Nasus saw his brother coming.
Renekton tore through the edge of Vekaura like a sandstorm given flesh. His crescent blade dragged sparks from fallen stone. His massive body was larger than Nasus remembered, swollen with Ascended power and poisoned madness, and every step carried the hatred that had echoed in the Tomb of the Emperors for centuries.
For one second, the battle around Nasus faded.
He saw the brother who had laughed beside him under Shuriman suns. The warrior who had trusted him. The man who had stepped into darkness so Xerath could be sealed away.
Then he saw what had returned.
Guilt struck deeper than any blade.
Nasus tightened his grip on his staff.
"Renekton will come for me," he said.
Jax landed nearby, dust sliding from his cloak.
Master Yi looked toward the monstrous figure crossing the ruins. "Then we split the battle."
Karma floated down beside them, green light still burning around her hands.
Above them, Xerath laughed.
"Beautiful," the magus said, his voice ringing over broken walls. "All these centuries, and fate still has a sense of theater."
Nasus did not look away from Renekton.
"Xerath remains our main enemy," he said. "But in this moment, my brother is effectively his ally. I will hold Renekton."
Jax spun his lamppost once and rested it across his shoulder.
"Try not to die."
"Likewise."
Yi vanished first, rushing toward Xerath in a green blur. Jax followed, leaping across a collapsed roof. Karma rose after them, her shields already forming in layered circles.
Nasus stepped forward alone.
The crocodilian Ascended stopped for half a breath.
Then his jaws opened.
"Nasus!!!"
The roar shook dust from the ruins.
Renekton charged.
Nasus met him in the center of a broken avenue. Staff and crescent blade collided with a force that split stone beneath their feet. The shock rolled outward, shattering windows that had somehow survived Xerath's assault. Nasus pushed. Renekton pushed harder.
His brother's eyes burned with madness.
"You left me!!!," Renekton snarled.
Nasus felt the words like a blade under the ribs.
Renekton twisted, using his full weight to shove Nasus aside. The crescent blade came around in a brutal arc. Nasus blocked with his staff, but the blow drove him back three steps. Renekton pressed him immediately, striking again and again, each attack heavier than the last.
He fought like a beast, but he was not stupid. Beneath the rage was the warrior he had always been. Every slash tested distance. Every feint pulled for an opening. The madness had not stolen his skill, only chained it to hatred.
A blast of arcane light struck the street near Nasus's left side.
Xerath.
Nasus raised a shoulder, letting the edge of the explosion break against his armor. It still slowed him.
Renekton took advantage instantly.
His blade struck Nasus across the chest and threw him through a fallen arch.
Stone collapsed around him.
Nasus rose from the rubble.
Across the plaza, Jax struck Xerath from below while Yi cut through a forming spell. Karma's shield caught the backlash before it could reach fleeing survivors near the docks. Xerath shifted between them like a living bolt, laughing as he fought.
He fired toward Nasus again.
Karma intercepted the blast with a shield, but Xerath's power cracked the green barrier and sent light scattering across the ruins.
"Do you see it, Nasus?" Xerath called. "Your brother. Your failure. Your perfect punishment."
Renekton lunged through the falling dust.
Nasus caught his wrist with one hand and drove his staff into Renekton's stomach with the other. The impact folded the sand under them. Renekton grunted, then slammed his forehead into Nasus's face.
Pain flashed white.
Nasus staggered.
Renekton bit into his shoulder.
Nasus growled and struck him in the side with the haft of his staff. Once. Twice. On the third blow, Renekton released him and slid back, claws carving trenches in the street.
Blood darkened the cracks in Nasus's armor.
Renekton licked his teeth.
...
"You stood outside."
The words cut through the noise of battle.
Nasus did not answer.
Renekton attacked again, Nasus did not retreat.
He stepped into the first swing, turned the blade aside, and struck Renekton's elbow. The second swing came low. Nasus planted his staff, vaulted over it, and brought his knee down against Renekton's jaw. Renekton twisted with the blow and caught Nasus by the waist, driving him through the wall of an old and enormous archive.
Huge shelves shattered. Tablets broke. Dust filled the air.
Renekton tried to crush him against the floor.
Nasus braced his staff across Renekton's throat and held him back. His brother's jaws snapped inches from his face.
"You should have come for me!!!," Renekton hissed.
"I know."
For a heartbeat, Renekton froze.
The honesty reached him.
Not far enough to save him, but far enough to wound the fury.
Nasus pushed.
He drove Renekton off him, rose, and struck with the full weight of his Ascended strength. The head of his staff slammed into Renekton's chest.
The blow sent Renekton out of the archive and across the street.
He crashed through a broken statue and landed in a cloud of sand.
Xerath's laughter stopped for one second.
Nasus turned his head toward the sky.
...
"Where is your army, Xerath?"
...
The question crossed the battlefield like a spear.
Xerath's glow flickered.
Only slightly.
But Nasus saw it.
So did Jax.
Jax grinned under his hood. "Hit a nerve?"
Xerath's next spell came straight for Nasus.
A pillar of arcane power dropped from above. Nasus lifted his staff and took the blast head-on. His feet sank into the stone. Blue light crawled over his arms. The heat tore at old wounds and new ones alike.
"Do not presume to mock me," Xerath said.
Nasus forced one step forward under the beam.
"Then answer."
Renekton rose behind him with a roar.
Nasus broke away from the blast just in time to meet the crescent blade again. The two brothers clashed in the street, while Xerath rained death from above and the others fought to keep him from turning the whole city into dust.
Xerath fought all of them at once.
And still, he watched Nasus.
"Your brother was useful in darkness," Xerath said. "Centuries of rage. Centuries of whispers. I had so much time to shape what you abandoned."
Renekton's blade hammered down.
Nasus blocked, but the force cracked the ground to his knees.
Renekton struck again.
Nasus caught the blade under the hook of his staff, pulled Renekton off balance, and slammed his palm into his brother's chest. Old magic surged. Renekton skidded back, coughing sand and blood.
For a moment, they stood apart.
Nasus breathing heavily.
Renekton shaking with rage.
Xerath above them, bright and cruel.
Around them, Vekaura burned.
Then Renekton smiled, wide and broken.
"You still hope."
Nasus lowered his staff.
"Yes."
Renekton laughed and charged again.
——————
Near the docks, Taliyah dragged Sivir behind a fallen stone wall as another blast shook the ruins. Sivir's face was pale under the blood and dust, but her grip on the Chalicar, which Taliyah had returned to her, had not loosened.
"This is far enough," Sivir said.
Taliyah looked at her. "What?"
"You heard me. Leave me here."
"I'm not going to do that."
Sivir tried to sit up and failed. "That blue bastard is here for me."
Taliyah glanced toward the battle. "Logan told the people protecting Shurima from Xerath that if we found you, we had to protect you at all costs."
Sivir gave a bitter laugh.
"Great. Someone I don't even know is making decisions about my life."
"It doesn't matter if you know him," Taliyah said. "Just don't be stubborn."
Sivir leaned back against the stone, breathing hard.
"Listen, girl. This isn't just bad luck. Xerath wants me because of stupid destiny, old blood, and whatever else dead emperors left behind to ruin my life. I don't know how exactly, but he can find me. Maybe not perfectly, but close enough. I made sure no one followed me to Vekaura, and he still attacked the city."
Taliyah's expression tightened.
"Then we need to get you farther away."
"And bring him after me?" Sivir looked past her, toward the empty streets. "Wherever I go, Xerath follows. People die. At least here, the ruins are almost empty now."
Taliyah had heard stories about Sivir. Greedy. Practical. Ruthless if the price was right.
But the woman in front of her thinking about the innocent dead.
Taliyah swallowed.
"If I can't take you somewhere else, I'll stay here with you."
Sivir stared at her.
"That is also a terrible idea."
Taliyah shifted Sivir's weight and tried to look more confident than she felt. "Then we just wait for Xerath to die over there."
For a second, Sivir looked too tired to react.
Then a small smile tugged at her mouth.
"You say that like it's easy."
"I-I'm trying to sound encouraging."
"You're bad at it."
"I know..."
Another explosion shook dust from the wall.
Sivir closed her eyes briefly.
"If you insist on being heroic, at least help me get under the dock arches. Better cover."
Taliyah nodded and lifted the stone beneath them just enough to slide them lower, toward the broken shelter of the western docks.
——————
Far away, along the Mother of Life River, Mbizi cursed at the bottom of his fishing boat.
The hull had taken damage when they fled Vekaura. Not enough to sink them immediately, thanks to every spirit that had decided to be kind today, but enough that he had been forced to steer toward the southern bank and anchor before the river claimed them. His two sons worked beside him, frightened and clumsy, but alive.
The older boy carried planks from the hold. The younger climbed a dune near the bank, ignoring Mbizi's order to stay close.
"Get down from there!" Mbizi shouted.
"I see something!"
"You see sand. Come help."
The boy did not move.
Mbizi swore under his breath and reached for the hammer. The older son handed him a plank.
Then the younger came running down the dune.
"Father. The spyglass."
"We are fixing the boat."
"Please."
Something in the boy's face stopped him.
Mbizi snatched the spyglass from the storage box and shoved it at him. "Look quickly."
The boy ran back up, looked, then went pale.
He returned slower this time and pressed the spyglass into Mbizi's hands.
"You need to see!"
...
Mbizi climbed the dune angry.
He lifted the spyglass.
...
The view sharpened.
Bodies.
Not a few.
An army.
Men lay across the sand in broken formations. War beasts had fallen beside them, huge and still, armor split open, harnesses tangled beneath their corpses. Banners sagged over the dead. Weapons glittered uselessly under the sun.
And among them marched strange soldiers made of sand.
They moved east in perfect lines, silent and tireless, spears raised as if the desert itself had decided to go to war.
Mbizi lowered the spyglass.
For a moment, he could not speak.
Then the ground trembled faintly under his feet, carrying the distant thunder of Vekaura behind him and the quiet march of something impossible ahead.