Quest for the Past

by Ekhidna

Choose your Champion

Chapter 2: Choose your Champion

Lyra was bored out of her mind as she waited for the human to return, she had tried to sleep but couldn’t manage to do so, so instead, she had decided to think and analyze everything that had occurred since her little quest began. Unfortunately for her all she had come up with were questions and more questions, especially the attitude of the mysterious human and his odd willingness to help her.

Glancing down at her side she saw the wound was already gone, only small glimpses of pain remained when she moved.

“But not so much to not let me move around,” she said to herself before stepping down her ‘bed’ and walk around a little “Well, it stings a little but I guess I can go for a little walk,” she said to herself again, walking in a slow pace.

Lyra left the room and began to wander off along the large hallway, as she walked she noticed decorations, pieces of stone torn apart and many indications that the building was very old, it surprised her it was still standing.

Soon she arrived at a vast lighten area where she could see many stairs leading down towards a very vast plane of low grass and in the distance she could see several other buildings but most of all the scenery was breathtaking, trees of all sizes and forms, gardens of beautiful flowers, some she had never seen before and more plagued the entire plane, barely missing the buildings and extending farther than her eyes could see.

She stood there for a full minute admiring it before turning around, she saw a great metallic door half opened and decided to go in there. Using her magic with great effort she managed to open the massive door open enough for her to pass without a problem. It was a dark room, even with the small patch of light entering through the opening it was nearly impossible to see any further.

Taking a tentative step forward into the darkness a noise above her made her jump in fright before the entire room was engulfed in light.

“What in the name of Luna is this?”

Before her a large hallway was present, even larger than the ones in the Canterlot palace, it had pole lamps alongside a straight line with almost all of them laying on the ground forgotten, but what drew her attention was the sculptures in the walls. She easily deducted that there were humans wearing some sort of robes performing rituals and other kinds of spells, Lyra was, however, lost in some other very interesting creatures.

Most of the said creatures were humans or held a human-like form but were definitely not humans, other were not humans for very obvious reasons. Lyra walked through the hallway amazed and analyzing every single sculpture, soon she came to a conclusion.

“They are telling a story,” she whispered. “A story of… what?” As she moved forward the sculptures presented several similarities. “A different creature every two or three segments, each one telling a short story of the creature but the humans in the robes are always present, they seem to be… merging or joining some sort of cult, perhaps it’s some kind of ritual, how fascinating!”

Soon enough the sculptures began to change very drastically, soon enough she could distinguish battles, very violent and bloody battles, then the scenes returned to the first kind of sculptures and jumped again to the battles and so forth.

Nearing the end of the hallway the sculptures simply banished, the last one showing a human dressed in some strange robes opening a portal or some kind. At the very end of the hallway, she saw metallic picture carved to the very wall presenting, what she could say, every single creature from before.

“Great detail and crafting skills,” she said to herself, approaching it to see it in more detail she saw some words below it. “ ‘In Honor to the Champions of the League’?” A noise of metal hitting the floor behind her pulled her off from her studies.

“I see you couldn’t resist looking around, Lyra,” the metal clad human said with a neutral tone.

“How could I NOT?” She said, not afraid, but rather thrilled. “I mean, I am standing on the remains of an ancient civilization which so happens to tell its story AND there is a living, breathing human too! And you expect me to just stay still and not explore this amazing place?” She said, grinning up at him.

“Yes.”

“Huff, you are no fun, mister human,” Lyra lost her smile and tilted her head to the side. “Hey, now that I think of it you look kind of... familiar to one of those creatures.” she pointed towards the picture before turning around scanning it. “Right there!” She pointed to near the left inferior end of the picture. “He looks a lot like you, well, the armor at least.” She turned to him again, a confused look on her face. “Now that I think of it, you haven’t told me your name yet.”

“My name is of no concern to you, not yet, Lyra, The Truth Searcher.”

“That title again, I wonder what it means” she thought “Alright then, can you tell me what is this hallway, chamber or whatever it is?”

“Very well, but for now stand back and be quiet, I need to pay my respects first.”

Getting out of his way, Lyra sat on the oddly warm floor, watching as the human kneeled down, putting the shield he was carrying on the floor while using a spear to support his weight. Lyra couldn’t tell what he was saying but she could tell it was some sort of lament or prayer, for several minutes the human did not move nor did she. Suddenly, the human slowly stood up while murmuring something and hitting his chest three times.

“Come with me,” he said, Lyra only nodded and followed him, leaving the chamber and returning to the hallway she had been exploring, none of them said anything until they reached the end of the hallway and the human opened a door. “Come in.”

Walking inside Lyra could see there were in some kind of map-room since it was filled with maps all over the place, maps of cities, castles, terrains, countries, everything.

“I will answer some of your questions, but first I must know where you came from,” he said pointing to the map in the center of the room. “This map is very old and it may be much different to the ones you must be used to. Try to identify your travel route, we are here.” He pointed the center of the map where a small castle was shown with the letters ‘Institute of War’ above it “And I found you here, in the Rift,” he pointed a little upward and to the left, some sort of terrain with the name of ‘Summoners Rift’ above it.

Lyra walked slowly to the map, trying to identify the locations. “You are right, it’s very different but... I think, let’s see,” slowly but surely Lyra was able to put together a somewhat clear route of her travel, going down from ‘Summoners Rift’ passing through a horrid looking forest called ‘The Twisted Tree Line’ going up all the almost reaching a place between a land named ‘Frelijord’ and a mountain named ‘Targon’. “This map is so small compared to Equestria,” Lyra said. “If I had to say Ponyville was here, then cities like Manehatten and Trottingham should be here and here,” she pointed the map where water was. “Care to explain, mister human?”

The human was simply looking at the map, staring it in total silence and stillness; it wasn’t until Lyra nudged him in his hand a little that he was out of his trance.

“Are... are you alright, mister human?”

“I’m fine,” he sighed “the world has changed too much.” He walked to a near block of stone and sat there. “My name is Pantheon, the Artisan of War, and I welcome you to the remains of the once proud and strong League of Legends, Lyra Heartstrings, the Truth Searcher.”

Lyra was lost for words, she was expecting some sort of epic introduction or a tale of bravery from the human, instead, she got a fairly weak presentation, something did catch her interest, however.

“Artisan of War, Truth Searcher? What’s up with the titles anyway? And what do you mean by League of Legends?”

Pantheon sighed again before pointing to the map with his spear. “That land is….was Valoran, the greatest realm in all of Runeterra, a land filled with wonders, war and disputes, house to many unique creatures.”

“Valoran was filled with war everywhere, everyone was fighting everyone all the time, even between those inside the same kingdom,” Pantheon got up, not bothered by the enchanted Lyra looking at him in total awe. “A group of powerful mages named as ‘Summoners’ decided to end all of that fighting,” walking around the room he continued to talk, never breaking his gaze over Lyra. “Many opposed to them, including my tribe but soon enough they came up with a solution,” he pointed at the Institute of War.

“They created the Institute of War, a place where kingdoms could resolve their differences in a battle between the two sides, forming teams. The goal was simple, destroy the base of the enemy team first.”

“But since their soldiers couldn’t enter battle and it would be unfair to stick with only the same fighters for each country another solution was made, the fighter would have to leave their homelands and request to join the Institute as Champions, where they could be used in combat by a summoner who could control them during the fight.” Pantheon sighed. “The starting champions named themselves The League of Legends, which also saved Valoran from itself.”

“The titles were put by the summoners or in some cases, by the champion itself, the title was very important, as it represented what were we best at, our goal or our duty, my title is the Artisan of War, for I was the best warrior of the Rakkor tribe and it was my job to show them all that war and combat are the ultimate art forms,” he said proudly.

Lyra was lost for words, the tale Pantheon was impressive and amazing, yet it only created more questions, most of them she had already thought of.

“Excuse me, sir Pantheon.”

“Just call me Pantheon.”

“A-Alright then, Pantheon, is there a reason why I haven’t seen any other human or one of those strange creatures around?” Pantheon dropped his gaze to the ground and things slowly fit together from earlier, “I must pay my respects”, that was meant to honor those in the picture, to honor the dead, a gut-clenching feeling began to stir inside her “Y-you are only one left, aren’t you?”

“Yes I am, I’m the last Rakkorian, the last champion, and the last legend, I’ve been alone for a long time, little pony,” he turned his gaze directly to Lyra.

“How old are you? A-are you immortal?” She asked nervously, so forth the only five known immortals were the princesses and Discord and that meant they were crazy powerful.

“How old I am... I can’t really say, I stopped counting the years millennia ago, as for if I am immortal? No, I’m not.”

“Then, how can you still be alive? More than that, if you are all alone, why haven’t you gone insane?”

“That is something you will have to earn, it's been so long since I last had a conversation with other than myself in centuries, so forgive me if I speak too much at times.” Pantheon turned around completely at her “What else you want to know?”

“You said you knew ponies, right?” Pantheon nodded. “And you have been alive for several millennia, right?” Lyra smiled triumphal as Pantheon nodded again. “Then tell me everything you know about ponies! Our history, how did human civilization, this Valoran affected us and the rest of the races, the origin of our princesses, everything, please!”

Pantheon looked at her straight in the eyes. “I know nothing of it.”

“That’s great! Now can you pleas---wait, WHAT?” Lyra shouted back at him both surprised and angry. “NOTHING? What do you mean by nothing!?”

“I haven’t left these lands since I began my watch, the furthest I have ever gone is the edge of the Twisted Tree Line,” he said pointing the spots with his spear over the map. “I’m sorry if you are disappointed.”

“I-its alright,” she chuckled. “ I mean, is not like I came all the way here to find the truth of pony history and our relation with humans and it turns out the ONLY human alive knows NOTHING!” Lyra breathed heavily for a couple of seconds before calming herself a bit. “This is just wonderful, and I’m guessing you won’t be leaving this place because you are doing your so-called watch.” Lyra calmed down and then looked at him confused. “Your watch? Your watch about what?"

“…” Pantheon said nothing but he never broke their eye contact.

“You are guarding something, right? Something very important.”

“Remember the chamber I found you?” Lyra nodded. “That is the Chamber of Champions, that was the place where the summoners tested any new arriving candidate, the metal sculpture at the end of the chamber? I made it, to honor the 140 Legends that fought for not only Valoran, but for Runeterra.”

Lyra looked on, puzzled.

“Valoran welcomed every candidate, most were locals but some others were from other dimensions,” Lyra looked at him in disbelief. “During those times magic was much more powerful than it is today, it allowed several summoners to contact beings from other dimensions to come and battle for the Institute, or vice versa, with the promise of fulfilling their wishes. And they had more than enough power to grant them... after their services were fulfilled, of course.”

“What kind of wishes?”

“Come with me, I think you are healed now.”

Pantheon started walking out of the map room with Lyra behind him, truth to his expectation, she was already healed, they walked down the same path from earlier and entered the chamber again.

“Its name was Cho’Gath, the Terror of the Void, he came from a place known as The Void, its wish was to devour everything in Runeterra and beyond.” Lyra gasped in horror looking at the horrifying insect-looking monster. “Her name was Ashe, the Frost Archer, her wish was to bring control, peace, and order to her homeland, The Freljord.” Lyra thought how noble her wish was. “You see Lyra, every champion had their own wishes, some were selfish, others simply wanted power, others just wanted to show off their power and abilities.”

Lyra smiled at him. “Like you?”

“Yes, you could say that.”

A minute of silence followed as they reached the end of the chamber.

“Who is he? He is a he, isn’t he?” Lyra pointed at the sculpture of the man with a portal behind him.

Pantheon looked at the sculpture for several seconds before muttering some sort of prayer. “His name was Malzahar, the Prophet of the Void.” Pantheon clenched his spear. “He was one of the starting champions of the League, he wished nothing, the only thing he said was that the Void was coming and it was inevitable, he always said we had to be prepared.” he sighed .“There was a place back then named Icathia, a city lost in myths and legends, it was fictional to us as humans are to your kind. But just like us, Icathia existed.”

“Icathia? The Void?" She said in confusion before asking. "What are you getting at, Pantheon?”

Pantheon said nothing for several seconds before giving a dishearten laugh. “The point is, we made a great mistake, we ignored him and when the Void came, it came in force.”

Lyra gulped, suddenly she didn't like where this story was heading to. “W-what happened?”

“Extinction happened,” Lyra’s eyes grew as big as dinner plated and her coat turned lighter than it already was. “Think of a place full of monsters, monster thousands of times worse than your worst nightmares, monsters that are hungry, know only how to fight, kill and destroy everything they stumble upon.” Pantheon gaze turned darker by the second, his red eyes shining like fresh blood from inside his helmet. “And now think those same monsters somehow manage to get to your world.” Lyra was shaking in fear, she could see that her human friend was dead serious about this, and she was ashamed to admit it but she wanted to know more.

Pantheon turned away without warning, making her jump in fright. “It’s getting late and you are probably hungry, come, we will eat, then you are free to explore the Institute at free will.” Pantheon began to walk out of the chamber leaving a shocked Lyra behind him.

“H-hey! Wait up, what happened next!? Pantheon? PANTHEON!?”

Inside his helmet Pantheon gave out a small playful smile.

Chapter two end.

Author's Note:

Special thanks to all of you that reads this, you are awesome!

Comments

[Field Marshall Nuggetman]

Out of all the champs you could have chose you choose pantheon (good choice good choice)

[Ekhidna]

3158611 Oh you'll see why =D

[OnePunchHero]

Yay...

[irish_moon]

And there's the catch *sigh*

[Ekhidna]

3172351 yeah, but my proofreaders are too busy right now, thats why until I can find one I will leave this story like this, but thanks forpointing them out, now I can fix those myself =D