May Chaos Reign!
Ruination: Return Chapter XIII
Depths Beneath Part V
The Black Mist parts and the looming figure of Pantheon emerges, Karthus and Draven a step behind.
"Hello again," Pantheon states, a predatory, inhuman smile passing across his face.
Senna barely has time to dodge as the Ascended rushes towards her, his spear spinning and stabbing in a flurry of motion.
His blade grazes her face right beneath her eye before Diana intercedes, her sickle battering his spear aside and then clanging against his shield with a thunderous gong.
"Round 2, New Moon?" The Pantheon growls, smiling grotesquely.
Diana's eyes narrow, and silver light flares around her right before he headbutts her.
Karthus rises into the air, the Black Mist rippling and wrapping around him.
"Lay down your arms, Heathens, the End is now." he rasps, pointing his towards them, roiling tendrils of Mist lancing upwards from the ground towards them.
Yasuo slashes and cuts several and then parries a strike from Draven as he leaps forward, both axes swinging in a downward arch.
"Nice to see you again, pal." he snarks, nodding to Yasuo's healed arm, "Think you're actually gonna put up a good fight this time? Don't have the tr-"
Yasuo punches him in the stomach, unbalancing the gladiator, and slashes forward with his blade, nearly taking out both of his eyes.
"That hurt!" Draven barks, blinking in surprise.
Yasuo smirks, revealing the small relic-stone spikes set into the knuckles of his gauntlet.
"Anything to shut you up." Yasuo returns, darting for him.
Senna fires again and again, blasting weaker wraiths and Karthus's attacks away from her and Graves.
"I got a shot, but it ain't gonna do no good!" Graves remarks, sweat visible on his brow.
Senna glances around the chaos and up to Karthus, who grins down at her judgementally.
"He is coming, and on this hallowed ground, second-marked by Ruination, will he finally wrest his bride from your jealous grip!" Karthus threatens, "Why fight that which is inevitable? Give in, and earn a place in paradise."
Senna fires at him in response, and he vanishes, appearing from the Mist several feet away.
"She does not protect you." he continues.
The Mist surges towards her.
"And neither will your Husband." he continues, "Not for what he is to be offered."
Confusion. Denial. Worry.
Karthus hooks her, and the Mist dives in, more urgent and harsh than ever before.
Graves grimaces and fires, but the shot passes through Karthus, whose rictus grin seems to grow all the wider.
"Give in," Karthus intones again as Diana and Yasuo are pushed back by the surging Mists and their opponents' rabid assault.
Fear, not her own, surges within her.
And that awakens her rage in turn.
She shrieks, and the Black Mist, the invader, becomes the invaded, drawing it into her and rising to face Karthus in the air, her countenance more spectral and fiendish now than ever before.
"No," she intones, swearing for a moment. Another voice whispers under her own.
Karthus is unphased, even pleased, perhaps.
"Beautiful." he intones, raising his hands, the Black Mist churning to his defense.
She looks down at Graves, his face a mask of fear, and tosses down her cannon.
"Consider it a loner," she states, and a slow grin begins to cross the outlaw's face as he instinctively cocks the gun back and fires, a searing blast catching Draven in the side of the face and sending him spinning.
"Finally!" Grave roars, pointing the gun up at Karthus, "Now to shut you up."
He fires, and Senna surges towards Karthus, claws emerging from the tips of her fingers.
Lucian dives under Thresh's swing, firing two shots into the wraith's chest.
The wraith snarls and flicks the blade back, scoring a cut along the side of Lucian's face.
"I tire of this dance." Thresh growls.
"Then why do you keep initiating it?!" Lucian roars back, firing shot after shot, the wraith weaving and scrambling away from them.
"This was not my intention here." Thresh states, eyes narrowing as he glances around, "But I suppose I will have quite a few new souls to add to my lantern when this is done. Starting with that traitorous queen."
Lucian's next shot catches him in the forehead, searing free one of his snapping tendrils.
Thresh snarls and surges towards him.
"Or maybe I will finally rid myself of you tonight!" Thresh amends, swinging his lantern around like a bludgeon. His form shifts and grows as Black Mist begins to seep in and congeal.
Lucian dives out of the way as Thresh's next strike powders the stone where he had been standing.
He fires, but the bolts seem to do next to nothing as Thresh continues to grow. He looms over Lucian, his form monstrous, yet his facial features becoming more and more human.
"I've learned quite a few new tricks since the last time we sparred," Thresh remarks with a cutting smile.
"And I have you to thank, in part." he continues, "Your failure in doing your job has only made my growth all the more attainable."
Lucian dashes to avoid his next strike, his form haloed in brilliance and then tucks into a roll as the curving strike keeps carving through the stone toward him. He dives to cover behind a section of fallen floor as Thresh retracts his blade.
"I smell the mark of the Buhru's serpent' goddess,'" Thresh taunts, "Motion and change, yet how is it I, the stagnant heresy, have learned from this experience?"
Lucian grits his teeth, readying a deluge of fire, only for a blast of Black Mist to erupt from beneath his feet.
He teeters, snarling as the Mist attempts to sink in, grasping for purchase, and Thresh's clawed hand finds his face.
"Meanwhile, you stay just as predictable as the day I stole your wife." Thresh rasps, slamming Lucian into the ground, and beginning to squeeze, his claws digging into the corners of Lucian's face, threatening to rip it free as the lantern rises like a demanted angler's lure above Thresh's head.
"So much for motion." Thresh taunts, squeezing all the tighter, Lucian feeling the wraith touch something within him he hadn't fully realized was there and begin to pull.
"Out of respect for all the time we shared," Thresh remarks, leaning in close, an aged human visage overtaking the skull once more, a sick gleam in his eyes, "I will be sure to make this slow."
Lucian fights to raise his pistols, but the Black Mist lances up to grab his wrists. He continues to struggle, attempting to shift the barrels up.
A gunshot rings out, and half of Thresh's face vanishes, and a shot lances into the rock not an inch from Lucian's head.
The specter's grip slackens, and Lucian is able to surge free, firing blast after blast of his pistols into Thresh's chest with a roar.
He glances up and spots Miss Fortune perched above him on a section of crumbling rubble, one pistol smoking, the other still drawing a bead on Thresh.
Thresh snarls, batting Lucian away and launching his sickle at Fortune, but she deftly dodges, her neck shot punching a hole clean through his breastplate.
She looks to Lucian with a cunning smile, and he glances between her and the snarling wraith.
"What is this?" he demands.
She just continues to smile at him, and Thresh snarls.
"I will rip you both to sunders!" he rasps, slamming his fist down. Spires of bone punch upwards, forming a domed cage that swallows the faint light from above.
Fortune's smile grows all the wider, and Thresh's eyes narrow.
"Shall we finish this?" she asks, turning to look at Lucian.
Thresh surges forward and freezes as a chain of black mist erupts from one of the spires and snares around his neck.
"Wha-" Thresh demands, more chains snapping to life, ensnaring his limbs and pulling them taunt, grasping hands rise from the ground and drag him down, forcing him to kneel, both arms pulled taunt behind him.
Lucian darts forward and, as Thresh looks up, places the barrels of his pistols in the center of the wraith's forehead.
"What is this?!" Thresh demands, fighting against his bindings, but with each attempt to break them, his form diminishes, and Black Mist drains out of him.
Fortune's smile widens, and a hand emerges from the ground and wraps around the wraith's lower jaw, forcing it open and making him unable to speak.
"Apologies, Thresh. When I said, I would lay a trap for when the Sentinels arrived," Fortune taunts, stepping towards him. I think I failed to specify who the trap was for."
Lucian narrows his eyes at her, and she glances back at him, the faintest pinprick of green flame burning in the center of her pupils.
Senna feels some part of her relish the momentary shock on Karthus's face as her claws find purchase on his form.
"Release me!" he demands.
"Gladly." she returns, swirling around and slamming him into the ground.
The wraith fights to rise, but she is on him in an instant, tearing and clawing at him with abandon, all the emotion she'd kept locked up inside finally finding a release.
"Don't have much to say now, do you?' she rasps, plunging one of her claws deep into his chest.
Karthus smiles grimly, "My work requires concentration."
The ground beneath both of them erupts with green flames.
Senna cries out as they are both thrown into the air, Karthus's staff biting into her stomach and twisting as he wrests himself from her grasp.
Diana cries out, drawing her attention, as she is sent careening into the wall from a mighty strike from Pantheon's shield.
"Hmph," he growls, looking up to Senna with burning intent. He hefts his spear.
And a beam of light envelopes his head, a burst of smoke erupting around him.
Senna glances down and sees Graves standing there, marveling over her gun with a wide smirk.
"Could get used to this." Graves mutters and then falls on his ass as Pantheon's spear launches slamming into the rifle and knocking him to the ground.
"You won't live long enough to." Pantheon remarks, summoning the spear back to his hand and stepping towards him only for Diana to carve a deep cut along his back, a section of his warped starry cloak fading into nothing.
Senna launches to aid her but is swarmed by smaller wraiths pouring in from above as Karthus raises his staff.
"On your feet!" Yasuo shouts, cutting across Draven's chest and sending a lashing tornado at the wraiths, diving to assault Graves.
"Give me a second," Graves groans, fighting to stand, wincing and coughing, a bit of blood spattering the ground, "Maybe a bit more than that, actually."
"I thought you Bilgewater folk were made of sterner stuff," Yasuo remarks, blade clashing with Draven's as the gladiator surges back towards him.
"Same." the possessed man snarks, nodding in mock agreement with the blade master.
"Shut up," Graves groans. He fires the cannon from the ground, knocking Draven's feet out from under him.
And all the while, Karthus continues to chant and sing as more and more wraiths pour in to mob them from all angles.
Diana slams the blade down on Pantheon's shield, hooking the rim and beginning to pull it down. A ball of silver light coalesces in her other hand.
To her frustration, Pantheon yawns.
"Am I boring you, Parasite?" Diana demands, slashing at her opponent's feet.
"A bit." The War God returns with a cold grin, managing to strike her across the face with the butt of his spear.
Diana spits defiantly, "The Mountain was better with your passing."
"Peaceful was it?" Pantheon jabs, "Is that why you ran away, not because your people were losing the war for their existence."
Diana falters as he manages to get within her guard again, cutting across her hip.
"My people are safe." she refutes.
"Now, and for how long?" Pantheon demands, "Are they going to stay content on that little island?"
"How do you-"Diana growls, sending three powerful overhand strikes at him, two glancing off his shield, the other finding his shoulder.
His grin widens as he slides back, allowing the blade to cut deeper.
"Do you really think your people don't pray to me as well?" Pantheon asks, "How many would gladly turn their flag if I told them I would gladly lead them to shatter the Solari's hold on Targon? I may have been gone, but their pleas and prayers still linger, ever waiting for the answer you refuse to give them."
"Your stolen time amongst us shortens with each word you speak." Diana snarls.
Pantheon shakes his head, darting under her swing and kicking her thunderously in the torso, sending her careening backward.
"I'll believe that when you actually start putting some effort in," Pantheon taunts, nodding to her battling compatriots. Are you too worried about collateral if you cut loose? You show more care for their safety than your own people."
Diana roars, silver light emanating from her eyes like spotlights.
Pantheon chuckles and braces for her charging strike.
"Perfect." he breathes.
"You aren't Fortune," Lucian remarks, shifting the aim of one of his pistols while the other stayed squarely planted in the center of the struggling Thresh's forehead.
"I am, and I am not," she states, and he can hear Viego's voice underlining her own.
"It is fitting for all of you to be in this place before me, though, my would-be rivals, one already seeing the light, the other pretending he does, and one whose defiance may yet be remedied." Viego continues, "In this place that was defiant against my wishes for so long."
"Release her," Lucian demands.
"I could, but she made her bargain." Viego states, "For her loyalty I give her what she wants, her mother returned, her hated rival dead at her feet."
A spectral shadow of Viego begins to appear over her shoulders.
"She and I are much alike, just as we are." the specter remarks, gesturing between himself and Lucian.
"We are nothing alike!" Lucian remarks. Thresh struggles to speak, but the coiling chains of Mist keep his jaw pulled taunt.
"Do you not have an enemy that took everything from you?" Viego remarks.
"Did you not do everything in your power to bring yourself and your love justice?" he continues.
"He is one of yours." Lucian growls, "You-"
"No!" Viego snaps, "He is not one of mine. Your Senna was not all he claimed in his lantern. He claimed my bride. He pushed doubt amongst my followers; he sought to see me enslaved by a pirate barbarian and then spread utter falsehoods!"
The chains pull tighter as Viego screams.
"That I would harm my beloved, that I saw as her but a plaything and an amusement." Viego growls, "Painting me in the way he views the world so that this one and her companions would send me back to my cursed sleep!"
He places a hand on Fortune's shoulder, and she fires, ripping a chunk out of Thresh's shoulder, who snarls and rages against his imprisonment.
"He is my enemy, as he is yours." Viego finishes, "But back to the original matter, you, Fortune and I understand loss, we understand grief, hatred and resolve."
Lucian stares at the pair silently.
"But more than anything, we understand the pure terror of being left utterly and completely alone in this world," Viego states, and for a moment, he sounds… so young, so scared.
"I… what do you want?" Lucian demands.
"What I have always wanted, my bride returned to me." Viego states, "I know why you resist, by some cruel trick of the Gods, or Fate my love's soul has been intertwined with your own."
"I won't give you Senna." Lucian snarls.
"I do not want her." Viego returns, "All I want is my beloved Isolde."
"I have seen what that desire does to my wife," Lucian growls, "You'll kill her!"
"But we both know that through the Ruination, death is not the end." Viego intones.
Lucian freezes.
"My offer to you is this," Viego states, gesturing to Thresh, "First, the head of your most hated enemy."
Lucian looks back down at the being, who glares back up at him, burning hatred.
"The second eternal life alongside your love," Viego continues, "Both your bride and mine freed from the constraints of death."
Lucian begins lowering one of his pistols.
"All you need to do is join me." Viego states, offering a hand, a crown of Black Mist emerging from his palm.
"And you need never worry about being separated from her ever again." Viego finishes.
Thresh wrenches his jaw free and spits, "Such a bargain, but in reality, you would be no better than if I took the both of you into my lantern!"
Viego casts out a hand, and a thicker link of chain wraps around his lower jaw and, with a surge of force, wrenches it off. The scream Thresh emits stabs deep into Lucian's soul.
"I think we are all rather tired of his interjections, don't you agree?" Viego asks.
"Yeah…" Lucian agrees, "I gotta say, you'd have made a convincing merchant in another life."
Viego grins.
"The only problem with your offer, though," Lucian remarks, "is that for all your talk of how we are the same, there is one key difference between us."
The Black Mist closes in as Viego frowns, "And what is that?"
"When it comes to the woman I love, my desires are secondary," Lucian states, and he fires, his shot shattering the necklace off Fortune's neck in a burst of green and golden light.
Viego roars wordlessly, and the building quakes around them.
Fortune blinks and vomits, a torrent of Black Mist erupting from her mouth as she falls to the ground.
"What-what have I-" she begins.
"Later," Lucian states, "We need to get out of here. Can you stand?"
"Yeah… yeah," Fortune remarks, looking up at him with a smirk. "Are you going to make a habit of saving me from myself?"
"I hope not." he returns, helping her to her feet.
She grins, looking up at him and down, clicking her tongue.
"What?" Lucian asks.
"Nothing." Fortune remarks, "Your Senna is a lucky one."
Lucian blinks and turns, taking in Thresh, still chained in the runic circle. He feels his relic pistols vibrate in his hands.
The desire to fire and not stop surges to the forefront of his mind.
But there wasn't time.
More was coming, and he needed to find Senna and the others.
Thresh glares at him as his jaw reforms, "Another time then?"
The wraith chuckles as the chains fall away, and he vanishes into the Mist.
"You missed your shot." Fortune remarks.
"He's the least of my worries right now." Lucian remarks, "Let's move."
Senna carves the last of the smaller wraiths mobbing her right as Diana collides with Pantheon.
There is a single spark, and then she is blinded by a cascade of chilling silver light.
She feels buoyed and pierced clean through all at the same time, the radiant celestial light affecting her disparate halves in very different ways.
She falls to the ground, drawing the Mist deep within, shielding it with her mortal form.
Draven hisses like a kicked cat and vanishes into the Mists as it retracts.
Graves sits up, and Yasuo darts to her side as the remaining wraiths shriek and scream before vanishing with contented sighs, the silvery embrace of the moon ferrying them to a peaceful slumber.
"Are you alright?" Yasuo asks, kneeling beside her.
"F-fine." Senna chokes out, rubbing the center of her chest.
Graves whistles as the light ceases, and Diana appears, wavering slightly, thin cracks gleaming with pearlescent light covering her arms and face.
Pantheon kneels before her, weapons dropped to the side, his body scorched, helmet pitted and cracked, yet still, the hateful green light of his eyes burned as strong as ever.
"Release him," Diana demands, pressing her sickle to his chin.
Pantheon chuckles, "Where was this fury when your love turned her back on you?"
Diana's eyes widen, and she raises her blade to decapitate him.
"Diana!" Senna cries, healing light spilling from her fingers, but she is too far, and Karthys quickly intercedes, hovering in the air a hollow image, his latest body charred and broken on the ground.
His wall goes up, her magic flares against it, and Pantheon's spear punches up into Diana's unprotected stomach and out her back.
Diana gasps, wrapping her hand around the haft, her swing going slightly wide, carving a line across Pantheon's visor.
Both deities scream in pain, one impaled, the other blinded, and Yasuo moves first, leaping above the wall, a blast of wind sending Pantheon rolling across the ground.
He catches Diana' stopping her from falling face first, almost pushing the haft further through her.
"Senna!" he cries.
"No!" Karthus snarls, snaring Mist erupting to try and hold her in place.
Graves, coughing up more blood, stands and fires, shot after shot burning into Karthus, but the Deathsinger remains resolute.
And then, a harpoon slams into his back and rips him squarely to the ground.
Senna is on her feet, racing for Diana, healing magic spilling from her hands.
"Diana, are you?" Senna asks, holding the other woman's face as Yasuo continues to prop her up, his eyes locked on the snarling and rolling Pantheon.
"Is it distressing to learn I am as mortal as you?" Diana remarks, a joke perhaps. She can't be sure.
"I-" Senna is unsure what to say but just reaches falteringly towards the spear.
"I can heal in time," Diana comforts, though the widdening cracks along the side of her face do not inspire confidence. But you must remove the spear."
Pantheon growls and reaches out blindly, "Allow me to oblige you!"
The spear begins to move, pulling back towards Pantheon. The blade threatens to impale Diana again in the inverse.
Senna grabs it, holding on with all her might, ignoring the pain as the slick gore causes it to slip, the back knicking her hands.
Yasuo lashes out, his sword sending cutting winds towards the wounded war god, but he manages to find his shield, protecting himself.
He clenches his other hand, and the spear tugs against her grip. Diana is grimacing in pain.
Karthus howls all the while as from the ground, rippling like water a wiry man dressed in worn leathers and bone with glowing blue eyes rises.
"You look familiar." the newcomer rasps, wrenching another blade from his hip as he approaches the Deathsinger.
And then another figure appears, carving their blade deep into Pantheon's back, silver-blue flame igniting hungrily.
Ledros looks to Senna, "See to her."
She nods and, with a surge, draws the spear clean through Diana's body, tossing it aside as the demigoddess's eyes close. Immediately, Senna's hands fall to her wound, golden light surging into it.
Karthus wrenches his way off the harpoon and vanishes right as the stranger's blade comes down, sinking up to the hilt into the stone floor.
The stranger growls and rounds on Pantheon, who slams Ledros aside and stands.
"You lot are almost impressive." the war god taunts, and like that, he and his weapons are gone, vanishing into the Mists.
Diana's eyes open, and she glances at Senna with a small smile.
"Thank you," she murmurs.
"Save the thanks for later. You're running out of time." the stranger states.
"Pyke?" Yasuo remarks, standing, a look of cautious relief on his face.
Pyke nods, "I see you found more trouble for yourself."
Yasuo smirks despite himself.
"You need to get the Old City, I can take you there, this everyone?' Pyke demands.
"No, my husband-" Senna states, Pyke looking at her for the first time, an oddly hungry light in his eyes.
He sniffs the air and turns, "I'll find him. You-"
He points at Graves, who blanches, though he already looks fairly pale, a bit of blood caking his beard.
Diana nods to him, "I can recover on my own from here, see to him."
Senna pulls her hands from the wound, and while sealed, it looks ugly and raw.
"Are you?" Senna begins, but Diana nods firmly, stands tall, and closes her eyes. The marking on her head flairs, and the wound begins to lessen.
Senna places a hand on Grave's shoulder, and a shudder goes through him.
Pyke is unmoved, "You know this place?"
"Yes," Graves returns.
"Then take this lot to the lowest of the caves that connect to the sea." Pyke orders.
"Why?" Yasuo demands, his eyes narrowing.
Pyke looks to him, "Old City's beneath the waves. Mist will choke any ship that leaves the harbor. You know exactly why."
Now it is Yasuo's turn to blanche.
"I'll do that." Graves remarks, handing Senna back her gun. "Suppose you'll want this back, Mam."
Senna raises an eyebrow.
"Then get going." Pyke commands, turning to Senna, "I'll find your man."
And with that, he is gone, sinking into the floor.
Ledros looks to her, "What happened?"
"Long story," Senna remarks with a sigh, glancing at Yasuo in turn, "What's he sending us after?"
Yasuo uncorks his flash and takes a sip, "Longer story."
"Talk on the way," Diana states.
"The exit should be there," Graves notes, pointing to the far wall, a large section of the shattered floor sitting in the way.
Ledros steps forward and, with a single swing, breaks it into pieces, revealing an unlit doorway.
"Right, this way, folks," Graves remarks, shaking his head silently as if debating his life chances, before looking to Yasuo, "Can I get a swig of that?"
The others rush past her, but Senna pauses, for she feels a cold child pierce right to the center of her being.
"He's here." a voice whispers, desperate and distant.
"Double time!" Senna orders, and with a single glance, the others listen, charging deeper into the ever-darkening caverns before them.
And scene!
Right, the next chapter might be the last of this arc, but I am not fully certain.
Hope folks enjoyed it, not sure when the next will be up due to how crazy my schedule has become.
As always, comments, questions, and critiques are appreciated. This has been VerBeeker, signing off!