Shadow Isles.
"Lanius! Lanius wait!" Xayah rushed behind the marching Winter, who was already out of the temple with Mesfin's weapon in hand. She had to stop him before he did something foolish.
Xayah grabbed him by the right shoulder fur, forcing him to stop. Despite her being smaller than him, she had the strength to tug him back.
Lanius instantly stopped and turned around. His right eye - the visible- was constricted and fiercely glared daggers at her. Xayah accidentally took a step back, intimidated by the rage in his eyes.
"He has her." he said through his teeth.
Despite the two thin slits that directly stared into her soul , Xayah remained calm. "Lanius, you can't cross the whole Isles to find the Ruined King. The wraiths will rip you to shreds half way."
"I'll manage. I cannot let her down. Ahri has helped me get through many stuff. I've promised that I'll be there for her no matter what." Lanius replied. His voice was cold, emotionless.
Xayah continued to firmly press her hand on his shoulder. Lanius didn't stop to stare at her, tho his expression softened. "Xayah, let go. Take the others and return to Bilgewater. Wait for us there. Just as Rakan is your eli, Ahri is my ella."
"Then we'll come with you. Ahri is from Ionia, she's our ally. We'll come, you like it or not." Xayah insisted.
"Xayah's right. You can't go all alone, and we can't stay and not help her. We'll come with you." Rakan said as he approached them.
"You want it or not Winter, you'll have to have us with you." Kayn muttered, spinning his scythe with a one hand.
Lanius sighed and turned around. "Fine, let's go."
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Ahri opened her eyes. Everything around her was dark. Just an empty, plain field of darkness. She could clearly see herself, but everything around her was as if it was painted with ink.
The nine tailed fox looked around her in confusion. Suddenly, the voice of the Ruined King sounded from every direction.
"You wronged me two years ago, on these Isles. You tricked me with the memories of my long lost love and sealed me in a petty necklace." he spoke.
"You would have destroyed the world!" Ahri yelled.
"The Noxians, the voidlings, the Darkins...they all wish to plunge the world into darkness. I simply would have taken the life of three people to bring back one. It isn't my fault if that bloody idiotic centaur wishes to create an army." Viego's voice was full of rage." It doesn't matter now. Your body will be of use to me. With it I'll take revenge from everyone that betrayed or wronged me...starting from you."
"M-my body? W-what do you mean?" Ahri's heart began to beat faster.
"The Ruined King can possess others. You're the perfect candidate. Now...you'll pay with the same way you paid me for almost a year. You'll remain like this until I'm done...then I might free you...might." Viego's voice continued.
"You'll kill people using me?! Do you feel no shame?!" Ahri cried out loud.
"Shameless? Haven't you killed before?" Viego sounded as if he was clueless. "Perhaps...I should freshen up your mind. They're all here...all of them."
As he said those words, dozens of mummified hands emerged from the ground, grabbing her legs and pulling her down. Heads and bodies followed.
"N-No...No...No..." Everyone that Ahri had ever killed emerged from the ground and gripped her, approaching her with their decomposed limbs, with the leader of the attack being her previous lover, whom she had accidentally killed.
"Feel free to scream, vesani. Nobody...is...going...to...hear...you."
Ahri's gasped in agony as the dead surrounded her. She tried to get up, but the dead had pinned her down. "No...NO...NOOOO!" Her head fell back and her jaw opened.
She let out a blood curdling scream full of terror, despair and agony as the dead grabbed her from everywhere.
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Lanius looked around with rage in his eyes. The old tower was right ahead of them. Lanius clenched the music box in his left hand and moved forward. Random wraiths came towards them, some being just black murky figures, while others resembling humans. Akali and Xayah dispatched some with ease, and the young man finished of another.
Farru and the Sentinels returned to Bilgewater. As a parting gift, the Rookie teleported them to where they'd find Viego...in the capital building of Helia.
Lanius roared in rage as the wraiths came. The elder Sentinel told him that his determination reminded him of another pair of Sentinels. The man had lost his wife to the Warden, and managed to bring her back. The same man also later fought against the Ruined King.
He now rushed up the stairs, towards the main hall that led to the council's office, followed by the
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The ruined vesani looked out of the window. It was only a matter of time before the Warden returned. He'd just need to wait. The woman's body wouldn't need to be fed, as his mist would keep her in perfect shape, just as it did with the others.
Ruined Ahri smirked and turned around as the doors bursted open and the Winter barged in. His idiotic crew must have been fighting with his wraiths. "What do you want, Winter?" he asked with her voice while knowing full well what he wanted.
"You already know, Viego. Hand her over or you'll not just be trapped this time." Lanius threatened the Ruined King.
"Such desperation, such determination. Oh...the things we do for love." Ruined Ahri tilted her head to the side with another smirk.
"What you think is love on your side isn't love, but rather an egoistic need for you to satisfy your thirst for affection...or in this situation, your need for revenge." Lanius stared at her. The smile on the ruined vesani's face turned into a frown. She got up and moved away from her position.
"I've seen your memories...your echoes." Lanius spoke now, causing her to hault. "You viewed Isolde as something that you could cling on forever." The Winter spoke.
"Shut your mouth!" Ruined Ahri growled. "You know nothing, Winter!"
"Like a child that lost its favourite toy, you lost your comfort zone...and simply couldn't stand moving on." the young man continued to verbally barrage Viego. With each truth, the possessed vesani's ears titled more to the sides.
"And when you finally accepted her being lost forever, you decided to find each and everyone who stood against you during your crusade to bring back your wife, starting from the one that locked you up in an amulet." Lanius stopped and looked at the Ruined King within the body of the only one he had left.