CHAPTER 8: VOID'S CALLING

Draven looked at the trembling woman before him. It was time to put the cherry on top.

"Riven..." he began.

The young swordswoman's head snapped up to meet Draven's gaze.

"There is something I must show you. Will you come with me?"

Her eyes narrowed, and not because of Draven.

"Of course." was her quick reply.

Draven sneered inside. It was going all according to plan.

Yasuo was sitting in the cafeteria, enjoying his afternoon break away from his matches, when he felt a large hand clasp his right shoulder. He looked up into the eyes of Darius. Crud, Yasuo thought, he's probably mad that I beat up his brother real bad. Yasuo stood up before talking."If you're here because I beat Draven in a fight, don't expec-"

Yasuo was cut off by Darius raising his hand for him to stop.

"I couldn't care less about whether he won or lost," the big man spoke, "he charged into battle recklessly, so he can deal with the consequences. But the real reason I'm here is because I need to ask you where he is."

Yasuo was taken aback at this man's cold disposition towards Draven.

"I don't know. The last time I saw him was when he was recovering in the hospital a couple days ago. Why?"

"The man just disappeared, and quite mysteriously, too. Anyways, thanks for the information."

With that, the armored Noxian turned and walked out of the cafeteria.

Knowing Draven, his absence can't be a good thing.

Yasuo waited until Darius was out of sight before going off by himself to also search for the missing executioner.

"Wait, what the hell is this?" Riven demanded.

Draven had led her into one of the Institute's basements, into one of the little used summoner cloak cellar. This room was first created to research how to create stronger summoner cloaks using Nexus crystals, which theoretically allowed better mind integration within matches and lower latency between champion movements and summoner commands on the Rift. However, the research, led by Viktor, proved to be much too dangerous to control properly and a test-went-awry caused some… casualties. Even though it has been countless years since the room was last opened, the room held a strong magical atmosphere.

"This is her, I may assume?" A deep voice echoed.

"Seriously, tell me what's going on here!" Riven yelled.

She turned around to look Malzahar straight in the eyes. Multiple visions of torture and death emitted from Malzahar's glowing white eyes, buckling her knees and locking her down.

"Stop, Malzahar," the voice boomed again, "your Nether Grasp is too powerful to use as just a suppression tool."

Draven walked up to the trembling Riven, and helped her up.

"You might wanna know why we brought you her e," the executioner began.

"Yathink?" The struggling fighter replied.

"Well, you see… I've decided to partner up with the Void to destroy Yasuo and all those who stand with him."

Riven suddenly realized everything that happened: Draven had led her on with lies, and she was now trapped with some psychos in the Institute basement.

"You… You joined the Void just to get revenge on a lost fight?" She stammered, taken aback by Draven's actions.

"No Riven. After some thinking, Vel'Koz and I agree upon the fact that the mortal world is filled with fools. These mortal creatures called humans destroy whatever they want, kill whatever they feel like, and steal what they desire. And you know what happens after all that? The same fools who pollute the Earth ask for repentance, and whether or not it was granted to them, go to bed happy, assuming they were forgiven. We are the ones that will right the wrong. We will be rid of all of those scum. And you will join us."

After Draven's monologue, Riven looked up, dead into Vel'Koz's eye.

"There is no way in hell I'm going to just voluntarily join up with you idiots. Now excuse me, but I'm going bac-"

Again, she saw Malzahar's projections of death and pain, and again, fell to her knees, trembling at the sights. Sights of Yasuo on the ground, blood pooling around him, and the life seeping out of his eyes. Next to him lay Kassadin, Nether Blade broken into shards, his normally bright yellow eyes were now a dim grey. The rest of the champions were slaughtered, piled up like a dumpsite, limbs and blood everywhere, their accusing eyes staring at her, screaming silently.

Malzahar's sneery voice spoke up again: "If you leave, you'll know what will happen."

Riven sat on the ground, huddled in the fetal position, her eyes in a trance, shivering. She softly spoke up.

"I'll join you, but please don't hurt my friends."

Draven took a look at her and said, "ta-ta. We got a winner here."

From outside the room, a bright purple glow seeped out the bottom of the door, growing stronger. Suddenly a quick purple explosion was followed by a quick scream. Then silence.