Chapter 12:
Riven made a quick roll over the desk to her right side, the blade of the axe only making a brief cut on the top of Riven's shoulder before she got out of range. She could feel the blood rolling down her skin but she would worry about that later. Once back on her feet on the other side of the desk, she removed her rune sword from her back and gripped the hilt firmly. He swung at her again, this time Riven brought her blade up to protect herself, twisting herself into him for a counter attack. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Irelia coming in with her own blades, bringing them down on General Darius' back, once she made contact with his flesh, he spun around away from Riven and hit Irelia with the back of his axe, knocking her to the ground.
Riven took the opportunity given in that moment to bring her blade across the General's abdomen, slicing through his stomach. She paused after this, taking a moment to look up at Darius' face in confusion, she knew the man well enough from her own days in the Noxian military to know that killing him was far from this easy, had he given up? Riven kicked Darius on the front of his knee, causing him to fall to his other knee on the ground, clutching the wound on his stomach.
"Why?" Riven asked him, knowing that Darius wasn't going to fight back any longer, making eye contact with him.
"Why what?" He growled back at her, very clearly in pain but trying to hide it behind a mask of anger and hatred for the exile.
"You've given up, why are you letting me kill you?"
"You don't get to know why, exile." He spat at her, Riven took this to mean as he had seen something that finally caused even him, the Hand of Noxus, to falter in his loyalty to Noxus. She raised her eyebrow at him before bringing her blade up and using the broken edge to cut through his throat. She could have left him to die from the wound she had inflicted on his abdomen but she decided to end his life quickly after he let another side of him show to her.
Riven put the rune sword back in its clasps on her back, heading back over to the coat she had been looking at before Darius arrived. She removed it from the rack it hung on and slung it over her shoulder. Now that Darius was dead, they would need to find LeBlanc and the others to find out what comes next. When Riven and Irelia exited Swain's office, they found a group of soldiers beginning to clean up the mess they had made. They were clearly men who worked for the General they had run into earlier, ordered to secure High Command and remove the bodies of those who had refused to get out of their way.
They found LeBlanc, the General they had met earlier and the others in the war room on the same floor, they were looking through the plans that had been left out after the previous meeting of the Generals. LeBlanc looked up at her briefly before turning back at the pages in front of her. Riven reached the table in the middle of the room and began to run her eyes over the pages as well, looking for something that she could read. It was all in Noxian and her Noxian was still very poor, Irelia couldn't read it either so the pair of them waited for LeBlanc to say something about what they found. Riven scanned the map on the wall while she waited to hear more, seeing if she could figure things out herself. It looked like they were planning for a reinvasion of Ionia, it was most likely what Swain had left Noxus to speak to their allies in Zaun about.
"They were building chemical weapons, even worse than the ones originally used in Ionia. They planning to use them in Ionia and then move from there, through Demacia and then Piltover."
"Worse?" Riven asked, "How could they design anything worse than what they used last time?"
"This one was going to not just kill those in the impact area, it was going to release a gas that would kill those nearby as well. It has a range of up to ten kilometres." Riven could see Irelia stiffen at the sound of those words from LeBlanc's mouth in the corner of her eye. Riven wondered if this was the reason that Darius gave up, he didn't have a problem with killing Ionians or anyone else for that matter but did he have a problem with the weapon itself? Would it have been killing people without honour to him?
"Do you know if the production has been completed?" Irelia asked, already knowing what Riven was going to say next.
"It looks to be near completion. I think that's what Swain had left Noxus for, to discuss the invasion of Ionia and the last details of the design."
"Do you think that Zaun could act without the help of Noxus?" Irelia asked, nervously rubbing her fingers over her knuckles, she was worried that even with Noxus no longer under Swain's control that there would be an invasion that would cripple Ionia once again.
"No, I don't believe so. It's a powerful weapon but they would need a large army like Noxus' to be able to follow it up. They don't have the military power to use it and then finish the invasion." LeBlanc said with a slightly reassuring tone, it was different from the normal smug one that Riven heard so often from her. LeBlanc then turned her eyes to Riven, "I see you found the Grand General's coat, maybe you should put it on now to see if it fits." Riven quirked a brow before removing the blade from her back, pulling the coat over her shoulders. It was a bit too big in the shoulders but it wasn't something that bothered her too much, she would live with it as it was.
"I think it suits you." Irelia said with a slight smile.
"We're lucky that Swain has become incredibly paranoid and lost in the last few months, it made this take over much easier than it could have been. He kept as much information to himself as possible, causing the Generals to be unable to work together tonight to fight back." LeBlanc gave a sort of victorious smirk at the sight of Riven wearing the Grand General's coat, her plan having succeeded in putting someone that she thought she could control in Swain's place. "I don't believe I've introduced my friend here, this is General Titus." LeBlanc gestured to the tall, blond man standing beside her. "This is Riven, though I figure now we call her Grand General Riven." Riven extended her hand over the table to him, Titus responding with a firm handshake. The idea of her title being Grand General was a bit strange to Riven though she did like it.