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The sky over the bridge was no longer dark; it was illuminated by the sterile, blue-white glare of the Zeppelin's searchlights. From the gondola, Hextech fire rained down in a continuous, vertical stream. While the Zaunites' cobbled-together rifles lacked the vertical range to strike back, the Piltover Guard was effectively conducting a "dimension-reduction" strike from the safety of the clouds.
Chen's arm muscles screamed as he maintained the Counter Strike spin. Every blue bolt that deflected off his lamppost was a second bought for Ziggs. But behind the sandbags, the Wildfire scouts were being pinned down. In the aerial-dominant warfare of the new era, cover was an illusion.
"The fuse is burning! Ha-ha! It's ticking, ticking, TICKING!" Ziggs shrieked, his goggles reflecting the sparking wire.
"Time's up!" Chen roared. He knew they couldn't outrun the blast on the bridge. He looked at the Noxian assassin Talon's previous escape route and made a split-second decision. He scooped up the fluffy Yordle under one arm and leaped over the railing into the dark, churning waters of the Pilt River.
BOOM.
The Satchel Charge detonated with surgical precision. The center of Bridge Number One groaned, the ancient Ixtal bedrock finally yielding to Ziggs' "creative" chemistry. A section of the bridge collapsed into the water, sending a massive plume of spray into the air.
Chen surfaced, gasping for air and treading water while Ziggs paddled frantically beside him. They managed to reach the base of a massive bridge pillar—the same spot where Heimerdinger would one day discover a young Ekko in a different life.
"Good thing I went for the waterproof model!" Chen wheezed, pulling his radio from his belt. He tapped the casing to clear the silt and shouted into the receiver: "Ekko! Tell the snipers to stand down! It's me under the pillar! Don't shoot the guy who just saved your bridge!"
"Chen? I thought you were a Piltover frogman!" Ekko's voice crackled back, relieved.
With the firing paused, Chen and Ziggs scrambled back up the embankments. But the victory was short-lived. Chen looked up and saw the Zeppelin—now joined by two others on the horizon—tilting its spotlights toward the heart of Zaun.
The Arrival of the Herald
"We can't hit them, Chen!" Ekko shouted over the roar of distant cannons. "The hoverboards can't reach that altitude, and Jinx only has one Ultimate Missile ready. If we use it now, the other two will just glass the city!"
Chen's heart sank. He had designed these airships for Piltover's commerce, never dreaming they would be used as orbital platforms for genocide. Just as he was about to call for a desperate retreat, a series of notifications flashed in his mind:
SYNERGY ACTIVATED: Chem-Tech (5) SYNERGY ACTIVATED: Dark Mage (2)
Chen turned. Emerging from the smog was a figure that commanded the very air around him. Singed walked forward, the massive chemical canister on his back hissing with a deadly, emerald vapor.
"The Alchemical Inferno is ready," Singed rasped, his voice a dry wind. "But use it only when you are ready to see both cities burn. It leaves nothing but poison in its wake."
Beside the alchemist stood a man who had transcended the frailties of the flesh. Viktor was no longer the sickly inventor. His right side was a masterpiece of burnished brass and Hextech plating. His eyes glowed with a steady, calculating yellow light, and from his shoulder rose the "Third Hand"—a mechanical claw that hummed with a terrifying frequency.
"Evolution successful?" Chen asked, though he already knew.
Viktor's voice was a perfect, emotionless synthesis of man and machine. "The flesh was an impediment. I have reached the threshold."
Chen pointed up at the lead Zeppelin. "Viktor, lasers are pure light. They don't care about gravity or range. Strike the control cabin and the engine housing. Bring the sky down."
Viktor didn't hesitate. "Functional analysis... complete. Mach full throttle."
The Hex Core in Viktor's chest flared with a blinding violet light. The mechanical claw on his back swiveled upward, the pincers opening as a golden-red orb of pure energy condensed between them.
"SHIU!"
A concentrated beam of thermal energy—the Death Ray—cut through the night. It wasn't a bullet; it was a line of infinite destruction. The laser sliced through the Zeppelin's gondola like a hot wire through wax, then pivoted to carve the gas envelope in half.
The airship buckled. The hydrogen inside ignited, and the massive vessel broke into two flaming sections. It plummeted into the river, creating a wave that nearly reached the bridge decks. The Piltover soldiers in the sky were forced to parachute into a war zone they no longer controlled.
Chen watched the flaming wreckage sink, a look of awe on his face. "Viktor... truly worthy of a five-cost champion."
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