"That feeling when living things aren't highly overrated." –Thresh, the Chain Warden
Games? Check. Console? Check. Controllers? Check. Television? Check.
Everything else? Like he gave a rat's a#% about anything else.
With a magic pouch that had been given to him by Yorick, the Gravedigger, Mordekaiser packed his most important "useless crap" up. At that point, he had nothing important to keep other than himself and his games. What else did he have? Productive hobbies?
Bah, the lord of undead thought carelessly. I could get productive whenever I feel like it.
Ever since Mercedes convinced him to consider a grand return to the Summoner's Rift, the Iron Revenant found himself reminiscing upon his past achievements. He swept the Fields of Justice with an iron hand at one point, but those times had become boring to him for a while. Perhaps if he returned, the Institute of War would be smart enough to spice things up.
"…Well…"
The iron man muttered as he hung the pouch by his armored hip,
"Time to go now…"
When Mordekaiser emerged from the basement, he found himself striding down the heart of the Institute itself. A few female summoners screamed silently at his sudden appearance, and some of the security guards prepared magic spells in case he began to wreak havoc. The Iron Revenant snickered at the ever-increasing atmosphere of hostility around him; had his reputation not fallen off even after six months, after all?
"Mommy," a child asked nearby the iron man, "is he a clown?"
…What?
"H-Honey, don't say that!"
"But he looks like a clown!"
…
Calm down, Mordekaiser, the Iron Revenant told himself as he barely controlled his anger from spiraling out of control. It's just a child. There's nothing you can get out of using a child as a baseball to satisfy your anger. It's just a-
"It's funny!"
"I'M NOT A CLOWN!" The Master of Metal roared, scaring off the parent-and-child duo of unintentional annoyance.
Ugh… Okay, so not everyone remembers me. I'll just have to stuff fear into every single one of them once more.
Ignoring further disturbances within his trip to the dreaded Champions' Break, he walked in silence. One of the security guards had the decency to ask what business he had with the Institute of War, and Mordekaiser responded by punching him in the face without turning away from his path. The rest of the trip did not feature any more pests that wanted to get some kind of information out of him.
He would comply by Mercedes' advice, but he definitely did not feel like walking over to the High Council any sooner. Though it was basically one of the vital portions of the Institute due to having powerful summoners attending it, he found nothing of importance in it. It did pointless, time-consuming things that he could not care any less about.
A few minutes later, he found himself standing in front of the Champions' Break- a huge, huge building that rivaled palaces in terms of size. The building was also where nearly all (if not all) champions lived in. A piece of paper was plastered on the entrance.
Walking up to the note, the lord of undead tore it off the entrance. "Your home is at the top floor. For the time being, try making some friends or something. –Mercedes"
The lord of undead sighed.
The Champions' Break was admittedly huge. The halls were vast, decorative fountains of lucid water placed here and there. The amount of stairs seemed to have increased during Mordekaiser's absence, and a new elevator had been installed. The hallways in generally had a decent amount of detail put into them, but ultimately, they looked pretty empty.
And plants. Now there were several plants chucked into random areas.
"These whole… living… things… are highly overrated," the Iron Revenant muttered.
Mordekaiser sighed as he walked deeper into the Champions' Break. As he traversed down the building he once dreaded, something caught his eye. In the middle of the first floor's large hallway was a figure sitting on a bench.
The iron man felt giddy.
"O' de le joy! The first thing that's remotely close to living is a person sitting on a boring bench. How swell."
Stomping towards the bench, the Master of Metal observed the quiet figure.
A frail lady slept peacefully on the bench, her hair floating in an odd fashion. Some sort of aura caused her clothes to move idly. What caught his attention the most was the strange string instrument she had with her.
Normally, men would fawn over such sleeping beauties.
But Mordekaiser was a clear exception, as he proceeded to take out a steel camera. As quietly as he could, the lord of undead legions crept next to her as he moved one of her pigtails a little. After making sure she did not wake up, the Iron Revenant let the hair cross over his face as he took a picture of himself.
Lo behold, he finally took a picture with something that resembled a long mustache.
"I could use this to win the Bestest, Awesomest, Trollest Troll of the Year," he mused.
Letting go of the hair, Mordekaiser put away the camera. He looked back at the woman, only to find a pair of eyes staring back at him.
The two stared at each other for a while.
Then the woman smiled softly. Her unfazed gaze disturbed the Iron Revenant.
Something is strange about that smile…
The lord of undead wondered how the woman stared at him with so little fear. She only seemed startled by his presence.
Then again, a kid just called him an armored clown.
Keeping a poker face on, the Iron Revenant turned away from the lady, resisting the urge to punch her to the heavens. He felt his ego deflate even further just by looking at her smile, and he loved his own ego. Mordekaiser took a deep breath as he looked back at the woman, ready to blurt incoherent words out to scare her.
A melody of the plucking of strings made him shiver.
The blue-haired woman plucked at the instrument she had with her, and much to the lord of undead's surprise, the music was pleasant. As she came to a stopping point, the iron man suddenly told her,
"Do that thing again."
The lady's soft smile turned into a confused expression. She pointed at her instrument, seeking a confirmation to his request.
"Yes, yes," Mordekaiser nodded. "That thing. That thing made of whatever it's made of. The noise makes me feel so high- I mean, good."
The maven plucked more strings, causing the Master of Metal to twitch erratically. A strange joy found its way to his cold heart as the music played. He could do this all day-
"Wait a second, I should be finding my room right now."
Bolting up from his hunched position, the Iron Revenant revealed his full height as he roared,
"Woman!"
Startled by his loud voice, the lady jumped as her eyes went round.
"You play pleasant music that soothes my ears. I give you permission to tell me your name."
The maiden blinked, remaining still for a few seconds as a small, but nervous smile entered her once confused face.
"…What?"
But then the confused expression returned as the lord of undead became confused. Plucking more of her strings, the string instrumentalist looked up at him expectantly.
"…Woman, I have no idea what you're trying to say but unholy Athene this feels so good my body is literally vibrating. It feels GOOD! AWWWWWW YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Mordekaiser jumped around like a certain, hellish centaur before retreating to the newly installed elevator. However, the Maven of Strings was not in the mood to jump so excitedly. It seemed that her magic did not work.
Therefore, she was unable to talk to him.
Sona wondered why she could not talk to the huge warrior clad in steel-grey armor.
Mordekaiser went to the top floor to find his new "home." His dormitory lay at the very end of the hallway behind a wooden door. Unlike the other floors, the top floor's hallway was noticeably narrower, as it contained only one dorm.
The dormitory itself was not half-bad. There were many rooms inside, with a ridiculously large living room that showed the entire Institute through a wide window. Even the bathroom was large, and apparently, the toilet had been resized for Mordekaiser's comfort. It lacked something crucial, however.
It lacked metal.
The instant moment he entered the room, he renovated it. No longer were the walls and surfaces of the room covered with non-metal materials. Iron walls with a touch of metallic decorations and furniture he himself came up with. The Iron Revenant snickered as he added a throne nearby the wide window so that he could relish upon the puny mortals' pathetic achievement that was the Institute of War.
"This isn't half-bad," he admitted.
"It ain't half-bad at all."
An hours later, Sona informed Garen, the Might of Demacia, on the issue she had with her communication magic. She thought that something was wrong with her ability in general, but judging by how Garen was able to hear the words she intended on sending to him, it was just a strange circumstance.
It seemed that Garen had a response to Sona's issue.
"You WHAT?! SONA, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO THAT MAN IS?! He is Mordekaiser, a ruthless leader of the Shadow Isles! He's known to try killing anyone who ticks him off enough; I had to silence my sister multiple times just to save her life! Heck, she even got captured by him at one point and I barely saved her by requesting Viktor out of all people to talk that monster out of what he tried to do! Do you know what he tried to do?! He tried to boil her alive! And of all things you just had to meet him on a bright day right after he visited the Champions' Break for the first time ever in one year?! You do realize that he had avoided the Champions' Break longer than he had been inactive, right? But first things first, you need to keep in mind that what you did was EXTREMELY RISKY!"
Sona blinked, her hair ruffled due to Garen shaking her shoulders throughout his entire message. She decided to resort to using telepathic communication rather than using her harp to communicate. Though it was less likely that the people she talked with would be able to detect her aura through her harp's tune, she decided that it had a higher chance of not reaching the people she communicated with.
"But… But Sir Garen," she spoke quietly, feeling pressured by Garen's intensely wide eyes. "There was something strange about this man."
The Might of Demacia took a deep breath and calmed himself down a bit. He asked wearily, "And what might that be, Lady Sona?"
The Maven of Strings wondered if she should inform the brown-haired knight of justice about what the lord of undead meant by "unholy Athene," but decided it was just a cultural difference. Still, she did not expect the iron warrior to be a general of the Shadow Isles. Though she felt a bit fearful just by the name "Shadow Isles," she still hoped that what she did would not put herself under danger.
From what she experienced, however, Mordekaiser did not seem to be hostile to her. She hoped it stayed that way, or perhaps, go as far as to befriend him.
"…It seems I cannot remember what I wanted to ask, but thank you very much, Sir Garen. I shall be wary."
Garen felt heat rise up to his cheeks. He could not stand it when a beautiful lady like Sona looked up to him like that. Do not doubt him! He did not plan on leaping over the boundary of friendship, as he saw her simply as a faithful friend.
And much to his own surprise, it had stayed that way pretty well.
Outside of Garen's dormitory were two women standing right at the door.
Luxanna Crownguard felt worried about her brother. Right now, he was with a bombshell of a woman in his room, and never did he willingly let in women until Sona popped up. Was he trying to do something drastic? Or perhaps he wanted to confess his love? Or maybe it was something really unethical and unfitting of two noble Demacians?! Either way, she focused intently on their conversation. They seemed to care for one another, so that was already another danger sign…
Next to Lux was Katarina du Couteau, who instinctively had a dagger nailed into the wall next to the door. Having known Garen for a long time, she was quite interested in the sudden turn of events. Something about the situation was juicy… in a very annoying way. She had her own reasons to appreciate Garen even as a Noxian, and she certainly did want him to experience joy from the good deeds he did fervently.
But the woman known as Sona was a dangerous weapon to all men alike.
"How clever," Katarina whispered to herself as she continued to hear the conversation, her grip on the knife stabbed into the wall beginning to tremble immensely. "Attacking directly is her forte? Well, it's not like I'm interest in her tactics or anything…"
"…Uh, Kat?" Lux whispered to the Sinister Blade as she eyed the sharp weapon. "T-That knife looks pretty intimidating, you know…"
Lux whimpered when Katarina ignored her and proceeded to tremble even harder.
"But Sir Garen, why have you brought me to your room?" Sona asked timidly. "And there are so many… swords."
Garen asked shyly,
"Well… Want to see my sword?"
The two women outside of his room froze deathly still.
"Your… sword?"
"Yes, my personal sword. The one I do not use outside of this room."
Lux and Katarina felt their hearts beating faster than ever.
"D-Does he enjoy that kind of stuff?!" Lux quietly, but hastily, asked Katarina.
The Sinister Blade seemed equally confused and answered honestly, "I don't know! He sure didn't try to share it to me, that's for sure."
"…What are you implying?"
The soft voice of Sona further frightened them. "S-Sir Garen, what are you doing? And why are you being so… sneaky about this?"
"Eh? Ah! Uh, that's because I want to share it with someone I trust."
Both Lux and Katarina turned away from the door and slammed their heads against the ground, screaming internally,
ARE YOU SAYING YOU CAN'T TRUST ME?!
"W-S-Sir Garen! That is…!"
The blonde Demacian and the red-haired Noxian bolted up from the ground and pressed their ears against the door, their eyes wide and their cheeks flushed.
"It looks… intimidating…"
"He he! Actually, I never use this in battle. Sure, I swung it around in the bathroom before, but it turns out it was too big to do that in such a cramped area. I always hit my body wash with it, unfortunately."
Steam seeped out of the two eavesdropping women.
"…Do you want to hold it?"
Everyone gasped. Lux pressed her hands against mouth to prevent herself from screaming out loud. Katarina tore out the dagger from the wall and pressed her hands against her head. Mordekaiser screamed as he realized there was a dust ball that had been stuck on Nightfall for the past six months.
But he screamed in his room, so no one noticed his plight(?).
"M-May I?"
May I?!
"Do not worry, Lady Sona. No one is around to hear us."
NO ONE TO HEAR THEM?!
"O-Okay…"
OKAY?!
Lux took out her light staff as she used it to exert her own boiling emotions, while Katarina began twirling the dagger she tore out of the wall.
Meanwhile, the Maven of Strings held what appeared to be a model sword from Diablo II. Garen actually received the sword as a gift from Xin Zhao, who had been known among his friends to enjoy playing video games for quite some time. It was huge, but since it was not a real sword, it was not as heavy as a steel weapon. It did look realistic for what it was, though.
"L-Like this?"
The sight of a fragile Sona having trouble holding a model sword sent Garen to a world of bliss. A shy maven was an awesome maven- no offense given to the maven herself. He closed his eyes as he remained still with an open smile, day-dreaming a tiny Sona slashing away dozens of stupid monsters that dared to attack her.
"Sir… Garen…?"
"…Huh? Oh, uh. Ha ha! Sorry, I just didn't imagine you out of all people to hold this thing of mine."
"I-Is that so?"
"Yes! In fact, that big sword might even fit well with your-"
The door suddenly burst open, catching the Might of Demacia off-guard. Whirling around, the brown-haired man's eyes widened as he saw Lux and Katarina flying towards him.
With real weapons in hand.
"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
"Lux? Kat?! What in the world are you- GUAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Garen went into a world of pain. Something he definitely did not deserve. The lord of undead snickered as he tossed the dustball he discovered in a trashcan.
...
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Author's Notes:
So far so good.
Next chapter: "Mordekaiser's Invitation!"