"Hah... hah..."
In the dead silence, even his own faint breathing sounded unnaturally loud.
"Where am I? Am I dead...?"
Van opened his eyes, only to find endless white in every direction. Aside from himself, it was as if nothing else in the world existed.
There was no sense of time, no sense of space. Only a faint warm breeze brushing past his ears, enough to leave him with the smallest feeling that he was still alive.
Van breathed in deeply. The air here felt unbelievably clean, even sweeter than anything he had ever smelled in Piltover.
It was almost like... heaven.
"If that's the case... then maybe dying isn't such a big deal after all..."
The gentle wind seemed to heal pain and wash the mind clean. The suffering from his injuries was completely gone, and even the turmoil in his heart was slowly wearing away.
Van closed his eyes again. As if accepting his fate, he murmured softly,
"Wind... carry me the rest of the way..."
But just as he shut his eyes and prepared to accept the end, the breeze around him vanished without warning. A violent sensation of weightlessness hit him, as though he were falling into an abyss. The white world around him rushed away and changed in an instant.
"Huh?!"
Van jerked upright, gasping for air. He looked around and found himself surrounded by roaring flames and thick smoke.
Hell?
No. I'm not dead!
He only froze for an instant, but the moment he looked up and saw the shattered remains of the iron bridge, he understood.
The explosion from that strange crystal had been even worse than the one in the Academy District. The entire cannery had been blasted apart. The supports from the ceiling had come crashing down. He had survived by sheer luck alone.
The blast had also ignited a pile of chemicals. Flames clawed through the factory like something alive, spreading everywhere with no sign of dying out.
"Looks like Janna doesn't want me yet... Ngh!"
Van tried to push himself up, only for a sharp pain to stab through his chest. When he yanked open his shirt, the crystal he had always worn around his neck was gone.
In its place were glowing blue fragments scattered across his chest. When he tried to brush them away, his fingers passed through them. It was as if the shards had already fused into his flesh.
"Ah..."
The instant Van focused on the crystal fragments, a wave of agony surged from his chest, forcing a low growl out of him.
His head was still a mess, but he had no time to worry about that. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he forced himself upright.
Not far away, his battle axe was buried under the rubble, with only the handle sticking out.
He stumbled over, planted his feet, and yanked with all his strength—only to stagger backward so badly he nearly fell flat again.
Looking down at the half-broken haft left in his hand, Van understood the explosion's force even better than before.
The fact that he was still alive really did feel like Janna's blessing.
"Vander! Vi! Mylo! Claggor!"
He gave up and used the broken axe handle as a crutch, dragging his exhausted body toward the ruined cell above.
Although the pain in his injuries had vanished for some reason, it felt as though all the strength had been drained out of him. It took him a long time to climb up there.
"Anyone there?"
Leaning on the broken haft, Van moved slowly through the prison ruins. The place was unrecognizable now.
And there was no sign of life.
Crunch.
Then he suddenly felt something hard under his foot.
He jerked back at once and looked down.
It was a damaged pair of goggles. Familiar.
The lenses were shattered, and the frame was smeared with blood.
"This is..."
Van's heart sank.
He crouched slowly, picked up the broken goggles, studied the pattern of the blood on them, then looked toward a corner.
A heap of broken bricks and rubble had collapsed there. Smoke and ash drifted through the air, and through the cracks between the stones, something thick was slowly seeping out.
"No..."
It felt like something had slammed straight into his skull. Everything in his head turned numb and heavy, and he could only crawl forward on instinct, desperately clawing at the rubble.
After using the last of his strength to lever up the largest slab with the broken axe handle, Van dropped to his knees and stared blankly at what lay beneath.
"Mylo... Claggor..."
Looking at the cold bodies of the companions he had lived beside day after day, Van squeezed his eyes shut, as if refusing to look might somehow turn this back into a dream.
"Hah..."
A long while later, he let out a hoarse breath, then dragged in air in desperate gasps. Damn it all, it felt like none of it was reaching his lungs.
He forced himself back to his feet and kept searching.
Vander... and Vi still weren't here.
The fire still raged through the ruins, its fierce glow reflecting off Van's face. Smoke filled the air and stung his eyes until he had to blink over and over to hold back the tears.
He kept digging mechanically, sharp rubble cutting open his fingers while he barely seemed to notice, lifting stone after stone from the wreckage.
At that point, he no longer knew what he wanted more—to find them quickly, or to avoid lifting the next piece of rubble and seeing another familiar face staring back at him like a stranger.
He had no idea how much time had passed when he suddenly felt cool drops against his skin.
That was when he finally came back to himself and realized he had already searched the same ruins over and over.
"Is that... rain?"
Van lifted his face blankly to the sky and held out a hand. Rain struck his palm, washing the blood from his fingers. The countless little cuts on his skin stung under the water.
You hardly ever saw real rain in Zaun.
Then, as if sensing something, Van pushed himself to his feet and walked to the edge of the ruins.
The entire structure had been destroyed, and from here the surrounding area lay open before him.
"Vander..."
And naturally, that was when he finally found him.
But the miserable, grotesque shape lying there was so changed that Van could barely recognize him.
His body had swollen in a warped, unnatural way. Purple liquid pulsed through every vein in his body, making him look like a monster.
Van no longer had the strength to keep himself standing. The force he had been clinging to seemed to leave him with a single long breath. His legs gave out, and he tumbled several meters down from the ruins, landing with a dull thud not far from Vander.
It was not a small fall. But at some point, Van had stopped getting hurt from falling from heights.
And yet this time, it felt as though he had been struck down completely.
He rolled onto his back and slowly closed his eyes. Rainwater ran along the corner of his mouth and into it, leaving only bitterness behind.
"If this is a dream... then please wake me up already."
[End of chapter]