"What happened? What happened?"
"Did they start fighting? Is that old bastard trying to weasel out of paying his debt?"
"Nothing can happen to the Governor. I'm still counting on him to fix Zaun."
"You? Worrying about the Governor? Please. Stay in your lane."
The tavern windows suddenly exploding all at once was indeed shocking.
But to the extremely combat-ready people of Zaun, it did not really count as anything serious.
Ekko, however, was vaguely worried.
For some reason, the decisions he had made this time had been more like reckless gambles.
Looking back on it now, he did not think that thing with the huge grin and the long tongue, cheating openly in front of everyone, was human.
The Demacian game of Deduction Chess had only been a cover used to conceal his true identity.
A Noxian spy?
Ekko's eyes shifted as he kept thinking.
The worst-case scenario would be Noxus getting its hands on the manufacturing technology for Hextech Gemstones.
They already had mages over there, and it would not be strange if they could collect Hextech crystals as well.
Just as Ekko was blaming himself, inside the tavern…
"What?"
Looking at the terrifying scar on his own body, Tahm could not help freezing.
He was a demon, a demon far above humanity.
How could this happen, right here, right now…
What stood before him was…
Tahm's pupils shrank slightly as he recalled this power.
It was from before the Rune Wars, when demons had gained a tremendous amount of power from negative emotions.
However, demons had not dared to stir things up the way they did during the Rune Wars.
Because the main forces in that war had all once been great Ascended warriors.
They were the elites who had crawled out of piles of corpses beneath that great war, beneath energies powerful enough to annihilate even Ascended beings.
They fought each other to the death for the sake of the hierarchy.
Only after a certain Aspect from the celestial realm intervened and sealed them away did the demons, who had benefited from that war, dare to become active again.
How could this be?
Tahm remembered that Darkin who built their bodies through blood magic had bodies whose strength was actually hard to restore to their original powerful and beautiful forms.
Blood magic, living weapons, and that spear strike that had genuinely been able to pierce through his thick hide.
Tahm had spent his time around the harbors of Bilgewater, moving among gamblers and sailors.
As long as he did not cause trouble for that enormous monster and her priestess, both sides had always stayed out of each other's way.
However, beings called Ascended were different.
They were obsessed with conquest, and their pride made them look down on everything.
Under the encirclement of Ascended warriors, even demons had to keep their tails tucked between their legs.
Not to mention, after that, nearly all the world's land had been incorporated into Shurima's territory.
Back then, demons had not been as infamous as they were now, nor had they taken such deep root in people's hearts.
There had not been as many negative emotions for them to absorb either.
Not until the Sun Disc suddenly fell, and the Darkin began turning on each other.
"Trying to run?"
A mocking smile spread across Yaanogel's mouth.
As one of the finest among the Ascended, he was naturally not the ordinary sort.
He was a spear that had put every skill point into attack and stealth.
Seeing that things were going badly, Tahm stretched out his huge tongue and lashed it over like a whip.
Yaanogel merely used the shaft of the spear and casually neutralized the attack.
After that failed strike, Tahm no longer dared to linger and hurriedly opened a passage underground.
"The world is a river, and you're a king? The master of the river?"
The smile on Yaanogel's face became even more obvious.
"There are people outside. Don't hurt them," Caleb reminded him calmly.
"Of course."
Seeing that things were going badly, Tahm tried to retreat through his tunnel.
Ascended were all lunatics. He had experienced that personally.
They did not care about the price, did not care about the consequences, and simply went all in.
An instant sonic boom rang out. Yaanogel truly lived up to his image as a hidden tiger among the Ascended, catching Tahm in the split second he was in midair.
Blood condensed at the spear tip, like a honed blade.
"Remember this!"
At the crucial moment, Tahm actually twisted his round body and used the top of his foot to take the spear.
Immediately afterward, he forcefully tore his own leg away mid-spin, the muscles of his leg snapping strand by strand as they were ripped apart.
In the end, only that fat leg remained, along with part of his skin and tissue, pinned to the wall.
"Who says it's hard to find a three-legged toad?"
The blood-colored patterns on Caleb's face faded, and he could not help laughing.
Sacrificing one of his own legs was very much in line with Tahm's calculating personality.
After all, Caleb had not even called in Janna, his real ace in the hole.
If a demigod and an Ascended both faced this demon at the same time, Tahm would not have the slightest chance of winning.
He might really have died right here.
Caleb let out a long breath and slowly broke the enormous spear into three sections, placing it behind his back.
Technically, the weapon behind his back should have been the longbow, Serylda's Grudge.
But now that the spear needed that spot, he could only temporarily put the bow into the system inventory.
"A small harvest, I guess…"
Caleb stored the demon leg in his system inventory, not minding its awful appearance in the slightest.
"I'll ask around later and see what this thing can actually do."
If he really wanted to ask someone, he would have to ask Yone. He was the professional when it came to killing demons.
But when it came to something like Tahm, who had declined but was still a primordial demon, and how to make use of a part of his true body…
Caleb honestly had no idea.
If Caleb had to say, why not just roast it?
Then chew on it himself and see whether it could improve his body or something.
Thinking this, Caleb pushed open the doors of The Last Drop.
"After you clean up your things, come to my office. I have something to ask you."
Caleb ignored the surrounding crowd. With two steps, he lifted off from the ground and headed toward his office.
Ekko looked at the ruined mess inside The Last Drop and sighed. Then he picked up his iron sword and Gemstone.
As well as the stone he had won.
After stepping onto his hoverboard, Ekko left the scene too, leaving the mess behind to the people present.
…
"This thing… he said it was a Demacian specialty, petricite, so I… got tempted…"
The stone was placed on the table. Caleb looked at that piece of petricite. It could indeed be considered a very tempting item.
"So you played three rounds with him?"
Caleb rubbed his chin and asked thoughtfully.
The blood on the spear tip had not been hidden, so most people knew Caleb had injured the opponent.
But there was no corpse inside the tavern, which meant the opponent had a mysterious background and had disappeared to parts unknown.
"Y… yes…"
Ekko spoke with difficulty, not daring to look at Caleb.
When Caleb left, he had entrusted the city to him and Viktor. Of course, that had been an act of trust.
But Ekko also knew very well how serious the consequences of his carelessness this time could have been.
He lowered his head, waiting for Caleb's judgment.
Even if Caleb refused to let him participate in the extremely important "Computer-Mecha Project," Ekko would accept it.
No matter what, even with the ability to reverse time, he could never afford to be careless.
"Come down."
Caleb lightly snapped his fingers, and a marble struck the ceiling with a sharp bang.
It startled Ekko so badly that he jolted.
"He won't do it again next time, so let it go this once."
Jinx mumbled as she dropped to the floor and stood beside Ekko, speaking quietly.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810