When Jayce and Caleb arrived at the lab, they happened to run into Viktor making his way there with a cane.
"What happened?"
"Why are you out of bed already?!"
Both of them were shocked and furious.
Caleb especially was about half a second away from breaking into a full Zaunite freestyle.
"Relax, the doctor said he needs to get used to his new body," Caitlyn explained as she stepped out from the side.
"I really am doing a lot better," Viktor said with a strained smile.
His lungs had already been replaced with the mechanical lungs designed by that craftsman.
The designer's daughter had come down with a rare illness, so Viktor had actually gotten lucky.
Otherwise, with how delicate the structure was, even more intricate than a heart, there was no way something like this could have been made in such a short time.
"How are you feeling?" Caleb asked as he helped Viktor sit down inside the lab.
"Much better. I've bought myself another year, and now the next Hextech surgery can be scheduled too."
Viktor really did look far better than before.
But the slight tightening in his brow and the way his lips occasionally pressed into a thin line made his pain impossible to miss.
The Hextech-powered mechanical lungs would not be rejected by his body, but the subjective pain still had to be endured.
During the process of "evolution," the body would constantly send out signals of pain in an effort to resist it and force the process to stop.
That was only natural, since the odds of success were so low.
"Tomorrow is your first day in office," Jayce said. "Have you written your speech yet?"
"Just one line," Caleb replied with a shrug, looking completely casual, like he actually intended to use it. "I came to Zaun for three things, fairness, fairness, and more fairness."
"Then I'll just sit back and wait for them to start calling me some kind of savior," Caleb said, clearly pleased with himself. "And then I'll tell them not to kneel."
Not only did Jayce sigh, even Caitlyn covered her face.
"Seriously," she said, annoyed, "aren't you supposed to be smart? How do you turn into an idiot every time it's something like this?"
"Take it easy, Sheriff Caitlyn." Caleb leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. "It's not like I know how to write speeches."
"Otherwise I could go with something like, ask not what Zaun can do for you..."
He hadn't even finished the sentence before Caitlyn cut him off in a hurry.
"What? Sheriff? Me?"
She looked completely stunned.
"You didn't tell her?" Caleb looked over at Jayce. "I thought you two were good friends."
"I spent the whole day walking around the Piltover markets with Mel and completely forgot," Jayce admitted awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.
"That's basically it."
Caleb gave Jayce a nod, and Jayce handed over a scroll.
"There was no way Marcus could keep serving as sheriff, after all."
"And you just happened to earn a major accomplishment too," Caleb added with a grin. "The pride of House Kiramman."
"Really?"
Caitlyn took the scroll, her smile immediately blooming across her face.
"So the first item on today's agenda," Jayce said, "is the Hextech rifle."
He had originally planned to delay this project a little longer, but what happened with the executioner that day had made one thing painfully clear to him, Piltover's defenses were still nowhere near strong enough.
If disaster struck, then just as Mel had said, they needed weapons that could protect the people.
"I've already got the design in mind."
As Caleb spoke, he started sketching on scrap paper.
Come on, he could practically draw Caitlyn's splash art from memory. In his previous life, if he didn't lock in a long-range ADC, his lane got wrecked pretty fast.
Three scopes. An extendable barrel. And then that elegant, flashy stock.
"This is really good!"
The rough draft matched Jayce's own vision almost perfectly.
"Then I'll handle grinding the lenses," Viktor said. He had no intention of taking on anything too demanding, especially with the other two liable to blow up at any moment if he overdid it.
It was strange. He hadn't known Caleb for long, but there was always a strange, unexplainable sense of familiarity around him.
"Where's Vi?" Caitlyn asked quietly when she found Caleb alone for a moment and slipped over to his side.
"Probably down in the undercity. I took back those gauntlets of hers."
"Do you think she and I really are strangers now?" Caitlyn's long brows lifted, full of worry.
"Don't worry."
Caleb kept working on the parts in his hands as he answered, sounding only half focused.
"You'll see each other again eventually. You might even end up working together someday."
Vi's title was "Piltover Enforcer," and Caitlyn's was "Sheriff of Piltover."
And with the way those two kept acting around each other in the undercity, there was no way they wouldn't end up as partners in the future.
Caleb knew that perfectly well, but he had no intention of saying it out loud yet.
"What kind of reticle do you want?"
Viktor had already come over carrying the polished lenses.
Once the draft had been refined, it was easy for him to calculate the focal lengths for all three lenses.
After that, the machines could handle the rest.
His own job now was to ask Caitlyn what kind of reticle she wanted.
"For me, I think I'd want..."
Caitlyn walked over to the table as she spoke and started drawing on the paper.
A bolt-action rifle. One that could charge up, fire devastating armor-piercing rounds, and even launch a net to trap enemies.
This multifunctional Hextech weapon had gathered the best two scientists in Piltover, plus one transmigrator, so naturally it fit Caitlyn perfectly.
The one who contributed the most, though, was Viktor.
He wasn't doing any of the especially exhausting work, but his talent far surpassed the other two.
The refinements in the design, the handling of the data, the adjustments after the full assembly, all of it depended on him.
And so the night passed quickly in a warm and harmonious atmosphere.
...
Urgot opened his eyes and found himself stripped bare. Even his armor had been stolen.
Furious, he slammed a fist against the ground before looking around.
"My little darlings!"
A shrill voice rang through the mine pit.
"Let us welcome, our newest guest!"
Before Urgot could react, the noise of the crowd drowned him completely.
He swung his arm and struggled to break free, but chains bound him tight, dragging him all the way in front of the woman.
"Let me introduce myself," she said. "My name is Voss, and I'm a countess."
Urgot looked at Voss's twisted face and let out a dismissive laugh.
A countess, so what? He had executed more nobles than he could count.
"The Dredge welcomes you!"
Then she let out a vicious, shrill cackle.
"Let's begin the welcoming ceremony!"
"Woohoo!"
As the crowd roared, Urgot finally saw what was waiting for him ahead.
Every kind of torture device imaginable.
In this prison beneath the city called Zaun, prisoners were nothing more than entertainment.
"Looks like you've already lost a hand and both legs, so I'll give you a discount."
Countess Voss smiled, and every inmate who knew her understood exactly what that smile meant.
She was in the mood to see blood.
"You can choose what we start with!"
"Hell yeah!"
The crowd erupted again.
Urgot's heart sank.
He had been set up again and again.
He thought back to that commander, the one who had seized Noxus overnight through underhanded means.
"Go, Urgot. Bring them fear."
That was what the man had told him, before promising reinforcements.
But Urgot had waited in Piltover for so long that, if he hadn't been so certain the city had almost no real military strength, he would never have believed those reinforcements existed in the first place.
He had assumed that once the execution was finished, someone would come to meet him.
That after making his escape, the name of the Noxian headsman would become famous across the world.
But judging from the situation now, Urgot finally saw the truth.
There had never been any reinforcements at all.
That old bastard had only wanted him dead.
And the place he was in now was the abyss of despair.
// 20 chapters today! I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for last week's Power Stones!