"What exactly are you trying to say?"
Jayce only felt more confused. This guy had been talking in riddles the whole time.
Viktor was puzzled too. "And you are?"
"Caleb. Councilor Talis and I have met at the Council."
Caleb took Viktor's hand and gave it a light shake.
"He knows his way around Hextech too," Jayce added from the side.
"You study Hextech as well?" Viktor was genuinely taken aback.
Ever since the Hexgates had been built, countless skilled craftsmen and inventors had come to Piltover.
For one simple reason: make a name for yourself in Piltover, and orders would come pouring in.
And yet here was someone talented in Hextech whom the two of them were only meeting now?
Hextech had always been researched by Jayce and Viktor alone.
Even though Viktor disliked attention, Jayce had become a Councilor on the strength of that technology alone.
So why had this person never come to Piltover to join their team?
Hopefully he wasn't just another fraud using Hextech as a buzzword.
Jayce's hammer was still lying nearby.
"Well... that's a long story. I spent some time in Stillwater too..."
Caleb drifted off into thought for a moment.
"Back to the point," Jayce said quickly, pulling him back before his mind could wander too far. "Caleb copied several Hextech gemstones before, so I think he's qualified to speak on Hextech."
"The prosthetic technology in the Undercity—you know about that, right?"
Caleb's gaze returned from the horizon as he shot the question back at them.
Even though neither of them quite saw where this was going, they still nodded.
"One of Silco's people, Sevika, uses a mechanical arm built with chemtech."
"Not only does it move freely, it also has enhanced strength and added functionality."
"Just like his leg and hand do now."
Jayce stared at the parts of Viktor's body that had already changed, his eyes wide with shock.
"But... didn't you say... human nature resists this kind of evolution?"
"He got a variant of Shimmer from that friend of his."
Caleb crouched down and looked at Viktor's Hextech-altered hand.
Its structure was intricate, almost beautiful, and one could still see arcane power flowing through it.
"I see." Jayce nodded. Using Shimmer was not an unforgivable sin. That much he had learned from dealing with his business partners.
Shimmer had many uses, including medical ones, but its severe side effects meant anyone sensible handled it with caution.
Only the people of the Undercity could ignore the cost entirely, so long as they got to enjoy that intoxicating feeling of power in their hands.
"With Shimmer, you can temporarily alter your nature enough to adapt to the evolution."
"But unfortunately, Sky saw Viktor while he was in the middle of evolving last night."
"She used all her strength, but she still couldn't pull him away from the Hexcore."
"In the end... she was reduced to a pile of ash."
Viktor's eyes widened as he stared at the black-haired man before him.
He wasn't as gaunt as Viktor himself, but his words cut just as cleanly and precisely as a sharpened blade.
"Is that true? Sky is dead?" Jayce could hardly believe it. He looked at Viktor's grief-stricken face.
And all at once, he understood why Viktor's tone earlier had been so absolute.
"I'm sorry, Jayce..." Viktor leaned on his cane and slowly closed his eyes. "It was my fault."
"You two really do go through everything together."
Caleb turned the lighter in his hand, not giving them time to process it before continuing.
"Anyway, let me keep going."
The two of them nodded in silence. They had already started to glimpse where he was headed.
Much like the spark that had once led Viktor to a successful Hexgate experiment.
"Sevika's chemtech arm is powered by Shimmer." Caleb sketched a simple diagram on the ground.
"But Shimmer still causes side effects at the interface."
"That's why the left side of her face, closest to the arm, has those cracks from Shimmer corrosion."
"So what does that have to do with Viktor's illness?" Jayce still did not fully follow, and his voice turned anxious.
Viktor, however, seemed to understand. He stared at Caleb in a daze.
"Exactly. Because Shimmer is harmful to the human body, it leaves marks on tissue that was otherwise healthy."
Caleb continued patiently. He knew the basics of chemtech and the basics of Hextech, but this kind of bold attempt was not something either of them would have thought of right away.
"So isn't there already something over there that could replace Shimmer as the power source?"
Caleb glanced at the Mercury Hammer Jayce had set aside nearby.
"You mean... build the body with machinery, and then power it with Hextech gemstones?"
Viktor's eyes lit with astonishment. It was like using Piltover's energy source to power Zaun's ingenuity.
Zaun's machinery was crude in construction, yes—but that was because it was designed for easy replacement and repair.
But when it came to imagination, creations like Jinx's Flame Chompers were in some ways far beyond anything Piltover had come up with.
"Exactly!" Caleb clapped his hands. "Take the leg you were born without, for example. If you used Hextech to power a prosthetic—"
"Not only could it perform far more functions, it would also have no side effects!"
"And it could be replaced whenever needed. Compared to the Hexcore, this would be true evolution!"
Viktor grew excited as well, though barely two seconds later, he broke into another violent fit of coughing.
"Viktor!" Jayce rushed over to steady him.
"With his body in this condition, can he even handle it?" Jayce asked worriedly.
"That's why this project is a race against time."
Caleb waved a hand at them in farewell.
"I still have friends to see in the Undercity, and a pile of things waiting for me. See you."
His figure vanished among the gears, leaving Jayce and Viktor standing there in silence.
"You really did take Shimmer? To fight human nature's resistance to evolution?"
"Yes." Viktor lowered his head. "He was right. It was as if he had been standing there watching."
"This is uncharted territory. I can't blame you for it."
Unexpectedly, Jayce did not lose his temper.
"Come on. Let's go."
Viktor draped an arm over Jayce's shoulder as they prepared to leave.
"This evening I'm negotiating with Silco. By tonight, we'll try to get the Council to approve Zaun's independence."
Jayce held the hammer in one hand and supported his friend with the other.
He had once been an idealist too, someone who thought the dreams of childhood might really come true.
But reality was cruel. He could not stand by and watch countless children and innocent people die because of war.
Vi could do that.
He couldn't.
...
Piltover Docks.
A powerfully built man stepped out of the ship's cabin and planted one boot on the ground.
A face like a butcher's axe, knotted muscle, and thick veins bulging along his arms.
Wherever he passed, people hurriedly stepped aside, afraid of getting on his bad side.
"That's a Noxian, isn't it?"
"Has to be. Who else walks around carrying a blade in the street?"
"Only those Noxian killers have that kind of presence."
Every hushed comment from the surrounding crowd reached the man's ears.
But he could not even be bothered to laugh. He simply kept walking forward with his head held high.
He was deeply dissatisfied with the orders from above, but he had come all the same—to this so-called City of Progress.
His name was Urgot, an executioner responsible for putting criminals to death.
Unlike Draven, who hurled spinning axes to execute frenzied fugitives and basked in the roaring applause of the crowd—
Urgot preferred hunting down escaped criminals across the cities and killing them in public.
In his eyes, Draven's executions were nothing more than a child's performance, a stunt meant to get adults to notice him.
Urgot alone understood the true essence of power:
Terror.
He had more than enough strength and patience. Even the armies of Noxus would struggle to stop the march of death he brought with him.
And this time, the target of his execution would be no exception.
They too would die by his blade.