Urgarte realizes that it is not power that has ruled Noxus all along, but people, and people are weak. There should be no rulers, no lies, no pure chaos that stands in the way of survival. Ergarth provoked a riot and ignited the alchemy technology pipelines in the mines, producing explosions comparable to those of Zaun when he was first born. The explosion shook the city above, blasting cracks in the prison. Many prisoners died, and thousands disappeared into the trench area below the city. But those who are qualified to survive, live as always.

Since then, the healing of Urgat's horrors has intensified. Himself a terrifying blend of industrial machinery and Noxus' cruelty, he slaughtered the alchemy barons and their servants one by one, while also gathering his own followers among the most oppressed people of Zaun. Every time he went on a killing spree, he would leave some living mouth for them to pass on the message: he was not here to rule, but to survive. If you are qualified, you will survive.

The trial of survival has just begun.

Author: David Slagle

We raced through the streets of Zaun. The pipes and stained glass on the roadside have all become blurry afterimages, as if the haze and fog that fill the streets have been wantonly painted with oil paint. Zori was on my left, her hair in a knot, her rusty dagger draped over her body, but her smile was faintly beautiful beneath the dirt. Behind her was White Lenk, with his sprayer filled with fluorescent paint, and his mind full of ghost ideas. Behind the palace is pants, and anyone who sees him feels worthy of the name pants. But he's our pants and is worthy of his pants at all times.

He shouted and sent the names of our gang into the billowing smoke, announcing that it was our night.

"Trench Cavalry!"

We laughed wildly and answered. We are young and live to the fullest. Nothing can stop us. Unless you can catch up with us first, we're still running.

The city also seemed to carry us forward, sliding deeper, away from the gutter scavengers we had just ransacked and collapsed in pools of blood. His silver wheel is still bumping in our pockets. Not only have fun, but also oil and water. We are heading to the Black Narrow Lane, the market in the heart of Zaun.

"Did you say they would sell us the Shimmer?" asked Zori. "I'm going to have to moisten up after poking that gutter garbage. ”

White Lenk chuckled contemptuously. "In the narrow alley, kids can buy shimmer wine – and kids. ”

"You two shut up," pants roared, chasing from behind to the front. I've never seen him so nervous, and his brow is getting tighter. "Didn't you hear something wrong?"

I squinted into the deep darkness of the night—after all, my ears couldn't squint unless I had an augmentation attached. "I can't hear anything," I shrugged. "Not even a plague rat farting."

"So I said something wasn't right," pants muttered under their breath.

The silence that followed...... We were overwhelmed, and seemed heavier than the brilliant sparkle of Piltover over our heads.

We pushed through the fog and walked slowly into the market, only to see the overturned cart, the wheels still spinning weakly. The stalls were still full of novelties, but the stall owners were all gone. There was a foul stench in the air that reminded me of the gutter scavengers I had just had—the smell choked my eyes, but I didn't react to the sight of him being bled out.

Then we saw corpses all over the ground. Many of the corpses wore the badge of the Alchemy Baron. They were all torn to pieces and scattered on the red-stained stone floor.

A massacre.

"That's dirty enough, huh?" said Blenk, smiling lightly, as he scoured the dead man's pocket, carefully plucking the bits and pieces of meat. "It looks like we're in for a big sale. ”

Zori trembled vigorously. "Someone...... Over there," she whispered, pointing to the other side of the clearing, where a tube was spewing a cloud of fresh alchemy. That's where the stench comes from. The smell grew stronger and stronger, hitting all my senses and even making my ears roar with it. "Yes...... Personally?"

"No......" I whispered as I followed her gaze into the green curtain. "Not exactly ......"

A huge body, with many muzzles on its mechanical legs, was roughly attached to the flesh of the torso, like a mechanic welding two pipes together. Just looking at the scene in front of me made me feel like I was burned, and I just wanted to hold my head and run away. It held up a significantly smaller figure in one hand. The man choked and writhed in vain in the alchemy clouds. The monster taunted him, and the voice was like a mechanical friction sound, which made my stomach tumble and feel like it was going to come out at any moment.

"That's what you want," the voice was hard to discern. It grunted as it violently pressed the man's face into the crack in the pipe, and the alchemical cloud surrounded them. "Suck it in. Accept it. ”

The man continued to struggle, kicking his legs in the air, but his strength was getting weaker and weaker. Until the end, only his mechanically enhanced arm twitched, repeating the last desperate command in his head.

The brass glow flashed in my face, and the corpse hit me. Alchemy Baron, the latest enhancement mod that only people of this status can use. This is supposed to be the Scarlet Baron. The corpses scattered on the ground were also his people.

It used to be his people. Can ...... now

"We have to go," I gasped hard, glaring away from the tragedy in front of me and turning to search for my friends behind me. But I can't see them. The mist poured out of the pipes, and the poisonous green cloud made me breathless and breathless...... Gasp...... Gas......

Run. We must run.

I could hear the panicked footsteps and coughs of Zoli, Brenk, and Pants right nearby. I reached out and tried to grab anyone, anything, and run with me. But all around was the muffled sound of bodies falling to the ground, and the rolling of sprayer cans on the gravel pavement.

White Lenk. A thought nearly broke me—the white was gone.

And that's not even the worst.

The monster propped up its massive body and stepped out of the clouds, a giant leg clad in iron armor stepping next to me, then another, and then another—a hose flowing with alchemical substance exposed, the muzzle of the protruding gun still smoking, as hot as the corpses around it.

There was a backlash in my throat and eyes, as bitter as the air. I'm going to die here.