On a small island in the middle of the vast sea, a place that should have been home to nearly a hundred people now appeared completely deserted. Everywhere one looked, there were signs of decay and corrosion, without the slightest trace of life. Beneath the darkness of night, the island looked as though it had been swallowed whole by the shadows.
Wisps of mist drifted across the island, with eerie green ghostfire occasionally flickering within them.
At the center of the island stood a church.
Black Mist enveloped the building, yet flashes of light could occasionally be seen from within, accompanied by deafening gunshots.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Lucian darted among the wailing souls scattered throughout the island. These islanders had long since become cursed wraiths, stripped even of the right to die.
Putting them to rest was his duty.
Purifying light continuously erupted from his guns, exploding against one evil spirit after another. Sparks of brilliance flashed through the darkness, yet they did little to diminish the bloated, grotesque Black Mist closing in around him.
Amid the combined wailing of countless souls, one laugh sounded especially grating.
Lucian spun around, leveling both guns at the approaching fog.
He could feel his heartbeat accelerating and his teeth clenching involuntarily. Raising both pistols, he unleashed a barrage ahead of him, purifying light tearing a path straight through the Black Mist.
Then he saw him.
At the end of the opening, a shadow slowly emerged from the darkness, radiating malice in its purest form. Eerie green flames curled around his horned skull. The very sight of him made Lucian's old wounds seem to burn again, as though some vengeful spirit were savoring his suffering.
A chilling, oppressive aura surrounded the figure, making him seem like a fiend that had crawled straight out of hell.
The undead creature before Lucian was wrapped from head to toe in ancient black robes. Rusted keys scraped against one another at his waist. In one hand he held a lantern linked to a chain, swaying ceaselessly as anguished moans occasionally escaped from within, as though it contained an endless hunger for suffering.
Thresh!
The name flashed through Lucian's mind. His grip tightened around his pistols, and his expression grew increasingly solemn.
He really was here!
Thresh stood there with a young woman lying at his feet.
The hook on his chain had sunk into her body and was ripping her soul free, leaving her thrashing desperately in unbearable agony. Her face gradually lost all color as the ancient lantern began to glow more brightly. The Chain Warden raised it, and its sinister radiance intensified.
The woman's lifeless body collapsed to the ground.
Another soul had entered the prison.
Lucian knew he was already too late to save her, just as he had once been forced to watch helplessly while the woman he loved was taken from him in exactly the same way.
But this time was different.
He had spent every waking moment preparing for this day.
He refused to repeat the same failure.
This time, even if it cost him his life, he would take her back.
Thresh laughed when he saw Lucian.
"Hunter of the shadows. How we've missed you. I was beginning to worry you had forgotten the taste of defeat."
He tapped the lantern as he spoke.
"Her soul shines brighter with your arrival. You've brought her hope. For a little while, you've even eased her torment."
Lucian's gaze settled on the lantern. The prison radiated a strange, ghostly light as he tightened his grip around his guns and silently waited.
"Ah, but failure has consequences," Thresh said with a laugh. "It only makes her suffering sweeter. Hope is like a naive child, rushing blindly toward the rocks."
Lucian's thoughts suddenly returned to their previous confrontation.
It had been the first time he had ever been defeated so completely, the first time he had ever felt so powerless.
But he quickly cast those memories aside.
His gaze remained unwavering.
He would not fail again.
"Do you know her deepest fear?" Thresh asked. "Endless suffering, together with you."
The light spilling from the lantern changed. Its sinister green hue faded slightly.
Lucian could feel her reaching toward him, trying to embrace him, warm yet intangible, in a way that belonged only to souls and memories.
"Lucian..."
Her voice filled his heart with warmth.
Thresh had been right. Whenever Lucian drew close, Senna could feel him.
Every time they encountered one another, she seemed to come closer, as though she were fighting back against Thresh's torment. From the moment Lucian stepped onto this island, they had already sensed each other's presence.
The lantern began trembling in Thresh's hand.
Brilliant light twisted and churned inside it, struggling as though it were about to break free of the prison.
Thresh glanced at the disturbance within the lantern and gave a contemptuous chuckle.
Now!
Lucian had finally gotten the opening he had been waiting for.
With a sharp swing of his arm, he hurled the specially made flash grenade he had concealed in his hand.
"Buzz!"
The grenade erupted in midair, producing a cloud of silvery light. Powder scattered from it, swirling through the air before settling across the lantern.
The ghostly radiance surrounding the lantern visibly began to fade.
At almost the exact same moment,
"Bang!"
Lucian pulled the trigger.
The shot accelerated toward the lantern, dazzling muzzle fire piercing straight through the weakened aura and striking the iron prison itself.
The lantern violently shook.
For the first time, purifying fire had knocked upon the gates of that ancient prison.
Thresh erupted in fury and swung the lantern to his side, but before he could do anything else, Lucian had already rushed into close range and fired again.
A gunslinger was actually trying to fight him up close.
Thresh could indeed sense how much Lucian had changed.
His resolve was stronger than ever before.
Amid the constant flashes of gunfire, even Thresh was forced to evade, dodging bullets infused with brilliant, pure light one after another.
Merely being touched by the radiance surrounding those shots caused faint stinging pain throughout his soul.
He found it rather irritating.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it.
He had lost his physical body long, long ago.
Eerie ghostfire flared within Thresh's eyes.
Heart-rending screams erupted from the Black Mist surrounding him. One after another, undead spirits emerged from within it and swarmed toward Lucian all at once.
Lucian's expression remained cold.
His body spun almost like a dancer as searing white light poured outward in every direction, nearly illuminating the entire church.
The wails of the spirits rang out one after another, and even the Black Mist itself seemed to recoil from the sacred light.
"You're far stronger than the last time we met," Thresh said, clicking his tongue in admiration. "You've finally become interesting."
He hurled his chain hook.
The deadly scythe struck Lucian in the back, only to be repelled the instant it made contact by a barrier resembling some kind of magical shield.
"Oh?"
Thresh was slightly surprised.
"You seem to be carrying something interesting."
"What do you think I've been doing all these years?"
Lucian had already cleared away the spirits around him.
He surged toward Thresh at tremendous speed, bringing his two pistols together as he fired a long-range beam of Piercing Light.
"Bang!"
The sacred light was simply too fast.
It tore straight through Thresh's left shoulder, causing even the arm holding his lantern to jerk violently as though it might collapse.
Man and wraith plunged into a fierce battle within the Black Mist.
What Thresh wanted most was to seal the tiny breach that had been opened in his prison, but Lucian relentlessly stayed on him, refusing to give him the opportunity.
Throughout the battle, Lucian somehow managed to block every attack Thresh sent his way.
Then Thresh finally noticed it.
Hidden within Lucian's radiant coat was a small black parasol.
Not only could it repel the Black Mist, it could even block Thresh's attacks.
It was the Antique Parasol.
Because the parasol itself existed as a spiritual object, it was capable of defending against attacks from a spirit like him.
And wasn't this exactly the parasol Viego needed?
Thresh suddenly realized what he was looking at.
That brief instant of distraction was all Lucian needed.
Inside his heart, he called his lover's name, almost as though praying for her to answer him.
Senna!
Now!
As though their hearts were truly connected, the lantern suddenly erupted with pure white light.
The lantern became scorching hot in Thresh's hand.
His grip loosened involuntarily.
The moment Thresh realized what was happening, he immediately hurled his chain hook. Eerie ghostfire ignited across the scythe as he unleashed an extraordinarily lethal strike.
Lucian did not dodge.
He charged directly toward Thresh.
The scythe struck his body.
The protective barrier generated by the Antique Parasol shattered instantly, and the blade tore a horrifying wound across Lucian's body.
But Lucian had imagined this moment countless times.
He had long since lost his fear of death.
With a furious roar, he tightly gripped one of his relic stone pistols and drove it toward the lantern like a dagger.
"Buzz!"
In an instant, dazzling white light exploded outward.
Countless trapped souls screamed from inside the lantern as they poured through the breach, desperately scrambling to escape and finally find freedom.
Among them was one spirit unlike the others.
At first, it drifted through the air like spectral mist, but gradually it condensed into a human form.
A woman.
"Senna!"
Lucian's eyes stung with tears.
At that moment, the joy surging through his heart completely eclipsed the pain of his wounds.
"Lucian!"
Senna knew this was not yet the time to celebrate their reunion.
She raised the relic cannon in her hands, a weapon created from the relic weapons of fallen Sentinels, capable of channeling the powers of both darkness and light.
Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger.
The relic cannon violently trembled as dazzling white light gathered at its muzzle.
"Boom!"
An enormous, brilliant beam erupted from the weapon and tore straight through Thresh.
Its tremendous power even dispersed the surrounding Black Mist, while Thresh's spectral body disintegrated within the light.
The screams of countless souls continued to echo around them.
"We need to leave."
Senna supported the weakened Lucian as they quickly retreated from the church.
She did not know whether that attack had actually killed Thresh, but either way, they could not remain here.
Both she and Lucian were extremely weak.
If they did not escape now, they might never get another chance.
After they fled the island, inside the church, wisps of green light gradually began gathering in the air once more.
They converged until they formed a ghostly spirit.
Thresh.
There did not appear to be a single wound on his body.
His eyes, burning with flickering ghostfire, looked down at the Antique Parasol lying on the ground.
He smiled faintly.
"This should be enough to report back with."
Thresh bent down and picked up the Antique Parasol.
He could see the fragments of a soul contained within it.
Viego would surely be pleased when he saw this.
Thresh shook his lantern.
The souls that had escaped from the lantern moments earlier were dragged back inside one after another.
From the moment they entered this prison, they had already lost their right to freedom.
Soon, Thresh's form gradually faded away before vanishing from the church completely.
With his departure, the Black Mist covering the island slowly dispersed as well.
Out on the sea, Senna watched the receding island behind them with tense vigilance.
After confirming that nothing was following them, she finally relaxed slightly.
"Senna..."
Lucian spoke, and at last a smile appeared on his face.
He tightly held Senna's hand.
All the longing that had built up over the years was conveyed through that simple touch.
Senna lowered her gaze toward him with heartache in her eyes.
With her free hand, she gently stroked his face.
"I thought I'd never see you again."
"So did I."
Lucian could hardly believe he had actually succeeded.
"If I had gone the rest of my life without ever seeing you again, I would rather..."
Senna placed a hand over his mouth and shook her head, stopping him from finishing.
"Don't say something so foolish. Even if I were gone, I'd still want you to keep living a good life."
Lucian tried to sit up, but the movement immediately pulled at his wound.
Cold sweat broke across his forehead from the pain.
"Your wound..."
"It's fine. Reach into my pocket and take out the bottle with the medicinal powder."
Lucian took several breaths and forced himself upright, allowing Senna to retrieve a medicine bottle from the pocket on the right side of his chest.
After taking the bottle, he removed the stopper and poured the medicinal powder directly over his wound.
An unbearable wave of agony immediately surged through him.
It felt as though someone were repeatedly tearing the wound open and pressing down on it with all their strength.
The effect, however, was astonishing.
It did not take long before the wound stopped bleeding, and Lucian's condition stabilized.
Once again, Lucian silently thanked Luke.
The medicine Luke had given him had already saved him more than once.
Seeing Lucian's injuries stabilize, Senna finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Afterward, the reunited couple talked for a long time, telling each other how deeply they had missed one another.
Eventually, their conversation turned toward the Black Mist.
"While I was inside Thresh's lantern, I learned the origin of the Black Mist. It was love that created this curse. And now, I can feel him stirring, the one who commands the Black Mist, the Ruined King."
Senna looked uneasy as she spoke about what she had discovered.
She had learned a great deal inside the lantern, including knowledge that had long since been lost, but most of what she had discovered concerned the Shadow Isles.
The Ruination, the Black Mist...
She had gradually come to understand why they had appeared in the first place.
She might have escaped the lantern alive, but the true threat of the Black Mist was only beginning.
Lucian breathed somewhat heavily as he replied, "I know. I've been investigating the unusual behavior of the Black Mist over the years too. That's why I suspect we're going to see something much bigger from it this year."
Remembering everything she had learned inside the lantern, Senna unconsciously tightened her grip around Lucian's hand.
"We have to find a way to stop the Ruined King. Otherwise, this curse will sweep across all of Runeterra."
"Don't worry. The Sentinels of Light aren't the only ones who want to fight the Black Mist."
Lucian could already manage a smile.
The pain from his wound was gradually turning into an itch, proof of just how astonishingly effective the medicine was.
"Not just us?"
Confusion appeared in Senna's eyes. She did not understand what Lucian meant.
"Over the years, I've met a lot of reliable allies. That's what I was going to tell you next. At the very least, when we face the Shadow Isles, we won't have to fight alone."
Lucian raised his eyes and looked westward.
The Shadow Isles were stirring once again.
Soon, the time would come for them to face that cursed land directly.
"There's somewhere I need to take you next."
"Where?"
"Demacia."
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