"They should be here by now." Kennen said. "Something could be wrong."

"I really hope not." Caitlyn muttered grimly. "At this point everything's already wrong. Wrong on top of wrong is..."

"Wrong?" Kennen said, a hint of concern for Caitlyn on his face. That's when she realized she was pacing back and forth. Then she saw how Kennen kept tossing a shuriken between his hands at lightning fast speeds, and even Karma, despite normally seeming fairly peaceful, was now kneading her thumb into her fist over and over again.

Caitlyn sighed. "We're a wreck, aren't we?"

"Who wouldn't be after that? Five of us shared a vision of the Institute falling and nobody else remembers it." Kennen griped.

"I even tried my best to chalk it up to someone trying to pull one over on us, but the only people capable of that kind of magic wouldn't be interested in silly, dangerous, and life-threatening pranks." Karma spoke with a half-exasperated, half-defeated sigh.

"Finally. They're here." Caitlyn said, catching the attention of the other two. She felt sympathy for the Enlightened One, but she was grateful Quinn, Valor, and Volibear showed up when they did. Sympathy does no good when consolation is an elusive prey to catch. As they looked toward the road, Kennen waved to Quinn and Volibear coming down the way with Valor flying overhead.

Karma stood up, coming together with the others under an awkward silence.

"So," Quinn spoke, feeling the thick tension. "What do we do?"

"We played his game. We figured out his name, yet that seemed only the beginning. Now we have to stop him and all we have is a description and a name." Volibear snarled.

"I assume the tethers on our souls are still there?" Caitlyn asked.

Karma nodded, being met with a grimace from Caitlyn.

"What if we wait?" Kennen asked.

The other four stared at him with bewildered expressions.

"I didn't realize it before, but think back to what he did in the vision. He killed many people in Ionia, fought with Volibear and Sejuani, killed Demacians, and killed a woman in Piltover. But he didn't just kill people."

Quinn's eyes lit up. "He stole a scroll."

"Exactly. The weird thing is, I have a pretty good memory, especially of our scrolls. The one he stole, despite those who died in the vision having returned with the date reset, is still missing."

"It is?" Volibear asked. "How?"

"I don't know, but I did say I had a good memory. That scroll was a spell scroll designed to return foreign souls back into their normal bodies."

"That doesn't make sense. Why would he take it?" Quinn asked, looking puzzled.

"Because," Karma spoke up. "The Cardinal Spirits actually fragment one's soul into five, one for each element."

"But that means…." Volibear trailed off.

"Exactly." Kennen said. "If we use that spell, he'll split in five and we might be able to beat him."


"What do you mean you can't remember the last sigil?!" Volibear roared.

"Shh!" Karma hushed him. "We're in a library. Don't anger the curator."

"Look, I listed the first seven hundred and eighty-one. How is the fact that I can't remember the last one trumping my achievement?" Kennen narrowed his eyes.

"I just don't see how you can get that many and literally forget the last one!" Volibear shouted.

"Volibear. Quiet." Karma reprimanded again.

"Quiet?! He's missing the only way we can win!" Volibear opened his mouth to shout again, but only a whisper of his voice came out. He fell short with a confused expression.

"I'd prefer it if you were quieter." a deep voice spoke from behind Volibear. The six Champions looked to the voice, seeing Nasus with an open book in his hand and his staff in the other.

Volibear rolled his eyes. "Fine." His voice sounded normal again.

As Nasus turned around and left, Volibear glared at Kennen. "Seriously, it's like you purposefully forgot."

Everybody suddenly looked toward each other with wide eyes.

Clapping. It was familiar. They all looked towards a nearby bookshelf to see Sære walk from behind it.

"Man, you guys are dense!" he laughed. "How can it be that you figure out the time manipulation but not the whole trick? Fine, I like a challenge, but this is ridiculous. I'll help you when there's no way you'll get further, but keep this in mind. You'll be given a strike each time I help. Each strike after the first will take a month off the destination date. In other words, after this, if I help again, make it November 30th." Sære spoke with deadly seriousness. "But," he said, returning to his bubbly self. "For now, I'll help. Volibear."

Volibear growled.

"Nasus just cast a spell on you. Make that the first. Keep the next eight in mind. And with that, I bid you good day." Sære giggled before vanishing into what seemed like thin air.

Volibear growled again. "He's just toying with us again and again. We're playthings, and I hate being a plaything." He tore his claws into the table before shoving it aside and stomping off.

"We should probably follow him." Kennen said. The others nodded and they all rushed after him.

Volibear was angry. A dark expression covered his face and everyone walking through the Institute opened a hole in front of him. He didn't even seem to notice the world around him. He continued forward, mindlessly pushing open the front doors and walking toward a nearby grove. The other five were nearing him when they saw him freeze in place. His hindpaw was inches away from crushing a bird egg. Looking up, Caitlyn realized it had fallen out of a nest.

"Well, friend, you should look where you're stomping! The birds don't like you much." a cheerful voice spoke. As the others got closer, they saw Ivern had frozen Volibear in place.

"That's the second spell." Kennen said.

Karma walked off toward Volibear and Ivern to diffuse the situation. Kennen looked to the other two girls. "What do you think the pattern is? Nasus cast an unknown spell, Ivern probably used nature magic to root Volibear, but I don't see how the spells add up."

"Calm down, Kennen." Quinn urged. "We still have seven more after this. Expecting to figure out the game a fraction of the way in is more than a little overzealous."

Kennen sighed, but he knew she was right.

Volibear and Karma were on their way back when they heard a sharp "Look out!"

Volibear turned just in time to see Gnar hop over him and Heimerdinger throw a storm grenade where Gnar last landed: Volibear's head.

Taric, probably the one to shout the warning, ran up to them. "Apologies, fellow Champions. Our Revered Inventor appears to be on the hunt for the Missing Link after he stole Heimerdinger's good wrench. I've been attempting to curb the damage they leave in their wake."

Volibear tried to respond, but it just came out a slurred and garbled mess. "Oh, right." Taric waved his hand in front of Volibear's snout, a blue shimmer running through the Ursine's fur. "I'll see you around!" Taric called over his shoulder, already trying to keep up with the rampant Yordles.

Volibear huffed, seemingly back to his old grumpy self. "I need to go punch someone. Where's Malphite? He always spars with me."

Volibear once again stalked off, looking for Malphite. Kennen sighed in exasperation and the five gave chase once more.

When they finally found Volibear, he had already clearly been sparring with Malphite for a while. Seeing no way of stopping it without serious repercussions, they merely sat down and observed. Malphite would throw a Seismic Shard, Volibear would grab it and throw it back, Malphite would mitigate the damage with his Granite Shield, and Volibear would charge, only to trade some blows with the Shard of the Monolith and be knocked back to the other side of the arena. They went through this process a long while before Volibear buckled, panting.

"Thank you, friend." the Ursine said. Malphite helped him up and they patted each other's backs before Volibear walked towards the others. "I feel much better now."

"Thank the stars, 'cause your feelings are much more important than wasting time while Sære prepares to, oh, I dunno, murder everyone!" Quinn said, tense with annoyance.

Volibear blinked. "That's it. Aurelion Sol is exceedingly powerful. There's no way he'd be in the shared vision unless he remembered something, too!" Volibear smiled, although it looked a lot more like a menacing snarl to the others.

He ran off, looking for the Star Forger. "You'd think he'd be less reckless." Quinn sighed.

Caitlyn, who had stayed silent much of the day, finally spoke up. "I don't know, he has a point." Kennen merely nodded in agreement.

Upon finally catching Volibear, they found him arguing with the large cosmic dragon. A bad move for anyone with some semblance of sanity.

"What do you mean you don't remember anything? You may be literally older than the stars, but fear is a pungent scent and I can smell it from you a mile away. What are you afraid of him for? You literally forge stars in your paw!" Volibear shouted.

Aurelion Sol, who would normally just vaporize anyone who dared to even look at him the wrong way, merely threw Volibear with a spell force, knocking him across the Institute lobby. Rakan, who was standing nearby, tentatively sent a heal before dashing back to Xayah, who was watching the proceedings with amusement clearly written on her face.

"I'm not afraid at all. I just know when to gracefully bow out." With that, the Star Forger opened a portal and flew through it.

"What number are we at?" Caitlyn asked.

"Eight total." Quinn responded.

Kennen thought back to his list. "We had Nasus, Ivern, Gnar, Heimerdinger, Taric, Malphite, Aurelion Sol, and now Rakan."

"Wait a second…." Caitlyn trailed. "Their names."

The group looked toward each other sharply.

"Hey!" Volibear shouted.

"Oh, sorry Volibear. Didn't see you there."

It was Ezreal.

"Their names spell nightmare." Caitlyn practically whispered.

So, I realize it's been, oh, literally two weeks less than a year, but I bring good news and bad news. Bad news is I literally forgot I had this story until a few days ago when I got an email for a review and I was like "What is someone reviewing? I have a story? Oh yeah... Well crap." and here I am. Good news is that the reason I forgot the story existed was because I was playing as a concertmaster in a school orchestra as well as the concertmaster's loyal page-flipper (second chair instrumentalists know this feel) for another orchestra that was playing crap like Smetana's "The Moldau," Sibelius's "Finlandia" (which was actually hella fun, but them brass players went to freaking town), and Gustav Holst's "The Planets." I mean, sure, there's plenty harder pieces than those, but I'm not that great; those were hard for me. XD Right, I was doing good news. I was in two orchestras, taking multiple AP classes, going to college as well as high school, and trying to get my applications, scholarships, etc. for university. I'm graduating with my associate's degree at the same time as my high school diploma, so university will be right after that. Anywho, since I know what made me forget this existed, I can (sort of) remedy that, sort of because it already happened. I left one of them due to financial reasons and the other because I felt it wasn't helping me along anymore in terms of progressing my violin skills, so I just do private lessons now, which is helping a lot, but is also a lot less time consuming. On top of that, while I'm still in college and high school, my high school classes are obscenely easy this year, so I basically only have college and private lessons, which means more time to write! :D I know that probably doesn't help, nor does it really push a vote of confidence in my uploading abilities, but I dunno, I'll do my best. Also, I know this chapter's really short, but I REALLY liked ending it where I did and I also wanted to let whoever happens to read this know that I'm sorry (oh, and not dead). Anywho, hope you liked the chapter. I'll try to get the next one out as soon as I can (and not forget about this story again; I swear it wasn't intentional ;w;).