatively to check I was in the right place. For once in my life, I actually was, so the next part was going to be relatively easy. All I had to do was let go of the marble walls and fall backwards.

… Easier said than done.

However, after a bit of mental hyping-up, I found myself falling rather quickly towards one of the wings of the League. In the few seconds I had in the air, most of them were spent thinking: "I am about to really, really ruin someone's day."

That lucky someone was a bog-standard Summoner, who got reduced to paste by me and a chunk of ceiling. Upon checking my surroundings, I realised I had landed in the kitchen which was, sadly, one of the few places in the League where people worked midnight shifts. The positive side was, that was precisely where I needed to be. I simply had to cause as big a problem as humanly possible.

With the eyes of the entire kitchen staff locked on me and nearly every one of them preparing to send something nasty my way, I took a moment to joke: "I never liked the food here anyway."

I did, but they didn't have to know that.

It only took one motion for me to have my axe out and slamming into the head of the closest Summoner. He collapsed like a sack of potatoes mere moments after I dived over a few stoves to avoid the onslaught spells that were headed my way. It was surprisingly easy to grab one of those very same stoves and swing it in an arc ahead of me putting another three out of action for a few days.

After hurling the stove at some unlucky bastard across the room, I dived away to continue avoiding. I quickly got up, checking along the way to see where I was. Through some incredible luck, I was at the end of a long, straight line of clear space with cooking instruments on both sides. The line of Summoners in front of me must have known it wasn't going to end well for them at about the same time I realised that fact. I put my arm out in front of me and just started running. And kept running. Even when I had to push the weight of dozens of people to keep going, I just continued running. They were all shoved back until the one at the other end hit the wall. They soon started piling up against the wall, and the pile just kept growing until I shoved the last guy into the side of it.

One of them, for reasons impossible to understand, decided that charging me with a knife would work. Now, fair enough, he did get a good stab at me before I reacted. That was entirely because I simply couldn't comprehend how someone so dumb had found themselves in a place with so many ways that they could hurt themselves. It was incredibly irresponsible of whoever hired the guy. Yet, somehow I managed to be more irresponsible. By using him as a bat.

My first swing against the closest person to me just knocked them over, eliciting a sad response from myself: "Strike one."

The second swing against the next closest was a bit too low, and simply swept their legs from under them.

"Ooh, strike two."

For the next guy, I was determined to make it work. A short run-up lent a bit more power to the swing, allowing the perfectly placed hit to knock the guy off his feet and a few metres away.

"Not a home run, but I'll take it." I declared while tossing my bat aside. He had served me well. I almost hoped he didn't get a concussion from that, though he almost certainly did.

At that point, only a few Summoners remained and none of them seemed particularly keen to fight me. Which was smart, if a little dull. So, seeking to ramp up the level of the problem I was creating, I kicked a hole in the wall and stepped through into the dining area. Cause doors are for nerds.

As much as I had always wanted to have a proper fight in a mess hall, I couldn't. It would be too easy for me to be surrounded and pulled down. At that point, the short-range escape teleporter in the suit would only get me killed.

The first of the reinforcements were heading down the hallway just as I reached the end of it, creating a momentary standoff. I could tell from the size of the force they sent my way that our actions in the various battleground-cities had worked. So many Summoners had to be diverted to those fights that they couldn't send more than a few dozen to fight me.

They were more cautious than the kitchen staff, getting into defensive positions and waiting for me to act first.

So I decided to taunt them a bit: "You've been sent to deal with the issue."

"Well, here's the issue." I began before holding out my axe: "And here's the issue's axe. Who's it going into first?"

There was a bit of flinching, but none of them tried to attack.

"Man, you guys are no fun anymore."

I raised my axe in the air and impaled it into the stone floor. Cracking my knuckles, I charged in. Little did they know, I had a grenade-shaped present for them clipped to the back of my belt.

Ahri's POV:

The fact that pretty much every Summoner in sight was suddenly heading towards the mess hall probably meant that Zoh was doing his job well. I had to wonder if he was just bragging or if he could really take on well over a hundred people. It's not like I hadn't seen him carve through just as many people in a battle, but that was when he had people on his side to take some of the attention off him. All alone verses that many angry Summoners was going to be, at best, a pain and, at worst, a death sentence.

The thought was too horrid to dwell on, so I kept focused on my job. I, along with Akali and Shen, had the comparatively simple job of finding the Head Summoner and clearing any defences he had. After that, the justice was Zoh's to bring down. After all, he'd lost a lot more than the three of us combined.

After a minute I had to accept that the two guards protecting the garden-entrance weren't going to leave to deal with our distraction. I leaned back momentarily before launching myself forward, dashing a few metres in an instant to appear next to one of them. A knee to the private area ended both his prospects of protecting the door and having children. The other one had barely begun to turn his head by the time I was dashing past him with my arm stuck out.

They hit the floor at about the same time, both thoroughly dealt-with. I slid the door open and snuck inside, followed shortly after by the ninjas. We entered into a short corridor leading to a slightly larger corridor, reminding me of why I hated the layout of that building.

We had to duck behind a pillar when another group of Summoners ran by the end of the hallway, which was only a few metres away at that moment. Thankfully, they were far too focused on getting there to notice us.

I was about to move forward when I heard Zoh shouting in the distance: "You guys need to cool down!" It was silent for a moment before he added: "Oh come on, that was funny!"

The fact that he was still finding time to make jokes assured me that it was all going pretty well. Comforting, considering I had no clue where we were actually supposed to find our target. That was why I decided to head into the areas that had always been under construction. They had to have been building something cool there for it to have taken so damn long to make.

I led the way down the vacant corridors, the sounds of fighting becoming more silent by the step as we headed in the opposite direction.

It was only a matter of time before we found a few Summoners on guard duty who hadn't been called away. They were standing either side of a doorway leading to some sort of lab. Probably the one Nautilus told us about.

I dove in on the furthest one as Akali took out the other. From the feel the punch, his jaw wasn't going to be working right for a while. I had a moment to look inside before the sound of the punches registered in the minds of the many, many Summoners in the lab. All I could make out before the fight started was that it was a pretty average lab with large tubes along the sides holding what I guessed were the Archons, all at various stages of growth.

My first target was a particularly tall Summoner who I immediately dived towards. As soon as I was close enough I kicked to the knees, bending them in a way they weren't supposed to. It probably didn't help that I reached up and threw her to the ground by her hood.

I headed over to my next target immediately after dealing with the first, not dashing so that I could pick something up on the way. After dodging everything they sent my way, I got within arm's-reach and knocked him out with a test-tube rack. Apparently I took too long with that guy, as I spun around to find an absurd amount of glass shards headed for me. It would have hurt if I didn't bring a Shen with me, who easily body-blocked the glass for me. All those projectiles and his shield didn't falter for an instant.

The fact that I hadn't been shredded like cheese let me continue fighting, and I quickly found my next target. I didn't even have to move to take him out. All it took was a heavy science thing and a good throw by me.

My next opponent found me before I found them, making that punch to the back of the head as surprising as it was painful. It was enough to send me stumbling forward for a few moments before I turned around. Why a Summoner had chosen to punch me instead of set me on fire was confusing, but I took it as an invitation to show off my hand-to-hand skills.

I approached cautiously with my fists guarding my face, ducking and dodging his initial jabs. I tried to return a few, but he dodged them. What he didn't avoid was the kick to his gut. After allowing him to recover a bit, I went in with a few fake punches before swinging my leg around from the side. He didn't understand my plan until it was too late as my foot hooked around his arm and dragged him down sideways, cracking his head against a nearby work surface.

In the time I had spent taking out that one guy, the ninjas had defeated the rest of the room. I breathed a sigh of relief before finally getting a good look at the place. Everything not nailed down had been scattered, but all of the computers monitoring the tanks were still in-place and working just fine.

In the small amount of time I had, I made a decision: "You two stay here and, if you can, get these guys to Nautilus. I'll do the rest alone."

"What if you run into more trouble?" Akali asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"If it gets really bad people will start dying. If it gets worse after that, I'll keep dashing until I get to a part of the planet where it's day."

She nodded and wished me luck as I left.

I tried to keep low as I made my way to the only other wing of the League that I hadn't explored while there.

Not a whole lot of anything happened on my way there, except I got a perfect showcase of just how damn dull the League building was. They didn't even really try to make it interesting. Only the carpets and lights weren't made of marble and the only attempt at making the walls interesting were the imbedded pillars. Would it really have hurt them to put up some art or something? If we won I was putting myself in charge or rebuilding and redecorating.

Eventually I reached the entrance to the final wing. After eliminating the guards, I carefully peeked inside. Can't say I wasn't disappointed to find that it was just a massive storage room.

"Where the hell could he be…?"

Apparently I was an idiot, because the idea that he might be in the Council chambers didn't hit me until then.

I sighed and decided that caution wasn't something I could be bothered with, dashing through the halls until Zoh's shouting became increasingly clearer. Flying past the crowd of Summoners trying to shove into the hallway, I caught a momentary glimpse of Zoh. He was still kicking, but there was no way he was moving backwards willingly.

A few seconds later I was at the door to the Council's room. After giving the receptionist a complimentary kick to the face, I hauled the door open.

The inside was incredibly dark. Not even the light from the open door seemed to penetrate more than a few inches. I vaguely remembered the layout, but I doubted it was entirely the same. Namely, two of the chairs were no longer necessary.

Cautiously closing the door behind me, I took a few silent steps forward. The doors perfectly blocked sound and there was no ambient noise inside. I could hear my heart beating inside my chest, gradually growing faster with each movement further.

In an instant, I was bathed in a beam of light from above. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that I was not the only one. High above, sitting in his seat was the Head Summoner.

"Welcome Ahri. It has been some time since we were last in a position similar to this."

"Yes it has. If only I knew what you were back then. We could have avoided all of this."

"Ahah yes, the trademark confidence to hide the overbearing weight of your insecurities. Always fun to watch."

"Big talk coming from a guy who got so jealous of watching other people succeed that he had to try and copy it himself."

"'Try'? From what I can tell, I am the ultimate power on this planet. Only small pockets of resistance remain, all of which shall soon be swept away by my Archons."

"I guess we're just ignoring the fact that one of our guys has already taken out two of them?"

"Ha! You really think they were 'taken out'? No, I allowed them to be captured."

"And why the hell would you do that?"

"Because when all of your side's former champions are taken out, the desperate resistance will turn to the most powerful people they have left. And when they are in the largest remaining gatherings of my enemies… it shall be a slaughter."

That was going to be a problem later down the line, but it wasn't something I could deal with right there.

"So that's your master plan, huh? Win, win, win, then win some more, then win. No details on how you actually plan to deal with the impossibly tanky scientist or excessively murderous shadow enthusiast."

"Do not fear, plans are in place to deal with all of them. And you."

"Care to share it? I want to know what's gonna be on my tombstone."

"Oh, I'm sure you do. But first, allow me a question. Where do you think I got my Archons from?"

"Cloning."

He leaned forward and clasped his hands together, resting his head on them and stating condescendingly: "Ah yes, that would be what you believe. Zoh pieced it together no doubt. However, I doubt he cared to describe the other possibility. The one that he has likely convinced himself is impossible."

"Get to the point already."

"Please, some patience. Do you know two things that Ashe and Leblanc have in common? They have both, at some point, become pregnant. And, they have both terminated those pregnancies. Well, they believed that they had. We… preserved those lives for future use."

He got up and stepped to the edge of his platform.

"One of us is in the same situation as those two."

He stepped away from the edge and backed out of the spotlight. There was only a few seconds for me to get to grips with the terrible reality of the situation before the spotlights were drowned out by a wave of light that instantly consumed the entire room. Standing a few metres ahead of me was another Archon. With tails and fox ears.

He didn't even say a word. Just dashed forward. The pain in my stomach was instant and powerful.

I dropped to my hand and knees and coughed up my lungs, barely able to breathe. The sound extremely similar to that of my orb approached from behind me, so I had to dive out of the way. Scrambling to my feet, I was still just trying to breathe right when he came at me again. After getting out of the way, I tried to reason with him: "Stop for a minute! Why are you doing this?"

It was like he didn't even hear me. He just attacked again, trying to beat me to a pulp. Again, I dodged and pleaded: "Please! I don't want to fight you."

He summoned a wave of spirit energy and sent it cascading my way. I had to jump back onto the wall then dive over it, and even then I barely cleared it. What I wasn't expecting was for the wall behind me to crumble when the wave smashed into it. Weakness spread through the room as bricks and ornaments started falling to the floor.

Almost immediately, the new conditions were being used against me. Almost everything that fell was directed towards me, making it impossible to stand still for longer than half of an instant.

The room was still falling apart when he gave up on that and started channelling something over his head, giving me another chance to try talk sense into him: "You don't have to serve that man! There's still time to do the right thing!"

"Why wouldn't I help him?! He saved my life when you would have taken it!"

The pure hatred in his words struck at something I didn't know I had in me. My own son, the only other person like me on the planet, hated me with every fibre of his being. The thought that I had failed so terribly shocked me into stillness, my entire body wishing that he would end me and get revenge for what I'd done.

Yet, something inside me convinced the rest that there was still hope. A small part of my brain held onto reason and forced me into the air, hiding behind a falling chunk of stone to avoid the wall of energy going in my direction.

I came out the other side unscathed, falling to the ground a moment after the energy passed me by. Still, I wouldn't fight back. All I could use were words.

"How was I supposed to know that you would even survive if I did nothing? You could have come out as a deformed monster that couldn't even breathe! I didn't want to take that chance for your good as much as mine!"

"There's nothing you can say to blind me to the fact that you, along with all those pathetic people out there, need to die! There's not a single life worth saving on all of Runeterra!"

The realisation that hit me at that moment hurt more than the chunks of glass that he pelted me with. It hurt more than the fight with the leviathan. It hurt more than the nine months I had spent separated from the only person who could make me feel like I had a right to live on that planet.

But maybe there was another option. Maybe I could force him to give up or… something. Anything.

I got up from the ground and looked at him. He was about to fire something my way, but I dived forward and swung for his head. Something got in the way. I hit some sort of shield, meaning he was knocked back but not hurt at all. Maybe I just had to overwhelm it.

His attempts at retaliating were rushed and unfocused, easy to dodge with the slightest sidestep. I immediately went at it again, punching for his face. Rinse and repeat. Every time I tried to land a blow it was deflected, and every time he tried I dodged. It went on for multiple minutes.

I tried everything, my distress growing with every failed attempt. I kicked him, punched him, threw him at walls; nothing worked. It felt like a bad dream where no matter how hard you try, all your attacks land like you're fighting underwater.

Tears started to form in my eyes as I threw him to the ground one last time. I dropped to my knees and begged him: "Please… don't get up. Don't make me… don't…"

My heart tore in half as he pushed himself from the ground. Every step he took towards me felt like a spear to the chest. Even as he stood above me, preparing to take my life once and for all, I couldn't believe that I was in that situation.

Even when my orb ripped the life from his body, I couldn't believe that the world could be so cruel.

Zoh's POV:

Not exactly my cleanest escape ever, but I was away and the bad guys weren't still following me. Too bad I had to sacrifice my brand new chair that was only really 'stolen' on a technical level. Really, it was more like a gift that I forced the owner to give me which, in my books and probably a few other people's, meant it was fine.

Couldn't help but feel like the explosives might have been a bit excessive, but I wasn't the one who made up that plan. I'd seen it in a movie somewhere, so it was their fault.

As I sat in that storage closet, only slightly cramped in my armour, it dawned on me that Ahri and the ninjas had to have finished by that point. They weren't incompetents, they could deal with whatever the Head Summoner tried to protect himself with. Probably.

I hoped they were done, because I was not being all that great of a distraction in there.

Seeing as it was as good a time as any to make a move, I reached for the door handle. Many things fell over in the process, but I got the door open and stepped outside. More things fell over when I got outside, but I never really liked that place anyway.

After stealthily navigating my way down a small stretch of hallway, I emerged into the main room of the League. Trying to look inconspicuous as I stepped over to the door, I noticed that the receptionist was just waking up from a nap. I decided that he deserved a few more minutes for doing a good job, so I gave them to him. Forcefully.

I pulled open the door carefully, begging it not to squeak, before slipping inside. I didn't bother to check what was inside until I had closed the door.

When I did turn, something terrible was waiting for me. I pulled off my helmet and slowly walked to the centre of the room, where Ahri was crying over a dead body. When I was stood over her I got a look and…

He had my eyes…

There were no words. Anything I could say would just be an insult.

I should have cried. I should have knelt beside Ahri and mourned the son I didn't know I had.

But I couldn't. There was sadness in my mind but it was muffled, silenced, by the anger. My breaths became heavy and long. My hand gripped my axe tight to the point of pain. My senses heightened, but could only focus on one thing. The room was falling apart around me but I could not hear or see any of it. Only one thing was clear.

My helmet went on and I headed to the side of the room. My axe crumbled stone as I slammed it into the wall, pulling myself up then doing it again. In an instant I was at the door leading to his office. It crashed to the ground to allow me entry.

We locked eyes, and no words needed to be said. He knew. I knew. It ended there.

Wave upon wave of magical electricity poured onto me, crashing into my body like shockwaves from an earth-shattering explosion. It did not halt my advance.

The blasts increased in size and frequency. Lightning was joined by fire, water, rock. It did not halt my advance.

The elements coalesced into one single stream of pure, molten energy. It poured onto me, bearing with it power that put stars to shame.

It did not halt my advance.

And when I stood above him, axe in hand, he knew it was over. He expected death to come from my axe, and he was right. He expected it to be easy, and he was wrong.

No-one can say what he thought when I pulled out a needle and stabbed it into him. If he didn't know what it did, he was soon going to find out.

I threw aside my helmet and pulled him to his feet. I wanted his last moments to be spent staring into the eyes of the man who beat him.

With one mighty swing and a roar of anger and exertion, I cleaved into his shoulder. His skin tore open in an instant, and his bones shattered on impact. His muscles and tendons split apart, and his lungs were carved in two. His stomach spewed acid into his body as it was sliced in half, and his intestines flopped out of the gaping wound in his body. Yet, through all of it, he was still alive. Screaming in a kind of agony that no mortal could ever feel, he realised what was in the needle.

I stowed my axe at my side and walked away from him, enjoying the sounds of his pleads for mercy. As I dropped from the platform, he kept on screaming his throat raw. He still had a minute to go, and I planned to take advantage of that.

Opening the doors so that all the League could hear, I pressed a button. Every working screen or monitor on the planet was streaming live video and audio of the final moments of the Head Summoner.

Any fighting spirit the Summoners had left died that day.

We finally won.


I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.

Also, this is the end of Season 2. That doesn't mean a whole lot because I don't take breaks from this, but it helps to section off the separate storylines a bit.

Goodbye, and see you next time.