The Demon Appears

To Poppy, more than three hundred years seemed like a brief span of time. She summed it up in a few simple words: friendship and searching.

She had stayed by my side ever since I woke up, because I neither feared nor hated her, just like Oren.

"I think the Will of the Yordles that brought you into being was your longing for friendship. And now, we've met."

"Would you be willing to be my friend?"

"It would be an honor."

"No. My only friend is Oren. Maybe it won't be long before you hate me, too."

I didn't try to explain any further. I didn't originally belong to this world, so of course I had no prejudice against Yordles. Since she didn't believe me, I'd let time prove it.

Ionia, Valoran, and Shurima together formed the continental system of Runeterra. Ionia was much smaller than the other two continents, and since it was surrounded by the Sea of the Watcher and the Sea of Conquest, people once believed it was an island.

Only after contact between the different regions grew and people began traveling back and forth more frequently did they realize that Ionia wasn't an island at all. It was large enough to be considered a continent.

The biggest difference between Ionia and the other two continents was that it had no countries, nor had any ever arisen there. That was why it had been unable to resist when Noxus invaded.

It was only later, through various martial arts, religious groups, and extraordinary individuals, that they managed to win. Of course, the greater reason was that Swain hadn't been prepared. Otherwise, it would have been a devastating disaster.

The people here believed in Unity of Heaven and Man, and had preserved the natural environment exceptionally well. Flowers and trees grew freely along the roads, and the scenery was beautiful and pleasant. Of course, enjoying those lovely views came at a price—the roads were narrow and difficult to travel.

We made slow progress and often got lost. For more than ten days straight, we'd been sleeping rough and eating whatever we could find.

The first few days had been fine, but today, it suddenly began to rain. We couldn't find anywhere to take shelter, and were soon soaked through.

At first, the clinging wet clothes felt awful, but once we were completely drenched, I stopped caring. At that point, I could hear nothing but the rain. Poppy, however, heard something else:

"I think I hear someone crying nearby."

"Could they be trapped somewhere by the downpour, or in some kind of danger?"

Poppy and I searched the area and soon found a cave. The sound was coming from inside.

We exchanged a glance and decided to check it out. We could shelter from the rain while we were at it.

The sight inside the cave surprised me. Candles burned there, and murals covered both walls. Their contents were strange but easy enough to understand: scenes of worship and prayer.

Not far inside stood a statue made up of two figures: a standing lamb in the middle, with a wolf beside it. Both wore masks, and strange symbols were painted on their foreheads. It depicted Kindred.

Kindred was a deity in the legends of Runeterra, a symbol of death. Those who faced death calmly would be granted a merciful arrow by Lamb, while those who tried to evade death would be hunted down and slain by Wolf.

A village woman knelt before the statue, holding a child who was barely alive. The crying we'd heard had come from her.

She kept begging Kindred to spare the child. She was so grief-stricken that she hadn't even noticed us come in.

"What happened?"

I hadn't meant to get involved, but I couldn't stand listening to someone cry nearby in the middle of a downpour. And even if I hadn't asked, Poppy wouldn't have just stood by and watched. She had already walked over.

The woman turned and saw us—one tall, one short, both armed—and jumped in fright. She clutched the child tightly. "Who are you?"

"Don't worry. We won't hurt you. We heard you crying and came over. What's wrong with the child?"

"I don't know. He suddenly disappeared four days ago, and no one in the whole village could find him. I found him here this morning when I came to pay my respects to Kindred, but his breathing is very weak. He's not the first child to disappear. Lately..."

Before the woman could finish, Poppy suddenly snatched the child from her arms and threw him outside the cave. The woman ran after him as if she'd gone mad, but slipped and fell as soon as she reached the entrance.

I hurried after them and saw that the child's chest had split open. Blue flames burned inside him, undiminished by the torrential rain.

The woman cursed loudly. "I knew you were no good! You shorties are all bastards!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the blue flames went out. The child's whole body swelled and turned black. Before long, he stood up!

He was more than twice his former size, pitch-black and stinking. It was revolting. Then he spread his limbs and lunged at us!

I raised my spear and stabbed rapidly until he collapsed to the ground and melted into a pool of putrid sludge. The woman stared at what had happened in despair. It took her a while to speak.

"I'm sorry. I was wrong to blame you. So those monsters were the missing children."

Poppy wasn't angry. She seemed used to people treating her that way. She continued asking what had happened, and the woman explained through her grief:

About six months ago, the first child went missing here. Everyone assumed the child had met with an accident and searched everywhere, but they never found him.

Several more children disappeared one after another. At the same time, black monsters like the one we'd just seen appeared near the village. People thought they were being punished by the God of Death, so they began making offerings:

They renovated the cave dedicated to Kindred and repaired the murals and statue. Every few days, different people came to offer live chickens, ducks, and other sacrifices.

This did seem to work. Nothing like it happened again for a whole month. But in the middle of the second month, another child disappeared from the village, and the black monsters appeared again.

Around then, a passing caravan said the same thing had happened in other villages. In one place in the south, nearly the entire village had been destroyed by the black monsters.

After hearing this, the villagers arranged for people to keep watch, in addition to making offerings to Kindred. Unfortunately, none of their measures worked. By this month, fifteen children had disappeared from the village, though everyone had managed to defeat the monsters together.

That day, it had been the woman's turn to make an offering to Kindred. She'd unexpectedly found her child here, never imagining that the black monster had been the missing child.

Poppy's brow furrowed as she listened, and she looked deeply troubled. I asked what she was thinking. She said these black monsters were just like the monsters made from the children who had been fed roast meat in Demacia!

Could it be...

I thought back to what Poppy had told me earlier. When Oren rescued her, he'd killed several mages, but the one wearing a mask had escaped. Could he be behind what was happening here?

Poppy had thought of the same thing. "They're targeting children again, and the monsters are the same! More than three hundred years have passed. There's no way he could have lived that long. It looks like there's more to this than meets the eye. I'm going to investigate until I find out what's really going on!"

Ever since I'd met Poppy, she'd always worn a calm expression. Now she looked utterly grim. It seemed her experiences in Demacia had left a deep impression on her.

Once the rain stopped, we followed the woman to her village, Yanglin. Apart from a few people keeping watch nearby, the place was deserted. Clearly, everyone was afraid to go outside.

The woman took us from house to house and explained the situation, but the villagers didn't believe that a mage was behind it. We had no clues either, so all we could do was wait for the culprit to show up.

For several days and nights, no suspicious person appeared. Then Poppy came up with an idea: she would disguise herself as a child and lure the culprit out!