"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.

"What?!" Volibear looked incredulous. "We're losing our memories, we're seeing things, everything's gone to hell, and you're telling me it's all a nightmare?! So we still haven't woken up!?" Volibear was fuming.

"Or have you?"

Sære.

"What do you want?" Karma asked, growing tired of the game.

Quinn looked around. "Uh, guys? Everybody's frozen in place. I think he stopped time again." Valor shuffled on her shoulder tensely.

"Y'know, sometimes the scariest nightmare is the one you never wake up from." Sære continued. "However, I find that the scariest nightmare isn't a nightmare at all, but reality twisted so cruelly that it seems like a nightmare. Like how I can just kill everyone here in an instant. But I won't, because that would make the game too easy. Instead, I'll give you all one last chance. Fight me now, or everyone here dies."

Caitlyn's face looked horrified. She looked around the room. "Don't bother, Caitlyn. I've already counted. There are 16 civilians and three Champions. That's nineteen deaths none of you can stop and will probably all feel guilty for. Or… you can fight me." He glared.

Volibear growled before it turned to a roar and he charged. "Volibear, no!" Quinn shouted. Sære grabbed Volibear by a paw, spun him around, and flung him back into the wall behind them, cracking it.

Kennen suddenly shouted something that seemed all too much like gibberish. Quinn and Karma looked at him oddly, but Caitlyn knew exactly what had happened. Sære wasn't actually expecting anyone to fight him. He lost his focus, if only for a split second, and Kennen took advantage of that. It was the spell.

"No!" Sære shouted, but it was too late. His voice distorted, his body faded in and out of vision, and he split into five different copies of himself, but their entire bodies were made out of each of his Cardinal elements.

"I…. Will make your lives…. A living hell! Not even the Lotus Blossoms will be able to save you!" The Sære made of lightning growled menacingly, a sound oddly akin to thunder and, a split second later, all five of them were gone.

Aside from Volibear, the Champions breathed a sigh of relief. The Thunder's Roar was infuriated. He smashed an oversized paw into a nearby wall, cracking it and lacing arcs of lightning outward.

"Volibear! Calm down!" Caitlyn shouted.

"Are you DENSE?! HE GOT AWAY!" Volibear roared at a near deafening volume.

"Maybe so…." Caitlyn paused, thinking. "But at least everyone's still alive."

"The Soul Marks are gone, too." Karma murmured.

"Wait, seriously? How?"

"I assume, now that he's split, he doesn't possess the focused power to keep the spell going."

As soon as the thought sunk in, time around them set back in. The commotion kept going and, aside from the randomly shattered wall, none of the bystanders seemed to notice any discrepancies in the world around them. "We can't tell anyone." Kennen said. "We have to do this ourselves."

Karma and Caitlyn nodded. Quinn looked up from her thoughts with a start, "What did he mean by lotus blossoms?"

Kennen looked quizzical for a second before it seemed to click. "I… I don't know." They all looked about them, but no answers were present among them.

"Back to the library I suppose." Quinn sighed. Volibear responded with muttering his qualms with the situation under his breath.


"So there's literally nothing on lotus blossoms and this mess?" Volibear groaned.

"It's not my fault Nasus locked up the books on the Cardinal Spirits in the forbidden section." Kennen griped.

"Why are you looking into the Cardinal Spirits?" Nasus' voice, deep and resonating, asked suddenly, causing the Champions to turn to him with a start.

"We were just curious, that's all." Quinn smiled innocently.

"I have seen centuries rise and fall and I've lost count how old I, myself, am at this point, Quinn. Do not bore me with attempts at hiding your true intentions." Nasus said, his left ear flicking in irritation.

"Oh. My. Stars. That was the cutest thing ever. Hey, hey! You six! Irritate him again! Maybe his ear'll flick again. I wanna see that!" an excited and deep voice came from literally nowhere.

The Champions looked about them in all directions, but saw nobody. "Are you all okay?" Nasus asked, a hint of concern in his eyes.

"Who said that?" Volibear asked.

Nasus blinked. "I did?"

"Not you, Curator. The annoying one." Volibear muttered. "Show yourself!"

Nasus shook his head in exasperation. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, please. I'd prefer my other library-goers not be disturbed."

With a huff, the six left. "What a jerk. But he's so adorable, though! You just can't hate him for too long!" It was the voice again.

"Who's there?!" Volibear practically hissed.

"Seveset. Shut up. They can't see you." a second voice came about this time, this one feminine and laced with annoyance.

"Oh, come off it, Kaaya. He's just having fun." a third voice, deeper than the first, but stronger and heartier.

"Whatever, Irra."

Kennen blinked. "What is happening?"

Space a bit in front of the group seemed to distort, causing the six to blink involuntarily. When their eyes readjusted, there seemed to be three Yordles standing there.

"More Yordles. Are you three gonna kill us, too?" Quinn asked, Valor ruffling his feathers defensively.

"No, of course not! That'd be silly!" the first voice belonged to a small male Yordle with soft pink fur and bright orange eyes. He had really large ears, even by Yordle standards, and seemed to be bubbly and friendly with anyone. He wore simple clothing and had piercings at the end of his ears. "Anywho, my name's Seveset!" He giggled, waving.

"I'm Kaaya." the second voice belonged to a female Yordle with deep blue fur and heterochromatic eyes. Her left eye was like an emerald and her right eye was like tigerseye. She wore similarly simple clothing and had fairly normal sized ears.

"Irra." The last one said, nodding shortly. He had solid black fur, but his hands had white fur and the tips of his ears were grey. He also had fairly normal sized ears, and his eyes were a sea blue.

"How did you do that space thing? And why couldn't Nasus hear you?" Quinn questioned them, eyes bewildered.

"And what's wrong with your souls?" Karma asked, her eyes narrow and critical.

"Ah, you can see soul patterns! Interesting!" Seveset said, still bubbly. "We're what's called Cardinal Seers. Once the Cardinal Master is split, it's our job to assist those who split them."

"And why's that?" Caitlyn prodded.

"Because the Cardinal Spirits have been corrupted. You may think the Cardinal Master is in control of their own powers, but that's not quite true. They're just a medium for the Cardinal Spirits to assist in this world. See, when strife is about to strike Runeterra, the Aspect of Twilight- the one you call Zoe- is supposed to come bearing a message of imminent horrors. However, if those horrors are too much for your world to deal with, the Cardinal Spirits give their powers to a child of magic in advance so they can assist. Unfortunately, this time it's bad. Those horrors? They corrupted the Cardinal Spirits. Now the medium, your Cardinal Master, is a medium for evil spirits. Fun, right?" Seveset's eyes glittered with excitement.

"So you three are here to help us… help you?"

"Precisely." Kaaya said, pointing to the Champions. "You assist us, and we'll assist your world."

"So who, exactly, corrupted the Cardinal Spirits?" Kennen asked.

"That would be the Ruby Queen. She's… not your friend." Seveset giggled.

"Clearly." Volibear muttered, rolling his eyes.

"So our first job is to help you. Come with us." Kaaya said simply.

The Champions blinked and the world around them warped, distorting into a different image until they appeared to be in a small cave. Looking outside, they saw they were in a cliffside cave who-knows-how-far above the ground. There was a blizzard outside, and the Champions acutely felt the sudden shift in temperature.

"Alright. Time for upgrades!" Seveset shouted, clapping happily.

"Caitlyn. For you, we've procured The Deadshot." Irra said, pointing to a sniper hanging on the cave wall nearby. "That rifle can shoot phasing bullets that will phase in and out at your command. It's easier to show."

Irra picked up the rifle, pointing it at Caitlyn. "Just trust me here and don't move."

Caitlyn nodded, but there was slight fear in her eyes.

Irra pulled the trigger and a bullet fired. However, right before it hit Caitlyn, it vanished, only to reappear on the other side of her and leave a bullet hole in the cave wall.

"You'll need to practice a lot first, but that's it. You just will it to phase in or out and it will do so."

"Quinn and Valor." Kaaya spoke, beckoning them over. "The Destitute." Kaaya picked up a small box, handing it to Quinn. "This box can, at the command of its owner, switch between a crossbow and a crossgun. To mark yourself as its owner, simply put a drop of your blood on it and say 'I will be the one who brings destitution to all.' and, to activate it once you own it, simply tell it what to do. Crossgun, crossbow, or hide."

"Karma." Seveset looked her straight in the eye. He began speaking a foreign language much like the one Kennen spoke in earlier to split Sære in five.

Shortly after he finished, Karma's eyes and leg tattoo began to glow. When they stopped, she slumped over, panting. "That's new."

"Volibear." Kaaya poked him, as he wasn't looking away from Karma. Kaaya began speaking in an entirely different language, neither the foreign one or Runeterran. Volibear responded in the language and, shortly after, he walked to the side of the room and began a practice that looked an awful lot like meditation.

"Kennen." Irra, Kaaya, and Seveset spoke at once. Kennen blinked, staring at them oddly.

"Yes?"

Kaaya, Seveset, and Irra spoke in unison, their eyes glowing. "Despite what the Cardinal Master thinks, you are actually the one prophesied to stop him. We have kept your true powers dormant for a long time with much effort to make certain he did not find you. Now, we must unleash it. He will feel it and he will know where you are. Do not let him win. It is imperative that the Cardinal Master and the Cardinal Spirits be uncorrupted so Runeterra may live through the horror and strife already on its way. The Aspect of Twilight nor even the Star Forger may protect this world unless the Cardinal Spirits awaken from their nightmare."

Finally, they put their hands toward Kennen and, before Kennen could process what was happening, everything went black.

New people! Le gasp!