"What's your name?" After draining two whole buckets of water and eating a full three kilos of food, Caleb had finally recovered enough to speak.
"Yaanogel." (TN: Fixed. Ofc, he's a damn darkin :D )
His voice was still heavy, but there was some happiness in it too.
"With two A's?"
"Yes."
"Yaanogel, Aatrox, Rhaast... why do all your names have a double A in them?" Caleb asked, puzzled. "Then what about Varus?"
"He's not right in the head," Yaanogel replied in the same low voice.
By now, even if Caleb touched the spear, his consciousness would no longer be swallowed by darkness.
That was Azir's decree, and Caleb had already tested it himself.
"You know where they are?" The moment he heard that, Yaanogel suddenly grew excited.
"Varus and Rhaast are in Ionia. As for Aatrox, I'm not too sure."
Caleb had no intention of hiding that part.
Once he learned where the Darkin had come from, Caleb understood something, they had once been Ascended, which meant they could potentially be used for Shurima's sake.
Of course, he had no intention of gambling on that now. At best, it was only one possible option to keep in mind for some future desperate situation.
"Lend me an eye and an ear."
Compared to drawing Caleb's blood to build those things, this seemed like the easier way.
Caleb silently nodded.
Very soon, crimson crept over his left eye and left ear.
A long while later, he finally heard a deep sigh.
"A calamity from nowhere reduced this empire to this."
Yaanogel sounded heartsick. Everywhere he looked, there was only desolation.
Ever since the fall of the Sun Disc, the Shuriman Empire had collapsed with terrifying speed.
And after that came the world-darkening war of the Darkin.
Every Ascended who had gone into the Void returned infected with something strange.
They could only use blood magic to rebuild their bodies.
Their temperaments had changed as well.
Once the Darkin no longer had an emperor, naturally none of them would submit to any other.
That continued until the Aspects sealed them inside weapons, leaving them in endless darkness.
After all those long years had passed, this was what now stood before him.
That old Shurima, rich and prosperous, with happy people across its lands, had vanished like a bubble, like a dream.
"Azir is a wise king," Caleb said from beside him, trying to offer some comfort.
This whole ordeal had been far too close for comfort. Caleb couldn't even properly look back on it.
All he could say was that it was a good thing he'd dodged Xerath's arcane bombardment at the start.
Otherwise, he probably never would have even gotten the chance to bargain with Yaanogel.
I still need to get stronger.
Caleb made the vow silently.
This way of borrowing someone else's power for a brief moment would fail him one day.
To put it more bluntly, even if Yaanogel stayed hardworking and obedient and handled every dirty job for him, what was Caleb supposed to do once the Black Mist came for him again?
The Void problem in the southeast still hadn't been solved. Rek'Sai was still breeding there in broad daylight.
And during that Harrowing, so many forces from the Shadow Isles had come to the Twin Cities. It absolutely had something to do with the Ruination sweeping across the whole world.
Of that, Caleb was certain.
It hadn't chosen Noxus. It hadn't chosen Ionia. It hadn't even chosen Bilgewater, the port it visited most often.
He needed to finish the Void mission here as soon as possible, then return to the Twin Cities and strengthen their defenses.
During the last Harrowing, Piltover had lost a considerable portion of its population.
The Undercity had suffered losses too, but compared to Piltover, they hadn't been nearly as shocking.
"What are you thinking about?"
Kai'Sa had been more than ten meters away just a moment ago, yet now she was suddenly right beside him.
"I was thinking about my city."
Caleb didn't hide it. He turned and smiled at her.
"What kind of place is your city, exactly?"
Kai'Sa sat beside him with her chin propped on one hand, her eyes full of curiosity.
"Well... it's kind of run-down. Only the Promenade up above really looks presentable."
"The pollution used to be awful, but it's a lot better now."
"People like replacing body parts with mechanical prosthetics."
"There are some really interesting friends there, and stacks of paperwork piled up like little mountains."
"Once all this is over, want to come visit?"
Caleb slowly came back out of his memories.
"Sure."
Kai'Sa's face lit up with a smile, and together with the evening glow around her, it was breathtaking.
"Seriously?"
Caleb muttered.
In his eyes, the world that ought to have been dim suddenly brightened.
The setting sun in the distance no longer looked so dull, and the reason all of it seemed different was the smile on Kai'Sa's face.
To Caleb, that was the brightest thing in the world.
Smack!
Caleb slapped both hands hard against his own cheeks, and the pain stung hot.
"What are you doing?" Even Sivir was startled by the sound and couldn't help asking.
"Nothing." Caleb shook his head and found the world had gone back to normal.
"No way... I'm not actually falling in love, am I?"
He muttered it under his breath.
Even Orianna, for all her precision engineering, wasn't built that perfectly.
As for Kai'Sa and that Void skin of hers, his heart might be willing, but his body definitely wasn't.
Nope. Absolutely not.
Sure, Kai'Sa was gorgeous, but...
Caleb's thoughts ran wild as he spiraled into an intense internal struggle.
His body, which had been sitting perfectly steady a moment before, actually started swaying from side to side.
There was even a faint flush on Kai'Sa's face now.
Maybe it was just the sunset.
...
Azir had already returned to the palace beneath the Sun Disc.
The Sun Disc had many functions, and combat was not actually Azir's greatest strength.
Even though he had once learned battle techniques from Renekton, most of his attention had always been on ruling the empire.
Yaanogel had gouged a massive hole into Xerath's body, and through it, the power of Ascension was continuously being drawn away by the Sun Disc.
Now that he was trapped once more inside the anti-magic sarcophagus, Xerath had no way to plug that hole. That meant he could not keep the power of Ascension from escaping, nor could he regain his freedom from within the coffin.
"Do you know, I pushed for the abolition of slavery countless times."
Facing the mural before him, Azir sounded despondent.
"But that idea was too far ahead of its time, so I could only advance it slowly."
"Unfortunately, I never saw the ambition lurking in your heart. I was too focused on ruling the empire."
That quiet sigh crossed a thousand years, as if Azir were still that neglected prince, and Xerath were still the nameless slave caught secretly reading.
"You betrayed me, and you betrayed Shurima. You made its former glory disappear."
"I was arrogant then. Looking back now, I probably could not have endured the power of the Ascension ritual either."
Azir raised his staff, and the Sun Disc began spinning even faster.
Inside Xerath's body, not just the power of Ascension but his magic as well began pouring out like water through a broken dam.
"No!!!"
His furious roar accomplished nothing. It only made the magic leak out faster.
"You should have enjoyed glory. After all you gave to Shurima, you should have received the Ascension ritual that was rightfully yours."
"But Shurima disappeared, along with all your achievements, and all that time you remained in the Tomb of the Emperors, filling Renekton's mind with those poisons."
"From this day on, your body will never again be free of magic, and you have only a few decades left."
"Do not misunderstand, this is time I am giving you to repent."
At last, the sarcophagus opened. All of the power of Ascension returned to the Sun Disc, making it shine even more brilliantly.
Azir looked down at the man who had once been his closest friend, his most trusted confidant, and still said nothing more.
Xerath rose in a daze, staggered out of the sarcophagus like a puppet on strings, and left.
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