Caleb had originally planned to pull out that living weapon.
After his chest was pierced by a spear, his opponent yanked it back out without the slightest hesitation.
The feeling of his heart being torn apart nearly left Caleb unable to catch his breath.
"Tch..." Even knowing something like that came with massive side effects, Caleb was still prepared to use it.
Not long ago, he had been binge-watching Naruto in a solitary cell in Stillwater Hold.
And now he was already prepared to fight a Darkin for control of his own body.
"What?"
The noise rising in the distance caught both Caleb's and Kalista's attention.
The monsters emerging from the Black Mist couldn't hurt them at all!
That alone said plenty about what kind of people Zaun had.
Every last one of them was charging in with weapons in hand, and they were even carrying relief supplies on their backs for their brothers in Piltover.
"You people of the Twin Cities really are full of surprises." Thresh looked down at the crowd below and sounded almost impressed.
His plan had been extremely precise, and a move like this should have worked perfectly well against the Twin Cities as they once were, divided and fractured.
But now it seemed the most important factor had been the man Zaun had found to lead it.
He hadn't given Thresh any time to think, he had just called Janna outright.
If that man ever came anywhere near the Shadow Isles in the future, Thresh would make sure to lure him out.
Maybe the Ruination curse he had pursued so obsessively, the one that could spread across the entire world in a single sweep, might finally become possible with his help.
...
"What?"
The people of Piltover stared out their windows in disbelief.
Those whose doors and windows had already been smashed open found their hope reigniting, and they began shouting at the top of their lungs.
"Over here, hurry!"
The effortlessly dominant Hecarim suddenly had his head engulfed in a mass of green slime.
It poured into his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, completely wrecking his sense of direction.
Enraged, he could only charge blindly in one direction.
He smashed through wall after wall along the way, but that out-of-control feeling still refused to go away.
An arm suddenly appeared in front of Kalista. The moment it grabbed hold of her, a brass-colored fist rapidly filled her vision.
One punch sent her flying into the air, and what followed was a burst of crackling electricity.
Blitzcrank, Viktor, and Zeri all fired arcs of lightning from their weapons at the same time.
With her hair standing on end, Kalista hadn't even had time to regain her footing before a storm of ranged attacks was already flying at her again.
Some of the Piltover residents who had been dragged off and were struggling desperately suddenly felt the force tugging at their clothes vanish.
The wraiths let out shrill screams, and after being blown apart, they dissolved back into the Black Mist.
"So, how do you like your gutter trash now?"
The people of Zaun quickly pushed forward, gathering up every resident they could find.
The Black Mist suddenly had a much clearer target to attack. The mindless creatures, the moment they revived, charged straight at the crowd.
But under that much firepower and that many people, the monsters in the Mist got exactly one thing in return, a righteous group beating.
Whether it was Hecarim or Yorick, as the numbers kept growing, neither of them could keep harassing the battlefield from within the Black Mist anymore.
And with someone like Ekko who was that skilled on a hoverboard, there was naturally no way he was going to let them retreat so easily.
As for Kalista, she had already been drawn into that lantern glowing with eerie green light.
That coordinated assault had left her badly injured.
Thresh could not help sighing.
Janna's offensive on this side was also ferocious. She was using every aspect of the wind to its fullest.
At times calm, at times violent, at times faint, at times savage.
Thresh couldn't afford to treat a single one of her attacks carelessly.
Not even after taking a Super Mega Death Rocket had he lost his composure.
"Retreat!"
Thresh forced the word out through clenched teeth.
This operation had committed several major pieces, only to gain scraps barely worth mentioning.
It was a terrible loss.
But if they didn't withdraw now, then what they lost afterward would only keep growing.
After all, damage to elite fighters really could only be repaid with more souls.
Yorick scattered a cloud of mist, then raised a circular wall with a flick of his hand.
The Mist Walkers surged forward, providing cover for the retreat.
Hecarim finally managed to shake Zac off his head, summoned his spectral riders, and charged violently in the direction of withdrawal, vanishing from sight in the next instant.
The Black Mist was also growing thinner and dimmer.
Some of the Piltover citizens who had already been dragged into it were forcefully snatched back out.
Before anyone realized it, the sun had risen.
And it was already climbing high.
The endless night was finally coming to an end.
All it left behind was a city in ruins, devastation as far as the eye could see.
"Ohhhhhhh!"
Wave after wave of cheers erupted from the crowd as Blitzcrank and Zac hoisted Caleb up at once.
Then they passed him into the hands of the people of Zaun.
Jayce, Caitlyn, Vi, every hero who had fought just now.
Even the incredibly heavy Blitzcrank, and the huge Zac, all of them were celebrated the same way.
No one cared anymore about upper or lower, us or them. Everyone was immersed in the same atmosphere of joy.
The celebration went on for a long time.
Janna hovered above the Twin Cities, smiling softly as she watched it all.
...
Caleb slept straight through until the afternoon.
It was only when Ekko came to wake him that he finally yawned his way to the Council in the Upper City.
Post-disaster reconstruction, and Piltover's desire to express its gratitude to Zaun, all of that had to be settled in a meeting.
Caleb simply fell asleep in the Council chamber too. He was only there to go through the motions anyway.
The quality of Zaun's construction work had never been especially good to begin with. Its people were already used to rebuilding their homes out of ruins and scrap heaps.
Piltover's pollution purifiers had also already been deployed, so from now on, Zaun would no longer suffer under the poison of Piltover's pollution.
On the other hand, the Upper City had countless reconstruction projects waiting to be handled, while Mel, the person leading the Council, was still unconscious.
Her life wasn't in danger, but it would still be quite a while before she woke up.
The councilors of Piltover were already swamped and on the verge of losing their minds.
They had called Caleb in the first place because they wanted him to help come up with an idea.
Who would have thought he would just fall asleep instead?
"Caleb!" Jayce walked over to him helplessly and gave him a shake.
"Hm?" Caleb sat up and rubbed his eyes.
You really couldn't blame him for being sleepy. In truth, the councilors themselves hadn't slept either and had already been in session all along.
Without their pillar holding things together, Jayce's opinions just didn't sound all that reliable.
"Tell us what you think, about rebuilding Piltover."
"What's there to think about? Zaun can help you."
Caleb waved a hand and tossed out the solution on the spot.
Zaun might not have craftsmen as precise as Piltover's, but they had no problem handling the rough labor.
The councilors looked at the young man who had just woken up, then after thinking it over, all nodded.
They had already thought of that solution themselves, but Caleb had to be the one to say it.
Or at the very least, if they were the ones to propose it, Caleb had to be the one to nod and approve.
If Caleb didn't open that door, then to put it bluntly, the people of Zaun would absolutely throw down their tools and refuse to work.
And if they started slacking off every other day, the reconstruction would only drag on even longer.
"Of course, we'll need materials and payment too," Caleb added.
Being one big happy family between the two cities was fine, but did they think they were getting labor for free without spending a little money?
Not a chance.
"Well... we can only say we'll do what we can... it won't be much higher than that..."
Cassandra said with a bitter smile. After all, Piltover's losses this time had also been enormous.
Several of the great houses would probably have to bleed heavily just to keep the city operating.
"You can work out the details with Ekko."
Caleb had been handing more and more work off to Viktor and Ekko these days.
After all, a lazy life was the happy life.
Not to mention he still had to study that cursed rune book, which meant he barely had even a tiny scrap of free time.
"At least the good news is that after this incident, the rift between the two cities is pretty much mended."
The people of Piltover had truly never expected Zaun to come to their aid.
The sincerity of the Undercity had already been made clear. It was worth every life nearly swallowed up by the Black Mist.
Now it was Piltover's turn to repay that goodwill.
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