Legends of Runeterra

The naked riverbed gave me the creeps, not because we were without water, but because it seemed ominous that it had vanished on the very night we might decide what Zolani would look like.

I walked to the shore, knelt on one knee, and touched the lake mud on the slope. I expected to feel a hand full of wet and soft mud, but the feeling from my fingertips was hard and smooth glass - like clay fired in a brick kiln.

"How could this happen?" I whispered. The entire lakebed had become a uniform layer of enamel glass.

I heard that strange sound again, the one that had drawn me from my home, like birdsong in the palm treetops. It seemed to be coming from the center of the riverbed, so I followed the potholes and made my way down carefully.

The lake bottom was flat, littered with rubble, carelessly discarded by the craftsmen. I saw a stone hand with two fingers missing, and a foot with its heel knocked off.

I also saw many faces. Some were half-buried in the glazed riverbed, some were cracked from forehead to chin, and some seemed to have been squeezed up from the bottom of the lake. The expressions on each face were terrifying and eerie, each one gnashing with teeth and twisted in pain. I couldn't imagine any stonemason in Zolan who could carve such a terrifying thing, but I understood why they were discarded to the bottom of the lake.

I didn't go any closer to the stone faces.

Moonlight danced on the ripples of glass, casting shattered reflections all around me. Tonight's full moon made it hard to tell: was it my imagination, or was the lakebed itself emitting a soft glow? But then a cloud drifted by, obscuring the moon and suddenly revealing itself. There was indeed a faint light pulsing beneath my feet.

It took me a moment to realize that the pulsation of this light was synchronized with the rhythm of my heartbeat.

My steps led me to the center of the lakebed, and now I could see the source of the faint light and the strange noise. At the center of the spiral pattern, the ground was cracked and shattered, sinking slightly. Hairline cracks radiated outward. Suddenly, the wind shifted, and I smelled the same rancid smell of the morning, making me nauseous.

It was the stench of a corpse field, the smell of rotting meat and rotting fruit spoiling in the scorching sun.

I took one step back, two steps.

Before I took the third step back, I suddenly felt something was wrong: I saw a long, flat stone slab, which looked like a mask for a giant from a distance.

The clouds dispersed, the moon shone brightly, and the surface of the slate resembled fine porcelain in the moonlight. The handsome face carved into the stone took my breath away, imbued with a transcendental spirit and a benevolent wisdom, a long-lost grace.

Those piercing eyes held a wisdom I couldn't fathom. I could only try to memorize every outline. I knew Zolani must have personally guided me to this place. I didn't know or care why this slab of stone had sunk to the bottom of the lake in the heart of town. I only knew I had found it tonight, and that was enough.

I knelt on one knee beside the glowing stone slab and stretched out trembling fingers.

Faith brought me to Zoran many years ago, and now my faith has been rewarded.

I must show this miracle to the elders...

As soon as this thought occurred to him, the ground in the center of the lake suddenly cracked with a crisp sound, like a brick being shattered cleanly by a hammer. Part of the lakebed sank inward, dragged downward by the ever-expanding sinkhole.

I retreated in panic, and the cracks quickly spread outward.

The stench of corpses surged up from below the crack, and I felt that the whole night had frozen, the wind had stopped abruptly, and the stars had held their breath.

Something emerged from a hole in the center of the riverbed. A pale, spindle-thick limb emerged, somewhat reminiscent of the worm at home with its densely toothed snout. Another similar limb followed, and then two limbs supported a pulsating, segmented body, and something climbed up.

Its body was about the size of a hound, and its maggot-like body was conical in shape, with a moist and shiny surface.

When I saw it, a bitter taste came over my mouth.

The surface of its head rippled, and countless black spherical objects emerged. At the same time, its skin cracked, and a large round mouth broke through the lips, with a circle of long teeth in the mouth. Black juice flowed from the mouth, and the shapeless head tilted towards me. Fear made ice freeze in my veins.

Another monster emerged from the ground. Its body resembled a giant insect, and its appearance was just as terrifying as the first, with a strange combination of sword-like limbs, salivating fangs, and a chitinous shell. More monsters followed, and my heart screamed in fear.

But the sounds they made were enough to melt the ice in my veins.

I scrambled to my feet, turned, and fled, a single burning thought in my mind: escape. I could hear them behind me, the combined sound of countless claws scraping against the glass piercing my eardrums. Their howls echoed in the vast stone basin, becoming increasingly eerie.

This sound is not of this world.

Breathless with fear, I climbed up the slope of the lakebed, groping for a firm foothold, but the ground was smooth glass, no dirt, and my hands were covered in sweat. I kicked off my slippers and the force of my bare feet on the ground was just enough to get me to the shore.

I stumbled to my knees and risked a glance back.

The entire lake bed was filled with those terrible monsters, and there were probably hundreds of them now. They gathered together, things without eyes or brains, rising to the surface like bubbles of boiling water, shouting and spitting. Dozens of monsters emerged from the growing pit every second.

I could not help shedding tears as I saw the porcelain face completely covered by the monsters, and the stone slab flowed like white wax, as if the existence of these monsters was a curse on its beauty.

Holding back my sobs and tears, I turned and ran towards the Masons' Hall, shouting at the top of my lungs.

"There's a monster! Run!"

I don't know if they heard me, but a foolish impulse made me look back, and I paid a heavy price for it.

Something sharp, hooked, sliced ​​the back of my thigh, and I fell to the ground, flailing about in a panic. I rolled over and felt a warm current spreading from the wound, blood trickling down my leg. I tried to stand, but my leg was useless.

I heard shouts, screams of terror and panic as Zoran's stonemasons saw hundreds of monsters pouring toward them.

Someone sounded the alarm, but nothing could be done.

I rolled over onto my back, and a monster stalked me. Its chest was ripped open vertically, revealing a fleshy, red cavity within, from which thorny tentacles and barbed fangs jutted out. Its body pressed down, its bloody maw snaking across my stomach, and then its teeth flew, feasting on me.

I was being eaten alive and the pain was beyond imagination.

But I couldn't die in this nightmare, so I used my last bit of strength to turn my head and look at the Ascended Zolani.

"They all say you are looking after us..."

I really wanted to hear her answer, but she had no face, so she didn't speak.