By Beck Duston

Darius stood at the top lane, the chattering of squirrels tapping through the slight breeze that fluttered over the peak of Summoners Rift, looking down upon a grand stadium of trees and mountain ranges. The air was slightly cool to the touch, caressing his skin as it passed him by on its way to bigger and better things.
He leaned against his axe, the blade sliding further into the pebble studded ground, gashing open the earth. A bead of sweat traveled down his scarred face, down passed his chiseled jaw line. For someone of his size, he was very quiet, patiently waiting beside his turret. The turret beside him hummed faintly with power, its gaunt, towering frame spiraling above him. In its hammer, a light played gently inside the crystal placed carefully there, watching and waiting to fire upon any unsuspecting enemies.

 

It’s quiet.

 

Darius squinted his eyes, and pushed away from the turret, moving a couple of meters into his lane. The bush to the left of his swayed in the gentle breeze, whispering its songs into the air.

 

A small fox, looking quickly left and right, scuttled across the grounds, one of the few living creatures that survives inside the rift. With the start of the match, all the animals will hide in burrows, avoid all contact with the champions that will scour the rift for kills. With the sight of the bolts of light erupting out of the sky, all life in the rift would vanish, only to return with the end of the game.

 

Darius took two more steps forward, hefting his enormous axe over his shoulder.

 

It had been many years since he had left the orphanage that him and his brother grew up in. He had suffered through intense poverty, abusive guardians. Draven, his younger brother, was his only family in these dark days, and he sacrificed everything he could to make sure he had a better childhood. Darius took all the pain and gave his brother the tools needed to move on in life. In the end though, it was not Draven that overtook Darius, but Darius, who overtook his own expectations. Upon entering the Noxian military, Darius was already scarred and worn into a veteran of pain. He was the alpha, the strongest among his peers, ready to prove himself in battle. Draven took a different path, one that lead to self-centered ego and pride. Contrary to his brother’s show-boating and meaningless killing, Darius looked at himself as imperfect, and the rest of the world as rotting down from the corruption of the evil. Every swing of his axe meant another corrupt influence to exit the mortal plain. Every kill meant a step closer to eradicating the anger he felt towards the people he saw as unfit for living. Ever since he was child, he marveled at how selfish the world can be. He saw children being beaten in their own bedrooms, dogs shot in the streets, the rich profiting off the desperate living on the streets with nothing to give and nothing to lose. This filled him with anger that darkened the very air he breathed, hardening him until he felt nothing, not even pity for those he saw innocent in the conflict.

 

“They are weaklings who would give their own skin to the powerful if they so could.”, Darius would say, the people that he used to live among now just another imperfection in the world he wanted to cut wide open.

 

Anger changes people. What used to be a sacrificing brother, became a man who saw nothing but darkness in a world with so much light.

 

Darius paused and flared his nostrils again, pausing just inside the range of his turret.

 

 

 

 

He sensed an ambush.

 

 

Normally, he was fearless when it came to entering the bushes in his top lane first, ready to fight to the death at a second’s notice, but one opponent would always make him pause before leaving the fountain.

One opponent that knew him before all this, when he was just a small boy, trying to protect his brother from a cruel world.

 

It all started with a dream.

 

 

It was dark, dust gently wafting down from the ceiling of the barn Darius and Draven were resting in. Draven, his face puckered in the thorough of some far-off world, was sprawled on a hay bale. Darius, was half awake, his eyes glazed over as they took in the slight view of stars through a hole in the roof.

 

The stars twinkled gently for a little, and he dozed quietly in the moonlight, falling deeper and deeper into his own mind.

 

Deeper still, he fell, fall beyond what he normally dreamed. Darius always was a good sleeper, one who preferred to dwell in a world free of fear and unhappiness, far away from the muck spattered life he had.

 

With soft feet and a surprisingly clear mind, Darius stepped only an unseen ground, surrounded by inky blackness.

 

Darius found himself feeling afraid, his dream suddenly not feeling like a dream anymore. He felt in danger, somewhere other than in the barn with his brother. The world around him seemed to shake and stretch towards him, even though he couldn’t differentiate between what was and wasn’t there. He could just feel it, a presence of matter floating around him, wanting him. Darius tried to move, but found that he couldn’t, as if he was chained up into the abyss itself. He struggled, his shouts unheard in the darkness of his own mind.

 

“DariussssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS”

 

Suddenly, a voice whispered through the void, increasing exponentially until it was screaming into his ears. Fear ripped through his mind, held back for so long so that he could protect his family. He withered in his invisible binds, straining what he could strain.

 

A snap drew his attention, the ground, at least what he thought was ground, cracking into an immeasurable amount of infinitely spiraling chinks that spilled a light that wasn’t light into the world around him. Suddenly, Darius could feel darkness flood into his arms and legs, not even able to feel anything below his neck.

 

A voice whispered in front of his face.

 

“Look into my eyes.”

 

 

 

To his own horror, Darius did.

 

“Minions have spawned!”, echoed the announcer from above, shocking Darius back from his own twisted memories.

 

Back to reality, Darius confronted the bushes in front of him, and realized that his hesitation was cowardly, one of the very things that he killed so many for. With a grunt, he strode into the bush, axe at the ready to attack anything in sight.

 

Nothing.

 

Darius looked left and right, surprised to say the least. He had good instincts, instincts that had served him well throughout his military career. It was a rare day when they lead him astray.

 

Shrugging, he turned around to head back to his turret.

 

ZzzzzzzZSHSHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAA

 

Spinning around, Darius squinted his eyes at the spiraling lines of light erupting from the sky and crashing into the sight ward onto the ground. Understanding what it meant, a small grin curved from his war-scarred face.

 

It was time to fight.

 

The ground thundering with the sound of feet, three champions materialized in front of the sight ward, Lee Sin pouncing in first ahead of Nami and Vayne, punching Darius in the stomach. Grunting, Darius smacked Lee Sin with the side of his axe and started to sprint back to his turret. Recovering quickly, Lee sin threw out a wave of blue energy, the bolt shocking Darius as he tried to escape. Vayne shot an arrow off quickly, the bolt shattering off inside Darius’s armor. Nami flashed and threw a bubble of water out, which bashed into Darius, knocking him airborne. Darius felt his life blood ebbing out of his wounds as he hit the ground, another arrow piercing his shoulder. Lee sin kicked him in the back, using his palms to disable his back muscles.

 

Less than 100 life, Darius got up, the three champions pausing before the final blow.

 

“Exploit every weakness.”, Darius grinned, before flashing and pulling all the players into his tower.

 

With an explosion of sound, the turret came to life, throwing an energy bolt directly into Nami, smacking her into the wall. Darius raised his hand quickly and healed himself, before battering Lee Sin over the head with his axe. Now confronted by a half health Darius under tower, he tried to run, splattering blood onto the ground below him. Another bolt of energy flew over Lee Sins head, smashing into Nami as she got up, killing her.

 

“First blood!”, the announcer shouted into the arena, bringing a deathly energy to Darius. His axe seemed to sing in the dance of battle.

 

With another pause finished, the tower casted a bolt at Lee sin, blasting him to the ground and killing him.
“Double kill”, the announcer exclaimed, its voiced drowned out by the stamping of Vayne as she sprinted away.

 

“NOT SO FAST.”, Darius bellowed, throwing his axe out and catching he by the coattails, dragging her in.

 

With a laugh, he slices her with his axe, and bashes her in the leg, knocking her down right at the edge of his towers firing distance.

 

The sound of the turret blasting the ground apart echoes down mid lane, whispering between the flickering torches.

 

 

……

 

 

A voice lingers in his head.

 

A voice of terror, a voice of nightmares.

 

A voice that has stayed with him for years.

 

 

“Look into my eyes.”, and Darius found himself unable to say no.

 

 

The being before him had no eyes.

 

That’s all he could really understand, his feeble human mind uncomprehending of the vast monstrosity that stood before him, spearing into the far distance of the void that surrounded him. It looked into him, past his eyes and into his hopes, desires.

 

His fears.

 

To some degree, he could understand what he was looking at. Deep inside his mind, hidden behind thousands of years of primal instinct, was a fear that has been with us since the inception of mankind.

A creature beyond age, a creature of fear itself.

 

It spoke again, in its whispering, screaming way.

 

“You…you are different.”

 

“You are strong, holding your fear back behind your will and inner strength.”

 

“You think you are strong, without cowardice.”

 

It chuckled.

 

“But you are naïve. Everything fears something. What do you fear?”

 

Images of his brother flitted across his mind unwillingly, as if they were called there.

 

“Ah, family. Loss. A fear of losing everything.”

 

“But alas, it’s not enough, you still hide a deeper fear. One that is strong enough to interest someone like me…”

 

“…Perhaps I should entice it out….”

 

With a pause, its eyes, or where its eyes should be, spread open, farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther and farther

 

 

 

ZzzzzzzZSHSHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAA

 

 

Darius looked over to the bush beside him, pulling the blade of his axe out of Vaynes back. A darkness seeped out of the bush, spilling out onto ground.

Darius shivered and backed up slightly.

 

SsssssHSHHHHHHH

 

With a hissing slice, a three-bladed claw flew towards him, casting darkness from its wake. Along its blackness, a shadow flew, its twin blades cutting through the air as it approached him.

 

Darius dodged the claw and sliced down with his blade.

 

CLANG echoed as Nocturne blocked his slash with his own blades, pushing the axe back. With a hiss, tendrils of void seeped out from Nocturne and latched themselves to Darius, causing him to back off.

ARGHAAH he yelled, falling back towards his tower.

 

Memories fluttered before his face.

 

Nocturne sliding towards him, blades at the ready, its eyes full of nothing, fear coming in its wake.

 

He suddenly was a boy again, waking up as he fell into the eyes of the monster that stoo-

 

 

“DARIUS WHAT IS THAT”

 

 

With a scream, Draven fell off the hay bale, scrambling to his feet. Darius couldn’t move or see, paralyzed completely. He could still hear however, as Draven sobbed in fear, and as a faint hissing caressed his ears.

 

“Urrrrghh Dravennnnn?”, he breathed, unable to move anything else.

 

“DARIUS WHAT IS THAT. WHAT IS THAT COMING OUT OF YOUR HEAD?”

 

Trying again, Darius opened his eyes successfully, unsure of what to expect.

 

A shadow was seeping out of his head, long and black, coiling into a thick cloud that hovered above his head. Just inside the cloud he could see two long blades, resting just inside the transparent blackness.

 

“DARIUS CAN YOU MOVE.”
Draven was in shock unable to stop himself from shuddering and crying, intense fear wracking through his body.

 

Darius felt himself being drawn away from the barn, back into the darkness that he had escaped. But this was different. A dream perhaps this time.

 

A vision beholds him. A vision that lasted exactly 5 minutes. Draven sobbed in the corner as his brother twitched on the table, shuddering violently. Sometimes he would cry out, as if seeing someone or talking to someone in another place, another time.

 

Draven’s crying was interrupted by a shattering sound, the sound of a thousand mirrors smashing to the ground.

 

He looked above the hay bale, tears streaking his face, his hands white from clenching the wood with fear.

 

A dark shape stretched above Darius, its tendrils draping down where its feet should be. Two brutal blades sliced through the air as it looked around its surroundings.

 

It turned away from Darius, who lay slumbering on the ground. With a silent motion, it started to float towards the slightly ajar barn door. As Draven let out a tight breath, it paused, as if forgetting something.

 

Then, it turned, and said one last thing.

 

“Thank you, father.”

 

With that, the air turned black, and an insane cackling rumbled through the air. Draven held himself in a ball, the ground becoming damp as his sweat soaked him. Suddenly, he was blasted back by a gout of air, the cackling growing fainter and fainter by each second that passed.

 

The air cleared.

 

 

 

 

Somewhere, far off, Draven thought he heard screaming. But, as he strained harder and harder, he couldn’t hear anything more.

 

 

Remembering himself, he ran over to Darius, who was rubbing his eyes, getting slowly up from the ground.

 

“WHAT DID YOU SEE WHAT DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED???”

 

Darius looked at him with dark ringed eyes, slightly surprised, as if he hadn’t thought that he wouldn’t be seeing his brother again.

 

“I saw darkness….”, Darius murmured, before collapsing back onto the ground.

 

 

 

 

…….

 

 

 

Darius ran.

 

He ignored the shouts of his team mates as they came top to assist him, sprinting hard and fast down his lane.

 

Fear ruled his every step, exhaustion and logic ignored.

 

Cowardice.

 

The values that he held to himself over all these years, gone in an instant.

 

Everything was darkness.

 

All the neighborhood kids asked him what he saw in that dream, the one where a creature erupted from the space above his head. Darius would say nothing, and instead shrug his shoulders. No one except children would believe him anyways.

 

His brother used to constantly ask, before he too grew tired off the silence that followed.

 

 

He would never tell anyone what he saw that day, because he didn’t want anyone else to have to live with the fear that he has.

 

He knows one thing, one thing that he reminds himself constantly to drive himself on. One thing that his vision made abundantly clear.

 

The end is coming.