"I got a... helper from Singed." Caleb moved the boot away from his face.
That shoe had been stepping all over Zaun's streets.
It reeked.
And besides, Jinx was wearing cropped pants, not a skirt.
So what possible reason was there for her to have her foot there?
Now, if Caitlyn were wearing a little leather skirt, maybe he would have leaned in a bit.
After finishing that train of thought, Caleb looked at Jinx's face.
"Fine."
Jinx was still a little unconvinced, but under Caleb's authority, she grudgingly pulled her foot back.
"So what am I supposed to do now?"
Her voice was quieter now, obviously lacking confidence.
She was afraid that if she stopped being useful, she would be left behind.
"Haven't figured that out yet," Caleb answered honestly.
"You're not a tool. Take a few days off and go figure out what being alive means."
Looking at the somewhat lost girl in front of him, Caleb flicked her forehead lightly.
"For myself?"
Jinx murmured blankly, staring off into space.
Back then, all she had ever done was follow her sister around and scrape by in Zaun.
Later, she had only followed Silco's orders, drifting back and forth between the twin cities.
What did she really want?
She had never seriously thought about it.
Sure, during all those years under Silco, her talent for inventing things had flourished brilliantly.
But if you asked her what she actually wanted to do, Jinx had no answer for that either.
"Go on." Caleb waved a hand, signaling for her to leave.
Jinx glanced at the piles of documents around him and wisely headed out.
Before leaving, she even remembered to shut the door behind her.
Caleb rubbed at his brow and went back to dealing with the endless-looking stack of paperwork.
A lot of the time, those files were just there to inform him of something, and all he had to do was sign his name.
But remembering every single matter was still no small challenge for Caleb.
"If we had computers, this would be so much easier... I could just select all and click approve."
He stretched his lower back, numb from sitting too long.
He had barely settled down again before the door was knocked open once more.
"What is it?" Caleb asked, puzzled, looking at the hurried Ekko and Heimerdinger.
"There's no time, we'll explain at the council!"
Ekko's hoverboard suddenly accelerated under his feet, and he vanished from the spot in an instant.
That left behind a completely bewildered Caleb and another hoverboard rider.
...
Twenty minutes later, in the council chamber.
"The situation is serious. The Black Mist appears to be shifting toward us."
"Every year during the Harrowing, a little of it drifts out near Bilgewater anyway."
A man with the look of a young aristocrat gave his opinion. "Maybe there's no need to panic."
"We can't gamble with the lives of the entire city," Lucide of the Ferros family argued from the side.
By the time Caleb and Heimerdinger arrived, the discussion was already underway.
"You two." Jayce hurried forward and quickly explained things to Caleb and Heimerdinger.
"The Harrowing is coming. The Black Mist from the Shadow Isles is showing signs of spreading this way."
Caleb was startled when he heard that.
"Shouldn't that happen around Bilgewater?"
As far as Caleb remembered, the Harrowing mostly happened in Bilgewater.
That place, where a life was worth less than a coin, was the perfect breeding ground for the Harrowing.
"So why is it heading for the twin cities?"
The question slipped out of Caleb's mouth before he could stop it.
Mel's attendant hurried over, bent at the waist, and placed a letter in front of Mel.
"Latest report, the Black Mist has already made landfall near Noxus."
Mel's voice was resolute. "We need to prepare the people for a disaster."
"Do the Enforcers have enough weapons?"
That was what Caleb was worried about most. If he remembered correctly, only the weapons of the Sentinels of Light could inflict truly meaningful damage on the Black Mist.
"Not really." Mel shook her head slightly.
Piltover's military strength was enough to deal with the undercity and maybe even contend with Noxus for a while.
Of course, if Noxus really sent its full army, the only thing left to do would be wave a white flag.
"Then Jayce is going to have to fight personally this time."
Caleb rubbed his temples.
Now he understood why the system had boosted him so much all at once.
The Black Mist was definitely about to descend on the twin cities.
Everyone turned to look at Heimerdinger.
This yordle had lived for so long that, among all the people present who had never experienced the Harrowing before, his opinion mattered the most.
"Ahem." Seeing that everyone was staring at him, Heimerdinger began to speak.
"In certain major years, the Harrowing really does strike other cities."
"In history, both Piltover and Zaun have lost many lives to this disaster."
"First, the residents must stay inside their homes. Under absolutely no circumstances can they go outside!"
As the father of Piltover, Heimerdinger's experience, accumulated over countless years, was second to none.
"I'll have people handle it." Cassandra, head of the Kiramman family, waved a hand and summoned an Enforcer.
"Ekko." Caleb glanced at him, and Ekko instantly understood. He immediately rode his hoverboard back to Zaun.
This matter was the top priority. Every second, the Black Mist was racing toward the twin cities at an astonishing speed.
"Second, the monsters that appear in the Black Mist are extremely troublesome."
Heimerdinger fell into thought.
"Ordinary weapons, including hextech, can only destroy their current form. Inside the Black Mist, those common monsters will slowly reassemble and attack again."
"So that means we need to take a defensive strategy. We can't launch an aggressive assault, we just need to drive them back," Caleb said, picking up the thread at the right moment.
"That's correct." Heimerdinger nodded thoughtfully.
"The hardest part is the third point. If powerful, unique monsters appear, ordinary people will have a very hard time dealing with them."
"The Enforcers won't be enough. We can only rely on those with exceptional combat ability."
"I'll put the Chem-Baron situation on hold for now. Resisting the Harrowing is what matters."
Caleb also understood the power of the Shadow Isles. Ordinary mortals could not even break through their defenses.
"I suggest putting people into teams, so they can watch each other's backs."
"No problem." Jayce nodded, his expression grave.
If this Harrowing still caused heavy casualties despite how far Piltover had progressed, that would be unacceptable.
They had to do everything possible to bring the death toll down to an absolute minimum.
"I'm late."
Viktor's magnetic voice rang out from the entrance.
He had brought a flamethrower with him.
"Chem-flame. Singed and I developed it together. It's highly destructive."
Caleb was more than willing to believe that, considering those two restorative formulas had come from Singed too.
"There's no time to mass-produce them. Equip them on the leaders of the Enforcer squads," Jayce said, immediately settling the details.
Once the meeting ended, everyone hurried off.
Some were going to stabilize their businesses. Others were going to issue orders.
Caleb was obviously one of the latter. By the time he returned to Zaun, he could already see that thin black line on the distant horizon over the sea.
The Shadow Isles...
That place was crawling with top-tier threats.
Too many things that could truly be called evil came from there.
At the Firelights' camp, the Firelights had already taken on the responsibility of protecting the civilians.
"Viktor, you and Blitzcrank are one team."
Caleb took the Hex Claw off his back and handed it to Viktor.
"Don't worry about me."
Viktor did not stand on ceremony. He took it directly and went back to building more chem-flamethrowers.
"Zac and Warwick are one team."
Those two might both get scared by ghosts, for all he knew.
"Ekko, go find Jinx and pair up with her."
Ekko looked a little unwilling, but said nothing.
"Vi, you're with Caitlyn from the City Above."
Caleb continued making the arrangements in an orderly way. With all his many abilities and his enhanced body, he was already strong enough that he did not need much worrying about.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810.