Jinx was holding her minigun, happily spraying fire at everything around her.
Then a furious shout cut her fun short.
It was Caleb's voice.
Since she could hit a target almost anywhere she aimed, Jinx wanted to snap back at Caleb for ruining such a beautiful moment. But then a man with eerie green orbs floating around him slapped a mass of Black Mist straight into her face without the slightest hesitation.
Jinx's last memory was Caleb's still-shouting face and the whole world spinning around her.
But the sky was dark now, so which way was down did not seem all that important.
The minigun in her hands hit the ground hard.
Jinx fell from the heights of Zaun, light as a bird.
Luckily, a breeze slowed her descent before she struck the ground.
Caleb did not turn back to look. Right now, the most important problem was still the king commanding the Ruination.
"One sister controlled by the Black Mist, the other knocked out cold. Seriously, neither of them gives me a break."
"Shadow... go..."
That weak voice came from behind him, and every hair on Caleb's body stood on end.
Caleb knew it was probably the Shadow wrapped around Vex coming after him.
But if anyone thought he could dodge that ultimate the way people did in the game, by sidestepping it with one tiny twist, Caleb was not that stupid.
From Azir, the Emperor of Shurima, he had already learned that Emperor's Divide could be used flexibly.
Shadow was an intelligent spirit. There was no way Caleb could avoid it just by moving one body-length aside.
Caleb planned to leave this Shadow Surge to someone else.
Well, maybe not another "person."
A hurricane swept over everything, blowing Caleb away while blocking the Shadow that had been rushing toward him.
Caleb's heart settled. He did not need to look to know it was the blessing of that bluebird bracelet.
"No thanks needed for a favor this big."
Inside the Black Mist, even with Shadow Step to pass through walls and Arcane Shift to keep closing the distance, Caleb could barely keep Viego from vanishing out of sight.
Benzo's grocery store was kicked open. Among the countless scattered odds and ends, Caleb saw a ring float up.
The ring had gone through countless hardships and was already badly worn.
Even so, the tiny remnant of soul within it still floated out.
Viego had been tense at first, but once he saw that the soul fragment held inside was unharmed, he let out a breath of relief.
Caleb seized that moment without mercy and hurled an Arcane Comet at him.
This comet was not as large as the one he had used against the Balestrider before, but it was wrapped with Aery, which Caleb had summoned.
Beside Caleb, the Manaflow Band with restorative power appeared, and the blade was already gripped in his hand.
At any moment, Caleb was ready to deal with this infamous Ruined King.
"This thing is not on the level of a demigod at all..."
In Caleb's eyes, someone able to command the Black Mist across an entire continent, wage war on multiple fronts, and openly assault almost every nation and faction at once had gone far beyond that level.
This king truly had terrifying nerve.
Had he really been that careless prince who had never cared about politics back then?
The pressure on Caleb's shoulders grew heavier again. Now that the comet had already been thrown, whether it hit or not, a clash between him and the Ruined King was practically inevitable.
Sure enough, Viego put away the music box containing the soul.
Then he summoned the Blade of the Ruined King and stared coldly at Caleb.
"Or maybe I should take a gamble?"
Caleb's thoughts raced, and he remembered an item inside his backpack.
He only revealed it for a moment before putting it away again, but the Ruined King's expression changed at once.
...
"There are too many things here. This is even harder to handle than the Shadow Isles!"
Although weapons of light could still hurt them, the numbers were on a completely different level from before.
The hardest problem was that Vi, wearing those gauntlets, had already become one of the Ruined Legion.
Caitlyn did not want to kill her, but Vi's attacks showed no mercy at all.
"This is bad..."
Jayce looked down at the battlefield and fell into hesitation for a moment.
But he still had to control the giant mecha and hold back the largest share of the enemy's forces.
Seeing his friend in danger while he was busy with something else made Jayce feel almost unbearable pain.
Even so, dealing with these monsters was already hard enough for him.
Fortunately, the air purification system was good enough that no Black Mist could seep inside and try to control Jayce.
But even then, faced with the largest number of monsters, the mecha's damage level continued to rise.
Although the central energy source still had plenty left, right now it could no longer provide any extra assistance.
...
"What happened to this world?"
Ryze, who had been traveling, frowned as he looked at the Black Mist covering the sky and earth.
Aside from the Runes, was there actually something else capable of swallowing the entire world?
After only a few tests, the runes on Ryze's hands shifted into a bright color.
"So this type of magic can completely destroy these things."
Before Ryze could fully adjust, mass after mass of Black Mist tried to drill into his head.
...
The same thing was happening in Ionia. As the Enlightened One, Karma had to endure the erosion of the Black Mist without losing her reason while also withstanding the attacks of a massive number of monsters.
At last, her eyes also lost focus, and an eerie green crown appeared upon her head.
...
"Is it over?"
Seeing the intensity of the Black Mist's assault weaken, Lucian let out a slight breath of relief.
Then, immediately afterward, a king's blade stabbed hard into the ground.
"Isolde! Give her back to me!"
At the same time, a cluster of blue light shone from Senna's chest.
"Senna!"
Lucian ran forward almost without thinking.
But the iron-armored hand struck him down hard to the side.
Senna instinctively raised her gun, but before she could fire, Viego moved at high speed through the Black Mist and seized her throat.
"Senna!"
Lucian, fallen on the ground, instinctively wanted to save his wife, but the monsters moving through the Black Mist blocked his path.
"Let her go!"
Warwick, charging toward them on all fours, let out a furious roar.
Those words were not only telling Viego to let Senna go, but also telling him to release Vi.
She was his daughter!
After seeing Jinx knocked unconscious, Warwick had chased Viego's scent like a beast possessed.
Now, in Piltover, in such a short amount of time, he had already arrived.
"Do not stand in my way, insect!"
With only half the soul absorbed, someone had already come to interfere. Viego also understood that he could not sacrifice the greater goal for something small, so he drove his sword straight through Warwick's chest.
"Wha..."
Warwick had survived in Zaun for so many years and experienced countless chaotic battles.
But Viego's strike was so fast that Warwick had no time to guard with his claws.
Blood and chemtech chemicals flowed together from Warwick's chest as he slowly slid all the way down to Vi's feet.
"Kill him."
Viego's voice was very calm, as if this were the smallest matter in the world.
"Vi..."
A large amount of blood spilled from Warwick's mouth. As his life neared its end, it seemed he finally called his daughter's name once.
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