The battle for the City of Progress shall reach a crescendo in this chapter.
Ruination: Return Chapter VIII
Shadow Behind the Gilding Part VII
He forced himself to stand, ignoring the protests of his aching muscles and screaming bones.
Just under a day was enough rest.
He pulled his jacket on over his Sentinel's armor, fighting to stave off a wince as bandages and muscle both tugged across his form.
It had been a stupid thing to do, he was aware, jumping in front of a rocket for a practical stranger, but…
Well, he'd long learned the importance of making a sacrifice play.
Scooping up the Wayfinder, Ezreal opens the door and sees the other Sentinels waiting around beside Ekko and a bruised but alert Zeri.
Gwen shoots to her feet the moment she sees him, "You should still be-,"
"Resting, I know." he remarks, cutting her off, "I've got enough. We need to get around to ending this."
"And you believe you are in the state to do so?" a gruff voice asks. He turns, seeing Ryze descending the steps, Isolde's parasol still clasped in his grip.
"I have to be." Ezreal returns, "The others are probably back by now wondering where we are, and the city… both cities have suffered enough. The sooner we get to the Hexgate and take care of whatever is keeping us here, the sooner this whole nightmare can be over."
Gwen puffs her cheeks in annoyance, but Vayne nods her agreement.
Riven stands, having been silently sharpening her blade with a harsh expression.
"I agree with Ezreal. The sooner we get to the Hexgate, the better." her voice toned with a sharp edge.
"You are seeking something else atop that tower than our goal." Ryze remarks flatly.
"And so what if I am?" she returns coldly.
"It is no business of mine. I simply hope it does not distract from the goal your young friend so eloquently mentioned." Ryze notes, gesturing to Ezreal.
"Are we ready?" Ezreal asks, feeling a hint of uncertainty seep in.
"Gwen and Glasc have crafted enough of a cure to at least free Olaf from whatever hold that Chemist has over him." Vayne remarks, holding up several vials and a handful of altered bolts, "We need simply administer it."
"So is the hope," Gwen states, tapping her foot nervously.
"I'll take care of it." Vayne states, twirling a bolt between her fingers, "The rest of you should keep an eye for whatever else the Mist and this…Protector have spawned within the streets."
"Jinx might be off the table, but we're down people. Blitz isn't operable," Ekko mutters, speaking up for the first time, "Which is going to make it harder to get back up there to begin with. The Professor is working on him, but I don't think he'll be back on his feet anytime soon."
"That still leaves six of us." Ezreal remarks.
"Seven," Zeri interjects, and Ekko looks like for a moment he is going to argue with her, but she ignores him.
"Even better," Ezreal says.
"Against the whole rest of the cities." Ekko fires back, "But especially Singed, and the Siren and Camille and… Vi."
Ekko slumps a little more at the mention of the last name, and Zeri places a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I'll take care of Singed," Riven growls, her hands tightening around the pommel of her blade.
"The others, who are they?" Gwen asks.
"Vi is…she's an old friend, one of the best fighters I've ever seen. We were together when P-Jinx showed up with the Mist in tow, and things went bad." Ekko remarks, "She was always strong, but with the Mist, she's like nothing I've ever seen."
"Then we should make freeing Olaf a priority." Vayne states, glancing at Ekko, "He's good at handling blunt instruments."
Ekko scowls.
"The real problem is the Siren." Zeri notes, "She can get in your head before the Mist even gets its hooks in your dancing to her tune."
"Who is she?" Ezreal asks.
"A girl from the Intersol, don't know her name, but she was some kind of activist or musician or both, never paid her much mind." Ekko remarks, "Folks talked about her being a mage back before the Mist, but now she's incredibly dangerous."
"Camille?" Riven asks.
"She was terrifying before the Mists." Ezreal remarks, "A fixer for Clan Ferros, the rumors surrounding her could fill several books.
"Real confidence building you're doing there." Ekko snarks.
"And the Protector?" Ryze queries.
Ekko shakes his head, "No one knows who he is or what he can do, but I have a theory."
Ezreal leans in, "Go on."
Ekko nods, "I think he might be…"
Singed weaves through the halls of the Academy, humming softly as he meanders past the stationary forms of the former council members, shells of bronze holding the ever-shifting Black Mist within.
His bodyguard, the massive Freljordian barbarian, stomps after him, his teeth bared in a snarling grimace.
What opportunities the Mist had brought him.
Like the one waiting ahead.
The Protector shifts, staring at Singed with unfeeling eyes as he slides into the room. The Siren hovers listlessly to the side, her face hidden beneath the curtain of her hair.
"What?" the Protector demands, his voice reverberating from the metallic mask that covered much of his face.
"It appears that the Firelights, with aid from the Sentinels, have pushed back one of your latest acquisitions." Singed notes, "And removed another from the playing field."
The Protector turns to face him fully, his mechanical armor clicking and hissing, plumes of Black Mist rising above his shoulders.
"Then we must descend upon them with impunity." the Protector remarks, "I will not allow this city to fall to chaos."
Singed smirks to himself, "Of course not."
Around the room, transformed Piltovans and Zaunites both reveal themselves, metallic second-skins having hidden them about the walls, and the Siren slowly begins to raise her head as the Protector raises his hand.
"Where are they?" he demands, his voice tinged with another, more hungry, more rageful.
"Where they are going should be of more import." Singed remarks.
"Out with it." the Protector snarls.
"They are headed for the Hexgate." Singed states, bowing his head.
"The barrier." the Protector murmurs, and for a moment, something shines within the entity's eyes, a look close to that of whom he had once been. It gives Singed paise for a moment, but the light swiftly vanishes.
"Recall those hunting within the Undercity. They will not destroy everything we have built to protect this place!" he bellows.
"And the item they ferreted away?" Singed asks.
"If they wish to escape with it, they will carry it with them. It is of l-" the figure freezes as that alien will that seemed to fill all of the Ruined's minds took over, "It must be taken at any cost."
"Take the Siren, lower the barrier," he demands.
"Why?" Singed queries, "Would that not simply allow our targets to escape?"
"It need only be down for a moment. The why will become clear once you have finished. Now go!" the Protector barks.
Singed nods and the Protector turns, wrapping his hands around the haft of his weapon, "Let this resistance finally come to an end."
Weaving through the devastated streets of Zaun makes the transition to the Intersol even more stark. Below, it had been clear the battle had been constant, and here and there, the fight continued on.
Here, though, the fight is long over, his home entirely overtaken by the cold hands of the Black Mist and this supposed Protector.
The silence still disarms him, even though he expects it.
Ezreal grimaces, focusing on balancing himself properly as he and the others race ever skyward atop hoverboards borrowed from the Firelights.
Ekko had been adamant that the others stayed behind, except Zeri, who had adamantly refused to listen and soars quietly to his left, her face set in worried concentration.
Glasc and Heimerdinger had stayed behind, the former because she refused to risk her own neck, the latter because he was the only one that could repair the damaged golem properly.
Ryze hovers of his own accord, brands burning with purple light, his face set, while Vayne and Riven circuit around the group on their own boards, the latter curiously natural in the air, though her eyes are locked in a hundred-yard stare.
Vayne rechecks her weaponry for the fifth time as they emerge over the top of one of the largest bridges spanning the Intersol Gap.
Gwen smiles at him as she catches his eye, tightly clutching the several "grenades" the inventors had concocted for her, filled to the brim with shimmer-canceling antigens and the gleaming Hallowed Mist.
And at the head of the pack is Ekko, face set, eyes hard, club bouncing nervously against his hip as they stay within the shadow of the upper city.
"There," Ekko remarks, pointing.
The others look, and Ezreal swallows as a familiar sight comes into view, towering above the rest of the Upper City like a mountain.
The Hexgate. Their destination and the apparent source of whatever device was keeping them trapped in this eerily silent city.
Its vast globe-like pinnacle still turned slowly, yet across its surface, thin green lines spiderwebbed out.
"How long has it looked like that?" Ezreal calls out.
"That… that's new," Zeri notes, looking over at Ekko nervously.
"What-" Ezreal begins, only for a boom like thunder to echo towards them as the Hex Gate momentarily flares, and atop its highest point, a light briefly glows a violent blue.
The green lines crack open Black Mist, pouring out and consolidating into a wide ring that orbits around the Hexgate, the shrieks and screamings of wraiths filling the formally silent air.
The wind picks up, and Ezreal blinks as a bluebird darts past them, spiraling through the air.
Ryze's eyes narrow, "The barrier is down. We can l-"
The blue light winks out, and the elder mage winces, "I stand corrected."
The glowing lines vanish, but the ring remains tendrils of Black Mist reaching out to anchor the mass to the tower itself, beginning to form into a cage-like structure.
"We need to move," Vayne remarks, sending her board racing forward.
"What happened?" Ezreal demands, looking to Ryze as they and the others launch after her.
"For but a second, the barrier dropped. I could feel the block surrounding my teleportation vanish, but it has since returned." Ryze explains.
"Which means the Protector and the other Ruined are likely waiting for us." Gwen remarks, with a frown, "Let us hope Olaf will be amongst us."
"Let's hope you can help him before he carves out heads off," Ezreal mutters.
"If the barrier halts teleportation, shutting it down, even momentarily, would have allowed us to escape or allow someone to enter unimpeded," Riven notes, her hand tightening around the hilt of her blade.
"Reinforcements, wonderful," Ekko remarks bitterly.
"Enough complaints. We need to be ready for anything." Vayne commands.
The others nod, and in unison, they arch up into the sun-touched sky of the Upper City, the Hexgate and whatever threat lay within growing ever closer.
The fighting began before they even set foot onto the glimmering bronze tower.
At another time, Gwen would have marveled at the beauty and grandeur of the vast building and the magic she could feel thrumming in its heart.
It was a source of connection.
And it, like everything else Viego touched, had been warped into something dark and cold.
Wraiths race from the rings, intent on ripping her and her friends from the sky.
And she responds in kind as the others attempt not to overbalance themselves on their precarious flying devices. However, Zeri, Ekko, and curiously Riven seem natural in this shift as they draw their weapons.
Yet, standing atop her scissors, her needles find their marks first.
Lancing them forward one after another, feeling the resonant, thankful sighs of each wraith in her ears as the Hallowed Mist ferries them to freedom.
Others vanish in plumes of smoke as Ezreal and Vayne's shots find their marks, and Riven leaps from her board, spinning and carving a path through the mist as she alights on the walkway surrounding the base of the shifting globe.
Gwen can feel Riven's anger surging from her as she lands beside her and casts her hands out, forming a protective bubble within which the others can safely land.
"Where now?" Vayne demands, looking to Ezreal and Ekko.
"Whatever is keeping teleportation locked down is within the very top of the tower; normally, I'd say we just fly in, but-" Ekko begins.
A tear of electricity buffers some of the wraiths back, a shot from Ezreal finishing one of them off.
"The air is a bit hostile at the moment." Zeri remarks.
Gwen's eyes are drawn to a blue shape darting through the Mists and angling upwards, blue feathers vanishing amongst the shifting greens and blacks.
"I-" she begins, feeling that same presence as before, but Ryze cuts her off.
"Is there another route?" he demands.
Ezreal nods, "Within the Hexgate itself, only been in there once, but I know some maintenance entrances that shouldn't be far come-"
A loud boom silences him, and the others turn to take in the looming threat of Olaf, black veins covering his skin, froth on his lips, and green lightning crackling across his body.
In his shadow, held aloft by her own, came Vex, a dark grin on her face, before the shadow shifted and rose, taking the form of a veiled woman with immense claws.
"You have something I need." she intones, pointing towards Ryze, who shifts his footing, blue fire igniting on his fists.
"A corrupted Yordle, this is one of Viego's Grand Generals?" he mocks.
She bristles, and her shadow looms all the taller, "I am more than his General."
Gwen winces at the complex web of emotions that burns from the angry spirit, "No… you aren't."
She snarls and lashes forward, Olaf roaring and barreling towards them, axes drawn.
Ryze throws up his hands, and Olaf freezes in mid-charge, straining yet locked within an arcane cage.
Vayne unlatches her main crossbow and launches two bolts, carving deep into Vex's lashing limbs.
"The mage…" Vayne pauses, seeming to grapple with her situation, before powering over her own conflicted mass of emotions, "And I have this; keep going!"
She pointedly loads one of Gwen's curative bolts into her arm-crossbow and gives them a nod.
"Stay close," Gwen remarks, taking a shaky step forward, concentrating on keeping the Black Mist at bay, and then going into a run, the others easily falling into step as Vayne and Ryze stand form against their enslaved compatriot and one of the main architects of the world's troubles.
They race forward, having to weave and lung away from metal-clad individuals as the lung from the Mists, the corrupted children of the Tiered Cities rising to halt their progress, but each time, they are buffeted back, nonlethal yet powerful blows sending them reeling.
"There!" Ezreal shouts, pointing towards a small metallic door to their right.
He bolts for it, leaving her protective dome for but a moment, and with a grunt, wrenches the lock open. The door swings wide, and he dives within, the others a step behind.
Inside, once more, Gwen fights to be taken with the beauty, gleaming lines of power tracing the shapes of the continents, and beneath their feet, like the interior of a beehive gleam, hundreds of motes of bright, brilliant magic.
"There!" Ekko shouts, pointing towards a winding staircase that leads to the floor above them.
They make it into the center of the room when a cold voice appears as if from nowhere.
"Ah, the persistent few…" it begins, and Riven bears her teeth, head going on a swivel.
"Singed." she snarls.
"Greetings," he remarks, "You've all been quite troublesome, I must say. This town was so peaceful for the first time in….well, perhaps ever, until your intrusion."
"Forced silence isn't peace!" Ekko barks, also swiveling around to catch sight of the menacing chemist.
"There was no conflict in the streets, no Clan-Guard punching down, no Chem Barons making examples, a final united front, with plenty of time for iteration and experimentation, uninterrupted." Singed remarks, "I would consider that peace, would you not."
Ezreal grimaces, "You don't care about peace. You just appreciate finally having this city in a cage, where you can do whatever you like without fear of reprisal."
"Hmm, an interesting hypothesis." Singed returns, "But you act as if I am the one running the show."
"You've only ever been out for yourself." Riven snarls, "Don't pretend to act like you're blameless in what this city has become."
"Not blameless, but my portion is quite smaller than others, such as the Siren," he remarks.
And a chilling wail sends all of them to their knees as a feeling of uselessness fills their hearts.
"The girl who wanted to unify the disparate cities." Singed states, as the Siren lowers into the room, her hair shifting wildly, green energy and Black Mist pouring from her mouth as she continues to sing, "She'd done a magnificent job, don't you think?"
Gwen feels alien thoughts invading her mind, a desire for unity, for belonging, to long worry about being alone against the oncoming Storm.
A thick cloud of Black Mist, ridden through with purple light, begins to fill the room, rising up from the cracks in the metallic floor. That horrid concoction that had bent the mind of one of her strongest friends.
Within it, there would be peace.
The others winced and gasped, and she could see the Black Mist beginning to dart towards their brows, intent on taking their will for its own.
As ever, it struggles to pierce her as deeply, and as it fights to gain purchase in her mind, she grasps one of the devices she had worked so painstakingly on and shatters it in her hands, ignoring the jarring feeling of glass slipping into her flesh.
The altered Hallow Mist races out, and the cloud of Black Shimmer is consumed in a flash of silver light.
Riven is the first to regain her feet, and she moves with abandon, aiming at a figure as they emerge from below, her blade intent on carving his head from his neck.
Metal meets metal with a keening scream, as from above unseen, the blade-limbed Camille drops, catching Riven's blow with one of her legs and forcing her back.
The Siren goes to sing again, and Gwen throws another of her grenades, choking her in a burst of Hallowed Mist, her haunting tones becoming a pained shriek as it seeps into the cracks in her armor.
Riven lunges back as Camille's other leg kicks out, missing her chest by inches, and she turns to the three on the ground as they blearily find their feet, and then back to Singed, as he peers at her from around his protector's back.
"Where did you get that?" he demands, eyes burrowing into Gwen.
"A better chemist than you." Gwen returns, drawing on a comment Glasc had made during their work.
He snorts and turns away, "Troubling."
He steps into the receding curtain of the Black Mist and is gone.
"Get back here, coward!" Riven roars, a burst of wind kicking up around her.
Camille steps forward menacingly, and the Siren darts free of the cloud of Hallowed Mist, her scream funneling in a line, cracking steel and warping the air, forcing the group to part.
Ezreal, Ekko, and Zeri wind up closer to the ladder, while Gwen and Riven stand closer to their enemies.
"Keep going!" Gwen calls, tossing her last grenade to Ekko, who lunges for it, dodging a barbed bolt of energy that fires from above the Siren's head.
They nod and race towards the stairs, and then the Ruined rush to stop them. Riven and Gwen are upon them, slashing and carving with their blades.
The Ruined dart back, shrieking and grimacing, respectively, while Gwen draws several needles to her hand and Riven's blade reassembles into its full length.
"Together?" Gwen asks, looking at Riven.
Riven nods silently, but Gwen can tell her mind is elsewhere.
Yet still, they charge in unison.
Ezreal ascends the steps, with Ekko and Zeri a step behind.
They emerge onto the next floor and spot an immense device of black metal and gears clicking with the Black Mist, forming a threaded cord that rose towards the pinnacle of the tower.
"I didn't know tech could be Ruined…." Zeri mutters as she crests the stares.
"Anything that mad bastard touches can be, I think," Ezreal mutters, thinking back to all the challenges he'd faced since this saga started.
The design was almost organic, and it was linked to the Hex Gate through wires that more closely resembled veins. They pulsed with green light, and standing directly in front of it was a tall figure, a suit of black-metal and wiring gears covering their entire body, excluding their head.
A black crown clung to their forehead, while one eye had been fully replaced by a mechanical prosthetic that bled Black Mist, the other glowing with the foul green that marked the eyes of all Ruined.
Ezreal recognized him, not due to any inborn connection, but by reputation, and because one couldn't go anywhere in Piltover without seeing his face plastered somewhere.
Jayce, the Hero of Tomorrow, the Pilt Protector, now a Ruined mockery of everything he had once claimed he stood for.
"I think we were off on that theory," Ezreal mutters.
"And here are three of my lost kin returned to me." the Protector rasps, raising his fully to take them in. His hammer was clutched in one oversized mechanical hand, hanging limb at his side.
"We aren't your Kin, you tyrant." Ekko spits, Zeri nods, raising her gun, and Ezreal lets his eyes flit around the room, seeking any other points to target in the oncoming battle.
"I have only ever sought peace for our cities. Tried to keep everyone safe." the Protector intones, hefting his hammer, "Viego helped accomplish that goal, and the payment is a trivial thing, a trinket that means nothing to any that stand before me, and everything to him."
"That is a piece of someone's autonomy." Ezreal snaps, "Her very soul."
The Protector stares at him silently and then shakes his head, "Some sacrifices must be made in the name of peace and prosperity."
"So the Piltie is still in you after all." Ekko spits.
"Ekko, she said you'd be the hardest to turn to the truth." the Protector intones.
Ekko blinks, "She-"
A form launches from the Mist and slams into him, sending him rolling.
Zeri whirls, firing, but cries out as a large, mechanical gauntlet wraps around it and crushes her gun and likely her hand.
Ezreal dodges away from the other gauntlet as it swings for his head and finds himself in the path of the Protector's swing as he brings his hammer up and swings wide. Ezreal manages to pivot enough that the blow merely grazes his ribs, but he is still sent fly, cracking into one of the walls, the air fleeing his lungs.
Ekko also lies gasping, fighting to get air in, and blinks tears from his eyes as he looks into the face of Vi, who smiles at him in a way far too kind for the pallid skin and glowing eyes that now overtake her former features.
"Hey, little man," she states, dropping Zeri's mangled hand and clasping both hands together into a hammer fist aimed at his head.
Ezreal grits his teeth and fires, the shot colliding with her head, allowing Ekko to scramble out of the way. He then vanishes out of the way of the Protector's latest blow and races for the device, power crackling up his gauntlet.
A hand snags his jacket, and he is pummeled into the ground as Vi turns on him, the Protector lunging with his own hammer.
Zeri wrenches her broken gun off her injured hand, and a net of lightning bursts free of her fingers, grounding to the floor while also lancing into Vi and the Protector, briefly locking them in place as their overcharged muscles betray them.
Ezreal slips free of Vi's grasp and looks to Ezreal, who nods, the pair aiming for the device.
Yet a pulse suddenly erupts from the Protector's body, knocking them all aside, and then, with a swift motion, his hammer transitions to a cannon and fires, a blast of energy catching Zeri in the chest and sending her tumbling partially back down the stairs.
"Zeri!" Ekko cries, darting for her but having to dodge as Vi goes in on him, punches flying at incredible speeds.
The Protector lungs high into the air, cannon returning to hammer form, and aimed directly at Ezreal's head.
He rolls, avoiding the blow, and manages to weave around a blow that Vi sends launching his way and finally gets a shot off.
The machine screams in an all too human voice from the blast, and the Protector seems to pick up speed, swinging at Ezreal with abandon, pushing my back, unable to do anything but dodge.
Vi does much the same to Ekko, her punches barely being parried or landing glancing blows.
Ekko manages to catch the last punch on his bat and grimaces as Vi bears down on him.
"You know… maybe I was wrong. I would have never been able to match her before all this," he states, staring deep into the eyes of the entity that has enslaved his old friend.
He sends a disk skimming across the ground and vanishes from her grasp, appearing in the middle of the room, and punches the ground.
A bubble of light fires from him, and time seems to slow even for Ezreal as he ducks the latest of the Protector's swings.
He darts for the machine and begins wailing on it with his bat, each blow eliciting a shriek, partially human and partially rending metal.
But after a moment, he watches as each dent made begins to repair itself.
The bubble vanishes, and Vi is on him in an instant, wrenching him backward and supplexing him into the ground.
Ezreal fires a shot at her, briefly halting her assault on the other, but that leaves him open for the Protector to clock him with the pommel of the hammer. He whirls, dazed, and immediately begins to feel blood seep from the wound.
Zeri emerges, dazed and bleeding from the steps, and grits her teeth as lightning is firing from every inch of her body in random intervals.
She points her hands at the Protector and screams, but the entity catches the lance of lightning on his hammer and then twirls it, sending the arching energy back at her. She collapses, smoking on the edge of the steps, and while Ezreal plugs several blasts into the Ruined's side and chest, it still wraps a hand around his throat and begins to squeeze.
Ekko, on the ground, batters Vi's latest swing back, reaching for the grenade given to him by Gwen, but freezes for a moment as both of his allies are but in dire straits.
He kicks Vi off of him, rolls around her wild punch, and twists something on the back of his right hand.
Ezreal blinks, the vision of everything going wrong playing in his eyes and an inherent sense of wrongness overcoming him as Ekko dodges around Vi's grasp.
"Down!" he shouts, and Ezreal does so without thinking, the Protector's swing going wide, leaving himself open, and Ezreal fires twice, ensnaring him briefly, and then the other shot catches the Ruined in the head, sending him careening from the extra burst of damage.
"You need to hit it!" Ekko cries out, pointing at the device, "I can't damage it!"
Vi whirls on Ekko and punches him square in the ribs, and there is the sound of cracking. Zeri, once again atop the stairs, gasps as Ekko goes rolling and nearly tips over the edge of the platform.
And then a burst of Hallowed Mist overtakes Vi. She coughs and gasps as the altered mixture seeps almost hungrily into her mouth, and she falls to the ground, the crown cracking and then shattering as the concoction excises its bond from her body.
"No!" the Protector roars, lunging for Ezreal as he finally has an opening on the machine.
And Zeri, unimpeded, sends a billowing current of green lightning into him in return, snaring him in place, as her snarling power utterly consumes his metallic suit and his body.
Ezreal urges the gauntlet to unleash its full power, the bow snapping to life.
He fires the first shot, and it carves into the machine. It shrieks loud enough to shake the metal floor beneath their feet.
The Wayfinder sparks on his hip.
He feels a rush of hope as his second shot prepares to fly.
And then a vial flies from the twisted cord of Black Mist atop the machine.
It collides with Zeri's face, and she falls screaming as Black Mist and Shimmer seep into her eyes and mouth.
The Protector lungs for him, and he feels something crack within his arm as the hammer finds full purchase.
The second shot goes wide, and he fights to breathe as the Protector plants a boot on his chest and brings the hammer up the top of the head posed to crush his own like a grape.
"I-" he mutters, and a thunderous boom cuts him off.
Vayne grimaces as she is now down to her last curative bolt, the others lost to the wind or lodged in Olaf's armor, the barbarian far more agile than she had ever given him credit for.
Luckily, Vex is fully engrossed with Ryze, or more accurately, the parasol he keeps firmly in his grip, and her shaded magics and his brilliant blue flames were currently locked in a struggle of wills, each mage attempting to overpower and ensnare the other.
If she weren't so focused on dodging the steel-shattering blows of her former ally, she likely would feel her skin crawl at the overbearing presence of magic all around her.
But now is a time for complete focus.
She has one more shot before Olaf is lost to the Sentinels.
She can distantly hear the others fighting, explosions, and cries of pain echoing from the great bronze sphere to her left.
Olaf snarls at her as he swings once more, and she takes her chance, rolling into the strike and firing upwards into his chin.
His head begins to tilt out of the way, and she feels her stomach drop for the first time in decades.
And then the bolt seems to correct its trajectory as if nudged by the wind and lances into the meat where his chin meets his neck, parting the thick fur of his beard.
There is a flash of silvery-blue light that courses through his veins and into his eyes, and he lets out a pained bellow and collapses to his knees.
"Thank…you.' he huffs, at eye level with her for the first time since they met.
She nods and, without another word, turns her attention to the distracted Vex.
Her trap flies, and the Yordle screams as silver wire wraps around her shadow and begins to burn them both.
Ryze takes the opportunity to push even more energy into his attack, and she is blasted backward by a torrent of blue flames.
She slams into the guardrail but manages to claw into the floor before she can go over.
"No, I will not fail him!" she cries, her eyes burning black, "Not when he is so newly returned!"
"To what end?!" Ryze demands, his eyes gleaming with light, "What do you accomplish for yourself by forcing his bride back into the Realm of the living?!"
Vex falters, and Olaf surges towards her. She barely has time to blink before his boot collides with her chest and sends her spiraling over the edge and into the open sky beyond.
She screams with rage and fear, and Olaf turns to them both.
"Too much talking for one so far lost. I know what they are planning, the Mist… it shares so much unbidden." he points towards an opening higher on the shifting dome.
"You must get me there," he demands.
"Teleportation isn't-" Ryze begins.
"Allowing you to escape, there is nothing halting travel within the city but our own delusions." Olaf states, drawing both of his axes, "You are a mage of ancient mein and great talent, yes? Surely you can get me where I need to be!"
Ryze blinks and nods, blue runes spinning around his hands as the spell begins, and Olaf looks at Vayne with a wide grin.
"Get within as soon as you can. Glory awaits us." the Freljordian intones, and in a flash of blue, he is gone.
Olaf appears in the air above the Protector, his body trailing ice and lightning as he pours all of his rage at this terrible city and its terrible people and the venomous individual who had stolen his mind and bent it to that simpering dead King into his next blow!
"To Death and a New Dawn!" he roars, and he collides with the Protector. Ezreal blinks in surprise and elation as Olaf carries himself and his opponent through the metal flooring and into the chamber below.
Riven and Gwen look up as Olaf comes through the ceiling, axes embedded into the steel skin of an unknown adversary.
They slam into the ground with a burst of electrified ice, and the Siren and Camille are knocked to the side.
Olaf roars, a bestial and elated sound as he looks up at his allies.
"Hello again," he growls with a smile as behind them, Vayne and Ryze dart into the room.
The Protector tries to push him off, but Olaf presses his axes all the deeper, oil, mist, and red blood seeping from the wounds.
"Let us finish this and leave this hellish place, yes?" he demands, and the others nod, squaring off against the other recovered Ruined.
Riven's eyes are drawn skyward, however, as peering down at her from the hole is the dead eyes of Singed.
The sound of the wind fills her ears, and her vision tunnels as he retreats from the opening.
"That won't do." Singed remarks, looking at the recovering Ezreal and Ekko and back to the damaged machine, a great cut carved through the center of it.
"All my hard work, almost undone by a set of teenagers, no, no, it simply won't do," he says again.
"Shut up and get out of the way!" Ezreal shouts, his third shot charging, "Or I'll go through you!"
"It won't do at all." Singed states, and for the first time, his eyes shine the same color as the Ruineds.
He snaps his finger, and Zeri rises like a puppet, cords of electricity firing out to ensnare both Ezreal and Ekko.
They both scream as Singed gestures, and she fully gets to her feet, pouring even more of her magic into them both.
Ezreal can feel his skin beginning to burn, his heart faltering to pump, and as his vision darkens, he wills the gauntlet to fire.
The shot lances clean through Singed and into the machine behind him.
It screams it cracks, and Singed drops to his knees, clutching his chest.
His connection to Zeri drops, and she collapses back to the ground.
The machine continues to wail and scream, a green light building, and Ekko lunges, drawing Zeri and Vi's bodies towards him.
Ezreal feels the Wayfinder ignite with power.
He reaches for it. He can get them out.
The machine explodes.
Riven looks up as a torrent of Black Mist and fire erupts downwards, and the sound of sheering metal echoes all around her.
She closes her eyes, preparing to deflect and carve through any rubble coming her way as Gwen's barrier enshrouds her in comforting Hallowed Mist.
And she feels a gentle hand cup her cheek.
And another move to guide her blade.
She slices upwards and then again as the hand continues to guide her strikes, and the sound of falling debris lessens.
She opens her eyes and watches as the incoming debris parts and is buffeted away by a vast gust of wind that carries it over the edge of what remains of the top of the Hex Gate and sends it tumbling into the city below.
The globe is cracked in half yet somehow stays moored, even as the metal keeping it in place creaks and groans in protest. The Ruined seemingly vanished, a rent pipe faintly seeping the Black Mist.
Ryze is staring at her.
"How did you do that?" he demands.
"I don't-" she begins and then pauses as Gwen rushes past her.
"Ezreal!" she cries, drawing him from the rubble around them as Ekko pushes himself to stand and touches his chest, surprised at the lack of further injuries.
"Did I-did I do all this?" the former asks, looking around confused.
"Partially?" Gwen states uncertainly, "Are you alright?"
"I think…" he begins and then looks down, seeing that his ungauntled hand is a crooked ruin.
"No, actually," he states with a bleary grin.
"Zeri, Vi?" Ekko mutters, shaking both of his friends.
"Gather them." Ryze states, "The barrier is down. Runeterra is open to us."
"I got it." Ezreal remarks, reaching for the Wayfinder and then wincing as blood begins trickling down his forehead.
"Take a moment. The Ruined have fled back into the Mist we can-" she begins, only for a cold chuckle to cut her off.
Riven's blood runs cold.
"Hurry! Ryze states, and Ezreal fumbles for the Wayfiner, and Gwen is suddenly struck from behind with a jet of concentrated Black Mist.
She screams and falls to the ground writhing, the Hallowed Mist in her body fighting to keep its corrupted copy at bay, and Ezreal is suddenly slammed to the ground as Zeri rises, firing a bolt of electricity right at his head.
Ekko attempts to grapple her, and she kicks him off. From the ground before them, the Black Mist rises, eventually consolidating into Singed.
His eyes gleam, and he looks down at his own hands as they briefly become clawed.
"Fascinating." he breathes.
He raises his hand, and several pipes burst, Black Mist pouring from them in torrents.
Riven grits her teeth and falters as she sees something more in his eyes, something horrendous and inhuman.
His body twitches, and Black Mist begins to pour from him as well, the bright shine of Shimmer pulsing within it.
The Black Mist twists individuals into their darkest aspect, their more horrendous persona.
Singed was already a monster.
It was just buried beneath the skin.
He laughs again, and the other Ruined begin to reemerge, dragging themselves Mist.
"Gather round. We're leaving," Ryze states and a vast blue rune appears beneath all of their feet.
Singed points a hand at him, and Riven is there, carving it clean off with a swipe of her blade.
The bandages around his face have come free, revealing the carved and burnt ruin that is his lower law.
He cackles all the louder, and Ryze gestures, cages of light forming around her and her allies.
"Zeri!" Ekko cries as his friend is buffered back by Ryze's magic.
"I'm sorry," he states.
He raises his hand, and a feeling of being pulled taunt rises.
Singed's smile grows wider, and a tendril of shadow lashes from the ground, wrapping around the parasol suddenly and wrenching it from Ryze's grasp.
"No!" he bellows, but he refuses to quit the spell. Vayne and Olaf fight to move, but they are stuck in place by the same spell. Ezreal rises feebly, reaching from the struggling Gwen's hand, as behind them, Vex perches, a wicked grin on her face as her shadow deposits the parasol into her hands.
"Thank you." she remarks with a cold grin, "But you aren't leaving, are you? You're going to miss a wonderful show if you do."
She nods to Singed, and Riven can see it now. Plainly, he's changing, shifting, and becoming something truly horrendous, and Ryze's spell won't be finished before it's complete.
The Black Shimmer closes in tighter and tighter around them.
Ryze strains, the wound in his stomach reopening and beginning to bleed black.
Riven moves.
"Riven!" Gwen cries, reaching for her, Hallowed Mist billowing from her like a shroud.
Somehow, she surges free of the mage's enchantment, and her blade slides up and into Singed's chest.
She hears the tear of meat and feels the rush of liquid as blood, shimmer, and other unspeakable fluids coat her hands.
And then they both are flying.
Plummeting over the edge of the Hex Gate, rushing towards the streets below.
She glances back and watches Ryze's spell take.
She looks back down at the face of one of her oldest nightmares.
And she smiles as she sees fear in his ancient, warped eyes.
She has regrets, unspoken truths, and hopes unachieved.
But as Olaf would say.
This would be a good death.
She closes her eyes.
Ezreal opens his eyes as he feels his cheek touch dry, scabby dirt.
He sits up, and around him, the other Sentinels look a mixture of enraged and shocked.
Ryze collapses, holding his stomach.
Gwen is crying, and Ekko stares around, lost, probably further from home than he has been in his entire life.
"Where…where are we?" Ekko demands.
"Base of the Great Barrier, where a branch reaches for the River Pilt." Ryze rasps, "There is a town…two days ride…"
He points falteringly, and Gwen pulls herself up, reaching out a quivering hand.
"Are you alright?" Ezreal asks, looking at her.
She goes to nod, then shakes her head, swallowing a little sob, "It…it was horrible, and Riven…she…"
"She went out bravely." Olaf remarks, "Rest, little doll. Let the rest of us look to our wounds."
Vayne nods, kneeling and opening a pouch on her side, "I'm not Senna, but I can muster together something that will keep us fit to move."
Ryze pulls his hand away from the wound, revealing it to be coated with black ichor, "And a slow death such as this?"
"I can… I can help." Gwen states, fighting to sit up, "Just a moment."
"I got you…" Ezreal states, helping her sit up with his good hand, wincing at the pain in his other arm.
"That will need a splint and soon," Vayne states.
"Others first." he insists, "This isn't new for me."
"Little man?" a soft, gruff voice asks, and the others turn to see Vi sitting up with a true smile on her face.
Ekko gasps and then pulls her into a tight hug.
"Easy, easy," she laughs, wincing, "I think I got some cracked ribs."
Ezreal goes to speak, hoping to bring a bit of levity when the wind kicks up behind them.
He turns and blinks several times as the most beautiful person he has ever seen gently lays Riven down on the ground.
The others stand and gasp as this woman, with long silver hair and tanned skin, looks up at them, revealing a partially avian face and long, pointed ears.
She smiles sadly at each of them and softly remarks, "Thank you for trying. Know the winds are with you wherever you may go."
And with that, she vanishes, her body disappearing in a curtain of shifting wind and gleaming blue feathers.
"Who was-" Vi begins, coughing slightly.
"A Goddess." Olaf remarks, sniffing the air, "And an old one at that. Perhaps your city is not so hellish… under better times."
Ezreal just stares wordlessly as Riven sits up, looking around confused.
"What happ-" she is cut off as Gwen tackles her in a tight hug.
"You're okay!" Gwen cries, clutching her all the tighter.
"I-" Riven begins, looking up at the others, seeing a mixture of relief, worry, and tiredness looking back at her.
"Yeah… yeah, I am," she states, hugging Gwen back and looking at Vayne.
"What now?" Riven asks.
"Back to base," Riven states.
"What about us, about Zaun, we-" Ekko interrupts, but Vayne silences him with a look.
"We failed. We're beaten, bruised, and spent. We need somewhere to recover, with actual food and healing supplies, and perhaps see the two of you better armed for your return." Vayne states, Vi and Ekko sharing confused glances before she turns to Ezreal..
"So back to base, and let us hope the others had better luck than we did." she finishes, and Ezreal nods with a grimace, drawing the Wayfinder.
"Yeah, let's hope," he remarks.
And so ends the Shadow Behind the Guilding Arc, next time Senna, Lucian, Yasuo, Diana, and Ledros delve into the Depths Beneath and draw all sorts of problems to the surface in their quest to save Bilgewater.
This was the longest Arc I think I have ever written, and I hope folks enjoyed it.
For anyone still sticking around at this point, I thank you and know I'm in for the long haul. I am gonna finish this damn story no matter how long it takes!
As always any comments, questions, and critiques are appreciated. This has been VerBeeker, signing off!