Abyss Watcher In The League V2 - 17 CH17

Third POV:

Ahri woke up next morning with her tails coiled around her, she untangled them and stretched with a yawn “that was a good sleep, hey Grey how- oh” Ahri stopped when she looked besides her and realized the Abyss Watcher wasn’t there “right, well he’s going to be back today so let’s get up”.

She got up and went through her morning routine, showering and wearing clothes.

She then left the room and went to the dining hall to get breakfast, she picked her food and found a table to sit in alone.

Aki just got her food when she saw Ahri sitting alone, she hesitated to join ‘should I? She did say we’re friends’ gathering her courage, the summoner took a deep breath and walked to the dark haired Vastayan “h-hey Ahri, can I join you”.

Ahri smiled seeing some company and nodded “sure, be my guest”.

Aki smiled and sat down besides Ahri, it wasn’t long after that, and Lux joined them “hey girls” she greeted sitting besides them.

“hey Lux” Ahri greeted back while Aki just waved her hand “where’s Kat and Garen?”.

“when they spend a night together, they don’t get up early” Lux said with a deadpan expression but her attitude changed quickly “so anyway, what do you guys have planned for today?”.

“well, I’ll be waiting for Grey since he’s coming back” Ahri replied.

“I actually have something I need to ask him, so I’ll wait with Ahri” Aki added which made Ahri a little curious but she shrugged it off.

“hey Ahri” the Dark haired Vastayan looked and saw Akali, Shen and Kennen walking to them and sitting with them.

“hi Akali, how are you guys?” Ahri asked.

The female assassin shrugged “not bad, so where’s Grey?” She asked noticing the absence of the Abyss Watcher.

“he’s out with Ezreal in Shurima, they should be back soon” Ahri replied and then raised an eyebrow “do you need something from him?”.

Akali glared at Shen “I just need him to settle an argument” she answered while the Master just ignored her glare.

Ahri sensed the intense air between the two and leaned towards Kennen “what’s up with them?” she whispered.

The Yordle sighed “they had another argument about the criminals of Ionia” he whispered back and Ahri remembered that they mentioned the subject before “this one was the worst yet, if this keeps up Akali might leave the order”.

Ahri knew if that happened then problems would appear. She didn’t know how to help so she just stayed quiet and continued her breakfast.

But then a big figure walked up to them “excuse me, Luxanna?” Ahri looked at who spoke and was surprised to see a humanoid, black dog standing near them. It had a golden head piece and a staff with a blade on his back.

“oh hey Nasus” Lux greeted unaffected by seeing the dog humanoid “did you need something?”.

The one known as Nasus shook his head “no, I just wanted to see if Ezreal has returned yet?”.

“do you need him for something?” the blonde asked.

Nasus shook his head again “no, but I have forgotten to tell him about something” he replied “I know who the Tomb belongs to, it was a noble that was very paranoid about his positions. His Tomb should be filled with traps and I was worried since I didn’t tell Ezreal”.

Lux shrugged “well you know Ezreal. If you told him the Tomb had traps, he would’ve wanted to go even more” she chuckled “anyway, Ezreal and Grey should be back soon if you want to wait”.

Nasus raised an eyebrow hearing a name he didn’t recognize “Grey?”.

“he’s the new champion, the guy with the pointy hat” Lux told him. Ahri chuckled thinking how Grey’s hat was already used as something to identify him.

“ah the man from another world” Nasus said realizing who Lux was speaking of, while Ahri had to cover her mouth from laughing at the fact that it worked “that’s actually quite pleasing if he is with Ezreal, I would like to speak with him” he then walked to a table near them and sat backwards facing them “can you tell me about that person?”.

“you’ll have to ask Ahri” Lux replied pointing at said woman “she knew him the longest”.

Nasus finally noticed Ahri’s presence “ah, apologies, I did not introduce myself” he stood up and made a small bow “I am Nasus, the curator of the sands”.

“it’s okay” Ahri waved it off. At first she thought he was ignoring her, but apparently he really didn’t notice her “I’m Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox”.

“a pleasure” Nasus nodded and sat back down in the same position as before “now, do you mind telling me about your friend?”.

Ahri nodded seeing nothing wrong in that “well, his name is Grey, but his champion name is Abyss Watchers, Farron’s Undead legion”.

“so I assume he’s undead?” Nasus said referring to the champion title and Ahri nodded “what about the name Abyss Watcher?”.

“well in his world there’s something called the Abyss” Ahri said recalling when Grey talked about it “it’s like the Void but worse, and the Abyss Watchers make sure to watch for it and fight it”.

Nasus hummed in thought, he was no stranger to the subject of the Void “why does he think it’s worse than the Void?”.

Ahri remembered what Grey said “because the Abyss doesn’t only destroy, but whoever is corrupted by it turns into a monster, no matter who they are” in her opinion, she agreed that it was worse.

Nasus also had the same thoughts, the Void only consumes or bring people into it’s side with promises.

But he had to agree that if this Abyss turns people into monsters simply by corrupting them, then it was worse “anything else?”.

Ahri put a finger on her chin and shook her head “I can’t think of anything”.

“what about that Lord of Cinder thing?” Kennen said remembering their last talk.

“oh right” Ahri recalled the subject “there’s also that”.

“Lord of Cinder?” Nasus repeated interested in the title.

Ahri thought back on how Grey explained it “in Grey’s world, a Lord of Cinder is someone who’s chosen to keep the light in their world”.

“you can say that a Lord of Cinder gets to control the fate of their world” Akali added helping Ahri explain.

“and he’s one?” the ascendant warrior was surprised such a position existed.

“uhmm, question” Lux said raising her hand “why didn’t you mention that before?”.

“I forgot about it” Ahri replied with a shrug.

“how can you forget having the fate of an entire world in the hands of your friend?” Kennen asked in a deadpan manner.

“because nothing changed” Ahri replied, Grey didn’t act differently after he became a Lord of Cinder, maybe a little more confident but nothing more “we never even brought it up since we talked about it for the first time”.

“really?” Nasus was now really interested to meet this person. Normally someone with a position like that would treat themselves like a king, or even a God, but not the Abyss Watcher apparently.

Ahri was also thinking of Grey, but for a different reason ‘what’s taking him so long?’.

Grey POV:

We woke up earlier this morning and started traveling towards the city with the giant disc, the Sun Disc Ezreal called it.

We finally made it and entered the streets of the city. Inside was modern houses of the desert with people selling food and trinkets either in stands or a mat on the ground.

I noticed that no matter what people are doing, buying, selling or just walking, they were all smiling.

“people seem happy here” I said walking behind Ezreal while he guided us through the streets “I can tell they really love their home”.

Ezreal nodded “they do, and Azir makes sure to keep them happy and safe”.

I had my suspicions about Azir being a ruler but now I’m sure. I had another question bothering me “so why are we here?”.

“there’s a transport station here in the city” Ezreal told me “I’ve been here many times. So we either use it to get to the Institute, or walk 6000 miles to the west”.

“the Transport station it is” I said and Ezreal chuckled and we walked to building that was different from the rest.

It had a design similar to the Institute of War but smaller, we got in and I saw it was almost exactly like the one back in the Institute.

There was a summoner there that got up “Ah, Ezreal, good to see you again” he greeted “coming back from another adventure?”.

They apparently knew each other but then again Ezreal did say he was here many times.

“yeah” Ezreal nodded and motioned towards me “but I’m not alone”.

“so you finally travel with someone” the summoner said and looked at me “the new champion eh? I thought it would have been Lux” he chuckled.

Ezreal blushed “why would I travel with Lux?” he shook his head “just send us back” he grumbled looking away.

I shook my head smiling while the summoner laughed slightly “alright, just stand in the circle” we did as the summoner told us and he started chanting a spell.

A couple seconds later we found ourselves back in the Institute’s transport station.

“welcome back champions” the summoner there greeted us.

We gave him a nod and exited the room “so what do you want to do?” Ezreal asked me.

“let’s go get some food, I’m starving” I said and he nodded. We then started going to the dining hall. Hopefully we’ll find the others.

Third POV:

Grey and Ezreal entered the dining hall, they got their food and started looking for a place to sit.

Then Grey saw familiar tails moving around “hey Ahri!” he addressed their owner.

The dark haired Vastayan’s ears twitch at the direction of the voice. She looks and smiles seeing her friend.

Ahri got up, walked to Grey and jumped giving him a hug making him almost drop the food he had in his hand “Grey! You’re back!” she let go of him and he got his balance back “so how did it go?”.

“it was good. We ran into some trouble but nothing we couldn’t handle” the Abyss Watcher replied.

“yeah. And boy, do we have a story for you guys” Ezreal added.

Grey was then surprised to see a humanoid dog in armor walk up to Ezreal “hello Ezreal, good to see you are alright. Did you get the crown?”.

Ezreal held his tray in one hand while the other was scratching his neck “yeah, about that” he used his free hand to grab one half of the crown and show it to Nasus “it kinda split in half” he nervously chuckled.

The ascendant warrior raised an eyebrow “this isn’t like you to return with damaged objects”.

“let’s sit down and I’ll tell you what happened” the Explorer replied and then remembered his companion “oh right, have you met Grey?”.

Nasus shook his head and looked at the Abyss Watcher “Grey, I presume?” he asked and Grey nodded “it’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Nasus, the Curator of the Sands”.

“it’s a pleasure to meet you too. I’m Grey Ashnex” he said before they sat down With Ahri sitting besides him “Shen, Akali, Kennen, it’s good to see you three again. Oh and you too Aki”.

“it’s good to see you as well” Shen said as the other two assassins nodded while the summoner waved her hand shyly.

“so how did it go you guys?” Lux asked.

Ezreal began telling them what happened, how they found the Tomb and walking through it, but Lux cut him off about the part with the giant ball.

“seriously? Again?” the blonde gave a tired sigh “how many times were you chased by a giant ball Ezreal?”.

“hey that doesn’t happen!” the Explorer said in defense but then his voice lost it’s confidence “often”.

“sure” Lux obviously wasn’t convinced “so what happened next?”.

“after a few more traps, we got to a throne room that had the crown” Ezreal continued “but before we got to it, a creature from Grey’s world attacked us”.

“wait, what?!?” Lux was now on alert.

“a creature from Grey’s world?” Akali asked to make sure.

“yes, it was called an Outrider Knight” Grey told them.

“it was so weird. It was like a person made of ice was wearing that armor” Ezreal added and then smiled “and, we might have not gotten the crown, but we did get this”.

Ezreal pulled out the Irithyll long sword that was still giving off frost. Nasus got a closer look at the weapon “interesting, it gives off both moon and ice magic”.

“you can actually feel that?” Grey was quite amazed by such an ability “I’m impressed”.

Nasus just smiled and sat back down, that’s when Aki decided to finally speak “hey Grey, can I ask you something?” the Abyss Watcher nodded “well, how do I put this?” the summoner then took a deep breath “how are you undead?” Grey obviously tensed and looked down for a second “y-you don’t need to-“.

“no, it’s alright. I was going to tell you sooner or later” the Abyss Watcher cut her off and gave a heavy sigh “it’s… A curse, called the Darksign. The Curse brings back humans as undead and doesn’t allow them to die”.

“how’s that different from being immortal?” Kennen asked.

“it is different” Nasus told them. He didn’t blame them for not knowing the difference between not being able to die and immortality. The ascendant warrior gave Grey a look of sympathy “I truly am sorry to hear about your curse”.

“it’s fine” Grey shook it off and decided to explain it to the others “you know how in a match a champion dies and comes back in their base but they don’t feel pain?” the champions and summoner nodded “well, the Darksign is like that. Only… You feel it, the pain. You feel how painful dying is and remember every second of it” every champion, even Shen winced. Dying without feeling anything was very weird to them, they couldn’t imagine dying and feeling the pain “you keep dying again, again and again. Until… You go mad. You eventually lose your mind and go hollow. Those who are hollow are just embty shells of what they used to be, walking around waiting for something to come and finally end their suffering”.

“oh God” Ahri covered her mouth with one hand.

“dude… Sorry” Ezreal apologized.

The Abyss Watcher shook his head “don’t be. In fact, I think I’m freed from that curse” everyone looked at him in confusion “didn’t you hear me, the Darksign needs a Bonfire to work. They don’t exist in Runeterra so the only thing the curse can do to me is stop me from aging”.

Nasus chuckled “so coming to Runeterra was like cheating your way out of the curse” the others relaxed and became more cheerful after that.

“you can say that. Now let’s eat” Grey was about to dig in when Akali spoke.

“Grey, how can you eat with your mouth blocked?” the Assassin asked.

Grey tilted his head “what?”.

Ahri gave a tired sigh “you’re covering your face again Grey”.

Time skip: (brought to you by chibi Ahri wearing Grey’s hat and holding his knife while pretending to be him).

It was now night time. Grey and Ahri just returned to their room to rest for the night.

“it’s good to be back” Grey said already feeling at home at their room.

“it is” Ahri agreed as she sat on the couch as Grey started taking off his armor. She then remembered something important “oh! Right. Grey, I wanted to tell you… Thanks”.

Grey looked at her in slight confusion “for what?” he doesn’t remember doing anything worth gratitude.

“remember my little problem with life essence?” she asked and he nodded “well you were right. I did find a way to help. During a match, I can take as much life essence as I want and no one gets hurt. So again, thanks”.

“no problem. I barely did anything” he replied. Grey then raised an eyebrow “I’ve been meaning to ask you, what is life essence that you take exactly. It’s not a soul am I right?”.

The dark haired Vastayan shook her head “no. What would I even do with a soul?” she said.

‘if you only knew’ Grey thought on how many things someone could use a soul to get.

“it’s more like… The memories and energy of a soul” she explained.

“so we’re sort of alike” Grey said and Ahri tilted her head in confusion “you see, when I kill, I get something called sovereignless souls. They’re like broken souls”.

“so… You take souls?” Ahri was a little taken back.

“I can, but don’t” Grey finished taking off his armor and looked at his roommate “like I said I only take sovereignless souls, their broken souls or a soul’s leftovers. I don’t take actual souls since to us undead it’s like taking the humanity of another person”.

Ahri smiled. At first she was a little worried but apparently Grey isn’t doing anything bad.

Grey stretched now only in his long neck shirt, leggings without knee pads or his gloves “now let’s get some sleep. I rather like being safe enough to sleep whenever I want”.

(A/N: thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it, please comment in anyway you like and tell me how you like the story so far).