Taliyah's sight returned in pieces.
At first there was only gold and blue, both too bright, both cutting through the inside of her head. Then the light pulled back. Shapes came with it. Stone. Water. Dust. The broken edge of the dock arches. A sky still burning from the explosion.
She coughed and tried to push herself up.
Her palms slipped on powdered stone.
The entire western side of Vekaura was just... gone.
The docks, the arches, the streets behind them, the last sheltering walls, all of it had been carved away by the collision between Xerath's beam and Sivir's weapon. The river had been shoved back from its banks. Steam rose in white curtains from where water had boiled. Broken stones floated in the shallows, glowing faintly with leftover heat.
Taliyah stared, unable to speak.
...
Then she heard a low roar.
She turned.
Nasus and the crocodilian Ascended were still standing, though barely.
Their size made them easy to see through the dust. Nasus had both hands locked around his staff, its head burning gold so fiercely that the light crawled up his arms and into the cracks of his armor. He had planted the base deep in the ground.
The crocodilian was in worse condition. His crescent blade blazed with the same golden force, and it was hurting him. He snarled, digging his claws into the stone, muscles shaking as the weapon's power poured through him. His rage had not faded, but for the moment even he could not move.
There was no sign of Karma.
No sign of Master Yi or Jax.
Then Taliyah looked up.
High above the ruined docks, someone floated in the sky.
Sivir.
If Taliyah could still call her that.
She had the same face beneath the transformation, but it had sharpened into something older and wilder. Her hair, once dark, had turned a brown-gold shade, moving around her in the heated wind. Her eyes glowed white, with golden irises and narrow feline pupils fixed on Xerath. Her fingers had become claws. When her lips parted, Taliyah saw fangs. A lioness's tail swayed behind her, slow and deliberate, balancing her in the air.
In one hand she held the Chalicar.
The weapon overflowed with power. Gold light spun around its curved blades.
Xerath hovered across from her.
"Setaka."
Sivir gave no answer.
Xerath's glow pulsed. His body had been damaged by the explosion, cracks splitting through his arcane frame, blue energy leaking from them like blood.
He lifted his head toward the sky.
"Xineos," Xerath called. "Should I consider this your help?"
No answer came.
The sky stayed silent.
Xerath's eyes returned to Sivir.
"At least your interference allowed me to find her." His voice hardened. "Though I would have preferred to kill her as a common mortal, not this strange half-Ascended imitation."
A shape moved beside Taliyah.
She flinched, then saw Yi approaching through the dust with Karma leaning heavily on him.
Karma looked terrible.
Her robes were torn. Blood marked one side of her face. The green light around her was dimmer than before, flickering with every step. She was conscious, but each breath seemed to cost her.
Yi lowered her carefully near Taliyah.
"Karma," Taliyah whispered.
"I am alive," Karma said, though it sounded more like a decision than a fact.
"Where is Jax?"
Yi glanced toward another section of the ruins.
"He survived. He is watching her."
Taliyah followed his gaze but could not see Jax through the dust.
Yi's expression was calm, but his voice had changed.
"He is from Icathia. Seeing her may require more than a moment."
Taliyah looked back up.
Xerath still had not attacked.
"Why is he waiting?" she asked.
Karma lifted her gaze to the sky.
"He is being cautious. The power she is emitting right now is difficult to measure."
Sivir began to move.
She circled Xerath.
Slowly.
Patiently.
Like a lioness walking around wounded prey.
Xerath turned with her. His hands rose. Blue fire gathered between his fingers. His expression twisted, furious not only at the threat, but at the insult. He knew what the movement meant. He knew he was being watched, tested, weighed.
Treated as prey.
Sivir stopped.
Her eyes opened wider.
For the first time since the transformation, she smiled.
It was hungry.
She spun the Chalicar once in her hand.
Xerath roared and fired.
A beam of blue power crossed the sky.
Sivir threw the Chalicar.
The weapon cut through the beam as if it were cloth. The blue light split in two, passing on either side of her, and the golden blade continued forward.
Xerath tried to shift away.
Too late.
The Chalicar took one of his arms off at the shoulder.
The severed limb spun away in a trail of blue sparks. Xerath caught it with his remaining hand almost instantly and forced it back into his body, energy knitting itself together. But Sivir's smile widened.
The Chalicar curved through the air and returned like a hunting bird.
Xerath barely twisted in time to keep it from taking the same arm again. The weapon grazed his shoulder, leaving a golden wound across the blue.
Then the battle began in full.
Sivir vanished.
She reappeared above Xerath and struck with her claws. Xerath raised a energy shield. The Chalicar hit the shield from behind at the same time, forcing him to defend in two directions. Xerath dropped lower, then flashed sideways, firing a cluster of bolts that chased Sivir through the sky.
She moved between them with impossible ease.
She twisted, dove, spun, and let the Chalicar fly from her hand again and again. Each throw came from a different angle. Each return forced Xerath to guard his back. When he tried to close distance, she clawed through his barrier and drove him away. When he tried to rise above her, the weapon was already there, waiting in its returning path.
Xerath's first arrogance cracked into anger.
"You are nothing but a dead queen's echo!"
Sivir threw the Chalicar again.
This time, smaller copies of the weapon burst from its spinning light.
The sky filled with golden blades.
Not as solid as the Chalicar itself, but sharp enough. They curved around Xerath in a storm, striking his energy shields from every direction. He destroyed dozens with arcs of blue lightning, but more came. They cut through his defenses, forcing him lower, lower, until he was almost over the ruined streets.
Karma watched in silence, Yi's hand rested on his blade, but he did not move.
"What took all of us so long," Yi said quietly, "Setaka has done in moments."
The true Chalicar returned.
Sivir caught it, spun once in the air, and threw with both hands.
Xerath raised every shield he had.
The weapon punched through the first.
Then the second.
Then the third.
It buried itself in Xerath's chest.
For a breath, nothing happened.
Then golden light exploded through him from the inside.
Xerath shattered.
His body broke into burning pieces and fell from the sky, blue fragments raining across the torn-open city. Some struck rooftops and burst. Others sank into the sand, flickering. The largest portion of him crashed into a plaza near the river, still glowing, still moving.
Sivir descended.
Slowly.
She landed near the largest piece and walked toward it without a word.
Xerath's broken face formed from floating shards and blue fire. His voice scraped through the ruins, damaged but alive.
"You think this changes anything?" he hissed. "You think old blood gives you the right to judge me?"
Sivir stopped.
Xerath's hatred poured out of him now, unguarded.
"Shurima's emperors built their glory on chains. They called slavery order. They called obedience destiny. They fed generations into their monuments and called it civilization!"
His fragments trembled.
"And you. Their Warrior Queen. Their favorite blade. Their beautiful lie."
Sivir looked down at him.
"Pathetic," she said.
Her voice was deeper, colder, and not entirely hers.
"A false Ascended."
Xerath screamed.
"Whore of the emperors!" His blue fire flared. "Whore of Shurima's slavers. Their butcher. Their saint. Their obedient golden dog."
Sivir's expression barely changed.
Then she looked up at the sky.
"Xineos."
The name made the air tighten.
Sivir's white-gold eyes narrowed.
"What happened to you? I worshiped you."
Silence followed.
Long enough that Taliyah thought there would be no answer.
Then the same voice from before spoke across the ruins.
"You were a mistake."
...
...
...
Xerath's broken body began to glow gold.
The same color that had burned through Nasus's staff, the crocodilian's blade, and the Chalicar.
Xineos spoke again.
"The brothers could not endure the power. Setaka could. Xerath, if you truly believe yourself raised above mortals, then prove it."
Xerath's broken shards shook.
"Be silent..."
The gold grew brighter.
"Prove it."
"I said be silent!"
His body reassembled.
The fragments rose from the ground, but they did not return as they had been. The blue faded completely. Gold burned through the cracks, through the shape of him, through the cage of energy that had once held his Ascended form. His outline sharpened. His power expanded. The ruins trembled beneath him as he lifted into the air again.
When Xerath looked at himself, there was fury in his silence.
Then he raised his gaze to the heavens.
"Do not mistake this," he said. "The power you grant does not make me your tool."
Xineos answered calmly.
"I seek a bargain. An exchange."
Sivir smiled.
This time there was excitement in it.
She rose into the sky, Chalicar spinning beside her, and faced Xerath again.
The second battle was different.
Before, Sivir had hunted him.
Now Xerath could meet her.
Gold and gold collided over Vekaura. The shock turned the air white. Sivir hurled the Chalicar and its copies spread around Xerath, but he shattered half of them with a sweep of his arm. He fired downward at her path, cutting off the angles she had used before. She twisted through the blasts, but one struck her shoulder and sent her spinning back.
She recovered instantly.
Xerath appeared behind her in a burst of golden light.
She swung the Chalicar backward without turning.
He caught it.
For one breath, they hung there in the sky, both gripping the weapon, power screaming between them. Sivir bared her fangs and raked her claws across his chest. Xerath released the weapon and drove a blast into her stomach. She folded around the impact, then kicked off his body and let the Chalicar tear free on its return.
Both rose higher.
Both came down again.
Their fight crossed from the docks to the central ruins, then back toward the river. Every clash threw shadows over the city. The river surged in answer. Sand lifted in spirals. Broken walls collapsed just from the pressure of them passing overhead.
Taliyah took one step forward.
Karma caught her arm.
"No," Karma's voice was quiet but firm. "This is another scale now. If we interfere carelessly, we will only become burdens."
Yi watched the sky, hand still near his blade.
"She is right."
Karma turned her attention toward the crocodilian Ascended. He was still locked in place, both hands gripping his crescent blade, gold light crawling through his body. His rage had not vanished. If anything, the power made it worse. But he had not moved since the explosion.
"I will see if I can ease his fury," Karma said.
Taliyah stared at her.
"Can you?"
"It may be impossible." Karma's mouth tightened. "Especially for me in this condition. But while he is still, I must try."
She began moving toward him slowly.
Taliyah turned to Yi.
"We go to Nasus?"
Yi nodded.
They crossed the broken ground carefully. Nasus stood near the edge of a shattered avenue, still holding his staff. He looked less trapped than before. The gold no longer tore through him as violently. He was adapting, little by little, though the effort showed in every line of his body.
"Mr. Nasus," Taliyah said.
His gaze remained on the battle above.
"She is not fully Ascended," he said.
Taliyah looked up at Sivir. At the claws, the tail, the eyes, the power bending around her.
Nasus's voice was heavy. "This is a state triggered by Xineos through the celestial power granted to the Chalicar. Setaka's memory, blood, and weapon are overlapping with Sivir, but it is not complete Ascension."
"And Xerath?"
"Xineos did the same to him." Nasus tightened his grip on his staff. "Only Xerath's own body is the weapon."
Above them, Sivir slammed into Xerath and drove him through the remains of a tower. Xerath tore upward through the rubble and struck her with a golden arc that sent her across the sky. The Chalicar split into copies again, but Xerath answered with a storm of radiant spears that destroyed most of them before they reached him.
The fight was even now.
"Whoever loses that temporary state first," Nasus said, "will lose the battle."