“Again!” he snarled.
I scanned the vast torch-lit underground training hall, my heart racing as I counted the bodies.
“No more,” I said, my voice hoarse.
Ezreal reached out his hand. There were only three of the prisoners left. They screamed as Ezreal’s everi flared, and I heard bones snap. Their cries pierced my skull.
“They will only suffer more if you refuse,” he said.
I was desperate for it to stop and let the darkness flow within me. It called to their everi, harnessing it in full, and summoning it to me all at once.
The sickening burst sounded throughout the hall, and the screaming stopped.
Warm liquid drenched my armor.
I was done.
I turned my back on Ezreal, but his voice cut through the silence.
“You must learn to master this skill,” he said. “If you do not, it will control you and you will murder everyone you care about.”
I thought of him and his blood being ripped from his veins.
“And if I do,” I said. “I will kill you.”
Ezreal said nothing as I moved to the waterfall that flowed down the wall and across the floor and into the ground. I rinsed myself of my sins but an odd change in Ezreal’s everi caught my attention.
I jerked my head up, the water beading down my face.
He was still and his eyes had become black. I tensed. What was happening to him? A dark aura emerged around him. It was powerful, an energy I had never felt before. The power only grew.
“Ezreal?” I called.
But he was locked in a state, his mind elsewhere.
My heart raced as I fled to the door, but it was pulling me. I braced, using all my strength, but it wasn’t enough.
The dark mist surrounded me.
Everything was dark. A woman was screaming in the distance.
A powerful blast of light flooded me. There was no sound as I was thrust back. I struck the ground hard, the sound of a strange bird calling out somewhere in the trees above.
I touched the surface and dragged my fingers through dirt.
How did I get here?
Ezreal.What had he done?
I growled in frustration and moved through the forest, pushing branches out of my way. As I moved with a speed and agility I had never had before, it struck me.
This wasn’t the Realm.
But how did he get us here? The only way out of the Realm was through the rift and we were nowhere near it.
I paused, trying to get my bearings.
Where was Ezreal?
