Hill City.
Under the night sky, the city lay in complete silence.
The entire place was so still it felt like an empty city, where even the slightest movement of wind could be heard.
The residents had already been evacuated through the escape tunnels hours earlier. Everyone knew a dragon was about to descend.
Inside the military camp, every soldier was already in position, each at their assigned post, their expressions solemn.
For once, Luke had changed into a set of silver-white armor. It gave him a far more imposing look, and with the usual laziness gone from his face, his serious expression actually made him seem like a real commander.
That sight fell into Katarina's eyes from a distance. She had no interest in joining this kind of spectacle.
But she had no choice. If the fighting started, her first priority would be keeping this guy alive.
Otherwise, if that dragon stomped him to death, she would only outlive him by one day at most.
She had no intention of being buried with him.
Still, after seeing the discipline and cohesion displayed by the Demacian army, Katarina had to admit it, no matter how unwillingly.
In that regard, Demacia was far superior to Noxus.
At Luke's side stood Shyvana, her eyes closed as she sensed the distance.
Then suddenly, she opened them. "It's here!"
The moment she spoke, the sound of weapons being lifted rang out all around them in one sweeping motion.
Roar!
A dragon's roar rolled out from the clouds, and less than two seconds later, a massive figure appeared above Hill City. Its black-red scales were stained with blood, making the violent aura around it even more terrifying.
A crushing pressure descended from above. Even the proud silverwings lowered their heads at that moment, cowering on the ground and trembling all over.
Silverwings were already among the strongest creatures of the sky, but compared to a true dragon, they were on an entirely different level.
"Looks like our good neighbors did quite a bit of work for us."
Taking in the wounds covering the dragon's body, Luke raised his sword high and shouted, "Prepare for battle!"
With a rushing flare of light, fire illuminated the entire night. Countless arrows were launched into the sky in a massed volley, streaking toward the dragon.
No matter how much time passed, humans always used the same method to provoke her.
Yvva's furious dragon eyes locked tightly onto Shyvana. This time, she was absolutely certain, she had not made a mistake again.
Facing the overwhelming rain of arrows, she beat her wings powerfully, stirring up a violent gale that knocked many of them aside, but some still struck her body and wings.
The pain only made Yvva angrier, but compared to Shyvana, who was right there in front of her, the humans standing along the stone walls became her immediate target for revenge.
"I'll slaughter every last one of them right in front of you!"
Yvva roared loudly, then flew toward the fortress. Her bloody jaws opened wide, and after a brief moment of buildup, a blast of dragonfire came roaring out.
But in the face of the black inferno rushing toward them, the soldiers atop the fortress did not panic at all. Their formation shifted instantly, shield-bearers stepping to the front and raising pure white shields.
It was as if a white barrier had appeared. The flames were completely stopped by those shields, losing the wild, all-consuming spread they had shown at the Gates of Mourning, and seeming far less overwhelming.
"Damn humans!"
At the sight of that, Yvva immediately remembered that there really was such a place on Valoran.
A land that constantly absorbed magic, occupied by shameless humans who used those magic-absorbing stones to build their homes, weapons, and armor.
Two of her kin had once had their heads chopped off here by those damned humans.
But she would never be the third!
In her fury, Yvva threw her massive body straight at the fortress. One huge claw came slamming down and smashed the wall apart.
The soldiers on top retreated a step ahead of time, and at once, a concentrated barrage of attacks rained down on Yvva.
A dragon's scales possessed not only strong magic resistance, but incredible physical defense as well.
That was one of the reasons dragons had once ruled Runeterra.
But very quickly, Yvva sensed that something was wrong.
Compared to the human city she had attacked earlier, the people in this one were much harder to deal with. In an extremely short time, they had already injured her.
And she, on the other hand, had gained no real advantage at all.
Cunning, despicable humans, she did not even know how many of her kin had been slain by them. No dragon, at the moment of death, had ever expected to be killed by humans.
Yvva suddenly realized she could not let this drag on any longer. She needed to end it quickly. She glanced back in Shyvana's direction, only to find that Shyvana was gone.
"You won't escape again!"
With an enraged roar, she stopped bothering with the soldiers and beat her wings hard, tracking Shyvana's aura.
Before long, in an open area, she saw Shyvana standing there, staring back at her without the slightest fear.
That red-violet skin was so offensive to the eye, and that ugly human shape brought Yvva nothing but shame.
Roar!
Even knowing there had to be human soldiers hiding nearby in ambush, Yvva still charged straight at Shyvana with a furious roar.
The roar crashed into her ears. Shyvana stood in place, looking directly at her birth mother. No matter how calm she seemed on the surface, the moment she saw her, she was reminded of the nightmare from months ago.
A shudder ran through her heart, and her legs felt stiff. This was the creature she had spent so long avoiding.
Once again, the urge to run surfaced inside her, just like that day when she had watched Yvva burn her father to death and stood frozen in place, unable to move.
She had only dared run into the flames afterward, dragging out her father's corpse after the dragon had gone.
From that day on, Shyvana had known just how cowardly she truly was.
A dragon was something impossible to defeat...
Her resolve began to falter. Regret rose in her heart, she should never have dragged her companions into this.
"Move! Protect Shyvana!"
Suddenly, a bright, ringing shout sounded out. From both sides, countless soldiers in white armor surged forward, shouting at the top of their lungs. Facing the dragon, they showed not a trace of fear, not a trace of hesitation.
Along with the soldiers came a stirring melody, a soaring rhythm that seemed to echo in everyone's heart, helping drive away the fear of facing a dragon and filling them with an invisible strength.
Those cries seemed to clear away the confusion in Shyvana's heart, and her vision sharpened again.
She saw Yvva charging toward her.
In the sky, Cithria led the charge. The silverwing beneath her feared nothing because of her, and her silver-white spear drove toward the dragon.
More than a dozen dragonbird riders followed close behind.
To Yvva, these weak humans daring to challenge her in the air was something dragon pride could never allow her to ignore.
She stopped her charge and clashed with the dragonbird riders instead.
During the exchange, Cithria's spear carved a wound across Yvva's body. The pain drew Yvva's full attention, and she suddenly spun toward Cithria and swung a claw.
Seeing that claw coming at her from almost point-blank range, everyone watching felt their hearts jump into their throats.
But Cithria remained astonishingly calm. She leapt straight off the silverwing's back while the mount dove downward.
The two crossed paths. Cithria avoided the claw, and as she fell, she drove her spear hard into Yvva's body, carving out a vivid bloody line.
The next second, the silverwing rose back up and caught her.
Roar! Yvva let out a pained howl.
Cithria's heroic performance sent morale soaring.
Yvva's dragon eyes turned blood-red as she locked onto Cithria and beat her wings furiously in pursuit.
Watching Cithria streak ahead of her, Yvva opened her jaws, dragonfire gathering inside.
"Now!"
Someone shouted, and Cithria immediately steered her mount sharply upward.
The instant she moved, a huge wooden barrel came hurtling toward Yvva.
Yvva saw it flying at her just as her dragonfire erupted.
Then, in the next instant...
Boom!!!
The air shook. A violent explosion erupted, followed by a searing blast wave. Fire nearly lit up the entire sky above Hill City like a blooming rose, while thick smoke billowed outward.
Everyone was stunned by the explosion. None of them had expected a wooden barrel only as tall as a man to carry such destructive force.
Inside the smoke, the dragon's body wavered as it began to fall, and even more shocking was the fact that after taking such an explosion at close range, she was only moderately injured.
A bloody crater had been blasted open in her chest, blood pouring from it. Her gaping jaws looked even more vicious now, and it seemed two of her dragon teeth had been blown out.
"You think this is enough to kill me? Not even close!"
She beat her wings violently, scattering the smoke, and let out a deafening roar.
But Luke had already anticipated that a single reinforced gunpowder barrel would not be enough to kill a dragon.
He immediately gave the order. "Fire!"
Thrum!
A heavy sound rang out, followed by the harsh rattle of chains. Four enormous hooked chains shot toward the dragon and wrapped around her limbs.
Each chain was manned by ten carefully selected strongmen, all of them hauling with all their might, trying to drag the dragon down to the ground.
Yvva finally understood. These humans really did mean to kill her here. If she were pulled down to the ground, her dominance in the sky would vanish completely.
At once, Yvva began beating her wings wildly, trying to rise back into the air, while her massive body strained against the strongmen below.
The four chains, anchored deep into the ground, drew taut with a shuddering sound, as if they were only a breath away from snapping.
"Don't let go!"
The strongmen gritted their teeth and held on with everything they had, their faces flushed red with strain.
Under Sona's music, it felt as though they had a never-ending supply of strength.
"Loose!"
Luke gave the order, and another storm of arrows shot toward the dragon.
Yvva had to struggle against the chains while also dodging incoming attacks. Under those conditions, being wounded was inevitable.
Roar! The pain made her bellow, but it also awakened even greater strength inside her.
The strongmen were nearly at their limit. The chains shook violently, on the verge of being torn free.
"Take my hammer!"
At that moment, a bright shout rang out, and a tiny figure leapt absurdly high beneath the moonlight.
She swung her hammer and cried out as she brought it crashing down onto the dragon's head.
In her hands, the hammer seemed to bloom with golden light.
Bang!!
The dragon took the hit squarely, her head reeling as her giant body crashed to the ground.
Poppy landed with an excited little grin, then looked at the fallen dragon and could not help remembering the one she and Ornn had slain many years ago.
Back then, they had fought that dragon for a long time, but in the end, they had still won.
Before this, she had told Luke and the others about it, but none of them had seemed to take it very seriously.
Now that they had seen that hammer strike, they had to believe her, right?
"Nice one, Poppy!"
Luke shouted to her.
His praise made Poppy scratch her head sheepishly. "It was nothing."
Then Luke turned back to the fallen dragon and gave the order without hesitation. "Everyone, hit her together! Today, this dragon isn't leaving alive!"
Yvva lay on the ground with her head spinning, vaguely hearing the cries of the humans around her. Then she forced herself back to full awareness.
Realizing she had been brought down, Yvva's rage surged. She looked at the humans charging toward her, her dragon eyes filled with killing intent.
What irritated her most was that music, that incessant noise, like pure static in her ears, constantly disrupting her focus and driving her deeper into fury.
And what hurt most clearly of all was the bolt fired by a human woman, a shot so powerful that even her hard dragon scales could not fully stop it.
By now, the soldiers were charging at Yvva without fear.
The ground battle between dragon and humans began in full.
Yvva soon realized that these humans in white armor were far more troublesome than the ones in black armor. Their coordination was seamless.
Before, she should have been able to swat a human dead with a single blow, but now she could not manage it.
Whenever one of them was wounded, more comrades immediately appeared at his side to share the burden.
The injured were pulled back, fresh soldiers filled the gaps, and healers moved in without delay.
Lux and Kahina, both members of the Illuminators, had taken on the responsibility of healers. That was also the reason Luke had been teaching the two girls medicine every day.
Now, both of them were fully capable of serving as field healers.
As she treated the wounded, Lux cautiously kept watching the battle over there. She took a deep breath and thought of all the hard training she had gone through.
Then, while no one was paying attention, she raised her slender fingers and traced a pattern through the air. A strand of golden light appeared at her fingertips, and a magic sigil formed in midair.
With a single thought, she projected that light upward, sending it drifting down over the soldiers fighting the dragon.
At that moment, she did not care what would happen if people discovered she could use magic.
More than that, she simply did not want to see anyone die.
The light falling over the soldiers turned into a gentle power, like a protective barrier, granting them a measure of shelter.
A few sharp-eyed people noticed it, but none of them stopped to think about it. Instead, they devoted themselves even more fully to the fight, unwilling to waste the sacrifice that power represented.
After doing all that, Lux went right back to her work as if nothing had happened, continuing her duties among the healers.
All the while, she kept secretly watching. Whenever someone was about to be injured, she would immediately send them a barrier of magic.
At last, under the army's orderly assault, the dragon could endure no more. Covered in blood, her dragon eyes a violent crimson, Yvva suddenly threw back her head and roared, "Get away from me!!!"
Boom!
A surge of powerful magic exploded from her body. The air trembled violently, and the shockwave blasted every soldier around her backward.
That one burst alone left many people injured.
Yvva lowered her head. Her expression was twisted, her eyes filled with savagery and madness. Black magic burned all over her body, and she radiated even greater pressure than when she first appeared.
"Third phase!"
The moment he saw it, Luke instantly recognized it. This was obviously the boss's third phase!
"Let me do it."
Shyvana spoke and began walking toward the dragon step by step.
Roar!!! Yvva turned toward her and unleashed a thunderous roar. The shaking air itself seemed to become a wave of force crashing toward Shyvana.
Each step forward became harder. With the dragon now before her in her most ferocious form, Shyvana still felt an unavoidable instinctive tremor in her heart.
"I won't let you escape like last time!"
Yvva roared savagely and ripped one of the chains apart with a lift of her claw.
"No!" Shyvana looked at the wounded soldiers around her, and her eyes slowly grew firm. Crimson flames began to ignite around her body. "I'm not running this time. And I won't let you hurt anyone in front of me ever again!"
She started running toward the dragon.
As she ran, the flames burning around her grew fiercer and fiercer until they engulfed her completely.
The next second, Shyvana leapt high into the air. Blazing fire burst outward in every direction, and from within those flames emerged another dragon, hurling an equally deafening challenge roar at Yvva!
Yvva stared at Shyvana in dragon form and froze for a brief instant before roaring back.
She knew very well that Shyvana had not transformed because she had finally cast aside her human shape.
She had transformed because she had chosen to stand fully at humanity's side and raise her claws against her.
As a mother, and as a proud dragon, Yvva felt furious beyond measure at what Shyvana was doing now.
Shyvana's dragon form was smaller than Yvva's, but the force radiating from her was in no way weaker.
Around them, the soldiers were left stunned when they saw two dragons facing off against each other.
Two dragons roaring at one another, that was a sight that had not appeared on Runeterra in a very long time.
Every person there was seeing it for the first time, and all of them felt shaken to the core.
What shocked them even more was the fact that Shyvana, who had lived beside them day after day, was herself truly a dragon.
Even though they had been mentally prepared, the moment Shyvana transformed, people were still stunned.
Luke believed Shyvana could defeat Yvva, but he still cast the new skill he had learned, Steadfast Bulwark, on her.
From recent sign-ins, he had already raised the skill to LV5, enough to provide a respectable amount of defense.
Feeling Luke's power strengthening her, Shyvana charged at Yvva.
At this point, humans could no longer interfere in the battle between dragons.
Their enormous bodies crashed together. The chains could no longer restrain Yvva after her rampage empowered her, and she tore free with ease.
The two dragons fought from the ground up into the sky, fangs and claws clashing over Hill City with ringing impacts. Everyone below raised their heads, watching the battle overhead.
Many gazes were filled with worry as they followed Shyvana.
Even in dragon form, Shyvana's combat experience was far too immature compared to Yvva's.
In their clash, she was clearly at a disadvantage. After only a few exchanges, two wounds had already opened on her body.
"You shameless traitor!"
Yvva roared furiously at Shyvana and brought one claw crashing down.
Shyvana struck back just as fiercely. Their claws collided and locked together, neither giving ground. "I never betrayed anyone. I made my choice from the very beginning!"
"You only had no choice! If not for that despicable human thief..."
Yvva did not finish the sentence. She had no desire to find excuses for Shyvana.
No matter what, Shyvana had cast her lot with humans. That much was already fact, and Yvva had to end it with her own claws.
The battle between the dragons escalated again.
Their collisions became more and more frequent, each thunderous impact seeming to strike directly against the hearts of the people below. Everyone watched the brutal battle in breathless tension.
Lux clasped her hands together and prayed for Shyvana.
Every one of her companions believed, with absolute certainty, that Shyvana would win.
And the truth proved them right.
Shyvana was steadily absorbing experience from the fight itself. At first she had been at a disadvantage, but now she was matching Yvva blow for blow.
Then, little by little, she began returning the wounds she had taken.
The two dragons fought from high above back down over the city.
Yvva gathered a breath attack and blasted it straight at Shyvana. Black flames poured out as if they intended to swallow everything.
Unwilling to yield, Shyvana answered with a breath attack of her own, her fire a vivid red.
In an instant, the red and black dragonfire collided, locked in a dead heat, neither willing to show weakness first.
A scorching wave of heat swept outward. Even in the dead of winter, the temperature in the air began rising rapidly.
In the end, it was Shyvana who gained the upper hand. Her crimson flames slowly began forcing their way toward Yvva.
Yvva refused to yield. She kept pouring out more and more magic, but she had already used too much. Her reserves were on the verge of running dry.
Step by step, Shyvana kept pressing forward until her flames completely overwhelmed the black fire and slammed into Yvva, driving her hard from the sky to the ground.
Shyvana did not hesitate. Beating her wings, she descended from above, pinned Yvva beneath her claws, and bit down.
Roar!!
Yvva cried out in agony. Intense pain flooded her nerves. She was already covered in wounds, blood pouring freely from injury after injury.
She could clearly feel her strength draining away, and she understood in her heart that she was no longer Shyvana's match.
But when it came time for the final bite, Shyvana hesitated.
No matter what, this dragon was her birth mother.
And yet among dragons, a clash could end with only one victor.
That moment of hesitation gave Yvva an opportunity, but instead of counterattacking, she found herself thinking of the words she had not finished saying.
She had lived on this continent for longer than she could remember. Humans had already existed when she was born.
It seemed that from the very beginning, the two sides had been destined never to coexist peacefully.
A dragon possessed too many things of immense value to humans. Countless dragon slayers had come seeking a dragon's head in exchange for a lifetime of glory.
Without exception, most challengers had failed.
But there had been successes too, and those were always followed soon after by the vengeance of dragonkind.
As the infamous dragon she once was, she had flattened more than one city. From beginning to end, she had always believed humans were unworthy of sympathy.
So when she slaughtered them, she never showed the slightest mercy.
Later, that senseless killing finally drew the attention of powerful humans. She fought them, and in the end, neither side truly gained anything.
Then the Rune Wars erupted, and many dragons died.
The remaining dragons chose to hide themselves away, to avoid the danger of war, avoid humans, and withdraw from the world.
But perhaps the senseless slaughter she had once committed had finally earned its punishment.
Not long after she had finally laid several dragon eggs, some humans discovered her lair.
Dragon eggs were not only something lesser drakes sought to destroy, they were also treasures beyond mortal imagination.
But nearly all who dared approach her became nothing more than blackened food in her jaws.
There had been one exception.
A despicable, cunning human mage had used trickery to deceive her eyes, seized the largest egg, and fled without once looking back.
After discovering it, she had pursued him again and again, but fearing the rest of her eggs would suffer the same fate, she could only return in bitter frustration.
And so she began a life of endless torment.
With every sunrise and every moonset, she drowned in the pain of losing her child.
One month, ten months, one year, ten years, twenty years...
She counted day after day until at last all of her children were old enough to spread their wings, and only then could she begin searching for the one who had been stolen.
Dragonkind did not permit its bloodline to be defiled by humans. So as a mother, she had to take responsibility for purging that blood herself.
Otherwise, the next dragon to act would not be her.
In a daze, Yvva lifted her eyes and looked at Shyvana's face up close, a face so much like her own.
If only... if not for that damned human thief...
"You should have been my finest child."
As Yvva murmured those words, dragonfire began gathering in her throat. The faint glow made Shyvana wary.
She did not hesitate any longer.
She bit down on Yvva's neck.
Maybe it was only an illusion, but in the final instant, Shyvana thought she saw a single tear fall from Yvva's eye.
A dragon's tears were incredibly precious.
Because dragons almost never cried, and dragon pride did not permit such weakness.
To carry and lay a dragon egg took fifty years.
To hatch a dragon egg took another fifty.
And in the final few months, a human had found the dragon's nest and stolen the egg she loved most, the one she had spent the longest nurturing.
As a mother, the dragon then endured another twenty years of pain over her stolen child.
One hundred and twenty years, no one knew how she had endured them.
But when she saw the child she had once loved most defeat her, pride and satisfaction still flashed through Yvva's heart.
In that moment, thousands of unspoken words became a single dragon tear.
It mixed into the blood and was washed away beneath humanity's joy at victory.
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