Watching the concert venue at the Middle Level Plaza being cleared out, gradually leaving only thugs, Faen's face didn't show much concern.
Let alone Faen, even Zeri's face showed no trace of fear. Her eyes, full of vitality, were brimming with boiling electric light. Dazzling electric arcs shot from her hair tips connecting to the ground. The emotion motor resonated with Zeri, and the engine made of Hextech Crystals emitted a series of whistles.
"Oh oh oh! So many people!!" Zeri couldn't help saying excitedly, "This is my first time seeing so many chemical thugs! The Chem-Barons really spent a lot."
"The weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons." Faen said peacefully, "It would really be a headache if these guys hid in the alleys of Zaun to stir up trouble and play guerrilla warfare. But now... the reborn Zaun has no place for them. Remember to take care of yourself~"
Hearing Faen's words, Zeri nodded and said with a grin: "I know! Don't worry, they definitely can't catch me!"
Zeri knew very well that the gap between her and Faen couldn't be bridged by just a set of Hextech equipment. Especially during this period, some Chem-Barons had been forced to improve the treatment of Zaun's chemical slaves because of Faen's actions.
And the joy brought by these improvements in treatment was also injected into Faen's body in the spirit realm, forming a long-lasting power. Under these circumstances, the better people's lives were, and the more hopeful they were about the future, the more Faen's power would grow continuously.
On the other side, having completed the crowd evacuation, Vi and Caitlyn didn't leave. Instead, they guarded the bridge leading to Piltover and around the elevator above the Middle Level Plaza as guardians of Piltover.
"Two people? Are these two guys crazy?" Vi said with a face full of disbelief, "Caitlyn, who are they? Why haven't I heard of such figures?"
"I don't know either." Caitlyn shook her head, raising the tech rifle in her hand. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "But this is not a question we should consider—cheer up!" Caitlyn shouted to the Enforcers behind her:
"Ensure innocent people complete the evacuation! And prevent this group of Zaun lunatics from rushing up to impact Piltover!!!"
Responding to Caitlyn was a neat roar.
Leaving the scene with the crowd, Sevika didn't disappear but hid in the dark, looking at Faen and Zeri with a puzzled face.
She didn't understand. She had already said what needed to be said; why did these two guys still insist on staying there, rushing onto the stage to expose themselves? Didn't they know to avoid the brunt?
No, must contact others immediately. Sevika thought—no matter what, she couldn't let this guy calling himself Faen end his life here.
Although her education level was limited, coming from the bottom, Sevika's intuition told her that Faen's ideas must be executed and promoted perfectly by Faen himself. Replaced by any Zaunite, in the end, it would probably turn into the chaotic rule of Chem-Barons like now.
In the center of the venue, feeling the malice, greed, and killing intent rising one after another around him... Faen knew very well that these guys were the stubborn disease of Zaun, the embodiment of Zaun's chaos, and the most handy tools for Chem-Barons to oppress Zaun workers.
Reform slowly?
Where did Faen have this time? What's more, was there really a need to change such running dogs willing to be Chem-Barons' tools to oppress their compatriots? Keeping them alive was the real scourge. For Zaun, thunderous means were the true bodhisattva heart.
"One moment of bliss, eternal joy!"
As the words fell, Faen maximized the activation of the Seal of Ashlesh. All the chaotic thoughts in his spirit turned into surging bliss. On his right arm, the seven-handed sigil lit up with azure blue gloomy light.
Meeting everyone's gaze, almost the moment the clearing was completed, before the chemical thugs could let out their long-suppressed carnival roars, Faen's body turned into an afterimage and dissipated.
The explosive speed produced a hum in the air, and the flashing flowing water left several afterimages in the air. Almost instantly, he arrived in front of everyone.
His handsome face was filled with a smile, but those pitch-black eyes were covered with a chill that made people feel like thorns on their backs. Without any fancy movements, accompanied by the Grasp of Flowing Water gauntlet emitting streaming light, the water control technique integrated with magic compressed into sharp blades.
Casually throwing out an azure arc, before they could recover, the chemical thugs whose faces were still brimming with excitement were whipped into pieces directly by the exploding magic water flow the moment they touched it, suddenly turning into flying minced meat.
Others might not have reacted yet, but seeing this scene, Caitlyn, born in a prestigious family, widened her eyes in disbelief—Is that a Hextech weapon? Yes. But why? Why such speed and power?
As the first batch of beneficiaries of Hextech weapons, Caitlyn knew very well how the performance of Hextech was—it all depended on the user's own quality. Without a strong enough physique, spirit, and talent, even getting Hextech equipment would still make one a stinky dog by the roadside.
Precisely because of this, Hextech equipment was divided into different grades according to the quality of the crystal. Like common standard Hextech weapons, apart from being reliable enough, their power might not even be as good as some big, black, and rough Chem-tech weapons.
But the problem was—Caitlyn had never heard of such a gauntlet-type Hextech equipment that combined speed and destructive power?
Just as Caitlyn was still puzzled, she soon realized that Faen's strength wasn't simply due to that seemingly powerful gauntlet—
Minced meat flew. In Faen's vision, powerful dynamic vision even allowed Faen to clearly see those broken mechanical prosthetic limbs twitching in the air. But before these mechanical prosthetic limbs could land, Faen's figure exploded with force again.
His burly body clenched his right arm into a hammer. The moment he pulled back, his palm heel struck a person's skull directly.
Under terrifying muscle power, accompanied by a tooth-aching bone cracking sound, the victim died instantly upon impact. The alloy-inlaid chin shattered with a bang, and the bald head burst into a cloud of blood mist like a watermelon hit by a hammer amidst the tooth-aching bone cracking sound.
Every time a running dog of the Chem-Barons died, the oppression suffered by Zaunites would decrease by a fraction.
Every time one of these dregs died, Zaun's future would be a fraction brighter!
With this thought in mind, Faen only felt his mind filled with extreme ecstasy—"Joy to the extreme! Overjoyed!"
Accompanied by a song suppressing joy, Faen turned his palm. Moisture in the atmosphere was instantly extracted, and even the blood beads spraying from arteries were pulled by some force in an instant, gathering into a dark red vortex behind Faen.
Runeterra is a world of magic. Based on this, whether it's Hextech seemingly related to science and technology or Chem-tech linked to physical mutation, their essence is different ways of utilizing magic in different forms.
So-called science is an ordered knowledge system based on verifiable explanations and predictions about the form and organization of objective things. It is systematized and formalized knowledge, and also a way of viewing the world. Based on this, regarding the path of the spirit realm, Faen is undoubtedly a scientist, and also undoubtedly a practitioner.
Witnessing Faen's amazing speed and explosive power, some among the thugs also sensed something wrong. But Faen was too tempting for them—the opportunity to reach the sky in one step was close at hand. How could they, who always licked blood on the knife edge, be scared away by the sudden death of a few people?
"Just a damn mage! What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of! All together! With so many of us, can he kill us all?!"
Accompanied by words, that thug didn't charge but aimed at Faen and pulled the trigger directly. The roaring bullets left a series of flashes in the air, but Faen just raised his hand gently. The water curtain with greatly enhanced surface tension swallowed all the impact force on the bullets, making them lose momentum.
And those bullets that lost momentum burst out with the swirling water flow just the next moment, like a heavy shotgun firing at close range, clearing a fan-shaped open space directly in the surging crowd.
Lowering his center of gravity, Faen stomped his left foot lightly, raising his palm like a dancer with his waist as the axis. Accompanied by pleasing movements, the moisture in the surrounding corpses was drained instantly, rolling up a large number of chem-tech prosthetics as if possessing life.
Pressure surged, and everything inside exploded into countless fragments of all sizes. Following Faen's palm, the water flow filled with metal fragments formed a counterclockwise rotating tornado.
Amidst the surging, the blood-stained water dragon swallowed and shredded all thugs along the way.
Just then, a voice came from behind—"Everyone put on masks~"
As he spoke, a slightly thin-looking alchemist, accompanied by a cold smile, threw out several dirty-looking old aluminum cans before everyone could react.
Seeing the old man, almost all chemical thugs changed their expressions in shock, then scrambled to put on masks. Those without masks simply snatched masks from people around them and started fighting.
Not just Zaunites, even Caitlyn in the distance changed color instantly after seeing that person, then said in shock and anger: "Using poison gas in the Middle Level Plaza?! Damn it, prepare blowers! Absolutely cannot let this poisonous fog enter Piltover even half an inch!!"
Almost the moment he saw that old man, relevant information emerged in Faen's mind—Poisoner Dylan. One of the most famous poisoners in the Zaun Sump. The poison gas he formulated was almost harmless to the skin, but just inhaling a little through the mouth and nose would cause internal organs to ulcerate at an alarming rate, mutating and melting into a pile of foul blood.
As the dirty yellow poison gas spread, those chemical thugs who didn't have time to put on masks lay on the ground wailing in succession before long. Cyan-black blood vessels bulged constantly on their skin, and pitch-black foul blood flowed from their seven orifices.
But just when people thought this opportunity to reach the sky in one step belonged to the poisoner, Piltover's blowers also blew strong winds from a distance. But this dense fog obviously had extremely strong resistance against storms. Even being blown strongly by blowers, it maintained a corresponding scale, only changing from rich dirty yellow to pale yellow.
But during this process, in that pale yellow poisonous fog, a figure, not tall compared to the chemical thugs often three or four meters tall, but exceptionally upright, came into everyone's view.
As the dense fog gradually dispersed, meeting everyone's puzzled gaze, Faen unhurriedly picked up the aluminum can on the ground, from which rich poison gas sprayed constantly.
Approaching the aluminum can, accompanied by a deep breath, the poison gas formed visible traces and entered Faen's nasal cavity. Feeling the magic jumping within, Faen nodded.
"Fairly clean, able to separate the most unruly side of wild magic from Shimmer."
Exhaling a mouthful of turbid air, Faen's face was full of casualness.
Having fully entered a combat state, Faen's perception also reached an inhuman realm. And as a half-spirit-realm life, Faen could clearly determine that the poisonous fog in front of him, rather than poison fog, was better described as misty magic.
Its essence originated from the wild life represented by Shimmer, just purified and separated to form the most unruly wild mutation. The so-called ulceration starting from internal organs was nothing more than the collapse of physiological structure caused by uncontrolled mutation—
"It's a pity, the purity is still too low." Green light flashed in his eyes. As he spoke, a smile climbed onto Faen's face again.
To the extent that Faen could clearly hear a female voice filled with ecstasy in his consciousness—"You are my most perfect child!"
Ignoring the voice in his mind, Faen spread his hands. Surging flowing water rolled up blood to form an endless tornado.
"Look—"
In everyone's vision, Faen's eyes had turned into pure green light.
"Your beating blood is dancing for me!"
The next moment, azure blue flowing water rolled up the dark red sea of blood and poured down, spreading around at an alarming speed like a doomsday tide, swallowing and shredding everything submerged in it.
Above, Caitlyn was completely speechless. Looking at the scene in her vision, she only felt a buzzing in her brain—growing up on this land since childhood, Caitlyn was indeed knowledgeable. Unfortunately, ultimately limited by the level of the Twin Cities themselves, she lacked a clear understanding of true power.
Beside her, opening her mouth and hesitating for a long time, Vi could only ask with a difficult voice: "Is... is this also Hextech?"
To put it another way...
Why hasn't Zaun perished yet?
In contrast, watching the last thug being swallowed and shredded by the blood wave, finally dissipating as broken red mist in the flowing water, Sevika suddenly understood why Faen told her when she warned him that the reason he valued Silco wasn't because of Silco's power...
That wasn't trying to be brave, but simply seeking truth from facts.