This is like to be a big one, folks. So strap in.

Battle of Silvermere Part IX

A Harried Hope Part IV

Fiddlesticks crawls free of the Mist and draws it with them, a great cloak of roiling red and black draping over its haggard form as he crests the hill.

Its unblinking eyes burrow into High Silvermere, and its tongue emerges to taste the air.

Fear simmering quietly, but soon it would erupt into a bombastic feast.

"Good." it croons. It is still unused to this way of being. Thinking, caring, calculating, the desire to make a spectacle of what once would have been a simple hunt.

Its lesser kin assembles around it, each marked with a roiling vine of the Mist bent in their image. Evelyn and Nocturne, kneeling as it passes, even as he can feel bitterness over their loss of control.

The wraiths and echoes follow, the former mimicking his countenance while the latter begins to hone in on specific fears.

The visitor Thresh, fire now glimmering a bloody red, turns to face it as it approaches.

"You are ready?" Thresh asks, a new respect in his echoing voice.

"Yes." Fiddle rasps, lifting its scythe and pointing towards the city.

"Reap and sow!" it roars, and with a feral roar, its horde of haunts race down the hillside and take to the air.

And the bells begin to toll.

Fiddle smiles as it draws more and more of the Mist into itself, feeling the fear spike within the city.

The gonging boom is a fitting death knell for Demacia.


Poppy races down the city's walls, staring out across the still lake at the mass of wraiths and demons tearing toward the city. She feels eyes on her, members of the Vanguard, Rangers racing to their post, the few Engineers doing desperate last-minute fixes to several immense ballistae.

Rya a step behind, spear at the ready, a deep determination on her face.

Garen is awaiting her, standing tall, Kriel and Tana at either shoulder, a whispered prayer on her lips.

"Are we ready?" Poppy asks.

"More so now that you are awake," Garen remarks.

"The Vanguard is prepared. We will make good use of what the Sentinels left us." Kriel huffs, drawing his axe as the first of the wraiths begin to reach the city limits.

"And Quinn ordered her Rangers to take positions before leaving for the Durands," Tana remarks, looking down at Poppy.

"Are you okay?" Poppy asks, tilting her head.

"That depends," Tana answers honestly.

"On?" Rya asks, leaning out the window, eying the fastest wraiths as they draw closer and closer to the walls.

"If we win." Tana returns, spinning her spear and muttering another prayer as purple fire licks across its length.

Poppy looks around. The Vanguard had manned the length of the wall, great ballistae glimmering, Raptor snapping and calling nervously as their riders quickly clambered into the saddle.

"Have the others-" she begins, but Garen shakes his head, drawing his immense borrowed falchion, the relic stone gleaming with natural light along the edge.

"The Sentinels?" Poppy asks, watching as several Rangers shift about as orders are shouted down the line.

"No," Garen remarks.

Poppy grimaces, looking to Tana, "Where is Nora?"

"The Spire, along with most of the citizens." Tana states, "Cal is with them."

"Gave him Danel's blade." Rya offers, "Just in case."

Poppy nods, feeling a small level of comfort, "Most?"

"Lux's followers are waiting in the wings." Garen states, "Prepared to offer their aid."

"Everyone is in position, Lord Commander," Kriel states, unslinging his ax.

"Then we will have to be enough," Garen states bravely, raising his fist.

"We will be enough," Poppy remarks, and she feels something grapple with the doubt deep within her, asking to be let out, but she refrains.

As if in response, several gleaming points of red light emerge from the Mist, rocketing towards deeper parts of the city, and right behind them, shattering the eerie silence with a grating war, is an immense, Crowned Dragon.

A familiar Dragon.

"Shyvana." Poppy breathes in recognition.

Garen grimaces and drops his fist, "Right, loose!"

From across the city, silvered arrows fly, accompanied by blasts of glimmering golden light, and the front line of the approaching wraiths and demons shatters into chaos.

"Loose!"

More arrows and bolts of energy fly. Shyvanna dips low, but the raging balls of red continue unabated, soaring high above the swarming throng racing across the lake.

"To the air!" he cries, and the silverwings rocket into the air and begin to go in a tight turn, the beginning of an aerial cavalry charge.

"Loose!" Garen roars, and this time the ballista fire and a cascade of gleaming explosions turn the night into radiant day for several seconds.

Poppy blinks, and while a good chunk of the amassed aberrations was now little more than swiftly dissipating dust, hundreds were still charging towards them.

The silverwings crash into the remainder, gleaming relic stone at the tips of their lances, carving further swathes, but one falls, and the tide races onward.

"All hands, defensive positions!" Garen bellows, "For Demacia!"

"For Demacia!" dozens of voices echo, including her own, as the first of the undead set upon them.

The remaining shard of Orlon's hammer spears into the face of one, and she lets a sigh of relief pass her lips as the magic holds and the undead burns away with a flash of light.

Tana and Rya batter others aside, purple flames licking and consuming any that came too close while Garen and Kriel were carving through the attacks like scythes through wheat, their immense blades swinging like frantic pendulums.

The night quickly became a glimmering mosaic of golden, red, and eerie green light as the wraiths began to fire back at the Rangers hiding amongst the city's rooves and awnings.

"Hold!" Garen roars as the wraith and demons continue to swarm, racing up the walls and down from the sky, attacking from all sides.

Poppy swung the remains of her hammer with all her might, sending several demons spiraling back down the way they had come, and sent her shield racing towards the back of a wraith as it attempted to drag one of the Vanguard off the wall.

She races after it, swinging madly, that burbling feeling within her gut building, yet she pushes it down once more, unsure of the cause or what would follow if she gave in.

The soldier gives her a relieved smile and then a look of terror as a guttural whiny sounds behind her.

She whirls, facing another of the two-headed horse demons from Morgana's birth home, its face bat-like wings outstretched, seeming to cast a further shadow over them all.

She catches a flair of orange from her left, and a soft curtain of flames coats its side, the scent of fresh baked goods carried with it.

The creature writhes and turns to face its attacker, and she uses the opportunity to dart forward and pierce her weapons deeply into its equine side.

It screams and kicks into the air, another gout of fire slamming into one of its heads, and shakes itself frantically. Leveraging her weight, she swings on her weapon's haft and brings her shield up with all her strength.

The second head goes flying, and the creature begins to plummet, taking Poppy with it.

She prepares for impact, yet it never comes as something holds her in place, her weapon slipping free of the demon's desiccating corpse.

She looks up to a nearby roof, seeing Rosa, the Half-Vastaya under Lux's care holding out her hands, glimmering sheaths of silvery light covering both arms. As the young woman gestures, she is drawn toward her and her companion Barnes.

The older man was looking down at his hands with shocked amazement.

"Thank you," Poppy remarks as Rosa sets her down on the roof beside them.

"You're welcome." Rosa breathes.

Poppy also nods to Barnes, who gives a half-mad chuckle, "Never done something like that before."

"Good work, then, but…." Poppy remarks, turning back to the walls where more and more of the Vanguard was getting pushed back, one of the ballistae being ripped over the side by a large demon with an octopus-like lower body, "I need you to get yourselves to the Spire before it is too late!"

"We promised Lux we'd help," Rosa remarked.

"Can you fight?" Poppy demands.

"We're learning." Barnes returns, and as if to punctuate his sentence, he lops another soft ball of fire to coat a smaller demon, which shrieks and writhes, tipping back over the wall, "See."

Poppy grimaces.

"We promised." Rosa states.

Shyvana buzzed the wall, green flames roaring from her lips only rebuffed when one of the silverwing riders lanced down, claws of beast and weapon of master digging deep into her scaley back. Poppy feels the urge to surge back into the fight and looks back at the pair of mages, seeing fear burning in their eyes.

"Learning to fight that?" Poppy demands and a bit of that burbling nervousness gets the better of her, "I'm not letting someone else die like a fool. So back to the Spire, now!"

Rosa flinches back slightly, and Poppy amends her statement, "There are people that need to be protected there, and you'll be safer. So, please. Lux wanted you to help, not risk your necks."

"Understand, My Lady." Barnes states, nodding politely, "Come on, Rosa."

He begins making his way down into the building as fast as he can, but Rosa hangs back, eyes flicking down to Poppy and all the incoming carnage behind her.

"Are we…" she begins.

"To win?" Poppy finishes, scooping up her shield and cracking her neck as she sees Shyvana going for another pass, "Hopefully."

"Good luck, Lady Hero," Rosa states, and once more, that other feeling tries to well up within Poppy a mixture of protectiveness, anger, and indignant optimism.

"Thank you." Poppy mutters, and she launches back towards the wall, landing not far from Garen, and sending an attacking demon sputtering back over the edge, a hole in its neck from where her weapon had pierced.

Kriel, Rya, and Tana are all nowhere to be seen.

"Where are the others?" Poppy demands, bashing aside another attacker with her shield.

"Kriel is aiding the Vanguard further down the line," he replies, burying his blade into the head of a wraith.

"Tana? Rya?" Poppy asks, taking her shield to the top of a demon's head.

Garen points towards where a red fire had engulfed several buildings further within the city.

"Something broke through the lines I sent them after it."

"Alone?!" Poppy demands.

"They are all I could spare!" he shouts back as Shyvana's bellowing roar shakes the stonework.

They look up, seeing her careening toward them.

"Brace!" he commands, the surrounding Vanguard raising their shields.

The dragon opens its mouth, flames licking about its lips, and out of the air above her, a barrage of gleaming bolts rains down, piercing through her wings and clattering across her scales and out of the Mist, Valor races, Quinn clutched in his talons, both of her relic-crossbows firing at a rapid pace.

The dragon whirls and Quinn drops out of Valor's claws, crossbows trained, two bolts fly, and she manages to find the dragon's eyes, sending her spiraling off course, crashing into the lake below.

Valor catches Quinn; a moment later, she is deposited before them both.

"Help is on the way, Lord Commander," Quinn states, rising to her feet.

The Black Mist burbles and roars in the distance, and out of it, two more comets of red flame race forward, and Poppy freezes as, just momentarily, she sees something immense move within its confines, a clawing dread rising in her throat.

"How long?" she demands.

"They'll be here as soon as they are able, and they're bringing some unconventional help," Quinn notes, plugging several attacking wraiths.

"More unconventional than an immense talking statue?" Garen asks, carving clean through three demons with a single sweep of his blade.

"Yes, it-" she begins, but a shuddering boom silences her as the second of the comet's impact behind the city walls.

Garen begins to shout orders, but Poppy feels a growing sense of dread, and she whirls, seeing the third racing directly toward them.

"Get down!" she cries, but it is too late.

The comet impacts the wall, shattering the stonework and sending her and the others crumbling to the ground far below.

Putting her shield beneath her, she pings off the ground, all her bones clattering and stitched wounds worryingly pulling at the impact.

Hurriedly getting to her feet, she looks around, spotting Quinn, and charges over.

"Where, where is Garen?" Quinn coughs, looking about as Poppy helps her to her feet.

Another thunderous boom shakes the city, and through the awnings, the pair can see smoke beginning to rise in a high portion of the city near Crownguard Manor.

"Go." Quinn cries, and the pair begin to make their way, only for a cry of pain to echo through the streets, closer and familiar, Tana.

Poppy stutter-steps and turns, preparing to barrel towards that sound, but Quinn holds her back.

"Find Garen. I've got her," Quinn states. Poppy fights for a moment to argue but silently nods.

"Val!" Quinn cries, and in an instant, she's gone, weaving airborne through the alleyways.

Poppy races in the other direction, weapon cutting down any enemy that crosses her path, picking up more and more speed, ignorant of the silver embers burning in her footsteps, as that feeling within continues to build.


Garen groans, his entire body aching from the impact, and yet somehow, be it luck or miracle, he is alive. As he looks around, he can't help but falter, staring at the ruined foray of his childhood home.

"True glutton for punishment, aren't we?" Thresh's grating voice mocks, and Garen turns, seeing the specter stalking back and forth, feet not even touching the ground as chunks of masonry and cobblestone continue to rain down all around. His flames are fierce blood-red, and there is something even more predatory about his movements, a feral nature that had not been there the last time they had clashed.

"So I am told." Garen returns, pulling his blade from the nearby rubble.

"You plan to run me through with your shiny blade once again?" Thresh asks, spinning his scythe.

"This one, you won't shrug off so easily." Garen returns, brandishing the heavy, relic-stone falchion and reveling slightly as Thresh narrows his eyes.

The Warden strikes first, and Garen readily meets the challenge parrying the tossed blade away and charging forward.

His first strike carves across the front of Thresh's armor, cutting a gleaming golden line.

His second is caught by the wraith, his gauntleted hand smoking as he bears down on Garen.

Garen feels a sharp bite across his hip as Thresh pulls his scythe back.

Gritting his teeth, he plants a heavy kick into the spirit's abdomen, pushing them apart, and goes into a wide swing battering his lantern aside, aiming to cut deeply into the side of his torso.

Thresh catches the blade on his own and begins to chuckle darkly.

"You are quite predictable, Demacian." he drawls, vanishing from before Garen, emerging from his lantern and slicing a deep cut down Garen's back, nicking his flesh as it bites through his armor.

"This is just getting started," Garen remarks, whirling about and grabbing the bones chain, pulling the specter towards him with a grunt.

Thresh's lantern intercepts his next blow, and the blade bites deep, yet the wraith shakes his head with a sneer.

"You have no idea," he remarks, and Garen wrenches his blade free, going for another strike.


Quinn's eyes narrow as she spots Tana and Rya standing in the middle of a crossroads, back to back, eyes trained on the various alleyways.

The former had a deep cut across her forehead, and blood was seeping from a wound on the latter's off-hand, spattering across the cobblestone.

Valor cries a warning and banks to the left sharply. Quinn whirls, spotting a demon with a feminine form given a bestial countenance due to a wide toothy maw and obscenely long claws lunging at her from a nearby balcony.

Her crossbows are in her hands in an instant, twin bolts catching the demon in the neck, the kickback sending her roiling to the street below.

Quinn leaps from Valor's talons, next to the other soldiers pressing her back against theirs.

"What have we got?" she asks, firing again as the demon clambers to her feet, a furious growl on its fanged lips. As the creature dodges the shot, she catches sight of a strange red bulb pulsing on her back.

"Three Lesser Demons." Tana states, "Two I've fought before."

A bone dagger lances out of one of the allies, and she deflects it, embedding it in a far wall.

"Lesser?" a snide voice quips as a lithe masculine demon with large arching horns appears, flipping another dagger in one hand, a similar pulsing bulb resting across his chest, "Thought we had something nice going, darling."

"I look forward to taking your head." Tana states.

"You're dear friend Dannie-boy already took Voras." the demon returns, nodding towards the snarling beast on the other side of them, "Can't be a little more inventive for me?"

Quinn feels Tana tense beside her and takes a step toward him.

"Don't," Quinn warns, keeping her eyes moving and spotting another feminine demon leaning against a wall looking almost bored, digging her claws into the stonework. A bulb rested atop her left shoulder.

"Can you both stop playing?" she demands, pushing away from the wall and sliding between Quinn's shots with startling speed, "I'm hungry."

"Don't be sore, Solitude." Sultur admonishes, wagging a finger at her and sending two daggers lancing towards the huddled group, Rya deflecting one off her gauntlet and Quinn dodging the second, "Ain't my fault you only know how to play the game one way."

"This is why I hunt alone." she snaps back, claws lengthening as she presses forward.

Quinn turns, seeing the third clambering closer, a long tongue sliding across its jagged teeth.

"Kind of tiring of the mindless chatter as well." Rya barks, raising her blade and pointing at Solitude, "So how bought we dance?"

Another soft voice sounds from the shadow, a curvacious, lithe form emerging from the shadows, standing a foot taller than the others, two bladed tails waving about her form, "I knew I liked this one."

The Demoness stretches, her one arm an amalgam of black ichor and pulsing red light, distinct from the rest of her body.

Quinn has studied and hunted predators all her life, and while all Demons were cut off that cloth, the way the three pull back and lower their heads submissively makes it clear that the newest arrival is the Apex amongst them.

"I'll take her." she croons, crooking a finger at Rya, "Solitude, Sultur, you can split the ranger and her birdie."

Rya's eyes narrow, and Quinn raises both crossbows, turning slightly so she can keep both in her eyeline. The pair grumble, but their eyes lock on her with ravenous intent.

"And Vora, darling, you can have her." she points at Tana, "After all, her charming little soldier was the one that took your head."

Tana whirls, spear outstretched, the purple flames along its blade growing in intensity.

"Yes, Evelynn." the three growls and Vora is the first upon them, lunging for Tana, claws aiming to perforate her body.

The three break apart, Vora slamming into their midst, and Tana's spear comes down, cutting a thin line across her face.

Quinn goes into a tight roll as Sultur and Solitude charge her, claws and blades at the ready. She whirls, plugging the latter with several shots, and lets out a loud whistle.

Solitude stumbles back, but Sultur rushes her and is met with Valor, his talons digging deeply into the demon's eyes with a furious cry.

Not to be outdone by her own bird, she charges Solitude, flipping a petricite dagger into her hands and burying it deeply into the demon's neck.

As both demons back away, writhing and screaming in rage, Quinn looks up and sees Vora laying into Tana, claws grating against her armor. Still, Tana manages to pierce her spear clean through the demon's sternum and pushes her back, teeth gritting as purple fire begins to lick across her opponent.

Rya is far more pressed. Evelynn is pushing her away from the others, claws, blades, and tossed spines isolating her.

Aiming another shot at the recovering Solitude, she charges towards the larger demon and sinks a bolt into both, the former taking it to the jaw while the latter turns as it buries into her shoulder.

"It's rude to interrupt someone else's date." Evelyn hisses, and Quinn feels an alien presence enter her brain, "Go back to yours."

Quinn feels her feet falter, and she drunkenly turns, looking at Solitude and Sultur with an alien desire to be closer to them.

She takes a step forward, and the former is on her first, claws sinking into her gut, yet her stupor remains.

From the corner of her eye, she sees Tana get battered to the ground, Vora leaping atop her teeth gnashing.

She hears Rya cry out, but it is muffled as her focus turns to Sultur as a dagger leaves his hand, aiming to carve one of her eyes out.

She is knocked to the ground in a hail of feathers, and the cry of pain from Valor is enough to free her.

Quinn looks up and gasps in shock and rage as she sees a dagger piercing clean through Val's neck.

"No!" she screams as the bird stumbles into her, crooning softly.

"That one is yours, now." Sultur snarks, sliding forward.

Solitude wrenches the bolt from her jaw and goes to speak, only for Quinn's dagger to pierce upwards suddenly, carving up through her jaw and pinning her tongue to the roof of her mouth.

Sulfur draws another dagger, but Quinn tackle's him, crossbow pressed into his stomach, and pulls the trigger, bolt after bolt detonating in a flair of light as the relic weapon begins to feel hot in her hands. He collapses to his knees as she pulls back, his torso almost shorn in half.

"You should not have done that." Quinn hisses, and she whirls, plugging Vora in the back of the head, allowing Tana to push her off, slicing apart her throat with a strike of her spear.

Evelynn turns as her followers all stumble back, keening in pain, and Quinn fires, a bolt finding one of her eyes and detonating with a flash of light. The demon shrieks in surprise, pain, and a small amount of pleasure to Quinn's disgust as a part of her head splatters against the wall in a rain of black ichor.

Rya, bloodied and gasping, takes the opportunity to stab forward with her spear, punching clean through Evelyn's stomach, purple flames eating away at the wound, and enraged Evelyn sinks her claws into her chest, tossing her bodily at the others.

Tana catches her, the pair going to the ground, leaving Quinn standing over them and the feebly moving Valor as the bird fights to stand.

"Stay down, Val." Quinn admonishes as Rya and Tana find their footing, both of them bleeding from several wounds now, a dazed determination on both of their feet.

Evelyn stalks forward, her face knitting back together as she wrenches the spear from her gut. A shadow passing over her skin, the red and pink accents gleaming with inner light.

Her followers fall in step, Solitude ripping the knife free, Vora's throat wound readily knitting back together, and Solitude fights to stand, the hole in his form struggling to close, drawing a dagger all the same.

"I love when they get defiant." Evelynn croons as Quinn point's both crossbows directly at her head.

The quarter lunges, and brilliant light flairs to life over all of their heads with a blinding flash.


Poppy continues climbing, glancing back towards the wall of mist, glimpsing, again and again, something moving within, something truly monstrous not just in countenance but size as well.

And not that far now was Crownguard Manor, brief flairs of light enlivening the night.

"Have to hurry," she mutters, both to herself and Morgana, where ever she and the others might be.

She turns a corner, and suddenly her entire vision goes black.

"Darkness." a rasping voice whispers in her ear. Her instincts take over, her shield coming up and barely managing to block a sudden attack from the side.

She is sent spiraling, clattering across the ground, her vision returning, revealing a smoking crater with an amorphous black shade hovering in the center. Long blades extend from its wrists, and it turns to look at her revealing, thin white lights gleaming with internal radiance.

The demon from the Ruins and it is accompanied. A throng of Lesser Nightmares circle the pit, and atop opposite buildings, a tall feminine form with a singular eye and a masculine behemoth with bulging muscles and long octopus-like tentacles as its lower half.

"This is what maimed Evelyn?" the male asks, "A yordle? I think we've been duped, Dom."

"Hush, Steem." the female snaps, glaring down at Poppy, "She has an aura of timeless danger about her. Though she is ignorant of her own dominance."

"Come down here, and I'll show you how ignorant I am!" Poppy shouts, raising the remnants of Orlon's hammer, "You're in my way!"

"Spirited." Steem murmurs, "I like it."

"Silence." the shade wraps, "Attack!"

"You first, Nocturne," Dom states, sounding almost bored with the floating entity between them. Poppy's eyes narrow, noticing an odd, pulsing bulb of red light sitting on their chests.

Yet the time to ponder that is quite short, as the Nightmares all surge toward her.

She batters, bludgeons, pierces, and stabs, noticing for the first time a silver glint to her attacks as that need to let loose continues to build within her. The sound of combat echoes all around her.

Demacia is still fighting, and even as the tide continues to crush against her, she locks that deep inside.

"She has to get to Garen. She will get to Garen. She has to beat them. She will beat them. Demacia must stand. It will." this mantra repeats in her head, even as the greater demons join the battle.

She deflects a kick from Dom, cuts down one of the few remaining Lesser Demons, and then spins as Steem attempts to ensnare her.

Nocturne carves down. One strike deflected with the haft of her weapon, the other biting into her shoulder, but her pitted armor takes most of the damage.

Shrugging off the blow, she strikes out, barely missing Nocturne, catching a retaliatory strike from Steem on her shield and then piercing into him with her weapon, the jagged stone, and metal flaring with silver light.

The feeling grows, billowing and blooming, and the Demons back away as silver fire begins to lick across her form.

"Out of my way!" she repeats, slamming her weapon against her shield, a barrier forming around her, and she surges forward, battering Dom aside with a wild swing.

The Demons give chase, turning it into a running compact, the Yordle darting, weaving, and leaping about obstacles, blocking attacks and returning them as she draws closer and closer to Crownguard Manor.

A roar shakes the city, and she turns as Shyvana clambers onto the city wall, water flooding off her scales. A moment later, a curtain of flame erupts from the dragon's mouth, decimating an entire section of the remaining defenders.

"No." Poppy breaths and she feels her feet turning, racing towards the edge to leap down into the lower city, grief and anger welling in her heart, desperation to stop the enslaved dragon overpowering her better sense.

Steem's tentacles catch her in the chest, sending her soaring backward, impacting the front of a house and shattering the brickwork, leading to a good chunk of it crumbling on top of her.

Fighting for breath, she claws her way from the rubble, gasping deeply and scampering to her feet, barely able to get her shield up in time as Dom lands a two-legged kick, one of her taloned heals cutting a deep grove in Poppy's forehead.

Poppy swipes outward, driving her back, but Nocturne emerges from the ground, cutting a deep grove along her arm, her sharp reflexes just managing to stop it from lopping her arm clean off.

The three demons close in, and as she looks around, she can see Shyvana taking to the air. Crownguard Manor suddenly flairs with a burst of golden light, more of the building, crumpling in on itself, and within the Black Mist, a set of burning red orbs ignite, glaring out at High Silvermere with unfaltering malice. A chill of fear grips her, primal and all-consuming, deep in her soul, yet she stays on her feet as that energy inside pushes against the intrusive influence.

"The End Begins." Nocturne intones, rasping voice almost reverent.

"No," she mutters, silver-light flickering in her eyes, "No!"

She slams the tip of her weapon into the ground, and shards of earth rimmed in silver fire burst outward, knocking the demon's back.

Nocturne races into the air as she stumbles, shaking her head and lances towards her neck.

She raises her shield, preparing to catch the blow when a great blast of radiant energy cracks into the demon and sends it spiraling to the ground with a shriek.

Turning, Poppy looks up and feels her resolution steel itself, fresh hope igniting in her heart.

Senna smiles down at her, Lucian at her side, pistols trained on the other demons, beside them a younger blonde-haired man, a gleaming gauntlet shining with radiant energy on one arm.

"Hey there," Senna says, eyebrow rising as the ends of Poppy's hair and her eyes gleam with roiling silver fire, "Still need a hand?"


Quinn blinks, looking around as a dome of silvery-blue mist softly swirls about them. The demons shriek and writhe, silver-netting cutting into their skins, foul-smelling smoke filling the air.

Evelynn croons excitedly as she pulls free of her bonds, "You."

"Me." a terse voice remarks, and Quinn turns as, out of shadow, Shauna Vayne materializes, dressed in the garb of the Sentinels, a massive crossbow held in her arms.

"Ranger-General." Vayne acknowledges, giving Quinn a polite nod before planting one of her bolts clean through Sultur as he tore from her bindings, pinning the demon to a far wall with a bolt the length of his arm.

"Now, this is interesting." Evelynn breathes, a new intent hunger on her face as she stalks around the dome in the opposite direction as Vayne.

"Gwen, look after them." Vayne orders and Quinn starts as she feels a light touch on her arm, the bright smile of a blue-haired girl meeting her gaze. Her movements are stilted, and an immense pair of scissors rest across her back.

"Nice to meet you," the girl states, with a wide grin, "Where should I start?"

She gestures to the others lying in a heap on the ground, and Quinn looks down, seeing the silvery mist knitting her wounds closed.

"W-where ever you like." Quinn breathes, stepping out of the dome and falling in with Vayne.

"Our feathered friend, then." Gwen states absentmindedly, gently picking up Talon and looking up to Tana, "Hello again."

"Hello," Tana states with a sigh of relief, "Poppy is going to be quite happy to see you again."

"Well, I hope so!" Gwen exclaims.

Vayne's eyes narrow as Evelynn stops pacing, "Leave her to me."

Quinn eyes the rising Vora and Solitude, "As you wish."

Evelynn lunges and the battle starts anew.


Senna fires, taking a chunk out of Dom, sending her skittering for cover as Lucian lays into Steem, the immense demon chuckling as his flesh begins to burn away.

"Finally, things get interesting!" he roars, lunging for Lucian, who darts away, Poppy lancing forward and stabbing the beast directly in the forehead.

"What is the plan, Poppy?" Senna demands, swinging her cannon and decapitating a lesser demon that had joined the fray.

"I need to get there," Poppy states, pointing to the Crownguard Mansion.

"Ezreal!" Senna cries. The young man turns, barely avoiding Nocturne taking his head off as he rejoins the fight, "Take her!"

"Got it, boss!" he cries, sprinting towards them, and sliding under the wild swipe of one of Steem's tentacles.

"I can get there on my own. The rest of the city needs help!" Poppy cries, pointing toward where Shyvana is about to make another pass, fire trailing about her body.

"We may have that covered." Senna states, catching Steem's next blow along the length of her cannon, "Lucien!"

He nods, pulling a thin flute from behind his back, and tosses it to Senna. She catches it with one hand and puts it to her lips.

"Cover me," she orders, and Ezreal and Poppy fall into step, battering back the attacking demons, and Senna takes a deep breath, blowing intensely, a long, lone-keening note filling the air.

Moments later, a strange golden form races out of the air and collides with Shyvana, knocking her off course and drawing her away as bolts of golden light begin to pepper her body.

"What-what is that?" Poppy asks, looking up at Senna, confused.

"Time for that latter. Get moving!" Senna states, and Poppy nods looking up at Ezreal.

"Hold on tight," he says with a smirk, offering his hand.

And with that, the pair vanish in a flash of golden light.

Lucian backs up towards Senna as the three demons press in on them.

"A Greater Demon and Two Azakana," he notes, pistols trained on Steem and Dom's heads.

"I know." Senna returns, giving her husband a winning smile, "They don't stand a chance."

She fires, and Lucien follows suit, the Demons shrieking as they charge toward them.


Poppy stumbles as Ezreal deposits them both, looking up and seeing Garen struggling to free himself of Tresh's grasp, the lantern inching closer and closer even as the former has pierced the latter clean through with his relic blade.

"Hey!" Poppy roars, throwing her shield, which collides against Thresh's skeletal head and comes pinging back.

The wraith turns, what is likely to be a sneering comment on his lips, and Poppy cracks her shield with what remains of her hammer, sending the shield firing back at him.

It catches him in the jaw, severing the top of his head clean off and sending it spiraling.

Ezreal follows up, firing several bolts into the phantom's body as it stumbles back, and Garen wrenches his blade free, spinning and cleaving the teetering form in twain.

Garen bends down, picks up Poppy's shield, and hands it down to her. His face is covered in blood, and his breathing is haggard, but beneath it all, he looks relieved.

"Good timing," he remarks.

"The Sentinels arrived," Poppy states, nodding to Ezreal, "They've taken Shyvana off the field."

"Good, if we can hold out until Lux arrives then-" Garen begins, only for a dark chuckle to cut him off.

The trio turns and sees Thresh's body pulling itself back together, a pulsing red bulb gleaming as his torso reassembles itself.

"That is less than comforting." Ezreal quips, raising his gauntlet.

Thresh's head snaps back into place, "It's funny."

"What?" Poppy demands.

"That you believe the battle has already started." Thresh states and a deep rumble-like thunder shakes the city.

Poppy turns, and she feels the energy within her reach a fever pitch, silver flames once more igniting along her hair unbidden as the being she saw within the Mists fully emerges.

The First of Ten stands stories tall, their form an amalgamation of roiling black and red ichor, dead trees, shifting stone, and dozens upon dozens of screaming spectral forms. A cloak of Black Mist hung around its shoulders, drawing the wall with it as it lumbers forth. The creaking of branches and shearing of stone fill the night as the massive entity begins making its way toward the city.

"Demacia!" it cries, its voice like a hurricane backed by the shrieks of a stampede and the screams of dozens of trapped souls, "Falls!"

Its cry echoes, shaking the city's foundations, and with it comes an alien fear that barrels over the city like a rogue wave. The air is rattled from their lungs, and Poppy feels her knees want to give out, and screams and shouts of deep primal terror overpower the cries of war below.

The bulb on Thresh's chest gleams and then pops with a sickening wet noise, and from it, thick tendrils of black and red ichor rapidly wrap around his body.

A second set of arms ending in jaded daggers emerges from the lower part of his torso, flesh wraps down his arm holding his scythe, turning the weapons into a lashing tentacle, and across the front of his skeletal face, a facsimile of muscle emerges, mimicking the form it once took in life.

"In truth," Thresh remarks, sneering at them with his false face of roiling ichor, red light gleaming from the hollow pits of his eyes, "It has only just begun."

And scene!

Next time, the final chapter of Battle of Silvermere! The battle Continues as Fiddle's followers reveal new, horrible forms. Yet, aid still comes on earthen wings, but in the end, what will become of Demacia, and the Sentinels, and how will they shape the story that follows? What is afflicting Poppy? What new force has Senna claimed in the absence of Viego? All will be revealed.

So Stay Tuned!

I really appreciate everyone that has stuck around for this ride.

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