His train of thoughts suddenly ceased as footsteps echoed from behind him.
Lanius spun around at an instant. The young man from the vision appeared through the shadows, holding a bowl in his right hand.
"Who are you?" Lanius asked him.
The young man didn't reply and instead brought the bowl to his lips and downed the blue liquid that was within.
Lanius was confused by that sudden scene, as he watched the young man drop the bowl, then drop on his knees and violently cough, but then stand back up.
A weird angled weapon, similar to an inwards sickle formed on his right hand, with a projection of a young woman leaning on his right shoulder faintly appearing.
"Eradicate the Solari intruder with your Severum, Aphelios." the woman spoke and then disappeared. She had the same voice that spoke to him in the vision.
The man named Aphelios took a weird combat stance, prompting Lanius to summon his Krigsoks and take a defensive stance.
A million questions popped into his head, who was the young man? Was he a Lunari? Did he seriously intend to attack him? Could he reason with him? Could he just leave and go on his way?
He took a better look at him, as the young man slowly approached him.
The clothing and the tattoos gave away the Lunari status. The weapon also answered the third question.
Lanius lowered his weapon and took a less defensive stance. "I'm not a Solari, you've mistaken me for one!" Lanius spoke in Targonian, hoping that the boy would stop to listen.
The boy then dashed forward, with the Severum besides his femur and sliced at the Winter.
Lanius quickly reacted by raising his weapon. A large ice shard flew from it. Just how sharp was that thing?
Aphelios charged at him and slammed his Severum at him again and again in a circular spinning motion with immense speed.
Lanius backed away yet again and fixed his Krigsoks, understanding that the Lunari assassin wouldn't stop to listen to him.
He ripped his bandage from his eye and activated his Sovereign's Dominance. Aphelios had a magenta outline, with a light blue splat on his throat. His weapon had a pearl shade.
Lanius then slammed his weapon down, summoning an ice spike that caused the Lunari assassin to roll to the side and avoid the spike. His weapon then shifted to some sort of white and blue canon.
"Infernum" the disembodied female voice sounded again.
Aphelios raised the canon and aimed at the Winter. Then, the weapon slightly shook as a voley of raw moonlight fired at the Winter. Lanius raised his Krigsoks and deflected the bolts with a horizontal slice. The weapons edge slightly melted upon contacting the bolts.
He then summoned a set of four ice shards the size of knives in his left hand, and flung them at the Lunari assassin.
.
.
.
Sett's plum frostbitten fingers grasped at the snowy rocks as he yet again lifted himself upwards again and again and again. For the past two days, ever since the climb began, a memory was stuck in his head. A single memory kept appearing, disappearing and reappearing into his thoughts.
His mother crying at the door of the house. Young Sett approached her.
"Mommy, what's wrong?"
Sett remembered her face, as she turned to look at him. He still remembered that his heart had sunk once she saw her face.
"Your dad...he left."
"When will he come back?"
"Sett, he won't come back. He left us..."
He left us...
He left us...
He left us...
The Beast-Man roared, letting his rage fuel him, give him strength and courage to keep on climbing to reach the summit. He had to know, he had to be sure.
.
.
.
Aphelios jumped to the side, as the volley of ice shards were thrown at him. He then raised his Infernum to fire at the intruder again.
Lanius braced himself for another voley, as he coated his weapon with ice. The Lunari assassin pressed the trigger, only for the weapon to not work.
Lanius reacted to the opening. He rushed forward, with the weapon parallel to him.
Aphelios tried to move, only to find out that his foot was frozen in place from an ice shard that had landed near him.
As the Winter climbed up the ice spike and jumped forward, with his weapon already raised to strike the Lunari assassin, Aphelios' weapon shifted to a new one, a weird contraption with a deep purple tear on it.
The weapon fired a sphere that crashed onto the Winter and made him fall on the ground, as he felt an immense pressure on his shoulders and back.
With that move, Aphelios was able to shift his weapon yet again into Severum and free himself, then jump forward to slice at the Winter.
Lanius eyed this move and roared as he tried to react.
"Not yet!" he thought and raised his hand forward, coating it with ice the moment the curved blade was ready to slice at him, entrapping it onto his arm.
Aphelios jerked his hand to free it and then kneed the young man in the shoulder.
Lanius responded by punching him in the stomach, causing the Lunari to back away with a grunt.
.
.
.
Ahri stared at the clouds that covered the summit. As she did so, she clenched in her hands an ice pendant that Lanius had gifted to her in Bilgewater.
She was so focused on the mountain that she didn't even turn when she heard footsteps behind her.
"Are you waiting for someone to return?" a soft female voice spoke in Demacian behind her, prompting the vesani to turn around.
It was a young woman with ginger hair and gold armor. She was carrying a bulky shield and a sword, both also being golden.
"Two. A friend and my eli." the Nine Tailed Fox replied.
"Eli?" the woman asked, being slightly confused.
"Oh yeah, it means love in vastayan. They started climbing two days ago." Ahri explained.
"Targon holds many mysteries, especially to those that take the challenge of the climb. The mountain wants to see who is worthy of succeeding the trials and reaching the summit." the woman spoke. "I've once climbed up to the top. It was a harsh course of many days. Many don't make it to the end."
"Do you think that they'll make it?" Ahri then asked. He ears got pulled back with concern.
"Well, if they truly believe that they'll make it, they will succeed. If I were you, I'd pray to your gods." the woman turned around and walked off.
Ahri faced the mountain yet again. Her ears flopped back again, this time in frustration as she clenched even tighter the ice pendant in her hands.
Sett groaned yet again. His strength was giving up on him as the wind howled around him.
"Not yet...not yet!" he muttered.
"Failure. This is the son I birthed?" a male disembodied voice spoke.
Sett recognised it. It was His...
"Here!? Out of all the places, here?!" Sett yelled out loud.
"Isn't you the one that came here to find me?" the disembodied voice continued to mock him. "Now you're giving up?"
"Why did you leave us?! Tell me, old man!" Sett yelled.
"What Noxian would marry a vastaya? What Noxian would stand proud while he has a half beast as a son?"
Sett growled and clawed at the rocks and kept climbing hivher and higher. "You bastard, I'll kill you. I'll scramble you so hard that you won't be able to fight ever again!"
As he placed both of his hands at an opening and raised his head, a boot kicked him straight in the jaw, making him lose balance and grip at the rocks with only one hand.
Sett, in a daze looked upwards. The figure was shadowed by the night and constant falling snow, yet the outline was the same from his memories.
"W-why...you. Mom loved you..." he said with a weak voice. His powers were giving up on him.
The figure grinned.
"I know." he said and stepped on the Beast-Man's hand, causing him to let go and fall down.
Sett didn't even let out a yelp, he just closed his eyes and fell.
"Mother...I'm sorry."