The Request to Die

For a thousand years, Aatrox had wandered Runeterra, causing destruction simply to find the power that could kill him.

If the world were destroyed in the process, then he would cease to exist along with it.

He wasn't willing to give up this chance.

Aatrox didn't know, but Ato did.

Before he'd crossed over, he'd rarely spoken to people in the real world for a long time. Games, novels, and the like had taken up almost all his time, so he knew the settings of various works very well.

"Want to know how? Fine, I'll tell you right now."

Ato didn't care whether Aatrox was trustworthy. He wanted to tell him directly how to kill him.

The red glow flickering along the blade nearly stopped, as if its soul had stopped breathing.

From their conversation, Aatrox understood that this human, who had beaten him in a clash of wills, knew a great deal. His method might point the way for Aatrox, who had been stumbling around like a headless fly.

"It's actually very simple. There are..."

Just then, the tavern door was forced open again, and another group of pirates rushed inside. There were even more of them than the ones who had come with Sarah—around thirty in all.

They didn't come in shouting. Instead, they raised their carbines and scanned the room.

The door was closed, but the hole in it put them on their guard.

The pirate at the front had a long knife scar across his face, and his left hand had been replaced by the hook that was the trademark of a pirate. When he saw the overturned tables and chairs and Ato sitting inside, his right hand, which held his gun, quickly swung around to aim at him.

Beside Ato, the terrifying Blood-red Greatsword caught his eye. He couldn't help feeling a cold sweat break out.

"Who are you? Where's Walter?" The more than thirty men behind the scarred pirate gave him some confidence. Walter was the Iron Gulch Gang member with the obese build who had taken part in surrounding Sarah earlier. Aatrox had already absorbed him.

Ato had just been about to tell Aatrox the method. Interrupted, he asked helplessly, "Are you here for Miss Fortune too?"

At the name, the pirates grew a little restless.

For the past few months, Miss Fortune had kept them all on edge. Her fighting skills, marksmanship, and cunning had given the Iron Gulch Gang a serious headache.

"That's right. Walter sent me word that they'd caught Miss Fortune at the Blaze Wave Tavern in Grayport. Whoever you are, Miss Fortune's life belongs to the Iron Gulch Gang."

"I'm Shack, first mate of the Dreadnought, flagship of Gangplank's Fleet. If you don't hand over Miss Fortune, you're making an enemy of the ruler of Bilgewater, Gangplank!"

Ato rubbed his nose, ignoring Shack's threat, then turned to the greatsword beside him. "Hey, old-timer, they won't let me tell you that method. What should we do?"

"I thought I'd seen every kind of stupidity by now." The greatsword's voice was hoarse and cold. "Come, let me kill you..."

"A thousand times, right? No problem."

Ato sprang to his feet and grabbed the greatsword's hilt. The man and the sword vanished before the pirates' eyes.

Shack's eyes widened as he glanced around, searching for Ato. Then he heard the pirates behind him screaming.

He turned around and immediately found it hard to breathe. Half the men he'd brought had been cut in two at the waist. Their upper bodies were still floating in the air, not yet having fallen, while their blood was drawn by some unknown force toward a single point.

Their severed bodies followed the blood, eventually merging into the greatsword.

"What kind of... monster is this?"

Shack had forgotten how to think. He knew that as pirates under Gangplank, they'd robbed people for wealth and sent countless innocents to their deaths.

He knew magic existed in the world, along with many things beyond reason. Sea monsters like the Leviathan were extraordinarily fierce, yet ships that had caught them sailed into the Slaughter Docks every day.

Even he, with blood staining his hands, had never before felt his understanding of the world shift out of place.

"Run... Run!"

Shack screamed with all his might. The remaining pirates snapped out of it and instinctively tried to rush through the door, but the door that had been knocked open earlier had closed again. The figure holding the greatsword stood right in front of it!

"Ahhh..."

Shack and the others lost their minds and opened fire on the door. This time, Ato didn't dodge. He let the bullets pierce his clothes and disappear into his body.

Even after the pirates had emptied their magazines, they still stood with their guns raised, staring ahead. How could there be a creature in the world that firearms and cannons couldn't harm? Right, there couldn't be.

As the smoke cleared, countless new bullet holes marred the already battered door. Ato, who hadn't dodged at all, held the sword in one hand at his side.

His whole body, including his head, was riddled with bloody holes. His lifeless eyes stared at Shack, filled with resentment.

"Haha, I thought you really were a monster." Shack, still shaken from surviving, gasped for breath. "I knew there couldn't be anything like that in the world..."

Suddenly, Ato's lifeless eyes blinked twice.

"Heh heh heh." Ato forced an ugly smile. The bullet casings were still lodged in his body, making it hard to form an expression, but Shack's spirits plummeted all the same!

"Why'd you stop laughing? Oh, the smile didn't disappear. It just moved onto my face!"

The greatsword, which had been completely still, began to emit a faint red energy. It traveled through the hilt into Ato's body, and the bullet wounds healed at a visible speed.

New flesh pushed the bullets out of his body. In the space of two breaths, Ato's body was as it had been before, without a trace of blood.

Only the holes in his clothes remained to show that he'd just been through a hail of bullets.

"Testing out my abilities wasn't too painful. But sorry, I'm in a hurry, Shack. Whatever you have to say, tell it to the Ruler of the Underworld. Oh, right, the Underworld doesn't govern death... Then I'll send you to see Kindred..."

Shack hurriedly dropped his gun and raised his hands. "Wait..."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw the monster before him disappear, replaced by two figures.

One was a pitch-black, ghostlike wolf creature wearing a white mask. The other stood upright on two legs, with white fur. Contrary to its white fur, its mask was black.

The last thing Shack saw was the white figure raising the Energy Longbow in its hands and shooting a Life-Taking Arrow at him.

Ato seemed to sense something, but his movements didn't falter. He vanished again, and with a swift swing of his sword, the remaining men became sustenance for the Demonic Sword of the Dark.

Though they were somewhat stronger than ordinary people, pirates still fell within the bounds of ordinary humans. Against an ancient Celestial Warrior, they might not even measure up to cannon fodder.

Ato had gained control of the Demonic Sword of the Dark, along with Aatrox's thousands of years of combat experience. The sheer amount of information meant he could only absorb a small portion for now, but it was more than enough to deal with these pirates.

Ato felt little after what he'd just done.

As far as he was concerned, he didn't know these pirates, and they were villains to boot. So he'd treated them like the respawning monsters in a video game—though the scene had been a little intense.

"Even with all that added, I still can't form a body. I really have lost control of my abilities," Aatrox sighed.

"How did a mad Ascended general who'd been insane for a thousand years become so clearheaded today?" Ato teased. "I finally made it to Runeterra, and there are things I need to do. For that, I need power."

"It's a deal. You give me power, and I'll send you to your death."

"A fair deal."

"So, no more pirates should interrupt us now."