Boom!!
The thunderous crash of a heavy hammer striking the ground echoed from deep within the forested mountains. Hearing the roar, Duke instinctively turned his gaze toward it. His Divine Eye of Justice effortlessly relayed the scene before him.
The ground was split apart, webbed with cracks spreading like spider silk. The fractures surged forward in an unstoppable rush, carrying with them the force of a powerful energy that was brewing underground, ready to erupt at any moment.
A bipedal drake crouched low, its claws gouging into the earth as it bellowed furiously at the figure standing ahead, hammer in hand.
At last,
The advancing fissures screeched to a halt before the drake, and from the sundered earth a colossal golden warhammer burst forth.
The square-headed hammer, forged entirely from raw energy, shot upward toward the dragon's twin heads with dazzling speed. It was almost too fast for the naked eye, but Duke tracked it clearly.
The hammer struck without hesitation, slamming into one of the drakes. The blow crushed its chest inward as the beast was sent flying, crashing heavily into the distance, silent and lifeless.
The other two drakes, rushing in to aid their kin, answered with even more terrifying roars.
Narrowing his eyes, Duke studied them. In those monstrous gazes swirled a heavy, corrupted darkness. Shadows coiled endlessly about their forms, as though driven by some unseen force, urging them to hurl themselves once more at the hammer-wielding figure.
That figure finally came into full view,
A Yordle, her skin a deep violet. Twin blonde pigtails swayed atop her head, while golden locks cascaded down her back. Her battle armor clung snugly to her form, and a single tiger fang peeked playfully at the corner of her lips.
Her wide eyes, however, shone with nothing but unwavering determination.
"Oh ho… a Yordle with a hammer!"
Duke muttered in surprise. Still shaken from the earlier dragon assault, Ciceria blinked and asked instinctively, "What did you say?"
"I said, I just spotted a Yordle!"
He pointed toward the treeline. Ciceria, carrying the beast-cradle on her back, squinted in confusion. To her eyes, there was nothing but dense greenery.
"Stop joking around, Duke!"
"Oh, right. I forgot. You can't see her."
Duke realized it at once. Poppy was two kilometers away; of course Ciceria couldn't see her. Only Duke's Divine Eye made it possible.
"Roooar!!"
The bipedal drake Duke had bound with a web-bomb tore free with its claws. Flapping its wings clumsily, like an infant learning to walk, it lunged toward them again.
"It's coming again!"
Ciceria screamed as the beast swooped down. Duke, still replaying the sight of the hammer in his mind, fixed his gaze on the dragon before them.
Its eyes brimmed with a dark, clouded madness, froth dripping from its mouth. The look was vacant, bereft of reason, shadowy tendrils swirling ominously around its head as though something was pulling its strings.
Duke's left eye flashed. Within his vision, the drake's form unraveled, revealing its slumbering spirit, yet in reality its body still lunged forward, savage and relentless.
"The spirit sleeps, but the body moves?"
"…Sleepwalking?"
Duke dodged the assault. With practiced ease, he drew a gravity-reversal bomb from his belt and lobbed it straight into the beast's gaping maw.
"Let's move!"
He didn't wait to see the result. A nagging suspicion gnawed at him, had he stumbled right into the awakening of some demon?
Too soon. Far too soon.
Ciceria, a heartbeat slower, glanced curiously at the drake as it swallowed the device. Its body ballooned grotesquely, like an overinflated bladder, before bursting apart in a deafening spray of blood and mist.
She froze, horrified.
What on earth had Duke thrown? Some kind of magical artifact?
Or… that "science" he always rambled about?
The pair leapt swiftly through the forest, closing in on Poppy's location. The Yordle still fought on, brandishing a hammer twice her size against the frenzied drakes. Her steadfast gaze mirrored the madness of her foes.
Perched on a branch, Duke pointed. "There, see? A Yordle from Demacia!"
"What Yordle? That's clearly a burly warrior!"
Ciceria gave him a look as if to say don't try to fool me. In her eyes, Poppy was the epitome of a Demacian knight,
Two meters tall, clad in heavy plate, muscles bulging.
Long hair tied in twin knots.
Weathered hands gripping a massive warhammer.
"Use your magic," Duke snapped impatiently. "Yordles conceal themselves with enchantments. Only magic reveals their true form. Magic counters magic."
Ciceria's expression twisted to horror. She stammered, "You… you're spouting nonsense! How could I be a mage!?"
"I knew last night," Duke said flatly. "You've hidden it well."
Her face shifted stormily. She had guarded this secret for years, yet Duke had exposed it so casually. And still, curiosity pried at her. Tentatively, she channeled her power and looked again.
Suddenly, Poppy's true form shimmered into clarity.
"A real Yordle!" she gasped.
"But why would a Yordle appear here?"
"This world has Yordle guardians everywhere," Duke explained with a shrug. "Demacia's is her. Noxus has Kled. Piltover has Heimerdinger. Even Freljord, even the Shadow Isles… every land has one."
"That's… impossible!"
"Who knows?" Duke spread his hands. "Maybe the whole world's just a book, written by some half-crazed author. Anything goes."
"The world is vast and full of wonders. Best learn to adapt."
He leapt down, calling forth Sloth and Gluttony, his monstrous constructs, and gestured toward the onrushing drakes.
"Take them down."
The beasts roared, shifting into combat form, and charged.
"Hello there!"
Duke strode toward Poppy, greeting her before even reaching her side.
"You seem to be struggling, let me lend a hand."
"Greetings. I'm searching for a hero," Poppy replied warmly, extending her small hand. Behind her, Sloth and Gluttony brutally overwhelmed the drakes, pinning them down and tearing them apart.
Ciceria landed nearby, staring in shock at the terrifying creatures Duke commanded. Sloth shredded scales with ease, while Gluttony bit into a dragon's skull, crunching bone and flesh without pause.
"I'm Duke," he said, crouching so Poppy could meet his gaze. He shook her hand gently.
"I'm Poppy," she answered, eyes shining. "Are you a hero? I've been searching for the one worthy to lift this hammer, to lead Demacia to glory!"
She held up the mighty warhammer. To her, that quest was everything, though she never imagined that she herself might be the true hero.
Duke frowned. He knew the hammer was cursed, anyone but Poppy who tried to wield it would die a gruesome death. And yet she tirelessly sought a hero to take it from her.
"…No. I'm not. Sorry."
Poppy's ears drooped. She turned to Ciceria, raising her hammer hopefully. "Then you, are you the hero?"
Ciceria shook her head, her voice tinged with grief. "No. I'm just a dragon-rider who lost her partner."
"That's… so disappointing," Poppy murmured, shoulders slumping.
Meanwhile, the last of the drakes fell, and from their corpses two shadowy wraiths rose, screeching as they lunged for Sloth and Gluttony. But before they could strike, Duke's left eye blazed. A surge of unknown power annihilated the shadows instantly.
He clutched his eye, startled. "What… was that impulse just now?"
Poppy's voice pulled him back to reality.
"Duke! Duke!"
"Eh? What is it?"
"Are those two heroes?" She gestured toward his beasts. Gluttony was gnawing happily at the carcass, while Sloth glared to keep her from eating the ground itself.
"They're not." Duke shook his head firmly. "They're constructs I created, mechanical life. They're not truly human."
"…I see."
The light in Poppy's eyes dimmed again. Ciceria, still curious, studied the hammer more closely. It was unlike her own halberd, far heavier, far stranger.
"Why do you seek this hero so desperately?" she asked.
"Because only the true hero can lift this hammer."
Poppy set the weapon upright on the ground, her tone resolute.
"Father, it's done!"
Sloth dragged Gluttony back toward Duke. The latter, still stuffing soil, stone, and grass into her maw, scarcely cared, after all, the Tri-core Sphere could break anything down into nourishment.
"Gluttony, stop eating!" Duke barked. The beast sulked, tail swishing. In her annoyance, the tail brushed against Poppy's hammer.
The weapon toppled, straight into Duke's arms.
"Sorry, I touched your hammer," he said reflexively, setting it upright again. But the instant he held it, his heart jolted.
Poppy's ears shot up. Her violet eyes sparkled brighter than ever before.
"You're the hero I've been searching for!"
"No, I'm not! I didn't, I don't!"
"Don't deny it!"
End of chapter....
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