Void Attack: Winter's Claw Base Camp

Vera gave a determined nod to her mentor. She said nothing, worried her words would come out comical through the chattering of her teeth. The scene was anything but comic. Mournful brown eyes took in the corrupted snows, the two beams of light extending into the gray Freljordian sky. Her body trembled, both against the chill of northern winds and the gravity of the situation before them.

The Ionian woman's light steps carried her swiftly through the snow. Her robe trailed behind her, its train already soaked through. To give up much? She pursed her lips in perseverance. She had given up much. Derrick's screams echoed through her head. And she would give up whatever it took to see that peace was restored and maintained. That was her calling, wasn't it? That was The Institute's purpose. The wind whipped her pitch-black hair about, a sharp contrast to her mentor's white. An exhalation of breath rose from her nostrils in clouds against the frigid air.

The snow came almost up to her knees. Some of it spilled over the tops of her boots, soaking her stockings and the leggings beneath her bronze-embroidered summoner robes. Runeblood towered over her petite form. She took almost two strides to one of his. On she hurried, keeping close behind. After a few moments walking, her words found her. Derrick's terrified eyes burned in her mind: the same sight that haunted her dreams. "We will give whatever we must to make sure The Void does not succeed here."

Vera nodded in silence, though climbing the ranks was the furthest thing from her mind right now. Derrick's sacrifice haunted her every step through the knee-high snows, gave purpose to her every shiver. "Whatever must be done to halt the violence," the young summoner nodded in accord.

The wind whipped her ebon hair about, bitter. She squinted against its chill. Her Ionian eyes watered, used to he warm plains of her homeland and the comfortable indoors of the Institute. Her eyes flickered up to the mountain peak, where flashes of purple energy signaled the clashing of two incredible forces, a repeat of a battle that had ended in the death of an Lich, if such a thing were possible. A battle that had shaped the Institute and the world around it. And now it looked as if it would do so again. She bit her lip.

Her gaze wandered over the hordes before them, the Eternal Sisters cutting down what threats approached them. A dragon rearing on the battlefield. "We will do whatever is necessary. I am ready." Her brown eyes met her mentors, sparkling with conviction. Whatever his plan, she was ready to give her all to restore the peace they fought for, to banish the Void from Runeterra.

"Senior Summoner Runeblood..." A somewhat husky female voice called Hildebrand's attention to the hut. He turned to regard the woman, who had green eyes and tanned skin with dark hair trailing from her hooded robes. "The Nexus has been prepared. It is time to begin..." Hildebrand nodded in reply, casting a glance toward his pupil in a clear, unspoken command to follow him.

Hildebrand followed the woman to the hut where he joined the other summoners arranged around the Nexus. As if on cue, each summoner, including Hildebrand, lifted their hands and began to pulse with unseen magical forces, channeling their arcana into the inactive form of the portable Nexus. Slowly but surely, the Nexus began to flicker with life, glowing a dim violet color. The small crystal in the center seemed to flicker with light as well, like a small flame of a candle within the gemstone. As it pulsed, the summoners began to speak their incantations to shape the raw power within the Nexus.



As the final words were spoken, the Nexus pulsed with energy, the dim violet shining and twisting to a vibrant azure light. All of the summoners placed their hands over the Nexus, closing their eyes as the light seemed to slow time around them, before a powerful pulse of energy shot upward, tearing through the roof of the small hut and into the sky. The clouds above were blown away and began to swirl around the beam of blue light, like a hurricane's eye.

Wind whipped around the small area, kicked into a frenzy by the released might of the Nexus. Hoods were blown back by the force as the five summoners and their senior continued to channel their own magical power through the arcane device. Then, as if on cue, a dozen beams of either blue or violet light surged through the air, meeting in the skies above the Base Camp as the Summoners back at the Institute directed the entirety of the League's Nexuses and their power to Freljord. The beams met in a singularity of white arcane might so bright it would make darkness seem like day for miles, and would draw the attention of virtually everyone in Freljord.

All at once, the singularity warbled, before casting a beam of light directly downward, into the heart of the portable Nexus, the azure light intensifying to pure white, radiating with multicolored auroras of energy. The wind whipped around, tearing the hut to shreds, a crackling, whining, magical thrum filling the air. "All of you focus on reinforcing my techniques! Vera! With me!" Hildebrand shouted orders above the deafening roar of the energy. "I am going to seal off their portal first! Once I have finished, you five will use every ounce of your power to maintain them! Draw from the Nexus as needed to supplement your energy, but do not let them fall!"

As he finished, Hildebrand's eyes closed, and he opened his mind to the magical energy running through him, empowering his simple Clairvoyance summoner spell to near omnipotent levels. As he did, pain surged through his body, as if the power was trying to erode away his very essence. His body trembled with the severity of the pain, but he did not cry out. Instead, he grit his teeth, hissing with each breath as his vision scanned the whole of Freljord, feeling for tainted magics and energies. Finally, he found them, the portals the Void was using to enter and invade Freljord. His face contorted with extreme discomfort as he began to recite more incantations...



Miles away from the Base Camp, far from the edges of the fight, the portals of the Void were pumping out endless streams of warriors, all bent on devouring and conquering this land for themselves. However, above them, the clouds began to churn, faster and fast, blue, yellow, and white arcs of power arcing through the sky, until something unexpected pulsed into being. They were runic circles, floating high above the ground. For the first time since the banning of such things by the League, Rune Magic was being brought to the field of battle, all to put a stop to their invasion...

The circles spun faster and faster, before pulsing with a surge of light and power, lighting bolts crashing down, raining from the heavens to strike the portals, surrounding them with a nigh-impenetrable reversed barrier of golden light. Thunder rolled across the hills as the arcs paused and the circles faded from the sky, appearing on the ground below the portals. The Void had been cut off from their reinforcements completely. New portals would be capped by the same barriers, completely preventing them from reaching the front lines or supporting their allies. All at once, the infinite forces of the Void were no longer infinite...

However, what had transpired here was just the beginning of what was to come...

( maelstromlol.freeforums.net/index.cgi?board=freljord&action=display&thread=737 )

Chills rushed over Vera's body--but not due to the cold. She did as directed, bringing her slender hands together in a purple glow to match the white one now issuing from her mentor's body. Sacrifice... Is this what he meant? Tears welled in her eyes as she channeled her amplification into him. Keep him whole. Keep him standing. Keep him an anchor for the incredible power that coursed through his mortal body.

Magics of this magnitude had not been seen on Runeterra for more than two decades--since Vera could barely walk and talk. She did not even fully understand the implications of such a force, yet here it was, ripping away at her teacher's body. His eyes went white. Furious energy crackled from his form. It was almost an ascension, she imagined. Surely he would survive. He had to. Didn't he?

As blood shot from his mouth, thoughts of his mortality wracked her mind. "Sensei!" she cried in the Ionian tradition, tears now streaming down her cheeks. She would not lose another master to this madness. Vera's own eyes began to glow with purple light. Her tears evaporated as she poured forth all her energy into maintaining Hildebrand's body, his soul, the magical anchor for this power the League now unleashed over the Freljords.

In the distance, the portals sealed, stemming the flow of Void hordes over the snows. Two beams of light pierced the sky: one white and pure from Runeblood's own body, one dark purple, crackling with corruption from the mountain on which Cho'Gath stood. The skies roiled with storm, as though the weather itself were an echo of the chaos now unleashed. Twin spirals of clouds twisted above them, the beams of energy at their centers.

Onyx hair whipped in the wind, but the cold no longer caused her to shiver. Her teacher's words rang in her ears. The sounds of his incantations she would never forget. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. He would give his own life for the world they called home. It was the right choice to make, the noble path, but Vera's heart ached with the burden of watching him destroy himself--of aiding in his destruction. She grit her teeth against the heart wrenching guilt. This was right. This was necessary. This was their calling as paragons of peace, as protectors of this realm, as summoners of the Institute of War.

The first step had been executed flawlessly, and with Vera and the strange man's assistance, Hildebrand would be able to more easily cope with the strain of what was about to come next. This, of course, was a good thing, as what he had done so far was mere child's play compared the the size and scope of what was going to be coming next. However, no level of healing could protect his mortal body from magic of this magnitude. The threads of the planes and the cosmos were ready at the Senior Summoner's pained fingertips, and he was set to weave the invasion itself out of existence... His words still pained, he began to incant the second part of his spell.



The entirety of Freljord quaked and shook as the Summoner finished his words, along with his body. As blood began to trickle from his mouth, through gritted teeth, the world seemed to awaken. Glaciers cracked, avalanches stormed down the sides of the tallest peaks, and the sky above all of Freljord became painted in clouds, ripping away the darkness and clouds created by Cho'gath's meddling like one tears away tissue paper. Such was the power being brought upon the field. The Void had no business here, and it was as if Runeterra itself was awakening to halt the advance of the Void... The mountain had been corrupted in the blink of an eye, and while there was nothing that this spell could do to reverse the process, or remove the rift, it could wipe the Void army from the face of Runeterra...

From the Base Camp as an epicenter, scintillating golden-red geysers of arcane might burst from the ground, throwing power thousands of feet into the air as they lanced across the landscape, carving shapes into the earth itself and tinting the whole of Freljord in a super-saturated golden-red hue. If one could see the ground from thousands upon thousands of feet above the ground, they would see a set of circular runes covering the entirety of Freljord, a precursor to what was about to commence.


The incantation was spoken raspingly, lifeblood nearly choking the poor Senior Summoner as his body trembled, sweat pouring from him, his form desperately trying to remain standing as the power eroding all that he was threatened to overtake him, even with his assistant's powers. Flashes of his homeland ran through his mind. He remembered the first time he had discovered his penchant for ice magic. He had frozen a pond in which he was swimming, and cried out so loudly, his mother came to pull him from the freezing water before he was killed by the ice. He remembered training for days on end, learning his craft, in which he had found he was gifted. He remembered applying to become a Summoner of the Institute of War, his heart filled with Demacian spirit and Freljordian determination from his father. He remembered the day his mother quietly explained to him that his family had kept a secret tradition of Rune Magic in the case the League was ever to fall, ever ready to protect their homeland.

The talents he had learned from throughout his entire life had lead him to this very moment. His path had wound through fate for him to arrive on these plains, the home of his father. Fate had brought he and Vera together, a warm but injured girl, with great potential to bolster the powers of others. Perhaps it was his destiny to die on these fields, fighting to protect the peace he treasured more than anything else. That had to be it, he thought. As the power continued to ravage his body, the pain began to dull, and for a single, solitary moment, Hildebrand Runeblood, "The Ice-Blooded Mage", cracked a small smile as he spoke the final words...



The sky above Freljord exploded into a massive maelstrom of energy. Clouds swirled around the center and above the titanic rune across the miles of frozen wasteland, gradually sinking inward toward the center of the twisting storm. A few seconds later, a singularity of unimaginable brightness appeared in the center of the massive formation. The reddish hue of the rune faded away, leaving natural light, and the light of the singularity above to shine down upon the whole of Freljord. Pulses of power shot into the singularity, thundering and crackling, thrumming sounds of arcane energy echoing across the battle-torn landscape like the beat of an arcane heart.

All at once, the singularity pulsed and warbled, quivering as if trying to grow in size before, like a bolt of lighting, the ball dropped toward the ground. As it made contact, the muted sound of an explosion ripped through the air, a shockwave of wind surged across the landscape, and the singularity erupted outward, expanding and exponentially growing in size and scope. Invasive white light expanded outward at hundreds of miles per hour in a dome-like shape, crossing the whole of Freljord in a matter of moments, kicking up snow and ice as it went, and knocking all but the heartiest of warriors to their feet.

The creatures of the Void, including the Void Champions not protected by the barriers of light, would find themselves ripped from existence, wiped clean from the incredible power of the banishment and de-summoning spell. Unfortunately, they were not killed, but instead, torn from the landscape of Freljord, and cast back into the pits of the Void from whence they came. The barriers surrounding Kayle, Morgana, and others would serve to keep them firmly on the material realm of Runeterra, and not send them back to their respective places of origin. With one tremendous show of force and magical might, Hildebrand Runeblood had effectively hit the reset button on the entire conflict...

The Void had been purged from the fields of Freljord, and with their portals locked off by powerful barriers, the forces of the Preservers and the other opposing sides would be able to converge upon the portals themselves, and work to close them. The Void forces, which had been seemingly infinite, would then be bottlenecked, and forced to fight their way through a very small number of exits. Even if they attempted to create more portals, the powerful barriers created by the Summoners would intervene, and rise up to hold them at bay. Though they might eventually break through, the Preservers, warriors, and champions of Runeterra would rise to push them back wherever they dared to tread.



As the magical pulse cleared, Senior Summoner Hildebrand Runeblood released his grip upon the Nexus, the other five knowing his job had been completed. For now, they had to focus on maintaining the barriers that would stem the tide of the Void's encroachment. Otherwise, the sacrifice of their superior would be in vain.

As he released the Nexus, his body fell backward, limp, his proud blue and gold robes shredded from the power, his skin even more pale than usual due to the loss of blood and internal bleeding that ravaged his body. His blue eyes had lost all their focus, seeming somewhat glazed and lifeless. The fluidity with which the man had always carried himself was gone, and he slumped heavily, awkwardly, to the ground. He looked around the remains of the small hut, his mouth hanging open slightly, even as a trail of blood dribbled free from it. His breathing was slow and shallow, and filled with a faint gurgle.

The room seemed bright, colors brighter and out of focus, even as his vision tunneled and the edges became devoid of color and dark. Despite his injuries, however, that faintest of smiles was still upon his face. The Void had been pushed back. Freljord, Runeterra, had been given a fighting chance, the best chance that he could give them with all the power at his disposal, and only at the cost of his own life. His eyes would sweep to land upon a small, petite shape of violet and dark colors near him. Vera...

"Re-member my lessons..." Her mentor's voice was soft, barely above a whisper. "Some things are...bigger than all-of...us..." A faint set of coughs shook the man's body as his lungs tried to desperately clear themselves of fluid, but failed. He was simply too weakened to accomplish anything else. "My- only regret... Is that I must... Must leave you with yet another...burden." As he finished, his head slumped heavily to the side, and he exhaled, his smile still tugging stubbornly on the very edges of his lips. "What a...terrible teacher I am..."

That was the last thing Hildebrand Runeblood said. His vision faded quickly, his consciousness as well, and slowly, his heart seized, and his breathing stopped. All life-sustaining processes of his body halted, and slowly, Hildebrand Runeblood began his first few steps into the afterlife, having sacrificed everything for the good of Runeterra and it's people. For a summoner of the League of Legends and the Institute of War, there could be no greater honor, and no greater duty...